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2025-03-21T12:55:49.777392
| 2014-01-03T21:00:03 |
15331
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Editor didn't invite for a second review
I recently reviewed a paper and recommended Major Revision. I provided a referee report with some detailed comments on what the revision should address. I can see from the system that the Editor gave a decision of Major Revision, the authors of the paper have been notified and they already submitted a revision four months ago. However, the Editor did not invite me as a referee in the second round. I have been refereeing for over seven years and this is the first time that I experienced such a situation. I have been obsessing that the Editor found my report incompetent or not useful. But, the overall recommendation was the same (Major Revision) and the same journal asked me to review other manuscripts in the same time frame. What do you think the reason could be?
Maybe the review assignments haven't gone out yet for the second round from four months ago. :) Or maybe they got your contact information wrong. Once my advisor asked me, "I need that review, where is it?" and I was like, "What review?" "The one I invited you for a few months ago." When we looked into it she typoed my email address and so it went into the void and I never saw it.
I downvoted this because the question seems to be about a personal case and invites guessing about the editor's intention. However, the more general question "When is a reviewer activated again by the editor?" would be more appropriate (and also a very good question).
There are always difficulties second-guessing from what others actions result from. The fact you did not get re-invited, is not strange in my experience (as reviewer and editor). First, I assume you do not know what the other (I assume the journal uses more than one reviewer) reviewer provided in a second review. It may have been minor revisions and the editor could make a decision to provide a major revisions verdict but go directly to accept if he/she thought the corrections were good enough. This is an editors prerogative.
It is always possible that an editor chooses a different reviewer for the reason you mention but given that you have done many reviews before, I sincerely doubt this is the case or reason. Another possibility is that the editor felt someone with different expertise was needed for some aspect of the manuscript, perhaps based on comments by the second reviewer. But, you will never know the details of the story and I would not think twice about the event. The fact that you keep getting requests shows your expertise is in demand.
The most common reasons not to invite a previous reviewer for a second review are, in my experience:
The reviewer wrote a poor review the first time (probably doesn't apply in your case).
The reviewer ticked the "I do not think it's necessary for me to check the revision" box.
The editor decided to make a decision immediately, without consulting reviewers. For example, the author's response to reviewers might be poor and the editor feels further reviewing is a waste of time.
In your case, I'll suggest a much more benign explanation: the editor noticed that you have already been invited to review another article recently or perhaps already have an ongoing review, and decided not to invite you again for fear of taking up too much of your time.
My guess would be that when the editor saw the revised manuscript and the comments from the authors, he deemed the revision to be less major than he initially thought, and decided to not send the manuscript out for review a second time.
The editor thought your comments were sufficiently addressed in the revision and made the decision to publish.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.777710
| 2014-01-10T13:54:16 |
15600
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How to quote a draft in my thesis?
For my bachelor thesis I needed a certain source. As it wasn't accessible neither on the net, nor in my library, I decided to ask the author directly. She was kind enough to send me a draft of the text in question, explicitly allowing me to use it for private academic purpose.
Now I'm in the middle of my thesis. How do I cite a draft that doesn't even have a date? If I had the published version, I'd simply cross-reference, but I don't, and adding the page number of a word document that my supervisor doesn't have seems utterly useless. Do I simply leave out the page number (it's a very short paper), or do I add the paper as an attachment?
I know this is something I'd normally ask my supervisor. Unfortunately, communication with her is not something I'm interested in, for personal reasons. I'm therefore looking for a reasonable advice that has nothing to do with her preferences.
If it has been published, ask the author for a pdf of the published version (from your question I got the feeling that the paper has been published). This would also be easier to share with your supervisor later on. It makes no sense to cite or quote a draft version if the paper has been published. At least ask if the draft has identical content as the published version. If so, you could maybe get away with using the draft but citing the published version in your reference list (not ideal though).
Otherwise, cite it as a working paper/draft, by including author, title, and the date when you recieved the paper, see e.g. Chicago manual of style online or MLA style guide.
It's not clear from your question what the status of this "source" is --- i.e., whether it has been published, will be published, or may never be published.
If it has been published, but you just didn't have access to the published version, I would cite the published version. If you have a quote where you need to cite the page number, I would go ahead and cite the page number from the draft. Although others might disagree with this practice, I've found it's not uncommon to find page-number citations that are off by a page or two due to citing different versions of a paper, different editions of a book, etc.
If it has not been published but is "in the pipeline" (i.e., has been submitted to a journal), you can cite it as "forthcoming", or as "to appear" if it has been accepted.
If it is unknown whether it will ever be published (i.e., it is just a work in progress that may or may not be submitted for publication at some later date), you can cite it as "in prep", "unpublished ms.", or "personal communication". Personally I tend to view "in prep" as meaning "the author intends to publish this at some point but it's far enough in the future that we don't know where or when", "unpublished ms." as meaning "there is little chance this will ever be published", and "personal communication" as "this was not even written as an article-type document but just information conveyed to me via email, conversation, etc.".
I know only two ways:
you write "Author, private communication" in your references;
you publish the unpublished material and add its author as an author of your paper.
"you publish the unpublished material and add its author as an author of your paper." Say what?
@xLeitix. I meant "you publish the draft, partially or entirely" and of course add the name of its author to your paper.
You can't just publish somebody else's draft, no matter what you do with author names. Especially since the draft in question apparently is already published, just not available to the OP.
Also, please don't add people to your author list without consulting them first. I would be furious if that happened to me.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.778015
| 2014-12-18T14:06:30 |
34473
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How to send end-of-the-year wishes in academic environment?
Currently I am working in a research group where there is much emphasis on the interpersonal relations.
I want to write an email and send it to my direct supervisor, with whom I have closer relations compared to the others. But, I also want to send my wishes to the whole group included the head of the group, but I want to do it in a fashion which will sound mildly formal but with a sense of respect and hierarchy in it, and not friendly and too informal.
Any suggestions, or nice emails that you have received?
There are many options which can be made by themselves or in some combination.
You can design a "card" to attach to the mail which could be informative or aesthetically pleasing (but do not make it a huge file).
You can, as I and my former adviser do, make a "Christmas letter" that summarizes the year both academically and private. You need to adapt to your audience here since the private section should not be too detailed if your are not really close friends, but comments on travels with a nice shot is never a bad idea.
You can divide the send list up into different categories but the backside of this is that if you group people and group them wrong (from their perspective, it can become embarrassing).
The previous point is also true for listing people in some order; so alphabetical, even in the way you list the e-mail addresses, is probably wise.
Do not emphasize Christmas and New Year per se since not everyone may be celebrating these primarily Western holidays. Use something more neutral formulation such as "Best Holiday Greetings" or "Best Wishes for the Holiday Season". Again, know your audience and adjust.
You can send a general more formal greeting to a larger group and then follow up with a more personal greeting to specific people you wish to share more personal greetings.
So, think about the options and combine to taste.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.778217
| 2014-02-11T21:37:18 |
16825
|
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Stack Exchange
|
I have been invited to peer review a manuscript for a reputable journal. This is my first so I have a few questions to the more experienced
Are PhD students generally invited for such reviews? I was under the impression they would prefer someone with a Doctorate degree or more experience in the field.
What are the advantages/disadvantages of accepting to review?
The general discipline that the paper treats is related to my field of study but my active research is not necessarily related. Is it still OK to accept the invitation to review?
You are of course aware that there is lots of advise available on how to write a good review?
If you are not a technical expert in that specific field it is usually okay to say so. You might not be able to get down the specific technical details but your perspective is often quite valuable as an outsider. You can often indicate "reviewer expertise" (select something in the middle!) or simply indicate in the review that your main area is in X and as such you are approaching this paper on Y with the background of X.
It is not unusual that PhD students get invited as reviewers, after all a PhD student will likely be a true expert in the field of the PhD. If you are a student during your first years of study, the request may be a little premature, generally speaking but if your are in your final year then it will be a good experience. What you need to consider is whether you can provide an insightful review of parts of or preferably the entire paper. You should have a sense of why you were invited, i.e. why your expertise may have been asked for.
Peer review is a vital part of the publishing process so getting experience of reviewing other's material is very worthwhile. If you continue in academia this will be expected of you so you will have to start sometime. You can definitely add reviewing for journals in your CV, not mentioning what you reviewed but certainly for what journal you have reviewed.
If yo have not done a review before you should probably ask someone (or preferable more than one) more experienced within your field for a brief outline of what should be included in the review and how to formulate the review.
... or ask someone experienced whether you could show them and talk through your review before submitting it.
Quick remark: When one rejects a request to referee, there is usually the option of suggesting other possible reviewers to the editor (who makes the final choice anyway). So it is not that unlikely that your advisor or someone else that you know put your name in.
I would just add to Peter's answer couple more remarks:
It is important to write reviews. I can tell you that the list of names of people who don't do reviews is, at least amongst people I know, a "public secret". I mean, people who don't do reviews are known for it and it's certainly a negative thing.1 On the other hand, if you reject because you don't feel strong enough to do it, that's fine. Still, there has to be "first" once.
If it's your first review, tell that to the editor once you decide to do it. Just a brief mail: I have recieved the preprint and I will review it. However, I would like to bring to your attention that this is the first review I am writing.2 After all, in many cases (especially at conference reviews), you have to choose a "confidentality score" from 1 to 5, which exactly says how strong do you as a reviewer feel considering the review.
Discuss with your supervisor. It's surely ethical to ask someone close to you for opinion/help, so don't hesitate to approach him if you feel so. You may agree with him that you read the article yourself, mark what things you consider problematic, and then he helps you classify which things are crucial and which are not, and how much positive or negative the review should be. After all, your supervisor is not only your research director, he is there to help you (but not to do your job) with all parts of the scientific work.
1 There're people who reject reviews in Elsevier and Springer and some other publishers' journals, because they don't like the fact that these companies profit from it a lot. That's probably fine, too.
2 It's in general good practice to reply to the editor and say whether you accept. Unfortunately, not many people do it.
Yes, PhD student often have more time available than Faculty and they are actively keeping up with the literature themselves.
Disadvantages - a good review takes quite a bit of time. Advantages - it's useful experience, you can add it to your CV, you will learn a little bit more about active work in your field.
Yes, that's fine.
In terms of writing a good review, you will find a lot of helpful advice from any Google search. The one thing I would add to that is that (at least in Computer Science) it is sometimes quite easy to spot reviews from PhD students as they tend to be harsh and unhelpful. As a student yourself you are probably used to getting a lot of feedback on your work, and that is good. Don't be tempted to take your frustration out on the poor person who has written the paper you are reviewing.
Remember that at least part of the purpose of reviewing is to increase the quality of work in the field. If you review a paper which is rejected, likely it will be submitted elsewhere. If you accept the paper, the authors will improve it before final submission. So the purpose of the review, apart from quality control, is to tell the authors specifically how to improve their work. Avoid being vague in your criticism and avoid taking an unprofessional tone. Even if reviews are "blind", write as if the authors know you (and chances are that at some point you will meet them). Think about how you would wish your supervisors to give you feedback, and take your own advice.
By far the best reviews I have ever had have not been the most complimentary ones, or reviews from the best places I have submitted to, but they have certainly been the most helpful. They contained comments like "X is a poor presentation of the data, use the technique mentioned in paper Y". Or, "the author has used technique Z, this is outdated and should be replaced with W". The worst reviews I have had may well have been correct in what they said, but they have also been rude and unhelpful. For example, "X is not novel" is a fine criticism to make, but to be useful you need to say where X has been done before.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.778993
| 2013-12-17T03:46:34 |
14845
|
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Stack Exchange
|
Inclusion of `computer code` in a thesis
During the compilation of thesis (MSc or PhD) in a case we wanted to include some program codes as chapters:
We prefer to put heading to all program codes everywhere they appear as complete source to clarify the license. Is it nice to do so? Any other solutions?
Something like this:
3.1.1 Loop
...text...
-------
Copyright 2013 Coder, ... !this part
-------
function loop(...) result (...)
some code
-------
...text...
I think that the license of your thesis itself would apply to code snippets that are included in it. Of course, you may release the full code under a different license. But I wouldn't repeat that license with every code snippet.
@DavidKetcheson We think if someone wanted to try the code (because they are complete codes) he/she may just copy the code and run it. In this case the license as it was not with the code is ignored indeed. We don't want this happen by any extent so.
If someone wants to ignore your license, they may do so -- regardless of how many times you print it.
@DavidKetcheson Correct. But in this case he/she is doing that consciously not by mistake. In any distributed code as file there is header of license as we see almost everywhere. Here we include all the code in print instead of filing (due to some reasons) so this is the case.
You should add source codes scarcely and when it is interesting to add the code. Loop does not sound one of the interesting headings. In those cases you should include source code as figures and discuss them in your text.
in other cases, you can give complete source codes in appendix or in a CD/DVD as an attachment.
I would just put the code on the internet. CDs and DVDs may be obsolete in a few years, and are a pain for the reader to get.
Hey, Loop is just for demonstration, you may consider finite difference solver instead :) if you like. Furthermore, We want them to be chapters not an appendix in any form.
If you want the code itself out there, put it up on GitHub or BitBucket.
As to the thesis itself, it depends on the pedagogical value --- some algorithms are worth including as code themselves: where the specifics of the language and environment matter. Others are best included as pseudo-code.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.779263
| 2014-02-26T18:34:07 |
17455
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Stack Exchange
|
How and why did the top journals become top journals?
Journals like Nature and Science have impressive impact factors. How and why did these top journals become top journals? Why are they able to sustain their statuses?
Downvote for .. what?
It seems like a very good question although it may be hard to find factual answers supported by evidence rather than opinion, I upvoted
mmh: I wouldn't worry too much about stray downvotes. In fact, if the question is actually reasonable, stray downvotes often backfire by making others more likely to want to upvote. Anyway, I think this is a good and even important question.
Flounderer gave the answer I was about to write: my hunch is that that effect is some kind of "unstable equilibrium": If two competing journals start out indistinguishable, and one is "luckier than the other" and gets a horse's head in the competition, then that difference will reinforce because it is attractive by itself.
Not my area of research, but I'm going to guess that it's a self-selecting cultural phenomenon.
All journals that have a high standing have the standing because of the support of the community. If the community loses interest, the journal will drop in the ranking. The top journals have therefore attracted authors for one reason or another. The editorial staff of journals try to maintain this status by making sure the work published there is of good quality and will be cited. It is thus not impossible for new journals to attain high status as long as authors provide the necessary papers. To this mix, we now also add the impact factor and other bibliometric factors. They matter now but have not been the driving factor for making the older journal what they are today.
I work with a more modest journal and I can definitely state that improving your impact factor is far more difficult than to drop in ranking. But, if your ranking becomes high enough (no specific number will be relevant since it varies between fields) a journal will be self-fuelling since many want to publish their material there and competition stiffens leading to a strong selection.
So the standing of Science and Nature, is part their long history, in part the hard work by the journal itself and in part the, now, need for authors to publish in as high ranking journals as possible since that is what forms the basis for most evaluations in academia.
I think this is analogous to "why is Harvard a good university, and able to maintain its standing as such?" A partial answer is that (1) it was founded a long time ago, and (2) it was founded by serious people. Given that, further serious people will tend to gravitate to the same institution, creating an inertia in the rankings.
A quote from The Crucible (set in the year 1692):
I am not some preaching farmer with a book under my arm; I am a graduate of Harvard College.
(but published in 1953.)
Suppose you start with a collection of journals and people who want to publish quality papers in them, who arrive over time. Suppose that each new quality paper is sent to a journal which is chosen at random, but where the probability of choosing journal X is an increasing function of the number of quality papers which have already appeared in X. Then you are dealing with a preferential attachment process and you will find that after a long time, most of the quality papers will be appearing in a few top journals and there will be lots and lots of mediocre journals with very few quality papers.
Naturally it's a very simplified model, but the same argument can be used for the sizes of cities, views of Youtube videos, distribution of wealth, etc. See Chapter 18 of Easley and Kleinberg's textbook for more.
--- Nice answer!
One related comment-
There are some comments here that are equating high-impact factor with high prestige. I think this generally holds true, especially for people working firmly within the boundaries of a single discipline. For these people, of course, reputable journals are going to be more widely read and thus cited more frequently, and have higher impact-factors.
For people whose work are more inter-disciplinary, the relationship between prestige and impact factor are not so straightforward, because the size of the disciplinary audience can be very different.
For example, my work is interdisciplinary and lies at the boundaries of sociology, economic geography, management/organizations, and Asian studies. Journals in each these fields have different audiences, number of scholars, and thus, different impact factors. For example, Asian studies have a number of high quality high prestige journals that publish excellent papers, but because the size of the core audience, even the top journals hardly have impact factors that exceed 1. For management, however, because the field is very large, even journals that publish not-so-rigorous studies tend to have high-impact factors, easier exceeding top journals in social science/humanities. There are a number of journals that have impact factors over 5 or 6, and even mid-range journals have impact-factors around 3. Sociology and geography lie somewhere in-between.
It might be a natural tendency for people to try to publish in journals with high-impact factors. However, I would say, at least in my field, there is definitely higher prestige that will be attached to work in, say, top tier Asian studies journals (say, impact factor of 0.5-0.6) or a top- sociology journal (impact factor around 2-3) than a mid-tier management journal (impact factor of 3-4).
Journals gain their status mainly by being the first to offer publications in a new field and secondly by recruiting influential people in the field as editors.
Once a journal has a high impact factor people will want to publish there because authors themselves are judged on the impact factors of the journals they publish in. This means the editors can set a higher standard for acceptance. Since the impact factor is based on citation rates it then increases further. Most academic journals publish only papers and have very little editorial content, so this positive feedback mechanism is the main thing that maintains their top ranking. The mechanism operated even before impact factors were formally measured because people still knew roughly what the impact and standing of a journal was.
It is very hard for a new journal to get a good reputation because it takes two years for them to even be given an impact factor and this will remain low because they will fail to attract the best papers initially. A new journal needs to offer something different to succeed. They may specialize in a new field that does not already have a top journal, or they may offer open access for low charges in order to get going, but the established journals are always very hard to dispose.
The other factor that keeps a journal in the top ranking is its editorial board, but this is not because the editorial job requires their skills and knowledge. What the journal needs is a good supply of peers willing to review articles well and it is not easy to persuade academics to dedicate their valuable time to this chore when they don't get paid for it. The main reason they do agree to review articles is to impress the editors because the editors are influential people in the field who may help them get their next job.
Editors themselves take on the role because of the prestige of being an editor for a top journal and because they get an opportunity to identify reviewers who understand the field so that they can recruit them. This establishes another positive feedback that helps maintain the journals top spot. One of the few things that can destabilize a top journals position is the resignation of its most influential editors.
Whether this amounts to a good system for academia is very much open to debate. Most top journals are in the hands of big commercial publishers who understand how the system works and who have cleverly developed and promoted the journal impact system to their advantage. They make huge profits taking money from scarce scientific funds when most of the hard work in publishing is done by unpaid authors, reviewers and editors. Efforts by academics to change this usually fail because they don't understand how the system works, or because they dont have the time or funding to realize their ambitions. Another reason seems to be that governments and funding agencies like the big profitable corporate publishers so they tailor legislation to suit the publishers rather than the academics. Also the academic societies (APS, AMS etc.) who supposedly oversee the interests of the fields are themselves funded mostly through their journals so they have a massive self interest in perpetuating the system.
So true. You have summarized the situation very well.
Stringent review standards, leading to highly integritous articles, could account, in part, for what has led these journals to become 'top' journals.
But perhaps we should conduct a study!
Droll. Very droll.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.780099
| 2013-11-15T20:14:06 |
14146
|
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Stack Exchange
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What do I do when a co-author takes too long to give feedback during the peer review process?
Two years ago I did a piece of research for a journal's especial edition. I got the reviewer's comments, did all the corrections and sent it to my co-authors. One of them took so long to return his comments that the paper wasn't included in the EE. I then tried to submit it to another journal but again the same co-author took long time to provide his comments. Finally my boss suggested me to submit it to another journal (good one) without waiting for my co-author's opinion. I got the reviewer's comments back, I did all the corrections (I have 45 days), sent it to my co-authors and gave them a week to send me their comments. The same co-author is now telling me he's not happy I didn't tell him I submitted to that journal and that he won't be able to make comments in a week. I'm again in a catch-22. What do you do?
Did you submit the paper without contacting your coauthors? Because I don't think that is the right move. You should have at least given them a heads up. Also, don't collaborate with this guy again.
My co-author hasn't sent the comments after nearly two weeks. The others had. Shall I just give up. I'm at the start of my career.
It seems you are following your boss' (good) advice. Dealing with co-authors is not always easy as you have experienced. I think I have experienced a similar co-author, not responding but complaining whenever something happens. In my case, the co-author was definitely over-committed and the actions were basically a symptom of frustration about not being able to perform. Now, I think you have done the right thing to a point. The only thing that would have improved things would have been to provide the co-author with the information but with a strict deadline but not more than a week or two. Doing so at all stages, is the only way to deal with such cases. It is not very nice, or comfortable, but it is necessary to make a stand and convey the seriousness. In your case you have clearly had a lot of extra work due to the (lack of) actions from your co-author. I assume he has not apologized?
So what to do? Well, I would write and state that you are sorry the co-author feels left out (or however the co-author has phrased it). You can then state that the lack of response earlier made you assume the co-author was not prioritizing the work and that based on suggestions from your boss you have now taken the actions you have to get the material published. Be brief and courteous but do not add many excuses.
This situation reminds me of the adage: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The only other comment I have on this fine answer is that the O.P. might be able to spin that "not prioritizing" part in a slightly more positive way (i.e., "Your earlier lack of response made me assume that you weren't prioritizing the work" could be expressed as, "Your earlier lack of response made me assume that you had too much on your plate").
I think "advise" should be "advice".
Summary
Apologize to your co-author for not telling him about the
submission.
Try having a meeting/phone conference with the co-author (if possible including your supervisor) to solve the immediate problems.
Change your requests to the co-authors to an opt-in style.
In the future, send out "submitted paper to :-)" with the final version to all co-authors as last point on your submission routine.
he won't be able to make comments in a week
That just tells you that you won't have his comments within the week. But you need to know when you will have them.
Usually, I'd ask back when I can have the comments. Here, however, things look more difficult. So:
For one thing, I'd switch from email to phone (or a visit to his office). That eliminates the dead time between emailing several times and may allow you to extract a definitive answer for the time line.
The second thing I'd probably do would be trying to have a meeting (or a phone/video conference if the co-author is too far away). If he told you that he cannot do the comments this week, send a list of possible meeting times for next week. I'd (try to) include a number of "weird" times (early morning before the usual office routine sets in, evenings, possibly even at the weekend). This serves two purposes: it makes absolutely clear how important the meeting is to you and it closes loopholes for him. Talk to your supervisor about this first, you'll probably want to have him at the meeting as well - so you need to find times that are OK with your supervisor as well (that's the "try to" above).
I'd probably email the list, ending with: if none of these is possible for you, please send me your preferred time for a meeting next week. I'd then do an immediate follow up-call "We need to talk about the paper. ... I just emailed you a number of possible times for a meeting". Ask him to tell you when the meeting would suit him.
For the future:
gave them a week to send me their comments
From the context I assume you wrote something like "please send me your comments within a week".
What about changing the question to an opt-in style: "please send me your comments asap. If I don't receive any within any within a week, I'll assume you're fine with the text as it is and move on with the submission." O course, you need to be extremely timely yourself if you do this and you need to give sensible deadlines.
Submission without the OK of all co-authors is misconduct. However, if I understood the described situation correctly, a manuscript that was approved by all co-authors was sent to a different journal. Again, an opt-in for changes would have been the proper way, but IMHO it is not as serious as general "submit without co-authors approval": after all the text was approved by the co-author, and the choice of the journal should not make any scientific difference.
Also, if I understood correclty, the co-author in question does not complain about the submission, but about the fact that he didn't know about it. That again is a valid complaint, so apologize.
It's inappropriate to submit a paper for publication before all authors agree that it is ready. Your boss shouldn't have advised you to do this.
First, you should apologize profusely to your coauthor. Make sure he knows about the deadline, then wait patiently until he is able to give his comments. If the deadline gets close, you could ask the editor whether you can have more time. If not, it may be necessary to withdraw your submission and resubmit later.
When you collaborate with coauthors, you have to accept that the final product needs to be something that everyone can agree on. Yes, this may be inconvenient if one of them is slower, or has different standards than the others, and it can cause you to miss opportunities. This is the price of collaboration. If it becomes a problem, you should talk to your coauthors and try to work out a solution that's agreeable to all, but you cannot act unilaterally.
"Profuse" apologies are not appropriate here. The co-author has scuttled three different attempts at submitting this paper because he is apparently too busy to respond in a timely manner. The author should apologize for the brusque manner and the short deadline, but a reminder that prior efforts to submit the paper have failed because of the co-author's inaction has to also be noted, too. (Polite frustration would be what I would aim for here.)
@aeismail: I absolutely agree that the coauthor's dilatoriness would be extremely frustrating, and under other circumstances I would agree with you that a sterner approach is appropriate. However, I think at this point the OP has put herself in the wrong by submitting the paper without the permission of one of the authors (if I correctly understand that is what happened), and so she's not really in a position to scold or issue an ultimatum.
As I said, the tone needs to be of polite frustration—express regret for following the boss's instructions, but letting the co-author off the hook for his bad behavior will just prolong the cycle and encourage his obstructive ways. This has been going on for years, and something needs to change, or else this paper will never be published. (Part of me believes this is actually the co-author's goal.)
The only workable conclusion I can draw from this answer is to drop the coauthor and somehow rewrite/redo his work without him, or just accept that you will never publish the paper. Neither of these seem better than the route the author has taken. This answer might be correct if this was the first time, but it's not. It is the THIRD time.
@MirroredFate: Sometimes you just draw a blank. It is just one paper; if the collaboration does not work at all, it is possible to simply give up. Find other collaborators, find other problems to study, move on.
Apologise to your coauthor. Hope that he is not too upset. Ask him what to do next.
In the future, do not ever submit a paper for publication without discussing it with all coauthors.
I don't understand this whole 'apologize to the co-author' thing. That would have been fine if this had been the first time, but (assuming we trust the OP's version of events) it's not. The co-author has established a track record of harmful negligience and has abdicated their own responsibility to the paper. I don't see any need to cut them any more slack than a week's notice. Peter Jansson's advice seems the right one.
@Suresh: Being passive and unresponsive is just impolite. However, submitting a paper for publication without a coauthor's permission is a case of academic misconduct.
That's overstating it. the co-author was given a week to make changes, inspite of having stalled the paper twice before (again, assuming the facts as stated).
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.780931
| 2015-04-08T13:24:27 |
43195
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Stack Exchange
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What happens to summer salary funds if one has more than three months' support?
If someone has been successful enough with grant support that they somehow manage to accumulate more than three months' summer support per year, what happens to the remainder of the funds above the three-month threshold?
Sorry—I've edited the question to make my intent clearer.
Now I understand the question, but I don't understand how the situation would arise. Wouldn't the grant proposal have included a budget listing the amount requested for summer salary? Did the funding agency actually award more money than the proposal requested, or is there some other reason why the recipient can't pay herself the full awarded amount?
@NateEldredge: suppose you apply for four grants, and in each one apply for one month's funding, and then by some miracle all four applications were successful. aeismail, is this what you had in mind?
@StephanKolassa: Yes, that's exactly what I had in mind.
Some people can buy off a course from their teaching duties in the non-summer months usually at the rate the department would have to pay to hire an adjunct to teach it. Some agencies will allow you to shift the salaries off yourself and onto a student so that maybe you go to 3 weeks from each of 4 grants rather 4 from each and use the saved money to fund some additional student time. This may or may not require permission from the funding agency, but it can usually be done without it as long as the PI isn't reduced to zero time.
With the NSF in the US, faculty aren't allowed to have more than 2 months of time funded across all NSF grants without explicit permission from NSF. Now, if you have 1 DoE grant covering 2 months and 1 NSF grant covering 2 months, they won't notice.
Some people also finagle this problem when their grants are staggered enough that there's only a short period (say one of three years) where this is an issue by pushing the money off to a future year and then exercising an option for a no-cost extension of one year to spend out the money.
This quite accurately reflects my experience: usually as long as the money is still funding personnel and key personnel are kept at a reasonable level, there is no objection from the funding agency, and often not even a requirement to notify.
Yeah, I can only speak from my NSF experience from an non-academic department as a full-time research professional, but I get the impression that there is a lot of flexibility for those who are winning grants. It would be good for @aeismail to discuss the question with various agency program officers/managers that are relevant to their field and to people in their own department for further clarification.
It probably depends on the rules of the grant (you didn't say which agency you're discussing), but generally one is able to just spend the money on something else, or leave it for a future year.
"but generally one is able to just spend the money on something else" – this also depends on the rules of the grant. You may have different pools of funding for different purposes (staff, equipment, travel, etc) that aren't allowed to mix without going through a huge amount of paperwork. Unspent grant money may also return to the funding agency after the project deadline. Maybe these restrictions are not so common in the USA?
@Moriarty There are restrictions on moving (National Science Foundation) grant money to a different purpose, but, as far as I know, money intended for the PI's salary can be moved to any other purpose without special permission. (Moving money from another budget line to the PI's salary line would be much more difficult.)
@AndreasBlass: That's not true. It's generally allowed to move around salary from one person to another, but you can't move salary into the travel category without prior approval, for example.
@WolfgangBangerth That's interesting. Maybe it depends on the particular NSF program. I'm quite sure that I was allowed, without prior permission, to move money from my salary to travel and to student support (which would include not only the student's stipend but also tuition). Of course, if you're talking about other people's salaries, then your description agrees with my experience; I couldn't move someone else's salary money to travel. But moving my own salary never needed permission.
Maybe, or maybe it is "Locally Invented Bullshit (LIBS)" about what one can and cannot do. As a PI, you can certainly assign someone else's salary to yourself (e.g., postdoc salaries) and vice versa. I don't think that at my current university, I could move my own salary to travel.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.781374
| 2015-07-10T11:48:35 |
48597
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Stack Exchange
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How long is it reasonable to wait for a graduate student or postdoc to obtain a visa?
For a recent position for which an offer has been made, a colleague of mine has been waiting for more than eight months for a visa to be issued. Is there any reasonable point at which it makes more sense to try to withdraw the offer (as the candidate has been unable to secure a visa, which would enable him to work) and look for a replacement? Or must the offer "stand" until a final visa decision has been made (even if there's no such date in sight, as is the case here)?
Problematic but are there special circumstances why a visa cannot be issued and are there known issues with visa issuing bodies? would it be possible to be a little more specific about countries, since I think the answer may vary on those grounds. Not that I mean it makes a difference from an ethical point.
Which country are you talking about?
@DmitrySavostyanov I am not sure which country matters here. From what I know, many country governments have their own regulations when issuing visa. You could encounter this problem in many countries (of course, not everywhere).
The student hails from what the US would consider a "sensitive" country. I don't want to go into more details to respect my colleague's privacy.
Isn't your university's International Office helping out? What do they say?
It's not the student's fault that USCIS and the State Dept behave like this towards watchlist countries. Escalate the matter immediately to your dean, university president and International Office and have them contact both USCIS, the State Dept, USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez and SecState Kerry and local Congressmen, Senators, esp. ones involved with oversight on immigration. Document the disruption and cost this delay has caused the research work. SecCommerce Penny Pritzker and SecLabor Thomas Perez might or might not be useful too.
^ and if your university authorities refuse to help, at least document they were asked to help and didn't.
Perhaps this is also a lesson in having future job offers contingent on getting the right paperwork within a specified time frame. If it doesn't happen, one can move on and not be in limbo.
@Jon Custer and all of you: you completely misunderstand how the US visa process currently works, viz. "background checks", esp. applicants from watchlist countries (Iran, Cuba, Libya, Sudan etc.). Applicant can only apply after they have the offer, and due to background-check insanity there is no "specified timeframe". It's not uncommon for "background checks" to drag on for 12-18 months for reasons they're not obligated to tell you. This whole nonsense has been worse since 2003. It's an incentive to employers to avoid hiring people from those countries - through no fault of their own.
There is zero disclosure, near-zero accountability and zero recourse. There is no FOIA disclosure obligation due to the usual security-theater excuses. If some secret official causes an unnecessary secret 18-month delay in a routine H1B renewal, they don't get in trouble, let alone fired. This is why talented students and academics from those countries have been dropping the US in favor of China, Pakistan, Canada, Europe, the Middle East. The insanity has been going on since 2003 and has been well-documented. That's why this question is US-specific and specific to watchlist countries.
@smci: I said the country was considered by the US to be a sensitive country. I didn't say that the admissions process is taking place in the US. Please don't make me roll back further inaccurate edits.
Expecting the same treatment and determinism that apply to your visa application for your European skiing vacation is... insanity.
@aeismail: on this regard, US visa application processing is utterly different from Canada, Switzerland, NZ, etc. If you refuse to give details of your question, noone can answer you. Specifically: Are the causes of the processing delay outside applicant's control? secret? How actively has the employer intervened to rectify this?"
The most I can provide without violating confidentiality is that it's in the EU.
@smci - Having lived and worked in other countries, I actually do have an idea of the morass of visas. However, how long can you hold a position for somebody who is not making progress towards getting the visa? 6 months? 1 year? 5 years? Will the money be there when it is finally settled? There are two sides to an employment offer, and each has to try to protect themselves from an interminable indefinite wait.
From the comments, I assume that you are trying to fill a position in the US and so it is a US visa that's needed. For the sake of this question being clear in the future, please could you edit this in? (the question is perhaps not country-specific, but the answers given are...)
A related question: Obtaining a US J1 visa for someone who has worked in the Middle east - is it possible?. It was later migrated to Workplace SE. The link in the answer there says "less than six months" is broken.
Ok the question is about somewhere in the EU, not the US. Without knowing the specific country and the way they treat visa applicants from watchlist countries, we can't say much; all we can say is the delay is almost surely not the applicant's fault and outside their control, so the university should make a serious effort to pull strings with the relevant immigration, commerce and science authorities and politicians to get it resolved. As to whether the offer can be withdrawn due to circumstances outside their control, and when, we don't know either the the contract or the labor law.
Visa issues can be seriously problematic, especially given the high degree of arbitrariness that is often applied toward people coming from disfavored countries in the developing world. For example, consider the apparently arbitrary visa denials faced by students coming to the US from Iran.
Given this I would recommend using the following criteria in making a decision:
Is the person being reasonably aggressive in acting to secure a visa? If the student is attempting to secure a visa and being blocked/slowed by outside forces, time to secure the visa should not be held against them. If the person is not bothering to act towards securing a visa, then it's the same as not bothering to physically move, and they can be let go with a clean conscience.
Is there a concrete time limit on the funds? If external requirements mean the money is on a short-term "use it or lose it" status, e.g., a 1-year externally funded project that includes a task for a postdoc, then the person may be disqualified through no fault of their own by the circumstances. In this case, I think it is appropriate to put the deadline early enough to have a reasonable chance at hiring an alternate person to fill the post. The deadline should be made clear to candidates as early as possible, however.
If the timeline can be flexed and the person is being reasonably aggressive in pursuing the visa, however, I think that it is morally important for the ideals of science to continue to extend the offer. Science should be, to the extent possible, practiced openly for the general benefit of humanity, and it needs all of the diversity of strong intellectual contributors that it can obtain, no matter where they may originate, so long as they are honest and open contributors. Giving a person time for visa issues to resolve is one small but important thing that an individual scientist can do to support that ideal.
In case (2), one should still contact the funding body to explain the situation and request a no-cost extension.
This varies wildly between countries, and with how much you're willing to pay. A given consulate may expedite requests if paid an additional amount, but even then they are likely to include clauses about how exceptional cases may take an exceptionally long time no matter what.
You can find details on visa processing times and other visa information at the travel.state.gov site. The processing time (time to mail out the acceptance/denial) says it takes about a day if it's the US consulate in Tel Aviv; the Baghdad consulate is currently closed; and the Kabul, Afghanistan consulate takes about 33 days to arrange an appointment and then about 4 days to process.
As for the intervening time between an interview and completion of processing, meaning the time to actually make the decision, the site says the following:
Administrative Processing
These estimates do not include time required for administrative processing, which may affect a small number of applications. If necessary, this additional processing is usually resolved within 60 days of application, though some cases may take longer. When administrative processing is required, the timing will vary based on individual circumstances of each case.
Administrative Processing Information
Some visa applications require further administrative processing, which takes additional time after the visa applicant’s interview by a Consular Officer. Applicants are advised of this requirement when they apply. Most administrative processing is resolved within 60 days of the visa interview. When administrative processing is required, the timing will vary based on individual circumstances of each case. Visa applicants are reminded to apply early for their visa, well in advance of the anticipated travel date.
Important Notice: Before making inquiries about status of administrative processing, applicants or their representatives will need to wait at least 60 days from the date of interview or submission of supplemental documents, whichever is later.
About Visa Processing Wait Times – Nonimmigrant Visa Applicants
Information about nonimmigrant visa wait times for interviews and visa processing time frames are shown on this website, as well as on U.S. Embassy and Consulate websites worldwide. It should be noted that the “Wait Times for a Nonimmigrant Visa to be Processed” information by country does not include time required for administrative processing. Processing wait time also does not include the time required to return the passport to applicants, by either courier services or the local mail system.
You may be able to find additional information on expected timeframes on the website for the specific consulate.
Eight months sounds like a lot to me, but there's always the fine print that sometimes it takes a lot longer.
If you haven't already, I would request that the relevant candidate make inquiries with the consulate they applied for their visa at about the status of their application, and if there are any additional details or documents that they want.
As for withdrawing the offer and pursuing someone else, the conditions for this may be spelled out by whatever is providing the funds. Worst case, consulting with your chair or your dean (who is, ultimately, responsible for approving all hires) would be appropriate.
People have lost positions due to visa problems before. While I was doing my Ph.D. a hire from a "sensitive country" was made, but ultimately his visa was denied and the department had to scramble to find at least a lecturer to cover his teaching load.
"I would request that the relevant candidate make inquiries with the consulate they applied for their visa at about the status of their application, and if there are any additional details or documents that they want" Of course they've been doing this for months, and USCIS is giving them the runaround. That's why it needs to be escalated. By the university, not them. USCIS routinely f***s things up, and has near-zero accountability.
What you're missing here is that "background checks" and associated delays are not disclosed to the applicant. I had a coworker who (although he'd already been in the US for ~6 years on a H1B ) encountered unexplained delays with the background check on his H1B renewal, and had to sit in Bangladesh for 13 months, through no fault of his own, until the USCIS finally got their act together. Luckily, his employer did not fire him, and we all put in a good word for him because he was a useful guy and we needed him. But most employers would have fired him, or not held his job open.
@smci I hadn't specifically thought of that at the time, but that would certainly be one of the reasons that the timescale is vague and noncommittal.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.782556
| 2012-11-07T23:48:08 |
5184
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|
Stack Exchange
|
What are the standard practices for hyphenating/spelling scientific words
I would like to know what are standard practices when words are spelled differently across the literature and/or dictionaries (when these words can be found in dictionaries). A few examples of the kind of discrepancies I see:
flow field vs flow-field vs flowfield
sub-critical vs subcritical
mass flow-rate vs mass-flow rate vs mass flowrate
sub-grid vs subgrid
Is the most important thing for my own work (i.e., PhD thesis) to be consistent? For example, just make sure flow-field is always hyphenated?
Probably belongs on English Stack Exchange
@gerrit This is more an issue of usage within the domain.
This depends upon what's being written. For a university thesis, for instance, you should follow the guidelines of your particular institution: if they recommend a particular style manual, such as the Chicago Manual of Style or the [ACS Style Guide], then you should follow the recommendations contained therein. If you are publishing in another venue, follow the guidelines of the publisher, if they make those available.
Otherwise, you should follow a consistent set of guidelines. Note that this is not the same as saying "always use a hyphen" or "never use a hyphen." For instance, you would write
"the velocity of the flow field increased"
but
"the flow-field variables are . . ."
because "flow field" is a noun in the first example, and "flow-field" is an adjective in the second. There the hyphen links the connected words: "flow-field" and "variable" versus "flow" and "field variable."
Thanks for the explanations, I had never looked into that subtlety before (English is not my mother tongue). Unfortunately, my university does not seem to recommend any specific style guide, so I will just try to follow the general principles you described and also the answer to this question or this one.
Hyphenation can sometimes change the meaning. un-ionised vs union-ised.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.782830
| 2014-06-04T13:23:37 |
21938
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Take a few courses in another university
I'm a foreign (non-EU) student enrolled at the CS master's program in a European university.
I would like to take 2-3 courses that my university doesn't offer, and the first idea that came to mind was to take them at another university (preferably also European) in another country.
Obviously I want these courses to be counted in my diploma (assuming that they fit my program).
What you would do if you were in my place? Is there any "general" approach to my problem?
From what I've found there are a few ways:
Go as a free mover and enrol to the courses individually (seems that not all universities offer this option)
Go as an Erasmus student (not sure if I qualify being non-EU citizen)
Go by direct exchange program to the university that have bilateral agreement with my university (in my case, I'm not satisfied with offered transfer destinations, so it's not really an option)
Something else?
UPD:
I assume there are 2 general cases:
My university and the university I wish to go are "partner
universities", i.e. they have some sort of mutual agreement
They are not "partners universities"
It would greatly depend on your university accepting it. That may or may not be possible depending on the country you are in, the willingness and flexibility of the administration, the possible agreements with the other university, and the fitness to your program.
Yes, I understand that. I've updated the post and narrowed it a bit
"What would you do if you were in my place?" seems primarily opinion-based and/or too broad. All the options you have cited are possible in principle, you should contact the relevant people at your university to discuss your specific situation.
@fkraiem I think "What would you do?" is in this special case not very broad. However, I would rephrase (interpret?) it as "What options do I have?" (which is also close to his second question).
Go by direct exchange program to the university that have bilateral
agreement with my university (in my case, I'm not satisfied with
offered transfer destinations, so it's not really an option)
That would be the easiest way.
Go as an Erasmus student (not sure if I qualify being non-EU citizen)
If you are not qualified for Erasmus, you are certainly qualified for Erasmus Mundus. Just talk to the Erasmus coordinator at your university. If you are going with Erasmus they (should) have already taken care of the getting credits problem.
If all that does not work out, you could also organize it yourself. That is more work but sometimes worth it. Then you have to take care of most of the things yourself:
Funding: 3 possible sources come to mind: the country you want to go
to (for Germany that would be DAAD, but similar options also
exist in most EU countries, e.g. France or Belgium BAEF), the
country you are comming from, or your home country.)
Credit: Talk to the director of your program/ the dean of student
affairs / international relations person
Enrollment in the foreign university. You also have to apply there.
You should ask your dean of student affairs (or whatever this is called at your institution), if your university will accept these courses. Usually they should (if these courses fit in the curriculum) but this, of course, depends.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.783257
| 2013-12-12T22:52:07 |
14729
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Why is it that adjunct faculty positions pay so little?
There's been a series of articles recently [1,2,3,4,5] that basically decry the dismal working conditions of adjunct faculty.
I would like to ask: Why do these positions pay so little? Is it because there is a vast amount of oversupply of teachers? Is it because the Universities have such a diverse range of topics to cover that they cannot afford to hire full-time instructors to cover these courses? Is it because there is decreasing income and funding for academic institutions?
I am curious about what conditions led to this situation where adjunct professors are paid so little.
I would add to the question - how many hours do adjunct faculty work? Converting salaries to hourly rates, is the pay of an adjunct faculty comparable to that of full-time teaching staff?
While I think this is a great question in general, this is really at the edge of what's an acceptable question for this site. The question scope is far too broad, and the topic very likely to generate a lot of discussion with few concrete answers, if any.
What? You get paid by being an adjunct?! I never got paid. :(
The adjunct model seems to be predicated on an assumption that most adjunct faculty are presumed to be employed somewhere else. It's supposed to be a win-win: the institution gets a qualified expert with current, out-of-the-ivory-tower experience; the adjunct gets a chance to scratch a teaching itch, or to work with the university. All this happens for a modest compensation – which turns out to be a bargain for the university, and a little extra pocket money for the adjunct.
I didn't read all five of the articles you linked to in your question, but I did look through three of them. They seemed to be focusing on the depressing conditions for those who are trying to make a full-time living through a collection of part-time teaching assignments. I don't think that's the way the system was ever intended to operate.
Where I teach, I'm an adjunct, and I love the perks. I get to use the campus gym, and I get access to campus library resources. I have a passion for teaching, but I don't get to do much teaching at my full-time job. The extra money hasn't made me wealthy, but it's led to a few lifestyle improvements and splurges for my family. $9,000 isn't enough to live off of, but it goes a long way when you want to renovate a kitchen, take a vacation, or help pay for a wedding.
Moreover, where I teach (a state university in the U.S.), the adjunct rates are not set by the department. The going rate is the going rate, take it or leave it.
My brother once asked me how much my adjunct job paid per hour, if I factored in prep time and grading time. I told him that I never bothered to calculate that, but it didn't matter, because I enjoyed my duties too much to give it up. I'm fortunate in that I'm not doing this for the money, so even the relatively low pay is very much appreciated. I enjoy the challenges of teaching, the chance to experiment with new pedagogies, and the chance to make an impact on the future.
Let me put it this way: Teaching two nights a week for fifteen weeks? $3,000. Staying up until midnight grading final exams? Zero extra dollars. Getting an email from a student from two years ago, telling you about how she's using stuff from your class at her new job? Priceless.
"predicated on an assumption that most adjunct faculty are presumed to be employed somewhere else" +1
I think this is a great answer. Too many recent graduates think that the system that just credentialed them now owes them a guaranteed teaching position. +1 for people "trying to make a full-time living through a collection of part-time teaching assignments."
Great answer , I am in a similar situation where I work fulltime and am well compensated so I don't really need the money. But the idea of it still seem very wrong. I was recently offerer an adjunct position that pays 2500 per course. As an undergrad student I was payed 1500 per month.
I believe the answer is simply one of supply and demand. As you mentioned in your question, there is an oversupply of those willing to teach. As the old saying goes, those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. While this saying does not represent my feelings I did find it a quite typical American perception toward the teaching profession.
Years ago I taught as an adjunct in the US. The hourly rate (just for teaching hours, forget prep, marking, etc.) was so low that I could make literally four times as much working in 'the real world.' The math was quite easy to see. They needed someone with lower skills than I had and while I could do the job, so could most others.
As you can imagine, I didn't stay in that situation long. I stopped teaching at universities and focused on the private sector. Those whom I taught alongside felt like they were lucky to have their opportunities (I clearly felt differently).
If you scan websites for teachers (e.g., the Chronicle, etc.) you can see countless posts of teachers complaining that some other teacher took their job. Sometimes it is a full time teacher who wants extra money so they pick up adjuncting at another school. This constant oversupply naturally pushes rates down.
So, why would schools pay more than they need to? Out of the goodness of their hearts? In the US, sadly, teachers are not valued. If you look at Europe or Asia, (average) teachers actually make quite a nice living because they are valued for the dual-professionals that they are (subject matter and pedogogy).
Some quibble with the quip about "those who can, do, those who can't, teach", as this somewhat muddles the issue. E.g., low-level or remedial math is eminently do-able by essentially everyone. That's not the question. High-level mathematics is non-trivial to teach, but that's not what adjuncts do, with very few exceptions. Your other points about market for low-level math teaching are on the mark.
@paulgarrett My point about "those who can..." was not my personal opinion but rather the way Americans tend to view teaching as a profession. As a teacher myself (in Asia) I believe that it is a great challenge to be a dual-professional (subject matter expert and pedagogical expert) and it is the more (not less) qualified people who should be doing it.
Ah, ok. Perhaps that context, and your disavowal, could have been made more clearly up-top? ... Thx.
I don't know about your area. Recently in Taiwan, the situation is going the way America has been in the past. People call adjuncts "homeless teachers". First, it occurred in middle/high schools. Now, it spreads into universities. The only thing that is little different from America is that they are still viewed as one of the most respectable professionals.
I do find it surprising that there is such a supply of "qualified" teachers for many of these topics, but this may be also a product of a University administration's lack of concern for teaching quality.
I think the oversupply comes from researchers struggling to make a living teaching with a dangling carrot in front of them. They assume if they stay in academia there is always a chance they will find a tenured track job some day ... the reality is if you didn't get one within 5-10 years after graduating, it's most likely over for you, baring some major breakthrough, and major breakthroughs are rare while teaching 4 classes a year at different Universities.
In addition to other useful comments and answers: in my context, of mathematics... : yes, only a very small fraction of "adjunct" teaching is done because of lack of expertise of "regular faculty". Examples would often be "financial math" or "actuarial math". Far more typically, adjuncts teach very low level math. Now, on one hand, while the mathematics itself is very easy, reaching the audience is non-trivial. Full of pre-existing neuroses, etc. Although the typical adjunct teaching such things has very modest mathematical ability, that is more than sufficient, and, typically, such a person's ability to "connect" to "normal" kids who're "having trouble with math" is greater than that of talented mathematicians. (Tho' not always.)
True, "The Market" observes that there are many more people able to do this than the number of jobs, so the pay is depressed. It doesn't help that there is a mythology in (academic?) mathematics that teaching itself is something anyone can do, perhaps after one has lost the "zip" to "do research". All the more ridiculous that this mythology exists among people who's teaching is awful, at every level, their whole life. Luckily, their job description emphasizes "research".
But the mythology, seemingly confirmed by The Market, marginalizes (non-specialty) adjuncts. At my current institution, none of the (non-specialty) adjuncts has a Ph.D., which further reduces their status.
And then there is the current budget squeeze on universities... Everything has to be done more efficiently, etc. Departments' supply budgets are cannibalized to pay for office staff, etc. It is crazy. Night-school classes, once paid for through separate budget lines, have been "in-loaded", so have to be covered by departments often with the same budget as before (!) So, hardly the time to think about equity for people who're willing to "work cheap".
The AAUP has long argued for better treatment of "adjunct faculty", but harsher economic times are not fertile grounds...
For that matter, often the real competition for adjuncts is grad students as Teaching Assistants, who are "more expensive" if their tuition is included in the package. Thus, at best, adjuncts have some incentive to keep their pay below that of grad students + tuition. A crazy dynamic.
It is true that the volatility of enrollments gives management incentive to find a way to avoid liability... but in the dim past there was simply consistent excess capacity, not so much a population willing to absorb that volatility!
Nowadays, upper echelons of the university almost make it against-the-rules to cushion people (other than tenured faculty) against volatility...
Not a happy situation.
I wonder if this is why big R1 private universities pay their adjuncts a bit better. Grad students + tuition at these schools is expensive, >50k a year! Forget tuition, some grad students have stipends of 30k if they teach or are on a grant during the summer. I would not be surprised if the average adjunct makes less than the grad TA stipend per class. I've never seen the grad TA stipend less than $6,500 per semester. It is common to see adjuncts paid less than that. I think that would be a pretty good law to institute. It should be illegal to pay an adjunct less than the grad stipend!
The reason adjuncts are paid so little is that colleges and universities have become businesses and have adopted the neoclassical economic and neoliberal political positions that encourage the exploitation of workers. (Neoclassical economics and neoliberal policies are not mere labels but specific ideologies that emphasize markets, competition, and individual freedom while failing to regard any collective or communal responsibility. See Harvey, A Brief Introduction to Neoliberalism Oxford UP, 2007) If you want fulltime work in a college or university, go into administration. Administrations have ballooned in the last 30 years. (Can I be so radical to suggest that if the money that had gone into administration had gone into teaching, the problems with student success might not be as severe. But then, do we really want everyone educated to their highest potential?)
Adjuncts, those who teach the most courses and hope for fulltime work, represent the roughly 25% of the workforce that work part time because full time work is no longer available. In other words, being an adjunct merely reflects a pattern consistent with general employment market. Further, U.S. Labor law encourages policies that make all employment at the will of the employer. Fulltime faculty have annual or multi-year contracts. Adjuncts are also contract employees, but only for the specific academic term.
The deeper reason for adjuncts and low adjunct compensation is that education has become a commodity and thus, like factory workers, education in merely inculcating content. You can see how this flies in the face of reams of pedagogical research. There is in the mind of a politician voting on an annual or bi-annual state budget little qualitative judgment about what is needed in a classroom. In Virginia, where I live, the state legislature has failed in the past 20 years to raised college and university funding to meet the growth in enrollment. Even the Democratic governor, elected in 2013, has made sharp cuts in education funding requiring similar cuts in course offerings and adjunct employment. The funding formula twenty years ago where I teach had the state paying 80% of the cost with the student paying 20%. The formula is now the opposite: 20% state and 80% student.
Thus, adjuncts are low paid workers because what they do and who they are is devalued. We are going back to a place in American culture where education and the educated are suspect. We collectively talk a good game about the value and importance of education, but we have lost a deeper sense of what it means to be educated. I often mentally compare being an adjunct to being a medieval monastic or an 18th century journeyman who lack the cultural capital to establish their place in the world.
My wife is an adjunct teacher at a state university. She is paid $3,000 to teach a class that meets twice a week for 15 weeks in Earth Science. That's usually 30 classes divided into $3,000 = $100 per 1 hour 45 minute class. So... she makes about $57 an hour. How is that "getting paid very little?" Now... many people want to tell me that she has to grade homework and tests outside of those hours, answer emails etc. Well there are many professions that have to take their job home with them too. (Real Estate Brokers get emails and calls and have showings and open houses on weekends to name one. Or getting ahead in the corporate world for me has involved after hours extra work, usually more than she has to.) The problem isn't that adjunct teachers get paid so little, it is that they work so few hours.
I will vote this up, but I think it misses an important issue. For someone with a separate job, who teaches one class, $3,000 may be a fine salary. The issue is for those who try to cobble together a living doing nothing but teaching one-off classes. Teaching 6 classes a semester - a very hard load - would be only $18,000, which is $36,000 a year - with no health or retirement benefits.
yeah, it's hard for me to grok the question: "How is that 'getting paid very little?'" if very little because its more than 52.5 hours of class contact time. it is class preparation and topic research, devising homework and exam questions, meeting with students, advising them on homework and course content, grading homework and exams. i'll bet it comes to 100 hours and $30/hour comes out to be about equivalent to $60K/year full time for an Earth Science professional. and no benefits like health insurance or retirement investment.
The model of why adjunct positions are needed is two Ideas:
real world, practitioner, industry background to augment academic background of PhD TT (or, just as often, master's degree, at the time this model was crafted) faculty;
sporadic need.
The facts though are that
applies to regularly needed faculty (instructor with legal practice teaches course in tort law)
applies to faculty who make use only of academic training but are used for overflow (freshman composition).
The bundling of these two ideas together is because they both mean dramatically reduced cost and commitment on the part of the institution, something that the tenure system makes all but impossible. That's how the adjunct position "augments" the value of the "regular" (at one time, majority) faculty.
"Win-win" was a subterfuge from the beginning. The "misuse" of adjunct positions was there from the beginning, willfully, but only now gets greater attention because of numbers.
In my experience, adjunct faculty are employed part-time, and thus cannot be paid at the same rate as full-time faculty. Often a university department has a set allocation for the number of full-time faculty it can employ, based on predicted enrollment. So, adjunct faculty pick up the slack, as needed, based on actual enrollment.
yes, but to reach a tenured faculties salary they would have to teach 10-40 classes a semester. That is how low they are paid!
Because they can.
If universities had difficulty finding adjuncts, they'd pay more, but they don't. Sadly, it's all about supply and demand.
Do you have any evidence supporting this purely economic explanation?
If universities had difficulty finding adjuncts, they'd pay more — [citation needed] Or they might abuse a different class of people (like grad students) more instead.
@eykanal, it's self-evident.
Adjuncts get paid little because there are enough adjuncts to go for a dime per dozen. The abuse that adjuncts are subjected to is borderline bizarre - in some places front-desk secretaries or assistants are treated with more importance than an adjunct instructor.
This does not add anything to the existing answers.
Supply and demand can't be ignored in answering this question. If there was not a sufficient number of persons willing to take these positions at such ridiculously low pay, then we would not see what we are seeing. That does not mean less willingness to take the job would mean higher paid adjuncts as it could also mean more full-timers and fewer adjunct. However, there are factors beyond pure supply and demand that also play a role. If it was pure supply and demand, and given that a large number of those teaching as adjunct want very much to become full-time tenure track teachers, then we would see tenure track positions also paying very little. All faculty would receive very low pay and the pay difference between tenure track and adjunct would not be so pronounced. Many adjunct want to be tenure track teachers and are therefor willing to endure the low pay for years, paying their "dues", in the hope that the next full-time position will be theirs. The pay differential itself bolsters this desire and pushes up the supply of adjuncts. Also, when the general public looks at professors, they look at full-timers and see someone who makes an OK living; adjuncts are most often not consider as part of the faculty and so get hidden away. Wittingly or not, adjuncts can be exploited without creating a "black mark" for the college. It is also true that adjunct tend to not be well represented by unions. In California, most are part of a union. It's usually the same union that represents the full-time faculty. But the leadership and majority membership of these unions are full-time faculty. Colleges have learned to suppress union efforts to improve adjunct pay by offering instead to improve full-time pay. Such offers, attractive to the majority of the union voters, tend to be supported by the union. So, with adequate teacher supply, a system has evolved that feeds on itself to push up full-time pay, and suppress adjunct pay.
When you say "If it was pure supply and demand, and given that a large number of those teaching as adjunct want very much to become full-time tenure track teachers, then we would see tenure track positions also paying very little" it seems like you are saying that the supply of (potential) TT faculty is high because adjuncts are willing to take TT faculty positions. But they don't count toward supply because the university doesn't consider them to be qualified for those positions....
The way this excess of "supply" reduces the pay of TT faculty is when the university starts using adjuncts to (partially) substitute for TT faculty. Of course this happens to some extent, but since the university does not consider them completely interchangeable, one shouldn't expect the pay of TT faculty to fall to that of adjuncts. So the economic analysis in terms of supply and demand curves is still valid, although I agree that it's not the whole picture.
All this analysis isn't necessary though impressive. The answer is greed.
The pay disparity between the adjuncts and full-time faculty/administrators is so wide, it should embarrass them until you understand it HAS to be in order for them to get their high salaries. If the adjuncts get paid less than minimum wage for hours worked, they can give themselves higher salaries.
"It takes three of you to pay my salary" is an exact quote from a retiring
full-time community college faculty member who just came out and said this to us in the break room. His salary at retirement? $128,000.
It's pretty simple and comes down to just about what everything comes down to in this country---greed.
Perhaps you could adjust this to be a little more evidence-based and a bit less polemical?
Schools are not really focused on teaching, per se: universities want to be recognized for research. Research faculty do not want to teach undergrads, they want to work with doctoral students (& get more publications!) But a doctoral program is costly, it eats the revenues produced by undergrads. Schools need big undergrad programs that can be run relatively cheaply to pay the big salaries of research faculty who really don't want to teach at all. This system probably exists because school administrators essentially worked their way up the ranks via research, not by teaching & not with their management/administrative skills (administrators who are good managers and/or good motivators are a bonus..not essential to the position). Once you understand that Universities are really about self-promotion of research and the status that comes from research publications (even if only within the academic community itself) you'll understand that the adjunct (low paid) faculty are absolutely essential. Providing that someone will accept the low wages, there is no reason to pay more.
Research faculty do not want to teach undergrads — [citation needed]
Layzell, 1992, chronicle of higher ed
@JeffE: it's obviously not universally, invariably true, but it's hardly an original claim or unfamiliar sentiment.
Maybe computer science is weird, but the well-worn claim simply doesn't match my experience. Certainly some research faculty don't want to teach undergrads, but in my experience, most do.
Also, Layzell 1992 actually says "Many state legislators and policy makers believe that faculty members ... care little about undergraduate education". That doesn't make it true, either in 1992 or now.
Given sufficient teaching support and scantron exams, the enthusiasm for undergraduate teaching (in research universities) is probably higher than my initial comment. However, all research schools do not have TAs for grading and/or to work with the undergraduate students for hours outside of class. Moreover, scantron exams are not appropriate for courses that rely on developing critical thinking and the ability to express those thoughts in writing. (I also think it is politically incorrect for any faculty member to state that undergraduate teaching is something to strive to minimize)
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.785192
| 2013-03-26T16:16:05 |
8886
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Students who did poorly on the final exam
There are a handful of students in my course who came to class, did acceptably well on the midterm, and contributed to the (group) assignments, but did poorly on the final exam. The exam was a combination of multiple choice and long-answer "problem solving" questions. The class is heavily applied and has a strong emphasis on team project work but there was also a 50% exam component.
These students were surprised that they did so poorly in the course.
Is this an indication of a poor exam or poor instruction on my part? Is there something that I can do throughout my course to avoid this situation in the future?
Some articles (ex: http://chronicle.com/article/Stop-Telling-Students-to-Study/131622) advocate moving away from summative evaluations altogether for example.
Downvote. This has no definitive answer and will just lead to discussion.
Disagreed. Discussion is a natural thing that will benefit us all.
@JFW: Regardless of its benefits in the abstract, this site is not the right context for extended discussion.
@James so to this day you're the only downvoter vs 25 upvoters?
Apart from the natural response of blaming someone else for one's shortcomings (as students often do), it is difficult to see where the problem may lie. I have studied under a summative system and always found my grades were very clear and understandable to me, particularly if I understood why answers were graded as they were. Now I usually did not question someone's judgement unless I felt it was absolutely necessary.
Now, many years later, I am teaching in a system where courses are set up with learning objectives. At first I found this quite strenuous since each objective must be underpinned by clear grading criteria for each of the grades A-E and F. Note that the major difference is that the learning objectives means you do not grade on a curve but in terms of how students fulfill the goals.
Working with goal oriented criteria demands a lot from the teacher in first setting up the appropriate goals and then to make sensible criteria for how to judge fulfilling them. At first it seems tempting to describe the fulfillment as good, better, much better and outstandingly good or something of that sort but the point is to pinpoint what characterizes the standard for the specific grade. Since many criteria make up a final grade one must also explain the ways in which the different criteria are weighted together but that is a only a minor problem reminiscent of the summative system.
What I have found in the end is that not only should the criteria give the students better ways to understand where they stand but they actually provide me with more fuel to explain why they got the result they did. I now have a thought-through list of arguments for a specific grade which is not relative to others but relating to a set of goals and how to fulfill them.
If this is manageable everywhere is beyond my horizon to speculate on but I must say that after battling with the system (after it was imposed on us) I have found that it actually works in my favour—and hopefully also the students'). It makes the grading transparent. It is also possible to stake out issues that may reduce grades such as spelling errors in essays or missing labels in graphs or whatever details may matter.
Now so far this concerned the setup of the course in terms of grading. It is of course necessary to also add structure to a class that forces students to work with the new knowledge during the course. This could of course be any activity that makes students read the literature and reflect on its content. As an undergraduate I was in a system where studying was mainly done during a few 24-hour days before the exam. Once it was passed most was forgotten. As a graduate student I was in a system with lots of homework and other activities and I found that I really did not have to study that hard for the exam. So activities may play a role to help students reflect on the material. Exactly what activities can and should be used depends on the subject but the main objective should be to have students digest and reflect on the material.
A final issue concerns examination. Does the examination reflect the type of knowledge in the course? This is a big question and one which needs thought. There are many alternative ways of examining apart from written exams and since I hate correcting exams I try to test other ways. Again, what works depends on the type of course but look into other ways of examining the course to see if that will help.
I do not know if this is helpful as an attempt to answer your question but the topic of learning outcomes is difficult and whereas the learning at university level really IS the student's responsibility, it is the learning activities and assessments we make that can help them reach results.
After much thought I've decided that this answer is the "correct" one as it covers two key points: the first is that it discusses how to speak with students who have doubts that their grade reflects their performance (i.e. speak to them with respect to the learning objectives, and indicate how the exam covers these objectives) as well as discussing the necessity of an exam. However, I found great value from the two other responses and the associated comments below as well.
I was just speaking with another instructor and received this advice:
Grades are non-negotiable unless there's a clerical mistake.
Transparency will help avoid issues at the end regarding mistakes. One way to easily post marks is to assign each student a unique number at the start of the course, which enables you to post marks as they come in.
I posted it as an answer to my own question because I believe it's helpful advice to know and something I wish I had considered more strongly at the beginning (especially regarding transparency).
Transparency is absolutely vital. I used to post grades under student-supplied pseudonyms; more recently, I record grades on my university's course management system, which allows every student to look up their own grades. But another aspect of transparency (along the lines of Peter Jansson's answer) is to provide clear grading rubrics, ideally detailed enough for the student to verify their own grades.
On the other hand, I don't agree with "Grades are non-negotiable." Everyone makes mistakes, including you. Any student should be allowed to argue — with clear, compelling evidence, of course — that their grade does not reflect the posted rubric. It's quite common in the classes I teach for students to submit non-standard solutions that are perfectly correct; sometimes those solutions get low grades just because the grader was tired.
Thank you for the advice, JeffE. Do instructors on this board post final exam solutions after the course is over so students can verify their performance?
Everywhere I've been as a student I had the right to at least look at my graded exam. Once I've changed from a failing to a passing grade after discovering an error in the grading.
@Irwin: I always post solutions and rubrics for homework and midterms. I usually don't do that for final exams, but I do allow students to see their final exams and request regrades. Like gerrit, I've changed a student's failing grade to a passing grade after regrading their exam.
If you believe these students understood the material (based on other measures like projects), but they did badly on the exam, then it's a problem with the exam.
While I was in college, problems like this came up a couple of times, and the professors handled it with one of the following solutions:
Not having the exam, or removing the exam from final grades.
Grading students with and without the exam and giving them the higher grade.
Changing the grading scale for the exam (not necessarily on a curve).
Offering a chance to re-take the exam.
Since your class already has projects, the first two seem like good options.
Of course, this is all based on the assumption that you think they understand the material and just did badly on the exam. If they also did badly on the projects, then there's a good chance they're just trying to avoid responsibility.
But can you really do these things (other than the third one) with a final exam? With a midterm, sure, but a final exam is a beast of a different nature. Midterms may exist solely due to an instructor's whims, but final exams are often required by the university itself. As such there tend to be much different rules on what you can do. I'm not entirely sure that re-taking the exam is actually permissible unless they can be (legitimately) given an incomplete. You also have to be careful on whether you're employing these to give preferential treatment to the minority of under performers.
@zibadawatimmy I guess it depends on your university. When I got my computer science degree a few years, I saw all of these options used, and not having an exam was fairly common in high-level classes (since projects were a better judge of students' understanding).
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.786230
| 2012-06-27T21:33:54 |
2204
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Stack Exchange
|
Research on strategies for student recruitment
How do I find research on strategies for recruiting students into undergraduate programs?
I am an assistant professor at a small comprehensive 4-year public institution. My department (chemistry) has implemented a new strategic plan. One of our principle action items involves recruiting more high school students to attend our institution with the intention in majoring in chemistry.
I know that research is conducted, probably at the institution level, on what recruitment strategies are successful in various disciplines. However, since my research background is in chemistry, I am not familiar with the resources to find this research.
I will start with this question: What journals and/or databases should I be reading and using? I know about the Chronicle of Higher Eduction. Which others are good resources?
Update: I would like to find relatively recent reports, preferably in peer-reviewed literature or published by not-for-profits. Strategies that use social media would be great. There is a nice study linked in Dan C.'s answer, but it is from April 2004, meaning the data likely predates Facebook.
Computer science has an organization called SIGCSE that focuses primarily on undergrad education (and recruitment): they have an annual conference where people talk about all kinds of strategies to recruit and retain students. Does chemistry have something similar ?
The American Chemical Society has a Division of Chemical Education. However, it focuses on all levels and definitely more on education than recruitment. I don't need answers that are restricted to the field of chemistry. Best practices in other fields can be adapted.
This question is perfect for this SE new site: undergraduates if you find it useful you can follow it and help us in spreading the word about it.
There is a nice survey report online: "What Matters to Student Success", a report from the Government of Kentucky.
The work analyses the factors most crucial to student success in a college. It also discusses recruitment of students. For example,
Consumerism colors virtually all aspects of the college experience, with many colleges and universities “marketizing” their admissions approach to recruit the right “customers” — those who are best prepared for college and can pay their way (Fallows et al. 2003)
It does not exactly answer your question on strategies for selection, but gives some insight to what makes a successful student pool, for which admission process is one determinant.
I am sure the reference papers cited in the journal (and their citations) will assist you in an extensive literature survey.
For a relevant journal, I found this: Journal of College Admission. I do not know about the quality, but I was able to find this discussion (or thereabout) in a few papers herein.
The question was asking for resources, databases, and journals. Asking for strategies would be too localized to my institution. The report you link looks pretty good, and thank you for the link to the Journal of College Admission. It is published by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling, so it looks like a good place to start.
Does this webpage have some of the information that you're looking for?
https://www.noellevitz.com/papers-research-higher-education/student-recruitment-and-financial-aid
(I recommend the "Factors to enroll" report; it asks for a login, but you can continue as a guest.) Alternatively, you might also find the following pdf useful.
http://www.edgeip.com/media/edgeip/graphics/Research0404.pdf
One big question the report answers is for current college students, what percent cared about each of the following in choosing a school: cost, financial aid, academic reputation, size of school, recommendation from family or friends, location, campus appearance, and personalized attention prior to enrolling. These factors are considered for various breakdowns of the student sample.
I will take a look at the items in your first link. I was hoping more for items published in peer-reviewed journals. Our recruiting budget is negligible, so I want to avoid paying for information collected by consultants.
The second link is a little dated. It's from April 2004, and while some of the general ideas seem good, all of the data was probably collected before Facebook existed (Launched Feb 4, 2004). I am on the lookout for something more recent. I will update my question to include a timeliness factor.
@BenNorris If you like the subject of the second link, but worry that it is dated, you may like another of the reports linked to on the first webpage. Check out "The Communication Expectations of College Bound High School Students" (again you'll be asked for a login, but can proceed as a guest). Interestingly, among 8 factors a college's facebook page ranked as least influential (by a wide margin) in whether students chose to apply to that college.
That is interesting. I wonder how influential Facebook is in finding schools. I'm not at one of the schools in my state. Making connections with potential students before they start narrowing their choices is important.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.786664
| 2013-12-13T14:54:54 |
14743
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Stack Exchange
|
Using BibTeX when submitting an article
Some journals have their own bibliography styles (bst) for BibTeX.
If a journal does not have its own bibliography style, am I supposed to include the content of the bbl-file into the tex-file I am sending? Or can I send the bib-file instead?
Many journals offer LaTeX-templates showing the style of the article. (This is almost always true if a journal recommends using its own document class.) In some case I have seen that this template contains BibTeX style (.bst file). But in other cases BibTeX was not used in the template, instead it was shown what the preferred formatting of references looks like.
I know that if I were the person who has to do the final typesetting from the sources submitted by an author to conform the style of the journal, I would prefer to have the BibTeX-file. (It is easier to simply change the formatting of references by changing the choice of BibTeX style than changing each separate entry manually.)
If a journal does not explicitly mention the recommended BibTeX style, what would be preferable way to submit the paper? Should I send both, TeX source and BibTeX file, so that editor can change the references using BibTeX style of their choice, or should I simply send the TeX-file, where I include also the bibliography generated by BibTeX. (And, if necessary, I modify it manually to be in the style required by the journal.)
(So far I have done the latter, but I am not sure whether it was the correct choice.)
I'd send the .tex and .bib file, which seems by far the most logical thing to do, to both you and me at least. On explicit request I'll grudgingly provide the .bbl file.
This should make things easier for them, as you correctly suggest. It is easy and fast to convert a .bib to a .bbl, but the other way round is impossible.
If the journal has a workflow that can't handle .bib files, that seems their problem and not mine. They are the professional publishers who charge for the "added value" of the professional typesetting and printing service, right?
Professional typesetter/layout editor (for a diamond-access journal) here, and .bib are definitely easier to work with. The only exception is if your .bib is of the unpruned, thousand entries long, using only @misc kind, in which case I have to completely redo the bibliography and starting from the .bbl is the fastest way. Happened six times last year...
@Luris Thanks for your feedback from the journals' side of things! In the unfortunate case when you have to start from the .bbl, do you ask the author for it, or do you generate it yourself starting from the messy .bib file?
I used to start from the .bbl (so that I don't have to redo entries that won't be used), and search the title/author/year in a database like MathSciNet or zbMATH. They generally give a BibTeX version of the reference that I simply copy-paste in the new .bib, but it's not always of good quality (zbMATH in the 1970-1980 range is particularly bad) nor cheap (MathSciNet cost us 10k€/year). But now that we stopped our subscription to MathSciNet, I'll probably ask the author for a clean .bib, especially since they're asked to do it when they submit their paper :)
Most journals do not have the resources (read time) to handle lots of auxiliary files in submissions. Unless the journal clearly specifies they want bibliographies provided as a .bib-file and has a fixed .bst style file, you should not provide LaTeX based manuscript that way. What you can do is to run your final version yourself and then manually include the resulting .bbl bibliography in your manuscript so that content and bibliography is included in the same file (see e.g., How can I insert by .bib file into my .tex file? on TeX.sx). The .bbl file contains all references in the common \bibitem[]{} format. Alternatively you can of course use the \bibitem form directly when you write the paper. If you do not have a bibliography style file for the specific journal, it would be simple to use one that yields a similar format and then manually correct the details that may differ in the .bbl file.
Most journals? Where does that come from? Given the typical subscription cost, it would really surprise me if they "do not have the resources to handle lots of auxiliary files".
Transforming a .bib into a \bibitem or a .bbl takes minutes in worst cases. The other way can take hours, especially if the typesetter don't have access to a good database like MathSciNet.
@BenoîtKloeckner I know the ACM SIG Proceedings format requires you to do the conversion yourself before .tex submission, at least, but they make it explicit. (Admittedly, that's for conference proceedings rather than a journal, but still.)
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.787198
| 2021-04-21T09:06:25 |
166582
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Submission of survey paper and graduation thesis almost in same time
Location: South Korea. I am writing a survey paper and PhD graduation thesis and will submit them in 2020 July and 2020 June respectively. I am going to use Section II of my survey paper in my graduation thesis. If I submit the survey paper to the journal after I submit the graduation thesis, of course, the Section II I used will be shown as "plagiarized" in the journal`s system. In this case, will the journal accept the survey paper because the author of both works is the same or will I have to paraphrase Section II?
PS: Graduation thesis will be checked at https://www.copykiller.com/ (plagiarism detection service in Korea) and the result will be submitted to the University.
You are time travelling to submit these things?
@astronat I'd upvote your comment if I hadn't made the same mistake on the title slide for a talk I gave earlier this year.
This is ultimately up to the journal to decide - so you should contact them/consult their guidelines. I cannot imagine any scientific journal treating a thesis (PhD or MSc) as a prior publication, but this might be field dependent. In any case, you should explicitly write in your paper "This chapter is based on the author's PhD thesis to be defended (...)" or something to this effect, and I would think that this will be enough for the journal.
And since the timeline you give is a bit confusing, and since you mention what the university will do to check if the thesis is original - I'll comment that the same applies to the reverse situation: check the guidelines with your university/supervisors to confirm that (as long as it is cited correctly) it's OK for parts of the thesis to appear in journals before its submission. Again, I cannot imagine this to be a problem with a research you clearly did during your PhD (i.e it's not a 25 years old paper you scavenge for a thesis). But - ask the uni anyway.
lemon314, thank you very much for your brief answer!
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.787404
| 2014-01-28T18:48:21 |
16269
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
how could I mention sequence of figures in a research paper?
I want to say that:
Figure 1, 2, 3 and 4 illustrate ....
how could I mention them?
is the above sentence correct?
or I should say figure 1 to figure 4
If using LaTeX, use the Cleveref package. For example: figures \labelcref{fig:a,fig:b,fig:c} show that....
The exact format should be determined by the publication in which you publish your work (assuming this is what you do). You should be able to write Figures 1-4 or alternatively Figures 1 to 4 (although the former is what I am used to seeing). If the format uses abbreviated forms then Figs 1-4 would be the format. There is no need to repeat the word figure before both numbers in a sequence.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.787523
| 2014-02-02T10:57:34 |
16458
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How to defend Masters thesis?
I have to defend my thesis. I have implemented new technique but the results are same(as with the old technique). So how should I defend it? Is this necessary to get the better results or implementation of new technique matters in thesis?
I have implemented [a] new technique...does this mean that you are attempting your second defense of the same thesis?
No. Its my first and last defense.
This comes to mind... (don't do that)
It sounds as though your major contribution to expanding the extent of human knowledge is in showing how the new technique can be used to confirm results (X) which were obtained by the old technique. So when defending your thesis, you better be very sure that you show how this new technique enhances our understanding of X!!
If you are unsure how to best present this, talk to your advisor. In fact, even if you believe you know how best to present your contribution, talk to your advisor! Take advantage of his/her experience and knowledge of the field to position yourself where your contribution can make the greatest possible impact.
You need to prove that you have expanded human knowledge, so focus on how this is better than the old technique, not on how you have gotten exactly the same results. Again, your advisor should best be able to show you how to do this.
What will be the advantage of using the new technique if it gives the same results as given by the old technique?
Muhammad, you've done the research and the implementation, so you are in a position to know! Is it faster? Easier? More cost efficient? Acknowledge the drawbacks, if any, but focus on the advantages.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.787721
| 2014-02-24T11:35:26 |
17354
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
What is citation index?
What is citation index?
How are such indices calculated?
How can any journal become part of an index?
These are my questions about various indexes that are used at academic environments.
Have you read Citation index wiki page?
They are indexed if someone (like Web of Knowledge, in the wiki) considers them important enough to be indexed.
Is there any special formula to calculate them? How can I know which journals are listed in any indexes? How can I know reliability of one journal?
The formula is simple: the average number of cites their papers get after X time. To see the contents of an index, check the index. What defines reliability for you?
Reliability is power of any journal on academic world. For example which journal accepted as scientific and accept only strong articles?
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.787863
| 2015-04-13T11:14:22 |
43484
|
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Stack Exchange
|
How to cite sources written in a different language than English?
Assume one wants to cite a paper written in a different language than the article citing said paper (e.g., ones own article is written in English, but the source is French).
How to properly handle citation in such a case?
Do I cite the original (French) title or a translated title? If I use a translated title, people might have a hard time to find the source; if the original (French) title is cited, people might have a hard time understanding it.
You cite the original title, for the very reason you gave: to enable readers to find the original title. If your work is subject to guidelines, you should also check those.
Usually, there is no point in giving a translation of the title as it does not contain any relevant information for the reader. Many citation styles do not mention the title of papers at all. I see two exceptions though:
If a translation of the cited work into English exists (but you worked with the French original), you can mention it in addition to the French title, e.g. with:
[actual citation] (translated into English under the title [translated title])
If the title allows the reader to estimate what the source contains and whether they want to read it at all. In this case, you should arguably change your text such that it states in what way the citation is relevant for your work.
It actually depends on the citation style. It is particularly well documented in the APA Style (see Citing Translated Sources in APA Style):
For example, here’s how you would cite the original French edition of
a work by Piaget (note that an English translation of the title is
included in brackets):
Piaget, J. (1966). La psychologie de l’enfant [The psychology of
the child]. Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France.
and:
Here’s another example, from a German journal. Again, brackets contain
an English translation of the work’s title (the article, not the
journal).
Janzen, G., & Hawlik, M. (2005). Orientierung im Raum: Befunde zu
Entscheidungspunkten [Orientation in space: Findings about
decision points]. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 213(4),
179–186. doi:10.1026/0044-34<IP_ADDRESS>
If the reference uses a foreign alphabet, be sure to also check the transliteration requirements.
Much better answer, since it gives a concrete example of how to do this.
It is common to either use a combination of the original title and a translated title. The exact form for punctuation has to be adapted to the specific journal. I use an example from "my" journal (Instructions for Authors):
Author name(s), year. Title in original language (if possible) [Title translated into English]. Publication name in original language (if possible) [Publication name translated into English]. Volume/issue/page information (according to type of publication). [In ‘language’]
Example:
Krenke, A.N. and Khodakov, V.G., 1966. O svyasi povercknostnogo tayaniya lednikov s temperaturoy vozdukha [On the relationship between melt of glaciers and air temperature]. Materialy Glyatsiologicheskikh Issledovaniy [Data of Glaciological Studies], 12. 153–163. [In Russian]
If the original is in a language written with different characters such as Russian, Chinese or Japanese to mention a few then one can also use a shorter form such as (again using the example above:
Krenke, A.N. and Khodakov, V.G., 1966. On the relationship between melt of glaciers and air temperature. Data of Glaciological Studies, 12. 153–163. [In Russian]
In the Russian case there sometimes exist a transcription with Latin letters but not always.
I will add that many journals in my field do not translate titles in for major languages such as Spanish, French and German since it is assumed that everyone has some grasp of languages. This is of course a notion of the past since the "western focus" is, and has not been for long, a useful perspective.
For references in other languages (non-English), I use titles translated into English if the translation by the author is given in the paper (usually together with an English abstract). In such a case, a remark should be put at the end in brackets, eg. (in French). The use of translated titles should also be recommended for papers written in non-Latin scripts, eg. Chinese.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.788257
| 2014-04-30T10:42:19 |
20026
|
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Stack Exchange
|
Does a PhD student need a co-supervisor?
I am a few months into my PhD and my supervisor and co-supervisor are close friends.
Unfortunately, I find that my co-supervisor is not useful – he doesn’t provide any help or input into my project. Additionally, he has given me a hard time on more than one occasion, e.g. making a derogatory comment about the source of my PhD funding, not including me in discussions with his other PhD candidates (although I was physically present), and asking me to buy items for another PhD candidate using my budget.
I would like to stop being supervised by my co-supervisor, but I have not yet built a relationship with another academic that I could ask to take the role.
Do I need a co-supervisor? Can anyone recommend ways I deal with this situation?
Does your department require PhD students to have co-supervisors? If so, you have your answer. If not, you have your answer.
Since your supervisor and co-supervisor are close friends, if you decide to go without a co-supervisor, be careful how you raise the issue with your supervisor. Rather than criticising the co-supervisor outright, it may be better to say something like "we just don't click. Our personalities are too different."
The direct answer is not a PhD students does not need a co-advisor. The problem here is to think about the role of co-advisors. I am sure the view on this varies so my view is coloured by situations with which I am familiar, which is the US and Sweden. Co-advisors may be involved because they have specific expertise that may be relevant to part of the work, for example specific investigations, lab work ec. Co-advisors may also be there to provide overall scientific expertise and provide feedback on written articles or the final thesis or both. Hence a co-advisor may not be very active when you start your PhD. At the same time by signing up as a co-advisor, I would expect the co-advisor to be open for discussion during your time as a student but it may fall on you to initiate such contacts when you need it. The main advisor is, after all, the one responsible for the direction of your work within your thesis topic.
So while one does not need a co-advisor, there are many instances where such support is necessary or at least very useful.
Normally, a co-supervisor is not needed. However, there are some circumstances where it can be extremely useful. One such instance (with which I have some experience) is related to supervising students between departments. At some institutes, candidates admitted to department X can work with a primary advisor in department Y (and vice versa) if they have a co-advisor in department X.
Beyond that, though, there aren't many places I know where a co-supervisor is required. If you have concerns with how your co-advisor is treating you, the first thing to do is to speak to both of your advisors. If the behavior continues, then you may also want to consider talking to the faculty member in charge of graduate affairs within your department.
I'm studying in The Netherlands where cases of scientific fraud among psychology professors have been surfacing lately, and one of the conclusions was that students should be co-supervised as a safety measure. Another potential reason is to have a clear idea what will happen with the student if the main supervisor would at some point become unavailable for supervision. This is the case in the institute where I am, and so far the co-supervision on my project is on paper only, and will remain that way.
A co-supervisor must be useful. It is not fair to take a role of "useless supervisor" who can later be added as a co-author with relatively little input to the published works.
This of course depends somewhat on the status of the co-supervisor. Some professors already do not spend much time on experimental research, focusing on lectures or department-level supervision instead. In such case the department may have several intermediate supervisors, each having small own research group. In such case, without co-supervisor, you stay alone and may not even be able to get equipment and reagents you need for work.
However situation when some freshly baked post-doc starts "teaching" a good PhD student without use is also common. The goals may be to get into co-authors or even to take over the promising research topic. Sometimes such co-supervisor may be even obviously less competent than his student, so why to piggy-back him?
In case a co-supervisor is not useful, talk to professor and ask to remove co-supervisor out of your head. Simply say you do not think you benefit from additional supervision, explaining that the problems you are supposed to solve with ones help you can solve no worse or maybe even better yourself. Some cases / examples would be good.
Generally, the co-supervisor is somebody to guide you when your primary supervisor is not available. A good co-supervisor can boost your research power as he/she can share alternative viewpoint about research information. This supposes to encourage your research/work to become more rounded and more suitable for larger group of people.
Nevertheless, my suggestion is based on my experience in Australian system that heavily relies on the guidance of the supervisors. To deal with this situation, I suggest you seek for the person with the higher power as he/she can make a change or comments on your co-supervisor. One of the options is the primary supervisor usually holds more power than the co-supervisor. Also, he may know who is more proper than that guy, if they aren't friends. A more safe option is to consult with the head of the postgraduate office who has more power as the person has to take care of everyone in the school. So, he/ she should be able to regulate the inappropriate conduct or move him from your supervision panel.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.788710
| 2013-07-29T17:46:21 |
11499
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Stack Exchange
|
MPhil vs. MSc. in the UK?
I'm currently finishing a B.Sc. Honours in Canada, and I'm applying to Edinburgh (among other places) to do a Masters. They have two research-based degrees, and I was wondering if people with experience in academics and CS could help me distinguish between the two. I'm not overly familiar with the British Education system.
The M.Sc. is a one-year degree of independent research, with very little to no classes. The MPhil is a two-year degree, where classes are taken in addition to independent research.
In particular, I'm wondering:
Which is considered "more academic" or "more prestigious?"
Which would be better for getting into a PhD program?
Since there aren't classes in the MSc, are you expected to have a higher level of knowledge coming in?
In the UK it's relatively unusual to apply for an MPhil - MSc and MRes are much more common. MPhils really exist to cover failed PhD candidates. When you apply to study for a PhD in the UK, for the first 12-18 months you are placed on "probation" (even if you alread hold an MSc/MRes). After this time, a review (and mini-viva) of both your progress and quality of research is conducted and you are either "confirmed" as being a PhD candidate or are relegated to MPhil.
The practice varies from university to university though. At some places (including Manchester, where I did an MPhil) PhD candidates are registered as MPhil and then either continue to the second year of a PhD or hand in an MPhil thesis (or fail altogether). Some people choose to leave so it is not necessarily a 'relegation' or bad thing to get an MPhil. It's also possible to get an MPhil if your thesis at the end of three years isn't good enough fro a PhD.
I don't think this is really true. My impression is that different universities choose the names of their master's degrees according to their own traditions and that there's no overall national pattern. As a specific example, Oxford seems to use MPhil for master's courses that are designed as one way into a PhD (which Oxford calls DPhil) programme and MSc for those that aren't. Cambridge has 13 pages of master's courses, most of which are MPhils: these definitely aren't semi-failed PhDs.
Such a wrong and offensive answer. How can you be a "failed PhD candidate" if you never started a PhD in the first place? What if someone is a successful MPhil and don't wish to pursue a PhD? Is he also a failed PhD candidate? Come on...
Looking at the courses there appears to be a one-year taught MSc and a one-year MSc by research. The two-year MPhil while described as a research degree, has a one-year taught component. It seems to me that the MPhil is just the two MSc courses combined. The programme description says:
The first year of MPhil studies is probationary.
suggesting to me that if you do not do well enough on the taught component that you cannot progress to the research part.
I would say that taking classes is less "academic" than doing research and therefore the MPhil is less "academic". I would also think that the MSc by research has the highest admission standards and therefore is more prestigious
For getting into a PhD program you need to prove you can do research. Graduate level course work often helps in doing research. If you already have the fundamental skills that you would be learning in the taught components, there is no big benefit to taking more courses. Similar with research experience. If you are lacking both the MPhil might be the way to, but if you are lacking only one chose the appropriate MSc.
As for entry requirements, it is probably best to contact the department and ask them. As I said above, my guess would be that the MSc by research has the highest entry requirements.
Generally in the UK, the MPhil is seen as a senior level research qualification just above the MRes and below the PhD - at least in computer science. I do not agree that an MPhil is necessarily a failed PhD as there can be many reasons why a candidate cannot produce a full PhD thesis ranging from company support, time and funding to personal circumstances. A PhD fail to me is someone who has done a PhD thesis and failed the PhD viva and failed to get at least major corrections or a recommendation for resubmission in 12 months.
This was true in my case that I was transferred from PhD to MPhil, albeit my situation was rather difficult; I was in a PhD route for 3.5 years full time at Lancaster University and the sponsor company (a major water utility company) stopped communicating with me and my supervisor. As a result, my prototype was left untested in a real world scenario which was necessary for my PhD work as there is a requirement in producing innovative and original work. After a year of starting my PhD, I had a supervisor change resulting in a research area change resulting in a late panel 2 years down the line which didn't help either. The panel is a useful tool to know if you are being guided in the correct path and to know if you are getting along well with your supervisor as well as to see if you are producing work that is up to PhD/MPhil standard. If your work is not up to MPhil standard, they can altogether cancel your registration and you are out.
I can't stress this enough; you should have your panel early in your PhD and never late. In my case, it was given late due to a supervisor change and that "I fell through the cracks of the system" and nothing could be done other than to make a formal complaint which I have already.
The panel concluded that I had enough work to do a PhD and decided to change my route from PhD to MPhil on the premise that I was running out of time and no funding available for me (I only had 6 months left of funding, but due to other circumstances, this went well beyond my defence and upto summer 2017 surviving on a TA salary which was less than £5000 pa). This was compounded with fears that I might leave with nothing. They did say that if got the MPhil, then perhaps I could use this as a stepping stone to a PhD and upgrade my work.
It took me 5 years to complete my "over bloated" MPhil and I decided not to pursue the PhD in my area due to difficulties with my current supervision - it is another long story. I feel I do have enough research skills to carry out research in other areas which are of interest to me.
To clarify whether the MPhil has any classes: no, it doesn't. It is purely research unless you are doing a professional Doctorate which have taught components with research. The MPhil is research work done at the same quality and academic rigour of a PhD, albeit shorter in length - hence why the MPhil is seen as a higher degree than an MSc by Research. The MPhil used to be the gold standard during the 60's and 70's for lectureships until requirements increased to have a PhD under your belt.
Which is considered "more academic" or "more prestigious?"
From the Masters degrees, the MPhil as it is the highest Masters qualification that you can get before embarking on a PhD. I know people in my area who haven't got a PhD but have an MEng and produced academic output equivalent to that of a Professor with a PhD. Having research output and published by top ranking publishers is more prestigious in my opinion.
"Which one is better for a PhD?"
It depends on which subject you are studying; in computer science, you only need a BSc honours with a first class honours to enter the PhD route directly without requiring an MSc. Having an MRes or even better, an MPhil in a related area, would considerably boost your chances in succeeding. Other subjects like psychology would require an MRes to enter the PhD route depending on research areas.
This could be a helpful answer if the question were about MPhils at Lancaster, but as David Richerby rightly observes in a comment on the accepted answer the meaning of MPhil varies between British universities. As such, absolute statements like "It is purely research" are misleading.
As I quote from a book written by E.Phillips, "How to get a PhD" p29,30.
"A candidate for an MPhil must undertake an investigation but, compared to the PhD, the work may be limited in scope and the degree of originality...
...In a high quality MPhil, evidence is required of the ability to test ideas; understand appropriate techniques; make use of published work and source material; and show familiarity with different theories and empirical studies.".
Therefore I do not see why my statement is misleading as a high quality MPhil is "purely by research".
That quote claims that all MPhils involve research, which may be true, but does not say that they are purely research. David Richerby's comment links to some counterexamples at a prestigious UK university.
It depends on the context of the degree being awarded and this opens a new discussion, i.e. Which one is more prestigious, the academic PhD or a professional PhD?
The difference is due to articles being published in trade or non academic peer review journal and the title awarded (DPsych, EdD, DProf). Thus, the qualification is seen as a watered down version of the PhD by certain groups. I would not expect a taught MPhil offered to students who would want an academic career.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/article/phd-v-professional-doctorate-which-is-better/
Mphil is an interphase between MSc and PhD. I.e above MSc but below PhD. Masters program pose more importance to thesis. Mphil is usaully research based and that case higher than MSc.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.789495
| 2013-04-29T17:38:51 |
9731
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Academic affiliation: which to choose?
I am actually working for two different universities in my country, and the problem is that they do not give too much support to academic research. I mean for paying the costs of tickets, travel expenses or accommodation when one paper get accepted for a conference.
I usually work as an independent researcher, but the problem that I have is that if I put my author affiliation as Independent researcher maybe I will be not be considered "serious" enough for the reviewing program committee of the conferences that I plan to submit my work.
Now what should I do? should I put the name of one of the universities that I am working at random, and at the end change my affiliation and put the name of the university that will give me the funds for the travelling expenses of the presentation?
What would we the best way to act in this way? I remember that for one paper that I was submitting, the Dean of my past faculty told me that he could give me the money, but if I put him like a co-author. Actually it was his way to get publications to his name without working on them. Of course, I did not accept that.
Any suggestion would be of great help
Thanks
Layla, you better associate yourself with a lab or research centre and then use the fund you get form the lab for publications..etc. I went through the same situation before
Affiliations go into affiliations, and it is regardless whether they provide any funding; or I am wrong?
My immediate reaction is to put them both on; It is not unusual to have two affiliations. I then mean to state "A and B" to show a shared affiliation. That way both departments could benefit from your publication. The question is then how to get the different departments to losen up their purses. In my system no such funding is typically given out by departments/university, one has to apply for money from different sources oneself. I could possibly convince my head to provide the money if the reason was particularly well deserving. So I cannot comment on how such support would be provided.
I would suggest communicationg with both univesities stating that you will publish the paper with them as an affiliation to see if anyone would provide funding. I would obviously put any funding source as my first affiliation afte the fact.
Finally, to get a request to put an extra name on the paper in order to get money sounds terrible, in fact unethical. It is of course easy to say that when you are not facing the situation so thumbs up for standing up to that behaviour.
I was thinking of suggesting the same thing. Add both locations as your affiliation.
In fact, I think you must list both affiliations. In alphabetical order.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.789746
| 2014-02-01T13:34:25 |
16434
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How to bring one's PhD research to another university?
I was talking about a probable research topic that I got in mind for following a Phd in Computer Science to one of my past Lecturers. This professor told me that I should make a research proposal and see what happens with the evaluating committee. The research proposal was made and it got finally accepted. Now the issue is that this university, in which they accepted my proposal is not so well known worldwide. So I would like to apply to another more renewed university with the same topic, I think that could help me better in my academic career. What should I do? It is unethically to move to another university with my research idea? maybe my past professor could feel like betrayed?
Thanks
It is not so important, how well-known your university is, it is important whether you can do good research there (and have funding for travelling, etc.). It might be good to have some supporters. But of course, if the university is regarded as low-quality (BTW: never trust rankings!), I understand your intentions to leave.
You are free to take your idea wherever you would like. You cannot take your professor's project proposal to another university without her permission.
The professor at your school seeing this as a "betrayal" is a separate issue. A good advisor will of course want a good student to stick around. A good mentor will want what's best for the student—regardless of what's in the mentor's best interests as a potential advisor.
So, my advice is just to talk to the professor and let him know that you'd like to apply at other universities as well. (It's your right to do so, of course.) Ask if the professor would be willing to write letters supporting you. If the professor isn't supportive of this, you'll have your answer. (And if the professor is not supportive, then do not get letters of recommendation from that professor!)
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.789920
| 2013-08-31T14:21:29 |
12325
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
is it possible to have different research topics for the MSc and PhD?
Here is my case, before I studied my master´s degree I managed to write a research paper jointly with a Professor (not from my university) on databases. After that I pursue my master´s degree in CS, but on neural networks rather than databases. The thing is that I would like to do my PhD in databases with the professor I wrote the research paper with. Do you think that I can have problems with the admission committee? I would not like to go to study a PhD without any financial support at all.
I don't see why there should be any problem with this whatsoever. It is quite common for students to move around topics, particularly if you are switching between programs or universities. If everybody agrees that you are a good candidate for the position in question, then it shouldn't really matter too much that the topic is not an exact match.
I agree. Switching fields between MS and PhD is actually quite common in CS. And given that you actually have a paper in databases, it'll probably be easier to get into a PhD program to study databases than to stick with neural networks.
It is possible. As long as your professor agrees. You have to work 4 years+ on the topic so it should be something that you are passionate about.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.790069
| 2013-04-22T09:36:28 |
9549
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Academic freedom and unpopular or offensive views
Academia values academic freedom. However, there may be some practical limitations on academic freedom. What repercussions might an academic face for voicing unpopular or offensive views in the name of academic freedom?
For example, how might a professor's academic reputation be impacted by publicly expressing views that support dictatorships (and other type of politicians) and their established crimes and violation of human rights?
Thank you Ben Norris for the editing. @Daniel E. Shub: I think a more common scenario is personal views expressed in public outside the academia (e.g. in a newspaper or a TV show--this is exactly what I meant), but could also include academic/research views but this may complicate the question.
Thanks to the whole Academia crew for taking care of this question, from start to finish. You guys rock!
Note that (a) the term "Academic freedom" refers to a number of ideas (teaching, research directions, acceptance of ideologies), and (b) in practice, the freedom isn't that broad at all.
As an example, you could read about the Ward Churchill affair.
@Orion Are you interested in scientific research on sensitive topics (e.g. "A meta-study showed that green-eyed people are significantly less intelligent than people of other eye colour.") or personal opinions and unsupported claims (e.g. "Green-eyed people are inferior. It's obvious.") or political statements encouraging undertaking action (e.g. "We should get rid of green-eyed people in the government!")? Depending on point, the answer may vary.
@Piotr Migdal: originally, my the question was clearly related to the second example: encouraging undertaking crimes and violation of human rights. But after being edited, the problem in question is probably perceived more as happening in academic context (your first example).
All three answers were downvoted, with no comment below them. Maybe the people who voted them down could explain their reason, so the posts can be improved?
@Orion it seems like the edited question does get exactly at what you are asking. Further, there seems to be a little confusion about what is being asked. Please consider further editing the question.
You have currently the case of Prof. Salaita as another proof that you may be punished for expressing personal views on a delicate topic outside academia.
First, academic freedom as it is commonly understood does not refer to one's views and publicly stated opinions, but to the freedom in which they conduct teaching in the classroom. The reference in US is the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure stating that
Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject
But as a rule, academics do not get special treatment outside of the classroom with regards to freedom of speech. It's certainly not the case in the US, and I am not aware of any other country where it might be the case.
Now, regarding the impact of unpopular or offensive views on reputation, it will heavily depend on your colleagues! I personally find that, while freedom of speech is highly valued in academic circles in general, Academia as a system is a rather conservative institution and I suspect you would not find much more sympathy for extreme views than in any other workplace.
NB: Academic freedom is also used to refer to a US jurisprudence applying to universities and colleges; in that sense, it is unrelated to rights and duties of an individual teacher.
I think your answer is suitable for the modified question (but not so for the original one which is not restricted to political views in an academic/research context but in the public media--where Paul's answer may be more relevant). Anyway, kindly let me undo the answer acceptance and wait for what others may say.
@Orion of course, no problem… regarding public media, see the second part of my answer: academics will take flak for extreme views, including negative job perspectives, but probably neither more nor less than in any other job
For propagating unpopular view (which can be considered offensive) a professor may lose a position (see e.g. James Watson's case). And in general, sensitive topics (e.g. like gender and ethnicity) may be risky, regardless of the scientific value of a statement one is making.
Moreover, sometimes there is a particular ban on some ideologies (e.g. propagation of Nazism in many European countries). However, it this case it is (usually) not a limitation on academic research, but only on political activity. (Similarly, "encouraging or assisting crime" is an offence and it does limit what one can say.)
As a side note, a humoristic slide from a presentation Beauty and the beast at the 2nd Offtopicarium:
What about the current case of Prof. Salaita and his dismissal from the University of Illinois for tweeting his condemnation over Israeli actions on the people of Gaza?
In addition to getting flak from your colleagues, some views might also get you fired or forced out of your position. For example, if you publicly state that the best solution for Africa is to drop a few nukes, the university might force you to resign.
I think what is important is that you can provide rational arguments for your opinion, as science is based on facts (and the interpretation of those facts).
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.790523
| 2014-02-25T01:35:12 |
17378
|
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Stack Exchange
|
In which type of schools can I have better research experience in Biology, liberal arts college or large research university?
I'm struggling with deciding to which type of school to go in order to gain a better research experience. Basically, the research experience is the most important factor for me to decide my college, since I want to be a strong applicant in PhD admission. Most reputable, research universities are far larger than LACs (liberal arts colleges), and they (except for top schools like HYPSM) are not so friendly places for those who want to conduct their own research and engage in research from Sophomore or even Freshman. To get rich research experience, I want to be involved with research as early as possible and not only during the summer but also throughout a year. Just for example, Reed College has mandatory Senior thesis like Princeton, and profs are eager to help even Sophomores to do their research. However, in research universities, I can take graduate-level courses and touch with cutting-edge research as a research assistant. So, I can gain more advanced knowledge than those in LACs.
Could you tell me your recommendation both for me and those who have the same aspiration?
*If my question is too vague, please just compare UC Berkeley/University of Michigan vs. Reed College/Carleton College. I'm sure this will be a good comparison, since the quality of the students are almost equal.
My main focus is in PhD admission, which, I believe, is one of the main focuses of this website. So, I asked how to gain the best research experience in order to perform well in the admission.
Undergraduate research is on-topic: http://meta.academia.stackexchange.com/questions/666/undergrad-research-is-on-topic/668
Undergraduate research is on topic, as is graduate admissions (in many fields undergraduate research is an important factor in the admissions decision).
I went to a small liberal arts college and worked at a large university lab, that had undergraduate interns. From both experiences I agree that it is the lab and not the school that matters. However, there are conditions that you will be more or less likely to find, depending on the type of school. In general liberal arts colleges will give you more personal attention and large universities will have more resources. Funding at liberal arts colleges is focused on undergraduate education and funding at larger universities is focused on research.
Personal Attention:
Liberal arts: A lab is led by a principal investigator or PI. Liberal arts colleges often do not have graduate students or have few graduate programs. So, at a small liberal arts college you will work closely with your PI and get to know them well. I left my college with great letters of rec that helped me overcome a poor GPA (due to a medical problem in my first two years) and get into grad school.
University: The undergrads were trained by PhDs and post docs and had little contact with the faculty. Post docs and PhDs can often be great teachers, though, since they either are students or were students recently and might be able to anticipate the student's perspective. At a university, they will normally write your letters of recommendation and the faculty will sign them.
Independence:
Liberal Arts: All of our grants were training grants, so the emphasis was on teaching, as opposed to producing results. This means you will get to do more independent work. I got first hand experience with the equipment (EEG) and techniques (analysis of FMRI and EEG data) that few undergraduates get to use. Additionally, I know of at least two of my friends who published, as first authors, in major research journals. This is not uncommon in my school.
University: The undergrads had to learn a program that is no longer used by most labs in the field. There was little room for mistakes (all of the labs grants were research grants), so the undergrads were given the task of modifying previous work and really did not develop any understanding of how the program actually works. However, this lab was an older lab. I also believe students at an older lab at my undergraduate school had a similar experience, where the methodology they were taught was not consistent with current standards in the field.
Connections:
They are pretty equal in this area. Liberal arts college professors often collaborate with people at larger institutions and can connect you with other labs. I have friends who got summer jobs at Stanford and CalTech this way. At the large university, one of our undergrads got to go to Oxford for the summer, because of the professor's connections to a lab there.
Equipment and Resouces:
Liberal arts: We did not have access to some of the most expensive equipment (an MRI, for example). However, one of my professors also worked at a local university that had access to an MRI and we got to use it there. Ideally, you should get some lab experience at a major research university, so you are exposed to techniques that require more expensive equipment. You can do this during summer internships. Getting more experience at different labs will look good on your application.
On that note, a liberal arts college is more likely to have grants that will help students study at other institutions. My college had several such grants for student research grants. Additionally, all senior thesis was funded by the department. The senior thesis funding and one of the summer fellowships both require students to focus on their own original ideas. In most fields the first author is the person who had the idea for the project. This is how undergraduate students were able to become first authors.
University: Universities will have the best equipment, but they are less likely to have funding for student research. The institution I worked at had grants for students, but they were only for work at that university. They also had no specific grants that would allow students to propose their own projects, based on their own ideas.
Your comment made me realize how LACs' focus on funding on their undergrad students is beneficial for the students who are really dedicated to research. There seems further more opportunities in LACs, so I will go to Carleton rather than UCB, even if I will be accepted to both. Although I thought publishing in research journal is almost impossible for undergrad students, it seems quite possible in LAC.
My observations are based on my own experience, which did not include Carleton or UCB. In high school, I decided to apply to a bunch of LACs, because I believed that, in general, LACs had more resources for undergraduates. However, each school will differ.
I would keep an open mind and check with the departments and schools. Have undergraduates ever published with faculty? Do they have an undergraduate capstone or thesis project? Are labs normally open to projects proposed by undergraduates? Do fellowships and internships for undergraduates allow for off campus mentors?
I spent vast amount of time for collecting such information from my favorite LACs. They basically have mandatory Senior thesis requirements and programs which encourage dedicated students from Freshman to Senior to conduct their own research. They have strong biology courses, and some of the LACs are known for their academics which are the most rigorous in the nation. Fellowships and internships for undergrads allow for off campus mentors. I know that Reed and Carleton have produced many students who succeeded in publishing their thesis, but I'm not sure about others.
I wouldn't say that any university "type" is universally better or worse for gaining undergraduate research experience. The culture with respect to undergrad research varies so much, even within one school.
My advice is to look up the Biology faculty in the schools you are considering, and identify those you would be interested in working with. Do your homework - don't just spam the entire department. Then email them:
Dear Professor {X},
I am {applying to, accepted into} the B.S. program in Biology at {University}. I am interested in pursuing a PhD in {specific area related to X's research} when I graduate, and am hoping to start doing research early in my B.S.
I am very interested in your ongoing research on {subject area}. {Say something intelligent about subject area that demonstrates your ability to contribute.} Do you take on undergraduate research students?
(I highly recommend reading the tips here for contacting a prospective research advisor: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/advice/prospective.html)
By doing this, you'll get a good sense for where you're most likely to have undergraduate research opportunities, and a head start on finding a potential research advisor.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.791139
| 2012-11-26T17:26:34 |
5471
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Stack Exchange
|
Transitive copying - plagiarism?
I am writing a paper with a co-author. I need to explain some terms in the preliminaries section. I am copying the definitions from my co-authors previous paper. Afterwards, I want to include the paper into my thesis. If I use the same definitions word for word in my thesis, would that be considered plagiarism?
You are usually permitted to copy stuff from publications into your thesis. See this question on sandwich theses. http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/149/what-is-a-sandwich-thesis
I understand that, but in the end, the original material, that was in my co-authors work (which was done without me) will end up in my thesis (which of course has only one author - me). That's the problem
Your question sounds like you're asking about a math paper. Definitions in mathematics are a bit of a strange corner case for plagiarism issues because they're not supposed to be "in your own words." My understanding of normal behavior is that you would never put a definition in quotes (unless you're writing about history), that you can nonetheless reuse definitions verbatim, but that you need to either cite the original source or say that they are standard definitions. A typical way to do this would be by saying "We recall some key definitions from X."
Computer science actually. The definitions are not as solid as in case of some math terms.
You need to clearly reference the definitions.
For example, Definition 1 [paper_reference]: or Definition 1 ( as in [paper_reference] ) :
By this, it is clearly your are copying the definition of the other paper..
If you are going to use their definitions verbatim, then use quotes, or otherwise make it very clear that the words are not your own.
In any case, cite the sources.
If you use other peoples' words in your thesis, without making it very clear that they are other peoples' words, then yes, you would be committing plagiarism.
Granted, this case would not be extreme, compared with say, including a chapter from someone else's thesis in your own, but it does meet the definition. Given that many universities have adopted draconian anti-plagiarism policies in recent years, you should be very careful to avoid even minor infractions.
You could take two approaches:
Modify the text slightly, rewording, to make it different.
or, easier, just refer to the other paper, i.e. "I use the definitions of Doe (2011), which for convienience I repeat:".
In that way it is not plagiarism.
I fail students all the time for this behavior. If you edit something to get around a literal quote, you are still taking someone else's idea. If you use someone else's work, cite it (and citing definitions is quite common...'according to websters...').
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.791409
| 2013-04-29T13:32:56 |
9721
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Stack Exchange
|
How important are the grades compared to the cover letter when applying for a Ph.D?
Some months ago I finished my MSc. I immediately started to send several applications for Ph.D vacancies.
So far I've spent a lot of time in doing this, but there is only one place that did not reject me. This place was actually the least interesting for me in terms of the job, therefore I was not keen from it at all.
I believe almost no one applied for the place I was not rejected by...
As for all other applications, I'm seriously thinking the problem is my final MSc mark.
To tell the truth with my mark I can access to most of the Ph.D programs (it's a UK "merit").
However if I know there are almost no chances for me to do what I would like to do then I resort to something else and avoid waisting my time in writing cover letters that no one bothers.
Welcome to academia.SE. From your writing it seems like English might not be your first language. While a merit is not a great mark for an MSc degree, it likely won't get your application thrown out. Did you have someone else read your cover letter?
This issue has come up before and been addressed. This question http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/324/how-do-you-get-a-bad-transcript-past-ph-d-admissions and this question http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7753/what-should-someone-who-has-been-rejected-from-all-phd-programs-do-to-improve-th and this one http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/977/what-to-do-when-graduate-admissions-havent-gone-well and this one http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/582/how-can-a-graduate-school-applicant-improve-his-application-for-next-years-seas.
This question is not exactly a duplicate of those others, but your answer may already exist. I added the [tag:graduate-admissions] tag to your question. Browse through the questions with that tag. There are some good answers to similar (or broader) questions.
@BenNorris I will probably post a new question based on the links you suggested.
What's a "cover letter"? Is that another name for the "statement of purpose"?
@JeffE Are you American? If you are then I know why you don't know what a cover letter is. In Europe a Ph.D is not something a student proposes, rather it's a project directly issued by the university. This means that the phd is just a job whose purpose is to do research on the topic required by the university. The cover letter is just the application letter, where you say "Dear Sir/Madam, I received the announcement of the vacancy X on... I would be interested in the job because...". Of course in Europe a student has fewer "freedom" than in America...
So, yes, it is what Americans call a "statement of purpose" or "application statement". You should include this information (or at least the phrase "in Europe") in the question for the benefit of us Yankee readers.
@JeffE in Europe a "statement of interest" is a short (1 page) phd proposal. This is why I didn't know what you meant
When I look at an application there are four aspects that count:
grades
cover letter
earlier written work (BS/MS thesis)
Recommendation letters
Out of these, I focus most of my attention on the latter two: if the thesis is well-written, has received a good grade, and the letters of recommendation support the candidate in terms of ability to do research (from reading up on the field to writing everything up) and independence (how much (or little) support the candidate needed.
The cover letter would not make the application, but could break it if it is unfocussed and does not show any skills in expressing the interest in a structured way while avoiding irrelevant information. The grades would, in most cases, be the least interesting since they primarily show one's ability to read and understand, not necessarily reasoning and deduction. The exception is the grade for the thesis.
So, to answer the question, I am not sure which might be more important but anything that supports your ability to do research is of prime interest to anyone evaluating an application.
EDIT: To follow up on Gerrit's suggestion, my personal ranking list would be (in falling order):
Earlier written work
Recommendation letters
Cover letter
Grades (although the grade on the written work is included in 1)
But, all parts are useful and in the end some mix of all will be used. I would also add that 1 and 2 will "make" the application while 3 and 4 will mainly help to "break" the application.
The quality of the writing in the cover letter and thesis can also damage one's chances, if they are not well-written.
Perhaps you can rank them by importance?
@PeterJansson Thanks a lot, with your advice you just told me to give up. I think what blocks my applications are exactly the most important points, ie the grade of my MSc thesis and possibly the references.
@PeterJannson what if I added in my CV I have started a Ph.D but I'm probably quitting it because I don't like the topic? may it be a good reference like eg a discrete MSc thesis grade?
@ragnar I am sorry to hear that. To be persistent is, however, a very good personal trait for a researcher so your efforts should not be thrown away. I think you need to try to assess where your interests are and then also try to contact some to find out the reasons for the rejections. There are many unknownsthat once charted may provide you with a better overview of your situation.
@ragnar In response to your second comment. To start a program and then drop it might come across as not having drive or direction. What you certainly can do is to to list that you were offered the PhD position, after all, that is a merit. But you then also need to explain why you did not go for it in a way that does not seem undecisive.
@PeterJansson to tell the truth I know what my interests are and most of the times I also had my cover letters reviewed by a friend of mine who works as a senior scientist at my former university: he always said my cover letters are OK, there is not so much to discuss about. Therefore I can easily conclude I must either retake the master or resort to other possibilities. In this case however I would have no chances in my country: I'd move out to work only for something really rewarding, which is not the case...
@PeterJansson that's exactly what I'm trying to figure out. Frankly saying, I've clearly found out a research jobs requires a great motivation, especially when you're doing it abroad or far away from the place where you've always lived. This is my situation. Maybe I would have the motivation to do the same job in my town, surely not in the place where I am now. I'm currently working as a PhD student, I can actually carry out the job my boss tells me to do, but I find no interest in the topic. What would you do if you had to mention this on the CV?
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.792028
| 2013-03-05T00:42:19 |
8374
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Disabilities in the Classroom
Are there any special provisions provided for students who have schizophrenia (for example)? Is there an "adjustment" to grading? Or perhaps there is no adjustment to the grading process per se, but only to the due dates? Is there anyone here who has been in this type of situation?
Depends on the relevance of the disability to academic performance, on the severity with which the person suffers from the disability, the kind of assignment, the policies of the given school, and the laws of the country the school is located in (just to name a few things). Though I don't have the ability to vote myself, I advocate for closing the question as overly broad.
This question is not too broad on the "entire book can be written on the subject" scale(although I can imagine chapters in books). There are some chatty elements to the question, but it has a nice short answer: consult the institutional office for disability services, as Anonymous suggests.
Every university I have been affiliated with (in the U.S.) has had an office of disability services, tasked with evaluating individual cases and making (binding) recommendations to instructors.
If your university has such an office, then you should refer this case to them and avoid judgement calls of the type you ask about.
Often the policy is also to inform the instructor of any special needs that may be pertinent to grading. Usually, as a matter of fairness, the specific disability isn't given. Regardless, that informs the instructor that that student may need certain provisions (ex: taking the exam in room with services, etc.)
This answer is totally right. Those offices are trained in the relevant practical and legal issues, while individual professors are not.
I love that these offices exist for the very reason @NoahSnyder suggests. I am not trained on how physical, mental, and psychological disorders impact learning, nor do I know what the legal requirements are. The folks in my Disability Support Services office do. And if my students do not have the waiver from said office, I am not permitted to make any concessions.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.792596
| 2012-08-06T17:25:17 |
2772
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Stack Exchange
|
Are there any specific teaching techniques to handle "virtual" classroom sessions?
In the past, I have attended a few "virtual" classroom sessions as a trainee and I always found it a little boring. I could notice the sincere effort that the trainer has put through but I couldn't control the feeling of boredom.
Are there any techniques specific to teaching in a "virtual environment" that can improve the pedagogical experience and keep students motivated? I do have a list for a normal environment but it is of little help in this new medium!
Thanks for helping.
This question is purely pedagogical, which is off-topic for this forum.
I beg to differ. In the FAQ section, it has been mentioned that this forum is applicable for university professors. Conducting sessions in a virtual environment is becoming more frequent and I think this question will help me and my likes. I could see questions in similar context asked about conferences in this forum. (from a audience point of view).
Ex: How can I get the most out of conferences? (it is from you actually)
@eykanal, I think the issue is with framing. I would recommend that the question be rephrased: "Are there teaching techniques that are specific to 'virtual' classrooms?" This would satisfy the mission scope as well as the questioner's needs.
Thanks @aeismail. I agree. I have rephrased it as you suggested. Thank you very much.
I've changed the body of the question as well. There is no need for mentioning the specific of your virtual environment. The fact that you're conducting a training seminar for software isn't really relevant here.
@eykanal: Questions about pedagogy are not automatically off-topic.
@JeffE - Ha, and I was the one who had written that. Thanks for reminding me.
@aeismail I think the specific type of virtual environment is important to mention. I have been involved with one that runs like a forum: I post a topic or question and the students post discussion or answers. I have been on the receiving end of one that was run like an interactive webinar, i.e the class still 'met' at specific times, the instructor was present, and the class interacted in real-time. In this case, it doesn't matter whether the instructor uses Second Life or Eluminate, but such a course is vastly different than a forum discussion course, and I would teach the two differently.
@BenNorris: I understand what you mean—but I think you need to make the description generic, rather than specific. Don't ask about specific platform X, but the nature of the category (online forum, web-based video lectures, etc.).
When I read this question, I immediately thought of this TED talk.
In it, Peter Norvig, who taught a huge online course on AI, shares what he learned about teaching to a large virtual audience.
His main points:
Mimic a one-on-one teaching style by positioning the camera overhead as you write and speaking as if it is a single student.
Alternately, use a livescribe pen (I've had experience with this for a math class; loved it)
Make short, <10 minute videos to retain attention
Ask questions to check understanding (they will pause+answer) and then go over them
Have due dates for watching the videos; students need motivation to watch them in a timely manner
Encourage online forums because peers are great tutors they "remember what it's like to not understand"
take them down after a week? What about repetition? Do you expect people to remember everything? Do you realize that you penalize less technical people since more technicall ones will be able to save them.
take them down after a week — I think you misspelled "Leave them up forever, so that students can review them later as needed."
Snark, snark! I believe, not that I'm rewatching the video again, that he mentioned having due dates and some sort of limit. I know the videos are kept up for posterity, but he emphasized making sure current students got to them during the class. I will edit.
Yes, agree completely with this approach. Nothing more boring than an online class where the instructor just drones on and on. I stopped teaching online because the Uni I was working for had a system that only supported this approach and I was spending more time un-teaching in the chat rooms what I had "taught" in the pre-recorded lecture.
"Make short, <10 minute videos to retain attention" I suggest 3 minutes is more appropriate for normal students.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.792989
| 2013-10-16T23:33:34 |
13454
|
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Stack Exchange
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What are issues to consider when making your code for an experimental paradigm, which was conceived by someone else, publicly available?
General background
In the cognitive sciences, it is often necessary to program/script experimental paradigms to conduct your studies. Basically, these programs present stimuli and collect responses, such as in the Eriksen Flanker task. However, programming capacities are typically limited in my field because it is rarely taught during graduate education (at least in my country). Also, it seems there is a somewhat reluctant culture of sharing this software unless there is some sort of scientific cooperation.
Consequently, when designing a study the decision for one of several paradigms used to measure a given construct can, among other things, be motivated by availability of the software or the effort necessary to implement it. With respect to sound science (choosing the most appropriate rather than available paradigm, software bugs, etc.), reproducibility (incomplete descriptions of methods, lack of programming skills, etc.), speed of scientific development, and, more generally, open science this is less than optimal.
The situation at hand
For a current study, I have started to implement three paradigms from scratch for different reasons:
One paradigm is publicly available from the authors but implemented in a commercial development environment for which I don't have a license (I, therefore, can't run it).
Another paradigm, to my knowledge, is not available from the authors at all. I contacted the authors for a copy of the software but got no reply.
The third paradigm is commercially available but is also closed source and only grants access to a limited set of the response data. For my analyses, I'd like to have access to richer data.
Given my prior general considerations, I think about releasing my implementations of the paradigms under an open source license, once they are finished. Now my question is:
What are issues to consider when I release my software to collect data in an experimental paradigm, which was conceived by another scientist, under an open source license?
Here are some of the things I'm wondering about:
Are there legal issues, such as copyright infringement, to be considered for commercially or non-commercially available software? Note, I created all of the code and all images based on low resolution prints in publications. I'm merely copying the concept.
Would such a release conflict with common etiquette in the case where the software is simply not available from the original authors (remember, I asked but got no reply)? Is it necessary to ask each author before releasing my code?
Can I be held responsible morally if the software is used and turns out to be faulty? I'm less concerned about legal responsibility because the license I intend to use does not provide warranty. More importantly, I certainly intend for the software to work since I'll use it my self but you never know.
If my study ends up being published and points to the availability of the software, can this benefit the citation count of the publication?
I'm sure there are more things to consider that I haven't thought of. But that's why I'm asking the question. ;)
Related questions: What are the disadvantages of opening the source of your own science tools and How can we change things so more researchers are willing to share their source code?
Also see Why don't research papers that mention custom software release the source code?
Are there legal issues, such as copyright infringement, to be considered for commercially or non-commercially available software? Note, I created all of the code and all images based on low resolution prints in publications. I'm merely copying the concept.
Unless their method is patented, no. Software is covered by copyright which protects a given implementation, not the general idea. Just as you are allowed to write an own novel on a topic that is covered by existing novels already.
Would such a release conflict with common etiquette in the case where the software is simply not available from the original authors (remember, I asked but got no reply)?
No.
Is it necessary to ask each author before releasing my code?
You need to get permission from all copyright holders. Depending on the actual settings, that means: for each author who contributed to "your" code the acutal holder of the copyright (could be the author or the author's employer).
The authors of the "original" software are not involved at all.
Can I be held responsible morally if the software is used and turns out to be faulty? I'm less concerned about legal responsibility because the license I intend to use does not provide warranty. More importantly, I certainly intend for the software to work since I'll use it my self but you never know.
moral responsibility: just like you will be held responsible for any other scientific publication.
legal responsibility: while no liability clauses are common for FOSS licenses, completely excluding liability is not possible in all legislations (e.g. in Germany a general no liability at all clause is/can be invalid).
If my study ends up being published and points to the availability of the software, can this benefit the citation count of the publication?
Definitively, yes
I'd give you another +1 for the legal advise for Germany if I could. Thanks a ton.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.793381
| 2012-09-24T12:55:47 |
3400
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|
Stack Exchange
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Should one research multiple independent topics while pursuing a PhD?
While pursuing a PhD in an experimental field, one usually researches a given topic and conducts experiments that are rather closely related to this topic and one another. I imagine this specialization can be beneficial as one attains expertise in the research field and can work in a timely and focused manner.
However, I can also imagine that this specialization may make changing your area of research more difficult when applying for positions as a post-doc. Therefore, I am wondering about the advantages and disadvantages of researching scientific questions one is interested in, but that are irrelevant to ones PhD thesis on the side.
In more theoretical areas, the answer is "Obviously!" But since you're asking specifically about experimental fields, I hesitate to write that as an answer.
Even in experimental fields, you still need to branch out and explore different experimental paradigms/approaches/methods. Because, as a researcher, at some point, you will have to design new experiments or change/improve the current experimental paradigms/approaches/methods, and then you really need not just depth but also breadth.
The main downside is that it takes a significant amount of effort to gain enough specialization in a given topic to be proficient enough to perform useful experimentation. Given that a a graduate student you're spending almost all your time familiarizing yourself with the topic you're actually performing research on, it would be very difficult to become an expert in an area unrelated to your work.
That being said, many research topics are very conducive to multi-disciplinary research. To use myself as an example, I usually tell people that I'm a cross between a neuroscientist, behavioral psychologist, signal processing engineer, and statistician. A colleague of mine started his research examining how to use the lungs as a power source for an implantable device, and ended up publishing a significant paper in the field of organic chemistry, fairly unrelated to his intended research. Becoming an expert in your own field enables you to research some pretty interesting and diverse topics.
The main downside is the opportunity cost of time spent being "unfocused".
Accordingly, I think the relative merit of pursuing ancillary research topics hinges on how much time you want to spend on your PhD. The road to tenure is long and so there are strong arguments for starting on it early. A PhD is just the beginning. However, later on, I do not think one can drop a side-project with as few consequences as during graduate school.
You should also distinguish between the same research that goes by different labels. Different fields call the same thing different names, which can make it seem as if someone has more varied interests than they do.
However, later on, I do not think one can drop a side-project with as few consequences as during graduate school. — Really? Why not? (I'm assuming that once a project attracts enough money to employs RAs, it's no longer a "side project".) How could faculty explore new research areas without doing exploratory side projects?
I see your point that my use of 'side-project' has a shifting definition. Perhaps its better to say that there is a bigger loss if you sink money, RAs, etc into a project that doesn't pan out as opposed to if you as a grad student wasted a lot of hours on something. Then, my comment just the time of someone with more experience can be worth more.
@JeffE - Because later on, instead of just having time to play around doing research, you're writing grants, teaching courses, performing departmental administrative duties, and mentoring grad student & postdocs. Compare this to being a grad student, when your responsibilities include (1) showing up and (2) doing research.
@eykanal — Right. But playing around with half-baked crazy ideas that may not pan out is a prerequisite for writing good grant proposals, which is how we get grants, without which we have neither students nor postdocs. Side projects aren't a distraction for research faculty; they're a requirement. Departmental administrative duties, on the other hand...
TLDR: You will probably become a better problem solver if you do it, but there is a chance that it won't count into the formal requirements for graduation!
In general I would say it is not a good idea to research multiple independent topics when you are a PhD candidate, especially if your PhD is supposed to be really narrow. The risk is that you will become distracted from the main focus of your project. Your main focus will then suffer and even if you actually do find results in the topics too far away from the project you are part of those are likely to be judged to not fit the project. Those results may impress other people for example in various industries and maybe academics too, but maybe they will not help you pass the formal requirements for graduation!
( Everything I've written is assuming you value graduation above all else, of course. )
I can see pros and cons to this. The pros are obvious and are just like you state: you will be gaining specific expertise, you'll be doing truly independent research , you'll be pioneering.
I would point out one major con though: if you do work that none of your professors are "in charge" of there is a good chance they will act like little babies and discredit, ignore, or openly assault your work! It happened to me.
I had my master's thesis in Scientific Visualization, which was an already funded idea hosted by my advisor. Unfortunately it wasn't a very popular idea so a) it wasn't that interesting, and b) I couldn't get much attention from my advisor. But then my friend, who was doing research in Computational Biology came up with a really great idea for a collaborative visualization project and I started working on that in parallel. It turned out to be really cool, I got a poster accepted to a major conference, and my friend actually benefitted from the output.
My advisor, however, was just pissed off. He didn't give a shit that I was doing my own creative work. He just saw that I wasn't playing his game. I actually got in trouble for this. I tried to appeal to my team of 3 professors who were my secondary advisors but they reamed me too. One of them said "well none of us know if your work is actually quality. Anyone can get a poster published." Mind you out of the entire group of 12 students who submitted work to the conference only 3 posters were chosen and two of them were mine.
So the short of it is: academics are like little boys tied to their mother's apron strings. Don't expect them to support you in being truly creative. If you follow this path then make sure you either convince a professor that it was his
Don't walk. Run. (We profs aren't all spoiled brats. Honest!)
Seems like a required primary goal was replaced by an optional, personal secondary goal, for whatever reason. But the question is about keeping primary as primary itself, a disciplined approach. +1 to @JeffE
Boy reading this after a few years and man did I have a charge! @JeffE, a few years will cool ones head off a bit, I trust that all professors aren't that bad. Noble, I actually completed both projects, though to be fair my focus was mostly on the secondary project.
Not to mention the irony that I'm exploding in rage as I call other people babies! Oh man...
I did several unrelated projects during my PhD. Here are my thoughts:
You need to publish in order to graduate and find good postdoc opportunities. So if you have three unrelated projects/collaborations, but all close to publication stage, then just plan your time wisely and go for it.
Otherwise, if you have several unrelated projects, that are super cool, but you have different PIs guiding it, and it's all in the troubleshooting/design stage, you have set yourself for a 7+ PhD gig. You will need to report to each PI, show good progress, all while switching rapidly between projects. All doable and rewarding, but in the end, you will need to publish them, and its gonna be hard.
Another detail to consider is if your committee will require your dissertation chapters to form one cohesive story. Some departments require it, in which case you can end up with a lot of data you cannot use in your thesis.
So in retrospect, I wish my "eyes were not bigger than my stomach", but I did have fun doing the other projects, and I found what I want to do for my postdoc through trying different things. I am finishing in my 5th year with 3 publications, but so burned out :(.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.794044
| 2018-10-26T06:17:42 |
119029
|
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|
Stack Exchange
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Asking for the second/third recommendation letter, should I tell the referee he is writing the third letter?
Many have suggested me to include a sentence like this while asking for recommendations:
"Do you feel that you are able to give me a strong reference?"
I am afraid that my third referee, who was only a professor of one my courses, knows me but not well enough to give a "strong reference". So if I asked him this way, he might ignore my request.
I could also tell him that this is the third letter, so he does not have to exhaustively write about my every strengths. But telling him that he is only the "third” might be considered impolite? Because, emotionally, everyone wants to be regarded as an important person.
What shall I do?
This answer basically echoes the comment of Andreas Blass.
I agree that calling it the "third letter" may offend the professor, so I wouldn't use that phrasing. But the general idea of acknowledging that the scope of the letter will be limited, and that you have other letters as well, seems fine.
Dear Professor A,
I am applying to grad schools, and I wondered if you would be willing to write me a letter of recommendation. I know that the only course I took with you was BASK 301, and so I understand that your letter would only really be able to discuss my work in that course. But if you feel you would be able to write a strong letter on that basis, I would greatly appreciate it.
I am also requesting letters from Professors B and C, who will be able to write about my [other coursework / research / internship / relevant skills / etc], so I feel that between the three of you, a committee will be able to get a broad sense of my record.
If you are willing, the letters would be needed starting on [date].
Many thanks!
Sincerely, etc.
If the course involved particular elements that you think would be helpful to discuss in the letter (e.g. a project on which you thought you did noteworthy work), then you can mention those specifically.
No, do not do this. It is an immediate insult, and done so from a point both of need and of ignorance. At best, the person would (as a good grandfather or grandmother) understand your militantly naive foolishness, and lack of intent of insult, but... Don't
Also, most application systems do not "rank" letters, so all your letters of recommendation will be taken with equal weight... depending on the degree of acquaintance the writers claim to have with you.
I agree with this answer, but I think it would be OK to mention something along the lines of "I realize that I took only one course from you, but I think your letter would nevertheless be useful. I'll have another letter from a professor from whom I've taken several courses." (Assuming of course that the last sentence is true. If it's still true with "other letters from professors" in place of "another letter from a professor", then you could say that.
To clarify my previous comment: If you asked me for a letter after taking only one course from me, I wouldn't immediately say no, but I'd probably suggest that it would be better to get letters from people who taught you in more than one course. If you're getting one or two such letters in addition to mine, then I'd feel more comfortable about the situation.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.794416
| 2017-02-03T03:17:56 |
84370
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
What is importance of author listings when resumé/CV differs from actual publication?
In examining published papers of employment applicants, I am noticing that authorship position shown on the resumé/CV (first, second, third authors, etc.) do not match those shown in the published papers. Is this significant? The field is cognitive neuroscience. My applicants are often shown as First Author on their CV, but not on the published papers. Is this significant in any way?
Is this industry or academia? I think it makes a difference, although I expect disagreement.
In general, I think it is inappropriate to rearange author positions. But would make a difference between middle authors (for N authors, this are the ones from position 2 to N-1) and first and last author because they imply a special role. So if someone claims to be the first author but isn't, it's kind of a misstatement for me, while claiming to be author 2 instead of author N-1 wouldn't bother me much.
That's imo sufficient reason to immediately trash the application. If it's a young student, write him a note explaining how inappropriate it is to take credit for other people's work.
In fields where "first author" means something, promoting oneself to first author on one's CV is dishonest. In fields like mine, where authors are almost always ordered alphabetically, putting one's own name first seems pointless but also harmless.
In general, author position must be the same on a CV as it is in the official publication. Changing author position on the CV is generally deceptive. In particular, first authorship often conveys a greater role on a publication. So this may suggest the applicant is trying to indicate that they had a greater role in the publication than they did.
That said, it seems like a rather strange thing for an applicant to do. If someone is going for an academic job, it is common that the employer would have a look at a few publications. Thus, it would quickly become evident that CV and publication differ in author-order. And this would typically be perceived poorly by the employer.
A common and better strategy is to bold or star your own name in the CV (and perhaps the names of students you have supervised). This makes it easier for a reader of a CV to scan author position.
Strike "should", insert "must". It's definitively fraudulent, and if the journal has alphabetic ordering of author names, also insulting to the reader. Another thing is omitting a half-dozen other "middle" authors names.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.794658
| 2017-03-18T08:12:56 |
86673
|
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|
Stack Exchange
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Is there any (known) way to have Arxiv waive the endorsement requirement?
I’m trying to submit a preprint of my paper to the Arxiv as an independent researcher. My academic background is in theoretical physics; I have a PhD in physics, did a postdoc, published several papers in Physical Review and PRL before taking a job in industry. I’ve been working in industry ever since, so I do not currently have an affiliation (i.e. an .edu email). I’ve spent the past few years working on my research project independently, and I’d like to submit to the Arxiv and have the community review my results.
I’m currently stuck at the “not endorsed” step. I’ve reached out to qualified endorsers in my subject per the Arxiv’s endorsement process but got no replies. I then contacted the moderation to appeal, but they rejected with what seems like a template reply (“We insist submitters be affiliated...”)
Given my situation, I am wondering if there is any known way to make the Arxiv waive the requirement of endorsement? For example, does the Arxiv make an exception for former academic researchers who have previous publications in peer-reviewed journals?
Just to check, your first request for endorsement emails were hopefully to your thesis advisor/postdoc advisor. If they haven't gotten back to you, either you definitely haven't waited long enough or there may be some other issue (they don't want you to submit to arxiv without them looking at it first?).
Worth looking to see if there are other ways to get a .edu address. If you are a researcher in a relevant industry, you could potentially get some degree of honorary affiliation with a local university just by asking the right people. However, this is probably much harder than getting an endorser! You should also look into your PhD and undergraduate school's policies: many offer "alumni" email addresses that are .edu - but I'm not sure if this is sufficient for arxiv's purposes.
I would suggest that you reach out to several more qualified endorsers – perhaps waiting a few days before contacting the next. There are many reasons why the one endorser you contacted already may not have replied. Maybe they're busy, sick, or on holiday. Do you know any old supervisors or collaborators that are endorsers? They might be much more likely to help out!
There is no officially documented way to circumvent the endorsement process, though I would argue that you do have the right to have your work endorsed within a reasonable period of time. Otherwise, clearly the endorsement process is broken. Endorsers should not be endorsers if they don't have the time to endorse!
If you have no success after contacting at least several more endorsers, you could try contacting the moderation team.
"Endorsers should not be endorsers if they don't have the time to endorse!" I disagree. Being an endorser means having submitted a large enough number of papers on the arXiv in the last 5 years. That does not make you have any greater obligation to respond quickly to endorsement requests.
@TobiasKildetoft "Being an endorser means having submitted a large enough number of papers on the arXiv in the last 5 years." I disagree: The latter (i.e. "having submitted a large enough number of papers on the arXiv in the last 5 years.") means that submitter has been actively submitting papers to arXiv. The former (i.e. "Being an endorser") means, by definition, someone who can/could/would/will endorse a quality paper. I absolutely disagree with you stating the former "means" the latter.
I agree with @Moriarty; arXiv should only mark authors as "qualified endorser" IFF they are actually willing to expend time endorsing. Otherwise, it's a complete waste of time for all parties. Also, it's completely misleading for the submitter to think that contacting said "endorser" has even a possible chance of getting an endorsement from him/her.
@TobiasKildetoft "That does not make you have any greater obligation to respond quickly to endorsement requests."
This discussion/answer is not about "responding quickly"; it's about responding at all.
@TobiasKildetoft I was unaware that the status of "endorser" is an automatic thing based on your number of submissions. This is likely why it's difficult to get a reply – you can be sending endorsement requests to people who are not going to read them. Clearly, this is not an optimal situation...
I agree that it might be more optimal with a system in which one could more easily find people who had actively chosen to be endorsers rather than just having submitted papers (probably a lot of people are endorsers without being aware that this is even a thing).
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.795001
| 2020-06-12T23:05:54 |
150452
|
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|
Stack Exchange
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What to do when I’m not affiliated with an academic institution and submitting a manuscript?
I am seeking to re-establish my research career after a 7-year career break. The first step involves submitting a paper to a peer reviewed journal which reports a study that was conducted 7 years ago. In the cover letter to editors that I have prepared, I point out that the topic remains timely, and I provide relevant references to illustrate this (which have also been used to update the paper).
Because I am not currently affiliated with an academic institution, I don’t have a university address to provide in the contact information section during the manuscript submission process. Any thoughts on whether this will affect my acceptance chances? Should I provide my current home address instead?
And for the other half of your question (on acceptance chances), see https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/385/
Just list your affiliation as "independent researcher" and use a valid email address that you expect to maintain. You should be fine. Scholarship isn't for employed academics only. It is the quality of the work that matters most.
The only block I could see is if your research requires Ethics Board (such as IRB in the US) prior approval.
For the submission process any physical address will probably do if it is required. But for final versions to be published I would seek advice from the editor. Perhaps a post box would be preferred to a residence.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.795153
| 2019-08-07T14:56:42 |
134385
|
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|
Stack Exchange
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Professor asking me about my financial condition
For masters degree, I have contacted one of the professor of university of Tokyo. He told me in his 1st email reply that he would not like to have students only for 2 years. He wanted a student for 5 years(MS+Phd). Then I emailed him saying that I am ready to study for longer time. He replied for the 2nd time writing that, he is very happy to hear it, that I want to pursue both MS+Phd. But next he asked me if I have a concrete plan for my financial support as there is no salary paid by the PI or University.
In my first email, I didn't mention about any scholarship.
What should I write to him now? How should I ask him for University recommend MEXT scholarship?
What should I write to him now? If you just want information on the MEXT scholarship, then you probably needn't contact him (in the first instance), you can contact whoever is responsible for the scholarships. (You might like to respond to his question, mentioning that you are looking into a scholarship.)
@user2768, your comment is probably better as an answer.
@Buffy It remains somewhat unclear to me what the OP wants to achieve, so I don't know whether my comment answer's the OP's question
Please read through this forum if it is a good idea to work as a phd student without getting money and then decide if you want to do this.
A Japanese university professor's view. People sometimes contact me and tell how they want to join my lab and so on. In the past I used to involve myself into lengthy conversations just to realize they will do it only on condition of winning a competitive MEXT scholarship. So now I quickly ask about their financial situation, too, just to save my time. If you want to have your application supported, put this topic forward as soon as possible. What's the point of discussing your future research activities if the chances of them to come true aren't high?
Dear Professor X,
Thanks for your email. Regarding your question about financial support, I am planning to apply for a MEXT scholarship. If I receive this scholarship, it will provide me with [explain the terms of the scholarship]. Would you be willing to support my application for this scholarship? If so, I would need [explain what you would need from him].
If I do not receive the MEXT scholarship, I would plan to finance my graduate education by [explain your backup plan].
If you are aware of other funding opportunities, I would be glad to hear about them.
Sincerely,
[your name]
If the professor does not already understand MEXT scholarships very well, I would guess they are not a good supervisor. I believe MEXT is the main funding agency in Japan.
@AnonymousPhysicist Even so, showing that the student understands the aspects of any funding is good.
What’s wrong with just reply describing your situation:
Dear Sir, In regards to your question on financial support I do not have access to funding now,
OR
Dear Sir, In regards to your question on financial support I already have access to funding for the next xxx years.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.795411
| 2019-11-30T04:02:40 |
140876
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Who is an Academic Associate?
I've recently shifted my career to teaching at University, and I am quite not familiar with the post I am assigned, from the answers what I have read for entry-level Assitant Professor and Associate Professor.
I am not familiar with what entry-level means. I have completed my Masters and I am going to enroll in Ph.D. next year.
I am also unfamiliar with the term Academic Associate, I know my roles and responsibilities, but what is the difference between an Academic Associate and Assistant Professor?
I've never heard this title; it may be specific to a particular country or university system. Can you state where you are located?
Probably salary, expectations and the possibility of getting this position permanently.
@NateEldredge India
The term Academic Associate may be specific to India or it may be generic. But a reasonable definition might be: Academic Associate. It seems to be something like a post-doc, though not actually requiring a doctorate. But, according to that definition, it isn't really a faculty position, but one for an assistant to a professor. I suggest that if you want a career you want to look beyond that.
Entry level probably means different things in different places. I would hope that it always means entry into an actual career and not just a dead-end job. Thus Assistant Professor (in the US) is entry level, in my view, but adjunct instructor is not, since the latter has little future. An assistant professorship normally requires a doctorate, though there are some exceptions at smaller institutions. But an assistant professor is a regular faculty position with normal faculty requirements: teaching, research, service.
An associate professor nearly always requires a doctorate and a period of probation to earn, normally seven years as an assistant professor if in the US. At the end of the seven years you either get promoted to associate professor or are required to leave. The necessary activities of a probationary faculty member are dependent on the nature of the college or university. For most it is heavily research oriented, but in teaching college the research requirement may be only nominal rather than fundamental. (Again, this is a US perspective and some of it may apply to India, or not.)
But for a career, even as an educator rather than a researcher, you are well advised to earn a doctorate. It will take time and effort, but it gives you options that you won't have otherwise.
Thank you, Buffy, for your answer it helped me to understand the true nature of my job.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.795619
| 2014-12-08T01:56:14 |
32880
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Academic tassel at convocation: left or right for dual undergraduate/post graduate students?
Apologies if the question I ask is not suited for this SE.
At convocation, it is usually the culture for undergrads to wear the tassel on right and switch to left after being given the degree. For postgraduates, the tassel is supposed to be on the left.
My question has two parts:
a) What about people who are straight away getting their post graduate degree (in case of students who have opted for a dual degree program or integrated course)? Do they wear the tassel on the right (as they have never been given a degree before)?
b) When exactly should the turning of the tassel happen (for undergrads)? On the stage itself when receiving the degree?
Many thanks for any answers in advance!
For (b), someone will likely announce when it's time to move them.
At my institution (in the United States), students always wear the tassel on the right, even if they've earned a prior degree. At Commencement, the President tells the students when to switch. (In our case, that's everyone at once, after diplomas (really, diploma covers) have been presented.)
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.795770
| 2014-05-18T15:21:30 |
21107
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Is it formal to inform readers that a point will be discussed later in the chapter?
I mentioned an important idea in a section without developing it.
Is it formal to inform readers that the point will be discussed later in the chapter?
For example:
This idea will be discussed in detail in a subsequent section.
If yes, should it be presented just like any sentence, maybe next to the idea? Or Does it require special treatment?
Thank you
If your sections are numbered, include the actual number of the section with the discussion.
There is nothing wrong with doing so. if you would not, the reader might start wondering. In cases where no other alternatives apply then signalling to the reader that more details will follow allows the reader to continue concentrating on the details at hand. If you end up with a situation like this, you should of course make sure that following such a structure is the best way forward. If it is not then restructuring the text is necessary. After all the goal of writing is to provide the reader with the easiest way to understand your writing (the way you want them to). If you find yourself using this form of signalling often, you should probably take a critical look at your writing and ask yourself why this happens. It might be that you are not structuring the text in a good way.
"If you find yourself using this form of signalling often, you should probably take a critical look at your writing" This. I usually tell my students that this sentence has sort of a bad smell. It may not be bad by itself, but if you end up using it all the time you are explaining stuff in the wrong order.
Thanks that is exactly what I tried to say but in more general terms.
@xLeitix I only partially agree. In developing a conceptual structure that is new to the reader this construction should designed around for exactly the reason you identify, but when writing for experts about yet-another-application-of-[something they are familiar with] it often helps to shorten a lengthy argument and reduce the effort of reading. As always it is about the audience you are writing for.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.795987
| 2015-01-13T16:34:51 |
36721
|
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|
Stack Exchange
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Would successive rejections of different papers by the same journal lower the probability of acceptance of the next submission to the same journal?
I have tried to submit some of my papers on unrelated topics to a journal and gotten rejected, either desk rejection or rejection after peer review, by the journal. Recently I worked out a new paper and would like to submit it to this journal again.
The reasons for rejections have never been elementary ones, say "poor English" or "of poor quality" or something like these (I know all these reasons from my peers). For most of the time parlance such as "the results are not significant enough to warrant publication in ..." is the reason.
Then I would like to know: Does my records in that journal significantly affect the viewpoints of the editors on my current submission?
My guess about the situation is that your prior rejections will not significantly affect the editors' opinions on your new submission.
However, the fact of your prior repeated rejections is evidence that you are misjudging the suitability of your papers for that journal, either the aptness of the topic(s), or the level and quality. Thus, if I had to wager, I'd bet that you'll be rejected again... not because you were rejected before, but because the factors in play that led to your prior rejections will most likely manifest themselves in the present case.
So, really, you should get more-specific advice from an advisor or mentor about appropriate venue(s) for your papers, as well as possibly critiques of the writing style.
Thanks; that reminds me of the important information. If possible, please be referred to the edited question.
@Chou Your edited question suggests that this answer is relevant in your case.
@JessicaB: Yes, I just would like to inform the kind answerers of updates :)
Well, some evidence. By coincidence, I just received the following email from an eminent senior mathematician just now in response to my somewhat plaintive request for advice on where to submit a paper proving a result I had written to tell him about: "But these days it's seems to be quite random, because the good journals are getting so many excellent papers. [My colleague Professor X] said something like (he's an editor for [Very Good But Not Top Journal Y]) 'I've been rejecting papers that I have no right to reject.'"
The answer lies in why they have been rejected. Papers can be rejected because they are unsuitable for the journal, are of low quality either technically or scientifically or both. You should have received some words of why the rejections came about. There is of course a chance that an editor will tire from seeing papers to be rejected from the same author time and again and that this will lead to preconceived ideas that all output from that author is of the same quality.
So key for a successful submission is to find out why rejection has occurred. Try to avoid any mistakes that can be the grounds for the rejection. Supply the manuscript in exactly the way any Instructions for Authors dictate. Provide a good accompanying letter for the submission that details the importance of the research and the conclusions you have reached as well as why the journal appears to be suitable for your point of view.
Thanks; that reminds me of the important information. If possible, please be referred to the edited question.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.796249
| 2013-10-12T14:25:16 |
13371
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
International master programm in Physic at university of Rostock
I am a physic student from Jordan, few days ago i got an admission to do my master in physics at university of Rostock, Germany.
Am I able to get a PhD position from other university when I finish my master study, i.e., will other German universities recognize my Master degree from Rostock university?
A master's degree from a German Universität (University) or Technische Hochschule (Institute of Technology) is directly recognized by other universities in Germany (and usually by most other universities around the world). The same cannot be said for a Fachhochschule (FH). Rostock is officially a university, so that shouldn't be a major concern.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.796447
| 2014-02-04T08:02:55 |
16532
|
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Stack Exchange
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What is the difference between Article File and Related Manuscript File in Nature?
They ask to submit those both files.
What is the difference between the two?
The text in Nature states
Submission to Nature [...] is taken to imply that there is no significant overlap between the submitted manuscript and any other papers from the same authors under consideration or in press elsewhere. (Abstracts or unrefereed web preprints do not compromise novelty). The authors must include copies of all related manuscripts with any overlap in authorship that are under consideration or in press elsewhere. If a related manuscript is submitted elsewhere while the manuscript is under consideration at Nature Communications, a copy of the related manuscript must be sent to the editor.
In other words, related manuscript files means any other manuscript that overlaps with the one submitted to Nature and hence runs the risk of duplicating the Nature paper in some sense. Nature assesses such papers to see where and how the overlap occurs and, probably, rejects the submitted manuscript is the overlap is deemed significant to that it may be considered duplication. This is likely to safeguard the uniqueness of the Nature paper when (and if) it becomes published.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.796600
| 2013-11-08T08:33:13 |
13943
|
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|
Stack Exchange
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Etiquette when unable to attend a conference
I'm supposed to give a presentation at an academic conference in the coming days but have fallen ill. What is the best way to send my regrets? Should I also send a doctor's note? It doesn't provide details of my condition but does have other personal information such as date of birth and home address. I just wonder if any of this is the conference organiser's business. At the same time, sending an email without proof that I am truly incapacitated doesn't seem like it's enough either. I'm still not sure what to do about the presentation I'd prepared - whether or not to send it anyway etc. I'm trying to focus on getting better, but I am worried that this medical issue will ruin my good name. Any advice would be appreciated.
A completely different bur related issue is whether you can get refunds for the plane tickets you bought but didn't use. The obvious answer should be "yes, you should be entitled to", but sometimes there are people in administration whose job seems to be making everyone else's life difficult...
People normally present at conferences because they want to, not because somebody is making them do it. As far as the organizers are concerned, you have no incentive to lie about why you can't make it. That's why there would be no need for a doctor's note.
Just tell the convener that you will be unable to present due to unforeseen circumstances. That is enough and will be understood — there can be many reasons and it won't be a first time. He/she will be glad that you inform him/her at all — it happens all to often that people simply don't turn up without giving any information at all. The convener shouldn't need a doctor's note.
That being said, is any co-author travelling to the conference, or perhaps a colleague familiar with your work? If yes, you could ask one of them if they are willing to take over your presentation. I've done this for colleagues and although I wasn't able to answer detailed questions from the audience, it's still beneficial both for me (visibility to experts in the field) and to the first author.
In addition to that, I think you should ask the organizers if you can send a video presentation, and/or attend via Skype. Showing them that you are keen to present your work to the attendees will be appreciated. You don't want them to think that you were just after getting your paper published and that's it.
@MohamedKhamis Interesting suggestion. I've never seen that (I'm in the geosciences).
Too late now but don't say "unforseen circumstances"! Just say that you're ill. "Unforseen circumstances" is generic and sounds evasive -- it gives the impression that just couldn't be bothered attending, and couldn't even be bothered coming up with an excuse. It's not like "I'm ill" is some kind of private information that you can't share.
@DavidRicherby But there may be many other compelling reasons one doesn't want the world to know. Loved one suddenly passing away. Private urgent problems related to ones children. And probably many reasons I can't even think of.
@gerrit Both of those come under "family emergency"; the second could also be "something's come up with my children and I really need to be here". I just don't see any reason for giving no explanation at all.
I agree. Unforeseen circumstances should be enough and will be understood. However, if you are feeling comfortable saying more (e.g. I am ill, family emergency, ...) do so. If you don't want to say more just stick with unforeseen circumstances. @MohamedKhamis The few video / Skype presentations I have seen were horrible and most of them took quite a lot of time and effort to get set up. However, that might be different in CS.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.796905
| 2014-05-24T21:33:39 |
21394
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Should I publish findings not from my field?
I have some findings (new but nothing ground-breaking) from my master thesis in the field of A which I could publish if I spent more time on the topic. However, my PhD and future specialization is going to be in B. So spending time in A and particularly trying to publish in the field may be a distraction from the B. When applying for postdocs and tenured positions, is any researcher/application assessor going to appreciate my publications from a different field?
I know one mathematician from Princeton. He comes to workshops and always solves some problem. He would never publish it (even if nobody else did) because it is a distraction from what he is doing. Then other participants write his ideas and publish it with his name as coauthors. On the other hand, my personal tutor told me that any publications are good as they demonstrate the researcher's independence and capability. Hence it seems, that unless a person is a top researcher in the field, publishing in other fields is not a distraction, but a plus.
How far apart are A and B? Are you referring to subdiciplines or chemistry vs physics? The Q is hard to answer without that knowledge. In general, I think published papers are counted as a plus either way.
@fileunderwater A is inductive logic programming (theoretical computer science), B is computability theory (mathematical logic). I have never seen a paper using the knowledge from those two disciplines before.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.797075
| 2014-08-09T08:28:05 |
26988
|
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|
Stack Exchange
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Is being a good teacher a bad thing at a research intensive university?
In Do student reviews of teachers matter?, there are a couple of comments which suggest that being labeled a "good teacher" is a bad thing at a research intensive university. I have heard this in the past, but have always thought it was based on the fact that you wanted to be known for your research as opposed to your teaching. In other words that you want to be known as a "good researcher" as opposed to a good teacher. The way the comments are used in that question it sounds like you should in fact strive to be known as a "bad teacher".
Is it bad to be known as a good teacher? Is it good to be known as a bad teacher?
You might read that comment more in terms of the speaker finding it hard to come up with a complement. In other words, if a social situation arises when praise for the faculty member is in order and the best the speaker can come up with is "a good teacher" when the local focus is on research it might be taken to imply that their research was not praiseworthy.
@dmckee that is how interpreted it until I read the comments and answers on the question I linked to.
No.
I work at a university that focuses almost exclusively on research (we have only graduate students, most of whom are Ph.D. students, and the number of postdocs, research staff, etc. is approximately equal to the number of students). A few faculty members are well known as excellent teachers, and a few are commonly known to be poor teachers. In general, I don't think the distinction has very much influence on the respect accorded to each within the university (and even less in the larger academic community). But I think the good teachers are better liked, both by their peers and the administration. I certainly appreciate it when I find that students are well prepared thanks to having taken a course with a "good" teacher. And bad teachers are occasionally so bad that they cause administrative problems, which makes everyone unhappy.
Part of each faculty member's annual review is an evaluation of his/her teaching (by the dean). A positive review is definitely a good thing.
I made that comment so here's my answer:
Yes and no.
There are many great senior researchers at my r1 university that are renowned teachers as well. That is, they can easily hold four hundred undergraduates enthralled for hours on end. They are no doubt Great Teachers in the truest sense.
But there are also a great many junior faculty who did not get tenure at my university (our tenure rate was less than 1:4 for past several decades, although it has gone up recently).
The common reason given for their negative tenure decisions is that they spent too much time on students and not enough time on their research. That is where the faint praise, "at least they are good teachers," comes in.
Tl;dr: for senior faculty, good teacher is high praise as it presumes excellent research scholarship. For junior faculty, it is dangerous faint praise as it assumes misplaced energies.
Note: You should post a separate question about the "Curse of the Teaching Award"
Your mileage may vary. I have never heard "spending too much time with students" used as a reason to deny someone tenure. The only argument I've ever heard is much more direct: "Their research hasn't had enough impact."
I think "spending too much time with students" should not be taken seriously independently of "and not enough time on their research". For one thing, one can tell whether someone has not spent enough time on their research (or not enough time for it to have the desired impact). How does a tenure committee even know how much time a candidate has spent on the students? (Just because evaluations are good and students say "He was always there for us" does not imply more hours spent.)
I think that some departments convey the lack of research impact this way, partially as a euphemism ("damning with faint praise") and partly as a kind of paternalistic I-told-you-so, to try to create the retrospective illusion that the candidate could have gotten tenure if only he had listened to the advice he was given. Two comments: (i) I find this obnoxious. (ii) I have not experienced it myself, although I have seen that when it comes to tenure and promotion decisions, grudgingly adequate teaching serves as well as excellent teaching at most research universities.
+1 to Pete for the paternalistic "I-told-you-so" comment. This is certainly the case where I work. We have an entirely lousy record of mentoring.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.797527
| 2024-08-18T21:27:38 |
213009
|
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Stack Exchange
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Is math a bad discipline for teaching jobs or is it just me?
I saw a post on reddit about how "getting a R2/not R1 job/teaching a 3:3 load" is not so bad as long as you enjoy teaching the courses you teach. I agree with that sentiment, it's intuitive.
There's the thing: I am a math postdoc. I like teaching, but I can't help but think math is a pretty bad discipline if you are taking the above POV.
Certainly at the PUI where I did my undergrad, 80% or so of math courses are first year "service" courses for other majors. That means basically teaching undergrads how to walk or ride a bike from a math point of view. If you have the patience for that, I guess it works --- but I worry this would eventually get very boring otherwise.
I have an engineering undergrad background. Now that I have a math PhD, I would say some of the engineering courses I took (required, second and third year courses) are almost closer to applied math grad courses --- the kind of classes I would want to teach --- than upper-level undergrad math electives.
And, in terms of job satisfaction, I get the sense that engineering (just to give an example) upper-level courses have the benefit of "you will need this in the future" in a way that the non-major service courses (even upper level math) don't. Students want to learn (or at least feel they should learn) what you're teaching.
As for upper-level math undergrad courses, I get the sense that these are so often taught as "get up to graduate level or else you are done" courses (particularly at the most competitive places) that it takes away from the fun. (At least one R1 professor I TA-ed for gave joyless honors courses, where it was clear that 80% of what mattered was being the best student. Granted, at a R2 or PUI (Primarily Undergraduate Institution), you would have to do something different and it would make perfect sense to bring passion to the subject or try to breathe life into the seemingly dry or difficult subject matter, but I imagine it's hard when you can easily imagine your colleagues at other institutions tsk-tsk-ing your efforts.) I feel like if I was teaching undergrads at not-Harvard, it would be hard to escape the fatalism of "90% of you should already seriously consider not taking this class too seriously and finding internships in industry." (Also a problem at most R1 places, but at least you have the sense that teaching undergrads is only one part of your job.)
You can contrast that with (again) engineering where students have a puncher's chance at doing an interesting course project or senior project --- and (in the US) may be interested in staying for a master's (hence potentially more interesting research/project topics) --- whereas in the US serious math students are basically trying to go directly to the PhD and master's theses seem to be quite rare (notably, compared to Europe).
So, am I on to something here? There was never a question I wanted to do a PhD in math, but it seems like a bad choice if you see yourself heading towards "non-R1" jobs because so much of the teaching is quite low level compared to what you are doing your PhD in, your research projects, etc. --- and it obviously hurts that there isn't a big (industrial) source of interest in the topics that you want to teach.
Anyone else see it this way? I thought I would possibly consider non-R1 jobs because I really like math and ideas and have fun preparing lectures and problem sets and working with students, but now I wonder if I'm too interested in solving interesting, really challenging problems* and my own personal growth for non-R1 to be a great option. (It could be I'm giving engineering courses too much credit as well.)
I have certainly seen this "I'm too enamored with my own research to have the patience to mentor/teach you" mentality from R1 professors before so it's not hard to recognize it in myself.
I also contrast this with the humanities, where teachers basically seem to be able to skip prerequisites (often) all together and jump straight into "sexy" courses that meld current events with classic literature, etc. (Case in point: I knew PhD students in English who were pitching their own "seminar" courses on trendy topics while all I taught as a PhD student was basic calculus.)
*No offense to teachers, I just think good teaching is more about learning how people think and managing people than sitting down and thinking through a challenging problem, or discovering something no one has noticed yet specifically. But I guess that's part of the question: what do you do to keep yourself interested/challenged in teaching-heavier jobs?
I find this interesting, but it's more of a discussion forum post that seems likely to attract opinions than a question that sits well in the StackExchange format. By the way, I'm at a R2 that's maybe going to get bumped to R1 because of the reclassification next year, and our load is 2:2. This is something like the limit of being able to do research and have a life, but I thought I'd point out that your internal model may be slightly off on the teaching load distribution.
A position at a STEM focused college (e.g. a “school of mines”) might interest you. The math teaching is still mostly service teaching, but it is in calculus based engineering/applied math courses.
In looking at this post for a couple of minutes, I can't tell what the question is. Can you minimize your presentation to ask a single semi-objectively answerable question?
The take away I get from your post is, man, you had a bunch of bad teachers.
The whole math curriculum (here the word "whole" is only slightly exaggerated) from kindergarten through math graduate school heavily emphasizes mastering technical skills that are valuable only if one later studies things that most of the students will never study. (E.g. math graduate student take courses on functional analysis without ever finding out that its main uses are in the study of differential and integral equations, and freshman calculus students never find out that values of derivatives are rates of change (really!) and 9th graders never find out what algebra is for, etc. And....
. . . . and very rarely does any mathematician notice that that way of teaching math is obviously the cause of the misunderstandings of mathematics that the broad public has: The public (including professors in other fields) is unaware that mathematics, like physics and biology, is a field in which a torrent of new discoveries is constantly being published, or that mathematics isn't just mechanically executing algorithms. Those misunderstandings will continue until mathematicians wake up.
@MichaelHardy That's a complete mischaracterization. It is of course true that many mathematicians teach unrelated to any applications of the material. It is of course also true that many mathematicians really try to teach their students useful skills that will help them find jobs and be successful.
@MichaelHardy: "freshman calculus students never find out that values of derivatives are rates of change" well, maybe they are assumed to know that already? (Admittedly many years ago) when I was in school this was 11th grade math. But then, (IIRC grades ≈ grades 7 to 9) we also did proofs. I recall them most prominently in geometry. And of course it's bad teaching to assume such knowledge to the extent of never stating it in the course.
What is PUI? I'd really wish that people stop assuming that everyone is familiar with their own unique acronyms.
Have you considered a non-research type school? The college I work for (ITS and adjunct for programming courses) has an agreement with the local university, so we get a constant inflow of people who need the pre-engineering/physics math (up thru calc w/ diff equations IIRC) and are completing it with us as a pre-admission program to the big U. No publish or perish, you get smaller groups of students (25 or 28 max class size), 4 sections per major term (fall/spring, summer courses are extra pay beyond regular contract) plus the usual state school benefits, etc.
This question seems to be asking two quite different things. The title asks "Is ... bad ... or is it just me?" and halfway down the body of the question, "Anyone else see it this way?". If that is the question then it's an opinion poll and doesn't belong here. The question at the end, "what do you do to keep yourself interested/challenged in teaching-heavier jobs?", is on-topic, so the title and the rest of the question text should be edited to make this the focus.
As the help pages state, "To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where […] there is no actual problem to be solved: “I’m curious if other people feel like I do.” [...] your question is just a rant in disguise: “______ sucks, am I right?”"
@cbeleites It sounds as if your experience in school was very similar to mine. But it is not at all like that of the overwhelming majority of students taking first-year calculus.
@Dilworth: PUI = Primarily Undergraduate Institution. It's not the asker's own unique acronym, but a standard designation used by the NSF (= National Science Foundation, the main US government funding agency for science and math). But I agree it helps to expand it.
@NateEldredge. Thanks. But it is unique to those living in the US. Majority of scholars, and people in general are not living in the US and are mostly unfamiliar with the unique American terminology and acronyms.
Consider the case of elementary school teachers. There are many who are truly excellent at it, love their job, and have all of the necessary skills. It's worth pointing out that being able to read and write, and perhaps do elementary school mathematics, is a rather small part of the skills you have to have to be good at elementary school teaching. It is profession (in the sense that the people who are good at it are professionals who are good at what they do), not a bunch of washed out philosophy majors. To think otherwise is disrespectful to those who strive to get better at their job every day.
The same is true for those who chose to teach mathematics. Many of those who chose teaching are truly excellent at it. Their daily challenge is to find ways to convey information better, in view of changing demographics and changing technology. Their challenge is not to stay challenged by the material they teach. To think otherwise is disrespectful of the professionals who on average do a far better job teaching than those tenure-track folks at R1 institutions who, largely, teach in the same way as teaching has been done for 100 years or more and who know (or should know) that there are much better teaching methodologies they do not care to learn (or don't have the time to learn).
In many cases, tenure-track folks at R1 institutions are teaching the way they do because they don't have access to enough resources to teach any other way. Your options are limited when you have 200 students and only one TA.
should know: Academia has the peculiar situation that people who have received a good and full professional training in some field are then "subjected" to two changes of profession* which are never even announced in this way (and many do not realize this): from the professional on field x to management of researchers and to teacher of field x. To me it is extremely weird that tertiary education institutions do not seem to realize this and do not offer the corresponding professional training ("research management for STEM people", "STEM didactics for university teachers", ...)
one may even go a step further and argue that already professional in x -> to researcher is at least partly such a change in profession as well, and also there the training in the sense of tertiary level education is somewhat limited. (In my field, analytical chemistry, industry profession and academic research may be more similar than in other, even STEM, fields - so I don't see that much of a difference.)
@cbeleites I agree about the management stuff, but nearly every university has a Center for Teaching Excellence (perhaps under a different names) that provides training to faculty about how to teach well. It's just that the incentive structure for faculty is so that most don't make learning how to become a better teacher a priority in their professional development.
@WolfgangBangerth: over here (Germany), many but not all Länder (states) nowadays have a (= one) center for university didactics. Bavaria requires (new) professors to take some courses - and the didactic center states that they try to serve the new profs for now, all others who teach at university are not allowed to take those courses because they don't have the capacity ... A friend in the UK was denied by his university administration to take such a course a few years ago...
Don't make the (frequent) mistake of assuming R2 universities are less rigorous or have lower standards than R1 places. The difference between them is scope, not quality. R2 universities have research in fewer disciplines, even 1 (medicine, say) than R1 places. Even primarily undergraduate colleges and universities can have very high standards for teaching, while having moderate requirements for research.
If you are at an R2 that actually focuses on math as a key area, then you will have high expectations for research. If math is considered only as a support field, then less.
Moreover, most places you have some influence over the decisions on which courses you teach (most of the time). And, even at R1 places you might get a Calculus I course with 800 students and 30-some TAs on occasion. And most "research" universities also have a strong commitment to the undergraduate program. Some (Duke, CMU, ...) have specialized teaching faculty (Professor of the Practice) for this, but not all do. When they do, the "research" faculty is free to focus on upper level and graduate courses.
In some ways math is the ideal field for someone who wants to teach, and isn't too bothered by teaching lower level courses. This is because most majors at most universities contain some math requirements, leading to a relatively high demand for faculty since nearly every student takes some math (US perspective, of course).
How to keep challenged, has the same answer for everyone. You keep engaged with colleagues and find a way to have frequent conversations about theories of common interest. At an R1 (or R2 focused on math) you have immediate colleagues to engage with; as close as the coffee lounge. At a primarily undergraduate institution you need to find those contacts. One way is to find some sub-field of common interest with your local colleagues. Another is, depending on geography, to visit other "local" universities with more faculty and a wider range of interests. For the truly isolated you may need to find travel money for such visits and/or conference attendance. Once you have a circle of contacts/collaborators, however, it becomes easier in the age of the internet, Zoom, etc.
But even at an R1, you need to spend effort to stay engaged. It won't just fall on you.
See Wikipedia: List of research universities in the United States
At R2s, you still have colleagues close by who have common interests: Namely, how to teach well.
Fairly obviously, for the reasons you mention, teaching undergrad math is probably less satisfying than teaching undergrad philosophy, for example. For one thing, philosophy is not usually used as a filter, that is, not as a required course which may be intellectually disconnected from one's eventual major, but a good grade is required in order to get_into one's desired major. Math is used as a filter, so we find probably a majority of people being required to take some calculus... not because they necessarily need it, but, supposedly, that it's an "objective" test of intellectual strength.
A somewhat misguided reason for imagining that "it's objective" is that the daily lives of most people do not include constant interaction with (substantial) mathematical ideas. In contrast, people do use language all day long, every day, even on weekends... and use language to argue about amateur-philosophical, social, political ideas very often. So most people are literate in their native language, and familiar with using it to express a huge range of ideas. Good. But absolutely not familiar with mathematics to do anything at all.
Not unreasonable... but the situation does amount to teaching some incomprehensible language, with a different alphabet, syntax, referring to unfamiliar phenomena... to kids who don't have any reason to care. Dang.
All the worse, in large state schools (R1 or not), the huge bulk of required-course calculus students makes it simplest to have a uniform required text, uniform exams, etc., so that individual instructors have no control over any of that. And the textbooks are very profitable for publishers, so there's constant (artifical) churn...
... and the bloat in those textbooks does really give a stupid idea of what calculus is, and how useful it is. It's essentially "anti-calculus". :)
Apparently, at smaller schools, where there is more emphasis on undergrad education, there is also much more leeway about the textbook and syllabus, so that there is room for discretion and more-genuine discussion of actual intellectual ideas... rather than just gate-keeping the students.
Some of the coercion is in the name of "uniformity", but uniformity is a sad goal. Sometimes better than certain alternatives, yes, but, ... sad.
So most people are literate in their native language, and familiar with using it to express a huge range of ideas. I would challenge this statement. It is true that most people can connect the words according to the grammar rules (by the way, chatGPT can do it even better than most), but often what they say is ambiguous at best and self-contradictory at worst. The speakers/writers with really good command of the language are as rare as people with good understanding of math. and to master the natural language is harder because it is imprecise by its very nature. Math is way easier.
@fedja, haha! Yes, I agree, for some of us, math is waaaaay easier than other things. In part, possibly, because it does not necessarily require extensive acquaintance with human society. :) But, in my observation, many/most people are completely accustomed to the imprecision of standard language. The very idea that anything could be "precise" is completely alien. :)
"many/most people are completely accustomed to the imprecision of standard language" Whether I agree to this claim or not heavily depends on how you define "accustomed" :lol:. But, OK, if we want to talk more about that, we'd better move to chat...
(Full disclosure, I have never taught, and my uni days are a few decades past, but I did enjoy some mandatory maths courses, and even took higher-level maths later on as a side-kick during my CS studies. So consider myself being on the receiving end of what you are talking about.)
From a psychological POV, on the side of the teacher, your line of thinking seems very pain-inducing to me. You are writing a lot about problems that your students may or may not have, like it only being important to be in the top-20%, not actually knowing the content.
I would suggest that as a teacher, that is not what your focus should be. Back in my uni, I was one of those very few who actually deeply enjoyed all the mandatory and voluntary maths I heard, compared to 99% of my fellow students. I especially enjoyed when the teacher was good. That was in a time when fully half of the new CS students had to abort after 4 semesters because of not managing the minimum scores in pure maths courses (not CS related at all).
Now don't get me wrong, aside from about 1 or 2 black sheep, I have nothing to say against any of those profs back then. But there is a difference between hearing a course about group theory in the context of cryptanalysis from a weathered old guy who not only wrote a standard book about the topic, or two, and has plenty of fascinating stories to tell; and another prof who starts the first lecture by writing "<IP_ADDRESS> Definition 1", followed by "<IP_ADDRESS> Axiom 1" and so on an forth in an unbroken line to the end of the semester, with not a single word that you wouldn't read in a (dry) book anyways.
So I imagine if I had decided to go into teaching, my focus would have been to not worry so much about how the pupils/students are doing, but about how I can motivate the joy or at least fascination about these topics. I mean yes, for many studies, the first maths courses are like "learning to walk", and for many of them the students don't ever need any of those learnings again in their lives, neither at the uni nor later when working. But still, I assume being into maths yourself you do find all of that fascinating; and I assume very strongly that it is possible to find fascinating aspects even in the basics (or especially in the basics).
So TLDR: don't worry about how great your uni or your students are, but about how you can make your courses as great as possible. Make your courses so great that non-maths students wonder whether they picked the right discipline and whether they want to switch to full-time maths instead... :-)
I know some people who were TAing parallel problem sessions in a math for computer science class, who even started an informal competition, about how many people they could convert. As far as I remember the year after that had a surprising number of people who switched their degree to mathematics. And it definitely makes classes more useful then the standard "here is what you need to know for the exam".
@mlk, surprising number of people who switched their degree to mathematics wow, nice to see that what I meant as a joke really happened somewhere. Probably more the exception than the rule, but still.
Consider this quote about bonsai, lightly edited:
... the word ["bonsai"] is [commonly] used to describe virtually all miniature container trees, whether they are authentically trained bonsai or just small rooted cuttings.
Technically, though, the term should be reserved for plants that are:
grown in shallow containers
following the precise tenets of bonsai pruning and training
resulting in an artful miniature replica of a full-grown tree in nature.
What do you do to keep yourself interested/challenged in teaching-heavier jobs? I'm challenging myself to consider an undergraduate course as bonsai research. Many researchers already do so, but casually. Dig up dead old theories, loosely graft on the state of the art, and hack corners off until it fits into a semester.
I don't want to denigrate this approach -- this is already an above-median teaching approach, compared to simply reciting and regurgitating a textbook.
But I am more curious, year after year, whether I can shape a course into an authentic learning journey, which is interesting and memorable on its own terms. One around which the time constraints are not just incidental or restrictive, but fundamental. (Then again, "real" research must be completed in finite time as well.)
If I began with one concept, how could I present it most simply and clearly?
How would I most naturally develop it?
What one pivotal misconception must I pre-empt?
If my audience only ever remembers one thing, what would it be?
By the way, these are fantastic guardrails for writing scientific papers and grant applications too. Communication is universal. Improving your communication skills will improve your research career, and teaching is a phenomenal test-bed for communicating.
But good teaching can also genuinely uncover new knowledge (not "just" better presentation), since it's usually bonsai pure research rather than applied research -- especially for earlier years. Just this morning, while testing a simple demonstration of ionic strength, I discovered that dissolving enough salt in grocery store double strength vinegar high-molarity ethanoic acid is exothermic -- dissolving that same salt in water hardly gives off any heat. This both demonstrates the ionic strength effect (in the same demo, the vinegar's pH decreases measurably) and connects it directly to energy release.
Or, put succinctly: there sits a point, between every student misunderstanding and its correction, where a theory plausible to the student is defeated by reality. The only difference between teaching and research is that in teaching I am, just occasionally, not the primary student.
I really like this observation, but unfortunately, it's not about math (and the crux of the OP is that math may be categorically different from other disciplines in this way).
OP just says 'I contrast this with the humanities, where teachers [can] skip prerequisites ... and jump straight into "sexy" courses' -- since OP came from engineering, I am really not sure they think engineering is fundamentally different from math in requiring prerequisites. If anything, I think "bonsai research" is more likely to flower into real research in math all the time -- two physicists just stumbled onto a new series for pi with one free parameter, in 2024! https://phys.org/news/2024-06-physicists.html
or an undergrad helping to disprove the local-global conjecture in Apollonian circle packings https://www.quantamagazine.org/two-students-unravel-a-widely-believed-math-conjecture-20230810/ or a teenager showing how frequently Carmichael numbers appear https://www.quantamagazine.org/teenager-solves-stubborn-riddle-about-prime-number-look-alikes-20221013/
By contrast, I highly doubt there is simple undiscovered chemistry that isn't being commercialized somewhere.
Mathematics is not about equations, formulas and such.
Mathematics is about logic and problem solving using "doctrine" of applying proven principles on, for you, undiscovered ground.
Mechanical and electrical engineering have huge advantage over math that you can touch the problem or visualize it more clearly than math concepts. It's much easier to get "gut feeling" about the solutions in mechanical engineering and electrical engineering.
On the other hand, without mathematics the engineers would waste hell lots of time fine-tuning their designs manually.
If you want to motivate your students don't tell them "Without [advanced calculus] you're done", tell them "Without [advanced calculus] you're done, because you won't be able to this [easily / cheap / fast]..." Curiosity is great motivator.
Use extensively (expected) real-life examples, especially interesting or funny, and apply methods you are about to teach.
My calculus teacher started derivatives chapter by question: "Do you know why could be imprisonned for taking pictures of important vehicles(*) in motion [in Czechoslovak Socialistic Republic]?" Then he showed us sequence of three images of a tank riding from a ditch. From the reference points in the picture (track width, fence height) and camera frame rate he derived rough estimates of the tank's power, in-field performance etc.
Then he started with definitions of derivative...
(*) Important vehicles were army equipment, trains, heavy trucks, airplanes.
There is, at a minimum, some marked differences of opinion about whether this is good practice in a math class or not, e.g.: http://www.madmath.com/2022/08/proofs-and-applications.html
That does not go in conflict. Motivate by real-life exampes and teach the concepts behind.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.799804
| 2024-12-13T01:44:38 |
215494
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Stack Exchange
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What actions can I take at the institution level if my midterm grade was handed to me after the withdrawal date of the course?
I am currently taking a course which I have no grades including assignments, final project, and other milestones. This does not mean I did not do them, its just that they are not graded. I had an ungraded midterm grade which I just received today. The midterm grade is indicative that I will not be passing the class. The semester ends on December 19th, and I have no grades in other categories. As well I have a final project due on December 19th to present. Is the situation salvageable and how? Do I contact the Dean or the chair of the department regarding the situation the professor is the director of the PhD program.
You should contact your advisor and Dean of Students with questions of this nature. I would not escalate all the way to the dean of the college at this preliminary stage. At most the chair for now. There isn't much we can help with because we don't know what the institutional norms and policies are regarding these issues. Some universities are not very strict with this (like mine), others are.
I don’t understand the situation. It’s very unclear to me what is actually part of the course and what affects grading, and actually whether there is grading at all. Various parts of the question lean one way, other parts another way. FWIW, what I am reading into the question is basically that you expect to be able to withdraw from every course that you would fail so that you don’t fail officially. At least for the universities I know (Europe) that’s really not the point of grading, withdrawal and tracking failures. Failure is tracked for a purpose.
It's not at all clear from your account how you are actually graded in this class. If your midterm does not actually have any effect on your final grade, then I would say that weakens your case. @MisterMiyagi It is normal in the US that there is a cut-off date for withdrawing from classes, perhaps around the time of the first midterm exam, and that students who suspect they might fail the class will take advantage of this option.
What is an "ungraded midterm grade"? Sounds a bit like a colorless green idea.
@AdamPřenosil To be more precise, in the US schools I've been at, the undergrad drop deadline is about 4-6 weeks in, roughly the first midterm. The withdrawal deadline, where a "W" grade is entered on your transcript, varies from 4 weeks prior to just before finals. The graduate drop deadline is very late, either the last day of classes or even up to the administration of the final.
@user71659 Right. I assumed that the OP meant the former but given how far we are into the semester they probably meant the latter.
I would first take a pause and try not to panic. You're enrolled in this course, the semester isn't over yet, your focus should still be on performing well in the rest of the course; even if all that is left is a final exam, it's important.
Your next stop should be the course instructor. Talk to them about your concerns about the course. It's possible the grades will be curved in some way and that performance on the midterm was poor overall - your grade might not be as bad as you think it is. Talk to your instructor.
Whether there is some way for you to still drop the course is entirely up to your institution's policies, but I doubt that there is. The purpose of course drops is not to evade failing: if you fail a course, you fail. There may be alternatives to replace a grade on your transcript or for your GPA, such as re-taking the course later on.
I understand you're likely frustrated that none of your work in the course was graded until so late. Delayed grading really destroys the pedagogical usefulness of grades to be a signal of where you need to improve and what you might focus on.
If in fact your grade really is as bad as you are thinking initially, this should not have been your first hint that you are struggling in the course. If you're in graduate school, you have a lot of experience by now at how academic courses work. You're responsible for your work in a course, and if you're feeling lost or struggling with the material you should have been doing something about it earlier (like talking to the instructor) rather than waiting for a grade to come in and see what it looks like. It's possible that the cost of this lesson this time around is a failing grade; you certainly wouldn't be the first to learn this way, though it's normally a lesson that comes earlier on. Even if you feel like you've lost control of this one course, you'll have an opportunity to determine how you use this lesson for yourself in the future.
Excellent answer.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.800247
| 2014-07-14T14:57:35 |
25875
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Stack Exchange
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Personal project vs. blind peer review
As a researcher in industry, I am interested in pursuing personal projects in my field (computer science) in order to improve my potential employability. With that objective in mind, I'd like to publish updates about the state of these personal projects (including partial results, and maybe code) on several social networks.
Now, lets assume that this work could eventually lead to publishable results in my field.
My question is: is keeping a portfolio of personal projects compatible with publishing papers about these projects? Which steps should I follow in order to avoid others to take advantage of my ideas, and in order to avoid problems during the eventual blind peer review process?
For your last sentence, is your concern that your public portfolio might allow a "blind" peer reviewer to identify you as the author of a paper you submit? My field doesn't use double-blind peer review, but in any case my understanding is that the reviewer can pretty easily figure out who the author is, regardless. (For example, by looking at the references and seeing who is cited most often.)
@NateEldredge yes, that is my concern.
Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23961/how-to-make-a-paper-completely-anonymous-for-reviewers http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16831/is-it-legal-to-upload-a-paper-to-arxiv-when-it-is-under-double-blind-review-for
Depending on your area of computer science, reviewing might be single-blind (the reviewers know who you are but you don't know who they are), rather than double-blind. Theory is mostly single-blind.
is keeping a portfolio of personal projects compatible with publishing papers about these projects?
Yes, it's certainly compatible with publishing. It would roughly fall under the concept of Open Science.
Which steps should I follow in order to avoid others to take advantage of my ideas, and in order to avoid problems during the eventual blind peer review process?
Use websites with some amount of academic reputation in your field to make your material accessible. Examples are preprint servers such as arxiv.org for scientific reports of (preliminary) results, or common code hosting sites such as Sourceforge or github for code, if available together with appropriate documentation on the project websites.
Publish anything under your real name to avoid being accused of plagiarism later on. Publishing such things on potential multi-author sites such as Wikipedia or StackExchange is not a good idea at all in this case.
When making something you intend for later scholarly publication online available, make sure that it get's a credible date stamp. The sites mentioned in point 1 would work fine with that.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.800469
| 2017-02-16T02:43:32 |
85140
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
PhD in Nanomaterials
I am a doctoral student in metallurgy (joined 2014- about to finish it by July 2017) having my background of B.Tech Electrical and MS in nanoscience.
I wish to pursue my another doctoral degree in nanomaterials, Is it advisable to go for it.
I have some offers from abroad in prestigious institutes too. Is it good to go for it?.
Generally, you get only one Ph.D., then (if desired) a postdoc in the second area. Two Ph.D.s is not unheard of, but WHY?
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.800546
| 2017-02-28T20:34:19 |
85778
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Paid for article in OMICS journal
I submitted an article to one of the OMICS journals and also paid for it only to find out they are a predatory journal. article not yet publish. Any advice what I should do?
It can't hurt to try to withdraw the article and get your money back. You can send an e-mail and request this, but they may not agree. Once you have signed the publication agreement and paid, they are legally allowed to publish the article even if you have changed your mind. I can't predict the likelihood of success, but you can't make the situation worse by asking.
You might want to withdraw the submission even if you don't get your money back, to avoid having it appear in a place that could damage your reputation. If you ask them before publication, then they ought to agree to this. (They aren't legally required to, but I don't see why they wouldn't if they can keep the money.) Of course I wouldn't request this until you've found out whether they will refund some or all of the money. Leaving them with the money would be frustrating, but you may not be able to get it back, and a publication in a predatory journal won't help you. It's better to be able to submit it somewhere else.
After publication, they shouldn't just remove the paper from the academic record. You could ask them to retract it (which would leave a retraction record), but they might not agree to this if there's no problem with the paper, and it would be embarrassing in any case. Once the paper has been published, you best bet may be to accept it and move on.
Additionally, check the copyright agreement you signed. You might have given away the right to publish your article somewhere else.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.800707
| 2018-05-01T22:02:30 |
109014
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How formal should I be when sending an email to the University's staff?
I'm about to write an email to the department of an English speaking University (I'm not a native speaker) to clear up some doubts I have regarding enrollment. I have never spoken to them before. How formal should I be?
My questions: is it OK to use contractions ("I've... I'm...")? Is it OK if I try to throw in one or two polite jokes or should I be strictly formal and as objective as possible? Does anyone suggest a template for such an email?
Thanks!
From a US perspective, I think the most important thing is politeness and clarity. "Official" contractions should be fine, as long as the writing is otherwise grammatical. ("You're" is fine, while "ur" should be avoided like the plague.) (There is a slight possibility that this differs at some very formal British universities(???) but it should be fine at any U.S. university.)
I would steer clear of jokes by email, since you haven't met them before and the communication is across a language (and culture?) barrier.
When I email people I don't know who work in staff positions, I keep in mind that they're busy and often deal with demanding people or people who are upset. I usually try to keep the "polite" parts of the email at the beginning and end, so the other parts are clear in the middle.
Good morning,
As a prospective graduate student [from country or university, if relevant to question], I have a few questions about enrolling in the English department that I hope you may be able to help me with. If there's a better person to contact about these questions, I'd really appreciate it if you could direct me to them. [If it's a question about funding or visas, e.g., it's quite possible they would probably have to refer you to another office.]
...
...
[Possible additional clarification about what you have already tried, e.g. "I saw on the department web page that all applicants must have taken an introductory British literature course (link to that webpage), but it did not specify whether courses taught in another language ('English Romantic Poetry in Translation') or about specific areas (like 'Irish Literature' and 'Indian Literature: Colonial Era' would qualify)."]
[If you're attaching any files, have a really good reason, and explain them here. E.g. "In case it helps answer the question, I am attaching the descriptions of the British literature courses I took, with my own translation of the descriptions from [my language]. The original versions are online at [link], [link], and [link]."]
Thank you for your time. Please let me know if you need any additional information or clarification.
Thank you very much,
Your name
I would avoid contractions or jokes, but also avoid overly subservient (Herr Doktor Professor) remarks. Keep it straight down the middle.
When you know the language, dynamics, your role in it, etc., you may be able to do jokes. But for now, keep it bland. (And get the English checked.)
In my experience formality takes second place to clear and concise communication. Administration deals with paperwork all day, they don't want to read a text wall. Be polite, clear, and concise, and you will be fine.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.800967
| 2018-04-03T20:34:52 |
107535
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How To List Other Academics' Conference Papers Discussing My Artwork?
I am a Fine Artist, and art historians have discussed my work in conference papers... how would I cite these papers on my CV? Would I include them under "Publications", as I do catalogs, books and art reviews of my work, or should it be under a separate heading? Also, if someone discusses my work in a Master's Thesis, is it appropriate to list that as well?
Perhaps list them under a heading of "Contributions to published work" with a description of each piece?
They aren't your publications, which is what people assume(?)to be inside any sections that say 'publications' etc. However, they show the significant external impact of your work and I would list them under a section that is labeled something like that (Evidence of External impact)?. It clearly points out it is other people writing papers, reviews, including your work in their scholarship which I assume is a big deal for someone reading your CV.
This probably needs input from someone in your field. In most academic disciplines, a CV should only include works authored by you - it would never include works authored by other people that are about you. Perhaps art is special in this regard, but we would need someone who knows the practices of this field.
Are you going to use this CV to apply to a university position? Otherwise I am afraid that this question is off-topic here.
Looking at some example guidelines on fine arts resumes, it seems that one's "publications" or "bibliography" is handled quite differently than in the STEM world, being a collection of things written about you rather than things that you have written.
As such, the particular venue of publication should not matter: a conference article about your work goes in the same general section as an art review. Now, if you've got a lot of these, you might choose to organize into subsections to make it easier to see the most significant publications, but that's a refinement rather than a high-level guideline.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.801214
| 2014-04-23T22:46:14 |
19727
|
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Stack Exchange
|
What time of day should I schedule my thesis defense?
With apologies for the attention-grabbing title: of course I am not actually asking you to tell me when I, specifically, should schedule my defense. But I have heard very plausible-sounding rumors that the time of day at which a PhD candidate holds their thesis defense can have an impact on the difficulty and even the candidate's chance of passing. For example, scheduling a defense just before lunch may mean the committee will ask fewer and less involved questions, because they will be anxious to finish so they can go eat. Similarly defending in the mid afternoon may lead to less complex questions because everyone is tired - or alternatively it could cause a more difficult defense because the committee members are in no hurry to get back to work. And so on; the rumors abound.
What I would like to know: is there is any research backing up the idea that there are better or worse times of day for a candidate to schedule their thesis defense? Any anecdotal experience from people who have sat on multiple PhD committees?
Of course I'm not claiming this should be a major influence on when one schedules their defense, but people do talk about it, so (as a scientist!) I can't help but wonder if there's any truth behind the idea.
+1 for overthinking it. :) You'll do fine I'm sure, just don't schedule it for midnight or something.
Do you really have that much freedom in scheduling? In my department, finding an hour when all the very busy committee members can be in the same room is always a struggle.
@ff524 Me too. The challenge was getting 5 faculty members in a room at the same time, and it was scheduled for the single two-hour gap that could be found in the tangled nightmare that is faculty scheduling.
Maybe this depends on your academic system, but in most, unless your advisor is incompetent or your committee is insatiable, your chance of passing is 1. At very worst, 1-o(ε). The effect of the time of day is like o(ε³). Stop worrying!
Our defences were always at 10am, we would have a common lunch after.
@ff524 that is often the case, but it is also often the case that one has freedom to choose the time. I'm lucky enough to be in that situation. Though I'm not concerned about this significantly affecting my chances of passing; I'm really just asking out of curiosity.
I'm just going to leave this here. Make sure you provide a small snack (cookies, cupcakes, traditional ethnic petit fours, etc.)!
Frankly, if you're worried about whether or not you'll be able to pass your thesis defense, it's quite likely that you're not ready for it.
I don't think this is overthinking, I think this raises a very important question: how objective (like machines) or subjective (like... humans) are the committees judging theses? And if they turn to be subjective maybe we should drop them in favor of other indicators for the maturity of a researcher, like publications. A researcher would not be a PhD Student, but a research apprentice, or a junior, or something else, and would move into senior according to publications, impact factor or something else. Maybe we all should think whether some things in academia are archaic and should be changed.
I think that the basic idea of hour influencing result comes from research which was done on parole hearings. The judges granted more paroles at the beginning of the day and after lunch, when their glucose levels were higher, and less before lunch and at the end of the day.
When I was in grad school everyone joked that the thesis defense was an examination of your scheduling skills, as getting everyone in the room is the hardest part of the defense.
For one, you could choose the time at which you yourself are most sharp. Actual research has been conducted and found that grades differ by half a point depending on the time of day (only visible in individual students since the group as a whole averages away all the individual students' prefered time) it seems plausible that regardless the question difficulty, there is some time of day at which you are better at answering questions.
@MartinvanIJcken Indeed, that's why I wouldn't have scheduled my defense at, say, 9 AM :-P Though that's not really what I wanted to get at with this question, but to be fair, I wasn't clear about it.
First, I have never heard of any research backing up the idea that defenses will be more less successful based on the time of day the defense is held.
Second, the best time to defend is whenever your committee can actually make it. When I defended, my goal was to get get at least three of our four committee members in same physical room (one non-chair member could attend via video). Within a six-week window, I felt lucky to find any two hour-window to schedule the defense.
Finally, you are overthinking things. Pour your energy and concern into the content and remember that if your committee is encouraging you to defend, it's because they think you are ready. Surprises are unlikely.
Of course if you are in the enviable position of having to choose a time of day, I personally like defenses at the end of the work day so that you can head out with others — e.g., students, family members, maybe even committee members — for a celebratory post-defense drink or meal.
I'm not disputing that any of this is true, but only the first paragraph really gets at what I'm asking. It's a precondition of the question that the committee members' availability does not determine a time, so saying the best time is whenever they can make it kind of dodges the question, and also I'm asking out of curiosity so it doesn't help me to be told I'm overthinking things. (I know it's silly to use this criterion to determine a time. But if I weren't a PhD candidate at all, that paragraph wouldn't make much sense :-P)
@DavidZ, people interested in the best time of day to schedule a thesis will almost universally be PhC's. They will almost universally be worried by the fact that their fate in others' hands and so are worrying about the the little things they can control. The last paragraph also gives you a concrete suggestion for when to schedule your thesis and a reason why. :)
For the sake of argument: my defense is long past and I'm still interested :-P
@DavidZ, Fair enough!
Whatever time of day all your committee members can all get together. (Forgive the short answer but that's really it from my perspective)
There is nothing new in this answer that wasn't already in Benjamin's original answer above.
@aeismail, I didn't mean to offend. I actually upvoted his answer. It is good. I hope it keeps more votes. However I felt a short, to the point answer was appropriate too. I've seen answers overlap a lot on Academia.SE. I'll reread the answer guidance to be sure I'm on target. Thanks for keeping me straight.
There can be overlap, but when the entirety of an answer is subsumed in another, it's considered poor form. (Also, a one-sentence answer is generally frowned upon, particularly on "soft" sites where the questions and answers tend to be more experience- and opinion-based by their nature.)
@aeismail, Thank you. I agree regarding one sentence answers but I respectfully feel a one-sentence answer is very appropriate here. I didn't consider the "poor-form" part and will work to avoid that in the future. Thanks for the lesson learned!
@aeismail I think that this answer is good because it makes clear in one line what is the most important thing. The other answer is less strong in this sense.
I had mine at 1 pm. It finished at 3:30, which gave me one and a half hours to make all the necessary corrections and then get to the pub.
In retrospect, 1 pm was a good time. I'm not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. 1 pm allowed me to roll out of bed at 10 am, have a good full English breakfast and have an hour just to flick through the thesis and post https://xkcd.com/1403/ on social media channels. If you're a morning person that's always super alert at the time of 9 am, then try to schedule it as early as possible in the morning.
Really, you know what time of day you personally feel most alert and responsive. Given the flexible working nature of a lot of PhD students, you've probably settled into a working routine that works well for you by now. My recommendation would be to plan it around that.
Sorry I just noticed this - definitely good advice. It's not quite in the spirit in which I intended the question, i.e. taking all else to be equal (including what time of day the student is the best suited to work), is there a better time and what is it, but I wouldn't hesitate to endorse this to any student actually concerned with scheduling their defense. (Fun fact: that comic was posted the same day I defended.)
This answer is the one I would accept. But, I know of one notable exception.
A friend in my PhD grad program choose his defense time for late morning (around 10 am) on a Tuesday. That way, his public defense would get done around 11 am and his closed door defense with only his committee would take less than a hour because his major advisor and several committee members always went to a local restaurant for their "Taco Tuesday" special around 11:45 am.
This worked for him, but my major advisor made me pick a different time when I tried to repeat the trick.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.802064
| 2018-01-08T22:12:12 |
101791
|
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Stack Exchange
|
Does paper acceptance mean an on-site talk is required?
I am sorry for naïveté.
I found a workshop that fits my research and I want to submit a paper to the workshop. The problem is that the location of the workshop is far away from my hometown and I don't have funding to cover the travel expenses.
Do you think it is obligatory to visit the workshop (conference) and to give a talk in case the paper is accepted?
Have you considered contacting the organizers to ask if they are aware of funding sources to support travel?
Personally, I have only seen conferences which require every paper to be presented on-site. Most conferences explicitely state that paper will not be published in the online proceedings, if the authors do not present their paper. If this is not stated on the conference's website, please write to the committee.
However, I recommend you to find a different solution. Discussing a paper at a conference is a very important part of your scientific career since you get in contact with other researchers. If you encounter financial difficulties, you can write to the committee and ask politely for a waiver or reduction of the fee.
The point of a workshop is to generally meet with other people and talk about your work with them.
For that reason, workshops with peer-reviewed papers typically expect all authors to appear to present their work---even more so than is typically the case for conferences. In many cases, it is in fact strictly required, and papers will be officially unaccepted and removed from the proceedings if nobody appears to give the talk (IEEE, for example, requires this of all of their sponsored meetings).
In certain extenuating circumstances, such as illness or visa problems, some organizers may be willing to arrange for a talk to be given remotely. Likewise, larger meetings in some cases will offer scholarships that can help with the expense of attendance. If you just don't want to go, however, then you should submit to a journal rather than a workshop or conference.
The best option is to contact the academic committee of the conference (by email) and ask them directly.
Some conferences allow the author to publish their work on the proceedings without the presence of the author on the conference. However, in many cases you will need to pay the registration fees.
I believe that is highly recommended to go to the conference to participate in discussions and receive feedback about your work, but is not obligatory in some cases.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.802288
| 2013-10-09T05:26:43 |
13291
|
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Stack Exchange
|
Advisor is moving. Issues with quitting PhD and settling for a MSc
I'm an international student. I have been in a PhD program in the US for 1 year and this is my second. My advisor informed me earlier this year that he is moving to another lower-ranked school. How to cope when PhD advisor quits midway deals with this issue. This is not what this question is about.
I have not been doing a lot of research and have been overwhelmed with coursework. By the time I finish my coursework, I'll be in my third year already. I also find that my advisor's work (after having spent some time with his group) does not interest me and is very different from what I thought I would be doing. I do research in a very specialized area. My advisor does work in a different area but is interested in how what I'm doing can be applied to what he's doing. However, we disagree on methodology.
I'm also not interested in research/teaching as a career and originally decided to do a PhD to gain more knowledge/training in this very specialized area that is not available in industry. My original plan was to finish my PhD and get a job. However, my advisor's move is making me reconsider this plan. Even though my advisor is moving, he will still advise me remotely until I satisfy my coursework requirements (and then I could move as a visiting student at this point).
By the end of the second year, I can quit my PhD and get a MSc but I see the following issues:
How should I handle this on my resume? Do I say that I'm doing a PhD or that I'm doing a MSc?
If I say I'm doing a PhD, how do I explain not getting it?
If I say I'm doing a MSc, does that violate an F1 student visa?
How should I handle my relationship with my advisor? At what point should I announce my plan to quit?
Will quitting reduce my chances of getting a job? If I say I'm doing a MSc, then chances are my employer will not seek a recommendation from my advisor but if I say I'm doing a PhD and decided to quit, then chances are my employer will do that and will seek an explanation.
Is it a good idea to get an internship this summer before quitting for a full-time position?
Oct 9 If you have an answer to only one or a few of these issues and not the others, please consider posting it.
my chances of getting a job Job in academia or industry?
@UV-D Thank you. This is what this question is about: How to tell the truth tactfully.
@scaaahu industry
Honesty is the best policy. It means you should not lie. It does not mean you must say everything about yourself on your resume. For example, you do not need to say where you attended high school on the resume. If you do not have PhD, do not say you have it. If you have MSc, say you have it. You do not need to say you were doing PhD unless they ask you that question.
If and when they ask you whether you were doing PhD, you should tell the truth with brief explanation why you did not get it. This will hurt your chance getting an academic job. Most industry people would not care that much. They are more concerned with your ability to make money. However, you probably will not get an industry job if PhD is part of job requirement.(Some companies do want PhD only)
You need to ask the international student office at your school or immigration office to see the requirement for F-1 visa. They are the authority to answer that question. We are not.
Internship is always helpful. You gain experience which you can put on the resume.
When you're applying for a job, you typically do that before you get your degree (MSc/PhD) and on your resume you put the degree you're currently doing. My question is should I put MSc/PhD during this uncertain period?
@user8922 Typically, you list the degree you have and the degree you are certain that you will have. In your case, my advice is that you do not list the degree you are not certain you will have.
So just list the MSc as long as there are no visa issues?
@user8922 You need to talk to international student office/immigration office about F-1 visa. You need to talk to immigration office/employer/lawyer about H-1 visa.
Will quitting reduce my chances of getting a job? If I say I'm doing a MSc, then chances are my employer will not seek a recommendation from my advisor but if I say I'm doing a PhD and decided to quit, then chances are my employer will do that and will seek an explanation.
This certainly depends on the field (if you go for a research-based industry position, notably) but otherwise whether you have a PhD or an MSc will not matter.
The country is important as well. A PhD in Germany is a differentiator. A PhD in France is less important. A PhD in the US seems to be on the lower scale of importance (as I could see in the HR process when I was hiring for US-based positions in the US).
So while a PhD would usually not hurt, having a MSc only sets you at the level other candidates will be.
If this was for a developer or devops position, the practical knowledge you have would be way more important (and interesting). As a matter of anecdote, I recently hired someone who did not have a MSc yet (he was two exams short) competing against a MSc and a PhD. Just discussing with him showed that he has done so many things on his own that he would be a an immensely better candidate that the others (who had a standard set of skills they were not that keen to extend).
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.802688
| 2014-08-15T22:10:17 |
27228
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
What are financial prospects for a postdoc as compared to a PhD student without funding?
I am going to start my PhD, unfortunately, I did not get any funding. I am thinking of taking a loan so that I could focus more on my PhD studies, but the loan will need to be repaid after PhD. Therefore my question is if my financial situation is likely to be better as a postdoc than as a PhD student. My reasoning:
As a PhD student:
I have to pay academic fees,
I do not get funding or a salary.
As a postdoc:
I do not have to pay academic fees or any other fees to a university (am I right?),
I may get a salary but may not to.
How many postdocs do get paid? I looked at research groups I am interested in and they say, they do not have funding for postdocs and their postdocs usually are supported by some grant that they themselves have arranged before coming to the group. So is my financial situation going to depend on if I can secure a grant for my research as a postdoc or I should expect to receive a salary? How likely is the success in either ways?
What is your field? I've never heard of an unpaid postdoc - I think in many countries that would even be illegal. All postdocs should be paid, whether that's through a grant you won yourself or from a professor's grant (both are possible). You pay no fees, but an "overhead" from your funding source is paid to the university. If after your PhD you cannot find a paid position in academia, the only sensible option is to quit and go into an industry job.
After reading the question several times, it sounds like you believe it to be possible to do a postdoc prior to obtaining your PhD (I hope I am wrong). Is that the correct interpretation?
@MadJack: My reading is that the OP is trying to get a sense of postdoc compensation in order to evaluate whether they would likely be able to pay back their student loans after finishing a PhD.
Um, no I interpret it as he is weighing postdoc or PhD student as current choices: " if my financial situation is likely to be better as a postdoc than as a PhD student. "
@RoboKaren I agree with Nate here. "the loan will need to be repaid after PhD": He is basically asking if he is able to pay back his loan after his PhD or if postdocs are also not paid.
Or to split the difference: the OP should clarify on that point.
I know that a postdoc position can be attained only after PhD. "the loan will need to be repaid after PhD" is the main point I wanted to make. Perhaps, the question was confusing because I think ahead too much - yes, I already have idea where I would like to do my postdoc and it is actually in Japan which clarifies my confusion of unpaid postdocs.
So is my financial situation going to depend on if I can secure a
grant for my research as a postdoc or I should expect to receive a
salary?
The question is not getting a grant or getting paid, it is getting paid by the institution you work for or getting your salary from a grant giving institution.
How many postdocs do get paid?
(As far as I know) All of them. Depending on the country you are talking about it may even be illegal to employ someone without pay.
However, (as @virmaior pointed out) there are some "postdocs" in Japan that are not paid and have no work requirements. At least in Europe and the US this is not common and in most cases this is probably a bad idea for someone looking for a regular postdoc position (see my comment below).
How likely is the success in either ways?
That depends on your field, the quality of your work, ... . We can not answer that but you can talk to your peers /supervisor about the job market to get an idea.
[as a postdoc] I do not have to pay academic fees or any other fees to
a university
Right.
One general remark: If you are not not getting a (paid) postdoc position or a grant you should try to find a job in the industry anyway. Finding a more senior position is usually much harder than finding a postdoc position.
I think your second point is exactly what the OP was confused about.
Japan has some unpaid "postdocs"... It's more so a misnomer that gives you affiliation (normally no work requirements and no compensation)
@virmaior Thanks! I did not know that, I will add it.
@Davidmh Thanks, that was the reason why this is an answer and not a comment.
A postdoc is a time limited academic job, a PhD is a research student position. The latter is usually financed but does not have to be. I have never heard of a Postdoc that did not involve payment. In your question you seem to indicate there would be a choice between the two but a postdoc, as the name implies, requires a PhD so one must go through a research education (and receive a PhD) before applying for a postdoc position.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.803086
| 2014-06-06T10:09:18 |
22040
|
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Stack Exchange
|
"Awaiting Editors Decision" what could it mean?
I submitted my paper to a engineering journal. It underwent a major revision and then a minor revision. The minor revision was some grammatical stuff. Now it is in the "Awaiting Editors Decision" mode for the past one week. I am sort of tensed about it. What does this mode mean for a journal review process in general?
Once you submit your revised manuscript the editor handling your manuscript will look through your revisions to assess if they are satisfactory. Since revisions were in response to a minor revisions verdict, it seems likely that the next step would be accept unless the revisions were not satisfactory, in which case additional revisions might be necessary. In any case, the editor is now assessing your manuscript.
You write that the paper has been in this mode for a week. For any normal journal and thereby workload of their editors, you should not expect any change in status within such a short period. In "my" journal editors have three weeks to reach a decision on how the process should proceed. If the status remains for longer than, say, 3-4 weeks, you can start to consider contacting the journal and ask about its faith. But, please check if the journal has any specific time limits for their processes. Some do, some don't. The bottom line is that you are premature to worry at this stage.
EDIT: As Strongbad points out in a comment the term "Awaiting Editors Decision" strictly indicates that the paper has passed reviewers. this is indeed the general case, also in "my" journal. So in your case, the signal is, as I was, albeit not as clear as I intended, aiming at above, that no additional review is necessary and the editor is assessing the paper for submitting the final verdict.
For the journals that I am most familiar with "Awaiting Editors Decision" means all the required reviews are back (although there is still the possibility of adding a final reviewer) on new submissions as well as revised manuscripts.
To be a bit more precise, this is usually an automatic status change once the required number of reviews (usually two) have been submitted to the manuscript handling system, of which the editor is (also automatically) notified via email. So the current status means that the editor was notified a week ago, not that he has been thinking about the decision for a week (depending on his schedule, he might not even had time to look at the reviews yet).
Yes and it sounds as if it is ScholarOne Manuscripts in particular.
(I am a belated guest here). I agree with your third comment @PeterJansson. Two of my papers show the status "Awaiting Decision" (15days and counting) and "Awaiting AE Recommendation" (1.5 months and counting).
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.803355
| 2013-11-03T06:30:47 |
13818
|
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|
Stack Exchange
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How do you know when your independent findings are paper-worthy?
I learn math on my own. And I sometimes end up generalizing theorems. I do not claim that these generalizations are ground-breaking. However, I feel these generalizations are not entirely obvious at first-sight.
Could I publish a paper on such a generalization?
Making this more relevant to the community at large, how do you know when your "new" ideas are paper-worthy? Should one pursue research directed only by external trends? As in, if I were to publish a paper, should I only look for current areas of research in order to conduct research that would be relevant to academia today?
Talk to someone involved in research-level mathematics (can be even a student). You will get some kind of feedback (it is hard to say anything in general). Especially as even if the finding is interesting, its clear presentation counts as well.
Try submitting it and find out!
This is a very hard question in general, and is defined by a combination of absolute standards and community opinions. It's very hard to answer your specific question ("can I publish these results") and I don't think this community is the right forum to even ask that question.
But your second question is a good one. There are some things to keep in mind:
make sure your ideas are indeed new. It's easy when working independently to be aware of the published literature, but not be aware of the large cloud of "folklore" knowledge that floats in the air of a community. You'll get a paper rejected because something is "well known", even though you can't find a specific reference and no one provides one. To figure this out, it would help to approach an expert in the field, or at least someone you trust.
What kind of research you pursue is a complex combination of external trends and your interests. If you go too much towards external trends you might not find much pleasure in it. If you go too much towards personal interests (unless you have impeccable taste) you might find yourself isolated. It's all about balance. Similarly, while looking at current areas of research will tell you what's likely to be publishable, that's not the same thing as what's interesting or useful. Again, having some contact with people in the community might help a bit.
The only way to "know" if your material is publishable is to know the literature on the subject. I used "know" because all publications go through per review and that is the final hurdle your paper must pass before the answer is given. So the question really becomes what must be done to pass peer review?
So you need to know your subject by finding and reading all relevant literature. An interesting personal observation is that it is easy to think you know more than you really do if you are not familiar with a specific field. Getting yourself up to date is hard work. Apart from the research literature, there is of course need to master the basics. As editor and reviewer I see many manuscripts presenting measurements that in themselves might be good but where interpretations are shallow and sometimes trivial because they have missed relevant research. Remember that journal rejection rates, although they vary, can be from below 50% to up to 90% for the more prestigious journals.
Even professional scientists cannot know if their last idea is original and new (and so, if it is worth publishing).
Today science is too big, too complex and too separated in different specialties to allow one person to have a general overview (this is the "Big Science" issue).
However, there are people who are specialist of evaluating scientific contributions. There are referee of Journals.
So my answer would be to try to be published. Even if the paper is not accepted, it is the opportunity to have feedbacks, references and to see what your idea deserves.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.803783
| 2013-07-30T16:48:22 |
11532
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How to cite in an appendix (and where to put the Citation list) of a PhD thesis?
I have a table of studies and formula per study in the appendix, so sth like
study A E = mc²
study B v = ma
etc. For each study I need to cite a source. Now normally the citation list for the main part of document appears before the appendix. How do I handle this? Do I create a new citation list after the table?
For a PhD thesis (as indicated in the tags of your question), check your university's reference style guide. I suspect, however, that it doesn't go into that much detail. So:
do what you like best, as long as it's clear and coherent.
If you have many citations in the appendix, and you suspect that people will want to read the appendix and main document separately, just maintain two separate lists of citations. It makes each of them shorter, and thus easier to read.
If you have very few citations in the appendix, you can also consider citing them in a different style, such as footnotes. It keeps them separated from the main references, for clarity, but doesn't necessitate to have a full “appendix list of references” if it's very short.
Thank you for your answer, the university isn't too clear about that. I'll go with a second citation list then.
+1 for suggesting footnotes. Those are a good idea in an appendix, especially if there's just a citation or two. No need to bother with a whole second ref list.
Depends on where your appendix falls in your document (or whether it will appear in the document at all). If appendix precedes references, just include citations in the regular reference list. If it follows, have a separate set of appendix-specific references. If it is separate, do the same as the latter case (a separate reference list).
This will depend on your style manual and publication outlet.
Thank you for your answer. The appendix will appear after the reference list. I'll go with a second citation list then.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.803959
| 2013-08-18T19:28:57 |
11954
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Inviting someone to co-author a paper
I recently passed the M.Sc.
While I was reviewing a paper I found it interesting and potentially useful. I am planning to adopt the analyses that are utilized at that paper in my area of interest. The applications are quite different.
Is it feasible, usual and professional to propose that paper's first author (he is a post-doc student) to participate in my future work?
How about the contribution, to be more exact, the order of names?
How I can politely ask him for his contribution?
By the way I won't refer to a post-doc as a "student".
How I can politely ask him for his contribution?
Just sent him/her an email with a brief summary of the ideas you are interested in and ask him/her if he/she is interested on the project, it has worked for me. Otherwise, try to attend one of his/her talks and approach him/her and the end of the talk, if possible.
How about the contribution, to be more exact, the order of names?
Perhaps it is too early to discuss about this ("Before one brings home the bacon one must kill the pig"). Who knows whether he/she is going to generalise or improve the ideas you propose or he/she would barely be involved in the project (you will come across all sorts of characters while doing research). A safe option is to use the alphabetical order. It helps to avoid many ego-fights. Start with a document without the name of the authors. If you end-up with something worthy of publication, put the cards on the table and ask directly "what order would you be more comfortable with?" or "would you be happy with the order 'ME and John Doe'? ".
It is never too early to discuss authorship and author-ordering expectations. It may be too early to make a decision about who will be first author, but the standard for making that decision should be clear from the beginning.
How I can politely ask him for his contribution?
Say, "I read your paper... It gave me the following idea... Would you be interested in working on it with me?"
How about the contribution, to be more exact, the order of names?
Because you are initiating the research, chances are good that you will be the main contributor. If you are sure that you will or want to be first author/main contributor, write your name first in the list of authors in the drafts. If you are not sure, write the names in alphabetical order, and in parentheses "temporarily in alphabetical order". As soon as it becomes clear that one or two people are contributing more than you, suggest to them that their names should appear before yours (unless you know things will change later). Just keep the discussion open.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.804186
| 2014-06-11T15:57:55 |
23242
|
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Stack Exchange
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Why do admissions committees consider the Statement of Purpose to be important?
Why do admissions committees consider the Statement of Purpose to be important? Anyone with a command of English should be able to write a Statement of Purpose, in principle, so it seems a poor way to compare applicants' research potential. If I were to judge an applicant (obviously I've never been in this position), I would much sooner at grades than at their Statement of Purpose, simply because grades cannot (in general) be 'faked'.
I think you oversimplify "command of English". The amount of variability in writing skills of applicants can be substantial, and the statement of purpose can demonstrate this.
Actually, grades are a very poor way to compare students. They are better than nothing, but say much, much less than a piece of work by the person.
At least in computer science, command of English is not the most important feature of a strong statement of purpose (or, as it ought to be called, a strong research statement). Command of English is arguably necessary, but it is nowhere near sufficient.
I agree with you; in my opinion statement of purpose is an exercise in the art of BS. You'll find plenty more of this stuff once you get in..
Why do admissions committees consider the Statement of Purpose to be important?
This question assumes they do consider it important, but how it's actually viewed varies enormously between departments. In mine, it's not considered particularly important for most applicants. If your statement is pretty good, then that's good enough (nobody was ever admitted by writing a great personal statement). However, it can matter in special cases:
It gives you a chance to address anything non-standard or potentially worrisome about your application. It can be really valuable for you to make a case for why these things are not in fact a problem.
It gives you a chance to shoot yourself in the foot. For example, applicants occasionally sound like arrogant jerks, demonstrate that they like to talk about mathematics they don't understand at all (without admitting their lack of knowledge), or reveal that they have no idea how graduate school works. The first two are major problems, and the third is worrisome.
It can also be helpful to learn things like the intended specialization or advisor, but we ask for that elsewhere on the application as well.
If you apply to a department that takes this approach, then you shouldn't stress out too much about the statement of purpose. But of course other departments may do things differently, so you can't relax entirely.
Let me add another one to your list in #2: plagiarism. We recently had several cases of applicants to our graduate program where the graduate studies office identified plagiarized parts in the personal statement.
One excellent reason for requiring a statement of purpose is to make sure that applicants have "done their homework." Have they taken into account who works in the department, and what can be done there? Can they formulate ideas for projects they'd be interested in working on? Furthermore, writing ability is a very critical factor for success as a researcher; someone who writes a very poor statement of purpose is likely to have a very difficult PhD candidacy.
Grades are somewhat objective, but they're also subject to a lot of external factors ("grade inflation," "scaling," sample size, and so on). But that doesn't mean they're not also considered. All parts of an application are usually considered, although the weights given to the various factors may differ greatly between departments.
As a complement to other useful answers, I'd say that it is not possible to "fake" a good personal statement (unless one enlists already-successful mathematicians, and, even then, it's not clear...). The issue of grammatical correctness is non-trivial, but minor. The tone, the affect (all the more subtle in written language), speaks reams. The implied/assumed context? Etc, etc, ... And, indeed, all the better that most applicants do not effectively see how to "game" the personal statement. That's what I look at first, for graduate admissions. :)
It may be simple for some to write good English but to actually write something valuable is a lot harder. There are of course no perfect single tools to evaluate applications so having a multi-pronged approach provides some improvements in the weeding process. Grades provide insights into some aspects, particularly someone's ability to perform on exams. Such ability is not necessarily equated with ability to, for example, think critically or creatively (we do of course not know of the assessment methods underpinning the grades). A Statement of Purpose provides insights into the person's own insights into a research problem or field. Hence combining these two aspects with CV, letters of recommendations or whatever else is required, forms a more complex picture of the applicant than what each and every part of the application does on its own. The Statement will perhaps be the part that most closely reflects on the persons ability.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.804603
| 2016-10-01T14:15:29 |
77653
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How to make my CV attractive for a faculty position application?
When reviewing hundreds of applications, search committees quickly look for publications and groups the applicant has worked in to make the short-list.
I had a successful but unusual career, working in industry, successful startup, and even extraordinary educational programs.
How can I make my CV attract to persuade the committee to stop by and find the significant of my uncommon works?
Related (but not specifically for someone coming from industry): http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/41962/19607
What kind of faculty position are you looking for? A research position? A teaching position? What those schools want is quite different.
@Kimball assistant professor of chemistry
Tim, at what kind of school? Research? Teaching?
@Kimball something in between. A normal university with both research and teaching themes.
Most applicants for an assistant professor position will have a PhD and some postdoc experience, and (hopefully) a solid line of publications in their main research line.
It is unfortunately not universally agreed what constitutes a "successful" career. So, if you are several years past your PhD, as a search committee member I would want to see what you had done in the intervening time, and I would want to know it was relevant to what you want to do now. You need to be able to reassure the committee that you are still an active researcher, you are still respected by other academics, and that you are (or could become) a competent teacher. The problem with CVs is that just listing a job title does not quite convey what is entailed there. How would I know how to evaluate your "extraordinary education program" just from a few lines on the CV? (I'm certainly not going to look at it, I have 100 other applications to read through.) Are you up-to-date enough for university teaching?
The real place to make your case for this is in your research statement or cover letter. That is where you can explain your unusual background, presenting it as a strength that makes you stand out above other candidates. You can describe your industry experience, framing it in terms of how this has aided your development as a teacher-scholar, and you can describe the principles and outcomes of the educational programs you were involved in.
An additional strategy would be to ask one or more of your referees to discuss your background in their letter. It could be beneficial to the search committee to have an outside opinion, from a real academic, that someone who may look unusual is actually really good.
So, is there anything you can do for your CV itself? Well, make sure the list of publications is solid. That's among the best evidence for a search committee that you're an active researcher.
The real place to make your case for this is in your cover letter. — On the search committees I've been on, what we really look at is the candidate's research statement: this is a great place to elaborate on how one's "unusual" experiences inform their research agenda, for example.
@MadJack Good call. I was thinking of jobs which don't request a separate research statement (i.e. it's implicit in the cover letter), but you're absolutely right. I've edited the answer to reflect this.
In my experience, the real places to make your case are in your recommendation letters (where you have to rely on your references to make the case) and your professional web site, on which you make all your publications freely available. But don't screw up the research statement.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.804910
| 2016-10-01T18:34:10 |
77658
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How to write a strong research plan?
This comes following my other question. When writing a research plan/statement when applying for an assistant professor position, how should be the document structure?
I have to explain a few (e.g., 3- 5) topics for my future research.
Should these be general topics or as specific as a research proposal?
Should I prove that I have a strong background in these fields or it is enough that the ideas are novel and attractive?
Should I include technical data/figures or the purpose is just the general description?
Should I explain expected outcome as we do in a proposal?
With your research plan, you need to convince a recruitment committee that you have a viable plan from which to launch your career.
Your plan will need to show the committee
that it is scientifically sound
that you have the skill set to carry it out (or know how you will acquire it)
that you understand what resources you need to carry it out
that you understand your funding streams
that there is something that gives you competitive advantage among the dozens of other people in the field vying for money from the same pool as you.
The weight of each of these considerations will be a function of your complete package.
So, the generic answer to all of your questions is "do what you need to do to accomplish the list above"
I suggest you work on your plan and carefully review it with some mentors.
As to the level of specificity, you shouldn't have to lay out complete experimental protocols, but you should be prepared to discuss each proposed line of experiments at that level. In your statement, though, it would be quite useful to have specific hypotheses for each research path.
You should also be prepared to prioritize. When asked about how you would spend the next five years, you should know the answer, and pretty specifically.
These are really broad questions, hence difficult to answer in a helpful way.
When writing a research plan/statement when applying for an assistant professor position, how should be the document structured?
If the application guidance gives no details, it's entirely up to you to decide on that. Have you approached the contacts where you are applying to ask them directly? If that matters to you that much, you should not mind asking for additional details.
Should these be general topics or as specific as a research proposal?
Again, it's entirely up to you to decide on that. Think also in terms of disciplinary habits. Are proposals in your discipline rather generic or thorough?
Should I prove that I have a strong background in these fields or it is enough that the ideas are novel and attractive?
Think if you were in a position to select applicants: what would you prefer? Probably a combination of both. If someone has little experience in a field, probability to come up with novel and attractive is smaller, I would think, don't you?
Should I include technical data/figures or the purpose is just the general description?
If you feel like technical data is needed and useful to make your line of argument and your whole proposal stronger and more compelling in order to be selected, why not go for it?
Should I explain expected outcome as we do in a proposal?
If you are used to explain expected research outcomes in your field of expertise, why do any different this time? Recruiting colleagues are bound to appreciate a clear and long-sighted research proposal and vision.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.805142
| 2016-10-01T15:06:26 |
77654
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Is it OK to invite PhD scientists (Bio and Pharma) to peer review manuscripts?
I recently joined the editorial board of a decent OA journal. I got requests to handle quite some manuscripts very soon.
I accepted to handle the first 2 and soon I saw another two and then another 2. So I got invitation for 6 manuscripts within a week and they are still coming.
I am a 5th year AP and don't have much time to handle all of them. So I need to make some decisions.
Finally I decided to handle at most 5 on my hands at the same time.
This is my first time being on editor board and I need lots of input. What's your suggestions?
The other question is that I was thinking about inviting some PhD scientists (Bio and Pharma) as the reviewers because I met them in related meetings and I think they could do some fair reviews. Would that be OK in general?
Thanks for the suggestions.
There are two questions here, and the first one seems very broad. Please, keep it to one question per post, it works best in this format. Feel free to add new questions.
I'm not sure I understand the situation here. Why wouldn't it be OK to invite PhD scientists to peer review manuscripts? As an editor, one of your main jobs is arranging peer review, and you can ask just about anyone who is qualified and impartial. What is it about these scientists that makes you wonder whether they would be appropriate reviewers?
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.805309
| 2013-10-20T09:13:20 |
13543
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How should I proceed if the author of a paper doesn't reply to my query?
During my literature survey for a project, I came across papers that have very interesting results and have decent number of citations. Unfortunately, the sub-area I am exploring doesn’t have any standard datasets on which I can test my implementation of the algorithm presented in their paper. The authors have generated the dataset by applying certain actions on a subset of publicly available information, which are Flickr images in my case.
So I have contacted the authors, asking whether they can provide me with their code or the dataset that they used for their implementation so that I may use it to perform my experiments and possibly try to extend their approach. But almost a week has passed by, and I haven’t received any response from them. Does that mean that,
My method of asking was not correct? (In that case, what would be appropriate?)
They don’t have the code or dataset available? (The papers were published in 2004.)
They are not interested?
Would it be polite to remind them again?
(iv) They're away, busy, ... . I'd give them a bit more time than almost a week.
(5) They never got your request (email stuck in spam folder, etc.).
Also, it's Sunday, so this means what? That they have had a couple of working days or so to find the code & dataset from 2004 and send it to you.
I'd like to take this great opportunity to advertise IPOL: a recent journal on image processing, where authors must publish both the article and the implementation in a given language of their algorithms. Readers can then directly reproduce the experiments described in the paper, access the source, access the tested images, use his or her own images on the code and so on. I do not know whether the whole data is asked, but the concept could be extended that way.
The reason for no response may be anything from what Anthony Labarre mentions to what you list. I would wait at least a month before writing off an answer; I have received answers even later than that. It is possible they are working on improvements themselves as well. In short, if you do not get a reply, you can only try again and perhaps express your request differently.
You seem to have contacted all the authors. Sometimes the project leader may be too busy to pick up on questions and the younger team members may be more inclined to answer. They may, however, want to talk it over among themselves, and it is probably not a high priority.
So try again in a couple of weeks. If you do not get any response, then there is probably not much you can do. You probably need to think about what can do to improve the chances for a reply. The word "collaboration" is sometimes a good way to "sweeten the deal". Sometimes, just to give a perspective, I get requests for data that are of the sort, give me this or that, give me everything, and I often end up asking myself, why should I? having laboured to generate the data. I am not saying you must follow such an approach to be successful but considering why the other researchers would want to help you may also help towards solving the communication problem.
If they don't respond to e-mail, I'd try to give them a call. Many people get a lot of e-mail (running projects, requests to be hired as postdoc, etc, etc), so it is hard for you to get attention in this large amount of mails. Calling them makes it personal, you have their undivided attention at that moment. I would first ask them if they have time right then to answer your question, and propose to reschedule your call to a time that they are available.
If somebody I do not know calls me out of the blue to ask for a data set from 2004, he will have my attention for exactly as long as it takes to get rid of her/him again.
Also, I seriously hate the notion of calling busy people to get their attention faster. To me, this hijacks the priority queue of the person you are trying to address, and kind of implies that what you want from her/him now is more important than whatever s/he is currently doing.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.805687
| 2016-03-18T16:05:02 |
65364
|
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Stack Exchange
|
Is repurposing money from companies easier than repurposing money from federal grants?
I wonder whether repurposing money from companies is easier than repurposing money from federal grants in the United States, and if so, why. If the field matters, I am mostly interested in computer science.
Example of repurposing: a student did some TA, and the money could be spent on computer hardware instead.
I suspect this is mostly a matter of the terms and conditions of the grant and/or contract. A general answer is unlikely.
In your example, do you mean the funding was intended to support a research assistant, but the student didn't need support so it was spent on something else instead? (It sounded at first like the money was intended to support a TA, but instead of paying the student for his/her work it was spent on something else.)
One obvious case that I can think of is that the NIH NRSA stipend cannot be supplemented by federal funds. So if I have both industry money and federal money, I can only repurpose the industry funds.
@AnonymousMathematician Correct.
Sometimes you make a mistake in creating a budget for your project when you propose it. Doesn't matter who you sent it to, public agency or private company, sometimes you make a mistake. Most agencies will let you move money around between buckets within the grant as long as it serves the purposes of the program and you can justify it. Lots of agencies won't let you buy a computer unless you swear on a stack of your mother's graves that you're going to use it 100% for the project and nothing else. They might not check, but they might make you swear anyway, and your university will be looking as well. Companies are similar, though maybe not as caring about the details. Everything, as Jon points out, depends on the terms of the agreement between your university and the granting entity. Lots of corporate money comes in as an unrestricted gift with no strings, whereas virtually no public funds have no strings.
Read the terms.
"Virtually no public funds have no strings". The law forbidding the use of federal funds for research into the health effects of gun violence by itself guarantees that all public funds have some strings attached. So I think we can strengthen that to "all public funds have strings attached".
@emory, yes, so, we weren't really talking about that kind of string.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.806035
| 2014-03-01T12:16:15 |
17577
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Stack Exchange
|
How to make a one-year study plan for a difficult exam and remain motivated throughout?
In a year, I will be taking a difficult entrance exam at a renowned postgraduate school. There are many competitors, most of whom are smart. Despite that, I'm aiming at becoming #1 in the exam, and that's why I have started preparing now.
I have interviewed a few top candidates of the past years and already learned which books I should read and how much I should study every day.
I think that learning more about planning would help me a great deal. But those books on planning and goal-setting mostly focus on reaching financial goals. I have not managed to find any books befitting my situation.
Another thing is that, because the duration is quite long, I'm afraid that my enthusiasm may start weakening after a few months into it, no longer performing at my best.
So, here is my question: How can I a make one-year study-plan for myself, and remain motivated in the long run?
Also, any suggestions about books, software, etc. that will help me reaching my goal will be appreciated.
Check the Study tag on Personal Productivity SE for some other tips.
short-term goals + reward system is very helpful. For example "In one month I want to be finished with chapter 1 of this study guide, and for accomplishing that I will allow myself ..."
I would recommend you not to rely upon external entities for motivation. Rather then relying upon just some books and software, practice "Self Motivation".
Each day think about the happiness and satisfaction that you will achieve once you got an admission in the targeted postgraduate school.
Furthermore, browse through the list of notable alumni from the same school and make a target that you will also feature in the same list some day.
It will encourage you to put 100% effort each day without losing excitement.
When I went through this, the thing that kept me most motivated was not doing it alone.
To get through this, I joined a group of 4 of my peers who were studying for the same tests. We met twice a week for several hours and planned out before each meeting which chapters we would discuss. When someone felt they had a particular understanding of the subject matter for the chapter, they would lead the discussion on that chapter.
There were several advantages to this approach.
I was motivated to attend because not doing so would affect the group
I was motivated to honestly read the chapter and not just skim it if I thought I knew the content already
I found that there were things that I thought I understood that I did not. Explaining your understanding of something to someone else is a great way to find all of the holes in your understanding of it
In our case, the exams were based on courses we had taken already so we all had notes and previous exams from those courses and were able to share those resources.
In our case, several of us had family. A structured time to meet and discuss provided us a way to work with our already overloaded schedules. We chose to meet on campus in the evenings as our department is open 24/7 to students by keycard. This allowed other students studying for the same thing to drop in and out of our meetings when they were interested in particular topics.
I didn't read the question well enough, the op is asking about entrance exams not comprehensive exams.
I am going to take a different strategy than suggest you need to stay motivated and positive. You can be super motivated and positive, but still not reach this goal. Focus on principles of effective and efficient learning. Create a study plan and use study strategies that maximize every bit of your study time. Here are a few possible strategies to consider.
1) Establish a fixed study schedule that is realistic. An overly ambitious plan will likely lead to early failure. What is a realistic plan that you can reasonably adhere to for the course of a year?
2) Avoid binge-study periods. Breaking your study sessions into shorter but more frequent times is more effective than marathon / binge study sessions. You can take advantage of the 'recency' and 'primacy' effects in learning.
3) Be certain that you are monitoring your study sessions. Make sure you are giving yourself credit only for productive studying.
4) Measure / monitor your progress. This is important to ensure that you are moving forward in your study plan. You can do this by specifying measurable objectives, perhaps on a weekly basis. For example, "By Friday, I want to have accomplished ... "
5) Try to obtain practice tests that are similar in structure or content to the one you will be taking.
making plan is essential for the exam but rather more imp is to excute daily and alway remember ur goal ...
if u able for the exam then u also able for making strategy or plan ownself...
so belive in ownself,hardwork,smartwork systematicity ,mindset,ur god and positive think ...
never give up...
always think about ur goal ,goal,goal...so...on
What does "simple se baat hai ydi tumhe exam nikalna hoga to tum exam nikal doge nhi nikalna hoga jitna bhe kosis kr lo nhi hi niklega becuse garmi nahi june me hoti hai nahi uoon me hoti hai vo to sirf jonoon me hoti hai" mean?
I was going to edit it until I got to the last paragraph... @scaaahu I believe it is an arcane incantation.
@Davidmh I would tolerate that paragraph if it is on somebody's blog. But, this is Academia stack exchange. Can people with >10k rep take action on this one?
@scaaahu I think that this does not strictly warrant deletion, as it is just a really, really, really bad answer (but does not fall into any of the deletion categories). I think downvoting is the right thing to do here. I have removed the last paragraph, though.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.806787
| 2014-06-01T22:09:50 |
21799
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Can a publisher publish a manuscript without the authors permission?
This is a follow on from Is it ethical to withdraw a paper after acceptance in order to resubmit to a better journal?
If a journal is willing to publish your submitted manuscript "as is", can you prevent them? Clearly if they want you to make changes you have the right to say no, but once the manuscript is accepted can you really withdraw it against the publisher's wish? Further, who has the final say on copy edits and type setting?
In my field we electronically sign a copyright transfer when the manuscript is submitted that comes into affect if it is accepted for publication.
Have you signed over copyright yet?
@ff524 I am pretty sure most of the journals I submitted to, you electronically sign the copyright release upon submission.
"In my field we electronically sign a copyright transfer when the manuscript is submitted that comes into affect if it is accepted for publication." One must keep one's head when encountering cultural differences, but....my honest first reaction is that sounds outrageous. How can you transfer the copyright on a product that (i) doesn't necessarily exist in anything like its final form and (ii) might not actually ever exist? Could you provide a link to an example of such a form? I would be very interested to see it.
For some journals copyright transfer happens on submission, for some only when the paper is accepted for publication.
Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/15589/2692
I agree with @PeteL.Clark; how can you possibly sign over copyright to a work that doesn't exist yet?
Of course I'm not a lawyer, but I'd distinguish between two thresholds:
Before the paper can be published, you need to grant legal permission via a license or copyright transfer. If you haven't done that yet, then the publisher can't force you to let them publish the paper. That gives a narrow window in which you could still block publication after the paper is accepted (but whether you could ethically do so depends on your reason for objecting).
Once the published version has appeared (even just on the publisher's website), there's nothing you can do without a powerful reason. At that point, you would be retracting a published paper, which is a far more serious act.
In between these thresholds, I don't know what would happen. I'd guess that if you asked the publisher not to publish a paper you had already signed a copyright transfer for, then they would probably agree. After all, publishing a paper against the author's wishes could look bad, even if they were legally entitled to do so. However, if you didn't have a very good reason (such as a major error in the paper), then the publisher would be rather unhappy. I wouldn't be surprised if they asked you to cover any copyediting or typesetting costs, and this sort of unprofessional behavior would be terrible for your reputation.
Further, who has the final say on copy edits and type setting?
In principle this depends on the publishing agreement. In practice, the ones I've seen usually give the publisher final say, but the publisher usually defers to the author about anything intellectually substantive during the proofreading stage. (On the other hand, the author gets more or less no input into matters of style such as font choice, British vs. American spelling, etc.)
It is interesting that you interpreted the question as "after signing over copyright". I was thinking of it the other way....in which you are legally golden but there may still be ethical issues if you want to look hard enough.
I focused on the after copyright transfer/license case mainly because it seemed to be the more subtle case, at least regarding whether it's even possible to stop publication. (Ethically, I think it's the less subtle case: you've now gone ahead and legally confirmed that publication is OK, so you'd better have a good reason to change your mind.)
When do you normally sign the copyright transfer? In my field it is all electronic now, but I am pretty sure the transfer happens upon submission.
@StrongBad: In mathematics the copyright transfer is normally dealt with after acceptance.
@StrongBad In (theoretical) computer science, after the editor accepts, after the paper is copy-edited (if the paper is copy-edited), and after the author approves the galley proofs (if there are galley proofs). Or, if it's an open access journal, never.
Further, who has the final say on copy edits and type setting?
Short answer: everyone. In more detail:
Acceptance of a paper means that the editorial board approves it for publication. Once the editorial board signs off on the paper, some combination of the author(s), the editors and the publishers must arrive at a mutually agreeable final draft.
In my experience, the role that the editors play here is highly variable: sometimes they work directly with the authors on the copyediting: e.g. the American Mathematical Monthly is incredibly picky (relative to other math journals, anyway) about copyediting issues, and they surprised me by withholding final acceptance of a recent paper of mine until I had (myself, under their very specific instructions) completed all the copyediting and formatting. And they seemed serious about this: a change to the bibliography would be solicited and uploaded as a separate revision. It ought to be evident that I was not completely happy that the acceptance of the paper was held over my head during a discussion of the copyediting, but that's a way to play it and I'm sure they have their reasons.
(The MONTHLY has, I believe, by far the highest circulation of any mathematics journal. It is published by the Mathematical Association of America, which is the more teaching-oriented of the two professional societies for mathematics in the US. On the other hand, there are three selective MAA journals, and of these the MONTHLY is by far the most "serious". Long story short: many roads lead to them, and they are forced to be very selective indeed in what they publish, although they select for different things than a top research journal.)
I had another experience in which the final editorial acceptance in a prestigious journal was made conditional on the submission of a new draft containing less "pompous language".
More typically the copyediting and formatting is either left to the authors themselves or done by an employee of the publishing company (who in many cases does this for papers in multiple academic disciplines and thus cannot have high-level subject area knowledge most of the time). In the end both the authors and the publisher have the final say: both parties must approve the final draft in order for it to published, and the documentation of this mutual approval is the publication contract.
Of course in practice this mutual approval is done in an asymmetric way between the parties: the publisher sends you a form in which everything has been spelled out in advance, in the pushy manner of big corporations everywhere. But if there are clauses in the contract that the authors have a problem with, they are certainly entitled to ask, and in my experience some minor "concessions" (i.e., changes to the boilerplate agreement) are often made by the publisher. A big part of the asymmetry is that the authors generally have a much larger stake in the publication of the paper than the publisher does, so insisting that one be able to refer to a paper in the bibliography by [Cl14] rather than [3] or one will take one's wares elsewhere looks like a strange arrangement of priorities, but if you really do feel strongly about it you are entitled to ask and who knows -- maybe you'll get your way. Asking them to mess with aspects of the typesetting that are part of the journal's standard style seems less kosher to me: one would reasonably expect the journal to want to keep its standard style, and if this was really important to you, you should probably have brought it up earlier.
Making sure that one really does send in the copyright form last of all is a good tip. I stumbled on this point recently when dealing with one of the world's largest scientific publishing companies. They kept doing something weird in the proofs, I kept pointing out their mistakes and though I took pains to indicate in every correspondence that I was not giving my final approval, after a few go-rounds they didn't get back to me, and eventually I noticed that the paper was published online...still with one strange typesetting mistake that was not in the version I sent to them. Next time I'll save the copyright form until the end.
This is, of course, the less interesting part of the question. I want to get some clarification on @ff524's key comment before tackling the ethical question, but short answer: if you haven't signed anything, then of course you can legally cease all dealings with the publisher. Whether this is ethical depends, as usual, on why you are doing it, but I know of at least one specific case in which this was done for what I consider to be a good ethical reason.
The journal has an obligation to fix mistakes that you pointed out but that they failed to correct (or introduced on their own.) I've had a journal issue a correction because they left off a change in the title of an article (they dropped off an "s" at the end).
@aeismail: I agree. When I pointed out these issue to the editor, he told me that he had learned that the publisher would not change the document itself (which at that point and even now has only been published online; the print version might or might not appear in 2014) but only issue a correction if necessary. Since in this case the error was something like an extraneous character like @ introduced in the statement of a result, it would be way over the top to publish a correction. But still it was a bad experience, and with what I had thought was the world's leading scientific publisher.
If a journal is willing to publish your submitted manuscript "as is", can you prevent them? Clearly if they want you to make changes you have the right to say no, but once the manuscript is accepted can you really withdraw it against the publisher's wish?
You can withdraw a manuscript at any time unless it is officially published (usually on-line). I cannot see that any journal could stop you from doing so and signing copyright forms should not cause problems since those forms usually concern the work done by the publisher to get the manuscript into publishable form. By this I mean copy-editing and type-setting and not generally the review process. Exactly what is covered by the agreement must be checked in each individual case (journal/publisher).
The fact that you can withdraw a manuscript does not mean it is necessarily a frictionless process. A case such as this falls outside of legal terms and into the ethical realm where you can do whatever you legally can or want but it may not reflect very positively on yourself. To withdraw a manuscript from a journal that has put in a lot of efforts, including, most likely, non-paid reviewers and scientific editors, with the excuse that you want to go for a higher ranking journal seems at least morally wrong. You should have thought about that much earlier.
Further, who has the final say on copy edits and type setting?
The journal will likely have rules for how things should look and be expressed. You have the opportunity to agree or disagree with any changes the journal makes, through its copy-editing and type-setting. However, when it comes to journal style, it supersedes your own views and an editor also has the right to remove material that can be considered offensive, rude or unethical in some way. The latter is to protect the journal reputation. Hence, you cannot expect your view to be final in such extreme cases.
Despite what I have just said, there are of course overzealous editors who do not know where to draw the lines. So because human interaction is involved also in publishing, all may not happen as you expect it but usually such circumstances in the extreme are exceptions.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.807684
| 2024-09-14T12:44:41 |
213593
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Can you get expelled for taking pictures on college campus?
I've heard that many colleges, including the one I attend, say that to film on campus requires a permit from the chancellor. However, I've seen thousands of people post pictures of themselves, their group of friends, events, and the scenery of campus, onto social media sites like Facebook & Instagram. Can they get in trouble for this? Is it against the rules to photograph on college property and post online?
I don't think this is answerable in general. It would depend on the actual rules in place at the particular school, the particular punishment specified for violating them, and how strictly those rules are actually enforced by the administration in place at the time.
The tags you originally chose didn't seem to have anything to do with this question. Tags are important for helping your question find an interested audience. I've changed the tags; please choose them with more care when you post here in the future.
To me, "film on campus" means making an actual movie (say a documentary or similar) to be published officially (for money or impact) not just taking moving pictures for personal use. What is the actual wording you have in mind?
I think it is exceedingly unlikely that any university (at least in Europe/USA; perhaps other cultures would be different) will discipline a student for taking personal photos. Of course, action might be taken if the student's behaviour is disruptive, intrusive, harassing, etc - but this would be a response to the behaviour rather than to the photography.
I looked at what UC Berkeley web site says, for example. https://bcbp.berkeley.edu/brand-protection/request-permission/filmingphotography#commercial I think a monetizable Instagram would fall under "commercial".
It would probably also depend on the size and character of the expected audience. You probably could not do anything against some rando that photographs your house, but if this becomes a regular occurrence or grows exponentially, you would want to put a stop to it if you can. That being said, if the area in front of the house is public ground, you might have limited recourse, as politicians and film stars will know. Also, if you live in a culturally remarkable building, you might have copyright powers, but probably cannot prevent anything, unless the ground is your property.
One case is where I video a professor during class saying something controversial or outrageous, then post it on social media. If it becomes a big controversy, then yes, I could be expelled.
I doubt that taking pictures of yourself, friends, and family will be considered improper. Or even taking a picture of the department offices where you spent a lot of time.
The issue is that for some, probably commercial, purposes, the university doesn't want the campus used as a backdrop for some narrative that might, if not vetted, reflect poorly on the university.
Another issue with such films that will be widely shared, published, and/or commercialized, is the possibility that people not involved in the film, but recognizable, will be caught on tape and their likeness uses without permission.
So, it is a matter of protecting the reputation of the place and the privacy of the people.
I also doubt that such rules would/could apply to news organizations filming when some unfortunate thing happens (shootings, bombing, ...). They might like to keep the news out, and might want someone along with the film crew for the reasons given above, but probably can't stop it - especially for a government funded university ("Public" in US terminology).
Ah, yes. Some sorts of pictures are improper and likely illegal. For that you could be expelled or even jailed.
The specific guidelines that limit what you can post and how you can post it will vary from institution to institution. They can include trademark or license limitations on the use of institutional icons or backdrops. Copyright guidelines provide a more general framework to define what you can and cannot post. They prohibit you from distributing content that you do not own by copyright. In a nutshell, a photographic reproduction of a work is itself in most cases considered a copy of the source, and only the person who owns the copyright has the right to determine how to distribute copies of the work the (hence the term copy-right). Therefore, while you can take photos of copyrighted content, you cannot post any of them.
One specific example is the Nittany Lion statue at Penn State University. Plenty of folks talk their pictures with it. No one is permitted to take a picture of it to use in marketing or promotional content without prior (written contractual) permission due to trademark limitations. Correspondingly, I imagine icon buildings at a university are wonderful backdrops for personal graduation pictures, yet those same backdrops may never be used in marketing or promotional distributions (again without prior written permission). Another example is a class lecture. You might be fine to take a picture of your class instructor without asking in advance (but you truly should ask in advance) and posting that picture to a friend in the class. You will walk the line for copyright infringement by taking a picture of the lecture notes from that same instructor and posting to a classmate because the instructor owns the copyright and you have no permission as such to distribute the content in any form.
So, when you post a picture of a campus setting on-line without the intent to obtain a market value or promotion but rather because you are displaying a personal picture that you have as a representation of some aspect or exchange in your personal life, no problem. Here is the Nittany Lion statue that I visited while at PSU last year. OK. Good. When you post that same content for marketing purposes -- Here is the Nittany Lion Statue to support my call to all PSU alumni to donate to my GoFundMe Page -- you likely have crossed a line on trademark or licensing limitations. When you post a celebration picture with you and your family at the iconic MIT central building, OK. When you post the same to promote your qualifications to a job (here is proof that I attended MIT), you may cross the line again on trademark issues. Finally, never post or otherwise distribute pictures that contain images of content that is copyrighted to someone else.
The consequences for violations of specific guidelines (trademark, license, or otherwise) are defined by the institution. The same may be true of copyright violations, whereby the copyright holder also always has their own recourse through the broader country-wide legal system.
Universities may impose conduct rules on their students, completely independent of intellectual property law. Violations wouldn't result in lawsuits, jail, fines, etc, but by internal discipline such as suspension or expulsion. So this question can't be answered on the basis of IP law, or any other law for that matter. (As I commented above, I don't think it can really be answered at all.)
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.808235
| 2016-11-17T10:29:21 |
80031
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How to list the second edition of a book
If an author has published a second edition of a book and he is in his earlier career stage as a mathematician, how do you recommend to include this second edition into the list of publications appearing e.g. in the CV? For example, should it be mentioned at all? Should it replace the first edition? Should both editions be listed, in particular when the second edition is a massive revision and 20 pages longer?
I can't imagine there's any rules about this, but presumably if someone reading your CV were to see a book listed amongst your publications which was marked as the second edition, they would assume you had been involved in the first edition as well. Listing multiple editions of the same book could also give the impression that you're trying to pad out your CV.
@Ian_Fin: I agree that typically one should only list the most recent edition. But it does sometimes happen that, say, Author A wrote the first edition by herself, and then Author B joins the project to work on the second edition. So B was involved in the second edition but not the first. Sometimes this happens for textbooks that continue to be revised long after the original author has retired or died.
@NateEldredge That's true. As I was writing that I did think of several multi-edition textbooks whose original authors have long-since surrendered the reigns. Perhaps a sensible default would be to only list the most recent edition you were involved with, and include a note if you weren't involved in one or more preceding edition.
Normally you would just give the bibliographic information for the most recent edition. If you feel it's important to say when you first wrote it, you could add a parenthetical like (First edition published in 1987).
If the book was originally written by someone else, and you joined as a co-author on a later edition, then include a note like (Co-author for editions 5 and later).
This would be the same regardless of what stage of your career you are at, and as far as I know it would be the same in any field.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.808540
| 2016-12-12T17:53:00 |
81486
|
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Stack Exchange
|
What should one look for in a statement of purpose (from the admissions side) in mathematics?
I'm a youngish (recently tenured) faculty member at a reasonably, but not extremely prestigious university in the mathematics department. While I've looked at some graduate admissions files, this is the first year I have been on the actual committee and thus been responsible for reading many files. I feel like most aspects of the application (CV, transcripts, test scores, letters of rec) I understand reasonably well, but all statements of purpose read like meaningless gobbledygook, and I tend to completely ignore them unless there's some aspect of the student's file I'm confused about and hope to find an explanation for (and of course, I often don't).
I've seen a lot of questions on this site about how to write statements of purpose, but not much about how to read them on the other end.
Is it normal/reasonable to essentially ignore the content of SoP unless you are looking for specific information on something unusual in the student's application? What other things should a reviewer look for as positive or negative signs?
I've asked about mathematics in the United States since that's my field, and I want to avoid stupid replies like "But how can you know what lab they want to work in!" but obviously, I am interested in thoughts from people in other disciplines.
Good question. I worked on graduate admissions at my math PhD program (at UGA, in the US) for several years, and after a few years off I am the new Graduate Coordinator, so I will shortly be wading through a sea of applications and personal statements. Here is how I see things at the moment. I'll modify my answer if upcoming experiences change my mind.
Is it normal/reasonable to essentially ignore the content of SoP unless you are looking for specific information on something unusual in the student's application?
You could put a more sugary coating on that for public consumption, but: quite reasonable and probably rather normal, I think.
What other things should a reviewer look for as positive or negative signs?
A statement of purpose is a great place to address things that are out of the ordinary. It's really the only place for that. There are a lot of math PhD programs in the US, and most of the applicants to most of the programs (i.e., not Harvard/Princeton/Berkeley/Chicago/UCLA...) have applications which are "uneven" in some way. Giving context and explanation for the weakest part of your application could be helpful for many students.
I look at the personal statement first as a writing sample, second as a very broad measure of (mathematical) cultural awareness and sophistication and third as a chance to show that the applicant received a decent supply of rope and managed not to hang him/herself. You are right that there is a lot of cluelessness and ignorance displayed in personal statements...but usually of a rather standard sort that just means that the person is not yet in a math PhD program so has quite foggy ideas of what such a thing is. However some kinds of clueness, ignorance, stubbornness or hints of anti-social behavior are less common and could be red flags.
One of my favorite stories about a personal statement was told to me in a departmental information session when I was an undergraduate applying to grad school, by the head of the CS department at the University of Chicago. (I think it was Lance Fortnow, but I am not completely confident of this.) He said that he once got a personal statement that said that the student wanted to go to grad school in CS because he thought that any other career would involve a lot more work, and he was trying to take it easy. This put the department head in a bit of a pickle. As he proceeded to explain, this was exactly what he did not want to hear in a personal statement. But how seriously does one take the personal statement? Maybe the student was trying (and failing) to be funny. Because the application was very strong in all other respects, the applicant was eventually admitted. He failed out of the program less than a year later, because he was not willing to do any work. The department head said that he had learned his lesson: the next time a student said something like this in their personal statement, they would not be admitted.
+1 I've been an on-again, off-again member of my (math) department's graduate committee, including a couple years as chair of the committee, and I agree with all of this. The very limited extent to which I've found SoPs useful is mostly to look for red flags; another is to determine whether students are applying to the program they actually want to be in (pure and applied math are separate programs in my department).
Thanks for the answer. Regarding the sugary coating: there's a reason I posted anonymously.
I'm actually rather shocked that anyone (especially Lance) would see that statement as anything other than a red flag. On fire. With sirens.
In addition to @PeteL.Clark's good-advice answer, I would also want to say that I have come to find the Statement of Purpose quite-often useful to "hear the voice" of the applicant. Sure, also quite-often, this voice is immature or ill-informed, but that's expected. But enthusiasm and interest and curiosity are hard to gauge from a transcript.
Yes, letters-of-recommendation give more mature appraisals of students, but, given the likely immaturity (mathematical and otherwise) of undergrad students in the U.S., it is not at all clear that they will communicate effectively-enough with faculty so that faculty will really know what goes on in their heads.
So, through the filter of acknowledged inexperience and immaturity, I do want to hear the "voice" of the applicant. Diffidence or misguidedness (or angry crackpottery) are typically visible (based on my own unfortunate observational experience... protracted anecdotal) in the statement of purpose.
It is also interesting in that applicants typically do not "know what the admissions committee wants to hear". Exactly. It's a sort of Rorschach test, on which it's hard to "cheat", and "there's no right answer".
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.809127
| 2019-05-03T04:05:43 |
130027
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|
Stack Exchange
|
What is a common way to tell if an academic is "above average," or outstanding in their field? Is their h-index (Hirsh index) one of them?
If one claimed that a particular scholar was "above average" or "noted" in their field, is there any good metric by which to support or deny such a claim?
Is there a generally accepted way to indicate that a particular professor or scholar is outstanding, or above average, in their field? I understand there are certain indicators, such as chairs, endowments, prizes, etc. But these don't really seem to help to compare one scholar to another, except in a sort of gross, simple count way (i.e. one professor has had more chairs than another)
Is it theoretically possible to create a "ranking" of professors in their fields, by some metric? Could their h-index serve as such a metric?
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Yes, there is one and only one standard method that is universally employed by reputable academic institutions worldwide. This is how you evaluate a researcher:
Read their papers.
Attend one of their talks.
Ask the opinion of other experts in the field.
This is how hiring committees and promotion committees do their job. There are no shortcuts. Parts 1-2 require that you have some relevant expertise; if not then you must rely entirely on #3.
Every academic is regularly asked to give an expert opinion through reference letters, which often are expected to include some sort of ranking (e.g. "Assistant Prof. X should be promoted because she is clearly as talented/better than Prof. Y who was recently promoted at Prestigious University Z"). How does one justify this kind of claim in the reference letter? You guessed it:
Read their papers.
Attend their talks.
Well, this is perhaps how committees and panels should work, but definitely not how every hiring committee works in practice.
While I certainly agree with this for things like hiring and promotion, there are other instances where faculty are asked to evaluate other faculty where they may not be able/expected to solicit expert opinions (e.g., annual faculty evaluations, certain prizes, etc).
@Tryer Well, that's what points 1 and 2 are there for. If the researcher in question is right, but neither you nor their colleagues can tell, I don't think there's any rating available that will do that job for you.
@Tryer Which is why you have to read his stuff and come up with an opinion on them yourself. Which sort of metric could you imagine that would help there, short of making everything a popularity contest? There's no metric that will allow you to extract truth from papers.
Please note that when the person judging has no subject matter expertise - and thus has to resort to point 3 only - he is basically averaging subjective rankings (the typical letter starts or ends with “candidate XXXX ranks in the top 5/3/1% in her field”). Given the small amount of data and the inherent letter bias (I am not going to ask a letter to people who thinks of me less than outstanding) point 3 amounts to a quite poor ranking algorithm. This is where objective metrics come handy. Also, students can’t afford the luxury of choosing supervisors asking recommendation letters.
@famargar But choosing a supervisor based on how good/productive/famous they are as a researcher is kind of stupid. The right question to ask is how successful they’ve been (or are likely to be) as a supervisor. And no, those are not the same thing.
@JeffE fully agree - in fact, I never said that. If you were to read my answer, you would actually see that I count academic success of students as an important parameter of the ranking algorithm. Would a score that is broken into supervising score, research score, and others subareas suit your case? This is similar to the ranking I have been assigned as an instructor to my institution (see a previous comment of mine).
Absolutely not! Every student has their own career goals and their own advising needs. A student who needs/prefers close supervision should not prefer an advisor who gives his students free reign. A student who is aiming for industry research positions should not prefer an advisor whose students all either stay in academia or work as code monkeys at Twitter. A student who wants to study complexity theory should not choose an advisor that specializes in computational geometry. And so on. Choosing the right advisor is a subtle, individual judgement call; there is no algorithm.
@JeffE your earlier comment seems to say that the problem was in subdividing reputation in "research reputation" and "reputation as supervisor", hence my answer. Here instead I see a bigger problem: you are saying that the world would NOT be a better place if someone gave young aspiring academics a tool to support their choise of a supervisor among the 99% of professors who self-proclaim to be in the best 5% in their field. This is exactly where an objective metric would be the most helpful, as the people making a decision are the ones with the least information at hand to do so.
@farargar I'm not objecting to tools. I'm objecting to the suggestion of using a single simple tool to make subtle, subjective, and individualistic decisions. Would you consider a similar "objective" metric suitable for choosing a city to live in, or a house to buy, or a partner to marry? (Also: I know very few professors who proclaim themselves to be "in the best 5% in their field"; your 99% claim is nonsense. To first approximation, anyone who makes such a claim about themselves is wrong.)
@JeffE I am advocating for using a metric, not a simple metric - please see my answer below. And yes, there are plenty of available metrics these days which are great for choosing a city or a neighborhood or a car. Again, the problem is not if a good metric can be built - of course it can - but where such a metric would be useful. And the answer is to determine decision making when other information is absent, or to support it when subject matter expertise is available
@JeffE as for marriage, it is a great example of where human fallacies lead to wrong decision making - approximately 50% of the times, indeed
I am advocating for using a metric, not a simple metric — Yes, you are. Any metric that provides only a single number is simple. (And in case you missed my point: People generally buy cars only after driving them.)
@JeffE I deduce that you are not familiar with statistics. A ranking algorithm is indeed a number. A “simple number” as you say. That simple number would be the result of a regression model that can use a large number of inputs (numerical and/or categorical) and can combine them in an arbitrarily complex fashion (from linear regression to deep neural networks). Not that simple, as you see
As for cars, people buy them after asking around, reading at experts review, look at average of customer reviews, gas mileage, price, brand, drive satisfaction. All mental parameters that are combined in a mental regression model whose outcome is “I like car A more than car B and less than car C”. But as we are all different, for cars (and for professors too) we may decide to just look at all the inputs objectively and then combine them arbitrarily.
If one claimed that a particular scholar was "above average" or "noted" in their field, is there any good metric by which to support or deny such a claim?
No. As a rule of thumb, this isn't the kind of thing that you can measure with a metric. Elvis Presley was the king of rock and roll. Why? Is it because he pumped out more albums than the others? Because he sold more? Because journalists wrote more about his albums than the others'? No. It was because he was the king and few people contested that. It's the same in academia. Either you can say that someone is "noted" in the field and be reasonably confident that you won't be contested when saying that, or you can't. If you can't, then you should avoid it, on pain of looking pretentious or like a toady.
Is there a generally accepted way to indicate that a particular professor or scholar is outstanding, or above average, in their field? I understand there are certain indicators, such as chairs, endowments, prizes, etc. But these don't really seem to help to compare one scholar to another, except in a sort of gross, simple count way (i.e. one professor has had more chairs than another)
In general, you can't compare people. This isn't a video game, people don't have a numeric level associated to their academic ability, someone with a 12 being better than someone with a 5. It doesn't work like that. There is a multitude of factors, most often not measurable or not comparable. Trying to make a sum out of these and comparing the result for two different people will only lead to crap. Ask any hiring committee if determining who is the best candidate for a job is easy, let alone determining who is the best researcher.
Is it theoretically possible to create a "ranking" of professors in their fields, by some metric? Could their h-index serve as such a metric?
God no. Of all the metrics, you've probably picked one of the worse ones. If I write two dozens pieces of trash that all cite one another and publish them in vanity press, I will have a great h-index. Will I be a good researcher? No. On the other hand, if I write a single article in my whole life solving the Riemann hypothesis, then I would probably become one of the most famous mathematician in the world overnight, but my h-index will be crap.
Could you suggest a metric which is better than h-index?
@DmitrySavostyanov Why would you want any metric at all?
If you want to rank two professors against each other, you might be tempted to use the h-index. Don't. As many of the other answers point out, it's a severely flawed metric, and it doesn't really tell you a lot.
However, if you want to figure out whether a given professor can reasonably be described as "noted" or "outstanding", then that is a quite different question. And here, yes indeed, I would say that you can use certain indicators, namely awards, honors and prizes. I do not think anyone disputes that a scientist holding a Nobel prize is outstanding. (Peace and literature, maybe not so much.) If a mathematician wins the Fields medal or the Abel prize, the same.
Many societies award fellowships. To get one of those, you have to demonstrate academic excellence, and often also things like service to the society in question, outreach, teaching etc. The advantage is that the "overall package" a professor offers has already been evaluated by people who are presumably experts in the field. For instance, here is a list of the Fellows of the International Institute of Forecasters, which I happen to be involved with. Some of the Fellows are a bit contentious, but nobody from the field would dispute their being noted.
Best paper awards are similar.
Of course, you need to use a little expertise in deciding whether a Best Paper Award from a journal on Beall's list is truly a mark of excellence, or whether a Fellowship from an academic society that offers little more than a one-page webpresence is. But unless you go with the extremely well-known marks of excellence like the prizes I noted above, there is simply no shortcut that will avoid having at least a passing knowledge of the field.
And note that this allows you to decide whether someone is distinguished or not. It won't tell you whether A is "more distinguished" than B, like one might try to use the h-index to indicate. Which, as I argue above, is impossible.
Is there a generally accepted way to indicate that a particular professor or scholar is outstanding, or above average, in their field?
The generally accepted method for assessing a particular scholar's merit is to familiarize oneself with their work. Such an assessment requires a solid basis of expert knowledge.
I understand there are certain indicators, such as chairs, endowments, prizes, etc. But these don't really seem to help to compare one scholar to another, except in a sort of gross, simple count way.
This applies to any "metric", although some are worse than others. Any sound assessment would have to be qualitative and require some substantive engagement with the scholar's work. Therefore, any comparison, to the extent that it would be useful at all, could only point out qualitative differences that don't lend themselves to a ranking, "except in a sort of gross" way.
Qualitative differences DO lend themselves to a ranking, just as much as quantitative differences: “condition XXXX increases by YY.Y% the likelihood of a patient to develop disease ZZZZZ within K years”. Condition XXX can be quantitative (age, number of alcohol units per week, etc) or qualitative (sex, existence of other diseases). They are equally good to build a ranking and qualitative variables may very well be more important than then the quantitative ones.
The negative proof to the question here is far broader than academics: is there a metric for the best car? Best parent? Best programming language? Smartest person? No, because all these things have many orthogonal dimensions that simply can't be collapsed to one without unacceptable information loss. Researchers can be creative, well funded, methodical, hard working, well versed in literature, collaborative with peers/students, etc.
I concur with David Ketcheson's answer on what to do instead.
Your comment assumes that no multidimensional problem can be analytically quantified. However, this comment comes a decade after machine learning and artificial intelligence (in english: algorithms solving complex multidimensional problems) became pervasive in our society. And a few decades after the mathematical/statistical groundwork to do so were born.
It also misses important contributions to psychology and behavioural economics that proved when and how humans take wrong decisions (hint: all the time ;)
All metrics that used (e.g. number of first/senior authorships, sum of impact factors, percentile ranks of impact factors, citations, H-index, grants and other funding etc) have all their advantages and many more disadvantages. Never the less they are used in hiring processes in one or the other way because otherwise it is not possible to assess several hundred candidates that apply for a faculty position. Which of these factors are important in a certain sub-field is very different. Only the ones scoring top in these metrics will make it to the interview where then other factors might count as well.
For someone who is not familiar with a certain field the easiest (but still not always correct) way to see how good a professor might be is the name of the university. e.g. a professor at Cambridge will most likely have achieved a lot in his life. Someone at a no-name place will not have made much impact that impressed other people in the same field and if such a person does make a big impact one day then he will most likely get offers to move to a place with a better name.
If one claimed that a particular scholar was "above average" or
"noted" in their field, is there any good metric by which to support
or deny such a claim?
The only "generally approved" quantitative metric is the h-index. H-index is a metric, is OKfor your task as it allows you to define above or below average. As a matter of fact, this is the way some national educations systems stamp their professors as good enough for tenure. It is also agreed that it is not "good enough" - famously, Peter Higgs, 2013 Nobel in Physics, would fail miserably a ranking based on h-index only, as he published very few paper, although with huge citation count. Also, h-index is a measure of lifetime achievements, thus needs to be corrected for the academic age. Which brings us to the next point.
Is there a generally accepted way to indicate that a particular
professor or scholar is outstanding, or above average, in their field?
I understand there are certain indicators, such as chairs, endowments,
prizes, etc. But these don't really seem to help to compare one
scholar to another, except in a sort of gross, simple count way (i.e.
one professor has had more chairs than another)
Other, mostly qualitative metrics are regularly used, consciously or not, in academic's minds, although no official ranking exist. I will mention a few, the ordering only reflecting the stage in an academic career:
1. Institution where PhD has been obtained
2. PhD supervisor
3. national prizes
4. national grants
5. number of PhD students supervised
6. chairs at institutions or conferences
6. international prizes
7. academic success of PhD students mentored
8. more I could not think about now :)
Is it theoretically possible to create a "ranking" of professors in
their fields, by some metric?
Of course it is, there is entire field about it called Scientometrics. You have to 1) fix for h-index known limitations 2) combine with the variables above to come up with a more comprehensive algorithm that will rank any researcher in any field. The reasons why this has not been done before are twofold. First, it is not easy at all to define objectively how much every metric listed here should weight in the ranking algorithm. Second, and most importantly, academics rank every day for jobs, promotions, accepting papers or conference contributions, prizes etc. However, they prefer their ranking algorithm to suit their individual minds, rather than adopting a common framework.
Could their h-index serve as such a metric?
As described above, h-index has many limitations that make it impractical for most purposes. But an entire field of research exists around it - Scientometrics - so rest assured there will be developments.
I disagree with many of the things you say: h-index is not a good metric because it led to more or less submersed citation rings to artificially boost that metric and get promotions. Second, "academics like to rank": who said that? Most of the academics I know are certainly not interested in ranking anyone.
Academics rank all the time other academics for a job, a promotion, a prize. However, they don't like to use commonly shared algorithms for doing that.I will specify that. H-index is good in the sense that is well-defined, sensible and allows comparisons. It is not a comprehensive metric however, as I specifically write.
The fact that they have to rank for certain specific purposes doesn't mean that they like to rank. Furthermore, as I said, the h-index brought several distortions in scientific publishing and that's definitely not good.
Thanks. I did edit the answer integrating your inputs. I think I made clearly enough that h-index is not good enough. As for the bias induced by ranking, this applies to any ranking, explicit or not. See the fact that most of US professors come from Ivy League schools - nobody attached points to it, however most committees do take that into accout.
Since academics rank each other all the time for jobs, promotions, prizes, etc. do they use the H-index as the whole or as a part of that ranking calculation?
@user151841 when h-index is used, it is normally used as part of a hiring/promotion selection. I have never been in a prize committee, but I suspect h-index rarely or never matter there - the reason being that a single, monumental scientific contribution will basically not alter your h-index, but will alter history (again, Petet Higgs and the 2013 physics Nobel prize being an example)
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| 2019-01-06T17:22:30 |
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Permission for changing the title of a paper
I am revising a paper and want to change the title of the paper and send for editor-in-chief.
My Question: Is there an formal sentences to announce to editor-in-chief and reviewers that I want to change the title of paper in this revision.
For instance, is it acceptable that I write the following text?
With the editor-in-chief’s and reviewers’ permission, the authors want to change the title of paper because of ...
Generally speaking, communications in academia don't need "formal sentences". Just explain what you want to do, clearly and concisely.
@NateEldredge An excellent suggestion. Thanks
During the peer-review process, you modify the manuscript until the editor accepts it (who in turn consults the reviewers for their opinion as needed).
This applies to the entire manuscript, including the title.
The latter may very well change due to the reviewers’ recommendations, in particular terminology is often changed in my experience.
Thus, explicitly asking the editor-in-chief for permission to change your title seems overkill to me.
You don’t have to do it for the same reason that you do not have to ask for explicit permission for every other change of the manuscript.
That being said, a change in the title can easily be overseen, even if a diff is employed.
Therefore I would recommend to simply mention the change of the title where appropriate in your resubmission, but without being overly submissive, e.g., like this:
Please note that we changed the manuscript’s title to […], because […]
We followed the reviewer’s suggestion and now speak of gorgleflorps instead of florplegorgs whenever appropriate, including the title.
Excuse me can I ask you to explain more about two words gorgleflorps and florplegorgs? Thanks
@user0410: They are arbitrary words to represent some terminology, whose actual nature is not important for this example. I might as well have used numbers and digits, species and clades, or graphs and networks.
What you write seems fine. Until very late in the process, the title should, in my view, be tentative. It should best express what the paper says. Especially if recommended revisions have changed that, or your view of it, by all means change it and just let the editor know.
If you get pushback, or refusal, from an editor, you can deal with it then. But, IMO, it would be improper to refuse.
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| 2015-07-29T20:10:15 |
49604
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How much does participation in online predictive challenges (DREAM, Kaggle, Innocentive) improve your resume?
I'm getting curious about all these online predictive challenges going on, such as DREAM, Kaggle and Innocentive.
Surely they all are good occasions to work on new projects and new ideas, to know other collaborators, to get important training about science, and to possibly win some money
And also they could represent a good point in one's resume. So I was wondering: in job application processes (in both industry and academia), do candidate selectors care about the participation of the candidate in any of these challenges?
If yes, how much?
If no, why not?
Related: When applying for a phd, does a hiring committee cares about winning in various programming/data-mining contests? and Are participations in competitions well recognized for a Ph.D. application?
I think the part about whether it has relevance to industry job applications is off topic here. Relevance to academic job applications is on topic, but I'm almost certain the answer will be "none whatsoever". I've certainly never heard any suggestion that things like this are ever considered in academic hiring.
At the very least, it shows you are actively interested in the subject. Participation can be enough to show you are more enthusiastic about the subject than other applicants. It is also helpful for entry level data scientist positions where experience isn't necessarily expected, but appreciated. If you have won any competitions, or if you are at the 'Master' Kaggle level, definitely include it.
I don't think that just "participating" would be an advantage. Because if you paticipate but perform very poorly, it will not demonstrate that you are better or have some special skills. However, if you win some prizes in these competitions or are highly ranked, it would certainly help. It will show that you have good skills in statistics/data mining / etc. Now, how much it would help depends on the candidate selectors and even on the job that you apply for. But if you are highly ranked and win some prizes, it should be positive for your CV.
Are you on the selection panel for academic jobs in data mining or machine learning?
I'm not currently on a selection panel but as a data mining researcher, I have discussed both with students applying for jobs in the industry as well as some company who want to hire some employees, and had some industry collaborations.
@Phil I see your point Phil, but think in life activity is always more valued than inactivity.
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| 2012-03-25T22:58:07 |
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Does mentoring an undergrad give an edge on job or grant applications?
Simple and short question: as a postdoc (or a senior grad student), is it a good idea to mentor an undergrad?
How much edge will it provide perhaps for a future (NSF) grant, or a job application?
Assuming the mentoring has a measurable successful outcome (student goes to grad school, student writes paper), the NSF would definitely look kindly on such mentoring. Whether the time spent doing this will (minute for minute) be a better value than writing an impactful paper - probably not. But that reasoning is of course flawed - you don't know ahead of time whether the time you spend writing that paper will pay off :).
As with most other things, do it if you care about the mentoring process and enjoy working with undergraduates. Don't do it if the primary goal is to get the bullet on your CV.
I don't know whether your grant or job applications will benefit from the experience. However, it will provide you with some immeasurably useful management experience, which you may not be able to gain otherwise. I know that my experience managing undergraduates during my graduate career - directing their research project with them, helping them design and put together experiments, and helping them write papers (or, more likely, having them help you write papers) - was an excellent first experience for me in dealing with issues that professors managing a lab have to deal with on a regular basis. For that alone I would strongly recommend mentoring.
As an addendum, if you are already managing other members of the lab, or if you're lucky enough to have technicians whom you help manage working on aspects of your research, this may not be as relevant.
I have to take a middle road between Suresh and eykanal's answers: mentoring of undergraduates will most likely help you in job applications; I'd believe this to be true whether you're applying to academia or industry or to non-traditional jobs. The reason is that supervising students provides you with direct management experience, which is almost always beneficial when being considered for employment.
However, it is less clear that mentoring an undergraduate would help you in a meaningful way on a grant application. The reason for this is that, in general, there's no logical place to bring such information up in the grant application! In a standard CV, you could list "students supervised" as a normal part of the document; however, according to the current guidelines for the NSF reduced CV format, the only real way that they can be counted is if they wrote a thesis under you, and perhaps as an aggregate count. In the long run, though, the NSF is really interested in graduate students and postdocs supervised.
My experience on NSF panels corroborates Suresh's answer. All else being equal, NSF prefers to give money to PIs who mentor undergraduates. (Of course, ceteris is never paribus.) The information fits perfectly under "synergistic activities" in the CV, and under "broader impact" in the proposal itself.
@JeffE: When you only have a limited number of synergistic activities, is the expectation that you'd use one of them to list undergraduates mentored? And "broader impact" wouldn't run to any more than "Professor X has mentored Y undergraduates" or something similarly cursory. But I do agree that it's better to have the experience than not to, and that it can give an edge if there's no other factor to distinguish. (How common that is, however, is unclear to me.)
Cursory is old and tired; credible details are the new hotness. The right way to phrase it in the proposal is "The PI will continue his years-long habit of mentoring undergraduates.", followed by a few sentences of actual details of past mentoring, followed by a few sentences of actual details of future mentoring plans. What makes it credible is the actual past experience.
I've sat on graduate student committees that have met with faculty candidates for our department in a research university with a sizeable undergraduate population. The mentorship track record and the result of that mentorship are probably the most important factors that we considered after the intellectual capacity of the candidate.
In our case, dealing with whiny grade-obsessed premeds who don't understand basic concepts is part of the job description. There is also a noticeable volume of undergrads who do research. A future PI who doesn't want to be in a teaching environment is already in the wrong place. A future PI who hasn't considered the fact that they would be in a teaching environment doesn't have a clear vision of where they want to be.
As a potential faculty mentor, they are a potential mentor to a graduate student like yourself. An ability to mentor undergrads without a high attrition rate tells you that they are able to create an environment that doesn't scare the student away as well as an environment that keeps the student to come back. Sounds like a faculty advisor that I would want to have available for future students like me. Conversely, an inability to mentor suggests that they mentor either drove their student into pieces or wasn't able to or weren't patient enough to design suitable experiments to teach difficult concepts to a young mind. If one wasn't able to do this with an undergrad, what would happen with a 1st year PhD student who may be stuck with them for the next 6 years?
Mentoring undergrads provides a solid and universal metric of a candidate's ability to mentor. They are probably the most difficult type of advisee to mentor and the past history of mentorship does provide a nice projection to one's path as an academic.
On a job application: I would not consider u/g supervision all that weighty. I worked in maths, so it was always nice to have evidence that the candidate could interact with other human beings, but other than that, nah. P/G supervision is a different matter of course.
On a grant application: the short answer is no.
However, if you are asked to take care of u/g students and you always say no, that will mark you down as uncollegeal and adversely impact what your seniors have to say about you. (If you always say yes they won't respect you either. It is a hard game to win.)
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| 2012-07-13T04:28:37 |
2426
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How common is faculty members changing jobs in the US?
Faculty members switch between universities for many reasons, but how often does this happen? Has there been any study/report on the frequency of job shifts and resignations in academia, especially in the US?
I don't know if there's a report, but faculty movement is quite common. Often faculty will take a leave of absence instead of resigning, and this can drag for a while .
The frequency with which faculty members switch departments varies by field. For example, it happens much more frequently in Economics than in Computer Science. I remember lunch-time discussions proposing an informal study aimed at testing the hypothesis that this difference in mobility was partially responsible for the income gap between econ and CS (economists make substantially more money), but looking for it now, I can't find it. Maybe it was never written up...
Also, it really depends on the health of the field. CS faculty were much more mobile (and salaries increased accordingly) during the .com bubble than they are now.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.811801
| 2013-12-10T13:56:33 |
14658
|
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Stack Exchange
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Learning contracts
I'm starting a new program in the spring and one of the first things that we will be tasked with is the creation of a 'XYZ Learning Contract'. After a bit of digging in the search engines I see that there is a pretty broad spectrum of thought on the value and composition of learning contracts. Having never dealt with them before I find myself wondering:
How common are they?
If the contracts can be, and some sources say - should be, modified then how is obligation and adherence managed?
Following on to the last question, how are they enforced?
I understand that every department is going to be different and that an advisor's milage may vary but I'm also curious if there is some general consensus on learning contracts among those that have had to deal with them.
For those of you who, like me, have never heard of this before, see this detailed webpage from wpi.edu outlining what it is and why it's used.
We have compulsory learning contracts (called study plan) at our uni, see this question: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12066/how-to-make-good-use-of-compulsory-study-plans-in-connection-with-phd-studies
You may want to ask as well about the relevance of these contracts and whose interests exactly they serve...
I've seen learning contracts been suggested for two types of situations:
1) As a motivational tool, to make students realize that there are things that they want to learn to accomplish their career goals. The idea is that once the student realizes that what (s)he is being taught in particular course is important for them, (s)he should be more motivated to make an effort in learning the material because it is really in his/her best interest to do so. In this type of situations, it seems to be that the enforcement is very soft/flexible.
2) To ensure fair, non-subjective grading of students in independent studies, research programs and internship programs. Departments undergoing accreditation programs (like ABET) tend to do this because they need to prove/show that there is consistent grading, that the students know what is expected of them, and that they know their grading criteria. These learning contracts are obviously more strictly enforced, but it is up to any individual department implementing this to decide whether they can be modified on-the-go to adjust to unexpected challenges that may arise during the semester.
In the end, though, it doesn't matter if they are "typically" very strictly enforced or not, because you should not care about the general/average case; you should care about your particular institution and we cannot know what their policy on learning contracts is. Just ask them. I am sure they'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.
cabad, you get the win here. Your point about not worrying about the 'typical' situation is a very good one. I can get a little too wound around the decomposition/generalization axel and you are correct that all that matters to me is my situation. However, there is real value to having a grasp on the socialized understanding of the concept.
Are Learning Contracts Common?
I have earned over 169 undergraduate credit hours and earned a Masters degree from decent state schools (in Florida). I have also taught at some small business schools in NYC. I have never seen learning contracts in practice. I would venture to guess that they are uncommon, although one may find reference to them in academic literature. I would also venture to guess that the reason that they are uncommon is that they would require a great deal of individual attention per student from the institution offering them.
About Contracts
Legal contracts while having set components have many possibilities of variation, and I would expect learning contracts to be no different. For example, legal contracts require competent parties, legal subject matter, meeting of the minds, offer and acceptance, consideration, etc...
Some relevant aspects of legal contracts:
Legal Subject Matter
The subject of the learning would have to be restricted to the scope of the institution's design for offering the contract. It is important that the contract should be as specific as possible in this regard
Offer and Acceptance
One party should propose the terms, likely the student, and another party would have to accept, likely an advisor on behalf of the institution. When one party accepts the other's terms, we then have a contract.
Performance
The terms should be clearly stated. For example:
Deadline, degree of flexibility allowed
If keeping a journal and/or writing a paper, Quantity of Content
If keeping a time-sheet, degree of completeness, terms for making up missed times
Subject Matter, scope boundaries
The institutional representative who will determine completeness
Consideration
There is consideration, i.e., compensation, for the one obliged to complete the contract (the student), if considered to have performed, as meeting one of the terms of completion of perhaps a series of hurdles towards earning a certificate or degree.
Modification
On the question of Modification, if the original agreed-upon terms allow for future modification, then so be it. There would likely be an expected period after which the two parties would assess the progress, and then determine if the terms of the agreement should be adjusted. If no agreement can be reached, the original agreement will remain in place.
Enforcement of Performance
If the terms of the agreement are reached, then the contract can be fulfilled. That is, when the student delivers evidence of their learning, likely contingent on an assessment agreeing that it is good delivery, the institution can deliver their consideration.
Conclusion
These contracts do not appear to be common (if we exclude academic codes of conduct). They can be modified by agreement, but terms for their modification should be clearly stated prior to the performance period to properly manage expectations. Enforcement is managed by the terms of the contract, likely that the institution has to agree that the student's evidence of learning is sufficient to merit verification that they have performed.
My impression, although unevidenced, is that students with learning contracts tailored to their educational goals would be more likely motivated to focus more on the objective of learning than those checking off boxes in a standardized curriculum.
I just noticed that the link in your post contains a reference to the book that I think has really answered my questions, 'Using Learning Contracts in Higher Education'*.
Stephenson, Laycock; 1993
Started to think on our concept of "learning plan", which sounds bit light-weight version of the learning contract of the original question(?)
Commonality: In our universities everyone has the opportunity & obligation to do a (short) personal study plan (and this applies to all student levels). One example here: http://www.helsinki.fi/socialsciences/studying/new/HOPS.html . Each university/department/professor might had some small differences of the content, but basically it was a self-made "project plan" for year(s)/goal ahead.
Obligation & Adherence:
Personally, I think making the plan was really useful as it helped to outline the schedule and requirements, and helped to think how to get all done. However, main drive was assumed to come from student herself - the desire to advance in timely manner.
Enforce: (?) One enforcer is/was to obtain a certain minimum quantity of credits that had to be done per year to get the student benefits. Anyhow, I think our system relies mostly on the students' personal drive. It's relatively hard to get to desired faculty, so most of those who get in won't waste the opportunity.
Anyhow it's bit tricky - one can has "perfect" study plan, but still studying can get stuck, for one reason or another...
This is excellent information, Tuula. I did not realize that this concept was such a fundamental component of so many programs.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.812459
| 2015-02-09T09:25:55 |
38527
|
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Stack Exchange
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Advisor interferes too much with my research
I have an advisor who interferes too much with my research. When I am in the lab he always comes and sits near me telling me exactly what to do even the tiniest details, and most of the time he is just doing the design himself (Actually holding the mouse and doing the design) and I am just sitting and looking at him. The only tasks I am asked to do on my own are the simplest tasks that require no brain abilities at all.
Once, he got angry because I was trying some design I found in a book and he got angry and told that I am wasting time and I should do only what he tells me to do. I come to work at weekends only to find him waiting for me, and doing the same all over again. He calls me at weekends and during work days when I am not in the lab to come and work just to give himself an excuse in front of other professors to sit on my station and design.
I have to submit my thesis very soon, and when he sees me writing it he tells me that I am wasting time and I should do the stuff he asked me to do. I told him the I have an external examiner which have to see a draft very soon when I defend my thesis, and he said "Yes and I am in your committee and you have to make me happy".
Seriously, I just want him to back off! I feel very offended by this treatment and that I am just a "trained monkey" who does only what he asked to do.
What words can I use to tell him that he should give me my space and that I want to do my research on my own ??
Are you a PHD, Msc or undergraduate student? What year?
I am a Master's student. Sorry I didn't mention this.
"I'm switching to another advisor. Goodbye."
@JeffE Although your advice is good, the OP has to submit his thesis very soon (he is at the end of his project), so I am not sure he has that choice.
Could you discuss this with the external examiner? Especially the issue with being discouraged from working on the draft thesis.
I feel for you, but ... when your project is pretty much finished seems like a very late point in time to tackle this problem. Now just rolling with it seems like your best bet, honestly.
If he's young professor (i.e. assistant prof) one interpretation for his behaviour is that he wants to get the results and be ready to the associate promotion. Some young professors are in hurry for this.
When children behave inappropriately often the best course of action is redirection. Doesn't he have other students to bother? It sounds like he has too much time on his hands. Perhaps you should ask yourself what makes him behave in this way before trying to make it stop. Advisors with a lot on their hands don't act this way - they simply don't have the time.
The basic issue is that your advisor is a micromanager, and if you have to submit the thesis shortly, it's unlikely you're going to get him to change his behavior in time to affect your thesis positively.
Therefore, I think your best course of action depends on the relative "cost" of switching projects. If you are somewhere What you should do depends on the rules in place at your institution. If you are able to easily switch projects and restart your thesis in a new group under a different advisor, that may be the best possible outcome you can achieve.
However, if you're at an institution like mine, where the topic, advisor, and timeline of the thesis have to be approved in advance, starting over may carry serious consequences. Rather than run the risk of not being able to complete your degree, I would recommend that you consider just "toughing it out" and putting up with your advisor for whatever time you have left.
If you are determined to raise the issue, though, the best thing might be to indicate politely that you believe his supervision is making both of your jobs more complicated: you're not learning as much as you could if you were working independently, and he's not as productive as he could be if he weren't spending all of his time watching you work.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.812834
| 2015-07-15T20:44:18 |
48848
|
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Stack Exchange
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Failed to get tenure then hired by another institute, is the new position tenure or not?
Due to bad personality a person was not granted tenure after working for six years in a university. Eventually, the person left and got hired as an associate professor in another university. Would this be a tenure position or tenure track position?
Is this a riddle or something? In real life: ask someone at the institution in question for the answer. The department chair would certainly know.
It's not really possible to know, just from this person's job title, whether they have tenure or not.
At some universities, the title "associate professor" automatically implies "tenured". But at others, it is possible to have the title of associate professor but not have tenure - unusual, but possible. Since this person has had a relatively unusual career path, this is a little more likely. Still, you can't be sure unless you ask them, or unless the university makes their tenure status public in some other way.
It's quite common in my experience for someone with several years of experience as an assistant professor to be hired as a tenure track associate professor at another university, typically with a shortened tenure process. It's also possible that this person was hired with tenure as an associate professor, but that's less common in my experience.
Another example I'm familiar with is a tenured associate professor at a "lesser" school getting an offer with the same rank of associate at a "better" school, but on a shortened (relative to an assistant professor on the tenure track) tenure process.
A few universities routinely use the title "associate professor without tenure." Even at universities like mine, where associate professors almost always have tenure, there are (at least) two situations where an associate professor might not have tenure. (1) The person has done research commensurate with the title of associate professor but has no teaching experience. (2) We are trying to offer a position (to someone at another university) quickly because of competition with other schools. Getting approval from the college administration and the provost for a tenured offer takes more time than getting approval for a non-tenured offer. So we might offer a non-tenured position quickly with the understanding that it will be upgraded to tenure when we get the necessary administrative approval (and, if we don't get approval for a tenured offer, then we'll recommend promotion to tenure next year).
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.813065
| 2017-08-09T08:48:37 |
94340
|
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Stack Exchange
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Should I remove a coauthor if he did something detrimental to the project?
I am corresponding a paper and the status of the paper is under review after first revision.
Recently, I realized that one of my coauthors had done some bad acts against the project (related to the paper) in the past and now I want to delete his name from the author list.
Meanwhile it should be noted that his contribution to the study had never been scientific and I wrote with negligence his name. However, my big concern is now that removing his name might be unethical.
How can I deal with this important issue?
Why not just leave his name as is? Then, make sure you never co-author another paper with him in the future.
some bad acts against the project — I don't understand what this could mean. Did he deliberately try to sabotage the project? — his contribution to the study had never been scientific — So he did contribute to the project, then. — I wrote with negligence his name — I don't understand this sentence.
This is a tricky one but you might just have to bite the bullet and keep his name on the paper, making a mental note both not to work with him again and being careful about who you name as co-author.
one of my coauthors had done some bad acts against the project
(related to the paper) in the past and now I want to delete his name
from the author list.
But have these acts impacted on the quality of the paper? It sounds like they have affected the project but not specifically the paper. This is a similar criticism to people complaining against the internal bickering and politics of e.g. software development which affects how software is made, yes, but doesn't necessarily affect the quality or accuracy of the overall output product.
Meanwhile it should be noted that his collaboration with study had
never been scientific and I wrote with negligence his name.
So he did make some contribution? What was this contribution? Conceptual? Literary in some way? I would doubt that you included his name with negligence at the time you did so, but now it seems negligent in the light of new information.
However, my big concern is now that removing his name might be
un-ethic!!
I think it would certainly raise some questions that might be difficult to answer without possible repercussions on yourself. I would grit your teeth and let the paper go through further revisions, it sounds like it's too far down the line to remove a co-author's name, but be careful who you include - and why - in the future. Academia is a learning process in more than one way.
It is noted in this answer - but it bears highlighting, make sure the paper is sound and correct.
Your question is unfortunately a bit vague and unclear, so it will be hard to answer definitively, but my basic take is...No.
I am corresponding a paper and the status of the paper is under review
after first revision.
I've very rarely encountered a journal or editor that was okay with major changes in authorship after a revision, and expecially rare one that is alright with the removal of an author.
Recently, I realized that one of my coauthors had done some bad acts
against the project (related to the paper) in the past and now I want
to delete his name from the author list.
Here your vagueness is a problem. "Bad acts" could mean anything from being petty and backbiting to outright scientific fraud or criminal activity.
But without more information, my general stance is this: If he met the criteria to be an author in the first place, merely being not a great person to work with isn't grounds to remove him.
Meanwhile it should be noted that his contribution to the study had
never been scientific and I wrote with negligence his name. However,
my big concern is now that removing his name might be unethical.
I'm a little concerned that this reasoning is a little...post hoc. Why was he on the paper in the first place. What originally drove your negligence (his name didn't end up on the paper by accident)?
How can I deal with this important issue?
You choose not to work with this person again.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.813732
| 2016-09-08T16:09:17 |
76522
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Stack Exchange
|
Advisor delaying response, proposing changes every now and then in last week, how to deal?
I have read various posts on SO related to my question, so the parts I got answer I am not putting here.
My advisor has asked me to write a paper and when I sent the draft it's with him until the last week of deadline for journal. Then he called me for meeting and I could clearly see the nice and crispy pages just printed without a single dot, and also he roughly turned pages and then told me do this and that. And these changes would take a lot of time. Then he again did the same and proposed such changes that are close to a whole revision and most of the times I ended up having to revert the changes. If to be honest, I want to tell him that please at least for one time read the whole paper, propose changes and let me do it then, it will save our months of time instead of keeping it with you for more then a month without reading. Same thing happened when I was writing my first annual report which had to be submitted before the 9th month of starting PhD, I submitted in my 7th month and ended up passing first year in 16th month after starting date.
I can't change advisor due to my study leave rules and my tenure of leave as well as the scholarship he gave I can't even talk to him as he is very reserved, not open for discussions or arguments.
Should I just do as it is or do I need to ask someone from management for help?
Writing papers is hard work. Learning how to write papers is hard work.
"Then he call me for meeting" - Why wait for him to call the meeting? When you send him the draft (nice and early), tell him "Here's a current draft. Are you available for a meeting next Monday to discuss it?"
Is it possible you may have a deficiency in your English language skills that bears on what it takes to produce a publishable article and that your adviser is having difficulty helping you overcome it?
Well i guess its not that bad, and also ibhave publications and so far no reviewer asked for English proof reading etc, any how he dont tell me to correct grammer or anything except rubbish changes like getting the balll out of his court. I also did ask him to have meeting and he say i will email you when there is need to meet.
I also did ask him to have meeting and he say i will email you when there is need to meet. — Repeat after me: "In light of the volume of feedback you've given me in our last few meetings, it's clear that we should be meeting more often than we have been. Let's schedule the next meeting now. Are you free next week at this time?"
It is your PhD, not his!
While it is true that writing papers is hard work you really need to take some initiative here. You need to arrange the meetings and make sure things are done by the deadlines.
In all honesty he probably has more important things on his mind than your deadlines.
As far as i know he dont have more then 3 phd students. So in that case he can manage easily if he wants. He comes too late as well, so definately he has no other duty there
He sounds like a pain-in-the-behind advisor. But you said you don't want to change advisors. Can you find someone else to mentor you, somewhat informally?
Should i just do as it is or do i need to ask someone from management for help?
There's nothing wrong with having a conversation with an administrator in your department. When requesting the appointment, you could say you would like to ask for some advice. Then in the appointment, describe your difficulties in a very calm, neutral tone, stressing the difficulties meeting deadlines. Take notes on the advice you are given; appear optimistic and grateful. Ask if you may come back in a couple of months to check in on how things are going.
That may be enough for the administrator to have a helpful conversation with your advisor.
I am afraid he might mind this and then make further hurdles for me.
It sounds like you are concerned that if an administrator had a gentle word with your advisor, your advisor might take it badly, and take it out on you. Hm. A lot depends on the culture in your department, and the leadership style of the administrators. Perhaps you could take a month to collect as many observations as you can about the problem-solving skills and style in your department. Take a little time every week to get to know people in your department. Go for coffee with other students who've been there longer than you, hang out at the cookie table at seminars, and keep your ears open.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.814166
| 2016-02-09T17:49:23 |
63062
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How does one organize their publication pipeline?
In the field of computer science, there are numerous conferences and journals to seek publication in. It's almost overwhelming! How does one go about organizing, prioritizing, and planning a workflow or "pipeline" for meeting the variety of submission deadlines?
For example, is there a "definitive" resource like wikicfp that most researchers use? Do you simply track your deadline dates on a calendar, even years in advance?
Or do folks tend to just write the papers first, and see what CFP dates are in the near future, and submit to what's in the near future? (Submitting "now" to what's available, as opposed to waiting/planning/timing in advance for particular avenues of publication.)
Or do folks tend to target just a handful of top-tier conferences and journals, and then investigate, ad-hoc, for other opportunities after being rejected from the top-tier publications?
ConfSearch tracks a lot of CS conference dates. Might be worth a look.
I too am in CS but I found the schedule of conferences to be fairly simple and I strive to submit to the same conferences each year.
First, identify the handful of conferences in your field that are both reputable and aligned with your research topics. Then you can form a mental model that is made up of (A) the deadlines and (B) the prestige.
For example, all of the conferences that I would submit to all have deadlines that cluster around two times, Fall (August/September) and Spring (March/April). I can also group them into top-tier or second-tier. At that point, it is pretty easy to know where I am going to submit each piece of work based on whether it is Fall or Spring and whether it is suitable for the top-tier venues.
One side note. I have been given the advice to find 1-2 conferences that I can call "home." That way I can get close to the community, network, and they will become familiar with my work. I have been told to avoid shooting papers off to a dozen different conferences because they will be forgotten in those communities.
Having a home conference is indeed important. There's no reason not to go to others, but you should always appear in certain places.
@Fomite Time and money are great reasons not to go to others! But sure, it is definitely good to try out other venues from time to time.
There is no "definitive" source for papers - indeed, in many fields, calls for papers don't actually drive the publication pipeline at all - for example, only a very, very small percentage of my papers have ever been as the result of a call, and in both cases, it was more "Hey, this will fit really well in our special issue on $thing..."
In general terms, I keep an eye out for special issues and other calls that are relevant to me, and after awhile, you generate a feel for the ones that are recurring. I use a Kanban board to organize my papers generally, with lanes like "Planning", "Coding/Analysis", "Writing", "With Coauthors" etc. If there's a particular targeted call and deadline, that gets written on that research idea's index card as well.
Thanks for the Kanban board tip, I'll have to integrate that into my workflow.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.814500
| 2017-09-25T04:09:15 |
96450
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Stack Exchange
|
What happens if you don't get tenure?
I've heard different takes on what the convention is when an Assistant or Associate Professor does not achieve tenure. Can you just remain at your existing position and continue to teach and conduct research? Can you reapply for tenure again later? Is it more conventional to leave the institution for another tenure-track position at another institution?
This is in regard to US universities, but perhaps an answer articulating what is common in different countries is best.
Freedom. You get your freedom back.
In my experience (in math, in the US), no you cannot remain in your current position (for long). While tenure is historically a means of protection for faculty from political forces, and thus a tool to provide academic freedom, pre-tenure periods often function as a sort of long-term provisional hiring period to make sure you're right for the university/department and getting tenure is sort of stamp of certification of your worth to the department and university. So if you fail to get tenure, the reason is typically because someone decides you're not performing well enough in your current position.
That said, the university will typically give you another year in your current position which gives you time to look for jobs elsewhere. People who don't get tenure usually move somewhere else, or have trouble getting another job.
Note: Sometimes people go up for tenure early (before the specified date in your contract). I don't know what the standards are for consequences of not getting tenure then--when I've seen people go up early, they got tenure.
At most institutions whose procedures I'm aware of, you only get one chance at a tenure application at a given university. If you are not granted tenure, there are usually provisions for how long you can stay—usually until the expiration of your existing contract, which typically amounts to until the end of the academic year following the denial of tenure. Following that, you have to move somewhere else, whether it's an academic position at another institution or a position outside of academia.
You normally only get one chance at a tenure application at a given university. This is incorrect at all University of California campuses, which makes me suspect that your use of "normally" here is very much unwarranted.
Sometimes there is an option to apply early.
@DanRomik: That's actually the first time I've heard of such an exception, so I don't know if allowing multiple attempts are as widespread as you think, either.
@aeismail I have no opinion about what is widespread, but suspect that in the US many places have policies that are fairly similar to the University of California. In any case it's interesting to hear that things work differently at other places. This is an illustration of the "academia is a bigger and more diverse place than you think" principle that some people here bring up occasionally, and a reminder that it's dangerous to extrapolate from one's own experience to all of academia.
My college (Literature, Science and Arts, at the University of Michigan) allows each candidate only one tenure review. Even if the review occurs earlier than normal, if the decision is negative, the candidate gets only a one-year terminal appointment for the following year.
For another couple of data points, this is how it works at my small, private liberal arts institution, and also how it works at the large, public R-1 university up the road (I have a friend who was denied tenure there, so learned more about their policies than I wanted to). Both in the US. Of course, at my institution it's very uncommon for someone to get all the way to the tenure review and then fail; the Dean will have had a quiet word with anyone unlikely to get tenure well ahead of the six-year review.
It my school there is a "point of no return" during the early tenure process (namely, when it gets sent to the Provost's office), but prior to that you can withdraw your early application and just go up at the normal time.
Here is how it works at my US institution. (I know that some other US institutions have similar systems, and my impression is that this is in fact typical in the US.)
When hired as an Assistant Professor, the job offer includes a mandatory date for latest possible tenure consideration, normally in the sixth year of the position. (Ninth year for clinical faculty in professional schools.) An Assistant Professor can apply for tenure and promotion in any year before that; if they are unsuccessful they can remain in the position and apply for tenure again, up until that latest possible date. If they are unsuccessful at getting tenure at the latest possible date, they get one more year in the position then have to leave.
So in theory, an Assistant Professor could apply for tenure over and over again through that six-year period. In practice, that would be a terrible idea. Most people apply for tenure only once at a given institution, and leave for another institution if they're unsuccessful. I don't believe I've personally ever heard of someone applying more than twice for tenure at a given institution.
In my university, you have to get special permission to go up early for tenure. I don't know if such permission is ever denied in practice, but I could imagine situations where the administration/department might say to wait a year.
Many years ago the state school where I taught gave two sequential one year contracts, then progressively longer ones until a person has been employed for more than 7 years, at which point he or she was considered tenured. I only lasted two years, being a terrible fit there who didn't understand the school's conservative culture, nor how to teach to the students. Learned those skills, but far too late to ever do much with the doctorate. And that's the point, this discussion is somewhat moot as (barring superstars or people in very hot or well funded fields) the chance of anybody getting tenure is increasingly remote. Adjuncts are much cheaper; in time tenured professors will be as rare as butlers.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.815017
| 2017-05-22T17:16:51 |
89842
|
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Stack Exchange
|
Teacher put all of the answers to the homework in white font?
We have Science homework due tomorrow and it's basically a "fill in the boxes" homework about energy in Microsoft Word. Well, my friends and I quickly realised that the teacher had put all of the answers in white font in the boxes. So, all we need to do is change the font to black and there's our homework.
I really don't know if this was an accident, intentional or a trap to test which of us are honest or not. So what do I do?
Do I just turn the font to black, read it over and laugh at how easy it was, or do I delete the boxes and actually try? I know which one I should do, of course, but if all the people in my class have done that and the answers are the same, what do I do?
Actually do the work yourself and don't get into the habit of exploiting carelessness on the instructor's part.
You want to learn or to get assessed? Well, assessment is important, but learning is more so.
If you want to get on your teacher's good side, you might even consider emailing them and letting them know what you accidentally found. They'll probably tell you to just do the work on your own, but they may also be grateful if it was an error on their part. Just be respectful if you do tell them.
Hard to believe it was an "error". More likely something the teacher thought they could do for simplicity and didn't expect to be found out. I agree, telling them is probably best.
@SeanRoberson How's that view from that high horse you're riding? It's not carelessness, it's either stupidity or laziness, none of which are properties you'd praise a teacher for. It sounds like OP should consider going into computer science when they get the chance; OP: you'll find friends and peers there!
@PålGD His advice is valid. This is essentially a "should I plagiarize my homework?" question. It doesn't matter how easy it is to do so. Google makes it easy to plagiarize almost any homework these days. It's academically dishonest and even if you don't care about honesty it's also a trivial case to spot... so even a dishonest person shouldn't do this, as they are almost guaranteed to be caught.
something similar happens all the time. a common mistake is that people who redact text assume putting a black box over text in pdf destroys the text. Like secrets about submarines most people just dont get computers. And mistakes do happen.
When I was a teacher, I gave a test one day and noticed that a girl sitting near my desk was desperately trying to look over at me grading already completed exams. So I made a big answer key and left it in full view of her desk. Of course, I purposely got every answer wrong, and she ended up with the zero she deserved. Your teacher may be smarter than you think.
There was also the time a kid's test got cut off by the photocopy machine, yet he still magically got the question right. I told him I was calling his parents since he was clearly gifted, and was having him transferred into high school across town right away. He cried. Good times.
There are several reasons you should do the work yourself, ignoring the filled in answers:
It is the honest thing to do.
You will learn far more from the homework that way.
The filled-in answers may not be the right answers. For example, the teacher could have used a file from someone who had done the homework for calibration, and made some mistakes.
If the teacher sees a lot of 100% correct answers, with exactly the same wording and formatting, they may become suspicious and realize what was going on. In that case, it may be very important to be able to honestly say you did the work yourself.
In college, the textbook exercises have answers, in the back or as a separate book.
The point isn’t to do busywork, but to practice. Work it out, and then check to see if you’re right, and try again if necessary. You can have the answers up front if you are mature enough.
Be honest, let the professor know about their mistake, do the homework and show your results. When you let the professor know about their mistake, do it privately before class, don't call them out in front of the class. Remember your teacher is only human, too. I used to be a professor at a local community college and have made the same mistake, so this was from my experience with it.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.815427
| 2015-09-21T09:28:53 |
54723
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Stack Exchange
|
Referring to papers by myself and others in my thesis
In citing a paper by myself and others in my thesis, suppose my surname is A and that I have a paper jointly with B and C. I want to cite it, and normally, I would write
A, B, and C showed that this can be done [ABC15].
However, in my thesis, it feels more natural to say
Together with B and C, we showed that this can be done [ABC15].
Which is better? Are there better options?
In other words, should I pretend that A is some random dude when it is in fact the author of the thesis the reader is currently reading?
For context: This is a thesis in theoretical computer science/algorithmic graph theory/parameterized algorithms/complexity. I prefer to use "we" as is usual in mathematical texts.
I have edited your comment in the question. It is better to add any clarification in the question itself than in comments that can get lost.
@A.Klomp But then what happens if there is another relevant paper by A, D, and E? Do you also refer to the authors as "we"?
@A.Klomp I am trying to avoid using a citation reference as a word.
@A. Klomp: In fields where author ordering is alphabetical (like mathematics, including theoretical computer science), it is considered by many to be a very bad practice to list some but not all authors' names. This is a recipe for alienating someone for no good reason.
So you want to use "we" as in you and your supporting network (supervisors etc.) and you want to mention B and C by name, and you don't want to have citation as a word. I'd go for the second option. The only slight variation without "we", that I can think of is something like "Together (/In collaboration) with B and C, it was shown that this can be done [ABC15]."
Personally I feel (and I know that there are many who might disagree) that it is perfectly fine to use 'I' and 'we' here. I think that obsessively sticking to passive voice makes papers and theses less readable. After all, you did do the work. Why hide behind the passive voice? My suggestion would be to go with option 2:
Together with B and C, we showed that this can be done [ABC15].
See also the answer of this question on the use of "we" and "I" in mathematical text.
"I" and "We" are not very common in paper referencing, usually the best solution is using a passive form, i.e, "As was shown at [2]" or "As the authors have shown at [2]" or "In [2] the authors and others showed that...".
I am trying to avoid using a citation reference as a word.
If all you are doing is asserting that "X can be done", then it is appropriate to cite your paper as if it was any other, using a variation of first pattern:
[ABC15] demonstrated the feasibility of this method.
Notice that this is using an active voice.
If, instead, you wanted to build on an argument that you first and fully expressed in the previous article, then you would be justified using personal pronouns:
As I have argued elsewhere [ABC15], the feasibility of this method can be verified experimentally.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.815742
| 2020-11-26T21:17:26 |
159320
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Stack Exchange
|
How do I deal with feelings of guilt and shame related to how long my PhD has taken?
I am physically disabled. I have spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative neuromuscular disease. I am wheelchair-bound and am nearly quadriplegic. This is not to complain, but rather to provide context.
My Ph.D. thesis defense is scheduled for less than two months from now. It has been a long road. I am tired.
It has also been literally a long time. It has been 10 years since I got my bachelor's degree and started the Ph.D. program. I only made it this far with the tireless support of my extraordinary advisor and a wonderful department. They never gave up on me.
I am currently struggling with guilt, or shame, that it has taken me so long to get to the defense. My advisor, my department, and my family have not made me feel this way. But I still feel bad that it has taken me so long. How do I deal with feelings of guilt, shame, and inadequacy?
I believe that all people have value, regardless of their success or failure or their intellectual ability. But somehow I guess I don't believe this applies to me.
I am looking for help, support, or anecdotes related to feelings of guilt/shame/inadequacy in academia in particular (especially Ph.D. programs), and not necessarily about life in general.
10 years from BA to PhD isn't particularly long.
Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/87668/how-do-you-come-to-terms-with-the-fact-that-you-might-never-be-among-the-best-in/
I agree with @henning--reinstateMonica; two of my students have, for entirely legitimate reasons, taken more than 10 years.
I had a friend who took 17 years to get their PhD. Primarily, they really liked being in grad school. Eventually reality set in and they rapidly finished up and graduated.
You should discuss your feelings with a licensed mental health professional.
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11765/how-to-effectively-deal-with-imposter-syndrome-ive-somehow-convinced-everyone
Talk to a counselor about your feelings. They can help.
But you aren't alone in taking a long time. Your disabilities are part of it, but success in research can't really be scheduled. Depending on the research questions you've been asking your extra three years (say) can be perfectly normal. Insight comes when it comes. And, I suspect you've had necessary timeouts for medical reasons.
But you are probably feeling a bit of both burn out and possibly imposter syndrome. Both are common at the end of a doctoral program, even if it doesn't take longer than (whatever it means to be) normal.
Congratulations on finishing. Thank everyone who has supported you.
Do you know of any good resources on imposter syndrome? I've heard people talk about it, but I'm not entirely sure what it is. Maybe a "working definition of imposter syndrome" is a good separate question.
Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome. A search for it on this site will turn up questions with similar concerns.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.816100
| 2014-12-15T10:56:56 |
34317
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Stack Exchange
|
How to cite prices in academia?
In the introduction of my thesis I want to motivate the use of alternative neutron converters to helium-3 by mentioning the exploding cost of latter.
I am not directly involved with helium-3, since I work with the alternatives. Online research yielded for instance a congressional research paper by Shea and Morgan from 2010, and the wikipedia page for helium-3 links to an IEEE site also from 2010, mentioning the price explosion in that year.
Is one of those source apt for citation? Is there a best way to cite prices in academia?
Maybe you can find a public budget of a project of the scale you are targeting, where it is possible the He-3 is quoted. In any case, I imagine your target audience are the people working (and purchasing) with He-3, and they do know how expensive it is without needing you to tell them.
For prices, I assume citing like how Oil and Gold are cited is probably okay. Cost/standard unit. Oil is traded in $/barrels, gold is traded in $/ounces, and helium is possibly traded in $/liters since it is a gas.
There are two, as I see it very different questions you pose. as for the aptness of the sources, the Shea and Morgan paper is a publication that can be referenced because it is traceable and likely to be remaining for a long time in unaltered state. It is also published by a formal body.
When it comes to citing prices the question is perhaps trickier. Not knowing the market for helium-3 I do not know where the prices are determined but usually there is some form of exchange that determines prices based on the market and this makes prices shift quickly. In such cases, one needs to find a source where the market swings are documented and stored so that one can cite a price at a specific time in a time series that people can revisit if they wish to check the correctness of your assessments. This type of referencing is common in economics when discussing price variations, trends etc.
Thanks! To my knowledge, helium-3 is only traded in auctions any more. I have no idea, if the results are published anywhere. Well, I think I will use the paper.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.816319
| 2013-02-27T22:23:25 |
8305
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Stack Exchange
|
Who am I? A "Copy Editor"?
I help with typesetting of one scientific journal: I recieve the articles in the form in which they were finally accepted, and I re-format them etc. to make them ready for publication. Currently, my title in the journal colophon says: "Graphic Design and Typesetting: M. Name".
However, I get the impression that this position is in the scientific jargon usually called "Copy Editor", which would suit the colophon quite well since there are other "Editors" listed there (Language, Guest, Editor-in-charge, etc.). I want to make sure whether this is appropriate or not.
So: Who am I?
Hmmm. I'm not convinced this question is on-topic here; it seems better suited for Workplace. But for what it's worth, I think your current title is both more descriptive and more attractive.
@JeffE There is a large difference between "on-topic elsewhere" and "off-topic here" I think.
I agree completely!
Who do you want to be?
@DanielE.Shub That's a good question. I don't like the current title so much, and I wanted an unbiased opinion on it...
"Pre-press" is another term…
In order to answer your question, let me explain my view of copy editing and typesetting
In my field, after an article is accepted it is copy edited and then typeset. The role of the copy editor is to check for consistencies with the journal style, find grammatical and typographical errors, and provide guidance to the typesetter. The copy editor often produces a short list of "author queries" where the copy editor has found "inconsistencies" (often unused references or undefined abbreviations). Generally I receive a copy of the double-spaced manuscript with the copy editors markup and the typeset article. We are then expected to make sure the typeset manuscript is "correct".
I don't think there is a difference in prestige between copy editor and typesetter, they are really different roles (or different perspectives of the similar roles). You say in your comments that you do not like the title, I would talk to the publisher/editor-in-chief about changing it. You can either approach this from a graphic design vantage (the list will look better) or from a professional prospective (I edit I don't do graphic design). The key is you need to know what you want to be called.
A copy editor is usually the person who runs through the manuscript checking that it adheres to the style of the journal. this includes checking references, checking figure numbering but also spelling and language, in short almost everything. The copy editor improves the paper from these formal/technical points of view. It is not usually the copy editor that typesets the paper because that is usually done by a typesetter involved with the printer. Having said that, with purely electronic publication it is more likely that this task would also end up with a copy editor. Thus the old demarcation lines between copy editor and printer may be less and less clear.
The editors usually handle scientific content and managing contacts between reviewers and authors on matters of the scientific content as well as making decisions. The name for this varies a lot between journals.
So who are you? Your current "title" may be OK but if you also improve the formal and technical quality of the paper, copy editor would be most appropriate.
According to Wikipedia,
Typically, copy editing involves correcting spelling, punctuation, grammar, terminology, jargon, and semantics, and ensuring that the text adheres to the publisher's style or an external style guide [...].
You say that you "re-format" articles. I assume you mean things like changing font and paragraph attributes. If you do not change the text (e.g., correct the errors), then perhaps the title "copy editor" is not the best fit for you.
However, Wikipedia states that
The role of the copy editor varies considerably from one publication to another. Some newspaper copy editors select stories from wire service copy; others use desktop publishing software to do design and layout work that once was the province of design and production specialists.
The last statement supports Peter Jansson's comment that "the old demarcation lines between copy editor and printer may be less and less clear."
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.816707
| 2015-05-12T11:39:07 |
45280
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|
Stack Exchange
|
Is it plagiarism/OK if I use big parts of someones literature review for the introduction section of my paper?
The questions says it all. I have an report I want to write. The level expected is slightly lower than that of a master thesis. I do need to write an introduction to the topic and there is a very recent literature review online. It covers some things that I want to use in my introduction. I do not have the possibility to access all the papers in the review as they are behind a paywall. How should I cite the review or the papers in the review? What is common practice in psychology?
Have you asked your library about access to the paper behind the paywall?
University (and some public/school/technical college) have large numbers of subscriptions to major journals.
Sometimes how to get around the paywall might be a bit unexpected, such as having to connect to a VPN.
If it is in a major journal (few really core papers worth reviewing are in minor ones), odds are in your favour for your library having a subscription.
I did not yet go to the library for access. I will do that.
All in all, I just wanted to know what the general concensus is considering this practice. I mean, for some it is enough to read the abstract, others the entire paper... ob maybe just scanning the paper.. so why not just use someone elses review then and just do a quick glance at the original.
Where do you draw the line...
Consensus about how much of a paper you should read before citing it seems to be a very different question than the one in the title.
If you copy the review text from the web into your own thesis it is a clear case of plagiarism.
When you write academic text where there is a need to provide the sources for your information (as references) you need to have read the sources. It is not ok to quote sources without having even looked at them. In very rare cases, may it be acceptable to quote a source quoted by someone else in a publication. These cases may include very hard to find literature or literature in a different language. But, such secondary references should not be used unless deemed absolutely unavoidable.
If you need to cite the on-line review, you will need to look at how web-sources are cited at your school (if they are allowed). you can also look at the recommendations at American Psychological Association (APA; very appropriate for you) and their style site. You may find many other bits and pieces that are of interest to you.
I'm going to disagree with Peter on this.
Almost anything is acceptable if you are utterly utterly open and honest about it. If you lift sections from the review without proper attribution that's plagiarism but if you properly cite and properly quote a block of text from the review with quotation marks and indentation making clear where it is from then it's not plagiarism.
There's nothing wrong with including a quoted block of text with something along the lines of "and this concept is well explained in A. Bsons review [title] (20xx) " followed by a quote (even quite a large quote) which is properly indented and shown to be a quote so that people are clear what are your own words and what has been written by the other author.
Now for one reason or another the review might be incorrect or a poor choice of source or a source that is unacceptable for some other reason within the bounds of what you've been assigned to do or someone may have specifically specified that reviews must not be used as sources but that's all separate from plagiarism.
To answer in the spirit of my answer:
User woj https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15446/woj on this site once commented that
"I reviewed once a thesis which had a copied/pasted page from a
publication (with an authorization from the author and clear
citations) and the author added in a footnote that this is by far the
best explanation he read and does not see any reason to phrase it
differently (that was in an introductory chapter). I was very fine
with that."
As a comment in this page:
Are you allowed to copy text from your Master's thesis into your PhD thesis?
"Almost anything is acceptable if you are utterly utterly open and honest about it." I don't think that's true. The usual requirement is that a thesis be the author's own work. Using "big parts" of somebody else's work, even acknowledged, doesn't seem to meet that criterion.
@DavidRicherby: I believe he meant acceptable regarding plagiarism. I agree that if you are honest and open about it, it cannot be considered plagiarism. Whether or not the work as a whole is original or not, and considered acceptable to get a degree is a completely different matter
Here's my two cents. The OP's question is formulated as "is it plagiarism/OK". Therefore, if someone copies large parts of someone's work and provides proper attribution, it is definitely not plagiarism, but it is IMHO strongly not OK. It is not OK for the following two reasons:
most academic guidelines (i.e., dissertation guides) significantly limit the size of direct copy/paste materials, so it is not possible to do that without violating those guidelines;
even in the absence of such guidelines, direct reusing of someone's work represents the (almost complete) lack of academic effort, thus, making that paper/report irrelevant.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.817159
| 2014-04-28T17:43:31 |
19930
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Stack Exchange
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can I use instagram pictures for an academic work
The question is pretty easy and fit in the title.
So: can I use instagram pictures for an academic work?
I think I have to ask people who posted them if they agree but I'm not sure. I don't want any trouble with plagiarism and copyright.
I once did a team project, and I had blogged about each miniscule thing through it. That's a habit. One member in the team was asked to prepare the report and he printed, compiled and submitted by blog posts. It was a school thing, so it was accepted without much hassle.
In a a word no, users of Instagram retain copyright of their own images, and grant Instagram a licence to reproduce them on Instagram's website. No licence is granted to other users of the website, so you would need to approach each user individually to gain permission, unless your usage comes under a fair-use right. This differs between countries, so it depends on where the user is located that posted the image, and where you are located as to what rights you may have under this. These fair-use rights are very restricted, and have no relationship to academic work in particular.
I am not an IP lawyer, but at least in the US, my understanding is that 'for educational purposes' is one of the primary fair-use arguments.
It's in France. Their is an article on the law for that. I obteined it on the fair use French page on wikipedia. Thank you for your help.
So if you cite name and sources you have the right to use it without asking to anyone
I had a look at the French fair-use page, the translation is not entirely clear, but it does not appear to be a blanket fair-use for academic purposes, so it depends on why you are using it. If you are doing this as part of a student project it may fall under the "educational clause", but I would also consider ethical (as separate from legal) implications of doing this as part of your report.
Contra Chris Thompson, I'd say, in a word, 'maybe'. E.g., in the US, if the purpose of the work is to criticize or critique the picture, then you probably have a fair-use right to reproduce the image in your academic work. Whether or not the journal or conference you intend to publish in will accept your paper without an explicit license is another story.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.817397
| 2015-03-03T03:46:56 |
40910
|
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Stack Exchange
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Should editors and reviewers be listed alongside authors, to give them credit?
Reviewing an article in your field is an interesting and rewarding experience. Any scientist has, of course, a moral obligation for reviewing other people's work just like he has his/her own work reviewed.
That being said, it's a very time consuming process and it would be nice if you could get some credit for it. Back in ye olde days of print journals, the editorial board and associate editors would be listed in the front pages so that was a form of credit. Nowadays however, with articles being accessed individually online, the editorial board gets much less, if any exposure.
Should the editorial board/associate editors be listed alongside the authors in an article or is that not necessary? If the editors/reviewers are listed alongside the authors then this would create the problem of revealing the reviewers to the authors, in an otherwise blind review.
There are some journals where each article lists the name of the handling editor. Listing the entire editorial board seems excessive, though.
Speaking as an associate editor of a journal, I'm quite happy with the credit I receive: I'm listed as part of the editorial board online, it's listed on my C.V., and I get to help make sure what's getting published in my field is up to the standards of quality I desire.
That said, some journals do list the editor and even the reviewers after publication (see, for example, the Frontiers series of journals), so at least some people definitely seem to agree with your sentiment.
I didn't realize that some journals don't list the handling editor; all of the journals for which I have served as an editor or deputy editor list my name with every paper I've edited.
@Corvus I'm on the editorial board of an ACM Transactions journal: we're all listed in the masthead, but the handling editor is not listed on the paper.
Your question asks for both editors and reviewers but goes on to focus on editors. I will thus start with editors.
As you say editors are not generally listed on electronic copies of articles. Being Editor-in-Chief of a journal, I along with the other Associate Editors, do not see any need to be visible there. The reason is that one can ask to whom the credit has meaning.
First a practical issues. For my journal, we are all listed on the journal web site. When a person chooses a journal the line-up of editors is one criteria to use, if you recognise an editor as a prominent scientist in the field, it is a good (although not fool proof) indicator that the journal is good. So from that perspective nothing is lost. I think for most this is the most important issue of seeing the editors names for most authors/readers. Finding the web site is not difficult so I am sure the names can easily be found.
As for credit, I feel I am credited enough by having the job listed in my CV. After all, apart from enjoying the work associated with the editorship, it is a good experience to show in a CV for salary discussions, science proposals etc. That is where it counts for me. I would not be much happier if my name was listed on every paper "my" journal puts out. Besides, if an author experiences I have provided a service beyond any normal editor's tasks they usually thank me in the acknowledgement but that is not something that is common (and should not be) or expected.
As for crediting reviewers is should be common courtesy to acknowledge at least very constructive reviewers, even anonymous ones (as anonymous), in the acknowledgement. Unfortunately there seems to be a tradition in some academic cultures never to do so. One possibility is also for the journal to list reviewers in a "thank you" page although that carries with it other issues.
So on the whole, for editors, I am sure most editors are quite happy the way things are (or they would find ways of changing it) and in the case of reviewers, authors could improve when it comes to acknowledging the work.
There are many potential ways to credit reviewers and editors. The most common way from what I've seen is acknowleding the handling editors on papers and in some cases publishing a yearly list of all reviewers that have contributed to the journal during the year.
However, note that some journals have an open review process and disclose the reviewers of papers, such as the Frontiers journal group (see e.g. this example at the bottom of the page). So to credit reviewers more directly is certainly possible, but will naturally remove the confidentiality of reviewers.
You should also look at https://www.peerageofscience.org/, which is a way of formally acknowledging good review work, as well as a way to transfer reviews and also make reviews citable and allow reviews of reviews.
Some journals (e.g. Neural Networks) start off each year by listing the reviewers who have reviewerd for them in the preceding year to acknowledge the work they have done. I think that is quite a nice gesture. I don't think the reviewers of a particular paper should be identifiable though as that breaks down the benefit of anonymous reviewing.
A better way for commercial publishers to thank their reviewers would be to give them one free book (of their choice) from their catalog for each year in which they review at least one paper for that publisher. ;o)
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.817847
| 2015-02-07T21:08:41 |
38467
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
The editor doesn't respond after accepting the manuscript
The journal editor accepted my paper and told me to ask his assistant about the next steps in the publication process. Four months ago I corrected some minor points and sent an updated manuscript to the assistant. Since then the editor's assistant remained silent. About two weeks ago I asked him about the status of the manuscript and next steps, but he hasn't replied yet. What should I do? Could the editor reject my manuscript after acceptance?
It is unclear whether your lack of response concerns the editor or the editor's assistant. The main questions indicates one thing but the text the other. So, who has not responded, the editor or assistant?
I haven't received any response from both of them. The editor hasn't contacted me after accepting the manuscript and his assistant hasn't responded to my latest letter.
When you say 'corrected some minor points' do you mean you reviewed the proof and corrected typos? Or did you somehow re-submit an edited version of your already-accepted paper?
No, I just changed acknowledgement and clearly informed the editor's assistant that it was the only change. Everything else remained the same.
You should write to the editor and tell him what you have told us. Really your concrete problem is that your correspondence has not been returned so you don't know what's going on. Maybe everything is proceeding as it should, maybe it isn't, but you need a reply.
Could editor reject my manuscript after acceptance?
Why do you even ask? Are you worried that the editor thought, "No, hang on, I don't want to publish this paper after all. Let's not publish it, never contact the author again, and hope for the best"?!? That's just totally loopy, unprofessional behavior. In this big, bad world of ours, anything could happen, but the chance of this happening to you -- provided only that you are dealing with a partway reputable, professional journal (essentially: not a journal that you learned about via a spammy, semi-literate email) -- is negligibly small.
Just get back in contact with the editor ASAP and take it from there. Be polite, but be persistent. Give the editor a week or two to reply. I honestly expect that he will. If not, write to the editor-in-chief / managing editor / some other members of the editorial board. You'll hear back from someone. Again, don't assume that something has gone terribly wrong, and certainly don't worry that your polite, professional behavior will jeopardize the future of your paper.
Thank you very much for your reply and suggestions!! So it is ok to mention that I couldn't get a response from his assistant, right?
Yes, this is exactly a reputable journal in my field! Perhaps I'm a bit anxious because previously the editor and his assistant responded to the letters very quickly, but then the assistant didn't respond to the latest letter. And it seemed slightly strange for me.
"So it is ok to mention that I couldn't get a response from his assistant, right?" Yes, it is okay and you should say it.
@Michele if not anything else, your emails to the assistant could just be being sent to spam, so he never got them.
You should write to the editor explaining that you have not received any further communication about the status of your manuscript for the last four months and that the assistant has not replied to your e-mail. I'm sure you will receive a reply from the editor. If you do not receive a reply from the editor within a couple of weeks, try to get hold of his number and call him. If that doesn't work, write to the editor-in-chief or managing editor of the journal.
Regarding your second question, once a manuscript has been accepted, the decision cannot be reversed, unless a major ethical breach, such as duplicate publication, salami slicing, or undisclosed conflict of interest, has been detected. However, if your manuscript free from these problems, you need not worry: it will not be rejected.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.818306
| 2015-01-22T15:55:14 |
37344
|
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|
Stack Exchange
|
How does one figure out which journals to submit a paper to?
I ask because I am finishing a paper and need to decide on which journals I'm going to submit it to, and I have never done a paper before.
I know very little about this, but my general sense is that I want to match the interest level of my paper to the renown of the journal (Nature probably doesn't want my lame paper, but I'm also not going to submit it to a fly-by-night journal that's purely for-profit). I have a vague idea of what some high profile journals are, and a few I know to be disreputable, but there's a pretty wide range in between I have no idea about.
I've heard of the concept of Impact Factor, but also heard (as that article mentions) that it's not everything and just a rough guideline. I've also heard favorable things about review journals, namely that they're often understated but can actually be a great place to submit because people often look there for fresh ideas.
Any advice on how to find the journal(s) that best match your paper?
This is one of the things that you should really discuss with your advisor, or some other trusted senior researcher in your network. Really the most reliable way to figure out which paper to send to which journal is by experience.
Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14387/selecting-journals-or-conferences-to-publish-research-work and http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10297/journals-selection-alternative-criteria-to-impact-factor
A few steps can help. Check your reference list. Where have others writing on similar topics published? you will end up with a list of reasonable journals. The next step can go in one of two ways,, either you chose a high impact journal on the list and take a chance it will be published there or you try to assess where your paper would best fit. The first approach is high risk and if you get rejected you would take the comments and resubmit to a lower impact journal. Trying to figure out an optimal journal directly is not easy and requires experience and insight. You can, for example, ask peers what they think might be a suitable journal and why. Even if you end up with a few differing answers you will be in much better shape. To decide from the final selection might be a matter of flipping coins. You can also look at the editorial staff and see if there is someone among th editors that is very close to your topic. That can be very useful since it is likely that peson will handle your paper and treat it with insight.
Checking your reference list and discussing with your advisor and senior colleagues will definitely help you shortlist a few journals suitable for your study. Once you have this list, try to figure out the best match for your paper in terms of journal scope. Also keep in mind the study design while selecting your journal. Some journals publish only original research articles, while some publish review articles and opinion pieces as well. Go through the "instructions to authors page" of the shortlisted journals carefully. Certain journals have clear specifications about the nature of the study. For example, a certain journal might not publish experiments conducted on animals.
Of course, the journal prestige and impact would also play a role in your selection. But I would focus more on finding a journal where my paper fits best with respect to the scope, study design, and author guidelines. Once you select a journal, it is always preferable to send a pre-submission inquiry briefly explaining the scope of your research and asking if the journal would be interested in it. If the editor shows interest, you can submit your paper to the journal. In case the editor is not interested in your study, you definitely end up saving a lot of time, rather than submitting your paper and getting a rejection.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.818601
| 2012-05-29T19:46:39 |
1802
|
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Stack Exchange
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Etiquette for seeking collaboration via E-Mail?
I work on a certain topic on the theoretical side and just came across a publication that I think would be a nice starting point for collaboration with an experimental lab (developmental biology).
I am a second-year student in Europe and my supervisor does not know anyone in the other lab. The question title mentions e-mail specifically as I don't expect to run into these people at conferences or any other occasion.
What are common rules and guidelines you follow when contacting someone for the first time about stuff that they work on and you feel excited about?
How do some of you that are contacted by people like me react to their attempts? And what are aspects to these requests that trigger interest on your part?
A collaboration is comparable to a business relationship; both sides need to put significant, continuous effort into making the relationship work, and the benefits are often only realized after some initial time period has passed. Given that mindset, you'll have to convince the prospective collaborator that:
You are a good researcher,
Your idea is worth researching, and
They will significantly benefit from having your cooperation in implementing this idea.
<negative nelly>
From my experience, as a graduate student, you will likely find it very difficult to succeed at convincing them of 1 and/or 3 without having the full backing of your advisor.
</negative nelly>
All that being said, if you plan on initiating contact via email, simply compose it as you would a communique to a business contact; write professionally, describe the idea clearly and briefly, and discuss how they should contact you to follow up. You will want to convince them of all three in the email, which may be a difficult task. I would imagine you should follow up via phone or in-person meeting, as you would a business contact.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.818803
| 2013-04-21T13:10:07 |
9523
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Stack Exchange
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Is it acceptable as referee to contact an author on a paper you review?
I am reviewing the second revision of a paper and am getting tired of this incredibly slow process of me pointing something out that requires clarification just to hear back from those authors two or three months from now (at the earliest).
Do you think I would insult gravely the academic spirit and / or authors of that manuscript if I just e-mailed the corresponding author saying "Look I still don't understand X because of Y can you please explain?"?
Personally, I think that doing so would just be what science is about: a bunch of people interested in similar scientific topics talking to each other.
What did the handling editor say? Potentially it is okay, but only if the editor says so.
Okay I understand. I haven't contacted the editor yet. I thought I could just e-mail the corresponding author as I do with any other author of papers when I have questions regarding their content. But maybe I am missing something regarding the 'ethics' of being a referee?
A corollary question for the community : is an electronic platform that manages the review process should allow direct messaging between referees and authors?
You might not agree with the process, but it has the merit of reducing conflict of interest situation which could interfere with objectivity. Like you get chummy with the author. Maybe meet over a couple of beers, etc. Pretty soon, you're not doing such an objective job of reviewing the paper. Anyway, couldn't the editor act as intermediary and pass on the requests for clarification?
@Kaz I've never heard of the scenario you paint. To my mind, if you were to get chummy in an open review process you are also going to get chummy with the current system. The contrary, referees not behaving well because they dislike the authors / compete with the authors I may have heard of.
There is an interesting discussion on the subject at MO:
http://mathoverflow.net/questions/50947/on-referee-author-communications
No, you should not, but there is of course no law that prevents it. Peer review is a process where the editor appoints reviewers because of their expertise to provide independent and knowledgeable views on the submitted manuscript. As such the reviews should pass through the editor since they are not only made to improve the manuscript from the point of the author but also prepare it to be worthy of publication in the journal to which it is submitted. Making such contact is thus breaking an understanding with the editor/journal and integrity of the journal review system and quality assurance. The correspondence needs to go through the editor.
If I understand you correctly, refereeing isn't about being another scientist interested in the same field as the authors of the manuscript -- it is really just about doing (unpaid) work for a journal?
Sorry if I did not express it clearly enough. Reviewing in the broader sense is of course to safeguard and improve science but it is the journal editor who is apointing the reviewer and the interest is thus also to make sure the manuscript meets the standards of the journal. There are as I understand it paid reviewers in some cases (although not in my field). So reviewing is unpaid and the job is done to keep the quality up in general but we also serve the journals and their publishers to uphold their reputation (whch we also benefit from in terms of e.g. citation index).
I can see upholding the quality of journal: if the referees only accept brilliant manuscripts that are likely to attract lots of citations then all future authors benefit from a higher CI.
I am reviewing the second revision of a paper and am getting tired of this incredibly slow process of me pointing something out that requires clarification just to hear back from those authors two or three months from now (at the earliest).
You don't need to e-mail the authors directly to get the information you want. The several month delay you are talking about is the time it takes to collect all the reviews, send them to the authors, and wait for a revised version of the paper. However, in the journals I'm familiar with you could request clarification by asking the editor to send a short message to the authors now and relay the response to you. Going through the editor might slow things down by a day or two, but not by months.
Do you think I would insult gravely the academic spirit and / or authors of that manuscript if I just e-mailed the corresponding author saying "Look I still don't understand X because of Y can you please explain?"?
The phrasing of your question is hyperbolic, but yes, this is something that could be considered offensive or unethical. Sending queries through the editor slows things down only slightly, while it avoids various difficulties:
Reviewers might bypass the editor on requests they would rather not call to the editor's attention (for example, suggesting that their papers be cited). Along similar ethical lines, announcing to the authors that you are reviewing their paper might help you pressure them for favors elsewhere. For example, it would be unethical to write "Dear X, I'm a reviewer for your recent submission to Y. I'm having trouble understanding it, so I fear it might take a while to arrive at a decision, but it could help to know blah blah blah. Can you supply any additional information? Regards, Z P.S. Have you reached a decision about participating in the joint project I proposed?"
It's important for the editor to be aware of all relevant information. If several reviewers request clarification about something, then that is itself informative about the clarity of the manuscript, even if they all agree in the end that it is correct. It's also valuable for the editor to see and judge the response itself (and not just to know whether it convinced the reviewer).
As Daniel Shub pointed out in the comments, you can always ask the editor whether it would be appropriate for you to contact the authors directly (it may depend on journal policy, customs in your field, or the editor's judgment of the particular situation). If the answer is yes, then you are all set. However, if the answer is no or you don't ask, then you should relay all communication through the editor, and I would expect that to be the usual answer.
I am reviewing the second revision of a paper and am getting tired of this incredibly slow process of me pointing something out that requires clarification just to hear back from those authors two or three months from now (at the earliest).
So what? Your understanding is not one of the required outcomes of the refereeing process.
Do you think I would insult gravely the academic spirit and / or authors of that manuscript if I just e-mailed the corresponding author saying "Look I still don't understand X because of Y can you please explain?"?
Perhaps not, but you would subvert the whole point of refereeing, which is to judge the paper on its own merits. The typical reader is not going to have access to the authors to clarify any confusing aspects of the paper. If the paper is confusing, it is simply not ready to publish; contacting the authors would not change this fact. If the authors have not addressed your concerns despite multiple rounds of reviewing, the appropriate response is to recommend rejection.
Others have raised additional ethical issues, so I won't repeat them.
excellent point about my understanding not being the required outcome of the whole process.
I think one desired outcome of the refereeing process is to get the paper to a point where the typical reader can understand it. Sometimes the paper needs too much help, and it should be rejected. But if you the referee can eventually get the authors to revise it to be clearer, then, as byproduct, you will also likely understand it better.
Do you think I would insult gravely the academic spirit and / or authors of that manuscript if I just e-mailed the corresponding author?
You are "hired" as a reviewer by the responsible editor hence by default you should obey the journal editorial board/conference programme committee rules. In your particular situation, I do not think contacting authors is appropriate. Obviously, they did not communicate their ideas/results clearly enough for the target audience, which is a reason for rejection (or at least subtracting "points" in the review). As a referee, that's just about what you need to care for. You are not supposed to do the authors' job, or invest more energy than any other interested expert reader would.
Communication with authors:
Generally speaking, sometimes there are sound reasons for starting a communication link with the authors (for example when the referee process is friendly, such as for invited contributions to journals, or chapters in an edited book). If that is the case, then you have at least the following options:
anonymized channel: preferrably channel all the communication between you and authors via the responsible editor who will "anonymise" your messages. Of course the editor has to be OK with such a setup;
direct communication link: ask the responsible editor for approval whether establishing a direct communication link is fine with her/him and if so, obey by whatever restrictions (s)he puts in place and keep the editor in the loop too - you need to keep a good track of the communication should there be a dispute later on. Sometimes communicating with authors is outright forbidden in guidelines to referees. Check the journal's rules carefully! Or finally,
after-review contact: you can finish the review on the basis of what is submitted as is usual, but you identify yourself in the review. Again, ask the responsible editor for approval first. Authors might choose to contact you, or not. It will be their decision.
In the past, I went the route #3. It worked well. But remember, reviews are blind in order to allow reviewers to be frank. Sometimes (most of the time?) such a feedback causes pain and friction. You need to think twice about this and always obey the editor's guidance. The reason is, sometimes with a best intention, you might cause harm! Such as rejection of the paper on the grounds of a mismanaged review process.
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.819575
| 2012-05-27T10:41:35 |
1726
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Stack Exchange
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Does getting awarded your PhD in physics depend on the quality of university?
Say you wrote a good thesis on some discovery you made in physics.
If it was a mediocre discovery, nothing special, are you more likely to get awarded the PhD at a 'not very good' university than at a top class university like Cambridge?
In part. But more so on the publication record.
The quality of the university and the quality of the theses produced are not perfectly correlated. You are just as likely to end up with a "nothing special" thesis at a Cambridge as at a Random State University. The criterion for awarding a PhD is the completion of an independent and original contribution to the field of knowledge one is studying. There is no requirement that it be "groundbreaking."
That said, given that the "top" universities also tend to have superior resources available to students, the likelihood that a "nothing special" thesis will be accepted by the advisor as suitable for a PhD thesis is also somewhat mitigated as a result.
Just as likely? I don't believe that.
As someone who's been at a Cambridge-like school for my doctoral studies, I can attest that many of the theses do not exactly set the world on fire. Maybe I shouldn't have said "just" as likely, but the institution does not guarantee the quality of the thesis.
I also went to a Cambridge-like school for my doctoral studies and am now teaching at a state university. The difference in the average quality of the theses is not hard to see. Although the majority of theses at a top university are not ground-breaking, the percentage of ground-breaking theses at a top place is surely higher. To say otherwise is to suggest that there really isn't that much difference between the students at a truly top institution and the 200th best institution, and I'm sure you know that is not the case.
@PeteL.Clark: OK, your point is valid. However, with respect to the OP's question, the basic truth of the matter is that a "nothing special" thesis gets you a PhD at a school like Cambridge, too.
the range of theses at any institution open long enough is always the same; the distribution over that range is what changes from place to place.
The quality of a thesis depends on several factors, the PhD student, the advisor and the work environment of the department where they work. th ePhD student should do the work and come up with own ideas and drive the work forward, more so towards the end than early on. the advisor, in most cases have established the basic research questions for the project in which the student works. The advisor also has a responsibility to facilitate understanding of the scientific method, ethics and plain knowledge to the student through the advisory role. The department may or may not have resources to provide a good work environment which includes size of collaborating research groups, lab space etc.
From this view it may be likely that a top tier university has more funding, has attracted "better" (however you wish to define that) scientists and lastly may attract better students (at least from the perspective of competitive application processes). It is, however, clear that these ingredients may not necessarily lead to success but it would not be a wide stretch of the imagination to say that basic conditions may be better and that this is reflected in the theses produced.
The bottom line, however, is that a good research environment is more likely to produce better work than just top tier ranking. In some cases bad luck may lead to poorer output, for example if the ice samples from Antarctica on which you completely rely for your work melt in a freezer accident. The question that remains is to what extent good research environments are determined by tier ranking.
|
2025-03-21T12:55:49.819948
| 2013-01-31T09:12:51 |
7643
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Stack Exchange
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What does it mean to accept a job offer
Related to this question: How to buy plane tickets for job interviews?
What does it mean to accept a job offer? Or maybe more accurately when have you accepted a job offer?
The latest and most conservative might be when you sign a contract. This seems a little late in the game as often contracts, especially in the States are slow to be generated. The earliest might be when you go for an interview. In the UK it is pretty standard for universities to not reimburse candidates to whom offers are made and subsequently turned down. Middle ground might be when you enter contract negotiations or verbally agree to the terms of your contract.
It sounds like customs depend on the field and country, but here's my experience based on mathematics in the U.S. I'll answer based on customs rather than laws, since that's generally more relevant: one can get a bad reputation for doing something perfectly legal, and one can get away with things that aren't legally justified if nobody is willing to enforce their rights in court.
The short version:
Acceptance is understood to be a final decision that commits you to showing up for a year. You can ask to be released from that obligation, but you shouldn't just announce you aren't coming. If you give a good enough reason for your request, they'll grant it. If your reason isn't compelling to them, they won't try to force you to show up but you'll really damage your reputation (not just at that university). Saying you got a better offer afterwards is not considered compelling, and you are expected to withdraw other applications upon accepting an offer.
The long version:
Negotiating does not imply accepting an offer, and in fact you should always try to negotiate over whatever you care about before you accept, since your leverage will never be higher. (Some candidates don't like the idea of having leverage, but you can think of it as a benefit to the department as well: it's much more effective for the department to tell the administration "We need to do X to get our wonderful candidate to accept" than "Our wonderful new hire wishes we would do X".)
Accepting an offer just amounts to saying you accept it. In principle, this could be tricky: people's memories of an oral acceptance could be disputed later, and it's possible to write things that sound like an acceptance but might not be meant that way ("Great, I guess we'll be colleagues next fall then"). Of course I'd strongly recommend avoiding anything that might be ambiguous or confusing, just in case, but in practice I've never seen this actually cause a serious problem. Any sensible department will follow up to get an unambiguous answer in writing, so if the situation remains ambiguous it's because both sides screwed up.
The real question is how binding an acceptance is, assuming both sides agree the offer was accepted. In the communities I'm familiar with, you cannot unilaterally change your decision once you have accepted. You could presumably get away with it, since the department isn't going to sue you if you don't show up, but that would be very bad for your reputation. Instead, the standard approach is to explain how things have changed and ask the department for permission to withdraw your acceptance.
In certain cases, this is perfectly straightforward. Suppose an unexpected problem has arisen in your life: for example, one of your parents was just diagnosed with cancer and you want to live close to them for the next year or two. Surely any reasonable department would understand and approve.
Of course, most cases are less clear cut, and amount to personal preference. This is more likely to arise after a deferral, where you accepted a job but then went on leave for a year first, since the extra time allows for more things to change. In general, departments will be pretty unhappy if you defer and then change your mind. It's important to ask to be released from your obligation rather than simply announcing you won't come; the department will often agree, since they understand you would likely leave after a year anyway. It's not good and you should try hard to avoid this situation, but occasionally it happens. If it does, you should feel a little guilty for making it harder for other candidates to get deferrals, by contributing to the impression that people with deferrals might change their minds in the meantime.
At the other extreme, you might simply change your mind within a single yearly job market cycle and decide you prefer another offer you already had at the time of your decision. This is probably not even worth asking about: when you accept an offer, it is understood to be a final decision, and you can't just re-evaluate your options. You should officially decline all your other offers when you accept an offer; if you aren't ready to do that, then you aren't ready to accept a job yet.
Of course, the trickiest case is when you get an offer with an early deadline and have to make a decision before other universities you might prefer can make an offer. Most departments don't want to pressure people into making this kind of decision, and it's always worth asking for an extension of the deadline. Many departments will agree, but a few will not (I know of one department that strategizes about how to put time pressure on people).
If you are caught negotiating with a department that is trying to pressure you in this way, then you should be as tough as they are. On the other hand, their behavior does not mean your acceptance becomes non-binding, and unilaterally changing your mind will still look bad throughout the community. If the department refuses to grant an extension or show any other flexibility, then they are clearly indicating they want a definitive answer now, and you'll have to give them one. It's worth considering whether you even want to work for a department that would treat you that way.
As soon as you have accepted an offer, you should withdraw all your other job applications. Partly this is so they don't have to waste time evaluating a candidate who is no longer available, and partly it is because if you don't withdraw them, then it looks like you are still hoping for a better offer. That is what will really offend people, because it will look like you tricked the department whose offer you accepted by giving them what was understood to be a final decision while still staying on the market to see what other offers you could get.
I totally agree with this. I would go even further and say that acceptance of a TT job commits you to showing up for TWO years. The job market opens so early in many fields that you cannot give a new job a fair shot before you need to apply for new jobs.
There are many different takes. “Accepting” a job offer is pretty much that: if you tell the person who offered you (your HR contact, the hiring committee, any person of authority in the hiring process) that you accept their offer, that you take the job.
Does it mean there's not turning back? Of course not! The question then becomes: how binding is that agreement? And again, there are answers on many different levels: legal, moral, diplomatic…
Legal: as always, better ask a lawyer, union representative or knowledgeable and trusted friend. Everything depends on the local law, the type of offer made, what you said and/or wrote, etc. It may sound logical that nothing's set in stone until you have signed a contract, but that may not always be the case. Some institutions might, for example, require you to write and sign a binding letter of engagement before the contract is drafted (which, as you said, can take time). In some jurisdiction, the simple fact of showing up for work on the first day of the contract is a binding, implicit contract following the terms of your offer. (Though I would say it should be obvious to all that actually coming to work is pretty binding.)
Moral: that's the most variable of all. Turning down an offer you had accepted orally, because you now have a better offer from some other place, is not wrong in itself. The important thing is: being of good faith, and being diligent to inform them that you have changed your mind. If it turns out that you have accepted the offer, knowing all the while you would end up turning it down, that would be unexcusable.
Diplomatic: people understand the position you're in, as they have most probably been through it themselves some year back. So, they will be sympathetic, as long as they feel you are of good faith, diligent and show acceptable contrition (not sure that's the right term for what I'm trying to describe… let's say you look/sound apologetic enough). Otherwise, well, you risk make enemies and that may not be the best thing to do early in your career.
The fact is: the game is played by both sides. Hiring committees don't dismiss all other candidates immediately when they offer you a position, and they know that Stuff Happens. In a competitive environment such as academia, they surely have a plan B (and probably C and D).
Finally: if that's a tenured or tenure-track position, you'll probably stay very long (life?) there. It's an important choice, and thus you shouldn't find yourself bound by promises made too fast, or you may come to regret it.
great answer! I couldn't agree more, especially regarding the different perspectives to the question
The moral and diplomatic parts are very very tricky. A few years ago there was a publicised incident in Mathematics where things blew up rather spectacularly and very unfortunately for all parties involved. The only sure thing I got out of the aftermaths of that event was "someone will wind up pissed no matter what you do."
@WillieWong So true… Such matters are tricky, and there is always a risk… What I tried to summarize below is something like “commonly accepted” customs for handling these matters.
I strongly disgaree about the morals: many people do consider any acceptance morally binding. (I have no statistics but I'd estimate it's a majority of faculty in the communities I'm familiar with - maybe mathematicians are unusually rule-bound. :) ) And this is critical to keep in mind. Even if some, or many, faculty are willing to view changing your mind as just playing the game, it can still ruin your reputation. For example, in the case Willie mentioned this controversy is still among the top three Google hits for the applicant's name three years later.
@AnonymousMathematician the blog post linked to indicates that the person what honest and diligent, I don't see why that should haunt them. If you mean, people love to gossip, sure… but this particular incident seems to be an isolated case that was blown out of proportion
In my experience, people sometimes make a future commitment ("I'll come work for you after I spent a year at Institute X") and then change their minds before they arrive. This has to be handled very delicately, basically by saying you know you are obligated but hope they'll understand and release you from the obligation (with the subtext that if they don't you'll come for a year to fulfill your obligation and then leave, which won't be any good for anyone). The time delay is crucial here, in establishing that the situation now seems different than when you accepted the job.
Anyway, usually hiring committees establish a list of candidates ranked by suitability… so they call #1, and if the appointment doesn't go through, they can call #2, etc. Maybe this is field dependent. In my field/country, appointments can very rarely be delayed to suit the applicant's situation, that may be linked…
On the other hand, accepting a job and then trying to switch to another job during the same year/job market cycle is very rare (at least in mathematics). This is incredibly risky for your reputation. It might be possible to pull it off if you really beg, but even still some people will think you did something wrong/manipulative.
@AnonymousMathematician if job deadlines are different, you still have the problem of deciding on A before your get an answer from B. Everyone gains by being a little flexible.
Yeah, it's almost certainly field/country dependent. I just want to emphasize that there are cases where changing an acceptance can be very dangerous. (And the linked case is definitely anomalous - it got a lot of internet discussion precisely because it was a borderline case and opinions differed.)
(I agree about flexibility, but in the communities I'm familiar with, this is almost always handled by asking to extend the deadline. It's pretty standard for departments to do that, and if they won't then it's a clear sign that they would be unhappy about rescinding an acceptance later.)
An important defense against the moral ambiguity of an oral acceptance is to speak carefully. Don't say "I accept the offer" before you have a written offer letter. Say "I'm eager to take the job, but for obvious reasons, I need to see the offer letter before I can formally accept."
@AnonymousMathematician would love to see an answer from you...
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2025-03-21T12:55:49.821401
| 2016-09-09T09:39:37 |
76562
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Stack Exchange
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Applying for masters in a field different than what I have experience in
I am sorry this is a bit long, I tried to keep it as short as possible. So please bear with me.
I am currently in the final year of my undergraduate course and am planning to apply for masters in computer graphics, and although I have a significant experience in graphics (by working on shaders and image effects for games as I am heavily interested in game development), I don't have any academic research work, or recommendations in that field and moreover none of the professors in my university are actively working in that field whom I can work with.
I do have research based work in AI and natural language processing including a research paper but only because a lot of my professors and peers were enthusiastic in the field whom I could work with and also I had somewhat interest in that field. But its not something I would want to pursue masters in.
My question is how do I make my application such that I can represent myself as a valuable and worthy candidate for a course in computer graphics even though I have little experience in it. And also will showing in my application (SOP) that I have research work in AI and not in computer graphics weaken it, as it will portray me as someone whose not focused towards this track, or for some other reason? Or would it actually be beneficial to include that?
@mhwombat: Do note that the answers to that question are, depending on the interpretation, either somewhat place-specific or PhD-specific. I feel they do not quite apply to Masters degrees in some European countries (and the country is not specified here).
The answer in that link talks about two different degrees which might be as disparate as engineering and economics . The fields that i am asking about are pretty similar to each other , so i was hoping to get a more definite answer than the one in the link. And i am planning on applying to colleges in usa onlg and i am currently from india
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