What to tell professors to persuade them to let a pre-college student work with them This is a follow up to the question Is it possible take take part in a research project if I'm not a part of a university?

I'm a student who has not yet entered college (though I am planning to as soon as I graduate highschool; that's a little ways away now though) located in the United States. I am old enough to legally work (just to clarify) and I'm interested in doing research. I've been teaching myself various subjects in math, physics, and programming/computer science (I've learned how to program in Python, the basics of calculus and linear algebra, and I'm reading about quantum computing, for example). Reading the question linked above, the advice seemed to be to contact a professor, whether through family, at conferences, or by emailing, and that it was certainly possible. I don't have any family that is in academia, and I can't exactly attend conferences (though I might try to attend some open talks that the nearest university gives, though that's a bit of a long shot) so the best option seems to be to email them.

What information do I need to give the professor? I've read about a CV, but my educational record is, you know, Kindergarden through 8th grade (with straight A's, but, you know, plenty of people get that) and the electives I've taken haven't yet differentiated much, and they won't until around 10th grade. I have taught myself a decent amount, but I don't know how to convey that information. I've found several professors at a university near me that I'd be interested in working with, and I'm working through some of their papers, so I can talk semi-educatedly about their research (hopefully, anyway). I also have an idea for a research topic that I've been working on for a bit in the field of quantum computing.

Should I try to compose some version of a CV? Should I  explain that I'm teaching myself various subjects, and am interested in their research, perhaps referencing some question I have about one of their papers and/or stuff I'm working on? I assume you're not really supposed to say, "Dear Professor so-and-so, Can I work with you?" I also assume they're not going to take reputation on stack exchange as any sign of intelligence. =)

Tl;dr, how can I a. get a professor to take me seriously and b. have a shot at getting accepted as a volunteer or assistant or summer intern or whatever for the professor/lab/group? Or should I not be emailing them (instead calling them, setting up an appointment, whatever)?

You might want to try aiming a bit lower, such as those schools that don't have graduate programs.

At these types of places, where it is difficult for professors to even get any students (let alone the top undergraduates) involved in their research program, some professors may actually want to bring on board a high school / junior high student, if for no other reason than to impress some administrative type (dean, department head, etc.) that this particular professor is engaging in some form of outreach (you know, to help spread the word about the program to get students excited about going to school there).

Just send an email to someone involved in the area you are interested in, attach a CV *, and briefly explain your aims. If the school is close by to you, you could also arrange an in-person visit. For the in-person visit route, if you are indeed interested in attending the school for your undergraduate degree, I suggest you indicate this fact when you attempt to setup the meeting.

Good luck.

* In your CV, you can briefly summarize your self-study progress and plans, your research interests, any projects you've undertaken on your own, and the like, if you don't have any formal educational training in the research area of interest, any papers published, etc.

First of all congratulations for your will to set high targets. Based on your question I suspect that you are more advanced than typical for your age.

Maybe you could try to contact institutions which support high IQ persons. (e.g. https://www.mensa.org/, or http://www.triplenine.org/). They might help you with contacts to universities. Like in every job search, personal connections can be very helpfull.


Are Shared Office Common for Lecturers Are there any standards in higher education (any country) on when lecturers (any level, any field) have a private office or a shared office?

I know it's a good idea to provide 'consultation time' for students as one-on-one teaching helps the student in so many ways. However, in a shared office it seems that some of the benefits of one-on-one teaching disappear. For example, the student is less likely to be concerned about how they look in front of others if it's in a private office but if there are other teachers (perhaps with other students) then your student will have those issues again.

So, are there any standards about private vs shared offices for university lecturers?

You're going to find answers all over the map for this one (i.e., there probably aren't "standards").  I personally like having a private office so I can get the most work done, but I'm generally comfortable with a shared space if it doesn't get too loud.  I have found that it is rare for students to worry about how they perform if they are just trying to get help figuring out the material.  If there are conference rooms or open classrooms available, that's sometimes a good place to tutor students, too.

For what it's worth, I never have closed door meetings with students because that has the potential to lead to allegations of improper relationships, etc.  If a student does have something private to discuss, I'll ask them to take a walk around campus where we are visible but can't be heard, or to go into a conference room that has windows into the hallway.

Everybody needs privacy;  to really discuss this issue some ambiguities must be removed.
Imagine a chemistry lecturer sharing an office with a political science lecturer? This will only lead to total confusion. Though it might help both lecturers to diversify their ideas, but will not help academically.

I would suggest one senior lecturer with an assistant lecturer from the same field sharing an office. This will help the junior lecturer, and one hopes that the senior academic may learn from his/her younger colleague as well.


What to do (years later) with otherwise good student who has accidentally plagiarised part of PhD thesis? Here's a not so hypothetical situation. International student x is very talented but comes from a background where technical writing is not taught or understood very well. She writes a great thesis with a good literature review and nice results. However, the results are based on two key papers from previous students in the group. She decides to give credit to the papers in a special chapter, which she starts by saying "I need to give credit to this and that paper" and proceeds with copying paragraphs wholesale to describe what those other students did.

This was a few years back; X is now faculty at a good school and she contacts me (past advisor) in teary-terrified voice to let me know that she plagiarized in her thesis. I am now in a panic as well. How could I miss those? And how could she do that?? We both risk losing our jobs, and she is at risk of losing her degree as well (which, by the way, was a very strong thesis with a good number of top journal publications).

As far as I know there's no process for revising a thesis after it's been submitted and I don't know what else to do short of turning ourselves in - which I feel morally obligated to do.

Please advise.

Edit
Thanks all for weighing in on this. I spent the night going through the thesis and there appear to be three more sources that are suspect of being plagiarized, all in the same wretched chapter; one is a thesis of a colleague, the other is a textbook and the third is a book I wrote a while back. So this is more serious than I thought.

She has unfortunately not used quotes for the material, i.e., instead of saying "[paper i] says ," she just went on with "[paper i] says this and that."

She has not been accused of plagiarism by anybody. I am guessing that she has finally come to grips with good writing standards and upon looking through her thesis she realized that her "summary" was actually plagiarism. I have every reason to believe that she did what she did in good faith (she has proven her honesty on many occasions).

Did any of the plagiarized material make it into journal papers, or was it all literature review that was never published outside of the thesis?

If some of it made it into papers, then it's important to contact the journals and publish corrections.  This is more straightforward and predictable than dealing with the thesis itself.  If the plagiarism is confined to background material, then I don't think retracting the papers would be necessary.  Instead, I expect it would be possible to publish a correction that indicates the plagiarized portions and provides citations.  This would be embarrassing and would hurt her reputation a little, but it would solve the problem as far as the papers were concerned.  It would also strengthen the student's case for dealing with the thesis if she can say she voluntarily corrected the publications and did not need to retract any of them.

If none of the plagiarized material was published elsewhere, then it's trickier.  Once all the original results are published in research papers, I doubt anyone will read the thesis and discover the plagiarism.  Even if they do, they might take pity on the student and ignore the plagiarism.  (I once ignored some mild plagiarism of my writing in the background sections of a thesis at another university.  The student had already graduated, and I found no evidence of plagiarism in any of his research papers.  If I knew for sure he could just file a correction to the thesis, then that would make sense, but I wouldn't want to potentially destroy his career over this mistake.)  So she might well get away with it if she doesn't say anything.  Still, I'd advise her to officially confess to the university.  Turning herself in is likely to lead to a much better outcome than being caught by someone else.  Plus it's the right thing to do, and it will save her from years of worrying about getting caught.

  We both risk losing our jobs, and she is at risk of losing her degree as well (which, by the way, was a very strong thesis with a good number of top journal publications).

Unless your university is extraordinarily strict, I don't think your job is in jeopardy.  On the other hand, the student's degree or job might be, depending on how the university handles the situation.  Based on your description, I think it would be unfair for her career to be ruined, but I can't predict what will actually happen.  I hope your administration's sense of fairness is the same as mine, in which case a correction will suffice.

The hardest situation will be if she decides to remain silent.  In that case you probably have an obligation to turn her in, and it would look terrible if anyone found out that you knew but didn't say anything.  On the other hand, turning her in would be a tough decision.  Much better for her to turn herself in voluntarily.

Um, I'm not sure it is worth bothering about.  She gave credit for the results,
it was in the context of describing other people's work, it seems to only involve
the language.  This is not a literary topic, so I would tell her to not worry about
it but learn how to write.


What are the benefits of becoming an academic administrator? Why do some professors choose to go into academic administration (e.g., become associate deans, etc.)? I've always assumed the main attraction is that they get paid more.

But I've also thought that if I wanted to make more money than I do as a professor, I'd just leave academia entirely and take a job in industry, where I could probably earn 30-40 percent more. I'd have less flexibility in industry than I have as a professor in terms of what I research and what my work hours are. But the same would be true if I went into administration at a university (which would probably still not pay as well as industry).

So I've never seen a real benefit of going into administration, given that the extra pay does not (to me) offset the extra responsibilities (especially when the best-paying jobs are outside of academia entirely). Are there other benefits of being an academic administrator that I'm overlooking?

I feel like I'm pointing out the glaringly obvious, but many people actually want to make their institution a better place, design policies that benefit future students and colleagues, etc.

The difference between "administration" and "teaching" in a university is like the difference between the managerial and technical tracks in a corporation.

The "average" university person probably wants to remain on the "technical" or "professor" track, but some people will prefer administrative duties, and a chance to exert executive power, either inside or outside the university.

As a child, I didn't want to be a movie star, but I did want to be a "producer," which would have made me their boss. That was true even though I knew that the stars made more money.


In computer science, is omission of negative experimental evaluation results research misconduct? In computer science, a large portion of people develop algorithms, and demonstrate their effectiveness by running experiments to compare with other existing approaches in their research papers. In these experiments, as far as I know, there are two possible ways to purposely hide data:

Ashley has developed algorithm X and decided to experimentally compare it with algorithm Y. She compared them on benchmark set A, B and C. She found that on benchmark C, algorithm Y outperformed X, so she decided to not report on C. In the paper, she also only claims algorithm X outperformed on A and B.
Bill has developed algorithm P. He compared P with other algorithms Q, R and S on some benchmark instances. He found that P outperformed Q and R, but not S on these benchmark instances. He decided to not report the comparison between P and S. In the paper, he also only claims algorithm P outperformed Q and R.

Are Ashley and Bill’s actions considered research misconduct?

tl;dr-  In general, suppressing negative results harms objective analysis but can make the research appear more significant.  How people feel about this practice depends on their stake in it.

Pure consumers are the most likely to feel that it's misconduct.

Pure investees are the most likely to feel that it's acceptable/appropriate.

Others in the field likely have mixed feelings since they benefit from the practice as investees but are harmed by it as consumers.

Looking forward, there's a growing understanding that these practices pollute the literature and will need to be weeded out.  However, we're not quite there yet.
Pure consumers are likely to consider it misconduct
At one extreme, readers who have no affiliation with the research are the most likely to object.  Such readers might be trying to select an algorithm for their own research or business application; they want to know the good and the bad equally, so having the bad omitted is purely detrimental to them.
For example:

Ashley has developed algorithm X and decided to experimentally compare it with algorithm Y. She compared them on benchmark set A, B and C. She found that on benchmark C, algorithm Y outperformed X, so she decided to not report on C. In the paper, she also only claims algorithm X outperformed on A and B.

If a reader is trying to select which algorithm to use, then they'd likely want all relevant benchmarks.  Doubly so if Benchmark C is more closely related to their application.
Pure investees are most likely to consider it acceptable/appropriate
At the other extreme, those invested in the research effort itself are most likely to want to see it presented in a positive light.  Investees include the researcher themself; their supervisor(s); their institution; and any media services that report on their work (e.g., journals).
Pure investees are those who aren't also consumers.  For example, a university's promotional news team is a pretty pure investee, as they basically want to make the research shine.
For example:

Ashley has developed algorithm X and decided to experimentally compare it with algorithm Y. She compared them on benchmark set A, B and C. She found that on benchmark C, algorithm Y outperformed X, so she decided to not report on C. In the paper, she also only claims algorithm X outperformed on A and B.

If Ashley's supervisor feels strongly about the result, they may go into full-promotional-mode, including contacting the university's promotional team and others to advertise the work.  Ashley's supervisor and related promoters might wench at any criticism or negative analysis that might detract from their efforts, so they're more likely to appreciate the comparison using Benchmark C not being reported.
Fellow practitioners may have mixed feelings
Other computer scientists may have mixed feelings since they're consumers, but likely engaging in the same behaviors.
In practice, I've seen researchers acknowledge that they understand such behaviors to be detrimental, but still argue that not downplaying/omitting criticism would make their work appear unduly weak compared to other researchers'.
Overall, practitioners seem to generally understand that it's sort-of misconduct in the sense that it shouldn't be done, but that it's acceptable in the sense that authors often feel like they must do it to play on a level playing field with others who do.

If the results are reported correctly , then reasons for the varied performance can be evaluated and more progress may be made.

If only selected results are shown then this can cause others to waste time re-evaluating what they think are “curious” results...

IMHO show all the results, as one particular dataset could have a particular variation ie a higher proportion of “odd” numbers which skews the results...


Information Regarding PhD Admissions Are there universities that offer PhD in Mathematics without GRE or TOEFL in Europe?

I have completed my Masters in Applied Mathematics with a cgpa 8.0. I am keen to pursue research in Mathematics but I am not aware about the same. I would highly appreciate the comments in this regard.

The GRE is generally not used at all in Europe for Master/PhD admissions.

Another thing is TOEFL, if you will be studying in English you usually have to prove that you are proficient with the language, and there are multiple ways to do it. You have to check with particular institutions to what they require, it could be the TOEFL or IELTS or any other test of english, or proof that you have already completed a degree in English, etc.

You need to write the GRE exam, is not a big deal and many funding opportunities in mathematics but you can research institutions in Germany ,Germany dnt need Gre


Can you apply for a faculty position via a recruiting agency? I came across some job advertisements for faculty positions that stated

  Strictly No Agencies

This implies that some agencies apply on behalf of the applicants. Is it common? Is it possible at all? I mean do open positions without the above statement accept applications sent by agencies rather than the applicant?

I know that the recruitment for senior industry positions is outsourced and handled by agencies, but this should be a different case.

I have never, ever, encountered a faculty search - or indeed a postdoc search - handled by an agency.

Nor have I ever been contacted by an agency looking to handle recruitments as a potential candidate, despite getting ads on sites like LinkedIn that suggest I've been accurately categorized as faculty.

In the vast universe of possibilities, I'm sure there are exceptions, but my best guess is that this is boiler-plate language that goes in all job ads from that institution.

In private industry, when a company wants to recruit people it will often hire a recruiting agency.  They will come to an agreement that if a recruiting agency can successfully place a candidate and the candidate stays for a minimal period (e.g., 6 months) then company will pay the recruiting agency a specified percentage of the candidate's salary.

When everything is on the up and up, both parties (the company and the recruiter) will be in full awareness and agreement.  They may choose to formalize this agreement by signing a contract.  The company could save money by "rejecting" a candidate and secretly encouraging him/her to reapply outside the recruiting agency, but this would be unethical and legally actionable.

Obviously no company wants to be in the position of having to pay out money to a recruiting agency that it never wanted to work with in the first place.  Ideally if no agreement is reached, then the recruiting agency should not be owed any fee.

However, proactive, clear messaging can solve problems before they even happen.  When we say "Strictly No Agencies" we mean we are not going to pay you for your unsolicited services.


I suspect someone deliberately ruined my experiments by poisoning my lab insects. What should I do? I'm a graduate student who's currently working on an experiment involving some animals. I have two separate places where I keep my animals, and one of them is in a locked section of a lab (which is only accessible by myself, my PI, and a few other investigators).
A few weeks ago when I came into the lab, I noticed that all of the animals in that locked section had died. Without going into too much detail, after a quick investigation I found that a gas valve must have been opened to kill the animals, and then closed again. It is impossible for the valve to open spontaneously, let alone open and close. I also determined that it couldn't have been a gas leak because I have a habit of always setting the valve to a certain position after closing it, and it wasn't exactly in that position when I checked it, so it must have been physically moved.
I thought that maybe the stars unfortunately aligned and I had gone wrong somewhere for this to occur, so I left it alone and kept it to myself but have been careful to check the valve everyday afterward.
A few days ago, the animals were dead once again. The valve had also been moved. Although I don't have concrete evidence, I'm strongly suspecting that either my PI (who I don't have the best relationship with) or another investigator in the lab is deliberately killing the animals. I don't know what to do now, who to approach, and what to say. My entire experiment is now also in jeopardy. What steps do I take?
Clarifications / responses to comments:

The "animals" are insects, so "animal care regulations" are limited
No one has commented on the deaths. My section of the lab is rarely used, so they may not have noticed.
There are no security cameras.

I assume you're doing CO2, in which case you frame it as a serious safety concern and insist on looking into it. You're in an enclosed space with an asphyxiant that appears to be leaking. This is a critical health and safety issue and should be treated accordingly.
It's unlikely in my opinion that you are being sabotaged but if you are whoever is doing it will stop if these issues are investigated

This is a very serious allegation. You should immediately speak with your PI about it. It is highly unlikely your PI would sabotage you - what could they have to gain?


When did English come to lead in published research? As any modern student knows, nearly all published research these days is in English. That's just the way of the world. But it didn't used to be that way. Many of the most pivotal pieces of scientific literature in the world, like the writings of Riemann, Cantor, Einstein, Galois, Schrödinger, (Gregor) Mandel, Linnaeus and many, many others were written in German, French or Latin. These days, publishing in a language other than English hurts your credibility, and is largely discouraged.

When did English become necessary for publishing scientific literature?

English became the dominant international language of science across the first half of the 20th Century.

To summarize an excellent BBC article on the subject:

At the beginning of the 20th Century, there were three main language of science, French, English, and German, essentially corresponding to the biggest economic and political powers of the time (England, France, Germany, and the USA).
After World War I, Germany and the German language were essentially ostracized by the victorious nations, including an (unconstitutional) ban on the language in the United States. Europe was also generally weakened as a power.
The continued devastation of World War II and the rise of the US as a technological superpower cemented the collapse of German. French took longer to decline, but network effects and relative power had their impact eventually.

Thus, by the middle of the 20th century, English had become, in general, the dominant language of science. It was by no means absolute (and still is not), but its dominance has further strengthened over time. How long this will last and what will replace it are for anyone to guess.

The world will generally publish in the language that is most economically profitable because said countries will usually provide the most support and have the ability to actually turn research into something practical. This is the way it has always been. The USA was not always an economic powerhouse but right now they are. There was a time when things were written in Arabic, Greek, and Aramaic as well for the same reason.


Is getting an oral recommendation from a professor who has known me since childhood a conflict of interest during graduate admissions? My parents know a Professor A who knows another Professor B. Professor A has known me since I was a child. I applied for a Ph.D. position in Professor B's group and got admitted. Before admission, Professor A recommended me to Professor B orally but without writing a formal recommendation letter. I used the recommendation letters from other professors I really worked with.
Now, a Ph.D. student in our group learnt about this (my bad, I exposed this myself) and says I was cheating. And he just told everybody because of jealousy. I think I was fairly exploiting my personal network and also I don't know how much the oral recommendation was taken into account during admission. I also don't know what Professor A said to B. Whether he even really said something about me is a mystery to me. But I am totally qualified to get this position on my own.
Now many different versions of this rumor have come out. This is not the expected start of my Ph.D. life. I thought that everybody in my group might be friendly. But really, was I cheating during the admission? I might think about transferring to another group after all this.

I suspect @Buffy is right, that you did not do anything wrong. However, you did receive an advantage you did not earn because of who your parents are and who do they know. I suspect that that advantage is much more subtle and much more substantive than the oral recommendations (compare your experience with this answer Does politics and perception play a role in higher education? )
In short, you were lucky, and it is not moraly wrong to be lucky. However, it is understandable (not right, but understandable) that people who had to earn their position the hard way require extra evidence before they are willing to accept you as an equal. It is your challenge to deal with this situation gracefully. Demonstrate your competence, as Buffy suggested, but also learn how priviledged you are, and how challenging university can be for those who do not come from a middle class or higher background. A nice place to start is here: https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/attach/journals/feb15asrfeature_0.pdf

What the others are accusing you of is nepotism.

nepotism - the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs:
Oxford Dictionaries

If it were me, I would say to these people something like, "You know, now that you have mentioned it I'm wondering if I did get an unfair boost. Do you think I should join another group?"  If they say yes, then say, "I'll think about it but first I'll speak to Professor B."
Then I would speak to Professor B and put the whole situation to them. Ask their advice on how much influence Prof A had and how you should deal with the whole situation.
From then on, you should make it a matter of your own conscience rather than the opinions of others.
I know this is a tough message but IMO it always pays to come clean about these things.
DISCLAIMER - I have only said what I would do. I take no responsibility for what actually happens if you follow my advice. However as you say, the cat is already out of the bag so nothing much worse is likely to happen than has already.
Finally, as someone has said, this is a life lesson. Learn from it and act upon what you have learned in the future. We all make mistakes.

In response to comments
@Anonymous Physicist - I disagree. The OP explicitly says "my bad, I exposed this myself".  I would classify that as a mistake.
@Maarten Buis - I didn't suggest that you accused anyone of anything - I'm not sure why you make that comment. With regard to nepotism, I merely gave a dictionary definition, not my own conception of the term. I also said that this is what the other  students were claiming (going by that definition). I did not ascribe guilt, I suggested the OP examine their own conscience before making a final decision.


Why do researchers sometimes use extremely complicated English sentences to convey their meaning? I will begin with a disclaimer, I am not an English native speaker, but I can speak fluent English and understand English in almost all research papers I read.

However, occasionally I come across some papers published in peer reviewed journals  with ridiculously complicated sentence structure using relic non-technical vocabulary that no one in the past century has heard of!

Here is one of my favorites:

  The algorithm fathoms in a synergetic manner globally, and an antagonistic depth quest locally.

Whatever that means!

Don't get me wrong, the content of such papers can sometimes be informative, but I can't help but get frustrated over such over complication in language! I can spend days trying to decipher what the author was trying to convey and I occasionally give up on the entire paper.

So my question is, why do authors feel the need to hide their amazing ideas/contributions behind such language barrier? Would it hurt to write the paper in a simple fashion such that any reader with the required technical background can understand it?

  auth'rs, wherefore thee doth this?

I've run into variations of this a lot in economics, and have a few observations.

Being good at research in your field is an entirely separate skill from being able to communicate ideas clearly.  Two Nobel laureates really embody the extremes here for me, both with brilliant research.  One the one side is Paul Krugman, who, regardless of what you think of his public persona, is an excellent writer.  His skill comes across even in his research papers, and even in his work from the '70s.  On the other hand is Amartya Sen, who it often seems to me can't express an idea clearly in one sentence if it could equally well be conveyed in fifteen.  Granted, Sen wasn't born in an English speaking country, but he left for school in England in 1953, so he's hardly new at this.
There appears to be some institutional momentum.  That is, you learn to be a researcher in your field by reading the work of past researchers.  That frames your concept of what quality writing in your field looks like, which you then adopt to some degree.
It can be a signaling method. This is related to the previous point.  For professionals used to reading papers written with heavy use of jargon or unnecessarily-big words, writing this way can make your work seem like it belongs.  I often feel like the use of latin phrases really falls into this category.  I myself enjoy the occasional ceteris paribus, for example, but it really isn't a very defensible practice over writing all else equal.  It isn't even shorter!

I think many of us could benefit from thinking about writing more clearly, but it also makes sense to know your audience and write for them.

Take a simple concept C, that has two connections A and B to related concepts.

Now if you take two concepts C, you can connect them in four different ways: {A-A}, {B-B}, {A-A,B-B}, {A-B,B-A}.  So using combinations of those two simple concepts, you can express only 4 other different concepts (and only two of those other concepts have free connections to build even more concepts).

You can thus understand that the combination of concepts to build more complex or more refined concepts is relatively limited: when you start with simple concepts, you won't be able to express an infinite number of concepts with them.

Once you've used up all the combinations of simple words, you're left with more complex words, identifying more complex concepts, to establish or describe your new ideas.

The sentence given in example, is actually very concise and clear, while transmitting a good high level picture of the described algorithm, which has a uncommon and surprising structure.  I cannot find a simplier way to express it. Using "smaller" words would imply having to use multiple sentences, perhaps a whole paragraph to give a similar description of the algorithm in question.


Should I challenge the GRE requirement for a doctoral program in education (in the U.S.)? I'm just starting to investigate doctoral programs in education in the United States, and I'm considering how to handle the GRE requirement:

Hardline Activism: submit my incomplete application with a well-researched essay justifying my refusal to take the GRE.
Soft Activism: submit my complete application including my first-try GRE scores along with a well-researched essay debunking the significance of my GRE scores related to my value as a candidate in the Ed.D. program, AND flatly stating that I spent no more than four hours (the length of the exam. i.e. No test prep.) on the GRE, in light of my scientific conclusions about it's relevance in this situation.
Passive Acceptance: submit my complete application with my first-try GRE score and hope for acceptance.
Active Acceptance: Study hard and take the GRE, then study some more and take it again. Submit my complete application and hope for acceptance.

Are there other options that I'm overlooking?

My position is not "the GRE has no value." My position is "I'm an excellent candidate for this doctoral program, as evidenced by my application. GRE scores would not alter that conclusion."

I found this discussion very useful, especially the answer and citations by Jeromy Anglim.

As an aside, I admit that I enjoy testing boundaries just for fun, but this issue is more than that. As a proponent of thoughtful, responsible education reform, I'm leaning toward options 1 and 2.

I think the answer to your question is this:

How much do you value getting into graduate school versus how much do you value feeling like you are making a point?

If you value feeling like you are making a point, by all means, pursue the Soft Activism. My guess is that it will come across to the department like a complaint that you didn't do well enough on the test and are going rogue to make your point.

If you value getting into graduate school, then engage in "begrudging acceptance" that this is how you get into that particular graduate school. Like it or not, there's often a line of people willing to take your place, suffer the test, and smile. Moreover, if there's money on the line in the forms of scholarships or fellowships, consider the time/money you put into the test an investment. Study, practice, and prepare until you get a score you can submit in the hopes of getting in. You don't have to actively like the idea, you just need to accept this is the means to acceptance in graduate school.

For middle ground possibilities, I actually think the "hardline activism" approach is softer and less whiney than your "soft activism", because true or false it makes it seem like you've had a principled stand against the GRE since the beginning. Depending on the contours of the education program that might bode well for you. Some education programs might agree that the testing is bunk; my colleagues in education don't like standardized tests.

You can of course just submit the scores you have, but if you think they are inadequate for acceptance, that seems unwise.

After you're in, then write all the principled essays you want against it and try to change the system.

Consider a PHD program in Europe. To my knowledge and experience,
you will get more papers published during a European program,
and the number of papers in good journals is what determines your future academic career.


A disagreement with coauthor/boss about funding Some time ago, I wrote a paper with a coathor, who is the head of the lab I am currently working at and, essentially, my boss. We sent the paper to one of the best journals in our field, got overall positive reviews, revised the paper, and recently the paper was accepted for publication.
My lab got a substantial funding this year and my coauthor wants to include the funding information into our paper. However, there is a complication. The acceptance date of the paper is earlier than the date when we recieved the funding. As a result, the paper will not be accepted by the funder (we asked the funder about that). My coauthor decided that we should do something to change the acceptance date. We asked the journal about it, and the journal replied that the acceptance date, basically, cannot be altered. The only way to alter the acceptance date is to withdraw the paper on the basis that we have found some crucial mistake in our findings, then resubmit a revised version of the paper and undergo a new round of peer-review, which, I am afraid, might take a long time (it usually takes at least a year for this journal to make a decision). My coauthor insists that we should try to do that and he even asked me to try to find some flaws in our paper or something that can be improved in such a way that the need for improvement can be justified.
Frankly, I feel dishonest, weird and even somewhat dirty for being involved in this situation. I want to publish the paper as it is, without including the new funding information and altering the acceptance date. Moreover, I find the whole matter somewhat unethical.
I told my coauthor about my concerns and my opinion that it is reasonable to not include the new funding source. But he wouldn't listen. What's worse, is that I am the corresponding author and I have to negotiate all the matters with the journal.
I'm not really asking for advice. I just want to know your opinion about the situation.
Edit: I would like to thank everybody for the comments. Your feedback was very helpful to me. I managed to persuade my coauthor to change his mind and do the right thing.

In case the ethics argument fails, here is another argument against pulling the paper.  If you withdraw the paper for any reason, you run the risk that the resubmitted paper will be rejected.  The refereeing process is partly a random process.
The worst case is it takes a year for the journal to decide to reject your paper, and science moves on and your paper is now out-of-date and will not be publishable anywhere reputable.
In addition, the editor and others involved will now associate you all with making errors.  A good reputation is worth a lot in academia.

My ethics says I would have to take my name off the paper.
You might also run the risk of retaliation by your boss and getting fired.
Could you change the wording to say you were promised consideration by group x and hope to be getting funding?
You could tell the editor  your dilemma and ask him to remove the funding sentence when published.
Sorry but sometimes in life doing what is right will cost you.


Journal changed the ordering of the authors. What to do now? I am facing a very difficult situation. I sent a paper for peer-review in a SCOPUS indexed journal. My supervisor though did not contribute anything rather than reading my draft insisted that I put his name in the manuscript. I had put his name as the second author as otherwise he would stop my funding. Now my paper has been  accepted and published online. To my ignorance the journal has re-arranged the author names in alphabetical order making the name of my advisor to appear first.
In our university, it is mandatory for authors to be listed in the order of their contribution. Also it was me who did all the hard work. My advisor had no idea about the reviews sent by the reviewer.
Though I had clearly made myself the first author and my advisor as the second author in the TeX file I had submitted for publication, the journal has changed it.
The journal did not send me the page-proof before publishing it online. They just changed the author ordering in the TeX file I had sent and published it as it is.
They put my paper in "RECENTLY ACCEPTED" section with no DOI and no VOLUME NUMBER but it is posted online and is accessible.
What shall I do now? I mailed the journal. They are not replying, it's 2 days already.
Can someone please help. Shall I withdraw the paper from the journal?

You seem to be in a Math department, and are having a problem that is going to effect everyone in that department.  I suggest you speak to the chair of the department.
There are journals in mathematics, good ones, that insist on an alphabetical order of authors.  This is also the standard in most of pure mathematics.  If you have your facts correct, your university has policy that will make it very hard for anyone in pure mathematics to publish.  Applied math is a bit different but this still will be a problem.
As an example, the journal Results in Mathematics explicitly requires alphabetical author order.

Two days is insufficient for a response (in this instance), you should wait.
Publications are immutable, so correction is perhaps unlikely. You could push forwards on breach of contract grounds. Argue that the publisher has not fulfilled the contract and a correction is necessary.
You likely can't withdraw, once published.
Another solution: Do nothing.
EDIT: It's unclear whether the work is published. If it isn't, just update the camera-ready version.


Professor does not care about cheating, what should TA do? I am a PhD student, working as a Homework marking TA in a school where cheating is extremely blatant. The university has an extremely strict policy against cheating. Hundreds of students in math courses alone are reported each year, and suspensions are given to severe/repeat offenders. I have personally reported cheating many times.

Based on this environment, most courses have shifted away from Homework grades, and more toward Quiz/Test grades.

My course is a low-bar mid-level math course, very likely to be the last math course ever taken by the students who enrolled in the course.

The marking distribution of my course is done in a way where the homework mark weight is so absurdly high that cheating on homework would almost guarantee a pass.

I had realized this at the beginning of September, and discussed with (confronted) the instructor.
The short summary of the response is that the instructor doesn't care about cheating.

The professor doesn't want to put in the effort to deal with cheaters.
The professor thinks the students cheating would not be overly unfair to other students who don't cheat.
The professor also does not want me to try to catch cheaters.

I have made clear that cheating on homework almost guarantees a pass, and he/she agrees, and is ok with this.

The homework are all questions from the textbook, and a solution manual is readily available on google.

In this week's homework, I have found more than 100 students who have copied from the solution manual, where at least 50 students copied word for word (if reported, the cheating done can be easily proved by the school.)

I suspect I only caught a portion of all cheaters, as buying solutions at this university is too blatant.

I would like to ask the community of my next steps.

If I were to report the cheating to him/her:
Would I anger the professor, since this is against his/her wishes?
Would I build a tense relationship with him following this? (There is still a whole semester ahead, and possibly years in the same university.)
What would be done in the end? What if he ignores the report, what should my next steps be?

If I were to report to the undergrad chair:
Would it be inappropriate to skip reporting to instructor first?
Would I also build a tense relationship with the instructor by this move?
I am almost positive that there would be action by the undergrad chair on the cheating behavior.

I could also report to both simultaneously.
I could also do nothing at all, in which case the cheating would without a doubt continue for the whole term, with the vast majority of students taking part.

I personally disagree with the professor, as I believe that it is unfair for the minority of students who don't cheat.
Due to the high homework marks, a mark curve is highly unlikely, so the students who don't cheat are truly getting lower marks because of the cheaters.

The instructor is in the beginning of his/her career, and not retiring. The university is in North America, very large (more than 50,000 undergrad)

Edit3:
As I continue to grade, I have found more and more cheaters, in the hundreds, approaching 50% of the class.

Thanks for all the suggestions asking me to "let it go".
After much consideration, I can not take such advice.

Thanks for all the suggestions of asking me to "not skip the chain of command".
I have since realized this may have severe consequences, and have decided against it.

I have contacted only the instructor with minimal details of the situation.
Thanks for all the support and best wishes from the community, I sincerely appreciate it.

I realize that the following advice may be very unsatisfying. But you may need to hear it, just to save yourself from grief. I hope it helps.

It may be that you have done all that you can do without harming your own future. You need to judge that, of course, but getting between a new professor and the administration can be uncomfortable at best and career ending at worst.

But you can, of course, vow to be a better actor than this professor when it comes your turn to be in the driver's seat.

There are a lot of possible "reasons" for the situation you are in, none of them especially valid, but still possibly determinant.

Perhaps the department doesn't care a lot about these students or this course, as it doesn't sound like they are in the major.

Perhaps the professor is so tied up in research that he just doesn't care about (or have time for) teaching. This is true, in fact, for some untenured professors.

Perhaps the professor is seen as a future superstar who is immune from all criticism.

If you weren't alone, and had other TAs with similar concerns then you would be in a better position to bring the situation to the attention of higher-ups. If you are friendly with another professor who sees the problem and also objects to it, you could work through him/her.

If your duties included more than grading, such as leading small breakout sections, you could, perhaps, work with your smaller group to get some local change. But, if it is the professor's job to teach them and he refuses to do it effectively then there isn't a lot you can do.

But as a sole TA with only grading responsibilities you don't have a lot of options that won't come back to your own disadvantage.

Certainly you can bring it to the attention of the undergrad coordinator, with evidence. Whether to do it without the knowledge of the prof or not is a (risky) judgement call. But if a solution is to be found, you probably won't be part of creating it. It would be a faculty committee that would have authority and be able to effect change. But you would likely be in the center of any controversy that was generated. As a doctoral student, it feels pretty unsafe to me.

Look to the future, and learn from the past. Do your best but don't put yourself at risk unnecessarily.

This answer does not guarantee a solution to the problem of cheating or help bad students to learn what they are doing, but it will allow for a situation where: dishonest students don't gain an unfair advantage; honest students lose nothing; and you are not exposed to any risk of upsetting the professor; and increase the chances that the honest students will complain on their own accord.

Fight fire with fire

When I was a TA I had access to all the students email addresses.  So pretend to be a fellow student and proceed to BLIND-carbon-copy ALL the students ALL the correct answers regardless of if they want it or not.  The honest students will not lose out because of their honesty.  Perhaps a student will complain and solve the problem for you simply because you are being so blatant.

Note there is the risk that your actions could be discovered if only you had access to the emails of other students.  So make it sound like your not emailing all the students, but that you "happend" to know the email address from a "friend" and wanted to include her in the cheating ring for the sake of fairness and ask her to forward the emails of any other students she is aware of, just to throw off any investigator (since you OBVIOUSLY couldn't be the one doing it since you already have ALL the email addresses >:) ).

You don't want ALL the students talking to each other and realizing that they were all already on the email list... so only email three of the students who got wrong answers and then only use the emails they inform you of.  for each assignment add one student who got wrong answers to the email list, that way people who are socially isolated won't be left out and it will seem like the email list is growing "organically".

Also be certain to email the professor that you don't think it is fair so the professor can't latter place the blame on "your corrupt and fraudulent behavior".  Email it from your own personal email account such as gmail so that in the event that you take it to court you can subpoena your email provider to provide evidence that you protested such a policy.  DO NOT use your university email as depending on the level of corruption they could simply delete the email and claim you never sent such an email.  However, DO use your professors university email as that way the university can quickly verify that the professor did receive a complaint from you.


Is doing a 1 year MBA after many years of experience in the IT industry worth it? I have over 13 years of experience in IT industry, but no consistent domain / specialization. I have worked as UI developer, project manager, scrum master, business analyst, recruiter, etc. for few years each. Now my career seems stuck and I am not getting further on the career ladder.

I couldn't go to college due to financial constraint in my early years. I am 35 now, but the itch to attend a regular university is still there. I want to do a regular MBA (preferably 1 year) from a foreign university. (I am a native Indian).

Sometimes I think that doing an MBA might give a kick to my stalled career. But these are my fears / constraints.

I still do not have enough money. My entire life's saving is around 45K USD. Should I do MBA or not? If yes, should I go for an ed loan (saving my current money for unforseen events) or empty my bank accounts (to avoid paying interest)?
If I leave my job now, with current slow economy, what will be the ROI of doing a 1 year MBA?
As per my little research Germany is a country for students (less tuition fee)! If I go for non-US universities (like Germany, Spain, Australia, NZ) I will have to learn their native language to survive there, which needs another 6-8 months.

TL;DR
Please advise if doing a 1 year regular MBA after 13 years of experience worth it? Which universities with good rankings offer affordable MBA?

It seems that you are unsure of what you want from a MBA, besides hoping it might kickstart your career. I think it's important that you first identify exactly what you want from a MBA - your goals. Do you want to gain connections with others in your field? Do you want a job that requires a MBA? After you have identify these goals, ask yourself if a MBA at a certain institution will help you achieve these goals. The degree itself is just as important as where you get the degree. Foreign universities might be cheap, but degrees that come with it might not be highly regarded in the States.

Studying abroad is not the optimal choice in your situation. As a native American, there are plenty of prestigious American institutions willing to diversify their graduation class and scholarships will be available to you - you just have to search or ask for it. Going abroad for only 1 year is definitely not worth the trouble of learning a new language - it will be a distraction to your studies.

I would also disagree with you that the economy in the US is slow. Are there particular reasons why you feel that way?


Why do people say you shouldn't do a PhD unless you want a career in research? I know a PhD is supposed to be an apprenticeship for future researchers.  But what if you enjoy getting the PhD, but have no intention of doing research in the future?  It seems like being a professor is really stressful and there is a lot of competition, and same thing for other sorts of non-grad-school research jobs.  If you think this way, does this mean you shouldn't get a PhD, and why?

Research is not just the most important aspect of any PhD program worth the name; it's the entire point. Everything you do as part of the program (teaching duties aside) is to prepare you for a career as a researcher. So getting a PhD without any intention of putting this research training to use would be like spending years as a baking apprentice without any intention of becoming a baker: maybe not a complete waste if you really like baking (but not enough to make it a career?), but almost inarguably not the best use of your time.

Lots of people get PhDs and don't become researchers, but if these people had known beforehand what industry they would end up in, odds are they could have gotten a better jump start on their career by getting a  Master's degree focused on that industry and entering the workforce after one or two years (rather than 5+ for the PhD). There are exceptions to this principle, but they are relatively uncommon, and usually involve industry jobs that somewhat resemble research anyway.

I can think of only two other justifications for getting a PhD: learning for learning's sake, and prestige. The former is a noble goal, but if all you want to do is learn without contributing to the body of knowledge in your field, this is contrary to the spirit of (good) PhD programs as stated above. Furthermore, you can learn all you want in your free time without entering a PhD program. Find out what the standard graduate-level textbooks are in your field, and work through them. If your knowledge gets up to the research level in a particular topic, you can start reading recent research articles. (Your local library will likely have access.) As for prestige, this may be subjective, but spending five years of your life for a piece of paper is unlikely to be satisfying in the long run. And, speaking as someone who has a PhD, you'll soon learn that most people will not really want to address you as "Doctor."

Having said all that, if you do like (or think you would like) research, but are put off solely by the expected competition and stress, I urge you to be more open-minded. Academia is certainly competitive and stressful, but so are most careers worth having.

I saw an article today on my Linkedin Pulse titled: 24 Highpaying jobs for people who hate stress

At least half of them requires master to PhD level education.  So I'd say that's not true, but it depends on what your PhD is on.

Also, I'd like to point out an article from Hootsuite yesterday (though this may only apply to the tech industry for now).  The article claims that traditionally, the only way to climb up the corporate staircase is to slowly move up the manager position( and then manage more... a team, a department, a company, etc.)  However, they claim that companies like google (and themselves) long recognized that some highly skilled people are not fit to be managers and don't want to manage other people, so they set up alternative career track "the guru track".  This basically allows people with high knowledge in a specific topic to move up, without having to manage.  I don't know if this is the path the industry (and any other industry) is heading, but if this becomes more common, I suspect that graduate education will be more valued than they are now in the corporate world.


Asking my Professor to create a Google Account to submit a Letter of Recommendation for me I requested a recommendation letter to a professor and he agreed to write one for me. However, the application  (a Google form) to which he needed to upload the letter required a Google account to sign in. He didn't have an account, so he emailed me what he should do, so I kindly told him that he needed to create one, detailing the steps he needed to take. This is when my professor emailed me back rather harshly, asking why he couldn't just submit using just his faculty email. I had to then email the program, and I was told to ask my professor to send the letter directly to the correspondent.

I understand that this is not that big of an issue, but I would like to know whether it was wrongful of me to have asked my professor to create the Google account. How can I be more careful in the future so as to prevent negative responses?

My best guess, and just a guess, is that he was frustrated with the system that was required, rather than with you. It is probably a mistake for any admissions system to require an email address from a particular provider (unless it was for a job at Google, I suppose).

I don't think you made an error, but if you want to ease the waters, go see him and apologize for the hassle of it all. It would probably be a mistake to just forget about it, but also a mistake to obsess over it.

Such systems infuriate me, also. Such extra accounts are always a security/privacy issue.

Not this is the ordinary form of a LoR.

The ordinary form is a text, which is formulated and subscribed by him.

The important thing for the profs is, that the LoR is an official statement for him. It strength is given by that the prof - at least, in theory - pays with his own reputation, if the statements there wouldn't be true.

This is why profs don't really like to give LoRs. If someone employs you because of his LoR, and then you don't fulfill the expectations, it will decrease also the credibility of the prof. This is why LoRs are so hard to earn.


Is it wise to select a PhD topic before choosing an advisor? I am a student of  Pure Mathematics interested in Linear Algebra and Abstract Algebra. I was browsing the Internet for good research topics containing both a flavor of linear algebra and also having some real life applications when I came to learn about Spectral Graph Theory.

I have searched for professors who are actively involved in this field, but I have only found a few names whose topic of interest is Spectral Graph Theory. There are also a very few number of books available in this field.

Is this a good topic to work on? Is it very difficult to find an advisor in this field? Though I am able to  learn the topic on my own, I am finding it difficult to approach someone in case I am having a problem.

Also, is it wise to first decide a topic and then find an institute which has professors in this field or it should be the other way round i.e., I should select a good institute according to QS rankings first and then decide a topic accordingly?

In brief: no, in mathematics in the U.S., you do not "have to choose" a research topic prior to beginning your PhD. At the same time it is _of_course_ good to have something to be enthusiastic about, curious about, fixated upon. But that can change, and probably should change as you learn more. It is apparently the case that in the U.S., and to some degree elsewhere, in mathematics, undergrads and even M.S. students really don't get enough background to understand contemporary mathematics at all, except very superficially. Fine, that's not a moral failing... maybe just evidence that there's a lot happening in mathematics... (!?!) But, then, in that light, the enthusiasms that novices have are necessarily (by-far-typically) ill-informed... and will change if/when they learn more.

This is not to say that one should not have an opinion, or should not admit interest in things because one knows one's interest will change... but only that one should anticipate that change, rather than believe that one "has arrived" at age 22 or so, and there's nothing left to learn, and now it's just "trying to solve problems/do research". I understand the appeal of that, but, if we think about it, it's better in the long run if mathematics is not that shallow or superficial.

More specifically, spectral graph theory is a quite viable research area. "Expander graphs" are popular and google-able. Lots of people work on this, both from the "spectral side", and from the "graph theory" side.

And, perhaps counter-intuitively, the possible fact that there are not so many "books" treating a topic can in fact be a very positive sign... it's unclear. That is, if there are zillions of books on something, then chances are good that it's an older topic and has been worked over pretty hard... leaving less room for beginners to contribute.

So, sure, it's entirely reasonable to have specific and fine-grained interest... as opposed to "general" interest. Like having a specific lunch rather than a lunch-in-general. :) But be utterly open to changes in your viewpoint... as you learn more, which will be for many years. :)

It depends if you seriously want to stay in academia after or not.

If you just want a PhD diploma, you will manage with almost any senior advisor, but it might take a while, you might run into funding limits and so on with an advisor who does not play the "publish or perish" game.
If you want to stay in academia after, it is more difficult: you do need to find your own subject, and create your own "niche" (many senior researchers now advocate for such a specialization very early on).
But you also need to be sure you will publish papers, in good journals, and there is the importance of the advisor: someone who has good (and long) publishing records is more likely to be an efficient advisor who will not let you extend your PhD time forever without publishing.
Finally, academia is competitive, and a big name on your CV can sometimes make the difference between the "interview" pile and the trash for a postdoc. In fact I discussed that with 2 seniors in my field, and they admitted having a soft spot for people coming from "big names" because "you anyway get brainwashed by your advisor". They have a point there I think, but only if the advisor really works in collaboration with his PhDs. However, big name on CV with no publications will lead you nowhere.

Personality wise, it is a gamble, and you cannot really avoid it.

I would personally go for a good advisor (forget the QS rankings: look at the specific advisor's records by going to Web of Science and find the h-index of the professors), for the simple reason that after my master I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but in fact working with an excellent competitive advisor during my PhD convinced me to slightly change my overall interests (in terms of modeling approaches).

For the specificity of your topic, I don't know, I am in environmental sciences.


Professor deletes me from Skype contact list after Skype interview and promise to give offer. Could this be a rejection? Recently, I had a Skype interview with a professor several weeks ago, and professor also promised me the PhD offer. My GPA is not high enough to meet the requirement of Department, but she said she would argue for me. After that, I also sent an email to professor and tried to talk about two academic questions, but no reply had been received. Recently, I checked my Skype and found professor has already delete the contact with me. And after I submitted the application, I also sent an email to inform the professor, no reply has been received either. So can I think it as a rejection?

No. I don't think you should assume that this is a rejection.

Deleting you from Skype does not sound unusual. If they added you for a specific purpose and don't intend to be contacting you regularly then they may just want to avoid notifications popping up all the time about when you are logged on.
Professors are busy. A lack of email reply, especially at this time of year when they may be about to leave for the holidays (depending on where you are in the world), may simply mean they not have got around to replying to you.
It's possible that the department you are applying to has strict procedures about job/studentship offers, such that the professor is not allowed to give you certain information until it has been formally confirmed by the school. Depending on the exact questions you asked, the professor may feel that they need to wait for the proper process before getting in touch with you again.

Assuming that you have gone through an official application procedure, which it sounds like you have, you will get official notification at some point from the department as to whether or not you have been successful. As I said above, be aware that might be a bit delayed due to the holidays. But I don't think you should assume one way or the other until you get the confirmation.

Good luck!

The professor is kind. She could not say no. She wished to give you an opportunity. But maybe she could not manage. So she deleted you.

A PhD is required if you are looking for a job, but if you create an opportunity for others, you don’t need that. You can learn it yourself, there is no alternative.


How to let a PhD student know that their research is not as good as they think it is I am a postdoc and I have been talking to a PhD student about his research, as his interests are closer to mine than to his advisor's. He is generally nice, smart, and hard working. However, I think he has an unrealistic opinion of his own work.

He has written a paper and wants to submit it to the top conference in my field. (I'm in computer science, so we publish in conferences, not journals.) Unfortunately, I don't think his paper has a chance of getting in. His paper would be a long shot even for a second- or third-tier conference. His paper is also dismissive of prior work, which may offend the authors of that prior work (who are likely to be reviewing his paper).

What should I do about this?

It would be helpful to him if someone gave him a reality check and told him to rewrite much of his paper. However, it is not really my responsibility (or place) to do this. (I'm only two years more senior than him.) If he does submit, he will get a reality check from the reviews, but it would be good if he got some more "gentle" or "constructive" feedback.

I have limited experience with advising. Perhaps someone more experienced can tell me what would be appropriate in this situation. I feel like more than a subtle hint is needed.

Let's start with the obvious:

  I'm only two years more senior than him.

You have a PhD and he has not. You have written (many) papers before and he has not. You know your craft. He does not (yet). And he can learn faster by listening to well-meaning advice from more senior and experienced people. The age-difference does not mean anything. And it seems that you care for his well-being (and his success) and that probably makes your advice even more valuable than the advice of a more experienced, yet indifferent person.

Given that you are qualified to give this advice, you should absolutely tell him the honest truth. Start by:

  Would you like to hear my true opinion of your paper? You might not
  like it but I think you should hear it. I think it is better to hear
  it from me than some random reviewer.

And then wait for his answer. If the answer is "No, I do not want to hear your opinion and my paper is so much better than most of the crap they publish in SODA, VLDB or..." then let him know the hard way. Nothing beats delusions better than three strong rejects and merciless bashing from the reviewers. You should also probably let his advisor know what you think of the paper and then let the advisor decide on how to proceed.

Otherwise, if the student is genuinely interested in your opinion then take the time to explain not only what is wrong with his paper but how he can make it better. Explain why he should be more diplomatic in his view of previous work. How he can present his experiments better. How to further clarify his contribution in comparison to the previous works, and so-on. But also state that even if he implements all that, his paper might still not have a chance in first-tier conference.

Of course, my answer is based on the fact that you do not directly supervise this student. If you do, he has no choice but to hear your opinion. And in this case, crap or half-baked papers should not go to prominent conferences. That makes everyone (co-authors, advisors) look bad. Of course rejection is something normal but only when you submit something that actually stands a chance to be accepted.

Let us start from the assumption that a paper, whether presented to a conference or submitted to a journal, must be about new research that has not been published before.

  Unfortunately, I don't think his paper has a chance of getting in

If you think so because of mistakes in the paper then address such mistakes and correct them, or have the student correct them by himself. Once those mistakes are solved, then no issue about the submission and the approval should arise.

  His paper is also dismissive of prior work, which may offend the authors of that prior work

As long as the paper is correct, that it dismisses prior authors is of not much interest for science.

  What should I do about this? It would be helpful to him if someone gave him a reality check

I wonder where his supervisor and perhaps you (no address intended though) have been throughout the entire time the student was writing the paper. Articles do not write themselves alone and if you believe the entire area or topic the paper is dealing with is erroneous, then you (the supervisor) should have warned the student long ago, not to pursue a false line of research.

If the initial assumption, namely that the paper discovers new lines of research, is wrong, then that is not a paper in the first place, by definition, to be presented anywhere, whether good or bad it may be.


Does a masters degree help completing PhD sooner? Do students with Masters Degree complete their PhDs (in US, but I am curious about other countries too) sooner than the one's who have entered the PhD program after their undergrad?

I know it depends upon the individual, project, major and the supervisor but is there a general trend?

It depends on the university and the program.

In the US, most PhD granting institutions have pre-requisites for getting your PhD.  This may include coursework and will also require research.

For research, one could argue that if you did research in the course of your Master's degree then you would have a time advantage in that you may be able to hit the ground running and engage in publish-able research more quickly.

In institutions that require coursework, the amount of coursework that overlaps with a Master's program can vary.  Often, even if you've taken similar coursework in another university, you would still need to fulfill the course requirements in the department where you're going for your PhD.  For programs that offer a combined Master's/PhD program, the courses for getting your PhD may be covered under the requirements for getting a Master's, so by already having a Master's degree you may only be shaving off a few of your requirements.

Last, at least in Computer Science, a Master's degree and a PhD are fundamentally different in what they're trying to educate you for.  A Master's degree is more like an advanced bachelor's degree where you're taking additional courses and gaining extra skills.  A PhD is for research.  Given that fundamental difference, it's difficult to say how much would transfer over and again, it would really depend on the university and the program's expectations of what you should have when you enter and what you requirements you need to fulfill once you get there.

From my experience in Biochemistry and Neurobiology (and I'm assuming most Biology and Chemistry fields).

Unfortunately, in the US, no it does not help in completing a PhD sooner.

Sometimes a masters is necessary for a person just to get into a PhD program, depending on the person's history and the program.

It would help if the PhD had some requirement of a certain level of understanding or even amount of research work, but instead a PhD tends to just require an amount of time as an indentured servant to your PI - and that amount of time doesn't change if you have a masters. Although, if you're clever and a good salesman maybe you can convince your PI and committee that your masters time should count toward your sentence/years of labor.


Letter of recommendation for grad. school application source I am applying for admission to the Master's program next fall. However I am in doubt about the source of reference. I have two options:

My mentor at a research institute who was pursuing his PhD. when I was a research intern. However, he did not complete his PhD.
Research Scientist(PhD) at my current organization where my role is that of a software developer. Therefore the recommendation is based on my work as a developer rather than on my research contributions.

Both are willing to write strong recommendations for me.

Who would be a better source of recommendation?

I would ask mentor #1 (with a master's degree) to write a letter to the PhD research scientist #2, and have the latter (#2) submit a letter for your application. Thus, the recommendation letter is received from a prestigious source, is based on current experience of your work habits and character, but can also incorporate quotes/details from the more junior person. This is not an unusual pattern in my experience.

I would use the first person because it is about your work in research. I think that their qualifications matter very little: What really matters is the nature of your work when you were under their supervision.


I found an error in my exam that caused me to lose time on other questions, resulting in a lower grade. How can I appeal? I'm a student in college, and while I was taking a linear algebra  exam, I noticed that there was a mistake in the last exercise. Our exam is composed of two parts: multiple questions and  exercises. I usually prefer to start with the second part while everybody starts with the first one.
I spent about 15 to 20 minutes before I called the teacher and said that there is an error. He confirmed the error and announced it to the rest of the class. At the end, I left some questions in the first part blank because I ran out of time.
The problem is that I received my grade (16/20) and I'm not really happy because if I had more time I could've done so much better (19/20 if I had finished the  three other questions).
How could I ask him to upgrade my grade  and explain to him that I really deserve it and that I really need to have (19/20) so I can pass my semester?

Update:
I saw my teacher today, and he didn't even give me a chance to talk and said that there is nothing he can do. When I said that this is not fair and that I spent time to find the error he said "You should've passed the exercise". I don't know what to do now, any idea?

How could I tell him to upgrade my grade and explain to him that I really deserve it and that I really need to have (19/20) so I can pass my semester?

Don't tell him how to fix the error, and don't open with this being a make-or-break for passing your semester. This will probably put him on the defensive, and make him less likely to be sympathetic. In fact, the first time I read your question, I thought you were in the wrong, but upon closer reading, I understood your issue better.
I was in a similar situation, except one whole quiz section learned about the error half way through, whereas the other two learned about it at the start of the test, through a TA's error. It was a headache for the professor. If I recall,  they ended up giving everyone in that section a percentage boost.
Be polite, and straightforward:

Hi Professor,
In our last exam, I pointed out an error in the last part of the test. I spent 15-20 minutes working on the question before I figured out the error. Since I like to start with that section, I wasn't able to finish the first part of the test. Because of this, I didn't score as well as I could have.
Other students didn't have to spend so much time working on this question because I found the error for the class. Is it possible to adjust my score to reflect this?

Honestly, he probably didn't even think of it, or forgot by the time he was grading. You have a totally reasonable request.

When an exam contains an error that has had the potential to have affected the results, the professor is morally obliged to offer all students an extra voluntary makeover exam. The rules and regulations the exams are subject to at the university may not make it compulsory for the professor to do this, but merely sticking to the limits the rules allow for amounts to substandard professional behavior. No one can succeed in academia by just sticking to the rules.
Students who feel their scores were affected by the error may then complain that they'll need to sit another exam instead of just getting a higher score. But having studied for the original exam and mastered the topic, they should be able to just revise the topic in a few days and pass the new exam with ease. It's also an elementary topic they need to keep on speed with throughout their entire academic careers, so doing another exam in it isn't a waste of time. Any negative attitude for extra studying really isn't a good attitude for anyone in academia, so students who feel like that should reconsider whether they should continue their studies at university.


How to deal with a colleague who won't accept they're wrong Sometimes an argument will arise between collaborators where two (or more) contrasted views or (mis)interpretations of a scientific issue exist. Sometimes both views are partially correct, sometimes they're both incorrect, and sometimes one is correct and the other is not.

Some people don't handle being wrong in a very "gracious" manner, even after realizing they are wrong, and will not admit their mistake. I have a previous experience with a more senior colleague who would not admit they were wrong even after confronted with a lot of evidence. I should also add that I was intimately familiar with the research problem at hand and they had just some very superficial knowledge of it, which probably led to their mistake. I suspect that at some point they realized they were wrong but were trying to hold the upper ground ("I'm right because I'm the more senior person") and "win" the argument. Also their ego got in the way of reason (not the first time that happened). The situation was very frustrating for me and things went sour with this person, not only because of this incident but also because of previous history.

I am facing the same problem again (with a different colleague who is also my senior) and would like to handle the situation in a less destructive manner. However, I cannot write a statement on a paper that I know to be wrong just to avoid hurting somebody's ego.

What is a good way to resolve the issue with a colleague who you know to be wrong, anticipating they may have a hard time admitting it?

Just to clarify (based on what I can read in the comments): my question is not about situations such as pointing out a mistake by the speaker at the end of a presentation, sometimes even with the malicious intention to embarrass a "competitor" (things you witness at conferences!). In such situations influencing factors are, e.g., present audience and lack of time to think things through. It's about stubbornly persisting on one's mistake even when confronted with evidence and given the time to think about it.

Use impersonal language
Hopefully this is obvious, but make sure that your language focuses on the ideas rather than the people. Rather than

I don't think you're grasping the subtleties of the situation

try

I think that there are some extra complications that need consideration in this case

Ask questions
Rather than taking a confrontational approach, try to adopt the role of the inquisitive student. Rather than

There is evidence in publications X and Y that directly contradicts what you are saying

try

What are your reasons for disagreeing with publications X and Y?

or

I'm having trouble understanding why the conclusions from publications X and Y do not apply here. Can you elaborate?

This will hopefully give your colleague a graceful way out without having to turn it into a matter of "you're wrong and I'm right". As a bonus, it also gives you a way out if it turns out you were wrong after all (however unlikely that is) or that you misunderstood your colleague's point. But as @R.M. and @CaptainEmacs have pointed out in the comments, take care not to overdo it, or you could come across as either clueless, or patronising.
Make someone else the scapegoat
Rather than voicing your concerns directly, put them in the mouth of a hypothetical reviewer. Rather than

I think there are these reasons for rejecting that argument

try

I think that a reviewer could object to that argument for [reasons]. I think we need to anticipate this using [different argument].

Don't let your ego win you over to fighting the battle you can never win.

So they are wrong, you know they are wrong. However you can't stop them spreading the wrongness if they truly believe it.

Let them, others will notice they are wrong too, in time.

You say about how their ego won't let it go that they are wrong about something, but you're ego is what is making you follow it up all the time. If it's important that you work with this person, accept they are wrong.


Copy/paste from the PhD thesis into my future publication I am writing my PhD thesis right now. I do not have any published paper by now, but a manuscript which will be published probably after or at the same time of my defense. Can I just Copy/ Paste some parts (discussion for example) from my manuscript in thesis? Would be any problem afterwards for publishing this manuscript? In other words, I am afraid if the reviewers of paper say that “you cannot Copy and Paste the discussion of your thesis, without rephrasing it”.

It is not uncommon to hear about thesis that are based on published papers or drafts of future papers. What I have seen for those thesis is that the author puts a footnote at the beginning of each chapter. The note indicates the journal/conference where the information pertaining to that chapter has been published/presented. You could use this as a guide when writing your thesis.

The most important thing is to make sure that you cite properly everything and that you demonstrate intellectual ownership of the information presented in your thesis.


Can a professor tell you that you can’t use your phone before or after their class? So, I have this one professor who refuses to let anyone use their phone. I understand this during class hours but now he’s saying he will give a demerit to anyone using their phone even if it’s before or after class.

I personally am at the school from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and his class is my last one for the day and I have a 2 1/2 hour wait until it starts. Most days I get into his class room anywhere from 30 mins to almost an hour before class starts. The teacher is in the room as students aren’t allowed in otherwise. In that time I’m generally on my phone as in my opinion it’s my free time and I’d like something to do or have people I’m talking to over text.

Everyone is of course adults as we are in college so it’s extremely irritating that another adult would tell me and other students to put a phone away when there is literally no one else in the classroom and no work is being done. Even after class he threatens to write me up for having my phone out whether it’s just to check the time or look something up. (I’m usually the last to leave as I don’t feel the need to rush out of the room and generally try to clean up pretty well before I go)

Maybe I’m just being unreasonable but I do believe some boundaries of respect are being crossed. I don’t talk back or stand up for myself when he tells me to put it away either as I grew up being taught to respect anyone in authority or older than you. Though, he’s the first to make this difficult as the respect doesn’t feel as though it’s being reciprocated.

I think your description of what’s going on is misleading. The professor is not “telling you you can’t use your phone before class”. He’s telling you you can’t use your phone before class in the classroom when he’s also in the classroom.

Is that reasonable? I honestly don’t have a strong opinion. I can certainly see why it’s annoying to you on the one hand, but can also see things from the professor’s perspective - if he wants to use those thirty minutes before class to review the material he’ll be discussing, and is easily distracted by phones (yes, professors are prone to distraction just like other people), he may well think his need to have a distraction-free working environment so that he can deliver good instruction for his class overrides your personal need to use your phone during that time and makes it okay for him to decide what is and isn’t allowed in the classroom, even though the official lecture time hasn’t yet arrived.

It’s possible you can win this on a technicality by turning this into some kind of principled fight over individual rights. But I don’t see a point, it wouldn’t be a real “win” for you or anyone else in any meaningful sense. Your professor may be a slightly unreasonable person with a slightly rigid personality, but in my opinion the mature thing to do in this situation would be to respect his wishes and find some other place to use your phone before class.

He's joking. There is no such thing as a demerit in college. If he wanted to penalize you, he would say, I'm taking 3 points off your grade every time I see you with that phone out. Read the syllabus for his class policy on phones.


Should I report cheating to my professor? If so, how? My professor reuses old tests. I have no idea why she told us this, but she did. In class today I noticed someone reviewing last years test, with the answers circled, on their computer in google drive, along with several other tests for this course that have not occurred yet. The test is in two days, and I know that this person will most likely have the answers memorized so it will be impossible to prove anything unethical is happening during the exam to a proctors perspective. Not only does this student have the exams, though, but many others. Apparently fraternities hold onto these and share them amongst each other.

When posting about this on Yik Yak, and my irritation with this, I received many yaks back threatening me should I turn people in, saying they would find me and hurt me. I have no reason to believe anyone knows what class I noticed the cheating in, or who I am, but this has me unsettled.

I have been studying and will continue to study for this test, and I find it infuriating that others don't need to bother with studying at all. I work hard for everything, and I do not want to get screwed over for this. The tests are curved so that the mean score for every test is a C+, and a large group of students who score well through cheating will undermine those who did not cheat on the curve.

What do I do?

The professor is free to decide to reuse questions from previous exams. It's a bit sloppy, but it's her business. She can't forbid students from learning the answers by heart, she would have no ways of enforcing this rule.

It would be unethical only if the previous tests were obtained by stealing them or any other dishonest way. If it's previous students making them available, it's just students investing efforts in a dubious way.

My answer is that you should suck up your furor, try to make the best learning out of the content (why not use these previous exams as an exercise?), and ace the exam your way. You will be much happier with yourself on the longer haul than those who will just have the quick thrill with the (false) impression of "gaming the system".

Also, don't take any more of her courses, and maybe mention in the teacher evaluation that you think the exam is not efficiently testing for understanding.

As a side note, people who succeed by learning answers by heart are only tricking themselves. They invest time and money in an education but don't take advantage of the learning. I think it's idiotic.

This practice is, unfortunately, extremely common in my institution. I do not report it, nor I ever will, because I know the professors are extremely aware of the fact that the students often study by previous tests.

Since they have never taken any action against it, and do not bother with making new tests or even telling us not to read older exams, I then assume that they want us to study by old tests. I have talked to a few about this and they have confirmed it.

I study Law and one of the most effective ways of getting a good grade on the bar exams is studying older exams. The professors tell me that, in reusing a pool of questions, they are preparing us for our reality.

I know some are just lazy, but others have made me study hundreds of questions, because they reuse questions, but not whole tests.

Based on this, I do not report such occurrences.


Is it safe to use pirated software for Doctoral research? I am using unlicensed simulation software (downloaded from torrents) for Doctoral Thesis (and Research papers) on my personal laptop without the knowledge of my institution as the university doesn't have the licensed software. 1) Is this safe?
2) Can I be questioned by the software vendor. 3) Can my paper be retracted from journals?

(I'm uninterested in answers relating to free student versions of software and freeware.)

It’s not OK to use unlicensed software. I would suspect that advisors would be very concerned about one of their students using an expensive software package for which they didn’t have a license, since they might have liability for letting you use it.

If it’s so important, then you should talk to your advisor about getting a license.

While I am not personally familiar with people having degrees revoked for using unlicensed software, I could certainly sympathize with arguments calling for sanctions against people who do so.

No, it's not okay. What's the ultimate point of a PhD? To train you in how to perform research.

What are the best practices for producing ethical research? Not using pirated software, for a start. If you use pirated software in the production of your PhD thesis, it's entirely possible that your university will take action against you for violating academic integrity standards.

For example, in the Australian Code of Responsible Conduct of Research, Rule 17 says:

  Comply with the relevant laws, regulations, disciplinary standards, ethics guidelines and institutional policies related to responsible research conduct. Ensure that appropriate approvals are obtained prior to the commencement of research, and that conditions of any approvals are adhered to during the course of research.

Since software piracy is illegal, knowingly using pirated software in your research would constitute a breach of this rule. Indeed, in their document "Guide to Managing and Investigating Potential Breaches of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, 2018", available for download from the page previously linked to, the definition of a breach of the code includes:

  Conducting research without the requisite approvals, permits or licences.


How to diagnose problems in a paper rejected in pre-review? Two weeks after sending my manuscript to a journal, it was rejected in the pre-review stage and hence, there were no comments from reviewers about problems with the paper.

Can poor scientific writing be the reason for this fast rejection?
What do editors do in the pre-review stage?
How can I diagnose problems with a rejected paper?

  Thank you for submitting your article to AIDS.

  Unfortunately, your paper did not receive a high enough priority
  rating, and the Editors have decided that it should not be accepted
  for publication in AIDS.

  Decisions regarding acceptance of papers in AIDS are made in reference
  to the Editors pre-review and also in relation to the standard of
  other papers submitted. Our rejection rate is more than 70% and to
  save time the Editors of the Journal collectively evaluate submissions
  and consider whether a panel of other reviewers should review the
  article by determining if it would be of high enough interest to be
  selected for publication. On this occasion the Editors assessed your
  article without asking for formal reviews. There are therefore no
  reviewers' comments.

  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider your work. We
  regret that we cannot publish your paper at this time, but we hope
  that you will consider submitting future papers to AIDS.

The pre-review stage is generally a very quick assessment of the manuscript in which editors go through it to check primarily whether the article matches the scope of the journal, the level of novelty of the study, and how interesting it would be to the target audience. For a journal that has a 70 percent rejection rate, I don't think they would give enough time to a paper at the pre-review stage to reject it on the basis of the writing style, unless the style is really very bad. They would probably just read the cover letter, abstract, and results and discussion section carefully and skim through the rest of the paper.

I don't think there is any way to learn more about the reasons for rejection from the journal. However, don't get upset or think that the quality of your paper is not good. Since this journal has such a high rejection rate, it is natural that only the very best or the most path breaking studies will find their way to this journal. This journal might not consider your study novel enough or interesting enough, but there are many other journals that will find it interesting. At this stage, there isn't much that you can do to improve your paper, as you haven't received any reviewer comments. You will have to just submit it to the next journal and hope that the paper goes through peer review.

One might pinpoint some potential guess about this happening... The editor-in-chief or editors often reject the manuscript for a couple of typical reasons:

Your paper is out-of-scope in view of the journal...
Some of well-known papers often apply many filters about the "subject" of the received manuscripts, however they could be relevant to the journal's scope. They are often eager to consider the manuscripts, have which covered really cutting-edge contexts, generally. So, most of the usual research results might have no chance to be taken into account by such publishers...
The linguistic level of the manuscript and its composition would not be rated, as it should be...
...

If a manuscript fulfills the cases just like above points, it would have a noticeable chance to be considered to be peer-reviewed...

Best