Realizing possible academic misconduct after degree award A few days ago, I was notified of my degree award, and my imposter syndrome kicked in - trying to see if I've done anything to not warrant earning it. I found myself looking through good academic practice guidelines and noticed something I'd previously overlooked -- that it was considered exam cheating to attempt to look at another candidate's exam paper even if nothing was gained from it. I'm pretty sure that on at least one occasion I've looked at another person's script while they were taking an exam. To be honest, I have no clue which exam(s) I would've done this on (although I know this wasn't a very common behavior of mine) and, again, I've never been able to benefit from it as I've never been able to actually read anything from anyone's papers (My conscience wouldn't have let me forget this) -- so all my work on my exams are my own knowledge and not gained from anyone's scripts. I also can't remember precisely if my intentions in doing so were to try and get answer from him/her or to see which part of the exam script they were on to judge whether I was behind or not and should pick up the pace (although there must've been some instance where I actually tried to get an answer but couldn't make anything out) - I just have a feeling that I've looked at a person's script before and specifics are pretty hazy.
What should I do about this? My friend told me that he himself and friends he knows (who I know as well and are high achieving students) have been guilty of this and most students are and that this isn't a big deal. I also fail to recollect when this would've happened, and how often (although it couldn't have happened more than a few times as I think I would remember an incident more clearly if it happened more often). Should I tell the college about this, or take it as a learning experience and move on? Part of me doesn't want to penalize myself if this is a fairly common thing, and I worked very hard to get the degree award I have.

What you should do, is precisely nothing. Take a deep breath. Have a culturally appropriate beverage and celebrate your finishing.
We are human. None of us is perfect. We fall. We get up. We move on. The past is past. Most of us here would probably not like to see a complete rerunning of our past selves in every respect.
But, since it bothers your conscience, vow to do better in the future so you have less to be worried about.

it was considered exam cheating to attempt to look at another candidate's exam paper even if nothing was gained from it.

I would imagine that clause is largely there as to be something easier to prove than full-blown copier cheating when cheating is suspected. A lot of pressure goes into proving people are cheating (Loss of employment, Loss of Visa, Lots of wasted money) and it may be a way to prove some academic misconduct in the case the professor can't explicitly prove you were cheating to the evidence standard needed but can show that you 'glanced at your neighbor's paper'. The reason that's there is they can do something lower like throw out the test or take some points away as opposed to a full-blown expelling or something of the like. o


Is there a better measure of undergraduate academic performance than GPA? An answer to a recent question about the importance of looking at a student's whole transcript got me thinking.  Is there some other way of summing up a student's academic performance, other than the GPA?  Something that would distinguish among the three types of 3.5 students described in Jake's answer:

  This student is pretty steady, but not great, and tends to get an even mix of As and Bs across all of their classes, obtaining a 3.5 GPA.
  This student always takes the class with the easiest grading policy whenever they can, and tends to get mostly As in the "easy" classes. When they cannot evade a "hard" class, they get mostly Cs, resulting in a 3.5 GPA.
  This student is very strong and gets mostly As, but there was one semester when family problems disrupted their life, and missed assignments caused them to get Bs and two Fs, also ending up with a 3.5 GPA.

In other words, is there a way of summarizing a student's transcript, that doesn't ignore so many important details?

I suspect that incorporating just class rank doesn't help much (an anecdotal, subjective contribution): my high school allowed one to choose to take classes with credit/no credit (C/NC).  I chose to be graded with letter grades for a handful of classes, and received A's in all of those.  I suspect this may have been why I graduated with a laughably high class rank.

I believe that there cannot be any single numerical statistic or small set of such statistics that summarizes the nature of a student well.

The first reason for my assessment is that there are too many different ways one may wish to use information about a student, and too many ways that a student can have an unusual background that will not fit into those boxes well.  The second reason is that any metric, once established, can (and will) be optimized against, thereby undermining its value.

Summarizing a student on one or a few metrics is no better than the much-bemoaned practices of judging faculty for tenure by a few metrics.

Obviously, and I mean really blatantly obviously, getting published in a top-ranked journal, getting one (or more) patents and then starting your own company, or getting a relevant award, prize, or honor (NAS, Noble, and a couple of hundred others in various disciplines) would serve you far better. Which would you rather have, a Nobel Prize (relevant to your area of academics) and a 1.0 GPA, or a 4.0 GPA and no Nobel? The apex of the academic world is accomplishment, this is either in ideas or leadership. Just so obvious that if you demonstrate mastery of either, preferably both, then nothing else (aside from criminal or 'problematic' behavior) matters.


Is it legal to upload a paper to arXiv when it is under double blind review for one of the IEEE journals? Is it legal to upload a paper to arXiv when it is under double blind review for one of the IEEE journals? I am suspicious that it may violate the double blind review requirements and I couldn't find any thing in the journal's homepage specific to this issue. In general IEEE allows preprint versions to be uploaded to arXiv.

I have just received an email from the editor and I am writing it here

Dear Dr. * * *,

We cannot prevent an author to upload her/his paper to Arxiv. However, because of the double-blind process applied in Communication Letters, we don’t encourage it.
There is only one restriction: Your paper should stand alone without any supplementary material and/or reference to an ArXiv post.

Sincerely,

Certainly, do not attempt to upload your paper to the arXiv (or similar repository) whilst your paper is under double-blind review (or any type of journal submission, really), without informing the editor.

I definitely do not recommend to do it. First, an Editor, of course, will say no as he must follow the review policy. Secondly, if your paper is indeed of high quality, there is always a risk that your idea could be leaked (it is normal that people communicate with each other about topic in your paper). If you decide to submit to arXiv, you should follow the rule “don’t ask, don’t tell”. So, you should never ask Editor anything about arXiv, and the Editor, who understands this problem, would not say you anything about arXiv. It is a normal practise now when the paper goes to journal and to arXiv at the same time.


Do journals in general have any kind of policy regarding papers submitted by someone without a research affiliation? Assuming that there are no ethical or legal concerns involved, in general, how would academic journals handle research submitted from the general public (e.g., if a carpenter were to perform a study on memory)? Would it be published if it held to the same standard as other research, or is it rejected without review?

Edit: A lot of people are commenting on the fact that a person outside of academia probably wouldn't be able to write in a way that was required or have the sufficient training for carrying out a proper experiment. Not my point. I just want to know if there is a general rejection of articles purely based on the fact that the person doesn't have any affiliation to a proper research organization. We could for example imagine a former Nobel prize winner who has a lot of money and prefers to work alone.

Some journals implement a double-blind reviewing process, meaning that the reviewers are not aware that the authors are from academia or not, and only the scientific content is judged. That being said, it's worth mentioning that it would be hard for someone without a proper "paper-writing" training (such as the one one can acquire in academia), to produce a paper that would be accepted by reviewers. Some general structure is expected, such as related Works, critical discussion, rigorous methodology, and I would say that without that, it would be hard to get the paper published (I have myself rejected papers from graduate students, not because the idea itself was bad, but because the structure and the presentation were not meeting the standards one could expect for a scientific publication).

EDIT: After reformulation of the question, assuming that the quality of the paper makes it indistinguishable from any other paper, then, no, as far as I know, there is no general policy regarding the official affiliation of the author(s). For instance, in Computer Science, it's not rare to see papers published by people working in a "normal" company (i.e. not a research company), typically on some concrete problems/solutions they have found. Some people even keep publishing after starting their own startup, and therefore the affiliation is something like "MyCompanyWeb2.0".

If you want to appear in a motorsport magazine as a racing driver, you will need to belong to an approved team and comply with all the rules of the activity. If any requirement is missing, even if it is minimal, you will be left out.

Motorsport sponsors protect their interests and impose conditions. They can pay a lot for technical optimization and can pay pilots to spend all their time intensely training. So do the sponsors of science.

Do you listen to fans of motorsport complain about the imposition of conditions in the activity? Obviously there are no such complaints. Why then, who are out of scientific sponsorship, want to complain?


Responding to papers which reinvent ideas without citing them A few months ago a very well-known (and controversial) authority in my field published a theoretical model of a phenomenon that one of my collaborators addressed many years ago. Interestingly, the paper does not reference my collaborator's work at all, even though the authors of this new paper are well aware of it, and have carefully cited "around" it.

My initial response was not to respond, but then I noticed striking similarities between specific paragraphs in the paper and my collaborator's work. The authors reach the same conclusions as my collaborator, but using a model they have developed. Though it doesn't qualify as plagiarism, it annoys me when "new" ideas are proposed without crediting those who originally proposed them. Of course this happens all the time, but I have never been in a position to respond.

My question is how should I respond to this paper, and whether I should respond at all. My collaborator has ceased publishing in this field, and was not interested in responding (but wouldn't mind if I did). Otherwise I have had mixed responses from colleagues, everything from "it happens all the time", to suggesting that I write to the authors or the editor of the journal. Another point to consider is that the senior author is on the advisory board of the prestigious journal the paper was published in.

From what you have described, it is unlikely that the author's decision to omit mention of the previous paper would constitute any breach of the journal's policies, or any violation of academic integrity requirements.  You have stated your assessment that this is not a case of plagiarism, notwithstanding some similarities between the present paper and the previous paper.  If that assessment is correct then you are really just talking about a decision by the author to omit mention of a previous paper, which is a decision that is within his discretion as a researcher, and which has gone successfully through peer review.

Since there is no evident breach of policies or academic integrity standards, the journal is unlikely to change the article unless its authors request an addendum.  You could either write to the authors suggesting this, or you could try to publish your own "letter to the editor" supplementing the information in the recently published paper by mentioning the previous work.  A letter to the editor could draw attention to the omitted work in a respectful way, noting the similarities of the ideas in the two papers, and noting the way in which the present paper formalises the previous idea with a new model.  That would make a nice supplement for readers who are unfamiliar with the previous work.  Of course, there is no guarantee that the editors would publish it, but if you feel strongly about this, it might be worth a try.  If you can say something valuable about the connection between the two papers then the editors might decide that it is a worthy supplement.

I wouldn't write to the authors or to the editor. If your collaborator does not want to respond, why would you?

You can, of course, mention your collaborator's results during conferences or when talking to other scientists. In fact, if your field is anything like mine, most of your colleagues will already have noticed that this paper does not bring anything new to the table.


How to get objective advice on my CV and career progress in detail? My research is in computational modeling of an additive manufacturing (3D printing) process.
My PhD advisor and now my postdoc advisor seems satisfied with my research output. My collaborators (professors from my university and other universities) seem happy with my work. I like my research field and there's so much to learn. I enjoy developing problems and finding solutions. I am decently published (8 publications) in my field and have received some commendation for my papers.
However, I feel I am wasting my time. I have been feeling this since midway of my PhD. I feel that my research is too easy and doesn't impact society or scientific community in any way. I think I am just good for short term projects and I am not required anywhere for permanent position.
I want to have an objective opinion on my experience and my career path. Is there any place to get that?
I am interested both in staying in academia or working in industry. I have applied for positions in industry, but openings are bleak at the moment and I haven't heard from them.

Your university might have a career services office that can help.  Otherwise, hire a private career coach or consultant.

There must be some counseling service at your university. Many students struggle with that kind of self-perception problems.
I say self-perception because, as you mentioned yourself, other accomplished people around you are satisfied with your work.
So maybe just reach out to someone who is psychiatrically trained and has experience with these kinds of problems.
Wish you luck.


How to deal with an inappropriate greeting in an email? I'm relatively new to teaching (I was just hired as a tenure-track English professor at a local community college and have been teaching for just about 2 years). I recently received an email from a male student (he is in his mid-50's), and he addressed me as follows:

  A great morning to you my dear lass,

Now, the email was complimentary. He thanked me for teaching a great course and said that he learned a lot in my class (all of these things are nice to hear). He has, at times, been difficult to teach (he questions academic conventions regarding basic essay structure, such as not beginning or ending a body paragraph with a quote), but he eventually concedes and makes the necessary adjustments (I am teaching a developmental writing course).

Usually.

I was just a little surprised by his choice of greeting. I am not overly familiar with my students, and I am not young (I am a divorced, 40-year-old woman). I like this student, and I am unsure of how to address this (or if I even should...) situation without causing offense. I feel certain he didn't mean to sound condescending and sexist, but... I also feel certain that if I was a 40-year-old male professor he would not have began his email with "A great morning to you my dear lad."

I would really appreciate any advice concerning how to address this issue. Additionally, I am teaching a combo course, and we just completed the first half, so he will continue to be my student for another 8 weeks.

Personally, I would address it in a friendly way, but one that makes it clear that you think it's a bit of an odd form of greeting. It doesn't sound like it was intended in an unfriendly or disrespectful way (and I definitely wouldn't characterise it as sexist), but it does sound inappropriately overfamiliar (it would be a bit like one of my students starting an email to me with "Dude! ...").

The easiest way to deal with it, to my mind, is just to send a fairly normal-sounding (but obviously more formal) email back, and mention it in passing in a friendly way at the end. For example:

  Dear <name>,

  Many thanks for your email - really glad to hear that you've been
  learning a lot from the course. It's been good to see the improvements
  in your essay structure since the start of the course - I'm hoping
  that you'll be able to solidify those improvements over the next 8
  weeks.

  Kind regards,

  <name>

  p.s. Just a friendly piece of advice - whilst I'm not generally too
  fussy about people addressing me formally, I think I should probably
  steer you away from things like "my dear lass", not least because some
  people if addressed that way might take it the wrong way and get
  offended. I'm fine with people calling me by my first name (if the OP
  actually is), but I think that's stretching things too far.

Donning asbestos longjohns...

There was another answer, mentioned on a question by an OP who was wondering about how to respond to a student who dressed provocatively (once a bikini), and one person answering said he had taught where there were very young women whose dress was a revealing version of "stylish" rather than appropriately professional. He talked with them and they changed their work attire, but "the damage had already been done." One veteran with PTSD leaned over her desk and called her four names like "Missy," and creeped her out. When challenged, he said, "That's how we address women in the South."

On the other hand, I spent some time in England, and part of the social rules (as mentioned by other notes) meant that practically everyone lower than me on the social scale addressed me as "my love," and it was inoffensive to the point of being barely noticeable unless I specifically paid attention. None of the other international students, female or male, ever mentioned discomfort at being called "my love"; the social impact is comparable to a U.S.-situated "How are you?" (And even in the U.S., when someone I don't know very well starts off by calling me "Hun," there may be warmth but I have never found such a person taking a pass at me.)

Between these two I would try to make the point that, at least face-to-face, individual words don't creep people out; nonverbal communication that screams out "INAPPROPRIATE SITUATION" creeps people out.

What this means for email is more ambiguous, because email does the unfortunate job of stripping out nonverbal communication (though over the years people have developed SHOUTING, emphasized and strongly emphasized text, emojicons, and so on, to partly compensate for what email drops.

Now it may be advisable to take your best shot at requesting to be called "Prof." or "Ms.", but I'll take a risky guess that if he had called you "Lass" face-to-face, there would have been zero nonverbal cues either of his having a crush on you or of taking a strong move to steer your working relationship. Now if I'm right, that doesn't mean that you're wrong to do your best at explaining to him your preferred ways of being addressed, but face-to-face you might not find it any more uncomfortable than I found supermarket employees being too personal because they kept calling me, "My love."


I believe my PhD dissertation was unfairly graded too low (cum laude): what should I do? I recently completed my Ph.D. in Germany. I believe my dissertation was evaluated extremely unfairly. For my dissertation, I published seven papers in high-impact international medical journals (IF from 3 to 6). I used four of them as core papers and three of them as additional publications. I also have six conference papers. My seven papers have been cited about 34 times so far. The first one was published in Oct 2017.

For the written theses, I had two main reviewers and one of them suggested my grade to be “strong magna cum laude” and the other one said it should be cum laude¹. Then, I was very much prepared to change the second reviewer during my defense. I did an excellent presentation and defense (that is what everyone who was there told me). The second reviewer asked only four questions during the defense. I them properly although one was unrelated to my work.

After the defense was over, I was told to go out with the entire audience until the review committee decides my grade. They took a long time and I was sensing there must be something they didn’t agree with. Finally, I was called to go in and one of the reviewers said: “Congratulations, you passed. Unfortunately, your grade is cum laude. We are stuck in the middle.” This was extremely disappointing to me and I believe the whole process was totally unfair as everyone else also think so.

As I heard from the student members who sat with the committee, this reviewer said I didn’t include a reference for the animated graph that I have produced myself, and insisted that I don’t deserve more than cum laude. They were fighting for a long time until the first reviewer gave up. I, my wife who also has a Ph.D. many years ago, and the entire audience didn’t expect my grade would be like that. In fact, many believe that I am unfairly treated because of my skin color. This is the most difficult situation for me. I am very much stressed and I don’t know how much impact it will have on my career at least to get a postdoc position. What bugs me is that this reviewer doesn’t have a major point.

I am now considering to appeal to the university. But, I am scared.
I also wish to retract my thesis and submit it to another university in Germany and defend it again. Please advise me on what to do.

¹ There are usually four passing grade for a PhD in Germany: summa cum laude, magna cum laude, cum laude and rite (from best to worst).

Why it matters

In my field, cum laude or rite (the two worst German PhD grades) are rarely ever awarded and if they are, it’s usually a sign that there were major issues and a strong hint that the PhD should not consider any career aspirations in academia. Such PhDs often end in positions which mainly care about the title for its own sake (e.g., to impress customers). Your field may differ a bit, but even in law (which is known for using the entire spectrum of grades), such grades would not bode well on an academic career.

I would be careful with taking the position that the grade does not matter. As already said, the vast majority of PhDs that stay in academia have either summa cum laude or magna cum laude (the two best grades). Since getting a summa requires at least a bit of luck in many examination rules¹, many people do rightfully not care about the difference between the two. On the other hand, not having either is likely to raise some eyebrows and may prevent you from getting your desired position without you ever knowing why. Even if you find stories of people who had a successful academic career in your field with a cum laude, beware of survivor’s bias.

Moreover, many job offers in Germany (in particular at government agencies) explicitly require a very good PhD². This includes professorships to the extent that it is in the text of the respective laws (Landeshochschulgesetz), e.g., the one for Northrhine-Westphalia states (translation mine):

  Einstellungsvoraussetzungen für Hochschullehrerinnen und Hochschullehrer sind […]:
  […]
  besondere Befähigung zu wissenschaftlicher Arbeit, die in der Regel durch die Qualität einer Promotion nachgewiesen wird; […]

  Preconditions for being hired as a professor are […]:
  […]
  an outstanding qualification for scientific work, which usually is evidenced by the quality of the doctorate; […]

Now, this does say “usually”, which means it is technically not impossible to get a professorship with a bad PhD, only more difficult. But that already can be a severe disadvantage and may mean that you are ending up with a considerably worse position.

One function of such rules and phrases in job offers are things like avoiding nepotism or having to hire a bad candidate due to lack of better ones. Still if the criterion is phrased respectively, it may be legally impossible to hire you since you fail a hard criterion. If I found out that the successful candidate for a public job I failed to get only has a rite, I would certainly suspect foul play and consider legal action.

All in all, this grade may very well be career-ending.

¹ I know of cases where somebody did not get a summa only because they did not perform top-notch in a one-hour oral examination on their field of study that was unrelated to the topic of the PhD. Consider a theoretical cosmologist PhD being asked about lasers.
² Including your grades on your CV as well as providing a copy of the actual PhD certificate is the default in the hiring process, so you cannot really hide it.

What to be scared of

  I am now considering to appeal to the university. But, I am scared.

… of what?

It sounds like you have little left to lose here.
If your PhD gets re-evaluated from scratch, you are very unlikely to end up with a worse grade.
There is a small risk that you earn a reputation over making a fuss about this, but those who care about this will also likely care about your grade.
On the other hand, if I were to consider you for a position and asked you for the story behind your grade (and I probably would), I would rather be negatively surprised if you hadn’t made a fuss.

What to do

Now, every faculty in Germany has its own PhD rules and therefore it is difficult to make any general statement here.
However, there are several aspects of your story where my PhD rules could have kicked in:

There would be two further members of the committee who can intervene in case of major disputes or grades being given with questionable reason or an accusation of academic misconduct (using material without a reference) against which you could not defend yourself.
The entire committee (four professors) grades the defense.
If the two main examiners differ by more than one grade, a third examiner would have to be consulted.
If your thesis is deemed to have major flaws, you have to be given the opportunity to amend it.
Grades for the thesis have to be given independently and cannot be changed afterwards. (It sounds like the “bad” examiner wanted to give a cum laude, so it cannot be the middle, unless he changed it to a worse grade later.)
There is a written record of committee’s decisions.
Nobody else would have been admitted to attend the committee making the decision. It is particularly weird that students can attend, but you cannot.

I recommend that you thoroughly read your faculty’s PhD rules and consult with whoever oversees the process (usually the dean). Also talk to the “good” examiner (your supervisor, I presume) to get a more detailed story of what happened.

Note that most PhD rules also forbid you to just submit your thesis to another university.

Caveats

Beware that you very likely did not get the full story so far.
For example, attendees of the committee’s decision tend to primarily report the most egregious aspects even though other points had been made.

Let's come to the important point first: Nobody will ever ask you about your grade, and if they did, it would have no impact at all. The point of a PhD is to show that you're a capable researcher, and you've made that point. Beyond that, it's about the concrete accomplishments -- papers, presentations, where and what you published, etc. You have a bunch of papers in good places already, and so anyone who evaluates you has plenty to work from.

In other words, you worry unnecessarily. In the 17 years since I got my PhD, nobody has ever asked me how it was rated, and I've never asked anyone that question either. So just let it go and move on: focus on the things you can affect (your next publication) and not on the things where you feel like you didn't get a fair shake.


Why doesn't the university give past final exams' answers? My professors usually give solutions for part term tests. But it seems that, they never gave any solutions for the past final exams in any courses I've taken.

Does anyone has the same experience? Or does anyone know why it's like this? I personally believe that students could use past exam's answers to prepare for their own exams.

Edited: Wow, it's amazing that so many people shared their opinion here. I'd just like to clarify my question here cuz I see my question mislead few people, my apologize. Say, I am taking some course this year, and the professor would usually post some pasts term tests with answers and the past exams from previous years(with no answers, or sometimes they just post a link to the library website, where answer-free version of past exams can be found) on the course web-page.

This depends on the institution & department and potentially the instructor/course.

The last two institutions I have been at (UK) have provided solutions to past exams. One only odd numbered years, the other all years.

I'm sceptical about the value of providing solutions to past exams for studying purposes. From my experience the temptation to look at the solutions instead of struggling through the questions is often irresistible for students, especially those who are struggling. This leads to the false impression of knowing how to solve the problems. Of course past exam solutions can be used effectively to study, for example by only using the solutions to check answers after completing the entire exam as practice. But I have rarely seen students do this.

Developing appropriate exam questions is difficult so instructors may also want to recycle past questions and therefore not provide past exams (questions or answers).

It could be a lot of different factors.  Trying to stop lawlerly debates.  Reducing self study (it is competition).  Re-use of questions. (This is not purely laziness or to restrict learning.  I do agree that if you have learned all the expected questions you may have mastered the course.  But in some cases questions may be reused for psychometric purposes, to compare instructors or classes.  For instance the SATs reuse questions for this reason.)

Also, schools, courses will differ.  So some may post the answers.

For what it is worth, I disagree with the idea to keep solutions secret for exams, homework, etc.  If people can learn from drilling the materials, they should be allowed to.  This is an area where things have actually become much more restrictive, less open than several decades ago when it was normal to post solutions after tests or have texts with answers to every single drill problem (not just the odds!)  I have the discipline to decide how much effort to spend on problems before checking a solution (am a big boy).

In addition, I see tests as very high stakes practice but as a PART of the learning process.  You learn preparing for the test, while doing the test, and afterwards reviewing it.  So I think it makes little sense not to share the solutions.  But obviously many academic gatekeepers disagree.


Are there downsides to speculative applications for academic jobs? Speculative applications, i.e. application without a job announcement being published, are common (well, at least normal) in non-academic jobs. But I am not sure the situation is the same in academia. Somebody has suggested me to send speculative applications to different departments for teaching or research jobs. I was thus considering the pros and cons of this type of applications.

The pros are almost evident (more exposure). However, I worry about potential downsides. In particular, how would potential employers look at such an application? Could it make me look bad? Is there any other downside I haven't thought of?

Here is my standard advice to PhD students applying for academic jobs:

First, look for departments that are advertising for faculty in your subfield.  Apply there.
Second, look for departments that are advertising for faculty, but not in your subfield.  Apply there anyway.  There is no way to tell from the advertisement whether the listed fields are requirements, preferences, or mere examples, or if they just recycled last year's ad without reading it first.  (Yes, I have seen all these alternatives.)
Third, look for interesting departments that are not advertising for faculty.  Apply there anyway.  There is no way to tell from the lack of advertisement whether they are really not hiring, or they just aren't advertising widely, or they just haven't posted their ad yet, or they thought they posted the ad but didn't.  (Yes, I have seen all these alternatives.)

Before anyone objects: Obviously, I'm not talking about your department.  Everyone  knows that your department's advertisements are precise, timely, and highly visible.  I mean other departments.

Of course, if you're thinking of applying to any department, whether they're advertising in you subfield or not, it's a good idea to contact someone you know in that department to find out what they're really looking for.  If your contact says "No, really, we aren't hiring X," you can save yourself the trouble.  But if you (or your advisor) don't know anyone well enough to ask?  Fire away.

I have a specific email folder for speculative applications, whether it's for jobs of any grade, PhDs, or Masters courses. It's called Spam, and all the speculative job applications go in there.

If I'm feeling exceptionally generous, I reply with a link to the University vacancies page.

And that's because one of the defining elements of academia is rigour.  That means, among other things, being able and willing to follow experiment protocols.  If the first thing I learn about a potential colleague is that they can't be bothered to follow our recruitment protocols, even though they're well-documented and linked to from our recruitment pages, they've pretty much already disqualified themselves from being an interesting candidate, unless they're really exceptional. (And as we know from Dunning & Kruger, the ones who think they're really exceptional, typically aren't; and the ones who are, typically think they're not.). Those guidelines are derived from legal advice in the jurisdiction of England and Wales. Other employers in the same jurisdiction might interpret the law differently; other jurisdictions will have laws with different implications.

So, as someone sending out speculative applications, at best you spend a lot of time (that could have been better spent researching, publishing, networking at conferences) customising your CV so that it's targeted uniquely at each recipient, taking account of their unique position, and eventually you find a place that has slacker rules, or you find someone willing to break them. At worst, you send the same application to dozens or hundreds of recipients, showing each of them laziness and contempt.

If someone wanted to get on my radar in a positive way, they wouldn't send a speculative application. They'd send me some research they'd done that was likely to be of particular interest to me. They might ask for feedback on an article before submission, or flag it up to me after publication, in a short, concise, email with a link to the article. They might arrange to bump into me at a conference or seminar. They might invite me to work with them on a paper they have in development, that overlapped with some work I'm doing or have done.


Impact of Master's Degree on Physics PhD Admission in the United States: will I be held to a higher standard? I am an American undergraduate studying Engineering Physics. I am planning to stay at my current school for a sequential Master's program (in Electrical and Computer Engineering). I wonder if Physics PhD Admission boards would hold me to a higher standard or would hold me to the same standard as other undergraduate applications?
More specific to me, I have excessive amount of Transfer Credit (from classes taken during HS) so that my undergraduate degree only last 2 years, but I don't really want to stay another year or two as an undergraduate. Additionally, I am quite interested in Quantum Computing so I want to get some EE experience.
I am specifically asking about Physics PhD admission in the United States.

You'll be held to the same standard as everyone else - they are looking for people who are going to be successful graduate students.
You mention in a comment:

I want to stay in school longer to get more research experience

I think that's a great way to improve an application in that more research experience gives you more space to demonstrate you'll be a successful graduate student. The number or type of degree earned along the way will mean little compared to the total research and academic experience and proficiency you can demonstrate.

The standards are usually different, you will probably have less time to take quals, 1.5 years vs 3.


Shall I go and see my advisor's father who is on his death bed? In my country in East Asia, it is extremely impolite if I don't do it when I have this information.
However, the US and the EU are known to be more "professional", in my humble opinion. So, in the US, is asking the advisor about his father generally considered "impolite" or "unprofessional" from a professional point of view?

Unless you have some direct relationship with his father, this is not something we'd normally do in US, UK, or Australian culture. (I'm not sure if it's the same everywhere in the EU.)

A polite option might be to tell your advisor something like "I'm very sorry to hear about your father, please let me know if there is anything I can do."

If your advisor is from a different culture, that might change things.

I must offer a somewhat different answer. I will add that I agree with other answers that it is atypical, but we don’t know your relationship with your advisor or their family. This said, the following is going to assume you haven’t met their father. I disagree that you should absolutely avoid doing this and therefore must present that POV.

Depending on how you approach the matter, you may visit the loved one of someone that has been so influential on your life, such as an advisor.

If doing so, I would:

first stage the reason for your visit; talk about your background and the customs of your country:
“I understand this may be atypical in the [US?]; however, in my country it isn’t uncommon  and considered a good gesture to... [visit members of coworkers and employers out of respect?]”
I would also add some sentiment or attachment to legacy or indirect impact the person you’re visiting has had on your life, that might raise their spirits:
“I wanted to let you know how much your [son?] has impacted my life as my advisor. I know you mean a lot to [him] and without his help and guidance, I might be lost. His continued support and tolerance is a debt I may never be able to repay. I thought you should know the impact your [son] has had on my life.”

Now, I wouldn’t just show up out of the blue. I might also run the customs of your country by your advisor. First express your case and get their approval and ask for when a good time to visit may be. If you do visit, keep it short and sweet. People generally in an uncomfortable position don’t like like talking with people they don’t know.

One other note: although the common culture in developed countries does not do this, that does not mean that they didn’t in the past. The older generation sometimes have a better understanding of these customs and often  welcome these gestures. To them, their life has passed by and they’re biding their time. They tell their stories to strangers on a park bench and they come from a time where boys swam together naked in gym class and guys openly changed in locker rooms - perhaps two weird examples for me to present, but they are striking difference that demonstrate how sensitivities have intensified in modern culture and just because “we” think something is indecent, does not mean it is to the subject.

Good luck with your decision. It is ultimately your decision and you must weigh your mind and your heart, which you’re doing a good job already simply by asking the question here.


Is it ethical/acceptable to give a lighter penalty to students who admit to cheating? I am at the moment dealing with an academic dishonesty incident in a class I'm teaching (a few groups of students submitting identical code, when the class policy forbids getting help from another person on a graded assignment).

When I noticed indications of plagiarism, I emailed each affected student something along the lines of:

  The code you submitted is nearly identical to another student's work. Can you comment on this?

Their reactions mainly fall into three categories:

"I made a mistake and I take full responsibility for it, I hope you will let me make it up but I understand if you can't."
"I talked about the assignment with another student, but I didn't copy anyone's code." But then when I inform them they're getting a zero grade for the assignment, they don't argue.
"I didn't do it! You can't give me a zero grade for the assignment when I didn't cheat, I refuse to accept a zero grade."

Assuming I have evidence that all of these students cheated, is there a good reason to adjust the penalty based on whether students own up to their misconduct, or continue to lie about it?

On the one hand, I appreciate honesty, and doubling down on a lie seems like something that should be punished. On the other hand, I've never heard of anyone adjusting penalties like this, so I'm wondering if there's some reason I shouldn't.

It's also not clear to me what the relative difference in penalties should be, if there is one. I thought about it and it's hard for me to come up with one penalty that's appropriate for Group 1, another penalty that's appropriate for Group 2, and a third penalty that's appropriate for Group 3.

I would very much appreciate answers based on research and/or experience with policies like this, rather than just opinion.

(My school has no official policy on the matter.)

TL; DR: We adjust the penalty.

I sit on my department's Academic Misconduct Committee so unfortunately I see a lot of these cases. The University policy has created two similarly sounding, but different terms: academic misconduct and poor academic practice, with academic misconduct being much more severe than poor academic practice. Every student suspected of having engaged in poor academic practice is called into a meeting with the Academic Misconduct Committee. This committee looks at the evidence supporting academic misconduct/poor practice and hears the student's case which generally includes what training they have had about good academic practice, how the incident happened, and any evidence of extenuating circumstances (e.g., death in the family).

Based on this process we can come to one of 3 decisions:

not poor academic practice,
poor academic practice,
academic misconduct.

If we decide that they did not engage in poor academic practice, the incident is essentially purged from the system. If the student is called in again in the future, we do not nominally know that they had been called in before. If we decide that it was poor academic practice, the students are warned and it is documented. We are not allowed to apply formal penalties in the case of poor academic practice. If they are called in again we know from the documentation and are unlikely to give them the benefit of the doubt a second time.

If we decide that academic misconduct has occurred we can apply one of a number of different penalties to the work: no reduction of the mark, remark the work with the offending material removed or reduce the mark commensurate with the misconduct (anywhere from a 5% penalty to a 0 for the piece of work). A second incident of academic misconduct results in the penalty being decided on by a university panel and starts with a zero for the class and can go as high as a zero for the year. In this way there is a big difference between poor academic practice and academic misconduct with no reduction in the mark since poor academic practice does not count as a first offense.

Within this framework the committee is faced with how to handle the students who admit the issue and the ones who deny the issue. Those who argue they didn't cheat and have no explanation as to how their assignment matches another's work are almost always found guilty of academic misconduct since they are not willing to help us create a case for poor academic practice. More often than not they receive a 0 since we have no evidence that mitigates the penalty. For students who admit what they did, we often consider poor academic practice as an outcome since they describe what they did and realize it was wrong. Sometimes the offense is too blatant to let off without a reduction, but generally saying what you did wrong and how you will not let it happen again reduces the penalty.

That is horribly unnecessary.

There is no need to play some kind of morality police that to commit an offence and admit to it is better than committing an offense and no. Like some kind of parent.  Stressing them out with an interrogation.

A wonderful response is a professor at my uni did. He said "You have the same program as this guy, you just changed XYZ to bluff me. I will give you each half so you share the mark between you!".

That's enough of a disincentive to copy if you only get half the marks.

What had happened really was the whole class had copied off each other.. There were only about 2 proper ones going round. But two copying students posted theres in a little bit late together, one copied off the other, not making many changes, and after he had already collected the bulk of them and not picked out any plagiarism, it was easy to spot the copying in those two.  He was very good natured about it and didn't stress the two students out.

Also in those days, the grades in the first year didn't count. (eventually one guy intentionally failed all the exams in the first year, because he said there's no point. And they changed the rules the next year and made the first year count!)


Is it a risk working for a graduate advisor who has over 20 students in their lab? I recently contacted a professor whose field of study is something that I really want to work on. He replied, that frankly his lab was pretty full at the moment, but he'd love to hear about my plans for graduate school. Since I have already secured funding, I guess this does not automatically disqualify me from working in his lab. My only concern is that in such a large group of people, and not as a student working off of funds the professor secured, I would not get the kind of mentorship I would get in a smaller lab. Just looking for any insight that could help me in making some choices in the future.

Being part of a big lab has pluses and minuses, and whether it's a good thing for you is likely to depend much on your personality and circumstances.

Cons: you've put your finger on the key fact, that students in big labs are likely to receive much less attention that students in small labs.  You also might end up as a just small part of some big project, or even just a glorified lab tech.
Pros: in order to support so many students, a professor generally needs to have good funding and being doing research that lots of people find exciting.  This means that the projects you are working on are likely to have people paying attention to them, and that if you do well, you may have a powerful backer.

For somebody who thrives in a big, competitive environment, a big lab may be good.  For somebody who wants a more personal relationship with one-on-one tutorial, a small lab is probably better.  All sorts of labs and advisors can be routes to good careers, however, and it's a matter of figuring out what works best for you.

most important questions on my opinions are:

average time to get the diploma in that lab? You might not realize it, but as you get into grad school, you are slave labor: you are at the mercy of the prof who decides when you graduate. If you're really good, s/he might want to keep you around for a while... don't be over zealous!
following up on this topic, a small lab may mean longer time too: if the prof has a hard time getting students, you might get a lot more attention than you wanted!

in short, i think a big lab is not a bad thing: whatever you end up doing, if the lab does hot research, you were part of it, even if you spent most of you time doing petty tasks, and in the eye of employers, that's all that matters. Nobody is going to call your prof to ask what you achieved: if he's such a hot shot he won't pick up the phone anyways.


Is it ethical for a Professor to disseminate wrong answers online? I recently took a class where the Professor created multiple online study guides, on popular student sites, which intentionally contained the wrong answers. He did this because his exams were based heavily on the end of chapter questions in the book. Also, the Professor told us at the start of class using Google to help answer the questions would be useless because all the top results regarding these chapter questions were his wrongly answered guides.

Was this ethical of the Professor to do? The book used in the class contained no answer (or partial answer) keys and no additional student material was provided for the book. I understand he did this in order to force students to read the book and keep them from simply Googling all the answers at the end of the chapter. However, this removed a way for students to verify their answers were correct.

Edit: In response to some of the comments, he was not bluffing. During the course I was unable to answer one of the questions (it turned out to be a misprint in the book) and tried using online resources. The wrong guides were easy to spot, because half the chapter questions involved determining which SQL statements were valid. Some of the guides were simply answered as A, B, C, D, A, B in order down the list. Other were just flat out wrong. Also, as far as the exams went, I shouldn't say they were heavily based on the book. The Professor literally copy and pasted the questions from his instructors manual and didn't bother changing any wording or the answer order.

I have a strong negative opinion on this.

In 2002, I joined a PhD program and was at the same level of computer science education as peers who had recently completed CS degrees at good schools. My last prior formal CS education was a master's degree that I completed in 1975.

I achieved that, as well as staying employable in the computer industry for over 30 years, by continuous independent study. As computer science kept changing around me I felt at times like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

Not having answers to the questions in a textbook was something I could handle, though undesirable. If I had found answers on-line that conflicted with my answers I could have wasted a lot of time trying to resolve the discrepancy, including trying to contact the answer author to point out an error.

Wrong answers to questions in a good textbook are particularly destructive. I put a lot of effort into selecting the books I use. In order to progress, it is necessary to attempt exercises that are a stretch. In some cases, it is difficult to check whether an answer is correct. Searching on-line for answers may be the best available resource.

The professor was, intentionally or not, sabotaging independent study.

Well, like everyone he is free to post on the internet anything he wants that is considered legal. Wrong answers are legal from that perspective.

Regardless what he intends to teach/enforce his students, there are likely other people who google similar questions and are mislead by his "trolling" (to use internet jargon). For a professor, who should be teaching and spreading knowledge to people, spreading misinformation to intentionally mislead readers is wrong and unethical.

Furthermore, I guess the book is not very well written, the books I studied, usually had questions which challenge the general understanding of the subject rather than a google-able fact.

In the end, I don't think there is anything you or anyone else can do about him. Even under pressure, the professor can simply post anonymously and don't tell the students up front.

PS I'm really perplexed that someone takes time to systematically alter the perception of some topics on the internet, instead of only adjusting the (exam) questions like every other teacher I know does. This tilting at windmills shows extreme weakness of character in my eyes.


Are masters degrees treated equivalently in academia on both sides of the Atlantic? This is just a general question regarding UK (and I suppose Western European) masters degrees vs. US masters degrees.

The reason for asking is that I have heard that US masters are considered at the same academic level as UK Bachelors with Honours degrees. This seems like pure hearsay but I'd like to understand if there is any thing concrete in this assertion.

And does equivalency tend to manifest itself in the same ways in commercial environments too?

The UK and US have fairly substantial differences in their underlying educational philosophies. In my field, in the US Masters degree programs are generally one or two years long and include both course work and research in equal proportions. In the UK, Masters degree programs are a year long and have little to no research requirements. As for the level that the taught components of the programs are taught at, they are pretty similar across the two countries using similar textbooks and covering similar amounts of material in terms of both breadth and depth. The US and UK institutions I worked for accepted students from both countries and while international students often have more difficulties than home students, it is not obvious to me that going UK-US or US-UK is easier.

As for the difference between a US and a UK Bachelors degree. Final year classes taught in both countries again use similar textbooks and cover similar amounts of material in terms of both breadth and depth. In my experience, there does not seem to be a substantial difference between students coming out of US and UK institutions in regards to their preparation for graduate school. That said, there are substantial differences in these students. The US system provides much more breadth of education (e.g., foreign language requirements and general education requirements) that are absent from UK universities. I have never heard an admissions committee member in the sciences argue that student X is is more likely to succeed than student Y because student X is competent in a foreign language.

The value of a US Masters degree is very dependent on the institution and its requirements.

A number of US institutions mass-market their MS (or equivalent) degrees as a quick way to make money.  These degrees  (often marketed as 1-year degrees) are basically just a coursework requirement and can be equivalent to a bachelor's degree with some advanced courses.

Other institutions require a serious thesis or project as part of a masters, often requiring publishable results in a significant academic venue.  This is similar in style to the "old-school" Masters and is a significant step above a bachelor's degree because it requires self-motivated research and often takes two years to complete.


How do I response "accept (minor edits)" without suggestions? (IEEE ACCESS) I just received a decision letter from IEEE ACCESS. The recommendation of reviewer1 is "Accept (minor edits)" and the recommendation of reviewer2 is "Reject (update and resubmit encouraged)".

While reviewer1 did not give any suggestions need to be revised. Did I need to respond to him in the "response document"?

Thank you.

It is likely that the first reviewer was referring to minor issues of language and presentation, even spelling, typos, etc. Give the paper a careful read looking for issues and correct them. If you do this, it is unlikely that you really need a direct response to that reviewer, other than thanks. Many reviewers don't want to take on the role of "copy editors" and so will just point to that things can be improved without giving detail.

If your first language is other than the language of the paper, then it might be good to have a colleague make some comments on presentation - someone who is fluent in the language in question.

The other reviewer needs to be taken seriously, of course, and your acceptance will depend on how you respond, primarily in your edits of the paper. But that is the usual situation, of course.

Congratulations! it means your article was accepted. If there were any comments from the reviewers, you need to incorporate them before uploading final files. Otherwise, review one more time for grammar and spelling and then upload your final version of the article.


What to do when online instructor not giving meaningful feedback on research project? I am enrolled in an on-line graduate course (US public university). I do not live near the campus, so I cannot attend office hours (which aren't even offered).

For 3 months, I've been working on a research paper for the course. At regular deadlines, I've submitted my progress electronically, however, the instructor's feedback was sparse in each case:

No feedback on whether my chosen topic was okay.
No replies to my public posts/E-mails about some concerns I had in approaching the topic.
Only minimal markings, e.g. pointed out a few grammar/MLA mistakes, no comments focused on my ideas, organization, etc.

I do not even know if the instructor read my work. The project is worth a significant portion of the course grade, but the instructor has given such little input and I have no idea if the paper is good or terrible. What can I do?

I see three likely paths for you to take, depending on the quality of the program that you are enrolled in.

If you haven't already done so, explicitly ask the professor for more concrete feedback on your work.  You might simply be having a communications problem, where the professor assumes "no news is good news."
If the professor doesn't not respond constructively, escalate to somebody higher up, like a dean.  Approach delicately, as a student concerned and asking for help, rather than making demands.
If you don't get a satisfactory response from the dean, then it may be that the online program you are enrolled in is crap, and you should not bother investing your time and money in it.  Some online programs are quite serious and good, while others are essentially just for-profit scams, and yours might well be one of them.

First of all, I must say that I find it possible that your instructor simply doesn't care enough. The reason for that (or the other way around) might be that the online course isn't serious enough and that the instructor will just give you some passing grade if you hand in virtually anything. While this might not be true for US universities, in Europe online courses and degrees are considered pretty unprofessional, at least in my experience.

Now to your question what you can do in your situation. Based on the information you provided, I would try to publish your paper somewhere (if not in a journal, then on a conference). The peer-review will give you most certainly feedback on your paper. Furthermore, you attend a graduate course in pursuit of a graduate degree, so publishing will become a requirement for your in the near future. Finally, the peer-review will indicate quality to your instructor and give you some certainty that your work will be higher graded.


Would it be unethical to claim affiliation when it was not made official yet? I received an acceptance letter to a Master's Program. The official enrollment will be in one month. Until then I am not officially in the program yet.

I am about to finish a paper and I want to submit it to a conference. Would it be unethical to claim affiliation in my paper in this situation?

Affiliation should indicate the institution with which you were affiliated while doing the work and writing the paper.  If the paper was already finished before you started at an institution, then don't list it; use your previous affiliation instead (or "none" if you weren't affiliated with any institution).

If you end up making significant revisions to the paper after enrolling at the new institution, then you could consider listing both it and your previous institution.

If it matters, I wouldn't necessarily use the "official enrollment" date to decide when affiliation starts, but rather the date when you actually started attending classes, using the institution's facilities, etc.

Just my two cents (I really need a new opening line)

This would be completely unethical.

Think of it this way.  If you only had all the credits to earn a degree, and had gone through the graduation process but had not yet been officially awarded said degree, would you go ahead and list said degree as an earned degree?


Does it matter where my academic website is hosted, for issues of intellectual property? Say I am a British academic, who happens to have a blog, where I comment on my research and other people's research. Naturally, I do not want to infringe copyrights on any type, including intellectual property (IP). Yet, it seems that the IP law is "more loose" in the US than in the UK. In effect, whereas the US law is defined on positive terms ("this is what you cannot do"), the UK is defined on negative terms ("this is what you can do").

Just for the sake of minimizing potential, unintended infringement of IP copyrights in my blog, should I register my website in the US, or is that irrelevant?

I can hardly see how writing your own comments on someone else's published work can come close to any sort of copyright infringement. Obviously, you would not re-publish someone else's papers in your blog? Small quotes are allowed in the UK under fair dealing exception (aka fair use). IANAL, but I would be surprised if it's any different in the US.

Obviously, if you republish someone else's papers in full, this is anything but a blog.

If by "register the website" you're talking about paying for a domain name, it doesn't matter whom you register the website with.  The convenient way to do it is to register the domain name through the webhosting provider.

Rules of thumb:

Don't plagiarize, i.e. don't quote other people's work without citing them; don't steal someone else's work and pretend it is your own.

Don't re-publish substantial portions of other people's work without permission.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  For example, if you talk about J Smith's work, link to J Smith's home page.


Is it good to have slides that may be skipped during a presentation? I am preparing a seminar talk. Currently the presentation contains some theorems and some proofs. Probably, I will not have time to explain all the proofs - I will have to skip some of them. My question is, which of the two options is better:

Keep the slides with the proofs visible, and during the presentation, if I see that the time is tight, rush through them saying that "I skip the proof", or -
Keep the slides with the proofs hidden,  and during the presentation, if I see that there is enough time, unhide and go through them?

The advantage of option 1 is that the audience sees that I have a proof and they can read it later if they want; also, if I have time it is easier to present the proof;
the disadvantage is that it might look confusing or unprofessional to rush through slides. Are there other considerations?

Put the slides that contain the proofs after the last slide and have links on the relevant slides so you can jump to the proof slide and back to the next one.

That way no-one will know if you skip the proofs, but they could see you click the link to jump to a proof if you have the time.

As an addition to the existing answers, if there are slides that you visibly skip over, you should explain why you're doing that. From personal experience, if the audience thinks you're trying to hide something, the whole atmosphere of the presentation can become antagonistic.


Are mentally ill people allowed to perform research? Is it acceptable for a person to be a researcher if she/he has a mental disorders or illnesses?
Are there laws that either prohibit or not prohibit mentally ill to perform research? Caveats?

Let's turn this around and ask the converse.  How could you tell if a researcher has a mental illness or similar disorder?
Modern understanding of mental illness has moved towards a recognition that humans have an extremely wide range of functional cognitive and behavioral patterns. This means that most mental illness exists on a spectrum, where the boundary to illness is quite fuzzy, is only considered an illness if there is a persistent impact on a person's ability to function.
So if a researcher is producing work that is passing peer review in reasonable publication venues, then they are clearly functioning at a level sufficient to conduct scientific research, and that research is being found to be acceptable. That's it. There is no other scientific bar.
Some levels of mental illness will, of course, make it difficult or impossible for a researcher to produce acceptable research. For example, a person suffering from severe dementia would likely have a difficult time accomplishing any task in their life, including research. This isn't about saying it's not acceptable for any given person to conduct research, however, but rather that some illnesses will inhibit a person from actually accomplishing the task.
In certain niche cases requiring certification, significant impact from a mental illness on a person's trustworthiness may also preemptively bar a person from conducting research on subjects requiring that certification. For example, a person with schizophrenia not responding to treatment might not be able to work in a medical field requiring the handling of confidential patient information or at an organization that requires a security clearance.
In history, unfortunately, we find a very different situation. Until surprisingly recently, for example, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, and many people were denied work on the basis of their sexual preferences.  I believe this remains the case in some repressive nations today.
Bottom line: in any modern liberal society, mental illness is no bar to research in and of itself, though it may become a barrier if it affects ones' ability to function as a researcher.

You would be excluded: If you have a mental illness where your research will damage or endanger you, because of the nature of your research and illness. Or if you have a mental illness where your research together with your mental illness makes you a danger for others, because of the nature of your research and illness.
For example, there are plenty of mental illnesses where the effect is that you may just be out of action sometimes. For much research, no problem. But if you are a chemist heating up some material on a bunsen burner, and you are sometimes incapable to remove that material from heat, that could be dangerous. Still, no problem if you have a research assistant who watches out.


Cover letter and feelings - use or avoid A couple of cover letter use:

I believe that I could ..
I am confident
I am very interested

What do you think about them? Should they be mentioned with evidences or avoid since they are feelings and may indicate uncertainty?

Personally, I think your sentence fragments all suggest both a lack of evidence and a lack of confidence.  But more importantly, I think you're simply asking the wrong question.

Instead of focusing on the detailed language of your cover letter, focus on the content.  Who are you?  What have you done?  What makes you an asset to your target departments?  Instead of expressing your interests, demonstrate your accomplishments and your vision.  Instead of stating your beliefs or your confidence, show the reader clear evidence of your expertise and your impact.  Show, don't tell.

The advice that I give my own students and colleagues when they apply for graduate school or for jobs or for tenure is to aim for the next target.

Graduate applications should not say "Please admit me" but rather "I will become an independent researcher.  Let me get on with it."
Thesis proposals should not say "Please let me pass" but rather "I will have a strong PhD thesis. Let me get on with it."
Thesis defenses should not say "Please let me graduate" but rather  "I will get an academic job. Let me get on with it."
Job talks should not say "Please hire me" but rather "I will get tenure. Let me get on with it."
Tenure packages should not say "Please give me tenure" but rather "I will be a full professor. Let me get on with it."

And the way each application should "say" its message is not by stating your interest or belief or intention or confidence that you'll pass the next stage, but by presenting clear and compelling evidence that you'll pass the next stage.  And of course you never want to actually suggest the impatience implicit in the phrase "Let me get on with it"; rather, you want to convince your audience to let you get on with it.

Don't try to convince that reader that you believe that you'll be successful.  Make the reader believe that you'll be successful.  Show the reader that you will be successful.

The listed phrases don't necessarily convey uncertainty. Infact, if supported with evidence, they can become strong leading points into reading about your experiences and skills.

For example, consider the following statements in your cover letter:

I believe that I can give the  a different dimension with my skill set because I have been awarded .

This interests the recruiter as (s)he would be interested in knowing how you can bring new dimension to the job and what special skills you possess that makes you stand out from the crowd.

I am confident that I have  which I believe is essential for the role as I have had (say) over 5 years of experience in this field with  honours.

This would again intrigue the recruiter to believe your confidence (if it is ofcourse supported with solid evidence!)

I am very interested in the  because I believe that having already done , this role can help me develop my career in the field in the following  ways and in turn I can help the organisation grow .

The recruiter would be interested in your past experience and look to understand how you can grow and make the business grow.

I hope that the examples are adequately clear.


Can a PhD supervisor take unpublished ideas from a student's dissertation? Rephrased question: Can a PhD supervisor take unpublished ideas from a student's dissertation and work on them hence denying the student the opportunity to work on her ideas herself?

I completed a PhD and took on a short postdoc immediately afterwards with the same supervisor. The idea was to be doing something while I apply for bursaries or funds to continue research on the ideas I proposed in my thesis. Throughout my PhD I had minimal supervision and minimal input of any sort from him. In fact, in 5 years, he never proposed or even simply put me on track to an idea or a solution. I know for a fact that my supervisor barely read a fourth of my dissertation; however, I had spoken to him about my ideas several times and they are mentioned in my dissertation as my own. I know he is aware of that because I sent him the acknowledgement part by email before putting it in my thesis.

Now he decided to take my ideas for himself and got a new student to work on them with the contacts I developed myself because he was incapable of doing that himself. I supervised the new student who is working on my ideas for a particular application and got him going etc and I will be on the eventual paper. However, my supervisor has now decided to apply my idea to another application which I proposed myself in my thesis as well and given that I am leaving soon, I’ve been told that I will not be on that paper because I haven’t contributed directly. Beside the fact that this is still an application of my idea and one that I suggested myself in my thesis, the supervision I’ve given to the student is perfectly applicable to this idea as well because they are related.

Can my supervisor do this even though he knows I want to work on them myself? Can I stop him from doing this? Frankly, I’m gutted and totally demoralised. There is no way for me to compete with him and get a paper out before him.

A PhD dissertation is published work, not a private document. It is publicly available to anyone with a library access (via interlibrary loan or via an appropriate dissertation vendor).

Of course, if anyone (including your former PhD supervisor) uses results from the dissertation, they must include an appropriate citation. That way you get a credit for your contribution.

If your contribution is considered valuable by the standards of your field, you can write it up and publish it in a refereed journal for better visibility (compared to the dissertation). You can also upload your thesis on an institutional repository or arXiv.

My advice: do not waste time arguing about ownership of ideas. It will not help your career. You had one idea that was good enough to interest people; make more!

I really don't think that is fair. A student in your class worked effectively and produced an outstanding piece of work that has not been published before. For you to take credit from your students work shows that you aren't teaching to help your student but instead teaching to improve yourself. Regardless of what is legal, you should not be allowed to teach if you are teaching to benefit yourself and not those who are there to learn from you.


How to reply to an email from a student who wants a reply instantly? I have a student who wants me to reply to his emails as soon as he sends them! For example:

I already provided you with .... form in our first meeting. Can you fill the necessary boxes and sign .... to confirm my project? ... It has already been a day, and you have not replied.

My reply:

Thank you for sharing this information. Please find attached the document.
However, it is important to note that even if you already provided me with the documents. You should give me at least 3 to 4 working days to reply to your email. It is important that you understand that there are other issues an academic has to deal with, and patience would be really appreciated.

Is there anything wrong with this response? If so, could you please help me understand how to reply to such emails?

Two words: "Office hours."
I say to students that, if they need immediate feedback, then they should come to my office hours, everything else will be processed as its turn arises.
[During the pandemic, of course, the office hours would be virtual]

If I was the teacher, I would not be judgemental to the student.
I would try to understand with curiosity, why that student is hurrying so much.
Maybe the student having a hard time.
Maybe the student having an invisible anxiety issue due to ADHD or OCD or Autism.
If it is possible for me to provide a short instant reply, I would.
I would write that I will write further detail when I will get time.
If I am too busy to reply; I would write I cannot response right now, please remind me in the XYz (specific) hours.
I think not trying to understand the student's perspective is a disability rights issue and a human rights iussue. According to the social model of disability, this is an attitudinal barrier.
Invisible barriers exist. Ineffective behaviours solved better with curiosity than judgement.

Is there anything wrong with this response?

I don't think anything wrong has been written. However in the next time you may use notice like "please have patience, reply may have take several days" or something like that adds some predictability.
I appreciate that you cared to ask if you have hurt the student. Thats great. The professional world especially academia is much ableist, you can make a difference.


How to deal with anxiety and depression after being kicked out of PhD program? I was kicked out of a programming-oriented PhD program at the end of last summer because I failed one of two qualifying exams; the department is keeping me on assistantship for a semester while I finish a master's thesis (which I've done).

Now over the past few months, I have developed a strong depression and even feel suicidal. I feel that I've been given many great opportunities and squandered them.  Applying to jobs in my field didn’t work out either due to lack of interest from the prospective employer or the employer getting a negative impression from my interview.

I've had many jobs throughout my life, and without exception I have struggled and usually failed due to extreme anxiety.  Honestly, I don't even know if I would want a job even if I was offered one, because I feel that I would waste the employer's time and cause myself greater suffering, and ultimately fail.

How can I deal with these issues?

EDIT:  Thank you all for your kind advice and support; for any of those interested, I'm on a more even keel now than I was when I wrote this question, and I have taken steps toward mental recuperation.

I should also say that I won't be checking in on this question anymore, so any further comments are unlikely to reach me.

Thanks.

Seek clinical help! The fact that you are here means that you are someone who believes that you need the help of others and that is very respectable. The problem is that this community, with all the good people in it, is not a good place to provide the help that you can actually benefit from.

In your question, there are a few points that are important. Suicidal thoughts are always serious and must be considered seriously. Failure is not easy to bear and nobody can say that they can have a good time failing their goals but normally, people do not think of self-termination when they fail. If you are having this thought, please seek help.

Also, you mentioned that you have failed multiple times in your life before. If the number of these failures is a lot, maybe you are suffering from some underlying problem that is inflicting your performance. Conditions like anxiety (as you mentioned), depression, ADHD, ... can have a drastic negative impact on performance and the sad fact is that in many cases, people who suffer are not aware of it. If this is the case for you, look at the bright side of your situation which is the potential of finding the root cause, elimination of which can improve your life dramatically. Again this is something that can only be confirmed with the help of clinical professionals. Please seek help.

Remember that failure is hard but also remember that even Einstein failed to procure an academic position many times so it happens and it happens to everyone. As Churchill once said:

  Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.

Give it some time and move on. That is the most important part.

I repeat myself; please consider the fact that self-termination thoughts should be considered very seriously. Based on your country of residence, conditions may differ but nevertheless, accept the fact that, in any country, there exist people who are trained to provide the type of the help that you can benefit from. Please find them.

There are many excellent and comprehensive answers given. I just want to add one point.

It seems like the real source of your problems is your anxiety/depression. Those conditions do respond to treatment, and you deserve to get help to live a happy life.  Hundreds of studies show that therapies like CBT, DBT, medications, and others work. People can be cured and live life more fully than they ever believed possible.

I don't know you, and I don't know your circumstances. If you can get competent professional help, that's wonderful. However, you might be among the many people who cannot get access to competent professional help due to finances, location, scheduling, or various technical matters.

If so, there is still help available. If you have an internet connection and a Smartphone, you already have access to help. Here is a non-exhaustive list of resources that may help:

Mind Over Mood has books, worksheets, a website, podcast
The free apps WYSA and YOUPER both use AI to provide personalized therapy. You text the app and it listens and responds using various excercises to help you.
BetterHelp.com provides online therapy along with discounts based on need

If you can get access to competent professional help, that would be idea. But if not, there are still many resources that can make a little bit of positive difference.

If you are really struggling, especially with suicidal thoughts, and you are not currently working or tied down to anything, you might want to try an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) which offers intense and comprehensive help to people who struggle. They tend to accept all insurances, so it may be an affordable option. These programs can help people recover quicker and learn lifelong skills in the course of a month or two.


Does engineering undergrad performance matter for masters in management admission? In Masters in Management (MSc Mgmt/MIM) admissions, how much weight is generally given by the Adcom to the applicant's undergrad performance, especially if it's an unrelated one like engineering?

Does it have any bearing if the applicant's undergrad performance is poor but his other credentials are excellent?

What kind of credentials should such an applicant aim to acquire before applying (Other than the GMAT, TOEFL, etc)?

I'll speak from my own experience.

I had only a 2.9 GPA in my major, Economics. But I had a 3.5 overall.

What may have helped me was my GMAT score (over 750). In any event, I got into several top level MBA programs, including the one of my choice.

It helps to work a year or two before applying to an MBA program. A "gap year" (or more) is probably more valuable for this degree than for other graduate degrees.

Your undergraduate GPA is important for MIM because it is one of criteria where the admission team can evaluate your profile.
However the damages done by a low GPA can balanced by a high GMAT score, internships and a strong SOP.
I've also come to understand that it helps if your country of origin is not highly represented in the college of your choice (disadvantage to Indians).


Reviewer signs name on review. Should the editor censor? Say a reviewer writes something like

This paper is [yada yada blah blah].
Sincerely,
Professor John Smith, Big Name University

Should the editor just forward the review to the authors because Professor John Smith, by signing his name onto the review, is presumably willing to reveal his identity to the authors? Or should the editor keep the review anonymous by deleting the signature?

If the journal is structured with a blinded review process, as most are in my experience, I would censor the name as an editor.

Only if there is some sort of explicit journal policy allowing reviewers to unblind themselves would I consider not censoring the name.

I think the editor should delete it to avoid spoiling the puzzle game of figuring out who the reviewer is.  (Easy one is when they ask the author to cite them.) ;-)


Can I submit a review paper to a journal without being invited? I am currently in the process of waiting for PhD verdict. I have submitted the thesis last 2 weeks for examination and I am thinking while waiting for PhD verdict, I want to write a review paper on my subject. The reason is because I have ran out results from my PhD study for publication and I reckon why not try on reviewing the subject I am studying. My area of research is biological science. My question is whether it is possible to write a review to journal without being invited to do so.

Yes, it is absolutely possible to write a review paper without being invited to do so.

How do I know this?

I've done it, several times, in the biological sciences.

The key is to recognize that the review needs to be invited at some point, but that point need not be "before you've written anything down*. If you have a target journal, and you think it is a decent fit for the review paper, I would suggest that you find the email for the appropriate section editor (or the Editor-in-Chief if there is none) and write them a polite email inquiring as to whether or not they would be interested in inviting a review on X topic, a draft of which is attached. Articulate why you think this is useful and interesting to their readership, and hope for the best.

And before we get on the "A PhD isn't enough clout to write a review", my first review was published with an undergraduate as the primary author.

Firstly let me tell you that review papers are always more or less invited. They are written by the experts in the field. Basically it serves as an excellent reference to anyone who wants to learn from the masters. It also generally covers a wide area of the subject. So I would suggest that review paper would not be a good idea for you at this stage. There are no. Of reasons. 1. You are not invited! 2. A PhD degree is not always enough to know adequately about the subject unless you are a top shot. Therefore a PhD candidate can never fall under the category of an "expert". 3. A PhD student may not know the entire length and breadth of the area.
So I would suggest that a review paper is not a good idea now. You can certainly do it one day when you are a master yourself but not presently. Besides, it would also be a great idea to ask your advisor.

Cheers.


Hyperlink to bibliography reference In Microsoft Word and Mendeley, is it possible to jump to the complete reference in the bibliography section of a document using a hyperlink?
For example, using "Ctrl+Left Click" on figures or table cross-references will take to the corresponding table.

The Manual Way
Microsoft Word supports hyperlinks within documents. For instance, in the version of Word I have (Office Professional 2016), when I attempt to add a hyperlink (1), the menu gives me the option of hyperlinking a "Place in This Document."

If you use styles to designate text Headers in Word, you will see those listed under "Headings" and can use those as links. Alternatively, you can set Bookmarks in Word (2), and then use hyperlinks to point to those bookmarks.
So you would need to set bookmarks for each reference and then put hyperlinks at each in-text mention. It's time consuming, but it works, and these links are even preserved if you're eventually saving to PDF.
(1) You can add a hyperlink by selecting text or a point in the document and (a) right-clicking and selecting Hyperlink; (b) navigating from the top menu - Insert -> Hyperlink; (c) using "Add a Hyperlink" from the search function; (d) pressing Ctrl + K.
(2) You can add a bookmark by selecting text or a point in the document and (a) navigating from the top menu - Insert -> Bookmark, (b) searching for "Insert a Bookmark" from the search function, (c) pressing Ctrl + Shift + F5.
The Macros Way
If you want the functionality to be friendly with Mendeley, you may need a third-party solution like mabentwickeltsich's Mendeley Macros on GitHub, which works for APA and IEEE. For this and other third-party tools, you would want to read the user documentation and make sure you understand what it's doing. That said, they do automate the process.

Microsoft Word supports linking within documents: Such functionality can be embedded. However, Word can be used in terrible ways, such functionality might not be embedded.


Distributing your own papers in your thesis I published three papers during my PhD, I'm now writing my thesis.

I have written three chapters, each based around each paper, but re-written so as not to fall foul of self-plagiarism rules. However, I've still used ALL of the figures from the publication in the chapters.

My concern is not really with this aspect of my thesis, though please tell me if I've misunderstood.

Finally, in the appendix, as reference, I have included the PDF files of my published papers, exactly as they are from the journal website.

Am I allowed to do this?

If not, am I allowed to use my own copies of the paper (e.g. the versions submitted on the arXiv)?

I don't understand why you are repeating the same material twice in your thesis. Each of your three papers is re-cast in a separate chapter in your thesis, and then verbatim in an appendix.

You most likely have assigned your original copyright in your papers to the journal that published them.

I think adding the papers as an appendix is unnecessary, and may fall foul of the journal's copyright. The interested reader should be pointed to the journal article relating to each of the three chapters.

If you reproduce substantially the same figures as that which appears in the journal -- to whom you've presumably assigned the copyright in the figures -- then you will need to ask for a license to reproduce those figures.

The purpose of a thesis/dissertation: showcase the work you have done.
It need not include substantial, new, unpublished work.

Organize your papers to tell the story of your graduate experience (one paper per chapter).

Add appropriate transition material.

Write an Introduction & Conclusion chapter.

Talk to your advisor.

Consider the following chapter-opening paragraph:

The following text in this chapter is my first publication [1] (Journal of Computation) which describes the method I developed for ...
Insert Title, Abstract, & Text of your 1st publication


How to calculate/decide impact factor of a new journal I have published my paper in a new journal in our field. The reason for submitting for this journal was the editorial board which consists of some of the top professors from best global universities (including University of Cambridge, University College London, Technical University of Munich, etc.).

Now I am applying for a job which requires me to list the impact factor for all my publications. Since the journal has only two issues yet there is no impact factor. How should I deal with this issue?

Deal with it honestly.  Say exactly what you said here.  "Since only two issues of the journal have been published, there is as yet no impact factor."

I don't know if Impact factor is important today as journals such as eLife, peeej or f1000 etc. Don't rely only on impact factor. However, such as is your case I personally feel two criteria are important. One is availability in SCI or SCI expanded index and the other is PubMed.


Why do I have the "required reviews completed" status on my submission in Elsevier? I had submitted my paper in an Elsevier journal one year back. Now, status update on the submission tracking says "Required reviews completed." However, for the last two weeks still there is no change in the status.

Should I ask the editor what is going on with my submission?

To expand on Dirk's comment: The status you see means that the reviewers have submitted their reports to the online system, and the handling editor has received an email about this. Now she has to read the  comments (and likely look at your manuscript again to see if they comments are relevant), come to a decision, and write a corresponding letter to the author summarizing the comments and justifying the decision. This will in general not take more than an hour.

But you should keep in mind that yours is not the only manuscript (nor, in all likelihood, the only journal) the editor has to deal with. In addition, this is both the end of semester and conference season in many parts of the world, so it is reasonable to assume that the editor is just very busy with more urgent deadlines, or isn't even in office. (Remember, editors are unpaid, so this work is on top of the regular duties of teaching, advising and doing their own research.)
In some cases, the final decision even involves two editors (associate/managing editor and editor-in-chief/communicating editor), which doubles the chance of other things getting in the way.

In light of that, I would say two weeks is definitely too early to worry and start contacting the editor; give it at least a month.

(Although I know how stressful the wait at this stage of the publication process is...)

If the paper was in review for a long time (over a year as you mentioned), it is a very bad sign. Being polite is an obvious solution, but, I am afraid, it may not help. Most likely your paper will be rejected. One of the reasons, the reviewers, who are in the same area of research, are not interested in publication of your work. They will find "convincing" excuse not to publish it. Unfortunately, you've lost a lot of time. Still not late, however. Go to another journal, not necessarily to highly ranked one, and submit it ASAP. Another good option, go to arxiv or vixra and make submission right away. Be wise, something is better than nothing. This is the best what you can do now.


How to respond to a professor who was insulted by an email detailing mistakes in the exercise? I am an undergraduate student. Preparing the solution to an exercise regarding computer assembly language programming I discovered an error in the program skeleton that was given to us to base our solution on (one of the instructions was illegal, because its immediate operand was outside the permitted range).

I sent an email to the professor's address for "questions and clarifications" regarding the exercise, explaining in detail (about 5 paragraphs) and citing a textbook, why the skeleton program would not compile (assemble) and finally commenting that it seems surprising that this error would make it to the question text, since simply running the assembler on the skeleton program would reveal it.

I got the reply that indeed there was an error in the program skeleton but it was put there on purpose and one of the objectives of the exercise was to see if we (students) would spot it and correct it.

There was no mention of this in the question text. The exact wording of the question text was "complete the program below so that it performs the desired function".

Now the professor wants me to apologize because my comment implied that there was carelessness on their part. I am not convinced about their answer, and worse, even if I were convinced, I believe deliberately misleading the student to be worse than simply being careless. I cannot give an honest apology. What should I reply, if anything?

To me, this is such a non-issue that it doesn't warrant much of a response. So let me add a response :)

  I didn't mean to imply carelessness, and I am sorry if that's how my email came across. I was a bit overzealous in my email. I will address the errors in the skeleton program in my solution, as you have indicated. Thank you for your detailed response!

I think you should take this (very minor) “incident” as a learning experience about how people might perceive your communications. Professors are people; they sometimes make mistakes, they sometimes make pedagogical choices that students don't agree with, and they all take criticism differently.

Personally, I would not respond to a demand like that. My parents never taught me to kowtow.

My sense is that you got yourself into trouble by getting too anal about the assignment. Most textbooks are littered with mistakes. You could spend your life trying to correct all the mistakes in a textbook.

Just get on with it and do your work.