Is it considered cheating to ask a friend or tutor to proofread your thesis before submission? Even after having proofread my thesis many times, I think asking another person to proofread it before submission is necessary.

Is it considered cheating to ask a friend or tutor to proofread your thesis before submission?

I can't imagine why it would be cheating: So long as you're producing the majority of the content, it wouldn't be cheating to have someone check for the problems that are now invisible to you!

If your thesis is in math, by all means have others proofread it.   Once it is released, it will no longer be possible to correct an error!

However, if your proofreader finds something more substantial than a typing or simple mistake, you must not only credit him with his ideas on the acknowledgement page, but also in a footnote.  No harm in this.  It is better to get it right and give credit than to get it wrong and take the credit for that for yourself!  The quality of your work also reflects on the reputation of your project director and your committee members, you have to respect them by turning out a high quality product.

However, I have found that the probability of a totally error-free thesis is equal to or less than the smallest positive number.

I cannot advise those whose who are English majors; that is a foreign language to an engineer!


How do I properly cite during an exam? So during exams and as of late, I started to informally cite scholars sometimes and as much as possible to backup the written ideas, however and due to the very nature of exams, I am facing the below issues:

Sometimes I memorize ideas almost word-by-word from the textbook or course book, and as a result of answering the exam question, I almost write everything as it is and without paraphrasing or even citing, is that plagiarism? The doctor would definitely identify my answer as being from the book we learned...
Other times, I get some ideas from outside the book and I do cite them in that case, however I do not paraphrase as I am learning by heart the thoughts in order to answer a specific question in the exam, is that plagiarism? (e.g. lack of paraphrasing)
And lastly, since I am memorizing by heart, I sometimes misspell the name of an author or even change a bit of details in his or her idea, is that a bad thing?

I do not think it is necessary to cite or give exact bibliographical information during a written exam. Even in publications, textbook knowledge does not have to be equipped with references.
In more detail:

I almost write everything as it is and without paraphrasing or even citing, is that plagiarism?
I get some ideas from outside the book and I do cite them in that case, however I do not paraphrase as I am learning by heart the thoughts in order to answer a specific question in the exam, is that plagiarism?

What troubles me here is not that you do not cite correctly, but that you just reproduce the exact wording from the textbook. To the examiner, this does only show that you are able to find the relevant section of the textbook to the question, but not that you understood the subject sufficiently to explain it in your own words. With this approach, you are completely lost in essay questions, and later in your thesis.

And lastly, since I am memorizing by heart, I sometimes misspell the name of an author or even change a bit of details in his or her idea, is that a bad thing?

Misspelling the name is certainly not a problem. Changing the ideas depends on what exactly changes, but I think this is a problem that arises from learning by heart instead of learning the theory, facts, and connections therein.

I almost write everything as it is and without paraphrasing or even citing, is that plagiarism?

Yup -- submitting work created by somebody else (the author of the textbook or course book) without crediting them is absolutely plagiarism. The solution, as you point out, is to cite them.

More worryingly for your educator, reading someone else's content -- even if properly cited -- makes it hard to evaluate whether you've understood the material. If the question is "How does pigeon domestication support the theory of natural selection?", you could quote directly from Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, chapter 1 --- but all that does is show that Darwin understood the connection! It's not clear if you understand the connection and, if I was grading your work, I'd want to know if there's evidence that you understand natural selection well enough to find a connection.

  Other times, I get some ideas from outside the book and I do cite them in that case, however I do not paraphrase as I am learning by heart the thoughts in order to answer a specific question in the exam, is that plagiarism? (e.g. lack of paraphrasing)

Direct quotation isn't plagiarism as long as its properly cited; however, as I pointed out earlier, saying "Darwin (1859) believes that the connection between domestic pigeons and natural selection is ..." doesn't tell your evaluator much about whether you understand the connection, which is what they're trying to evaluate.

  And lastly, since I am memorizing by heart, I sometimes misspell the name of an author or even change a bit of details in his or her idea, is that a bad thing?

For a closed book exam, definitely not -- it's understandable that you can't cite a work that isn't in front of you. For an open book exam, it would depend on your subject area: I teach biology, and I routinely overlook grammatical, spelling and minor mathematical errors as long as it's clear the student understands the biology they're describing.


My collaborator has asked to be only acknowledged in a paper. Should I make him a co-author? I am writing a paper in mathematics. It relies heavily on a result from a different topic that I phrased, felt that it should be true, but I did not know how to prove that result. I asked someone who works on this different topic to help me with the proof, and he has found a proof for the desired result. Let’s call him Bob.

I would like to thank this person and ask him if he wants to:

be a co-author in the paper,
just be acknowledged in the paper:

  The author wishes to thank Bob for generously allowing him to use his proof of [result].

At the beginning of the proof of the result it will be mentioned that:

  The proof is due to Bob.

Bob says that he would be happy to be acknowledged and does not think that he should be a co-author (unless he can further contribute to the paper). He also mentions that he is not working on my topic and hence not enough familiar with what the paper deals with.

My question is: Which of the two options (1 or 2) should be chosen?
It should be emphasized that the result I have been helped with is critical for the existence of the paper. Moreover, is it okay to submit the paper to a journal as a single author, and ask the editor to have the opinion of the referees on whether Bob should be a co-author or not?

I read Should all authors on a paper be comfortable explaining every aspect of the paper?, I guess that there are differences between mathematics and other topics, aren't they? For example, in brain research people from different topics collaborate and we do not expect that one will understand what exactly the other did, but in a math paper I would expect that every author will understand what his friend did. Or perhaps I am wrong?

The answer depends on how firmly Y has declined authorship.  I don't think it's appropriate to ask the referees to decide on authorship.

You cannot list Y as an author without his consent.  If he has firmly refused to be an author, that is the end of it.
If Y has simply indicated that acknowledgment is a sufficient form of credit, but left the door open to being an author then it's up to you.  I have responded in this way sometimes when I felt my contribution was sufficient for authorship but I didn't want to step on anybody's toes.  I try to err on the side of being generous with credit, so I would say to him

  "I feel that your contribution warrants authorship.  Are you willing to be listed as an author?"

If he still says no, then just acknowledge him.  You can include the statement of how critical his part was in the acknowledgment.

In the comments, there is a suggestion to state in the paper that Y has declined authorship.  I don't think this is wise; it needlessly draws attention and may make people speculate as to why.  If I were Y I would not want that statement in the paper.

It really depends on the relationship of the two people. If its student prof the person may want his student to have the recognition. He may just be humble. It wouldn't be too disrespectful to add him as either but definitely add him as one.


Is it appropriate to attend a class one is not registered for? Is it appropriate for a student to attend a class s/he is not registered for?

I am a CS student and I am almost done with my degree, but there are some very interesting electives that I will not get to take and I would love to simply attend those courses any way.

Is this inappropriate to do? Should I ask the professor's permission first?

I am not sure what my school's policy on the matter is, since I could not find a single source on the topic online from them.

In the American system, this is called "auditing" a course. Auditing means that you are attending the class but are technically only listening (auditing => auditory => listening) to the material and not sitting for exams or handing in homework assignments. You can audit a course formally (which often means that this is listed on your transcript) or informally in which you just sit in on the lectures/discussions. For the former/formal, see your local university guidelines. This answer deals with the latter.

Permission of the instructor in all but the larger lectures is always a good idea unless your university has an open classroom policy (as with many European universities). The instructor may have different rules. For example:

In larger lectures, I do not mind auditors (of any ilk) in lecture but they may not attend discussion sections since those are for the paying students.
I allow graduate students to audit my graduate seminars but with three rules: a) They must attend all of the sessions; b) they must do all of the readings; c) they must not be a 'dead body' but must participate in the seminar discussion.

Note that the university itself may have rules on auditing which the faculty member may ignore (for example, I do not mind if local community residents audit my lectures even if they are not registered as auditors through the university).

This is different from PASS/FAIL (also known as CREDIT/D/FAIL) which is another alternative in which you take the class but are allowed a lower level of participation.

Policies vary, from university to university, and even from department to department in the same university.

The first thing you MUST do is to ask the professor for permission. Not doing so, is a form of "stealing." If you have the professor's permission, it's more like borrowing.

The professor will usually know what the university's policies are, or at least be in a position to find out. In some cases, there may be an extra fee involved, for as many credits as the course is worth.

In some cases, there may be "loopholes," that is, there is no problem if you audit for less than half the semester, then "drop out."  Some universities will allow you "sit" for three to five lectures early in the semester before having to choose between courses. In other cases, you may be allowed to attend ONE lecture on a particular topic. (I have used all these strategies in my career).

In any event, do what the professor tells you. That is the best guide for "university" policy, as well as his/her own.


Is it ethical to submit a paper with the name of a co-author who cannot be contacted? The paper in question is based on research my collaborator X and I did together some months ago. Our respective contributions to the research were around 2/3 for X and 1/3 for me. In terms of the actual text of the paper, X wrote about 1/3 and I wrote about 2/3.

During the writing of the actual paper, X decided to leave academia. I can no longer contact X: emails to the old address go undelivered and there is no forwarding address for physical mail. Attempts to find X through web searches and contact X through mutual acquaintances have been unsuccessful. X has thus not seen a complete draft of the paper, only the sections that were actually written by X.

In these circumstances, is it ethical for me to submit a paper with X's name on it, without a complete version having been checked by X and without X's approval?

If I do submit it, should it contain a note of the fact that X was unable to check the completed paper? I am considering the hypothetical possibility that I could have inadvertently introduced an error while writing the complete paper (and such an error might survive through peer-review and into publication); responsibility for such an error should be mine alone.

There is no possibility of separating out my contribution into a separate paper. Either the work has to be published as a whole or not at all.

I am in a field where alphabetical listing of authors is standard, so there is no question of the order of authors.

This is actually the subject of a blog post over at Adventures in Ethics and Science. In general, it seems that several possible actions are defensible. However, whatever action you take, you should make sure to

Document your efforts to reach your co-author
Let the journal editor know at submission time what's going on

RetractionWatch is full of stories papers that were retracted for having been submitted without a co-author's knowledge. These steps can help you avoid that fate.

Given you've done 1 and 2, your choices are then:

Include the co-author, despite the radio silence, or
Acknowledge the co-author

The problem with the first choice is that authorship signals endorsement of the paper's contents. If the missing co-author has not read and endorsed the final contents, having his name as an author is misleading. However, you can resolve this to some degree by including an explicit statement (e.g., in a footnote) that Author X could not be reached to review the final version of the paper.

The applicability of this choice also depends very much on the journal’s official policy and what responsibilities each of the persons listed as authors have met. I'm sure we can all agree that it would be out of bounds to forge the missing co-author's signature on a form that needs to be submitted with the manuscript! However, even if you have to sign a form stating that all the authors have reviewed the manuscript, you shouldn't do that either - tell the editor you can't, and explain why.

The problem with the second choice (acknowledgement instead of authorship) is that the missing co-author has presumably done enough to warrant authorship of the paper. However, you could argue that an essential part of authorship is to see the paper through to publication - and that if the missing co-author has not done that, he does not deserve authorship. Again, if you do this, you must clearly document the author's contribution in the acknowledgements and alert the editor.

Which action you choose will probably depend on authorship standards in your field and the outcome of your conversation with the editor. Whatever the result, make sure you clearly and honestly communicate the contributions (and lack thereof) of the missing co-author to both your readers and the editor.

Can't you just rewrite the article? That is, keep all the ideas, techniques, etc., but produce an entirely new text? That would at least deal completely with the issue of copyright. In that case, you would be the sole author (though you must include a very generous acknowledgment note, for sure).

Even if your article contains experimental data/lengthy calculations, you can reuse that data as long as you remake tables, graphs, etc. as your own work. Again, conspicuous attribution is required.

And speaking as someone who has herself gone away abruptly from a doctoral research position, you should consider that the troubles you are going through right now may very well have been fully foreseen and intended by your MIA colleague. So that if you manage to finally track him down, he may simply refuse to publish or even flat out refuse to talk to you. And he's fully entitled to do so. (Not trying to imply that you mistreated your colleague in any way; I certainly felt mistreated before I left, and if someone ever came looking for me, for whatever reason, I'd tell them to shove it. But in my case I rather doubt anyone will.)

So, the gist of it, as I see it, is that you are fully entitled to use the ideas, data, that is, the substance of the work itself (with very explicit attribution and acknowledgment); but you cannot in any way list him as a coauthor without his formally expressed consent (that would be misrepresentation on your part); and you certainly cannot publish anything he actually wrote while omitting him as an author (which would be plagiarising).

On a final note: Keep in mind that, though he may appear to be missing, it is very possible he is still keeping an eye on whatever your lab/department is doing. If someone from my previous workplace did anything like that to me, I would be sure to be back to give them as much grief as I possibly could.


Submitting to a journal as an undergrad but lying about academic status on bio As an undergraduate I submitted a paper of mine to a reputable journal. Fearing that I would be desk-rejected for simply being an undergraduate, I stated in my submission bio that I was a PhD candidate. It turns out the paper is going to be published and I am curious if there are any long term repercussions or ethical concerns to be worried about on my end. Is it worth issuing a correction or is it statistically unlikely the EIC will even care at this point? Equally as important: would relaying such information result in the paper not being published?

It's maybe too easy to offer advice on such matters when one doesn't have to live with the consequences, but for what it's worth: for your own peace of mind, and to minimize the risk of long term consequences (while possibly increasing the short term risk, though not by much I hope), I think you should send a contrite email to the editor explaining what happened and apologizing. Although there is no telling for sure what the editor would do, considering that your bio status is immaterial to the acceptance decision, I doubt that this will cause them to unaccept the paper. In any case, it's the right thing to do. And if you decide to stay silent and keep your deception a secret, you will have to spend the next few years worrying that it will be discovered, with potentially worse consequences for your career. Nip it in the bud is what I suggest. Good luck!

As a starting point:

Dear Dr. Name-of-Editor,
I was thrilled to receive notification that my submission (title of article) has been accepted for publication.  However, I must make one very important correction.  When filling out my submission bio, I described myself as a PhD candidate.  Actually, I am currently a senior [junior] in the Name-of-Field program at Name-of-University, hoping to begin my PhD studies next fall.  I sincerely apologize for the untruth.  I hope this does not compromise my submission.
I have explained the situation to my dean of undergraduate studies, Dr. Name-of-Dean.  If you would like to contact him/her, here is his/her contact information: (email) (phone).

Sincerely,
(name)
Instead of the dean, you could provide the name of a mentoring professor.


How to Cite a conference talk / TED video? Is it okay to cite a TED presentation or a video lecture or something similar? If so, how to cite that video for your paper/thesis?

A quick google "apa cite video" would give you lots of advice, such as http://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/apa-format/youtube-video/ which notes:

Last Name, F.M. [Username]. (Year, Month Date). Title of video. [Video File]. Retrieved from URL.

The old-times equivalent of that, to give a reference to a "private communication", was often done and as often heavily frowned upon. Put it in a footnote or in the acknowledgements.


Retaking an undergraduate course due to poor grade before graduate school applications Due to poor performance on a midterm for an advanced major class I am currently taking, I am expecting to earn a lower grade than I would like to (around a B/B-). I have earned A's in all my other major classes and I am concerned about how this will affect graduate admissions.

Alongside other options such as research for bolstering my future graduate school applications (I am currently a sophomore), I am wondering if retaking the class in the future would look better for graduate admissions. I believe that I would be able to earn a better grade if I retook the class, but I am wondering whether this would be a good use of my time and if it would (at least partially) make up for poor performance in this class, or if I would be better off focusing on other areas, such as getting in more research opportunities. I also have the opportunity to take the graduate version of this course, which I would also consider if this would help my chances for admission into a good graduate program.

Yes, it would look (a bit) better. Yes, focusing on other things is probably (not necessarily) a better use of your time. If the course is a foundation course in what you intend to pursue then it might be more important, but mostly because you have missed some necessary insights.

A single "bad" grade isn't likely to mean much of anything as the admission process looks at many things and isn't, fundamentally, driven by a few numbers. You might be far better off taking the next course in sequence if any and setting yourself up for still more advanced work than to "stall" for a bit while you make things up.

It feels like "grasping at straws" to me. If this would be an essential block, then you probably have far more important issues to deal with.

But do what you can to do better in future, possibly by asking more questions or doing more "exercises" in your courses.

I would advise against retaking it. First, even if you retook it and earned an A, the original grade would still show on your transcript. Grad schools look for research potential, so you would be better off gaining research experience and building relationships with faculty who will write you strong LORs rather than retaking a class you earned a B in. Just my two cents.


How to properly claim credit for peer review? I acted as a reviewer for a paper this year and would like to mention this in my CV. However, I would like the authors not to know that I was the reviewer before some time.

At the moment, I have remained intentionally vague in my CV, mentioning only the journal name and the topic of the article. Is there a way to do better, namely:

Is it possible to make this review work verifiable? (perhaps by giving the email of the editor?)
Is it ethical to point to the full published paper in a CV that I don’t intend to distribute widely?

The standard information to give is the journal's name and only this. As far as I recall I have never seen a CV that gives more details than that (mostly I know academic CVs of mathematicians).

I would not go as far as saying that it would be unethical to include more information, but it would seem unusual and the advantage is not very clear.

If you are concerned about the claim not being credible, I'd not worry too much about this. However, some journals and publishers offer certificates for reviewers. See for example this information about reviewer recognition at Elsevier

There may be exceptions to this if you happen to be involved in some very high profile reviewing endeavor, but if you reviewed a normal paper I'd just give the journal's name.

I would leave off reviewing entirely from your CV.

Not used to seeing reviewing on CVs, even by journal.*  Let alone specific papers.

Why not accumulate some bigger things to list.  Your own papers, being a subeditor, running a conference, etc.?  But reviewing papers???

*This doesn't even make sense to me.  Does one paper reviewed for a journal make you "their reviewer"?  If you are a part of the scientific community, you will just occasionally get requests to review or not.  From various journals.  Or not.  But it's not like a "position".


Is it rude to send a self-correction followup email to professor? I was wondering if I was rude to a professor.

I am a Japanese student at a Japanese university and I'm planning to apply for a British graduate school. Then, I contacted a professor at the graduate school and asked some questions about the school. The professor replied to me very politely. Due to my bad English skills, I misunderstood what the professor told me and wrote something inappropriate. Realizing my mistake 10 minutes after sending my original reply, I sent him a message again, apologizing for my mistake with a correction. I think I did things in a very polite way, but I still worry if I made a bad impression at the same time.
Do you think the professor would see me as a rude student? Please let me know your ideas.

*I mean I made just a simple English mistake. I should've written "my" instead of "your". I did not write anything like insulting him.

Different cultures have different standards of politeness. Educated people tend to understand that. By UK standards you were more polite than you needed to be, but by Japanese standards, perhaps, just right.

Don't think of it as a mistake. There should be no issue at all. In fact, I'll guess you've made a good impression.

The opposite problem, in which a person isn't polite enough in the local culture is a bit more of a problem, of course. I hope that if I were to meet you in Japan, you would forgive me for my seeming lack of politeness in some situations imagining (correctly, I hope) that it isn't intended.

Extremely rude, telling the Professor that you didn't check your work enough times to make a mistake, it tells them that you didn't take the time or didn't care to fix it.


How to organize repository of common research papers for lab members? The Problem
I am a graduate student in a research lab with several other students, and as such we're all pursuing research and dissertation topics that are at least generally related in nature. We sometimes find papers relevant to others' topics during lit reviews, and right now we're just pushing them into a shared Google Drive folder.

That works fine, but the problem is that we don't really have a way to notify the relevant students when a paper is put into a specific folder (it's a fair-size lab with several students, and we're already drowning in noise emails ... we're not thrilled about adding more and basically CCing everyone the article touches).

The Question
We're looking for a service that essentially pushes a once-daily changelog of the filenames of added papers and the directories they've been committed to, sending them to the email addresses of all students in the lab (so that everyone can look over the daily list and skim it for anything interesting).

Does anyone know if such a thing exists? Or do you perhaps have an idea to help us out of our management woes?

Thanks!

The simplest solution to this problem that I can think of is just to use Mendeley (or service with similar functionality) that allows people to form groups (public or private), based on their research interests. Then, all activity, such as adding relevant papers, etc., automatically appears on group members' news "wall", plus they can set up e-mail notifications and such. For more details, see corresponding Mendeley's pages: https://www.mendeley.com/features/collaborate and https://www.mendeley.com/groups.

Obviously, solutions for more complicated research workflows will require more specialized software tools: open source, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or custom built.

Another idea: create a yahoo group.  Make sure to allow attachments.  Each student in your group should subscribe to the yahoo group, with Daily Digest mode.  Each time you want to put an article in the shared repository, simply email it to the yahoo group, with a brief description in the body of the email.

I believe you can organize the attachments in a file structure.


Why do I see research being republished in Springer? For example, I see a "book" on Springer published in 2017 that is identical to a conference article presented in 2011. What is happening here?
In my opinion, duplicate publications are not good for the research community. I am annoyed because if I cite the Springer version in my paper, then the reader will see e.g., 2017 and think that the work was proposed in 2017 when actually it was proposed in e.g., 2011. Furthermore, if I come across a paper published in 20XX in Springer, I have to play detective to make sure there isn't a version 5 years old that is identical...
Edit1: I must point out that the "book" versions of the papers I am referring are not extended versions but instead are identical.
Edit2: So, the specific case I am thinking of is a paper presented at a conference. The publisher of the book and conference are both Springer, but I am confused as to why conference proceeding are being published 5 or more years after the conference.

I don't know what book you're looking at, but it could be a reprint volume. These are, as their name indicates, collections of reprinted works. They are usually reprinted works of some famous person (example), or they might be works which the editor of the volume has decided are worth including (example).
These books will usually make it quite clear the works contained are reprints though, so there should be no confusion over the date the original work was published.

Springer (and other commercial publishers) publish things because they expect to make a profit.  They only act in the interests of the research community if those interests are aligned with Springer's profit.
Springer is able to profit because most of their sales are bulk sales.  Since Springer has  a monopoly on certain essential content, they can force their library customers to buy nonessential content.


Should I admit that I can't find a solution to a math problem? The problem is pretty much the title. I have a bachelor and master degree in applied math. I have been assigned a small problem to start with, from a professor (who is considered very good in my field) who is willing to give me a reference, which in turn I need in order to apply for a PhD position. Our common goal is for me to work gradually on the problem and, if I solve it, produce a published paper. This is a huge matter for me as do not yet have any publications, and it will (I believe) boost my chances to obtain a PhD position. The problem is that I have been working for a month on this and I have not reached an answer. So, considering that he said that this first problem would be pretty easy to deal with, I am really wondering what to do.

I need an answer on this: Should I admit to this person that is highly accomplished that I am having difficulties at what he asked from me? or should I tell him all I have got up till now even if that is not even close to a solution?

I don't know why you think there are any options other than both.  Of course you shouldn't just say "I'm having difficulties, full stop" without talking about what you have tried.  Of course you shouldn't just say "this is what I did" without also talking about where you're stuck.

You sound like you're worried about making the best impression on this professor.  The best impression you can make here is showing that you have the maturity to deal with doing research: to work hard on a problem, be aware of both what you've accomplished and what you haven't, and be able to ask for help where you need it.

There are bunch of things that could be happening:

You went off in the wrong direction, or missed something, and the professor will be able to help get you back on the right track.
The problem is actually harder than the professor thought, and explaining why you're stuck will make that clear to them.
The problem is harder than you thought, and the professor expected you to need some help.

In all of those cases, the absolute best thing to do is honestly present the work you've done.  The less you worry about framing things to make you look good, the better you actually end up looking.

Our common goal is for me to work gradually on [a small] problem and, if I solve it, produce a published paper.

A published paper pretty much implies a problem not previously solved.  "small" in that context means something like well-confined.  However, the well-confinedness is a guess.  Fermat's Last Theorem looks like something that should be doable with congruences, and pulling something off with congruences is a lot of routine and skill.  Small problem.  Now it has been proven that within a given framework of congruences, Fermat's Last Theorem is not provable (not false, merely not provable).  This proof ruling out a whole infinite class of "small problem solutions" is, in turn, not actually a small problem.
It turns out that even though FLT seems very much in the ballpark of a lot of "small problems", it's actually on a very slim borderline of "true by a very small margin", requiring a whole lot of new techniques to reel in.
You haven't reeled in your fish yet.  Nobody else apparently did either which may just mean that it's a fish in a boring lake nobody visits.  But it can still be a big fish whether or not it would be edible.
Maybe you just need somebody to show you a different angle of pulling the line.  Maybe you need an entirely different reel.  Maybe the best thing you can hope to do is to get a good size estimate of the fish to alert bigger fishers.
Your have an advisor, not a task master.  This is a perfect point to get his advice.  As a researcher, you are expected to spend your time well.  When you stop making progress, you are not doing so.  Now sometimes you just need to get stuck in a certain place for long enough in order to find a solution.  But that's expensive, and you should make it count.  Getting stuck somewhere where a more experienced person can point you out in 5 minutes is not making it count.  You may or may not be there.
So: discuss.


Why don't more academics write textbooks? For example for an undergrad CS/ECE course, say Intro to Computer Networks, there are about 5 textbooks published by the top 15 publishers in the last 20 years. Why aren't there way more textbooks, since there are probably tens of thousands of people (academics) who have the necessary knowledge to write such a book.

Is it because:

publishers don't publish a book about a topic for which they already published a book previously;
or academics don't think writing a textbook is beneficial for their careers and royalties are very low?

As in the other comments and answer: it's a lot of trouble, doesn't generate money, and doesn't generate status, either. In fact, it often generates anti-status, for various reasons: because of the other features, many academics (I'm in mathematics) would never consider writing any sort of book at all... and many of these people seem to subliminally want to rationalize this as a positive virtue by denigrating anyone who does write a book (especially a textbook). This is a fairly typical mechanism: declare the desired state a virtue... I've had "colleagues" say to me, quite snarkily, upon hearing that I was working on a book, "Oh, you must have a lot of time with nothing to do!" Sigh...

It is also true that there is pressure from publishers to make new textbooks as similar as possible to old textbooks... which perpetuates certain features that one might decide are not so good. That is, understandably because publishers want to sell books, a new textbook "has to" resemble existing ones enough to compete in the market for those books.

Another disincentive, of a different sort, is the point that nowadays with an internet, one needn't have pseudo-perfected a body of material before putting it on-line, because it can be corrected, tweaked, etc., indefinitely. In contrast, a physical book's immutability creates pressure for a degree of perfection that is (relatively) very expensive (if only in time and energy), due to severely diminishing marginal returns. The very linearity of a book creates similar somewhat-fake problems... And physical books are not searchable! It's crazy! :)

So, I personally have written some texbooks, didn't make much money... Nowadays, I mostly just put textbook-like material on-line, thus without the constraints of old-timey publication. This similarly generates no status-points at all, and no money. :)

Because you can just hire an undergraduate to TeX his lecture notes and have an easily amendable script specifically tailored around your course. Although it does not generate you any income, it requires a lot less effort than going though the whole publishing process of a textbook and yet serves its purpose exactly the same.


Should I seek professional help because I have a lot of math books? I’m a graduate student in mathematics. One day, there was a discussion between graduate students about how many books a working mathematician has. Then each student would talk about their personal math library and then they would name their preferred book in each area of math.
All the students had a relatively small library. When it was my turn, I simply said the truth that I have around 1,000 ebooks and 100 physical books and that I have bought all of them and have not downloaded any of them illegally. I also explained that I like to learn a lot of math and I’m passionate and enthusiastic about math. I also explained that I have not studied all of these books thoroughly.
Then suddenly a professor stated (when others were also present) that I have more books than the university library. He then said that I should immediately seek professional help.
I was very offended by what this professor said but I never discussed it with him because I thought that I was in an emotional state and I did not want to speak to him when I was not calm. After a while, I thought that it was my own mistake and I should not be so honest about my math library.
So I have now two questions:

Is the number of my books unreasonable compared to how many books a graduate student or working mathematician own?
If I need professional help because I buy math books regularly?

Personally, it seems to me that he was just making a joke. Awkwardly, perhaps, but still, just a joke. Your personal library seemed to him (and me) to be so "over the top" that it was hard to fathom. Had he said something like "Wow, are you ever intense?" it would have had about the same meaning.
It is possible that he had a negative feeling about it, but I really doubt it.
Or maybe a meaning like "Wow, you need to learn to relax a bit."
But if you are so intense that you are ending up hurting your health, then professional help is actually advisable.

In my opinion you do not need to seek help. It is normal for some to have high amount of interest in their work. Just remember that other things in life are good too. I myself forgot about many things because I was so focused on academics which for me was also math.
It seems to me that two things are important here. Firstly, graduate math and science fields seem to be an extremely cruel, cut throat, rat race today. These fields are highly sought after today and correlated often with power. It is because of this that a wide range of people enter them. And this brings me to my second point. S.T.E.M. today is highly populated with mediocrity at best and more probably what should be called complete incompetence. Often the race for power is more about social dynamics of regular people that otherwise would not have anything to do with the field if it were not for the hope of power and influence. All to often you will hear about relationships and other things, which is an example of how unrelated these things are to competence in S.T.E.M.
So while I don't think you are crazy, the out look is not always good.
On other hand professors have to sometimes deal with witty energetic students, to appear to be outsmarted is often taken poorly, though such behavior on both parties is extremely childish in my opinion and lacking of perspective. The professor is a working person perhaps short on patience, and couldn't entertain such things any longer. So no big deal then.
Also in my opinion the number of books is pointless metric. Only good texts are of value, and any amount of them is always in short supply.


Is it a bad idea to ask professors questions weeks before the class starts? I am a graduate student, and my fall classes start in a few weeks. I have already began reading the textbook for one class, and I have come across 1 or 2 things that I couldn't figure out. It's not the end of the world if I don't figure these out; for one, I can probably get an answer on math stackexchange. However, I like this professors field and would like to develop a little bit of a relationship with her. I would also like to show her that I am motivated. Would it be a bad idea to send an email with questions about the material before the class actually starts?

Would it be a bad idea to send an email with questions about the material before the class actually starts?

First of all, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but generally it’s a bad idea to be a person who asks disingenuous questions not because they want to know the answers to those questions but “to show [someone] that they are motivated” and because they “would like to develop a bit of a relationship” with the other person. It’s dishonest, and the thing about this type of dishonesty is, the people the dishonesty is directed at are almost always better at detecting it than the dishonest person thinks. So this approach tends to not produce the desired outcome, and can sometimes backfire in unpleasant ways. And more specifically, most professors have had the experience of having a student try to impress them in various ways that come across as insincere. It leaves a bad taste, which does not help a while later when the student conveniently shows up asking for a letter of recommendation.
Setting this aside, if you have questions you genuinely want to know the answers to, there’s nothing inappropriate about emailing the professor. Professors often enjoy discussing course topics with students and answering their questions. If your questions sound sincere and not like something you contrived just to show that you have something to ask, I’m sure the professor won’t be offended by your email, and there’s a good chance that she’ll answer it. Whether she will like you more as a result or not, I don’t think anyone here can predict, so again, if that’s your true motivation then yes, it’s probably a bad idea to send the email.

First post. I didn't read all the replies but enough to know that I disagree with the majority opinion.
What they are saying is probably accurate as teachers are typically overworked and slogging through bureaucratic nonsense that is standardized higher education.
For a masters class though? You are paying this person...it seems reasonable to see what kind of value you are going to receive (potentially). I once had a Spanish professor in high school that allowed me to go as above and beyond as I wanted to at the time. Coincidentally this was further than even Spanish 1 & 2 after high school. So for me basic college Spanish was a waste of time and money because of this.
For a college course this would be added value. It's also helpful to know if they actually do have a passion for instruction (teaching). Myself, I'd probably just give you a series of links if I were lazy or confirmed the consensus of what you were able to find on your own (outside self-learning) if you had good questions.
I wouldn't be offended or put off by an "eager beaver" as it were, but I would probably find it annoying at some point and I might try and draw out "why" you are interacting with me in such a fashion. If it's too irritating that it would compromise how I instruct you (and others by proxy) then I might refer you to another teacher if one were available.
A 2 week trial period (or a month depending on when drop/add is) is not unreasonable for a large investment. To find great teachers takes a lot of guesswork, a lot of practical experience and providence of course. I would be open to scrutiny to this end and that is also how I look for instruction.
If "most" instructors aren't that way, that doesn't discount "every" one. It could be that you are quite limited in qualified instructors in a particular field and you have to take them "as is" but each learning source is a sort of interview and I'm not the only person surely who has this opinion.
I've had few great teachers. About a dozen good ones and the rest I wouldn't pay for if I had a choice at this point. I wouldn't recommend the taxpayers pay either for secondary school but that's a different topic.
Certainly judge your motivations for initiating conversation. If it's to have an "excuse" then judge the motivation of your excuse to initiate possibly. You could start with a simple introduction and go from there perhaps? The person's feedback can often go a long way and of course some interact fairly differently in person and during the term.
Thanks for the topic...it serves to broaden my instructing ability with scenarios I haven't encountered.


How should I deal with very negative feedback from some students? I am a lecturer of a computer course in a university. Two months (almost 20 hours) of lectures have already finished. Very recently, I planned to get some feedback from my students on my lectures.

I asked a couple of questions such as 'how motivating the course is ...', 'how do you rate yourself on topic X', and many more.
I also asked them to fill a comment box that would improve my teaching.
This feedback is open to all the students registered for the course that also includes those guys who never attended a lecture.
I used a Google form for the process and made the responses anonymous.

From the multiple-choice feedback questions, I learned a lot of things and actually, I got to see a few strengths and weaknesses of my lectures. However, the comment section of the feedback has made my life difficult for last few days. I am really disturbed after going through and thinking over a few comments.
Here are some examples of comments:

You do not teach what is in the book. Plus, you ask very difficult questions in the test. What do you want to prove?
Who recruited this guy to this university?
One should learn how bad to teach from this faculty?

At the same time, other comments look like the following:

He is the best in the field.
He explains the most difficult concepts in a very simple and clear way.

The students (all are undergrad) are pretty straight-forward and have been really not-so-formal about it. I don't want my frustration to reflect on my lectures. I am new to teaching and that is why I wanted to get feedback.
How should I deal with this? Is it normal for an early-career academic?
Update:
After going through the comments (discussion) on this question, one may find out that the students are confused, probably during the discussion. However, there are two more points one should consider:

Since the feedback is anonymous, it is difficult to track a student and personally talk with him/her regarding his/her confusion.
If the students that have given such comments just came for one or two lectures, and they are judging the faculty's strength just based on that, then it is unwise.
If the above (second) point is true, then the concerned instructor should not take seriously those comments.

Is it a good summary?

Could I get some suggestion on how do I manage in such time? Is it normal for a early-age academia?

No, this is common for academics of any age. Anonymous evaluations are notoriously a valve for students to express their dissatisfaction without having to be reflective, fair, or even truthful about it. If you ask for anonymous feedback, you will need to be prepared for things that you don't want to hear. This can include very harsh judgments of your teaching quality, ad hominem attacks, or even tangentially (if at all) teaching-related comments to your person, your appearance, etc. Browsing Ratemyprof will give you a good idea what kind of statements students are willing to utter about their professors.

How you "manage" is by keeping in mind that (a) what you read is likely not the opinion of the silent majority of students, (b) that even the students that actually post hurtful feedback will often not really feel like this about you, but rather be frustrated because of a bad grade, a bad experience with your school in general, or just a difficult time in their life, and that (c) in reality, most teachers get a wide range of feedback from very bad to very good.

Also note that especially in smaller classes there can be tremendous differences between years, so having a bad evaluation in one year can still lead to a better evaluation in the following. Further, I have taken to basically ignore any feedback that has been mentioned only once or twice, and only start to take a specific complaint serious if it becomes a pattern.

TL;DR: In short, you will need to learn to not take the feedback personally.

He explains the most difficult concepts in a very simple and clear way.

You seem to have your good sides and connect to some students. You can't win them all. Everyone has a different learning style, need for audio, visuals, excercises. Try to add more variety. If it's all chalk on the whiteboard students will vote with their feet and go with the books. The most intelligent rightfully consider that a waste of their time.

  Who recruited this guy to this university?

Lot of work for you to move a away from your predecessors 1960ies script maybe. Some people think lecturers should be up to modern teaching standards. not neccessarily your most experienced colleagues. Find and stand by your own way.

  You do not teach what is in the book. Plus, you ask very difficult questions
  in the test. What do you want to prove?

Maybe going in the same direction. People manage their time by not intending to copy donw the whiteboard chalk and learn nothing from it. If you write fast to push the topics through, students can't focus on understanding. They try to pass your exam by using the books at home. Forcing them to attend via exam specifics questions that come up in last lectures Q6A is really unfair, self-serving and really direspectful of their time.

Having studied aviation engineering, being a renewables start up founder and working as self-studied IT freelance based on a part-time MBA, i can tell you any student with some brains will be totally disaffected by "chalk physics" w/o meaningful exercises or progress in deepening the understaning. I don't need to write down 2 pages of math to get to the last single useful line. 80% of classes is junk you never need. Get away from any self-serving academia image projected. Some students will bring work life experience to the table and may be really offended being misjudged as slackers.

From that part-time high-speed pro lectures in the MBA, I knew it can be done very differently using Power Point slides etc. to save chalk time. Sometimes it's ignorance or the professor who is the real slacker in the room.
just telling from my experience here what digital natives may expect from you in IT classes.

One easy reccomendation is hand out sample exams early for the book readers that hold up to self-teaching and passing with a good grade. Everyone will know what it's about and has no excuses for wasting a semester. Keep in mind wasting big ressources and failing when trying hard is deeply demotivating. Don't assume anyone to be a slacker. They all have their own tough choices on a hairstring budget or very judgemental parents at home. Such frustration may result in a very personal or harsh critisism. Try to find the gold in it too. Some still have to learn organizing a study or not to take up too many classes in a semester. Some may have structural limits to take the full plate scheduled offcially or retrain basics from long ago or bad teachers in their high schools. Or have a night job in a bar.

You can only improve some way every semester. No past exams on the campus black market make it hard with any first timer.

Your university should offer an assistance programme aimed to improve and reflect on your teaching. They all do today for beginners and thats safely outside of asking colleagues. Actually being open for change is a very good move from you.

Maybe you take this as goals: "making it more motivating to attend for different learning styles" and "more accessible to take home and self-study to manage their own time or catch up after not attending" and "fair to pass by clear expectations reg the exam questions" and "dish out one or two small exercises / follow up questions" be careful not to overload on these and post them online too for people who missed out.

Does your administration offer an optional excercise tutor for your course? That may address some issues reg exams questions.

What I ask for is a lot of work and can only be improved gradually by carefully managing your time and get assistance where you can grab it from budgets.


Can a "maitre de conferences" be called "professor"? In the French system and other francophone systems, tenured faculty is divided in two categories: maitre de conferences, equivalent to associate professors if I understand correctly, and professeurs, equivalent to full professors.

I'm preparing a list of people for a meeting. I am required to distinguish between no title, Dr., and Prof. The question is simple: should I call the maitre de conferences "professors"? On the one hand, their title is not formally "professor". On the other hand, their rank is equivalent to "associate professor", and so they deserve to be called "professor".

I am interested in a general answer. Not necessarily only for my situation. Call this curiosity if you wish.

This is a very general answer, so for your case you may wish to wait for an answer specific to the French system.

My opinion is that you should never 'translate' someone else's title in this way. You said that a maitre de conference 'deserves' to be called professor. However, the title 'professor' is not a value judgement on a person, it's just a job title.

In the US, this job title is used quite liberally. Outside the US, the title is often restricted to the most senior staff. In the UK, for example, the job positions of lecturer and reader are equivalent to a US associate professor and full professorship respectively. So a maitre de conference wouldn't be equivalent to a professorship in the UK. If you call a maitre de conference a professor, will you also title British lecturers and readers 'professor'?

Many scientists work at institutions which are not universities, and hence, cannot be professors unless they have also have a university appointment. For example, even the director of a Max Planck Institute is not (automatically) a professor. Are academics employed in such institutions also to be upgraded to professor?

It would be strange to invent a professor title in any of these cases. At best, it will cause bemusement, at worst they will think that you haven't properly researched their background.

Yes, Maître de conférences is equivalent to Associate Professor. There is the equivalent table between all the countries and it is equivalent to Associate/Assistant Professor.


Salary and Rank Discrepency: assistant profs with better records than associates in the same dept Is there anything to be done when a department has hot young assistant professors with much stronger research records (in books and peer-reviewed publications) than the associate professors? Must the assistant professors just accept that they are less well ranked and less well paid than associates who have been less productive?

Position in a university, and consequently salary, is not simply a function of being "hot and young", grant funding, and publications. But there are many other factors you may be missing. For example, the associate professors in your department may be teaching larger classes (under the assumption that the department tries to give the assistants smaller classes while they build a resume for their tenure decision); they may also, with more experience, be better teachers. And they will almost certainly have far higher service loads -- sitting on committees, mentoring, reviewing duties, etc. All of these are things that are valuable to a department and that is worth a certain amount of salary. But it's hardly visible from the outside, even though it definitely diminishes your ability to do research and publish a lot.

Finally, the associate professors have one less promotion to look forward to, and consequently a lower salary potential. For example, an assistant professor paid 5% less than an associate will earn 5% more after promotion, which translates into a quite significant sum over the remaining work life.

I do get your point, and there definitely are departments that have significantly improved and where the young crop is better than the old, and should expect to be paid better when comparing at the same stage in their careers. But it's hard to determine a "fair salary" between different ranks if all you reduce things to is grants & publications.

You seem to think that 'top' assistant professors carry the whole university.  They are one of many variables that play a role in the running and success of a university.  Who do you think pay the salary of professors? Hint: it's not high quality papers.  Answer: coursework students.  How do you get coursework students? for one, you have to teach well, have a well-run university; good admin, programs, reputation for teaching, community engagement, getting jobs, etc.  These 'other' people you seem to think the ass/prof are better than actually created the environment that allow the ass/prof to flourish.  Who do you think should get the higher pay?  The leach (newbie) or the host?


How can I know if I’m working through my PhD correctly? I’m a math PhD student in a university in Europe, working in a highly abstract field. I’m halfway through the intended three years. But I have the feeling I’m not doing it right.

When I look back, two years ago I knew almost anything of the theory I’m working in. So from that point of view, it’s reassuring. But I am still learning. My supervisor has given me a problem which is not very definite or well-defined: I have to abstract some structure from some old, classical scenario and try to update it to some more modern objects, in hopes of gaining insight and computability.

This has proven a bit formidable to me, even if he said it shouldn't "take me more than some weeks". After trying the “hands-on” approach my supervisor had some months ago, I got to realize that it wouldn't work, at least not naively. So I started thinking of an easier case, and then the problem started to divert and I feel like I’m on very loose ground now.

The situation is the following: my supervisor has a very computational approach to math, whereas I err on the conceptual, abstract side. So when I started getting farther away from his line of thought, he progressively stopped being helpful to me, to the point where in our meetings I usually tell him what I have thought of or learnt, he nods, sometimes gives me an idea, but most of the times he just doesn’t help me. And the main problem is, I think, he doesn’t think about my problems at all outside of our short meetings (even when our meetings end up with a very well-defined, specific question from me). So it’s all up to me and I feel inept and insecure, especially because I try to apply stuff I learn on my own, stuff my supervisor doesn't really know, many times.

I also think that I’m thinking -too- conceptually, I think much more by analogy than by computation, but since I’m a beginner I don’t know if I’m really thinking about the objects like I should, but my supervisor doesn’t speak to me much so I’m confronting articles, books, monographs by myself. I have learned much more by myself than from him. It's been a long while since he's tried to transfer some knowledge to me (as I said, our meetings consist mostly of me showing my current problems). Honestly, I feel like I'm doing my PhD unsupervised, and I'm scared to be leading my mathematical thoughts into unfertile regions.

My question is: how can I know that I’m working through my PhD correctly? I feel aimless, and moreover for the moment I feel like I’m just juggling with other people’s knowledge. I keep incorporating knowledge that I try to juggle. To put it differently, I feel like I’m collecting by myself pieces of a puzzle, and I’m just putting them together, without creating any pieces. I’m just picking up other people’s fruits. I feel like whatever result I might end up converging to will be just a trivial consequence of some stuff done by others. When I read articles, I many times skip the proofs, and I feel like I know many things at a “moral” level. I really don’t have the time to go through the technicalities, and at the same time, they look so daunting! I always skip the hardest parts, stacking them into “black boxes”.

I have read other posts about the “impostor’s syndrome”. I certainly suffer from this and other related issues, but this question is not about coping with the issue “how not to feel worthless”, but rather “how can I be sure that I’m doing this right?”. I feel like this will just go on and it just doesn’t feel like anything will come out of my struggling. Am I wrong?

I am a hard worker and I have had good results getting here (as in, grades, scholarships, etc.). I have managed to learn a lot of different math successfully. I have a very good memory and an uncanny ability to find references, which is what my impostor’s syndrome tells me it’s what has been saving me; I feel like I am a good bibliothecologist, a good organizer, a good cleaner, but that doesn’t imply I’m a good creator; I have given no signs of being able to -create- anything. How should I cope with this?

My question is: how can I be know that I’m working through my PhD correctly?

Well, you can't as you haven't done it before, but in some sense you can never truly know anything, if that makes you feel better.  In any case, there's no "right way" to do a PhD.  Research is by nature a process where you wander into unknown territory, and at first you have no maps or guideposts.  Then maybe you find what you are looking for, and maybe you don't, but as some measure of reassurance:

After wandering around long enough, you can usually discover something new.  Many times it may just be a different point of view or minor results, but at least you have understood something new.  Still, usually when you spend a long time on a project you can get something publishable out of it in my experience.

Here are some other points regarding other things in your post:

Many PhD advisors are very hands-off.  It's also natural that they become less helpful as you go beyond the bounds of their expertise.  However, it's probably not great if your advisor is thinks what you're doing is uninteresting.  (I don't know if this is the case or not.)  It's probably worthwhile to have a meta-research talk with him, including whether he thinks it's worthwhile to continue along these lines or consider a different approach.
If you go out of the realm of your advisor's expertise, it might make sense to try talking to an expert who can give you better feedback.  Conferences are one good opportunity for this.
No professional mathematician has time to understand all or even most papers of interest to them.  You need to learn to prioritize, which it sounds like you're already doing.
You actually don't have to be that creative to do new things, or have too many new ideas, or be successful in research.  Many PhD theses boil down to learning a bunch of stuff and then doing computations.  This does not mean they are bad--many of them are very good.  It's also hard to be creative before you reach a certain level of understanding, so you may not realizes your creativity till later, at which point you will almost invariably think, "How did it take me so long to come up with that?  That's so simple."
Organizational skills are not so separate from creativity.  Many times problems can be understood easily after organizing your thoughts about them in the right way.  This was part of the Grothendieck philosophy, and I doubt many mathematicians criticized Grothendieck for not being creative enough.
While research can be frustrating and disheartening, you should generally enjoy learning and thinking about math, otherwise a PhD or academic track is not for you.  Most people have good times and hard times with research.  This is natural.  I view one of my most important duties as an advisor is to encourage my students to help them get through the hard times.

My simple answer to your complex question is try to publish papers before hand. The reviews give you a good understanding of what is required, and also the publications can make your viva effectively a formality.


Formally asking a univerity for contact information of PhD I'm using certain software for my research and have some questions about troubleshooting and the output it creates. All the available information (manual, website and publication) isn't very extensive and can't answer my questions. That is why I want to contact the developer (a PhD) and ask my questions directly.

The problem is that the software is a little older but is still applicable to my research (never change a winning team). That's why maintenance of the website has probably stopped and the contact information there might not be correct anymore. I tried sending an e-mail to the adress on the page but never recieved an answer. What I do know is the name of the person I'm trying to reach. A simple Google search shows that this person is working at a certain univerity.

Question: Is it acceptable to contact this univerity and ask for contact information of one of their employees? And what is a polite way to ask this person for help? I might imagine that this might seem a bit rude and this is not appriciated. There is an online questionboard which has been inactive for some time now (as in years). But if somebody tried to contact me about my research, I would find the interest in my work flattering. I'm a little divided on the matter.

I assume that he has not a profile in that university, as you're asking this question. In a typical university's view, if a person among the staff were supposed to be contacted by people out side, its contact information would be announced, clearly, in the website. If not, it is not so reasonable to expect something unusual, is which not, completely, regular in university's policies.

If the software is a business product and you have paid for it, you have right to expect any defined kind of support for the package, officially (of course, if your target software version is not obsolete). In this case, you better contact ,directly, to the support division of the corresponding third party, instead of the lead or any of its developers.

If the target package is a part of a open source project, the case would need a different approach. Most of the open source softwares have been introduced, firstly, in a paper, is which expected to be referenced by the people using that software. The main leaders and supporters of the software are, actually, the authors of such reference papers. Even in the case of changing their affiliations (and consequently their contact address), you can find the paper's webpage in the responsible publishing journal and find the updated affiliations (is which a common fashion at least in my field, robotics)

After finding the new address, you can contact the person, safely. But, you better know that the fellows, involved in open source development, are not responsible to answer questions about the utilization of the software, but shall appreciate any reports corresponding to potential bugs or correspondences for collaboration in the development. The users are supposed to resolve their application-based issues by either searching in the forums or reading the tutorials. All in all, you might be lucky enough to catch some clues from this contact, at least.

Good luck


How much customization of letters of recommendation is necessary? While I know that students are encouraged to "tailor" their applications to the particular school or program they're applying to, does the same hold true for the people writing letters of recommendation on their behalf? In other words, is it possible just to change the "addressee" portion, and use a greeting such as "Dear Members of the Admissions Committee," or is more personalization required?

Just to clarify here, I'm referring to the "pro-forma" parts of the letter, rather than the actual content of the recommendation per se.

I have two levels of customization. Firstly, if the letter is for an internship at a lab, or an application to grad school or a job, I tailor the qualities that I emphasize and link those qualities to the specific job.

A second level of customization is if I have any connection to the institution (for example, when writing letters of recommendation for AT&T Labs - where I used to work - I might mention this explicitly in order to convey that I understand the local culture)

This is above and beyond the usual pro-forma customizations for the addressee etc.

Although it really depends on the culture you are in and the culture you are applying, tailored recommendation letters are generally 'stronger'.

Especially in the USA it is recommended to put also the university/department/lab name in the recommendation letter instead of just stating that the student is very good. Even changing the addressee requires the author spend some extra time, which means you are valuable for the author of the letter.

Keep in mind that most of the recommendation letters are not really read. They are there to show whether you can get them. In this perspective, tailored letters mean you have stronger relations with 'worthy people'.


Useful strategies for answering "dumb" questions in a talk? It has often been said that there is no such thing as a dumb question. And yet - perhaps due only to inattention, lack of sleep, or hunger - otherwise brilliant people sometimes manage to ask some pretty inane questions during talks. ("Yes, but how does the rover manage to drive around on the moon in the first place - shouldn't it just fall back down to Earth?") Or worse: make false or bizarre assertions. ("I don't see how your thrusters can possibly provide enough lift, given that the moon is made out of cheese!")

Question: How do you answer these kinds of questions in a way that makes everyone feel good about the interaction?

There are sort of three parties to consider here: yourself, the person asking the question, and the rest of the audience. You could, for instance, amuse and satiate the rest of the audience by poking fun at the person ("True, but why would you want to leave a paradise made of cheese?"). Humor might win over the audience, but the person who asked the question will spend the rest of the time ignoring the talk and thinking about how little he likes you. In contrast, you don't want to pander ("Ah, interesting point - I didn't realize the moon was made of cheese. Is it Gruyère or some kind of Stilton?") because, although the person asking the question now feels respected, the rest of the audience thinks you're a schmuck.

Perhaps the question could be re-phrased as:

Question: how do you convince someone they're mistaken without making them feel stupid? (And what if they're stubborn?)

This situation is especially delicate if the question-asker is an established and respected member of your field (since their questions and opinions will automatically carry some weight and authority) - or worse, a person interviewing you for a job! I'm interested in both external tactics (i.e. what do you say?) as well as internal strategies (i.e. how do you put yourself in a mindset where you're unlikely to react with rude or snarky answers in the first place)?

If somebody asks a dumb question, they're not going to feel good about the interaction whatever happens. If possible, get them back on the right track but avoid saying anything that could be interpreted as sarcasm and move on as quickly as possible.

The most likely thing is either that the questioner has missed something obvious or misunderstood something you said. So, in your first example, just point out that the rover is held there by the moon's gravity and move on. They're going to be embarrassed to have missed something so simple so it's important that you don't make them feel any worse about it; at least they'll probably understand the rest of your talk, now. In the far less common case of somebody making an assertion based on something that just isn't true, point out that the thing isn't true ("Well, the moon isn't made of cheese.") and move on. If they want to debate the point, offer to discuss it after the talk but don't let them derail you: everyone else in the room, you included, came for a talk about your thruster design, not an argument about whether the moon is a dairy product.

Here's a rhetorical tactic that I think gives the best results, but requires some advanced mental stretching, and is not something I can always pull off:

Find a nearby context in which their statement is correct, and then re-contextualize.

This allows you to start off by saying that they're sort of, or mostly, right, and what you say afterward as means of correction will be perceived as much less offensive. I find that most of the time the crazy thing someone is saying actually would be correct in some slightly different situation. The problem is doing the immediate mental search of the "sample space" for the scenario in which the statement is correct.

Example 1: Q: "But I was told that the equation x² + 1 = 0 has no solution?" A: "That's correct when one is restricted to the domain of the real number line. But remember, in this section of the class we're now using the domain of complex numbers, where it does have solutions."

Example 2: Q: "How does the rover manage to drive around on the moon in the first place - shouldn't it just fall back down to Earth?" A: "That would actually happen if Earth was the only body in the universe with a gravity field. But remember, the Moon has its own powerful gravity field, so objects close to its surface will be held there more strongly than to the Earth."


Can we stop looking at recommendation letters and rely purely on "objective" measurements during the admission process? My question has different emphases from Why are recommendation letters highly relied upon?.

As we know, the letter of recommendations are heavily relied in the process of university/graduate school applications and job market. Sometimes it is considered the most important part of the application. Sometimes if a referee wants to strongly recommend someone, s/he may even directly makes a phone call to certain departments/professors.

However, as we know, the quality and importance of recommendation letters depends largely on the subjective opinions and the reputations of the referees. As a result, the system of recommendation letters sometimes encourages young scholars to spend more (and perhaps unnecessary) time using strategies to gain the favor of professional scholars (I believe there are clever ways for average students to "demonstrate" to the professors that they are strong...) or spend less time in communication to avoid bad opinions(if you can't show people that you are smart, then you'd better talk less and try not to show people that you are stupid).

Meanwhile, writing letters seems to be a heavy burden of professors. You might want to argue that this is part of their job, but shouldn't they be given more time on their research and teaching? I heard some professors write dozens of letters every year which costs them a lot of time (excluding the time for communication with applicants).

My question is, is the letter of recommendation really an indispensable part of academic application processes? Can "objective" things like GPA(well, "transcripts" or "courses and grades" might be a more accurate measurement), test and competition scores, publications alone provide enough information to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of applicants?

Aside: I don't know much about the application of professional positions (postdoc and tenure-track positions). However, for university/graduate school applications, can we simply raise the difficulty of standard tests(for the information of those who think SAT and GRE general and even subject tests are too easy) to set the applicants apart from each other better? I heard in China, Ph.D. applicants need to take qualifying exams BEFORE being considered.

The problem, in my experience in mathematics in the U.S., is that neither GPA nor GRE test/reflect what is of interest for graduate work in mathematics. So, for example, making the GRE more difficult wouldn't help anything. The point is that the modes of thought, the methodologies, the world views, that are successful for undergrads or course-based Master's students are really quite different from what is needed to do a PhD.

Of course, human beings seem to have an impulse to automate things, or make them formulaic, so that GPA and GRE have a tremendous appeal. The fact (in my observation over a few decades) that these are not good predictors of success in math grad school in the U.S. (after the first year or so) does not deter many people, who'd like things to be that simple.

That is, I think it is inconveniently the case that it is impossible to make "exams" that gauge what astute grad-program admissions committees want to know.

For postdocs and further faculty positions: to my perception, it is significantly more oppressive to have to impress journal editors and referees (who have other interests) than to impress relatively senior people in one's field. That is, the assumption that making a positive impression on senior people is a burden is missing the point. Sure, yes, it is a natural feeling, much like the reaction of teenagers to the "oppression" of their parents, but I think that senior professional academics are more competent in their roles than parents may be, statistically. No, that does not guarantee lack of bias.

As far as I understand it, in the U.S., the game is that one needs to make a good impression for a while, but, then, at a certain point, one has tenure, and, in mathematics, if one has not planned finances to depend on huge external income from grants, one can exercise one's own judgement.

The abstract-economic conflict is that there are far more people who'd like such situations than there are situations. How to decide? ...

EDIT: in light of the original questioner's comments below: the premise that grades reflect the seriousness of a student I think more reflects the assumption about what "serious" means. E.g., it is possible to very scrupulously follow instructions, and to pay careful attention to what will optimize one's grade, without caring at all about the subject of a course. And, in many math courses, the "assigned problems" (from traditional textbooks) are substantially a caricature of what the subject truly is. Often, artificial makework, to fulfill the mythical need for "lots of problems". So I am not particularly interested in performance in regard to such.

There is also the implicit premise that "mathematics is obviously objective". In a certain sense, this is relatively true, but the question really should be about good mathematics. That is, (logical) correctness is not the highest virtue, by any means. And not all details are of equal significance, by far.

So, to my mind, capacity to see a larger picture and infer wise actions from it is a very important thing to cultivate, for professional mathematicians. The basic stuff, in undergrad and beginning grad courses (in the U.S.) is so standard that there are many sources, and anyone who's interested can learn it from those sources. In particular, I tell my students to not over-invest in drilling themselves on things that in real life are easy look-ups. Rather, the general "physical" sensibility and context of questions is what one needs to reflect upon... not standard stuff. Knowing what is standard and what is not, not the power to reproduce it on command, is the desired skill.

And, so, again, performance in usual coursework or GRE and such really tells nothing about the future sensibilities of a student. Letters from astute mentors/advisors have a chance to do so.

Let me put it this way. After reading your question I would never recommend you for a job at any place I work. Why you ask? Because you come off as arrogant and naive. Naive people I can work with, arrogant on the other hand is not worth it. One cannot tell this from quantitative measures like the GRE.

No matter how smart or skilled you are, I would not want to work with you. No person can work in a vacuum they need assistance be it grant writing, IT support, accounting, payroll or any number of other things. You can't get things done without assistance and managers (Professors) realize this. If you drive away them or their staff (which they have worked very hard to build) it does not matter how much you think you can do, it's not worth working with you.


Should I disclose gender, race, disabilities etc. in tenure track job applications? I am applying for assistant professor positions in the U.S. and Canada, and I often have to fill in forms of voluntary self-identification disclosing my gender, race, veteran status, disabilities etc. I usually do that, even though I am not certain whether and how this information could affect my prospects of getting the job.

However, recently I have been asked to a fill in a form and choose whether I make this information available to the hiring committee:

  Please indicate whether you

  DO NOT wish to self-identify (in which case we request that you make no indications in Sections A through D below and simply return the form with your name and the date only);
  Wish to self-identify FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES ONLY (in which case the information you provide below will be used only by the Equity Office and will not be shared with the Appointments Committee of the Unit to which you are applying); OR
  Wish to self-identify FOR THE APPOINTMENTS PROCESS AND FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES (in which case the information you provide below may also be used in the Appointments process, in accordance with Article 24 of the Collective Agreement)

(boldface emphasis is mine).

What should I do to increase my chances of getting the job and avoid standing out in a bad way?

I guess that by choosing to make the information available,

a Male, Caucasian, Non-disabled person might lose an edge due to preference towards minority candidates; while
a Female, Black, Disabled person could gain an edge?

But it could also go the other way around if the hiring committee has preferences that do not quite align with the official policy of supporting minorities etc.

Two somewhat related but different questions are

"Should all voluntary self-identification forms for faculty positions be filled?" and
"What “Applicant Confidential Data Form” has to do with tenure-track positions?".

I guess if I were Male, Caucasian, non-disabled etc I might lose an edge due to preference towards minority candidates; while if I were Female, Black, disabled etc I could gain an edge?

There are limits to how protected characteristics can be used in affirmative/positive action. By authorizing them to use this information, you can benefit from permitted affirmative/positive action if you qualify. If you do not authorize the use of the information, then you cannot benefit. In regards to permitted affirmative/positive action there is no benefit to withholding information.

There is also a possibility that this information would be used for un-permitted/illegal discrimination. In general, however, illegal affirmative action where minorities are given an advantage does not happen. Rather, there are all sorts of documented implicit and explicit biases that help white male applicants.

In my opinion, if you are not a minority (e.g., a heterosexual white christian male), there is no risk in making the information available. If you are a minority the choice is more difficult. You could benefit from affirmative/positive action, but you could also open yourself up to implicit and explicit biases.

A 2015 study demonstrated that women that faculty members from biology, engineering, and psychology departments prefer female applicants over male applicants:

Men and women faculty members from all four fields preferred female
applicants 2:1 over identically qualified males with matching
lifestyles (single, married, divorced), with the exception of male
economists, who showed no gender preference. Comparing different
lifestyles revealed that women preferred divorced mothers to married
fathers and that men preferred mothers who took parental leaves to
mothers who did not. Our findings, supported by real-world academic
hiring data, suggest advantages for women launching academic science
careers.

We also know that African Americans and Hispanics are typically favored over European-Americans & Asian-Americans in college admissions:

In court papers, Arlington, Virginia-based Students for Fair
Admissions said an Asian-American male applicant with a 25 percent
chance of admission would have a 35 percent chance if he was white, 75
percent if he were Hispanic and a 95 percent chance if he were black.

Also, there are numerous campaigns worldwide to increase the number of women or "minorities" in STEM, offering scholarships, and other opportunities to women or minorities that are not offered to white men. There are even some academic jobs where only women are allowed to apply, like this Assistant Professor Position for the Vienna University of Technology or these three senior positions at the university of Melbourne.
Therefore, as a white male, I would be inclined to not mention race or gender on my applications for tenure track job applications, especially with respect to positions in a STEM field.
For the same reason, I would be inclined to explicitly mention my gender as a woman or my race if I were black of Hispanic.


How can I document depression for later reference in grad school applications? I am currently a third year undergraduate at a good university studying computer science. I am planning to apply to top graduate schools when I finish my undergrad and I need a bit of advice.

In the first two and half (5 semesters) of my studies, I took the most challenging CS/Math courses in my university and did very well in them (GPA 4.11/4.30). I also joined two research groups and have 2 publications where I am the first author, published in reputable journals. I also have a very good relationship with my 2 research advisors.

Now in my sixth semester, I decided to go on an exchange semester and things just started crumbling. First of all, I couldn't integrate well in the culture and I was left very lonely with no new friends in the area. My Girlfriend of 5 years broke up with me, my mother got into a car accident which affected her health, and I started taking depression medication due to that. I also gained a lot of weight which lead to some health problems. Needless to say, this term is coming to an end and I can't wait to leave this place. I am going to probably fail 2/4 courses, and in the remaining ones, I will barely pass. I am expecting a 2.0 GPA at best.

Now I know this won't go unnoticed by graduate school admissions. I am just wondering what steps can I take as of now to document all of this so that I can justify the poor performance in the exchange semester during my graduate application?

Your transcript should be all you need. Presumably, your transcript shows that you studied at a foreign university, and that things did not go well. If you are back to 100% next semester, it will be pretty obvious that the problems were related to studying abroad. You may then want to write something in your statement of purpose when you apply to assure them that attending grad school won't cause problems similar to what happened when you were studying abroad. This should be an easy sell, especially if the exchange program was in a very far away country and the grad program is in your home country/region.

At any rate, graduate school admissions people certainly do not want to see documentation about your health or personal relationships. They just need a believable reason for why that one semester doesn't indicate you are unfit for grad school, and the transcript showing you studied abroad far away and had some problems should address that. The only place you may run into problems is if your application is automatically filtered out before it reaches the committee -- but no way to avoid that.

The question posed in the title is a bit more challenging. You are able to attribute your difficulties to having studied abroad. For students who suffer mental health challenges at their home universities, graduate school admission is more challenging. Even in this case, however, I do not think they are interested in seeing medical or other documentation.

Just suck it up.  Talking about depression will make it worse...not only did you underperform, but you make excuses.

This is not a troll.  I have underperformed on all kinds of things in my life.  But once you are an adult nobody wants to hear about your excuses.  Get it done or don't get it done.  But just deal with it when you don't.  Life goes on and there are a million second chances.  But don't ask for special forgiveness.


Is it ever appropriate to correct a non-native teacher's English? Four of my Japanese teachers are, as you would expect, Japanese, and they all speak English fluently. But now and then, there will of course be slip ups: I often see small grammatical errors in one sensei's handouts. They don't affect the quality of the communication, but is it appropriate to point out these errors to the sensei?

I know that if I were in Japan, I would always want for native speakers to correct me if I made a mistake; more so in the written form. However, this particular sensei has been at my uni for something like 20 years, and her English is perfect in all other regards; I wonder if it wouldn't be a little insulting to point out otherwise negligible written/spoken errors. Nonetheless, I'd like to know what some teachers think.

EDIT: When I say my sensei's English is perfect, I mean that she is able to communicate effectively, not that her speech or writing are free from grammatical errors. Like any non-native speaker who hasn't learned from a very young age, she will sometimes say or write things that sound jarring in English grammar.

It depends on how much interest she has expressed in being corrected or trying to improve and how close your relationship with her is.  Any corrections should be generally mentioned to her respectfully and in some form of one-on-one conversation.

If she has asked in class for mistakes to be pointed out, then I would not hesitate to offer the occasional correction.  Frequent corrections are probably not welcome.

If she has not expressed interest in being corrected, I would only mention corrections if the mistake could potentially lead to misunderstandings either in message tone or content.

A gray area might be if the mistake is in formal communication (e.g. grant applications) and you work closely with her.  In that case, use your own judgement.

In your class, will you lose points on an assignment for grammatical and spelling errors?  If so, then you are not being rude by pointing out these mistakes.  My advice is to mention these errors one-on-one – absolutely not in front of another student, and show as much respect and humility as possible.  You don't want to embarrass your teacher.


I have one bad grade on my transcript and I'm thinking of applying for MS CS programs at top US Graduate schools. How badly would my chances be hurt? I am currently studying Computer Science and Engineering at a top Indian engineering school (IIT). However, I have a CD (5 out of 10) grade in one subject (System Software Laboratory) in one semester. My overall grade is pretty good but I have a bad grade for this one subject. For context, this grade is kind of equivalent to a D in the US.

There's no question it will hurt.  You already know that.  How much it hurts depends on where you're applying and whether it's to a master's or PhD program.
Top PhD programs could fill every spot with students who only have 4.0 (perfect) averages.  The reason they accept students with less than perfect averages is because they also consider your LORs (letters of recommendation) and your essays, especially, your SOP (statement of purpose), which may be enough to overcome that one bad grade.  Lesser programs accept less.
If you're applying to a master's program, admissions are generally more accommodating since they don't have to assign a faculty advisor and they know most master's students are heading into industry, not academia.


What are typical examples of "scholarly work"? I am looking into applying to a teaching position at a liberal-arts institution. The application page asks for an example of scholarly work. What are good examples of scholarly work? For the sciences, is this like published articles?

For sciences, scholarly work means peer-reviewed publications.  Conference papers count if they are peer reviewed.

In other disciplines, it can mean different things.

The best example is some sort of research. In many such institutions the best research is something that undergraduates can participate in. In some fields such as math this is easier, requiring less in the way of equipment. In others it may be impossible other than by, say taking a leave to go to CERN for particle physics. But the research should result in some sort of writing, even if not up to the standards of top journals.

But at the other end of the scale is just "keeping up with the field" through reading and attendance (maybe with participation) at conferences. It can vary widely. In CS there are a number of regional conferences at which people participate. Most of the work done for these is about the teaching itself and how to do it effectively. They are very valuable as the field changes and grows.

At a somewhat higher level is participation in an internet based study group that works on some set of problems in the field collaboratively and may produce occasional papers. But the collaboration itself is valuable for people at such colleges as it gives you access to a wider range of ideas that you can bring back to the classroom, which is, likely, your most important task.

Running a study group on some topic with a couple of faculty and a few more advanced students is a good example. Read and discuss a few recent papers (or classic papers) and show the students how to approach learning about the arcana of the field.

In some fields even non-scholarly writing may be "scholarly". If you teach writing, then writing novels will probably do.

Becoming a popularizer of science and becoming known for it is usually recognized. Textbook writing - even workbook writing may be enough.

In the best case, you get to set the terms yourself by proposing a course of development to the administration and then following it.


How can I up my confidence level in my technical skills? Let me paint a picture of my background in brief. I did my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. I was a good student (almost all A's) till my high school. However, I struggled a lot in my first two years of engineering. I failed 3 subjects and had to retake them. I did fairly well in my last two years and managed a GPA of 3.7. But, my early failure played a heavy toll on my self confidence. I always felt and still feel like I am not worthy for my grades or getting a job.

I was interested in research, so went to a better school for master's degree. Again, though I had very good grades there, I struggled a lot during my job interviews. I always felt inadequate and unconfident about my ability to sustain in that job. As a result I did not get selected in those companies. I got offer in a small company which hired me only looking at my grades. My professors also said that I deserve better workplace but I didn't get it only because of my lack of self confidence and technical speaking skills.

I figured that, since I loved doing research, I should go for a PhD. I worked hard during the last five years. I tried coming out of my comfort zone, try different things, work on challenging projects. I started feeling confident midway through my PhD. However, now I am in my last year and towards the end of writing my thesis. And I am feeling the same anxiety of technical inadequacy and unworthiness.

I am again getting the feeling that I am upto no good and I can't get a decent job or postdoc position with my skillset. Only issue is that I am 29 years old and I will have to get a proper job soon to support my family. I don't know if I am capable of doing that.

My question is, assuming that I suffer from severe case of imposter syndrome, what's my remedy? How can I improve my confidence levels during an interview? I want to feel alive during job search and interviews. I don't want to feel all hopeless and inadequate during any future opportunities.

Are there any suggestions?

My advice is to focus less on the abstract unknowable questions "how good am I?", or "am I technically skilled?" - and instead focus on the concrete things which you've actually done. Focus on the achievements you made in your education. If you like, make a list of all the problems you solved and things you did in your PhD. When you get asked questions in your interviews, don't think about whether you are "good", just think about all the things you did and (metaphorically) give the interviewer that list, and let them judge for themselves if you are a good fit. The other clear solution to having nerves during interviews is simply to do a lot of interviews. Try to schedule some "easy" ones early, so that when you get an interview with a company you really want to work with, you have a bit of practice under your belt. You can also of course have mock practices with your colleagues and friends.