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how to incorporate Virtual Reality in a business school setting?
Business School faculty here. We have some budget to buy electronics. We're thinking of buying a Virtual Reality "thing" and using it somehow.
We can use it for pedagogy, or as a marketing tool, etc. (E.g., it could contain a demonstration of the advantages of a business degree, and we could leave it in our waiting room or take it with us to student recruitment events).
We can't figure out what to buy and how to use it.
Suggestions?

Requirements first. Acquisition choices second.

Most of the times, when a university buys something without already having an idea on what to do with it, that thing will end up abandoned in a corner in a few months.

A Quick Thought
Using VR in the classroom is pretty difficult if not all students can benefit from the VR system simultaneously. If only one student could use it at a time, you'd have to schedule time for students to use it outside of class.
My Best Ideas
Perhaps your best bet is to create a brainstorming contest for your students and incentivize it with prizes. As business students, they'll benefit from coming up with ideas for a "client" and competing for funding.
You could just purchase the system and encourage students to create VR applications for it. Encourage them to network with people in other fields to see what their needs are and how those fields might be able to benefit from VR. Perhaps they could do some market research? If you're feeling ambitious, and your students are up to the challenge, have your students work with computer science students to make a new product. This may work better as an honor's project or a class project for an upper-level or specialized course.
You could also use existing VR software to show the students what is being done with VR in other fields in order to inspire creativity and innovation. Show them how it's being used in medicine (a tool for robotic surgery), engineering (design visualization/analysis), real estate and tourism (virtual tours), the military (drone control, virtual warfare, etc.) and so on. You could show them Google Expeditions.
If possible, try to build a course around it. Virtual reality is expected to become much bigger (citation needed), so there are tons of business opportunities. Use your VR system to give your students an advantage.
Other Thoughts
The primary strengths of most commercial VR systems today are:

3D visualization (seeing in 3D with the ability to view any angle)
Interactivity (the user can manipulate the virtual environment)

If you can leverage both of these things in the context of business, you're good to go.
Using it as a flashy public-relations stunt is a great idea, but try to effectively use the VR system in an interactive way. One possibility is using existing VR software to show the students what is being done with VR, and inspire innovation. Show them how it's being used in medicine (a tool for robotic surgery), engineering (design visualization/analysis), real estate and tourism (virtual tours), and so on.
I designed a VR system for an intro CS class once and came up with some demonstrations/applications for related fields. I'll try to do the same for a business school:

Practice navigating difficult situations (or job interviews!) in a simulated, repeatable and immersive way. (An example of this is the "training room" in Monsters, Inc.) If before you simulated these situations using people, you had have a few people play the part of a difficult boss, employee or client, and students' experiences would vary. A VR system could simulate it all in a repeatable way, and it would be easy to record and analyse how students react (their words, body language, etc.). This could be used as a training exercise or in evaluation. After the software was developed, you wouldn't need to hire people to "play the parts".
Marketing: Users walk down a city block and experience a number of signs, billboards, advertisements, etc. Use this to discuss what sorts of marketing was effective vs. intrusive.
Visualize data: certain logistical and/or financial data may benefit from immersive 3D visualization. It may help visualize how different fields/markets/regions are interconnected. Machine learning is huge, so helping students learn via visualization could be useful.
Programming is becoming more essential for all fields of study. You could develop a VR framework and offer a course where business students learn to program using this framework by creating their own content. They'll learn a programming language in an engaging way, and might create something new.

The important thing to remember about virtual and augmented reality devices is that they are tools; they are new, super cool and exciting tools, but they are just tools none-the-less. I would suggest you consider them in the same way that you would an iPad, or a new Mac Pro tower, or a Smart Board.
As of now, virtual and augmented reality devices have only very recently moved from limited, technical prototypes into increasingly practical (and affordable) commercial products. The upside to this is that if you are doing research in a multi/inter-disciplinary way, everything is new, minimally explored, and underdeveloped. The downside to this is that everything is new, minimally explored, and underdeveloped.
I can tell you from personal experience that if you get your hands on one, you'll find it's just so cool and fun to play with the tech demos and explore what applications are out there (unless you are, well, dead inside - or if you get VR sickness easily, or if you just don't have much of a nerd-core to you). But you'll quickly find the selection is limited, and there are few pre-packaged solutions for absolutely anything substantive you may want to do.
That's where the work starts. The practical reality is that you'll need a lot of technical skills to do anything custom on your own. You'll need to choose from a relatively limited set of programming languages and tools, depending on the device and platform, and if you haven't worked in graphics before you'll have all kind of fun things to learn about like quaternions, physics engines, multiple coordinate systems and spaces (camera vs screen, etc), and more. The software is rapidly evolving, so the large amount of tutorials available ends up being deceiving - most will be significantly out of date (some less than 1-2 years old will be totally broken), so 20+ hours a week for an experienced computer programmer over a summer might get you your own space shooter clone game (if you don't go off script too much).
So, what if you don't have such existing expertise in your department?
The most approachable use for such equipment is for independent study projects, especially with people interested in technological/computer entrepreneurship. This will require students with significant technical training, which will be much more commonly found from advanced undergraduates or masters students in Computer Science/Engineering. This has a lot of potential for cross-departmental efforts and collaboration, but you will need people with an understanding of how to approach such projects. "Can you help us code for this widget" is likely to close  more doors than it opens. But if you have computer/technical programs on campus with entrepreneurship interests of their own, it could be the beginning of a good relationship.
If you don't want to customize the technical aspect at all, I suppose you could stick with survey methods that just has students do reports on existing markets and products, etc.
You could also just get one to say you have it, of course. Maybe get it a nice display case, and when you bring visitors in point it out, tell them you have it, and maybe let them try it on. Not very educational, but I suppose it can serve some political purposes. Tell people who ask that it's available for faculty and students to "do projects and research [and stuff]" - keep it nice and vague. (I'm only a little kidding - I suspect this is a large part of current markets for similar technology.)
The biggest opportunity, in my mind, is using your interest (and budget) as an investment towards cross-disciplinary efforts with technology-heavy programs on your campus - an iSchool if you have one, CS/CSE, etc. The equipment is both enabling (not cheap and you need it to really work in the area and explore potential applications), and can be a rallying point if you have student and faculty interest in exploring potential applications.
The simplest and most exciting fact of these new technologies is that honestly no one really knows for sure what to do with them yet. Everything is rapidly evolving and uncertain, and there is a great combination of socio-technical problems that will need to be uncovered and addressed over the next 10-20 years. If you can get together even a small group of people interesting in exploring this space - and find a way to make it fit the culture of your field and institution -  there's certainly plenty of opportunity to be had.
For the details of what to buy, that's putting the cart before the horse - find the people who want to explore it and work with it, and let them propose to you a mini-grant to obtain the equipment they think will best suit their interest.


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Google scholar not updating PDF link to published conference version from older arXiv link
One of our paper was arXiv'd before getting accepted at a conference.
The conference has its own publishing site where all the accepted papers are publicly available.
For our paper, Google Scholar has the arXiv PDF link. However, we want the PDF link from the conference website to replace the arXiv PDF link.
I have tried updating the PDF link manually, but I found no options to do that. I also created a new entry with the updated publication details (without the PDF link) hoping it would automatically detect the new link, but it still got the arXiv link instead.
I am now thinking of deleting or taking down the arXiv version entirely so that there remains only one version of the publication. I'm not sure if I should do that. Please suggest what I should do here. Thank you!

Google Scholar usually first indexes papers appearing within 7-14 days of their original announcement in arXiv, and then again within 2-3 days for minor tweaks that might have occurred after announcement. Any subsequent replacements or other metadata changes will appear in Google Scholar during their twice-yearly full system reindex, where they re-harvest all their data sources (details are at item number 1 in their documentation). Typically these indices occur in January and July.
You cannot delete or takedown the arXiv paper (the license applied at the time of submission cannot be revoked at-will), but there's a fairly strong evidence that the canonical link to the conference version should appear after January's re-index.

This is helpful for me for a similar issue with Google Scholar, +1

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


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How to go about a career in academia when professional work is under a pseudonym? (Art Professor)
I'm an artist currently getting my MFA, current a TA, I will begin adjuncting next semester and hope to pursue tenure track/stay in academia in the future.
I've hit a bit of a road block in terms of how to go about my name, and am wondering what to do. I adopted a pseudonym for my work/professional life (a first name + last name) and use that excusively professionally as an artist. I have had exhibitions under this name, I'm a sole proprierter have a sales & use tax license as well as a DBA registered under this name. Tons and tons of artists use pseudonyms so this is definitely not at all uncommon in the art world. Similar to actors/musicians who use stage names, authors who use pen names, notable street artists use pseudonyms (KAWS, Banksy, Swoon, etc etc). I decided to use a pseudonym just to create a more unique & memorable entity -- additionally, I've just never liked my name. I generally go by the the first name (which is a nickname). My legal last name has some negative connotations I just don't want associated, and being an artist kind of presents this very cool opportunity to be whoever you want & establish a brand. With all that being said, it's not a dead name by any means -- Just a preference.
However, how do I go about this in academia? I figured when applying to jobs, I could just apply under my legal name, and in the cover letter say that I make work under the name xxx. However, what about when it's time to start teaching? What name is listed on my classes & on my syllabus? How do I introduce myself to my students (I'd want them to see my work and know who I am)? How do I introduce myself to my colleagues and what do they call me? Anyone have thoughts, or have experience with something like this? I'm mostly stumped because my pseudonym is somewhere in between sounding like a real name and something fake. Would love any advice. Thanks!

I would apply under the name you use in academia, but give your legal name somewhere in the application (cover letter or CV) and when you register for benefits/tax purposes. HR should be familiar with all this, it's fairly common in academia, especially for people who change their legal name to match a spouse's but retain their previous name for professional purposes since it's tied to their publication record.
It's also common for people to use a shortened name for simplicity, e.g. when multiple surnames are taken from families of both parents, to use a middle name as a first name, etc. Your situation is not really mechanistically different from these.
You can also consider legally changing your name; the process will depend on where you live but is typically not too arduous as long as you're not trying to evade a past (e.g.: sex offender registry).
I'm assuming that this name is appropriate to use as a name for all of these purposes; you'll have to weigh whether that's the case or if it will cause others to take you less seriously.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Publishing in a field that I am not an expert in
To give you some backstory, there is a particular publically-available hospital dataset that has been published about by other groups. I have recently come up with a novel machine learning method for predictive modeling within the dataset, and it is here where I am not sure where to go.
I believe that what I have is novel and significant enough to publish a paper about. However, I have more of a clinical/biology background and no formal background in machine learning. What would be the best way to go about the publication process here? I'm fairly certain in my ability to write the whole paper, but I am somewhat worried that there may be a technical mistake that may not be apparent at first glance. I'm also not even sure who is an "expert" that I could contact about this.
Any guidance is appreciated!

find a collaborator who has a background in this new field?

who are you? a student? a phd? a postdoc? a practitioner? you have peers, now you need to find peers from a different field. If you have universities close-by, put an ad on the billboard of Computer Science, or of Informatics, or of Statistics (best ML people are statisticians ... they will tell you why you do not need it).
Think about time: how much time do you need to learn pitfalls of ML? how much do you value your time? and your free time? offer compensation of at least 1/2 of your free time. FYI: I usually value my free time as 5x my working rate ;)

"but I am somewhat worried that there may be a technical mistake that may not be apparent at first glance" - another thing that might well happen is that your method already exists in the literature (maybe under a name that you wouldn't expect, and maybe in statistics rather than ML).

You may need to talk to a machine learning expert.

ML academic here. Is it that your approach is very interesting for that particular data set? Or is it that your approach is applicable and potentially yields great results in other data sets as well? Then are you worried that you make a mistake on the method (math) or on the evaluation process?
For feedback: One of the things that you could do is that you could send your paper to a conference in order to get as much feedback as possible (reviewers and then audience).

Publishing the MS as a preprint while you find someone to work with could be a good route.

@Constantinos That’s a very interesting suggestion. It’s more so that the particular question we ended up solving has not been explored using machine learning with this type of dataset, as the dataset is more so a data dump of a lot of de-identified hospital data. I still have yet to discuss with experts in the field (due to the holidays), but I personally haven’t seen this particular approach in the literature. I will try to see if there are any conferences any time soon that would accept my work. Thanks so much!

@Omnitragedy so then your best target would be audience that is interested in the answer of such type of question (e.g. from the medical field). Strong emphasis should be given on the interpretation of the results and the insights you get with modeling. Do not underestimate Workshops and Symposia as sometimes they offer great opportunities for discussions and feedback (and the acceptance rate is lower than the main track of a competitive conference). I am in a similar position but i collab with biologists and i do the ML :) Good luck!

I agree with the consensus in the comments: you really should try to collaborate with an expert in Machine Learning (or, as I would really recommend, in statistics, but I'm biased).
On the one hand, as Christian Hennig writes, there is quite a chance that you rediscovered something that is well known in the field, probably under some name you simply don't know - either as something that works, or as something that doesn't. That in itself does not mean you don't have something publishable, you might certainly be able to contribute something like a new application, or offer a new variation on an existing tool. However, you really need to speak the ML language. Reviewers will not like it if you propose something they already know; it will look like you didn't do your homework. ("Doing your homework" is pretty much what we are recommending here.)
On the other hand, an ML/stats expert will be able to suggest venues for publication, write the paper in a way that is commonly accepted in this field, request useful reviewers, and so forth.
So your question is really how to go about finding such an expert who is willing to collaborate with you. And that is a different question. We might already have something on that here at Academia.SE, try searching. How you go about this will depend heavily on your situation, on whether you are a student (how far along?), or an established researchers, whether you are at a university or at some other institution, or a private researcher, whether you are a member of some professional association that might have a ML/stats interest group, and so forth.

Thank you to you and all the commenters! This is the advice I was looking for.


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How to obtain research data about IT related subjects?
I'm doing a study which requires me to get data about which operating systems are used the most on mobile devices. Since I need to refer to the sources in the official document, those sources need to be confirmed. I've seen some researches, but I either can't confirm the source, or need to pay to see the survey/research.
Is there a way to obtain data on this subject? Or, preferably, on all IT-related matters?

Please clarify what you mean by "official document"?

I mean my research document. I don't exactly know what the term would be in English. I only need the data to justify excluding minor OS's.

Statista.com claims to be what you're looking for: a statistics aggregator. However, I don't think there's a general well-defined methods to get any statistics.
The way I usually proceed is that I attempt to find as many statistics as possible from multiple sources, I eliminate the ones that are too old / really inconsistent with the others / describe a shaky methodology for data collection, and I present all the remaining statistics. So instead of having one reference for a peer-reviewed document, I get 3 or 4 concurring non-peer-reviewed documents.
EDIT: one other important aspect is how 'fresh' the data you use is. First-hand accounts from Microsoft about Windows apps are arguably trustworthy. Second-hand accounts that don't indulge too much in interpretation and who publish rigorous documents (the difference between Financial Times and BuzzFeed) can be used, too, ideally having multiple sources. For any other source or things that are more than second-hand, you want a large consensus over multiple sources.

This appears to be what I'm looking for, thank you!

Just a quick follow-up: For people that are searching for statistics on which version of OS's are most commonly used, check out the developer websites of both Android link and iOs link

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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How do I cite a SDS in AMA format?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could cite a material safety data sheet (for a chemical compound) in the AMA format? An example would be appreciated, because I couldn't find anything helpful online.

Is the source available online?

You should cite it as a book and include additional information if it is electronically available.

Author Surname Author Initial. Title. City: Publisher; Year Published:Pages Used. [Available at: http://Website URL. Accessed Month DD, YYYY.]

Example:

Lenga RE and Votoupal KL. The Sigma-Aldrich library of regulatory and safety data. Milwaukee: Aldrich Chemical Company; 1993:23-34

Wouldn't you need to include the name of the chemical of that specific SDS somewhere in the citation? Also, SDSs don't typically have named authors, as they usually cite the company name or a specific department as having prepared the sheet.

@Abdulla4496 Then replace the author name with that of the company. The specific chemical can be noted within the page interval. If the chemical is included as a separate section in the SDS, cite it as a book chapter.

@ÉbeIsaac Actually, it would be better to use the technical report format, but that's rather close to book citations anyway.

@jakebeal I agree. I follow the same in BibTeX. But a lookup in the web recommends reports to be cited as books in AMA format.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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Why is there a need for design science in a computer science department?
Recently, "design science" has become a popular term in my university department, which is a department of computer science. For example, many current PhD students write in their theses that they are adopting a design science paradigm, typically referring to Herbert Simon's "The Sciences of the Artificial (1970), and Peffers et al. "A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research" (2007), among others. Why is there a need for using the term "design science" in a computer science department? Isn't computer science in itself enough? Is this a trend among other computer science departments, or is it confined to my own department only?

This might be a case of different cultures between fields, but do people really "adopt a paradigm" in their serious research papers?

Are they truly referring to a specific paradigm, one that other researchers may not follow? If so, then the term seems entirely appropriate. If they simply mean "I'm doing computer science", and there would be no loss of information in the new sentence, then no, that seems unnecessary.


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Should I tell my referees that my application got rejected ? (I intend to re-apply)
I applied to a Masters program and unfortunately, I was rejected.
I intend to re-apply to another school and another program by the end of April, and I haven't had the chance to find other referees.
When I re-apply, should I simply email my previous referees and request for another reference letter? or should I email them now casually and update them that my application was rejected?

I think the answer may depend on the exact relationship you have with your referees. I would think that if they were willing to write you a reference letter in the first place, they are invested in you and your academic success enough to warrant an update on your graduate admissions status. I think if you just emailed them for a new letter, they may wonder why you're requesting more letters relatively late in the application cycle, or they may ask about the status of your past applications. In either case, it is likely that you will need to disclose your rejection, so perhaps disclosing it first is a better strategy.
Plus, this may be a good opportunity to solicit feedback from them on your past application so you can incorporate any feedback given into your April application.

I think you should email them now just as a matter of politeness. They took their time to write a reference letter and deserve to hear an update.

I think if you failed and requesting letters again you must explain to them.
Sometimes they invested a huge amount of time in you and your letters, especially if they are personalized. If they did whatever they can, they will be really angry if you failed due to your own lax. You must make sure that your failure is reasonable and you deserve another chance.


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My potential MSc supervisor doesn't visit his research lab ever, should I be concerned?
My potential MSc supervisor is a surgeon, and he doesn't really focus on his research lab that much. I had an interview with him and his lab members and I was told by them that he doesn't really visit the lab like, ever.
I have very minimal research experience, and his post doc told me that I can ask him questions if I had any, and that I needed to prepare my research proposal by myself. I have an idea about the lab's general research projects, but I feel that I am clueless as to what exactly I'm supposed to propose!
I can't really reject this offer (I had a hard time securing a supervisor and it took me a year to find one), but I also don't want to be taught and helped by a post-doc who is frankly more concerned with his research than my education. I don't feel very comfortable about me starting a project and directing my future questions to my lab partners (I also hate asking my peers for questions and I much rather ask my teachers instead).
What should I do? I need this opportunity so bad, but the lab environment isnt very encouraging and my supervisor is a surgeon who relies on his post-doc students for all the work. How am I supposed to learn about research techniques and method?

There's usually a trade off between lab size and communication with the PI. It's not uncommon for undergraduate/MSc students to spend more time communicating with postdocs / PhD students than their supervisor. But postdocs are more than just peers / lab partners, so don't discount their experience. Helping supervise the lab is usually part of their job.

It is common to have limited time with your advisor (but hopefully more than your post suggests). As Steven said, don't discount your lab mates! They are an invaluable resource!

I realize that they are an invaluable resource, its just I'm scared that I will appear as the most incompetent MSc student ever by asking too many questions.

Do members of his lab have regular meetings with him, either one-on-one or as a group? Sometimes it's better to have time set aside specifically for your questions, rather than someone breathing down your neck in the lab as you try to formulate your proposal. In my experience PIs are super busy and neglectful in general. Also it's ok to ask anyone that can help you how to get where you need to go. They were probably in the same boat before you got there.

There are only 2 of them (3 including me). And one of them hinted that the cons of this small lab is that only the post-doc is available for our questions.

I think the common answer here would be that graduate school is a place to become an independent researcher, struggling to find your own way, begging for help along the way from anyone who will offer even a tiny bit of help. But I just suffered for two years under a neglectful advisor, so I say follow your gut and don't settle if it doesn't feel right. I think people probably give that advice to validate their own acquiescence.

@rapidCascade I don't think it's fair to say graduate school is about 'struggling to find your own way'. It is an apprenticeship as an independent researcher. You should not be expected to be one by the time you start. Especially for an MSc.

I realize that labmates are an invaluable resource, it's just I'm scared that I will appear as the most incompetent MSc student ever by asking too many questions.

Well, this is something you will get over as a grad student.  The only question is, will you get over it quickly or slowly?  I recommend quickly!
Guidance for asking questions:

Write them down ahead of time.  Sleep on the draft, then edit the list.
Prioritize your questions and also sort them according to whom to address each one to (advisor, postdoc, fellow student at same level, department staff (e.g. paperwork or safety concerns).
Write down the answers as you receive them.  For future lists, make sure you didn't already get an answer to a particular question previously.
Find ways to make yourself personable and useful around the lab.
Be sensitive to others' time crunches and moods -- i.e. choose when to ask.
Be sensitive to others' preferences for mode of communication (e.g. email vs. in person, spontaneous or by appointment).


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what exactly does a research supervisor pay for PhD student funding?
Why do supervisors normally tell potential PhD students that they don't have funding, hence they can't accept students? does that mean the stipend? I thought stipend is paid through the department?
could someone clarify for me.

Depending on your country, there may be different kinds of funding, including positions where you're an employee of the university/state/country. Such positions are usually owned by an individual professor. This is different from other funding sources that are not owned by individual professors, like stipends.
So, when you ask a professor if you can be her PhD student, without specifying a funding source, she may assume you're asking if she has a funded position readily available. In this situation, the answer is often no.
In addition, "no funding available" can also be a polite way of declining, if there are actually other reasons for saying no.

when you ask a professor if you can be her PhD student, without specifying a funding source, she may assume you're asking if she has a funded position readily available — Which is why you should always be explicit about whether you are asking for (a) advising, (b) funding, or (c) both.  But beware that some faculty strongly prefer not to advise students that they are not funding, or to fund students that they are not advising.


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My ex employer wants me to draft my own reference letter to the MSc program, is it unethical?
I submitted my application for a MSc program and one of my referees was declined this week by the department. Because this was so sudden from the department and I had to find someone who is willing to write me a reference letter in 3 days notice, I asked my previous employer to write me one.
My employer told me to simply draft my own letter and send it back to him so he can upload it !
is it unethical? the rejection of my initial referee was sudden and none of my old professors would remotely agree to write me a letter in two days notice. I don't want to commit anything wrong that could compromise my candidancy.

No, it is not. Your employer will get the letter and "tweak" it. When he uploads that letter, it means that he agrees with its content.
I had seen multiple professors do this to some colleagues of mine and there is nothing unethical about it.

The accepted answer on the dupe says "No, this is a form of plagiarism and academic fraud. What you pass off as your written word must actually be yours except where you explicitly document to the contrary." I'm in agreement with that assessment. I'm stunned to see this answer being given 7 upvotes.

"I'm stunned to see this answer being given 7 upvotes" Some people are just better at accepting reality. Also, that question has another answer voted equality high expressing the exact other opinion.


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Can an author change the title of a paper to be published again in a special edition of a journal?
I've been involved in a paper that got accepted in a journal and has been published. Apparently, the paper has been selected to be part of a 'special edition of the journal'. The first author took the liberty to change the title of the paper and make other 'improvements'. I wonder if this is allowed. It seems wrong to me that an author would make such changes with an excuse that they asked for a 'camera-ready' version. This implies that the previous publication wasn't camera ready and lousy.
Is this normal?

"Camera ready" is just a colloquialism for the final version, going back to a time when things were literally archived on camera film (in some cases this still happens). It doesn't imply any other version was lousy.
Without knowing why the title was changed or other changes made I can't say if anything was improper. Sometimes journals are picky about titles and require them to follow a certain format. Sometimes journals require changes at the final step before publication to adhere to their style guide. Sometimes authors think these style choices are bad but have to make them anyway to make the journal happy.
Strictly speaking, all changes should be approved by all authors, but in practice a corresponding author may assume their coauthors would be okay with any minor changes, especially ones required by the journal, and not get everyone's approval.


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I uploaded a paper on ArXiv, but it's not showing me as an author in Google Scholar
I published a preprint in ArXiv recently, but when I search for it in Google Scholar, my name is not being shown up, it only shows the other co-authors. Why does this happen? How do I fix that?
Thank you!

Metadata error? Are you correctly listed as an author on arXiv itself (i.e. not the PDF of the paper)?

What is "correctly listed"? Same as the ORCID? Do you know how Google Scholar does the cross-ref? Thank you.


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ethics form withdrawn during the international research funding process
I am working at a teaching-focused university. Recently I secured some research grants from my native country. This small private research group supports early-career researchers and just sent the money to my account in my native country. Basically, I didn't have to declare it but I did anyway. The university wanted it to get refunded and sent directly to it, which I was reluctant to do - too small an amount for all those hassles. I decided to conduct the survey experiment on a self-funded basis from my UK account.
The survey started last week and the university suddenly told me not to use any university resources like Qualtrics. Then they withdrew my ethics form which was already approved. I feel like the university takes my research data as a hostage for my research grant in return.
Is staff not allowed to conduct any research without an external fund? Is it not possible for a researcher to pay for the participants privately?
What do ethics have to do with external funding? Does the research lose the university's support when the external grant disappears?
I am a foreign and early-career. Could anyone share your thoughts? I don't know what to do.

the answer depends upon your specific university's policies and laws. Science has had several articles about this like https://www.science.org/content/article/pall-suspicion-nihs-secretive-china-initiative-destroyed-scores-academic-careers

@RichardErickson Those sorts of arrangements have also been the subject of at least one Q&A here (that I answered): https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/195238/how-does-a-remote-academic-position-work-for-a-position-in-china The situation OP describes seems a bit different to me, but it is possible that there is some overlap. Indeed, international funds can raise a variety of possible concerns whether or not the researchers realize ahead of time or intend to participate in any wrongdoing. Starting with small compromising gifts is common espionage tradecraft.

Thank you very much Richard Erickson and Bryan Krause for your answers.

It is standard that all grants go through the institution rather than directly to the investigator. The only exceptions I can think of involve direct reimbursement of costs like travel expenses that are paid by the individual for a business purpose, not research grants.
Remember that you are using a bunch of institutional resources that cost money: some examples from your post would include the time of the review board, the cost to license the software you use, other resources like your office and computer and the utility bills for electricity and heat or air conditioning, etc. The institution may allow their employees to use these things "for free"/without an explicit cost to the user, but they expect to cover those expenses within their internal accounting from a portion of all external grants received, regardless of the size of the grant.
It's important to follow your institution's requirements on this sort of thing and seek their guidance, even if it's a small amount, unless there is an explicit exemption granted to you. If you don't, you're likely to experience exactly the penalties/consequences you have experienced.

I didn't have to declare it but I did anyway

You almost certainly are required to declare grant awards to your employer. You are also likely required to document received funds for tax and regulatory purposes.

Is it not possible for a researcher to pay for the participants privately?

Acceptable sources of funding are up to the board that reviews your research, but it's possible that the transfer or appearance of transfer of funds directly from a researcher to a participant could create ethical problems where the research participants may feel a direct debt to the researcher. There may also be tax and other concerns. Money from international sources may create further complications.
You need to use the professional regulatory resources at your institution to help you conduct research according to all regulations. Even if the potential issues are relatively minor, it's normally up to an independent institutional committee to make these decisions; it's not safe to let researchers make their own decisions about research ethics.
Receiving funds creates a conflict of interest situation: the educational and research interests of your institution come into conflict with your interest in receiving future funds and the funding source's interests (which are unclear without more information). A conflict of interest does not mean that wrongdoing has occurred, but it is necessary to avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing and to mitigate any concerns that could cause harm to research participants or to the reputation of the institution. Any secrecy/lack of clear disclosure increases the likelihood that others will perceive a higher risk of damaging conflicts of interest.
It doesn't sound like you've been fired from your position, so that suggests the institution would still like to work with you: you'll need to get guidance from your department and your institution's research support people on what your next steps are to come into compliance. You're going to have to trust and obey them. Continuing to make decisions based on what you guess or assume is correct is likely to cause you more harm and could include losing your position which might also impact your immigration/visa status.

Also, see concerns about laws like this https://www.science.org/content/article/pall-suspicion-nihs-secretive-china-initiative-destroyed-scores-academic-careers

Thank you very much, Bryan Krause, for your answer. It indeed helped my perspective. I decided to put my head down and follow what the university said.

united-kingdom
According to the UK Research Integrity Office:

Organizations and researchers must recognise that competing interests
(i.e., personal or organisational considerations, including but not limited to
rivalry and financial matters) can inappropriately affect research. Competing
interests, also known as conflicts of interest (COIs) must be identified,
declared, and addressed to avoid poor practice in research or potential
misconduct.

united-state
In the United States, the National Institutes of Health notes:

While there is no regulatory requirement for IRBs to consider investigators financial conflict of interest, the protection of human subjects requires objectivity in communicating risks, selecting subjects, promoting informed consent, and gathering, analyzing and reporting data.  IRBs should refer to
their institution’s policies and procedures for identifying and
managing conflicts of interest.  In some cases, IRBs are incorporating
conflict of interest issues in their deliberations.

It sounds from your question that you were actively not complying with your institution's policy for managing potential competing financial interests. Admittedly, I am not as familiar with UK human subjects research regulations as I am with the US, but if an ethics body considers financial conflicts of interest in their determination and then you actively subvert their procedures, it makes perfect sense to me that they would revoke approval.
By your own admission, you "decided to conduct the survey experiment [anyway]".
So what can you do? Contact the ethics committee and ask them. More than likely, they provided you with a letter with instructions on how to get in compliance.

Thank you Ian for your detailed information. It helped widen my view. I decided to follow the university's instructions now.


text:
Mentioning faculty in SOP while already mentioning them elsewhere in application
Should I explicitly mention faculty in my SOP for a PhD program when there are prompts in other parts of the application where I already specifically chose faculty of interest? Would this be considered redundant?

Use judgement. Not all redundancy is bad. If your goals are tied to one or the other of those professors then it might be worth it.
But I also suggest you stay flexible in choosing a research direction until you are admitted. Insisting on a specific path may not be the best plan, especially if that path is very competitive. In some places there is plenty of time to choose. The US is like that. Places where a PI hires you isn't but it doesn't seem like you are in that situation.

What exactly do you mean by a specific path? I am applying to a Electrical Engineering PhD program at a top university in the US. This department has a branch in photonics, and I could basically work with any of the 7-8 faculty listed on the website. I can't highlight one particular professor and a specific research direction. Just putting them all once again in the sop text doesn't seem like a good idea either.

Mentioning the branch/specialty is fine, but you don't need to mention the names again. Just don't say that you insist on a very specific research problem with a very specific individual.  That is counterproductive. If you say "photonics" they already know who would be appropriate.

Ok, thank you, anyway I don't have any specific project in mind, so I'll just talk about photonics in general.

If you don't mind, I have a follow-up unrelated to the topic: should I mention the research that I've just started (no tangible results yet) doing after describing past experience?

Only in the SoP if it relates directly to your goals for study. Otherwise, put it in a "work in progress" section of the CV. Maybe both, but at least the latter. The SoP is about goals and plans, not past work or accomplishments.


text:
Can an undergraduate student be penalized for exceeding what is expected of a work?
Let's say that a professor gives a series of problems, among which the students must solve and present one appropriately, an assignment (in mathematics) as it has always been done at university. The professor is accustomed to presented solutions having between one and two sides of the page, but the student presents seven sides. The solution presented is correct, and it is not difficult nor unnatural, but the student gives many details and justifies many things, lengthening the task a lot. Could this level of detail be a problem for the student when it comes to grading? (In addition to being a time management problem in itself, but I just wanted to know if it could be a problem in terms of grading work).

This is too dependent on the philosophy of the faculty member to have a satisfactory answer in my opinion.

Related: Test answer rejected for saying more than asked for

@IAG what is your position in relation to this question, the professor and the hypothetical student? Are you a TA? A student? Why I am asking: if you are a student, how do you know what the customary answer is?

Could you please write in regular English, rather than this odd propositional voice that adds nothing but makes the post less clear?

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Could this level of detail be a problem for the student when it comes to grading? (In addition to being a time management problem in itself, but I just wanted to know if it could be a problem in terms of grading work)

Yes, this can present an undue burden on the grader. I was a grader in a graduate-level algebra class once, and one undergraduate student turned in problem sets that were 5-10 times longer in terms of page count than the others. This student expressed the desire to be very thorough, but I was forced to sift through all the details I wasn't looking for to find the details I was looking for.
Extrapolating from homework to professional work, you never want to waste your reader's time.

Two things to consider.
First, is there a stated maximum length? If so, conform to it.
Second, is a seven page exposition actually better than a 1-2 page presentation? Do any of those details actually matter?
Two stories:
Many decades ago my father took a business class in the case-study model. Each week they analyzed a business situation and had to write up their analysis and recommendation. There was a strict 250 word limit on the analysis, and the professor would literally stop reading at that point and grade based on the first 250 words. Why? The president of a company wants a short, crisp, succinct path forward to decide on. Details can be discussed later.
More recently my daughter also had a class focused on cybersecurity analysis. Again, all assignments were even stricter in their length limit. Here is the situation. This is our analysis. This is the proposed path forward. Again, all in less than one page
Now, this sort of writing is hard. Very hard. (As Mark Twain - actually Blaise Pascal - said, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.") You have to distill everything down to the core essence of the problem. But you, the presenter trying to influence people, need to know this core essence and why it is the core essence. And if you spend seven pages wandering around, noting 17 different irrelevant details, and somebody else lays out the critical steps in one or two pages, guess who is more convincing? Seven pages sounds more like throwing everything against the wall and hoping some of it sticks.

Yes, echoing this, correctly identifying important details (as opposed to losing them in a sea of details...) is important. Not all details are of equal significance (whether or not from some "purely logical" viewpoint this might seem so).

Well, I should have mentioned I spoke of mathematics.

@IAG The advice in the answer applies equally well to mathematics.

Did Mark Twain actually say that?  Blaise Pascal said something very similar, though: “Reverend Fathers, my letters did not usually follow each other at such close intervals, nor were they so long…  This one would not be so long had I but the leisure to make it shorter.” [Blaise Pascal, /Lettres provinciales/, Letter XVI, 1656-12-04, translated]

@gidds - sigh, yes. Shame on me for trusting the internet…

@JonCuster “You shouldn't believe everything you see on the Internet.” — Abraham Lincoln

@gidds - Abe always was ahead of his time…

There is a balance you must strike between being detailed and not having enough details. If I asked you to prove that the function x squared is convex, you just take the second derivative and that's where the discussion ends after a little more exposition. Anything more than that is you not being concise, and that's not good.
However, if you're tackling a problem in a new, unique way that you can defend, then this isn't so bad. In other words, you must learn to say only as much as you need to, unless there's a great reason for saying more than just what the answer is.

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I'm pretty sure I've taken off points for "correct answer plus a lot extra that didn't need to be there".
The worst case is where the student seems to be guessing a lot of contradictory answers -- BS'ing. Not as bad is when a chunk of the answer is irrelevant or wrong. Rarer and not as bad is where the correct answer is over-explained in a way that shows they didn't understand it (for example: "the American civil war was due to the South thinking the North was moving to abolish slavery, due to incorrect astral projection by leading Southern psychics".
In theory, it might be fine to have the "real answer" clearly marked, followed by 4 more pages of mostly correct reasoning, clearly marked as "not my answer, unless you need more -- I thought turning it in this way was easier than actually figuring out the appropriate level of detail". But in practice too-long answers often feel like "I think all of this might factor into an answer but can't figure out which part is important". A silly example might be giving driving directions: "turn the key, put the car into gear ... drive down 2nd Avenue at 30 mph ... ". The extra detail shows they don't know the difference between "directions" and "how to drive".

+1 for the driving example. It's technically correct, but it's not helpful and only distracts from the actually important instructions. Great analogy!

There is a simple solution for the "BS" that I wish teachers would adopt, namely take away points for every single piece of nonsense. You can ensure the score for each question is at least zero, but the point is that the marking scheme should penalize nonsense heavily to ensure that none is produced on purpose.

Echoing parts of the other (excellent) answers: "writing too much" (yes, there is an issue of judgement!!!) is not good. At an extreme (which I've seen many times), people just "write down everything they know", as some sort of attempt to address the question at hand... and hope that somewhere in all that is a good response to the question!?!? :)
Yes, the supporting details are quite often interesting! :)  But, in communicating with other people, to present them with an ocean of details, without distinguishing the salient points for the matter at hand, is really not helpful. Like saying, in response to being asked to find the derivative of x → x², to say "well, first, let's construct the real numbers, ... after developing set theory and first-order predicate logic..." :)

For some reason, the formula formatting isn't working for me here. I tried fixing, failed, reverted. Maybe it's a local problem for me, but I see other pages fine. (Not sure if mods can delete my attempted edits or not.)

@DanielR.Collins, hm, ... peculiar...

@DanielR.Collins Note that Academia is not included in the list of MathJax enabled sites given in this network Meta answer. If that's correct for this site, then the "formula formatting" won't work here. When you wrote "I see other pages fine", did you mean other pages on this site contain MathJax which works? I, at least, never have seen this but, if you have, then I suggest that Meta answer should be updated accordingly.

@JohnOmielan: Thanks; I was comparing to other SE sites.

Yes, the brain dump answer. I used to tell students that if 50% of the answer was relevant and correct, and the other 50% wasn't relevant (even if correct), they would get 50% of the mark. Most of the time irrelevant details show that you haven't understood the question.

@Marianne013, yes, indeed. After all, it's not "exceeding expectations", but, rather, not accurately responding... :)

Tried to fix the formula with non-Mathjax ASCII symbols.

The other answers are quite good, and focus on some of the practical concerns regarding how much or how little you should write in mathematics.  However, I think that there is also a sociocultural aspect which is being missed.
The culture of mathematics values concision.  Brevity is generally considered quite desirable, perhaps to the level of fetishization.  Many mathematicians will argue vociferously that, given two proofs, the shorter should be preferred, even if it obscures the exposition.
One of the goals of instruction, whether explicit or implicit, is to train students.  Part of that training is teaching students how to act as professionals in their field.  Assignments should, in principle, help students to build the skills that they will need in their professional lives (as practitioners of whatever it is that they are studying).  As such, if a proof can be written in 2 pages, but a student turns in 7, there is a problem, and the student should be corrected.
Ergo, it would not be entirely unreasonable for an instructor to penalize a student (particularly in mathematics) if they turn in a proof which is significantly longer than what is expected.  Turning in an overly long proof (or other assignment) indicates that a student has not really understood good mathematical style, and possibly that they have not really understood which parts of the proof are worth mentioning, and which parts are trivial enough that they can be elided.

I experienced exactly this with a very early problem in a C programming course in 1996. The problem was to do some input-output, which I indeed implemented exactly as specified (IIRC take a couple numbers as input and then print their sum and products), but I also added the ability to pass the parameters on the command line and produce the answer from that.
Since that wasn't part of the problem description I got docked, fairly I think.
There were other things that particular professor docked for that I find far more questionable, such as simply never allowing use of the -> member-access operator, he insisted that (*ptr).member be used instead, always.


text:
A question about choosing LORs in a particular case
I know that the topic of letters of recommendation is already a topic in this community and I have read many posts about it, but it seems to be a topic that never ends up raising new questions. Here I have one that has come up.
It is application season and, as is often the case for upperclassmen majoring in a Degree, I am sending out a lot of applications for different programs.
I would like to know which of the following hypothetical options are best for sending letters of recommendation.

A professor who knows me well and I know that his letter will be
very strong, positive and personalized, but whose digital presence
is low and I don't know what impact it can have.

A professor with a high presence and a quite good reputation, but who
knows me less so I fear that his letter is more generic.

A professor with a very solid career and digital and research
presence, who has already shown interest in supporting me, but from
whom I would have to ask for the letter in a short time (say, a
week).

Most programs allow you to send two letters, but you may be able to send more, in which case the only problem would be choosing the primary reference and whether it is worth bothering the professor in case three with whom I want to have a very good academic relationship.
Thank you very much in advance for your answers.

I don't know very many professors who care about their 'digital presence' much at all.

My advice in all such situations is to ignore, more or less, the "prestige" of the letter writer in favor of the knowledge of the person about you and your work. The letter writer needs to honestly and confidently predict your success. A generic letter from a superstar isn't really impressive in that regard. Admissions committees are unlikely to say "wow" because some superstar suggests you'll probably do fine.
Get letters from people with whom you've worked and impressed. The exception would be from people who don't hold doctorates and who can't really speak to the likelihood of your success.
The important thing is what they say, not who they are.

Thanks for your answer Buffy! Just a question, what do you understand as people who can't really speak to the likelihood of my future success? You mean, like people with whom you barely had contact? Like people who neither lectured you nor worked with you?

Even getting good marks in a single course isn't likely to be ideal. Several courses, seminars, projects, research... all are better. Even frequent office visits where you discuss things in the field. Sort of automatic at US liberal arts colleges. Harder at R1 universities.

The prestige of faculty is their own, not yours (especially in this situation). It won't help you as much as you think (or hardly at all unless you apply to a low-grade program with naive admissions people). Also, as I have observed over the years, undergraduate students have a VERY FLAWED perception of who is actually well regarded in the broader community anyway. It's often not those who are "highly visible" within the University. The real notable people are off giving invited lectures all over the world and don't bother with low level self-promotion.
So ignore that, pick someone who can write a strong letter about YOU. Which means they must have had meaningful interactions with you.


text:
Is it appropriate to apply for a scholarship that you don't know if you can take on?
I am a mathematics undergraduate and this year I was thinking about applying for multiple scholarships from other universities for summer courses and collaborations. In this sense, one of them deals with topics that I will discuss later, in the period between after the application and the time of financing, so I do not know if my application will be the most appropriate.
My intention would be to expand what I initially learned in that period and also spend my summer working on the problems I may be given if awarded.
The problem is that given these circumstances I do not think of myself now as the most proper candidate, but it would be interesting for me to ask for it again in the future. Could having been rejected in previous calls be a problem when applying for a scholarship (in the selection process, for example)? In this sense, would it be better for me to wait until another time in the future to ask for it or am I exaggerating?
I mean, I would like to ask for as many as I can to increase the chances of being accepted into one. In this same sense, could it be problematic to reject some in the future if they are incompatible and I prefer a specific one?
Thanks in advance for your answers.

I think it's inappropriate to apply to something that you definitely will not accept. I don't see any suggestion in your post that you intend to do this.
You can feel free to apply to scholarships that potentially conflict with each other just as it's appropriate to apply to jobs that potentially conflict with each other: whenever you apply to two or more jobs there's an understanding that you will have to turn down some offers if you have multiple. You have to apply before finding out if there are going to be any conflicts, because you can't know what those conflicts will actually be until you've applied.
Don't reduce your odds by painting yourself in anything but the most flattering light: let the personnel given the responsibility to judge applications take on the task of deciding whether someone else is a better fit than you.
If certain scholarships want to avoid repeat applicants, they'll have a specific policy about it. I would not expect them to have any system for remembering past applications, they'll act on the one in front of them for each call. The people evaluating them may not even be the same.


text:
The work of mathematicians in physics and experimental labs
I am especially interested in a course in a well-known and renowned experimental physics laboratory. When applying, among the questions they expect you to answer, they ask how I think my knowledge could be beneficial in the program offered (which is a general program in which projects are assigned to students, but they are not previously predetermined). Among the areas of possible choice (all experimental except this last one) I have chosen theoretical physics.
I wanted to know the type of work that mathematicians usually do in projects in experimental laboratories or similar where the accepted profiles are engineers, computer scientists, physicists and mathematicians to know how I could apply my knowledge for the benefit of both applying for the program and to do the best job possible in it.
I am currently a mathematics undergraduate and I am eligible to apply for the program.
Thank you very much for your time and responses in advance.
P.s: I originally posted the question in MSE, but was advised to better post it here in ASE.

An undergraduate is pretty much a blank slate. You could be asked to do any number of things. I would expect you could do some hands-on work (and would encourage you to), maybe some programming of data acquisition or data analysis tools, maybe some simulations, who knows?


text:
Reasons for long peer review times
I am in math, and it occurred to me that in average, I receive answers to submission of my papers after about 8 months. In the journals I submit to, there is almost always only one referee report.
In recent years I served as a reviewer for many of these journals. The editors of these journals almost always ask me for a report within 2-3 months.
Where do the extra 5-6 months of wait come from?

@ÉbeIsaac I added all the other times mentioned in the answer to that question, and they are much less than 5-6 months.

It really depends on the publisher. A colleague of mine submitted a paper in a reputable journal and after an agonizing wait of 2 years, she received the report from the review. The result: "not in scope". The paper was also of mathematical relevance.

But I am talking about many publishers and many different journals.

Why was the question closed? the duplicate doesn't answer my question at all.

There were many questions similar to yours and all of which were flagged as duplicate of the same post. They did however had their own nuances. I doubt even the voted answers in here would provide the real solution for your problem. Only the journal Publisher would have knowledge of this. We could only provide hints to the possibilities.

I know somebody who has received a reply from the referee after one year. The journal was International Journal of Modern Physics D, mathematics related to general relativity.

@ÉbeIsaac, as I said, this happened to me in many journals, with different publishers. I imagine any editor of a mathematics journals could answer my question.

As an editor, I can say that although we ask for reviews within a certain time-frame, we almost always get some reviews back late. But what often takes more time is finding willing reviewers in the first place. My journal aims to get four reviews for each manuscript, but usually settles for three. I start by sending out requests to five potential reviewers. Two weeks later, I might have accepts from two potential reviewers, declines from two, and no reply from number five. I'll send a reminder to potential reviewer number five. A week later, still not having heard back, I cancel that request and invite another two potential reviewers. Two weeks later, if I haven't heard back, or if they both decline, I'll look for more possibilities. Sometimes I get three reviewers on the first try, but sometimes, the process takes many weeks. We give our reviewers 21 days to return the review. In maths, I understand that reviewers are given longer, because they are expected to check the proofs in detail. Regardless of how long they are given, it is normal for some reviews to be late. Editors send out a reminder. Then a second reminder. Some reviewers, despite having agreed, never reply. In that case, we need to start the whole process again. This is why some manuscripts take so long to review.

The primary reason of long review process backs to the editor in chief. If He(She) have a  regular plan on paper review then the review process will be very short.
Also, the publisher is very important e.g. the Elsevier recently provides journal insights on the main page of some journals that contains the info on review process time schedule and journal prestige measures (I think that the plan is to develop for all of its journals).

This sounds more like a guess than an informed answer. If you could back up your claim by some evidence or explanation, it may be a valuable contribution to the question but as it is, it really sounds like speculation and would deserve a down vote.  (I did not down vote since I am also guessing here...)

My comment is based on my experience and also my friends that it contains a variety of journals submissions from different publishers. As a real story, I have a paper response after 8 months with just this comment, "out of scope". In addition, the comment of @Significance as an editor indicate the main role of Editor in chief.

Although the story that one editor took eight month to reply "out of scope" is a bad one, I think this (together with other, currently still vague, experience) is not enough to back up the claim that "The primary reason of long review process backs to the editor in chief.", especially since @significance provides first hand information that the situation is indeed not totally in the hands of the editor.

@Dirk  you should carefully read again the original question and also the reply of Significance.
I thought that this site is for sharing our experience about the academia not solely to the official and common typical answers.
Thanks anyway for allowing us to share the informal answers.


text:
Which capitalization style to use for article titles in CV?
This likely varies by field; I am in the social sciences, but general insights on the topic are welcome.
We have two common capitalization schemes for article titles:

Title case (e.g. "Longitudinal Study of Cookie Consumption During Christmas")
Sentence case (e.g. "Longitudinal study of cookie consumption during Christmas")

Right now I list the title for each article as it appears in the journal. However, this means that the alternating papers are listed using different capitalization schemes, which doesn't look good and decreases readability (especially if someone is scanning the CV quickly). Admittedly, this doesn't have a huge effect, but I would still prefer to stick with a single style, especially as it wouldn't take me a lot of time to dp this, and the CV plays a large role in my career.
I searched, but couldn't find recommendations regarding this, and there is no single style which is prevalent in CVs in my field (which also emphasizes the fact that it's probably not too crucial).
My question is which capitalization style would be preferable in terms of appearance and readability: title case or sentence case?
Thank you.

Listing each title as it appears in the journal seems a bad choice, since some journals print the titles of papers in all capital letters.  In my opinion, either of the styles you list would be fine if used consistently.

You're overthinking it: just pick one and be consistent.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because stylistic choices are not within the purview of academia.se.

@RoboKaren: I understand, but that's why I emphasized the focus on CV readability. I was hoping someone could give a definitive answer (if there is one) regarding which style makes it easier to read a CV, especially as such documents are frequently "scanned" by readers in a short amount of time. Of course, if more people agree with the comments so far, then it probably doesn't matter which style is used, as long as it is used consistently (which is also a helpful answer).

This is entirely up to you. I would myself adopt a consistent style. No one is going to notice you're you're using the 'wrong' capitalization for a particular journal.

Sentence casing would be my personal choice, but actually it is just a matter of preference.
Academic CVs exist in either title casing or sentence casing in publications. Both are prevalent in practice. Whatever be your choice, make sure it is consistent throughout the CV.


text:
Should I bargain my internship offer?
I have been searching for an internship for over a year now, and have finally and successfully gotten a job offer. The interview went very well, from the time I contacted HR, to the time I got 'hired' (manager wanted me on the spot), it took about a week total. I googled what their intern salaries are, and what they offered me is $1.5 lower than what I found. However, I have no experience in the industry, all I have is research and another part-time job, and most importantly, this was the only company at which I was able to receive an interview. It does not say in the offer whether the salary is negotiable or not, but a huge part of me says not to bargain, because the offer does say my pay will increase as I complete more schooling. Any and all recommendations are appreciated!

You don't say what industry it is, which might be helpful.  You should also clarify this to establish the relation to academia, so that your post isn't closed.
I can say that in my internship experience involving think tanks, the salaries for interns, such as they are, are pretty well set by policy.  One place I was at had just a single rate all interns were paid, no questions asked.  The other had two tiers for interns, one paid slightly better, but which tier it was was dictated by the position in the budget, not by negotiation.
So based on that I would say no, don't negotiate.  For better or for worse, there tends to be a line of people waiting to get internships and most of them don't have much to differentiate them from the field (which is why they're going for internships and not full jobs).  So it's likely that the criteria they used to select you is fairly thin, particularly with no experience in the field.
Plus with nothing to fall back on your bargaining position is pretty weak, even if they don't know they're your only interview.


text:
How can I manage my time so that I can perform well in my research lab?
Although this question might be self-explanatory, I wanted to ask your guys' advice on this regardless.
I recently started a new internship, I am also enrolled full time at the university, and I have continued to work in my research lab. These past two weeks have been a bit stressful and tiring because I've been trying to manage my time and make sure I succeed at everything. On top of it all, my research assistant just quit, and my PI does not know about my internship. However, I have been in touch with him and have asked for extra time to complete my work because I've been bogged down by the semester.
Should I be honest with my PI and tell him about my internship so that he knows where my time is going? I am afraid he might think I have suddenly become not so serious about my work in his lab. I want to do well, so my second question is how do I manage my time so that I can succeed in all? Thank you!

My initial, knee-jerk reaction to this question is that the situation you find yourself in is only possible in the undergraduate student setting. While I'm sure graduate students have tried unsuccessfully to do an internship (behind their PI's back) and hold an RA position simultaneously, this seems so rare and so inadvisable that I can't imagine that your question has much relevance here at this SE. Maybe I am wrong ...

There should be one adult on staff at your university who is able to look at the big picture and advise you about graduation requirements, creation of schedule, strategy for preparing for life after this degree (e.g. perhaps grad school, perhaps job), etc.  Step one is to figure out who that person is.  Once you have that clear, in your mind, and with that person, then sit down with him or her and lay out the big picture.  S/he will ask clarifying questions as needed.  by the way, whether that person (whom you might refer to as your "academic advisor") ends up being your PI or not, please ...

... do tell him about your internship (which I suppose is a requirement for graduation?).  Note that sometimes it can be helpful in that conversation with the academic advisor to consider withdrawing from one class or observation, which might mean moving the expected graduation date back a bit.  That would not be the end of the world.

You have three legs you are trying to stand on. Either drop one of them that is less important, or do a very serious evaluation how much your time expenditure for each of these is. You have a very tight time schedule, you need to balance your time accounts as if it were money.
Include time for sleeping and "basic maintenance". I am not talking about work-life balance here, because I am aware that some people are prepared to shut that down for certain periods. This is possible for short term. However, on the long term, you would also have to consider that component. It's not usually possible to completely ignore that on the long term without undesirable consequences.


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Comparing ways of sending a recommendation letter
A student is applying for a study program that requires letters of recommendation as an integral part of the application.
The application portal allows the student to attach letters of recommendation during the application process, but also provides a link after submitting their application so that teachers can send their recommendations for this student through it.
Thus, three possibilities are open to send these letters:

The student sends them through the portal (with electronic signature, signed and scanned, or similar...) and that's it.
The professors send them through the link given to the student and that's it (as long as they do it on time, which does not depend on the student).
The letters of recommendation are attached both by the student and sent by the professors through the link (double check).

I would like to know what you think is the most correct, most professional or most appropriate way to do it.
On the one hand, the third seems to be the safest and bulleproof so that everything is done in a timely manner no matter what happens.
On the other hand, the second is the most professional because this way the letters do not pass through the student's hand before being sent and their veracity and sincerity will be unquestionable, but the student may fear that the professors will be late or miss the date by mistake (assume that the letters of recommendation are mandatory in the application for this program).
What do you recommend most and what do you think is best for the student in question and their professors in order to make a decision about how to organize themselves in this situation?
Many thanks for your time.

What country? .

I missed out on a scholarship opportunity because a professor sent their letter of recommendation to the wrong address.  This was before the era of being able to check completeness online, so all I could go on was the professor's word that the letter was written and sent.  Because of that: always give the student a copy.  If the recipients want to question the veracity of the letter, they can always ask you.

Greetings Azor Ahai. This is in the context of the European Union and Switzerland.

If an institution has set up a system for accepting letters, one would have to assume that they trust it. Only using a non-approved method would be a problem.
They aren't playing a game. Use what seems best to you.

Both methods are in this case approved, I think. What do you mean by "non-approved method"?


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How worried should I be about mistakes in my CV after submitting my grad school applications?
I would appreciate your input so much! I am applying to PhD programs in Sociology and Education, and I noticed two mistakes in my CV after submitting my applications.

I included one of my positions in the wrong chronological order. The dates and information are correct, it is just in the wrong order (a 2019 Summer position listed after an October 2019 position). Do you think this is a big deal?
I accidentally said I completed a research project in 2023 instead of 2020. I listed the name of the school for this project, and my transcripts show I graduated from this school in 2020, so I think whoever reads it can see it’s an honest mistake, but I’m still worrying it can be confusing.

The worst part is, I have already contacted admissions offices about an incorrect date on my CV (I don’t know what it is with dates that I made so many mistakes!) and some of them let me upload an updated version. I’m really kicking myself for not noticing these additional mistakes until now. I really don’t want to contact them again and seem careless or even annoying, so I am wondering if I should just let it go.
For additional context: I have anxiety and it is REALLY hard to not overthink things like these.

Let it go, that’s all, and proofread better next time round.

Neither of those seem to be blocking issues. Relax. Submit a correction if possible.

I think the impact is minimal. If you have good GPA in a good university, I will still consider you, at most asking for clarification. It won't change my decision on proceeding your case or not.


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How significantly will a poor grade in 1 potentially important class affect my gradschool application, and what schools should I be looking at?
My goal is to study and research differential geometry (or a closely related field), and as of now I think I'd like to do this as a career. I am worried that I may have ruined my chances at getting into a good graduate school however (and thus the whole career aspect). I am wondering how true this is given my situation:
I'm currently an undergraduate student at a top 5 school per usnews (I only say this to keep anonymity) with a 3.3 overall gpa and I'll end with a 3.7 math upper division gpa with good grades in graduate courses. I received a C- in my undergraduate algebraic topology course and an A in the graduate version of this course. Additionally I have a letter of recommendation from the professor of the graduate course.
In essence I am wondering what caliber of school I am looking at. Ideally I'd like to get into a school good enough to ensure I have a chance at a career in the subject (what schools does this refer to?). I'd love to hear what anyone has to say about my situation and the more information the better.

@Anyon
I'm wondering how it will affect my graduate admissions possibility, but I believe I can get into graduate school somewhere. I am really wondering: could I feasibly get into a good enough school so as to be able to get a post doc assuming all else goes well. For this reason I feel like my question different, or more specific.

@QuestionableStudent You'll get a post doc by having a productive time as a graduate student; the school you go to hardly matters unless it impacts your ability to do research.

In the US, probably there will be only a minor effect if any. Admissions is broad based with letters of recommendation being very important.
However, judgements are made by individuals so there is no guarantee. You seem to have covered the C- well, also.
But "good grad school" is in the eye of the beholder. I suggest, as I often do here, that you make a broad search for a suitable program. There are good advisors most everywhere in math. And if you apply to only very similar schools, you can expect their judgments to be similar also.
And, your career depends more on what you can accomplish (and publish) than on the school you attend, with only a few exceptions. But even at, for example, Yale, you need to do well to succeed.


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How optimistic should I be as someone applying to the University of Helsinki, to the bachelor in science program, from a finance major in the U.S?
I  want to study in Helsinki but I have no idea how I should feel about the admissions process. This switch would essentially change my major from finance to math. My biggest source of apprehension is from the past admissions data. The SAT scores required changes every year and it freaks me out. I feel that I can’t gauge my strength as an applicant. This for undergraduate.

Did you talk with a counselor at the Helsinki univ to gain insights on your acceptance probability?  There's also an acceptance committee at the univ, so try to touch base with a member to gauge your rank position/likelihood of acceptance.


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Have you encountered a prolonged silence from a potential supervisor following a canceled interview, leaving you uncertain about their decision?
I contacted a prospective supervisor expressing my interest in collaborating with them. After an initial interview, they scheduled a more technical follow-up discussion, but it was canceled due to an unforeseen issue on their end. Following this, I haven't received any further communication for over two weeks. Could this indicate that they've moved forward and hired another candidate?

Have you tried to follow up? This can be a very busy time if it's end of semester/finals for the supervisor's institution.

It could indicate a lot of things or nothing at all. And other people's experience is no indicator of what might happen in yours. After two weeks you can ask for an update, of course.

Does this answer your question? How long does it usually take to hear back for academic positions? Why haven't I heard back and when should I follow up?

I vote to reopen. This is a very useful question, and the alleged duplicate is specifically about a job interview. Here the scenario is different.

Baeed on the phrases "potential supervisor" and "hired another candidate," I'm guessing that this is a job interview situation. In any case, there's nothing we can add to what the answer to the duplicate question says; no one on the internet knows what is going through the supervisor's head.

@cag51, here the scenario is slightly different: the interview was cancelled and from that point communication lost. Hence, the answers in the alleged duplicate are not adequate here. Here the situation is very clear: send a reminder, and if you don't get a timely answer you are being deliberately avoided. That's not the case in a job interview where no answer should be expected due to legal reasons, and waiting for other candidates' offer acceptance.

This is a general and familiar question: what should be inferred from a prolonged silence from one party.
The answer is quite straightforward in most cases.

If you have not even tried to contact the silent party and remind them about the imminent decision, asking them to reply, then there is absolutely nothing that can be inferred from the silence.

If on the other hand, you've reminded the silent party about the imminent issue, and they still haven't replied for at least three days, then chances are high they are avoiding answering you on purpose. What is the cause of this probable intentional avoidance though is unknown (it can be dis-interest, indecisiveness, being occupied with other issues, trying to delay decision, etc.).


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Getting back into academia after a two-year gap
Two years ago, I got my degree from a master's programme in theoretical physics. After graduation, I took some time off as I felt burnt out after completing my studies away from home during the pandemic. I was encouraged by my thesis supervisor and other people around me to pursue a PhD and I intended to do so as I truly enjoyed the challenges of doing research while working on my thesis.
However, I ended up spending the last two years helping out in the family business in an unrelated field. This was needed because of a relative's health issues. Still, I did not give up my dream of working in academia. In my spare time, I worked on smaller coding projects, revisited some basics and learned new skills thanks to online classes and workshops.
I am still motivated and passionate about doing science. I miss being part of the process of unravelling how our world works, and I feel like I have something to offer. However, I am getting too much into my head about the gap in my CV and have started doubting my chances after getting my first rejection. I understand that it might be difficult to get into academia now and that my application is weaker than those of candidates who just graduated.
Now, as to my question(s): Is getting hired for a PhD realistic after so much time away? How do I go about this? Should I try for an internship or an industry position in a related field first?
Thank you in advance for your advice.

Welcome to Academia StackExchange! I think it would be important to specify the involved country/ies (where you did your Master's degree, where you are living now, and where you would like to do your PhD).

Do you want to pursue a PhD in theoretical physics also? Would it be possible to ask if your thesis supervisor has an opening for PhD?

2 years off will make close to no difference, especially if you have a good reason as you do (helping the family business). The success of your application will depend on the usual - GPA, recommendations, etc. I know a stem professor who spent 10 (sic!) years dropping out (harvesting apples) prior to continuing his academic journey, and he's not the only case I've come across. Getting one rejection means little. People apply to 10+ places usually. Talk to your old mentor about how to produce a good application package.

This would be no problem at all in the US, but it doesn't sound like the op is in the US

@JochenGlueck Sorry for the late answer: I did my Master's degree in Germany and I am currently living in Austria. I would like to do my PhD in Europe.


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Extension suggested and later reconsidered
My postdoc contract was near its end, and I asked briefly my manager earlier this year if the chances of extension are high, they said no, so I started looking for jobs with a new mindset, without mentioning this again. (it was literally a 1 minute conversation) Months later, my manager messages me to talk about my extension in their office. Verbally, they state there is new money available, and the extension can be granted for a few months, with almost complete certainty. A month later (and a month to the end of the contract), I am called again to their office only to be told how my publication record is low and the extension cannot be granted anymore. No matter how many times asked, no clear tangible reason is given for the shift. Clearly, legally I cannot do anything as there was no extension contract. However, is it considered absolutely fine for a manager to keep going back and forth on contract extensions? Psychologically, it creates an enormous amount of stress. Now, I am almost guaranteed to have a gap in employment. Of course, none of this is to excuse me for not having clearer plans earlier, but this situation made it significantly worse.

Did you stop looking for a different job?

In the time period when I thought I would have the extension I did. Now of course I resumed.

There doesn't seem to be a real question here. But, no it isn't fine. But we can't say whether the manager was acting in good faith or not.

There are different degrees of "fine" and "not fine".
Sometimes things are sufficiently not fine that you can sue to force things to change or for some compensation. This wouldn't be one of those.
Some things are not fine in that they cause distress or hardship to someone in a vulnerable position, like in your case. You are justified in being upset but there's not much you can do about it except to move on and get yourself a new position. It's possible that no real harm was ever intended and the decision may not even really be in the hands of the people you interact with: maybe they really thought there would be more money available and now there is not.

I agree with you, and it would have been a lot easier to digest if there was at least an apology and a recognition that this puts me in a difficult situation. I instead received hints that it might actually be my fault. I am sorry for the rant in here, some said it's not a true question, I just wanted to hear the opinions of other people in academia.

@AlexSmith Sure, but apology and recognition won't actually get you another job. Some people may worry that apologizing makes them guilty or in some legal jeopardy. I don't think any of this is that specific to academia: it sucks in any context when you're offered something informally and then the offer is withdrawn. Other people just might not care - what value is there to you to hear an apology from someone that doesn't actually mean it? Lesson for the future is to not change your behavior (e.g., stop looking for jobs) when you only have an informal offer, as inconvenient as that may be.

I agree with the lesson and it is surely learned. If they're worried that apologizing makes them guilty still means they're unwilling to claim full responsibility. Also unwilling to provide the reason behind their choice despite me asking several times is suspicious in my view that the reason might be ill intention. If I were a manager I would feel obliged to provide a proper reason for going against my own word, especially when it affects other people's lives, but let's see when I get there.

Thank you for the responses!


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Response to reviewers as sole author
I am about to submit a response to reviewers on a paper where I am sole author. As it's my first paper of this kind, I am quite confused on using the first person in singular/plural form or third person. For the manuscript, I decided to use the third person, i.e., "We show this", "we demonstrate" etc. What form should be used for the answer to reviewers? I see the following options:

"We thank the reviewer for ... . The reviewer is right that ..."
"I thank the reviewer for ... . The reviewer is right that ..."
"Thank you for your comments. You are right that ..." (addressing directly)
"The author thanks the reviewer for ... . The reviewer is right that ..."

Which of these would be the best choice? Before I used 1), which sounds unusual with one author (even though used in the paper). Thank you!

Do you have a cat? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard

No, otherwise my paper would have been accepted in one round! ;)

In the manuscript, 'we' represents the author(s) and the reader collectively. Thus there are (at least) two people involved, and it makes sense to use the plural.
In the letter, this reasoning doesn't make sense: there is no passive reader along for the ride. The we-form (example 1) is not appropriate. Any of the other three are acceptable - and common. This largely comes down to a matter of personal choice.
However: note that (typically) your response letter is addressed to the editor, and not to the reviewers. Therefore, it would probably be most correct to refer to the reviewers in the third person. Of course, it is common that the editor chooses to show the letter to the reviewers - but ultimately it is the editor that needs to be satisfied with your revisions, not the reviewer. Thus examples 2 or 4 are probably the most appropriate, with 2 being more common in modern usage.

Thank you for the complete answer and justification.


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Should I convert from Phd to EdD
I have completed all of my PhD coursework and am in the dissertation phase, which is taking considerably longer than I had anticipated, largely due to balancing my full time job and the needs of my teenage kids.
My university has recently created an EdD program and is offering existing PhD students the option to transfer into this program. This is an attractive option as it makes finishing my degree more feasible given all of my other obligations. I am wondering if making this switch would limit my career options in the future. I have worked in corporate Learning & Development for 20 years and am drawn to applied research. I always envisioned that I would retire into academia when I can afford to do so. After having read some other responses on another post, I am beginning to wonder if that plan is realistic. I will be in my fifties when I am ready to make that transition.
I want to teach and I want to do research. Is it likely that I will be able to find a position where I am able to do both of these with an EdD, or should I stick on the PhD path?
Thank you in advance for any advice!

This is hard for someone who doesn't know you to give any useful advice. What is your current field? The career path is probably quite different, including the kinds of research.

"I always envisioned that I would retire into academia" You don't simply retire into research .... If teaching in ed psych programs interests you, I am sure you could be hired after 20 years of experience and a doctoral degree. In that case, an EdD is probably fine. If you truly want to become a researcher, I would not switch. But, that will be a competitive path in your 50s no matter what.

Welcome to Academia.SE. This is an interesting question, but be aware that our userbase is heavily skewed toward STEM PhDs, so even confident and well-meaning answers here are probably not coming from experts in your field. Recommend discussing with this professors at your university -- or better yet, look for people who have done the sort of transition that you envision and see what sort of degrees they have.

"...that I would retire into academia..." Your phrase makes me wonder what kind of "academia" you are thinking of.

There are ways to "retire into acaceme".  One of my favorite professors in grad school did this and he had no doctorate at all. OK, a) he had dropped out of his PhD program because Bell Labs offered him a job doing research and b) This was a while ago, I got my PhD in 1999 and Prof Freiedman had retired at this point, after a long and illustrious career.
Also, he worked as an adjunct professor and I believe he got paid a minimal salary. But he loved to teach (and was very good at it) and the job did give him the resources of the university.
To aim for a tenure-track type academic job is probably not realistic, regardless of what degree you get. It's hard enough for people who get their PhDs at 30.

It's really hard to get an academic position even with a PhD.
An EdD is most often a professional degree for people who primarily teach, but there is a lot of variation program to program.
Ultimately, I think it's probably more important for an academic research career that you do the extra research steps required to obtain the PhD than it is which letters spell out your degree. How will you explain when you're applying for an academic job that you should skip past all the people who did those steps and get the job anyways rather than them?

An EdD is considered much less prestigious than a PhD.  Since the degrees are not really standardized, this may be arbitrary.  If you want prestige, then do not switch.

What's best will depend on your individual circumstances. Thus is is hard for random people on the internet to answer.
Two factors that are important to consider are:

What do you intend to do after your doctorate and which degree is more approprate for that job? Generally academia requires a PhD.
What differences there are in terms of the actual education you will receive to get that degree? E.g., if one of the options is quicker, and you are in a hurry to finish, do that. On the other hand, you may want to have more time to learn.

That said, I do think that a PhD is a more well-known degree than an EdD. And a brand new EdD program may not be well-reputed for a while. Thus it seems safer to stick with a PhD, unless there is a good reason to switch.

Having an EdD means that you have a certain level of expertise in administering an academic institution.
Having a PhD means that you have a certain level of expertise in doing research.
Which one is your goal in the short run?
Which one is your goal in the long run?

EdDs aren't really for teachers, they're for administrators.

@AzorAhai-him- It's also fairly common for teachers who do not plan to enter administration to get EdDs in states where this means a pay raise.

@AzorAhai-him-, Corrected!