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Circular References in Papers
Is it possible to submit two papers to the same conference which are citing each other?
Both papers were accepted and they are both very related, so I think to cite the papers in each other, when submitting the camera ready version. Is this allowed or is it not a good idea?

Whether the other paper is appearing in the same conference as your paper is utterly irrelevant.  If you have a good reason to cite the other paper, then cite the other paper.

@JeffE I always thought reference graphs are directed and acyclic. Is this even possible in practice?

@ÉbeIsaac This is not only possible, but surprisingly common.  Conferences in computer science announce the list of accepted papers well in advance of the deadline to submit the final proceedings paper, and authors regularly update their papers to cite other related papers in the same conference.  At least once I've published papers at two different conferences, occurring within a month of each other, each of which refers to the "companion paper" in the other conference.

This is actually quite common in some fields, for both conference and journal submission, particularly when you have coordinated submission from a number of different participants in a complex project.
The way that I have handled this when I've done so is to have the citations initially as "submitted" and either bundle the other submissions as supplementary information for reviewers (when possible), or with a note saying "available on request" when the venue doesn't support supplementary information.  Another option is to make use of pre-print services like arXiv, though that can violate double-blind review.
Once the papers are accepted, you just change the camera-ready to the final information and the circular reference enters the literature without issue.  It gets more awkward if one paper is accepted and the other is not, but this can be resolved with the help of a pre-print service.

To avoid the possible awkwardness, sometimes the circular references can also be made "non-essential". If both papers are accepted, one will contain a sentence such as "A formal discussion of the underlying syntax can be found in another publication [...].", and the other one will contain a sentence such as "Another publication presents a more detailed description of a practical applied context for the syntax [...]." These references are helpful and therefore justified, but none of the two papers becomes incomprehensible if either of the papers is rejected and the references is removed.

@O.R.Mapper I suspect in OP's case, the citation would appear in a discussion of related work, not as necessary background information or supporting evidence for an argument, but rather to set OP's work in its proper context.  In that setting, even if the cited work is not accepted, the circular reference doesn't make the paper incomprehensible.  (Also: Why would I remove a reference to a paper just because it was rejected?  I cite papers because I believe they're correct; rejection only implies that the PC did not find the paper sufficiently interesting.)

@JeffE: Maybe you wouldn't, but I'm from a non-arXiving field where "rejected" usually means "will remain inaccessible to the public" and is treated as "cannot yet be cited".

@O.R.Mapper But if the paper is inaccessible at submission time, can you even cite it in the submission?

@JeffE: Of course. As long as it is not strictly required for understanding the submitted paper, and rather a "further related information" kind of reference, the review can be done without having access to that paper. Instead of a year, the paper would be marked with "to appear", which - if the paper gets accepted and the official time of publication is known by the CR deadline of the citing paper - might get replaced with an actual year after the review.

@O.R.Mapper (1) I've always thought "to appear" is a statement that the paper will appear, which is only possible/honest if the paper has already been accepted, but just hasn't been published yet. (2) But why can't you cite an inaccessible paper (either rejected or under submission) in the camera-ready version, using exactly the same argument?

@JeffE: (1) You're right, thinking about it again, "under review" is probably more suitable than "to appear". (2) Well, what's the point of pointing out that another paper contains additional information for those interested, if that referenced paper cannot be accessed at all? I see the review phase as a bit of a special state - one of the special aspects is that reviewers might not be able to access some information that future readers will, for instance, because that information is still in the process of being published, or because that information is hidden due to double-blind review.

It's unusual in journals, but allowed - it's more common in special thematic issues which tend to be prepared at the same time and cover similar topics, perhaps even with authors in common across some papers. There may be a specific form of citation for, eg, "in this issue" rather than a volume number (I've seen this once or twice). This is not to say that every editor will like it, but there's no absolute rule against it.
I would assume that published conference papers, generally speaking, are in the same boat - unusual, but no fundamental principle why not, and individual venues may have specific policies.


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Doing a PhD in physics after doing bachelors and masters in mathematics
I have done my bachelors and currently doing masters in pure mathematics. I have done four physics courses during bachelors degree which also includes special relativity. What is the possibility that I may prosper in theoretical physics and earn a PhD in any branch of mathematical physics?
Also, I am going to take the GRE this year but I am little bit confused about choosing subject in subject GRE since scoring in maths is much easier than scoring in physics (if later its possible to change departments then of course I'll choose maths). Any suggestion regarding that is also welcome.

You should take up this issue with someone who you would like to be your supervisor

well...not much.....but i am little  bit confused about choosing subject in subject gre since scoring in maths is much more easier than scoring in physics (if later its possible to change departments then of course i'll choose maths)......any suggestion regarding that is also welcome.

The first and second part are really two separate questions and should be asked separately (so future users can more easily search for them and so it is clear which answer to accept)

First of all, please remember that PhD is not about learning; learning about many different areas/fields/subjects. More specifically, it is not about increasing you knowledge in breadth, i.e., you know Mathematics, you can now learn about physics, then you can learn about computer science and so on.
PhD is about training in research.
Ask your self this question:
How can I contribute to this area (may be theoretical physics or any) in this particular topic by utilizing the knowledge I already have (say, acquired during bachelors and masters) in this specific field (say, in pure mathematics)?
Once you get the answer to this question (it should be in the form of a nice research proposal) you will definitely be able to do your PhD in that area, which you would select and do homework for.
2nd part:
It really depends upon the institute and the department you are targeting to: what actually is the requirement there? And remember, some might not need GRE subject at all.
So, please make a list of the institutes/departments based upon your interests/priorities and mention their requirements. Then you would be in a better position to decide which one should you go for. Maybe, only because it is unavoidable or simply you can perform better in that.
I would suggest you to have a profound focus upon the first part. Chances are that you might end up targeting a Mathematics department only, still being able to contribute in physics. Even, otherwise would give you a clear vision of what should you do and what you don't.

what about the second part?

@SK - Not every answer on the Stack Exchange will answer both parts of a two-part question. You may have to wait for someone who feels more qualified to talk about the second part.

My understanding of your question is that you want to pursue your PhD in an interdisciplinary field (including both math and physics fields).
It is not uncommon to do such a thing... However, doing PhD level research is different than taking bachelor level courses in that field. Taking those bachelor courses familiarizes you with the basics and fundamentals but that's the beginning of the way to the state of the art knowledge you'll be working with during your PhD.
However, if I'm wrong about my hypothesis and you're changing your field entirely then that's a different thing which requires careful consideration of your interests and circumstances.

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Can we quantify the difference made by or popularity of online learning?
How much of a change is online learning through open courseware (OCW), etc., actually making? Are there any peer reviewed studies regarding the same?

There are so many variables in this kind of study that such differences are extremely difficult to quantify reliably.

One way is to assess the performance by a single test of two groups of students, one in the regular classroom atmosphere and the other group using solely online tools. The topic may be chosen at random, with varying levels of difficulty. It would also provide information about effectiveness of using online tools in teaching difficult concepts. This study by Anna Ya Ni  is in that direction.

One potential problem with this approach is the demographics of the student groups. If the "regular classroom" students are all full-time students, but the "solely online" students are mostly part-time working professionals, it will be hard to tell if any differences are due to the online/classroom delivery, or the full-time/part-time status.

It is unwise to compare the effectiveness of a particular learning method with two student groups with different demographics, say full time vs part time. The group by default should show common backgrounds in response to the term 'student' (although impossible to be an identical set). Also, have you read the study by Anna Ya Ni in the link?

Of course we agree on demographics - the more common, the better. I've not yet read the study (this is the first I've seen of it), but it looks like an interesting read and I plan to tackle it this week.

+Thejus, I skimmed through the study results and it was quite comprehensive. Plan to go through that in more detail later. However, my point is that while online learning is generally a convenient arrangement for the working professional, it might not be accepted as a proof of accomplishment at the workplace. I am not making judgements here but unless they are held at par with a professional degree, we would not see people take it seriously. If it is held at par, then we would see a noticeable difference in the way the world's workforce adapts to the power of self learning.

Consider the ratio of traditional credit hours per student to online credit hours per student: you could compare this ratio over time.  (This doesn't say anything about the effectiveness of the trend towards online study.)

Can I propose that the percentage of people completing the course online vis a vis traditional university route should be held as a primary measure of a course's success? It can be universally applied to all the courses by multiplying a weighing factor for any course depending on its difficulty level e.g. a course on Linear Algebra might be easier to contemplate online than a course on Measure theory.

@user54870 - Ah, now for me to answer that would take careful thought and I would end up wanting to co-author the paper.

RE: Can I propose that the percentage of people completing the course online vis a vis traditional university route should be held as a primary measure of a course's success? Only if there is some kind of assessment involved that somehow guarantees successful completion is truly tied to mastering the course topics. Even then, that doesn't seem like a very good metric if you are trying to persuade the skeptic.

authors: Елена Фостачук

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Am I allowed to use a figure drawn by co-author in another paper?
I published paper 1 with a co-author A, who drew a very good illustrative figure in the introduction.
I want to submit paper 2 which addresses the same problem (but uses a completely different approach), so the introduction of the problem is pretty much the same. Do I need to ask A for permission to include the figure in paper 2?

My professor always asked for the journal's permission to reuse a figure, although he prepared the figure himself.

If it is going to be exactly the same picture, you should get journal's permission to republish the figure. If you are going to draw the figure yourself but essentially the same information as the previous one, you can just cite your previous journal.

@EnergyNumbers: I think my case is a little bit different since I'm the first author in the paper containing the fiugre.

the question is a little bit different, but the questions are very close, and the answer is still the same, thus it is, in Stack Exchange terms, a duplicate.

@EnergyNumbers: OK, as I already have an idea about how I should do, please feel free to delete the question.

You need to first check the copyright information (you have probably signed) from the journal/publisher where the figure is published. This will determine where the copyright for the typeset article lies. The figure is art and as such should be covered by an intellectual property, which then clearly belongs to your colleague. This issue seems to be overlooked by many copyright notices. As you probably know many publishers allow authors to post submitted (unedited) manuscripts to be posted on web-sites and repositories, but not the final typeset version. This is because the journal really does not own the intellectual thoughts in a paper but the right to publish and distribute the final version.
To me this becomes quite confused and it is not clear if all publishers have considered the true ownership of figures. It would be useful to survey the copyrights to see how these issues are dealt with and if, for example, country specific rules apply.
Anyway, to answer your question: tell your colleague of your intention. It is good etiquette regardless of whether or not it is necessary. When it comes to copyright of a journal: better safe than sorry; get permission. You of course need to reference your other publication and any permission that is needed. You should add your colleague's name to the acknowledgement as the originator of the figure; again etiquette.

I was at the "receiving end" of such a case once. One of my collaborators has used a figure I have drawn for another paper that I was not a co-author of without asking me first. I did not consider this intellectual dishonesty (the figure was neither particularly brilliant nor a lot of work), but I do admit that it stung a little bit to see my own work (however tiny this "work" was) being used without telling. If the collaborator had just dropped a brief email before, I would have certainly not minded.
Bottom line:

Do I need to ask A for permission to include the figure in paper 2?

Strictly speaking probably not, but you really should tell A.

Your question covers the academic honesty part, but legally there are no questions - every drawing is copyright protected from the moment of creation, and yes, you do need explicit permission in order to copy it.

When you published the original article the publisher may have required the copyright on the text and all figures to be transfer to them or for them to be granted exclusive rights. Presumably based on this question, you believe that the publisher does not have exclusive rights.
In the sciences figures are often not that valuable, but in the arts, figures can be very valuable. If someone takes a valuable photograph and grants you permission to publish that photo in a single article, then you clearly do not have the right to reproduce that photo in other articles. It is not uncommon for the artist who took the photo to be a coauthor on papers involving their photos. This doesn't change the "ownership" of the photo. The person who produces a photo/figure the figure is generally the copyright holder unless they sign the rights away.
You must ask the copyright holder for permission to use the figure again. The copyright holder is likely either the person who created the figure or the publisher of the original article.


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How to target possible authors? Ethics of increasing the visibility of open access journals
My colleague and I work at an Open Access journal, published by a regional scholarly association. The field is Communication and Media Studies. Recently we started to encounter problems with reaching out for authors. We use a small set of professional email lists, listservers and newsletters to disseminate our Call for Articles, which worked in the past 3 years; meaning we always had enough quality submissions from which we could build up a full and content-wise well-balanced issue.
Problem is that recently, we launched a digital marketing campaign after which we received only a handful of manuscripts with average to good publication potential compared to a swarm of plagiarized/incomprehensive/ below-standard/simply uninteresting manuscript mainly from third world countries, India and China (just for clarifications, we do not collect author fees or APCs and all content are free for our readers, so I thought it was clear for everyone that we are not in the pay-to-publish business). We desk reject the majority but enough will remain to completely drain out our reviewer pool for the next 6 months.
I'm asking the community to suggest a better way of reaching out for professional authors. Locally, we are in Eastern Europe and the journal is not ISI or SCOPUS-indexed, so it is not the best for bean-counting purposes; but we have quality content and peer review process. Are there any techniques that should help us convincing western universities to circulate our calls or publish it on their websites? Anyone in the same shoes as we are?

I don't really get your problem. You have too many paper submissions as-is, but you are looking for more? I don't think there is a feasible way to get word about your publication out to the wider public without at the same time also attracting really bad submissions. The trick, I guess, is to desk-reject harder. If you already know that all those bad submissions are not good enough, why even bother your reviewers?

My problem is that after screening out junk papers, we have too many submissions which 1. are in line with the wider profile of the journal 2. present (imho) methodologically sound science 3. does not report interesting/meaningful results or are on a topic which is only of very narrow interest.

@JDenes: I think most people would agree that it's totally reasonable to desk reject a paper for reason 3.

@JDenes Sure, but why do these papers clog up the review process? Just desk-reject them if you are convinced they are bad. And if you do that, don't you just end up with at least the same amount of reasonable papers that you had before your "digital marketing campaign"?

Shouldn't you clarify the purpose of your journal to let you desk reject with a good conscience on point 3?

@Samuel Russel: yes, this might be a solution. Till now, our approach was similar to PLoS in that matter, namely that  we did not desk reject methodologically sound researches, whatever limited perceived impact they might be if published. In the past, no problem emerged from that. Some issues had filler papers, like 1 from every 10 articles or so. But now we risk to water down our future issues with filler papers if these manuscripts pass peer evaluation.

The key for most scientists is the impact factor. Trying and succeeding to become listed will attract more good manuscripts (MS). The flood of sub-par MS you are describing comes from the fact that you are free. Unless you want to impose a fee for submitting MS you will simply have to maintain a very stringent policy for submissions and hope that the wave ceases with time. In order to attain IF status, you will need to be stringent anyway. But as you probably realise being stringent and building a reputation is a fine balance.
For a budding journal, the most important aspect is to become known and for the right reasons. For starting a journal I would stress making sure you have some good names among the editors and that the idea of the journal is supported by the community. It is never to late to start this but best before your reputation solidifies as a less prominent journal because then the climb will be harder.
So, some suggestions: Thematic issues generally tends to attract citations because they provide the opportunity for someone interested to find other articles within the same field in the same issue. With electronic publishing it is also possible to assemble virtual thematic issues simply by linking to articles with similar aspects and labelling them with a theme, and of course announcing this on list servers etc.
Attracting established, respected and widely referenced authors to provide articles for the journal is also key. You can, for example, provide opportunities to author invited papers on key issues, review articles on key issues in your field etc.
Success will, however, not come overnight and the most important aspect is to gain the interest of your community. This can be a slow process but can be aided by linking up with societies or equivalent in your field. In my field the European Geophysical Union has generated several Open Access journals that quickly has gained IF status. These journals were firmly embedded in the community and emanated from a discussion about the need for journals with a specific target community. So you need to assess your community and see if you can liaise with activities or organisations that are established in your scientific community.
Regardless how you continue, you definitely need to maintain high standards so even if you need to reject the vast majority of submitted manuscripts, make sure you only publish good quality science and make that very clear in your "advertising". Without that basis, very little success can be expected.

The answer above is well-written and sums up some excellent tips on how to help you.
To add to this, many researchers are now pressured to publish in faculty recognised journals. When I started, I was given a list of journals and academic book publishers that would be considered high quality towards my overall publishing targets as developed by my faculty, and was told that I should aim to only publish in these journals.
There are a number of journals that cover my scope of research that are not included on this list which is highly frustrating. But as a new academic in an environment that's not just about how much you publish, but also where you publish, this means that I need to target these journals and publishing sparingly in non-recognised journals by my faculty.
This is something your journal will be coming up against (and actually, your journal's field would be something I'd publish in if it covers my particular scope of research). However, I can't, because unless it's on the list of journals I'm expected to pursue, I have to justify why I've published there and not somewhere else. Many researchers, already feeling pressured by these new systems in a highly competitive environment are going to forego journals like yours to publish in those recognised by their faculty.
So it's almost a bit of a paradox. You need quality authors to publish their work with your journal in order to strengthen your impact/prestige, but these same authors are pressured to only publish in high impact journals as recognised by their faculty. Give what Petter Jansson has suggested a go to try and raise your journal's impact.

I never heard of that "faculty recognized journals" list. Is this an R1 thing or fairly general just i was not aware of it? Thanks! I opened another question connected to this topic at http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/41268/how-much-reputational-value-is-added-to-a-journal-by-being-indexed-in-various-ab

@HunSoc I'm not sure. It's a common practice here in Australia I think at the group of 8 universities. Basically, a faculty recognised journal is just a list of quality journals/academic book presses the faculty/university has deemed appropriate for quality publication. Researchers are encouraged to publish in journals/academic book practices from this list, and a % of journal articles published must be from quality journals for your overall publication target expectations with your current Academic level (i.e. Level B lecturer might need to publish 2.5, with 1.5 being from quality journals).


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Are masters degrees treated equivalently in academia on both sides of the Atlantic?
This is just a general question regarding UK (and I suppose Western European) masters degrees vs. US masters degrees.
The reason for asking is that I have heard that US masters are considered at the same academic level as UK Bachelors with Honours degrees. This seems like pure hearsay but I'd like to understand if there is any thing concrete in this assertion.
And does equivalency tend to manifest itself in the same ways in commercial environments too?

The UK and US have fairly substantial differences in their underlying educational philosophies. In my field, in the US Masters degree programs are generally one or two years long and include both course work and research in equal proportions. In the UK, Masters degree programs are a year long and have little to no research requirements. As for the level that the taught components of the programs are taught at, they are pretty similar across the two countries using similar textbooks and covering similar amounts of material in terms of both breadth and depth. The US and UK institutions I worked for accepted students from both countries and while international students often have more difficulties than home students, it is not obvious to me that going UK-US or US-UK is easier.
As for the difference between a US and a UK Bachelors degree. Final year classes taught in both countries again use similar textbooks and cover similar amounts of material in terms of both breadth and depth. In my experience, there does not seem to be a substantial difference between students coming out of US and UK institutions in regards to their preparation for graduate school. That said, there are substantial differences in these students. The US system provides much more breadth of education (e.g., foreign language requirements and general education requirements) that are absent from UK universities. I have never heard an admissions committee member in the sciences argue that student X is is more likely to succeed than student Y because student X is competent in a foreign language.

I've seen (several) hundreds of students get UK bachelour with honours degrees in 3 years. A master degree in the UK takes another 1 year.
Normally in the US a bachelor degree takes 4+ years and a masters takes another 2 - for a total of 6.
How can 6 years of education in the US be considered equivalent to 3 in the UK? If anything, you could consider a UK master degree similar to a US bachelor degree.

Should that 3 in "How can 6 years of education in the US be considered equivalent to 3 in the UK?" be 4?

At my (Canadian) university, Bachelor students are forced to take 1 year of courses outside of their specialization. When I did my Bachelors in Europe, there was no such requirement. So in terms of subject-matter knowledge, a 3-year European Bachelors is equivalent to a 4-year North-American one.

@scaaahu The 6 = 3 was in reference to the op's saying "a US master degree = a UK bachelour with honours degree." Since a US master takes 6 years and a UK bachelour with honours takes 3 years, then the claim is really 6 = 3. I do not believe the op is saying a US master = a UK master (which would be 6=4).

@earthling this will probably lead to a discussion, which I would like to avoid in comments, but students in the UK tend to be better prepared than in the US when entering university. Further, the UK system does provide much breadth in terms of electives/subsids, so almost all UK classes are in the major. Finally, MSc degrees tend to not have a research component in the UK which speeds things up.

@StrongBad So are you saying a US master degree is similar to a UK bachelour degree? Regardless of quality of entrant (which may be better in the UK) does the education that comes with the 'typcial' UK bachelour (hons) degree match the education that comes with the 'typical' US master degree?

@earthling, see my answer. I find that the taught components of MSc degrees and the final year of a BSc degrees are nearly identical between the US and UK.

UK degrees tend to focus on the main degree subject from the beginning of the degree program and thus are more professionally oriented than the US liberal arts education, which requires each student to learn a broader curriculum.
Interesting comparison here:
http://colematson.com/2012/01/05/oxford-vs-us-an-undergrad-degree-comparison-chart-glossary/
As for "If anything, you could consider a UK master degree similar to a US bachelor degree." It tends to be the other way around due to the UK degree being a more narrow focus towards the subject area opposed to the US degree having a more broad overview.

So you believe that 3 years studying A, B, and C is "better" than 4 years studying A, B, C, and D (D here being the extra, broader subjects which are covered in the US system which are ignored in the UK system)? Or are you saying UK = A, B, and C where the US = A, B, D, and E where D and E are a bit off-topic and the US students really miss out on topic C?

The value of a US Masters degree is very dependent on the institution and its requirements.
A number of US institutions mass-market their MS (or equivalent) degrees as a quick way to make money.  These degrees  (often marketed as 1-year degrees) are basically just a coursework requirement and can be equivalent to a bachelor's degree with some advanced courses.
Other institutions require a serious thesis or project as part of a masters, often requiring publishable results in a significant academic venue.  This is similar in style to the "old-school" Masters and is a significant step above a bachelor's degree because it requires self-motivated research and often takes two years to complete.

I am not sure you answered the question. The OP is asking "UK (and I suppose Western European) masters degrees vs. US masters degrees.". You only talk about US masters degree.

I don't know enough about UK masters degrees, so I'm presenting the material I do know.


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Is it better to request a recommendation letter in person after class or by email?
I am planning to apply for a PhD program and would like to request a letter of recommendation from a professor. However, I am quite hesitant about which way is better for me to make the initial request: asking the professor during the break of the class or just sending him an email?

I would suggest you ask the professor face to face at his office or somewhere suitable. If this is hardly probable, then consider contact him by phone. And email would be the last choice. I do not feel that asking the professor during a class break will be fine.

@Chou why not during the break? The most likely answer would be "Sure, let's discuss this at (insert convenient time for him)".

The most important thing is to be timely, so if asking in person means it's going to take you longer to get to it, then that might not be worth it.

My recommendation is definitely in person "after class". There are several reasons to do so. First, it is personal and you can iron out any details there and then. Second, the person you approach will have a face to go with any future e-mail conversations. Third, it is less likely a person will dismiss you in a direct approach than in an (impersonal) e-mail approach.
There are of course ways in which you can blow your hopes with a personal approach as well. Just be brief and to the point, try to be professional about it. If the person appears not to have time, ask if you can meet during an office hour or if an E-mail would be better. After all, you have just presented yourself and is now "a face".
There is of course nothing wrong with just sending an E-mail but I know from personal experience that I sometimes get mails from students who apparently have attended my classes but made no impression so I ask myself, who the ...  is this? Not a great basis for a letter of recommendation. I personally also think that a personal approach shows more initiative and drive. All this is of course from the perspective that you actually can meet with the person without engaging in long distance travelling etc.

Assuming that the recommender agrees to write a letter, you should follow the conversation up with an email giving all of the specifics of where to send the letter and the due date.

You could try doing both - first talk to him after class, and if he expresses interest, send a packet of materials by email (your resume, things you'd like him to include, maybe your transcript if it's good).  It's good for him to have these things electronically because then the materials are harder to lose and he has a written reminder of your request.

An e-mail from someone you can't even remember is easy to reject, there's almost no emotions involved. Plus if he says yes, you still have to meet to talk about the details and write them down, or risk misunderstandings via e-mail. It's better in person.
During a break or after class there may be other students waiting to ask questions, or the professor may be in a rush, or any other such disturbance, it doesn't feel serious to me and you risk getting only half an answer or him telling you to set up an appointment.
Just go find him during the official office/consultation hours (whatever they're called in your country), or if he said you have to take an appointment first, then take an appointment but go discuss it in person.

Don't agree with other answers! I'd 100% prefer students to ask me by email. It gives more time to think about how to phrase the request properly, motivate it, and give details; and it gives more time to the professor to think about his/her answer.
The other answers say it's more personal to ask face to face and the professor may forget who you are unless they see you, that's a strange argument. If your professor doesn't remember you by name, don't bother ask him/her for a letter.

Personally I'd also prefer students to just email me.

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If I use results from a source I don't have access to, should I include it in references?
Let's say, I am writing a paper. I am reading paper A that cites results in Paper/Book B. I do not have access to Paper/Book B.
In the list of references, do I include only A? A and B?

University libraries are pretty good at allowing you to borrow not only from their own collection but also from other univeristy libraries as well (at nominal cost). so I would start by asking at your local library about those possibilties.

What is so special about paper B that you consider citing it? If you cite every paper cited by a paper you cite, you probably end up citing millions of papers.

May I suggest
http://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/ as a source of detailed guidance for several referencing styles. Note however this is adapted for Manchester styling in some cases.

This might help: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/cite-another-source.aspx

"use results from a source I don't have access to" is paradoxical.  You can't use something you don't have access to.  If you only read A, cite only A.

@MaartenBuis In some countries, and in some positions (e.g. undergrad student), people have virtually zero legal access to (non-open-access) scientific literature.  I was in this situation as an undergrad: the library only had print copies of a few very prominent journals.  Now they're much better funded and have subscriptions to relevant publications.

@Wrzlprmft - reductio ad absurdum: if someone tried to follow a rule such as "cite all citations of all citations of all citations..." ad infinitum they'd need a nearly infinite amount of paper to print their nearly infinitely long paper upon. Not to mention the deforestation issues. Ecological catastrophe looms! Cite with restraint!!!! :-)

Be honest. You do not gain anything by pretending knowledge you have not, nor it helps the reader.
Write "According to A, in B it is shown that" or some variation on it. If you have made a good-faith effort to obtain a copy of B (that includes interlibrary loan), but had undue difficulty in doing so, you might want to mention it --- "We were unable to find a copy of B".

You should add both. I assume you, in your text, refer to B as referred to by A in some way. The point is that everyone should be able to trace your information and knowing B is a book and is referenced by A, from which article you took the information.
That said, I would like to add a warning against doing this, it should only be done as a last resort. The problem of using a reference in a reference is that you have not actually seen the original work and you are therefore trusting that A, in this case, have cited B correctly. Many cases exist where misconceptions have been propagated by trusting the judgement of others and not checking the original source.

+1 for the warning part.  In the worst case, you could be accused of academic misconduct.  Try very hard to put your hands on the original material.  Librarians are wonderful at making such things happen.  If you absolutely can't, consider writing, "According to Smith (1998) A.B. Charles (1980) reported that..."

authors: Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні


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How to choose the most worthwhile research papers to define my thesis?
I'm a first year PhD student. I'm just reading background papers trying to find a topic for my thesis: my subject is turning around tree different elements (XML (as a tool), complex data, and the cloud computing (as an environment)). So I find that is a large subject with many materials that treat this subject, whether each element individually, or two elements at most at a time, but not all three together.
My question is

How should I choose the most worthy materials so that I could find a good topic which uses these three elements together?

Any information, insights, or propositions are welcome. Thank you.

Find out what the most current problems in these fields are. This can be done by reading papers in the most recent proceedings of the conferences and journals dedicated to these topics.
Regarding these three topics:

XML is, as you say, a tool. XML in itself is not particularly novel and a lot of research involving XML is of the form "Something interesting and known in XML." I find such papers unexciting and reject them if they pass my way.
Cloud computing is a hot topic and there will be lots of people working on it. This means that it is easy to find papers and easy to find a venue for publications. On the other hand, there is a lot of competition.
Complex data is and will always be interesting. But what do you plan to do with it? Are you planning to use the cloud to process massive amounts of complex data? That is certainly a hot topic these days, with things like Google's Map-Reduce framework and other comparable things (Hadoop, Cassandra, ...). A lot of big companies have interest in such settings, so it might be challenging to find something new to do, but you will likely have people interested in the work you do.

In short, I think you only really need to consider the complex data and cloud computing combination. This will make your search a little easier. Then find the top conferences in the area and read the proceedings from the last few years.
In addition, it is crucial that you build on top of what other people have done, rather than starting from scratch. Ideally, start with something developed by people in your own lab (whether it be a system or a theory).

I can answer this from the perspective of someone who did it poorly in retrospect, but from a different field (engineering). You will want to make sure that any papers you begin with are:

Accepted findings in the field. I made the mistake of basing much of my thesis work on a paper which was used a one-off paradigm, and was not replicated by anyone other than myself. This resulted in my needing to spend much more time validating my results than I otherwise would have needed to, because there was no other validation in the literature.
Simplicity over novelty. You're a graduate student, at the beginning of your career. You'll have tons of time to do awesome things as your career progresses. Unless you're working for Dr. Awesome BigName Researcher whose lab is known for doing cutting-edge work on X, be conservative... choose the less exciting but more likely to work research over the more exciting but very complex and/or more likely to fail.

Note that this post is completely irrelevant to anyone whose advisor effectively tells them what their thesis project is, as your criterion will be (1) the papers your advisor hands you. You have my sympathies :)

Why would the outcome affect the study?  After listening to a recent Planet Money podcast on "The Experiment Experiment" (sic), I'm curious why the probability of a success/fail should lead to any decisions.  Shouldn't the process and discovery be the important thing, regardless of outcome?

I think the answer to your question depends on the aims you want to pursue with your thesis.

Start a career in academia. In this case I agree with eykanal. Use something that enables you to build a solid foundation.
Start a career in industry. Look at the particular industry/company you're interested in and decide what's going to be most important to them and hence most important in facilitating you getting a job there.
Neither of the above. If you don't really know what you want to do after you've finished your PhD, I'd say go for the thing that interests you most, even if the results you're basing your research on is novel and you're not sure if it's the right direction to go in. That's why it's called research after all :)

In any case you should make sure that you're comfortable doing the research. The best papers are no good for you if there's no scope for you to extend the work or you can't build on it for other reasons.
In your particular situtation I would probably focus on papers that bring the different subjects you've mentioned together, as this gives you the option of shifting the focus of your PhD slightly in one direction later.

Thank you Lars Kotthoff, your advises are very valuables, that's really what I wanted, I'll absolutely consider them.

One point not covered by the other answers is Review articles which summarize the state of a particular research field.
As the OP is at an early stage of the process, these are especially useful for gving an overview of the most important work, and are usually written by an authority on the topic. They can be invaluable in preparing a reading list, as the references are the ones that are considered central to the development of the field, and will often be articles that you'll be expected to know.
Even when looking for inter-disciplinary stuff it is usually useful to begin with review articles from all the sub-fields that touch upon the research topic. The Annual Reviews series of journals are a good generic place to start, though you should focus on the leading journals of your field. The number of citations that can be checked on google scholar are also useful in establishing the important research concerns of your field to know before you start working on something brilliant that nobody will care about. For instance, there might be excellent reasons why nobody has done work usng your chosen approach, so getting the most respected/ cited papers will help you identify useful research topics, and also the ones to avoid.


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Currently taking graduate course as an Undergraduate
I am currently taking graduate algebra as an undergraduate (junior) in University of Toronto Mathematics Specialist, and I just took a midterm today. Since I am an undergraduate, the grade matters. In order to get a good chance to go into graduate schools for Math in Canada and USA, do I need to get a A or A+ in graduate courses as an undergraduate? Or, is A– alright? (In my university, C and below are considered fail for graduate courses only) Or should I get at least an average grade on that course as an undergraduate competing with graduate students, instead of worrying about actual letter grade? (this is about absolute vs relative too)

Not sure what type of answer you're looking for. You should do the best you can, the same as with any class you take. Why would the fact that it's a graduate-level class make a difference in your work ethic?

I am working hard, but then I typically so called "ace" (but not really) in undergraduate math (getting A+), but graduate courses have many smart people in class, and I do not think I got way above average grade for midterm in grad courses (as I am competing with masters and PhDs). Since I am undergraduate, all grades are important, instead of just aiming for A-s (this is all that is required for masters and PhDs), I am not sure how much grade is ideal as an undergraduate to get out of graduate course (also this will help me decide whether to drop course or not (but I prefer not dropping it))

You'd be surprised how many undergrads outperform the grads in my classes.

If you are willing to share, can I ask which university/collge are you attending?

Suresh is a prof.  So am I; my experience is similar to his.

In order to get a good chance to go into graduate schools for Math in Canada and USA, do I need to get a A or A+ in graduate courses as an undergraduate?

I don't think anyone cares too much about the distinction between A and A+, since the standards for what merits an A+ vary so much between universities or even individual professors.

Or, is A– alright?

This is a little more meaningful, but it's not likely to be the deciding factor.  If you have a great application otherwise, nobody will care about an A- or two.  If your application is not so compelling, getting straight A's won't help much.  This could make a difference, but it's really a low-order effect.

Speaking as someone who regularly serves on admissions committees, I'd much rather see a B- in a graduate course than no graduate courses at all.

JeffE wow! I have never thought about it that way. Maybe I am overworrying because when I met my TA for the course, apparantly everybody did bad (similar mark I guess)... Thank you for the help though! It is very helpful for future

@JeffE: Hmm, I'm not sure.  Not taking any grad classes is certainly a red flag, and I'd agree with you if you said B+, but B- is more questionable.  The issue is that math grad students need a solid understanding of the core grad courses, and someone with a B- probably doesn't have that.  The question then becomes whether they realize they need to learn this material better and have some likelihood of doing that.  Someone mature and responsible enough can handle this, but what I don't want to see is someone saying "OK, I got my B-, so now I can move on and never think about topic X again."

(It's possible to do good work with that kind of attitude, but it's a very bad sign.)

someone with a B- probably doesn't have that — But at least they're willing to try, which is more than we can say for someone with no grad classes.  Willingness to fail is crucial for good research, and it's much harder to learn than technical background.  (Also, this all has to be calibrated by the relative strengths of the undergrad and grad programs at the applicant's school.  There are many schools — Toronto is not one of them — where the grad classes are easier than the undergrad classes.)

Yeah, that's a good point about willingness to try.  If someone enters with an unusually weak background, and they attend a school with a lot of challenging and interesting undergrad classes, then they might reasonably not get to grad classes within four years.  However, a typical grad school applicant should have tried grad classes.

JeffE: Speaking of graduate admissions, is undergraduate at Toronto good enough for, say top 50 graduate schools in US for math?

Just a quick note that the need for graduate courses as an undergraduate varies a lot by field. In math and maybe CS, it's nearly a prerequisite. In engineering, however, because of the relative inflexibility of the program, I don't think taking graduate-level courses is necessarily anticipated or required. It definitely helps, but it doesn't raise red flags if you don't have that experience.


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How to request transcript copies from universities in the Netherlands?
In the US, one can request that the university from which one graduated to send copies of one's transcript to other universities (graduate admissions) or prospective employers. I would like to know what is the provision in the Netherlands, if one needs to send a copy of one's transcript to the university in the US.

The best thing to do is probably to contact the student administration of your university. They can make certified copies of your diploma (and presumably also grade transcripts, etc.). You can also contact the Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs at http://www.duo.nl/, which are also authorised to make certified copies.
However, it may be that "ordinary" photocopies suffice, if you tell them that you can show the originals later if necessary. You would have to check with the admissions office though, I do not know about the situation in the US.


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How to improve my English from Academic papers?
I'm not a native speaker. However, I'm doing my PhD in an English country and I read Academic papers which are in English. How can I improve my English from those papers? Any ideas? Although sometimes those papers are not written by native English speakers and may still have problems.

If you also want to improve your spoken communication skills, take a look at Toastmasters (http://www.toastmasters.org/).  There may even be a club in your school already.

One of the best ways to master the writing skill is to write a paper yourself, have you supervisor correct it, and then, thoroughly go through the review. If this process is repeated over 2-3 papers, you would have a strong hold in the style. But the key is to understand the corrections made to your draft.

@Barun: Better than your supervisor might be a fellow student (with good English) who you can bribe with a case of beer :) Correcting someone's writing is kind of a tedious task, and kind of a lot to ask of an advisor who's more interested in the research itself.  (Besides, the advisor's English might not be so great, either!)

The old adage is: "the language of science is bad English" (and at least in computer science it is 100% true). That being said, I have known PhD students who have failed mainly because of their lacking English language skills – they had ideas, but they could not communicate them to anybody, and they could not write them down in a paper for the life of them. You need decent English to write any paper, and you need pretty good English to write papers at top venues.
You ask how to improve your language skills from reading papers. I would say, you can't do that effectively at all. Clearly, reading anything written in English will help you to some extent, but if you feel like you need to improve your English, taking one or more (good) courses in technical English will help you more than reading through a few dozen papers.
However, there is one language-related skill that reading papers for is really useful – if you are setting out to write the first or one of your first papers of your own, nothing beats analyzing existing papers (at the same conference, in the same journal) to find out how papers in these venues are usually structured. This gets you started much faster than drafting something only for your advisor to tear it apart.

Wish I could +2, over the said opinion point: you can't do that effectively at all

Perhaps it's worth adding that many universities offer English language courses geared towards PhD students, which focus on academic writing.

While I understand that there's a big difference between scientific and day-to-day language, I actually think you need both to succeed in academia.
While you do need to excel in research (e.g. publish papers, communicate ideas), only the "top level" will be done in pure scientific and formal language: writing papers and scientific presentations. A lot comes from communicating your ideas, either in formal and informal settings. The "level" of English varies from setting to setting: at some point, you would not want to host a prominent researcher in your country, and take him to lunch only to realize you do not know how to translate the menu.
That said, I think you need to improve your English overall, and the best way to do it is to expose yourself to the language as much as you find comfortable:

if you usually read (non-scientific literature), switch from your native language to English
when watching movies/TV shows, don't go for the dubbed versions: go for the original language, first with the subtitles in your language, then in English, and then no subtitles at all
try and find yourself in social situations where English is the main spoken language. Listen to people and talk to them. I saw a big change in a lot of people in just a few months from this.
take a course, possibly in technical English
specific terminology and style of writing will come in time, with immersion in your field, but it is okay to use a dictionary for rare terms
in addition to just using a dictionary (translations are not always stellar), use Thesaurus to find synonyms and antonyms. It is also useful when you know the correct word, but you feel your writing is too repetitive
have some kind of spell checker activated when you type (not only your papers, but also your posts, chats and e-mails), use it whenever it tells you that you misspelled the word, and try to remember your mistakes
start using an English-English dictionary, as often as you can when you come across an unknown word. For me, just typing "define:whatever" in Google works just fine.

In addition to other good observations... : the idiosyncrasies of English are not easily codified in "rules", so considerable familiarity with many good examples of standard use, to allow faithful mimicry, (in addition to more formal study and hearing-experience) is surely helpful.
That is, rather than "composing" in a vacuum (worst of all translating into English...), it is very convenient to be able to recall already-vetted phrases and wording-choices and simply re-use them.
This is especially true with regard to "articles" "a", "an", "the", or their absence, and related seemingly-innocent modifiers. Also, verb tenses.
Thus: imitation from good models.

Reading good papers from your field would improve to some extend your technical language specifically the style and structure in your field. I recommend you to read a few good books about writing science and manuscripts.

The exercise is to learn English by writing. Take a few paragraphs from Academic paper. Print the text and then write it by hand. Check if you have any errors? No errors? Then take another piece of paper and hide the side of printed text so that you can't see two letters at the end of each line. Write the whole text again. Check for errors? No errors? Move the sheet further and repeat. Have an error? Start from the beginning. Write the text looking at a printed one. Then add a sheet of paper on a side and write again and re-check for errors. No errors - move paper further. If you experience a mistake you need to start from very beginning! Eventually you should be able to write the text by looking at one letter of each line only and then the whole text by memory without any mistakes. Congrats! Do the same for second time next day. Once you complete second text, re-write first one too. Check for mistakes in both. Got a mistake? Start from text 1! Now you do that for 10 text and you will be shocked!
Another thing you need to do is to practice writing sentences. Take any phrase that has a new structure to you (e.g. from the academic paper) and write it down. Then write again. Repeat this 10 times. Then change one word using a thesaurus. And write 10 times again. Change the same word again and write re-phrased sentence 10 times. Repeat this task for each word. This practice will allow to learn the limited range of rules that are used in English sentences.
Surely you may check English grammar from time to time if you really want to know why something is like that, however don't spend too much time doing it. You will become bored and overloaded with information very soon.
Happy learning!

Participate in discussions strictly related to academic papers.
Don't read only - be active in your discussions and write as much as you can (you can make errors but you will self-eliminate them with more practice).

Please do not use this site for astroturfing; such practice is against site policy.


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How to hire editor to improve my paper
I'm thinking of hiring a contact/freelance editor to help me improve my paper, before I submit it.  I'm looking for someone to perform proofreading and copy editing as well as broader, substantive editing services, to save me some time.
How should I find and select a suitable editor?  Should I look specifically for a technical editor with knowledge in my general area, or will any editor be able to help?  Does anyone have any recommendations for how to make this most effective?

Clarification: the term "editor" is potentially confusing, because it has multiple meanings.  The meaning that's likely to jump to your mind is that of an Editor at a journal, but that's not what I'm referring to.  Instead, I'm referring to professionals who help with editing manuscripts.  Many folks are familiar with copy editing and copy editors; that is actually just one type of editing service, and other editors may offer other editing services (e.g., developmental/comprehensive editing).  I'm trying to be a bit more general and not limit this question to just copy editing -- but if you're not familiar with the editing profession, you can think of my usage of the word "editor" as referring to a "copy editor" and you won't be too far off.

maybe get recommendations from other students who worked with the same editor ?

If you look at Related questions on the right hand side of this page, you may find some qusetions similar to yours.

Have you asked your peers/colleagues? usually they know someone who is good in that matter. If they do not know, then ask the student union or graduate student association (assuming you are a grad student).

How to find an editor
In the UK, there's the Society for Editing Professionals (SfEP) - get one of their members who meets the criteria for selecting an editor (below). This search for Advanced SfEP members in academic consultancy should give you a lead (disclosure: the editor I work with is on that list). If you're not in the UK, your country may have a similar organisation.
You could also try asking the journal publisher of your choice, as some now keep a list of recommended editors for pre-submission work.
Ask your peers for recommendations too.
If your employer has a department of Research Services or similar, they may be able to recommend someone.

How to select an editor
Here are some criteria for selecting an editor for pre-submission services, based on my own experiences of hiring technical editors over the last 7 years, and working with one as a publishing strategist too over the last year or two. These criteria are in no particular order - I recommend finding someone who meets all of them.

Someone with a good track record in technical editing / publishing. Everyone's got to learn some time, and so every new editor needs their first client. But you don't want to be that guinea pig, unless saving money or helping their career along is more important to you than getting the best result. Someone with a track record will already have thir editing-macros / tools and ready, and have streamlined their workflow.

A gamekeeper turned poacher. That is, someone who's been an editor on the post-submission side, working within journals. They'll know the rules and the etiquette from both sides. They may even have a helpful network at your target publisher.

Someone you can communicate clearly with: you'll only find this by actually doing it, at least via phone / skype / emails / tweets / whatever. Clear quick communication will save you money and give you a better result.

Someone who understands your speciality at least enough to get the gist of what's required. As a minimum, that means if you're in the humanities, you want someone from the humanities; if you're in sciences / tech / engineering / maths (STEM), you want someone with a STEM background.

Someone fluent in your writing medium. So if you write in LaTeX, you want someone fluent in that. Ditto for MS-Word, LibreOffice, whatever.

If you find might be using a good editor a lot, it's probably worth finding someone who you could develop a longer-term professional relationship with; in that case, pick someone who'd be able to help you develop your publishing strategy over time, too.

This is probably not going to be an answer you might like specifically but here's what we do.
I am a doctoral student and in our department, it is pretty common for students to iterate pre-submission and post review drafts with each other (especially before the deadlines of major conferences). It works pretty well. I have also seen tenured and un-tenured faculty doing this in our department.
Therefore, my bigger recommendation is, circulate drafts among your own departmental colleagues. Surely someone will give you sanity checks on your submission material?

Thanks, Shion, I'm certainly aware of that option, and I agree it is a good one.  However, my test readers are a precious resource, and I don't want to expend their energy on fixing writing issues.  I'm looking to make the quality of the writing in my papers be as good as possible before sharing it with my test readers, so that my test readers can focus on the substance/science and not get distracted by problematic writing.

Than again, getting your co-workers to read your papers is a great way to stimulate working together. In addition, I don't think it is wise to wait very long before letting other people read your work. You could end up in some errors in thought, which you no longer see yourself. Ofcourse you don't let your colleagues read a crap manuscript, but getting feedback in an earlier stage is really good imo.

+1 for the above comment. I have found this to be the best strategy when needing member checks from colleagues.

You may be able to use "any" editor to help with simple matters of grammatical constructions and general structure and clarity. However, if you require a lot of technical jargon in your paper, you may find it more advantageous to seek out someone who works in your specialty. Otherwise, they may want to change words that have specific meanings in your field.
If your university has a "writing office" or some other service that it offers to students and staff, I would begin by inquiring there. They may either have some professionals on staff who can help out, or provide you with recommendations for professionals in your area.

First, to avoid any confusion, an editor is typically a person associated with a journal or a publisher. The purpose of an editor is not to primarily to work on improving a paper but rather to judge if a paper is up to the standards of wherever it is supposed to be published. It seems in your question, you are looking for someone to help you with the writing process. This means you might go very wrong if you contact an editor for the tasks you describe. A copy editor and a proof reader is usually also part of a publishers chain and the purpose of such persons is to make sure everything adheres to the publishers standards before going into print; they are part of the end of the publishing chain, not the beginning. So, persons professionally working under titles like these are not likely of interest to you at a manuscript stage.
So typically, what you describe you need help with is part of what we all have to do to get published. We all should learn this process through our (primarily graduate) education but, in the end, there will always be room for further improvements for as long as we live. The first source for help should be your peers, or simply friends,  in your research environment. They should have enough insight to check the science and general writing aspects. What may be more problematic if not an native English speaker, is language.
In the case of language there are numerous specialists that can be hired to check and correct your paper if that is also what you need. Many publishers have associated such specialists and it is probably necessary to find some service that specializes in scientific writing; remember that threre is much need for other types of translations, legal, fictional literature etc., so that many specialize and may not be suitable for science writing.
So, try your peers, you will probably have a hard time finding a person to hire to proide the services you require, with the exception of language corrections.

You write that "The purpose of an editor is not to primarily to work on improving a paper", but that's exactly what the job of a developmental editor is.

I think you are missing the point. Few researchers care about what happens on the technical publishing side with the paper after it gets accepted (except the annoying requests for a two-day turnaround with proofs). But improving English presentation, especially for non-native speakers, is a relatively cheap way to improve the chances to see their paper accepted. I have seen too many papers that seem to be technically correct, but gosh you just can't figure out what the authors did, as their presentation is simply incomprehensible. (Sometimes, this is true of native speakers, too!!!)


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Does anyone have rate the relative quality of scientific papers, rather than authors?
I've seen plenty of places where authors are rated on how much they publish and are cited. There are also metrics like the h-index and i10-index that try and assign a number to the relative quality of a given researcher (for better or worse). But, is there anything similar for individual articles?
It seems to me that people would want an easy way to see if a piece of research has been reproduced or not, peer reviewed for quality of methods and/or analysis, retracted, cited by other papers, the quality of the papers cited, etc. I would think that this would be an extremely useful tool to help people see if the paper they are reading, and potentially citing, is a quality paper or not. However, I've never seen or heard of anything that does this.
So, is there a service or metric out there that has something like an h-value on a per article basis rather than a per author basis?

Google Scholar and many other similar services can give you their counts of how many times an article has been cited, but there's no metric for how "good" it is.

Rating the quality of a paper is extremely difficult. Journal impact factors tell you little about the quality of individual papers. Citation counts are also misleading since papers that are wrong tend to get lots of citations. There is really no substitute for reading and making your own decisions.


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Value Vs. Uniqueness of Research
I am a PhD student and I am often faced with several ideas to explore. Two criteria often I consider in making a choice between approaches are based on the value proposition/ addition and the uniqueness of the approach. However, in the  process of research (which I don't have any idea about and I am only in the exploratory phase of an idea) I have to make compromises in choosing between approaches which are not unique but add value and vice versa. I am faced with tradeoffs between the two until I find (or modify/improve) approaches that have both the qualities. My question is to the experienced researchers to share their strategies when they had to choose among approaches based on these two parameters. Which one among the two help in quicker publications or acceptance rate?

Two criteria often I consider in making a choice between approaches are based on the value proposition/ addition and the uniqueness of the approach.

Ideally, you don't choose.  A "unique" approach that doesn't add value isn't worth much.  Solving a problem using off-the-shelf techniques also isn't worth much.  What you should aim for is a unique approach that adds value to the research landscape in your field.
But if you must choose, work toward your strengths.  Do you carry a hammer and look for nails, or do you carry nails and look for hammers?  If you're better at finding new tools to attack hard problems, then you're more likely to come up with unique approaches.  If you're better at finding hard problems to successfully attack with a small suite of tools, then you're more likely to add value to those tools.  I know lots of successful researchers in both camps.

Which one among the two help in quicker publications or
  acceptance rate?

You are optimizing the wrong function.  Your primary goal should be to produce the highest quality, highest impact research, not to maximize the number of lines in your CV.  One good high-impact paper is worth far more than a pile of publications that nobody cares about.

thanks for your reply. Can you elaborate a bit about  "high-impact" and how do you quantify it when someone, or especially a fledgling researcher, need to trade among different approaches.

@Shan You can quantify the value of a commercial product. You cannot quantify the value of a research. A research result may worth nothing today. But it may be proven invaluable ten years from now.

It probably depends on the field and the journal you're aiming at.
For small, low-impact journals, it could be sufficient that an idea is new. If your ambition is not very high, you can submit to such a journal. You might not need to show that the new idea is all that useful.
For more prestigious journals, new is not enough. You need to show that it's actually useful in practical situations or adds something significant. If you want to aim for good journals, then added value is important. However, it should not be a small added value; it should be a significant added value.
If it's not new and the added value is small, probably you'd need to improve the research until you have something more substantial.


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My supervisors take long time to respond to me
I am a PhD student. I need to finish my study in 6 months.
My story and problem:
I always send my work to my supervisors on time. For each work (objective), they take about one to two months to respond to me. Therefore, I need to send them a reminder after one month. After my reminder, they ask me to resend it again as they forget it and do not want to search for it. Then, they take about 2 weeks to respond.
After that, they asked me to do some more work, which I do and resend my work to them again. They agree that this version is good and ask me to do my next objective based on my study plan.
After finishing all my tasks and sending them my thesis, they asked me to go back through all my objectives and do further work. These objectives have been already proven many times in many different areas and are not related directly to my topic. I explained to them that I will be in trouble if I do not finish my study at the time that is specified by my sponsor. The university has put me under review as I did not finish on time already. Also, I have had to request two extensions from my sponsors.
In addition to their delay in responding, they sometimes travel overseas for about 6 months without regular contact. This happens every year.
What do I have to do now? Any help, please?

If the further work they want you to do has been proven before, ask if you can cite those papers instead. And don't wait a month. Contact them after a week or 2 weeks. In fact, see if you can schedule your viva now (in 5 or 5.5 months time, whatever makes sense) so they know you're serious about finishing on time.

@mkennedy thank you so much. I have already cited all the work and even explain to them that these works have been already proven. But they do not care and ask me to do so. If I send them an email after a week then they send me that they are busy and I must wait.

There isn't a lot you can do on your own. The supervisors have their habits. The best advice I can give is to try to find someone to speak to them on your behalf to get them to help you meet the deadlines. You want an advocate that will be respected by the supervisors. Deans are good for this sort of thing, actually.
But if you can meet face to face with people, either the supervisors or an advocate to help impress on them the urgency it would be better than trying to do things by email, which is asynchronous by design.

There is an email option to communicate you are serious about deadlines: "I intend to do X, Y, Z unless you tell me otherwise by (date)". It is heavy-handed, but if the deadline is justified it works on reasonable advisors (nothing will work on unreasonable ones).

I had a very similar situation as yours for a couple of years when I studied statistics as a master's degree. My supervisors used to send me emails back after 1 or 2 months and one of them liked to be away out of the country. I was so much struggling with the supervisors' issue, so I decided to change my supervisor at another faculty.

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How can I force a journal to withdraw a paper?
I submitted a research paper to a reputed journal (open access). Later, after getting the first reviews, most of the authors are refusing to pay the publication fees even though we all previously decided to contribute.
I sent a wave-off request to the journal by explaining the money problem. The journal denied the delay so at last I requested them to withdraw the paper. First they said that they were withdrawing it. Later they said that we mistakenly wrote withdraw instead of "move to production" (which is a clear lie).
I have mailed them so many times to withdraw but now they are replying in an impolite way. How can I convince the journal to withdraw the paper?

I don't understand. What do you mean by 'most of the authors they dragged their name for money'? Coauthors don't want to contribute to the cost of publication? And if you can't pay, how would this article go into production?

Researcher, I have a substantial edit that's in review. If it's approved, and I have misunderstood the problem, please revert or edit it.

Your question title says "in order to resubmit to a better journal" but the body of your question suggests "because coauthors don't want to pay the publication fees" - these are two quite different reasons. Can you please clarify?

What is a "wave-off request"?  Have you already signed over your copyright?  (If not, then why are you requesting to withdraw the paper, instead of just informing them that you are withdrawing the paper?)

The journal doesn't withdraw a paper; the author does.  I think you mean "how can I prevent a journal from publishing my paper?".

This sounds like a strange situation, in which something isn't adding up. It seems to me that one of two things is going on here:

This isn't actually the reputable journal that you think it is.  It might be a "look-alike" predatory journal, or a formerly-good journal that has been hijacked, but in either case they are trying to scam you.
Something is deeply confused within the editors, and they've decided to publish despite the fact you've told them that you will not be paying.

In the first case, you definitely don't want your paper there, and in the second case maybe you'll get a free publication for some strange reason. The problem is to distinguish between the two cases.
Accordingly, I would recommend proceeding by writing an email something like the following:

Dear Editors:
As you know know from our former correspondence, we are unexpectedly unable to pay the publication fee for this paper. We are confused as to your current plans for the paper, however, and request a clarification.  Which of these two is your current plan for the paper?

The paper is withdrawn, and we will submit to a different venue.
You plan to waive the fee and publish the paper free of charge.

Please let us know promptly, so we can plan the next step with this paper. If you do not reply within one week, we will assume the paper is withdrawn.

If they are predatory, they'll probably try to either stall or else try to tell you they're going to publish it and you have to pay.  Ignore such threats, even if they bluster about taking you to court. You are the author and nobody can force you to publish a scientific paper against your will: if they try, they will simply be exposing their own fraud.
If they're real, they'll probably answer one way or another --- or fail to, in which case you would be quite reasonable to assume the paper is de facto withdrawn and take it elsewhere.

Thank you very much for valuable suggestions.I have sent the paper already in another journal. But now i have seen that they have published it without our consent (two days back), however we have cleared them a month before that we want to withdraw and also got confirmation from their side. Sir, We are budding researchers not aware of such things and they are taking benefit of it. Now i am mentally upset, i dont know what to do. Now the situation has arrived that even if they wl be doing this free of charges still i don't want to publish or any kind of dealing with such journal.

@Researcher Have you been able to assess whether the journal is legitimate or predatory?  In either case, if you did not transfer the copyright, you can send them a copyright takedown notice.  If they do not comply, then you can set your university's legal department on them.

I've never tried this but if you inform them to withdraw the paper and that the fees won't be paid, that it will get their attention.
If you have given up copyright already, this might not be effective, and you may already have a contractual obligation to pay and will need to fight it out with your co-authors.
But if you still hold copyright, then they have no rights to publish the work. You can, then, also inform them that you won't sign over the rights.


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can my paper be excluded from the conference proceedings after attending and presenting?
I received a very weird email from an international conference committee, stating that their society (who organised the conference) reviewed the content of my paper and finally decided to exclude it from publication in the proceedings because my ideas did not reflect the society ideas and methods.
This is after they accepted the final edit of my conference paper, about 8 months after the end of a 10 day, very expensive conference. The book they are publishing is not a selection of papers, but the only proceedings which records the facts, topics that were discussed and people that were at the conference.
The paper topics were determined when the initial abstracts were submitted. There were no conditions specified at the time of registration, therefore, as for other general international conferences, registration, acceptance and oral presentation means being part of the proceedings, if not otherwise explicitly specified.
Can my paper and thus the record of my attendance and presentation be excluded from the conference proceedings? Can they discrimate against authors based on the society's views?

We don't know what promises were made by the conference organizers or anything about publication agreements that you may have entered into.   As a practical matter, it's probably not worth your cost to get into a legal fight with the conference organizers.

Probably worth mentioning your field, and in particular whether it's one where conferences are the main outputs of record (and thus not being in the proceedings could have major career impact) versus one where conferences are relatively minor, and one could just get on with writing a journal article on the topic.

In computer science this would be considered an outlandish. While @BrianBorchers is right that it's rarely worth getting into a legal fight over it, it's easy enough to escalate to the conference chair or someone employed by the board of the organization sponsoring the conference. I would not hesitate to do so if I had this experience.

@StellaBiderman But in CS there also wouldn't be any revisions after the conference.

I made significant edits to your question to try to make the narrative easier to understand and remove some information that doesn't matter, The changes are currently under review and may be refused or further edited. If you disagree with them, you can revert or edit. Please feel free to do so.

Is this behavior new to this year, or is this how the conference has worked in the past?  I.e. what do previous year's proceedings look like?

Well, is your paper so controversial that some people think they might get accused to be aiding a heretic?

@Karl If it was that controversial, why would they have accepted it in the first place?

There could be ethical issues that emerged only in a second phase, after your poster or oral presentation or, if any, during reviewing the potential proceedings. Given their answer, that points to ethical and not technical problems, it shouldn't be your case, but in general conferences in which presenting does not mean publishing as for the papers must pass review, DO exist and in my field is the norm.

@nick012000 Because it was not clear from the abstract? But still, if it was so controversial they should have known that at least directly after the talk, not only after final editing. Have concerns come up earlier in the process? Have you asked them what parts of the publication are problematic and why exactly?

@nick012000 I have no idea, but the given question triggers another one in my mind, which is cui bono?

I find your arguments very compelling and persuasive (except the one about “generating money losses”, which I think is not really the point, and isn’t something I’d advise you to focus on, although it’s understandable that having incurred great expense to attend the conference would add to your sense of outrage). If the conference website, correspondence with the organizers, and other official conference materials led you, and would lead a reasonable person, to believe that your paper will be published in the conference proceedings, then it seems pretty clear-cut that the organizers are guilty of a serious misrepresentation, and, under normal, circumstances, their behavior would be completely unacceptable.
The only explanation I can think of that would make for a legitimate reason to exclude your paper from the proceedings would be if they discovered that your paper is outright fraudulent or involved some serious unethical behavior on your part. Just saying your paper “does not reflect the society ideas and methods” isn’t nearly enough of a justification to make such a drastic move sound acceptable. (But I assume there are additional details that would shed more light on what’s going on here, although they may not change my conclusion.)
As for what you can do, it’s hard to say without more background details about your field, the people involved, what they find wrong with your paper, your professional status, etc. But certainly I think it would be quite reasonable on your part to raise a fuss and complain about this seemingly unfair treatment, and ask for the decision to be changed.  Some people you might want to involve could be your department chair, other colleagues you are on friendly terms with, your advisor (if you have one), people you know who attended the conference, the chair of the organizing committee, and the publisher in charge of the proceedings volume. I think it’s quite possible that once this decision is scrutinized by enough reasonable people with some sway, you will see justice done.
Good luck! Hope you get this sorted out.

Isn't there any legal option for cases like these? Like suing the conference committee?

@gigabytes you can sue anyone at any time. If you want to propose that as a remedy to OP’s problem, feel free to do so.

I don’t have any experience to propose any solution of any sort. Rather, I was asking your opinion about this kind of solutions.

@gigabytes I’ve never been involved in any lawsuits, so I can’t offer any advice on this topic. I do think there’s a reasonable chance OP could get the problem resolved without having to resort to such measures.

Rules to be incuded in publications have to be objective and clear for all authors and they don't have to give rise to any discrimination. There was no explicit requirement about the conference papers, also there was no mention that only selected papers (with some kind of selecion criteria) would have been included in proceedings. Therefore based on general professional conduct of any conference the organisers behaviour is unacceptable.

Here are the words: 'Since the ........ Society began working years ago on the publication of a lexicon or encyclopedia on the terms in ancient hydraulic engineering, the publication of your article would be counterproductive for our project. Therefore we regret to inform you that we are not able to publish your contribution. But we will gladly invite you to participate in our project when we resume work on it.'   They can comment on my definitions in their own paper, including my study in the published literature. I have all the rights to propose my own definition with freedom of expression.


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How to proceed when a required math class is preventing me from graduation?
I started working on an AS degree in 2014. I took the required math class and failed it twice. I then passed all my other classes, but was told I would have to take the math AGAIN.
So the entire summer I studied, but I was told I could not take only one class for financial aid reasons. I was given a waiver to take the class alone, but after registering, I was then told I needed to re-apply as a new student. I debated this with many of the folks in financial aid and tried to explain I had a waiver to take the class. I had no choice so I reapplied.
I was then told my degree audit went from 95 percent done to 80 percent and that I had to retake classes I have already taken and passed. Fast forward, the school ignores me now. And now they have applied the Satisfactory Academia Progress (SAP) Rule to my account.
I’ve already talked to the entire financial aid department, every mathematics professor at the college, and the ones who run the entire school. I absolutely don’t know what to do anymore.

I have added paragraph breaks which I hope will improve readability. Please explain/define "SAP RULE".

Could you transfer to a bachelor's degree college without completing the degree from the community college, but carrying across credits for work done?

Thank you for that. Well in my degree audit, it says that I have been to the school too long. What happened was the school was making me take courses that I didn’t even need to take for my degree, but they told me they had to be taken. I wasted at least two semesters taking these classes and they don’t even apply now. Of course taking the math added to that. Even though I was given the waiver, financial aide didn’t even care. I provided the proof of the waiver and they still said I had to reapply.

That is what I wanna know. If I could take the credits I do have and transfer them to complete my degree. I will tell you this school makes it hard to get away from them. I asked about any clep exams or any tests that would allow me to get the credit and get the degree and they flat out said absolutely NOT.

I applied some further clean up to your question; feel free to edit if I botched anything. This question will be a little hard to answer without knowing your school's policies and the specifics (e.g., I can't figure out why you would need to re-apply for admission), but some aspects of it are universal (e.g., cutting through incompetent bureaucrats)

"I was then told I needed to re-apply as a new student." "the school was making me take courses that I didn’t even need to take for my degree". What reason did they give for this?  Did your course change its curriculum?

That is what I wanna know. If I could take the credits I do have and transfer them to complete my degree.

Most schools have an in residence requirement: you have to take a certain number of credits at that school to get a degree there. This prevents people from earning a degree at one school and then transferring the credits to hundreds of other schools to get hundreds of degrees.
To choose one example at random, Santa Barbara City College requires 15 credits in residence.
This means two things for you:

Transferring your credits to another school for an AS degree probably won't work; you'd have to do several classes there to meet their "in residence requirement." (Though as Patricia points out, you could possibly skip the AS altogether and transfer your credits directly to a BS program.)
This may explain why your degree audit changed after you were "readmitted" at your current school. Being re-admitted reset the clock on your in-residence requirement.

Assuming your goal is to get the AS, your situation could be one of two things.
Scenario #1 is that the rules were incorrectly applied to you. For example (and this is my guess) the advice to re-enroll as a new student was just bad advice. And now that you have done so, your situation is so complicated that the "front line" people don't know what to do (and don't care to find out). So, they're just hoping that you give up and go away.
If this is the case, the solution is to bypass the front-line people and go to someone higher up who has the knowledge and authority to fix this for you. This may be a dean. At some schools, it's hard for AS students to get a meeting with a dean. In the worst case, you could have to hire a lawyer to force them to pay attention to you.
Scenario #2 is that the rules were correctly applied. For example, some schools require you to graduate within 5 years. If your school has a time limit and you went over, then the policies were applied correctly and you don't have a leg to stand on. In this case, you would have to repeat the classes.
Of course, it's impossible for me to say which scenario you are in, not knowing your school's policies or your full situation. But it's something you should be able to find out by going through your school's policies carefully.

In addition to continuing to work with your current school, I suggest contacting transfer counselors at potential bachelor's degree schools in your area.
Even if you cannot complete the degree you are currently working on, it may, depending on regulations, be possible for you to enter a bachelor's degree program carrying a significant number of your current credits.

This needs to be worked out locally. Perhaps there is an office at the college that will intercede on your behalf - Student Support Office, or similar.
There may be laws that support your case, but then, you would likely need a lawyer.
But perhaps an appeal to someone higher up in the administration will help.
For what it's worth, it seems that you are being misused and that a number of rules are coming together to disadvantage you. Good luck.

I went to the higher ups to get the waiver to take the class alone. It was hell,  but they gave it, only to have financial aide disregard it. Once I reapplied it set me back. They made me think all I had to do was reapply and take the class and be done. It added more classes that I have taken and then they threw the SAP RULE to stop the aide.