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Graduate school with tinnitus
I’m a Syrian refugee residing in Europe. I am about to complete my undergraduate degree in mathematics, and have applied to several graduate schools. To my surprise I got into a few very good ones. However, the last years I have suffered from tinnitus as a result of an explosion in Syria. I am afraid that the concentration problems that come with it (usually manageable, but sometimes severe) will prevent me from success when the difficulty level of study increases. Especially because I have never heard of a successful mathematician that suffers from the same condition. Being a mathematician is my dream, and it would be hard on me to give it up. I lost a lot already.
Could you give advice on how to proceed? Are there strategies to adapt for people in academia with tinnitus?

Just that you never heard of successful mathematicians with tinnitus, does not mean that they do not exist. Some estimates say that about 10-15% of all adults suffer from tinnitus in some way (estimates vary for different countries) , so I would guess that there are mathematicians among them.

I am an academic who has been suffering from tinnitus for many years. A high quality noise cancelling headphone that produces light white noise helped me manage.

@dsfgsho - Could you expand on that in an answer rather than in a comment? Let me give you my upvotes :)

People don't usually announce to the world that they have tinnitus (or any other non-obvious health condition).  You probably have heard of a successful mathematician who, without your knowing it, has tinnitus. In fact, you've probably heard of a number of such mathematicians.

Welcome to AC.Se. I think this is question is probably a better fit at health.se or maybe cogsci.se or workplace.se. There really isn't anything specific to academia about living and dealing with tinnitus.

@StrongBad I disagree. You may or may not be correct in asserting there isn’t anything specific to academia, but that’s a statement about the fact of the matter not a statement about the question. The question is specific to academia.

I do not have much to contribute as an answer but just wanted to say, thanks for asking an interesting question, and instigate a nice collection of tips and anecdotes about distracting disabilities. I wish you the best of luck on your career and research!

I have tinnitus as well and it started when I was an undergrad. I made it through that, grad school, postdoc, and am now a full professor. So there is an example of someone who made it through.
I don't know how bad it is for you. When it started for me, I found it very distracting (and emotionally taxing to know that I would have it for the rest of my life). I had trouble falling asleep. But as I've heard is the case for many with this issue, your brain will adapt over the course of the years and you will notice it less and less over time. Today, some 20 years later, I still have it, but I notice it maybe a couple of times a week -- it's always there, but it doesn't bother me any more. I wish you the same progression and that you take the example as motivation to push through it.

The point about adaptation is critical.  While there is no known cure for most cases of tinnitus, there are a range of options to help manage symptoms.  As @dsfgsho mentioned, background noise can help mask the perception of tinnitus, and another focus of tinnitus management is to change the perceived annoyance of the tinnitus. A counseling program may help you adapt to the tinnitus.

I think that the objective loudness has stayed the same, but the subjective perception of it has become much better. For me, it doesn't seem to be tied to stress. Instead, I notice that it gets louder (sometimes significantly so) when I'm substantially dehydrated. It's a good reminder to drink occasionally. (This happens maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks.) Like so many things around this, I can't say whether there's any objective correlation, but the whole thing started on a day when I got severely dehydrated, and I may be making up the connection.

I had (have) the same experience. The brain is a wonderful thing. It will become less distracting over time, even if no less loud. The brain will also adapt to some vision problems, etc.

Frame of reference: I am a mathematician with disabilities that impair my focus and my ability to do mathematics, but not tinnitus.
Disabilities and chronic illnesses suck. Very often, there is no easy way around them. But that doesn’t mean that you should give up on mathematics, not remotely. Giving up means that you don’t even have a chance of living the life you want to live, whereas not giving up means you have that chance. Go and try. If it doesn’t work out it doesn’t work out. But don’t decide it’s not going to work out ahead of time.
It may be the case that your condition prevents you from pursuing a career in mathematics. If that happens, it happens. In a year or two you’ll be in the same position you are now, and not much will have been lost. But I promise you that if you give up on it without trying you will wonder for the rest of your life what would have happened if you had tried.
Every school in the US has an office dedicated to helping students with disabilities, and I can only assume it’s the same in Europe. I’ve taken exams in silent, distraction-free environments, gotten large extensions on assignments, and extra time on exams. The process of obtaining those accommodations can be frustrating, but they’re totally worth it. Since healthcare in most European countries is so cheap, it shouldn’t be that expensive. In the US, the required tests can run you several thousand dollars. The disabilities office might not advertise themselves particularly well, but any academic advisor and many deans or other figures of authority should be able to point you in the right direction.
Again, I cannot speak specifically to your condition, but I and many people I know have similar conditions it seems. Here are some suggestions for coping techniques:

Buy the best noise cancelling headphones you can afford and wear them all the time, even when not listening to music. These changed one of my classmate’s life and enabled them to do homework again.
Find the quietest places on campus and spend your working time there. Many universities have some libraries or reading rooms dedicated as silent zones.
Seek out locations where you’re unlikely to be interrupted. My concentration comes and goes, and the worst thing for my productivity is interruptions. If you’re working near/with friends, tell them how it’s really important that they try to not interrupt you or distract you. I had a habit of working in the astronomy tower, which was not only out of the way but had a locked room that only about 20 other students had access to.
Seek out others with similar conditions, and see if there are any disability advocacy groups near your university. The moral boost you get from being around other people with the same or similar struggles is incredible, and they might have location-specific coping suggestions.
If you feel comfortable doing so, tell all your professors. In my experience professors tend to be extremely accommodating, and will often go above and beyond what the law or university policy dictates. I understand if you don’t feel comfortable doing this, but it was a huge boon for me to out myself to my professors.
Be kind to yourself. It’s really hard on your psyche to struggle with things that used to come more naturally, and it’s extremely common for people with disabilities to become depressed. It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You’re not worth less (or worthless) because of it. Anecdotally, severe depression as a result of disability tends to cause more people to drop out of school than disabilities do. Keep an eye on your mental health and focus on healthy behaviors.

Getting accommodations in Europe should be, at least, not expensive, since most doctor's visits are free (or almost). Mine may require you to go to their psychologist to determine how much is it affecting you (as opposed to the doctor certifying that you physically have it), but that is completely free. Depending on the university, they may not be so good at advertising how to get them or who to ask, but someone must know it, so keep asking!

@Davidmh That’s a good point! In the US, the requirement is much the same: you sit a battery of psych and academic achievement tests and you have the psychologist who administered the tests write up a course of recommendations. Whatever the psychologist recommends is legally required for the university to accommodate (when possible). But it’s often not covered by insurance so it ends up being several thousand $$$ in the US.

@StellaBiderman - Some evaluators will do a targeted evaluation so as to be able to charge for fewer hours.  I believe less than 10 hours doesn't require "prior authorization."  Another approach is to get thorough evaluation and documentation (IEP or 504 plan) before graduating high school.  This history by itself isn't enough, but it can help. // "Whatever the psychologist recommends is legally required for the university to accommodate (when possible)" -- this might often be the case in practice, but it isn't always this way, and Section 504 doesn't say it needs to be that way.

Anyway, great outline, great tips. // I've been curious for a while how things work in Europe and even posed a question here but there wasn't much of a response, so I'm still wondering....

Are you in an academic position or an industry position? Industry is often much less hostile to people with disabilities than academia.

@ElizabethHenning I currently work in industry, though my post is driven by my experiences as a student and my experience doing research at a university.

I have tinnitus, and unfortunately it seems to increase with stress, so I can empathize.  However, as this is a problem you will regrettably have to deal with forever, my advice would be to not let it rule your life. You have to pursue your passions irrespective of your condition. Will it set you back? Maybe, but then I'm sure many scientists and mathematicians have ADD, or depression, or social anxiety.  If you make your decision based on your condition, then your condition is under control, and that would seem unfortunate.
And in fact, I find I do not notice the tinnitus as much when deeply focused on an interesting problem, so following what interests you may offer some respite from symptoms, however fleeting.

Agree. Stress is bad (but it is anyway). Intense focus is good (but it is anyway). You are what you are.

PhD student in engineering here.
I have congenital tinnitus, and it seems I started out where Wolfgang Bangerth ended up 20 years later. I notice the tinnitus when I choose to, but it doesn't bother me much. In fact, I often find my tinnitus soothing as it's the only sound of silence I have ever known. The tinnitus also can block out more irritating noises. So no, it's not all bad. I can't say my tinnitus has had any measurable negative impact on my life.
My main advice would be to accept your tinnitus and focus on more productive things. This is easier said than done, unfortunately. For many people, tinnitus is a reminder of a traumatic event. As someone who never knew any different, acceptance was likely much easier for me than it is for most people with tinnitus.
In terms of coping with tinnitus, I find most recommendations to be ineffective. For example, several people answering this question recommended noise canceling headphones. I never found those to do anything for my tinnitus (though they decently remove background noise). And I have read people who claim noise canceling headphones make their tinnitus worse. I suspect a scientific study would find noise canceling headphones to be not statistically different from placebo. Over the years I've also seen recommendations for sound therapy like this. The sounds can be amusing, almost like video game background music, but I can't say they've done anything to help my tinnitus. With all this being said, I have found noise machines to be useful, but mostly to drown out background noise, which I think I have trouble filtering out because my brain is constantly filtering out tinnitus. I find noise machines to be considerably more effective than noise canceling headphones. My final piece of advice would be to try to minimize further hearing damage. When I use headphones the volume is relatively low. Also, my hearing and tinnitus become appreciably worse for a few days after flying, so I wear both earplugs and earmuffs on flights.

Health problems do not necessarily preclude success in an intellectual field, though obviously it imposes an additional difficulty that you will need to manage.  You mention having never heard of a successful mathematician suffering from the same condition as you.  I am not aware of any with that specific condition, but it is certainly the case that many famous mathematicians/philosophers have suffered from health conditions on a similar or greater level of severity.  This is not surprising given that mathematicians and philosophers have been active over previous centuries where health and medical practices were far less advanced than they are today.
There are literally hundreds of influential mathematicians, philosophers, and other thinkers, who have been plagued by ill-health during their lives, many of whom died young.  In this context, it is likely that the health problems you mention would be viewed as relatively minor compared to the afflictions that plagued many influential thinkers during previous centuries.  An exhaustive list of examples would be very long indeed, but here are some well-known ones:

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): An influential modern philosopher who wrote a number of works of philosophy.  Since childhood he suffered from severe migraines, which has been attributed by some to a neurosyphilitic infection (disputed).  In his middle-age he unfortunately suffered a mental breakdown and stroke and became physically incapacitated.  Prior to this he managed to write a number of important works of philosophy.  In his most famous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he famously criticised those philosophers who get "good sleep".
John Nash (1928-2015): An influential mathematician who contributed to differential geometry and game theory (winning the Nobel prize for the latter).  Nash suffered from schizophrenia that included severe delusions and paranoia.  He was involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities at various points in his life.  Nash had difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy and his mathematical work was derailed at various points by overactive pattern-recognition stemming from extreme paranoia and hallucination.
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920): An influential mathematician who made contributions to number theory and analysis.  He suffered from severe health problems during his life, including tuberculosis (or possibly hepatic amoebiasis) and bouts of dysentery.  He spent some of his life in a sanatorium.  He died at a young age owing to severe health problems.
Gotthold Eisenstein (1823-1862): A mathematician who made contributions to number theory and analysis.  Suffered from ill health for most of his life and died of tuberculosis before reaching thirty years of age.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) An influential mathematician and physicist who made contributions to geometry, probability and physics.  Pascal suffered from poor health over his entire adult life.  He fell seriously ill with tuberculosis and (possibly) stomach cancer, and spent the last three years of his life with severe illness.
Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866): An influential mathematician who made contributions to number theory, analysis, and differential geometry.  He suffered from nervous breakdowns at a young age, and died of tuberculosis before reaching the age of forty.
Frank Ramsay (1903-1930): A mathematician and economist who made contributions to probability theory, economics and algebra.  Ramsay suffered from problems with his liver and developed jaundice, and died young.

These are just some examples of influential thinkers who have suffered from severe health problems, and have nonetheless achieved eminence in their fields.  There are many other examples of mathematicians and philosophers who died young of various illnesses, though they were not necessarily productive through the those illnesses.  Hopefully this puts your own health condition into context.  While not wishing to minimise your problem, it is perhaps instructive to note that there are others who have succeeded previously in these fields with severe health problems.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do; hopefully you are able to succeed in whatever field you choose, and manage your illness successfully.

Just wanted to contend your statement "on a similar or greater level of severity". While tinnitus has no obvious physical manifestation, it drives people insane and causes many to commit suicide. I would rather have some level of physical handicap than  my present tinnitus and hearing loss.

@21joanno12: Fair enough.  I have no medical training, so my statements on the comparative severity of illnesses may be taken with a grain-of-salt.  Sorry to hear about your tinnitus.

No worries. I apologise- I realise I came across as quite sharp, but would like to raise awareness of the matter!

You've had some solid answers already.  Here are some additional thoughts.  I've collected these ideas from my own experience with a hearing impairment and as a parent of a child with Tourette Syndrome.
To figure out how to modify, adapt and accommodate for a particular disability, the following are helpful:
(1) Brainstorm creative ways to accommodate, modify and adjust your environment to help you work more comfortably and effectively.  Read (example) and talk to people to find out what's been helpful for others.  (Don't limit this research to your specific disability.) Experiment to see which ideas are helpful for you.
(2) Ask advice from a variety of specialists.  Since it can be exhausting to see a lot of specialists all at once, you may want to spread them out.  Here are some ideas for specialties that may have helpful practical guidance for your condition:

assistive technology (e.g. noise canceling headphones)
specialized audiologist who focuses on auditory habituation therapy (see https://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/tinnitus/treatment.html)
social worker who specializes in coping mechanisms for the hearing impaired
occupational therapist who specializes in sensory processing

an educational specialist.
a large pediatric neurology group (I realize you're not a pediatric patient -- but this might be helpful nevertheless)

general tip for searching: this might sound weird, but some of the best specialists I've found, I found by searching within Google Maps.  It's a process.  More specialists will appear (like the Cheshire cat) as you play with panning left to right, up and down, zooming in, zooming out.  As names come up, google to find the practitioner's website.  Also check patient reviews (but do take them with a grain of salt).

(3) Disclosure and self-advocacy get easier with practice.
But note that you may want to  postpone disclosing to an educational institution or an employer until after receiving and responding to the acceptance letter or offer letter.
(4) Develop a clear, proud identity as a person with a disability.  This really helps.  Read about the history of disability rights.  Find some figures with disabilities that inspire you and that serve as positive role models.  (Fun book about growing up with hearing loss: "El Deafo".  The protagonist's situation wasn't the same as yours, and it's intended as a children's book, but still, I got a lot out of it.  This author interview is quite interesting also: https://longestshortesttime.com/episode-86-the-secret-life-of-a-deaf-superhero.)
(5) For reference, even though you're not in the U.S., take a look at some US universities' disability accommodation web pages and the Office for Civil Rights pages about disability accommodation in higher education: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transition.html
(6) Cushion yourself with some emotional distance from people who aren't supportive of your educational goals.
(7) Keep your sense of humor.  This has been key for me.

My recommendation (from experience with Tinnitus and other things) would be the make the OT the first specialist you see, because OT's tend to be very good at knowing all the specialists you should be directed to in turn (including everyone else you have listed).

I have tinnitus and had it for about 5 years. It's intermittent meaning that sometimes I can hardly hear it. But most of the time I do hear it (about 70% of the time). Sometimes it's difficult to cope with it.
I did Grad level Maths and Computer Science when I was younger before moving into industry and now am close to retirement. I have started learning Maths again. Firstly because I am very interested in Maths, but also because I find that when I am deep in a problem, I tend to forget my tinnitus (as others have mentioned).
I agree with several things Ben Trettal has said:

"My main advice would be to accept your tinnitus and focus on more productive things"

and

"In terms of coping with tinnitus, I find most recommendations to be ineffective."

I do believe that healthy and active living is probably the best treatment (eating well, exercise, healthy weight, sleeping well if possible, being active).
I've tried to follow the first quote above as much as I can. Since I've had tinnitus, I've resumed studying statistics and math, gotten promoted in my career, and learned some programming languages.
Why do I mention all these things? Because tinnitus doesn't necessarily need to inhibit you, although it probably does make things harder.

Welcome to Academia.SE! Please check out our [help]; we're a little different from some other sites. In particular, we are strictly Q&A, and we only allow answers to the specific question asked to be in the answer box (i.e., general "good advice" not related to the specific question would normally be deleted). This answer is a little bit borderline in this regard, but given your personal experience with the subject matter, we're going to let it stand this time. We hope that you'll continue to contribute, but please do check out our [tour] first.


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Publishing a non-invalidating comment to a recent paper- should I contact the original authors if I know them?
This question is similar to this one: Publishing a comment or contacting the authors privately?
but has a few differences.
A colleague of mine has recently published a letter responding to another author's paper.  The letter agrees with the general points of the original paper (paper A), but offers specific additions that would improve the general idea from paper A.  After reading this letter (let's call it paper B), I think the additions have merit but should also take into account some new ideas which will build on both paper A and B. My comment would not invalidate paper B but it would argue that their suggestions should also take into account my own.  I know the authors of paper B personally and am in good relations with them.  I am acquaintances with the authors of paper A.
My goal is to provide comments that improve this general idea (by introducing new ideas) and reference both papers A and B directly.  I have two questions. Question 1 is, should I:

I) Write my idea without contacting the authors of the other papers
and submit it to the journal
II) Contact the authors of paper B,which my comment would most directly address, discuss my ideas, and suggest a collaborative paper on which I am first author
III)
Contact the authors of paper B, discuss my ideas and let them know I
intend to publish a comment (not to bring them in on the paper but to
let them know a comment will be submitted)
IV) Take another course of
action

Question 2 is,  if I bring the authors from paper B on my letter, will it hurt the chance of it getting published as a comment to paper B if the authors of paper B are also on my letter?
I think the authors will probably agree with my suggestions.  At the moment I am leaning towards option II as I think option I is unprofessional, but I have never been in this situation before so I do not know what is professionally appropriate.

With regard to question 1, the more transparent you can be, the better. With regard to question 2, what approach will allow you to do the best science? If working with the authors B will improve your response, go that route. The publication process is sufficiently uncertain that I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about the logistics of whether a response to B is more likely to be published with or without the authors of B on the author list.

Answers to these questions will depend on how well you know and trust the authors of the other papers. Sharing your ideas informally could also risk that those ideas are "stolen", if you don't publish them shortly after.

Thank you for your comments.  I trust the authors of paper B in that contacting them would either result in 1) good graces from them but no interest in joining the paper or 2) a fruitful collaboration.

My comment would not invalidate paper B

So you are in a very different situation than the post you quote.
In your case you can manage so that your comment is not harmfull to the authors of B.
You clearly seem interested into getting a reward by publishing your idea (I do not say this in a negative way), so I would do something like III. I do not think it makes sense to add more authors on an 'opinion' paper.
Do you need some input from the authors of B or are you just trying to be polite? In the last case I would only contact them after having a first draft or at the same time you submit comment. You can turn your email into a 'thanks publisfor this inspiring paper' note. The authors should be happy that you are building upon their idea!

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Is a PhD from a developing country worth paying for?
In my country, Egypt, some well-known institutes offer PhD degrees. I want to apply for a PhD program in biostatistics for which I will certainly pay a lot of money.
How much would such a program increase my chances of joining academia in the USA or Europe?

EDIT: The OP didn't specify, and possibly doesn't know, whether the university in question is a diploma mill. To keep the question open, please assume that it is not; i.e., assume that the university is legit. If anyone is interested in whether it's worth obtaining a non-legit degree I recommend starting a new question. If the OP wishes to clarify later on he should simply remove this note.

Is a PhD...worth paying for it? --- No.

@JeffE Are there any free alternatives to help me join academia in US or Europe ? Background: I am a doctor. I've a good statistical and programming practice e.g. watched MOOCs, played with R software. but I don't have a degree in either statistics or computer science.

@JeffE Most PhDs cost a ton of money (in opportunity cost)?  Just because you did not pay tuition, does not mean it was free.

@emory my guess is that Jeff implies that, strictly from a monetary perspective,  a PhD is a bad investment regardless of whether you pay tuition or not.

Is a diploma mill PhD worth paying for? If it can move you from a place where human rights violations are routine to a place where they are rare? ABSOLUTELY YES.  It is worth a lot of money. Can Egyptian PhDs do that? I don't know, but doubt it.

You could also try to do a PhD in Europe or USA (and getting a salary for it). Since you are a doctor, a common alternative around here is to get a clinical position and do your PhD research alongside (provided your degree is recognised, of course).

@JeffE Without evidence to the contrary, I would assume that the question means, "Is the financial cost of getting a legitimate PhD worth it?" not, "Is it worth buying a PhD from a diploma mill?" And if you are saying that the financial cost of getting a legitimate PhD isn't worth it, that needs much more than two characters to explain.

Please clarify the question. Are you asking about the financial cost of getting a legitimate PhD from a legitimate university, or about the cost of buying a worthless scrap of paper from a diploma mill?

@DavidRicherby I think the question was "Is a PhD from an Egyptian institute worth the cost given the OP's goals?".  It does not matter if they are diploma mills or not.

@emory Of course it matters. If the question is about Egyptian universities, answering it requires knowledge of those universities. If the question is about diploma mills, the answer is an immediate and unconditional no.

@DavidRicherby Research into those Egyptian institutes will probably reveal them to be diploma mills.  The practical question is will they help with visas, work permits, and in getting a job at some low tier US or European university.

High institute of public health at Alexandria university,Egypt uses credit hours system(so I think it's not a diploma mill). It provides a master degree followed by a Doctoral degree(master degree is a must for the Doctoral degree). It's a long path. That's why I am asking is it worth money and effort. The professors don't have multiple 'international' publications(with rare exceptions).

@emory No. The phrase "diploma mill" has a very specific meaning. It does not mean "bad university": it means "organization that will sell you a 'degree certificate' without you being required to do anything more than pay for it." Please do not use the phrase "diploma mill" to mean anything else.

@ahmedmar Since you mention the High Institute of Public Health in Alexandria, Egypt, here is a short write-up by the (U.S.) NIH about that school. It seems to specialize in health-related topics of interest to developing countries, and is the "the centre for progress in health development" in that region. Googling the school, I find several Fulbright scholars have studied there. It is possible that as a student there you would have the chance to network with scholars from all over the world. It's up to you to make a name for yourself.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

I don't think it's possible to give an answer in the abstract.  In general I wouldn't recommend paying a lot for a Ph.D. program anywhere, but it depends on how much they charge and how much money you have.  Ph.D. programs in developing countries vary enormously in quality and reputation, and how useful they would be for getting an academic job in the U.S. or Europe varies accordingly.
However, you can try to estimate this for the programs you care about.  The key question is how many Ph.D. recipients from these programs get jobs you would like.  Typically you can find lists of former students on a potential advisor's website, and some web searches will reveal what became of them.  (If you can't find any information on someone online, then they probably didn't get an academic job.)  If very few former students have jobs you would like, then that's a bad sign, while it's a good sign if many of them do.  Of course there are no guarantees either way, but this will give some context for how plausible different outcomes are.

" Typically you can find lists of former students on a potential advisor's website": typically in the US, maybe, but definitely not everywhere. There are tons of advisors who don't list former students (I'm one of them).

@MassimoOrtolano you can do the same thing in reverse.  look on the web pages of the kinds of institutes you would like to join and see where their faculty got their PhDs.

@MassimoOrtolano There are tons of advisors who don't list former students (I'm one of them). — Why don't you?

@JeffE There are several reasons. First, it's totally uncommon in my field: even large groups don't list former members in their websites, and sometimes even current members. Thus, I don't see what benefit would come to me and my former students by listing them. In particular, if I am to list someone on a web page, I'd want to be able to tell them which benefits they would got out of that. Thus far, none of my students had an issue in finding a job, in industry or academic, upon graduation: what would be the benefit for them in being listed as former students of mine? None.

As for me, I'd be maybe able to attract more students, but I'm not sure I want this. Lastly, institutional web pages at my university are not easily customizable, and to do that I'd have to setup a page somewhere else: though it's surely feasible, it's not something I'm willing to undertake at the moment.

I Have two friends who had a similar situation. Here my take on a middle eastern student and a PhD:

"Money Talks" Route: In most cases you will find a supervisor in an institute that take a student who pays for his/her PhD. If the supervisor is good for you, or you are good for the supervisor's research group is another question; and in fact not the focus here. The fact is that you paid your way into the institute. The outcome here might be a PhD degree however you will not get that much out of it in my opinion; because for example, here in the UK you will spend around 60,000 Pounds for three years of a Ph.D program plus the cost of living, where other students are doing them for free.
Political Scene In Middle East: Lets be clear here, middle east is filled with incompetent governments, where at any moment, a war might get started. I wouldn't recommend anyone to be a researcher over there, as there is no peace of mind, and priorities for the governments are something else than funding research.
Language Of Research: The language of research is English. You should learn fluent English to read and write (the harder part). If you do a research in a non English speaking country, like in Egypt, how you would communicate to the world? I see many researchers with very bad English in conferences which is a shame.

Conclusion: Take your time and find a PhD in a developed country for a better personal and professional future. If necessary, pay for your PhD program, however somewhere that is worth paying.

I'm sorry, but why would doing a PhD in Egypt exclude being able to communicate in English? It's a matter of personal development and should most certainly not be an important point to consider when choosing the geographical location of a university.

To be honest, I think that regardless of where you do your PhD, if you are an outstanding student your peer reviewed journal publications will show that. They are a sort of Universal standard, which illustrate your scientific capability. If you can convince world leaders in a field that you are good enough, most universities will want to take you. However, this means that you will be likely to get a postdoctoral fellowship, although you will probably get a lower salary than your native peers, which may be annoying for you. To progress beyond being a research fellow is the difficult part. Only 1% in the UK of applicants make it beyond this point, native or foreign. So you would have to be exceptional. If you are considering a career in academia you probably know all of this anyway, but I thought I would share my thoughts on it anyway.

If your aim is to join academia in the US or Europe, it would be easiest for you to apply for a PhD there directly, since the competition is less for a PhD position than for say a postdoc.
However, if you are genuinely interested in your field of research and join a good Egyptian group that makes sure you publish quality work, your chances for future employment are not negligible. I guess it must not be easy for a student to judge of the quality of senior researchers. My best tip would be to find a mentor at your university or elsewhere that can help you with that.
You could even contact professors abroad and ask their opinions about this or that group (be diplomatic).

Whether a phd is worth the money and effort depends on what your motivations are for doing one.
I certainly knew people who did many years of post graduate studies because they did not want a job. Well worth it for them.
If you simply want to work at a university then getting a degree and then taking a teaching position may be a better bet.
Depends on the field and institution but often teaching is the literal last thing anyone wants to do.

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text:
How to publish a paper that does not seem to be within the scope of any journal?
I have written a paper on applying a mathematical theory to a linguistic problem. I privately submitted it to several renowned professors (some of them very famous indeed) in the field of linguistics, semantics and so on. They made some suggestions and expressed some criticism on some details, but for the most part they praised the quality of the paper.
Following their suggestion, I submitted it to a leading journal in the field. The answer I got from the journal’s preliminary assessment was that the paper had huge potential, but was too mathematical for them. They advised me to resort to their sister publication, where much more focus on natural language processing and mathematics is to be found. The answer was the mirror image: nice paper, definitely scienficially worthy, but too soft, that is, too linguistic or informal for advanced mathematicians or computer scientists.
Now I am in no man’s land. The paper is indeed interdisciplinary (as corresponds to a linguist using some mathematics as he needs them), but I find it very unfortunate that due to a false sense of the own domain, noone seems to feel responsible for its contents, which I deem valuable. Before trying any further submission, I was entertaining the option of submitting it to the ArXiv, but I do not know whether that will make any sense.
How can I proceed to find a journal that considers my paper to fit within its scope?
I posted this question on Math Stack Exchange before and was recommended to repost it here.

Have you put the paper on arXiv yet?

No, not yet. I have sent it to a couple of journals, with the above mentiones answer. My fear is that putting it in arxiv might make it count as a non-publication and even prevent its future publication in a journal. Apparently, that would not matter if I get a nice echo in the community via arxiv but I am unsure about that.

What is your question? Are you just asking if people want to read your paper (which is not on-topic), or something else?

I am just adking for advice (if they want to red it, it is fine, but that is not the goal of my thread) as to how to further proceed.

@JavierArias: I heavily edited your question, reducing it to a single question that should be on-topic here – note that “What shall I do?” is rarely a good question for this site. To this end, I removed a lot of details that I consider to be irrelevant and to divert from your actual problem and made your question more general. Please check whether everything is still according to your intentions.

@Wrzlprmft Thanks for editing. It is fine with me. Let see if I get fruitful feedback and advice.

How did you respond to the second journal's advice? Did you tell them that you'd already received the opposite advice from the other side?

Yes, I did. Then the day after the editor-in-chief replied to me what she was very aware of how difficult interdisciplinary work was, and how difficult to publish, and recommended me another journal (which I have not tried yet; mi first feeling is that it all will  unfold as before) or to upload it to Arxiv. My feeling ist that they take the paper as a hot potato, even if some worldwide scholars recognized its quality.

What kinds of maths and what kinds of linguistics? Lots of linguistics work is already very maths based.

@curiousdannii: You can find those details in the original question. It’s one of the things I edited out because they make the question too localised and should not matter as we do not want to recommend particular journals.

Maybe I am conveying a false message. Of course noone can claim to know all  of his or her field, nor to know all journals in it, but, believe, I am quite knowledgeable in my field and my targets were not pointless. I do not think it is a problem of lack of information on my side (not at least witrh regard to the academics of linguistics), but rather an issue regarding policies, open-mindedness and so on from the other part. That is why I said the paper is in no man`s land right now. By the way, it is a paper on the use of right ideals in a ring for the study of the sublanguages of science.

"appraised the quality" - "appraise" and "praise" have very different meanings...

I meant praised

@JavierArias: Note that you can (and should) [edit] your question to correct such aspects. (In this case, I made the edit for you.)

Is it possible to write two versions of the paper, each detailing only one side of the coin?

Regarding the arXiv, is there an appropriate category that you would feel comfortable posting to? Can you post there?

I guess I should look at it in detail, but I assume in mathematics, or or in some subcategory of it (history of mathematics, history of science, whatever). I have not posted there yet, but I had a look  at it and it seems it goes quite quickly, right??

@solalito No, that does not make any sense in this particular case, as it would become evident yo anyone reading the paper.

@E.P. After having had a look at the categories, probably these two would be the best options: math.HO  and math.RA. But I would be open for suggestions and advice, given the case.

The point is sort of that if there is an arXiv category where this will fit, there's little stopping you from posting there, so one course of action is to post it there, maybe with a comment saying that the paper is looking for a home, and publicize it from there until you get a journal interested. On the other hand, some journals do consider arXiv preprints as prior publication and will not publish manuscripts that have appeared there. In your case it's a tough call as you don't know whether you will find such a journal in the near/mid-term future.

Well, as I said, I will wait two or three weelks to a response from an American Professor interested in it. If that does not work out successfully, I will then probably uplad it it Arxiv....I would like to get echo for the paper, but not at any cost. I prefer it to be properly published by a journal, but I also do not need acceptance from my peers, who I do not trust too much at this point in my life, to be honest with. So I would be glad it the paper gets audience despite narrow-mindedness from colleagues. That is also part of the reason why I feel more confortable among other kind of public

I mean, other kind of public than just the typical linguists who only know their stuff and have no idea about the topics dealt with in my paper. I have seen that mathematicians are generally more open-minded and willing to have a look at innovative stuff. That is why I started posting in MSE in the first place and then came here.

I have finally submitted the paper to Arxiv and it is scheduled to be announced on Thursday. Anyway, the patent path derives from a related paper, not from this one, so that should not be a problem (relevance might indeed be the question for technicians als lawyers analyzing that.

I sense impatience or even desperation in your original question and comments: If you have got serious indications of you are about to be scooped by other scientists, then I will advise you to publish now on ArXiv or likewise.
In some other scenarios, you could benefit most of keeping your paper secret forever. More on this later on.
Do you realize that your research from a mathematician's point of view most likely is applied science, but might be basic science in the field of natural language analysis? Scientists with a pure linguistic background might not even be aware of the potential of advanced mathematic theories.
I can hardly imagine a single paper suitable for journals in different fields without heavy editing aimed for each separate field: Mathematicians want to read about implementation details of the theory, and why one method works better than other ones. Too less of this stuff and your work is “too soft”. However, they do not care about the implications of your results in the field of linguistics.
Language researchers prefer to know what results you can achieve using advanced mathematics but too many implementation details will look like unnecessary "noise", which never will pass the assessment committee.
Even you do not like the journal's comments I will encourage you to consider that they provides you with useful facts.
Suppose a journal accepted your paper just to make you happy. Language researchers scanning literature for a method to solving a specific problem identical to yours setup, say extract meaning of natural language texts in the style of IBM’s Watson, will not get the point in relation to their fields, because they do not understand larger parts of your paper. Mathematicians looking for examples of appliances of
the theory you applied, say bayesian networks, will quickly move on to papers they can read with lesser efforts.
Only people with experience from both fields can take full advantage of the paper, which implies a very low number of citations. That is not what you want.
Interdisciplinary research often leads to spectacular new knowledge and if your paper contains revolutionary concepts or eye-catching implications, it could be a candidate for Nature or Science without changes. Also, try reading “call for papers” for conferences. If you match their hot topics, they will probably accept your paper as it is.
Otherwise, it is a matter of finding that journal, which you most easily can make your paper fit into, and which is the best choice for your career:
Did you ever ask yourself why you wrote this paper? Academic ambitions? Then I guess only journals of linguistics will count. Do you look for a position as researcher in a private company? Then you should go for applied mathematics.
Based on the comment "definitely scienficially worthy, but too soft" and the professors' general acceptance, it sounds like that the right way for just proper academic recognition could be to rewrite your paper as a book.  Wiley, Prentice Hall, etc. tend to listen to recommendations from professors - their actual customers. A submission to ArXiv does not prevent this, and you do not write a single line until you have got a signed contract.
Follow up on just submitting to ArXiv:
A scientist uncovering new areas should always discuss the potential for patents with attorneys before attempting to publish. Publishing prevents patenting. Patenting will worst case only delay publishing.
If your research is useful for software making Siri looking like a toy, I assumes you would like to get along with financial strong companies (Google/Microsoft), which usually keeps their best secrets as secrets and that means no patents/publishing. You deserves economic recognition too.
Good luck!

Well, the thing is, it might be the case that some applications are derived from the line of research the paper describes.....My problem is, I do not know how to evaluate that, and I am a little afraid, because maybe everything is trivia at certain levels for computer scientist and the like..or maybe I will be played out as a naive idiot so to speak.....I woud like to protect my financial interest if the whole  thing is worthy....

No, I am not particulary afraid of peers scooping my paper. Most linguist would not understand much of it, to be honest.  They would pretend the do, though.

Feel free to contact me under  jariasnavarro@yahoo.es  . My web (still work in progress) may also be helpful for those of you who want to know a bit about my background: http://www.javierarias.info/

I certainly did not write the paper due to academic ambitions, since this paper deviates from most of the other stuff I usually publish, and yet I somehow find it much more valuable. I started writing it because I just wanted to understand a certain problem to the core......

I have just read your C.V. and I am impressed even I am a computer scientist.
You are older and certainly much more experienced than I thought. If you find the topic of your paper that interesting as you do, when you decide to write a paper, then with your experience taken into account, I feel completely sure that the scientific value of your paper is sufficient for almost any journal of linguistics.

Computer scientists has gained much knowledge from the fields derived from linguistics.
Personally, I have read two books of pure language science driven by just curiosity. As I tried to explain in my answer, from my point of view linguists do not really care about mathematics and computer science. In that way you are an extremely rare scientist.
I hope that your paper and future work will inspire other linguists to take advantage of modern mathematical tools. By then I think you will get a tough job with assessment committees and to make colleagues read your papers.

Do not fear that computer scientist considers your paper as simple or trivial: We always prefer the simplest solution, which fulfills the success criteria of the project.

I might be overestimating my paper and it might contain flaws, who knows (uo to now, noone has pointed out any serious one), but I am certain that I did not go bunkers when writing it. Alone the whole historiographical research on the topic I did should prevent me from overtly doddering. Again, that is not to say my paper is amazing or anything like that. Maybe it is too trivial to adavanced mathematicians, computers scientist and the like, or too theoretical, or who knows what. But at least I can guarantee it is a solid piece of work. That for sure.

Jan Woukd you hen recommend me to upoad the paper to archiv in the next 2 weeks or so, or rather keep it for myself until the patent experts and lawyers eventually appraise the eventual economical value of the applications deriving from it?

Could you please get in contact with me, via chat or whatever? It is important.....Thanks.

Interdisciplinary papers have this problem a lot. A - now - very influential paper in my field, I was told by the first author, was in limbo for 4 years before it was published, despite the senior author being world-famous.
Persistence is the key. Try to find someone influential who is knowledgeable and you can convince to help you expanding/adapting/explaining the work better and you could then co-submit with. Or else, you could consider aiming for a general-purpose journal such as PLoS ONE, and whose reviewers are advised to select by novelty and correctness, rather than (subjectively judged) relevance.
Learning to write for the specific audience of a journal can also help.

+1 for "Learning to write for the specific audience of a journal can also help."

@Captain Emacs  Thanks for your comments. I have contacted an important scholar expert on one of the authors I dealt with in the paper, and maybe he will help me publish it. Let us see. I am just not too confifent, i hate the whole patronizing attitude in academics. I myself am not a nobody, got shortlisted for a Professorship in Zurich a couple of years ago, but what drives me nuts is the inner feeling, exactly the same paper would have a totally different treatment or acceptance if my status were different. It sucks.

I could tell you stories... However, ultimately you are largely not responsible for your environment where you cannot change it; you are only responsible for your actions. You cannot change gravity, so you build stairs. You cannot change the winter, so you buy warm clothes. You cannot change your peers, so you build bridges. You are the only person you can change, and even that is hard. Others have their own package to worry about, and may have started out as idealists and ended up pragmatists or opportunists. Very few manage to resist that.

I wish I could favorite your comment. Wonderful! And nice answer

Here are some suggestions to get your work published, that may or may not apply to your case – you have to judge for yourself.
Ask the journals
When submitting a rejected paper to another journal, it is often recommendable (and some journals even require it) that you detail to which journals you submitted your papers before and why they rejected it. In your specific case, this may lead to editors being more lenient regarding the scope, in particular if we are talking about sister journals and even more so, if they aspire to cover the entirety of a given field.
If you did not do this, I recommend writing to both journals you submitted to so far and inform them that the respective sister journal also rejected the paper for being out of its scope. At the same time, you can ask the respective journals to recommend a suitable target journal.
Another possibility that you have to consider is that declaring the paper off-topic was an easy way out for the editors to deal with a paper they didn’t really know what to do with. So it may be that your paper does have some relevant flaws that were unmentioned. If you write to the journals as suggested above (and if you do not make any accusations in this direction), they may give you some hints as to what you can improve.
Ask your private reviewers
Another inspiration for journal selection may come from the professors who privately reviewed your paper. If it pertains to their field, they should be able to recommend you a journal. At the same time, you can ask them whether there is anything they would change about the paper to adapt it to the journal they suggest.
Split your paper
This is a standard technique used by my interdisciplinary surrounding: Publish a methods paper (or similar) in a more theoretical journal and then publish an application paper in a more applied journal. A major problem of an interdisciplinary paper – even though never said explicitly – may be the journals have no idea who could review it (this problem would even arise with mega journals). Remember that they need to find a number of people who have sufficient knowledge of all relevant fields and they have to accept to review. Splitting your paper may allow each part to be reviewed by experts of the respective field and thus solve this problem.

Thanks for your comments. With regard to the journals, the second one was informed about the first one's good judgdement on the paper (an even about the names of some of the private reviewers I sent it to before the first submission) and about their recommendation to submit it to their sister journal, due to the scope. So there is no excuse there. You may be right that the paper may have been a nuisance to them: their assessment came later than they had promised. Maybe they are just not competent to read some parts of it and instead of confessing that, they give that answer.

@JavierArias This 'lack of competence' that you mention is a sign of appropriateness of the venue though. As the reviewers are a representation of the audience of of the journal. If they cannot find reviewers that are competent to properly review it, likely the bulk of the audience won't be able to either, and so not a good fit.

@Mr.Mindor Well, the point is that interdiscoplinary work assumes competence in at least two branches of knowledge. Unfortunately the division of labour in academics mostly produces what Germans call "Fachidioten". So basically there is hardly anybody prepared / able to read innovative stuff. My point beinglack of competence should not backfire against the author, who is not responsible for it and has made a huge effort to come to grips with two disciplines or domains.

You might help them out by suggesting some possible reviewers, or people to contact to suggest them.

That's some nickname you have there... what happened to the vowels? :-(

To go a little further than Captain Emacs's answer: even for people doing non-interdisciplinary fields, it's pretty common for nice papers having trouble finding a venue.  One important conjecture in my field (and has motivated a lot of my personal research) was made 30 years ago and remains unpublished because the author had trouble getting it accepted and eventually gave up.
In addition to persistence being important, I want to add: browse journals for similar kinds of papers.
I also had trouble getting one of my papers published because it was on a novel type of problem, which both makes it hard to gauge interest and makes it hard to find appropriate referees.  The first journal we submitted to had it refereed by someone in another field who didn't seem so interested in the pure mathematical aspects.  Then we tried a couple of other journals (including one recommended by an editor of a previous submission) who said it wasn't a good fit and/or couldn't find referees.  After looking around again and browsing a lot of papers in various journals, we finally found an appropriate one.  Yay!
Also, in order for editors and likely referees to be able to properly understand it and find it appropriate, you may need to rewrite it for the intended audience of the journal (Cap. Emacs' last point).  Again,  browsing papers in the journal will help you get a better sense of the intended audience.

Would it make sense to upload the text in Arxiv? Or would it be counterproductive?

@JavierArias For your paper?  I don't know about being "counterproductive" but it might not be appropriate if it's more a linguistics paper than a math paper.  (We put ours on the arXiv, but our paper was just a math paper.)  It's also possible that journals in fields without an arXiv culture may not want to publish something posted on a preprint server.

Well, I guess the most reasonable thing to do is to wait one or two weeks to see if that Professor expert on Zellig Harris can find a venue for the paper. If it does not pan out, then I guess I will upload it in the Arxiv. The paper is half math half linguistics, I would say, and is relevant for both kinds of audience (assuming one is open-minded enough to approach it bias-free).Let us see.....

To enforce the "persistence" aspect further: I did need 4 consecutive submissions once to get a (quite nice in my opinion) paper published, and if I remember half a dozen for another which was interdisciplinary (math+eco). There is more randomness in the process than the answers you got may indicate.

@BenoîtKloeckner I know my paper has quality (the eventual flaws which some reviewer might report would be stuff which can be easily corrected). So the point is that I am astarting to look at those people as smart asses blocking anything they do not have any idea about, just to keep their egos high.....

@JavierArias: point is, quality does need the right person to be recognized. If your paper did not end up in the right hand in the previous submission, it may do in later ones. I agree that some habits are frustrating, but there is little point reworking the whole world compared to take concrete action, such as resubmit. By the way, the suggestion to send to PLoS ONE might be very good, as they are precisely designed to try avoid the pitfall you are in (among other things), but you will have to pay 1500$ or ask a waiver.

I will wait to see what this Professor might stir up for the paper to be published in a monography or so. I am certainly not paying anything for publishing, that is for sure.

I am waiting two weeks or so to see if that Professor expert in Zellig Harris may help publish it in an upcoming book. If not, I guess I will try it to submit it once more and then put it on Arxiv. I am not paying 1500 dollars for publishing my work. It is enough not to be paid for publications so as to then shift to paying for them. I am not rich and am not doing that.

@JavierArias I think you need to stop thinking in these terms about the people who review your paper. If you send it to a journal whose audience is mainly mathematical, I think you will have no chance to ever get it accepted, unless you spend a lot of time getting more familiar with how math is done at this level (this is based on reading your questions on MSE). This is something that will take a lot of time, but will eventually be a very valuable thing for you if you plan to do work that intersects with math.

@TobiasKildetoft I just want to get it published, because I render it valuable as it is. That is independent from my plans in other academic domains or in life. The journals I sent the paper to were linguistic, albeit one of them more focused on so-called mathematical linguistics (which is still linguistics, and not maths).

Maybe I should add that if people contact me privately via chat or so (I guess that function it possible here), I might entertain the option of sending them a copy of the paper, so that they can get a better grasp and eventually help....

If you really can't find another suitable journal, you might try appealing to the editor of the first journal. Explain that you tried the sister journal and what they said. Clearly explain (because perhaps understanding the maths is part of the hurdle) the implications of your work and why it should be of interest to the journal's readers. Ask permission to resubmit. I've had success with this approach myself. Otherwise, there is always PLoS ONE, which considers "all sound science" to be in scope.

Linguistics Ph.D. student here.
I'd say keep looking through the linguistics journals. Several of the big name ones seem to be able to handle quantitative analysis just fine, and some of them welcome it.
What I'm thinking of specifically is that at the recent meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, the award for the best paper that appeared in the prestigious journal Language in 2015 was given to a phylogenetic analysis of various features found in the Indo-European languages, pinpointing the likely geographic origin of the language family. I read this article in its entirety when it first appeared in print. It's fairly math-heavy for a linguistics article, and I certainly didn't understand all of the numbers and statistics in it; regardless, evidently the journal evidently did not object, and the linguistics community in general was impressed. Offhand, I know that Language also once published an innovative article detailing a rather unorthodox use of geometry as applied to the analysis of a language's morphology. What you've come up with probably isn't weirder than that, at a guess.
I get the feeling that even theoretical linguistics is becoming more and more receptive to empirical/quantitative work. The Journal of Semantics was pretty open to interdisciplinary research last time I looked into it. Others that might be worth trying: Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, and Natural Language Semantics. (And if you can tie the project to language change at all, Language Variation and Change always expects to see numbers in some form or another.)

Well, i was not thinking about providing too many details, but since you mention many journals I guess I should give a bit of info. I first submitted the paper privately to 5 professors in the US. One of them, Noam Chomsky, answered back some 10 days later or so, telling me, very concisely, that he found it very appealing and interesting, but that it was well beyond what he has worked on the topic (and on language). An former Professor of mine, Barbara Partee, gave me a more detailed response. with suggestions for corrections and so on,which I partly incorporated.

We thought about discussing the topic further, but since she was on travel and very busy, we put that off for a while and now I am not sure whether it makes much sense annoying anyone with it. Some other Professors also answered, like Lila Gleitman and, specially Robert Barsky, an expert on Zellig Harris, who is now the person I hope my help me with publishing the text. Out of all the answers I was encouraged to submit it to Linguistic Inquiry, which I did. That was the first Journal. The second was its sister publication Computational Linguitics.

After that, I was about to send it to Information and Computaiton, but the contact email seemed not to be active anymore, so I stopped there. Meanwhile, the editor in chief od Computational Linguistics suggested me to submit it to  Language, Logic and Information or else upload it at Arxiv. So now I am waiting for Professor Barsky's reaction and suggestion. If that does not work, Maybe I will give one more journal a chance or just move straight to Arxiv. I do not what this to become an aeternal issue.

The paper is NOT about quantitative analysis in the way in which linguists like to see it (statistical analysis of basic vocabulary, two tailed t-tests for significance of phonological acquisition by children and so on). It deals with Zellig Harris's view on sublanguages in a way which sheds some light in the history of the interplay between Noether's school and Structural Linguistics. Ia has quite a lot of maths in it, but it is not a quantitative paper as frequently understood in the field.

Those of you interested in having a copy of the paper can contact me privately at   jariasnavarro@yahoo.es.  For info on my CV and prior publications, you may have a look at http://www.javierarias.info/.

Sorry if someone interprets this as marketing or so. That is not my intent. I just would like to talk privately to those interested in reading my paper, so that feedback can be transmitted also privately. Best regards.

NO further comments on the topic??? :(((

My suggestion is to try to present the result in a conference first. In some fields (not sure if that's true for yours) the bar for getting into a conference is lower to some extent; and even if that's not true, a conference organizers may be more inclined to have a "weird stuff / odds and ends / couldn't fit this anywhere else" session. Maybe even try to get it in as a non-refereed paper, i.e. as an invited talk - that would mean contacting the organizers rather than the program committee, or both.
When this happens, you might be able to attract enough attention to increase your chance for a journal publication.
This is not to detract from the fine suggestions in @Wrzlprmft's excellent answer.

I have attended some dozens of conferences in my life, in many of them I had a talk or a poster. Now I am done with that, on many reasons (also health  reasons). There is a (not so) fine line between some reasonable marketing of something (basically, let a wide audience know that you exist, that a given work has been done) and lobbying becoming almost a full-time job. I have done some of the first and theis thread is referred to possible ways of doing it better or more efectively. I am definitively not doing the second thing anymore.

Many of the insightful findings by Thomas Kuhn with regard to scientific paradigms have become unfortunately, some fossilized form of sociological sectarism on the part of dominant groups of power. I have reach something in my life on purely independent terms, even got considered for very importante positions such as Zurich despite not haviunbg a Godfather, and now I had it with it. My attitude is: i have something that I deem valuable, I let people know about it. Does the world want it or not? If not, I move on. I know the stuff myself, have no further interest in annoying anyone.

I am moviing this stuff as much as I can on the web, I have contacted professors, have mathematicians read the paper, and so on. No serious criticisism has come thus far. All considered it a valuable paper. I am trying to publish the paper, but I am not sacrificing my few energy left or my whole life on this. I just do not have the energy anymore. If people want to publish it, great. If not, bad luck for all, I close all my academic windows and that is, back to my small garden.

All suggestions are welcome, but please, keep in mind: I am not world famous or anything, but I am not a graduating student either.I am not a nobody in my field, I have a solid publication track and for me it would be very easy to just keep on publishing very specific narrow-minded stuff, with almost automatics acceptance. If I write this kind of interdisciplinaty paper is because that is what I deem really valuable and the only way of really thinking problems in a deep fashion. So I see it like a real effort and some sort of testament or favour to others. If noone wants it, I get the message

For me, the message being conveyed if this paper is not accepted is something like: please keep on publishing your eaisy stuff, we all are happy with that. Do not make our lives miserable with that other kind of paper. That is the kind of message which makes me very sad, and part of the reason why I am not attending conferences or any other vanity fair any longer. I hope you know better grasp my context, thus making yous answers target the goal in a more appropriate way. Sorry for my typos in the whole thread. The program does not always allow me to edit and correct them.

Further comments or advice from you is still welcome :)


text:
Can I copy the literature review section of my previous manuscript to a new manuscript?
We will submit two manuscripts to two Springer journals, in which we propose two techniques to solve the same problem. We found the first technique a few months ago and the second one two weeks ago.
Is it a problem if I copy part of the first manuscript (e.g. literature review, definitions & notation sections) to the second manuscript?

Whenever one uses significant material from another source, one needs to explain that fact and cite the source. The source having the same author(s) doesn't change that.

Is publishing both methods as one paper a viable option?

Don't be lazy, rewrite it. Moreover, if the literature review could be so easily copy pasted, then it means your current work is not novel.

I just feel directly copy and paste would not be a smart move.

A literature review needs to place a work in the context of other relevant works. Your second manuscript is not in the same context as the first, because the first now exists, and is highly relevant.
Therefore, your second manuscript will need to have at least some differences in its literature review, because it will need to discuss its relationship to the first. Even if the first is not yet published, it can be cited as a preprint (preferable) or "under review" (with a copy attached for the reviewers to look at).
Since your second manuscript takes a different approach than the first, there will also likely be some other differences in related work, based on the difference in approaches.
That said, the literature review has less expectation for novelty than most of the rest of a manuscript, and in most academic communities, it is acceptable for there to be a high degree of similarity between your review sections. If you are going to reuse significant text, however, it is good to acknowledge that fact by citing your first paper and saying something along the lines of, "The background for this approach is similar to that of [cite first paper], and thus this literature review has been adapted from that manuscript."

+1 for the last paragraph

Your second manuscript is not in the same context as the first, because the first now exists, and is highly relevant. Isn't the first manuscript "existing" a bit debatable? If it gets rejected or ultimately not published, its "existence" is un-observable for anyone reading the 2nd manuscript if that one gets published (for example).

@Kubahasn'tforgottenMonica A preprint would sidestep that issue. Even without one, it does seem like you could include a brief description of the road not taken. For example, Paper A could say something like "Although this problem can sometimes be solved analytically [ref if it exists], here we present an accurate numerical method that works under more conditions." Paper B would then say "Here we present an provably-correct analytical solution to complement existing numerical approaches [ref]."

If Springer is the publisher and ultimate copyright holder for both documents, then I assume that the copyright issue is (approximately) moot. Springer would need to decide that. But you still need to deal with the possible self-plagiarism issue. You can moot this issue by having one (or better, both) of the papers cite the other and make clear that the same lit review is applicable to both and is therefore "copied here".
But don't be silent on the issue in both papers.
In fact, you may need do nothing more in the new paper than indicate that the literature background for the current paper can be found in the other and that nothing has intervened in the (short) meantime. An editor will possibly have some things to say about this approach, of course.

That seems to assume that the first manuscript gets published. Could you expand a bit about what to do in this case - where, presumably, the first manuscript is not yet accepted?

For purposes of review, prior to acceptance, you can cite the other paper as not yet published, but submitted, or similar. If it gets rejected then you will need to do some editing to fix it up. But the version first submitted is seldom the one published and you can use the time delays to your advantage here.

Even if you can self-cite yourself to technically avoid self-plagiarism, I would personally recommend that you do not reuse text from the first lit review. At least in my old field (physics), this would look incredibly lazy to most readers. You should start from scratch, even if a lot of the lit review is similar.
You will likely find that there is some difference in how you want to present the context in the two papers. Even if not, reusing an introduction word-for-word can give the impression that you aren't really saying anything new in your second paper, or at least nothing that shouldn't have gone in the first paper. At least in physics, I think many people would interpret this behavior as unprofessional and cutting corners.

Have you considered the fact that logically you have one paper? It seems to me that you're ignoring the logical next step to compare and contrast the techniques, discussing when one might be better than another. It seems to me that that is the ideal package. But hey, that might just be paper three in the disjointed, salami-slicing information landscape we live in now. It might also not be possible with the journals in your field, but it would be nice to have everything together for finding purposes 30 years from now. Not that you wanted an archivist's perspective...

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


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Making sense of U.S. assist. prof. salaries: gross vs. net, 9 vs. 12 months
Having recently received a PhD in Economics from a European university, I am entering the academic job market for economists this year. I am targeting research-intense, PhD-granting universities in the U.S. and Canada. I am thinking about Tier 4-5 institutions (certainly not Tier 1 or 2, I do not think I would have a chance there).
I am now trying to wrap my head around the quoted salaries for tenure-track assistant professorships. Having little clue of 9 vs. 12 month appointments, notions like "nominal academic year salary" and the like, I am trying to figure the gross annual salaries from the job adds. After that I am interested in deriving the corresponding net salaries; my lack of familiarity with the U.S. or the Canadian tax systems certainly does not help here.
For example, "Survey of the Labor Market for New Ph.D. Hires In Economics 2015-16" reports "expected and actual offers" on p. 8. Should I understand this is the actual annual gross salary, or should I divide or multiply it by 9/12, or add or deduct something?
Similarly, "American Economic Association Universal Academic Questionnaire Summary Statistics" (2016) list "nominal academic year salaries" in their tables. Are these the actual gross annual salaries, or..?
Once you help me figure out how to infer the gross annual salary, the next step would be to tell approximately what net salary that would correspond to. Should I expect to earn, say, 60,000 net given 100,000 gross? When I say "net", I am interested in hard cash going directly into my pocket. I would not consider any pension or insurance contributions that circumvent my pocket as part of the net salary. I am interested in how much money I would have at the end of the day to pay the bills and to put food on my family's table.
In short, what I am looking for is a brief introduction into the U.S./Canadian academic salary accounting accompanied with a couple of examples.
Edit: The first two answers focus more (although not entirely) on gross vs. net salaries (where taxes etc. feature prominently). However, I am still very much interested in how to read the job adds as well as tables with salary comparisons. That is, does the nominal figure typically equal the gross annual salary, or not exactly? What about my two examples mentioned above?

@MassimoOrtolano, I am aware of that question. Meanwhile, my question is broader; 9 vs 12 is just one among the few points I have. Also, I focus on how to read a quoted salary (how to elicit the actual gross annual salary from the quoted figure) while the other question focuses on advantages/disadvantages or distributing salary over 9 vs 12 months and the like.

There so many differences in state (50 different states with different rules) and local (some cities have their own taxes!) income taxes, retirement plans, and health insurance plans (some employers pay 100%, others pay only a fraction), that it is effectively impossible to answer your questions.  The cost of real estate and other aspects of the cost of living in different places in the US also varies tremendously. If/when you have multiple offers to compare, you'll need to consider all of these issues.

@BrianBorchers Those complications are no different from the rest of the world. Also, many of us are scientists, and our job is to come up with simple but reliable explanations of complex systems.

@JouniSirén Making sense of salaries and taxes around the world could be too complex even for scientists :-)

As far as I can tell, the Tiers you refer to is an Economics specific ranking of Economics departments, not of universities.  Most other fields avoid making such a detailed ranking of research departments.  Also, you should keep in mind that, even at most public universities, salaries are individually negotiated; most universities have no set salary scale, though of course the administration has a budget in mind for the position.

In the United States, the "academic year" consists of the 9 months that comprise the fall and spring semesters. This is the period during which you are formally employed by the university and receive a salary. These 9 months also define what salary you are essentially guaranteed. However, it is possible that you will also get a salary for the remaining 3 months; for example, if you have grants from a funding agency or from industry, or if your department runs a summer program and you teach during these months. You can inquire with the head of the department that made you an offer whether they run a summer teaching program, and what your chances would be to get an assignment to teach. In other words, your salary may be up to 4/3 of the nominal, academic year salary, but that is not guaranteed.
How much of this money ends up in your pocket depends on a number of factors that are hard to estimate without knowing more:

You can look up the Federal tax rate for this income. If you're single, I would think that you have to estimate a tax rate somewhere in the 20-25% range on your total salary, including the 6.2% social security tax. But it may be significantly less if you have family and your spouse is not working.
Some but not all states (and in some cases, cities) have a state income tax. You can also look that up. Many states use a flat percentage of your income, typically somewhere in the 4-8% range. I don't know whether that includes deductions for dependents.
Retirement: Most universities have switched to a 401(k) system where you get no benefits from the university after retiring and both you and the university instead pays into an account over the time of your employment from which you can later draw money in retirement. Depending on university and state, you will have to expect to pay 6-10% of your total income into this account.
Health insurance: If your health insurance has to cover only yourself, then you can expect that your employer picks up all or almost all of the cost. On the other hand, if you have family that needs to be insured, then you have to expect that your share of health insurance will be in the range of $500 per month (for only a spouse) or larger (if you have children).

So if you add all of this together, if you start with $100k per year, you'll end up with maybe $100k-25%-5%-8%=$62k in your pocket if you're single, plus or minus several thousand dollars. But it may be quite different if you had family, depending on the state you're employed in, and any number of other factors.

That is very helpful. So if I see an advertised salary of USD 100,000, can I treat this as the guaranteed gross salary (and then probably hope for something extra that I could earn during the summer months)?

Payroll tax is 6.2% on your first $118K (and then nothing beyond that), not 3%.  Note that schools that still have defined benefit pensions may mean that you don't pay the full payroll tax (and also won't get social security pension).

In cases where the university matches your contribution to a 401(k) or 403(b) retirement plan, those matching contributions are not part of your nominal salary.  The good news is that you're receiving more deferred compensation than the nominal salary.  The bad news is that you have to match it with contributions from your pay check.  e.g. if your salary is $100K per academic year, than $10K of that might be withheld and put into a retirement account, along with $10K in matching from the university, so a total of $20K per year would be put into your retirement account.

Note that various kinds of summer work might have substantial opportunity cost.  It's not uncommon that the department's research expectations for tenure are such that most people would effectively have to work on research through each summer to get tenure, even though they are not paid for that time.  Summer salary from research grants would be an ok way to get paid during the summer, since you are spending that time doing research; but summer teaching might not leave enough research time.

@NoahSnyder -- I stand corrected. My memory was wrong. I've fixed my answer.

The practice of calculating "net" salaries is not done in the US, because the governments tax your total income, not your salary, and the way it works depends on a number of factors that will vary between different people.
These are the major deductions from your salary:

Social security and medicare: 7.65% of your salary
Medical and related insurance: This differs from employer to employer, and you will also have a choice of insurance plans, some of which provide better coverage than others and some of which will cover a spouse and children as well as yourself.  Expect to pay somewhere between $100 and $500 a month.  (Keep in mind this is only about a quarter of the total cost - the rest is paid by your employer.)
Retirement: Usually this is entirely up to you, from 0-15% of your salary.  You put a certain amount of money into an account that is invested for you.  The income tax (see later) on the money you put into the account is deferred; instead of paying it now, you pay it when you take the money out after your retirement, which is a big advantage (because get earn interest on what you otherwise would have paid in tax).  Your employer is likely to match some of what you put in as a way of encouraging you to put in some money.
Income tax: Every year in April, every American has to calculate and pay their income tax.  You add up all your income (including income from investments and in theory the $5 value of the beer your neighbor bought you for feeding their dog while they were gone), subtract a myriad of deductions (for example, you have a personal exemption of about $3000 per person in your household, plus you either get a standard deduction of about $5000, or you can instead choose to itemize deductions which allow you to deduct state taxes, large medical expenses, interest you pay on a home mortgage, and a few other items), and look up a table to see how much you owe.  To collect their money sooner, the government requires that at least 90% of what you owe for the year is deducted from your paycheck.  Most people just elect the simple option of using the standard formula for paycheck deductions, but you actually have a lot of control over this process, and if you get it wrong and had less than 90% prepaid, you have to pay a fine with your taxes.  (If you have over 100% prepaid, you get a refund.)

I think you're underestimating the upper bound on the cost of health insurance.  This varies depending on the cost of insurance in your area (typically higher in rural areas because of physicians shortages and lack of competition) and the percentage paid by your employer.  By state law, my institution can only pay 40% of the cost of my health insurance, and coverage for me and my spouse costs us more than $500 per month.  This is not to mention that the insurance actually has high deductibles and copays, which are concepts the OP probably isn't familar with.

The salaries listed in the documents you've referred to are 9 month gross salaries.  Opportunities for additional summer salary vary tremendously, so don't just assume that you'll be able to earn 4/3 of the 9 months salary.


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What do departments/universities do about unethical behavior by faculty?
I see questions on this site that describe  extremely unethical behavior by professors (e.g., not giving a student authorship when it is obviously warranted). I've also seen some  behavior of this kind firsthand (not by my own advisor, thankfully), and realize that many of the perpetrators are "repeat offenders."
Often the object of the unethical behavior is a student/advisee, for whom it may  not be personally beneficial to lodge a formal complaint. (The student, understandably, does not want to do anything that will jeopardize graduation, reference letters, etc.)
Given that many students won't go on the record about unethical behavior by a professor or advisor, how do academic departments and universities find out about these incidents? (Do they?) What do they do to prevent the offenders from doing it again?
I am not asking about actual university regulations, since I am specifically interested in cases where no formal complaint is made. Rather, I am asking what practical action one could take (e.g.as a faculty member of the same department, a dept chair, a dean of some kind) to

Become aware of the incidents (dept gossip is the only way I know about, is there a better way?)
Officially or unofficially try to stop it from happening again

For example, I know that in my own department, I will warn prospective students of an unethical advisor. I am a student though; I imagine this would be  inappropriate for a faculty member.

This an extremely broad question.  You are essentially inquiring into university regulations...which, much more so than academic ethics, are highly variable from university to university.  Could you narrow down your question and/or explain why an answer would be specifically helpful to you?

If you're angling for someone to say that it's hard for unethical faculty behavior to be adequately detected and addressed in a systematic way: I'll say that.  The following example took place while I was an undergraduate at that university, and I remember thinking even at the time that the "punishment" was both strange and strangely light: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-06-16/news/9606160033_1_ivory-tower-graduate-student-professor.  (However, if you google this professor's name almost 20 years later, "plagiarism" still comes up prominently.  That's not a bad punishment...)

@PeteL.Clark I edited the question, hope that makes it less broad. Thanks

@PeteL.Clark That is an insane story - and in that case, the student pressed the issue. When there are no formal charges (and even if there are, if they don't get media attention), there isn't even a Google record :(

Yes, I think your edit helped.

You seem to assume that the department has any amount of leverage on professors. That may not be the case at all. In Germany, (university) professors are civil servants and can thus not be fired without outrageous cause and under no circumstance by the department. Furthermore, money flow through the department is next to non-existent in many places (professors apply for their own third-party funding) so there is no angle there, either.

I imagine [warning a student away from an unethical advisor] would be inappropriate for a faculty member. — Quite the opposite! If I know that one of my faculty colleagues persistently acts unethically toward their students, I'm obliged to warn students away from them.  (And I have done so.)  My ethical duty to the students outweighs any filial obligation to my colleagues.

The main problem as I have experienced it is hearsay vs. facts. By hearsay, I mean rumours or coffee-table talk and the like. The university and departments can do a lot but not on hearsay. I know of one case where all PhD students finish and then distance themselves for life to the advisor. If one of them had made a formal complaint, things would have been easy but no-one has. In this case the department has behind the scenes "decided" not to grant the person any more graduate students. I am sure many who read this can see that it is highly unsatisfactory "punishment" since it is all happening behind the scenes, but without official complaints there are no other ways to go.
To widen the perspective a little. When it comes to discrimination due to sex and  ethnicity the situation is different, there not much is needed for action. A person can be unfairly branded by almost anything regardless if any evidence exist (such as a student unsatisfied with grades and eager for revenge accuses someone for -ism). In such cases, we, rightly, have the approach no smoke without a fire. Unfortunately the other types of misbehaviours are not generally acknowledged as problems of similar dignity and so a wealth of hard evidence is required and lost of benefit of doubt exists in the process.
So although much can be done, many cases go on for long periods due to lack of hard facts. Sometimes problems are taken care of behind the scenes but these cases can drag on for very long periods. The fact that they are handled behind the scenes does not carry legal certainty and can be a problem by themselves. So clearly problems exist but the processes of "pressing charges" are unclear and uncertain. So to cap off, it is a legally tricky situation where anything but an open process carries unsatisfactory issues.

Thanks, this is a useful answer. How does a department "not grant" the person students - if he has his own grant money and there are no formal complaints, isn't he free to recruit his own students?

@ff524: Even if you have a tenured position, the university can simply not let students choose you as their advisor.  Recruiting students won't help if the university won't admit them or won't let them switch their advisor to you.  In practice people in this situation wouldn't even try to recruit students, to avoid embarrassment, but if they did the students would be told something like "Sorry, this faculty member is not allowed to supervise graduate students" when they tried to file the paperwork.

"can do a lot but not on hearsay" which I think is a very sane and healthy approach. After all there has to be some balance that also ensures that rumours that are just rumours spread in order to harm someone cannot do too much damage.

What to do against the lack of facts is IMHO another question. Personally, I've been in a situation where I suspected that someone was subject to unethical behaviour by so else. I took the suspected victim aside and asked directly whether there are issues (fortunately it turned out that things were all right). I think this can help in several ways: because not directly involved, an intermediate can save the student's anonymity (at least until a stage of investigations where the student can be reasonably sure this won't backfire on him/her). ...

... For raising concerns with the department positively knowing of issues is a much stronger position than just suspecting something because some rumour came along or something looks fishy seen from the outside.


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Rationale for Passing Students "by Compensation"
Certainly in Ireland at least, there is a mechanism whereby students, with otherwise  good grades, are allowed to "pass by compensation" a module(s) that they have failed.
For example, a student presenting with 12x5 credit modules has an average of 55% in 11 modules (with marks above a passing grade of 40%) but one module is failed with a grade of 36%. Such a student is usually allowed to pass the module "by compensation". Usually the threshold is 35% but sometimes 30% and there is a condition on the quality of the other results presented.
I am doing a quick study of the compensation rules in Irish third level institutions (as far as I understand all but one offer this mechanism), but am trying to understand the rationale for the mechanism's existence. I list two below:

Perhaps even early in a programme of study, a student specialises, excelling in one subject while struggling with another. The student should be rewarded for excelling and allow excellent performance in one area to 'compensate' for poorer performance in another.
A student who performs badly in an assessment task may, for whatever reason, have achieved the learning outcomes but not demonstrated them in the assessment. In particular, a module(s) with poor grades at odds with the rest of the student's module results might signal that such an event has occurred. Rather than requiring the student to repeat the module, the student is given the benefit of the doubt, and is allowed pass by compensation.

I am interested in hearing what other good reasons there are for having such a mechanism.
Thank you.

This seems pretty specialized to Ireland. Is such "passing" automatic in the cases you cite, or is an individual assessment made by a professor or committee? In other words is it a default or special situation?

@Buffy usually it is default. Conditions might include that the surplus (above 40%) in the passing modules is double the deficit (below 40%) in the failing modules. Sometimes there are rules within departments, e.g. no compensation in first year. Sometimes modules are deemed core or required and compensation is not possible in these modules.

@Buffy - well, it is kind of like averaging it all together. Doing poorly on one homework assignment doesn't mean the student fails the course if all other grades are good...

The programme director of an MSc course in the UK explained to me the rationale for applying this as encouraging people to take courses that look "hard" (eg more technical courses on a "softer" programme) or outside their comfort zone.(compared to prior learning or professional experience). That is not to say this was the original intention when it was introduced, but it was a rule the director took efforts to publicise on this basis.

Compensation is used in (at least) some universities in the UK, too. The rationale is usually that although module learning objectives are not fully met, the program learning objectives are not sufficiently compromised, when only one module is failed with a near-pass mark. The meta-rationale is that we effectively choose between two "bad" things:

progressing or graduating a student who did not fully met the LOs
delaying progression / graduation for a year and asking student to repeat the module and/or resit the assessment

The first option feels like a lesser "worse" all things considered: student has a chance of picking the necessary knowledge later in other modules / programs, but they never have a chance to get a year of life back.

is a "module" equivalent to a "course" or closer to an "assignment"/"exam"?

My experiance going to university to do electrical engineering in the in the UK is that a module is normally a course (there are exceptions such as projects) and normally (again there are exceptions) IIRC about 80% of the marks for a module were normally awarded based on the exam at the end, so failing the exam most likely means failing the module except in borderline cases.

@WoodrowBarlow For example, "Advanced calculus" is a module (year or semester-long, one or maybe a couple of assessments). "UG Mathematics with Finance" is a program (3 years long, consists of ~20 taught modules + a project).