text:
Are there any citable Github repositories not published in journals, that receive a lot of citations?
I wish to know whether there is some way, or maybe even some standard, for making a GitHub repository citable in a way that is recognized by academics. Many options have been suggested here, e.g., FigShare and Zenodo, but it seems to me that these routes are not actually established or taken seriously by academics.
For example, I made a Figshare DOI for my GitHub program in 2013 and it turned out to get zero citations, despite the paper related to the code getting many citations. People simply found citing something from Figshare to be awkward so the GitHub repository did not get citations the way an article would.
My question is this: Is there any practical evidence that some way of making a GitHub repository citable is somewhat accepted? For example, can anyone please point me to any GitHub repositories that have actually been cited many times as recognized by Google Scholar?

Hi, user1271772. Welcome to Academia.SE. Unfortunately, what you're asking for is a "shopping question," since you're asking for a "list of X."  A better question might be to ask "How do I get people to cite my online repository?"

@aeismail: Unfortunately I am not interested in the answer to the question "how do I get people to cite my online repository". Honestly I think you're extending the concept of a shopping question to far outside of what it's original purpose was. I asked this question because I think there might be no examples at all, which makes this question very different from all the types of questions listed in the meta post that you gave a link to. How about if I edit the question to say "Is there any github repository with over 50 citations on Google Scholar without being published anywhere else?"

@aeismail: regarding my proposed change to the question, your first instinct will probably be that it will "attract a lot of answers", but honestly I think there will not be many answers at all because neither me or anyone I know is aware of any examples. This seems like the only place where I can ask this question to find out the answer. Please let it stay.

Then the question you should consider asking is: “How do I find examples of highly cited (code) repositories?” That gets you to your goal and still fits within our guidelines.

@aeismail: I made the change, and then just before hitting the button that would publish the change I re-considered. Are you sure this is the best idea? I cannot imagine anyone answering the question you suggest. The answer to that question seems to be to ask here.

The guidance provided in the meta link will say essentially the same thing: while lists of things are bad fits for the site, "how to" questions are considered on-topic. (If somebody knows a highly cited repository, how did they find out about it, exactly?)

@aeismail: I had read the meta link before making my comment 3 comments ago. I may be new here, but I have read the meta link you gave and took time to understand what a shopping question is and why they are unwelcome. All the reasons for rejecting shopping questions do not apply to this question. (1) The answers will not be based on opinion, they will be based on facts (link to Google Scholar page showing citations for a GitHub repo). (2) There is an objective way of deciding the best answer: the one with the most examples or examples with most citations. (3) It won't attract a lot of answers

@aeismail: There is no threat to neutrality here. A git hub repo either has citations or not. I have never in my life seen a GitHub repo that managed to get a lot of citations on its own without being published in a program journal, yet there are tonnes of questions here asking for how to make a GitHub page cite-able, and those questions attracted various different answers suggesting that there's many methods in place to do this, but the question now is whether or not any of those work. No threat to neutrality.

Let me just ask the following question. What is the more valuable piece of information: what is the most cited repository, or how to find citations of a repository? The latter question is more generally applicable and of greater use to future visitors.

@aeismail: Once again, I am not interested in how to find such things, and honestly I'm refraining from asking it that way because I am very doubtful that anyone will be able to suggest a strategy for how to find such a thing. I believe it would be easier to get an answer to the question I asked. This is because if someone just "happens to know" a highly cited Git repo, they can mention it (without having any "method" for how to find such a thing). In this sense, my question is much more likely to get an answer since any answer to your version will also include an answer to my version.

But not the other way around. At the moment I'm not even sure there will be any answer to the question I have asked, so making it even harder to get an answer, does not seem like a wise idea.

Unfortunately I am not interested in the answer to the question "how do I get people to cite my online repository". – Okay, but what are you actually interested in? Going by how you framed your question, you are not looking for highly cited repositories for their own sake – making this an XY problem. For example, do you wish to see proof that using Zenodo can work? Since there are a lot of factors weighing into what people cite (e.g., whether a peer-reviewed paper exists as an alternative), I see little point in having the list you are asking for.

@Wrzlprmft: Well, I do see a point in having the list that I asked for. It would give me indication that there is some method, or maybe even some standard, for making a GitHub repository citable in a way that is recognized by academics. Figshare and Zenodo do not seem to be taken seriously by academics, but I might be wrong. I have no way to know whether or not I am wrong without this list.

@user1271772: I edited your question according to your last comment and reopened it. Please check that everything is still according to your intentions.

@Wrzlprmft: Well let's see what happens. I personally think this whole exercise/argument was a waste of time and the original question was the best way to ask it, but let's see if we get any answers.

I don’t understand what the phrase “make X citable” means. A citation is nothing more than instructions to the reader for how to access the resource being cited. Anyone can cite any Github repo by listing the URL; having a DOI is not a requirement. (Some of my StackExchange posts have more citations than some of my journal papers.)

@user1271772: For what it's worth, one common thing in academia is for people to write a short technical report to accompany a piece of code, and then ask people to cite that.

@JeffE Your shuffling question has 4 citations on Google Scholar. Is that the SE post that has the most citations? Also just a quick answer to your comment: I originally did not use the word "citeable" that was added by the moderator Wrzlprmft.

@user1271772 I strongly suspect that MathOverflow has more citations than any other StackExchange site.

@JeffE I'm referring to your comment "Some of my StackExchange posts have more citations than some of my journal papers." ... is the shuffling question on Theoretical.CS the most cited post of yours?

As far as I know, yes.

The Keras repository has an entry in Google Scholar with 1254 citations.
I'm not aware of the author having done anything special to make it "citable" though, other than giving an example in the FAQ of how to cite it.

For example, I made a Figshare DOI for my GitHub program in 2013 and it turned out to get zero citations, despite the paper related to the code getting many citations.

Personally, whenever I wish to "cite a repository", the first thing I do is check the repository's homepage / documentation / FAQ / etc. to see if the author(s) wrote any instructions on how to cite it. If there are any such instructions, I use those since I assume that that is how the author(s) prefer to be cited.
If there are no such instructions, my next step is to see if there is any (peer-reviewed) paper published by the author(s) of the repository that describes / uses / links to the repository, and cite that if there exists such a thing.
Only if there is no such paper do I consider directly citing the github link itself. The implicit assumption is that, unless there are explicit instructions stating otherwise, it is preferable to cite (peer-reviewed) papers over repositories.

If I try a new search and type Keras, the link with 1254 citations is to a PDF (that happens to be a dead link).

@aeismail Yeah, I clicked the "All 4 versions" button for that one to get my link. That pdf appears to have been (old?) Chinese documentation (see how it starts with "KerasCN Documentation"), not a paper. The author's google scholar profile is here. He does have other publications, but none of them are specifically about Keras.

But how would you know it’s about a repository?

@aeismail Most people include the github url in the References when citing it. See, for example, this paper: www.jmlr.org/proceedings/papers/v48/gal16.pdf (the first one in the "Cited By" list on google scholar of the Keras entry)

The Github link constitutes only 53 of those 1254 citations.

@user1271772 Really? That surprises me. I randomly clicked a bunch of the citing publications and every single one of them had the URL. Either way, I'll rephrase it in that case as "most people should include the github url in the References when citing it".

@DennisSoemers: If you click the link that you gave for the phrase "Google Scholar" then click on the author François Chollet, then click on Keras, it gives a breakdown of where the 1254 citations come from!

@user1271772 Ah well that's irrelevant. The URL is (or should be) present in the References sections of most papers citing it. Google Scholar can be (and often is) wrong about all kinds of details


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Best practices after the termination of your teaching assistantship
My university is an "at will" employer. Graduate students are not unionized. I'm a PhD student and I'm sensing a possibility for a TAship termination, so I want to explore possibilities.
(1) What should I expect to happen if my TAship is terminated? For example: am I likely to get severance pay/continued health insurance/change in student standing, etc? Should I seek legal help?
(2) Any suggestions on best practices? Aside from communicating with my advisor, what are some things I could do to minimize damage? I'm mostly worried about health care and student standing.
Some background: I study at a private US university. My current teaching assistantship is not aligned with my background/has an unreasonable workload. The teaching professor is somewhat not communicatible. I will not be surprised if my teaching assistantship will end up being terminated (maybe even slightly happy), so I want to be prepared.

"severance pay" hahah

Interesting question -- I suggested a few more edits to bring this more into line with the questions we accept (e.g., we don't take "poll questions" like "have you ever had this happen"), feel free to make further edits if needed.

What might happen would depend on why you are terminated. If "for cause" then you can't expect any positive outcome. If for "reorganization" or "financial contingency" it would possibly be different.

For health care see: https://www.healthcare.gov/young-adults/college-students/. Hopefully any college large enough to have doctoral studies will have a plan.

Do you have a contract with your university for your TAship?  Is this done semester by semester, year by year, or for some longer period of time?  Even if there isn't a contract that you signed, does the university have a policy on supporting graduate students as TA's?

What should I expect to happen?

You will not have to teach and you will stop being paid. Though, replacing a TA mid-semester is pretty difficult, so I suspect this outcome is less likely than you think. More likely, the professor will request that you not be assigned to their classes in future (which is probably a win-win).
To your specific concerns:

Severance pay: it's possible that an arrangement will be made so that your funding is not interrupted. We wouldn't normally call this "severance pay" (which is not really a thing for grad students), but most departments recognize that cutting a student's funding is a big deal, so there is a good chance that they would reassign you or adjust your duties rather than completely firing you.
Student standing: usually, TAships are only important for funding, so this will have no impact on your enrollment/research. Though I am aware of a few schools where TAing successfully is one of the requirements for a degree -- so, you should find out ASAP whether this is the case for you.
Medical insurance: varies widely, this may be funded through the department or tied to your TAship. Even in the most extreme case, I would expect they would offer you the opportunity to pay the premiums yourself so you can keep your coverage (this is usually cheap as health insurance goes,  though potentially a lot for a grad student with no funding).

Aside from communicating with my advisor, what are some things I could do to minimize damage?

My key concern would be remaining eligible to be a TA in future semesters (for a different professor). Though if you're ready to switch to full-time research, and you don't need additional TA experience to earn your degree, even this may not matter to you. If it does matter, I would defend yourself vigorously through whatever processes the school has; bringing in legal counsel is really a last resort (and I would not expect it to improve your situation, though I am no lawyer).
Another key concern is the status of your tuition. TAships normally come with tuition remission; without a TAship, you may find yourself responsible for the tuition (which can easily be thousands of dollars). So, you will need to understand what the arrangements with regard to tuition remission for the remainder of this semester. Again, departments (especially in STEM) realize that requiring a previously-funded student to start paying tuition is a big deal, so it's likely that some arrangement can be made to avoid this.
The other potential issue is your reputation in the department. Unfortunately, there is little you can do about this, except trying to be reasonable, respectful, and concise when resolving these issues with other department members.

Likely you now have to now pay tuition, which can be very burdensome at a private university. TAs normally come with tuition forgiveness.

Great point, forgot to mention that. Added a paragraph.

I will relay my own experience with a similar situation.
I was TA for a lab class one semester. In the past I was TA for the associated theory class. To make a long story short, at some point the TAs for the lab class were asked to grade exams for the theory class, which I objected to as not my responsibility. I recall it was stated that the theory class TA was overloaded and we needed to help out. (That actually was false. I did my own snooping and I'd say that the theory TA would have had an uncharacteristically easy semester even if they graded all the exams.) I said that I was going to check my with advisor before grading any exams for another class. Critically, I did not refuse to do the work and merely said that doesn't seem right to me and that I am going to look into whether that is my responsibility.
My advisor agreed that this situation was fishy, and he brought it up during a department meeting. Apparently, this sort of thing has happened before. My advisor's guess is that it involves department politics neither of us are aware of. There was a meeting of the department heads and they decided to ban TAs grading assignments for classes different than the class someone is a TA for. However, they also decided to continue the practice for the remainder of the semester. My advisor told me to grade the exams, which I did on time.
The department has a TA review system. From what I was told the review I received for that class was negative, saying that I refused to perform work I was asked to. I was almost unable to be a TA again. The next time I needed to TA, my advisor and I had to talk to the professor who was handling TA assignments and tell them that the review I received was inaccurate as I did in fact do everything that was asked of me. I voluntarily did not TA again after that semester even though my funding ran out. I didn't want to deal with being a TA in my department again, mostly because I believe the time required to do a quality job exceeds the time I'm paid for.
I don't know if the false review was retaliatory or not. I think it's possible that the professor writing the review interpreted my reluctance to grade the exams for another class as refusal, and was not made aware that I did in fact grade the exams (the latter was communicated through the professor of the other class who did not review me). I agree with cag51 that it's unlikely a TA will be fired mid-semester. I do think the incident unfairly harmed my reputation in the department, at least among the few who saw the false review.
Some other recommendations:
Keep detailed notes on every meeting and action you have related to the class. I did not do this, but it would have been quite useful at times to say (for example) "On 2021-09-20 I was asked by Prof. Smith to grade exams for the theory class. I stated that seems outside the scope of my job responsibilities and that I will check with my advisor before grading those exams. On 2021-09-21 I spoke with my advisor. On 2021-10-15 I met with Prof. Johnson and the other lab TAs to receive exams to grade. On 2021-10-18 I returned the graded exams to Prof. Johnson before the 2021-10-21 deadline." Etc.
Make your concerns known in writing so that there is a paper trail, and if something needs to be communicated (for example, in my case, that I did in fact grade the exams), don't assume that it will be communicated or communicated accurately. Be explicit to avoid misunderstandings.

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If the professor says positive things about me, what are my chances of getting into the history graduate program?
I was just wondering from those who are knowledgeable about the history graduate school process — how much say do history professors have in accepting students to the program? I know they have some sort of say, but just how much generally?
I'm wondering because I'm applying to a really competitive school, and I recently met with the professor that I want to work under. The meeting went really well and he said that I was the first potential graduate student to ask intelligent questions about his writings and that he really enjoyed our talk. When I asked him what characteristics he'd want in a grad student he told me it was exactly what I had done with his work / how I analyzed his writing. He also sent me a list of his graduate students so I could talk with them and told me that he's looking forward to seeing my application.
Is this just jargon that history professors say, or does this actually give me some sort of shot of getting in? Should I feel confident about my application, or am I undermining the rest of the graduate process?
I should note that this is also a smaller PhD program, with about 3-8 students chosen a year (in Modern European studies, which is my concentration field). My GPA is kind of low because I was initially a business major (it is currently a 3.35 as of the end of my junior year) but my major GPAs for history and German are 3.75 and 4.0, respectively. On the application I've started, it also notes for you to list the specific faculty member you'd like to study under, so I would think he would read my application specifically. What influence does he have, and does it sound promising? Please let a stressed senior know. I don't want to get my hopes up either so please let me know if assuming too much.

We won't be able to put a probability on it, and it completely depends on the professor and program how much influence they have. Your chances if you apply are infinitely greater than if you don't. What does it mean to "undermine the graduate process"?

Completely uncertain, it’s tough to gauge your competition at this distance, but best of luck to you in your studies and subsequent career!

The influence of a professor during the student selection phase can vary considerably from institution to institution, so it's hard to tell. In any case, stay strong and don't give up easily, no matter what.

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What should I do if I accepted a review request based on paper title, but then found out it touches on topics I don't know?
I am a Phd student from Algeria, and I received an invitation to Review for the International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing. My Phd supervisor advised me to accept the invitation to review the paper, so I accepted the invitation.
Now from the title of the paper, it looks to be in the field that I am working in. However, when I accepted the invitation and they sent the manuscript to me, it is much more complicated than it looks from its title and touches on topics that I do not know.
What are the best responses should I give in the reply?

If you asked your supervisor for advice on whether to accept or not, why don't you ask them now again for how to proceed? Seems most natural to me.

Perhaps your supervisor wants you to learn the topics you don't know? In any case, ask him - he is your supervisor.

"Touched on topics that I do not know."  It wouldn't really be a research paper if it failed to do this.

You shouldn't really accept a review based solely on the title, but also the abstract

This is, by the way, a reason why writing interdisciplinary papers isn't as great an idea as it might sound like :)

You have two choices, each of which I have done at different times:

You can tell your advisor and the editors that now that you've seen the paper, you no longer think you could do a good job reviewing it.
You can review it to the best of your ability and state clearly in the review that you have low confidence in your review. (Often, this can be indicated numerically.)

Presumably the "it" in the "have low confidence in it" is the quality of "your own review"?

In 1., it should probably be told both the advisor and the editor, rather than just one party. Also, you can leave the choice to the editor: Mention that you are not confident that you can do a good job, but that you are willing to do your best, if they still want you to.

@Arno You're right. Changed.

I (from mathematics) think that if the topic of the paper is somewhat foreign to you, you should decline the refereeing job. Referees should be substantially expert in relevant subject matter, to gauge the value of a paper. If the topic has many new features to you, and you are a novice besides, you will not be able to give any sort of competent opinion in such a direction. You should decline. That is, simply verifying low-level coherence, or line-by-line coherence, is not what refereeing is about, and if one has no higher-level competence, it is not plausible to magically instantly acquire competence thereby to produce an expert opinion. Let's be serious, folks.

I agree with this answer to some extent, but I think there are at least 2 other issues at play: 1) some level of 'imposter syndrome' or similar, and 2) the importance of a paper to be at least somewhat generally readable (maybe this is less common in mathematics but definitely applies to the biological sciences..). If someone is within the readership of a journal but not a perfect expert on the topic they should still be able to understand the paper to some extent. If they can't, they should communicate that to the editor with a review that says as much.

It’s not clear from the question whether the whole paper is based in things outside their expertise, or whether it’s just parts of it that are, with other parts that they’re still qualified to review.  If the former, then I agree with this answer.  But if the latter, then it can be fine to still review, so long as they are honest about their limitations: “I lack the expertise to comment on the proposed widget-theoretic applications of section 5, but the main gadget-theoretic material certainly constitutes a novel and important contribution…”

@BryanKrause regarding impostor syndrome, it is unfortunate that some people suffer from this, but at the same time if OP feels he/she is not qualified to referee the paper and do a good job, we have to take them at their word. What exactly are you proposing to do to mitigate the effects of impostor syndrome? Requiring all referees to undergo therapy to diagnose if they suffer from it or not...?

You can play a mixed strategy, in which you decline to give a recommendation (in either direction) based on your incomplete expertise, but nevertheless try to understand the paper as well as you can and give some comments for the author and the editor. This is something I've done at least twice. Explicitly mention that you are not intending to sink the paper. There is always the danger that the editor misinterprets your hesitation as a negative appraisal, but if this happens despite your explicit assurance to the opposite, the fault lies with the editor.

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Take advantage of coursework based masters program
As mentioned in my other post [How negative to go in a statement of purpose? I tried grad school once before and now I am applying again. The first time I did not feel I got much from the experience for lots of reasons. The program then and the program I am applying to now are both coursework based not research based.
For this question I want to focus on the feelings of the courses. Mostly the class topics were interesting, like in the catalog, but lectures and homeworks were not very hard. Almost like intro level classes even though it was grad school. Or like an extra year of undergraduate. I thought I would be expert or closer to expert but I did not feel different at all after those classes. I feel like I should have got more out. And yes it was a real accredited university not a for profit school or diploma mill.
I want things to go better next time around. My question is what I can do different to get more from the experience? Appreciate the advice!
EDIT:
The answer helps but I asked because I feel like I do not know enough even to know where to start with approaching instructors with higher order questions. I did not mean the class was so easy because I am expert. I meant the class did not add much to what I already know. The program is designed for skills for industry not preparing for academia or research if that matters. In other words I did not really feel I got new skills.

If I understand correctly, you are yet to be admitted to a graduate school and wish to know how to absorb the course in its maximum if you get admitted.
When you are attending the course and not feeling that you are getting enough, which you mentioned as your earlier experience, the way forward is to contact the instructor personally for higher order questions with evidence that you are indeed interested and capable of solving them. I am sure that if the instructor has had research experience in the particular subject or at least a closely related subject, which is almost the case in universities, he/she would be able to help you in this regard.
Now, how to approach the instructor is a different question. You must do an initial search on your own about the core problems in the topic, find a problem  and try to come up with a solution of your own. Success or not, you may then submit with explanation your analysis and ask them for their comments. Chances are that you will be rewarded for your work, at the very least you may get a contact recommendation to another faculty who is working in the field.
All of this are referenced to a future period of time, I think this case is valid since you have clear plans to join a graduate program from the spirit of your question.

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What does "getting scooped" mean?
I hear (and use) the phrase 'getting scooped' to refer to an instance where researcher A uses the ideas of researcher B and publishes before B can publish.
Is this strictly correct, and does it necessarily connote bad faith? Alternatively, is it still 'getting scooped' if researcher A came up with the idea on their own and just happened to publish first?
Any history or etymology of this phrase would be much appreciated.

I would have posted an answer, but I got scooped.

There's no suggestion of dishonesty in the word.

scoop:
Informal:
Publish a news story before (a rival reporter, newspaper,
or radio or television station).
"time and again we have scooped our rivals with the top stories and pictures"

https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/
But do listen to Tom Lehrer's  Lobachevsky.

Thank you, I never made the connection to 'news scoop'. Glad to be corrected.

This answer would be significantly improved if it explicitly addressed the assertion in the question that it's researcher A using researcher B's ideas. While it does implicitly cover that, this answer doesn't address it explicitly (e.g. it talks about dishonesty, but not what would or would not be considered dishonest, leaving it up to the reader to make assumptions, none of which are valid in all societies worldwide).

@Makyen the word is used differently by different people, as is true with a lot of slang.  As you can see from the other answer, at least some people think it means no dishonesty happened but I've definitely seen it used in a way that is completely neutral to that (it could be because of dishonesty, or not)

Interesting, appears to be some ambiguity and leeway in usage.

I think your first statement is not the common understanding. That would be misconduct and "getting scooped" is really just negative serendipity.
Suppose two researchers start out trying to answer the same research question, each without knowing of the other person. One of them is likely to get a suitable answer first and submits it for publication. The other person is said to be "scooped". It is just an unfortunate consequence that occurs fairly often in "hot" areas with a lot of people looking for answers at the same time.
The term, when properly applied, doesn't imply any kind of bad faith at all. If there is misconduct, then it is plagiarism, not "scooping".
There is a somewhat related case in CS, for which I know all of the principals. Two students at different universities were working on the same question at the same time. Because of the importance of conferences in CS, they knew one another and their advisors knew each other, but the research topic both students were working on never came up within this group, though many others were also interested in the answer to the question.
Both students then finished at about the same time and submitted papers to the same conference. This raised the question of whether there was any impropriety on the part of anyone involved. It took a year of investigation to determine that it was truly independent work and both students received their doctorates, though late. They both moved on to good positions, as the question they independently answered was important and valuable.
But, a few months difference in coming up with the answer and a paper to present it would have meant, possibly, that only one of them would get the degree and a publication. The other would have been scooped. In many cases, both degrees would be awarded, but it would depend, perhaps, on how independent the second person's work remained after publication by the first.
For any important but tractable question in a hot area of research, there are probably several people working independently. Someone will probably be first over the line. The others get "scooped".

In the penultimate paragraph "joint work" sounds wrong to me. "Independent work" would be better. I hope that had one been a few months slower it would still be good for a degree, and even for a good job, although not for the conference.

@EthanBolker, yes, thanks. Fixed. And, yes, most places would probably still award a degree if that were the only difference. I think that is fairly common, actually. There are a few questions here relate to this issue.

Thank you, it's a wonderful answer as always. Good to be corrected on this! The anecdote is illustrative and scary at the same time.

@AppliedAcademic At least how I've seen it used, getting scooped is orthogonal to whether or not shady behavior went down.  You can get scooped because someone was working out the problem separately or because some of the work was stolen or leaked.

for eg in this question https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/90712/intellectual-theft-by-a-colleague-how-to-respond . If you google "stole work and scooped me" you will see it's commonly used together.

@eps "stole my work and published before me" is used commonly together as well without there being a connotation of misconduct in "publishing before".

Apart from lifting ice cream, "scooping" means to "collect information"
A 1912 book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called "The Lost World" which is available electronically here, uses the word "scoop" to describe the collection of not ice cream, but information:

"We may get a scoop, if we are lucky. You'll be there in any case, so you'll just give us a pretty full report."

As pointed out in a comment to this answer, "scoop" in the publishing sense this way (referring to "a scoop of information") has been used since at least 1874 and as a verb since at least 1884.

Growing up, I heard the word "scoop" used in the following three metaphotical (not ice-cream-related) ways. Here I'm giving the exact quotes that people said:

"They scoop people up like that?" This was asked to me by a youth co-worker in 2006 when I was working at an amusement park, and the context was about "picking people up", which is definition #1 here. It's also the top definition on Urban Dictionary. I only remember hearing  the word being used once this way (in Toronto, Ontario), but it was etched in my mind, and the above two links indicate that it's not so uncommon among urban youth.
"What's the scoop on the reply?" This was asked to me by a friend in 2005 (also in Toronto, Ontario) after I wrote something about him online, and he was asking for more details from me privately. This is definition #3 on the same webpage I referenced earlier.
"I think you have results to compare against. You may also have been
scooped?" This is an exact quote from a professor in a December 2013 email. Context: He was helping me with some calculations for a forthcoming publication I was planning to submit, and while I was in the middle of this project, I found that a paper popped up online in which calculations of the same thing were published using a very similar (but not identical) method. I sent him the paper, and he replied saying that now there's something I can compare my calculations against, but also that I may have been scooped. This is definition #2 on the same webpage I referenced earlier.

In all three of the above "non-standard" definitions of "scoop", you can imagine a metaphorical ice cream scoop: (1) picking people up, (2) delivering information, (3) taking someone else's ideas with a metaphorical scoop.
This is the most likely etymology of the word. However, in academia the word has started to be used more and more frequently, and as you (the asker of this question) have stated that you do: people are now using the word without knowing where it came from, so it does get used to mean "publishing before someone else" without actually using a metaphorical scoop to take someone's ideas and deposit them elsewhere.

Thank you, fascinating possibilities. Logically it seems like there was initially some suggestion of taking something that wasn't yours, else some equivalent of 'getting outraced' would be more natural.

@AppliedAcademic Exactly!

I think the term "scoop" in academia was borrowed from journalism, as suggested in definition 3 you linked. See here: 'The journalistic sense of "news published before a rival" is first recorded 1874, American English, from earlier commercial slang verbal sense of "appropriate so as to exclude competitors" (c. 1850).' Wikipedia also says: 'As a verb, meaning to beat someone in reporting first, it is first recorded in 1884.'

I saw that too. Those articles don't seem to say why the word "scoop" of all words is used to describe that, but whatever the reason: I can see this choice of word "persisting" since it actually makes sense if you consider a metaphorical scoop like described in my answer, since scoop has been used since middle English, and all definitions refer to scoops in the ice cream sense or "The act of scooping, or taking with a scoop or ladle; a motion with a scoop, as in dipping or shovelling". At some point before 1874 it was extended for "getting information"


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Balancing between confidence and arrogance
People always advise me that I should focus on my achievements when I write a mail for, say research asistanship because people receive a lot of emails and want to know why they should pick me.
However, I do not want to be seen as too confident or arrogant. Is there any way to know when is too much?
Best regards.

"I am ambitious, highly motivated and conscientious" vs. "at high school I build a miniature rocket, driven by self-distilled hydrazine and reaching an altitude of 30 miles (experiment was carried out with due permissions from the local and state governments). Which is a claim and which is an achievement?

I agree with @CaptainEmacs, I think the principle, as they say, is "show, not tell", give evidence/examples (i.e. facts) that make you great, but don't tell them you are great (i.e. adjectives).


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How to act when a researcher doesn't respond to an e-mail?
When asking an unknown researcher about their work (and, most specifically, the data they used and the availability of it) via e-mail, what timeframe could one expect as a "normal" one in which an answer would be expected? If you don't get an answer within this timeframe, how one tactfully go about persisting, if at all?
This is, of course, after formulating the e-mail in a way which describes you and the particular project you're doing that the researcher (hopefully) takes interest in it.


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Applying to do a PhD after a(n unsuccessful) period of job hopping
Disclaimer: Since this question is explicitly about applying to do a PhD, I figured that the Academia SE was a better fit than Workplace, but do correct me if I'm wrong.
How can I explicitly, concisely and effectively explain a period of frequent job-hopping in my employment record in my application package (e.g. in the cover letter, statement of interests, research proposal and/or in my CV itself) which was due to a period of "soul-searching", after which I realized that I definitely do want to do research? I assume that my problem is two-fold:

Being away from academia and the core material of the PhD for several years, meaning that my CV has very little in common with what I want to do despite having studied it years before (cf. "Getting into gradschool from a 'real job'")
Having proven myself to be a job hopper

During your job hopping, how did you figure out you want to do research? The answer to my question is what you need to put into your application package.

I think the biggest problem will be showing that the PhD idea is not just the latest hop in your job hopping. Why won't you quit after about as long as your typical job duration?

Agree with @PatriciaShanahan. How do you convince the admission committee that you do want to do research, not just another hop. BTW, I do like your question. Please don't take my comment offensive.


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CV with photo for postdoc application
I am preparing an updated CV for application for postdoc positions. Is it necessary to put a photo on a CV for postdoc positions?

Could you add a country tag? That depends a lot on your country, e.g. in the US you often don't have photos, while in some European countries it would be strange to not have one.

CANADA and also some European countries such as Germany.

I can't say about Canada. For Germany, I would put a photo as it is still rather common here, but I think considering the fact that you are (I guess?) not from Germany no one will discard your application just because the photo is missing.

CV formats vary widely between countries. In the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands* and Sweden CVs should not include photos, as these could reveal personal information (on race, age, perhaps religion) that employers are not allowed to use under local laws (source).
In many European countries, except those mentioned above, it used to be or still is expected to include a photo on your CV. However, in internationalized areas like academia, norms are converging toward the Anglo-American/Nordic model. German universities, for example, no longer expect photos on CVs, but it's not wrong to have them. I didn't put a photo on my application and got a postdoc in Austria.
I'm not sure about China and Japan.
*Another source specifically on the Netherlands is less strict: Employers are reported as being indifferent, unless it's a high-ranking (e.g. international?) position, in which case including a photo is seen as "bad form".

Damn, I just applied to a job in the Netherlands with a photo on my CV; lucky me that the HR team is international and not familiar with Dutch standards I guess? :)

@DirkLiebhold Good luck! I guess they'll be familiar with Dutch standards, but they are certainly aware that they don't live on an island and that standards vary.

I think must not should be should not: Inclusion doesn't violate local laws, discrimination (based upon inclusion) does. (Upvoted anyhow.)

@user2768 agreed.

Finland: Picture would be unusual. Denmark:  I've applied for a postdoc and an assistant professor position, and neither requested a picture. Norway: I applied to two postdocs and neither requested a picture. Based on this I would extrapolate that a picture is unusual in Nordic academic environments.

I can add the same for Sweden to @TommiBrander 's comment. No photo expected there.


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Is it appropriate to email a professor with a simpler solution than the one she provided?
I am in a graduate math program in the US, and the professor is teaching via online lectures. The proof she provideed for one of the theorems is a little bit tricky to understand. I think I found a proof that, though is about the same length, I think is much simpler. Could it be considered inappropriate to email the professor out of the blue and give her the proof?

I think I found a proof that...is about the same length Perhaps you'll reduce it with time.

There was significant debate here about an edit which has since been reverted; this conversation has been moved to chat.

Email the professor, explain that you came up with an alternate proof, and ask if it is correct.
If you approach it this way, it should be perfectly acceptable to anyone.  You get to find out if your more-clear approach is correct, and assuming it is, the professor maybe uses it in the future.  If it's not correct, you get to learn where you went wrong.  A good exercise for all involved.

This. And based on personal experience on the professor's side: Do it, but please do this at maximum once per assignment. There is a fine line between being enthusiastic and annoying. If your professor points out flaws in your solution, consider your answer carefully. What might look like her opinion may actually be the result of years of experience.

If you approach it this way, it should be perfectly acceptable to anyone. While that’s correct, personally I’m more impressed with a graduate student who shows me that they know their proof is correct (assuming it is) than with one who either can’t decide whether their proof is correct or is appearing to feign ignorance out of fear of hurting my supposedly fragile ego. Bottom line: it’s good to be cautious, but being overly timid carries its own associated cost and risks.

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

It’s okay to ask if your proof is right and, if it is, ask if there is an advantage in presenting an apparently more complicated version of the proof.
Keep in mind that, when teaching, the technique used in solving a problem can be more important than the solution itself.  It might be that this technique comes again later in the course, so having seen it once will help the second time around.

Or that the 'more complicated' proof will turn out to be generalisable to other settings...

Or that the 'more complicated' proof is actually more convincing to a beginner. For example, maybe similar proofs were discussed earlier, or maybe the steps require less specialized knowledge.

Or perhaps it simply the version in the course textbook (which then feeds into it being used later for a different problem)

Yes, it’s fine. Professors are not snowflakes. You can communicate with them just as you would communicate with any other person. And presumably this professor is interested in the topic she is teaching and would be happy to learn about the simpler proof you found.

I found quite a disproportionate amount of academics to actually be quite sensitive to criticism. Given the power differential, the OP's question is not entirely unfounded. OP needs to find out what works for them. I am not saying that what you say is necessarily wrong, but it needs a caveat. That's basically it.

@CaptainEmacs fair enough. I see the wisdom in what you’re saying. Thanks again for a nice discussion.

They are normal humans, but they are busy humans. That's a problem when trying to reach them.

@allo I don’t see in what sense it’s “a problem”. OP asked if it’s appropriate to send an email. Yes, it’s appropriate. Unless OP wants an urgent reply (and there’s nothing in the question to suggest that OP needs a reply at all), whether the professor is busy or not is irrelevant.

@DanRomik You're right and that's why it's a comment and not an answer. It's a small addition, which may be helpful.

Just to mention this possibility: it is very well possible that the professor finds her proof simpler than yours. Different people have different opinions on what is simpler / clearer, when it comes to proofs.
Do send her an e-mail, but maybe it is better not to be too absolute with "this is simpler than the other proof" when you write it.

Jokingly. When I was in my first year there was an exam in calculus. Part of it consists of student preforming a proof of their "favourite" law (one on the list).
Two students were able to reduce three-pages long proof just in three claims proof and one of them, after fair coin toss, walked in and performed this proof.
There were two professors assessing students, because there were too many students in the course so both were taking the lectures, plus one guest.
One of them and the guest were insulted by such mocking of the nice three pages of math (it was way too much shortening for them) and were attacking the student's claims and challenging the reasoning.
The other one enjoyed the proof and the discussion it led to.
In the end the student got mark A and just after their exam the professor who enjoyed the time crossed out the proof from the list for ever and since then they use the proof in their lectures and always naming it as Merryman-Trueman proof, after the two students.

TL;DR
A good professor will examine your reasoning and discuss it with you. Good professor will think high of your interest in th topic and your abbility to think outside of the box instead of memorizing-the-poem.
Bad professor will feel attacked by such arrogance of yours to undermine their genius...
It also depends how you word your email but in any case You will find what type of the professor you have encountered. Just stay polite.

Speaking as an erstwhile adjunct professor, my answer is:
I not only don't see anything wrong with that, I would encourage it. Obviously, you want to be polite about it, but otherwise, I think it's a valuable learning experience.
Of course, it could be that the prof knew of your easier proof but did not use it, for didactic reasons. Or it could be that the prof didn't know of it, or it could be that your proof has a mistake, or that it isn't as general as the proof offered.

I (in the U.S., in math...) would say "of course it's ok to send your own proofs to your professors for comment".
Asserting that your proof is "better", or similar stuff, is probably not productive. For that matter, as in other answers and comments, one of the most profitable outcomes is that you receive a professional critique of your argument, from your professor.
It's not that older people have special powers... apart from having lots of experience, which is almost like a special power, if they've been paying attention. :)

You can still mention that you personally think it is easier and possibly get interesting feedback why the professor thinks the other proof is easier to most people. Or they acknowledge that your proof seems to be easier. You just should not assume everybody has the same opinion, but only speak for yourself and see what's the feedback from other people.

I can only second Jeff's suggestion. Email the prof, say that you found an alternative proof and ask if it is correct. It is then up to the prof to decide whether or not it is "simpler".
I give my students props from contacting me with suggestions and if you play it that way I cannot see how this would be wrong or inappropriate. The worst case scenario is that either your proof is wrong or that your prof does not agree with it being simpler. Either case would not be an issue though.

Of course! You are in science, not politics. I hope! :-)
It's perfectly ok to tell the professor you found a proof you think it's simpler and much easier to understand. You can do that and still being polite. You can fully express what you have in mind, you don't have to pretend you are asking if it's correct or so, because then you only pass half the message you wanted to pass, the professor might not even be sure why you're sending it and you won't be satisfied with it.
Good professor will respond well. It's of course good to do it in such a way that the communication is just between you two. But possibly better than email is personal consultation, if it's available.

"Good professor will respond well". And bad professor?

@user111388 ... will show their bad temper. Bonus point - you will find a professor to avoid sooner or later.

user111388: exactly as @Crowley says: at least you will know he's bad and you know you don't want to do your Thesis or even PhD under him ;-) I know some stories from my PhD buddies how it can go if you cooperate with bad professor ;-)

@Crowley: Well, I'd say one can identify the bad professors earlier (at least a subset  of them) by paying attention during the lecture and avoid writing them an email. I had some professors completely uninteressted in teaching to which I know writing such an email would not end well for me (and my grade).

I would think that its perfectly okay to tell the professor that you think you have found an easier way. As long as your polite, and not telling the professor that they are doing a bad job (Or anything like that) then you should be fine. Just make sure you bring it up politely and ask if your easier solution would also work. Professors just want to educate students, so if you find an easier way, let the professor know as soon as possible so that she can teach other students your way, (if it works). That way you will be helping students in the future grasp a topic easier.


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Best way to show relevant experience when applying for a loosely related Masters?
I am currently in full time employment, but looking to return to University in order to complete a Masters in Computer Science in 2018, so I have plenty of time to implement your suggestions here.
My Bachelors was in an Economics related field, but I only managed to achieve a Third, due to personal reasons and a general lack of passion for the subject area, I should have done a Bachelors in Computer Science, but hindsight is 20:20
I graduated around three years ago and have been in positions with a heavy programming element, having implemented some projects using OOP and T-SQL on a regular basis in real life applications. I believe I will be able to handle any of the programming requirements of any such Masters in the Computer Science field because of this.
Obviously, institutions requiring a strict degree level are closed to me, but many institutions I am interested in state that work experience will be taken into consideration.
How do I best present my experience and attitude to these institutions?
Edit: Thanks for all the good advice so far, just to add that I am UK based, but you have given truly actionable steps so far.

Some of the institutions might have specific requirements on how they want this information to be presented.

I believe if you don't have the course requirements met, you either have to waiver out by passing a proficiency test, or just retake the courses. As far as computer science goes, even if you're well-versed in Java or C++, a program may expect you to at least experience lower-level languages like Assembly, or to understand basic hardware and memory storage. Your mileage will vary.

All the usual advice about writing effective CVs and cover letters applies here.  Additional advice: 1. Emphasize the positive and don't explain any negatives, since I really don't see any negatives in your story. 2. I suggest you take a couple of computer science courses before you apply, in order to (a) get your feet wet (b) demonstrate your ability to be successful in a graduate CS program and (c) garner at least one LOR in the target field.  You can audit if money is an issue.  I recommend taking one course per semester if you are ...

working full time.  Choose a challenging but doable course that you're truly interested in.

@aparente001 Can you please turn your comment into an answer so that I can vote for it?

All the usual advice about writing effective CVs and cover letters applies here. Additional advice:

Emphasize the positive and don't explain any negatives, since I really don't see any negatives in your story.
I suggest you take a couple of computer science courses before you apply, in order to (a) get your feet wet, (b) demonstrate your ability to be successful in a graduate CS program, and (c) garner at least one LOR in the target field. You can audit if money is an issue.

I recommend taking one course per semester if you are working full time. Choose a challenging but doable course that you're truly interested in.


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Job Market Cover Letter - Mention undergrad experiences?
I am on the academic job market in America in the social sciences. I am applying to R1/R2s, with a few liberal arts colleges sprinkled in.
I've heard from a few people that mentioning undergrad experiences are a big no-no in both the CV and application cover letter. Specifically, I've heard that mentioning undergrad experiences makes it look like you have not done enough in grad school and need to pad your resume/cover letter AND that search committees don't actually care about what happened to you in undergrad.
My undergrad degree was from a top school in my field (higher ranked than my graduate school) and I wanted to briefly mention what inspired me to enter this field. Is this a waste of space? Or worse, will I look amateurish?

heard from a few people that mentioning undergrad experiences are a big no-no in both the CV and application cover letter. Did they explain why it's a no-no?

You haven't mentioned what kind of jobs you are applying for, or in what field or country.  Academia varies and details like that are important for getting an accurate answer, so please [edit] your post to clarify these details.

So.. by "academic job market" you mean that you are applying for faculty positions? Just want to make sure.

Don't do this. It will appear as though you're padding, as you said, or it will appear as though you're defensive about where you went to grad school. (Also, your undergrad institution is higher ranked in what sense? While e.g. Yale is a very highly ranked school, many state schools have a better reputation for particular subjects at the postgraduate level.) The search committee can see where you attended undergraduate by looking at your CV.
How does what inspired you to enter the field relate to your ability to excel in the jobs you are applying for? Why is this information in your cover letter?
The only reason to mention your undergraduate experience in your cover letter is to address possible issues of "fit" or institutional culture. For example, if you have a PhD from an R1 but are applying to a SLAC, it can be advantageous to point out that your undergraduate institution was a similar SLAC and you therefore have an understanding of the institutional norms and mission of such schools. (Be sure that your school's really are equivalent though before you make such a comparison!) In other cases, I don't see much reason to mention your undergraduate institution in a cover letter.

Thank you - I needed to hear that and will remove it. (My undergrad department is ranked at the top of my field, but this is a moot point.)


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Would it be acceptable to occasionally sleep at the lab?
I'm currently an undergrad, and work as a researcher in an EECS lab. Recently, I discovered a novel application to work on, and so for the last few weeks I've been staying at the lab late almost every day, leaving at midnight or later. Since I live in a dorm on the opposite end of campus, I usually don't get to sleep until around 2-3 AM. In the morning I need to be up and in class by 8-9 AM (depending on the day), in a building that happens to be right next to the lab.
Would it be acceptable to set up a foldable cot at night (leave it under my desk during the day) and sleep at the lab occasionally? I'm usually the last person at the lab at night. If it cultural context matters, I work at a research university in California (US).
EDIT
The lab is mostly composed of graduate students and professors, so they usually maintain a regular 9-5/5:30 schedule at the lab (minus office hours and lectures). As one of a small handful of undergrads, I'm usually there between 4 (when class ends) and well after everyone else leaves. In some cases, graduate students will sleep in the graduate student lounge just outside the lab proper (still part of the lab IIRC).

It may violate your local zoning laws and codes (it is not zoned for residential use). This has always perplexed me though because you might be able to argue that you are just napping...

Just make sure you let the night cleaning crew know... I almost gave our poor cleaning lady a heart attack the first time I was sleeping on the floor when she came in at 3am to clean!

Reminds me of my final year project team -- there were time that we slept at the lab (4 students) by putting chairs as bed... One day we have a device broken in the mid night and we sent an email to the professor, 5 hrs later (6ish) he popped up at the lab and put down a substitute device silently without waking us up (but one of us was waken up because he was sleeping by the door... We suspect he may be sleeping in his other labs too. I guess if you check with your lab supervisor and see if they are okay with that, then it should be fine...

On an unrelated note, please make sure you do get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation can and will do terrible things to your performance and health.

@Snakes and Coffee - When I was an undergraduate, I used to sleep in the lab most nights. I didn't leave the lab until the early hours so sometimes I just put a film on my laptop and slept on the sofas. Was the good life!

In France it would not be legally possible: there are stringent rules about not being alone in a research lab (even in math!).

Am I the only former grad student confused about this concept of grad students only being in lab from 9 to 5 or so?

I slept at my lab once because of a fire alarm at like 3AM in the morning. It was creepy as hell, and this was a computer lab. How far is the opposite end of campus? My walk would have been 15 minutes.

Opposite end of campus doesn't sound very far.

@gerrit Unfortunately, I'm at a Northern California public school, specifically one that takes about 30 minutes to walk from lab to my dorm

@Foon haha, that reminds me of PhD comics.

30 minutes walk is a 10 minutes bike ride, doesn't sound too bad.

Speaking from experience, it’s not just the night or early-morning cleaning crew that might disturb you: campus security patrols are another possibility. (Happened to me once in grad school at Madison back in the early 1970s.)

I thought sleeping occasionally at lab is a given.

Ask your supervisor. If your PI supervisor controls the space and gives you permission, there shouldn't be any problem for you.
I've seen situations where there are experiments that need to be babysat over long periods and researchers bring cots into the lab so that they can devote more time and provide more frequent checkups than would be possible otherwise.
Of course, if you are homeless and living in the lab for some longer period of time to avoid paying rent somewhere else, that seems like a much bigger problem. Honestly though, I've seen that done as well. The OK-ness and consequences of sleeping your lab will depend on the local culture, rules, and laws. If you ask a supervisor, it will be their responsibility to make that call.

Re: Homelessness. Depending on nation, I've seen departments have cots to borrow for people between leases. I've seen sleeping in one's office at least twice for temporary reasons and one faculty member who does it on a fairly regular basis due this house and his office being an 8 hour flight away from one another (special circumstance, clearly).

To confused British English speakers, it looks like 'cot' means a camp bed in American English. Not one of these! http://www.rainbowwoodsouth.co.uk/cribs-cots-cot-beds-rainbow-wood-south.php

...and babysitting an experiment is different to babysitting a baby.

I have known many people who did this (or something similar) without much trouble. The key things to look out for are:

Safety: are you behind a locked door or in a public space? Will people know you belong or be frightened by an apparent homeless intruder?
Courtesy: the lab is not your home, and nobody wants to see you wandering around in your underwear or smelly in yesterday's clothes.

You are probably OK crashing on the floor or a couch once in a while, but if you are going to set up a cot, you need to have a conversation with the people you share the space with to let them know and make sure they are OK with it. Also, many labs have a discreet shower somewhere in the building: learn where, and use it lest you become the subject of derision.
In short: be safe and courteous, and happy dreams!

lol 'discrete shower'

@LightnessRacesinOrbit: a discrete shower is far better than the continuous shower found outside the building

@LightnessRacesinOrbit im pretty sure that the discrete shower is for the exclusive use of professors and undergrads with poor grades and not postgrad students.

There are always showers in chemistry laboratories, but they are neither discrete nor discreet ;-) (For people not getting why discrete is amusing: discreet vs discrete.)

@gerrit Thanks - not sure why nobody else who noticed it actually fixed the typo.

"...lest you become the subject of derision."  Amen.

Common, the note about "yesterday's smelly clothes" is not serious, is it? By sitting in a classroom following lectures or in a lab supervising an experiment for day and night, you don't get smelly.

@yo' Remind me never to sit next to you: all-nighter has its own distinctive awful odor.

Would it be acceptable to set up a foldable cot at night (leave it under my desk during the day) and sleep at the lab occasionally?

A worldwide internet academic community like this one cannot answer your question directly.  You need to ask the head of the lab.  This is the person who will need to vouch for you if any other university member (student, employee, faculty...) finds you there at night, and this is the person who needs to feel confident that someone sleeping in the lab is neither a threat, a conflict of interest nor an embarrassment to the lab and its work.
I will go way outside my direct experience and speculate that keeping and using a cot directly inside a university laboratory is not something that the head of the lab is likely to approve.  I don't know exactly what is being done in the lab, but if it's in EECS, sleeping is presumably not an intended use of the space.  If you are sleeping right next to expensive and/or delicate equipment, then you are not using it as you have been trained to do, and in some (perhaps annoying but nevertheless real) legal sense you may not be qualified to remain in the presence of such equipment in a less than alert state.  What if you stumble out of your cot and onto something?
On the other hand, a student lounge is an entirely different story: that seems precisely like a designated space for students to spend down time.  If you put a couch in your lounge, then you can reasonably expect people to at least take naps.  It would seem like a much better idea to me to place a cot in the lounge rather than the lab itself.  If you don't want to do this because there could also be other people there: well, again, the lab itself is not your personal sleeping space.  I would think that you could ask even a senior grad student or postdoc "Hey, is it okay if I keep a cot in the lounge and sleep on it occasionally if I need to?"
Finally, although if the right people say so you certainly can sleep in/adjacent to the lab, I wanted to recommend that you give some thought to the work-life issues involved.  In the long run, most people are much happier sleeping in a bed in a place of their own and also having some downtime / nonwork interactions between sleep and attending class.  If you are sleeping nights in the lab with just a stored cot are you not showering / doing morning and evening hygiene / putting on clean clothes before you wake up in the lab and then go to class?  This is most certainly possible and there are institutions full of large numbers of students who do it (I frequented an all-night cafe at MIT as a graduate student and encountered many students there whose motto seemed to be "No shower until I finish this week's problem set".  It wasn't pretty.)  But nevertheless most people realize that this is just less healthy, less fun and even less productive than doing things in a more balanced way.  For that matter, what is it that you're doing in a lab for hours past the time that everyone else goes home?  Is all that time really needed?  I mean, intensity is great, but after a certain point it gets a little manic.  Many of the most successful academics that I know work incredibly hard in a certain sense; but I don't know any leading academic that literally spends all their waking hours working.  You just can't do good work for that much time.  Anyway, it's worth thinking about.

I know of a few EECS labs with a couch in them explicitly intended for the occasional sleepover. (And I also know many grad students - myself included - who routinely go directly between office and gym or other exercise, so have extra clothes, shower stuff, etc in school.)

@ff524: If it's okay with the lab, it's okay with the lab; that was part of my answer.  And, sure, lots of people bring a gym bag to school or work.  That's not the same as regularly staying overnight so that you can wake up in the morning and go directly to class.  In fact I think most graduate programs have at least rumors of students who live in their offices to some extent or another.  That doesn't make it advisable, smart or (in most cases) necessary, and more than  MIT students need to stay up unwashed for days at a time.

The most important aspect here is that you should strive to be a good lab citizen. To that effect:

Personal hygiene is a major consideration (always) and especially if you're sleeping at the lab.
Every lab has unwritten rules.  These rules may not make sense or may not be relative to anyone working there presently.

So gently ask the senior researchers/students what they think and make your decision after considering their input.
P.S. - Sleeping in the lab out of passion, instead of crisis or servitude, is what I would dream of in a student.
P.P.S - Riding your bike back from the lab at midnight sucks.  Especially if there are big hills involved and you've got a backpack.

I gave this answer a +1, but nevertheless I wanted to respond to: "Sleeping in the lab out of passion, instead of crisis or servitude, is what I would dream of in a student." I dream of students who are brilliant enough to make excellent progress on their work without sacrificing their health or their personal lives.  To me, sleeping in a lab after you have done your work there (rather than while work is being done) speaks more to a student's sense of balance and maturity than their passion or work ethic....

I would be interested to know whether and in what capacity you supervise students.   Those who supervise students -- especially strong ones -- soon find out that work-life issues are something to keep an eye on, and it is worth reflecting on the kind of behavior that one approves of or more subtly models as laudable.

+1 for asking the other students as well a as the researchers. We had a student who was sleeping in the lab and sometimes had poor hygiene, and there were considerable complaints from the other students. You may network with fellow students for years or decades after graduating, so it is worth cultivating good relationships with them as well.

I think the key word is "occasionally".  My grad students occasionally have long experiments to run.  I encourage them to find alternative solutions, e.g. to work with colleagues so that they all get 10 hours away from the lab, but sometimes it can't be helped, you have to collect virus supernatants every 4 hours for 48 hours and all your friends are off at a conference.  When that happens, then sleeping at the lab may well be better than driving or walking back and forth ten times.  I follow up by encouraging them to take a full day off as a makeup, or to leave early for the next few days.

@PetL.Clark I +1ed your initial comment and I'll clarify.  My point is toward the motivation and desire to be there. In this case, sleeping in the lab seems like convenience rather than lack of balance or maturity.  And everyone's definition of work life balance is relative.  I would send students home if I found them sleeping in the lab more than occasionally and would not expect them to sleep at the lab.  But we've all faced situations, whether through bad planning, procrastination, or circumstance, where we have had to pull an all-nighter and needed a nap.  Even the brilliant students.

And in my lab, we actually had a student doing what one of the posters said they shouldn't do, which was sleeping in the lab because he didn't have a place to stay.  He got away with it because he was brilliant.

You want to set up a cot in the lab?
I'd venture a guess that this would almost certainly be frowned upon. Many people here are arguing that you should worry about your hygiene. That's not the issue. The issue is that labs aren't zoned or designed as residencies. If there ever were an issue, such as a fire in the building or an injury to your person by some piece of equipment, the school would be in pretty hot water.
You might be able to get away with it, but I can all but guarantee you that if the school found out that you had set up a cot in the lab, the administration would shut that down quickly.

Its generally acceptable to occasionally sleep at the lab.  You mention that several grad students are sleeping just outside as well.
If a couch is available, sleep on that.  Bringing in a cot will attract attention, so check with the lab supervisor (either the prof or a Ph.D. student).  I don't see why they would say no as sleeping at the lab every now and then is an unspoken requirement in many departments.

In some cases, graduate students will sleep in the graduate student
  lounge just outside the lab proper (still part of the lab IIRC).

This suggests an alternative solution. Your department may be willing to grant an undergraduate who is doing research in the lab, with use of a desk there, courtesy access to the graduate student lounge. I suggest checking into that. If graduate students staying overnight sleep in the lounge, rather than in the lab proper, it would be the more appropriate place for you to sleep.

This answer might be slightly off-topic, since you're an EECS-student.
However, in the biology department at my current university there are rooms with beds next to some of the laboratories, exactly for this purpose. These are intended for students and staff performing fermentation that require sampling every hour or two for several hours, sometimes through the night.
So in some cases it is even encouraged.

Beware, it is mostly much more dangerous as it seems, even if it doesn't violate some policies literally. It is already dangerous if you here there until 2AM.
Things are controlled not only by policies and rules, but also by personal feelings. Especially if you have longer plans about your research, on the sympathy of the employees of the lab will depend much more as you would think. And most of these people goes away around 17-18PM, to his family, and they are always there around 8-9AM, to do their job. If you are out of his cycle, it can make a general, negative impression from you.
Although it can be even positive, if you can show very clearly, your task is important, and you are there because of your diligence. It will depend not on your answers to questions, but on your teachers / leaders (which is probably a prof "governing" the lab and the research there). And this positive effect will only work if it happens seldom.

He states he is an undergrad and has classes, so I don't see how others can have any negative feelings because of that. He shouldn't skip class to do research.

@AustinHenley Yes, but the second can be also considered not okay. It is not my opinion (I think it means more diligence), but my experience (better to be diligent in the cycle of the longterm employee).

@AustinHenley If he is on class, it is probably invisible for the people working there. I never said I agree this mentality, I only said how things on my experience work.

I have never met a professor or grad students that don't know a undergrad has class commitments. If they don't, then that is a huge red flag that his advisor/mentor doesn't properly communicate with him or have unreasonable expectations and he probably shouldn't work with them.

@AustinHenley They surely know, but they probably don't know exactly, what is he doing there in the night, when every "normal people" is home. I didn't talked about rules (he doesn't write he would violate any of them), I talked about personal impressions, which could be also important.

Regardless, if he doesn't work at night then he still can't be there during his classes. I don't see your point.

@AustinHenley My point was to make these things clear for him, these weren't trivial to me as undergrad. I don't see what is not clear for you, but if you would enlighten me, I were happy to extend/fix the answer to a better direction.

The question isn't about whether his advisor knows what time he is available to work. The question is whether he should walk to his dorm or sleep in the lab.

@AustinHenley And the answer is, that he should walk to the dorm, with at most a few exceptions, and explains, why.

You explain because of personal feelings about working odd hours. Those will apply regardless of him walking home or sleeping in the lab.

One of my colleagues, a grad student, arrives at the office every day at 15:00 h. Another technician, never earlier than 16:00. No one has a problem with that. In fact, as long as you are making good progress, most people won't even care how many hours you are putting in.

@AustinHenley No, using the workplace on the night hours is much more dangerous as doing this remotely. I think I was very clear, honestly I can't really understand this opposition I've meet here.

@Davidmh Then you are working on a wonderful place - I never stated it were okay, or if I would agree to that. I only expained my opinion, my experience - looks yours are much better, then I gratulate you while I accept your downvotes.

BTW, if anybody had any other problem with me or with my answer, as he/she here communicated, please communicate that here, instead of voting down with some not enough clear reasoning.

you have not given a single reason to not sleep overnight in a lab you work in at a school you attend. there is certainly nothing "dangerous" about it. also, it sounds like you have a non-US perspective, which may not be applicable to the asker's question. this type of thing is normal in the US.

@sgroves I gave, but unfortunately it wasn't really well accepted.

what's the reason you gave? the personal feelings and sympathies of others in the lab are not relevant. it's a university, not a book club.

@sgroves Yes, they are relevant on a university just as in a book club. It really surprises me, what is this opposition I've met, I didn't hurt anybody, I only explained what I think as my best knowledge.

not really, not when it comes to your schedule when working in a lab. are you familiar with US universities?

@sgroves No, but I have significant experience in multiple EU countries (in post-commie part just as on the western part).

ok. the asker is talking about a US university, where this type of thing is extremely common. it will be no problem at all. no one else in the lab will mind, since no one else uses the lab overnight. tons of others have replied confirming this. why do you think you're right?

@sgroves Here it would be tolerated (and even could be well accepted as a sign of your diligence) if it happens only seldom, and the local controller prof of the lab verifies that you are doing some important. And on the unis I know, a permit was also needed (which could have been registered by the prof). I don't think I am right, I only thought it is going everywhere on the world, because this thing is rooted in the "young inexperienced, but very active guy" vs. "old experienced teacher/research with family" cultural dichotomy.


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How to supply proof that you are a reviewer for a journal?
How can you prove that you are a reviewer for a certain journal. For example, I have been invited to review a paper in a certain journal and on my CV I want to write that I have reviewed in this journal but since reviewers are supposed to be anonymous, how can I supply proof that I have reviewed in this journal?

Reviewers normally receive a confirmation email from the journal editor after submitting a review online. Such email should be sufficient to prove that you have reviewed for the journal.

The emails are a bit sensitive, they include your username and login.

Not the emails thanking you for having submitted the review!

@user121692 This is not 100% relevant, but you should know that any website that is able to email you your actual password, not a link to reset your password, is not securely storing your password. I studied this in university, and just wanted to warn you. No website should ever store your password directly (it should be encrypted and irretrievable). I suggest using a different password for that site than all your other passwords, because it is extremely vulnerable.

Most time when you review a paper they send you a link that includes some sort of randomly generated limited time password and it's just valid for that paper you're reviewing.  This is a case where they decide that ease of use (you're volunteering to do this after all) is better than security.  It's likely that the password encoded in the link isn't valid shortly after you submit your review so I'm sure it's not a huge problem.

You don't need to prove it. If someone thinks you're lying, they can just contact the journal editor and check. Reviewers aren't supposed be completely anonymous, anyway. It's just that no one outside of the editors should know who reviewed which articles.

I've seen universities ask for tenure-track faculty to submit documentation of reviews being submitted.

@aeismail That's a different matter from listing it in your CV.

Some journals publish a "thank you to reviewers" list at the end of the year.  If your name is on such a list than that establishes that you reviewed for the journal.
As a practical matter, no one is likely to check your CV at this level of detail anyway.

I always think that people who post what they've reviewed in their CV are really stretching it and I think negatively about them because of it.

@Mark I disagree; a list of journals you have reviewed for in the recent past is useful information: a) a reasonably long list shows that you are a good academic citizen and, when hired, are likely to help shoulder the load; b) a too long list shows that you have difficulty saying no, and c) the quality of the journals on the list is some indication of who considers you an expert in your field. Of course, you need to distinguish between your public CV (e.g., what you'd put on your website) and the full CV (which you'd submit for an application); I'd only put this on the latter.

see http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3540, especially StrongBad's answer.

FWIW I'mr required to provide a list of journals for which I've reviewed as part of my annual report for performance evaluation.  I don't include this information in the CV that I make available to others off campus.

If you don't have any of the other documents by now, just write the publisher and ask him for a letter confirming your being a reviewer.


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What to do when you think a student is incapable of using certain vocabulary?
I think many here have had the experience of seeing a paper that uses grammar dramatically different than its student author has shown in the past, and naturally questioning the authorship follows. But what about when the student uses a single word or short phrase that is out of character? Is that sufficient to justify doubting the authorship? Is it appropriate to suspect plagiarism based on correct usage of a single word by a student who never (in your direct experience) used this word/phrase before? Should we make allowances for age (do older people know more words?) or native language (does this improve or diminish vocabulary?) in deciding the likelihood of the word being a red flag for (mis)appropriated work?
The above question is inspired by the incident described in this blog post by an undergraduate student at Suffolk University. In this blog post the student describes an incident where a professor negatively challenged her vocabulary skills and proceeded to publicly humiliated her in front of her classmates:

This morning, my professor handed me back a paper (a literature review) in front of my entire class and exclaimed “this is not your language.” On the top of the page they wrote in blue ink: “Please go back and indicate where you cut and paste.” The period was included. They assumed that the work I turned in was not my own. My professor did not ask me if it was my language, instead they immediately blamed me in front of peers. On the second page the professor circled the word “hence” and wrote in between the typed lines “This is not your word.” The word “not” was underlined. Twice. My professor assumed someone like me would never use language like that.

Ordinarily some might assume this is just the griping of an unhappy undergrad, but the article starts with the student describing her bona fides which are rather impressive (URL link added by me):

As a McNair Fellow and student scholar, I’ve presented at national conferences in San Francisco, San Diego, and Miami. I have crafted a critical reflection piece that was published in a peer-reviewed journal managed by the Pell Institute for the Study of Higher Education and Council for Opportunity in Education. I have consistently juggled at least two jobs and maintained the status of a full-time student and Dean’s list recipient since my first year at Suffolk University. I have used this past summer to supervise a teen girls empower program and craft a thirty page intensive research project funded by the federal government. As a first generation college student, first generation U.S. citizen, and aspiring professor I have confronted a number of obstacles in order to earn every accomplishment and award I have accumulated. In the face of struggle, I have persevered and continuously produced content that is of high caliber.

Let me be clear that in my asking this Question and others providing an Answer it is important for everyone here to do two things:

Ignore the shameful behavior of the instructor, and
Ignore the student's opinion about her instructor's bias.

I am not saying that these two issues are unimportant, they definitely are, but neither of these issues is the focus of this question. The key question I want to ask is expressed in the title: "What to do when you think a student is incapable of using certain vocabulary?" I use this blog post as an example of the situation that may arise and need to be dealt with.
If I see such a one-word red flag should I speak with the author and express my concern that it makes the work suspect? If so then how do I balance that against the fact that (a) it is a given that students doing academic research are exposed to academic language and are likely to acquire some of this vocabulary by sheer osmosis, and (b) isn't there a danger of discouraging students from expanding their vocabulary if use of new words creates negative reactions?

If you want readers to ignore the highly emotional case of the "shameful" instructor, then the best thing would be to not include it in the question in the first place.

@DanielR.Collins Actually this is not too bad, for context.

@DanielR.Collins - because the whole blog article was linked to (i.e. appropriately sourced) and includes several references to the instructor's attempt to shame the student in front of her other classmates I could not "not include it" unless I wanted to plagiarize the story and leave parts out.

Thesauri are a thing.  The internet is a thing.  As such, everyone is capable of using all vocabulary and dialects at all times. They're also capable of changing their minds about how they express themselves at any moment.  One could write a serious mathematics paper entirely in Middle English (modulo terminology a bit, which will be hard to adapt, unless the mathematics is historically appropriate to the time) if they were so inclined.
If the words are used correctly in the student's work, then in the absence of actually substantive evidence of plagiarism or academic dishonesty, then there's nothing to do.  At best you can comment on whether the choice of phrasing is suitable for the topic or not, and if it helps or hinders the clarity of the exposition.  That Middle English math paper is fairly unsuitable and inappropriate, and almost certainly unspeakably unclear, unless, say, the assignment was specifically concerned with writing in Middle English (in which case maybe the math is the inappropriate and unclear thing).
Furthermore, academic writing is often a dialect of its own.  In mathematics we often say things like "We will show..." even in single author papers, because that's the history and convention.  It is entirely reasonable that efforts at serious academic writing will not sound like natural conversation, and that anyone familiar with how a person sounds in only one of those will be surprised by how they sound in the other.

It's okay for a single word—or even phrase or two— to set off red flags for plagiarism. But a red flag isn't a guarantee of guilt. I'd treat those words like anything else suspect: Google around and see if I can find what they may have grabbed it from. If I come up with nothing, I let it go. It could be they plagiarized, it could be my mind paying tricks on me, or it could be I just wrongly set low expectations for a student (depending on what triggered the mental flag).
If the word isn't appropriate to the paper (due to register or style), then I mark it for that, and suggest a replacement. If they tried to get out of their comfort zone and used a word incorrectly, then same thing, I mark them for that (rather than accuse) and supply what seems like the word they probably needed.
If they come into my office I'll give them a more detailed explanation.

Two words: viva & proof.
It is ok for a word seemingly out of character to trigger an investigation. This is, however, far from a proof, for which you need much stronger evidence. Get evidence, then accuse, not the other way round.
One way of checking up on the originality claim is to talk or viva the student in question.
Langugage is a tricky thing, and sometimes people get enamoured in words which may be ordinarily out of their league.

I don't think talking is really going to work.  I know the vocabulary I use in reading & writing is many times larger than what I'd use in conversation, and I doubt that I'm unique in this.

@jamesqf The talking is about understanding whether the candidate understands. Words in writing have to be so much more precise than in speech because paper cannot answer back for clarification if it fails to convey its message.

It's not just precision, it's pronunciation.  I know the meaning of words like - oh, ' bremsstrahlung' or 'terpsichorean' - and could use them in writing for years, maybe decades, before I first heard them spoken and realized that my idea of the pronunciation (or possibly the speaker's :-)) was way off.

I am not sure how your statement about pronunciation contradicts what I am saying? People may use different words in speech or they may use the same as they do in writing - this does not mean that they pronounce them correctly. In short, I do not really understand the second comment of yours, if you would mind to clarify?

What I'm trying to say is that there are a great many words that I know, and might use in writing, that I would never use in speaking.  So trying to get a sense of the student's working vocabulary by talking to them is probably not going to work.

@jamesqf I hear what you are saying but I think Cpt Emacs point of doing a verbal exam is not to test the vocabulary of the student but rather the comprehension of the material by the student. If the verbal responses are different than the written that is not a problem. But if the responses show a total lack of understanding by the student then the writing becomes suspect. Additionally, I would actually be very concerned if the student was able to recite sections of their paper word-for-word as that would suggest they were learning-by-rote without grasping the true meaning.

@O.M.Y. You have phrased it better than I could have done, thanks!

Anyone can "pick up" a single word or short phrase anywhere at any time. That could include even a grade schooler (I've seen a fourth grader use the word "gerund" because a high schooler taught it to him).
I wouldn't attach much significance to one or two isolated incidences of this. It might become an issue if it becomes a "pattern." Even then, you can't be sure that this student didn't suddenly befriend someone who "spruced up" his vocabulary.
For a charge of "plagiarism," you need more than just suspicion; you need "proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

This is more of a comment than an answer, but I don't have enough reputation on this stackexchange to comment.
I feel it's important to point out a few simple facts that are sometimes lost on people.

Most academics come from middle class or above backgrounds. They are typically not first generation students. They are also very likely to be white. These kinds of backgrounds will naturally affect how they tend to perceive and judge writing and speech of people from different backgrounds.

(I'm sure there is a sex/gender component to this but I don't think I'm qualified to comment)

Students who don't fit the mold of (1) are usually aware of it, and especially a successful student will try to 'correct' their style of speech when writing. That can become hyper-correction.

I actively try to write in a much more formal way than I speak, which is closer to lower class than to higher class style. I can't claim to Know exactly what happened and why it happened to this Suffolk student, but I can empathize with her story.
I think the oral presentation idea expressed by user7019377 is good, as is the "google around" idea of guifa.

Joe: While you feel you only added a comment, the concept of hyper-correction of language is a valid viewpoint that needs to be included in the thinking of how to deal with this kind of situation. As a freshman in college I remember thinking how much I needed to "up my game" when it came to writing style and I think that is a very common thought process.

If the entire paper was out of the student's league, you may have a reason to doubt authorship. A single word or phrase might simply be an imitation of the style found in papers serving as references.
I would not doubt too much. In cases where more doubts are appropriate, you can tell the student to make a short oral presentation of the excellent paper so that the classmates benefit from it as well. (Do the same with excellent papers where you don't have doubts.) I the student can't express his own ideas properly, you have a more tangible reason to doubt.


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Can I get a second masters in the same subject but with a different focus?
I'm doing a ma in economics which isn't very technical. It's focused on macro and international economics. Once I finish this program I'm going to try to apply to another program for an ma in economics that is more technical with a focus in micro and econometrics. I'd be doing this to broaden my knowledge base in the subject and then teach undergrad for a few years. I could maybe pursue a phd if my employer decided to sponsor me for one. Is this something the second university would allow? How would that be viewed? Would it be suitable if my first degree was a ma in Econ but my second degree was something like an ma in quantitative economics? Perhaps a duel degree in Econ and finance/applied math?

The answer to this question is almost certainly "you can -- but is it a good thing for you to do so?". Having a masters' degree makes you very qualified to get one, and so you're very likely to get a place on the course. However, what does it get you? Part of high-level education is learning how to effectively teach yourself. Do you want the piece of paper itself, or do you want to understand micro-economics?

I was considering the same thing. I'm not sure that I could effectively teach myself all of the stuff I'd be learning in the second program. I do like learning Econ topics and as long as my employer is subsidizing a portion of the cost I see no harm in getting the degree/paper. Thanks for replying. I'm still pondering some self study with the MIT freeware and some textbooks I can buy. You've gotten me thinking again!

Not at my university, you can't.

Possible duplicate (definitely related): http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/11617/2692

You should probably also re-think planning to teach economics with only a terminal master's degree as a credential, at least if you're in the US. With only a master's degree, you're only likely to find work teaching courses as an adjunct, which pays very poorly.