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Correctly formulate Figure caption: refer the reader to the web version of the paper?
I have included a pretty complex map with about 10 different colors in my scientific paper in forest ecology. I am looking for a standard formule which is applied in this case, something as : For interpretation of the references to color in this figure caption, the reader is referred to the web version of this paper.
However, in my caption I do not use the description i.e., red represent rats and green ~ herb, thus I do not want to start with For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure caption...
How can I correctly write: please, for color representation of the figure, refer to the web version of the paper?
I am not an English native speaker.
Could be the following formulation correct?
The reader is referred to the web version of this paper for the color representation of this figure.
If not, do you have some better suggestions?
thank you !

Do I understand correctly that you just want to tell the reader that the colored figure is available online (in case they printed it b/w)?
If so, then the usual approach is to do the following:

Figure 1: (Color online) This is the caption and there is some stuff here.

This may depend on your field, but the American Physical Society (APS) recommends this.

Yes, you are right. Thank you for suggestion, maybe there will be some more specific answers in forest ecology! I have updated my question

While in general I agree to the previous answer by ian_itor (I have regularly used simple "(Color online)" remarks myself), be aware that some journals will require that also the b/w or grayscale print version of your paper must have fully distinguishable details in all figures.
Take for example a graph figure with three curves in red, green and blue; you would have to ensure that those colors map to distinct grayscale colors in the print.
This might be difficult to realize in a figure like yours with 10 different colors; so be prepared that you might have to include further distinct features like hatching to ensure proper grayscale readability.
In this case, also your description of the figure may need to be written in a way such that any reader (of the grayscale print only) will be able to fully understand all details of the figure even without access to the online colored version.

thank you for a comment, I will think about next time. This time, the manuscript (with the map with 10 colors) has been accepted for publication. Maybe this is specific for ecological topics.


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Does being unemployed after a PhD reflect poorly on my advisor?
I successfully defended this spring, and made it clear about a year prior that I would not be continuing in academia, with the goal of switching fields and entering the workforce. As part of this, I explicitly said I was not looking for postdocs, and I think I also said I was not willing to do one at all, for a multitude of reasons. It's been just over 3 months since defending, but I have nothing lined up. I've heard that waiting months and months for a first industry position is common, so it doesn't bother me, but I think it's bothering my advisor.
Because a lot of post-graduation roles aren't necessary for my advisor anymore, I'll occasionally receive an email or text message asking me how I'm doing, which includes how my job search is going. These messages have also pointed to potential academic-type positions and the names of postdoc advisors. I thought I was clear, so I wonder where this is coming from. The simple answer is that he is looking out for my best interests, but I'm his first PhD student and he is up for tenure this fall.
Does my unemployment negatively affect his tenure application, or am I over-thinking this?

If your advisor still contacts you to see how you are doing - great, he cares about you. - If I think back to a certain "Russel Group" UK university... it was more "get your PhD and leave, goodbye"...

I'd say yes, you are overthinking it. Any problems you have are not due to him. He seems to be doing what he can, though his connections are, perhaps, not the ones you need now. Your unemployment might be due to any of several other factors, from the economy to how you present yourself. I would continue to thank him for his advice and care, whether effective or not. He might wind up in the future being an effective advocate.
Your lack of employment shouldn't have any effect on his tenure. Not if anyone in the system is reasonable. As I said, any difficulties you have are not due to his inaction or inattention. His tenure is (should be) determined only by his own actions and things he can control.
On the other hand, tenure decisions are often not especially rational. Sometimes they are just determined by personalities. Other times by the perceived need of the institution at that moment.

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How do I get published as a student in Biblical Studies?
I am a newcomer in research studies within Bible and Theology fields. I want to publish my own articles but do not know where to begin. How can I get my papers published formally? I am only a MA student so I am not even sure if I should start publishing yet.

Did you consider talking to your faculty advisor?

I do not have a faculty advisor only professors per each class, no advisor is given. All I am doing is research in every course and I want to go beyond that. How can it be done?

If you are doing a Masters by coursework and don't have a faculty advisor, did you try asking some of your course professors?

Doing serious research in any field requires finding an advisor. In addition to Darren's suggestion, consider talking to the chair of the graduate program at your department and see if they have a more specific suggestion: without knowing your department this is simply impossible.

Speak with the program director or your individual professors. They should be able to advise you about what journals are ideal for your research and whether your writing is professionally sufficient for academic publication. Many people in fields like theology, philosophy, etc. learn the publishing process just by trying and by polling our professors. Good luck!

Thanks David, I should have said I did this already and the program director said my writing was ideal for publication but he said I would need to outsource and he was not willing to do that at the time. Then I went to my current professor in a class on Johannine Theology. He said I needed to find an advisor but I do not know how to go about doing that.

If I were you, I would go and review recent publications from respectable authors and journals. Then I would revise your essay as professionally as possible, following the style and structure you found in those essays. Then I would try to submitting to journals. Maybe do not start with the most important theological/Biblical journals, but begin with respected ones. The Journal of Theological Interpretation would be one example. Or you can search for journals at major publishers, like Wiley or Sage. Wipf and Stock may have decent, if smaller, journals for you to practice with also.

Also, what do you mean by "outsource?"

They said "Christian you need to be careful writing. Your writing is great and well done for publication. You need to outsource your research output and input. You are a scholar in rising and taking to the stars. You have exhibited accelerated learning competencies and research ideas but you need to research your positions. You are expected to show your mastery of those pursuits as well."

Ok, that helps. I am remain less than 100% sure what the director means, but I think it means you need to network more and get more input on your ideas from the general community. Whether by doing a doctorate, going to conferences, reading more widely, networking with established scholars, etc. The last part also sounds like you need to practice the mechanics of research and widen your reading, as well. All that can be very boring, but is vastly important. Most of us only learn this by necessity in a doctorate or by experience in conference presentations.

Note, I am a PhD theology student who didn't get published until I was already about halfway through my classwork. The writing mechanics have been the hardest part for me not the theology or argument itself, so I think I get where you come from. Good luck!

Thanks David this is helpful. Can you email me? I would like to network. saucier2000.christian@gmail.com

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Alternatively, talk to your pastor or priest. It's possible your denomination has some sort of scholarly publishing arm you could submit your paper to.

I responded on the chat, Christian. Just fyi.

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What are some methods to find a research gap?
I have read over 50 articles on a topic I am writing about but do not see any research gaps. I have spent  a lot of time reading the introductions of papers, since it is there that I found the most interesting overview of the field and current state of study on the topic being researched. How can I find a gap in my topic within the academic area of study?

On the one hand, this is really something an advisor should be helping you with, and one of the reasons why there is typically an advisor-advisee relationship at early stages of a young researcher's career. In the light of your earlier question Finding an advisor outside of my Grad School, it seems like this is not an option for you. (I do hope you take Buffy's advice there to heart.)
On the other hand, a more promising place to start is not the introduction but the conclusion sections of papers. This is where people will very often put "future research directions" and similar. Now, I would not suggest you directly take one of these directions and pursue it, because chances are that the paper's author is already working on precisely that topic and has a year or more head start on it. However, it might give you an inspiration on a somewhat different possible way forward, especially if you have already read a lot in your subfield and might see ways of combining directions suggested by different papers.
Plus, if you find one such suggestion that resonates with you, you could always contact the author and politely ask their opinion of it. Yes, academics get lots of emails, and many of your emails will never be answered... but if you keep it short and to the point, people may be more helpful that one might anticipate.

Thanks Stephan. That is good info. I am taking Buffy's advice as well. I am an interdisciplinary student so I like to combine methods.

Reading is not equal reading. Put on different lenses while reading.
"What are the goals of the paper?" → What could be different goal?
"How do the methods/proofs/… work in this paper?" → Can I show/achieve the same things differently?
"Why do they approach their problems like this?" → Could I approach this problem differently?
Also: Why do you want to find gaps? New research does not necessarily closes gaps. It may also develop new approach or open up topics…
Finally: Do not only read the introductions. To really get to the points you need to dig deeper and understand all the basics.

I was told to be of publishable quality means I need to find a gap in the research and try to close that gap.

That's not exactly true.

The way this works depends on your field. @ChristianSaucier are you working in the sciences? Theology? Something else?

@ Mark C. Theology and Bible.

By doing a literature review, you have got off to a good start in your search for a project idea. I have some recommendations, some of which you may already have done:

Read the discussion sections, where authors discuss what went well/badly.
Appraise the research design and reporting methods according to the appropriate best practices standards (e.g. the EQUATOR network guidelines https://www.equator-network.org/). This will help to identify opportunities for improved design.
Consider trying a replication study, where you aim to follow the methodologies of some of the best studies on the topic (according to your appraisal). You can compare results achieved by various methods. It is important that study results are externally reproducible, and this doesn't often get tested.

Consider the assumptions made in the design of the research that a paper describes. What simplifications constrain the generality of its results? You can then set about reducing or eliminating those simplifications. A way to go about that is to ponder, “Hmm, that result about x is cool. What are some (more general) properties about a whole class X for which their result is just a special case?” Or, similarly, “How far would one have to shift their question to cause their results to change in some significant way?”
Another avenue from which to attack your problem of finding new questions is to ponder how the paper’s conclusions could be wrong. A good way to approach that is to assume (for this purpose) that an omniscient god has just assured you that though their data is valid, their conclusion(s) from the data is (are) wrong. Then all you have to do is figure out some ways that they may have made the mistake that (for the sake of your purpose) they did make. That exercise should produce the makings of a good new research question.
And a complement to that approach is to assume that it’s their data that is invalid. Then what may have caused them to measure the thing wrong or to measure the wrong thing?


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Finding an advisor outside of my Grad School
I am in my last 5 classes of my MA in Bible. The program does not have advisors. We have a program director who is the dean pro tempore, a professor of record for every class and a social liaison to other universities. This is a very small school (only 576 MA students and 29 PhDs). I want to start writing for publication so I went to the program director and he said my writing was ideal for publication but he said I would need to outsource and he was not willing to do that at the time and he said I would need to find someone with comparable academic interest. Then I went to my current professor in a class on Johannine Theology. He said I needed to find an advisor but I do not know how to go about doing that. So how can I do this? What do I need to do? I think I want to go as an independent researcher if that is possible.

Is this "writing" part of a thesis? Something you have to submit for graduation, or independent of that?

No I do not have to do anything for graduation but pass my classes. This would be independent research for my publication.

Generally professors at other institutions are busy advising their own students. It's not really their job to make up for your institution's stubborn unwillingness to help you. That doesn't mean you can't find someone, and some academics won't feel there is an important distinction between students at their institution and elsewhere, but they'd be doing you quite a favor.

What does "outsource" in this context mean?

The director of my program said "Christian you need to be careful writing. Your writing is great and well done for publication. You need to outsource your research output and input. You are a scholar in rising and taking to the stars. You have exhibited accelerated learning competencies and research ideas but you need to research your positions. You are expected to show your mastery of those pursuits as well."

If you don't need to submit your writings to the school for graduation then you can do as you please and submit it to an appropriate journal.
The Dean's advice is, perhaps, nothing more than a warning that you aren't quite ready for "prime time" yet and that your work needs refinement. That may be true or not, but it isn't a block on independent work. (Alternatively, and I hope not, they are suggesting your work is too controversial to have it associated with the school. In that case, take warning and wait until graduation to proceed.)
The best way to contact outside help is through a current professor; a recommendation to an external colleague. But if that isn't possible it raises a flag. If they are too isolated/insulated that they don't communicate with others then I wonder about their competence as researchers. That is possible in small schools, but not desirable.
If you can't contact people that way, then the other option is to find authors of papers in a related area and email them with a request to review a paper and give you advice. Make the email short, indicating you have read their work and saying a few words about your own, but waiting until they agree to send the paper.
You will, of course, get feedback, even if cursory, from any reputable journal that you submit your work to. It may take a while for review, and more so if it the work seems significant at first glance.
Long term, however, start to develop a circle of contacts and potential collaborators. You can share and refine your work in such a circle as well as use it for new ideas to pursue.

I did not think this would be acceptable but I will try it.

+1 to this advice. Your current school, quite frankly, does not sound very helpful to me. If you do want to continue in academia, you may want to think seriously about upping sticks and finding actual advisors elsewhere.


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IEEE: A survey or review paper?
I am looking some papers published in IEEE which start with titles:

A Survey of IOT
Cloud Computing - A Survey

Are these also known as review papers? In other words, are they based on literature review or literature survey?
How does IEEE differentiate them?
Would you do a "literature review" for writing such survey papers? This is really confusing.

What data do they show? What references?

Survey is review of a field, so to say. So, literature review + lots of experience. But what's your actual question?

My question is about the confusing use of terms "survey" and "review" paper. Even when a paper says it's a survey on something, it is actually seems like a review. But in general I consider a survey to be shorter, lighter than a review. When applied to research papers it seems there's only a literature review. A research paper that says "A Survey on blah blah" is 25-30 pages and includes over 100 citations. So, If I am correct I should be doing a literature review even when I call the paper a survey?

You should look at the list of issues and their tables of contents of the ACM Computing Surveys journal. Nothing "light" about those papers and issues.

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Where do I put the Creative Commons license information in a book?
We're about to publish a book (conference proceedings) as a PDF online and want to license it under Creative Commons. Before each article, we're giving out information for citing the following article like so:
author, article-title, book-title, publishing-place year, page x–y.
I think it would be best to put the information about the Creative Commons license (in our case CC BY-ND) after this line – what do you think?
Also, I guess it would be a good idea to provide a link to further information about the CC.

I have taken the liberty to replace the abbreviation in your question title to the full form - hope you agree with this change. When I first saw the question (without looking at the tags because I was lazy ... but it could really, justifiably happen if the question makes it to the hot questions list, or if it appears in the related or linked questions for any other question) I thought this was referring to the CC field in e-mails, so I was slightly confused when reading it at first.

Oh – right! Thank you, haven't thought about this possibility of confusion.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not about academia.

I am unclear about your question. 1. What is your book about? 2. "Before each text we're giving out information for citing the following text" What do you mean by text? Chapter? Page? Line?

@O.R.Mapper: I am glad you didn't suspect the OP of wanting to publish their credit card information in their book :)

@O.R.Mapper I've submitted an edit to your edit (how circular...) to clarify it's referring to  the license information rather than a mark (image, logo, etc) - the answer would probably be slightly different for each case.

@scaaahu It's conference proceedings, therefore there are 10 articles by 10 different people in this book. The information about citing and CC is placed before each article.

Related new SE site (where Creative Commons questions are on-topic): [opensource.se]

@unor thanks for the link! Is it possible to relocate my question to this other SE-site by a moderator?

@unor I'm not sure relocating would be appropriate - open access/open licensing is not quite the same thing as open source, and the question is now pretty clear it's talking about scholarly publication.

This is a good approach. It's helpful to have the license on each "unit" - so if you're putting it up as separate chapters, have a license statement on each chapter. Putting it with the citation is sensible, but make sure it's on a seperate line so it's not seen as part of the citation.
Something like "This chapter is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives license [version]" is good. It should include a link to the license code if possible - otherwise it's not much help if someone doesn't know what the license is!
If the entire book is in a single PDF, or if you have the "front matter" as a seperate PDF, you could put the license + link on the copyright page (reverse of the title page), and it's often common to have a license logo on the (back?) cover as well.

Thank you for your comment and the suggestions I think I'll realise all of them.
We're planning on putting the whole book to a single pdf but you never know with pdfs, you can easily split them plus: who reads the imprint..But I'd rather not put the logo anywhere.

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Is there anything I can do about shockingly poor quality course materials?
I'm currently 2/3 of the way through a degree program, and am continually shocked and dismayed for what my school is passing off as higher learning.

The books, which are almost all made in house, are full of typos and basic factual errors.
Professors are late to chats and routinely do not respond to emails, requiring calls to advising and involving people in the chain above them to get basic information such as new class times, or asking that a paper I turned in on time be graded.
Poor IT infrastructure leading to bad grades (submitted assignments disappearing after the cut-off time, making it appear as if I never submitted anything, leading to me getting a zero grade), recorded lectures having no audio, and e-readers returning license errors
An automated testing system which is full of factual errors and ambiguous language leading to it being impossible to answer some questions by anything other than luck. Gods help you trying to determine the exact wording they want in the fill-in-the-blank answers. Humans are not involved in this system, it's all automated string matching.
Generally nonchallenging and inappropriate for level material, including a 202-level math course covering grade school word problems, and a computer security engineering course covering basic computer literacy.

I've reported all of these issues as far up the chain as I know how to do, yet nothing is getting done. Given the quantity of money I'm paying these clowns, I'd imagine that I have some kind of rights.
Is there anything I can do other than grin, deal with it, and come out with a degree I'm not going to be proud to have? At this point, I just want my money back and the opportunity to go to a school where I'm actually learning things, rather than repeating pre-HS.

Why have you stayed this long?  Get out!

The process of "getting out" is part of what I'm trying to figure out how to do right now. It's not a crap college from a records standpoint from what I can tell.. accredited and such, so if I can find somewhere with an equivalent program, I should be able to transfer credits.

From what you describe, I don't think you want to transfer credits.  Do you really believe that the introductory courses at your current school have prepared you for upper-division courses at a stronger school?

The introductory courses that I've taken so far are basic "gen ed" requirements - the degree-specific classes won't start for a few more months. Redoing those at another institution will just be a pointless cash/time sink.

@MikeyT.K. What type of degree are you going for?

@user389823 Bachelors in IT, software engineering focus

You have "only taken gen ed classes", yet you are "2/3 of the way through your degree" and you are complaining about courses like "math 202" and "computer security engineering" which don't sound like they should be gen ed classes in an IT degree. Something definitely doesn't compute here...

That was their designation for those set of courses at least. I've never seen a schedule laid out like this before.

Is this school an on-line university?

Grad students will never have to deal with poor quality material? Jeez people, if I hadn't said what the actual degree was, you'd have never known.

I think this perfectly applies to grad school. I've been through some of this same stuff as a masters and PhD student.

You mentioned that the college is accredited.  You might want to contact the accrediting body (it's usually regional, like SACS and NEACS) and alert them to what's going on here.  I'm very sorry to hear you're having such a poor experience with this distance learning program.  It's possible that it's vastly inferior to the school's on-site program, although given the overall bad impression I'm getting of the institution from your question, maybe not.  But yes, it's time to complain to an outside agency.
As for how to salvage your education, I don't think transferring credits is a bad idea.  Yes, your learning suffered, but I'm guessing you're not made of money and you want to be able to get through this degree without mortgaging a child to do it.  You need to transfer into a legitimate program as soon as you can, without waiting for the complaint process to resolve.  But I would still get in touch with the accrediting body.  This is the sort of thing they need to know about.

I agree, but for OP's sake, maybe report them AFTER the transfer so there's no reason to complicate the situation? :-)

Could be a smart play.  I'm assuming that the accrediting body would be so slow to respond/investigate that it wouldn't matter, but some maintain that discretion is the better part of valor, so...

If you're dissatisfied, the easiest approach is to vote with your feet and wallet and leave. Your best bet would be to transfer to a proper, accredited program ASAP. Don't throw good time after bad time.
For an accredited program, it's hard to believe that all of their instruction material is made in-house. This is not the norm. From an accreditation standpoint, make sure the accrediting body is legit.
Alternatively, as your program is accredited, you can raise concerns with the accrediting body. This approach is both costly, time-consuming, and not for the faint of heart. Whatever the outcome, you will likely be on unfriendly terms with the administration for the duration of your stay.
That said, you've said that so far, you've only taken gen ed classes. At many universities, these general classes are often not indicative of the quality of instruction you'll receive in upper classes. Keep that in mind.

Your point At many universities, these general classes are often not indicative of the quality of instruction you'll receive in upper classes is excellent. Lowly grad students and over-worked visiting assistant professors often teach these. Also, those with expertise often dread teaching low level classes.

From an accreditation standpoint, make sure the accrediting body is legit. - Yes, anyone can accredit, and this may not mean anything.

I agree with the answers that @Akat and @user389823 have posted. However, certain circumstances will prevent a student from leaving (financial aid, inability to transfer credits, family reasons, etc.). Leaving would probably be the best option, but in the case that you cannot leave, here is what I would suggest:
Be brutally honest on course evaluations
My department takes these pretty seriously and readily makes instructor changes based on them. Occasionally you will have a tenured, full professor who isn't going anywhere no matter what you say, but your response on course evals can make a difference - probably not for you at this point, but an honest evaluation could improve the situation for others that come after you.
Do something to set yourself apart from your classmates
If something is factually wrong in a course manual, respectfully challenge it during lectures, in assignments, etc. As an instructor, I really like it when students do this, and these students are stuck in my mind after doing so. I give good references to good students; I give great references to students willing to respectfully (this is vitally important) challenge my lectures/views and still perform well in the class.
If there is a better way to tackle a problem than what your instructor recommended, then try it. Try the problem both ways, compare the results, and explain your findings. If your prof is making you create charts in Excel, create something publication quality in R with ggplot2 or in Python with matplotlib. Instead of creating documents and presentations with Word and Powerpoint, create some awesome looking alternatives with LaTeX (these are just simple examples). You will probably learn new skills in the process which will be valuable in the future.
Don't let yourself sink down to the level of the program.
Consider the possibility that you may need to give your instructors more slack
For example, I can sympathize with an instructor who is not from the US that makes typos, as long as the concepts are still clear. If I was teaching in another language, I would make mistakes as well. Additionally, don't fault a philosophy professor, for example, for not having the greatest technical/computing skills. When a person is skilled technically (which it sounds like you are), this is difficult not to do, but don't let your expertise get in the way of seeing another person's expertise.
That said, if criticism really is warranted, then don't hold back.

Like others have said, getting out is probably the best option, but in case you can't, try to make the best of a bad situation.


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What is the proper way to deal self plagiarism?
Couple of months ago i've checked plagiarism of one of my research work in turnitin.
I've reused the same research work in order enhancement it. When i checked new assignment again in turnitin with different class ID it shows similarity index from old one. I've changed my university and as per its rule it can not accept new assignment with such similarity index.
How can i deal with this issue?

I'm confused. You're saying that you submitted an assignment in a class, and now you want to submit what is substantially the same work in a different class? Does the professor in the new class permit re-using assignments in this manner?

Actually i am reusing research work. No i'm not submitting same thing twice. I did further enhancement in it.

I'll assume you're wondering why your similarity level is still high.
With most courses, it is up to the professor. You might have a professor that would allow you to do something like this, but it's incredibly unlikely.
When assignments are submitted to TurnItIn, they are stored in an external database that your school unlikely has access to. This is something maintained by the company. This is why your originality checks appeared to remain the same despite transferring institutions. You might have some benefit to this, as your professor's "common sense" is pretty important when using something like TurnItIn; they'll basically have to review it and talk to you about it. However, if it's not random bits and bobs like citations and bibliographies, you might not be in such good graces.
As for what you can do about this, very little. Talk to your professor about re-using the old assignment. They're going to need to know about it regardless. However, my two-cents are that you shouldn't have bothered reusing an old assignment; most professors simply do not accept work that was done for a different course, regardless if it was your work or not. None of mine ever have, from recent memory.


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Is it normal to start your master's study without an advisor?
So I've been admitted to master's program in Mechanical Engineering at a US university.
I contacted 2 of the faculty in the department in my chief area of interest , but neither had an opening/ funding . I feel like it was a huge blunder on my part. Should I try to find an advisor in a different subfield or wait a semester and see if any new opening arrive?
If I start research in a different subfield and a spot opens up in my preferred subfield next semester,  is it possible to switch?

Which country? In certain countries (e.g Italy) you don't get any advisor during your Master's studies up to the last year, when you start working on your thesis and, even then, you don't get any funding (or you get it very rarely for exceptional reasons).

I'm afraid I'm rather confused by the whole question here.  Can you please try to clarify the situation?

The country is the USA.

What do you need clarified Jake. I was accepted into a Master's program. I don't have an advisor. I contacted 2 prospective advisors , but neither was taking in new students. Should I take on an advisor in a different subfield or wait to see if one of them gets an opening.

The way you're writing is rather confusing. You're stating you've decided to accept admission but you're also stating that there's no opening / funding. / Do you mean you're accepted to an MA but don't yet have someone to advise you on your thesis? or do you mean you're not accepted but have a university you want to go to but the professor don't want to accept you there ???

You should check the department's policies.  Sometimes an advisor is mandatory, sometimes it is forbidden.

In the US, in most programs I'm familiar with, you first start on coursework.  Some programs are all coursework.  What did the department tell you is expected in terms of research/finding an advisor?

@virmaior I'm admitted into the program. I'm looking to join a professor's research group , but both of the 2 professors I contacted said they weren't going to advise any more students in the fall because they didn't have funding for a new student.

@DanieleDeRossi it might be helpful to indicate the field. (in my field, (philosophy) masters degrees don't generally supply funding or require one to find an advisor as a condition of any sort).

I'm in Mechanical engineering

You are asking multiple questions:
Is it normal to start master's without an advisor?
should i find a different advisor?
is it possible to switch once started? All will have different answers, can you focus your questions into one, so that an answer can be developed?

Well this is more like an advice rather than an answer:
In the end all of it depends on the funding you might receive. If the advisors are sure to be available with the funding next semester, I would say you don't need to hurry to find a new research area. I assume you are interested and made some preparations for your current field. It would be reckless to throw away the work you have done so far.
However if the funding is not so sure for the next semester, I would say you go with the one that supplies you funding. In the end, you can always turn back to your old questions. Researcher is very much like a qualified worker, you are paid not only for the results you've obtained, but mostly you have the capacity to treat and obtain the result or rather they pay you because it is you who has the capacity to treat and obtain the result, so one should not take research subjects at a personal level, at least not too much.
However I have no idea how US works, so you are on your own concerning the feasiblity of my advice.


text:
How is the transition from computational to experimental scientific research?
I'm thinking of transitioning from computational fluid dynamics research to doing experimental fluid stuff. How would you contrast the workflow and the big challenges between computational scientific work and experimental scientific work?

You may want to tweak the title to clarify how discipline specific your question is intended to be... I.e., is it only about fluid dynamics or is about some broader discipline.

Its not intended to be discipline specific.

The body of your question is very specific, yet your title is general. I feel like they should be aligned. So you're just as interested in moving from quantitative modelling in psychology to running social science experiments with human participants as you are in the context of say physics, chemistry, or biology? More broadly, surely the meaning of the word "experimental research" would vary  widely between disciplines.

Oh. I meant more "Hard science" computational vs experimental. Like computational chemistry to chemistry in a lab or computational biophysics to a biophysics wet lab or in my case computation fluids work to experimental fluids work.

I, a Chemical engineer by paper and I recently made a big leap from desktop work - purely predictive modelling of process plants and systems, to experimental lab based work in the field of Biotechnology. Back to the world of pipettes, organic chemistry and filtration!
The experience I feel depends on whether you are going from computational modelling to quantitative experimental work in the natural science field ( like what I have experienced), or to qualitative (or even quantitative) in the social field. I have experienced both!
From laptop work to the biotech lab!
Challenges (I have faced):

It is difficult to get from an experimental planning to execution stage in the labs (often due to over researching online)
There is little evidence of your work ( it is all sitting in a lab).
It is harder to see mistakes and to correct them. It often requires you to restart an entire experiment from scratch ( can not use the find error tool!)
I struggled with work hours and location. When I was doing desktop work, I preferred to change my settings and venues. Also I could work whenever I wanted to. You will now be confined to the same building in the same space, everyday. Your progress will also be limited by this.
not knowing how much time is 'enough' time spent in doing experiments
practical experience is very different from theory - I struggled with dimensions, spatial awareness and quantities. When stuck behind a laptop all day, you lose touch of how much space (and mass) 1 litre of water would take up compared to 1 litre of ice.
when reporting back, colleagues are less interested in your journey to the result or your assumptions. They want results and graphs with error bars.
you have to be more considerate of your work colleagues space and time as you will sharing equipment. I was so used to be only worried about my computer and laptop
your progress seems to be measured on how many times people see you walking up and down to your Lab space ..

Advantages of having done desktop research before:

you can use predictive models to predetermine expected behaviour. I do less experiments on average than most of my colleagues
we have a slightly stronger grasp of factorial design of experiments (looking at all relevant angles and factors)
It seems to come naturally to desktop researchers to immediately interpret results with statistical tools (I am sure you have used a lot)
I seem to have some of my final report already typed out - doesn't seem common practice for my colleagues who spend day in and out in the labs.
our report writing skills seem to be better - maybe due to sitting in front of the computer all day
you are already familiar with the scientific method and hypothesis driven research so this part of the transition is easy.

From laptop work to the social science field ( interviews)
Challenges

you will have to develop real empathy and defer judgement
listening is a skill, evenmore so listening and taking notes
being objective
interpreting results without inferring your own judgement. How does one deal with words and quotes, rather than hard facts and numbers!
Must use words like maybe, could be, I think that, whilst being conscious of context all the time! Which differs heavily from the scientific method that must use x is bigger than y by z% because of factor h.
Being okay with not having an answer but a description of a scenario.

Advantages of having done desktop work here

being analytical
being well researched
easily find the critical function or important points to investigate


text:
Can a UK University prevent you from graduating due to an outstanding library fine?
I study in the UK. I just received an email from the academic registrar of my university regarding my forthcoming graduation ceremony.
Contained within the email was this disclaimer:

Please ensure that you have paid any outstanding study related fees and charges to the University no later than 16:00 (BST) Thursday 16 June 2016 (this includes library fines). If you do not do this, I regret that you will cease to be eligible to graduate this summer.

I have an outstanding library fine of £0.15 which of course I intend to pay but it seems far fetched to me that an academic institution would withhold a degree costing at anywhere between £21,000 to £100,000 due to an outstanding payment of up to £10 (the fine limit after which you cannot withdraw any more books). As I understand it, this stipulation is not confined to my university.
Could I be prevented from graduating due to a trivial fine? Has this kind of rule ever been enforced by a university? Is it legal?

I believe I read a story (and, knowing the country, I tend to believe it) where the German revenue sent a payment demand for 0.00 EUR. The person did not pay, and the whole thing escalated, until the person actually carried out a bank transfer over the amount of 0.00 EUR (penalties due to to the delay caused by the dispute had been waived); for some reason, they could not waive the payment process itself. I tend to believe it. Consider this a button to be pressed to be admitted. Making exceptions (even if each individual one requires only common sense) is more expensive than strict adherence.

Interesting. Of course the question is hypothetical and I would never risk it, but I'm sure someone out there will probably try...

It's definitely legal because it's standard UK practice. Of course it's intended for cases of unpaid tuition fees rather than trivial fines but the process may be sufficiently automated that you'll be blocked before any application of human judgement.

Why would you think this could be illegal?  I don't know much about UK law, so perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't think there's any legal principle that says if you've paid 99.999% of what you owe, then nobody can make you pay the remaining 0.001%.

I asked the question with the inclination that it's entirely legal, however, it's  the dichotomy between a legal and rational viewpoint that largely got me thinking.

In my EU country, before being eligible for graduation you should first go the university library and get a paper that confirms you do not owe any books or fines. Without this paper you cannot graduate. So what you are suggesting is common.

Note that even with the restriction on new borrowings, you might well end up with significantly more than £10 in library fines.  Consider what might happen if you irrecoverably damage or lose one or more books, and then note that many books in a typical university library cost £100s per copy (or even more in some cases) and you could have borrowed several such books at the same time, and you can see how you could wind up with quite a substantial bill...

@CaptainEmacs: I know companies in Germany that waive bills below a certain threshold because it costs more to send the letter than the bill is worth as well as companies where the bill has an "please excuse if you receive more than one bill from us on the same day - it would cost too much to consolidate them into a single statement" . Your story to me is "so good that if it weren't true one should certainly need to invent it"... (i.e. probably a caricature of German burocracy - believable, plausible, but my guess is: probably not true)

The regulations may have changed since I was an undergrad at Cambridge, but in those days there were only three requirements to be admitted to a degree: (1) Pass your final exams. (2) Live at a university-approved address during term time. (3) Pay off all your university and college bills. (Requirement 2 was historical, from the days when the university was acting as "legal guardians" for any students under age 21). Actually studying, attending lectures, doing homework, etc, were not required!

@cbeleites Actually, I know people in Germany who, just recently, got a very small bill. They didn't want to try out what would happen if they didn't pay, so they paid up; but they said the bank transfer cost was in the order of magnitude of the amount to pay. Not everything that looks like an urban legend is one. Plus, accumulated occurrences of similar events are not an infallible indicator urban legends either - even in evolution, there is a principle of "convergence" from independent origins.

@CaptainEmacs: sure. (FYI consumer fees for online/ATM bank transfers are typically 0 EUR). And of course it depends on what this is about: if I buy a single used book for 2 EUR I typically do get a bill for it and am expected to pay as well. If 2 EUR are left to pay at the final settling of an utility account when received pre-payments are deducted from actual consumption, it is more likely to get a statement saying that it is waived and that your account is closed already. But we're getting far off-topic, I'm afraid.

@TheMathemagician just because it's standard practice doesn't mean it's legal and would actually stand up to scrutiny if challenged.

Congratulations on finishing your degree and being just 0.15p shy of graduating! If you find this annoying, another piece of good news is that you live in the UK. Here in the U.S. a similar transgression could get you arrested.

How do you intend to pay 0.15p i.e. £0.0015? I don't believe that's even possible.

@CaptainEmacs The fact that it's impossible to do 0.00 € bank transfers should show that this story as told like that is likely an urban legend. But 0 € bills are not unheard of, including the boilerplate "we will send the bill to the bailiff if you don't pay". But that is due to errors made somewhere and not due to strict adherence to the rules.

@CaptainEmacs In most inter-banking system, it's impossible to order a 0.00 transfer. Such orders are rejected immediately when placed.

I once got a bill from a hardware vendor stating that there are issues with my bill of $18.230 - I only paid $18.320, and now I owe them -$90 for the hardware. Because I didn't pay these -$90 in time, they added a fine of $1200, so I should now pay them $1110, pronto.

@Alexander Yes, it is surprising what bugs people can discover in software which the developers never think about.

When you live in Austria, you better not pay too much when getting a speeding ticket. Otherwise, you'll be fined again.

This is called an administrative encumbrance, it is indeed very standard.
The general notion is that if you owe the university money, then the administration will deny you things.
These things may include: unit results, the ability to graduate, exam timetables, or the ability to enrol in new units.
In what was certainly a bug, students at my wife's university were even denied access to the payment webpage while under-encumbrance -- which did not help them get paid.
There are often many ways to get encumbered, depending on the university and country. As well as library fines, there are often things like amenities fees, student union fees, parking fines, tuition costs.
Is it legal? Probably. You almost certainly agree to something along the lines of "I will suffer the effects of being encumbered if I fail to pay any fees or fines, and may not be allowed to graduate", as part of your enrolment or financing paperwork/online form tickbox.
Is it a legally binding contract, though? Who knows, we will probably never find out as the cost of a lawyer to take it to court and actually prove it through contest is far more than the cost of just paying it.
I would bet it is legal, as universities tend to have teams of lawyers on retainer.
Now the real question is will a <£10 fine actually make you encumbered?
That is a question to look to your university rules for.
I suggest that it probably won't.
That there is a clause saying that encumbered will only be enforced in cases where the debt is >£X.
My own experience with this was that in my last semester of undergrad,
I accidentally had a 3 hour loan book out for several extra hours.
I got a $9 fine.
So I went to the administration to pay it off.
And I found out that I couldn't.
They only do EFTPOS/Credit card transactions of at least $15,
and they do not accept payment via cash. (These two rules came in separately several years apart and I'm not sure anyone noticed that they clash).
But I also found out that encumbrance at my university doesn't occur until you have $24 or more owed.

In the US, university parking fines are another common one.

The thing the (German) universities I know will deny is not the graduation. They deny to hand over the certificate that you did graduate (i.e. the date of graduation is not affected).

@StrongBad added. Did not know that one. thanks.

@StrongBad -- my former university refused to hand over my severance papers upon leaving the university until I paid outstanding parking fees my girlfriend had accrued before we had even met. They linked them to me because I had added her name to my parking permit.

@WolfgangBangerth Sounds like you need stronger background checks in your girlfriend admissions.

@StrongBad This is why the school asks for your vehicle registration when you enroll, along with enticements of parking discounts.  I absolutely refused to register my vehicle.  I think... I own my University some amount of parking fines...

@Kimball -- she's got immunity now as my wife of 10+ years ;-)

Yes, they can do it and yes, they do actually do it.
If you look at the rules for your university it probably states something similar to this from the University of Leicester:

3.42 A student may be required to pay for certain services or facilities, including compulsory study elements of optional modules,
  optional residential activities, printing from computers in the
  open-access computer laboratories, and photocopying. Details are
  provided at the point of service or in departmental literature as
  appropriate.
3.43 No degree, diploma or certificate will be awarded to a student who has an unpaid fee, fine, or charge which is associated with the
  delivery of academic (rather than commercial) services. The University
  will not certify academic credit or previous awards for a student who
  has any such unpaid fee, fine, or charge. A student may make a subject
  access request under the Data Protection Act 1998 for data relating to
  his/her academic studies; such requests will be met but the data will
  not be presented in a certified form.

and you formally agreed to follow the rules as part of your registration. However, in 2014 the Office of Fair Trading warned universities that this may be illegal so it's not clear whether they're on legally solid ground if they do so.

Yup, worth noting also that you don't pay for a degree, you pay for tuition (ie lectures, seminars, learning resources, exams). University isn't about buying a degree, it's about buying an education.


text:
Are there universities/institutions which offers free (or almost) recognized degrees through online coursework?
I heard that using online resources, some of the top universities like MIT (Micromasters) and Harvard are offering free online courses and specializations.
 I wonder if there are institutions that offer graduate and post-graduate degrees totally free of charge(or almost).

Your current question title is unintentionally funny, as it appears to refer to "almost (but not quite) recognized degrees". I presume this is not what you're after.

As someone who has delivered both free and paid-for online university courses over the past ten years, with a reasonable grasp of the market in the English-speaking world, I'm fairly sure the answer is no.
At the moment the free short courses have a very different business model to a full degree offering - they either (i) rely on huge volumes with (optional) payment for certification or (ii) are essentially marketing tools, working as "tasters" for the real deal. It's hard to see how to run a full degree (with the necessary staffing, accreditation etc) for free. You might wait a long time to find one!
Alternatively, travel to Europe where real on-ground courses are cheap in many countries even for non-Europeans. If you enrol this year in Finland, the Finnish government is happy to cover your fees, but act quick, as fees come in in 2017!


text:
How to learn advanced math and statistics at my own pace?
I have not a very strong mathematical nor statistical background. This fact has not prevented me to work in a data analysis department because of my programming skills. I know the basics of important subjects such as calculus and linear algebra and I have implemented statistical analysis like logistic regression, support vector machines and many others, but always under the supervision of an statistics expert.
I would like to learn advanced math and statistics in order to have a better understanding of the mechanics of what I am doing and most important WHY decisions are taken. Since I have time constraints, I have followed some MOOC's in Machine learning and statistics. But after completing the courses I had a bitter taste. I wasn't able to understand scientific papers because most of the authors assume advanced knowledge of real analysis, numerical methods, etc.
Clarification: Since this question has been put on hold I will try to give more details about this specific problem. I work from Monday to Friday. So I can only study on weekends. In the city where I live, there are no universities offering advanced math courses on weekends. So, firstly I bought some e-books on the subject but quickly realized two things: My progress was very slow and it was hard to tie up different subjects in an comprehensive way. I thought I could do better following online courses so I followed some MOOC's whose results I explained before.
I'm convinced that the solution implies using Internet resources but by now I've not found a complete and satisfactory solution.

I'm not sure I understand the question.  Why did the MOOCs leave you with a bitter taste?  For example, was it because you didn't find them effective in teaching what they claimed to cover, or because you discovered that what they covered was not enough to read research papers?

Those MOOC's were not enough to read research papers. Most of MOOC's are focused on the procedures and techniques than the mathematics behind. For instance, none of the MOOC's I followed have even mentioned the relation between measure theory and statistics or the foundations of loss functions of mathematical models.

If you have a university close by you can usually utilize their library even if you can't get checkout permissions. Start with basic Real analysis texts and work your way through the catalog. You might even check out course descriptions to see what the more advance courses are using topic wise and work through those. Ask your stats buddies what books they would suggest. Write yourself out a schedule of topics you would like to learn.

I would if I had such an opportunity. Unfortunately, my schedule does not allow me to visit public libraries. Nevertheless, I think your two last suggestions are very useful.


text:
Usage of a TV show transcript in my Thesis is under fair use exception?
Can I use the data of Friends TV show transcript in my thesis for analysis and publish my paper/findings. Does the usage of TV show transcript data for analysis and construction of new script based on the original script come under fair use of exception in US copyright law ? Can you please advise me on how to proceed further.

Are you putting the script itself in the thesis?

No. I will be using the transcript data to produce new show script through machine learning computer program, That is my thesis.

Do note that the right to make derivative works is covered by U.S. copyright.  That's why Star Trek fans who've made their own films are at odds with CBS and Paramount.

Thank you. If I do buy the TV script made available on ebay, does it count that I can use them in producing a Thesis ?

IANAL, but you probably won't be taken to court over this. If you are, your school will probably defend you.

@RajeshThevar purchasing a script on Ebay only covers the physical copy you are purchasing, not any rights (unless SPECIFICALLY being sold on ebay).

There's probably some legal affairs office in the university that can address this matter.  You would need actual, professional legal advice for this.

The description of your activities that you have provided, using a 'script' from a popular TV show for research purposes in a machine learning algorithm is allowed within the 'fair use' description of copyright. It is my understanding that the following descriptions place the usage described within 'fair use':

Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.

Since you are using the script to train a machine algorithm, and not the video, audio, nor are you reproducing it for your audience, it seems to be well within fair use.

Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Using a script to train a machine algorithm, it seems, would have virtually no effect on the 'potential market or value of copyrighted work'.
Highlighted portions from "More Information on Fair Use by Copyright.gov"
Another possible solution you could consider is to train your machine learning algorithm on a different humorous show whose copyright has expired and is therefore in the Public Domain. Here is a list of humorous televeision shows whose copyright has expired, including "The Beverly Hillbillies".

I went through the given link and I cannot make a conclusion. In 1st point, It is said we can use copyrighted work as it is for non-profit educational work. But in 2nd point, I can see that  "Thus, using a more creative or imaginative work (such as a novel, movie, or song) is less likely to support a claim of a fair use than using a factual work (such as a technical article or news item)." How can I make a conclusion ?

@RajeshThevar I edited original post and provided additional (helpful) info.

I wouldn't. Fair use is a defense in court to a claim of copyright infringement brought against you by the copyright holder. That means that you have to get sued, hire a lawyer who fails to convince them to drop the suit due to your use under the fair use principles, and then take your defense to trial before a judge or jury. This, while unlikely to happen, is likely to cost you more than $10k and maybe as much as $100k if you get sued. It's not worth it.
I'm not a lawyer, nor am I your lawyer, but I'd find a play or radio play that is now in the public domain and use that instead. The idioms and colloquialisms are likely to be dated and may mess up your algorithm, but that's better than getting sued and being out the money.


text:
How do I politely and tactfully tell my advisor that I would like more consistency in meetings?
I am a PhD student. My advisor is great, but like all academics is very busy (administrative duties, other students, research...).
What happens almost every time I try to have a meeting, since the beginning of my PhD, is the following:

We set some date, say Thursday at 10AM.
He isn't in his office at 10.
At 10:30 he arrives.
It turns out Thursday isn’t great, actually, so let’s meet Monday instead.
Comes Monday morning, and the meeting is postponed to Monday evening, and then to Tuesday.
But Tuesday is a busy day too, so let's say Thursday at 10?
But at 10 there are emails to be sent, and more meetings, so let's say 5.
At 5 he isn't in his office, but at 6 we can meet, meaning I come to his office, sit, and wait sometimes half an hour until he's done writing emails, calling people...
Then we can finally start talking. Six days after the initial meeting was set, at 6:30PM.

I think over the past three months I’ve been able to have a total of five to six hours of meeting with my advisor.
Writing all this, I realize I’m a bit upset, and I’m afraid it’s going to show if I try to talk to him about it. Because let’s be honest, I don’t want to continue like this. I cannot plan my work day, sometimes I have questions that could be answered immediately but I have to wait weeks, and it’s just generally an unpleasant experience. (And while I know some people are able to work very late into the night, I basically become useless after 6PM on a normal day...)
Of course the long-term solution is to become an independent researcher and not rely on meeting with my advisor. After all, I won’t have an advisor all my life. But right now, I’m not quite there yet. How should I approach my advisor about this, without sounding selfish or upset?

To clarify: yes, whenever I have questions I try to exhaust all possibilities before asking my advisor: internet, my advisor's other students, other people in my lab (though this is a very specialized field, few people can help me if this is about my research). But for some questions, either I am not able to find an answer elsewhere, or there is no alternative to asking my advisor, e.g. "do you think I should go to this workshop", "where do you think I should submit this paper", "is my abstract ready to go", "I found this and it looks promising, should I continue in this direction or stick to the original plan"...

"sometimes I have questions that could be answered immediately". You cannot count on meetings with your supervisor for that. Use your email instead.

If you have urgent and easy questions, you generally have other people in the lab being able to answer

@Alexandros When I send an email, he generally prints and reads it during our meetings.

@Blue_Elephant Yes, obviously I ask them first or even ask on the relevant stackexchange site... when I can. But sometimes it's not possible (e.g. "is this revised version of my abstract now ready for publication", "I've been invited to this conference, what do you think"...). ("Immediately" isn't to be understood literally, but there is a difference between "weeks" and "I need a few minutes to think about it").

Does your advisor have other students?  Do you ever talk to them?  Your most recent comment makes it sounds like you don't.  Did you talk to anyone about what your advisor was like beforehand?  I had an advisor with a similar approach to meetings, but I knew about that going in and it didn't bother me.  It sounds like it bothers you, so why did you pick this advisor?

@NoahSnyder He has other students, with whom I speak a lot, yes. But they're more advanced than I am and don't need to meet as often as I do. According to them this is a rather recent change (when I started my PhD more or less...) due to ever-increasing administrative duties and a big research project coming to an end. I was already working with this advisor before my PhD, in fact: as I said, he's great (just disorganized I think), and he was more available at the time. I also wasn't working literally on the same floor let alone the same city, so "meeting" was a more formal affair.

(I had to take a train to go meet him, so postponing the meeting every day at the last minute was not possible because it would have started to get expensive. Now I'm here all week long so...)

your situation is really complicated for more than one reason.
First, you should not complain about an advisor not having time for you, BUT it's a part of his job to help you with what you are doing anyway.
Second, he seems really desorganized, which happens quite a lot when someone has new responsabilities. That part is the most annoying, because you can't help him on that.
Third, and not the least important, he's postponing your meeting because he thinks you are always up for it, you have to tell him it's not like that, by explaining him you're in a bad position a the moment.

@GautierC Not to mention that if my advisor never had time for me I would feel like I have a right to complain, but here I'm complaining about meetings being indefinitely postponed. I understand having a busy schedule, and wouldn't have cared if he had told me from the beginning "let's meet in two weeks" instead of "let's meet next week" and then postponed the meeting five times. Secondly, I'm not "in a bad position at the moment", I dont understand where you got that.

@user54760 Maybe you can ask him to setup a meeting every 2 weeks for example ? that way, he will know that it is your turn, something like that.
You can't complain, but you can give him some clues about what you think, without being impolite.
Currently, you are wasting time in your PhD, which for me, is called "being in a bad position" ^^.

@GautierC you should not complain about an advisor not having time for you I think that is a very reasonable complaint.

@Davidmh You can't complain about time. I mean, it will really destroy the relation with his advisor. But you should come with a proposition to fix the problem, like my example.

Tell him you would like to have more guidance, and ask to have regular meetings with a fixed schedule, same time every week. This way he will have a permanent entry on his calendar, and be more likely to reschedule tasks around it.
Some weeks you'll have more results, some others you'll have less, but it will be good if you can keep having at least a short chat every week.

This is also extremely common.

Where is your funding from? If you have somewhat independent funding (NSF or other external fellowship) I would recommend making yourself less available. Set a firm meeting time that reoccurs once a week at the same time and place. If your adviser isn't there in the first five minutes, leave and don't agree to meet again until the next scheduled meeting time. This might annoy your adviser but if you are independently funded there is nothing he or she can do about it. They will eventually adjust to retain you.
If you depend on your adviser for funding you may be more forced to adapt to their way-of-working. If it really bothers you, you could change advisers and work with somebody more consistent. I know this isn't a good option. My adviser was the same way and it made everything much harder to get publications out.  Luckily it is just a PhD and not a marriage.

If your adviser pays you, they are your boss... if you pay yourself they are lucky you work for them.

Alienating your coworkers, regardless of your relationship to them, is generally a bad idea. Regarding "they will eventually adjust to retain you", if you keep that attitude, they may also consider you aren't worth the trouble, or not go out of their way to help you when you need it.

skipping scheduled meetings on a constant basis is unprofessional and is alienating even if you're a professor. OP can't let themselves be disregarded on a daily basis and be expected to maintain self-respect and project enthusiasm.


text:
No-paper-year in one's career and getting faculty position
I have heard that while recruiting in faculty member positions people look at the career of the applicants very critically and if someone has a year without a paper might face difficulties in getting permanent positions. I was wondering how important the issue really is in the context of securing permanent teaching/research positions.
Edit : I am asking this as a theoretical high energy physics postdoc.

Do you mean getting the initial position, or getting an initial position converted into a permanent one via the tenure process?

I mean getting the initial position itself.

This varies greatly according to field (biology and mathematics and history probably have very different standards) and according the institution (Ph.D. students in the department vs. Departments of Natural Sciences).

I can name scientists who publish infrequently but every publication is a major work with large impact. I am sure that in most fields it's possible to get hired, including top departments, with a relatively small number of truly remarkable papers. This is just the more risky way of getting a job.

With respect to getting an initial faculty position, I'm not sure that there really is a penalty associated with having "no papers" in a given year, especially with the vagaries of the publishing system. Is a person with one paper in two successive years a stronger candidate than a person with no papers one year, and then three or four the next? Or was it just that one paper took too long in review for one candidate but not the other?
I think one has to look at the overall record to make a fair determination. Besides, the relative significance of the articles will also play a role. One paper in a top journal in your field is probably worth more than two papers in a random low-impact journal.
Spend less time worrying about things that aren't in your control, and focus on what is: doing solid, publishable research and writing a strong application.

+1 However a long gap (several years) with no publications can be harder to overcome, even if one has been productive recently.  So perhaps if you're in a field where 10 papers/year is the norm (if there are such fields) this might look strange.  (E.g., you didn't present at any conferences in a given year.)

10 papers a year for someone who doesn't already have a group?

I have a colleague who did not have a paper published in one year, but had 13 the next -- he had been writing papers all along, but for some reasons his papers submitted in year X all got accepted quickly, the papers submitted in year X+1 all required multiple rounds of reviews, and were published in year X+2 where also his papers got accepted quickly. So he ended up with none in X+1 and lots in X+2.
That's an extreme case, but everyone understands that getting things published is a stochastic process. What's more important is the number and quality of publications you have.


text:
Post Doc application during June-July
Is it possible for a final year PhD student in theoretical high energy physics to apply for postdoctoral positions during June-July if (s)he misses the usual deadlines in Nov-Dec?
(Edited)

This kind of 'shopping questions' (while useful sometimes) are not usually welcome on this .SE.... check the rules :)

Thanks. I didn't know the rules. Sorry about that. :)

@FábioDias Should I delete the post now or wait for a day and then delete? Any suggestion?

The questions is good if you rewrite it. It should be useful for others grad students in HEP.

I have rephrased the question. Don't know if it helps. Thanks!

@FábioDias that question has absolutely nothing to do with buying anything aka "shoping". The SE specific immensely broad generalization of this term might be useful on the technological sites (?), but it is not appropriate for scientific/academic communities and should therefore not be applied here.  I agree that the question is useful to many students, it should not be closed.


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Does synthesising a material qualify for acknowledgement?
Very recently, my feed suggested a new paper which was an extract from a thesis in an old group of mine. It was interesting for me, as I synthesised the material used. However, whilst the text referenced my paper in the "synthesis previously reported," I didn't have the expected acknowledgement of "we thank x for product y."
I just wanted to check that it would be the norm to give me an acknowledgment.

Its worth baring in mind that the citation of your old paper is almost certainly more valuable to you, career metrics-wise than an acknowledgement.

The synthesis paper is chugging along at ca. 20 citations per year, and it isn't anywhere near the limiting paper for my H-index.

Yeah, but an acknowledgement is worth nothing (I bet not a single person will ever read the acknowledgements), other than, you know, the personal manners involved in an acknowledgement, where as a citation is worth a non-zero amount, even if its very small.

Are you sure that they did not synthesize the material using your process?

@JonCuster I am absolutely sure. I had an idea for a study of a particular modification and gave the exact material to a student for the study. I learnt later that study had been submitted to JACS and rejected without any acknowledgement to me (conceptualised the study and provided the starting material) or knowing it was being submitted. One of the modified materials from that study was given to another group, who did the lions share of the work.
I certainly haven't earned authorship on the latter paper, but I would have liked acknowledgement.

I think almost anything can qualify for acknowledgement, some people even thank family members. There aren't really rules for acknowledging. So while it would be totally acceptable to acknowledge you for the materials, it is also ok not to do it and cite your previous contribution instead. I highly doubt it was done out of malice.
If it really bothers you, try to get in contact with your old group and tell them so. It will probably be to late to change anything (I highly doubt that someone will make the effort to change the acknowledgement section of an already published paper), but maybe they will be made aware that this might be something people expect/wish and will try to act differently in the future.

@Sursula's answer is right, there are no particular rules what kind of contribution must be mentioned in the acknowledgements section of a paper. However, I would prefer to be more on the generous side here. Assuming that you put in some days of work for the synthesis and characterization of the material you provided, I think it is rather rude to just take and use it without mentioning specifically your contribution. It is also not wise because it irritates a collaborator and might make future cooperative work more complicated.
It simply is a nice courtesy to acknowledge people's help, and therefore it should be the norm.

I'd be careful with the advice you give to different sides of the situation. "It might be seen as rude" seems like good advice to the authors, but OP is the acknowledgee. I don't think it's appropriate to tell them it is rude because I highly doubt anyone thought about it that way. Their paper was cited, so they've been given credit for the intellectual contribution, and there's no need to blow up old relationships over something like an acknowledgement missing in this situation.

I think there's potentially a difference between someone doing you the favor of synthesizing a material and, as may be the case here, using an old material sample synthesized years earlier when OP was in the same group, that was just sitting in a drawer somewhere.


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Settling for Australian PhD — terrible decision?
I recently accepted a PhD offer from a top Australian university. There are many things I like about it: my supervisors are excited to work with me and the topic is almost exactly what I want to work on.
My educational background is quite strong however and I am aware that I am making the decision to stay in Australia partly for convenience (partner works here) and that I may have had a chance at universities more well known in my field. I am worried that I am jeopardising my career from the start by staying here.
I would be keen for some advice. Given that I like my topic and supervisors and that the university is ranked top 50 world wide, should I even be concerned? Or could I be making a big mistake?

Sounds like you have already established the trilemma in your question. I fear, how you weigh the three dimensions prestige vs fit vs convenience/partnership isn't a question we can help with, as it's subjective.

Venn Diagram Time!

I started writing a full answer but then decided against it. You've already accepted the offer. Have some faith in your decision! What's done is done. If you don't have the courage to face the consequences of your decisions for good or bad, you'll never get anywhere. If you renege now, you'll have a hell of a time explaining why you're reneging to your would-be supervisors. If you further take up a position in the same field but a different university ... remember that academia is a small world, with a very long memory. You might meet long-term consequences, e.g. if you return for a postdoc.

@user3727079 Yes, OP might be facing a form of shopper's remorse. :)

I have experienced the same feelings after every position I moved to. Nothing is forever, if you don't like it there, you'll be able to move. I did so from a "Top 500" (if  even) university.


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How to apply for a new PhD while being enrolled in one? What to provide as motivation letter, CV and references?
The background story
I  am a PhD student where I have been all by myself without much chance of being able to sit face to face with my advisor and get some help as my advisor does not have time for me. I should also note that my advisor is pretty upset with my performance as I was not able to have publication so far.
I understand that every advisor has her/his way of supervision. However, from my understanding, a PhD should be a way of learning how to become a researcher and hence at least 2-3 times a month meetings should be standard.
Motivation
I like what I do, and I want to learn new things. Therefore I have been thinking about being able to apply for a new PhD. Maybe this time I will be able to find an advisor who is more willing to show me the path and make suggestions on my work so I can improve it.
The question
Being able to apply for a new PhD requires documents such as CV, motivation letter and references. How should I prepare these administration files to have a higher chance of being accepted?
Should I provide the information about me being a PhD student?
Is it better not to provide information about my PhD studies? If so, how would I write a cover letter? Because hiding what I have done so far will make my cover letter quite weak.

There are many many questions with a similar topic here that already have answers; can you maybe look through them first and see if there is still anything new in your question? (see especially the tag transfer-student)

First, your situation isn't as rare as you might think. It is also moderately common to want to change programs, or at least advisors. Changing because you aren't getting the supervision that you want and need is also not that unusual.
It may be a bit less usual, however, if you want to change, but don't want to change "what you do" as well.
I would prepare an application package, including CV and SOP just as if you weren't already in a doctoral program. What have you done, what are your goals. Then, modify the package "just enough" so that the CV shows the current program, and the SOP indicates you are looking for a "more compatible" position that "better fits your needs". This should represent a small part of your application, not the major focus. In interviews it is enough to say that your advisor "isn't sufficiently helpful."
But I wouldn't hide the fact that you are already in a program or that you and your advisor aren't especially compatible. If it were later learned you might suffer for it. My general opinion is that you can and should be honest in all things - when possible.
You seem to be on a search for an advisor who can help you become successful. That is a worthy goal. Focus on that and don't think of the past as a failure, but just as a difficult situation.
And, before you choose another advisor, make sure that you get some information, somewhere, possible from him/her, about expectations on both sides. Sometimes other students are willing to share their perceptions, but you can also just explore it like any other thing with the person. If they aren't comfortable with this, they may not be the best choice.
But expect that any new advisor that otherwise meets your needs will want to steer you in a (slightly?) different direction. In your case it might be best to agree.

Great answer +1!

Thanks a lot. Could you please tell me how and when to indicate that I have already been in a program, after being accepted with CV and SOPs that made without indication of me being a PhD student? Wouldn't that be ruining the chance? With gratitude :)

Sorry, I forgot to complete that thought - editing.


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What is considered as unethical omission of information on an application
If someone were to have an opportunity to attend a school, and registered in courses, but was unable to attend due to personal issues, withdrew before the start of semester, never paid tuition, never attended courses, and is now reapplying to other schools, is this information relevant on an application? There would be no transcript to submit, as it would be blank, but should it be mentioned somehow anyway?

No.  You did not attend and it should not be listed.


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PhD supervisor (who I use as a reference) is the department director for position I am applying for. Should this bias be avoided?
I am applying for a position at a University. The director of the department at the University I am applying to was my PhD supervisor.
Is it still proper to ask them to provide a letter of recommendation? Or is this a bias (conflict of interest) I should try and avoid?
EDIT: The director IS involved with both the interviewing and hiring process; however, they said to still use them as a reference.

Seems like a waste of a reference if they're going to write a letter for themselves to read. I would ask someone else (and likely they will tell you the same thing if you ask them for a reference).

@astronat: More likely they will recuse themself from the hiring decision, and their letter will be read by the rest of the committee.

I suggest that you ask the person whether they believe it is proper for them to write you a letter. They know the institution to which you are applying and its procedures. If they indicate that it should be fine, then it is fine. Otherwise, look elsewhere for a letter.
But it is good to avoid assumptions in a case like this. The director may be involved or not. A letter from them might be considered proper or not. Don't assume. Don't guess. Ask.
You can indicate in your note that you don't know the proper rules and, while you would value a letter, you will understand if they think it improper. Hopefully you know them well enough that such a note won't seem out of order to them.

I think you are confusing "bias" with "conflict of interest."
The fact that a job applicant was previously supervised by the person who is making a hiring decision is not an unethical conflict of interest.  There might be a conflict of interest if you were related or if you offered a bribe.
In this case, it is not clear if your supervisor is even involved in the hiring decision.

Hmm bribes, I didn't think of that (I'm joking). Right, I suppose I should check to see if they are actually involved with the hiring process. Let's assume they are, either way, it sounds like you think this would not be a COI as they rightfully can vouch for my performance?

Not based on the information you provided.  It's up to the person hiring to handle conflicts of interest, not the applicant.

But don't go seeking them out.

I would imagine there would be more than a conflict of interest if you offered a bribe :)

FWIW A conflict of interest implies a bias... that's why it's a conflict.

I should clarify, I assumed that the director would be directly involved with any hiring process in the department; however, it seems that assuming is not the right way to go about this. Thanks everyone for your comments!

@TylerH There are different types of bias. Being biased in favor of a candidate who is related to you is nepotism and is almost universally condemned as bad. Being biased in favor of a candidate that you have worked with in the past and know to be a talented researcher is simply bringing first-hand knowledge to bear on an important decision. Bias traceable to previous knowledge of a candidate is almost unavoidable in academia, especially in smaller fields.

This would absolutely be a conflict of interest at my university and the person would need to recuse themselves from the committee.

You need a letter of recommendation which he/she is honour-bound to write strictly with their supervisor's hat on.
If that letter is not there, and the person is asked their opinion during the meeting, it will be less clear which hat if any they have on.
It is up to the hiring committee to work out if and how the person should recuse themselves. There may be bias and or conflict of interest, but this is precisely their deontological burden, not yours.
Between you and me and the bedpost, all appointments in academia are at least a bit tainted. Be grateful if and when the cards come up in your favour, as it will not happen terribly often.

You could request them to give a general recommendation letter (To whomsoever it may concern) and then add it to your application. Now it is up to the committee or your former supervisor to decide the outcome. Your association with the director in a professional capacity should in no way be detrimental to your chances of securing this job. If it is, then it is a case of reverse bias.
In any case, it is not something you must be worried about. In fact, you should feel more confident in getting the position as your skills and strengths are well known to the potential employer.
Best of luck!

(The -1 isn't mine, but) Being elusive won't help the OP, imo. Harm seems more likely

-1 is not a problem. Is it the responsibility of the OP to mention in their application that their supervisor is the deciding authority? The burden of sharing this knowledge with the higher-up is on the director, imo.

Requesting a general letter of recommendation, addressed to whomever it may concern, and then returning that letter to the author seems rather deceptive to me

I do not see the deception here as I assume that the director is not the only person responsible for hiring. That would be unusual. But I kind of see your point now that you make it.

Perhaps deceptive is the wrong term, elusive, probably something else. The point being: The author wasn't well-informed about the situation they were entering, and they're mightn't be happy about that

I apologize for the vagueness in the question, but this discussion has been helpful!


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Does grant funded equipment result in authorship?
Just a quick question regarding authorship. Recently, a PI won a grant, which was used to buy some computer equipment (~$1000 piece of computation equipment along with some other equipment not relevant to the post).
I am a student that has been using the piece of equipment, as it was not being used by their students.
I am now going to be submitting a manuscript, which used the equipment as mentioned above. Does this entail the PI who won the funds to pay for it authorship? Or, as I believe, just acknowledgment (for both the grant and the PI who won it)?
EDIT 1: I should note, my research has nothing to do whatsoever with the PI's grant or their research.
EDIT 2: I found this interesting paper on the subject.

Varies according to the field, I believe.  Find out what is the custom in your field.

ask your PI / last author on the paper

I'm aware it varies by field. Yes, I have consulted with my PI (supervisor), I am seeking general advise.

See http://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/principles_dfg_funding/good_scientific_practice/index.html for the German guidelines. Short summary: No authorship, independent of field.

If you are aware that it varies by field, it would have been a good idea to specify your field...

No, I disagree. Just seeking general advise across various fields.

Authorship, no, not if the only contribution was a piece of equipment. Authorship at a minimum requires an intellectual contribution to the project.
Acknowledgment, perhaps. $1000 sounds like a fairly minimal investment for an acknowledgment even, but the standards for what is worthy of acknowledging are much more up to the authors of a given paper. If the work truly would not have been possible without the equipment, then it may certainly be appropriate. If you were just borrowing someone's unused computer, that doesn't sound acknowledgment-worthy to me.
On a brief note in the other direction: some people come here and ask authorship questions where they feel someone (usually an advisor) doesn't deserve authorship, but in reality they made a substantial intellectual contribution to the project. Norms for this vary by field, but make sure when you are assessing answers you get here that you are describing this PI's complete contribution accurately.

Keep it mind there's also opportunity cost for that equipment. If a random student from another lab fills up my file server, it's not the couple hundred bucks I spent on an SSD that's my contribution.

@Fomite I don't think that's correct. The opportunity cost of that SSD could not be more than the cost of that SSD, unless there is some sort of world-wide SSD shortage, which you could also represent with an increased value of the SSD. Opportunity cost can't be more than the value of the thing you don't have the opportunity to use. I could see if someone is taking up lab space, their use is of more than just equipment, because space is not free, but space is still not an intellectual contribution and I stand by my answer.

I don't actually disagree with your comment - just that it's inherently the dollar value that represents a "minimal investment". Because while there is no shortage of SSDs, there is a shortage of "Time I have to spend dealing with the server throwing errors because you filled up that SSD."
I don't think it rises to the level of an intellectual contribution, but I think both there are smaller amounts that would, and larger amounts that wouldn't.

Journals have clear requirements of the authors, so it seems like you're asking a trivial question. But the rules do get bent/broken every day, so perhaps it is useful to point out that those requirements aren't a huge deal. It isn't like patents where including a non-contributing inventor can invalidate the whole thing. Keep in mind people stick their neck out by co-authoring your paper; if you commit misconduct or make a major error, they look bad too.
But the job of all authors isn't done until the paper is published. You need them in the loop at each step, and with an unsubmitted manuscript you aren't near the final step yet. So the real question is are you compelled, by custom or politeness or something, to offer an opportunity to co-author your paper to those who have helped you. This doesn't mean just slap their name on there like you would a reference, but to send them the draft and ask them if they wish to co-author it. Which implies that they will subsequently contribute meaningfully, and thereby earn legitimate co-authorship. And indeed the boundaries of what kind of favor rates this response probably varies by field.
I will say that burning bridges (by annoying people who had expected their minor contribution to pay off) can hurt you, while minimizing the number of co-authors doesn't help you too much. It may even hurt you as you appear less collaborative.

Thanks for your insight. Let's not forget, what seems cut and dry for authorship, is generally never so, there always remains a large gray area. You are correct about the burning bridges statement, and I could care less about how many co-authors are on the manuscript. I suppose I find it overall petty, that anyone can buy $1000 piece of common equipment (with a grant or otherwise) and assume co-authorship. Seems like an easy way to pad a CV. In my mind, acknowledging the PI would be sufficient. Perhaps I am being overly emotional here, as the PI was quite rude about it.

Is the grant related to the project you worked on? If so, in my field (CS) that would be enough. Without their intellectual contribution there would have been no grant, no equipment, and no project.
Perhaps you should ask why are you writing a manuscript without supervision from a more senior researcher (if that's the case).

At least for Geramny I strongly disagree (assuming that the publication is not related to the grant the PI wrote, which is how I understood the question)! Ref: http://www.dfg.de/foerderung/grundlagen_rahmenbedingungen/gwp/ (english version at http://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/principles_dfg_funding/good_scientific_practice/index.html)

I disagree about your disagreement. If the project one is working on has been designed by someone else, you are mainly executing a plan. You can have an original approach and be the first author, but in my view this does not dismiss the PI's original work in coming up with the idea.
Of course, if the project OP is working on has nothing to do with the grant's original idea, then yes, the case is much weaker.

and the OP wrote "I was using the equipement as it was not used bei their students" which indicates, that the OPs project is unrelated to the grant.
I agree: If someone acquires a grant, they put significant IP in it and this qualifies them as author for resulting publications.

Further, the epuipment is a typical off the shelf component. I could use my laptop instead, but the $1000 piece of generic equipment is faster. I may just buy my own and be done with it. Thanks for all the discussion! This is a great ethical example of authorship woes.


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How to get good recommendation when working under a phd student as an undergraduate
I am not sure whether this is normal. I worked under a PhD student last year and I don't think I had any contact with prof.
After I finished my work last year, we arranged a meeting so I could present my work directly to the prof. Back then, the Prof acknowledged my work and decided to provide a reference.
Ok. Here is the problem. As you can see, I am primarily working under a PhD student, and I almost never talked to the prof directly (except during our only meeting). I think he has a good impression of me. But the problem is that the Letter of Recommendation should usually come from someone who knows you well, which isn't in my case. So the question is, is it normal for a undergraduate student involved in research, to have very little contact with the prof? Is it normal for this to happen?

My country is Canada, and I worked on a robotic research project. My role was to  set up a platform for the PhD student so that he could implement his algorithm (which is the main part of the research). In fact, Phd student and I have published a paper together (offcourse, with the prof's name on it as well).

What is your country? What are the usual expectations there? For instance, in Germany, it is completely normal for Bachelor and Master students to have little to no direct contact (as in, conversations, rather than just watching lectures) to any professors during their entire studies, but then, it is also completely normal to never require any recommendation letters. Please expand your question with the context that gives us a better idea of your situation.

As O.R. Mapper notes, this may vary by country. Undergraduates will usually have much less contact with professors than graduate students, because of the sheer numbers of students involved - professors don't have infinite time to meet with each undergrad for an hour every week.
That said, even German professors write letters of recommendation for undergrads once in a while (e.g., for student grants). Usually, they will get their information from the graduate students that do have a lot of contact with the undergrad. For instance, they may ask the grad student to draft the letter of recommendation, then review, improve and sign it. That way, the undergrad gets a recommendation written by someone who actually knows him and may have more time to invest in the letter than a busy professor, and the grad student gets a little experience in writing letters of recommendation (which is a good preparation for later academic life), and everything is done under the supervision of the professor.
Bottom line: your situation is routine. Don't worry. Just do a good job, and your letter will be fine.