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Careers in computer science without maths
I am currently studying in BTech CSE 2nd year. My maths is very weak and I have to choose the specialization, but I want to choose a career in computer science which does not require maths. If there is maths in any career it should be very little or easy. Please guide me ..

Are you able to take some additional maths courses to improve your understanding?

You may be able to work without remembering the more advanced analysis / algebra knowlege, but you will definitly need math that is beyond school level math and you will need mathematical thinking about problems, even when they do not involve numbers. I think you should look if there are any career advice offerings and talk to someone who can explain what type of math you will need and guide you if you really should go into computer science when you're not comfortable with it.

Computer Science is applied mathematics. Mostly non-calculus one (logic, combinatorics, some abstract algebra, a smattering of number theory).

What is btech? H

@user111388, See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.Tech

Computer science is a branch of mathematics. This will not happen.

From my class in computer architecture and computer security, I've found that they have little math. Anybody know if the research there has math?

I depends on what you mean by a career. For a low level position with not a lot of chance for advancement it would be possible. But almost all CS fields require some fairly deep understanding of at least some parts of mathematics. As user vonbrand notes it is mostly not calculus, though even that can help.
But one of the big ideas in CS is being able to separate the "simple" algorithms from those that will actually work in practice. You can go a ways with only standard and well known practice, but you won't be in a very good position to make advancements, even in a "career" in programming.
But some parts of CS require more maths than others. User Interface design, for example, and Human Factors, are more concerned with psychology and physiology than maths. But Algorithms, Machine Learning, Operating Systems, and lots of others, depend on being able to think in some of the same ways that a mathematician does. Logical, rather than empirical, evidence, can be fundamental.
The other problem, as you probably already know is that most education programs in CS have quite a lot of required maths. If you don't do well in those courses, your overall record may not be strong enough to advance.
So, perhaps you just need to find a way to deal with learning the maths you need. Tutors can help, especially if they are wise enough to evaluate where your blocks are. Some students need to repeat a lot of things they "should have learned" at an earlier stage, but didn't. A good tutor can help you get past such things, but it might require special insight into learning and into what is most important. But it also takes work (lots of it) on your part.
And, more important than specific mathematical "facts" is a mathematical way of approaching a problem.

The fact that you say "BTech CSE" and your name indicates that you are doing a course at an engineering college in India.

Many people in India take such courses to get a career in "Software" which could mean "Software Engineering" or something else. The mathematics requirements for these careers have been mentioned by others.
Many engineering colleges in India teach "standard" calculus as a default math course (since they copy IIT's and the USA) which may not actually be required for every such a career. However, there are many CSE careers which do require a background in calculus.
You should be aware that firms that hire people out of these engineering firms may give some weightage to your grade point score, which will include your score in mathematics courses.

All in all, as said by others, it is best if you take remedial courses so that you can get to a reasonable level in mathematics if you want to pursue a CSE career.

If you want a career as a Software Engineer, you can get a passing grade in your math classes, then get a Software Engineering job that doesn't require much math (there are MANY of these available, I had one of these for a few years).
If you really mean you want a career in Computer Science, as in, you want a Ph.D. in Computer Science and a research job in Computer Science then you will likely need to work hard to strengthen your mathematical skills. Many people are not "naturally" good at math, but can do just as good as others by working hard at it. I have several friends like this, who are accomplishing amazing things despite struggling with math early in college.


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Need advise on a career in academia
I am desperately looking for a sense of direction. I am about to start a career in academia and I am..I guess scared. My Ph.D. was something, it was enlightening, to say the least. I do not have too many publications, just 6 to 7 in total.  In my second year of Postdoc received an offer for this tenure-track faculty position at a teaching-intensive university.  Here is the problem:
1. The start-up money is pretty small, I don't know if I might be able to get my research up and going(even for preliminary data) They do not have a Ph.D. program, only masters.
2. I don't know if I can get a grant from the NIH based on having my publication number. Also, some NIH grants are not for H1B visa holders.
3. I cannot use my postdoc to generate data (That was one of the things that someone suggested to me). Not all PIs like that, also my postdoc funding agency doesn't include a portion for research, only stipend.
Did anyone make it through with something like this? How did you do it? How and which grants do you think I could apply to bring money in for a lab?

Note: if this question could be truly answered in a SE answer there would be no stress in academia.

:))))) True but I guess all of us can learn from the other right? Who better than real human s to solve real-life messy problems.

Do you have collaborations that could continue? What I have seen (more in science/engineering) is that successful faculty at teaching-intensive colleges are part of larger collaborations. They can spend the summer in another lab (national lab, bigger university, CERN, ...), and then bring back tasks that can be done by undergraduates or masters students. Those students then, if interested, have a clear path to PhD programs at the other collaboration partners. Of course, this observation may have no bearing on NIH related programs...

That is in fact a very good suggestion. Thank you. I will make a note of that.

You should consult with your future colleagues about what they expect you to do in order to get tenure.  Random internet advice won't help.  Also, inability to get tenure/grants is not necessarily a reason to turn down the job.

I did. they have a generic checklist like yearly contributions towards research, teaching, and service. These are the same as any R01 universities. However, I do not have anyone there to model upon. I know it's strange and telling but I do not have the liberty to choose. So, I want to make most of what I have and hence the question. But I guess expanding on your point, once I go there, I can physically meet people and find out more in detail. Thanks a ton!

This depends on what you want your career to be like. At a "teaching-intensive" university or a Liberal Arts college, expect teaching to be much more highly valued than research, though you can't ignore the latter. This explains the small start-up funding. If you want, primarily, to teach, the position will probably serve you well.
But if you really want research to be your focus you need to think hard about it as you will probably be largely on your own for obtaining both funding and the time for research. Given that, generating lots of quality papers will be harder, though not impossible if you have, or can develop, a wide circle of collaboration. And without a lot of papers it might be harder to move up to a research focused position. Again, not impossible, but harder.
Your choice. Think first about what you really want from your career.

Those are good points and I agree with everything. Unfortunately, I don't want to give up this offer. I like the school, the culture and of course, it's where I want to be. Jobs in academia are pretty tough in these times. I want to succeed is all. I do not want to give up either research or teaching. I need to just bring in some money to support my research. How....is my big quest.  But, thanks dear friend, I really appreciate it.

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How to start doing "more theoretical" research?
I guess, this question might be not only of my personal interest: I'm a first year PhD CS student, during my BSc and MSc, all research projects I did were purely practical - we hypothesize that certain way of computing or approximating something is "good" in some sense or another. Last year I was mostly doing deep learning that reduces to "if we wire network like this, those interesting properties might appear, here're some clues on possible reasons". But I used to (and still do) like doing math, learning new concepts and figuring out proofs, but:
a) I have no idea of how to come up with such a research project (closest thing to "theory research" I did was proving convergence bounds)
b) professor I am (have been for a while) working with now (and who partially funds my RA) is not very inspired by my intent to do research in theory (with no guarantees that anything would work out) instead of performing real-world publishable  experiments (that also rarely lead to successes, but are at least more "measurable").
More specifically, I have been doing machine learning last few years, and I know that there exist a bunch of cool areas to explore and I took (and I liked)  courses on statistical learning theory, optimization, Bayesian inference and other more rigorous things. But I just don't know how to start "doing research" there.

It would be very helpful if you and your current advisor were on the same page for your newly-found theoretical research interest. Since that does not seem to be the case, the first step would be to find a new advisor.

It sounds like you need to read a book called something like "how to do a PhD". I expect that there are several. This seems far too broad a question for here.

I believe that you are at the transition between BSc/MSc(where one is used to textbook level research) to PhD where one is requested to read and publish papers. The transition is not smooth, it has to be done in various stages. You can start, by examples by reading different papers in domains related to your knowledge(and also what you really like), and try to understand in detail the methodology. The effort has to be continuously, 2 3 hours everyday, and also not to get distracted and stop the research. Also, don't forget that some answers might come after months or even years of research. I would start by reading and finding papers that are approachable in the present context, and try to understand the detail in one of them. This would lead you to another papers to learn and understand, and after you gain some background(a few months), you can start to explore new ideas connected to what you have learned. In the end, if an approach seems that is leading you nowhere, try another approach. Also, related to the question context, working at one side on real-world publishable experiments and on the other side on theoretical approaches seems to be the best option. Good luck!

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How to minimize cheating while running a computer-based quiz?
I will be teaching a course that has a significant programming component.
I would like to evaluate students' programming skills
using a computer-based quiz/exam,
because it seems to me that this is a better way
to evaluate students' programming skills than a paper-based quiz/exam,
given that in the real world,
people write code on a computer, not on paper.
Unfortunately, I have never attended a quiz/exam
where programming was done on a computer,
and the computer was connected to the Internet.
(I think I did take a computer-based SAT or GRE exam many years ago,
but I don't think the computer was connected to the Internet.)
I am worried that in a computer-based setting,
students may be tempted to cheat
using e-mail or Internet messaging software.
Is there a reasonable setup that I could use
that allows students to work on the computer,
and submit their work online,
while limiting the ability of the students to use Internet communication?

Related, maybe duplicate: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28819/are-there-tools-to-prevent-students-from-cheating-on-a-programming-exam-administ?rq=1 Also, http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/40098/how-can-i-balance-teaching-computer-assisted-skills-and-risks-of-cheating-at-exa?rq=1

Why would you even need internet connection? You can access the documentation of common programming languages from any modern IDE. And if we assume that the given programming tasks don't require anything (algorithms, design patterns, libraries, etc.) new, i.e, which hasn't been shown before in the course, then the students shouldn't have to resort to googling. Plus, a good IDE can be set to have debugging and performance analysis capabilities, and maybe even also the ability to generate various graphs/reports from the code. And if you think this may be too daunting for beginners, you can...

...always seed the IDE to include things like project configuration, libraries, empty source files, etc beforehand. Or you can bring it a step further by providing mostly completed source files and require that students simply fill in any missing pieces of code (e.g. a particular algorithm), or even provide fully completed source files and require that students refactor them to make use of certain design patterns, or debug/profile your code and find a bug/inefficiency. The possibilities are endless ;).

It's low tech, but is there a chance to do the exam in a computer pool in which you can see the displays? E.g., if the computers are arranged in a typical classroom setting, to stand on one side of the room, looking at the screens? Or (available in some computer pools) to use a monitoring software that lets you see the students screens (without them knowing which one you focus on)?

Is this an intro computer science course or a "how to write code" course (like for non-majors)? My CS classes typically had a final project (which is a realistic way to test programming capability), but all exams were on paper, usually pseudocode. If we had to write code it only involved basic syntax and APIs (like ArrayList in Java) that we were expected to know, or we would be given the relevant documentation for reference.

We had the same thing and the amount of tricks skilled guys came up with to cheat is something that should get them hired by some secret agency.....

If you have control over the lab software
Have your IT dept install software that will allow you to monitor the activity on each system. I think the term is Classroom management software. Sit back and watch for suspicious activity.
Otherwise - adapt
I like the strategies discussed in this question about take-home exams (How to prevent cheating on take-home exams)
The TL/DR - think about how you might test learning of the material in a situation where students ARE going to collaborate and ARE going to access materials on the subject.
My two cents on the concept of computer based exams

it seems to me that this is a better way to evaluate students' programming skills than a paper-based quiz/exam, given that in the real world, people write code on a computer, not on paper.

I don't agree with this statement, because in the real world people also have access to other supports like references and peers while writing code on a computer.
I don't think writing a coding exam on a computer actually tests knowledge of coding any better than writing code on paper. In fact, in some ways it hampers student performance because they must focus on creating properly formatted, compilable, code instead of getting their knowledge of the concepts on paper.
Pseudo code is faster to write and easier to evaluate.
If you want to test their ability to write executable code, give them assignments.

it seems to me that this is a better way to evaluate students' programming skills than a paper-based quiz/exam, given that in the real world, people write code on a computer, not on paper.

If you want your exams to better approximate the real world, then speaking as an IT professional, let me make a few comments.
The Real World

In the real world programmers have access to documentation.

Not only do they have access to documentation, they are expected to use it and refer to it regularly, if not constantly.  It is a red flag to any good technical manager to have a programmer waste time trying to "figure something out" by trial and error rather than consulting the documentation or other online information.
(Of course, it is also a red flag if the programmer can't write a simple "for" loop without consulting the documentation.)
Yes, it is an advantage to know your language so well that you can use all the standard library features without consulting any references or examples.  But few programmers are that good—and the ones who are, got that way by practice (experience), not by reading textbooks or doing classroom assignments.

Writing the actual code is a very small part of designing a solution.

Design questions are important in the real world.  Vast books have been written on the subject.  It's not enough that your code works.  It must be sufficiently robust for the conditions it will actually run in; it must be maintainable; it must be possible to modify it to accommodate new requirements without throwing the entire codebase away and starting from scratch.
Design also includes understanding the requirements and can even include querying them (proposing alterations) or surveying the source of the requirements to be sure they are really, truly understood before a solution is implemented.  A classroom setting almost never simulates this accurately.  In class, you are given a precise assignment, and you must solve exactly the use case precisely (even rigorously) stated.  The real world isn't like that.

In the real world, collaboration is highly desirable.

A standardized exam to be taken during class should probably not focus on practical programming.  Take-home extended assignments would be a much better gauge of ability to write code, as abase states in his answer.

A feasible solution would be to use firewalls that can be configured to allow only certain sites, such as the ones required for the exam, to connect over the Internet and block all else. This would be able to thwart Internet based messaging and web referencing.
If you are concerned about the possible communication over the intranet, for instance a telnet connection which is to be part of the programming examination, there are software which could control code plagiarism. For example, Moss from Standford is an automated system that determines the similarity of programs. I've also heard of some that would be able to check the similarity at the opcode level in such a way that even renaming variables wouldn't allow perpetrators to escape.

-1 for the first paragraph (focuses on the wrong problem), +1 for the second.

@FedericoPoloni: Thank you for the comment. The first paragraph was intended to address the point "...tempted to cheat using e-mail or Internet messaging software." to thwart copying if it occurs. Do you still feel it is irrelevant? Or should I make an edit to make this clear?

Sorry to be blunt, but yes, I still feel it is irrelevant. Plagiarism detection software does not catch a friend helping me using Gmail chat.

@FedericoPoloni: agreed, I've made the necessary edit.

Ask your students to copy an honor statement, e.g., "On my honor, I will neither accept nor give unauthorized aid", then add their name.
I report students for academic misconduct every quarter but I have never had to do it on a test where I've asked them to copy an honor statement.  When people are reminded of their ethical obligations, they become more honest, consistent with what Dan Ariely at Duke reports in the (excellent) documentary, "(Dis)Honesty:  The Truth About Lies".

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How to tell if a Master's thesis topic is stale/outdated/useless
I am a master's student majoring in a natural science subject. I spoke to a professor in my university about a master's thesis last year. Unfortunately  I was unable to interact with him for the rest of the year due to mental health issues. I ended up in my final year not having emailed any professors outside about a thesis, and I have too poor a CV for anyone to consider me.
But this prof I spoke to last year may take me under his wing. He is kind. Not an active researcher, but a very accommodating person. I am in a much better position now, and hope to do some good work under him, maybe get a letter of recommendation to compensate for my otherwise terrible CV and academic record, in case I wish to pursue higher studies and research. (I wanted to do that, but it is hard to maintain interests when you are battling inner demons. Indeed, I do have many gaps in my knowledge, and zero research experience at the moment.)
What concerns me though, is that the topic he recommends is not his area of expertise (he is switching fields), although related. The topic also seems to be unpopular, and indeed he is not an active researcher. A grad student of his did publish a paper recently in a Q2/Q3 journal I have never heard about the before (but not predatory) related to this topic. I do find it interesting, somewhat. At this point I am more interested in just working and gaining experience rather than hyper-fixating on interests because of my personal situation. I can see that the topic may have some potential but I am unsure as to whether or not it is worthwhile to pursue this topic if few others are working in it, I worry that it is known to be useless. How do I figure this out ?

Are you sure that "professors outside" care about your CV when it comes to supervising Master's thesis? Also, why are you so concerned that a Master's thesis topic might not be the hottest topic out there?

You seem to have gotten yourself into a situation in which you have few options and this may be (seems to be) the best one. If you can use it to get your degree then the overall impact won't matter as much as you think it does.
You need to find a way to better outcomes, but you need to start elsewhere. Having a supportive professor is a big plus. I suggest that you work with them. They have more experience in this than you do, including on evaluating the potential of the project.
If you can find a better option, then take it, but your description doesn't suggest that. Make the best of the situation you find yourself in. Good luck. That and hard work can make the difference. And, work as closely with this prof as you need to to make it come out right in the end. They have an interest in making it happen, just as you do.
It is hard (actually impossible) to predict at the start of a research project how it will turn out. Among other things, you learn something along the way.

Actually, most students don't end their master thesis with a publication. That being said, what's more important is to learn a little bit flavor of what research looks like. You should never set goals that are too far to reach, like making the thesis work into a high-impact journal.
If you do have zero research experience as you said, honestly, I believe you don't have enough knowledge to judge if a topic is popular/useful or not. Sub-fields with fewer citations are not because they are useless or boring,  but may also be due to the higher difficulty or there are simply fewer researchers in this field.
Considering your experience last year, I would suggest switching to the new professor. Stick with your new research project and build your research skills and taste.

I would argue that how useful or liked a topic of a Master's thesis is, does not matter. Just go through your uni database and you will see how many theses are stale and useless. As far as I am concerned, what matters is whether you enjoy writing and reading about your topic, because when you don't, the resistance to the thesis grows exponentially as you slowly approach the finish line.
Two more points that comes to mind.

Depending on the topic and depending on how much you want to interact with your supervisor, their area of expertise might not matter at all. The fact that he is not an active researcher might not matter either. This depends on the specific situation you are in and your interest/capabilities/university policies.

This may be university/country specific, but it has never ever occurred to me to check someone's CV or their academic record before supervising their thesis (nor after) and this is the first time I see someone mentioning it. While it surely can happen (and might even be common), I would double check whether it actually applies to your case.

To keep my answer brief, if you are struggling with feelings of low self-esteem or self-worth (you don't say explicitly, but I don't think I'm unreasonably reading between the lines), finding a supportive mentor and a project you're interested in could actually do you a lot of good. Graduate research is hard, for sure, but if this professor truly has the time to work with you and is supportive, the experience and competence you gain could actually be very restorative. Academics has a tendency to explicitly reward only high-risk endeavors (often including having to cope with unsupportive, neglectful, or even toxic work environments), but that is also a road to burn-out.
I speak from a related experience of my own, where my master's program was not very rewarding and I had an absentee mentor. But, during that time, I took a couple of graduate elective courses and taught myself some programming languages that led to a position in a PhD lab in a different field, which was a much better fit (it had its own issues, but that's another story ).
tl;dr: One's career is a winding path, and while I can't discount making strategic moves, it's important to choose what makes you happy and/or comfortable.

I think it is great that you are thinking about the impact of your choices now on your future career! But I also think it will be okay if your topic isn't the snazziest!
If you don't end up deciding to continue on to a PhD program, but get a job in industry/etc related to your field, it is likely most employers won't care about what your particular topic was, or even know enough to discriminate against you for it being marginal (this might depend a lot on the field though). On the other hand, if you do continue in research, regardless of your topic, your advisor will probably have connections that could help you later on.
I think probably doing any research is better than none – and so what's most important is how likely you are to be able to do that research – how long will the relevant experiments/studies take, how soon will you be able to determine if a run isn't working, how much is the question structured in a way that will allow you to learn something useful even when your plans inevitably encounter problems.
To make this more concrete – imagine you are a biologist, studying the effects of some chemical on the development of an animal to a particular stage. You have to raise these animals for the entire time it takes for them to reach this stage, and you don't exactly know how long it will take. You could spend weeks working on an experiment only to end up with no data if they just fail to make the developmental transition you are expecting, or if the other objects in their environment turn out to interact with the chemical in some way you didn't expect, etc. Say these animals only reproduce during one season, meaning you only get one shot each year – then you risk doing work that yields nothing. Or, imagine you are doing field research, and due to a fire or pandemic or hurricane, the area you need to study is simply impossible to access for months. Same issue. You can never predict every risk like this, but it is worth thinking about how robust your topic is to unexpected roadblocks. That's not to say you shouldn't pursue such topics if you are interested! I did and I'm glad I did, even if I was frustrated at some points!
Depending on how your program works and what you want, you may or may not even need to produce publishable results. My program was a bit unusual in that it was a three year thesis that resulted in publications for pretty much everyone. But, even the people with the best projects, who were the most put-together, didn't get published before moving on to a PhD or a job. It simply takes too long to get a paper published (which is another thing you will have little control over). While in many contexts you can put papers that are partway through the process on your CV, I think it would be unreasonable to expect someone who had just gotten an MS to have a publication out.
Aside from the issue of publishing, I think it's worth considering what skills you would aquire working on your research topic – and especially if you are considering jobs outside of academia, I would strongly encourage you to spend some time looking at job listings to see what skills are expected for the positions you are interested. Some of these might be pretty easy (eg, if you are doing any "data science" type stuff, being able to say you are confident with Python, R, MySQL, whatever, is good). Others might be harder, but easier to pursue in a master's program than on your own. For instance, if you want to do anything related to marine biology (even working at an aquarium) many jobs expect you to be able to SCUBA dive, which requires expensive training and equipment that you probably can't afford on your own — if you can get a university or grant to help with that, that's a massive expansion of opportunities in the future. Likewise, many jobs require knowledge of expensive proprietary software like ArcGIS, which very likely will be free for you at a university.
Probably more important than any of this is your advisor. If you don't get along with them, it will be unpleasant, you'll likely drop out, and even if you don't, they might not be helpful references. If they are abusive, and have a reputation for trying to keep grad students around as long as possible, you could add years to your program just for someone else's benefit. If they are aloof and hands-off, you might not get the guidance you need. If you have a competent and kind advisor, your life will be way better and they will make sure you get something out of your master's. So I think if this potential advisor seems like a good person who is kind to you, that's the most important thing. He may even be open to letting you research a different topic.
I'm sorry this doesn't directly answer your question, but I hope some of it is helpful!

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Does prestige matter for a masters thesis? Need help to choose a thesis
I'm a master student in a very good university in the EU majoring in biomedicine/biology. I'm leaning towards doing a PhD after my masters, but either way eventually I will go into industry (whether I do a PhD or not). Soon I will need to do a masters thesis, and I found 2 great options:
Group 1: very new, not known, with promicing research. The supervisor is very hands-on, people seem to be happy there. I would learn some new techniques and maybe have a possibility to stay a do a PhD later on. The topic is interesting and promicing I think, not exactly what I wanted though.
Group 2: very famous big lab, and super competitive too. I really like their research, but heard a lot about a bad lab environment, and during the tour around no one has smiled. I've heard that the supervisor is strict, so even if I do a great job, I'm not sure how well it'll be graded - and the thesis grade is important to me. Location wise they are further away, and the thesis there would start later. But their work is very much of my interest, and I would learn a little bit about some aspects of bioinformatics. I wouldn't stay there for a PhD though for sure.
I really wanted to get into group 2, but they since they are so competitive, it took a long time to get an offer and I started looking around for other options. I've heard that the lab is strict from the PhDs at the same building, one guy who works in the group, and one of the profs who collaborate with them. There were also 1 or 2 people who said its ok, and you learn a lot.
I'm very torn and can't decide. Group 1 seems to be a better fit for me in general, but I'm a bit conserned that it'll be hard to find a PhD position in another group just cuz group 1 is very new and not very impactful yet. Plus the topic, although interesting, is not what I was aiming for, and I won't learn any bioinformatics there. But I was in a group where I felt like I wasn't welcomed before - and it was so stressful and I was miserable. I mostly had problems with 1 or 2 people though back then, so it probably doesnt depend on the lab.
My gut feeling is leaning towards group 2. I feel like I worked so hard to be in the group 2, and I like their research, and I would loose such a rare opportunity to be in an impactful group in the area of my interest. Plus the topic includes one of the bioinformatic methods that I wanted to learn - although, I was introduced to it previously, and somewhat familiar to it.
On the other hand, I dont want to be in a group that is unhappy and super competitive. I'm slowly starting to burn out with my studies and my life in general, so idk how much stress I could handle. With group 1 I would spend less time on transportation, I would have a bit more free time and potentially have a small job on a side, whereas there is no chance for it if I take group 2. But, I have some savings, so I'll make the end meet.
So, what would be your suggestion? How important is it to have a master thesis from an impactful group for a PhD/industry in Europe?

A crucial thing in academia is reputation and relationship. If you work with people you like and enjoy, they will make you meet more nice people and you'll move in a healthy environment. Against a bad supervisor, there is often little to no recourse if things go bad.
People show you how they are. Do you want to be happy doing good things with cool people? Or have an ``amazing'' project but with a supervisor that might not give you a good letter of recommendation?
I know it's for the master, but remember that an average PhD is longer than an average Marriage. You want a good environment.

Perhaps sad to say, but your first goal should be to assure that you get the degree, not the perceived "prestige" of the group. I'd think that the downside of a "bad lab environment" would weigh pretty heavily. Additionally, you might get a bit lost in group 2 unless you are already something of a super performer.
Your call, of course, but I'd treat group 2 as being risky overall. I've had an unhelpful advisor in the past and it caused a multi-year setback in my goals.
If you think long term, the actual topic of research is less important at this stage, since you can migrate later. But first, assure you get the degree. That will be the more important thing for moving forward than the topic you work on. It would be different if you thought the research of group 1 was a dead end, but you aren't indicating that.


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Using typically censored data
Suppose there is some (public) data set that censors (in the common parlance) any data satisfying a certain criterion. By a rather obvious workaround, these censored data can be exactly recreated, giving one access to the full (uncensored) data set. I have thoroughly scrutinized the data use policy and this is not in violation of data use restrictions, so long as the censored data is not published.
I would like to use the full data set for some of my research, and I fully intend on obeying all data use restrictions in the process of publishing, but am a bit stuck on how I respond to someone asking exactly how I accessed the data in the first place. Refusing to provide details makes the work seem dubious, while I hope to be as transparent as possible for the sake of reproducibility.
Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

What sort of "censorship" are you asking about?

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Related: Is it ethical to reconstruct a dataset without permission? Explaining how your question is different from this one (if it is) might be a good way to clarify what you're asking.

@cag51 In the question you posted, it isn't specified if the original dataset is censored/suppressed, just that it belongs to someone else. Even if I "got permission" from the folks who manage the dataset I am interested in, I would still have to adhere to appropriate censorship guidelines. Furthermore, the OP in that question never clarifies if the recreated data is "identical" or "identical in summary statistics." The former case applies to my question.

@Buffy The data is numeric and is censored if it falls below a certain threshold. The data can be recreated exactly, so that one can "see through" the censors. Hopefully this clarifies things.

It seems unethical to me not to let those making the data available know how easy this is to bypass if they had a good reason.

Do you mean censorship in the common parlance, censorship in the statistical sense, or redaction? Please [edit] your question to clarify.

@shoover the common parlance, as the information is "sensitive" in my case

In your publication(s), You just state the truth: You took data from a public source and used the data therein to reconstruct the data. You also state that you do not believe you are in violation of the data use agreement and that your use of data, and in particular your publication of the results, does not violate privacy.
Because knowing that data can be reconstructed helps people looking for full data sets, publication of the existence of a work-around has at least the potential for a breach of privacy. To be more precise, the breach of privacy has already occurred, but publishing the existence of a work-around makes it easier to find a work-around. This means that before you publish anything, you need to give the agency a chance to remove the data (and hopefully replace it with better protected data). This also means that your data will not be reproducible from public sources, so that you will have to post publicly a privacy protecting version of the data set on which you base your conclusions.
Finally, if you use a computer program to regenerate the data, you might use an anonymizer within the program (e.g. replace names with a hash value or slightly encrypt identifying information such as addresses by XOR-ing with a fixed string) so that no human eyes including yours sees the actual data. I do not know how bad the privacy breach is, so this might be a stupid suggestion.
Privacy protection is an active research area in fields like Computer Science. Mistakes in privacy protection are important data points. Their discovery should be treated like the discovery of exploits in software, where you give the owner of the data / software a decent chance to fix the problem before you announce the discovery to the world.


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How to make the arXiv watermark clickable?
How to make the watermark added by arxiv (left border in the first page) a clickable link? I can't figure out what package/option is needed.

It's automatically added. What makes you think that you can change that?

@WolfgangBangerth I was also skeptical, but, curiously enough, in the recent submissions I have found examples where it is clickable and examples where it is not. Hyperref does not seem to be the culprit, as one of those non-clickable submissions had other clickable hyperlinks.

non-clickable, clickable.

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/610844/make-the-arxiv-timestamp-a-clickable-hyperlink There is an answer on tex SE, but I cannot chose that as a duplicate - should we migrate and the tex SE people do the dupliacte close, or is it relevant enough for Academia SE to stay here?

@Sursula-they- Thank you for finding the question on TeX SE. No, if it's already there we shouldn't migrate it, but it's anyway off-topic here, so I've closed it.


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I am an independent researcher (without affiliations). Where can I find articles to peer-review?
I am an independent researcher in the field of data science, discrete mathematics and parallel computing. I looked up Elsevier and MDPI. They all ask for affiliations to allow me to peer-review. Is there a place I can peer-review articles without having to be affiliated to a university or research institute?
Edit: I am asking this because I am applying for green card under EB-1 category which has one of its requirement as peer-reviewing or judging someone's work. I have 3 publications in decently popular journals and about 45 citations in total for them. Alongside, I have written a chapter in a book, published abstracts and represented myself in 3 global conferences.

Did you correspond with an actual person or just a web form? Independent researcher should be fine if you have some history of publication and such.

Probably only after you publish a few papers in that journal will the editor consider you as a peer reviewer.  Indeed, in my experience, the editor is likely to ask you whether you wish to do reviews even if you do not apply for it.

This might be an XY problem. Why do you want to peer-review articles? This is not something professional researchers wish to do; it's more like a chore. Please edit your question to specify it.

@FedericoPoloni Peer review gives you more insight into the research process, into recent work in your area, a certain influence on your field, and also an "excuse" to invest time to read something properly with attention to all details. As independent researcher free from administrative duties and maybe teaching the TO may have some more time for this than an affiliated researcher. I think you're over-generalising here. I have done much peer review and I have never regretted it.

Not in your field, but SciPost accepts unsolicited reviews. https://scipost.org/?tab=reportsneeded  They are little-known but publish main-stream physics papers.

@ChristianHennig You can get the same insight by reading the most recent publications...Moreover, someone who has the time to volunteer for peer review should not need an "excuse" to invset time into reading something properly...They can simply pick the paper and read it pretending to peer review it.

If you are in the US, you know that you cannot volunteer for jury-duty even though most people hate the idea of having to do jury-duty. It is similar with reviewing. We assume it is better if people get drafted into reviewing.
How do Associate Editors (AE) select reviewers? Usually by looking a people who wrote papers in the field that are knowledgable about the paper. Some journals have editor assistance software that tries to find these people for the associate editors such as MDPI. Usually, an AE reads through the submitted paper and places special attention on the papers cited, as the authors of these papers should be knowledgable, especially if the papers have a good citation count themselves or a published in difficult to get in outlets. If it is a conference, they usually first form a program committee and then papers get reviewed by the committee. Members of the program committee can ask others to review. It's supposed to be highly co-operative. Journals keep tracks of reviewers and ask the AE to grade the reviews. Someone giving poor quality reviews is not likely to be invited again.
If you want to review, you are best of publishing papers in reasonable outlets in your field. It used to be that professors would give their Ph.D. students papers to review (for which they themselves were invited to review) and then discuss the paper with them and the student's review. This is now considered to be a breach of reviewer confidentially if it is done without the knowledge of the AE, but at least it taught students to write good reviews and in the process learn what a good paper is like. This also helped the students to write better papers themselves, of course under guidance and supervision. Being an independent researcher means of course that you are cut of from this type of training.
To get invited to review you first need to have some (good) publications under your belt. If people active in conference organization and journal editing know about you, they might ask you to get involved. It is the quality of your publications that ultimately qualify you as a reviewer. Once you are considered "reviewer material", if you accept the invitation to review, make sure that you submit a good review in a timely manner and communicate with the AE if there are any problems.

I disagree wit not volunteering to peer review. When I was an early career professional, I was told by a mentor to volunteer with a journal to peer review with them more. (I had already published in the journal), Also, some journals do have volunteer pages, e.g., https://meridian.allenpress.com/fwspubs/pages/Volunteer-as-a-Reviewer

Richard: You had already established yourself as a researcher, but the OP is an "independent" researcher, which I read to mean to "not established". In my time as an associate editor, I wanted to make sure that at least a reviewer is close to a Ph.D. and checking the credentials of a volunteer is usually beyond me. There are also now problems with people gaming the system such as rings of reviewers. For quality assurance purposes of the review process, it is very difficult to distinguish between a worker at the Swizz patent office and future star of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and a hobbyist.

As @Thomas Schwarz says, conventional peer reviewers are almost always invited by editors / associate editors based on their prior contributions to a field.
However, there is an alternative of sorts: Have your considered taking up post-publication review? There are sites like PubPeer that allow technical comments on articles that have already been published. PubPeer is useful in that it allows experts to flag potential issues or raise concerns that have been overlooked during the peer review process itself.

The easiest way to get articles to review is to sign up as a reviewer for the journals you're interested in. It's certainly a lot easier to email the journal office than it is to publish tens of articles in the field to establish that you're an expert. Unless (possibly even if) those are top-tier journals, odds are they'll be happy to register you as a reviewer. Doesn't mean you'll get something to review, but your name will in the database, and you will show up whenever they conduct searches for reviewers by research interests (so be sure to keep those updated).
I don't know about MDPI (I've never used Susy, plus MDPI's reviewer selection policy is apparently very strict), but I'm confident that you don't need an affiliation to review for any journal that uses Editorial Manager, which most Elsevier journals use.
Another alternative is to use freestyle, non-journal related platforms like Researchgate to do peer review. It won't be the formal kind that decides if papers are accepted, but it'll still be peer review.
Edit: I've used Susy now, and you can indeed be registered without an affiliation. However, it's a non-negotiable MDPI policy that reviewers must have PhDs, or MDs if you work in medicine. If you can prove that you have a PhD (e.g. you have a personal website with your educational history) then MDPI will probably be happy to register you. You can reach the journal office at targetjournal@mdpi.com; you can also send me your details and I'll register you myself.

thank you for your answer. Your field must be different than mine because I know people with the MS who work for my Federal Agency as research scientists and they get invited to review for MDPI (granted, these people also publish in MDPI journals)

@RichardErickson it's a hard requirement across all MDPI journals actually - https://www.mdpi.com/reviewers#_bookmark2 says reviewers must hold a PhD or MD (for medical journals). So it should not happen. I can see it happening if the editor is not paying attention, however. It's probably more likely if your colleagues published in an MDPI journal, since that presumably requires creating a Susy profile, and when someone is already in the database, it's easier to not pay attention.

"MDPI's reviewer selection policy is apparently very strict"  They keep asking me to review articles that have nothing to do with my PhD.

"should be checking your most recent research interests"  They are not.  I can tell because every time I say "no" it shows me my list of research interests that they didn't read.  I am about a millimeter away from denylisting MDPI.

Bleagh, shouldn't have responded to the above comment. Deleted my comment and won't be responding further.

@Allure I sincerely thank you for sharing that link. I know some MDPI journals are highly respected in their field, and others are predatory junk. Personal, I wish they would stop spamming me, especially for journals that have nothing to do with my academic field.

@AnonymousPhysicist +1 And straight to spam filter for MDPI. Even for the journal articles I am a co-author for! (At some point, I comprise with co-authors and find things not worth fighting over like journal).

Depends on the venue but there are generally 3 ways to become a reviewer:

Get invited (either by the editorial board/area chairs/etc. or by another reviewer).
Apply.
Submit a paper to the venue (some venues automatically invite submission authors as reviewers).

But please don't review for pay-walled journals or for outrageously for-profit businesses such as Elsevier: they suck up research budgets, slow down research, and prevent taxpayers from accessing the research they help fund.

Yet other publishers like Springer have arcane and out of date submission management software, in which they have not invested in years.  While I do NOT wish to defend Elsevier’s profits, there is a real cost to the publishing business, and the business needs investment to keep up with the technology.

@ZeroTheHero plenty of free/cheap solutions: https://openreview.net/, Microsoft CMT, etc.

right but for better or worse many of those venues do not offer the visibility and recognition of upper tiered journals, and so have limited practical values for grants or promotion.   (Please do not think I am defending some publishers; just pointing out there is a cost to publishing.)

@ZeroTheHero Agreed. That's up to the researchers to stop shooting themselves in the foot and start respecting their funders. Step 1: stop reviewing for the parasites :)

see https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

There are a number of aspects. For conferences etc. it is generally about being known. Publishing more than once (esp. as non-PhD student) works well. For journals register an account (as if you wanted to submit a paper). Be careful though, you need to do more: you want to be found by the AE. Make sure to fill in the the questions about research areas and keywords (and tick yes on your availability to review). Also make sure that you provide your orcid, and that you have filled your orcid account with as much information as possible (editorial manager provides direct links from the reviewer selection to their orcid).
Then don't aim for the top journals, but be realistic (doing the top journals cannot hurt, but be careful). You can also try to identify a the associate editors that fit your field best and send them an email (it is often hard to find responsive, diligent reviewers).

Every time I peer review for a well-known journal, they ask me to suggest other peer reviewers.  If you can convince some people who get a lot of review requests to suggest you, soon you will have many articles to review.


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How to prepare/modify a CV for a PhD application?
I'm going to email a potential supervisor for a PhD opportunity in aerospace engineering (astrodynamics curriculum) for introducing myself and getting more information about the PhD. I would like attaching my CV to the email, but I have some doubts about its formatting. After some online research, I'm realizing that I need to do some cleaning and remove some graphics from it. By looking at the attached photos, you can notice that the following graphical elements are present:

sections icons,
company/university/school/publications/academic projects logos,
software/certificates logos.

[EDIT] Some clarifications:

"The QR code on the top right" can be used to get an updated version of my CV without me having to send it every time (I removed the link before posting the question).
"The QR code for saving contact info" can be used to save my contact
info on the smartphone by few taps.
"Areas of interest": Should I replace with "research interests"? I want to use some keywords to show my favourite academic topics.

My questions are:

May I insert theses (B.Sc. but mainly M.Sc.) supervisors or references section (or both)?
What about graphical elements? May I maintain something or remove it at all?
Do you have other tips?

[EDIT] P.s. The opportunity is at a Spanish university, but I could also request information about a UK PhD call.

Lose all high school items.

Instead of just listing skills, create a section of project experiences showing how you used those skills.  It's much more compelling.

Alright, as Buffy has said this will necessarily involve a significant degree of opinion.
Background: I'm a mathematician working at a German university and have worked for 1.5 years in an engineering job in a German automotive company (where I was involved in a number of job interviews).
The following might depend both on the culture of the field and on the culture of the country. But is it likely applicable in STEM fields throughout Germany and probably in a number of other countries in Europe.
Summary. I've seen this kind of CV format multiple times both in academia and in industry. Sorry for being so blunt, but I find the entire format utterly annoying.
Drawbacks of the format.
I hope you won't feel offended if I my language is somewhat pointed in the following comments. It is not my intention to be rude, but rather to give you an impression of the reaction that such a CV my lead to, at least for some people. (And again, this will likely be very culture-dependent; if you apply in a country which is culturally very different from Germany, it's probably best to completely ignore my answer.)

The two-dimensional format (i.e., having information on the left and on the right) is quite messy. It's completely unclear (at least to me) which information goes to the left and which goes to the right. This makes it much more difficult to navigate the CV and quickly find things.
I'd strongly suggest to simply write things from the top to the bottom.

The graphics and symbols. They don't make it easier to navigate the CV, in particular because their meaning is not 100% clear at first sight. So they add clutter without adding value. Everything that adds clutter but doesn't add value should be removed.

Too many colours (again, the clutter vs. value thing). I you want to use colour for aesthetic reasons - why not. Then I'd suggest to use one color in addition to black. Nothing more.

What's the purpose of the QR code on the top right? From looking at the CV I can't even say what is going to happen if I'll scan it.

What's the purpose of the "QR code for saving contact info" on the left? You're applying for a PhD position. Who is going to use this QR code in which situation and to which purpose? Again, adds clutter instead of value - and causes the slightly annoying feeling that somebody strongly wants to use a "modern" gadget, without considering the value of that gadget for the specific situation.

"Areas of interest" - what are you going to put there? I mean, you just got your degree. Any specialization you might have will probably clearly show in your transcript of record. If you want to somehow stress or explain your interest, it might be better to do it in plain text - maybe in the cover letter (or whatever text you are required or allowed to submit).

A list of buzzwords to describe your "Softskills and strengths"? Don't. Just don't.

"About me". This is my personal favourite. I've seen such a brief paragraph where people try to put a "catch phrase" or something similar in a number of CVs. Not a single time has such a paragraph contained anything that I found useful. If it has ever drawn my attention, then only to the fact that the applicant doesn't understand yet that this is a bad idea.

"Aerospace engineer" in line three of the header. You're applying for a PhD position in aerospace engineering. Whoever reads this application will assume that you have a related background and will look up the details in the education section. Having the word "aerospace engineer" in the title doesn't add value (but, you guess it, clutter).

"Hobbies and interests". Well, I don't know. It might be a nice list to put there if it contains something extraordinary (might still not be important, but might for instance make a good start for a bit of small talk at the beginning of an interview or something). I'd recommend against putting things such as "reading" or "watching movies" there. Everybody reads and watches movies (except for those who don't).

"Certificates": Do the Matlab certificates mentioned there refer to those online courses that MathWorks offers about every topic one could think of? Well, I've seen some experienced Matlab users cringe a bit about mentioning those in a CV, but it might depend a bit on the person who reads the CV. Anway, probably not a big deal in any direction.

In contrast to Buffy and to Jon Custer's comment, I find some of the information on page two quite useful. It's nice to know which programming languages you know (but I'd recommend to only put LaTeX there if you indeed have some serious experience with programming in LaTeX rather than just using it as a mark-up language; in the latter case it might be more appropriate to list it in the section "IT skills"). In fact, I'm currently mainly (though not exclusively) working on more theoretical topics in math, but if someone is interested in doing a PhD with me, I still find this information useful for various reasons.
One issue is, of course, that the "skill level" as it is written in the CV is completely subjective. But it still contains some information, in particular as I can compare the levels that you put there for different languages and as I could discuss the matter with you in an interview (in case that I'd find it sufficiently relevant to discuss it).

Similarly for the "IT skills". Well, I personally wouldn't be interested in some of the software that you mentioned there, but this probably really depends on the field - and I can't tell about aerospace engineering, so I can't give particularly useful advice here.
In any case, if you mention your level of skill on two different sections ("IT skills" and "Programming languages"), I'd strongly suggest to use the same layout to depict them.

What to do?
In addition to the single points mentioned above, I have one general suggestion: throw away the template and use a different one with a simpler and clearer layout. In case that you use LaTeX for the CV: in math I've seen many people use the class "moderncv" which is well-aligned with keeping the format simple. There are certainly further nice classes, too.

Thanks for your detailed answer @Jochen Glueck, I really appreciated it. I updated my question and added some clarification regarding your questions.

For me, the whole second page stands out as things that can be put in two or three lines of a resume.  It's not that the information is entirely unnecessary or inappropriate (though I'd lose some of it), but the space to information ratio is really quite low.

While this wanders into the realm of opinion, I can offer a few personal preferences.
I'd prefer something simple, not flashy. Graphics aren't the fundamental element of your field.
I'd take out anything that isn't backed up by external evidence; soft skills, for example. There is no verification, just a claim. Your second page is just a claim - easy to say, hard to verify.
Languages in which you are fluent might be important or not. More important for international students or if a particular language is essential in your field. Some places will require a test of language ability.
Some of the excluded stuff can go in a Statement of Purpose if required and if it backs up your career goals. Interests might go there, but probably not hobbies.
List degrees and awards
List publications and projects (probably separate lists)
List relevant work experience
Yes, saying who your supervisors were is fine, if not essential.
For the soft skills and other opinion-like things, let them come from letter writers, not yourself.
But, for me, simple. If it looks like an ad, I'll probably not be impressed.

Indeed, nothing on the second page would be important for me to hire them (actual job, not PhD application). Lots of wasted space there that would be better used to show actual job skills and relevant accomplishments.

May I note that the comment "Languages in which you are fluent might be important or not" seems to be quite US-specific (or maybe, more generally, specific to English speaking countries)? In countries where most people's native language doesn't happen to be the worldwide lingua franca of business, science and technology, foreign languages do actually matter quite a lot (even in France nowadays, or so I've been told ;-) ).

You mentioned

... email a potential supervisor for a PhD ...

You can make do with a one pager

the QR code link on the left can make way for 'Programming Skill'
the Programming Skills will fused your current *programming languages and pointers of your IT skills (vss, numerical simulation, data analysis, office automation)
you can do away with soft skills and strengths
likewise, you can discard Certificates (inbtw, MATLAB is already showing prominently in your 'CV')
feel free to yank off High School Diploma. This can come in at the formal application stage.
Academic/Research Project: rather than listing out, I'll perhaps write each up in paragraphs showing my research competency and relevant accomplishments/outputs.

In my view, what you have currently, comes out as a CV for an entry-level position. It doesn't show much of your research capabilities and potential. Note that, opinions will vary from country to country.
I'm not a two-column CV person but that does not negate that others prefer or even adore them. Whichever way, showcase your research capabilities/abilities.

You can have two CV, one for this initial contact with potential supervisors (one pager) and second (2-pager) for the actual application along with statement of purpose


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Revisions in track changes: Send as doc or pdf?
I'm in the social sciences and received a revise decision for my first submitted paper. The editors said that revisions can be done via the track changes mode in MS Word or by using bold or coloured text.
I did all my revisions in track changes but am now unsure if I should submit my revisions as a Word doc or a pdf. Both seem fine for the journal, but I'd be interested in what the standard procedure is.
Also, if I submit a doc, should the page numbers in my response to the reviewers refer to the "Simple Markup" or "All Markup" version of the document?
Thanks!

You should ask them. There isn't a general answer.

Not a big deal, they can surely handle whatever you send
The only thing to do is, if/when your paper is accepted, include something that's editable - so make sure you have the source files uploaded.


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Graduation date on internship applications?
I'm a mechanical engineering undergrad student in the US, currently in 3rd year. 2 seperate university transfers have made it so I'm narrowly missing my intended 2025 graduation date, instead forced to take a full extra year (since I'm missing a single prerequisite for senior projects in the fall).
On my internship applications, I've been putting in 2025 as my graduation year, because I've heard that many systems automatically filter out sophomores and below for engineering internships. I figured I could explain it to the human interviewers after I get past the initial phase, since I still have the requisite coursework of a typical junior student.
Is this the right approach, or should I list my actual graduation date?

At least in my circle of acquaintances, internships were very much an extended job interview. Sure, you learn a bit in the process. In some cases you might do something useful. But most of the time you're interviewing for a job. If you start a year early, when it comes time to hire, they'll have a cohort of people that worked there last year to choose from, plus you who worked there two years ago and then weren't available to hire when they expected. I think the odds are good they'll choose from the more recent group.
I think I'd be honest about your graduation date if it's a place you hope to work after school.


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Will citation data be lost when an article is deleted from a google scholar profile
Problem I recently found that another author's publications were automatically added to my profile. We do share first initial and last name, but not middle initials or first name. We also happen to publish in the same domain.
Potential Solution I found that I can delete those publications from my profile. The only thing I am wondering is whether the article will remain on google scholar with all citation data, or will this be lost?

When you remove a paper from your Google Scholar profile you are not deleting any data. Google scholar only allows you to claim authorship and choose if you want to list a certain record on your profile or not.

Appreciate the quick help!


text:
Is it possible / how to delete "Elsevier Scopus" author data and public page?
I do not like to be the product, and I like even less when a private company (in this specific case, Elsevier) makes a profit by exploiting my personal data and by providing a "paywalled profile / database" about me (in this case, the Elsevier / Scopus profile associated to me). Moreover, I already have a GoogleScholar profile (not that this is a perfect solution, but at least it is not paywalled and not as grossly "pay for viewing" / turning me into a "product").
Is there a way / how to get Elsevier Scopus to entirely remove "my" Elsevier Scopus public information and profile page from their system? What implications may this have for me?

Seems unlikely. Some information about you is public and free to use even if you don't like it. The reciprocal is true also. Some information about Elsevier is public and you are free to use it.

I live in the EU and fall under GDPR - is this really correct in this case, that some of my information is "public and free to use"? I think that information being public does not mean that it is free to re-use for commercial purpose without consent any more following GDPR?

Related: Opting out of Scopus Author ID

Agree it is related, but I do not think it is really the same - I do not want to opt out of their internal ID, they may keep one internally if they want, I just do not want them to make a commercial partially paywalled webpage making profit out of my information (public or private).

I'm not a lawyer and I don't know the details of GDPR, but if you publish something (literally make it public) then it is likely public.

Why not just contact Scopus and ask them? https://service.elsevier.com/app/contact/supporthub/scopuscontent/


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How to proceed if email asking for a recommendation letter hasn't gotten a response after 3 weeks (during COVID-19 pandemic)?
I know this question has been asked before but here is the Covid-19 Pandemic Edition:
I emailed my professor asking if they would consider writing me a LOR almost a month ago and haven't gotten a response. Normally after a week or two I'd sent a follow up email but email etiquette seems a little different right now due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  I don't want to pester them or seem out of line but I would really like a response and am not sure what to do. I'm not sure if I should ask again because this professor is not planning on teaching next semester and I would imagine is busy working on other summer projects. And, like most of us right now, is probably trying to deal with the many uncertainties brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. I did very well in the class but the last month of the semester was very disrupted due to coronavirus and all classes had to be made entirely virtual, so I'm not so sure that I'd stand out as a well-performing or memorable student as much as one would under normal circumstances, but I'm not sure who else to ask at this point. I need the LOR in the fall so the deadline is still several of months away. Should I wait another week or two and see if I get a response? Should I send a follow up email now or just assume that no reply means no?

Send a follow up email reiterating your request and the deadline. It's likely the professor has just lost your email in their inbox. It happens, pandemic or not.

There doesn't seem to be a rush and people may be especially busy with end of term. You can afford to wait a bit unless this is the most important letter and you need a commitment. In your follow up, say when the deadline is and ask if they would like a reminder as it approaches. If you haven't already done so, ask if they would like a CV. If there is an easy place for them to see a photo of you it might also jog their memory.
People are busy with both end of term and in prep for coming terms that may also be still disrupted by CV-19.

Send another email reminding politely the professor.
The pandemic has probably no effect here. On the contrary, academics have mostly more time on their hands now.
The professor either forgot, or didn't care to answer, and if you remind them they will answer, or is trying to decline without saying anything (low probability). Hence, sending a reminder is your best move.

I'm not sure about your second paragraph. My own experience is being busier than I would normally have been at this time of year.

Fine, of course everyone has different experience. I have much more time on my hands, and a lot of work is being completed on my side because of this extra time (e.g., no travel).


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Supervisor complaining about research work is slow and not doing anything properly. Is it possible to continue with him for long?
I am about to finish my first year of MS leading to Ph.D. Our team works on cable Robotics. At first, when I joined prof asked me to do a computer vision problem of tracking. I spent 5 months to do that job with my coursework as well, and then he asked me to do a human-robot interaction job. I did that as well within 2 months. I've written 2 conferences and 1 journal and about to start the 2nd journal. But my supervisor is not happy with me. He always complains to me about you are slow in learning and doing things. I've changed my major and working in a country where I have a language barrier as well. My prof is not helping me in my research work, he is working on a different field. I came here for the purpose of learning from the Prof. And he will assign me some material to learn as I've just an undergrad degree. What should I do? Should I ask him to split my degree into 2 parts, a Masters and a PhD? So that in a worst case scenario, I can leave with one degree.

In Robotics, also I've experienced, that it is not enough if you solve the problems. To work on robotics in the Academia, you have to perform super-well to be considered "acceptable". I think it has mainly social reasons (everybody can build a robot, it is not really science but engineering, so handling it in the Academia you need to provide some "plus" over the ordinary problem solving what an engineer is doing).

I'm happy with him. But he seems a moody or volatile person. He started comparing my research work with another local guy who is almost doing same but he is presenting more in weekly lab meetings. Whenever I present with few slides in the meeting that he always said you are slow. I was thinking of asking him are you just analyzing my progress by the number of slides? Should I ask him this? Yes, I keep on asking him if you were expecting me to learn this than why you gave me other tasks when I reach here. I also found linguistic misunderstandings and they are not good at English. Yesterday, I d

I don't understand perfectly but to expect from a beginner isn't it too much as I changed my major and never studied robotics officially.

Package it super-politely! And work so hard as you only can. If he can see that you are doing all what you can, it helps a lot. Note, all Uni is hard, it is their nature.

Sometimes it's helpful to factorize this into two questions:
(1) Are you happy with the professor? You say he "is not helping" you in your research; yet, it sounds like you've made considerable progress in a short time. Assuming he never changes his ways, do you still want to work with him?
(2) Is your professor happy with you? You have said that he is critical of your slowness, but it's not clear [to me] whether he is definitely unhappy, or if maybe he is just awkward, or maybe there is some cultural/linguistic misunderstanding.
In either case, I think you should schedule a meeting with him -- actually send an e-mail and ask him to set aside 15-30 minutes to discuss your performance in the lab. Then you can ask him directly about his comments and ask whether he is still interested in having you do your PhD with him. You can also address your concerns about him (e.g., "I was hoping you'd be able to advise me more about X; do you think we'll be able to do that in the next few months?").

I've shared detailed response of your comment please check that also

Find out your University's policies and procedures for post-grad students complaints/ problems with Advisors. Now.
I am at the other end of a PhD with a very troublesome advisor who was always changing my projects partway through and always telling me how bad I was, how I didn't understand....and who even advised me wrongly in a few areas..... and under my Uni procedures I cannot now proceed with an appeal based on poor Advisory practice because I did not raise an early complaint at the local level at the earliest opportunity.
So check your University 's stipulated way of dealing with these problems and follow it!


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What should I consider when making a complaint centrally to the university regarding the quality of a subject?
Background
I recently was enrolled in a science course where I believed that the lecturer had a really poor understanding of the material at hand. I have had some bad lecturers before but this lecturer is one of the most difficult academics I have ever dealt with.
I was warned by all the postgraduates/PHD students to not take this person's course as it was poorly taught and it was incredibly frustrating raising fundamental errors made in lectures. Eg
Me:The projector says s < t
Lecturer: No it doesn't (doesn't look at projector)
It clearly did... I wasn't the only one that noticed it
The reason why I decided to take this course is because it happened to be related to my thesis area and I had studied it and taken similar subjects before. Ultimately I just wanted an easier semester.
Anyway there came a point in the semester where I questioned a mistake made in the lecture and I said another result should have been used. The lecturer got out the result they quoted and the result I quoted in response on the projector. It was quite obvious that what they said wasn't correct but just said in response that I wasn't correct even when I quoted a reference. This prompted me to try and drop the course and use another course for credit.
Initial Complaint
Unfortunately when I tried to drop the course I was too far into the semester so  my other option was to make a complaint to the department. I really needed to graduate at the end of semester so I decided to take the course in the mean time but put in minimal effort to pass as I was so frustrated with everything in the course. I made this very clear to the department.
I approached the head of the department and made a complaint about the course.
I waited well over a month to hear back from the department and the department decided to not do anything because there was insufficient evidence. I certainly understand that it is difficult for them to make a conclusion.
However they also said that my grade was probably a reflection of the educational background that I had (what they meant was because I was already familiar with the area that due to differences in ways in how it may be taught it contributed to my poor grade).
This really frustrated me. Ultimately I really regret letting my pride get in the way by not putting in any effort in the final. But at the same time I don't understand how the examples that I gave (which were the ones given above plus more) leads to that conclusion. I feel that they pretty much came up with their own conclusion as to what happened. I made a request that they should talk to the students (past and present) and see their experiences but it seems that they didn't bother at all.
What I want to achieve
I just want to remove that subject from my transcript and replace it with the other subject I have. It seems that the option that I have is to escalate this to the university and have it resolved centrally. This seems like quite a lot of effort and stress. A part of me feels like I am obligated to do this because so many of the postgraduates have had similar experiences to me. They choose not to complain to avoid awkward situations.
Another reason why I am quite reluctant is because if I was to make a complaint of this nature centrally to the university this would probably put the lecturer in quite a predicament.
I have seen similar questions posted here but ultimately what I am asking is what are some potential consequences for the lecturer assuming that my complaint is successful?

If the lecturer has a permanent employment contract, it is very likely any complaints you make will have no results.  The principle of academic freedom protects controversial teaching.  Since there is no known method of distinguishing controversial teaching and poor teaching, poor teaching is also protected.
If the lecturer has a temporary employment contract, your complaint might make it harder for them to get further employment.  Or it may have no effect.  It depends on the individual circumstances.
Students' views about the quality of teaching are very valuable for people who want to improve their teaching methods.  But they should not be used when making hiring decisions or when judging the performance of individuals.  The reason is that on average, student's views are biased based on factors like the race and gender of the lecturer and the difficulty of the course.
You will not be able to remove any course from your transcript.  Removing courses from transcripts would be academic dishonesty.  Any university which did this would ruin its reputation.

Finish the course, and let it go. It sounds as though you are being properly taught a lesson in taking a course you knew you shouldn't take. This is actually a lesson worth experiencing. Real life will require you to face unwanted tasks, in unpleasant situations, while being judged by a person that you know is not qualified to judge your performance.  So i suggest you simply get the best grade you can, and move on with your academic career.
Good luck.

It seems that the OP has already finished the course and got a bad grade; at least the OP is inconsistent explaining this aspect.

Yes, i see that now. I apologize for my faulty speed reading. However my reply remains basically the same. Let it go, and in the future, drop classes in a timely manner. The power to drop a class is really all you needed to correct having taken the class. I am confident you will be fine.

I think that the fact that the student got a bad grade already makes the question completely different from the question you initially answered, so I don't think your answer can stay basically the same.


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How to summarize a MSc thesis for PhD information request?
I am currently looking for a PhD program in Aerospace Engineering and I am going to ask by email if my research interest and thesis work fits the university research areas. Hence, I thought to summarize my thesis and produce a two-page-long document in the form of paper by using one of the following Overleaf templates: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/springer-nature-latex-template/myxmhdsbzkyd, https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/springer-conference-proceedings-template-updated-2022-01-12/wcvbtmwtykqj. Instead of simply attaching the abstract of my thesis, I would like to provide an in-depth look at my work and hopefully show my passion and interest in the topic of the thesis.
Do you think this is a good idea? If so, which of the two templates do you suggest using?
P.s. Please feel free to suggest other Overleaf template
P.p.s. my thesis work was presented at an ESA ESTEC conference by my supervisor in the form of a two-pages abstract that was published (https://indico.cern.ch/event/1158038/). She told me I could write my own instead of using it to avoid plagiarism.

If you really want to contact people like this, I recommend writing a 3-4 sentence summary, max.  In general, though, I don't appreciate emails of this nature that are clearly mass-mailed, especially when after reading two sentences it's clear that a student's work has nothing to do with anything that I do.
"Does my work fit your research area?" is a question that shouldn't be necessary to ask.  A simple search for a faculty member's body of work should be more than enough to answer the question on your own.  Then, you could write emails that say "I work in your area, and here's why I think I might be a valuable asset to your research".  When you include a 3-4 sentence summary of what you consider your area to be, you show good communication skills, which is probably more important from a recruiting aspect than what your master's work was.

Do you think this is a good idea?

I don't think anyone is going to spend the time reading 2 pages about your work to help you decide whether or not you should apply to graduate school at that institution: it's your job to figure out where to apply.
I don't think the Overleaf template will change that one way or the other, and be careful about pretending to make your work more official than it is, like making it appear to be a published manuscript when it isn't - this is usually quite apparent and could make people uncomfortable even if you don't intend to mislead. Cranks seem to do this sort of thing often.
Get used to summarizing your work in a much shorter format, be comfortable with a 2-minute summary of your work that you can do without any supporting material ("elevator speech").
If your MS thesis work is publishable but isn't published, I'd work on getting it published and post a preprint in the meantime; your masters' thesis advisor(s) can hopefully help you with that step.

She told me I could write my own instead of using it to avoid plagiarism.

This sounds totally backwards to me. If it's your work, you should be an author on the submission whether or not you presented it and if you are an author then that work is yours, no need to write a new version: a work you coauthor is your work. If, on the other hand, you write a new version, it's likely that this new version will be seen as plagiarizing your supervisors previous work! Even if you cite properly, it could be seen as trying to game publication counts by getting credit for the same project twice.

Thank you for your considerations. I missed an important information, please read my updated qustion. I tought to write this email to briefiely present my thesis work but above all to understand if my thesis topic could be a potential PhD research since the programs that I found talk about generic topics related to mine that instead is pretty specific.

@g_don That seems like a separate question that should be a separate post. I don't see any of that in the current version of your question.

thanks for your modified answer. Just for well clarifying my question, I mean to share with a potential PhD supervisor a brief summary of my thesis that's a very brief well foromatted document made up by 2 or 3 sections with one table and one figure to show results. However, without sharing my ORCID it shouldn't appear as an official publication (or not?). I already have an abstract in another format (made with a well known word processor) that I was required to submit before my thesis defence, but I feel more comfortable to typeset my documents in LaTeX.

@g_don I think it's exceedingly unlikely that your choice of word processor will swing things one way or the other.


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Should I include in my CV a conference abstract presented by a collaborator of mine?
I found some very similar questions, but not clarifying my doubt. I'm a co-author of a research work in space engineering, used to write my M.Sc. thesis, that has been presented at an international conference by my supervisor. She submitted a two pages-conference abstract before presenting, and such a document is now published on the conference website. In spite of it's not a scientific article and I think it has not been published in any journal (not sure of that), I was wondering if I can include it in my CV under a section named "conference presentations". I'm currently modifying my CV before applying for a PhD position, and I want to make it much tailored as possible with PhD topic.
P.s. My name and ORCID is inserted after abstract title.

Which field are you in? Were you involved in the conference abstract or the presentation?

@Christian question updated. Sorry for previous missing information.

In computer science, especially in the field I work in, such as AI/ML, we have such conferences or workshops where the papers do not get published by any specific publisher but instead get archived by the conference (probably, permanently) on the conference website.
If your name is in the 2-page abstract as an author, you should include it because it is your paper too. It is only that your co-author presented the paper. When I list such a publication in my CV, I would also give a link to the conference website or paper.
Example:
F. Author*, S. Author, "A Story on Moon Landing", Conference Name, 20XX; URL: Link here. (2-page abstract; *Presenting author)

Thanks for answering @Coder! What do you suggest as title of the section under which I will include it?

I usually list it under: Conference/Workshop Publications.

Yes, "publications", not "presentations". The latter gives the wrong impression.


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What's the correct way to write units of measure about time and angles in scientific document?
I have a question on how to write units of measure of angles and times in my MSc thesis. What is the correct form between "13.2 degree" and "13.2 degrees"? A similar question about times: "32 day" or "32 days"? "1.2 year" or "1.2 years"?
I have doubt because I read somewhere that in scientific documents (particularly in plots) it is better to not pluralize angles and units of time (about the latter statement, I read that is better to use (degree) instead of (deg) for units of measure in scientific plots).
Do you have a guide that illustrate rules about that?

I'm puzzled. Why would singular be "better"?

Yes, I think we would write 0.3 degrees and even 1.0 degrees.

singular applies if there is 1 or less of the unit, so 0.3 degree and 1.3 degrees.  The difficulty with English is hyphenation: “a 3-day wait to get a something”.

@ZeroTheHero When you write quantities, don't use hyphenation. See here, §7.2. The reason is that the numerical value and the unit should be considered a single entity.

@MassimoOrtolano This is an example from the section “ Hyphen in compound adjective with numbers” of Grammarly.com: “ The president of the company gave a 10-minute speech to the Board of Directors.” There is hyphenation when the compound word is used as an adjective.

Such issues will depend on the target audience, the place  you want to publish, etc. For example, I cannot even get people to agree on how a date should be written, even though the main target audience in our office has an official specified format.

 Both are wrong, the correct form is "11π/150". It is unnecessary to write either "radian" or "radians" because it's automatically assumed by all sensible readers.  ;-)

The rules about writing quantities and units are described in the SI brochure.
In section 5.3, Unit names it is written (bold mine):

Unit names are normally printed in upright type and they are treated
like ordinary nouns. In English, the names of units start with a
lower-case letter (even when the symbol for the unit begins with a
capital letter), except at the beginning of a sentence or in
capitalized material such as a title.

Therefore, when you write unit names in full, follow the rules for ordinary nouns, using the plural form as needed (e.g. 1.2 years).
Notice also, from section 5.3,

Although the values of quantities are normally expressed using symbols for numbers and symbols for units, if for some reason the unit name is more appropriate than the unit symbol, the unit name should be spelled out in full.

In plots, it's better to use unit symbols rather than names (see also this answer of mine on how to label axes in plots).


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Talked about novel idea for a paper in class. A mistake?
In a graduate course (master's level), during topic assignment for coursework, I mentioned that I came up with a research idea of my own. The professor asked me to present it in front of the class. Afterwards, he encouraged me to write my final thesis on it, but assigned me one of the predetermined topics for the course.
Now I'm worrying that my idea is turned into a paper by one of his research assistants present during the session (who works in that field and valued the idea) before I can write my thesis.
Is this concern justified? Should I mention it in my next conversation with this RA and ask him if it is understood that I have the priority on this idea given that it's a product of my intellectual effort?

Is this concern justified?

Yes, your concern is justified. If someone from the audience decided to work on the research question you proposed you would have no real leverage to prevent it.

Should I mention it in my next conversation with this RA and ask him if it is understood that I have the priority on this idea given that it's a product of my intellectual effort?

The idea might be a product of your intellectual effort, but that does not give you priority to expand on the idea. By presenting it in a more or less public setting, you released the idea and everybody is free to work on it. In case the work is done without you and a publication follows, some sort of (minor) credit to your contribution might be necessary, of course.
But certainly yes, you can try to convince others that it would be the right thing to let you do the work.

If people act ethically, then it shouldn't be a problem, provided that you take some action. Write up your idea in rough form and attach your name to the document. Tell the prof that you will, indeed develop this for your thesis and give them a copy of the doc. Keep a copy of it in hard copy form as well.
It would then be plagiarism for someone, seeing your document, to "steal the idea". Not everyone behaves ethically, however, but your professor has an interest in ethical behavior. He should guide his assistants to other topics.
Note that I'm not suggesting publishing it on arXiv or elsewhere. And also note that you don't "own" ideas, and if you don't follow up then others are free to do so.
Finally, note that collaboration on developing the ideas is another possibility, though I don't know how that would work for a thesis at your institution.

Concerning the first paragraph: This won't stop anybody to build upon the idea, will it? I do not see how it would be plagiarism to do so. OP's part could easily be acknowledged in a publication (without OP being a co-author), but that is a poor consolation if you are scooped this way.

@Snijderfrey, you are likely correct. Note that in most places plagiarism is a social issue, not a legal one. And one can build on the ideas of others without issue, though the origin of ideas needs to be acknowledged, as you say. But a professor should have a higher than minimal ethical standard and give the student time and space to develop the idea as long as their intent to do so is clear.