Academia Stack Exchange
Academia Stack Exchange

Most Popular

more tags
1500 questions
87
votes
12 answers

Is it ethical to use proprietary (closed-source) software for scientific computation?

I have data from an ordinary scientific experiment. Now, in order to analyse the data, the most convenient way for me is to use some proprietary, closed-source software. Is it ethical to use such kind of software in research? If do use it then…
Deja
  • 801
  • 1
  • 6
  • 4
87
votes
11 answers

Can I, as a reviewer, tell authors to get a native English speaker to proofread their paper?

I am reviewing a paper for possible publication in a respected journal. The English in the paper is very poor. The authors are clearly not native English speakers. I want to write something to the effect of the following in my review. I advise the…
user46452
  • 741
  • 1
  • 5
  • 4
87
votes
8 answers

Citing paywalled articles accessed via illegal web sharing

There are a few sites which offer paid articles for free. It’s something unethical, especially for those who upload to that site, but for me, it’s good for expanding knowledge. As a readers, can we cite those documents, and can the editorial board…
Syafiq Zaidi
  • 959
  • 1
  • 6
  • 11
87
votes
13 answers

How should an advisor handle an underperforming PhD student?

I'm a junior faculty in academia and I was asked to take a PhD student several months ago. I was not involved in the hiring process, hence I did not have a chance to evaluate his abilities before joining the program. Indeed, this was the student of…
Peter1111
  • 991
  • 1
  • 7
  • 9
86
votes
14 answers

What good is engineering research with no practical relevance?

I am a Ph.D. student currently doing research at a top engineering school in North America. I am becoming more and more jaded at the fact that a sizable portion of the research conducted at my university as well as publications to engineering…
Norman
  • 1,423
  • 2
  • 12
  • 19
86
votes
7 answers

Should I take threats from a former professor seriously?

Some Context: A member of my MA thesis committee, for whom I was also a GA (graduate assistant), threatened me several times while I was still in my masters program (last year). For example, she threatened to fire me from my GA position with them--…
adspeed
  • 1,035
  • 1
  • 7
  • 14
86
votes
13 answers

What to answer an author asking me if I reviewed his/her paper?

Suppose I review someone's paper anonymously, the paper gets accepted, and a year or two later we meet e.g. in a social event and he/she asks me "did you review my paper?". What should I answer? There are several sub-questions here: Suppose the…
Erel Segal-Halevi
  • 16,877
  • 14
  • 66
  • 111
86
votes
9 answers

How to let a PhD student know that their research is not as good as they think it is

I am a postdoc and I have been talking to a PhD student about his research, as his interests are closer to mine than to his advisor's. He is generally nice, smart, and hard working. However, I think he has an unrealistic opinion of his own work. He…
user52823
  • 731
  • 1
  • 5
  • 5
86
votes
10 answers

How to deal with a professor who grades assignments and exams incorrectly

I currently have a (graduate) professor who clearly does not understand the material she teaches at the level required by the course. This normally would not be a problem - I'm fine with educating myself via textbook - but unfortunately her…
Jan Vincent
  • 743
  • 1
  • 5
  • 8
86
votes
7 answers

Someone plagiarised my entire paper. What should I do now?

I am a high school student who published some academic. Today, I saw a paper which looked quite similar to a paper that I published back in May. I was shocked to notice that the author of that paper had plagiarised my entire paper verbatim. He went…
user44217
86
votes
10 answers

What are the advantages or disadvantages of using LaTeX for writing scientific publications

What are objective advantages or disadvantages of using the markup language LaTeX instead of a WYSIWYG word processor like MS Word or LibreOffice Writer? Please use objective arguments to prevent a flame war...
Paul Hiemstra
  • 8,602
  • 1
  • 34
  • 41
86
votes
4 answers

Am I being exploited by my supervisor?

It has been 4.5 years since I joined as a PhD student. My supervisor asks me to draft almost all of his important emails. He will begin by briefing me the issue, and ask me to draft the email in a document and sent to him. He would ask me to do…
user3024069
  • 1,373
  • 2
  • 10
  • 15
86
votes
8 answers

Are results that are derived simply by using more computational power publishable?

Let's say Alice has written a paper that attacks a well-known problem in a clever new way. Her paper ends with "these methods work up to N = 10; for larger N, the calculations are prohibitively expensive". Bob reads the paper and successfully…
Allure
  • 127,528
  • 50
  • 325
  • 493
86
votes
16 answers

What are the potential pitfalls of having a PhD?

This question follow's JeffE's comment here: In most industries, a PhD has negative value. I am curious about what potential negatives there may be with having a PhD, particularly in industries. For example, my PhD has applications for image…
user7130
85
votes
4 answers

Is someone who solely contributes negative feedback to a paper considered an author?

Say person A and person B are collaborating on a mathematics paper. It goes like this: person A repeatedly suggests proofs, and person B repeatedly finds flaws in them. Over time, this process culminates in a correct proof. Does person B deserve to…
Filigreen
  • 1,563
  • 11
  • 10
1 2 3
…
99 100