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1500 questions
70
votes
6 answers

Seemingly-irrelevant papers, all with author in common, suggested by reviewer

I recently received a decision letter calling for minor revisions prior to acceptance. One anonymous reviewer was extremely knowledgeable and provided many helpful suggestions to better explain and clarify my work which I have implemented. However,…
LunarLlama
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70
votes
6 answers

How to educate bachelor and master exchange students from Asia?

I am working at a university in Europe. We have a great number of exchange students (one semester, year, of multiple years). I am having difficulties reaching some of these exchange students, especially, it seems, but not limited to those from…
matousc
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70
votes
12 answers

Is there any good reason to write "it is easy to see"?

Many academic papers, particularly in mathematics and similar fields, use the phrase "it is easy to see that..." (e.g. in a mathematical proof). I never understood why this sentence is used. Such a sentence is inaccurate at best, since it is not…
Erel Segal-Halevi
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70
votes
4 answers

How to warn others about a conference-related scam?

I am organising an upcoming conference and some of our participants were approached by Expo Housing Services, a company claiming - falsely - to be charged with arranging accommodation for our guests. The details of their operation, specifically…
lemon314
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70
votes
9 answers

Is it socially acceptable to directly contact renowned academics as a student?

Can anyone chime in whether if it is socially acceptable for a (graduate) student to directly contact renowned academics outside your immediate research department with comments on their work or your work? This is under the assumption that you are…
Fraïssé
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69
votes
13 answers

Our instructor threw together freely available YouTube videos and Wikipedia articles instead of lectures. What should I do?

I'm currently attending university online (at a notable public institution, not a crappy school—I feel compelled to mention this because one typically expects quality from good institutions). Unfortunately, my instructor didn't put much effort into…
anon
69
votes
7 answers

Are PhD supervisors responsible for informing students about legal issues pertaining to research?

After an extreme amount of effort, I am now in possession of a very large dataset of human experiments which is required for my research. However, after speaking with some of my colleagues about writing papers about it, I was told that I need to…
errantlinguist
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69
votes
6 answers

How to overcome difficulties of social interaction at my first academic conference

In a few days I'll be attending my first academic conference in Spain. I'll be going alone and this never became apparent to me that it might be a problem until I spoke to a few people about their experiences at their first academic conferences.…
Aashiq Parker
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69
votes
9 answers

Is it a bad idea to point out flaws/weaknesses of your model in your paper?

In a modeling paper I am writing, I know that there are some limitations. Is it a bad idea to point out the limitations? Am I just giving the reviewers more straw for them to reject my paper?
alpha_989
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69
votes
6 answers

Easy way to see historical trend in keywords in publications?

Is there an easy way or existing tool to generate a historical chart with the occurrence of one or more user-specified keyword(s) (combinations) in academic publications, based on the words in the title and/or abstract of a paper? There is a…
Rabarberski
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69
votes
5 answers

How to handle possibly subtly flirtatious emails from students?

I got a series of emails from a student. At first, I thought she was being over-polite. But now things are making me very uncomfortable. For instance, at every email she thanks me for giving her good grades; it gave her motivation, encouragement…
Ami Chagol
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69
votes
14 answers

How to deal with students who lose their digital work?

In my courses, students work on large, on-going projects, but submit some parts each week, showing their progress. All of the work is done on a computer or table. Mid-semester, I always get reports from students of technical failures, e.g.: Deleted…
Village
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69
votes
10 answers

Is it normal for an advisor to expect >80 hour workweeks from PhD students, and threaten them with dismissal?

My advisor always keeps pointing out that I should have publications and I should keep working and stuff like that. Recently he's been saying that not all student will finish Ph.D. and you should be careful not to be kicked out. He has this notion…
CentAu
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69
votes
9 answers

Is a PhD right for you if you hate doing research in your free time but love doing it as a job?

Say for example you are a new PhD student and realize that you hate doing research in your free time but you are more than willing to spend several hours in the morning to do research. Was your decision to become a PhD student right for you or…
ksm001
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69
votes
9 answers

Flying with a poster tube as a hand luggage

I am flying to a conference, in which I am presenting a poster. In principle there might be a problem, as the poster tube: is a second piece of hand luggage, it is longer than the limit allows. However, it seems that it works (once I tried with no…
Piotr Migdal
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