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1500 questions
54
votes
10 answers

I have been asked to change the review I gave to a paper

I rejected a paper after careful review and consideration, writing six pages to justify my decision. In less than 24 h I have received a petition to change my verdict to major changes. The rationale is that the other two reviewers have given major…
BqKaXeu29y
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54
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8 answers

I grade exams together with a colleague but disagree with their grading. What should I do?

Recently, I have graded exams (50 pcs.) together with a colleague from another department. I felt like my colleague was awarding too many points for wrong/incomplete answers. For example, awarding points for just writing information of the question…
Bollehenk
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54
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13 answers

U.S. grading system: Why discrete grades?

Background In the U.S., many colleges adopt an A–F grading scheme, topped with pluses and minuses. Professors vary in the way they assign A to F grades, but my sense is most rely on discrete “bins”. For example, some professors use relative grading…
Martin Van der Linden
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5 answers

Does having an article retracted due to professor's ethical misconduct mean my career is over?

When I was in my first year of M.Sc. a professor told me to work on a project for which the main data belonged to him. He had sent me an early draft and told me to translate it into English, so I did along with recalculations and adding some stuff…
Jam B
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54
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8 answers

Is it acceptable to put the blame on an instructor during an oral exam for a mistake?

During class, I asked my instructor about a certain thing that didn't make sense to me. Basically, there was a problem that I couldn't figure out how to solve using the methods we've studied. The instructor told me that the problem couldn't be…
Saki
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54
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7 answers

In academia, does the amount of material that one has to learn diminish as time progresses?

From my own point of view, the first year of a PhD is heavily packed with new information, theory, techniques, conventions, experimental abilities, etc. Let us call all these elements "material". This new material required a lot of effort which I…
Keine
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54
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5 answers

The feeling of inferiority entering a PhD program due to one's undergraduate school rank

According to Stanford's Computer Science graduate admissions department this year: 110 students were accepted. Nearly all accepted applicants were from Stanford (BS/MS), MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, Michigan, Texas, Washington, Tsinghua, and the other…
oikos99
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54
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6 answers

Is "Assistant Professor Position (Tenure Track) for a female Researcher" illegal in Austria?

Not so long ago an Austrian institution posted a job ad titled "Assistant Professor Position (Tenure Track) for a female Researcher". The description says further As part of a special measure towards increasing female employment in scientific…
Leon Meier
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54
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8 answers

How to handle plagiarism on method that does not affect outcome results when reviewing a paper?

I was reviewing a paper related to my field (computational fluid dynamics) a while ago and, while reading a part of the methodology section where the numerical scheme and the equations were explained, I had a weird sense of déjà-vu. Regretfully, I…
BlaB
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53
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3 answers

My research work stolen and published as his own by the co-author without my consent

My research paper was stolen by the co-author and published as his own. What do I do? All the data the paper is based on is my own work. I got it accepted in another journal but now I cannot get it published according to the copyright terms and…
awesomeness
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53
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3 answers

Capitalisation of "Section" and "Chapter" in a Ph.D. Thesis

I am submitting a Ph.D. thesis fairly soon and my supervisor has flagged my use of capitalisation in "Section" and "Chapter" as possibly incorrect. I have googled about a bit and I see mixed opinions. So my question is, when writing a computer…
Edd Barrett
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53
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2 answers

U.S. humanities professors: Can you get back into academia if you leave?

I'm a tenured professor in a humanities department at a second-tier research university in the United States. My Ph.D. is from a top-ten program in my discipline. I have an above-average number of publications for my age. I have about five years of…
gadolphus
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53
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7 answers

Should I continue reviewing a paper after having discovered plagiarised content in it?

I received an invitation to review for the International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing. I started to analyze the manuscript by reading the title, abstract, introduction, results and discussion and conclusions before assessing the…
user137684
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53
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8 answers

Why don't all disciplines follow a double-blind review system?

I'm new to the journal publishing world, and I can't but help wonder why the review process isn't completely blind? By blind, I mean the reviewers don't know who performed the research or (more importantly) what university the research came from. …
James
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53
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15 answers

If you know a family member who is much more qualified and capable in mathematics than you are, should find another field of specialisation?

Imposter Syndrome and depression: I feel pretty depressed that I am not as "qualified" as a close family member. In particular, this family member has undergraduate and graduate (PhD) degrees from Ivy League schools in mathematics. Whenever I try to…
depressedguy1234
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