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1500 questions
51
votes
3 answers

Is it acceptable to use Mathematica to derive results in your research?

While doing research in statistics, sometimes I came across complex integration that I can't or don't want to solve analytically. Is it okay to use Mathematica to solve the integration and use the result in my research? Do I need to report this in…
Heisenberg
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51
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7 answers

What do polarized student evaluation results say about my teaching?

I taught my first class last quarter. The results for evaluations are very polarized. The raw data shows that my scores are either very high or very low for a majority of items. That implies some students loved the class and some hated it.…
Kar Masia
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51
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11 answers

How to react when professor wrongly corrects you in public?

I recently defended my master thesis. One thing only went wrong: I said a certain method was rather new (which it was!) and the most senior professor in the room (my supervisor was not there, he had an unexpected meeting) contradicted me, telling…
Valjean
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51
votes
2 answers

Citing an author who changed his name

I am writing a homework at the moment. One of the authors I cite, changed his name from A... to B... due to marriage (I know him personally). In the Bibliography I clearly should use the name given in the papers (sometimes A..., sometimes B...). But…
Obererpel
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51
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12 answers

Student missing exam for “medical reasons”

I have a student who failed an exam I gave three months ago and was supposed to show up for a remediation exam this week. The date was announced long in advance, and the student neither showed (all the others did show up) nor warned me. Now, she is…
F'x
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51
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2 answers

Are there boycotts against publishers other than Elsevier?

Academics have called for a boycott against Elsevier, with some success for instance because it has led to resignations (recently in the Lingua journal). As I understand it, Elsevier is not the only publisher with absurd subscription prices, but it…
pintoch
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51
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7 answers

What are the common mistakes PhD candidates make in their final defense session?

For a PhD candidate that has done a fine job in their PhD, what are the common mistakes to avoid in a defense session?
user1234
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51
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8 answers

How can a researcher in his early career attract good PhD students?

As stated by the title, I want to know what a researcher in his early career, i.e., having not had any graduated PhD student yet, can do to attract good candidates. The reason I am asking this question is because PhD applicants usually look for…
user12635
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51
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7 answers

How do I overcome fear of rejection when writing academic papers?

I don't know how to put it. I have never published before. Previously my one paper was rejected, that was because the experiments were not ready and my advisor asked me to still submit it just to have practice. Now, 6 months later, I am writing…
user13107
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51
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8 answers

Is it plagiarism for my thesis advisor to publish a paper using content from my thesis without citation?

I did my master thesis last year and recently I found out that a group of four faculty members in my department, including my thesis advisor, have published an ACM paper based on that. (A publish subscribe system based on SDN) I will be honest. The…
gaganbm
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51
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5 answers

How to respond to intentional lack of citation?

I work in a field that heavily uses arxiv.org and posts papers before submitting them to journals, so it's common for people to send a citation request when they see a preprint that they think has overlooked their work. I do this pretty rarely,…
Anonymous
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51
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11 answers

How to handle a colleague who hasn't pulled their weight

I'm working on a project with a partner that involves developing a mobile app and corresponding server. I won't bother with the specifics, but both involve a fair amount of work (both require some custom algorithms as well as thousands of lines of…
ahjohnston25
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51
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4 answers

Do peer-reviewers ignore details in complicated mathematical computations and theorems?

Upon reading many papers in my field, which is Mathematics. I have come across many complicated theorems and proofs in which long overwhelming computations have been done. While paying attention to the peer-review time, I have noticed that many of…
Med Med
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51
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9 answers

My professor says I would not graduate my PhD, although I fulfilled all the requirements

I am a Ph.D. student at a university in Germany. After about four years of research, my supervisor told me to write my thesis. After I sent him my thesis, he told me that he now thinks my work did not have enough scientific soundness and that I…
Ali
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51
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5 answers

What goes into a proper review of a paper?

I've been asked to review a paper for a publication. I've always been teaching faculty, not a researcher and I've never done a review before, but the paper is within my area of expertise and I have some time, so I'm inclined to give it a try. But…
Nicole Hamilton
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