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1500 questions
48
votes
5 answers
What are the consequences of using Sci-Hub?
A student of mine has told me about Sci-Hub, where people can download copyrighted scholarly articles for free.
I have cautioned him that it is illegal, but he challenged me asking me what would be the consequences for him if he only downloads files…
Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai
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48
votes
6 answers
Is it acceptable to cite people without putting the appropriate diacritics in their names?
I've begun preparing my thesis and several key papers in my field are written by people with foreign accents in their names. While I have found a way to include this in my thesis with BibTeX. However it has come to my attention that many citations…
Tom Kelly
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48
votes
9 answers
What should I do as a TA if the instructor is not teaching properly?
Some background: I’m a TA for a low-level course at a major university on the US east coast. This is my second time TAing this course: the first time, I did it under a professor who has taught this a ton of times and knows his way around very well.…
stackflack
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48
votes
3 answers
Whether/how to list a failed student on my CV
I'm a postdoctoral researcher. My professor recently asked me to co-supervise one of her doctoral students, whom she also employed full-time as a research scientist. Since I had no prior experience advising at the doctoral level, I gladly…
user67171
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48
votes
15 answers
How to professionally handle sexist remarks by a student?
Suppose that you noticed a student saying a sexist remark to you, and the student is completely unaware of it. In the spirit of fighting sexism, I feel that I should maybe say something. But on the other hand, as a person on the higher end of the…
user10408
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48
votes
10 answers
Should non-native speakers get extra time to compose exam answers?
Today I met with a student who had plagiarized answers on an exam from online sources. She explained to me with apparent honesty that she had spent too long answering the first two questions and then run out of time. In her telling, being a…
Aaron Brick
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48
votes
2 answers
How do academics reconcile simultaneously collaborating and competing with colleagues?
In many fields of academia, a professor must get grants to fund his research (e.g., medicine, biology).
Early in academic career, a scientist can have naive expectations about how things work in academia and later may be surprised by the reality.…
userJT
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48
votes
3 answers
My PhD research has a negative outcome -- how can I still graduate with it?
A former PhD student at our lab had this idea for an algorithm for solving an engineering problem that has many well known solutions. The student developed preliminary results but ended up applying the algorithm to some other simpler engineering…
somerandomdude
- 1,942
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48
votes
4 answers
What are the pros and cons of giving students assignments to write Wikipedia articles?
The Wikimedia Foundation initiated an education program at U.S. universities that in 2010 encouraged government, law, and public policy students from 33 classes at 22 programs to contribute to Wikipedia…
user2521204
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48
votes
10 answers
Are unpaid postdoc positions common?
I contacted a group leader, and he strongly liked my CV. He encouraged me to join his group as a postdoc fellow, but he mentioned that the position he may offer is unpaid (so, I must cover my living expenses).
He mentioned that I can publish good…
user49444
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48
votes
6 answers
What constitutes a declarable conflict of interest in gender studies?
From Wikipedia:
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial interest, or otherwise, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or…
Rebecca J. Stones
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48
votes
9 answers
Test answer rejected for saying more than asked for
this is about a phenomenon often seen, but I came across a probably more prominent example recently, so I thought I'd ask for the community's opinion.
Here's the situation:
In the past semester's exams there was a question in computer architecture…
user3079666
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48
votes
10 answers
Is postdoc experience valued by industry?
I have recently finished my PhD and am currently considering my options. I have come to the conclusion that the teaching or the "publish or perish" nature of academia isn't really appealing for me.
I have been talking to several people regarding my…
posdef
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48
votes
5 answers
Why don't most academic conferences make their budget publicly available?
I wonder why most academic conferences don't make their budget publicly available.
Making budgets publicly available could help explain high conference fees (which attendees often complain about), help other conference organizers, receive feedback…
Franck Dernoncourt
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48
votes
7 answers
How to be efficient as a graduate student juggling classes, TA and research?
I am a first year PhD student, and it's the fourth week of school. I am taking two classes, doing one grad class TA and doing a lab rotation. I am in Electrical Engineering (Controls and DSP).
I start my day thinking- "I'll go to class from 10 am…
user42273