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1500 questions
46
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4 answers

Meeting dishonest ex-supervisors at large international conference -- Should one speak out?

I have returned to my country after one negative experience as a postdoc in China. In short, I was hired based on false salary & funding expectations supported by shady vague contracts written in Chinese. I stayed until the end as to escape a raging…
Scientist
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4 answers

How to respond to someone plagiarizing my work?

I have recently come across a paper that copy-pasted entire paragraphs of one of my papers which is already published in an international journal. This paper appeared in a journal which is not very popular, and I did not get a courtesy…
user7748
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10 answers

Why is having multiple PhDs frowned upon?

I've often read that having more than one PhD is badly seen. Is there a good reason for this? Good obviously means with some kind of evidence to back it up beyond plain and simple "personal experience" and opinion. I've seen many comments about this…
M.S
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46
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9 answers

How to handle an interview out of my league

Not sure how this happened but I will have a postdoc interview with someone prominent in many fields, prominent even at their already prominent university, and who publishes in top journals with astonishing frequency. How should I handle this…
phimac
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45
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8 answers

What does this professor mean by saying "I do not have time to respond"

I am an undergraduate in CS and engineering. Approximately a week ago, I sent an email to a professor whose research really interests me. I sent him couple of my questions and confusions rooted from reading his recent papers, but I did not get any…
MathWanderer
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8 answers

As an undergrad, is it unethical to work in a field that I'm not interested in pursuing further in graduate school?

I'm a CS undergrad in my senior year(last week!). I've been working as a part-time research assistant in a research institute. I didn't think twice when I took the job, as I just thought it would be fun, and because it's not a school, I never…
RexYuan
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45
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5 answers

How do I cut ties with a bad supervisor?

I'm a biology PhD student (25, female). I've recently handed in my thesis after a long struggle but I've not defended yet. In short I've had a really bad experience with my supervisor and my PhD and want to get out of academia altogether but I don't…
K.Grayson
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7 answers

Why are journals used in modern scientific academic research?

I am new to research and I have yet to internalize the concept of journals and their utility in archiving scientific literature. Almost all the papers I have read recently are from this website called arxiv. Arxiv calls itself to be a preprint…
Souradeep Nanda
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45
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4 answers

What is the point in publishing a paper in a workshop rather than in a conference?

At first glance seems more interesting to submit your work to a conference, but a lot of people are still interested in workshops. Which is their motivation? I have also heard that to use your new material in a workshop paper is "a waste". How true…
Bub Espinja
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45
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7 answers

Referee made a mistake but recommended acceptance, what to do?

I recently received a referee report on a math paper in a mid-tier journal. In this paper I proved (to give an example avoiding technicalities) that all dogs are cute. But the referee claimed in his report that I claimed that all animals are cute…
Confused
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45
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12 answers

Should I stay in school?

I am most of the way through my freshman year at Washington State University, pursuing a BS in Computer Science. Going away to school has been rough, and I have been pretty depressed for most of the time there. Right now, I am leaning towards not…
Matt Bell
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45
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6 answers

What is the point in publishing a paper in a journal rather than arXiv?

I'm undergraduate student in Physics. I don't know what the point is in publishing a paper in a journal rather than arXiv. As far as I know, there is a fee which must be paid for publishing in a journal. (That may not be for all journal or fields.)…
Our
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6 answers

Is it normal to feel like I bought my way into graduate school after being rejected and then accepted when I was awarded an external fellowship?

I initially got rejected by the two schools I applied to (horrible pGRE scores, lackluster GRE scores, and only did research at my undergraduate institute), but then I got an NSF fellowship, and was almost immediately accepted by both schools. I…
user3760593
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45
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9 answers

How does a suspended student deal with an unprofessional university counselor?

I am a suspended student and I have been getting counseling for three months. During those three months, I have noticed extremely unprofessional behavior from my counselor. When I started counseling, he was late each time. The first time he was late…
user23292
45
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8 answers

How can a new PhD Student objectively evaluate how well they are doing?

I'm a relatively new PhD student, and I'm faced with a new (for me) situation. Before, I always had grades and the likes to tell me how good or bad I was doing: if I was at or near the top/bottom of my class, if I passed my exams or not... were all…
user47050
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