All Questions
4,835 questions
35
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Can I use the work in my journal/conference publications as chapters in my dissertation?
At my institution, I am required to publish four papers in addition to my PhD thesis. Of course my planned papers are related to my dissertation project, but I'm not sure if it could be considered ...
- 11.5k
16
votes
1
answer
357
views
Should writers give credit to reference librarians?
The reference librarians at my school are often very helpful. If I tell them my topic, they will help me find many resources which I might not have otherwise found and generally tend to save me a lot ...
- 12.6k
20
votes
3
answers
10k
views
Who holds intellectual property rights on a thesis?
I thought of an interesting idea for a thesis for my Masters program and I think I would eventually be able to sell a product that is built from the algorithms/code that I develop for this thesis. I ...
- 303
11
votes
3
answers
22k
views
How do you cite from a presentation or poster at a conference?
For example, a presentation whose PDF is listed at http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/exoclimes/2012/pdf/talks/Day02_Ferreira.pdf?
And what if the presentation doesn't have a publicly available URL? How would ...
- 10.9k
30
votes
4
answers
45k
views
What's the correct way to cite a paper cited by another paper?
The example is when you might be reading a certain paper, and the authors refer to another paper. You can't get that other paper as it's unpublished, or it's in a language that you can't read, or ...
- 465
30
votes
2
answers
12k
views
How should references in non-Latin script language be treated in English paper?
Let's say I want to cite a Russian text in my own paper which is written in English. Should I:
reference it as is, in the original Cyrillic alphabet, although the readers won't be able even to ...
- 835
17
votes
1
answer
609
views
arXiv preprint and final paper differing by sections and appendices
Because of the style of a journal, and the space limit, I was asked to remove a section and all appendices.
While I have no problem with that, I want to preserve it in the arXiv preprint.
So:
Is ...
- 26.6k
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What format should the Methods & Materials section of a thesis be in? [closed]
I am writing my thesis in biology, and am not sure how to format the M&M section of my thesis.
One option is like an experiment protocol, with a lot spaces, itemized lists of steps, etc...
...
- 53
32
votes
3
answers
18k
views
Dissertation acknowledgements
I'm at the stage in writing my dissertation where most of the substantive aspects are finished and the only tasks left are more or less administrative. However, one thing that I've been avoiding is ...
- 420
8
votes
1
answer
206
views
How to reference different sources in a list?
I am writing my master thesis and I am not sure how to reference/cite different sources in a list.
I have a small list like:
The benefits of an "incredibly interesting topic" are:
benefit ...
- 183
28
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Citing sources of problems in assignments
This question was raised by Dave Clarke here.
When a textbook author approaches a topic in a novel way or presents a particularly interesting example, I believe that a teacher who creates lecture ...
- 12.1k
5
votes
2
answers
701
views
Does getting awarded your PhD in physics depend on the quality of university?
Say you wrote a good thesis on some discovery you made in physics.
If it was a mediocre discovery, nothing special, are you more likely to get awarded the PhD at a 'not very good' university than at ...
- 243
5
votes
1
answer
382
views
Physics masters and PhD degrees in England/UK
This question is about academia in the UK/England. I understand that in physics, the PhD thesis one produces must be of their own studies, almost like publishing a paper. If you will, a kind of ...
- 243
38
votes
5
answers
118k
views
How to select a Master's thesis topic if your advisor won't suggest one?
If a master's degree candidate needs to select a thesis topic, but their advisor is unwilling to offer suggestions on the matter, how should one go about selecting a thesis?
How might one select an ...
- 12.6k
56
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Attributing contributions to academic work that occur in Stack Exchange
Sometimes we may ask questions on stack exchange or online forums wherein the response is helpful or even essential to a piece of work that gets published in an academic journal. If this occurs, how ...
- 673
21
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Citing (or not) a flawed or incomprehensible paper or preprint
Is there a good practice of citing (or not) a paper or preprint that you consider flawed (or at best - totally incomprehensible)?
Once I had a problem of that sort. I wrote a paper on a topic, which ...
- 26.6k
32
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Why is the city of publication important in most bibliography format?
Most bibliography formats require the city of publication for books. Why? In this digital era, ISBN would be way more important. But even before the digitalization of everything, why was the city of ...
- 1,124
39
votes
6
answers
14k
views
Who is responsible for detecting plagiarism in a PhD thesis?
Background
I am asking this question in the context of the long running plagiarism scandal in Germany.The most prominent victim of the scandal of plagiarized doctoral dissertations by politicians was ...
- 1,632
47
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What to do if my paper is incorrectly cited in a journal?
Recently I got a cite in a research paper where the author cited my work as [first name] et al, where it should have been [last name] et al. Is there any problem for indexing purpose? should I contact ...
- 4,669
7
votes
2
answers
7k
views
How to accredit my Ph.D. in USA
I got my Ph.D. from the Faculty of Computers and Information Technology, Cairo University in 2007. I want to know if it is possible to compensate or to accredit my Ph.D. from USA. If it is possible, I ...
- 71
28
votes
5
answers
9k
views
Is it advisable to use a URL link shortening service when writing an academic article?
Is it OK to present a URL using a link shortening service such as bit.ly? The reason I'm asking is that I think it's a lot easier to enter this URL (e.g., if you read it in a paper) as opposed to full ...
- 382
21
votes
10
answers
15k
views
Can I cite a URL only instead of author, title, etc. in a research paper?
When writing a thesis, is it acceptable practice to cite only the URL of referenced research papers where they are published electronically? Or is it compulsory to give proper authors, title, year of ...
- 2,385
9
votes
1
answer
278
views
What are the essential points that should be covered in a dissertation abstract?
I need to prepare a 2-page abstract of my dissertation as part of a funding application. What are the essential points that such an abstract should cover?
This opportunity (and my PhD) is in the ...
- 1,632
10
votes
1
answer
525
views
What are the most important points to emphasize while pitching for a dissertation to be published as a book?
An editor for a major publishing house is visiting our institute, and some PhD students will get the chance to have a 15 min talk with them and discuss the publication of their dissertation as a book.
...
- 1,632
6
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Should I Cite a Journal's Page Number, or an Article's?
When I'm citing a page in a journal, and the article has an independent page numbering system, should I cite the page number of the journal or the article?
- 163
7
votes
1
answer
985
views
How formal should figures in a thesis be?
I am currently writing my masters thesis. I include in it a screenshot of a webpage, in which I want to point at some components and explain what each of them does. What I did so far is that I draw ...
- 4,423
11
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Should I do a PhD in Sound and Music Computing? [closed]
I have recently applied to two PhD programs (in Europe) under professors working in the area of Sound and Music Computing (SMC). Both programs are very well regarded in this area.
SMC covers topics ...
- 941
31
votes
3
answers
4k
views
How important are citations when applying for jobs or promotions?
How important is citation count for fresh doctorates? Is this number more important for joining the academia than the industry?
What is the importance of citations for someone seeking tenure? Does ...
- 23.2k
40
votes
11
answers
12k
views
Tool to manage and/or make available a list of my publications on the web?
This some kind of follow up question to How to prevent plagiarism of my papers?, since I've been clearly convinced that it was in my best interest to put my own papers on my webpage.
Now, since I ...
user102
8
votes
2
answers
6k
views
How should multiple Harvard references with same first author but different coauthors be made?
This question was written by a friend of mine. I'm helping them by posting it here, with permission.
How should I use the name-year referencing system (loosely speaking, the Harvard system) in such ...
11
votes
4
answers
1k
views
How to choose the most worthwhile research papers to define my thesis?
I'm a first year PhD student. I'm just reading background papers trying to find a topic for my thesis: my subject is turning around tree different elements (XML (as a tool), complex data, and the ...
- 471
12
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Is it worth to switch from Bibsonomy to Mendeley?
What are the advantages of Mendeley over Bibsonomy?
Is it easy to migrate from Bibsonomy to Mendeley?
Does Mendeley offer equally powerful bibliography exportation?
In detail, the following ...
- 243
12
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How do I effectively use tags to organize my bibliography?
I use the online tool citeulike to manage my bibliography. The main tool to organize the library is tags (functionally equivalent to tags here on this site). One problem I seem to be having is I do a ...
- 3,591
25
votes
4
answers
3k
views
How can I find out which universities allow a sandwich (stapler) PhD thesis?
Following on from What is a "Sandwich thesis"? , is there an easy way to find out which departments at which universities will allow a sandwich thesis (aka a stapler thesis, portfolio thesis,...
- 25.9k
110
votes
3
answers
25k
views
What is a “sandwich thesis”?
On the Internet, I have found that some people have graduated with a PhD by means of a “sandwich thesis”. Could anyone explain what it is?
- 2,759