Questions tagged [etiquette]
The customary code of polite behavior amongst the academic world.
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Can I omit my department's name to express my dissenting opinions?
My full affiliation is:
Abacus Beard Department of Underwater Basket-Weaving, Calvin Doofus Division of Ocean Science, University of Watering-Down.
A. B. is the name of a big donor. C. D. is the ...
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May the spouse of a tenure-track candidate accompany them during their lunch with the head of the department?
In a hypothetical North American setting, assume that a tenure-track candidate whose spouse is also with them during their campus visit. Having lunch with the head of department is common for such a ...
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How much control does my advisor have if I'm on fellowship?
I'm a second year Ph.D. student in STEM and I have a lot of "clashes" with my advisor. Some are serious issues: (1) he wouldn't talk to me, the 1st author, about a project and instead met 1-...
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Offended My Professor [closed]
Last night in class we were having a discussion about how to handle an ethical dilemma in the workplace. I raised my hand said that I had read an article that said there are few times when we would ...
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Is it worth pointing out missed works in already published papers?
I have come across several works that omitted the citation of relevant related literature, but clearly are camera-ready versions already accepted/presented at a conference or journal.
Of course, due ...
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Ethical standards in asking a professor for reviewing a finished manuscript and publishing it together
I have been independently working on a substantial idea. The results of my work have been compiled into a complete manuscript.
However, I think I need to have an expert in the field reviewing it to ...
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Should I send a manual email as well as an autogenerated email to potential reviewers?
I am an editor for a math journal. When I select and invite a reviewer to referee a paper the journal's management software automatically writes and sends an email invitation to that reviewer.
For a ...
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Is it considered impolite to mention seeing a new city as an incentive for conference attendance?
I'm a grad student in the final term of my 2nd year. In a weekly meeting with my supervisor yesterday, I brought up an upcoming conference in our discipline. This conference is twice-annual and very ...
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How do I pivot from a collaboration with some professors on a project I am not particularly invested in to one lying more in my area of interest?
I am a graduate student who is currently working on a project with another student and some professors which will soon lead to the publication of a paper with my name on it. As someone who would like ...
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How to deal with incommunicable co-author
The background: In the grand area of Mathematics in which I do research, there is a famous Professor, let us call him 'A', who started a joint project with another younger colleague, let
us call him '...
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Is it appropriate for a teacher to make a sex analogy related to physics?
My physics professor was talking about the companion forces that act on an object with molecules interacting with one another and Newton's 3rd law canceling out the internal forces. Then he said ...
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What is the de facto standard while writing equation in a short email to professors?
In a research field that math is frequently used, while sending a long note/paper, attaching a pdf is of course the best. But for a short email that only involves few equations, a pdf file might be ...
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Where to include acknowledgements for used graphics
In the current technical report that I write, I have used graphic from an online-source where their policy requires that the author of the drawing has to be acknowledged in case that the drawing is to ...
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One of my postdocs elegantly solved a problem another postdoc had been working on for years. I have no idea how to navigate this delicate situation
I run a lab in an applied computational field (e.g. computational biology/chemistry/physics etc.)
One of my postdocs (“A”) has been working on a problem for the last two years. They have made good ...
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(When) Is it appropriate to give a "thank you" gifts to a professor who is not your advisor or teacher?
As a grad student (or postdoc), past taking classes, is it ok to get a thank you gift for a professor who :
has helped you with something (e.g. introduced you to someone for a collaboration or wrote ...
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How to approach my MSc advisor that I may want to apply for another PhD program?
I am doing a research-based master's degree at a university, and my advisor was asking me "if I want to do a Ph.D." when I was starting and I said yes. For some reason, he assumed that I'd ...
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Could I ask an ex-advisor to show me the letter of recommendation he wrote for me?
Is it possible to ask somebody who wrote me a letter of recommendation to show me the letter? or is it impolite in academia? - The letter is a requirement to participate in a top networking conference ...
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9
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Can a professor tell you that you can’t use your phone before or after their class?
So, I have this one professor who refuses to let anyone use their phone. I understand this during class hours but now he’s saying he will give a demerit to anyone using their phone even if it’s before ...
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Is it appropriate for professors to use the f*** word during lectures?
This has happened a few times. The university is an average, good university in UK. One professor said lately "I'm so sick of this f****** pandemic." Another time another lecturer said "...
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By what title should I greet assistant and associate professors in emails and letters?
By what title should I greet assistant and associate professors in emails and letters? I study in the UK and for post-doctorands up to senior lectures one uses "Dear Dr. X", but for professors one ...
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Is it socially appropriate to ring up a professor whom you have corresponded with briefly by email?
A couple of weeks back I sent an email to a professor in a University in my home country with whom I have never known on any personal or professional level. My intention was to seek potential ...
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Email netiquette for telling thesis committee member I've replaced
I'm a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the social sciences.
I've decided to replace one person in my doctoral thesis committee because she is not giving me any feedback or responding to my emails in ...
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Handling alternate spellings of a personal name
Dealing with a text that mentions several times the architectural historian Siegfried Giedion. A number of Giedion's books feature his first name as "Sigfried" and others as "Siegfried.&...
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How do I avoid answering too many questions?
Often in class, professors will ask questions to the class. Usually, I'll at least think I know the answer to the question, so naturally I want to answer it.
The problem is that my hand shouldn't ...
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Virtual conference speaker made it awkward due to the small number of attendees. Should I (the organizer) send them an email apologizing?
Organized a virtual conference and invited lots of top-tier speakers. The number of registrants was around 115, and the event got lots of attention on social media. The strange thing is that the ...
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How do I handle a conflict with my former mentor about a potential paper correction?
During my postdoc, I published two research papers as the first author, with my mentor (a Professor at an Ivy League institution) as the corresponding/senior author. Months after publishing the papers,...
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Does telling people that I (undergrad) want to stay in academia come across as naive and/or big-headed?
I am an undergrad planning to apply to MA-PhD cognitive neuroscience programs either this year or next. I've decided to try to approach grad school in a way that will maximize my chances of getting a ...
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Etiquette: How many reminders should one send for conference speakers to submit their talk info?
I am co-organizing a conference that will take place virtually on Mar 13, 2023. We invited the speakers and they confirmed their participation in Nov, 2022. Now, we sent them a form that collects ...
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Submitted to journal, rebuttal period now ongoing but no feedback from referees yet
I submitted a paper to a journal in January. According to the journal web site, the rebuttal period is the present week of February 20 to 24. It's February 20 everywhere in the world and actually ...
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Timeline for letters of recommendation
How long before you need them should you ask for letters of recommendation for academic jobs? I've heard the etiquette is to ask 3-4 months in advance, but haven't found much corroboration for that. ...
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Invited a speaker to talk at a conference which is part of a bigger conference and the parent organizers rejected their participation. What to do now?
I am organizing a volunteer academic conference as a part of a larger conference at a top university (let's call it X). Organizers are required to invite speakers to talk about their research in a ...
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Using URL Shorteners to Track Who Viewed My Application
Some URL shortening services allow users to see very basic information on who has clicked-through the link. If I remember right, it documents the visitor's web browser, computer's OS, exact date and ...
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Is it considered offensive to address one's seniors by name in the US?
In my country (India), there are several implicit norms that almost everyone is expected to follow.
One of the important norms is that juniors do not address a senior by their name. It happens ...
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How to approach disclosing a marital relationship when we both want to be post-docs in the same lab?
I and my spouse are planning to apply for a post-doctoral position with same professor. Since we both are eligible for and interested in the positions, we want to communicate the same to the professor....
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Do journal editors/referees expect relatively unknown authors to provide evidence of counsel from an expert when submitting a paper?
The reason I've brought up this question is due to the following observation.
Let's say, for instance, there is some field which is called "Specific Grand Theory".
The field is quite minor ...
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Can you contact a professor whom you have never met to inquire about a RA opportunity?
Is it considered ok to proactively ask a professor from a different university that you never met in person about some potential research assistant internship? Or is something like that considered ...
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Is it okay to upload code I wrote for replicating someone else’s simulation study?
I have code I wrote to replicate a simulation study by another author. Is it okay to publicly upload this in my code repository?
This will include:
code (my work, based on the author’s description in ...
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My supervisor worked so hard to get a research opportunity for me, but now I want to quit. How to handle this situation?
It is about my friend (an undergraduate student in Australia), but I used first person pronoun "I" for convenience. My friend needs advice, and I tried my best to describe the situation. The ...
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Is it rude to ask for a recommendation letter when the teacher said that she would not be available due to sickness?
I wanted to ask my teacher for a letter of recommendation, and wanted to contact her via a phone call. Upon asking her what time she would be free (I didn't mention the purpose for calling), she ...
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How should I investigate and respond to a potentially false claim of a publication in the CV of an applicant?
I was reviewing an application for a grant and found out that one of the applicants has included a publication on his CV that does not exist in the journal. It was supposedly published several years ...
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What should I do with late LoR, after submitting PhD applications?
I submitted a bunch PhD applications for US programs, but a very important letter of recommendation didn't make it before the deadline. I have the required number of letters, but for this one letter I ...
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Is it appropriate to ignore emails from a student asking obvious questions?
A student often sends me emails asking obvious (homework) questions whose answers can easily be found in the teaching materials.
I do not always keep the teaching materials with me, so I cannot reply ...
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Should I ignore or reply an external colleague insisting in sharing methods in potentially COI project?
I (scientist X working at lab A) have received several e-mails from one specific colleague (scientist Y working at lab B) regarding engaging in some specific project led by Y. Some of the ideas I ...
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How to reply to an email from Professor asking for the progress on assignments?
I didn't write any of the assignments, and the professor has now sent an email asking me about the progress of the assignments. I don't wish to submit the assignments for reasons I cannot explain. I ...
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How can I deal with a professor with very weird English?
I have recently enrolled in an elective course from our degree program. There is something that sometimes annoys me, namely the English used by the professor.
He is not a native English speaker, but ...
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How to deal with ABD misrepresenting self as Dr [closed]
I supervise an employee who insists on being called Dr. in emails and on social media, but is ABD (all but dissertation) from about a decade ago. How have people handled such situations?
I was ...
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How to deal with a professor skipping his office hours?
As a preface, this is a related question but it is from a different perspective.
I am an undergraduate student in physics and have a professor that routinely ignores his own office hours. He has ...
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Unreasonable requests to a TA from a student
One of my students' behaviour just feels always disrespectful to me. A homework was due tonight, and she asked me yesterday evening how to solve multiple questions. I try to respond as soon as I can, ...
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As a person outside academia, can I e-mail authors if I have questions about their work?
I am autistic and I hold a bachelor's degree but, sadly, had to quit grad school due to health reasons. I have a special interest in a subfield of hematology-oncology and have read a fair amount of ...
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As a student with questions about a paper, can I email the author myself or should I ask someone else to contact him?
I am reading a paper and have questions about the details of the procedure described. I have read other papers by the same team but they don't explain too much about that procedure anyway. I think it ...
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