Questions tagged [interpersonal-issues]
Questions concerning relationships and dealing with problems between people.
287
questions
68
votes
8answers
19k views
How should I respond to a worrying email from an ex student?
I run a lab at an R1 university in the USA. Almost ten years ago I removed an undergraduate volunteer student from my laboratory group for harassing another student.
Today I received a multi-page, ...
3
votes
1answer
244 views
How open should I be with my PhD supervisor about the problems in my personal life?
My marriage has been going through some problems in the last year which has affected my PhD. My supervisor has been very understanding and was keen for me not to interrupt and granted me a two month ...
3
votes
3answers
420 views
Is it appropriate for a lecturer to invite the course to dinner before grading?
This semester, I attended a seminar where the grade will be based on work turned in by attendees in about a month. The lecturer has set up a 'get-together' of all students in his home, where he will ...
14
votes
5answers
692 views
Identifying pleasant PhD supervisors
I want to pursue a PhD at an institution in Japan that I don't know first hand. As lab websites or personal webpages don't really reveal the personalities of professors, it isn't easy to know in ...
0
votes
1answer
147 views
How can I ask a professor for time-sensitive information when they are out for a family emergency?
I'm an undergraduate student, and at the start of the semester I was trying to organize something like undergraduate research (but more basic) with one of my professors. I have to fill out a form due ...
0
votes
1answer
171 views
Is it right for a supervisor to try to prevent his students from pursuing other research directions by simultaneously working with other professors?
I have faced a problem recently with my academic advisor and I seek some advice. I have been working with my advisor for one and a half year now. No publication resulted so far.
One of the problems ...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
Should I tell a senior collaborator how disappointed I am?
I was part of a small group preparing an overview paper for a special issue, and we missed a final deadline. All except one of us completed our assigned tasks; the last person had not touched her ...
1
vote
1answer
186 views
How important is being in a good institute for a theoretical physicist? [closed]
Will being in a underfunded institute and with mediocre colleagues hinder the performance of a theoretical physicist to a great degree?
3
votes
1answer
1k views
I can't figure out why my professor hates me [closed]
I now have Professor X for the third semester in a row. I have not interacted with him very much outside of class, but I am positive he used to like me. But now, I can tell that he dislikes me.
I can ...
0
votes
1answer
173 views
How should I talk to an unwelcoming future research group colleague so no interpersonal issues raise?
This year, I am going to join a research group in which one of my past classmates who used to study in the same university during my the bachelors degree years is also working. The professor who is ...
2
votes
2answers
203 views
Undergrad research with friends; one of them does nothing
About halfway through last semester, my professor asked me to do research under her with a group of people I had been friends with since freshman year. Dream come true! These are all people I already ...
1
vote
3answers
199 views
Quitting research halfway — how unprofessional/irresponsible?
for background: I am a second year Master's student in computer science. I had gone to the same university for undergrad. For my undergrad honors thesis (during last two semesters), I worked with a ...
33
votes
6answers
8k views
Shall I go and see my advisor's father who is on his death bed?
In my country from East Asia, it is extremely impolite if I don't do it when I have this information.
However, US and EU are known to be more "professional" in my humble opinion. So in US, is asking ...
9
votes
4answers
3k views
How to tell my mentor to be careful when discussing my work in progress around people I do not trust?
I had a very bad experience with a colleague and just do not like/trust him. (Eavesdropping, lying, ...) I am working on a project with my mentor, and know they shared information with the colleague I ...
2
votes
4answers
356 views
What is the best way to express my condolence to a professor? [duplicate]
I am a Ph.D student at the university. Every student has a favourite professor same as mine. I really care about and our student-teacher relationship growing stronger day by day. My professor really ...
13
votes
6answers
2k views
What should I do if my parents are forcing me to study a career I don't want? [closed]
I want to study biotechnology and become an engineer. I'm a straight A's student and as the eldest daughter I'm quite disciplined. However, my parents don't want me to study that career and are ...
16
votes
2answers
258 views
Does the GDPR cover reviewer blacklists, and if so, how? [closed]
I've served as an area chair for several conferences. Following the review period, the program chairs asked the area chairs to submit to them an annotated list of problematic reviewers. Mostly these ...
85
votes
9answers
15k views
First author doesn't want a co-author to read the whole paper
First author is a PhD student, as am I. All of the other co-authors are our supervisors. The first author doesn't want me to read the paper, because we are both PhD students and I might plagiarize (?!)...
4
votes
1answer
261 views
Should I keep my achievements to myself? [closed]
I'm a PhD student and I have published several good papers and achieved some awards and leadership position early in my career. I always celebrate my work but not boastfully since I poured in a lot of ...
1
vote
1answer
174 views
Reasons for a request for reference being ignored [closed]
What are the reasons that emails for a request for reference might be ignored or delayed in response, a long time after the deadline by an intimate academic advisor?
1
vote
1answer
104 views
How to Best Ask Mentor for Guidance
I'm not a currently enrolled grad student, but I am being adopted on as a "grad student" and am currently working on a project in pharmacology involving a lot of things that I'm not too familiar with. ...
7
votes
2answers
359 views
How to protect your authorship when trapped in “collaboration”?
Some time ago, my advisor has put me working together with some group colleagues on a very loosely defined theoretical physics project. From the beginning, I didn't like this too much because I felt ...
61
votes
11answers
23k views
Is it ethical to tell my teaching assistant that I like him?
I, a twenty-year-old female, have come to admire the graduate teaching assistant for my summer course quite strongly. I'm extremely interested in what he has to say, I always pay attention, never use ...
2
votes
2answers
571 views
Already in grad school, but is grad school for me? [closed]
I'm sure you've seen a dozen variations on this question in this forum, but here's mine:
I've just finished my first year in a top US PhD program in the physical sciences, which I never dreamed I ...
11
votes
1answer
745 views
My colleague *may* have forged data. Any advice?
We are about to submit a revised manuscript for publication in a prestigious journal. This is a team work and one of my colleague performed most of the molecular biology experiments, including many ...
1
vote
1answer
228 views
Planning to start a Bachelor's degree during my PhD: what to say to my advisor?
I am a PhD student on my second year. My advisor is one of the most understanding professors I have ever had the pleasure to work with: he is also one of the, if not the, most important researchers in ...
20
votes
4answers
7k views
Two researchers want to work on the same extension to my paper. Who to help?
I recently presented a paper in a top-tier conference in a computer engineering field. I did that work as a research assistant under a Professor but now I am working in the industry. Two different ...
2
votes
4answers
304 views
How to interact with difficult supervisors after graduation?
I submitted my dissertation after several years of working. I will have my defense soon, and I reported what I am going to talk in the defense. However, my primary supervisor now refuses to give ...
6
votes
2answers
294 views
Physician assistant school rescinded my acceptance [closed]
I'm in a complicated situation. I was accepted to physician assistant school and was told I'm one of the most qualified candidates. I'm also a mother of 2 children (under age 3) and living with their ...
4
votes
1answer
561 views
How to deal with advisor drastically changing research expectations?
Some context: I met my advisor during my undergraduate studies (I am pursuing a PhD at the same institution). I took several upper-level elective courses with this professor, and received top grades ...
23
votes
5answers
6k views
My advisor talks about me to his colleagues in their native language [closed]
I am in a country where English is not the native language. I have some proficiency in that language but none of the team members know this since I have always communicated with them in English.
...
3
votes
3answers
806 views
Discriminated by senior researcher because of my ethnicity
I am working on a collaborative project between different parties, and there is a senior researcher who underestimates constantly what I ever propose or speak, and he tries to illustrate that I am ...
5
votes
2answers
540 views
Addressing a poor student-advisor relationship in job interview
I have a couple of interviews for research assistant vacancies in the next few days, but I didn't list the advisors of my undergraduate research project as my references, even though I added the ...
45
votes
7answers
11k views
How to explain that I do not want to visit a country due to personal safety concern?
I have been invited to visit a professor in a different country. I am very reluctant to go. The government of this country is currently under investigation by the UN for suspicions of crimes against ...
34
votes
9answers
12k views
My adviser wants to be the first author
I am working on a paper after finishing my Masters. I did all the lab research and writing of the manuscript. My professor was only involved to guide me throughout the research and read my writing and ...
1
vote
2answers
424 views
exam/teaching culture, possible abusive supervisor, research gatekeeping
Apologies for the length, I don't know how to make this shorter. I also don't know where else to turn for advice. :(
I've recently started an MA in what promises to be a brand new humanities ...
1
vote
2answers
388 views
Polite message for my supervisors who do unfair things that would totally leads me to lose my study [closed]
I am currently working on finishing my PhD thesis. For about 3 years and 6 months of my study, I am suffering from the absence of my supervisors. She always travels for 6 months, sometimes two months ...
1
vote
0answers
223 views
To what extent do doctoral advisors “pick” their grad students?
I am just starting a graduate program in physics. I have read a few posts describing what a PhD student should think about when looking for an advisor, but I have a question regarding the advisor's ...
3
votes
1answer
310 views
Question on whether I have committed plagiarism (modifying paragraphs from an unpublished document sent as email attachment for PhD thesis)
Background
My colleague and I are both PhD students (My colleague started about 8 months after me) from the same research group (and share the same PhD supervisor) in a UK university. We were ...
11
votes
7answers
11k views
Prospective supervisor wants me to do irrelevant videos as a condition for supervision. Can I say yes when I mean no?
This question is the reverse of Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media, in which the student had agreed during interviewing to participate in social media ...
3
votes
2answers
527 views
How to deal with bad department chair?
As students we have the right to choose our semester subjects (for the new semester beginning in 2019)
So we went send an email to the department chair indicating what subject we would like to take. ...
3
votes
1answer
339 views
Supervisor asking me to list a co-author who has literally done nothing [duplicate]
I am in the final stages of writing a paper to submit at an IEEE conference. I am the primary author, in the sense that I did most of the work and most of the writing. I have three other co-authors ...
66
votes
5answers
14k views
What can be done about a disruptive classmate?
There is a classmate who repeatedly interrupts the flow of lectures in various ways. We assume he has learning difficulties of some kind due to how he acts and because he has an assistant with him in ...
4
votes
3answers
918 views
Supervisor gets PhD student to do his entire job
My master's supervisor delegates most (if not all) of his work to his senior PhD student. Let's name this student X.
X creates all the assignments, midterms, and exams for the courses this professor ...
10
votes
1answer
483 views
In the EU, how much protection do I have if I report an assault on myself by my department head?
I had a very ugly incident at my corrupt institute (I live in E. EU). In short, I was assaulted by one of the department's heads during my own group meeting on my own grant for daring to "back talk" ...
9
votes
4answers
2k views
Is it in the best interest of supervisors that his/her students publish their research results in top journals?
I am a math PhD student in a foreign country. When finishing my papers, my advisor (who is a big name in the field) always proposes me to submit them to a journal. The problem is that so far none of ...
0
votes
1answer
195 views
What to do when finding difficulty in resuming study?
Suppose, I completed two semesters and left a university two years ago. I want to resume my study again.
I e-mailed a specific guy in the faculty/department/institute. I need a readmission paper from ...
29
votes
2answers
7k views
Etiquette for a female PhD student to reject her male supervisor's invitation to meet outside of work
The role of supervisor is a key role. The relationship between the supervisor and the students should be healthy.
In this context, in India, there is a lot of difference between male and female ...
8
votes
5answers
3k views
Could I submit an abstract for a conference prior asking my supervisor permission about it?
I would like to submit an abstract for a poster presentation, I'm just worried that if I tell my supervisor before submitting, she might say I shouldn't do it, because she rarely wants me to be away ...
27
votes
7answers
13k views
My supervisor is making me work on something that is not my PhD project. What should I do?
My PhD project is a very little part of a big study that my supervisor is currently running. I am already four months into my PhD and I just have a 3 years position to finish my thesis. So far I haven’...
