Questions tagged [interpersonal-issues]
Questions concerning relationships and dealing with problems between people.
-5
votes
0answers
252 views
Jealousy from fellow PhD students [on hold]
I'm a PhD student that experienced an incident a year back, where a fellow PhD student started caricaturing my so called 'fast mental math abilities', when we were having to tally up some scores of ...
11
votes
1answer
339 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
191 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
284 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 ...
4
votes
0answers
141 views
Physician assistant school rescinded my acceptance
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
132 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 ...
24
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
756 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
179 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
11k 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
231 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 ...
2
votes
2answers
373 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
209 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
208 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
10k 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 ...
2
votes
2answers
321 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
280 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 ...
64
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
885 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
470 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
194 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’...
5
votes
1answer
252 views
How do I make the case to regain first authorship?
I am a senior Phd student in a very small lab consisting of me, my PI, and one other graduate student (one year under me). We began at an academic institution working on this paper related to my ...
5
votes
1answer
526 views
My supervisor does not want to publish my research
I just graduated from grad school and to say that it has been hell is just a euphemism. My supervisor has been a bully all the time and every thing that I did and didn't please my supervisor was met ...
6
votes
3answers
658 views
A potential collaborator and PhD student took a commanding tone with me (faculty) – how should I react?
Background about me
I am an early-to-mid-career teaching-track faculty (four years of cross-curricular teaching experience in engineering) in the USA. I teach courses both at the undergraduate and ...
8
votes
2answers
669 views
What can a PI do about a low-performing postdoc?
This is a hypothetical question inspired by a flip side of the situation described here.
Consider a PI on tenure-track position, facing tenure / promotion panel in a few years. The PI has just got ...
32
votes
5answers
5k views
How do I get over these (possibly sexist) feelings regarding an underqualified labmate? [closed]
Well, this is kind of embarrassing for me and I am judging myself as well.
I have just started my PhD. And there is another woman who has started in the same lab as me. Over the first week, I found ...
35
votes
7answers
7k views
1.5 years later, how to make sure unprofessional behaviour by former mentor has consequences?
I was a post doc at a large US university for a year and after took another postdoc position in my home country. My mentor was a tenure track assistant professor. It pretty soon became clear that ...
135
votes
10answers
37k views
I slept with my advisor's daughter and she is blackmailing me now. What can I do?
I am doing a PhD in the US. I am in my mid-twenties and will graduate next spring. My advisor was very good and nice to me. He invited me to have dinner at his home many times and then I met his ...
1
vote
1answer
121 views
How to reconnect a relationship with a professor
Today
I'm currently in my final MSc year, and I have finished working for my thesis. I am under supervision of professor X, which I find myself at ease and actually enjoy what I do. My field is ...
1
vote
1answer
135 views
prospective English doctoral candidate: advice regarding weird relationship with potential advisor
I recently got my BA in English from a top 10 university and am planning on re-applying to the same school's doctoral program this fall. (For personal reasons, I'm constrained to programs within a ...
1
vote
1answer
87 views
Can a master's student change their mind and look for a different project?
I am a fairly new Master's student (~3 months). A few weeks ago, my supervisor told me to work on project X. I reluctantly agreed to work on X because I was not able to come up with any alternatives, ...
-3
votes
1answer
321 views
Field-dependency of politics and public shaming in academia
I have recently been quite shocked to learn of the blog of an accomplished string theorist, which includes a lot of personal invective against physicists he disagrees with, as well as a lot of non-...
4
votes
2answers
569 views
How to ask a, probably angry, PhD supervisor for a letter of recommendation after graduation from uni?
I was on good terms with my PhD supervisor throughout my studies. After graduation, I gave a talk at a symposium and my PhD supervisor was in the audience. I was planning to add a few sentences of ...
25
votes
4answers
7k views
As a student, how can I negotiate comfortable and appropriate sleeping arrangements with a stranger for a conference?
I'm an undergraduate student that was offered a role researching for a grant. I was able to get authorship status on a paper and will be attending a conference for it later this year. The professor I ...
64
votes
8answers
18k views
While showing my work to my supervisor, an adult website appeared. Am I in trouble?
I will try to make this brief. I am a student at a prominent university in the UK, and while I was showing my thesis work, a website, to my supervisor, the website crashed. Then I was asked to close ...
15
votes
7answers
9k views
How to deal with sources whose authors I don't have good relationship with?
I used to have a good relationship with an author, but now it's broken. However, my work is heavily based on the work of that author, and I'm not sure if citing it without informing them is OK here. ...
3
votes
3answers
356 views
How to avoid personal issues interfering with my Ph.D. studies?
Background
My life had (and still has) difficult problems (chronic disease and its consequences: social isolation, anxiety, having to take extra measures to take care of my health...). As a ...
69
votes
13answers
32k views
Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
Inspired by this question, I have a similar but somehow different problem.
I recently assumed a tenure-track position. One of my strategies for a visible start is to have a strong presence in social ...
2
votes
2answers
186 views
Rescinding or deferring admission over a break up
I have a full ride for a grad program at a good school
I've recently gone through an awful breakup with a girlfriend of 7 years
I now want to take an extra year before going to school, for many ...
9
votes
2answers
334 views
Do I need to explain my reasoning when choosing between two offers
I have been lucky enough to have been offered different professor positions in different universities. Both departments have made a lot of efforts to try and convince me to choose theirs (who gets ...
37
votes
10answers
10k views
Is passion a must-have for a Master's student?
When I was accepted to become a Master's student, I had virtually no experience in the topics that my supervisor wanted to work in. Lately I've been catching up on background knowledge (I've been in ...
10
votes
2answers
873 views
Toxic colleague talks about me to Professors
I am a PhD student with a very difficult colleague - someone I thought was just socially inept, and rude. I was always friendly, giving her the benefit of the doubt, even though she offended me and ...
46
votes
11answers
24k views
How can I avoid inadvertently offending my female peers and getting into trouble for it?
Attention has been drawn recently to an incident that occurred at a scientific conference and its sequelae described in this article:
The fuss started when [Prof. X] and [Prof. Y] ended up in the ...
35
votes
5answers
4k views
Improving work conditions of student assistants, PhDs, Postdocs etc
I have been following threads on this website for a few months now. However it's my first time posting. I am a postdoctoral researcher from a Western European country who has done reasonably well ...
