Questions tagged [research-process]

Questions directly focused on PERFORMING academic research. Do not use this for questions about publishing research. Read the tag wiki before applying this tag.

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Received an ultimatum from PhD advisor to leave that broke me completely. How to cope emotionally?

I am a PhD student in an American university, on year 4 of a 5-6 year program. Recently (three months ago), my advisor told me to leave the program since he doesn't think this subject is for me (he ...
StudentOfLife's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
342 views

Is it plagiarism to adopt specific questions from a pre-existing questionnaire?

I’m currently required to make a questionnaire for my research. Is it okay to use only specific questions from previously published questionnaires as these questions perfectly apply to my research ...
ava's user avatar
  • 21
7 votes
2 answers
958 views

Taking a long time to graduate from my MSc. How this is going to impact my PhD admission?

I enrolled in a master's program in computational mathematics, I completed my courses in a year and a half and got 3.98/4.00 CGPA (ranked 1st in my batch) then, I waited for some time to find an ...
Dark_Witch's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
127 views

Does using methods from one research domain to another research domain counts as scientific contribution?

If method A was developed and published in XYZ Conference or Journal and then method A was used to address problem B, can it be regarded as a contribution to the research community? For example, can ...
techno's user avatar
  • 7
5 votes
9 answers
6k views

Can someone without a doctorate or an undergraduate degree do research?

Whether in history, math, computer science, physics, law or other sciences can someone without a doctorate or an undergraduate degree do research in any of them? I am an undergraduate student in math ...
plants's user avatar
  • 69
29 votes
5 answers
5k views

How do I develop the big-picture vision for my future research?

I have just recently completed my Ph.D. Throughout my Ph.D., I’ve been fascinated and motivated by incremental and focused questions that would show up in my research, either imposed by my advisors, ...
student's user avatar
  • 335
0 votes
0 answers
46 views

Determining research approach (deduction/induction) of a two-fold thesis project

Background: For our master thesis, we are exploring challenges with cross-border energy projects in the North Sea (wind farms, energy islands etc.) and how agile methodologies (usually used in private ...
Stefan's user avatar
  • 1
16 votes
7 answers
7k views

Why are most of the researchers at the university or similar centers?

We live in very comfortable times (more or less). Nowadays communication between people from different parts of the world is very easy. In addition, many people are born into wealthy families, so they ...
Yester's user avatar
  • 349
5 votes
4 answers
2k views

Having a paper in which the research question is not clear

As a young researcher in economics, I have already published 3 papers in decent journals. Is it sometimes normal to write a paper in which the research question is not clear at all, the motivation is ...
optimal control's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
152 views

Does the superseded version of a paper establish priority?

Last year a group of authors put online a paper, titled "XYZ". The paper "XYZ" contain part I and part II. Later the authors deleted the old file. They published a new paper called ...
dodo's user avatar
  • 1,847
2 votes
2 answers
309 views

How can I ask a professor to work in their lab? [duplicate]

I am a Ph.D. student. I will submit my thesis and then I will have 6-7 months until my defense. I completed all my work and I still have funding. I want to ask a professor whose research I admire to ...
ramico's user avatar
  • 337
4 votes
1 answer
354 views

Google Scholar mixes all OR-operators to one single OR-condition [closed]

I want to use and compare the results of the three different databases: Web of Science (WoS), Scopus and Google Scholar WoS and Scopus can be searched pretty clearly using boolean operators and their ...
jonsken's user avatar
  • 43
18 votes
6 answers
10k views

I keep making excessive silly mistakes. I just caught another one right before graduation - how to tell my advisor?

I am a graduate engineering student at a highly competitive university. I am writing my thesis and I feel like I am making great number of silly mistakes. The worst thing is that I do not realize my ...
user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
304 views

Advisor never included me in their research

I am a current 4th year Ph.D. student in social science. In my first year, my advisor asked me to focus on my courses so I did no research even though I wanted to. In my second year, I proposed my own ...
hugeloser's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
274 views

Talking to a professor about a potential research idea [closed]

I am a Master's student in the US. I am in a course and was discussing an idea with the professor and TA for the course. Both of them seemed pretty excited about the idea and said it can become a ...
uucdh's user avatar
  • 21
7 votes
4 answers
2k views

When is the right time to start publishing as a single author?

Background: Consider a postdoc P in the field of natural sciences. P has completed her PhD rather recently and is lucky enough to be in a group where she has a lot of independence. P gets to decide ...
quantacad's user avatar
  • 1,949
0 votes
1 answer
331 views

Sabbatical Abroad Without Family: How Did it Work

Hello: Following this previous thread: (Profs who have done a full year sabbatical overseas with a family: How did you make it work?), I am equally curious about whether any prof has done a full-year ...
Yawo Kokuvi's user avatar
28 votes
11 answers
8k views

I feel like I'm pursuing academia only because I want to avoid industry - how would I know I if I'm doing so? [closed]

I've posted a few questions regarding research and I'm trying to make my progress on a project more fruitful, and while the answers/comments have been quite helpful, it still doesn't seem like I am ...
Revise's user avatar
  • 425
1 vote
1 answer
125 views

Motivation of a paper from referee reports

I have been working on an article (in mathematical economics) for some time now and received many comments from referee reports on the use of a functional form that is commonly used in the literature ...
optimal control's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can I improve a paper peer-review using ChatGPT?

Can I improve a paper peer-review using ChatGPT? The goal is not to generate content. This is to improve my review of a conference paper in terms of harmful content moderation (things that authors ...
Carlos Mougan's user avatar
14 votes
5 answers
4k views

What do you say to check-in or passport control when going on fieldwork/research leave?

I am going on fieldwork to UAE in a couple of days' time. I'm researching parts of the local music scene in Abu Dhabi/Dubai. What is the right thing to say to check-in/passport control? Does one say ...
C26's user avatar
  • 2,533
116 votes
11 answers
40k views

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 ...
ScoopedPostdoc's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
924 views

Why do some research topics seem to be confined to certain countries?

Here I'm not referring to research topics on that specific country (e.g. a study on high school in New Zealand would be very likely conducted by New Zealand researchers, for obvious reasons). An ...
Allure's user avatar
  • 121k
25 votes
7 answers
9k views

Who is the PhD student to their supervisor?

I do not fully understand which interest a supervisor has in their student's work. Is the Ph.D. student somebody who the supervisor should teach, a colleague, an employee, or an independent researcher ...
Mr Frog's user avatar
  • 657
0 votes
0 answers
55 views

Can I pursue my passion, wanting to be researcher? [duplicate]

I am in poor circumstances now, wanting to be a theoretical physicist, I wanted this path from my heart and can't think anything other than it. Currently my_qualifications are 80% Class 10(2020), 84% ...
Harsh's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
2 answers
316 views

Writing a paper after leaving the institute

I was working on a project related to the biological domain at a German institution. I have created ontology and knowledge graphs using public data from DSMZ. After working on the project for two ...
Alex Kujur's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
194 views

How do you get better at self-learning by reading research papers?

I find it very hard to learn new things through just reading, especially research papers. Previously when I was taking classes I had homeworks to help me learn. I found it particularly helpful to work ...
JobHunter69's user avatar
  • 1,694
1 vote
1 answer
337 views

I want to do a research project in Mathematics. But I am getting rejected due to no research experience. How should I proceed?

I completed my undergraduate in Mathematics in 2018 and masters degree in 2020. After that, I taught in a college for two years. I was not satisfied with my masters degree, and also was getting ...
user519535's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
286 views

Advice on finding good research questions

I'm a relatively newly-minted PhD (in math, algebraic geometry specifically, if that matters) approaching the end of their first year in a TT position at a smaller teaching-focused state school. Like ...
DKS's user avatar
  • 141
0 votes
0 answers
28 views

Isolation of a relevant research topic from the array of available scientific literature: methodology and tools

In the process of studying scientific literature (books, journal articles, patents, etc.), a scientist determines the range of issues and phenomena being studied, the degree of their resolution, ...
dtn's user avatar
  • 209
1 vote
1 answer
218 views

Does it count as having independently solved a problem if I did not realize that prior work (that I was aware of) had already done it?

I am trying to solve a problem, and I solved it based on someone's article's results. I have written a manuscript and sent it to a journal. While reading that article again, I found out that my ...
Ken.Wong's user avatar
  • 1,391
0 votes
1 answer
126 views

How to pace myself on a project with no deadline?

I'm an undergraduate working on a project that's been in a backlog, so there isn't a real rush to get the project done or any sort of tangible deadline. The way things work at least from what I could ...
Revise's user avatar
  • 425
1 vote
1 answer
182 views

How to judge "Impact" of Early Research [duplicate]

I am an undergraduate and a soon-to-be graduate student. Basically, I am in very early stages of my research career. I would like to know how to judge the "impact" of the research I'd be ...
whoisit's user avatar
  • 425
10 votes
4 answers
506 views

PhD in Russian History - cannot visit Russia to access archives, would it be appropriate to use a service that does it for me?

I'm planning a PhD in Russian history at an Australian University in the next few years. However, there's a strong chance I won't have access to the Russian archives due to the War in Ukraine, visa ...
Snowy Moscow's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
871 views

Advisor published some of my ideas (that I am working on in my master's) without informing me

My advisor gave me a broad topic to research. I found a really good question and have done a big part of the work answering it but, have not finished yet, then applied to a prestigious conference to ...
Nadine's user avatar
  • 1,549
1 vote
1 answer
119 views

Gap year as a research technician before post doc?

I'm from Brazil and currently taking a Master's in Physiology here. I have a plan about doing my PhD in a good institution here in Brazil with a period of it in some American or Canadian institution, ...
Morgana Contini's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
277 views

How can I deal with being overwhelmed with large/not very concrete tasks and little support as an undergraduate?

I'm an undergraduate doing research and I have some friends in a similar field who also started in a close timeframe. While my friends have very detailed and concrete tasks (e.g. watch X lecture, do X ...
Revise's user avatar
  • 425
2 votes
1 answer
114 views

Aerospace Research Paper [duplicate]

I am new to stack exchange so please forgive me if my question is against the guidelines. I am 16 yrs old, and am interested in rockets, jets and anything that flies really. Me and my friend wanted to ...
Sai Anish Reddy's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
3k views

Missed a citation which has a solution to the problem that I worked on

About 4 years ago, before I started my PhD, I published a paper which used a method to improve an existing result. There were 2 papers on the existing result and method which I used for my work and ...
burnedstudent's user avatar
10 votes
6 answers
5k views

Found mistake in analyzing experimental data after submitting PhD thesis; what should I do?

While flipping through my thesis to look up details in writing a postdoc application, I realized that I messed up my reaction rate quantification of one protein covalently bonding with another on a ...
cambelot's user avatar
  • 291
1 vote
1 answer
234 views

Excluded from a research project

I am a new Ph.D. student. The professor has announced a new idea for a quick paper project and invited us to discuss about it. At the end of the discussion, he asked who's interested and I asked ...
Quantally's user avatar
  • 923
1 vote
0 answers
67 views

Can anyone please tell me if this is a predatory journal or an authentic one? [duplicate]

Is this journal worth the effort? https://qabasjournals.com/index.php/ejlll/index Thank you
Abdullah Rayhan's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
504 views

How to read a lot of research papers?

TL; DR: At least for the next few weeks, I'm going to be overwhelmed with reading a lot of research papers one after the other, sometimes even at the same time. How to deal with this? Are there any ...
whoisit's user avatar
  • 425
2 votes
1 answer
181 views

I'd like to conduct a personal research project as a master's student. What progress should I make before bringing it to a professor?

Last semester in my master's program, I came up with an algorithm that I thought was an interesting improvement on another algorithm we learned in class. I brought it to my professor, but he never ...
DomM's user avatar
  • 43
1 vote
2 answers
152 views

Where do i find trusted scholarly articles for historical events

As a new hobby, I am wanting to read more and stick to the facts only. I recently became interested in the public education system and many sites and YouTube videos claim that the modern American ...
bianca2000's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
224 views

Is it OK to spend most of the Ph.D. period in designing & programming systems (vs experimenting and creating experimental results) [closed]

My PhD. in data science in EU requires mostly a system to design and to develop using some programming language, eventhough it introduces some novel approaches that I showcase through use cases. I am ...
SSSOF's user avatar
  • 21
10 votes
2 answers
777 views

Found paper that is identical to what I was working on

So, I'm about 2 months away from submitting my PhD Qualifying Report (QR). I've spent the last 2 years (part time) doing a thorough literature review and writing significant amounts of software to ...
ScottishTapWater's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
183 views

PI asked me (undergraduate research assistant) to be involved in hiring other undergraduate/graduate student workers

I am an undergraduate student research assistant in the US and have been working with my PI for less than a year. Recently my PI asked me to help her in hiring other student research assistants. Not ...
Judge's user avatar
  • 31
1 vote
1 answer
360 views

What to do if my former master’s advisors gave my PhD topic idea to other students?

At the beginning of the year, I sent an email to my former advisor to ask him for advice on PhD topics. I sent him several ideas, one of them was a four pages research proposal (with methodology and ...
Cctte's user avatar
  • 77
19 votes
7 answers
6k views

What do you do when you're stuck at a problem?

I'm pretty sure almost all mathematicians have been in a situation where they found an interesting problem; they thought of many different ideas to tackle the problem, but in all of these ideas, there ...
FreePawn's user avatar
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