Questions tagged [terminology]
On words that have a meaning, usage, or similar specific to academia.
286 questions
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What does “temporary faculty pool” mean? [closed]
I have seen university career postings for a “temporary faculty pool”. What does this term mean?
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Contribution vs Motivation
Can somebody explain to me what is the difference between contribution and motivation in any research paper?
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A term similar to "ABD" for PhD student who's completed all coursework but neither comprehensive exams nor dissertation?
Is there a term similar to "ABD" (All But Dissertation) that denotes a PhD student who has completed all coursework, but who hasn't taken comprehensive exams and of course hasn't done the dissertation?...
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Meaning of "Degree of approval" in a recommendation letter
Anybody knows what degree of approval means in a letter of reference?
Emphatic
Conditional
Without concerns
My friend has a letter of reference from her former lecturer, but those options were left ...
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What is responsive mode in the context of research funding?
I'm about to finish my PhD in the North of Ireland (Belfast), and I am looking into post-doc funding for the first time. Funders seem to use lots of unfamiliar words, and one that puzzles me is "...
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What exactly is a research paper?
I have heard a lot about people doing research and writing papers about it, but I’m not sure in which cases the papers would be called a research paper.
Here are a few hypothetical example cases I ...
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What is the difference between open access and open archive?
In Elsevier ScienceDirect search, there are two types of access type filters; Open Access articles and Open Archive articles. What is the difference between these two? Is there a notable difference ...
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Is "scribe" a pejorative or a neutral term?
In the US, instructors sometimes ask one or two students to take notes for a given lecture, in view of releasing the lecture notes later on for the rest of the class. Such students are sometimes ...
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What is the difference between a Panel Study and a Cohort Study? [closed]
I am having a special subject named "Methodologies of Scientific Research" in which there is a reference on Panel Studies and Cohort Studies for conducting a longitudinal survey. I am confused to what ...
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Vertices & edges vs. nodes & links
I'm writing a paper on graphs. Personally, I've always disliked the vertices/edges terminology. I found it very confusing when I started working with graphs, and I much prefer the alternative names ...
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What is the name of the office in an institution where graduates and alumni are helped with employment?
When I went to college, I remember there was an office that would help students, graduates and alumni get their first job. What is that office called?
P.S. If you feel the English Stack Exchange ...
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What is the difference (if any) between a postdoctoral fellow and a postdoctoral intern?
Are "fellowship" and "internship" synonyms? Is there a different meaning in this language, between North America and English-speaking Europe?
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What does “auditing a course” mean?
I am visiting an American university for a year. In my invitation letter and further instructions, it is written that I can audit any course that I want (subject to the agreement of its professor).
...
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What is the equivalent of "good honors degree" in terms of universities in EU
The requirements for applying for a master's programme in National University of Singapore are stated as
The candidates must possess:
A good honours degree in computing; or
A good ...
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Are scientifically detached professors referred to as ‘clinical’?
I have come across this term fairly often, where full/associate/assistant professors are referred to by the term ‘clinical’. Given that their departments had nothing to do with medicine, I thought the ...
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“System”, “software”, “application” or “tool” – which to use in my paper? [closed]
I am in the field of computer science, I developed some software to solve some problems and would like to write some papers about them. But I don’t know what to call the software in each of my works.
...
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What exactly is “quantification”?
As I’m writing my final words within a research paper, I was curious regarding the term quantification of results.
Namely I’ve performed a correlation analysis in a quasi-experiment. The research is ...
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Avoiding confusion over the term "Research Assistant"
When applying for non-research related work in the commercial sector, how should confusion be avoided over the term "Research Assistant" being used in a CV?
Are human resources staff at companies, ...
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Mycology Laboratory, Department of Biology; Does it sounds strange?
Mycology Laboratory, Department of Biology
As we haven't had the fixed term in our native language, so I am trying to find the suggestion and idea from everyone here.
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Are 'Dr' for medical doctor used in the same sense as a PhD? [duplicate]
My dentist is Dr. Wang and my physician is Dr. O'Connor but I also refer to my professor as Dr.
Are these the same titles? Did they all achieve what it took to get a Dr. title?
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What is the meaning of "in residence" at a university?
I'm applying for readmission to UC Berkeley after taking a semester off. In the Application for Readmission, one question asks, "Will you be in residence at Berkeley for the entire semester?"
Does "...
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What is the difference between a college and a university?
What is the difference between an institution calling itself a "college" or a "university"? For example, take the "University College London". Is it a college? A university? Both? What does it mean?
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What is the difference between a teaching assistant and an instructor?
It seems to me that the terms "Teaching Assistant" and "Instructor" refer to a variety of positions. At some places, a teaching assistant is responsible for things like helping the actual lecturer by ...
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Meaning of undergraduate, graduate or post-graduate in US
Trying to figure out the difference between these. I've lost completely as different source/answers interpret it differently. Does anyone have clear understanding about what does undergraduate/...
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What words to describe "revisions" and "resubmission" to distinguish revise and resubmit versus submission to new journal following rejection?
This question was motivated by a desire to have a clean set of terms to describe the life cycle of a manuscript from draft to publication from the perspective of the author.
I could say:
I am "...
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What is done in a workshop? How does it differ from an academic conference?
I have done some research on this, but I still don't know what is carried out in a workshop. What activities are arranged? How are they different from conferences?
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What is the difference between hypothesis, thesis statement and research goal?
Can someone explain the difference between hypothesis, thesis statement and research goal based on an example?
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What is a "professional student"?
What is a professional student, in the context of a "Graduate and Professional Student Organization" in the United States (cf. this one)? How are they different than or similar to post-docs?
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Difference between "referee" and "reviewer" in the context of journal manuscript review?
I've seen the terms "referee" and "reviewer" both used to describe a person who gives feedback to a paper in a journal submission. Are there differences between the two terms? Is one used in some ...
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Is Research Fellow a gender-neutral term?
For me, it feels slightly clumsy to say I'm a Research Fellow without actually being a fellow (defined as a male person). Nevertheless, it's unsurprising to have female research fellows at ...
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What does delegate registration mean in a conference?
I saw on a conference website that the "delegate registration is up to the end of March".
I'm wondering what that "delegate" really means?
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Correct name for experiment aimed at confirming an alternative Hypothesis?
I am running a series of surveys with single variant A/B tests aimed at gathering information about how different groups of users perceive a series of website designs with different distortions ...
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What is the difference between the various documents that are part of an application?
I am applying to serveral undergraduate research programs this summer. Each of them ask for certain documents including:
CV
personal statement
statement of interest
cover form
cover letter
research ...
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What is 'academic identity'?
I've heard the term 'academic identity' used a fair amount. Although initially it seemed like a simple concept, there are many papers on the subject and no-one seems to have a concrete definition.
Is ...
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What is "paper bidding"?
I am currently preparing for the submission of my first paper to an academic conference and I've just seen this table of important dates:
What is "paper bidding"? Why is that before the submission ...
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Difference between research paper and scientific paper
What is the difference between a research paper and a scientific paper? Does the research paper also mean a term paper at the end of your Masters?
I need to present a research paper. So does it mean ...
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Possible causes of confusion and mistakes in technical terminology in bilingual settings [closed]
Disclaimer: This question is probably on the brink of off-topicness; maybe, it is also opinion-based and I don't exclude it is way too broad. Nonetheless, I'm asking this out of curiosity: so, if you ...
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What's the meaning of "first-page-first order"?
Recently I prepared to submit to a conference of IEEE. In the requirements of submission, it indicated that:
PDF and Postscript files:
must not have Adobe Document Protection or Document Security ...
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What does "scientific report" mean?
An Australian bioinformatics job ad talks about writing "scientific reports" in the selection criteria.
Wikipedia has an article on Technical reports, which it says are also called scientific reports,...
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Unclear terms: Statement of Purpose, Academic Statement and Personal Statement
I'm so confused. I can't distinguish between them. It seems to me that sometimes the statement of purpose (SOP) is the personal statement (PS), sometimes it is not the PS, and by the definition I'll ...
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Why the taboo against naming discoveries after yourself?
It is often considered a very bad idea to try to name a discovery (a law, phenomenon or an invention) after yourself.
On the other hand, there are many species names which seem to be a bastardized ...
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Can a discoverer give the name he wants to his finding?
Let's assume that some scientist discovers a phenomenon that has never been noticed before.
He wants to write a paper about it but he doesn't want to constantly write "effect of change of some ...
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Are there differences between SM, MS, MSc, MSci degrees?
I have a Master of Science degree from the EECS department at MIT. From the website it is pretty clear they call it an SM degree. I think many US universities refer to a Master of Science degree as an ...
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What are the differences between Peer Reviewed Journals and Refereed Journals?
I would be interested to know the differences between peer reviewed journals and refereed journals in these aspects:
Conditions for the acceptance of papers for publications.
The time length of paper ...
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How to translate "profesor auxiliar" from Spanish to English?
I am currently teaching computer-science courses in a Spanish-speaking country and I’m having trouble translating my academic rank into English.
Here in my country the position is called profesor ...
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In the context of a review of an academic paper, what does "technical accuracy" mean?
I have been asked to review an academic conference paper for a computer-science conference. One of the elements, the review must contain is a review of “technical accuracy.* What does this mean ...
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What is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation?
I have seen some sites that distinguish a dissertation as what is written as the requirements of a doctoral degree.
Others that distinguish a thesis as a document written for the fulfillment of any ...
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What is " companion proceedings" in a conference?
“All Web Science track papers will be published in the companion proceedings of the WWW conference." (http://www.www2015.it/call-for-web-science-track/)
What does " companion proceedings" mean？ What ...
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What is a soft-money research position?
I have read the term "soft-money research position" a few times.
E.g. Path of a postdoc.
Another consideration for interviewees is whether to pursue a
"soft-money" position. A tenure-track ...
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Is there any difference between an article and a paper? [duplicate]
Are papers and articles really different in academic context or they are same words for the published manuscripts in conferences or journals?
The only thing comes to my mind is that may be an article ...
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