191
votes
What to do when your student is convinced that he will be the next Einstein?
Let the standard processes of education and research take their course. This student will probably not survive them to receive the degree, and that is as it should be. Tough love: warn, then let the ...
- 6,806
159
votes
Is humor unacceptable in referee reports?
You were right to change it. The worst thing that could happen is that the authors feel like you are trying to make a dig at their ability. The best thing is that.. someone might find the comment ...
- 2,813
132
votes
Inadmissible theorems in research
Does maths research have anything inadmissible?
No, but trying to prove X without using Y is still a very useful concept even in research, because it can lead to interesting generalizations, or new ...
- 45.9k
131
votes
Accepted
Applying for a postdoc. Should I mention that I completed my PhD with no supervision?
Should I mention that I completed my Ph.D. with no supervision?
Definitely not. "I had no supervision during my PhD." could be interpreted as "Nobody taught me anything during my Ph.D. so I am ...
- 98.3k
123
votes
Accepted
Is it frowned upon to go to office hours as a graduate student?
Grad students who come to office hours with good questions that show serious engagement with the material (e.g. attempts to solve the problem themself) are generally seen as mature, hard-working ...
- 109k
111
votes
Accepted
Can I use a section of my thesis to "soap-box" about a meta-issue regarding research?
I think this is a fairly bad idea, for the following reasons:
It's largely shouting in the woods. Let's face it, while you may feel that your thesis is the only piece of work that's "truly yours", it ...
- 135k
106
votes
Accepted
What if the lecturer is not rigorous?
In physics we deliberately do not prove the series converges, because we are not interested in teaching concepts like convergence. Physics courses are not intended to be mathematically rigorous. It ...
- 98.3k
106
votes
Will a paper be retracted if a flaw in released software code invalidates its central idea?
If the main idea in the paper has been invalidated by the correction in the code, you would do well to try to retract the paper yourself. This is just a point of professional ethics. It also protects ...
- 344k
105
votes
When someone cites one of your papers, is it a good idea to send an email to the authors to show appreciation?
Straight answer: NO it's not a good idea
Citing someone is (and should) be neither a favor nor a gesture of politeness. So there's no point to send a thank you email. Thanking someone for a citation ...
- 11.4k
98
votes
Accepted
Where should the line be drawn regarding political statements in a scientific report?
This appears to have been under the instruction of President Trump, as news sites reported data on the EPA website was removed.
Speculation usually doesn't belong in a scientific paper. This is ...
- 109k
96
votes
Accepted
Is it fair to desk-reject a manuscript because it breaks relativity?
That procedure would remove the ability to overturn incorrect mainstream results. But the author should explicitly address the issue
Whilst I appreciate the Bayesian reasoning involved here (high a ...
- 64k
88
votes
Is humor unacceptable in referee reports?
The idea was to use a humorously gentle style to jokingly portray the authors as stuck in the old era, especially given that they are now professors in their 60s or 70s
Humor is fine. The problem is ...
- 9,048
80
votes
Is humor unacceptable in referee reports?
The reviewer of a paper is in a privileged position. It's their prerogative to advise the editor whether the author of the paper should have a good day or a crappy day, and while their power isn't ...
- 2,023
78
votes
What if the lecturer is not rigorous?
Let me add a thought following the other post, which asserts that this is not a mistake, pedagogically. Take this as a given: you don't need to "call out" the professor for failing to teach "properly....
- 187k
78
votes
Found a major flaw in paper from home university – to which I would like to return
Don't make it personal. Keep it about the science. You can inform them of the flaw and let them fix it or you could just publish a new paper with better results, pointing out the flaw if needed. That ...
- 344k
76
votes
Is it frowned upon to go to office hours as a graduate student?
One common mistake grad students make is not asking for help when they need it, either from professors or advisors, out of a misguided belief that they're supposed to demonstrate independence or ...
- 20.3k
76
votes
Accepted
Is it still possible to get a decent job in academia (specifically physics) nowadays?
I've heard from a couple physics professors and chairs that it's somewhat difficult to find a first position in physics in general
This is a dramatic understatement. I always recommend reading the ...
- 64.7k
68
votes
What to do when your student is convinced that he will be the next Einstein?
A major part of good science, is not only performing good research, but also convincing others that your science is worthwhile. A common belief of researchers is that their job is done after they have ...
- 7,444
66
votes
Accepted
Does a PhD from US carry *more academic value* as compared to one in India even if the research skill set developed is same?
While I was an Indian undergrad in mathematics, I was told similar things by my friends who were doing, or planning to do, their graduation at universities abroad. Specifically, they told me that:
...
- 1,430
64
votes
Accepted
As an outsider, how do I get academics to discuss my idea with me?
Let me start by saying that I read your readme page and watched your YouTube videos, and I think they're very interesting. I'll give you some more details of what I think shortly.
My advice to you is: ...
- 667
63
votes
Accepted
Convention on embedding three pairs of items in a single sentence using parentheses
I wouldn't use parenthesis for this at all, but rather use 'respectively':
When using A, B or C to estimate the upper limit, the best fit result is D, E or F respectively.
This becomes a bit harder ...
- 2,834
62
votes
As an outsider, how do I get academics to discuss my idea with me?
This is not exactly an answer, but it got too long for a comment. Please don't take it the wrong way, I just want to try and give some context to help you understand why physicists may be reluctant to ...
55
votes
Is it possible to work on your personal idea as PhD thesis?
The short answer is - yes.
A slightly longer answer is that from my narrow perspective, it is often useful to keep an open mind about what you’ll be working on in your PhD journey. Even if you believe ...
- 27.1k
53
votes
Will flat earth society membership affect my graduate school application?
No, I do not think an admissions committee would check for this type of information. Nor would they assume the poster with the same name is the applicant.
- 98.3k
52
votes
Is it acceptable for a professor to claim that his students will never revolutionize the field?
Is it acceptable for a professor to claim that his students will never
revolutionize the field?
Yes. He was clearly expressing his opinion. This is what we do in academia. If you are so soft and ...
- 184k
51
votes
How important is attending graduate school for a PhD for physics/mathematics/astrophysics research?
In secondary school (high school here in the USA) and even university, a "research paper" means you come up with a topic and a point of view, go to the library, read a bunch of material, and ...
- 12.5k
51
votes
Is humor unacceptable in referee reports?
Humor is great! But there is a time and a place for it, and your use falls outside of the range of situations in which it is appropriate.
By way of illustration, the following are situations where the ...
- 184k
50
votes
Found a major flaw in paper from home university – to which I would like to return
I'm no physicist, but speaking from common sense: Depending on how "ground-breaking" your discovery of their mistake is, here are the options I would consider:
Silly mistake that could have been ...
- 870
48
votes
Inadmissible theorems in research
In the sense that you are asking, I cannot imagine there ever being a method that is ruled inadmissible because the researcher is "not ready for it." Every intellectual approach is potentially fair ...
- 187k
45
votes
What to do when your student is convinced that he will be the next Einstein?
Note: I'm a PhD student so the following is based off of very limited experience.
You're in a very tough situation. It is likely that the student will end up spending a lot of time obsessing over ...
- 661
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible