353
votes
Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
Now it is more a matter of my authority.
Well, yes... I’m sorry if this will come as a surprise to you, but coming across as an unreasonable, coercive boss who wants to force their students to ...
- 183k
196
votes
Accepted
My paper is being cited in vaccine misinformation. What do I do?
I'm going to disagree with the folks saying to just ignore the anti-vaxxers.
These people are not cranks, in the sense of the proposed duplicate question. A crank in that sense is an intellectually ...
- 186k
79
votes
As a TA, how to react if I come across a Facebook group in which students insult me?
Sometimes students behave childishly. They've only been adults for a few years, and some of them are still transitioning. In groups in particular, and with the anonymizing effect of the internet, ...
- 6,338
79
votes
Accepted
Prospective supervisor wants me to do irrelevant videos as a condition for supervision. Can I say yes when I mean no?
No, this is not okay.
If you lie your way into a position you are not suited for, you will almost certainly pay for it down the line.
That's a very general rule, and I think it applies here. If you ...
- 18.3k
79
votes
Is it acceptable for a student to connect with a professor on LinkedIn?
It sounds to me that this is just the reaction of that particular professor, and so there's not much you can do about it. Perhaps the professor only likes to use LinkedIn to connect with other ...
78
votes
Accepted
Twitter changes behavior after submitting a research paper about it to conference. What to do?
Technology and technology based applications keep changing all the time, and frequently so.
Research methodology requires that you document these changes as they happen and annotate all references ...
- 1,052
74
votes
Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
Every time I read "not part of my job description" I translate either
a) "You are here to exploit me and I am protecting myself by exhausting the interpretation of any formal contractual agreements ...
- 4,385
72
votes
Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
tl;dr: You need to inspire, you mustn't coerce.
If you believe it's significant for the group to invest time in social media presence, you need to convince incoming junior researchers of this fact. ...
- 38.7k
63
votes
Prospective supervisor wants me to do irrelevant videos as a condition for supervision. Can I say yes when I mean no?
Hard No.
This isn't only unethical, it's also a really bad idea in practice.
Unethical: Every PhD position I have ever heard of requires you to do things that aren't part of the requirements to get ...
- 133k
62
votes
My paper is being cited in vaccine misinformation. What do I do?
Dan Pfeiffer* has a great article about combatting misinformation without bringing it more attention. I believe it's largely relevant here. The most relevant section† is here:
The gist of this ...
- 1,387
60
votes
Accepted
I just got invited to referee an article! Is it OK to share this achievement on social media?
Congrats! I wish more people would be excited about being a reviewer.
Personally, I would only say the journal's name (e.g., TheAwesomeJournal). For example:
Yay! Just got invited to be a reviewer ...
- 13.6k
57
votes
I just got invited to referee an article! Is it OK to share this achievement on social media?
Please do not share the email, that would be unprofessional.
Many journals take great care in deciding what information about their internal operations to make public, and which details to keep ...
- 183k
56
votes
Accepted
Is Academia.edu useful?
I distrust it for an entirely different reason. I once wanted to download a paper, and could only do it if I signed up. I signed up by logging on with my facebook account... Well, academia.edu took my ...
- 7,846
51
votes
As a TA, how to react if I come across a Facebook group in which students insult me?
To add to Johanna's answer, I think the professor should also say something about when the students are looking for jobs before/after graduation. If a potential employer happens to see a prospective ...
- 627
51
votes
Accepted
Why publish a research paper when a blog post or a lecture slide can have more citation count than a journal paper?
It's not fair to only look at the peak of the distribution. For an apples-to-apples comparison, you need to compare peaks to peaks and averages to averages.
The two sources you mention are both in the ...
- 121k
48
votes
Where is your line with students on social media?
My line:
On the first day of classes I tell the students that I don't want to be contacted by social media or by any means other than the school e-mail. The school also gives students a nice way to ...
- 2,879
46
votes
Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
Forcing him will not yield desirable results, appeal to his egoistic interests
I think even if you could force him to comply by insisting on his contractual obligations or threating to sue/fire him ...
42
votes
As a TA, how to react if I come across a Facebook group in which students insult me?
I can't disagree more with Johanna's answer - which is currently the most upvoted. It is completely ridiculous and has sparks of fairy-tale revenge.
Let's go over the basics:
These are kids.
I am ...
- 4,867
39
votes
Is it acceptable for a student to connect with a professor on LinkedIn?
Yea that's rubbish - most academics have huge networks on Linked In. Many of their contacts are former students who have remained active in their field. This is particularly the case among graduate ...
- 825
37
votes
As a TA, how to react if I come across a Facebook group in which students insult me?
There are two separate issues here: the first is that the students are saying abusive things about you in a Facebook group, and the other is the risk of introducing personal judgement in your grading.
...
- 8,357
37
votes
Is Academia.edu's "mentions" feature real?
It is so clearly a hoax, trying to get more subscribers. Please, Academia.edu software engineers, do not try the "we make errors" card, as it is not believable.
I do believe they are legit, but this ...
- 481
36
votes
Is there a "Facebook" for researchers? (to collaborate on projects)
Facebook is not a collaboration tool. It is a tool for advertising companies and the government to gather information about people; that is the business model and the primary intent. Interaction and ...
- 38.7k
30
votes
My paper is being cited in vaccine misinformation. What do I do?
I was in a similar situation: during a few radio programs with a homeopath and a magnetizer (or whatever the man who has cosmic power in his hands is called), I made informed fun of their "...
- 7,706
28
votes
Is there a "Facebook" for researchers? (to collaborate on projects)
My question now is where I can find other researchers on this topic.
The usual approach is to build up your own credentials and reputation first, then go to conferences and give talks and meet people,...
- 12.3k
27
votes
Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
The requirement to present work is a very reasonable ask, and in fact part of what a PhD student is supposed to learn.
That said, take a step back and think about what you're asking for. Perhaps "...
- 28.3k
27
votes
Is it a good idea to put hobby pictures on my academic website?
I'll assume you are smart enough not to put pictures there that harm your case or make you seem unserious professionally.
But, while such things won't actually account for much, they might induce a ...
- 332k
26
votes
Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
he claims it is not part of the job description for a PhD.
But the matter has nothing to do with what he "claims"; either it is a part of his job description or not. If it is not, then you should ...
- 3,601
26
votes
Where is your line with students on social media?
Years ago I used to accept student friend requests on the Facebook platform, but I came to regret doing that. At some point I stopped accepting student friend requests on social media.
Steven Krantz ...
- 33.8k
25
votes
Twitter changes behavior after submitting a research paper about it to conference. What to do?
Similar issues arise frequently in fields that change quickly due to political, legal or technological developments. In general, these changes don't affect the veracity of the study; they only affect ...
- 35k
25
votes
Accepted
Is it acceptable for a student to connect with a professor on LinkedIn?
Here I quote the crux of your situation, and put in bold font your sentence containing a question:
"I sent a connect request to one of the professors I had last semester (along with some other ...
- 4,700
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible