We submitted a manuscript and the editor recommended our manuscript for a different journal in the journal family. The recommended journal is 4 years old (from what I can find online). I can’t find an IF but it says citation score of 0.8. Is it worth transferring or going to a different journal series. Thoughts?

Hi all! I have a BS in Biomedical Engineering and I currently work in an academic research lab as a lab tech/manager. I'm having some struggles deciding what to do with my future. I think I'd like to pursue further education and get a PhD in a biological field, but I have a lot of concerns that make me constantly second-guess if that is actually what I want to do. How can I figure out if getting a PhD is actually something I should pursue? I know people say that you should consider what you want from your career, but I'm 24 and I don't exactly know where I want to end up in 20 years.

I am writing my masters thesis. I've looked at Lamont's qualitative interviews but still it is not clear to me how to actually methodologically study symbolic boundary formation. There are a lot of theoretical articles out there but none seem to actually explain how to study this in real-time methodologically. Do I do discursive analysis, something else; I am lost, what do I do?

I am at the early stages of revising my dissertation into a book, and I set up an exploratory meeting with the acquisitions editor for the best choice press for my book.

How should I best prepare? Any and all advice is very welcome.

I'm currently in an teaching position at a university. Based on the contract amount (8months rather than 12 months) I'm not a member of a union.

Some students got in trouble with campus security while doing a project for a class I teach (keeping it vague here in case). IMO I see how it's "a problem" but it was nothing vulgar or hateful so the fact that I'm getting calls from the local PD seems a bit much.

I also am having to have what I believe are disciplinary meetings with my chair and the dean about it, but again have no union rep to help me out.

The hole thing makes me want to leave academia entirely.... I've done this project a number of times without incident and yet now the hammer is coming down hard because of a misunderstanding?

CS undergraduate here. I am applying to PhD now after involving in ML research for three years. I really enjoy moments like deep thinking with the problem, implementing my idea for small experiments and playing with math. However, I hate running a lot of experiments, especially when chasing conference deadlines. I also require a suitable advisor and collaborate environments to be productive. If my goal is to do a job that I can enjoy deep thinking, do I need to do a PhD?

I will not stay in the academia after doing my PhD, I will try to find research scientist jobs in industry instead. However, the long 5 years commitment and the uncertain job market makes me hesitate. Moreover, we always get a non zero chance to end up in a toxic lab or inappropriate research topic, which also makes the reward in the PhD journey remain unclear.

On the other hands, industry jobs like Quant, some ML engineer also related to deep thinking. Specially, I heard that Quant jobs also related to math and deep thinking, which is very exciting for me. I never did industry internship before, so I am not sure either.

Overall, should I challenge PhD solely because I like deep thinking? Or industry jobs are also rewarding, and the risk is lower. Any experiences or advice are welcome, Thanks!

Hi All. Organising a small conference in UK for about 100-150 people. Wondering what people have found to be good ticket-selling sites? Something like eventbrite but maybe cheaper or has other good features?

Consider 3 people in a lab. Person A and B were involved in a high throughput drug discovery study, and did all the initial screening work, and primary analyses. A year or so later, person C joins the project, and characterizes a bunch of small molecules, gets kinetic data, along with A ( B is not doing experiments on this project at this point). By the time the paper is submitted some 3 years later, only A is still in the lab.

The reviewers raise some issues with kinetic analyses done by C. When A checks the raw data, they find a lot of issues, and has to redo all the work. They fast track the work, and takes about 4-5 months to redo it. It is important to note that C was hard-working perhaps, but lacked any scientific logic or critical thinking, and would just run assays without questioning logic, etc. so they still don't really understand why their experiments were even wrong.

The contention: the PI wants to make B and C co-second authors. Both A and B disagree with this decision, as C's data is not in the paper at all, neither did they write any part of the manuscript. C doesn't have a strong opinion on this but obviously is not going to reject an authorship. The PI is not budging on this matter. He is also discouraging A from discussing this issue with other co-authors or colleagues.

What is the correct way to assign authorship in this situation?

Hi everyone,

I’m seeking mentorship and collaborative research collaboration in AI, particularly in areas like Multimodal Machine Learning, AI agents, RAG, Knowledge Graphs, and Reinforcement Learning. With over five years of experience and 2 masters degree, I’m looking to contribute actively to projects aligned with my research interests and commit meaningful time to the work. I am eager to transition into research from industry

I recently applied for PhD programs but didn’t get in, likely due to a lack of published work a gap I’m eager to fill through collaborative projects. I’m especially interested in memory-augmented models, reinforcement learning for adaptive agents, and enabling AI to perform structured, experience-driven reasoning across various data types.

If you’re working on projects in these areas or know someone who might be interested, I’d love to connect. I’m ready to contribute, discuss ideas, and start with small, focused tasks that could grow into impactful work.

Thanks for reading

Hi everyone,

I’m working on my Master’s thesis and would really appreciate your help! I’m conducting a survey on AI usage, trust, and employee performance, and I’m looking for participants who use AI tools (like ChatGPT, Grammarly, or similar) in their work.

The survey is anonymous and should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. Your input would be incredibly valuable for my research.

Here’s the link: https://maastrichtuniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bdqdnmVSh2PfTZs

Thanks so much in advance for your support!

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I have a bachelor's of science in microbiology from the university of Florida. I'm interested in this online masters they have in microbiology. Can you become a community college instructor of microbiology with such a degree or does that require an in person masters with a thesis? Thanks. I live in the United States in Florida.

Hello Everyone!

Initially I emailed some professors with my resume, but I found no reply. So, I guessed my email might have been flagged as generic.

Since I am planning to pursue PhD, I created my research statement now and I want to email professors properly so that I can get their attention. But the question is what should be the ideal email structure which can't be flagged as a template? What key details I should include that can keep a professor's attention?

Any help would be appreciated.

I’m writing my first paper for my master’s in history, and I have a draft due in 2 days. I probably put over 40 hours of work into it over the course of the last 4 days, and as much knowledge as I have gathered, I can’t get past 1000 words (out of 3000 needed) without finding new information and scrapping my entire argument. This has never happened to me, and I don’t know what to do. The literature feels like a giant ocean that I have to explore every inch of in order to put a single word to paper. At this point I’ll probably just choose a way simpler argument and call it a day, but I’m worried that as soon as I get back to typing the same thing will happen again.

I’d appreciate any advice… I feel like I’m going insane. Barely sleeping or eating too :).

Good morning/evening

I am writing here, maybe someone can help me to understand which methodology and which research methods are the most suitable for the dissertation I have chosen.

field: architecture

dissertation: mainly theoretical

dissertation topic: genius loci in architecture - Christian Norberg-Schulz and the problem of place. (it's about contextualism)

genius loci (the spirit of the place) defined by the CNS refers to the specificity of places. The place being defined both as a context and as an object (association based on Heidegger's theories)

THE PROBLEM: my problem with this concept is that the author says to respect the genius loci, and I cannot respect him without having an order, a project to complete.

PROBLEM 2: I agree with the author that the genius loci can be described if the work is already present, in other words the genius loci should only be descriptive, however the author does not question the limit of the context. What is the context of the church of San Pietro, only the Vatican, only Rome or all the Christians where they are from and watch the election of the pope?

PROBLEM 3: other problems would be some contradictions related to: identity - fixed vs changing; identity - inclusive vs exclusive; place - region (platz) vs thing (ort); place - singularity vs multiplicity etc

What I have done so far:

So far I have made a genealogy of the concept, although I don't think I can call it a genealogy, because it is not very detailed. Through it I can demonstrate how the concept developed over time, how it became an architectural concept, what changes it underwent, etc.

The sources were generally books

Can I call what I did a genealogy? Did I use the genealogy method?

Because the concept I'm studying is related to phenomenology, the first reaction was if I can approach phenomenological methods, but for now I don't know what to say. My goal is to show some ambiguities and contradictions of this concept, which ultimately makes it only descriptive and not prescriptive.

If I want to show ambiguities that refer to the author (negation of the body / context / photos that privilege theory) I think I can approach a phenomenological method.

BUT IF I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT THE CONTRADICTIONS SUCH AS: fixed/changeable identity; place singularity/multiplicity; what are the limits of the context; is there any context of the architectural object without the architectural object? And so on WHAT RESEARCH METHODS SHOULD I USE?

In other words, how do I figure out what would be the best method in my case? Are there any steps to get to understand which method is suitable for your study? Do the studies, seriously speaking, start from neutral or privileged positions, the author favoring certain circumstances for his study to be successful? The methods themselves, through their rigor, can't bring damage to a research? How do I know when the chosen method didn't work, whence my suspicion of the genealogy I did?

Hello! I have to email an academic advisor at a school I am going to transfer next semester. It may sound stupid to ask, but how should I start off the email? Should I say Hello, Good Morning? I feel that is too informal, but at the same time I never talked to this advisor ever so starting an email with their name feels a bit weird. I know I am asking too much, but I want to get it right. Thank You!

The title is self-explanatory. Ideally, free, but if there are some paying options, I'll take them too.

My apologies, this might be a long read.

I (22M) and a senior undergraduate student, and am currently planning to go to medical school. I have a competitive GPA, a good amount of clinical/shadowing, volunteer work. Basically, I think I have what it takes to pursue a career in medicine.

However, as of late, I’ve been questioning whether that is what I want to do for the rest of my life, as I have found interest in a variety of other fields. Specifically, my experience as a teaching assistant for biology and chemistry has made me really interested in education, especially at the college level. However, in order to pursue that, I’d need a PhD, and the problem is I have absolutely no idea how to get into that at this stage of my college career.

For one, I do not really have a strong interest in research at the moment and do not know where to find the motivation to be involved in research. I think one reason for this is because a lot of the research at my university is medically focused and although I am interested in becoming a doctor, medical research isn’t the forefront of my interests. I am more interested in biological research and learning about wildlife, but as far as I can tell my university has little to nothing to offer in those areas. I feel it would not make sense to pursue a PhD without an interest in research in the first place.

With that being said, I did find some labs at my university that I was somewhat interested in and reached out to them asking if I could do volunteer work, and they all basically said I couldn’t because I was a senior and that it was not in their best interest to invest time into training me. I understand their logic but it was still disappointing to hear that.

So basically, I’m wondering if it is too late to pursue a career in education? I am already on a good track for medical school, but I truly do think education would be a more fulfilling career for me. Does anyone have any advice for how I should navigate any of this?

So currently I am currently in my third year of college as an international student. I am interesting in literatural courses despite I am a stem student. However, I've been always found it is hard to me to write everything clearly or convert my opinions exactly as what I expected.

- It is obviously sometimes I still rely largely on third party resources to help myself revising my essay, such as deeply, Grammarly or quilbot. Sometimes even the Chatgpt can help more in refine and organize my essay.

One interesting point that I found is that even though when I was trying to write in my native languag-- mandarin, all words that I used could be vague.

- Also the sentence structure and choice of words have certain characteristics typical of native Chinese speakers writing in English. For example, sentences can sometimes be a bit lengthy or indirect, rather than using more straightforward English phrasing.....

I felt so frustrated and worried about my writing and also wanted ask if you put your article into grammarly/ quilbot checking the grammar and clarity of writing. What would be the mark normally shown on the screen? Again, I am always felt so frustrating when I saw the whole red error marks on my screen whenever when I putted my original article draft on those platforms. : (

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m building a research paper assistant tool that combines AI with features to make writing and organizing papers easier. t’s a research paper assistant tool—kind of like Overleaf, but with some AI-powered features that could make the whole process faster and easier.Also I plan to make it open source!!

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Plain English to LaTeX: Type simple commands (e.g., “add a section called ‘Introduction’”) and have it automatically turn into LaTeX code, also generate literature survey on the basis of the papers that you have read and even citations

• Workspaces: Organize and track all the papers you’ve read/annotated, with personalized recommendations.
• Collaboration: Work with co-researchers, share drafts, and track edits.

I’m curious:

1. Would something like this be useful in your research?
2. Any features you’d love to see?
3. What are the biggest pain points when reading/writing papers that you think should be solved?

Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks! 😊

I know the title sounds weird, but I am applying to a research internship within a department I am already working for part time as a grad student. The internship application requires a rec letter but doesn’t provide where to send it. In confusion I emailed the director in charge of these internships and he informed me I should attach the rec letter directly to my email application with resume and cover letter.

This feels backwards from every rec letter submission ever, how do I ask my recommendation for this? As a brand new grad student I have been asking my references to forward these letters to X Y and Z a lot lately, so it seems unprofessional and borderline disrespectful asking if they can send me the rec letters so I can send it to the internship director.

Have you had to do this before? Is it not that weird and I am just over thinking? Thank you in advance for your help!

For context, I’m a female in the early years of my first postdoc in a life sciences/biomedical lab. Postdocs in our lab typically take 4-5 years. The highest impact journal this lab has published in is Nature Communications.

Recent career conversations with various faculty from other institutions have now made me consider doing a second postdoc elsewhere. Their advice being if you want to work at a top research university and publish in journals like Nature/Science/Cell, you likely need to do multiple postdocs.

I love research, continually learning, and my career in general. I’m also the type of person who has always wanted to reach my full potential. My hesitations come from a female and monetary perspective. I do not yet have family, but I think multiple postdocs would make that harder from the time, moving, and expense perspective. In addition, a lot of the elite labs are in areas with high cost of living. This seems like it could be challenging when living on a single income (for now) and already living paycheck to paycheck.

I guess what I’m wanting to know is if anyone with similar circumstances has been able to make it work. Open to any and all advice too!

I finished my PhD in March this year (meteorology) and then immediately moved to another country to do a postdoc. I hated it and moved back to the UK to take a job in industry. I've been in this job for a couple of months now and I enjoy it.

I agreed to finish off some research and papers both from my PhD and my postdoc in my spare time, but now I'm working a full-time job I just feel like completing research projects from previous positions is too much for me. I don't want to spend my time in the evenings and weekends doing extra work. I finished my PhD and I just want to finally be able to have some time for myself.

I enjoyed the work from those projects but I just feel so tired and exhausted. But I feel guilty to my collaborators and I also can't help but feel like I'm letting myself down by not finishing the work and getting the extra publications.

The simple answer is to just do the work, but I'm finding it really difficult to muster the energy. Does anyone have any advice?

For faculty positions in the field of social science, due Dec 1st and start date Aug 2025, what will be likely the decision timeline? Will search committee likely take a break from late Dec till mid Jan?

Many thanks!

Something inside me was dead for years. I feel so empty with life. I dont know everything feels like so much work. I feel tired all the time.i couldn't able to concentrate on anything. Something was clearly wrong inside me. I feel so tired mentally. I feel like I'm trapped somewhere but dont know where and how to escape. When I get frustrated, I go out for a walk or cycle at night thinking, I don’t care even if the world ends this very moment. I feel like nothing in this world could make me feel alive. I still don't know what true happiness means, I never felt content with my life. But I'm not sad either. I often randomly breakdown into tears, but that's not sadness. I dont know what it is. Is it out of tiredness? I even moved out of my home place and even country, but still that eerie silence inside me is there. I thought I'll slowly heel from whatever is killing me inside, but no matter what it still sleeps inside me. I feel very tired of this mundane routine. I feel emotionally and mentally exhausted in every aspect of life. What it is that could make this life more bearable? I don't struggle much with my daily life, I have good food, place to stay, career and studies to look after but I have no energy at all. Im curious that anyone in this world ever feels the same way as I am. People around me have all kinds of problems to complain about but for me there is so much to say but can't with words. Will I ever heal? What is wrong with me?

I would like to say that there is a lack of data on a certain area in the paper I am writing. I cannot find any other sources that mention there being a lack of this specific set of data, but I have also looked everywhere that I can think of to find this information. This is not for a paper that will be published, just for a class in my master's program. Does anyone know how I might go about citing this? Unfortunately, the research librarian at my institution is away for the next two weeks. I checked all APA guides I usually use and wasn't able to find any guidance.

I'm having trouble finding enough substantive work on this topic, not just mental health statistics. It would be especially helpful if it was about trans communities but that's not necessary. I'm writing a paper about art that explores this topic, I would greatly appreciate if anyone could point me to anything about social stigma and isolation and how it can lead to abuse, radicalism, toxicity, etc. and the specific relationship dynamics between people. Thank you.

Hi all,

I'm applying for PhD in History this year and one of my professors who is not familiar with US system is asking me the sample of successful LOR. Honestly, I don't have one. I'm wondering if any of you guys know how a successful LOR looks like can share the do's and dont's in the letter as well as the basic structure of it.

Thanks so much!

Ive never done it. Wondering if it is appropriate. Ideally, it would be nice to have better graphics than I could create. Anything I should be concerned about? (Assuming the person could be acknowledged on the manuscript, and the image copyright is not a problem).

EDIT: I meant illustrators that are not students or academics.

I'm working in a photonics field, and about to make a job transition from photonics to RFIC area. What I found little curious is, why there are so many IEEE journals in electronics field? In photonics field, the "good" journal spectrums lie in more traditional physics journals such as nature series, physical review series, or ACS series journals. But since there are so many IEEE journals and conferences in RFIC field, I find it difficult to identify which journal is good or not.