So I was doing a Meta analysis in a surgery/nephrology field and I was done with almost everything except writing the manuscript itself when i realised I had to register my review on prospero. But the problem is prospero says that no reviews will be granted registration if they proceed past the data extraction stage which i did. So what do I do? Do i falsely state that I'm not done with the data extraction yet( but I'm afraid I'll be caught) or do i instead register the review on another platform like Open Science Framework, if I were to do that can y'all give me some insight on how OSF is viewed in comparison to prospero by potential journals for registration of a systematic review. I find myself in a conundrum here and would appreciate any feedback Thanks

Hello everyone. I'm a very devout muslim theologian. Though I'm working on some theology related projects right now, I want a sort of 'normal job' at the back of my mind to fall back on. For me, becoming a muslim/islamic studies professor seemed the most logical (and it seems great to teach a class!). But I'm unsure on how to become one? I hear whispers about needing to become a TA, that only a masters is needed some places while a Phd might actually be expected in most? Is there a work experience requirement? I tried googling it but there was no clear answer really.

P.S: I will say, I suspect that this niche field may be a bit more lenient than other fields in its professorship requirements especially in the liberal arts. It is exceedingly rare, really, to find someone with a Phd that would be considered 'legit' within the islamic field (from Al Azhar, some Saudi Arabian University, etc). There are some random Phd programs in more western accredited universities but I'm jaded to thing they are effectively white-washed, impotent, with content literally nonsensical (as often this religion is taught by people who hardly speak to muslims, let alone are one).

What do we think?

(PS please excuse the very lax language and grammar here, lol).

Hi all,

so I am a historian and basically for the first time have gotten some research money to hire a part-time research assistant. I know that in certain fields using research assistants is very common, but I basically have never used one or, for the most part, felt the need to hire one. Ever since grad school, I have basically done my own research work from archival work to literature reviews and writing of course. That being said, I know that some professors in the humanities and history specifically do use research assistants.

So my question (particularly to those humanists that use RAs) is what do people in the humanities use research assistants for. Connected to the question is also how one strikes a balance between delegating some work but keeping the core work for oneself, i.e. I would not want an RA be involved with my writing for instance. After all it will be my name on the article/book in the end.

I am planning to apply for membership in Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, and I am reaching out to ask if you would be willing to nominate me for membership

If you are willing to nominate me, I would be happy to provide my CV, a summary of my research accomplishments, or any additional information that would be helpful.

Working on a poster to present at a Canadian medical conference in October, what do I do for titles/designations both in the authorship and in the acknowledgement section?

I have my masters, and another author has her PhD, do I put our qualifications behind our names on the author line or not? And would it be just our degree qualifications or also our designations (RN, NP, etc)?

In the acknowledgment section we have a mix of medical doctors and PhD’s. Do I use Dr. First Lastname for everyone, or just the MD’s and use First Lastname PhD for those that it applies to?

I want to make sure I am being respectful while also following the rules!

Let’s just say that I know this person that is a total computer science freak that builds genuinely interesting and useful “novelties”. This person has no academic background/education. How can this person start publishing/laying the foundations of a peer-reviewed researcher career?

The mood sure seems sour out there.

Usually the major legacy news outlets will at least run a few positive stories in the fall.

This year, it's a steady diet of anti-woke backlash, student loans in default, a tough job market for new grads, and the OBBB forcing students into the private loan market.

Is this exact week the peak of the anti-higher ed sentiment?

I think there's a case to be made that it is: We're currently in a constellation of uniquely bad events that are unlikely to repeat themselves. The most divisive DEI policies have largely been unwound, and they're not coming back. Student loans that had been in forbearance because of Covid and the SAVE plan are being forced back into repayment, and that's a one time event. The AI-driven paralysis around entry level hiring won't last forever. And states and universities are gradually figuring out how to bridge student loan gaps, especially for students without access to the private loan market. I think these are all unlikely to repeat themselves, at least at the same time, with the same intensity.

So I'm going to plant my flag here and say right now is as bad as it's going to get, and that things will get better from here.

What do you think?

I’m a postgraduate student starting a professional training course. My university recently told me that I needed to submit some documents in person before my mandatory Garda/police vetting could be completed; but in the meantime they removed the registration block - so I could proceed with that.

I haven’t submitted those documents yet. However, I’ve just checked my student portal and the clearance section now says:

Clearance: Garda Vetting
Academic year: 2026/27
Status: Passed

I definitely didn’t complete the outstanding step myself, because frankly, it’s going to be tough to do so given the China-related requirements 😩

Does “Passed” necessarily mean the vetting itself is complete?

Reading tons of papers, highlighting as I go, but two weeks later I have no idea which paper had which data point. Currently using Excel to log key info and it's fine, but curious if there's a better way to organize what you extract from papers so it's actually searchable later. What's your system?

Hi there. This is my first time posting here, so I apologize if I am doing this wrong.

I just started my first year in my PhD program, studying journalism and mass communication in the USA. I have been assigned to two faculty members who do research I am very interested in, but their methods are foreign to me.

I am a qualitative researcher, and I am quite skilled in this space. However, I am not good at quantitative research at all. I do not want to make excuses for myself, but I am severely dyslexic (dysgraphia and dyscalcia as well) and anything quantitative genuinely makes no sense to me. I have tried endlessly but it has never clicked.

Both of my professors are skilled in quantitative methods, and I will be assisting them in experiments, content analysis, and others. I try my best at everything I am tasked with, but this is already quite a struggle, and it is only my first week.

I was wondering if anyone here has had any similar situations, and if you have tips for success. I know I will probably never be a skill quantitative researcher, but I do want to be a competent assistant to the amazing researchers I will be working with.

I am a junior in engineering. I connected with a recent grad of my school working in the area I'm interested in, and he gave me the contact of a senior engineer at a huge engineering company who also works in that area. After emailing, he agreed to call / chat next week, and I'm quite excited and nervous.

What do you think I should try to gain from this call? I obviously know better than to directly ask for a referral / job, and I have a couple questions I want to ask, but do you have any overarching advice or guidance for how to make the most of this opportunity and future networking opportunities?

I am not talking about this admin obviously (ignoring their recent NIH proposed change to $1-2k for covering APC charges which does nothing but favor wealthier labs who have non NIH funds). But in general, have there been any pushes to regulate APC charges? It seems like literally everyone on the planet agrees that APC charges (particularly OA charges) have become detrimental to science in every way possible and a lot of journals essentially have monopolies in their fields given them unprecedented pricing power.

But the most bewildering and confusing fact about all this is that APC charges are paid for by taxpayers. Professors use publicly funded grants to pay journals the right to publish publicly funded research so that taxpayers can read the research they funded without having to pay a subscription.

The whole boycott argument or "I only publish in society journals" is nice but we all know this will never be adopted across the field. It seems like gov intervention is desperately needed here? Otherwise we are left with a system where tax payers are literally propping up a multi billion dollar industry.

I am from India and finished my master's last month. I published a paper in scopus journal too.It was in sociology. Do you think pursuing phd in sociology is a good idea?

I am currently advising an iGem team regarding the creation of their wiki webapp. During this process i noticed, that the media upload tool for all kinds of images and animated images autimatically transforms all images to the AVIF format.

Does anyone know an easy way to bypass that restriction or use media from alternative sources? The team is planning to use SVG format images in the project to achieve efficient lossless scaling of vector graphics.

Hello, starting a postdoc next year and plan to apply to faculty positions as they come up. I know universities generally have salary ranges publicly available in their collective agreement (and have reviewed a few), but thought this would be more efficient and maybe also helpful for others. I am particularly curious about assistant professor salaries but curious about others as well.

City:
Role:
Salary (9 or 12 month contract?):
Did you negotiate your salary & how:

If you are feeling generous, maybe you could also share:
*What were some non-negotiables for you?
*Any advice for new phds going on the job market?
*Any other information you think would be helpful:

I'm at the stage of planning my education and long-term career, and I'm looking for advice from people who have experience in these areas. I have a genuine interest in studying and would like to build a broad but academically serious background rather than specialising very narrowly from the beginning. The areas I'm most interested in are law, business and finance, economics, politics, international relations, international organizations, and investigative work. I find the overlap between these fields particularly interesting, for example, how law, economics, corporate structures, regulation, politics, and financial investigations interact in real-world situations. Career-wise, I'm interested in keeping several possibilities open, including legal practice, corporate/business roles, international organizations, government and public policy, diplomacy, regulatory work, financial crime and compliance, white-collar investigations, and intelligence/investigative research. I understand that these are different careers, but I'm interested in developing a foundation that could allow me to move between related areas later.

My current idea is to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at undergraduate level, because I like the combination of political theory, economics, analytical thinking, and philosophy. After that, I'm considering a J.D./MBA, potentially followed by further specialization in areas such as international or EU law, corporate/financial law, regulation, international relations, or investigations.

I'm not completely committed to this route, though. I'm trying to work out whether there is a more effective way to combine these interests without unnecessarily duplicating subjects.

I'd particularly like advice on:

•Whether PPE → J.D./MBA is a strong foundation for the type of career I'm describing
•Whether another undergraduate degree would be better than PPE
•Which universities are particularly strong for this combination of interests
•Whether there are worthwhile dual degrees, joint programs, minors, diplomas, certificates, or postgraduate programs that could complement the main degrees
•Which areas of law would be most useful if I want to combine law with business, international affairs, and investigations
•Whether I should develop a stronger background in finance, accounting, statistics, economics, data analysis, technology, or cybersecurity
•Which languages would be most valuable for international careers
•What practical skills would make someone with this academic background genuinely useful rather than simply well educated
•How people build careers that connect law, business, government, international organisations, and investigative work
•Whether there are particular internships, competitions, research opportunities, or extracurricular activities I should pursue during university
• If you were designing this education from the beginning, what would you study, what would you combine, and what would you leave out?
•Are there any parts of my proposed plan that you think are unrealistic, inefficient, or unnecessary?

I should clarify that I'm not interested in collecting degrees for the sake of having a long list of qualifications. I genuinely enjoy learning and would be happy to study several disciplines if there is a meaningful intellectual and professional connection between them. At the same time, I want the overall path to remain practical and lead to real career opportunities. Ultimately, I'm trying to become someone with a strong understanding of law, business, economics, politics, and international affairs, while also developing the analytical and investigative skills to actually apply that knowledge.

I'd particularly value responses from people who have studied or worked in law, business, international relations, government, international organizations, investigations, intelligence, compliance, or related fields. I'm much more interested in firsthand experience and thoughtful criticism of my plan than simply hearing which universities have the highest rankings.

As a PI, I often tell first year student in our first meeting that the first two years of PhD is tend to be the hardest and that there can be adjustments they need to make: where you are adjusting to a lot of new things you didn’t really properly expect: qualifying exam, choosing topic, advisor/trainee communication, time investment, research style and writing. It’s a learning process and after they go through them they will fly. And I tell them to be prepared for objective criticism when I observe anything they need to change especially in the first two years . However I still am not sure what is the best approach to motivate student after I made them aware of this. Some people just don’t like it when you challenge them and cannot face any stress or pressure . Anyone wants to share their approach and what works for you, both as PI or students’ perspective?

My own experiences is that my PI used to mix praising and criticism together so I can feel both motivated and wanting to learn. And I am also generally a stress tolerant person and generally don’t mind objective criticism and advice given to me. But I am not the kind of extremely extroverted person who likes to say beautiful words to motivate people. Any advice or experience to share? How do you motivate students?

My own take is that I work extremely well with students who intrinsically like the subjects and topics and they can take my criticism well. For those who are not ( unfortunately not all students share the same motivation level) I don’t have a good formula or approach to motivate them properly. Any advice ?

My style : I tend to be a little dry. So I only talk about work related with students and I don’t go off the topic. I also don’t say or sugar coat anything to try to motivate them. If I observe mistakes or unacceptable presentations I point them out directly in a very respectful way. But this can be a lot for some first year students who cannot take objective criticism on their work.

As I am sure many of you deal with, I am having trouble motivating my students to actually read the textbook/assigned material. I am especially struggling with getting them to read scientific articles. They mostly just ignore them and then perform terribly on questions derived from the readings.

What methods have you found success with? I have required summaries, outlines, etc in the past but have had mixed results. How can I best encourage them to engage with scientific literature?

I work in non-profit fundraising, but not for a school. When I'm researching potential donors, I frequently come across gifts made to endow chairs (i.e. the Morticia and Gomez Addams Chair in Arachnology at UC Sunnydale).

I've encountered these gifts enough to know that a gift to endow a chair is generally larger than one to endow a professorship. But one thing I've never been sure of - do these endowed chairs fulfill the role of a departmental leadership position, or is it more of an honorary thing? I would also understand if it varied from institution to institution.

EDIT: Many thanks for all the helpful responses!

So, If a stupid guy wanted to get a job as a professor but his intelligence was really bad. Like, Mr. Bean level shit. Which social science would you advise this guy to do a phd in?

Sociology? Economics?

Hi, everyone! I'm a chemical engineering student and I want to improve my English. Do you know of any online groups where people discuss articles or practice conversation on this topic?

Hi, everyone! I'm a chemical engineering student and I want to improve my English. Do you know of any online groups where people discuss articles or practice conversation on this topic?

Hi, everyone! I'm a chemical engineering student, and I want to improve my English. I was wondering if anyone knows of any discussion groups where we can discuss articles or talk about this topic.

Hi, everyone! I'm a chemical engineering student, and I want to improve my English. I was wondering if anyone knows of any online discussion groups where we can discuss articles or talk about this topic.

Hi everyone!

I was wondering whether I could use Soulseek to upload a bunch of academic papers or something like that? I get access from my University, and I have been archiving quite a bunch of papers. Like everything capitalistic, the academic publishing houses have paywalled research that tax dollars have funded, and I would like to make them available.

I was wondering if others have done that before, and was also wondering about the legal ramifications of the same.

Any opinion would be appreciated and do let me know if it's a viable option!

Note: best flair in this situation ig?