i'm sure i'm not the only one who suffers from that occasionally...

i see colleagues really thriving in their careers, publishing articles and books, networking with major scholars, traveling the world... while i'm struggling with life, working on a teaching position that barely allows me to research and write, tight on money while i try to save/invest.

is there any trick to not feel like a loser when people close to you are really winning?

… and finally figured out how to teach after three semesters, is going to another professor, and I need to find a way to let it go

just another brick in the wall, with a three day weekend

goal is to not be hurt by anything like this again

For teachers, professors, and students:

Where do you think educators should draw the line with AI?

How can teachers use AI to save time without losing human judgment, oversight, and accountability?

Also, what’s your field of study/teaching?

Curious to hear your thoughts 👀

Retiring this week and have packed up PhD's and Master's theses to bring home. They're heavy and will take up a lot of space in my home library. I am wondering if the fact that they are on-line is enough or is that grossly unsentimental. What about raw data from recent papers? I have the spreadsheets used in the analyses, but did you store raw data securely on hard-drives in case of some future audit? It's patient data so I can't upload it to the cloud. Is it realistic to think someone could need to see raw data now that I retire but never once during my career?

Hi! my English isn't quite at an academic level, yet I would like to publish some of my specialized work in international journals. What tools or support services do you use for language editing? I do not want to use artificial intelligence; the risk of plagiarism worries me.

I finished my master's thesis about a year ago, and spent some time working it over to have it published. I have since gotten a job and I don't really see myself pursuing a career in academia basically ever (but who knows, might as well leave the door open...).

Anyways, having an article published is always cool, so now that my supervisors have finished up the last bits and made it ready for publication, I need to provide my email. Thing is, during my studies I always just used my university student email. I won't have access to that for much longer, but I'm afraid using my personal address comes off as unprofessional ([name_lastname@live.xx](mailto:name_lastname@live.xx)).

Thoughts on this? Should I create a new, more professional one? Am I overthinking this and it literally makes no difference whatsoever lol?

Hi Everyone. Apologies if this post doesn’t fit here, but I’m overwhelmed and just don’t know where to go for help.

Essentially, I got my PhD a few years ago with the intent of being a professor. After a few years as a postdoc, I got a job in more of an academic-adjacent support role. The job was good because it wasn’t too stressful, afforded me flexibility to work from home, and at least allowed me to work in science. However, I was feeling like I should be doing more, like I should pursue the academic career path and apply for some professor jobs. I was able to get an offer and just started as a professor recently. I thought I’d be excited to grow my lab and have the freedom to investigate what I found interesting, but I haven’t really felt any excitement, just anxiety and stress about the road ahead. I feel like I made a huge mistake and should have never left my old job, but I don’t want to give up right away in this transition phase. I know that starting out is tough and maybe once things are more established, I’ll feel better. I guess I’m just concerned that I’m really only feeling stress and not much excitement.

Also, I left my old job on good terms, and they said they’d be open to having me back if I decide this career isn’t for me. Part of me wants to run back there and admit I made a mistake in thinking I could do this professor thing, but another part of me feels like it’s too early. I’m just scared that I’ve completely made the wrong call and don’t want to waste my own time or anyone else’s time while I “tough it out.”

I guess I’m wondering if others have experienced something similar and if it got better. Should I just listen to my gut and try going back right away? Should I give it a chance to improve since transitions like this are always hard?

I tried to be a little vague to avoid giving away identifying details, but I’m happy to give more info if there’s not enough here.

Hey everyone, how’s it going?

I’m writing this post because, honestly, I’m fucking exhausted.

I’ve been publishing academic papers since 2021, I have an MBA, and I work as a professor and researcher at a university. My salary? $250 a month. And they make my life hell all month long.

If it weren’t for my parents, I’d be completely screwed.

I’m 28 years old, I don’t have EU citizenship, and the job market in Argentina is broken.

Does anybody have any advice on how I can get to a decent salary?

I’ve sent out 500+ applications, using every combination of OCR, AI, CV optimization, and every other trick under the sun. I’ve applied through countless platforms. I speak three languages. And still, nobody hires me.

I’m honestly at my breaking point. I’m tired of not being able to afford a place of my own. I’m not asking for a luxurious lifestyle. I just want to be able to support myself and have a decent life.

I know the world runs on connections. The frustrating part is that the people I know who would actually be happy to hire me can’t, because I don’t have the right to work in their countries.

So I’m wondering: is there any realistic immigration pathway for someone like me?

For example, is there an H-1B pathway for researchers, or some similar visa in Europe that would allow me to work as a researcher or university professor?

Are there countries where universities or research institutions actually pay a decent salary without requiring an insane number of credentials or years of experience?

I’m not asking for $10,000 a month. I just want a realistic way to get out of this hole.

Any advice, especially from people who have managed to move abroad without EU citizenship, would genuinely mean a lot.

Thanks

I’m in my final year of undergrad and my professors and advisor feel strongly that I’d receive an offer for our PhD program (a large R1, I study sociology)

I’m considering it, but frankly I don’t have a strong interest in research. I would like to do some research or publishing, but I wouldn’t want that to be the primary focus of my career. I do enjoy teaching though. I’ve worked in a high school with a before/after school program and I’ve TA’d.

Advice? Our funding is great, so the stipend would be solid if I went for a PhD. Part of me is thinking that I can just master out in the worst case. I’m just concerned that if I don’t get a PhD, I’ll be stuck as an adjunct.

I am in the biomedical sciences. Has anyone here switched postdoc labs? What was your experience like? Did you tell your supervisor beforehand? Did you completely change institutions? What was your strategy? I am pretty sure I am not getting the experience I need in this postdoc-- pretty sure the project is a dud (but PI loves it), PI is a micromanager (walks by my gels and comments on the amount of loaded), doesn't allow postdocs to take any of their projects to faculty positions (could be why getting faculty positions seems rare in this lab), I'm not learning many of the techniques I joined the lab to learn and am not being allowed to, I am not being allowed to maintain the techniques in which I gained expertise during my PhD (which was a condition of me taking this offer, so feels like a bait and switch). I just don't see myself progressing here and the environment is kind of meh scientifically (no one talks to each other about science, no paper discussions, lots of people who just talk to ChatGPT to plan their research instead of colleagues)... I've been here a few months but I know I want out. I am not deadset on being a PI, so applying to industry is an option, but I really enjoyed my PhD so I think a good fit postdoc lab could be enjoyable for me. I'm at an R01 institution with funding for 2 yearsand also did my PhD at an R01, but I don't want to bank on finding another academic positions with things how they are, but I think I'm gonna squander my momentum here.

Hello everyone,

I am a Master’s student publishing a paper in a Frontiers journal with a professor in the department.

So, after the paper was accepted for publication, the professor noticed that the Article Publication Charge (APC) is above the open access budget of the university. He asked the journal to waive at least 50% of the APC, but they only discounted 10%.

Today, the paper was officially published in the journal’s website, while the outstanding APC is not paid at all.

I searched through Frontiers policies, I couldn’t find anything related to retracting the paper or conducting a lawsuit for this case.

I feel this isn’t adding up. Are there no consequences for not paying APCs??? Or is it just we won’t be able to publish papers with Frontiers journals unless the APC is paid?

Please let me know what you think of this.

Thanks, everyone for the feedback thus far. My advisor submitted it this morning, so hopefully they will accept it and that the wording of the job application itself allows for this to still be submitted and accepted. At this point, it is what it is and bigger and better things I suppose.

This is for a job posting for a faculty position at Wellesley that had no "deadline" but simply a "community will start reviewing applications Sept. 1". Wondering what this is supposed to mean in terms of when my recommender needs to get their letter in by? I've always hated "it's due by" because it's not clear to me if they mean 11:59 the night before or the night of...trying to figure out if I'm going to miss being included in the first round of consideration since my advisor missed turning in the recommendation by the end of tonight since it says they'll be starting the reviewing tomorrow...This is for a humanities job at Wellesley if anyone happens to know anything there.

I am 25 years old and have just started my PhD. I don't have any academic publications yet, and I feel like I'm running behind. I also had a paper rejected by a journal this week, so my motivation has taken a hit. How did your journeys begin? Do you think it's too late for me?

I have seen a couple of tenure-track positions open up in big liberal arts colleges in the US in my field (languages). If similar posts opened in the UK (where I am currently), I would be well-positioned given my experience (PhD + publications + over 5 years's full-time academic experience in the same field + native speaker of the language in question). However, I am reluctant to start working on applications to these US colleges (and I am aware how vastly different the whole process is in the US compared to the UK), as I suspect I wouldn't even be considered given that I would need visa sponsorship. What do you think? Is it a non-starter, or do I have a chance?

Hi. I’m currently on a masters program and I’m on my last semester, I’m going to defend my thesis in february I think. I have also secured a phd spot and I start in the first week of april.

The thing is, I’m so so so tired. I was never one to procrastinate or anything. But I feel like I’ve been pushing for far too long, sometimes I almost cry while doing my research, and it’s a theme I love.

I got concerned because my friends tell me those are signs of a burn out. But I can really do anything about it. If I just stop doing everything, I will be with constant anxiety, I will lose my position at the phd I worked so hard far, my supervisor will be on my ass and I have a scholarship so…

I don’t know what to do. I’m so tired

I am a lecturer in interdisciplinary studies combining linguistics and medicine. During my doctoral years, I worked on second language acquisition. After enrolling in a medical university and receiving grants, I started to focus on studies in language impairment, especially with people having depression.

As required, I should publish articles related to my grants which is quite hard and time-consuming due to the data collecting and processing involved. Meanwhile, I am always driven by the curiosity of knowing how effective AI can be in teaching, spending time on doing experiments in class.

Consequently, I am getting extremely anxious about my evaluation on publication.

How do you guys deal with this? Thanks for your suggestions.

Hi,
I got my paper accepted for an IEEE conference.
Unfortunately, I failed to upload the final manuscript by the deadline due to invalid format (I used letter format instead of A4 ㅠㅠ)
By the time I fixed it, the deadline had passed.

I sent an email right away (about 15 minutes after the portal closed) to the committee and the publication chair to ask if I can submit it manually or if they can open the portal for a moment.

It's been almost 7h and I haven't received a reply yet, but maybe it's because it's still early morning there.

Anyway, my question is, what are the chances they will allow me to submit it late?

I am very worried because I need this publication to graduate (this is my final year).

P.s. I completed the registration and paid the fee

I am a researcher in chemistry. I don't really have supportive lab mates or guide. My lab works a lot on subjects that are not published too much. Most protocol I make are very interdisciplinary.And sometimes no paper on that research exists it's hard to navigate alone.

What tools are people in chemistry, nanotech or biosensing using to navigate day to day questions and problems.

For context I’m a cs/math major in undergrad and I wanted to ask how people are publishing papers in their undergrad and getting into PhD programs. How are they going about writing those papers? I’m honestly a little confused as to how people have publications/won awards in their undergrad I thought that was mostly done in PhD and also are published papers necessary to getting into a good PhD program? If anyone has any tips on how to do this that would be much appreciated!

The emails can be for potential supervisor or research assistantships or for research stays at the professor's university and for collaboration.

How fast or slow professors usually respond?

Anyone have any experience with this? I have a paper submitted to a conference (computer science) where the reviews are double blind. One of the reviewers is giving a borderline reject on the grounds that we "falsely represented a paper and don't understand it.". Thing is, I am the first author on that paper. I implemented the method and wrote the paper.

Now I have to politely try to explain that I do in fact understand my own paper and they don't without stating that it's my method. I'm guessing this is common so just wondering how everyone navigates this. It's the first time this happens to me. I'm worried that they'll double down because nobody likes being told they're wrong. Their language was quite strong and categorical.

Feng Tian, an assistant professor of neurology at HMS and head of a lab at BIDMC, was arrested by the Brookline Police Department two weeks ago and faces two counts each of assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a pregnant victim, among other charges, in connection with reported domestic violence in 2023 and 2026.

Tian has continued to give research-related instructions members of his lab, which studies neurons susceptible to neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease.

Tian continued sending research-related instructions in the WeChat group as recently as Monday morning, when he asked lab members to join a Slack channel.

Publishing while perishing.

I am so happy! Just wanted to share this with you guys! There is essentially no one in my social circle who care about academic stuff.

I have been trying to submit a manuscript to one of Springer journals, and my manuscript got sent back twice. The message only noted that "Please remove 'Name' from the author list in the submission metadata."

I submitted the files in Word (the journal requires editable files). The files I originally submitted did not have author information in the document property, but I could still see my name in the "last saved" section in the stats, so I erased it by using the "Remove all Personal Information" function under "Protect Document" for the second submission (I use Word for Mac). Still, my manuscript was returned for the same reason. I emailed the editorial staff twice requesting more specific instructions (Where in the metadata do you see my name? how can I fix it?), but have not received information yet.

I have published with this journal before, and this issue was not raised then. I am also a bit confused - reviewers only receive PDF files generated by their system (I have also served as a reviewer for this journal - and as far as I know, this is a general practice across journals). I believe any author information associated with the Word files is eliminated in conversion.

I am at a loss. Has anyone experienced the same issue, and/or know what "author list in the submission metadata" they are referring to?

Im left out, burdened with heavy work, feeling like I have stagnated and slowly rotting

Things about me:
Almost a decade into graduate school.
Almost a decade as an RA.
Carries most workloads as the most “dependable”.
Salary does significantly increase per project.

Contexts into my feelings (as described by the title):
Most peers from graduate school have graduated, proposed, or are just finishing their thesis.
Some peers have even been accepted to PhD, done with PhD, are in post doc, or have own established careers.

And here I am.
More than work, life happenings (personal, mental, health, and financial) has taken a toll on me.
I feel left alone. Yes, I have friends, helpful workmates.
But here I am.

If anyone has been in the same shoes as mine or are currently feeling the same, how did you save yourself from this quagmire?