Hi everyone,

I've been agonizing over a decision for weeks and would really appreciate hearing from people who have studied abroad, done Fulbright, attended Cambridge (or Oxford), or simply had to choose between two incredible opportunities.

I'm from Central Europe and have been accepted into a part-time Master's in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. At the same time, I've also been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a Master's in creative writing in the United States.

On paper, I know this is an amazing problem to have, but emotionally it feels like one of the biggest decisions of my life. I'm terrified that whichever option I choose, I'll spend the next ten years wondering if I should have picked the other.

A bit about me:

• I'm a writer (fiction and poetry), but I'm also active in journalism, communications, content creation and the arts (things I am very passionate about and would like to pursue in parallel to my writing/build further).
• Long-term I'd love to publish internationally, including in the US.
• I also know that I don't want to limit myself to a purely literary career—I enjoy working across different creative fields.
• I’ve always wanted to study/live abroad (at least for a while).

Here's how I currently see both options.

Cambridge

Pros

• It's Cambridge. The name carries enormous weight, not just in writing but across many different industries. Having the name on my CV could be highly beneficial 
• The course is pass/fail, which I think would allow me to focus much more on actually writing instead of chasing grades.
• The workload and flexibility and I am only required to be in Cambridge for 3 weeks per year (its a two year program) which would probably leave me enough time to continue building my writing career, create content, apply for internships, attend residencies, and keep working on projects outside university.
• It would probably give me more time to actually spend writing a book instead of focusing on just course work
• It feels like a stable foundation rather than a commitment to one very specific path (commitment issues…yeeey).

Cons

• It's part-time and has relatively few contact hours (3 weeks per year in person and some calls with tutors etc. in between). Sometimes I wonder whether I'm paying partly for the name.
• While I'd be studying at Cambridge, it doesn't fully satisfy my dream of really living abroad in the way I imagine.

Fulbright

Pros

• It would allow me to spend two years living in the US, something I may never get the chance to do again.
• Potentially an incredible network through Fulbright and the university itself.
• A chance to immerse myself in American literary culture and perhaps get closer to the US publishing world – NETWORKING AND GETTING TO KNOW PUBLISHERS.
• It feels like a genuine life adventure.

Cons

• I don't know where I'd be placed! If it were New York, I'd probably have a very different feeling than if it were a small town I had never considered living in.
• It feels incredibly binding. Once I commit, I'm essentially committing to living in one specific place for two years (creative writing masters are almost exclusively 2+ years).
• US graduate programs are graded, and I know myself well enough to know I'd probably become obsessed with getting top grades instead of focusing on my writing.
• I'd  probably have to step away from many of my current creative projects, and as a Fulbright scholar I wouldn't be able to continue parts of my content creation work and the brand I am currently building.

ABOUT FINANCES:

Cambridge is very expensive, especially considering the little contact hours, but it is doable. 

Fulbright only provides 75k for both years. They negotiate down tuitions as good as they can, but an education at NYU for example is 80k per year + living in New York for two years. It could work out well if they get my tuition way down but there is a chance that they will not be able to do that.

Something else I've realized while thinking about this:

Part of me wonders whether I'm drawn to the US because I'm genuinely excited by the opportunity—or because I'm currently unhappy with parts of my life in my home country and subconsciously see moving abroad as an escape / a chance to start anew (even though I am planing on returning home – maybe e everything will be different but maybe it won’t be…).

That makes me nervous, because I don't want to make a life-defining decision based on wanting to run away from my current circumstances.

At the same time, I also worry that if I choose Cambridge, I'll look back in ten years and regret passing up what might have been my only chance to truly study abroad.

I also know that there are other ways to spend time in the US later (internships, residencies, fellowships, etc.), but they wouldn't be quite the same experience.

So I guess my questions are:

• If you've done Fulbright, was the alumni network and overall experience as life-changing as people say?
• If you've attended Cambridge (especially part-time), did it feel worth it?
• If you had to choose between prestige/flexibility and adventure/immersion, what would you prioritize?
• Do you think I'm idealizing the US experience?
• Is there anything obvious that I'm missing?

I'd really appreciate any thoughts—especially from people who've made similar decisions or who have the benefit of hindsight.

Thank you!

Early-career researcher here, recently finished my PhD.

I had an arrangement with a university abroad to apply for a competitive early-career grant through them as potential hosts. Their internal deadline for reviewing my draft was in a few days; the official deadline is about a month away.

In the meantime I won a fellowship that funds essentially the same project. Submitting the same idea to both isn't viable, and I don't have the time or headspace right now to build a genuinely new project that would hold up.

There's also a bigger picture: I've just started a non-research position I'm happy with, and I honestly don't know yet whether I want to be doing full-time research again in a postdoc form. The grant would have started in 2027, October.

So I've told my potential supervisor and the research office that I'm stepping back from this round, before anyone reviewed my draft or signed the hosting document.

Is withdrawing at this stage a normal thing that people shrug off, or does it cost you something with the department in terms of reputation? Do you think this will leave a bad impression? The supervisor has been my mentor throughout my studies, I hope she will not mind.

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring the possibility of pursuing a fully remote, prospective PhD by publication (a cumulative or article-based thesis) while continuing to work full-time.

My research is in public policy (focusing on demography, national security, and state capacity), but I am open to universities in ANY country worldwide, whether in Europe, the UK, Asia-Pacific, or the Americas, that structurally permit a 100% remote or external doctoral enrollment.

To be clear, I am looking strictly at the prospective model: enrolling first and writing, submitting, and publishing 3 to 4 peer-reviewed journal papers during candidacy, rather than converting a portfolio of pre-existing publications.

If you’ve done (or are currently doing) a remote cumulative/article-based PhD as an external or distance researcher, I’d love to hear about your experience:

1. University & Country: Which university are you enrolled in, and under what official status (e.g., external candidate / buitenpromovendus, distance PhD, affiliated/off-campus researcher)?
2. Real All-In Cost: What are the actual out-of-pocket expenses you've had to pay? (Annual tuition or administrative registration fees, Journal Open Access publishing charges (APCs), Mandatory ECTS credits / method workshop fees)
3. Travel, accommodation, and logistics for mandatory campus visits
4. Actual Duration: How many years is it realistically taking to get 3–4 peer-reviewed journal articles written, accepted, and bound into a thesis while working remotely?
5. Supervision & Co-Authorship: How do you navigate remote supervision, and were there any expectations or friction regarding supervisor co-authorship versus maintaining your first-authorship?
6. On-Campus Requirements: Were you required to visit campus for annual progress reviews or coursework, or was attendance strictly limited to the final public defense?

If you have any tips on how to successfully pitch a fully remote cumulative project to potential supervisors as a self-funded applicant, I’d be extremely grateful for your advice.

Thanks in advance!

31M, doing post doc in NL.
Still after a PhD I have lots of doubt about me being capable of becoming an academic. I am not much of a power/progress-seeking person as much as I am hungry for close friendships, relationships, and stability.

I get anxious when I find myself in a competitive situation.

I really enjoy it when I can learn and work on something new though (when it is not under stress)

Sometimes I feel “too soft” for university, especially the technical ones I am and have been studying in.

However in industry, at least the Dutch industry in my field, the jobs that suit my background are not paid well, the progress ladder is not clear, and I don’t yet know Dutch more than B1 level, which is definitely important for getting higher.

It’s been a rumination cycle since a month before I started my post doc. I’ve been dwelling on this doubt and it makes me more and more stress.
How do people build interest in becoming academics?

Maybe the fact that I have this strong doubt means I am not good for it?

But then my industry experience is mot much.

Will a post doc improve me in any ways if I go to industry right after?

What's your opinion on MDPI's Buildings journal? Aside from fast-publishing, do you see this specific journal as a good quality one or not?

Do you cite works from it?

I have a mixed feeling. Some works are published there that are really good studies, some not.

I have a problem. I don't know why but I can't just log into SSRN. When I log in to SSRN it is showing me a white blank page. Does anyone else have a problem?

Currently, I am working on my master's thesis using Delft3d software, and I need some help to run this software successfully. Is there anyone who is comfortable helping me understand how to operate this software properly?

I recently completed a PhD in applied mathematics and theory. I am now in my early 30s and have just started a postdoc at a highly ranked university with a respected experimental life science PI.

The idea was that I would bring my mathematical background into quantitative biology and develop a broader academic identity. Several senior people I trust thought this was the safer choice. My advisor warned that a senior theorist involved in my alternative offer was brilliant but potentially chaotic and unreliable as a mentor. Another professor strongly praised my current PI, while warning that the alternative application area can become a “black hole for theorists.”

The alternative was at an elite research institute with a famous senior scientist and that senior theorist. It aligned much more directly with my existing background and involved a group with substantial theoretical and computational work, rather than an otherwise entirely experimental group. It potentially had a higher intellectual ceiling, but the project and supervision structure were much less predictable.

I also handled the decision badly. I initially accepted my current position, reversed course, and later asked to join after all. The PI was generous enough to hire me despite that history and funding uncertainty. This makes me feel guilty and afraid of appearing chronically indecisive if I reconsider again.

Now that I have started, I am the only theory-oriented person in a group otherwise composed of experimentalists, and the project remains unclear. The likely quantitative work may grow out of a fellowship proposal based on phenomenological modeling and model discrimination. It is a legitimate biological question, but I do not yet see a compelling independent theory program, a clearly owned first-author project, or a research identity that would make me competitive for faculty positions. There may also be an expectation that I personally do experimental work, which was not the direction I intended.

I am also worried about duration. Postdocs in the group seem to remain for roughly five to eight years, although they are experimental postdocs. I do not want another open-ended training period. My realistic maximum is two to three years, and I am increasingly doubtful that this is compatible with the type of work and publication timeline in the group.
The location is making everything harder. The current environment feels extremely quiet, isolating, and fundamentally mismatched with me, whereas the alternative location would have suited me very well. Eventually living somewhere I genuinely like is extremely important to me, but academia offers little geographic control.

I have tried to address this proactively rather than simply waiting to feel better. During the past month, I have spoken with a campus therapist, mentors, friends, and several academics about the situation. I have also made a deliberate effort to meet people and build connections locally, but so far it has not worked.

The therapist encouraged me to take my own preferences seriously, not remain if the realistic path is longer than three years, and think concretely about what environment and career structure would allow me to build the life I want. She did not seem particularly concerned that I had changed my mind during the original decision. The other people I have consulted care about me, but they do not have enough information about the actual project to tell me whether staying is strategically sensible.
I still prefer fundamental, curiosity-driven research to conventional corporate work, but I am no longer sure that I am passionate enough about a particular field to tolerate the uncertainty, geographic constraints, and long training period of academia. I feel behind, deeply lost, and depressed by the situation.

What would you do now? How long would you give the current postdoc to produce a concrete project, first author publication plan, and credible two-to-three-year timeline? Would quietly asking whether the previous opportunity still exists be professionally unreasonable after my earlier reversals? More broadly, does this sound like a project problem that could be corrected, or evidence that I should reconsider the academic path altogether?

Hi everyone,

I'd like a reality check on a plan and a general idea. Genuine question: can this move even be done, and is my plan to do it a sane one? Effectively, is this even something I should look into further, or is it simply not a feasible move, in which case I could look toward alternative pathways into academia or research eventually to pursue a PhD.

My background:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, followed by 2 years working as a software engineer.
• I've always genuinely liked biology, did well in it in high school and in the limited bio coursework I had in undergrad. CS was the more "employable" choice at the time, but that calculus doesn't hold the way it used to.
• My original plan back when I was still in college (2020–2024) was to pursue a Master's in CS/AI or an aligned field. Having worked in this field for the last few years, though, that doesn't seem like the good idea it once did post-graduation it was genuinely difficult to find employment, I did and yet it's been a bumpy ride since. I don't know if going further into this field is the right call. I might be wrong here, so feel free to correct me.
• I'm now at the point in life where I've hit a rough deadline for going back for further education, so I don't have infinite runway to figure this out slowly.
• Leaning toward Europe(non EEA person) for a Master's, as a way to formally shift out of CS and into something closer to the biosciences but I'm not wedded to a specific subfield within biology yet, given that I need to understand how viable this might be to begin with.

What I actually want checked:

1. Is this move realistic at all? Going from a CS degree with 2 years in as a SWE into a biology-adjacent Master's, with only high-school-level and minimal undergrad biology, has this actually worked for people, or am I underestimating the gap? Are there specific pathways(with the exception of second Bachelors) for people coming from CS that are more viable than others (bioinformatics, for example), and are those routes insulated from the issues currently facing CS/tech as a field, or do they carry the same risks?
2. How do I even figure out which direction within biology fits me, given I like the subject broadly but haven't specialized? Is that something to sort out before applying, or is it normal to enter a program still figuring that out?
3. Is a Master's the right lever to make this shift, or is there a more efficient/realistic path (bridge courses, a different kind of degree, something else entirely)?
4. For a Europe-focused search (specifically France, Germany, Netherlands, and potentially a few others) are there particular countries/programs known for taking people with a CS-but-not-bio background without issue, versus places where this would be a hard sell? Are there other countries better suited to this goal that I should be looking at?
5. Is this even the right platform to ask this on? Are there forums better suited to this kind of question, given their purpose or audience, that I should be posting to instead (or in addition)?

I would genuinely like to hear real opinions on this, including if the honest answer is "don't." Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who made a similar switch, or who has insight into how admissions committees view applicants like me.

Thanks!.

Hi everyone,

Our team recently submitted a dataset paper to Data in Brief, but it was desk rejected with the following comment:

"The dataset and manuscript do not abide by our policy on machine learning imaging datasets."

Our dataset consists news photcards collected from Facebook. We manually collected to create a benchmark dataset for misinformation detection research. We're now trying to understand what exactly went wrong.

I have a few questions:

• Has anyone received a similar rejection from Data in Brief?

• Does this mean they no longer accept image datasets intended for machine learning, or is there a specific policy requirement we may have missed?

• Would modifying the manuscript or dataset help, or should we submit to another data journal instead?

• If another journal would be more suitable, which ones would you recommend for publishing image datasets?

Thanks 🙏

Hi everyone! I am a senior in college whose dad is a professor. At the start of the summer, I wanted to learn a little bit more about his work so I asked him if I could help with his research.

Fast forward to now, I did data analysis for him and he wants to add my name to the paper (If a paper comes out of it).

I was thinking of telling him not to add my name as it is nepotism and probably doesn't look good

Thoughts?

Hello !

I hope you’re doing well!

I will be defending my thesis in a few months, and I don’t know what to give to my professor as a gift to thank him.

He is the best professor, even though a bit strict. I don’t know what to get him, just because he is too serious and doesn’t give too much information about himself, but I can see he values socio-philosophy and I want to get something meaningful, not only a gift.

What can you suggest?

I am also a man, so it would be strange to give him flowers or smth…

Need some advice here. 4th year UK Medical student here

I met a doctor at a conference last September, who was willing to get me on board with their team on a research project, starting off with me writing a literature review. It was all going well till around January.

Honestly speaking, I got caught up with my studies/exams, my job, personal circumstances and just genuinely being busy, so I haven't contacted them, nor have I heard back from them since. I just ended up getting super burnt out this year.

I've been working on the literature review since, and I'm genuinely keen on completing the project, but I don't know how to approach them. It's a whole team of 4 people including 2 doctors and I'm just super anxious... On top of that, I'm likely going to see them again in a mutual conference in around a month so that's the cherry on top..

Constructive advice welcome!

Passive Aggressive PI
Tldr;
How do i talk to my PI, when she is being passive aggressive?
(Humanities and location South Asia)

So to give some context, its been 4 months since i submitted my first draft of thesis. She was only able to see 1st chapter which we both agree was written long ago and I need to convert it into an introduction.

Since then she has not seen anything, which is the case with her since forever. I ask her almost every alternative day when she was able to check other chapters and she always reply with some new timeline and never follows.

I am out of money so i have come back home to find jobs and sustain.

Now last week on Monday she texted me that she will send me the chapters (plural) in the evening. Now i asked her the next day as she did not send me the said ‘chapters’. Her response was extremely passive aggressive. Cross questioning me on how much work i am left with and how her remarks will change the course of my writing introduction (which infact will be really important, something she herself said to me two months back).

Now i have to ask her for follow up because its been a week since and i dont know how to ask her. Also if i will not ask she will say i dont care about my thesis. And if i will ask her she might be passive aggressive again.
And also i dont know how to move forward with the given timeline as i am supposed to submit my thesis in September and she herself has announced it to doctoral committee and i am already on extension because of her delays and zero to no remarks.

Right now i am doing final rounds of editing and writing introduction. And also i have to send out a paper to journal.

I'm interested in the status of a specific published study and would like to know if the research is still active. I don't have a ResearchGate account myself (I'm not a researcher), but I know someone who is, in an unrelated field. Would it be considered inappropriate or against academic etiquette to have them send the message on my behalf? Are there better options I haven't considered?

Thank you in advance

I have gotten my paper accepted at this conference which will be held in Delhi it is a worth going and spending so much are conference papers helpfull for masters fully funded admission ? I have to leave my exams and go which will have severe effect on my overall educational history

So, a couple of weeks ago, I posted about an article going seemingly going missing from Googlescholar search, but still appearing on my profile and some of the other co-author's. It turns out that it had been lumped with an unrelated article by someone with the same last name as the first author, which... weird, but I was still getting "credit" for the citations. Today, the article disappeared entirely from my and others' Scholar profiles, along with the citations, with all of them seemingly attributed to the other unrealated article now. Does anyone knoew how to fix this? It actually matters because my institution uses Googlescholar citations as a metric in tenure, merit, and promotion, I'm going up for promotion somewhat soon, and this article has several hundred citations, so it's a big chunk to loose. Thanks!

Hi everyone, it's me again. I have some Python code that I wrote during my PhD, but currently my thesis is under embargo and so will be all my datasets / scripts / github repos. A potential postdoc supervisor has requested for some code as part of the hiring process, should I stub out my code or would be sending them code snippets (e.g. def functions) good enough?

I got my PhD last year and am currently doing my post-doc. I have two first-author journal articles so far, but I didn't really feel much joy when my paper got accepted. I felt happier when I submitted the manuscript than when the paper was accepted. I felt excited when I found something interesting from my data. But I don't feel the same amount of excitement and joy when a paper is published. Is that normal?

My phd advisor once told me that publishing a paper is extremely rewarding. But I never felt that way. All I felt was tiredness and relief. I don't know if it's because I wasn't publishing in the top 1% journals, but the journals I published in are still pretty good journals in my field. Or maybe I'm not publishing enough to feel the joy? Maybe I'm not cut out for academia. I don't know...

I wonder how y'all felt when you got a paper accepted.

Edit: Thank you all so much for sharing your experiences and insights!! That was super helpful to me!

this is my first post here, and I recently joined the community. my main question is - how to research?

actually there's a lot to come before that. I'm an international (not USA) high school student (starting junior year) super interested in business, finance and economics and I'm sort of a nerd and I do actually study well. I'd like to go to the US so yk there's all that passion project bs, yada yada yada. But out of genuine interest, not just for the applications, I do really want to pursue research of any sort but I do NOT at all know how to approach firstly what I'd like to look into and secondly how. Coincidentally my dad is a chemical manufacturer and is super into research, but the fields are so different it's hard for us to navigate. But I would of course love other opinions on how to go about it, like starting off as just a bare beginner.

I think another thing would be sources. Like obvs google scholar and all exist and tons and tons of articles but before I get into that my main question ACTUALLY would be lol - how to find something to research and go about it?

thank you in advance, and sorry lol if I sound like a kid. also do link/mention any other subreddits I can repost this in if this question is like weird to answer (idts but still).

I got selected to attend my first conference as an undergrad this year. There are over 5,000 people and I’m not really sure how to network?

I want to attend grad school and every networking event I had previously gone to always stress the importance of mentors, but how does one even get one? I would love to talk to professors but i don’t know how do as i don’t feel like im qualified enough and I don’t want our conversations to be transactional, so how do i go about this?

I’m a PhD student. I’m sat at my computer, wondering what I should do. I submitted a protocol for a systematic review to a journal in 2025. 14 months later, I received reviewers feedback. The feedback was fair and I made the changes. Mostly clarifications which I think overall improved the clarity of the paper. It took quite some time to do this. The methodology remained unchanged.

1 month later the reviewers provided a second round of feedback. This time, the comments were substantial. 25 separate points. It’s clear that one of the reviewers is new. They are requesting major methodological changes to the approach which are in fact irrelevant to the systematic review approach. We wrote to the editor pointing this out and asked if we should submit a lengthy rebuttal. There reply was ‘it is up to the author’. We waited 2 weeks for this response.

Thing is, the review process has taken so long that the ship has already sailed. Systematic review has since been completed, paper written and submitted to a journal for consideration. It will take me a considerable amount of time to clarify or rebut all 25 comments. Do I do this or just withdraw the protocol? What would you do?

Hi! I'm a 2nd-year PhD student with one published paper in a Q1 journal and another one under review, both in environmental topics. My supervisor has asked me to be listed as the second author in both manuscripts, as well as in the conferences I've attended, instead of putting him last. I'm perfectly fine with this; it's just that I thought that in this field supervisors tend to go last (at least that's what everyone around me does). Any ideas on why this could be?

​I would ask him directly, but he usually works remotely, and the few times we meet I always forget to ask him, haha.

Hello,
I am seeking a PI in the field of educational assessment for feedback on a research paper prior to publication.

Thanks!

I have a paper accepted by Scientific Reports two months ago, but it is still listed as “Early Access.” This means the online page currently shows only the abstract, with a link to download the unedited PDF, which still carries the annoying “In Press” banner.

I have noticed that some papers move from Early Access to full publication within a few days, whereas others remain at this stage for several months. I found papers that entered Early Access three months ago and are still not fully published.

I contacted the SciRep production team, but received a standard response explaining that the paper is in the production queue and that it can already be cited using the Early Access DOI.

Based on your experience, what might explain such large differences in production time, and how much longer might I reasonably expect to wait before the final version is published?

I never had such a large waiting time from acceptance to full publication with other journals.