AMHERST, Mass. — The parking lots are mostly vacant. Locked and dark, many of the buildings are lifeless but for dying plants in dusty pots. One of the few people visible is a white-bearded man on a riding mower, tending to an empty lawn as if by habit.

This is not a factory or office park abandoned by its tenants. It’s Hampshire College, a once-celebrated liberal arts school that will shut down in December. That makes it the latest in a steady stream of colleges that are closing or merging, at a rate that last year reached the equivalent of nearly one every three weeks.

It is no longer secret that we are in a time of unprecedented amount of publications.

Just today a major machine learning journal TMLR announced penalty structure after 300% increase in journal submission (https://blog.tmlr.org/2026/adapting-our-processes-to-the-changing-world-of-scientific-publication/)

We found that the number of solo-authored papers has risen 1300% in the past year. Quite frequently, we were receiving four to eight submissions by the same person in the span of a week or two, often of solo-authored papers.

A week ago Arxiv established a rate-limit policy in an attempt to bring down an exponential increase in submissions (https://blog.arxiv.org/2026/10/01/updated-rate-limit-policy/). Now we are seeing close to 1000 papers being uploaded into a single subcategory (out of 150 subcategories) on a DAILY basis after the rate-limiting and potential publication ban were put into place.

It seems that everyone and their relatives is "cashing in" on the AI-fuelled publication "goldrush". I've seen associate professors solo publish 10+ papers a month (and not just Nicholas Polson).

I just want to understand the psychology behind this explosion of AI-assisted papers. Why is there such a gold rush? This almost feels similar to panic buying. Everyone tacitly understand that the noise gets much worse when there are 1000 AI-assisted or generated papers being published on a daily basis but they just keep on piling heaps after heaps of paper like some brainless publishing robot/zombie.

And I know some people will say it's the usual perverse incentive of academia that favors quantity over quality. But this doesn't explain why some senior professor (even tenured) who no longer have a stake on this matter are pumping out tons of solo papers a month, or highschool student and people not even in academia sending their half-baked Claude ideas to dozens of major journals.

Hi. To give a quick summary, I am currently completing my MSc in Nanoengineering, focusing on drug discovery and computational simulations. My goal is to work in the pharma industry, which is why I'm aiming for an Industrial PhD rather than a traditional academic one. Due to timing, I missed the regular deadlines for the upcoming semester. However, I reached out directly to a few Industrial PhD coordinators. I was told by one of them that I needed to have an official thesis grade to make my application considered. The problem is that in my country's system theses are graded purely on a Pass/Fail basis. Has anyone else encountered this issue when applying abroad?

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I’m a medical graduate seeking advice about a research-related issue at my former medical college. I’m keeping the names of the people and institutions involved private.

I worked on a research project and contributed to the research paper. However, when the paper was eventually published, I had concerns about the author order and the inclusion of other authors whose contributions I questioned. I had not knowingly agreed to the author order that appeared in the publication.

There is also a more serious concern: a signature attributed to me appears on a publication-related copyright form. I did not sign that form, and I did not authorize anyone to sign it on my behalf.

Separately, during another research project, my supervisor asked me to pay back part of the research grant money I had received. I paid the amount requested. I was concerned about whether this was appropriate.

I submitted a formal complaint to the relevant university, explaining my concerns and asking for an investigation.

Afterward, I was called to a meeting at my college. During the meeting, I explained that I wanted my authorship rights restored and did not want other students to experience similar problems.

The college representatives told me that they would address the authorship issues relating to research papers, refund the money I had paid, and provide counselling to the guide. The money was subsequently refunded.

However, I am still unclear about whether the disputed signature was investigated, whether the request for money was formally examined, and whether any corrective or disciplinary action was considered. I was also asked to send an email to the university stating that the matter had been resolved.

I want to handle this professionally and fairly. My main concerns are:

1. What are the appropriate steps when a researcher believes their authorship rights have not been respected?

2. How should a disputed signature on a research publication document be investigated?

3. Is refunding the money sufficient to resolve concerns about a supervisor requesting part of a student's research grant?

4. Should a college enquiry committee provide its findings or a written summary to the person who made the complaint?

5. Should I confirm that the complaint is fully resolved if some of the concerns have not yet been clearly addressed?

6. What would be a reasonable way to seek accountability while protecting myself professionally and avoiding unnecessary conflict?

I am not trying to publicly shame anyone or make assumptions about the outcome of the investigation. I want to understand the appropriate procedures and how to ensure that research contributions, consent, and student welfare are handled fairly.

I would appreciate advice from anyone familiar with research ethics, academic authorship disputes, or university grievance procedures.

At the beginning of this year, I genuinely thought I might not be able to finish my degree. Not because I lacked the ability, but because of everything happening around me.

I was hospitalised with an illness while still carrying the grief of having spent much of my graduate school experience at a cancer centre, caring for someone I loved who is no longer here. I was trying to navigate bereavement, my own health, ongoing caregiving responsibilities and the intensity of graduate school, all at once.

There were moments when it felt impossible to keep going. I remember coming to this subreddit earlier in the year, essentially in tears, because I was convinced that everything was going to fall apart. I couldn’t see how I would get from where I was to the finish line.

Thankfully, my circumstances were recognised as exceptionally unusual, and I was granted additional time and consideration under the relevant regulations. That flexibility made a real difference. It gave me the breathing room I needed to continue, rather than having my academic future determined by circumstances largely outside my control.

And today, I’m so happy to say that my thesis was awarded an exceptional first-class mark. I’ve also come top of my faculty cohort and am on track to make the Dean’s List.

I’m finding it difficult to put into words what this means to me.
I come from an ethnic minority background, and I continue to have caregiving responsibilities alongside my academic work. There have been so many things competing for my time, energy and attention that simply aren’t visible on a transcript or reflected in a final mark. To have achieved this through the quality of my academic work, despite everything that was happening in my personal life, is something I’m incredibly proud of.

I think one of the hardest things about navigating difficult circumstances during university is that you can begin to mistake your circumstances for your capabilities. When you’re struggling to meet deadlines, concentrate, or function at the level you know you’re capable of, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’ve somehow become less intelligent or less deserving of being there. Sometimes, you’re not failing academically because you lack ability. Sometimes, you’re a person going through something extraordinarily difficult and trying to do academic work at the same time.

I’m sharing this because I wish I could go back and tell the version of myself who was crying on this subreddit at the beginning of the year that things could turn out differently from what they feared.

I’m also grateful that there were mechanisms within the university system that allowed my circumstances to be considered. I know not everyone is fortunate enough to receive that kind of flexibility, and I don’t take it for granted.

If you’re currently struggling through graduate school because of illness, bereavement, caring responsibilities or circumstances that have made you question whether you can continue, I hope you give yourself some grace. Your current circumstances are not necessarily a reflection of your academic potential, and needing more time does not mean you’re less capable.

I’m still processing everything, but today I’m letting myself feel proud. After a year in which I genuinely thought I might not make it to the end, I did and I did better than I ever imagined I could.
I wish I’d known at the beginning of the year that this was possible. Things will be okay :(

I started my first postdoc beginning of this year, after completing my PhD last year. Same university, different group, at the intersection of electrical engineering and physics. Already during my PhD, I started to have more severe neck issues. Middle of this year it got so bad that I was hospitalized for two days.

Now I am mostly dealing with neck pain and brain fog. I already thought about quitting because focusing has become really difficult for me due to headaches, brain fog and insomina due to the - now chronic - pain. At times I am worried I will ever be able to work properly at all.

So far, my supervisor has been very lenient. There is one year left on the contract. Not sure if I will be able to get anything done. Not sure what to do. I'm trying physical therapy and it works just a little bit so far... and I cannot take pain meds daily since they make me feel even more delirious...

I don't think there are any university-side things they offer specifically for chronic illness... and what should they offer?

As a student in the early stages of my doctoral program, I would like to conduct a study with my thesis supervisor. Should I focus on a topic that has not been extensively researched? What approach do you follow? What is a typical number of articles to include? I have found 33 articles in Scopus and 31 in Web of Science (WoS)—is this a reasonable number?

Hi everyone! I’m an undergraduate CS student looking to contact professors for research internships or visiting student opportunities. How should I write a good cold email to professors, and what should I include to increase my chances of getting a response? Any tips or examples would be appreciated!

Hello!
I’m a third year student and I really admire one of the TAs in my class (PhD student). We share some research interests, and have chatted about them. She is really the only TA i’ve connected with. Would it be out of place/inappropriate to gift her one of those minute plastic ducks you see online, in exchange for her help at office hours?I am not trying to get better grades, this is meant for branching into mentor relationship
Thanks

Five Ways Higher Ed Leaders Can Center Human Work In AI Adoption

What do you guys think? I personally think that this is an effective way to ensure that AI can be used responsibly if faculty choose to use it in their teaching/research.

Assuming I could, which isn't a given, should I switch jobs?

I'm in my 13th year at my institution. My most measures, they are good to me. I teach the same 2/2 course package. My salary is fair and lets us travel, save for retirement, etc. I like my research and I like my students.

I do NOT have any friends on the faculty. I'm friendly enough with folks but I'm an outlier here for a variety of reasons. Imagine I'm a Muslim at a Catholic college. Or a white woman at an HBCU, that sort of thing. The mission matters to me but not like it does for some others and this shows up in various ways.

For example, we're in the process of hiring new folks and after watching a candidate give their spiel "briefly" summarize their research for 15 minutes of a 25 minute interview, I thought, "well, this person cannot concisely summarize complicated ideas into digestible chunks for students. Hard pass because they'd be a bad teacher." My colleagues said, "they're so enthusiastic!". Not said, IMO, is that the real truth is that they're well liked because they love Jesus! and we should hire them for our christian college, etc.

Anyway, I've begun to feel more constrained in my oddness here. Just that I don't belong.

But we're comfortable. We have a community, our children have friends, we have friends, we aren't too far from family, we're in a major city, etc. So while I could be much happier in my job if I went someplace where I was not such a minority or I was better aligned with my colleagues otherwise, it would come at a substantial personal/family cost. At a minimum, there would be major transition costs. And some of those could be more longstanding. Maybe our well-adjusted teen would become surly without his friends, etc.

Thoughts?

TL;DR - Lateral move being considered for a better professional fit but worried about personal/family costs to uproot. stay or go?

I'm not a newbie, I'm in my third postdoc (Humanities) and I've been around long enough to know the dynamics of academia very well. But I'm so fed up with the arrogance of academics. It's usually the established prof (I have a very clear picture in mind in terms of gender, privilege and skin colour, but I'll keep that to myself)* or in rare cases the recently appointed assistant professor. I need to get it off my chest.

Apart from my usual research and teaching load, I work for an academic journal. It's a top-tier one in my field, and while it looks like the organisation behind this type of publication is huge, it's basically me and the senior editor who do it all. We recently hired an assistant and things have been better, but I still have to put in quite a lot of extra hours to get people to publish their research. And I'm so sick and tired of authors pushing back when I send them their article after the copyediting. They don't respect the style guide, they push back because they don't think a translation is needed (spoiler alert: it is), they disregard the journal's policies and post passive aggressive comments to the copyeditor (me, I do the copyediting on top of everything else) as if they were the smartest person on earth. And my senior editor is the sweetest person on earth and she just gives in, which drives me nuts.

Your use of Latin words doesn't make you more knowledgeable, it makes your work inaccessible. Your long periods don't make you sound smart, it makes you look like someone who's just adding random words for no reason. You're not Faulkner, get over yourself and shorten. That. Period.

There is a reason why there is a style guide. Just follow it. You don't like commas inside quotation marks? That's your problem, not mine. You need to feel validated by belittling other people's work? Talk to a therapist, don't leave passive aggressive comments. You don't like the journal's policies and style guide? Go publish your work somewhere else.

Please people, be kind and patient with journal editors. It's a lot of work and it's not our full time job. Most of the time is free labour that we have to carve out from our free time.

*EDIT: it was a poorly worded way to avoid specifying a nationality that is very linked to this kind of behaviour, which is the result of a very traditional academic world of a certain European country.

I know there are lots of pitfalls in this career path but I’m not alone in this, right? I got to spend a whole day reading interesting papers, playing with data, having conversations with really smart excited people (my students) about cool questions. And I got paid to do it. Admin sucks, but honestly I feel so lucky most days that I get to do this job.

I know we complain about but does anyone else feel this way?

When on job application a sample syllabus is required, should it be a syllabus that I used on the previous job or should it be a new syllabus?

I am 38 years old and circumstances in life led me into a career which I don’t like, nor do loathe. My true passion in life has been in culture and language studies. My undergraduate degree was in a subject for which I was very passionate as a child and I did well. My work life, however, didn’t line up well with my academic interests. I returned to college two years ago undertaking a postgraduate higher diploma (note: I’m not sure if this is a common thing in the US) and passed with a 1:1. This has now opened up opportunities for me to undertake a masters; I started a few months ago part time. It will take me 2 years to achieve this masters. I’m seriously considering continuing and undertaking a PhD after the masters. What I learn, research and produce brings me enjoyment of the highest order: it invigorates me; it engages me; it fulfils me, I suppose.

The reality of life, however, is a the need to work which would see any PhD, taken on a part time basis, taking 5-6 years. This would see me as a 45/46 year old by the time it would be over. As such, my questions are:

Is my age a hindrance in my ambitions to pursue (professional) academia?

Does anyone have any similar experiences. If so, any information (good or bad) would be welcomed.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the topic to share?

If I were to start now to get ahead, what would that be? Researching and trying to get published?

PS: I haven’t revealed much about area of study as it is quite niche and I’m conscious of trying to retain some form of anonymity. If it matters, I’m in Ireland.

Thanks all.

Fill in the blank. I have a feeling this is going to get dark.

Context:

I’m trying to make a system for studying, researching, uni work basically. I have a windows laptop, an ipad and an android phone. I’m trying to use Obsidian as my working place and my source of truth, with a plugin i create flashcards directly in obsidian notes and import them into Anki. Since i’m studying math and computer science i try to write while reviewing my flashcards, on my ipad. On ipad, besides reviewing flashcards i take math notes, i do homework, i do exercises, so, i’m using OneNote to have quick access on my laptop to what i write by hand. On my laptop i take quick snips to ask LLMs questions when i get stuck or to have them review my work for mistakes. I tried to picture the workflow i’m trying to achieve.

The problem is:

I want to have easy access to my obsidian notes on my ipad. Now, naturally the first though might be obsidian sync or other similar service, but, i keep in obsidian also textbooks, as i said, i’m trying to keep obsidian as the source of truth, and making notes and referencing them directly to the pdfs in obsidian is very useful. Now, textbooks and other pdfs start eating up storage, there is a 10gb version of obsidian sync, but i’m still gonna ask if that’s the proper approach, it will probably be enough i think?

But, if there is a free alternative i would appreciate it since i’m a student. And if my way of using obsidian as a reference manager is wrong and it will make my life hard in the future i appreciate someone bringing it out. Any feedback and suggestions to my workflow or anything else are welcome.

How do you go about publishing a book with chapters based on presentations from a small conference? I've been to one such conference many years ago. There were 20-30 conference presentations that half the researchers ended up turning into a chapter for a book.

I'm working with a new team and there's a lot of research and practice under their belts (many articles, too). We've been collectively working on a journal article to summarize the collaborative work and outcomes that have happened over the last decade. Different than the specific research, the article is zooming out a bit to show how the collaborative, interdisciplinary nature of the work led to programs and policy change. Now that we're writing, I realize that some of the sections could be expanded into entire chapters. I've mentioned this to the group, have gotten interest, but no one seems to know how to go about it... I like the idea of holding a small conference so that we can come together, share the big points, and then turn that into a book that can help people other countries doing similar research and practice, but how?

I moved to industry about a year ago, but I still occasionally visit my former lab and help with projects I worked on during my postdoc.

For one project, I spent two years preparing data, training models, developing the original pipeline, conducting statistical analyses, and preparing the manuscript and figures. I was the first author on the previous submission.

The team is now preparing a new submission, and I’m being removed from author list.

I’ve experienced a similar authorship issue in this lab and previous lab, I’ve followed up to confirm that I’ll remain first author and asked to review the manuscript before submission.

What frustrates me is feeling that, even after leaving academia, I still have to stay vigilant to make sure years of work are properly credited.

I’m happy to help bring the research to publication, but having to defend my contributions is exhausting.

Experiences like this make it hard not to become deeply cynical about academia. I left a year ago, yet this part of it still follows me.

Has anyone dealt with authorship disputes after moving to other institute/industry? If discussions with the PIs failed, what actually helped?

I am really sad about the current situation of peer review in the new world dominated by LLMs.

Two months ago, we received a Major Decision based on four reviews for a paper submitted to one of the most prestigious journals in a specific sector where I work. One of the reviews has 2 comments that are related to things not pertaining our manuscript (e.g., it says the related work should discuss better the topic X, but our paper deals with topic Y, and it says the computational complexity section must be improved, but our paper did not have any). All other comments were generic, such as rewriting introduction, rewriting future work etc. As it was not the most critical review among the four ones, we tried to address all his comments except those 2-3, explaining why we couldn't. And soon we will resubmit the revision.

A few days ago, things repeated, but from the most prestigious journal in the same sector. We received a Reject and Resubmit decision for another paper.The only critical review had 34 comments, and almost half of them mention aspects related to machine learning (over fitting, cross validation, etc.)... but our paper does not have anything about machine learning or artificial intelligence!!

And unfortunately again the other half of the comments are super genetic, so applicable to any paper....

On the one hand, I am sad that this happened to the paper that I believed to be my best of the last 3-4 years. The other two reviewers were also positive and gave overall 7 useful comments that I would like to implement.

On the other hand, as this is the second time that this thing has occurred, I am worried that there is a trend of accepting many reviews and doing them with LLM, perhaps giving the LLM the wrong paper to review. Be aware, I am not against LLM a priori. It is a new tool, and it is indeed improving many things. But it cannot be used in such way... One spends so much time, just to get not related LLM-based reviews...

I hope to be among the few in this situation, because otherwise it is sad.

Let's see how low we all fall and what precious treasures we sacrificed to planning gods to avoid those Saturday morning classes.

If you have already finished your dissertation, what have you learned that would you like to have had known beforehand? I am about to start writing it up and would love to hear your experiences. Thanks <3

I’m applying to several jobs and just the sheer volume of stuff I have to get together for these files is taking a huge toll on my mental health.

I have three applications that are due, two of which I’m not worried about but the third asks for a writing sample and I would just like a little more time to edit it.

On the ad, it says “Review of applications will begin October 15 and will continue until the position is filled” … do you think it would be OK to submit on the 15th?

Thank you so much!

Im a graduate student on a grant with two Co-Pis, both in the same department. Another graduate student in the other lab worked on sampling in the field and processing data. Their Pi has become a bit problematic over the last year or so and its gotten to the point where he's withholding data and not sharing with the entire group. The plan was for me to use this data for some analyses that im working on. I feel that its unethical for him to do this. Is there any steps i can do to potentially get access to the data?

I am interested in staying in academia but my advisor tells me that I need to get used to having very intense conversations with people. I recently had one over a dispute with a fellow lab member and it went south quickly. I am passionate about science and research and want to stay in academia but I just wonder if my personality is cut out for it.