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Bioinformatics PhD problem at Leipzig University
Dear All
I am writing to all for taking suggestions for problems in my PhD. My webpage is www.tinyurl.com/abinarain .
My situation is very unusual. I enrolled for a self-funded PhD with external supervisors from University of Leipzig at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics - with thesis in a bioinformatics topic. I published 5 international conference papers and 1 journal paper, and wrote a 200 pages monograph. Unfortunately, in the journal paper that I published, even though I showed the pre-print to my supervisors, I had forgotten to put a previous conference paper of mine in reference section. Although the journal paper was an improvement of the conference paper in terms of new information provided, the PhD committee told me that this was not acceptable. I offered them the option of removing that paper and related chapter from my thesis, and showed commitment to write more papers to make up for it. However, the University did not allow me any choice, and have simply asked me to start a fresh PhD elsewhere. The department made use of my paper on their webpage for advertisements and attracting grant money, and I was paid nothing during my PhD. To make matters worse, I could not even sue the University, given that I was not physically based in Germany when all this happened. The University is not even facilitating a transfer- if this is what they want. I feel cheated for the loss of time, effort, intellectual property and the money invested for living expenses.
What can be done ? I have sent several emails to various officers of the University and the department, and to my supervisor past 1.5 years, however, nothing has happened to my benefit. I had no clue that the German system of PhD was such a cruel system. My supervisors were well aware of my past work, and if they wanted, they could have well informed me about this issue at the time they saw the pre-print of the paper.
What can be done ? Can I take legal action on the University, if I return to Germany again - under the pretext that I was not living in Germany when all these decisions were being taken against me ? What else can be done ? You can also drop me email at [email protected] .
Abi
I am writing to all for taking suggestions for problems in my PhD. My webpage is www.tinyurl.com/abinarain .
My situation is very unusual. I enrolled for a self-funded PhD with external supervisors from University of Leipzig at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics - with thesis in a bioinformatics topic. I published 5 international conference papers and 1 journal paper, and wrote a 200 pages monograph. Unfortunately, in the journal paper that I published, even though I showed the pre-print to my supervisors, I had forgotten to put a previous conference paper of mine in reference section. Although the journal paper was an improvement of the conference paper in terms of new information provided, the PhD committee told me that this was not acceptable. I offered them the option of removing that paper and related chapter from my thesis, and showed commitment to write more papers to make up for it. However, the University did not allow me any choice, and have simply asked me to start a fresh PhD elsewhere. The department made use of my paper on their webpage for advertisements and attracting grant money, and I was paid nothing during my PhD. To make matters worse, I could not even sue the University, given that I was not physically based in Germany when all this happened. The University is not even facilitating a transfer- if this is what they want. I feel cheated for the loss of time, effort, intellectual property and the money invested for living expenses.
What can be done ? I have sent several emails to various officers of the University and the department, and to my supervisor past 1.5 years, however, nothing has happened to my benefit. I had no clue that the German system of PhD was such a cruel system. My supervisors were well aware of my past work, and if they wanted, they could have well informed me about this issue at the time they saw the pre-print of the paper.
What can be done ? Can I take legal action on the University, if I return to Germany again - under the pretext that I was not living in Germany when all these decisions were being taken against me ? What else can be done ? You can also drop me email at [email protected] .
Abi
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