Research starts with PhD students

Chapter 30: PhD students publish in four major journals? Do you believe it?
"PhD students can get research assistantships by publishing papers. After the paper is published, they can apply directly to the school."

"Many of the review and publication fees for papers are paid from the project funds of the doctoral supervisors. Of course, many people pay out of their own pockets, such as a PhD in mathematics..."

"If you publish a high-level paper, you can apply for the President's Scholarship. The highest level of the President's Scholarship can be more than 90,000..."

"But it seems that you won't get a subsidy for your new paper."

In the computer room, Luo Yongjun explained the situation. He found that the school's research subsidy policy was meaningless for Zhang Shuo's upcoming paper.

Zhang Shuo has a collaborative project with the Institute of High Energy Physics, and the project paper will soon be published in the Journal of High Energy Physics, which is enough for him to get the highest research assistantship and the President's Scholarship.

Now if you want to publish a paper in the four major mathematics journals, you won’t get a penny of subsidy...

It’s a loss no matter how you think about it!

“There is no precedent!”

Sun Xingli suddenly looked up and shouted, "I just checked and found that there has never been a doctoral student in China who has published a paper in the four major journals alone. I mean individual publication, without a corresponding author."

“There are doctoral students who publish in top journals, but they are usually doing research with their supervisor’s team.”

"Publish four major journals separately..."

He stood up and said with a sigh, "If you pass it, you will set a record!"

The four major mathematics journals refer to the Annals of Mathematics, New Advances in Mathematics, Acta Mathematica Sinica, and the Journal of the American Mathematical Society.

These journals are famous for publishing high-level research papers in various fields of pure and applied mathematics, and are recognized as one of the most influential journals in the mathematics community.

Their impact factors are not high, but the citation half-life of their articles is very long, generally greater than 10 years.

For mathematicians, publishing articles in the four major mathematics journals is definitely a very proud thing.

Sun Xingli continued, "In the past thirty years, Sudong University has published only nine papers in the four major journals, six of which were published in recent years, and only three in the previous twenty years."

"I can't imagine how you might be praised as a god after your two articles are published..."

Zhang Shuo shook his head nonchalantly, "Maybe it won't pass the review."

Luo Yongjun is also looking forward to it, but he is more practical. "Now it's a question of whether there is subsidy for publishing papers."

"I'll go ask."

After he finished speaking, he left the computer room and went directly to the Institute of Advanced Mathematics.

The Institute of Advanced Mathematics, or IAM, is the most influential research institution in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Soochow University.

The director of the institute, Tan Youming, is a top scholar in the field of harmonic analysis. He has influence in international mathematics and has been named a member of the Academy of Sciences.

Luo Yongjun went to the office on the first floor of the research institute building and saw Qi Zhixiang, Wang Hui and Zhong Jingfen chatting.

Qi Zhixiang and Wang Hui are both heavyweight scholars in the institute, and their status is second only to Tan Youming.

Zhong Jingfen is the Institute’s Deputy Director of Administration.

"Professor Luo, why are you here?" Qi Zhixiang knew Luo Yongjun. There were many faculty and staff in the School of Mathematics, but there were only a few dozen doctoral supervisors and professors, so many people knew Luo Yongjun.

Luo Yongjun directly stated his purpose, "Professor Qi, I want to ask about the subsidy for doctoral students to publish papers."

“Subsidies for PhD students to publish papers?”

Wang Hui asked with some confusion, "Aren't there research assistantships? If the quality is high, you can also apply for the president's scholarship."

“What if it’s one of the four major mathematics journals?”

"??"

The three people in the office looked at each other.

Wang Hui simply laughed out loud, "Professor Luo, you really know how to joke. A doctoral student publishes in four major journals? Then let him come here and be a professor."

"I'm just asking, I'm not sure yet."

Luo Yongjun shook his head.

Zhong Jingfen smiled softly and said, "Professor Luo, there is no precedent for the situation you are describing."

"If you publish in the four major journals and the doctoral student only signs the paper, then you will be subject to the school's standards, and the High Court will give you a separate reward of 100,000 yuan."

"Doctoral students will receive it separately...Is that what you mean?" Zhong Jingfen said to confirm.

Luo Yongjun nodded affirmatively.

Zhong Jingfen continued, "If you submit your paper to the Institute for Advanced Studies, they can also give you a reward of 100,000 yuan. I believe Academician Tan will not object."

"One hundred thousand per article?"

"Of course, one article is enough. Two articles is 200,000 yuan." Wang Hui laughed and said jokingly, "Professor Luo, if you publish ten or eight articles, I will give you the project funds."

If it were any other time, Luo Yongjun would not be able to tolerate Wang Hui's teasing and would definitely have a fight with him on the spot.

Now, just bear with it!
Luo Yongjun got a satisfactory answer.

He walked out of the research institute building, looked around, and found the Science and Technology Department in the university administration building. He asked the same question to Gao Ming, the deputy director of the Science and Technology Office.

Gao Ming made a direct promise, "Does a PhD student publish in the four major mathematics journals? Follow the teaching staff's lead and receive an additional subsidy of 50,000 yuan."

The school will provide a subsidy of 10 yuan to faculty and staff for publishing an article in one of the four major journals.

"An additional 50,000 yuan subsidy for one article?"

"Any doctoral student who is able to publish ten papers will receive an additional subsidy of 50 yuan. That's what I say!" Gao Ming patted his chest and made the guarantee nonchalantly.

Luo Yongjun didn't quite believe Gao Ming, so he asked, "Director Gao, how about writing a receipt? Oh, how about this..." As he spoke, he took out his cell phone to take a picture.

Gao Ming was so angry that he laughed. He said loudly to the camera, "I, Gao Ming, the deputy director of administration of Soochow University, hereby promise that as long as the doctoral students of our university publish in the four major mathematics journals, each article will be subsidized 15 yuan!"

He added, "If the school doesn't approve it, I'll pay for it out of my own pocket!"

"Thank you!"

Luo Yongjun put down his phone and gave a thumbs up, "Director Gao is really courageous!"

He left after saying that.

Zhang Jian, who had been silent, suddenly said, "Director Gao, this is not true, is it? I heard that Professor Luo is good at cheating people. Professor Zhou Jianbin from the School of Mathematics was cheated."

"Also, Professor Luo has a very talented doctoral student who has received a million-dollar algorithm project from the Institute of High Energy Physics."

"I know that, but can mathematics and algorithms be the same?" Gao Ming said nonchalantly, "What is the level of the four major mathematics journals? How many papers have our school published in so many years?"

"Not to mention our school, the Donggang Mathematics Center has only published a few papers in the past ten years!"

"How many articles are there at Mizuki University and Capital University?"

“Do you believe that a PhD student can publish in one of the four major mathematics journals?”

"That's right!"

Zhang Jian could only nod.

The data can all be found, but there is no record of doctoral students publishing in the four major journals.

……

After leaving the administrative building, Luo Yongjun hurried back to the computer room, and then took credit for his achievements. "The High Court said that the subsidy for one article is 100,000 yuan, and the Science and Technology Department said that the subsidy for one article is 150,000 yuan."

"Two articles, five hundred thousand!"

"I also left evidence..."

He took out his mobile phone to show the video to Zhang Shuo and Sun Xingli. After watching it, they both gave Luo Yongjun a thumbs up.

Sun Xingli said with emotion, "Professor Luo, you are really amazing!"

"Two articles, 500,000 yuan. I thought 200,000 or 300,000 yuan would be good."

Thinking of the subsidy amount of 500,000 yuan, Zhang Shuo felt full of motivation.

He found the paper, carefully checked the content and format, and submitted it with an Institute of Advanced Mathematics...

"send!"

"Finish!"

After submitting the paper to the journal's email address, I immediately felt relaxed.

It was total relaxation.

There are no projects, no research, and nothing that needs to be thought about specifically now.

Nothing, feeling relaxed!
At the same time, you can also look forward to the publication of papers, including papers in the Journal of High Energy Physics and reviews for New Advances in Mathematics.

After relaxing for a while, he found that he was the only one with free time, as Sun Xingli and Luo Yongjun had actually started to do research seriously.

Sun Xingli closed the game and was thinking hard about a bunch of complicated characters.

Zhang Shuo stood behind and watched for a long time before he finally understood a little bit of the content, "This is... Diophantus?"

Sun Xingli raised his head in surprise, "You know?"

"come on!"

Zhang Shuo patted him on the shoulder and walked away. He had never studied number theory, so it was good enough for him to figure out that it was Diophantus.

He went to Luo Yongjun.

Luo Yongjun was also thinking seriously, but he was looking at a graphic on the computer consisting of a hemisphere and a smooth sphere.

Zhang Shuo took a look and said a professional term, "Monge-Ampere equation?"

Luo Yongjun turned his head, full of surprise, "You knew?"

Zhang Shuo pursed his lips and asked curiously, "Teacher Luo, I never knew what project you were working on."

"This one……"

Luo Yongjun obviously hesitated, and after a long while he regained his composure and said calmly, "Study the smoothness problem of the Monge-Ampere equation."

He stared into Zhang Shuo's eyes and said, "You don't know? Let me explain it to you. The Monge-Ampere equation is..."

"I know."

Zhang Shuo put his hand on his forehead.

He finally understood why Luo Yongjun hesitated when talking about the project.

"The Monge-Ampere equation is a second-order completely nonlinear partial differential equation proposed from Riemann geometry problems. It has wide applications in differential geometry, calculus of variations, optimization problems and transport problems."

"The existence, uniqueness and smoothness (regularity) of the solutions to the Monge-Ampere equation are very important research areas. A slight expansion in this direction will lead to a major mathematical breakthrough."

"So, at the same time, I also understand why the school would hold up your funding..."

(End of this chapter)