How do you interpret the feedbacks of my boss

There are certain conventions on how to structure thoughts, write texts, present information, and give talks. Find out and learn them. A first step is to ask your supervisor for specific advise, so you can improve these skills.

For example, is is common to finish sentences with a period and to group sentences together to form paragraphs. Note that practically everybody does this. It is a convention to efficiently convey ideas by giving the reader some expected structure she can hold on to. If you don't do this, this already sticks out as part of a "bad presentation". So, learn what conventions exist and use them.

This may help to address presentation and writing part:

http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~oded/R2/re-writing.pdf

http://www.math.wisc.edu/~ellenber/mntcg/TalkTipSheet.pdf

PS: This should have been a comment rather than an answer as it only addresses one aspect. I don't have enough reputation to comment.


The effect of a bad master's thesis on my future phd

I think the title and body of your post don't exactly match up.

You can have good research that does not produce results. You can have bad research that does produce results of some kind. You should not base the quality of your research, especially masters level, based on how much of an impact you are making on the field and how revolutionary your results are. A lot of master students don't conduct research and some of them still continue on towards a PhD. Many go straight to a PhD after getting their bachelors- none of them have had any research results.

I think the bigger issue here is your idea of productivity. There is no way for saying for certain, but it seems like you believe you are unproductive. Why is this the case? It could be founded on a false idea that you need to be constantly publishing (as a masters student) to be "productive" or to get a good recommendation letter. However this is not always the case.

My recommendation to you is to have a serious talk with your adviser about your thoughts of pursuing a PhD. Ask for advice he might have for you and whether or not he'd recommend you go down that path. You are making a lot of assumptions which are unhealthy- they will only bring your morale further down. PhD environment is much more stressful than a masters environment- my worry for you is that if you are freaking out about research now, it will only get worse in the future. Have a serious conversation with your adviser so you know how you are performing in the eyes of someone else- that should give you the best idea of your chances of getting accepted and then succeeding in a PhD program. Best of luck.


Is it plagiarism to copy formulations from others?

Sentence patterns are not intellectual property; otherwise, every author who wrote "To X or not to X" would be plagiarizing Shakespeare. (They are "riffing" off of him, but not plagiarizing!)

The example you are citing is perfectly innocuous, particularly since you are not doing anything more than summarizing the paper contents. The only thing that would make it wrong would be to copy those sentences directly from someone else's work.


I've never seen those abbreviations in a review or in any of the IEEE guidelines I looked at. I suspect those are either specific to a certain journal or—more probably—of the reviewer's personal style. I'd guess that the reviewer wanted to grade their remarks and requests of amendments and the meaning could be as follows:

MA(JOR)
MI(NOR)
OP(TIONAL)

If the above doesn't fit and you think those labels may influence your revision in a significant way, contact the editor for clarification.


Writing thesis that rebuts advisor's theory

There is no predicting personality without close study, but if the person is a true scholar they will welcome an advance, even if it refutes something they did earlier.
No, hostility isn't an unreasonable possibility. But whether it is likely depends on the person. Impossible to say how likely. You are in a better position to judge, knowing them. Are they insecure? Do they welcome a challenge? Are they fair and honest?
But it would probably be better to approach them with a questioning attitude rather than one making bold claims. After all, you might be wrong, as you say. And you should be sure of the wider literature. Has the theory been validated by others? Accepted as fact?


Why do most scientists think Brexit is bad for British science?

tl;dr: Although it is possible to have Brexit without British science suffering, this would require meaningful political support, and there is little to suggest that this will be forthcoming in the near future.

A recent report by the Royal Society provides some context. This report is focussed on the British research sector as a whole, rather than on science specifically, but not too much turns on that. Some key figues include:

Britain receives a significant amount of funding from European bodies (e.g. ERC)
A sizeable fraction of the UK science workforce originates from other EU countries (16% of academic staff; 14% of PhD students)
70% of British researchers held a non-UK affiliation at some point in the period 1996-2011, although there is no EU-specific figure.

The overall picture is that British research benefits from EU membership, through direct financial input and through mobility of individuals. British universities are disproportionately well-regarded on the international stage (e.g. the Times Higher Education ranking has 7 British universities in the top 50, compared to 7 from the rest of the EU combined), and so historically Britain has been able to attract excellent researchers from around the world, especially EU neighbours.

It is right to say that Brexit does not need to change any of this. However, maintaining the status quo would require political and financial investment from the government, and there has been little evidence that this will be forthcoming in the short term - especially given the difficulties the government has had in agreeing the basic framework for Brexit. Domestic investment in research has fallen significantly in real terms in recent years, and it is not clear that any more cash will be available in the immediate aftermath of Brexit.

It is also currently unclear how EU citizens currently living in the UK, and British citizens living in other EU countries will be affected. Some progress has been made on this, but (anecdotally) not enough to allay individuals' concerns. This is compounded by (real or perceived) xenophobic attitudes that precipitated the Brexit vote. Numerous UK-based, non-British researchers of my acquaintance are concerned over what the future holds for them, and have started to consider what other options are open to them.

Finally, it is perhaps worth noting that the Brexit vote was correlated with socioeconomic status, and the ideology of Brexit has never enjoyed much support in any of the academic circles I have been familiar with.


Depressed PhD student in USA, wanting to quit

Help is very likely available. Consider contacting a neutral group at your university. Such groups typically include:

the omsbuds office/ ombudsman
the PHD student's association
the student government
counseling services
international students services
the graduate school

Your own university may have different groups.  Try some google searches, such as "(university name) help graduate student neutral". Start the conversation by stating you are looking for advice and alternatives to your present situation. Up front, specifically ask which parts of the conversation are confidential, or not. Usually, for example, anything involving physical harm requires the person you speak with to report.

When meeting, put together a short narrative that frames your problem. Consider in advance what you want, and what your questions are. Also be open to options of which you have not thought. Realize that most of these groups will be more likely to give advice on how to move to a more tenable situation than they are to wade in and fix the problems that exist. Some may, however, offer to facilitate discussions, and advise you on how to negotiate.

Finally, realize that the university has a stake in your success. Within reason, they will likely work to make things right.


Asking for help regarding Statement of Purpose

even someone who does have their PhD may have relatively prominent publications in fields tangential to their core interests. make your statement of purpose concise - a single statement about your transition between fields can prevent a misunderstanding - and cite all the best work you've done.


How to write publishable-quality math and science papers?

Two good primers specifically on the subject of mathematics, which is quite different from more empirical sciences in many of its conventions:

Paul Halmos’s How to write mathematics is a classic — still excellent, if slightly old-fashioned in some ways.
Terence Tao’s blog post On writing collects and summarises links to some excellent advice from himself and others.


Professors/Teachers only replying to part of my email

Professors are busy and receive a lot of mail (> 100 per day, not counting mass-mailings). It's rational for them to skim past the salutations and introductory parts until the end, where you usually find "the gist". Obviously, this filter is fast but imperfect.

To ensure that you get a response to all of your questions, write very short and very neat emails. Also make it as clear as the day what you want the respondent to do. Finally, don't bother asking questions to which you can simply look up the answer:

  Dear Professor Foo,

  this is about our discussion after the last seminar on FooBar.

  Should I hand in my essay before or after the last session? I couldn't find this on the syllabus.
  I was also wondering if you could recommend a textbook on BarBaz.

  Kind regards

  Foo Baz

There really isn't more you can do. If you still get partial responses, write another mail about only the remaining items (as you do).


How much salary can I expect as a physics post doc in the Netherlands?

You can expect rather more than that.

10/0 corresponds to a second year PhD student (functieschaal P). A postdoc typically goes on somewhere around 10-5, plus a point per year. So you might hope to be somewhere around 10-8.
To get your annual salary, multiply these numbers by 14: 12 months plus two bonus payments. Don't ask me why.
Coming from abroad you are probably eligible to be paid under the "30% rule", where you get the first 30% of your salary tax free.

Thus, after tax you can expect to get something in the region of €35-40k ($48-55k). Be aware that living costs may be higher than you're used to in the US.

Of course, you shouldn't rely on this information: talk to the HR department. But the situation isn't as bad as you fear!


Your affiliation on the front of the paper should be Institute A where you did the work. However you should also provide a current address for readers who may wish to contact you. So simply add a footnote to the paper (often this can be on the front page) stating that your current address and email is is now at Institute B. Once the paper has been published it cannot be changed.


Any book or tutorial about good practices or typical mistakes when conducting scientific research?

Thomas Kuhn's "The structure of scientific revolutions." A fantastic introduction about how advances in science are usually made.


Teaching experience as a subcontractor for a university program

I suspect that legally you only work for the subcontractor since the university didn't hire you directly. This is especially true if the contractor supplies curriculum.

But in the materials you can also say where you performed your duties, listing the university as the client, but not your employer.

The university might object if they don't have a real relationship with you directly and you try to indicate otherwise.


Do teaching load agreements always refer to the academic year?

I've seen this sort of thing happen from time to time; these situations are sufficiently open to interpretation that if you don't have clarity in the letter itself, the chair may try to get you to do a bit of extra teaching. It's entirely reasonable to push back a bit.

First, though, I'd want to know what you're doing in Spring 2018. If you're getting a semester of teaching release then, that may be just as good as getting in Fall 2017 and thus there would be little reason to argue.

If you're expected to teach in Spring 2018 as well, then you've got a legitimate beef. Just bring it up politely, ask for some remedy, and remember that it's in your department's interest as well as in yours that you have the time you need to get established in your new department and get your research off to a splendid start.


No, it's not considered a published paper in the usual sense of peer-reviewed publications. ArXiv is meant as a preprint server where you upload preprint versions (essentially polished draft versions) to quickly disseminate your research, before submitting it to a scholarly journal where the paper undergoes peer review. Only after the paper has been peer-reviewed and published by the journal do you have a "real" publication. (Depending on your agreement with the journal, it's then possible to update the arXiv listing to reflect revisions made to the manuscript during the publication process.)

It's still appropriate to list such preprints on your CV - especially early on in a career, when you might have few peer-reviewed publications. This is fine as long as it's made clear that these are preprints, or manuscripts under review or similar.


Book recommendations for a PhD supervisor

As a current PhD student thinking about what I'd like a supervisor to be aware of, I can think of a few book recommendations which might be useful. The challenge of doing a PhD which I've noticed is learning how to be efficient and happy in the face of a really different kind of challenge than my previous studies were. These books offer models for that, which might help you make more concrete suggestions to your students when they (inevitably) struggle or at least help you understand them more.

Deep Work by Cal Newport. A really good advice-filled book about how to get productive, creative work done by relegating distractions and creating the right kind of time/space.
Becoming a Successful Scientist by Craig Loehle. A general book about the sorts of things a scientist in training might need to think about and adapt to.
A book about depression and other mental health struggles, for example Curse of the Strong by Tim Cantopher. This is very likely to be a challenge that your students may face, and knowing a bit about it will make you better equipped to help them.
A book about how to communicate when difficult things are happening. For example, NVC offers an interesting model, as in Nonviolent Communication -- A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg.

Hope that's helpful and good luck! And remember that your students can probably tell you a lot about what you need to know to help them if you can get to a place where you can listen and they can share.


Can I list tentative invited talks on my CV?

In terms of status-enhancement or proof of merit, the actual giving of the talk is of almost no consequence. The invitation is the thing that "proves" status and merit (such as they may be). So, yes, list it, all the more considering that you probably don't have many such episodes to put on your CV.

For that matter, if you yourself had some (unfortunate, presumably) reason to cancel from your end, still, you did get the invitation.

From their end, to cancel your talk after issuing the invitation would be a fairly severe gaucherie... so I'd bet it won't happen. Even if it did, almost-surely the official reason would be some funding problems, not that they've discovered that you're a poseur and a bad person, etc. So the status and virtue leading to the original invitation are not diminished.

Being invited to give presentations is a kind of proof of one's relevance to the research community.

There are rumors of "an internet", supposedly allowing easy, massive, long-distance asynchronous communication without the expenses and perils of long-distance personal travel, but until that possibility is assimilated into the academic community... much like the notion that "publication" could mean literal publication, rather than running a status-and-merit gauntlet... :)

Joking (???) aside, it's not the literal giving of the talk, and is not the literal publication in refereed journal, that confer status or prove merit, but the invitation (resp. acceptance).


updating paper after conference/workshop

It depends on the conference or workshop, of course. In my field (Computer Science), it is uncommon but not unheard-of for workshops to have what is called "post-proceedings". That is, authors submit an initial version of their manuscript, present at the workshop, and then have a chance to revise for the actual published paper. In this case it is possible, maybe expected, that you actually improve your paper based on the comments you received (although usually no additional review happens at this point).

However, most venues don't have that. The more usual case is that you submit a paper and the proceedings are already published when the conference starts. In this case, you obviously have no chance to revise your paper, because by the time the conference happens the paper is already available on archival sources. The advantage, of course, is that the paper is available for people to read during, or even before, the conference.

  Aren't workshops/conference mechanisms to get feedback?

For conferences in CS, this is most certainly not what conferences are for. In this field, conferences are a means to communicate the result of finished studies, not to get input on how to do them. Sure, you can get ideas for future work, but it will pretty much by definition be too late to change what you have already done. For workshops, things are a bit muddier, but in practice authors usually use the feedback they receive at workshops to improve the larger study that they are usually working on (which will be submitted to a conference or journal), not so much to improve the workshop paper itself.


Is it necessary to specialize on a topic when writing publications?

No, it's by no means necessary to specialise on one topic for all your papers, and many people don't.

You do make it harder for yourself when you don't, though. Going into a new topic requires familiarity with a new area of cutting-edge research, learning which publication(s) to target, and maybe learning new methods.

And one of things I find most time-consuming is that you have to collect a new set of references. Once you've published within one topic, it's like you've laid down foundations in your literature review that you can build on again and again. But when you move to a new topic, you have to lay down new foundations: instead of simply updating your last literature review, you have to start rebuilding the foundations from a much smaller base. So you do find the really prolific people, who churn out maybe a dozen papers a year or more, have often stuck to a very narrow topic, and can get closer to staying on top of all the relevant literature.


Citing papers, that are cited within a paper?

This will all become much clearer if you shift your perspective away from paraphrasing and towards giving a context for your own work.  Start by pretending that the other paper doesn't exist, and asking: "What does the reader of my work need to know about this concept?"

When you know that, and you know what level of detail you want to go into, then you can look to the other paper (and other things as well, I hope!) as a source of information to help you build your discussion of the context of your work.

A useful phrase at this point is: "A thorough discussion of [subject] can be found in [review paper]."  Then you can explain your view of the material, which the reader will understand is heavily influenced by the nice review paper you've just cited. In digesting the review to produce your own explanation, you will need to choose what you think are the important points for understanding the context of your work, and the key references supporting those points will be the ones that you should cite: as these references are the ones that were important for your understanding, so too should they be for your readers.


Should I cite a result if the paper doesn't include a proof?

Citing the other paper seems necessary in any case, as they have stated the lemma before you. This is for attribution. Citing the other paper for evidence seems not appropriate, as there is no proof given there.

If the lemma is not rather obvious (say the obvious proof strategy works in < 5min), then stating it without proof would be very bad form. Put in an appendix if you don't want a boring lengthy proof to spoil the otherwise elegant paper, but put it somewhere people can find it.


Any shame in copying from a grant proposal body to create an abstract?

No, there is no shame in that.

  On one hand, it feels funny to have (e.g.) the opening sentence be the same, and if the reviewers notice it, it might look unprofessional.

I usually try to have the "opening sentence" be different, but that is really more a matter of personal preference than anything else. I don't find it "unprofessional" if I review grant proposals where the main proposal and the abstract start with the same sentence.


Is it possible to cite from an abstract in a scientific paper

As a general rule, I would advise against it. It can be tricky to separate what constitutes original work of the authors and what they themselves cite from elsewhere.


Should I define two essential terms in abstract?

Many author guides I am aware of advise to only define something in the abstract, when it’s really needed. For example, Physical Review X advises (boldface mine):

  In particular, the abstract and introduction of each article should be written so as to be understandable by a broad spectrum of readers. New terminology should be introduced only when clearly needed. It should be appropriate and, if possible, convey to the reader an accurate impression of its meaning.

Now, you have good arguments to define something in the abstract, but an overzealous editor or referee might still be against it due to interpreting guidelines as rules.

That being said, I have seen new terms introduced in abstracts many times and most of the times this was the better alternative to me – this also applies to interdisciplinary papers relating to medicine. I have rarely seen terms rigorously defined in abstracts though.

Some further remarks on this:

The main purpose of your paper is probably not to define these terms but to analyse the differences between them or similar. Most probably there also is a practical benefit of being able to make this distinction other than clarifying communication. This should be your motivation. Also, you should write your abstract (and paper) from this perspective and not from the perspective of introducing a new terminology – which is what your current abstract sounds like to me.
Do not start with the definition right away, but motivate it first. It’s not new language that is confusing (at least as long as we are talking about two terms only), it’s unmotivated new language. If you motivate the distinction first, the reader can associate something with the terms and thus better memorise them.
By all means, make clear that you are defining something when you do. Nothing is more confusing if you do not know whether something is new terminology or not. The context should make clear that the term is new and, if it’s not unseen in your community, italicise the newly introduced terms.
It’s not important to precisely define your concepts in the abstract – you can do that later. Rather give the main distincitive aspects, so that most readers get the central idea to your distinction. Of course, if the definitions are sufficiently concise, you can use them in the abstract.

To distill this into an example abstract, which does not exactly match your case, if I understood it correctly, but should illustrate the idea:

  We show that phenomenon Z can occur in two distinct flavours, which exhibit relevant differences in behaviour in [application]: [definition X], which we denote as X, and [definition Y], which we denote as Y. […]


What is the role and format of the qualifying exam in CS/ECE programs where the exam is not in the form of a comprehensive written exam?

Where I did my Ph.D., we effectively had no written qualifying exam.  Instead, students were expected to gather high marks following a certain complex distribution of classes within the first two years (there was also another component, involving giving a research talk, but that was more equivalent to defending a thesis proposal).  If you could not achieve enough high marks, then you had to fall back on a more traditional qualifier for whatever subject areas you couldn't pass out of via classes. I never knew anyone who didn't just get the high marks, and the rumor amongst the students was that if you had to use the fall-back, the professors were sure to fail you because they'd be grumpy that they had to prepare a whole exam on your behalf.

The rationale for this method comes from the department's goal for the qualifying exam: ensuring that students have a sufficiently strong grounding across a sufficiently broad area of expertise.  Given this goal, why can't high marks in key graduate-level classes establish expertise just as well as a special non-class exam?  Adding a special exam just increases the stress on students and the burden of preparation on faculty.

As a student, it was certainly much appreciated---if you're in a Ph.D. program, you're probably pretty good at classes, and so being able to tackle the whole qualifier thing just by being good at classes was quite a relief, especially compared to the stress that people I knew were going through elsewhere.  I think the faculty really liked it too, because they could deal with the whole qualifier thing just by teaching the classes they wanted to teach anyway.

As for down-sides... I suppose it means the faculty have to trust each other enough to believe that high marks actually mean a student is qualified?  Other than that, I really don't see any down-sides.  Personally, I think that the traditional qualifying exam is essentially academic hazing and should be replaced by methods like this.


Statement of Purpose-How specific it should be?

Disclaimer: I am still a graduate student and my experience is limited to my own application process and as a student member of my department's graduate admissions committee.

I have seen that specific reasons are almost always better than general reasons. When I was going through the application process, my SOP always mentioned current specific projects that my POI's were doing and how I could be an optimal choice for those projects in the near future with my background and current research. This approach seems to have worked well enough for me.

During multiple interviews in the application process, my SOP was often alluded to, especially in context with these specific projects and my fit with them.


How much does rigor and time commitment of a math PhD correlate to prestige of the program?

I think a more productive way to factor your considerations for your spouse and your family life into your choice of program would be by considering things like:

your spouse's preferred climate (temperatures, rain, snow, etc.)
how isolated vs. how easily connected your spouse would be with others -- there are two aspects here -- both people of your spouse's nationality, if your spouse is originally from a different country than the country where you hope to study, and also people not of your spouse's nationality (in the U.S., international trailing spouses sometimes find it rewarding to form friendships with other non-U.S. citizens, who are not necessarily of the same nationality)
how easy and quick it would be for you to pop home for dinner before getting back to school for some evening work, or for your spouse to stop by your department to spend some time with you in a study break
possible employment opportunities if that is something your spouse is interested in


How to complain about an abusive editor?

If you want it to stop, the best way to address the issue is to address it with the editor himself. That's not a guarantee that it will be addressed, it could very well be the case that the editor is aware of how his requests are perceived by the most people in the field, and is choosing to run the journal this way anyways.

You mentioned that you avoid submitting to this journal. If you want to lower the prestige of the journal, you could publicize the unprofessional practices of the editor, and encourage your colleagues to submit to better, more professional journals instead. As MxNx mentioned in the comments, there are many good journals they could submit to instead. If many people in your field stop submitting to this journal, chances are it will fall in prestige and possibly fail eventually, unless the practices change.


Can a single bad letter of recommendation ruin my chances of getting admitted to grad school?

Pick someone else if it isn't already too late.

The actual answer to your question is this: It is far better to have a good letter from a faculty member who is relatively unknown than a bad letter from someone they recognize and respect.  In fact, the latter is probably the worst thing that could happen.

If it is already too late, i.e. you have asked Professor X, he's agreed, and you've sent him the material (which is probably an online link these days) then work hard to make writing the letter easy.  Put together the following information and send it fast:

Include your student number.
Remind him which of his classes you have taken, and when.
How did you distinguish yourself in those classes?
How would you describe yourself? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? He is going to have to answer those questions when he writes your reference, so the more details the better; but these must be things your referee knows himself.
What are some of your academic and nonacademic accomplishments that he may not remember?
What makes him particularly qualified to write a letter for you? That is, why should the recipient of the letter value it over a letter from someone else?

This goes in an email that says, "Thank you very much for agreeing to write a reference for me on very short notice.  I hope the following will be of use to you when you write it."


The problem you ran into is one of the prime examples of why one should always get all the coauthors' approvals before submitting an article.

If you have in fact documented approval from your previous advisor for the paper in the form in which you submitted, the facts are on your side. And there's little your advisor can do about it: it is his own fault for not having caught something he disliked and to have given you the OK to submit. (Though pissing off one's advisor is generally not a good career move.)

If you have not obtained the approval, then you almost certainly must retract the paper. All journals I have submitted to and refereed for either requires the assent to publication be individually given by all the authors (in which case the journal will often ask for contact information of all authors to be keyed in when submitting), or that the corresponding author certify that he is in a position to speak on behalf of the other authors about the paper. The fact that your advisor is making noises means that either

He will disagree, as a coauthor, for the paper to be published, or
You have in fact lied when you certified that you can speak for him, in which case the journal will retract your paper for violating their rules

(assuming some form of this question was asked during the submission process). In other words, most likely you are already in a situation where you either voluntarily retract the submission (in which case the only people who will know about it are likely yourself, the two coauthors involved, and the handling editor at the journal), or, if you chose to publish anyway, be forced to retract the paper by the journal, since many journals take authorship problems rather seriously. In this latter case anyone with a subscription to the journal would know that your paper was retracted because of some sort of misconduct (yes, misrepresenting author information is scientific misconduct). Your call.

The above basically answers what you should do in your situation. But what about the case where the paper has not already been submitted, but there are disagreements over authorship and wording of the paper?

My only suggestion is that in that scenario, you should get together with your two "co-authors" and hammer out a compromise yourselves. While I find the objections by your advisor a bit strange, there may be ulterior reasons you are not telling us. A possible compromise in this case would be for you to publish one paper, containing only the contributions of your thesis work, with your advisor, and a second one containing the reanalysis and extension, with the other author.

And do not, in any case, go over the objections of your co-author(s) and submit a paper in a form they do not agree with. That's a recipe for academic misconduct right there.


How should faculty implement STEM classes that require hands-on lab experience in online learning platforms given COVID-19 pandemic?

Use video demonstrations of each section of the experiment and the results and use those for discussion.


Is it possible to write PhD thesis (or PhD level article) in Computer Science without (real) advisor?

Let's not lose sight of the fact that doing a PhD is a very hard thing to do, even with an adviser (and particularly in computer science, but also in essentially any other discipline). So what you're asking is basically "is it possible to do this thing that is difficult enough that a good proportion of the people who try to do it don't finish, but in a way that makes it even more difficult than it already is?"

To use an exaggerated metaphor, it is a bit like asking whether it's possible to climb mount Everest blindfolded. The literal answer is, yes, it's possible. The practical answer is: any specific person who tries it will almost certainly fail.


What author name should I use for publication?

Whichever name you use on your email or, if applicable, professional membership to the journal.  If a reader contacts NAME and gets a response from OTHER_NAME, it will be a bit jarring and perhaps cause them to wonder if they contacted the correct person.  Similarly, if you are in the journal's system as NAME but your paper uses OTHER_NAME, then that will cause confusion.


Characterization of the lifespan of an academic paper

Yes this has been studied before. One endpoint for what your looking for is the citation half-life.

Basically, this is a metric that calculates the median year age of articles citing a journal. This Science Magazine article discusses the topic further.


What are benefits of writing a survey paper?

In many fields, well-executed literature surveys are widely read and widely cited because they help a lot of researchers not have to retrace the steps of the survey authors. Readers can quickly benefit from getting a big picture of the domain and then be guided into specific articles to dive into according to their specific interests. This is a very valuable kind of research contribution.
So, the primary intrinsic benefit would be that you would be providing a valuable service to your research community. By "intrinsic", I mean a benefit that is its own reward--in this case, the satisfaction of sharing helpful research.
For extrinsic benefits that would justify the time and effort (that is, indirect benefits that lead to other things that might be valuable to you), a well-executed survey article would be widely read and highly cited, so your number of citations would go up. For this reason, a highly reputed journal would like to publish such an article, since they want those high citations. High citations in reputable journals should generally be good for your career.
All that said, it would be good to talk to a more experienced researcher in your field to get their assessment of if your ideas would indeed be valuable and appreciated, since it is often difficult to assess that yourself, especially if you are a junior researcher.


Publishing work in areas you're no longer interested in

It depends.

Some questions might help guide you to an answer:

how important is the work you've done ? If it's not yet publishable does this mean it's not complete yet ?
Since you're not in the area, do you even know if the topic/solutions are still relevant ?
Are you proud of this work, to the point where you'd be annoyed if someone else came up with the same ideas and published them ?
How much effort will it take to make the work publishable, and how does this interfere with current work that you're doing ? I.e are you in the initial stages of a Ph.D and can spend time on this, or are you deep into your own research where the context switching might prove distracting ?


Can copyright prevent claims of self-plagiarism?

First off:

  I don't believe you can self-plagiarize.

I'm afraid that it doesn't matter what you believe about the word or its definition. It is not the reuse itself that is considered here, but it matters that most other academics believe that unattributed reuse of one's own work is ethically incorrect. If you choose to do things that most others label "self-plagiarism," then sooner or later it will not go well for you.

Now, as for your idea about copyright: potentially you could in fact make yourself a pain for the faculty members who deal with you.  You don't even have to be right or sane about your argument, you just have to threaten to make a big legal stink.  You will then greatly complicate your professor's lives, but one way or another you will not prevail: most likely either you will lose the legal case or the university may simply decline to continue instructing you.


What does "interdisciplinary" mean in the context of Quantum Computing?

"interdisciplinary" is just a 'buzzword' that essentially means that none of the traditional divisions of the sciences applies for the field. As this is the case with most recent serious research, this word is often vacuous.

As for quantum computing, practice is currently dominated by the Physicists. Theory is mostly for the CS people. They don't mix very well, as both think they know the other field while they in fact don't.


Reference citations sequence for "Crescent Classification"

Usually, numerical citations are required to be sorted in increasing order. It might not be a hard requirement for all the journals which use numerical citations, but it makes citations more readable, and it allows abbreviations such as "[5-7]", instead of "[5], [6] and [7]".

The example given by the reviewer can essentially arise in two cases:

The reference list is not sorted according to the citation order: The solution here is, indeed, to sort the list of references according to the citation order. The way to achieve this depends on the typesetting system you are using. If you had typeset the manuscript with LaTeX and set-up the references with Bib(La)TeX, let them fix the order by using suitable options (for more detail on this, search the documentation; if this fails, ask on TeX.SE). If you had set-up the list of references manually (I hope not), then manually change the order.
There are multiple citations along the manuscript with inconsistent order: Suppose that in Section I you have cited three references with order [1], [2], and [3], and then in Section II you have cited those references again, in the same sentence, but with different order, e.g., [3], [1], and [2]. Here the solution is to rephrase the sentence in Section II to cite the references in the order [1], [2], and [3].

This is as far I can go with the details you provided.


Is there a single academic database for Management Information System /Decision Support System area?

The short answer is: No, there isn't.

This is simply because MIS/DSS research is often published in outlets which are more closer to the discipline of the context. For instance, many health informatics studies could also be found in the health outlets i.e., atypical MIS venues; or, a DSS study done in the context of nursing is most likely to be found in a nursing outlet, so on and so forth.


What are the best methods for independently publishing an academic book?

My advice is to go with a commercial publisher if you are so luck as to have one already willing to do an advance.  They have the marketing channels to do something with your book.  No promises of course, but self published works are incredibly unlikely to break through into being used.

Just take care of yourself in terms of rights and such.  (You need to give them the work in question of course, but make sure it does not impact any future production.)  Also, even while negotiating rights, realize they are "a customer" and really the most important one.  So don't be a jerk.  If anything try to establish a connection to be exploited later and give them a little "come on" (without making commitments) that you are up to publishing more with them.


The most typical path for shifting your field after a Ph.D. is by means of one or more postdocs.  A postdoc is an opportunity for more training and is often used by people to move between fields.

The challenge is finding the right postdoc (or chain of postdocs) to make the shift, which may be easy or difficult depending on the particulars of your fields. For example, shifting from computer science to systems biology is generally pretty easy; moving from Sanskrit literature to aerospace engineering would probably be quite difficult.

Once you have a more more permanent position, on the other hand, you are likely to find much of your time is consumed by the other responsibilities of that position.  For example,  if hired as faculty you will find much of your time is spent not as a researcher but as a teacher, advisor, department committee member, fundraiser, and administrator.  Combine that with something like a ticking tenure clock, and it can be quite difficult to change fields once you have passed the postdoc phase.


Are programmers usually included as co-authors in psychology?

In general, only researchers are included as authors. In some cases, the person doing the programming makes a critical intellectual contribution and becomes a researcher. In Psychology, specialist help is often brought in for programming, statistics, modelling, animal care, data acquisition, drug administration, and subject treatment. These support staff are often just turning a "crank". The crank is not necessarily easy to turn and the project would not be completed without it being turned, but turning the crank is not research.

Support staff tend to be mentioned in the acknowledgements. Programmers tend to get the short end of the stick in that they get acknowledge only the first time the software is used while other support staff get mention on every paper they are involved with. Support staff only become authors if they do something novel (for example, develop novel testing software). In these cases, they would be an author on the paper (often a methods paper) describing that novel contribution.


Choosing between two post-docs where one is with my PhD advisor

Your primary goal during a post-doc is to improve your chances to land a permanent job in academia. You should compare both jobs with that goal in mind. Especially interesting is the recent track record of both PIs: How many top publications did they recently have? How many of their graduates have made it to permanent jobs? You should absolutely watch out for "red flags" that may make your life difficult, like (trustworthy) hints about a poor working environment. Based on your comment, there is a reason to be a bit skeptical, and you are well-advised to seek more information.

Generally, switching to a different place after your PhD is a good idea. You want to communicate the idea that you can do a good job in different environments and with different people. You also don't need to be concerned about switching after two months. It's quite typical that people do a few post-doc months at their PhD institution while looking for a job somewhere else. (If you're still worried, you don't even have to mention in your CV that the last two months were a post-doc; you can just specify the duration of the full employment at your home institution, and that did your PhD there.)


It should be noted that the reason for the difference between the US and European style programs is primarily philosophical, and has to do with the way master's degrees are considered.

In Europe (or at least those countries part of the Bologna treaty), master's degrees "follow on" from the bachelor's degree program, and usually programs are designed so that students who complete the bachelor's degree will continue on to the master's at the same institution before beginning a doctoral program.

By contrast, in the United States, the master's degree is very weakly coupled to the bachelor's program. Instead, in many places, it's viewed either as a separate degree in its own right, or as a stepping stone to doing a doctoral degree. Moreover, because the bachelor's degree program is only four years, while the European bachelor's-master's system includes five years of coursework, there is a bit of a discrepancy between the coursework a bachelor's degree holder in the US would have, versus that of a master's holder in Europe. Consequently, most schools tend to require roughly a year of coursework for students entering a doctoral program, as it acts as completing the master's program at a European university.

Also, because graduate admissions are almost always organized at the departmental level in the US, rather than the research group level, there is usually a "qualification" procedure which must be completed at American universities that aren't found in European universities. The coursework phase of the doctoral degree often figures into the material tested in the qualifying exam, and therefore schools often are reluctant to waive these coursework requirements.

However, reluctance is not necessarily the same as refusal. If you have questions about how things work, and whether a particular department would be willing to waive some of the requirements for you, you should contact them. If you can demonstrate that you have most of the work already in place, they may be able to let you skip some of the classes, or at least replace them with other electives (which may be of benefit—you shouldn't assume you're done with classes and learning just because you have a master's or even a doctoral degree!).


Is it possible for me as a graduate student in the US to a sign a contract with an US company to create a US patent from my PhD research?

In general, the procedure works roughly like this:

Optional, depending on how potentially valuable this situation might be: Contact an intellectual property owner of your own, especially if considerable monetary amounts are involved.
Optional: It can be very helpful if you can see if anyone in your department has had experience with this personally, as you can go to them and they can often provide a few insider tips and suggestions that would be more relevant to your local situation.
Contact your University's Intellectual Property Office (or equivalent) to schedule a meeting to discuss the situation. Initially you just attend yourself with any co-creators, company isn't involved yet at this stage.
If you are in a place where the University claims ownership, you'll need to file something like a discovery statement outlining the intellectual property. If the University doesn't have ownership, they'll often be willing to discuss the option to assign it to them as part of a royalty agreement. If they do have ownership, as the creator it is still typical to receive royalties as part of the process (it is not ownership that is strictly free of responsibility on their part), but refer back to the IP office and your lawyer for specific guidance.
Your assigned representatives (lawyers, generally) will try to work out a contract with the company to define the transfer of rights, limitations, royalties/payments, etc.

As you are new to the process, the only way anything is likely to work out well for you is to get experienced people on your side to look after your rights (and ensure they themselves get paid for doing so).

If you are working with a University of any significant size and experience - and just having a PhD program suggests the place probably qualifies - there will be an office of people who have done with this many times before and can advise you better as to your specific situation.

There is huge variation in the IP agreements you signed between institutions and local laws, so I believe what I outline above is as close to a universal answer as possible. The devil is always in the details, so make sure you talk with people who are familiar with the local laws and policies that will apply to you.


Who to ask for letters of recommendations?

You want the letters that can say the most about you beyond how you did in a class (that's in your record) even if their expertise is not the closest to the mathematics you want to do in grad school.
That suggests your thesis advisor, and #1.
I would hope that your ambition to go for the math PhD would appeal to #4 even though acceptance would mean they wouldn't have you for a master's student.
Related: Postdoc Letter of recommendation same school or different school


Continuum from collaboration on homework to copying

That is why I have a rule that for each homework a group of students is selected "at random", and asked by the TA to explain what they turned in. The grade of the interrogation replaces the homework grade.

Rationale is that I really don't care (too much) if they copied from the Internet, got it in an obscure book somewhere, or worked it out in a group. I want them to understand, and this forces them to at least be somewhat familiar with the solution they hand in.


How to answer a reviewer asking for the methodology code of the paper?

You cannot answer “convincingly”, because your assumption that it is okay not to provide the code is incorrect, and the reviewer is correct to ask for it. And the fact that it’s time-consuming to prepare the code for release is neither here nor there: it’s also time-consuming to write a good paper and polish it over and over to make it into something people can read and understand; but that’s what good researchers do, because they understand it’s important and that this is the way to do good science.
For a related discussion, see here.


Is reproduction of copyrighted material in a research proposal fair use?

A proposal is not a publication, and as such you do not need to worry about the usual strictures of copyright.  It doesn't really matter what the technicalities are: if the proposal is to remain private, de facto it is as though it doesn't exist from the copyright holder's perspective.

Academic honesty, however, is another story.  If the figure is not yours, you absolutely must give credit to its actual author.  Further, you need to ask yourself: is including somebody else's work actually good evidence for my ability to execute the work that I am proposing?  In some cases, it may still be the right thing to do, but usually if it is a diagram, you will probably do better to create your own independent version, and if it is data you will probably do better to cite the result but not to waste precious proposal space reproducing their figure.


I won't be applying for master's programs until next year. Should I start studying for the GRE now?

First, the GRE, especially the subject test in math, is a very highly stylized version of a very particular slice of a fairly low-level piece of school-mathematics... Whatever one thinks about it, it is widely used, and its idiosyncrasies and limitations are often over-looked for the sake of the convenience of having a single number to (supposedly usefully) compare people from very different backgrounds. Thus, you don't want to show up and be surprised by what it is, for sure! As in comments, do some practice exams to see what the questions are...

Also, do think in terms of the possibilities for "gaming" a multiple-choice exam. The most successful of your competitors will have some success with that aspect, apart from knowing or not-knowing mathematics.

But do not let the GRE too-much affect studying actual mathematics. For example, things that don't admit "testing" by multiple-choice questions can't make it onto the GRE, yet arguably are far more important in the larger enterprise than things that can.

The possibility of gaming the exam also means that "problem solving" is not really what it's about. It's about doing enough diagnostic stuff to eliminate wrong choices, and then whatever's left has to be right. This is methodologically wildly different from the practice of mathematics.


My experience on this (Europe, physics department): I started my PhD last year, up to that point I had coauthorship on one publication (This dates back to my bachelors degree, I was a research assistant on a project that lead to a publication). Fellow PhDs in my current group have either one or no publicatiion as coauthors from their masters programme.

To cut it short: In my field it would be quite uncommon to have your 'own' papers (as in first author, not sure if a journal would even accept such a submission) before you finished your masters, coauthorship depends on how keen the supervisor is on publishing results (and how well the overall research on that topic is progressing, my thesis was connected to a PhD's research, as those results could be published I got coauthorship).


This question seems to be based on a misconception, namely that professors start companies substantially less frequently than they could or should.

The vast majority of professors, even in fairly applied areas like computer science (compared with literature, say), are simply not in a position to start companies based on their research.  You need a viable business plan, and they don't grow on trees.  Specifically, even really profound research with many practical applications usually just doesn't have obvious commercial potential as a stand-alone business, since it won't be clear how to monetize it.  Of course, there are exceptions, and plenty of important businesses were started by faculty, but only a small fraction of professors could do this successfully.

Here's another way of looking at it.  There's no reason why a business based on a professor's research needs to be founded by the professor.  If you see someone with great ideas, you can buy the rights to the ideas and found your own company.  If professors were missing a lot of wonderful opportunities to found companies, then you'd expect entrepreneurs to step in and do it, but that doesn't happen very often either.

Ultimately, this is why we have academic research.  The stuff that leads to obvious business plans could easily be funded by industry.  By contrast, one of the reasons why academia includes research is to make sure work that can't easily be sold doesn't get neglected.


Undergraduate doing a research term - supervisor has not assigned me any work to do other than reading, after one month. What can I do to fix this?

As an undergraduate, it is not normal for you to be expected to come up with the research project on your own (that is what getting a PhD teaches you!). When I started out I was typically assigned a graduate student advisor who would let me work on their project or would work directly with me to propose another.

There is typically a lot of reading that you will do when first starting out, but not applying it directly to a project or research proposal after a month indicates that something needs to change.

I would first talk about these matters with someone who understands your supervisor (graduate student, postdocs etc.) to understand more about your supervisor's expectations. Then have a talk with your supervisor with your concerns (they are valid!). If your supervisor continues to not be helpful I would consider finding another. It's tough to start over, but it would be better in the long run if you can find a better lab that is more nurturing to your growth as a researcher.


How do junior professors build up a team of lab personnel?

As usual, things vary a bit between institutions, countries and even specific posts. One particularly important point here is what exactly a "junior professor" is and how independent (s)he is supposed to work. In the following, I am assuming that you mean an entry-level "real" professorship, where the junior professor is supposed to execute pretty much the same responsibilities as other faculty, just maybe on a different scale.

  how does a junior professor recruit graduate and undergraduate research assistants to initially build up a lab at a university? How long would this normally take?

Generally speaking, the hardest part about getting started as a professor is not finding people. Of course it is sometimes hard to find good students, and recruiting them takes a bit of time, but generally (depending on system) we are talking about weeks or a few months here. The real issue is indeed finding ways to pay for them.

Junior professors may have a so-called startup grant / package, which is basically a defined amount of staff money or positions given to her/him as part of the contractual negotiations. This money is available right away, but will not be sufficient to cover the entire intended research group. Hence, the junior professor will typically spend a substantial fraction of her/his time writing grant proposals to fund new staff. The two troubles with that are that, (1) grant proposals are rather uncertain money (most funding agencies have very competitive acceptance rates), and (2) the entire process takes a while (in Switzerland, the review window of proposals to the national funding agency is 6 months). Hence, if you are a new faculty and you really need some project money, it is often unwise to just write one or two proposals. Rather, you will need to write a bunch of proposals concurrently to hedge. This is typically very time-consuming.

  In the mean time, does the professor have to engage in the time-consuming 'grunge work' of research

Yes, typically a starting faculty with a small team will to more her/himself than the head of a larger lab. However, most faculty don't perceive this as "having to do the grunge work", but rather as "still having time to do actual research". That is, most professors like being researchers (that's what they signed up for, after all), so if they still have the chance to get down and do some work themselves, that's typically a positive rather than a negative.


How to title a research paper of a problem which can have two solutions?

If it is possible (you have worked on each solution perfectly and each can be published separately), you can publish two papers each include one solution. I mean, you can publish solutions separately if (and only if) each of your solutions are perfectly developed and publishable.

However, if you have derived two separate solutions to a problem, it is not that much difficult to find a title for your paper. Here is one possible title which comes to my mind:

  Solution of problem P by means of two separate methods, S1 and S2

But, if you think the second solution is only an abstract and it is not developed enough to be mentioned in the title, you would better not to mention the second abstract idea in the title of your publication.


How long should you wait to email journal editor about a submitted revision of a manuscript?

It is not rude and it is a normal practice to remind editorial staff about your submission.

The editors recollect about your paper when they etheir obtain it from you (with minor/major revisions) or obtain the reviewers' feedback.

Your present situation means that the paper has been sent to the reviewer and that person has not responded yet for whatever reason.


Hmmm. Socially:

If you have already agreed to it then you should just go along, graciously. In particular, don't take any action that makes vindictive people (who have power) want to sabotage your future. It is only one paper. There will be others. A paper is a good thing, even under such circumstances. If the advisor has some standing, that might actually be good for you.

Ethically:

Try to work to disassociate yourself from these people (leeches?) going forward. They are acting in their own interest, not yours. Advisors shouldn't play such a game. Find more honest and ethical collaborators.


Do I know my GRE scores when I choose to send them on test day?

When you finish the GRE, at least a computer-delivered GRE, you will be asked if you want to report  or cancel your scores. If you choose "cancel," you don't get to see them or report them. If you choose "report," you get your unofficial scores, then are asked to report them.

According to ETS (emphasis added):

  On test day, after completing the test and viewing your unofficial Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning scores, you will be asked to designate which score recipients you want to receive your General Test scores.

At this point, reporting is optional, you don't have to report to anyone at this point.

As for whether you personally should reschedule or retake it after 21 days, that's a question we can't answer, but hopefully this information helps you decide.


Is it appropriate to attend a class one is not registered for?

In the American system, this is called "auditing" a course. Auditing means that you are attending the class but are technically only listening (auditing => auditory => listening) to the material and not sitting for exams or handing in homework assignments. You can audit a course formally (which often means that this is listed on your transcript) or informally in which you just sit in on the lectures/discussions. For the former/formal, see your local university guidelines. This answer deals with the latter.

Permission of the instructor in all but the larger lectures is always a good idea unless your university has an open classroom policy (as with many European universities). The instructor may have different rules. For example:

In larger lectures, I do not mind auditors (of any ilk) in lecture but they may not attend discussion sections since those are for the paying students.
I allow graduate students to audit my graduate seminars but with three rules: a) They must attend all of the sessions; b) they must do all of the readings; c) they must not be a 'dead body' but must participate in the seminar discussion.

Note that the university itself may have rules on auditing which the faculty member may ignore (for example, I do not mind if local community residents audit my lectures even if they are not registered as auditors through the university).

This is different from PASS/FAIL (also known as CREDIT/D/FAIL) which is another alternative in which you take the class but are allowed a lower level of participation.


Is it okay to directly copy a diagram/image from another research paper into yours?

If the image/research paper is marked as released to the Public Domain, then you can use the content as you wish. That being said, if the image is actually from someone/somewhere else, you may still be able to use it as per the Fair Use Act:

These sites may help you understand more:

Stanford University - Fair Use Overview
FairUse @ US Department of Copyright


Can I take a course and get credits without enrolling in a program in the US?

This is possible at many universities. You will have to check with them about enrolling as a non-matriculated student. There will almost always be a charge for tuition, but you can enroll (many places) as a student and get a grade. It is also possible in many places to enroll for non-credit, but you probably want the "credit" option.

Whether a university back home will accept them or not is up to them and not guaranteed, but, again, many universities are willing to do this for a limited number of credits. It might be best to check there as well so you avoid surprises.


Switching Topics Once in Graduate School

At this stage it doesn't matter, so you can choose whatever you like (or whatever you think is more promising etc) and switch (or not switch) later.It is quite common for phd students in cond-mat to do both (some) theory and (some) experiments during their phd. I'd also not be worried about being "ethical" here because people do change their interests, and it is totally unreasonable to expect a student to choose a line of research for their entire life.


Is a request to publish an article in Research Features a scam?

Research Features is a UK-based magazine intended for a broad audience (outreach), it is not a peer-reviewed academic journal.

So in one sense it is legitimate: it's a real magazine with real contributors that some people genuinely read. You can contribute a piece if you so wish to.

I do not think it claims to be a journal.

  "We are not a scholarly publisher. We sit somewhere in the middle and
  feel very comfortable in our unique space. We will never engage in
  ‘click-bait’ or ‘tabloid’ pop-science; but we do not offer complex
  peer-reviewed content. Our publication offers detailed insight using
  clear language and a visual format which translates complex science,
  whilst remaining respectful."

Source: https://researchfeatures.com/about/


What should you consider before upload a revision to your arXiv paper when you spot an error?

Some journal policies can prevent people from uploading new versions of a paper based on feedback from their review process, at least for a certain time period.  Some journals in some fields will even consider an arxiv version a "prior publication" of the paper, and as such won't bother to even review it.

Even if there's only a time delay, it's entirely possible that the author(s) simply forgot, as after 6+ months they are probably swamped in new projects, new semesters, etc.  This can be compounded if the corrected version uses journal specific styles, and so would have to be edited to be suitable for the Arxiv.

Individual authors also use the Arxiv differently.  Some of them use it simply as a way to announce their results once they've advanced far enough for a preprint. Such people are unlikely to bother with updating, especially if the paper gets accepted by the first journal it is submitted to.  Others go further and view it as a paywall free way to maintain an accurate and up-to-date record of their work.  These people are likely to update with corrected and published versions whenever possible, and may view doing so as an important (or even necessary) service to the research community.  Many sit in between: they may update when significant changes in the results have been made, but won't bother with grammar and typo fixes alone.

In short: it's a matter of personal taste and preference.  You don't want to submit an update for each typo you find, but you should at some point have a sense of "meaningful amounts of change has occurred, and I do not think I'll be making any more changes in the near future", at which point it would be appropriate to update if so desired.


What happens if a letter of recommendation contains incorrect info about me?

To be honest, I would consider this to be a major flaw and almost certainly invalidate the letter. It may bring to attention the rest of the application, including the potential that it may be invalidated, too.

In my university, I was faced with a situation in which the reference letter had a discrepancy with pronouns. The applicant was female but the referee was writing using male pronouns (ie., he, him, his). We ran the letter through TurnItIn and found that the letter was cribbed from a source from the Internet. The entire application was rejected.

Admittedly, this is an extreme case. Still, it will raise red flags about your application. Our assessment team is rather experienced in these sorts of issues.

I recommend revising this if possible.


What's the chance of a lecturer in foreign country to obtain a teaching job in US community college?

The safe thing to do is to assume, for the time being, that their stay in the U.S. should be minimalist, and that they should hold onto their existing jobs in their home country.  However, your mother could certainly apply for some teaching positions in the U.S., and if the job search goes well, your parents could change plans at that point.  (However, even in that case, I would advise them not to burn their bridges right away.)

Community college jobs do not necessarily pay very well, and there is no guarantee of getting such a position, for anyone, at any given time in any given location.


Undergraduate visiting student advantages

The main difference from being an invited, visiting student, an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates), and a summer research program is usually related to funding issues. REU is what the National Science Foundation (NSF) calls it's program, and the funding provided usually only supports "U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United States". Students who are part of the program usually get a stipend as part of the package. Some programs who are advertising an REU still accept international students, it's just that the funding for those students are not provided by the NSF - read 'terms and conditions' if there is a formal program for more details.

Being a visiting student or being in a summer research program is similar, but generally supported by institutional resources (which may just be administrative, with no funding).

However, the meat of the issue is what you get to do while you are there. If you are interested in graduate school, then ideally you would work with a professor in a group on a real research project. Ideally it could potentially lead to a publication down the road, but this is neither necessary nor guaranteed - but it's good to work with that as a long-term goal to help guide and motivate the work.

I was part of an NSF REU on the east coast as well, but based on my conversations with other students the benefits I'll mention below still can apply.

So the main advantages possible are:

working hard and doing good work that could be the grounds for a very supportive letter of recommendation, ideally from someone who is well known (and from a well known University is good as well)
networking, which is to say expanding your social circle and developing contacts with people with similar interests and direction (very hard to do without physical presence for an extended period of time)
building your confidence and making you more comfortable in your statements and future work
learning more about different aspects of the research process, which you may not have seen in this particular way before
living in a place you've never been to before, which is not only valuable as a maturing and learning experience in its own right, but can help you decide if you might really be OK with moving to such a place for multiple years away from everything and everyone you know
if you work hard at networking and socializing (while still doing great work), you can potentially meet a future advisor, or even just someone who will help you with your application materials, statements, give you an introduction to someone else, etc.
it can be a great way to see behind the curtain and experience both lots of good things, and even more importantly, lots of unpleasant and bad things. Academia is no utopia, and I don't think it does anyone any good to go into a graduate program thinking there aren't all kinds of messes and complexities. This could be a chance to see more of that first hand, to help you be more realistic.
beyond just getting into a graduate program, the networking and experience can aid you in doing well in research, knowing people at conferences, etc.

While I personally strongly encourage everyone to seek out such opportunities, it is up to you to consider the costs and decide what is right for you. On the downside:

it is often expensive. Even though I was funded quite reasonably, I would have had lower expenses and had higher income if I had stayed home and worked for the summer.
it can be hard emotionally. You are in a new place with people you don't know, away from family, friends, food you are used to eating, the comforts of home, and more. It can be so great to meet new people and form new friendships, but that doesn't erase the hard parts.
it is very time-limited, which means everything is compressed. It's enough time to start to get comfortable before you have to leave, while also being long-enough to develop homesickness.
you are a short-timer, and just because you are there does not mean you are automatically an insider or in-group member. Some people will be accommodating and friendly, and other people may ignore you because they know you will be gone soon anyway. Some people will take time out to meet with you and give you advice, some won't give you the time of day.
there is no guarantee of anything. You may find people you thought you would work with become unavailable, the project disappears (one person I know at a different place found the 'project' was unavailable, and they ended up having to make their own project by talking another faculty member into letting them work on their stuff instead).
if you are doing things in the academic off-season (like summer in the US), many people will be gone regularly, lots of vacation and conferences, most students won't be around, many food places on campus might be closed, etc. It's just different.

I'm very glad I chose to do a summer REU, and things worked out nicely for me - I'm very happy with the results. I can't tell you the future of how things would go for you - but if you are excited (if not nervous) for the potential positives, willing to work hard and get way outside of your normal comfort zone, and are ok with the potential negatives and willing to roll with whatever difficulties you find, I think you would be a great candidate. Budget out the costs and make sure this expense won't prevent you from having the funds to apply to grad school (it's expensive, especially in the US), travel for potential campus visits if you get accepted, have your own personal living security, etc.

Whatever you choose, good luck!


What are the common guidelines for writing a thesis in European and English-speaking countries?

There are some common structures that show up frequently (e.g. Introduction-Background-Methods-Results-Discussion is common for experiment-based papers), but they are different for different fields, and it is not mandatory to follow them. Some universities (mine among them, but I'm not in Europe) give "Thesis Writing" classes, where you get an overview of the various strategies. You could look up materials from these classes, maybe they will help.


At many schools, particularly those rated highly, the most important parts of your PhD application are your letters of recommendation.  What many applicants don't grasp is that a PhD program is so different from undergrad that past performance in the latter is only a poor indicator of future performance in the former.  For most students, the hard part of a PhD is doing original research.  So, as an applicant, you must convince the committee that you will excel at doing research.

One way to make your case is to have already successfully done research (or some "research-like" project).  In the absence of this, you must somehow convince your letter writers that you will succeed in research (and then they convince the admissions committee).  Meet with your letter writers and ask them what they suggest.  You might even ask them if you could work on some research with them (prior to being admitted to the PhD program).


Approaching Professors for Technical Consulting/Endorsement

It's absolutely OK to write an unsolicited email to a Prof. Academics are contacted for all sorts of things, and your email will definitely be read. In writing your email, it's important to remember two things - 1. professors engage in things that they find interesting; 2. they fiercely protect their reputation.

So, since you are asking for tips, here are a couple:

Find those professors who are interested in maintaining and developing links with industry (as opposed to those who are focused primarily on advancing the theoretical foundation of their discipline). If you look at their profiles, such profs would mention consulting work, executive education, industry-sponsored research, and membership in professional bodies. These are the guys/ladies you want to talk to first.
Describe your product/project in terms of its intrinsic interest or novelty - that's what most academics will find interesting. From an academic's viewpoint, writing a preface or endorsement for your report is just a byproduct of learning something new and interesting about the field they care about.
That said, be upfront about the fact that you want something from them and that you are not seeking to influence their judgment in any way.

Whether to mention compensation in the first email depends on where you/they are country- and culture-wise. But to be on the safe side, I would not mention money in the opening email but use words like "consultation" or "expert opinion" to signal that you are happy to pay for their time and expertise.

Good luck! ))


Can I get a PhD for developing educational software?

Generally speaking, you need to do more than develop software (any software) to get a PhD. Even creating a new Operating System isn't quite "enough". But the reason is subtle. An many people base their doctoral degrees on software they develop.

The issue is that, in most cases, people will, like myself, have the belief that you get a doctorate by advancing knowledge. To advance knowledge, a computer science student might write some nice piece of software, but then must show/prove/demonstrate that the software does, in fact, advance the state of the art. You have to show that the software represents a genuine advance in knowledge. That it embodies some advanced concept, not just cool coding.

I was once an external examiner in such a situation. A student in a fine German university built and utilized a certain very sweet system for allowing students to interact remotely with each other and with their professor on projects and assignments. It manages all sorts of communication, permitting effective group work for students not co-located. The university focuses on distance education.

But the doctorate was given, not for the software itself, but for the student's analysis of it and proof that it was effective and showed some new ways of thinking about group work and how it could be effectively done an managed. It was that demonstration that was the essence of the degree, though it was based on the software he built.

However, I can't guarantee that every such software-based degree has the same sort of requirements. In a lot of ways what your advisor will accept is what is actually required. But, I think that this philosophy of "advancing knowledge" rather than just "building cool stuff" is pretty fundamental and widely shared.


Stay put or enter the US application process

While shane's argument has some merit, there is another important factor to take into consideration: time to degree, which is very much inequal here.

If you accept your professor's offer of a PhD position, you would in principle be able to start your PhD research as soon as this fall. If you were to decline the offer, you'd definitely have to wait a full year to start the PhD program, and then at least an extra semester or two, depending on the course requirements in your field. So there could be up to a two-year delay before you do substantial work in your PhD field, depending on whether or not the department will waive your master's coursework. This may or may not be enough to sway your decision.

Additionally, you should look at all of the "peripherals," including things like:

how much teaching duty would be combined as part of the PhD position (this can be substantial, depending on your advisor's or department's teaching load!);
what the benefits and support associated with the position are relative to the US programs you're considering; and
what are the chances someone with your record will have to get into a comparable US program.


Why people without publication can have a good placement?

TIAA-CREF has published an excellent article regarding The Changing Faculty Workforce Models by Adrianna Kezar of the University of Southern California. and can be found at the following URL: www.tiaa-crefinstitute.org
In a nutshell, the document details changes in academia resulting from several external influences that have impacted the traditional faculty model and essentially reducing the tenured faculty to just about 30% of the total faculty employed at US institutions of higher education. On top of that publishing as the key academic initiative for tenure, evaluation has changed as well. As one other pointed out books are one such alternative as are presentations, teaching, service work, and many others too numerous to mention here.
The result for those wanting to make academia a career, the days of tenured professors, earned through publication to certain journals are on the way out. I have seen this myself in over 20 years working as a professor with a Ph.D. In the face of increased accountability, governments are starting to gauge the number of graduates who find employment making them more accountable for the money they receive, this trend will continue to change the traditional academic institution and its faculty.


How to get better at teaching from the board?

Indeed, a big question is how to make a "lecture" have more value than the text alone. After all, why not just print things up and hand them out?

First, to reiterate the obvious, much practice, a.k.a. "rehearsal", is necessary before one can do all the little things that make a live performance go better than a pre-recorded or lip-synced one. I do think those comparisons are apt.

That is, it's only when you've gone through the material so many times that you can remember it nearly effortlessly that your delivery of it could be natural, fluid, and unhesitant.

About technique: as other answers noted, don't let there be too much absolute-quiet while you're writing. Until you can learn to talk about what you're writing while you're writing it, it is best to write a little, talk a little, write a little. This also lets note-takers catch up. With practice, it seems possible to say a different thing than one is writing, although sometimes one's hand chooses a different syntax than one's hand, resulting in minor grammatical hilarity...

Indeed, be sure to spend most of your time facing the audience, looking people in the eye, etc. So, indeed, this leaves not-so-much time for writing, which, in fact, has (I claim) the excellent outcome that one is forced to choose "highpoints" only, to write, and then "discuss".

Altogether, I'd say write very "telegraphically", meaning no complete sentences, indeed, very few English (e.g.) words. After all, formulas can be written, while sentences can be spoken. The two mediums can complement each other.

I've recently stopped giving long, complicated proofs in lecture (mathematics...), but only giving the highpoints, with complete details available in PDFs on the course web-site. Often, I get the PDFs done in time so that students can either look at them during lecture on a tablet and use some mark-up software, or print them out (!?!) and mark on them.

Handwriting takes practice... Use your whole arm, make big motions. It's not handwriting, but arm-writing.

Every time you get a few critical things written, you can move around (which will result in better breathing, better projection, better connection with audience) and (expressively, both in intonation and body language) elaborate... referring to the on-line or off-line supporting reading material for finer or uglier details.

So, yes, some lower-level technique needs to be practiced, and also some larger-scale viewpoint made very clear in one's mind, so that one knows the "highpoints" vividly, and can nearly-effortlessly summon up and convey them. So, yes, I think it is possible (if one wants it, and if one practices) to make a "live" lecture have much more psychological impact on the audience than a mere text. (Or than reading a text out loud... which is what any sort of slides very easily degenerates into...)


How can I get an idea on relevance of my data?

Talk to as many people as possible about your work

This can be in formal settings, such as a poster or oral presentation at a conference. You could also ask to give a presentation to colleagues within your department. Or it could be informal, such as chatting at a coffee break or after a seminar with fellow researchers.

It's often tempting to hold on to your work and only present it when it feels "finished", but these early stages are often the most useful ones to get feedback. So you need to be brave, and accept that there may be flaws or complications that you've not yet thought of. That's why you are doing it.


Are review articles the result of original observations?

I think that review articles can of course be original work, provided that they offer something like an analysis of the current literature. A mere list of positions and the people who take them isn't going to count as a contribution to the literature. However, showing people that certain pieces of literature form families that have resemblences to one another, or that a certain piece has been cited a lot, although people have overlooked another important, but unknown piece that calls its thesis into question, etc. . .  those are all important, and indeed original contributions.

I'm guessing that your article probably is analytical in this way, otherwise it wouldn't have been accepted for publication in the first place. I'd say that if it is a high-quality article, published somewhere respectable, then go on and include it in the thesis. Although obviously the usual caveats ("Check with your advisor!") apply.


Who owns the copyright of the acquisition of an object or sample owned by a third party?

Copyright almost certainly isn't the correct legal basis here (IANAL, so take that with a grain of salt, but as comments have pointed out, data is not subject to copyright in many jurisdictions), so I would suggest dropping that part of your thinking. The issue is not whether you have copyright of something produced, but whether you were allowed to use the materials you were provided to produce publicly available data.
Usually when materials pass between entities, including between universities or between a private company and a university, they are subject to a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA). This is a contract that specifies what can and can't be done with provided materials.
In the absence of such an agreement, there may be some implied rights but it might be best to go ahead and secure an MTA after the fact, or at a minimum get some informal agreement that you can use to protect yourself. Otherwise, you're in a situation where you are at the mercy of those who may be upset by your actions, which could start an academic or legal dispute that you don't want to be involved in.
(note: I'm assuming there is something somewhat special about these materials such that you could not have obtained them from other sources)


Optimize lab report grading rubric to minimize grading time

When I was teaching physics classes in grad, grading got easier after creating a key (or rubric) that was really concrete. By creating a specific set of things to look for, grading took less time and students were happier with their grades.
Here is what worked for me.

Explaining figure etiquette: axis labels, include units, have the data points take the majority of the graph area.
Communicating the expected details: clarity of answers, showing work, including the data sheet, etc.
Giving examples of deducting points for poor quality.

I found same-day grading took less time (since the material was fresh in my mind) and created a great deadline for late work. I accepted work for full credit until I grading was finished; afterwards, I awarded late labs 50% (without grading).


French M2 research internship as a UK MSc student?

I do not see any particular obstruction for you to get accepted in an internship program for M2 students. The only legal requirement is that you are currently enrolled in an M2 program or equivalent. In our Master, the program starts in September and internships in February/March.


How should one present research done in a CV to a graduate program in mathematics?

There are some general ideas about what is "standard" to include in CVs, but they only go so far: you still have some leeway on what to include and how to include it.

It is fine to give a brief description (e.g. the abstract) of your works on your CV.  You should certainly also include all of your collaborators!  Either way, you should take some space in your "personal statement" (a bit of a misnomer -- it should be a "professional statement," not e.g. a narrative about how you came to love mathematics) to describe this work.

Finally, for what it's worth -- I was familiar with your paper on quadratic forms, and I just looked back at it again.  I wouldn't quite describe it as "analytic number theory."  It has some analytic number theory, some computational number theory and some, well, quadratic form theory (that's on the algebraic side of number theory but I wouldn't quite describe it as "algebraic number theory").


How long before PhD graduation should I start applying for academic jobs

For postdoc positions: apply approximately 3-6 months before graduation.

For (UK, AU)-lecturer and assistant professor positions: apply approximately a year before the graduation.

Usually, you have to be graduated by the first day you start with your job duties, though exceptions exist.


MLA multiple parenthetical citation essay without page numbers

Well, normally with MLA in-text citations, you should have the author's name in the parenthetical citations followed by the page number. Since you do not have a page number, you could remedy this by putting the chapter name in quotes instead ( e.g. (Levitt, "The Hidden Side of Everything")). If neither of these are available, you could put the name of the piece in the citations in quotes since you have already said the author's name in the sentence (e.g. ("Freakonomics")).

MLA Rules: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/2/
Chapter Name in Citation: http://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-format/how-to-cite-a-parenthetical-citations-mla/


Applying for postdoc fellowship vs applying for lectureship

It is never too early to apply for permanent positions in academia. I would simultaneously apply for both the fellowships and lecturer positions. Once you get a 5 years fellowships (and I assume you are talking about the 5 years advanced postdoc fellowships), you can negotiate a permanent lecturer position. From the university's side, they get a person who has already been successful in obtaining a prestigious fellowship without any significant financial burden for the first 5 years (because the fellowship would pay most of your salary)! From the candidate's side, he\she gets a permanent position without having to do significant teaching or administrators duties in the first 5 years. I have seen many of my colleagues successfully going this route. These may or may not apply to Oxford-Cambridge for whom such a fellowship is not enough to offer a permanent position. But I also know people who got their fellowships hosted by Oxford-Cambridge, and then negotiated a permanent position with another university in the mid-way during their fellowship, i.e., porting their fellowships to another institution which offered them permanent positions.
In fact, I view this as a great way to transition from a postdoc to permanent position.

I wish such an option was possible in the USA. In the USA, such 4-5 years 'fellowships'(CAREER awards) can be applied only after you secure a tenure-track position at a university.


Who publishes commentary papers, and how?

I'm not from your area of research so my answer might be invalid, but in my field it happens that you are asked to list "original papers" and "derived papers" in different sections of your CV. So when you are applying, e.g. for a professorship, the original papers are the ones which are taken into account more heavily than the others.

Especially earlier in your career you should focus on your own scientific work. This qualifies you to write good commentaries, later ;-).


How to address situtations where the effort to avoid plagiarism results in less effective communication?

Let's split this into two different cases:

Is re-using a speech self-plagiarism?
Is re-using a speech appropriate in that specific classroom context?

Addressing the first question, the reason why self-plagiarism is an issue is that there is an expectation of novelty in scientific communication: re-using text from a previous manuscript is thus "cheating."  There is no such expectation of novelty in speeches.  It is thus just fine to re-use content in a talk, and there is not even any requirement to acknowledge that one has given the same talk elsewhere.  Consider, for example, a person doing faculty interviews and giving the same talk at different places: this is perfectly normal, acceptable, and even desirable.  Now, if you give the same talk to the same audience multiple times, they'll probably get bored and stop inviting you to talk, because you don't have anything new to say.  Similarly, because talks are often tied to manuscripts, e.g., at conferences, it will necessarily be the case that they contain much new material.  Still, these are byproducts of the nature of the communication, not ethical principals.

Now, to the second question: should the student have re-used the same speech in class?  Here, I would say that it depends greatly on the educational goal of the class.  If the goal is to workshop particular aspects of the content or delivery of a speech, then I think that it would be fine, since you can work on new aspects of a speech even if it is not new (or even yours!): for example, you might want to work on delivery and oration, and even just quoting Martin Luther King could be just fine for that.  If, on the other hand, the goal is to learn how to create a speech, then it's failing to satisfy the educational objectives of the class.  To take the analogy: even if Martin Luther King's best speech was "I have a dream," it shouldn't mean it's the only speech he can ever give.  I wouldn't call it self-plagiarism, since novelty is not the default expectation in speeches, but it would be failing to follow instructions.  Not knowing the exact nature and instructions of your class, however, I'm not sure which category it falls into.