During applications, how can I prove I was the first author of the papers that I couldn't become first author for various reasons?

As this is my only published paper as an undergrad, and being first author means everything for me in my application, is there anyway for me to prove to the admission committees (or the professors; whoever will review my application) that I was the main contributor of the paper?

Short answer: no. Aside from the professor writing in his letter that he did indeed not do the work and just put his name front to brush up his CV, I see no way how you can prove that you were indeed the "actual" first author. And, given that this would essentially mean that the professor confesses unethical behavior, I see very little chance of this happening.

Anyway, I am not so sure whether being first author means "everything" for you. Undergrads are often not the first authors of publications (for many reasons, not just the unethical reason that you were denied first authorship). Further, if I see a paper with a senior author and an undergrad, I am not assuming that the professor did most of the hard work and undergrad just advised - independently of how the authors are ordered. I would assume your average admission committee to be similarly realistic.


Do I HAVE to have a PhD to get a post-doc position?

postdoc without doc cannot exist... You might be hired as something else, another description, same job, but not officially as a post-doc, by definition.

As commented, the funding might just not be there for such different position. I'm sure that, if I'm reviewing spending information from a grant, I wouldn't agree with that switch, unless it is significantly cheaper. Further, most of the sponsoring agencies I know, have a some sort of guidelines for paying people, and it would be difficult to justify someone without a phd receiving postdoc level money...

Your question sounds like "Do I have to go to medicine school to be a surgeon" or "Do I have to pass the bar to practice law". Doesn't matter that you think you are qualified, officially, you are not.


Number of accepted papers at conferences

In my experience the Program Committee often has a target rate or a target number. Conferences occur on a fixed number of days, and given the length of the talks you'd like to have and the number of parallel sessions or rooms available, you can back your way into the number of papers you can accept.


Should I include a letter of recommendation in my dossier for teaching positions?

I take it this is in the United States.  In that case, letters are never provided by the applicant.  A list of references would be provided by the applicant.


Publishing papers in pure vs applied machine learning research

There are several questions in your post and it is really difficult to give a pin-pointed answer. So, I would go ahead and break your post into multiple segments and answer likewise:

... In pure Artificial Intelligence (AI) research one is required to come up with a new/improved algorithm and show that the algorithm has competitive performance across a set of toy or real data.

This premise is not entirely true. I work in AI (mostly in Machine Learning and Deep Learning) and we don't use the word like "pure" AI. It is just AI. If you really study history or inception of AI, it is more applied in some fashion. It is the fields like mathematics, probability and statistics that have helped in studies to be more focused around "purity" of it as such. In AI, you can come up with unique problems that cannot be solved using the present tools and techniques. That too is a great contribution. You don't always have to develop new algorithms.

Thus, I find this a well-specified target for pure AI research. Such research would be usually published in journals such as the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, Journal of Machine Learning Research.

These journals also publish applied research article, tools including software, and surveys. Of course, these journals and along with Machine Learning Journal by Springer are very well-known and oldest of their kinds and don't entertain papers which say "Here is the dataset, here is the method we used, and here are the findings"-type works. The contribution must be significant in so many different ways (be it a problem, a solution or a theory) that could be hugely contributing to the AI community.

I wonder how the target differs in applied AI research, such as machine learning (ML) applications in some domain, for instance, Health or Finance. Some example of such journals include Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture, Journal of Machine Learning in Finance, Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Expert Systems with Applications.

The said journals are mainly problem or application-specific and they would like to see novel applications in their own fields. I don't have much experience with these journals. But, I certainly have reviewed papers for a few of these.

Do you have to come up with new/modified learning algorithms in order to publish in applied AI/ML journals?

As said earlier, not always.

If the answer to the above is no, then what is the nature of the contribution? Would it suffice to apply existing ML methods to new domain data?

My advice for you would be to read (and re-read) some papers from each of these journals and see what kind of works are valued there.

Suppose some existing methods are applied to new domain data. Considering the fact (model = algorithm + data) would it be acceptable to state "this paper proposes a new model" instead of "a new learning algorithm"?

"Model = Algorithm + Data" --- This is WRONG and whoever said this (even if it's not you) is WRONG!!! So your question does not stand. For your information, "Model = Structure + Parameters" (for starters, refer: Some papers from Bayesian ML)

What is the effective learning path that enables people to publish to some hypothetical journal "Artificial Intelligence in X" (where X is some other domain e.g. Finance or Medicine)? Are the same people supposed to hold BSc/MSc in both AI and X? Finally, are they supposed to already have published papers in either pure AI journals or X journals, before starting interdisciplinary research?

There are so many questions to answer. Please take my words with a bucket of salt: "You need to do some basic and then some moderately advanced courses in ML to make your base adequately strong. Alternatively, get your hands dirty by solving problems in a platform such as Kaggle. In parallel, you could read some easy papers from the journals that you are interested in. Also, find a mentor who could guide you in these directions.


What does the term POI mean in the context of graduate admissions?

POI stands for Professor of Interest -- i.e., the faculty member that is most likely to take the most interest in your application portfolio and is likely to be your advisor if you were to gain admission.


Expected issues upon graduating with a second Masters in Electrical Engineering after first Masters in Computer Science

It isn't that uncommon to have two master's degrees. Several people I know did it as a way to switch fields or they did a BS/MS program and then got a second MS en route to their PhD at a different university.

I can't imagine how this would cause any issues for you at all. You just have to consider whether it is worth the time, effort, and opportunity cost required to get another degree. General advice seems to be that you should consider getting the degree if (1) you need it for the job you want or (2) you are just very interested in the subject matter.


Bibliographies are mainly public (e.g., looking for Bibtex of an article). So, here are my suggestion for how to use citations in a blog:

Citations: You could use either a repository solution and put all the citations on a third party website/server(s), or just use a Json or XML to sort the citations and add the citations, as a URL, at the end of your blog posts.


Can someone apply for a Masters in Computer Science having two years Associate degree and professional experince in programing

Generally, in most places, you can apply to a program. But that doesn't mean that you will necessarily be admitted. In some places a bachelor's degree might be required for graduate study, but in those places, I assume that exceptions can be made but only for exceptional cases.

For any application, for an academic program or for a job, you will need to make your own case as to your suitability and likelihood of success. But even then, you can expect a lot of competition, most of it from people whose qualifications are easier to evaluate. So you need a strong case.

In particular, without an undergraduate degree, people will suspect that there are gaps in your education. Being a "programmer" doesn't, of itself, fill any of those gaps. So you will either need to demonstrate competence, or obtain it to be successful.


Why is the deadline given for refereeing manuscripts so much shorter than the typical time between submission and acceptance?

As an editor, I can say that it is very common for reviewers to submit reviews late, or to ignore invitations without responding so that it takes a while to give up on them and find suitable alternative reviewers.

This doesn't mean that editors and authors don't notice and grumble about late reviews or notice and appreciate reviewers who submit their reviews on time or early! Please keep submitting your reviews on time if you can and ask for an extension rather than ignoring deadlines if you can't!

In my field, a 2-3 month deadline for reviews is longer than usual (my journal normally asks for a 21-day turn-around, and this seems typical of journals for which I am asked to review). But papers still frequently take a year from submission to publication due to delays in review, revisions, and final publication after acceptance.

However, I would also say that most papers are sent back for revisions if they are not rejected outright, and revisions typically also take months.


Sending students for conference presentation with no additional funding

It may be possible to make some of the conference cheaper overall. To give an example some IEEE conferences registration fees are very expensive, this can't be avoided. The last one I attended was also in an expensive hotel. It may be possible to get other accommodation further away and travel in. They may ask for student helpers as well, which could add extra discounts. Early booking may give early bird registration fees as well. The flights, which I assume are required equally might be cheaper in advance.


As a course lecturer, should I excuse late assignment submissions if I wrote the assignment deadline slightly wrong?

If the assignment deadline was not shown correctly to the students, then it is your error and they cannot be penalized for being late.

Claiming it is correct in one area while incorrect in another does not absolve you, you caused the confusion so you have to accept late submissions, as long as they arrived on Saturday...

Any submissions on Sunday will, of course, be late.

Re-reading this, it sounds a bit blunt... Probably because I have done exactly the same and had to sort it out after... Peace reigns if you stick to being fair, so giving them the extra time does not usually make much of a difference, except for the recognition from the students.


My PhD thesis does not include a Literature Review chapter

This is a question for your advisor. What will s/he accept in your dissertation? If it is a acceptable to the advisor (and any committee) then there is no issue at all.

It seems pretty clear from what you write that you have, in fact, reviewed the literature, rather than just ignoring it. How you present your findings is, in a sense, just a matter of writing style. If it works, it works.

But your advisor may have veto power here, so make sure they are happy.


What to do if one comes to a realization that research and post graduate studies is not for him/her?

Life may not allow for a redo, but it definitely allows for changes of direction when you find your previous plan is not working. You have not committed career suicide. At the very worst, you have spent a few years on something that interested you, without also advancing your career other than by learning how to do research, write papers etc. Let yourself mourn for the career you wanted, but then start looking forward to the rest of your life. The postdoc gives you some time to work out what to do next, and shift in the direction you choose.

There are three sets of issues you need to consider:

Your own likes and dislikes. Even if your first choice field is a dead end, you are likely to do better at something you somewhat enjoy, and avoid anything you hate unless the alternative is homelessness and starvation.
Your skills, assets, and resources. For example, even a bachelor's degree is a significant asset, and you have a PhD. You have the ability to learn, which will be invaluable if you decide to change fields. To get a PhD, you have completed a non-trivial project and written a dissertation. You have well above average writing skill and focus, and can prove it to a potential employer. I can only mention generalities. You should be able to list specific skills.
Available work. There seems to be a shortage of academic work in your current field. In that case, you need to either change fields, or switch to industry, or both. Deciding which is best depends on your field, skills, and what work is available where.

Your school may have career councilors. They will be primarily concerned with helping students, but may be available to postdocs. Talking all this over with someone could help.


How to bring one's PhD research to another university?

You are free to take your idea wherever you would like. You cannot take your professor's project proposal to another university without her permission.

The professor at your school seeing this as a "betrayal" is a separate issue. A good advisor will of course want a good student to stick around. A good mentor will want what's best for the student—regardless of what's in the mentor's best interests as a potential advisor.

So, my advice is just to talk to the professor and let him know that you'd like to apply at other universities as well. (It's your right to do so, of course.) Ask if the professor would be willing to write letters supporting you. If the professor isn't supportive of this, you'll have your answer. (And if the professor is not supportive, then do not get letters of recommendation from that professor!)


Is it very difficult for international applicants to get a Visiting Assistant Professor position in the US?

I'll mention a few important issues here:

There are relatively few visiting positions in mathematics with a certain term of more than one year.  Rather, most of these positions have a term of one year, and may be continued for another year or two if the need for the visiting position continues.  Visiting positions like this are typically created to fill the hole left by a faculty member on sabbatical leave or as a temporary replacement for a faculty member who has resigned, retired, or is too ill to work.  Generally, the plan is to get a tenure track faculty member hired during the one year term of the visiting position.  There are certainly some circumstances in which a visiting position is setup to last more than one year, but these are very desirable positions and the competition for them is intense.  Thus your chances of finding a visiting position with a term of more than one year are limited.
In order to work in the United States in a visiting position, you will need to have an appropriate visa and the types of visa that are appropriate here (most likely a J1 visa for a temporary position, but perhaps an H-1B visa) require employer sponsorship.  Your potential employer must pay fees to apply for such a visa and typically will need to retain a lawyer to assist in the process.  This can cost thousands of dollars.  Furthermore, there's a substantial risk that the visa might not be granted or might be delayed.  Because of these issues many academic departments are hesitant to hire applicants who must be sponsored for a visa.  In my experience, many universities and academic departments will undertake to sponsor newly hired tenure track faculty but don't want to do this for a visiting position.
Most visiting positions in the US are focused primarily on teaching.  The hiring committee will be concerned if you have not had experience teaching in the United States, because there are substantial and important cultural differences between the US system and higher education in other parts of the world.  The hiring committee will also be concerned if English is not your native language.
There will almost certainly be many (tens if not hundreds) of well qualified US citizens and permanent residents with appropriate teaching experience in the US who will apply for the position.

If you have a strong record of research and would otherwise be qualified for a tenure track position, then you might have a better chance of getting hired into a tenure track position than into a visiting position.


Can external thesis examiner object to inclusion of so many unwanted co authors in published papers?

Now he is afraid of external examiner of his PhD thesis who may according to him might raise objection on inclusion of so many coauthors.

Six authors listed on a scientific paper in a lab-experimental discipline in not a very high number. I don't know what the specific norms are for materials' science, but that's not uncommon.

Also, there could be 100 co-authors - that doesn't matter, as long as they don't argue about the individual contributions each one has made. Your friend has had an opportunity to explain what he personally worked on, in the context of producing these papers and more generally: That opportunity is the thesis, which ties everything together.

If your friend is in a thesis-less track (i.e. submitting articles only to be considered for awarding a Ph.D.) s/he may want to consult his/her advisor regarding how to transmit additional material - e.g. a letter - to the examiners. In fact, consulting the advisor regarding this concern is a good idea regardless of the measure to be taken.

  this is a usual practice and nothing to worry about. Am I right ?

Probably - but your friend's advisor will be able to confirm that.


Is it plagiarism if only a short phrase or construct is the same?

There is not a fixed set of rules for what is considered plagiarism (e.g., "5 or more consecutive, not quoted words"), although several guidelines are available. Unless entire paragraphs are copy-pasted, each case has to be evaluated on a single basis.

As for a partial sentence, it is likely not considered to be a bad case of plagiarism.

That said, it depends on what the actual sentence is about. Are those 500+ papers plagiarizing each others because of that partial sentence? Certainly not.

If the partial sentence was about a particular discovery reported in a particular paper, and that partial sentence was copied to a new paper as if the sentence belonged to the new paper, without a direct quotation.. that would likely be considered as a candidate for plagiarism. Quite for sure, it would be considered as plagiarism if a reference was missing, as well.

You might have some fun taking this Turnitin quiz on plagiarism.


Tradeoff between Consistency and Uniqueness in choosing publication Last Name

If your full name, or initials with last name is common in your field, there might be some inconvenience. But otherwise I doubt that uniqueness has much value. I share a full name with another prominent researcher but in an entirely different field. It is sort of funny when the search turns up both of us, but it is obvious that we are different people.
Consistency, on the other hand is very important, though at the very beginning, the earliest papers may not be so important to the overall career trajectory. But, by the time you finish a doctorate you should establish a name that you can live with throughout your career. Hopefully your earliest work won't be your best work over a long career and a few exceptions won't be an issue.
A personal web site (or one hosted by a university) can be useful in pointing to your work, even if done under different names initially.

For the record, it should be noted that some people publish under a pseudonym to maintain both uniqueness and consistency.


Is it wise to try to remove myself from predator mailinglists?

The problem is that unsubscribing to the e-mail list requires you to follow a link send to you in e-mail. As general rule this is already something that you should be hesitant to do, even with e-mails from reliable sources.

A predatory journal is not a reliable source of course. Even if the journal is not actively trying anything dubious with the link, a predatory journal is bound to be a small scale operation, meaning that they are more at risk of having their domain compromised in some way.

If you do decide to follow the link, please take standard precautions like copy-and-pasting the link rather than following it directly, and checking that the link actually leads to a domain controlled by the journal.


NSF postdoctoral fellowship eligibility requirements

The eligibility requirements are stated in the solicitation.  It certainly sounds like you will be eligible.  If you defend in spring of 2015, then you can apply in falls of 2014,'15, or '16 to start the following summer (in fall 2017, it will be too late, since you will have had your Ph.D. for two years on Jan 1, 2018, and 2018 would the "year of the award). The only things that can make you ineligible are: losing your US citizenship (presumably easy to avoid), serving as PI on an NSF grant (again, not a huge danger), and being offered the fellowship and turning it down.  (I think there is also some general stuff about drugs convictions, etc.)

Taking any kind of job will not make you ineligible, though it's possible it could influence the way your application is looked at (for good or for ill, I can't really say).  You can apply with your current job as your site, or with a different one.  I don't know many examples of people getting the fellowship after they first graduated, though of course, 2015 will be when you first graduated, so maybe that's not an issue.

Just a general comment: if you have questions about NSF awards, ask the program director.  They'll be the ones who actually interpret the rules, so they know better than random people on the internet how they'll be interpreted.


How to get students to connect the pre-lab to the lab?

Don't do the pre-lab.

Divide the lab experience in two or more sessions, where they have to do the calculations first and the measurements soon thereafter.

And avoid online quiz with feedback: the answer is plausible if it's compatible with the measurements, not because the computer says so.

For long calculations, I sometimes use an intermediate solution in which they have to perform the calculations as homework, but they read what they have to do in the lab instruction manual, so that the two things appear connected. For example:

In this way, they are forced to read the whole lab manual first. And of course I tell them and write them that the calculations are part of the lab.


What are the pros and cons of having two supervisors for my Ph.D. thesis?

I was co-supervised during my own Ph.D., and have since been a co-supervisor several times, and I find that if your circumstances are such that co-supervision makes sense, it can be an excellent thing.

Co-supervision makes most sense when either:

You are doing cross-disciplinary work, and each supervisor provides expertise for their own discipline, or
the two supervisors already work together so closely that working for one means you are de facto being supervised by the other already, and you might as well acknowledge it.

This can help in providing two perspectives (especially valuable for cross-disciplinary work) and in allowing you to get help from one when the other is busy or unavailable.  The down side is that you may also find yourself being pulled in two different directions, and that it can be difficult to coordinate things that require approval from both two supervisors, especially if both are busy.

Most programs, however, will require precisely one person to be the primary supervisor, while the other is either listed as a co-supervisor or merely an unusually active member of your committee.


When PhD advisor (in an interview) says "Tell me about your research interests", should you also say how it relates to their interests?

This is different enough from the answer of Bill Barth that it should probably be factored out of comments. An alternate consideration for you in any case.
The question you ask is subtle. Maybe the approach should also be subtle. Start out assuming it will be obvious and see where that goes. You can always make it more explicit.
If it is immediately clear that the prof "groks it" then you don't need to do anything else. If they are confused, make it clearer. Because if they are confused then it needs to be made clearer.


Do faculty members get additional compensation such as bonuses in industry?

Since most faculty members are employed by non-profit institutions, there is little in the realm of corporate benefits that directly carries over for all faculty members.

However, there can be some carryover if faculty have intellectual property which has been licensed through the university to a corporation. In such cases, they usually share in whatever revenues the university receives from the corporation.


How often is "too often" for emailing journal editors?

As you point out, you've waited close to a year. You shouldn't feel bad about asking for updates after this long, especially since it's been two months since you last checked.

In your email I'd point out that it's been almost a year since you resubmitted, and you're wondering what exactly is happening. When can you expect a decision? If they can't predict that, then when are the reviews due?

If the editorial board member handling your paper is unresponsive, you could try asking the journal office instead, although it sounds unlikely the journal office will be able to say much (because my guess is the reviewers never agreed to review and/or never actually submitted a review, so the only way forward is to invite more reviewers, but the handling editor hasn't done it).


Changing phd university (and country): issues with adviser, no funds, and so on

Normally, yes, moving between PhD programs normally requires a strong letter from your advisor, but your situation looks like an exception.  From what you describe, it sounds like a letter from your advisor would be useless even if your relationship hadn't soured, because they can't say anything substantive about your research.

Yes, you're quitting, but you're quitting because your current department is a bad fit for your research agenda.  I think you can reasonably describe the constraints imposed by your MS fellowship, the lack of funding and other support in your country, and the mismatch between your research interests and the interests/expertise of your advisor and others in your department, without in any way incriminating your current advisor or department.

That said, if you want to be admitted to a top-5 PhD program, you really do need letters that discuss your potential as a researcher, and in particular the quality/importance/novelty of your recent published research, in specific and credible detail.  Not having a letter from either your former MS advisor or your current PhD advisor is likely to be a red flag, but strong well-informed letters about your amazing research can counteract that.

Also, you do need to be careful to follow the terms of your MS fellowship or visa.  In particular, if your fellowship or visa requires you to return to your home country for a certain number of years, then you either have stay in your home country for that many years, or you have to find a way to have that requirement waived.  For example, J-1 student visas in the US require the student to spend two years in their home country before returning to the US, and some graduate fellowships from the Thai government require a multi-year civil-service commitment.


How to study better when underprepared for grad level theory course

It's great that you have a study partner.  What you could add is some regular visits to office hours (TA and instructor if there are both).

As for sacrificing research work at crunch times, this is something you should discuss with your research supervisor.

Edit (responding to comment)

Thoughts about how to benefit from visiting office hours:

Go over portions of the lecture notes you're not solid about.
You may have some gaps in your background knowledge and skills, which you can work on with one-on-one guidance.
You can bring a draft of your homework:

Check your reasoning.  Your instructor or TA can point out places where you make a leap of faith in a proof, where you could consolidate some steps, or ask if you've considered such-and-so other approach, e.g. indirect proof.
Get unstuck on a problem.
Better understand the relationship between an example worked in class and the problem posed in the homework.

Get additional practice with certain key types of problems.
Learn tricks for working more quickly -- which can be extremely valuable in an exam setting.
Practice explaining a topic.  At a key juncture your instructor/TA can ask you to be more precise if necessary.  Getting feedback about which of your ideas are correct and well put in itself can help you gain more confidence.
Request a practice exam, and have it evaluated.

In short, in office hours you can receive tutoring at the source!  (Always being sensitive to the instructor's or TA's need to balance your needs with those of the other students.)


I would not intervene unless I felt the student was at risk of harming themselves or others.

As you say, college is about more than grades, learning how to handle failure is part of life.

Moreover it’s not unlikely that their performance on the final was the icing on the cake: they had a bad day/week and were upset about all of it plus the final.

Unless you’re willing to allow them to retake the exam (which is probably a bad idea unless they offer a good reason), reaching out to them and telling them they should deal better with exams will likely annoy them and demotivate them further.


Is my research statement supposed to lead to papers in top journals?

You do the best you can do with the ideas you have.  Most very good mathematicians can’t come up with a JAMS worthy result every year, and it’s harder when you’re just out of graduate school.  You do need to spend some time on some more ambitious ideas as a postdoc, but “more ambitious” doesn’t mean JAMS-worthy and there’s luck in which ideas pay off and when there’s an unexpected connection that turns up when you’re in the middle of a project.

Yes if you want a job at a top place you might need top publications, but all you can do is do your best with the ideas you have the expertise you developed.  Most of us only get a couple publications at that level in our life.  Aim to be productive and to increase the level of your publications, but thinking about how to get into JAMS or the Annals isn’t helpful.


Citing a Datasheet or Technical document in IEEE style

I cite datasheets as manuals. For example, I recently cited the LTC3600. My experience is with biblatex and JabRef. In JabRef I can choose the 'manual' type and can fill in the organisation, datasheet title, url, and use a (part) number. I believe that most citation managers have a field for 'number', you can use this for part codes.

The resultant biblatex code can look like this:

@Manual{ltc3600,
  title        = {{15V}, {1.5A} Synchronous Rail-to-Rail Single Resistor Step-Down Regulator},
  year         = {2011},
  number       = {LTC3600},
  note         = {Rev. D},
  organization = {Linear Technology},
  url          = {https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/3600fd.pd},
}

And the output in IEEE style like this:

I believe this is similar to the Tex SE answer you linked.


How one can learn to write successful cover letters and rebuttals to referees?

Your supervisor/PI/mentor should be an important source of information here. Not only will they have a lot of experience at the author end, they will also have reviewed lots of papers, and quite possibly acted as an editor. So they know what they would look for in a cover letter/rebuttal.
As Fabio Dias recommends in the comments, "Try asking people from your group/institute for the letters they sent".
Treat your cover letter/rebuttal as you would the main paper: send it to your co-authors, and if possible a trusted non-co-author, for comments and advice.
Wherever possible, try to get experience as a reviewer and (if at an appropriate stage in your career) an editor. This will help you to see things from different perspectives, and will also give you the chance to read both good and bad examples from other researchers. Even if you don't have the chance to do either of these things, try to put yourself in the editor/reviewer's position, play the devil's advocate, and think about what might persuade you if roles were reversed.


Will leaving a PhD after one year or having a full PhD be better or worse for job in industry?

You do not want to pursue a career in academia. It is good that you have worked this out early enough to do something about it.

Was "the next step in the career" the only reason for doing your PhD? Or is it a genuine delight to you to be learning and to be looking forward to making a contribution to knowledge?

If there is no delight then if I were you I'd drop it at once. But I am not you, and that is not advice.
If there is delight then if I were you I would pursue that wholeheartedly. There is little enough delight in the world as it is and we shouldn't throw away what we have. But I am not you, and that is not advice.
If you are half way between the two - it is always possible to start a doctorate at 60. A friend of mine did. So bear that in mind.

But here at last is some genuine advice. It comes in two stages.

Take a total and irrevocable decision to abandon all your academic pretensions and go straight for business. No second thoughts, no looking back, that is what you are going to do.

Live with that decision for a week. But do it seriously. Remember that you are not trying to decide, you have decided. That is the key.

Take a total and irrevocable decision to complete your PhD and only go into business after that. As before: no second thoughts, no looking back.

Live with that decision for a week.

The reason why this exercise in self-deception works so well is that it frees all the important parts of your psyche to engage with a definite and unambiguous future and not some sort of vague undecided limbo. And they are able to tell you what you feel.

At the end of those two weeks, look back on how you felt. When did you have regrets over what you had decided, and what were they? When did the choice feel righter? In which week were you most looking forward to life?


Are reviewers supposed to know each others' identity, after the reviewing process is finished?

No, its not normal to know who the other reviewers are if the journal has a double-blind review policy ( my background is Engineering disciplines, might be different in other fields).

What I have experienced in the double-blind review process both as a reviewer and the author:

Knowing the other reviewers' identity during the reviewing process? NO, not normal.
Knowing the other reviewers' identity after the reviewing process? NO, not normal.
Knowing whether the editor accepted or reject the paper? NO (a very good practice as I have learned).


File naming conventions when sending file back and forth via email?

Not using version control is bad.

  Depending on who I am working with, cloud-based[, version controlled] solutions to working collaboratively are not always an option.

You can use cloud-based solutions even when some collaborators are against them. All you need to do is: Download and email the cloud version to collaborators that refuse to use the cloud, and upload whatever they send back.


Will mentioning that I'm considering a PhD to start a company hurt my chances?

One thing you should really consider first, is what are your rights to take the research and start a company: in most universities, whatever discovery is made there legally belongs to them. You might be named on a patent but you may not be the legal owner of any of it, or you may need to license the intellectual property from the university.

Now, in some places, they actually encourage this kind of ventures, but it's framed within the university bound; that means they may even help you start a company, but they'll want royalties or something in return.

In the end, I'd recommend you look at where your career goals will be best received, in your field of choice, rather than apply all over and interview to discover they don't encourage this type of outcome. That'd probably save you some precious time.


How to acknowledge a deceased advisor’s contributions to a paper?

I had a similar situation. In this case, we did exactly what you did: we indicated that the participant (not a team leader, but a team member in this case) was a co-author, but that he was deceased. I think this is the only fair way to recognize substantial contributions.

Of course, the difficult comes if there is a challenge to the work of the deceased. In our case, however, we had a very substantial paper trail which was audited and reviewed, so the individual work could have been sorted out and dealt with appropriately.

So, I think the best defense is generally to keep good working notes and use version control.


What the difference between full research paper and WIP?

When you later publish the full research paper, you can (should!) cite the conference proceedings as that work will have been incorporated into your research paper. Many researchers that find your conference paper will look for some follow-up to the conference paper, particularly if you make a note in the paper that it is a work in progress.

With online publishing there are often citation connections made in both directions, so as well as the reference list showing which papers are cited in that paper, there is often a reverse-reference list showing which papers cite that paper. This makes things considerably easier, although I have no information about how comprehensive such reverse referencing is, and it may vary by field.


Should I ask the expected level of technicality in the research statement while appyling to a potdoc position?

Don't confuse an application for admission to a graduate program with an application for a postdoc. In most cases the application will be read by people well versed in your field, if you have matched your skills to the listed requirements.
I think you can be much more technical in such a situation and it will probably serve you well. The only caveat is language that implies that you have no flexibility in what you intend to pursue in the position if it is awarded.
You aren't writing for a general audience, but for people looking for expertise. Being to "soft" will work against you.
And tailor each such application to the specifics of the listed position. Don't try to depend on a general letter that "might" work for a lot of similar ones. Speak to the audience.
So, I don't think it will serve you well to ask them how to write the application.


Should I include derivations elaborated in other's paper in my paper's appendix?

It's standard to write "The derivation can be found in X and is included in the Appendix for the sake of completeness." It may happen that the reviewers suggest to remove the Appendix but in this way the presence of the derivation should not influence the overall suggestion of the manuscript.

You may well give other reasons than "sake of completeness" (e. g.  self-containedness, slightly different derivation...) but some reason and proper reference should be given.


My supervisor does not believe my abilities

It's may not be in your best interests to continue working with this supervisor.  If you can find another supervisor, then it might be wise to switch, but you'll have to consider how changing dissertation topics might slow down your progress.

Of course it's possible that you really are performing poorly.  If other faculty in the department are disinterested in supervising you, then that would be a strong indication that you aren't doing well in the program.


Should a figure/table go before or after the first paragraph that references it?

Assuming that you are laying things out yourself, as opposed to working with one of the journals that will do it for you, think about the layout from the perspective of a reader: if you are reading text and looking at a figure, it's a pain to be flipping back and forth.  Thus, ideally, you want both text and figure to be on the same page.  Where, exactly, on the same page is not so important.  Sometimes this will be specified by the layout, and in many cases it is stylistically preferred to have figures above text on a page (this is standard IEEE style, for example).

Sometimes, however, it is either awkward or impossible to get them on the same page.  If this is the case, then, in my opinion, it's slightly better to have the figure come after the first reference in the text.  Figures draw the attention, and if you have the figure before the first mention in text, then it can interfere with your narrative.

This is a fairly weak constraint, however, and I often violate it myself when there are overriding reasons of paper narrative to put the figure in front instead, such as:

Spreading out figures through the text, so that you have less pure-text pages.
Getting a figure onto the first page of a paper, so that it can serve as a visual "icon" for the paper.  Example: in this paper, the figure on page 1 is not referenced until page 2.

Most of this, however, is stylistic preferences, and should not be taken as hard constraints unless the particular venue that you are submitting to provides explicit specification.


Why are you concerned about expectations?  After you get your parchment, your school no longer has anything to give to you.

What you give is purely from your own generosity -- because you feel by giving back to the school, others will benefit.  You give because you feel it is the right thing to do.  You give because you want the school to purchase that lab upgrade.  You give because you want to fund this research because you think it's important.

"Expectations" from an alma mater are not only irrelevant, but it is wrong to think that you owe them something.  You paid tuition, they gave you your parchment.  That deal is orthogonal to "donations" and post-grad support of alma mater.


Should I use the recommended environment in a programming course, if it's not mandatory?

The biggest difference you're likely to see if you use your own set up is the level at which your instructor will be able to answer questions. With the recommended method you might be told "Find and replace the string using control/command + R", whereas with your own setup you're liable be told "replace the string". Providing you already understand things well enough that you can make the translations in your head, then for a beginner's course and a mixed group you aren't likely to miss that much.

It's worth pointing out that it's perfectly possible that the teacher is more used to using yet another setup when coding themselves. Anaconda + Spyder is a good choice in this setup mostly because it works cross-platform in a reasonably consistent manner, rather than because it's a high productivity environment.


Where can I search for researchers in a specific field by location

I suggest that you use a variant of snowball sampling.  Start with the largest, most visible research university in that country (e.g. Iran).  Do a web search for the departments most likely associated with the topic (e.g. data mining). Look at the web pages associated with the most prominent researchers.  You will find listings of their published papers.  In those published papers, you will see co-authors, many from the same university and (importantly) from the same country.  Follow the trail of co-authors and repeat these procedures with their web pages.

In a similar fashion, find conference held in this geography.  It is likely that there will be a high concentration of local participants and conference committee members. They may or may not be important in the grand scheme, but you will find them.

Using this procedure, you should be able to enumerate 90%+ of the people involved in any one specialty in any one (small) geographic region.


Have I 'spent' my negotiating power on higher salary, or can I further negotiate the TT startup offer?

In general, departments don't like extended negotiations with candidates for faculty positions.  In some cases, candidates use this as a way to extend the time that they have to consider an offer so that they can interview for other positions and obtain other offers.  If a candidate ends up not taking the job after an extended negotiation then it may be too late to get the next candidate on the list.

There are differences between salary and startup packages:

In negotiating faculty offers the budget that pays for faculty salary is often different from the budget that pays for the startup package.  In any case, the startup package is one-time money rather than a permanent salary.  Thus if the one-time money is available it might be easier to come up with $100K more of startup funds than $10K per year of salary.

At public institutions, faculty salaries are often public information while at private universities these are generally secret.  At public institutions, it can upset other faculty members if a new assistant professor is hired in at a much higher than normal salary.  Large differences in salary are much more common at private institutions.

It appears that the OP made his salary needs clear before agreeing to interview but that the startup package was not discussed before the interview.  Furthermore, the offer that he has received is the first offer from the institution.  Under those circumstances, it would be quite normal to negotiate the startup package.


Going to conferences: all the research team members together or everyone alone?

If I

had the time, and
had the money,

I would go to every conference directly related to my field that I could.  They are a fantastic way to find out where the tip of the spear is in your field, to network and meet new people, and to see parts of the world you might not be able to see otherwise.  Additionally, many conferences have workshops, expos, and special speakers that all add to one's professional development.

Why do I bring all that up?  Most, if not all of the time, it is professionally advantageous for everyone involved with a paper to attend conferences.  Practically, this rarely happens (at least in my field), simply because funds can't support it, and time commitments make it difficult to travel to various parts of the world.

So, my answer is, send as many people as can practically afford to go, because they will almost certainly gain from the experience.


Posting peer reviewed but not yet accepted papers to arXiv

I'm not a lawyer, but their definition of "preprint" says:

  This is the author's own write-up of research results and analysis that has not been peer reviewed, nor had any other value added to it by a publisher (such as formatting, copy-editing, technical enhancements, and the like).

Note all of these - formatting, copy-editing, technical enhancements - are done by the publisher's staff. Peer review is not usually done by the publisher's staff. So I'd say you are clear to post revised-but-not-yet-accepted papers to arXiv.

In any case the worst case scenario is probably them sending you a warning asking you to take down the revision (I consider this rather unlikely too - even if it's against their policies, they would first have to notice, and then have to decide to enforce). So you can probably do it without incurring too much trouble. If you're very worried, you can also ask them.


How to cite a TED Talk with Youtube URL in MLA 8?

Write the name or username of the compiler. If the user indicates his or her real name, use it. Otherwise, use the compiler's username or screenname. If citing from YouTube's official channel, specify the username as "YouTube." Follow with a period.

Doe, John.
Sephora.
YouTube.

Name the video. Put the title in quotation marks and follow it with a period. Capitalize the first letter of all major word (that is, anything that isn't an article, conjunction, preposition, or "to").

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012."

Specify the format of the citation. Indicate that you are citing an "Online video clip." Follow with a period.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online
  video clip.

Indicate that the video came from YouTube. Even if the video was pulled from the official YouTube account, you still need to indicate that the video was pulled from YouTube. Italicize the website's name, and follow with a comma.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online video clip. YouTube,

List the posting date. Type out the date in day-month-year format. Conclude with a period.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online
  video clip. YouTube, 21 December 2012.

State that the video came from the Web. This may seem redundant, but MLA format requires you to specify whether each source is electronic or print. Write "Web" and follow it with a period.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online
  video clip. YouTube. 21 December 2012. Web.

Indicate the date you retrieved the video. Write this date out in day-month-year format. End with a final period.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online
  video clip. YouTube, 21 December 2012. Web. 31 December 2012.

P.S: Source: WikiHow.


How should I describe the "relationship" between me and postdoc in our lab if I am getting recomendation letter from her?

Assuming this person is not formally your manager nor supervisor, the correct term would be colleague.


take visiting professorship or wait a year?

This is ultimately a personal choice, but if you've spent the last five years as a research postdoc with no success in landing a tenure track position at a research university, then it's probably time to change your career strategy.

There are lots of permanent or tenure track positions at liberal arts colleges, regional comprehensive universities, and community colleges where little or no research will be expected of you and PhD and teaching experience are necessary to get a job.  If you want one of those jobs, then now would be a good time to start getting more teaching experience.


Referencing: Which one is more ideal? (cite as from cited or direct cite)?

Like user49483 said in the comment, citing a review is considered very bad form. Basically, it is your job to read a lot (reading widely) and cite what is appropriate.

As one who marks papers, I definitely reduce students' scores for citing indirectly like this (and I see it all the time).

When you cite indirectly, you are saying "I know this is important because I am citing it but I did not read this important piece." JeffE said in a comment (which I cannot find) that not citing the original is actually you saying that you could NOT FIND it because if you CAN find it you MUST read and cite it (or something to that effect).

One of the many reasons to read and cite the original is because the third party (reviewer) might be reporting on the original work incorrectly. I saw this one time when someone said a famous author in my field had said something which did not sound like that author at all. So, I re-read the writing which was referenced and it was simply being mis-reported. If a reviewer mis-reports and you cite the review then you are showing that you do not have the proper understanding (and your grade should reflect that lack of understanding).

Is it more work to cite properly? Of course it is. Doing anything properly takes more time but we do it because it is the proper way and taking shortcuts simply leads to poor results in any field or study or work.


Just got tenured and promoted, but need to move for family reasons

If you stay behind and work for a year as an associate professor and go on the job market the next academic year, you'll be in a better situation to search for a new tenure track position than if you leave your current position and move immediately.  It's always better to look for a job from a tenured/tenure track position than as an unemployed academic with no current affiliation.  Furthermore, if you leave at this point it may appear as though you didn't receive tenure in your current position.

When/if you do go on the job market you can explain in your cover letter that you're moving to the new city because your partner is there in a tenure track position.

Another avenue to follow up on is seeing if your partner's new institution might be willing to employ you (either now or perhaps in a year from now.)   Many institutions have specific "spousal hiring" policies that might be helpful.


When to leave a postdoc as foreigner that doesn't have enough courage because of current global situation?

Though I empathise with your situation, I don't gather from your description what you have been actively doing to make the situation better. You said you don't have the courage to move, so I understand that you might also not have been speaking up.
Do not do that. Do speak up, while being polite, and do try to improve your situation. Have you, for instance, had a conversation yet with your boss? Does he allow you to change research direction if you would think that would be helpful? Can you bring up your own ideas that you would be more excited about?
Though I don't think that one should stay endlessly in a position which does not offer a perspective and there are certainly places worth leaving, be aware that you will encounter issues during every postdoc. You do have to be able to develop the tools to cope with these and carve out your own path successfully.
Do not worry too much about others opinions when deciding to leave, it happens and people know that. Be smart about it, however, and do not talk negatively about this situation to a potential future lab.


Preparing a curriculum vitae for an undergraduate internship

It looks like your list here is pretty comprehensive. I would focus less on the "interests" and more on the relevant skills and experience. interests are nice as a snapshot on your personality, but I wouldn't sweat it if the section is a bit barren or void of "in depth" content here.

From my understanding, a CV is nothing more than an expanded resume. If you have an existing resume, take a few moments to expand a bit on your roles and accomplishments beyond simple bullet points.


To submit or not to submit GRE Scores for PhD programs in the United States

If the institution requires them they must be sent, of course. But, as you say, that is becoming more rare.

But if they are not required I would only recommend sending them if they were truly superlative, which yours don't seem to be. I doubt that anyone would consider that you were hiding anything if they aren't required.

Your application need to contain (only) reasons why you are well qualified for the position and highly likely to be a success. Don't include things that point in other directions unless required.


Where do I put the Creative Commons license information in a book?

This is a good approach. It's helpful to have the license on each "unit" - so if you're putting it up as separate chapters, have a license statement on each chapter. Putting it with the citation is sensible, but make sure it's on a seperate line so it's not seen as part of the citation.

Something like "This chapter is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives license [version]" is good. It should include a link to the license code if possible - otherwise it's not much help if someone doesn't know what the license is!

If the entire book is in a single PDF, or if you have the "front matter" as a seperate PDF, you could put the license + link on the copyright page (reverse of the title page), and it's often common to have a license logo on the (back?) cover as well.


Waiting times and hurdles between inclusion in ESCI and getting an impact factor?

No hard and fast rules here but the answer is about a few years.
The publisher is the only one who can make the application (see this page, "Submitting your journal for evaluation"). Of course they are heavily incentivized to do so, but they will only do so if there's a reasonable chance of success, since failure means they can't submit for evaluation again for at least two years. So that's the approximate time frame: about a few years, depending on whether the publisher judges they have a chance of success and when they apply.


In email applications should the text of the cover letter be stated directly in the email or be attached in a separate file?

I would advise to make the email brief, and make sure that the motivation letter is the first attachment. Often, motivation letters are printed (at least the ones which wind up in the final round) and a properly formatted letter looks better than a printed email.


will lack of experience make it impossible to change my subject of study?

Age won't matter much.

"Experience" may matter. Any program has prerequisites, and there's really no way to jump to PhD without that essential knowledge.

I don't think you're going to get into the PhD program without first getting a Masters or having equivalent work experience. The Physics background plus independent study may be able get you into a Masters program.

I suspect you'll have better odds if you do the Masters in your own country, and then apply for a PhD program (in the US or elsewhere).


Why would a professor (say in pure math) want to take PhD students?

They get to train the next generation of mathematicians. They get to establish a relationship with young students, guide new researchers when they are up-and-coming and those people become their students. For the rest of time those researchers will be the person trained by Professor Stella and that is intrinsically valuable for several reasons:

Some people like teaching. I love teaching, and if I leave industry and go into university research it will be largely because I want to teach. The ability to work with and mould young minds really appeals to me, and I get value out of knowing that I've helped people learn.
You develop an attachment, and a sense of pride, in your students. Their accomplishments become, not quite yours, but close to feeling like yours. If you’ve ever served as a TA, you’ve probably worked for a long period of time with a struggling student. Maybe you felt a twinge of pride when they finally got it, or got a good grade on an exam. When you’re an advisor, you get a lot more than a twinge.
They are part of your legacy. They will tell stories about being your student for another 20+ years after you pass away, they will toast you at banquets in their honor and thank you for making them the researcher that they are today.

What a professor expects of you is that you try your very best to be a good scientist, that you do interesting work, and that you continue to carry on the torch of mathematics for another generation after they are gone.


Is it normal to feel lost while following a mathematical / physical reasoning?

What you are experiencing is very normal for a student. It takes a lot of practice solving simpler problems before you can, on your own, solve the harder ones. You have also discovered the truth that it is harder to produce a proof than it is to follow it. But it is also easer to read and follow a fictional story than it is to create one. That also takes a lot of practice.

In fact, it takes a lot of failed attempts before you learn to see the successful path. Even then it is hard.

Moreover, if you are reading the professional literature (published papers), note that most mathematicians will leave out all but the most essential steps. This is both because of page limits, but also because they are writing for people just like themselves, and not for novices, including students.

So, while it is discouraging, it isn't something to think of as an indication that you are a failure. It is just genuinely difficult to follow sparsely written proofs and even harder to produce the steps between what you already know and what you want to prove. And the more practice you get, the easier it will become, partly because that practice helps you recall what you once knew but don't remember very well, having not used it actively for a while.

Press on.


When to withdraw other faculty applications: conditional offer letter or contract?

Normally you should not withdraw your applications until you have received a binding job offer that you intend to sign.  If you are delaying signing it, that does not matter.
Depending on your circumstances, an offer conditional on a visa may be extremely risky.  Visa risk is unusually high right now owing to the pandemic, but even before the pandemic I have known people to wait for more than a year for a visa.


What can stop me from getting a PhD degree?

It is pretty rare that one gets a doctorate without publications and/or an acceptable dissertation. What is "common" in your field has little relevance to your particular situation. You need to make your advisor and maybe a committee satisfied that you have done work of sufficient quality. Your requirements are local to a University, or, perhaps, to the regulations of a particular country.

Serving as a TA may get you better recommendations for an academic job after you finish, but have little relevance for the doctorate itself.

Yes, bad behavior would stop you most likely, but you need to focus on the research that leads to acceptance.

Complaining to a supervisor that "others have done it" will likely get you precisely nowhere - if not set back.

In another question here you have indicated you are in your fourth year. This makes me wonder whether you are getting sufficient guidance from your PhD supervisor/advisor. If not, you might try to improve your relationship with him/her in hopes of obtaining the guidance you need. Four years isn't yet excessively long in the current situation, but you should  assess your progress and make sure you and your advisor agree on a plan for completion.


Masters w.o. thesis on the area I'm interested vs. masters w/ thesis on a different area

Should I accept him and try to write a thesis alone or look for a different adviser on a different area?

This is up to you. You are pursuing a graduate degree and you have to take charge of your educational path. You have to weigh both options. A) Writing a thesis alone with no supervision and potentially having to struggle, B) Working under a different adviser who will supervise you, but it may be a boring/uninteresting topic.

Is it important to have a masters degree with thesis to apply for a PhD program?

This is dependent on the program. Some programs are more research heavy than others. I would scope out your future plans and tentatively look at what PhD programs you would like to apply for and see what their requirements are. I do believe that it is impossible to do "too much" work when applying for a PhD program, so a thesis may be in your favor.


When citing web sources, should I give the URL within the text itself?

Usually, web sources have an author and a publication/creation date as well. These you can add in-text, and then put Author, Year, Title, website and retrieval date in the reference list.


My research supervisors want to patent an idea I made and I get a minority part of the invention

You should read your university's intellectual property policy.  If this matter is important to you, you should also consult a lawyer.

I think you are probably confusing the concepts of credit and ownership.  The inventors get credit for creating the invention, but the owners have the right to exploit the patent.  Most likely the university owns all of the patent and the inventors who are employees or students own none if it.  The university may assign a portion of any profits to the inventors as an incentive.  This would be entirely at the university's discretion, and would typically be described in a published policy.


What is the appropriate mechanism for finding administrative support for a conference?

You may want to think about whether you need a full-time administrative assistant for that, or maybe students could take over some of these tasks. It probably depends on the size of the conference also. But I generally found that students are very well willing to take over such tasks, because it allows them a little bit to peek behind the curtains of conference organization.

An important question when engaging students is whether you have funds available to support the conference organization. If yes, then I think it should be easy to find students willing to help for a small salary. Otherwise you would have to rely on volunteering, which may be more difficult.


Are young researchers at various universities held to the same standard?

I don't think you are asking the question that you think you are. If you are asking whether the two will be treated equally in the hiring process only then the answer is that the B probably has an advantage in any situation in which they are the only two candidates and all other things are equal. But all other things probably aren't equal, even including personality and flexibility.

Also, it is entirely possible that A has written an especially strong dissertation and has a great record otherwise, while B has been allowed to coast along a bit in the shadow of the senior faculty.

Also, candidate B can't hold "every" position, so once they (maybe) grab the plum job all the others are still open. And as stated above, the "plum" candidate may turn out to be a "prune" instead.

I assume you ask this because you think you are more like A than B. Otherwise I don't see you asking the question. Like anyone, you need to make your best case for success in anything you apply for. Do the work and make it count. Then you will be taken seriously, even if B is still lurking.

But the title question is different, since you said "at the various..". There the answer would be probably not as what is typical treatment at one place probably varies quite a bit from others, except in the most generalized terms, such as time to tenure. If you meant "from the various..." instead, then ignore this note.


Repeat same table or figure in different chapters or use cross references?

First off, a dissertation is a very unusual document, which tends to have a lot of authorial flexibility in its presentation.  As such, there's often a lot of possible latitude for choices that would not be permitted by a more conventional publication in a journal or conference.

That said, here are the guidelines that I personally would use for considering the options:

If the table is primarily for purpose of ease of reference (e.g., table of notations), then using it more than once is fine.  Typically, one would want to reference the first copy. In some cases, however, I might not even think of it as duplication so much as convergent evolution and not needing a reference: e.g., "notation used in this chapter" might just end up with lots of overlap for some chapters.
If the table is a "significant" object presenting technical / results content, on the other hand, then reproducing it feels less appropriate, because it is taking the material out of its context of presentation. The exception I see here is if it is used as a fragment of a larger comparison, like when an image is presented again in order to allow direct contrast between it and other images.


Is it rude to take all the time allowed to make an offer decision?

Not at all. You should go to the interview, see the competing offer, if you get it, and then decide. Note that you will likely not have time to have either school make a counter offer. Therefore, I would recommend that at the interview you let the school know you have an existing offer and deadline and that they will have to move quickly and at least match the other offer (or whatever it will take to get you there).

If the school that has made the offer asks, just tell them you are waiting to hear from one last place. You could send a preemptive email telling them that, but there really is no need.


IEEE transactions specific: Is it necessary to number unreferred equations?

since the equation number is mainly a tag for referencing,

In fact, a reviewer or someone else writing another paper might need to refer to any of your equations, even those you don't refer to. Thus, better number all the equations.

The IEEE Editorial Style Manual specifies (p. 16):

  Consecutive Numbering:
  Equations within a paper are numbered consecutively from the beginning of the paper to the end.

Note also that the typesetter would probably put all the numbers anyway.


How undergraduate research area affects Ph.D. admission chances?

Put simply: No.

Your undergraduate thesis work need not have any connection with your graduate research. Certainly, staying in the same area lets you have more of a "running start," but there's always the chance that you find a new research project as a graduate student that grabs your attention and doesn't let go.

So don't worry too much about doing research work in a less competitive area unless you want to do that research anyway. It's better to do work that excites and motivates you, because the end product will almost certainly be better than taking a project that doesn't.


I have found that a polite, terse e-mail to the associate editor with a clear history line often works in getting some response.  Occasionally, I have written the editor-in-chief if an associate editor is ignoring me.  As Peter points out, there may be legitimate reasons for a delay, including:

The editor is having a hard time finding a competent reviewer (maybe the area is too narrow).
Your paper is very hard to understand (sometimes, if it's badly written but seems to have some elements of novelty, a reviewer will try to plow through to understand what is going one).
The editor needs an additional reviewer in order to break a strong difference of opinion between the original reviewers.

When even the editor-in-chief does not answer in a timely manner (and I have had this only once in my career), your best recourse is to never submit future articles to that journal.  You will be doing your community (and the next submitter) a service.


How to politely respond to a PhD offer follow-up email from potential supervisor?

I don't think the professor is necessarily implying that you should hurry up, they are simply putting pressure on you and hoping that you accept their offer, keeping open a channel for communication if you have questions (like a salesperson asking if you need any help as you are browsing a store), and trying to politely test whether you may have accepted another offer.

If you choose to go elsewhere, they likely want to know as soon as possible so they can extend an offer to another candidate.

I would say it is sufficient to respond with a brief, polite note that you decided before applying to wait for all offers before making a decision, and that you promise to inform them immediately once you have made a decision.

  Dr. Professor,

  I appreciate the email, I will certainly ask you if any questions come up. My plan when applying was to wait until I hear back from all institutions I interviewed at before making a decision.

  I will inform Impatient University immediately once I have made a decision, either way.

  Best,

  Prospective Student

Your responsibility is to inform them as quickly as is reasonable once you have made a decision, but you shouldn't be pressured to respond more quickly than you are ready.

You mention "the school would offer me a small amount of fellowship (which I don't care) if I accept before late February" - this is certainly against the spirit of the April 15 Resolution, though I don't know enough about the specifics of the agreement to definitively say it's disallowed. The whole point of the resolution is to not make financial offers of any sort contingent on making a hasty decision, to keep a level playing field across institutions and in the best interest of the students. That said, I wouldn't suggest bringing this up at all or making an issue of it, unless it makes you uncomfortable in which case you could certainly consider it in your decision-making process.


Choosing between an older, prominent supervisor and a younger, junior supervisor for PhD

I'll talk from my own experiences, as in my career I have worked with both kinds of supervisors: I was under a really famous professor, who did not care about his coworkers at all (to the point of not knowing my name) and with a little-less famous person (who became a professor only after we started cooperating). The former was a complete disaster, as he was not interested in my work at all, did not offer any advice (and you, as a junior researcher would need advice from the wiser ones) and was unpleasant in personal contacts and eventually ceased all communication, thus hindering my academic progress.

The latter offered interesting guidance and by the end helped me to settle down in academia by recommending me to a position.

After all, you do not work with names, but with people. Even younger professor is probably much more experienced than you and can share some of it to you.

Also, bear in mind that this is only my personal statement and your mileage may wary. While reading questions here I, for example, got the impression that names play quite big role in academia (not in work, but on recommendation letters, etc.), so you have to take that into account as well.


How can I select really nice project ideas for undergrad research projects?

If you want to do projects related to your courses, I wouldn't push towards recent literature.  It will be specialized and the emphasis will be on new ideas, not on implementation of your course learnings.

Instead I would look at the references in your texts (often older/harder books).  They may have harder exercises or have small design projects.

Also, of course, talk to your teachers.


In Canada, Is it more likely for faculty members to allocate funds for a PhD applicant than a master's applicant?

You friend might be right as well as the advisors you have contacted with.

It is true that a master's student is less likely to be productive (in terms of publications) compared to a PhD student.
Therefore, even if you are an above-the-average applicant, the advisor would not want to allocate funds for you. This is because when your time for productivity comes, you will finish your master's, you might go to another university for PhD. Therefore, allocating funds for a PhD student is more likely.

The advisors that you have contacted with might really have insufficient funds.

However, the solution for this problem, I think, is not applying for a PhD programme. Rather, you may state that you intend to continue your PhD in the same university, in case they do not want to invest into a master's student.


arXiv article says that code has been made available with the article, but I cannot find it

The "Code" tab is a relatively new addition to arXiv I believe, and may not have been there yet when the preprint was submitted. However, you can click on "Other formats" under "Downloads" in the menu on the right, and download the source. The package contains a .nb file, which I suppose is the notebook you are looking for.


Should I report a graduate student who "hires" other people to do their coursework?

Yes. You're describing academic dishonesty, and it doesn't matter if it's essay-buying, texting answers during an exam, involves undergraduates vs. graduates... academic dishonesty should be reported.


In the end, once the paper is published, nobody will worry about what software was used to generate it. The software is just a means to an end.

So, if your advisor has a strong preference for Microsoft Word then - regardless how you feel about that preference - if you can't easily convince your advisor to use LaTeX you should switch to Word. There are much more important things to worry about, and there is no reason to make life difficult for your advisor for something so unimportant.

Converting your paper from LaTeX to Word is not likely to produce ideal results, as you have noticed. By the time you go through and fix things, you might as well simply work in Word from the beginning. In other words, the "efficient" way to do this is to convert the content in your head as you are writing it in Word, rather than trying to convert the content to Word after it is written.


What points should I consider when applying for/accepting a position at another department?

You already have two questions there:

What should you consider when applying for a position at a different department?
What should you consider when accepting a position at a different department?

I'll concentrate on the first question here, and maybe you want to repost your second question separately, because it really deserves separate treatment.

You already hit the nail on the head in your question. The hiring department will wonder just why you apply there from a different specialization, and what you would bring to the table here. (And if they google your name, find this post and read something about "not attending their seminars", this might influence them further...) Being desperate for a job and having done something vaguely related will not be sufficient.

Therefore you need to convince the department you are hiring that you are a good answer to their needs.

Multi- or interdisciplinarity is good these days - but it's better to be interdisciplinary "looking out" from a department than "looking in". So:

In your cover letter, emphasize any work you have been doing that fits into the target department.
Get recommendations from the discipline of your target department, not your original one.
For these two points to work, you will need to actually immerse yourself in the target discipline and its culture. It's fine to come to philosophy from a mathematical point of origin, but be sure to have publications in journals of mathematical philosophy, not only in mathematical journals with a philosophical bent.
You will likely be required to teach introductory courses in your target department. Make sure the hiring committee can infer from your application that you can and will do so. It would be good if you could point to experience having done just that. Perhaps you could try teaching such a course before starting your applications?
Familiarize yourself with the research being done at your target department, and explain how you could collaborate with your departmental colleagues in your research plan. (You should be doing this regardless of what department you apply to, it's just even more important in your case.)

And don't write anything about "not being interested in your colleagues' research" in an openly accessible forum under your real name, even if your question at this point is purely hypothetical.

When accepting a position in a different discipline, things like different conventions in negotiations may come to mind, but as I wrote above, I'd say this is really a better topic for a separate question.


Why do some conferences with double blind review ask for author names when submitting the paper for review?

Likely so they can track the papers internally by author. It prevents, for example, a submission being sent out to a reviewer who is on the paper.'

Double-blind just means that the reviewers are unknown to the author, and the author is unknown to the reviewers. It doesn't say anything about the conference organizers/editorial staff.


If I understand correctly, you state and cite formulas, then derive a further formula. Presumably, the derivation isn't new, and you are concerned that you didn't provide a source for the derivation. Given that you consider the further formula to be well-known, it perhaps doesn't matter so much. Nonetheless, to protect yourself, you could email your examiners and explain that you inadvertently forgot to mention that the derivation is not your own, it is a well-known result, perhaps providing a citation.


Waiting until MS thesis is Published before applying to PhD?

No.

Why rob yourself of potential opportunities?  Your chances of admission might be less than if you had a publication, but they're certainly bigger than if you don't apply at all.  If you aren't admitted anywhere, you can always apply again next year, after your thesis is done.


Is it normal that journals strongly suggest a professional English editing service?

In one journal where I am familiar with the editorial workflow, the review form explicitly asks reviewers to rate the language quality of the manuscript. Based on this rating, the editor can tick an item similar to "Needs language revisions" when putting together the decision letter. The decision letter will then contain a paragraph that advises the authors to do a language revision. I am not sure at the moment whether a particular service is being recommended there.

The point is that such a recommendation can get into the letter easily, but will not be included by default. Probably the editor only wrote the first two or three sentences of the letter, maybe without thinking carefully about the exact formulation, and the rest is based on a customizable template. Nevertheless, it usually means that at least one reviewer was criticizing language usage, maybe even without giving specific comments on it. I would advise you to at least double-check on language usage, and if possible have it proof-read by someone else with very good English skills or a native speaker.

However, as long as the reviewers can understand the technical content well, these points are usually not decisive for the acceptance of the manuscript. Especially, as long as any language problems are corrected, I can't imagine that the editor will care whether you use the suggested language service or not.


Is it early to try to read Articles for an undergrad

I'm assuming you mean by "articles" research articles in published journals and the like.

In that case, it depends a lot on the field of study and where you are in your undergraduate education. For example, in math there are articles which are genuine research and could be read by any dedicated undergrad willing to put in the effort and maybe look a few terms up. This is very common in graph theory for example. But in number theory, while there are many very elementary articles, there are others which use deep, sophisticated techniques. And then you have areas like much of topology where almost any serious research article will be completely inaccessible to someone without a lot of prior training. In other fields, the situation is similar, with specific subfields ranging a lot. That said, some areas are easier to read than others. For example a lot of articles from the social sciences and humanities are easy to read if one has taken a basic introductory course in the relevant topic.

In general, if there's a specific topic that interests you, you can try to read an article and see how much work is involved in understanding it.


A professor whose idea of a good or even appropriate letter of recommendation is to copy a letter off of the internet and send it to you is a knucklehead.  (That is a technical term: I am after all an academic professional.  I could have used stronger language...)  At least, he is in this respect: in the comments the OP mentions that he got a job at Waterloo, which is a university with a high international reputation.  So he must have some other good things going for him.  In the fullness of time, I have to believe that he will learn how to write a reasonable recommendation letter.

But that's not your problem.  I would advise you to look at the fact that the professor gave the letter directly to you -- which is itself irregular and, in certain circles, inappropriate -- as a real blessing.  He could have just sent this miserable excuse for a letter quietly to all the places you're applying to, and you would be the one (in the short term, at least) to suffer the consequences.  I strongly disagree that you should work further with this guy to write a better letter.  (In particular, I vehemently disagree that you should write the letter yourself.  As I have said before on this site, I find that "immoral and wrong" -- a recommendation letter is a commissioned expert opinion.  Looking over the opinion desired by the person you have been commissioned to evaluate and deciding whether or not it requires any modification is not how expert opinions work.  But I've made my feelings on this moral issue clear enough already.  Here let me push the practical side of this: as a student, you cannot write for yourself a good recommendation letter.  There are components of such a letter that require expertise and personal experience that you necessarily lack.)  It is time to start fresh and get a letter from a new person.

The part of your response that jumps out at me is "I can't find a third professor other than him who is willing to write a letter for me."  That's the real issue here, and I hope it will serve as a warning to other students in your position.  All undergraduates should be thinking -- from their first year -- about building good relationships with their instructors that will lead to multiple people being able to write them strong recommendation letters.  It is all too easy to go through an undergraduate program -- even, perhaps especially, to excel at it -- while having very little contact with the faculty outside of the classroom and regular coursework.  That is certainly a mistake.

Okay, though: what do you do?  You ask whether someone who has not taught you in a course can write you a letter.  The answer is certainly yes.  You want the letter writer to (i) have stature in the academic community and in the particular area you're applying to, and (ii) have something meaningful to say about your academic background, skills, work ethic, and prospects for success in graduate school.  Someone that you have done research with can speak to aspects of that as well or better as people who have taught you in a course in which you quietly got an A.  In a pinch -- as you seem to be -- I would advise you to try to make contacts with people who satisfy condition (i) and try to rapidly achieve (ii) with them.  Thus for instance if you've done any research at all in the field you're intending to study, you could send a paper (or code, or interesting data, or whatever) to an expert in that field and mention that you'd like a recommendation letter.  This is a bit irregular, but if your work is solid, why not?  I would do it.

I strongly recommend that you work harder to find the right person to write you a strong letter than to have further dealings with someone who has already proven to be hopelessly inept at the job.


Can professors hire assistants from their own salary?

Probably not, though professorial funding can get tricky. In the US, most departments or colleges handle the funding of TAs directly. They are normal employees and are (more and more) entitled to benefits. If a prof just took money literally out of their own pocket and paid a TA, this would circumvent tax withholding, the purchase of insurance benefits, etc. TAs need to be employees of the university. At the same time, since they interact with students and appear in the classroom, TAs need to have official status with the university. Since direct payment by a professor would bypass this, I doubt very seriously that it would be allowed.

However, once a professor has a grant, money becomes more flexible. It's entirely possible for a professor to be paid 9 months by the university and end up funding more than 3 summer months through grants. NSF has its 2 month rule to try to prevent this, but through multiple agencies, a lot is possible. Agencies allow Principle Investigators the flexibility to move salary money between personnel within a grant almost at will, so it could be that a prof could take one of those months of their own salary from the grant, and spread it across several (at half time) for a student. This is pretty common. It wouldn't be direct, the student would be paid by the university and have official GRA status, but it would, sort of, come out of the prof's pocket, depending on your point of view.


Sample Profiles of people who got into top PhD programs

Lots of departments list their Graduate students on their websites. Web search for their personal website, find their CV, and what research projects they worked on as undergraduates. Do this over and over again and you should start to get a good idea what a successful candidate looks like.


How much time should someone take to respond to a PhD admission offer?

As soon as you are sure, or April 15, whichever is sooner.

You have no ethical obligation to answer before the April 15 deadline, especially if you are waiting for an offer from another department.

On the other hand, it would be nice to answer earlier if you can.  So it would be nice of you to contact your current department's admissions committee (either directly or through your lab director), tell them that you have another admission offer but would prefer them, and ask if they're likely to offer you admission.  If they haven't decided, it would be nice of you tell them about your April 15 deadline and ask them when they expect to make up their mind.

(I'm assuming that you prefer to stay in your current lab.  If you'd rather accept the pending offer, even if you got an offer from your current lab, then what are you waiting for?  If you're not sure, then what more information do you need?)


Accused of cheating due to the time accounted by Blackboard

Unfortunately you can't prove a negative. You have been "caught" by a system that is insufficiently accurate to properly evaluate your actions (and those of many others).
All you can really do is insist (and keep insisting) to your professor that you didn't cheat and explain how you actually acted. If you don't get satisfaction then escalate the issue to higher authorities.
And keep insisting. People have an obligation to be fair.
A recent article in the Washington Post explores how badly online testing systems are performing. While the article focuses on fully automated systems, the problem is much wider, even when human "proctors" are used in conjunction with webcams. In my view the real problem is in trying to apply solutions from a different era into the current pandemic/online situation. Those solutions no longer work and the workarounds are badly failing. They make assumptions that are not valid given the range of normal human actions.
Any cheating detection system, automated or not, needs to have the property that it produces zero false positives. The meeting is part of that system and should assure that you aren't accused wrongfully. But it isn't well understood that a system permitting no false positives will almost invariably produce some false negatives. But the consequences of error in a cheating detection system are so asymmetrical that such a rule is required.

Artificial Intelligence is certainly artificial but it is definitely not intelligent.

Note that I hesitated to edit this after so many votes had been cast, not wanting to invalidate decisions made already by users. The advice remains the same. Insist that you didn't cheat and stick with it.


Where can I apply for a third party Travel Grant?

Speak to the conference organizers, although you claim that they don't offer travel, you don't say how you know this. Have you asked them? If you approach them with a polite email expressing your intense interest and disappointment that you cannot attend, maybe some money can be found.
Can the conference sponsor help? Often these conferences are sponsored by a large company looking to hire fresh talent. This is a good way to get noticed, so maybe they can throw a few £100 in your direction. Make sure you talk to the right person in the company.
Can your (past) institution in Sri Lanka help? Don't just look at what your department offers, scour the websites for any kind of money that is available for student travel. Speak to your former advisor. Speak to the head of the department. Speak to the careers advice team.
Are you a member of any learned society or institute? They will often have discounted rates for students and unemployed, but offer bursaries for (recent) students attending conferences.
Does your government fund any programmes that might be of use?
Are you in a minority or in some other group that gets targeted for extra money? Don't be shy, go looking for it.

Finally, what kind of price quotes are you getting for your airfare?


Rules for using an electronic text as the texbook for a class

Well .. one idea is to assign the book as the textbook then notify the students that they should get the book via buying from amazon ... or that your library has access to Springer resources free of charge for the students. University students are adults that can make their own decisions.

As the course coordinator you are not selling the book, and it is not your responsibility to hand in a book to each student. Students can: buy the book or use free resources on their own progeratives. Students are not liable, since they are just accessing your library to view already available resources.

As long as you do not directly post content such as homework questions or chapter text from the book or directly share such content in any way, such as on the course website or as handouts, you are not liable. You are just assigning a book as recommended textbook and notifying the students their options. Students are also not liable since your library enables them to access free material they wish to view.

I also just want to give an example of clear violation. If you buy the book and make a pdf out of it and share them in course site (does not matter whether public access or not) that would be a breach of copyright.


As the student’s supervisor, it is your duty not to “help him get the job” but rather to act in a supervisory role, and that includes giving your honest opinion about the student to anyone he requests you to. When I get requests from students I hardly know to write them letters, I tell them honestly there isn’t much I can say other than what class they took with me and what grade they got, and that a letter from me would not be worth very much, but I always say I am willing to write the letter if they insist that I do.

My suggestion is that you simply answer the reference request from the employer as honestly as you can. If there isn’t much you can say, say so, but include whatever details you can speak about that may be of interest to an employer. If you really think you can’t say anything of value, say so. That would probably hurt the student’s chances, but that’s not your problem.

Finally, I wouldn’t mention to the employer the story about the student putting your name down without your approval. It may be annoying, but I would attribute it to the student’s inexperience and just let it go, although perhaps I would privately mention to the student that such behavior is counterproductive and also somewhat rude.


Which are the criteria I have to follow to choose a citation style for my book?

I assume you are asking about an academic book, in which case the following applies:

If the publisher's style guidelines specify what citation style to use (many do), then use that one.
Otherwise, use the citation style that is commonly used in your field. Here is a list of the commonly used citation styles for many fields.
Finally, if several styles are commonly used in your field and the publisher has no requirements, choose the one that you think will be most useful to the reader. (For example, depending on the content and style of your book, you may find footnote citations more useful than in-text citations, or vice versa.)


In the US, is it culturally acceptable for a graduate student to give a small gift to a professor?

As your Ph.D. advisor is also going to be your host and provide you with lodging during your stay, a small gift would be very acceptable.  It is accepted etiquette in the U.S. to leave your host a small gift as a token of your appreciation for their hospitality to you.  You may want to give your host a gift card to a restaurant in their area placed inside a thank you card.  This can also be done online and sent to your host via email.  Both ways would be done after your stay is complete.  Another idea would be to send flowers after your visit.  Small tokens such as these that would be enjoyed by the whole household are wonderful ways to say "thank you".


"Estimated publication date" - we have not set a fixed date for publishing this article, but this is a guess based on how long we think it's going to take.

"Due publication date" - we have set a fixed date for publishing this article.

In this case, I'd guess that they haven't yet reviewed the article (so can't be sure they're going to publish it) but know from experience that it usually takes about eight weeks to review + publish. When it's been reviewed, they'll be able to set a due date.