How to understand the broader goals of profs' research projects?

I would suggest it is unreasonable for an undergraduate student to try to understand the big picture before approaching a prof for a first research position.
I know that at least from my point of view if an undergraduate approached me with interest that would be good enough for me. I would just draft an email for several profs that essentially said something like this--but in your own words of course:
"Dear xyz, I am looking for a lab for my first research position and the topic of your research is interesting to me because . Would you have 30 minutes for me to learn more about the research in your lab and to explore if it would be possible for me to perform a research rotation in your lab?"
For one thing, you'd narrow down the profs/labs who are willing to explain their research/teach and are open to take on first year undergrads. You can then still try to read a single review or two on the topic or just read through the lab webpage before you have the first meeting. I'd argue too that if a prof is unwilling to take 30 min of their time to chat about their research, that is a good enough reason for you NOT to chose the lab for your first research project.


Tell supervisor I am unhappy with grading even though grades won't change

Unless this decision is somehow going to jeopardize your whole future and not just this one grade then I would suggest to "swallow your pride." You mentioned that you are interested in working with this supervisor in the future. That would certainly be great networking which could bring you a number of opportunities and I wouldn't say risking all of that is worth contesting this one grade (which you may still not be in the right). Leave your pride at the door and reach for your goals only until sometime truly disrespects you. Otherwise try to focus on the positives.


Where can I find free drawings or artwork to use for an article?

I want to insert a nice drawing of a forest for example, to show
  ecological processes between different parts of the ecosystem.

If this is the level of complexity you're looking at, I'd say it is best handled by an illustrator. First, it'd be hard to find a set of cliparts that feature ecological processes; and if you put a bunch of cliparts with different styles together it's going to look like an 8th grade science poster project. (Which is fine if that's the level you are happy with.)

I know that you said you don't have money, but have you checked out some alternative way to hire artists? There are artists that draw a logo for a couple hundred thousands dollars, and there are many more artists who charge much, must less than that. One possible place to look is the Hungry Artist sub-Reddit. And here what the local community consider a "good and clear" posting. You can also mention to the artist that it's likely to be featured in a publication, which can help them strengthen their portfolio.

  I have looked on deviantart for a while and google but couldn't find
  anything that fits and that is copyright free.

I'd suggest by all means e-mail the owners of the work you like and see what would be the process of using their work.

And lastly, have you considered drawing them yourself? Free software like Inkscape can do a lot of amazing things. Ecological drawings are also very suitable for a particular style known as isometric projection. They can be drawn using modules and you can paste a single module to form a landscape... the process is quite fun.

Even you're not planning to become a self-trained illustrator, It'd still be good to get familiar with a graphical software. Let's say if you have a background and a set of cliparts from different sources, sometimes little tricks can make them more artistically coherent. For example, unify the hue of the cliparts (e.g. turn them to sepia), passing through the same filter (e.g. through pen sketch filter), or frame them uniformly before placing them on the big forest (e.g. frame them all in circles) may help improve the quality of the art work.

Sorry, I know this is not what you're asking for. I feel that it may be nice to think outside the frame of the constraints once a while.


How to cite a company that gave the data and formulated a problem to be solved in a competition?

You can include an Acknowledgements section in which you thank the company for the data and the contest as appropriate. You can include, there, a link to the data, etc.
It is probably unnecessary to even mention the scoring metric for purposes of citation. It is possible that the company wants it kept private if they haven't published it.


How to start writing my statement of purpose?

While this will depend partly on the formal requirements of the course for which you are applying, here are some general things that I look for in reading these statements as admissions tutor for our department:

Demonstrated enthusiasm for the subject.  Your CV and transcript will provide basic factual information about your technical skills and ability to succeed in an academic environment, but the statement of purpose lets you round out that profile with memorable detail.  Be specific.  If you've worked at a tech start-up, how did that inform your decision to pursue further study?  What new skills did you learn, new challenges faced and overcome, etc?
Demonstrated awareness of the programme.  I've read essays that clearly had no understanding of what our programme covered and how we taught it.  Be familiar with the prospectus and don't be afraid to contact the admissions tutors to clarify anything.  How does the style of teaching at your target university relate to your interests?
Ability to write coherently.  Regardless of the subject, you will need to be able to communicate clearly.  A poorly structured essay, full of grammar and spelling mistakes, is a sure-fire way to end up on the 'no' pile.

Good luck!


Effective Strategies for writing papers and be more productive?

For any written work writing an outline is very useful. Write down all the chapters, sections and subsections and in them gather bullet points of the content und key messages, e.g. like this:

Introduction

1. Literature review
2. Scope of work
3. Importance in scientific context

Methods

1. Some experimental methods

Results

1. Some data

and so on and so forth. The more specific you are, the better. Write down any idea you have now, it might be gone later. If you think of a sentence that sounds good to you, but is somewhere in the middle of your paper, write it down! It can be the seed for a much longer paragraph

I usually like to get literature review out of the way first, because it is the most tedious. Gather the sources you want to cite and construct a nice introduction around them.

From here on it is just writing, no way around it. Personally, I write rough drafts of every section and come back to it later in an iterative process. Some people may like to perfect one section first before going to the other.

If you have trouble concentrating in front of the screen, get up and write somewhere else using pen and paper. Print your rough drafts and write your corrections on them. I am usually more focussed when reading on paper.

I hope some of these tips help. This is not only restricted to papers, but applies basically to any scientific work, theses, reports, etc.


First, I would distinguish between paper presentations and poster presentations in your CV in general, if you don't do this already.

I suggest you list it as you normally would under "Poster Presentations". As long as you make sure that the other coauthors are listed appropriately, there is no reason why this would be an issue.

Unless you are the first author (which I assume you aren't), most people would probably assume that you're not the presenter, though this isn't too crucial. If you really want, you can specify who was the presenting author, but I think this is probably unnecessary in this case.


How can I prepare myself to advise students for jobs outside of academia?

In our university, we have good experiences with inviting alumni who are now in industry to give career-oriented talks. The students know that the person giving the talk was in the same study program as they are now, and I guess just this alone helps them to see possible role models in the persons giving talks. The best talks are when alumni not only report about the technical points of the project they are working on, but also give a more personal account of their development towards their current job.

These talks are organized by the alumni organisation of the study program, which certainly helps getting the contacts to potential speakers. But I can also imaging getting these contacts in other ways.


Including conferences in the CV of an undergraduate student

Do you think it is important to include a list of attended conferences in your CV when you are an undergraduate student?

Sure, why not?  It's not likely to make a big difference in graduate school applications, but it can't hurt and might help.  This is not a particularly valuable form of information, but it's worth including when you don't have lots more to say (and undergraduates are generally in that position).

  And what about the seminars you have attended which did not provide you with a certificate confirming you took them? Should they be mentioned too?

In the U.S., certificates confirming attendance are irrelevant. I couldn't recognize an official certificate if I saw one (there's no standard format or protection against forgery), so I consider them meaningless, and this is a common opinion here.  If you are sending your CV to a U.S. institution, then you don't need to worry about this at all.  In other countries the customs may differ, however.


How to find the list of relevant IEEE journals to publish a paper in?

IEEE.org currently has a Publication Recommender tool where you input the keywords, key phrases, title, abstract etc. of your article, or the actual document of the article (in pdf, doc, docx or tex format). You can narrow the search to periodicals and/or conferences, or the date you want to publish before. I tried it with the two articles I've actually finished, and received a few good recommendations with high relevance scores for both.


Alleviating Dunning-Kruger effect without running into impostor syndrome

A very important fact to be aware of is that Dunning-Kruger is a a cognitive bias that is about skill, not intelligence or ability/capacity to learn. So for instance a person who is a terrible driver may not know they are so bad because of Dunning-Kruger, but none of this tells us absolutely anything about their ability to improve their driving skills with practice and dedicated effort. The Dunning-Kruger effect on the unskilled makes it harder for a person to become aware of their shortcomings, but it says nothing about what happens when they realize they do in fact lack skill! On the other hand, the effect on the skilled is that they falsely believe that what is easy for them is - or should be - easy for others too.

The Impostor syndrome, by contrast, is about how a person assigns causation/responsibility to their own achievements and abilities. A person with Impostor syndrome doesn't say, "I'm at least above-average", unlike the unskilled person under the effects of the Dunning-Kruger bias (who doesn't necessarily think they are great, but just believes they are above average). Nor does the highly skilled person with Impostor-symptoms say "this is just easy, anyone can do this" - because that would actually be acknowledging they are in fact good at something other than fooling people into thinking they are good at something! No, the Impostor thinks everyone else is wrong in thinking they are good or intelligent or did something great.

So while both poles of the Dunning-Kruger bias and the Impostor syndrome are commonly experienced in academia, they don't actually exist on a single continuum where one is forced to try to balance between them. Therefore you actually have the possibility to live relatively free of both of them.

How do you do that?

Um....I'm not sure that I know?

...well, I suppose the best place to start is taking some time regularly to expand your circle and be around a variety of people. Volunteer in community programs (not merely academic ones!), spend some time on a sport, etc. In short, don't spend 100% of your time with students and professors, because you will get a warped sense of what everyone else in the world is really like and you'll tend to get some really unrealistic self-images going. It's the intellectual equivalent of getting your idea of normal physical appearance from fashion/exercise magazines and television. You don't want to get your perceptions all pretzel-like, basically.

There are also specific things you can do - like if you think you are just an idiot and you are just fooling everyone, read some YouTube comments for awhile; if you don't get the feeling that you are actually smarter and more reasonable than a lot of people in the world, seek immediate professional counseling because that's a real problem.

You can also develop some strategies for "sanity checking". For instance, you have taken previous classes and did well, but I'm guessing some of those classes weren't easy and you could have done better in some. Based upon the available evidence, doing a thesis as you propose probably won't be easy. There is also no evidence that you aren't capable of it at all - otherwise you'd have failed all those other classes. Chances are, at your level of math there are no free points for putting your name on the paper - if you got a score higher than 0, you know an awful lot more than you realize.

So you face a challenge - or a threat - depending on how you look at it. If you are interested and excited and don't feel it's a ridiculous impossibility (like, say, being drafted by the NBA) then you have a potentially interesting challenge. Can you do it? It's a distinct possibility, sure.

So now I'd advise the usual general decision-making strategies - pros and cons, risks and Plan Bs if things aren't working out, etc. In short, what you can try to balance is between the extremes of mindless confidence (Leroy Jenkins!!!!!) and constant impending doom (I am so screwed...). And I think that is pretty much just the challenge of life in a nutshell, so if you can master it before you die (or maybe just within a few thousand lifetimes) you'll have done something pretty darn amazing.


Yes, they are warning signs.

DOIs are cheap. Not having them is a definite red flag.
Being OA with <5 papers means, at least, this is a new journal. Depending on how many years it's been since the first paper was published, it could mean the journal's editorial board is inactive, or the publisher is not giving the journal much attention. If the journal does not go anywhere, or (even worse) if it shuts down, your paper is not likely to be read much.
Finally you write that a journal emailed asking your professor to submit the paper to them. This is weird, because the journal is not likely to know your paper's been rejected by some other journal.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't submit to the journal anyway, but be careful.


How to handle PhD student who expects help with technical problems?

Strategically, it might be a good idea to prioritize helping the PhD student. You might gain some second authorships on papers, credit for PhD student supervision (which you will need for your next career step), and make a potential collaborator for life. It's a win-win situation.

  Honestly, in my experience, I did not meet many PhD students who receive technical help from a Postdoc, but I could be wrong of course.

It's a sign of a well-managed group if PhD students have access to experienced people who can give them technical guidance. In a small group, that person can be the PI. In a big group, PIs often hire post-docs to do that job for them.


Academic job future for applied mathematicians

I'm a pure mathematician, so take what I say with a grain of salt.  My sense is that "constant nomadic life" is not a particularly accurate view of things.  I think it is true that the number of years of postdoc people often do is slowly increasing (or maybe more accurately, the sort of research track-record that's required is increasing, and it takes most people more years of postdoc to achieve that record), but I mean that taking 4 or 5 years after Ph.D. to get a permanent job is quite common, rather than 2 or 3.  Those 4 or 5 years might mean two multi-year postdocs, or a 3 year postdoc and a year or two at institutes like Max Planck or MSRI; after that time, it will get hard to get temporary jobs.  I think a fair number of people get through 1 or 2 postdocs and then decide to get a non-academic job, but I suspect most do not have reasonable options for continuing in academia in temporary positions (sometimes they have permanent options they decide are not worth it).

If you look at the job listings on mathjobs, there are currently about 500 TT jobs, 170 postdocs (which will generally not want to hire someone after more than 1 postdoc), and 120 "non-tenure-track" positions which is a big grab bag of things, mostly an equal mix of mislabeled postdocs and teaching positions (many of which are continuing).  If you figure TT jobs are hiring for 20-30 years, and the postdocs generally for 1-3, the disparity isn't THAT bad.

As an editorial note, I will mention that I think too much funding has gone into postdocs at the expense of TT jobs in the past few years.  I know it sounds really good to help the next generation of scientists train, etc. it would also help them a lot if they could just settle down and stop moving.  However, I think things have not gotten quite as dystopian as you suggest.


Applied a new technique on a facial recognition program and the new results are better than the previous one. Can I write a paper on this?

In general, yes, you can publish a paper. However, since you are basing your work on that of another you need to properly cite the earlier work. Check any copyright restrictions on the computer codes you use, also. It is possible that you will have to get permission if you use part of that code. But it is also possible that the authors already publish a license to use and extend.

The only other issue is to find a journal or conference that will accept the paper.

I would suggest that part of your paper discuss the earlier work in some detail and the results that it provides. All properly cited. Then you can discuss your new approach and how it improves on the original.

It would also be good to explore alternate data sets to give yourself assurance that your result isn't too narrow or tailored to the specific data set of the original paper. You can even do a comparison on a range of data to get true confidence in the value of your work.

I also think that the "new" approach would be more valuable if it is different conceptually than the earlier work, not just a more carefully coded, but essentially the same, algorithm. How is it new? How is it better?


Is it a mistake to fail to mention future career plans in an application for admission to an MSc in pure mathematics?

Actually your masters are a great time to find out for yourself where you want to take your professional future. Be it a PhD and research or the industry.

Some purely research oriented masters may expect that you continue with research, but still it is your carreer and your life. A master that is well balanced between research and the industry will not have such expectations of you.

And as Michael said, the short answer is you don't need to worry about this.


I switched PhD programs after a month, do I mention this on my CV?

I think you should not bother mentioning the first (unfunded) PhD program.

From your post (emphasis added):

  After a failure of communication, I turned down other funded offers to accept an unfunded PhD. I had some money saved and tried it out anyway, but after one month quit and went with a previous offer (after telling them I'd made a bad decision)!

Since you only spent a month in this PhD program, I can't see how it is really relevant to your experience, nor will it result in a significant gap in your CV if you omit it. Moreover, you probably do not have many achievements from this month, so it is more likely to just result in unnecessary questions when people read your CV.

  I worked for 3 months specifying my skills for the defaulted PhD, do I mention the experience on my CV?

What do you mean by "specifying my skills"? This could be a good thing to mention if you were working on, e.g., online coursework, but you don't need to mention that it was for the PhD that you quit.

On the other hand, if it was just you working on skills on your own, then it won't help to mention it.

  On one hand I don't want the blip recorded, on another it leaves a little time gap between finishing MSc and entering PhD

How long is the gap of time? If it's just a few months, it will be ignored. If it is a full year, it may be something you will want to explain to someone if they ask, but I don't think it will be necessarily critical.

  and the institute name is a major buzzword for careless recruiters.

I am not sure I understand why it would be a "buzzword" -- is it a poorly regarded institute? Anyway, combining this concern together with all your other reservations, I think it would be fine to leave it off.


Is it worthwhile to find a teaching letter writer who can also speak to research abilities?

Search committees that I know read all the letters written for the candidates in whom they are interested, though of course some people read some letters more closely than others.  I will admit that at my "research-focused" university, I often read teaching letters very briefly.  In my defense, many teaching letters are not worthy of more than a very brief reading.  They simply do not separate out the candidate or provide any really incisive or useful information.  If teaching letters are to be believed, then approximately 99.5% of all candidates are above average teachers.  Why do I find myself skeptical of this?

That said, I don't really see much advantage to "hiding" research in a teaching letter (or vice versa).  If you get a teaching letter written by a "research professor", then they may be a little nervous about not mentioning the research whatsoever or feel through force of habit that they must say something.  But really, when we read a teaching letter we want to hear about teaching, so saying something at the beginning like "Dr. Ray has asked me to write about her teaching, and so I will" would be fine.

You speak of a "bounded number of letters".  That must be true, but the supremum may not be what you think. In most jobs that I know of, nothing stops you from submitting more letters than the number they ask for.  Past a certain point maybe it looks obnoxious: I remember one candidate for an assistant professor position that had nine letters of recommendation (8 research, 1 teaching, I think).  I felt that was a bit much but we certainly didn't disqualify the guy or write back to say how many of the letters we had burned without reading.  In fact he made the short list and almost got an interview.

I would say: if you want to send one or two more letters than the application asks for: just do it.  If you want someone to talk about your research, don't have them do it in a way that other people might not read, or might read but dismiss because they are expecting to hear about the teaching.  Just get another letter.  For that matter, it is increasingly common to get more than one teaching letter even for a research job, even though I know of no research job that asks for more than one.


Insulting email from another graduate student

I cannot give you advise on what to do in this situation as it depends strongly on the context, and you cannot give that information on an open forum like this.

However, I can make one comment: in general I would never try to solve such a conflict through email. Email is great, but when you sense that a conflict might start you immediately need to stop using email and try to speak with the person directly. Small misunderstandings that are easily resolved in face to face communication tend to get blown out of proportion very quickly in an email conversation.


What are alternatives to Journal of Theoretical Biology?

There are quite a few journals where you can publish theoretical work in this area. Here are a few suggestions (the distinction is based on my perception and knowledge of what they've published, I'll let others chip in if they disagree):

For more theoretical work:

The IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB).
The Journal of Computational Biology.
The Journal of Mathematical Biology.
The Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

For more applied work:

Bioinformatics.
BMC Bioinformatics. (open access)
Algorithms for Molecular Biology. (open access)
PLoS Computational Biology. (open access)

This is not exhaustive of course, and I suggest you discuss these "candidates" with your collaborators.

EDIT: I marked some of them "open access" because they advertise(d) so. This does not mean that the others do not offer that option, you'll have to check.


What is the likelihood of a PhD-holder from the USA remaining unemployed?

What is the likelihood of a PhD-holder remaining unemployed?

  ... I learnt that even a PhD from a US university is not enough to secure a job.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) provides a bunch of statistics on where doctoral graduates in STEM areas (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) end up working.

This spreadsheet refers to a sampled survey done in 2008, wherein the NSF provide statistics on the employment status of all PhD graduates from STEM areas trained in the U.S.

Across all of their fields, they count 752,000 relevant graduates, of which they estimate that 651,200 were employed at that time (578,700 full-time, 72,400 part-time), 11,400 were unemployed and seeking work, 75,900 were retired, and 13,500 were not seeking work.

An unemployment rate is calculated as:

UR = UE / LF

(UR is Unemployment Rate, UE is number of people UnEmployed, LF is the number of people in the Labour Force [working or seeking work].)

So for the 752,000 U.S. trained PhD graduates considered, the NSF estimated an unemployment rate of 1.7205% in 2008.

This is compared with a U.S. unemployment rate of ~6% in mid-2008.

So to return to your question ...

  What is the likelihood of a PhD-holder remaining unemployed?

More than three times lower than the general population (for US-trained STEM PhD holders).

Furthermore, a small percentage of unemployment is inevitable as some percentage of people will always be between jobs for a short time. (Someone more in tune with economics may be able to comment on whether or not 1.72% is close to "full employment", but being unemployed for >1.72% of your career while taking a break between jobs doesn't seem unreasonable.)

A more detailed break-down of the total size of the labour force and the unemployment rate per field follows, so if you're in a STEM area, you can pick whichever field is closest to yours.

#Field                                                    #LF      #UR

All fields                                                662,600  1.7205%

Science                                                   515,200  1.7275%

  Biological/agricultural/environmental life sciences     167,200  1.9139%
  - Agricultural/food sciences                             17,300  1.7341%
  - Biochemistry/biophysics                                25,700  2.3346%
  - Cell/molecular biology                                 19,700  1.0152%
  - Environmental life sciences                             6,500  1.5385%
  - Microbiology                                           12,300  2.4390%
  - Zoology                                                 9,800  3.0612%
  - Other biological sciences                              76,000  1.9737%

Computer/information sciences                              16,400  1.2195%

Mathematics/statistics                                     30,300  0.9901%

Physical sciences                                         118,200  2.3689%
  - Astronomy/astrophysics                                 >5,000  [Supp.]
  - Chemistry, except biochemistry                         59,600  3.0201%
  - Earth/atmospheric/ocean sciences/other phy. sci.       18,500  1.0811%
  - Physics                                                35,600  2.2472%

Psychology                                                100,500  1.2935%

Social sciences                                            82,700  1.3301%
Economics                                                  22,300  0.4484%
Political sciences                                         19,500  1.0256%
Sociology                                                  14,900  1.3423%
Other social sciences                                      26,000  2.3077%

Engineering                                               118,100  1.7782%
  - Aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering       >5,200  [Supp.]
  - Chemical engineering                                   14,700  2.7211%
  - Civil engineering                                      10,500  0.9524%
  - Electrical/computer engineering                        33,800  1.1834%
  - Materials/metallurgical engineering                    12,300  2.4390%
  - Mechanical engineering                                 16,400  1.2195%
  - Other engineering                                      25,200  2.3810%

Health                                                     29,200  1.0274%

[Supp.] means suppressed: numbers are too low to preserve anonymity.

Caveats:

The context is 2008, US-trained STEM PhDs. Unemployment started increasing in 2008 with the onset of the subprime morgage crisis.
A PhD is just paperwork. What you do for your PhD is far more important than the degree itself.
Of course simply being employed is not necessarily the same as having the great job that you always wanted, and certainly we cannot infer from these data that doing a PhD is always the best path for everyone to follow their dreams.


Should I mention personal information in this thank you letter?

If I received a donor personally choosing to fund my education, I would include personal information in the thank you letter. The personal information I would include are things like "I grew up in .... I became interested in [scientific field] because..." and I would include it in the first paragraph. The reason that I feel that including personal information is appropriate is because you were personally chosen for this funding source (as opposed to applying to a scholarship committee, for example). Congrats!


No.  Absolutely not.

Do not even start writing a book until you have tenure, unless publishing a book is a requirement for tenure (which would be very strange for computer science).  Writing books well is extremely hard; it requires significant time away from your research (which you need to finish your PhD, get a job, and get tenure), teaching, paper-writing, professional networking, job-hunting, proposal writing, and advising.  And writing books badly can only hurt you.


Research paper with experimental results from a small amount of data

The amount of experimental evidence that is needed in order to adequately demonstrate a result depends strongly on the current state of the art that you are comparing against.

In some cases, even a single instance will be interesting and publishable, as there is much knowledge that can be gleaned from it. See, for example, the discovery of homo naledi: even though specimens have, to the best of my knowledge, only been found in the one cave, they are nevertheless clearly of interest and scientifically significant.  On the opposite end of the scale, if you want to assert that you have a better method of determining significant websites than PageRank, then it will likely be difficult to convince readers unless you apply to datasets of a similar scale to the "whole internet" scale that PageRank is routinely applied to.

Without knowing details about your exact image problem, it is difficult to know how much can be learned from a single image.  In general, image processing is a very well developed field in which most things are applied to large data sets, so my zero-knowledge guess would be that you need more data (though since you say the prior papers have <10 images, it may otherwise).  On the other hand, you might be doing something where four images are actually significant.  Finally, you can always send it in anyway and see what feedback you get.


How do I politely ask a professor to contact another professor he knows to accept me as PhD student?

If you know the second professor well, there's no harm in hinting.

By "hinting", I mean, you're having a chat with Prof. 2, and you mention that you wrote to Prof 1 but haven't heard back.  Ask for Prof 2's advice -- for example, "Do you think I should try sending him a second email?"

If you're lucky, Prof 2 will at this point offer to speak up on your behalf with Prof 1.

If not, during this conversation you will hopefully get vibes in one direction or the other, and will know whether it would be worthwhile to make the request.

The worst that could happen would be that Prof 2 says no.

By the way, I hope you have tried re-sending your original email.  People are fallible, especially when it comes to answering email.


What to do if an advisor does not give enough time of his to you

In addition to dan's answer, I would add one practical piece of advice. Ask your mentor to schedule a 30-60 minute weekly meeting so that you can touch base regularly. I suggest asking in a way that puts the impetus on you (and not your mentor's lack of mentoring). For example, tell your mentor that you are having trouble developing your ideas efficiently and you're concerned about your progress through the program... and meeting weekly would help you stay on track.

I don't get the sense that your mentor will be into this idea, but it's worth trying! This is what I did after my first year (I had a similar experience as you did). My mentor was receptive to the idea, and we've been meeting ever since. Good luck!


Can I refer my sibling for a PhD position under my supervisor? How should I approach this?

I would worry a bit about asking the professor to "hire" your sibling. On the other hand, telling the professor that your sib is looking for a position in the same field and would like to meet them to talk about the possibilities would be entirely appropriate.
If the two of them, without you, come to some understanding it would be better. And even if that isn't possible, the prof may have some good ideas for your sibling to pursue.
So, I'd suggest a somewhat less direct approach.


Find a specific paper on information retrieval method supporting literature research searching not by keywords but by documents

This is probably not the older article that you are looking for, but a colleague of mine published an article that shows how to identify the most relevant literature using free biblilometric tools such as VOSviewer. That is, by beginning with a topic search on a citation database (e.g. Scopus or Web of Science), you can identify the most relevant body of literature based on cocitations and other bibliometrics:

  Walsh, I., & Renaud, A. (2017). Reviewing the literature in the IS field: Two bibliometric techniques to guide readings and help the interpretation of the literature. Systèmes d’Information et Management. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316560668_Reviewing_the_literature_in_the_IS_field_Two_bibliometric_techniques_to_guide_readings_and_help_the_interpretation_of_the_literature

Perhaps you'll get lucky and the original article you're looking for might be in their reference list.


What is the meaning of the official transcript?

If this is about graduate admission, universities normally require an official transcript (i.e. NOT a copy). An official transcript normally carries the signature of the Registrar, is in color, and is put in an sealed envelop prepared by the Registrar's office.

Some US universities require that your transcript comes directly from the Registrar's office of your institution, while some would accept one that you send in as long as it's inside the sealed envelop prepared by the registrar's office.


Revealing manuscript referees' identities after review: Why is this a bad idea?

Note that I can see pros and cons of optionally permitting reviewers to disclose their identity, or even making peer review completely transparent. But the following focuses on the problems of disclosing reviewer identity after a decision has been made about the manuscript.

It creates a conflict of interest for the reviewer.
There is an incentive to provide a more positive review. For example, there is the possibility that the author may be more positively disposed to the reviewer in the future, if the reviewer provides a positive review. Also, the reviewer may not want to damage an existing relationship.

There is little difference between perceived conflict of interest and an actual conflict of interest. Thus, even if the reviewers are not influenced by this disclosure, others evaluating the integrity of the publication may perceive a problem.

It can create more work for the reviewer. If a reviewer knows their identity will be disclosed, they may have to spend more time being tactful. It's hard enough getting reviewers, if the workload of every review increases because the reviewer has to spend more time being tactful or worrying about the consequences of their review on their reputation, then this may make it even harder to find reviewers.


Not invited for on-site interview after phone session

Exactly what they told you to do: wait.  If you're at the point where you'll need to make an irreversible decision (like accepting an offer somewhere else), you can tell them that, and see if they react, but it doesn't seem to likely to me.  Otherwise, what's wrong with waiting?


Co-authorship for not very involved supervisor

I'll assume that you have a good relationship to your PhD advisor and that you can have a reasonable discussion with him. If this is not the case, then ignore the following as you will potentially have much bigger things to worry about.

It sounds as if the papers have not been written yet, so I'd suggest you discuss this with him as soon as possible. Lay out to him which papers you want to write, what will be in them, and where you plan to submit them, and ask him if he would like to be a co-author on any of them.

Now, the important thing is that this co-authorship you're offering is not a free ride. I would assume that a good supervisor knows that this will imply a significant contribution to the preparation of the manuscript and/or any follow-up work that still needs to be done. If he is willing to actively contribute to the papers, then you have a bona fide co-author and nothing to worry about.

If your supervisor is not willing to contribute anything to your publications, then there is no reason to add him as a co-author.

In any case, you should be open and honest about your intentions. Your supervisor is a very important person in the critical post-PhD phase of your academic career, and even if you leave academia, he is your previous employer. In any case, he will be writing all your letters of recommendation, so don't do anything that may have a negative influence on your relationship.

In summary: Ask him first, and if necessary, remind him that co-authorship implies active collaboration. If he does actively collaborate, you have a good and valuable co-author, and if he does not, he will either not want co-authorship, or you will have a valid reason not to add him.


Distinctions between programs, departments, and institutes

Program is a plan of either tutor-based or research-based application, is which often designed for undergraduate or graduate studies and either instructed or supervised by faculty members.

Department is a division of the university, is which colony of the group of faculty members with the expertise in the specific area of the colony. The programs are often presented by departments.

Institute is a specialized division of a department, has which been established with a group of affiliated faculty members of the host society. Institutes generally conduct the research in highly-specific fields of science and technology and a plethora of graduate research stuffs would be pursued in such organizations.


New paper which is very similar, but subtly different, from previous paper

What I would do, assuming this new development is worthy of publishing (which I cannot guess without knowing the contents - and the reviewers will do anyway):

Write the paper (the new one), in a self contained manner. Your previous work is a related work, goes in the bibliographical review. Compare and position your new paper wrt the old one, in the same way you would do if it was from another author. Including using the same proofs as references ("Theorem 4 from [1]"), for the ones that do not have differences. Don't copy stuff...

There is no problem if you paper is similar to another one. Just highlight the similarities and differences. I usually like such works, because subtle differences can be derived from different interpretations of the same stuff, which can lead to very cool stuff :)


Do I need to cite Mathematica in my paper?

I would recommend to always cite software that you use in your calculations (no need for LaTeX, obviously).
A screw driver will always stay a screw driver, but software is a little bit more complex.

Have you heard of the little bug that may invalidate 15 years of brain research? I think in that case it would be quite nice to know which version of the software you used.

And in your case: can you really be sure that Mathematica has not a specific bug that you haven't noticed? In Version 10, I noticed that some linear-log plots were messed up and that was fixed in a later version 10.1. It could have easily happened that I had published a wrong graph, and thus I think it is quite important to give detailled information about the software that you use.


Decline the PhD offer during the deferral

I think this is fine in almost every case. If it weren't they would have you sign some legal document, but it is hard to see that happening. They might not be terrifically happy with you, but that would pass.
In a situation in which considerable university funds had to be spent (not just reserved) for you there might be complications, but then, any conditions would be clearly spelled out in advance.
I wouldn't worry about it unless something is said or implied in anything you sign.
Ethically, though, you should let them know as early as possible if you won't be taking it up later. But you want to keep your options open, also.

Generally speaking, though, in a situation like this, worry about your own best interests and assume that the other party is competent to worry about theirs. And since this is a friendly, rather than adversarial, situation, it will work out ok.


How to investigate why students do not do their homework?

You have been around the block a few times, so I interpret this question to be "What is going on with THESE PARTICULAR students?" And of course I don't know.

I have run into some scenarios at my large public university which may be relevant:

Recent admission changes which bring in students from more low-income schools with less experience with self-regulated learning.
Changes in course requirements which allow less-experienced students to take the course.
Limited timing of a different required remedial class made one of my two sections also all remedial.
A shift to making a class more online also allowed students to fall behind more easily.

Whatever the reasons, I would also want to know why this results in homework avoidance and how to help overcome this.

Have you tried having undergraduate tutors ask the students what would help? Your students might feel safer admitting problems to peers.


Is it okay to ask prospective supervisor to recommend some article to read before joining his group for PhD?

Yes, definitely ask for some recommended reading! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if your new supervisor suggests some papers to you even without prompting (mine did). As mentioned in the comments, supervisors are generally pleased when their students show an interest in the topic and want to learn more. You can look at some recent papers by your supervisor to get an idea of where to start, too.


How to work with teammates who shoot down ideas in order to avoid work?

Are you sure you are not prematurely optimizing?

You have stated that your algorithm is "very slow" and your data model is "not very efficient".  However, it is not clear that these inefficiencies will actually prevent you from delivering the main goals of your project.  You have a worry that you will not be able to scale to the necessary data size, which is a legitimate worry, but not proven at this stage.  It may turn out to be no problem.

Your colleagues' excuse-making--incorrectly claiming that solutions won't work or don't exist--is certainly unhelpful.  Nevertheless, they may be correct that these ideas are not worth pursuing.  Working on performance improvements that are not necessary to deliver the project may be a distraction from meeting the important goals.

Step one: determine for sure whether optimization is critical to the project.

Your worry about scaling to the full dataset is legitimate and important. What you should do about that worry is test on a full size dataset, as soon as possible.  If you don't have access to the real dataset yet, then make your own test data, by copying the experimental data 100 times, randomly generating data, or whatever works.

Also consider other ways that the performance may have an impact on meeting project goals, and test where it makes sense.

Step two: if appropriate, make a case for optimization on the basis of it helping deliver the project.

If you can show that improving performance is either necessary to meet your goals, or has a benefit that outweighs the cost, then make this argument.  Back up your argument with evidence (like test results).

Start with your colleagues, and if they are not convinced than discuss it with your supervisor.

However, only do this if truly necessary--and one month from your end date, you should probably only be worrying about things that are absolutely critical to completing the project.


Does a degree in economics/corporate finance from an Italian university prepare me for a PhD in economics?

I'm in the same situation, so maybe I can help. The first thing many people don't realize is that many fields of advanced level economics are almost entirely math. Thus an undergraduate degree in econ may not be the best preparation for a doctorate if the degree is not very mathy. My university has a special doctoral prep program for econ majors for exactly this reason. You can see the degree requirements here to get a sense of how much math my economics department thinks you need to get a doctorate.

http://www.american.edu/cas/degrees/bs-mathematics-economics.cfm

My personal opinion is that depending on the field of economics you want to study (and how much math is involved), as well as the rigor of the doctoral program, you may want to take more math classes. Also while those are great core courses which you have taken, if I was an admissions officer, I'd be concerned about the grades. Take some higher math and show you've improved.

To quote from one of my econ professors (a former central banker) "IF you come in with the math, graduate schools will have no problem teaching you the econ."

Courses you need:

Multivariate Calculus, Differential Equations, Real Analysis
More Statistics, especially time series analysis.


Criticizing other people's figures on my webpage

I can't even imagine a situation in which criticizing published academic materials on their merits would be wrong or immoral.

How would it be different from criticizing someone's selection of an econometric or statistical model to use on their data?  This happens constantly in academic literature, and in fact is crucial to the process of research.  The way data is conveyed to others through graphs is no less important than model selection, and both can be used to deceive or obscure.

So as long as you cover two bases:

Avoid ad hominem attacks, as you should in all sorts of reviewing, and
Follow any copyright rules the publishers impose,

Not only is there nothing wrong with doing it, I would argue that as an academic and data viz expert, you should do it.  As for someone taking offense at your criticism?  Well, as long as you're professionally criticizing its merits and avoiding problem number 1 from above then it's you who are in the right, and the one taking offense who is in the wrong.


Italicization of mathematical symbols: quantity symbols vs units symbols

The general approach (see e.g. NIST or IUPAC for sources) is to consider physical constants, such as the proton mass, as quantities. They are thus usually italicized, even when used as units.

Certain units, notably the electronvolt (eV) and the atomic mass unit (u), are considered so important that they are "accepted for use with the SI system", see the SI brochure. These should be given in roman type.


How to gracefully walk away from coauthored paper

This is more a warning of the consequences than a real answer. There may not, in fact, be a way to do this gracefully.

You need to decide what the paper will become without you. Technically, they can't publish it without your permission. If you aren't a co-author, will you want acknowledgement? Will you want your name listed at all?

If you don't want your name listed and you have contributed to it, then publishing it could open the others to a plagiarism charge.

So, the situation is a bit sticky. If the paper can't be published without you, then there could be hard feelings and sometimes such things are a bit "sticky".

I suggest that you need to work out the details with them, to just withdraw. You may have some leverage to improve the paper and stay on the list of authors. But you might need to take some responsibility for the project to accomplish this.


What is the proper action when peers in your field have/are publishing papers with a crucial flaw?

This may seem like a cliched answer, but I believe good communication would be key. First off, you need to make absolute sure about whether or not their work represents flaws (preferably with your supervisor).  The next step I believe you should take is to contact the Professor whose team you believe has made such critical mistakes.  Discuss the issue with them and get their perspective.  If, after all of these efforts, you are still absolutely sure that there is a mistake in their work, politely inform them that you disagree with their approach/methods/technique/etc. and that you will be publishing a paper representing a different point of view and approach that presents your argument on the matter.  Mind you, don't ask their permission, it's merely a courtesy so as to show that you don't mean anything personal by it.  After that, publish away.

Finally, I should mention that I feel that there isn't really any issue at all.  If someone got mad at me for publishing a paper that disagreed with their research...that's not exactly a person I would care if they were mad at me or not.  It not only seems excessively petty, but it's also the nature of scientific research.  Great ideas and solid theories get overturned and refuted on a regular basis.  If your counterpoint to their research is solid enough to be published in a good journal, then it's good enough for them to read and consider without getting unnecessarily angry.


Is there a single website where one can get to know about all upcoming international conferences?

One possibility is www.conferencealerts.com. It has conferences listed by categories, including one for mathematics and statistics here. You can get periodic alerts in your inbox based on the topics you are interested.


What are some good ways to structure material before writing a theoretical paper/thesis/book?

Of course, it's disastrous to be so disorganized that things get lost, work has to be duplicated (even if it's just typing), etc.

On the other hand, I observe that many novice writers over-allocate their time+energy to "planning". I say "over-allocate" exactly because (as in the question) when one doesn't have too many details about the sequel, it is hard to plan. Further, especially in thesis situations, and, even for more experienced people, in book writing, the very process significantly changes one's viewpoint, so that an initial plan/outline/table-of-contents/statement-of-intent easily becomes grossly inaccurate over time+experience.

For example, although it is interesting, and an interesting exercise, to try to write an introduction or preface at the beginning, it will most likely prove wildly irrelevant, and have to be scrapped nearly entirely.

A second crucial mechanism is (as suggested in the questioner's self-answer) feedback, and, equally, iteration of the writing/editing cycle.

The two concepts combine to suggest that one should not waste time doing nothing, but pretending to be trying to fathom what one will think, and what one will discover, some months in the future. Hesitation delays the very experience that will bring to life one's future viewpoint! :)


Seemingly minor revision under review for two weeks. Is this common?

2 weeks of review time is really not very long, even for a minor revision (which, strictly speaking, yours apparently isn't, at least not to the editor). There is no way for us to know how long it will still take, but the unfortunate truth is that I see little reason to believe it's gonna be much faster than any previous (major) revision.

In reality, reviewing time often depends little on the actual amount of change. Instead, reviewers often get allotted a fixed amount of time (e.g. 4 to 6 weeks in computer science), and will get around to actually doing the review when this time is almost over. That your paper has been under review for long already is not something that reviewers will be aware of, or care very much about.


Is one year enough for a postdoc position to be a fruitful experience regarding my CV?

If you want to join the industry, the shorter you spend on your postdoc the better. If you are familiar with the project, then 8-9 months might be enough to have something out of your post doc experience. Also, one year postdoc is a great chance to focus on the skills that are necessary for you to get into your industry job category.


How to refer to a methodology that consists of jumping from reference to reference?

The "method" you describe is probably not rigorous enough to be called a method in the scientific sense. There is a lack of rigor apparent in your admission that you swung "from reference to reference until I had a good argument." The quote suggests some bias in the procedure and in your selection of information, and your search strategy doesn't seem to be reproducible.

There is a method called "systematic review" that ist different from what you describe by its (relative) objectivity and reproducibility.

But more than a method, what you applied is a common practice that most researchers apply, without thinking much about it, to find literature to include in a review section or in a review-type article. If swinging from "reference to reference" involves going through the references of each paper you dug up, and looking at their references etc., you could call it "a snowball procedure".

However, fancy words won't impress a reviewer. As far as the review is concerned, I would not suggest to claim that you applied a rigorous method if you didn't. Rather, I would reframe the purpose of your paper: Call it a state of the art review, or an exploration of some topic.


Can non-teaching staff write teaching recommendation letters for academic jobs?

I would view the letter favorably if the letter writer made it clear that they had observed the candidate's teaching.

I've seen some TA training programs where the TA's are observed in the classroom and get formal evaluations by someone involved in the training program.  A letter of recommendation from such a person would be quite valuable from my point of view (and assuming that the letter was positive this would be helpful to the candidate.)

On the other hand, if the person that you're considering is just a faculty development specialist who runs workshops that you've attended and hasn't directly observed your teaching, then such a letter would be much less useful (read useless) to me.


Why are (galley) proof requests given such a short deadline?

Galley proofs are part of the production process where a book or journal issue is actually printed, as opposed to the 'softer' process of deciding what pieces will go into it and in what form. As such, the deadlines for their revision are associated with the physical production process rather than the editorial process for the piece and can be quite different from deadlines for e.g. minor revisions or revise-and-resubmit requests.
These proofs are only meant to be used to check that the typesetting correctly represents the author's intent, and not that the content is scientifically correct (which should have been done at an earlier stage). Occasionally a one- or two-sentence 'note added in proof' may be appended to a paper but that's about it; for an example see the AIP style guide, p.11. Checking the typesetting is assumed to be a straightforward matter that does not require more than one day (though assuming that an academic can spare the time at the publisher's decision with no prior notice is another matter), so such deadlines are usually OK.
Note also that such deadlines can be negotiable if properly handled. If such a requests lands on you and you will not be able to complete it in time, it is usually acceptable to notify the editor, as soon as possible, that this is the case. A polite note along the lines of

Dear Editor,
We have successfully received the proofs of our article. Unfortunately, today is my thesis defence, my coauthor is getting married and my advisor is away due to travel, so we will be unable to complete your request to review the proofs within 24h. We will get them to you as soon as possible, which will likely be the day after tomorrow. Is this acceptable, or will it lead to a delay in publication?

can work wonders in stretching such a deadline. From personal experience, I have seen a 24-hour request be stretched to a full week without a publication delay.


Should I go directly and talk with the Professor, assuming that he did not notice my email?

Yes.  Well, whether you believe that he read your email or not is not really the point: you didn't get an answer.  You are entitled to one (not necessarily a great or helpful one, but at least an answer in the formal sense).

  Even if I was not able to arrange an appointment with him via email, should I directly knock his door[?]

Yes, exactly.

  [W]ill this be considered rude?

Students are allowed to visit faculty in their offices, even without an appointment.  Again, what happens when they do this is not guaranteed: maybe you will only get a minute of the professor's time.  (Maybe he won't be there...) But you can show up.  As to whether the professor will consider it rude: not in a way that he is entitled to complain about, no.  Professors are real people, and real people usually want to talk to certain real people more than others, and when a person you don't want to talk to, or don't want to talk to now or today nevertheless appears, are you thrilled about it?  But none of this really matters: if you don't get a response, you keep trying.  That's life.


Is it legal for a US professor to require remuneration from the foreigner for consulting services?

It is not illegal to do legal work for money.  It may, however, fall outside of your institution's employment policies, and you might get yourself in a bind with your employer.

Consulting arrangements are generally laid out in your university's policies, and are often fine (but ask at your site!).  That said, I'll delve a little deeper into your question.  It is unusual for a "student or postdoc" to request the professional consulting services of faculty members, and thus you must consider what you are being asked to do.  If you are being asked to help the student cheat -- i.e., the student is planning on representing your work as something otherwise, you should take absolutely no part in it.  If it's something central to the students project, and you are being brought in as a contractor and not a collaborator, you might consider avoiding it.

The fact that the party is foreign is not germane.


Is it justified for a teacher to refuse your project proposals just because he wants something unique?

It sounds like the standards are pretty high. It sounds like the instructor doesn't want you to be mediocre. It sounds like they are demanding some creativity.
Those are good things, actually.
It is hard to judge whether the standards are unreasonable or not but you would benefit by meeting them.
Are you permitted to brainstorm with other students? Do that if allowed. Have you asked for ideas from the instructor? Have you tried to take any of your original ideas and modified them to come closer to the standard? Alternatively, have you taken any really hard problems and tried to whittle them down to something that is doable and meets the standard?
It's good that you aren't being singled out, also. The farther you go, the higher the standards you will be expected to meet.


I remember one of the early pieces of advice that I received from my primary supervising professor on this issue was that when I send a draft manuscript to coauthors, that I should set a deadline for responses. i.e. that I should say to let me know of any comments or feedback by a particular date and that I will be submitting the manuscript directly after making any amendments.


Both the Royal Society of Chemistry journals and the American Chemical Society journals use ScholarOne Manuscripts™ as their web submission platform. In both cases, the system is able to compile LaTeX documents into a PDF file. There are, however, strict requirements about the type of LaTeX document you can use. These are spelt out in a specific help section entitled “Preparing and Submitting Manuscripts Using TeX/LaTeX”.

  ACS Authors have two distinct options for submitting work authored in TeX:

  FAST Submission: Submit your own PDF file—and provide the native TeX and figures in a .zip file—and your own PDF file will be used for the review process.

  STANDARD Submission: Submit a complete and properly styled TeX file, figures, and references using the achemso style package. The TeX files will be converted to PDF by ACS Paragon Plus and used for the review process.

The help further states:

  When you upload your TeX/LaTeX Manuscript File, the system will analyze the file, and identify additional resource files referenced within the file (such as image files and bibliographic files) that are necessary to complete the document.

and

  Manuscript files prepared in TeX/LaTeX (Version 2.02 and earlier) will be used in journal production provided you adhere to the following guidelines:

  Use only LaTeX2e. Use of plain TeX and RevTeX is discouraged.
  Use generic style files whenever possible. Minimal formatting is all that is required in the document.
  Include all sections of the article in a single file. Include the list of references within the LaTeX file. Captions must be created in the TeX/LaTeX document.
  References should be cited in text using \cite{}, and the list of references should be itemized using \bibitem{}.
  Use \frac to build fractions. Do not use \over or \stackrel to build fractions in displayed equations.
  Use \sum_{}^{} for summations and \prod_{}^{} for products.
  Use the array environment only to build true matrices, not for aligning multiline equations.
  Use characters/symbols in the generic LaTeX character set only. Symbols from other sets may not translate correctly.
  Avoid extensive use of \newcommand and `\def .
  Some style files (text and bibliographic) that are available in the public domain may be used for most ACS journals, e.g., jacs.sty and jacs.bst; jpc.sty and jpc.bst; achemso. The use of the achemso style package is strongly encouraged. Please note that the ACS does not provide support for using these files.

A further requirement, which is not actually listed, is that all figures should be in the same directory (you cannot upload a directory structure). And, as noted, if you use bibtex, you have to run it manually and include the content of the .bbl file into your .tex file before upload.

So, in conclusion: ScholarOne Manuscripts™ has the capability to support LaTeX compilation. Whether this is enable or not for your specific journal/publisher, I cannot know. In any case, check the documentation! (or ask the editorial office)


Does dropping a Coursera course look bad in a PhD application to the university offering the course?

AFAIK Coursera is not for credit, thus should not impact your phd record in any way.


PhD application recommendation letter from 2 supervisors who guided the same project?

You have to weigh asking B to write you a letter against an alternative.  If the alternative is somebody who does not know about your thesis work, they are probably will not know enough about you to write a letter that is as informative as the letter B would write.

You can use a different strategy for each application.


How are simultaneous discoveries handled in biomedical publishing?

Just wanted to share the happy news that the prestigious journal has accepted my manuscript as it is and the report will be online by coming Friday. My discovery therefore gets published less than 3 weeks after the other lab published theirs. Simultaneous discoveries, I would say!

Thanks


Papers from different authors with similar results submitted to the same conference

This sounds like a straight-forward case of multiple discovery.

In the case that both papers are well-written and have correct proofs, the typical and appropriate thing would be for both of them to be accepted.  If one or both are not sufficient for the standards of the conference in their presentation or technical approach, however, then it would be reasonable for one or both to be rejected, however, even if they have identical results.

Given that there is often a great degree of variability in reviewing, however, it would likely be a good thing to get in contact with the conference organizers and let them know about the situation, so that they can ensure fair treatment of the two papers (e.g., via meta-review or by assigning the same reviewers to both).


Thesis' "Future Work" section – is it acceptable to omit personal involvement in a mentioned project?

Am I overthinking this?

Yes.

  my examiner is oblivious to the fact that the project that I mentioned in the Future Work section is something that I'm actually working on in a different course.

Your examiner probably isn't oblivious: Many researchers discuss other works in their future work section, without mentioning that they are already working on them.

  I'm worried that my examiner will...accuse me of lying...since a project that I'm working on doesn't really count as 'Future Work'.....but does it?

A project that you are working on is future work, in the sense that it hasn't appeared publicly yet.

It can be useful to discuss future work without explicitly mentioning that work is already in progress, since such work may never be published, due to unforeseen circumstances, for instance.

  we will be writing a sort of report on our project.

You can cite your  bachelor's thesis in that report.


Is it very unprofessional to contact people from an old job interview and tell them that I think I've made a mistake?

Dropping out of a search isn't really unprofessional (unless you told them to go to hell I guess - but then it will be way too late to apologize). In that light, and under the assumption that you just dropped out suddenly and politely (as most people do), mailing them is not so much unprofessional as much as it is pointless. As Henning says in a comment: "What are you trying to achieve?"

Get a job with them? Way too late for this - the previous position is either filled or allocated differently. If a new position opens up, you can always apply again.
Apologize? No need for that - people drop out of a job search for all kinds of reasons all the time. They have almost certainly moved on, and so should you.
Just let them know that you now regret your decision? Why would they need to know this, or even care?
Start a collaboration? "Hey, I dropped out of your search a while ago" is hardly the best ice breaker.

We all make mistakes. It's best to learn to let things go.


What will happen if I do not follow publisher(IEEE/Springer) format for one page?

It's likely that the typesetter will fix the margins, etc. when it's published. Otherwise, could you slightly reduce the font to make the overall table smaller?


I caught several of my students plagiarizing. Could it be my fault as a teacher?

I suspect that in a group of 50 students there will be a few who want to cut corners. It isn't your fault, exactly, but there are some things you can do to make it less likely. If the  number is small, you can deal with it individually in your office, of course.

But you should consider why people feel that cheating of any kind is a viable option for them.

If the tasks you set are all very high risk then people will sometimes act badly out of fear. This goes for both assignments and for exams. If you permit re-work to improve grading on assignments you lower the risk and improve the chances of proper behavior.

If the risk of cheating is extremely low, some will do it out of laziness. I once had a group whose experience previously was that no one actually looked at their work, so it didn't matter much what was turned in. I had to convince them (and the Dean) that I was willing to fail everyone if they kept up that behavior, and also convince them that I would look at and comment on their work. But if they don't get individual feedback, their work actually has little value to them for learning. With 50 it may be difficult to give this feedback, of course, though it is (IMO) essential.

Some students have gotten the idea that the reason that you set a task is to get the "proper" answer, rather than to help them learn. So their focus becomes getting that answer, even if no learning occurs. You need to find ways to educate them about the nature of education - especially as they will be teachers. It sometimes surprised a few of my students that I didn't ask them to do things because I needed the answers. I could provide my own answers. It was the production of the answer that was important, not the answer, and the answer could actually be wrong if I could use it to educate (re-work, feedback, ...)

There are other tricks that can be used to lessen the likelihood of plagiarism. Don't used old exercises if you find students turning in old solutions, for example. But permitting, even requiring, teamwork can, in many cases, lower the risk of plagiarism, as well as make education more of a social process. It also helps solve the 50 student problem if students work in groups, or even pairs.

In case of paired or group work you need a way to do peer evaluation, of course, but it need not be meaningless or threatening.

There are also strictly punitive measures, though I try to avoid them. Giving zero credit for all parties when plagiarism is encountered can be effective. So can expulsion for repeat offenders.


Balancing empathy and deferring to the syllabus in teaching responsibilities

It sounds to me like you are allowing yourself to be emotionally manipulated by your students, particularly the one (who sounds super obnoxious) who told you about the promise for a luxury car from their parents. It’s indeed important to have empathy, and I find your conscious insistence on practicing empathy every day incredibly noble and admirable — if only more people did that the world would be a better place — but at the same time, sometimes a person has a job to do and needs to put the larger interests of the mission he or she serves ahead of the emotional need to “be nice”. Indeed, being nice to people who are undeserving is often harmful to those people. You would not be doing any favors to the immature, manipulative student who wants to get a luxury car by giving them unfairly favorable treatment out of pity or “empathy”. (The student with medical problems is a completely different story, where the request sounds a lot more reasonable.)

In any case, empathy is about how you relate to people and not about the decision you make on their petition. Even on occasions when I’ve had to turn down a desperate student’s request for a grade change, and knowing that that’s the only decision I could possibly make in good conscience, I would like to think that I explained my decision to the crying student with empathy - I certainly tried my best, even if the students in that moment sometimes only seemed to care about having their request denied and might well have thought me to be a cruel, heartless person.

So what is a good way in practice to solve the dilemma? The answer you quoted in your post has it exactly right. You give an extension to the people who have a legitimate reason to need it, and refuse it to those who don’t. That’s all there is to it. “But what is 'legitimate'?” Exactly what you judge to be legitimate — after first pausing to take ten deep breaths, counting down to zero from one hundred, writing an email draft answering the request and saving it in your drafts folder, going on a walk or a coffee break, and finally coming back and looking at the question with fresh eyes. If at that point you still think the need is legitimate and can say with certainty, or least with reasonable confidence, that you are not falling victim to emotional manipulation from an unscrupulous student, by all means grant the request.

And whether or not you‘ve decided to grant the request at that point, be content to know that you have been true to your principles of practicing empathy, and that you are doing your small part to help make the world a better place.


Does deferring admissions to PhD affect future (post-PhD) career path?

In general, there is very little effect from taking a year off between undergraduate and doctoral studies, so long as you complete your graduate studies in a "normal" manner. The primary concern is how you did as a graduate student on your particular project; after you've received the PhD, the particulars of how you got there are much less important in determining your future career path. There may be some people who are prejudiced against people who deviated from what they consider a "normal" trajectory, but I wouldn't expect this to be a major fraction of potential employers. (And more to the point, you probably wouldn't want to work for such an individual anyways.)


Should I compare my proposed work with my implementation of the previous related papers or the reported result?

I'd say, as a rule you just rely on the results provided by the authors of the papers you cite. You aren't really supposed to reimplement their algorithm just to confirm their results.

Let's dive a bit deeper, especially from a reviewer's point of view. When a reviewer sees that your method in a certain way superior to a previously published work, this is exactly what is expected, so everyone is happy. If you can't prove that your method is better because you use a different dataset, it's quite a problem (for both you and the reviewer), and in general case it would be very advisable to get the same data. Perhaps, this is the first step to take.

If you can't get the same dataset and try to reimplement the algorithm, of course it opens the whole can of worms, since the reviewer might rightfully presume that your implementation is somehow different (due to different parameters or possible bugs) and thus incomparable. I'd say that a common valid scenario for such a venture is when you doubt the original paper's conclusions and want to confirm or disprove them.

As a side note, I think one should decide on the evaluation strategy before designing and implementing own methods. If you want to advance the state of the art, it's reasonable to check the existing papers first and make sure that you can get the same dataset as their authors to show that your method is more accurate on the same data.


How difficult and common is it to switch labs after starting a PhD?

The reason it is difficult to answer this is that it can depend to a large extent on personalities. A "new" advisor might not want to take you on thinking about their relationship with the "old" advisor. The "old" advisor might feel insulted and cause problems for you. You might, after a year, have responsibilities to the current lab that will be difficult to transfer. It can be a mess, but it happens.
Rather, I'd suggest that you make a commitment to a lab and stick to it. Your doctoral studies aren't your career and it is always possible to change direction after you finish a PhD, especially if it is within the same field. Changing labs can set you back, leaving you with a "lost" year as well as bad feelings.
But, for a bachelors degree holder starting doctoral studies immediately, the first order of business is passing comprehensives, which requires coursework for most. If you don't need to make a serious commitment to the research of a lab (as is true for most) then switching is generally easy and non-disruptive.
The research leading to the dissertation is to teach you how to do it within your field and how to write scholarly papers. Once you get that, the specifics of how you spend your career are pretty malleable.
That said, don't choose something you hate or you will lose motivation. If you start in something and have an opportunity to move before you finish and it isn't too disruptive, then you have an opportunity. But no answer here will guarantee that such an opportunity will arise. A straight path may be the quick path.


Should I apply with a non-subject LoR to a university?

Your recommenders should be able to vouch for your previous performance in undergrad and explain why you would be successful in a graduate program. A foreign language instructor might be able to provide the first part, but they might have more trouble with the second.
If you believe that your foreign language instructor could write you a strong letter highlighting characteristics that would make you successful in your program, then they might be a good person to ask. It will not necessarily harm your application to have a letter from such a person, but a letter from someone in your area might be stronger.


Is it plagiarism to use other people's phrases / formulations / wordings?

There's no hard-and-fast rule that if you copy 6 words, that's okay but 10 is not but, copying the substance of someone else's work, making only cosmetic changes is called "close paraphrasing" and would likely be considered plagiarism even if the source is cited.  If it was, as you say, "massive" or if it omitted any citations to the original work, then, without doubt, that would absolutely be considered plagiarism.  As an instructor, I know that if I discovered it in something a student submitted to me, I would certainly report it as suspected academic misconduct and I would expect my report to be sustained.

Here's an article you may find helpful:  Successful vs. unsuccessful paraphrases


Is citing in an abstract required to avoid plagiarism?

In the abstract, you want to inform the reader about the paper that you have written, you want to convince the reader that is it worthy of their time to actually read some of it. You should realize that for the bulk of the readers, the abstract is all that they will ever read of your paper and as such, the abstract should stand alone, it should be a self-contained story. Including references in an abstract will ask for an additional investment of time from the potential reader, which might chase them off.

Plagiarism in an abstract arises when you copy text from other sources and include it in the abstract itself. In such cases, you present work written by others as something that you have done yourself, which is clearly wrong.

Plagiarism of another nature could arise when you imply that previous results from others were actually performed by you. As the authors of the original work will have an interest in your paper, rest assured that they will be the first to send you a message (if it was not picked up in the peer review process) asking you why you presented yourself as the author of work that you did not do.

Some final thoughts:
- An abstract is supposed to be short, so there is no room for things that do not belong there (a thorough literature review is one of these things)
- Clarity and honesty are essential. If you do not copy from other people and if you are Always clear (beyond a reasonable doubt) in your descriptions of the sources of the material that you present, you should be fine


What is the value of a Coursera certificate?

Value in an academic environment: zero. Everything you learn at Coursera you'd simply learn from a textbook in a few days if you needed it for your academic research or teaching.

Value to a non-academic employer: marginal, mainly as a signaling device (this person will sacrifice his spare time over a non-trivial amount of time to improve himself), but certainly lower than a certification in a field or skill directly related to your job.

Value to a prospective spouse (as suggested by earthling): depends. I'd certainly look favorably on someone who took a Coursera course instead of watching TV.

Value to yourself: again depends, but could be highest of all. I certainly know that those courses I took were mainly for my own pleasure and benefit.


How is the training for MS students different from MBA students?

An important aspect of MBA training that I haven't seen mentioned in other answers is networking.  A huge amount of getting things done is business is about networking, and while you will not find a formal course on networking in an MBA program, most good MBA programs will have a lot of networking events and opportunities connected with them.  MBA students are also often grouped together in cohorts or otherwise treated much more as a unified group of students than MS students.  All of this adds up to a very important extra-curricular curriculum component that is often a key differentiator for success or failure after business school, and is largely neglected in the more technically focused track of MS students.


Is it okay to talk to the editor about the topic of paper or whether if our manuscript is suitable for the journal before submitting?

To give you some context, out of my 13 journal papers I asked the editor twice. Once it was a regular issue, once it was a special issue. Once the paper in question was accepted afterwards, once it was rejected and landed elsewhere.
I wrote typically something along the lines of:

Dear %editor_name%,
I am considering to submit my paper "On the sepulation in the context of the Mars phase" for possible publication in your "International Journal of Highly Reputable Research". In this manuscript I exploit the stigma of sepulation in the context of the planetary movement. Specially, the Mars phases were never before regarded in this context.
The abstract of my paper is: %abstract in full%
My article contains 4123 words (including footnotes, references and figure captions). It contains 5 color figures and 23 references. I have never published this article before nor have I submitted it to any other journal or conference.
Would such an article be of interest for your journal? Please let me know if you feel that my focus on Mars phases would pose a problem for acceptance in your journal.
Thank you very much. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Hope this helps.
I have never perceived such queries as bad or damaging. But in most cases they are not needed, as you can tell the relation of your paper to the journal well enough from the aims and scope.
It's the intersection of the actual journal topic with something else, when you might want to ask the editor beforehand.


Does prestige of PhD granting insitution matter for those wanting to work in industry? And can a high level post doc position elevate an application?

Ok, get it now. I don't think we are talking about a 'bias' here: you fear that the ranking of your Ph.D. granting institution will not play in your favor with industry; if you get a Postdoc at a higher ranked school, will this help in industry? And does ranking at the graduate level matter in industry?

As a Ph.D. (PostDoc), and in many industries, you rarely come in through HR. It's probably more common to rely on contacts, friends, academic collaborators, and recruiters. This already somewhat dampens the impact of where you studied. If you hope to get in through HR, expect trouble. What I say next assumes that you largely stay near your field of study (you're not a biologist seeking to do momentum trading).

Not quite dissimilar to JeffE's answer to a related question, at the PostDoc level you are expected to have some research to show; and as you probably won't show it to HR, the people you talk to quite possibly understand what you did, or maybe even are familiar with it. They also might know, or have heard of, your PI, which you mention as well you wonder if they do. A famous alma mater is certainly nice, but it will matter much less than how highly they think of what you did, and how it fits into your possible job there.

Applying as a Ph.D. (only) in industry will put much more emphasis on your graduating institution: in many fields, even if you publish, it might not yet be printed; and the breadth and number of your contributions tends to be naturally fairly small. I think hiring, in industry, based on name makes more sense then; but your field of specialization, and what you did, still matter quite a bit.

Finally, the further your potential job is from your field of expertise (and that is common too: I've seen people go from CERN to building user interfaces), the more names matter - as is probably no surprise to you. It also matters in just making people curious about you - in the stage of getting an interview; whereas what I wrote before is you discussing a job at a desk or lab.


Is there anyway to "get credit" for post Masters work on a resume?

Research assistant is a job as well as part of an education, and it is common to see it listed as part of one's appointments on an academic CV.  After all, you are being paid for the work you do (even if typically at a subsistence level).

It would thus seem quite reasonable to list it that way on an industrial resume as well, as part of your list of prior employment, thereby providing a clear statement of your time working in that capacity.  Whether your HR department is reasonable enough to accept this or not is an entirely unrelated question, I'm afraid.


Need help — Principal investigator with abusive behavior

In my view you have three options: sit out, leave and stand up.
I share some thoughts about standing up. Your institution must have a behavioral integrity policy. You can talk to an ombudsperson or thrust person. You can do this anonymously. You are not the first and this is important information. Document the cases. Try to find and speak to your predecessors. What have they done in their situations and why? What was their outcome? What advise do you get from your ombudsperson or thrust person?
It takes a lot of courage to walk this route which in the end may lead to a formal complaint against this PI. There is no guarantee for success. Apparently this PI has been protected for a long time already on the expense of people with temporary contracts and lesser power. But it depends on history. You are not the first.
I cannot give you a single advice. If you can emotionally detach yourself, you can sit out your contract. But I understand you bring your own money. I fear he will not let you go easily anyhow. You are valuable to this PI bringing in research results and publications. You are feeding your PI.
If you can’t emotionally detach yourself, you should leave or stand up.
When leaving, do not be afraid that this PI may harm your reputation in science. Science is a huge place and your PI will have a reputation too. Trust me, PI’s loosing postdocs, PhD’s and students, not delivering results (publications and grants) are not taken that seriously. Especially when you can show your results.


Stance of universities on remote video proctoring of online exams

This puts students on unequal footings. Not all students have access to webcams, a stable internet connection, or even more basic, access to a quiet room where they can work for several hours straight with no interference, for example. And what about disabled students who need special accommodation, e.g. someone to write down the answers for them because they can't move their arms, blind students who need other kinds of accommodation, etc?

Where I work, university is a public service and we can't sweep such issues under the rug. Maybe you can, but you should think long and hard about whether you want to.


A lecturer is hard to understand, what to do?

As a lecturer in Asia, I appreciate what you are saying. I have some colleagues who are Asian who are quite clear when they speak English and others with whom I require a minute or two to even recognize when they are speaking English because their accent is so strong. You have to work with what you've got.

While you could confront your lecturer, as snim2 said in an answer, you need to be delicate about this. The lecturer could find you condescending or insulting. Even if the lecturer does not think you are being purposefully hurtful, making a lecturer self-conscious about his accent might make him an even worse lecturer (of course, it could help, depending on his personality).

I would recommend talking to the lecturer and simply say something like this: Hi teacher, I'm finding it necessary to read more about this topic in order to do well in your class. Could you point me in the direction of some reading material that I can use to improve my understanding of your subject? (then stop talking)

Once you have the reading materials, focus your learning there, perhaps with some genuine emails to your lecturer, if he allows.

Even the lecturers I've met with horrible English will happily go out of their way to find some material for you to read. Either they will recommend a textbook, some articles, or they will have some material they have collected on their own. I don't believe I have ever met a university lecturer who would be offended by this approach nor have I met one who would not support a student with such a request.


My human subjects research is "exempt" under US regulations. Does that mean I can skip ethics review?

Regulation
No, you cannot skip all the process.  The word "exempt" is misleading.  The exemption is from most regulatory requirements, not institutional or journal requirements.  Exemption is specific to the regulations of the United States.
Regulations do not require IRB review of exempt research.  Regulations do require determination.  Depending on your institution's policy, the determination might not be conducted by the IRB.  But usually it is.  If your institution permits it (which is highly unlikely), you may be able to conduct the determination yourself.

The regulations do not specify who at an institution may determine that research is exempt under 45 CFR 46.101(b). However, OHRP recommends that, because of the potential for conflict of interest, investigators not be given the authority to make an independent determination that human subjects research is exempt.
The regulations do not require that someone other than the investigator be involved in making a determination that a research study is exempt. What they do require is that there be accurate determinations so that non-exempt research ends up being reviewed by an IRB. Because of the potential for conflict of interest in this situation, OHRP's long-standing recommendation is that investigators not be given the authority to make an independent determination that human subjects research is exempt.

Source
Note that ethics processes which are permitted under United States regulation may be a crime in other countries.
Journal Policy
Furthermore, reputable journals require IRB approval for publication.  The Helsinki Declaration §23 says,

The research protocol must be submitted for consideration, comment, guidance and approval to the concerned research ethics committee before the study begins.

While the Helsinki Declaration is specific to medical research, journal policies typically apply the same requirement to non-medical, human subjects research.  For example, Nature and Science.
How do I avoid the process?
You can avoid the process if you are not doing research or if you do not involve human subjects.


Should I change my major to something more useful yet less interesting to me l if I already secured an internship in that field?

There is hardly anything worse than spending your life, or your efforts, on something you don't love.

The mathematical training in Econ will be a bit limited if focused. You might do just a well taking some of your elective courses in math. That would also support your CS minor. Statistics would work with Poly Sci also.

Don't think "useful" unless it is an economic necessity. You are well placed to do something that you find interesting as well as rigorous. Too early to make such compromises.


Is it unprofessional to use graphics from Wikipedia in a poster?

The primary issues with using Wikipedia for academic research are that it's a tertiary source, and there's no credibility/quality assurance.

So, you should make sure that

If the image contains intellectual content that requires citation, you should cite a primary source for that content.
The image (including its factual/intellectual content) meets academic standards of quality and accuracy.

Assuming these are satisfied, reusing images from Wikimedia (or a similar source) is not inherently unprofessional. Of course, if the image is of poor quality or doesn't fit in well with your poster, it will look unprofessional - but this would also be true if you had created the image yourself.

This is, of course, assuming that the image you are using is in Wikimedia commons (not all images on Wikipedia are), and

you follow the license requirements (protects against legal/copyright problems)
you correctly attribute the source (protects against ethical/plagiarism concerns)


Should licensed code be acknowledged in Thesis

Generally in a thesis or in an academic paper in my field (numerical modeling, engineering) people try to mention which languages and library they have used to implement an algorithm or a method. If you use a commonly known algorithm which was implemented in a library (whatever the license of that library is) I think it would be most appropriate to mention which implementation of the library is used in your methodology section.

The are numerous reasons for this. First it gives credit to the people who wrote the library. You will often see on library website a paper to cite which is the "defining paper" of the library. It is good to acknowledge that. Second, if there were to be a bug found in the future in the library or some limitation, this could then be easily traced back to your results to justify surprising results. Thus it is more rigorous to state which implementation and which version you are using.

In all cases, I believe that crucial libraries that implement complex algorithmic elements should be acknowledged in the methodology section, along with the library version and a reference to it if such a reference exist.


Do I include non-academic works on my ORCID?

I would include a children's book on my ORCID account.

The vision of ORCID is a world where all who participate in research, scholarship, and innovation are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, borders, and time.

Including math paper and children's books would span disciplines and borders.


Do the Publication Retraction impact on Co-authors

Yes, it is possible that this will affect you unless you have a way to clearly distance yourself from the misconduct. Of course, if the retraction, etc. isn't especially public then it is possible no one will notice.

Being a student now is both a hinderance and a help. Since you are at the very beginning of your career you can likely validly claim that you were blindsided by superiors, being a bit naive yourself. You aren't expected to be as sophisticated as a professor would be.

On the other hand, I suspect that it is only in seeking your first position that you would need to deal seriously with it. Once you have your own position you are building your own reputation. But you will, likely, be questioned on it and need a good, complete, and valid response. But I suspect that if it is reasonable, then it would be accepted by most people/places.


Citing abstract only papers/conference proceedings

It is a bit risky to cite papers having seen only the abstract. You might be able to contact the original authors in some cases for more complete versions.

But, the safe and approved way to get access to papers that aren't easily available online, or available only by conflicting with with ethical considerations, is to go to your local library and ask the librarian there to get you a copy. Academic/university libraries are best, of course, but most libraries have some sort of access, directly or indirectly to nearly everything.

Moreover, a research librarian at a good library is a tremendous resource for finding obscure things and even related things you don't know exist.


Is it harder to get into PhD programs for some disciplines compared to others?

Statistics might be hard to come by, but you can always checks the requirements of the Phds on the webiste of universities.

In my alma mater (Canada), two were particularly easy to enter: psychology and semiotics. You could start them directly after a simple bachelor degree, you did not have to go trough a Master beforehand and, the teachers would try to entice you to do one. Anybody could do one even with relatively bad grades.