Can I bring up past work in the discussion?

I recently went through this for a paper of mine where we had a lot of different findings that we wanted to relate to many different prior results. It helped me to think of the paper in linear order (i.e., our Background section came before our Results so we didn't bring them up there)

We setup the Background to discuss relevant ideas that we bring up later but don't mention our results at all. We then present the results, as-is. Then in the Discussion, we tie our findings back to the literature.


Ill Recommender Gave Me Letter To Submit

This is always a very tough situation. Ideally if you had known of her sickness ahead of time, you could have asked her to use a dossier service (such as interfolio.com;  note that I have no connection with this service except being a user). She could send them a single letter and they would send this to other schools on your request. This way the contents of her letter would remain confidential from you.

It would have also been great if the letter contained language such as "I apologize for not sending a personalized letter but my current health conditions preclude me from doing so, please do not take this as any indication of my high regard for this candidate."

But this would have been an ideal situation. If she's still healthy and you have good relations, you can ask her if you can set up something with a dossier service (your university might have one itself) with a letter with an apology for generic language.

Otherwise, you could add a similar note to your list of references:

References

Prof. John Doe
Prof. Alice Smith
Prof. Jane Roe

Prof Jane Roe apologies that due to medical issues she is unable to send personalized letters. A signed generic letter will be sent with her sincerest apologies to the search committee. Verification of the contents of the letter may be made by contacting the department chair, Prof. Bob Ajar, at xxxxx@xxxx.edu

[Aside: I have used letters with similar language when I have been engaged in field research and unable to write personalized letters for my students. So it's not just for sickness but for other conditions where letter writing is difficult.]


Are European schools experiencing the same cost raise as American schools?

This answer is based on the situation in Sweden, I think similar principles would apply in the Nordic countries and possibly in north Europe.
First cost of education is very low compared to US, as can be seen in the following references:

Sweden Abroad's paper on education costs in Sweden

Higher Education Finance and Cost-Sharing in Sweden

There are no tuition fees for European citizens (non Europeans pay a tuition fee which varies based on the University and the Education. For example a technical education for a non European may cost in the range of US$12000/year. The government also provides a grant and a loan on favourable conditions. Everyone who wants to study can get a seat.

It could be argued that even when the government subsidies something there is still a real price, and if there is a real market driver the price should go up.

The government provides resources to a University based on the number of students and the number of courses provided. The amount differs based on the course. For example for natural science and technology the amount is higher than for social sciences. Half the amount is given when the student signs up for a course and half when he or she passes the course. Since the government provides means based on the number of students, there is no reason for why supply and demand should not be met and there should not be any price driver as in US.

For certain very popular educations there are limited seats, and the college would then limit access to these seats based on scores. But money is still not the driver.

For commercial education such as a professional MBA at Stockholm School of Economics there are market price and there prices have increased dramatically over the years. The current cost is in the range of SEK 500K.


As a referee, is it appropiate to ask for further details on a model extracted from another work?

The onus is on the authors to appropriately justify all of their choices and conclusions, either directly or by referring to previous work which in turn contains an appropriate justification.

In this case they have referred to previous work which (in your view) does not contain an appropriate justification, so their job is not done.  It is completely reasonable for you as referee to object.

(Even if the previous work did contain appropriate justification, you might still feel, as in Buffy's answer, that the justification should be written in the present paper, to make it more self-contained.  That's also appropriate to mention as a reviewer, but it's more a matter of style than correctness.)


What are the possible pitfalls of a university employee and a student being roommates? Is it best to avoid this situation?

Yes, it's basically allowed everywhere I know of, but there are plenty of situations where it might get weird. On the non-weird end of the spectrum, I was a researcher and manager at my university when my live-in fiancee decided to go to grad school there in a different department. We even got married the summer between the two years of her master's program. There were no problems and no rules that prevented this. We didn't even need to tell anyone about it.

Now, if she had worked for me or enrolled in a class that I taught, there would have been some people we would have needed to tell to make sure that there was no favoritism for her and that everything was fair for other students or employees. She probably would have had to have a different manager appointed for work if I would have otherwise been her boss, etc. Our living situation wasn't the determining factor, but rather our romantic involvement.

If the staff member isn't romantically involved with the student who is also their roommate, then there's generally no issue. However, if the nature of the relationship changes from roommates to partners, then depending on local rules and the proximity of the staff member's job to the student, someone probably has to be notified at the very least and a management plan created in some cases to deal with it. If the student and the staff member aren't in the same department, then there's usually no need for notification at my university.

E.g. if a psychology student wants to room with an admin in the Geology department, it's fine. If a student wants to rent a room from his English professor, then maybe some departments want to know that. If a Physics student wants to date/marry a Sociology prof they will never take a class from, it's very likely that the university needs to know, and they may try to forbid it. And if a student wants to become involved with their PhD supervisor, the university will definitely get to have a say.

As best I can tell, the rules tend to be about who is romantically involved with whom, not where students choose to find their accommodations.


I have no knowledge of you, your university or the staff that taught you; however, despite what most students believe most academic staff are extremely professional. Their position requires it of them.

When I and my colleagues provide a reference (our equivalent of a letter of recommendation) we base  it on the facts checked from the student records. We would check the transcripts look at the attendance records and other material on file (such as disciplines, warnings), we would note late submissions of work and other statistical details. From that we would build up a picture of the student as a scholar and use that as the basis for a recommendation.

It would be unprofessional to just base such a recommendation on a memory of a previous meeting, and incident in class. Actually, with so many students passing through over the years individuals rarely remain in the memory unless they were remarkably outstanding in a positive or negative sense (i.e. one in a million).

We aim to write accurate and factual references to our sister institutions in a manner that we would expect to receive them for our own applicants. We would expect the references supplies to us similarly written in a detached and professional manner.

All you can do is ask. You need letters of recommendation. The only way to get them is to ask. Although you might have matured and learned a professional approach, don't forget they had to also do this to gain their own position, and will continue to do so.

Your mileage may vary, but I can only give my opinion from my experiences of supporting students every year in their quests for future success.


I believe that a sandwich thesis (sometimes called an integrated thesis / stapler thesis) consists of a collection of published or in-press articles (some schools also allow submitted articles). These articles are included in the thesis verbatim.  The publications are usually preceded by an elaborate introduction that sets the context for the thesis.

EDIT:

As Willie Wong pointed out,  there is also usually a final discussion / conclusion after the integrated papers.


Is there any way to pressure textbook publishers to reduce price?

If you don't have the authority to change the textbook on your own, at least for your own section, then your target should be, not the publisher, but the person or committee that does have that happy power.*

Show them this: http://aimath.org/textbooks/approved-textbooks/ and propose that you teach a section of your course using the appropriate open access textbook.  (Edited to add: Pick out the appropriate book and an alternate before you talk to the committee or coordinator and be prepared to defend your choice vs. the approved text.) In the following semester, compare how well your students did in the next course in sequence vs. those who used the standard text.

Your secret weapon: work like hell to be sure your students are well prepared for the next course.

In the comments, Ben Crowell has said: "Here is a catalog I maintain of free books, including many open-source textbooks: http://theassayer.org"  I've edited it into my answer so it doesn't get lost.  Thank you, Ben.

* Hat tip to Professor Severus Snape for "happy power."


Is it ethical/legal to publish Master thesis manuscript as a journal paper?

It is perfectly Okay to make a paper out of a master's thesis. Many aspiring PhD candidates do.

However, an MSc thesis is typically 50-100 pages long. A paper is (in a dense journal format) typically 8-12 pages long. Let's make a generous estimate for 20 pages in the thesis layout.

So either your thesis is very thin, or the journal is very generous, both of which seems unlikely.

Next issue is that you write a thesis in a very different manner than a research paper.

Hence, you would definitely need to rewrite the paper. And you have one issue less to worry about. The copyright might still be a concern for figures, for example, but from your comments I recon that this is not a problem. (It should not have been one, but it was proper to check before.)


How many professors are there in technical fields with no degree whatsoever?

I don't have numbers, of course, nor even proportions, but I suspect that the number is small.

But more important is the question of how such a person would be hired and what sort of position they could hold. The problem is that a school or university wanting to employ such a person needs some assurance that the person is competent for the position. Not holding any degrees makes that more difficult in general.

But some people have excelled in a field with no formal education. That isn't especially unusual, actually, but not a lot of them will want to teach. But some will. Many will want to do it only part time and money isn't the driver for them, so a position as an adjunct can be attractive both to them and to a university. But no one will be looking at it as a career path.

I suspect that Harvard would be happy to have Bill Gates teach a course occasionally - probably not in BASIC language, though.

Luminaries in a field are probably offered such courses fairly frequently, I'd guess. But especially if the institution is looking to establish a long term relationship with future funding in mind.


First, I don't think it makes much difference. Researchers deal with information, and a lot of that information is communicated through emails nowadays. So, most researchers I know are very careful about their emails and read them thoroughly. Especially if you write to people who know you, your name should be enough for them to read your email through anyway.

But, I can understand if you have an important announcement to make to a large list of people (who don't all know you personally), you may want to “micro-optimize” this. I have done it in the past: having a call-for-papers email ready on Saturday, and waiting ’til Monday afternoon (US time) to send it, thinking people who read it with a fresh mind, and not alongside the batch of “week-end email” that they might triage on Monday morning. (Some people stay connected during week-ends, of course, and for those it makes no matter.)


What to expect for an on site interview in German University?

For a Ph.D. position, they want to know:

Are you really familiar with your master thesis' subject? Can you answer questions about it? Can you explain your thoughts? This is mandatory.
Which relevant experience do you have for the institute and the future research? Some of your competitors may not have any. This is where you can enjoy the interview and get information for yourself.

So ideally you start with reporting about your previous research (your master thesis). Then you can say something like "as I wrote my thesis, I noticed that (bla bla), and as your institute does (bla bla bla), which is somehow similar, I hope to deepen (bla bla)." This would be very good. First, because it shows that you have relevant experience and second, because it helps you to check if the institute is actually relevant for you.

Remember that a job interview's purpose is to get to know each other, it's not a one-way police interrogation. For a Ph.D. position, this is especially important because in Germany, your final failure at a Ph.D. programme would also make you inadmissible for similar programmes in Germany. So it's vital for you to sense possible (interpersonal, academic, financial) difficulties early.


How honest should one be in a PhD exit interview?

I had an exit interview when I left my graduate program and I have also had exit interviews in industry.  My feeling is that exit interviews in Academia have the potential to be productive, whereas in industry, it's mostly just HR covering the company from liability.

There is probably no perfect answer, but I would say that you should be honest while remaining professional and constructive.  If you have criticisms of your degree program, try to keep them general (don't focus on your PI or your lab unless they ask about it).  My program director was very defensive when anyone criticized the program, so I was careful and tried to provide solutions to my criticisms.  I do think that he took some of the suggestions to heart, such as moving the qualifying exam so that it did not overlap with certification board exams.

In my opinion, the exit exam is not the time to bring up anything along the lines of harassment, mostly because I don't think it would be recorded properly, as random_non_bot_person mentioned.

Industry is different.  Exit exams seem to be only there to cover the company.  If you were sexually harassed at the company, HR wants to know so that they can prepare for a legal defense (I'm guessing, I'm no lawyer).  They want to know if you were fired, they want you to understand the implications of any NDAs that you signed, and they want to know that you aren't going to sue them.

Summary: Academia exit interviews have some potential to change the program, but is highly dependent on the program itself.  Industry exit exams will almost definitely not change a thing.


Do I need to define all forms of cheating in the syllabus?

I think your problem quite literally is that you specify too much. If you provide a long list of things students are not allowed to do, it is natural that students assume that the list is comprehensive (that is, everything that is not on the list has to be legal). If you do what chubakueno proposes and have a single rule Plagiarising == fail, most people would be fully aware what that means.

EDIT: clearly, this does not mean that you should never go into more detail. Of course, if one has unusual or unexpected rules which other comparable lectures in the same university do not have, then of course they need to be explained. However, most of the examples given by Village are IMHO pretty obvious.

Frankly, many of the items on your list cannot reasonably be assumed to be ok, no matter the rules. For instance, did you really have a student tell you with a straight face he thought it was ok if he pretended to be somebody else to write the other guy's exam?


What is the equivalent degree of MPhil in the American education system?

Masters in the USA are (traditionally) taught.  The concept of a master in research/Mphil is an alien concept.  There might be some programmes but I'm not aware of any.

For your application purposes just say Other Master and explain in your application letter that it was a research degree.


What are the main difficulties for someone who is mute to be successful in academia?

I'll open with the obvious answer:

Usually one of the main ways of getting people to know about your work is to give talks about it, in one for or another. It might be possible to mitigate the effect of not giving any talks yourself (eg. by having co-authors doing so, or having a very visible blog), but it would certainly mean taking an unusual approach, at least in my field.


What does it mean to co-sign a letter of recommendation?

Co-signing something simply means that the co-signer also approves of the letter. For example if I wrote:

To whomever it may concern,
Seankala is a brilliant student.
Sincerely, Allure

If someone else were to co-sign it, it would become:

To whomever it may concern,
Seankala is a brilliant student.
Sincerely, Allure & [someone]

It means that that someone also thinks Seankala is a brilliant student.
Co-signing something doesn't mean one wrote or even helped write it. Here's an example of a co-signed petition. The petition itself was obviously not written by 12,000 people, but you can be sure they all approve of it.


Better to do PhD program for Marine Science in Australia or US?

Quality of life is very subjective.  If you like nature, you will struggle to find the same quality of life in the U.S. as you do in Australia.  If you like big bustling cities, then your quality of life will be better in the U.S. than in Queensland (Brisbane is lovely, but hardly bustling).

People care more about the strength of the school in the Ph.D. subject than they do about the university overall.  If you intend to stay in marine science, it doesn't really matter whether you get a Ph.D. from e.g. James Cook in Australia or many places in the U.S..  If you're not sure marine science is where your heart is, a university with a bigger name overall will help you.  Australian universities are competitive internationally; it really depends what your choices are.  (U.Q. is not, say, Stanford, but I don't think there's anything in Florida that would really give you a big edge over U.Q.)


What University Affiliation should I list on my paper?

List your new (current) institute as the primary affiliation (i.e. the one that appears under your name on the front page).
You can optionally add a footnote briefly mentioning the part of the work which was done while you were in your old institute.


What did my referee mean by asking about my "Plan B"?

Don't overthink this.  It sounds like he's just showing a friendly interest in your plans.  No matter how "good" you are, graduate admissions always has some degree of uncertainty, and so everybody should consider what they will do if they don't get admitted.  He just wants to know what that would be for you.

If he really didn't think you were good enough, he wouldn't have agreed to be a reference for you.


Is specifying a minimum word count beneficial for academic writing?

As we all know, during our higher education careers it is inevitable to be assigned
  essays or academic papers that require a minimum word-count.

I do not agree with your premise here. For my undergraduate and graduate students I rarely include a minimum word count. I do include a maximum word count (which students often want extended) for the reason you wrote: Encourage students to write concisely.

Minimum word counts do promote the things we want to avoid. Writing the same information with fewer words give greater power to the writing so encouraging students to do the opposite does not really do what I want to do.

That said, I do find that I have to be VERY clear with my students that writing too little can cause them to fail. I explain that when it comes to word count, there is a maximum, say 3,000 words, but no minimum. If they can show they understand everything they should understand in 500 words, great! However, unless they are an exceptional writer, they should expect to fail if they submit too little.


How can I encourage/incentivize students to do lab work early?

Assuming that cheating/collaboration isn't an issue, just create a sign up sheet at the beginning of the semester, breaking each assignment into two blocks. The students will most likely self-select into groups: those who want to get the work done and out of the way, and those who want to put it off as long as possible. While the relative size of the groups may be imperfect, this will just urge them to fill out the signup sheet as early as possible as well. Then you could probably handle a few case by case switches as needed and thusly manage the resources.


From a (nostly) Australian perspective:

Do you want Masters by research, or by coursework? I assume by 2A you mean 2nd class 1st division (normally this would be called a 2-1).

Most research Masters degrees (in Australia) are 2 years, and you typically need a 2-2 (or a Desmond... geddit?) for entry (a credit average equivalent), a 2-1 is only needed for the vague hope of an APA scholarship (in practice a 1st is needed for that).

Coursework Masters are typically aimed at professionals to enhance CVs and skill-sets, so they're normally not the route to a PhD (especially in maths), and are usually 1 year.

My experience of the UK system is that it's largely similar to the Australian, though I have spent less time in it, a 2nd class degree is all that's required for entry into a Masters (so 2-2 would be sufficient).

The US system is somewhat different though (but warning, my experience with the US system is from the outside, so take this with a grain of salt). For those looking at a PhD, you typically join a graduate programme, which has 2 years of coursework followed by 3 years of research largely as a single continuous (or at least contiguous) programme. Often the 2 years coursework will gain you a Masters degree, but this is a "Masters in passing", and is not strictly necessary for progression (this set up is also why the entry exams might turn up at the start in the US).

So after all that, what you want to look for is "Masters by research" programmes, normally each department at the university will have some information about it on their website under something like "Postgraduate Study", or similar (perhaps "graduate school" in the US, but read carefully). These are the ones aimed at PhD preparation, though in Australia and the UK, there is typically no or minimal coursework, so if you need to catch up, it's up to you and your supervisor to ensure that this happens.

The less pleasant part is that if you only have a 3rd class degree, then you're going to have a tougher time of it. In this case you may want to talk to academics at the university you're interested in about what you can do to demonstrate appropriate ability. Another option is to bite the bullet and complete a 1 year masters course to attempt to demonstrate that you have the skills and knowledge required. A really extreme suggestion would be to complete another undergraduate degree specifically in mathematics (many universities offer a specific BMath or similar) to close the gap.

Finally, if you're in a position to go for a Masters by research, take some care picking a university that offers research in an area you're interested in. Think about what areas of maths you like, see where the people who do that are and talk to them. The vast majority of academics in Aus./UK/US are keen an interested to talk to people who want to get involved in their area and they tpyically don't stand on ceremony, so you don't have to be too worried about formalities (but be polite of course!).


A better way to train future Theoretical Computer Science researchers

One downside is the "all eggs in one basket" problem. If you're sure you want to go into theoryCS, then this is great. But if you want to hedge your bets, then some more programming and general CS courses at the undergrad level would be helpful. Also, even within theoryCS, a solid understanding of computer science at large helps with asking new questions about other models of computation, or evaluating the value of theoretical questions motivated by some practical applications.


Clarification on Teaching Prep definition

There is no official definition of teaching prep.


Can I publish a paper on my PhD work without informing my old supervisor?

Your paper had other authors. Generally, if you want to publish it, you have to communicate with the other co-authors (whether they were your supervisor or not).

Regardless of who the first author on a paper is, if other individuals made authorship-worthy contributions to the work, you can't publish it without communicating with them first.


Is it OK to change my research tools/methods completely after/at the end of my PhD?

Undoubtedly, to me, the answer is yes. I am free to learn whatever I want, whenever I want, and do the research I want, as long as it is following right scientific methods. I may even think of multidisciplinary research where I can learn other disciplines and integrate them in my research. Science is all about curiosity and continuous learning and exploring.


How important are physics and other non-math courses for admission into a math PhD?

Math grad programs do not look at physics courses on the transcript, or think in those terms.

The point is that higher-level (not formulaic) physics courses can be beneficial to math people by providing other inputs for intuition. A common obstacle is that the higher-level physics courses do speak in terms of the lower-level ones, which are often quite alien to/from any sensible mathematical world-view.

But if one skips over those "immediate" things, one can find that there are "physcial imperatives" mandating mathematical "facts"... which might not be obvious on "purely mathematical" grounds.

The grandest example is "Green's functions" ... about which volumes can be written... An immediate point is that the idea is wonderful, is necessary, even if one cannot justify it. Green got the idea pre-1850, and it was completely understood in "rigorous" terms by L. Schwartz in 1950. Not easy, ...

That is, understanding other (very serious) inputs to mathematics is obviously helpful.


Thesis supervisor is too much focussed on formatting and typos, rather than content. Is it normal?

Talk to her, openly and honestly. Try to figure out what bothers you most. Is it the extra work? Or is it the absence of response or guidance on content? In the latter case, maybe you could arrange an extra supervisor or sounding board for that part.
I understand it can be annoying. I had a supervisor once, who book keeped whether all his comments were addressed by me, and not only his comments, also the comments of other supervisors. On the other hand, your thesis will be online forever. It is a public document. Your name and your supervisors name will be on it. So a little bit perfectionism now will benefit you in the long term.


Question on "Awaiting Production Checklist" Status for Manuscript

You need to find out the journal's policies on "Online First" vs. paper issue publication.  The reason is because the date that a paper is accepted may be very different than the date when it is formally published, if the journal is still tightly tied to paper issues and has a long publication queue.

If the journal does online publication in advance of its paper issues, then you should be expecting production to begin shortly and a citable preprint of your paper to become available very quickly (though the final official publication date might be many months in the future).

If, on the other hand, the journal schedules its publication based on print only, and does not publish early online, then it might stay in this status for a long time, as the publication staff may not have any reason to work on the article until it is approaching the final publication date.


There's no single right answer here. You should provide the information that you think is most salient in the given situation. In your case, you probably want to say something like "tenured research scientist" or "staff scientist," as those terms normally give the idea of permanence in a way that "research scientist" or "research associate" might not.

If you are writing a CV in English, on the other hand, you could write "Junior research staff (permanent position)," as that gets your title more accurately. In this circumstance, it's probably better to go with a literal translation (or as Federico Poloni suggests in a comment below, the job title in the original language) plus explanation, rather than try to find the "closest equivalent."


How to reference to a statement that itself is referenced by a paper other than original paper?

You should read the original article and afterwards cite it. Don't omit the "read"-step since the secondary source might have introduced an error.

BTW: You should read all the related posts, e.g. How to reference studies mentioned in a paper without having to read the original papers?


Are there any documented cases of meta-science or scientific meta-research? Does that have a name?

Philosophy of Science, History of Science, Sociology of Science, Scientometrics to name a few meta-sciences.

(General trick for meta-science: use X of Science, where X is a science.
To generalize it even further, for meta-X, use X of Y, for some X in Y.)


A course-based letter from a named professor or a research letter from a young no-name researcher?

Assuming you cannot submit both, I would go for the second one. You are applying to a research program and have research experience: the committee are going to be interested in that. If the committee is interested in your grades, they can already see them in your transcript.


Awards in which gender identity is a requirement

I applaud your friend for refusal to participate on ethical grounds. I think your second question can be answered in the negative. But not making a public statement leaves the (unfortunate) status quo intact.

The first question however is, at this time, pretty opinion based and some research might actually help settle the question. It isn't my field, so it is possible that something has been researched and reported.

But we are in a time of change. The past was bad. We hope the future will be better. But there is still observable discrimination against women and many others, especially gender fluid individuals. Hopefully this will sort itself out if enough people get enlightened. But there are observable disparities in treatment even when it is (largely) unintended. And those things won't just dissipate without pushback. Individuals of "good will" need to be part of the pushback even (especially) when they aren't part of people and groups who are discriminated against.

But (opinion), if such awards tend to highlight the underlying problems, then they might be useful. And I hope that such things can go away in the future. A future in which individuals are judged only for their own accomplishments and not, at least in part, for things over which no one has any control.

I believe that more than one Nobel Prize has been given to a male whose female student actually did the work and had the breakthrough.

Fifty years ago, in the US, we thought, through the civil rights movement, that we were approaching a better future. Sadly progress has been slow, at best. Maybe stalled.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. (Attributed to several people, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)


Are letterhead and signatures necessary in the LOR?

In this era of networked printers, few people ever actually load letterhead paper into a printer any more.  Instead, most organizations have electronic "identity" or "branding" collections that include templates for letterhead, business cards, etc.
As such, in my experience, most recipients (in the US and Europe at least) expect letters to arrive in PDF format. Many will not even allow a letter to be sent physically any more.
For most recommenders, then, using "letterhead" just means taking care to use the fancy formatting to make a good impression, just like one might wear formal clothing to make a good impression at a fancy event.  In dealing with academics, however, eccentricity is to be expected, and variation from norms is often tolerated.
Bottom line: your recommender should probably be able to use letterhead electronically. If for some strange reason they can't, it shouldn't be a big deal, as long as it's still easy to tell they are a real and respectable person (e.g., emailing from an institutional address).


How does a global organization compare global degrees?

In Finland (and other Nordic countries) the situation is almost the same as what you describe. Here, the degree progression is

Bachelor's degree, 3 years (180 ECTS credits), includes a thesis without original research, e.g. literature review (10 cr)
Master's degree, 2 years (120 cr), includes a thesis with research (30 cr)
Doctorate, 4 years, completed by either writing a monograph or a stapler thesis consisting of a preface and four or more publications, some universities also require 6-12 months of coursework (40-60 cr)

Prerequisite for a bachelor's degree is three years of upper secondary school.

I think this applies for most other European countries as well.


Proceedings-level paper but no proceedings invitation

First off, "a note [explaining] our point of view" sounds like a perfect use of arXiv, or of a technical report service if your institution offers one.

There's no delay and no formal procedure necessary, and if it turns out to indeed be useful to the community, then it's readily citable.  Furthermore, there's certainly no shame in putting "side" results out in these more informal format, particularly in a community such as mathematics that is generally used to sharing pre-publication materials.

In parallel, if you think it rises to the level where peer review is appropriate, I see no reason to avoid submitting it to an appropriate community journal---no need to wait for an invitation to a particular venue.

In short: if it's worth reading, it's worth making available, and the scientific community can surely decide if it's finding it useful or not.


How do I reply to a potential postdoc supervisor who has no funds at this time for me?

You have pretty much answered your own question.

In a reply, consider including the following:

thanking the professor for his reply.
state that you would be most interested in contributing to the group should a position open up - even mention a specific common aspect of the research.
ask if he knows of scholarships/ similar funding opportunities etc.
suggest co-writing a grant proposal/application (be specific about which grant and what it would be for).
perhaps even state that you would like to collaborate on projects/research in any case.

On that last point - leave the 'door open' for a continuing link through research etc. - this may put you in good stead for future opportunities.


Should I withdraw a paper from arXiv if it does not contain any new research?

You're actually asking several sub-questions:

Can I withdraw the paper?
Should a paper containing no research be un-published/withdrawn (regardless of venue)?
What should I do with this specific paper?

1. Papers can't quite be removed from ArXiv
You cannot completely remove a paper from ArXiv once it's been published there. The ArXiv withdrawal policy says:

Articles that have been announced and made public cannot be completely removed. However, you may submit a withdrawal notification for your article.

You can definitely submit such a notice if you decide you want to withdraw; here's an example of a withdrawn paper - where you see the withdrawal notification. But, again, the paper is still accessible, forever.
The example is taken from this answer by @ff524
2. "No new research" does not make a paper unworthy of publication
Many papers offer a different view of existing research findings; or consolidate, compare, contrast or compile other pre-existing results, hopefully making them more accessible to the reader.
Your other reasons for withdrawal seem more pertinent.
3. What should you do?
For the paper you described, you could write up a withdrawal notice; however - don't be too harsh on yourself in phrasing it. Mention that this was an undergraduate research project and that, in hindsight, it isn't sufficiently exhaustive.
But rather than a complete withdrawal, you could just change the description on the paper's web page on ArXiv, indicating the same thing, as a sort of a caveat.


Can you get a PhD based on work or life experience?

Ph.D.s and other academic titles and degrees awarded for "work experience", "life experience" and so on are products of diploma mills. You pay a lot of money (thousands of USD) for a piece of paper that is completely worthless.

Employers know these worthless "titles". Such a "Ph.D." will not help you get a better job, and it will in particular not help you in an academic career. Instead, using such a "degree" in an application will brand you as naive at best or a fraud at worst.

Depending on your jurisdiction, using a "degree" "awarded" by a non-accredited institution, as these diploma mills usually are, may be illegal.

Nobody here will direct you to an institution that engages in such practices.


What to do about an important typo mistake in my submitted conference paper?

What you should do is to e-mail the organizers to tell them about it. Then, either they will let you replace the paper with a new version or they will not.

By the way, it happens quite often that papers contains some minor errors. Some reviewers will notice them while other will not notice them. It depends on how much time each reviewer spends on your paper and how attentive they are when reading your paper.


What percentage of research papers have been digitalized?

Not an expert, but I would argue that this would be neigh impossible to determine given the criteria:

Definition of 'research paper'. As you stated, this needs to be defined, would this only include peer-reviewed? Published in a reputable publication medium?
Definition of Digitization. Would microprint count? How about magnetic tape? Without a means of know what is and is not digitized, an accurate count would be impossible.
Knowing the upper limit of all knowledge, known-knowns (such as Google's Index of papers) Known-Unknowns (such as closed-circulation repositories), Unknown-Knowns (some repository that exists but the researcher doesn't know about), and unknown-unknowns (perhaps a hidden server in a soviet bunker from the 80's).


How detailed are you supposed to be w.r.t. your research interests in a SoP?

I do not think you can be too specific about your research interests.
You said

not offered admission because how they explain their plans of research are "too specific"

What has actually happened here is that the applicant has applied to the wrong university.  You should follow these steps:

Identify faculty working in your area of interest.
Contact them and ask them if they are recruiting PhD students in that area (if it is not already stated publicly).
Apply, stating in your application that you wish to work in an area (or a few areas) where you know they are recruiting.

Then your application will never be "too specific".
If your research interests are not specific enough, this might imply you do not know what is involved in a PhD and you might not succeed as a PhD student.


Academic Conferences: Are "program committee" members always present at the actual conference?

Program committee members are not expected to be present at conferences. They are responsible for reviewing submissions (before the conference) and helping to select submissions to be presented at the conference. Nonetheless, program committee members may attend, possibly even to present a submission that was selected (by other members of the program committee). Beyond the program committee, other committee members may be present, indeed, some must be present.


Have sponsor, need supervisor for PhD application: how to get email response?

Professors/faculty receive many emails asking for internships, PhD student positions, etc. I even receive such requests as a postdoc -- I am not even able to offer such positions!

Almost all of these emails are low-quality. Namely, they are not specific to the professor's research and have the appearance of being mass emails sent to hundreds of recipients without much thought. Replying to them is a waste of time.

As a result, professors are accustomed to ignoring such emails. It is quite possible that your email was treated as spam.

Here are a few suggestions to avoid your email being ignored:

Ensure that your email is relevant to the recipient. If you are asking them to be your PhD supervisor, explain why. What about their research interests you? (At the very very least, get their name right!)
Have a professor you know introduce you. The email will be more credible if it comes from someone the recipient has heard of. In essence, this serves as a recommendation.
Make sure your email includes enough information about you. Briefly introduce yourself (i.e. your qualifications) and you could even attach a CV or link to a website with more information about yourself.
Get to the point. Academics get so much email they may not read past the subject line before ignoring your email. Keep it short and make sure the subject and first sentence/paragraph of your email are clear, concise, and to the point. If you have a sponsor already, don't leave that until halfway through your long email.


Should a citation be included when answering a question regarding a specific source?

If it is a discussion board the audience are only the course instructor and the students of the course, whether or not you repeat the citation in your answer is not going to have any important or lasting effect. That said, while a very strict instructor might complain if you do not repeat the citation, I cannot imagine any way in which repeating the citation could have a negative effect. If you are in doubt, just cite it again.


Factors determining a feasible research field

Are you passionate about it?
Are you good at it?
Will people pay you to do it?

Everything else is noise.


I must say that I am surprised with the answers here.

I am willing to bet a fair amount of money that you will not get a raise from your institution. And I can think of a million reasons. Here are a few big ones.

A part of my reasoning stems from my personal experience, where I had multiple offers to top-tier US universities, and also from a slightly lower level US university, which offered me a salary that was almost 10k higher. When I took this offer to other top-tier US universities, they shrugged and said, "Oh well. You can't have everything." Also, in my experience, the top tier universities offered similar amounts that were not worth negotiating.

Another reason is that grad students are very replaceable. You may have some relevant experience, but they can easily fill your seat with someone else (and never know what they're missing out on, because you haven't demonstrated any of your academic and research abilities yet) so it's not really worth it to the admission committee to try and negotiate your salary.

Also, note that you may not have been admitted without your relevant work experience, so you may have already "cashed out" from your experience.

Then there's the fact that a lot of grad students are admitted each year (as opposed to a couple of professors/postdocs). If the administration tried to negotiate salaries with 20+ graduate students a year, it would be a nightmare, not to mention that it would seriously hurt the morale of the student population to compare salaries and realize that there is some sort of a ranking amongst the grad students. Being in grad school is already damaging to your ego; can you imagine the student next to you getting paid a lot higher salary, and realize that you're not as wanted as her?

Anyway, I have never heard of grad students negotiating higher pay (unless you count getting federal funding, or research support from your advisor, or extra summer teaching etc.), and combined with the fact that you've already accepted your offer, I really don't see your institution increasing your salary. In fact, I wouldn't even try, because you're already committed to going there, and the people will remember you for trying something like that (OK, maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask once, but I wouldn't try very hard).

That being said, I am aware of a few cases where the grad students had two-body problems, and the institution was willing to accommodate that, but only in the cases where at least one of the two applicants were stellar.


Submitting Long Papers versus Short Papers

How could I submit it?

The length guidelines are generally for maximum length. You can submit a "long paper" that is shorter than the maximum length allowed for a long paper.

I've published papers 25% under limit without any comments from reviewers on the length. If there is enough original research content for consideration as a full paper, you should be OK.

However, you should consider whether it actually is substantial enough for a full-length paper if it's so short (your advisor can help you make this determination).

Whatever you do, don't pad the paper with unnecessary text (fluff) and/or giant images to fill pages so it looks longer. This lowers the quality of your paper. (As a reviewer, I have seen authors do this and it looks terrible.) If you decide you need to add to your paper to make it substantial enough to be a long paper, then you have to add substantial content.

  Could I submit it as both?

Not unless the conference explicitly says this is allowed (usually it isn't). Submitting the same (or a similar) paper as both a long and short paper will get both papers rejected as duplicate submissions.

  If I submit is as long could it be accepted as short if it were rejected as long?

This depends on the conference. It will either say something like, "Rejected long papers will not be considered as short papers" or "Rejected long papers may be considered as short papers."


It seems simple enough to be clear as your double bullets aren't, implying two degrees.

  Bachelors Degree: ETHZ, 2021 (with studies at ETHZ (2017 - 2020) with thesis work at RITS (2020 - 2021) as a visitor

It is clear when the single degree was given, and by which university as well as some indication that some study was undertaken at RITS.

Other variations work, of course.


Should I take a summer class at my university or a community college?

I am assuming this is the USA.
Before you take a course away from the university where you are enrolled, find out if the course credit will transfer.  Probably a minimum grade is required for transfer.  Courses that do not transfer will not help you complete your degree.  Rules vary.
Also, beware that courses can fill up.

Obviously the class will be more rigorous at my university

Well, maybe.  This would vary a lot.  The individual teaching it matters more than the institution.
Summer courses are often taught by different faculty from regular-semester courses.  This is true at both elite universities and community colleges.  Either way you are probably getting a surprise.

but it would be far cheaper to take the class at a CC.

This should be a very important consideration.

Would taking the class at CC have an effect on applying to master's programs?

No, but you will have to order a second transcript, which will be inconvenient.  It might have an effect if you took an advanced class from a community college.  That would cause confusion because community colleges normally have not got advanced classes.


How to avoid copyright infringement when using figures in which original authors can't be identified?

You can buy commercial images reasonably cheaply. These images are intended to be used in any kind of publication and licensed for such use. For example for £29 I can download 5 images, with a license to print up to 500,000 copies, and license to combine these images.

Of course these images are under copyright, but practically everything is. Important is that you have a license.


Will a master student publishing several short papers come across in a bad way?

Try it. It can't hurt.

Having published before starting a PhD program will be seen as an advantage by the people who evaluate your application. It certainly won't count against you, unless you publish in junk outlets and neglect your exams over it, which should be your priority.

This last sentence is important though. It's much more likely to produce publishable results in a BA project than in a term paper. So make sure not to make the perfect the enemy of the good. In the humanities, having one high-ranking publication before grad school is already very good.

In any case, aiming high but realistic will be seen as determined and ambitious, not as arrogant by admissions or your teachers, whom you should also approach for advice and feedback. How you will be perceived of course also depends on how you present yourself.


Post-doc application: references not requested?

If they do not request references, you do not need to provide them. In that case, they may still ask for your references later if they need them (for example, if you are selected for an interview).

It is always better to mention the names of people who can provide references in your CV. But I assume that you do not have good references since you are asking that question. If you have some good references from top researchers in your field, it is better to mention them in your CV. It would make your CV look better perhaps. If you do not have good references, and do not want to mention them, then it is ok. But expect that they may ask for your references later.


Using work from someone else's talk for oneself

Give the impression that the preprint is almost ready so that big-wig sees no chance to be first.


No. Age discrimination is illegal for all programs that receive public funding in the United States. Since a vast majority of schools receive funding of some sort from the US Dept. of Education, you wouldn't be discriminated against based on your age - unless you're applying to a school that doesn't receive public funding.


In the AI field, is it worth it to publish a paper that gains the same results as another but with a different method?

As you say, applying well-studied tool X to well-studied problem Y and getting the expected result won't lead to a groundbreaking paper. But not every paper is revolutionary, and many such papers are published, particularly in AI. It is true that professors and other senior researchers try to avoid publishing such papers simply because they have limited time and need to invest it on higher-impact ideas. Only mid- and high-tier papers really count when calculating, for example, tenure decisions.

But you are not a professor, you are 14 and this is presumably your first long-term project. Writing something up and getting it "out there" is highly worthwhile, both so you can practice writing publications and so that you have something citeable when you apply to college and beyond. Even a low-tier publication, or putting it on the arXiv, is pretty darn impressive at your career stage.

I assume this is why your professor recommended that you write up something to publish. Either that, or he thinks the work is more significant than you realize. Since he is familiar with your work and we are not, I would defer to his advice in any case.


Acknowledging data sources used for creating an image

As others have pointed out, the choice is likely arbitrary since it will not affect the readability of your article much.

If you want to keep the formulation as is, I would personally go with "Data sources" as I think it makes more linguistic sense. If I would ask the reader to check out two published articles, I would write: "see the papers by Uncle Tom Cobley (1889) and Alan Smithee (1968)" and not "see the paper by Uncle Tom Cobley (1889) and Alan Smithee (1968).". Similarly, I would write "see the data sources Esri and OpenStreetMap" and not "see the data source Esri and OpenStreetMap".

However, one possible workaround would be to side-step the issue by chosing a different formulation. For instance, perhaps by writing "Data from",  or just simply "Data".


I think he means that "confirmation" is something you affirm about a thing that already exists. He wants wording that suggests you are looking at things that don't yet exist. Or rather, things that are not yet known. Something you intend to do with the grant that is new and novel, not something that sounds like it is just same-old-same-old, even if it isn't Discover is a good word. Search is another. Research is a search for unknown truths.

If you have an hypothesis that will be stated in the grant you don't want to (say you will) "confirm" it. You want to discover the underlying truth.

But bounce this idea off the PI first.


What is the difference between Abstract, conclusion and summary?

The abstract is written for the potentially interested reader. While writing it, keep in mind that most readers read the abstract before they read the paper (sounds obvious, but many abstracts read like the authors did not consider this). The abstract should give an impression of what the paper will be about. Do not use jargon or any abbreviations here. It should be understandable for non-specialists and even for people from fields somehow far away.

The conclusion should conclude the paper and is written for the reader who already has read the paper. In other words: most readers have read the paper when they read the conclusion. Again, this sounds obvious but, again, a lot of conclusions do not read like this. It does not make sense to write a conclusion like "we have shown this and that by using this and that method". Well, this is what the reader has just read (and what he may know since he has read the abstract). A proper conclusion should tell the reader what she can or he could do with the newly acquired knowledge. Answer the question "So what?".

A summary sums up the paper. I am not sure if a paper needs a summary.

I've written some tips for abstracts some time ago:

Avoid jargon. Although this sounds obvious, most abstracts contain jargon in one way or the other. Of course one can not avoid the use of specific terminology and technical terms but even then there is an easy check if a technical term is appropriate: Try to find a definition on the internet (if the term has a fairly stable wikipedia page, there it is not jargon) – if you do not succeed within a few minutes you should find a different word.
Use buzzwords. This may sound to contradict the previous point and in part it does. But note that you can use a buzzword together with its explanation. Again, the example from the previous point works: “Funk metric” may be a buzzword and the explanation using the name “Finsler” is supposed to ring a bell (as I learned, it is related to Hilbert’s 23rd problem). This helps the readers to find related work and to remember what was the field you were working in.
General to specific. In general, it’s good advice to work from general to specific. Start with a sentence which points in the direction of the field you are working in. So your potential audience will know from the beginning in which field your work is situated.
Answer questions. If you think that your work answers questions, why not pose the questions in the abstract? This may motivate the readers to think by themselves and draw their interest to the topic.
Don’t be afraid of layman’s terms. Although layman’s terms usually do not give exact description and sometimes even are ridiculously oversimplified, they still help to form a mental picture.


As everything, it depends. Here is a 3d plot of a mass-spectroscopic peak in time and mass to charge:

You can get a pretty good idea of its shape and how important noise is. Also, as it is a wireframe, you can see what is behind. If you want to see several of them I can show you too:

Now the thickness is not so obvious, but still, you get a nice idea of the whole thing. You can immediately see the relative intensities, and patterns like the uppermost corner, where there are several peaks parallel to each other (which is an important feature of my data), with falling intensities.

For the show off, I generated a bigger slice with Blender, that gives a nice feeling of how the data looks like, including the long "ridges", parallel peaks, noise, and profiles:

In this case, I don't care some peaks are covering each other because the exact positioning is quite random. If I do a heatmap I get this:

I can overlay more information, like the red lines on top, but now we have lost track of the relative intensities, actual shapes, and level of noise.

In my case, the 3D works because the position of the peaks is quite random, and the exact shape varies from experiment to experiment. Also, intensities and noise are important, and one needs to keep them in mind. But if you want to plot a function (say, a kernel density), where the exact shape is important, and relative values are not so much, a heatmap or a contour plot are usually a better choice.


How to submit a talk to a conference – Starting with replying to a Call for Presentations

It depends on how close you research topic/presentation is to the conference topic. I've never had an abstract turned down, but I present in sessions with topics relevant to my research. Most conferences wan't people to come and present, in general. Worst case scenario, it get's turned down. You will have a head start on the next abstract submission.


There are two simple ways to deal with this, and you can choose the one you prefer.

Describe in the introduction how you found the two papers and cite them both. Choose the one you prefer and mention that you will be citing this paper only. Which one you prefer is up to you: maybe you choose one because of its better writing style, because it is the first one, or because it is the second one and it refers to the first one, allowing readers to find both. Then cite the single paper.
Describe in the introduction how you found the two papers and cite them both. Cite both papers every time (why not?). For example: "Technologies have values embedded in their design [1, 2]."

There are no rules about what is the best way, but you should always consider the point of view of the reader of your paper: what would you like to see when you read the paper? Personally, I have a slight preference for (2) because  it will allow me to quickly find both papers, even if I decide to read, say, only the results section of your paper.

Finally, you can avoid citing the paper "many times" by re-structuring the text in your article: it should normally not be necessary to cite the same paper more than once in the same section, so you will have to cite them only 3-4 times (introduction, methods, discussion).


How to handle one doctoral supervisor being unhappy over a doctoral student's preference for the other supervisor?

While there are lots of ways to go about this, one is to have your primary (academic) advisor intervene in some way with the other person. The industrial person needs to understand that your doctoral research comes first and shouldn't be compromised.
But, this assumes a few things that might not be true. First is that the industrial person can't put a veto on your work somehow. But better that the two "senior" people have a discussion about priorities than you fighting with a more senior person.
But analyze the situation before taking any advice, including this one. It is you that is at risk.
And, for what it's worth, your preference for the academic advisor is certainly appropriate.


How can we change things so more researchers are willing to share their source code?

In the long term, this will only happen if you change the culture (just as you say).  How do you change the culture of a field?  Very slowly, and only with enormous effort.  You talk to other researchers.  You articulate your values, and seek allies who share your values.  You patiently make the case to your fellow colleagues, perhaps by writing opinion pieces.  You don't harangue or attack them; instead, you gently lay out the reasons why it is good for science and good for them to share their code.  Remember, in all likelihood you all share the same common values: the love and dedication of science and the pursuit of truth.

You lead, by acting as a model for how you would like others to behave.  You do what you think is right, and set a good example.

You try to persuade referees and program committees to value and reward researchers who do share their source code.  Recognize the amount of extra effort this takes, and (if you believe it is valuable) reward it accordingly: bump up your rating of their paper correspondingly, and make the case why others to do so.  When you write letters of reference or evaluation for another researcher, if they share their source code, give them kudos and explain why the hiring or promotion committee should view this positively.

Ultimately, this is not something that a single individual can change.  Only the entire community, acting as a whole, can make this kind of change.  Individuals can catalyze and facilitate that change, but like any other kind of reform, it takes extraordinary patience and effort, as well as buy-in from your colleagues.  It's not unusual for this kind of change to take a generation or two.  But keep your chin up: remember, you're doing this because you believe it is good for science and good for your field!


Believe in yourself or your supervisor for your own PhD thesis when you feel it is ready for submission?

Towards the end of your PhD studies you should be the ultimate world expert on the narrow topic of your thesis. You should be familiar with all published related research, and have added new knowledge through your own research.

It is your responsibility to convey that knowledge, in your thesis, in a form that other researchers in your area can understand. It is essential to getting your PhD that you convey it in a form that the committee that evaluates your thesis can understand.

If the examining committee don't understand it, they should reject it. At the best, your writing is not good enough. At the worst, fuzziness in the thesis reflects actual muddled thinking and the research needs more work to sort that out.

Regardless of whether your supervisor will actually be on your examining committee, they are the best surrogate you have for testing your thesis. If your supervisor does not understand your thesis, it is not ready to submit.

Looking at the bigger picture, the smarter you are, the more academically advanced you are, the more of your time you are going to spend explaining things to people who know less than you and need more explanation than you would. Your thesis is a good place to work on those skills, with an expert audience who will give feedback.


Deep reading or just skimming and scanning?

Short answer Probably not.

In order to write an effective literature review, you should definitely understand the material. So...

    [D]o I have to understand the paper fully that I took some things to write from? For example, If I found a paragraph in a paper and it is good in include in one of the themes, then do I have to understand that paper fully?

I would say that you may not need to understand the entire paper completely, but you should be sure that you understand the primary points well enough to be absolutely sure that you are not taking the quote/paraphrase out of context. Again, as other replies point out, whether you can determine this from skimming will depend on your current level of understanding of the subject. I assume you have already read these papers, and have a fair knowledge of the content; however, I would still advise you to read carefully anything you will be quoting--this will improve the quality of the lit review you are writing (and anyway it is never fun to be called out for having misrepresented someone's paper!). Bottom line, unless you know the subject--and the relevant papers--very well, you will probably be better off with reading thoroughly.


Is paper refering on pop science books less value?

The main problem with citing a popular science book is that it is a secondary source.  Almost certainly, the author isn't reporting on original research that he conducted himself; he's discussing research previously discussed and published by others (and possibly his own as well), and putting it in context for a general audience.  He is one or more steps removed from the original work itself, and especially in a popular science book, there won't be complete details about how the results were obtained, which would be necessary to satisfy an expert.

So if you want to support your own arguments using some statement claimed in Morris's book (e.g. "baboons can use toothbrushes"), you don't want to cite this book as your only evidence for that statement.  Rather, you need to find the primary sources.  You should look for who Morris cites, and if necessary, trace back a chain of citations until you find the original paper where this result was reported.  This will be a paper written by the people who actually conducted the study that is claimed to show that baboons can use toothbrushes (call them Jones).  Read Jones's paper, and make your own decision about exactly what hypothesis they tested, whether their methods were appropriate, whether their data is good evidence for their hypothesis, and in general whether their work convinces you that baboons can use toothbrushes.  Then search for other papers citing Jones that may offer criticism of their work, reproduce their results, and so on.  Take them into account in your decision as to whether to depend on this fact.  If you decide it's reliable, then cite Jones and any other paper that offers something helpful to evaluating their work.

(And if you decide it's not reliable, don't fall into the trap of "But Morris believes it, and he's reputable, so I'll just cite him."  Reputable people make mistakes too, and propagating mistakes like this is a major cause of bad science.  Instead, look for other evidence to support or refute your argument.)

You can also cite Morris, if you feel that he adds something to the discussion, or that the reader will find it useful to read his book.  But a scholarly paper can't rely solely on secondary sources.  A paper that does so will certainly be taken less seriously, by anyone.

Edit: To address your comment, nobody here can really tell to what extent a PhD committee would view your paper as evidence of research ability; it will depend on how good they think it is, and only they know that.  But citing popular science texts instead of primary sources is probably not a good sign, since it doesn't seem to show a familiarity with proper research practices.  I wouldn't really expect a committee to be extra impressed because it was done in high school.  They don't really care how advanced you were in high school, they want to know whether you are prepared for grad school now, and that decision will be based much more on what you have done in your undergraduate work.  So unless the paper you wrote in high school was incredibly spectacular, I don't think it will affect graduate admissions one way or the other.


Write about your research (interests, current and relevant former positions, and your experience/skills/goals, all in relation to the position you are applying for) in the cover letter. Only mention positions and education milestones (and possibly supervisors of Bachelor's/Master's thesis) in your CV (and publications, if any, in a separate section).
The cover letter doesn't have to be short "short", 1-2 pages is totally fine in my experience.


I believe my advisor doesn't think I am smart. How should I deal with this?

It sounds like you are interpreting your advisor's comments about how your work is going as an indication that your advisor doesn't think you're smart or capable.

However, that's not necessarily what it means at all. It's only human for an advisor to express some occasional disappointment about how the work is going. (Every advisor thinks the work should be going faster!!! It's practically in the advisor rulebook.)

And some people (unfortunately) express criticism more often than they express praise. This could just be your advisor's style.

It's not necessarily an indication of what your advisor thinks about you as a student and researcher.

So in answer to your question of "How to deal with this?":

Instead of inferring what your advisor thinks of your abilities from his comments about your work, ask him directly what he thinks of your abilities!

Ask your advisor: "How am I doing, in general? What areas do I need to improve in? What strengths do I have that I can play up?"

This is your chance to find out what your advisor sees in you, get some constructive criticism about your research skills in general (not about your current project). It's also a chance for you to tell your advisor how you think you're doing, and correct any misperceptions he may have about how hard you are working or how long the work should take.


Is teaching on YouTube for non-teachers illegal?

Youtube is not a teaching platform, although it is used for such a purpose. People are uploading everything on youtube and they are allowed to do so as long as the content of their videos is legal.

What I mean by legal here, is that the video should fulfil the conditions set by youtube, namely, copyright and Rules of the community.

Otherwise, the content is evaluated by youtube users, whatever its nature. Overall, I would say YES, anyone is allowed to upload his own video to youtube from the legal point of view. However, he should care about giving correct information (especially if it is considered as a teaching video) from the ethical point of view.


When is it appropriate to wrap text around an image in a scientific paper?

This is going to largely depend on the style guides of the journal(s) in question. If your long and tall figures are the best way to display the image, wrapping text around them is one feasible solution. The editors of the journal will be able to best guide you on this.

I would submit the manuscript in a clean and readable format, then let the editors decide how they want to format your graphic. I have never heard of a journal rejecting a paper solely because the graphics where of unusual dimensions.


How Much Say Would A Prospective Supervisor Have In A Students Admission To An Applied Math Graduate Program?

"Soft" influence
It's hard to judge how much soft influence a professor has. Every professor will have a different level of influence, and also a different approach in how they wield it. There is no way to answer this definitively. The most influential professors in departments that allow them to wield influence will have as much power as they want to choose students. Professors in other departments may have little to no influence at all.
"Hard" influence
In my experience, the more powerful control over admissions that professors have is money. For many programs, there are more qualified applicants than there are slots available for funding. That means that many qualified applicants miss the cut despite being qualified: there are simply too many other prospective students that either have better resumes or have a better fit to the program. However, the program still wants those students!
If a professor has resources to fund a student and offers to do so, that student can possibly skip the queue a bit, because they are no longer competing for the at large funding slots. In the grad program I attended, these students were referred to as "direct admit" students: they joined a lab immediately that offered to support them. Other students had a year to rotate and choose a supervisor.
Summary
I have no idea which of these categories your program and professor is more likely to fall into, if either. If you want to be a student, apply. It's better to apply and fail to be accepted than to not apply and guarantee you will not be accepted.


What if my professor writes me a negative LOR, in order to keep me working with him?

Writing bad letters of recommendation because of personal disappointment about a student leaving is so disproportionately unethical that I cannot believe that it happens with any significant frequency. It is not what I would be worried about.

In the end, most professors take pride in their students growing up, going out into the world, and being successful. Students are a bit our kids too -- sure, it would be nice if the kids stayed in the neighborhood, could continue to mow the lawn, and come over for dinner twice a week; but if they move out and are successful, we're proud nonetheless and hope they stay in contact. And if there's something we can help for them to be successful (like writing letters of recommendation), then that's what we do!


How to point out a novel conceptualization in a foundations chapter?

Perhaps the best place to announce this would be in the introduction itself. If this novel conceptualization is part of the aims of the thesis -or can be linked to them in some way-, then the aims section would be a good place to say in which chapter the conceptualization is formally presented (perhaps Chapter 3, after the foundations chapter?)

At the end of the Introduction, it is customary in many fields to announce the thesis structure: in Chapter 2 we will be doing this and that, in Chapter 3... etc. I feel a novel conceptualization would also need to be indicated here.

Disclaimer: I have not yet defended my PhD (on the way to it, almost there), so I would appreciate any guidance other, more seasoned, academics could give both of us!


Sent emails asking for letters of recommendation, but no responses/agreement to write letter

They are probably just very busy. Try to ask in person if at all possible, since emails just get lost in inboxes.

Also, the referee may not feel they have the time to write a reference, since there can be a substantial upfront cost in time just to figure out what needs to be said. You can help them, and you, by providing a draft of a reference that contains the main things you think should be said. This sounds a bit cheeky, but can be very effective at cutting the perceived effort in writing your reference, and thus improving the chances they'll agree to provide one.


Applying to a PhD in Machine Learning without much knowledge of the subject

Florian is completely right - the level of knowledge of the field typically expected from new PhD students varies a lot. In many places in Europe, for instance, a Master's degree is a formal requirement for starting a PhD, and the first year is most definitely not there for gaining fundamental knowledge about the field. You are supposed to have a solid working knowledge of the field from the start.

  "I was willing to learn more, enroll into courses and being self taught for the research that they were making"

There is also the other problem with this statement that it is (sorry) incredibly bland and generic. Of course you are supposed to learn more about your field and do related courses. If that is the best you can say about how you are going to get up to speed in the field, I can understand that the professor you were talking to was not exactly blown away by your zeal.


How closely to the deadline should I expect professor to submit reference letter on my behalf?

I find that the approach of most people I know people to letters of recommendation falls into two general categories:

Do them very quickly, so that you don't have to think about them any more.
Forget about them until nearly the deadline, and then submit them at the last moment or slightly after (once reminded).

Lots of people, including lots of professors, fall into category #2.  The question is, how do you make sure the letter is on time without being a pest?  To this end, I recommend giving three reminders:

A week before the deadline
1-2 work days before the deadline
On the day of the deadline

This balances respect of the person's responsibility (not too many) with minimizing the chance that a last-minute reminder will be too late.  It's the same sort of frequency that I use for reminding people about seminars and other things where you want to balance between awareness and annoyance.  One might tweak the formula a little, but the general principle of increasing frequency near a deadline is the key.


Is it acceptable to use an acronym for a set of adjectives?

I think that in general it would be fine as long as you use it consistently and introduce it properly again in every chapter. For example, in a sentence you could write something like this:

The High Time Resolution (HTR) data was analyzed using tool ABC. We found that the HTR data has X-property among Y observations.

However, this might be cumbersome and become repetitive at some point. If this HTR data is the only type of data in your paper, it would be an option to refer simply to the data since no confusion can occur about the data being High Time Resolution instead of some other type.


Should I state my chronic illness as one of the reason I have few Extra curricular activities in my application for Masters Program?

For US universities, extra-curricular activities are considered important for undergraduate admissions.  But this is not the case for graduate admissions - decisions are made primarily based on your academic record, letters of recommendation, research accomplishments if any, and to a lesser extent, GRE scores.  Extra-curricular activities are not a factor, unless they are academically related (e.g. engineering clubs and competitions, outside  projects, etc).  So there's no need to mention those you have done, nor to make excuses for those you haven't.


Separate books from papers in bibliography of a paper

It's a partial answer, since it's not really automatic, but since this paper seems to have been done with Latex, you could probably ask the authors for their bibtex file, and then using a reference manager such as Bibdesk, Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, etc, you should be able to sort them by category, and therefore isolate all the books.


Does "Apply for scholarships, get accepted and then refuse" help in your CV?

Do not do this.

Programs in the US generally do not care if you've been offered admission to programs in other countries. You are judged on your aptitude for research and to make future contributions in your field. If you cannot convince an admissions committee this between your record, your statement of purpose and personal statements, and your letters of recommendation, then how will you get an offer in Europe—when generally the same materials are needed to get you through the process?


How do you cite a paper that you found online?

The first step is figuring out if it has been published in some form elsewhere. Recognize that people often put some draft version on their personal website to make the full text available, especially if they're not allowed to host the published version.

In this case inspecting the URL gives some hints*. Consider omitting the "joerg.pdf" part, and go to John Harrison's Complete publications list, which further links to this page. Both these pages can tell you that this document is a chapter in a handbook:

  History of Interactive Theorem Proving

  John Harrison, Josef Urban and Freek Wiedijk.

  In Jörg Siekmann (ed), Handbook of the History of Logic, vol. 9: Computational Logic, Elsevier, pp. 135-214 (2014).

(The last link even provides a citation in bibtex form, but it uses the InProceedings form. I would probably use the InCollection style instead. Elsevier seem to agree.)

In MLA, book chapter references can be written

  Last, First M. "Section Title." Book/Anthology. Ed. First M. Last. City: Publisher, Year Published. Page(s).

For this document, you'd have something like

  Harrison, J., Urban, J., and Wiedijk, F. "History of Interactive Theorem Proving." Handbook of the History of Logic, vol. 9: Computational Logic, edited by Siekmann, J. Elsevier, 2014, 135--214.

*In cases when the URL doesn't reveal anything, consider searching for the title and authors in a search engine. This can often lead you to a more official version.


As an instructor, how to show my appreciation for my TAs' hard work?

For TAs located physically close, the well-established way of showing appreciation around here is by inviting them to a joint informal dinner with good food and plenty of (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) beverages, usually with a joint pub crawl afterwards. This would typically happen at the end of the semester, optimally directly after finals, and provide a nice finishing mark on a semester of hard work and (maybe) some fun and camaraderie. These events would typically last to the early morning, leading to extremely empty offices the day after.

I am lucky to work in an university which happily picks up the bill for such events, but in previous places we have had all instructors throw money into a hat to finance this. It is not a celebration if the TAs have to pay for themselves.

Note that the celebrations are: (1) entirely voluntary (nobody needs to come, nobody needs to stay), and (2) as informal as possible.

Edit: that being said, I think the more interesting part about your question is how to show appreciation to remote TAs, and I have no good answer for this.


How can I best adapt my seminar slides for a virtual presentation?

There is nothing more boring that watching static slide after static slide while listening to someone who you can't see. If at all possible, come up with a system where for the most part, people see you via video chat, and if you have something that absolutely needs a slide -- a picture, a formula -- switch to screen sharing.

This kind of system requires you to think carefully about what actually needs to be on a slide. Minimize the amount of text, maybe to zero on many of the slides you would ordinarily have (and then skip those), so that your audience doesn't actually need the slides. This way they also get to pay attention to you.

All of this is of course good practice anyway: Packed slides often lead to people reading ahead of what you have to say and not paying attention to what you actually say. The best talks are those with minimal text that serves to abstract and highlight what you say, but not distract. This is your chance to practice this!


Does an MD make a difference to a PhD application in bioengineering?

I am in a PhD program and we have students who are 2 years into their MD who have transferred (not MSTP-MD/PHD) to complete a PhD before they finish medical school.

The main components most schools look at are:
(1) Test scores - whether they accept your MCAT depends on the program, but having a strong GRE score is a great start.
(2) Research experience - this is the biggest make or break. If you can show that you know how to do hands on research, and even if you have a publication or abstract presented at a national conference, that weighs a lot.
(3) Grades - obviously there is some weight on your ability to successfully complete rigorous classes.
(4) Letters of recommendation

Will it help or hurt? This depends on how well you currently stand in components 1-3 that I mentioned above. If you have a very low GRE score, it may hurt you regardless of your other degree. Alternatively, if you have a very high score, it may help you because it proves you've been successful previously in a tough program.

The question you should be prepared for is why you want a PhD now that you have an MD. There are plenty of residency programs where you can have protected research time and gain experience in the lab. When interviewing, they will want to see that you have really considered dedicating another 4-6 years of your life to a PhD.

I do not think the residency matters, but I do not have experience with this. No students in my program have done residency yet.

Best of luck!


Should I accept to review a re-submission to a different conference

Yes, accept. You can start your review by stating:

  I reviewed version A of this paper @ [previous conference]. The differences between versions A and B are quite minor. My review remains largely unchanged:

You can then provide a revision of your previous review.


How to behave when dating a fellow PhD student in same department?

One possible thing to watch out for: in some departments, graduate students may work as teaching assistants for graduate courses.  You should ask not to be assigned to TA courses which your significant other is taking (and he or she should do likewise), as this would represent a possible conflict of interest.  Even if you can grade your SO's work objectively, there might be a perception of unfairness among other students.  Likewise, if any other situation should arise where one of you might be in a position of authority over the other, you'd need to disclose the conflict of interest and be prepared to resolve it.

Otherwise, as Peter Jansson said, relationships between graduate students are very common and aren't likely to cause academic concern.  Just stay professional about it (e.g. don't make out in the hallways).


Using unpublished data from previous supervisor for thesis

You ask: "would it be fine..", and I am inclined to ask back: fine by whom? There are several people involved, and it seems you are in a situation where you, no matter what you do, cannot make everybody happy. Therefore you need to decide who you want to make happy.

1) Your collaborator. If you have received data from a collaborator under pretense that it should be used for an article together with your old supervisor and said collaborator, it is unethical (and possibly violating some policy) to use that data for another purpose without having cleared it with this person. You need to contact your collaborator, explain the situation, and ask for permission. Remember that the data will be semi-public after thesis publication, given that the thesis is public.

2) Your new supervisor. It would be a poor start with your relationship with a new supervisor, if you pull a stunt he/she considers unethical. Discuss the situation with you new supervisor, for your future relationship's sake. On the other hand, if your new supervisor is counting on you to bring an almost-done thesis, only to find out that you have no data, that would also strain the relationship.

3) Your old supervisor. Is this going to burn a bridge you would rather leave un-burned. Are there even any bridges left? Make up your mind about that for yourself, unless your situation is vastly different from most supervisor switch situations, a discussion will not give you much.


Is it possible to ask 2 professors to write a joint-letter of recommendation?

I have received applications that have had such a letter in them (well, at least one).  It came from a lab director and the applicant's immediatiate postdoc supervisor in that lab.  I thought the letter conveyed the student's experience in that lab very well, provided a nice bottom-to-top view, and it was more clear than if it were two letters, as I didn't need to put the connection between two letters together in my own head.

The letter did not raise any eyebrows, and it seemed entirely appropriate to me.

It's probably not the right thing to do more often than it is the right thing to do, but when it's right, it's right.

To directly answer the "how do I ask" question, something along the lines of "given the limit on the number of recommenders allowed, it occurs to me that there may be certain advantages to getting a joint letter from you and Dr. X, especially because ... [reason goes here].  Do you think this is an OK approach, and are you amenable?"


How to get women to apply for theses and research projects requiring (rudimentary) programming skills?

Teach computation throughout the undergraduate curriculum.  All your students need to know it anyway.  Examples: https://www.compadre.org/PICUP/webdocs/About.cfm
Ensure all students know why your research is worthwhile.  If the cause of your problem is stereotypes, relating the work to students' values is a way to overcome that.
Educate your students about bias.
Inform your students about minority role models.  Don't know any?  Here's one https://research.seas.ucla.edu/carter/.
Develop a reputation for being a good mentor.

There are no magic instantaneous fixes.


I applied for a PhD but was rejected after the interview. How do I request feedback?

This is the kind of conversation that is important to have for your professional growth, but also difficult to have. This is not something that will be done "on-the-record," for obvious reasons, and the answer may be as simple as "there was another candidate who was more highly qualified." (This is very often the case!)

But if you'd like to ask more details about the interview, email the contact person for the position, and ask if you can talk by phone about how the interview went, and if they can offer you any constructive feedback about how to improve your application for future openings.


How many referees are required on a resume/CV?

I assume you are creating your CV for some application (job or graduate studies). I understand that having three to four good referees is good enough. You need not provide more than that. I am particularly speaking about the academia in US and I  believe it would be different elsewhere (e.g. UK).

Of course you may put different referees according to the requirement. I mean you may need to create different CVs for different occasions. Some referees would be better able to acknowledge your work for a given situation. For example you may need to take a recommendation letter from a (for example) Mathematics teacher when applying for graduate studies in Math.

In fact I have also seen that many people do not put the references. In an application process, they are required to separately provide the names and contacts of the referees.


Basic paper outside area of expertise: reject or decline?

It sometimes happens that I receive referee requests for theoretical papers which deals with the same phenomena I do in my research, but from a totally different specific theoretical starting point...they more often than not seem extremely basic to me.

Given that you deal with the same phenomena from a different basis and achieve more advanced results (i.e., not extremely basic), can we conclude that your basis offers some advantage that is being overlooked (by proponents of the other technique)? If so, you could write a position paper that argues in favour of your starting point and against the other starting point. In parallel, you could ask a competitor to write a position paper that argues against your starting point and in favour of their starting point. Perhaps you could then combine your two papers before submitting for publication. Maybe the resulting paper will surprise you both!


Is it proper to discuss unrelated subjects during class to increase interactivity?

No. Distracting the students with other subjects than the one being taught is not a solution to the problem but a way around it. Of course it is different if the discussions are on the topic being taught: that is a great way to teach!
The problem of "boring classes" is not the subject or the students. The problem is the teacher, who should learn (often by experience) how to keep the students interested. It is possible to interest students in any and all subjects, as long as the teacher is engaging, explains why the subject is useful, provides interesting real-world examples (if appropriate), explains the subject at a level appropriate for the group, is able to answer questions, etcetera.
Secondly, many students will be annoyed by the constant interruptions and irrelevant off-topic discussions, and they will also notice that the teacher is trying to hide his lack of teaching skills behind "entertainment", alienating them further and possibly even leading to them complaining about ineffectiveness of their classes.
Thirdly, an important part of studying is learning to learn and to concentrate. You would not be doing the students a favour by distracting them. (But do not misunderstand this: a light-hearted remark or funny joke is perfectly fine and even helpful to relieve some tension and stress, but that was not what you were asking about)


How to (gently) pressure a collaborator?

You mentioned that you explained your situation to your collaborator many times, but you didn't mention the most important part: after you explain your situation, you ask for something specific and actionable, with a specific deadline, and you listen to what they have to say.

Outside pressure requires leverage; internal pressure requires agreement. The situation is asymmetric, as you describe - you need the publication, they don't. Nothing you can do really changes the difference in your needs. However, they hopefully have their own interests: they might be interested in helping you in your quest at this crucial time in your early career, and they might look forward to continuing your collaboration (hopefully they've enjoyed working with you).

The question is: what are you asking for, and are they willing to agree to the plan or not? There needs to be a clear answer here, an unambiguous commitment, and you also need to start considering a plan B if they are simply unwilling to agree or follow-through.

I would suggest an in-person meeting if at all possible, or at least video-chat. You can explain, but most importantly you have to make it clear that there is a real deadline you can't put off. For instance: "we would need to submit this by Date X, as I have to change my focus to application deadlines, and won't be able to work further on this. I think we've done great work, and it would greatly add to my own chances of getting a permanent position, so I really don't want to just let this just die, and I'd like to work with you on more things in the future after I get a position, but personally I either have to push towards publication by the deadline or just give up on it."

You should ask how they view the situation. Is this just something that's been put off to continue to improve because there was no reason to rush, or do they have some more fundamental concern about publication? Acknowledge their concerns, and try to find common ground. I doubt they want to lose you as a collaborator entirely, and if they can just keep polishing and putting things off they could very well do so indefinitely.

Most importantly, you need to come to a crystal-clear mutual agreement on a plan. If they just aren't willing to, so be it - at least you know and you can switch focus to Plan B. But if they can, then follow up in writing with the plan you both agreed to and thanking them for working with you on this, etc. They might still fall through - not all collaborations end up as productive ones - so you should still consider that Plan B anyway (especially as rejection is still the most likely initial result, but obviously "submitted" or "under review" is better than "in preparation").


Deceased author and conflict of interest statement

There won't be any standard way for this to be handled, and it's not really up to you, directly. You'll need to discuss this with the editor; I'm sure they will work with you to make this not an issue, perhaps either by having the other coauthors speak for the deceased or simply waiving the requirement.
How to acknowledge a deceased advisor’s contributions to a paper? and Dead author ethical guidelines may also have some relevant content for you as far as authorship for deceased contributors - since the paper was so near to submission I think it's straightforward to argue that your colleague would have approved submission and that they should be an author, but more generally the journal should be made aware that one of the authors is deceased, since they may have relevant policies.


This may vary by country. I'm in the US, and use mine rather rarely. As you say, senior researchers all have PhDs (or MS + many years' experience), so it's hardly something significant in such contexts. I also don't use it in personal correspondence (e.g., bank paperwork) since that might lead to confusion about being an MD ("real doctor"). So what's left?

CV and other biographical documents
e-mail signature
formal presentations and documents (e.g., grant proposals)
anything related to undergraduate teaching

Note, professors might use "Prof." rather than "Dr." for all of these, particularly in contexts where it is obvious that professors are a subset of doctors.


Where to upload conference posters and how to share them?

I don't know of any open repository that hosts research posters. But, some conferences do upload a pdf copy of all accepted posters to their website so you can check the venue where you presented your work to see if they offer something similar.

Another option which I see all the time is uploading the poster to your personal website or the website associated with your research group or lab. These websites always have a publications link that usually includes a subsection for poster publications.