How should I go about doing meaningful academic outreach as a graduate student?

Outreach comes in two flavours: creating interest (wow, this science thing is actually cool!), and educating (this is how you program). I think both are necessary, so take your pick (or both).

Also, don't even think of making it a one man effort. I don't advise to do it alone. There will be times where you will be swarmed in work, and then your outreach will just fall out of priority. Instead, team up with undergrads, schools, youth centres... whoever is willing to help you. If your university has something in place, you should probably go for it, as it will probably suit your primary needs the most. If you cannot find anyone, you can always start alone and get people on board along the way, but do make this a priority to ensure continuity.

Story time: when I was an undergrad, I joined the astronomy club at my university and we did a lot of outreach, mostly talks and workshops about different topics. It was a very good starting point, as I met people that have been in the business for some time, and could help me avoid some of the beginners mistakes. To give you an idea of our success, in some years, we (a dozen of undergrads), single handedly organised half of the events for the Science Week at the Physics Department, usually getting fully booked in less than a week since opening the registrations.

My experiences showed that:

Many teachers are overworked, underpaid, and frustrated; and they would take your activities as a way to relax for an hour. A few others are still passionate and will go out of their way to get you in the classroom and make the most of it.
Teenagers are difficult to begin with, but once you break the toughness layer, they have a bunch of interesting ideas. Also, beyond that point there are not many differences between posh and underprivileged schools.
Ideally, all fronts should be covered. This includes schools, family activities, talks for adults, elderly centres, giving teachers ideas... But of course, you don't have to do them all.
Be engaging. Get small groups, if you can. Prefer interaction in person. I wouldn't recommend teaching programming remotely, as it is too easy to ignore it. It would only work with kids that are really interested, but then, there are tons of online resources to learn.
Sometimes, kids behave like mushrooms, and there is nothing you can do about it. Don't let that frustrate you. Don't be impervious to (self) criticism, though.
Talk to professors active in outreach, even if they are out of your expertise. In my university there were a couple of them from the Optics department, that taught me a few nifty low budget experiments.


What should an editor do if the authors have guessed who the reviewers are?

Editors need not respond to author guesses.

Regarding,

  We appreciate the very candid critical insights of 2 anonymous reviewers, M. Gompper, and K. Beard.

There is no suggestion that either M. Gompper, K. Beard, or both were anonymous reviewers. Actually, the serial comma suggests they are not. (Even if the comma were absent, I'd perhaps assume authors were unfamiliar with its need.) Similarly,

  We do not gratefully thank T. Appourchaux for his useless and very mean comments.

Gives no suggestion that  T. Appourchaux was a reviewer.

(Useful) insights and comments are provided beyond the reviewing process and should be acknowledged.

There might be exceptions -- e.g., if authors are claiming reviewer bias, having correctly guessed the reviewer's identity -- but the OP doesn't provide sufficient details to determine whether that's the case here.


Is an internship in theoretical physics valuable for me?

Answering is an experimental physicist who had authored a few theoretical papers. I find the suggestion given to you incorrect (maybe voluntarily, as your MS advisor would like you to be his/her PhD student right away?). As a Master student, the level of work you will do is not limited much by your skills/knowledge, rather from your supervisor's wits and guidance. An excellent supervisor with a brilliant idea waiting to be executed can guide you to a very valuable research publication in three months or so. And of course you can be left in a corner with a textbook and generic instructions which will only leave you confused and isolated. It really depends on your supervisor and how much effort will you both put into it.


Did any of the social science experiments by the Nazis in WWII get published?

Well, USA infected Guatemalans with STD's and has aided the cartels in México. The nazis werent the only ones and the controversy  about using such data is still around.

You can find some information here:

The Arolsen Archives ( Information on victims of the Holocaust and concentration camp prisoners, this can, sadly, give you some jkeywords to look for in repositories) https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/

Also the papers can still be found online. I'm not sure you will find them in english, but the library of the congress of USA and the holocaust memorial archives would be a good start if you want to search them out in english rather than german.


Is it okay to view my recommendation letter once I've been accepted at a college?

Why would you ask to see the letter? If the professor in question tells you it was extremely strong, I presume you believe him. Asking to see one's letter after waiving the right to do so is a strange request, and doing so conveys an ignorance of or insensitivity to the norms of the profession.

I would be taken aback if someone asked me this, and would also feel very uncomfortable either refusing or agreeing. Why strain what seems to be a very positive relationship? It is certainly not worth doing so simply for the idle pleasure of reading flattering things about oneself written in another's hand.


How many published papers should you have when applying to PhD programs?

You should be fine.  Realize that there are other kids coming out of liberal arts schools and going into top Ph.D. programs with almost no research experience.  And they do fine, getting into R1 grad programs, and producing work during Ph.D.  All of the kerflutter about undergrad research will fade into the background when you are in a real Ph.D. where there is sooo much more time to spend on research than undergrads (for whom it is a collateral duty...even if they manage to collect a few cap feathers).

Your application will consist of grades, test scores, letters, and other things.  Probably the importance is in that order.  We get kids all the time here who ask about overcoming the opposite worry (subpar grades and standardized test scores) by research.

Just do a decent job and apply to a few places.  You sound like quite a catch, really.  Also, realize that getting into good grad schools in the sciences is quite a bit easier than the whole hothouse environment of high school kids targeting Harvard.  Odds are much more in your favor.  The bigger question to consider is if you should spend more time in school or get a job.  But just put the whole ardent high schooler wanting to go to Brown mindset out of your mind.  It's a different thing, now.


Should I explain about low undergraduate grades in my graduation application if I subsequently have had research and professional experience?

My advice here is to use written application materials to focus on your success and your likelihood of future success, not your shortcomings in the past. If you are asked about grades at some point, then talk about it honestly, but don't "waste" valuable space dealing with things you have overcome.
There is normally at least an informal tendency by people evaluating candidates to weigh recent things more heavily than past things. This acknowledges that people can grow.
In particular, any SoP should be forward looking, not backward. At most, a single phrase in a cover letter about how you have overcome past shortcomings is enough. And try to assure that the letters you get from advisors also express a similar theme: This is a good candidate who has learned to excel.


Asking potential PhD supervisors about research

You could do that. However, do keep in mind that asking for something that you could very well do on your own isn't likely to win you any brownie points in their eyes.

A better option is to find and read several of his/her recent publications. Begin with a Google search, check out their webpage if they have one, search academic databases, etc. Don't email them for papers until you've found and read whatever is easily available. If you find one that is particularly interesting but you can't find the full text anywhere, then is the time to email asking if they'd be willing to share an author copy.

Familiarize yourself with what they have done. Know what aspects of the past research interests you most. THEN, you will be ready to ask what they are working on now, to have an idea whether you might fit in with their current/ongoing project(s). In this way, you are showing independence, initiative, and responsibilty, all good attributes for a PhD candidate to have.


How much emphasis should be put on GitHub reputation in a computer science MSc application?

2000+ stars for a GitHub repository is an amazing achievement. This will definitely make you stand out if you know how to use it right.

You should tell a story in the cover letter/statement of purpose/or whatever it is called: what is your passion with coding and open source, how did you come up with the idea for that project, how well it was received by the community (explain a bit as people may not know GitHub), and how it helped other projects (search if any other repositories that use your tool).

This part is not an answer: ask yourself why do you want a Master? This is impressive for a PhD program too. If you just want a Master, then it's better to find a job with a top tech company instead of wasting two years, and a lot of money. Stack Overflow has a function that if you give them your GitHub account URL, it can refer you to employers.


Career effect of embargo on doctoral dissertation

I do not see that embargoing your dissertation will have any consequences for your career. Until recently, theses and dissertations only existed in hard copy: at least in the sciences, people expect to read your papers and not your thesis. In all likelihood, nobody will ever notice that you've embargoed it.

In any case, placing an embargo on the thesis just prevents the university library from distributing it. There is nothing to stop you sharing a copy with someone (e.g. a potential postdoc supervisor) if you wish to do so.


How to turn down an offer if you aren't sure where you're going yet?

Regretfully, I am declining your offer. Thank you very much for considering me for your program.

  Best regards,

  ThatGuy

You don't have to say where you're going instead.


Which aspects are taken into account with an evaluation depends highly on the university and master study. However, to give you some information about the process and evaluation, I can give you an example how this goes at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), at the Faculty of Science:

The final evaluation is done by your supervisor and the second reader. And if you have a thesis defence, you will be evaluated by the supervisor, second reader, and one member of the board of examination. Then we have a list of aspects that will be taken into account. These can be found here (PDF).

I hope this may help you to have more insight in the evaluation. Else, you can also look up some scientific articles for example at Google Scholar. And, depending on what kind of study you are doing, make sure your thesis is in the right format. For Computer Science for example, a thesis needs to be in ACM Format.


Should we keep our referees informed of our job application statuses?

Asking for permission before giving anyone's contact details in a CV as a potential reference should go without saying. Both for their sake and for yours. You want to be sure they can write you a good, relevant recommendation for the position(s) you are applying for, and presuming that someone has the time to write a recommendation letter without asking them is just rude.

I don't think it's possible to write really excellent recommendation letters without knowing where you are applying. At the very least, they would need to know whether the schools you are applying to are liberal arts schools or R1 schools, to know how to focus the letter. If they are familiar with a department or someone working in a department where you are applying, the letter could (if they have the time / inclination) be tailored even more.

I've always been told that it's good etiquette to inform anyone who wrote you a recommendation letter for anything what happened to the application. A quick email or note (or even stopping by their office) to say thank you again and tell them where you will be going next year, even if it's not to the place they wrote the recommendation letter for is the polite thing to do.


How do I look for/solicit a move to another university pre-tenure?

It is difficult. Job application lists are supposed to be confidential, and you can mention in your cover letter that you prefer your institution not be notified of your candidacy. In some countries, your privacy is much better protected as an applicant. For example in Denmark, faculty applicants don't give talks and there's no public record of them even having an on-campus interview. Consider applying strategically depending on who is likely on the hiring panel at what types of schools, and how likely that is to come back. Last, it's very normal for faculty to apply to other positions, and even if discovered, may not affect your tenure case or your relationship with colleagues. Good luck.


Citing a Video Game in Harvard Format Format

First, figure out what citation style you're supposed to be using in your Extended Essay, or if there is no particular recommendation, select one of the major ones and be consistent with it. That is, if you decide to use the Harvard style, use Harvard throughout your WHOLE essay and with every source you cite. Wikipedia doesn't have a house citation style, so what you're seeing there is going to vary from article to article.

You're spot-on with your research for the bibliography entry in Harvard style. You're also close with the in-line citation - just note that Harvard style doesn't use "chapters" there. Your reader doesn't need that information to locate the resource, so it isn't included. In your case, the in-line citation would simply be (Square Enix 2015a) or (Square Enix 2016b) if you end up citing 2 Square Enix titles. See here for another example.

If your teacher recommends that you use a different citation style, here are a few resources to get you started with citing video games:

MLA
APA
Chicago

Final thought: don't worry too much about the particulars of the citation for something as unconventional as a video game. If the answer isn't immediately apparent to you with a simple Google search, it won't be to your outside grader either. They're likely no more experienced in academic referencing than your school librarian. And no matter how much time you put into your essay, they're still only paid to spend the absolute minimum time possible reviewing it... The last thing they're going to notice is a misplaced comma in your bibliography.

So focus your energy on the good stuff - the content - and just keep the rest consistent.


You may mention it, but it's not going to carry a lot of weight. What I'd focus on would not be the particular rank you have there, but that you have been active in the community of Data Scientists for a good while and believe that this has given you a good overview of this area. That's what matters, not what you do in your spare time.


Last year of PhD: only one paper in peer review and other in arxiv. Problem with postdoc?

You should work to improve your record, however you can, but it is what it is, so you have to deal with that. I think, however, that choosing a postdoc purely by counting papers would be pretty foolish. The question should be, and, I hope, usually is, how good a fit is this candidate for this position.
I can't guarantee that everyone is rational, of course, but the nature and significance of your work should weigh heavily. And, a rational system would look at more than what you have already finished. Work in progress is a good thing. A reasonable personality is a good thing. Compatible interests, a circle of contacts (especially collaborators)... All good things.
My suggestion is that in any application, that you don't apologize for how bad you are, as you seem to be doing here. Instead, indicate how your skills match the requirements of the position and your goals looking forward.
It is easy to get a lot of work done, and maybe publications, if you only work on the easier-to-resolve problems. If you work on hard problems (harder than average), then having fewer than average publications is natural. Some questions take a long time to answer. If you are confident in your work, then project that confidence, as well as your compatibility with any position you apply for.


Why wouldn't a professor allow a student to record audio of his lecture?

This is a subjective question, but common reasons I have heard (and reasons I would have) include:

Fear of students editing records to manipulate what you said
Fear of having a mistake you made taken out of context and spread widely
Concern that it encourages students to not pay as close of attention
Concern that students will not feel they need to attend class if they have acceess to the lecture outside of class.
Concern that students in the class will not feel as comfortable asking questions or contributing to discussion, since they are also being recorded
Institutional concern about a course's lectures being widely distributed online, when in fact these lectures are for (paying) enrolled students--a type of "intellectual property" concern

Edit: Also, you might want to be aware when bringing up problems getting easily distracted in the class, a professor could take that somewhat personally. Many committed teachers go out of their way to try to make their class as interesting and engaging as possible. If a student asked to record lectures because they are getting distracted or zoning out during class, one may not hear: "I am trying to do this to improve my learning;" but rather: "I am trying to compensate for your short-comings as a teacher". Not all instructors will feel this way, but that's just something to keep in mind as you broach that conversation.

Edit2: There's a lot of discussion in comments that my last comment about socially navigating the question: it is very true that many teachers may not care. However, trying to frame the request more explicitly as "this is a thing I am doing to improve my learning" could be beneficial in making your instructor agree.


Cite a book in general and then a chapter in particular

As Najib Idrissi commented, I have also similar approach in my field of Computer Science.

In one of my paper, I had to cite the book twice in the following way.

"The application domains have expanded in various horizons considering the applicability of the this approach and has led the community to look for problems in .... \cite{FullBook}. One of the prinicipal advantage of using such an approach lies in its computational complexity which has been found to be O(n^2).\cite[Chapter 2, Proof:3.2]{Book}"


Asking a complete stranger for a subreview for a conference?

I am a CS guy and can answer this question.

Yes of course. That is what conference chairs do perhaps. As you told the person has already published in past conferences like this. If some researcher is active in the field of his/her research arena and agreeing to review the manuscript. This is what is called peer-review. My recommendation would be to contact the researchers through academic e-mail ids of theirs to make it more transparent.


How important is it to have publications to get a math postdoc?

[The following answer is from the point of view of a tenured professor of theoretical mathematics at an American university.  I believe that most of what I say applies in many places outside of the United States, but not everywhere, and I will not try to say exactly where I think it applies.]

A generation ago the publication culture within mathematics was quite different from other STEM fields.  Students leaving their PhDs were not expected to have any publications at all, and I believe the majority of them did not.  This phenomenon was pretty extreme, to the extent that for many eminent mathematicians you can see that their first publication is work done at an REU when they were an undergraduate, often followed by a gap of about five years, then their "real" publications begin only after their thesis.  A postdoctoral job was awarded mostly based on the relatively brief description of the thesis work provided by the student and (more importantly, I think) the student's thesis advisor.

[In my case, I graduated with a math PhD from Harvard in 2003 and my first paper wasn't until 2005.  To make sure I wasn't overextrapolating from my own experience, I went back to look at my classmates at Harvard.  I found a few cases in which a paper from their thesis appeared slightly before they graduated, but in most cases their first paper appears 1-2 years after graduation.]

Nowadays, a few graduating PhDs can still function on the above model, but only under really ideal conditions: top program, advisor with enormous pull who says great things about you in the letter.  To get personal again:

1) I am about to graduate my fifth PhD student at UGA.  All of these students had at least a submitted paper by the time they graduate; in most cases they had one or more accepted papers.

2) Part of the application for postdoc positions at UGA [of which there are several kinds, but this is a common feature] is a publication list.  I have been responsible for making offers to postdocs for a while now, and I am struggling to remember making an offer to someone who didn't at least have a publicly available submitted preprint.  Sometimes we have had candidates who were otherwise of interest but it's hard to pull the trigger based on seeing none of their work when there are so many other applicants who have multiple papers.

And to get less personal:

3) Whereas 15 years ago good students from top departments didn't need and most often didn't have any preprints, nowadays it is more common for good students from top departments to exit with several papers.

I do however want to add an important caveat: more mathematics done is better than less mathematics done.  [As is not so surprising!]  However, more papers are not better than fewer papers if the more papers don't create the impression of having done more work of significance.  In particular, the cultural of theoretical mathematics very much works against the LPU model espoused in another answer: writing too many papers on the same topic "without new ideas" creates a poor impression.  If two mathematical journals differ by one tier, than having one paper in the better journal is better than having at least two papers in the worse journal.  If the journals differ by more than one tier, having one paper in the better journal is probably better than having any number of papers in the worse journal.  The top journals in mathematics want to publish important, substantial, difficult, breakthrough work: if you split one such 40 page paper up into four ten page papers, then you have four papers that each do very partial things and are not going to be published in nearly as good venues.  Moreover you will get the reputation as having "more papers than theorems," which is not good.

I would say that the following is a good publication model for a new math PhD: have a portion of your thesis already submitted to a good journal and have one other reasonable paper [possibly on a different topic] published elsewhere.  More papers than that is not necessarily helpful: the quality of your thesis work still matters more.


Efficient method to receive alerts for new publications

There are a few things Google Scholar can handle, for example here is a query that can be made into an alert and is similar to what you gave as an example:

author:"John Smith" (intitle:"action potential" OR neurophysiology)

To get all the results from a particular author (with or without articles that cite their work) you can search the author, click on his/her name in one of the results and there will be a "Follow" button on the profile page to get email alerts.

If you click the drop-down in the search box you can fill out the advanced search form to make complicated queries and at the bottom of the search results there is a "create an alert" link, but this option seems to disappear if you specify a journal.

As for using regular expressions, hopefully most of your queries can be solved by using OR, e.g. (color OR colour)


Average length of graduate studies in the UK in the life sciences

Usually a master's course is 1 year and PhDs are 3 years. There are exceptions to this though, some mphil's being 2 years and some structured PhDs being 4 years. However, it is possible in the uk to go straight to a phd after undergrad. Therefore the number of years of graduate studies varies between 3 and 6, though the average is around 4 if you ignore the special cases.


Ethics of experimenting on students without telling them

Virtually every modern university has an ethics procedure for experiments conducted on human subjects.  If an academic wants to conduct an experiment on students (especially one that involves deception) they would generally need to put in a proposal to their university ethics board.  This would disclose the details of the proposed experiment, and the nature of any deception of subjects, and the university would make a decision as to whether or not to allow the experiment to proceed.

Experiments involving deception of subjects are often approved (many psychological experiments are of this kind), but it is usual to require that the subjects be "debriefed" after the experiment, to disclose to them the deception they were subjected to, and how the experiment worked.  In cases where the deception is likely to be distressing to the subjects, or the gains from the experiment are minor, the ethics board might decide not to allow the experiment to proceed, or might require it to be altered in some way.

Now, with regard to the particular situation described in the Atlantic article, this does not appear to be an academic experiment at all; it is an extended High School class exercise that uses some mild deception to illustrate the world of the book through mimicking aspects of it in the conduct of the classroom.  Students are subjected to some overbearing actions by the teacher to give them a small taste of totalitarianism.  Nothing described in the article would be unlawful, since at worst it involves cases of nasty looks, overbearing control, or dressing down a dissenter.

High Schools generally do not have formal ethics panels like the universities, since they do not conduct academic research.  It is likely that there is significant teacher discretion on how to conduct classes, but this would be subject to oversight by the school principal.  In this case I think it is unlikely that the exercise would have been subjected to any preliminary scrutiny of the kind that would occur in a university ethics application.  Obviously students would be free to object to this teaching exercise and take the matter up with the school principal, but this does not appear to be a case of experimentation that would go to an ethics board.

The basic ethical question at play here is: is it okay to be overbearing and mildly bullying to your students in order to give them a genuine taste of what totalitarianism is like.  Personally, I see no problem with the exercise, since the likely distress to students is mild in comparison to the value of the learning experience, and the students are made aware of the deception after the exercise is completed, so that they can discuss it in relation to the book.  Others may disagree, but to me it sounds like a very creative and useful teaching exercise, and the teacher doesn't take it too far.  I think it is quite brilliant, and I would happily enrol my own children in this class!


How to politely reject a request for a letter of recommendation for a professor

If you want to decline to write, then it would be reasonable to reply to the person who requested the letter, saying something like: "My interactions with Professor X were three to four years ago and involved very little interaction with him beyond attendance at two of his classes.  So I do not consider myself to be in a position to provide useful information for award Y."


Why is doctoral thesis plagiarism sometimes forgiven by academia?

I certainly won't and can't speak for all cases, but it is still true that a doctoral student is a student and is in a learning situation. Therefore, some universities will treat plagiarism as they do other sorts of misconduct and try to turn it into a learning situation so that the student can improve their practices and ethics. The alternative of failing the student and expelling them from the program is extreme, of course.
I would hope that when plagiarism is found in a dissertation, and agreed that it is plagiarism, that the dissertation gets corrected and proper citations and proper quotations made. But that is a hope, not a certainty.
Sadly, too many people get out into the world without really learning all that should be learned, and, from the prevalence of plagiarism questions here, I think this is one area that probably needs to be explicitly addressed somewhere in the educational process. But, too often, people just make assumptions and assume others make the same assumptions without reflection.


Do I need to change my CV when a former school changes affiliations?

I think the best approach is to keep the original CV entry, as this represents the actual qualification that you received. However, you might choose to add a note explaining the history, if you think this is likely to be helpful to prospective readers.

I agree that in the case described by @brechmos, where a university has changed its name, providing this information is likely to be useful. It's less clear to me that this is true in the OP's case: it seems (essentially) that the qualification he has used to be accredited by University X, and is now accredited by University Y. It's not clear to me why this would be useful information to someone reading the CV. I guess it might be relevant if the training centre has a high enough profile that people now naturally associate it with University Y, and would think that something listed with University X must be a different centre. Otherwise, I suspect noting the change is more likely to confuse people than help them...


Is it appropriate to acknowledge StackExchange in my MSc thesis?

Your acknowledgement is a place where you are free to thank anyone or anything (I have seen dogs being thanked) you think deserve mentioning. To acknowledge StackExchange is highly appropriate since it is a community driven open site where help can be obtained to solve problems from many different perspectives.

In my PhD thesis, I, perhaps a bit over-ambitiously, thanked Donald Knuth for creating TeX. Had StackExchange been in existence back then, some of the terror of writing my thesis in plain TeX would have been eased and it would have been placed along-side Knuth in the acknowledgement.


Is research experience or GPA more important when applying to MSCS programs

The answer, here, is that it really depends strongly on the individual program, since Masters programs vary much more than Ph.D. programs in both their purpose and organization.

For some programs, you can essentially get automatic entry based on grades alone (my own Masters was that way, for example).  For others, research and recommendation letters may weigh in significantly, especially if students are funded rather than self-funding. Research does generally weigh much less than for a Ph.D., however, particularly since a Master is often expected to be a terminal and industrial-focused degree.

Thus, in general, GPA is significantly more important than research, but the degree to which this is true varies wildly by program.


How do I get into a Computer Science Masters without an undergrad in CS?

Many schools will require you to take remediation courses if they do not feel you meet the course requirements for the graduate program. They will be fairly upfront about what they think you would need, but it will mean taking more Bachelors level classes at cost before being accepted to the program.

In general I would show any additional work you have done to improve your programming skills, including code you have written.

A lot of qualified people do not apply to top schools (I.E. MIT) because they do not believe they would get in. But I would not recommend focusing on any one school and instead find a few programs you like and apply to all of them.

Some schools will allow you to take classes as a non-degree seeking student, which would provide both a way to prove yourself and also gauge the program and its suitability to you. I would check with the program to see how many credits they accept through this method though.

As an aside, I am in the same boat. I majored in Mathematics with a minor in Physics but have been working as a programmer for the last three years. I am now looking into online masters programs in Computer Engineering or Computer Science.


My suspicion is that this phrase is primarily to cover the university legally in case the person hired in fact does not have the eligibility to work in the US. In such a case, without this clause, the person could make the argument that the university is in breach of contract for not hiring them and doing whatever is necessary in order to make them eligible. But IANAL !

In general I'd imagine only very small universities or places with limited resources would have trouble sponsoring a candidate for an H1-B. Certainly not a university like UW. Most universities are quite willing and able to sponsor new applicants for H1Bs and green cards.

The correct interpretation here is I think as is mentioned in the comments: the candidate should be eligible to work in that they can get an H1B visa.


A bachelor's thesis is only a bachelor's thesis - it may be used as a source by other researchers (or students, as you discovered), but it is commonly agreed on that they are certainly not error-free. At least some universities do not even have a process for allowing the student to submit a corrected version for archival after the review by the examiners. Hence, such errors would still be in the thesis even if found by the reviewers.

The misattribution of your thesis as a PhD thesis should be ignored, as it is likely a simple error. Also, it the author used BibTeX, the author of the other thesis may have had the problem that there is no Bachelor's thesis entry type - and rather than doing the right thing (using entry type "misc"), the author went to use the entry type "PhD thesis".

Misrepresenting your conclusion is a bit more problematic, but may very easily be again a simple error. Either you let it slip, or you write the thesis author an e-mail clarifying your conclusions. Either way, don't accuse, just inform - the misinterpretation is often just accidental, which is not misconduct, but just sloppiness. There is also the possibility that some of the text in your thesis invites misunderstanding it, which led to the present problem. Again, this would not be a case of academic misconduct.


What should a TA do if they cannot do all of the assigned homework for a class?

You should ask the professor to show you how to work the problem. It is also fine to ask the professor to confirm that all of your solutions are correct.

The professor is responsible for making sure the students' work is scored correctly, and since he wrote the questions, it is his responsibility to either provide you with the solutions or to check your solutions before you assign final grades.

Besides being responsible to the students in the course, the professor also has an obligation to support your development as a TA, which includes helping you work through any gaps or obstacles in your own learning.

Since you have already taken the initiative to work through the assignment on your own, the professor will likely be happy to help you, and you should not feel intimidated or embarrassed to ask.


Advisor retirement while finishing doctorate on limited time constraint

The most promising strategy is to work with at least one committee member other than your advisor. The first choice may be the one that is a potential advisor, but you really need someone who is both approachable and good at academic politics.

Anyone like that is going to be very busy, and you need most of the meeting to be about them advising you and thinking of ways to improve the situation. You must strip your wall of text down to a few key points:

You are on a tight academic deadline, because credits will disappear if you do not graduate this year, and you will not be able to finish your PhD if you cannot meet the deadline.
Finishing the PhD is personally and financially important to you.
You proceeded with the research presented at your preliminary oral exam, which you thought had been approved.
You have been having trouble getting feedback from your advisor.
At your recent meeting, you had trouble communicating with him, and he seemed to be requiring a change in research line that would make completing the PhD impossible.

Two topics to not discuss: Your prior performance, and the advisor's personal issues. The professors should be dealing with the person you are now. What matters is your current difficulty with your advisor, not the reasons behind it.


Accepting a postdoc position (in a different field) after industry

As far as I know, there no specific field for postdoctoral researchers. A project may require experts in different fields, where machine learning, image processing are highly needed in interdisciplinary fields (e.g., medical image processing).

In my opinion, you should respond to these questions before accepting the offer:

Are you an expert in the domain of the position (regardless of the boss's field) and do you fulfil its requirements?
It is important to note that as a postdoc, you will be responsible for your work and you won't be supervised in terms of your knowledge.
Does this intersect with your PhD in terms of research domain?
Usually, researchers do not know their exact subdomain based on their PhDs (which is more likely to be in several subdomains). For example, working in Imaging and Robotics can be considered as "Image processing", "Machine learning", "Artificial intelligence", "Pattern recognition", etc. I would say, any position in one of these fields will be accepted for postdoc and thus will define more the research path in the next years.

If you take a look at the research interests of any senior researcher over time, you will find slight changes.

I am also doing my postdoc in your field, but it is totally different from what I have done during my PhD. However, I could find a common subdomain between the two experiences and I decided to continue in this direction for the next years.


What should I do if actually I found a serious flaw in someone's PhD thesis and an article derived from that PhD thesis?

One possibility is for you to write a paper on your reanalysis. Often this would need to be something more than pointing out the flaw alone, but that may be discipline-dependent. If the flaw you have detected is a key part in your own analysis of your work, including your updated analysis in a larger article (while citing their paper) is a smooth way to point out how you had to change the method.

The second possibility is that many journals (at least in my area) allow for Comments on articles they have published. These are for just this purpose - to point out something 'wrong' about a paper that has been published. If the editors decide to proceed with it, the original authors are usually given an opportunity to craft a Reply piece to agree, disagree, alter, whatnot. Then they are published back-to-back in the journal.


Undergraduate thesis credit is too expensive. Can I turn my thesis into 1-2 research papers & publish instead?

If you can publish your thesis in a journal, you should aim to do so regardless, and in addition to a thesis (if you choose to write one). Papers in a good journal are more highly regarded than a thesis.
Writing an undergrad thesis might increase your chances of grad school admission. If you have papers accepted into good journals, I doubt an undergrad thesis adds much to your application. However, most undergrad theses are not good enough for a journal publication (although yours might be).
Your thesis advisor is probably willing to help you continue your thesis research and/or turn it into journal papers even if you are not enrolled as a student.


Can you submit a paper to a journal that contains a paper already accepted?

It is quite common, to publish a short letter-like paper to a high-impact journal first and then follow it up with a more detailed longer paper expanding on the first one.

However, containing the first paper as a subset is (self-)plagiarism, not original, and not acceptable. You must write the second paper independently, though some similarity of the text is okay, in particular if you state explicitly which passage has already been presented in that earlier paper and are only included for completeness.


What is the meaning of the title "Akad. Orat"?

Via @mkennedy in a comment:

Nontenured, approximately assistant professor in the US system.

Expands out to Akademischer Oberrat.

See: Academic ranks in Germany


Yes. Many UK Universities have it in their regulations to permit the award of a degree by prior publication.

However, that does not mean you can just submit your publication and expect to receive a doctorate! The regulations permit the university to recognise someone, usually already associated with the institution, who has made some publication of academic merit made by a non-academic that has received some form of public praise to be rewarded and recognised by the university for their work. This is distinct from a degree honoris causa which may be awarded to honour the person who has done some deed that is not  a publication of equivalent worth to a thesis.

An example, of my personal knowledge, is someone who spent their life studying local flora and published a significant catalogue of plants as an amature botanist. The academic nature of the work was recognised by the University with the award of a Phd by prior publication. I have also known it happen to a local playwright for a lifes work.


Ethics on shortening project in grant application to raise chances of success

Yes, of course this should not be a problem.  The funding agencies want to see projects that are on a realistic scale.  If it will probably not be possible for you to achieve your main goals, given the time and money allotted to the project, that certainly makes it seem like a poor investment.  Conversely, the funders know that if you reach your projected goals early, you are going to use the remainder of your funding to extend the research further.  So you should try to set achievable goals in your proposal, but if you manage to exceed them, nobody is going to be unhappy.

Naturally, cutting major tasks out of your proposal is going to require some rethinking of the justification.  If the projects you think do have time to complete are less interesting by themselves than the later projects you will need to cut, they you still need to explain why they are important stepping stones toward the ultimately most important work (even if you won't be getting to that work yet).  It can be subtle to get this right, but think you would be wise to trust your advisor's judgement about how much to include in your proposal.


Authorship for paper with questionable statistical analysis

If you are to co-author a paper, you need to agree with its methodology and conclusions. You don't.
My advice, in general, is to offer to work with others to improve the paper to meet everyone's standards. You indicate that this might not be possible, which would be a fault of the PI. If you can't convince them to work with you, then I don't see a real way forward without saying that you won't be part of it in any way.
They can then go forward if they like, citing your past work properly. If they don't do that, it would be time to contact editors.


Presentation: Is using cartoon slides un-professional or fun?

In general, the person talking to your slides should be you, not a cartoon character.

Now, I've seen things like this work for people who are very good presenters and stage performers as well. For example, one of my grad school compatriots was also a serious performing storyteller, and he understood the performance aspect well enough to do all sorts of fun, risky, and showy things in his talks.

If something like this isn't already you, however, then I would advise not trying it for the first time in a potentially high stakes presentation like this. Conservative may be relatively boring, but it's also safer, and it won't be boring, if your material is good.


Recommendation letter for a good student that you don't know?

As ff524 said, if the professor has only the grade to go on, there is little to write an recommendation letter about. The only situation I an think of where this would be very relevant is:

if the course is an essential test for further studies. Doing an American undergraduate with a mathematics major might only have a few courses that are really challenging your abstract thinking skills. Doing well in those courses might be a good predictor of doing well in further studies.
there were other students that got similar scores in that course and went on to do well in further studies. Best case scenario: last year the same university accepted a student who got an 80-84 in this course.

So both the course needs to be very relevant for the further studies you are considering and the grade itself should be high enough as to clearly predict success in those further studies. If either is not the case (the course is one of many, or your grade is just not exceptional), the professor simply can't write a good recommendation letter, regardless of how willing (s)he would be.


The usage of a literally incorrect phrase to simplify the meaning in manuscripts

In mathematics we frequently create new meanings for phrases. The key point is that we explicitly state what we are doing (in theory at least).

So put somewhere early on put in something like

  For the sake of brevity, we will abuse terminology by referring to videos that are taken from uncalibrated monocular moving cameras as 'uncalibrated monocular moving videos'.


Changing the title of a research paper before the submission of the camera-ready version

Generally, you can do this, but you need to get an explicit permission from the programme chair(s). I would also suggest thoroughly explaining the change, as such a change request might indicate that you did a lousy job preparing the paper before the submission itself.


My advisor said he has to mention my mental health condition in recommendation letters. How much can he say?

I would like to know how much he can write about my mental health, also considering that the academic work didn't suffer at all from this.

According to some of organizations: "The Americans with Disabilities Act recognizes that employers may sometimes have to disclose medical information about applicants or employees. " But also they claim: "The basic legal principle that employers should follow is not to reveal medical information about you unless there is a legitimate business reason to do so. But because that standard is fairly vague, there are laws which more specifically protect the privacy of your medical records, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the law which makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of an employee's disability."

For UK you may find more information on NHS website and Equality Act 2010 Guidance for employees.

If you ask me I would say that it is not actually ethical to write about your mental health if your job didn't suffer from that. For some careers there are some health restrictions (e.g. pilots, surgeons, etc.) but I've never seen that for academic work. More to say, I know people who have GAD, OCD, etc. and they have never had significant issues in academic life. But I also have to say that people usually don't take year off because of mental health issue, especially not for GAD. From your post I can't see if the GAD is a main reason of one year off. If it isn't the main reason then I don't understand why your supervisor has a need to write it in recommendation letter. But, if GAD is your main reason why you needed to stay away from University than I don't understand how your mental health didn't affect your productivity when it is even though you continued to work. Whatever the case is, I wouldn't like that my supervisor writes "a mental issue" because for me it sounds serious and Generalized Anxiety Disorder actually doesn't sound due to prevalence "GAD affects 6.8 million adults, or 3.1% of the U.S. population"

Shortly, I don't think he should write about your mental health when you obviously continued to work. It is your private information, there are some laws about it and I am worried that you will be discriminate because of that.

My advice: Talk with your supervisor, find out why he thinks that he is forced to write it in recommendation letter (that is really strange) and please look more into the laws and send them to him if it is needed.


What is harder? Taking lecture or learning from textbook? Is it weird for finding learning from textbook easier?

People learn differently and you may be an extreme (but not unusual) case. Lectures don't work for many people and, in fact, lectures are overused (IMO) in many fields.

But, you can't really learn by reading either. Learning requires that you practice and otherwise reinforce whatever it is that you hear/read/see.

One of the reasons that face to face courses are superior to self study is that an instructor is supposed to be your guide as to how to get that practice. That doesn't come automatically with self study. However, if you know that principle (Learning requires changing the brain) then you have the basis of requiring that practice and reinforcement of yourself.

But it is even better if you can find an experienced guide, even if not a "lecturer". Such a person can know what you have done and give advice on good ways to proceed next.

A further comment on lectures may help, in case you must rely on them. Take lots of notes. Do it on paper, not typing into a computer/tablet. The actual handwriting will engage your brain in a different way. I recommend using index cards as you can capture thoughts (rather than trying to "capture every word") and, more important, can organize them later, supplement them, and discard irrelevant notes.


Math PhD adviser - The easy choice or the more unconventional choice

You want the advisor who best fits your needs as a student. This is some combination of research area, advising style, career connections, funding, and interpersonal chemistry, but--and this is the big but--only you are in a position to know exactly what that combination is.

From your description it sounds like T is the frontrunner, but a few hours prepping for quals isn't that much data. Ask T if he is accepting students (or find this out from his current students) and do a reading course to see how it goes.


Honorific for someone who earned a PhD in philosophy itself?

Generically, a PhD is a Doctor of Philosophy, not a doctor in philosophy. Thus a PhD in philosophy would a Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy (as opposed to a PhD in economics, who would be a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics).


Presenting a paper at a conference/seminar that is currently under review by a journal

There are two aspects to your question:

“Duplicating” a publication by having both a conference paper and a journal paper about it.

This has been discussed here before, and a short summary is that this usually not a problem: apart from Computer Science, where conference papers have a rather different status that in other fields, “publishing a paper does not normally prevent you from presenting your work at a conference”.
Presenting as-yet-unpublished results in a conference/seminar.

There's nothing wrong about that at all, and I think more people will actually enjoy you discussing recent results rather than old stuff. Customs, here again, depend on your field: I've seen more people discuss unpublished results in physics, and fewer in chemistry… but even in fields where it is less common, it is not forbidden.

One thing to note: if the paper is not yet published, it is probably polite to inform your co-authors (or ask for their permission, depending on your relationship) that you are going to present it at a conference. At least, that's what I do (and expect my co-authors to do).


Do teachers/professors refer to each other by their titles?

A good safe approach is to start out calling him "Dr. Smith".  Most likely he will quickly say "Please call me Fred" and then everything is resolved.


The best way to do it, in my experience, is to write. Every single journal I've been asked to review things for (with the exception of one done as a favor) was born of a request by an editor to review a paper in an area where I might be considered an "expert" - because I had a publication, and a decently received one, in that topic area.

Once you get an invitation or two, accept them and as importantly make your reviews useful and timely. Establishing yourself in an editor's mind as someone who gets their reviews back, and gets them back on time (or communicates when they aren't able to do that) can't do anything but help in ensuring that you'll get similar requests in the future.


I have slightly over 3 weeks left before my master's thesis submission and I have done nothing. What can I do now?

The first thing to do is to bring your situation to your supervisor's attention. It is going to be a difficult conversation, because you should have warned much, much sooner. The later you delay this, the worse it is going to be. If there is any chance to salvage your degree, it depends on getting your supervisor's help and advice as soon as possible. If there is any chance of getting a recommendation from your supervisor, it depends on how you handle recovery from your current problem. Continuing to hide it is totally counter-productive.

Your supervisor should be able to help with deciding whether the three week deadline is achievable, given the requirements for a thesis in your department. If it is not achievable, maybe there is an option to delay the thesis for a few  months, giving you time to do the work properly. My own master's degree thesis was delayed for several months because of an unusually heavy workload and travel for my day job.

Regardless of whether you go into research or industry, there are going to be times when you are required to work on something you do not find particularly interesting. You are going to have to work professionally with colleagues you would not choose as friends. It is going to be very, very important to keep your bosses informed of the state of your work, especially when it is going slower than expected, and you are in danger of missing a deadline. I suggest looking at recovering your master's degree thesis as an opportunity to work on those critical meta-skills.


As an Australian student with a UK citizenship, can I study in the UK?

I did some looking around here, but it's difficult to find a specific solid answer because this is going to vary between the universities, to an extent. But what I've found points to this:

Even though you are a British citizen, you have not been 'ordinarily resident' in the UK, which means you would be considered an international student. It would appear that international status is determined by citizenship AND residence, a bit like US universities. However, universities may be hesitant to respond to your queries about this either way until you were offered a place to study.

Obviously you would not need a visa, but I'd imagine what you're worried about is whether you would have to pay international fees, which are very high.

I'm going to openly admit that one of my sources is Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt. You could potentially qualify as a 'home' student in spite of living in another country if you were from:

  Anguilla
  Aruba
  Bermuda
  British Antarctic Territory
  British Indian Ocean Territory
  British Virgin Islands
  Cayman Islands
  Falkland Islands
  Faroe Islands
  French Polynesia
  French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  Greenland
  Montserrat
  New Caledonia
  Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Turks and Caicos Islands
  Wallis and Futuna

However this is not the case for you, as you are in Australia.

Here is the list of requirements for British citizens to be considered a 'home student':

  Be free from any immigration restrictions (e.g. British citizenship,
  exercising EU Freedom of Movement Rights, indefinite leave to
  enter/remain, right of abode, free from immigration control (as a
  diplomat or member of air crew))

  Be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom

  Have been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands
  and/or Isle of Man for the whole period of the three years directly
  preceding the first day of the academic course

  The main purpose for the three years' residence in the UK and Islands
  must not have been to receive full-time education during any part of
  it, unless the student is a European Union citizen (but not a British
  citizen) and immediately prior to the three-year period was ordinarily
  resident in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or qualifying
  overseas territories (see below).

You have not been ordinarily resident in the UK, ergo you would be an international student.

If you want to confirm this, you should get into contact with the international offices at your universities of interest. Only they can answer definitively.

Sources:

Wikipedia, use caution

UKCISA

UKCISA Fee Status Assessment

Complete University Guide


You should probably include the acknowledgements in the original article so as to get a little feedback on that from the journal in case you overdo it.

The most important thing is to thank anyone or any organization that contributed directly to your work. That might include your university. I wouldn't, personally, have any objection to general thanks to your professors, but a journal might.

It isn't really necessary to inform people that you will ack them but you might want to send a copy of your submission (or the final version) to them with your personal thanks. I think that specifically thanking a superstar is a good thing, actually, and may someday come back to your benefit. It can strengthen your circle of contacts in any case. So, not necessary, but fine to do.


Citation and reference to a figure: which comes first?

I don't think there's any way to stick a citation and figure reference right next to one another in a non-ugly way, so I cheat.  When faced with a situation like this, I reorganize the sentence so that they are separated, e.g.:

  The SuperFramework [1], for which a screenshot is shown in Figure 1.1, ...


What is a “capstone track” in a Master’s program?

Many software engineering programs offer the option of a "capstone" software project instead of a thesis to complete the degree.  This is typically a project that stretches over a full semester, or year, or even longer.  In my department, these projects are designed in cooperation with local industry, so there are real "customers". The  intention is that the project will force the student to synthesize all the skills and knowledge acquired in other classes in the program, and will give them something closer to real-world experience that a typical class project.

As for "how is this different from a Master of Engineering", I have no idea.  Everybody gives their degrees different names; there is no standard. (My department offers a capstone project only for undergrads; the degree is a Bachelor of Science whether you do the project or not.)


Politeness of a follow-up E-Mail regarding administrative task

Rather than just asking if they received the previous email, reiterate what it is you're asking about, why you're asking them specifically, and include a deadline. This saves the recipient from having to trawl back through three weeks' worth of email to find your original request. So, you might want to send something like

"Dear Professor X,

Is it possible for you to fill in this form that I need for [insert reason here]? I'm asking you because [insert reason here]. The [admin people/ university/ department] need me to send it back to them by [deadline]. I've attached the form to this email.

Thanks in advance for your help!

AnotherStudent"


Do I need to cite the various websites I use for my work?

It depends on the work your are referring to. In your case, it is math lessons. One ought to cite for one or of the following reasons. Let's look at whether these points apply to you.

To show you've done enough research. You wouldn't have to prove to your students that you've done enough research; the study content should be sufficient.
To give credit for the source of the work. Is your work publicly available? Would it anyhow increase the citation count of the author you intend to credit? If so, it would be up to you.
To avoid plagiarism. You are not plagiarizing as you are not claiming the work to be your own; you are teaching what is established.
To allow readers to track the sources for further information. Do you feel that your students would have the need to go through the sources you've referred? If so, you wouldn't have to cite all of them, but only the ones you feel are important.

  Whether I do or do not cite, can I have my name on the lesson plans?

Yes, as long as you don't claim the work to be novel in any way (which you obviously won't be doing). It would be better to add a disclaimer as you stated in your post like "This work has been collected and combined by name".

  Can I create a work-cited page and put all my references on that page, or do I HAVE to put in-text citations?

That would be actually useful, a work-cited page can be referred by avid students who would want to receive more information on the topic. But in-text citations would be have to be a matter of preference, that depends on the utility of the majority of your students.


Decision and PhD. Take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity or pursue a life dream

It seems like you're choosing between

A (nearly) guaranteed PhD offer at a middling university.
A fully funded master's program that you may or may not be accepted to, but may offer you the opportunity to jump to a better PhD program if you get the Fulbright scholarship and perform well in your master's.

Some factors you may consider are

If you take the master's offer you will spend a lot of time preparing for a PhD.  You will need to perform extra well for two years to secure your letters of recommendation, and it will look bad if you don't accomplish anything significant during that time.  In the end you might not get into your school of choice, and then you will have worked very hard for no visible gain.  How confident are you that you can (1) get the scholarship, and (2) perform consistently well once you're actually there?

A master's degree will give you more background in computer science, and you will learn more about theoretical CS than "it involves both programming and mathematics."  A lot of things involve both programming and mathematics, and getting more experience (in coursework and research) will let you better evaluate your options before jumping into a long commitment.  Most theoretical CS students I know entered their PhD program knowing they wanted to study "approximation algorithms," "cryptography," etc, not just "theoretical CS" or "some field that involves both programming and math."
It's also kind of a red flag that you're undecided between a PhD and a master's, and I think before you go for a PhD you should have a stronger opinion on this.  If you are uncertain about your career and your research area you will be at a significant disadvantage compared to your classmates who aren't.

If your first choice is the PhD offer, you can easily apply to both and turn down the Master's offer, but if your first choice is the Master's offer, it would be awkward to apply to both and turn down the PhD offer.


Age restrictions for teaching in united states

Defining limits violates age discrimination laws, which is why there are no age limits.


There are more than a million eprints at arXiv.
arXiv started in 1991 well before Creative Commons and Creative Commons licensing existed. The first generation of CC licenses were made public in December 2002.

Therefore, I think to answer this question, it is fair to take just a sample of the (massive!) total eprints, and a recent sample at that - little point in assessing eprints from 1991-2001.

I couldn't work out how to get this information myself from the various arXiv APIs so (full disclosure), I asked Erick Peirson on Twitter, who is currently lead software architect at arXiv, if he could get some data on this matter.
The rest of this answer is all his work tbh:

You can use the OAI-PMH endpoint provided by arXiv to query license information.

These are the totals for each submitting-author selected license that arXiv allows for eprints uploaded between 2015-01-01 through to 2018-07-30:

http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/: 406647,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/: 485,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/: 3187,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/: 857,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/: 766,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/: 6982,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/: 192,
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/: 1451

For that period, only 3.42% of eprint uploads choose a license that is not the default arxiv-license 1.0. Of the 13,920 that did not choose the default arxiv-license, 55% (7748) chose either CC BY 3.0 or CC BY 4.0, and only 6.16% (857) used CC BY-SA 3.0.

So to answer you question exactly "What percentage of arXiv preprints fall under the CC BY or CC BY-SA licenses?", of recent eprints it is just over 2% (8605/420567) licensed under those specific licenses.

Thanks for asking such an interesting question. I learned a lot from it!


How do you find the "rank" of a school or program?

Anyone can rank schools.

Some rankings are more popular than others (e.g., US News) and some may do so based on particular metrics but there is no de facto ranking system in the world.

What they actually mean is up for interpretation, and unless they provide the complete methodology then it is rather difficult to find meaning in them at all.


Is it bad to submit applications for two different degree programs in the same department of a same university?

Based on the tag, I will give a US-specific answer.
Often, but not always, the difference between the masters and the first part of a PhD is that the PhD program comes with funding.
If your intent is to get the PhD eventually anyway, I would not recommend considering an unfunded masters.  This is essentially the same as starting a PhD without funding.  Reasons not to do that are discussed in Is it worth self-funding a PhD to attend a top 10 university?.


When is the official date a degree is obtained?

Usually the graduation date is the date on which the last accomplishment needed for graduation was completed.

This could be a thesis defense but could also be something else. For example in some Master and Bachelor programs I know one may have a "final" presentation prior to handing in the thesis. So the graduation date is the date at which the thesis is handed in. Note that even though a thesis defense may not count towards your grade, it is usually still a required accomplishment and consequently it date counts.


How to effectively deal with Imposter Syndrome and feelings of inadequacy: "I've somehow convinced everyone that I'm actually good at this"

I found two practices helped me a lot:

Reinforce what you know. The biggest problem with being an academic surrounded by other academics is that you're constantly being confronted by things you don't know. Even worse, it often seems like everyone else knows something that you don't know.
You don't need me to tell you how demoralizing that is. The fight is to go back and review what you do know, and reinforce your expertise in your subject area. Most academics are polyglots; choose some random thing you've studied, learned, or even just considered previously, and review it every now and then. It'll help you view the progress you're making.

Engage non-academics. You don't realize how much you know until you talk to the other 99.99% of people who don't know what you know. (Confusing sentence...) Write blogs, offer to give visiting lectures at a school or workplace, work as an intern or consultant in industry, champion a political cause related to your research. There are so many ways you can make use of your knowledge, and doing so will definitely help massage your ego which has been bruised by many semesters of feeling inadequate.


Submitting two articles to the same journal at the same time

It is absolutely unremarkable to submit two related papers to a journal in parallel.
In fact, it is often better to have them submitted to the same journal than to separate journals, so that they can be handled as a "package" of related work by the editors.

My one key suggestion is to make sure that you explicitly call out that you are doing this in the cover letters for the papers, and to have the papers refer to one another in their related work sections. This will give you a chance to make your case to the editor and reader that the papers are indeed each able to stand alone.  Moreover, if you are up front about this and the editor disagrees, then they are likely to ask that you merge the papers rather than rejecting them or getting upset about "salami slicing".


Is using the relatives’ friend’s recommendation inappropriate?

As a rule, where a significant personal connection exists between a referee and the subject, there is a potential conflict of interest. Definitions of "significant personal connection" are not universal. Policies on the acceptability and handling of potential conflicts of interest are also not universal. Where a potential or actual conflict of interest exists, it is imperative that it be declared.

A referee who has a significant personal connection to the subject may still be acceptable, if he/she has experience of working with the subject in a professional capacity, and the personal connection is declared. However, it should be understood that such a referee's comments would carry less weight than an equivalent referee (in terms of stature and experience of working with the subject in a professional capacity) without a significant personal connection. In some cases, it may be that such an "equivalent referee" may not exist, and so the referee with a significant personal connection is the only feasible choice (although, as I said in my answer to the related question, if more than one of the referees had a significant personal connection, that would be a red flag, since it would imply that the subject relied on friends to compensate for lack of merit or initiative).


Finding it difficult to keep up with coursework after joining a strong master's program in mathematics. How should I study?

It's all about time management my friend.
You need to learn how to adapt and the first step to start adapting is to set your timing schedule. A time schedule for the day with clear tasks, for the week..etc. You need to start working out or at the very least walk/squat for 5 minutes from time to time while you are doing a task for every 30 minutes, it will help your back a lot.
You need to use a good chair and use pillows behind your back to set your spine as vertical as possible. Since you are a mathematician and you'll need to set a lot to solve or prove you must check your pose while sitting despite having Vitamin D deficiency, sitting in the wrong pose will hurt your back, you'll lack focus and you'll have a headache.
You must treat your vitamin D deficiency by prescribed supplements. Depending on your deficiency level you might need high doses.
I hope that helps you.


How similar does a potential supervisors research have to be to mine?

In a PhD, you are supposed to show that you can do independent research. Thus, in a perfect case, the supervisor would only advise you academically (e.g. "how to write good papers" or "how to find the right conferences to attend") and not with regard to contents.

If you want a supervisor that already knows the answers to all your problems and only lets you do the thesis for fun(ding), you might want to rethink your plan.

This is, of course, only about your research project itself. A PhD oftentimes contains other parts, like for example working for the advisor, either in their research group or as a TA, or not only working on your PhD project but also on other, publishable, projects together with your advisor. These need consideration from both sides. Can you find a supervisor where you can do valuable (both in knowledge and money) work and can the supervisor find a student who is capable of doing the tasks? But it is possible to work on one thing and write your PhD on another one. While it is helpful if both are related in some way, it is not always necessary; for example you could be a TA for first year classes to get your expenses covered while working on something that is not first year material.

Overall, I think as long as your supervisor has a vague idea of your topic and comes from a related field, it should be possible to work something out. Of course it is always easier if your supervisor hand feeds you all solutions as they are the number one expert on your field, but if you have the skills and motivation, you should also be able to manage without. It might even be positive, as you will have to reach out to different academics and build connections, instead of only sitting together with your advisor for multiple years.

What might help you is just discuss with your potential supervisors. They should have the experience to properly assess the situation and whether or not you will be able to work together.


How do I convince professors that I have enough math for the PhD position?

Thanks for adding the text of the message you received.  The text makes it clear that this is a rejection, and it should be understood as final.  There is no point in following up to try to convince the professor that you should get the position; it will only annoy them.

The best thing you can do with this information is to improve your applications for other positions in the future.  It suggests that you need to improve your mathematics background if applying for positions like this one, and/or to review your application materials to make sure that they clearly demonstrate your preparation.


How to compile an index for a book efficiently, if at all possible?

Several text formatters, notably LaTeX (e.g. the texlive suite) and Lout, have good tools to make or compile an index. See this explanation about adding index to a LaTeX formatted document. And many word processors have indexing capacities.

Of course, you need to do the real indexing work: knowing what words are important in your book (and, if the word is common, knowing which occurrences of that word are important), and adding \index markup in the LaTeX source (that work is needed whatever technical solution you use to write your book, e.g. with other text processors like LibreOffice or Microsoft Word, which also has indexing capabilities). With other word processors, you also need to do some action to add a word occurrence to the index. Specialized indexing software also exist.

Obviously, some utilities could be helpful in that (e.g. Unix grep with LaTeX, the find menu of LibreOffice or Word text processors, etc..) - to find every occurrence of some word (but you still need to decide if that occurrence should go to the index and act accordingly).

  I am wondering if it is worth it to compile the index myself

Yes, because you already know quite well your book. And that could take one or a few days of your time. Someone else has first to read it carefully, so would spend a lot more time than you.


Does the candidate usually get notified when a request for a reference letter is made?

Normally no, the university contacts any or all of a, b or c as they see fit.

They do not have to tell you who or when they contacted them.

They may contact a in the first round and b or c in the second - if you get that far...


What does mean "REFERENCES" section should be block?

Based on the updated question, I'm more inclined to think that the reviewer is asking you to adopt a certain style to the actual references. I think you need to find out what that is. Perhaps some aspect of the references need to be in all caps. But I imagine once you know the style that applies which should be clear from either looking up author instructions or looking at previous publications.

My original guess:
I think a block font can sometimes refer to an upper case font. My guess is that the style guide in operation requires that your references heading  be written as "REFERENCES" rather than "References". Thus, I imagine the reviewer is simply asking you to conform to this stylistic requirement.

More broadly, make sure you know which style guide applies when submitting your work and endeavour to conform to its requirements.


Can I use code from a supplementary material and publish it as part of my own paper?

If the published code is licensed, follow the terms of the license. This website sums up in a concise way what the most common open source licenses allow you to do or not.

If you cannot find a license, or if you are sure there is none, then by default you have almost no right to do anything with it (in most countries, no license means all rights reserved to the author). You still have the right to contact the corresponding author of the article, or the author of the code (if they are not the same person, and if you can find the contact info of the author of the code), and request permission to reuse their code, or even better ask them to explicitly attach the license of their choice to their code. Then, follow the license terms.


Methodology of defining a research topic

I think this is a great exercise.  One of the hardest things to cope with in the transition from graduate student to PI is broadening your focus as you move from a "worker" role toward a "manager" role in research.  This doesn't mean you're not going to be continuing to research, but you'll likely have a lot less time to do it than you think, and you need to prepare for how you will supervise where previously you would execute.

That said, I think you're currently approaching this too much like you are going to be the one doing the research, rather than their supervisor.  I would suggest limiting yourself to finding a topic, milestones, and rough criteria for success: the rest is what you want to coach a student as they look into the background, compare in depth with alternate approaches, etc.

The other thing I would advise is that you need to separate your research goals from the goals you want the student to work on.  Every student is a gamble: some work out well, while others drop out, burn out, should never have been in the program to begin with, or just plain aren't a good match for you or your research area.  For this reason, I believe you should never have a student be critical path on an aspect of your research that deeply matters to you: that will put you in a position where you are likely to be trying to push them and micromanage them, because you are worried about the success of the work, rather than the success of the student.

Instead, think about the "paths not taken" on your research, the things that you think would be interesting and scientifically valuable, but that you aren't going to do, the sort of stuff that pads out many papers' "discussion" and "future work" sections.  These sorts of "sibling projects" to your critical path are likely to be a rich vein of seeds for student projects.


There are administration jobs involved in the ethics processes.  My university employs several "Ethics Officers" which facilitate the various ethics reviews.  Most of them do not have PhDs.  While these employees may not directly decide ethical issues, they do provide advice to researchers before the application is made which ensures the application is successful.  Knowledge of local laws is at least as important as knowledge of ethics; researchers usually need more help with the legal aspects than the ethical aspects of their ethics application.

If this sort of job appeals to you, then yes it exists, no you do not need to be a researcher to hold it, and I doubt you need to study philosophy.


How to find the Endnote template for CJPH submission?

From the wikipedia page of the ICMJE Recommendations, it looks like the citation style you need is some implementation of the well-known Vancouver system. You should already have a few different versions of it, as I think they are part of the standard EndNote installation. If not, you can easily find and download them from the Internet.

I would then choose the one that looks the most similar to what your journal asks for, and do the (hopefully) minor modifications necessary to make it exactly as the journal requires. You can find plenty of online resources about  citation-style editing in EndNote. This one, for example, seems to be a nice introductory video that might be useful, if you don't have any previous experience.


Redefining variables used in many equations in a publication

I think of this as a matter of "breadcrumbs."  If a reader is constantly wondering what "a" is and having to look back to try to find its definition, that is a problem.  On the other hand, if I put so much redundant definition in that the math gets hidden by uninteresting boilerplate prose, that's also a problem.

My preference is thus to take a two-pronged approach:

Create a table of symbols that collects all of the definitions in one easy-to-find location, and
Match every equation with a prose summary of its meaning.

For example, if I were presenting Newton's laws, then I might say:

  "The force exerted by an object is proportional to mass and acceleration: F = ma."

and in the table of definitions "F" and "m" and "a" would all have their formal definitions.  In this way, I remind the reader about the definitions without repeating them, yet at the same time have a simple reference point at which all definitions may be readily found.


Are there any good job directories for academic work?

It would depend on what your field of work is. But heres a nifty little list that I keep an eye on (I am looking for a postdoctoral position in academia / research and these websites are quite helpful to me)

www.phds.org
www.postdocjobs.com
http://www.cfd-online.com/Jobs/
http://www.aps.org/careers/
http://www.academickeys.com

There are a few websites suggested in the answers below/above my response to this question and they are quite nice too!

Besides that you probably have a general idea as to what you'd want to work as / work for. You could perhaps target a bunch of universities and faculty members for prospective positions?

Good luck!


Will a self-designed major lower my chance of acceptance for graduate school?

The disadvantage of having a "made it myself" degree is that in situations in which you are being compared with your peers (i.e. graduate admissions), you are comparing apples to oranges, and the admissions committee only know apples. A committee sees two applicants with CS degrees, even if they come from different universities, they can be somewhat certain that both have covered a certain number of bases. In these situations, your degree compared to a CS degree can look like 70% of a degree vs. 100%, even if you have a higher GPA (and this may read as "they have a higher GPA because they took psych classes instead of Operating Systems, Databases, Compilers, Networks, Computer Architecture, and Theory of Computation").

Admissions committees are less concerned with whether you took classes "related to your interests" than whether or not you passed or exceeded the same thresholds as your peers. If you're worried that people wont give your transcript a good look, most won't (especially if you end up entering the workforce). Don't get a degree in anything that will take more than 30 seconds to explain.

Look at all of the people who are doing the work that you some day want to do. Look at all the professors that you might someday want to work with. What did they get their degrees in? (here's a not-so-big secret: most professors hire students who remind them of themselves)

Get in touch with professors at research universities, admission committees, grad students, and get their opinions. Ask "What are you looking for in an incoming student?" People will be pretty forthcoming with you. Ask your professors if they have any contacts at research universities that you could talk with. Also, your professors all got into grad school - ask them how they did it. Find the youngest ones, they'll have the best idea what admissions are like these days.


Are athletes' college degrees discounted by employers and graduate school admissions?

"College athletes" is much too broad a brush.  The kind of double-standard you're referring to is mostly focused on a much smaller group of men's basketball and football players at Division I schools.  These are essentially full-time professional athletes.  A lot of the very best athletes among this group do not stay long enough to graduate anyway.

I also think you're overestimating the value of academics and underrating the value of athletics to employers.  It takes incredible dedication to become one of the best people in the world in a sport.  That's genuinely valuable to employers.

Finally, even in the revenue sports, there are many fantastic students who get good grades in rigorous classes.  I've had great students who are world-class elite athletes.  Looking at the major and the grades gives a pretty clear indication of the level of rigor involved.  And of course there are plenty of non-athletes with non-rigorous majors and mediocre grades.

This last point is especially clear in the context of graduate admissions.  Graduate applications include letters of recommendation and a full transcript. It is easy to see directly whether someone is taking rigorous advanced classes and doing well in them. There’s no reason whatsoever to discount athletes based on the existence of easier classes when you can see what classes they actually took.


Different results when experiment repeated

That certainly means that this material is not ready for publication.

No matter when the error (is it even an error?) was made (in the initial or subsequent experiment), one first has to figure out why the results are the way they are. From some angle, it is even a blessing that the results are mismatched: it forced to "bake the research" a little longer until it is ready.

I strongly suggest analyzing the experiments setup, experiment procedure, raw data, post-processed results in order to explain what is going on. Maybe, it's worth conducting a third experiment (if it is a viable approach).

While triple modular redundancy adage does not fit here perfectly as an analog:

  Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three.

the third (fourth/fifth/...) experiment might give you some insight into what is going on. And taking only one chronometer—just because it leads to a potentially faster publication—would be a wrong approach.


Are there any actions professors can take online to contribute towards "service requirements"?

@keshlam's comment is correct:  this is a question for the folks in your department. There are activities (internal and external) that feel like "service" that are not viewed as "service" ... it varies by department and school.  Just like expectations for research and teaching.

And make sure you ask folks who are giving you fact-based, not opinion-based answers.  You should have a tenured faculty mentor (if you don't, get one!), but they might not know the facts on this.  There should be an RPT chair in your department or school:  ask them.  You might also ask your chair:  if they chair views what you are doing as reasonable service, they may be able to argue for it counting, even if it's unusual.

But, in the end, this is not a question for anyone outside your school.  We don't vote. :)


If my supervisor sugests a very specific addition to something, can I use it verbatim?

In my experience with suggestions like these, the idea is that you more-or-less insert it verbatim, with edits for style (after all, your supervisor probably wrote it off-the-cuff) and flow with the surrounding paragraphs.

Your supervisor is probably a better writer than you, and so her suggestion is most likely a good one. If you really hate it, you aren't obliged to use the phrasing (but using the ideas is probably good).

If you're feeling "odd" about using someone else's writing, I wouldn't worry. Either she is already a co-author on the paper, or she's helping you edit with no expectation of receiving credit for her short suggestion. If you're still worrying, make sure to thank her in the acknowledgements or something.

It seems remarkably unlikely that there is any plagiarism concerns here. For one, this looks like a concluding sentence, so it's unlikely she's plagiarizing a write-up of results she is only just helping to write up. Secondly, as I mentioned, suggestions like this are usually made off-the-cuff. If you are very concerned, Google the phrasing and make sure she's not subconsciously copying it from a paper she didn't author.


Inclusion of GRE score/completion on CV - under which heading?

My feeling is that unless you did phenomenally well (well within top 5%), it would not be of much relevance to those looking at your application (the likely effect would be this), and if you did do phenomenally well, then its inclusion could have the same effect as mentioning having an IQ score of 160 or more (something you'd probably not want to do, even if you did have such a score). Employers at universities or research institutions want to see evidence of teaching competence and/or research competence, not a high score on a test designed to measure your potential to do well in classwork, since presumably none of your duties will involve taking classes for a grade.


Is there a difference between "interdisciplinary" and "multidisciplinary" research?

Both terms involve, as you say, relating to more than one discipline. In practice, I think most people don't really bother distinguishing between them. (I typically don't.) So one shouldn't read too much into any particular use. However, as always there are some that debate the definitions. Sometimes - especially when larger teams are involved - the two terms are treated not as synonyms, but as different positions on a spectrum. When a distinction is made, it is typically to say that interdisciplinary work more deeply integrates insights of multiple fields, whereas multidisciplinary doesn't require the same degree of integration. E.g. Choi and Pak states in a review that

Multidisciplinarity draws on knowledge from different disciplines but stays within their boundaries. Interdisciplinarity analyzes, synthesizes and harmonizes links between disciplines into a coordinated and coherent whole.

Similarly, OECD's 2010 report "Measuring Innovation: A New Perspective" used environmental science and nanoscience as examples of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research areas, respectively (link to relevant page):

Interdisciplinary research that
relies on shared knowledge is created when fields such as physics and chemistry interact. Nanoscience typifies this
phenomenon. In multidisciplinary research, various disciplines address scientific and social challenges independently
rather than in collaboration and thus share research goals. Environmental research is of this type.

The 2015 The Oxford Handbook of Multimethod and Mixed Methods Research Inquiry provides a lot more details and development of these ideas, in particular in Chapter 8.

Interdisciplinarians integrate the best elements of disciplinary insights in order to generate a more comprehensive (and often more nuanced) appreciation of the issue at hand. (This may come in the form of a new understanding, new product, or new meaning.) As we shall see later interdisciplinarians often stress "integration" as the defining element of interdisciplinarity.
[snip]
Multidisciplinarity involves the juxtaposition of insights from different disciplines. It thus eschews the integration that is so critical for interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Multidisciplinarians are also less likely to evaluate the insights on which they draw. Multidisciplinarity can still be useful in some situations, notably where the insights of different disciplines are not in conflict and can simply be added together.


Should I approach my boss from my previous company for a LOR for my Master’s in Computer Science (From USA)?

It is likely that your application will be reviewed by a faculty committee. It is likely that some, at least, of them will want to see some prediction of academic success in your letters. If you were applying for other industrial jobs it would be different, but I suggest that at least one of your letters come from someone who knows you well and can make a fair assessment that you will succeed in an academic setting.
A head of a startup or others in industrial positions have a different focus and their letters probably can't properly attest to your academic qualities. It is impossible to judge how much they can help you, not knowing the details, but it sounds like a risky move.
Direct your letters toward the needs of the program you want to join, not the workplace you have been in.


On balance, is it more valuable to review for a journal you haven't yet reviewed a paper for?

Multiple reviews for a journal indicates that you are a trustworthy
reviewer.
Reviews for various journals indicates that you are known across your
discipline.

Thus, both seem to be positive signals (for different traits). No need to prioritize one aspect over the other.

(By the way, you can have such peer review activities verified at Publons, which may be better than just listing them on your CV.)


How to respond to "what you can bring to our department" in reply of a sabbatical request?

This all sounds like they are interested in you for a reason you don't state and may not know. Laboring alone is difficult, but in some cases it has proved especially beneficial. The case of Srinivasa Ramanujan is instructive. Perhaps you have shown them something in your CV that they haven't considered and might find valuable. A sole researcher will occasionally develop new patterns of thought that are unknown to others.

But, I think you need to do a bit of research on that department if you haven't already. Who there would you want to work with and why. You need some familiarity with their work.

You want to extend your range and so do they. If your past results are interesting (to them, primarily) you could offer to conduct a seminar focused on insights for faculty and advanced students. This would be thought valuable. And you could also participate in seminars of other, targeted, faculty.

But you need to first understand what they do and how what you have done can enhance that in some way. Then, they might be able to overcome the lack of a slot for a visitor.