Standard Word templates, fonts, etcetera. for non/semi-technical Springer journals?

Springer offers the SVJour3 Latex class (with a manual) for preparing manuscripts for Springer journals.

I use Latex for its referencing and figure-handling capabilities, but I submit most of my work to social-science journals, not all of which have Latex templates. In general, managing editors at these journals are expecting submissions to be in Word. However, the typesetting at large publishers such as Springer is typically done by central teams that can handle a wide range of formats. As such, there is no technical problem in submitting Latex files but you have to overcome the editor's unfamiliarity with this format.

To do that, the following has always worked for me.

Submit the article as a PDF, with the Latex file, Bib file and any figures in a Zip archive as supplementary material. Crucially, include an extremely polite cover note to the editor:

explaining that the manuscript has been prepared in Latex so there is no Word version,
reassuring them that the publisher's production department will be familiar with handling Latex files,
suggesting that they contact their production editor if they aren't sure if they can accept this format.

Expect the managing editor to reject the article out-of-hand because your manuscript is a PDF and they haven't read your cover note.
Reply to the rejection by emailing the managing editor, again (very politely) asking them to contact their production department to check if they can accept Latex. You may also want to explain (briefly) why you've written the manuscript in Latex (maybe because Word can't handle special characters or equations very well).

Step 3 generally produces a 'well you learn something every day' reply from the managing editor. If they still won't accept it, you may have to copy your manuscript over to Word (overview of options for doing that). Think carefully, though, since converting to Word may require lots of manual formatting/checking that you will then have to repeat if you make any changes during the peer-review process.

One reason you might not want to do submit in Latex is that the above procedure slightly increases the workload of journal editors, who are typically working for free. On the other hand, you may feel that it's worth it because you're helping future authors who may want to submit manuscripts prepared in Latex for various reasons.


How to detail conference presentation of my work that was given by someone else on CV?

A CS view on this - other fields (even other subfields within CS?) may have different conventions:

It is irrelevant who gave the talk. It may be the first author, it may be one of the other authors, it may be someone else entirely (e.g. if none of the authors could come to the conference for some reason).

During the presentation, it is important for the audience to know who is presenting, which is why in the presentation slides, the name of the person may be highlighted. However, that is not so much to assume much credit for the work, but to give the audience an indication of who they are talking to; how to address the person in the case of questions, and just to associate the right name with the right face. In a well-functioning team of several authors, chances are that the slides were not done by a single person, anyway, so the slides themselves are again a group product of several or all of the authors.

Bear in mind that, while a publication on a conference is generally assumed to mean that one of the authors presented the paper, extraordinary specifics of how the presentations were done are generally not listed anywhere, neither in bibliographies, nor in CVs. Additional people who presented, but were not authors, never appear there, nor do hints about "exotic" presentation methods (given that there is tremendous variation in what a "poster presentation" means, depending on the conference, I can well imagine that for some conferences, a "paper presentation" is not necessarily the traditional stage talk + slides).

Such details might be slightly interesting, but at the same time, it would just be too cumbersome to keep track of all of them, so lastly, the core of your work is the paper/article that gets included in the proceedings, and that is what you refer to.


What is the correct way to cite the theorems which grew out of your personal discussions with someone else?

In this case, if you wish to include a content originated from your peer in your manuscript, you ought to first get his consent. Since you may not be able to cite this in the References section as you cannot cite conversations, you may attribute the originator in the Acknowledgments section regarding this fact.


How to quiet noisy undergrads students during lecture

Call them out when you notice it. Stop what you're doing - single the chit-chatters out, and ask them if they have anything they'd like to say.  If they have questions they should ask them so that the entire class can hear - that way everyone can learn.  If they do have questions, remind them of whatever protocol you have for questions (raise a hand, hold questions for designated question breaks, etc).
Otherwise, make it clear that you won't tolerate chit-chat and, if they persist, simply remove them from the class.  Make it clear that they are welcome to return to the next lecture on the condition that they keep quiet during the lecture. Be sure to be polite and cordial, of course, but don't waver on being firm.
It is not acceptable for a few noisy students to compromise the learning environment for everyone else. Just get them out of there. You probably won't have to do this more than once or twice before the rest figure out that you're serious. As a lecturer, you're the captain of the ship. Don't be afraid to be the captain - keeping order is your job.  The quiet students are relying on you.
Also keep in mind that it is not your job to make sure that they pay attention - that's their job.  "Listen to me" should not be your responsibility, it should be theirs.  Your responsibility is primarily "Don't disrupt my lecture!  Others are trying to listen to me".  If they would like to quietly not pay attention, that's fine.  They're paying for a seat in the lecture hall - what they do with it is up to them, so long as it does not affect the learning environment for everyone else (who are also paying for their seat in that lecture hall!).


Is it ethical to use data you overheard in a conversation?

Without understanding your research topic and methods, it is hard to say objectively if you can use the data. That said, the American Psychological Association (APA) classifies naturalistic observation as exempt from the informed consent process. This does not mean it does not require approval by an ethics board (i.e., an IRB). Naturalistic observation studies are valid in a wide range of fields including Medicine, Psychology, Zoology and Ethnography. That said, as with any research methods, it takes skills to conduct and interpret naturalistic observation studies properly and within the framework of their limitations. This seems like a nice starting point: http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/kardas/Courses/RMPA/naturalisticobservation.html


Why does the Nobel committee not award prize to collaborations?

In paragraph 4 of the statutes, it restricts the price to be only awarded to two works and to a maximum of 3 individuals.
But it also says, that it can be awarded to an institution or organization. Which has been done with the Nobel Peace Prizes to the EU.

A prize amount may be equally divided between two works, each of which is considered to merit a prize. If a work that is being rewarded has been produced by two or three persons, the prize shall be awarded to them jointly. In no case may a prize amount be divided between more than three persons.
[…]
Each prize-awarding body shall be competent to decide whether the prize it is entitled to award may be conferred upon an institution or association.


How and from where to get feedback for my preprint?

Try to get someone who can give you general feedback, even if not an expert in the field (is the paper logical, easy to read, well written, etc.)

Also, where is this publication aimed?  What journal?  My quick take is a lower level "energy resources" type journal.

My quick reactions:

English is good (better than many science papers from East Asians).
Paper is readable, not contorted by academese.  (This is helpful in general but especially if you have a multidisciplinary topic or something with public policy implications.)  That said, you should tighten up some things like the "and so on".
I would not use an angled pie chart.  It screams novice PowerPoint user trying to look cool.  Use a flat pie chart instead.
In addition, this is not vital, but I would urge to try to organize the chart better.  For instance use different shades of blue or grey for the fossil fuels.  Shades of green for renewable (and if you can split to biomass, hydro, and WIND) that would be good.  I guess you can leave nuclear since it is not really renewable or fossil fuel.  Maybe yellow or lavender or red or black (like the radioactive colors).  Think about how you organize the slices also.  Probably the fossil fuel first (clockwise), with the slices in size order.  Have renewables last, with slices in size order (maybe emphasize wind with a bold, perhaps).  Nuclear can be in between the two. It is sort of in between the two in concept anyways (extraction based so not renewable but very long lived with waste reprocessing).  Also zero carbon but some other non-green aspects.   This is not necessary.  But just nice for graphs to be easily read to extract info (not scanning each sector with eye darting all over page).
I doubt the 24% renewables. Too high.  Check some other sources, please.
Add a graphic (and discussion) in the intro showing rate of growth of Indian electrical demand.  I was under the impression that population has been growing and also country being electrified.  You want a graphic with some decent time scope.  Maybe 1950 to 2050.  Check the Shell and BP yearly energy documents (there may even be one).  Failing that, I bet there is some India specific study that has this.  Want to show "been growing a lot".  Expected to grow more.
The resource exhaustion graph (figure 2) is laughable (sorry).  Predicting fossil fuel exhaustion is very difficult because we find more and get better tools to extract it.  Actually predicting peak coal/gas/oil is very difficult.  Your graph is way too pessimistic.  See the history of the R/P ratio for instance.  We are at about 50 years right now and it has actually grown since the 1970s (pure exhaustion would mean we had already run out, but we actually have more reserves now than we did before, even more reserves versus annual demand).
These issues in the introduction are not critical to your paper (which is on estimating wind potential in India).  But if you put stuff out that is wrong, it is distracting.  I would edit the length down (for a publication, but OK for a thesis).  But in any case, tighten up the logic.
I don't know much CFD or other computer simulation so I can't comment much  on them.  (I won't have even detected obvious issues because I just didn't weed through it.)  Get a general MechE or computer science person to look at it.
Also consider having an economist (or resource economist) look at the simulations.  Not for the economics per se but just the logic of the modeling.  They do a lot of modeling and can opine on your overall approach and communication. Then have them look at the whole paper.  They are probably more the audience than CFD crowd.
Towards the beginning of the technical (2) section, you talk about 'setting up a turbine'.  Reads like you physically built a turbine or test device.  Do you mean simulated?
Consider to add a block diagram for the sections of the project.  It's not that complicated and your explanation goes through it OK.  But it will just help guide the reader.
There seems to be something "off" in your conclusions and intro.  I thought we were going to get an overall estimate of wind production for India but it seems like it is restricted to one area.  And I don't readily see how you extrapolate that to country-wide results (considering wind variation and land use availability).  I suspect this would be a much bigger project than you planned.  But just make it clear to the reader that you're not delivering that.  Confused me.  You can still use some of the country-wide needs and have some final comments on implications.  As motivation.  But make it a little bit more clear, you have a much smaller scope.
The conclusion seems a little too strong to me.  I would water it down a bit.  You haven't really done a full country study so I don't see how you can much such a strong stance.  I would make the conclusion more about the method ("CFD can be used to model windmill potential" or the like).

Maybe say "Initial indications from this study suggest that wind power can grow in India but will be challenged to supply the countries large electrical needs.  However, a deeper study, including economics, land use issues, and wind variation by locations would be required to quantify how much wind can help."

[Even this may be too strong.  Might be wiser to just say "expanded use of CFD similuations can be a valuable part of a multidisciplinary effort to truly determine the medium term potential for wind power in India.  Such an effort would need to also incorporate added wind data, land use availability and input on economics and regulations, as well as compatibility with the Indian power grid.]


Are technical questions common in post-doc interviews?

When hiring a person for a technical position (including a post-doc), any employer will want to have some confidence in the degree of technical proficiency of the applicant.

If the PI already knows you (e.g., through interactions at conferences), then they might not feel a need to ask technical questions. Likewise, if the PI has a strong relationship with your advisor and is willing to take a recommendation on trust, they might not ask technical questions. In pretty much every other case, you should expect some degree of probing to determine your technical competence.

What form that will take, however, is completely unpredictable. Evaluating technical skill in a short interview is a notoriously difficult problem, and people have lots of different idiosyncratic approaches to the issue. As a result, I would advise the following in terms of preparation:

Do not treat this like cramming for an exam. Do not do any study or review of core technical materials. Either you have the skills and competence that they are looking for or you do not.
Make sure you are familiar with the work of the PI and their lab, and think carefully about how your skills and background fit with their current directions (though you might get surprised by the PI moving in a new direction).
Make sure you are prepared to talk about your own work, your skills and background, and what you want to get out of this postdoc.
Get a good night's sleep and do whatever else you need to do to relax and be in a good and confident place personally.

Finally, remember that the goal of this interview is not to get yourself a job, but rather for both you and the PI to figure out whether you and the job are a good fit for one another. Make sure that in the discussion you are also prepare to look for the things that will help you be satisfied with this position as well.

Good luck!


What to say to one PhD offer when still waiting to hear the result of a different and preferred PhD application?

The usual thing to do in this situation is to ask B when they need your response.  If that isn't enough time to hear back from A, then it's fine to ask B if you can have more time to decide (you don't need to say why).  Of course, they might say that they cannot give you more time, in which case you'll have to make a decision on B without knowing about A.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to consider all your options, and the people from B will undoubtedly read between the lines and understand that this is the situation, but you don't need to rub their nose in the fact that you'd rather be somewhere else.

To echo Pavel's answer, whatever decision you do give to B, you should stick with.  If B gives you a short deadline, and you decide to accept their offer before hearing from A, you're committed, and you need to immediately contact A and withdraw your application.   It's not appropriate to accept B while planning to back out if A later says yes.  Doing that would burn your bridges with people at B (and anyone who they talk to), and it could even be cause for A to rescind your acceptance, leaving you with nothing.


What do I need to ensure my presentation will go smoothly?

From less esoteric to more (I've seen all these things happen):

Make sure you know how to "send the image to a projector". Not all laptops do this automatically, and I'm surprised at how many people don't know how to do it. I've also seen people be confused by the mirroring feature on Macs.
Verify that there's a power outlet or some place to plug in your laptop. Driving a projector eats power, and you don't want to drain your battery during the presentation
Turn off screen savers. at the very least it's annoying, and sometimes the screen saver does wonky things to the projector display.
Turn off your notifications (mail, facebook, twitter, skype...). It's amusing for an audience (but not for you) if during a job talk they all get to see a subject header of the form "Interview at University X" where X is not where you're at :)
Make sure you have the right display converters. Usually something that converts your laptop to a VGA is standard. Macs are particularly difficult in this regard.
Watch out for resolution issues. Most laptops are smart enough to drop resolution to deal with a projector, but sometimes they're not.
Keep a backup copy of the slides in a portable format (PDF or PPT) on a usb stick. In the worst-case you can always borrow a laptop (from the previous speaker even) and load up the slides. Dropbox/a web page is ok but not great because it requires an internet connection.

And above all, as David M. R. says, check the setup beforehand if you can. Even that doesn't guarantee a smooth presentation, but it eliminates a lot of the potential problems listed above.


This is not a common knowledge and should be best supported by some reference. Example reference for this could be market analysis papers, industry analysis reports or, at the very least, interviews with people from company X identifying A, B and C as competitors. The reason these claims should be supported is that you, personally, may not know some details about how A functions (making it target other audience than X) or miss a competitor D who is snapping at X's heels.

Now, how strict the requirement to support the claims is varying, depending on what kind of report you are writing. If it is a business plan for company X, apparently, you don't just use your personal observation, but should base your claims on something. If you are writing a general overview of some product that X, A, B and C produce, you might get away with using your personal observations, but it's still better to back up your claims with sources.


What are duties for jobs like Professor, Lecturer, Research Scientist, Research Assistant, and Research Fellow in the UK (Oxford)?

It think it does vary from institution to institution. From the perspective of my University (and from my own job hunting in the UK), I would make the following observations. Salary pay points correspond to my University's interpretation of the national HE pay scale http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2210.

"research assistant" implies fixed-term contract work on a research project (research only), where the postholder does not hold a PhD (and is not close to completing one), pay point 23.
"research fellow" implies fixed-term contract work on a research project (research only), with the postholder holding a PhD. Pay point 29 as starting salary; pay point 37 for a "senior research fellow", who might also be expected to supervise students and write grant proposals.
"lecturer" implies a permanent contract with the postholder expected to conduct research, teach, and write grant proposals. Pay point 37 starting salary; pay point 44 for a "senior lecturer", as a career progression and probably managing multiple PhD/PostDocs and bringing in more grant money.
"professor" implies a senior academic, probably starting at pay point 51, managing multiple staff and working on large grants.

I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but it does seem about right for the University where I work and the others I have applied to.


Is it a bad idea to use other professors' Youtube videos as lectures?

The answer depends on your goals.
If you have plans to work in academia, eventually you might find yourself on a track to becoming a professor yourself. In this role, you are expected to teach. Hence, you should be able to prepare teaching materials of high quality to support your teaching and benefit students' learning. The sooner you start working on your first video lecture, the sooner you prepare the one which you are actually not totally ashamed of. Your first lecture might be half-baked and otherwise of sub-par quality, but that's expected on your career stage, when people start learning the ropes. But if you listen to feedback from your students and your mentors, and reflect on it, then your second lecture will be better than your first one, and eventually you start producing good quality stuff. Most importantly, you will become a better educator yourself, equipped with a wide range of tools and techniques, and understanding which method works best in a particular situation. You will be able to adapt your teaching to the needs of a particular student cohort, and you won't depend on materials from the internet (which may or may not be available).
But maybe your goal is simply to survive this teaching assignment until you graduate? In this case there is probably no shame in using online materials to complement your teaching. Just don't forget, that you still need to support your students and help them contextualise and understand the content. You may achieve this by preparing some examples based on the materials in the lecture and working through them with your students. It may be appropriate to have a discussion regarding the material, or even to critically assess and compare the material presented by different lecturers.
Good luck.


What are some good ways to figure out one's interests in mathematics, before applying to PhD programs?

Are there mathematics seminars to attend in the summer, or do they typically only occur during the academic year?

I think none of the answers thus far actually addressed this.  At most US universities, seminars don't happen, at least not regularly, during the summer.  One reason is many faculty will be traveling.  However, sometimes some people, possibly grad students, will organize an informal seminar to read through some books or papers.  If other people aren't doing it, you can ask around to see if people are interested and organize it yourself.

  What else could I do?

In place of seminars in the summer, there are usually lots of conferences and workshops as well as summer schools specifically geared towards young people.  Look around for what's available (you can try asking some professors if they have suggestions) and go to what you can.  Many of these have funding for students, but unfortunately most of the funding may have already been given away by now.

Edit: By the way, it's not expected that you know what you want to research when you enter PhD programs (in math in the US, say).  Many people who start aren't even sure if research is for them.  Most programs are designed so that you can use the first couple of years figuring out what you want to do.  (And even later, research interests may change---I may be doing something completely different in a year or two from what I'm doing now.)


What is the real benefit of tenured positions for universities?

Institutions offer tenure, not (just) because of high-minded abstractions like "academic freedom", but because it makes good business sense.  The benefit of tenure to the institution follows from the benefit to the individual:

From the faculty member's perspective, tenure makes it possible to pursue high-risk/high-impact research ideas without having to worry about having to keep short-term bean-counters happy.
This makes institutions that offer tenure more attractive to strong researchers because those researchers want an environment that best supports their ability to pursue their research ideas.
Such researchers, in turn, are very often also the ones who bring in the big grants.  Their high visibility also enhances the reputation of the institution, which attracts more students and alumni donations, etc. etc.

For these reasons, given two otherwise-identical institutions where one offered tenure and the other didn't, the one without tenure would find itself at a significant competitive disadvantage.


Is it ethical/legal to use the University's resources for a personal project?

It's unethical to use your university's hardware resources and then not share with them the eventual proceeds of that research. If the work you do were to produce papers, then they would share in the reputational advantage for employing you and being affiliated with your work. If it would produce a patent or a product, then employment rules at my university in the US would have us split ownership and royalties. At the very least, the university bought the equipment, paid the power bill, and paid someone to administer it. Ethically they deserve to benefit, too.

Now, I have no idea what the laws of Israel or the regulations of your university have to say about this, so you should check before you do anything.

When it comes to software (the solvers in your question), things may be different. If the software is open source under a usual license, you may generally use it for any purpose you like. Open source licenses typically do not regulate use at all, and only cover redistribution. If the software is not open source, then, in the US at least, regulation of use is generally left to the copyright holder. Any permissions that you have to use that software flow through some sort of explicit (written down) or implicit license. If someone at your university gave you software owned by the university and told you to use it for your project, then generally speaking you may use it in the course of your employment as directed by your supervisor. You probably cannot use such software for a side project without permission from the copyright holder.

Your employment agreement, contract, or university regulations will govern whether or not personal projects somehow become property of the university, shared property, or are kept entirely separate due to your use of university resources. Most universities actually want their researchers to pursue interesting ideas, but if you use their property, they want a cut of the resulting profits or an ownership interest in any intellectual property. In the US, the Bayh-Dole Act guarantees that inventions made through federally funded research can be owned by the grantee rather than the US government, and most universities pursue this ownership. I don't know if Israel has an equivalent law.

The ethics here are pretty clear to me. Don't use other people's property to make a profit without sharing the profit with them. The laws and regulations are local, so ask your boss, administration, etc. about the local rules.


Should I talk to my advisor regarding undergrad advising workload?

Yes.  Talk to your advisor.

It is really important you learn to, in a good way, think of yourself. Right now, the undergraduates are happy (they get help) but your work is suffering. I can imagine that helping undergraduates is part of your job description, but not to the point you cannot work anymore yourself. You need to sit down with your professor and your supervisor and discuss that your undergraduate workload is too much. Best is to have a proposal ready yourself, e.g. that you want to spend a day a week helping undergraduates and that that is the limit. Once you get both your professor and your supervisor to agree, no undergraduate can manipulate you into helping him/her. In addition, everyone is clear on their expectations, this is the professional way of dealing with this in my opinion.

If you do not set boundaries, you will be the only one suffering. The professor and supervisor will feel somewhat bad, but the undergraduates will find a new person to stalk, while you are left without a PhD.


What does it mean when a paper is copyrighted by an organization?

Not necessarily. Copyright prohibits you from presenting the work as yours under any circumstances. In addition, it prohibits you from publishing or recopying large segments of the work, without securing the permission of the owner of the copyright.

However, the existence of copyright does not exclude you from citing the work of others, nor mentioning what their key ideas are. Such use of copyright is covered by fair-use guidelines. Under these circumstances, though, you are still responsible for following the proper citation procedures of your university or the journal to which you are submitting the work under question. Note, however, that this is a tricky balance, and you should be careful to directly quote only the material you absolutely need to duplicate, as fair use is not an absolute guideline.


Best workflow for publication-quality figures with multiple subplots?

Creating figures with multiple subplots requires a lot of fine tuning that make programmatic approaches (like LaTeX, or R) tricky. It usually makes more sense to do this by hand, since the layout of subplots can change depending on personal preferences and revisions.

A few options:

Inkscape is a good open source tool for making vector graphics, as mentioned
Adobe Illustrator is a common, professional tool for vector graphics
Affinity Designer is a cheaper professional alternative to Illustrator, and works very well with many different file formats, and I've found more intuitive than Illustrator


Is it ethically acceptable for university book stores to market homework help websites?

It’s helpful to approach the question starting from the following general guiding principle:
It is not acceptable for a university bookstore to engage in misleading marketing practices of any sort.
If the way the subscription link is presented creates an appearance of endorsement by an instructor, and such endorsement was not given, then the marketing is misleading. If this was done intentionally, then that is unethical.
If the link suggests the service is endorsed by the university but not by the instructor (or is simply offered as an optional purchase without the implication of any endorsement), it seems hard to argue that it is unethical, or at least hard to argue it is more unethical than any other link to a product that anyone puts on their website. It’s mainly creating the appearance of an endorsement by a specific instructor who didn’t give their approval that would be problematic.
I cannot be sure from your description that I would agree with your assessment that the way the information is presented creates such a misleading impression. But I might, or perhaps I’d agree that it’s sufficiently ambiguous as to risk misleading at least some students.


In IEEE conferences is it necessary run the simulation in front of the members?

Since the other answers should properly address your question, I'll raise an issue that bothered me from the go: What do you mean you can't replicate your results?

One of the cornerstones of science is the replication of results (something that is almost never done in computer science...). If you can't replicate your results, how do you expect someone else to? If nobody can replicate/verify your results, sorry, you are not doing science :(

I'm not saying that you are doing it wrong, one would need more information than that, I'm saying that the phrase

  but I am not getting the simulation results I obtained before.

is very troubling and can indicate that you are, indeed, doing something wrong.


Should I write a rigorous draft before asking for comments?

It's the nature of the work of academia to throw out interesting ideas and have them torn to pieces, and then to pick out what remains and build it into something publishable.

Since you're in the definition phase and have a 10-pager, I'll assume that you've put together a reasonable literature review and/or theoretical underpinning. What remains is to express the intuitive leap sufficiently plausibly that your oversight (supervisors, funding bodies, university review panel, etc) is prepared to back you.

There's no need to have it all worked out - that's the work to be done. You just have to demonstrate that you might be on the right track. Naturally, the closer that 'might be' is to 'are', the better. But if you can demonstrate this much, feel free to ask for comments.


Is it possible for a PhD student to survive in the USA only on TA/RA money?

Agnostic of institution, each of which has its own set of policies governing TA/RA pay (more or less depending on the institution), a short answer is yes.  There are also, of course, different costs of living depending on where your institution is located (e.g., the cost of living in New York is much higher than in, say, the midwest). In any case, you will be paid a livable wage, but don't expect to be living any sort of lavish lifestyle.

Personal experience: I've been living off of TA/RA pay for the past 3 years. The pay offered by the R1 institution I attend and work for is located in the Midwest and, relative to other schools in our conference, offers one of the best stipends. As such, I've had enough money to not only live, but support my hobbies and enjoy a [non-extravagent] leisurely life during my non-working, non-academic hours (of which there are not usually a ton haha).


Is it usual for a PhD thesis to have two distinct subjects?

Option 1. At least in computer science, it happens often (but not always) that someone works on several somewhat disjoint but somewhat related problems. It's all about the glue and the story; if you can sell the cohesiveness of the thesis in the abstract and introduction, you're golden. Be upfront about the fact that there may be some disjoint problems, but try to find and highlight the unifying themes.

Here's a quote my advisor always tells us which has relevance to this: "all wells, when dug deep enough, lead to the same water source."


How to professionally quit a student job?

It sounds to me like you don't exactly need to quit. Remind him of the conditions under which you took the job, and ask him to stick to the agreement. If he can't do so because his requirements have changed, then that's his choice. You might say something like this:

  As you recall, when I accepted this job, it was under the condition
  that I would only work 5 hours per week so it wouldn't interfere with
  working on my thesis. Because of your workshop, I have been working
  far more time than we agreed. I'm concerned that you need more support
  than the 5 hours a week I am able to provide. What do you think?

Note that I said "5 hours per week" twice for emphasis. Give him a chance to respond. At this point, if he promises to stick to 5 hours per week in future, and allows you to take the next few weeks off to catch up on your thesis, then perhaps you might give him one more chance.

However, if he indicates that he needs you to work more hours, or be available whenever he has deadlines, then you might say something like this:

  Unfortunately, I can't work more than 5 hours per week, and it sounds
  like that just won't be enough. Perhaps the best way to solve this is
  turn the project over to someone else. I'll do what I can to ensure a
  smooth transition.

Instead of "quitting", you're working with him to solve his requirements. If it turns out that the only way to meet those requirements is for you to hand off the work to someone else, then that's his choice.

As for the time you worked for free at the start of the contract, I think it is going to be difficult to get paid for that without burning bridges. Of course, you are entitled to be paid, and you could pursue that legally, but you may not want to. In future, remember never to work without a contract.


Math subject GRE to fill gaps in undergraduate education for PhD application

Okay, here's some advice:

I like that you have an ambitious, but clear, long-term goal: to work at NASA's JPL.  That puts you far ahead of many PhD program applicants in a very important aspect.

Getting into Caltech's PhD program seems like a less realistic goal to me, honestly.  They have one of the US's very best programs in CS/EE.  Very top programs have their pick of applicants.  They are likely going to not seriously consider applications with a low undergrad GPA just because that's one of the easier of many cuts they need to make in order to get the applicant pool down to a reasonable size.  Or another way to put it is: imagine that your application is very strong except for this one noticeable flaw.  They will be looking at plenty of applications which are similar to yours except that this flaw is not present.  What do you expect them to do?

Fortunately you don't need to go to Caltech to get a job at JPL (although it wouldn't hurt, obviously).  You need to go to a serious, reputable university (think UGA) and acquire and demonstrate the talents and skills that will get you hired at JPL.  One's academic pedigree is important but it is certainly not all-important, even in academia and still less in industry.  (I got my PhD in mathematics from Harvard, which afforded me the largest possible head-start on the job market.  It was quite an awakening to discover that my Harvard degree was much closer to a foot in the door than a golden ticket, and the amount of work that I had to do after getting my PhD from an absolutely top program in order to land a job at a serious, reputable -- but not at the very top -- university is still remarkable to me.)  You should be shooting for more like a top 50 program, I think, although you should not take my word for it but rather apply to a range of programs when the time comes.

Your undergrad GPA does look like a bit of a problem to me.  Since it happens that you got your undergrad degree at my university, I know that your GPA is significantly below the average.  In fact having a GPA of below 3.0 is significant at UGA for reasons that you understand and thus I don't need to get into.

You mention that your undergrad major is in sociology, and the big question is how much that will be discounted given that you want to study CS.  I'll be honest with you: it still doesn't look that great.  The best case scenario is that your undergrad GPA will be viewed as something which does not have much to do with your future graduate performance in a different area.  So "irrelevant" is the best case scenario.  As a member of an admissions committee, a student's undergraduate GPA in whatever subject is not irrelevant to me.  Succeeding at coursework is a skill unto itself, and while it is not the highest or most important skill that is necessary for success in a PhD program, it's definitely on the table.

As an aside, I see that in this and another question you describe your major as "irrelevant sociology".  I don't think you should say it in quite that way.  How relevant your undergraduate studies in a different discipline are to your candidacy as a CS PhD student is for the admissions committee to decide.  I detect a hint of disdain for sociology in your language, which to me is also not great: you are the one who chose your undergraduate major.  Just because it is very far from CS doesn't mean that you shouldn't have done well at it.  Candidates like you have a fine line to walk, e.g. in your personal statement: you need to show but not tell that there is every expectation that you will be an excellent CS graduate student notwithstanding the fact that you were a not-quite-mediocre sociology undergraduate student.  Your task is to frame your academic journey in a positive light.  Faculty reading graduate applications love to see improvements in students' academic records: among other things, this shows not fully realized potential, and that's really important because almost no one comes into a PhD program fully equipped with the skills they need to graduate from it: it is a very dynamic process, over a period of years.  Especially we love to see that students are doing better in the graduate level material than the undergraduate level material.

Back to your specific question: should you take the GRE math subject exam?  Other answers have already addressed this question, and I agree with them: if it's required for a CS PhD program (unlikely), then of course take it.  If it isn't, then don't: it's a tough exam, to the extent that much above the 50th percentile for an American aspiring math PhD student at UGA looks good enough for us.  You could really know undergraduate mathematics perfectly well for all your future needs, take the math GRE, and get a score in the lower quartiles.  That won't look good for you.

What should you do instead?  I recommend more undergraduate level coursework.  You want to launder your GPA by showing that you can nowadays get excellent grades in the undergraduate courses that count for CS PhD program.  In most master's programs you can also take undergraduate courses.  You should look into this in your program.  If it is not possible, you should look into separately enrolling in some kind of "post-bac" program concurrently at the same institution.  If you can get mostly A's in undergraduate level math courses, then while your relatively weak undergraduate performance in sociology will not be completely forgotten, it will probably be forgiven by some top 50 program.

[You might ask: isn't graduate level coursework better than undergraduate level coursework?  Not necessarily, no.  First of all taking graduate level CS courses doesn't necessarily show the mastery of mathematical foundations that you're rightly concerned about.  Second of all, GPAs in graduate programs are an entirely different species from GPAs in undergraduate programs.  I am unimpressed by a high graduate GPA.  I am only negatively impressed by a low one.]

I really do wish you the best of luck and hope you are working for NASA someday.  I encounter lots of un-stellar students teaching at UGA and think "Well gosh, they're so young.  If they got their act together, they could probably be much more successful.  I wonder what lies in their future?"  If you succeed in turning your career around like this, I'd really like to know.  Somehow your story will be inspirational to me and help me put more effort into reaching students who don't yet have the academia thing all figured out: we all have so much potential lying beneath the surface.


Is it considered okay to ask for the opinions of admission staff or committee after their decision of declination?

There is nothing wrong with asking, but don't expect an answer that is particularly helpful (although you may get very helpful answers). You may get a standard response that doesn't tell you much, and I would think it pretty rare for someone to take the time to craft a detailed response.

If you do ask, make sure you do it in a professional manner, with a couple of key questions about particular issues, like those you mentioned. I would avoid a generic email that simply asks, "Why didn't I get the job/an acceptance?" or "What didn't you like about my application?" Obviously, if you do get a response, follow up the response with a brief thank you email (and definitely don't get in an argument about the response if you don't agree with it!).


Terrible undergraduate transcripts. Everything else is good. Is it still worth applying to a Ph.D program in economics in a top 30 U.S. university?

Broadly speaking, your more recent work will matter far more than your past work.  You'll see this as a common theme in the many answers already on Academia SE that relate to this subject.

However, as someone who has been through the economics PhD application process, and knows quite a bit about it, I think you need to temper your "top 30" program cutoff.  To get into top-30 programs you'll often be competing against students who did as well as you in later work, got perfect scores on the GRE quant, AND didn't have problems in past work.

If your math, at a bare minimum covers differential calculus and real analysis, then given the other things you've said I think you might stand a chance at top-30 programs, especially if your private sector job involved any research with your name on it, even if its just an acknowledgment.  So yes, it's worth applying, but I wouldn't suggest setting your expectations on that range.


Citing own results which were obtained under former name

Theorem (Y. (under Formername), 2016)

Is fine. (I have personally never seen a paper that state[s one's] own results using only the initial. I presume it is specific to the OP's discipline.) Alternatively, Theorem (Y. (formally Xxx), 2016) or my preference:

  Theorem (Xxx (now Y.), 2016)

I favour this option because the bibliography will contain Xxx (2016), not Y. (2016). (At least, it won't unless you modify the bibliography.)


Unable to defend and graduate because of advisers fickle mentality

Talk to him (I'm gonna make a template out of that one)

Be professional, stay fact-based, don't say it as a criticism (veiled or not) of him, and you should be in the clear. Say something like:

  I wanted to ask you, given your experience on this matter: I had expected that the final period of my PhD, between finishing the thesis and defending, would be quite short. Given that it's not the case, I was wondering: what is, in your expectations, a typical schedule? Am I doing something that hurts my ability to defend sooner? Could I do something to speed the process?

That should open up a dialogue about your expectations, his expectations, your constraints and his, and possibly help unknot the tie you're in.

However, you're not giving us much information about the exact nature of the core issue:

  he has been postponing my defense for a variety of reasons (all of which are true)

If all the reasons given for postponing the defense are valid (I assume “true” here means “valid”), I don't see why you expect to defend. Do you think he's setting the bar too high? Is it merely a scheduling/timing issue? You say that your thesis is ready, has he gone over it, commented, critiqued, discussed it with you? Is the problem with putting together the committee?


What is the purpose of the weekly research meetings that advisers often have with their research group?

These meetings can serve a variety of purposes, but many of them fall into the broad category of keeping the adviser and all the group members updated on what everyone in the group is doing.  Below are some of the secondary benefits of a group meeting:

saves the adviser time (compared to meeting with students individually)
motivates the students to keep doing work, so they have something to report at the meeting
fosters a sense of community with the group
provides the students experience giving informal presentations
often leads to the more senior students mentoring the junior students

To answer your follow-up question in the description, no, some faculty meet with each student individually; in fact these separate meetings are common, for example, in mathematics.


You can also find search tools specific to regions, such as MastersPortal.eu. If you just need the same sort of general information that you will find on a program's Web site, all in one place, this will be useful.

If you know of a specific major that you want to study, many professional associations or organizations will put a long list of programs on their Web sites, see for example this list of linguistics programs at the LINGUIST list or this database of schools from the TESOL International Association. Sometimes these lists include detailed overviews of the programs, courses offered, and estimated costs, but usually not enough information to know about the quality of instruction.

For thorough student reviews and comparisons of schools, see StudentsReview. This Web site has various tools for searching for and comparing the various details of schools, based on your personal requirements, such as the University Comparison and the UltraSearch.


Terrible grade in undergraduate research project, how will this affect graduate admissions?

Do you think I have a chance?

Yes.

I was accepted to a masters program with some bad grades on my undergraduate transcript, some courses with less then 40% marks. In graduate school I got a distinction and now I'm a postdoc.

Doing poorly in a single course won't ostracize you from all graduate schools.


Contacted by head of school regarding an issue - should I be worried?

I think you should be worried that you and your colleagues might have to go without pizza the rest of the semester if you've already (unknowingly) burned through the budget, and not much else.

You could also worry that in the future you'll have to go through a more formal approval process, which will probably loosen once whoever is involved in the approval gets tired of approving it every week and eventually delegates responsibility again.

To me it sounds like everything you've done is completely reasonable. It's somewhat normal for these sorts of things to fall through the cracks.

If there are any serious consequences that come about from this, then there is some deeper dysfunction in your department that is completely unrelated to anything you've done. There are plenty of things for a PhD student to be anxious about, I'd suggest trying your best to not make this one of them. Just show up to the meeting on time and be apologetic if necessary, and also be understanding.


Expected size of startup package for a tenure-track position in Finland

There is very little any public information on this available anywhere.

I did some googling and here is a summary of what I was able to put together from some random documents written in Finnish (from Helsinki, Tampere, and Oulu): a reasonably normal startup package for a new tenure track or tenured position in Finnish universities appears to be enough funding to hire 1 doctoral student or postdoc for 1–3 years.


How to invite yourself to present at another university?

One thing that sometimes works is the following:

  Hi, I'm so and so, working with Prof. X on topic Y (my webpage). I was
  going to be in the area during (vague period) and was wondering if I
  might stop by to chat with your group about your fascinating work in
  Y'.

While this is a little passive-aggressive, I've found that more often than not, they'll ask you to give a talk, and even if not, you might get a chance to meet with the lab folks, which is the real purpose in any case. Make sure that the PI is around though.


Should I take undergraduate CS classes if all I do is applied software dev and data science?

If you are considering such classes, then go for it!

You are right that basics of computer science have little to do with direct application (its unlikely that you will need to invent a new sorting algorithm). But:

algorithmic thinking is invaluable,
getting it at level of computer science students (rather than "computer science for liberal arts majors") may be a challenge worth it,
getting contacts and interaction with CS students is invaluable (you may learn a lot about applied programming by immersion),
learning advances CS will pay off (regardless if you stay in academia or not).

Dedicating a year or whole studies to something is a commitment people sometimes regret. Taking a one or two courses someone is interested it is rarely regretted.

@EnergyNumbers warns you against lack of focus. But hey, you are not taking a random subject! It is a thing that will boost skills you need for the things you are doing.

Source: I did take one such class (while majoring in phys/math) and it was great (my only regret is I didn't take more). Now I am doing data science.

Disclaimer: I do like to side-track and I have little respect towards entrenching oneself in one, arbitrarily defined field.


What is the average teaching load for tenure faculty in mathematics?

In mathematics departments at U.S. research universities, typical teaching loads are 1+2 or 2+2, with 1+2 being common at fancier or better funded schools.  See this chart for some data; I don't know how accurate it is, but it looks approximately right to me.  1+1 is not absolutely unheard of, but it is very rare.  Of course what counts as a "research university" is unclear, and some places that consider themselves research universities may have 2+3 loads, but I don't think any of the more prestigious research universities have 2+3.

Of course there are a lot of other factors that come into teaching load.  How much flexibility is there in the course assignments?  How does the teaching credit differ between huge lecture courses and small graduate seminars?  How many people (if any) get a reduced teaching load?  Does the department allow faculty to buy out of teaching using grant funds?  Without answers to questions like these, a numerical comparison of teaching loads only tells you so much.  What I'd recommend is that you apply for every job you might plausibly want, and then once you start to get interviews or offers you can look into the teaching conditions at these schools in detail.


I am not getting response from any professors or industry. Is it end of the road for me?

In short: not knowing you or your life's goals, it is hard to make an assessment, and it is surely impossible to give an objective assessment. So the answers will be opinion-based, even from people claiming to be absoulutely objective.
It looks you are still comfortable with your time in the academia, you are open to both worlds ("life in both academia and industry"), which is not a good thing, in terms of employment in the private world, it is often perceived from the other side as "the candidate does not know what he/she wants, he is just waiting for an opening in the academia" and therefore your application ends quickly in the "let's get back to this later, i.e. never" folder.
This even if you do not express it explicitly, the fact that you are still employed by the uni usually raises red flag for many recruiting.
Formally, it looks like you have a strong academic CV, but it is time to be independent, which means to gather your own funds (for example this Canadian fellowship https://banting.fellowships-bourses.gc.ca/ ) and to perform some research without the influence/guidance/support/involvement of your advisor.
Please note that the +-4 years contract (and associated safety of your position) you had during your PhD is the most stable position you could have had in Academia, apart from being a full professor, which may happen at the earliest some 15 years from now.
So the insecure feeling you have about academic positions, fundings etcetc in the Academia is quite common (not that I approve, but it is beyond the individual possibilities to change this). Either you:

embrace it, looking for academic/research opportunities all over the world, both in terms of open positions and grants applications;
you escape it by working independently as a consultant, or finding an industry position you like.

Final note regarding academic applications: professors are not answering to you. Why? you are very expensive, with the funding of a postdoc they can have 2 PhDs, so PostDocs positions are rare, and if they are available there is not much time to be spent thinking on it, there will be an (official) opening and it will be filled as fast as possible and with as less efforts as possible. But professor will welcome the opportunity to have more fundings, so if you ask support in writing applications for grants and external fundings you will see a better response ratio.


Faculty job search (one year from graduation/starting postdoc)

You are not doing anything wrong, at least not more wrong than many of us here.

One cay say that is is wrong that research and education are so under-funded and under-appreciated in modern society.
One can say that it is wrong that academia sometimes is such an unwelcoming and tough place. Providing zero feedback to unsuccessful candidates is a norm in academia, but would not be appropriate in IT industry sector, for example. This is extremely discouraging and damaging for people at the start of their careers. Another example is visa fees, which would be compensated in industry, but usually not compensated by universities, making international  scientists essentially to pay for the privilege of working at a university in a first-world country. This is wrong, but academia goes away with it as there are always enough people who wants the job bad enough.
One can say that over-production of PhDs, driven by managerial approach to tenure and promotion in academia, is wrong, as it makes young people to spend many years and a lot of money pursuing something which eventually may not increase their chances for successful employment, but instead make them overqualified and unemployable in many "real-world" jobs.

I wish you good luck with your job search and future career.


Is it appropriate to give a gift to a teaching assistant for helping outside of work time?

I would consider that, in many cases, helping students "outside of work time" is often still under the normal job description of a teaching assistant. However, since you are asking the question, I am going to assume that your TA went above and beyond their normal calling. Even in that case, a gift might make someone uncomfortable, and should certainly never be given before grades are final.

Other options that might achieve what you want without making anyone uncomfortable and that might have greater impact with no more effort from you than a gift could include:

Nomination for a teaching award. Many institutions have some formal mechanism for recognizing great teaching assistants; even a nomination could be something that TA could use in the future on a job application.
Letting the professor know how helpful your TA was. Professors don't see all aspects of their TA's work. Knowing that a particular TA was helpful to the students might help that TA get a future position, or is material that can be included a letter of recommendation. You could also ask the professor if there is anyone else in the department where you can send compliments for a particular TA.

There is also nothing wrong with thanking your TA directly and making it clear their time was appreciated - no need to go overboard, just a simple email is sufficient.


International Medical student who wants to do a math phd

Much of this answer will depend on several variables that are currently not disclosed:

Where is your undergraduate degree from?

Have you taken classes in topology, analytic geometry, complex analysis, numerical analysis, computer programming, etc?

The rigor of the math classes you took during medical school.

A demonstrable capability to succeed in a U.S. top 20 math PhD program while having what would often constitute a minor in math at many universities in the U.S.

Why are you going to medical school, only to switch fields in a sense?

These are my thoughts on each of these points (as someone who has evaluated candidates for admission into graduate programs in mathematics):

If your degree is from a well regarded university in the U.S. or Europe, this will bode better in your favor. If your undergrad degree is from somewhere in the MENA region, your case will be harder. Right or wrong, many Top 20 programs in the U.S. would be hesitant to place great weight or significance on someone earning 90% in Calc II at a university in Morocco.  (I am perhaps overstating the situation here for emphasis).
I will be honest--when I get an application on my desk from the MENA region, especially if they do not have an undergrad degree in math, I tend to not place it on the top of my review stack. Applicants of this sort seem to rarely offer any reason for their attempt at admission beyond stating that they are "interested in math" and want to come to America to study it. (The MENA region is not the only area of the world that does this, mind you).

If you are interested in medical imaging, you will need to have a background in analytic geometry. My current area of research is in...yep...medical imaging from a mathematical standpoint. It is a field that requires abilities in graph theory, analytic geometry, statistics, computer programming (emphasis on computer programming). There would be absolutely no way that I would accept a student who could not program pretty well in an object oriented language (C++, Java, C#). Knowing some Python is usually not enough.

While I have not personally been to medical school, I have several associates who have. I must admit that I am rather dubious that one could take math courses while also succeeding in medical school. Maybe it is possible. I just know that there would have been no way that I could have pursued a second curriculum while I was working on a PhD.

One of my former institutions required (for admission) all of the classes you have listed, plus at least two other classes you have not. Exceptions were very rare. A minor in math was never enough for direct admission to the PhD program. A few exceptions were admitted provisionally (unfunded) to the master's program.

If I saw an applicant with a medical degree applying for a PhD program in mathematics, I would probably question the applicant's motivations (not how motivated they are, but WHY they are applying). A medical degree and a PhD in math are not usually seen in combination with one another (unlike an MBA/JD combo or something). I would question if the applicant had somehow been barred from practicing medicine or something. If you can explain your motivations clearly in an application, this would be wise.

I will say a few closing words on this subject.
Thinking math is "interesting" is likely never going to get you past the gates of a top 20 math program in the U.S. Nor will it be enough to sustain you through the 4 or 5 years it would take to obtain a PhD.
I have no idea what you finances are like, but it may be a wiser move to find actual employment in the medical imaging field with your medical degree itself. Obtaining a medical degree and then a PhD may complicate your ability to be placed in a residency as a physician.
Note that all of this is not to say that you cannot end up at a top 20 math program in the U.S. If you get a very high GRE score, maybe you can climb the wall and actually break in as a rather nontraditional student. Never say never I guess.
Best of luck.


Is it OK for graduate students to draft the research proposal for their advisor’s funding application (like NIH’s or NSF’s grant application)?

In experimental fields, this is not exactly a routine practice, but it is not rare either.  Especially in a sizable lab with a large number of graduate students, multiple grants are needed to support all the work going on.  It takes a substantial amount of time to prepare a grant proposal, and most proposals are not funded, so working to get grants can be a major drain on a PI's time.  If a graduate student can do some of the work, that may be the most efficient use of laboratory resources.

And an experience graduate student is likely to be the person with the best practical understanding of what precisely they are doing in the lab.  The student should understand the significance and the challenges of what they are planning to study further, and including that specific knowledge can help to make the best case for funding a proposal.  That being said, I would not expect a student two write an entire proposal (including all the parts of the proposal describing logistics and budgeting), nor would I expect their discussion of the research aspect to be used without substantial editing by the PI.

Moreover, regardless of what career path they eventually take, it will be important for the students to be able to explain cogently what they are working on and why it is important.  Having a student write a draft describing the research they want to undertake may be a good way of teaching these skills.


Individual presentation for a PhD application

I have not been in this situation so my answer below may be at odds. I was required to have a chat with a potential supervisor and then lodge a detailed application. The fact that the supervisor endorsed my topic was a sure indication of acceptance by the university.

It appears that you are being over cautious (and I can understand why - you only get one shot at this!). My advice is to follow the simple rule of presentation i.e. keep it clear, concise and relevant.

So I would suggest the following for your three slides:

Slide 1 - Tell them what you want to do and how you will do it (i.e. topic and methods)
Slide 2 - Tell them why you want to do it (i.e. gap in knowledge you are addressing)
Slide 3 - Tell them how qualified you are to complete it (i.e. your skills and experience)

The contents and presentation skills go hand in hand, so prepare thoroughly. Unless you have a good reason, don't be too defensive of your approach. Give the impression that you are ready.


Is it good to join industry in middle of phd?

Taking the job would probably mean permanently leaving academia behind, and giving up the prospects of ever finishing your Ph.D. If you're okay with that (which you might well be), then I think it's fine to take the industry job.

I also recommend trying to figure out what your future job prospects are if you decide to finish your degree (and conversely, what your future job prospects might be if you take this industry job and it doesn't pan out).

The comparison to your PhD salary seems a bit strange unless your circumstances are unusual (e.g. you really need the money now). Whatever you decide, I recommend putting your own future first, and thinking less both about your present salary and about your PhD advisor.


Do US universities publish an official definition of gender in the context of scholarships or admissions?

Virtually all universities will follow the policies regarding gender identity that are promulgated by the U.S. Department of Education.  To do otherwise would mean putting their access to federal funds at risk, since Title IX of the Civil Rights Act bans discrimination on the basis of sex by any institution that receives federal government assistance.  Many institutions have an official statement somewhere (on their Web site, in the course bulletin, etc.) stating that the abide by these federal guidelines.

The Department of Education enunciates their interpretations of the law through what are known as "Dear Colleague Letters."  The ones covering the question of how gender identity is defined may be found here, on the agency's Web page.  In light of the current political situation, the Department of Education's rules cannot be seen as stable, at present, but the current state of guidance can be found there.


Negotiating mathematics postdoc salary when having an offer with higher salary

I think that there is a difference between University 1 wanting you, and having you because you come with an NSF. That makes a huge difference in whether you can leverage for a higher salary or not.

The fact that University 1 did not offer you their regular postdoc title sounds like a hint to me that they will probably not be up for negotiation. Though, it doesn't hurt to try.


Is it possible to do a literature review in the IMRaD format?

Introduction

People sometimes wonder what they can or should write in the IMRaD format (Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion).  For example, should a literature review be written this way?  In this answer, we will examine a toy model for this question, namely stackexchange  answers, to produce evidence that although anything can be written in IMRaD format, it is not necessarily helpful.

Method

We prepared an answer on academia.stackexchange.com, wrote it up in the IMRaD format, and submitted it to the website.

Results

The answer appeared on the site, but the IMRaD format yielded no apparent benefits in organizing the answer and it looked eccentric.

Discussion

Stackexchange answers are not a perfect model for literature reviews, but they share one key similarity: they could be written in IMRaD format but usually are not.  Our experiment suggests a mechanism to explain this observation.  Genuine experimental results fit the "method, results, discussion" paradigm, but most other academic contributions do not.  Unless you are carrying out a formal meta analysis for which you can document a precise method, I see no good reason to use the IMRaD format for a literature review (and it would be actively harmful if you had to distort your account to make it fit this organization).


advantages and disadvantages of white-box testing of students assignments?

A lot of what I said as an answer to this question is probably also applicable here, so I will not repeat it.

  If you think there's something wrong and not educational about unit testing students code please explain why do you think so..

I don't think there is anything particularly wrong about unit testing student code, but it will likely not do away with manual grading or direct lab sessions entirely. All things considered, the way how TAs traditionally check programming assignments (build, run, check behavior against assignment description) is pretty close to what a unit testing framework does anyway.

  If you think this is a good (or just an o.k) idea please tell me if you have any ideas of how to design the tests.

The major challenge I see is that you want your tests not only to serve as a framework to check whether students implemented the right functionality, but also to check whether they did it in the right way. I think unit tests and generally automated grading will not be able to help you here, aside from limited hard-coded rule checking.

A lot of the problem is already encoded in your use of terminology. You say you want "unit tests that do white box testing". This isn't really feasible, IMHO. Unit tests test interfaces. So, to cut it short, I do not think that unit tests will help you in this regard.


Uninvited involvement in postgraduate supervision

My impression from your question is that you are very upset by this. My first advise is not to take any of this personally, and assume that everybody involved means well (even if the execution of those intentions may leave room for improvement).

The process you describe does not sound uncommon to me, though the execution seems (based on the limited information in your question) awkward.

In academia advisors have a lot of power over the people they advise. The vast majority of advisors handle that power correctly. But if you hand many people such power, then there will always be some who abuse it. Abuse can take a lot of forms, it can range from not adequately advising the advisee, up to abusing their labor or worse. So it is sound policy to regularly (say once a year) "check up" on all advisees, no matter if there are complaints or not. That way the university can keep an eye on whether the advisees are "on track" and give the advisees a more or less secure possibility to voice other concerns.

As an well intentioned (or so I say) advisor, I see such a process as a potentially helpful "second set of eyes". However, a lot depends on how such a process is implemented. At the very least, the purpose of this process was not clearly communicated to you, nor the status of his "advise".


Can writing sandwich thesis in computer science be harmful to your career?

Regarding your career, don't worry at all. In computer science, it is mainly your publications, conferences, and your code in public repositories what's gonna be valued in real life. No one is ever gonna read your thesis, apart from (if you are lucky) the members of the committee evaluating it.

That being said...

  In the next months I will defend my thesis and I wonder if it is
  really worth it to write a traditional thesis.

The question here is: do you have a thesis in the research sense of the word (a statement about the world that you believe to be true and you have tried to prove during your PhD years)? From your description, it doesn't look like that's the case.

This would be my personal advice:

Case A: You already have a few good publications that answer some questions of a common broader topic. In my experience, it is worth to compile them, cleaning them out, and adding an introduction and some conclusions to help the reader prove you know what you are talking about, and that you are able to manage the big picture. It helps you clarify your thoughts and your research. That proves that you have a thesis, you are responsible for it, and you are able to defend your own research. You might actually learn a lot doing this.
Case B: You have been publishing here and there, about different topics, some of which don't actually have much to do with each other, and you don't really have a "thesis" per se. Then, honestly, don't bother. Just present your collection of publications and get your PhD. You cannot build and improvise a decent thesis in a few months if you don't have one already.
Case C: You don't have good publications and you don't have a thesis. Get your PhD and run away as fast as you can. Try not to recommend that University to anyone in the future.


My students are planning on taking an exam together via Zoom

I've spent some time thinking about the problem.
Disclaimer: I believe exams are a way to push students to learn something from the course, grades being an incentive. The solution below may be very unorthodox, so brace yourselves. It's also based on my experiences at an European university, where an instructor has a lot of power in defining an exam and grading it.
I see two ways the Zoom meeting can work:

They solve exams individually, then meet-up for a review session, correct the exams and send them. Which is a good strategy. They will mostly work on the exams alone and during the review session they will gain additional knowledge.
They meet up just after the exams are given and spend time solving them together. It's a bad strategy. Brain storm sessions are usually ineffective, some of the students won't be pulling their weight and, I guess, in the end they will have to spend more time on the exam to turn in the same quality answers as working alone.

That being said, recognising your own weaknesses and turning to someone for help is also a very important skill in life, so I wouldn't mitigate it. I also like very much Buffy's idea to make them cite the sources.
So this is what I'd do:

I'd ask them to cite the sources. When working individually, the sources should differ. If they work together it will be a lot of trouble to not only change the answers, but also the sources.
I'd allow them, however, to work together and ask them to send a contribution report. I'd expect that it would encourage them to divide the workload more equally.
I'd set a different grading standard for individual vs. collaboration work. E.g. the points you lose on a mistake is weighted by a number of people that work on the exam.
I'd allow them to mark one reviewer (whose help doesn't affect a score) and their contribution. I'd encourage the reviewers to also report on their reviews. If the contribution was helpful, it would improve the score of the reviewer. If possible I'd also make myself available as an reviewer.

I believe these solution would change possible ways to cheat into available strategies, making the exam also an interesting experience of collaborative work.


How to build a list of seminal papers in a field?

I have undertaken to create such lists as an academic exercise myself, and quite a lot of effort is involved in doing this. There are a variety of approaches that I will suggest, and I would place more emphasis on the first approaches.

Literature review papers: Look for literature reviews on the subject of interest. Read the reviews' analysis and discussion of the state of research, there should usually be a discussion of how the state got where it is, and their citations should point you right at the seminal works.

Paper Cites: review known papers of interest for their citations. You'll want to recurse back to this strategy as more papers become known to you.

Textbook tables of citations: Review several respected textbooks that cover the subject, and inspect their citations for more works that you want to be aware of.

Reputation, reference: Ask professors and PhD students in the field what papers they think are important. Some professors may not be particularly helpful, but some may drop a comprehensive bibliographic database right in your lap.

Seminar Reading Lists: Ask for the reading list for PhD student seminars in the field.

Most Downloads/Read: This might not lead you to seminal works, per se, but seminal works will tend to be more read, and this provides another way of categorizing and prioritizing your review the literature. For example, if one paper has been downloaded at a rate 1000 times higher than another on the same topic, you might choose to examine the former first.

Also, you'll need to keep track of your efforts. Expecting to solely rely on your memory is not only wrong, but likely to mean you've wasted much of your research time. I use Zotero, a free bibliographic database with integration in Firefox, to track the papers I've read. If I get papers or books in electronic form, Zotero can also store the electronic copy for me. It can also quickly create a table of references for you, and has some other nice features. It also has competitors that I'm not as familiar with, of note are Mendeley, a freemium model platform, and Endnote, a rather popular and mature commercial platform.


Training potential vs not knowledgeable in fellowship grant writing

I don't know about the specific grants, but in general many of these early career fellowships are intended for the applications to develop the necessary skills to become independent researchers. Grant writing is always a balancing act: on the one hand, you want to have interesting and challenging research questions (indeed, if you already have all the answers, why should they give you the money). On the other hand, as you rightly note, reviewers should be confident that the applicant has the skills (or potential) to complete the project succesfully.

In my view, this also applies to the "training" part of the grant. More specifically, I believe that they want to see which skills you hope to acquire, and how they will help you in your research project and future career. You should also be able to convince the reviewers that your plan is feasible. For example, for your example of learning how to program in C++, you could outline previous programming experience. Or perhaps your supervisor has succesfully used it in various projects, and will be able to help you learning C++. Or the university might offer training programs addressing this.

In short, it is expected that you may not yet have all the skills for the project, but you should be able to convince the reviewers that you have a well thought out (and realistic) plan to acquire them and bring your research project to a successful conclusion.


Is it appropriate for a student to have an advisor who is also a family member?

I'm sure that such cases might happen (and frequently do for earlier education, like elementary school), but they should not happen at the graduate student level.

All of the usual concerns of nepotism and coercion apply, just as for any other professional relationship.  Moreover, at the graduate level, there are so many different options available and an emphasis placed on intellectual "cross-fertilization" that means most institutions strongly prefer to send their students elsewhere for future positions.  I cannot then see how a graduate student supervised by their own parent would be anything but a rather dubious relationship at multiple levels.


Is it a faux pas to not have your phd supervisor write a letter of recommendation as a post doc?

If a few of my assumptions here are met, you might try the following. I'm assuming that you are at a different institution now (though that matters less than) and it hasn't been so long ago that you finished the doctorate that you aren't still remembered at the old place.

Ask the Department Head at your degree granting institution to provide a letter that says that Dr. X is not currently capable of writing letters of recommendation due to medical issues that may or may not resolve positively. If the chair him/herself can attest to your good work, that can be added as well.

The Head may actually more comfortably correspond with your advisor to see if this, or some other, solution is possible.

The point is that the letter should come from someone official. It should give minimal details (privacy reasons), and should indicate that a letter may be forthcoming if possible.

There is one other thing the Head might also be able to do in a large department, depending on its organization. If there is a secretary who normally handles that professor's correspondence, he/she may be in regular contact and so a letter might actually be very possible. But again, if the request comes via an official request you can maintain your respectful distance while the advisor heals.


Is it appropriate/wise to include personal/family reasons in a "Justification for Choice of Host" on a fellowship application?

I've been involved in a few searches where this issue has come up. Sometimes it helps the candidate, sometimes not so much.

When it helps: In trying to decide whether to bring a highly competitive candidate to campus for an interview. No one wants to go to the trouble and expense of an on-campus interview for a candidates who isn't going to accept an offer. Knowing that a candidate has compelling personal reasons for wanting to live in the area makes it much more likely that a seemingly over-qualified candidate will be taken seriously.

When it hurts: Any time it looks like location is the primary reason the candidate wants the position. It's great that folks want to live and work and retire in our town; it's not great if they're willing to take a job they don't particularly want in order to accomplish that. It's even worse if they aren't able to speak to the specifics of their "fit" with the institution much beyond "I really want to work here".

In your particular case, I'm not sure that there's any upside of sharing this information. Your reviewers are already going to know that out of all the host universities you could possibly choose in the world, this is the one you prefer. What they don't know is why this is your first choice. If they learn that it is due to your spouse's location, they may wonder what would happen if your partner gets a different job, or your relationship hits a snag. Those who sympathize with the host institution may also feel that it deserves someone who loves it for itself, so to speak. It will be better for you if they believe simply that it is because you feel that this is the place where you can do your most brilliant work—which is probably true, as it's hard to be brilliant when your home life has been turned upside down—for a variety of reasons including your "standard points". At most you might want to say that you are familiar with the institution, and feel comfortable there.

As far as signalling why you have an employment gap—are you submitting letters of recommendation? If so, perhaps one of your references could speak to this issue. That was how I handled my own parenting-related employment gap when I returned to the workforce.


How to put multiple affiliations on a paper as the author?

You should be able to put both affiliations on. I assume you are permanently employed, in which case that is more permanent than the academic address. However, if your published work is done as part of your schooling you should put that affiliation first, perhaps listing your job affiliation/address as "permanent" or something describing your employment.

The reason for putting your academic affiliation first is that it is within that you have done the work and probably received intellectual coaching and support (if you receive similar input also from work then that affiliation might be equally valid as first). Listing two affiliations is common and the reason is typically when people move between institutes and it is important to keep readers aware of one whereabouts in such circumstances. In your case you will likely be found at your company in the future (my assumption) and it therefore makes sense to list also that.


What are evaluation criteria for NSF postdoctoral fellowships?

I think this depends to a large degree on how intelligently you can write about this subject.  If you have a carefully thought out research plan, and can point to how your previous experience prepared you for it, I don't think it should be a huge problem.  That said, there's no reason to really go out on a limb in the description.  It's not like you're required to do the research you propose, so I would be more inclined to suggest doing a mix of problems from the new and old areas.  Also, talk to your recommenders about it.  If they're enthusiastic, it will really help.
I wouldn't over think this stuff.  It's just impossible to know what people will think.  I would concentrate more on what you think is best for you.
You should discuss anything cool you've done with educational outreach.  If it was in another country, I don't think it's a problem at all.


What to do when reviewers want you to expand on introduction and discussion but you have space limitation?

"Expand" doesn't necessarily mean add words. You can add material to your intro yet still condense the manuscript by making other edits somewhere else.

Sentences can often be restructured to save on word counts. I've managed to cut hundreds of words from papers simply by revising and editing. Sometimes you can eliminate words or phrases by using langauge that is more direct and concise. Do this right, and you can reduce your word count while still making your paper more forceful and substantive at the same time.

It might take some time and effort, but have the right mindset. Don't assume your paper is currently as concise and polished as it can be – assume there is room for improvement.


Can authors from certain origins really not know about the gravity of plagiarism?

I am not here to create or perpetuate stereotypes. I just want to make an attempt to explain it.

Yes, in my personal experience, in Asian countries, scholars fail to understand the basic concept of plagiarism. Let me give a background of myself, I finished my undergraduate in India and currently a graduate student in USA.

In almost every American University, there are clear rules imposed on assignments and laboratories. There are certain honor codes and honor committees which oversee the description and prevention of plagiarism. Plagiarism check software are utilized too.

However, in India, howsoever unbelievable it is, there is no concept of weekly assignments in most (just a qualifier) of the Indian universities. At most, students are required to complete one (or two) assignment in a semester. The assignments also happens to be most boring ones. For example, "write report on recent trends in "Biomedical Instrumentation"". Unfortunately, even in those assignments, the grading patterns are usually (again, just a qualifier) binary, i.e. you get full credit if you submit the assignment and zero credits if you fail to do so. Thus, there is no mechanism to evaluate the thought process, the research skills and plagiarism related issues.

However, the concern is, when even most of the professors fail to adhere to plagiarism rules. The reason being the professor evaluation schemes utilized in most (you know, it is a qualifier) of the universities. You are supposed to come up with these many conference papers and these many journal papers for doing fairly well in yearly evaluation. No emphasis on the quality of publications is established. To take advantages of such a sad situation, several conferences pop up from nowhere giving professors opportunity to meet the evaluation requirements. Some of these conferences are pathetic. How pathetic? You can submit a single page paper, for starter; You can submit paper as late as just a week before the conference. And what else is incredible, the conferences bear tags like "IEEE International Conference on _______ _______ and ______". Really? Yes, I know it's sad, but it's true.

These are what I believe the main reasons of why Indian scholars are so much at risk of plagiarism.


It usually means that you can sit in the lectures, but that none of your work will be graded/marked and you won't get any credit for it. Some universities have official forms that record the fact that you audited a course. Others just do it through personal consultation with the instructor.

During my first year of grad school, I audited a codes and cryptography course my senior-year undergrad friends were taking. I sat through the crypto part and then bailed on the codes. It was nice. I know a little about RSA and Elliptic Curves now. I got to hangout with my friends and I didn't have to do any work. I think I'm a better educated person for it, but it doesn't really affect my career.


I think it is possible to provide semi-generic answers to your questions

  When I should make my work available?

If your problem is interesting (say an open problem or a problem that was not been attempted or solved in the past), then you could make progress on it, write a draft and upload it to arXiv or ECCC. As long as you get endorsement and moderated by arXiv, the document will be online. Yes, when you should do it is a question? --- You should do it when you feel that the community is getting something new (or a revisit) to an existing problem. You work is expanding - to some extent - the existing knowledge about the problem or research. That should be like a visible contribution to the research in your field.

  What is the arxiv and ECCC other than that ECCC is for complexity theory and arxiv is open computer science, mathematics etc ?

As the website reads (at the bottom): arXiv is an e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. Submissions to arXiv should conform to Cornell University academic standards. arXiv is owned and operated by Cornell University, a private not-for-profit educational institution. arXiv is funded by Cornell University Library, the Simons Foundation and by the member institutions.[arXiv.org]

There is a process of moderation that happens in arXiv for every paper. Read about it here.


What are motivations for companies to fully fund your degree and how do you find those companies?

1.  Companies sometimes fund research groups to get the benefits you've listed

  Perhaps a company would be interested in fully funding your M.S./Ph.D. only if

  you put their name at the top of all your published papers.
  any patents that come out of your research are owned by the company

When a company wants advertisement through publication or patent rights, they'll tend to fund a research group instead of an individual student.

In turn, the group typically claims their corporate sponsor in publications and often focuses research on topics that the sponsor's interested in, including sharing intellectual property rights.

This doesn't really work when a student's funded directly.  For example, most schools tend to claim rights to their students' inventions, which would prevent the students from being able to pass them to their employer (at least simply).  Additionally, there's little reason to have someone who's already an employee go to grad school to get 'em to do research; R&D departments can just do it directly.

2.  Reasons to pay employees' tuition

Tuition reimbursement's primarily synergistic, motivated by an alignment of interests.

This is, if you pay for an employee's tuition, that's a huge perk for them, and thus part of their compensation - kinda like health insurance and other benefits are.

And like other benefits, you might provide them to an employee instead of just paying the employee more because there's some sort of synergy.  In the case of education, it's often that you want educated employees, and by educating one who's already in-house, the result is an educated employee who knows the ropes and is invested in the company.

There're more factors involved, but they can get pretty situational.

3.  You can probably negotiate this benefit with many companies

If you want to go back to school, you're asking the company to incur a cost.  So just like getting a pay raise, you'll want to show them that it's in their interest to give it to you.

Hypothetically, say that you're about to leave the company and don't want to have to agree to stay after your education's complete.  Then, how do you make that worth their while?  That might almost require you taking a pay cut approximately equal to the tuition.  And it might even be worse, since you'll basically be telling your employer that you'll be distracted with a side-job (school) and then leaving the company soon.

On the other hand, say that you're a great employee and you want the company to fund an MBA done in weekend classes so that you can move up to management; further, you agree to stick around for at least 10 years after finishing the MBA.  That's a far more attractive offer, and a lot of companies would go for it.  Many already offer such options.

In general, you basically just need to discuss it with an employer like any other sort of arrangement.

Found a great article with advice on this topic: "How to Ask Your Employer to Fund Your Education", Investopedia:

  Discussing Education Funding With Your Boss

  Pick your degree/diploma or designation/certification
  Pick your course(s) and your school/college
  Create a list of ways your company will benefit:

  You will add new skills to the workforce.
  You will be more productive and therefore able to increase company revenue.
  You will be able to take on new assignments and generate additional revenue.
  You will be able to take on a leadership role within the company.
  Your degree/diploma will present a more professional image/give prestige for the company.
  You can mentor new employees and spread new skill sets to other employees.

  Anticipate questions or concerns that your HR manager might have. Try to answer questions in such a way that your answer leads back to a benefit for the company.

  Concern: time away from work. Response: night classes or online classes will fit into your free time, which will add new skills and increase productivity.
  Concern: company expense. Response: tuition may cost less than hiring and training a new employee with the degree/diploma/certification. Your education will make money for the company.

  Practice your Q&A and be prepared. Take your notes with you into the meeting with your HR manager.
  If your employer refuses, don't give up. Try again next quarter.

  -"How to Ask Your Employer to Fund Your Education", Investopedia


How can I find a list of my co-authors for a grant conflict of interest?

As with most other administrative data, it's far easier to maintain this information than to rebuild it from scratch every time you need it.

Maintain a spreadsheet with a complete list of your collaborators, including name, affiliation, ORCID, contact info, and most recent collaboration date for each one.  Keep this spreadsheet in the same directory where you maintain your CV.

If you're lucky enough to have lots of collaborators already, setting up the initial spreadsheet will take significant time.  Better to invest that time only once.

Every time you submit a paper or grant proposal, spend 5–10 minutes adding any new collaborators and updating your information for collaborators already listed.

Each time you need to submit a list of conflicts, extract the collaborators recent enough to create a conflict, in the precise format the agency requires.  Different agencies define conflicts differently, so if you plan to submit proposals to more than one agency, I don't recommend removing anyone ever.

If your agency is like NSF, it will require a list of names and current affiliations of your recent collaborators.  So every time you submit a proposal, you need to double-check that everyone's listed affiliation is current.  A list of affiliations at the time of your collaboration, no matter how you obtain it, is not sufficient.  People move; your conflicts follow them.  (People also occasionally change names, but that's must less common.)


The original of this piece (the Marilyn Diptych) is held in the Tate Gallery in London.

Your question is rather serendipitous as in two days you can buy your own Warhol original print from the screen at auction. The sale prints were recently exhibited at the Rockefeller Centre.

I would cite the art work in the following manner:

  Warhol, Andy (1962), Marilyn Diptych, Silkscreen on Canvas, Tate Gallery, London.

References:

(1) Wikipedia (2016), Marilyn Diptych, [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Diptych, [Accessed 1 May 2016]

(2) Tate Gallery Illustrated Companion (2016), Marilyn Diptych 1962, [online] http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-marilyn-diptych-t03093/text-illustrated-companion [Accessed 1 May 2016]