Asking for a letter of recommendation from professor that offered me a position

To your first question, yes.  There's nothing inherently rude about wanting to look for positions elsewhere despite having an offer.  Professors often want to their top students to stay on for graduate work, but these students often go to other, often better, schools (or don't pursue graduate studies) so your situation is completely normal.  Most professors wouldn't be offended by such information.  (There may be some cultures where professors' expectations are different, but not the ones I know about.)

I would suggest a frank discussion where you say that, while you'd be happy to continue your studies under that professor, there are some other schools in other countries you're interested in.  There's no need to tell him now, but if it comes up again, there's no need to withhold it either.  You can also bring it up as a question to see if he has any advice: "Yes, I'll probably apply to the program here, but I'm also thinking about trying to study at XXX--what do you think about that?"


How long do university libraries keep old copies of dissertations?

I suspect that that differs from university to university, and country to country, but I would not be surprised if the answer is "for as long as they can preserve the paper". I remember finding the master's thesis of my (fairly old) teacher when I was a high-school student.

On the other hand, it may be the policy of some university / library to digitalize them  (or in the old days, to put them on microfilm) after a given amount of time to save space in the library. This depends on how much money / time they have for that effort, and how much space they have in the library. It is easy to imagine huge differences between universities and countries in these different costs, resulting in different policies.

Regardless, you should expect that people will be able to find your dissertation for as long as you live (and afterwards).


How can I show local universities that I am someone they will want to hire in a few years?

My students (at a large well-ranked R1) are having trouble finding a job anywhere in the world, given the current problems with the academic job market: too many PhDs at a time when universities are reducing the number of t-t faculty.

By limiting your search to one particular geographic area, you greatly handicap your ability to find a job. You must understand that in some departments, they will not have a job in your particular niche come up but once in 20 years when someone retires or leaves. Even given that you are looking at half a dozen schools, the odds that a job in your area will come up next year is -- there are some mathematicians here that can give you the odds.

That being said, the best you can hope for is to do what you are doing:

Research: Keep publishing as much as you can. Publish or perish.
Service: If there is a local/state/regional/national association of scholars in your discipline, join it and become very active. Show that you are the type of person willing to put in grunt service time and will create community. Organize a symposium that brings people in the area together.
Teaching: Come up with innovative courses that put you on the radar.

But you must also accept the very real possibility that your geographical limitation may very lead to no jobs or only adjunct positions in the coming years until the statistical anomaly of a job-in-your-research-area-in-your-geographical-area comes up.


In academia, does the amount of material that one has to learn diminish as time progresses?

The first paper I read took two months to process.
Now, I can skim through two papers for breakfast. It is not that you get more material to read, but rather you get much more efficient at skipping things you know or recognize as unimportant.

It comes with practice - try reading papers and books, and think about what are the important parts. Learn to identify the 'meat' and which techniques are used. Also, you'll notice that instead of learning 'the stuff', it is about cataloging and storing meta-information about where to find 'the stuff' once you really need it.

After a while, you realize that most of the new papers you read, you only need the gist of it, in order to reference it. Comparably few papers need to be read and understood in paragraph-by-paragraph detail.


How to reference the results of Kaggle and other similar competitions in an academic paper?

I have cited these resources before in academic work. Usually I cite them in a general and holistic way, not a specific way.

  Several of the results presented in this paper were inspired by the discussion and resources on the Iowa Housing Project contest on Kaggle.com [citation with URL]. These resources were invaluable in determining a new approach to fitting a random forest model as found in this work.

I would avoid citing specific solutions, as these tend to be transient and informal. Such generalities as the one I've given above provide you with a blanket cover for any code which might resemble code on Kaggle. Citations are usually done for two main purposes:

Provide attribution and recognition for a researcher.
Provide insight into the research processes of the author of the paper.

The anonymity and changing nature of resources on a site like Kaggle make it very hard to track citations attempting to accomplish the first purpose. Thus a general citation will at least give insight into how you wrote the paper and what though processes you went through.


Undergraduate supervisor asked me to join his group for grad school. How do I politely say I'm also considering other options?

Just explain to him what you have said here (in greater detail, of course).  If you are applying to graduate school, you are really going to want a strong recommendation from this professor.  You can't get that without giving a clear statement of what you are planning to do.  The professor should not be offended; faculty members  deal with these kinds of situations regularly.


Rebuttal is limited to 500 words, but the reviewers asked almost 20 questions

I suspect I know which conference you are talking about (I am in the Program Committee) :)

Answering questions in the rebuttal phase of conferences is a newly emerging skill. Almost any paper faces the issue that you are facing - rebuttals are strictly word-limited, and the reviews / questions are waaaaay too long to clarify everything.

A good strategy for dealing with this depends on you understanding how the rebuttal will actually be used in the final phase of reviewing. Essentially, after your rebuttal, there will be a final phase of (online or physical) discussion among the reviewers and PC chairs to decide if the merits of your paper outweight its limitations, if the paper is important enough to warrant presentation at the conference, and so on. Many papers have nobody really willing to fight for it (i.e., everybody mostly sees limitations), and for these papers your rebuttal will not change anything. A handful of papers will only have people positive about the work, and in these rather rare cases the paper will be accepted no matter what you write. Some papers will have one or more quite positive people ("champions") and one or more people who are sceptical or downright negative. In these cases your rebuttal can play a major role in how the discussion goes.

Your rebuttal should be written for this specific case, and it should be written to give the champion(s) the best possible ammunition to counter the arguments of the sceptical crowd. That means:

Answer questions where you have a really convincing answer, especially if they come from the most positive reviewers.
If you identify factual mistakes or misunderstandings, clarify them directly and without the polite hollering one tends to do during journal reviews.
Focus on questions or concerns that multiple reviewers have, especially if you have a good argument.
Focus on concerns regarding methodology, validity, or importance of the work. Don't focus on presentation-level issues (the champion can always make an argument that these can be fixed in the camera-ready version, you don't have to point this out).
Remember that you don't get an actual revision for most conferences. Do not agree that some additional work will be needed (even if it's small), this will work against you.
Do not get into discussions that are a matter of taste or subjectivity (you won't change anybody's mind on those).
Do not feel like you need to address everything.
Skip polite phraseology ("Dear Reviewers, we are very grateful that you took the time to ..."). Get to the point.

Importantly, it's not similar to a response letter for a journal. You do not have to convince every single reviewer. Counter-intuitively, you need to focus your attention on the reviewers that may fight for your paper, and the ones that could realistically change their mind (in that order). Don't worry too much about a single reviewer that will never love your paper (especially one that does not like the kind of work you do or doesn't think it's important). You won't change their mind, and if the others champion your paper the PC chairs will likely side with the positive reviewers. Whereas in a response letter you will often "agree" with certain reviewer comments and fix them in the revision (even if you don't really agree), your goal here is to convince at least a subset of the reviewers that your current version is good as it is. Agreeing with the reviewer's concern may or may not get you sympathy points, but it will definitely not help you get the paper accepted.


I think you’ve hit on a subtle point here that plagues many mathematics students up to and including the advanced graduate level: evaluating yourself without external feedback is very, very difficult.
In fact, it seems to me that the ability to evaluate your own level of understanding (in the context of studying pure math at least) and test when you understand a concept well, versus when you are just deluding yourself into thinking you understand, is a skill in its own right. And it’s a difficult skill at that, one which takes considerable time and experience to acquire. Professional mathematicians have developed all sorts of tricks and heuristics to achieve this: various sanity checks and other “unit tests” that we continuously run while working through new material to test our understanding and make sure we keep our mathematical feet planted firmly on the ground, instead of becoming untethered and flying off to some kind of la la land. At some point this becomes second nature and I would guess that most experienced mathematicians do it essentially at a subconscious level. But as I said, it takes years of practice to get to that point.
What I would suggest is that you do two things: first, put it on your todo list to develop an ability to gauge your own level of understanding and identify misconceptions about material you’re reading or hearing in lecture. It’s an extremely useful skill, and thinking of it as an explicit thing you want to work towards in a deliberate way will surely help you acquire it faster and better.
Second, until you’ve actually developed that skill and have evidence to support that, assume you don’t have it. That is, accept that there will be occasions (which become increasingly rare over time, typically) when you will absolutely have to rely on external feedback to tell you that you’re misunderstanding something, or to confirm that you’re not. I imagine people will be posting other answers here suggesting various tips and tricks for evaluating yourself. That’s all well and good, but don’t let such advice mislead you into thinking you can do without external feedback. You can’t — not yet, not at this point in your studies at least. So don’t be shy, go out and seek that feedback from your professors, peers, stack exchange or wherever else you can get it. And please get rid of the mindset that it’s “unprofessional” to seek feedback - nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion.


Why do tenured professors still publish in pay-walled venues?

There are lots of reasons, but high among them are the prestige issues for their co-authors, especially their non-tenured, postdoc, and student co-authors. Everyone on the author list benefits from the typically higher prestige of the traditional (and paywalled) publishing venues.


Is a university that grants me a PhD for $1000 and a copy of my unpublished book fake?

You have lost the money whether or not the "university" gives you the degree.

You have given your money to what is known as a diploma mill. A long time ago (nearly two decades!), I received an email offering degrees from "prestigious, non-accredited universities" based on life experience. This is a complete and total scam. Even if you have a diploma, it will be useless for professional purposes. Anybody responsible for hiring a PhD will see that there is no work resulting from your "graduate career," which will be a tipoff that the degree is worthless, and you will be unlikely to receive a job offer. Worse still, even if you were to get an offer, it could be rescinded when the truth is uncovered.

Disengage now, before you lose any further money on this situation.

Addendum: I should also mention that I am unaware of the US Department of Education doing any certification of diplomas and certificates on an individual basis.


How to not let paper rejection affect you?

It is next to impossible not to be affected emotionally by a rejection of a paper. You put in a lot of time, effort and hard work, so it is a perfectly natural reaction to have a short term issue with motivation. There is no need to suppress this, and it will include quite a bit of frustration if rejections keep happening.
One of the more important things when it comes to publishing is that you are convinced of and positive about your own work and you may have to regain this after a rejection, so that the short term effects do not turn into long term problems. This might be hard to achieve when fighting all by yourself. Everybody needs some positive feedback from time to time. So talking to other people like your advisor or your peers and asking for their feedback will help because if you keep learning from the discussions, your work and your confidence in it will improve.
Of course there is also the possibility that you are working on a dead end with a particular paper. After having overcome the initial emotional response, you should be able to figure out if this is the case, maybe with the help of others. Then it is best to move on and concentratre on other projects with a better chance of succeeding. There is no happiness in working in a dead end. It is impossible from the distance to tell if this is true in your case.


Why some issues are not listed (skipped) in online list of journals?

This looks like a bug in the publisher's website.  I would suggest contacting them directly to report it.  There seems to be a similar problem with the issues from 2012 and 2011, though not other years.

If you have a subscription to MathSciNet, you can see a list of all issues of the journal, including those, and click for a list of articles in those issues.  Unfortunately the DOI links for those papers seem to be broken as well (example), which also supports the hypothesis that this is a website bug, as DOIs are supposed to be permanently accessible.

If you're at a university, you might see if your library has those volumes on paper.  If not, and you need a specific paper, they may be able to get a scan from another university that does have it, via the interlibrary loan system.  Talk to your friendly university librarian; they'll know how to help.


Why does my PhD supervisor not talk to me directly?

You seem to be getting all the information about your communication issues with your advisor from a third party - the postdoc. That information may not be accurate, though I can't say from this distance. But you should consider the fact that it is the third person with the problem and not yourself.

But the solution is to go and talk to your advisor. I wouldn't take a confrontational attitude, but mention that you did the work requested and were at the meeting you mention, etc. Ask for an assessment of your progress and position. If there is a problem you will know, from the actual source. If there isn't a problem it should be obvious from the way the advisor responds.

Like many such meetings, this needs to be face to face and informal. If you suspect from the answers you get that the post doc is trying to subvert you, I'd spend some time deciding on a plan before complaining about it.

If your advisor, in fact, has no problem with your actions then there probably was no reason for him to communicate. But if he does have an issue it is better that you hear it directly and you may need to take the initiative to make that happen.


In-class pop quizzes (online) and how to moderate them

Given the limitations of the material of the students and at your disposition why do you do a quiz on internet? You can be assured that students talk between themselves. I think that you should simply do the quizz in class with pen and paper to be really fair.

If you have a large number of students, you could do most of the quizz as multiple choice questions and use a device (scantron?) to correct them automatically. As a complement you could have a few questions with one word answers.


If it's a direct copy of the published version (same PDF, with formatting, headers etc.) I'd be very surprised if anyone would fail to cite the journal version. I mean, what's next? Providing the address to their university library instead of using a standard citation format for a printed publication?

If it isn't a direct copy, but the copy in university repository B lists the journal reference, readers will generally cite the journal version. This also tends to happen with papers on preprint repositories such as arXiv, except when people find the preprint version before it's published, and don't remember to check their bibliography for updates before they submit/publish their own work. If no journal reference is listed, you can't really blame the readers for not noticing the version in A, so make it easy for them to get it right.

Now, this isn't really enforced. The closest thing I've encountered is that many journals will ask authors to double check references that don't look like peer reviewed and published versions during the copy-edit phase. As you say, this could be considered a disadvantage to green OA, but it's likely outweighed by the visibility advantage of having a non-paywalled version.


Students plagiarising assignments: What level is worth the effort of pursuing?

I'd like to base my answer on the following piece of the question:

  […] but there seems to be a general reluctance in academia to do anything [about plagiarism], even in extreme cases.

This does not seem to be true. In cases of plagiarism in journal publications, theses or otherwise published material  academia is quite strict and careers have ended because of plagiarism (not only academic careers - at least two ministers in Germany had to resign from office due to plagiarism in the PhD theses which have been written years, even decades, in the past).

Things are indeed different when it comes to homework assignments and there are various reasons. Homework assignments do often repeat and the same assignments may have been assigned in the same form a lot of times in different places. So it is actually likely that different people come up the similar or almost similar solutions. Also, it is hard to prove that people deliberately copied something. Moreover, students may (or should?) be encouraged to work on the assignments in teams and hence, they may produce similar output.

But the dealbreaker for me is: At the place where I am students may cheat on homework assignments, but they will never be able to graduate with plagiarism and copying only. There are more safeguards: oral and written exams, one-on-one meetings with a thesis advisor to discuss the progress of the thesis, theses presentations… As a consequence: I am pretty sure that my students do copy homework regularly. I tell them that they miss a chance to learn something if they write down other people's work and that this will backfire in the written and oral exams later (and it does…). But I never investigate any case of plagiarism in homework (however, I do investigate cases of plagiarism in theses).


Is it ethical to present a second paper at a conference when the first paper and travel was funded by a separate organization?

I can't see any ethical issues at all. You seem to be properly fulfilling the obligations of your funding. What else you do at a conference is your own concern. The funders are willing to support you and you are doing what is required for the funding. Rest easy.

I can't imagine that any funding agency would suggest (or even think) that you can't do other things at a conference. They certainly expect you to take advantage of the opportunities it affords.


Is it fair to punish absent students with a one-question exam?

I think that this is unprofessional, and is leaving the institution open to all sorts of action (up to and including legal proceedings, if it impacts on a student's progression, for example). For example, what if a student is unavoidably absent?

If it's only "worth a point or two", then I don't think it's worth antagonising people in this way. The sarcastic note left on the door simply underlines how poorly thought-out this whole thing was...


Rejected journal paper for submission as a book chapter

This won't work. Research papers aren't published in books.

When papers are published in books - so-called review volumes - they are usually by invitation only. The editor will contact the people who he/she thinks are able to contribute. They aren't research papers either; they're usually reviews.

You're probably best off talking to your supervisor about what to do next. It's unlikely that there are no other journals that will consider your paper; you just have to find them.


Does ScholarOne really force you to have multiple logins?

Thank you for your question. My name is Jasper Simons and I work for Thomson Reuters, the organization behind ScholarOne. Our platform is configured by our publishers as they service their authors and editors. Publishers seek to maximize the value they offer to their journals, their editors and their authors through specific configurations of the ScholarOne peer-review workflow. This doesn't address your concern, but I hope that it sheds some light on the reasoning behind the multiple login requirements for authors. In short, there is one ScholarOne platform but there are many site configurations.


Manage communication with students (as advisor)

I institute a lot of different things, but in my personal experience, the best thing is face-to-face meetings. Weekly meetings with the individuals, to talk about the problem and issues they may have with it. If it's undergraduates that are less committed to you you can settle for every other week. Things get lost in digital communication, and your students will feel a lot less comfortable with having nothing to discuss week after week. I find services like GitHub/Dropbox/Sourcetree to be the most effective, but people have their own pet software that they're used to. I suggest emphasizing personal interaction above all!


Is it worth it to print a copy of the syllabus for each student or it is better to have it on my course's website?

First, you should check that your school doesn't have a policy that says instructors must hand out a paper copy of the syllabus to their classes (those policies exist...). Second, you have to think about whether there is anything they need that you can guarantee they've read been handed (e.g., some laboratory students have students sign that they've read the syllabus, for safety reasons). If you don't have to hand out the paper, you should feel confident these days that they can get the syllabus on your class web page.

My current strategy is to forego printing the syllabus for large classes, but to explicitly email the class with a link to the online version (along with a very short introduction). If you want to ensure they get the syllabus, attach it to the email.

For small classes (<20), I have printed out a 1-page "highlights" of the syllabus (my contact info, address for the online version, due dates for assignments, etc.). I may not even do that any more, as I just figure the students are perfectly able to get the information online.

One more thing: on the first day of class, I do go over the important parts of the syllabus, and I also put a copy on the projector as I go over it.


If I decline admissions at a program that doesn't allow deferment, will I be accepted next year?

I'll address the chances of being admitted again next year at a school that accepted you this year.  Certainly they aren't 100%, or even 95%, since if they were that high, then the department would save itself the trouble and simply allow deferrals.  As Aeismail points out, it also depends on the strength of the applicant pool, and that can fluctuate from year to year.  For example, in a bad economy, or if the department hires a star faculty member, it can become harder to get admitted.

Department admissions procedures vary greatly.  In some departments, having strong support from a single faculty member may be enough to guarantee admission.  That is not true in my department, and I'd estimate that the average chances of being admitted again in this department are about 75%.  (Don't take this figure too seriously, but it's a better estimate than 50% or 100%.  It's based on experience and thought experiments rather than data.)

Roughly, the top 25% of the class is admitted quickly and easily, with little debate.  The next 25% involves more discussion, but the answers are probably pretty consistent, and the main issue is ranking for things like fellowships.  It's the bottom half that involves increasing amounts of randomness.  The number of plausible acceptances - people where nobody would think it strange if they were admitted - is substantially larger than the number we will actually accept.  Near the dividing line, there are a lot of people whose applications are really pretty comparable.  We arrange them in order, after a lot of discussion, and draw lines for admission and waiting list.  The order is not completely random, of course; the stronger your application is, the higher you are likely to be ranked.  But there's a lot of arbitrariness to it, since it's a matter of small distinctions.  The trickiest cases are the applicants who have notable strengths and weaknesses, and their positions depend sensitively on who is on the committee: getting a high ranking depends on having some committee member who strongly supports your case, and nobody who is strongly opposed.  (Admissions committee are often risk averse, so opposition counts more than support.)

Overall, I'd guess that as many as half of the people in the bottom half of the list might have been replaced with someone else if another committee had examined the applications from scratch.  That would correspond to a 75% overlap between the decisions.

Of course, this figure is pretty much meaningless for individuals.  If you are a star, then you will definitely be accepted again.  If you were the most controversial and lowest-ranked person last year, then your chances of being lucky next year as well are not good.  The truth is most likely to be in between.


Is it considered bad if a student replies late to a professor?

Firstly, take a deep breath. You are fine. I know it's hard, but try not to overthink the situation
There is no "normal" or "expected" response time set by the laws of academia (those don't exist). Sixty hours is a perfectly fine response time, especially if the email from the professor was giving lots of detailed information which you needed to think about before answering, or as you say, you needed to make progress and report on it. Email is not instant messenger and should not be treated as such. Many people in academia only check their email once a day, so wouldn't notice a "slow" reply at all. Furthermore, as a recipient, I'd rather get a slow, correct response than a hasty one with mistakes.
If you are worried about this in the future, it's fine to ask the professor how quickly they would like you to respond to emails. In my new job, my bosses and I discussed this openly, in fact. We decided that a week is a good maximum response time, excluding holidays. It's good to have these honest conversations about expectations for any collaboration, and it's not too late for you to do the same.
Another option is to reply to the professor's email soon after you have seen it (not interrupting your work or concentration, of course) to let them know that you have read it and are working on it and will reply with a full answer tomorrow/next week/other timeframe. However, I think this could be a bit redundant (the sender will probably assume it anyway), it unwantedly adds to the sender's email traffic and is bad for the environment.
In summary, try not to worry and don't think of email as being like Whatsapp. It's more like sending a physical letter.


Responsibilities of instructors to students when teaching controversial subjects

If the students are being assessed by you, some (most?) will start to tell you what you want to hear in order to get the highest grade. This is rarely what we as educators want in our students. We want to build within them critical thinking skills.

Controversial issues are common in some fields. For example, one of the subjects I teach is Business Ethics and I have clear beliefs and values in this area. Is it OK for me to focus on the arguments in favor of my view and discount competing arguments? No, it is not.

Can I tell my students my opinion? Opinions differ on this but I believe it is OK, as long as it is done very carefully with LOTS of evidence that my opinion is wrong. Again, students must be taught to think for themselves, including how to critically evaluate what they consider right and wrong. If I just make my points then it is not education, it is indoctrination and that is not what higher ed is about.

As far as social norms, I would say that if you are trying to get your students to 'believe' anything, then you are doing it wrong. If you are trying to get them to think critically, then you are doing it right. If the students feel they must agree with what you say, you are doing something wrong. If they feel like they are getting balanced information and a class ends up with many different opinions, then you are doing something right. If everyone is thinking the same, then nobody is thinking...and that's not good for anyone.


Possible to change supervisor for Ph.D defense in Germany?

Most universities that I'm familiar with require an enrollment period of at least one year for doctoral students. Many additionally stipulate that this be an "on-campus" residency—that is, you can't be working offsite for a company or at another school.

So you definitely need to check the regulations of anyone who would agree in principle to such a deal.

However, it is also worth considering the possibility that such a situation is one that a lot of faculty members would be reluctant to agree to participate in. Part of the reason for this is optics: they don't want to be seen as having "poached" another professor's graduate student, even if the reasons for doing so were benevolent. They may agree to a "co-supervision" situation instead, since that doesn't quite come across as badly.


Writing a "recommendation letter" for a supervisor from a student?

I don't know about the Australian system; in the US, it's quite normal for applications for promotion and teaching awards to require letters from students (though I think usually students from classes, rather than doctoral students).  However, I wouldn't pre-emptively write one; my recommendation is that you write a letter or email, in which you could offer if they ever need such a letter.  The other thing you could reasonably do is write a short email to their head of department, just saying in a few sentences wy you felt that they were successful as a supervisor.  That's probably the best way to help their career.


Do Tier-1 grad schools have a GPA filter

In my experience, no. The only automatic filter is for the university's minimum required TOEFL score; this requirement is imposed by the university and is not under the department's control.

Furthermore, for international students coming from academic systems that the committee is less familiar with, the GPA is less informative. If you weren't familiar with the Italian system, for example, it would be hard to know what a grade of 27 represents. So in these cases the admissions committee is likely to rely even more on the letters of recommendation. For a successful application at a "Tier-1 school", the letters likely need to come from someone knowledgeable about the reality of such a program (perhaps they received their PhD from a comparable department, or taught there in the past) and make a convincing case that you could be successful there. Even an extremely strong letter saying "This is the strongest student in Country X this year" might not be sufficient, if the committee doesn't have sufficient information to compare that with other applicants.

Source: I have served on grad admissions at a Tier-1 math department.


Summary of contributions for reference letters

There is no reason, actually, not to do both. What you suggest is very likely a good thing and will save the writers a bit of time. But you can have a bullet pointed introduction followed by a longer description of the work. Make sure the second part is labelled as such. If the prof's memory is jogged by the first part they have no need to keep reading. Otherwise they may appreciate it.

You could even use wording that they might want to copy into a recommending letter. Make their life easy.


How to handle sexist questions toward a faculty job candidate by other undergraduates?

There are two issues at play here depending on if you are formally part of the hiring process.

If you are formally part of the hiring processing asking questions about the family life of a job candidate, man or woman, is treading on thin ice. Even if the information is not meant to be discriminatory (e.g., as a search chair you might want to be helpful and look into spaces in the university nursery), it is just a topic you do not bring up. As a formal part of the search committee, it is reasonable to mention to the person who asked the question that family life is a topic to avoid. You may also want to mention it to the search chair so they can be prepared for any claims of discrimination.

If you are not formally part of the hiring process (e.g., potential faculty tend to like to meet students), the issue is difficult. It is perfectly reasonable, and non-sexist, for a female student to ask a female applicant about work life balance. It is a topic that a female student might have questions and concerns about for themselves going forward. Of course it could be a sexist remark to intentionally sabotage the candidate. Note that any combination of student and applicant sex could be non sexist (a male student may want to understand how their potential wife might would handle the work-life balance and a female student might want to know about how a husband would handle it). Given that, I would not raise it with the student that the question was sexist. Rather, I would point out that while the point of meeting with the candidates is to give undergraduate students exposure, that the students should be welcoming to the applicants and try and put their best foot forward. Asking about touchy subjects is not in the best interest of the department.


What is the difference between the various documents that are part of an application?

I thought I would come back and answer my own question. The cover form was a special form that that program wanted me to fill out, while a cover letter was just that.

The difference between the personal statement, statement of interest, and research statement was miniscule. I just cut out some of my life from the research statement.


Is it common to end a Marie Curie IF fellowship early?

I don't know if it's common—one would require statistical evidence to answer that—but it certainly happens. A former colleague of mine finished a Marie Curie early (not a year, but perhaps 9 months) in order to take up a different position. In their case it was not even a permanent position, but another postdoc (a Veni grant in the Netherlands), although they obtained a permanent position not long after (and cut short their Veni to take it up).


Do media interviews enhance or potentially spoil academic reputations

The simple answer is that it depends on in what context the appearance occurs.

If you become visible as an expert in your field your appearances will build your reputation among the public as an expert. As such you will gain a positive (trustworthy) reputation which I am sure will be seen as positive in many respects. The university will gain credit by having employees appear as experts In my country all faculty also are mandated to convey science to the general public and appearances in media is one way to do this. So my guess is that the department and the university as well s your own discipline will see this as beneficial.

Obviously, if you appear with politically incorrect views it will all be negative. Another problem that I am sure will appear is jealousy from colleagues who do not appear in media. In the end your success depends on how you get portrayed in the media. My university runs media training to ensure that faculty represent the university in an appropriate way.

In the end positive media visibility is not likely to strongly affect your research career in terms increased funding, the systems should not really be influenced by it but we all al human. Media visibility will mainly affect the way you, your discipline, the university etc. is perceived by the public. It may, for example, influence the way politicians distribute research funding.

So, media interviews can potentially both enhance or spoil a career depending on the context in which you appear. I believe it is important to know how media works and universities often have programs (and sometimes also rules) to help in such contacts. Depending on the type of question to which you are requested to respond you need to be able to assess how answers will be used or perceived. If the interviews are on non-controversial topics, it is probably not problematic but if you are approached on a burning issue, be aware and be savy


Are TED presentations academically credible?

I think you are asking two slightly different questions at the same time:

“Are TED speakers and their ideas credible? (as in "likely to be correct")” I'd say yes, since TED's process for inviting speakers is at least as strict as that of many scientific publications. Most TED speakers are invited to speak at TED because they've become renowned scientists through their peer-reviewed publications.
“Are TED talks scientific (as in "usable to base your own science on")?” Here the answer is definitely "no", for the reasons you mentioned: they lack the information needed to be independently verifiable.

Note that this does not mean that their content is wrong or unscientific; it just means that the talks are incomplete from a scientific point of view, and thus not by themselves verifiable. But most TED presenters will previously have published the findings they present at TED in a regular peer-review scientific publication in a scientific format.

The bottom line is: you should treat TED talks like you should treat Wikipedia: use it to quickly understand new and interesting concepts. But before you actually apply one of these concepts, verify them using scientific literature.


What are "General Quality Indicators" for scientific research?

Seminars and papers are activities. They are asking to elaborate on the quality of such activities, preferably with some objective indicator. For instance, a seminar can be taught by invitation at an institution that occupies a relevant place in the Shanghai ranking of Universities. Or a paper can be published in a journal placed in the first quartile of its category sorted by impact factor.

The h-index is used pervasively in Spain and Mathematics is not an exception.

Good luck.

EDIT: What is your final goal when filling in the CV? You should find additional information on the specific call you apply to. For instance, if you are thinking about applying to accreditation (i.e. to pursue an assistant or tenure position) then you should have a look at the accreditation agency web site: www.aneca.es


Is it OK if I hate a piece I wrote several months after publishing it?

Short answer : Yes

Why - because hindsight is the equivalent of 20:20 vision and writing for tomorrow is like looking through fog...

So, let it go, if there is nothing to apologise for, go and concentrate on the next one - bringing in your experience of this one...


Is it normal that my adviser remove my information, pictures, everything from the lab homepage after I suspend my school?

Consider your relationship with the professor at the time that you left. There are at least two cases I can think of where a professor may remove your information from the lab page.

You didn't finish, and you are no longer part of the lab (not quite alumni). It's not clear if you will finish. A lot of unfinished students can make a bad reputation for the prof.
The professor does not want you to represent the lab.

As you probably know, Asian culture is a lot about 'saving face'. The professor may feel disrespected by you taking a job before finishing the thesis. Or possibly even taking the 'wrong' job.

One place that the professor is very, very unlikely to remove your name is the lab publications list. Work on publication, and use that as your work reference rather than the lab webpage.

If possible, try to discuss your research with the professor.


How to provide information about past students without violating FERPA

Intuitively I would think that if signed consents were needed, NIH would instruct you to include them in your application or, at least, to obtain them and keep them on file.
I checked a few universities and found that they publish an email address for addressing FERPA questions.  Also, there is a contact page for the compliance section of the Department of Education: http://familypolicy.ed.gov/content/family-policy-compliance-office-contact-information
On p. 9 of the instructions you linked to, there is a contact page.
I'm not sure if it's relevant, but on that same page, I read:

Collection of Personal Demographic Data
NIH collects personal data through the eRA Commons Personal Profile. The data is confidential, and
is maintained under the Privacy Act record system.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/collection-of-personal-demographic-data.htm

The part of FERPA that looks like it might be relevant is here.
The basic idea that I got about this is that NIH commits to holding the personal information you share with it as close to its chest as your university does.  In other words, it commits to using the personal information you give it for internal purposes only.  My big-picture view of FERPA is that it provides protections to students from having their personal information publicly disseminated (subject to a ton of fine print).


Visiting professor's office before being admitted to PhD program?

It sounds like an excellent idea.  I like to meet with prospective students, especially ones from atypical backgrounds; a meeting gives both applicant and faculty a chance to gauge whether someone will be a good fit for the program.

However, don't get too pushy.  Keep the conversation casual, and don't put on an elaborate show of your knowledge.  The best approach may be to ask about the professor's research, and express how it tied into what you already learned and found interesting, as well as what you are interested in studying further in the future.


You must cite every time you use the words or ideas of another.


What is the perception of doing a conference presentation at your own institution as opposed to another one?

Rtisan is probably right about a local conference carrying somewhat less weight and prestige on a CV.

However, there are some other benefits of presenting at a local conference:

It's usually free.  With the travel money you save, you can attend another conference far away later on.  Now you have two conference talks on your CV instead of just one.  (In other words, "present locally" versus "present far away" is probably a false dichotomy.  Even if the local conference conflicts with a faraway conference, there is very likely another faraway conference in the near future that's just as good.  And if the conflicting faraway conference is, like, the one and only awesomest conference in your field, then the organizers of your local conference probably shouldn't have scheduled theirs to conflict with it.)
Less travel: you get to save a day or two of travel time, sleep in your own bed, see your family, etc.  This may make the conference much more relaxing.
Being the attraction: People may be saying to themselves: "Hey, there's a conference at Podunk University.  I think that's where gman works, so I'm sure he'll be there.  I was just reading his paper and it will be great to hear his talk and ask him questions."
Networking: as a local at a conference, people are more likely to want to talk to you.  For instance, "Hey gman, you live here, can you recommend a good restaurant in town?  Would you like to join us for dinner?" The opportunity to talk to other researchers informally can be very valuable to a career.  Even fielding mundane questions like "How do I connect to the wifi?  Where is Room NNN?  Can you help me turn on the projector?" can start good conversations.  (Make sure you know the answers to these questions!)  It can be harder to initiate interactions like this when you are a stranger in a strange city.
Help organize: Try to join the organizing committee, or at least offer to help them out.  Organizing a local conference is a lot of work, and by contributing to this you will gain the appreciation of your colleagues.  It's also valuable experience, and "conference co-organizer" is a nice line to have on a CV.  Finally, conference organizers tend to have more contact with the visiting participants, contributing to Networking as above.


Trend of postdoc in theoretical computer science

This is a general trend throughout computer science. Part of it comes from a general gradual inflation in cultural expectations. I suspect that a larger amount is due to the fact that CS is no longer a rapidly growing field. For a long time (several decades), as the field expanded and matured, universities were staffing up their CS departments, and could absorb lots of graduates as professors. Now, though, the great expansion is complete in most developed countries, which means there is a more competitive market and a need to absorb graduates in holding patterns. The field has not yet adjusted well to this expectation, however, in my opinion, and does not have the well developed methods for matching graduates with postdoc positions. This, in my opinion, is one of the major challenges facing CS academia at the moment.


Finished a research paper and feel horrible now

I don't have a name for it, or a scientific basis, but I experienced exactly what you are describing: a general numbness/boredom that lasted a couple of weeks after seeing a paper published - everything was pretty hectic up until that point.

My guess is that this is due to something called 'lifestyle changes' (also a hypothesised contributor to postpartum depressions) - your life changes almost instantaneously upon submitting a paper. Before that you were totally hyped up, working really long days, getting by on the fear that things wouldn't work out and the adrenaline when it turned out they would after all. And then when you're done you are exhausted and all your previous drivers (that all related to getting your research project done) are gone. You have to recuperate and you have to find something new to live for (next project? family? a little bit of Mozart maybe?).

Good luck!


Is it disadvantageous to have recommendation letters from postdoctoral fellows rather than professors?

You want the best letters you can get. A letter from a professor who doesn't know you well or your work will be worth very little as they can't honestly say much about you to boost your application. If a post-doc can, in fact, say positive things about you as a teacher, then that would be worth more. They are more experienced than you are and so will have some credibility.

This is especially the case if they had a role in evaluating your teaching.

For a more research oriented job the equation might work out differently, but for a specifically focused teaching job you probably would like one letter the can honestly and positively speak to that. The letter writer can include something about why it is they and not the prof who is writing.

But most of the letters should come from professors.


When should the erratum (or other published correction) for a paper be cited?

Errata are used for substantial errors in a paper, rather than mere spelling or grammatical errors.  Citation of errata with original papers helps reduce error propagation in research.  Unfortunately this is not as common a practice as it should be, mostly because authors are often unaware of an erratum, or believe that if they are aware of it, others will be too.  The problem of error propagation due to failure to cite errata has been studied in the context of physics research by Thomsen and Resnik (1995).  They find that the existence of an erratum does not decrease the citation frequency for the original paper, and the erratum is usually not cited with the original paper, allowing errors in research to propagate.

It is possible that this situation will improve now that most journals are online, owing to better online referencing of papers and direct connection of papers to their erratum.  When you look at a paper from its original source in an online scholarly journal, it is usually obvious when there has been an erratum.  However, it is still common for researchers to obtain papers from other sources where they are not alerted to this, and so this is not a panacea.  (For example, some authors print out papers and then read from printed copies.  If there is a later erratum, the researcher with a printed copy may have no idea that this has occurred.)

Though I am not aware of any formal "standard rules" on the matter, it is desirable to reduce error propagation in research, and so ideally it is best to always include citation of the erratum with the citation of the original paper.  That way the reader is alerted to the existence of the erratum, and does not propagate any error in the paper.  At a minimum the erratum should obviously be cited whenever the main citation to the paper touches on an aspect of the paper that is actually affected by that erratum (i.e., you should avoid error propagation yourself).  But even in cases where the erratum does not affect parts of the paper that were of relevance to the main citation, it is also useful to cite the erratum in case an interested reader decides to read the cited paper in full, and is not aware that there has been an erratum.  Evidently, from the fact that errata receive few citations, not many academics are doing this.

Speaking as someone who has published a mathematical paper with an error in an equation, and an erratum to correct that error, I would prefer it if all citations to my paper also cite the erratum with it, just to make sure that the original error does not propagate.  It is not offensive to an author who has made an error to have the erratum to their paper cited; we are already aware we fucked up, and it is a relief when others do the right thing to minimise the damage.

Thomsen, M. and Resnik, D. (1995) The effectiveness of the erratum in avoiding error propagation in physics. Science and Engineering Ethics 1(3), pp. 231-240.


Is it appropriate to compare myself with other students in my statement of purpose for U.S. graduate school application?

This would be a bad idea and will likely have the opposite effect you want it to have.  Especially in mathematics, people are turned off by bullshit.

Let me relate an actual exchange I heard a few years ago between two rather famous mathematicians:

Person 1: "I have an amazing theorem to tell you about!"

Person 2: "Slow down.  You tell me the theorem, and I'll tell you if it's amazing."

This illustrates I think an important principal of social interactions in academia (and probably elsewhere too, though I gather that eg in politics and business this is not true).  Namely, people are very unimpressed and skeptical when someone comes out and says how great they are.  What you have to do is tell them factual things that force them to draw the conclusion for themselves that you are great.

In other words, the old adage about writing holds: show, don't tell.


What is the differences between purchasing Harvard Business Review PDF and reading the article?

Many publisher offer a teaser - an excerpt of an article - as an advert for the full article. The teaser may contain the abstract, some graphics, maybe a lay summary or press release about the article, and so on.

In the case of your Harvard Business Review article, they let you read the first eight paragraphs, which gives you an idea of the article's content and style. The full article is about five times longer than that excerpt.

If you buy the pdf, you get the full article, together with its references, and any supplementary information. (though in this particular case, there are neither references nor supplementary information).

Note that five pages of text can get turned into nine pages within a journal, thanks to graphics and other materials that appear in the PDF, but don't appear in a text-only version: for example, in the PDF of the article in question, the first page consists of a single image.  The text-only version may or may not contain the side-bars that appear in the PDF ("Things to Look Out for When Judging Expertise").


To cite an organisation correctly in IEEE style

I think what you are referring to is a technical report or white paper from certain company. Then it should not be misc type. I think if you change your item from misc to technical report, the IEEE style in latex will handle it.

The correct field in citation style should be
Authors(if any), title, publisher, address, year.


Why not notify faculty candidates of the position being filled?

This may just be a matter of timing. Such letters to failed candidates wouldn't normally be sent until there was a signed contract with the accepted person. I can't guarantee that it is universal practice to notify failed candidates, but suspect that it is the general practice.

On the other hand, the other applicants would be foolish to turn down other offers without positive assurance of success unless they are willing to risk the consequences. They have been free to ask about their status, of course.

But "acceptance" of an offer also requires certain bureaucratic procedures be completed and they take a bit of time. A week isn't enough in many cases.


Can I ask for authorship/acknowledgement for writing small data analysis program for a large study?

Asking whether a contribution merits acknowledgement or co-authorship is always appropriate, as long as it is done in a professional and non-confrontational way.

The answer may be "no," but it's certainly worthwhile to ask. (And if the answer is "no," at least you have learned something about standards for authorship and acknowledgement in your lab/field.)


Finish incomplete degree before returning to school?

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that would stopping you from starting over fresh in this case - you can retake every course, restart your thesis, etc. if you so desire. (That being said - I'm not an administrator.)

That being said, it's also probably worth your time to get a copy of your old transcript (if possible) and talk to any prospective universities about transferring old credits. It may or may not be possible for every course, but I'd be surprised if absolutely zero of them transferred.

The advantages to this approach are numerous, to say the least:

It's most likely cheaper.
You'll almost certainly complete your degree faster.
You can skip ahead to the parts of the program that most interest you without having to worry about prereqs.

As always, however, you'll have to check with your institution of interest as to what their specific rules/procedures are. Beyond that, I imagine it's hard to say with any certainty what to expect.

That goes for returning to your old university too -- they'll know best what your first steps will be.


Can we have a citation in the Works Cited and not use it in an essay?

A Works Cited by definition includes only the...works that you cited. So any extraneous entries should be removed.

In contrast, a bibliography can include all related work, even if you don't specifically refer to it. The goal of a bibliography is not only to cite the author's sources, but also to provide recommended reading for the reader.

In scientific journals, my experience is with the former. If you think a particular article has value, you can refer to it in the text, even obliquely (e.g., "X is widely discussed in the literature [1-15]. In this work, ...")


How often to meet for successful supervision of Master theses?

My supervision is (in Computer Science, although I think that this is likely not particularly field-dependent) in the beginning usually quite tight (meaning meetings once a week for about one hour each, although for other fields "tight supervision" may mean something different). At the beginning of the project, the student is usually not yet fully caught up on the literature in his field and does not yet fully understand her/his topic. Hence (s)he is still unsure about where the project is going, and often has a hard time deciding on tactical issues, such as what to try and work on next. In this phase I usually have a weekly jour fixe.

As the project progresses, I more and more retreat to the background and give the student the freedom to decide more individually how to conduct her/his research. This naturally also means that meetings become less frequent, and the jour fixe becomes more an on-demand meeting. I still try to catch up with the student approximately every three weeks (again, concrete frequency may vary for you), mostly to check that the student is progressing and that her/his research is not completely derailing into a track that I consider dangerous or wrong (I will let the student make smaller, tactical mistakes, such as wasting some time on an approach that I suspect may fail, but I will step in if the student embarks on a detour that I consider bad enough that it may seriously threaten the success of her/his thesis).

Towards the end, meetings tend to become more frequent again, mostly because I like to give students quick feedback on individual sections of their thesis while they are writing. No point in letting them make the same 15 standard mistakes through their entire document before I get to suggest improvements. In this phase, and especially if time is already running out, I sometimes have quick feedback meetings almost every other day.


Best way to find references for statements in the thesis

Although the question is a bit vague, I try to give you an answer from my experience. There are often statements that you heard somewhere or which are "obviously" true, but you need a reference.

My best bet is to search google scholar for a variety of different combinations of the terms or suspected authors. If you find some source stating the claim (or something similar) you can often go back through the chain of citations to find a more accurate and reliable source.

Depending on the subject, searching google books is also helpful.


How do I find out more about former PhD students of potential advisor?

Ask directly

It is a typical part of the application process.  Prospective students want to know what career paths previous students have ended up taking.  I would find it concerning if the potential advisor was threatened by this.

As for this concern:

  I do not only want to speak to pre-selected students who are going to tell me that everything is awesome when it isn't.

you can ask any students who you are put in touch with to tell stories about other PhD students they knew at the time they were there. Such non-vetted students might give you a different picture.  That said, PhD students typically end up knowing all of their advisor's strengths and weaknesses, so if you are put in touch with several, you should be able to assemble a good picture of what you are getting in to.

Note that advisors want a good fit with their potential students as well, so all of this should be in their interest too.  No need to hide it.


Are full-time and part-time postgraduate students who graduate in same year considered to be the same batch?

Both of them graduate during the same year. Are they both considered as the same class?

Yes and no.  Yes, if there's a concept of the "Class of 20XX", then anyone graduating in 20XX will be considered part of it (regardless of when they started or how long they took).  However, in my experience this terminology is much less common in graduate school.  It makes some sense for programs that typically take a fixed amount of time, like medical school or law school, but it's not a particularly meaningful concept for Ph.D. programs.  It's much easier to talk about a Class of 20XX if you can predict well in advance which class you'll be in.

When I was a graduate student, we primarily identified with the cohort we entered grad school with (because of time spent studying together and preparing for the qualifying exam), rather than those who ended up graduating in the same year.  Nobody talked about a Class of 19XX.  If anyone had, it would have been clear what it meant, but it would have sounded odd.


The answers are yes and yes. But for most purposes more like yes and unlikely.

You can ask for time. It may be possible to get time or not. For a conference it is harder, of course, especially when there is some uncertainty about when it will really be finished. For a journal asking for time might cause minor disruption, but it would likely only result in getting published in a later issue of the journal.

But the editor can also ask that the paper be withdrawn and resubmitted when it is complete. That is up to them. If they thought the paper was originally good, then they are more likely to work with you.

And be sure to indicate that the paper will be improved, not just corrected.


What do these article submission dates really mean?

This set of deadlines sounds like the conferences is doing two rounds of review for submissions.

First, you send in an abstract in February, and they decide if it's worth reviewing a full paper by mid-March.
If they invite a full paper, you send it in by late April, and they send a final accept/reject by the beginning of June.
Final versions of accepted papers have to be submitted by mid-July.

Their names could be a bit better, but it seems fairly clear to me that this is their intention.  If you're concerned it may be otherwise, it's always OK to write to the conference contact email to check your understanding.


How to write a good PhD literature review?

The purpose and expectations of a PhD literature review is likely to vary from field to field. My PhD was in Physics, but my views might be taken to apply generally.

There is likely to be some repetition or paraphrasing between students in the same research group, when it comes to the literature review. However, perhaps the comments below might help.

A literature review should be an enjoyable to read (!) introduction, survey and guide to the state of the art. You want to introduce your reader to the field (assuming a clever, but non-expert reader), setting out what has gone before, and perhaps to some extent showing where the gaps are in the research - raising the opportunity for you to present your research as that which fills a gap (Next chapter: "Aims and Objectives", or similar).

My primary hallmarks of a poor, or sloppy literature review is that papers are listed without any helpful context.  A dreary literature review, to me, is a listing of papers that we all already know about, without any guide to the reader why the trail leads me to hold the present thesis. No-one much likes reading a dry chronology of papers. I personally, want to be told the story of the research and the literature review plays an important part of that story.

The opportunity exists here to review the field - what are the general trends in the literature? For example,  Paper A was the first to introduce the theory that drove the authors of Paper B to perform experiment Z which is now the standard technique. However, Paper C suggests that an alternative method may be more effective, etc.

Note that your review shouldn't attempt to be a complete review of the field - whole standalone papers are written on this, usually by invitation. Your PhD literature review should be more focused, but still a recounting of the Story So Far.

Since your literature review is to be a nice, focused review of the path to your contribution, it is likely that you will read far more papers than you will need to cite in your literature review. Those papers that do not contribute to the Story So Far can be excluded from your literature review. Going off on a tangent, like in any story, can lose and confuse your readers. If you feel a need to refer to these papers, perhaps you can refer to a decent review article which discusses them in detail, for the interested reader.


Am I able to change my GPA once I submit a graduate school application?

I think it really depends on the school you are applying to:

You can call their administration that you would like to hand in recent new transcript, or just send it to them and hope they accept (it should certainly not be a bad thing to do it).


Do I need to disclose my academic misconduct on this grad school application?

It seems that "academic infraction" would be discipline for poor grades.

That is wrong.  Misconduct is a type of infraction.  You were disciplined for an infraction.  Disclose it.


What's my chance of getting into a good math or statistics graduate program, if I don't have impressive grades the first three semesters of college

You major GPA of 3.98 is what counts most. "Full of B's" and overall GPA is 3.5 means "half A's, half B's," which is not at all bad. The one C and one W aren't great, but don't necessarily hurt you much. "Everyone" knows that when you take courses outside your major for "balance," you will likely get "worse" (and a few bad) grades. That's especially true the first three semesters.

I'd expect your GPA to rise to about 3.7 as you take more courses closer to your major in the later years. As long as you "finish" on a strong note, that's (mostly) what counts.


How can a paper accepted for a poster session be credible?

I'm not sure what you mean by credible. If you are a student, especially, being in a poster session is a really good opportunity to meet people in the field and impress them with your brilliance and future prospects.

As one of the senior professors who used to wander around poster sessions, I was honored to meet such new and upcoming researchers and learn from them. If I had anything useful to say, perhaps they gained something as well. You can usually, at a poster session, distribute a longer version of your work with contact information.

The same goes, I think, for young faculty, though to a lesser extent. But still, use it as a chance to make contacts and extend your reach.


Proof for seemingly obvious statements in thesis?

I know from experience that JSON and XML are two of the most widely used formats for serializing data on the web, but how can I prove a statement like that?

You can't*. That's why you typically do not matter-of-fact-ly state that this is the case. You argue why you have chosen that you have selected those two formats, without claiming anything you are not sure about. For instance, it would be ok to claim that you have selected XML because it is used in many open standards, or that you have selected JSON because of its high compatibility to JavaScript, or that you have any of those because it is used in framework XY, which is of high significance to your work.

Loosely-related-story time:

I did my PhD in services computing. In my research circles, everybody "knew" that, while SOAP (a protocol for Web services) supports any number of protocol bindings (HTTP, TCP, JMS, even SMTP), the only binding that is really used is HTTP. We "knew" this because basically all tutorials and books really only talked about HTTP, and it seemed like a logical thing to do (you know, "Web" services and all). That was until I talked to a practitioner from IBM about this, who then informed me that more 70% of their's and their customer's SOAP services are actually consumed over JMS, because, even though this is much more annoying to set up, JMS is what most companies used for integration before Web services, and changing it would be way to intrusive.

End of story time

Especially for young software-developers-turned-computer-scientists, separating what you think is true (e.g., because many books or blogs claim it is, or because it seems logical) from what you know is true (e.g., because there are reliable studies, or because it can indeed be proven) is a hard, but valuable, lesson, and your undergraduate thesis is the perfect place to learn it. While writing your thesis, reflect what you really know and what is just the kind of "community common knowledge" that any community of enthusiastic practitioners tends to build up. Most of the time, the common knowledge will be correct, but you will be surprised about the times it isn't.

*And I am not 100% sure the statement is true. I would not be surprised if binary serialization (e.g., protocol buffers) is used more often than either, especially if the same entity controls both sides of the communication.


What do supervisors have to gain from a success or failure of a PhD student?

First, to answer the question directly, supervisors have much more to gain from successful students than unsuccessful ones. Among other things, success brings them new students and future collaborators. Most of us are very proud of our successful students and, we hope, they have good feelings toward us, as well. The failures just disappear.

Moreover, I doubt that he would want to keep you "under his thumb" rather than letting you go, whether from passing or failing. I think that it is very unlikely that any student, no matter how badly treated, can "ruin the reputation" of their advisor unless there is a pattern of abuse over many years and many students. I'm sure it happens, but is so unlikely that it would be an extreme event if he considered it to be a possibility.

But, it is also possible that he just wants you gone, however it happens, because he sees you as a thorn in his side and he is tired of dealing with it. It is possible that, while failing you is a poor alternative, he sees it as the only way. That doesn't imply that he is correct, though he may be, and that you are wrong. But it might just be more peaceful without you. Your statement "all the PhD has been done without following any of the supposed methodology and criteria" is a bit of a red flag.

I worry, however, that you may be fighting him just for the sake of fighting. He seems to have "expected" some changes. It seems you have resisted. I can't judge the case, of course, but it is a poor strategy to fight with your supervisor rather than seeking some accommodation.

I don't know what options are open to you, but most seem dire unless you find a way to make peace. Abandoning years of work is difficult, but may be necessary if it hasn't been productive. Even established researchers have to do that on occasion.


Can refusing to attend mandatory Title IX training be grounds for suspending a tenured faculty member?

Put yourself in the shoes of a university administrator. The federal government has made a law requiring your university to do certain things if it wants to maintain its federal funding. Those things are to some extent subject to interpretation, but according to legal opinions of your university's lawyers (e.g., the general counsel or other high-ranking legal advisers) requiring your faculty to undergo Title IX training about race is a good way to comply with the requirements and minimize the risk to your institution. So, you institute these requirements as mandatory. Some months later you are informed that a tenured faculty member is refusing to take the training.

What do you do? Select the answer that applies:

  A. Invite the faculty member over for a chat in your office, where
  over cigars and a glass of scotch you both joke about the silliness of
  the federal requirements. You congratulate him on his good sense in
  objecting to these requirements, ask him to keep quiet about not
  taking the training so as to not make trouble for your university, and
  jovially send him on his way with an invitation to meet soon for a round of golf.

  B. Invite the faculty member over for a chat in your office, where you
  tell him that you are dissatisfied with his disregard for university
  policy, but that you understand that he is objecting to the training
  on principled, conscientious grounds, and confide that you even agree
  with him to some extent. Taking that into account, and taking into
  account the fact that he is tenured and that you value his research
  contributions, you tell him that you have decided not to take any
  disciplinary action. You caution him to keep quiet about not taking
  the training and not encourage others to follow in his footsteps so as
  to not make trouble for your university, and send him on his way.

  C. Send the faculty member a sternly-worded memo, with a copy to his
  dean and department chair, where you inform him that following his
  refusal to follow the mandatory requirement to undergo Title IX
  training, you are initiating disciplinary proceedings against him.
  You caution him that disregard for university policies on Title IX
  will not be tolerated under any circumstances, and that such
  proceedings could lead to various sanctions up to and including his
  termination. You conclude the memo by saying that until the
  proceedings have been set in motion some weeks from now, he has one
  last chance to satisfy the training requirement.

Now, it may be that you are the kind of person who would select answer B, or even A. I'm not saying it is unreasonable or wrong to be such a person, but if that is the case, I maintain that that would be in strong correlation to the fact that you are not a high-ranking university administrator -- let alone a successful one -- and probably never will be (I say this as a completely neutral statement, which I consider to be neither an insult nor a compliment). In practice, answer C is the only answer that a REAL university administrator (and certainly a successful one, who has a good ability to weigh the consequences of each of the different options on his/her own career and institution) will realistically choose.

To summarize, the answer to your question is an emphatic Yes: refusing to take mandatory training not only can lead to suspension or termination, but that is in fact the most likely outcome of such an action, by an overwhelming margin.


Do EPSRC-like Centres for Doctoral Training exist outside the UK?

That's very country and scientific domain specific and based on policy of government which may change every election cycle.

e.g. in UK the established UKRI encapsulates research councils STFC,EPSRC,MRC, ... and fulfils UK specific policy.
AFAIK in Germany there are 4 major non-university institutions doing research and PhD training - Max Planck Institute, Leibnitz Institute, Fraunhofer Institute, Helmholtz centres and many others - some of them multidisciplinary.
As I'm currently in Czechia (Czech Rep.) there is Academy of Sciences and it's centres some of them connected to relevant universities with doctoral training program. But most are based on individual labs and mostly individual training with courses available in multiple institutions.

Based on my personal experience in UK, in Czechia and little in Germany I cannot generalize. Thus you should do your own research in your domain of interest, find rather individual lab which may fit your scientific domain in a country you'd like to study.


How can an undergraduate challenge a professor on a misleading homework question?

I have found the best way to handle that requires that first the student realize a few things:

the professor has a great deal of discretion to determine how to grade and mark things
professors are humans and make mistakes, and most are aware that misunderstandings and miscommunication can occur, and
like all other humans, being directly and publicly challenged or put in a position of being told "you are wrong" tends to evoke defensiveness which is rarely helpful to anyone in any situation

What I've found works the best for most situations is to meet the professor at an office hour or immediately after class (if they stick around for a few minutes), and ask about the issue. Go in with an open, learning attitude clearly wanting to understand - not trying to make a point or prove someone right or wrong.

To avoid defensiveness as well as allowing the person to "save face", you can put your question something like this: "I have a question about this homework problem, as I think I'm misunderstanding something." You are asking the professor for their help in understanding something important to the course, rather than framing it in a way of "defend your wrongness", and usually this results in a more pleasant conversation.

It can also be good to explain your reasoning clearly in answering the question, such as: "based on the principle we talked about in class a few weeks ago, of how all possible combinations of numbers are equally likely with a true lottery draw [showing you were paying attention to other things in class], I figured {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} must be a possible outcome. I looked up combinations and lotteries in the textbook, and rechecked lecture notes, and I haven't found anything that indicated otherwise [shows you did due diligence in trying to figure out the problem without just asking, and thus aren't wasting their time]. Am I misunderstanding something?"

Then, the most important part: listen carefully to the explanation. If they don't explain and direct you elsewhere, such as to the book or part of a previous lecture, then make sure you have enough information to do that, such as indicating you absolutely will do that right away and, "just to make sure, we are talking about chapter X on combinations, right?" Then go do that.

If you don't find out you were mistaken, then take the materials back to the next meeting time and show them again. "I did what you advised and I read this part here in the book, which seems to support that the combination is equally likely. Can you please help me see where I'm going wrong?" Polite persistence is incredibly difficult to defend against, even for very cranky people.

Alternatively, you can be more direct and try to handle this in class respectfully. Doing this in class varies much more by professor, your developed social skills and attitude, your standing in class, and your local culture, but at least in my part of the US I've rarely had a problem. You just politely ask, at an appropriate time, to go over the homework problem, and ask for an explanation of what it is. If it contradicts what you thought you learned, then you bring it up and say so. "I thought that principle X meant that...how does that effect this problem?"

One or both of these methods has resolved every problem I ever had in classes that were worth the effort, and the remaining ones were so minor (a few points here or there) I just didn't bother if a the first thing tried (usually a quick question or asking for an explanation) didn't work. A more extreme situation might call for more, but that should only be after you tried all of the above and no resolution was reached of any kind, and the result is so dire to you that it's worth trying to go farther.


How do I get an email alert when my paper is cited?

You can set up an alert on Google scholar that will do exactly what you want. From Google's help page:

  How do I get notified when a particular paper is cited?

  Search for the title of your paper, e.g., "Anti de Sitter space and
  holography"; click on the "Cited by" link at the bottom of the search
  result; and then click on the envelope icon in the left sidebar of the
  search results page.

An even more effective way can be to set up a google scholar citation profile and select "Follow new citations" from the appropriate checkbox.


Journal rejection after 9 months without proper review: why do journal editors allow this sort of rejection?

This is actually pretty common with high-standard journals as the SIAM journals and this is one of the risks you need to know (and your advisor should tell you early enough).

The SIAM journals are really top notch for applied math,
and the top journals try to maintain a high standard and to only publish papers they deem to be good enough. Unfortunately, it is hard to tell the quality of a paper in short time, even for the editors (although a desk rejection happens). So they send them to reviewers for an in depth check and the state of things is that it takes at least a few month (and nine month used to be standard, but e.g. SIAM if working hard to reduce the time). If the reviews are only slightly non-supportive, rejection is likely. This is what happens at the "upper end" of publication venues.

So, I'd say that your conclusion "Unless you are completely sure that it is a path-breaking work don't send to SIAM, otherwise it will be time waste" is quite accurate. So, unless your advisor is very confident, I would advice newcomers (read PhD students) to aim a little lower in the beginning of their career and aim for faster and slightly less prestigious journals - if their work is great, it will be read and recognized (but don't aim too low, too).

As to the question whether such a reasoning for rejection and little to no comments are common: No, this is not really the norm, but happens from time to time. I would guess that also the editors are not happy with such reviews, but their choice would be 1) to forward the reviews as they are, probably with additional comments from their side, 2) neglecting the reviews and write something on their own (which would really be a large waste of time for everybody) or 3) ask for more comments from the reviewer or more reviews. Action 2) has the downside, that the authors would not even see that at least some reviewer was involved and 3) would take even more time and the only benefit for the author would potentially more detailed feedback. So, the editors go with 1). I can not comment on the question whether such a review leaves a bad impression with the editor and may remove the referee from the "favorite referee list".


What are some ways to increase grading speed?

I find it very helpful to write a grading rubric.  It includes how many points I give for each part of each problem.  I also include how many points of partial credit I give for various common errors.  Typically, my key consists of a worked copy of the exam, and I make notes about each question on the actual exam.  Generally, my rubric gets more detailed as I grade, since it's only then that I learn what are the common mistakes.

If I feel that I'm taking too long grading, I'll often start timing myself.  Maybe I get at most 30 second per question (often less).  This isn't a hard rule, but it helps me know what to aim for.  (Recently I just graded a calculus exam, so most of the problems were pretty quick to grade.)  Your mileage will vary from one subject to another.


How do I ask a professor to contact another professor he knows to accept me as a Masters student *via email*?

Since you aren't now his student and can't visit in person, I'd send a rather longish mail first requesting that he do you this favor, sending a letter to "Prof X", then giving the background that you've been unsuccessful and finally reminding the prof of the old work you did and any relevant updates.

I think that making the request first will permit him to quit reading at any point so that the length of the mail is less important as normally a short mail is appreciated.

"Longish" implies about a page with about 3 paragraphs, not a monograph.

Somewhere along the way note that you really want to work with his relative and that you know of the relationship. But don't make that the main focus. Letter from Prof A to Prof X.

But I don't think you are asking a lot. Part of his job is to send out such letters. It may be that sending it to a relative will cause him to send a different sort of letter, but perhaps not. The other prof may take a recommendation from a relative as having more weight (honesty) or not. But that is up to them.


Is it acceptable to use personal experience when opening in presentation of my thesis?

I would say that it could be acceptable. It really depends on the context. If you are using it to explain why you became interested in the topic of your thesis, then it could add to the context and depth of the thesis. However, if you use it to support your thesis, I think you should avoid it. It will weaken your argument and could be off putting to your committee.


Course of action after failing a (non-maths) course in hopes of entering grad school for maths?

In my experience, this should not have much/any impact on your grad school applications (assuming you do well in all of your other courses).  A single failed class in an unrelated area just doesn't say anything about your ability to do research in mathematics.  (This is predicated on all of your other grades being very good, and the F being unrelated to any sort of academic misconduct, of course.)  As for course of action, I think you've already identified it: make sure this is a single F in an otherwise excellent transcript, particularly high marks in challenging courses related to your intended area of graduate study.

Personal anecdote:

I am currently in my first year of a pure math phd program in a (roughly) top 20-25 program, and I failed a non-math class in my junior year of undergraduate (something to do with neural networks) for reasons along the lines of yours.  My overall GPA by the time I applied was a 3.75 or so.  I didn't say anything about the F in my applications since it was not particularly relevant to mathematical research.  (In my Statement of Purpose, I wrote about research I had done and areas I was interested in pursuing further research.  A failed neural networks class didn't seem worth noting.)  I did get rejected from two top 10 programs, and maybe that was the reason, though I doubt it.

Hopefully some people who have served on graduate admissions committees in math departments will weigh in on this since my experience may not generalize.


I have been accused of cheating on an online exam because my answers were similar to those in a math website, is this sufficient proof of cheating?

There is literally no proof other than the fact that a website did it the same way I did. Can they say I cheated without any real proof?

There's more proof than a website did it the same way you did. You couldn't explain how you got the answer you wrote. Besides, "real proof" is a vague term. From their perspective it could very well be real proof, even if from yours it isn't.
You probably should get ready to defend yourself. See the answers in this related question.


What academic discipline does "Productivity Science" come under?

There is no such thing as a

  a foolproof set of categories to put each document in

With paper documents the document had to "live" in a single locations and therefore needed a primary category/label/tag. You then had lots of different indexes that would allow you to find the document from multiple places. You often had to walk to a different library to collect the document. This system was/is inefficient and problematic.

Electronic documents can "live" in multiple places. The concept of assigning a single primary category to an electronic document is dated and silly. You should either modify the file directly to add helpful metadata or create a database that lets you externally create searchable metadata. This then allows you to easily search for the document, and related documents.


Do British universities expect the research PhD applicant to know research methods before they write application proposal?

British universities have recently begun to adopt the MRes (Master's of/by Research) as the preferred pathway for new PhD candidates who may not have a full set of research skills.

This typically involves some taught causes, as well as hand-holding through some preliminary research which may then form the basis of your PhD.

It offers you a couple of advantages: it adds a qualification that you'll have earnt after one year, so  you'll get early rewards. And you can decide after a year whether academic research is for you; and whether or not you can work with that department. If so, you've made progress in your research already. If not, then you can leave amicably with a Master's degree and a new network of academic contacts.

It offers the university an advantage too: it gives an additional point at which the candidate's abilities can be assessed.


Using et al. for a last / senior author rather than for a first author

I think in an informal medium like a blog post, you could convey that author D is the main character in the “story” you are trying to tell while still maintaining proper citation standards by saying something like, “Author D and his/her colleagues (Author A, et al., 2018) have shown that...”


Do I cite both sources in the following scenario?

I'd say cite both if you're using both of them to support whatever argument or claim you're writing. Unless you're writing for a journal that has strict number on in-text citation counts, it doesn't hurt to cite multiple sources if they were both important in generating a given idea.


Having a rather short CV when applying to grad school is not particularly uncommon. Moreover, I find the general academic trend to focus on the "length" of the CV somewhat misguided. Nobody cares whether your CV is 0.5, 1, or 5 pages per se. That is, padding your CV with unrelated chaff ("worked as barista at Starbucks from A to B", "plays the flute and gitarre on XY level") is not getting your anywhere. What admission commitees etc. care about are mainly two things:

What relevant experiences do you have for grad school? What specific jobs, service work, special courses, papers, etc. did you do that are relevant?
What distinguishes you from other candidates? What makes you better / more suitable for grad school than all the other applicants with reasonable undergrad schools and grades?

Note that I am not saying that a CV without undergrad research experience, no previously published papers, no relevant extracurricular activities, and no strong research letters will get you into a great grad school. However, it is important to recognise that the problem here is not the CV document. It is that you do not have those experiences, and no way of formatting your CV will fix these problems.


Conference proceedings and talks on a CV?

There is a little bit of variation depending upon the discipline, but generally the convention is along the lines of the following:

  CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

  Invited Talks

  Unsolicited presentations (ex. keynotes) where you are invited by the organizers.

  Papers

  Complete manuscripts that are published in proceedings and indexed by relevant databases.

  Abstracts

  Short (i.e., 250 words) or possibly extended abstracts intended to describe the talk.

  Posters

  Any poster presentations, these may be eliminated by senior scholars.

Generally the rule of thumb is that the section is organized by most prestigious (i.e., invited talks) to least prestigious (i.e., posters). When applying for an academic position this section should be as complete as possible as well. Additionally, it may include notation indicating you are the presenter if you are not the first author.


They shared the code, but then, I found key errors in their work. How do I criticize this in my research paper?

I would think several times before using the word 'corrected', especially if I don't fully understand the code, as it seems from your question ("...I studied the code and was able to decipher the meanings of various parts of the code."). Understanding various parts is different from understanding it entirely, the latter being a prerequisite to improving upon it or correcting it.

However, if you are sure that mistakes exist in the code, you have two options:

(a) Point out those mistakes and share them with X and Y before trying to publish it. Once you publish, the credibility of their code goes down - if some parts are wrong others could be too. Therefore it is only fair that you convey the errors to them first. You aren't obligated to, but I think it's the right thing to do.

(b) If you're significantly extending the code, write your own-   it could be based on their code, and you can acknowledge that, but by writing your own code you take full responsibility for it, and are not propogating any errors inherent to the original code. In terms of quantum of work, I think this is more significant, and gives you more room to develop it for your particular purpose.


First things first, you should check and see whether the editor has actually rejected the manuscript, or whether you just received a very awkwardly worded request for revisions.

The reason I say this is because the specific phrasing about "cannot accept" you use reminds me of some terrible editorial communications I have received that begin: "We cannot accept your manuscript in its current form ..." but are actually a request for revisions.  I've nearly been fooled into thinking a request for minor revision was a rejection this way, and only realized I was wrong when I noticed a date for submitting the new version at the bottom of the email.

My advice then:

Reread the email and see if you've really been rejected.  You might not be.
If yes, or if you can't tell, get in touch with the editor, express confusion and ask for help understanding the reasons.  A good explanation is appropriate.
Be prepared to take the paper elsewhere, because an editor once decided rarely changes their mind.


How can you change a bad course run by somebody else?

I commend you for caring about these issues. When you have a permanent position somewhere, I hope that you will push for the sorts of improvements you described.

For the moment, you are in a position of essentially no power, and it is unlikely that anyone will listen to you. You tried the only potential solution at your disposal: you raised your concern to the academic in charge, and you found he doesn't care.

As such I recommend that you do the best job possible within the limits of your authority, try not to make any enemies, and try not to worry about this much. If a similar situation occurs later in your career, when you are likely to have more clout and authority (and possibly less pressure to publish), you might push harder for change.