Is there a chance to get in math phd for a physics student?

There is a chance, but you may need some preparation first. And you may need to make an appeal for a special situation.
In the US, the undergraduate math program consists of approximately 10 - 16 semester-length courses covering the major areas of math and a few less mainstream topics. If you don't have something very close to that, then there are probably gaps in your education that will affect your chances.
Pick a couple of graduate programs you are interested in, and look at the undergraduate math programs at those institutions, especially the required courses. That will give you a sense of where you stand.
But the only way to get a valid answer to your question is to apply for admission to a program, listing what you know and having letters of recommendation that attest to your likelihood of success.
But you can probably also talk to someone at a university you are interested in and ask them for an informal assessment of any gaps you need to fill. Then, you might need to take a year or so seriously filling those gaps, perhaps by enrolling as a non-degree undergraduate somewhere.


Been asked to peer review, unsure as to qualifications?

Assuming this is a reputable journal, then I don't see any problem, especially if the manuscript is in your areas of expertise.   It is this expertise the editor seeks.  It is not how long you have been in academia.  A good editor will seek multiple opinions.  Since you have published in the same area, then you are in a good position to provide useful opinions.

Editors usually do a Google search to find people who have published in the same area.  Alternatively, the manuscript in question may have cited your past works.  Also, editors tend to have their personal pool of reviewers.  Any papers assigned to them will then go these reviewers. Lastly, the journal submission system may maintain a pool of reviewers or past authors and their expertise.


How to efficiently get multiple outputs for a given set of inputs?

Your answer to this question will depend somewhat on your long term goals.  Everything you mention: talks, journal articles, blog posts, tutorials, magazine articles, etc. can be worthwhile in the right circumstances.  Most of what you describe consists of taking variations on the same theme to different audiences.

In what circles do you most want to be known?  More generally, how will you measure success?  Say for example that your primary goal is to get tenure.  If you're at a high research school, then publishing an expository article for undergraduates may well be viewed (by your tenure committee) as a waste of your time.  In contrast, if you're at a liberal arts school, this may be considered just as valuable as getting a research article in a top journal.

You asked about incorporating this into project planning.  I suggest that you decide which audiences you are most excited to reach.  This will likely be largely independent of the particular project.  Then as you start on each project, think about how you can tailor your message to suit each of these audiences.  You may be surprised by how often you find you have something valuable to say to each of your target groups.


Can I put an IEEE accepted journal version on Arxiv without paying Open Access fee?

Non-legal answer:

The journals (theoretically) are there to provide editorial services as well as manage peer-review.

As such, the final product, or "accepted paper version" as you put it, is a result of work of the original authors, as well as the editor and IEEE organization. These people own the copyright and so regulate the licensing. You can't just "put it on arXiv".

Legally speaking:

Consult your agreement with IEEE and potentially a copyright lawyer.

Here is what IEEE has to say, and a quote:

  Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as TechRxiv or ArXiv?
  Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished manuscripts on public
  sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for publication by IEEE, an author is required to
  post an IEEE copyright notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the
  preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)
  or a link to the paper’s abstract in IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the
  final, published paper in IEEE Xplore.


Why are oral tests and exams not common in American educational systems?

An oral exam takes me about 30 minutes (including preparation and discussion afterwards). I have about 110 students in my class. Doing an oral exam for that class would take me about 55 hours. This is not the only class I teach. I teach about 5 classes per semester. In order to avoid some of the subjectivity my department requires that an additional staff member is present. So implementing this for my courses would take about 55*5*2=550 person hours. That is just not practical (not to mention that my colleagues won't thank me for the additional work I give them as they have to sit in for these exams).

I know how long an oral exam takes because I do use it sometimes, but for practical reasons I can only do that for a small number of courses and I have to justify why this is necessary to my colleagues.


Asking for funds to attend a conference from a current advisor for previous work

Professionally, you should first explore the possibility of funding from sources other than your current advisor, e.g. the conference organisers or third-party sources. Ideally, your previous supervisor should help you out in this process. If your paper has good reviews, then you can feel more confident with your efforts. Does your previous supervisor know people in the conference organising committee or the professional committee under whose umbrella the conference is being organised (e.g. ACM or IEEE sub-committees)? I don't imply anything unethical, but your professor could use this informal channel to better gauge the waters, which might help drafting the funding appeal more effectively.

If the above course of action is not feasible, try to ask your current supervisor  for ideas, without directly asking for funds. S/he might be able to suggest other sources, and help you with the application process. You might eventually be able to appeal to the benevolence of your current supervisor, but you must first demonstrate your diligence in pursuing other avenues. Remember, faculty members are always pressed for funds. If your current supervisor is unable to help you out, it wouldn't necessarily mean that s/he is unwilling.

If all everything fails, you will have to communicate with the program chair and indicate your inability to attend. Assuming that you can arrange funds to at least register (this should be your minimum ask from any funding source), it might be possible to arrange for another speaker to make the presentation on your behalf. Explore the possibility of presenting via Skype. Try to find out from the conference chair whether any of this would work, and work with this as your fallback.

Remember to use the good reviews to your advantage while making your case. All the best.


Whether to indicate "job sharing" option in application

Difficult question. Here are my thoughts, too long for a comment.
The fact that the university explicitly supports job sharing suggests that asking about it in your particular case would make sense.
It is possible that the explicit support is just pro forma. Can you find out whether there are any couples presently sharing a job? Do you have any contacts at the school to ask informally?
In your response to  @Buffy 's comment, you say you'd be OK if just one of you gets the job. Then I'd concur in waiting.
Speaking personally from my experience on hiring committees, I would appreciate knowing this information early, particularly the fact that one job would be acceptable even if two were preferable. For me it would strengthen the application(s).


Can anybody help me in letter sample for a journal asking for permission to use figures in the paper?

Just ask. State clearly what paper the source is, who the authors are, which images are of interest and why. Explain what the use of the images will be, where you plan to publish the result. Ask for the exact way in which you should acknowledge the source.

As stated in comments, if the source of the images is your own paper or thesis, you'd need to check the agreement to publish those.

Make sure you cite the original source (your thesis, in this case) correctly.


How long it takes to hear from a APS journal

As an author, I have had to wait anywhere from three days to seven months to get referee reports back from APS journals.  The time lapse is highly variable, although two months is a typical time.  I wouldn't even start to worry until it has been at least three or four months.  The APS editors are also generally pretty good about letting authors know if there has been an extended delay (most commonly caused, I understand, by a difficultly in finding willing referees).  If there's going to be a really long delay (over five or six months), they will probably send you an e-mail.

As a referee for the same journals, I can tell you that the editors like to hear back from referees within two weeks, but that doesn't necessarily mean the referee needs to submit a report within that time.  Often, a potential referee will take the whole two weeks just to let the editor know that they are not available.  And if they do promise a report, it may arrive another two to four weeks later.

In any case, if you are curious about the status of your article, you should consult APS's Author Status Inquiry System before contacting the editor.  The system (located at https://authors.aps.org/Submissions/status/ ) provides automated information about the workflow status of your paper.


What is a shared task? and what is the purpose of it?

The rationale is to get a bunch of smart people together to actually solve or at least make progress on open academic problems. I've never been to a "workshop" that actually did any work on the problem. Conferences are typically just people giving presentations and not really working on problems in my experience.


What are my duties regarding reporting plagiarism when reviewing a fellow graduate student's paper?

If you've spotted plagiarism, you have a duty to report it to a responsible authority. Just because the student is a fellow graduate student in your department does not absolve you of the duty. However, the politics of the situation can make things much more complicated, because it may lead to intra-departmental conflict, which is most certainly not a good thing.

I would believe the correct initial approach is to notify the professor of the current course of the current and past plagiarism. If you feel that no appropriate action has been taken, then you can consider notifying the instructor of the past course; however, the actions that can probably be taken are somewhat more limited than for a class where the final grades have not yet been assigned or have only recently posted.

How far you want to pursue this matter, on the other hand, depends on how serious you believe the transgression is. If the plagiarism is serious enough that it calls into doubt the student's ability to be an independent researcher, then further escalation—perhaps (in order of approach) to the graduate "officer" for the department, the chair of the department, or the dean for graduate students—may be necessary, if your initial efforts don't lead anywhere. This is, admittedly, a rather severe course of action, and one which may cause problems for you later down the road. So I would also recommend talking to your advisor as well, and solicit feedback as to what are the consequences of pursuing this.


I'd put the number of credit points you already have as well as your current weighted GPA (in /30, of course. The conversion in /110 may be misleading, especially for potential employers outside Italy, who may be unaware of the fact that, in the Italian system, the thesis mark is added to the weighted GPA, and thus read the grade as "final".)


Could Brexit negatively affect PhD students in the UK who are EU nationals?

Update on 2016-06-28: The UK Government has put out an official statement on this issue.

The short answer is "We don't know yet, but for a PhD program likely not."
The terms of Brexit have not been negotiated. They will may start to be negotiated if and after a vote to leave wins the referendum. (So that's the "we don't know".) On the other hand, it will be at least two years after the vote before the actual British exit from the EU (presumably to negotiate and to allow a graceful transition). If you are starting a 3-year PhD program this fall, there's a good chance that the negotiations will not have concluded fast enough to directly affect your research.

Source: the BBC writes

If the UK left the EU would UK citizens need special permits to work in the EU?
Lots of people asked about this. A lot would depend on the kind of deal the UK agreed with the EU after exit. If it remained within the single market, it would almost certainly retain free movement rights allowing UK citizens to work in the EU and vice versa. If the government opted to impose work permit restrictions, as UKIP wants, then other countries could reciprocate, meaning Britons would have to apply for visas to work.
What about EU nationals who want to work in the UK?
As explained in the answer above, it would depend on whether the UK government decided to introduce a work permit system of the kind that currently applies to non-EU citizens, limiting entry to skilled workers in professions where there are shortages.

and

How long will it take for Britain to leave the EU?
This was a question asked by many people. The minimum period after a vote to leave would be two years. During that time Britain would continue to abide by EU treaties and laws, but not take part in any decision-making, as it negotiated a withdrawal agreement and the terms of its relationship with the now 27 nation bloc. In practice it may take longer than two years, depending on how the negotiations go.


Error in master's thesis, I do not know what to do

Revoking an earned degree is exceedingly rare and would probably be appropriate only for serious and intentional errors such as fraud. I think you can rest easy on that.

Talk to your advisor and lay it all out. It is better that you find and reveal the errors than if someone else does. Going forward you can still publish, but it will need to be based on correct data, analysis, and interpretations.

It is common in research for errors to appear in old work. It is certainly not a unique occurrence. Attempting to conceal it would be the worst path of all.


Referencing a question on research level from StackExchange in a footnote in a thesis?

It's not in Academia.SE answers, but check this out:

So yes, you can cite an answer.


How do I go about publishing my late father’s legacy papers?

Where can I get help with this?

You could try asking his colleagues or other professional acquaintances (including past coauthors of his), or former graduate students.  Even if they can't help, they may be able to direct you to more appropriate people.

If you can't track down any relevant individuals, you could try asking the current chair of his former department or trying to contact someone at any relevant professional societies he was a member of.  They probably couldn't help directly, but they could try to put you in touch with those who could.  It's not really their job to do this, so there are no guarantees, but I bet they would be sympathetic.

  Would something like American Journal Experts be a good idea?

Almost certainly not.  This seems to be a company that offers editing and formatting assistance for papers, which isn't really the issue here.  Rather, you need scientific assistance from someone who knows the research area well (to help flesh out the ideas and connect them with the literature), and it's not likely that any company can offer that.

  I contacted IOP publishing but they said that, while Dad’s writings were interesting, they were not ready for publishing in any of their journals. For example, they need a reference list citing other current published research on the same topic.

It's hard to know what to make of this.  One possibility is that the papers were unfinished but just need a little more work, and someone could complete them without great difficulty.  Another possibility is that the papers were only fragmentary, with interesting ideas that still require major work.  In that case, they are unlikely to be published in their present form but might still inspire further work (which should credit your father).  A third possibility is that these writings are not really suitable for publication, and the editor was just being polite and focusing on the most objective reason.

If you are unable to get the papers formally published, you may still be able to make them available and permanently archive them through the arXiv.  This is a web site that offers open access to research papers in physics, among other fields.  It would ensure that your father's work is not forgotten.

Assuming your father's name is also Krogdahl, he has two papers on the arXiv.  If you decide to try posting his more recent writings, I'd strongly recommend first consulting with someone in the field (such as a former colleague) about what is worth posting and how to do so, as well as getting in touch with the arXiv administrators.  The arXiv is a little finicky about various aspects of submissions, so it's best to handle things carefully.


You find yourself in a tricky situation.  Universities often try to establish equity among grantees, regardless of whether a funding source could in theory pay higher or lower salary.  The way I've seen others deal with this is through a preemptive negotiation with the university. The scales tip in their favor, because you'll probably apply anyway, but I've seen some wiggle room on salary.  But after the fact would seem unlikely. Worth a shot. But, if the granting agency in good faith believes you are making X compensation but you get Y, they might not be happy about it. If you ask your granting coordinator whether you should inform the agency if the discrepancy, it might get some attention.


Math Major and Grad School -- Necessary?

Yes, it's possible to get a graduate degree in mathematics even if your undergraduate degree is in a completely unrelated field.  (Everything I say will be assuming you are in the U.S.; otherwise, I don't know.)  In practice, you'll need to acquire much of the knowledge from an undergraduate degree in mathematics before starting, although you can fill in a few gaps during a master's program.

If you have unlimited time and money, then it's straightforward.  You take undergraduate courses until you have completed most of a math major, either by delaying your graduation or by taking courses as a special student (i.e., not in a degree program) after your bachelor's degree.  At that point, even thought you won't have a degree in mathematics, you'll be able to make a compelling case that you have equivalent background.  You may not have a strong enough application to get into a top Ph.D. program directly, but you should be able to get into a master's program in a decent department, and if you do well enough there you can apply to even stronger departments for your Ph.D.

The drawback with this plan is that it's slow (you might spend two years or more taking courses before even applying to master's programs) and expensive (you'll be being charged tuition for these courses).  Instead, the real question isn't whether it's possible in principle, but rather how to get to a Ph.D. program as quickly as possible, since at that point you'll no longer need to pay anything.

How efficiently you can do this depends heavily on your background and experience.  If you are just starting to take college math courses, then it may take several years to prepare yourself for a master's program.  If you already have a lot of experience, then you might be ready to apply this fall.  I'd recommend consulting with faculty in your math department to see what they think of your background and what they would advise.

There exist certificate or post-baccalaureate programs designed to prepare people from other fields for math grad school.  (See, for example, http://departments.columbian.gwu.edu/math/certificates/gradmath.)  Such a program could be useful, depending on how well it fits with your background and preparation.


Visiting a research lab as an undergraduate?

Disclaimer: This answer may or may not be different in Japan, due to cultural differences. If my answer disagrees with one with experience in Japanese academia, I'd go with their answer. It may even be different between different labs and fields. But this is based on my experience and also on what I've seen since in other labs I've worked in.

I was in Australia on a summer internship and I reached out to an academic at a local university who worked in my field of interest, after reading a few of his papers and checking out his website. I informed him that I was an interested potential PhD applicant who was about to enter their final year of undergrad, and I asked him if he'd have some time available to chat with me in his lab. I attached my CV to the email and wrote a very brief paragraph with my history (a few sentences; don't give them a huge thing to read). He replied immediately, very interested, and we scheduled an appointment for some days later. We ended up talking for a few hours and he took me around the lab, and introduced me to everyone. I was 100% into doing a PhD with them -- it didn't work out for logistical reasons, but this is unrelated.

An undergrad taking the interest and initiative to read papers, check out the research, and reach out to potential PIs is considered a very good thing. It means that you are taking the PhD / Masters as the serious and professional endeavour that it is. Especially when the undertaking involves moving to a foreign country, it implies that you are considering not only whether you are a fit in the lab, but also how living in the country could impact you.

It's always considered a good idea to reach out to your potential advisers in some way, and not everyone does this -- many advisers get blind applications. If you meet them, it gives you both a chance to see if you'd be a good fit -- academically and personally. Both of these matter. If you don't get along, working with them could be a nightmare! And that goes both ways. That means that when the PI is looking at the pile of applications at their desk and designating their interest, they have something to look back on. It's definitely something that will make you stand out. Enthusiasm is great.

Of course, admission isn't decided by the PI themselves much of the time, but by an admissions committee (not sure about Japan but this is usually the case in NA and EU). Especially so when you are applying for a scholarship. But an established relationship with the PI is certainly helpful and it indicates seriousness on your part.

Finally: What's the worst thing that could happen? If you're already going to be in the country, the worst thing is that they could say no, and you still get a nice holiday. Just don't send many follow-up emails if they don't reply.

So personally, I'd encourage you to reach out to potential PIs and ask, politely, if they might have the time to briefly meet with you to discuss their research and your research interests. But definitely either ask somebody who has been in Japan, or google social norms and etiquette since that is very important everywhere, but especially in Japanese culture.


How do you convince students that it's OK to teach them "how to think?"

I disagree with your fundamental premise: that the concepts won't be used, and therefore the main benefit of learning calculus is to hone a student's problem-solving skills.

Many engineering problems do require an understanding of calculus. Perhaps not all your students are destined to be engineers or physicists, but, if you explain that there are people who do need and use this knowledge to advance in their career field and solve real-world problems, you might get them to sit up and realize they aren't trudging through their homework as a mere academic exercise. Fact is, some of these courses are taught to freshmen and sophomores because they will need those problem-solving skills as juniors and seniors – not just to know how to solve a problem, but to also understand the underlying theory and mathematics. If all the students in a particular demographic will never use calculus in the future, then they probably don't need to take calculus now.

I'd try to find some real-world problems that require the knowledge taught in your course to solve. Perhaps that might spark an interest and help students realize that the are not just solving integrals for integrals' sake.

If I was at your university, and I taught an upper-level engineering course in heat transfer or thermodynamics, I'd be disappointed to learn that my students' calculus teacher thought the main reason to teach my engineers calculus was to provide a "safe place" for them to "learn how to think logically and solve problems."


Should I give a copy of my thesis to those professors that supported me?

It is nice to do so (especially if you mention their support in the acknowledgement - which may even be the only things they'll read), but it is far from required.


US Postdoc in Japan not allowed to be first-author due to being foreign. How to proceed?

While what you are describing is entirely inappropriate from a perspective of scientific ethics, I would not be surprised if:

there may be a language/culture miscommunication causing you to misinterpret the situation, or
there is indeed an informal policy of this sort amongst some laboratories (but individual labs all over the world sometimes have odious policies)

Anecdotally, while I have not worked in Japanese academia myself, I have Japanese colleagues who don't appear to have such a policy and have non-Japanese colleagues who did postdocs in Japan and published as a first author.  Such a policy is at least thus not extremely common.

So, what should you do?

First, I would recommend starting from the position that this is a mis-communication and asking how your advisor recommends you getting first author publications during your postdoc, since this is important for your career.
Your advisor is unlikely to say no (for a number of reasons), but if they do not give you a clear path to getting first-author publications, then I would indeed suggest finding other people to work with, while doing what's necessary to maintain relations and face with your current laboratory.
Finally, note that while first author publications are wonderful, "co-first-author" and second author publications are also good, and if the common denominator amongst a number of papers is you, then people will likely recognize that fact.


How relevant are (journal) papers for the valuation of one’s work and results?

How much people rely on your publication record to judge you depends on how much they understand your research.  The further they are removed from your area of study, the more they will depend on "the numbers".  People who work in your subfield will base their opinion on the actual quality of your work and on your reputation in the community.  Fortunately, the most important evaluations (i.e., reference letters) usually come from people in your subfield.
Not all publications are created equal.  Let's say I'm hiring a postdoc.  Candidate A has 10 publications with almost identical titles all in low-quality journals.  Candidate B has one publication that describes a significant breakthrough and is published in a good journal (I don't mean Nature or Science, just a journal that is widely read by people in the field; e.g. (in my field) SINUM or SISC).  Who would I hire?  Almost certainly candidate B.  Indeed, Candidate A's publication record may actually be a negative factor.
Publications matter most in academia.  A mathematician friend of mine took a job at Google after graduation.  They didn't really care about his publication record; they hired him because he had created the Cython language, which was purely incidental to his research.  If you go the academic route, your publications will be a critical factor in your evaluation for getting a post-doc, a tenure-track job, and tenure.  If you go to industry, they may not matter so much.
Publishing norms vary by field.  In mathematics, for instance, people may sit on a result for years while they refine it or try to develop it further.  Senior people may just put their papers on the arXiv.  In other fields, it seems like new developments must be published within a week, and you're expected to write vast numbers of papers each year.


Is recycling your own phrasing with a citation but without explicit quotation self-plagiarism?

I don't believe that self-plagiarism even applies to research proposals, so in this case, there wouldn't be an issue at all.

For papers, I will still consider quoting oneself as quite odd. If there is substantial overlap, a reference would be in order, but nothing more.


Get in touch with potential advisors, although I have no clue what my topic might be?

I don't think it is a good idea to contact them for several reasons. First, by your own admission, you do not know what you wish to focus on. Bear in mind your competitors probably already have a specific research question in hand. Second, even if you do have a research question at hand, academics in social sciences/humanities generally do not respond (of course, I can't speak for everyone) to potential candidates' emails prior to their official submission or consideration. That is to say, your prior email, in theory, has no effect on whether the professor would positively view your application that way.


Is there a deadline by which you must accept the two offers you currently have? If so, send a polite email to those institutions explaining the situation and asking for an extension on the deadline until you hear back from the third. I expect they will be amenable to your request, given the circumstances.
If you accept one of the current offers without waiting for the outcome of the third, I don't think you will be very happy. You must pursue the position you want the most and feel is the best fit for you. Your PhD will be much more productive and enjoyable that way.


Citations: What do I do when the article writer's name is the same as mine?

If it's just the first name, cite the work as being authored by a mononymic person.  Author names in text are virtually always (a) full name, (b) initials + last name, or (c) just last name.

The consistent use of a first name only, along with an entry in the works cited whose author has that name and that name alone, will make it clear that you are a different person (especially if you actually do quote yourself and have a separate entry, in Last, First format with your works).

If you still feel that there is the possibility for confusion, upon first mention of the author, insert a footnote or parenthetical statement to clarify the distinction.


Share prize money from conference presentation award with co-authors?

I think that it is important to recognize that the biggest value of the award is its contribution to your C.V. and future career, not the prize money.  As such, I think you should approach the question of the money as generously as possible: after all, you gave a good talk, but many of the aspects of that good talk depended critically on the contributions of your co-authors.

What, then, is a fair way of allocating the money?  Pretty much any numerical formula that you follow will both a) leave some people feeling that their allocation is too big or too small and also b) only be a few dollars anyway, given the number of people involved.

I would therefore recommend defusing the question entirely and turning the prize money into an investment into future goodwill and papers: suggest that it be spent on going out for a fancy dinner together (or similar such outing) to celebrate the success of the collaboration!


Should I admit that I was a first-year PhD student in future interviews?

It is typical in applying for a job, graduate program, etc, to account for how you've spent your past time. If you are an undergraduate student for some years, then maybe a master's student, and then there is a gap in your resume from when you were a PhD student, it will jump out at anyone reviewing your application.

It doesn't look good that you've left your program, but it looks worse if you have no answer for how you spent that time, and worst of all if it becomes clear you intended to mask your time as a previous grad student.

No matter how you go about this, it looks bad that you did not complete a PhD program. Applicants for a PhD are assessed primarily based on their perceived likelihood to be a successful PhD student. As a past unsuccessful PhD student, that perceived likelihood decreases, especially if your past PI says bad things about you and people believe them.

In the short term, you likely need to gather some new references. You need people who can vouch for your ability and potential as a researcher. Depending on your field, the availability of such positions may be limited, but in my own field I would advise taking up employment in an academic lab as a technician. The barrier to entry is much less than for a PhD position where an institution is dedicating themselves to you over several years. Your PI in that lab will be able to recommend you to programs that you subsequently apply to, and confirm to them that your prior experience was a fluke.

You asked for candid advice, and I am doing my best to give it. If I was reviewing your application, and saw that you left a PhD program after a year, I would not want to take you on as a student. Regardless of whose fault it is, there are many many qualified candidates for most PhD programs. If you got grants and publications, that may help, but you still have clearly had a personal conflict with your past PI and have accused them of many bad things. The last thing I would want would be to take you on as a student, bright as you may be, and then be accused of similar things myself. I wouldn't have any objective information to assess whether you are a victim as you claim or not, unless someone else, whose input I trust, gives me information about the situation.


Is it ethical for a Professor to disseminate wrong answers online?

I have a strong negative opinion on this.

In 2002, I joined a PhD program and was at the same level of computer science education as peers who had recently completed CS degrees at good schools. My last prior formal CS education was a master's degree that I completed in 1975.

I achieved that, as well as staying employable in the computer industry for over 30 years, by continuous independent study. As computer science kept changing around me I felt at times like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

Not having answers to the questions in a textbook was something I could handle, though undesirable. If I had found answers on-line that conflicted with my answers I could have wasted a lot of time trying to resolve the discrepancy, including trying to contact the answer author to point out an error.

Wrong answers to questions in a good textbook are particularly destructive. I put a lot of effort into selecting the books I use. In order to progress, it is necessary to attempt exercises that are a stretch. In some cases, it is difficult to check whether an answer is correct. Searching on-line for answers may be the best available resource.

The professor was, intentionally or not, sabotaging independent study.


First author doesn't want a co-author to read the whole paper

There is a golden standard (codified in the Vancouver Recommendations on authorship) that every author individually vouches for the correctness of the entire paper. In other words, you can't ask a co-author to only read and write part of the paper, because they need the whole paper to vouch for its correctness. They wouldn't satisfy the criteria to be allowed to be authors. It also suggests a broken collaboration culture if there isn't even enough trust among co-authors to let each other read everything that's happening in a collaboration.

But beyond that, the idea to not let the co-authors read parts of the paper just doesn't make any sense: A paper is intended to be published, at which point it becomes available to everyone, not just the co-authors.


Is generic "thank you" email a waste of time in academia?

If you send a thank-you note, in addition to being polite, you let the professor know that you received their email and don't need anything else from them. That lets them avoid trying to follow up with you later.


Is it legal in the US for a professor to publicly reveal a student's performance in PhD comprehensive exams?

Edit, again: The question seems to have changed, yet again. :)

A student can reveal their own performance in an exam. That information is their property.
Faculty cannot publicly reveal students' performances, as that would, indeed, violate the "FERPA" laws. (As parent of over-18 college student, whose tuition I'm paying, I do not have access to her grades without her permission!)

Edit: Hm... the sense of the question is radically changed. [Initially, it was about faculty publicly disclosing students' performance results. When this answer was written, it had become about whether one could disclose one's own results.] Sure, one is at liberty to reveal one's own quality-of-performance on an exam in the U.S. The "FERPA" laws would only prevent your examiners from revealing your performance publicly or to anyone who did not have a legitimate operational professional reason to have access.

It might be that the content of the exam might be partly confidential, but that is a different issue.


Why is my published article seemingly not indexed by Google or Google Scholar?

Although you asked a generic question, the answer is very particular to your own particular article. Most likely, @HoboSci, got the correct answer: you published in a journal of questionable ethical editorial policy that Google Scholar refuses to index. That is, "Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research" is probably such a journal (see https://bradleymonk.com/Beall%27s_List_of_Questionable_Journals).

I looked up the issue where your own article is published: JOCPR Volume 6 Issue 3: http://www.jocpr.com/archive/jocpr-volume-6-issue-3-year-2014.html. I searched Google Scholar for your article "Potential inhibitors against acetylcholinesterase and glutathione S-transferase associated with alzheimer's disease". I also searched for a couple other articles in that same special issue and none of them showed up in Google Scholar.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything you can do about it because once you've published in a journal like that, you can't republish the same article anywhere else. So,the lesson is to only publish your work in reputable journals, or else your published work might become almost invisible on the Web. :-(


Accessing previous versions of papers in EasyChair

In the list of submissions, click on the "information" icon (blue ball with a letter "i" in it) next to the paper title, then you will see a "previous versions" link.


Lecturer asks for argument for re-submission

It sounds like the lecturer is trying to use the incident as a learning opportunity, aka teachable moment. He is asking you to argue your case in order to get you to think about the implications of your request so that you will learn a valuable lesson unrelated to the specific topic of the assignment. Probably he is reasoning that the current low-stakes situation is an excellent time to learn this lesson because the consequences of making a mistake are not large; by being a bit harsh or annoying now, he can teach you something that is likely to save you much more severe consequences at some later time in your life.

To clarify, I'm not expressing an opinion about whether making such a demand of you is a good idea, but I suspect that this is the reasoning motivating the lecturer's request.

As for how to reply, I suggest just following the lecturer's instructions and coming up with the best arguments you can. I could offer more specific advice, but I think that would defeat the purpose of what the lecturer is hoping you'd do, which is to think about this issue yourself. (Nor do I think there is a universally correct answer, for that matter.) And again to clarify, by saying this I don't mean to imply that there's anything wrong with you coming here to ask the question, but I sincerely think you're better off coming up with your own answers. Good luck!


Is it more common to refer to subplots as a "frame" or a "panel"?

I can't recall having seen the word frame or panel used to refer to a subplot. More commonly:

In the text, e.g.,

  Figure 1(a) shows [...]; figure 1(b), instead, shows [...].

In the caption, e.g.,

  Figure 1. Comparison among blah blah: (a) function f [...]; (b) function g [...]


Why don’t researchers publish their raw data for the advance if science?

A few thoughts:

  Publication bias

While making data available would help address some problems in publication bias, merely having data sitting on the internet somewhere isn't even close to enough to solve it if people still use journals as content curators.

  Reproducibility problem

Available data = / = Reproducible data

  I need to run another experiment

This is, in many ways, desirable. "I took the same data and got the same answer" is a fairly low form of reducibility. Yes, it catches statistical errors, and enables you to try new methods, but at least in my field, before something can really be thought of as "reproduced" it needs to be obtained via an entirely different experiment, preferably in a different population. That enables the understanding if there is a consistent effect that occurs in a variety of contexts, or if it was a fleeting result that was either noise, or (more philosophically) just the tail of an effect that is randomly but not perfectly distributed around 1.

  Or if I want to conduct a meta-analysis, maybe having other
  researcher's raw data is better than just the mean/CI they report in
  journals.

It depends on the analysis you want to do, but this is not inherently true. Also note that it is often the case that, if this was what you're doing, an email to the researchers may provide what you need. Both times in my career where I have genuinely needed someone's raw data, I've been able to get it.

  If scientists' mission is for public good and for the advancement of
  knowledge

You are making a massive assumption here: That the mission of scientists is the public good. A few notes:

Even for idealistic scientists, the actually doing of science doesn't occur in a vacuum. In order for you to continue to do your science, keep your people paid and the lights on, etc. you have to compete with other labs. Collecting data is often a long and laborious process, and there is a very real temptation to continue to mine that data past the initial publication. It is a competitive advantage, and science is competitive.
It is not axiomatically true that the public good from the release of data > the public good that comes from a lab being otherwise successful. An idealistic lab sacrificing themselves on the altar of data access doesn't necessarily help.

  why don't they publish their results in raw (of course they need to
  remove research participants' privacy information).

This is a considerable hurdle. For example, there are a number of studies I've worked on where identifiable information is essential to the finding in question. This might be a special case, but it's not an uncommon one. There may also be agreements in place preventing this - many minority groups, for example, are very justifiably skeptical of "And then we can do anything with your data we want".

  They shouldn't be afraid of others' criticising their work. Only truth
  can endure the testing of time.

Very often, the concern is much more about preserving the ability of their data to generate new publications over time.

  Nowadays, with the prevalence (and low price) of online storage
  platform and sophisticated database management, why don't they do it
  for the public's good?

Because the public's good doesn't pay my postdoc's salary.

Now this all sounds jaded and bitter and horrible. Which is ironic, because I actually do try to make as much data as possible available to the public. But there are very real constraints, both on the nature of the data themselves and in the doing of science, that stand in the way of automatically making data available. One must be able to acknowledge these when thinking about data accessibility and reproducibility.

In my case, for example, what "the data" is is often a somewhat murky concept, and I find the tendency to view "I downloaded your code and data and ran it" as what people sometimes view as reproducibility to be...troubling.


Are there statistical techniques specific to computer science research?

Although statistical techniques are fundamentally the same, specific approaches to the use of statistics in experimental analysis of algorithms or more broadly in the analysis of computer systems performance (including aspects of hardware, networks, etc.) are an important topic.  A couple of references to look at include:

C. C. McGeoch.  A Guide To Experimental Algorithmics.  Cambridge University Press, 2012.

R. Jain.  The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis: Techniques for Experimental Design, Measurement, Simulation, and Modeling.  Wiley, 1991.


The same company that sells the TurnItIn service has another product called iThenticate that is widely used by journal and conference proceedings publishers to check for plagiarism in submitted manuscripts.  My institution uses this to check MS and PhD theses and dissertations.


Why are academic institutions now looking to judge their students in multiple choice questions tests?

Because they are graded easily and fast, and there is no room for subjectivity.

The answer to question 1 is option b). If you marked b), you get points, if you didn't, you are wrong. The grader doesn't even need to know what the question is about, just that the right answer is b). Also, there is no middle ground, no partial credit, and no subjectivity involved.

Of course, there are a whole lot of problems with this system: poorly phrased questions, the student doesn't show the process, just the final result...


Is it okay to ask your research paper co-author (first place) to write a letter of recommendation for your PhD admission?

Yes, this is completely ok, even recommendable. You want your letter writers to know how you function in a research context. It does not matter if this was as part of a university research project (such as a thesis) or some other project that you worked in for some reason.

The main reason why most applicants use their former research advisors is because this is the primary way how undergrads get in touch with professors in a research (as opposed to a classroom) context.


How to reuse complete paper for my thesis?

For the first question: When the chapter is really just your paper (reformatted), I would go with what you already suggested; begin the chapter with a small text saying "The content of this chapter has been published in ...".

If it is an extended version, then "The content of this chapter is an extended version of ...".

Regarding the second question: first read the copyright transfer that you signed. Often, it already gives permission for reusing the text and figures in your own thesis. If it does not explicitly state this, or is ambiguous, then it is best to contact the journal.


Yes, you should.

First, most scientific software is terrible. I'd be very surprised if yours is worse than average: the mere fact you know design patterns and the difference between recursion and loops suggests it's better.

Second, it's unlikely you'll have the incentive or motivation to make it better unless, or until, it's needed by someone else (or you in 6 months). Making it open gives you that incentive.

Potential upsides: possible new collaborators, bugfixes, extensions, publications.

Potential downsides: timesink (maintaining code or fixing problems for other people), getting scooped. I'll be clear: I don't take either of these downsides very seriously.


Is it allowable to use an organization's name to publish a paper in a conference, even after I graduate from it?

The affiliation to your name on a publication should reflect where most of the work was done and where most of the funding came from.

Scenario 1
You just graduated and you want to publish your results in a paper. The manuscript will be written after graduation, but essentially all the results come from pre-graduation work. The affiliation is clearly the university where you graduated.

Scenario 2
You just graduated and continue researching on the topic. The new paper is an extension of your previous work, but all the work has been done by you after graduation. The affiliation is clearly not the university where you graduated. All the previous work should be cited accordingly. You can submit a paper independently, but it will be easier with a university affiliation. Talk to your former supervisor for advice.

Scenario 3 (in between 1 and 2)
You just graduated and you did some new research after graduation. However, a non-neglible part of the manuscript is from before graduation. In this case, you should talk to your former supervisor and ask for their opinion. In my opinion, they will be more than happy to have the paper submitted under their affiliation.

This answer is an extension of what Vladimir F said in the comments.


Why are the registration fees for academic conferences so high?

Typically the fees are to cover the facilities of the meeting including services attached to the venue. In addition there may be administrative costs for the conveners to be added to that. My experience says that everytime you let a professional conference center and staff organize a meeting it becomes very expensive. this may seem like a bad ideabut what is often not seen is the work volounteers would have to put in if you tried to organize a large conference without such help. Free help is usually not easy to muster these days.

So while I agree that conference fees may seem ridiculously high at times the reason is that it would be hard to organize them otherwise. It may be easier for recurring conferences since they can build a knowledge base and tools to help but for a one-off the ask can be too large without professional help.

By keeping a discussion open about these costs we can perhaps put the spotlight on the problems and realize that we cannot both have the cake and eat it. In order to reduce costs meetings may have to be organized in simpler venues and by more volounteers from the community.


How can a student stop/report conversations with a professor that make her uncomfortable, while avoiding negative consequences for the student?

This sounds like an instance of mental health problems on the part of the Professor A...

Probably it is simplest to behave "incomprehendingly", to just be unresponsive, disengaged, listless, and generally not react at all to the machinations of the person.

It is unfortunate, but does happen, than people (apart from gender issues) get caught up as "dupes" or "accomplices" in the schemes of mentally ill people who've managed (despite their problems) to get into situations where they have considerable power over others.

While in principle one can file grievances and/or hire lawyers (e.g., in the U.S.), this is often a path that has great costs, psychological, personal time, and one's reputation (even if one "wins").

So, as often is the case, again, if it is feasible, "playing dumb", being unreactive, and just letting the drama pass you by, is probably the most desirable/happiest approach.

(No, "justice" is not served ideally-well by this approach, but it may be served as well as can be...)


Changing graduate schools after a semester

As an alternative, you could finish the semester and take some credits with you. Changing graduate schools isn't all that unusual, particularly if you are leaving your alma mater in favor of a different school.


Should I refer to the line numbers in the PDF generated by the submission system?

If reviewers used one particular system, stick with that. Otherwise use the ones that best match up to the actual lines in your manuscript (lots of editorial management systems add useless "line numbers" which don't correspond at all). If you think there'll be any confusion, just state at the top of your response which you're using.


Why does art history exist as a distinct discipline separate from the discipline of history?

Coming at this far after the OP, but as an art historian I felt compelled to reply.

The reasons for the Art History's separation from History are myriad (political, pedagogical, philosophical, etc. etc. etc.). In general, art history is rooted in objects/visual materials, and requires training in the methodologies and historiography of visual analysis. Many of the tools of art historical work overlap with those of historians––we are informed by broader methodological shifts (psychoanalytical theory, feminism, postcolonial debates, etc.) and have our own set of theoretical paradigms that have extended beyond the realm of art history (Bildwissenshaft, formalism, iconology, etc.). It's a vast field that in recent decades has splintered into related disciplines (visual culture, visual studies). Depending on his or her methodology, an art historian could likely be as well-versed in the "historical" literature as the "art historical" literature in any particular area. Art historians are, I believe, departmentally separate (or often groups with studio art programs) due to the emphasis on object-based research and teaching. That said, art historical research requires the same level of rigor and sophistication as any other form of historical research.

While many art historians choose to go the curatorial route, many who pursue advanced degrees stay in academia. Working in a cultural institution like an art museum requires a distinct set of skills from that of an academic. Some graduate programs in art history gear themselves more toward the curatorial route, while others are more focused on academic research.

One element of art history that can, I think, be a bit confusing to the outsider is the interpretative element. Any strong analysis will be rooted in historical "facts," but when examining a work of art, there's always going to be some measure of interpretation or speculation. Again, if a conclusion is not borne out by strong research, it will generally not be widely accepted. But the extent to which art historians think creatively about their objects of inquiry is one of the many reasons the field can, to me, be so invigorating.


How do you study a PhD without a supervisor and other PhDs?

Speaking generally, this does not seem like a workable situation for you. Your PhD supervisor seems to neither match your topic nor your personality, and it seems unlikely that they will support you through to the end of your PhD. Even if you did manage to produce a passable PhD without your supervisor's support, they don't seem to be someone who would be going out of their way to help you network into a position or write recommendations for post docs, etc. This does not sound like where you should be.

Step one would be to tell the administrative/departmental powers that be that you are considering leaving your programme. Don't make it personal, say that you do not believe that there is a research topic and research culture fit between you and your supervisor. They may be willing to discuss new supervision for you at that point (my UK Uni would, losing students messes up our stats).

Meanwhile, where SHOULD you be? Whose research out there influences your own? It might be worth getting in touch with scholars who more match your profile. In some circumstances, Unis can secure external supervision for a PhD student by, well, just paying that person to do it. This is far from a guarantee, but we secured an external supervisor for one of my PhDs (edit, I mean one of my PhD students, I'm the supervisor) during my year of parental leave because we felt no one else had the specialty she needed.

Caveat, I'm in SocSci/Humanities so this might not fly in your discipline, but it really is rare to get through a PhD with no support and much antagonism.


APIs or databases that allows one to retrieve the works that a book cites

Mendeley has quite powerful database on all kind of sources.

http://dev.mendeley.com/

Also, you should check Elsevier's developer portal, as they provide a number of APIs for their services:

http://dev.elsevier.com/

Where ScienceDirect API is especially relevant for you:
http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect/support/api

As you probably know, Elsevier is one of (if not the) the biggest publisher(s) of academic publications, including books.

In case you might want to query your own instance of Mendeley Desktop - check my blog post, for few starting points:

http://blog.veles.rs/mendeley-desktop-http-api/


Sex worker student offering her (lawful) services

First, “thanks for letting me know” is not an unambiguous no. I suppose most people would actually get it, but she already appears to have boundary issues, so you should make it much clearer. The best thing to do would be to make it clear to her that you consider her propositions to be out of line. You can add, that while you don't think badly of her because of it, such offers have no place in the classroom (or in a student/teacher relationship).

In fact, you would probably do the same if she insisted on asking you to come have dinner at a restaurant she worked at: you'd be annoyed by it, because it is detrimental to her (and others) attention. I regularly have students who ask out-of-line questions, and I try to be firm: while I'd be happy to discuss if we were friends, we are not and my class/practicals/whatever is not the right place for that.

However, there is a distinction between talking about sex and dining: the law makes a distinction in many countries, including UK. From UCL's HR webpages (as an example):

  Sexual harassment can take the form of ridicule, sexually provocative remarks or jokes, offensive comments about dress or appearance, the display or distribution of sexually explicit material, unwelcome sexual advances or physical contact, demands for sexual favours or assault.

which clearly covers your case, whether the sexual advances are of a paid or an unpaid nature.

Finally, regarding your head of school: the student clearly has boundary issues, probably for making the offer in the first place and definitely for renewing it multiple times after you declined. So, yeah, I would suggest your head of school or a counselor having a talk with her about it.


Special Needs student with disruptive behavior (racial slurs towards teacher)

A professor in this situation should consult with the university office that is responsible for students with disabilities, let them handle the situation, and follow their recommendations regarding what to do if it happens again. Anything else is beyond the scope of the professor's role.

Professors are not qualified to "counsel" students with disabilities, and shouldn't try to (amateur psychology can be very harmful to the "patient.")

In some parts of the world, there are legal issues related to disciplining students with disabilities.1 Again, the office that deals with students with disabilities should be aware of these legal issues and are best placed to advise the professor.

1 For example, in the US:

  IDEA requires that a student’s disability be taken into account when considering disciplinary action resulting from a violation   of the school code of conduct [in high school]. This is not the case in higher education

(Source). Other jurisdictions will have varying legal protections for students with disabilities.


Should I include challenges I faced on account of my caste in my diversity statement?

Your diversity statement is not about who you are.  It is about why you should be admitted to the degree program.  In particular, it is about your ability to work with other people in the degree program and your later career, and how this ability will advance the goals of the degree program.
If your experiences relating to your caste has prepared you to work with other people, including perhaps disadvantaged people, then yes, write about that in your diversity statement.
The fact that there are upper caste faculty in the department is not very relevant.  Faculty overwhelmingly come from a higher status background than applicants.  There will be many applicants discussing experiences that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable to faculty.  Avoid stereotypes and personal attacks.


How do I make the case to regain first authorship?

You could make the case that agreements about author order should be renegotiated after a major reworking of the paper. Because this is essentially a new paper, you might convince all parties to change the order. If you regularly correspond with the post doc, you might ask her if she would consider the new author list.

However, if she does not wish to change, you should accept this gracefully. Frankly, you have already missed the appropriate window for renegotiating author order. Author order should be determined before the work (or rework) is done.
Trying to change the order after work is complete is inappropriate because if, for instance, the third author wanted to keep her place as second, she no longer has any opportunity to do so.

The correct course of action would have been to propose being reinstated as first author before you did the work on the 200 new cases. At this stage, your negotiating power would have been higher. In addition, anyone who wanted to maintain co-first author or second author position could have helped you with the work. It seems you have learned a hard lesson; I hope you can avoid letting it ruin your relationship with your PI.


How Long Should I Wait After a "I’ll be in touch soon" reply, to follow Up?

A reply is appropriate after a few days. Say you are (very) interested in the position and ask if there are other actions you should take at this time.
Asking for something specific is more likely to result in a follow up reply than just the "thanks".
If you have specific time constraints, not just worries, you should probably mention them. But academic time can have a very slow clock at times. This is one of those times.


How to follow and contribute to a research discussion when less experienced?

Don't worry about it. You're a second-year PhD student, so you're one of the least experienced people in the room. Everyone should find this reasonable. What matters is that you show a willingness to learn, to grow, to understand, to improve.
Don't be afraid of asking questions. Don't even be afraid of asking stupid questions. Most scientists will gladly elaborate if you show a genuine interest in understanding the topic better.
Study the topics in your field. Deepen your understanding in your own PhD topic, and adjacent topics on which other people at your conferences are working. If you keep working on improving your understanding, you will notice that over time, you will be able to keep up with the pace. The key is to not panic that you're not there yet, but instead display that you are willing to learn.


You have the following goals:

(I) Every student will transcribe at least one lecture.

(II) The transcribed lecture notes will be of a sufficient quality to be useful to the other students, and ideally to be posted somewhere for others to access.

(III) You don't want to spend an unreasonable time writing or correcting the notes yourself.

In my opinion these are three worthy goals and any one of them is attainable, but as a set they are probably incompatible with each other.  So you may want to choose (not necessarily once and for all, but depending on the course) which of these worthy goals is the worthiest and prepare to sacrifice one or both of the others.  In more detail:

If you prioritize (I), then the emphasis is placed on creating a learning experience for the students.  If you do this you will find that the variation in the quality of the note-taking will be amazing.  I have seen this in students' written notes over the years.  Yesterday a student left his notebook in my office.  I flipped through it today to try to figure out who it was.  It is one step above chicken scratch: for instance, he is writing on lined paper but his mathematical expressions and equations only stay within the lines about half the time: he can have a "written slope" which is only slightly larger than -1.  (This helped me identify the student, who does not have his name written down anywhere.  I noticed his characteristic negative slope when he was writing on the board in my office yesterday.)  On the other hand, in my graduate course I have glanced at several students' handwritten notes at the end of the lecture and marvelled at how much better they look than my own handwritten pre-lecture notes and what is on the blackboard at the end of the leecture.  At one point years ago I gave in a borderline undergrad/graduate level class what I thought was one of my best lectures of all time and at the end realized that I hadn't prepared any lecture notes and sadly reflected on the fact that it would be lost forever.  Then I remembered that I had one student in the course who took great lecture notes, and I asked her for her lecture notes for this purpose.  I think that what she gave me was an improvement on my delivered lecture, and using her notes I got my favorite part of what amounts to a textbook on number theory: you can see the lecture notes here.  (Yes, I touched it up a bit afterwards, but not by that much.)  You can also see that I thanked this student at the end of my notes.

All of the students mentioned above are "A students".  I personally do feel that the gender difference between the students is playing a role here.  This is not a scientific observation and I certainly mean no offense to anyone, but in my experience the difference in note-taking care between male and female students is, on average, dramatic.

Anyway, if you prioritize (I) and (III) you're going to get such uneven samples as to make it a pretty jarring experience for anyone to try to follow the entire course by reading the notes.  Having the notes be texed adds other levels and brings other skills into play.  Some people will naturally go back and spend time prettying up their tex files; others won't.  (I started out as the latter and very slowly over the course of thousands of pages of notes am heading towards the former.  But for someone who has thousands of pages of texed mathematics on his webpage, my texing skills are distressingly middling.)

Thus if you prioritize (II), then I think you need to seek out the students who will do the best job.  This works against (I), and you need to look for extra compensation.  I agree with the other answers that providing good latexed notes is something that may be worth paying for.

If you really prioritize (II) then at a certain point you will decide to type the lecture notes yourself.  This is what I do in most classes I teach.  At this point I have a bit of a reputation as a guy who has lots of typed lecture notes.  When I begin a graduate course now, I often tell students explicitly that I will not be typing lecture notes as the course progresses, because that is very time-consuming.  But then, at some point in the semester I usually break down and reveal to the students where my heretofore secret lecture notes can be found.  I actually just did that yesterday in my graduate class this semester....with less than one week of class left.

Typing your own notes totally destroys (III): to get something that looks good you have to work significantly harder during the semester than you otherwise would need to do in order to deliver exactly the same lecture and you need to put more time into it after the semester is over.  On the other hand, I have found this practice to be extremely valuable to both my learning and my career: I have gotten a lot of wonderful professional interactions out of it.  Thus I would say that the real drawback is that it defeats (I).

To summarize a very long answer: I think you need to decide whether the point of this is the process or the end result.  You either provide a learning experience for all the students or you provide decent-to-high quality lecture notes, or you provide both but don't get it done until after the end of the course.  I don't see how to do everything at once.


Can university educators provide private tutoring to anyone seeking it?

Many university professors have side gigs doing consulting work for industry, writing, starting companies and doing many other things. At all universities I’m familiar with this is permitted and to some extent even encouraged. Usually there will be a policy in place specifying how much outside work is permitted. For example, here is a link to the relevant policy at the University of California system.

As for your specific question, tutoring students at other universities is not any different from any other kind of side work. As long as the professor is in compliance with their institutional conflict of commitment policy, this is totally fine. The only other case where it would be a problem is if they want to make money from tutoring students at their own institution.  This would create a fairly blatant conflict of interest and would likely be regarded as unethical. See for example this question.


Meaningful research in PhD with no publications

Your situation hints at a mismatch between your supervisor's supervision style (which is fairly hands-off) and the style you would need to be productive (which requires more guidance and input in the beginning, with the goal of ultimately having you become more independent).
My recommendation is: Find a co-advisor with a more hands-on supervision style. That could be somebody in your group who is fairly productive (most likely a postdoc, assistant professor or young associate professor), with a visible publication track record. Most people who are that way have more problems to work on that they can solve on their own. You should have your main advisor on board with this, which might be easy to achieve, since advisors have an active interest in seeing their students graduate.


What do you call an academic who puts their name on an article they didn't write?

Phrases like "guest author", "honorary author", or "courtesy author" have been used to describe this practice.

References:

See use of "guest author" here: Legal Remedies for Medical Ghostwriting: Imposing Fraud Liability on Guest Authors of Ghostwritten Articles
"honorary author" Challenging Medical Ghostwriting in US Courts


Reference letters after some time away from full time study

Would it be appropriate to use these reference letters if I want to make an application for postgraduate studies in a different country? My undergraduate studies was in the UK and I am hoping to make applications there.

It depends on what type of Master's degree you are applying for. If your referees wrote their original letters under the impression that you were applying for a taught course but you are now applying to research Master's (or vice versa) the letters will probably not be suitable.

  Would it be appropriate to send reference letters which is more than a year old for an application for postgraduate studies?

It's best if your references are up to date. I see no reason why someone would refuse to write you a new reference letter and there is certainly no harm in asking. Explain the details of the course you are applying to, and if necessary, remind them of things they may want to mention in the letter (e.g. you got the highest mark in their course that year, or you conpleted a successful summer project under them). However, one year after the fact, I expect they will remember you.

In summary, ask for new references, make your applications and stop worrying. Plenty of people take time off between undergrad and higher degrees (often tens of years, not just one) and your chances of success are higher than you think.


How do I add my ORCID to papers authored by myself?

I don't know if it is possible to add your ORCID directly to the paper in question (probably not), but it is possible to link to the paper from your ORCID profile.

Go to your ORCID account (signing in if necessary)
This should bring up a page with your "Biography", which consists of several collapsible tabs (Education, Employment, Funding and Works).
Next to the Works tab, click on the button for "+ Add works".
You then have several different options to proceed. The quickest is "search and link" which allows you to search a database such as PubMed or CrossRef, find your paper, and add it to your profile. I won't go through the full details of each step, but if you follow the instructions on screen, it should hopefully guide you through.


Can one article be published in two different language journals?

As I suggested in the comments:
Regardless of whether or not this is an ethical thing to do, self-plagiarism only exists if you do not state that you have published this before.
If the local journal accepts a translation of the paper as a submission and you do not break any copyright agreement with the original journal, as long as you do say that the original work is somewhere else, then it can not be plagiarism.
Plagiarism implies intentionally hiding that part of what you publish is not original at the time of publishing.


Getting in between another teacher and his student

My first question is, why are you (the faculty) both teaching the same class at the same university without talking to each other?  I can understand the cultural differences, but this is even more of a reason to talk to your colleague about the class!

I would suggest (as posdef does in his comment) to talk to the other instructor about the class, offer to have him sit in on your class, and ask about collaboration.  You could also ask to sit in on his class if you'd like, but you need to be careful to phrase your request so it is clear that you're there to gain insight into his class and not to provide criticism.  I can't tell from your comment, "...if one teacher might be less strong in the subject than the other" if you believe he is the weak one or if you are, but regardless, you can both learn from each other.

Finally, it is in the best interest of both classes of students that you collaborate with the other instructor -- if both courses are listed as the same in the course catalog, the students should be able to expect that the class will cover roughly the same material.


Does research require a certain kind of personal abilities or is it a matter of hard work?

Although the question is vague, the implicit distinction in it is perhaps the whole point: being able to focus and genuinely work hard over long periods of time, in the face of fatigue, frustration, etc., is itself a particular talent.

To explain, consider Mozart in music: it's not that he could magically play and compose, but, rather, that he was able to practice a crazy amount starting at an early age, and acquired profiency... So, a significant part of the "talent" was the capacity to practice long-and-hard. Yes, one can argue that also the ability to benefit from long-and-hard practice is important. And, all the more resoundingly, long-and-hard work is necessary, although one may fail to benefit from it, even if one does manage it (or is forced by parents or other circumstances).

No, it is not normal to be able to focus on anything at all at an early age, and perhaps even later it would not be normal to be able to entertain a multi-year project. To be able to do so _at_all_ I think (upon some observation) is a talent. To be able to succeed to some degree is a further talent, and there is an element of luck involved in "high success". But the latter "test" is not often reached. An example of sufficient focus but lack of other necessities is "crackpots" or "cranks". Even so, in some cases they are eventually vindicated! :)


How many major revisions are allowed when publishing with Elsevier?

To give this an answer:

Yes, it is posisble that you are again asked to make major revisions.
It's completely up to the editor to decide how many rounds of revisions are appropriate.  There's not a fixed number for all the publisher's journals.
You'll have to ask someone in your field, ideally someone who's published in that journal before.  But it also depends a lot on how speedy the reviewer is, and how long the editor gives them.


Consequences of quitting a graduate-level Research Assistant (RA) position mid-semester, with little notice?

This will likely vary greatly from one department to another. It will also depend upon your relationship with your advisor, departmental needs, etc. As @tonysdg noted in the comments, it would be a good idea to talk to your advisor about this. Some departments are understanding of these situations.

In my (geography) department, a few years ago we had a student quit his masters degree and his teaching assistantship because he was a single dad and out of money. He dreaded going to his supervisor (who was not his academic advisor) to tell him this. But it ended up being no big deal. Everyone understood, and to my knowledge there were no harsh feelings in the department toward him. Other grad students and professors covered a few classes for him through the rest of the semester, and the department was able to fund a new student the next semester.

Like I said, these things are situational, so your conversation may be different. But I included this answer as a tangible example that it is possible to leave in the middle of the semester without causing bedlam. Also, there may be strict rules against leaving in the middle of the semester, but sometimes these rules can be bent under the right circumstances. Even if you find a rule against what you're thinking about doing, I would still talk to your advisor.


What did Israel Gelfand mean by “You have to be fast only to catch fleas,” in the context of mathematical research?

To me, at least, the metaphor seems clear. Anyone can pick up pennies off the street, but it takes hard work and time to amass a fortune. Hmmm. Another metaphor.
If you want to make a reputation publishing trivial (or small) results, then you have to be fast, since they are available to most mathematicians in a subfield. But if you want to do great things (catch bears, for example), it will take time and effort. It will, necessarily be slower and that is ok as the results are more profound.
The word "only" in the quote is very important. Yes, you need to be fast to catch small, fleeting, things, but only for that. Without that word, the meaning would be entirely different.
Gelfand, of course, is known for some pretty profound work. They didn't result from 3 week research projects.
And, this is only my speculation, since he can't be asked directly.


Is there any reason not to go up for promotion?

Not really.  Promotion is primarily about pay (though sometimes the pay increment is small) and recognition of your achievements to those who are not already aware of them.
You are unlikely to get more duties after promotion because you are expected to take on the duties of the higher rank in order to get the promotion.  It's seeking a promotion, not receiving one, that causes you to get more duties.
As you already have a permanent academic position, a change in rank will not make much difference to your mobility; it is already very low.


Based on the information provided on Manchester's website the primary difference between PhD and EngD would appear to be that the EngD contains a formal taught component. I suggest you contact the university for more details about exactly what is involved in each case.

Whether or not you see the EngD as advantageous seems likely to depend entirely on your personal circumstances. From a future employer's perspective, I doubt the choice of EngD or PhD matters: they are likely to be far more interested in what you did than which program you enrolled in. The University of Manchester has an excellent reputation, so any degree from them is likely to be taken seriously.


What is the best way to motivate teaching assistants?

I think the best way to motivate a person in academia is to give them a bit of job security, some funding which enables them to follow their interests, and a great team to work with. I am not sure if you can realistically give "your(sic!) TAs" any of this.

In absence of solid motivating factors, you are trying to engage the team in some form of internal competition, which may motivate some people and completely put off others. For example, I personally would be puzzled as to why should I compete for some statistics or evaluations which look rather meaningless unless it has any effect on my promotion or chances of future employment.

Most people I worked with responded well to:

smart goals
positive example
cutting the crap (including crap meetings)

In my experience, teaching is rather a pleasant activity and there is a lot of gratification in the  process of working with students. An excessive amount of paperwork, bureaucracy and management can only spoil the fun.


Thesis writing: context or literature review?

I was bothered by that as well when I wrote both my MSc thesis and my PhD dissertation. I get the impression that it is considered acceptable to have a selection of unrelated topics in the literature review without any context to tie them together. The reader will see the context for a topic when it is referenced later in your thesis. At least, many of the theses and dissertations I read were structured like that.

However, I myself was not happy with this approach. The problem was especially bothersome to me, because my dissertation pulled together ideas from a broad range of disciplines. So here are some of the techniques I used to "set the stage". These are just ideas; you don't need to do all of these.

In the introduction, include a few sentences mentioning that you will be drawing on ideas from fields X, Y, and Z.
Include a topic map that illustrates how the ideas relate to each other. Below is an example from my MSc thesis. My advisors were a little wary of this "weird diagram" at first, but they warmed to it. Later they asked for a similar diagram in my PhD thesis.
Try to arrange the topics in your literature review in some sort of logical order, and add sentences that provide a segue from one topic to the next. For example, at the end of a section on cognition and before a section on evolution, I wrote "The next section presents a framework for analysing cognition within the context of evolution."


Publishing a paper that is not related your field

My honest advise is to try to publish it.
Your work speaks for yourself.
It means you were dedicated, motivated and got some results.
If it is not some kind of 2 years writing thing, I would do it.
All your work represents you and your education and motivation, and I would always chose to work with someone who showed passion for some area, even if it is not his major.

P.S. In my country, mathematics and astrophysics are ojd the same faculty. They are connected.


Is it acceptable to heavily reference blogs, forums, and other informal media?

Does your paper really test & verify lots of ideas?

You state that "I would like to prepare some trials and publish some papers, centered around a number of these ideas."  How many of those ideas do you expect to actually implement per a single paper?

If you implement, evaluate and contrast three novel ideas from blogs&forums, preferably including a solid comparison against a baseline published method; then that's just three informal items that you need to cite, in addition to the current academic publications.

There are references and references

If your paper assumes something, or claims non-obvious things, then you need 'proof' of it outside of your paper that should come from references. Those references need to be trustworthy - preferably respectable peer reviewed publications.

However, if your paper uses references for giving credit to ideas or pointing to original sources, then that's an entirely different class of reference, where blogs and forums are just as acceptable as, say, referencing archives of private informal letters that are used in studies of literature or history.

If you have never read an academic paper with a lot of informal references, then it is because it is very dependent on the field you're studying - for example, a thesis about racial stereotypes in online media would reference many informal sources as examples; while a thesis about particle physics wouldn't have any.


Will it be a bad move for Master's to do summer internship in industry when trying to pursue a PhD program?

A person who has had his finger in both the academic and industrial pie, and then tells me that they want to do a PhD, comes across as more credible. You understand what each has to offer and you are more likely to stick with your choice. As for research ability - it has to be quality, not quantity, at this point. The rest surely will come in the course of a good program.

If the internship is interesting I would take it. Just make sure you learn something while you are there - do more than "just your job".


How to target possible authors? Ethics of increasing the visibility of open access journals

The key for most scientists is the impact factor. Trying and succeeding to become listed will attract more good manuscripts (MS). The flood of sub-par MS you are describing comes from the fact that you are free. Unless you want to impose a fee for submitting MS you will simply have to maintain a very stringent policy for submissions and hope that the wave ceases with time. In order to attain IF status, you will need to be stringent anyway. But as you probably realise being stringent and building a reputation is a fine balance.

For a budding journal, the most important aspect is to become known and for the right reasons. For starting a journal I would stress making sure you have some good names among the editors and that the idea of the journal is supported by the community. It is never to late to start this but best before your reputation solidifies as a less prominent journal because then the climb will be harder.

So, some suggestions: Thematic issues generally tends to attract citations because they provide the opportunity for someone interested to find other articles within the same field in the same issue. With electronic publishing it is also possible to assemble virtual thematic issues simply by linking to articles with similar aspects and labelling them with a theme, and of course announcing this on list servers etc.

Attracting established, respected and widely referenced authors to provide articles for the journal is also key. You can, for example, provide opportunities to author invited papers on key issues, review articles on key issues in your field etc.

Success will, however, not come overnight and the most important aspect is to gain the interest of your community. This can be a slow process but can be aided by linking up with societies or equivalent in your field. In my field the European Geophysical Union has generated several Open Access journals that quickly has gained IF status. These journals were firmly embedded in the community and emanated from a discussion about the need for journals with a specific target community. So you need to assess your community and see if you can liaise with activities or organisations that are established in your scientific community.

Regardless how you continue, you definitely need to maintain high standards so even if you need to reject the vast majority of submitted manuscripts, make sure you only publish good quality science and make that very clear in your "advertising". Without that basis, very little success can be expected.


UK: Must my PhD research related to my MPhil research?

Based on my experience as an MPhil student and PhD applicant, I would say there is no requirement for the PhD research to be related to the MPhil research. What you are probably seeing amongst current or past PhD students is that the topics were related not for any official requirement but because:

If someone was interested in a topic for their MPhil then it is quite likely that they were still interested in it for a PhD.
During their MPhil research, they built a rapport with their supervisor (and co-workers) and this made it easier to discuss possible topics for a PhD.
Working on a topic for their MPhil made it relatively easy to write a sensible research proposal for something in that area. Writing a proposal for something that they were interested in, but don't have a solid background for, would have been more challenging.


How should I decline an offer from grad school

I am a professor and have experienced this situation from that point of view. Any experienced professor should be used to that, I would not worry too much about this.

I would suggest writing a brief mail to the professor to just inform her that you have accepted another offer. She might be interested to know what offer you accepted, so consider informing her about that, but you should not need to defend your decision.


For graduate admission, would 3-year bachelor’s program without thesis suffice in chemistry field?

If you were eligible for a

  Bachelor Honours Degree (Chemistry)

at a New Zealand university, then you would probably also be eligible for the the same degree at most Australian universities.  Unlike the UK, "Honours" is a degree sort of like a masters.

New Zealand degrees are not widely known outside Australia and New Zealand.


Is it possible to get a PhD in physics in 3 years? If not, why?

I have personally known only 2 people who got their PhD in 3 years in the US (though in Computer Science, not in Physics). I don't think it's impossible in Physics either, especially if you already have a masters going into the PhD, and if you have some research experience already so you can hit the ground running.

The problem generally with time to completion of a degree is simply that to do it in the near-minimum amount of time requires everything to go more or less according to plan, and you either have to get pretty lucky or just accept any outcome of your research efforts. I believe the root cause is simply that having a PhD where you have done the absolute minimum required, in the absolute minimum of time, has an uncertain (and perhaps limited) value.

If you've learned all you really needed to learn, can demonstrate appropriate mastery, fulfill all program requirements, and have established the level of knowledge, skill, and experience required to move on to whatever you want to do after your PhD - fantastic! Based on the fact that average time to completion is higher than 3 years, this suggests that a large portion of people don't find that 3 years was enough for them.

There are myriad reasons for why time to completion of degrees is well beyond the minimum on average, but you could roughly condense them to: personal factors, adviser factors, and program factors. Some people just don't achieve the minimum to get approved for the PhD in 3 years, and some people just go way, way beyond the minimum before officially completing their program. What's most important is that you are clear - or get clear - on what you want to get out of your program, and what you want to do after you have completed it, and then plan appropriately to get the most out of the opportunity you have. That may mean a  completion time that is lower or higher than average, but what is most important is that you get what you came for in the first place.


Claiming sole credit for an academic outreach program - not a written paper. Is there a moral right?

First off, you should decide what exactly you feel is wrong, and how you want it to be.  You were involved in the early stages of this program, but others took the helm later.  They continued to put work into the program, and they deserve credit. Arguably visitors to the program website want to know about who's managing it now, not its history.  Do you want to be cited as a co-creator or founder or first director?  Do you want a section dedicated to "early work on this project" where you play a greater role?  Is this really that important, since in academia publications are the currency of value, not websites.

Second, once you've decided what your objection is, you should take this objection to the co-developer in question.  Perhaps this is just an honest misunderstanding and he/she will rectify amicably.

Third, if you get no resolution, then you need to decide whether you want to pursue this further.  Read your co-developer's response carefully and objectively.  Do you think they have a reasonable case?  If so, you are unlikely to achieve anything positive by pursuing this (in fact, going to the legal department may have been a mistake).  You will (further) sour your relationship with the co-developer, and have the potential for getting a bad reputation.

Lastly, if you are absolutely certain that your co-developer's position has no merit, and you really want to pursue this further, you can try to apply pressure to your co-developer.  The legal department is the wrong avenue, as their job is to protect the university, not police it.  Try the dean, or otherwise the supervisor, of the co-developer.  If you can prove that the situation has cost you financially (farfetched) you might consider a lawsuit.


How long should letters of recommendation for students be?

I'd guess that this depends on the field.  In mathematics in the U.S., one factor is your relationship with the student.  If you are the Ph.D. advisor or a close mentor, then the letter should be at least two pages long (maybe rounding up a little) or it risks looking unsupportive, and three or four pages is not uncommon.  For other letter writers, I'd recommend at least a page, and good letters are often two pages or longer.  Of course these aren't absolute rules, and it's possible to write a great letter that's shorter, but it's a little risky.

The reason for the length is to give a chance to discuss the student's work (you can explain what they did, what some of the background and context is, why it's exciting, why the student's contributions are impressive, etc.).  You can easily fill most of a page with generalities about other things - what your relationship with the student is, what your general opinion is, a paragraph about teaching and communication skills, etc.  It's hard to cover this and say much about the student's work within one page, so a one-page letter sometimes suggests that either the recommender doesn't know the student very well or they don't have much to say about the work.

Overall, I'd say that whatever is needed is OK.  The worst case scenario is that the committee will start skimming partway through, but that's not a disaster.


When trying to establish a connection with a STEM field professor, is it appropriate to ask them out for coffee?

I don't think that this is special to any type of professional environment. The professor is polite and responsive. However, they repeatedly tactfully refused an informal meeting, which indicates that they are uncomfortable with it (indeed, they may be coincidentally busy at the given time, but often this would be reflected in the suggestion for rescheduling, which I don't see). In my opinion, your friend should take the hint and reevaluate their approach, e.g. schedule an office meeting.

As to whether it is appropriate to ask, as long as the tone is professional, I see no problem in asking, just as I see no problem getting 'no' for an answer. This, however, may in some cases be culture specific.


Graduate courses or research experience for PhD admissions: Which is more important?

I'd say the 1-2 years of research experience is the better option and here is why:

You are applying for a PhD position. Having research experience shows that you are already familiar with the challenges and you are not fresh. i.e. the department/lab/sponsor/etc. know that the learning curve is less for you. You may even bring or continue a project that you've already started. So, you may not need to start looking for a research subject either.

On the other hand, with all the MOOC, you can more or less learn or at least familiarize yourself with the some of the materials you need (I admit, this is not possible for every field or every course though).