How could I convince my PhD adviser that the method, which is provided by him to me, does not work?

You are in your third PhD year and have done a thorough review of the state of the art. It seems your adviser cannot give you proper reasons for using the existing method and has no relevant papers in this field. This means you are the expert here. If you find the new method superior, then go ahead, implement it and use it. Of course, you have to invest time but eventually it will pay off as you can overcome certain limitations and your simulations will run faster. In the end it is your thesis and if you knowingly stick to a inferior method, you stay below what is possible.

Maybe you can even write a comparison of the two methods in terms of performance (if you are interested). If your adviser accepts the comparison result, then you can use your favourite method and get a first paper out of it.

If your adviser insists on using a method against all scientific proof, then it might be time for a change. Of course, a change of superviser or research group at this advanced stage of your PhD must be considered thoroughly and probably is the last resort.


To answer some of your questions, a lot of this will vary from university to university, and vary by location.

One major aspect is to determine your research focus as early as possible and plan long and medium term objectives, and how these objectives are to be met at the beginning, in consultation with your advisors (that is the advice I was given).

Duration

There is usually an upper limit of how long a student can take to complete the dissertation, and it is generally expected that the research, experiments, dissertation write up is performed within the time frame dictated by the university.  Note, the length of time taken to complete the PhD is not necessarily a measure of how credible it is. (I completed my PhD in Physics in 2.5 years).

Papers are often published in consultation between you and your advisor(s).  But, during my PhD I was advised that it is a good idea to get some publications completed while you are studying (I completed 4 while completing the research).

Courses

This varies between universities and places, for example, I was not required to take any courses whatsoever - just pure research.  That is something you will need to check with any university you apply to.

I did my PhD while working full time in an unrelated field, so I arranged regular (fortnightly) Skype meetings with my advisors, where short term goals were set and the medium and long term goals checked up on.

As you are doing sciences by the looks of it, it will involve a considerable amount of experimentation (potentially) - some of it can be tedious, make sure you plan and get into that as soon as possible, while ensuring you get the most accurate possible data in a safe and efficient manner.

Completion

You complete your research when you have met your objectives and have, through research and experimentation, 'answered' your research focus.

What happens then varies between universities, some you will be expected to defend your thesis, and some, as in my case, your thesis is peer-reviewed.  Once all that is done and your advisors and the university are satisfied, you will be told that you have passed (in my case, I received a letter stating as such).

But, the research never really ends, once you have that passion for that topic - you may find that the research continues, but now to be published as papers (this also has been my experience).  Find a topic that ignites the fire in you and you'll find that the PhD is just the start of the journey.

Finally and critically, make sure what you are doing is something that you find fascinating, something that you won't mind putting in many hours of research and work into.  Choose something that is either your passion or something related to it.  Get ready to challenge yourself on a regular basis.

I hope this helps.


How to add data availability statement in Physical Review Letters?

I don't have experience with PRL, only with an APS journal(Physical Review x, where x=A-E[not all of them, only an undisclosed letter]). First of all, I would like to congratulate you, having a paper in PRL it is really something to be appreciated. For PRL, you can add supplemental material to the paper, which can be downloaded when the user downloads the original paper attached to it. As for the program which is based on a Matlab GUI, you can add a link in the body of the paper. I have seen that some authors also add links in the Acknowledgements section of the paper, where they also state that any data is available on e-mail also upon request. Also, if you used Matlab, please provide all the necessary files and the Matlab version to be used. Please use a public open access repository which will not change it's DNS in time. Moreover, don't forget that you might need to cite also Matlab as a bibtex, it might be a necessity when using this software product (see the copyright files when you installed this software on your computer).


Research studies covering the reasons why faculty applicants accept or reject academic jobs?

See Matier, Michael W. "Recruiting Faculty: Complementary Tales from Two Campuses." Research in Higher Education 32.1 (1991): 31-44. DOI: 10.1007/BF00992831
As the abstract says:

This paper—a complement to “Retaining Faculty: A Tale of Two Campuses” (Matier, 1990)—examines the factors influencing individuals with firm offers to join the faculty at two research universities. Particular attention is paid to the relative weight and importance placed on the tangible, intangible, and non-work-related benefits in the decision-making process.

According to this paper:

Using the enticement to accept the Wyandot, Manada, and alternative best
opportunity values assigned by the participants for each factor, it was possible to determine those most important in the decision-making process.
...
Of the ten most important factors at each of the subject institutions, nine were common to both. Of these, eight were intangible benefits: reputation of institution, teaching assignments/opportunities, reputation of department, career advancement opportunities, reputation of associates, congeniality of associates, research opportunities, and rapport with departmental leaders.
The remaining common factor was the tangible benefit teaching/research load, ranked number three at Wyandot and number eight at Manada. The
uncommon factor ranked in the top ten at Wyandot was the tangible benefit
research funding (ranked number nine). At Manada, it was the tangible benefit library facilities (ranked number seven).

Another similar study: Teevan, James J., Susan Pepper, and Joseph R. Pellizzari. "Academic employment decisions and gender." Research in Higher Education 33.2 (1992): 141-160. DOI: 10.1007/BF00973576
Its findings include:

The most frequently mentioned reason for accepting a position, cited by 50 percent of academics, was the reputation of the department or the university, a factor similarly important to both males and females. The next most frequently mentioned reasons for accepting positions concerned the compatibility of the job with family needs (cited by 39% of all respondents), positive aspects of the job offer, and personal opportunities (each mentioned by 36% of all respondents).
Among those who declined or resigned from positions, a somewhat different pattern emerged. Dissatisfaction with aspects of the job offer, cited by 47 percent of these respondents, and the incompatibility of the position with family needs, cited by 42 percent, were the most frequently mentioned reasons. Insufficient research support, fewer personal opportunities, and a weaker university or department were mentioned by 26 to 30 percent of these respondents.


How should I deal with very negative feedback from some students?

Could I get some suggestion on how do I manage in such time? Is it normal for a early-age academia?

No, this is common for academics of any age. Anonymous evaluations are notoriously a valve for students to express their dissatisfaction without having to be reflective, fair, or even truthful about it. If you ask for anonymous feedback, you will need to be prepared for things that you don't want to hear. This can include very harsh judgments of your teaching quality, ad hominem attacks, or even tangentially (if at all) teaching-related comments to your person, your appearance, etc. Browsing Ratemyprof will give you a good idea what kind of statements students are willing to utter about their professors.

How you "manage" is by keeping in mind that (a) what you read is likely not the opinion of the silent majority of students, (b) that even the students that actually post hurtful feedback will often not really feel like this about you, but rather be frustrated because of a bad grade, a bad experience with your school in general, or just a difficult time in their life, and that (c) in reality, most teachers get a wide range of feedback from very bad to very good.

Also note that especially in smaller classes there can be tremendous differences between years, so having a bad evaluation in one year can still lead to a better evaluation in the following. Further, I have taken to basically ignore any feedback that has been mentioned only once or twice, and only start to take a specific complaint serious if it becomes a pattern.

TL;DR: In short, you will need to learn to not take the feedback personally.


How serious can this review invitation be?

Don't waste your time with it. You were smart to catch how the mail might have been generated (keywords etc). These mails are often sent out by journals that turn out to be predatory*; you wouldn't like to be associated with it.

If you accept, you may find your name being used here and there, in an attempt to increase the journal's scientific credibility. It is likely that their editorial board etc. is fluffed up in this manner (you could take a look at that if they've put up one, and see if there are any known researchers on their board). You are right — this is likely to happen repeatedly; ignore any requests that:

mention a specific paper of yours and extend editorial board invitations — it's a sign of auto-generated content.
appear in predatory journal lists.
have extremely general scope (eg. STEM) and no matching editorial board.

EDITS:
(1)* Predatory journals,  in a nutshell, charge authors exorbitant fees to publish articles with little or no peer review, with very low visibility or scientific credibility. In the most extreme cases, the article may not even be published. In this manner, they are 'preying' on unsuspecting authors who submit their hard work. The linked question contains a detailed description.

(2) It would be a good idea not to respond to such mails at all, and to mark them as spam. Over time, it ll get easier to spot them right away.


Has the DeWitt Clause, which prevents publication of named DBMS benchmarks, ever been successfully defended in court?

Several users have suggested People of the State of New York vs. Network Associates as an instance of a DeWitt Clause being challenged, and struck down, in court. However, this case is hugely misunderstood by the media, and so these answers have been very misleading.

This case was an instance of a DeWitt Clause being challenged in court. However, the court's ruling did not directly address the issue of whether such a clause is enforceable. The court ruled on the basis of the specific wording of the Network Associates clause, and so did not generally rule on the enforceability of all such clauses.

Arguments of the Attorney General

Source: Attorney General's Argument in People v. Network Associates

Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, mentions two claims in his preliminary statement for this case. The first relates to the general enforceability of a DeWitt Clause, and the second does not.

Violation of free speech and fair use:

  Under New York law, a restriction that broadly chills or restricts important rights -- here, of free speech and fair use -- without a legitimate purpose, will be struck down. This Censorship Clause restricts consumers and the media alike from reviewing the software or disclosing important design or product flaws. Yet it serves no legitimate purpose, such as protecting trade secrets or confidential material.

Deception:

  Specifically, it misinforms consumers that the company’s prohibition
  against publication of reviews or benchmark tests (itself an illegal restriction) reflects existing “rules and regulations.” Of course, no “rules and regulations” actually exist, under federal or state law -- a fact that most attorneys, including those who drafted the Censorship Clause, surely
  know.

  ...

  Finally, the Censorship Clause is also void and deceptive because it conflicts with the License Agreement contained with the company’s boxed software. The boxed License Agreement, which is by its own terms the “entire Agreement between the parties,” omits the Censorship Clause. Yet the company then places that very Clause on the face of the software diskette -- even though it is by the very terms of the License Agreement void and unenforceable.

I'll elaborate a little bit on the latter point, regarding deception. The specific text that is the subject of the lawsuit is:

  Installing this software constitutes acceptance of the terms and conditions of the license agreement in the box. Please read the license agreement before installation. Other rules and regulations of installing the software are:

  a. The product can not be rented, loaned, or leased—you are the sole owner of this product.

  b. The customer shall not disclose the result of any benchmark test to any third party without Network Associates' prior written approval.

  c. The customer will not publish reviews of this product without prior consent from Network Associates, Inc.

This text was outside of the license agreement. The license agreement itself did not contain clauses (b) and (c). Furthermore, the license agreement contained a clause specifying that it (the license) constitutes the entire agreement between the consumer and Network Associates, and supersedes any prior communications related to the software.

The major claim of the deception argument was as follows: Consumers - having read the license agreement, with its clause that the entire contract between parties is contained in that license agreement, and without the "gag" clauses - will then read this text. They may reasonably conclude that the restrictions on publishing reviews and benchmarks are not part of the contractual agreement between the consumer and Network Associates, and are instead made and enforced by some other entity.

That is, the text deceptively implies that the restrictions on reviews and benchmarking are imposed not by Network Associates, but by someone else - such as the state or federal government.

Furthermore, the clauses restricting publishing reviews and benchmarking are not enforceable at all in this case (regardless of the general enforceability or legality of such clauses), because they conflict with the actual license agreement. Thus, consumers are deceived into believing that they have no right to publish reviews and benchmarks, when in this case, because of the way it is written, these clauses are not a valid contractual agreement.

Opinion of the Court

Source: PEOPLE v. NETWORK ASSOC., INC

The court rules against Network Associates. However, the ruling states that the Attorney General's claims of deception are valid. It does not directly address the first claim, of violation of free speech and fair use.

Furthermore, the ruling explicitly states that Network Associates is

  enjoined from including any language restricting the right to publish the results of testing and review without notifying the Attorney General at least 30 days prior to such inclusion

which suggests that language restricting publishing of benchmarks is not necessarily prohibited. That is, Network Associates is not generally forbidden from writing a license in the future that restricts consumers' rights to publish reviews and benchmarks.


When to explain poor performance in a Statement of Purpose

My general question: When is it a valuable addition to a Statement of Purpose to explain an isolated case of poor performance in important coursework?

Among scenarios I can imagine, never.  You don't want to place extra attention on potential mild weaknesses in your application.

As mentioned in the comments, in your particular case one B in a grad class while you were taking 2 other grad classes and 2 other math classes with all As doesn't really look bad.  The normal interpretation would be this student didn't have enough time to get an A in that one class with all the other work.

For the general question, one situation you might want addressed is if you have a semester that really looks bad (light load and actually bad grades, e.g., F, D, C), maybe due to major illness or personal tragedy.  However, the statement of purpose doesn't really seem the right place to address it.  A good letter writer will know when and how to explain this in your references, so you shouldn't need to explain in yourself in your application (though you may need to explain it to your letter writers if they're not aware).


Does systematic search makes someone a true author for a systematic review?

Given the sparseness of the details, its rather difficult to provide specific advice. Here are a few thoughts from someone whose performed systematic reviews for last 30 years, having led teams of reviewers and review programmes, and having participated in the Cochrane Collaboration since its early days:

Performing a systematic review on your own is frowned upon nowadays. In the first place, there needs to be a good balance of content, methods and consumer skills and its very rare to possess all this is one person. In the second place, you'll be making decisions that need to be validated somehow. For example, you are choosing the studies to include and exclude. This is a crucial step and requires another set of eyes with agreements often being resolved by another (third) person.
Searching is a specialist area where research librarians often become involved. It can be the case that someone is on the authorship list not only because they've done the work, but because they can stand by that work. In addition, in the case in which reviewers seek information or modification of your search strategy, the search specialist can handle these issues without breaking a sweat.
If your contributor meets the definition of authorship, he is right to expect it.


Can I edit my paper after submission if I discover additional literature?

From what you have written regarding the sequence name, it sounds like this it only a question of nomenclature and doesn't substantively affect either your results or the novelty of these results.

If this is indeed the case, then it can easily be amended at revision. Pretty much every meaningful peer review process on a significant article will end up requesting at least minor revisions, since reviewers will generally contribute useful perspective and few manuscripts are without at least some typos.

If there is a major impact (presumably on novelty), it is a whole different story.  Depending on how large the impact, you might either still want to wait until revision (e.g., if it's going to replace a couple of paragraphs with a citation) or you might even want to withdraw and resubmit a new version of the manuscript (e.g., if it results in dropping an entire section). Even if you need to do something so extreme, however, I would not worry overmuch about consequences: any good editor will respect (and likely appreciate) such a decision.


Contacting Potential Advisor After Being Waitlisted for PhD Admissions

You could but it's likely too late. The order of waitlist rolldowns is usually determined at the admissions meeting, sent to the graduate school, and is now beyond the professor's (and occasionally the department's) control.

Departments and universities do vary in practice. There's nothing to be lost in emailing the professor but don't assume a response. No news would be bad news.


How to prepare for a graduate school fair?

A grad school fair is not quite like a job fair, where many people bring CVs and hope to get interviews---no one is expecting you to apply to a grad school at a fair.  It is a place for you to go to learn about grad schools: what programs are out there, what they are like.

As for how you should prepare: think some about what you might like to study and what things would be important to you in choosing a grad school.  For this, it may be helpful to first try to find general advice on choosing grad schools.  Then you can ask appropriate questions to each program.


Can I protect a questionnaire that we've developed against unauthorized use by publishing it somewhere under a license?

Your collaborators shouldn't publish your research without acknowledging, typically with co-authorship, your contribution, since that's plagiarism. If they published anyway, you could notify the publisher.
Legally speaking, the questionnaire will be protected by copyright law (in many countries), which prohibits your collaborators from publishing it.


Are there any citation managers that track author-specific affiliations?

Depending on how you define citation or bibliography management software, you can get part of the way there in the LaTeX world. The biblatex package in conjunction with the biber program supports data annotations. With biblatex/biber the database files can be in a variety of formats, but the most common is probably a bibtex .bib file (yeah the LaTeX world is confusing). Assuming a .bib file, for each entry you would add a field author+an with a value similar to 1=University A; 2=University B; ...; N=University N to denote the affiliation of each author (I think it can even support a list of affiliations for each author). With biblatex and biber you can store the author specific affiliations in the data base and get access to them when citing, but this is only part of the way there.

I am not aware of a nice graphical front end for managing bib files that directly supports data field annotations. The database is a plain text file, so maybe a text editor counts ...

I am also not aware of any biblatex styles that utilize data annotations, so you would have to roll your own. While updating a style to print the annotations is relatively easy, at the user level you are pretty limited. J Doe at University A and J Doe at University B are going to be treated as the same person. There is no user level support for sorting based on author name and then affiliation (or even affiliation of the first author).


Do academics get paid when they give interview (or other form of appearance) in the media?

Generally speaking, academics do not get paid to be interviewed by the mainstream media. The interview is often regarded as a chance to promote one's research, expertise and increase one's reputation and fame. Also ego may play a role (which might be exploited by the media).

Things might be different when one already has received a fair amount of exposure in the mainstream media, and is regarded and recognized as an expert on a certain matter. In those cases you might even be in the rolodex of the media agencies and journalists (which leads them to you when anything pops up in your domain). Also it makes sense to have an agent represent you when you have reached this status, because the agent can negotiate the payments and relief you from the communication overhead.
But for the vast majority of the academics that is not the case.


What is the difference in research culture between a University of X and a X University of Technology?

Historically speaking, it's possible there would have been differences between what the universities researched or were built to research and thus were given different names. However, research directions and capabilities change over time and I don't think it's possible to draw such distinctions based on name alone these days. Research "quality" or "standards" can also be somewhat subjective, and will definitely vary from country to country.


Will my Professor tolerate this medical excuse again?

Go to the hospital NOW and worry about the exam and your professor later.

If you tell your professor that you had to go to the hospital, she'll most likely just accept that. Of course, you can ask for that note nevertheless, just in case.

Once you are ok again, think about how you can reduce stress and get enough sleep regularly. On the long run, constant lack of sleep and stress will hurt you (even more than it already did so far).


Do people say why they decline a paper review request?

Established scientists receive a large number of review requests. A few years back I decided to tally the review requests I received, and the number I accepted. In the end I received 112 and accepted 28 over the course of a year.  Add to that the editorial work I did for three journals and you get an awful lot of uncompensated, unrewarded time invested for the good of the field. (I typically spend about eight hours a week on reviews and editorial work.) So yes, I declined a large number of review requests every year, many of which I would have been well qualified to handle. When the editorial system allows, I try to at least leave a note explaining that I'm too busy, but as jakebeal notes, this is not always an option.

So yes, qualified reviewers can and do turn down many review requests, often without providing an explanation. As an editor, I know that if I ask well known researchers this will happen as often as not, and I don't mind that one bit. What I do dislike is when people don't bother to click the "decline" link on the review request, and force me to wait for a week before giving up and trying to find a new reviewer. This slows down the review process and ultimately slows down science for everyone.


In terms of graduate applications, what sort of courses should I take in a gap year?

Linguistics professor here (at a big public university in the U.S.). I think this is an excellent question.

The first thing I want to point out is that all else being equal, that extra year of lab work is going to be an asset when it comes to graduate applications. It attests to you having research experience and lends additional credibility to the areas of interest that you point toward on your statement of purpose. A big extra plus is if the extra year helps to net you any presentations or publications.

That aside, this is an interesting dilemma. On the one hand, this is your last real chance to enroll in classes outside your major; a Ph.D. in linguistics would not typically leave any room for it. Having other interests is still possible in grad school, but a reasonable expectation is that they will be squeezed into a corner (you might read the occasional book about them, for instance). On the other hand, an admissions committee will see your entire transcript, and if you take courses to help you prepare for graduate school, that will not go unnoticed.

My advice is as follows: compile a list of Ph.D. programs that you want to apply to, and then pay very close attention to the preparation they want to see among applicants to their program. Do they strongly advise applicants to have completed a class in linguistic field methods? Do they like seeing applicants with background in (e.g.) phonology or syntax or morphology beyond the introductory courses in those subfields? Is having training in statistics an advantage?

If you've already maxed out on the requirements for the program(s) you apply to, then you have some freedom to select other classes. If you are missing something recommended (or optional but clearly well regarded by the department you're applying to), this is a chance to fill in the gap and become a more competitive applicant. Similarly, one of my colleagues tells gap-year applicants that if they have completed a core linguistics class but scored below about the B-minus level, taking that class again in an attempt to mitigate the weak spot on the transcript is advisable.


How can I get the opportunity to talk during my meetings with professors?

Why not write an email to your advisor with your concerns?

Women are not the only ones with this problem.  Those fast-talkers maybe don't even realize they are leaving you out.

Here is a good book.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking,
by Susan Cain
It may help you understand your situation.  But it's those other guys who need to read it, and probably won't.

When you get to a software company, it may get better.  At least if it is large enough to have managers who are not merely former programmers who were promoted.  One can hope that those with management training know about these things: The one with the loudest voice may not be the one with the best idea.  And there are management practices that can make the best of all workers, whether they are fast-talkers or timid wall-flowers.


How long the curse of bad education remains in academic career?

From a European perspective: the only time I was ever asked for transcripts was for PhD admission. After that, nobody every asked me for transcripts.

Administrative people asked me for a proof of my degree (a copy of the degree itself, without grades, is what I gave). They only wanted to check I was eligible for the position's formal requirements (having a PhD to become post-doc or assistant professor).
Scientists asked me for my publications, my thesis, the list of topics I had taught, etc. They did not care the least about my grades in undergrad or graduate education.

So, I think the ads you saw asking for transcripts, especially for senior positions, are by far a minority. Once you have a PhD, most people won't care about your earlier educational record, since it is not a good predictor of how awesome you will be as a researcher.


What do PhD programs, specifically finance and Econ programs, look for in research experience?

This probably depends a lot on your definition of "top."

To get a sense for what successful applicants look like, check the websites, CVs, and/or LinkedIn profiles of current students in the programs you are interested in. (Look at their history from before they entered the program, of course.)

For example, I looked up the list of current econ PhD students at NYU Stern and started Googling. All the ones I checked (the first five names or so currently on that list) had some kind of formal research experience prior to joining the program.


Can a list of scientific numbers be shortened with only the final having the exponent?

Short answer: No. It is not acceptable, because it is confusing. There are examples when a list of data points includes 3x105 and 5x100 at the same time --- how can the reader be sure how to interpret what you suggest?

If you insist on using it, you have to get around the confusion in some way. One of the used tricks is if you make it in a table:

--------------------------------------------
 Experiment           1    2    3    4    5
 Value (in 10^5 kg)  24   15   3.1   8   40
--------------------------------------------

This way you make it clear that the multiplier 105 applies to all values. This is mostly usable for large data sheets. For couple values like you show, I would stick to the standard notation and keep the multipliers with each value.


Are infrequently-cited publications detrimental in academic hiring?

In my experience, those who like to evaluate by counting are happy to count citations and to count publications.  Thus, in their eyes you are generally better off with more publications, regardless of citation counts.

On the other hand (at least in my field of applied mathematics), when evaluation is done by actually looking at your body of work (and what others in your subfield say about it), papers that are rarely cited can still be very important if they are highly regarded.  For instance, perhaps you solved a major open problem so thoroughly as to leave little room for follow-up work -- such a paper is likely to be considered very important but not often cited except in reviews.


Is there an ethical obligation to make author order reflect conventions in your field?

I don't think you're overthinking this. If your authorship decisions are made with the intention to mislead others about the respective roles and contributions of the various authors, then yes, I'd say that is pretty clearly unethical. For instance, your first example can be reasonably interpreted as a mild form of gift authorship.

It's also important to remember that authorship of papers can have real consequences to people's careers. An example that comes to mind is the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper, a famous paper in cosmology that provided one of the early theoretical analyses supporting the big bang theory. The work that led to the paper was part of Ralph Alpher's dissertation work under George Gamow. Gamow, who was already a well-known physicist at the time, had the idea to add the name of his friend Hans Bethe (an even more famous physicist) as a coauthor purely as a joke to make the list of authors sound like "alpha-beta-gamma". This didn't work out so well for his student Alpher. The Wikipedia article I linked to above says:

  Alpher, at the time only a graduate student, was generally dismayed by
  the inclusion of Bethe's name on this paper. He felt that the
  inclusion of another eminent physicist would overshadow his personal
  contribution to this work and prevent him from receiving proper
  recognition for such an important discovery. He expressed resentment
  over Gamow's whimsy as late as 1999.

Simon Singh (in whose wonderful book "Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe" I originally read this story), also writes in this article:

  Gamow and Bethe were then both famous names in the world of physics, so scientists assumed that it was they who had done the bulk of the work, which meant that young Alpher was ignored. In the decades ahead, the formation of helium in the wake of the Big Bang would become one of the key pieces of evidence to support the Big Bang hypothesis, but few would remember Alpher's contribution.

To summarize, since the conventions surrounding author order vary across disciplines and are inherently somewhat vague, someone who wants to manipulate author order in one of their papers to give a small boost to someone's career will probably have enough plausible deniability to get away with it without anyone making a fuss. But it shouldn't be done without a very good reason, would be unethical if done out of a dishonest motivation, and can be potentially harmful even if done for innocent or whimsical reasons.


Question on academic integrity and using summaries

Don't worry. There is no academic dishonesty in studying from secondary texts when preparing for a philosophy exam. Nor is there any academic dishonesty in failing to read the primary texts.

You don't need to further clarify the situation with your teacher.


Which kind of article could be "more suitable for a journal than for a conference"?

While both types of venues generally use the same assessment criteria for submissions -- novelty, technical soundness, technical depth, clarity of the description --, the weighting of these criteria  differs a bit between conferences and journals.

This is the case because conferences have three distinguishing features: (i) a page limit, (ii) a shorter (or at least more predictable) review cycle,  and (iii) immediate feedback through discussion with an informed audience. Each of these features contributes to an increased importance of the criterion "novelty" and a decreased importance of "technical depth".

The fact that Reviewers 1 and 3 have used the words "not spectacular" and "maybe incremental" indicates that the reviewers were not convinced of a sufficient level of novelty.


As a co-author, should I add someone who provided access to high-performance computing facilities and engineering technical support as another author?

Authorship conventions vary enormously from field to field, so it is impossible to answer this question in any generality. This is the sort of question you need an advisor for.

However, two general pieces of advice are to (i) make sure to discuss authorship at the earliest opportunity so as to avoid conflict later on and (ii) be generous, particularly with junior people (e.g., non-PhDs). People tend to worry about dividing the credit for the work, but, in reality, adding another author does not deprive you of much credit; a much greater risk is offending someone and harming future collaboration opportunities.


Just from a quick look at a few applied MSc programs, there are a number of classes that would be difficult to complete without serious background in mathematics: classes like partial differential equations, applied algebra, probability theory and combinatorial algorithms were a few that showed up in most that I doubt you could manage without rigorous undergraduate preparation. However, if you have taken classes to prepare you for this (like a minor as an undergraduate), or the MSc you have in mind is less rigorous, or you are willing to devote a year or so to prepare on your own, I fail to see why they would refuse you to take the entrance exam. At least in the US, a good subject score on the math GREs would show the university that while you have a less traditional background, you can still do well in the program.

Basically, it comes down to how mathematically rigorous the program is and how strong your math background is. Liking math is unfortunately not enough to pass a class on PDEs. You would probably need to provide some evidence in your application that you have a sufficient math background, and taking a standardized exam with a good score, even if it is not required in the country you are applying, would be one way to do so.


Medical doctor who tried science now wants to quit Phd and science altogether. How to explain to supervisor?

There is no problem here. Just inform the PI that you intend to leave the program at the earliest opportunity. You haven't signed a contract with the devil for your soul. People change, people grow, people learn. Others understand that.

It would be good, however, for  you to do what you can to leave things tidy when you go, not leaving others (PI, other students) in the lurch. To do this effectively you may need to spend some time cleaning up the current work and either finalizing it or passing it on to another. That is courtesy, but useful to you for the future if you decide later to re-evaluate yet again.

Take care of yourself; your future is yours and yours alone.


Is it ethical for a journal to request substantial payment for publishing a paper?

Well someone's got to pay. If it's the reader, then howls go up about Open Access. So that leaves the authors.

The costs of publishing

A high-quality journal needs high-quality editors.  An awful lot of literature still gets printed and distributed around the world and that's expensive. Remember, reading this, we are the ones who are most active online, and so our paper-reading habits are much more likely to be skewed towards predominantly (or even exclusively) online access, so are not fully representative. High-quality journals often also get involved in conference sponsorship, publicity, and so on. The peer-reviews get co-ordinated; there is often some vetting of suitable reviewers; their responses need to be interpreted correctly; special issues get co-ordinated; someone ensures a good balance of articles covering the journal's remit.

So, there's a lot of costs, and someone's got to cover them.  If we want to publish at almost-zero overheads, we write a blog.  A journal is much much more than a blog - and some of the things that make it much more than a blog, cost money.

Not necessarily an efficient market

That's not to say that in certain sectors, there isn't a market failure: some sectors do have suspiciously high profit margins. And market regulators should be looking at removing barriers to entry.  Those barriers certainly aren't insurmountable, as notable new scientific publishers have emerged recently, with new business models: PLOS being an obvious example, founded in 2000 to support Open Access, and becoming a publisher in its own right in 2003; and now a serious player, using the author-pays model.

Author beware

There are also plenty of scammers using the author-pays model. So be careful out there. Talk to colleagues about who's reputable and who's not. Read the journals. And there are lists online of the disreputable publishers. Read more about that on this site at How do you judge the quality of a journal?


Should I tell my professor of my crippling anxiety?

Your advisor is responsible for you, for good and for bad. This also means that if you have problems that are not of "technical" nature, that he still has to deal with it. It is in the advisors interest as well to find a solution for this, as he wants you to successfully finish. Hence, if you trust your advisor well enough to talk about this, then I would definitely recommend to talk to him. Even if you think he cannot help you, he should be still aware of the situation. Maybe he knows a way how he can at least make it a little easier for you.

Independently of this, I would suggest you to seek professional help. If you are at the level where such a problem has negative effect on your life and you don't see how you can solve it on your own or together with friends, then asking a psychologist is the right thing to do. Unlike what people commonly believe, they do not usually deal with "mad" people, but mostly with people who struggle with this or that problem in their lives, that they cannot find a solution for.

Though a word of advice: a psychologist is a person that you have to trust. You will be talking of problems that you might not talk about even with close friends. Hence, if you have even the smallest doubt that you can trust the psychologist you have chosen, look for another one. Do this, until you find someone whom you can fully trust and talk about everything that you want. And under no circumstances be afraid what the psychologist might think of you when you switch to another one. This is part of the game and everyone in this line of work knows it.


Should I decide research field base on my performance on qualifying exam?

The most important direction to choose is the one you feel a real passion for. Anything else is a waste of your life.

If real analysis (or numerical analysis) is really your passion, then stick with the subject you love, and be prepared to work hard to bring that love to fruition. Do not switch to algebra so that one day you can tell your grandchildren "I wasted my whole life doing something I have no interest in, because I seemed to be good at it".

You have to remember how little meaning exam results have. They indicate your performance, on a particular day, in certain artificial circumstances. They are no predictor of your ability to deal with the research tasks you may set yourself in the future. And there may not even be much overlap between the "real analysis" of examinations and the kind of analysis you need to use when you are following your interests.

Do not hurry to make a decision. The exam is almost irrelevant, but it may have told you a little about what you are good at, and you could listen to that. You could also reasonably ask yourself, "Can I fall in love with something more algebraic?" But answer that question on the basis of love, not utility.


Losing hope in securing a decent postdoctoral position

People on their second postdoc don't automatically look better than first postdocs just because they have more publications. Second postdocs are seen more as known quantities, but many institutes like gambling on the promise of new PhD grads, so you won't be compared to them in terms of straight publications. Your letter of rec will carry more weight, while their track record of publications will be considered more. The Columbia grad would give me more pause, but there are still many factors to be considered beyond exact research match.
Still, I think overall you have hope as your search has generated a lot of interest from nice places. Talk to your advisor about whether you can get a paycheck somehow at your current institute to tide you over through the job search, and about whether you should be expanding your search to include less prestigious places. If you're coming to the end of the line, your advisor will hopefully tell you that too (though ask around with other senior people for a more well-rounded view).
In some fields, no job by graduation basically weeds you out. Others have qualitatively similar deadlines that fall on different dates (for example a year gap from the PhD with no new position). Some fields are more flexible. Talk to people in your field about whether you're continuing a fruitless search past the point you would be expected to have been placed. From what you wrote you don't sound like you're there yet.


There's no fixed timeline. For example, the National Science Foundation has deadlines for proposal submission that are scattered around the year, and once a proposal has been submitted, it may take the NSF 3-9 months to decide. There are also numerous other funding agencies.

In other words, the only way for you to find out when that date may be is to communicate with the professor. He may have an idea when that may be, but the NSF doesn't set a fixed date when they will announce their grants -- that email may come on a random day and a random time.


When Applying for Postdocs Should GPA be on your CV?

Mark Meckes's answer only considers academic postdoctoral positions. In such cases, he is correct: undergraduate and graduate GPA's do not matter.

If you are applying for non-academic postdocs, however, the situation is very different. At large research centers—particularly those managed by corporations, such as essentially the entire US Department of Energy laboratory system—hiring is done by corporate employees, and must be approved by several layers of management. Several of the national laboratories even have strict GPA cutoffs for their employees, regardless of the length of time they've been working post-graduation!

Consequently, if you're applying for positions only in academia, then there's no need to include GPA. However, for anything outside of an academic setting, it can actually help to do so.


Can research publications or paper acquire University credit? Or a degree?

Perhaps you are thinking of a "PhD by publication", which is a different thing. See, for example, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/08/20/a-phd-by-publication-is-a-great-way-to-build-your-academic-profile-but-be-mindful-of-its-challenges/


You may want to try Microsoft OneNote. When you copy content from a website and paste it into a notebook, OneNote automatically appends the website URL. You can thus collect all relevant snippets without losing track of where they came from, and add your thoughts there.


Q: Will getting a PhD close doors for working as a software developer?
A: It depends on the position you are looking for.  Certain employers will not want to hire you because they may have the perception that hiring someone with a PhD will be more expensive than hiring someone with a bachelor's, and if someone with a bachelor's can do the job, they aren't going to want to pay extra for the PhD training.

Q: Are the opportunities for PhDs' only based on research?
A: No, there are a number of PhD graduates who go into industry and end up doing development-focused work.

Q: Even after a PhD will I still be able to compete with people with BSs and MSs for Software Engineering positions?
A: Yes and no.  If the job can be done by someone with a BS or an MS, then companies will not want to pay more to get a PhD to do the job.  On the other hand, there are development-focused positions where a PhD is beneficial.  Having a PhD opens those doors for you.  Some of this will be very dependent on what you spent your PhD doing.  For example, if you spent your PhD developing systems and publishing papers on those systems, that will be much more desirable for companies with software development positions than if you spent time doing non-implementation research.  At some software development companies, having a PhD is considered equal to some amount of experience, so you may enter at a higher position/pay scale than someone with a BS or MS and potentially get promoted more quickly.

Q: Finally, during the PhD will I be able to apply for internships that deal with software development than pure research?
A: Absolutely.  This will be somewhat subject to your advisor, but there are a number of internships for CS graduate students that are very development-centric.

There are a lot of different reasons for getting a PhD, for example, your own personal gratification, to do research, to teach, to get a job that you can't get without a PhD.  The question I think you should ask yourself is, "What do I want to get out of doing a PhD?"

If the answer to that is to make more money/make a bunch of money doing software development, you should stop at your MS and go into industry.  If you are doing it for other reasons (as listed above) then definitely go for it.


Is the '°' wrong in a degree centigrade mark?

For the International System of Units, the units of measurements are defined by the SI brochure. For the degree, unit of plane angle, and the degree Celsius, unit of Celsius temperature, the SI brochure at p. 133 and at p. 149 uses a circle and not a zero.
However, at table 8, the circle is rendered with an "o" (probably they didn't have the circle in that font). In any case, no zero.
You can refer your professor to that document. Further, if you're using LaTeX, you can use the siunitx package and write the angles with the command \ang and Celsius temperatures with the command \SI{23}{\celsius} (example with 23 °C). From the package documentation, you can see that also in this case the degree symbol is a circle.
If they still insist, let it go.


How much reading is appropriate to give to students?

It really depends on the focus of the class, and what other homework you are giving students.

Certain classes are expected to have more reading.  Societal and philosophical theory fields are heavy on reading, as are (obviously) literature classes.

Remember, different students will read at different rates, and the more you cover the less detail you can cover.  It's sometimes better to go into deeper depth than to cover more for both these reasons.

It is important you disclose the reading to students as early as possible, preferably before they apply for your class.  At the very least all major reading assignments longer than a few pages should be disclosed on the first day of class.  This gives students that need to time to read ahead.


Two-body problems is something which is usually only brought up proper once you have the offer during the negotiations phase. Then, hopefully, your partner's future institution will really want to have them, and hopefully try to accommodate their wishes.
Of course, the room for negotiations at tenure-track level might be limited, depending on the place. But then again, giving a funded PhD position is a comparatively low effort/risk, as compared to giving a partner a permanent faculty-level position. So I would think that chances should be reasonably good, though it might of course mean that your partner will get less startup funding e.g. for PhD students (the university will ultimately look at the full package).
Finally, if your partner is being asked in the interview if there is a two-body problem, or generally about family-related issues with relocation, they should answer truthfully.
Independent of all that, it should also be a feasible task to find a new PhD yourself in the new place (unless it is very small), as PhD positions are much easier to get than faculty positions. So overall this might not be so much of an issue.


Can a poor work history reduce your chances of acceptance into graduate school and/or later securing a tenure-track position?

As most things, it would depend. However, given the cumulative information from your posting history, I believe that your spotty work history would be flagged as a concern. Graduate committees will most likely focus first on your letters of reference, transcripts, and Statement of Purpose - not necessarily in that order.
What is unique about your situation is that you are 38, and as you say, you have not worked except for but a few years. If you were much younger, a sporadic work history might not be flagged as seriously. If you apply, you will need to be prepared to answer, why in your 38 years, you haven't been able to 1) find a career or 2) hold any type of regular position.
As far as tenure-track jobs, they will most likely focus on 1) your research output and 2) your letters of reference during your PhD.
If you feel that your sporadic work history is going to work against you, be ready to address this in your Statement of Purpose and work hard to get three good recommendation letters.


Charisma vs. credentials in academic hiring

The final pre-offer stage of most academic hiring processes is the "on-campus interview". This is when the candidates come, one at a time, spend a day on campus, give talks, speak with faculty, etc.

By and large, every candidate who receives an on-campus interview is qualified for the job. Therefore, at this point of the process, it is no longer useful to try to sort candidates by the strength of their CV alone. That has already been done at earlier stages of the process, and the candidates who received an on-campus interview already made it through that process.

Therefore, it should not be surprising that, from time to time, someone with at "worse" CV gets an offer before someone with a "better" CV.  There are so many factors that the department takes into account, and the CV is just one. That does not mean that having a better CV is irrelevant at the end - it is very relevant! But it is just one piece of evidence among many at the end of the process.

There is a lot of controversy about "fit". In the worst case, it can be a way to act on hidden biases, which is a valid cause for concern. You can read about all sides of this debate on in the Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed.


What proportion of papers submitted to Nature are actually sent for review?

Edited: I found a better answer to the question, the original indicative answer is left below.

Here, we have a statement from December 2006 regarding the number of submissions, rate of editor rejections and ultimate acceptance number. While slightly outdated, the acceptance rate of Nature journal does not seem to fluctuate widely between 2006 and 2012 (always around 7-8% of submitted articles), hence I believe the number is significant and valid:

  Nature receives approximately 10,000 papers every year and our editors reject about 60% of them without review. ... ... In the end we publish about 7% of our submissions.

From that we have, that in 2006 about 40% of submissions were sent out for peer-review.

The original indicative answer:
Not a precise answer, but can be indicative also for Nature journal itself: here is a statistics of a decade 2002-2012 of publishing in Nature Materials in numbers, various stats are presented. Specifically this graph shows that the ratio of peer-reviewed vs. submitted manuscripts is floating around 13%. Out of peer-reviewed, about 60% get accepted. This shows that their first filter, the editorial decision whether to review at all, is extremely aggressive and in fact is the filter in the publishing process.

According to a note here, Nature Neuroscience sends about 30-35% papers for peer-review.


I knew somebody who started a PhD with a super-rockstar in Computer Science. He told me he met with his advisor thrice in a year or so, once (a short meeting) when defining the thesis topic, once crossed him in a hallway, and came across him at a conference. It turns out the rockstar was on the road almost 24/7. He changed to a not-so-famous advisor, and was much happier.


How to remove the "Text Overlap" comment from arxiv

Yes, updating the paper will remove the comment. (From the new version - it will still be there with the old version.)
Note that https://arxiv.org/help/overlap (linked by AnonymousPhysicist) also lists ways to avoid having such a comment added, by proactively pointing out the related work.


Several people I know who studied public health have gone onto research careers at universities that have affiliations with hospitals. They are considered faculty members, but they have no teaching responsibilities. Besides research, they are expected to contribute to submitting research grants for their respective units/departments. Some are more independent than others, with one person essentially having the responsibilities of a senior postdoc, while another runs her own group within the hospital itself. For example, this unit may represent what you're looking for (I am in no way affiliated with them, and just came across this via Google).


How do I lift my spirits after giving a bad examination paper today?

As someone who has lived through this, the solution is to stop trying to be perfect and forgive yourself for making mistakes.  Classmates would tease me because I built up a shield of "perfection" to try to defend against criticism.  There's a big difference between setting goals for yourself and not allowing yourself to be human.  We're all human, including very smart people like yourself.

Try to turn the fear of someone else getting full marks into encouragement of others to get full marks.  I understand that many education systems around the world use rankings in classes for standing.  I did part of my education in such a system, and I understand how it leads to complex social implications.  The best approach is to encourage one another and whoever is on top that particular examination will be respected instead of envied.  The next examination, it may be another person, and that's ok.  By focusing on encouraging each other and being happy for each other's successes, you'll collectively raise your marks and achievements, which will server you much better later in life and your career than always being on top.  You will find that the opportunities in life, even in the most restrictive of harshly competitive academic environments, are not based solely on top grades, but rather a whole picture of the person.

You will NOT mess up the other papers because you clearly study hard and know the subjects.  Once you get into working on them, your spirits will lift themselves as you find your comfort zone in those topics that you know well.  You might even find that the previous slip up will help you with your creativity, which is even more important in Social Studies and English.

You'll look back in 10 or 20 years and everything will look different in retrospect.  Trust me.  I've done it myself. :)

Good luck!


Change of affiliation after acceptance of a paper?

Different journals may have different rules, however, in general:
Affiliations indicate where the work was done (to be precise, where a (co-)author has been working while doing the work presented in the paper).
If you change institutes while working on a paper (including writing up and revising) you should enter both affiliations. When you are affiliated to multiple institutes while working on a paper (simultaneously), add both as well.
However, in a case like yours, assuming that the paper is now accepted (no more revisions), only the old affiliation should be added (unless your journal of choice suggests something else). No work has been done while you are working in the new position.


Alternate university course allocation mechanisms

The following institutions have (or had) non-standard course allocation mechanisms. Please add to this list if you know of others, or add additional links if you can find more detailed information on the various systems.

New York University Law School (cannot find a link describing the system)
Wharton (Course Match, a bidding mechanism)
MIT Sloan (Sloan Course Bidding, a bidding mechanism)
Harvard Business School (Cross-registration, lottery based)
Harvard Kennedy School (Course registration, a bidding mechanism)

Other resources on course allocation mechanisms:

A blog post by Michael Law


Is there a rule for repeated letters when creating acronyms/initialisms/abbreviations?

Turn my initialism in something like 'OS3P' is an option, but it seems to be naive and informal.

There's no rule against such kind of initialisms, and I wouldn't consider it naive either. Actually, there are standards designated in similar ways, e.g. the I2C and I2S data busses, also spelled I2C and I2S.


What does awaiting reviewers reply mean?

"Awaiting reviewers reply" means that your manuscript has been sent out for review.

There is no set time for this to take. Reviews can be returned to the editor within a few days, or it may take a couple of weeks depending on the journal.


Choosing a PI for my MS/PhD degree in EE based on the h-index?

The only apparent difference between the two being h-index means you don't know enough about these two PIs. Work habits, advising styles, perspectives on the roles of their students...all of these matter.

With that out of the way, lets pretend they are, actually, identical.

The h-index is still a bad choice. There are a few reasons why:

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The h-index is something that can be, and is, gamed. But just being "good" at said game does not actually ensure that you are good as an academic, or as an advisor.
The h-index has no context. Are the highly cited articles commentaries with no students on them? If so, they will be of no value to you.

You need to do more investigation. At the very least you need to engage with their body of work in a way much deeper than a single citation metric.


Should sources of sample sentences be shown in (computational) linguistics research?

I believe your field is doing itself a disservice by not citing the sources of language utterances. Particularly if direct quotes from published sources are used, the information about the source is important. Did the sentence come from the Los Angeles Times or the neighborhood community newspaper? From a novel written by a Novel Prize winner or a first-time novelist? From a book written in 1879 or 1979?

It feels like an archaeologist writing about a pot without including where it was found, what was found around it, etc.

The field is just not practicing good science.

If you feel that your paper will not be accepted with more complete referencing of the language utterances, try to mitigate the issue by using examples from the fewest references possible or creating your own with the same structure or pattern.

I think you've found a nice hole in the field--can research be done to show that omitting or not studying the sources of the language utterances changes results?


Rationale for Passing Students "by Compensation"

Compensation is used in (at least) some universities in the UK, too. The rationale is usually that although module learning objectives are not fully met, the program learning objectives are not sufficiently compromised, when only one module is failed with a near-pass mark. The meta-rationale is that we effectively choose between two "bad" things:

progressing or graduating a student who did not fully met the LOs
delaying progression / graduation for a year and asking student to repeat the module and/or resit the assessment

The first option feels like a lesser "worse" all things considered: student has a chance of picking the necessary knowledge later in other modules / programs, but they never have a chance to get a year of life back.


what is peer review journal, are they paid by authors

Definition of Peer-review in Wikipedia reads:

  Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to the producers of the work (peers). It constitutes a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards of quality, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia, scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication.

There is a certain set of information you need to determine whether a journal is peer-reviewed (refereed). See the following useful links:

How to recognize peer-reviewed journal? (From: ASE Library)
How can I tell a journal is peer-reviewed? (From: McMaster University)

There are journals that are called Open access journals, which usually charge a publication cost. The Wikipedia definition of Open Access (OA) journal reads the following:

  Open access (OA) journals are scholarly journals that are available online to the reader "without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself." They remove price barriers (e.g. subscription, licensing fees, pay-per-view fees) and most permission barriers (e.g. copyright and licensing restrictions). While open access journals are freely available to the reader, there are still costs associated with the publication and production of such journals. Some are subsidized, and some require payment on behalf of the author.


Can I ask to start my postdoc remotely during an interview? (Postdoc is in the UK and I live in another country)

I wouldn't be concerned. This is a common concern these days, so I'm sure they will understand.  It might be that they tell you that it is not possible for legal reasons.  It might however even be that they are happy to know you are willing/interested to work remotely for a while, since under the current circumstances, there might be significant difficulties/delays in getting you into the country in a timely fashion (depending also on your passport, and where you travel from).
Regarding as to how to bring it up, you should do so as a question - like "Would it be possible to work for a month or two remotely, given that it will be difficult to relocate (and other reasons)", but it is certainly good to present it in a way which will make it also look favorable to them, i.e. "give us more time for the relevant paperwork".
Of course, this all also depends when the position is actually meant to start. I assume it is soon, so chances are high that restrictions are still in place at that point.


Top CS PhD programs, do I stand a chance?

Let me offer some concrete data to support Buffy's answer, as a faculty member at one of the departments you mention (although I don't work in AI).  Short version: Your profile is definitely strong enough to be considered at Illinois, but your chances are low, because everyone's chances are low.

The computer science PhD program at Illinois received about 1100 applications for Fall 2019 admission.  More than 300 applicants listed artificial intelligence as their primary research interest.  (Another 450 applicants listed AI as one of their secondary research interests.)  We offered admission to 35 of these 300+ applicants; about half of those 35 accepted our offers.

(I'm sure the application numbers are significantly higher, and the acceptance rates comparably lower, at MIT and Stanford.)

Almost all of those 35 admitted applicants were from universities with highly-ranked graduate programs.  A significant fraction of the accepted applicants already have research publications (or at least strong submissions) at top conferences.  A slightly smaller fraction are finishing masters degrees or applied to transfer from another lower-ranked PhD program.  (Every successful applicant with some grad school under their belt has already published.)

The main thing we look for in PhD applications is compelling evidence of research potential.  This evidence must be explicit in your CV, in your statement, in your choice of references, and in the content of your reference letters.  (Not surprisingly, this is also what the NSF GRFP and similar fellowships look for!)  So your application really needs to include strong letters from your mentors at both of your REUs.

On the other hand, the biggest resource constraint is faculty attention.  We only admit PhD applicants that get several positive reviews from faculty, and at least one faculty member declaring their willingness to advise.  Admission in AI isn't ridiculously tight because we don't want to admit people, or because we think the people we reject wouldn't thrive, or even because there isn't enough money.  It's tight because students require care and feeding, and AI faculty need to sleep occasionally.  So thinking strategically, you may fare better aiming at newer faculty, or at subfields where the department is growing.  (Hint: Robotics.)

Finally, if you're not accepted to a strong PhD program straightaway, you might consider joining a research master's program first, to build up your research track-record, and then applying again.  But then you really need to publish during your MS program to have a shot; PhD applicants with prior graduate-school experience are held to higher standards.  (Not surprisingly, this is true for the NSF GRFP and similar fellowships!)

  Assuming that I get accepted, would you list it on your Resume/CV in your application as a "future accepted position"?

Yes, absolutely!  (See: evidence of research potential.)  But be sure to describe the position in more detail in your statement, to remove any ambiguity.

  Am I at a disadvantage in terms of being a domestic student since most applicants are international?

No, not at all.  It's true that most applicants are international, but the average international applicant is weaker than the average domestic applicant.  (It's really hard to entice our own best undergrads away from six-figure salaries at Appflix or Twitbook or Ubazon or whatever.)  Roughly half of our PhD admission offers went to domestic students this year.

  What kind of GRE scores should I be aiming for (I know some universities don't require the GRE)?

MIT and Illinois don't require GRE scores (because we think they're useless as evidence of research potential), but Stanford does.  You should aim for the best GRE scores you can get.


Self-plagiarism to re-use figures and key phrases on poster

No, you don't need to start from scratch, and even that might still be self-plagiarism. The proper way is to cite the paper even if it is "to appear". For a slide presentation, a slide at the end pointing out that the figures come from ... would be enough. It needn't be intrusive. For a literal poster, a footnote at the bottom.
The way to avoid all kinds of plagiarism is to cite. "Paraphrasing" doesn't do the job since plagiarism is about ideas, not their literal expression. If the source is clear and a reader/viewer has a way to obtain the original then you are safe.


Turning a conference proceedings into a book chapter. Is it self plagiarism?

You have a few misconceptions. Having an ISBN is no guarantee of legitimacy, honesty, or quality as anyone can purchase such. In bulk they are very cheap. I currently have several unassigned ISBNs myself, intended for future work.

Second, if your paper has been submitted to a conference and appears in the proceedings then it is "published" and so subsequent uses are not original.

However, self plagiarism only occurs if you reuse some work without citing it. If you still hold copyright, as is likely, you can reuse the thoughts and many of the actual words as long as you are careful. Cite the original conference work as appropriate and formally quote from it as necessary. Perhaps you gave up copyright already, but I think that is unlikely in this case and you would know anyway if you had signed a transfer. And it isn't the ISBN on the original that makes it self plagiarism. It is copying without citing.

Cite your own work the way you would that of another author.

The main purpose of avoiding self plagiarism is to permit a future reader to trace the full context of the ideas in the new work by examining the old with its full context, including all references you cited there. Future researchers want a full record. Ordinary plagiarism includes this as well as other concerns, of course.

But some of what the publishers seem to be saying seems a bit of a scam. I can't say without more information, but it has that feel. Legitimate publishers also have "page charges". Try to assess the legitimacy of the publisher using other information before you agree.


Application deadlines for math phd program on a rolling basis

In the U.S., mathematics Ph.D. programs usually do not have rolling admissions, and I do not think any of the top programs do.  Some people do submit applications at the last minute, but many people submit earlier because they have completed their application materials well in advance.  For example, if you'd like to get feedback on your application from other people, or if you are planning to provide it to letter writers in advance, then you shouldn't wait until the deadline.  Another reason to complete everything early is if you need similar materials for fellowship applications (e.g., the NSF deadline is in October), or if you want to get it out of the way before you become really busy at the end of the semester.

  I was under the impression that one generally submitted the application earlier, and early enough that people who take the subject in October don't get to see their scores before they are sent to colleges.

I don't have any statistics, but my impression is that most people who take the October GRE haven't taken it before.  (They waited until their last year, but missed the summer deadline for the September test.)  In that case, these are their only scores, so there's no benefit to waiting to see how they did.  Even if they score lower than expected, that alone is not a compelling reason to change where they apply.


Grade assignment methods to make learning efficient

As a recent graduate in CS I can only provide my experience with grade assignment methods I came across during my studies.

I think the worst method is to let the grade solely depend on one exam at the end of the semester. The students will most likely put no effort in learning for this exam during the semester and will instead invest a couple of days before the exam to repeat the lecture's content.

The most promising method I came across was using (bi-)weekly assignments out of which the student had to reach at least 50% of the points. This way, they have to focus on the topic in order to solve the assignments to be able to take part in the exam.

In addition to this method, some lecturers awarded students with more than 80% of the overall points a bonus in the exam, i.e. they will obtain (let's say) 10 points bonus within the exam. I for myself think this really motivated me to invest time into the assignments and consequently into the lecture content.

Finally, there was one lecture where students could pose questions with possible answers in an online learning platform. The other students could use these questions (after review by an assistant or professor) to learn for the final exam. Students posing very good questions gained a bonus for the exam, similar to the above approach.


PhD without compulsory publications hurting profile

Programs do get reputations.

And a program that produces good students who don’t have publications, especially if they are a well known school, will still have good placement rates.

Faculty too can get reputations, positive and negative.

Post-doc and hiring committees take these reputations into account when evaluating applications. If we know a school or a particular faculty member produces (otherwise stellar) students who don’t have publications, we’ll use other criteria to evaluate them.

The same thing goes for faculty who are known to write over the top recommendations and those who write acerbic ones. They all get calibrated in the end.

Where it does hurt you is with industry positions as there, reputations aren’t as well known.


The Real "Cost" of Open Educational Resources

I will refer to your criticism by number, hoping that any updates to the list will be additive...

Criticism 1 (maintenance) is, in a theoretical sense, true, but open materials are often addressing it in their own way: with collaborative tools like github/gitlab and bug trackers that make reporting of errors and improvements easy. Meanwhile, publishers aren't always great at quality control, particularly when it would require them to reprint their books often (see, e.g., Hefferon's gitlab). For example, Serge Lang's Algebra is famous for its amount of mistakes and lack of polish, despite having seen three editions. My impression is that printed books are rarely revised to improve quality; instead re-editions often include new chapters, permute existing chapters, and try to dumb down some material so that it can fit more courses. Anecdotally, this is being done in order to make the old editions incompatible and thus scorch the used-book market; of course, intent is hard to prove in this question.
Criticism 2 (job killing) can be (and is) levied at pretty much any innovation. But this is how the world is supposed to move forward, by making formerly hard and costly things trivial and automatic! (And history, so far, has always shown that those who want to work will never run out of things to do. Getting paid for them is a different story... But medieval stasis cannot be the answer.)
Criticism 3 (pressure) is not happening anywhere around me (and I'm generally gravitating towards OA-friendly places). I have been using open texts whenever I could, but I don't see anyone pressuring me into doing that. (Students have occasionally thanked me for it, though I've more often been critiqued for not assigning a text that could be consistently read. Needless to say, with a subject properly covered by open-access texts, you can get the best of both worlds.) I suspect that intercollegiate pressure is much more a function of the climate at one's institution than of whatever is happening in publishing.
Criticism 4 (stigma) is probably a real effect. Once again, however, shifting standards are a consequence of any sort of improvement! LED lights have been stigmatizing old-fashioned lightbulb makers in just the same way. In many ways, book writing has already taken a large reputational hit before the Internet came along, and general advice in the academic community seems to be that the main purpose of writing a book is "so you can show your grandpa" (meaning that even the generation currently in their 40-50s will not see it as a particular milestone). The main reason seems to be the proliferation of books and the ease of publishing one (even with the established presses), not the advent of open access sources.

As you are asking for further criticisms, let me throw a couple in the air, although (being an OA advocate myself) I do not view them as heavily important:

Criticism 5: The free might drive out the good. I.e., if the best openly available materials are inferior to some printed books, some teachers will nevertheless pick the former for their free availability. I suspect this is a real issue occasionally, but mostly a temporary one. At least on the undergraduate level of my disciplines (algebra and combinatorics), there are usually freely available sources of the highest quality I know (when it comes to linear algebra, I even consider them superior). Finding good free texts gets harder the more advanced (and rarely taught) the class is, but most teachers don't assign bad texts just because they are free.
Criticism 6: Free resources might enable monocultures. If every lecturer has a choice between (say) 10 popular linear algebra texts of roughly equal quality, then you might expect each of these texts to have a popularity of roughly 10%. If someone writes a free text of comparable quality, you will suddenly see lots of lecturers adopting that free text purely because it is free. Subjects that are not covered in that text will disappear from classes; people's viewpoints will differ less (which is not a good thing for academia, whether or not students accept it). Note, however, that the same thing happens whenever a really good textbook comes out (say "analysis" and you will hear "Rudin"; say "differential geometry" and you will hear "Spivak"). In such cases, open access may actually disrupt that equilibrium even as publishers may lack the courage to do so.


Is the gap between lower- and higher-ranked graduate programs in pure math really that big?

Looking at the problem as someone who has been on a variety of hiring committees and grant panels,
I would say that in general, having someone with a good reputation in the field writing a strong letter of support is the most important factor, together with the journals where you have published.

In view of this, the school doesn't really matter: if you do your PhD in a small school but with a supervisor with a solid reputation who produces a multi-page letter highlighting well your contributions to the field, you will usually fare better than if you come from a very well known school with very little endorsement from your supervisor. Of course, some people tend to get a little bit star struck, but the dynamics of a hiring (or funding) committee usually smooths things out. Actually, contrary to what Dave Kaye was saying, I would argue that the school matters less in academia, more if you want to venture out into the real world, where name recognition is more important and might help you land your first job.

So why favor a good school? Well, there will be more visiting speakers of a high caliber. There might be a wider variety of grad courses to choose from. Overall, probably a more enriching experience. The difficulty level will not be very different, if at all, once you have been admitted.


If your chosen abbreviation make sense in your own culture you should feel free to use it.
But I make one recommendation, in case you are new at this. Choose a "public persona name" that you will feel comfortable using throughout your professional life. This will make it easier for people to find your work as your career progresses.
There is one additional consideration, however. You want your chosen name to be relatively unique in your field. In Egypt, for example, I think that the E in El has almost no distinguishing element. (I studied once with someone named ... El Masri: The Egyptian). If you can be confused with others, it won't help in your career.
This is more of an issue for women in some cultures where they may change their names for marriage and such.
But establish a persona, even if you want it to be a pseudonym, and stick with it. I doubt that editors or others will object.


PhD Qualification on a CV: Should I list it as ongoing in a separate section?

Should I include my PhD as "ongoing" in a separate section to the rest of my education? Or can I just indicate it as part of my education, but with a note like "2011-present" or something?

The second option. I.e., just indicate it as part of the education while noting explicitly something like
"2011- 2016 (expected)"


How to deal with discussion of poor performance due to personal issues?

Shortly, for your CV: One or two pages is okay where I am from. But if you could put the information on one page, the question is why would you have two? If, on the other hand, there are a lot of accomplishments to be listed, of course do not omit them just to make it fit on one page.

But now to your general question, and to discuss that I would like to quote you.

  I have no problem discussing my mental health issues, and I no longer consider myself somebody who "suffers" from them, but I am aware of the possibility that in terms of PHD applications this can somehow be a red flag.

Personal problems could mean anything, not just health issues. If it were me, I would maybe try to inquire how "expertly" you have figured them out, as there is a difference between "I just started to feel better." and "My mom recovered fine from her illness/ I dealt with the problem adequatly/..."
Although, if you are fine discussing it in a little more detail anyway, a "red" flag might become a "yellow" flag.
For example, if you tell me you had mental health issues, I will try not to judge you, but without further information, I have to face the problem that I am treading on eggshells. I would not want to trigger a trauma in you or something similar. Can I work with this insecurity? I don't know.
On the other hand, if I know at least a little about the problem, it will give me a chance to watch out for you, to recognize a reoccurring problem early and be able to warn you, to not trigger said trauma, to generally be able to have an idea how to treat you right.

I don't mean that you have to throw your history at everyone, but if you are in an interview that is going well with a person that you judge to be well-meaning, it might benefit you to be honest about it.


The journal you are submitting to might have a style guide which will tell you what to do. If not, do what you, your advisor, or a different journal style guide suggests. Your paper may get administratively rejected if they do not like the formatting, but they will tell you what to fix and let you submit again. In my field, all figures go at the end, one figure per page, in the order referenced, after the references and appendices when submitting. The copy editor/publisher deals with laying out the manuscript once it is accepted.

Basically, it doesn't matter, just do something reasonable.


How to alleviate tension when interacting with researchers at a conference from enemy countries?

There has long been a link between scientific collaboration and diplomacy between countries.  During some of the deepest parts of the cold war, for example, the United States and the Soviet Union worked together to stamp out polio, and the echoes of "vaccine diplomacy" continue today, uniting people against their common non-human enemies.  Even when there is not an explicit cooperative goal of that sort, contacts in a neutral situation can be valuable for helping to promote peace and understanding between different cultures and countries.

I would thus suggest beginning to approach the question not from a perspective of "Who is my enemy?" but from a question of "What are the areas that we can cooperate, even if we are enemies?" and perhaps to read up on ideas in "science diplomacy."


Alternatives to Google Scholar, dblp to measure scientific impact of a research article?

You have a compilation to scientific research referencing websites and networks, and some links to further information, here (post in spanish language, with automatic transation available).


Any chances for me in top 10 economics program?

(If I had more rep then this probably would have been a comment not an answer, sorry).  That is a very hard question to answer without you providing much information.

Generally getting into a top 10 economics program is already a semi random process because so many applicants are so well qualified.  It requires a high GPA in hard courses, good recommendation letters, etc...  That being said, there are a lot of students from India who end up placing very well.

A website where you might get more opinions is http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/ .  They have a general format for how to submit your profile, look at a few and check it out.  Might help you know where you stand (They also have old archives of student profiles with results).


In canada, my 3-year degree is a bachelor or an associated?

Your degree should not be qualified as an associated. But it does not give an immediate answer on your chances of being admitted (or being qualified to enter) to the particular M.Sc. program.

The answer will depend on the regulations of the particular university (and maybe even the Faculty/Department) you are applying to and what is actually written on your transcript/diploma.

Particular things that are of the importance:

What is the official title of your degree (on your diploma) and how is it translated into English?
Total # credit hours that you have taken (3-year degrees can be very different)
The particular set of courses you've taken towards your degree and how they are related towards the expectations of the M.Sc. program you are applying to.
If you are applying for a research-based program if your potential advisor is willing to admit you.
If the intended sources of funding (if you intend to use any) have some stricter requirements than general admission ones.

You would certainly be a good candidate for so-called pre-M.Sc. program, in which for one or two terms you would take some more courses relevant to your degree - and, maybe, even start some research projects.

Also, the admission committee might conditionally admit you to the M.Sc. program with the requirement to take an extra # credit hours.

There are certainly cases when a 3-year degree holder goes for an M.Sc. program directly; however, the general expectation (from my understanding of at least Univ. of Manitoba - no official affiliation, just a former student) for software engineering is that you hold a 4-year degree (B.Sc. or even Honours).


How to deal with political (literal) situations in the workplace?

How should I go about addressing such sensitive issues without raising a furor?

Either keep silence or avoid going to such places if you can't withstand such talks.

  how can I present history/societal and political issues from the other side of the fence without creating a fuss?

You can't. Reality is different from place to place and human minds are built according to realities they live in.

Its futile to talk about the benefit of democracy with a person from mainland China; futile to try to explain why invasion of Ukraine was a bad idea to a Russian; futile to try to convince a neo-Nazi to not to stab a Turkish guy.

  Is that even possible?

No. This is about ideology. Ideologies can't be argued with. They are deeply rooted into human souls.

Someone who passed their entire life living under the roof of democracy in Hong Kong can not be convinced to cede their right of freedom of speech only because their country is systematically taken over by a communist country. That is why we saw Umbrella Movement.


Is having access to past exams cheating and, if yes, could it be proven just by a good grade?

You haven't said whether you were actually accused or not. I'm assuming that you are just worried about what might happen in the meeting that hasn't happened yet.

The most honest way to proceed, though you may suffer for it, is to tell it exactly like it happened. You studied three weeks, you had access to old exam materials and used those to prepare. All you had in the exam was your memory and your skills. You had no knowledge of any question to be asked on this exam.

If the professor thinks you cheated, then s/he is very naive about how the world works. Student fraternities typically keep records of old exams and students study from them. If the professor uses old questions they should expect that those questions are available.

You might be asked for the source of the materials and you would be unwise to conceal them and might face larger issues if you try.

As the answer of Azor Ahai suggests, make sure that what you did isn't explicitly forbidden by  available course materials. But I don't really see a way in which requirements could be stated that really disallow such a practice. It would be completely unenforceable. Doing well is not a crime. Studying hard is not a crime.

If your professor disagrees and wants to punish you, I'd suggest taking it to a department head or dean, again explaining exactly what you did and how.

If you suffer for honesty, then it is deeply unfair.


Can I apply for MS in software engineering in USA from a non CSE background?

First, let me say that from my point of view, I see masters' programs as broadly divided into two categories:

The first one contains courses that combine students from two different backgrounds, e.g. biology and IT (bioinformatics), law and IT, finance and IT, etc. In these courses, more introductory modules will be offered, e.g. data structures, programming etc. that are elementary for people with a background in IT but challenging for the others.

The second one contains "advanced" courses, that is people wanting to further specialize on the degree they have obtained. E.g. an "advanced computer science" master will not cover elementary issues (such as databases or computer architecture) but will have more cutting-edge, more advanced topics, closer to concurrent research.

I believe your best bet would be to apply for a master in the first category. I would look for something like "IT for architects", and not for courses with "advanced" in the title.


Is it in the best interest of supervisors that his/her students publish their research results in top journals?

First of all, journal quality is not an objective thing (measures like acceptance rate and impact factor and so on really do not mean that much, and can be gamed).  There isn't necessarily universal agreement about which journals are "top-tier".  So consider the possibility that your supervisor simply has a different opinion about the reputation of these journals than you do.

The advisor does have a responsibility to give advice that they believe will be beneficial to students, including advice about where to publish.  (Of course, the student also has a responsibility to educate themselves about publication options as best they can, ask questions to try to understand the advisor's suggestions, and speak up if they disagree.)  I'm not sure what you mean about whether it is in the advisor's "best interest".  It is not like they will get paid more if you publish in Acta, but it does generally reflect well on an advisor if their students are successful.

But there is a serious trade-off of submitting to top journals: time to acceptance.  The peer review process in math is much slower than in many other fields, and top journals are very selective.  Even if your paper is "good enough" for a top journal, that doesn't mean that it will be accepted by the first one you submit to, and it may be under review for several months before being rejected.  Then you have to start over.  As a PhD student, you really want to have papers accepted before you begin to apply for postdocs or other jobs.  A paper that hasn't been accepted anywhere, even if it's an awesome paper, doesn't help your job prospects much, because there's no independent confirmation that it's awesome.

So at this particular stage of your career, it could be very sensible to submit your work to a less-than-top journal, even if you think it has a chance to be accepted somewhere better, because it's more important to get it accepted fast, without having to go through several submit/review/reject cycles with different journals.  This is something your advisor ought to take into account when suggesting journals.  But it's a balancing act between the considerations of "publish in the best possible place" and "get accepted on the first try", and you should of course speak up if you have a different opinion about how to balance those.

(If your advisor is a co-author, this same balancing act could apply to them as well.  For instance, they might have a promotion decision coming up, and they want to have the paper accepted somewhere before that happens.  Sometimes different authors may have conflicting needs in this regard, and they have to reach agreement somehow.  Personally I think that the needs of more junior authors, such as PhD students, ought to be weighted more heavily, but that is just me.)

I also want to comment on the "corresponding author" question.  People around the world seem to have different opinions about what it means to be corresponding author.  In my part of the world (US), it's my impression that being corresponding author only means what it says: this is the author who corresponded with the journal (sent in the submission, filled out the forms, etc), and who is the best person for a reader to reach if they have questions about the paper.  Around here, it doesn't carry any particular prestige, and it isn't meant to imply that "this person did most of the work".  So on that basis, I wouldn't say that there was anything wrong with your advisor being corresponding author.  (For one thing, your advisor probably has a more stable email address, since you are going to graduate before too long.)  There may be some benefit to being corresponding author as a student, just to get practice with the journal submission process, but it's not really a reputation benefit.

(If "corresponding author" has a different connotation among people in your part of the world, or more importantly, the part of the world where you intend to apply for postdocs, then the previous paragraph may not apply to you.)


What counts as an academic affiliation for arXiv?

arXiv states (step 2 of registration):

  Claimed affiliation should be current in the conventional sense: e.g., physical presence, funding, email address, mention on institutional web pages, etc.

arXiv's notion of conventional sense seems peculiar. They omit perhaps the most common conventional notion of affiliation: employee. Other common notions -- e.g., those involving some written agreement -- are also omitted. (Perhaps arXiv want ties beyond employment or perhaps this was an oversight.)


How to politely request payment for extra hours of TA service rendered?

Your letter seems perfectly polite. My one critique is that I'm not clear what you're asking for. Just to get your record updated? A larger assignment going forward? More money for the hours you put in already? I assume the last one (getting paid for those 30 hours), but I'm not sure. If you're struggling for words, you could call this a "stipend adjustment" or something like that.

It is good that you got approval before working these hours. If you had not (as the comments and other answers have noted), you would have very little chance of getting retroactively compensated. Hopefully you got a clear commitment in writing: there is still a chance this will be messy if the professor does not or cannot follow through on their promise to find extra funding for you.