How do I write a compelling statement about my interest in diverse domains?

I have some insight here.

There are some advantages and pitfalls in the advisers you have described and I have experience with both.

Researcher in Data Mining: Here most of your research will be focused in the way you can modify the algorithm to attack the task you have at hand, your adviser will want to see some insight from you on how things are actually working and why are you getting the results you are getting. He will be potentially interested in the application, but he has had so much experience with many different applications, that he will want you to use a generic dataset so you can compare it with other works and prove your approach works better.

You will have insightful conversations about your algorithm, and what can you do to modify it, but any insight from the data itself will probably have to come from you.

Researcher in Area X where Data Mining is going to be used: He will probably not care much about the algorithm you use, as long as it is useful in the particular problem he is working with. He will most likely have a problem for you to work with, and he will expect results, good results. You will have good conversations about the nature of the data, and will learn a lot about the field, but you might feel a bit isolated in the Data Mining part.

The main question is, what do you want to do afterwards, if you want to do a PhD, in which kind of conferences do you want to be? Data Mining Conferences, or that area conferences?

If you are going to the industry, having much expertise in a particular area can be both good or bad, depending on he job you are applying to.

As an example, I did my PhD on Machine Learning applied to Molecular Biology, and even though I had all the theoretical framework to apply it to Natural Language Processing (NLP), most places would not look at me unless I had some NLP experience.


As a reviewer, is it inappropriate to make unsolicited comments on another reviewer's comments?

It is appropriate. You're acting in good faith after all, the editor is likely to be interested in what you say, and you're not harming anyone.

This is however the kind of thing to put in the confidential comments to editor box. The authors don't need to know of friction between reviewers.


Difference between "faculty member" and "faculty person"

"Faculty member" is idiomatic.  "Faculty person" is not.  Otherwise there is no difference.


Why arXiv version disappeared from Google Scholar profile once journal version published

It doesn't disappeared, it is only grouped together. If you click to your article in Google Scholar, at the end of the page, you'll find "All N versions". Click on it, you will find your ArXiv versions, and some other mirror sites that you may not aware.

Next time, if you want your ArXiv version to be listed separately, change the title to "My awesome paper (extended version)". When the titles are different, the article will not be grouped together.

Note: it's never a good idea to inflate your paper count in Google Scholar with different versions of the same paper.


Acknowledgment and authors in article based on PhD thesis

My understanding of the current situation:

Your friend is attempting to publish what sounds like a significant portion of results from their dissertation, along with some new results obtained after a few months in a new research group (your group). Further, your friend's former PhD advisor does not approve of the new collaboration with your group, is not satisfied with whatever compromise you've proposed thus far, and does not want your group to submit the manuscript in question.

  Is [the former advisor] right in his demands?

Unfortunately, there is no universally correct answer. Why? Simply put, the "correct" answer to this question depends on the norms in your field, the agreed-upon publication policies in your friend's former research group, and so on. (One of the key things I've learned on this site is just how much academia varies, and I strongly encourage you / your friend to reflect on this point as well; see, e.g., Academia varies more than you think it does).

Further, getting into philosophical debates about the "correct" way a former advisor should proceed in this situation is, in my view, pointless; before getting on to your question, let me explain why I say this.

On this site, we see, time and time again, plenty of questions which are very closely related to the situation that your friend is currently in. Here are four such questions among many, and I strongly encourage you / your friend to take a look at these, too:

Authorship for paper based on my thesis
When should a supervisor be an author?
Co-authorship for not very involved supervisor
My advisor wants to co-author a paper on my thesis work, but drags out the submission, claiming it isn't ready. Should I submit without him?

As far as the "correct" course of action in the above / other related questions is concerned, the key takeaway (for me, at least) that all of these questions have in common is: it depends.

Now, on to your question. For simplicity, I see your friend's situation as belonging to one of the following two categories (below, since it is not clear in your question, when I write "norms," this will refer to the norms that exist for your friend, whatever that might entail):

If the "norms" are such that your friend is free to do whatever he wants with his research results, whether or not the results were obtained during his PhD, then your friend's former advisor has no grounds to halt publication, so long as the funding for the portion of the manuscript related to your friend's PhD results are acknowledged.
On the other hand, if the "norms" are such that your friend is required to consult with former PhD advisor on any collaborations, publications, etc. stemming from the research conducted while a PhD student, then your friend needs to sort this out with the former advisor ASAP.

In an ideal world, if this second case applies to your friend, then your friend should have already had a discussion with the former advisor. In fact, what this question and the many other related ones help to underscore is how extremely important it is to have authorship discussions with your advisor early on. (This may seem obvious now, but I write this for future visitors to A.SE who are on the verge of finding themselves in similar situations.)


So focusing on the UK to start. The universities seem to be attempting to provide UK standard university education, but in more 'exciting' locations, increasing the number of students who study with them and their global reach.

Branch university campuses are in many ways a win-win-win phenomenon. For the university, they mean more students and stronger ties with other countries. For the host nation, they’re a quick way of boosting higher education standards and attracting more students, both local and international. As for students, the prime attraction has already been mentioned: a degree at an internationally ranked university, in a location where this was not previously possible. (1, 2, 3)

Back to the question of why universities are doing it?/getting involved?
It seems to be that these branch universities are risky and liable to fail.
This article is great and discusses many factors. It predominantly suggests that branches can be financially lucrative but they have a high risk of closure. As such, it concludes that prestige and a desire for international reach that are the main drivers, citing this report.
It is true that although financially risky, there are many sources of funding for these ventures, whether its tax breaks from the home country or incentives from the host region.

Nottingham's Malaysian campus has the benefit that it can apply for funding from more than one region. Doughty says: "EU funding is quite interesting because we are viewed as both a UK and an Asian institution so we can pitch to whichever suits us best." 5

However I think this thesis offers the best view, these campuses are seen as new opportunities for universities otherwise limited to their own country.

Multiple factors contributed to Texas A&M being poised and ready to accept the
opportunity to open an international branch campus: an invitation from a host country sponsor willing to cover all expenses, existing international ambitions, and strong support from the central administration.

These campuses predominantly provide undergraduate and masters degrees because tuition fees can cover the costs, but some campuses can provide highly specialised research centres for PhDs but it is usually not worthwhile undertaking research outside of the main multi-disciplinary hub of the home university unless the research is local to the branch because of isolation and funding.
NB: Other countries have these branch campuses:

There are currently over 240 international branch campuses around the world; many of these are located in the Persian Gulf region as well as (and increasingly) in Asia ...
71 countries hosting branch campuses – up from 53 in 2012;
30 “home countries” (i.e., originating countries) for branch campuses, up from 24 in 2012.


Collection and return of homework and exams

To my mind, the biggest problem, after actually grading so much work, is the possibility of a student claiming that work was turned in but later lost by you or the TA.  You allude to this in your question.

You don't say where you are, but it is likely your university has a "learning management system," such as Blackboard, Brightspace, or Moodle,that can be used to collect take-home work.  For multiple-choice assessments, the learning management system can probably grade them, too.  The huge advantage of this is that there's no possibility of "lost" work; either the student submits the work or not.

For in-class exams, have a letter tray similar to the "inbox" one might have on a desk.  Require each student to deposit his own exam into the letter tray and, at the end of class, put a binder clip on the stack.  (For 100 students, you'll probably need four stacks of 25.)  Grade the exams on a completely clear desk and there's no possibility of lost work there, either.  If a Scantron machine is available and multiple-choice exams will work for you, use that for grading.  I have smaller classes, and I take each paper directly from the student's hand and mark the student's name on the class list.  Students observe me to do this, and I don't get complaints that I "lost" their work.

Work graded through the learning management system is returned electronically.  If you use Scantron forms for in-class testing, it may be possible to get the results electronically and return them via the LMS.  Your testing center can probably tell whether that's possible.  I have returned in-class paper tests through the LMS by scanning and uploading them.  We have a copier that can serve as a scanner, and that work can be performed by a TA or student assistant.  If you must return paper exams in class, have them sorted alphabetically and return them at the end of class so that students may leave when they've picked up their graded work.


Is it possible to use one thesis for two degrees?

Yes, it is theoretically possible that a university accepts a thesis that has been used to acquire another degree (I even know cases where this happened for two different fields). Usually, the only way to find out is to ask the responsible people at your home university and your exchange university. The latter matters because it might cause trouble if they have some regulations about you “reusing” your thesis. I can imagine that some universities have existing regulations for this matter, so you might check them first to avoid annoying people by asking something that you could have looked up easily.

If this is not possible, I can think of some factors to consider as to which university’s degree you want to get:

One university’s degree might have a generally higher prestige.
Relatedly, a foreign degree might not be accepted or be less valued by potential future employers (be they academic or not). This might even hold, if there are international regulations to make degrees comparable (I know somebody who did a second thesis partly due to this).
Finishing the degree at a foreign university while not completing the degree you originally set out to achieve might be regarded as unfinished studies by some bureaucrats, which is more likely to be negative than positve. Even worse, this may ring title-mill alerts to some. And yes, this would all be rather silly but unfortunately very real.

So, if this is any realistic, make as much decisions about your future as possible and ask potential employers as to whether they have any preference regarding this.


Reimbursement is related to a particular institute's policy; and taking by plane - to a particular airline's policy, so I won't speak about it.

  Being unable to print the poster when you get to the conference.

Possible problems with printing facilities:

they may by further from the conference venue than expected (or not as easy to get to them, or masked so it's they are not easy to find even if you are nearby),
delays larger than you expect (at least assume "the next day", in general or due to other prints ordered),
page can be out-of-date, or they may be not working for some reason,
they may not print A0 format (permanently or temporarily),
local holidays (or local customs related to working hours) may be different.

(I printed posters on-site two times, and it went almost without problems; some of people I knew had problems, especially with instant printing and poster sizes).


How do I tell my advisor about mental health problems?

Good for you for recognizing your illness and for getting professional help.

My answer has two parts.

Regarding how to tell your adviser, I suggest that you can write a short, factual, but non-personal email that contains all the information you want him to know.  Something like this:

  Dear Professor X,

  I need to tell you about a health condition that I have struggled with
  for some time.  I have a psychological condition involving anxiety and depression, and I am receiving professional medical treatment for it.  We have a course of treatment that is appropriate but it will take some time to be effective.

  One consequence is that I will need to be more careful about the
  amount of stress I am experiencing, including avoiding a stressful
  work load. I have decided that my past work load (including X, Y, and Z) is too much and not healthy for me.

  Considering the alternatives, I have decided to focus my effort on X and Y, and to discontinue (or cut back on) Z.  I remain committed to academic excellence and my career goals, and I believe this new work plan will be more likely to be successful than my previous work patterns.

  I will be happy to meet with you to discuss this decision and alternative suggestions you might have. However, there are aspects that I hold private and will not be open to discussing.  Thank you for understanding.

  Best regards,

  Student

You only need to meet in person if the Department adviser requests a meeting.

The second part of my answer comes to me intuitively based on the way you have written your question and the background.

I sense that you might have a belief in perfectionism -- that the only acceptable level of effort is 110% and the only acceptable level of results is perfection. You might have a very negative association with being perceived as "lazy" or "slacker" if you take any vacations or breaks.  You might also believe that any error or misstep is a sure sign of unrecoverable failure.

If these resonate with you, then they need to be addressed to avoid recurring patterns of overwork, exhaustion, and eventually burnout.

Since you are seeing a professional psychologist and counselor, I suggest that you raise these questions and your responses with him/her.  No need to respond here (in public).

EDIT:
Anticipating some objections, I know that making explicit mention of "psychological condition" and "anxiety and depression" may be risky and may go against cultural norms.  As a matter of ethics and morality, I believe it is important and necessary for all of us, individually, to act against those cultural norms that are harmful and counter productive.  In this case, it is prejudice against mental illness, but I hold the same views regarding racism, sexism, and other cultural dysfunctions.

Of course, each individual needs to weigh the potential consequences of going against cultural norms.  If you can't bear the potential consequences, then don't do it. You'll have to leave it to others to push for changes to cultural norms.


What does Graduate school mean: Master, PhD, or both?

Graduate school refer to a school that offers advanced degrees (MS, PhD, or both), even if a school offers only MS degree, it is still called graduate school. I think med-schools are also called graduate schools (since they offer MD and OD degrees).

There will always be some sort of an admission process. Student usually apply for MS program, finish it then join a PhD program. Although in some cases, students can combine MS and PhD together and save 1-2 semesters.


Submission paper to a journal with no reply

From what I understand, the journal has a schedule for considering articles to be published in the next issues. This means that if you miss a (not the) deadline, your article will be considered for inclusion in a subsequent issue. No problem there.

You not having heard from them in 10 days does not mean your paper was not received. I assume they received the paper already, but they 're too busy/unprofessional not to send back a confirmation or a thank you email.

Yes, of course you can ask about the status; nothing wrong can come out of that. I would write an email of the form:

Dear Editor,
I am writing to inquire about the status of the paper, entitled:
[title]
that I submitted to the [Journal name], on [Date].
I would appreciate if you could confirm that you have received the paper.
Best regards,
[Name]
[Affiliation]

Assuming of course that you have checked your spam folder.


Doing research in academia and not liking competition

Actually, the competition is largely in your head, not in academia itself.

I'll never be able to win a stage of le Tour de France, so why should I ride a bicycle? I'll never win the final at Wimbledon, so why should I play tennis?

Of course, there are extremely competitive corners in academia. If you are in a "hot" research area where many many people are chasing exactly the same very few goals, then, yes, you are likely to get scooped.

But imagine two scenarios.

The first is that you have a thousand people at one end of a field and there is a single prize at the other end. Everyone runs to get that prize but only one can succeed.

The second scenario is that the thousand people are wandering around the field, each seeking something that they find interesting. Here, everyone can succeed.

Academia is, except in a few instances, much more like the second scenario than the first. Collaboration is possible. Two can enjoy a sunset. But only one can capture the flag.

Another competitive scenario is being one of many junior faculty at a very (very) top university, in which only one can be promoted to a tenured position. It is, of course, very competitive and collaboration with your competitors may be sub-optimal. But collaboration, even here, with others is not to be spurned. Even being second or third on an important paper is a good thing for a beginning academic, so long as you don't quit with just that.

But most universities, even very good ones in the US, aren't like that at all. Life can be good. But there are also some people who thrive in such a high pressure environment and would have nothing else.

My experience in academia was that the greatest thing was that I could think my own thoughts and pursue my own goals. Much of that was in collaboration with people. Some of those folks were just about like me, and some were internationally known superstars. But it was always fun.

I studied at R1 universities, but taught there only briefly (visitor). But my sense of it was that even for people in the same narrow field, collaboration was highly valued. The most senior professors, were happy to share ideas with junior faculty in field-centric seminars. Often those junior faculty (and we grad students) would develop those ideas, even with help of the top researcher. It was a shared process to extend what was known.

Of course, if a person has a lot of ideas, it is also often the case that they don't have time to completely explore them. For such people, generosity in sharing those ideas costs them nothing. They may not be a co-author of every paper, but their stature in academia rises nevertheless.

Don't think of academic, or research in general, as a zero-sum game. Everyone can win, especially if everyone has their own goals and are not somehow driven to adopt the goal/value system of others.

The field of research is broad and richly endowed. Find the bits that are interesting to you.


How to design a computer-based multiple-choice quiz?

What you describe is pretty much exactly what we do with final exams in our large-section math courses at my institution. For a quantitative-heavy subject like ours, the following is feasible: effectively ask everyone the same questions but with different numerical values involved.

Our elementary algebra course uses the Maple T.A. platform, where question formats can be coded and somewhat different numerical values presented to each student.

Our remedial arithmetic course uses the Blackboard testing system, which does not support randomizing values for fraction or radical-form answers (but could for decimal-form answers: see questions of type Calculated Formula), so the faculty have manually drafted about a half-dozen separate, parallel tests of equivalent difficulty.

The Maple product is definitely a better system for this kind of setup, but it may cost money, whereas Blackboard is potentially already on site. In each case, the order of questions, and the order of responses, can be randomized for each student.

The overall process works tolerably well. Downsides: To my mind, the questions are rather obviously functionally "the same" for every student -- but the students (at least at this level) don't seem to perceive them this way. Also, because the overall scope of the questions is fixed, in some sections it leads to rather degenerate teaching-to-the-test, and students in the next course in the sequence don't really have any understanding or depth with the skills in question. (For example: Some instructors only teach checking multiple-choice solutions to equations, not actually solving them, etc.) In any case, quite a bit of work is involved setting up your tests.


The decision is probably not that important, so don't stress too much (or, which is basically the same, it's pretty much impossible to figure out what the effect it will have).  Remember that this feels very high stakes for you but for the people on the other end, it's just another day at the office.  I would focus on which trip will get you valuable information.  In an ideal world, I would say go to school A for the weekend, and try to visit school B some other time, but I don't know how much of an issue the expense of the tickets is for you.  It would be a different matter if school B had admitted you; you might want to push them a little harder on getting details (have they admitted anyone).


Reapplying to same PhD program after one year, should I state I applied the previous year?

Lying on an application form is a really bad idea, it would probably destroy any chance you could have to be accepted. So, if the question is asked, you probably should answer truthfully.

As for why it is asked, it also depends on how a program works. If it's a very competitive program, maybe your application was good, but there were just better candidates than you. In that case, it could be worth applying again. If, on the other hand, the committee just decided that your application was not good enough, then applying again is risky. In any case, you would have to demonstrate that you have significantly improved your application during the last year.


Starting a research with a professor as a business professional

Many professors take a while to respond to emails. I would give it at least a week before you follow up with her.

When you do send a reminder, keep it brief and polite, and send it as a forward of your previous email, so she won't have to go searching for your other message. Reminding her of why you think the paper is valuable could be a good strategy--if you do it in a way that's not heavy-handed and that you think is true (i.e., it's actually of value to her career aside from another line on her CV).

It's always nice to give her multiple options for responding--you might include a line to the effect of, "If you'd prefer to chat about this over the phone, I'm happy to schedule a brief call at your convenience." Saves her time from having to compose a reply email.


Should the captions in a figure list include their references?

Assuming that the thesis preparation guide from your university says nothing about this, I would approach the question by considering the purpose of the figures list.  The point of the figures list is to make it easier to find these key elements of a very large document; the caption fragment is intended to help a reader find the figure that they are looking for.  There are two typical approaches to making these such caption fragments, either of which might be reasonable:

List the exact caption for each figure, so that the list can be more complete.  In this case, you should keep the references, since they're part of the exact caption.
Make a one-line summary of each caption, so that the list can be more compressed.  In this case, you should remove the references, since you are making a digest in any case.

If you have lots of very long captions, option #2 is probably better, as otherwise it defeats the point of the index.  If your captions are all fairly short, then option #1 is probably better, since it provides a fuller summary of the contents of each figure.


What is a good GPA for acceptance into a top mathematics graduate program?

(I am the Graduate Coordinator for the mathematics department at the University of Georgia, which is consistently ranked around the 50th best mathematics department in the US.  I also received my PhD from Harvard, which is consistently ranked in the top three.)

Zeroth of all, if you think that University of Chicago is a "second tier program," then I think your tiers are too small to be meaningful.  I am very familiar with both Chicago and MIT and think these departments are comparable in quality according to a broad range of metrics.

First:

  Also will age a disadvantage (I'm 28)?

Absolutely not.  Age discrimination is illegal and also not truly not done in American graduate programs.  Moreover I am not even sure that you have to disclose your age, but as someone who has been most directly involved in graduate admissions in my department for the last two years, I can assure you that the admissions faculty almost never notice the age, let alone take it into account.

Second:

  Edit: My GPA on the US scale is around 3.6 plus/minus 0.1.

That is indeed not a great GPA relative to your competition.  The median GPA for applicants to UGA is, I believe, slightly higher than this, and I shudder to think where UGA would rate on your "narrow tier" system: eighth tier, maybe?  The very top graduate programs have their pick of the litter: they could, if they wanted, enroll a class full of candidates with essentially maximal GPAs, GRE scores and recommendation letters.  And this is what they largely do, while also looking for candidates who are exceptional in their research achievements and promise.  So, for instance, a place like Harvard would take a candidate with a 3.6 GPA if they had written a truly significant research paper.

Third: the GPA is just one number, and as a number, 3.6 is not so bad.  With that GPA, a more important question is: in which courses did you do well, and in which did you do less well?  If the less good grades are confined to the early years of the program and your transcript shows a clear upward trajectory that is supported by the recommendation letters, then many programs will not view a 3.6 GPA as a negative.

Fourth: we all want to go to the best programs we can (as we should!), but when it comes to your admissions strategy, you should take a more conservative approach of applying to schools in multiple tiers.  As a quantitatively minded person, I recommend that you tackle the "Fermi problem" yourself: how many students in the world do you think are interested in doing a math PhD at Harvard / Princeton / MIT / Stanford / Chicago / Berkeley / Oxbridge and have strong but not perfect backgrounds from internationally renowned institutions?  How many spots do each of these schools have per year?  I think you will find that the competition is fierce.  You might get in -- and I heartily agree that you certainly won't if you don't apply, so I think you should apply -- but there are going to be a lot of other, similarly (well!) qualified candidates.

By the way, schools "as far down" as UGA still have very strong programs in certain areas, and a strong student can do very well at these places.  At UGA some of our PhDs have gotten NSF postdocs, one of them is now a tenured faculty member at one of the elite schools you mentioned, and so forth.  UGA is internationally renowned in algebra, geometry, number theory and topology.  I could say similarly strong things about most other institutions at the same level on the rankings --e.g. Boston University, University of Virginia, Dartmouth, Emory, University of Massachusetts -- they have some tremendous strengths.  In summary, the number of really strong graduate programs in the US is larger than you might think, especially as an international student.  Please keep that in mind.


Mentioning mental health in a supplementary application essay

I'm pretty sure you misinterpreted the question. I would think that they wouldn't (dare) ask about your personal failings or mental state. The question as I interpret it is about a setback in the research itself. Suppose you don't get enough subjects to properly carry out your experiment as proposed. What do you do. Or you learn something part way through an experiment that invalidates it and you have to go back and revise.

If you never have setbacks then I'll guess that you aren't trying hard enough to get to the important questions. For a mathematician to be able to prove every proposed theorem says those theorems aren't very consequential. (I've been in that place, actually).

Focus on the research, not your own psychology. Your application should clearly indicate that you are absolutely the best person for this position and will obviously be a success. Moreover you are flexible in overcoming the unknowns that pop up during the execution of it.


Bibliography entry for website found via Google Cache

As you've never seen the original website, you can't reference that. You don't know how accurate the cache is. For instance, I've seen Google Cache rearrange the formatting and strip out images from websites.

Based on that, the only place you could sensible reference is the cache file.

But, the cache file is likely to disappear very soon. It could only be live for a matter of days. I would save a copy as quickly as possible and grab images. Depending on the nature of how you want to refer to this, there can even be cases where it's appropriate to include a screenshot.

If readers will need to refer back to the information on the original site, I'd suggest archiving this somewhere online yourself (it could be on a blog). In that case, on your archive, provide the background to how this was obtained. In the paper, reference your archive.

You will also need to note somewhere in the paper that the original site was closed (and ideally a date).

I've come across this problem several times in my contract cheating research, where the sites we collected data from were closed, went offline, merged with another site, completely changed their format, or reset all their data. All it was really possible to do was to write a commentary around the changes.

You might also want to do a search for the quote you want, just to see if there's an alternative source you can reference. In some cases, it might really just be easier to not mention the website at all, unless this is absolutely crucial to the success of your paper.


How to search for journals that accept shared first authorship?

In my experience, journals do not care much about co-first authors (and similar). And why should they? As long as there are no authorship disputes or gift authorships, this simply does not affect their process. The only exception is that they have to insert another footnote on the authors or a sentence in the author contributions in typesetting. I have not seen a journal that explicitly forbids marking authors as co-first and I cannot imagine a reasonable journal rejecting a paper on the grounds that it does not want to accommodate co-first authorship.
As for corresponding authorship, its meaning strongly depends on the journal and field; so it makes sense to first find out what it means for this journal. However, if this is something you can assign, I assume that here the corresponding author is the author who can respond to inquiries on the paper after publication.
I would assume that the journal you contacted simply misunderstood what you wanted or the person who handled your request was clueless. Therefore, I would simply submit the paper as regular and if the submission system does not allow for it, include a note on how you want authorship to be assigned. If they refuse, briefly explain this. If they still refuse, face-palm, and go to the next journal.
Or to answer your titular question: Unless your field is very weird in this respect, it should be rare that a journal refuses co-first authors. If it does not explicitly state this on its website, I would not worry and simply submit your paper with a short note about how authorship should be.


Handling several acceptance letters from different schools

It would be polite to let them know that you "won't be ready to make a decision before some date". Asking them to hold the offer open for a bit and requesting a reply.

If they really insist, then you have to make a decision about acceptance, but they might not, unless they have an overabundance of candidates. But, going past their due date implies risk that the acceptance will be withdrawn. So, be prepared to make a decision on short notice.

Letting the date pass without notifying them is probably your worst option, however.


How do hiring committees for research positions view getting "scooped"?

I'm a little surprised by the implicit assumption that "scooped" ==> "no paper whatsoever."

It's often possible--and desirable--to publish the scooped work anyway. It might have less impact than it otherwise would have, but it's miles better than nothing. Furthermore, it's unlikely that both papers tackle the problem exactly the same way; highlight those differences in your revised version. If nothing else, replications are increasingly appreciated. This is especially true in trendy areas, where both scooping and dubious, non-replicable results are most likely.

It would be gauche for you to complain about this directly on your cover letter or CV (how would this even work?!). With a publication, however, your references can write:

  "Grad Student's main project, characterizing the properties of
  l-Phlebotinum and d-Phlebotinum, was just accepted at the Journal of
  Decent Results. Although his thesis committee praised the work as a
  technical tour de force, it unfortunately attracted less attention
  than it might have after Evil et al. (2018) published similar
  results last December in Science."

Obviously, you'd prefer not to get scooped, but this does demonstrate that you're working on 'hot' problems that people do find interesting, which is better than nothing.


What does it mean to get this message on EDAS?

The answer is Yes!
Although, you need to be careful that it doesn't mean all of your papers are accepted (if you have submitted several papers). It means, at least one of your papers is accepted.


Is using a different methodology enough for a master thesis?

Yes. The literature is full of papers whose primary contribution is using a different method - either something more advanced, or with a different set of assumptions, etc. to analyze a frequently examined question. There's no reason why that wouldn't be a perfectly acceptable Masters paper in my mind. However, a couple points to consider for yourself:

Why is everyone using the same technique (if indeed it is everyone). Is it really just because it's the standard analytical framework for looking at this type of question, or is there a stronger reason driving the choice of technique?
"i really can not compare these two methods as they are based on totally different assumption and technique." I don't think I've ever encountered a situation where two methods are utterly incomparable. While they might have different assumptions and techniques, surely they both give answers which can be compared? Even if they can't be compared quantitatively, surely there is a qualitative decision one might make based on the answers that could be compared (i.e. if I use Method A, X should be done, whereas if I use Method B, Y should be done...)?


Including my institution in a research paper

As a student, your research affiliation is the university --- the professor is beside the point.  You should list your affiliation as:

  Your Name
  [optional: your department]
  University Name
  [optional: university street address]
  City, Region, Nation
  email address and/or other contact information

The degree of detail requested depends on the requirements of the venue where you are publishing: the critical part is name, institution, city/nation, and durable contact information for you (since people may try to find you five or 10 years later).

Credit to your professor will likely be as a co-author: talk to your professor,
as the answer will depend on the degree of involvement and the conventions of the community you are submitting to---computer science 3D printing and biology 3D printing are very different.  If your professor is not a co-author, they should be recognized in your acknowledgements section instead.


“Authors Response” or “Authors’ Response”?

I really doesn't matter: all of these are close enough to one another to be clearly sensible and have plausible arguments for why they might be reasonable. More importantly, none of them will make it into the published paper: they are merely a transient piece of communication between you and the editor and reviewers which will later be deleted.  As such, any of them is reasonable enough.

That said, personally, I would just say "Response to Reviews" and avoid the whole question.


Can one recommendation letter from professor and two from internships help in MS applications?

As a general rule, I would take recommendations from people who worked with me directly. Then, I would look for people who were pleased by my performance. Third, I would take the recommendations most relevant to the position I'm applying for.

It matters to some extent how famous is the person recommending you, but I think the graduate committee would be more interested in a letter coming from someone you worked with such as the assistant professor, the professor and CEO you did internships for. That letter is more likely to be more factual and tell the committee what you have actually done while working with those people. I would be happy to see in a student's application letter that they actually managed work teams.

In your case, you don't have to ask people you only took classes with. I remember when I had to write recommendations for students who did well in my class. I still didn't know what to say beyond what I knew from their course work. I think they might have deserved better than that, but I couldn't offer more.


Is it unethical to send unofficial feedback to authors of a paper which I declined to review due to conflict of interest?

There might be an ethical problem with telling the professor that you were asked to review his paper, but I think it's a minor issue: the anonymity of the reviewers is mostly there to allow them to give their opinion freely. If you are eventually not reviewing the paper then I don't think you are required to preserve that anonymity (even if you do review the paper, it's not totally clear that you must stay quiet about it).

And if the paper is available online on some archive or on the authors' web pages, then it is definitely ok to give the authors your opinion based on the online version if there is a plausible way in which you could know about the paper had you not been asked about it.

I feel that you main concern is that the fact that the paper was sent to you in error would give the authors an unfair advantage by giving them the opportunity to hear your opinion about it. Well, it is unfair, as are many things in life, but not un-ethical. Ethics is there to keep science working well and making progress, and by letting the authors know your opinion you are doing exactly that. Fairness is only relevant when there is competition for competition's sake, and science should not be that.


How many places one should apply for postdoctoral position

You should apply all the places where you want to have a job, and no more.  That may sound flip, but there's no magic number; it all depends on how many jobs are the market and what sort job you would accept.


Would an MDS (Master of Dental Surgery) from India be adequate for a research position in Australia?

Generally, research assistant is not a regulatory job in Australia (I work with many!). I've seen RA coming from all different background. As long as your boss is happy, there's nothing stopping you working as an RA. However, I have never seen an RA without a university degree, it's hard to convince anyone for your research potential if you don't even have a degree.

Of course, you won't be able to work as a dentist in Australia as dentist is regulatory job.


Plagiarism is taking the ideas of others and presenting them as your own, whether in their own words or not. By citing the other work you avoid plagiarism, but not necessarily all problems. If you are doing a translation, of the other work, present it as such. I can't give advice on whether that is always valid and it might require some permission of the copyright holder of the earlier work. I suspect that it does, but copyright rules vary widely around the world and, in many places, are a bit more generous for academic work and research.

Even in a single language, quoting from another work, with proper citation, and paraphrasing the other work with citation avoids plagiarism. But there are limits that are usually a matter of civil law. The more you "use" the shakier the ground gets, but that is a copyright issue, not plagiarism.

But if it is clear what is your own and what is adopted/adapted from another, you at least avoid plagiarism.


How do I not get impatient when other people ask me to describe my research?

Your job, as an academic, is twofold:

Do amazing research.
Write it up and convey your results to other people.

It sounds like you view (2) to apply only to others who are already in your field and are completely familiar with everything you've done. You will find that, in the entirety of your field, there are probably just a few dozen people who are intimately familiar with every details of your field, and only a few hundred who are really familiar with what you do. Everyone else — academic, layperson, village idiot — will require an explanation, and you should do them the favor of explaining it to them.

To more directly answer your question, you should always have two answers ready to the question "what do you do?":

An elevator pitch, as described elsewhere. This should take ~15-30 seconds to say and would give a very high-level overview of your work.
A more in-depth explanation, which would take about 3-5 minutes, which conveys what you do in more detail. Generally speaking, less time than that and you can't convey any useful information, more time than that and you're giving too many details. After your in-depth explanation, either the person will say, "oh", and move on, or they'll ask questions and you can have an intellectual discussion.

(Note: the following point is somewhat debatable.) I've found for myself that it helps to visualize the person you're talking to as paying your salary; if you're on a publicly-funded research grant (i.e., any governmental grant), their taxes are funding your research. It gives some perspective.


Referring to papers by myself and others in my thesis

Personally I feel (and I know that there are many who might disagree) that it is perfectly fine to use 'I' and 'we' here. I think that obsessively sticking to passive voice makes papers and theses less readable. After all, you did do the work. Why hide behind the passive voice? My suggestion would be to go with option 2:

  Together with B and C, we showed that this can be done [ABC15].


What is a Scientific approach to Law and Epistemology?

Courts have to make a definite decision (that can only be appealed so often) about what the law is in every given case. The law reduces uncertainty.

Scientific progress builds on fallibility, at least in the empirical sciences. The final proof is always elusive, postponed indefinitely. And because every provisional answer invites new questions, science produces uncertainty.

Both systems can, fundamentally, not be reconciled, because they operate according to different logics.


Submit my R-package to CRAN or Bioconductor?

There's a lot of questions here and I'll try to address them. Full disclosure: I'm experienced with CRAN but not with developing on Bioconductor.

Where you should submit depends on a variety of factors. Since it's a bioinformatics package, it would fit well in Bioconductor, but also in CRAN. A CRAN maintainer will review the contents of your package for compatibility with CRAN's standards and let you know about any issues. If there are no issues, the package can be published on CRAN within a few hours of submitting. Though sometimes it takes longer. I've never had to wait more than 24 hours.
I'm not in bioinformatics, but my best guess is that Bioconductor exists to help make finding relevant (i.e. bioinformatics) packages easier. According to the website Bioconductor provides tools for the analysis and comprehension of high-throughput genomic data. Thus it may be advantageous to put your package there because it is more likely to be found. CRAN currently has 8907 packages available while Bioconductor only has 1213 software packages. While this is still likely too many to sift through, it may be easier for users to find your package than amongst all the non-bioinformatics packages also on CRAN.
According to Bioconductor's package guidelines page: Authors are strongly discouraged from placing their package into both CRAN and Bioconductor. This avoids burdening the author with extra work and confusing the user. If you plan on submitting to Bioconductor, I'd suggest going straight there and avoiding CRAN altogether. It's frustrating to the end-user to write lots of code using one package to find that the package is changed and your code is no longer compatible and needs to be manually fixed everywhere you used it.
CRAN does not require vignettes. Changing a Word document to a Markdown language may be faster than you expect and worth the effort if your functions require explanation for most users.
Static documents won't fly on CRAN as a vignette. Here's some good info from Hadley Wickham: http://r-pkgs.had.co.nz/vignettes.html#vignette-cran

My suggestion is to submit to Bioconductor. Your audience is more likely to find it there. If you're concerned about the wait to publish, you can make a public repository on GitHub where your peers can find your package.


Writing a book expanding on a previous review paper?

I published my monograph in the field of chemistry in 2017, after I retired.

After writing a review paper on a specific topic, is it common to write a book to expand the review paper in a more pedagogical way, and to include more subtopics/content?

I have no idea. Others might speak to that.

Also, since published papers cannot be "updated", would it be useful to have a book which takes into account new research directions and new results which have been published after the original review paper?

Other things equal, I would say sure! Anything that helps us assimilate the ever-rising flood of new information is welcome, in my opinion.

Would be writing such a book being a problem for copyright or other reasons?

In my experience, the answer is no. When I wrote my monograph, I requested copyright permission to use two of my papers as book chapters. It was easy, painless and fast: the publisher of the papers gratiously granted permission.
What else? I had always heard that writing a book was a labor of love. Now I really know that labor is the operative term and, regardless of the ultimate fate of my monograph, I know that I had it in me to persevere. So if you write the book, I wish you the best of success, and I truly hope indexing is not the largely unmitigated horror of the old days!


Do I have to include my pronouns in a course outline?

Instead of the legal aspects, I would like to address the professional and ethical aspects of the pronouns trend.
In my opinion, the purpose of announcing your pronouns is to indicate that you will address other people with respect.  The message that is sent is: since I told you my pronouns, you know that if you tell me how you want to be addressed I will not disrespect that preference.
There is a secondary purpose.  People whose pronouns are not obvious may feel stress because they are the only ones who have to announce their pronouns.  If you announce your pronouns, you are reducing that stress.
Therefore, the professional way to behave is to announce your pronouns.  It's respectful.
Requiring people to announce their pronouns is, however, unethical.  Some people are not sure how they wish to be addressed.  Other people may not feel safe discussing their preferences.  Requiring these people to announce their pronouns is abusive.  Not announcing your pronouns is not necessarily wrong or disrespectful.


Phd after a master's in pure mathematics

A Math Master's is a good start for any Math Ph.D. program. You may need to spend a minute or two convincing an advisor that you know enough about the field to be interested in it, but that won't take specific coursework most of the time.


A demonstration is a showcase for a tool developed as part of a research activity. A demonstration proposal is a short paper outlining what capabilities of your tool are you going to show and why they're significant.

Normally a demonstration does not present breaking research, rather it demonstrates practical implementation of existing - but still relatively new - research.   I speak for CS.  Your mileage may vary on other fields.


How to select a journal for publishing when my priority is to publish soon?

First, you need a list of the journals that are relevant to your field. Here are some ways to create that list. I recommend that you do all of these, not just one or two.

Ask your supervisor.
Ask your librarian.
As you read articles, take note of the journals that the articles are published in, especially if the article is interesting or relevant to you.

Now that you have a list of relevant journals, it's time to select the one that's right for your article. Here are some things that will help. Again, I recommend that you do all of these.

Ask your supervisor.
Search the literature for articles that are similar in some way to yours. See where those articles are published.
Visit the home page of journals that you're interested in. Read their "aims and scope". Be warned that you have to read a lot of different "aims and scope" writeups before you catch on to the lingo. Is your article covered in their list of topics? Do they only publish major breakthroughs in the field, or do they publish more modest articles?
Look at some articles that are published in journals that you're interested in. Are they roughly similar in focus? Are they similar in quality? (Don't underrate your own work. Beware the imposter syndrome!)
Since you've written an article, you must have done a fair amount of research. So ask yourself: "Where would I go (i.e., what journals) to find an article like this?"

A few miscellaneous tips:

If you're not sure if an article is appropriate for a particular journal, you don't have to submit it and wait 6-12 months for an answer. Write up a 1-2 page summary of your article (called an "extended abstract"), and send it to the editor asking if it's appropriate. They'll probably answer within a week or two.
Check Beall's list to make sure you're not dealing with a predatory publisher.
Check the copyright/license terms. (E.g., will they let you self-archive?)
Check if there are any publication charges that you will have to pay. I would only pay a fee if my article will be open access (free for others to download), and only if the amount is reasonable. The fee may be lower if you're in a developing country.


Putting Semiformal "Nonpublications" on your website

I see very little danger in putting those documents onto your website, and indeed I encourage my students to upload everything they produce and that may be of any value. My line of thinking is that we are after all paid by taxpayer money, so it seems only fair to make as much of what we do available in some way if possible.

Of course, the elephant in the room is how those "others interested in this work" will actually find your notes if you just upload them to your website as PDFs ...

  What would the cons/risks be?
  So far my main concern that I have thought is that it might make me look bad by making available, less than perfect work. Some of these may lack suitable referencing for example.

I do not think that there is a real danger in "looking bad" as long as it is clear that whatever you upload there is just quick, informal work (and, of course, as long as the work does not contain, e.g., hate speech, but I guess this goes without saying). Lacking suitable referencing may be a more real problem, and I would likely put in the few extra minutes to add appropriate attributions for every text that I put online somewhere. However, even if you decide not to do this, it is very unlikely that somebody down the road would get agitated over not being properly cited in a document called "Some Informal Notes on [A]". The key here is that you make clear that this is not a preprint of a paper or even a technical report in the traditional sense, but "only" an informal note. Hence, it should be clear that the content isn't meant as a scientific publication. This should alleviate most concerns that you are passing off other's work as your own.


Abbreviation of "number (of)" in a table heading

My suggestion would be to use #. The hash symbol is commonly used this way; in mathematics it's even used to denote the cardinality of a set, i.e. the number of items in a set.

Having said that, I think abbreviating it as No. is perfectly clear if your usage is along the lines of No. of x. If you think your audience will be more familiar with one of the two, go for that.


Do I have any obligations to my PhD supervisor's requests after I have graduated?

I think it's reasonable for X to ask, but you have no obligation to say "yes". In particular, 2-3 months of weekends is a lot of time to work for free. I think that if you choose, it would be reasonable for you to politely say that this is too much, and that he needs to get somebody else to do that analysis. If this is work that you have already done a lot of, you should still be an author on the resulting paper.

If your new job is with a university, then it is worth asking your new supervisor if you can spend some time on it. They may be happy that they can get a paper with their affiliation for only a couple of weeks of work. If your new job is a commercial one, this is much less likely to help.


How ambitious should one be in picking a journal to submit to?

The answer should certainly depend on many different elements, each of which should be judged with respect to your particular situation.

First, the time issue. You should have a look at the AMS survey on journal backlogs, which also indicates the median time to get an answer (for accepted papers only, but we can assume it gives an idea of what happens to all not-rejected-upfront papers). This survey is published regularly in the Notices, and you should be able to find it on line. Then, ask yourself if waiting that time is worth a likely negative answer. Some journals have a pre-refereeing procedure, and reject a fair amount of papers very quickly. This mitigates the risk (either you get rejected quickly, or you have a much-higher-than-average probability to get your paper accepted).

Second, the impression you give to editors. I guess that an editor could remember slightly abusive submissions, and that they would not help you future cases with her; however I have no data or evidence to back up this guess.

Third, your own feelings. Receiving bad reviews is not something to underestimate: it could diminish your enthusiasm toward your own work, alter your willingness to pursue in this direction. This is probably only a small parameter, but if you have had a few difficult cases recently, you might want to take a break from rejections. Added in edit after a few more years of experience: you should also think your possible chain of resubmission. What could happen is that after waiting two years and getting rejected by a top journal, you are a bit down and then submit much lower. Aiming at an intermediate level first might give you a better outcome. This applies even more at resubmission: how much do you try high? How high? This of course depends on the feedback from referees and editors, but some long-term planning might help.

Fourth, you should ask yourself if the journal you consider to submit to is an appropriate venue if your paper do get published there. I would not fear too much people telling that your paper is clearly below the journal's level, as we often judge papers by journal's name anyway. But it might happen that a more specialized and less prestigious journal could reach the intended audience better than the most prestigious, general journal. This is not a very common situation, though.

Last, but far from least, what you expect to get from getting published in the top journal? Is it so much of a career boost compared to very-good-but-not-top journals?

Note also that some editors have the habit of suggesting another venue to papers that have good but not good enough reviews in a very selective journal. It is not easy to know this beforehand, though.


Do I point to mistakes in a paper if I cannot contact the authors?

Of course you can publish it if you think someone is wrong. This is the entire point of science. Always do so in a nice way though: it is very well possible that everything appeared to be correct with the knowledge at the time the paper was published. Or that it is you who misinterpreted the methods (possibly because the paper was a little vague), as you suggest in your question.

Even if it was really a mistake: everybody makes mistakes from time to time and that is nothing to be ashamed about. You did the right thing by contacting the authors first. Not only is it the correct thing to do, but I have also seen this lead to new collaborations that resulted in multiple papers.

If both the paper and the errors were important, it is your responsibility as a scientist to correct the errors. But if the errors are minor, the result is "unimportant", or you are not 100% sure that there actually is a mistake, you could also decide to simply ignore the paper. There are plenty of bad and/or unimportant papers out there and frankly, they do not deserve the attention even if it is to correct mistakes.


Should I drop my paper after finding a recent very similar paper?

First of all, you are absolutely right that you need to cite the paper. Citations should not be to "previous work you based your work on" but to "the state of the art" - whether or not you explicitly based your work on a previous article. The reader should be able to place your work in the context of what is already known on a topic.

Second, giving any advice will be hard for us, since we don't know the specific situation. If all you add to this previous article is a simpler design and collecting data in a different manner, then your paper likely does not offer a publication-worthy contribution to the state of the art.

Your best bet is likely to rework your paper heavily. Identify weaknesses or open questions remaining in the previous article and address these. Then you can build on the previous article and expand upon it, and you will have a genuine contribution.

Of course, this will be a lot of work, and much of what you already did may turn out to be wasted effort. That sort of thing unfortunately happens in academia. You will need to analyze your specific situation to find out how much you can salvage.

The positive side is that you have found someone who can meaningfully review your work. And if, as you write, their work has so far mainly been self-cited, they will appreciate some external attention on it, so if you get them to review your paper, you may have a sympathy bonus. Alternatively, you could even contact the authors of the earlier paper and see whether they would be interested in collaborating with you.


Is publishing a journal article covering failed attempts a good idea?

In order to give your work sufficient rigour and novelty for publication, you might need to set out the theoretical basis for why you thought your new algorithm would be quicker; and an analysis of why, despite that theoretical underpinning, it was not quicker: i.e. how did reality interfere with the theory?

In theory, the test for whether or not it's a good idea to publish failed attempts, is: would it help other researchers advance? In practice, even if it did, you might struggle to find a journal that considered it of sufficient interest to be worth publishing.

Some fields do now have a journal of negative results, which could be a suitable venue. That seems, for now, to be mostly restricted to fields within the life sciences, which might not be your field.

So you might want to consider going to one of the new mega-journals, which select only on the basis of whether your work is methodologically sound and on-topic, and whether you've paid their publishing fee.

And now you can see one risk there: you've got to be careful to avoid predatory publishers.

Another, less obvious risk, is that given some megajournals have incredibly wide scope (e.g. "science"), they are not always able to get suitable peer-reviewers: so your work could appear alongside some really shoddy work, leaving readers doubting the quality of your work, even if the journal is widely held to be non-predatory.


In the absence of strong references, on which things should I focus so that I can gain access to a PhD program?

PhD programs are looking for strong evidence of research potential.  We'll look for that evidence in your recommendation letters (preferably from people who know the field and know what potential stars look like), in your research statement, and in your academic record.

Get the best references you can.  You write "I don't doubt that they would believe in my ability to research", which is excellent.  They may also write about their surprise in your late interest, which will raise some eyebrows, but it's the truth, so you're stuck with it.

In your research statement, be sure to explain why you're interested in a PhD, and in particular, what changed in the late stages of your MS program to spark your interest.  You need to actively pre-empt the perception that you just want to stay in school because you want to learn More Cool Stuff, or that you tried Real Work and you didn't like it.

You also need to include credible technical detail about your research experience and your specific research interests.  (Yes, that means you need to have research experience and specific research interests.)  Otherwise, readers will wonder if you know what research actually is.  That naïveté might be excusable for someone with only a BS, but for an applicant with an master's degree, it's a serious red flag.

Good luck!


What to do for a paper with a very long review process?

Some journals are just really slow and dozy in their processes, and the weeks can add up to months quite quickly.  For example, I recently had a paper accepted after three rounds of review that stretched over two whole years.

Consider for example, a process like this:

The paper comes to the editor and they take a week to assign reviewers.
The reviewers take a few weeks to respond, and then some say no (it can happen even in a second round) and the editor has to get more.
Once reviewers have accepted, the journal gives them 8 weeks to return reviews (on the longer side, but not uncommon).
A reviewer is late returning their review, and the editor doesn't bug them for a week or two.
Then reviewer says they've had a very busy time and can they have a couple more weeks to review, for which the editor says yes, since otherwise they'd have to start the clock all over with a new reviewer.
When the final reviews come in, the editor doesn't look at it for a week, then sends a recommendation to the editor-in-chief, who also sits on it for a week.

That's more than 20 weeks "in review" right there, and it can easily stretch to more if you mix in some holidays or lost emails. You got your reviews eventually the first time and you'll likely get them soon this time as well---it seems like it's just a slow journal, as some are.


How to ask for approval letter from dean?

I don't know anything about your university or its normal practices, so this is only tentative.

If your university has any sort of office for student advocacy, go to them with your concerns. Hidden rules aren't appropriate in any situation, though they may be permitted - unfortunately.

In case there is no such office, go to any professor that you trust and who knows you well, and ask him/her to be your advocate. The dean will certainly offer a bit of time to a professor that they won't to you. You are asking for an exception to the "rules". Make sure that you have a basis for the exception (you have the needed knowledge to proceed) and not just that the rule is unfair if it is hidden.

Unfortunately, you are possibly making people uncomfortable and when that happens they sometimes behave badly. The more confrontational you make it, the worse it may get, so be aware of the risks.


In my graduate application, should I briefly mention a family issue?

I don't think it is relevant to your applications.  It was a short period, and many students take advantage of the summer break for such things as travel, time with family, gainful employment, volunteer activities.

It would be different if you had had a break from your studies of a year or more.

Best of luck to your family.


My advisor refuses to write me a recommendation for my PhD application unless I apply to his lab

You will need to find another reference.

I recommend not keeping this supervisor up-to-date on your application status.

When asked why his reference was not included, probably you could just say factually and without sounding judgemental that the student advisor offered a reference only under condition that you would work for them, so you sought another reference [pretend that you do not realise what that means - coming from China, you can probably present it, if asked, as if you assume this may be the norm to only give out references under these conditions; of course, this is not true, but I think your best bet is to take the "naive" route].

You also have publications with this student advisor, so that already proves that your work is good enough to pass peer review - a direct reference from them would be nice, but is not anymore vital at this stage.


How to build research paper based on a unpublished paper?

Actually, the paper in question has been published, otherwise you sure couldn't read it :)

I admit that may sound stupid and unhelpful, but I think there is more to it that you recognize. The paper you built upon has been published, but not through conventional means. It doesn't mean you can't use it, but a few specific “rules of thumb” have to be observed:

Refer to the paper by its URL and, if identifiable, the owner/editor/publisher of the website. Example:

  “Link between al dente cooking time and a change of slope in the pasta fractal length”, A. N. Onym, http://bigpasta.com/paper42.pdf (publisher: Pasta Inc.)

Because this content may have a shorter lifetime than academic publications, you should quote directly all necessary claims made into this work in your paper, rather than merely using the reference on a vague claim. Your paper should be standalone, and fully understandable even if the other one disappears.
You may also contact the original paper author, if possible, to ask how they would like to be cited. Perhaps they have another related work which you missed, that was published in a more conventional way?


Asking a journal for extended payment period

Usually there is a payment window of 30 or 60 days for example, so if it arrives  mid-August then paying in September is not an issue. Journals have dealt with university accounts departments before.

If you are the one stressed as you have to have it published to complete then you may need to be patient, but the payment itself should not be an issue.

For one paper, it took 4 months for the journal to get paid - several polite communications (and they were nice and helpful on both sides...) but all got sorted.


How can I cite an entire paragraph from one source minus a line in the middle

Use three citations, plus a bit of supporting prose: one for the first part of the paragraph, one for the direct quote plus some prose indicating that you've changed sources, and one for the final part of the paragraph plus some prose indicating that you've shifted sources again.

For example:

  According to the consensus of the time, electrons might be blue but they were never green or yellow (Dali 89).  Picasso, however, declared "I have many times seen green, yellow, and even polka-dotted electrons" (Picasso 322).  The obvious retort to this declaration, however, is that Picasso was probably mistaking protons for electrons (Dali 89).

If your paragraph is particularly lengthy, you may need to use more citations, just as you would if the inserted quote did not exist.


Using downloaded NES/SNES ROM files for research work

What is legal, and legally enforceable, varies from place to place - especially for things like scientific study. But there is an additional ethical and respect issue.

I would suggest that you contact them with your research proposal. As long as it doesn't have competitiveness issues, or encourage activity that they frown on, they might actually support you. Of course it might also set them against you depending on what you want to do, but it is worth considering, at least.


First, a note for those who are not familiar with the terms. In general, double degree or joint degree are degrees awarded by two different universities within a student mobility agreement. They do not refer to the pursue of two independent degrees, as described in this question.

At the Master's level the tradition of double degrees is well established within the EU, and has been going on for more than twenty years, probably 30, since the establishment of the Erasmus programme. Currently, the major EU programme supporting joint degrees is the Erasmus Mundus. The Erasmus+ guide, p. 109, describes the framework of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master degree. Of course, individual universities can set up joint degrees outside of this programme, especially when one of the partner universities is outside the EU.

At the PhD level things are much less established. As far as I know, the idea of a double PhD degree has emerged only in the last 3-4 years. Before, it was totally unheard of, at least in my country (Italy). Though students are usually encouraged -- and funded -- to spend a period abroad (typically from 6 months to 1 year), this is done within an agreement between two research groups, and not at the university level (though it should be approved by the PhD programme committee).

Usually, to obtain a double PhD degree a student should follow a shared path between two partnering universities. For instance, the two universities might agree that the student shall spend two consecutive years in one university under the supervision of X, and two other consecutive years in the second university under the supervision of Y; that the coursework should be divided equally between the two universities; that the student should defend their thesis in front of a joint committee (or in front of two committees separately); etc.

Since at the PhD level things are much less established with respect to the Master's, I will answer on the basis of my experience: I have a student who is pursuing a double PhD degree; one who initially asked me to do that; and I know a couple of other students from other advisors who are pursuing it.

None of the universities I know of have an explicit double-degree programme for PhDs. In fact, the double degree is usually proposed by a student who thinks, in this way, to strengthen their PhD or to facilitate the immigration in another country. This means that the double degree should be set up on a case-by-case basis, which usually brings about a bureaucratic nightmare, especially for the PhD schools and the advisors. This nightmare comes from the fact that different countries, even within the same region (e.g., EU), have different requirements for what concerns programme duration, funding, coursework, publications and assessment, and finding an agreement is quite complicated.

For instance, if the PhD in one country has a duration of 3 years, and it is funded for that period, who is going to pay for an additional year in a country where the "standard" PhD duration is of 4 years? If there is an ongoing collaboration between two groups it might not be that difficult to find the money, but it could be almost impossible to set up such an agreement out of the box.

As I said, in my experience, the double degree is usually proposed by a student who thinks to strengthen their PhD. I strongly disagree with this premise, and I usually discourage my students from such an idea. A double degree is not stronger than a single one done working hard and with a good publication record. Then, whether it can facilitate or not immigration to another country is questionable: I don't think that, to date, there is sufficient statistics to know this.

As for your last questions:

  for an advisor, what is the advantages of having a part-time student?

There is an advantage if there is a collaboration between two groups, otherwise there is really no advantage.

  For last, the thesis needs to be approved for both universities... how this happens? I would have to present for both?

These details are really decided on a case-by-case basis, and sometimes the outcome depends on whether one university wants to appear stronger than the other and impose its criteria.


When an academic researcher receives a gift funding from an industry partner, does the academic researcher's university take a cut?

Than can depend on a lot of things. The answer is often yes, occasionally no.

The question may depend, in part, on what the university contributes to you as a researcher, including office space, lab space, RA support, whatever. It might also depend on whether it is the university that has to manage the grant and verify to the funder that the funds are properly spent - accounting for the funds and seeing that any necessary taxes are paid.

Universities have policies about these things and you should find out what those policies are in your case, but the answer is more likely that you and the university share the proceeds. The university "cut" might be quite a lot, actually.

And the characterization of it as a "gift" might be questioned or contested.


Using photos obtained from academic homepages in a research seminar talk

To avoid all questions, and in the absence of a clear license, ask the person for permission to use a picture. They might even have a better one that they would prefer be used.
For a deceased person, ask the university, either through their former department head or a university publicity office. If they can't grant you a right to use it, they can possibly put you in contact with someone who holds the rights, such as their estate, for example.
I don't guess anyone would turn you down, and this is simple enough to do.


Can a professor from totally different research field be invited to thesis defense?

I'm not familiar with UGC policy. However, in the UK university I'm in, this would be considered a serious breach of protocol and may be grounds for invalidating the viva and its result.

The attendees at the viva are limited to four people:

An internal examiner
An external examiner
An independent observer
The PhD candidate

The qualifications of the first three have to be vetted by the Department, Faculty and Graduate School. The independent observer is a senior professor of my university who is not necessarily in the cognate discipline. His or her role is to ensure that the processes being followed meet university standards.

The proceedings are held in one of three special rooms we've designed for the purpose of the viva. The proceedings are not audio- or video-recorded. (We do allow the taking of photos of the attendees at the end of the proceedings.)

I can understand the idea of nominating local experts to reduce costs. However, the vetting process specifically seeks information about (1) conflicts of interest between or among examiners, supervisors and students and (2) the qualifications of the internal and external examiners to hold those positions.

I hope this helps.


Does the American Mathematical Monthly allow ArXiv posting?

Yes, they do allow arxiv postings at any stage.  However, starting in 2015 the Monthly has moved to a double-blind reviewing system (which, for general readers of this site, is all but unheard of in the field of mathematics).  Posting on the arxiv before or during submission would of course cause a serious risk of ruining the anonymity of the author.

I happen to know through direct experience that the Monthly views such ruination as being the author's prerogative.

It should be emphasized that this is a recent development, and whether it will be continued in the future is up to the board of directors of the MAA (and not the editorial board of the Monthly, a fact which I found surprising).

Added: Some remarks about the laissez faire philosophy of the Monthly's double-blind policy can be found here.  The difficulty of preserving authorial anonymity in an arxiv culture is mentioned.


How to summarize the contributions of co-authors where they advised at all stages of the study, but technically only stepped in at the writing stage

All my coauthors have provided advice from conception to completion, on the study itself, data analysis, write-up...If I said: "All authors contributed to conception of the study, data collection, and analysis." This would be over-selling co-author contribution.

I disagree. That's exactly what your co-authors did. Execution and writing needn't be the responsibility of all authors, especially when one author is a PhD student.
One way to better appreciate the efforts of others is to ask whether work could have been completed without their input. When the answer is yes, you could consider whether their efforts are worthy of acknowledgement rather than co-authorship. When the answer is no, it is surely clear they played an integral role and merit co-authorship.
Returning to the OP's example, you could ask: Could the study have been conceived without all authors? If so, then perhaps attribute conception to only those that were needed. Ask the same for data collection and analysis. You can then write a more accurate contribution statement. Personally, I'd be generous. Err on the side of inclusion.


What PhD programs (Business-Marketing) are open to older applicants?

As far as I know, there is no PhD program in the United States for which it is legal to discriminate based on age.  Nor is it just a matter of legality: at least in the circles I run in (I have done graduate admissions for the PhD program in my department at a state university) this is not just a technicality: holding a candidate's age against them would be viewed as grossly inappropriate behavior.  I have never seen even a hint of it.  My field -- mathematics -- is different from yours, but it is also one in which there is little a candidate could do in between their undergraduate and graduate degrees that would be viewed as clearly advantageous by the admissions committee.  From what I know, this is not true of the business community.  There are very few 22 year-olds enrolled in MBA programs; some prior real-world business experience is preferred, and there are prestigious "executive MBA programs" for older candidates who are already successful in the business world.  So I would guess that many applicants for a PhD in business/marketing are over 30.  Professionally speaking, what's the difference between 30 and 46?  Not much.  I honestly don't see why anyone would care.

The bit about low GRE scores is a different matter.  You should check to see which GRE scores are taken seriously by admissions committees in your area.  Assuming that any of them are (a reasonable guess if they require them), I strongly recommend that you take the time to improve your scores substantially rather than try to look for programs that will take inferior students.  Remember that most US PhD programs take at least five years to complete.  It is really worth it to spend a year or two making sure you get into the best possible one.


Is it common for Chinese nationals to turn down review requests?

Your experience does not match mine - Chinese researchers accept reviewer invitations just like everyone else.
Statistics also indicate that Chinese researchers do perform peer review. As a group, they submit more articles than they review for (along with Indian & Iranian researchers) but they also perform more peer review than any other country's researchers except the US (albeit not on a per capita basis).
See source.


What to do with my ideas as an undergraduate

Ask your professors if it would be possible to do an internship over the summer.
If you're an undergraduate student who is really eager to do research, and you've demonstrated your academic talents in your studies, I think that your best course of action would probably be to contact your professors and ask them if it would be possible to do an internship with them over the summer. Many universities have summer internship programs for undergraduates, and your professors might be able to point you in right direction for applying for one.
Then, once you've finished your undergraduate degree, if you've still got a desire for academic research (rather than going into industry to solve problems in "the real world"), you could apply for postgraduate study at your university of choice, and having completed a summer research internship would likely assist you in that.
If you really want to be taken seriously in academia, I would strongly recommend that you do a postgraduate degree; it's very easy for "independent researchers" to wind up getting written off as quacks because they often lack the skills to properly write a high-quality research paper. You're in computer science, however, so if you wind up employed by a company in industry who is performing research in an area, you might be able to use your company as your affiliation to get started in academic publishing rather than that of your university.


Being the right kind of demanding as a college instructor

If people have a legitimate reason for wanting an extension of the deadline, I would simply give them the extension. If they cannot provide a good reason, i.e. they simply procrastinated too much, they have to take responsibility for their behavior, and they do not get the extension.

This has nothing to do with being a hard-ass, but being fair. Other people have done the work, and giving people that procrastinated an extension is not fair to them. In addition, getting work done that you where assigned (even if it is hard or boring) is a valuable lesson to teach a student. Their future boss will also not be sensitive to a missed deadline because of procrastination.


Is it OK to add another author during page proofs?

This would be up to you, your colleague, the professor and the editorial rules of the journal - if you decide to go down that path, read up on the rules or ask the editorial team.

However, @polfosol makes a very important point in his comment, that to do this would potentially be unethical, primarily due to your co-author contributed directly towards the paper, your professor did not (I assume based on your question).  A major consideration is that this publication also adds to your current co-author's research profile, not just yours.

A possible solution to this is to write another paper, building on and citing the research in this published paper.

Another possible solution is for your professor to contribute to reviewing the proofs and having him added as another co-author - once again, if you decide on this, then you must check to see if it is alright with the journal (but this may also be stretching ethics a bit).


Academic cv items: chronological order or most recent first?

In the UK I've always seen it done in reverse chronological order (most recent first). This may vary from country to country.

A few links seem to indicate that reverse chronological CVs are the norm. The last link there seems to break it down well, element by element.

And for the record, mine is also reverse chronological.

  Publications: a reverse chronological list is a prerequisite, best presented as an appendix. Include journal articles, books or chapters of books, reports and patents
  Research experience: in reverse chronological order. Emphasise specialist/technical expertise, IT skills, plus any skills required for the job. including project and people management
  Education: in reverse chronological order. Focus on higher education onwards. Include awards and scholarships. Include the name of your doctoral supervisor and funding body, if appropriate


Why is it forbidden by the IEEE to post 'author-submitted' papers on ArXiv?

what is the logic between allowing preprints, but not author-submitted papers?

There is no logic behind this. It is part of the culture of publishers who want to restrict access as much as possible, so they can profit from selling closed-access research.

If it were just up to publishers, I don't think IEEE would allow preprints, either. But they make an exception for arXiv because the culture has changed such that people want to make their papers available there. Additionally, note that it is valid to post any version of your paper other than the final copy-edited version online on your website.

(Note: if you ask IEEE, they might come up with some reason for it. Perhaps they treat submitting to arXiv as a competing submission, and since you can't submit elsewhere while a paper is under review, you shouldn't be able to submit to arXiv either. But I don't think this objection holds water, because arXiv and posting to a personal website have similar effects. Also, I don't think it is the real reason, which is that their business model relies on limiting paper access to some extent or another.)

  What is confusing me is that IEEE differentiates between preprint and author-submitted paper, where it is okay to put a pre-print on arXiv, but not okay to put the author-submitted version.

It's worth pointing out that many researchers do wait to publish online until a paper is accepted. The idea is that papers go through lots of revisions, and the title, narrative, and main results of a paper could change after it goes through the publication process (possibly being rejected a few times). So, you may not want people to read the draft version and get a bad idea (or wrong idea) about where your work fits, and you prefer to make only the most impressive and clarified version available.

  how much difference does there have to be between the two versions to not count as the same?

There is no rule here, as far as I know. It could even be the same version, but that probably means you ignored the reviews, which is a bad thing. Often for my papers, there is also zero difference between the preprint and the "final" version, other than it having a new template and formatting to look pretty, which doesn't really matter. (And I prefer to treat the preprint as the real "final" version.)


How to efficiently plan holidays in academia?

I tend to combine my holidays with academic travel. In part, because it reduces the cost of going to conferences: I don't have to fly half way across the country just for two days. In part, it also reduces the monetary cost of holiday travel.

For example, adding 2 days for sightseeing/relaxing after a conference doesn't impact flight reimbursement. You pay for the hotel/airbnb, but that's it. That is especially appealing if you are going to a conference in Europe [US] and you're based in the US [Europe], such that the flight is a substantial part of the cost.

I've also gotten flights to other cities reimbursed. As long as the flight X -> Y -> Z is not more expensive than X -> Y -> X, neither my university nor others that have paid for my travel have had any objections. It almost always costs them less (and never more), so it's a win-win situation. In that case, I still end up paying Z -> X, but that's half the fare I'd otherwise pay. If the flight to Z costs more than to X, I let them know and claim less than the actual cost for reimbursement.

Another advantage of this is that it spreads out vacation days throughout the year. I never feel guilty taking off a day here and there and I'm substantially more productive afterward. Doing nothing for two weeks doesn't particularly appeal to me and would likely just stress me out once I got back.


In order to know if the candidate is a good cultural fit for the group I usually talk more about the working atmosphere of the group. I usually focus in explaining how things work in the group; what I do (project, year of the PHD program), what I studied, what other team mates ask me to do, what the boss encourages.

Sounds right on the money to me. Sometimes it's hard for people to be self aware enough to answer these sorts of questions, but you should ask about exactly those topics:

what sort of working environment do they operate well in (do they work best in a quiet room or a busy room? working individually or closely with another person/group?),
level of supervision (how often do they expect to meet with a PI? do they want to work mainly independently or be given tasks to do?),
how do they like to receive feedback, social preferences (do they like to go out after work with colleagues or head straight home?), etc.

You can then help them compare their desires with what your actual experiences are in the lab.

Ask them what their concerns are coming into a PhD program, what makes them anxious about a new working environment, etc.

Also, it shouldn't be just about asking questions but also providing information. The prospective students should be interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them. Let them know what you like about working in that lab, what you don't like, what you have been able to change or what can't be changed.

Importantly, none of these things are really about the quality of a candidate but rather about their fit. This stack is full of people will all sorts of problems mid to late in their PhD that boil down to them joining a lab that was a bad fit. It's important for both the lab and the student to make a good fit.


Does having external funding raise your chances of getting accepted ? ( Masters )

It may depend upon what field you are in, but in biology in the USA most universities I know would be much more interested in a student if they brought their own funding!


It needs to be on your CV when submitted for application to any position. Most institutions would find missing information to be misleading at best and fraudulent at worst. Explaining how you spent the years of your life between starting university and now is part of the purpose of your CV and relevant to the application process. Leaving things out makes it appear that you are trying to hide something, and people reviewing your application won't like that.

If you don't want to highlight this degree on your website, there's likely no real harm since your website isn't part of your application to anything.


How to Present Two Authors on the cover page of an APA Research Paper?

According to the APA 6th Edition, you list all the authors in order of contribution, or in alphabetical order if their contribution is equal. They should be on the same line unless it does not fit.

Example: Jane Smith and John Doe


Why would a grad school make admission offers prior to the deadline?

Sending offers too late to a very good applicant also involves the risk that the applicant will accept a different offer, and the university will lose out. Very good applicants also tend to receive many offers, so this risk should not be underestimated.

Similarly to the case of hiring employees at a company, if a university wants to admit the best students, the optimal strategy would probably be to make sure to admit the very best applicants as quickly as possible, while delaying the decision for the "good but not best" applicants until the end of the deadline, in case someone better shows up. The difference between study programs and hiring processes is that universities have plenty of statistics from previous years that let them know what a "great" applicant is and what a "good" applicant is, so the could optimize this process much more if they wanted.

In the German system, some universities have this explicitly built into their admission procedure. For example, at the Technical University of Munich, great applicants are immediately admitted, and good applicants are invited to an interview:

  In the initial stages, the grades you obtained during your Bachelor's program, as well as your written documents, will be evaluated using a point system. Depending on the number of points accumulated, applicants are either immediately admitted, rejected or invited to a 20 minute admissions interview carried out by the department faculty.


Does a present-day editor tend to sieve out submissions before sending them out for review?

When you are running a journal, no matter how where it sits in the prestige rankings, all sorts of things wash up in the submission box.  One might think of these as roughly falling into four categories:

Clearly plausible and on-topic papers
Papers whose focus or quality is dubious, but are still worth sending to review
Papers that are clearly off-topic
Papers that are clearly below the journal's quality threshold

Until you actually see such a stream, you might not realize just how bizarre the material can be that shows up in the third and fourth categories.  I'm talking about likely-schizophrenic ramblings where the text changes color and font multiple times per paragraph, blatant plagiarism, or papers that don't even bother to connect themselves to the research field of the journal.  Heck, even as a graduate student I was once sent a videotape by a man who had decorated his trash can to look like a robot and explained in great length how the "robot" can would react to All in the Family episodes so that it could save humanity by terraforming the Sahara desert.

In a highly interconnected world with people working at all sorts of levels of quality, a lot of this type of junk shows up.  It's entirely appropriate for an editor to reject category #3 and #4 material, so as not to waste everybody's time.  I really don't want to ask people to review plagiarized or insane material.  I also don't want to waste time asking them to review things that are probably science of some sort, but still absolutely certain to be rejected.  It is thus the case that nearly every editor will be asked and find it justified to perform some degree of pre-evaluation and desk rejection.

Where it becomes difficult, however, is that different editors and different journals have different standards for determining where to draw the line.  When authors disagree with the journal, it can get rancorous, especially for the "glamour" journals that can be so high value for authors to publish in.  Thus, we hear primarily about the mistakes, the borderline cases, and the places where politics and prejudice hurt the scientific process.

The key questions are this:

What percentage of the time is the system going wrong?
What can be done to improve it?

I'm almost certain that #1 is a pretty small percentage, simply because there's a lot of detritus that nobody is likely to object to desk rejection on.  Despite that, the number may well be too high: study of this topic would be both useful and likely very difficult, given the subjective nature of the judgements.  There clearly are places where the system goes wrong, and reducing that fraction will likely be good for all of us.