Does my Anthropology PhD topic have to be the same as my Masters topic?

There is no such requirement unless imposed by some advisor that you might carry through with from the masters to the doctorate. But even then it is not essential in concept.

You are free to explore new directions, and it is probably a good idea to do so. Assuming the common case in which you have a different advisor, or even if you are at a different university, take some (maybe a lot) direction from your new advisor. If you have your own ideas, explore them with the advisor. If you are more tentative, the typical case, look for suggestions from them about directions you might pursue. Perhaps the ideas will be in line with the general research trajectory of the advisor in such situations.

And this isn't true just in anthropology.

It is also important that if you are going to do serious research in some topic, that you have some affinity for that - it needn't be love exactly, but it is better if you are driven internally by the questions, rather than just following a script.

Danger. Danger. Don't over stress my words just above. Be in love with the topic. But don't be driven to preconceived notions that you want to be true. Research is a search for truth. Be in love with the search, whatever emerges as the truth.


Age limit rules for postdoc position in China

In general Chinese universities are rather ageist, and treat age restrictions very seriously. It is likely that you would not get the position due to your age. However, there are many workarounds you can discuss with your potential advisor, such as getting a position as a 研究员 or 副研究员 (like a staff researcher or staff scientist) that don't have age limits, but also might not have the federal government salary support that foreign postdocs are eligible for in China. You would have to discuss with your potential advisor to see if such an option is available to you.

Having said that, the pandemic changes the rules for everything, so there is a possibility that in this special circumstance an exception might be made, you'd have to discuss with your advisor and see how willing they would be to spend political capital to secure the exception for you.


How to get an advisor to finish their part of a publication when they have not done anything on it for over a year?

Is a year and a half a normal amount of time to write on a paper in which the research is finished?

No, this paper should've been finished a year ago.

The research is done, so you are not waiting for something else to fall into place for your paper. You already tried writing your former advisor's portion of the manuscript to no avail. Your former advisor did not even catch a critical flaw in your thesis. I hate to say it, but it sounds like your former advisor is quite a bozo.

  How do I politely convince her to hurry up?

If you've not already done so, send your former advisor your "final" draft of the manuscript (including the parts you wrote for her). Give her a timeline for returning suggestions/modifications to you. If that doesn't work, you might have to get on the phone and talk to her about how important it is for you to submit this paper. If this fails, you may need to move on, and hope that at some point in the next year or two that she finally matures enough to help you out.


Post-graduate publication, adviser is not in my field

Option A:  Blow him off.  You did your Ph.D.  You're done.  Work for your current employer and to feed your family.  The academic rat race is not your concern.  And it's not even like this guy cares about the science being lost. He just wants another sticker on his helmet (pub count).

Option B:  Tell him "what's in it for me".  Maybe get something out of him, like inclusion as co-author on a review or the like.

Option C: Write it but tell him you will be the communicating author, you're in charge and not interested in edits from him and he can just ride along for a pub count (maybe a little gentler stated than that, but that is bottom line).

When I was in this situation, I went with option C.  But I actually cared about the science getting out and had the paper ready to go, no issues.  Also my advisor never messed with my text (I never had an edit from him on previous papers).  [And even in this case, it only came after a year or two of the guy, sitting, before he came back and agreed to my terms.]

I would probably go with C for you. But make it clear to him who is in charge.  Some of these professors are not used to grad students that take them on.

You probably will never get satisfaction on the previous slight, but if you tell the guy "I wasn't happy with how you handled X.  That is behind us.  But I have to evaluate if I can trust you going forward before doing any work on Y." maybe he toes the line.  He may not, so then put him in deep freeze.

I can't promise you a great outcome.  But I do know if you don't sometimes stand up for yourself people will take advantage.


How should I politely address an email to two professors, one who holds a PhD and one who does not?

Given that they're professors, you can just use "Prof."

Having said that, don't worry too much about salutation. I'm sure lots of people have received emails calling them "Dr." when they don't have PhDs, or "Prof" when they aren't professors. Heck, I've even seen emails calling someone "Mr." when they're actually female, or vice versa. We learn to ignore the honorific and concentrate on the email text.


Is there a search engine to show citing articles' extracts

You can use www.semanticscholar.org to see the extractions of the paper citing the specific article you want. In other words, you will see what and how other researchers use that paper, if applicable.
To do so, you need to type and search for the paper you want. You will see a section called "Citations: Publications citing this paper," and you can read the extractions from this section.
It is easy to use and free. The only limitation of this service is that it might not cover all databases as much as google scholars or other paid services. However, they are increasing their coverage day by day. In any way, it is a useful website to add your research arsenal.


Is it normal for new graduate students to feel very overwhelmed and discouraged when they first start their program?

Yes, absolutely. 1000000x yes.

  What happens when a graduate program realizes they've made a mistake in admission? What would qualify as a "mistake"?

A "mistake" is admitting a student who is not capable of meeting minimum standards in the department (or at least, not now), and is
therefore dismissed from the program
for academic reasons. This is an unfortunate mistake for both the student and the department (as it represents quite a bit of wasted time, money, effort, and emotional energy on both sides), and so we try very hard to help students who are in the "danger zone" to recover and avoid dismissal.

Generally, a graduate program has very specific regulations describing how and under what circumstances a student is dismissed from the program for academics.  In my program, this starts with a semester of academic probation, so students have some warning that they're in danger of dismissal and have a chance to bring their grades up. Many students do manage to bring their grades up after a probation semester and successfully complete the program.

  If I'm feeling discouraged and/or overwhelmed by my courses, would it reflect poorly on my reputation in the program to speak to my advisor about it?

In my department, it would reflect well on you. It would show a maturity, self-awareness, and sense of responsiblity that your advisor probably wishes every student in the program had.


Must I credit others' published research when using it in a proprietary product, if doing so would be bad for business?

Since business is on your mind, before ethics, you should first check whether there are any legal restrictions on the use of the published research, or obligations arising from such use, issues that may depend on the applicable laws of some specific country. For example, it may be the case that you may not need consent to use the research results, since they have been openly published, but you may have some financial obligations if you are to use it for profit (and not necessarily towards only the research team), patent or no patent. So make certain where you stand.

As for ethics: it is rare for businesses to credit researchers. Instead they usually contract them either for royalties or to secure further development, if there is such potential, and not leave it to fall into the hands of competitors. "Credit due" may be one of the currencies in academia, but "money" is the currency that businesses understand.

By contacting and maybe contracting the research team (after doing your legal due diligence first), you may even be able to secure such exclusive use of their results, or some even more efficient version of them. Again, this will depend on the legal framework applicable.


Why don't colleges and departments teach social skills?

During one's university life as an undergraduate, there are many opportunities to improve one's social skills and confidence as an adult. These range from the various sporting and political clubs students can join, through volunteer activities students can participate in, through coaching activities (of more junior students or even high school), all the way to activities like having a few drinks in the uni bar (soda, for US students). During the summer, one can participate in spring break-style activities or get an internship at a law firm.

All of these activities, I dare say, help shape a student into a person. There's no assessment, no assignments, no grades, but such is the school of hard knocks.


Why do I have the "required reviews completed" status on my submission in Elsevier?

To expand on Dirk's comment: The status you see means that the reviewers have submitted their reports to the online system, and the handling editor has received an email about this. Now she has to read the  comments (and likely look at your manuscript again to see if they comments are relevant), come to a decision, and write a corresponding letter to the author summarizing the comments and justifying the decision. This will in general not take more than an hour.

But you should keep in mind that yours is not the only manuscript (nor, in all likelihood, the only journal) the editor has to deal with. In addition, this is both the end of semester and conference season in many parts of the world, so it is reasonable to assume that the editor is just very busy with more urgent deadlines, or isn't even in office. (Remember, editors are unpaid, so this work is on top of the regular duties of teaching, advising and doing their own research.)
In some cases, the final decision even involves two editors (associate/managing editor and editor-in-chief/communicating editor), which doubles the chance of other things getting in the way.

In light of that, I would say two weeks is definitely too early to worry and start contacting the editor; give it at least a month.

(Although I know how stressful the wait at this stage of the publication process is...)


Remind professor of email a second time?

I would track down the professor in person, coordinating with the secretary if necessary. People get busy, and dragging out the email chain seems unproductive. If the student meets the professor in their office, this can probably be settled in 30 minutes. Assuming the professor tends to be very busy, I would email the secretary and ask when the professor has 30 minutes free for a short meeting.


My former PhD supervisor has published conclusions from my thesis without citing my thesis. Is this ok?

My former PhD supervisor has just published a paper on a scientific subject investigated by me in my thesis...The paper [takes] my hypothesis and explored it in more depth. Some of my studies have been repeated by other people in the lab. Moreover, some of the key conclusions made by me in my thesis have been made again. I have not been credited in any way.
Is this plagiarism and should I pursue this?

This is not plagiarism: As you have noted, the paper [takes your] hypothesis and explore[s] it in more depth (emphasis added), i.e., the paper goes beyond your results to provide something new. To determine whether plagiarism appears elsewhere probably requires more information than the OP has provided.

I have not been credited in any way.

A citation to your thesis or any of your other published works would be appropriate, perhaps even required, e.g., if the paper is entirely built upon your work.


Will an assistant professor take on new students at the end of their assistant professor “term” if they are unsure of whether they will get tenure?

The simple answer to your direct question is yes and no. Some will and some will not.

But the problem is probably less than it seems for a variety of reasons, not all of which apply in any given case. Some universities tenure people only rarely so most assume that they will be moving on. Some universities tenure most of their candidates, being especially careful when first hiring. In the first case, a professor probably won't want to hire and in the second, probably will.

Moreover, if you are denied tenure, you still have a year before you leave. If the decision is made in the 7th year, you leave at the end of the 8th, not immediately.

In addition, in places that make more individualized decisions, it is likely that the candidate has had quite a lot of advance notice that their application is in trouble. And the reasons for that imply that such a person isn't likely to be the first choice of students looking for a supervisor. Either they have evidenced poor teaching or inadequate research. So a person headed for the door isn't the one you are interested in supervising you in the first place. The person likely to be tenured is also more likely to be the one you would consider as a supervisor.

But, there are exceptions. Some people fail to earn tenure for purely economic reasons when interest in a field wanes as it periodically does in some fields. The person will need to leave, but with good prospects elsewhere through letters explaining why. But even in this situation, there are fairly clear warning signs that the person is leaving as the trends take a while to develop.


The first one is more common. Present tense can also be used to describe a fact or habit. As this notation will sustain inside the article, it's more natural to use present tense.

But I'd rather write this as:

  The meta-level equality is denoted as a ≙ b to avoid confusion with
  the object-level operator.

The original form creates a small visual loop looping back to the "former," removing such loop makes the reading smoother. Also, notation is implied to be done by the writers so mentioning "we write" can appear redundant.


Google Scholar: Citations appear on co-authors' accounts but not on mine

Since you mention in the comments that you edited the entry of the paper in your profile, what has probably happened is that Google Scholar now thinks that this is a separate paper, and does not link the citations from the original entry to the edited version. Unfortunately, this sometimes seems to happen when correcting certain fields in the entry created by Google Scholar.

A way to check and fix this would be to search for your paper under "Add articles", and checking if the same paper is listed there as not being in your profile. If so, you can add the original entry back to your profile and merge it with your updated entry. This should reintroduce the citation count, possibly with an asterisk next to it indicating that Google Scholar is not certain that both entries refer to the same paper.


Does paper acceptance mean an on-site talk is required?

Personally, I have only seen conferences which require every paper to be presented on-site. Most conferences explicitely state that paper will not be published in the online proceedings, if the authors do not present their paper. If this is not stated on the conference's website, please write to the committee.

However, I recommend you to find a different solution. Discussing a paper at a conference is a very important part of your scientific career since you get in contact with other researchers. If you encounter financial difficulties, you can write to the committee and ask politely for a waiver or reduction of the fee.


My manuscript status says that one referee sent a message but not a report

It means that they received some communication from the referee other than a report.  Different journals have different workflows for referees.  Some do not send the manuscript until a referee has agreed to referee the work.  Some let the referee see the manuscript and give a short-ish deadline for the referee to decide whether they can eventually send a report.  Some other journals (such as the journals of the American Physical Society), send the manuscript and ask for the referee to send them back a report, without ever asking for the confirmation that the referee can do the job.

I suspect the journal works using the second system.  This is significant, because the first response that the editor might receive from a referee may be the final report.  Or it might not be; the potential referee might write back to decline the assignment or to ask for more time.  So it is important to identify whether a response received from the referee is or is not a report--and that's what you are seeing.


I have 6 weeks to hand in my Thesis. Should I quit?

If your supervisor is looking at you and your work and says your health is more important, you should at least give that statement serious consideration. They are probably the only person who knows enough about both you and your work to be able to make a reasonable judgement (it really sounds like you are not in a good frame of mind to judge for yourself).

An alternative approach, at least for a couple of hours, would be to find out whether you can get an extension, given the impact this has had on your health.


If I abandon my PhD program, will it prevent me from continuing elsewhere?

From what I could glean from this story, one thing is clear: you are confusing yourself a lot and your thinking is quite muddled possibly because of a few adverse experiences. Think on these lines:

What is the 'new' area to which you want to move to? Do you really love the challenges it poses?

If yes, find some nice professors to work with, mail them asking about positions. Forget about your age, the number of years it will take and a host of other details: if you are passionate, the passion will carry you through the doctorate.
If no, ask yourself if you are passionate about the one you are working on. From what you have written you do not seem to be so. Even your publications seem to carry this 'ulterior' motive of getting a better grad school. If you do not love your PhD, then you should seriously consider moving to the industry.

You have publications under your name, so it is unlikely that a professor can "sabotage" your application and more unlikely that he will. Get over the bad experiences with your first professors soon! Don't call yourself a "quitter", instead admit you have been working on a few research problems but do not want to work on them for a doctorate.


How should I deal with discouragement looking at others success?

I will apologize in advance, because this answer won't give you what you are probably looking for; but it might give some perspective so I will reply anyways hoping that helps somewhat.

First off, know this: you are not alone! It's actually pretty common to look at your peers (at the office and elsewhere worldwide) and feel shitty about the "insignificance" of your accomplishments compared to those of others. To further strengthen the point, I can say that I am battling with this every single day for instance, despite what I hear from others about the quality or importance of my work when I look around and see what others achieve I feel depressed...

Secondly it's also good to try and remember that life isn't a competition. Well, some aspects of life are competitive, for sure, but you cannot go about living your day competing with others in every single aspect of your life. This is a simple but a very powerful insight, also very hard to digest it properly and take it to heart.

Think of all the aspects your life, from research to parking your car, from buying groceries to whatever sport you enjoy the most... I can guarantee you that there will be several (if not more) people within your immediate surrounding that will be "better" than you in each one and single aspect, if you isolate them one at a time. But I can also assure you that they won't be the same people if you consider different aspects. Overall, you are the person you are and constantly comparing yourself to others in single aspects (and focusing on your shortcomings) will only drive you towards unhappiness.

So does that mean you should just relax and go with the flow? Absolutely not! You have to play catch up, if you can identify your shortcomings in particular fields (like maths, or programming experience). It'll be frustration, it'll be long hours, it'll be effort... Try to focus on setting goals for yourself when you are in catch-up phase.

I strongly recommend checking out S.M.A.R.T goals concept which helps in getting things done and bagging that sweet feeling of accomplishment, little by little.

Hope this answer helps to some extent and it all works out in the end!


How can I ask why this European university booked me a 15-day trip for a 2-day exam?

This does seem strange; I'd be concerned about a mistake (though I'm not familiar with the European system). I'd send a concise note like this:

  I'm looking forward to this trip. Could I ask about the itinerary? In particular, can you confirm that my visit will require 15 days (31 March - 14 April), but the 2 exams will be only one day each? Thanks! --Nana


What is the purpose of international editions of books sometimes omitting some problems, footnotes, or other content?

In some cases, these international editions are sold at a fairly steep discount compared to their U.S. versions. This is intended to increase their accessibility to students in developing countries.

The intention behind omitting material that is in the "nice, but not essential" category, such as a particular problem etc. is to interfere with its utility in the U.S. and other "expensive" markets. Basically, it's to prevent the international versions from being marked up but still sold below the cost of the U.S. version.

As for the legality...the publisher owns the content. They can do pretty much whatever they please with it.


Double major in Physics and engineering for career safety

At least in Europe, and probably in the US too, physicists are highly considered in industry, the unemployment rate is almost a technical zero. Doing research is another different beast: there are not so many positions, and you have to fight for them. Also, Academia not a very lucrative career path: a first job for a physicist or an engineer in industry may grant them 3-4 times more than in grad school (depending on the conditions), and it continues onwards.

I see you are eager to study both degrees, which is commendable, knowledge never hurts. What you need to consider is the costs, both economical (can you afford the university?) and in effort (can you really do both degrees at the same time?). Both degrees are difficult, and will take a great emotional toll.

Some universities offer double degrees, where you end having both titles, and the subjects are (hopefully) sorted and arranged in the most convenient way for the student. For example, in Physics and Maths you need linear algebra; in a double degree you would only take the courses from Maths, as the ones in Physics are a subset. If the university does not have this arrangement, you may find yourself doing the same subjects twice, that may lead to added frustration.

Another cost are the grades: doing two things means you cannot do them both so well. Some admission put hard thresholds on the grades, and they may or may not consider your second degree as a sufficient merit to lower it. On the other hand, and provided the grades are not very damaged, almost any employer will see it as a great CV boost and will make it easier to get an industrial job.

As a last advice: if you go for it, be aware of your limits and ready to drop one of them if things get difficult before it brings you down. A degree and a half is a merit, two three-quarter degrees are two failures.


Should I put "PhD Candidate" in a book biography?

If you should describe yourself in one or two words (i. e. if the other authors write "professor" or similar), I would not write "PhD candidate" because this does in the view of many readers not sound very competent. Don't describe yourself as someone who hasn't finished something, but rather as someone competent. Write instead i. e. "Jan Gorzny, Gender Researcher".
If you should write a longer text about yourself, you can mention this. However, write then also about things you have already achieved (e. g. your masters).


Do US universities offer Graduate Paid Internship programs in CS/CSE?

Yes, US Universities do offer Graduate paid internship programs in CS/CSE.
It is called Curricular Practical Training/Optional Practical Training.
But each university is different in accepting your CPT/OPT.
You need to have a job offer in hand, check with the DSO of the university for the dates within which you need to apply for your CPT/OPT.
You need to be atleast 18 years i guess.

For more information you can look this up : http://www.ice.gov/sevis/practical-training/


Going back to academia after quitting my Ph.D. and taking a year off?

This could have been done within a period of 2-3 months but it became
  one year long because of my own recklessness.

I did not notice any "recklessness" in your post -- instead, it sounds like you have been very proactive in exploring for yourself what you want to do in life. Taking a year off may have been the best decision a year ago. Now you know more than you did then; don't fault yourself for what you did not know.

  I started working on my hobby i.e. Painting.
  I lost myself there and completely lost track of my time. I was really
  enjoying everything about this new venture.

Your enjoyment is important, too; not just your career. It sounds amazing to take a year off and work on a hobby. In fact, many career academics wish they could have done this when they were younger, because it is much harder to find time for such things the more work and research you get involved in. Remember that you did enjoy this, and enjoyment can be rare and valuable.

  But then, I lost my
  interest...It made me realize that what I actually
  love is to take the new challenges and work on myself. To be an artist
  was never a career option for me, all I wanted was to learn the
  skills.

Try to think of it as a positive realization, not a negative one. Many people spend a lot of time (decades even) before they realize they want to do something different. Learning about what you want to do helps you see the future more clearly.

  While counting my achievement in science, I realized that it was an irresponsible thing to take a gap in doing something that has nothing to do with science.

Why is it irresponsible? You may have given up your scholarship, but you learned a lot about yourself in the process. I am not sure you could have done this any other way.

  I want to go back to my world of
  research where I was accelerating exponentially.

You can do this. Don't give up on yourself and what you really want.

  But I feel embarrassed about my past mistake.

Why are you embarrassed? Was it truly a mistake if you learned a lot both about your hobby and about yourself?

  I come across as someone who is not sincere about her career.

You do not come across that way to me, at least. However, you do seem to be very upset and beat up on yourself.

  Now, what do I do? The past has gone and the vision of the present is crying for a better future. How do I make things better like before?

The first step is to understand that you have a lot to be proud of. You may not have the scholarship now, but you earned it before, and you are still the same person. You are highly capable and have spent a year progressing in a different hobby, which you are also capable in.

The second step is to get advice from academics who know you better about what is the best past forward to get back into good positions. It may be that you can simply apply again; I don't think taking a year off is necessarily a problem. Or it may be that it would be better to get some more experience first, such as applying for some industry experience, or getting a masters' degree.


Should I feel obligated to include my advisor as coauthor?

I am a mathematician, but I did co-author a paper published in a chemistry journal. The paper was co-authored by seven people from the lab where I worked at the time:  two mathematicians, two physicists, two chemists and an engineer (the lab director). I understood (and still understand) only the math part of the paper, I am sure that non-mathematicians, including the lab director, do not understand the math part. Nevertheless, certainly, there were no objections to including all seven people as co-authors.


How to quantify the loss in productivity due to time spent on writing proposals

I think the question is barking up the wrong tree, to mix metaphors.

As you proceed through the researcher lifecycle (Ph.D. student -> postdoc -> professor), your responsibilities will change. For instance, one popular criterion for paper authorship in psychology is that one should have contributed to two out of the following four aspects of research:

Grant acquisition
Data acquisition
Data analysis
Manuscript preparation

As a Ph.D. student, you will mainly work on 2-4. The postdoc will spend less time in the lab (point 2), more on 3-4... and he will also start working on grants (point 1). Finally, the professor will mainly focus on points 1 and 4, to a degree on 3. However, the bottom line is that all four activities are "doing research", since grants are just the way money is allocated to competing research groups nowadays. (Of course, one could argue that it would be better if funding were just distributed equally among researchers, but that seems to be a different question.)

Similarly, in industry you could wonder how much time, money and energy is spent on marketing, pre-sales and sales activities and how all these resources could be much better spent on R&D, production and actually serving customers. But this would miss the point that without salespeople, there would not be any customers, nor money to spend on all the things the non-salespeople like to do. (And frequently, the conversion rate on business proposals is similar to the 1% you quote.)

So: don't see writing grants as a drain on productivity. Writing (and getting) grants is how you get the money to do everything else in science.


Are political/ideological reasons for career moves acceptable in academia?

A political or ideological answer, albeit honest, is usually a missed opportunity to make a point about the move being a good academic fit.

Your goal as the candidate in this kind of exchange is not just to answer the questions accurately; it's to answer the questions accurately while also trying to convince the committee that you are the right person for the position. Virtually any question can be used to make a point about how excited you are about the institution you'd like to move to, how much you can contribute given your past experience, etc. A political answer doesn't usually help you "sell" yourself.

For example:

Why do you want to study at this university? "Because I'm really interested in the work Professor Twist is doing on basket weaving in extreme underwater conditions."
Why do you want to leave your current institution? "Because I am looking to gain expertise in the hot new field of basket weaving in extreme underwater conditions, and your faculty are the best in the world in that area, while my current institution  doesn't have anyone working in this field." Or "Because I am really interested in working with Professor Twist, I think that with my background in freshwater basket weaving I could contribute to her research in an exciting way."

So even a completely non-controversial political or ideological reason is not necessarily the best reason to use in answer to this kind of question.


Ethical factors to consider in case of a non-contributing co-author

The criteria to be a co-author depend on the field of research and on the journal, but usually at least some intellectual contribution to the paper is expected. Most journals have a list of requirements on their website.
Yes, you should talk to your supervisor: this will probably solve the problem.
No, unless the code he wrote gave you important insights (even if the code was not used afterwards). But also see the answer to (1).

There are three possible outcomes:

Your supervisor agrees to remove the co-author.

Your supervisor convinces you that the contribution of the co-author was enough to earn authorship.

Your supervisor wants to include the co-author for "political" reasons. This is wrong, but it happens quite a lot unfortunately. In this case it would probably be best to include the co-author anyway. It is wrong ethically, but if you and your co-authors did your best to prevent it that is on your supervisor and not on you: if you discussed it with him there is not much more you can do unless you want to risk the relationship with your advisor.


Can a conference listed as CORE 'A' have an acceptance rate of 60%?

Acceptance rate has some correlation to conference quality, but I think it's far from being the most meaningful metric, and it isn't very informative in isolation.

There can be top-tier conferences that have the same, or even higher, acceptance rate than second-tier conferences. The reason is that people know how demanding they are, so they don't even bother to submit papers that they know will be very likely rejected, while the second-tier conference might get more submissions as people have higher hopes of getting their papers accepted.

I personally think CORE is rather trustworthy (at least as far as rankings go), as in my particular subfield it's accurate. But this may depend on each subfield. If you want more evidence for the quality (or lack of) of that conference, this website aggregates three different conference rankings. And if you prefer something more quantitative, there are the Google Scholar h5-index rankings, although they should be taken with a grain of salt because this metric is very influenced by size (number of articles published per year).


Does the Portuguese higher education system follow Humboldt's model?

Yes, Portugal's basic education system does follow Humboldt's model. In university, it mostly depends on the institution you choose to study on. I don't know what kind of degree you're thinking about pursuing, but investigate the various universities that offer that degree and it's culture / philosophy.


You seem to be concerned that inclusion of experimental results will mean your dissertation isn't original. Yet, you could include such results whilst alleviating your concerns. For instance, you could present experimental results and explain that those results were carried out by your co-author. You could also include a fresh analysis of those results or (with attribution) regurgitate existing analysis. This approach ensures your dissertation is self-contained and surely provides the reader with a better understanding.


As a general rule, my PhD students need to do two things to get a PhD:

Publish 3-4 papers on a coherent topic, mostly in top-tier theoretical computer science conferences, including at least one paper without me as a co-author (and preferably at least one paper that was previously rejected).
Jump a bunch of administrative hurdles: don't screw up classes, don't screw up TAing, pass quals, gather a committee, propose a thesis, write a thesis, defend a thesis.

That's it.  In my experience, most PhD students do way more than this.

A couple of comments on the original question:

Very few students "finish" their thesis topic.  Equivalently: If a research question can be closed in just one or two papers, it's probably not a good thesis topic.  Good research opens as many new problems as it solves.
Reaching the point where further collaboration with a student is unproductive means the student-advisor relationship has failed.  Sometimes students really do exhaust their research potential, despite their advisors' efforts; in my experience, those students usually don't get PhDs.  (Most successful students reach "critical mass" long before they finish.)  More often, this happens because the advisor isn't giving the student enough appropriate guidance.


How to choose a recommender during graduate school applications?

Choosing recommenders doesn't exactly have clear-cut rules, so it's going to be impossible to give specific advice without detailed knowledge of your exact situation. That said, some guidelines that I found helpful:

Try to cover all your bases. I'd recommend having at least one professor with whom you worked with closely on a research project or something similar, and at least one professor who knows you well from class(es) in which you excelled. Remember that you generally have three recommendations to work with, so make sure all of them are useful.
In general, you want the best letters possible, regardless of rank or prestige. As long as they're faculty and actively do (or even did) research, go for your best letters. Again, this is where you can cover your bases a little with multiple letters, hopefully not all of your potential recommenders are brand-new faculty.
Don't be afraid to simply schedule a meeting or send an email and ask them for their thoughts. In my experience, most faculty are excited to see their students aspire to graduate school and are very willing to talk about it. You should at least be able to ask your potential recommenders if they can write a good recommendation.
If a recommendation letter doesn't add information to your application, then it probably isn't helpful. If a professor who taught you can pretty much just say the grade you got in the class, then it doesn't add anything over your transcript. Lots of applicants make this mistake, assuming that an A in one or two classes is enough to get a good letter. You can get great letters from professors who only taught you, but make sure that you actually gave them something to talk about in those classes.

I should also say that most people shouldn't have to worry too much about these considerations. It usually comes down to picking the best third letter writer or something. But if you find yourself trying to parse through many decisions in selecting letter writers, then you're probably overthinking it or reaching down too far. Ultimately, developing good potential recommenders is the hard part, and hopefully that has already happened.


Second PhD or postdoc and their effects on tenure track position

Nobody will care how many Ph.D. do you have when they consider you for a tenure track position. What will matter is number and quality of your papers/conference presentations after your PhD. If you want to change a field of your studies then it makes sense to do a second PhD. But if not, then it is a waste of time. It makes sense to delay your PhD defence rather than go for a second degree and use this time to focus on research.


Terminology for lecturing modes (for CV)

I am a teaching assistant in the US and I do this type of classes. They are called "review sessions", "recitations" or "discussions", depending on the department and the institution. Following professors'  advice, in my academic CV, in my "teaching experience" section, I list each class I have TAed for and I write a short sentence specifying if I only graded assignments or I also held review sessions or designed materials or something else.


Should I include volunteer work in my SOP and/or CV?

I would recommend against mentioning unrelated volunteer work in one's statement of purpose---after all, you have said that it is unrelated to the career that you are intending to pursue.  If it were directly linked, then of course it would be useful to mention it.

Likewise, there is no space for this type of work in any of the main sections of an academic CV: this isn't like applying to college, where you are encouraged to list a bunch of extracurricular activities to show your breadth and interesting personality.  Graduate admissions is instead more typically about showing that you have the mix of skills, drive, and focus necessary to succeed in you intended program.

It is often the case, however, that people will have some sort of "other significant experiences" section at the very end of their CV in which they put miscellaneous things that they think are important.  If you feel that your volunteer work is an important ingredient in understanding you as a potential professional, then this is the appropriate place to include a brief note.  It may help you if it catches the eye of somebody who finds it significant, and it is unlikely to hurt you.


Academic value of patents versus published papers

Patents and papers are not adversary in general. One can patent and then publish. And kill two birds with one stone. Both get public after independent examination. Each settles some ground, and both can be cited. Working on a useful patent is generally harder than on a useless paper. Both papers and patents can serve very different purposes.

I have been working in industrial research for 15 years. I have about the same number of patents and papers (altogether is compared to academia).

I have observed a shift in academia. It used to consider patents were useles. It now regards patents with a gentler look. The (bibliometric) value of a single patent can be estimated, on average, between half or twice the value of a single journal paper.

Whether your patent has generated money, been cited in other patents or papers, or proved a collaboration, those are figures you can claim as an innovative value.

Having no paper at all might be an issue though. It suggests that you have not passed peer review. For some, 7 patent + 1 paper is better than 8 patents.

If you can  convert part of your patents into papers, at least once, that could be a plus.


Why might a journal editor reject a submission, but suggest submission to a sister journal?

That's pretty common, a lot of journals offer to move your submission to other journals of the same publishers.

Why do they do it? Well, if they think that publication is worth anything (will get cited...) they can indirectly make money with that, so the publisher wants to have it.

Now why wouldn't they just accept it then?
There are two reasons. One would be it's not good enough for that journal but it's good enough for another, which doesn't seem to be the case here. The second one would be that it doesn't fit into that journal for whatever reason (likely here). In both cases they will offer you the possibility of that other journal.

For Wiley an example would be Angewandte Chemie and Chemistry - A European Journal. The latter is somehow a collecting tank for rejected publications in Angewandte Chemie and it's also the journal for Full Papers, as Angewandte Chemie does only accept Communications. (And well, all the editors there are in a certain field of chemistry, so nowadays submissions which were in scope some years ago now get rejected with "not in scope"...)


Describing speculative challenges for a new method in a paper

What about potential limitations?

I guess that you have at least some intuition or some loose arguments as to why you suspect that the things you are going to describe are indeed (possible) limitations. If not, you should not list them. If yes, add these to the section. Also you could discuss, what would be needed to overcome the limitations.


How can I collect information about the study plan of a graduate program?

The best option is to e-mail the school you are going, and ask for a copy of degree audit checklist or degree requirement checklist, which usually list the required and elective courses you'll need to complete for a certain degree.

You may also ask for a course schedule and an academic calendar of the recent academic year and get an idea on which semester/trimester and time slots were those courses made available. And in the calendar you can get a gist of when is the start and end of the semesters/trimesters, last date for adding/dropping courses, etc.

Lastly, some schools may include the degree requirement information in their student handbook. It wouldn't hurt to ask or search for a PDF copy of the handbook as well. You should also find details on cross registration to other institutes. Also be careful that universities tend to have a handbook for the whole study body, and then the smaller departments within them may also have their own smaller handbooks. Make sure to get all the copies that are related to your degree.

These terms should give you a good start. But do bear in mind that by the time you start to study, some of the information may be updated in the new academic year. So, you may plan, but be ready to be flexible.

As for if you can work with one or more professor on research. The answer would depend on many things: some students got assistantship to help the professors, some work as if the professors hire them, some work for academic credit (as a directed study.) There are too many variations that I doubt you will find a single document telling you everything. This question is probably best asked on the orientation day once you arrived there.

As for digging into their site, try to use some suffix in Google to enhance your results. For instance, try to search for degree requirement checklist site:MyInstitute.edu to confine the results from the domain of www.MyInstitue.edu. You can also modify it into degree requirement checklist site:MyInstitute.edu filetype:pdf to search for only PDF documents.

Good luck with the planning.


Do I cite the article or the article's sources?

Cite the article(s) you use. If you need to talk about that article in terms of earlier ones, cite those.

An example. Suppose the article you are analyzing is "Smith". Then you cite Smith. But if you have to say somewhere that, for example "Smith was led to this conclusion from ... 'Jones'", where "Jones is in Smith's bibliography, then also cite Jones.

Otherwise you are sort of led to citing a chain of publications back to the foundations of the field. Very few papers require that sort of thing and they are very specialized.


Moving from Switzerland to Germany during my PhD, how do they count working experience I already have?

You will have to ask the administration, or ask your advisor to ask the administration. Unless you transfer within Germany, this is decided on a per-case basis. But in principle, if you have equivalent experience to the current position (which you do), this should be feasible. However, as also pointed out in the comments, you will only get the corresponding level, but with all likelihood you won't get the runtime within the level counted. It might help if you add how much time you spent on your PhD in Switzerland at the point at which you will move.


Start-up based on PhD: inside or outside the university?

First things first, you need to find out whether you even have the option to do it independently of the university.  Since you have done your work at the university, the university likely owns at least part or possibly all of the rights to commercialization of your work.

Most universities have somethings like a "Technology Transfer Office" whose goal is to help turn university research into startups and/or licenses to existing companies.  These folks are often quite happy to work with you to help clarify the intellectual property situation and to help make connections that can support you in building a spin-out.


possibility of transfer from a fixed-term Lecturer to a continuing appointment

I suspect what it means is that if there is a position available you will be welcome to apply for it but you may not get it.

You are certainly entitled to ask the head of school for clarification.


Do any schools offer teaching or research assistantships via distance education?

Graduate study is learning to do research, by working with your advisor and a research group, mostly hand in hand. A small part of that you'll be able to do remotely, but a minority in any case.

Perhaps you can find a job as a TA for some of the online courses, but if I was to select somebody to assist me in this, I'd select somebody I know personally (and even have at hand for coordination or to pull their ears if something goes awry).


How do you tactfully inquire why a person wants your reprint?

To the requester, you could say something like:

  For my records, may I ask why you are requesting a reprint?

 Though, I think a good follow-up question to ask here would be "how do I tactfully tell my boss to field these reprint requests for themselves?" :^)


Are PhD Students and PhD Researchers the same thing?

I don't see the point in your distinctions in either bullet. Some students get a salary, some do not. Neither of these is determinative of whether a student is a researcher. Not every PhD student did a Master's degree before the began their PhD studies. I certainly did not.

Why do you care if PhD students (who I agree do "research") are "researchers" or not? Of course they are researchers because I think that anyone who does research is a researcher (paid, student, or otherwise). Are you looking to validate your ego, to overcome an officious rule that says that only "researchers" may do some thing or other, or are you looking for something else? Except in a few places, titles matter little. If titles matter where you are, then find the law or bureaucratic codes that define "researcher" and follow them. If you don't like the answer you find, you can either live with that, find a workaround, or fight (presumably through a legislative body if that place has one) for change. You haven't given us enough detail about why you care for us to helpfully answer your question.


How much does it cost to make a MOOC universally accessible, as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990?

The question asks for studies or research, and I don't know of any, but I do have some first-hand experience.

Meeting the Section 508* requirements for Web pages used in such a course is effectively without cost if one starts out to make such pages accessible.  Retrofitting might cost as much as the original project, but the cost should be near zero for modern MOOCs.

Closed (or open) captions are very expensive.  Unless done at a foreign sweatshop, cost is $5.00 to $15.00 per minute, so something like $12,000 as a minimum, up over $35,000, for a one-semester course.  In other words, the captioning can cost more than the professor.  That's at least part of why some institutions employ ASL interpreters for class sections with deaf students.

Edited to add: I worry about the quality of the content for captions of university-level courses produced offshore at cheap rates, but have no personal experience.  I have experimented extensively with captioning through voice recognition for my own courses.  It's getting much better, but still requires extensive manual editing.  The $5-15 number given above could be reduced by using student labor, especially if the students are majors in the material being subtitled.

Captioning addresses the needs of the deaf.  Making course materials available to the blind means being sure that everything that is shown is also described, either by the speaker who is presenting or in a manner that can be rendered through text-to-speech.  The latter means being sure that there are good "alt" descriptions of images and that appropriate markup, e.g. MathML, is used for things like equations.  In my own discipline, computing, that isn't onerous, and the costs sort-of disappear in the weeds of getting the course done.  Things might be very different in a discipline like the visual arts.

*Section 508 is part of the Rehabilitation Act, not the ADA, but you still have to do it.


Should we put the references in slides/poster when we already have them in paper?

My rule for presentations is:

  Don't say anything that an interested member of the audience will not be able to remember.

This includes tables, but also bibliographic references to things that are not absolutely central to the presentation. There is a caveat: if the conference is recorded or the slides are available offline, you could write them in a non intrusive way (but not mention them during the talk).

Posters are different, as an interested reader may spend a longer time reading it. But then, the rule becomes:

  Don't include anything that an interested reader will not be able to remember, or won't bother to write down.

This trims away "previous work" (except, perhaps, a single very good review) or citations for the exact value of a certain constant you used; but you should include things that are indeed central.

And of course, by all means, you should include the reference to your own paper, so it is easy to find.


will a part time job to make extra money effect my MBA application?

It shouldn't, but who knows. If your employer is a corporation, you could probably list them as your employer and that you are part time while you study. Say that the company is a steakhouse. I doubt that they expect more than that.

But, it is a good thing that you want to concentrate on studying up in preparation for the MBA, so stress that more than the specific job description.

Some would just ignore it. Some would get a chuckle. Others ..., well, there are lots of sorts of people in the world.

Just make your application show the strength of your background and the likelihood of future success. That is what they will be looking for.


What is the equivalent of an Australian or New Zealand honours thesis in British universities?

in England, honours is granted after three years without a mandatory thesis or essay component. Scotland is more similar to Australia but not identical.

Even in Australia, the requirement for an honours thesis varies. I don't see why you can't be explicit. Explain that honours is an optional fourth year similar to a one-year English masters and detail what fraction of the year was spent on the thesis. If your students' theses were publishable, get them published and say they led to publications.


Is it considered misconduct to omit a university that you were enrolled in, but didn't attend any classes at, on graduate application?

Whether someone has performed "academic misconduct" is something that a specific body of people must decide upon using both general principles of academic ethics and the specific rules of the academic body in question. It depends at least a bit on who is doing the considering.  So it seems better to think in terms of whether certain actions could reasonably or likely be construed as academic misconduct by certain parties.

When it comes to graduate admission, the relevant academic parties are the admissions committee and the authorities (faculty, administration...) of the institution.  It depends a bit on what the application asks for.  If you are asked to supply all college/university level transcripts (a common request) and intentionally omit some, then certainly you are behaving dishonestly in the usual sense.  Whether the dishonesty will be construed as academic misconduct if discovered is up to the relevant academic parties to decide, but: yes, there is a real risk of that happening.

You make it sound like "somebody" got a bit of a raw deal by getting failing grades for classes that were never attended whatsoever.  If somebody never showed up at all, then it seems like there is a good case that the enrollment was some kind of misunderstanding and that grades should not have been given.  Somebody should seek to fix that with the institution that issued the failing transcript.  It will probably be at least a certain amount of fuss -- e.g. contacting every instructor to get them to confirm that the student was a pure no-show.  If somebody's best efforts do not suffice to resolve the question, the ethical thing to do -- and the path which nullifies any claims of academic misconduct -- is to include the transcript together with an explanation of what happened, possibly along with parties to contact for additional corroboration.


Do goofs in a recommendation letter hurt a student applying for grad school?

I've occasionally seen letters with incorrect graduate program names, and it's not something I'd worry about.  It's never bothered me, and while I've seen other committee members point it out, I've never gotten the impression that they particularly cared.  (They've pointed it out in the spirit of "Oops, someone messed up" rather than "Here's a negative factor we should keep in mind.")

There are two cases in which it could be harmful:

If you name a substantially lower-ranked program, then the reader might wonder whether this low ranking influenced your recommendation.  (Maybe you have several variants of the letter, and send more enthusiastic variants to lower-ranked programs.)
If you include any comments about how suitable this specific program is for the applicant, then of course these comments will become worthless if you name the wrong school.  However, most letters for applicants to graduate school don't include such comments, and even when they do it's rarely a crucial part of the letter.  (It's particularly awkward if you send Harvard a letter talking about what a perfect fit Yale would be and how you have encouraged the applicant to go there if accepted.)

You mention the possibility of hurting the applicant by revealing where else they have applied.  Theoretically, this could look weird or problematic if they've made eccentric choices about where to apply.  (If a top program knows they're also applying to a much lower-ranked program, then the committee might take it as an admission of weakness or an indication that the applicant has a strong personal reason to go elsewhere.)  However, I wouldn't worry about it in practice.  It's expected that everyone will apply to a range of schools, and I don't recall ever having seen a case I thought would really worry admissions committees.


Non-profit organization, IRB Approval, and publishing?

Most reputable journals in fields that involve human subjects research require that authors state (often in the article itself) that the study received approval from an IRB or the national equivalent in some other country.

As researchers that aren't affiliated with an organization that has its own IRB, you're in a bit of a bind.  There are independent Review Boards that can be contracted to provide oversight of research conducted outside of a normal institutional setting.  These are used for example in some drug company sponsored clinical trials.  You would have to contract with such an IRB to have your project reviewed and supervised.


Is it appropriate to guess page numbers of a book from its translated version?

Regarding your original question, if you have access to a Russian translation and you want to cite the English translation, but you do not have access to the English translation, then you really need to focus on citing what you have access to.

Now, I understand it turns out you do have access to the English version as stated in your answer but for future reference, you should not cite a version of a text you do not have acces to. The reasons are more than simply that you don't know the page numbers. It is possible that there is a problem in the Russian translation but the English version does not have that problem. Likewise the opposite could be true. Basically, the two versions could be slightly but meaningfully different. Because of this possibility, you should only cite what you have access to. Otherwise, cite through a third-party "Jones wrote in 2001 (cited in Simpson, 2005)."


What should a student do immedately after he or she is accepted into a graduate program

I have three utterly contradictory pieces of advice:

The first year of graduate school will be a much more intense version of the coursework that you took as an undergraduate. In particular, the basic core courses often sink many first year students. For example, in some disciplines you may be asked to read over 1000 pages a week during that first semester, while in others you might be asked to do significantly more complex problem sets or labs than you've ever encountered previously.  If you can, I'd obtain copies of the syllabi for the required first year classes and start reading as much of the material as you can. The more breathing space you can give yourself that first semester the better. Build up your scholarly reserve.
Graduate school is a very long haul. Burnout is a very real possibility. Because you don't have a gap year, you should use your summer to expand your mind a bit. Go for a month or so of walkabout in Europe or Australia. Take what will be your last extended vacation for a little while. Build up your emotional/psychological reserves.
Unless you're in a well-funded program, you may well be destitute -- especially before you pick up a TA/RA position. Even with funding, you may only make $15-25,000 a year, which can be very hard to live on. You might want to build up your savings heading into grad school so that you don't have to take out too many loans or spend too many cold nights eating ramen noodles. Build up your financial reserves.


Do you include papers that you contributed to but weren't cited as an author in on your CV?

I had a similar situation, there were a few papers I assisted with as an undergraduate where I was listed in the acknowledgements but wasn't listed as an author. Generally, people don't list those on their CV, simply because it will look odd... you'll get a lot of people asking, "why are you listing this if your name isn't on it?"

That said, since it's your CV, you can list anything you want with the proper commentary. You may consider listing it as:

  <Citation goes here>

  Note: I am listed in the acknowledgements section for this paper, as I assisted extensively with data preparation and analysis.

Do realize that the fact that your name isn't on the paper will significantly decrease it's value in your promoting yourself. The more I think about it, it's probably a bad idea to list it... I would recommend just listing the work you did in the appropriate section on your CV and leave the paper out.


Do I have to Cite an Image I have edited?

Of course, should you cite the original sources (just use the golden rule: think how you would like to be treated if you were the author of the original source). You may say something like

 adapted from < Figure X of original source >

However, as indicated in the comments, you should make sure that you have the right to do so. Note that sometimes it is possible to "read" the data values from an image and create your own image from those (but you still need to quote the source of the data).


Appeal on overpunishment for exceeding word count was denied – how to proceed?

Accept it and move on.  Consider:

You had a clear rule for the word count
You violated that rule
You appealed and were denied

And that's it.  Engaging in other extreme forms of behavior, such as trying to involve a lawyer (!), will surely sour the attitude of everyone involved toward you.

To address one point specifically, when you didn't hear back from the professor about word count rules, you should probably have defaulted to following the rules to the letter.  I personally try to always respond to the emails I get, but I admit I vastly deprioritize emails that are asking me things with clear answers already available - such as a word count limit.


Is this a common honors-designation system?

The "College Honors" is definitely not a common distinction. I would also list the Departmental Honors, which is certainly something that is frequently encountered, as well as the Interdisciplinary Honors. You're truthfully representing your credentials, and it will be easier to understand.


Are online bachelor's degrees offered on Coursera the exact same as offline degrees?

It may not be exactly the same syllabus and teaching material as a conventional degree, but it is a valid, accredited UK degree offered by the University of London (founded by Royal Charter in 1836). The University and its member institutions have over 50,000 students studying by distance learning, in 190 countries.

Note that 50% of the assessment is by exam at one of their approved centres worldwide.

Whether it will be viewed as equivalent to a degree taught by attendance depends on the employer. Some employers will add some value to a degree studied part-time by distance learning, others will prefer to see physical attendance.


Relax. Journal deadlines are not strict (unless they are for special issues with a set publication date). They're more intended to help keep the journal organized. Chances are you can go weeks past the deadline and nothing will happen, although if you wait months, your submission might be removed as dormant.

If you're still concerned, ask for a deadline extension. It's likely the journal will grant it.


Unsatisfactory grades for unsatisfactory reasons

This is a supplement to aeismail's and JeffE's excellent answers.

I understand it may be hard to drop the class or move to another class for some reasons. For your best interests, it's better to follow the instructor for now.

  The professor is incompetent to the extent that he does not understand proofs written by an undergrad.

I have a suggestion for you. Sign in to our sister site Math SE. Present your proofs. See what people think. After you verify your proofs, you'll know your professor is incompetent or not.

If your professor is indeed incompetent, you should seriously consider dropping the class. You don't want to waste your precious time. However, if it turns out that you do have serious flaws in your proof, I would listen to my professor if I were you.


Do mathematics researchers regularly solve problems like the ones from Project Euler?

This may be a better question for Math.SE.  That said...

These sorts of problems fall in the category of contest math.  Sometimes they are related to active areas of mathematical research (most often number theory, combinatorics, and geometry), but more often, current research deals with problems that are considerably more complex and can't be solved (or even stated) in a page or two.

Note also that, at least in the US, there are very few people who get paid to do mathematics research full-time and exclusively.  Most professional mathematics researchers are professors at colleges and universities, and their duties also include teaching and administration (to varying degrees).

There is a recognized subculture of mathematicians interested in contest math.  They may get involved in creating problems, organizing contests, and coaching students.  At some universities, such activities may be considered a significant part of their research or "scholarship" duties, but they would normally be teaching regular math classes as well.

Edit: Actually, there is a category of careers I had forgotten: intelligence. The NSA and its counterparts (GCHQ, etc) employ many thousands of mathematicians. Of course, it's hard for an outsider to know what goes on there, but it could be that their activities have more of a problem-solving flavor. At least they are not bound by the requirement that their work be publishable! The NSA has a well-known (and highly competitive) summer internship program for undergrads, the Director's Summer Program, so that could be one way of testing those waters relatively early on.


What are the typical research requirements for an application to lecturer position to be successful?

The skills to teach are more important than a list of papers...

Having had to suffer "good" researchers who proved to be poor at explaining things, then the focus should be on the lecturing ...


Should I mention in my statement of purpose that I did not attend lectures in my last two years of undergrad?

I'd shorten and tone it down if I were you. Being a researcher involves a lot of sitting in other people's talks, so we all know that lectures are boring. But we still do it, because those are an excellent chance to socialize. We might just pack a paper to read in case it gets too boring. So your statement makes you look a bit like a loner. And being able to study something without being present in a lecture is a skill I'd assume anyone with a degree has. I don't think anyone ever finished a degree where all lecturers are perfect explainers and there is no need to study something on your own at some point.
So while I would not necessarily view your explanation negatively, I also don't see it as helping you much. So while you should explain your bad initial grades, I'd keep it short and simple. Something like "Coming from a non-academic family background I struggled initially, but then I changed my approach to studying" without going too much into detail.
Finally I think there is also a bit of an "I am very different"-undertone in what you write. It makes you seem aloof and possibly difficult to work with. This is again minor, but in direct comparison with a similar candidate it could tip the scales against you.


Shrink the paper or pay for extra page charges?

You already have the answer from your advisor. He is the one who knows the circumstances and can make the call if he want to.
You can ask, but be careful how you do it. Remember, if he wanted to do it, he would have done it already instead of asking you to cut the paper.
Yes, if its close enough, and he feels that grant has been supporting his activities...


Hiring academics for very large industrial consulting projects - how to find an arrangement without full-time employees?

Professors at all levels of seniority and accomplishment are very busy.

They have courses to teach, institutional committee service, and their own research programs.  Neglecting any of these for any length of time can have a permanent impact on their career.  Professors who are less accomplished or have fewer duties in one of these areas will typically have more in the others.

Even a professor who is very motivated to work on your project may only have a few hours per week to devote to it.  One day per week would probably be a maximum.  Teaching schedules are often inflexible, so it may be particularly hard for them to visit your site, especially if it is far away from their home.

Senior people (tenured full professors) may be more likely to be able to make time for your project, but they also have lots of other interests.

One thought: you might consider approaching an expert who has recently retired.  They should have the time available, and may be interested in your project as a way to continue their work in the field and earn some extra income.  But they also may not be interested in working a lot of hours per week, and they may demand a fairly high hourly rate (as they're probably not in desperate need of money).

Keep in mind, also, that research by its nature is very hard to predict.  It may be difficult or impossible for your consultant to accurately estimate how much time they will need to solve your problem, unless it is so straightforward that they can solve it almost at once.

As far as fresh PhDs, note that a new PhD has just spent several years working long hours for low wages.  It may be hard to entice them with an offer of unstable, part-time work, unless you can offer some other perks like stock options or an unusually enjoyable work environment; startups are a dime a dozen.  Of course, a lot will depend on the overall strength of the job market in your industry.

Your third option ("research arrangement") doesn't strike me as particularly feasible.  A major reason for being in academia is the ability to choose the direction of one's own work.  I don't think you'll find many professors amenable to being told how to direct their personal research program.  They not only have to publish papers, they have to publish good papers which are novel, interesting to the research community, and spur further work in the area.  If your project doesn't lend itself to that, in the professor's view, then the right to write papers about it is useless to their career and won't be seen as a benefit.  Moreover, if they're going to work on your project as part of their own research, which is on their institution's time, then you can expect the institution to get involved in any IP issues, and they often have lots of lawyers.  Not to mention outside funding agencies.


Mentioning Products of Companies in Technical Paper?

No need to mention the trademarks in a technical paper, although you could certainly cite their website if it talks about the product.

I generally cite anything that I think the reader could get more information about that is pertinent to the topic.  That said, a paper isn't a web page, and you shouldn't litter it with gratuitous cites.


Can I submit a paper years after finishing my graduate studies?

Two years is a totally plausible length of time before submitting a paper.  You'll need to update your related work section, but if the work is still novel and interesting and hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed venue, it's entirely reasonable to do so.

You will need to deal with your supervisor, however, as they most likely should be a co-author on the strength of their contributions to shaping the research project.  In general, submitting a paper requires the consent of all of the co-authors, and your supervisor will need to either consent or take their name off of the paper.  Most likely, however, they are correct that it needs more work, and you'll need to figure out either how to get the feedback that you need, from them or from somebody else.

Finally, involvement of your supervisor could be a very good thing in case more work is needed, as they may be able to restore access to resources or bring in an extra author who can help, if your work simply cannot be done on commercial cloud resources.  If it can be done with cloud resources, of course, you may be able to do it yourself.


Is it appropriate to put master's and bachelor's theses into ORCID web page as dissertations?

Yes, this is certainly appropriate and acceptable - but probably good to make clear the level of the document to avoid confusion. (I have my MSc thesis linked from my ORCID.)

The Wikipedia article on "thesis" gives a good overview of the difference in terminology - in short, "thesis" or "dissertation" can mean either an undergraduate work or a doctoral work, depending on the context and the location, and there is no single cast-iron rule. I wouldn't read too much into ORCID's choice of terms...


Permissible gap between sub-topics of a PhD thesis?

Ask your advisor. In most places, they de facto alone decide whether or not a thesis satisfies the program' requirements.
Even if, in your place, they don't, the can give your valuable information as it is their job to advise you.


Can I ask for recommendation from a person that I am working with?

I know this question was asked a while ago, but I found it while searching and can't believe it wasn't answered.

  My mentor and I helped his team to analyze their data in that time and the project is still going on and sometimes, if his team needs, I work on their project which is not paid.

It sounds like you helped in research and also have a personal relationship with him. Of course this is exactly the kind of person who can probably write a great recommendation letter or give a great reference, especially if he liked your work. Even if he isn't in exactly the same field as you, he can probably write a very specific recommendation letter pertaining to research you helped perform.


US PhD to Developing Country Professorship

While I'm not aware of specific programs for international professorship opportunities (other than direct ads in regard to open positions), I compiled the following list of international-focused research and teaching programs, which might very well be what you're looking for. Keep in mind that the list below is not exhaustive, as there are various other programs (especially field-specific, i.e., biomedical, complex biological systems, social sciences, etc.), but IMHO contains the most well-known and/or important programs on the topic. Hope this helps.

The Fullbright U.S. Scholar Program - also see potentially relevant information on the related website of Institute of International Education;
NSF International Research Fellowship Program - the program no longer receives proposals, see next program instead;
International Postdoctoral Research Fellowships - the information specifies individual NSF programs that allow international component.


Should I respond to emails (resembling spams) asking for my papers?

I don't even think this is for harvesting papers. My guess: it is to validate email addresses so that actual spam campaigns can achieve a better return on investment.


How can my students learn to value the rules of academia?

The points you list are key, and a good starting point. I am not sure you need to add to that list but rather expand on the points to set them in a wider perspective.

There are several misconceptions that needs discussing. There is the idea that academic (scientific) writing is complicated and uses difficult language. Well, it does not have to be, and really should not be. With the huge onslaught of information, we must all learn how to express ourselves concisely and clearly. This is an art that requires training, not only in science but also in writing. Regardless of which sort of work we have, assuming communication is part of it, we need to be able to get our points across. Hence it is key to impress on students the importance of learning to write well. So point at the goals: being able to present information in a way that it can be understood by the intended recipients. You then need to be able to take complicated issues and express them clearly and in language that can be understood. Understanding terminology and concepts is the basis for being able to explain them and making necessary simplifications. Badly written reports will not serve the author, the company (equivalent) the author works for, or the recipients who need the information. I therefore think it is important to make these wider perspectives clear to students.

Companies usually have very strict rules for how reports should be written and formatted. Getting used to following such instructions may seem like a limitation, but understanding the necessity is a good preparation for the work place. With commercial reports come legal aspects that puts much restriction on how to express oneself. Learning about such rules and restrictions is therefore a key to become a successful contributor in the future, inside and outside of academia.

The fact that most (if not all) employers look for people who are good at presenting information, written as well as in speech should be emphasized (often included in social skills). These skills require much training and a solid foundation to build on. Courses in scientific writing and presentation as well as term papers and other reports (including a final thesis) are all parts of this education.

So, in the end, I am totally convinced that skills such as these will make a difference when applying for jobs. We just need to point out the fact. Getting feedback from employers about the necessity for these skills to share with the students is very valuable. Some students have better basic skills than others but none are good at writing concisely and clearly without the training we can provide. It is also important to make students understand that in the longer term they will have to develop their own skills, not just take whatever is served and think it is enough. It is a life-long learning experience which requires solid a foundation. and that is what we can offer.


Ways to get free and legal access to research papers as a researcher

I always use the following methods to get many inaccessible papers.

Open Google Scholar.
Search the title of the paper.
Click see all versions (you can see many places where the same paper is available)
Check one by one whether they are downloadable

Another method, I always use when I really need an inaccessible paper, is just to write an e-mail to the corresponding author to send that paper. My experience is that I have always received the paper in a return email.


Switching from Computer Science to Historical Linguistics for Master's degree

If this is in the US where the undergraduate degree is very generalized then you might be able to go directly to a graduate program in linguistics. You should at least explore that by either visiting a university with the desired program or applying. Of course, your application will need to stress the things that make you suitable for a switch and good reasons to expect success, but everyone needs to do the latter.

But repeating a US undergraduate degree would also mean repeating a lot of things that you already know because of the long list of requirements. Much of what you already studied in the humanities as part of a CS degree are exactly the same as if you'd studied linguistics from the start. You are missing a few key courses, obviously, but a master's degree, which is more specialized would probably let you fill in any blanks.

For places with a very different educational structure, like UK with its more specialized undergraduate program, this path might be less feasible, but might be possible even there. But you won't know that until you actually explore it directly.

However, being successful in any undergraduate degree gives you two vital skills that become more important as you go along. The first is the ability to learn and to demonstrate that you can. The second is the ability to write and to otherwise express your thoughts. Those are both strong indicators of future success in any field.


Can too many credits force you to graduate early?

Yes, this is a potential concern, particularly with regard to financial aid.

US financial aid sources are commonly restricted to be used only for education that is leading toward a particular degree.  You can't take random courses indefinitely and expect the government to keep paying for it.

My institution's financial policy has the following clause:

  Only course work that is required for my degree will count towards my enrollment status. Once I complete the requirements for a single degree, even if I haven't applied for graduation, I am no longer eligible for aid for that program. The fact that I might be getting a dual degree and haven’t completed the requirements for the second degree doesn't change this.

Sometimes this can be "gamed" by completing the actual degree requirements very slowly while taking lots of other courses in the meantime; but there are likely to be limits in place.

You should discuss your plan of study carefully with both an academic advisor and a financial aid officer at the university you plan to attend.  (The academic advisor might not be an expert on financial aid details, and vice versa, so it is important to consult both.)


Is it necessary to show what improvements you have made to similar work in literature reviews section?

Contrasting your work with earlier work on the same topic (same or related questions) is a crucial part of a scientific publication. You have to explain to the reader what makes your approach better (or worse) depending on the exact problem to solve.

Now, whether you should do this in the section devoted to review of the existing literature is debatable. There are no strict rules, so as long as you do it somewhere and the paper is clearly readable, just do what seems best to you. If you have trouble writing, I would suggest you separate the content into a simpler form:

State of the art: review of the existing literature. What problems are solved, what are remaining questions, where can we make progress. This is the motivation of your work.
Your methodology
Your results
Discussion of how these results compare to earlier work: you're doing better than A and B on large matrices, but the approach means that you will be slower than C on sparse matrices, that sort of stuff.


How to find out the corresponding author of a paper?

I tried to take a look at the metadata.
My first attempt was at CrossRef (http://api.crossref.org/works/10.1137/19M1242859). There, in the author field, it seems that I. K. is the "first" author, while the two others are "additional" authors. However, "first" does not have to mean "corresponding", of course.

My second attempt was to download the metadata at Web of Science (full record, tab-limited file). There I found under the column RP (i.e. "Reprint Address") the information:

Kogan, IA (corresponding author), North Carolina State Univ, Dept Math, Raleigh, NC 27695 USA.


Should I go for a PhD topic on which I have poor coursework grades?

First, recall that there is nothing about doctoral (or other) level research that suggests all of the necessary ideas are covered by coursework. For those like yourself and others, people need to be able to learn what is necessary to reach the research "edge" and cross it.
You may have a harder time than some, or not, depending on the sorts of things you wind up doing. But don't hesitate because the job looks hard. It would anyway. My guess is that you will be fine. If your advisor believes in you, relax.


Can I describe in my own word few experiments from some academic papers to write a popular science book?

In general, copyright protects words, sounds, images, and similar artifacts.  Copyright does not, however, protect ideas or knowledge.  The use of ideas and knowledge can be protected by a patent.  No intellectual property right, however, can be used to prevent a person from describing a published piece of information in their own words.

In your case, it sounds as though you are taking what you have learned by reading about this scientific work and presenting it with your own original words and images.  As such, I think that you have nothing to fear, as long as you are certain to give appropriate references and credit to the original authors whose work you are describing.  In a popular science publication, such citations might be more informal than in a peer-reviewed scientific paper, but as long as they are clear to the reader, what you describe doing appears to be entirely ethical and appropriate.


How much duplication is permissible in letters of recommendation?

While our university occasionally submits statements of purpose, research statements, and writing samples through plagiarism detectors (and gives the admissions committee the results), I have never seen this done to letters of recommendation.

There are just very limited ways of saying nice things about students. I use the same variation of an opening for all my letters, with only minor changes in intensity (I am very/slightly/marginally pleased to write this letter of recommendation) and close with the same sentence on all of them.

I wouldn't worry.

Addendum given the changes to the the original question: I don't know if people have seen the output of plagiarism detectors but they don't provide  a simple YES/NO answer. Instead, they provide a statistical quantification of how much unquoted text might be drawn from other sources (e.g., 3-5% of the text appears duplicative). Each report is several pages long with parts of the student text highlighted and possible prior sources highlighted.

The reports are quite "noisy" with many false positives -- notably in one case that I remember, highlighting text in the bibliography because the citations matched citations in other bibliographies. [facepalm]

Running LORs through plagiarism detectors would serve no useful evaluative purpose in terms of how the admissions committee views the candidate.


Is there any special field in political science to study security issues?

Yes, there are several International Security Studies MA programmes in Germany and in the UK. Examples from Germany include a Master in Peace and Security Studies at the University Hamburg and a Master in International Security Studies at the Universität der Bundeswehr in Munich.

In general, a EU citizen can study in other EU countries. Visa and admission criteria for non-EU citizens vary.


Should you discuss childhood economic hardships in SOP?

To begin with, I think it is silly that application processes even ask about these things, but that seems to be the way of the world now.  If the guidelines recommend that you discuss your economic background (in the case where it is seen as a desirable "diversity" requirement) you could do this in a fairly short and sweet manner, which communicates the basic situation, without becoming too emotive.  I think this is likely to be the best way to do it, and it also jibes nicely with your desire to avoid dredging up issues that are upsetting to you.
I would think it would be sufficient to give a one or two sentence explanation similar to what you have already given in this post; i.e., that you lived in country X and lived below the poverty line during years Y-Z, but your family has since become better off.  This will give the desired context you want, without having to delve into deeply personal territory.  If it were me, I would even preface this by noting that the guidelines ask for this information, and then giving the basic information you have given here.  You could then follow this up with some simple aspirational statement --- e.g., that you would like to build a successful career to ensure that your own children do not have to endure the financial hardships you experienced growing up.
I don't think you need to worry too much about this, since your own desire dovetails nicely with what will work well anyway.  Most academics are interested in objective qualities of students more than background issues.  Even those academics who are particularly interested in diversity requirements, and positively predisposed to "under-represented" candidates, will tend to expect a light touch here.  They are usually going to be more impressed by getting all the relevant information in a way that lets them know there was some hardship/obstacle to overcome, but not laid on too thick.  Your goal should be to show that you are strong enough to have achieved high quality outcomes under circumstances where you faced hardship (while being careful not to sound like you are bragging).


My students compliment my teaching and say they now approach the subject with newfound enthusiasm. Can I ask them to put this in writing?

You may certainly encourage your students to provide evaluations that accurately reflect their opinion of your teaching. You may encourage them to provide detailed information rather than just the bare minimum. You may also explain to them how the evaluations are used by administrators.  What you must not do is to encourage them to make you look good by giving evaluations that don't accurately reflect their true opinions.


How to buy plane tickets for job interviews?

I am writing to disagree with Charles Morisset's answer. (I signed up just now, and am unable to comment.) At least, I would consider part of his answer to be poor advice for applying to TT jobs in mathematics.

In particular, I believe you should always accept invitations to interview if you think they're in your best interest -- i.e., if you would be happy to take a job there, and if you are not absolutely confident you won't get better offers.

Suppose that I had scheduled an interview at A, and I get an interview offer from B. I prefer A to B, but I also really like B. Then I would definitely accept the interview offer at B, even if you might get an offer from A in the meantime.

I say this as someone who was on our hiring committee this year. It is a difficult and stressful process for us, but surely it is much more difficult and stressful for candidates. We understand that candidates want to get the best job possible and expect that they will look out for their own best interests. We expect honesty, but hesitating to accept an interview offer at a school you like, under almost any circumstances, seems unwise to me.

What if you accept an offer from A before your interview at B, and the plane ticket is bought? I would contact B, tell them you had accepted another offer, offer thanks and apologies, and offer either to come and give your lecture, or to simply cancel the trip. Most hiring committees, I think, would be gracious and kind, would ask you not to come, and would refund your plane ticket. Perhaps they would like to meet you anyway, and give you the option of giving your talk. In the unlikely event that they are rude, this will give you reason to be grateful that you will be working elsewhere.


Generally, the latest/greatest degree you have is considered the most important.

Technology does change quickly, but principles change less rapidly. So if you have a good degree, it won't matter so much that technology changes. If you know the principles, then you can learn new technologies and more advanced concepts. If you only know how to use some specific set of tool, then you might have trouble as technology evolves.

In general, a masters degree may help you get a better initial job, especially if you want to do something specialised, such as computer graphics, security or data mining, but once you have a job your experience will matter most, not your grades or degree.


How can I ask author to send me his simulation result?

As a general rule, you can ask anyone for anything. But they may not agree to give it, depending on quite a few factors.

I think the only rule is to ask politely and not make claims that you dispute their results. But asking for the code to replicate the results, and explore them more deeply, is appropriate. But there isn't any specific format.

If the other authors are honest then it is a bit more likely they will agree, but it isn't a given. There may be some aspects of their code that they want to keep private to avoid getting scooped.


Checking/Ticking all the fields on a recommendation letter as "Exceptional"

There is nothing wrong with checking "exceptional" for every question.  Working on graduate admissions, this is not uncommon.  Of course, be sure that the student really is exceptional in every area.  While he may be brilliant, is he really exceptional at writing skills, oral expression, self-confidence, etc.?  I actually have a more positive response if a trait has a slightly lower rating, so I know that thought has gone into the ratings, although I don't recommend doing this if the candidate truly is exceptional in every way.

If the recommendation form truly does not allow you to attach a letter, use the space to say (as you do above) that the student is one of the # best you have worked with in the past 10 years.  If you have more space, comparisons to other students are helpful, for example, "X is one of the top 3 students I have encountered in the past ten years. The other two went on to top PhD programs, where they have both flourished.  The one who has graduated is doing a post-doc at Y, and the other is making good progress to her degree."

You can also send a letter even if one is not requested.  I don't see how it could hurt (unless you had something negative to say).


What and how to write about these problems in my CV when I apply to phd program in Europe

I am handling PhD admissions for CS at a British university. None[1] of the information you mention in your post seems relevant for a PhD application to me. There is no need to say anything at all about how exactly you spend your January.
Similarly, preferences for interview dates should given in a far more generic way. For example, "I am unavailable on May 9th." or "I would prefer a later date over an earlier, if possible."
[1] Except that you got a MSc in Mathematics in June 2020, that is important of course.


Is it disrespectful to do research in two labs?

We had an undergraduate in our group quit abruptly at the end of the quarter, saying he liked the research better in the other lab he was working for. This is fine, everyone knows some people won't work out for whatever reason.

However, this was the first time my PI had heard he was "two-timing" us, and yes, she was pretty upset.

I do not think it's per se disrespectful to work in two labs at once, but it is certainly rude to hide that fact from one or both groups. That said, if you tell two PIs that you're working in two labs to figure out what you like better, they may be less inclined to help/mentor you because they know there's a big chance you'll drop their lab pretty quickly because you can fall back on the other lab you like more.

I don't recommend this course of action, but as long as you're transparent with both labs, I would not say it is wrong of you to attempt it.


How can I deal with these group members?

First of all: You are not alone. This is one of the reasons for group assignments - you'll have to learn how to deal with such people and situations, because in a work environment you will end up exactly in situations like this from time to time.

I sould suggest talking to your teacher and ask, whether it is ok to label the individual contributions to the text. Then you can work on your part and you are not affected by the performance of others.

Try to do so in a respectful manner, otherwise A & B might be quite annoyed.