What's this mean: "The search for Assistant Professor, Mathematics has been suspended. Please visit the X University website for future openings."

This means that the entire search has been placed "on hold" or even cancelled.  This does not indicate any judgment on your abilities or suitability for the position, but instead reflects internal problems (for instance, funding challenges or a change in direction). It may also indicate that there were no suitable candidates found, or not enough applications were received.


Should my PhD thesis be submitted under my legal name?

You need to pick a name that you'll use in your professional life. Changing that name has a cost. At this early stage, the cost is low. So, if you want to use your married name professionally, then change to it now. Otherwise, use your maiden name for the duration of your career. (This isn't to say you can't switch later, just that the cost increases over time.)

  would there be any issues with graduating with an old name?

It may create a slight administrative burden, in that you may have to prove that your degree certificate is yours (given that it won't match your legal name).


Is impracticality of Short Classes Tested Or It Is Just A Common Belief?

The closest thing I know of to taking a break every 20 minutes that is based on any research is the Pomodoro technique developed by Francesco Cirillo. The purpose of using this technique was to break any task into intervals of normally 25 minutes. A timer is set and after the 25 minutes, you would take a short 3-5 minute break. The idea was that the mind can only focus for so long before it needs at least a brief rest.

Taking a short 3-4 minute break every 25 minutes during a lecture seems reasonable. However, it requires the teacher to be aware of principles found in cognitive science or to use common sense as they see their students struggle to stay focused and awake.


I want to submit a paper to arXiv.org, but I'm not affiliated to an Institute. What can I do?

I don't see where it says that you must have a institutional affiliation,
Reading comprehension is not my strength.

It also says that you must represent your affiliation correctly. If your current employment is concerned with certain areas of Computer Science or Mathematics (and your paper is in a related area) this will probably count. Otherwise, I'd suggest entering "none", as that is the truth of the matter.

However, I believe that without either an affiliation or a history with arXiv they will expect you to get endorsed before they accept your submissions.

As for finding endorser they write

  If you're looking for an endorsement, you can find somebody qualified to endorse by clicking on the link titled "Which of these authors are endorsers?" at the bottom of every abstract.

Now all that is left is for you to convince one of these people that you are serious and competent. Assuming that you were previously affiliated with a institution in the appropriate field you should probably use your contacts there to get in touch with an endorser: they are like to suspect that anyone who contacts them out of the blue is a Not-Very-Serious-Person (tm).


Simply, you should be the first author.

A corresponding author will be responsible for replying to the queries come from the research community and help them to a better understanding as well as gain more citations. There are other things can you find them in the link below.

Finally, If the other author can do this task, make him the corresponding author and you can help him when needs.

This post talk about The difference between Corresponding author and First author.


Will it be considered duplicate submission in a venue, if we knew that the article will be rejected for sure in another venue?

Formally, yes.  Until you have actually received the accept/reject decision, your paper is still under submission and cannot be submitted elsewhere.

On the other hand, you can avoid this conflict (at least in principle) by formally withdrawing your original submission. Normally I would advise against withdrawing so late, since you'd arguably be wasting the PC's time.  But if the work has already been done and the outcome is clear, the PC is just wasting your time by making you wait two weeks for the official decision.

If you do withdraw and submit elsewhere before results of the first conference are announced, you should make the situation very clear to the new PC chair. In particular, you should forward the formal acknowledgment of your withdrawal.  There is a nontrivial chance that the two PCs overlap, and that someone will flag the "dual submission" without realizing that it was withdrawn.

Finally: If the reviews are so obviously negative, you might consider giving yourself more than 15 days to improve the paper before submitting again.


How to cite a working paper, preprint, or manuscript?

I'm not sure this is a better solution, but you can be cited by name (and possibly place), with the paper described as "private communication.". Include a date (29 Aug. 2018) but not the name of the manuscript.

  Doe, J., & Smith, A.. Private communication, (29 Aug. 2018). Department of Sociology, The Top University, New York.

Once the publication becomes official contact your circle with the information and an updated reference. They may be able to update their own work in some cases, depending on timing, etc.

I'll note that it isn't impossible that the title of your work will change after review, making a more specific title obsolete.


Is it ethical for me to hire research assistant as a part-time PhD to help with secondary data collection?

In terms of academic honesty, there is in principle nothing unethical about using data that was collected by someone else, subject to all involved parties agreeing to this of course. Collecting sufficiently large clinical datasets is a long and complicated process, and there are entire departments specifically created to manage such databases and provide data to researchers. Papers solely analysing and re-analysing such publicly available data are very common in epidemiology, bioinformatics, statistical genetics etc., so that definitely will not be an obstacle to publish.
However, your supervisor and thesis committee may have different expectations about the work that you will do and skills that you will obtain during your PhD. Some issues that might come up are:

Are you outsourcing something that you are expected to learn during your PhD? Is the "database use and organization" something very menial, or too computational to be relevant for your field? Otherwise maybe you can do a part the process by yourself, and thus show that you have acquired enough knowledge of it?
Usually there are some regulations on how much time & effort you should put into full time studies. If you do not do the data collection, will you be spending the same amount of time on some other academic work, beneficial to the project/lab?
Is there sufficient scientific advance/intellectual contribution/novelty remaining in your thesis, when viewed separately from the data collection? This one is the most difficult to judge. In the eyes of thesis examiners, doing some "menial" work often pushes the candidate towards bench biology, and this takes away some scrutiny from other parts of the work (even though it shouldn't). For example, you might be expected to have a deeper understanding of your statistical models, have some sensitivity analyses, maybe comparison between different models or such.

As long as all the involved parties agree on these expectations, I don't see anything unethical about this path.
Now, whether you are legally allowed to use the new grant for this purpose is an entirely different question, and will be determined by the fund's conditions and your institution's hiring policies.


How to establish a presence at a community college that might lead to adjuncting

All you need to teach undergrad courses at the university level here in the US is a masters, which you have.  You can't be tenure track (a professor) without the PhD, but you can be a lecturer.  And you can certainly be a part-time adjunct or affiliate.

Contact the department chairs in the engineering departments of these local schools.  Ask to meet to discuss their current or possible needs for adjunct or affiliate faculty and any advice they might offer.  Without previous classroom experience, your first assignment won't be a big lecture class.  But you might start (as I did, about 6 years ago) as a lab instructor or as a faculty adviser for a team of students working on their senior project.  As you gain more experience and begin to figure your way around how a university works and how a class is run, you can ask for more interesting assignments.

Good luck.  I've really enjoyed the transition from industry to academia.  I love working with my students and my colleagues.  I think you will, too.


How much the previous university's prestige matters for a phd enrollment?

All of the universities you have mentioned are top-league universities with high prestige. As for whether you have a better chance of getting into Durham, UCL etc versus Oxford is debatable. They are internationally renowned and the competition very high. Of course, Oxford is Oxford, but there's little point in going to Oxford just because it's Oxford, which it sounds like you want to do, because you don't seem to know what it's like for your specialist subject area.

The most important thing about any university is the staff in the departments, not necessarily the university itself. These are the supervisors who you will be learning from and have constant contact with. Their tuition can be either inspiring or a hindrance to positive learning.

All of the universities you mention are good. Take some time to visit their websites, look at the department members, their publications and what feel you get from the institution and the department. Do you get the impression that you really like the place? Does it look inspiring? Does it make you want to find out more, do you think you that when the course gets difficult [not if] you would be able to overcome the obstacles with the staff's support?

At the end of the day, finding out the answers to these questions is far more important that going to Institution A or B based on some arbitrary popular notion of league places. A slightly lower-league university may get a lot more out of you than one a few more places up depending on how well you gel with the department. If, after your research, you still want to go to Oxford and it looks right to you, by all means go for it, but don't get hung up on it. The amount that an institution inspires you will govern how much 'better' the 'possibilities' are for your entry.


It means that, not only are the reviewers' identities unknown to the authors (as usual), but the authors' identities are unknown to the reviewers. Only the editor(s) know the identity of everyone involved. This supposedly makes for a less biased review. This also means that the authors need to exercise special care in preparing the submission, because they should avoid all instances of "we" when referring to past, cited papers, for example.


I chose wrong license during submission on arXiv, what shall I do?

There are precedents that suggest this may be unacceptable to the IEEE, although the only way to know for sure is to ask.  They may be more sympathetic if they see it as an unfortunate mistake, rather than an attempt to undermine their copyright policies.  On the other hand, they may still wish to avoid any precedents that could be used to undermine those policies, regardless of whether that was your intent.

  Can I just withdraw the current version, and resubmit it to arXiv under non-exclusive license?

If you try to do that, the arXiv's plagiarism/duplicate detection will alert them and they will be upset.  You are definitely not allowed to withdraw and then resubmit independently.

Instead, you should write to them to ask what, if anything, you can do to fix this.

One option is to update the current paper.  I think you are allowed to choose a new license for the update, but I assume it does not change the license for the previous version (which will still be available).  If that's the case, then this will not solve your problem.

Creative Commons licenses are irrevocable, so there is nothing you can do to prevent the article from being distributed under the CC0 license if someone has a CC0-licensed copy and wishes to do that (see this FAQ).  However, the arXiv might be willing to change the license they distribute the article under in the future, especially if your paper was just posted recently and you explain that the license choice was a mistake.  I don't know what the chances are that they would agree, but it can't hurt to ask.

This would not completely solve the problem (anyone who downloaded the paper already under the CC0 license could still do whatever they wanted with it and redistribute it further), but it would mitigate it.  I do not know how the IEEE would react.

Ultimately, there's no perfect solution, since nothing you can do will ever eliminate the possibility of CC0-licensed copies somewhere on the internet.  All you can do is address the issue as best you can and then explain it to the IEEE and hope they feel you have done enough.


Does a PhD application decision letter give the reasons for the decision? Why or why not?

In my experience in the US, I have never seen any sort of decision letter for an application (whether for Ph.D. or any position) that gives reasons for the decision. It may be different in other countries, but in the US at least, there are many good reasons to never give such information formally.

The actual decision-making process is never as clean and clear-cut as anybody wants it to be, and with the limited information available in applications and even interviews, there are going to be cases where people make mistakes or make good decisions for unclear or hard to state reasons.  Lots of good people may get turned down for reasons having nothing to do with them, such as just having too many good candidates in the same area.

If an institution gives real reasons in an official statement (as opposed to something meaningless and bland like "not an appropriate fit at this time"), then it is opening up the door for all sorts of potential problems and disputes, not to mention potential legal liability if something could be construed as relating to a protected category such as gender, age, religion, or ethnicity.  They also have to worry about seriously unbalanced people who may take it as a personal insult and begin some sort of stalking or harassment campaign (it happens!).  Not giving reasons may feel unsatisfying and cowardly, but it is an easy and safe path for an institution, and as such is generally official policy.

Now, if you have an informal trusted relationship with somebody who was involved in the decision process, then it is sometimes possible to get a strictly unofficial take on what may have happened.  You might learn things you didn't want to know about how sausage is made, however.


What makes a good recorded video poster presentation for an academic conference?

First, this answer isn't based on experience of creating such things, but just on general principles. I assume that you want an audience to actually watch the video to the end and that what you have to say isn't so earth shatteringly novel and important that they naturally will. But also, I assume that what you want to say has value in itself, though more for some than others.
First, I think you have about 15 seconds at the start of the presentation to answer the viewers question "Should I continue with this or not?" But the answer has to be obvious from the presentation, rather than just saying outright "This is why you should watch." If you aren't immediately compelling, people will hit the "next" button. It isn't like a class where students are forced to sit and watch.
The last 15 seconds are probably also very important so that people have a succinct message to carry away - make it memorable.
Talking heads are boring. A video has an advantage over a live talk, of course, since interested watchers can hit rewind if they miss a point, but still, do something to avoid the talking head issue. An overly pedantic presentation will probably also induce watchers to move on.
I assume that the most interested people will have some way to contact you after the presentation so that you can get follow up. The format suggested by walkar in a comment sounds like it might be very good, so that people can ask questions after viewing and possibly get some synergy going. But I also assume you don't have control over format.
I'd suggest, actually, that you take some inspiration from an early science oriented TV show intended for children: Watch Mr. Wizard. It was a half hour of simple science done live. The wikipedia article points to some similar things that this show inspired. Some of the shows are available on [YouTube[(https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Mr.+Wizard). And note that by using another person, in this case a youngster, as an assistant, Don Herbert avoids the talking head problem. You can have a "conversation" with an assistant that you can't have with the audience.

Background: I'm an old guy with hearing problems. I don't watch TV or depend on video much. When I do, I'm looking for visual impact and am quick to move on if the presentation starts out too slowly or gets boring. On the other hand, I'm interested in lots of things. If you catch me early, I might stick around. I don't need to take notes anymore, so won't, but a clear message about the key insight (the last few seconds) will stick with me and make you memorable.
Oh, and I never missed an episode of Mr. Wizard.


Can New Zealand/Australian academics do consulting work during summers?

This is dependent on the university. This is allowed (generally) but you have to get into contact with the designated person(s) for your department/faculty/school regarding the appropriate procedures in taking on paid consulting work while employed at the university.

Usually you have to have an agreement/contract set up that stipulates specific rules and regulations regarding this. Most universities would have something like this available as many academics do consulting work depending on their research expertise.

I would get in touch with HR and/or your supervisor to find out about your options.


Second PhD vs PostDoc - Math vs Theoretical Physics

Anyone will hire you provided you can convince them you are better than the other candidates. You already have a PhD in Maths, you have to show them you have the skills and knowledge to complement their baggage and help solve their problems.

In the Mathematical Physics department in my undergrad university (Spain), there is at least one postdoc that is mathematician with a PhD in Economy, and two physicist readerers that works in Applied Mathematics.


Emailing professor about PhD application

I would follow up with the supervisor - files can get lost in the shuffle, and it's always nice to know that a candidate has followed through on their promise of an application by actually applying. I would make it a short e-mail.
(For what it's worth, if a supervisor is going to get angry about a short, polite administrative update such as this, they are probably not going to be a good supervisor)


Do minors and/or non-major courses affect grad school admissions?

I don't think most schools will know or care about the nuances of the Sahana U minor system.  Ergo, do what you want.

Since many schools don't require a minor at all, they won't worry about if you do the extra classes in history or math or basketweaving.  They will just look to see that you are a psych major, what GPA you have, standardized test scores, essay, letter.

It's extremely unlikely that the content of those 6 diversification courses will affect any decisions.  Just concentrate on doing well with whatever you do.  And take what you like.  The major is already covering key content needed for grad school.


Is it appropriate for a PI to appoint someone who is a family member?

The rules differ from country to country, university to university, and department to department.

On a practical note, I would not want to be in a supervisory role towards a family member. In that role I need to be able to make unpleasant decisions, like tell someone if (s)he did a bad job, handle complaints, or even discontinue employment. That is hard enough as is, but if it involves a family member...


What are best practices for reviewing peer research lab colleagues' work for a supervisor?

If possible (given your knowledge of the subject, the regulations at your university, etc.), it might help if you get officially announced as these students (second-)advisor for their paper/thesis/... So the supervisor states that you are responsible for it, you are the one to contact with questions and (important!) your opinion will be important when deciding grades.
Right now, there is no reason for the others to listen to you, as you have no influence on their work/grades/... If the supervisor wants something, she will eventually say so and then they might do it, so why should they listen to you?
By making it clear that you are the one responsible for that and that the supervisor should only be contacted in case of severe problems, they will have motivation to listen to you, as you will be the one the professor asks in the end: "Well, I didn't read every last one of these 200 pages of the thesis and I hadn't as much contact with the student as you did, so what grade would you suggest?"

You don't even need to change anything in your working process, as you already said that the advisor reads your comments and only steps in if she disagrees, so you seem to already be responsible, you just don't have the power (over grades, etc.) yet to make them respect you.


You hold an MSc, not an MSc (Eng), so use the former.

If you want the reader to know you have an engineering degree, then write MSc Advanced Materials Engineering, perhaps even MSc, Engineering dept., Uni X for something shorter.

Note that MEng also exists, so MSc (Eng) may baffle some.


Are vacations counted for student research assistants in Germany?

Student research assistants in Germany (studentische Hilfskraft, or HiWis) are paid according to a fixed number of hours per week worked throughout the semester. They are therefore expected to complete a set number of hours over the course of the semester.

In principle, HiWis should work the same number of hours every week. However, at many universities, the contract only says that HiWis are paid the same amount each month, with no further subdivision demanded. The factor (at my university) is 4.348 weeks per month. So the number of hours expected to be worked in principle does not depend on the presence of holidays.

With respect to vacations, HiWis are allowed the fraction of time proportional to what a full-time employee would earn. If you worked 8 hours per week, you would be entitled to one-fifth of what a full-time employee earned in vacation time per year (roughly 3 hours per month).

(It should be noted that there has also been discussion that HiWis should not try to concentrate their workload too much, as there is the possibility that by doing so, they may work too many hours in too short a period, in which case in principle their income would become taxable under German law.)


Is it ok to have a paper with no academic citation but just think tank and investigative journalism?

If your research concerns a specific subject for which all presently published material comes from think-tanks and news articles, then it is perfectly legitimate to cite those sources as your main source of literature.  However, while this may be true of the specific issue you are investigating, it would be extremely unusual for that issue to be so unique that it cannot be put into any broader scholarly context in any field of academic inquiry.

For example, suppose you take some extremely specific topic -- e.g., you want to investigate the effect of fluctuating prices of bananas on the eating habits of rural families in Peru.  Perhaps there is not yet any academic literature on that topic, but there might be news articles from time to time that talk about farmers when banana prices go up or down.  Even so, if you were writing about that topic, you would probably discuss the specifics within a broader academic context with some economic theory, social science, etc.  So you might augment your discussion of the specific topic by noting that shortages of bananas in other parts of the world cause consumer prices to increase, and this increases profits to banana growers, which gives them more disposable income, etc.  There would be plenty of general academic literature (e.g., general economics literature) on those phenomena that are not specific to banana-growing in Peru.  By citing literature on these general phenomena you would augment your specific topic by placing it in a broader context.

If you are unable to find any scholarly literature that could put your issue into an academic context, you are implicitly telling your reader that your issue falls outside the scope of all historic scientific and academic inquiry, and there is no avenue of academic research that could shed any light on your topic.  Are you sure that is the case?


Are there websites for hosting solely academic videos?

Usually the journal will host the videos as supplementary material, but if you want to host it externally, there are options. For example, figshare (see also this blog post).


You've handled the conference plagiarism very well.

But then you say you've stopped putting your papers on your website: and I'm afraid that that is completely counter-productive.

It would be far more helpful for editors, reviewers and publishers to have your papers on your website, indexed by all the usual search bots, and clearly copyrighted and time-stamped. That makes it easier for them to spot duplicate content, early on.

The point of publishing your work is to get it disseminated. Very many journals allow authors to host preprints or similar on their own university web pages: do so. Get your stuff circulated as widely as possible. That gives you the best chance of other plagiarism of your work being spotted early on, in the future.


Should one disclose his/her family information in an academic job interview?

It's probably best not to bring up family information at all during an interview. The committee wants to focus on your professional qualifications. They've probably been given strict instructions from HR not to take into account things like the applicant's sex or age, which are not professional qualifications. Different people may have different expectations about how formal a job interview should be, but in general it's not a casual get-together where we get to know each other.

Often a committee will want to understand why you are leaving your current position. Basically they want to make sure you didn't leave your current position because you did a bad job there and got fired. This becomes particularly relevant if the job you're applying for is at a professional level less than or equal to the level of the job you're leaving. In this context, it may be OK to mention your family if they're the reason you wanted to change jobs. E.g., you needed to move from Indiana back home to California in order to care for your father, who is old and unable to live independently anymore.

Another common situation would be the "two-body problem," where you and your partner are trying to find jobs in the same city. I would not bring this up at the interview stage. It's not relevant at that stage, because they haven't even offered you the job yet.

If you have young children, I wouldn't mention that at all. Many people in academia have very old-fashioned expectations about the academic lifestyle, e.g., that a high-powered academic must not be distracted by child-rearing, or must have a "faculty wife."


What is the minimum score for the GRE subject exam in mathematics?

There is no definite minimum GRE score (other than the smallest possible score on the test) for any program, unless that program explicitly has adopted one. If they don't mention it on their website, you could try calling or emailing their graduate coordinator and asking them.

In all, here are the main possibilities, and the reality varies by institution:

Case A) There is no minimum, and they consider all applications.

Case B) There is a minimum, and they will tell you.

Case C) There is a minimum, but it is a secret.

Case D) There is no formal minimum, but there is a de facto minimum in that they almost never (or never) actually accept someone below a score of X, even though they technically say there is no minimum. In the end, this is the same as Case C above.

In practice, the most selective institutions will occasionally mention "averages" like 80% percentile or 90% percentile - but without a standard deviation that's not really very informative. It is also the case that many people view GRE scores differently depending on your country of origin, so it is not necessarily meaningful or helpful to know anything like averages.

In the end, the advice for the GRE is: do as well as you can without harming some other aspects of your application (don't let your grades slide just to study for the GRE), and as always try to have the best overall application packet to maximize your chances.


How to write a recommendation letters for an undergrad student applying to transfer to another university?

A letter for undergraduate admissions need not be long.  Just write what you know about the student.  Since you had him in a course, you can mention his grade and (more helpfully) where he ranked among the students in the course.  Did he ask insightful questions?  Write especially clear solutions? If not, that's fine -- just say what you know.

Since you have spoken with him at length, you can probably also comment on his personality.  Is he easy-going and likeable?  Intensely passionate about his ideas?  Thoughtful and organized?

If you would be sorry to see him leave your program, say so and explain why.


arxiv put my first paper submission on hold , does this mean it will be rejected ?

ArXiv is clear in its mission statement: it wants to be an archive and distribution system for research articles. They only accept submissions from registered authors, and have an entire machinery in place to safeguard the scientific quality of the papers they distribute. For example, they require first time submitters to be endorsed (see the information about endorsment here).

If you are an established researcher in the field, the endorsment happens automatically. But since you're an undergraduate student, they will require that you either prove your expertise in the field, or that you send an endorsment letter by someone who is known as an expert in that field. On the webpage about endorsment they give you the information on how to obtain an endorsment, but they also state:

  A good choice for graduate students would be your thesis advisor or
  another professor in your department/institution working in your
  field.

As you're an undergraduate student, I doubt anyone will endorse you as being an expert in that field, especially since we're talking about a review. At our faculty, you don't start writing reviews before the end of your PhD.

So in all honesty, I'm afraid you're aiming too high for the time being. The mail itself doesn't necessarily mean they reject your paper, but without proper endorsment they won't accept you as an expert in the field.


Is it possible for people to go into math or physics fields from a degree in biology?

"Math" means many things - just at the start, that can mean something like applied math vs. pure math, for which this answer has very different tracks to it.

I'd say it breaks into two potential tracks:

Track One: "I want to be a mathematician" - you want to move in this direction, and either do math for its own sake, or math as it's applied to a wide number of different things. Here, in my experience, the answer is "it's possible, but hard". There will be expectations about your coursework background that you may not have been able to do without effectively double-majoring, but it's not impossible.

Track Two: "I want to be a very mathy biologist". As you've noted, the "in vogue" way to do this is to move from math to biology, but the other way is certainly possible. There are a number of labs that would fall under the heading of "Mathematical Biology" that accept biology majors into their ranks, and if you're willing to put in the work, there's no reason you couldn't build a very strong background in math in the process, while keeping the value of having subject-matter expertise (something that is undervalued, IMO).

I took the latter track, and have ended up moving from an undergraduate background in laboratory microbiology to something that very much fits the description of "mathematical biology".


What is an acceptable failure rate in an entry level programming course?

It seems too late to do anything about it now: You need something to base a grade on, and if no assignments are handed in, than that is that for that student. However, for the future, you need to ask why so many students did not participate. Maybe they weren't the intended audience anyhow. In that case, you may want to change the description of the course, so they find that out before joining the class. Maybe they were overwhelmed, and lost hope. In that case you can think of ways of catching them early, so you can help them before the problems become too big.

If failing one third is too much (or too little) depends on the circumstances. Experienced educators in your department can tell you that. Depending on your department you may want to talk to the department head, or the person coordinating the teaching duties.


What does "qualify for a more competitive rate" mean when booking flights for academic travel?

By "qualify for a more competitive rate," it seems pretty likely that they simply want you book early to get a cheaper flight.


Short answer: Go neither for easy nor for challenging courses but for courses that interest you the most.


Shall I go and see my advisor's father who is on his death bed?

Unless you have some direct relationship with his father, this is not something we'd normally do in US, UK, or Australian culture. (I'm not sure if it's the same everywhere in the EU.)

A polite option might be to tell your advisor something like "I'm very sorry to hear about your father, please let me know if there is anything I can do."

If your advisor is from a different culture, that might change things.


Can a graduate student with deficiencies get an assistantship for the needed undergraduate courses?

One important general comment: It seems like you feel as though the department will leave you on your own to take these "needed undergraduate courses". I find this highly unlikely! If a department admits you (and funds you), then they are on your side and want you to succeed! If you are lacking some "satisfactory undergraduate training", then the admissions committee will know this before offering you a spot in their program. When they make you an offer, they know what you specifically will need to do to meet the requirements of their program, and it's in the best interest of the department to help you work towards meeting these requirements.

If you enroll in a graduate program, you will be expected to get your knowledge of the basic areas of the subject up to the standard set by the department. Moreover, you will be expected to do this according to their timeline. Sometimes this may require you to take some undergraduate courses, which is not a big deal.

In my experience in mathematics graduate school, students given the "standard" teaching assistantship are free to take courses of virtually any kind (with perhaps the approval of the math department), and the tuition for these courses is covered by the assistantship automatically. There is no extra assistantship needed for such courses. In my department, I've never heard of a student being denied permission to take courses outside of the department, and I've seen math grad students take undergraduate courses like dance and Japanese. So presumably if you were a "fully funded" grad student and you needed to take some undergrad courses while in grad school, these would be covered by your existing assistantship.

As to your last question: For the "standard" teaching assistantship, in math, it is typical that the student maintains (or rather, annually renews) the assistantship until she is done with the degree. This is of course dependent on the student making satisfactory progress towards the degree, as defined by each individual department.


Are there funding sources for open-access fees for an independent researcher in industry?

As a formerly independent researcher I have looked into this matter before; regrettably, the answer is disappointing: Funders usually require an affiliation with a research institution. (Yes, it is paradox that 'open science' generates new exclusions, leaving certain segments of science behind; this entrenchment of new inequalities due to open access-movements was recently called 'academic colonialism', though this term may go too far.)

Anyway, there may be an alternative route. So-called transformative agreements between scholarly publishers and (country-level) consortia allow researchers from all institutions covered by the consortia to publish Open Access (OA) for free.

Now if you are well-connected to researchers at research institutions which are eligible for this waiver of OA publishing charges because they are part of the consortia, then you may ask them whether you can "borrow" their institutional affiliation. That way you would be able to publish OA without any costs. This does succeed sometimes - because research institutions also have an interest in inflating their publication statistics.


Do PhD courses in engineering fields in European non-English speaking countries require knowledge of the native language?

Yes, they can, at least in technical fields (I speak mainly for Italy, but I'm pretty sure that this is possible in other countries around Europe as well).

To give you an example, at my university (Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy), there are a lot of foreigner students enrolled in various kind of engineering PhD programs who don't speak, or barely speak, Italian. In fact, most of the graduate courses are delivered in English. However, I recommend learning Italian (or any other local language if in a different country) at a discrete level if one plans to further pursue here (or there) his or her career.


Academic publishing: why placing figures on top/bottom of pages in single-column layout?

Consider a page structured like this:

where A, B, C, D are columns of text. In such a case, should one read in the order A–B–C–D, or A–C–B–D? For me, it's natural to read in order texts that are close to each other – so here: A–B–C–D. So I'm always annoyed when the text makes no sense because I read it in an incorrect order. The same applies for a layout like this:

where the text nearest to A is C.

In case of this layout:

the page seems too divided – the continuity between A and B is broken. Also, it doesn't look nice when A consists of 15 lines, and B of only 2 lines (or vice versa): the reader could miss the shorter block, and – again – be annoyed that the text makes no sense. So, one wants to have a layout that will be easiest for the reader to follow.

And the layout when the figure is embedded in the text (e.g., with LaTeX's wrapfigure) can be sometimes found in books – I guess journals decided that this would be too distracting in an article which is usually very condensed.


Is not providing lecture notes to math students really beneficial to them?

Writing something down absolutely does help you remember it, as more different aspects of your brain are engaged with the material at once.  See, for example, this CogSci.SE post on the matter.

The cognitive benefits of engaging multiple channels, however, can certainly be outweighed by the detriments of poor lecturing technique.  The problems that you describe having do not actually seem to be about the availability of notes, however, but about the pace of the lecture being too fast and with too little explanation for you to comprehend the material --- writing things down slows you own partly because you have to be thinking about the material and summarizing as you go, rather than just letting it wash over you.

From what you have written, it is not possible for we strangers on the internet to distinguish between two common cases:

The professors you've had were going too fast and not explaining enough to teach effectively.
The pace felt too fast for you because you had inadequate preparation or some other issue.  For example, a dyslexic student would likely need a slower pace.

You may be able to tell which it is by seeing whether most other students are experiencing the same issues as you.  If they are, it is likely a problem with the teaching; if they are not, it is more likely the problem is on your side.


Publisher (online, refereed journal) is not publishing the volume containing my paper - what are my options?

Can you find a telephone number to ring them? If not, you write an email and state that, if there is no response until [some reasonable time frame], you assume that they are not intending to publish the work, and having invested considerable time in the development of the paper, you will consider yourself fully entitled to publish the paper elsewhere.

Note that I do not know what the legal situation is (this is not the place for legal questions).

However, as per Dirk's suggestion, I add that universities have a legal department that might offer legal advice on such topics, as long as OP is employed at one.


In dilemma of choosing supervisor for postdoctoral research

However I have heard a lot of nasty things regarding his treatment to his students.

If you think these rumors are true, do not go work for him.  If you work for him, you are endorsing his behavior and his reputation will impact your reputation.

  One of the offers was from my current PhD supervisor

There is a general expectation that a postdoctoral job should broaden your range of experience.  If your postdoc supervisor is the same as your PhD supervisor, there will be a perception* that you did not acquire new skills.  There may also be a perception that you did not move because you could not find a position that would broaden your skills.  It also makes it look like your adviser could not help you find a job elsewhere.

In summary, I recommend you keep applying for postdoc positions.  However, if you are one of the most famous institutions in your field, it would be acceptable to stay put, as relocation is less expected in this case.

*I do not endorse this view because it discriminates against people who are unable to move.  But I think it is a widely held belief.


Graduate school applications with papers in the peer review process

There must be space to highlight why are you interested in this school? or briefly describe your research interests.

In any of the above space. you can highlight your submitted papers something like:
I have submitted this work to this journal which is now in under review.

You can also append the abstracts along with co-authors and Journal of each submitted papers to your CV at the end.


Negotiating after receiving a lectureship offer in the UK

This varies a lot by university. Basically, the more famous ones know they have to compete with the USA. But traditionally, if you didn't accept a position once offered you had to pay them back for the travel for your interview! And you were expected to decide on the day of the interview, after the offer! So there is not much culture around offers at most universities.

One thing I'd strongly advise if you come in with a lot of experience is that asking for higher rank is more important than asking for more money. You will get shunted up the pay scale regardless (there are annual "point increases" to some ceiling) and if anything if you argue your way up early you may get penalised later with fewer "discretionary points." Though getting a more advanced rank than was advertised for may well be impossible these days too, there is a lot of anti-corruption legislation in place that blocks creative hiring.

If you are applying for a chair, ignore the above. Ask for absolutely everything you can think of. You are in your one true time and position of power. Parking places, studentships, accommodation, whatever you can imagine. Often the department wants you to get great stuff and will help you with this. In fact, in general (with or without a chair) once you have an offer your Head of Department is your ally; they really want you to come and they are helping you get resource off of the centre. So talk to them and maybe a couple other senior faculty in your new department. Foreign faculty might be particularly useful, especially from the system with which you are familiar, since they can translate better.


How to Deal with Unfair Grading in Team Work?

It seems to me that faculty fall into two camps on graded group work: the first is the camp that avoids it where they can, because it seems to always involve asymmetric work and annoyance, and the second uses it because they think working in groups and dealing with the inherent difficulties therein is an important skill.

Without any additional context, it seems like your professor falls into the second group.  Either that or they simply haven't reflected on the matter and are doing it because they (or the people who taught them) have always done it.  Regardless, they are unlikely to be receptive to your complaints.  Unless this is their first time doing it, you can be certain others have complained about this in the past.  In other words, part of the lesson was probably you handling the dynamics of group work, including asymmetric productivity and quality.

I should also point out that you gave this person you claim did less work a top score.  This leaves you with a very difficult case to make.

If you do decide to protest to the professor about it, I would phrase it as a question.  You want to do better, and you thought your whole group worked well together, so you want to be clear on how one person on the same project got a higher score than everyone else.  Was it based on some work they did?  Was it based just on grades from each other?  You'll get a feel quickly if the professor is interested in hearing your defense of the issue, or if you should just move on and treat it as a lesson for the future about group work.


Am I allowed to use a figure drawn by co-author in another paper?

I was at the "receiving end" of such a case once. One of my collaborators has used a figure I have drawn for another paper that I was not a co-author of without asking me first. I did not consider this intellectual dishonesty (the figure was neither particularly brilliant nor a lot of work), but I do admit that it stung a little bit to see my own work (however tiny this "work" was) being used without telling. If the collaborator had just dropped a brief email before, I would have certainly not minded.

Bottom line:

  Do I need to ask A for permission to include the figure in paper 2?

Strictly speaking probably not, but you really should tell A.


How to identify a research question as artificial

While it's hard to know without knowing all of the specifics, it seems likely to me that this criticism is similar to saying that the questions are poorly motivated.

There are an unlimited number of research questions that might be asked. Why are these the ones that are interesting?  Consider that in many cases, a specific research question may be seen as a "natural" consequence of the underlying motivation.

For example, if one was studying cancer and noticed that a particular group of people got cancer much less than expected, the "natural" research questions might include whether they have different genetics or different habits or whether this is related to other known modulators of cancer frequency, or whether other groups of people with related characteristics can be predicted to have different cancer rates.  All of these might have obvious interesting consequences for the understanding and management of cancer.

An "artificial" question, by contrast, would be any question for which no such clear narrative is available.  It will be at least partially a matter of perspective, but rather than debating whether a question is artificial, it would be good to examine whether it is really well motivated. If so, explain the motivation better.  If not, get a more interesting question.


Can a student apply for a new PhD (in the US or UK) while he is currently enrolled into a PhD (in the US)?

It is possible (provided you meet the requirements of the second institution), but the more important question is whether it is advisable. In the general case, switching to a different university halfway through your PhD is something that you should contemplate only if staying at your current university will significantly adversely affect your career prospects or your personal life. It looks like this is the case for your student, as he wants to study an area of physics under-represented in his current university.

The issue of whether he should apply to UK universities to avoid having to go through the basic coursework again is irrelevant, I think. If he feels so strongly about switching locations exclusively on the strength of programs, then he should also be ready to graduate a couple years later. Although some students think doctoral programs have an excessive course load, going through the advanced basics of the field is unbelievably useful.


How does chance play a role in getting tenure-track and tenured positions?

At most schools in the US in fields where you do a postdoc, luck plays a relatively small role in getting tenure (because in the current job market the standards for getting hired are much higher than for receiving tenure), but luck plays a huge role in getting a tenure-track offer, in where you get a tenure-track offer, and in how long it takes to get a TT offer.  Here are several ways that luck factors in:

How many schools are hiring in a given year and how many positions they have.
Which schools are hiring in a given year and whether they have people interested in your work.
Who else in your field is on the market in a given year.  It’s very hard to be hired if you’re seen as the second best person in your subfield.
Timing of journal acceptances.  Having a paper accepted in a top tier journal makes a difference, but there’s a lot of luck in who the referees are and a lot of luck in whether the process takes a few months or years.

In consecutive years I had no interviews one year and over half-a-dozen the next year (with multiple offers) with all of the above factors playing a role.


How to substantiate the claim that something is not known?

One way, especially since you are not an expert of the field (and even if you were), is to not make such an absolute claim:

  To the best of our knowledge, no other necessary or sufficient
  conditions are currently known.

At least in my field (robotics), this is quite common and I think an appreciated amount of humility.


How are "workshop style" lectures conducted?

Workshop "lectures" are less logically formal, less detail-oriented (but usually with careful references). The idea of a workshop is more top-down, more action-oriented, intended to get people up-to-speed on the current state of a topic (rather than, cough-cough, compliance-oriented). Examples, heuristics, prototypes, thought-experiments... more of the things we actually do, rather than the formal narrative reporting on it later and not-as-though-it-were-live.


Is a PhD in a specific field of mathematics (combinatorics) instead of a mathematics PhD disadvantageous in faculty applications?

I don't know about combinatorics in particular, but I did get a PhD from one of Carnegie Mellon's other interdisciplinary programs (Pure and Applied Logic); I was offered the choice of whether my PhD would officially be in the program name or in "Mathematical Sciences", and was advised to choose the latter.

If you're PhD is in something other than "Mathematics" or an obvious synonym, and you want to get hired as mathematics faculty, there are two concerns that might come up:

Do you know enough math, broadly speaking, to be a good colleague (for instance, be out outside member on thesis committees, to talk to people, and so on)?
Can you teach introductory courses?

I do know of people with degrees called "Logic" where these concerns were raised about hiring them.  In the cases I know, someone was around to address those concerns, but it might be a disadvantage in departments where no one in the faculty was familiar enough with the program to address them.  (On the other hand, places where no one is familiar with your program aren't as likely to hire you anyway.)

With a degree in something as clearly mathematical as combinatorics, I think the first concern is unlikely to be an issue.  The latter might be, especially if those programs don't necessarily include any TA-ing/teaching of intro calculus courses, but this is also a concern that can be preempted (for instance, by making sure to pursue enough teaching experience as a grad student).


One more undergraduate year for grad school?

Generally speaking, no one cares all that much how long it took you to finish your undergraduate degree.  An extra semester or even an extra year will make almost no difference to anyone.  They will care what your GPA was.

One of my service assignments as faculty at UMich in our CS department is undergraduate advising.  I am constantly having to remind students that it does them no good to take a heavy load, hoping to graduate early, if the result is that they crater their GPA.  Much better to take a manageable load they can do well.  Twelve units of straight A's always beats 17 units with a couple of C's, especially for anyone hoping to go on to graduate school where ballpark minimum GPAs for entry to our master's and PhD programs are about 3.6 and 3.8, respectively.


How do I choose an appropriate scope for a master's thesis in mathematics?

To expand on scaaahu's very valid comment, consider the following:

what specific topic(s) interest you the most.
which of these do you have some level of confidence in pursuing at a Master's level.
Who has the expertise to be able to advise you, are the willing to do so (they may be overloaded).
Are their enough resources available to start research in the chosen field.
Finally, what is the 'end-game', where do you hope to go with this qualification?


Having done such an agreement in the past, it's certainly a plausible scenario. A couple things to consider:

Consulting means they can't access their university's resources. If you need that, it'll likely need to be a subcontract, and there are some institutions that allow postdocs to do that on their own, and some that do not.
There are almost certainly rules at the postdoc's university regarding consulting - it can be everything from "don't do it" to "don't let it interfere with your job here" and everything in between. They should check to see what the peculiarities of their institution entail.
While it may or may not be required, the postdoc should almost certainly clear the consulting work with their supervisor.
Non-U.S. citizens working in the U.S. have a different set of requirements, and again, they should check on the specifics of their situation to make sure they're allowed to do so.

TL;DR: It's perfectly plausible, but the specifics vary widely.


Since the SoP is intended to detail your goals and path ahead, you could say something similar to that if those topics support those goals specifically. But if those courses are also in your CV or transcripts it will also be known that you have studied those things.

However, detailing that you studied them as a doctoral student is less useful. But, after mentioning your intended sub field of study you can certainly say that you have taken certain advanced courses in that field.

But in general, make the SoP focus on the future, not what you have done in the past. Other parts of the application will detail your past accomplishments.


How should one decide whether to study logic in a math or philosophy department?

I am a math professor, and from what (very) little I know about philosophy, I would expect the academic cultures to be very different. Once (as an undergraduate) I went to a lecture given by a leading contemporary philosopher. During the Q&A period, one audience member remarked: "I think your point of view is obviously wrong... " and proceeded to elaborate at length! I've never seen this in mathematics. Despite what you've seen in movies, I've found academic mathematics to be quite friendly and relatively nonconfrontational.

My understanding is that (perhaps unfortunately) philosophical logic and mathematical logic are considered entirely separate academic disciplines. I went to graduate school at a university with a strong mathematical logic program, and what my friends were doing was recognizably mathematics. I don't think I heard them talk about philosophy, at least any more than it came up during random conversations. I would recommend to you that you learn something about model theory, recursion theory, axiomatic set theory, the incompleteness theorem, etc. and see if this is something you enjoy.

I doubt very much that you could switch from one department to the other, although I don't have any firsthand knowledge of this.

I would certainly expect graduate admissions and the job market to be very different. My understanding is that the job market in mathematical logic is very difficult; indeed, I only know of one of my logician friends that is now in a permanent academic position. (That said, the others found good non-academic jobs.) However, my guess is that the job market in philosophy is still bleaker.


How advantageous is it to have presented a poster at an international conference?

It's probably best to listen to your supervisor, especially if they have seen your data. If they have not, show him/her your work and explain to them why you believe this conference would benefit from you presenting. That way you have greater clarity regarding why they disagree, and you frame it as the conference benefiting from your contribution rather than you simply gaining a reputation advantage by presenting premature data.


Can I publish open access articles on my personal website?

Check the agreement you signed with the publisher.  If you transferred the copyright and they don't explicitly allow this, then the answer is no.
Another easy way to check is using Sherpa Romeo.  For instance, you can see here that the journal SINUM does allow the author to post the published version on a personal website.  Meanwhile, you can see here that JCP allows posting (on a personal site) of the accepted version, but not the published version.


Is it unethical to get paid for the work and time invested in thesis?

That is totally fine, many people do a master thesis in an official cooperation with a company. University hasn't hired you for your studies, and the diploma is not your "payment".

Who might be in trouble is your professor and his company, if he hasn't cleared this with the university officials. Because he has a contract with the university, and they have some rights to your results, because they provided the lab, provided your professor, etc.


What's the best way to share a Zotero collection (without creating a new "group" collection)

The following was posted in response to the OP's question on the Zotero forums:

  adamsmith Sep 14th 2015

  Easier sharing of parts of your library is planned, but currently, unfortunately, the answer to all of your questions is no. The only way to share a collection is to drag it into a group and it won't sync with the original collection.


Is it plagiarism to copy an ethics statement on animal research?

Both plagiarism and self-plagiarism are about violations of the expectation of originality. In the main text of a publication, there is an expectation of originality, and thus these concerns apply.

In the "metadata" of a publication, like acknowledgements, statements on ethics and conflicts of interest, etc., the expectation of originality is much weaker, and the primary concern is accuracy.  Thus, "boilerplate" text providing little or no narrative content can be freely reused (e.g., "This represents the conclusions of the authors and not of the funding agency or US government.").

In the unusual case where such a section does have study-specific narrative content (e.g., describing a novel approach to developing an ethics plan), then it would not be OK to copy it. Instead, you would want to discuss the relationship in the main text or methods section (which is a grey area for reuse, as sometimes it is "boilerplate" and other times narratively unique), and make a simple statement in your own words linking to that discussion in the ethics section.


Is it normal for master's students to be sidelined, compared to PhD students?

No idea about anything specific to Korea, and haven't personally experienced this, but yeah, it seems pretty normal to me. In my field in the US it is similarly most common for people to be admitted only to PhD programs, with a masters degree as an option for people who fail to/decide not to continue.
From the perspective of your coworkers, you've decided to quit the lab. You don't mention why, and it definitely might be the right decision for you, but for people around you it might look like you don't value the kind of work the lab is doing, you're just going through the motions to get the master's degree and move on. You also might be perceived as a bit of a burden: you're opting to skip the years in which you would be likely to be most productive and most helpful to others as a senior graduate student in the lab, and only staying for your first steps into research. Ordinarily, if your goal is to "study more and learn how to be a researcher", the best way to do that would be to complete a PhD program, not to quit with a master's.
I think it's unlikely you'll change this attitude much, so I think you probably have to just embrace your decision, put your head down and get through it. I don't think that's really fair, by any means, and is especially unfair if you're working just as hard as everyone else while you are there, but I can also understand why your coworkers might not feel like you're a full contributor.


How to politely ask my thesis advisor that I want to work independently as the meetings are not productive for me?

The goal of a master's degree is (among others) learning the first steps of doing research. Most master students are not great at that yet. That's what your advisor is for. They are the persons that can help you to become a better researcher, on how to structure your thesis, on what your priorities should be, how to approach people who might be experts in this field.
Another thing that this advisor might be able to help you with is your communication. You say that he doesn't understand what you are saying because he does not have a background in the field. I've heard/read (forgotten the source) an idea along the following lines:

If somebody doesn't understand what I am explaining, it doesn't mean that they are not intelligent enough to understand, it means that I should explain it better.

This only holds up to some degree, but given that this is an academic advisor, you should be able to explain your ideas and thoughts in a way that they can understand.
Abandoning the meetings doesn't sound like a way to handle this where you end up with a good thesis. Your advisor will be grading you and it is your best interest to make the thesis in such a way that they understand and are comfortable reading.


How to ensure I will stay first author of my paper?

Journal editors don't want to become involved in fights about authorship.  However, it is a very well accepted ethical norm that a paper cannot be published without the consent of all of the authors and that authors can't be dropped from a paper after submission or author ordering changed without the consent of the authors.   It's good editorial practice to contact all of the authors of a paper and check for objections if any such change is proposed by the corresponding author.

Thus you have the "nuclear option" of contacting the editor and telling him/her that this change in author order was counter to your prior agreement with the professor and that you no longer consent to publication. I'd recommend that you start by contacting the editor to find out whether the author order has been fixed by your professor.


Advice for internal grant application write up

You could write two sections in the narrative, one not so technical and one technical. The local committee will appreciate the former, the external experts the latter.


How do I learn to recognise what is worth publishing

Broadly, ask yourself these two questions:

Is it new?
Is it something that people in your field would want to read?

The first question is very important and sometimes disheartening. If it's not new, it doesn't matter how interesting your result is, how difficult it was to obtain, or how well you present it. You say that you have difficulty feeling like your work is new, but (unlike whether or not your work is "good") this is something that you can and should unambiguously determine by reading the existing literature. Note that "new" doesn't have to mean "earthshaking". It can (and usually does) mean more modest novelty.

The second question helps you distinguish between many possible new things to try to publish. If the paper you're working on already existed, would you and your colleagues want to read it?  You can use the degree to which the answer is "yes" to decide whether or not you should spend your time on one publication as opposed to another.

To answer either question, you need to read a lot of the existing literature, and get to know the academic community you work in. So yes, experience is important. Your advisors are there to help you when you are starting out.


About legality on self-plagiarism when publishing an article

I don't know of any legal regimen in which self plagiarism is an issue. It is scientific misconduct, but not illegal, to use your own words and ideas without citing them. This is a case in which the legal and the ethical aren't the same.

It isn't "stealing" ideas when you self plagiarize. It is just sloppy scholarship that makes it harder for readers and other scholars to find the complete context of the ideas expressed.

Of course, if you have given up copyright to some words, then using those words again may violate the copyright that you once held, but no longer do. A publisher that holds the copyright might make a legal claim against you, but it isn't because of self-plagiarism, but copyright violation.


What if funding info not uploaded while submission but acknowledged?

There are two different things here: (1) Acknowledgement and (2) Online information. These two things are different.

(1) Acknowledgement is provided by the authors and it appears in the printed (online and offline) manuscript. Acknowledgement can go to a person, a set of persons, a lab, an university, a funder and such like.

(2) Funding information appears in both manuscript (just below abstract, sometimes) and in the online journal website. This is exclusively provided to thank the funding organization. And, if the research is funded, then it is a must.

If you don't provide such information while submitting the paper, though you have acknowledged in the manuscript, it won't appear on the journal website.

However, here is the alternative. I believe that you have submitted the first version of the manuscript. If it comes for a revision request, then while submitting the revised version, you can edit the funding information in online submission system.

Alternatively, you can email the journal editorial office to make an arrangement with the submission system so that you can edit the submission again. Note that if the article is already under review, you can't change anything now.


Can research rejected by journals has any chances being accepted if it is disseminated by the social media?

In my experience, even peer-reviewed publications are rarely read. There are a handful of influential papers in each field (from what I have seen) which are read and cited. But beyond these, a lot of work is only cited to keep people happy.

Therefore, I think that the chances of people reading the work without it being peer-reviewed are very slim.

If you want your work to get reviewed and it is being rejected before being read (this is what you're saying, I think), then you perhaps need co-authors that know the field better.


What factors contribute to the credibility of a book used as source?

It depends on how you are using the source - what claims you make based on the source.

For example, if you cite the results of some experiment written up in a paper as accepted scientific fact, then that paper should ideally be in a peer-reviewed publication, and be written by someone who is qualified to perform that experiment. (Or it should be something that you can - and have - verified independently yourself.) A blog post written by someone with no credentials in the field, describing an experiment he did, that you cannot replicate, is not a credible source.

On the other hand, if the claim you make is that "one mistake sometimes made by non-professionals studying X is lack of consideration of Y", then it would be perfectly OK to cite that same blog post as evidence that someone studying X failed to consider Y.

To take your example, if you say "Some professional game developers say that X increases user engagement with a game" or "Contributors to Y say that X increased user engagement" and cite the book, that would be fine. On the other hand, if you state "X increases user engagement with games" as a matter of scientific fact, you need to support that with reference to a credible experiment that studies the effect of X on user engagement using science (not just personal experience).


Useful strategies for answering "dumb" questions in a talk?

If somebody asks a dumb question, they're not going to feel good about the interaction whatever happens. If possible, get them back on the right track but avoid saying anything that could be interpreted as sarcasm and move on as quickly as possible.

The most likely thing is either that the questioner has missed something obvious or misunderstood something you said. So, in your first example, just point out that the rover is held there by the moon's gravity and move on. They're going to be embarrassed to have missed something so simple so it's important that you don't make them feel any worse about it; at least they'll probably understand the rest of your talk, now. In the far less common case of somebody making an assertion based on something that just isn't true, point out that the thing isn't true ("Well, the moon isn't made of cheese.") and move on. If they want to debate the point, offer to discuss it after the talk but don't let them derail you: everyone else in the room, you included, came for a talk about your thruster design, not an argument about whether the moon is a dairy product.


Is a math degree really useless financially?

Just a personal anecdote, not really an answer, too long for a comment.

I have a master degree in mathematics and now I'm doing physics simulations for visual effects in Hollywood blockbusters. I believe that a math degree gives you a massive upper hand in any field with reasonable amount mathematics in it. However, you have to be interested in that field and study it in your spare time. I studied computer graphics in my spare time and my math background allowed me to comprehend things in computer graphics orders of magnitudes faster and deeper compared to fellow computer science students.

Take it with a grain of salt, master degree is completely different kind of a beast compared to a PhD degree.


Academic integrity problem in PhD proposal to reuse ideas/ self-plagiarize?

You may use the ideas for your PhD proposal. Ideas, unless patented, are free and can be passed between people, projects, institutions, etc.

However, do make sure that the source of the original idea is attributed. Particularly when other people contributed to the ideas, attribution is due (from an ethical point of view).

This might be done in the following way: 'I propose to investigate the method that was developed by my supervisor , my lab partner , and myself, described in my master thesis [reference], in the following way ...'

I would certainly advise to reference your master thesis (even if it is not publicly available), since it is a perfect source where the ideas can be found in an elaborate written form.


I still don't know my exact research question but I know I don't like the ideas my advisor pushes me to work on an publish asap. What are my options?

From an outside perspective, you are just getting started. Three months is just a warm up period. One part of me wants to advise that the doctoral study period is limited and you should do what you need to do to get through it and move on to other things. The other part wants to advise that it isn't fun to work on something you aren't interested in for a few years. Dilemma.

But, if you intend to stay with this advisor, I suggest, pretty strongly, that you take his advice. He has more experience and a wider view than you do. It would be fine, in my view, to ask for more time to find a mutually acceptable problem to work on, but if you get push-back, I think you either need to yield or find someone else to work with. But, it may be that you can come up with an idea that he has some interest and competence in quickly enough that it works out.

You will get the best help from your advisor, assuming you need it, if you work on a problem he is also invested in. It is possible, but harder, to work alone, but you still need his approval at the end of the day. If you can get by with minimal help and final approval, you can probably make a go of it, though it will likely take longer than if you have strong help.

But you should look, also, to see if there is another local advisor available who has more compatible interests. You also want an advisor who will support your future career. Fighting with him won't get you that.


In the Harvard referencing style, is it wrong to put references in footnotes?

As your question is directly about Harvard referencing, I believe all Harvard referencing uses in-text citations. Wikipedia supports this understanding.

Yes, you can use footnotes but they are used for clarification or comments, they are not used for referencing as the image in the question has done [therefore the author has cited improperly].

There are several sub-types of Harvard but ALL of them that I am familiar with are in-text, not based on footnotes (except as noted above).


My paper has been sitting with the editor without peer review, and the journal is not responding. What should I do?

The average length of time that it takes for a manuscript to work its way through the submission/review process can vary from one discipline to the next, and I'm not really sure what that would be for yours. Coming from my own experience in the humanities, I would normally expect an editor to take no longer than a month to get a manuscript out to reviewers. Of course, there are a number of legitimate reasons for delays, such as an editor having a hard time securing reviewers (or getting reviewers who end up backing out or are unresponsive to an editor's request for evaluations).
That said, I do think that a case such as yours seems unprofessional. You've reached out and haven't received any specific explanation for the delay and the response doesn't even seem to align with your situation (you mention that your manuscript hasn't been sent out for peer review, yet they mention that they're working on sending decisions out...) I would probably send another email indicating that I'd like to withdraw my submission. However, if you have co-authors on this paper, do not do so without consulting them first. I would also copy them in this email if they are also OK with withdrawing.


Usefulness of research paper(s) of another discipline for PhD

It is unlikely that any papers in a different field will be used in assessing a PhD. However, as long as the papers are not too time consuming to generate, then the process (doing research, writing it up for publication, responding to reviews) will be useful for doing the work necessary to get your PhD. And more papers will always help in applying for postdocs.

Depending on the subject, a PhD can be more about learning to do research than obtaining subject matter knowledge. If you are in such a discipline, then research practice is useful. But it is counterproductive if doing the extra papers reduces your capacity to do research in your own field (particularly time).


Is it legal for me to write my thesis in my native English and have it translated to German at the end?

This is not a legal issue—at least not at first. If you have copyright of your work, you can at any point in time—even years from now—sign a contract with a professional who will translate the thesis into another language and provide certification of having done so. That would be perfectly legal.

The real question is if your faculty will allow you to have someone else translate your thesis so that you can submit it in German, which is largely an administrative decision that may depend on the university. If it were professionally translated, you would have to disclose that fact as part of the submission since it would technically not be entirely your work. Most theses require such an explicit statement as part of the submission.

There may be an alternative: you should consult the relevant Prüfungsordnungen (examination regulations) that cover your program. Many programs now permit theses to be submitted almost entirely in English along with a short amount of material in German (usually something like an abstract or summary plus any “pro forma” statements. It may not be necessary to hire a translator if you can do the basic translation and submit in English.


Are there still teaching professor positions in Western Europe in Biology/Env Sciences?

In France at least, the answer is yes, these positions exist. The positions you need to look for are either called "PRAG" (for PRofesseur AGrégé dans l'enseignement supérieur) or "PRCE" (for PRofesseur CErtifié affecté dans l'enseignement supérieur). There exists a list of such positions (warning: big xls spreadsheet) and I count a few that mention "biologie" for example. These are teaching-only positions in universities, or sometimes "grandes écoles" (which are pretty much the same as universities except that they have fewer students, students had to take a competitive exam to get in, education starts at the 3rd year level, and the focus is often more on engineering).

However, landing these positions is not easy.

They are very competitive: there are few of them, and they are in high demand.
To become a "PRAG" you need to be professeur agrégé, as the name indicates. This is done by passing the agrégation, which is a national competitive exam. Similarly to become "PRCE" you need to be a professeur certifié, which requires passing another national competitive exam (easier than the agrégation).
Both of these are civil servant (fonctionnaire) jobs. Professeurs agrégés usually teach in high school (sometimes in middle school), and professeurs certifiés teach in middle and high school. If you win the national competition, you have to take up a post (and you're unlikely to obtain a PRAG or PRCE position your first year unless you're brilliant and lucky). If you don't, then you will lose your position unless you have a compelling reason, which certainly won't help you build the seniority/experience necessary to obtain a PRAG/PRCE position.

As professeur agrégé you would also have the possibility of teaching in a prépa, including biology. This is a special post-secondary studies pathway consisting of two intensive years of training (for the students) before the students take up the national competitive exams to enter a grande école. This covers the first two years after high school (and usually the content of the courses is larger than the content of the first two years of university). Once again, obtaining a position in a prépa is rather difficult and is a combination of brilliance and luck (and networking...).

Upside: there is zero research pressure in these positions as you will not have any duty (or time) to do research.

Other than that, I don't think there exist any teaching-only positions in France. All other academic positions (maître de conférences, chargé de recherche...) are either teaching+research or even research-only. It is not surprising that all the job ads you found emphasized a strong research record in France: by law, research is mandatory, and university departments are only evaluated (and hence receive funding) through research.


Statement of Purpose length and bibliography

In my general experience, a statement of purpose rarely needs to be so detailed as to necessitate inclusion of a bibliography. That said, there is nothing expressly preventing you from including a bibliography. On the other hand, part of me is skeptical of the wisdom of including a full-page bibliography in association with a two-page statement. It may seem very much like overkill.

Unless you're citing each and every one of the works in the bibliography individually, I don't see a logical reason to include that many works. I'd stick to just the essential citations needed to explain what you want to do.


Is it possible to get another PhD in political science in Germany after getting a PhD in philosophy in Hong Kong

You should have a look at the "Promotionsordnung" (~Regulations for PhD courses) of the specific universities. As far as I know, it might not be possible to get the same PhD degree twice. They have to be from different fields. It should be possible to get two different PhDs as I know some people who achieved this in Germany.


What is a PhD forum? Is it similar to short paper submission?

The nature may vary from conference to conference, but in my experience a Ph.D. forum is typically an event intended to help graduate students learn how to present and how to shape their papers to fit the expectations of the field.  It is often a place for students to start getting advice and feedback on their work from the larger community, and for the larger community (who may be interested in hiring the student in the future) to start getting to know them.

As such, it is typically very lightly reviewed and only sort-of counts as publication.  As such, it is not worth very much on your resume (the value is in the networking and feedback), but it will not usually prevent you from later publishing a full version of the same work elsewhere.


Is it worth staying an extra year to bring up GPA for grad school (Master's)

My friend, you're being answered by a guy (me) who entered the engineering graduate school of his choice despite having several Cs, 3 course "withdraws", and an entire scrapped semester so that I could "find myself". All of this occurred because I was seriously questioning, in my junior year, whether or not I wanted to continue in my major. Working at a crappy, low-wage job for an entire semester made me get my head screwed on a little better. After all of that, I completed my B. S. degree with a 3.50.

Despite your comments, I think you might be in a better position, academically, than I was!

My gut feeling is that you should apply to all of those graduate schools because re-taking classes for a year would be a possible, sizable waste of one year. If those schools don't pan out, then you can re-group and decide on your next steps.


Would I be considered a Masters degree holder right after my course completion?

The date on which you finish courses is not necessarily the date when you earn the degree, nor is the date of the commencement ceremony.

What matters is the date on which the degree is conferred by the university. If you're not sure what that date is, ask the registrar's office.

In some cases if the degree conferral date for students completing their coursework in December/January is after the H1B deadline, the registrar may have some kind of special arrangement (see this example from Stanford), which they'll tell you about if you ask.


It might be helpful if you can tell us what field you are in, or more specifically what kinds of class you are teaching. What is the subject, and is it a big lecture class or a small section, etc? Catching 50 plagiarists makes me think you are teaching big lecture sections.

Here are two things I do: First, I have a very harsh plagiarism policy. I automatically fail anybody I catch plagiarizing. This raises the stakes.

Second, I consciously try to design assignments that are hard to plagiarize. There are a variety of ways to do this. For instance, you can give fairly specific assignments. Don't say: "Write a paper about Shakespeare" but instead "Write me a paper on the role of ghosts in King Lear and MacBeth." This doesn't make cheating impossible, but it makes it harder to google and get a prefabbed paper.


In the Dutch salary system, how do the "steps" ("trede") work?

You automatically go up one step per year, until you reach the top of the scale. Starting points are determined by HR, based on an estimate of how many 'years' into the scale you already should be. For example, a postdoc would typically begin on (I think) 10-4, to account for the time spent doing the PhD (note that the Promovendus - PhD student - scale P matches the start of scale 10).

I imagine that it is theoretically possible to refuse someone an increment, or advance them by several steps at once - but I've never heard of it actually happening.

Once you hit the top of a scale, you're stuck there until you can get promoted to the next scale (which requires an explicit process to be followed).

(The other quirk of the Dutch system is that your annual salary is typically 14x the number in this table: 12 monthly payments, plus a vacation payment and an annual bonus.)


What are pre-print repositories for math and physics alternative to ArXiv?

In mathematics and physics arXiv is by far the most used and reputable.

Of course, there are thousands other ways to self-archive your paper using not dedicated solutions (like personal website, GitHub, etc) and some general (like FigShare).

Yet, when it comes to pre-print services, they only one I am aware of is http://vixra.org/. It has policy of accepting everything; however, it has reputation of crackpotism (as arXiv is popular and editors rarely reject from it, so for the majority if researchers there is no reason to choose viXra (unless as a protest or something)).


Finalist for fellowship at prospective grad school. Does this mean I'm admitted?

I am the Graduate Coordinator for a mathematics PhD program.  But even I don't know the answer to your question (except possibly if  I'm the one who contacted you...but I don't think I sent out any emails quite like that).  So I don't think that random internet strangers can give you a definitive answer.

It's clear that you haven't been admitted yet, or the Graduate Coordinator would have told you so.  As for "usually imply" -- I am not willing to go so far.  What I can say is that being informed that you are a finalist for the fellowship certainly increases the chances you'll get admitted.  But for instance this fellowship may allow the department to admit a student that they would not otherwise be able to admit.  In that situation you would still think that they would admit someone that they put up for a prestigious fellowship ahead of most other students, but there could be exceptions.

As my favorite Harvard Square chess hustler used to say, "Sometimes you never know."


Should work as a lab assistant be listed under work experience on a CV when applying for a Masters in computer science?

I suppose you could include 'lab teaching assistant', but a research assistant would be of a better significance to include in an academic CV. If you do have other occupation to add over the years, you might not need add this one.


In astronomy, would it be possible to continue doing postdocs for up to 15 years to increase your chance of getting a permanent position?

This question to some extent revolves around a purely semantic issue, namely what is a postdoc? Many areas in academia have a small number of "soft money" research positions that a researcher can hold, sometimes for many years. When a researcher has an independent source of funds and doesn't need to be paid, I imagine that can only improve his/her ability to obtain such positions. The questions that need to be discussed in connection to your question are therefore:

(a) Do such positions qualify as "postdocs"?

(b) Is there a chance for a researcher holding such a position for up to 15 years to eventually transfer to a tenure track position?

I'm not in astronomy, but from a general STEM perspective I would argue that the answer to (a) is no, and the answer to (b) is yes.

Specifically, with regards to (a), the point is that "postdoc" is not a technical term (at least not one whose definition is universally agreed upon), but an informal label we apply to an interim position a researcher holds for a few years after finishing their PhD and before finding a permanent/tenure-track position. Talking about someone being a postdoc for 15 years is an oxymoron, as it stretches the term way past its conventionally understood meaning. Linguistically it would be like talking about a "50 year old child."

With regards to (b), I think it is indeed very possible for a researcher to transition to a faculty position from any other type of position, provided they have been doing high quality work. An extreme case (but not necessarily the only case) would be a researcher who makes a single very important scientific discovery that propels them to scientific stardom. I would imagine that it is absolutely possible for this to happen to a non-faculty researcher in astronomy. Whether it's likely to happen is a completely different story of course, but given that the premise of OP's question is that landing a faculty position in astronomy is already highly unlikely even in the normal way, I don't see why this approach is any less likely to work than the more conventional one.

To summarize, my (non-astronomy-specific, as I said) opinion is that although a soft money researcher may suffer from a certain minor stigma when it comes to applying for faculty positions, this by itself will almost certainly not be a deal-breaker, and when it comes to being evaluated for such positions, to a good degree of approximation everything would depend on the work they have published.


A "pro-chancellor" (or similarly a "pro-rector," which we have in Germany), is a deputy to a chancellor (or rector), who handles certain duties on behalf of the chancellor (or rector). In the particular case of Commonwealth countries from which you hail, the pro-chancellor is the person who heads the university's executive council on behalf of the chancellor.


Will I be too old to apply for Ph.D. at the age of 30

You are never too old, in years, to start a Doctoral program or to otherwise extend your education. However, you need to do a couple of things while you "wait".

Most important is that you don't lose your edge. If you are working in the field of study you should probably be fine and your experience may help. In fact, it may give you some ideas about unsolved issues in the field that might lead to research and a dissertation. But you will also need to try to keep current through readings. You don't say which field you plan to enter, but some move faster than others. New possibilities for research open up as well.

The second thing is that you will need to be prepared to answer questions about the gap in an intelligent and positive way. Getting experience in field is a pretty good answer. Recovering from burn out is not so fine.

However, as you age, you may take on additional responsibilities that you don't now have: family, kids, mortgage, ... Seek life balance of course, but as your responsibilities change, so may your goals. You will also need to deal, increasingly, with the needs of others. But nothing is an absolute block.

Remember that you will age no matter what you do. It is better to spend your life doing something you love than otherwise, even if it takes a while to realize the dream.


Saying thank you to professor & asking for a reference at the same time?

How about if you put it the other way around? Ask for a reference first and add later something like "I'd also like to take this opportunity and thank you for ..." and explain your situation. Then it at least seems less suspicious, since you are asking for something first.

Alternatively, ask for the reference in one email, and if you get a reply, thank him/her in a second email.


Providing Students Formal Exam Feedback?

One potential drawback comes to mind: if you release the rubrics and/or each student's assessment against these rubrics (it's a bit unclear to me which one you want to do), you will open the gates wide to long, tiresome discussions.

If students don't know the rubrics against which their work is assessed, they will have a harder time arguing that "obviously they addressed this topic, so they should get full points."

(I'm not arguing against releasing rubrics and/or assessments just to reduce the teacher's workload. I'm pointing out a potential downside. I'd still argue that releasing at least the rubrics makes sense to help students improve. Just be prepared for discussions. A small percentage of students can be very tenacious in such discussions and appear to spend more time disputing their grade after the exam than preparing before.)


Can I learn the course material for the first time while I'm teaching it?

. . . the first time I was in a statistics course, I was there to
  teach it.
  - John Tukey

In my experience, it's definitely better to learn about it beforehand. If you are really pressed for time, then start reading the textbook or course material from the back, because you really need to know the direction in which the course is going before you teach the material.

Too many times, I have done the opposite and tried to learn the subject at the same time as teaching it. This is really fun and certainly helps you to see things from the perspective of the students, but is not ideal from a pedagogical point of view, as you are too likely to be blindsided by something. The same goes for courses which are part of a series. For example, I once taught a linear algebra class and left out determinants because we were running out of time and we didn't "need" them for the exam. Next term, I got an irate email from the instructor of Linear Algebra 2...

The best possible prepartion for teaching the course in X is having taught it before.


How to have a fulfilling social life as an academic

The special thing for you coming out of (what seems) a pretty demanding grad school time is that being a postdoc is not so special at all. In most ways, being a postdoc is not unlike any other time-demanding job. You come to work in the morning, spend most of your day there, and, in the evening (whenever that is, time-wise), you will more often than not go back to your home and stay there to relax a bit. You bond with your co-workers, but usually more in an "acquaintance" than in a "friends-for-life" way.

Anyway, it seems to me that you are thinking that you can only hang out with people on your academic "level". This has never been my personal experience at all. In all my work places, grad students often hang out privately with the postdocs that they work with, and many of the younger faculty staff often join in for ad-hoc parties as well. I guess it is all a question of how you want to appear towards your junior work mates. There are people that see fit to construct an image of aloofness towards their students, and others like to mingle. Nothing wrong with either, of course, as long as your work relationship stays reasonably professional.


What should I do if I cannot reproduce experimental published results

@posdef's comment is already very good.

I would definitely suggest contacting the authors and trying to get exact agreement also on the details that they didn't describe in the original paper. The original authors should be quite interested in an independent replication, so they should have an incentive to collaborate. Depending on how much they contribute, they could also hope for co-authorship on your paper.

Conversely, if they are not cooperative, that is another piece of information that should be included tactfully (!) in the paper you are putting together.

If you are lucky in your analyses, you may be able to identify the exact circumstance or unreported detail that makes the difference between reproducibility and non-reproducibility, and there you have the nucleus of an original paper all by itself.

On the other hand, if you cannot reproduce the results even with help from the original authors, this should be worth at least a correspondence. Reproductions are important, and there are far too few of them!

I part ways with @posdef's comment in that I would definitely not send a letter to the editor voicing concerns about reports and reproductions not matching. This already points towards a suspicion of scientific wrongdoing on the part of the original authors. And unless you have a lot more to go by, a simple inability to reproduce a finding should not be taken as the result of foul play. There are so many potential reasons for non-reproducibility, from the ones you mention to simple random error (aka, uncontrolled conditions), that there is really no need to even imply dishonesty. Such an implication can mess up either the original authors' or your own reputation in the field for decades, so it should not be made lightly.