A very similar question has a great answer to this.

TL;DR It is a fuzzy area without set rules, meaning you can decide your affiliation without some kind of penalty from the journal or your field.

If you are still editing the paper once you enter the new institution it probably makes sense to use the current location. However if the paper was 90%+ completed at your former institution, whether the school or NASA-JPL, it's OK to use that as your affiliation.

I published a paper in 2014 that was 90% researched, analyzed, and written at one institution between 2010-2012, then underwent a journal review process for two years. I chose to use my current 2014 institution as my affiliation for the publication, but it would have still been acceptable to use the former one where most of the work had been completed.


When does a piece of work on machine learning have enough material to be publishable?

Novelty, importance and relevance

The main criteria for publishable research in ML as in pretty much every other field is novelty, importance and relevance.

Is your proposed solution or technique novel, and can you demonstrate that? You'd need to provide an overview of relevant literature and alternative solutions, and show how what you're proposing is new and different (at least slightly) from everything that has ever been published on that topic.

Is your proposed solution or technique important and interesting for others? If there's a bunch of published research on similar problems, you'd need to demonstrate why your paper is either better in some aspect or would be otherwise interesting for all the people working on these other problems; if not, then you'd need to show why that problem is important and why others would care about it - if it's a very unique task for e.g. your employer and noone else, then it's generally publishable if and only if that solution would be interesting and inspiring for people solving similar problems and that there actually are people solving similar problems.

And last but not least, your problem and solution needs to be relevant to the specialty of the venue where you want to publish it. A Nobel-prize worthy chemistry experiment won't (usually) be relevant enough to be published a machine learning conference; and the same applies for narrower niches within ML - certain venues are looking for certain types of papers only and would reject other topics even if the papers are really good.


Is it advisable/sufficient to enroll and finish my MSc degree in an accredited private university in the same country with no ranking in Times or QS?

In the short term, what you are asking is that the "new" university accepts some of the exams/courses/credits you gained previously.
That's entirely up to each single university how they will manage that. You need to get in touch with the universities you are aiming at.
Your goal is to complete a MSc, they usually are 2 years in length (read: they require you to pay 2 years of tuition fees) but how you complete this journey (if you pass the exams or if you can have the past exams recognized) it is entirely to the single University internal regulations.
However, in the long term the lack of proper math background is what should worry you, more than the rating/ranking of a specific university, especially if you aim at pursuing a PhD.
Good luck, from what I understand you feel a bit of time pressure. Don't. Many PhDs in Europe start their PhDs when they are well over 25 years old, even around 30 years old, so do not rush and take your time.
Especially in having good math fundamentals, if your goal is to pursue a PhD.


"Soft" ways to contribute to the research community in a new and growing field

You should remember that as a Ph.D student, the instruments at your disposal are limited. Having said that, maintaining a bibliography is a useful way to collect all relevant information in one place, especially given the multidisciplinary nature of the area. If you do this though, be careful to

make sure things are always kept up-to-date. There's nothing more annoying than a half-baked reference page
Be very liberal in what you include in the bibliography. It shouldn't be perceived that you're being a gatekeeper for the area.
If possible, provide some structure to the bibliography: sections, maybe some annotation, etc. Depending on how web-savvy you are, you might be able to create a form for people to enter information in themselves.

The primary benefit for you will be access to the entire body of work in the area, and some credit for maintaining the page. There will undoubtedly be name recognition benefits if you are perceived not only as the librarian, but as an expert on the topic.


How can I convert my MSc thesis into a publishable research article?

In general, reproductions of existing research is not publishable. If you want to publish, you usually need to do something new. There are two major ways that you can do new work based on existing work.

Make it better: If the existing approach works very well, you can develop an extension of the methodology that is more general than the original work. Maybe you can make a theoretical improvement, like removing assumptions about the loss function. Maybe you can find new areas where you can apply this methodology to solve other problems it wasn't meant for. Maybe you can make it more accurate, or make it's failure less likely.
Discover it's limitations: If it is a methodology that has limitations that are not widely known, that can be a research contribution too. For example, maybe this crack detection algorithm only works with certain ambient brightness. If it's too dark, it looses the ability to detect cracks. Maybe it makes some assumptions about the shape of cracks that are unfounded, and cracks that are a circle, instead of having distinct end-points, cannot be detected by this methodology.

In both cases, you need to do something that goes beyond what is contained in the paper and do something new. But it's not enough to just do something new, you have to do something that both new and interesting.

"Interesting" often means "in opposition of people's default assumptions." Showing that a cave crack detection algorithm doesn't detect cracks in hardwood floors isn't very interesting if no one expected it to. In that case, showing that it does detect cracks in hardwood floors would likely be interesting and open up many new applications for the approach.

Another way that your work could be interesting is that it solves a problem that people have talked about being interested in already. Maybe it's well-known that the algorithm breaks when it gets very dim, and there are multiple papers saying "it would be nice if we knew how to make this work for dim caves." Even if this hasn't been explicitly stated, if people say "I wish we knew how to detect cracks in dim caves" then showing that this methodology does that would be interesting, assuming the original paper didn't and that figuring out that it does work in this context is non-trivial.

These are not the only two ways to extend word, nor is it the only way to show that your work is interesting. But thinking about the problem in these terms will be a good way for you to get started.

Also, if you wrote a MSc thesis, presumably you have a thesis adviser. That person would be a great resource to talk to, both to learn about what is publishable and to get advice about how to get started doing publishable work.


Changing Interests After Getting Accepted for PhD

Changing a subject during the PHD course is legitimate, and not very rare. However, finding an advisor is a must. I think in that case you'll have no choice but trying to convince professors to be your advisors.

A possible way is to find an expert from a different university, that will be your co-advisor. That way you'll just need to find another faculty in your university that is not-too-far from your interests. You might find someone that will tentativly be your advisor, and once you show some progress will agree to take you under..

But maybe the big question is,
why not moving to the place where the "experts" are?


Can I improve the idea of the paper on arxiv and publish it again?

arXiv is a public repository/a preprint server for research papers (that are either under review or currently being worked on. There are other such servers hosted by publishing houses as well like Elsevier's SSRN or MDPI's preprints.
In accordance with your question to the following paragraph:

On a related note, unrefereed on-line pre-prints are not assumed to constitute “prior work” – in other words, reviewers cannot penalize an HPCA submission because it does not cite a pre-print with limited visibility.

What they are trying to convey is that, if a paper (an online pre-print i.e., present on any of the public repos/databases) is somewhat relevant to the topic you're targeting in your paper and you don't cite the paper in the related work/prior work section you won't be penalized for it or asked to do so. The reason they don't consider arXiv prior work is clear that the PC is strictly adhering to papers that are rigorously peer-reviewed and published by a journal.
Also, it clearly does not indicate that you can plagiarize anyone's work.


It is very likely that nobody except you and the people you will give your thesis to will ever see the hard copy of your thesis. (And some random people looking at some theses in the library - however, if this is not uncommon in your university, they will not judge you negatively for having a picture.)

So, you should consider:

Do you think it's nice to have a photo of you on your thesis? Many people like to have a nice thesis on their shelf which has not only good context, but nice formatting, nice colours, nice pictures etc. Some people see a thesis as a pure formality and are happy to do as little "style" things as possible. In which class do you fall? And if you care, do you think the thesis looks better or worse with your picture?
Will the people you give the thesis to appreciate it? (Don't forget to consider parents and grandparents!)
How much more does it cost? Do you feel it is worth the price?
Is there a place at university you really like (e.g. a certain place in the library, your office, the mensa etc.) and you would really miss it after your studies? It can be nice to have a picture of yourself in that place on the thesis (if this is allowed).


How to answer question about publication plans in a grant proposal?

This question is quite common and "dissemination" is usually a part of a grant proposal. It depends greatly on your "position" and the planned work and also the field on how to write it exactly.

Sometimes we write quite blank statements like

  Results will be published in highly ranked, peer-reviewed international scientific journals.

for some projects this might not be true, since you know right away that it won't find a place in the top journals so you can write publishing it in specialized journals and give examples:

  Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals important in the field of this work/XY (e.g. examples).

You can definitely write how many publications you expect, if it's more than one!

Depending on the grant you might want to include a statement about open access (if they pay for this then you definitely should).

As for conference attendance: you can definitely include this too. If you already know a suited conference you should definitely mentioned it.


How to connect with professors as a non-academic?

You could try to select a precise topic, collect related scientific articles on Google Scholar from universities located in the country or city you live in, see if their authors have social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), add, follow or connect (to) them, read the articles and start asking questions to the authors.


My supervisor and head of center is doing unethical things and I am in the middle

Sorry for making an answer, but still without enough reputation to comment.

That is a very tricky situation, I can imagine, even more because you have colleagues that simply don't care. I see that the question is already one month old, but I just wanted to point out, in addition to the other comments, that sometimes universities or departments have some sort of complaint and review procedures, rather than just send an email to the dean.

I would just like to also add that I hope you don't give up on trying to make academia a "better place". Academia is full of people that are "untouchable", and if no one complains, it will stay like that forever. I wish you good luck and if you found some procedure or detail that might be useful to others in the same situation, it would be great if you can write them down here.


Can a thesis approved by supervisor fail? What to do to appeal?

I don't see how you can successful appeal the failure based on your supervisor's approval.  The only recourse is to change supervisor, complain that your supervisor is incompetent, and get the university to waive any penalties to do with late submission.  The supervisor's job is to make sure your thesis is up to the international standard. He/she is not responsible for passing you. In your case, as three external examiners have said no, then there is no way to pass without first doing more work, and then submitting a revised thesis; perhaps sending it to new examiners.  Also, I would definitely get an experienced supervisor or co-supervisor to guide you.

The other side of the coin is that it is possible that the fault is entirely yours.  I know of students who went ahead with the submission despite having a poor thesis, and the supervisor reluctantly approved the thesis to prove to the student that the thesis is not up to standard.


Should a mid-career faculty application include a letter from the former PhD advisor?

In most cases it seems a good idea to include the former adviser.

I suppose an exception would be if you are now much more "established/senior" than your adviser, or if there is some serious problem with your adviser's professional reputation.


Questions regarding PhD in Linguistics or Applied Linguistics at US universities

As an international candidate you need to think about what your scores mean. I think percentile rank, as opposed to GPA or raw percentage is what is important. In the US a 65.9 would be very bad and I would guess that in the US 75% of the students have a GPA of 3.0 or above and 10% have a GPA of 3.6 or above. In many European countries a 59.9 would be a borderline 2:1 and put you in the 50th percentile.

It sounds like you think your Masters work would be in the top 10%. That is very good. With a little help (both in your letter and by your recommendation writers) schools will figure this out.

One solid piece of previous research is really all that is need to get into a PhD program. 40,000 words is huge. You may want to work on shortening it so you can present it as a paper and send it as a writing sample if English is not your first language.


"Professors do talk, you know" - What exactly does that mean?

Since students are a big part of our life, we discuss students both in casual situations (e.g., lunch) or professional settings (e.g., committee meetings).  Of course you shouldn't think students are all we talk about, and discussions about students mostly only come up in committee meetings when they're relevant.
The conversations are mostly professional, particularly the ones in meetings, but some things you might consider "gossipy" I would consider professional, e.g., where a student is going for grad school.  (As a department, we have an interest in what our students do afterwards).  Not that there is not no gossip going on, but at least I personally am not so interested in it, and I don't know too much about the personal lives of most of my students.  Most "gossip" is about other faculty.
Well, faculty often discuss about bad experiences with/performances of students with other faculty. Sometimes to get advice, sometimes to vent, and sometimes because the student has done something amusing.  Sometimes the student's name is used and sometimes it is not.  In my department, I think the student's name is not normally used in the case of undergrads unless it is in a professional context (needing advice or reporting a possible problem student).  But we don't often give explicit advice like "stay away from this student."
In general, I think people have a tendency to spend more time complaining than offering praise.  However, at least at the undergrad level, when names are used, I think it is more often to speak positively or neutrally of students than speak negatively.


You should note that "Required Reviews Completed" status does not entail that "all" reviews are completed. It just suggests that a "minimal" set of reviews have come in.

For example, for few journals, the required number of reviews to make a decision could be 2; but, sometimes the editor sends an article to more than 2 reviewers. In that case, if he is not satisfied with the received reviews (i.e. at least two), then he waits for the few more.

In my recent paper, the status remained as it is for 2.5 months. Then, I reminded the journal EIC to expedite the process. Still, I had to wait for a month to receive the final decision.


When citing a foreign-language article, do I need to translate the journal name?

I'm just guessing here, but have the following suggestion. If the journal, itself, provides a translation then use that. But otherwise, use the formal name that the journal uses no matter the script or language. The name is likely trademarked and also likely known worldwide by its official name. So use that name.

A journal regularly publishing in several languages, of course, might, theoretically at least, have official translations of its name. But otherwise, use the same form that they use.


Why shouldn't I quote famous scientists in my SOP?

A statement of purpose is forward-looking. It is not meant to be, to paraphrase Wordsworth, "recollections of early childhood." I don't really care why you decided to study mathematics when you were seven years old, nor do I care about some generic quote from a scientist that inspired you. I want to know what you might want to study as a PhD student, and why you are motivated to study that specific project.

If a famous scientist said something relevant about your proposed project, that's a different story, because it's actually significant to what you want to do in the future. Otherwise, leave it out—it just annoys most of the referees who will eventually read it.


How to say good-bye to an unhelpful and undisciplined professor?

My friend, I would suggest that you start by seeing a medical professional, and the dean of students in your department or university.  If it is difficult for you to describe your situation in a conversation, then write a short statement and start the conversation by giving the statement to the person.  There are multiple aspects to your situation, but I want to make sure you understand that a university has a responsibility to support its students, and the job of a medical professional is to care for patients.  If your university has an office for students with disabilities, you could talk to them as well.  I think that your level of distress is making it more difficult for you to deal with your academic stress.
Now, about your academic situation.  Your advisor is not everything you would have liked to have as an advisor.  But please try to focus on the positives about him and your relationship for now, and postpone processing the negatives until later.  Supporting your parents is your top priority right now, and you will start to feel better when you are able to begin helping them.  Wanting to care for elderly, infirm parents is a basic human drive.
Here is a proposed text for when you go see the dean of students.  If
necessary, you can have this translated to the local language.

I am
giving you a written statement about my situation because it is
difficult for me to begin a conversation about my problem.
My parents
are alone and in poor health, and I feel an urgent need to finish my
PhD and leave [name of city or country where you are] to go care for
them.
This worry is making me so distressed that life has become very
difficult for me here.
I believe that I am ready to graduate, having
completed my PhD research and published several papers about my work.
I don't know how to convince my advisor that it is time for him to
schedule my defense.
Is there someone in the university who can help
me communicate my situation to my advisor?  I am finding it
increasingly difficult to carry on ordinary conversations because of the high level of distress I feel.

This is a simplification of everything that's going on with you at present -- but that's okay.
For the medical professional, you can also list your symptoms, for example: thoughts of suicide, frequent nightmares, difficulty concentrating, difficulty smiling or talking to people -- and anything else that may be going on.
For these conversations, you must set aside the feelings of despair, while you are having the conversation.  It should be as though you were there negotiating for a friend or acquaintance, not about yourself.  Make sure that you don't get discouraged if the first person you speak with does nothing to help you -- just try someone else.
If you need to show your statement to a receptionist or secretary, that's okay.  You owe it to your parents to get the help you need.


What to do on finding a major flaw in a conference paper?

First contact the authors of the paper, and discuss the issue with them.
When the flaw is small and does not affect their results too much, they might simply put an erratum on their website. When they are unwilling to do so, let it rest (it is a small flaw).
When the error is significant, you might co-publish together with the original authors a new conference article that addresses this (it might even be called 'Erratum on paper XYZ')


I published a review article in a journal that is not well known. Can I include it in my CV?

A publication is work that you have published. You may include anything you want. The fact that many readers of your CV might not recognize the journal is irrelevant. Even for English-language journals, many readers might not recognize some journals.
If your CV is targeted to English readers, if your review were only in Italian, then it would be a good idea to include both the original Italian title an English translation. But if, as your question seems to indicate, the original article is available both in Italian and in English, then for an English CV, you should probably list only the English title.


When I reapply to universities which have previously rejected my applications, do I have to pay application fees again?

Generally, there is nothing special about a reapplication; you apply just as if you were applying for the first time.  You will submit all the required materials again.  Of course, you will submit updated transcripts and scores, and you will probably have revised or rewritten your application essay, so you'll submit the updated version.  Letters of recommendation will also need to be resubmitted; you should ask your letter writers to update their letters to reflect whatever you have been doing in the last year.  And yes, you do have to pay another application fee.

Most institutions will give your new application a fresh look; the fact that you have previously applied and been rejected should not prejudice them against your current application.  (However, people are human, and if some of the same people are still on the admission committee, they may have some memories of the weaknesses they saw in your previous application.)

Of course, to have a better chance of acceptance this time, you should have made yourself a stronger applicant!  Hopefully you have better GRE scores and stronger letters of recommendation, and can report some additional helpful and relevant coursework or work experience in the year since your last application.


In the US, if I cannot finish my PhD in 5 years, will I lose my stipend and have to pay for my own living costs?

You need to ask someone in your department (your advisor, or whoever is in charge of the graduate program).  Five years is pretty good, and it's unlikely they will guarantee more than that, but departments vary in how they handle students who outlast their funding:

Some departments simply cut people off.  At that point, you have to support yourself through loans, savings, or a job (which could be an outside job or extra teaching, depending on what's available).  This can be quite a burden, and it's an incentive to graduate in five years.
Some departments will offer an additional year of funding if they can afford it and think you will make good enough use of it.  It's not guaranteed, but it might happen if you need it.
There may be other sources of funding, such as your advisor's grants or a dissertation completion fellowship.  Whether this is feasible depends heavily on the field and your personal circumstances.

There's no generic answer, and nobody on the internet can tell you which of these cases might apply to you.


How write in CV about lecturing experience while being a PhD student

If lecturer is an actual title in your location, as it is in many, and you don't actually hold the title, then it would be a mistake to suggest otherwise. If you have full responsibility for a course then you could provide a list of "courses taught". But if you are just a guest lecturer in a course taught by another, you could provide a list of "presentations" with a bit of detail.

Don't say things that others might consider misleading.

You could also seek advice from your current department/school as to how to properly present yourself. Likewise, a professor that you worked for in such courses can provide some guidance.


Will I get docked for including a source in my bibliography which I didn't end up using in my actual paper?

Some students actually try to last-minute pad the bibliography that way. If it doesn't look like that (i.e. noticeable many unused references to sources, which you were expected to read&know), you probably will be ok.

In general, it is better practice to include a reference to a source pertaining to the topic of your paper, even if you are not directly quoting from your reference, than to arouse suspicion of concealing to having "used" it. Depending on the context and regulations, you might even be prompted to add references to non-written material (like a conversation) to the bibliography.

It is even rumored some reviewers expect their recent work to be referenced, no matter if it's of any real use to your work. On a funnier note, some writers try to sneak in a fun reference (use with consideration!, I'm just reporting what I have seen...).


How much effort does it take to modify a reference letter for different applications?

If these people believe you are deserving of an award and have already written you a letter, they certainly won't mind modifying it for this purpose.  If they don't think you're deserving of an award then of course you don't want them to write you a letter for this purpose.

The answer to #1 depends on the letter writer and the specific applications/awards involved.  But it is a much smaller effort than writing the initial letter.

The answer to #2 is that yes, this is reasonable. Remember that your letter writers were once in your shoes, and asked people to write letters for them.  One day you will pay it forward.


What can a PI do about a low-performing postdoc?

This really depends a lot on the contract situation. In some countries, such as Germany, there is a “probationary period” of several months wherein either side can choose unilaterally to end the contract. This lowers the risk from a bad hire. Saddled with a hire gone wrong, I’d try to get what output I could from the postdoc during the period and start a new hiring process right away (or see if anyone from the previous search was still available!).

In countries like the US where contracts may not include probationary periods, you have to try to figure out how to best help the postdoc out, since you’re stuck for a potentially much longer period. If it’s some sort of missing knowledge you figure out how to provide that. If it’s some other issue, you try to work around it or solve that problem. Without a more specific example, it’s hard to draw up a good “plan of action.”


Under what circumstances could a project fail from the perspective of a government provided grant?

Funding audit is orthogonal to success
The criteria for success of a project generally rely on particular measurable goals as promised in the project application. Enforcement of that is often handled by making parts of funding conditional to submitting the required deliverables and evidence of appropriate milestones. Usually, no research project is optimistic enough to promise that conclusive results will be in these deliverables (if you already know the result, why is research needed?) but it may specify e.g. certain data sets, analyses, and quantity of scientific publications that must be delivered.
However, it's not really relevant to the question of misappropriated funds. A funding agency may (and often will) audit the expenses of successful projects, possibly randomly, and possibly all of them. For example, I have participated in grants where a proper third party audit (paid by the receiving institution) was a mandatory requirement in the project planning, an inalienable part of the contract, and a "successful" audit report was required for the final payments.
Furthermore, as with taxes, they don't actually have to investigate that much or prove anything - it's your duty to provide appropriate evidence. If they "gave you $100,000 to find out whether camel milk is more nutritious for children 5-10 than cow's milk" but you can only provide evidence of paying $50,000 for camels  because you spent the other $50,000 on something inadmissible, then you're simply not receiving the full $100,000 from them, no matter what scientific results your project achieved - and if they have already paid out more than that, then you legally owe them and they will collect it from the institution. And yes, the funding requirements will be set out so that they will disqualify any institutions where it's reasonably possible that they won't be able to repossess the advance.
Expenses are planned in detail beforehand
It's quite unlikely to simply be assigned "$100,000 to do X" - what would actually happen, is that the project plan would specify the expenses required for the project. If the submitted budget proposal states that your camel milk research is going to involve buying a fancy car for $50,000 then it's likely to rise issues before (and if) the project is selected and approved. If the approved budget proposal states that you'd spend $50,000 of the grant on camels and you then decide that you'd actually want to buy something else for that money (no matter if it's that car or directly buying camel milk instead of camels), then you'd generally have to get an approval from the funding agency for this modification.
Also, often the funding is structured so that they pay after the fact - i.e. the institution buys equipment and pays salaries, and the funding agency only reimburses these expenses when (and if) they're acknowledged as appropriate for the project goals. It's a reasonable scenario that sometimes happens that some expenses will not be reimbursed for some reasons - in that case, the institution has spent that money but won't get funding for it, tough luck. It may result in "allocating" that expense so that it reduces institutional funding available for that PI for other goals.


Illness affected performance - but not that much?

I'd leave it out. This certainly doesn't sound like a bad semester that needs to be explained away. Being able to do well under adverse health conditions isn't really something you want to use as a selling point. Stick to what you did, not what you think you could have done.

If you mention it, there's a risk that someone on the admission committee will wonder if your illness is going to come back, maybe worse this time, and affect your work in grad school. They should not consider that, but people are human, so they might.

Congratulations, and glad you're feeling better.


When I have dealt with extra credit in the past, it was simply retained in the records until the very final accounting of scores at the end of the course.  Thus, if the exam was out of 100 points, it was still considered to be out of 100 points, and some people simply had more than the maximum possible.

When grades were combined together in the final accounting at the end of the course, having a score above the maximum effectively ended up helping compensate for lower scores on other tests (though perhaps not one-to-one, depending on relative weighting).  If a particularly amazing student turned out to get more than the maximum in the class overall, then it wouldn't affect anybody at all: the curve wasn't shifted and they simply got top marks, as they would have if they'd gotten the maximum.


As an undergrad, is it unethical to work in a field that I'm not interested in pursuing further in graduate school?

It is definitely not unethical. Many undergraduates interested in medical careers do research in, say, biology labs, since it looks good on their applications. It is common practice in the field, and no one considers it abusive.

More importantly, oftentimes people take up RA positions specifically for a purpose like yours: to figure out whether or not graduate school is right for them and, if it is, whether they want to stay in the same area or switch to a different one. Being an RA is one of the best ways to try out a particular line of research  without a long-term commitment. That said, once you decide that you want to pursue research in a different area during grad school, it definitely doesn't mean that you should immediately resign (especially since you are planning to publish your work). Even though you are not planning to stay, you can still make a contribution!


Two Papers Accepted. Co-authors presenting

My question: do you think I should challenge these folks or quietly accept their excuses for wanting to go

Well, you've already asked about going, and the answer was "no." Nothing wrong with asking again, though.

However, I want to point out that the way your question reads, it sounds like your previous conversation was more about your PIs attending, not you. So, you should make it clear that you are interested in going. If you were to ask again, I would suggest asking something along the lines of "are there any funds available for me to attend the conference(s)?"

If this conversation does not change the outcome, you could always check with your institution to see if there are funds available for students to travel to and attend conferences. Some schools have these, some schools don't. You may be able to receive some partial funds and be required to cover the rest of the cost out of your own pocket if you really wanted to go and were willing/able to pay your way. In any case, it's a good idea to see if these funds are available to you.

  though unhappy about it as it is, and hope for a better deal in the future.

No, hoping for a better deal in the future is not a good strategy. You need to have a chat with your advisor(s), and express your desire to attend the conferences where your work is presented. Again, as above, ask specifically about whether or not there are/will be any funds for you to attend conferences.

Depending on the answer, you may be satisfied that you will be taken care of the next time around. Or, you may find that at your school/department, students are more or less on their own in obtaining funds for attending conferences (at my PhD-granting institution/department, it was common for the PI to secure the funds for their students to attend conferences where their work was presented — your field/institution may be different).

In the end, if you are not able to come to an agreement about how your travel to conferences will be covered, it will be up to you to decide if your advisor's inability (or unwillingness, etc.) to help you cover these costs is a deal breaker or not.


How to Store Incidental Information Gleaned in the Course of Conducting Research

These are excellent questions! You are especially wise to recognize that your future self will have unfortunately hazy memories of what parameters you chose and why. (I've also been mulling this process myself, and was considering asking a similar question!) Your question is definitely related to prior questions here, but I think those don't necessarily cover collecting data, and some of the answers haven't aged as gracefully as others because they deal with "try this kind of software."

To the extent that your advisor and lab already have a workflow set up, try to work this into it. Is there a shared server for documents, or an application like Dropbox or Box? Do you have a shared Zotero group for bibliography and files? Do you use Git or other version control software? (Version control may be less relevant to you if you're the only one working on the code, whereas it will be critical if multiple people fiddle with it.)

Keeping notes about results

Many scientists are trained to use research notebooks, and there have been interesting discussions about those; aeismail suggested Colin Purrington's tips on maintaining a lab notebook. From looking at an excellent question across tools and a question about Python in particular (though it can be extended), Jupyter is the next tool I will look into for myself, and it may be what you're looking for.

For my own dissertation, for tables and charts I created in Stata, I had a clear file naming scheme about where I outputted and saved them. It was easy (conditional on already knowing LaTeX) to make a LaTeX doc that pointed to those files and could update with the newest version of the results.

File naming and organizing hierarchy

TCSGrad pointed to Jason Eisner's advice on file organization. In particular, I like his advice there of putting in files or file names or folder names the tags: to-do, how-to, logbook, acknowledge, and send-to.
I also highly recommend having, in your project folder, a folder called "Raw Data". This is the original data, as downloaded or found or whatever. In "Raw Data", have a readme doc, whether it is a text file or spreadsheet or whatever, that says where each bit of Raw Data came from, when, under what conditions, etc.

To capture the software setup and system parameters, perhaps have a similar Setup folder (with the executable files for software you install, and a similar readme). (Docker is one tool to capture and easily replicate the correct computing environment. A group like Software Carpentry might be able to provide guidance.)

A separate "Data" folder can have your cleaned versions of the raw data, and folders for "Code" and "Output" should be similarly separate. (Datasets you create should still go into Data, probably.) You might even find it useful to have separate folders for (nicely formatted) "Tables" and "Figures".

Whenever you submit something or have a major draft, try to save a copy of all the things you're relying on, as-is.

Making the notes available?

This prior question asks about the (dis)advantages of an open lab notebook, and there was some good discussion.


How do you respectfully remove someone from your research group?

To answer the question literally, although there is no nice way to do this, you can be respectful by sending a brief, straightforward email (and do it ASAP): "I am sorry but due to changing circumstances I don't think we can collaborate more on project X. I wish you the best in your future endeavors and I'm very sorry for the unexpected change."

However, your real problem is (as others pointed out) that you seem to be an awful mentor: although you have given no indication that there is actually any barrier to the student helping on the project, you (1) told them they could help, and then (2) mentally retracted that offer, apparently without them doing anything to make a bad impression. So retracting the offer here is highly unprofessional and unkind.

  Now, I've realized that there really isn't much that she can contribute to the project besides stick around and do manual data entry

Can you really not think of anything she can contribute? You offered originally, so you should see this through and help her get up to speed. It will be a learning experience for her and an opportunity for you to become a better mentor.

  I feel like it'd be unfair because I would be doing everything

You seem to just assume that you will do all the work; you do not seem to treat the student like a collaborator, i.e. with respect and thoughtfulness.

  but she would also receive the credit for it (and my "contribution" would therefore be viewed as less).

Your focus on only your reputation here is telling. If she really doesn't help with the work, she should not be on any papers you submit at all, but instead you are worried about saving face and you would consider putting her name on a paper without her helping at all?

  I'm not sure how to tell her that I don't want to work with her anymore in a way that she wouldn't be offended, but also in a way that doesn't make me look too bad for "going against my word". Any suggestions?

There is no way. She may be offended and you are going against your word. However, that doesn't mean there isn't a respectful way to do it, which I have suggested at the top of my answer.


Where does one add a Springer LNCS publication in their CV?

Since a LNCS publication can either be a monography or conference proceedings volume, the natural solution is to ignore the fact that it's a LNCS publication and just list it corresponding to its actual type, that is, proceedings volume (or entry therein), or monography.


Unfortunately, good schools often require 1st class honors minimum for scholarship and PhD applications.
Have you considered taking an extra year? A similar thing happened to me and I was able to save my academic profile with the extra year. For more details about my medical condition, look at my recent question.

My suggestion would be: Talk to your course director or whoever is in-charged regarding your medical condition and ask if they will let you take an extra year and if possible, repeat the courses that you failed.

Please do not worry about taking a year longer to finish. It bothered me terribly at first, but after a while I realized that it is rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things.


About writing to editor of a journal to identify serious mistake in a published article

Assuming you are have carefully checked that there really are serious errors, the best course of action would be to contact the authors of the paper first. Maybe they can explain subtle details, not clearly described in the paper, that explain everything. Of course it is important to be nice: It is very well possible that everything appeared to be correct with the knowledge at the time the paper was published. Or that it is you who misinterpreted the methods (possibly because the paper was a little vague). And even if there are errors: nobody is perfect. So please be nice.
It is possible that the authors wish to collaborate with you to correct the errors, leading to a shared publication: a win-win situation. I have seen this happen more than once.
If this does not work for some reason you can consider contacting the editor, who may or may not be interested in correcting the errors. That will be up to the editor.
Depending on your specific case, it may also be possible to do some experiments yourself and publish your findings, referencing the paper with the errors and correcting them.
However, if the errors are minor, the result is "unimportant", or you are not too sure that there really is a mistake that needs correcting, you could also decide to simply ignore the paper. There are plenty of bad and/or unimportant papers out there and frankly, they do not deserve the attention even if it is to correct mistakes.
Note: I have partly copied from my own answer to a different, related question.


How acceptable is it to submit a paper where most of the references are written by the same group of authors?

If your work is either very new or very esoteric, then I don't see that this would be unusual. However, for a more general topic there might be some issues. When I finished my dissertation the topic wasn't new, but it was very esoteric. I knew of only two universities in the world where there was interest in the problem and only about a half dozen people interested. All were either professors or students at those two institutions.

Research is very specialized and often balkanized. So, if there are, in fact, few or no other papers then the situation is determined by the facts and is therefore acceptable. Publishing may spread interest and the "problem", if any, will disappear in time.

Make sure your search was thorough, of course. It wouldn't do to be informed of a wide body of work that you missed.


Does it look bad to have more letters of recommendation from undergrad than masters professors in PhD admissions?

"All other things being equal," you'd rather have more references from graduate than undergraduate professors.

Your situation is such that "all other things aren't equal." Apparently, you didn't get to know any of your masters professors well, and only took one course from each. Whereas you had undergraduate professors that you took two to three courses from, and they know you better, and may be in a better position to assess your research potential.

Taking the inference a step further, you may have done your most interesting/significant research as an undergraduate, while your master's work "topped up" your academic knowledge. If that's the case, you probably ought to "go with what you've got," and get more referrals from the (undergraduate) professors that you did more work for, or at least got to know better.

I would rather have "glowing" recommendations from undergraduate professors than "lukewarm" recommendations from graduate professors.

If all else fails, try to take a second course with one of your graduate professors so the s/he can get to know you better, and give you a recommendation.


What is the history of teaching assistants (TAs) in France?

The answer depends both on the time period you want to consider and on the fields. Let me try to give a partial answer.

Generally speaking, agrégation is indeed a nationwide competitive exam designed to recruit high school and classes préparatoires teachers. For a long time students began preparing for it after 4 years of university study, as it required a maîtrise. Nowadays, presenting the agrégation requires a master's degree, but for most students the master would in fact coincide with the competitive exam preparation.

The majority of successful candidates will end up being teachers in high school, junior high or (for a few) classes préparatoires. In first approximation, the answer to your question is therefore "no": the agrégation is not primarily designed to select "TA".

However, having the agrégation is not neutral for "TA" positions. Nowadays, for PhD students, it is much easier to obtain a teaching job if you passed the agrégation, as you will be given priority over students who did not. Additionnally, in some fields (mostly humanities) it is a requirement to have agrégation before even beginning a PhD (I am pretty sure there is no official rule to that effect, but an extremely generalized practice). So in a way, yes, having the agrégation helps become a TA.

Some decades ago  (since your question is about history), there was a faculty position called maître assistant, which seems to correspond pretty well to "TA" (the maître assistant was apparently in charge of making students work in small groups) and was indeed accessible with agrégation. This position no longer exists: it was merged within the "corps des maîtres de conférence", to enter which you need a PhD.

Finally, note that in law, political science, economics and management agrégation can play a role very different from what I describe above. As I understand, they are designed to recruit university professors, but I really do not know much about it.


Why does an admissions committee need to look at the whole transcript?

The problem with GPA as a measure is that it just mixes together a bunch of different classes indiscriminately.  Consider these three different students:

This student is pretty steady, but not great, and tends to get an even mix of As and Bs across all of their classes, obtaining a 3.5 GPA.
This student always takes the class with the easiest grading policy whenever they can, and tends to get mostly As in the "easy" classes. When they cannot evade a "hard" class, they get mostly Cs, resulting in a 3.5 GPA.
This student is very strong and gets mostly As, but there was one semester when family problems disrupted their life, and missed assignments caused them to get Bs and two Fs, also ending up with a 3.5 GPA.

As you can see, even though all of these students get exactly the same GPA, they are very different. Student #2 is clearly far weaker than Student #1, who is in turn weaker than Student #3, whose GPA has been strongly affected by the one  problem area.

If we can see which classes they took and what grades they got on those classes, we still don't have the full story, but can get much closer to an appropriate evaluation of each student's actual strengths.

This set of pages at Berkeley may be useful.


Do editors really follow suggested reviewers?

If your paper is especially esoteric, they might. They might find it difficult to find another reviewer and so the list will help them. But they would rather send the paper to someone that they can assume will be unbiased and evaluate the paper on its own and not because of a possible relationship to the author.

But, your list is also a resource to the editor who is looking in the long term to build a large "stable" of reviewers. It may be that someone you list is not chosen for your paper but for another paper on a similar topic sometime in the future.

In addition, the list might give an editor an idea about the "sort of person" who would be a good reviewer, rather than a specific person.

Ultimately, though, the editor needs someone he/she can trust to do an impartial but thorough review.


Should I cite or credit images I found online for a conference presentation?

(Not an IP expert, just a researcher who has struggled with the same question).

Even citing them may not be enough. Fair use doesn't extend as far as most people think it does: for the exception to apply, you have to be using the materials in a "transformative" way, not in the same way as the original work. Further, the conference may be considered a commercial activity even if you personally are not benefitting financially. Note also that the copyright holder may not be the author, but the journal in which the figure was published.

Thus, I suspect the "legally correct" answer to your question is that you should ask the copyright holder for permission to reproduce the image, and also ask them if they want to be attributed.

As you say, most people just use images willy-nilly, hoping that the copyright owner will not complain. In a conference talk in which the slides are not publicly available, that seems like a safe bet.

Note that for more mundane pictures (e.g., a picture of a dog for a computer vision project), there are some sites that specifically waive copyright and do not request attribution. This may be a good way to reduce the number of pictures that you need to cite and/or try to get copyright permission for.


Which journals or conferences have publication accessibility requirements?

Working from the guidelines you linked: http://www.si.edu/Content/Accessibility/Publication-Guidelines.pdf, I think APA style (and probably many others) meet many of the requirements. Most of the accessibility recommendations relate to the final printing (e.g., matte paper) and not to the electronically submit manuscript. APA style recommends 12 pt Times to be used as the font with double spaced lines, 1 inch margins, and a ragged right margin, which seems to tick all the typesetting rules apart from the use of a non-recommended typeface (but as a translational typeface with high quality printing it might still be accessible).


Changing my field after having started my project for my thesis

I spent half a year working on something which I did not enjoy and had no expertise in because of making the same mistake. It's not as bad as it sounds. Sure, it's not nice, but half a year or a year is a manageable time and doing this could also be a good learning opportunity. Still, it would of course be better if you could change of course.

To what extent did you discuss the original idea with those two professors? Do they count on you, have administrative loops been taken? If you have only talked on general terms about possible opportunities, it would probably be OK if you back out politely. They will understand that an undergrad can change his interests.

However, I would make sure that you are sure of another project before you discuss it with the old professors. You don't want to be in the situation that you cannot find a new project and have to return to the old project, because they will feel 2nd choice. So, I would advise you discuss this first with the professor where you want to do your new project. Explain the situation, be open, and ask him for advice.


Realizing possible academic misconduct after degree award

What you should do, is precisely nothing. Take a deep breath. Have a culturally appropriate beverage and celebrate your finishing.
We are human. None of us is perfect. We fall. We get up. We move on. The past is past. Most of us here would probably not like to see a complete rerunning of our past selves in every respect.
But, since it bothers your conscience, vow to do better in the future so you have less to be worried about.


Major field of study and its specializations in the USA

The goal of undergraduate education in the US (at prestigious, "4-year" schools) is to get a broad foundation in the "liberal arts." Students will choose their majors and maybe even a specialization within that major, but only a small fraction of their efforts go into advanced, specialized knowledge. Most of their efforts go toward "foundational" skills within their general area, and even "general education" requirements that have nothing to do with their long-term plans.

So, getting the degree with the exact specialization you're interested in is not so critical. Most students will have simply a "BS in Computer Science" or Computer Engineering, which will allow them to apply for jobs in dozens of computer-related skills. Specialized knowledge is usually obtained through internships or participating in undergraduate research (or on the job after graduation).

Note also that things vary by school -- different degrees, specializations, organizations, etc. all vary. You would do well to choose a school (e.g., University of [State]") and study their system -- there is certainly a way to become, say, a software engineer with a degree from that school. You should also consider whether that school will admit you, and how you will pay for it.

There are also "technical schools" and community colleges that focus more on useful skills. These tend to be cheaper and faster, and can be a better fit for someone with narrow interests and a well-defined career path. These have a rather poor reputation among academics, however, partially because they are not at all selective (most admit everyone who applies).


How do I find references and how do I know that they are valid?

In general, these questions indicate a quite fundamental gap of knowledge in how science works. It is a pity that your coursework has not prepared you better for your thesis.

  How do I know that the reference is valid?

There is no magic wand that tells you that. You will need to carefully read the papers, consider their limitations and threats to validity, and decide for yourself whether the paper is useful as a source to support your argument. That being said, as a first approximation you can look at the venue that the paper has been published in (is the journal or the conference very good?), and how often the paper has been cited by others (you can see that in Google Scholar). However, again, keep in mind that all of this is just supporting data - ultimately you need to decide yourself whether a given piece of research is valid and useful.

  Where is the best place to find references? (For my case it's about software-development)

There are three common strategies for finding literature:

Searching a digital library (in your case e.g., IEEEXplorer or the ACM DL), searching through DBLP, or using Google Scholar. In all of these cases, you can investigate a lot of different journals and conference proceedings at the same time, but you need to be aware of the right keywords to search for.
Browsing journal back issues or conference proceedings. That is, after you have identified important journals and conferences in your field (for you ICSE might be a starting point), go over previous iterations and look over all paper titles and abstracts. The most convenient way in computer science to do this is via the aforementioned DBLP.
Once you have a few good papers as starting point, start following the chain of references. Look at both, the papers that your papers are citing, but also which papers cite the papers you already found (Google Scholar has a feature for this).

You can find a summary of this also in a presentation I recently did as part of my own seminar.


Can we use students' class homework solution for research purpose?

You need to run this by your Institutional Review Board (IRB), as you would any time you use data from human subjects for research.

From what you describe, it has a good chance of qualifying for an IRB exemption under one of these categories (if identifying information is removed before giving the data to the researcher):

It is using existing data
the data comes from normal educational practices

but even then, the IRB needs to be the one to make that determination.


How to find relevant and new open research topics?

Try to find papers giving a state of the art review on your field. They'll be easy to find, they generally have a lot of citations and written by the experts in the field. Some of those review papers (ones I've read at least) provide suggestions to researchers as to what needs improvement in the field. Good luck.


Does doing an Industrial Postdoc after PhD make an academic career more difficult?

Pros:

Builds connections (which will be useful no matter what)
Experience with a different kind of science
More money (and you can probably leverage the higher salary into more money if you go back to academia)
Many academics think patents are magic and if you hold some you're a sorcerer

Cons:

Runs time off your post-PhD funding clocks
Some academics think industry is beneath them
Not being able to talk openly about your industry work can adversely affect your ability to even get another academic job

Teaching is irrelevant unless you want to only teach, in which case you can just teach a night class as an adjunct while holding your industry job. Many PIs will not approve you teaching as an academic postdoc because they feel like they own you and it's a waste of your time.
It is, generally, possible to come back to academia after some time in industry, but does have some drawbacks (and you'll have to work harder after you come back to catch up a bit with your competition that stayed on a purely academic track). If you can catch up, it does actually look good and you will be competitive.


Should I send a follow-up email or call again (to potential PhD supervisor)?

I think it would be better to wait till the end of Wednesday, and then send a follow up email. It could be that he forgot to call or may be quite busy, given the (small) delay in his previous response. For the same reason, calling directly may not be a good idea.
In addition, do check that you did not miss any call or were unreachable at some point during the day. If so, you could mail immediately, apologize, and request to reschedule.
For future reference, it would have been better if you had mentioned your time constraints for the next several days and included your phone number in your first email that you sent on Monday. This would have made the scheduling much easier and the rest of the emails and the confusion after could have been potentially avoided.


Meeting with professors in other universities

I think face to face meetings to discuss overlapping research interests with a professor from another university is a great way to network and potentially develop a future collaborator, mentor, postdoc advisor, etc.  I think as long as you are clear and upfront in your email requesting a meeting with the person/professor and you also clearly state the topics and research you would like to discuss, then there is little fear that you would be wasting anyones time.  Because the professor would just decline the meeting, if he or she was not interested in the research topic or discussion you wish to have.  I have met with numerous visiting students over the years and many have turned into future postdocs or collaborators.  Hope this helps!! And good luck.


Is being an event planner also part of being an academician? How do you cope?

I don't see this situation as "normal" in any sense. However...
It is probably a very good idea that your university is doing these sorts of outreach and community events. I would support that. But not on the backs of new faculty. But it also depends quite a lot on the local reward structure. If a new faculty member can reach tenured/permanent status from such things rather than a publication record and good teaching, then it is fairly benign. It is just part of the inherent value system of that place.
On the other hand, it doesn't prepare you well to move to another academic position at another university, who probably have a more traditional view of the proper activities of new faculty.
In lots of places, such "event planning" is taken on by senior faculty, actually, who have withdrawn a bit from research after a long career, or who have the publication pipeline operating at capacity anyway. Most of the people I interacted with on conference committees, for example, weren't junior faculty. Nor do "most" faculty engage in such activities.
But if your own career trajectory as you see it depends on publications, then you are probably at the wrong place and should be seeking an exit. While it is, I think, a valuable service in general, it isn't helping your career. There are, actually, places that put high priority on supporting the career needs of junior faculty. In most places, while "service" is a value, it is considered secondary to research, especially, and teaching.


What if research does not fetch good results

This depends on the program, the committee, the advisor, and the student. To give some anecdotes in both directions:

I have a friend who was a graduate student for a young professor who was just setting up his lab. My friend never performed any novel research, published few peer-reviewed articles, and for the most part did much more work setting up the lab environment than should have happened. Towards the end of his 5th year, he took his publications, white papers, and other documents, stapeled them together, and called it a thesis. He graduated no problem.

A different friend of mine was diligentily working on a single research problem for a few years and didn't find any results. Push came to shove, his committee wanted to see progress on one particular area, and six months later, when he didn't produce, he left with a masters.

Two separate stories, two separate universities, two very different programs. Long story short, if you think you're heading towards a situation like this, talk to your advisor and committee members and see what you can do. Do note that in these situations you can often take a minor finding which does not directly address your central theme and present it as your major contribution to the field, as this can serve to demonstrate your proficiency in research.


How to choose the right institution for pursuing tenure-track?

Congratulations on your two offers ! As for your question, it's hard for us on this forum to gauge your choices. Tier 1 and Tier 2 are tricky categorizations (bottom of Tier 1 ? top of tier 2 ? area specializations ?). More generally though, it sounds like you're worried that getting tenure at the Tier 1 university is extremely difficult.

But this is something where some data gathering might help. It shouldn't be too hard to determine the number of cases that went up for tenure at T1 in the last (say) 5-10 years, and how many were successful. This is in fact a legitimate question to ask the chair of the department. You can ask how the process works, and you can even ask current assistant professors if they feel they're getting good guidance on the tenure process.

You should do the same for the T2 university as well. Then you'll have more specific information to work with.

No one can tell you whether you will get tenure at T1 or not, but with this data you can get a sense of whether it's "yes unless you mess up" or "no unless you cure cancer".

You can also try to determine which university offers you the best home for your research efforts for the next X years without worrying too much about what comes at the end of it. This is not to say that you should walk into a situation where no one gets tenure, of course, but your data collection should help with that.


Non-English language papers submitted to REF for evaluation?

Non English language outputs are addressed in section 128 of the REF Documentation. Excluding Welsh, for which there was a special system, basically, the output needed to be accompanied by an English language abstract. The abstract is only used to identify an expert capable of evaluating the work and not in the evaluation itself.


I will answer with respect to Sweden; as far as I know it can be technically possible but in practice, not really...

Let's expand on this a bit; again, AFAIK, it is not possible to be enrolled to two different masters programs in the same faculty. At least it was not possible when I was in the uni. They might have programs that overlap between different programs and allow you to have a broader portfolio/CV if that is what you desire, but you still get a single degree.

You could try and apply to two different programs at different faculties of the same university. This may work, I am not sure if there is a national regulation on that. I would guess that it's handled by individual university administrations.

The last option is of course applying to two different programs at two different universities, so different legal entities. You could try to get into University of Gothenburg and Chalmers for two different programs for example. I cannot imagine why that would not be allowed.

That being said, if you choose to pursue this, you will very likely have crashes on your schedule such that you will not be able to follow the lectures, and potentially miss some compulsory moments of these degrees. Universities typically don't assume the students do more than 100% studies so you will almost certainly have serious incompatibilities on your schedule.

If you are seriously considering getting two masters degrees in one go (and I would advise against it), my suggestion would be to offset them with 1 year, so that you start one program and half way into that start another. The motivation behind this is that Masters programs often tend to have lecture-heavy courses first, and project or assignment based courses later.


Elsevier "Computers & Security" journal latex template

You don't need to use a specific template to submit your paper to this journal.

https://www.elsevier.com/journals/computers-and-security/0167-4048/guide-for-authors

  As part of the Your Paper Your Way service, you may choose to submit your manuscript as a single file to be used in the refereeing process. This can be a PDF file or a Word document, in any format or lay-out that can be used by referees to evaluate your manuscript.

So any generic format would be fine, e.g. the basic LaTeX article class.  If your paper is accepted, either you or they will redo the formatting for publication, and they'll give you the correct template if necessary.  But there is no point spending any time on that now.


Graduated but still working on bachelor's project, how to write in CV

Bachelor's Thesis                           August 2019 - formal end date
<my institution>                            <my supervisor>

Blah blah blah. I have since built upon my thesis to...


coauthor removed other author's name after reviews

It may or may not technically be plagiarism, but it’s definitely fraud if it was done without your consent. Papers and book chapters can be retracted for such infractions.

If this has indeed happened, then your next step—assuming you've reached an impasse with your co-authors—should be to contact the editor and publisher of the book, laying out your case with the appropriate documentary evidence included in its entirety. Make sure they have enough information that they’re not going on a “fishing expedition.” There should be clear correspondence—emails showing the work and production of the article with your participation, and so on.


I had an internship with the professor I'm applying for. Is it possible to ask for a recommendation letter?

Yes! Definitely! I worked for my eventual PhD supervisor as an undergrad for a semester before I applied to grad school. He wrote me a recommendation letter, and I got in.


What open access textbook publishing initiatives are around?

I maintain an online catalog of books whose authors have intentionally made them free (as opposed to what Project Gutenberg does with old public domain books). Probably a majority of these are textbooks.

In my experience, nearly all free textbooks are simply written by their authors without working through any organization. Often professors write up lecture notes, and the lecture notes gradually become more and more elaborate and evolve into a book. During the ~14 years that I've been paying attention, I've seen many initiatives, consortia, and for-profit companies come and go. Most have had very little impact. A good example of a zero-impact initiative was California Governor Schwarzenegger's Free Digital Textbook Initiative, which was announced with great fanfare and accomplished absolutely nothing. (There is a newer initiative called the California Open Education Resources Council.)

A couple of organizations that have done good work are merlot.org and OpenStax.

Your quote from the Open SUNY project's description says:

  This pilot initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure.

As with a lot of these initiatives, this seems to be ill-conceived and stuck in 20th-century models of technology. For digital distribution, you don't need a publisher. For print distribution, there are services like lulu. What traditional publishers do that is still important is a lot of stuff that is just expensive to do. E.g., for a mechanical engineering textbook they would hire a professional artist to do the illustrations.


What is the typical payment arrangement for course design?

Did you agree to design the courses before talking about payment?  I don't know if you have any recourse at this point as there was never a contract in place.  I would guess that had you inquired ahead of time, your superiors would probably have asked someone else to do it for free, as that is probably what they were expecting.

If there is a system in place for paying you for the course design, I would assume it would be a one-time payment with no residual payments, and you should work that out before beginning design.  If you can work something out where you do get royalties down the road, that also needs to be in a contract, and I would be very surprised if you were able to pull it off (but good luck!).


Is it unethical for someone to proofread/edit your cover letter or CV?

I see no ethical problems with this whatsoever.

One has to understand most academic ethical principles through the lens of academic society.  In particular the belief that academic writing should be solely that of the author unless otherwise scrupulously documented is not an absolute ethical principle but a belief and expectation of practicing academics throughout the world.  It applies to certain kinds of writing and not others (and there are edge cases that cause disagreement, as seen on this site).

I don't know any academics who view a CV as a piece of academic writing in the sense that issues of originality and plagiarism apply.  If you like the format of someone else's CV, you can copy it for yourself.  In fact, it is more efficient if you just ask them for the word / latex / whatever file they used to make their CV and adapt it directly.  I imagine most academic CVs are adapted in this way.

Cover letters are viewed differently by different parts of academia.  In my circles (mathematics, research university, US) cover letters are usually quite
perfunctory: within recent memory my colleagues and I discussed whether we even wanted to make a cover letter an official part of the job application.  In my field there is something called an "AMS Cover Sheet," which is a sort of form that you fill out that has the information of a cover letter, and some departments would happily accept this in lieu of a conventional cover letter.  Using an AMS Cover Sheet as a cover letter is the equivalent of adapting someone else's CV.  However, it is my understanding that in some other parts of US academia -- especially in liberal arts colleges and/or the humanities -- the cover letter is extremely important (I have heard someone say it is the most important part of the application).  If what you say to convince a hiring committee that you are a good fit for their institution is lifted from someone else's cover letter, then indeed that might be viewed as problematic.

The above covers the situation of literally cutting and pasting CVs and cover letters.  When it comes to proofreading: it is my understanding and view that unless specifically prohibited, getting your academic documents proofread is not only acceptable but usually highly encouraged.  When it comes to editing, some amount is probably okay but some amount is probably too much.  It also depends on who is doing the editing.  My PhD advisor gave me more extensive feedback on my employment materials than on any other single thing.  I took the implication that these materials are extremely important, and I have tried to "pay forward" his help by giving similar extensive help to students (including, but not limited to, my thesis advisees) on their employment materials, webpages and so forth.  I would not hesitate to circle a sentence and scrawl a suggested alternative in the margins of their draft.  I do hesitate (and never have, I believe) retyped any of my students' theses or employment materials: thus I am suggesting changes -- sometimes very specific changes, and sometimes with the clear intent that my suggestion will be implemented directly -- but I am not making the changes myself.

In general I have a hard time envisioning a proofreading or editing of a cover letter or CV that would be ethically problematic.  I think students and young academics should be much more concerned with having these and other application materials flawlessly literate and highly polished and should seek to err on the side of getting the help that they need to do so.  If such a person has a reason to think that some particular aid they are getting may cross the line, they should ask their advisor.


I would interpret "published" to mean exactly what the text says — citable and accessible.

ArXiv papers are both citable and accessible, and therefore do count as acceptable research products.


Yes, but they are usually called "visiting researchers" or, in some cases, "residents", rather than "interns". See for example Facebook, Microsoft, or Google.


This problem appears to have been considered by the social science community, and at least some resources have been prepared.  In particular a little searching turned up a book, "Fieldwork, Participation and Practice: Ethics and Dilemmas in Qualitative Research" by Marlene de Laine, which appears to discuss these sorts of issues---the Google Books preview only showed me so much, but there was at least some discussion of covert fieldwork.


A student offered me money to take one of his exams in his place. What should I do?

My advice would be to inform the professor that "students" have contacted you with improper requests such as ...
You were correct to refuse the student, but you may have an obligation to keep them anonymous, as you suggest. That would be true if you have a client relationship with them already, I think.
But the university needs to become aware, if they aren't already, that they need better procedures in place to assure academic integrity. At this time, many are trying (and failing) to get it right and your mail might be a goad to try harder.
You can refuse to help identify the student, but you can certainly make suggestions about improving security.
If your website or other contact methods don't already say it, you might put up a notice of some kind listing what you do when asked to help with cheating.


How to withdraw my submitted paper before it has passed screen?

Yes, you need to withdraw the paper from formal consideration. This is the only way to stop the process once it's begun. This also actually helps you with later submissions. If the paper is submitted and rejected, then you may have to specify this to other journals that ask about the previous history of the manuscript.


Is it advisable to upload theses to the arXiv?

There doesn't seem to be any real restriction on publishing theses of any kind to arXiv. Therefore, whether you choose to do so is a decision that should be made between you and your advisor, taking into account any regulations your school may have. If your work has been funded by an external agency or company, you should also take their requirements under advisement.

However, so long as your topic falls under arXiv's category guidelines, and there are no restrictions preventing you, there isn't much to lose by submitting the final version of your thesis to a public repository. It would ensure far greater visibility for your thesis than if it's left on your university's website alone.


Why do I underestimate my own research ideas?

I hear you. I also know the flip-side of this phenomenon: Reading a paper and thinking: "That's a very simple idea they've published in this decent journal here. I could have come up with this on my way to work while riding the bike, would have written it down in a few weeks". But, alas, I didn't; someone else did.

I suggest the following procedure, although I can't claim that I've tested it:

Write down all silly ideas, especially the simple ones, and store them in a file; shortcut to your desktop.
Go through the list on a regular basis, every fortnight or so.

Move the (still) infeasible ones and the (yet) too silly-sounding into a "discarded idea" file.
Pick a quite simple one that you find intriguing and highlight for later use.

Reserve an hour in the morning to write down why the simple idea is so simple. This should force you to think clearly about all the implications that you took for granted when you said "oh, that's trivial". Now, is this still a simple idea? Are there any follow-up puzzles and questions that perhaps aren't so simple? I bet one hour is not enough to write down all the stuff that's implied and needs to be explained in order for the problem to appear simple. There, you're drafting your next paper.


Why would one choose a particular advisor, other than having shared interests?

Many don't speak about this too often, but with an advisor you are not only choosing a field of interest, but you are choosing a mentor. By all means, you want to "tick well" with him/her. There is not much good for a PhD student having a star researcher advisor whom they see once in a quarter and who is a sociopath on a personal level (this is a bit too extreme, but think about it as a continuum between extremes). Choose somebody with whom you will be able to work, whose example it is worth to follow, from whom you want to learn, not only the scientific stuff, but also workstyle, level of quality he/she strives for, etc. These soft reasons are often more important than anything else. For highlighting of all the examples of stuff you don't want to fall into (but will anyway :-) ), go and look at the PhD Comics.

P.S.
I am speaking with a European-centric attitude, where you choose your advisor, since he/she will be your boss, rather than being assigned to one as it seems to happen in the US system. Still, the point is worth to consider. Germans have a good term for this, your PhD supervisor is your "Doktorvater", i.e., "doctor father". That very much speaks how the relationship should end up in an ideal case.


What constitutes a conflict of interest by minimum?

Such a section usually isn't required for papers in my field, but you should probably put something like "Joe Smith moved from The University of Bobtown to ACME, Inc. during the preparation of this manuscript."


How to choose new advisor when advisor suddenly leaves in middle of PhD?

I feel this is a difficult situation, with a number of variables that should influence your decision:

Is your advisor completely gone (e.g., in complete retirement, gone to industry, or even dead), or has he just left for a different academic post? If he is completely gone, you may need to find somebody to supervise you in your day-to-day research. If he has just moved on to a different university, it is possible that you want somebody to "formally" be your PhD advisor, but practically keep on working remotely with your old advisor. Whether you even want to keep on working remotely with your old advisor depends on how advanced you are and how well you worked with her/him beforehand.
Are you advanced enough that you can finish your thesis more or less on your own? That is, do you need an advisor or an examiner for your thesis? If it is the latter, then pretty much anybody who is sufficiently well-versed in your area could act as your advisor for the finishing sprint. If you actually feel like you still need a lot of input to get your thesis ready, it will be harder to find somebody who can and is willing to take you on midway. If you are advanced and your advisor is only moving to a different university, it should be reasonably easy for you to find a "local proxy" without having to adapt your research plan too much.
How set-in-stone is your research plan? Or, in other words, how ready are you to adapt to the research agenda of another advisor? Generally, if you really don't want to change your research, but you also feel like you still need a lot of input, it is likely that you will have problems finding a suitable new advisor. If you are happy to change research topics, finding an advisor should not be more difficult than the first time.
How does your funding work? That is, do you "only" need a new advisor, or do you need a new advisor and a new funding source (e.g., project, grant)? Clearly, the former case will make it much easier to find a new advisor. In the second case, you will need to be willing to change your research plan somewhat, as few professors will be ready to dish out grant money if the student is not actually working on their projects.
Are you a good student? Ok, this may be somewhat controversial, but clearly if you have been an overperformer so far, it will be substantially easier to convince another professor to take you on. Similarly, if you already have great publications in your research, it will be much easier to convince a professor that you want to continue working on this concrete research idea and not change to whatever other project your new advisor has in mind.
Are you willing to change universities? If so, maybe coming along with your old advisor is an option?

So how does this help you? In a first step, you need to reflect on all of these points to figure out what kind of advisor you actually want/need. Then go over the list of potential faculty that formally could serve as advisor. Think about how your collaboration with each of those potential advisors could work, and what you would need from them. Get in touch with the ones that seem most suitable (as you already study there I am assuming you can just send them a mail, or have your current advisor put you in contact), and discuss the issue with them. Select the one that (a) is willing to take you on, and (b) you feel is most consistent with your answers to the questions above.


struggling with procrastination, looking for strategies and ideas

Don't try to limit procrastination. You have already tried that and it  didn't work. Instead, limit the time that you spend writing, but during writing time, write and do nothing else.

The limitation of your permissible writing time should feel like a real constraint. Ideally, when the time is up, you should feel strongly inclined to write 'just one more sentence'.  Don't. It's best  to stop mid-sentence, as this makes it easy to get going on the next day.

The duration should also feel doable. Forget about 'making up for lost time'. If your are a heavy procrastinator with strong  anxiety, start with half an hour or less. Three hours should be the maximum if you schedule daily writing sessions, which I recommend. Remember to take breaks during which you move away from the desk. The 'pomodoro technique' can be useful to divide time into manageable chuncks of writing/working and rest/recovery.

Don't ever allow yourself to write once the allotted time period has expired, until the following day. You might waste scarce writing time by procrastinating once, perhaps twice, but probably not more.

This is how I finished my PhD thesis.

Regarding counseling: Consider counseling or therapy if you feel depressed, anxious, or have trouble sleeping for more than ten days in a row.


Is it okay to submit a modified journal paper that is still under review to a conference?

From two responses in the comments, submitting to a conference after a submission to  a journal would likely have policy violations from both the journal and the conference.

(#1)

  You would probably violate the journal's policy. Usually, you are
  required to declare that the work has not been submitted/published
  anywhere else. If it has, then you need to note the differences.

(#2)

  you might also violate the conference's policy: The same rules apply.


How do I know that I have truly lost interest in research and should drop out of a top CS PhD program?

If available, I would immediately seek out the university counseling services (as mentioned in a comment by @Nate Eldredge ) The things you are mentioning could be symptoms of depression. Or, you may just need some strategies for coping with failure. Often people with your accomplishments haven't experienced much failure in their lives!

Taking advantage of the (usually low-cost or free, if you are in the U.S.) counselling services at the university will help you sort out which of these things it is. Your counselor can also help you come up with strategies to make well-reasoned life decisions for yourself (or with your committee). Regardless, don't make any rash decisions.

In the U.S., it is very common for PhD students to deal with these issues and to seek out counseling. An informal straw poll in my PhD cohort revealed that 90% of us had done so, and approximately 60% were on anti-anxiety medication or continued treatment regimes at any given time. The older students even began to organize a yearly workshop to talk about stress and how to get the help you need!

An update: This 2018 study finds that graduate students are 6x more likely to experience depression and anxiety, compared to the general population.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/03/06/new-study-says-graduate-students-mental-health-crisis


A non-answer: curiosity is not the same as "passion for research", if the latter refers to the contemporary commodified version of "research". Exactly as in the question, some clever people see that their "diddlings" could get funding from some funding agency, and "go for it", without really sincerely caring about the issue they pretend to address. Srsly.

"Academe" is a sort of game that is in fact not so wildly different from "business", although its conceits and minor dynamics are different. The major dynamics are self-confidence, ... and bluffing, up to a point. "Bluster", for sure.

I do think that the individuals who bluff-and-bluster in academe are sometimes less sociopathic than "business people", if, or when, they stay well back from wrecking the pension plans of millions of people. Faint praise, yes.

More directly, I have observed that many people find that their naive, early-life perceptions of any given thing was naive... Special case: academe.

Pro-tip [sic], lotta people who know what they're doing are "not noisy"... that is, do not violently broadcast nonsense.

I do also seriously think that the question is not "can one be a success in academe without buying into the myth of endless curiosity" (which is the best possible myth), but "will I be able to pay a modest mortgage and have health insurance for my family...?" This is a tougher question, and depends on local social politics.

Fairy tale: once upon a time, I thought I'd just live till I keeled over at the blackboard... but then there were kids, aging parents, aging spouses, kids-again, ...

"Wait, what was the question?" :)


You should never submit your grades directly

Students should never be in charge of submitting their own grades or recommendation letters to programs (I'm assuming you mean graduate program).  The risk of cheating would be extremely high, and your current university is almost certainly well-versed in sending (and receiving) grades in a safe, secure way.


This is the right way according to citethisforme:

Tadaka, E., Kono, A., Ito, E., Kanaya, Y., Dai, Y., Imamatsu, Y., & Itoi, W. (2016). Development of a community’s self-efficacy scale for preventing social isolation among community-dwelling older people (Mimamori Scale). BMC Public Health, 16(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3857-4

One specific advise: If there is a DOI, include the DOI in the citation. Links are not persistent, DOIs are.


Using masters lab colleagues as references for PhD application?

When I started reading, I already thought about how to answer "no", because I was thinking of other students writing recommendations. If, however, they themselves are already professors, they should have some academic reputation with which they can vouch for you. Thus, I would suggest the following steps:

1) Ask them what they think about it and let them send the letters to you first.

2) Ask other people, e.g. your advisor from back then, contacts in the field, maybe even a contact in a graduate committee you know but don't plan on applying to.

3) Get "enough" recommendations to not depend on your former colleagues to much, so that you have the desired number of letters (some PhD programs post such numbers online) and these are but add-ons. As you have been working, and this working time was long enough for your fellow students to get a position as a professor, you might need to explain why you apply for a PhD just now, why you didn't so before and why you don't just stay in the industry. As this is rather important, I put an extra number for it:

4) Get recommendations from your current industry job to show that you are not (only^^) applying for a PhD because you want out of the company or lost your job, but rather because you want to learn, study, better yourself. One or two superiors at your current work place, stating that they advise on you getting a PhD (as you show the necessary skills, etc.) might be just as convincing as your former advisor. If possible, take supervisors who themselves hold PhDs and make sure that they sign as something like "Mr XXX, senior YYY at ZZZ, PhD in ... from ..." to show that they are able to judge your capability and the usefulness for you to get a PhD.

So long story short, I would if possible get letters from your advisor and from your current job. The former colleagues could be a nice addition to that, but I would not put the main focus on them if possible.


How do disabled computer scientists publish?

Equality of access for disabled people is a legal requirement for public services such as transport and buildings in many jurisdictions, particularly in the EU and North America. There are many disabled academics and researchers who teach, research and publish.

One only has to look at examples like the late Stephen Hawking to see how it is possible.


No suggested reviewers capability in the peer-review journal

I completely agree with ff524’s answer about avoiding fake peer review, but there’s more to it than that.

Asking an editor not to use a certain reviewer is reasonable, because there may be a conflict of interest or rivalry that the editor is not aware of but that could compromise the peer-review process.  However, what’s the purpose of suggesting reviewers? That seems really biased, since presumably most authors aren’t going to suggest anyone they don’t think will like the paper.

As an editor, I’m not interested in getting reports from reviewers chosen by the authors to have a positive opinion.  Instead, I’d prefer to use my own choices, and given that I’m not going to make any effort to follow the authors’ suggestions, I’d rather not see them at all.


What do you mean by "and the cites counted"? Do you mean something like Google Scholar will index it?

If so, then the common route in CS is to publish something that introduces the program (although the code often lives on github). Then people will often cite that paper and or the repo whenever they use your program.

That isn't necessarily a ton of work either. Many conferences have workshops  or industry tracks (in case you are an engineer and not a researcher). Also, see dgraziotin's answer on publishing a paper in an open access journal so that others could cite his work.


How to verify academic history and degree?

What you are trying to do is rather unusual.  In most cases where a degree needs to be verified (admissions, jobs, etc), the person doing the checking has the subject's consent, and normally the subject would just have the university send an official transcript.  In that case the university's "customer" is their own alumnus and they have some interest in being responsive.  In contrast, they have no particular incentive to be responsive to you, and so I'm not too surprised that the process they have is not particularly convenient.

That said, I don't see what you can do except to keep following up with NSC and using their support system.  Or, you could get your lawyer involved, and see if a letter from her can speed things along.

I would note that, while federal privacy laws allow universities to release "directory information" including dates of attendance and degrees, as far as I know, nothing actually requires them to do so.


Should I stay an extra semester to complete a second minor?

Basically, a second minor doesn't really convey any additional benefits to you in terms of admission. It just means you've done enough courses in a specific area to be recognized by your specific school as having completed a "minor." Some schools in the US (and most foreign schools) do not offer minors, so it won't make a big difference.

Also to consider—if you are planning to do graduate school after your bachelor's degree, taking an extra semester in the US likely means that you will have to wait a full year before starting graduate school. This can have significant impacts, as you will then need to find something to do in what would have been your spring semester. There is also the possibility that, because you will be out of school for a while, you may need to start repayment on any student loans you have. (Usually you're allowed a six-month grace period before repayment starts.)


Should I warn colleagues of another colleague's sexism?

If this person is "merely" boorish, I think you're best off letting your colleague experience and handle the situation themselves.  Presumably they're also professional adults who can take care of themselves, and as you said, it's possible the other person has gotten better about it, so maybe it's a non-issue.  But more importantly, since you're all in the same field (which you suggested was small), being the one to spread the word like this (even if it's justified) can have repercussions for you.  Whether you want to take that on probably depends on just how bad the person is and on how comfortable you are with your position within the field.

On the other hand, if you think this other faculty actually rises to the level of a danger - anything from sabotaging your colleagues work or relations, to not being safe to have drinks around - you should absolutely warn this person.

Obviously there's a judgment call here.  @whrrgarbl suggested it depends on how friendly you are with your colleague too, and I think that's true around the margins of this question.  In a totally general way though, I think when you're contemplating meddling in affairs between two other people that the default answer should be no.  Especially in a professional setting.


Do undergraduate students usually share poster award money with their PhD student supervisor?

I'm a PhD student who often supervises more "junior" students (masters students and undergrads). When I do, they keep any money they win (or if it was a group effort, it is equally divided between all the students, not including myself and faculty supervisors).