Advice wanted concerning students who have had run ins with the law.

You don't need to explain the details.  Here is the most I would do.  If the situation comes up (e.g., your advisor suggests you attend a conference that would require international travel you are not comfortable with), tell your advisor how this will affect your professional work: e.g., you would prefer to publish in domestic conferences, you are not comfortable travelling internationally, or whatever the implication is.  Your advisor doesn't need to know the details of why (e.g., that you had a felony).

Of course, you can always explain these details if you feel comfortable doing so.  That will depend upon the nature of your relationship with your advisor.  But you shouldn't feel like it is mandatory to explain this aspect of your personal history.  This is a professional relationship, and in professional relationships, you only need to provide enough information to allow you to meet your professional obligations and goals.

Basically, think of it this way.  Why does your advisor need to know?  What will the implications be, in terms of how it will affect his advice to you?  Then think about how to convey the implications without the unnecessary details, and whether there is even any need or value in conveying any information at all.  That might help guide you figure out what to explain.  You might find you never need to explain anything related to this to your advisor.


What is the logic behind definition of 1-year master programs in UK?

The article you link to lists 3 cons to a 1 year program: not enough time to take electives, not enough time for a work placement, and not enough time to get good letters of recommendation. It also lists duration, and the decreased costs, as the major benefit. The cons, however, are not particularly important in the UK (and many parts of the world) while the pro is important worldwide.

Electives:

The UK educational, and employment, system does value electives. Students start specializing at age 16 when they take their A levels. Undergraduate programs typically have no "general education" type requirements. Many MSc programs are so specialized that there are not enough electives offered to fill a second year.

Work Placement:

In the UK, work placement opportunities are not limited to students. In fact, in my field, work placements are only available to graduates and students cannot do a work placement.

Recommendations

Letters of recommendation are just not that important in the UK. For example, for permanent academic positions, letters of reference are not part of the decision process until the very end. Many jobs do not require any references at all.

Duration

For self-funded programs, a 1 year program saves you money. Even with funding, there are still opportunity costs associated with the 2nd year.

To get to your questions:

  Why don't UK universities manage their master programs in 2-year periods, instead of current short 1-year ones?

In general, as with most things, finances rule the day. While 2-year programs would theoretically bring in more money to a school, the fear is that a 2-year program would not meet the needs of UK students and student numbers would drop. This would result in decreased revenue for the school/department.

  What motivations could convince a typical international student to prefer a 1-year master program at UK to a 2-year one at north america?

My UK school pitched our MSc program to US students as: if you know what you want to study, why waste money and time studying other things


Should I delete my question on Stack Exchange to reduce my own plagiarism?

From what you have reported, it does not sound like you have committed plagiarism, i.e., you have not claimed the work of anyone else as your own work.  So you don't need to worry about that---and if other people steal your work, that is their fault and not yours.

You might, however, also be concerned that you have broken a class policy on obtaining outside help, and that you might be exposed by others plagiarizing you.  If you have not broken class policy, then don't worry about it.  If you have broken class policy, then 1) don't do it again in the future, and 2) trying to hide it probably won't help you, since this site gets widely copied and cached in any case.


One piece of useful advice my thesis supervisors gave me was:

  We're going to throw a lot of ideas at you. You need to figure out which ones are worthwhile and which ones aren't.

If you know that something isn't going to work, then you need to figure out how to communicate to your advisor that it's not feasible. If you've tried and didn't succeed in making your case, try again using a different means of communication. Remember that the ability to make a convincing argument is crucial to success in research.


Is it possible to replicate the experience gained in a grad school on my own without attending one?

The short answer is: you can't replicate it.

The longer answer is: yes, you might be able to talk intelligently to someone who has a background in the field, but as previous poster mentioned, the reason why one goes to grad school is not just to learn the material, but to have access to resources. These resources are physical, but they are also mental. Part of what grad school gives you is access to people who have extensive knowledge in the field, can help direct you in your research, as well as provide crucial feedback. Without this one-on-one and group interaction, it is IMO impossible to become a researcher on par with a professional academic.


e-mailing a professor: first lines of an email (US/UK)

For the first communication, address the person as "Prof. [Lastname]" and keep doing so until the person says something like "Please call me John."
In the US, a common first liner for initial communication is "I hope this e-mail finds you well."
"I hope you are doing good!" should be "I hope you are doing well." Try to suppress the use of exclamation marks and save them for things that are really worth exclaiming about.
As for subsequent e-mails, what you're saying in the main message is a lot more important. A "Dear Prof. [Last name]" followed by a succinct statement about the main points would usually be sufficient as the start.


I'm an invited speaker. Can I send a coauthor in my place?

One question is whether your coauthor will do as good a job of speaking or otherwise contributing to the conference.  If you are well known as an excellent speaker and your coauthor is not, or if you are a much better known researcher, then the organizers may be unhappy with the substitution.  Another potential issue may be if your name has been used to advertise the conference, on posters or the web.  However, if you and your coauthor are more or less on an equal footing, then I doubt the organizers will object.

I'd recommend apologizing for being unable to make it due to reasons beyond your control (without going into detail), and offering your coauthor as a potential substitute, while still giving them the chance to decline and just cancel your talk or replace you with someone else entirely.  I'd make it clear that you are suggesting the coauthor as a possibility without having asked the coauthor yet, so that they don't feel trapped by not wanting to insult a substitute you have already lined up.


Making friends in academia and building connections

I don't know if this is much of an answer, but it's become more than will fit in a comment.
If you just joined in Fall 2020, it's not unusual that you haven't made the kind of connections you're looking for yet, especially given the challenges of the pandemic. I'm a PhD student, and I'm sure it's very different for faculty than for students, but I'm not fresh out of undergrad and have been through a couple career transitions prior to grad school. In my experience it takes a year minimum—even in the best of conditions—to organically develop relationships with coworkers/colleagues. (It took me longer than that to build close friendships with folks in my cohort, and we had weekly, in-person classes together for a year.) Genuine connections with coworkers tend to accrue in small increments over that time, and almost always in the interstices between "official" work demands. It sounds like you're fully aware of all this, but an occasional reminder doesn't hurt.
As you mention, everyone is exhausted these days. Perhaps your colleagues are all on the introverted side, but it doesn't sound like this situation has much to do with their feelings about you specifically. If they'd all been actively avoiding you or unfriendly, that would be a different story (and this is not the story you imply, at least, when you say your efforts "haven't worked so far"). Your colleagues may also be trying to give you space to address (or not feel close enough to engage with you about) your family health issues.
In any case, the window is far from closed. I'm still friends, a decade later, with some former colleagues who barely even spoke to me for the first few years at my previous workplace. And although I'm obviously not a super outgoing make-friends-easily type of person, my sense is that that sort of experience isn't unusual.


How to find a good part-time programs by reputable business schools?

Baoye,
There are plenty of accredited online MBA programs at accredited institutions. In Maryland, where I am, Frostburg State University offers an AACSB accredited MBA fully online. University of Maryland University College also has a good online program. A little effort on Google should find other programs, perhaps even on New Jersey.


Masters in Math degrees without requiring bachelor's in math

This is, typically, very difficult without taking courses in real analysis, numerical analysis, differential equations, and other applied mathematics topics that you won’t get in a traditional economics program.
Your chances would be, frankly, very low without proper preparation from mathematics undergraduate courses. I did an economic major with a math minor, and I am still upgrading a few courses here and there to go into an applied math PhD, but this would be similar to a masters degree because of the pre-requisites.
Take a year or two, get the background, and then you would be much more competitive. Perhaps you can illuminate what math courses, particularly, you’ve taken.


I feel the only way out is to resubmit it for another conference in near future.

That about sums it up. Negative reviews and rejections are hard to swallow. They are common in academia and you cannot let them get to you. The best thing to do is step away from the manuscript. If you need to cry, cry. If you need to scream, scream. After a while, generally for me a week or so, try and look at the reviews again. If they still piss you off, step away from them again. Once you can read the reviews objectively, start to tackle them. This might mean agreeing with the reviewer, or seeing where the reviewer got lost, or that the reviewer is simply a fool. Once you have taken everything from the reviews that will improve the manuscript, file it away and if necessary cry and scream again. Then resubmit the manuscript to the next conference.


Leave out the last chapter as it anyway should be addressed in second edition?

I disagree and consider my work fully motivated.

This is a key point.  The issue isn't whether there exists compelling motivation, and you may be right that there is.  Rather, the issue is whether you have successfully communicated this motivation to readers who have spent far less time thinking about the topic than you have and who lack the perspective that comes from developing a subject from scratch.  You'll have to work extra hard to articulate the motivation and communicate it successfully.  If the readers still don't understand why are you doing something, then that itself amounts to a communication failure (regardless of whether you feel they ought to have understood).  You don't need to communicate successfully with everyone, but you need to do so with a large enough audience.

I'd strongly recommend trying harder to address this before publishing the book.  You can consider the editors who have looked over your submissions as a random sample of readers.  Many of them fail to understand the motivation behind your work, which suggests that many readers would find it unmotivated even if someone agreed to publish it.  Ultimately, the goal should be not just to get the book published, but to get it read and understood.  The feedback from publishers is helping you identify what you need to work on to attract readers.

  Or maybe should I stop any publishing attempts until I finish writing the second edition?

Are you proposing to publish the first edition while you are already working on a second edition, or to submit the first edition as a draft while telling the publisher that you are working on serious revisions?  The latter could make sense, while publishers are unlikely to agree to the former.  (Publishing a book takes time, effort and money, and nobody wants to commit these resources to a mathematics book that will quickly be out of date.)

But the fact that you already have large-scale changes in mind suggests that the book might not be ready to submit for publication.  You don't need to have completed all possible revisions before approaching publishers, but your chances of acceptance go down if you aren't presenting approximately your best work.

  Should I for now remove the last chapter and leave this work to the stage when I will write the second edition of the first volume?

What's the alternative to removing it?  If you have in mind fixing the mistakes now, then I can't advise you on which approach is better (since I haven't read the book).  If you mean keeping the incorrect chapter in the manuscript and not dealing with the mistakes until later, then that sounds like a bad idea.

  I'm afraid that if I happen to die, my work may be lost unpublished.

I can understand that this is a depressing possibility, but I wouldn't worry about it now (assuming you are no likelier to die soon than other people your age).  If it makes you feel safer, you could always ask a friend or family member to try to get your work archived somewhere if you died unexpectedly.  I can't say they would necessarily succeed, but it couldn't hurt to try.

By the way, the publishers who suggest publishing research papers first have an important point.  The mathematics publishing system is set up to work that way, and it is not particularly well adapted to publishing large chunks of unfamiliar research in book form.  It's certainly possible to publish research monographs, but you may be making things unnecessarily hard for yourself.  Unless you have a very strong reason to prefer a book, I'd recommend trying articles instead.


Doing two PhDs one from Electrical Engineering and other from Theoretical Physics

If your aim is to do a PhD in theoretical physics (TP), then you should attempt to get on a corresponding PhD programme straight after your MPhil.

However, this may not be so easy, depending on the suitability of your current qualifications and qualities to TP research (and to the openness of potential supervisors to applicants from EE). So, failing to secure a PhD in TP, you can attempt to secure a PhD in EE (though in practice you may need to apply to both options simultaneously).

I don't think that obtaining a PhD in EE diminishes your chances for a PhD in TP, on the contrary. However, after a PhD in EE, you may very well change your mind and go for a career in EE. You should definitely allow for that option at the outset, i.e. choose the University for any PhD with care: don't just consider a PhD in EE as a step towards TP or a stop gap.


How to increase my collaboration "network" as a new faculty?

The best way to start I know of is to quietly pick some small problem somebody else is stuck with (requires no social skills whatsoever, just being reasonably open-minded, flexible, and being willing to listen more than to talk), solve it, and communicate the solution to that person. That will open him up immediately and more often than not a bigger collaborative project will ensue.

In general, keep in mind that most people are willing to talk about what interests them and are quite reluctant to think of what you are interested in, so learn to work on whatever comes your way rather than only on what you specialize in and let it be the other person who chooses the topic and the direction of the collaborative research. Just go with the flow and enjoy the ride. Note that every time you think of or collaborate on something you haven't tried before it is you, who benefits most by gaining new tools and ideas, and the entry cost is usually not very high: most of the time people are stuck on something that can be easily explained in "mathematical common" and requires just a fresh pair of eyes to figure out.

In summary, rotate the table: create the situation when other people will seek you to ask questions.


How to deal with corresponding authors not sharing submission steps? (E.g. Peer reviews & Decisions)

I have decided to post my final update on this as answer to anyone arriving here in the same situation.

The following line of response worked: I have written a formal email (in English, which is not our language of choice for communication) to the first author and PI asking again for the results of previous submissions and to be duly warned of future submissions. I implied (by stating I could just contact the journals but 'felt that was the role of the corresponding author') I'd contact journal editors if ignored for more than 5 days.

Within less than 12h the first author responded informally describing generally what had come out of previous submissions. I still asked (informally) for the peer reviews and she said she had to ask the corresponding author for it (PI, last author). By that I understood this 1st author had also not seen the result of peer review, and told her this was not fair on her as well.

Finally after 5 days the PI contacted me formally, and in English (unexpected because it is not easy for him to write in English) excusing for the time taken, informing any future submissions would be correctly reported, and attaching the results of previous peer reviews. I am formally thanking him for the attention given.

I cannot say how the PI feels about this (I now live on the other side of the planet) nor whether there will be further collaborations. Whatever the reasons, his response was appropriate, thus I am recommending this line of action. On a personal note, I would not have escalated this to the journal editors unless I was sure there was something else out of place.

Thanks to all for the suggestions given.


How to publish two sequential research papers non-chronologically?

The description of your discipline sounds like something covered by the arXiv to me. In that case, the best option would be to write both papers in the "right" order and upload them to the arXiv. Include mutual citations. Now for the conference versions, there is no problem anymore: Just cite the arXiv versions.


My problem about writing a technical/research report/paper

I suspect you are finding this difficult because you are trying to write in an academic style, and are judging yourself as you are writing. I think the secret to easier writing is to spend as little time as possible "writing". Instead, spend your time jotting quick emails and editing stuff. Let me explain what I mean.

Get together with someone who knows nothing about your research, and explain it to them. Record yourself, or at least take notes on the main points that you address.
Now write your explanation down, but informally, as if you were writing an email to a friend. Better yet, make it a real email -- that will help you keep it informal.
Also gather any other emails you've written to your supervisor, or colleagues and friends. (If you're not already doing so, get into the habit of writing those emails regularly, while ideas are fresh in your mind.)
Take those emails, and paste them into an empty document. This will be the starting point of your paper.
Now rearrange the information as needed, to make it coherent. Everywhere there's a gap, stick in a message like NEED TO EXPLAIN X HERE.
At this point, you're beginning to have an idea of the structure of the paper. This would be a good time to write an outline, to see if you've left anything out. This outline goes into the document along with everything else. (You can delete it before submitting the paper.)
Now fill in the gaps. But write informally, as if you were writing an email to a friend.
Now go through your document, and make the sentences more formal. Don't overdo it, though. You don't want your writing to be stilted; you want it to sound natural.

Congratulations. You have the first draft of your paper, and you barely did any real "writing"; it was mostly just writing emails and editing.

It's much easier to make informal, but clear, writing more formal, than it is to make formal writing more clear!


What is a non-tenure-track assistant professor position in the USA and is it harmful?

Actually, in this specific case I think it may just be a mistake in the ad.

The application page linked from the Chronicle ad just describes the position as "Assistant Professor" and doesn't say anything about tenure one way or the other.  Certainly the default for an assistant professor position would be that it is tenure track.

Also, I attended UC San Diego as a grad student (in a different department) and don't ever remember hearing about any non-tenure-track assistant professors.  Full-time teaching-oriented faculty at UCSD have the title  "Lecturer".

So I think there's a good chance that these are ordinary tenure-track assistant professor positions, and that someone just clicked the wrong box when submitting the Chronicle ad.

I would suggest getting in touch with the department for clarification.


Paper accepted three hours after submission

It's impossible that the paper was reviewed (at least by a human). 3 hours is way too short. Weeks is a much better order of magnitude estimate for the time required to review papers.

It sounds like you're dealing with a predatory conference. I would approach with care. Check if the conference's scientific committee are actually established researchers in the field, check the keynote speakers to see if other established researchers are intending to attend, check if the conference has been held before and if so, how those conferences went.


Footnote —per work— is the easiest and flows the best for me.

  Given that “lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” (Lorem 42),3 it is evident that…

  This and all subsequent quotations are my own translations from the original Ipsum language.

But it's not unheard of to do it in the parenthetical reference:

  Given that “lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” (Lorem 42, translation mine), it is evident that…

I can't seem to find an example of someone doing it for multiple ones like you mention, although I definitely recall seeing it once or twice. The parenthetical form is most commonly done for a source you only cite once or twice and each time you just say translation mine (or translations mine if there are two or more quotations that go with a reference), but I guess it wouldn't be horrible if you put this and subsequent translations mine or similar.

So basically, my recommendation is parenthetical if you'll use them a handful of times. Footnote if you'll be quoting extensively from them.


Simply put, the answer for most of your questions is: experience.
Advisors are usually people that are working on a specific field/domain for a while. They know the other people who work on this field as well (from conferences), and their work (from doing bibliographical reviews for each written paper).

In my experience, while it is indeed interesting to work on stuff that have a direct world application, that is not strictly necessary. Pure science is still science and you never know what people will be able to do with your research in the future.


How do I mitigate my group project members plagiarizing off me and taking advantage of me?

May I suggest an alternate point of view? Is it possible that you are grabbing the reins of the project and trying to control it too tightly?

I bring this up because you mention a couple of times that you are the only one who knows how to program. From my own experience I know that when experienced programmers are compelled to work with inexperienced programmers there is a strong temptation to seize control of the project in order to make sure it is done well. You have to keep in mind though that this is an educational exercise. The goal is not the completion of the project per se, but that the students learn the material by participating in the project. You may be assuring a higher quality result by taking control of the project, but you may be interfering with your fellow students learning the material. It may be time for them to learn how to program.

This may be doubly difficult because it sounds like you are more motivated than your fellow students. I expect that you knew exactly what needed to be done and wanted to come to grips with it, while your fellow students may have been "Yeah sure, whatever". Consider this an opportunity to learn how to engage and motivate your co-workers. You are going to be working on "group projects" most of the rest of your career, so this is an important skill to cultivate.

Of course on top of this is your natural concern about the project grade. I don't know how to ensure that your desire for a top grade doesn't conflict with the needs of your fellow students to get hands on experience or vice versa. I can only suggest that in the worst cases where one of your fellows is simply sitting back with folded arms, you may need to discuss the situation with the professor.


How to react to some students who book an appointment and do not show up?

Back when this was something I had to deal with, I would:

Always have something to do if someone doesn't show up for their appointment, or if their question gets resolved very quickly.

Write brief emails to no-shows along the lines of

Dear X:
I'm following up on our appointment today at 14:00. I hope everything is OK with you.
Let me know if your question is still relevant and you would like to reschedule.
If you answered your own question, I'm glad, but next time I'd appreciate
a heads up for scheduling purposes. Ditto if something came up and you just couldn't
make it. See you in class tomorrow, I hope!

Get progressively more direct if people missed several appointments, to the extent of refusing to make further appointments (leaving the student the option to come for the office hour I had for appointment-free visits every week).

Note the tone of the email in point 2 is not demanding of an explanation (or indicating a desire to judge whether excuses provided are adequate), but is also openly asking for a change in behaviour, without pulling rank or going passive-aggressive. Generally I got belated apologies and improved future behaviour. And a couple of times the "I hope everything is OK", meant genuinely, surfaced that something pretty dire had happened (where a pure chastising email soliciting an apology would have been cringingly tone-deaf!), including a student on the verge of an emotional breakdown where we were able to get them help.
Now, a couple of decades later, I'd still do the same -- and suspect I've written stuff not too dissimilar in tone to peers and superiors too!
Basically: be frank about what you need to change, don't make an investigation of it, and open the door to empathy.
Editing to add: Comments/other answers have pointed out potential different cultural expectations, and/or that the tone is not optimal if there turns out to have been a real emergency. Regarding the first, agreed: needs to be tempered by cultural norms. But if student behaviour feels outside of local norms, do go ahead and address it. Regarding the 2nd, also true. At the risk of going very math/stats-nerdy, there is a Bayesian prior regarding what caused the missed appointment. My answer assumes the Bayesian prior is fairly flat between emergency, forgetfulness, student self-absorbtion/failure to consider from others' point of view, and overall excessive academic stress. The tone tries to be acceptable and hopefully effective in all these instances. If your Bayesian prior is more heavily weighted to one pole, your optimal tone will change. This includes repeat offenders (where the Bayesian prior weighs more heavily on self-absorbtion), reason to suspect emergencies, etc.


Can you gain admissions to a top UK Engineering PhD program with limited research?

You are not expected to have any research publications at all to enter a UK PhD programme, even at Oxbridge. Any you have will put you in good stead. Most entrants to UK PhD programmes come from an undergraduate course or a masters programme where they have learnt lots but only undertaken research within limited parameters. Many will have only completed a project and written an unpublished report.
A first class undergraduate degree, a 2:1 is sometimes acceptable; but because undergraduate scoring is not standardized across UK (or worldwide) universities there will be an extended interview. You will need to be able to demonstrate your knowledge and your capacity to reason with a good performance during the interview(s) with your prospective supervisor and probably others in the department. The interview is also an important chance for you and your supervisor to find out if the two of you will be able to work together closely in the future.


How to point out a typo in an equation in an article?

Yes, you can email both the authors and the editor of the journal. A correction might be issued. But it is worth a bit of effort.
Of course, if it is obvious in the paper then it may be that it has been noticed by many and they have responded, or just ignored the error as obvious and moved on.
But it you have some evidence that the error has affected the results of newer papers then it might be especially important to reach out.


Is it plagiarism to reference a fictitious source?

For example, Merriam–Webster defines plagiarism via to plagiarize, which it defines as:

  : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
  : use (another's production) without crediting the source
  intransitive verb

  : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

This does not include inventing a quotation, which is in fact sort-of the opposite of plagiarism: passing off one’s own idea as somebody else’s. Other dictionaries agree on this and so does my understanding of the word plagiarism.

Moreover, defining plagiarism so broad makes the term rather useless and almost equivalent to the umbrella term academic misconduct. The reason why we have a word for plagiarism is to differentiate a specific kind of misconduct, not a specific severity.

  The conflict is this: the student isn't citing these texts directly, but they are referencing finer plot points and characters. To me that's dishonest and shows a lack of integrity. I'm grading students on a rubric that awards points for organization, analytical treatment, and language use. If I treat this as academic dishonesty maybe I knock the person's grade down in the rubric criteria related to analysis, but if I treat it as plagiarism I'd give the student a zero.

I fail to see why you would be more lenient about academic dishonesty than about plagiarism. I don’t fully understand what you mean by “referencing finer plot points and characters”, but I would classify what you are describing as fabricating evidence, which is roughly as grave as plagiarism. I say roughly, because I see no point in ranking the severity of those misconducts in general and the severity distributions of individual instances of those misconducts strongly overlap.

What is important at the end of the day is whether you are reasonably convinced that the student in question did not just work sloppily, but intentionally deceived the reader (i.e., you). The aspect of intention alone suffices for awarding them zero points, in my opinion.


Is it bad to make a joke during a presentation ?

I would encourage you not to force humor into - or out of - a presentation, depending on your goals for the presentation and the context of the situation you are in.

The thing with humor is it is deeply contextual, and how it is received depends heavily on the delivery, the audience, and how you are perceived as the 'performer'. For a Brilliant, Serious Scholar, a light-hearted joke can help to improve your likability and make the talk more memorable and understandable to a wider audience. On the other hand, a Mewling Youngling cracking wise can bring about eye rolls and grumbling and help to cement an impression that you are insufficiently serious, plugging your talk with frippery because you don't have anything really substantive to add.

It's annoying - and often unfair - that two people can say the same thing and have the reception of the statement be completely and utterly different, but in practice that's how it goes.

Your talk is your performance, your work, and you decide what impression you want to give, how you present yourself, and how you want people to view you. Humor can be a useful part of that, neutral, or counter-productive.

Personally, as a one-size-fits-all suggestion, if you plan a joke I suggest you also support it in such a way in the slides that you are free to skip it without it harming the presentation. You can then decide, on the spot and based on your read of the room and intuition, to use it or leave it out. Jokes bomb for lots of reasons, so don't try to lean on it too heavily, regardless, and don't set yourself up for needing the joke to kill to give a good impression.


Is it possible for an undergrad to publish in a journal without conducting experiments (using existing data)?

In principle this is possible, however, when using data collected by somebody else you have to take great care not to produce bad science. Data collection is usualy performed with a certain specific application in mind, and when collecting data you have to make sure that the errors introduced in the collection process do not influence the final result in a way that is important for your purpose. If you use the same data for some other purpose your results will likely be affected by some bias.

So if you want to corelate oil prices with GDP growth, you are fine, but with more complex questions you are in real danger.


NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, how much input from one's own advisor is ethical?

There is nothing wrong with having assistance on this or any other fellowship application.  It would be foolish not to seek out assistance.  Note that the NSF even advises "get feedback from others" and provides a list of experienced people who can help applicants.  The expectation is that applicants will have help.

While there may be a level of assistance that is inappropriate, someone who "worked extremely hard on his application" should not spend a moment worrying about this.  The complaints from his peers sound like jealousy.


Journal biographies: Presenting name, degree, university, etc

The following answers the original question, not the edited question. I'll update if the OP confirms they're satisfied with the edit.
Questions about the English language are off-topic here, but the question might be on-topic had the context been explained. E.g., in a journal article's biography, how should the authors' titles, affiliation, etc. appear.  In that context, for the examples given, I suggest:
John Doe, BSc candidate, Subject Name, University A.

(It's unclear from the question what the precise Subject Name is.)
John Smith, Research Director, University B, and Lecturer, University C.

Since the full addresses of Universities A-C presumably already appear elsewhere, e.g., as author affiliations, they can be omitted.
Alternatively,
John Doe, BSc candidate.
John Smith, Research Director and Lecturer.

Or
...

(Options are numerous.)


Appropriateness of dedicating my thesis to a Jewish mathematician who died in a concentration camp

Aeismail’s answer is spot on: who you choose to dedicate it to is entirely up to you (modulo political expedience). I've read theses dedicated to martyrs and I've read theses dedicated to cats. Do what you feel moved to do. See answers here for some discussion.

As for how it would be received by the Jewish community and Jewish mathematicians, I am confident that the answer is "extremely well," based on my experiences and conversations about similar tributes. On a personal level, as a Jewish mathematician and descendant of survivors I would find this incredibly meaningful to come across and quite likely be moved to tears by a well-written dedication along these lines.

A tip about writing the dedication: one common mistake that people writing about the Holocaust make is to paint it as “unimaginable” or “unprecedented.” Although it is by far the single largest genocide in terms of total number of people killed (6M Jews, 5M others includes Poles, the disabled, and homosexuals) that usually rubs me the wrong way. The Holocaust is without a doubt the most socially prominent, but definitely not only, example of persecutions of Jews or of genocide as a whole. It’s also not the most recent or “last” (I see people use this term) genocide, nor has Nazism gone away. Today there is genocide in Myanmar against the Rohingya people and in Iraq against the Yazidi. Today neo-Nazis openly march in Virginia, USA while targeting Jews in their chants and waving the swastika. These facts are things people tend to be unaware of, and so people can sometimes accidentally take away from their tributes through inaccurate or dismissive words.

I think a dedication to Tauber and the others who were murdered would be lovely, but caution you to think carefully about the wording lest you accidentally minimize or dismiss the aforementioned facts.

A couple of people seem to have missed the fact that there’s a direct connection between Tauber and your work. To explicitly state that for anyone who is reading this: the field that is the topic of the dissertation is known as “Tauber Theory” and (presumably) Tauber’s work was foundational and central to the field and the dissertation.


Are there cheaper alternatives to ACM and to IEEE Xplore digital libraries?

If you are needing frequent access to particular articles published by ACM and IEEE, then ACM DL and IEEE Xplore are really the only ways to go.

However, if you are needing to be able to find and reference general background information across a broad range of computer science subjects, then there are informal access methods which also work quite well.

First, Google Scholar is very good at finding non-paywalled copies of PDFs.  This is especially the case for computer science, where many conferences have very liberal policies about self-archiving and where many people strongly believe that material should be made accessible online.  Some organizations, such as AAAI and AAMAS just always put everything online for free as a matter of policy. Even IEEE and ACM are fairly liberal about this and rarely interfere with authors who do not follow the letter of their law.

Second, the ResearchGate site has an option for privately requesting copies of publications from authors, and most computer science authors are quite willing to share (again, there is a strong "information wants to be free" culture in much of the community).

The efficacy of these approaches varies from subcommunity to subcommunity, but it sounds like the type of general access you're looking for may well be sufficiently served by them.


Is this sort of phase common in research? Should I be worried about
  it?

It is common. Whether you should be worried about it depends on you. For example, can you imagine enjoying this even if you aren't "in love" with this. Getting a PhD, even in something you love, will be hard. There will be petty, stupid things that still require time (formatting one's thesis...). Does that strike you as a cost you're willing to bear, or do you only really see enjoying things if they're going well, there's a clear trajectory, etc.

  How can I assure myself that this is not a fleeting pursuit? That I
  will still enjoy research in 5 years?

There's no real way to be sure this is true if for no other reason than people change in 5 years. But one way I dealt with it was to switch labs for a semester, to disambiguate if I liked all research or just the particular research I was doing. In my case, I discovered that no, I really enjoyed this thing and was not actually just enamored with the idea of research.


Trying to get into undergraduate research, is it discouraged to contact both the PhD students and the professor?

Some universities and faculty are more interested in getting undergraduates involved in research than others. I've had quite a few undergraduate students do research with me with great success (publications even). I've never taught at a university with a PhD in CS though - my institutions encouraged undergraduate research and often even provided funding for it.

I would recommend against approaching PhD students to work on their research unless directed to do so by their advisor - they are focusing their time and energy on finishing their degrees as well as any research/teaching duties assigned by the university. You can ask graduate students for advice on which professors are interested in working with undergraduates - they usually know the faculty pretty well.

As far as professors, there are a few different approaches. Your department should have research seminars - probably more than one - have you been attending? They are usually open to anyone who is interested and it's a good way to hear about interesting research. If the faculty member you are interested in working with has a research group with a seminar series then sitting in on that is also a good way to show that you're serious about doing research with them (but ask if that's ok!). Figure out a specific faculty member or research group you're interested in - you're more likely to get a positive response if you can demonstrate knowledge of what they are doing and genuine interest (in the research - not just in getting a recommendation letter!).

Does your department have programs for undergraduate research? Many have summer scholar programs that partner students with faculty or with research labs. Faculty who have grant money can often get extra funding to pay an undergraduate to work with them.

The other thing you can do is to look into Research Experience for Undergraduate programs - summer programs where you'd go to another university to do research. They are competitive to get into though so it's another situation where you'll need a letter of reference. This can be from someone whose class you've taken (I've written them for my students).


How do I communicate effectively and work in an interdisciplinary research team?

It feels like this depends on who the "person" is. If it is a student who is doing a three-week internship, you might just not care (as in: it's not worth it). Same for a PhD student who is not going to play a role in your project.

However, you will have to make sure that the important people in both disciplines understand what the other part is doing and talking about. But none of them, as far as I understand your situation, "should know this" - they do come from a different field, don't they?


it it possible to use the same alogorithm in two different publication?

Generally, yes.

It would be expected that there is some novel aspect in the second article, but the novel aspect does not need to be the algorithm.

It can be a different type of data (e.g., "bla algorithm applied to detect liver tumors" and "bla algorithm applied to detect stroke"), or a substantially larger dataset (e.g., "preliminary results of bla on 9 patients" and "results of bla on 500 patients"), etc.


When to start contacting potential supervisors?

I’ve supervised Masters for 20 years, and my advice is to think about what really interests you, not just these disciplines, but to think how they can be used. That list may include solutions to observed or perceived problems, it may also include blue sky research. The thing is, firstly, you don’t need a Masters to do a PhD, though if you do have one, it might make sense to follow up on your Masters thesis. Having a chat with a good supervisor with no commitment may offer you insight into what you want to do.
Secondly, you should think about your endpoint. Do you want to stay in acadaemia or are you looking for a commercial outcome? I worked at one of the top places for applied research. This particular University was solely postgraduate and focused purely on commercial outcomes having a worldwide reputation for its research and its students, and its contribution to the world. For example, the mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope (the Hubble replacement) were made in its precision laboratories.
If you are looking at becoming an academic, then that will determine which type of university you might apply to. If you are looking to create a foundation for a career, you must also select wisely. My advice would be to decide which it is academic or commercial outcome. A piece of further advice would be that if you’re a practical person, you should be involved with an applied research institution rather than the purely academic type.
Lastly, research proposals are exactly that. They are only what you propose....what you’d like to do. They rarely match up to the finished thesis. Research is a living animal. It evolves, it changes, it matches its environment. The beauty of real world research is that you can point to something and say “I did that”. It’s your legacy to the World. You will go down many routes when you start to research. You will be faced with dead ends, you will have to re-trace your steps. So don’t get hung up on the proposal. A good supervisor will allow the exploration and nudge you gently in the right direction.
See which Universities are active in your specific interests. Then, check which supervisors have a track record in what you’re interested in. The supervision process is no different whether you’re doing astrophysics, chemistry, engineering or English. Methodologies and methods vary, but a good supervisor will always demand rigour. Good luck.


I have deep desire to study Physics after I graduate from Computer Engineering; want to know if I have what it takes to be successful in this field

Answer from a physicists. Please make an effort to define what it means to "belong to the field of physics".

Do you have what it takes to get a bachelor in physics? Sure you do: if you can graduate in another STEM field as computer engineering you can graduate in physics as well. Physics is hard, but with good math skills, and lots of passion this is certainly not an insurmountable challenge.
Do you have what it takes to get a master in physics? Pretty much same as above. If you still like it after 3 years you can certainly put one or two more. If anything, master is easier as you are already through the first barrier (having the proper mindset)
do you have what it takes to obtain a PhD in physics? If you got till here, then the question is more about attitude: can you on work for long hours, many days a week toward a very hard, possibly ill defined problem, for years? This is a skill you develop in any PhD
do you have what it takes to become a physicist? (physicist = an person that does research in physics for a living, typically in universities or laboratories) It takes a person with a PhD who can prove he/she is creative, relentless, ambitious, can get papers published and money grant flowing, and face extreme competition without crushing under pressure. At this stage, it takes exeptional hard and soft skills, and a good dose of luck.

I think you were referring to the bachelor. Go for it, follow your passion. Are you not sure you want to become an academic? Most physics graduates I know who left the field are now working as quant traders, data scientists, entrepreneurs, journalists, teachers, politicians. Not too bad if you think you would not make for a good academic, right? :)


Developing meta-cognitive and emotional skills during PhD?

I empathize, as this is something that I (and many others here, I am sure) have also struggled with.

My first piece of advice is simple but difficult: you need to start valuing yourself. Eat well. Sleep well (or at least defend an eight hour block of time where you lie in bed and rest). Get outside and move around. Your mind lives inside your body, and you cannot build on a broken foundation.

My second piece of advice is to help yourself do this by getting help from a therapist. I particularly recommend looking into cognitive behavioral therapy, given your description of self-regulation: it is very good at helping people get out of dead ends that are more intellectual than organic.


Is it possible to be admitted to CS PhD programs (in the US) with scholarship at age 18?

[For context: I am a professor of mathematics at the University of Georgia.  I've served on my department's Graduate Committee, which does graduate admissions, for about eight years.  From 2016-2019 I was the Graduate Coordinator, hence the faculty member most directly involved in the graduate admissions process.]

Regarding your son, you told us:

1) He is a junior studying CS at well-known university.  He has perfect grades and GRE scores, and he has multiple first authored papers in highly ranked journals and conferences.

2) He is 16.

To my mind, the first point is highly relevant.  In mathematics a student with that profile would probably get into some of the top PhD programs in the country.  I am confident that the same holds in CS. Moreover, in both of these fields, admission to a top program comes with full funding the vast majority (over 95%) of the time.

I am also assuming that since your son is 16 now and in his junior year, he will be 18 -- i.e., an adult -- when he starts graduate school.  Given this, the second point does not seem relevant to me.  Some people will find your son's achievements (even) more impressive given his age.  Others will have some concerns about the maturity and readiness of such a young student for a PhD program.  But when it comes to admissions and hiring, times have changed: in the last few years faculty have received much more training and specific instructions (including on legal obligations) regarding admissions and hiring than in years past.  Deciding not to admit a qualified student because of his age sounds like a discriminatory practice to be avoided.  Conversely, giving more weight to a student because of his age sounds like a discriminatory practice against the other applicants...also to be avoided.  A small number of committees may still be influenced by such thinking, but overall it should be the case that your son will be considered only on point 1) and I think that it will be the case.

In summary: your son has an excellent profile that will most likely lead to multiple fully funded offers at prestigious CS programs in the US.  (By the way: yes, he should apply directly to a PhD program.)  You do not need to, nor do I think you should, do anything out of the ordinary because of his age.


You can try contacting Robert Marzke himself. There is a chance he has a digitized version of his own that he is willing to share.


Are course grade distributions supposed to be bell shaped?

The distribution doesn't have to be of bell-shape. In very large scale open exams it may be reasonable to assume a bell curve. In many other situations, the distributions can be affected by the class size, mix of the students, objectives of the course, validity of the exam questions, and difficulty of the exam questions, etc.

Class size: The smaller the class, the harder to observe any discernible distributions, such as a bell-shape normal distribution.

Mix of students: If you're teaching a quantitative class and there are two streams of students from i) art programs and ii) engineer programs, you may see some other distribution like a double bell-shape bimodal distribution.

Objectives of the course: Some courses can be designed based on a fixed and stringent set of standards. For instance, if you teach anesthesiology and the passing grade for the students to take the board exam is 90%, the end distribution is unlikely to be bell-shape.

Validity and difficulty of the exam: Invalid questions may lower the accuracy which prohibits you to see the true distribution; overly easy or hard exam can move the curve towards high- and low-boundary, causing truncated bell-shape distributions.

If I have to give an assessment I'd first suggest removing the 0% as it's a special case and yet tilting the impression of the curve quite badly. For the rest, I'd say if you're teaching an introductory course in which students are expected to gain a good foundation, this is not a bad distribution. If you're teaching a very advanced course, with nearly 20% getting close to full mark then the assessment may benefit from a re-tuning.

Generally, I'd advise:

Analyze the grades and your course objectives in tandem. Just grade distribution itself does not tell if you're doing a good job.
Accumulate more data across cohorts of students. I find that after 3-4 times teaching the same course the patterns would start to emerge.
Compare to historic grade distribution (just a few years before you picked this course up) to make sure you are not way off. Consult the appropriate dean if they are.
If so inclined, try to analyze your exam items. There are special statistics to check if your exam questions are "good" questions. Most academic institutes should have an education affair office that can help you.


Is it rude to ask your professor to NOT put you as co-author of a paper?

To elaborate on the comment by Roland.

If you wrote the paper and analyzed the results, you have a strong claim of ownership on the paper (along with the graduate student who got the initial results). Depending on the depth of your analysis you may well be the lead author so it’s your call by right.

If your professor is pushing for the result to be published then your name has to be on it. If you refuse it can’t happen. If they choose to publish without you it’s ethical misconduct and grounds for retracting the paper from wherever it’s submitted to.

The only diplomatic avenue here is that you push to correct the issues and then submit. Otherwise, politely say that you think the paper is not ready and that it is not publishable in its current state.


The text you quote is from Elsevier, and their policy on hosting articles says that "arXiv and RePEc can update a preprint immediately with the accepted manuscript and a DOI link to the formal publication" (while the embargo period applies only to other organizations), so you haven't violated the agreement in updating the arXiv posting.  You can add the DOI via the arXiv's journal reference feature once it is available.


Is it appropriate to cite a paper in a language I don't understand?

I think the fact that the paper is in a language you don't understand is somewhat of a red herring. Sure, it will affect the specific steps you'd take to try to understand the paper, but the ethics of "to cite, or not to cite" it is no different from a paper you don't understand written in a language you speak. You're generally supposed to provide a good-faith overview of the literature, with citations as appropriate. The fact that one paper is significantly harder to understand doesn't really change that.

My view is that it behooves you to, as far as possible*, and regardless of language, at least understand at a high level what the full papers you cite contain, and the parts of papers you use on a detailed level. Google Translate will be good enough in some cases, but for other cases it's better used as a starting point. If you find yourself doubting the machine translation it's certainly best to use it as a starting point. You might want to try to clarify uncertain points with the authors, ask a colleague (who might speak the language) for help, get a professional translation of parts of the paper, or use a secondary citation.

*In some fields they even study ancient languages to understand original texts. That might be overkill...


Do German professors in a Master’s program respond to students who email them interested in their research work?

Generally, there is nothing wrong with sending e-mails to professors which demonstrate some interest in their research, also in Germany (where I work). It could help you get in contact with research groups you are interested in. However, it could also happen that you will get no response.

One reason is that most students starting with a Master´s program will not make contact to the professors, you just enroll and that´s it. During the typically two years of the studies, you will get to know the professors and other people involved in teaching and research. Then, as soon as you have to do some research related thing (some small project or your Master´s thesis), you make contact asking professors or other approriate staff if they would support you with this. Again, trying to make contact earlier probably will not harm, but do not expect too much of it.

Tours with individual students who are early in their Master´s program are unusual in my experience. But if you show some genuine interest, it might happen. Again: There is no harm in asking! There might also be some organized tours in the beginning of your studies.

As far as the title is concerned, I would always go for the formal version which is "Prof. Dr." (unisex) in your case. Many people will not even notice if you write "Herr" (for men) or "Frau" (for women) or only "Prof." (unisex), but enough professors will, so it is better to be on the safe side. I recommend to drop the formal part only after some personal contact which justifies it, e.g. if the professor offers you to address them with their first name.

It would however be strange to use "Herr" or "Frau" in an e-mail which is otherwise written in English. Use them only when you write in German.


Contacting journal editor asking for final decision after all reviews were submitted weeks ago?

Make sure you wait at least 3-4 weeks if you do choose to write, so you're sure the Editor is not planning to ask another referee (this can happen if your paper has both positive and negative reviews).

Be polite; asking for a "final decision" sounds too blunt, and is best avoided.
Also, there is no need to remind the Editor that the reviews are done, they know that already. Something along the lines of "I would be grateful for any updates on the status of my submission" should be adequate.


What's the impact of PhD Advisor on your faculty job?

Well, there is the less direct answer to your question, which is that between providing funding, data, infrastructure, reaching out to colleagues, etc. your PhD advisor will have a profound amount of impact on your work, which will then have an impact on your faculty job search. For example, my project really took off when my advisor told me to email someone who had data, and to make sure to mention I was his student.

But I expect what you mean is the more direct question of how does one's advisor impact the actual job search. And, as with many things in academia, the answer is "It depends."

At the profoundly influential side of the spectrum, I have known people who have called in favors for their students and essentially conjured up jobs, or at the very least prompted a search that might have been a long time down the line. At the same time, I have also known advisors who have been reasonably hands off about the entire thing beyond writing letters, positive advice, and providing a supportive research environment. It all depends on how much they're willing to throw their weight around, how receptive their audience is to that, and whether they have favors in the right "place" (for example, if you're headed to a slightly different field, someone with a lot of clout might not be able to carry it as far).


From academic collaboration to research contract, best practices

The best way is probably to talk very openly with them about your situation and especially what research contracts mean for you. Before you make any suggestions, it would also be good to evaluate the funding situation of your partners, and whether they need your contribution so much for their research that they would be willing to put money in it.

However, most collaborations between academic groups are seen as something that benefits both sides, so it could be seen as a little bit odd that one side pays the other to do something. Still, if your partners have a good funding situation, they might be willing to (co-)fund a PhD student or post-doc in your group, who works specifically on the collaboration project. But I've mostly seen this between groups in the same institution so far, not among different institutions. If your collaborators are in industry, then it will probably be easier.

Another nice way to get such project going would be to apply for joint funding with the other research group, for example within an EU project, and set up a contract how the money from the funded project will be distributed between you and the other group. If your collaborators have good national funding sources, it may also be possible that they apply for funding with the joint project on their own, and outsource the computational part to you.


Is it ethical to publish a paper about porting an existing software package to another programming language?

Your paper must clearly delineate what is your original contribution and what is the same as, or based on, the previous package. So if you write about your Corpus class, for example, you must say that it is modeled after the R package's Corpus class. Otherwise it is "cheating," as you put it.

(It's also not clear to me that a straightforward port of an existing package would be considered a novel research contribution by most venues for publication. But that's an entirely different question.)


Does using complex mathematical notation detract the reader from a paper?

An author should always be careful when using mathematical notation that is "outside the theme of papers in this field," especially if the papers typically have little math notation. I have personally found that running into a cryptic (at first glance) equation makes me put the brakes on and engage some deeper thought to decipher what's trying to be said. Oftentimes, the notation is required, or at least useful, but when I end up thinking, "Couldn't they have just said 'such-and-such' in plain English'", I get a bit cranky.

Sometimes, though, you do need the space savings to stay within page limits, so if you really will shave off 90% of the space, and you need that space to fit in something else that is key to the paper, AND in your best judgement that the audience won't be derailed by the notation, you might be OK. Otherwise, because you have stated that you can describe it clearly in words, you should consider perhaps rewriting that description to be more concise and precise, rather than potentially obfuscating the details of your graph production.


Update a preprint on ResearchGate to conference publication after acceptance

I contacted Researchgate requesting to them merge two papers once (a preprint and a postprint). All they did was to delete one of the papers (unfortunately the 'better' of the two). Not recommended. Instead, I would suggest you either update the previous upload or upload a second version, preferably both. Update the old for your followers. I can't say for sure, but I think new uploads get some priority in the feed of other users. By performing both these actions you maximize the exposure your paper gets.


How to write an apology letter for a professor?

one could say... implying... I also commented on... I may have gone too far... do you evaluate my reaction as provocative?...

Perhaps you're being a bit lenient on yourself?

I think the only right thing to do is to apologize, in person, and own your awful (truly awful!) behavior. You didn't perhaps offend and disrespect her, you absolutely offended and disrespected her. In my opinion, you were completely out of line (and unprofessional to boot.) Regardless of the opinion of others (including my own), I think you need to deal head on with this problem you have of lashing out at others for (real or perceived) slights. Part of dealing with a problem behavior is dealing with the consequences.

People are more likely to forgive an offense if the offender has actually apologized and asked for forgiveness. Though she may continue to harbor some residual ill-will towards you (and deservedly so), it will show the community to whom she belongs that you at least tried to do the civilized thing after exhibiting such poor judgement. Also, it will likely stop her from continuing to bad-mouth you if you have apologized appropriately. It doesn't sound good to the listener if she complains bitterly about you, then ends with, "...and then he apologized appropriately."

Don't send a letter or an email. Have the courage to do it in person, and to allow her the opportunity to tell you what you probably need to hear. It might also help you to read about real apologies lest you continue in the vein which started this.

However, if you want her continued ill-will and bad-mouthing to follow you around the start of your career (it may or may not hurt you, you never know), do nothing, or better yet, continue to ignore the better angels of your nature, and tell people she had it coming to her.


Condolences from a student to a professor

I'm not sure that you 'violated the professor's privacy'. Googling his name seems altogether appropriate.

Still, I wouldn't say anything. Since he hasn't told you (and no one else has told you), it seems he doesn't want to discuss it with you. I would respect this. Thinking back to when I taught classes, I certainly would have appreciated the effort, but it also would make me just a tiny amount uncomfortable, particularly since I hadn't announced the death.

By the way, I'm assuming you're an undergraduate and you only know him as a teacher. If you are a grad student and he is a prof in your subfield, I still would err on the side of not saying anything, but it could go either way depending on the personalities involved.


Is it unethical to supply a marked solution to a student who has shown intent to cheat, with the intent of identifying them for punishment?

[We] had a lengthy discussion about sting operations and entrapment

The distinction between the two is important here. A sting catches someone doing something they were already going to do. Entrapment is where you trick them into doing it in the first place. If you posted an advertisement offering to solve the assignment for them, and some students took you up on that, that would be entrapment, and would definitely be unethical: they might not have cheated if you hadn't posted the advertisement.

But in this case, they have already chosen to cheat. The only thing you can change is whether the assignment that they cheated on is easily recognizable as such. In some cases, it's hard to distinguish between a sting and entrapment. That isn't the case here; there's a (presumably) timestamped job posting the proves they were planning to do this before you got involved.

You should still definitely run this by the department chair or someone first if you decide to do it, though. It looks similar to entrapment even though it isn't, and it's better to justify your actions before you do them, instead of letting it be an unpleasant surprise when the student complains later.

The fact that you'd be getting paid to do the assignment is an issue, as well. Returning the fee to the cheater after catching them probably addresses this issue. (And maybe turn it over to the department in the meantime, to avoid the appearance of potential impropriety.)

Edit: A comment requested an unambiguous conclusion, so:
My view is that it is ethical, but it's very close to the border, and either encouraging cheating that would not have otherwise happened or profiting from the actions you take would push it over to the unethical side. And because it's so close, it's important to have some amount of transparency (e.g. by telling the department chair in advance) so as to avoid both the potential for and appearance of impropriety.


Would classroom teaching (to undergrads) be a situation where there's is a legitimate expectation of original authorship?

No, but that is irrelevant to plagiarism.

if a lack of attribution would be considered Plagiarism in this context?

In any academic context, attribution is required.  So yes.


Fear of someone having the same idea and doing the research before you do

I worked on a project during the summer and fall of 2014 that I never published. Someone else beat me to it, publishing a very good and very thorough paper that did everything I had thought to do and more.

Do I regret that time I spent on that project? Not at all. I learned some useful new methods that I have since been able to apply to other ideas. I have a much deeper understanding of this problem than I would have just from reading my competitor's paper, and I'm sure that will come in handy someday. I've taken my version of the idea in a totally different direction, and it's stronger for it.

I suggest you consider the potential consequences of being "scooped":

Maybe you'll read their work and discover that although it seems very similar, the details are fundamentally different. Great! You'll cite the work in your own paper. The fact that other people are paying attention to this area shows that it's relevant and helps motivate your paper. Also see: Scoopage
Maybe you'll read their work and discover that it actually does accomplish everything you set out to do. Now you get to be flexible and take your project in a different direction. After you've done some preliminary work in this new direction, get in touch with them and propose a collaboration, which is likely to make your own work even stronger.

Know that being scooped doesn't necessarily mean everything you have done is wasted. (This article has some more advice on moving on from being scooped.)

Also, there are steps you can take to help avoid being scooped (although you can't guarantee anything, of course):

Know your strengths. If you're working in a crowded area, what can you contribute that you already have some expertise in? If you can apply what you already have to something new and interesting, you're ahead of those people who don't already have that expertise.
Read a lot. Identify the people in your field who are doing similar work, talk to them at conferences, generally keep track of what they are working on, so that you're less likely to be caught off guard.
Be open about what you are working on: give talks, poster presentations, chat with people at conferences, etc. about your ongoing work. If everybody in your field knows "LCW is working on X," then people interested in X may come to you for collaboration instead of working independently. When you do publish (a careful, accurate, not-sloppy paper), everyone working in the area will know about it and will probably cite it in their own work.

These are measures that can help alleviate your anxiety and improve the quality of your research.


Limits on one student using all of one's office hours?

I will argue that setting limits for a particular student is acceptable and in some cases necessary. It really is an abuse of office hours if one student is taking up all of them, every day. Let's say that proper usage is around 10-15 min for a particular question or issue. For a particularly weak student like this I may assert, "Let's say we have 20 minutes for this." Require that she ask about a particular homework exercise that she can show prior work for. Do not just regurgitate the lecture wholesale.

By default, students should be able to master the material via lectures, study, and homework, without constant additional hand-holding by the instructor. Part of the unfairness here arises from the fact that the student is effectively getting double face-time with the instructor, relative to other students; so the one student's success does not really represent the same level of proficiency as shown by other students. Some other students may possibly take note of this, and either avoid office-hours interactions (which would be more fruitful) because of the always-present student, or silently resent the double-attention.

If the instructor (like me) is becoming physically and emotionally drained by these constant interactions, then we should learn to be sensitive to that, and take that as a signal that some change or boundary needs to get set, lest we become burned out. There is, in addition, a possibility that the student thinks they are socially flattering or flirting with the professor for a better grade. It's probably a good idea to document these interactions, in case the needy student (or anyone else) is prone to complain later about their grade or some other matter.

Under the "honesty is the best policy" principle, it's probably good in theory to have a frank discussion of expectations for the course with the student around the second or third time this happens. (But: I don't think I've successfully executed that to date.)

The real tough case for me is a student who officially meets all the prerequisites to the course and points to the first day's lecture notes and says something like, "I have no idea what any of these words mean." Perhaps they got through all their prior courses in a state of acclimation to exactly this level of double-hand-holding.

(This answer largely restates my answer and comments on that issue from this question. Thanks to the commentators there for refining my thinking on the issue, and thanks to @scaaahu for suggesting I write them up as an answer here.)


Help choosing my recommender: weaker letter from faculty with PhD, or strong letter from non-PhD industry boss?

Person B seem the best person to assess your at least "academic related" work. That said, in my (non-US) experience reference letters very, very rarely if at all play a major role when making decisions whom to admit, as long as they are "kind of OKish" and the writer has at least some qualification to write them. So you shouldn't be worried of making an all too big mistake here; chances are that your success will not rely on your recommender choice. I'd probably avoid Person C but I don't think Person A will do you much harm. If I were Person A, I'd have a look at your overall results, and mention positively if they are better than what you did in my class (which apparently isn't exactly bad either).


How do I tell my current research advisor I want to work in a related field with another professor?

Just tell him. Be polite. You're over-thinking this.


Using open source code in solving course exercises

This is a quite generic question, so there is no real answer to it. You need to look at it from the course perspective as well as from the Open Source license perspective.

There are different Open Source licences available, but most of these should allow you to use them for creating derivative work. This might mean Open Sourcing your solution also though (in case of a copyleft license such as GPL).

I however suspect that your course wanted to teach you more basic concepts, therefore expecting you to come up with a solution by yourself. There is no clear answer to your question, however, more complex exercises would nearly always rely on the usage of Open Source software, such as SDKs, programming languages, libraries and frameworks.


What was graduate admissions like before the electronic age?

Since just before the transition to the use of the Internet for admissions—in the 1980's and 1990's—the kinds of documents submitted haven't fundamentally changed. What was more difficult back then is that everything had to be printed out and mailed, and application forms had to be individually written or typed out. Deadlines were basically the same as they are now, if not a little later—all of my deadlines were in January or February, whereas now they may be in December. It's not easy, as one might imagine, to visit lots of schools in the US, and in engineering, students normally visited after being admitted, not before. As far as fees go, they haven't changed that much, I don't think—I remember the fees when I applied being about $50 to $75 per school.

As you can imagine, credential fraud was much easier to commit because there was no easy way to teleconference via means like Skype or Google Hangouts, so you couldn't really tell who you were speaking to on the phone. This was most obviously a problem in terms of evaluating the English skills of foreign applicants. I know of at least one department that completely blacklisted all applicants from China for a number of years because multiple applicants would have a colleague with stronger English skills "stand in" for them in the telephone interview, and then the accepted candidate showed up with far worse English skills than the person interviewed. Nowadays, with the possibility of teleconferencing, and with ID's included in the test documents for TOEFL and IELTS, it's much easier to know who you are interviewing, making such fraud much more difficult to achieve.

With respect to contacts, that of course applies—if you know someone who's written a letter of recommendation, and there's any questions, of course you'd want to contact the person by phone or email.


Citing a paper that led to the discovery of another

Unless I misunderstand, the question comes down to "Publication A has cited Publication B, which is a primary source. Can I also cite Publication B, or would that be plagiarism?".

The answer is "Yes, it's fine for multiple people to cite the same primary source".


Outsourcing a mathematical research problem

It sounds like a great idea to publicize the problem among young people who may have a lot of time on their hands, not a lot of other research ideas, and a desire to demonstrate their abilities through something other than timed contests.

One awkward possibility would be getting stuck in a situation in which someone can't convince you that their solution is correct, but you can't convince them it is incomplete or wrong.  Of course this could happen with anyone, but it's particularly likely to occur with someone who is not an experienced researcher.  If you offer a bounty, you should be clear about the conditions.  (For example, that it all comes down to your judgment, and that you don't commit to spend unlimited amounts of time trying to understand a proposed solution.)

Coauthorship is certainly mandatory if you publish a paper that depends on this solution (unless of course the students publish their solution separately and you cite it).  However, you may run into tricky situations in which it's not enough just to offer coauthorship for the first solution.  For example, if several people solve the problem independently and around the same time, then they should all be treated evenhandedly.  Or what if someone proposes a solution you don't believe, someone else proposes a clearer solution and you offer the second person coauthorship, and then the first person convinces you their solution was correct after all?  Of course these problems are not hard to solve (in the last case, you can't retract the authorship of the second person, but you should make the first an author too if you still can).  But the important thing to keep in mind is that you may need to make sensible decisions that go a little beyond the "first solver is a coauthor" rule.

A final observation is that if you succeed in attracting students to this problem, you will likely get lots of questions and comments from them along the way.  If that appeals to you, then it's an advantage of this approach.  On the other hand, if your goal is to get a solution with a minimum amount of time and attention on your part, then asking beginners might not be fruitful.


Should I review differently when the review itself will be public?

In theory we should be as thoughtful and careful regardless. In practice I found that I paid more attention to correct spelling and formatting for reviews I knew were going to be available online. I think the real benefit of publishing the reviews is avoiding the senselessly mean reviews and promote a more mature academic style.


Applying for a 2nd MS degree - Should I mention my previous MS in the statement of purpose?

There are several factors you should consider:

1) check if you are obliged to inform the university about all your previous degrees (this mainly depends on the policy of the university). For example, I know that in some European countries it is highly important to declare it due to financial issues, where students with similar degrees cannot get funding support. In some African and Asian countries, it is not allowed at all to join a program with similar degree due to insufficient pedagogical seats. For this be careful not making a false declaration.

2) in case you are not obliged to declare such an information (Note that it does not mean lying about it), it is better to check if you can make it as a positive point. This should be mentioned in your motivation letter, by intuitively indicating your motivation for the applied program and how its combination with your previous MS will help you to solve difficult problems in the labour market or doing PhD.

If you cannot find such a connection between the two programs and you find that the motivation is not sufficiently convincing, you can hide your degree as long as you are not obliged or asked to declare it.

Overall, everything will be based on how you illustrate your motivation.


Is it OK to extract datasets from somebody's paper and work with it in your own papers?

If you cite the original authors in your plots and when comparing results/conclusions (or simply everywhere you use their data/work) you should be fine.
Also make it clear that the data is "reverse engineered" from their graphs/plots and not the "original" data.


How to inform adviser that morale in group is low?

You do it in exactly the same way as you raise most problems with most bosses:

You start by briefly celebrating something successful.

You go on to quickly point out one or more of their objectives that aren't being realised or won't be realised.

You concisely describe how the problem (in this case low morale) is causing that. You don't put blame on people. You just describe how the problem leads to the objectives not being met.

Then you succinctly give them some realistic, usable options to address the problem.

It will really help your case if you can demonstrate that you are aware of some of the pressures and conflicting demands on them.

And do have supporting evidence available to back up your statements, if required. Don't deploy it unless challenged - the goal is to keep things concise and focused.


Submitted wrong file while submitting the revision

Yes, you need to contact the editor immediately. You don't want them to waste time putting the wrong version into the production system. If the submission was online, they may have to reset the system to permit the update (or not). You can offer to send the paper directly.
If an online system permits an update, then do that, but also inform the editor so that there is some assurance that things are put right.


Can an outsider use university facilities for a technical discussion group?

You'd probably want to find a contact on the campus to host you. They're going to want an employee or student organization to hold responsible if your reading group trashes their facilities.


"Looking for a postdoc" ad inside a conference talk?

Don't be shy about advertising. As you and Dave suggest, place it at the end, but you don't need to be very subtle about it. I've seen a number of talks where people advertise the fact that they're on the market, and everyone understands the need to do this. Presumably you're worried about it seeming desperate, but it isn't.


What is the definition of guest lecturer? Is it worth putting on CV?

The short answers are: (1) yes, this fulfills my definition of a "guest lecture" (that being you were invited by the module or subject leader and that you delivered a lecture) and (2) yes, you should include this in your CV.

Let me explain. I've chaired departments and academic units before and have been involved in hiring decisions. Academic jobs outside of a research fellowship often require responsibilities in three broad areas: (1) research, (2) teaching and (3) administration/service. It is often the case that quite a lot of emphasis is placed on research skills and with good reason. However, teaching is also a skill. Having been a guest lecturer signifies to me that you've garnered some experience in the delivery and assessment of a topic of instruction.

You might even find that you've got the knack to teach. Perhaps students respond to you, or you might have the ability to explain difficult concepts in a way that is easy to understand, or you might simply enjoy the experience. Guest lecturing is the start. You can expand this by co-teaching a subject or module, leading a module yourself, then leading an entire degree program. This is the typical expectation of PhD students, Assistant Lecturers, Lecturers and Senior Lecturers in a number of universities in which I've worked.

If you have the opportunity, I would encourage you to expand your involvement in teaching and administration. Not only will it round out your skills as an academic, it will give you a taste of duties that you will be expected to fulfill should you choose academia as a career.

Good luck to you.


Do people with masters degrees have an advantage over undergrads in PhD admissions?

It very much depends on the Country, the Field, and the Master's.

I'm assuming, since you are asking that you are interested in Country where a Master's degree isn't an absolute requirement for a PhD in your field of interest. My field (Life-Sciences) in my country (UK) is like this.

I would say that it very much depends on the Master's degree. As far as I can see there are three types of Master's degrees in UK Life-Sciences

Those for people who want to learn something different to what they learnt at undergraduate. So for example, my research is in Bioinformatics, and this is not normally covered in UK undergraduate degrees. This could be an advantage if you wanted a PhD in that area.
Master's degrees that are integrated as the 4th year of an undergraduate degree, and are generally almost entirely research based. I have found the students with these often have an advantage over others as they have experience of doing real research in a real research lab. This is important because UK PhDs are generally 3 years (4 at a maximum) and you need to hit the ground running.
General topic master's degrees for people who didn't get a good enough grade to go straight to a PhD. These might help you make the grade (i.e. if your undergrad grades were too poor there is 0 chance of a PhD, and a none zero chance after the master's), but if you have the grades to be accepted, this master's is useless to you. Worst, it might you look worse.

So in conclusion, it very much depends on the master's and why you took it.


When picking a journal for my research should I value the publisher's reputation over the journal's impact factor?

Another way to see which is reputable or not, besides the impact factor, is the Editorial Board. Which of these journals have, in your opinion, the strongest Ed.B. (measured by expertise/fame etc). Journals with stronger Ed.B. will guarantee better visibility of your result and, probably, more technical/specialized review process.

You should also know that IF is, sometimes, artificial in the sense that it does not capture the exact quality of the journal. In my field, TCS, there are many highly ranked journals (for example Combinatorica) the impact factor of which is less than many mediocre journals. But does it mean anything? No.

Also, more specialized journals (and hence with lower IF, although that's not always the case) have better visibility on your own field. Submitting your paper in a general purpose journal includes the risk of your paper getting "lost" in otehr unrelated, or borderline related, papers which means high risk of being overlooked by potential readers. You might say that this can be solved by posting it on ArXiv but I found out many interesting papers for my research the way I described above.

At the end of the day, nobody is scrutinizing IF: what matters is how reputable and well known the journal is and how easy or hard is to publish there.


Best way to translate paper? Services for hire?

Find a student who is fluent in russian and pay them? I've translated (relevant parts of) german arcticles for my US colleagues before, in that case actually for free but I'm pretty sure students are happy to help and will help in this case for small compensation.

It would also be easier, since you can sit down together and go through the text, since there might be difficulties with translating correctly without fully understanding the topic.

In addition, Adobe Acrobat Pro is able to extract the text of this pdf quite well since it's in very nice quality.


Should I send an email to the address of my former professor that wasn't explicitly given, but google out myself?

From the formulation of your question, to me it seems your main concern is if it is polite to send an e-mail to the address you were never explicitly given, but instead found it on your own Googling.

It looks like you found his/her new work address. If that's the case, I'd say it's completely fine to send an e-mail. All the right reasons for contacting your former adviser before the deadline are already mentioned in @aeismail's answer.

I'd just like to add that I've been told over and over again that a good letter of recommendation from your former adviser is expected, and that it's extra great if you can have letters of recommendation from more than one of your former advisers: those are the people who were supposed to be working closest with you and who continually assessed your progress over a period of time. If you can't get them to say something good for you, you must be very very special in some other way to get accepted to a PhD.

Back to the is it polite point: it is a work e-mail you found. That's the way he's expecting to be contacted concerning scientific things. It's public and accessible to everybody. That does not mean he'll reply to everything, but if you're one of his former students, he should be glad to reply if you split on good terms.

Also, I've contacted everybody who gave me a letter of recommendation after I got my PhD grant, and I sad "thank you". I went to visit my supervisor in his office for a few minutes before I moved away for my PhD: those people, and he especially, are who made me love science, and made me look for a PhD in the first place. He often said that advising students on how to go further with science/research was one of the best parts of his job. So, maybe I was just lucky, but in my experience, your former advisers will be glad to help you, glad to know their help mattered and won't mind you contacting them.


Switching between different graduate departments within the same graduate school?

Maybe this differs between departments or schools, but in my experience transferring between departments is exactly the same process as applying from the outside.  If faculty in the new department know you and are familiar with your work, then you may have an advantage (or disadvantage), but there is no advantage from being already enrolled in another department.

If you want to do something interdisciplinary that could fit in either department, it's usually easiest not to switch (so you don't have to deal with applying again, fulfilling different class and exam requirements, etc.).  Instead, you can try to arrange a thesis committee with representatives from both departments.

If you want to start over in a new field, then the only option is to apply to the new department.  You'll need to convince them of two things: that you are changing departments because you now understand better what you would like to do (rather than because you are doing poorly in grad school), but that you will complete the new program rather than changing interests again in a few years.  This means you need a compelling story to explain the shift.


Is it possible to resubmit a corrected manuscript when the manuscript is under review?

Don't do this. If you submit your manuscript as a new one it'll be treated as a new one, which means things such as editorial review and plagiarism checks need to be done again. It's possible the system will detect the duplicate submission, but if it isn't there's no guarantee it'll be noticed quickly simply because you might not be assigned to the same editor.
Instead, email the journal office and tell them what you've written in the question. They can halt the review process and return the manuscript to you for revision.


I'm not familiar with finding mechanisms outside the USA, so I apologize for my ignorance. Are any of the grants transferrable? At least in the US, some of them are so if you switch institutions, that money goes with you. I would imagine most places would be happy to accept someone bringing them funding. If they are, try applying for positions at other institutions and make sure to mention that you already have funding and are bringing that funding to them.


Quit a PhD program and transfer to another?

(I realize this is a belated answer, so this is mostly for other readers, not for OP.)

You should definitely not be in a situation where you're doing research that is not meaningful to you, and are merely at the whim of your supervisor.

But - the point is not which university you are in. The point is what do you want to study as a researcher? Try figuring out what it is that you are interested in - then look for places where you could pursue this subject/question; and for potential supervisors/advisors for doing so.

If you focus your own interests, it might even help you make a stand vis-a-vis your supervisor rather than caving to what s/he dictates (Not necessarily; but maybe). And you might be able to arrange for having a co-supervisor - in or out of your current university - who shared your interest, or finds use in what you intend to study.

As for references/recommendations - that's a minor consideration. I mean, it's true that if you quit you might not get your current supervisor's recommendation; but you can't let that be a decisive factor, to the extent of staying and wasting your life like you describe.


While this may vary significantly from institution to institution, my understanding is that, in the US at least, evaluations are at least read by:

The instructor, who needs to get feedback on their teaching efficacy
Others in the department who are evaluating the instructor, e.g., as part of tenure and promotion review, as part of peer mentoring, as part of a departments' own ongoing self-management.

They may also end up being read by other administrators (internal or external, e.g., certification authorities) who are monitoring a department's teaching quality, and may be distributed to students to help them decide which classes to take.  In these latter cases, it is likely that a summary will be distributed rather than the raw evaluations.

Timing with respect to finals and grading varies.  In all cases, however, institutions tend to take pains to preserve student privacy so that unless somebody leaves a clearly identifying mark in the comments it should be unable to affect their grades either way.


How should I tell a professor the answer to something he doesn't know?

I think there is an easy way to phrase this to make it tactful, after all professors are often curious about learning new things too!

  "Hello Professor X,
  I hope you've been well! Last year I asked you a question and we couldn't figure it out at the time but I've since come across an interesting answer and just wanted to pass along the info just in case you're curious. We were discussing Y ... "