Scientific publishing is certainly experiencing a lot of changes and is looking very different from what is used to, even, let's say, 20 years ago. The increasing role of electronic publications, open-access journals, mere publication capabilities, open preprint services (like arXiv), ability to attach media\data\source code to the publication – all that has revolutionized and will continue to change the way we publish, read and comprehend scientific publications.

Nevertheless, all those advances solved (or attempted to solve) crucial problems in publishing and/or significantly increased the quality of the experience, both for the reader and the author. The extension/correction of the existing work does not seem to me like one of them.

Nobody prohibits (and usually it is encouraged) subsequent publications that extend the subject knowledge. That's why we have references at the end of the paper. Nowadays, a lot of publishers offer easy access to referenced material (sometimes, even across the publishers) in a click of a button. In addition to that, there is often also "Citations" section which would show the papers that cite this paper.

Example (just took a random paper from my field, not implying by any means that IEEE does a perfect job):

The paper "Error analysis for the truncation of multipole expansion of vector Green's functions" by J. Song and W. C. Chew in IEEE MWCL.
IEEE provides references that this paper contains with links to the available full-texts, contexts, and several means of accessing it.
Also, IEEE provides access to papers that cite it both from IEEE and other publishers.

All that ensures the continuity and availability of the research. I certainly do not see the value of creating a new revision of the same paper later to include new contributions from the same or different authors. That would be a new publication.

As for the corrections, with electronic publications, the authors themselves can correct their paper if the publisher policies allow that. Moreover, let's not underestimate the value of the "Correction to the paper" publications. While some of them are not so interesting, others might offer valuable content by showing what and why it was wrong in the original paper. Again, with electronic publications, these correction papers can be linked to the original publications.

To sum it up. While blockchain can be useful to create the system you have described, I do not see the need for this system. And this need, in my opinion, should be investigated and analyzed first in great detail. Also, see some of my points on blockchain usage for avoiding fraud in collected data. Here I would repeat the final thought:

  I am very interested to see practical uses of blockchain in other areas (let's see where the smart contracts go in 5-10 years). Academia and research process does not scream for blockchain and its usability is totally unclear and hard to implement.


Word for the practical portion of my Ph.D?

This may depend on your program, but stating that you've completed your candidacy will be understood by most. There's also the term ABD but that usually refers to a dissertation rather than a defense.

Perhaps stating it as "I am preparing to defend my Ph.D. dissertation/work/etc..." may also work.


Book publishing or a peer review journal

Publishing a book is not that hard, but getting people to read it is. Publishing in a journal would work, but based on the description of what you're going to write about, it seems unlikely that any reputable journal will publish it.

I'd say first get some confirmation from an expert that your ideas are correct. Try talking to Sabine Hossenfelder (costs $50 for 20 minutes, which will still be cheaper than self-publishing a book). If she says your ideas are credible, then ask her how to publish them.


Confusion regarding manuscript status in IOP's article tracking system and ScholarOne Manuscript System

“Awaiting decision” is not incompatible with “All reviewer report received” or “Editorial Assessment”.  It means the editor, an associate editor or a handling editor will have a look and make a decision.
Remember that referees can only recommend a course of action: it is the journal through its editor or delegates that takes the decision to publish or not, usually based on the reports.
In particular if the review or reviews are inconclusive, the editor may decide to send to another reviewer.


Who do I ask for a letter of recommendation if my advisor and I do not get along?

[deleted my first response as I entirely missed the point of your question]

I think other professors with whom you have worked are the right place to go.  As for hurting the feelings of your previous professor, based on your story of the delayed last letter, I would read that to be that he is unhelpful and wants to put distance between you two.  I doubt very much that he will ever know if you have another professor write you a letter, let alone feel bad about you asking another professor and not him.


What should the startup package consist of at US (primarily) undergraduate institutions?

What do you think you really need in order to conduct your research program? Can you justify why you need these things in order to conduct the research?  How much of this is so important that you'd turn down the job offer if you didn't get it?

Things that you might ask for include summer salary for yourself for a year or two, computer equipment (say $3K for a nice desktop computer up to $100K for a high performance computing cluster), funding to travel to conferences or money to pay undergraduate students to work on your research with you.

At a regional comprehensive undergraduate only public institution, chances are that there isn't much money available for a startup package.  Based on my experience, I'd be surprised if you could negotiate for much more than a couple of months of summer salary, a few thousand for travel expenses and a few thousand for a desktop computer.  At an institution with a graduate program, you might also ask for support for a graduate student.

In negotiating these things, you're likely to find that the chair of your department (or search committee members if the department chair is negotiating with you) can be helpful in telling you what others have received in the past and what the administration is likely to fund.

Whatever you do ask for, be sure to ask politely and don't let it seem as though you won't accept the offer unless your wish is granted.  It's not unheard of for offers to be retracted in the face of startup package demands that are too high.  You should also give a budget with justification rather than negotiating for a simple dollar amount.

The strategy of negotiating the salary and startup package verbally before a formal offer is quite common.  It is a smart negotiating tactic on the part of the institution since you have nothing to fall back on until they make a first written offer.  If you demand too much, they can simply move on to another candidate without ever making you a formal offer.  Another advantage of this strategy is that it forces you to make a decision quickly- you can't draw out the process with multiple rounds of offers and responses.


Review time for IEEE transactions on image processing

LetPub.com states "about 8.1 months" as the average duration of peer review for IEEE Transactions on Image Processing 1.

They claim the "data is from authors," but I do not know how or if they obtain a representative sample.


If I accept an offer of admission to MSc in UK, can I later decline to accept another offer?

In some education systems there is something called the 'census date'. It is the date on which you would be considered committed to a course or program. Before the census date you can pull out with no strings attached. Call the Program Advisor, she or he will know the details, and you will not look bad for asking.


Advice for research and taking graduate classes for undergraduate student

I am a senior at a large public school in the US, and I believe I can help guide you. To give you some perspective on me: I am part of a program that prepares students for a PhD, and we travel to different graduate schools and talk to the admissions administrators/boards. First thing you should know is that nothing I say is the same for every school, and it is really important for you to look at schools and contact them to see what they desire in an applicant.

For your first question, keep in mind that medical programs are very competitive. To give you an idea, volunteering hours required to get into most schools is incredibly high (varying with 400 hours minimum). You also want a competitive gpa and MCAT, of course. Again, schools will be quite different so take a look at their requirements or contact them.

In regards to research/publishing, the most common thing to do is research in a lab. Both are looked very highly upon (said every school I visited). Since they are both great, then do not ask which to do because the difference to a school is insignificant. It is more about picking which one you enjoy more.

Lastly, are you doing research under an adviser? It is very important to form bonds with professors to learn and eventually receive letters of recommendation. A good way to form these bonds are through independent research under their guidance. You are just starting out so it is important to learn from a well educated researcher and have guide you through your troubles. The advisement is also a form of motivation, because they want to see you do well and you know they will be there for you.

Work hard and be passionate about what you do. Everything is a little easier when you are enjoying it.

Good luck.


Should I let my professor know that I cited a text written by him....that I pirated from online

It is incredibly uncommon to assume that someone bought a book just because it is cited. While in theory, the professor could ask this question, why would (s)he care?
If you are geniuinely concerned about the question, perform an inter-library loan with your university library on the two books now, and should that question ideed pop up, reply that you performed an inter-library loan.
Use legal sources in the future. Libraries spend tons of money on buying literature, so use it. Most jurisdictions also allow limited copying of a book (e.g., the most relevant pages for your own work).


Is there any ways to document Google search results in a research paper?

Is there any ways for me to show in my paper that this [Google] search provided these results at the time being?

No, this isn't possible: the same search can simultaneously produce different results, because Google considers factors beyond the supplied search term, e.g., location.

That said, solutions are possible if you are willing to consider just the results of a single search. (Perhaps that's what you meant anyhow.) Leading to:

Yes (partly), you just need to record the raw result data (which will be authenticated, hence, cannot be forged*), which you can (probably) do using curl (with option --trace <filename>), for instance.

Ultimately, reproducibility is unattainable, but you can prove your results were derived by your method, as I have explained. (Your work might be useful without such proof.)

*There are some caveats.


Entering into PhD program after having dropped out of bachelor's

The odds of a career in academia are long in general, and certainly your situation is going to make the odds even longer.

That said, people tend to only look at your most recent degree.  It seems pretty likely that if you got into a masters program and did very well there, you'd have a good shot at getting into a solid Ph.D. program.  But you'd actually have to do very well in the masters program (probably "best in several years" level).  Furthermore, even once you get into a solid Ph.D. program the odds are against your getting a job in academia.


Can lewd pictures and videos that non-consensually ended up on porn sites hurt my career in academia/industry?

There are probably very large regional differences here. If you apply for jobs in very conservative areas, you might potentially face a larger back-reaction. That is, if it comes up.

I would say that I am from a quite liberal area of the world. I have been on several hiring committees, both in academia, and before that, in industry. I have never been on a hiring committee that searched through porn sites for pictures of a candidate. And frankly, I would be surprised if a member, who would have come across such pictures on their own time, would bring it to the attention of the committee.

And a personal perspective: Try not to worry too much about it. Everybody has a past. I can tell you that I also have naked pictures of myself online, not from porn, but from a reality-docu that aired on national television many years ago. Once I have had students mention it, and I simply said "yes, how did you like it?". And nothing more came of that.


Attending university-sponsored club events as a faculty member?

The short answer is that this really does depend on the strictness of your institution's conduct policies.

However, I would think that in such circumstances—in particular, it's a club where everybody knows physical contact is required—it would be understood that such contact would take place. Therefore, so long as the contact is limited to what is appropriate for dancing, I don't see why there would be an issue.

(You may also want to look for off-campus swing dancing opportunities—getting away from campus may be helpful for work-life balance.)


Salary for math professors at 4-year liberal arts colleges?

The AMS does a salary survey with lots of information about math faculty pay by type of school and rank.  New hires at schools that only offer bachelors degrees almost all make between 40K-80K with the most common band being 50K-60K.


Why don't first-world universities use video surveillance to catch in-class cheating?

This is one of those problems which may seem like they can be relatively easily alleviated, but in practice they face many challenges.

For example:

properly videotaping and audiotaping a classroom would require the careful placement of many cameras and microphones; you also have to consider the testing and maintenance of all the equipment
signal processing is not yet at the level where it can catch all the inventive ways students cheat, so your system would still need substantial human involvement
many legal/ethical/moral considerations
students will always find ways to circumvent anti-cheating systems

Given that typically only a small percent of students cheat and that examinations are held just a few times a year, it seems unreasonable to sink so much time, money, and effort to catch some, not even all, of the cheaters.

Also, there are many easy "tricks" which can be used to discourage cheating, e.g.

make exams challenging enough so that students don't actually have time to cheat
include problems which require working out and which cannot be readily copied (or whatever)

But most importantly, instead of trying to catch cheaters, it's much better to actively try to educate your students why cheating is never a good idea and why cheaters only cheat themselves.


Is it possible to create a bachelors programme that focuses on being able to read any/most scientific article?

It would not be a real bachelors program.  A bachelors program should not be focused on a single skill (reading) and it should not be focused on solely on consumption skills to the neglect of creation skills.


What to do: PI lied to me and is keeping my grant!

I believe that you need to obtain qualified and competent legal advice, not just anonymous advice from a Stack Exchange site.

However, there are some obvious things you can do:

Make sure you have meticulous records of everything you claimed, including the previous grant proposals, showing that you were the one responsible for their execution.
You really need to have some form of hard evidence that the PI promised you could keep the grant you earned.
Make sure everything you do from here on is also documented.

But this is a tough situation, and I'm not sure what your options outside of the legal system will be. You might also want to contact the grant sponsor to see what your options are.


Is there any scientific reference about position of the LGBTQ community in STEM academia?

The basic answer is that there is very little hard data. One study that I did find (via ResearchGate - I didn't have direct access if it even exists) is "Factors impacting the academic climate for LGBQ STEM faculty", Eric V. Patridge et al., Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 20(1) 75-98 (2014).

Several quotes stand out:

  Amid the current nationally led campaign to increase the STEM workforce, there are numerous
  institutional efforts to support women and underrepresented ethnic minority STEM professionals;
  however, virtually none of these focuses on LGBT communities.

and

  A survey of the literature reveals that
  data-driven research of LGBT communities has been restricted to the social sciences, humanities,
  and health fields; there are only a handful of publications focused on LGBT communities in the
  STEM fields, and none of these are based on empirical data. Qualitative academic discussions
  report that LGBT populations are discouraged from entering the STEM fields because heteronormative
  climates are so widespread (Bilimoria and Stewart, 2009; Cech and Waidzunas, 2011;
  Gunckel, 2009). Our analyses support previous discussions...

The data in this 2014 paper was drawn from a 2010 study. Of some 5000 respondents, 498 were faculty. Of those, 59 were from STEM. After some further down selection, they ended up with 47 STEM faculty.

Points of some interest include:

  In response to questions on internal experiences and identity, STEM faculty (n = 47) reported
  the highest level of discomfort across the three questions included in the survey (campus, department,
  and classroom) (Table 3), although these differences were not significant. Notably, faculty
  from STEM departments reported significantly higher levels of professional outness than did
  those from other departments [2(4) = 16.7, p < .01].

However,

  the more out a STEM faculty member, the more likely it was that he or she
  was uncomfortable.

and, relative to all faculty in the study,

  STEM faculty members (n = 47) were most likely to consider
  leaving their institutions (53.2%)

Further,

  Our analyses support the hypothesis that heteronormative climates contribute to LGBQ faculty
  members seeking alternative employment options, and department level analyses suggest this
  closely describes LGBQ STEM faculty.

In addition,

  The loss of current and future faculty mentors for LGBQ communities is particularly problematic
  because there are so few resources that support LGBQ students. While there are countless
  organizations dedicated to the development of women and minority STEM talent, there are
  only two national organizations that encourage the development of LGBQ STEM talent.

In Physical Review Physics Education Research there is a paper titled "Enriching gender in physics education research: A binary past and a complex future", which touches on needing to look more broadly than just men/women. However, it does not appear to have any useful data on LGBT in physics.

Much of the rest I can find is online, non-peer reviewed studies. While interesting reading, it is harder to draw conclusions much less figure out what to do.

(As a response to your addendum to the question - it is quite clear that the person described in the New York Times Op-Ed piece was indeed, and sadly, afraid to reveal their piano playing. I can easily imagine that behavior coming from long experience with negative responses over time which have little to do with playing the piano. You might be interested in Gay and in STEM Fields which rebuts some of the points made in the Manil Suri op-ed piece you reference.)


No summer funding, what to do during the summer?

Depending on your specific field, and when you've found out summer funding isn't guaranteed or available, I present main options in no particular order:

Research internship in 'industry' ($ to $$$$$)
Apply for summer grants to work in another University in different, but hopefully related, research ($ to $$)
Get a summer job or non-research internship - ideal if it uses some set of related skills to your PhD, but if not, oh well, bills to pay ($ to $$$+)
As Dawn suggested, a sub-set of summer job is to seek the option to be an instructor, summer teaching assistant, or grader in your University (or a nearby institution), or even being an adjunct for the summer if that option is available to you ($ to $$)
Vacation, travel, relax rejuvenate, try some hobbies, spend time with friends and family (-$ to -$$$$)
Focus on your own personal research, free of official obligations (at least -$, due to living expenses)
Have an existential crisis due to the lack of driving structure which otherwise distracts you from your morality/mortality and the uncertainty inherent in life itself (free, and can stack with other options)
Choose your own adventure

Above all, I suggest planning ahead - if not for this summer, then for the next one. Most outcomes are uncertain, so judicious planning for multiple applications, budgeting (so you have options on how to spend your summer), and trying to develop a number of options will be important.

Note also that many of the options don't need to - and perhaps should not - take up the entire summer, so you should have the option to try out multiple things. Remember: academic life is a marathon, which extends off into the unknown future until you fade away (go Emeritus) or leave ("go into industry"). That makes the longest ultra-marathon on earth seem short by comparison. No matter what you do, try to change things up a bit, work in some rest and contemplation, friends and family, and a bit of fun for yourself too. If academic life starts to resemble a 24/7/365.25 prison sentence, you might want to reconsider your worldview.


How important are recommendation letters when applying to a PhD in Germany?

You mention two different ways of applying: to a grad school and to (the head of) a group.
These ways of “getting in” are very different. Group leaders can, if they have the funds, normally hire whomever they want (if the formal qualification is given), and there is no standard process. For grad schools, there will typically be some committee that may have their own evaluation process.
A few points can be stated, though:

Letters of recommendation are a very recent occurrence in German academia. Some more senior professors may value them very little. If the group head is non-German, they are more likely to value them.

Transcripts are typically very important. The reason is that many PhD regulations require a more-than-average master’s degree. Hence, bad transcripts can be a show-stopper. But also they are often the best available information for how good an applicant is.

When applying directly to a group, you should have some courses on your transcript that are relatively close to the area in which the group is working on. You are expected to come with the knowledge needed to start researching right away, so this is important. Better have good grades in them.

If you have proper publications already, they help tremendously with your application. So they are, in a sense, most important. There is normally no expectation that an applicant has published research already. Note that papers in predatory journals have a good chance to count negatively, though.

If you apply to a group, it is more important to state why your interests align with those of the group. Be very concrete here, and do your homework. Groups with a lot of third-party funded projects will need PhD students to work on these projects, so if your statement of purpose being too concrete while not aligning with any of the projects would not be ideal.


How to choose to which conference submit a scientific paper?

In an ideal world, you would like to choose your conference by their relation to your paper's main topic, and the possibility of impact to your field.

Now, you might be inclined to choose according to other filters:

Based on its "possible attendants", such as a highly-esteemed
investigator you might want to know and get feedback from, in a more
personal way.
Your own "travel experiences" (such as wanting to travel to a
far-away location, or to re-visit some beautiful place).
Most conferences consider acceptance as a "at least one of the
authors must attend and present their work" binding commitment, so
unless you are going with your college's support, you must
consider the ongoing rates on inscription, hotel rates and
added values (such as travel expenses or food, among others).

Some other reasons might apply, but your main filter must be to choose a conference in which your work is closely related to.


To what extent can advisors edit our writing?

Do know that there are a lot of moving parts in this dynamic: your and your advisor's personality, interaction, language proficiency, etc. factor in as well.
In term of convention on how much and advisor edit the student's work, there is none. Some like to be more hands on, treating it as a collaboration; some like to be more hands off, treating it as a consultation. Some may render more help (justified or not) if the thesis language is not the student's primary language.
Instead of "how can I change the advisor," I'd suggest focusing on how to "get the most learning out of this situation." Not all good researchers are good language teachers, they could be writing well and yet unable to explain why they wrote that way. So, some active deciphering would be needed.
First, put all emotion aside (I know, having your writing mutilated does not feel good, but still put that aside) and try to figure out the motive of each edit. Usually, they fall into a few major categories:

Grammatical: tenses, plural/singular, etc.

Clarity: unaccounted pronouns, run-on sentences that detach the subject and the action, etc.

Contextual: the language was right, but the concept was wrong. Maybe due to misinterpretation of some results, derailing the discussion.

Stylistic: the work makes sense overall, but not on par with professional convention. For example, using future/present tense in Methods rather than past tense. Using APA format instead of Vancouver, etc.

Idiosyncratic: these are more like individual preferences that are either "my mentor's mentor's mentor did it that way, so I do it the same way," pet peeves, or habit stemming from misinformed grammatical rules.

Based on the prevalence of each type, you can decide what improvements may be called for. Grammar, clarity, and style are often well-documented in textbook and professional manuals.
For idiosyncratic types, I usually let those stay as I believe there are more than one way to say the right thing, just some people prefer their "righter" way. But of course, if the changes are harmful, feel free to discuss or edit it to avoid that issue.
If you found most of them are contextual. Then it may be better to change the writing submission protocol. For example, before sending in the full text, generate a writing outline. The outline should include bullets of your interpretation in short sentences, and the bullets should be grouped by paragraph. This would help the advisor spot any misunderstanding earlier, and the list would also prime the advisor about your layout. This could temper their surprise when they see the full text not laid out as how they envisioned.
If this analysis gets too difficult, prepare an original version and a clean edited version from your advisor, and consult a professional editor who is experienced in your field. Basically, ask for an analysis on the two piece and how can your version be improved.


How long after graduating can I use my former professor as a reference?

There is no hard limit, other than the professor being alive.

Generally, it is useful to include only references that are relevant and can express something about your current abilities. So, if a professor can say something meaningful and relevant about you, even after a decade or more, then you can include them as a reference.

If, however, your abilities and skills have significantly changed in the respective area (e.g. you gained substantially more experience in this particular field), then the reference is outdated, and it is better not to include them.


Should I include papers that were published during first revision round of a literature review paper?

I can answer from two perspectives:

What is necessary to get published in the journal currently considering your article? If the peer-reviewers didn't ask you to add the new articles, then there is no need to do so. They probably aren't aware of the articles---you are almost certainly more up-to-date on the literature than they are, which is why you are doing the literature review. In the worst-case scenario, if one of the peer-reviewers or editors later becomes aware of new publications before final publication, then they might ask you to add them, but I can't imagine that that could possibly be a reason for rejecting your article since they've already conditonally accepted it.
What should you do for the highest quality literature review publication? Of course you should add the new articles. To be as complete as possible in reviewing the literature, a literature review should include all relevant literature, even after the article is accepted all the way until final publication. However, I do understand the conflict between trying to do research perfectly properly versus the practical constraints of time, resources or energy (e.g. too much work too late in the game when you want to move onto other stuff). If for whatever reason you decide not to add the new articles that you are aware of, then at the very least you should explicitly mention in your article the end date (year and month) of your literature search or the date of the last included article, so that readers will clearly understand that there might exist some work published after that date that you explicitly state. That way, you can honestly state that you included all the work you are aware of up till the date you specified.

There's one more important consideration: although it probably doesn't matter for the journal peer-reviewers and editors (because they probably wouldn't know), it certainly does matter for your readers. In particular, it is highly likely that the authors of these recently published articles would be your potential readers, since, by definition, they do research in the area. Once they find out about your literature review published after their own work is published, they would probably get excited, expecting their work to be included. But if it isn't, supposedly because they just barely missed your inclusion cut-off date, they would likely be quite disappointed. It's not a good idea to disappoint your potential readers.

So, my final recommendation is that if it will take you only two or three hours to incorporate the newly published work (perhaps one hour to read each article, another hour or two to appropriately incorporate it into your review), then I think it is certainly worth the extra effort.


How can one compare a postdoc position in Europe and USA?

Let me list a few pros of doing postdoc in the US:

In many EU countries a postdoc in the US is considered to be more prestigious than a postdoc in Europe (assuming that the places you do the postdoc in the US and Europe are at roughly the same level), so a postdoc in the US is in general not likely to harm your academic career should you eventually decide to return to Europe
If you give staying in the US a really serious thought, the postdoc in the US allows you to initiate the application for green card; getting the latter will give you unrestricted access to the job market in the US (academic or otherwise), in addition to the EU one, which comes in handy on many occasions.
Given that you have your Ph.D. (and hence the largest part of your academic network) in the US, you have somewhat better odds at succeeding in securing a postdoc in the US (e.g. because the US people you will apply to are in general more likely to know your advisor than people in Europe, and the people in the US will be less hesitant to, say, give a phone call to the authors of your recommendation letters to find out additional details if need be).


The following worked for me:

Google "Gen. Rel. Grav." to discover that it abbreviates journal "
General Relativity and Gravitation"
Google the journal's title to discover http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/10714
Look for issue 8 in 1977, don't find anything, assume 8 is a mistake (it later turned out to be the volume, which is redundant, because everything published in 1977 belongs to volume 8)
Look for page 497 in 1977, find the result (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00762634), namely,

  Reza Mansouri & Roman U. Sexl (1997) A test theory of special relativity: I. Simultaneity and clock synchronization, General Relativity and Gravitation, Volume 8, Issue 7, pp 497–513.

In essence, I recognized that Gen. Rel. Grav. was most likely the journal's name. (The other possibility was Sexl. Gen. Rel. Grav., but it seemed less likely, because S.U. Sexl. seemed likely to be the second author's name followed by a period.) Once I had found the journal, the year was most useful to me. I then guessed that 8 was the issue. This didn't turn up anything. (Later I discovered that 8 is the volumne.) Next, I guessed that 497 was a page reference, which guided be towards Issue 7. From their, I searched for (what I presumed was the first author's name) Mansouri, which gave me my result.


In the UK all references can be revealed if the student makes an application to the University under the Data Protection Act for a copy of their application record. The record would contain full disclosure of their entire file including all correspondence, including emails, and minuted discussions of the application. This would have to be a formal application and would accrue a fee.

Normally, in all other circumstances, the references would be kept confidential. Most UK universities would warn referees about the Data Protection Act when requesting a reference.


Are there hacks or smaller scientific search engines offering you context-sensitive/semantic search?

I know it's disappointing, but here goes: I am not aware of features allowing context-sensitive search in scientific search engines, with two exceptions:

Web of Science has a SAME operator, which matches “records where the terms separated by the operator appear in the same sentence”. Given that Web of Science supports a whooping number of 4 search operators (AND, OR, NOT and SAME), it is pretty safe to say this is sadly the full extent of its context-sensitive search features.
SciFinder attributes some meaning to prepositions, which have a role in restricting results to “closely associated” matches of operands. This basically means “same sentence” (details in the linked page).

Yes, these features are poor and we should hope for better search capabilities. At the same time, it's a start and it can be useful.


Is it normal to keep changing research objectives in PhD?

So my question is, is it normal if I keep changing my objectives without sticking the those I outlined during my first year?

Yes.  It would be unusual if you did not improve your objectives.  Improved objectives is a symptom of improved research.

  And, it is still okay to change objectives when I'm now in my final year?

It's not okay to start your research over from scratch when you do not have enough time to complete new research.  It is okay to discover that your existing efforts achieved goals you didn't think of when you started (but scientists should avoid data dredging).  In other words, it depends on the details.


What arXiv CC licenses are compatible with American Physical Society publishing?

I don't think you can use any CC license with such a publishing agreement.

Point 4 allows you to post the article to preprint servers. This covers the non-exclusive distribution license that Mangara mentioned in a comment: You permit arxiv.org to reproduce the article on their website. Importantly, you don't grant any rights to anybody else with this license.

If you put your article under a CC license, you would grant anybody the right to reproduce it (under conditions depending on the exact type of the license). Whether it is published on arxiv.org or not doesn't really matter here – arxiv.org will just be one of the potentially many users of this license. Looking at the arxiv help page, this is hidden behind the specific wording they use. For the non-exclusive distribution license:

  grant arXiv.org a non-exclusive and irrevocable license to distribute the article

which makes it clear that you are giving permission to arxiv.org and not anybody else.

For the CC license, they say instead:

  certify that the work is available under either the Creative Commons Attribution license, or the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license

that is, you don't give a license to arxiv.org specifically, but to the general public, and arxiv.org is just going to make use of that general license.

I don't think your publishing agreement allows you to issue a CC license, even the noncommercial one. The publisher does not allow you to grant a license to anybody, just specifically to "free-access e-print servers".


What is a suitable gift for an Italian PhD advisor based in the UK?

Instead of something related to Italy, how about something related to your own home?  I (in the US) had a student from China; she gave me a tapestry depicting the Great Wall.  I still have it hanging here many years later.

  Important note: you have finished the Ph.D.  Giving gifts before that may be seen as an attempt to bribe him.  It seems to be the custom in China and Korea to give gifts to the professor, but not in the US (probably also not in the UK).  Wait until after you are finished, so it won't be seen as an attempt to unfairly influence the professor.


How exactly does submitting an interdisciplinary NSF fellowship proposal affect your chances at winning it?

According to the NFS

  Your application will be assigned to the field of study you list first
  in the Proposed Graduate Program section. ...
  Therefore, you should choose which field you list first carefully,
  with consideration of which panel has the most appropriate component
  fields. ... All interdisciplinary applications are clearly marked as such during
  the review process. Many panelists have interdisciplinary expertise
  and are capable of evaluating interdisciplinary applications.
  Additionally, if necessary, the panel can transfer your application to
  another panel for either a full review or for commentary and feedback.

While in some cases they might average the scores, this does not appear to be a requirement. I would suspect that in most cases they would do the review within a single panel and rate you accordingly and only seek expertise outside the panel if absolutely necessary.


Are there people who have done so much work before PhD that they get a PhD automatically?

The closest example I can think of is Mihai Pătraşcu.  After publishing several extremely strong results as an undergraduate, Mihai earned an MS in one year and then a PhD in one year, all in computer science at MIT.


Is it plagiarism if someone else came up with something before you did?

If you publish an idea that turns out to have been previously known, but you were unaware of the prior work before you published it, then it's not plagiarism.  Depending on the circumstances, it could be considered poor scholarship, or even negligence if you really should have found the reference.  However, it's not a form of academic dishonesty if you truly didn't know.

If you come up with an idea on your own, learn that it was previously known, and subsequently publish it as original work without disclosing the prior source, then it's definitely academic dishonesty.  I wouldn't use the word "plagiarism" if you came up with the idea independently, but it's still misconduct to act like you're unaware of the idea's history.

The trickiest case is if you may have been aware of the idea in the past, but forgotten about it.  That's a horrible mess, since the rest of the world has no way of knowing whether you genuinely forgot or are being dishonest.  (You really don't want to have to argue that you aren't a thief, but rather massively screwed up.)  This is the only case in which I think accidental plagiarism is really plausible.

This is not at all common, but it can happen more easily than you might hope, so it's best to be careful to keep track of what you've heard about.  The worrisome scenario is the following: you hear Smith give a talk, but you don't really understand it or care very much, so you basically forget about it.  Some years later, you are faced with a similar problem and come up with more or less the same idea to solve it.  You don't realize how similar it is to Smith's talk, but you may have been influenced by subconscious memories, so you haven't really discovered it independently.  When you publish your idea, Smith writes to you to say "How dare you use my idea without giving me any credit!  I know you were at my talk, since we chatted afterwards, and your colleague X confirms that he remembers you there as well.  Did you really think you could get away with this?"


Is it good to have all the PhD publications in one journal

For the PhD itself it probably doesn't matter a lot, but if you are looking for a further research career, I'd advise diversifying a bit. It has the following advantages:

Other people may have another "favorite" journal, and if you have published in multiple journals, you increase the chances of people thinking "wow, she published in xyz!".
You will get a broader readership and generally more visibility if you publish in different journals.
There is some risk that people may see your research as too narrow if you only publish it in one single journal.

Maybe you can try adjusting the framing of your research problem a bit, so that another journal will become a better fit for it, and then try to convince your supervisor by comparing the scopes of journals and arguing why this paper fits better to the other journal.


How does the college course 101 numbering system work?

A common system works roughly as Najib Idrissi describes: courses numbered 100-199 are first-year courses, which either have no prerequisites or only high school-level prerequisites.  Courses numbered 200-299 are second-year courses, which have 100-level prerequisites, and so on.

But this system is by no means universal in the US, nor does the rough description above capture all aspects of it accurately.  The "and so on"
 above would lead you to guess that 400-499 are the most advanced undergraduate courses, and 500+ are graduate courses.  And that's the case at some universities.  But at my current institution, 300-399 designate the most advanced courses intended primarily for undergraduates (including those in their fourth year), and courses starting at 400 are graduate classes.  At another institution I've been at, "lower-level" undergraduate courses are 1-99, "upper-level" graduate courses are 100-199, "lower-level" graduate courses are 200-299, and "upper-level" graduate courses are 300-399.  And in any of those systems, you can't always guess from the number alone the relationship between Basket Weaving 125 and Basket Weaving 147.

To address your question about the online chemistry course, you can't even assume that Chemistry 101-106 even exist at the institution in question; if they do, they may or may not have any clear relation with 107.  When I was an undergraduate, there were two distinct introductory chemistry sequences for different audiences: 105-106 and 107-108.  So there was no 101, and 106 was a more advanced course than 107.

So if you want to know the place of a specific course in the curriculum, you have to consult the course offerings of the specific institution.

tl;dr (summarizing this and other answers, and many more details in comments): There is no one system for course numbers, even at a given institution.  At best you can make a rough guess about a course number's meaning.  If you really want to know, you need to find information from the specific department.


Software tools for orgainising education lab appointments

If your institution has a Moodle server, you could use Moodle's "scheduler" activity.
If, on the other hand, you end up going for a solution hosted on a server outside your institution, such as @astronat's suggestion of a Doodle poll, be careful of local data protection laws.


Thanking administrators for bulk information email

No. You probably don't need to reply.
You should reply if:

You have reason to believe that it will help your administrator to know that you've received the email.
The email is unusually important/helpful to you.
The email is unclear and you want clarification.
The administrator is going "above and beyond". For example, because they are sending everyone general information following your suggestion or a discussion they had with you.

If there is a small number of participants, it could also be helpful say thanks if you do not usually receive emails from this administrator or group of administrators. For example, to give them feedback about including you in their mailing list.
To be sure, I suggest you briefly discuss this with a friend or line manager. Customs vary between research groups, so it is possible that customary thanks are expected.
This answer is based on etiquette in the UK, which I expect to be similar to the US.


9 Years of PhD, bad supervision, no data. What should I do?

Imho you are past the point of risking a bad relationship with this supervisor. Your case looks like terrible academic behaviour on their part bordering on psychological abuse. You need external advice on this situation, so you should contact the ombudsman or somebody with this role in your institution. Please note that this first step doesn't involve burning bridges with your supervisor and they don't need to know about it. Once you get their (hopefully useful) advice, you can analyze your options. Some of the possibilities could be:

the ombudsman/institution asking the supervisor what is their plan (sometimes a little official pressure is all that's needed to make things move forward)
a mediation with the current supervisor leading to a clear plan for you to achieve your PhD as soon as possible.
a change of supervisor.


International experience is always a good thing these days; but in general I don't think that a US PhD is inherently superior to a European PhD. (This may be highly variable within different disciplines, however, so physicists might want to weigh in on this particular point.)

As for the repetition of coursework, that is entirely department-dependent. Different programs will have entirely different means of handling this:

All students may be required to complete the entire set of coursework requirements, regardless of past experience;
Students may be granted placement out of courses they have already completed, but not given a reduction in the number of courses required;
Students may be granted both placement and credit for prior equivalent coursework.

In the second case above, the student would replace the core courses with more advanced electives in different areas.

However, the only way to find out which policy a department uses is to contact the department directly. (Sometimes this is publicly stated on the webpage; other times, it's not. And sometimes special cases arise, which is why it's best to contact the graduate office of the departments you're interested in and ask them directly!


CVs: How should I include papers that have been accepted as abstract submissions to a journal, but still need to go through manuscript review?

In my opinion, you should try to to be as candid as possible and simply state exactly what the state of the paper is. In this case, you could for example write, "extended abstract accepted - awaiting full manuscript submission" or something similar to that.


What to do about not receiving credit in a paper (lack of acknowledgment)

In my opinion, aknowledgements are not important enough to get bothered about. Very few people would have even noticed the acknowledgement, and your career would not have been helped in any measurable way.

But at least in your second example, which was more more of an "idea for a paper" than a "helpful comment," I do consider it a breach of etiquette for your collaborator to write the paper himself without offering to involve you as a coauthor. Perhaps in the future, you could phrase such helpful emails as more explicit invitations to collaborate. That way you won't have to be stingy with your ideas, but you'll still get credit.


Some thoughts on this issue:

First, the fair use doctrine is tricky. Assuming you're not ready to hire a lawyer, play it safe. If you're not sure, ask for permission. If you're asked to remove something, do it.
There has been some noise a few years back on the topic of blogging and reuse of scientific figures. See here, there and there for some links to that affair. The conclusion I would draw is, again: play it safe.
In at least some jurisdictions (France is one), having ads on your web will mean your blog is considered a commercial publication. Asserting fair use for commercial works is typically harder, though this distinction tends to diminish (here).
Attribute figures (source + link). Always. It's just good manners.

I'll finish by a general observation related to copyright law in academia, as I see it (at least around me): people tend to just do stuff, and then play dumb if they get caught (which rarely happens). Lots of researchers knowingly put up (without authorization) PDF files of their papers on their website, and say “I'll just remove them if I am asked too”.


Is it appropriate to bring some kind of gift for a host professor?

I'll tackle the easiest side of the question first: bringing nothing should not create trouble. If you are clearly expressing your thanks for the invitation, both in written before you arrive, and in person when you meet the guy, noöne should take offense.

On the other hand, bringing a gift is fine too, but:

It should be tasteful and suitable for any taste: no sake, no unusual (by US standards) food… unless you know him well enough.
It should not be terribly expensive: people like the attention, but they don't actually care so much about the gift itself. Keep it simple, that way it cannot be understood as a bribe.
Not academia-related, but still useful to remember: make sure it passes customs (I had my French gift confiscated from me once).

I usually bring stuff to colleagues who host me when I travel to other places, if only because it gives a starting topic for smalltalk (something which I'm not very good at) in a future occasion.


Is it appreciated to contact old phd advisors with updates on what you have been doing?

I always appreciate such messages from old students. I often wonder what they are getting up to. I don't think I'm unique in that, but some would, perhaps, not be as happy with "interruptions." But you will get a sense of whether you should continue it if you do this from the response.
Going back in person is also a nice thing to do if you get the opportunity. Not only for advisors, but also for old mentors that you think had a positive impact on your life and career.
If it annoys them, you will hear about it, or they will just ignore you. But I think it is a professional courtesy to keep people updated. Many of them have invested something in you and like to hear how the investment has turned out.


In my letter of intent for an MSc, should I mention my commute?

I'd advise against bringing up anything that might seem like an excuse, so I'd forego mentioning the commute.  That said, this is an EXCELLENT thing to have mentioned in a letter of recommendation that reinforces your dedication.  Try to get a recommender to bring it up.


Can asking for travel and equipment support hurt a grant application?

I think you are looking at this from the wrong side. Funding agencies typically won't care so much what kind of costs your project accrues, but rather how large those costs are in the end. That is, if there are two scientifically comparable projects, but one is much more expensive than the other, this will make the cheaper project more attractive to fund than the expensive one. Whether this cost discrepancy is due to higher personnel costs, or due to other factors, won't be central to the decision.

However, multiple factors make your question whether you want to ask for equipment and travel less important than what you might think:

At the end of the day, the costs of equipment and travel are typically very small in comparison to personnel costs, so this is unlikely to make a big difference for most grant types.
The case that two projects are so similar in terms of scientific merit that relatively modest equipment and travel costs have an actual impact and the agency cannot fund both projects is not very common.
Many agencies (at least here in Europe) reserve the right to cut down on your budget if they think it is over the top. That is, if your project would be ok without equipment and travel, they may end up just funding the project but not granting the equipment and travel money. This is particularly common if your proposal does not make it clear enough how this money is essential to the execution of the project. At the end of the day, everything that kind of seems like a "nice to have" cost is very likely to not be granted.

Summary: worry about your proposal. Don't worry about equipment and travel costs.


I too went through a period where I panicked when taking tests. I saw a psychologist for help. Even if you choose not to go that route, you might find my experience helpful.

The problem began when I started taking the kind of tests where even the best students may not be able to answer all of the questions. I'd look at question one, not know how to answer it (at least, not right away), and begin to get nervous. Question two might seem daunting as well, so I'd become even more nervous. By the time I'd looked at question three, I was convinced that I would fail. Eventually I might realise that I knew how to do part of one of the questions. That gave me confidence to tackle another piece of another question, and so on. But I spent too much time panicking to do well on most tests.

The key for me in overcoming this was to realise that it was normal to not know how to answer any of the questions at first. I learned to expect it, but also to expect that after a couple of minutes I would begin to get ideas for solutions. By expecting that I would draw a blank at first, while realising that this wouldn't mean I'd fail the test, I kept myself from panicking.

Part of what the psychologist did was to help me understand this. The other thing was that he worked with me to visualise the test-taking procedure:
sitting down at the desk, turning over the paper, scanning the list of questions, not knowing how to answer any of them, then getting an idea, and so on. He talked me through the scenario while I did some relaxation exercises that he taught me.

Take comfort in the fact that your test-taking days are almost over. After you get a postgraduate degree, no one cares whether you passed with flying colours or barely squeaked by. Your publications will be far more important.


I think this one will be very hard to answer with hard data. So, I'll just throw in some anecdotal evidence, along with a few things learnt from some editors that I know.

From a reviewer point of view, it has happened to me exactly twice in a decade (i.e. very rarely) to receive an editor's review saying “I've reached a decision based on input from other reviewers, and you do not need to review the manuscript”.

The first time, the email came as my review was already overdue (a week or ten days), so I suppose the editor asked another reviewer when I didn't reply on time, and the new reviewer was fast to reply.
The second time, it was sort of the other way around: I was asked to review a paper, then 5 days later the editor wrote, saying the reviewer who was uncommunicative had finally replied, and my review was no longer needed. He apologized profusely, and offered to actually wait for my review if I had started doing it and wanted to finish. (I was happy to let it go.)

I think for an editor, growing a list of trustworthy and willing reviewers is crucial. So, they simply cannot make them work for nothing! (pun intended)


The only repercussion you need to worry about is how much dropping the class will affect your standing in your program. If your program/school/advisor are okay with you dropping the class I see no further harm that will come from it.

This being said, you will of course miss out on what is being taught in the class, which may indirectly affect your ability to get a job since you do not have some sort of required skill.

But again, I have never had an employer ask me why I withdrew from a class.


Literature for commercialisation of research

Starting and running a business is an entirely different skill set from being a professor, one that takes years to learn how to do well.  You also aren't going to be able to put your whole heart into it unless you are planning to quit academia.

If you are at a research university, there is probably some sort of Technology Transfer Office filled with people who would like nothing more than to educate you on this subject.  Good TTOs will also help do matchmaking with the entrepreneurs who come to them looking for technologies to build a business around.  Your university might also have a business school.  If so, there are probably teams of students looking for new business projects and case studies.

In either case, you want to find partners who are on the same wavelength as you and who you can trust.  Commercializing has a mix of business management, finance, marketing, and technological development, and you probably want people involved who are specialists in all of those disciplines.


Just started PhD, feel lost and abandoned

You have good reasons to feel abandonned, and it is the good moment to decide whether or not to pursue a PhD. This decision is a difficult one to make, and you will need to reflect on your professional goals and alternatives for you. Starting such an endeavour, and not being excited by the subject is a big deal.

No, you are not wrong to expect more. A PhD student is not a researcher you pay to have something done. A PhD student is someone with some skills, but that still need training.

There is things you can do if you want to continue your PhD on this topic:

Ask your advisor to include a coadvisor with expertise in this new subject. You could even try to find yourself a coadvisor.
Find course on this new topic, either at your university or at another. Sometimes it is possible to take classes at another university and have it include in your program. It depends on your country and university.
Make the subject your own, by developping your questions around it. A little bit difficult when you are starting, but this is doable.

... and this is not an exhaustive list.


Unintentional Plagiarism in my Masters Thesis

While I don't know the policies of your university, nor anything about your advisor, I would suggest that you explore any possible option of submitting a corrected version of the thesis. Explain to your advisor what happened. Be very clear and honest about it. Perhaps they can make an accommodation. The paper, on which it is based can, perhaps, be used to show proper intent.

If you can't substitute a newer version, you will need to create and try to submit an addendum giving proper credit wherever needed.

I doubt that the paper is in any danger of being rejected, since the citations are correct there.

While many might consider this a serious breach, rather than panic and carelessness, I doubt that it would be career ending. Intent matters a lot in such things.


Tips and tricks for presentation demo for academic job interview

Your strategies are probably fine, but they both seem focused on the past. What you have already done. Don't neglect the future. What are you working on now that shows promise? And, for some situations, how you can possibly include others, faculty and grad students, into a research program. Think about the job as a whole and the university department as a whole.


Is relocation assistance offered to postdocs?

It varies. In my experience some of the more prestigious postdoctoral fellowships sponsored by universities might have some amount of moving expenses built into the budget, and more typical postdoc positions funded out of grants probably won't. But it might be possible to get a professor to help you out, perhaps out of startup or some other funds that aren't earmarked for a particular purpose. You should try to negotiate it with the person who offers you the job before you accept the offer.


What to do about negative teaching evaluations during job interviews?

If you're asked to present information relative to your teaching, you need to do that, especially if teaching will be a significant part of your future job.

Not everyone is a superstar right out of the gate, as far as teaching is concerned, and everyone understands that it may take a while for you to hit your stride. The best way for you to finesse the negative responses is to include your own commentary on the teaching evaluations, showing that you can be reflective about your work.  We all bomb out now and then; the question is whether you can look objectively at what the students have said and make some adjustments to your approach in the classroom that might address some of the issues.  I want to see someone making improvements based on feedback.  I don't want to see a faculty member getting the same kinds of comments, semester after semester, and just going on with the same old methods.  Did you seek any kind of mentorship for your teaching?

A low response rate is not a positive thing, unfortunately.

Did you have a supervisor for your teaching?  Was that person supportive and aware of your efforts in the classroom?  Could that person write a teaching recommendation for you that might be in addition to the other expected letters?


When to apply for permanent positions while having a lengthy postdoc

Some thoughts:

  How do you know when you are "ripe" for the tenure-track market?

The easiest thing to do is to try. If you get interviews, then you are ripe. (But the reverse is not true! The way the market is, in many fields you may be ripe but still not get interviews.)

The second easiest thing is to ask your postdoc mentor.

("Wait, but I am working for them! Wouldn't they want to keep me there?" Having a postdoc placed into a well-regarded tenure-track position is good for your mentor's reputation. It is in his/her interest to maximize your chances of getting a permanent position.)

  Will I be shooting myself in the foot applying this year for a position that may have a position in my last year of postdoc?

Yes and no.

If you are obviously underqualified now, your application file will be passed over and forgotten by the time you try again in two or three years.

If you are somewhat qualified, but not the tops, they may remember your earlier application. Then in addition to judging you on how you compare to other applicants the committee may also try to compare your new file with their impression of your file from before. In other words, you need to show growth in the intervening years.

If you are good enough to get a position now, why not take it?

  If I take a permanent position early, will this make it much more difficult to obtain a better position later?

Only your personal investment and inertia at your new permanent position.

I would advise against the thought of "shopping" for the best position at this early stage in your career. Unless you are one of the superstars, your goal should be just to get a job first. Worry about better opportunities when they actually happens. Or as the saying goes: A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

  How can you tell what level one should look to shoot for when applying early and not wanting to take too low of a position on your (personal) ranking?

Realistically, the calculation goes something like this:

Final year at postdoc: apply for everything, take whatever you get.
Year -2 at postdoc: If I get this job, I stay employed for three more years! I'll happily take a pay-cut for that.
Year -3 at postdoc: I have two more years to polish my files. Let's just feel the water and only apply to places I would really want to work at.

If you are really unsure: more than two years from the end of your postdoc you can afford to be a bit more picky (and err on the side of thinking that you are a superstar). You really don't want to be offered a position that you have to reject because your postdoc is "better".

One last comment: if you are good enough to attract a tenure-track offer during the earlier part of your postdoc from a large enough institution, there is a non-zero chance that you can ask for a later start date in order to "finish things up at your current position".


Asked Professor for Reference - No response for 3 weeks now

If you only have a few days left then it probably is effectively "no" if your professor is super busy. If you don't hear back on something important like this, you should forward the email again after about a week, politely asking for an acknowledgement.
If you are lucky enough to study somewhere where your professor has an administrator, you should contact the administrator rather than email the second time.
It is also possible that your professor has instructions on their Webpage about how to ask for letters of reference; I've seen that occasionally. If so, they may not think they need to reply to emails that ignore those instructions. But most people know that not everyone will read every Webpage.
You could forwarding the email again with "urgent" in the title, but if you do, write a short note at the beginning apologising for not having checked on them earlier and saying you realise this is probably too short of notice now if they missed your previous email, but you just wanted to double check.
Be sure you have sent them everything they would need to know for their letter, e.g. complete details of how they know you, where you are applying, how to submit the letter, etc.


Life as a financially independent academic

I think this is completely feasible for a mathematician and maybe several other fields. No academic affiliation is needed to attend academic conferences or to publish papers. What you need is some means of collaboration to help firm up your ideas, nothing more, really. For that you need to meet people and to exchange ideas.

What would be frowned on, however, is replacing a paid faculty member with a volunteer. Most people do need that paycheck and it seems somehow wrong to deny someone that opportunity. You aren't suggesting that, of course, so I see no issue.

The easy way to achieve it, assuming that you live near to some large university (preferably) with a large faculty, is just to go and introduce yourself. You might need an invitation first, arranged by email, campus security being what it is today. If you can interest a member of the faculty (or a few) to talk to you about common interests you could probably get a standing invitation to participate in research seminars and such. If your ideas are sound, people will be happy to work with you.

Since internet communication is easy these days you could even use a conference to meet people and then work remotely. Or use your Alma Mater as a source of contacts.

One possible negative, however, is the level of commitment you are willing to make. If you are working on joint research, you need to do your part so that others aren't let down. I don't see that as a big issue in mathematics, but it might be in some fields.


You can and you should.

Sure, peer-review papers are preferred over regular (not peer-reviewed books) but if the information you want to cite only is written down in a book (peer reviewed or not) rather than in a research paper, of course you should reference to the former.

Technically, you can refer to whatever you want (a painting, a tv show, a private discussion with a friend of yours or The Journal of Ghosts and Humbug). However, if you want to write a believable paper, you should strive towards citing as trusted and/or high quality sources as possible.


Is ps preferred over pdf format in some cases?

No.

There are no advantages of PS over PDF.

Any modern computer system that can display PS files can also display PDF files. (The converse is certainly not true.)

Any modern computer system that can produce PS files can also produce PDF files. (Again, the converse is not true.)

Any material that you can present with a PS file can be presented equally well with a PDF file. (Again, the converse is not true.)


Is it a good idea to postdocs that are less than a year?

Typically very short (<1yr) positions are offered because the PI only has money to pay for a few months' postdoc time. This can arise for a variety of reasons, but the most common is probably that they obtained a grant to pay for (say) a 3-year postdoc, and then hired someone who found a new job after two-and-a-bit years. This is an awkward situation: often funding agencies place strict time limits for money to be spent, so one may be faced with the challenge of getting rid of a substantial pile of cash quickly, and hiring someone is the only realistic way to do this.
Related, but distinct: sometimes PIs will choose to spend the dregs of a grant on employing a graduating PhD student for a few months after they complete their thesis. The length of position offered is usually directly governed by the amount of money left in the bank. In such cases it may be necessary to 'advertise' the job to satisfy employment regulations and/or policies.
Unless you are already involved in a project, it is difficult to achieve much in a postdoc that lasts less than a year. Inevitably you lose time at the start getting settled in (especially if you have to move to a new city), and you will be busy applying for new jobs and attending interviews. PIs' expectations no doubt differ, but I think it is unreasonable to expect much to come out of such a short position.
Often PIs in this situation will be applying for follow-on funding, so there is a chance that the position will ultimately be extended to a decent length. However, you should not count on this happening.
If you see an advert of this sort, I think it is reasonable to contact the PI and ask for an explanation of the circumstances, and how they envisage things working. Personally, I would only apply for such positions if the alternative were unemployment.


Should I try to warn administration about truly unacceptable professor behavior?

While it's tempting and noble to want to help others who have to deal with your previous advisor, my suggestion would be:

Move on with your life,
Do the best research/teaching you can, and
Try to make a positive impact on those in your relatively local area (students, collaborators, etc.)

I have some familiarity in dealing with unacceptable supervisor behavior. My former PhD advisor threatened me with physical violence and kicked me out of the program. Another senior faculty member and most of the students in our research group witnessed the event, but none of them would admit to my face what happened. I effectively had nobody willing to provide an eyewitness account of the events (I suppose they were too worried about their own fate; one of the students who witnessed the event is now a tenured faculty member at a top 5 school in my field).

From the fallout of this situation, it was hard enough for me to move on with my goal of getting a PhD without having a recommendation letter from my previous advisor. Once I was able to get into another program, I set out to do the best work I could do and this drives what I do to this very day.

Sure, there are times I wished I would've brought this matter to the attention of administrative staff of my previous institution, but then I recall how difficult it was for me to get back to where I wanted to be, and I try to do the best I can in my little corner of the world using my abilities and not worrying about that "other guy." Plus, I'd like to think that if they screw up enough, someone "important enough" will witness it and take the appropriate actions.

I personally see way more downside in lodging an official complaint with the administrative personnel than moving on as I suggest, simply because you have no way of knowing the severity of how painful your former advisor can make your life and the impact this can have on your career.

Good luck.


Changing Engineering Specialisations after Undergrad

In general, it is possible to switch disciplines within engineering between the bachelor's and master's programs.

However, this does depend a lot on the nature of the programs and how closely related they are. For instance, it's probably easier to go from chemical to biomedical engineering than it is to electrical or civil.

It's also worth pointing out that you may need to take additional coursework that candidates with a degree in the discipline do not.


How do top graduate programs in mathematics verify the validity of an enrolee's undergraduate degree from abroad? E.g. IUM in Russia

IUM (quite purposefully) distants itself from the "officially recognised" education and relies on informal recognition in a sub-group of well-established mathematicians. As an IUM graduate, you most likely will be recognised as an outstanding candidate for your ability to do maths. You will also have recommendations of internationally renowned mathematicians. Many academics will feel themselves very reassured hiring someone with IUM credentials.

However, universities do not consist of academic only, and HR departments may have their views on the process, too. It is fair to say that even the best professors sometimes have only limited influence on HR when it comes to formalities. And of course, the list of recognised qualifications is one of such things.

Unfortunately, there are no universal rules which HR departments apply. It is likely that for a particular unusual situation like the one you described, the decision will be made ad hoc by someone in HR department; once it is made, it is unlikely they will go back on it.

That is why many of IUM graduates prefer also to get themselves a degree from officially recognised university. Even if it does not give them the level of education compared with IUM, the official degree always works well to pacify the HR departments, while academics will always look at IUM degrees on your CV as something really outstanding.


Is Google Scholar reliable for reporting citations?

None of the citation databases are particularly good.  Google Scholar tends to err on the side of inclusiveness (thereby over-representing impact), while the more curated databases (e.g., ISI WoK) tend to err on the side of exclusiveness (thereby under-representing impact).  This is particularly acute in some fields: computer science, for example, is notoriously under-represented in the curated databases to the degree that it has is own independent citation database, DBLP, which of course has its own different problems.

You can potentially use any of these databases reasonably to report citations in a reasonable and professional manner, as long as you are consistent and make it clear which database you are using, such that readers can adjust their expectations accordingly.


Should I write to invite a professor to be my PhD thesis examiner?

The way in which doctoral examiners are selected will differ between countries, between universities within countries, and within schools. Ask your supervisor for advice on what you should do here and follow their instructions.


Is verbatim copying a data collection plan with citation considered plagiarism?

It isn't plagiarism, but it may be a copyright violation. Plagiarism is claiming that something is due to yourself that is actually due to another. Your citation covers that. But it may still not be proper to quote it at too much length. Laws on that (copyright) vary by location. Look for any stated license on the work or contact the publisher to be sure.


Faculty hiring differences in Theoretical Computer Science between US and UK/Germany

The UK system is quite different from the US system I believe.

In the UK there is no real schedule to hiring for example. Universities just advertise whenever they want to hire someone and quite often with a very small time window until the deadline for applications.
TCS of the sort a US academic would recognize is unlikely to be very well represented in a UK university, with a tiny number of exceptions. You are likely to be judged by people outside your field who don't have any natural sympathy for your research area. For example, telling them you have X FOCS and STOC papers will likely mean nothing to them. Further, as they are conferences there is a risk they will regard them as essentially equivalent to non-refereed workshops.  They are likely to rate journals more highly than conferences but they are also likely simply to count citations.
UK universities in general highly rate grant income. This may be the same as the US of course.
There is an official system of rating UK departments by the government (the REF) which makes a large difference to the income they receive. One key element is the impact of your top 4 most important papers published in recent years.  You need to play to that.
Some regard industrial partnerships as particularly important.
You may in fact find you are more suited to a Math department in the UK, depending on what your research is in exactly.
Some have an unhealthy obsession with citation metrics (H-index etc.).

In short, if you have papers in Nature (or another general interest journal) or papers that are cited hundreds or thousands of times and have lots of grant income you will be in a very good position. If you have only STOC/FOCS/SODA papers that are cited a few dozen times, little grant income and no industrial links you may find things harder unless you find the one department that is looking to expand in your area.


Can a person become a professor in English without having a Bachelor degree in English?

Of course you can.  Yes, once you complete a Ph.D. in English, you will not need a bachelor's degree and you will not need a master's degree when you search for a job.

Entry into a Ph.D. program in English may be done by those with bachelor's degrees in other, related fields.  Or by those with appropriate experience outside academia.

And let's face it:  Once you are awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, practically any English department will hire you as a professor, even if you have no degrees at all.


What does MS in Pure or applied Math look in top PhD statistics application

I went from an MS in pure math to a PhD in statistics. My transition was just fine. Many doctoral programs in statistics, especially those at "elite" universities, tend to actually be rather math heavy. You will be well suited to pursue questions in mathematical statistics and probability theory. A robust understanding of linear algebra and real analysis are always helpful in statistics.

You will need to make sure that you have a background in at least a few things:

Be sure to perhaps take an introductory stats course if you can. This will allow you to learn the basics of the terminology.
Become competent in some programming languages. C++ is good. Python is good. R is great. You may struggle in some classes if you are completely inept at programming.
Try looking at the backgrounds of some of the students at your desired schools. LinkedIn or the school website can sometimes give you this information without excessive work.
As for research experience, every bit helps. It would maybe not be a disqualifier if you have no research, but you should look into how feasible it would be to join in on a project. This being said, the biggest thing a committee would look for would be potential to do quality research. This can be shown in more ways than just straight up research.

Also, may I second @astronat's thoughts on going directly to a PhD if you are so inclined? It's not a solution for everyone, but it can speed up the process of obtaining the terminal degree sometimes. Note that going directly for a PhD is more likely to allow you to obtain funding immediately for graduate school.


Paper get rejected despite positive recommendations from both reviewers

This is a perfectly possible result.  The reviewers' recommendations are just that: recommendations.  The conference's scientific committee has the ultimate say over whether a paper is accepted, and they do not always follow reviewers' recommendations.

There may be quite legitimate reasons for a paper to be rejected despite positive reviews.  For example:

There might be an abundance of high quality submissions on the particular topic you submitted on (even if the deadline was extended because they didn't get enough submissions in other areas).
There still could be a scope issue.  Yes, a paper that is clearly out of scope should be rejected before it goes to review.  However, if the committee felt it was at the margins of acceptable scope, they might send it to review but ultimately reject it because the reviewers' comments weren't sufficient to overcome the scope problem.
The conference reviewers were generous.  It is hard to interpret the meaning of the reviewers' scores without seeing the distribution of all scores.  It is possible that the reviewers were really "nice" and scores tended to be high for everyone.  It is quite difficult for many people to give a negative decision when they know that someone else is going to see the result and be affected by it, so scores can tend toward the positive, and rejection recommendations may be rare.
There was some kind of rule preventing them from accepting it (This should have led to rejection before review, but it could have been missed.  Of course, they also should have told you the reason if this were the case).

You are correct, however, that this is a fairly unusual decision.  I think you ought to follow up and ask for clarification.  It would be helpful for you to know the reason for rejection, and there is always the chance that there was some kind of clerical error, as well.


Semi-administrative position in academic/research setting after finishing Ph.D. and postdoc(s)

Maybe there was no answer to this question, yet, because there is no clear answer. The nature of such positions vary, but in most cases, administrative maanging of larger projects and coordination of reasearchers or research groups is involved. In fact, many principal investigators are looking for someone, who just manages the project in a way that they don't have to dig into details or do much paperwork etc.
You'll learn a lot about orgnization, lateral leadership, politics, funding, administration; you'll work with motivated PhD students; but you won't do too much research by yourself and you will have to deal with the ugly parts of the job.

After a few years, you will be able to decide whether a full professorship is something for you or not.

To get such a job, you'll have to show solid scientific performance, and it is very helpful if you wrote or assisted in writing research grand applications or led smaller teams.


Should I ask for a Letter of Rec from a Newer or Older Colleague?

You want letters from the people who know your work best. At this point that is probably your thesis advisor, with whom you have actually done research, even though in a different area. Be sure to explain your new interest when you ask your advisor for that letter.
Recommendation letter from CS faculty for math grad school (and vice versa)


What does a US university expect of a student applying from the UK?

This may vary by field; my experience is in mathematics.

Most US students start a PhD program immediately after finishing their bachelor's degree, so they apply during the last year of their undergraduate program.  It is less common to complete a separate master's first, especially in the sciences where PhD students are funded and masters students are typically not.  The first couple of years of a PhD program are usually coursework similar to a masters program (you would probably be able to skip some or most of these courses, if they are comparable to what you have taken).

Therefore, the US students with whom you are competing are mainly undergraduates in the last year of their bachelors program.  At this level a few of them may have published papers, but most will not.  They may have research experience from summer projects, summer internships, independent study or lab work, but it is not usually comparable to graduate research.  Very few of them will have any formal teaching experience; at most they may have worked as teaching assistants, which usually means grading homework.  Some of them may have taken a few graduate-level courses at their undergraduate university, but not to the full extent of a masters degree.

So I don't think you need to be concerned about your level of preparation or experience in comparison with US applicants. If anything, you should be ahead.

As mentioned in comments, at a major US research department there should be people who have either come from UK universities or have experience with them.  If they are not already on the graduate admissions committee, the committee members will consult with them if they have questions.

Good luck!


Maybe you could head for something a little in between like chemical physics or biophysics or chem engineering where some of the courses to date are useful?
My advice is to push for getting your 4 year degree (assuming US) on time.  Just see bad things when people delay too much from the switching.  If you can switch majors while still getting done on time, fine.  Otherwise, do some masters or the like.  Perhaps after working.
You have the wrong idea about the math needed for physics. Analysis (as opposed to "calculus"), algebra (of the abstract sort), and advanced geometry are all really pretty marginal for someone working on undergrad 'zoics.  Read up on Feynman or just talk to physicists (not math types).  You need to be very strong at calculus, high school algebra, and ODEs/PDES.  That's probably your biggest gap right now--diffyQs.  NOT the more theoretical math courses that people talk about on the Internetz.
Getting through a "math methods" book would be good.  If you learn this book from start to finish, that will put you in great stead:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005G14K86/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0 (get a used earlier editions, don't spend $100, I have the 5th.)  Many physicists like Mary Boas (little easier but similar).  The traditional math methods for physics is Arfken Weber, but while it has a few harder topics, it's really a miserable grabbag and doesn't teach well.  I like Kryezing better for self study.)
Finally, I would caution you on the income aspect of physics (or math).  Unless you are a real superstar (which can be rare), you will face huge competition for academic jobs.  These forums are littered with people struggling to find jobs or unhappy with their advisor situation (and the relative subservience required in Ph.D. relationship).  Getting a certified job like a physician is a great move financially and in terms of societal prestige.


Should I start working as a teacher at a different uni while I'm still finishing my PhD?

First you have to ask your advisor.  You can't just leave with 3 months left on your scholarship.  Angering your advisor is a terrible idea in a field where it's likely that everyone knows everyone else.

Second, you're going to be extremely overwhelmed at how much work it is to teach a new course.  Even though you're only teaching half time it's going to have a huge impact on slowing your thesis progress down. It's possible that you might not even finish.

However, you do have to take into account your finances.  If this is the only job you think you might get it might be necessary to pursue it so that you have income.


Cancelled Summer Program due to COVID-19

List it as an achievement.

Awards and Achievements

Selected for competitive summer program, Summer School on ABCDE. Scholarship awarded; attendance cancelled due to COVID-19.

I think this is completely appropriate, for the same reasons as argued on this related thread. Note: I added "scholarhip awarded", but obviously you should not put that if there was no scholarship :)
In general, the purpose of your CV is to brag as much as possible; include everything that sounds impressive, even if you personally don't think it's that impressive. For instance, if you got accepted to two programs and only could attend one, I would list both. It's the same thing here -- the fact that COVID-19 is the circumstance is just a detail, not relevant to whether the acceptance is appropriate to list.


How to create a grading rubric that properly incentivizes and challenges students

In general, I would recommend keeping your grading rubric simple -- complicated rubrics have a way of causing confusion and sometimes resentment when they're misunderstood.

In the situation you describe, I would choose to compute the score as the average of that on the three required problems, weighted equally. If the student solved any of the optional problems, choose whichever looks the best and substitute this score for the lowest of the three required scores, but only if it improves the student's grade.


Is it valid to modify a student's exam grade if you feel they did not earn it?

Since you ask, specifically, about legality, I'll say that it is unlikely that it would be a matter of criminal law anywhere, though, of course, I can't know the laws of every jurisdiction. But it could well be a matter of civil law and if this were known could easily generate a lawsuit against everyone involved.

I think that a person would be very hesitant to apply such a "rule" to the child of some powerful person. It depends, I think, on people either not knowing what really occurred or being so powerless as to be completely unable to prevent it.

But, as I've been saying in comments here, it is a profoundly unethical act and would, in my view be grounds for at least a reprimand, and even termination as an act of moral turpitude if repeated. It turns what should be a well determined process in to a form of chaos where we are just at the mercy of the powers.

An instructor needs to set a standard before the course begins and needs to make that public. You can make it as hard as you like and you can interpret it as strictly as you like, but you can't deviate from it to the detriment of an individual. I have no complaint about generous interpretations as most of us, I hope, consider generosity to be laudable and to believe that students can learn and improve.

I won't condemn you personally, however, since you may have had no agency here and may be as much a victim as the student involved. But I will condemn the professor, who should, at a minimum be reported to the dean for this behavior. Especially since the course is a gateway course and changing their grade to make it failing when it was not also denies them the opportunity to go on and, one hopes, improve.

It was especially pernicious, here, that the induced change in the average was set not only to unethically push the student below the passing grade, but further down so that it would be less likely they could appeal.

My advice to you personally, is to find a better mentor as soon as you can. This person is teaching you to do harm.

And, I don't know how you can make it up to the person you damaged. It may be too late, even to request a grade change. But the dean should be informed and if it is only you that knows that the professor is behaving this way, it is probably your responsibility to so inform them. I won't suggest that you do, of course, since it might have too adverse an effect on your own career, but there is an imbalance in justice that hasn't been corrected.


How to ask for rec letter for another program after verbal commitment to stay with my current advisor for PhD?

Absolutely you should apply to other programs, and your advisor should be encouraging you to do so.  If for no other reason, your advisor could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and then you'd be stuck without any back-up plans.

Your advisor should have no qualms about you applying to additional programs. He should be willing to submit his LOR for you. Moreover, if you secure some interviews, it is such a unique opportunity to meet some other PIs in your field as well as students who are in your field.

In sum, your professor should be totally open to doing this, just explain that you don't want to place all your eggs in one basket.  Good luck!


How much effort does it take to record video courses?

I'm in the middle of recording lectures for a class now, and I'm doing all the work (recording/processing/uploading) myself.  Luckily, I like doing the technical part of it, because it is rather time intensive.  I've also taught a course that had dedicated software to take care of the entire process (BB Collaborate).  I'd walk into class, log into the system, push "Record" and lo-and-behold the videos (with everything I had on my computer desktop at the time) were uploaded to the site a few hours after class (and were available live to the students who wanted to watch and participate remotely).  So, the effort varies depending on what situation you are in at your school.

If you have no supporting system (like BB Collaborate), plan on at least an hour or so per class of your time (not to mention render and upload time, which can take many hours depending on the length of your class and your Internet bandwidth), and this is once you get everything figured out.  Oh, and that doesn't include editing bells and whistles; I basically put raw class footage online and take as little time as I can for post-processing and editing.

For a self-built system, you'll need a number of things:

A decent Camcorder ($200-300 will get you one)
Flash based media ($25 for a 32GB card)
A tripod ($25)
A remote microphone ($150 for a decent one)
Video editing software (I started with iMovie on my Mac ($15) and have since graduated to Final Cut Pro X ($300) and Compressor ($50).  I assume you already have a computer, but you'll need that, too ($500-1500).)
External hard drive with a fast connection (Firewire or USB 3, $100 for 1TB).  This isn't strictly necessary, but you'll find that you may run out of disk space quickly without one.
A YouTube account (free), with a relatively fast internet connection (I'm currently faced with a molasses-slow upload speed in Djibouti, Africa, so that hasn't been fun).  Make sure you verify your YouTube account so you can upload videos longer than 15 minutes.

Once you get the equipment (total cost ~$1000 without the computer), you'll need to learn how to use everything.  You have to remember to record all your lectures, and plan on spending five minutes or so setting everything up before class, unless you have your own classroom.  I simply focus the camcorder on the board and me, with a bit of room on the sides for me to move around.  If you want panning and zooming, you'll have to rely on someone else to do it.

Getting up to speed with the editing software can take time, especially if you haven't done it before.  You could spend months editing a 1-hour class, but as I say, if you keep it bare-bones you can get the editing down to an hour or so of your time, including setting up all the steps to upload to YouTube.  I record all my videos at 1080p, but I upload to YouTube at 480p because of my slow connection (and my students have the same slow connection).  I find that the board is difficult to read, even though the camera is only 10 feet away -- I also upload my slideshows and try to write big!

Bottom line: either convince your school to invest in a professional system so you don't have to do much work yourself, or plan on spending a good bit of time (and money, if your school won't pay for it--I bought everything out of my own pocket, but as I say, I'm enjoying it) to learn the setup and edit/upload videos.


Is an original refinement of a theorem eligible to be published on some journal?

Generally, an extension of a theorem is valuable. But whether it is publishable is up to a publisher. The way they make a decision is to have submissions reviewed by experts. But you can, in most cases, also seek expert help in evaluating the work you do. As suggested in the comments, local professors might be good for that.
But you can just write it up and submit it. To find an appropriate journal, you need to find a few candidates and, at least, look at the index to see what sorts of things they publish.
However, it may be that your work would be considered a trivial extension rather than something with value. That would hinge on one or both of two things. First, the theorem statement itself might provide insights into understanding topological spaces. But, and probably more important, the form of the proof you provide might provide insight into the solution of other problems. Often the proof is more important than the theorem itself. Your suggestion that you needed additional lemmas to extend an old proof might be your key to success.
If/when you submit you will get feedback on the work and possibly suggestions to improve it. But it takes reading of the paper to decide on its value.