Are there any measures to ensure "academic honesty"?

Let me throw in a few points in addition to @Peter Janssons great answer:

There are "tools" that help with some of your concerns

  that the reviewers do not lose their objectivity, for instance when looking at a manuscript of a competitor

For one thing, most journals I know not only ask for suggested reviewers, but you can also ask that particular persons are not asked to review your paper.
The journals I know have at least 2, usually 3 reviews. So a firm "reject" means that several reviewers did agree that the paper is bad. While one may have a biased opinion, with 3 rejects it is maybe time to stop and think whether the paper really is good or not.
Bias in peer-review is one thing, but variance is another. And, from my experience, variance is high. IIRC there are studies about marks on texts by different school teachers which were found to vary between good and barely passed for one and the same text. My guess is that peer review is similar.
Personally, I'd prefer if peer-reviews were done openly (both sides named, some journals do, though none in my field) as opposed to one side more-or-less blind.

  that grants/prizes/titles are actually given to the better projects/people from the perspective of the greater good, and not based on how well-connected the applicants are? (after all such committees need to have or be composed of other researchers, who else is going to be able to judge the impact and importance of cutting edge research than other researchers?)

I think this is fundamentally impossible, because that would imply that it is possible to know which project will be a good project beforehand*. This may be possible for very applied projects, but those would typically be industry projects, not basic research.
The "interesting" projects always imply a risk that the thing doesn't work out, no solution is found. Otherwise no research would be needed on the topic.

Sometimes, the huge importance of projects is clear only years (or even decades) after they are finished.

* On the other hand, I think it is possible to find out in advance that a project is poorly designed, so it should not be funded.

  that there's no collusion between high-profile PIs and editors of "high-impact" journals?

Of course that can happen. Corruption exists, and I don't think science is fundamentally different from other fields of human professions.
(see below for my thoughts on how to deal with that)

  that academics (at varying stages of their career) do not consider/prioritize "pushing up" the numbers (e.g. "h-index" or "impact factor" etc) when they set out with their research projects?

In a way we cannot, and IMHO it has to be expected that scientists are intellectually quite able to understand how to optimize a given measure. Thus, the assumption that e.g. bibliometric measures do not influence the measured system will not hold.
Whether they actually do it, is another question.
There is one very important point: the papers are not kept secretly, you can read them. As a scientist, you can, should and do judge the quality of the papers. IMHO peer review does not allow you to switch off your brain when reading paper - I think peer review is meant to be a sieve that gets the "failed" papers out of the system - while what I want to read are not "barely passed" but "excellent" papers. However, there is a tradeoff, and if you push up the rigour of peer review you'll inevitably throw out also good papers, or papers whose importance will become apparent only later on. That is, too strict peer-review may pose a restriction on the publishing system that disfavors really new ideas, and allows to pass only predictable results.
However, you won't be able to help realizing who publishes by salami-slicing and who publishes lots of studies with e.g. very low numbers of patients, poorly designed experiments, and OTOH, which groups take the effort to get meaningful numbers of patients, publish on relevant controls, do their homework validating their findings and so on.
Also the authors are of a paper are named clearly. And taking together your judgemen of the quality of papers and maybe some citation network tool, you can get an idea  who optimizes e.g. citations.
Attending conferences and workshops and talking to people you'll get to know people personally so you can judge their character. In addition, you'll hear a fair amount not only of "rumours" and "stories" which also tell about people.

All in all, I think this works as "real life" does: how do you know a company is honest you consider dealing with? You put some advance trust in them, and you use your judgment, including what you hear by your peers about them: e.g. were they recommended by someone you consider reliable.


Should you thank helpful referees in the acknowledgements section of a paper?

I usually try to add a line to the acknowledgements to thank anonymous referees and I try to make it honest and clear. Reviewers' time and effort invariably improves my papers and I think it's only polite to thank anybody who contributed for their time, effort, and engagement to making a manuscript better.

Will anybody care if it's missing? Will anybody even notice if it's missing? Probably not. That said, although it may be the "job" of the reviewers to give suggestions, refereeing is something that academics do as volunteers. Reviewing papers is perhaps the most thankless part of an academic job. Acknowledgement of the positive impact that referees have seems like the least an author can do.


Under what circumstances can the university council withhold Ph.D. degree?

The system you / they are operating under with multiple approvals needed is not normal in North America. The normal case is that the committee makes the decision, and there is no further consideration. Someone can lodge a complaint which may lead to an investigation by the relevant university-level governing body ("The Graduate School"), which could lead to overturning a committee approval, if it was found that there was something seriously wrong. The final "decision" is usually made by an even higher body, often called "The Trustees", but that is normally pro forma -- except, again, if there is something seriously wrong with the case. Of course there may be North American universities that are more than two sd's from the norm.

By "seriously wrong", I mean that there was proof of academic misconduct, or possibly a wanton abandonment of academic standards by the committee.


A link to Academia is your best bet.

Stay in touch with people doing research in the field of your interest in a formal setting.
If you come up with a notable work you may end up co-publishing it with them.

Open source is a great alternative

There are many, many notable pieces of code developed (and credited to) individuals no tied to major organizations to be found i.e. on GitHub. This is a good way to quickly put your results thru "peer review", albeit informally, get credit for your work and -why not- good PR.


Any easy STEM research articles/papers that high school students can understand?

Most recent papers are fairly hard to understand. After all, if they are published, it is because they present something that is not obvious.
You could however use older articles that describe phenomena that have gone on the high school curriculum since. For instance, here is a paper from 1800 generally viewed as the discovery of infrared radiation, which somewhat follows today's standard presentation of methods/results/analyses.


How can I get back on track after falling behind on my online courses?

As Yoda says... "Do or Do not... there is no 'try'"

As both an educator, and a student in online learning I can feel for you on both sides of the coin. Allow me to inject some of my personal tricks... tools to help you.

First off... contact your teacher/instructor/professor. This is critical point one and both appropriate, and professional. This reach-out opportunity is your chance to tackle a few serious steps toward getting back on track:

it allows you to admit that you have lost motivation and that you
know you are behind.
shows you to be accountable for your lost
placement and willingness to get back on track.

Next, a mentioned before, start "triage"... an emergency assessment & prioritize a list of what must be completed first. Some projects could be banged out in an hour, but worth only a few % points. Others may take 2 days but have serious weight on final grades. Refer to your syllabus and see what is most important for the final grade. After you have assessed their importance and created a complete list of everything due, estimate their completion times (2 hours, 6 hours, 2 days etc etc)

Once you have a prioritized list of what weighs heaviest, and their estimated times... create a time line with the total number of days/hours/weeks remaining in the class. I use excel as it is easy to navigate and layout the time frame. Pen and paper works just as good though. Hopefully you have weeks and you have enough time to right the ship... but if it is days, you need may need to sequester yourself and focus intently on finishing.

Now that you have a list, and a timeline, inject the items to be done into the time line (create a gantt chart) and you have your plan of action ready to go.

...NOW... All of this is the plan. Only you can physically make the commitment to turn off the tv, step away from the video game, opt to not go out drinking, to the movies, or dinner... and settle in and FOCUS.

I find that I often pull up a neflix/amazon selection and put on a movie or something I have seen a dozen times already so I know what is happening without actually  "watching" it. This seems to help to with eliminating that deathly silence in my den.

Only you can find your own motivation, and make the hard decission to actually buckle down and focus. It is hard (and I have done it) to find that once you have lost a few weeks. Perhaps pick a few smaller exercisses or tasks form your plan and finish them first to get that sense of accomplishment to fire off a few points in your direction. That may be just the sense of completion you need to find the next level of commitment.

Last point, and perhaps the most important... DO NOT GIVE UP!


How do I respond to a review report provided as an annotated PDF?

As one of the people who writes reviews in the form of annotated PDF files + a summary review, I think I'm in a good position to answer this question :-)

At least in my case, annotations in the PDF are often of relatively small points. I expect you to address all points raised in annotations, but you don't have to prove it to me by mentioning them individually in your response. Many will be typos/grammar annotations, some about missing axis labels, etc. In your written response, just mention somewhere that all of the points raised in annotations in the PDF that are not specifically addressed in your response have been taken care of -- that's enough for me, and likely the editor.

That leaves maybe ten longer comments in the margins of the PDF. If you think that they are worth addressing individually, copy the text into your response and add your reply. That should be easy enough to do.


Should I be worried that I don't have ideas of questions to ask during seminars?

A conference sessions might have 50 people in it (at least in the conferences I go to), and yet there will only be 3 or 4 questions on each talk, even if five people have questions for every 1 that has the guts to put their hand up and ask it that most people don't have questions for most talks. You might also notice that its the same people that ask questions about every talk.
I wouldn't worry about it, especially if you are just a PhD student. One thing I would say is that questions should be asked from a position of ignorance - that is you ask a question because you genuinely don't know the answer and want to. Not because you think you can trip the speaker up, or make yourself look clever, so questions that you think will make you look dumb might be the best questions.


Does getting a PhD in a language 'L' from a non-'L' country have any drawback in case of academia?

What kind of problems may he face if he moves to an Anglophonic country to be in the academia?

No matter where he did his Ph.D., he is likely to face an extremely tight job market, with many more extremely qualified job candidates than open tenure-track positions.

In general, to get hired, it is to his advantage to make himself and his work known to whatever sort of department he hopes will hire him. So, for example, it is a good idea to attend (and speak at) conferences in countries where he intends to apply for jobs.

It is also a good idea to take steps to "understand" the sorts of universities where one intends to apply. For example, from what I can tell, the "small liberal arts college" model seems to be uncommon outside the United States and Canada. If he were to apply to such jobs, it would be to his advantage to learn in advance about how they operate, and to learn something about what they value.


What is the use and importance of recommendation letters?

In some other places, such as the US, no one would likely view them as nepotism unless they came from a relative.

The purpose is to give the receiving institution an independent evaluation of the candidate from someone, such as a professor, who is in a position to know both the background and the likelihood of success of that person. Usually the recommender has some standing in the academic or professional community and who can be trusted to give an honest evaluation.

In many places, such as the US, they are all important, outweighing many other factors. It is unlikely you would be admitted to a program based only on letters, but very difficult without good and supporting letters. Don't neglect them if you are applying internationally.


After completing a Mathematics degree and an Electrical Engineering degree, is it possible to pursue a master in Physics?

Sure. People change their field of study between degrees all the time. Hopefully you can take some higher level physics courses and count them toward your current degrees. You could also seek out a physics research project to gain some experience in the field. You should talk to physicists at your institution and get their opinions. They may have specific advice.


The acknowledgements section of a paper is a perfect place to thank people who significantly aided you with the paper, but not to the level where authorship is merited.

Unlike the acknowledgements of your thesis, however, the tradition of such sections is generally to be somewhat more strict in the notion of direct and material contributions: you should not be thanking your dog here.  So, for example, if your officemate actually read and critiqued the paper, acknowledgement is appropriate, but if they just helped to keep your spirits up, acknowledgement is not appropriate.

(I am answering from the general traditions of computer science, which are related but may not be quite the same as your area of mathematics)


Yes, of course you can ask. But in some fields there are other considerations that are considered important and first authorship is assigned for reasons not obvious to people from other fields. Sometimes those reasons are just political, but people go along with them to keep peace. It might also be necessary to keep the peace with a supervisor who has authority over you and can affect your career.

So ask, even if you might not get what you think is fair. Think long term and preserve relationships. Having a publication, even if not as first author, is still valuable.

And there may be future work that you can extract from the project that won't bump up against the same considerations, making your own first authorship the obvious choice.


How to encourage students to answer their peers' questions

My classes have a similar online forum (Piazza).

The best way I’ve found to encourage student participation is to have an explicit policy, published in the course syllabus, that the TAs and I will not answer any question about course content in less than four hours.  Not “may not”, but “will not”. (Questions about course administration or potential errors in lectures/notes/homework/labs/exams/solutions are exempt; we answer those as fast as we can.  We also try to upvote good student answers on course content quickly.)

I also offer extra credit for especially helpful questions or answers.  (Notice I said “helpful”, not “numerous”; it’s important to reward quality, not quantity.)  But I have the sense that this helps considerably less than just getting out of the way.

It’s also important to encourage a supportive and collaborative environment elsewhere in the class.  So among other things, I encourage students to work together: in small teams (up to 3) to write homework, in larger groups in discussion sections, and with whatever groups they want to figure out the homework, study for exams, and so on.  (Homework teams that work together are still required to write solutions independently, and they are required to cite each other.)  So students are already used to helping each other offline.


Prepared exam essay matches published example

I assume from your question that he didn't only see the published essay but also read it. Then it will be nearly impossible to write his own essay, because he will always (even if unintentionally) adjust his work to not look like plagiarism. That will, of course, only strengthen the impression that he is plagiarizing.
Thus, I would take what he has up to now, the prepared essay that he wrote before finding the published one online, not change it in any way (even if the urge to avoid plagiarism might be strong) and talk to the one responsible about it right now; showing the current essay to try to prove his story.
What happens then depends on the regulations in that class. But there should be a possibility to rewrite the exam, e.g. for sick students or for students that failed the first try; maybe he can get in there with a new topic.
I would not try to get a new topic done today, that would only result in a really bad grade.


Postdoc application: having your own funding vs. depending on your mentor's funding

Citizenship may matter less than you think. Many post-docs expect to get something back from you for the funding you get. If you can do the required work, it doesn't matter much where you are from.

There may be some, of course, that favor citizens and some (national defense work) that require it. And getting appropriate visas has become a problem for many.

But, don't assume that you are ineligible without at least asking or doing a bit of research into positions that are offered. I'd expect that getting your own funding is actually harder, unless you have support from your own government.

I think that self funded post docs are pretty rare and, perhaps granted sometimes as a courtesy to someone who needs an academic home for a while and can, perhaps, assist some regular faculty in their research. But, again, funding strictly out of the candidates personal funds would be more rare still, but with some people bringing funding with them from another institution (or government). It could be the only option for some who don't qualify for a "visiting professor" position for some reason. And few institutions are likely to have a regular process to cover such a case.


What are examples of appropriate journals to publish new mathematical conjectures?

There are several ways in which conjectures propagate, and each has its own method for publishing.

As future work/further direction on a set of theorems you proved. In this case, you submit the paper based on the set of theorems, and the conjecture is just a bonus. Your primary contribution is the original theorems.
As a reasonable technical lemma to use to prove a difficult theorem. One again, submit as you would a paper proving any other theorem. Your primary contributions is the interesting/non-obvious consequence.
As a consequence or expected result based on a novel model. In this case the empirical model is usualy motivated by some sort of science, attempt to publish in the relevant scientific or applied math journals. Your primary contribution is evidence in the reasonable model.
As a synthesis of connections between many different areas of math that your conjecture brings together. Publish this as a survey that unifies the areas of interest. Your primary contribution is the connections between fields.

If your paper does not have any results apart from the conjecture, then such are usually disseminated informally. Tell your friends, colleagues, publish a blog post, ask for a proof on MO. This is a great way to find someone to work with in helping you turn your conjecture into a theorem.


How to finish PhD and get through the academic job market as a new mother and primary caregiver?

Thanks for asking this important question! I will address three aspects of surviving your next year as a job market candidate and primary caregiver: changes in research style, finances, and emotional balance/accepting help with childcare.

Before launching into it though, I do want to emphasize that things get easier. Eventually, baby learns to sleep.

Research/work style: As someone who is juggling caregiving and research, you need to be find a way to use small chunks of time. It will be much harder to get long uninterrupted stretches of time, so train yourself to do without that. Break your work up into as small of chunks as possible, make a list of those chunks, and try to get to them one at a time. This may be more difficult if you are in a lab science and the only place you can work is from the lab. However, you may be able to write at home. To write, I would suggest starting by writing an outline. Then write the topic sentence of each paragraph. Each time you have 10 minutes to concentrate, write one of the paragraphs.

Finances: The best piece of advice I got as a new mother/academic was: throw money at problems. This is not the time to be frugal or save for a rainy day. This is the rainy day. Your career path will look very different depending on whether you finish this PhD, so you should throw resources into finishing. If you can borrow money from family, do it. If you can call in favors, do that too. You should focus your spending on things that buy either sleep or time - i.e. good childcare.

Childcare: If you plan on staying in academia, I think it is best for you to learn to embrace the positives of childcare. There are great childcare options out there, and I found that some childcare providers were just as good with my baby as I was (some probably better because they actually had more experience!). Take the time and use whatever money you have to find someone good, either for in home and daycare. This is where you want to spend because it is valuable to have peace of mind. Honestly, as a mom who has seen development up to age 2, I would say that my child cares if I am around a lot more now (at age 2) than they did at the beginning.

Furthermore, when you are home, embrace the "electronic babysitter" (the TV). Sure, it feels bad, but at least some quality research shows (http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_dismal_science/2006/02/the_benefits_of_bozo.html) that TV doesn't harm kids. Now most programs really don't help them either, but you can get a couple of 30 minute work sessions a day using the TV without guilt. My daughter loved Fantasia (lots of fun colors and classical music!) as a baby. Now she loves Daniel Tiger, and that program has been shown to increase preschool readiness (http://www.pbs.org/parents/expert-tips-advice/2016/07/daniel-tiger-helps-teach-social-skills-preschoolers/).

Finally, if you absolutely can't use a babysitter, embrace the two-parent household you have. As soon as your partner gets home, you leave for lab. At least one day per weekend, you are in lab. Reserve maybe one-half weekend day for family time. Yes, it will suck. You won't get time with your partner while you are in this stage. But you will get more work done, and that may lower your stress.

P.S. The best thing I ever did to get my daughter and me sleep was moving her to another room. She was sleeping in my room and we woke each other up all night. (She snores, my husband snores.) She slept for twice as long at a time once she was in the other room.


How is life as a PhD research scientist/staff scientist in academia?

In my experience there are two types of staff scientists.

The first are people who go out and get their own grants. Basically, if an institution thinks you have a legitimate shot at acquiring funding, they will give you access to their grants office to allow you to submit a grant to cover your salary and lab space. If you are good enough to bring in your own funding, life is good. You can live/work wherever you want and more or less name your own salary (of course you need to bring in the grants to cover the salary). As your salary is tied to your grant(s), there is a lot of stress associated with going down this road. A six month funding gap can be disastrous.

The second are people who work on the grant of someone else. This puts you at the same risks of having a funding gap, but know you are not responsible for getting the money, but someone else it. It requires a good working relationship with the PI as they have to be able to justify why paying more for a staff scientist is needed. It terms of flexibility/security, if the PI loses funding, leaves, or retires, getting another job can be really difficult and you should not expect to really have choices in where you will end up. Often grant funding, especially NIH funding, needs to be planned 18+ months out. People just don't have unallocated chunks of funding large enough to cover a staff scientist.


Is it worth creating a profile with Publons?

This is ultimately a subjective question, but one can ask: what is the value added of publons? Or better, what is unique in publons that is not found elsewhere?

In my understanding, the answer to the latter is none. As a PhD student and early career researcher, you should at some point have your own personal website. Furthermore, you should have an account with Google Scholar. And, something that is quickly emerging and soon to become the standard in academia, you should have an ORCID account. The latter is your unique ID as a researcher, with links to all your research. ORCID is a system developed by a non-profit, academic oriented organisation, and ultimately, it is an open source, community base project. Importantly, they also allow you to add peer reviewing activities, something which was unique to Publons (but not anymore). I can testify that in my academic institution, an ORCID is required, as it is used for departmental evaluation.


I believe the answer is No.
From GRE Subject Test Web Page

Dismissal from a Test Center
◾Using any aids in connection with the test, including, without limitation: mechanical pencils, mechanical erasers, pens, pagers, beepers, digital watches, calculator, ...


Asking for Editor comments even before submitting to the journal, Is it ethical?

I don't believe there is anything unethical in asking. You are just getting an opinion, if anything. Of course, the editor may decline as it may raise ethical issues on that end, but not on yours. You aren't asking for an advantage over others, but just advice on suitability. That is the editor's function, though they may prefer, and have rules, to only comment on proper submissions.

He has seen the paper already, of course. Some editors would actually encourage you to submit it without even being asked. It will be judged by reviewers other than the editor, of course.


PhD interview with a very general topic (no specific topic mentioned in the job portal)

Expectations in such an interview will be commensurate with your level of maturity. If you only just started your master thesis, it is indeed okay to explain how you plan to tackle the research question you are investigating. Regarding the PhD, it would be far too much to expect a full research plan for the full duration, but present the thoughts you have about the plan, and indicate an idea for a direction of a first research paper. Perhaps forecast where you might go from there, depending on the results.
The committee will know that you are in a particular phase of your masters, so you cannot be expected to already know everything about the PhD. What they would like to see is how you reason about the relevant topics, so show them how you think.


Do German universities take mid-career international students for PhDs?

Yes, that is definitely possible (if you have a Masters degree as JayFromA mentioned).

Normally professors have their own funding and 100% control about who gets accepted into the PhD program. This means you directly apply to the chair and not to the university but if the professor is willing to pay you your other background does not matter.

The computer science community in Germany is very international (especially the TUs are very proud of this) and it should be no problem if your German is not that good.

If you do not have stipend your salary is fixed though and there is no room for negotiations (and its not really competitive to industry work). There will also be no relocation funds or anything. Teaching is normally included in your duties so you can not upgrade your pay with that.

The good thing for people with family is that most programs offer "Individualpromotion" which means you do not do course work but research independently (with the help of your supervisor). This is normally more time flexible and useful if you have small children.


Reviewers Conflict of interest: failing manuscript to possibly keep dominance

The vast majority of scientists are ethical people. To claim that every single one in that group is unethical to the point that they gratuitously reject other people's papers does not comport with my view on my fellow scientists.

My approach to getting papers rejected is to make an honest assessment of why the paper was criticized, and then to set out to write better papers. Statistically, journals reject about 2/3 of all papers, so having a world view of "My paper was just not well enough written" is at least not incompatible with empirical evidence, and I find that a far easier perspective on life than to have to assume that all of my colleagues are unethical people.

All of this isn't to say that it never happens that someone behaves unethically -- it almost certainly does -- but that the assumption that everyone does is probably wrong and, moreover, that it's not productive to think that way because there is nothing you could do about your fate if that were so. A growth mindset in which you take setbacks as an opportunity to learn and do better -- regardless of the reasons for the setback -- is, in the long run, a more productive approach.


First, as you already noted, the better scores and the bimodal distribution may have other reasons. For example:

One of three TAs for the course did an outstanding job.
The professor reused questions from previous exams (perhaps without noticing) and one third of the students informed themselves about previous tests.

Most importantly, the following thing is odd: It’s highly implausible that the rate of students who decide to cheat on their own increases by that amount from one year to the next. Thus, they would have to decide for cheating together or due to some common motivation. This in turn only makes sense if the cheating is a collaborative endeavour or if somebody is helping the cheaters.

Now, while such scenarios are not unthinkable, they are usually as likely as possible explanations that do not involve cheating (your mileage may vary depending on the circumstances). Moreover, even such a scenario happened, just repeating the exam is unlikely to solve it. Therefore the professor should first find out what actually happened.

So, the statistics may point at something being unusual, but without further investigations you cannot say that it’s cheating. Moreover, even if it is cheating, statistics can only tell you that it happened, put cannot point to any individual involved in it.

To address your individual questions:

  Are professors allowed to accuse someone of cheating based on a general increase in test scores?

  The professor goes on to claim that those students who had significantly higher scores than in their previous test must have cheated! Are professors allowed to that?

Technically, yes. Almost everybody can accuse everybody else of everything as long as we are not entering the domain of libel laws. Will it be successful or a good idea? Probably not, at least in any reasonable university or jurisdiction. And that’s not even considering that he has not one but many students against him.

  is it ethical and reasonable to assume that one third of the people in his class were cheating?

Assuming something cannot be ethical or unethical; acting upon an assumption on the other hand may be, but that depends on the action.

  Is it normal practice and ethical for professors to accuse someone of cheating just by looking at the student’s test scores?

Normal practice – I never heard of it. Ethical – certainly not. There are several possible reasons for a good individual test result, e.g., hard work and plain luck. The professor should be aware of this and thus the accusation is unfounded and hence unethical.


Are there ranking for Master's programs (sciences, subject specific)

I'd say, generally, rankings are often fickle beasts, so don't put too much faith in any specific one you come across. Depending on the publisher, ordering rules, etc, you may get very different rankings for each school. To your specific question though, it's a fair bet to lump Masters programs in with their respective doctoral program, at least if you're looking for some prestige comparison.

That being said, particular Masters programs can be better than others in certain aspects (like affordability, access to research, focus on industry, etc) that may run counter to the institution's prestige ranking. For those things, it's best to research institutions within your specific field rather than look for some published blanket rankings anyway.

As to why there is no blanket Masters ranking, it is likely related to what I mentioned above: Masters programs are often geared toward students with specific goals in mind. Undergrad and doctoral programs are each generally focused on well-defined tasks, providing a foundation and establishing research competency, respectively, and thus perhaps easier (more valid) to compare. In obtaining Masters degrees, students' goals can run the gamut of possibilities. Some people are looking for career advancement (e.g. MBA, MEng, etc), others are looking to make a pivot in their field, and still others are looking for something else. It's tough to compare these programs because,  with all the variables, you're really comparing apples and oranges.


What is expected from a graduate-level term paper?

I asked a professor this question once and was told that it depends on the professor in question and should be posed to them for specifics. There isn't a "standard" for what a term paper/project might be. A mechanics class might want you to analyze a specific scenario, using techniques learned in class, while another class might want a survey of modern topics.


Advisor wants first author. Do I have any leverage?

Although Buffy's advice to let this go is practical, and I agree that would be perfectly fine, I think you have a second option here. Namely, if you are careful, you can bring up your concern with the advisor. However, if you do this, you shouldn't phrase it as an accusation or a claim that someone else should be first author; that would be unnecessarily antagonistic and probably would not help your case.

Instead, you could phrase it as a question. Say that you would like to understand how authorship order is determined better. Although you assume that the author order has already been agreed upon for this particular paper, as a starting researcher you are curious about the etiquette of authorship. You can ask if it is common for the PI to be first author in your area. Depending on how receptive he is, you can ask other questions.

If you follow this approach, then probably one of two things will happen:

First, he could become defensive and dismissive. This is more likely if he is really being unethical. In this case, Buffy is probably right that your best bet is to let this go for now. Sadly, these things happen; author order isn't always determined correctly, and that can be either due to honest error or due to dishonesty. You could always talk to another professor or mentor for moral support and to assess how to proceed (particularly for future projects), but probably for this one accepting the order is not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
Second, he could be helpful and receptive. Maybe he will explain that he is usually first author on his papers. Perhaps he has a good reason for this. For example, in some fields, that is accepted, while in others that is pretty condemned (I don't know what is the case for your field). But he could also have some personal justification for why to go against the convention. I would not agree with him, but perhaps if he explains this then it would make it easier for you to understand.

Whatever you decide, try to see the bigger picture that authorship is not always obvious, and this professor will be judged for his own actions by colleagues and the community in the future; it's to some extent out of your hands. Good luck.


How difficult is it to obtain a postgraduate qualification in the academic field that's unrelated to your undergraduate programme?

This really depends on what kind of U-turn you want to make and what kind of additional resources you avail yourself of. In this day and age, because we have access to so many resources (from university extension courses to online classes to self study via Youtube and the WWW), a dedicated student can build their skills in a field not necessarily related to their undergraduate degree.

That said, it depends what kind of U-turn you want to make. To pick up your example, if you have a BA in Art History and you want to get an MS in Physics, I doubt that any serious program is going to let you waltz right in. However, if you took a series of courses through a university extension program, or, perhaps, even online, that covered the terrain of an undergraduate physics program -- and if you also demonstrated your competence and interest in the field through an independent research program, you would probably be able to find a program somewhere.

On the other hand, if you have a BS is a technical field and you want to get an MA, programs are usually more accommodating. In my field (politics and policy), students with an undergraduate BS can often add substantial value because they have an in-depth understanding of math and programming that allows them to gain more traction when analyzing research questions using quantitative methods.

In either case, it will greatly improve your chances of admission if you can articulate why you want to make the U-turn and also explain how your particular path adds value to the program you are applying to. If you find a school and a program that excites you, try contacting some of the professors at the program and see if you can meet or talk with them. During the conversation, you can make the case why you want to move into their field and ask them how you can best prepare yourself.

"This above all; to thine own self be true" -- W. Shakespeare


What is the average salary of assistant professor in New Zealand?

You can find the current collective agreements for all universities on the Tertiary Education Union's website. Entry-level salaries for a lecturer, and the low point of the senior lecturer range, at the start of 2021 were as follows (all NZD):

University
L1 salary
SL1 salary

Auckland
83,602
106,285

AUT
73,966
91,226

Waikato
77,402
95,883

Massey
74,478
93,335

Victoria
79,276
99,870

Canterbury
79,671
102,142

Lincoln
73,018
92,723

Otago
82,416
103,678

The average is about NZ$78,000. These generally have annual percentage adjustments built in, so the base rate increases each year. There is generally also an automatic progression within a grade for current staff across several steps spread between the lecturer base and senior lecturer base, and it is generally possible to be appointed mid-grade as well according to experience (e.g. working time since PhD). All of this varies from school to school, and there are also other payments that may apply, so you should check the agreements for particular details you're interested in. If you're not a union member these rates will generally apply to you when you start as well (by law, historically, but the situation may change).
A couple of the agreements linked above have expired, and may have been replaced but not yet made available on the website, and some contain increments that hadn't come into effect yet. The general area of the numbers is right, though. There is a fair amount of variation between institutions, particularly the largest and smallest universities. There's also quite a bit of variation in how the scale works above that lowest-level entry point and how many steps there are (between 6 and 9 before moving to SL).


Is it less valuable to participate in a paper with a lot of co-authors?

Being first author, or the most significant author in case it is simply alphabetical, is more important than the number of collaborators.  And the impact of the papers is crucial. I'd take someone who is the key author in top venues over someone who had just their advisor, say, but was less important in impact.

One key question is how the recruiting committee knows the impact of the student on the publications. That's where reference letters come in.


Are there universities or places within universities that cater specifically to shy people?

On academia.SE, undergraduate studies are out of scope, hence, I will answer for graduate programmes here.

For these (master and PhD programmes, and beyond) I am simply not buying into your premise:

  usual social hierarchy set up of 'popular' student , 'overachievers' , 'sports-inclined' , 'outcasts' or 'rebels'

Frankly, any graduate programme in the sciences I know of consists primarily of what you would call slightly derogatory "the outcasts" (plus maybe the "overachievers", depending on what you mean with that). Your prototypical high school bully or football jock rarely ends up in a physics PhD programme. In that sense, most graduate programmes are in their own way a haven for such students.

Beyond that, I do not know about any program that specifically caters towards shy people. Further:

  where they could learn freely without worrying about the problems of socializing

As long as we are just speaking about "regular" shyness (no clinical condition), I would argue that you would do students a disservice to not "have them worry about socializing" at all. Firstly, even shy students usually enjoy company (if it is the right amount and the right kind of company - I should know, I am also pretty introvert), and, secondly, if you are really painfully shy, learning how to deal with people is arguably a more crucial life lesson than any subject matter you will learn at university. And don't kid yourself - shyness is definitely something that you can learn to work on (again, I should know), given enough practice.


What is the purpose of using your initials instead of your full name in oral presentations and when is it appropriate

The convention in mathematics is to use your last initial during talks when citing your own work. Probably it seems a little vainglorious as well as unnecessary to write out your entire name. There's no reason undergraduate/graduate students shouldn't participate in the same conventions as more experienced researchers.


What is the impact of gaps on CV in academic job search?

If I saw an application from someone with this history and the cover letter explained why the applicant had taken time off work, I would treat the application as though those two years simply didn't exist.  I think that most search committees would also be willing to give a candidate (especially a female candidate dealing with family issues) that kind of treatment.

As @StrongBad noted in a comment, there's a much bigger issue in that it could be extremely difficult for your spouse to find a tenure track research oriented faculty position in the city where you will be working.  The job market is so competitive that even the most qualified applicants have to apply at lots of schools across the country in order to find a tenure track position.

For what its worth I've served on many search committees in applied mathematics over the years.  My institution is a lesser ranked research university.


Can my proposed supervisors for my Masters by dissertation be my referees?

Obviously thats the whole point. It is unethical for an academic to write a recommendation letter for a student, he/she didn't interact with. Also, it does not create a problem, if the supervisor is at the same university where you are applying for a master course.


A journal published my private home address alongside my publication. Can I get it removed?

Springer has a privacy policy. It seems to be largely based on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
According to XIV, point 2, you can request a removal of your personal data on specific grounds, e.g. because the data are not needed, or because you withdraw your consent. This seems to be the case with you.
You can contact their Data Protection Officer about that (dataprotection@springernature.com). Explain your situation and ask for the data to be removed.
The Data Protection Officer should react swiftly, as there might be grave legal consequences if they violate your data rights (at least if the EU's GDPR applies to your case).


One possible way is to do both, in a way.

To help explain, I am drawing on my own current experience -  I earned my PhD in Physics back in 2014, but I still work in a different field. However, I continue research in Physics (and am still getting published) as an Adjunct researcher to the university where I completed the PhD. (Of course, you should check with the university if it is possible to be an Adjunct).

Completing a PhD can provide a foundation for you to continue research in an area of interest as an Adjunct (especially if you published while completing the PhD). Analytical and research skills developed in the PhD could potentially greatly benefit your work in your job (as I have found in my situation).

As in your case, my job allows a considerable amount of spare time, where I have found plenty of time to continue to do research, exercise and engage in my hobbies in my time.

Depending on your time constraints, there is no reason to give up either.


How to handle a co-author who doesn't reply any more?

if I simply remove this co-author, put in acknowledgement and submit to a journal, will it initiate any future problem?

What did this person contribute?

You indicated before that many of your "authors" contributed only English help. If this is the case, then (I would argue that) they should never have been given authorship at all. If that is the case here, then I anticipate no problems with what you propose.
If this person made substantial academic contributions to your article (as defined in your field), then you must give them the chance to be listed as an author -- an acknowledgement isn't good enough. My view (and others disagreed in the previous thread) is that after 10+ years of no progress, you have a responsibility to get a "yes, list me" or "no, don't" before proceeding -- you're not in regular contact, so sending an "opt out or else" message isn't good enough.

  Can it be overcome at that time?

The only problem I can foresee is that many journals don't allow you to add authors after acceptance. (And of course, if this is mostly his ideas/work and you publish without giving him authorship, that could be considered fraud -- but I sort of doubt that is the case here.)


Podcasts like Manager Tools/Career Tools, but for academics: Do they exist?

I spent a little while searching around various podcast directories for something like this, and came up blank. I suspect the main cause is that running a lab is really not that much different from running any other group of people, and the difference between PIs/advisors and managers really isn't that big. Because of that, anyone looking for podcasts on running a lab can look to any of a number of management podcasts and follow the advice there. If you're a bad advisor, you don't care anyways, so you're not looking for advice.

That said, I was surprised that I wasn't able to find any podcasts focusing on being an academic, rather than about the topic of academia itself. (I did find this one episode of this university-level teaching podcast, but that seems to have been a one-off episode.) Interestingly enough, someone recently posted a very similar question on reddit, with no good answers other than "Check out chronicle.com." I'm starting to suspect that the answer to your original question is "no".


During recitation sections, should I ask students for help in coming up with the answer?

I really like working problems with students, because I think that actually working a problem is a very good way to engage more deeply with the material.  That said, you've put your finger on two very important problems: engaging the whole class, and dealing with incorrect solutions.

My approaches to these two problems:

Engaging the whole class: you don't have to have everybody talk, but you have to give an opportunity for everybody to talk.  In fact, I think it's often better not to call on individual students, and thereby put them on the spot.  But you can promote engagement by calling on subsets of the class, e.g., "Let's hear from somebody who hasn't spoken yet", "somebody on the left side of the room", "one of you folks in the back".  This gives you ways to make sure the confident students don't dominate and allow less confident students space to step forward.
Dealing with incorrect solutions: Honest mistakes are golden, for every one highlights a way in which a student is misunderstanding the material.  Depending on the nature of the mistake, you can take a number of different approaches.  With some mistakes, you can just follow through to illustrate how things go wrong, then use that as a contrast.  With others, you can go Socratic and ask the student questions that lead them to understand the correct answer more deeply.  Yet others give you a chance to segue into an explanation of common misunderstandings.  I say, cherish the mistakes, give the student positive feedback for speaking and thinking even as you tell them they are wrong, and turn them into opportunities for deeper understanding.

To me, the flip side of the problems you highlight are, in fact, the best reasons to ask students to help work problems in small recitations.  Solved well, they can present students with some of the best guided learning opportunities in an entire course.


How to approach potential advisor who's going on sabbatical?

I think the situation is volatile, depending on the communication skills/inclinations of the faculty person. I.e., do they do email often-and-effectively? If so, there's scant obstacle. But, on the opposite hand, if the only way they communicate effectively is face-to-face, then this would be a bad situation.

And it depends of course equally on your own capacity to communicate effectively by a medium where there're no facial expressions, no body language, and... many people seem to be slow to see this... committing questions or comments to email disallows remarks like "Oh, I don' get it" that seem ok in conversation. Thus, one must exert more effort to compose an email than to make a vague verbal remark in person. This is not at all a bad thing... unless the net effect is significant inhibition of communication, in which case one should re-consider one's mode of operation.

On the whole, some risk here, but, if both parties' communications chops are good, it could be as productive as any.


Any disadvantage to multiple applications?

I don't think there is anything wrong with this, as long as on the 2nd application a year later, it is made clear that something changed in the year prior. This could be additional courses taken, higher test scores (GRE for example), etc. I think if your application is legitimately improved over the year, no one would ever have a problem with this, but a potential reviewer might be annoyed if they receive the same application year after year without notable changes/improvements.


Interdisciplinary Problem Session hosted by Mathematics Department: Advice

From my experience (mostly on the interface of biology): unless you are thinking about something like theoretical physicists, you need to consider that most researchers will not have a good understanding of what mathematicians actually do, and will not be able to recognize an interesting mathematical problem.

This means you essentially bring the mathematicians to a state in which they will be able to identify good problems (with help of the other researchers). This is not easy, but I think it is a more sensible strategy than trying to bring the non-mathematicians to a state in which they can identify good mathematical problems (though you can nudge them in this direction).

Thus, you need to set reasonable expectations with realistic goals. I suggest the following approach:

At the first stage, I would focus on introducing the mathematicians to the field, so they can start understanding the terms and what tools are being used. This will probably get the mathematicians thinking about how to introduce formality and so on. This step is also very important in order to establish a common language for discussion.
Next, I would let the researchers introduce important open problems in the field. These problems don't need to be mathematically interesting - because the researchers will probably not be able to tell what is mathematically interesting anyway. This helps avoid a common issue of theorists focusing on problems that are useless for practitioners.
After these are done, the participants should have the minimal set of tools to explore problems that are interesting for both sides. This should be mainly based on open discussion.

Realistically, if you are able to achieve the first 2 steps and get the people to start thinking about point 3 (as it can take some time to process all this new information) and possible establish some pre-collaborations, I would call it a success. While I strongly believe that many fields can benefit from mathematical insights, it can be very challenging to find a problem that is interesting for both sides.

BTW it may also help to invite some people which are doing active research at the interface of the two communities.


To become a professor of actuarial science, should I pursue graduate school immediately after B.S. or get some professional experience first?

The work experience would be helpful in an academic career. But it doesn't have to be one decade. More like one to two years.

Many people stay with accounting firms for 1-2 years just to get their CPA. You could benefit from the ASA. So stick around long enough to get it, then start looking to leave when you do.


Can I add an "author contributions" section to make clear that I did all the work on a paper?

I think you need to consider for a moment if this is in your own benefit.

Depending on how you go about it, adding such a section without your contributors knowing can come off as a backstab, and hurt your relationship with your contributors. Especially since the paper is already under review, and you seem quite adamant to have it included. If you do let them know (and review) beforehand, it might still come off to them as off-putting that you are adamant about discrediting their contribution (in your own words "I did all the work"). Sure they might not have written the paper, but is it really true that they contributed nothing of note? It is very common for supervisors who do reviewing or who only give advice to be listed, even if they have not written any original text. Other academics are aware of this, so what do you really gain by asserting yourself as the sole author?

If you do chose to include a contribution section, make sure that you go about it in a way that does not hurt your relationship with your colleagues, something which is far more important than the exact credits of one publication.


How do I correctly cite the C++ standard or its drafts?

I would cite the current version of C++ standard, based on the APA Style (6th edition), in particular, based on the APA guidelines for citing electronic sources (Web publications), as follows:

ISO/IEC. (2014). ISO International Standard ISO/IEC 14882:2014(E) – Programming Language C++. [Working draft]. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Retrieved from https://isocpp.org/std/the-standard

NOTE: When the current standard will be finalized and published, the citation will have to be updated accordingly by removing "[Working draft.]" phrase and updating the year (i.e., 2015).


Whether to tell his prospective employer that a new male post doc opposes affirmative action for women in academia?

Mind your own business.

If you believe that your colleague poses an actual threat to someone, it is of course your duty to warn them.  But opinions are not threats.  It is entirely up to your colleague who he shares his opinions with.  Revealing your colleague's opinions to his future employer, no matter how offensive you may find them, would be a violation of his privacy.


Your advisor can give you the best advice. You might also attend another student's presentation to get an idea of what is typical at your institution.

But probably you should cover the ground lightly but be ready to supply more detail as requested. Focus more on your own contribution, but don't neglect the basis on which your work rests. Probably a 70/30 or even 80/20 split seems about right.

If you haven't given enough detail, I assume you will be asked questions, so be prepared for that with a more complete explanation.


Do any math PhD advisors work on a problem with their student?

If done over the entire course of the PhD, this is a very bad idea for any student interested in a research career.

Of course, it is reasonable for an advisor to work more closely with a student to get him or her started on a project.  It's also reasonable for an advisor to contribute some (but not all) of the key ideas.

If a thesis advisor cannot say in their recommendation letter that a student solved their thesis problem (or some other problem) with not too much help from the advisor, the student is not likely to be hired for a research-oriented postdoc.

Different professors have different standards for co-authorship with their advisees, but generally it is expected that at least one of the papers a mathematics student publishes from their PhD work will not have the advisor as an author.  (It is generally known in the community which professors are more likely to put their names on papers with their advisees.)

To actually answer your question:

Most advisors understand this reality and a good advisor will be reluctant to get too involved in their students' projects, but when they have a student whom they don't see as capable of a research career, they will frequently step up to get the thesis done so that the student can move on to a non-research job in industry or a teaching-oriented job.


Most part of my result is as same as orginal version. Can I make a paper?

Normally extensions to existing work are valuable. I suggest that you take advice from your advisor if there is any to give.

But you can also write it up and submit it to a journal. Let the editors and reviewers decide whether it is worth publication. It would be a mistake to just assume that it isn't without feedback from other mathematicians - such as reviewers.

This is true since, as you say, the original proof doesn't work for higher dimensions and the original authors may not have contemplated the extension.


Quit PhD due to illness/no support and make a step back and apply to Masters/PhD again

If you have had a very serious medical problem like cancer, most PhD programs will take you back after you have recovered without much trouble.  If you contact them now and tell them that your recovery is taking longer than anticipated, they will probably tell you to get better and come back when you are ready.  I think withdrawing and moving to a master's program would be a very poor idea, unless you have gotten specifically negative information from your doctoral program, indicating they are unhappy with your extended absence.

You say that there has been a total lack of communication and support from your graduate program, but you may be expecting more than was reasonable or likely.  When a student takes a leave of absence for a medical reason, the faculty and administrators may not follow up very extensively, unless you keep in regular contact with them.  This is not necessarily because they do not care about how you are doing, but because they are trying to respect your privacy.  If you have not shared many details about how you are doing with other students and the faculty, they may feel that your medical status is none of their business.

I have observed that once a student leaves graduate school, for any reason, there is a good likelihood that they will never come back.  This is particularly true for students early in their graduate career.  So your advisor and other faculty members may not be expecting you to come back, particularly if you have not been in touch with them during your cancer treatment.  However, I would guess that they would probably be very happy to hear from you and would welcome you back when you were fully recovered.


Should you email a journal after 3 weeks kindly asking why a manuscript hasn't been sent for review, or is this too soon?

Probably too early. Don't assume that the paper isn't evaluated yet. Most likely it was judged in scope and they are simply looking for referees.
Wait a little bit more.


Using an author's citations in a peer reviewed articles

It's a bad idea. Go find the original source. There are stories of misquoted data from citations being propagated through the literature because one early paper didn't go all the way back to the original source.

If E quotes D correctly, you're free to draw on both their arguments with proper citation to both.


To what extent should a reader be required to read a paper to understand a chapter?

The flow of thesis differs in preference from one supervisor to another. The specification provided by your supervisor doesn't seem unreasonable. In fact, I would endorse it myself.

It is natural for most readers to skip the introduction and just cut to the chase. Readers would be particularly interested in the implementation and results. Although that doesn't mean introduction isn't mandatory. You just have to minimise the dependency between the main matter and the introductory matter. The lesser you make the reader to turn back pages, the better would be the reading experience.


How to tell whether email seeking paid peer-reviewers for grant scheme is legitimate? How to respond?

This is most likely genuine, in particular if the proposal to be reviewed fall broadly into your area.

Just check the actual web address of the links given (rather than what they say they are) and/or search the respective institutions online. I did once a similar job for the Polish science foundation.

Actually, if you click the link http://www.ncste.kz/en provided, you will learn that they are attempting to boost their science standing and one way to do that is to get international reviewers.

Don't be too paranoid about viruses, just don't do stupid things (like typing your password into some unknown/new website), or opening mail attachments of unknown origin, etc..


How many physician-scientists pursue academic tracks?

I have no idea how you'd find hard data on the program itself and its results, but as an idle musing I checked how many full time faculty members in the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health's Dept. of Epidemiology held an MD/PhD or DrPH. The department was chosen as a very good department in a very good school with a strong medical school that I'm not affiliated with.

Ten of the 94 listed faculty members were MD/PhD or DrPH's. Little under 11% of the faculty. And that's not including other possible "physician scientists" like MD/MPH degree holders...if you do that the number rises to 23 faculty members with an MD degree in a related, but non-clinical research department. Nearly a quarter of the faculty total.

Of course, this is only a very crude proxy for how many physician-scientists pursue academic tracks, and even the representation of clinician-scientists in research departments will likely vary wildly by said department. That being said, I've met a considerable number of them in my graduate school career, either entirely in academic settings, or balancing research with practice. It's absolutely a viable path, though not an easy one.

As another data point, here is the list of alumni for the UNC School of Medicine's MD/PhD program: http://www.med.unc.edu/mdphd/fps/alumni-1 . That should give you a decent glimpse at where those particular graduates go - it looks like a fair number ended up in research or hybrid positions.


Are there any available studies on the effectiveness of "learning by teaching"?

According to one source, a man named Edgar Dale developed that retention rate pyramid.  Edgar Dale had been both a teacher, and a school Superintendent.

The wikipedia article makes an interesting statement regarding this:

  However, Dale included no numbers and did not base his cone on
  scientific research, and he also warned readers not to take the cone
  too seriously. The numbers may have originated as early as the 1940s,
  when a scholar at the University of Texas at Austin created visual
  aids for the military.

Wikipedia points to another article written by a Dr. Thalheimer, whose PhD was in Human Learning and Cognition, which is possibly a better resource.  He makes this statement in his introduction:

  People do NOT remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they see,
  30% of what they hear, etc. That information, and similar
  pronouncements are fraudulent. Moreover, general statements on the
  effectiveness of learning methods are not credible---learning results
  depend on too many variables to enable such precision. Unfortunately,
  this bogus information has been floating around our field for decades,
  crafted by many different authors and presented in many different
  configurations, including bastardizations of Dale's Cone.

Dr. Thalheimer goes further:

  The bogus percentages were first published by an employee of Mobil Oil
  Company in 1967, writing in the magazine Film and Audio-Visual
  Communications. D. G. Treichler didn’t cite any research, but our
  field has unfortunately accepted his/her percentages ever since. NTL
  Institute still claims that they did the research that derived the
  numbers. See my response to NTL.

  Michael Molenda, a professor at Indiana University, is currently
  working to track down the origination of the bogus numbers. His
  efforts have uncovered some evidence that the numbers may have been
  developed as early as the 1940's by Paul John Phillips who worked at
  University of Texas at Austin and who developed training classes for
  the petroleum industry.

That's interesting... does marketing voodoo usually stick around in the public mind longer than original research?  Anyways, he re-emphasizes the importance of listing citations and the importance of understanding where research originally comes from, up to and including context.  There were two guilty parties, according Dr. Thalheimer; of course, the original people who generated the tables, but also the folks who disseminated the research without checking the citations.

Thalheimer goes on to suggest that the information floating around in his industry can not be trusted.

  It tells us that even our most reputable people and organizations may
  require the Wizard-of-Oz treatment---we may need to look behind the
  curtain to verify their claims.

So, how does one answer your question?  Well, the US News rankings show Stanford as being the top University for psychology, at the moment.  So, I'll take that at face value; because I don't have better information to go on, and assume that there are some decent researchers on cognition in Stanford.  Out of the researchers who study cognition, which one's seems like they might be doing research on human learning?  After I find one, I might be able to identify some of the journals in the field.  They might even be some of the "top" journals in the field.

Part of the reason why this trick works, is that professors and fledgling professors usually keep a curriculum vitae, or CV.  And often, listed on their CV is a set of references to papers that they have written in the past.  Some are even so kind as to showcase some of the papers that they believe to be part of their best work to date.  In some cases, this can act as a kind of roadmap to show you how to become a professor.

So this procedure pulls up a list of possible resources for journals that might have articles on that topic:

Cognition
Developmental Science
Developmental Psychology
Perspectives in Psychological Science

Here are two possible resources:

Frank, M. C., Tenenbaum, J. B., & Gibson, E. (2013). Learning and long-term retention of large-scale artificial languages. PLoS ONE, 8, e52500.
Shafto, P., Goodman, N., & Frank, M. C. (2012). Learning from others: The consequences of psychological reasoning for human learning. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 7, 341–351.

That might be enough of a seed to begin to answer your question.  Let's begin by trying to read Shafto et al's paper in the journal Perspectives in Psychological Science.  The official version is behind a paywall, but a version of the paper is freely available from Goodman's web page at Stanford.

In the abstract, Shafto et al says:

  From early childhood, human beings learn not only from collections of facts
  about the world, but also in social contexts: from observation of other people, from communication, and from explicit teaching.

Beyond the abstract, in the 'Learning from others: The consequences of psychological reasoning for human learning', Shafto et al states:

  Children are often compared to scientists, but even a perfect scientist,
  using experiments alone, would struggle to rediscover all of human knowledge in  the span of one lifetime. How then are children able to acquire a good fraction  of this knowledge in just a few years? The answer must be that children do not  rediscover everything—they use their ability to reason
  intuitively about other people to learn what others already know.

Below figure 1, Shafto et al make the statement:

  Research on human learning paints a very different picture of how datapoints are
  selected.  A wide variety of approaches have pointed to people and their intentions, as an important factor in learning, highlighting that data are
  chosen rather than random (Bruner, 1966; Vygotsky, 1978) and that observed data are
  often the consequence of goal-directed actions (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961; Gergely & Csibra, 2003; Meltzoff & Moore, 1977) or intentional communication/teaching (Coady, 1992; Csibra & Gergely, 2009; Harris, 2002; Tomasello, 1999; Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behne, & Moll, 2005).

So what can we gather from this?  Within the field of psychology/cognition, there is discussion in the literature to support the possibility that people do, in fact, attempt to describe the process of learning by teaching.  But the focus of Shafto et al's paper is not on trying to find the learning retention rates for different types of learning.  In fact, nowhere in the paper does it even mention the term 'retention'.  The focus of their paper, as described in the abstract, is rather to develop a formal framework for how a learner might observe someone's actions and infer from those how much that person knows about the world.

The focus of this paper could potentially be useful in trying to develop a learning model for an artificial intelligence.

In the conclusion, the authors make an interesting statement:

  Our approach suggests that intuitive psychological reasoning potentially provides a very strong lever by which learners may capitalize on others’ knowledge to learn about the world (see also Coady, 1992; Csibra & Gergely, 2009; Harris, 2002; Tomasello et al., 2005). The key difference from previous formal approaches is how one views other people. If other people are viewed as random or even malicious in choosing their actions, then learning will likely be very
  difficult. However, if people are viewed as approximately rational,
  goal-directed agents, or as knowledgeable and helpful teachers, then the learning problem becomes much more tractable.

This statement appears to mean that the ability to learn by observing an observee's actions depends on the observer's assumed framework.  If the observer assumes that the person whom they are observing is acting randomly, or perhaps that they are malicious in their actions; then it's more difficult to create a model to represent who they are observing.  It is more difficult to learn.  I'm not convinced that my interpretation of this statement is correct, given the context.

This paper also makes some references to studies done in the past.  We could follow up by reading some of these as well.  You may find this necessary, as this paper doesn't address your question directly.


As a postdoc, how to make sure I get credit for helping undergrad and grad students?

If you wish to be a coauthor, you should definitely ask if that will happen before you start the work.  Setting clear expectations is the best way to get people to do what you want.  In those cases where you think you cannot become a coauthor, ask the person you are helping to tell your supervisor that you helped them.   Keep a list of things you did and give it to your supervisor when you need letters of recommendation.


Ok to read my script in a 3-min presentation for a conference?

If you literally read a script, word-for-word, and do not have a teleprompter, you are going to be looking down too much and not looking at your audience enough.

Even if you write a script, it would be better to have notes that help you keep the main points in order, and practice until you can give the complete talk in the required time just glancing occasionally at your notes.


Trouble finding job after disappointing PhD in India

You did a PhD in 5 years, published 4 papers and got an offer for a 2-year postdoc position in times where research funding decreases. Keep going, looks fine.
Take some courses or workshops on topics where you think you aren't skilled enough, but given that you could publish, I suspect that you underestimate yourself here.

"Can I still get into academia or research industry after that?"

With a postdoc position, you are in academia.


As @Buffy says, you should probably talk to someone about your situation in general. A PhD is hard under optimal conditions, let alone when coping with loss and depression. There’s no need for you to suffer alone.
As for your research progress, nobody here can give you a right answer. You should talk with your advisor whose job is to resolve such issues. They may suggest switching fields, techniques or collaborators; they may give you a different problem you like better; they can tell you that you should quit the program and do something else. This is all very dependent on you, your advisor and your institution’s attitude towards grad students.
If your advisor is not someone you can discuss this with, you have a bigger problem on your hands. Talk to an ombudsperson, senior mentor, student counseling services, vice dean for graduate matters or any other resource your school offers. You may get a different advisor, switch to a masters or a plan will be worked out with your existing advisor.
Good luck!


How long do the Marie Curie IF grant results take to come out?

The Guide for applicants says that information on the outcome of the evaluation will be available in February 2016. For reference: I applied in the previous round (the timeline was the same give or take a few days) and received a notice that the proposal was approved in the beginning of February. There was no communication before that, so I wouldn't read anything into that.


An IETF RFC may often be thought of as a certain peculiar form of scientific publication: they are frequently cited as such, feed research programs, and can indeed significantly count toward the evaluation of one's research career.  Certainly that has been the way of it for people who I have known who have authored RFCs or otherwise participated in the IETF.

As such, contacting the author of an IETF RFC is not particularly different than contacting the author of a scientific paper: make sure you do your homework first (as it sounds like you've done), so that you don't embarrass yourself or waste the authors' time, and then feel free to contact them.  Their contact information is there for a reason.


Mathematicians will often send you their preprints (not the work in progress), if not already on their pages, if you ask kindly. I suggest to title the email with "Paper request: [Paper title], [Journal name], [Year]" for an efficient query.

Back in 1996, I was working my Msc on a subtopic of number theory (diophantine approximations and continued fractions of polynomial roots in finite fields). I was away from my university, and working without a university student card. I was spending a lot of time at Institut Henri Poincaré, photocopying articles from mathematical journals for my research. I badly needed a conference paper: A. J. van der Poorten, Continued fractions of formal power series, Advances in number theory, Proc. of the 3rd conf. of the CNTA, 1991. No university around had these proceedings, and Australia was too far.

"Alf" was a big name in the field (to me at least). And email and WWW were not very widespread in France. Yet I found his email, and spent about 1 hour to write the most polite email I could, in the  afternoon. The next morning, the postscript was in my inbox, with a nice answer by A. J.: "thank you for your interest in my work, good luck with your study."

This gesture both:

permitted me to work on myy thesis,
boosted my confidence (as a low-level student) in approaching persons.

which helps me a lot now. I am still thankful to him now, and often think about  him, even if I never met him. So far, mathematicians have always answered my requests, sometimes even with a scan and standard mail (with nice  stamps) when the  paper does not exist in electronic form.

Now, a lot of papers are available online. I insist one should browse researcher's webpage pages (instead of relying only on web search): sometimes, old papers are present in formats (dvi, ps.gz) that are not always indexed.

Finally, this could lead to discussions and, who knows, collaborations.

If everything else fails, different  options exist. One with  twitter hashtags has made the  news, I only mention it for the sake of information, and do not endorse the legal aspects.


Is there any real benefit of an honors designation?

I can't speak to employers or grad school applications but my experience with my honors college has been overwhelmingly positive, and it's requirements are far more than yours. (Not to bad talk your honors system, just stating.)

You will learn more and in the end, isn't that what you're looking for? It also opens up scholarship opportunities and networking chances.

Plus, it goes a long way toward making a large school (if you're at one) seem smaller and friendlier.

To me, you have described no real reason not to do it.


Can a professor take a full-time 12 months industry job (get fully paid) while on one-year sabbatical?

The only legal rules that are likely to apply here are the contractual rules for the terms of the professor's employment with the university, combined with the university's policy/contract relating to sabbaticals.  Whether or not this is allowed would depend on the terms of the sabbatical, as set out in the appropriate university policies and employment contract.


Term for a document between an article and a monograph?

The word report comes to mind. To some the phrase might suggest the document is part of a formal report series, but the term is also frequently used for documents that are not part of a series.


Are there any proposals to make sharing code and data with publications a requirement?

I don't know any global regulations, but scientific community understand the problem that you  described and that is why github recently made it possible to get a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for any GitHub repository archive (blog post) making the code citable.

As far as I remember any DOI should be maintained for at least 10 years.


Studying for an exam with an unprepared student

Ask yourself what you are getting out of it. If nothing, then give it up and just advise the student to study harder.

But it is just possible that you are benefitting from the experience. Having to explain things to others firms up your own understanding in many fields. Many professors have had the experience that teaching a relatively low level course for the first time gave them a deeper understanding. Even something like, say, calculus.

One of the most important aspects to learning is reinforcement and feedback. Depending on the other student's questions and issues, you may be getting both from the interaction.

Think about it and also think about your best use of the time. Active learning (as in such a scenario) may be more effective than passive (reading notes, say).


Removing first name on request by supervisor: how to avoid complications in the future

Use the name that you wish to be known by within academia. For the next 40 years (depending on age and career), you will build a reputation attached to your name. That name will be on your papers, announcing you for presentations, on your name tag at conferences, as the author of any books you publish and for many other uses.

Your supervisor is not asking for a trivial change for his or her convenience, your supervisor is asking for you to either give up your preferred name throughout your career, or to have multiple names on publications. While it is certainly fixable to have multiple names, it is harder to ensure you get credit for all your work.

You could perhaps ask why your supervisor wants you to use a different name. There may be a good reason in which case you can take that into account in your decision. Since you have a long name, do people use the full name when addressing you? Would it be reasonable to use perhaps a shorter version of your first name if that's how you are known?


What to think of zero feedback at a conference

This is extremely common.  Usually the session chair will at least ask a question to be polite.  But...

I am certainly disappointed when I don't get any questions after a talk.  Indeed, my primary gauge of the success of a talk (by myself or someone else) is whether it provokes interesting questions.  Whenever I have listened to a really great talk, I've always had many questions afterward.

In my experience as a member of the audience, the most common reason that a speaker gets no questions is that the talk is too narrowly focused and does not contain enough motivation or context.  That is, the audience cannot digest the talk in relation to other things they know, so they cannot form meaningful questions.

Thus the lack of questions is often a sign that you should spend more time on introductory material and present the meat of the talk at a higher level.  Often it is more effective to draw analogies and pictures or diagrams rather than to get lost in technical assumptions and extensive notation.  Your talk is an opportunity to advertise your research and provoke interest; it is certainly not reasonable to expect the audience to digest the details of your methods or results in 15 minutes or even an hour.  Yet most scientific talks still try to do the latter.  I believe this is why so many conference sessions are almost devoid of questions.


Is it possible to write the abstract in more than 2 languages

Whether it's 'allowed' or not, formally speaking, is exclusively the decision of your institution. However, this is your thesis, and within reasonable parameters you can and should do with it what you feel is right. Adding an abstract in your own language is certainly well within the field of reasonable.

In particular, it's important to note that many universities in Germany actually force you to write an abstract in German even if the thesis is in English (example), so adding an abstract in German is simply part of a standard practice in the country. Adding an abstract in a third language, which only adds value to the thesis without subtracting anything, is not that far from that.

That said, to be safe, you should still check with your institution - the library, or the director of postgraduate studies, or whoever is in charge of thesis submissions - that this is OK. If they say no, then you can still try to negotiate your way around it (leveraging your supervisor and other staff if necessary), but it's unlikely that they'll refuse.


Are college students forbidden from sharing their grades with other students?

I have a lifetime of experience in academia in the US, and in all of my experience your instructor's claim is completely without merit.  There is no regulation or cultural norm that requires students to keep their grades confidential from other students.  Moreover, comparing assignments or exams for learning purposes and/or to confirm that the grades have been assigned fairly is a very common practice among American students: at any American institution I would assume students have a "right" to do so unless given explicit information to the contrary.

So, bottom line: there is a very good chance that what the instructor has told you is bogus.  What should you do about it?  I would begin by politely asking your instructor whether there is any written confidentiality agreement that you are subject to.  If he says yes: good to know!  If he says no: I would seek aid from someone at your institution.  Good places to start are (i) your faculty advisor or (ii) your student ombudsperson.  Eventually you may want to speak to the department head and/or the relevant dean, but I would proceed carefully and get as much advice as possible rather than escalate too quickly.  It is very likely that you are in the right here, as others should recognize without your needing to press too hard or further antagonize your instructor.  (Someone at an American institution who says this to a student is likely to be well towards the "unreasonable" end of the spectrum, so I would try not to hand them an excuse to retaliate against you.)

Good luck.


What leverage do universities have over sexual violence in fraternities?

As it turns out, membership in fraternities is not, in general, strongly correlated with rape.  Rather, it appears that a large percentage of sexual assault is committed by a very small fraction of men who are deliberate predators, who tend to seek out environments where their behavior is enabled by people either turn a blind eye to their behavior or who are not willing to intervene in a problematic situation.  Some fraternities provide such environments, but many non-fraternity social environments do so as well.

Rape is committed mostly against women who know their attacker and who may even be intimate with them willingly under other circumstances (men are raped as well, but at much lower percentages than women).  One of the major recommended interventions for a college is thus to educate students, especially other men, on how to intervene in situations that are likely to be a prelude to rape.  This is one example of a broad spectrum of recommended prevention and mitigation policies, which appear to be both effective in reducing the incidence of rape and reducing the damage that compounds to rape victims in an unsupportive campus culture.

None of these interventions are particularly difficult or expensive.  The main challenges in implementing them are resistance from people who have some stake in keeping aspects of their campus culture from changing, or who are worried about potential image problems.


Do Australian universities pay expenses to attend a faculty interview?

The short answer is 'yes'. I know some colleagues who were invited for an interview for a lecturer position at an Australian university and they were indeed reimbursed for all their travel+accommodation+food+visa procedure expenses for the trip. The reimbursement was not conditional on if they would accept the job if offered or not. It was also written clearly on their invitation letters (needed for their Australian visa application) that they would be reimbursed all these expenses.
However, you must NOT assume anything. It is going to be a good amount of money travelling from Europe to Australia, and you must clarify about your reimbursement.


What is the impact of using complex words on the paper acceptance probability?

I cannot reply directly to your question on complex words, but it appears that complex (long) titles are associated with fewer citations (see Deng). So, you might extrapolate that complex words are going to decrease the likelihood of citations and, further extrapolating, possibly also of acceptance.


The truth is, even though people don't like to talk about it, that most graduate students start out like you do. As advisers we see it all the time, and the better ones among us have conversations about these sort of things with our students and/or to our research groups. Many students, and not a few of those who later make it into the professoriate, have at times struggled for weeks or months with frustration, depression, and general unhappiness with their progress in graduate school.

In other words, what you're describing is, if not a normal, a common experience in graduate school, even among some of the best students. I like to thing of graduate school as less of a way to filter out the best than a way to filter out those who can deal with frustration and yet persevere with their research.

So keep going on. If you want, seek out the postdocs and/or your adviser to talk about this. You'll find that you're by far not the only one to encounter such feelings.


Is scanning a chapter from a library book illegal?

I'm not a lawyer, but my impression is that if you are copying one or a small number of chapters, you're on very solid ground here, at least in the US. I cannot comment on the legality of copying an entire book.

Let's start with US copyright law. This is an issue of fair use. The border between fair use and what is not fair use is notoriously vague and defined I think largely by case precedent. But making a single copy of a chapter for private use seems so far from that border that it must be allowed.

From 17 U.S. Code § 107:

  Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use
  of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or
  phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for
  purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
  (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or
  research, is not an infringement of copyright.

Second, this has been standard practice among academics for decades if not centuries. In the old days before online journals, we all had massive filing cabinets full of thousands of reprints, some obtained from authors but many photocopied from our libraries. These of course included chapters from books. No one EVER talked about this as some potential copyright violation. These filing cabinets have died away with the advent of online journals (not that I've been able to bring myself to get rid of mine), and instead people save huge numbers of pdfs on their computers. Most journal licenses explicitly allow for this, by the way. And it would difficult not to: one has to make a local copy to read it on one's machine, after all.

To summarize, I can't imagine it ever being a problem if you copy one or a few chapters. I don't know the answer if you copy an entire book, though as far as actual risk is concerned I am unaware of a copyright police that comes and checks through one's personal filing cabinet for violations.


Is publishing as an undergraduate a thing that really happens?

Most undergraduates do not publish, but it's quite normal for undergraduates who get involved in research to end up publishing.

Reasons why few undergraduates publish include:

They aren't interested in research, or are more interested in all the myriad other awesome things you can spend your time on as a newly (semi)independent adult in college.
They are interested in research, but don't manage to find a good mentor (typically a professor) to work with.  Nearly all undergraduate institutions have professors doing research, but some institutions or departments within an institution have a lot more going on than others.
They get connected to a research project, but their work isn't publishable.  Undergraduates are typically unreliable (see first point), and so often are given high-risk or boring work (a friend of mine got a "research" job one summer crushing rocks into fine powder with a mortar and pestle).
They do publishable research, but it doesn't come out until they are no longer an undergraduate.  Even the fastest project rarely takes less than six months from start to publication, and many take multiple years. If a student starts researching in their junior or senior year, even a great project may not result in publications during undergraduate.

That said, none of these are particularly insurmountable obstacles, and with the right combination of interest, a good environment, and a bit of luck, it's quite reasonable to have work published as an undergraduate.

Some undergraduates even become quite well-published, simply by virtue of having the right combination of skill, luck, and circumstances.  For example, this week a colleague of mine mentioned to me that one of his undergraduate students now had approximately a dozen journal publications. Until they said it, I hadn't realized this student's numbers had accumulated quite so much, but it didn't surprise me, since this student is a good contributor to a complex many-person project that publishes frequently.

In short: undergraduate publication is statistically infrequent, but entirely normal.


How may a young scholar without tenure change their field of research?

Your best hope for getting a postdoc position in a related field where you don't have much expertise is when there's a valid quid pro quo (mutualistic relationship) between you and your postdoc advisor. They need to get a project done. You need a paycheck, and the opportunity for training in a different field. If you can fill in a key piece of the project (especially an interdisciplinary project that overlaps your area), then it's a win-win situation.
You might even benefit from going even farther afield, to a social science group that is not particularly computational but wants to introduce a computational component in a project (if they were already computational, they might not need your help). Or find a computational social science group that really needs to "up their game" in computational aspects of network analysis.
This also assumes that you are a flexible person who will be able to pick up the necessary frameworks largely by osmosis and self-study (with the advantage of being embedded in a social science research group); your postdoc advisor probably doesn't want to have you spending half your time taking remedial coursework ...
The more valuable your existing skills are to someone in the new field, the better your bargaining position.


How do universities deal with the length of assignment submissions (e.g. word count) in pdf?

My only direct experience with this kind of academic word limit has been with my Master's and PhD dissertations. In both cases the official submission was in hard copy. Under those circumstances, I find it vanishingly unlikely that anyone did a word count -- I suspect that at my university, the word-limit rule would only be invoked if someone submits something that's blatantly too long (e.g. a 500-page MSc thesis).

I would guess that other universities deal with the issue of PDF word counts either by not caring much (as in the case of my dissertations), or simply by counting the number of words in the PDF: despite your university's insistence that this is impossible, there are dozens of free tools, both web-based and downloadable, which can accomplish this task. Even without those, Adobe Reader has a "save as text" function which produces an easily word-countable plain text file.

Another possibility is that those universities set the limits in terms of pages, not words.


Open access journal with editor's summary

Discrete Analysis has been launched a few months ago. It's an arXiv overlay journal, so you have access to the raw text by following the link to the arXiv and clicking on "Other formats".