How can I timestamp my paper without violating double-blind review?

The most typical way to time-stamp a piece of work is to place it in a public repository: arXiv is a good example when it applies; many institutions also have a technical memo or technical report system in place.  Although this may technically violate certain interpretations of double-blind submissions, as noted in the comments blinding of authorship is pretty iffy in many cases.  Moreover, in practice this will only be violated if the reviewers actively go looking, particularly if you put it in an institutional repository rather than a global one like arXiv.  I would thus advise that if you are worried about date-stamping, just do it and let the double-blind nitpickers complain if they even notice.

One other consideration: certain publications (particularly certain journals) do have a policy against accepting material that is already available online.  While this is in my view an insane policy, if you find yourself dealing with such, one way to handle with it is to put up a shortened version of the work, i.e., extended abstract, as the date-stamped pre-print.


Junior faculty/senior faculty grant sharing

In my experience, PIs are generally not very up on the specifics of policies.  Much of what they know is based on what others have told them (as we see here).  Amazingly, much of it can be remedied by a Google search, as you can see here:

https://grants.nih.gov/policy/early-investigators/index.htm

The definition of an ESI (Early Stage Investigator) is limited to the position of PD/PI (Program Director/Principal Investigator).  If you are included as Co-I, that will not affect your status.  This would have been the appropriate status for you, as you have a significant role in the research, and were possibly going to be given a sub later, where you will need to have co-I/co-PI status.  [This is of course subject to whether your institution grants you PI rights in the first place.]  Had you applied for this R01 as a PD/PI and gotten the award, you would have lost your ESI status.  You got the award, so it's no big deal, and it will help you going forward.

In fact the FAQ on NIH's site has the following info as well:

  If I become a lead PI of an R01 due to a change of investigator action (e.g., the lead PI retired and the institution received
  approval from NIH that I become the lead PI, am I still eligible to
  qualify as an ESI since I did not compete for funding?

  Yes. The definition of ESI states that the individual must not have
  “previously competed successfully as PD/PI for a substantial NIH
  independent research award.” Therefore the individual may still
  qualify if all other aspects of the ESI definition are met.

https://grants.nih.gov/policy/early-investigators/faqs.htm#5339

So because you didn't compete as a PD/PI, you still have ESI status.

The lesson here is understanding what topics your fellow researchers are well-versed in and when to seek advice elsewhere.  Administrative policies of sponsors are not usually their strongest suit, as policies update on a regular basis, often unbeknownst to them.  Your research administrator and sponsored programs folks should be trained to assess if your role is appropriate without knowing your science.  Your PI was not entirely wrong, but wasn't entirely honest either.  You should have been made a co-I, not senior personnel. This blog post at NIA from 2015 has an interesting perspective on the composition of research teams on R01s:

  That started me chasing another thought. How many investigators does
  it take to write an R01? I looked at the 100 top-scoring R01
  applications across NIH in January 2015 and compared them to a similar
  set from January 2005. R01 applications have been bulking up! In 2005,
  more of the top scoring applications had a single principal
  investigator listed as the faculty on that application—just Professor
  X and the students and postdocs—than had two faculty, or three faculty
  or any other number. By 2015, Professor X needed more help. Now, three
  faculty is the most common number of faculty members on an
  application. By 2015, the “average” top-scoring R01 at NIH had more
  than four faculty listed as participating on it.

https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/blog/2015/04/r01-teams-and-grantee-age-trends-grant-funding

Investigator status is a particular question that affects other policies, such as financial conflict of interest (FCOI).  Because the  FCOI policy is driven by PHS, of which NIH is a part, many institutions that accept PHS funds make admins declare if each person named on the grant is an investigator or not, so admins should know how to define an investigator.

Going forward, start by researching the NIH grants policy statement (which is long, but can give you better answers) and talk to your research administrator.  Over the years, many faculty have come to me with a situation in which I need to be the impartial arbiter (discretely of course).  Here's the definition of co-I.  Does this sound like you?

  An individual involved with the PD/PI in the scientific development or
  execution of a project. The Co-Investigator (collaborator) may be
  employed by, or be affiliated with, the applicant/recipient
  organization or another organization participating in the project
  under a consortium agreement. A Co-Investigator typically devotes a
  specified percentage of time to the project and is considered
  senior/key personnel. The designation of a Co-Investigator, if
  applicable, does not affect the PD/PI's roles and responsibilities as
  specified in the NIHGPS, nor is it a role implying multiple PD/PI.

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps/HTML5/section_1/1.2_definition_of_terms.htm?Highlight=Co-investigator

Here's how you argue getting salary on the subcontract from an administrative point-of-view.  If you have committed effort on this grant, but no salary was appropriated, the institution you submitted under has committed cost share.  While your PI may be able to grease wheels at your current institution to get this approved, that is not going to be possible at another institution without approval.  If you speak to the sponsored research folks at your new institution, ask them about their cost share policy. Odds are very good that they will tell you to ask for the money--use their answer to help ask for the money.  You should google it first, btw-- they probably have much of it publicly posted.


Is there any reason not to crowdsource a subset of exam questions?

Is this commonly done?

I have no sources to answer this, but in my experience, no, it's not commonly done.

  What are the pros/cons [...] that you can think of with implementing an exam where a few questions are generated by the class?

I can see two main issues:

It's not clear to me how you want to handle the communication of the questions and how you plan to use them, but some or, possibly, many students will know the questions in advance before the final exam.
As pointed out by @trikeprof in a comment, students might perceive this as a lazy strategy. Furthermore, they might not like the idea of being assessed on the basis of questions formulated by their peers.

I think that the idea of having students designing questions is good, but those questions shouldn't be directly used in the final exam.

An alternative proposal could be that of assigning the design of a question as homework, with the additional agreement that good questions will be collected in a booklet of questions/exercises, with recognition of the authors.


What is the recommender address and his/her title or position in graduate applications?

Ask the person who will write the letter of recommendation what address they want you to use. I suspect that this university will send them a return envelope to use to submit the letter, so the address must be their proper mailing address.


Where can I find a data set on trust in the Internet?

There is a sub page about open data, you can try ask there. If it's about health, you can try looking into HINTS  which in some years might have asked questions about Internet use. You can also look into PEW, which has a branch looking into use of Internet and technology in the US. Some of the data sets are freely available.


How to archive an academic blog or website?

Digital preservation is an evolving area, and the ability to preserve websites over the long-term is one of the most problematic areas. There are several reasons for this: the dynamic nature of contemporary websites (especially in a format like a blog, where content is update regularly and interactive components such as commenting), hyperlinking (which will eventually lead to broken links and broken images, which, if you point to content external to your site, is out of your control) and the instability of Web formats (websites might look better in one browser than another, much less how websites hold up over time) are just a few of the challenges in preserving websites.

There are, however, several things you can do to help preserve your website:

Backup—keep your content stored in more than one location (on your server, on your hard drive, on an external hard drive, in the cloud, etc.) and don't use an external service as your primary storage location, as they can collapse at any time (Geocities was a huge service when it was shuttered);
Keep up to date in changes in file formats and browser software—when browsers get updated to view HTML 5, 6, or whatever may replace HTML in the future, will they be backwards compatible to be able to view the blog you're authoring today, or will you need to migrate your website to a contemporary format?;
Utilize pockets of expertise on campus—archivists on many campuses have been working towards digital preservation solution and your university's archivist (especially at larger universities) may be able to provide solutions for the long-term preservation of your website; and
Consider normalizing your website to a preservation format—although creating a copy of your website as a PDF may mean losses in functionality (in terms of interactivity), it is a way to preserve the content and appearance of the site in a file format that is considered a safer bet for long-term preservation.

The Library of Congress also provides some tips on how to design preservable websites including following available web and accessibility standards, embedding metadata and maintaining stable URLs.

  Taylor, N. (2012, February 6). Designing Preservable Websites, Redux.
  Retrieved May 23, 2012, from
  http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/02/designing-preservable-websites-redux/


Should I publish book chapters as standalone articles before approaching a publisher?

Publishers are going to look at your background before agreeing to a publish your work. Things looked at include:

Your citation metrics
Reviewers for your publication proposal
Your CV

Publishing some standalone articles will certainly improve all three, but you'd have less material when it actually comes time to publish a book (because the same material typically cannot be reused). So the question effectively becomes, "can I publish now or do I need a better profile?". Only you can answer that question, unfortunately.

If you don't know the answer either I'd suggest contacting a publisher now, and if they reject your proposals, then publish standalone articles first.


If one professor gives recommendation letter to too many students then does it affect the admission of students?

I think that is pretty unlikely, as long as the professor is honest in what they say. I'm assuming, of course, that these letters go to various places, not all the same. But, if everyone is applying to the same university and gets the same letter, few will succeed. But that is at least partly because the number of open slots is limited.

I think this should not be a worry unless the situation is very specialized.


PhD in financial mathematics compared to masters

From my math profs that have done some pioneering work in the field:

1) back in the days, PhD was required because there weren't MFEs around.  now the PhD is no longer viewed as a "requirement" and many mfe's get hired for roles that used to require a PhD.

2) having said (1), the PhD trains you for a research position in quant-finance.  The MFE will not.  So, different skill sets and different career paths.  Which do you want?  Research / PhD roles, not as many exist today, are very hard to get.  FSU PhD may not open many doors for you to top quant shops or top banks - check this, though.  MFE + programming may be better for you to land at a top place to do quant finance.

3) whatever you do, try to train in lots of numerical methods.  apparently people move up very fast (managing director or similar) because there just aren't enough strong math people in quant-finance.  For instance a prof told me that tons and tons of people at Top Investment Bank X can't actually use optimization correctly.  Strongest math talent go elsewhere - primarily somewhere in academia, so if you claim you're strong in math, you could move up fast.

4) from a head trader on an algorithm trading desk: having interviewed thousands of candidates, he says that there is a stigma attached to PhD candidates, and they are screened, interviewed and assessed more carefully to find out whether he or she even has any relevant skills aside from his PhD thesis work.

5) MFE programs usually have recruitment / networking opportunities

That's all :)


Are many new math results first published in monographs?

Research monographs in mathematics certainly exist, but they aren't the standard form of publication.  They are generally not as prestigious as papers in strong mainstream journals, they may be less widely read, and they may be viewed as being less carefully refereed.  Some important work in mathematics has first been published in monograph form, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a very good reason (for example, extremely long proofs, or lots of valuable material that would be harder to understand or appreciate out of context).

There are some journals that publish extremely long papers in monograph form, such as Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society.  If you want to publish a research monograph in mathematics, a series like this is a reasonable place for it, while a stand-alone book is riskier.


Most successful career researchers choose their field fairly early on in their career. This is often due to their approach to research; they have a fundamental question they're attempting to answer, and they spend years attacking different parts of the question through various projects. Pursuing research in this manner allows for flexibility in the research and can lead to some very interesting breakthroughs.

From what I've seen, those who do change areas of interest often do so within a single field, so that the majority of their expertise is still relevant. Yes, data analysis skills can transfer, but much of a researcher's expertise is in the form of a deep understanding of what the past and current state of the field; knowing important (and less important) papers, what different lab groups are researching, what's been tried and what hasn't. Since such a knowledge base can take many years to gain, people are often reluctant to switch.

I would venture that it's more common for a field to shift than for a single researcher to shift; i.e., some new technology or methodology allows a whole group of researchers in a given field to investigate something new or different.


'Big shot' scientist offered me collaboration in a meeting. How long before I write to him?

It will not cool off that quickly. Doing it right is more important than doing it soon.
If you are a PhD student you must talk with your mentor/supervisor before establishing a collaboration or even sending this draft project. You don't know the political background.


Publishing without an affiliation while having one

I cannot answer to each aspect you are interested in (legal, ethical, and other aspects) but I would like to mention some general aspects one should consider:

Most universities have publication guidelines which includes a paragraph about affiliations, see e.g. page 38 of the Guidelines for  research  integrity of ETH Zurich.
University prestiges and university rankings are partly based upon publication output. Some rankings use Web of Science and a publication is not assigned to a university if the affiliation is not given in the publication.

As you mentioned that the work was completely written in private time, the situation is extraordinary. I'd suggest to talk to the professor and the university administration. At least the author should give credit to the university (library) for the literature supply.


Options with a Diploma in Theoretical Physics (A failed MSc)

To be blunt: not good. Top school or not top school, if you can't get an MSci, maybe you are just not cut for it. Yes, HEP theory is intellectually the most demanding field, but it is also currently in least demand and I've seen some very very good people leaving the field after pushing two postdocs. So really, if you insist on doing HEP theory and can't get an MSci, maybe it is good that you get cut of years of depression before it is too late. Another observation is that in HEP theory very few people push the field forward and the rest are completely irrelevant (i.e you write some stupid lagrangian, get eom, write not a very good paper and repeat; it is really not helping anyone. Very few other fields have this dichotomy)

Now, some people get into other fields and flourish. I know a person who had 1.5 postdocs in HEP theory, doing so so, some papers, some citations, but no real permanent job offers and he switched to biophysics, applied some easy peasy mean field QFT methods to neural networks and to them this was science fiction and now he is a star in that field. I also know another person, a stundent. who would do mind-boggling two loop integrals and wanted to do some data analysis and was so hopeless that it was embarrassing for all involved. So not all transplants are successful.

My advice would therefore be: if coding/data/algo is something that excites you, think seriously of moving into data science while it is still hot. If deep questions excite you but you can't get an MSci, think of transitioning to something a bit softer, maybe cosmology, nuclear physics, with some pheno/data component. But note that those fields are still very competitive. If you insist on doing HEP Theory, go ahead, but be warned that most likely you will be jobless.


Does a informative and clear professor webpage often increase the number of prospective PhD students who apply to work for the professor?

As an international student who is (was?) looking for potential advisors, I'd say yes (As far as I know)!

The algorithm for me worked as follows:

Contact the obvious ones. These were authors of papers I read recently (& liked), editors of journals etc. Basically, the ones with good "academic presence".
Look at professors who have written textbooks or survey papers.
Look at strong departments for professors. (By strong I mean : Reputation, Rankings and Star Power/Infrastructure)
If a professor has a good webpage (Updated recently with list of current/past projects, list of graduate students and alumni), Shoof! Time saved!
If a professor has a bad webpage (Last updated in 2001 or with minimal content or whatever), then run him on google scholar. Read his papers and try to find out what his students are upto.
Once a professor has been selected, run youtube and ratemyprofessor on him. This is usually worthless but it did yield some awesome results once in a while. It did help get a virtual lab tour at times.

In conclusion:

Maintaining a good website does help students (especially international) get to know the professor better.
It does save us a lot of time by having access to all relevant information at one place
What is most irritating is webpages with very old content. I would prefer limited recent content to old obsolete content.


Explaining inconsistencies in literature in thesis and/or supporting information of journal article

With regard to your thesis, you should be as explicit and verbose as possible. It's your thesis, and you will likely never have another chance to explain this issue as clearly as you will now. Avoid being accusatory, but show all the various interpretations of the model in the literature that are relevant and explain your insights thoroughly. Use as many pages as you need, it's not like they charge by the page :)

For the journal article, I would describe as clearly as possible your interpretation of the model and the application to your data, beginning with the best reference available, and adding or clarifying only what is necessary for the results you are describing in the article. There is no need to explore all of the other interpretations. If a reviewer raises concerns, deal with it through the editorial reply process. You could send a concerned reviewer a draft of that section of your thesis, if necessary.

FWIW, I was in a similar position and followed this plan, and I did not get pushback from journal reviewers on this point.


Paper claims that there is no solution for a problem I solved. Should I approach authors or editor first if I want that information to be included?

The right thing to do is always to assume the authors of that paper simply were not aware of your work, thus in good faith. Depending on how many (thousands?) paper get published each year in your field, that may be the most likely explanation. Then, contact the authors kindly pointing out your own paper and explaining shortly your conclusions. If they don't take your work/yourself seriously, then write the editor.


The paper I reviewed got worse in parts, due to poor advice from another reviewer

Ask yourself whether it is worth it for a "minor point". But you can ask the editor for advice. And, as you suggest, you can also just give your best advice for the fix. You don't need to speak badly of the other reviewer to do so. Just say what you think the authors should do to make the paper better.

Conflicting reviews are common enough.


Is it true that foreign students have very limited academic prospects in Germany?

The German Ph.D. system is feudal and archaic.

Sounds like an opinion. Let's check all points to form an own opinion.

  At the top is the professor, who, unlike his Anglo Saxon counterparts,
  can take as many Ph.D. students as he wants.

True. But it's more like "as many PhD students as he can pay".

  20 to 30 is very common.

No. More than 6 is rare in math, more than 10 is extremely rare. About 1 to 4 is more common.

  They are used to do the grunt work. If you are a foreign student, the
  professor will do nothing to help you stay on, network, or find a job
  in Germany.

This can be true for any professor in any country as well. I do not see any evidence why German professors are worse than others in this respect on average.

  Of course, they are happy to see you leave for your own country to do
  technology transfer!

I have no idea where this conclusion comes from. In Germany the companies often struggle to get good applications and there is no reason for anybody to be happy when a well qualified PhD graduate leaves the country to work somewhere else (except to be happy for that person...).

  In Germany, unlike in most other countries, a PhD qualifies you only
  to teach as a docent.

No. A PhD qualifies for a bunch of jobs depending on the discipline. What is probably meant is jobs in academia. See below.

  To become a professor you need another degree a Habilitation. After
  that, you need to be called to the chair.

Not anymore. There are more ways to become a professor. There are junior professorships (vaguely similar to assistant professorships), you can become a junior group leader at Max-Planck institute or a bunch of other research institutes, get your own funded research group (DFG and BMBF are just two agencies with funding in this direction) and of course being a productive postdoc (with or without doing a Habilitation) is possible.

  If you cannot find a job in the 12 years after your PhD you are barred
  from applying to academic jobs.

No. What is true is that there is a law that says that you can only work on limited time contracts for six years after PhD. But this excludes contracts based on grant money and I've seen more exceptions to this (e.g. for junior professors). Even if you leave university, there is the possibility to return to academia (depending on the discipline) and a professorship at a Fachhochschule even requires work experience in industry.

  In practice, unless your Professor pushes you, and he will only push a
  bunch of favorites who are German, you won t get a job.

This is an overgeneralization.

  Why do you think there are so few foreign faculty in German
  universities.

There are not a lot foreign professors in Germany. Probably the required teaching in German plays a role? Other than that, foreign applicants are treated equally.

  And surprise! Those who are there have PhDs from the Ivy League.

No.

  If you are a Masters then look for a job in industry. If you take a
  PhD and then try to move to industry you need to have a job that
  requires a PhD and in practice it will be an immigration officer who
  decides that.

Immigration officers play a role, but I don't know of any PhD graduate who could not get a job that was offered to them because of immigration policy. As noted in the comments, there are simplified rules as of March 2020 which I don't know yet (link in the comments).


Why aren't there submission fees for submitting papers to conferences?

There is already a strong incentive not to submit a paper that you know has very little chance of acceptance. While a paper is under review for one conference, it may not be submitted to another (according to the standard policies in fields where conference papers are "real" publications). If you submit a paper that is nowhere near ready, you hurt yourself: you block yourself from submitting a more complete version of it, that has a good chance of getting accepted somewhere else, for the entire review period.

Furthermore, many conferences end up rejecting lots of very good papers, due to limited space. What is the rationale for collecting fees from those authors? Authors would absolutely take their papers elsewhere, rather than risk paying hundreds of dollars to get a reasonably good paper rejected.

Finally: authors from less wealthy countries are already "priced out" of conferences to some degree (and have to publish mainly in journals), because of the cost of conference attendance (travel, registration fees). This would certainly make the disparity worse.


No, such a forum does not exist (even though it actually sounds like a reasonable idea in theory). The closest I can think of is the Questions & Answers section at ResearchGate, though to be honest I have stopped checking in there because most questions in my fields are simply not very interesting. Depending on your topic, you may also be well served posting in a topically appropriate Stack Exchange site.


When is it okay to update other search committees?

Don't make assumptions. Nearly everywhere will let you know when you are no longer under consideration. You may or may not be high on their list. You could be high and they are just dithering. But they would rather make it definite, just to avoid fruitless communication.

But it is probably a mistake to tell them you've had an interview, as it may confuse them about your interest. Wait until you have an acceptable offer before you notify them.

Trying to "nudge" them in your favor could work either way, if it has any effect at all. It is a risky thing to do. Nudging might be worthwhile if you are juggling multiple offers.


Why do some professors with PhDs leave their professorships to teach high school?

I have done this so perhaps can answer your question. I was a tenured full professor of physics at a state university but currently teach high school.

There are several reasons I chose to do this.

Most importantly, I love teaching and am great at it, while I dislike the constant drudgery of research and will not be winning any Nobel Prizes. I never have to hit my head against the wall of grant competitions or peer review.
There came a time when I needed to solve the Two-Body Problem and the high school option made me far more mobile.
I get more time for myself. Classes generally require only about 5 minutes of prep time each, if that. The time between periods is sufficient. Grading takes less than 10% of the time it took at college because of the level of study and can often all be done in class while students are taking a quiz or test. When school is out, I go home and forget about work. There is no constant e-mailing from students wanting help and extensions.
My interactions with high school students are closer and more positive than those with most of my college students. I never learned most of my college students' names. In high school, I have a relationship with every student.

The down sides are minor. The pay kind of stinks compared to what I used to make, but the free time makes up for that. I sometimes have to loop in the Headmistress when making grade decisions that involve teacher's discretion, which grates on my sense of academic freedom. But I think I can deal.


Sending a manuscript to editor of journal before submission to journal

Unfortunately  this depends somewhat on personalities so a definite answer is impossible. But if your communication with the editor has been helpful/cordial then it might not entail much risk, contacting that editor.

But since you already have two rejections where the person was involved, you might want to try for a fresh look at your paper with a different editor. This is especially the case since you weren't encouraged to resubmit with revisions.

You might also try contacting that editor without sending the paper and just give the title and state that you have revised the paper with advice from the reviewer and ask for any advice they might be willing to give. Perhaps they ask to see the paper. Or not.


Is it professionally viable to leave an American math PhD program for a Master's in Germany?

Is it likely that leaving my PhD program for a Master's in Germany after a year would damage my career prospects?

Yes: A Master's degree in Germany is considered by many people
 (and pretty much everyone over 50 or so) to be baseline education: In other words, it's the bare minimum you can have and expect to get a job in a relevant field. Yes, the times, they are a-changin', especially in e.g. software development, but "only" having a Bachelor's is still something of an anomaly: The Bologna Process has changed the structure of German university education but has not (yet) changed German culture and expectations.

Therefore, you'd be going from a culture with relatively lower educational expectations (the US, where a Master's degree hold a lot of weight and a PhD even more so) to a country with higher expectations and you're going down one educational level.

Likewise, it's possible that a well-known PhD program will be acknowledged in Germany in relevant field(s), but there are fewer German universities that are so amazingly well-known that they're acknowledged in the US. After all, the US is about the size of all of Europe, so it makes a bit of sense that the US is more insular than Germany is.

  In this or a similar set of circumstances, is it possible to leave one's PhD program without burning bridges completely?

It isn't exactly the same as leaving to get a Master's somewhere else, but it is possible that you could work on building a relationship and rapport with groups in Germany which do work similar to what you do and then ask them if you could spend some time there as a visiting researcher. This way you'd not burn bridges at your current department while still allowing you to experience how it is to live and do research in Germany. Also, you'd end up with a PhD in the end rather than just a Master's, which would make it much easier to move to Germany after the program should you wish to do so.


Forgot to email a professor back about a research opportunity. What to expect?

I have a friend who did something similar. She didn't realize she had a job offer on her voice mail for several months. In this case, the job opening still existed and she still qualified, so they hired her anyways. I don't think there's any reason why this has to be any different.

On the other hand, she could quite possibly have moved on to other things or hosted someone else in your absence, in which case it might just be unfeasible for her to pick you up after all this time.

And there are many people who would refuse you just on the principal that you made a mistake. I've certainly met plenty of them.

At the end of the day, you've probably done all you can to rectify the situation. If she denies you, just move on with life. If she doesn't, buy her some cookies and be happy. :)


Is finding answers and paraphrasing cheating?

Nobody can answer this question except your instructor.  Academic integrity policies vary wildly from one course to the next.  Some instructors explicitly allow consulting outside sources; others explicitly forbid it, even with proper citation.  Which policies are appropriate, and in which contexts, depends on the class.

If you find yourself unwilling to ask your instructor, for example because you think even asking the question might get into trouble or subject your work to additional unwanted scrutiny, that's an excellent sign that you believe it's cheating.  But if you think it's cheating, you're not going to do it.  (Right?)  So you have nothing to fear by asking the instructor.


Would language difficulties be considered a valid excuse for a poor masters performance when applying for a PhD?

The good news is that you have a clear positive trajectory, and I'm assuming your undergraduate scores are quite good to get you accepted to the French MS program to begin with. In this case you have a high undergraduate GPA, and poor 1st semester MS GPA, and a good 2nd semester MS GPA.
This is something you should put into your cover letter. Straightforwardly acknowledge your difficulties as succinctly as you can, but phrase your 2nd semester "comeback" as overcoming a difficulty through hard work and perseverance.
A script might be: "I underestimated how difficult it would be to receive instruction in a language I didn't have a fluent grasp of, and my grades suffered in my first semester. However, through diligent effort to improve my French, as well as late nights studying my courses, I was able to gain good marks in my second semester. Therefore, while my GPA is not as high as I would like, I believe what I have learned in time management and self-study during the past year will help me overcome future difficulties that challenge any PhD student."
As to how potential admissions officers would react to such a statement is out of your control. If it were me and I was not in a top top program where I can afford to throw away 99% of the applications, I might keep you in the pile for further review.


If you're serious about such a project, I think what you need to do is recognize that this task naturally separates into two parts. It will be very easy to find a good, general purpose and freely available program that suits your taste for visualizing/analyzing/discovering networks in general. I think cytoscape is pretty good, although I've only played around with it a little and many others exist.

Now, the second (well, first) part is to fetch and prepare the input data for the citation relationships of interest to you. You need to be very specific about exactly where you want to get this from and for what subset of articles, since it may not be possible (due to license restrictions) or technically feasible (as noted, the size of the network grows exponentially).


If "learning styles" are bunk, then what is the most effective form of learning?

Recent eagle's-eye overview of best-practice study methods: Dunlosky, John, et al. "What works, what doesn't." Scientific American Mind 24.4 (2013): 46-53.

Gold star winners:

Self-testing. That is: doing homework exercises and checking the answers.
Distributed practice. Studying regularly in batches over time (not cramming).

Runners-up (mixed evidence):

Elaborative interrogation.
Self-explanation.
Interleaved practice. ("Mixed practice")

What doesn't work:

Highlighting.
Rereading.
Summarization, keyword mnemonics, and imagery for text learning.


I always use canvas. My experience says it is great to fold, carry and fix in the board. The printing quality is also excellent, even Arial 10-12 point font size looks very clear in the graphs. Moreover you can fold it in any form. I always make a square/rectangular fold and carry it in my backpack. It never erase any printings. Hope this helps.


First-authorship was taken by my Master's supervisor; how to strengthen my PhD application?

(I assume here that you're talking about admission to PhD programs.)

I'm not in computer science, so I can't speak with authority.  We have a number of users here who are in US computer science departments and maybe one of them can step in.

However, I would think that first-author publications would not be essential for admission to good PhD programs in the US.  Keep in mind that in the US system, most students would enter a PhD program immediately after their undergraduate (bachelor's) degree, without doing a masters first.  These students would not necessarily have any publications at all.  The admission committee would expect somewhat more from a student with a masters, but I'd think any publications, first-author or not, would be a pretty good sign of your research ability and preparation to start a PhD.

Another thing to note is that recommendation letters are very important for admission to US PhD programs.  If your advisor writes you a letter which speaks highly of the work you did, that should help your application a lot.


Recommendation from foreign professor for defense/intelligence research internship

For the most part, as long as the recommendation is strong this will not be an issue. Your reliability as an intellectual in the Intelligence Community is a function of your personal characteristics not the nationality of the people writing your Letters of Recommendation. While it is true that substantial affiliation with foreign nationals can raise questions, they are not necessarily obstacles to clearances, so long as your other bona fides are in order (e.g. finances, drug use).

Depending on the area of intelligence, an Letter of Recommendation from a Chinese national may actually help you. If you are an expert on China, or are hoping to work on China as a thematic interest, showing that you have ties to China is no bad thing. Even in the security clearance process, you will need to reveal this association, and doing so up front is only to your benefit.

Far more important is the content of the Letter of Recommendation, and the nature of the relationship. While not a part of your question, these kinds of Letters of Recommendation should be very similar in character to other academic letters. If this recommender would not be your Letter of Recommendation writer for other jobs, I would not make him the writer for this job, either. You want people who know you and your work well, because they will be able to write the best Letters of Recommendation, regardless of national background.

On a side note, while it won't hurt you if your Letter of Recommendation writer is Chinese, if s/he is an American citizen it cannot hurt for them to say so in the letter. It changes the dynamic of the background investigation, just a little.


Masters Degree in CS with Bachelors in Informatics

Apply.

Pick a couple of schools you'd like to attend, and analyze the program of studies, especially the prerequisites for the courses you find the most tantalizing.  That will show you what course(s) to take in spring and summer, to get you better prepared for your new endeavor!

See Personal statement to apply for graduate school with a change in major


Distinguish opinion from suggestion while reviewing a manuscript?

You have space. If you have a scheme of what to do, just follow it. Read further if you don't have any scheme:

Your purpose as a reviewer is typically NOT to make recommendations on how the manuscript can be improved. You are NOT asked for suggestions how to improve. You are asked for an evaluation. I suggest the following scheme:

[

Summary:

...

High-level issues:

X is not a valid conclusion because of y. It is wrong to include x into the paper.

...

Low-level issues:

...

Improvement suggestions:

Perhaps it would be beneficial for Z to be added. Consider including Z due to W.

]

Include "improvement suggestions" only if you really wish to or if you are asked for that explicitly. If in addition you are asked for "nondisclosed comments to the editor / program-committee" or something else, then include such parts, too.


Is there a time limit after which you should cite a working paper as an unpublished paper?

In some fields, most papers are referred to as working papers even when they are basically preprints. And often they are explicitly in archives for "working papers," or published in a series of "working papers" (often if they were presented at a university for feedback).

After determining that there is not a newer or published version, I usually cite these papers, regardless of age, as a working paper if it is referred to as such. However, depending on the citation system, there may not be an official way to cite something as a "working paper", and so in that case I often default to citing it as an "unpublished paper." (A similar problem, or individual preferences, may be why different authors choose to cite it in different ways.)

I do not think time should change that classification, because "working paper" is a phrase indicating the general status of the work to those in the field. At the extreme, I might still refer to a "working paper" by someone who retired or died, even though it is certainly not still a work-in-progress. For instance, here is the official BibTex file for the first working paper in the NBER archive, a 1973 work by Finis Welch. The citation has type "Working Paper."


Pros and cons of having a Ph.D. advisor who is (possibly) younger than me

As you get older, it is basically dead certain that you will at some point be reporting to someone who is much younger than you are.  Think about why that has to be true.  If you're still stuck, ask yourself how old you think your supervisor will be when you're in your 60s.  You need to get over it.


Do published papers always have to present an innovation?

do published papers always have to present an innovation?

Not really, it has to make a contribution to existing understanding, and this  can be a very specific contribution in a very specific area. Look at this paper for example:

Gauthier, Joseph P., Eamonn P. Glennon, and Andrew G. Dempster. "Timing Performance of V2R3 Namuru Operating in Position-Hold Mode." (2013).

It provides a very useful, but very context specific, contribution.

Of course the problem which you will face in trying to replicated a paper like this is that unlike these authors, you lack equipment and data to write up such results. However, you could consider getting data from one of the research laboratories working in your area and trying to publish something with them. This could be something where you write up some part of the analysis, or, if you really know your stuff, you take the data they have and then do your own analyses. More likely than not you would have to cite them as you are building on their work/collected data and efforts.

Another option for you would be to do some sort of literature review, for instance, timing performance for GPS satellites: A review of the literature. Something like this would also qualify as a contribution and could be publishable. Plus, if you did it in an area where you would like to do research, it would serve to signal that you are serious about that research and also happen to know quite a bit about it.


What is the role of advisor in writing a PhD thesis?

The general responsibilities and authority of the PhD supervisor will be quite different in different universities, especially in different countries. It may even be very different form one department to another.

I attended University of Toronto, Physics. In my case, my supervisor was very involved both formally and informally. He would visit my desk at least 2 times per week and ask how things were going. He would make helpful suggestions, ask useful questions that showed he understood, and would keep asking questions until he did. He was OK with me coming to his desk any time.

He suggested the topic. He gave useful hints on how to start. He answered a ton of my questions. He told me when it was time to write up some thing like a synopsis or submit some form. And he negotiated with the university to set dates for various exams, submission of various things, and who would be on my exam committee.

One of my profs described his experience at another university. His prof was a "big name in physics." He gave a talk at the department about his research. The BNIP was in the front row, asking useful and interesting questions, suggesting interesting ways the work could be applied to interesting questions, etc.

Then at the end of the talk the BNIP said to him "That was a very good presentation. Who is your PhD supervisor?" "... You are, Dr. BNIP."  "Oh! Oh! In that case, come by my office tomorrow and we'll set up your oral exam."

The thing to do is try to estimate if you are in fact getting what you need to complete your degree. As long as it's getting done then don't worry too much.

Check with other grad students what they are doing.

You might need to ask the support staff at your university if you are missing doing anything like submitting forms or things. They will know because they do the actual work most of the time. Your department head's secretary or the secretary of the head of grad studies. You should ask them if you are missing anything.


How should a teaching-assistant deal with an angry student?

As a teaching assistant, you should not be abused.  If a student becomes angry and abusive, you need to disengage and pass the problem upwards.  While TAs participate in the grading of a course, the responsibility and authority for dealing with any significant grading dispute with a student lies with the professor, not with any TA.  It's OK for TAs to deal with minor problems presented calmly (e.g., "You added up the scores and got the wrong total"), but major disputes and angry students are not things a TA can or should attempt to handle.

If you are confronted with an angry student, do not respond to the content of the dispute.  If you do so, you may say something that can cause a major problem for yourself or the professor later.  Instead, just keep repeating something along the lines of,

  "Please calm down. This is something that you need to talk to the professor about."

If the student persists to the point where you feel threatened, then you have both the right and the obligation to get campus authorities involved.  A person who is extensively verbally abusive may become physically violent as well, and you need to protect yourself.

Once you have disengaged from the student, contact the professor immediately and explain the situation.  At that point, it is the professor's responsibility to deal with the student, though they may need more information and input from you in deciding how to proceed.


Writing grant applications as a new academic/faculty member

My mentor told me, "If you aren't getting rejections on your grants, you aren't submitting enough applications."  That is true, with some caveats.  I think you ultimately need to be focused on a particular area.  You can move toward the boundaries of your area -- but, be careful about "chasing" money.  To develop as a scholar, you should think about creating a coherent portfolio of research.  When you look at grant opportunities, consider the likelihood of getting funded and whether that is an area you are really willing to invest your time.
The other thing my mentor taught me:  "Work to live. Don't live to work."  Keep that one in your back pocket.


Improve software code when reviewing paper

In my opinion, if the authors emphasise the developed code as one of their research outputs, and make it public, the reviewers not only can, but should consider it as a material for review, and comment on it. There is a delicate balance, though, to strike.

It is important to check that the code does what is promised in a paper (sanity check). More importantly, it is essential to check if a typical reader of the journal can do the same, and can benefit from the code made public. This includes basic documentation, compile instructions (if any), well-written run-files for each of the examples from the paper, and clear guidelines how to adjust them for other problems.

On the other side, remember that not all academic researchers are necessarily as brilliant in code-dev, as the guys who read Stack Overflow. It may be not appropriate to request that the code is developed and maintained to the highest standards of the modern IT community.


Using an abbreviation of another language in the abstract

You could refer to the German research project by acronym without referring to the full name or you could omit the acronym entirely. The former is perhaps better when the acronym is well known; the latter when it isn't. Since you'll surely be providing the full name, acronym, and translation later, either should be fine.

I suggest that a footnote be avoided, because abstracts get decoupled and such a footnote will be lost.

Given that

  STEER: Erhöhung der STEuerungskompetenz zur ERreichung der Ziele eines integrierten Wassermanagements (Increasing Good Governance for Achieving the Objectives of Integrated Water Resources Management)

isn't particularly long, you could just include, assuming your abstract isn't limited by a word count.


Is there an equivalent of the journals Science or Nature for engineering?

While Nature and Science have high impact factors and are widely read, I would not call them "flagship" journals. That said, while your list of "hard sciences" are on topic at Nature and Science, so are soft sciences, medicine, and engineering. What make journals like Nature and Science so widely read, is that nearly everything is on topic and within their scope if it is "important" enough.


How to answer questions *honestly* about some professors from Visit Days students?

First of all you should decide whether you want to convey any negative information, factual or otherwise, about these faculty members.  You are certainly not obligated to discuss the issue at all.  You could for instance contrive not to be present for this part of the Visit Day, or you could show up and say "I'm sorry, but I don't have anything to contribute in response to that question.  Maybe you should ask someone else."

In my opinion though, absenting some very clear and serious negative consequences for you, you should provide feedback on your experience, because as you say,

  Because nobody had warned me before I started working with these professors, I ended up wasting two years in grad school, in my opinion, a very, very high price to pay.

You go on to write

  I would like to be very honest with the visiting students. At the same time, my field is quite close-knit, with all top professors collaborating with those at other places. If these visiting students end up not joining us, I'd not want them to remember me as the person who bad-mouthed these famous researchers.

Telling the truth about your own experiences is not "bad-mouthing" anyone.

  How can I honestly answer questions about these professors without coming across as bitter (which I admittedly still am)? If I just state the facts, well, even those are going to be coloured by my viewpoint, and will therefore be biased.

I suggest that you plan out what you will say, or could say, in advance.  Indeed you should concentrate on factual information.  You should also remind them that this is just your own experience, and that others' experiences might be different.  This should encourage the visitors to seek out information from others, which is good.

I also don't think "bias" is the right word.  Your answer to the question "What's it like to work with Professor X?" is inherently about your feelings on the matter.  If you had a negative experience, then that's the correct answer to the question as far as you can provide.  It doesn't mean that others will have the same experience -- and again, you can emphasize that in your response -- but it is your take on the situation.

What is the alternative?  Dishonestly describe your experiences and thereby lure further students into bad experiences?  That's not helpful to anyone.


Mental Illness as a cause of academic disruptions

You don't say where you're located, but assuming that it's in the US, the real question isn't "should you disclose these issues to a graduate school", but rather, "Have you disclosed these issues to your current school and asked for the accommodations to which you are entitled?"

If you're legitimately having problems with anxiety and PTSD and have a diagnosis, the school must make accommodations to help you succeed, per Section  504  of  the  Rehabilitation  Act  of  1973, since you're an adult student, you have to self advocate. That means going to the school, telling them that you have these problems and working out a plan together.


Reference management tool with ability to add custom fields

I'm not sure if this would be enough for you, but in Mendeley you can add multiple tags to every reference and then you can filter them using those tags (just type it in a search bar).
You can also add a note to every reference, and use those to filter your references.

In both cases, it should be something unique, so you don't get unwanted search results.


Where can I pay professional researchers online to verify my results and answer my questions?

The harsh answer: You probably can't. At least, unless you are somehow quite wealthy, and if that was the case, I suppose you could simply pay for enrollment at another university. Let me try and clarify a bit.
As a researcher I get many requests from people who want me to look at their particular problem. This ranges from

Fellow researchers who want to discuss - I most often oblige (at least if I have time, and their request is interesting or relevant).
Students who I don't know in advance, who wants guidance - I help if their question is well researched and not too polemically phrased.
Students from my own institution, not under my supervision - I always help, as this is my job.
Amateurs who have invented the a new method or theory for something, and wants it checked - I rarely do more than skim it.
etc. etc. etc.

You are in the last category. If you are to convince me that I should prioritize your request over the others, then I should be immediately convinced that your idea is really something special. My field is not mathematics, so I can't tell here. But judging from comments from professional mathematicians, neither can they. The second option you mention is money, and this is where I think you need to be fairly rich. If a purely monetary argument should convince me to push you to the top of the stack, you would need to pay me the equivalent of my going rate when doing freelance work, around 200 €/hour.
My best bet is to either:

Try and get re-enrolled into a university. There people get paid to answer your questions.
Try and find someone who would be really interested in your specific problem, and write them.
Undo whatever you did to get banned at math stackexchange, and try again there. Being nice gets you a long way, being polemic and insisting that only a professor can answer your question, will get you few friends.


Publishing something in incremental way or as a single paper by waiting for more time?

Publishing incrementally gives you more feedback from peers as you go. Publishing in a "big bang" way makes preemption more likely since it takes you more time. It would be awful to spend years on a magnum opus only to be beaten to publication by someone else.

However, your incremental results should be significant enough that they stand on their own. You don't want to get the reputation of publishing trivia.

The best of all worlds is that you publish a series of important, if small results, that build to the crescendo with the big bang.

You can also, perhaps, depending on your position, use small (but meaningful) results to introduce newer students to your research and to build a core of researchers in your topic.


Can I ask the journal to publish my paper in a later issue?

Speaking as somebody involved in journal editing, I would find such a request unusual but not rude per se. The most important part of making the request would be providing a clear and well-justified explanation for why you want to make sure a variation.  There are, in fact, legitimate reasons that somebody might request a delay, such as:

Since the initial submission, a decision has been made to file a patent, and the delay is necessary to have time to complete the filing (so as to prevent the patent from being invalidated by public disclosure).
The article is intended to be co-published with another article derived from the same work.  For example, this is often done by large physics collaborations.  Usually, the journal should already be aware of this and planning for it based on the initial submission's cover letter, but mistakes can happen.
The authors have discovered a possible error and want to delay publication to resolve the question rather than risk a correction or retraction.

I think it is likely that most strong and reputable journals would be willing to make reasonable accommodations for situations such as these. For bad reasons (e.g., you want to see if your paper will be accepted by another journal that you dual-submitted to), expect to have your request ignored or to face more severe consequences.

Even if you have what you feel is a quite appropriate and reasonable request, however, be prepared for the possibility that the journal may be unwilling to accommodate your request for its own reasons. Publication, remember, is largely a voluntary association on both sides. In this case, you may be faced with a decision to publish on the journal's schedule or to withdraw the submission---or the journal may even make that choice for you, and not in the way that you prefer.


Is there usually an on-campus interview when hiring a lecturer with a one year contract?

It might depend on circumstances. If the contract is non-renewable then perhaps not provided that the CV and letters of recommendation are strong enough for the hiring department to "take a chance". For a renewable contract, the likelihood of requiring an interview probably increase. Also the kind of institution is a factor.

The institution bears responsibility for the people it puts in front of students so there is pretty strong incentive for interviews. Financial imperatives push the other way.

So, common, yes, but not universal.


When is it appropriate to add references to own papers on Wikipedia?

I think this question really has two parts, the ethical question and the practical question.

First of, the ethical question. Let me say that I am surprised that you see the issue whether it is ethical to self-plug your work on Wikipedia as an entirely different issue than whether this is allowed by Wikipedia policy. Wikipedia is a private web site run on private donations, and is entitled to define how they want to do things around their piece of the web (much like we do here at Stack Exchange, to the chagrin of plenty a new user). I think it is impossible to argue that it is ethical (for academics or anybody else) to (mis-)use their service in a way that violates their own rules for your personal gain. Hence, to answer your updated question:

  It's a question about what is considered ethical in academia

This is not, precisely due to the reason that you say you are not interested in: it is not allowed by Wikipedia. It cannot be ethical to use their service, but don't consider their rules.

Second, your question also has a bit of a practical part. You claim that it should be really easy to self-plug your work on Wikipedia, and that it will be hard to trace and prevent. (You also seem to imply that this impact on the ethical question, which I think it has not - whether something can be done is pretty much irrelevant to whether it is ethical to do it)

I have a bit of a case study for this. A large European research project I was involved with some time ago once got asked by its reviewers to add their own papers and other outcomes to relevant articles "to increase visibility". After some internal discussion, the project obliged and started with some really defendable and arguably independently useful edits (taking very stubby articles and improving them with peer-reviewed content from our own papers, and adding references). All of those changes were rolled back within minutes, with the explanation that the edits looked too much like self-advertisement. We tried again, even more conservatively, and the same thing happened again. It turned out that the self-policing in Wikipedia works much better than anybody in the project anticipated. We gave up on the issue quickly.

The morale here is just that Wikipedia is aware that people could try to do this (and I am sure many do), and are very vigilant. I am sure you are able to edit in your links given enough energy, but it may be much harder than you imply it is.


Introductory Structure of a Report Reviewing Established Knowledge

A document that collects and reviews knowledge already in existence is usually called a literature review.

It might be done according to a structured protocol, in which case, it is also called a systematic review.

And a systematic review that statistically analyses the data from existing primary research is also called a meta-analysis.

There are some excellent guides on how to write literature reviews, and Doing a Systematic Review: A Student's Guide  - Angela Boland et al is easy to read; it is primarily aimed at Masters students, but I think it's a good beginners' guide for most people who have to write a review, and don't yet have the experience.

Your introduction will typically identify what you are reviewing, what the context is, and possibly why this review is timely. It might identify how you selected your sources, and what the inclusion and exclusion criteria were (if this is so short that it does not merit a methodology section), and how many documents are included.

Many fields have journals dedicated to reviews: it would be worth reading a few reviews in your field, to get a feel for the structure. Your target journal's "guide for authors" may offer specific guidance: if it does, follow it!


How do I convince my professor to allow me to go to a conference?

Tight question and hard to answer without knowing the details. It may be that your advisor is right in that your results are not good enough to publish and that other colleagues you ask are just polite and it may be that your advisor is wrong…

From the perspective of your supervisor it looks like this: Sending you to a conference will cost money from his budget or grants and it can contribute to his reputation if good results are presented from his work group and it could harm is reputation if bad/shaky/unfinished work is presented. On top of that, your advisor has genuine interest to promote his students appropriately. However, many supervisors do not send students to conferences without own contributions - maybe a rationale behind this is that you have to earn this privilege.

Let me comment a bit on the things you wrote. You say your arguments have been

  a) discuss my work with other people and possibly get some new ideas and
  b) I want to get a postdoc later and need to do some networking, if possible, at an international level.

I can relate a little bit to the response of your supervisor. Conferences are great for sharing ideas and for networking but it actually easy to go to a conference and fail in  both respects. Often there are tons of people, many knowing each other, other actively networking and for somebody new (especially if a bit shy) it is not straightforward to get involved. In fact, it is harder to network at conferences that to share ideas within your workgroup. Also, a talk at a conference is a great way to start networking and without a contribution, networking gets even harder.

You got the advice to try more local conferences in a comment and responded

  There were some local conferences, but only the people from our (small) community presented. I mean that if you go and see only your colleagues' talks, it will not really help you in networking...

In view of the above, this sounds like a strange response. You say you don't think networking on the local level is beneficial but only international networking is helpful? That doesn't make sense. Start small, practice networking with locals and then go for more. Also "local" does not necessarily mean you workgroup or university, but could mean "within your region or country". Actually, networking within the own region and community is very important (and a bit different than international networking).

In conclusion, the conflict between you and your supervisor seems to be, that he thinks that your contributions are not good enough for the conferences you proposed and you disagree on this.

So here is a suggestion: You should get qualified external feedback on your work, probably even anonymous:

Submission to a journal. Does not seem like a good idea. The feedback will take a long time, higher chances of rejection (even with mildly positive feedback). On the positive side, the feedback can be quite detailed.
Submission to a mid prestige conference with peer review. On the positive side, there is a fixed time frame for the feedback. Depending on your field, the feedback may be very brief.
Find a double blind refereed venue (so a bad feedback would not harm your supervisor reputation). Pro and cons for conferences and journals are the same as above.

Then there was this piece:

  one of the opponents said that it could be beneficial for me to go to another (specific) lab for a couple of weeks

To go from here, contact that very person and if you can manage to get an invitation from that lab, your supervisor should be happy to let you go (if the person is not from this lab, you may ask him to introduce you to the people from that lab). Even more so, if the lab could even contribute to the costs of the visit.


If the class average is too low, do profs usually curve or adjust the grading scale?

When it comes to grading, there really is nothing that can be considered "normal." As for adjusting grades, the answer is a definite maybe. It really depends on the instructor. I do, but many of my colleagues don't, but then they give tests with much higher averages than I do.

Exam grades and difficulties can vary from course to course and from year to year within a course, let alone between departments and institutions. There will generally be an attempt to bring grades in line with "expectations" and requirements of the school. But what those expectations are can vary widely. For instance, at one university I worked for, there was nothing wrong if a third of the students or more failed; at my current institution, it would create major headaches if so many students failed.


Propose modifications to a travel arrangement to visit graduate school

It's perfectly acceptable to ask such thing, it does not make any difference to the department if you can show that the ticket price is the same or even less in your case. I suggest you try to stay longer if you can. When I was invited for an interview I was given a budget and I routed my flights the way I wanted.


What's the convention for describing the location of a quote on a page, without line numbers?

It is not common practice to mention the exact location of a cited item within an article. Citing the item itself would enough most of the times, and citing the page number should suffice.

If you are still concerned about citing the specific page, in the case where the content in the book is dense and heterogeneous, then you may cite them in the way @ff524 or @DanPeterson has suggested.

  p. n, mth paragraph
  p. n, kth line

where n is the page number, m is the paragraph number, k is the line number.


What's a good way out when research is stuck?

two possible suggestions:

let it go. Take a break, or start a new project. But not for good - come back to it after a month, two months, maybe even half a year. A fresh look on the problem might be useful.
this will (a) give your mind the time needed to consider it with no pressure, and (b) will allow you to have alternatives for the case the project is a dead end.

Try to go in the "opposite direction" to what you've done so far. I mean, if you are trying to prove something, and it just doesn't work, assume it is false and now try to prove it wrong. Maybe you'll succeed (which is already a progress), but even if not, this might give another insight to the core of the problem and how to solve it.

Deciding when a project is a "dead end" is a tough decision, and I would say that's the role of your advisor (which depends on your current status: funding, time to graduate, current publications, and of course your advisor's estimation of the probability to solve it eventually).


It depends on the discipline and which country/institution you are coming from.  In my experience, most foreign PhD students in US physics programs have master's degrees from their home countries.  Therefore I think PhD admissions committees are expecting a master's degree.

MS programs in the US are usually not selective.  Most international students choose to get the MS in their home country because it is usually much cheaper.


There are many reasons to transfer and only a few of them have any ethical complications. If you have committed to complete experiments in some elaborate scientific field and others depend on you doing that, then you need to deal with those promises. But for the most part, you are free to go and your willingness to inform people early enough that the old institution can make a smooth transition is courteous if not ethically required.

But there is little in life worse than sticking with something that isn't right for you. You only get one run around the track, of course, so make it a good one.

People change as they learn. If they didn't, there would be little point in it. Other people understand that change occurs, so I expect that there will be very little "frowning", unless you are missed. People can be expected to wish you well and, generally, be happy for your growth. You are also early enough in your studies that there should be little impact (absent situations as described in the first paragraph here).

But yes, give people early warning so that your place can be filled. I think that any move to "expel" you early would be unethical and, I hope, illegal. There are a few exceptions, of course, if your studies put you in contact with especially sensitive or dangerous information. Those situations are rare, but in such situations, early warning may be especially needed.


Is it a good idea to include participation in summer schools in my CV?

I assume you're talking about summer schools aimed at teaching graduate students or postdocs about recent developments.  At an early career stage, it's certainly worth listing participation on your CV.  If you're a beginning graduate student, then you probably don't have a lot of other things to list, and attending a summer school means something (namely that you are energetic and eager to learn, and that your application was strong enough to be accepted).  It's not a big deal, but listing it in your CV can't hurt and might help a little.

As you progress in your career, it becomes less and less relevant.  Eventually you'll probably delete it, on the grounds that when you're coming up for tenure, nobody cares at all whether you once attended a summer school for grad students.  But it doesn't really matter exactly when you delete it.  You can safely wait until you start to wonder why you are bothering to include it when you have so much more impressive things elsewhere on the CV.


Do tenured professors work less or more than non-trenured professors?

The National Center for Education Statistics in the United States surveys faculty of post-secondary institutions (see the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty page for information on methodology). The most recently available data is from their 2004 survey, with 26,110 respondents across the United States.

According to this survey, tenured faculty worked 53.3 hours a week on average, and tenure-track untenured faculty worked 53.7 hours a week:

The NCES allows you to create custom tables from this dataset using the PowerStats tool on their website. (You have to create an account to use the tool.) This is a valuable tool if you're interested in exploring these and other statistics.

For example, here's the same data broken down by rank, with the percentiles for average hours worked per week:


Invitation to visit a colleague's university, who usually provides support for this?

If you have been invited to visit, the default assumption in my realm is that the inviter will cover expenses unless they tell you up front that they don't/may not have money to fund all or any of your visit.

Usually the thing to do when you want to take an advantage of an open, informal invitation is contact the person, reminding them of your conversation, and ask about or suggest times to visit.  If their reply does not make it clear if they intend to fund your visit, just ask them.


How can I prevent students from writing answers on an assignment, then claiming I didn't see their answer?

Use placeholders

You can use

a sign or an indication that you would never use in any other circumstances (red cross, three question marks, etc.),
a short sentence ("No Answer Given", "I'm sure you knew it!", "You should have tried!"),
a sign that occupy the whole space (as suggested by Elizabeth Henning in the first place): slashes, X, Z,...

Don't try to catch the students that came back to you (supposedly) cheating, you just learned a lesson, and won't be caught again.


How are publications outside Unit of Assessment assessed for REF?

How to assess interdisciplinary research is a known issue with the REF process. There is currently a REF Interdisciplinary Research Advisory Panel working on the details of how to properly assess outputs (papers, chapters, books etc) that cross the boundaries between different units of assessment. The panel is due to report what the detailed arrangements should be "in Summer 2018", so hopefully more details will be available shortly.

What we know at this stage is that:

  Each sub-panel will have at least one appointed member to oversee and participate in the assessment of interdisciplinary research submitted in that UOA, with a specific role to ensure its equitable assessment. This role will include liaison with corresponding members on other sub-panels

A little more detail about the role of these 'interdisciplinary research advisors' can be found in a blog post on the HEFCE website from November.


How can I get academic writing samples for PhD admissions after having been away from academia?

You don't need anyone's permission to write, but you do need a subject and a milestone. Narrowing in on your subject is deeply connected to performing your literature review (see questions on LR). Reading published work will attune you to the concerns and norms that matter in your field. As you read, keep a list of open questions.

Developing writing skill takes time, so don't assume that you can rush through it. Outlines are crucial, because without them, you won't know what you are writing. Always seek feedback: peers or friends can reveal both important problems and new angles of attack.

The ultimate test of accomplishment in academic writing is publishing journal articles (see questions on publications). While you might not need this achievement in hand to enter that PhD program, insofar as publishing is a main goal of academic endeavor, you can expect to work on it later on. Therefore, your proximate goal could be to produce writing similar in tone, finish, and advancement to what you see in your field's main journals.


What are the chances of being rejected in situation when applying for post. doc. without PhD supervisor's reference with valid reason?

One of the largest fears of the people judging your applications is that they will be falsely accused for some "serious misconduct". And now you want to apply to them, accusing your ex-prof with a "serious misconduct" in your application.

You are harming yourself and not him.

If you decided to not start anything against him, you abstained your right to intervene. Accusing a prof with some serious is a really hard thing, best if you are far, far away from anything even similar to that.

If you didn't do anything at the time he committed the misconduct, and if you "defame" him later, retroactively, it looks very bad for you.

Even if you have documents and proof. The first question what would you hear: "And why didn't you do anything at the time?"

Despite that you had the obvious reason to not do anything at the time.

Furthermore, the people judging your applications probably won't know what he did. The strength of your application should be the possible strongest in their eyes, and not in yours. Missing his recommendation letter may be understable - for you -, but it will look very differently for them.

They will simply think that you don't have a recommendation letter because you are bad. And anything what you say about the case, will most likely further decrease your estimated value in their eyes.

Logic would dictate, the best would be in your case if you could somehow utilize the power of your proofs to let him to help you on your academic career. However, any possibility I can think for that, would be far more risky for you, as for him.

I am sorry to say, but I suggest to play this: "everything were happy, look what a wonderful LoR I've got". This maximizes your chances in the future.


How to know the full name of paper authors?

First go to the original journal web page for the paper in question. That might have more information. It may have their full names, links to other papers by them, and will almost always have their affiliation at the time of submission of the paper.

You can also search the usual literature databases for other papers in the same field by the same author: other journals may have the author' full names; furthermore, more recent papers will have their most recent affiliation.

Once you've got their most recent affiliation, you can then search that institution's website for the authors' home pages.

In this particular case, the paper is listed here. By clicking on the author names, I find that Hama Masaki is one of the names you are after: by using the distinctive "Pisot" from the paper title, I can narrow down to an individual. A bit of searching for the full name and Pisot gets me what I think is a different form of the same name: 浜, 正樹 ; searching for that with Pisot gets me what looks like the author's home page. This should be enough to enable you to contact that author.

And for goodness sake, don't go directly citing a paper that you haven't read. I'm grateful to Peteris for the comment on the original question that deserves higher profile than a comment: indirect citations are one of the ways in which myths are born and are spread: see this excellent read on "Academic urban legends" from Ole Bjørn Rekdal. (full text here)


I think the easiest way to handle this is to allow anyone to take the exam again. However, the caveat is that the retake replaces the previous grade, whether or not it's a better grade. A student who got a very high grade (such as 95%) on the first exam is unlikely to retake an exam to gain five points, when there's every chance the grade could go down by taking the exam a second time.

What one other professor did in a similar situation was to make us choose between keeping the grade on the exam or taking the repeat exam before we saw the grade on the first exam. That is, you could either get your exam back and take that grade, or leave it sight unseen and take the second exam.


Citing in a research paper when the citation is based on an published interview

Citing an interview is pretty standard, though every citation style will format it a little differently.  For example, here is how it is done in MLA style.  A little Googling will find it for any other style that you may happen to be using.


Found a mistake in advisor's paper - what should I do?

First, I'd double-check your work. Are you certain this is a mistake? Is there something you're missing? Do the best you can to understand what's going on.
Second, I would definitely raise this with your supervisor, but do so from a perspective of questioning and seeking clarification. Rather than appearing in judicial robes with the paper in hand and declaring it flawed by the laws of humankind and the universe, approach it as a question: There's a step in the paper that you don't understand. You think the step should say "XYZ", but the paper says "XZY". You're not sure if you're making a mistake or if there is an error in the paper.
There's nothing disrespectful about this humble approach, and you get a double benefit that if it turns out you are the one that is wrong then you have no face to save, and hopefully learn something along the way.
Mistakes happen, and they don't indicate the person making the mistake is dishonest or flawed in some fundamental way. Next steps to take after this will depend on how crucial the flaw is and what other work it might impact. If you take these steps and there are still some negative impacts on your working relationship, well... probably that person wasn't worth working with anyways, and some rift was going to develop sooner or later anyways. It would not be your fault.


How to explain not listing my PhD supervisor as a reference?

Whatever you say, do not lie. They might contact him and if it turns out that you lie about the reason not to mention him as ref, you are probably out. So instead say the actual reason, without speculations and accusations.

One way to go could be:

  We had disagreements on a few points recently when writing up my thesis and haven't talked it out yet


In American universities, do teaching assistants and adjuncts get paid for holding office hours?

Your university should have a written policy, something like this. They may also have a published TA pay scale, something like this. Hopefully these kinds of resources can provide an answer to your question, however it is not uncommon that such positions (and their responsibilities/pay) are worked out between the TA and the course master on a per-course basis. If this is the case then you'll need to talk to the person who hired you.

My experience is that TA positions are usually a salaried position, and that specific course responsibilities are worked out between the TA and the course master. In a salaried position you don't get paid by how many hours you work. Office hours are considered a normal of part a TA's responsibilities, and if you're salaried then you don't get paid per hour. (This is a good thing- if I got paid only when students showed up I'd earn no money for two weeks and then work 24 hours straight before deadlines.)

The term "contact hours" will have a specific definition at your university, but where I've seen it used before it only applies to teaching in a scheduled group setting, not for office hours. Doing a scheduled recitation section for six students counts as a contact hour, but having a busy afternoon in office hours with six students in your office does not. For me, contact hours are scheduled lectures and recitations, not office hours.

If you feel like you are overworked or underpaid, there are a few suggestions:

Set an office hours schedule and don't feel bad about enforcing it. Most universities, if they have a policy, expect around 4-6 hours of office hours per week. Schedule them, make them known to students, and then don't feel bad about kicking people out when they're over.
If you feel like TA'ing is taking up too much of your time, go talk to the course master. If you have documented that there are too many students for you to handle individually, it is often possible to get funding approved for another TA.
If you feel like you're not being paid enough for your time, you're probably right. Welcome to the club... you'll graduate someday.


What is the rationale behind requiring a meeting before filing academic misconduct charges?

I believe that the main impetus for a meeting with the student is to inform them directly that they are being charged with academic misconduct, and to know that they are consciously aware of such charges, so that they cannot claim "no one told me." In general, until recently, at my school, the process dragged on and on because the students need to sign a form indicating their willingness to accept or refuse the sanctions.

However, in recent years, this process has become more digital, and, for instance, at my university, the school no longer requires a face-to-face meeting. The forms are filed and processed electronically, and notification of the intent to file charges can be provided to the student via the campus email system.


Can you cite other master's theses when writing your own?

In general, there is no such widespread requirement or expectation anywhere in academia. (Perhaps a particularly unusual advisor might have such an expectation, but even then, I doubt it.)

If you note the citations of research papers, a decent number of them will cite master's theses—some of my papers certainly do! And if I can submit a paper to a major journal that cites a master's thesis, why wouldn't another student's master's thesis?


Will Leaving a tenure track position after one year for a postdoctoral position at a better location hurt my future academic career?

Not necessarily. BUT, is it worth the risk?
Whether a post doc now will help or hurt depends on many things, such as, even, why you are leaving a TT position now and what your trajectory is. A perfect in every way post doc might help, but I'd think that anything less is leaving you on a treadmill without a sure path to progress. And you don't describe this offer as perfect. And, the "very nice city" aspect doesn't contribute to your career and is temporary in any case.
The goal is to get a permanent faculty position. You have an offer of a TT position which puts you closer to the goal. If it is in a place where you would be happy starting your career then take the TT offer.


When should I ask questions about a paper?

I think a good general rule of thumb, when you don't know the authors in question, is when you've convinced yourself you can understand some piece of the paper (or resolve an apparent contradiction) with your current resources.  Once this is the case, try to craft a simple, brief and direct email which addresses the primary issue(s). Then sleep on it before sending it, as often things will be more clear the next day.

In your particular case, it seems reasonable to ask about details of the algorithm, but I would not ask about your implementation.  However, they may be willing to share their code with you if it is non-proprietary and not a complete mess (like most of my code!), which you can then use to understand the details of their algorithm and check your implementation.  (Have you already checked their websites to see if they made the code available?)


Specialize, focus and diversify your research agenda solely on 2-3 open questions/problems the next years. There is not really another path. Especially in fundamental sciences it's hard to plan an academic career, so you have to take risks, therefore diversify them. And this is also encouraged by the academic system to achieve results beyond the state of the art and knowledge. With many publications you might get a staff position, but to get tenure as a professor you need to become one of the few experts in your field for a distinct method or sub-topic. But don't understand this as a 2nd PhD, it's now your duty to acquire funding, PhD students and build a scientific network around you. You need to acquire people now that work with or for you. You showed with your PhD that you can work alone on a scientific question, for tenure you need show that you can set up aresearch agenda for younger scientists and bigger projects with several partners and that you are able to manage successfully and financially projects aparat from teaching duties. You also have to show autonomy, staying with your supervisor your whole post-doc time is disadvantegous.


Getting LOR from mentor at an open source organisation

Full disclosure: I am not a faculty member.

To answer your first question - does it matter if you've never met your mentor in person? - the answer is: probably not, so long as you've worked together long enough or closely enough where they can still write a strong letter. It's unusual, perhaps, but so long as the letter itself is strong, I can't imagine there being an issue.

As for the second question - how much importance does the admission committee give to recommenders from open-source organization? - the answer is likely: no more than they'd give to any other recommender. Granted, if you're applying to a computer science program and have a recommendation from Richard Stallman, it probably looks better than a random developer on the internet.

But that gets to a much more important consideration: what qualifications does your mentor have? Admissions committees (to my knowledge) give more weight to recommendations from highly-qualified sources, such as another faculty member or an experienced professional. If your mentor is just a random developer on the internet working on an unknown project, there letter may not be considered as important as a letter from a faculty member who, while perhaps relatively unknown, at least has some publications.


Taking a job whilst waiting on PhD application decisions?

It might depend on the place where you live, so this answer might not be helpful but it is worth a try.

Here (SE EU) PhD program lasts 3 years. It is for people who spend full time doing their PhD,usually working at the same time on project financed by the faculty or help their faculty in the role of professor's assistant. They get regular salary and are employees of faculty where they attend PhD program. There is, however, PhD program, that lasts 5 years, which is for the people who work full time elsewhere, for instance in industry.

Go to the school where you applied for PhD program and ask if they have program for people who work full time outside academia.

Also,talk to the company that wants to hire you,tell them about your academic aspirations. I did the same thing. They offered me to cover the cost of PhD, and in return i have to work for the company for x years. I'm full time employee,do my 40-50 h a week, and at the same time, i do my PhD ( this variant has classes in the evenings etc).

If you can't have both, be honest with the company. Tell them that you submitted  papers for fall 2016 and that getting PhD is your priority. If they still want to hire you,great. If not, too bad, but you were honest. You don't want to burn bridges in the industry.

Hope it helps and best of luck


Is It Possible to Reliably Find Editorial Board for the Conference Proceedings?

The "editors" for a conference, such as they exist, would typically be the program chairs (if that position exists), or the general chairs (if it does not).  This should be listed on the conference web site or the front matter of its proceedings.


Is it logistically possible to work on two PhD research projects at the same time?

Well, anything is possible that isn't impossible. But the obstacles would make it extremely unlikely if they are quite different fields. It would also probably result in work that is less than superior, which the same sort of person might achieve had they focused on one field (at a time). Some obstacles:

A single university would have a hard time accepting it, so you need to deal with that. Two different universities permitting you to pursue degrees simultaneously? Maybe you need to hide each from the other. This could lead to problems if either becomes aware.

A given advisor would be likely to oppose it, thinking that the person isn't giving enough to studies in that field. Do you need, again, to hide what you are doing?

You may need to pay for at least one of the programs as getting TAs or whatever in two fields is both hard and would require too much time in itself. (Varies by country, of course)

You need to do what ever coursework is necessary in both programs to be able to pass two very different sets of comprehensive exams (many/most places).

You need, of course, to do the required research in some narrow area in two non-synergistically aligned fields.

And, if your "friend" just wants to do it as a challenge, sure, why not. Spend six or seven years (more?) chasing a crazy goal just for the hell of it. And possibly fail at both. Seven years older, deeper in debt.

Now, having succeeded, you need to find a job, probably abandoning everything you did in one of the fields. This last is what actually makes it sort of foolish. It would be a difficult (impossible?) quest to get multiple appointments in a single university and many universities wouldn't permit you to hold a regular appointment at another.

Some people do get multiple terminal degrees, though usually more closely aligned. Some people find themselves dissatisfied in the field they first qualify in and move to something else. But even these cases are pretty rare.

Fun as a thought experiment, though.


Can one really 'lose' old bad grades and get a fresh start?

That's not necessarily the impediment you may think.  The institution where I taught would not accept nor transfer credit over ten years old.  Pick one or two colleges you might attend, visit their admissions offices, and ask.  There's a good chance you can start fresh.

There are two things to keep in mind.  Your transcript from your old institution will still be there, and you will be asked for it when you apply for any degree program.  It may lessen your chances of admission, but probably not because fifteen years is a long time.

The other is that you should be honest about your education history on your resume.  Once again, fifteen years is a long time.  Do well now and no employer will even consider that ancient history.

Go for it!


Include figures from publications in thesis (Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0)

It would depend a bit on the specific form of "open access" which doesn't have a clear meaning, but is a set of principles and practices. The license on such shared work can be no more restrictive than the original. That is probably the case, but it would be worth checking the specifics. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access


Can an acknowledgement section of a thesis contain names of music bands?

The only two unwritten rules of thesis acknowledgment sections are as follows:

Thank your advisor. (Preferably first. Yes, even before God if you're religious.)
Don't say anything outright offensive.

Other than that, go nuts!


Cfr is the abbreviation of the Latin imperative confer, which means compare with.
The common English abbreviation is cf.

Your citation can be found in this document, which is written by a Spanish group. A search of the Oxford Spanish Dictionary yields:

  cf.

  1 Abreviatura del imperativo latino confer, 'compara' o 'consulta',
  que se utiliza en escritos para remitir a un párrafo o libro que
  contiene información relacionada con el tema tratado.

  Usage

  También se abrevia cfr

The last sentence tells you that in Spanish cf is sometimes abbreviated as cfr.


Alphabetical authorship order in graduate admissions (particularly high energy physics)

I can't speak to how every department does it, but in my department (and I think typically) your application would be read mostly by people working in a similar field who are aware of the conventions. You could always add a note to the CV pointing out the alphabetical author convention if you're concerned about it.