Is using an answer I posted online on Math.SE considered plagiarism?

I'd like to know if using my current answer would be an academic offense.

It's impossible to determine this without more information about your university and course policies.  If you're honest about what happened, then I doubt you could get in a lot of trouble for this, but of course I don't know the policies and potential consequences in your case.  At my university different courses can have different policies on collaboration (regarding what's allowed and what sort of acknowledgment must be given), but they should be explained at the beginning of the semester.

If I were teaching the course, it wouldn't bother me that you got advice on this problem, since it looks like you did most of the work yourself and learned something from the feedback you received.  However, I would be unhappy that you posted the homework problem and a complete solution online, thereby making it easy for other students in the class to copy your solution if they know about math.SE.  If the grader detects several solutions with nearly the same wording as the one you submit, then you may all be accused of cheating.

If you can't find a clear statement of the relevant policies on your course or department website, then I strongly recommend asking your instructor how to handle this.  In theory that could end badly, but I don't expect it to.  Bringing it up yourself is almost certainly better than letting the instructor discover it, and it would mean you could stop worrying.


Is it common to contractually require that a professor works with other faculty members in their department?

You should learn from other faculty about their teaching methods.  In most cases, you should follow their advice.  Consider it an experiment.  If there is unambiguous evidence their advice is not effective, don't follow it.
Your alternative is to decline the contract.  If you are unwilling to try new teaching methods, I recommend taking that alternative.


A complete survey of the topic XXX is beyond the scope of this paper
  (see [1,2,3] for an overview).


How can a student improve his attentiveness during lectures?

In general, if you aren't "pumped up" about major classes and not fully engaged with the lecture, you're probably in the wrong major, however, with some research, you can see that the average attention span of an adult is around 20 minutes, so your situation is totally normal.

I've struggled with ADD my whole life, so learning how to zone in while I'm zoned out was a full time job for me. I've gotten to the point where I'm pro at being attentive during lectures, here's what I've learned:

Lectures are much more interesting when you apply a purpose for them. For me I'm a computer science major, so what I did was compiled a "reference bible" of useful things that I could use in the future. Another thing I did was continuously develop a game. I tried to incorporate everything I learned into the game, it was pretty much a challenge, so that made programming lectures much more fun.
Invest in a smart pen. I swear I will never live without one of those things ever again. It kind of forces you pay attention to the lecture so that you can mark important topics down to make it easier to reference. Be carful though, it's easy to get lazy while using it, but just keep in mind that having to listen to a lecture twice isn't fun nor is it a good use of time.
Force yourself to ask questions. I ask at least 5 questions per hour before the end of a lecture, which for me is a question every 12 minute; well below the average attention span.
After you do homework, look up the next chapter online. Use everything at your disposal: YouTube tutorials, blogs, research documents, forums, etc. Not only will you be prepared for the next lecture, you'll already know what you're having trouble understanding which is huge, especially for #3. If you're book is outdated and you find new information on a topic, use that to challenge the professor's lecture. Not only will that keep you engaged, it will make you look like you actually care about what they are teaching (hopefully you actually do!) and that you are taking the initiative to activly learn more than just what they are lecturing about; nobody likes a yes-man!

Overall, just getting rid of distractions never did it for me, so the way I bought of it is "solve the root of the problem, not the effects," because technology is a great thing to have when used correctly, so give yourself a reason to pay attention. Hopefully this helps!


Why should I format a citation manually without bibliographic software?

All bibliographic software has a learning curve.  You have to invest time and energy up front to learn the system and set up your database, and only reap the benefits later in the decreased amortized cost of maintaining correct citations.

If somebody doesn't think the tradeoff will be worth it (e.g., thinks they "aren't good with computers" or doesn't think they'll write many papers that the software would be useful for or is in a rush and isn't thinking about the long term), then they may manage a bibliography by hand.

For example, I'm a devout LaTeX/BibTeX user and would never consider doing something by hand---except that I have done so on a few occasions when forced to use an incompatible format where it wasn't worth setting up a new toolchain (e.g., putting a few citations at the end of a PowerPoint deck).


Is pasting an excerpt from Wikipedia in a paper without reference plagiarism?

Copyright for a written work expires some years after the author's death; the length of time under copyright law varies from country to country. Wikipedia and other sites use a variety of licencing models which allow the material to be copied and the conditions that apply to the use of the material.

But regardless of whether something is still copyrighted or not, open source or not, freely available or not, if it is quoted, cited, copied or otherwise repeated in a text, if the source is not cited then yes, it is plagiarism.

When something passes into "common knowledge" then it can be written without having to find a quotable source. But there are also specific situations where something that might normally be considered "common knowledge" needs to be referenced to a source, such as student work where values, definitions, etc., are expected to be researched for accuracy and should also therefore include a reference.

There may also be the case where the value/definition is used in a way that is outside the norm, e.g. a definition that is unusual in the mainstream but is used in a specific way for a specific context, or a value that is based on some work that extends the precision beyond what is considered to be the norm.

The criteria remains, that if someone else wrote it and you copy it then not crediting the original author/source is plagiarism - academic theft.


At least in Germany, doctoral candidates are either employed as Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter (research assistants) or given stipends as "doctoral fellows."

However, regardless of how they are paid for their efforts, they must "enroll" as doctoral candidates with one of the faculties if they are to receive a degree. So, to a certain extent, they are treated like students as well, and have many of the same privileges (for instance, they are entitled to the same student benefits when they register).

So, to a certain extent, they are both; however, their employment contract, rather than student regulations, tends to be the "controlling factor" in their treatment.


Google finds thesis, but not indexed google scholar

There is no guarantee: all the Google-Scholar's algorithms are pretty much machine-learning and heuristics.

Still, if your thesis' format is similar to what the other colleagues submitted, the chances are high it would be treated similarly.  Just wait a bit, as @nengel said.

If your thesis itself were very similar, it would be plagiarism: in this case, Google scholar would be right on not indexing your work (regardless of the algorithmic process that led to non-indexing).


How many grants it is possible to have simultaneously?

At my institution, most researchers have more than one grant.  It is extremely common over a wide range of disciplines, at least in the USA.

Often, one is required to include the "level of effort" in each grant proposal; i.e., the percentage of one's time that will be spent on that project.  That number is never 100%; more often, it may be 10-50%.

In many fields, the "principal investigator" on the grant may do only a small part of the actual research, with the bulk being done by students and post-docs.  This part is very field-dependent.  In some fields, full professors at top universities are expected to have very many grants simultaneously, or at least some very large grants that involve a lot more than the full time of a single person.


Open positions in journal editorial boards are frequently not advertised (though that happens). Instead, when a vacancy appears, the chief editor will typically look for people with the required expertise and ask them whether they would be willing to serve.

Often, editors will have different specialties. So an editor who is stepping down would need to be replaced in his specific area of expertise. Given that he is an expert and should have a good overview of his specific field, he will most likely be asked to suggest possible replacements.

Chief editors will usually be "elevated" from among the non-chief editors, since these already know the journal and its specifics.

So, how to go about to be invited as an editor? Two things:

Build a reputation as an expert in a specific field. Submit good quality papers to the journal you are most interested in (and others), go to conferences etc.
Build a reputation as dependable and articulate. Hand in reviews promptly, and write good reviews. Editors remember people who write good reviews.

Of course, this is not a guarantee of being asked for an editorship.


Whether to ask journal editor to review two papers simultaneously because the papers are mutually dependent on each other?

Honestly, it sounds a little like you were trying to Salami-slice your papers, and the reviews are showing this. If the design is not interesting / understandable / plausible without knowing the analysis, and the analysis is not understandable without the design, then the solution should be that you make this one larger, better paper, and not that you somehow make the reviewers aware of the other publication. One of the fundamental rules of scientific papers is that they are supposed to be self-contained - every paper should, by itself, be understandable and add something to the state of the art.

If the journal you are submitting to requires papers that are too short, you can always go for a journal with higher page limits.


How to deal with students who didn't attend the exams?

I will talk from my own experience:

Being absent in the first class, is by no means a good excuse, back in my student days (before ubiquitous email information and professor's webpages) if you missed the first class, you would at least ask the sensible question of when the hell the midterm exam is.
As a student, their prime responsibility is to, well.. study! And while I understand that some of them would have conflicting issues if they have to work (which are usually solved if you have a nice enough boss), other scheduling issues like an appointment with the dentist (that can be done any other day) are also not a valid excuse.
Being a teacher of a 50+ student class, has a high likelihood that at least one of them may be sick the day of the exam, in those cases (hell, I've had teachers that were sick on the mid term's day), I agree that there should be some kind of Doctor's certificate around.

If you think the absence is somewhat justified, you can always make them retake the exam.

In my school, most teachers would make the student do this over finals.


What to do if a student claims to have turned in the homework but I could not find it?

Since you have no way to show that the student didn't submit the homework, it's simply your word against the word of the student.  Furthermore, there were lots of homework assignments from various students, so it would presumably be easier for you to forget receiving the homework than it would be for the student to mistakenly remember submitting the homework.

If an unbiased third party considered this and assumed honesty from both sides, I think that they would conclude that it was more likely that you had lost/forgotten the paper than that the student had remembered submitting a paper when she, in fact, had not done so.

If this happened with a student taking a class from a TA or faculty member under my supervision, I'd tell the TA or faculty member to "excuse the grade" and adopt a system for homework submission (e.g. use a learning management system) that provides independent confirmation that the homework was submitted.


Choosing between a Post-Doc and a faculty position at "2nd-tier" institution

This depends on a number of personal factors. Here are some questions that I'd be asking in your situation:

How happy would you be with a career at the Tier 2 institute? Is this what you were aiming for, more or less, when you started your PhD? If so, then consider taking the job.
If you do a postdoc, how likely would you be to get a "better" academic job afterwards? And how much "better?" I wouldn't focus on the distinction between Tier 1 and Tier 2 so much; the characteristics of universities will differ greatly within each "tier". Here I'd ask the opinion of some senior scientists -- whoever wrote your recommendation letters, for example.
If you do a postdoc and don't get any academic job at all, how would you feel about this? If, for example, you would also enjoy an industry job, and those are widely available in your field, then you could consider taking on more risk.
Are there any personal factors at play? Are you eager to "settle down"? Do you have any responsibilities that require financial stability? Is the Tier 2 institute in a city where you'd enjoy living? If you do a postdoc, do you mind the prospect of moving again in a few years?

None of us on this website can answer any of these questions, but I suggest them as good questions to ask yourself. Best wishes to you!


how to avoid to being blamed of self-plagiarism in this case?

There are two issues here. One is self plagiarism as the term is commonly used and there is what a University will accept for any course or degree work. The latter can be stricter than the usual rules because the goals are more nuanced, involving the student's education, not just the validity of the work.

I doubt that this can be considered self plagiarism, provided that what was submitted to both places is the same. Keep in mind that the purpose of self plagiarism is that a reader needs to be able to see the entire context of a work in order to judge it and to extend it. If people just copy without citation from their own work it breaks the chain of reference that scholars require. But publishing the same work in different venues doesn't do that. Each work is complete. And when copying does occur, citation avoids any claim of self plagiarism, since the thread of context is maintained.

But, given that, the student may still not be meeting university requirements, in particular if there is a rule that submitted work not be previously published. If this is the real nature of the problem, then you need to find a local solution, since we can't advise on rules we haven't seen and have no ability to enforce or not.

Multiple publication of the same work might run afoul of copyright rules, but I don't see a hint of that in this case. And multiple publication does occur as when old papers are put into collections. This can be valid or not. But it isn't plagiarism or self plagiarism.


Method X has been adopted from [Y], modified, and used in this paper

I don't see why not. This is acceptable. In fact that is the most common form of citations you tend to see in papers that make an improvement over an existing method.

Just make sure you know ample knowledge of what you cite in this case as you are to make a modification to what is published. It would be best to know well about what X really is before you try to modify it.


I tried to produce the result and failed.

As I see it, the issue here is that you were expecting the result to be some solution to the problem. Unfortunately, research tends to fail to produce results we expect quite often.

First, there is probably some result. Whether it is publishable is debatable, but I would consider the advance of the research skill a very positive result. As with all skills, it takes practice and you shouldn't expect to get it right (i.e. groundbreaking publishable results) the first (few) time(s).

Second, if you were stuck for a year without adjustment, that is a problem, not with research per se, but probably with a combination of supervision and communication. You need to set smaller milestones and adjust the course of your work accordingly. In order to do that, you must communicate with your adviser about the problems you are facing. His experience and knowledge should be able to nudge you in the right direction. However, do keep in mind that this is research, and a vital part of it is getting moving again after you've been stuck by yourself. Your adviser may help you, but can't and shouldn't do your work for you.


At what stage of computer science PhD should you start looking for post-doc?

Around your last year.

So much of this comes from networking though, so it is important to be meeting people at conferences long before you are about to graduate.

In the US, many postdoc positions are filled quite late (often after faculty offers have gone out, so mid to late Spring, maybe even early Summer) but you should start talking to potential postdoc advisors maybe a year before your graduation to put a bug in their ear.


What to do on a desk reject of a revised paper?

Something out of the ordinary clearly happened. It's not professional to reject a paper as being out of scope after it's been revised. My speculative guess is that the editor-in-chief is not very active, and the assistant editor was trying to keep things moving on her own initiative. The letters you received might well be automated emails with automated signatures by the editor-in-chief, i.e. the EiC didn't actually handle your manuscript. However this is pure speculation, and can be completely wrong.

Suggestions on what to do now: if you received a personalized letter from the editor-in-chief saying your paper is out of scope, don't bother appealing the decision and submit it elsewhere. Otherwise, you can write back to the journal to check if there was a mistake, pointing out that one of the reviewers did, after all, say your paper was within scope + useful to the field. I would not be very hopeful, but it's an option.


In essence, you should try to get a basic grasp what doing research is all about, first. And second, you should try to get a basic grasp about the who and what is important in your area of interest.

Now, these are broad topics and something you can't expect to learn like a lesson, it is more a journey that will ease some important details - of the kind that no one will (or can) tell you about and are nowhere to be found written out - that time spent in academia will bring along.

For the first part, follow some academic blogs, professors and other academics write a lot about the everyday experiences of their research programs. Even if their field is not your own, try to read between the lines and draw yourself a bigger picture. Although the day of a researcher differs by the field they are active in, you will find many common traits. Getting the experience of other people about paper writing, research methodology, thesis committees, and similar topics was of tremendous help to me, before I started with my graduate studies.

The second part includes narrowing in to you specific area of interest. Use your time to find currently hot research that is done. Identify the people who do it and visit their websites to check out their work. Try reading the published work, don't mind if you don't get all of it. Focus on the problem at hand and the proposed solution. Even if you only understand the abstract, introduction and conclusion it is enough for starters. Also, pay attention to the group of people at the institution where you will be doing your MSc. What are the topics of their research? Do they have labs / what projects are they working on? What classes are they teaching? Is some professor/topic/project of particular interest to you?

Finally, I wouldn't recommend burdening yourself with an over extensive amount of prep-work for classes or thesis. Of course, feel free to explore, experiment, etc. but the majority of this will come naturally once you have an adviser, classes, a group, and so on. If you find that a skill is demand in your field, try allocating time for getting the basics of it (e.g. if you never have written anything in Latex, try it out).

As you see, my recommendations are primarily focused on getting to know the world you are getting into. This proved far more important to me than preparation for the coursework and thesis. Also, it helps you solidify you interests in research and puts you in some (real) perspective what you can expect from graduate studies.


Enquiring about postdoc opportunities: should I contact professor directly or via recommendation/networking?

I think that the professor contacting their colleague about how wonderful you are is far superior to you cold emailing. The recipient doesn't know you and you have no reputation with them, so it is easy to just ignore any email unless they are actively seeking people.
It is especially effective if the two professors know one another already. This is one reason that I recommend every young scholar to spend some effort on expanding their circle of contacts and collaborators.
A colleague won't be ignored, but you might be.


What to tell professors to persuade them to let a pre-college student work with them

You might want to try aiming a bit lower, such as those schools that don't have graduate programs.

At these types of places, where it is difficult for professors to even get any students (let alone the top undergraduates) involved in their research program, some professors may actually want to bring on board a high school / junior high student, if for no other reason than to impress some administrative type (dean, department head, etc.) that this particular professor is engaging in some form of outreach (you know, to help spread the word about the program to get students excited about going to school there).

Just send an email to someone involved in the area you are interested in, attach a CV *, and briefly explain your aims. If the school is close by to you, you could also arrange an in-person visit. For the in-person visit route, if you are indeed interested in attending the school for your undergraduate degree, I suggest you indicate this fact when you attempt to setup the meeting.

Good luck.

* In your CV, you can briefly summarize your self-study progress and plans, your research interests, any projects you've undertaken on your own, and the like, if you don't have any formal educational training in the research area of interest, any papers published, etc.


Can I implement and share implementations of papers

Yes, you can implement them. Technically, you can attach any license you like, as long as it passes legal muster. In practice you'll find it very difficult to enforce a "you must cite this" license, but you can try.


Why do some universities require use of approved suppliers?

Some universities can get a better deal from a supplier by promising them to buy exclusively, or to buy sufficiently much from them
It is easier for the accounting department to deal with the same provider, since they can re-use the same documents.
Dealing with a new provider has a certain degree of risk, including the quality of products, the timeliness of delivery, etc. If you deal with the same provider, you acquire enough information to feel yourself in control.


I wasted six years of my life getting a PhD degree. What should I do, and how will I survive?

It looks to me like you did not do so badly as you think. Two publications and 3.7 GPA are not so bad. It might depend on the field, it might not be the best ever, but I have seen much worse. If your supervisor offered you a postdoc position after having you for 6 years as a PhD student, it means that they consider your work useful.

You might be suffering from impostor syndrome. Do read the question and the answers in that link and see if you identify.

If you are not sure now, you have plenty of time during your postdoc year to decide whether you want to continue in academia or get a job in industry. The pros and cons of both options have been discussed extensively, as a quick Google search for "industry vs academia" shows. I personally agree with this source.

And, in most cases, the answer to "I have wasted X years of my life because I did not do Y and Z" is "do not look at the past and do Y and Z now". Especially when, as  in your case, Y and Z can be done at any stage in your career life, such as learning languages, programming or driving.


What stops a university from doing whatever they want when an academic misconduct allegation arises?

What's to stop him?  His ethical considerations, and the paper trail that was created.

If you prove you had permission, what's to stop the university from doing whatever they want?

Your university will have policies in place, and procedures for filing internal complaints.  Your energetic self-defense, using your paper trail and university policies and procedures, would be what would stop the university from doing whatever they want.

You might also be able to file a complaint with your state education department.

I don't know anything about lawsuits, except that they can take a long time.  Perhaps it would help to post at Law SE.


Who to ask whether my math logic research results are novel?

The best way of finding out if your ideas are novel is to do a literature search.

A good place to start would be arxiv.org, which is a well-known pre-print repository (i.e. place where papers get uploaded before they are published) that has plenty of mathematical papers.

See what research has been done in the same area as you and you will get an idea of whether or not your research is novel, as well as the standard your work needs to reach if you intend to publish it in the future.


How to find the acceptance rate for a certain conferrence in a certain field?

The only way to know is to ask them, i.e., find the contact of one of the editors, and politely ask him/her what was the acceptance rate for that particular year.

There are multiple lists available on the internet:

http://haofengjia.weebly.com/computer-science.html
http://www.lamsade.dauphine.fr/~sikora/ratio/confs.php
http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~almeroth/conf/stats/
http://kodu.ut.ee/~dumas/LiquidPub/ConfStats/
https://lipn.univ-paris13.fr/~andre/conferences.php
http://web.engr.illinois.edu/~taoxie/seconferences.htm

as well as the links they provide.

But they are as reliable as your trust in their authors: there is no guarantee whatsoever, in most of the cases, that their sources is trustworthy, and they are very scattered most of the time.

Related questions:

Conference ranking in computer science
Is there any world-wide ranking of conferences/journals?


How important is the prestige of recommendation letter writers?

I am assuming the two choices are at the same institution. If they are not, choose the higher-ranked institution (if there is a clear winner), because moving forward, name DOES matter).  That said:
You have two currently incompatible, yet not mutually-exclusive motivations:
a) work with someone who is well known in the field
b) work with someone who has closely aligned research interests

and, you are concerned about the letter of recommendation, to come later.

the correct choice is B.  You should work with the faculty member whose research interests closely match yours.  Any other decision is to enter into a failing marriage.  It is important that you can be excited about what you are doing, and your excitement will in turn excite your mentor, which will pay dividends.

THAT SAID, names do matter.  If the faculty that matches your interests is junior, you will have to plan ahead to ensure that in addition to his/her glowing recommendation, you also get a letter from the more senior colleague. This isn't impossible, or even difficult.  If you are starting grad school, just be open and honest about it.  Engage him/her. Go to their lab meetings. Later, when you do your prelim or comp exams, you can invite that person to be on your committee.  You'll get both of best worlds: an advisor that shares your passion and a letter from a big wig.

You have to love what you're doing.


If I'm key personnel on an NIH grant . . . can I put that on my CV?

I think I've found what I'm looking for, but I'm still interested in other answers/feedback.

I think a new section in my CV that looks like this would be appropriate:

  Grants

  National Institutes of Health, AXZ-1394 (2018-2021)

  "Awesome Grant Title"

  Role:   Key Personnel


Should I do research into the topic prior to being officially accepted as an RA?

The professor got the project approved and described it to me. She told me to think about it and to get back to her. She had mentioned some things I would need to familiarize myself with before I begin.  I want to do the project. Should I begin learning all of the concepts she mentioned / doing research into the topic before getting back to her?

(1) Let her know right away that you want to do the project.  (2) Start learning some of the concepts she mentioned.  You do not need to work on this full time at this point.  Don't take time away from your other obligations, but do make a start.


Is there anywhere to complain about the behaviors of editors of journals except themselves?

It's probably just supply and demand.  Your paper isn't good enough to make it into the regular editions, but he is going to lower the bar a bit to fill out the special issue.

I have seen this.  It's not nefarious.  In a way the regular/special difference is like the difference of journals with different importance, exclusivity.

In terms of what you should do:  I would lean to moving on to another journal.  And upgrade the paper based on the reviews.  Now, if the editor could tell you the paper was good to go (for the special), that is different.  But it sounds like this is not the case or else he would have just told you that at the time.  Being invited to enter another uncertain outcome of his would not interest me.  Yeah, you will have new competition at new journal, but at least you are moving on.  How I would prefer it.


Has the reaserch on the back cover of journal been benefitial for you or your group?

Well I believe no one can prove the answer is strictly yes or no. It depends on the Journal, the topic we are working on and the amount of people who are getting these copies (and who are these people). But I believe in some fields (e.g. industrial applications) it may attract attention.

  Is there any scientific evidence ( publication ) that back cover brings more readers and attention to your work?

Yes there are studies on this topic. Check this one (Though, it proves the opposite): Does A Paper Being Featured on The Cover of A Journal Guarantee More Attention and Greater Impact?

On the other hand Wiley believes:

  One of the best ways to showcase your work is with an eye-catching journal issue cover. After your article is accepted for publication, you can submit your idea for a cover image. Your suggestion may be featured in your article’s journal issue.

All in all, why not to try it once and see the results!


What is the best policy to deal with students using their cellphones
  inside the class?

In my opinion: Just ignore them. As long as they are not disturbing the class I don't see a point in doing anything.

There are many different reasons for using a mobile phone during class, maybe they have to check something you said in the course material, maybe they just want to check their time or maybe their learning speed is faster than your teaching speed.

What you are trying to fight here seem to be two things:

The students are distracted by their phones.
The students are distracting someone else by talking to them.

The first thing is, in my opinion, not your problem. They are old enough to decide for themselves if they want to pay attention or not. You are providing them with the opportunity to learn something and if they take advantage of it is up to them.

The second point is (again, only my opinion) a valid point. However, I think you have the wrong approach here. You can't possibly know if banning mobile phones achieves that goal. The reason for using mobile phones is, most of the time, boredom (for whatever reason) and if not allowed to distract them with their phone they might try to distract them by talking with their neighbor. Therefore, a ban of mobile phones might be the cause for more side chats. If you want to reduce these chats maybe you should try it more directly.

  Is it OK to prevent students from using their cellphones during the
  lecture by stating that in the syllabus?

The question should be: Is it OK to try to prevent students from using their cellphones. Here you have (as already said by @Nicholas) a problem of enforceability. Students are still going to use mobile phones (most of them (including me ;-)) don't even have a watch anymore) and then you have the problem that it will be hard to enforce your rule.

Again, I think you are trying to fight two things with your mobile ban: Distraction for themselves (which is, in my opinion) non of your business (and most students would just switch to something else to distract them) and distraction of others by talking to their neighbors.

If you want to fight the second point you should, in my opinion, try to enforce this directly, e.g. by asking them if they have a question (or, if it happened more often, to tell them to shut up or, in the worst case, just kicking them out) or, as @Nicholas suggested, ask them an easy question.
Personally, I think it is impossible to distinguish if they are discussing something relevant to the course (which, in my opinion, is great and should not be banned) and irrelevant chats which are a (minor) distraction and should be banned, therefore I tend to ask if there is a question.


4th year phd in BiomedEngineering - How do I maximize my chances of getting an assistant professorship in my hometown?

Take a good, hard look at the research being done in the department, and the specialties of the professors. Are there any subfields where the department is weak? Are there cross-field collaborations that could be done, but aren't? Is there an emeritus or soon-to-be emeritus professor that will leave a gap in coverage?

What you're looking for is a niche that you can fill.


How do I come up with a dissertation topic early on in my degree?

This is a classic example where talking to your advisor is of the utmost importance.  Some advisors want their students to choose a topic as early as possible, and others don't mind if their students take their time. As for the topic, hopefully, your advisor should be able to point you in a direction if you don't already have one.

While I understand the rush to get started on something concrete, you really don't want to do a lot of work on a topic that ends up being (1) uninteresting, and (2) unfruitful.  Talk to as many other faculty and students as you'd like, and there isn't anything wrong with reading ahead, with the exception that you might not understand something well enough to make a good decision about whether you should do research in the subject.

My bottom-line suggestion is to take your time picking a topic, because you really do want it to be a good one.


How can I highlight particular authors of an "in preparation" manuscript on my CV?

On formatting.
You should list publications/drafts as they would appear in a bibliography. The reader will assume that you (co-)authored every document listed. (Personally, I would assume your honesty and I would never think to check that you truly are the author.) The reader is interested in the titles of your publications/drafts and the venues at which you published. I'd suggest using italics for titles, so that they stand out, and for published works, I'd suggest that the venue follows immediately after the title, since it can then be found easily, e.g., Cynthia S. Cooper, Willie E. Wright & Sun He (2017) Mathematics: Criticizing Nervous Essentialism and Xenon. In ALB'17: 17th ALpha Bravo conference, pp317-495, publisher.

On name-dropping. You can name-drop in the body of your CV. But, I'm unsure whether name-dropping should be encouraged. I think it would be better to say what you've done. You could perhaps achieve both, e.g., in collaboration with [name-drop], I extended their earlier results (Nature'XX) to A, B, and C.


Should a Statement of Purpose cover Purpose or Capability or Both?

Your statement of purpose should include exactly what they request: "goals and career plans, and reason for applying to this program".


I've designed a number of assessments, and also have had recent experience of a rather complex grade calculation going wrong for some students, so I would say first of all that it needs to be kept simple, so that it is transparent to students how you have arrived at the mark. Of course, there needs to be a close correspondence to the curriculum/learning objectives. We also try to think about applying Bloom's taxonomy, so that questions mix the descriptive and the evaluative.

Q0: We have some constraints, some of them being mandated, but others really an attempt to standardise the rubrics within the department where I work. One of these, which makes a fair amount of sense, is to use an assessment grid, so that for each thing the student is graded on (e.g. level of critical analysis), there is an example of the kind of quality level expected within each grade boundary. We also have spent a lot of time thinking about group work and how to fairly grade it. A common approach for us now is to allocate an overall mark for a student group but also have an individual element, or allow for an adjustment based on individual performance. This is hard to get right, as you need to avoid a) team members not pulling their weight; but also b) one "stronger" team member taking all the work on themselves.
Q1 These days I avoid exams in the main, and use mostly assessed presentations, vivas and poster presentations. The grading scheme typically is something like 70/30 aspects of between content and presentation.  As I teach HCI & Information Science, there often needs to be evidence of following a structured design process, rather than merely giving this process lip service. This is almost always clear to see in the student work if it has been done well / at all.


If someone gets a PhD in Israel, can he work in the universities in Muslim-majority countries?

"Islamic-majority countries" are a fairly heterogenous group and the answer is unlikely to be the same across all of them.

Turkey and Albania, both Islamic-majority countries, are signatory to the Lisbon Recognition Convention which would seem to imply a default recognition of Israeli degrees.


Why is it recommended to do a post-doc outside of the group you did your PhD in?

why do researchers often choose to do postdocs at other departments?

A few reasons:

It's fundamental, especially at the beginning of one's career, to widen one's horizon and see how other groups around the world are used to work, how they are organized, and which kind of activities and ideas they have. I know a few researchers who have never tried to have experiences outside their "home" group, and I think that they have a limited view of the academic world, and have limited research ideas.
It helps to build connections that might become useful for one's future career.
It strengthens your curriculum.
It helps to keep boredom away: many people is positively affected by a temporary, or less temporary, change of environment.

  one has to face the cost of adjusting to a new environments and labmates and take the risk of working with an advisor he/she doesn't have good chemistry with.

You might be faced, instead, with meeting amazing people, expand your experiences and knowledge, and visit other cities and countries. All this while being paid.


Thesis supervisor wants me to publish my work in his own conference

I think there would be a conflict of interest, if your co-author is also among the chair people of the conference.

Apart from that, you should not publish anything without your other supervisors acceptance and/or without informing them. That is: do not put their names on something you submit if they don't know or don't agree with being named there, AND (especially relevant in this case, it seems) do not submit something where you omit a contributing author. Author here doesn't need to be someone participating in writing a piece, but already being part of a research project.

Therefore, if you want to publish at this conference (independent of A's role in the conference), then send an email to all your supervisors and ask what they think about publishing/presenting your work there. If they don't know about A's role in said conference, and you worry about it, tell them (maybe omit A in this case, if you prefer) about the position of A in it.


Can co-authors check the status of a submitted manuscript with various publishers?

(probably more suitable as a comment, but I lack the reputation for that)

"Are there exceptions to this rule of thumb?"

At least some publishers that use Manuscript Central allow this. I am a non-submitting, non-corresponding author on some RSC and ACS papers and can view the basic status of (and download copies of) these manuscripts. It uses email addresses/ORCIDs to link these to your account, and you may have to have created an account with the relevant publisher prior to submission for this to work.


Is it acceptable for an undergraduate researcher to ask to work on a project that will yield publishable results?

Yes, of course! There is nothing wrong with expressing your goals for the research project to your supervisor, and I think any reasonable research supervisor would appreciate that sort of honesty from their mentees.

  When I originally started working with my supervisor, I expressed that two of my goals for the summer were to (1) contribute to the group in a meaningful way and (2) the possibility of publication.

Sounds like a reasonable list of goals to me. But, for your 2nd goal, the possibility of a publication coming out of your work is only that: a "possibility." As you may be relatively new to research, it is probably a good idea for you to keep in mind that not all research projects result in publishable results (as this question highlights).

  Would it be too forward of me to ask to contribute to something that will result in publication (considering that I am an undergraduate and given that there is only one month left)?

This is where it gets a bit trickier. You only have one month left on the project, and it may be difficult for your supervisor to find something meaningful, and publishable, to work on in that relatively short amount of time.

On top of that, there may be other factors working "against" you. For example, suppose that there is a gap your group is looking to fill, but you do not have the background necessary to make a meaningful contribution. What are they to do in this case? Drop everything they are doing to get you up to speed? I think you can see that this may be an unreasonable request.

For all I know, you are an extremely bright student who is more than capable of making a breakthrough on a tight deadline. But, if there are gaps in your knowledge, and it would take someone a nontrivial amount of effort to get you up to speed, then that could be problematic. There are other researchers in the group, and depending on the group dynamics, it may be difficult (or easy) for them to make accommodations for you on such short notice.

In the end, I think you should definitely have a chat with your supervisor, give them the lowdown on what you'd like to accomplish in your last month. Then, listen.


Is it acceptable to submit a postdoc fellowship application (same lab, same project) to two funding agencies at the same time?

It's quite common to submit proposals to multiple funding agencies at the same time.  Most grant applications ask you if you are submitting the proposal to multiple funding agencies.  You should note this in your application.  If both agencies are interested in funding your proposal then they'll coordinate awards so that you don't get funded twice.


How should one handle peers, competition and other social pressure while studying theoretical CS/Maths?

First, slow != dumb (your words). In fact, these are two completely different cognitive processes. WISC, a widely used IQ test, measures IQ as a composite of four scores. Two of them are working memory and processing speed, which is your general ability to quickly solve problems. Another two scores are Verbal Comprehension index and Perceptual Reasoning Index, which measure loosely your problem solving skills and pattern recognition. Many score high on one, and not the other.

Some problems are hard, and it is very difficult to learn how to solve them. But, after solving (or understanding solutions to) many, many of them, you develop the feel how to approach a new problem. If you are passionate about the field, so much so that you have enough discipline to practice and work hard day after day, the results will come.

Last, take care of yourself. And you might want to read up on imposter syndrome, https://counseling.caltech.edu/general/InfoandResources/Impostor . A very common occurrence in academia, it is a mindset where people downplay their own successes, focus only on their struggle, fail to see others' struggles. For example, just from your post: you are more educated that the rest of your family, you have been admitted to a top school, are eager to tackle some of the most difficult problems, and have a very heavy class load. These are your successes. Give yourself credit for it. Focus on the struggle: you tend to call yourself names, and over-generalize several setbacks (bad grades), while seeing others in glorified way. A more constructive would be to look for a solution for your current struggle that takes an advantage of your strengths: maybe dropping a class, if you can, to give yourself more in-depth studying time.


Is it okay for a supervisor to require students to seek permission before publishing?

If you are including your supervisors name, or anyone else's name, you should notify them first and allow them to review the paper before sending it to the publisher.

If you are just wanting to publish under your name alone, it depends. Are you publishing findings from data that belongs to your advisor (or anyone else's data)? Typically any data collected by you that was paid for by your funding agency belongs to the principal investigator, which is usually your advisor. You should ask for their permission before you publish findings from his or her data.

This applies to abstract submissions as well.


Is it ethical to use a data-set made as a research assistant?

As with any situation, there are many levels to any answer… Mainly, the question is: was the data-set published? If so, who owns the copyright? Probably not your professor, but the university. If it wasn't published, then it isn't ethical to use the records you kept of it for another purpose, without authorization from your employer.

However, there might be a solution, regardless of your fall-out before graduation. [1] Just get your current advisor to ask him! One staff researcher to another, the situation is not the same as you dealing with your formed professor.

[1] I am amazed at how many times I have read this situation (I cannot speak to my adviser/professor/…) raised in questions on this site! Every time, I think: before or around the time of graduation, aren't you a bit young to make “enemies”? I can sure name many people I thought fools or who annoyed me during my studies and early career, but I always tried as hard as I could to get things done in a manner that no bridge was burnt…


When money is discussed in a book, what currency should be used for a book translation covering many countries?

I've had similar issues with translating currency in the past.

I believe that as a general rule of thumb, if the text has a worldwide audience, using US Dollars is the best choice. Many countries will have a general grasp on the value of USD and those who don't can simply use conversion tools to guide them. If the book applies to a more narrow geographical area, you can use the currency for that area (e.g. Euros for a European Audience)

No currency is accepted and understood worldwide. However, US Dollar is probably more global than the rest.


Grading: students give correct answers, but in the wrong places

What is your purpose of a grade? If it is a numerical certification of their knowledge, full credit is the right choice, as they indeed have shown to know the answer to both questions. If the assignment didn't have time pressure, you may consider applying a small penalty for the not so good organisation, but be prepared to have it challenged.

Don't penalise adding extra, factually correct, information. Other professors welcome it, and even, the expect you to understand that the question has unwritten sub questions that should be answered too for the full credit (I had one of these in high school, and "give three examples of mammals" meant also "explain what they are and why are they mammals, or I will only give you half").

Lastly, if several students have made the same mistake, consider that maybe the questions are not clear. I must say I don't quite understand the difference from your excerpt.


In the EU, how much protection do I have if I report an assault on myself by my department head?

If the matter has escalated to a physical assault then you have the option to contact the police.  For lesser issues concerning corruption or maladministration of public resources, you should consider searching for the closest equivalent of an ombudsman for your university sector.  In public industries with an ombudsman it is usual to be able to make a report of maladministration or corruption, and there are protections for whistle-blowers who file reports on these matters.  Specific rules vary according to the laws of the country and the specific industry ombudsman, so you should first check to find the appropriate ombudsman and check the protections for whistle-blowers that apply in your case.  If you have a lot invested it is probably also a good idea to speak to a lawyer to get advice on the available reporting mechanisms and legal protections.


How to address a professor in an office setting

If you're here in the US, I'd go with Dr. You're addressing him as your supervisor at a workplace, not at an academic institution.  He's not a professor there.  His title there is probably something like "Director of Research" which is definitely not how you'd address him. But he is a Dr. and, in my experience in 40+ years in industry, that is how he'd be addressed.

But also, at most universities here in the US, lots of instructors who do not have PhDs and are not on tenure track are still called professor.  Like me.  I don't have a PhD and my official title is lecturer, but students and others commonly address me as professor nonetheless.  (And yes, it makes me a little uneasy because, to me, there is a difference and calling anyone a professor regardless of whether they really are seems to cheapen the title for those who've actually earned it, which I have not.)


Does grant funded equipment result in authorship?

Authorship, no, not if the only contribution was a piece of equipment. Authorship at a minimum requires an intellectual contribution to the project.

Acknowledgment, perhaps. $1000 sounds like a fairly minimal investment for an acknowledgment even, but the standards for what is worthy of acknowledging are much more up to the authors of a given paper. If the work truly would not have been possible without the equipment, then it may certainly be appropriate. If you were just borrowing someone's unused computer, that doesn't sound acknowledgment-worthy to me.

On a brief note in the other direction: some people come here and ask authorship questions where they feel someone (usually an advisor) doesn't deserve authorship, but in reality they made a substantial intellectual contribution to the project. Norms for this vary by field, but make sure when you are assessing answers you get here that you are describing this PI's complete contribution accurately.


Master's degree vs. Master's degree without thesis

Generally PhD programs require a significant amount of research. That being said, a Master's Degree with the Thesis option is a good indicator that you have applied rigorous and reviewed research methods in the past - and is therefore an example of what your future work may be.

As I was advised, "if there is any notion in your mind that you will pursue a PhD later in life - then you should take the Thesis option now."


How to make suggestions to professors on how to teach?

It depends on what your goal is.

If you have a particular course and a particular professor, and you want to see changes before the course ends, you may need some political power or not.  Many professors appreciate feedback, some don't, and you can usually tell by noting which ones ask for it.  If they do ask, follow their format for giving feedback, and add a note saying that you have more specific suggestions if they wish to discuss it further.  If they don't, you will either have to drop it or try a different tactic.

If the course has teaching assistants, you can usually give some feedback through them, although to promote understanding, you might give them a copy in writing to hand to the professor.  If there are none, you may have to submit feedback through the department; there usually are people in that department in charge of the quality of teaching, and they can advise you at least as well as on this forum.

If the issue is more with a person than a situation, then I recommend getting advice from colleagues of that person on how to make such an approach.  Through the department is likely the best way, but it highly depends on the situation.

If the issue is more with a class structure than a person, you can make suggestions, but they will likely be referred to the next class.

The applicability of all of the above is subject to class size, level of instruction, and many other factors.  Without more specifics, I imagine your best answer in the long run is by using official channels.  That way if anything goes wrong, the process can be blamed and not you.


Writing a journal paper based on work already published in conference paper

From the SAGE link you provide:

Conference abstracts, posters and presentations
Subject to the journal's policy, manuscripts based on papers that have been presented at conferences may be considered for publication as long as they have not been published and provided that you still retain the rights to the manuscript. The journal editor may review whether the version of your article considered for publication is materially different from the work you presented at a conference and/or whether publication in the journal will enable your article to reach an audience that the conference paper did not previously reach. Prior publication of an abstract or poster presented at a conference will generally not impact the manuscript's eligibility for publication.

A similar policy is enforced by Elsevier (at least AIJ) and IEEE. Prior publication at a conference does not disqualify the content for publication in the journal, but the journal version usually needs to be more detailed or add new information. The standards of a journal are normally higher than those of a conference in terms of completeness of the exposition.
So in general it is fine to extend a conference paper into a journal paper, but you should always check the particular journal's policy, in case it has a different clause that overrides the publisher's policy.
Sometimes, the submission process of the journal specifically asks whether the paper is an extension of a conference paper. Even if it does not, you should make the editor aware of this fact (for example in the cover letter), and cite the conference paper in the journal paper, explaining what the latter adds on top of the former.


How is the career path of a full-time Research Associate different from that of a tenure-track / full-time professor?

Tenure in the US, and I assume most other places, implies a lifetime commitment to employment. You can't be fired for any but egregious misbehavior. The research associate probably doesn't get that guarantee and may work on a fixed term (but renewable) contract.

The very idea of tenure is to make it possible for tenured faculty to explore unconventional and even controversial ideas without fear of retaliation. Sometimes that is abused, but mostly it seems to work. Academic Freedom is based on tenure.

Tenured faculty have different responsibilities than (only) research. Most teach. Most advise graduate, and maybe undergraduate, students. Most have committee responsibilities - for the governance of the department and the university.

When General Eisenhower was made president of Columbia University it is said that in his inaugural speech he spoke at length about all the great things "the University" would do for "the Faculty". After he finished, one of the top faculty members, I don't know who, perhaps a dean, rose and said something like "With all due respect, General, the University can't 'do' anything for the Faculty. The Faculty IS the University." That is an old tradition - the governance of the university lies in its faculty. It is going out of style nowadays, but remains a dearly held tradition. Tenured faculty (some at least) take that responsibility very seriously.

The research of tenured faculty and that of research assistants (or associates or ...) are likely funded in the same way. That would mean grants at most large places and internal funding, perhaps, at small colleges though small places don't typically have pure research positions.

It may be that the transition of the person you "saw" was caused by information that he/she was unlikely to achieve tenure and took the research option. Tenure is far from automatic and in many places is very difficult to get and lacks rationality. Some are "denied" tenure for no better reason than that the university is reducing the size of some department due to falling student enrollments. A person can even get a positive vote/recommendation from the tenure committee and department but be denied tenure for financial reasons.

On the other hand, the person may have decided that the non-research responsibilities of tenured faculty simply weren't appealing and wants to devote him/herself solely to research, though without the lifetime employment guarantee.

Complicating the decision is the fact that in most places, if you actually apply for tenure, go through the process, but are denied, you are usually asked to leave. There may be exceptions for some, but that is pretty typical. So, reading the handwriting on the wall may be wise for anyone who is borderline in any way or in a situation in which tenure is unlikely for any reason.


Is there any reason to not make course details public?

Basically, I would answer no! There are, however, several issues that may prevent people from publishing material openly. One is if it contains copyrighted material, another is if the material contains hints that can help students gain an unfair advantage. In your list, the only possible issue could be with the third if those in any way could lead to an unfair advantage (not that I can think of how). That said, many publish homework questions, lecture materials etc on web sites that can be found by a search. I have benefited from finding such materials when developing my own courses and I am very grateful for that. Returning to your three points, I think they provide a good basis for students to decide what they can expect from the course and hopefully will attract the right students to it.


How to credit Creative Commons icons in a Bachelor's Thesis?

I would add the information to the figure caption. Something like "The icons are courtesy of ABC." If there are a lot of figures with difficult to attribute icons, I might refer readers to a footnote or even an appendix. I am not sure that the icons being released under creative commons really matters in terms of how you attribute them.


Is there a professional etiquette regarding jackets in academia?

I don't know if I'd call it an etiquette, but there are certainly different ways to dress in different subfields of disciplines. If you attend an academic conference and notice such things you will see the variety by clique. As for tweed, my partner and I wore it as students (bought second-hand in Edinburgh) and we were mostly viewed as the eccentrics we are, as far as I know. Dressing decently generally shows respect for others, though a few people find it an affront to their class consciousness. Dressing expensively can be seen as distancing from those who can't afford it. The main thing is to be confident that you are presenting yourself as who you really are, so then if there are any concerns you can hopefully laugh them off or explain your dress as a matter of personal taste and/or a concern for general aesthetics.


What to do when PhD approval takes so long?

While the details of the assessment/examination process vary around the world, everywhere (that I'm aware of) has the same issue that there is a time lag between handing in your thesis and receiving a decision. That time lag is a few weeks as a minimum, often several months.

This does not generally cause major issues with job applications. Employers who are accustomed to hiring postdoctoral researchers will be very familiar with the delay, and are generally happy to offer a job and have you start working (and being paid) pending the award of the PhD. It will be clear to them, from the reference/recommendation letter from your advisor, whether or not you are likely to pass the PhD. If there is a chance that you might fail completely, it's unlikely that you would even be applying for postdoc jobs, let alone being offered them. I think that technically the employer would have the option of reconsidering your contract were you to unexpectedly fail the PhD, but I have never heard of that actually occurring in practice.


How to foster ideological pluralism in teaching?

How refreshing to see someone who recognizes a spectrum of ideas and wants to teach it!

Science in general and economics in particular could be said to revolve around observation of phenomena, theorizing about causes, and research to verify or falsify the theory.

Try addressing topics in this framework: Here's the phenomenon, here are some of the theories to explain it, and here is some research on it which supports / refutes particular theories.  This will provide a model for your students to learn the subject without descending into rote recitation of the professor's favorite dogma.


A major fellowship may be enough to get a grad school to agree to a longer deferment. However, even if they're not willing to extend you a two-year fellowship, when you reapply, you will have that major program under your belt, and will be a stronger candidate than many in your field applying straight out of undergrad.

So I wouldn't worry too much about this in terms of your long-term grad school prospects.


US equivalents of Russian academic titles

From how it should work, the situation is like this:

Kandidat nauk (кандидат наук) is a PhD holder. Not a PhD candidate, but a done PhD.
Doktor nauk (доктор наук) is something not really common in the US system. It's the higher doctorate in the UK or a habilitation in a European system.

Now what you get recognized depends on the local authorities, but ideally that should be it.
Bonus: the typical position names in ex-Soviet system are junior and senior research staff (младший научный сотрудник, старший научный сотрудник). Typically, you have the former when you are doing your PhD and the latter when you are a postdoc/tenure track researcher.


How does Lecturer in UK compare to other systems?

"Lecturer" is the main entry-point academic rank in the UK system, and spans quite a wide range of pay grades: someone at the top of the lecturer pay bracket can easily have 10-15 years more experience than someone at the bottom. Promotion is usually to Senior Lecturer, and then to Reader and Professor. Nearly all Professors will have started out as lecturers.
The precise duties of a lecturer will vary between institutions, but typically involve a balance of research, teaching, and administrative responsibilities. One sometimes sees positions advertised as 'teaching-focussed': this means a higher teaching load and limited expectations of research output (and often an assumption that any research you do produce will focus on pedagogy).
Jobs may be advertised as 'fixed-term'/'temporary' or 'permanent'. Permanent jobs are more-or-less what they sound like: positions supported by the university's central funds, which are expected to continue indefinitely (though lecturers can be made redundant if, say, the university decides to close or merge departments in the face of falling enrolments). Often permanent jobs will have some element of probation, with a review 1-5 years after appointment. Each institution has its own procedures around this: in some it is purely an internal administrative process; in others it is more similar to a US tenure review, with external referees and the like. However, it is much less of a hurdle than the US tenure process, and failing to pass probation is rare.
Fixed-term jobs are usually supported by transient funding sources, and often arise because a permanent job-holder is expected to be on leave for a period (e.g. maternity cover), or has 'bought themselves out' of teaching responsibilities for the duration of a major grant. Whereas new permanent hires often get a soft start, with a reduced initial teaching load, fixed-term appointees may find themselves immediately lumbered with the teaching responsibilities of whoever they are replacing. Invariably adverts will make vague claims about a 'possibility of extension', but you should not place much weight on this: there may not be a clear plan for where the funds would come from.


I communicate a conjecture and a colleague/professor proves it; are we both authors?

Discovering a new and very interesting conjecture is a cool achievement and not an easy thing to do. Congratulations!

About your question, it’s quite possible that your having come up with the conjecture would warrant coauthorship. But it’s possible that it wouldn’t - it’s impossible to say until the conjecture actually gets proved. The issue is that for some mathematical discoveries, the mere statement of the theorem is the more difficult and substantial part of the discovery, in the sense that once the statement is known, finding the proof is not terribly difficult; whereas for other discoveries, it is finding the actual proof that is the difficult part that’s considered more impressive and worthy of recognition.

And sometimes it’s both: for some conjectures, both the people who discovered it and the people who proved it became quite famous for their respective achievements. One such example that comes to mind is the alternating sign matrix conjecture.

So, for example, if the professor and his colleagues spend the next five years working on a proof of your conjecture and come up with an amazingly complicated 100-page proof, I’d say your claim for being a coauthor is weak to nonexistent (although you should of course be credited for discovering the conjecture). But if your conjecture results in a relatively easy proof of a few pages, you can reasonably ask to be made a coauthor of the paper (or more likely than not you won’t need to ask, they’ll just offer you coauthorship as it would likely be seen as an obvious thing to do). A rather similar situation happened recently with a conjecture in linear algebra that was discovered by three physicists. They communicated their discovery to Terry Tao, and this ended with a joint publication by the four authors that was posted less than two weeks later. See this recent article from Quanta magazine.


Can I upload journal articles to a private git repo?

I store all important papers in a cloud, where I am the only one (beside the operating people) that has access. There are several such cloud solutions around, such as from DropBox, Microsoft and many others.
Unless there is an explicit statement that does not allow this, it is perfect (and until now, there has not been such a statement). The key is that you restrict access to yourself.
I would not use git for your case; it is intended for software development.


How can I find the altmetrics for a specific paper?

Yes, you can use Altmetric's API to do that.
The URL is https://api.altmetric.com/v1/doi/ + DOI.
For example: https://api.altmetric.com/v1/doi/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102194.  However, the API is designed to be machine-readable (and not primarily human-readable), so you will only see a (possibly confusing) JSON-document which you may want to "beautify" using a JSON-Beautifier.
At the bottom of that JSON-document you see the element "details-url" which links to the actual page you probably want to see, i.e. http://www.altmetric.com/details.php?citation_id=93559766.
(For large-scale use of that API, you may need to request a key. See the Altmetric's API Documentation.)


Is it appropriate to have two tables side by side in an academic thesis?

The only rule here is to do what is best for your reader.  Try it different ways and see which presentation is simplest for the reader to interpret.  Some considerations to bear in mind are simple labelling of your tables and close proximity of the tables to any textual explanation of their contents.  Try to allow the reader to see the tables and accompanying textual explanations without having to flip back-and-forth between pages.  Your supervisor might be able to give you some guidance here, but the goal is to make the dissertation as clear and simple as possible.  The fact that you have not seen this before in a dissertation is not determinative of any problem with it.

If you find that you are presenting large amounts of information in tables, then another thing to bear in mind is that tables are usually a poor way to present large amounts of information, relative to appropriate graphs.  Consider whether you can present the same information graphically in a simple and clear manner, and relegate the accompanying tables to an appendix.  Again, you should be driven by consideration of what is best for your reader.  Always ask yourself: if I was reading this and had not seen it before, how would I want it presented to me?


What should a regretful student who is caught plagiarizing do to move forward?

You sound quite naive about what constitutes plagiarism or academic wrongdoing at the university level (in particular the thought that paying for the code makes it okay or even less likely to be caught is pretty much exactly wrong).  But this naivete is quite well explained by the fact that you're a high school student.

It's great that you realize that you did something seriously wrong: I agree with you.  But you're not a sociopath: rather, you are a teenaged minor, and your behavior is well within the normal operating parameters of such entities.  Many (perhaps most) minors do at least one really stupid thing that if they were an adult would get them in real trouble.  But unless their actions cause irreparable harm to others, the adult world tends to be forgiving: there has to be a time in which you can make mistakes and learn from them.

I think it is very unlikely that your actions would cause the university in which you've been early admitted to rescind its offer.  This is on the border of being so unlikely as not to really be worth worrying about...but someone in your situation is going to worry.  Here's how to allay your concerns:

You should go to your professor and explain very calmly and honestly everything that happened.  Your position should be that you are thoroughly repentant and will not contest whatever penalty to your course grade you have received.  You have just one concern: you don't want the academic dishonesty to appear on your transcript, because -- be honest -- you think that might jeopardize your collegiate career.  If it comes to it, you should make clear that you would rather get a failing grade or an unsatisfactory withdrawal from the course.  (This is a difference between your situation and that of most normally enrolled university students.)  If the professor is not willing to agree to that on the spot, then you should talk to others -- in particular, to your parents -- about how to proceed next.


How to avoid plagiarism when including definitions and proofs from textbook?

It is very common for theses in the mathematical sciences to spend a significant amount of time and space repeating known or even standard definitions and results.  (In fact, up through the master's level, at least in many places one can write a perfectly acceptable thesis that only does this.)  In fact this is generally viewed as a positive feature of the thesis: the candidate has taken the time and effort to synthesize a presentation which is complete and self-contained up to a certain point.  It is also generally very helpful to do so in terms of readability: a math paper that repeated nothing that was already known would be well-nigh impenetrable except (perhaps) by a select coterie of insiders.

Also the virtue of rewording is not as strong in this area.  If you are going to give the definition of, say, entropy, in a thesis, then I would say the best thing to do is to close all your textbooks and write down what you think is a good wording of the definition.  Once you've done that you check back with the sources to see that you've actually gotten the definition right, i.e., that it is mathematically equivalent to the one from the textbooks.  But if your language is similar or identical to what you found in the textbooks: okay, fine.  You don't need to change it for that purpose.   There are a lot of ways to list the axioms for a group, and if you wanted to you could pull out fifty textbooks and make sure that your wording is different from all fifty of them.  But this would be a big waste of time: it is not necessary to do so, and what do you bet that these fifty wordings capture most of those that are best in terms of efficiency, readability, and so forth?

When it comes to copying entire proofs word for word, I would pay close attention to how often you are doing this.  If you are simply copying multiple pages of proofs verbatim out of a single standard source, then you should start wondering about the value added in doing so (and, after a certain point, issues of copyright do emerge).  There is a key word that I used in the first paragraph: synthesis.  When you revisit old results, ideally you are synthesizing them: i.e., no one source has everything that you want, so you are combining multiple sources in a novel way.  Too much copying and too little synthesizing does not necessarily put you at risk for plagiarism and copyright violation -- it would have to be quite extreme for that to be an issue -- but it does not sound like the path to a strong thesis.

I hope that everyone who is writing an academic thesis has a thesis advisor.  You should talk to her about this issue.  To a certain degree, the right answer is what she thinks is best.


As an Australian student who wants to end up in academia, should I do a PhD or postdoc somewhere other than Australia?

My partner did undergrad and grad degrees in Europe, and formed the dream fairly early on to do some sort of study in the US at some point.  That did eventually happen, in the form of a post doc.  My observation has been that as a dream it was a positive life influence.

Dreams of this type are usually most constructive if they are left rather vague.

When thinking about where to apply for grad school, you must consider

funding
fit of school and department
fit of culture (place where school is located)
family considerations having to do with possible relocation

These are all things you can start thinking about now.  There are many strands, schools of thought, etc., within a field of study.  As you progress in your studies you will learn a lot about what intrigues you, and that will help you guide your choice of schools to apply to.

I can say that based on my own experience, I would not expect that your being a returning student would hinder you in the U.S.  I can't speak for other countries.


How to ask summer research advisor for publication?

Hi, do you think we can get my work so far published as an article?

If the answer is no:

  So, what else do you think we would have to do to get it publishable?

Professors and supervisors are human beings. They won't eat you if you make the wrong question, or use a slightly unproper tone. Don't worry specially when you are in a very low risk situation, and you know each other.

(Once you get the go, don't forget to clarify and define authorship).


Why do PhD students do research for other people’s research ideas?

If they want to help, it implies that they are interested. Multiple people can work on research projects and get a benefit from them.

I've helped on numerous projects and ended up getting a name on the resulting research paper. I wasn't able to use that research in my PhD thesis, but any job applications look a lot stronger as I have experience in a good variety of projects.


What do you do when you can not solve basic things?

I'll give two bits of advice. Both may be hard to do. The first is to relax. Some things in mathematics are just very difficult. The experiences you have had with the material itself seem completely normal to me.

But the second is to try to find a more compatible and helpful advisor. Your advisor may not be bad, but seems ill suited to help you with what you need.

I can't judge your math background, of course, but if you can pass graduate courses it must be ok at least. Maybe excellent.

Your inability to solve basic problems may be overstated. It may just be "brain freeze" based on your emotional state. It may be that you are better suited for longer reflection rather than quick answers. But, until you learn to relax you may continue to have problems. Many people use periodic physical exercise to help them relax and give their mind a rest from work. But perhaps you need something. You might even need to talk to a counsellor.

I think my own advisor was helpful, but day-to-day I worked on my own. He gave me problems to work on. The first was too easy, so no real challenge. The second was too hard, so no progress. The third was just right, though it still took a year to but the thesis together. I was lucky in a sense that I went through my low period before I met him and so had bounced back and was able to be more productive. But a low period is pretty normal for math doctoral students.


Is it okay to assign free marks for students assignments?

This heavily depends on your country, institution and position (most professors can get away with everything in regard of teaching if they research well).

In my country in Central Europe, this strategy is in universities not unheard of (because of the arguments you mention). One of my high school teachers even claimed that she is not allowed to give marks about the content of the homework, only about whether we did it in time, read the assignment careful and wrote comprehensively.

Of course, you could also make the homework weigh less.

Personally, I like this approach if you not mark the contents but whether or not they tried the tasks in a reasonablr fashion.


In APA, how should stylized business names be capitalized?

I just asked @APA_Style via twitter, which is managed by the APA.

Their answer is no, you should not capitalize those stylized company names that start with a small letter. Additionally you might want to avoid starting a sentence with those names as to avoid confusion by the reader.

In general they seem to suggest to leave the names as they are.

You can find the conversation for references here: https://twitter.com/APA_Style/status/621340750505242626


What strategy to follow for getting a funded PhD position?

Here are some general guidelines when applying for U.S. positions:

The key thing that PhD programs look for is evidence of research potential.  In your particular case, if you have four peer-reviewed papers, this is a very good start.  The benefits due to the publications decreases (a) if the papers are not peer-reviewed, (b) if they are in conferences or journals no one has ever heard of, (c) if they are not in English [if only because it is harder to read them and see what they are about], (d) if they are not particularly well-written in general (e.g., grammatical mistakes, poor structure, weak results).
Your recommendation letters are extremely important, and should speak directly to your research potential and experience.  If possible, these should be from tenured professors at your university, and even better if they are known in their field.  Plan on giving your letter-writers "talking points" that they might want to include in their letters.  Don't write the letters for them, but provide them with enough information so they can write specifically about what you want to study, and why.
If your letter-writers know someone at the schools where you are applying, consider asking them to reach out to say directly that you are great and that they should keep you in mind.  Even if the contacts aren't on the admissions committee, they will certainly know someone on the committee and can pass along your name.
Your grades matter, but less than you might think, especially if you're applying after you already have your Master's degree (again, research potential is the key item).
Do not apply strictly to "Top-X" schools (5, 10, 20, etc.).  Competition is extremely stiff at the top schools, and no one can expect to be let into a particular program.  Find other schools that have decent programs but don't limit yourself too much.
Write an amazing personal statement, and have multiple people proof-read it and give you suggestions.  Strive to make it clear what you want to research, why it is an important topic, and why you'll be good at solving the outstanding problems in that topic.
Obviously, make sure you submit all the correct forms.  You don't want a rejection simply because of an administrative issue.

If you believe that your personal situation (going back to take care of your parents) has bearing on why your record looks poor, say so in a cover letter, or briefly mention it in your personal statement.  Don't linger on it, but comment on the pertinent points and move on.

As to the funding part -- if you get accepted into a C.S. position, you will most likely be offered funding, either through a teaching assistant position, and/or through a research associate position.  This should be included in the letter of acceptance.

Good luck!


Can faculty in the United States get access to your grades without your explicit consent?

Faculty are almost always bound by rules governing their access to student records.  For example at my university, I can access any student record on campus if I have a justifiable reason. If I were to access student records that I didn't have  justifiable reason for accessing that would be a major violation of policy.


Difference between running example and motivating example

A motivating example provides motivation for a definition, a theorem, or even the whole paper. A running example is an example that is recalled time and again during the paper, applying the newly discovered knowledge to it, presumably to show how things work. It is possible for a motivating example to also be a running example – there is nothing that prevents you from reusing the same motivating example several times in the paper.

I still have enough faith in academia to say that no reviewer will be petty enough to tell you that the example you called "motivating" should have been called "running" instead, in any case.


Should I correct a mistake on an arXiv manuscript, that I found while refereeing it?

I think it is commendable of you to care, but it would be best for you to keep anonymity with respect to the authors.

A good middle ground would be writing someone who knows your identity already, and is known by the authors: for example the editor in charge of the paper for the journal you reviewed for. Typically this editor is known to the authors, and they could pass on your comments without disclosing your identity.

In any case, the editor should be able to at least give you a qualified opinion on how to proceed.


How to cite page from section-page number style document?

You can write "page 7-23", so that the singular word "page" gives the reader a clue.  A range of pages would be "pages 7–23".

Alternatively, I would have no objection to "Section 7, page 23", though apparently JeffE wouldn't approve of that.


The professor for one of my classes has no direction

Yes, you should raise this with the department, either with the Undergraduate Director or the Chair. The problem is not Prof. Johnson's unfamiliarity with the LMS--as a new faculty member, that is understandable. But you should restate what you said here about not teaching the assigned material.

You mention online quizzes that were given to him. Are they being offered and graded? If so, is the grading fair? If not, what assignments will your course grade be based on?

If the lessons are not being taught, students cannot complete the assignments successfully. That is the kind of issue the department's administrator will be concerned about, because they do want you to get a serious education in every class. And they know that the grading scheme in the syllabus, as well as the learning objectives, are contractual issues that have to be fulfilled.

In talking to the administrator, stay focused on teaching performance issues only and avoid anything personal. You are supposed to be learning something critical about the history and practice of public speaking, and you should have an opportunity to demonstrate that learning fairly, through tests or papers. If that is not happening, the department's administrators need to know. The sooner the better.


Fellowships of smaller amount to support your main postdoctoral fellowship

Two obvious possibilities come to mind:

travel grants (there is plenty of variations, including e.g. small travel grants provided by the grant agencies and grants for attending a particular conference given by the conference organizers)
intramural grants (this is strongly institution-dependent, of course).


What are some reasons to get (or not get) a PhD?

I won't tell you what are and aren't good reasons for getting a PhD.  However, to get a PhD, you must stay remarkably determined for a minimum of 5 to 6 years.  If you cannot, you will quit.  Earning a PhD is hard.  When I earned mine, it was easily the hardest thing I had ever done.

During your PhD, you work long hours, for a low salary, with little respect, and bleak job prospects.  Most PhD students are at least fairly smart and/or moderately hard workers.  Nearly all of them could make more money  with less effort elsewhere.

So, why get a PhD?  You need to find your own compelling reason.  I couldn't imagine not studying math.  Undoubtedly, I would be studying it now, even if no one would pay me.  I'd never cared too much about money (easier to say when you're in your 20s and single).  I was far from balanced, so long hours didn't bother me.  I really loved teaching (and still do), and after working with high school kids, I decided I'd much prefer college.  So I decided I'd be a math professor.  That was my vision, what I clung to in the midst of the storm.  And it worked, eventually.  Your story will be different.  But it must be just as compelling to you, or you likely won't make it.


If you were really passionate about something, you'd know because you'd want to do it in exclusion of all else. You think about that thing even if you're bathing, eating, etc.

Having said that I can understand what you're asking because if we define passion this way, precious few people would be passionate about anything that they can actually make a living from. That includes academics - e.g. this question

  I just want to get married, and have weekends and evenings off, and chill out and play board games, and have nice conversations with friends, and have time to exercise and eat good food, and partake in hobbies, and read books and play computer games and watch movies and write a novel or two.

And from there it's just a short way to "I just want to get married and have my entire week off ..."

So now what? I suggest:

Can you imagine yourself doing it as a career? You don't have to like it more than board games, conversations with friends, etc, but you should like it enough that you can do it for upwards of 40+ hours a week. On the other hand if it starts getting painful to go to work every day, it's not a good idea to do it.
Are you good at it? If you are, then you can get results even if you aren't passionate (by above definition) about it.

It may not be a popular position, but you can certainly base your career around things that you aren't passionate about (by above definition). For example, my mother became a doctor because that's traditionally what all good students at her high school did. She didn't particularly like it any more than other careers, but she studied it, did well at it, became a trained doctor, became a specialist, and eventually managed her own department. She would often complain about her work at the dinner table, and talk about e.g. how she would rather teach language at a local high school, but by all metrics she still had a successful career.


IUBH university Msc can give a chance to have a phD in germany?

The IUBH is not a university, but a "Fachhochschule" (somewhat misleadingly translated as "University of the Applied Sciences" into English). The expected qualification for enrolling into PhD studies at a German university is have a Master from a university. While exceptions to this are possible, degree programmes at Fachhochschulen are meant to prepare for work in industry, not in academia.
The leading distance-learning university in Germany is the FernUniversitaet Hagen (https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/). Their MSc degrees should fully qualify your for subsequent PhD studies. (I am a Hagen-alumnus, and went on to do a PhD in Cambridge after getting my MSc Computer Science from Hagen).


Listing industry related honors and awards on a CV

I would recommend that you add to your C.V. any awards that are relevant to your potential and performance as a researcher.

For example, one of my colleagues was recently given an internal "Entrepreneurial Award" for developing a significant line of business around research that he has been leading.  Even though this sounds kind of "businessy," it would be a good award to list on a C.V. because it is actually about his abilities as a researcher.  On the other hand, another person at the company was given an award for their flexibility in handling scheduling challenges of National Guard employees, and I would not recommend listing that on a C.V., since it is not relevant to scientific ability.

Finally, it's a good idea to add a short explanation on your C.V. for any awards that are not obvious from their title: e.g., "Best paper at Conference X" needs no explanation, but something like "Entrepreneurial Award" or "Hertz Foundation Fellow" should have a few words saying what that means, for those who aren't familiar. (See this answer for more on explanations)


Professor to whom I broke my promise is now a collaborator. What to say?

I understand that this situation is somewhat awkward, but I think it is important not to overthink this. It was, after all, a fairly long time okay, and at the time the professor said he understands, so you may be taking this incident harder than he is.

  But what should I say to X to break the ice?

I probably wouldn't mention anything, at least not at the beginning and definitely not over e-mail. Bring it up at an opportune time, or not at all.

  Should I start by apologizing again?

No. See above. Even if he remembers you (which is not at all guaranteed), starting a collaboration with "remember how I reneged from our agreement last time?" seems supremely awkward.
Should the collaboration take off and you meet more often and personally, it might be nice to apologize again, optimally in a social setting. Alternatively, if he brings the topic up, you can and should apologize. However, don't make a big deal out of it if he doesn't.

  Should I just pretend that I don't remember about him? This is good if he already forget about me. But if he still remembers about me because I caused him so much trouble, then I will appear as a horrible person to him.

You don't need to pretend you don't remember him. Just interact with him normally - even if you don't start a conversation about your last interaction immediately  (and he remembers you), he will probably not assume that you forgot about him, but that you are trying to not make the situation awkward. He won't consider you a horrible person for this.


Do you have to find out/ prove something to get a PhD?

Getting a PhD almost always requires one to have some original contribution to your field. That result doesn't always have to be an earth shattering proof of something completely original. Your work can build upon existing work, or draw connections between a variety of different topics that no one has noticed yet, or even just suggest that there is a problem that nobody has considered yet. The point is that there has to be something unique, and original that counts as your contribution to the body of knowledge. That isn't easy to do certainly, but it isn't impossible for normal people to accomplish through lots of time and hard work either.


How to get academic search engines only search in open access journals?

I'm not sure, whether you really meant open access journals, because when I'm searching at home and I'm too lazy to use the VPN of our university, I'm usually interested in publications I can access.

I wouldn't rely on Google Scholar alone, because I'm not sure whether they filter the results. When you study the advanced search of google a bit, you'll see, that some of the switches are really nice. One really important switch is the -filetype option. If you search for instance for image segmentation in Google Scholar you get instantly only results with a downloadable pdf file if you use

image segmentation filetype:pdf

Even more handy becomes this approach in a two step method. As you know, when you "put something in quotes" in google, you search for the exact string. This can be used to do the following:

find some preview of the article you want to download.
choose a very specific part of a sentence there
search for this part and use the filetype option

Non-scientific example: Sometimes I'm searching for piano notes of some popular songs and since everyone tries to make money with this, you often won't find a free, downloadable version. Therefore, I first search for something like "sheet music evanescence my immortal" and look at one of the first links, where you usually can see one sample page. Then I see, what's on the page and I use this information to adjust my search

"My immortal" "I'm so tired of" "Slowly and freely" filetype:pdf

and the first hit is a high-quality pdf with all pages.

The same approach sometimes works for scientific publications, because most scientists put their publication on their website. So while you have to pay on the journal website, you may get it for free somewhere else.


How to report plagiarism in a publication

Contact the editor of the journal in which the fraudulent paper was published, present your claims, and be prepared to submit evidence.  If there's no response, contact the editor of the original journal - they may be able to use legal means to force the retraction of the fraudulent paper.


How to professionally inform of my intention to quit my masters

First, there shouldn't be any shame involved. For some reason you have learned that what you are now doing isn't right for you. That is perfectly natural, even if you are struggling at the moment. But before you decide finally, make sure it is the right decision.

As to how to do it, a face to face meeting is the best way. But before you have the meeting, think about what your future plans are so that you can talk about them as well as about quitting. If you think you may want to return later, you can work that in. The academic life isn't for everyone, and it may be a good thing if that is the case for you and you learn it now.

Your advisor may even have options available that you haven't thought of, but face to face is best. If you want to give him/her a heads-up on your intentions, send an email asking for a meeting to discuss your future.

You don't say why you are considering quitting, and you need not. However, there are at least three common reasons. First, is just external pressures that need to be dealt with. Second is burn-out that is pretty common also, and can lead to health issues. That can be overcome in some cases with help.

But the third reason is one to consider. There is a condition called Imposter Syndrome that affects many students at a certain point. It is the deep feeling that you don't belong because you "aren't good enough." That is often a bit related to burn-out but it is also pretty often completely unjustified. One of the reasons for speaking to your advisor in person is that he/she might just reassure you that you are, in fact, good enough. I suggest that you investigate Imposter Syndrome online as a start if you think this resonates.