how one is not accused of plagiarism when including an article in a MSc thesis?

Many journals have specific policies that allow the submission of material that has previously appeared in an MS or Ph.D. thesis.  This is an exception to the general rule that submitted manuscripts must consist of new, not previously published, research.
Similarly, many academic institutions have policies that allow for the inclusion of text from published papers in MS and Ph.D. theses if the journal publisher also allows this.
Assuming that both your institution and the journal that you're publishing in have such policies, then you can reuse a journal article in your thesis.  This is really quite common in many STEM fields. When you do submit your paper, you should make it clear that some or all of the paper has previously appeared in your thesis and refer to the publisher's guidelines on this.


What kind of PhD proposals should I read?

Ask them the purpose of not providing a mathematics proposal. A hard science looking at a similar science might get tunnel vision, but I doubt a mathematics PhD would face the same problem seeing as they're less experimental method than other fields.

PhD proposals, unlike theses, also seem to be much more readily accessible online. A quick search for theoretical physics phd proposal on Google, even without Scholar, yields a decent amount of samples that provide a significant amount of differing examples in sufficiently different subjects from math that the content can be differentiated from the style.


What are the benefits of taking textbook notes?

In addition to the benefits mentioned by fgysin, you might want to include in your notes information that is not explicitly in the textbook, for example alternative ways to think about some of the textbook's material, details that are omitted in the textbook, special cases of the facts in the book, or connections between different passages in the book.


Let's start with the bottom line.

  How do you deal with this?

This is your first semester teaching the course. Forget analyzing attendance statistics - you should spend your time differently:

Put effort into preparing your classes (actually that's kind of a must)
If you haven't already, do some reading and/or watch videos on presentation skills
Get feedback from other teachers / teaching assistants - even asking one or two of them to sit in on a class, take notes and give you pointers
A bit tricky, but - think of a way to get feedback from students - without turning your class into a discussion panel about the class itself. For example, if there is a web forum or Facebook page where students discuss the class, read some of it (and absolutely do not post anything).

  To my surprise, out of the initial batch (<50), 25% never showed up and another 12.5% ended up dropping the class.

Why are you surprised? If people can relatively freely drop registered classes, they might over-register to begin with and only make the decision what to go to on the first day, or later. They don't know / don't care that "over-subscription" to classes bothers anybody.

  I pour my heart and soul into making the class as well as I can (even if it's the first time I teach it), but am very worried about this number.

Those two things are actually quite orthogonal. Certainly the people who never showed up in the first place have not made any judgment regarding the quality of your classes. And as for the 12.5% - you can't know whether they disliked you as a teacher, or decided the course is not right for them, or any other reason.

  Does such a dropout rate generally mean that I am indeed failing the students in some way or is this something that happens quite frequently?

Given only the information you've provided - you're not failing the students in any way.


How to tailor a CV for travel grant applications

In my experience, your CV is your CV, and it should list basically everything of scientific significance about you (unless you're so far along in your career that you can do an impressive "highlight" CV).  The main decision available to you is how you order and cluster these things.

Thus, if your CV is already ordered and grouped to put your best foot forward, scientifically, I don't think you need to do anything else in particular to tailor it for a travel grant application.  I certainly know that when I have been in the position of looking at student/early-career applications to decide on travel grants, the full package is generally small enough that it's easy to see the significant bits no matter how things are formatted.


What should I say to my project advisor who thinks I may not get a Ph.D position?

Well, he has a point. You are not guaranteed to get a position (no one is), and you should have a backup plan.

Some possible solutions for a physicist are working as a software developer, a quant in finance, or teacher. You may also take a temporary job, hone your skills, and try again the next year. Another pre-emptive option, and what he probably has in mind, is to change to a field you are stronger in, and probably have a better chance of getting a position.

This said, if you really like this field, go for it and give it a shot. Just convince your potential supervisor that you are not delusional, you know the risks, and you are not overcomitting to a wild goose chase.


Is it plagiarism to publish work that is contained in a final report to the funder?

If the final report to the funder is kept confidential by the sponsor and not used for external purposes, then turning that report into a publication is not really self-plagiarism. It's similar to the logic that the contents of NSF and NIH proposals are not publications, and therefore material from them can be recycled later into publications.

In the present case, where the report is "published," you need to check with the journal to which you would like to submit your manuscript and determine what the journal's "prior use" policies are. Not all journals operate under the same set of rules.

My answer to the question Is there a downside to “publishing” a preprint first? and the comments are worth reading.


How valuable are poster presentations for new Ph.D. student?

It depends on how well the poster session is organized, and on the culture in your discipline (do people show up, do they engage with the people next to the poster or just do the pro forma lap past all posters and leave again, etc.). So there is no single answer to this question.

However, I come from a discipline that puts little value on poster presentations, and I disagree. For me the poster presentations are the ones that have been most productive. In a poster session there is much more room for me to interact with the participants, while in a presentation it is me talking followed by one or two questions. It is the interaction (questions) from the audience that tells me if my argument is clear, if I made any mistakes, if there are some interesting angles I have missed, if there is another group that does interesting complementary work, etc. etc. So I have received a lot more interesting feedback from poster presentation than from oral presentations. Also, if a part of my argument is unclear, it typically takes a bit of back and forth to pin down where the exact problem is. In a oral presentation there is typically little room for that, but such a conversation is perfectly natural for a poster presentation.

So my suggestion is to ask someone who has attended that conference before whether the poster session was half-way decent (not 7 in the morning on the day after the conference diner, 20 minutes walk from the main venue, parallel to lunch which was served on another location, or other disasters). If there are no disasters, then a poster presentation is probably well worth it.


This is one of those situations that has an obvious, but unsatisfactory, solution. The supervisor has power over you and can wield it to your disadvantage. I suggest that you just let it ride without complaint. I know it isn't fair, but, as a student you have little recourse or power to change things.

Know that if you let it go you will get a good, if not perfect, outcome, and that you won't always be "under the thumb" of your supervisor. But having your name on a patent is a positive thing, no matter the rest.

But he can make if very unpleasant for you if you object. As other questions here suggest this is unfortunately a moderately common issue.

Treat it as a learning experience and if you make a career in Academia, don't do this sort of thing. And if you wind up with some "power" there, work to assure it doesn't happen in the future, but you have little power now.


Is it ethical to quit your phD aft 6 months for a better phD offer?

As with most ethical situations, the answer is likely that it depends on the context, your relationship with your Ph.D. advisor at your home university, and the field that you are in.

For example, if you will be teaching or working in a lab at your home university, then you will likely be providing a valuable service to your professor and the university in exchange for funding. I don't know about Germany, but I know in the United States, students don't have any obligation to stay at one university, and I know people who have successfully transitioned from one Ph.D. program to another, without repercussion.

However, when you get to the Ph.D. level, the professional world often gets a lot smaller, and faculty members may have relationships with one another. If you were to unexpectedly leave the program at your home university, you risk damaging your professional reputation, and you could be seen as unreliable when you are looking for work.

I personally believe that it is more ethical to be upfront with your home university, although doing so could put your funding and your ability to stay at your home university at risk.

These conversations can be extremely difficult. As an educator, I personally care much more about my students than about the university at which I work, and I would completely understand if a student found an opportunity that is more congruent with their long term plans.

You could also intentionally time when you disclose to your advisor at your home university - wait until after you have started working at your home university and then tell them that you are applying to the program in the U.K. That way they will hopefully have a heads up that you may be leaving, but you will have already been admitted with funding.

You likely know your advisor better than anyone on here, and thus you are in the best position to decide what to do.

In summary: it is probably more ethical to tell your advisor at your home university that you may be leaving, although it is also not particularly ethical for a faculty member to act punitively against a student for pursuing a better opportunity.

This is an incredibly difficult situation to be in, and I wish you the best!


Should I stop applying faculty positions after I take on a postdoc job

Don't stop exploring other positions until you have a firm commitment from the professor. The situation is mutual. You both have to agree before anything is finalized. Until then you are still free to consider all options.

By firm commitment, I mean something that you can put your signature to.


Should writers give credit to reference librarians?

Yes, the acknowledgements section of your paper is an appropriate place to thank anyone who provided valuable assistance.  Depending on the circumstances, you could phrase it pretty generally ("I thank the reference librarians at University X for their assistance in conducting a literature search"), you could thank specific people, or you could even identify particular contributions ("I am grateful to Y for bringing the literature on Z to my attention").


Should I contact a PhD student or his supervisor for potential collaboration?

First, check the fine print in the paper itself.  Some journals ask the authors to designate one person as the "contact author" or "corresponding author", and distinguish that author with a notation and a mark on the author list.  If that is the case, then that is the person that you should write to.

Beyond that, since the professor is well-known in your field, know that you are unlikely to end up doing much direct collaboration with them in any case, simply because they probably already have many different projects in progress.  The student is also more likely to respond at all for the same reason.

You can't know before writing, however, whether you'd mostly likely end up working with this Ph.D. student or somebody else: if the student still has some years to go, you'd likely end up collaborating with them; if they are about to defend, they might either be "taking the project" or handing it off to another student.  So if there isn't one person designated as contact author, write to both (as ff524 suggests in the comments), and let them decide how to respond.


Is there a point of applying to a University if potential adviser rejected me

You may have answered your own question in the comment above, I fear.

In many disciplines, as you say,

  a department will not offer acceptance if there is no one to supervise you

In those disciplines, offers tend to me made only if a particular faculty member advocates for a student. If the faculty member you would like to work with is not taking students, it seems unlikely that you would be admitted. So if yours is one of those disciplines, save your money.

For further discussion, see this question.


Do we have a citation ethics in science?

Citations have only one practical purpose: indicating to your readers where they can find the published material on which you built the work that's described in your paper (methods you used, hypotheses that your work support or contradict, etc.).

Everything else is just more noise in an already too noisy signal.

Citations should not be used to show deference to senior researchers, to increase citation metrics of a person's supervisor, nor to "grease the palms" of reviewers or falsely infer relevance to a given journal. Please refrain from doing such things, they hurt science.


how to get accepted back into a phd program in the US?

The best way to find out if you stand a strong chance of being reaccepted is to get into direct communication with the director of graduate studies or admissions.  (E-mail communication is okay, but talking on the phone would be better.)  That is the person who is best informed about what your chances are.

You may have just gotten a boilerplate answer from a departmental administrator that, since you are no longer a student, you automatically need to re-apply.  While that is undoubtedly true, strictly speaking, it may not be particularly useful information.  The faculty member(s) dealing directly with graduate admissions may be able to tell you a lot more.  Depending on the department, readmission might be a mere formality; or you might be competing on even footing with all the new students who are applying at the same time; or it could be somewhere in between.

If you are intending to continue working under the same advisor you had for your masters thesis, you should contact the advisor as well.  In many departments, if your advisor really wants you, admission can be pretty much guaranteed.  This is especially true if the advisor knows you, has worked with you, and wants you back.


The cardinal rule of interacting with advisors is that if you don't generally trust your advisor's advice, then you need a new advisor.  So you should start with the idea that your advisor's approach to any given situation is probably worth trying, and only give up on it if it's clearly not working out or seems contrary to what everyone else is saying.

Beyond that, I'm sure it varies between fields.  I wouldn't presume to offer advice to someone in a biology lab on how to sort this issue out, for example.

The most important thing, which you absolutely must do no matter what, is to inform your advisor in detail of any help you receive.  This is a matter of intellectual honesty, while everything else is a matter of convention or wise strategy.

What you want to avoid is the following scenario: you meet with X, then meet with Y and explain what X said, then meet with X and convey Y's response to X's ideas, then meet with Y again and relay information back from X, etc.  If you try this and are a little vague about the line between your own ideas and what you learned in your last meeting, then you can pull it off for a while, but eventually you'll be in big trouble when X and Y talk.  Even if you never actually lied, but just let people assume you were contributing more than you actually did, they'll be very unhappy if they decide you weren't contributing enough.  [And this can be a particular danger for students: if someone says something cryptic and then you figure it out later, is that because you are adding new ideas and insights, or because you are catching up to where the expert already was?  It can be hard for a beginner to judge, and this potential for confusion is a valid worry for advisors.]

As to how to introduce the idea to an advisor who resists getting outside help, the main thing is to understand why.  Is it because your advisor feels this is an important learning experience for you?  Is the advisor convinced that the problem is not as difficult as you fear?  (And, if so, can you make a compelling case that it is?)  There are also more worrisome scenarios.  For example, maybe the local expert in this area is notorious for competing with or undermining students, or has a bad relationship with your advisor.  Your advisor may be reluctant to say this explicitly, so if he/she seems to be ruling out a natural collaborator for unclear reasons, then you should ask about other people you might talk with instead.


Using grant proposal for applying to faculty position

Unless there is something tricky that I can't see, there should be no problem, though I'd suggest some rewording, just to make things clear.
For example, the grant covers "work in progress" perhaps, rather than "work to be done".
But the important thing is to be clear in the faculty application about what is past, present, and proposed for the future. I think you will be in a strong position if your "Statement of Purpose" is a continuation of a research program that is already in progress and has seen some results.
I think that the rewording, rather than just copying, would make it stronger.
I hope I'm not missing something.


Difference between the problem a paper is trying to solve and primary research questions it tries to answer?

As the saying goes,

  There's more than one way to cook an egg.

In the research context, this means that sometimes a problem is presented, but there are numerous ways to approach the larger problem. It's possible - in fact, it's likely - that most large problems are addressed from multiple angles by different papers.

As a concrete example (in computer science), consider the problem of sorting a list of integers. There are many, many different ways of doing this (some of which you probably don't want to use), but the assumptions you make have a major impact on how you solve the problem. So a single problem might lead to many research questions:

How do I sort a list of random integers?
How do I sort a list of integers of unknown size?
How do I sort a list of partially-sorted integers?
How do I sort a list of integers with no worse than O(x) performance, where x is some upper bound?

And so on. Each of these research questions is just a smaller, more digestible piece of a larger problem. But because the problem is so large, you can't answer every question in a single paper -- hence, the discrepancy you pointed out.


How do I ask / inform my supervisor that I need to take a day off?

XX,

I was just given a surprise gift -- tickets to a show in YY City.  It would be thrilling to go -- any chance you could spare me on Thursday?  Because of the distance, it would mean missing the whole day.  However, I'm free all day Saturday.  If you like, I could come in then to make up the time.

(however you like to sign your name)

Please feel free to adjust this as needed.  For example, you can make the tone less breezy and more formal if you want to.


Developing casual relationship with advisor

You stated a key point

  Perhaps this is just my personal preference, but I'd like to have a more casual relationship with someone that I see everyday and talk to everyday.

It could very well be that his personal preference to take time to foster the kind of relationship that you describe - it could also be a case of him not feeling comfortable have a casual relationship with his employees/advisees. There is no way to really know how long he has known the other professors that he speaks and laughs with.

You can not and should not force it. This is very important, some people recoil when people try and force these kinds of things.

To be honest, based on the conversation snippet, it sounds like he is not being rude at all, but just is focused on the task and on maintaining positive progress.

It is not a bad thing to have a strong working relationship - a polite and productive relationship is beneficial to many working relationships. I would suggest to focus on that aspect.


Does graduating a UK PhD in 5 years look bad (with circumstance)

I'm not in the UK, but if you would accept that your question is "Does graduating with a PhD 1 year later than normal look bad?" I would say no, it doesn't, and especially if it results in 1 additional good publication, it might even look better. As @ProfSantaClaus mentions, publication records are typically most important.

Additionally, having received a presumably competitive grant looks good, doing work with an additional research group looks good, and expanding your network by working with another research group is also good.

I wouldn't worry too much about this as long as the whole process makes good sense for you in other ways, and it sounds like it does.


How many postdocs should one usually do before it is realistically possible to get a faculty position?

If you mean a tenure track position at an R1 school, the simple answer is "one" (no more, no less).  And often you will have had preliminary interest (e.g. invited for talks) with some R1 target schools even before the start of the one post doc.  IOW, people already know you are "in the mix" for plum positions.  And you know it, too.

Of course, if you can get such a position with zero postdocs, go you.  But this is still rare, even for superstars.

If you are heading to your second postdoc, the bloom is "realistically" off your rose.  Look for teaching school positions at best.  Or move to industry or government.  You have too much to offer to wander around doing postdocs for your life.  Academia is a "tournament" job system (Google it) and you are one of the vast numbers of "many are called but few are chosen".

[Note for pedants, the word "realistic" in the question title...]


How should I direct readers to a reference work that is riddled with errors?

Citing the original sources (as suggested in Comments by @MorganRodgers and @SolarMike) would generally be preferable even if the flawed book were perfect. By doing so, you credit the discoverers directly and give a sense of the timeline of various advances in the field.

However, I think it would be a mistake for you to ignore the flawed book entirely. It may be of some use to your readers in spite of its errors. Also, you wouldn't want to appear to be ignorant of the existence of that book.

As the occasion arises to point to the work of others, credit the original sources. However, if the original sources may be difficult to obtain, you could also mention the later book (along with a brief comment in
passing about any mistakes on the specific topic under discussion).
You might also mention the later book if it has any value added:
translations from other languages, explanatory figures, discussions
of connections with other results, historical perspectives, and so on).

If the later book is in your bibliography and you mention it a few
times, you have at least given it due credit and shown you are aware of its existence. If you gently point out
a couple of specific relevant errors, your alert readers will get the idea that
the book has some flaws.

It is always best to point out errors in gentle, non-judgmental, matter-or-fact language. In spite of your best efforts and those of referees and editors, your own paper will likely have some mistakes. You will see some of them immediately upon publication, even though they stealthily avoided earlier detection.


Would an honest researcher actually have to pay back their salary?

No, that answer is ridiculous.

In North America, as long as you were working honestly*, the only reason you would ever have to return money is if you were accidentally overpaid (i.e. they paid you more money than you earned).

* I assume you aren't actually trying to commit fraud


Are there any industry related jobs for a Discrete Mathematics (Combinatorics, Graph theory) PhD?

Short answer: Everything.

Long answer:
Mathematicians are often not (solely) hired for the graphs and algorithms they know, but for the skill to logically dissect a problem, come up with a solution, consider all possible cases, etc.

With discrete math, a career in software development would be possible for example. Look for R&D departments or positions and they might prefer a PhD with strong background and some coding skills over someone who has developed for years but is not able to turn a Wiki article on some algorithm into proper code because the math is lacking to understand it.

If you don't mind extending into statistics a little bit, data science and machine learning would open up, where also a lot of mathematicians are wanted currently.

The problem solving skills I mentioned above are also often liked by consultant agencies, where they care not so much about what you know (as you will need to learn and use their products either way mostly) but rather that you can take a client's problem and solve it. Also these guys really like PhDs, as that looks cool and they can bill you out higher than someone without one (even if your PhD is not that relevant to the client).

So, medium long answer: There are a lot of options, you simply need to get out there and look for them. You will need to do some convincing of the form "yes, I am missing these two skills you require, but I can more than make up for it by ...", but then you should be able to get into many fields.


What to do if your editor does not reply and there is no one else to contact?

See if you can download the PDF from the journal submission website. The editorial management systems I'm familiar with will take the author-submitted source files and generate something, which can then be downloaded by everyone (including the author). In fact, some editorial management systems will generate a preview for the author to approve before the submission is formally registered. If you've not received a "submission received" email, there's a chance that it hasn't been submitted right.

Otherwise, it has only been one day. One day really isn't a lot of time (especially since it's currently a weekend). Even if someone usually responds in one day, he could be ill or on leave. I would wait a bit longer - maybe 2-3 more days.

If the manuscript was submitted correctly and there's still no response from the editor-in-chief after 2-3 more days, I'd email the publisher. You mentioned you can't find an email for the journal's editorial assistant, but you might still be able to find a "contact us" link on the publisher's website, and they'll be able to redirect you to the right person.


How do admission committees in US grad schools avoid a 'Native Speaker Bias' in evaluating recommendation letters?

I think your question falsely equates being a "talented writer" with things like knowing correct English grammar and spelling and knowing many synonyms for "good", which native English speakers are better at than non-native ones. Those things may indeed be correlated, but they are far from the same, and there are many native English speakers who are crappy writers, and plenty of non-native ones who are "talented writers" who can write a very compelling letter of recommendation, whether grammatically correct or not.

To me, a talented writer is someone who has a good ability to communicate complex ideas effectively in writing. In the context of a letter of recommendation, the grammar and spelling may be poor and the choice of words can be clunky in certain places but the letter can still tell a good story about why the student is worth admitting and be more persuasive than a dry, boring but grammatically flawless letter written by a less talented writer. So, to the extent that students whose letters are written by talented writers enjoy an advantage in admissions decisions, that advantage is not what I would call an unfair advantage or a bias; at least, it's no more unfair than many other merit parameters that applications are judged upon, many of which are unfair to some extent. (In particular, with letters of recommendation there is certainly some unfairness that is intrinsic to the whole system of LORs that academia is built on, since how effective the letters are depends on many random factors, including how talented the writers happen to be).

To summarize, as a general rule I don't think there is any particular "native speaker bias" that needs to be avoided. Admissions committee should read the letters and be impressed by each letter precisely to the extent that it makes a compelling case for admission.*

*The only possible exception to this conclusion is in the case of letters coming from countries where many academics really can't speak or write English very well. Those letters in some cases can be extremely difficult to extract any useful information from, and an applicant with such letters is probably not going to fare too well, perhaps unfairly. However, I don't see what can be done about that -- that is essentially one of the flaws intrinsic to the entire LOR system, as I mentioned above. The system may be flawed, but as far as I know no one has yet found a system that works better.


Is it possible to study in China without knowing Chinese?

If you include Hong Kong as part of China, the answer is Yes but limited to Hong Kong. English is an official language of Hong Kong. Universities in Hong Kong all use English as the media of teaching and the common language for research is English. No Physics courses are taught in languages other than English and no faculty members are not proficient in English. See this official website for reference. The best are University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Otherwise the choices are limited to those high-ranking universities in China such as Peking University and Tsinghua University. In Tsinghua, most faculty members use English for publication purpose but not at all for communications in research. Most teaching and administration stuff are in Chinese. So you have to learn chinese at least in conversational level to survive a Phd there.


Does a masters degree help completing PhD sooner?

It depends on the university and the program.

In the US, most PhD granting institutions have pre-requisites for getting your PhD.  This may include coursework and will also require research.

For research, one could argue that if you did research in the course of your Master's degree then you would have a time advantage in that you may be able to hit the ground running and engage in publish-able research more quickly.

In institutions that require coursework, the amount of coursework that overlaps with a Master's program can vary.  Often, even if you've taken similar coursework in another university, you would still need to fulfill the course requirements in the department where you're going for your PhD.  For programs that offer a combined Master's/PhD program, the courses for getting your PhD may be covered under the requirements for getting a Master's, so by already having a Master's degree you may only be shaving off a few of your requirements.

Last, at least in Computer Science, a Master's degree and a PhD are fundamentally different in what they're trying to educate you for.  A Master's degree is more like an advanced bachelor's degree where you're taking additional courses and gaining extra skills.  A PhD is for research.  Given that fundamental difference, it's difficult to say how much would transfer over and again, it would really depend on the university and the program's expectations of what you should have when you enter and what you requirements you need to fulfill once you get there.


How to respond when insulted by a grad student in a different department?

I'd probably document it (make a dated note to yourself someplace noting what occurred and exactly what was said, while you still remember it) and then ignore it, unless it becomes a pattern. The purpose of documentation is to start a record in case the behavior turns into something more regular.

The exception I would make is if you have any reason to believe this student is abusive/insulting to anyone vulnerable or deserving more protection. For example, if the commentary is racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. If it's more of a "(expletive) you" I'd let it go.


The tutorial you are referring to may be suitable for Protocol Exchange. These protocols are not peer-reviewed, and you can include supplementary materials such as computer code. Or else, if you think your method would have wide applicability, you could consider submitting to Nature Protocols, which is peer-reviewed.


What title to put in CV if you do research but unfunded?

If you are a student at a university it's probably unwise to claim to have a title there if you don't have it. Simply putting 'student' is probably better. On the other hand, many departments have unpaid, "zero hour" appointments if you really want an official title.

If you're not at a university and you fund yourself I suppose you can technically give yourself whatever title you want, but "independent researcher" would seem like a fitting description.


What is the average postdoctoral salary in China?

According to this news report Low salaries discouraging overseas academics from ChinaDaily USA,

  ... the average salary across all ranks and universities is roughly 6,000 yuan ($982) a month. That's low compared with the average entry-level salary in Canada of $5,733 and a full professors' $9,485. The average for newly hired faculty members in the US is $4,950.

Hiring postdocs is still a new trend in China. I can't find average postdoc salary yet. Once I see it (it may be in Chinese), I will report it here.

If average salary in the universities is USD$982 per month, I think I cannot say 40k USD per year is low.

Hope this helps.


Would it be a good idea to take online Master's program in Statistics?

Some possible pros of doing the master's on campus: doing the program on campus could lead to a higher chance of actually finishing the program.  It's nice to have professors, classmates, advisors, administrators to talk to in person, when you (inevitably) experience a rough patch in the program - it could make the difference between finishing and not finishing.

Some possible pros of doing the master's online: you can learn at your own pace, to some extent, without peer pressure from classmates, and this might fit your learning style better.  Also, I imagine the online programs are much cheaper.

So ultimately, you have to decide whether you'll have the discipline to start and finish an online program.  As for job searching in stats, your skills probably matter way more than whether you did a degree on-campus or online, unlike, say, going for an MBA or JD, where prestige matters a great deal.  Also, you have other verifiable credentials to go after, with your stats skills set - such as actuarial exams.

Edit: Just saw your other questions and it seems that you are also considering PhD programs.  If so, you'll need letters of recommendation from professors, but for this to happen, you'll need to do the program on-campus.


Question of authership. Belonging to two institutions. Are both required to be mentioned?

The answer to your question will very much depend on the specifics, but I will try to give some rules of thumbs.

  Do I need to mention school A as one of my affiliations?

This depends to a large extent to the relevance of you being affiliated to A to your publication. If the subject of your publication and/or the venue where you want to publish are even partially related to A's activities, then: yes you should present the affiliation.

Let me give an example: suppose you work as accountant at an oil company, and in your spare time you have done some environmental related research. While you might consider you to be unbiased, and the daily activities of your work do not have direct environmental aspects, it is still important for the readership of your article to know that you are professionally affiliated to an oil company. They can then decide for themselves whether they want take that into account when reading your article.

  Do you think school approval (review) at A is usually required ?

This depends very much on the rules that A has in place for their employees, and on your own agreements with A. Read your contract, any other agreements and regulations and ask your boss (or any other relevant person who has the authority to make decisions about this).

Some companies have strict regulations about publishing. You can try to make deviating arrangements, but if you do, make sure they are clear and they are in writing.


Is going to institute the same as going to grad school?

If you want to get a PhD you need a university to award the title. You can work with a research institute during your PhD, if the institute is somehow affiliated with a university. Ideally, you will get paid from the institute, work with researchers there but you still have to pass the required courses at the university, do the necessary publications. If all goes well, the PHD title will be awarded from the university.

To elaborate a little bit more. Research in institutes (I will speak from an EU perspective) is usually funded by "soft" money awarded from a grant or research program. The outcome of those projects is not only papers but also deliverables (i.e., written reports), online demos, even full fledged server applications and infrastructures. Thus, working in a research institute is not just producing papers (you do that as well) but also produce applications, write deliverables, prepare proposals and so-on. Conclusively, in research institutes, there are junior people working on the various projects for the more mundane "programming" tasks. Those people are more "disposable" (i.e., they work only during the duration of one project). Contrarily, there are people with a PhD that might work in this institute for years, have worked in multiple projects and have a more active role (they supervise the junior people, write proposals etc). Although many of them are not permanent employees of the institute (they are still paid from "soft" money, as well) they can collaborate with a research institute for many years.

Where do graduate students fit in all this scheme? If the institute is closely affiliated with a university, the PhD students of the university sometimes are assigned the junior roles in some projects, in order to get funding. As years go by, the PhD student (towards the end of his PHD) becomes a expert in his area (which might be close to the project's scope) and he may be assigned more senior roles.

So, if you want to do research in such a institute for a long time, you will need the PhD title, sooner or later.


Will a dropped class hurt PhD application?

If you have an otherwise excellent application, then withdrawing from a single course is unlikely to make much of a difference, especially a course in another field.  For example, if you get A's in four graduate math classes and drop a physics class in the same semester, I doubt any math graduate school will care.

It could look a little strange if the dropped course were on your proposed specialty (so people would think you'd be particularly enthusiastic about it), but even that wouldn't be a disaster.  If you aren't taking many courses and are getting worrisome grades in the others, then a W may look like you're narrowly avoiding an even worse grade, but in that case your application already has problems aside from the W.  Overall, the way I'd look at it is that the W might intensify other weaknesses in your application, but isn't likely to be a big obstacle in isolation.


Questions about transcript and PhD admission

I think that you should provide your own summary in form of a list, where each entry gives reference to the original translated document page.
And to do so independently of what you have wrote in a CV or other parts of your application. I mean make the summary a kind of cover letter for the official document.


Is a Master 2 Research (Europe) a University or Postgraduate Degree?

While I would recommend you to confirm, normally a 'university degree' is an undergraduate degree.

A postgraduate could be a postgraduate certificate, postgraduate diploma, or a postgraduate degree (which is a master degree)

I think you know what a PhD is.

In short, as master is a postgraduate (the middle of your three choices).

It seems a little strange because normally post-docs are post (after) doctorate (PhD).


4 weeks after on campus interview - ask about update

It's possible that they simply haven't yet finalized their ranking, gotten approval,  and made the first offer.  It seems more likely or that they have done so and you weren't their first choice.  You can certainly ask what the status of the search is, and they'll probably tell you whether or not an offer has been made, but don't expect to be told who has been made an offer or whether you're still in consideration.

If you are still under consideration and everyone ahead of you on the list turns down their offers, then you might get an offer later.


Think tanks are not academic endeavors. There is no submission process. There is no peer review. The "editorial board" is not made of researchers. Think tanks are essentially lobbies, but for ideas rather than corporations/industries. They work like any other lobby: they pay a lot of money to recognized researchers/politicians/journalists/cultural figures/... so that they can write the conclusion that is asked of them, in order to lend credit to the idea in question. Sending them an article seems like a pointless exercise. They are not interested in your ideas, they are interested in their ideas, and how you can help promote them.


Is there a way to save my career from absolute disaster?

I think your situation is not unique. If you look around academia.SE (as user2768 suggested, search for "impostor syndrome"), you will find that many PhD students have the same feeling about their work or their career path. See How should I deal with discouragement as a graduate student? for example. I hope this gives you some comfort -- sometimes it helps to know that other people are in similar situations -- and you will find some advice in the answers which works out for you.

The advice of your advisor seems reasonable in the sense that often one looks for the perfect solution from scratch, which is a path that rarely brings the desired results. I found that research is done in an iterative way, where you steadily improve and refine the methods and thereby the results. Of course, academic rigor must not be neglected. The impact factor is in my opinion indeed overrated, but this may depend on your field.

Don't let that stop you from applying and attending job/PostDoc position interviews. If you do nothing, you may end up in a spiral downwards since naturally there will be no progress in your career. And even if you fail at an interview, at least you gain experience what is required to succeed.


How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students?

Please feel free to edit the answer to improve it.
Generally, PhD programs in the US have many more applicants than they can accept. The number of positions is limited by finances (a department can only afford a limited number of RAs and TAs), space and resources (students often need offices and access to equipment), and the ability to supervise the students (there is a limit to the number of PhD students a faculty member can effectively supervise). The admissions committee must decide which of the qualified applicants are most likely to be successful researchers while taking departmental politics into consideration. These politics include things like the start-up package for Professor X including a funded PhD student and a particular resource being already at capacity.
The admissions committee bases its decision on a number of pieces of information including GPA, GRE scores, statement of purpose, references,  interviews, and, for international students, TOEFL scores. There is no formula (e.g., 6×GPA + 1×GRE + 2×references + publications) by which applicants are ranked, but some universities and/or departments set minimum requirements (e.g., GPA over 3.0 or a TOEFL over 85). The admissions committee looks at the entire application to make an informed judgment. This means that being strong in one area can, and does, offset being weak in another area.
GPA and major/background
When admissions committees consider the GPA, they are considering a number of factors including the grades: the strength of the school and major, the types of classes, and trends. An applicant who did poorly in first-year general electives will be looked at very differently from a student who did poorly in advanced specialized classes. The major is not nearly as important as the relevant classes. For example, an engineering department might look more favourably on a math major who took and did well on, engineering and applied-math electives than an engineering major who took humanities electives. As with everything in the admissions process, the admissions committee is trying to judge the potential for research success.
Compensating for a low GPA and major/background mismatch
A low GPA can be offset by a strong research record highlighted in the SOP and letters of reference. The SOP and letters of reference can also be used to make the admissions committee aware of any extenuating circumstances that may have lead to the low GPA. Similarly, the SOP and letters of reference can be used to address how your major and background prepare you for research in the field that you are applying to. Strong GRE scores can also help offset a low GPA, and a strong GRE subject test can compensate for mismatches between majors. The best way to offset a low GPA or a mismatch in the area of specialization is to consider enrolling in a terminal master’s degree and getting a good GPA in difficult classes.
I would like to add that an excellent way of improving a low GPA is by taking a senior thesis course, which is almost always available. Not only is this a proven way of building close ties with one or more faculty members (who will supervise you in your thesis) and getting those strong, personalized recommendations, but it could lead to a publication, or at the very least, a technical report published by the department. My senior thesis experience was life-changing: I ended up doing a Ph.D. because it made me realize that I was a better fit for doing research than I might have originally thought. In terms of grades, getting a good grade on the senior thesis course is usually not difficult (especially since you’re not evaluated on an exam performance), assuming you put in the effort.
It is also important to think honestly about why certain grades are low, and what you would do differently in graduate school. Learning from failure is a crucial skill (see, e.g., Dweck’s research on growth mindset, as well as  her widely-read book). In fact, almost all academics have been rejected by some of the programs, fellowships, grants, and journals that they have applied for or submitted to, and many have even failed classes. Finding constructive ways to deal with negative feedback, rejection, and failure is crucial in academia.
Examine why you struggled or what went wrong and how you can address a problem like that in the future. How have you developed the knowledge and skills that would have helped you then? Depending on the kinds of problems you faced and the extent of their impact on your record, they may not be appropriate to mention in your SOP and through your recommenders’ letters, but the steps you take to address them might tell their own story. (E.g., perhaps you failed a class but then did research with a professor of the same subject; perhaps you had a rocky college record because you were immature or bad at planning, but you have now worked for five years in a responsible position at a lab.)
GRE
There are a number of limitations to the GRE in terms of predicting research success, but it is the only standardized metric admissions committees have access to. The weight given to the different sections of the GRE and the subject tests can vary substantially among departments.
Compensating for low GRE scores
A low GRE score can be offset by a strong research record highlighted in the SOP and letters of reference. The SOP and letters of reference can also be used to make the admissions committee aware of any extenuating circumstances that may have led to the low GRE scores. A strong GPA can also help offset low GRE scores.
A particularly effective way to offset a low GRE is to retake the GRE. In many regions of the world, the GRE General Test is offered year-round via computerized administration at a testing center, and your scores are given to you immediately upon completion.  Upon receiving a lower-than-expected GRE score, you can, and should, immediately register for another GRE exam and begin preparing. Because of the short turn-around time, any preparation you did for the previous GRE should allow you to prepare much more quickly this time.
You are technically permitted to take the GRE General Test once every three weeks, or five times a year. However, repeat testings are detrimental to your schedule, morale, and finances, so it might be best to keep taking the test only until you receive a satisfactory score that you feel will represent your target school's applicant criteria, not until you receive the best score you believe is possible for you.
Once you have received the score you are satisfied with, the ETS offers a service to allow you to selectively determine which scores you provide to schools you are applying to, called ScoreSelect. This way, you can present your best cumulative score to the applications committee without being concerned about an older test, or one where extenuating circumstances made you perform worse than expected.

After test day, you can send additional score reports for a fee, and select from these options for each report you'd like to send:

Most Recent option — Send your scores from your most recent test administration

All option — Send your scores from all test administrations in the last five years

Any option — Send your scores from one OR as many test administrations as you like from the last five years

You will select by specific test dates, so your scores are all from the same testing session.

This applies to both general and subject GREs:

The ScoreSelect option is available for both the GRE® revised General Test and GRE® Subject Tests, and can be used by anyone with reportable scores from the last five years.

Again, I want to add that, in my experience, the GRE (particularly the General GRE) is a ‘filter’, nothing more. In many cases, even low GREs will be considered and not automatically discarded. Most top admissions panels do not accept one candidate over another simply based on GRE. I know for a fact that some colleges don’t even require candidates to submit GREs. When I was applying to CS Ph.D. programs a few years ago, for example, I noticed that MIT did not require GRE scores to be submitted.
In some fields, the Subject GRE is given significantly more weight than the General GRE, and so a low Subject Test score can be more harmful to a borderline application.  Since the Subject Test is usually offered twice in the fall (September and October), it can be to your advantage to register for both sittings.  This way, you can mitigate a poor showing on the September sitting by a stronger showing on the October sitting;  and if the September sitting yields a satisfactory score, you can simply cancel your registration for the October sitting.  This tactic can also be used for the General GRE in those regions of the world where computerized testing is not available.
Statement of Purpose (SOP)
Make sure you understand the conventions and expectations around statements of purpose in your field.  In some fields, something fairly generic will suffice, and in others, it could be the decisive component of your application. Talk to professors in the field you trust about whether your approach to the statement of purpose is an appropriate one.
This is also the ‘fairest’ part of your application. If you’re passionate about the research you want to do, it will show up in your SOP unless you’re a poor writer (in which case, you might want to reconsider the Ph.D. until you’re a decent one; good writing/communication is essential for successful researchers). There are several proven techniques of getting a strong SOP. I'll detail some below, but be careful about your field, as these suggestions are definitely not appropriate in all cases. One approach you might take before you even start writing your SOP is to:

Select your research area and actively check out the profiles of relevant professors, post-docs, and grad students (in that order) at the schools you are thinking of applying to. Check out their publications, and try to read (or at least skim) one representative publication before you start forming an opinion. The goals of this step are three-fold:

It will give you a good idea of how productive a research group is, and whether a professor is even accepting (or currently has) students. This is closely tied to the funding situation of that professor.
It will make you more informed about whether you really want to join that research group. What looks interesting at the high-level is not necessarily as exciting once you get into the nuts and bolts of the research.
If you discover a really good fit (which is the best outcome of this exercise; trust me), you can use that in a big way in your application. In CS, for example, students often post their code or demos. Download those and tinker with them. Apply them to new datasets. Have fun with what’s available. I’m sure similar things can be done in other research areas.

Try to make contact with the faculty member of your choice. At the same time, also try to establish connections with the grad students. My adviser once showed me a list of potential Ph.D. candidates he was screening and asked me if by chance I’d heard of any of them. As it turned out, I did know one, through early contact. Needless to say, she got the position. The rest of her application didn’t even really matter at that point. Note that the reason you should do this step after Step 1 is to enable you to write an ‘intelligent’ note to the person you’re contacting. It’s a good idea to not mention that you’re applying at all in your early emails. Instead, try to start a conversation around the actual research. Show that you’re interested and that you know what you’re talking about. (The ‘know what you're talking about’ part is pretty important though!) Become a familiar name in that group.

Make sure to attend lots of talks by visiting faculty in your undergrad university. You don’t know where that will lead you. If someone’s talk influences you to pursue an area of research, that’s an excellent thing to reference in your SOP.

How does all this relate to the SOP? The SOP is your chance to show your committee that you did this and more. You can drop faculty names you’ve successfully contacted, and even reference papers. You can personalize each application. Most SOPs don’t cite even a single paper. Citing a paper though will move your application up another notch in the eyes of an academic committee, but only if you do it intelligently and appropriately.
Having reviewed certain applications, I would also like to mention one major flaw that shows up in the majority of the SOPs that get rejected. The SOP is not the document where you should get too personal. Don’t waste too many words discussing your childhood, or random thoughts you've had, or your theory of life. It's fine to state interests and hobbies and unrelated accomplishments, but make every word as objective (and verifiable) as you can. This is generally true, but especially so for STEM programs. Academics are impressed by crisp, concise writing.
The SOP is also your chance to explain negative experiences, such as poor grades, letters, or lack of research experience. This is a tricky balance. It is important to candidly and directly address your weaknesses: it looks very out of touch if you write an aggressive SOP but never mention your awful grades. At the same time, the SOP is not the place to do a lengthy post-mortem on your failures. You should tell a very simple, clear narrative: "I had personal and medical problems during my junior year, but my performance during the  other three years was very strong." If you want to give a concise reason ("my father died"), you may, but don't overdo it.
Compensating for a poor SOP
Compensating for a poor SOP is very difficult. A high GPA and perfect GRE scores will do little to help an applicant who has difficulties writing about research. In some fields, past research experience is expected, while in other fields the ability to write about research intelligently may suffice in convincing the admissions committee to admit you, even if you don’t have experience doing research. Strong letters of reference can, to some extent, address a weak statement of purpose. However, there is generally a strong correlation between the strength of letters of reference and past research experience. If you have no official research experience, try and get letters of recommendation from professors where you completed a class research project that got a good grade. Even if you didn’t do supervised research with the professor, the professor may be able to comment on your research skills and successes. Definitely contact the professor and remind them of your class project, and the grade you received. Summarize it, and attach the project to the professor so they can refer to it.
References
You’ll want at least one very strong reference for a top-ten program and in many cases two strong letters (three is actually quite a stretch). See my note above for how you can secure at least one very strong letter by doing a senior thesis. Try also to aim for at least one research internship during your undergrad. This could lead to a second strong letter from a researcher in your area. Letters from industry don’t usually have the same appeal for academics.
Compensating for bad reference letters
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Interview
Most STEM positions (physics, math) do not require an interview.
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Compensating for a bad interview
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TOEFL
Improve your English and retake TOEFL; generally, schools have minimum TOEFL scores, and taking a student whose English isn’t good enough can be a huge headache.  Some schools in the US will do phone/Skype interviews with prospective international students to get a sense of their English.
Meeting the minimum requirements
Every university/department handles the stated minimum requirements differently. Sometimes a hard threshold is used such that if an application fails to meet all the minimum requirements, it will not be considered at all. Other times, the threshold is soft, and applications that do not meet all (or some) of the minimum requirements will still be considered. If you do not meet the minimum, only the department you are applying to can tell you if you are eligible to apply.
Transferring graduate schools
If you have a poor undergraduate record, getting a master's degree might make sense. Good performance during a master's might make up for poor performance during undergraduate. On the other hand, master's degrees rarely provide funding and often require the student to pay tuition. Further, some doctoral programs prefer or require that students join right out of undergraduate. So, you will need to determine whether pursuing a master's makes sense given your goals. The other option is to take another year of undergraduate to retake coursework/exams and pursue research opportunities.
If you do decide to pursue a master's degree, some tips are to: pursue a research-based masters (not coursework-based), find an advisor who will be able to write you a strong letter of recommendation, and carefully address your experience during your own statement of purpose.
If you have a poor record during graduate school, it can be very difficult to transfer graduate schools. As reported here are, you must report your experience at the other graduate school; concealing your attendance could end your career. Beyond that, most of the advice above applies; however, it is even more important to craft a clear narrative that explains what went wrong and why things will be better at the new institution.


How to list my former affiliation when it changed name (and character)

List it as the degree you earned, as it was called at the time you earned it, because that is an accurate reflection of what you studied, and it's what your degree says (or what a verification would say).  If an employer gets to the stage of verifying your degree, you could let them know that the program changed name, but it's not strictly necessary (and they won't always tell you before doing a verification).

Programs come and go and change names, and whole universities open and close, but even closed programs/universities have alumni and their studies/degrees are still valuable for the knowledge gain (at that time) they represent.

Even in cases like this one, where credentials were called into question based in part by a school not conferring a particular type of degree claimed, the fact that they historically did (or didn't) could be answered by a simple question and there are opportunities to explain the name change.


What to do when haven't heard back from potential supervisor who is moving?

I cannot agree with Neo: one month is awful long time in any conversation, and I would take that long wait only if explicitly said to contact months later. Long time is a problem because 1) he forgets what was it about, 2) it can give the impression that OP is maybe not that enthusiastic about the opportunity, 3) in a month a lot of things can happen with an open position....

People can forget mails, or not answer even if they not forget them, especially if he is busy and not you are his first priority. Just send him a polite follow up email: remind him in the first sentence or two about your discussion and he was positive about you. Then ask about the Skype interview, how you can roll this etc.

If you are afraid that he is busy and you are too pushy, you can just state that you know he is busy so if he wants to postpone this conversation / scheduling the interview after his move, you are totally fine (are you? do you have any deadlines to care for?). If this latter happens, still ask that you will follow him up a month etc. later, if it is good for him. Busy people dont like to be pushed in a schedule, but if no one sets expectations for a schedule (any schedule that convenient for him), nothing will be done and also kind of unprofessional.

(I assume this story is about US. Different countries call for different level pushiness.)


Someone misrepresented my work in a published paper

While nothing much may come of it, I think you should write them pointing out that they have missed some things about your work. Ask them for a correction, though don't expect one to occur. If you want to smooth the waters, congratulate them, also, for the good things they have done in their own work.

But letting it lie without comment serves no one well and might lead to a repeat in the future.

If you want to be a bit more aggressive, copy the conference chair on your email, but think hard about the consequences of that.

I'll assume that the errors were unintentional, in which case you should expect a good result.


Applying for PhD programs before finishing your honours, when admission requires a first or high second honours?

Yes.  Typically applicants apply for a PhD program before completing the prerequisites.


How to find a job without recommendation letters?

The situation is difficult so the solution may also be difficult. I can offer only a few suggestions.

If you are just four years past finishing your doctorate it isn't too late to re-connect with your previous professors, and maybe your advisor. If you wait much longer it will be, however. The best way is to visit your old institution in person and spend a couple of days talking to people and reminding them of who you are. You can also talk to them about research ideas - theirs and yours. But you can also let them know why you have been away and that you'd like to get back into academia. If you were once well regarded then you still are, but they need a reminder. Such a visit might be the best "vacation" you've ever had.

Another thing, not very palatable, is to get some low-level position in a decent university where you can do more than is required by the job. If you can let the tenured faculty know of your skills and interest, maybe you can be given interesting tasks that will lead, after a while, to good letters of recommendation. It may not be possible to work up from a low level position to a better one at that university, but you may be able to leverage it for a position somewhere else.

Further down the list of suitable options is to look at good secondary institutions, rather than universities. There are many of them that find people with doctorates to be very desirable. The job is mostly teaching, and mostly introductory subjects, but it can pay the bills. If the place is also located close to a good university, you can make yourself known there and try to get connected to a research group so as to get some papers into publication. Initially they might be joint papers, of course.

But don't let your age be a deterrent. You will get older no matter what you do. Many people don't start their career until your age, in fact. But take a long view into following whatever opportunities present themselves, always with a view to a higher level position.


Is h-index important? Can h-index be used to classify yourself to know whether you are at a given academic rank?

As with all bibliometrics, the h-index is indicative at best. There is no magic number that says "now give this person a promotion", but if you have an h-index twice that of your colleagues, it might suggest something interesting.

If you really want to use the h-index to see how you compare to other organic chemists, why not look at the h-index of your colleagues, collaborators, or of researchers at the department you're applying to? You will already have a sense of their relative position, you'll be familiar with their work, and it'll help you get a sense of what the h-index might mean in your specific field - as well as the amount it varies between individuals you'd think of as comparable.

(Make sure to calculate all h-indexes using the same citation data, though. You'll get confusing results if some use Web of Science data and some Google Scholar...)


Moving from a modest research laboratory to a laboratory with a prestigious research portfolio. Tips to be successful?

Along with research, work hard to make a lot of connections. Certainly connections at the new university, but beyond that through conference meetings and collaborations. Build a circle around yourself. Join the circle of other, more senior people.
Get a sense of all of the research trends around you, even if it shallow outside your specialty.
And, keep connections back "home". In the future you may have an opportunity to do something good for students there as well.


Such errors are not uncommon. Just inform the journal through the editor in chief or wait until you actually have an editor. It is normally possible to change titles in any case up to the time of finalization.

At worst there will be a bit of confusion until you make the correction.


How can I fix or do after I made many big mistakes with my professor?

Don't make the language as an excuse to your behaviour. Being respectful to your professor has nothing to do with the language proficiency. If you can't learn in English then quit your English-speaking school. Most of us are not English native speakers and yet we study at English schools.

  What should I do to fix the problem?

1) Change your behaviour. There is no need to give your opinion about everything the professor says. At the same time, I bet you are very welcome to ask questions related to the material and the professor will be happy to answer them.

2) Tell the professor that you have changed and you regret what you did. I believe you got a very nice professor ( I know some professors who will make your day miserable if you act like this in their class). Take the class seriously or at least do not be the class trouble maker.


Good questions for a student-advisor compatibility test

Let me continue along the lines of @paul and @pete in a shortened quest for an answer.

I have been a teacher, although at this time I simply "work for" University of Richmond in a staff position. Lately I have been musing over a similar question involving the interaction between MDs and their patients. As patients we can forget that there is a sense in which we are hiring the doctors, and that the doctors are doing work /for/ us. While it is an asymmetric relationship, it is possible to bring it into balance.

The interview is likely to be short from the {doctor|advisor} side: A cardiologist is unlikely to be of much use for my orthopaedic problems, and an advisor is likely to be able to cut short the interview rather quickly if the subject matter is ill suited. So, let's suppose the question is really "How do I as a {patient|student} select a {doctor|advisor}?" It is a search for compatibility, yes?

"How did you get into this line of work?" I always ask this. I want my doctor to have gone into medicine for the same reasons I got into computer science.
"What has kept you in this line of work?" I really want the answer to match my own reasons for having worked with computers and software every day for the past four decades: I cannot imagine doing anything else.
I know what success/victory conditions are for myself. So I ask "In my case, what does success look like for you?"

You are likely to spot failure/incompatibility in five minutes; which allows you to move on to the next candidate. If you can talk at ease for 15 minutes, you likely have found someone with whom you are compatible. Remember: the match need not be perfect to be successful.

So in your case, you are looking for answers involving a continued desire to have substantive interactions with students (rather than just "problems"), and someone who likes to frame and revise the problem, but allow the student to work alone as evidence of success.


Official Transcripts: Applying to Previous University

In keeping with the tone of the existing answer and the comments:

Just do what the application instructions say.

In the best case, the university agrees that you do not need to send the transcript. You have saved yourself about 5 minutes of work.

In the worst case, your application is desk-rejected by an overzealous clerk. You never even find out why.

In a plausible middle-of-the-road case, you need to send some clarifying mails back and forth about why you haven't included the transcript. You initially saved 5 minutes of work, and then spent 30 minutes. Worse, somebody else also needs to spend some time on this.

Frankly, even writing this question probably already took longer than just sending the transcripts.


Can you recommend an excellent book or article about how to critique a journal article?

Not a book, but an article:
"Ten Simple Rules for Reviewers" by Philip E. Bourne and Alon Korngreen (PLoS Computational Biology vol. 2, issue 9, e110, September 2006)
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020110

Do Not Accept a Review Assignment unless You Can Accomplish the Task in the Requested Timeframe—Learn to Say No
Avoid Conflict of Interest
Write Reviews You Would Be Satisfied with as an Author
As a Reviewer You Are Part of the Authoring Process
Be Sure to Enjoy and to Learn from the Reviewing Process
Develop a Method of Reviewing That Works for You
Spend Your Precious Time on Papers Worthy of a Good Review
Maintain the Anonymity of the Review Process if the Journal Requires It
Write Clearly, Succinctly, and in a Neutral Tone, but Be Decisive
Make Use of the “Comments to Editors”


What career option is the most viable if one has very wide research interests?

My best advice, though it might not suit everyone, is to pick something, anything, that you are willing to work very hard at for a decade or so and become an expert in that field as an academic (my choice). At that point you can probably get tenure and with tenure you can set your own research agenda, more or less. But your ideal academic job may or may not be in your current country of choice.

In some academic jobs you can set the research agenda completely yourself, though you may need to convince people that you are contributing to the mission of the institution. But if you are a mathematician who made the grade in, say, topology, no-one will be likely to tell you that you need to keep doing topology, and few will tell you that you can't branch out into applied fields, or even quite different fields for at least part of the time.

And, in fact, many academics do change their interests over time, even if they stay fairly close to the core field they started in.

But an industrial job, now-a-days, comes with many restrictions on what you can do and many requirements on what you must do. The days of old in, for example, Sun Microsystems or Bell Labs, are over. People in the successors of those places generally can't just think deep thoughts and try to build something interesting. But even in those old style labs, the people permitted to do that were few and had already risen through hard work in the lesser jobs for some decades that left them at the top of the heap. There are surely exceptions, but I think very rare.

But the bottom line, is that if you want to be a polymath, then you need to work very hard to build a reputation that lets you have the freedom to do what you want. It is just more accessible in academia, I think.


Should I write a conference proceeding of my master's thesis work so far?

Generally speaking, when you submit a poster to a conference you have an auxiliary, small (typically 4 pages), paper that puts what is said in the poster in a more formal and verbal way. This is due to the majority of conferences does not compile the posters in proceedings, but only papers.

So, when writing a short paper you mostly have to focus on your positional view: giving a summary of what you did until now, what you expect to do, and what will be the outcomes of your research.


Research advertising as a recruitment method

First step:

Make sure your relevant regulatory committee (for example, an Institutional Review Board/IRB in the US) approves of the language in the advertisement. Example guidance from my institution that makes it clear the IRB needs to approve of your advertisement:

https://kb.wisc.edu/hsirbs/page.php?id=29560

  IRBs will consider whether recruitment processes, including advertisements could affect the equitable selection of participants, or be unduly coercive or misleading. IRBs will consider the content, design and mode of communication of any advertisements in making this determination.

Don't skip step 1.

The rest of the steps are outside the scope of Academia.SE, but involve contacting whoever manages the advertising in the venue you are posting to.


Does the native language capability (for a foreigner) help in applying for a faculty position?

This is going to vary a bit from country to country, but I think on the whole, the answer is obviously yes.  In most institutions in these countries, not only is teaching in the country's usual language, but so is the life of the department in most important respects.  I spent 6 months in France as a visiting scholar at Paris 7, and had a fairly rudimentary command of French (enough to navigate life in France, but not good enough to carry on a conversation), and leaving aside teaching, most conversations in the department, and most academic talks were in French.  In my situation, things were basically fine, but I could not have functioned as a staff member without improving my French very quickly.

France is something of a special case (though I suspect Spain, Italy, Poland, etc. would be similar).  The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries are more used to expecting nobody speaks their language (and can expect greater English fluency from students), but even there, I'm sure knowing the language would be necessary for many positions, and a big advantage for the rest.  If nothing else, it shows a commitment to being there which would be appreciated.

EDIT: You can also see examples of how this is dealt with by looking at job ads from the season that's winding down now (I'm going to use examples from MathJobs, since that's what I know; since that's a US-based site, it's going to be slanted toward ads looking to recruit English speakers).  Some will make it clear that functioning in the local language is not a professional requirement or at least don't specify it is:

https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10239
https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/9749
https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10164
https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10127

Some will specify that there is a transition period:

https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10154

Some seem to expect that there already is language fluency:

https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10004
https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/9973

That's actually more slanted toward English speakers than I expected, but of course, posting on MathJobs is a very biased sample, since it's mostly a North American site, and I think you only post there if you want recruit North Americans (that's including students or postdocs from abroad currently in North America).  It's notable that from a lot of countries (Israel, for example) there are many postdoctoral positions on MathJobs that don't expect the ability to teach in Hebrew, but no permanent positions.


I think Mack put you in a very difficult situation. You should not have agreed to his terms, and should ask to change them now.

There is no problem sharing your notes with Mack, though he should probably be getting notes from several students.

You should either have agreed not to share your notes with others, or agreed to keep confidential the fact that they will be used in setting the test, but not both. If you were freely sharing your notes, nobody would pay any special attention to them. If you could say "Mack asked me not to share them so that he can use them in setting his test" people would understand the non-sharing.

There are other ways Mack could have constructed his test. For example, he could have asked each lecturer for a question or two with marking criteria.


How many faculty positions should one apply to?

Your chance of getting any particular job you apply for is small. To make your probability of success significant, you need to multiply that by many applications. Your recommenders know this is the situation. Try to make things as easy for them as possible. E.g., they would probably prefer to send out 20 letters at once rather than being contacted by you 20 times in the space of a month.


Is there a resource that gives the number of citations per scientist in various countries?

There is a data set downloadable from SCImago. They used citation data from Scopus. Here is the ranking of the 50 countries with the most citations according to them (full list downloadable from their website; data are between 1996 and 2014).

#  Country          Citations
--------------------------
1  United States    177434935
2  United Kingdom   44011201
3  Germany          35721869
4  Japan            27040067
5  France           24700140
6  Canada           22152666
7  China            19110353
8  Italy            18019464
9  Netherlands      14278721
10 Australia        13772961
11 Spain            12628097
12 Switzerland      10872269
13 Sweden           9417604
14 South Korea      7063429
15 India            6989150
16 Belgium          6691791
17 Denmark          5494671
18 Israel           5079652
19 Brazil           5036027
20 Taiwan           4790230
21 Austria          4334382
22 Finland          4295721
23 Russian Fed.     4289618
24 Poland           3491958
25 Norway           3354827
26 Hong Kong        2951215
27 Turkey           2938841
28 Greece           2702414
29 Singapore        2561645
30 New Zealand      2495935
31 Portugal         2096242
32 Ireland          1999703
33 Mexico           1962572
34 Czech Republic   1867611
35 South Africa     1774278
36 Argentina        1681700
37 Hungary          1660840
38 Iran             1504541
39 Chile            1014687
40 Thailand         976328
41 Egypt            818728
42 Malaysia         670387
43 Ukraine          635570
44 Romania          619956
45 Slovenia         611672
46 Slovakia         561511
47 Saudi Arabia     547167
48 Croatia          459356
49 Bulgaria         455406
50 Pakistan         425467

Now it's unclear from the website how exactly they attribute a paper to a country when there are authors from multiple countries. Note also that, obviously, countries with many papers have many citations. It's fun to re-order the above list on the basis of citations by published paper:

#   Country          Citations per document
-------------------------------------------
1   Switzerland      26.1
2   Denmark          24.94
3   Netherlands      24.56
4   United States    23.36
5   Sweden           23.21
6   Canada           21.4
7   Finland          21.2
8   United Kingdom   21.03
9   Belgium          21.01
10  Israel           20.56
11  Norway           20.17
12  Australia        19.49
13  Austria          19.24
14  Ireland          19.01
15  New Zealand      18.52


Is there any value in publishing screen-cast lectures?

I would advise against doing this, even without knowledge of tghe hiring processes in SLACs (never heard about those before) or the universities you're interested in.

On principle, it does not make sense to have projects in life whose main or only purpose is make your CV look better. If you're passionate enough about this to do it for its own sake - say, because you feel available material is not engaging enough and you had good feedback from your students - then maybe it could be a reasonable use of your time. Otherwise, your days are better doing proper research, or other publicly-visible math-related projects which are of interest to you.

Also, if you got good feedback on your teaching, I doubt your focus on research will be held against you, especially since you do have a solid 3 years. Perhaps some letter of recommendation from professors/lecturers who were in charge of the courses in which you taught could serve as guarantee of your capabilities.


How do I salvage a 1-week old research internship offer, if possible?

The message you sent has a sufficiently professional tone that I wouldn't worry about it. While it would be better in general to thank the person for their interest it doesn't seem like a big issue here. In particular since you were a bit self deprecating in your tone.

But a couple of days is nothing in academic time. That is always true, but especially now when people may be struggling with finding creative ways to teach without having student present. Since the offer wouldn't become "live" until August you have some time to wait.


Health issues in grad school - how many extensions are acceptable?

I would have some general conversation with the department, and with health services versus these atomistic requests for extra time on specific projects.
If the situation is chronic, perhaps you need to defer your studies as you are routinely unable to keep up.  But that depends on the specifics: frequency and duration of your issues, are they predictable (e.g. chemo timing) or random.  Likelihood to improve.  And of course if the situation is a genuine medical impairment or if you are struggling with content and using it as an excuse (not an accusation, just within the theoretical solution space).

P.s.  If the course is not part of the requirements, I would just drop it.  Seems like obvious way to handle the impairment.  You can still get your program done.  Just not with extra volume.


Frequency of appointments with Ph.D. supervisor

The frequency that students and advisors meet depends a lot on the particular student and advisor, and also varies highly by time.  In my experience, once a month is quite a bit on the low side, but not unusually so.  A more typical pacing is once a week or once every two weeks.

The reason for this frequency is not for the sake of "norms", but rather is a good spacing for giving enough time for the student to accomplish something but not so much so that the student is likely to end up wasting a lot of time or becoming very frustrated going down a bad path that the advisor might have been able to detect and help remedy.

If your advisor is meeting with you once a month and happy with your progress, then perhaps you are simply doing very well at self-direction.  It is quite reasonable, however, to ask for more frequent supervision if you think that you will benefit, and as a new Ph.D. student, I think that you likely should do so.


In a PhD program of study, what does "emphasis on descriptive material" mean?

I'm guessing, but the way I read it is 'you're going to have to do proper calculations, not just waffle'. That is, I would take the 'descriptive material' to be in contrast with 'mathematics and physics'.


Potential Postdoc advisor giving exams (assignment) as part of hiring process

It is highly unusual. As you note, the PI has plenty of "standard" information (publications, recommendation letter, CV, etc.) that can be used to assess your potential as a collaborator and independent scientist. This is what most PIs will use in the hiring process. Some will ask you to give a seminar or do an interview by phone, video, or in person.

How the PI evaluates you as a candidate will reflect how the PI evaluates you once you are an advisee. This is especially true if they ask you to do something unusual, which is certainly the case here.

You are being told that the work you have done in the past, the good credit that you have earned with your previous advisor, your attendance and interaction at seminars... these are unimportant factors compared to whatever skills this "exam" is testing. It sounds like you do not agree with that attitude. That is reasonable, and if true, I suggest that you and this advisor may not be a good match.


The best practice is to follow the IEEE citation style.

Having said that, in a conference paper there is going to be a lot less strict check of the actual format of the references you use and I doubt a paper might get rejected because of that. Worst case, you will be asked to correct them either during the review process or when the proceedings are being compiled by the conference organisers .

For journal articles, these will be formatted by IEEE so you do not have a choice.


Can one write a research paper on a engineering project idea that one cannot execute due to financial constraints?

Yes, is the short answer, and in fact it happens all the time.
Go check out the journal Acta Astronautica for just one example - it is a journal about technologies and techniques for space exploration.  Many of the articles outline advanced space mission concepts and are done entirely in simulation, both because it is expensive (thus there is no budget to launch, say, 100 missions to Mars) and because an important part of engineering is the simulation and prediction of system performance.
However, there are other fields in which this is difficult, but not necessarily impossible.  It depends on the fidelity of your simulation.  A paper with a poorly made simulator that makes too many assumptions is likely to get rejected.
And this does bring me to a central part of this answer: you need SOME kind of results.  I spoke a lot about simulation, but there are other types of papers in which things like architectures or organizational plans are written about and (sometimes) accepted.  But ultimately, like the comments say, you can't just give an idea of what it would be like if you could do it.  That's the introduction to the paper, and it does not constitute a whole paper by any means.


Changing the status of my paper in a job application

Sending an updated resume to the same address where you sent your first CV informing them of a recent change is perfectly acceptable. Be polite, mention the reason for the new CV, and you should be fine.


Placement of numerical references (“[1]”)

The universities with which I am familiar decide at the faculty/school/department level which referencing style will be used in courses that they teach/manage. This means that:

a standard referencing format is set across all courses and classes within that area
students do not have to struggle with different formats within the same subject
referencing guides with comprehensive examples are readily available for the stipulated referencing format
there is no need to argue/justify/negotiate with variations

If this is not the case, choose a popular referencing format (Vancouver style uses numbered citations) and apply that. Give the students a link to a Vancouver style guide such as this, as well as handing out a printed copy at the beginning of the semester.

When/if they then argue that their referencing is correct it can be compared to the established style guide.

To be truly effective (in changing habits) the referencing needs to be included in the assessment rubric.


Telling where I am originally from at the first lecture?

You can certainly do so. Something like "I was born here. I did my undergraduate degree here, my masters degree here, and my PhD here. After my PhD ..." etc. It doesn't have to be very long and could also be part of your lecture slides.

One of my lecturers from my bachelor's degree did this, and I still remember she and my brother shared an alma mater.


Is pursuing a second PhD in the same or related field a viable means of returning to academia after a decade in industry?

In order to return to academia, you will need to satisfy certain requirements.

Most academic jobs require holding a Ph.D. in the relevant field. You already have one. A second Ph.D. won't help you here.
Teaching jobs require demonstrated teaching experience. A second Ph.D. won't help you here. You could certainly try to build a track record of successful teaching by getting in touch with a local community college and offering to teach a few courses - possibly even while holding your industry day job. If you are serious about returning to academia, this would be an investment, not a source of income, so you could offer to teach for little or no remuneration.
Research (and teaching) jobs require publications. A second Ph.D. won't help you here. Instead, get up to speed on current research, find a good open problem, work on it and publish some papers.
Finally, contacts will be invaluable. A second Ph.D. won't help you here. Instead, attend conferences, give presentations, get to know people, leave a good impression and hint that you would like to return to academia.

Note the common thread going through all these points: a second Ph.D. in the same field won't help you. Instead, invest your time in building the kind of portfolio (teaching, publications, contacts) that you do need.

This will likely be an uphill battle, but if you are motivated enough, then go for it. Good luck!


How to approach American English vs. British English spelling in a paper?

I typically don't worry about this question as a writer.  For what it's worth, I'm based in the United States, so I default to American English.  I always spell check my papers, but in the more than 25 papers that I've submitted, I've never gotten any feedback about using American spelling rather than British spelling; this question is very relevant for me since many of my papers are on graph colo(u)ring.  It may be useful to note that in the journals that I submit to and read, I've seen both American and British spelling.  (I think many editors typically let the authors choose which they prefer.)

So my suggestion is this: choose either American or British spelling and stay consistent throughout your paper.  Don't lose any sleep over this.  It will not be the deciding factor in whether your paper is accepted.

However, for doing a literature review, I feel your pain...


Is that possible for a journal to publish an article upon accepting but the Author requested for withdrawal with some reasons?

In US (and probably many other places), unless the authors have signed a copyright transfer agreement, the journal does not have a legal right to publish the article since they do not own the copyright to the material. If the journal required the copyright transfer/assignment as part of submission process, and the authors all signed it, then the journal has the right to publish it. It would be impolite to do so after a request for retraction, but there's a difference between what's polite and what's legal.


Should I aim at publishing a single-author paper on my PhD?

All of the doctoral work I'm most familiar with in CS has been published as single author work. You may want an extensive acknowledgements section if you have worked with others. There may be some corners of CS in which there is some division of labor, such as complicated data gathering v data analysis algorithmics that would be an exception, but I think that is still rare.

Even in cases in which an advisor supplies the initial problem, it is fine in most of CS to publish as a single author. Mathematics is similar. It is in the lab sciences primarily that the standards are different as the very existence of the lab is essential as is collaboration with other lab people.

But yes, speak to your supervisor and lay out your reasoning as here. You might even write up a draft that includes the ack section if you are far enough along. What you want to achieve, however, is a plan that makes everyone happy (enough) and leaves your advisor as a supporter of your work and future.

But if you are in one of those subfields in which such multiple authorship is the norm, then your advisor should be able to convince you of that.

But a rule of thumb might be the distinction between "I built this and you helped" vs "We built this together". There is a fuzzy area between them, of course. In general, though, it is best to know in advance which situation you will fall in to.


What is a typical dress code for campus interviews on west coast state schools?

I'm honestly just guessing here, but I'd think something along the lines of Business Casual or Smart Casual. Both of those are ambiguous, of course, but I think you'd stand out in a suit.

Of course San Francisco is more formal than LA or Berkeley, but academics in most fields are pretty laid back. If the interview will be long and includes evening events, you might want to have a suit available.


The link that you provide explains it fairly clearly for that academic community. They have chosen to organize training in reviewing and conference organization by setting up a group that does the same work as the real program committee.  The shadow group's work, however, is done only for training purposes and does not affect the actual decisions on papers.  This is similar to a mock trial or moot court in the legal arena: a chance to do "the real thing" without doing real damage if one screws up.  It both gives practice and helps the main organizers identify people who are ready to be brought onto the real program committee.

This is not a widespread mechanism in the scientific, however, so other communities may not mean the same thing if they use the same words.


i wrote a message to the Editor to inquire about my revision sent about 4 months ago. He informed me yesterday(March 20th, 2014) that my manuscript has already completed 1 review.

Since you have contacted the editor and they looked into it (and perhaps pinged the reviewer with a reminder), I don't see that there is much else you could do at this point (other than something drastic like withdraw, which would be entirely unjustified after four months).

  However, we are still awaiting the last report. from the remaining referee. My question is How long should I wait for the response of the referee?

As long as it takes.

  and what do you advise me to do?

You've just contacted the editor and gotten a response. My advice now would simply be to be patient. Try to put it at the back of your mind and focus on other work. (And don't message the editor again for another few months; have faith in them to do their job.)

  4 months for secondary revision is too long no??

In many fields, unfortunately, no.


How to cite self-created images or pictures in thesis

There is no need to cite self-created, previously-unpublished images any more than you need to cite self-written, previously unpublished words.  By absence of a citation you are claiming the work as your own.
Since this is for a thesis, you should probably check with your advisor / supervisor to be absolutely certain they share that view.