Should graduate applicants follow instructions by department NOT to contact potential advisors?

There are multiple practical reasons for not asking you not to contact advisors prior to admission:

Advisors may not know how many RA positions they will have available until later in the year, and departments do not want that to discourage people from applying.
They may have an established procedure for allocating students to research groups; "jumping the gun" would therefore be discouraged.
They don't want undue influence from various faculty members lobbying the admissions committee in support of "their" candidates.

Note that this is also because at many schools—particularly in Europe—individual faculty members are responsible for advertising their open positions. This is not the normal procedure in the US, thereby leading many schools to explicitly state that students should not directly petition individual faculty members.


Can I directly start a French Masters 2 with a UK 4 year integrated masters?

Yes, your integrated masters from the UK counts as a "Masters Européen"in France.

Source: I directly began a PhD immediately after finishing my MPhys in the UK, at Paris-Saclay, last year. If I was able to do that, I have doubts (although it's possible) that you would have trouble doing a M2 here.

As others have said, and as the other answer said, you should contact the university / admissions team as a first contact, to verify this. During the admission process you'll have to send your transcripts, and so in the end, they'll decide this for themselves. If it's anything like my admissions process, you will also have to send your MPhys dissertation, because it proves that you have done M2-equivalent work and a project with a significant time commitment and research result.

However, I'd be very surprised if you had any problem.


Does social media and mainstream presence, through interviews and publishing in the "trade press", help one's chances at tenure?

In fact, in the absence of a large body of work published in quality academic journals and attracting loads of grant money, the strategy you mention will probably hurt your chances for tenure in large research universities in the US and probably elsewhere.

Tenure is granted in such places by committees of peers, who are mostly grant funded researchers who also teach. But it isn't your external reputation that will be examined in the meetings of the tenure committee but the quality of your research and the number of times it is cited in scholarly journals.

The above is not a universal and there may be exceptions, but not many. Your reputation outside academia is of little value in tenure discussions. However, once you are tenured (and funded), your visibility might be considered useful when it comes to salary negotiations and some expectations put on you (teaching, committees, ...).

Visibility within the community of scholars within your field via presentation of work at scholarly conferences is a bit different, but it is backed by the research, of course.

But if you want to be tenured at any research university, do a lot of research and get it funded outside the institution. The funding helps pay for graduate students who aid in the research, of course, and pay for labs, etc.


Tension between "publishable" and "motivating" research topics

I guess my advice would be, first, to get a permanent position, say on the tenure path and then get tenure. Do what you need to do to set a baseline.
Second, there is no reason why you need to make a final decision now and never review it. In the short term you could (probably should) work on stuff that gets you to tenure primarily, filling in with ideas on more interesting topics. Then, as the world becomes more secure you can morph into a situation that seems more satisfying.
Just keep notebooks of ideas as you go along, so that when you think of something "interesting" that might be pursued, you don't lose track of it later.
Stay flexible. Establish a base. Then move on.


Applying to a graduate program in molecular and cell biology

In the US it is not uncommon for universities to allow students to take individual courses without seeking a degree. This is especially true of some of the larger introductory type courses that are required for getting into grad school. It is probably worth contacting the schools you are interested in applying and telling them you have not taken all the prerequisite courses and if there is something that can be arranged.


Why does the APA/MLA format suggest the use of double-spacing?

You need to separate authoring the manuscript from the finished type-set layout of the journal. For manuscripts more loosely spaced single column format has been the norm. This is because before the digital age, manuscripts were handed in written on a type writer. There was no means for an author to produce sophisticated layouts. In addition, one would add comments manually in the manuscript which is why some journals also specify fiarly wide margins. The marked-up manuscript would then be sent by regular post to the editor and passed on to the author. The one column loosely spaced format has stayed although it is not necessary. That said, reading a loosely spaced single column manuscript is easier than a densely set double column format. The latter is of course more cost effective to print.

Many journals use (or at least allow) LaTeX templates for their submission. These commonly include settings for a "manuscript mode" which end up as single column, loosely spaced text but also a "layout mode" where the author can try the final format of the journal to assess the length of the finished paper. This also allows the journal to more or less automatically type set the final paper once it is accepted.

So the recommendation for manuscripts to be typed loosely spaced and single column, is partly tradition but also because that format is easier to read for the reviewer.


Inclusion of a non-contributor co-author

I'm sorry to hear all of this (and also sorry about the downvotes without hints how to improve the question (but sometimes they seem to be just a way to greet new users in this site)).

It was right to question the authorship. On this site you can find many good answers on this topic.

I have two hints for you: first, as Mr. Eldredge says in the comments, please see a therapist. Your problems are far too serious, you need someone to talk to.
Moreover, please look that academia is not your complete life. Do other things in your spare time that fulfill you. Don't work too hard. Spend time with hobbies and friends. Then problems at work/university will be not so important as they seem.

Good luck! I give you morally 1000 upvotes and wish for your best!

Edit: I don't know whether it is allowed to say here, but there is also "AskAcademia" on Reddit. My opinion: The topic is similar to this site, but the people there are much more "human" than here and in general, friendlier. (The quality of answers is not always so high as here, though.)


If a professor says he will not fund my internship as it will be my first visit, how can I convince him politely?

It may help to look at this from the professor's point of view:

You are not a student at his university (or even a citizen of his university's country), so internal research grants are not an option (indeed, he may face some backlash for hiring a non-student if research slots are limited).
You are an undergraduate, so your ability to be useful to him is very limited, especially at first as you are ramping up. (Undergraduates generally have limited time and skills compared to grad students and post-docs).

Given this, his position is quite reasonable: if you want to work "for free", fine; otherwise, this won't work out.

To change his mind, you need to reverse one of these assumptions:

You can find a pot of money (e.g., a scholarship) and ask for his support in applying for it
You can prove that you are really useful for the lab, and that paying you a meager salary is more cost-effective than other options. But, for most undergraduate students, this will be an impossible sale, and the professor will quickly tire of saying "sorry, no."

In short: I really don't think you'll be able to convince him. Your best bet is to look for scholarships or other funding. If that doesn't work out, you should tell him honestly that while you appreciate his offer, and would certainly accept it even with a modest stipend, you simply cannot afford to travel to and live in the foreign country with no income.


How common is it to get one very positive and one very negative review?

From my experience this is the norm, not the exception. I may sound a bit negative here, but I think many areas of academic research are getting more cross-functional and collaborative; especially in science, and especially in my field (genomics and computational biology).

Can any one person really comprehend every detail of the work? No! Are reviewers magical people that know everything and recognize novel work at first glance? No! Good reviewers will do their homework, check for related works, or ask their colleagues. But reviewers are also human, and it's intellectually easier to say "this is not interesting/important" as opposed to making an effort to understand the context and impact. Reviewers are human, busy people, uncompensated, and not necessarily up to speed on the latest topics. The peer reviewer may have been a poor choice by the journal or head editor. Peer review is, in my opinion, an outdated idea in an era when the scientific enterprise is becoming increasingly complex.

But that said it is not always true. If the negative reviewer did leave some constructive feedback, do address it or take it to heart.


Masters by Distance Learning accepted for PhD?

Skipping the reputation aspects discussion, programs and degrees from any nationally accredited higher education institutions are all valid. In US, such institutional accreditation comes in a form of an accreditation from one of several regional commissions, such as Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC). I imagine that similar accreditation mechanisms exist in UK, India and most other countries. Keep in mind that there is a significant difference in the educational process and its outcomes, as well as, consequently, your future career prospects, between nationally accredited programs and degrees and the unaccredited ones. For more information, see this Wikipedia article as well as articles linked in the its "See Also" section.


Would it be unethical to take a full time job and quit 8 months later if I get accepted for a PhD program?

It wouldn't be unethical for your boss to fire you 8 months after you take the job, if he wanted to. Labor is an exchange you and your employer enter into voluntarily. So, you shouldn't feel bad quitting after 8 months if you want to. It's not an ethical problem at all. It is more plausible to think there might be a personal problem if this is a small industry that you would plan to re-enter after finishing the degree. Don't tell your boss up front that you might quit in 8 months, that isn't any of his business. If you do accept an offer to do a phd somewhere, then you should tell him promptly, just as a matter of courtesy. This is to allow the company adequate time to find a replacement.


What is the right place to acknowledge another (simultaneous) paper with the same result?

Τhe sections of Introduction and Related Work of a paper serve the purpose to inform the reader exactly about related results/attempts/techniques etc in order to put their result in the correct perspective. As such, the "other" result should be mentioned and cited there, preferably with a direct comparison of the possibly different techniques involved. Anything else, could be potentially misleading and/or suspicious and should be avoided.


Prob/Stats Teaching talk (tenure-track interview)

You only have 30 minutes so they can't expect this to be too deep. I would break the demonstration into two parts.

20 minute teaching demo
10 minute discussion of teaching methods

Actions speak louder then words so I would show them how I teach first. If you start with a discussion of your teaching methods, the committee will probably interrupt with a bunch of questions and use up all the time. If time matters this could be a serious problem.

For the demonstration, it's best to stick to a topic that I have complete mastery over and need no notes or textbook to teach anymore. I will already be nervous and don't need the cognitive overload of trying to teach a topic I do not totally own.

The actually teaching method that I would use would be a conservative one because I am trying to show mastery of teaching. I would not try to teach in a new experimental way unless I have already thoroughly mastered such a method. Better to lecture with perfection than to try cooperative learning with utter failure. Below is a sample lesson plan that would work for a statistician.

Explain what the students are going to do today (2min)
Demonstrate the new skill (7min)
Practice the skill together (5min)
Allow the students to practice the skill individually or in small groups (5min)
Correct together (1min)

For the discussion on teaching methods, I think they want to know more than just what methods I used because they just saw that. I think what the may want to know is about my philosophy, which is why do I teach or use the methods that I use. So this provides me with an opportunity to explain what I was trying to do during my demonstration. Why did I explain to the students the purpose of the lesson? Why did I demonstrate instead of lecture? Why did I do practice problems together? etc. Please keep in mind that teaching methods are derive from various philosophical positions about teaching/learning so understanding your philosophy of teaching is providing a deeper explanation of the methods you use.

Again, putting the discussion at the end assures that I have time to demonstrate my teaching and allows the committee to ask questions during the discussion.


What to write in application letter to address poor grades in Greek and Latin for classical archeology masters application?

As you stated a lot has changed since those unlucky days and you've achieved so many successes since then. IMO, write that you do not believe that the grade is a real indicator of your current status and as a proof of your claim you can reference your research and papers if it is available online.

Note: In case the professor of your archeology class would give you a recommendation letter it would be so valuable.


Is the signature track on coursera useful for MS admissions?

At best, MOOC's are going to be viewed just like any other course on your transcript—they're not going to make it or break it anymore than any other course that you can take. However, as many people have pointed out, MOOC's are also viewed with substantial suspicion, in part because of their low completion rate and because of the difficulties with quality assurance.

So I would ultimately say that a MOOC probably has little or no advantage over a comparable course offered at your university. If it's something that is both highly relevant and not available at your university, that's another story—but then that should be clearly stated in your application as well!


Where to submit a pedegogic physics paper

I've seen such papers in American Journal of Physics. I would try there. Could also think about Physics Teacher.


Review Comments for Program Chair -- what to write?

There is no point why you should fill anything into this field, unless you actually have some confidential comments that should not be part of the comments to the authors.
You can fill the field in a boilerplate manner, by using a text fragment such as: "I do not have any additional comments beyond those to the authors."


Interviewing for a lecturer position in the UK

This is all pretty standard practise for UK  lectureships. They are basically testing your skills that will be required in the position.

In the presentation they will want to see a demonstration  that you can communicate your own specialism to both an undergraduate audience (as in teaching class) and your research peers (like for a conference). They want to know that you understand how research  is done and where the money comes from (knowledge of funding sources), and some assurance that you demonstrate the basic skills to communicate and cooperate with others already in the department to achieve  that goal. They will also want some indication that you have done some background intelligence to discover their particular departmental specialisms and how your skills will fit in their niche. You should at least have read the pages on their web site!

The presentation is likely to be done in a "public" venue with most staff and PhD's invited, who will also ask you questions at the end, just as if it was a research  paper.

The  interview will be behind closed door with the panel, often with senior staff such as Deans and HR who will ask questions that verify things from your CV/Resume. They will find out about your past employment, measure your level of experience, salary expectation plans for career development and so on. They would want to know how long you planned to stay with them to know if their investment in you was returned. They would want to know that you were self assured and reliant and not dependant on your previous supervisors, but conversely not a loner who could not collaborate with the existing and future teams.


How to find host institution - Marie-Curie individual fellowship

How to find the list of host institution for Marie-Curie individual fellowship?

There's no list, any legal entity in the EU or in a partner country is eligible: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2018-2020/main/h2020-wp1820-msca_en.pdf p.76

As far as I know it's more common to apply with a university or a research institution, but companies can be host institutions as well.

  Does it mean that the host institution must have already received or get approved for Marie-Curie individual fellowship?

No, but it's possible that the institution would have to be registered on the EU portal (this is how it works for H2020 proposals, I'm not sure about Marie Curie actions).

The eligibiity conditions are rather easy to satisfy, but in order to have any chance of success it's very important to understand that the selection relies very strongly on the excellence of the research proposal in collaboration with the host institution. This means that before applying, any serious candidate must contact a potential PI and design a detailed research plan with them. I think it's crucial to understand what the EU expects to achieve through these grants in order to write a decent application, because they are not just giving away funding to kind junior researchers :)

Some EU institutions have a specialized office to help applicants write good applications. If the target host institution does it's a really good idea to contact them and ask them for advice, it can drastically increases your chances.

(and yes, the EU website is a monster, but given time one can find really useful information in there)

[Edit] additional sources of information (among many)

https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/magazine/news/want-become-marie-sk%C5%82odowska-curie-fellow-individual-fellowships-if-spotlight
National Contact Points (NCP): https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/support/ncp (select target country and Marie Curie Actions)


Yes, UK salaries are currently significantly lower than US salaries at most ranks, and don't have much room for negotiation outside of a standard range.  The only exception to this is "professor" in the UK (which is often closer to distinguished professor in the US) where there's more latitude for higher salaries.

One major reason for the salary gap is that as recently as Summer 2015 the pound was worth nearly 1.6 US dollars.  If it comes back up then their offer would be more competitive, while if it goes down further then the offer will look even worse.

The only meaningful advantages I can see of a Reader over a US Assistant professor as a position is that there's more job security.  But presumably if you're a strong candidate for a Readership you shouldn't be too worried about tenure, and at many US schools this offer would get you tenure this year in a retention package.  (There are lots of advantages and disadvantages of UK vs. US which I won't get into, I'm only talking about the rank comparison.)


A short, repeatedly used piece of terminology like this does not need to be localized to a particular point.  Attempting to pin down a particular page number doesn't make sense, because what you're really referencing is the concept as developed in the article, rather than some particular sentence.

I would thus say that you should treat it as a scientific citation rather than a quotation: cite the article as a whole as the context, and do not attempt to give a page number like you would for a quote.


Do I have to do a Masters and a PhD thesis?

It depends largely on the country and institution.  Some PhD programs in engineering require a Master's with a dissertation.  Other programs are content with a course-work-only Master's.  Your best bet is to find a person to work with at the department of the PhD program you want to enter (which it sounds like you have already done) and follow the advice of that person.


What is a reasonable time to resubmit revised papers after they have been peer reviewed?

Many editors report the deadline in their decision letter. However, I have seen some decision letters without a deadline.

Please note that most submission systems provide a Due On date. See this screenshot from Manuscript Central:

If there is no indication regarding a deadline either in the letter, or in the submission system (or the journal website), the best for you would be to contact the handling editor.


How to ask, if at all possible, what part of my CV interested the interviewer to interview me?

I found that in my professional life being honest, clear, and direct have served me very well. So once all the probing is over, I would say:

I have an additional question: Even though I am very interested in this position, I was doubtful I would be invited for an interview since my background doesn't seem to match perfectly. Would you mind telling me why you think I would make a good candidate for this position?

Of course adjust the wording to your style and take the details with a grain of salt as I am a non-native English speaker.


Re-implementing one's own proprietary code as open-source

I am not a lawyer, and if you are seriously considering going ahead with this project, I suggest consulting one.

The problem is that copyright infringement is not limited to direct copying. See, for example, the "My Sweet Lord" case. George Harrison is not believed to have consciously copied "He's So Fine", but he had heard it.

You have much deeper familiarity with the existing code. It is going to be very difficult for you to write anything similar without being inspired by what you wrote before.

If your former employer's reluctance to release is related to liability and support issues, they may be willing to permit re-implementation, so it is worth asking. If they are hoping to make money off the code, they will not agree.


Does it matter from whom we receive a letter of recommendation?

If all of your choices wrote the same letter, then of course the letter from the distinguished professor would carry more weight than that of f the assistant professor.

However, often the letters from assistant professors are much more detailed and insightful than the letters from distinguished professors, because they have usually worked with the applicant much more closely. They can therefore offer more detailed insights than can more senior staff. This is not always true, but it is at least mostly the case in my experience.


How to make my Thesis supervisor aware of my Visa issues?

You ask the community for advice, but the only person who can accommodate you in completing the project is the professor in question. Since you have a prior working relationship with this person, you are entitled to tell him or her that your visa is expiring. A problem has arisen in the timely completion of your project, and you believe that it can still be resolved.

This problem can be phrased as a request for advice: what should you do now to finish this project responsibly, given the legal constraint? What resolution would your advisor like to see, and would he or she accept a compromise to continued physical presence, like scheduled meetings over Skype? Most people react positively to being given a choice, and if your advisor is an empathetic human, he or she may still give you a chance to submit your thesis. getting your work accepted isn't graduation itself, but since it is a prerequisite for graduation, it has to be addressed before the issue of the granting of the degree.


Can not having any research papers be a reason for rejection for an MS program?

There is no way to predict whether you will be accepted or rejected from any graduate program.  Graduate admission is a random process.  You have some influence on the expected outcome, but the variance is set differently by each department, and you only get one trial per department per year.

That said, as far as I know, there are no CS MS programs that restrict admission to applicants with prior publications.  There are PhD programs where most students in some research areas had published (or at least publishable) results as undergraduates—algorithms at Princeton, for example. But even in those programs, and in those research areas, publication is not an actual requirement for admission.


Is my method of learning new mathematics efficient?

Don't confuse efficient with effective. The method you have chosen is well known to be effective. But I don't know of any particularly efficient method of learning other than to do it.

There is research, actually, that shows that taking notes by hand engages the brain in a way that other things does not. This means writing by hand, not typing on a keyboard. See this answer to a possibly related question.

But mathematics is special. You not only want to learn existing mathematics, you want to learn, as a doctoral student, to be able to actually do it. This involves the creation of new mathematics. For that, you need to go a bit deeper, though it won't be especially efficient. As with most mental things, you need to practice the art so that you change the neural connections, the mental pathways. One way is to get some practice by trying to reconstruct proofs of theorems. Find a theorem new to you. You trust that the statement is true since someone proved it (though mistakes occur, of course). Try to prove it without reference to an existing proof. If that is too big of a step, initially, try, when reading an existing proof, to figure out the next steps that would lead to the final result.

Mathematics is more, of course. It is knowing what is likely to be worth exploring - what might be true, so that you can then try to develop a proof of it. But you have to start with smaller steps.

But back to note taking. If you want to remember things you have learned you can/should also summarize your previous notes after a period of leaving them untouched. Also do this with hand writing. The summarizations may actually be enough for you to save for later.

One additional advantage of writing notes is that they will have a long lifetime if you use decent materials (pen, paper). Notes taken on computers will almost certainly disappear with technological change unless you take periodic steps to update the media. Don't depend on the cloud to preserve your notes. Companies can change their business models and simply wipe out what you have saved. Only fire and flood will destroy your paper notes. We can still read things written by ancient Egyptians, since they used materials with a long life.


Is it a good idea to dedicate a page to thank people on a personal website?

That seems like a strange idea. People will wonder why you have made a page like this when nobody else does. And they might think you are just trying to show what a wonderful and grateful person you are.

If I was you, I would just thank people privately or in the acknowledgements sections of publications. Journal articles can have acknowledgements sections as well.

If you really want to express these thanks in a public and long-lasting way, just write one sentence, or a short paragraph, and put that at the bottom of a page on your website that has your academic biography or some paragraphs about your research interests. Then it won't be in the way, and people will easily be able to ignore it. Make it as short as possible, and write it so that it is interesting (or as interesting as possible) even to people who don't know you or the people you are thanking.


I don't think there is a systematic method that applies in all cases, but there are some things you can try.

You can use your own knowledge of what people are working on, or do a (more or less) systematic literature search to find out if someone already has worked on the problem, or at least a related problem. If the problem has a distinct name (or several), an hour or two with a search engine might be well spent. Once you find a relevant paper, explore its references, as well as the papers citing it, and so on.
If you don't find an obvious name, then you can still try contacting some of the relevant authors directly to see if they have a better idea on where to look.
Use your own network (including e.g. PhD advisor and other professors) to ask for more leads. (I use the word 'leads' because it really is detective work sometimes, but it does feel good when it pays off.) Be prepared for the "I don't know the answer, but you should talk to X" response, and then X saying "I don't know, but I think Y worked on this during the 70s", etc.

People you identify using these methods are more likely to be interested in the problem than a random person, or at least to have some ideas or insight. On the other hand, if you're not in the field it can be really hard to identify the right people, or even judge what problems are related. And, of course, this way doesn't find all those who are interested but haven't published on the topic before - like early-career researchers.

What else can you do?

It's indeed worth trying various websites (like StackExchange, Quora, various forums, ...). Particularly those geared towards professionals in a specific field (like MathOverflow) can be very helpful, but can also be a bit hit and miss. If you're dealing with specialized knowledge, that's just how it goes. Still, such sites can often help with less systematic, more field-dependent ways of finding the right person to talk to.
Various professional organizations may have "networks of experts", which are basically lists of people willing to talk to media or the public about topic X.
Finally, sometimes plain old publicizing the problem, or even offering rewards for a solution, can help attract talent - especially if it's a somewhat obscure problem with practical utility. As for rewards, if you're a professor this is called offering a student a problem to work on... If you're in industry, you could try to get a professor to do some consulting work, and so on.

If all else fails, you could always work on the problem yourself. Having done the full literature search and talked to various people, you might well have come up with some ideas on how to proceed.


Yes, it is normal. Universities often require this - especially of faculty, but also, often enough of students.

You have an issue that  you can probably work out with the university. If the patent wasn't related to your work in the educational program, then the university probably has no real claim. But the lawyers for your employer and for your university should probably both be informed of the situation and have a chance to discuss it.

But given your statement that it has nothing to do with the university, I would expect you to get a waiver. Or perhaps just a modified document exempting that one project or (better) making it clearer that it only applies to patents that were, in some way, supported by the university.

But I wouldn't make assumptions and I wouldn't sign the document without advice of a lawyer.


You give a false dichotomy, because you should be doing a project that you are interested in and one that can be completed. There's no point in choosing a topic you hate working on for 5 years but is solvable just as there's no point in choosing a topic you're passionate about but not even those who have studied it for decades could solve (possible, but highly unlikely). Therefor, the answer to your question is to choose a solvable problem that you are interested in.
However, if you're interested in living in a binary world, then choose a project that is tractable and you hate. If you are concerned about getting a PhD, then it's better to complete a project and receive the degree than to work hard on a problem and receive no degree.


Speech disabilites for PhD admission for international applicants

Provided he is fluent in written English, I cannot see how his application could legitimately (or legally) be discriminated against. If he can listen to a spoken conversation without problems, that will hugely decrease the concessions needed to accommodate his disability.

Provided he can listen to spoken English without a problem, I do not see why even giving presentations is an unreasonable expectation either. Why not do so in the style of Stephen Hawking, setting to the presentation slides a pre-prepared monologue that is read out by a speech synthesizer? If he is a reasonably fast typist, responding to questions should not be a significant problem either.

This style of communication could even be extended to taking tutorial classes, networking at conferences, etc. Sure, it's a bit awkward and people may take a little while to adjust. But it certainly seems doable.

Perhaps this is relevant reading: Is it possible for people with a stutter to have a career in academia?


Government Shutdown - application deadlines for fellowships and grants

For the National Science Foundation (NSF)

If your grant or fellowship is funded by the NSF, then the deadline remains the same.

From the NSF page, https://www.nsf.gov/shutdown/grantees.jsp, Information About the Government Shutdown for NSF Proposers and Grantees:

  Impact on Existing Deadlines

  During a lapse in appropriations, NSF will continue to accept proposal
  submissions pursuant to existing deadlines.

You should read this as "they will accept your proposal, will not process it, and the dead-line remains unchanged" during the shutdown.

You will not get any answer to your email during the shutdown.
Quoting the same page:

  Responses to any inquiries received regarding upcoming deadlines, including proposal preparation, will be deferred until normal operations resume.

Update

https://www.nsf.gov/ says:

  With the enactment of continuing appropriations through February 15, 2019, NSF is working to resume operations. Employees should report to work on their next scheduled work day.  For most staff, that will be Monday, January 28, 2019. NSF headquarters will be open to all staff starting at 6:00 a.m. Monday, January 28, 2019.


What is responsive mode in the context of research funding?

I'm answering within the context of UK Research Council funding:

Some Research Council funding is allocated on the basis of specific calls for proposals (aka managed mode): so for example there may be a call to set up a Centre in End-Use Energy Demand, and universities (or consortia of universities) will shape proposals to deliver a Centre in End-Use Energy Demand. As part of the call, criteria will be defined about the sort of things such a Centre should deliver, that will be more specific than the usual - impact, engagement, publications - though they will not go as far as specifying particular research questions. Bid applications will be assessed against the usual generic quality and value-for-money criteria, but also against how well they meet the specific proposal criteria.

However, other Research Council funding is allocated in responsive mode: these proposals are driven wholly by what the applying Principal Investigator wants to research, and as long as it is within the remit of the Research Council, it will be considered, and assessed on its own merits. That is, the assessment will be against general criteria, and whether it is at all on-topic or not for that Research Council; but assessment will not be against how well it meets a pre-defined specification for a narrow research area, because for responsive-mode, that pre-defined specification does not exist.

Here's some guidance from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC):

  Grants are awarded in response to unsolicited research proposals in any area relevant to BBSRC’s mission. As a general principle, BBSRC allocates as much research grant funding as possible in responsive mode. You can apply for a variety of investigator-led research activities through responsive mode.  ...
  Applications are assessed by the appropriate BBSRC Research Committee using the standard BBSRC competitiveness appraisal factors.

Responsive mode funding is only available to Higher Education Institutes and Research Institutes, whereas the funding in calls for proposals (managed mode) is available not only to those, but in addition it is also available to other Independent Research Organisations


What are the typical steps to be admitted to a masters program later in life?

Each university will have its own requirements for all these things, so the place to get answers is with them. They might be different at every place. I don't think the age of your degree will matter too much if you've been working in the field and learning things.

But your application letter should stress your experience, not just your academic credentials. It might be good to mention the sophisticated sorts of things you've worked on. It will always be good to mention what you hope to get out of a new degree.

If you did poorly in major subjects, however, you may have to account for that - not so much why you did poorly, but how that hasn't affected your capabilities since you graduated. I suspect that you will have an interview unless the new university is especially large. Be prepared to speak honestly about your background and goals.


Too busy with coursework to do research, can I transfer from CS Masters to a PhD in another school?

I was wondering how common it is for people to apply to PhD programs without completing their Masters studies.

In most parts of Europe, students typically have a masters degree on entry to a PhD program.

In the United States, it's quite common in many fields (including CS) for students to enter a PhD program without a masters degree. But if you start a PhD program in the United States without a masters degree, you'll just have to do the coursework that would have been part of a masters degree at the beginning of your PhD. The course load may be a little lighter, but in general, you won't have much time for research during that period, just like your current situation.

(If you enter a PhD program in the US with a masters degree you'll still have to do some additional coursework in many cases, but typically not as much.)

See this answer for more details.

  Would it be fine to explain that I am deciding to leave as I want to enter a more research oriented program?

It sounds somewhat strange to leave a masters program in which you will have a chance to do research (once you've completed preliminary coursework) because you want to enter a "more research oriented program." In any program you enter, if you haven't taken graduate-level coursework yet, you'll probably have to do some before you can do research full-time.

It's perfectly understandable that you're eager to get started on research - that's a good sign. But you can't just skip your graduate-level coursework entirely - you'll have to take it somewhere, and while you're busy with that you won't have much time for research.

I suggest you try to look at look at your coursework as something that can help you when you finally get to start on your research. The breadth of the classes you're taking will expose you to methods and ideas that you may be able to use in interesting ways in your research. The following advice is really sound:

  What you think is useful or relevant will (probably) keep changing for a while. Everyone is, at some point during their PhD, forced to take some class they really don’t want to take. Over the past few years I walked into quite a few classes thinking they would be irrelevant or even useless. But I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge (and I really should have taken better notes!). Sure, there are classes whose value I still have to figure out (and maybe never will), but there are also classes that surprised me and others whose relevance became apparent many months after I delivered that final paper.


Classification framework in conceptual paper

Read more of the articles. Or at least read more of the article abstracts, before you begin classification. If a similar classification has already been used, just re-use that--it's already been demonstrated once. For a systematic review, the classification methods are analogous to the 'methods'--replication is a virtue. The papers you review are the data. If you bring new data, apply a good method, you will make a useful contribution.


What is the goal of research questions in a paper?

I think it is important to understand, especially as a new author of research articles, that unless otherwise specified, the term "research question" does not necessarily need to be a sentence or sentences that end in a question mark and actually ask a specific question. On the contrary, a research question is most often not a question at all, but rather an explanation of why the work you are describing is important and how it will advance your field forward.

For example - and this is particularly true within the scientific community: the entire "Introduction" section of a research article acts as the research question. In other words, this section typically gives a background of the research area, explains what work has already been done to advance this field, focuses on what still has yet to be done, and then concludes with what parts of what has yet to be done will be addressed by this particular paper. As you can see, this presents a research question in a very practical way without actually posing any direct questions at all.


My paper was accepted in Springer International Conference and National conference. What to do?

The only thing you can really do here is to contact the organizers and publishers of both journals, and indicate what is going on. More likely than not, you will need to withdraw one of the papers, as publishing both papers under very similar titles with identical scientific content (or very nearly so) is considered inappropriate.


How to make a mathematical text more concise?

In writing a summary of a thesis, I would actually go about this the opposite way.  Don't start with 175 pages and try to cut it down to 20.  Instead, start from 0 and try to write a document that will be useful to a reader who wants to know whether to pick up the entire thesis.

I would probably do something like this:

Background description that explains why your problem is interesting.  2-3 pages maximum.
General description of what your algorithm achieves, why it is useful, and how it improves on the previous state of the art.  Don't try to explain the details of how the algorithm works.  Consider including a brief illustrative example if space permits at all; that will be very helpful to the reader who wants to know what the heck you are doing.
If space remains, state main theorem(s), preceded by any definitions needed for them to make sense.  If necessary, gloss over the less interesting parts of those theorems.  E.g. a complicated set of conditions can be encapsulated in "under mild assumptions" (assuming they are mild), a complicated formula could be replaced by "there exists a constant".
If space still remains, consider including a very high-level overview of your methods.  Specifically mention any parts that you think are especially interesting or novel.

This isn't my field, but I gather that in computer science it is pretty common to publish results first as relatively short conference papers, and then to give more complete details in follow-up papers in journals.  You might try reading such conference papers (and compare them with their extended versions) to see what details people focus on.  Writing this summary will also be good practice for eventually producing page-limited papers based on your work.


Is it ethical to obtain journal articles from places other than the publisher's official sites?

Yes, it is absolutely ethical to use these files during your research. Many publishers allow academic authors to upload a so-called "preprint" version of a paper to their own institutional websites or put them in repositories, and of course these can be used by others in research.

There's maybe just two minor things to be careful about:

You should try to verify that the preprint version is mostly up to date with the published version, comparing e.g. publication dates.
It is common practice to put the "official" publication source, i.e., the journal version, into your reference list. Nevertheless, if you can't make sure that the versions are equivalent regarding what you're citing them for, it may be necessary to state that you were using a preprint version.

In some cases, authors may put papers online even though it's technically a breach of copyright. But since you don't know the author's agreement with the publisher, you have no way of checking that, and in any case, it would be the author or institution that violates copyright, but not you.


TA salary between different university departments

It's complicated and depends on a lot of power dynamics between and within departments. A few things that influence the system:

there is a correlation between research pay and TA pay for grad students. They are likely to be closer in departments where many grad students both teach and do research (no one wants their paycheck to vary wildly as they go back and forth)
having more grant money increases the options for how much to pay graduate students to do research.
paying grad students more money for research (and TAships if required) translates to being able to recruit better talent in some circumstances where grad students actually shop around for this (and aren't being wooed entirely on prestige).
competing with industry can influence the pay in a similar way, probably more in industry-adjacent fields. I wonder if in purple-collar fields like music it works against grad students, as people expect not to make money in the non-academic world.
TAs are cheaper than adjuncts who aren't enrolled, so departments that have a heavy teaching load like math have an incentive to recruit more TAs, and may raise their pay to do it.
professors in departments that bring in a lot of money either for research or for being a critical teaching hub have the power to push back against admin and fight for higher pay for TAs, if they choose to do so.
the administration of large universities have a huge incentive to keep TA pay low to save money, so that pushes in the opposite direction as above reasoning to increase pay.
unionizing (in my experience at the UCs) made the pay uniform across departments for teaching (though there were ways around it still) and it happened to be that the research assistant pay matched the TA pay and stayed pretty uniform.


Would it be weird to give a github version of a paper to a reviewer?

Weird? I don't know. Unusual? Certainly. I have never heard of this, and I would be rather unsettled if it happened to me as a reviewer.

Useful? There lies the rub.

First of all, this is only useful if the reviewer understands how revision control systems work. You can only be sure of that in very computer-centered fields, and even then, there's no absolute guarantee. Since you said "a mathematical field", I can assure you, based on my experience most people don't know or even care about RCSs. So you need to write an accompanying letter outlining the changes which can stand on its own. And if you do, there's little point in including a link to the github repo.
Second of all, I really doubt that seeing a diff of a source file written by someone else is really useful. Especially if it involves crazy diagrams or things like this. Reading a long source tex file from start to finish is not comfortable (ask yourself: when you reread your own papers, do you read the source or the PDF?). This introduces a high cognitive load of mentally parsing all the macros, either standard or your own, and turning it into math. It's definitely not something that you want to bother to do when you're doing volunteer work.
The diffs will also be polluted by fixing the inevitable typos, whitespace changes, and so on. If you do a big reorganization of the paper such as moving paragraphs, the diffs will also not really be useful.

Consider using other tools, such as latexdiff. And before you complain that the output of latexdiff is not good enough in some cases: in those cases, the git diff would not be good enough either.


Are there any meta studies that look at cost-per-paper of funded projects?

I think any figures will be moot. Let's take a Nature paper that is signed by people from US, Chile, Sweden, France, Israel, India, and Japan. Whose's funding would it correspond to? All of them? That is a lot of people, so a lot of money, we'll get a terrible ratio. Only the main author? In big collaborations is difficult to pinpoint who that would be. It is easy for a particular manuscript, but not a good representation of the whole.

Let's assume you can trace it down to a specific group. Typically, they have multiple sources of funding, which one should get the cake? Say I publish the paper "On self frying potatoes", whose experiments were funded by the grant "Development of self frying potatoes", it seems obvious. But I could only do it because I attended a workshop on "Tuber theory" paid by my other grant "Theoretical agriculture". We could make the counting at a research group level. How much money they get, how many publications get out, regardless of the source and purpose. That would still have the problem of how to count collaboration papers.


The paper alone isn't worthy of your CV. It's not a peer-reviewed publication, which is about the closest place it would fit. You could list the senior project under your education section to provide an idea of your area of focus, but the paper alone doesn't carry any weight. I had a senior capstone project in my undergraduate curriculum, and I have listed the project as sort of my undergraduate "thesis", but not referring to any text.


I think you are missing an important part of your ambitions for graduate school and industry careers. The most important asset you have during school is your time. Whether or not this is dedicated to classes, work, or leisure. The idea here is that time spent in one thing cannot be spent on another.

If your goal is to have employment lined up, then industry internships, externships, experiences would be important things to consider.

If your goal is to go to graduate school immediately after undergrad, research experience and friendly relationships with your current faculty is important.

My anecdotal experience is that double, or even triple majoring, has very little impact on your ability to garner a full time position after graduation. It is all about who you know and how well you know them.

Focus on the major that gets the door open for you, if you decide that you want to widen your breadth of experience, then double. Just don't triple unless you really want to. My decision to double major was based on whether or not I wanted to graduate my 2nd year (I wasn't ready), my decision to triple major was whether or not I my resume was good for industry my 3rd year (it wasn't). Hence 4 years of undergrad with three majors and a minor by the time I graduated.

As for CS, I would assert that it would be an excellent addition to any major. But be mindful that the skills you need and will use can all be found online and learned at your own pace, majoring (or minoring) in it is nice, but not required.


What is the principal investigator’s responsibility regarding data authenticity?

We've talked about this at the institute where I'm doing my PhD, and the best solution seemed the following:

First, make a central database for all raw data, that can be accessed per request. Upload/copy data to it as soon as it's collected, including noisy data that might not enter the final analysis. This ensures that any excluded data has to be properly justified.

Second, let everybody know that every so often a random dataset will be pulled out and some basic checks run on it.

Third, run those basic checks. For this you need someone with knowledge of statistics who can tell you what is appropriate for your type of data. A lot of basic aspects of normal data are difficult to simulate without a lot of knowledge on statistics. To give an example, if you take data that have a normal distribution, split it into quintiles, then plot the mean against the variance in each quintile, they should roughly fall on an inverted U-shaped curve. I know of a case where this relationship was perfectly linear, which raised alarm bells. In any case, these checks should be simple and easy to run.

Fourth, decide who will do these checks, because it takes time and effort.

Fifth, make sure you have some idea of what types of mistakes are honest mistakes, and what constitutes actual fraud. Make sure you discuss mechanisms of dealing with these mistakes (and fraud) beforehand, i.e. don't leave this decision in the hands of the supervisor at the moment it happens.

Edit: I guess the main question was what's the PI's responsibility. My reply reflects my opinion that the responsibility should be more institutionalized, and not left just to the PI. On the other hand, the PI could run some of these steps internally if needed / if there is no other help available. But then it might be too elaborate, so perhaps you will get some better answers from other people.


Disclose industry salary as COI at academic conference?

I suspect that the form was intended for academic researchers who are funded in the form of industry grants. In that case, the size of the grant would be the right number. In your case, I would leave it open -- nobody needs to know your salary.


In what engineering field can i study renewable energies in the USA?

Renewable energy is an application of engineering, and requires expertise from various disciplines. For example, wind energy requires civil, mechanical and electrical engineering.

I don't know how things work in the US, but in the UK my advice would be to identify which discipline interests you the most and pursue that in a department that includes renewables on the syllabus. Then either look for a job in renewables, or do a masters to learn more about that industry. However, I don't know how applicable that advice is to your situation.


Is it okay to have 2 strong and 1 good recommendation letters for an MS in Computer Science in the US?

You need to send in the letters that give the best impression of you, based on what is important to the admissions committee.

For example if you are applying to a thesis based program at a top school and your proposed research area is theoretical and your three strong letters are from well respected academics, I would use those.

If on the other hand you are applying for a non-thesis based more applied program or are applying for an assistantship; your work ethic will be of interest to the committee.  I would use the internship supervisor letter.


Does a journal retracting a paper also renounce copyright?

Good question. As far as I can tell, the answer is "no" and the journal retracting the paper still retains copyright (if it was given the copyright in the first place).

Here're some retraction policies: one, two, three. Although the question you ask is not discussed, two things can be noted:

Even if a paper is retracted, the publisher still distributes it (as in, it's still available from the journal's website). What changes is that the publisher makes it clear that the article is retracted.
The publisher only stops distributing the paper if they are legally obliged to do so (e.g. if the copyright is actually held by someone other than the authors, and the authors had no legal standing to sign the copyright to the publisher).

Since the publisher needs the copyright (or permission from the copyright holder) to distribute the paper, the logical answer is "no".


Should limitations of a methodology with proposed solutions be discussed in the Limitations Section?

With the caveat that this is discipline specific, you could discuss your questions in several places in your article.

First, you can begin to nod at this briefly in the methods section of your article. Every methodology has some drawback or limitation and my advisers always told me to acknowledge this in the beginning. For instance, while doing semi-structured interviews, I admitted that my sampling was convenience and snowball based and restricted to 30 participants. However, I followed this up by citing 2 papers which talk about appropriateness of sample size in grounded theory approaches and theoretical saturation and why this is not hamstringing my paper completely.

Second, one of the ways of validating qualitative studies from a methodological perspective is to look at issues of credibility, transferability etc. One of their solutions is to do member checks (especially for interview based studies) In one of my current projects, I did do member checks and talk about this approach as mitigating some of my methodological drawbacks in the Discussion section of my article.

Third, you can definitely talk about this in the limitations section of your paper. There is no panacea to solving a human-centered research problem (and indeed various nuanced facets of every research project, however thoroughly investigated they might be are almost always incomplete) In the limitations section of my papers, I put down both theoretical as well as methodological limitations of my work and discuss potential ways to approach them in future work or follow up studies.


How to deal with papers/authors that provide no details of implementation?

In your thesis, I think it should be safe to say something along the lines of

  "John Doe et. al. claim in [22] that the algorithm would run 400X faster with their implementation, however, the details are unclear."

and leave it there. If you are asked more about it in your defense, you may politely state that you tried to approach the authors for more information but could not get it.


In US universities, a 'graduate school' is usually an administrative entity that manages all aspects of graduate life. At the University of Utah, for example:

  The Graduate School fosters excellence by providing administrative
  structure and leadership to maintain and enhance graduate education at
  the University of Utah.

  Our programs offer financial assistance, rigorous academic
  opportunities, and professional development to students, staff, and
  faculty.

  We are guided by the principles of quality, diversity, and integrity
  as we help students to prepare themselves for successful, relevant
  careers.

The link posted in the comments suggests that faculty are required to be associated with the grad school in order to function as advisors etc. I think this is also an administrative action, designed to demarcate faculty that can advise students from all the other people who are designated as faculty (for example, adjuncts, research faculty, teaching faculty, and so on).

So there's no academic function associated with the graduate school.

You can think of the graduate school as the university-wide entity that manages the individual chairs of graduate studies at departments.


Presentation of Research Hypotheses (APA 6th)

As far as I am aware APA style does not have specific formatting for problem statements or hypothesis. The APA Example paper lacks a clear problem statement and has a paragraph that describes what was done.

  In the current research, therefore, we compared young and older adults’ detection of four
  categories of emotional information (positive high arousal, positive low arousal, negative high
  arousal, and negative low arousal) with their detection of neutral information. The positive and
  negative stimuli were carefully matched on arousal level, and the categories of high and low
  arousal were closely matched on valence to assure that the factors of valence (positive, negative)
  and arousal (high, low) could be investigated independently of one another...


Is this possible to drop an author from authors' list of a paper after revision?

Perhaps, but very very unusual. This should really never happen - the only case I can see reasonable is if someone was included as an author but either found their own contributions to be insufficient or disagreed with the publication and requested that they be removed from the list. It should definitely never happen when that person has a legitimate claim to authorship.

  What are my options at the worst scenario?

I don't think it makes much sense to consider the "worst" scenario. The best scenario probably involves you finding a new advisor.

  Is it normal (of course it's not!) that somebody that has nothing to do with a paper question the contribution of a paper that is not published yet even?

No, it is not normal for someone with no involvement in a paper to concern themselves with authorship issues for that paper, at any stage.

I don't see any reason to bother convincing your advisor. You cannot reason with someone to change a position that is not based on reason in the first place.

Given the pattern of issues you have had in the past (for example: Is this violation of academic integrity if I ask a question on Github public repository and post it as an issue? How to deal with an adviser that wants to force you to get his desired results?), your next steps should involve getting out of this situation in whatever way you can. This advisor is an advisor in name only, I cannot see a positive outcome if you stay with them.


Does one need a specific field in mind to apply to a PhD program in mathematics?

At least for most graduate programs in pure mathematics in the US, there's no need to have a specialization in mind when applying.  [This may be very different in other countries.]

It's valuable to demonstrate in your application that you have studied some serious mathematics, by discussing undergraduate research or advanced coursework.  However, there's no implication that you intend to focus on the same fields in graduate school.

It's common to indicate an interest in a few possible specialties, usually at a level of detail ranging from "algebra" to "analytic number theory".  If you are completely undecided, then that could come across negatively, by suggesting a general lack of enthusiasm.  However, being too specific is also problematic.  Matching a possible advisor too closely comes across as pandering, while being specific without matching anyone makes it look like you aren't a good fit for this particular department.

Overall, the general feeling is that incoming graduate students don't know enough to make well-informed decisions about specialization, and that anything they say is a little unreliable because their interests may shift as they learn more.  From that perspective, it's not worth worrying about this too much.

As for talking with professors, at least at the schools I'm familiar with this will not increase the chances of admission (the decisions are made by a committee).  After you've been admitted, it's important to talk with faculty and try to gauge the chances of finding a suitable advisor.  However, that can and should wait until February.


What are the consequences of withdrawing an abstract from a conference?

First, I should mention that the "no paper, no podium" (and vice versa) only applies to conferences where proceedings are published. For many conferences, this is not the case—including many conferences in physics, chemistry, engineering, and applied mathematics that I regularly attend.

In general, if you have to withdraw a paper because of whatever reason—visa issues, experiments not working, or kidnapped by aliens (etc.)—it will not have that much impact on your career. The effect will increase, however, the more papers you withdraw, and the more trouble that you cause the conference organizers as a result. If you let them know well in advance that you're not going to be there, they can try to organize some sort of replacement for you, which, although suboptimal, is better than having a "hole" in the schedule. On the other hand, if you wait until the morning of your talk to withdraw your talk, you will definitely tick off the organizers, which may have an effect on your ability to present in the future (at least at that conference, or others the organizers work on later).


How Credible Is An LOR Without A Letterhead for MS in CS?

I am the Graduate Coordinator for my department (mathematics at the University of Georgia).

In general I absolutely do not care about the letterhead of recommendation letters.  In fact, the electronic system at my institution gives writers the option to fill a(n unlimited in size) box with text, so a lot of our recommendation text does not come in letter format.  Moreover, when I write letters for students, I usually do not trouble to use the university letterhead (having observed hundreds of others doing the same practice).

However, your current writer was an assistant professor and is now a PhD student.  In my experience that is quite irregular, unless the recommender already had a PhD and is now pursuing a PhD in a different academic field.  The status of the letter writer does play a role in how we evaluate the letter, and I think many faculty would devalue a letter for a graduate student that comes from another graduate student.

So I think this is case in which official letterhead would be helpful, if it can be honorably procured and used.  Getting a letter from a former faculty member is not really any worse than getting a letter from a current faculty member -- after all, in many cases they are writing about a former student.  If the letter writer was legitimately an assistant professor at the time they worked with you, then of course they can say that.  They should also mention that they are not currently faculty at that institution and provide a means of being contacted (email should be fine).  I am not completely confident about it, but at the moment it seems to me that the writer does not need to say that they are now a PhD student elsewhere -- it is not directly relevant to the evaluation and may cause the letter to be devalued in a way that is not necessarily fair to the student.

Another possibility is to get the requisite number of letters from "real faculty" and include this letter as an "extra one."  If that is not technically possible with respect to the admissions system, you could arrange for this person to send the letter to the chair of the admissions committee, or you could ask for her to write a letter jointly with a "real faculty member" at your institution.


Is it ok for one of your letters of recommendation to come from someone in the department/program to which you are applying?

Yes, this is fine.  On the whole, a letter from someone in the department is better than a random one, in that the writer is well-known to the people on the committee.  So, certainly this isn't something you should go to trouble to avoid.

EDIT: It seems from comments that the OP is applying to their own undergraduate institution.  That's it's own can of worms (many schools heavily discourage this, for good reasons, I think), but I think there's no question that you must get at least one letter from the institution you attended as an undergraduate.  It would look really problematic if you didn't (committees would assume no one there would write you a good recommendation, and thus wonder what you did to ruin your reputation).

EDIT 2: Just to comment further, given that the OP also left out that they are changing to a different department from their undergraduate degree.  In that case, having a letter from someone in the department is a big help.  I don't think the jump from math to statistics is so big, but generally it's very good to have letters from someone who knows the program and what it takes to succeed in it well, which is always tricky when shifting between fields.


Was a professor correct to chastise me for writing "Prof. X" rather than "Professor X"?

What a jerk! No, writing "Prof." is perfectly fine; his reaction is both incorrect and completely inappropriate. I cannot imagine any professor I know (even the ones I don't like) writing such a thing.

What country is this guy in? Some countries (e.g., Germany) have stricter rules for such things, but I'm still shocked he would respond like this.

  regarding typos in ... his book

Ah. Is it possible he's being snarky about your abbreviation since you criticized his typos? If your e-mail had a condescending tone, maybe he is trying to "bite back." That's the only thing I can think of.


Do we really need gold open access if publishers permit self-archiving and sharing?

What you're describing is open access. It's simply a different form of it to the one Springer want you to pay for...

There are effectively two-and-a-half routes to open access, with a lot of subtle variants between journals -

Gold - the article is available immediately, freely, and in perpetuity, via the journal's website, probably with a permissive copyright license. The big open access journals (PLOS One, Scientific Reports, etc) are generally all-gold. It is usually paid for, but not always - many journals are gold but don't charge.

Hybrid gold - a special case of the above but for a single article in an otherwise subscription-access journal, rather than an all-gold-OA title. Usually costs more than an all-gold journal and almost always paid for.

Green - a version of the article (usually but not always the accepted manuscript) is available through a repository (or personal website, etc), often after a delay of around a year, and usually without a permissive copyright license. Usually no charge (other than standard publication costs if relevant).

Almost all mainstream journals allow green open access, though the rules are complicated, and they often refer to it as something like "permitted distribution" rather than "open access". Most journals from the big commercial publishers offer hybrid open access, though exactly how common it is for people to take this option is still a bit of an open question. (Finally, most all-gold journals also permit green open access, but obviously it's less important in that case!)

So, the question becomes - assuming my journal allows green OA, as almost all Springer and Elsevier titles do, what is the point of paying for hybrid? (This is a question I answer a lot for people looking at OA option forms, and most of them decide not to...)

Possible reasons to take gold over green, assuming you've already decided on committing to that journal, might be -

Audience. If you expect the title to be of wide public interest (= lots of non-academics want to read it) or valuable to particular audiences in regions without great journal subscriptions (Africa, South America, etc) then hybrid gold may make sense.
Timeframes. If you know it is likely to be of particular interest now, and making it publicly available a year or two down the line would be much less valuable, for whatever reason, then hybrid gold is more useful.
Distribution. If you know you'll want to make a lot of copies of your paper and distribute them widely and publicly, having a permissive copyright license through hybrid gold may help do this.
Discoverability. Hybrid OA papers are marginally more discoverable than green OA ones, as you can find them through the journal website, the DOI points to them, etc. A repository or personal website may not always be as easy to find.
Policy requirements. In some cases, funder or institutional policy will require that a hybrid OA option be taken if available. This is rarer now, and most of them are starting to pedal back on hybrid spending, but it may apply.

In practice, most people don't take the option. And if you want those specific benefits, you can get most of them from using an all-gold OA journal in the first place...


How useful is studying MSc Computer Science in Switzerland?

EPFL is one of the better technical universities. This has two consequences: 1) it will be hard (as @xLeitix notes, if your current school doesn't even teach complexity, you will be in for a challenging time at EPFL), and 2) you won't have a problem to get a job afterwards.

Note that differences between schools are not as pronounced in Europe as elsewhere. For instance, I am pretty sure that you will not be able to attend a German or Swiss university without exposure to algorithm complexity. Consequently, employers (both academic and industry) in Europe don't really care all that much about school quality. Grades, internships and the impression you leave at the interview are much more important.

Beware of costs of living in Zurich. Zurich compares with New York City. It's horrendous. (I used to live there.) Lausanne should be somewhat better, but Switzerland is generally an expensive place. If you seriously plan on going there, check local rents and/or supermarkets (coop.ch or migros.ch - you should be able to find this week's offers even without speaking German) and convert them from CHF to AUD to get an impression.

Note the language: Zurich is German-speaking, but Swiss German is very hard for a non-native speaker, even if you did take German classes. Lausanne is French-speaking, and the Swiss French is closer to "standard" French than Swiss German is to German. Francophones dislike speaking English, so you will get by more easily in Zurich than in Lausanne in English.

Switzerland is not in the EU (although it of course cooperates), so your EU membership is not all that important. With an ETH/EPFL diploma, you should have no problem getting a job anywhere in Switzerland or the EU.


Which PhD field offers better job prospects: Math or Computer Science?

Assuming that you're interested in the private sector and holding all else equal, I'd guess that a Computer Science degree would tend to outperform a Math degree.  It's just such an incredibly useful field to have expertise in.

That said, if you're going for competitive research positions in overlapping fields, e.g. cryptography, then it may not matter that much so long as you have the appropriate background for that sub-field.  Then, you'll probably be evaluated against other applicants more heavily based on objective qualifications rather than the name that your degree has on it.


Writing advice for a junior PhD student writing a single-author paper

In all my previous papers, I have always had experienced senior authors looking over my writing, telling me what's appropriate and what isn't, how to handle specific things, how to best present results to appease reviewers and editors and, of course, significantly polishing my manuscripts

You want to continue to have all of these things, just perhaps under your own power and at a more complete stage of development (not necessarily when you are almost finished, but when you know clearly what you want to ask). You've hopefully collected some of the advice you've gotten in the past on your work not just as specific advice on that paper but as direction on your writing in general.
However, you still want to have senior advisors look over your writing. Writing a single-author paper doesn't separate you from the need for that guidance. Even tenured professors share their writing with peers (and students) for feedback.
If you are unsure if an approach is appropriate/how to handle something specific, ask an advisor. It's your work, so don't ask "what should I do?", ask "do you think X or Y would be better?" (it's okay if the answer is Z), but don't be afraid to get advice. There is a lot of feedback you can get without sharing all of your writing - you can get advice without someone needing to read 40 pages to give it.
The polishing stage is probably something you need to take more control of, but once you've polished it as best you can, once you've let it sit for a few days before coming back to editing it with a fresh view yourself a couple times, you'll still likely need someone else's feedback. Few people can write well without it.
If possible, you may be able to split some of the burden to more than one person. Your peers can help as well - and you can trade your own efforts on their projects - and hopefully this can limit the advice your advisor needs to give.


How do I answer a question on graduate school applications on textbooks used in my classes, when my class didn't use a textbook?

Then say that! Tell the instructor's name, and give a link to the instructor's notes. If the notes are somehow not publicly accessible, then, yes, it'll be impossible for anyone else to know what is in them.

The point of such a requirement is to give much more detail than saying that you studied "algebra" and "analysis" and "combinatorics" and ... since these labels are far too vague, and also do not indicate the level at which the course was conducted.

EDIT: Contrary to a comment, I think that being able to describe the source(s) for one's study is very important. E.g., the author. If the notes are/were in a language other than English, that hardly matters, if the note-writer is known to the international mathematics community, and, again, if you can provide a link to the notes. Most older mathematicians can read French, German, and fake a bit of Dutch, Italian, Spanish, maybe slavic languages. Just be forthright: tell who the instructor was/is, and show the notes.

Again, the real point is to describe what was actually studied, since there is no universal syllabus, nor universal standard for level of rigor, abstraction, etc. Just saying "Algebra" communicates almost nothing, and admissions committees want more. An answer of the form "I can't describe what I studied/learned" is unhelpful, and will not gain you much, as you can imagine.


Applying for more than one faculty position in a department

You imply this is a US institution you are concerned with. While only they can answer the question directly, and you should ask them, I think an application that covers all of the positions, would likely be acceptable.

I've assumed this is for a single department, of course, which likely has a single hiring committee. If they are hiring for three closely related positions then I'd think that they could decide which is a better match for yourself and themselves.

I would simply state my qualifications in an application, emphasizing elements that would be suitable for each of the positions. If you are interesting enough to them that they want to actually follow up and talk to you then you can refine things a bit, but I wouldn't try to guide it too much in the application.

In fact, I think a lot of places would find it odd to get three applications from the same person for a position in one academic department. That is so unless, for example, they indicate that there are actually three committees with three different chairs. In that case, you could send identical applications to the three chairs, mentioning that you have sent identical requests to the others.


Attributing contributions to academic work that occur in Stack Exchange

Issue of citing authorship
Starting from first principles, I think in most instances on StackExchange it would be the original poster of the quoted answer that would be the relevant author. The person asking the question is useful but it is typically the information provided in a particular answer that would be the typical candidate for citation.
That said, I imagine there could be instances where the question itself or an overall exchange represents the unit of citation. In such a case, it would make sense to cite all relevant contributors.
Does something learnt from StackExchange need to be cited?
A lot of learning goes into a journal article. This learning comes from many sources. That which gets cited is only a small fraction of that. A scientist might (a) read a statistics book; (b) ask a friend;  or (c) ask a question on Stats.StackExchange.com to learn more about how to analyse his or her data. In both cases, the person has devised an analysis plan based on having learnt something. However, generally these sources are not cited. In each case the scientist has learnt how to do something, but ultimately the knowledge is already established in the literature.
I also think that the vast majority of posts on StackExchange do not constitute a citable unit of original research. That said, where this does occur and it it influences your work, it makes sense to cite the source.


Low GPA, any chance of grad school for math?

Take the graduate version of abstract algebra. Do incredibly well in it, and ask the prof for a letter.

Hopefully it will read something like the following: "X's performance is extremely strong, and his (her?) homework assignments are flawless. I was astonished to learn that X had previously earned only a C in undergradate abstract algebra; whatever X's weakness was, he/she has left it completely beind him/her."


How should I describe a result from a submitted paper such that the reviewers can do their work?

When submitting a paper, you are normally able to provide attachments for consideration by the reviewers. You can include a draft of the submitted manuscript as a reference for the readers.

However, if you're in mathematics or another field which encourages preprints, you should in principle be able to post the paper on a repository like arXiv and point the reviewers to the repository version while the paper is under consideration. If the paper is accepted and appears in print before the new paper is accepted, you can change the reference in the proof stage.

What you can get away with depends upon the editorial policies of the journal. Some journals require you to provide copies of any material that is unpublished (such as correspondences with other researchers or unpublished manuscripts). Other journals will let you get away with less. But in general, you need to show some sort of evidence that the work is under consideration. Perhaps an email confirmaing submission, plus the abstract, will suffice?


Is there other way to get into more advanced study of math, with a low GPA?

Admissions committees (at least in the US) are generally forgiving of low grades in your first year, especially if you (and your recommendation letters) tell a compelling story about hitting your groove/finding your passion for the material in your second year.  Keep your grades up, get some undergraduate research experience, and you'll be fine.


What is the current status of submitted manuscript?

The associate-editor is the person who is handling your manuscript. He is not the person doing the reviews. The associate editor send some e-mails to some researchers to invite people to review your papers. These reviewers will submit their reviews and then the associate editor will make a decision on your manuscript based on these reviews.  The decision could be something like : accept, reject or need to be revised.
So there is no conflicts between these two status. An associate editor was assigned to handle your paper. Then, "under review" means that the associate editor has already invited some persons to review your paper and that at least one of them has already accepted.  Now, it can take some time before all the reviews are submitted... sometimes weeks or months. Then eventually you will get the result.


A level as entry requirement to PGCE program

In the UK it should definitely be possible for you to become a maths teacher with your background, but I'm not completely sure whether you would need to do A-level maths first.  I would expect that most maths teachers would actually have a degree in maths or a very closely related subject, but I don't know this for sure.

You might find helpful information on the UCAS website (the link is to the page about entry requirements for teaching).

From that page:

  Obviously, you'll also need a strong understanding of the subject you
  want to teach before you start training. If your degree subject
  doesn't link closely to your chosen teaching subject, we'd advise you
  to take a subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) course before starting
  teacher training. You can only do these in England and in certain
  subjects.


Is it ethical to withdraw an accepted manuscript for financial reasons?

The fundamental ethical principle is that you shouldn't waste people's time.  This could be applied differently, depending on the circumstances:

If you knew there were mandatory fees you couldn't afford, then it was unethical to submit the paper.  The damage is already done (assuming you really can't pay the fees), and now you should apologize and withdraw the paper.
If the fees were clearly announced but you just weren't paying attention, then you screwed up.  Again you should apologize, and you may have no choice but to withdraw the paper, but it's worth asking whether fee waivers are available.
If you submitted the paper in good faith, believing that you would be able to pay the fees, but your financial circumstances have since changed in a way you couldn't have predicted, then you should explain the situation.  You may need to withdraw the paper if you can't get a fee waiver, but you haven't done anything wrong.
If the fees were not announced ahead of time (for example, on the journal's web site), then the journal is at fault.  In this case, you should complain and withdraw your paper, since you don't want the paper to appear in an unethical journal.  However, you should check very carefully to make sure the fees really weren't disclosed, since it would be humiliating to accuse the journal of fraud when you just weren't reading carefully.


My undergraduate thesis project is a failure and I don't know what to do

"It didn't work" is not a thesis.
However, "this is what I made, this is how I tested it, these are the results of those tests, this is how I attempted to fix/would attempt to fix in the future", etc, can be just fine, even if the ultimate conclusion is that your device isn't currently functional.
Undergraduate theses are typically fairly short-term projects, so you may not be able to follow up with all the avenues you would have for a longer project.
Most importantly, though, talk to your supervisor. Their role as a supervisor is for exactly the situation you're in: applying their experience and expertise as a researcher to help guide you in what to do. If everything worked out perfectly without any kinks or setbacks a supervisor would hardly be necessary.
Also most importantly (I'm running out of superlatives here), as a student, the success/failure of the endeavor should be primarily judged on what you as the student have learned along the way rather than the overall outcome (the proverbial "it's the journey not the destination"). Your device may not be working, but if you've learned something along the way I would not say the project is a "failure".


Personally I think you cannot do it, and I wouldn't even speak in terms of "reasonable" or "unreasonable". If someone makes a contribution to your work, that person is your co-author, deal with it. If a person wants to remove his/her own name, its their private decision, but I can hardly imagine doing that for other contributors without their consent.

When I engage in research with other people, I consider it a sort of binding contract: I do this for you, and I expect you to put my name on the front page. If you don't want to deal with me anymore, it's OK, but next time, not this time.

Furthermore, while I don't want to overthink it and portray pictures of possible dystopian future, I believe such ways of "community shunning" are very dangerous. Maybe today you have a valid reason for it, but you'll open a Pandora's box: first we retroactively remove people for their flaws, then for their views on sensitive topics, then for their thoughts.


What does "Reviews Completed" status mean in Springer?

It's waiting for the editor to read the reviews and make a decision. This could mean one of the following: 'reject', 'submit as new', 'major revision, 'minor revision' or 'accept' (Depending on the journal, options may change).

Any decision above 'major revision' is good, meaning you get a chance to improve the paper and hopefully get to full accept.  Of course the paper can still be rejected at any stage until it is fully accepted.

Best of luck!


Should I refer to myself as a PhD candidate or a researcher as an author of a paper?

It doesn't matter, it's a bio.

Describe who you are. Do you see yourself as a PhD student or a researcher?

Be careful because "PhD candidate" has additional meaning some places vs others, and you don't want to misuse it if it doesn't apply to you (it does not mean "PhD student" everywhere).


Week before Master's thesis deadline, found publication that explores same concept with slightly different results

You will need to speak to your advisor about this matter, but if the paper is relevant to your research (and it certainly sounds like it is) then you are correct in your view that it should be incorporated into your thesis.  If one week is insufficient to do this, I recommend you seek an extension for submission from your supervisory panel.  It should not be too difficult to secure an extension in this circumstance, and it is likely that your panel will want you to do the extra work to incorporate this work into your thesis.  The golden rule of all research work is to make it as useful as possible for the reader.  Adding reference and discussion to this other paper sounds like it will certainly improve your work and give relevant information to the reader about the state of the field.
Finally, in regard to the "horror" you are experiencing, it might aid you to learn that several highly aclaimed researchers have had similar ---but far more horrifying--- experiences of this kind.  The most famous case I am aware of is Gottlob Frege, an eminent German philosopher and logician, who wrote his Magnus Opus on logic and arithmetic, only to be informed by Bertrand Russell that one of the core axioms on which the entire theory was based was inconsistent (and therefore the entire theory was invalidated).  It is instructive to read the history of this matter (see e.g., here), and it is a fascinating story in the history of mathematics and academic publishing.  Russell later remarked on the immense integrity of Frege in dealing with the disappointment of finding out that his life's work was wrong:

As I think about acts of integrity and grace, I realise that there is nothing in my knowledge to compare with Frege’s dedication to truth.  His entire life’s work was on the verge of completion, much of his work had been ignored to the benefit of men infinitely less capable, his second volume was about to be published, and upon finding that his fundamental assumption was in error, he responded with intellectual pleasure clearly submerging any feelings of personal disappointment.  It was almost superhuman and a telling indication of that of which men are capable if their dedication is to creative work and knowledge instead of cruder efforts to dominate and be known.  (Quoted in van Heijenoort (1967), 127) (Quote taken from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, History of Russell's Paradox)


Should I include Abstracts (short descriptions) of research papers/thesis in my CV?

This was initially a comment but I think I can be expanded as an answer.

People, in general, want to see in your CV a brief summary of your academic achievements. Towards this, it is enough to compile a list of publications. The amount and the quality of the journal/conferences are enough to indicate your research profile in a preliminary screening. If they are more interested in your actual research, that's why you are asked to supply a research statement which sometimes can be as long as 4-5 pages, usually 2-3. There, you can briefly discuss your research and they can get a feeling also about compatibility (if that was not apparent from the list f publications). If they are interested in more depth they can request preprints of your works.

So, having an abstract for every publication in your CV does not add any information and does not help in any meaningful way except that your CV might look more "beefy" (but I am not sure it's an advantage).


If interviewing for a postdoc by Skype, how to get a feel for the lab culture?

Email people who used to be in the group and ask them for advice.


How much value do papers without new scientific information have, i.e. seminar papers such as overviews of or examples for current methods in CS?

This is akin to a review article, in the sense that you're interpreting and reporting on existing work, rather than creating something new. There's nothing wrong with a review article, and many scientists do write them during their careers (but usually not before they've started a doctoral program!).

That said, while I believe that it is not nearly as good as a "standard" research paper in establishing one's capabilities to do original research, it may have some merit. If the schools to which you are applying allow you to submit additional documentation, then you could consider sending it in, if you believe it is of sufficient quality.


Length of Ph. D. Application CV for Mid-Career Professionals

Unlike an American industry resume, an academic CV does not have a length limit.  It would be appropriate to list all your teaching experience.


Switching labs, need advice on how to communicate with old PI regarding project

I can generally see two motivations for your old PI to have you finish the project:

He benefits from a finished project and does not want to pay the price (time, risk, money) of training a successor.

He thinks that finishing the project is a good career move for you as you gain experience in wrapping up a project (and he can write that in his recommendation letter) or possibly a publication.

Something that is very important to consider here and in my experience often underestimated by students is this: It takes quite a while to familiarise yourself with a project so you can efficiently work on it. You never hit the ground running. The details strongly depend on the field and individual project, of course, but just to give an example, my rule of thumb for four-month projects is that the student has to be up to speed after three months and then most of the valuable work is done in the last month.
To estimate this for yourself, think about how much time and energy it would take you to re-do the work you already did on the project with your current knowledge  (i.e., minus familiarising yourself).
Compare this to how much time you actually spent on the project.
Now, there may be some tedious experimental chores involved that simply cannot be made more efficient, but maybe you do not need to do any further of those or these can indeed be done by somebody else.
It may also be worth considering how much energy the remaining work will cost.
It may be very stressful for you, but it may also be some rather enjoyable, relaxing, and satisfying activity compared to everything else you are doing.
Finally, it may be worth noting that one thing your PI may have experienced and wants to avoid the following:
A valuable project that is nearly finished gets abandoned because the student quit or finished and was unwilling to do the few final pieces of work that can be easily done by them and only by them.
The reason for this is that the student does not recognise how much they could have benefited from finishing the project.
And training somebody else to finish the job is not worth the effort.
With all that in mind, I suggest to talk with the PI with all that mind.
I suggest to ensure to address the following points:

What work does still need to be done?
This is both about what he wants from you and what you think this requires.
What of this work needs to be done by you and what can be done by somebody else?

What’s the amount of time and energy you estimate to spend on this work?

How do you benefit from this?
Does this yield valuable experience, a better recommendation letter, a publication, etc.?

Mind that how direct you can be with all of this depends on your old PI and cultural factors.


Will my American GPA be 'transferred' to an Australian university?

While every university is different, it might play a part of the admissions process, but after that, probably not, no. It’s likely that you won’t even receive credit for the units that you’ve done directly; instead, you’d ask for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and they’ll look at the units you’ve done and compare them to the units you’d need to do for your new degree, then give you non-graded passes for the units in your degree that they felt were roughly equivalent in content and teaching level.

Additionally, most Australian universities mark on a seven-point grade scale, ranging from 1 (Low Fail) to 4 (Pass) to 7 (High Distinction), which wouldn’t be directly comparable to the American 4-point system.

Source: I’m an Australian who transferred between two different universities and degrees during his undergraduate, and is currently doing postgraduate study. This is just my personal experience; I’m open to being corrected by someone with experience working in a university’s admissions office.