How to explain a life as a researcher to friends, family and partners who aren't?

[This response may be specific to my culture/situation, so take it for what it's worth.]

As a student in the health sciences, I find it helpful to explain my passion in terms of 'needing to know'. The human body--and it's response to disease--is so complex, with so many interactions that we don't fully understand, I find myself continually in a position of wonderment. "The more I learn, the less I know."

I am passionate about becoming the best healthcare professsional I can be, and the individuals who are important to me seem to be able to understand this. I know that I cannot expect them to totally understand the fascination of research, or the passion that drives me to devote all available time to learning, reading, writing, etc. Both they and I have come to accept this. I do not push my world onto them, nor do they demand that I be able to explain.

Perhaps the really crucial part of this is taking time to be really present with the non-academics in your life. Let them know that you care for them and accept their non-academic lifestyle as well. Understanding and acceptance is often a two-way street--be willing to give as well as get.

This really only answers your second question. Perhaps others may be more able to respond to the first query about stories/articles to help your loved ones understand the fascination of research.


Can the tutor test for plagiarism under these circumstances?

If a tutor decides that (s)he will look extra carefully at the work of a specific student because (s)he believes that that student might plagiarise, then there is nothing you can do to prevent it. However, as long as your friend does not plagiarise, there is no problem (other than the time wasted by the tutor).


Can I do research at the university without acceptance to the university

I believe that this is usually up to the faculty member that is running the research project. A couple of my friends in grad school contributed to our research group prior to their actual grad-school application, so that the faculty would know them better when the application came around.

(My area of research is compilers, different specialty, but still in the Computer Science/Computer Engineering department.)

When/if you do contact faculty members, try to have some concrete ideas and thoughts (and mention that you are looking for experience only for future grad-school applications, not a paid position.) Professors get bombarded with emails about grad students wanting TA/grader/RA positions every day, so you won't get a second thought if you send something generic. If you're very new to robotics, then instead of a concrete research topic, you could say something concrete about your experience and send your resume.

Contributing to a project, especially if it leads to a paper (but even if it doesn't) will definitely improve your grad-school application. It's a good strategy!


How important is it to have a personal website, when applying for a PhD?

The first of your reasons would be a negative, I think. It sounds defensive. This is not the impression you want others to have.

The second of your reasons is not compelling. A personal website that just gives your qualifications is of little real value to anyone else. Your application materials will have all of that information in any case, so the web site is fairly useless. Additionally, the SOP is limited in length to get you to focus your writing on the important things, not to spew everything you know.

However, a personal web site that has things to offer to readers to make their now lives and work better can be a very positive thing but more for later, when you are looking for employment.

For example:

In mathematics, a web site that had, among other things a set of challenging exercises that give insight when solved is a very useful thing.

A blog that helps other students know how to learn a subject, or a topic.

Book and article recommendations to people studying specific things.

Software that enables generation of useful data or graphics or ...

If you can do something like that, then you can also have an extended CV with your papers and such as you develop them. But it needs to be more than just that if it is to really be helpful to others and to yourself. And if it is useful enough, then others will link to it, so that it starts to show up in Google rankings.

You don't, of course, have to develop such a site all at once. It is an incremental task that requires only periodic maintenance over an academic lifetime.


Repeating oneself verbatim: from a word document to a presentation

Please, please, please, for the sake of your audience do not create a talk simply by dumping a giant pile of text onto slides.  Prose is dense and meant to be digested slowly and without aid from the author.  A talk is just that: a talk by the author, and any slides should be there simply to enhance the audience's understanding of your words.

Thus, your slides should generally be light on words and heavy on images and diagrams.  You can dump text into the "notes" section that only you the presenter will see, but if you dump it on screen for the audience then 1) they will be reading the text rather than listening to you, and 2) they will be terribly bored and think you are a terrible presenter.

For some better heuristics for approaching the constructions of a presentations, I recommend watching Patrick Winston's "How To Speak" talk.


Should I ask about the status of my PhD application?

It's usually the university that handled admissions. Your professor may not have any clue which stage your application is in. So your best bet is contacting the university graduate research department, and asking for timeframes around outcome.


Terminology & description: what are the steps after A Levels

A word of warning before I start: while this answer gives the broad strokes, these names and definitions can fluctuate from country to country and field to field. Since we are on Academia SE, this answer is also biased towards reaching a career in academia. If you think you are more likely to want a job in industry, then higher degrees such as Masters or PhDs are often unnecessary.

A Levels

The highest qualification that can be gained during compulsory education in Britain. Students generally take 3 or 4 specialised subjects for 2 years, to prepare them for a job, apprenticeship or university. As you know, this qualification is also found elsewhere e.g. Bangladesh (similar to how IGCSEs are now used around the world).

Undergraduate

A term which refers to both a first degree and the person who is taking it, for example, "I did my undergraduate at University X" or "I am an undergraduate in physics". Often shortened to "undergrad" (in the UK).

Post-graduate

A term which refers to someone who has obtained their undergraduate degree i.e. they are post-graduation, and is now studying for a post-graduate degree, for example a Masters or PhD. Someone who has obtained their undergraduate degree but is not pursuing further study would be referred to as a graduate.

BSc/ BA

These are types of undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts). These are normally obtained after three or more years of study in a university (aka college in the USA). The type of degree depends on your field of study, for instance, a History degree might be a BA, whereas a Biology degree would be a BSc.

MSc/ MSci/ MA/ MFA/ MBA

These are all types of Masters degrees, typically lasting one year or more and taken after an undergraduate degree. Sometimes these are completely coursework based and simply teach the student more specialised knowledge about a particular subfield; sometimes they are research based and designed to prepare the student for a career in research.

PhD

The highest academic qualification. People with this degree can use the title of "Doctor". Can last anywhere between 3 years (Europe) to 5+ years (USA). Generally there is little to no coursework and the degree is obtained by performing original research and by defending a thesis.

Honours degrees

This is a very loose term that can mean different things in different universities and countries. At my university, to graduate with Honours means that you didn't fail any courses during your degree.

Advice

I would highly recommend speaking to your teachers or any kind of career advisor at your school about what you should do once you have finished your A Levels. For a career in engineering, I think a BSc would be the minimum requirement (business administration I'm not so sure about).


Do big tech companies require on site interviews?

Every company will have its own procedures and likely other procedures that represent exceptions to the normal procedures. If a company is interested in you they will probably be able to find a way to make an interview happen. There are a lot of possibilities. Online interviews, via Skype and such, are becoming common at the early stages, at least, if not for final acceptance. Meeting a member of staff at a professional meeting in the US is a possibility.

If they show interest and want an interview discuss your travel restrictions. The problems with US visas and such are well known, especially, I think, in Canada. If they are interested enough then they will probably suggest something.

But at some point in the hiring process, companies like to have you visit your potential work site to meet a lot of people you'd be working with so you can get a sense about one another. They also like to show off the great work environment, especially if they really want you to join. That might be harder to arrange.


Book suggestions for teaching science at advanced level

I would say that it isn't necessarily good to focus too much on whether you "get difficult calculations or complex explanations of conceptually difficult concepts done as if it is a piece of cake". Instead, look at how students learn. Some difficulties are actually desirable for increasing learning and a presentation that is too smooth can backfire by making things look too easy. Not that this is an excuse for poorly prepared or executed instruction, of course.
Since you ask for a book recommendation, you might want to consult "Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide" by Felder & Brent. It contains many tips on getting students more actively involved in the learning process.


How to write a practical computer science research?

Take a look at ACM Crossroads.

It is a student journal. You can start submitting an small article to be published as a column like this. I have not seen other research journals letting these sorts of tutorials get published. They are usually towards publishing papers that solve an issue, done an experiment, provides recommendations, etc. If you want to write a research paper in those sort of categories, then you will have a lot more choices.


Should I invest more time on old problems or new problems?

My Bayesian advice is to go with the lower prestige journals and move on. Quantity has a quality of its own.  Plus you learn more as you go on.  Don't get snarled up in reviewer, editor debates.  Keep publishing, keep producing.  The quality will come.
BUT also, I would work on your clarity in written communication (using this question as evidence).  That often holds back a borderline paper or allows one to move through.


How to use "can" or "could" when referring to a methodology?

This seems like a fine line with no objective answer. It depends how ready you are to defend your point of view. If you believe firmly (i.e. have good evidence that the method is valid, even if it hasn't been used yet), you can use can. Else, if you consider that your opinion (that the method is valid) may be contested, and you are not sure that it's defensible, use could.


How to prevent too many students from making appointments to meet with you when you put "Office Hours: ..., or by appointment" on the syllabus?

What an interesting problem to have. When I saw the title, I thought, "This must be hypothetical, because this problem never, ever occurs." But I was wrong.

Anyway, I don't know how to deal with having too many students try to schedule office hours, because I have never had that problem, even when teaching 60 students.

I do, however, employ the message board tactic that you mentioned, which probably helps cut down on office hours (and dramatically reduces the number of emails I get). I suggest the free (and extremely slick) service Piazza. Students can collaboratively (wiki-style) answer each others' questions, and instructors can edit everything in sight, as well as create their own answers. When posting questions, students can also appear anonymous to their classmates, but not to the instructor, which eliminates any embarrassment they might feel.

tl;dr: Try Piazza.


The Fields medal also has an age cutoff of 40 (Andrew Wiles being the most recent example of someone who missed the age cutoff for an otherwise sure award).

Grant agencies usually define "young" in terms of "years since Ph.D", or "years in academic position" with the typical cutoff being 6 or so.

Note that while for most things*, 40 might not be considered "young", in many disciplines you might only get your first academic position near that age (especially in biology).

  * politics being the other venue where 40 would be considered young :)


How do journals gain and lose reputation?

TL;DR Top journals tend to have that reputation because they're regularly publishing top papers. Similarly, journals that have a reputation for being "merely" pretty good tend to mostly publish papers that are "merely" pretty good.

I think that far and away the most important reason that certain journals acquire reputations for being strong journals is that they publish very interesting papers that prove important results. For example, if I'm asked to justify my belief that the Annals, JAMS and Inventiones are among the very strongest of all journals in pure mathematics, I'm definitely not going to say anything about mathscinet quotients or impact factors. Moreover, even though having a strong editorial board is incredibly important, I wouldn't mention that either. Instead I would use the fact that off the top of my head I can list a large number of seminal papers that were published in each of these journals. Similarly, if all the papers that I've read in a given journal seemed boring to me (or perhaps not even 100% correct), then I'm not going to think much of the journal and probably won't submit any papers there, regardless of what the many other journal ranking metrics say about the journal.

Since you asked for examples of new-ish journals that have acquired very strong reputations without being the flagship journal of an important mathematical institution, here are two: Geometry & Topology and Algebra & Number Theory. These journals were founded in 1997 and 2007 respectively and have already acquired reputations for being amongst the very strongest journals in their fields. The reason for this, I am sure, is that they both regularly publish extremely interesting papers. How do they attract such strong papers? I'm sure that part of the reason lies with their incredibly strong editorial boards. Having an editorial board full of very strong, well-known mathematicians is likely to result in a steady stream of strong papers since one of the most important factors to consider when choosing a journal to submit a paper to is the editor that will handle the paper. If I have a paper that I think is very strong then I'm not going to want to send it to an editor that I've never heard of and that might not even know what sort of people will make good referees. Instead I'd try to find a journal (at more or less the appropriate level) where there's an editor that I know works in my area and whom I suspect knows plenty of people that will do a good job of refereeing my paper. Thus, if your journal has a board full of well-known people that work in trendy areas then it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that before too long you'll be getting papers submitted that concern trendy areas, at least some of which are very strong and are written by other well-known people in the area (which in turn means that people citing their papers are likely to consider submitting their papers to your journal).


What is the correct procedure to report typos or errors in journal articles?

If an error is grave enough to change the results, conclusions, meaning of a published article, the journal and probably also the author is keen to publish an errata to rectify the problem. If there is an error at a point but which is not carried through to the conclusions, I doubt an errata will result. Given that we cannot see the example you are referring to, it is impossible to asses the gravity of the problem. But, since you mention a typo, I doubt that the article as a whole is affected but rather a sentence or a paragraph. So at best you approach the grey-zone.

So, it would never hurt to write a short mail to the editor to check if the problem is deemed serious enough for action. Depending on how you perceive the problem, a mail to the author to check that your perception of the error is correct may also be pertinent. Which action you take first is of less importance, you may even decide to send a mail to both at the same time. Without knowing the details the best or most appropriate way forward in detail is difficult to judge.


I am non-tenured and have been offered a tenure-track position at my current university, but I don't want to stay here long term. What should I do?

There's nothing to prevent you from accepting the TT position (which presumably carries better pay and more prestige) while still pursuing positions elsewhere.  Indeed, having a tenure-track position may improve your chances of getting an offer outside, or may increase the leverage you have to bargain with if offered something elsewhere.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with accepting the TT job and then leaving (after a year) for another position.  Your department head might not be happy, but this kind of thing is not viewed negatively by the academic culture at large.

In short, I see no downside for you to accept the tenure-track offer.


When refereeing a paper, stating I am not an author of suggested literature

As a reviewer, I have suggested the authors to cite one of my papers only once or twice. I apologized for doing that in the notes to the editor, and remarked that I couldn't avoid it because it was really central. I wrote nothing in the blind notes to the authors, and I write nothing when I suggest papers from other people.

I do this because of two reasons:

I value anonymity of peer reviewers highly, and I prefer to avoid remarks that reduce it by unnecessarily providing additional bits of information. There are already unavoidable signs such as writing style and English mistakes, and I don't want to add more.
I believe it is the editor's responsibility to make sure that the referees are not citation-shopping. It can't be anyone else's, because they are the only person with all the information necessary to perform a check. So I have to justify my actions to him/her, not to the authors.

If, as an author or as a second reviewer, I noticed a very blatant case of citation shopping, I would consider it appropriate to write to the editor privately to suggest investigating. but this has never happened to me up to now. (Although there have been a couple of borderline cases.)


What was offensive about the "ladies lingerie department" joke, and how can I avoid offending people in a similar way?

tl;dr: The joke was funny because it was absurd and taboo (made people uncomfortable). It was "offensive" because it may have been intended to make the person operating the elevator feel embarrassed or singled-out. Avoid making jokes that make people feel singled-out.

How is the joke funny?

As other answers have pointed out, the joke is funny because it makes reference to a time when elevator operators were the norm and people would call out the desired floor in a department store by asking for a specific department. It is an absurd (out-of-place) comment to make in the context (the present day, and not in a department store). Often, absurdity is funny.

There is, however, another layer to the humour. People will often laugh when in an uncomfortable situation. The joke is uncomfortable because of the floor that was asked for: ladies lingerie. In some cultures (I can say Canada and the UK for sure) the topic of undergarments, especially ladies undergarments, is taboo and therefore not supposed to be discussed in "polite society".

In what way was the comment offensive?

I think other answers are close, but slightly miss the mark. The reason I think the joke is offensive is because, whether it was intended or not, it made the person operating the elevator uncomfortable or embarrassed. On a more subtle note the reason is context.

The person operating the elevator may have felt like they were targeted by the joke. They asked an innocent question "What floor?" and the joker replies with the less-than-innocent answer "Ladies lingerie". We can only speculate as to the intentions of the joker, but it is clear that while the joke may have been directed to everyone in the elevator, the answer was directed to the person operating the elevator. Add the fact that the person operating the elevator was a woman, and it doesn't seem so far-fetched to think that she may have felt targeted by the joke.

To further consider this point: why was the department "ladies lingerie" chosen? The joker could have asked for "the hardware department" or "men's clothing" or "sporting goods" and the joke would have drawn a few chuckles. "Ladies lingerie" was chosen because it is taboo, and it is extra taboo because it is a man directing the comment at a woman. More discomfort = more likely to provoke laughs (even though the people in the elevator might feel more uncomfortable than tickled).

Finally, consider the context: a male dominated space. I can say from personal experience (as a man) that it is not uncommon for a group of men to direct lewd or taboo comments at women (or sometimes a young/innocent-seeming man) to provoke embarrassment. Heck, I'm guilty of doing it myself, before I realized how it makes the target of the joke feel! It is likely that the person operating the elevator experienced this sort of behaviour many times before and assumed (perhaps rightly) that the joke was targeted at her and was intended to make her feel embarrassed.

Making someone feel embarrassed for your personal entertainment = bullying. Bullying should not be tolerated, especially in a professional setting.

If it was an elevator full of women and a woman made the joke, the context would be different and the person operating the elevator may not have felt singled-out. Similarly if it was entirely men. However, even in these contexts it is possible for the joke to be construed as bullying, especially if the target of the joke is someone that the joker knows would feel embarrassed.

How do I avoid offending people in a similar way?

Avoid jokes involving topics that make people uncomfortable, especially when telling jokes to strangers or acquaintances. Generally avoid taboo topics of whatever culture you are in and especially avoid jokes that might make someone feel targeted or singled-out based on race, skin colour, sexuality, gender, etc.


Removing one whole chapter of my thesis is suggested (required)

It is very likely in your interest to follow your advisor's advice.  The timeline you describe suggests your advisor has been highly irresponsible (or impacted by the current pandemic) about providing timely feedback, but this is not a reason not to do what they recommend.
In academia, you will be judged on your publications, not the content of your thesis.  Removing content from your thesis to please your supervisor will not necessarily prevent you from publishing that work, so the downsides of a shortened thesis are limited.


Reviewer recommending citation of certain papers of specific group of authors may be himself

Neither, you should just write an answer (not change the article) in which you mention for each paper why you did not cite it. Keep it objective, calm, and short. If the reviewer is unprofessional then that will become clear enough, and your professionalism will be all the more obvious.


Is it considered rude to point out typos, by sending an email to the reviewer, in a MathSciNet review?

It is better to send the corrections directly to MathSciNet, through the mathrev "at" ams.org account. As long as they are just typos, we update the review directly. If you notice mathematical mistakes, we tend to involve the reviewer (if possible), since the changes will be more significant in that case.

We routinely update files for which we discover problems of this kind. It is not a problem. We appreciate your help in this regard!

As for the question of rudeness: I don't think it is rude, these things happen, and if you phrase the matter politely, it will probably be appreciated. On the other hand, reviewers cannot update directly published reviews, which is why it makes more sense to contact us instead.


How are PhDs from foreign universities percieved in the US?

I may have an opportunity to complete my PhD in TESOL or English linguistics at this university

If you decide to do PhD in English linguistics, I would advise you to do it in an English speaking country. The reason is simple, how do you convince others that PhD in English linguistics in S. Korea, where English is a foreign language, is worth something?

On the other hand, if you decide to do PhD in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), where that "other language" is Korean, then I think a Korean university may be a reasonable choice if the quality of both the PhD program and the university are quite good.

Your job opportunity in Korea after you obtain your PhD may not be good if you stay in Korea after you graduate. However, you may actually have advantage over somebody who receives PhD from a Western university because their lack of practical knowledge - teaching English to Koreans if you go to countries other than Korea.

I met many Chinese/Koreans in the US, who had gone to English schools. Many of them told me they wish their English teachers had trainings in their native languages so they would have less difficulties while learning English. I deeply believe those English teachers should have gone through trainings by the PhDs like you.


Top-ranked schools generally commit to offering accepted candidates a certain level of support during their graduate candidacies. Therefore, finances must play a role in how many students they can afford to admit: if you only have sufficient financial resources to support 30 students, and 40 enroll, you're in for a bit of trouble. Thus, the students who are most desirable are those who can provide their own funding, in part or in whole, via external or internal fellowships or "matching funds" from the department. This frees up money that can be used on other students. (I would imagine that in math, much of this funding is awarded in the form of teaching assistantships rather than RA-type positions.)

This makes deciding how many students to admit a difficult challenge. Top students will have competing offers, and thus universities need to admit enough students to make sure they fulfill their research and teaching needs, but need to not be overly generous in making offers, in case yields exceed expectations.

As far as diversity goes, I agree with the assessments in the article you linked to: diversity only comes to play after candidates have cleared the qualification bar.


Ethical obligation to correct other people's mistakes?

Keep in mind that science is the process of getting progressively less wrong, and that publicly sharing your knowledge that the correction is inappropriate will help advance the state of the field (I've found this paper to be inspiring in that regard).

Also, if you're working in a field where your formula is widely known it is likely that someone else will eventually come to the same conclusion that the correction is inappropriate.  Personally, I'd prefer to have a publication record where I correct my own mistakes, rather than having someone else do it for me.  My rationale is that self-correction demonstrates a meticulous approach to research, which is generally viewed as a positive attribute in a researcher.  Not correcting your own mistakes risks the appearance of carelessness, especially if it is known that you had the means of finding and correcting the mistake and did not do so.

I would recommend publishing the revision to the formula as its own finding, complete with examples of how the revision alters the output of the formula and in what circumstances it meaningfully alters the result, rather than as a correction.


Can I wish my students all the best in the mid-term exam paper?

As a student, I'd appreciate my professor wishing me the best for the exam.

If I were to make a suggestion though, it'd be better to write "All the best" at the start of the paper, right after the general instructions section.

Even better if you could drop in before the start of the exam and wish the students in person.


Will a D in a major elective keep me from getting into a PhD program?

I don't believe any single thing like a particular grade is disqualifying, but it will raise eyebrows in anyone considering you for acceptance. But things happen. If the grade is truly an outlier and you have a good explanation most people will understand. Not all, of course.

Stress the positives in your background, as you have in this question. Don't ignore the negatives.

For future reference, however, if it is possible to drop a course late, do so when you are having trouble. Often a Dean's signature may be required for a late-drop, but he/she will be in a position to evaluate your need to do so. I once took too many credits, got into difficulty, and dropped a course to get back to a more reasonable workload. In my case it wasn't difficult, but in the case of illness, especially, most folks at your institution will make an exception to a rule. That doesn't help you now, of course.

Making an attempt at re-learning, even without a grade, is a positive thing. You can mention that.

Different Universities feel differently about accepting doctoral students straight from undergraduate. It likely also depends on the field, but it is possible in Math, of course. Sometimes a Master's degree is just awarded along the way as a sort of marker. So, while it depends on the University, I don't think that "settling" now for a Master's is a good choice.


What can we do as faculty to make tuition more affordable for students? Do we have an obligation to make tuition more affordable?

Use OERs instead of a commercial textbook! This wouldn't affect tuition, but it means students have more money to eat, pay rent, etc.

If you have any say about which texts/materials are used in your classes, then you can be directly responsible for saving students a lot of money.


Does it look bad if I publish an IEEE journal article without "Member, IEEE" next to my name?

Nope, and I doubt anyone would notice or care.

Everyone can be a member, all it takes is a bit of money.


Presubmission inquiry sent to multiple co-editors in the same journals

Don't ask multiple editors. Ask the one who's most appropriate. Who is most appropriate depends on your query, but the obvious candidate is the editor-in-chief.

Emailing several different editors is kind of pointless because they're all subordinate to the editor-in-chief anyway and probably will defer to the EiC's decision.


Ethics of not referencing StackExchange in a publication?

In my publishing experience, and from what I have seen elsewhere, I think the most appropriate thing to do in this scenario is to simply have an acknowledgment. This is standard for most professional publications.

For example, consider the article Counting Triangles to Sum Squares by Joe DeMaio that appeared in the College Mathematics Journal (a periodical of the MAA). Here's a snippet from the article:

As you can see, it would probably be appropriate for you to have an acknowledgment section at the end of your article that ran something like this:

Acknowledgment: Many thanks to members of the Math Stack Exchange community, anonymous and otherwise, for helpful comments and suggestions.


Appealing failure in PhD qualifying exams

Sure you can, however there are the following points to consider, before jump in to the next Ph.D. position:

Abstraction On Failure and Potential Side Effects: First of all, failure is not a bad thing, it just means the person is not ready yet. However, most people deal with depression after a failure, and for few suicidal thoughts come to mind. So in one hand, it is not a big deal, however it is a big deal in another hand; if the person does suffer from depression. The person needs to be very honest with him or herself about this. In case the person is not sure, he/she needs to talk to a psychologist about it.
Supervisors' Role: I saw students who were smart and determined, and finished their Ph.Ds through though times (a friend of mine, finished her Ph.D, where her supervisor had a cancer and needed to be absent the last 12 months of her Ph.D.). However, some students, throughly need supervision, through out their Ph.D. programs, and their supervisors play a big role in their success. If the Ph.D student in the question, belong to the second group; then he/she needs to find a supervisor who take care of his/her students and provide an excellent service. Starting at the same environment, does bring the chance of failure to 100% ... again.
Student's Role: If a Ph.D. student, does not have a good manner, and wastes his/her time; and/or does not listen to his/her supervisor, having the supervisor and getting another Ph.D. position, does not change a thing; and result in the failure again. This is one of those things, that the student him/herself need to commit to do. The Ph.D. student needs to throughly look at him/herself and see what traits he/she has that effects the outcome of his/her progress.


How difficult it is to get a TT in the U.S. after leaving the country?

Q1. Is it possible to get a TT position in the US after leaving?
Yes, it is possible; I have done something similar (in Computer Science). I left the US to do an extended PostDoc and then returned to the US as a professor. This worked out for me in particular because I had experience and expertise in a specific area that the school was looking for. (And >40 publications by the time I returned.)
Q2. Will my work experience outside the US be counted/valued?
If you are productive there typically is no reason it won't. In particular, you need to continue to publish high quality work at top venues. This may be harder to do if you don't have good students. In this case you may look for good collaborators and do things like invite their students for research visits.


Signature for Doctor of Information Technology prefix and suffix

According to both the University of Calgary Style Guide and the NYU Langone Office of Communications and Marketing as two examples, your signature would be

John M. Doe, DIT

A "Doctor of Information Technology" degree is offered by a very limited number of Universities. I could not find any style guides referring to DIT directly, but given the choices as the OP lists, the two style guides to which I refer state that one should not use periods within the acronym, so it would not be number 2, but would be John M. Doe, DIT.

They go on to state that one should not use the honorific Dr. at the same time as listing the degrees. So Dr. John M. Doe, DIT would not be recommended.


Should table format follow text format in submitted manuscript when no format specified?

If you can't wait for a reply from the editor which is probably the best solution, then check out some of the articles that journal has already published and see how the tables were formatted.

You will recognise single spaced, double spaced etc...


How to answer the question "tell me about yourself" in a Masters degree interview?

In this occasion, the interviewers want to know your background and your motivation of further study in this particular subject. They want to give the opportunity to the right person.

For example, I was once involved in the admission interview (although I didn't have the final say in the decision making). Based on my observation, those who had strong motivation but average GPA won over those with weak motivation and high GPA.


Note taking software: referencing text to searchable keywords

You may be interested in using MaxQDA, they are just now preparing to release a mac version. Although it is a software geared towards textual analysis and qualitative researchers, it can tag pieces of text pretty much like you say you want to do.


How to utilise university resources when doing an independent research masters?

Your thesis advisor should be your principal channel of support. You say you'll already have your topic worked out, but that is far from having produced a finished thesis. The advisor's suggestions and references are intended to support you in producing graduate-level work; that person will know all about the relevant resources that might be available. Without the guidance of a professor you would be flying blind.


Plagiarism is taking the work or ideas of others and presenting it as your own. If you have a sub chapter on topic X and somebody else has a sub chapter on that too, that doesn't make it plagiarism. E.g every 2nd grade math text probably has one chapter on addition and one chapter on multiplication. That doesn't mean they are plagiarizing each other, it's just the natural way to split up the material. What would be plagiarism is if you got the idea to have a sub chapter on topic X from reference Y but you did not cite reference Y and you made it sound like you personally came up with the idea of a sub chapter on X on your own. As long as you've cited your sources properly you should be fine.


Submit a paper to a conference where co-authors are in the committee?

For any reputable conference, authors with a conflict of interest will recuse themselves from discussions about their paper. They won't have a vote on the paper, and if things are very well administered, other committee members won't even know that the paper is from that particular author, only that the author has a conflict of interest. Indeed, there are many reasons for a conflict of interest:

Current or prior colleague at the same university.
Current or prior collaboration or co-author on a paper or papers.
Current advisor / student relationship.
etc.

These guidelines are generally spelled out in the paper submission guidelines, too (if you are an author and have a conflict, you should list them). Also, in many program committee meetings, committee members go in and out of paper discussions based on whether they have a conflict for a particular paper or not.

  is there any regulation, either ethical or by law, that prohibits this type of thing?

Ethical: sure (see above).

Legal: no. I'm not sure why people think there are a lot of legal rules that dictate how independent, non-government conferences and journals are administered. I've seen this in a number of questions recently, and the bottom line is that a conference has its own rules to abide by, and that's about it. Conference organizers have a vested interest in making things fair to the extent that they don't want the conference to have a bad name, but they aren't in the position to be bound by any laws pertaining to the way the conference is administered (outside of normal law-abiding behavior).


Should I continue a project someone else started?

Choosing a research project has always an element of gambling: the more challenging the project, the higher the risk. Meet personally with the potential supervisor and talk openly with him/her about your expectations and doubts. This way you will learn about the project things that you will never find out in publications or presentations. You will be able to see how enthusiastic and honest he is. Meet also with other members of the team and find out from them how it is to work on this or related projects with this supervisor. Ideally meet with the person who did the initial study. (If you start the project, you will probably spend more time with the other members of the team rather than with the supervisor.) Find out if someone recently dropped out and why. Finally, find out how "rigid" the initial topic is: is it possible to alter it in case things do not work out as initially planned.


How to account for big gap between scores of course work of the first two years and scores of the comprehensive exams ?

In my experience, it's not uncommon to have qualifying exams that are more difficult than passing graduate level courses in the same subjects.

My advice to students is that we fully expect students to know more to pass the qualifying exam than to get an A or a B in the course.  For example, multiple textbooks are included in the qualifying exam syllabus, and students are expected to be familiar with the material in all of those books rather than just the one textbook that was used in the course.

In the exams that I'm involved in, as a rule of thumb, I tell students who got an A in the course that they'll need to put in a substantial effort (a couple of months) to prepare for the qualifying exam.  For students who didn't earn a solid A in the course, even more preparation will be required.

How common this is at other universities really doesn't matter, since you need to pass the exams as they are given at your institution.


Startup package, for assistant professor in USA: should I ask for a an extra PhD or an extra post-doc?

There are a number of factors to consider.

PhD students take an indeterminate amount of time to finish. Committing yourself to getting funding to cover the last "few" years for 2 or 3 PhD students is a stress you may not want your first year.

The cost to a department of a PhD student and Post doc can be vastly different. In some cases a PhD student means allocating a student from a general pool directly to you, such that there is no change in the schools budget. In other cases the stipend, tutuion, and fees all show up on the school budget. In other cases the number of PhD students may be limited (e.g., the department may not attract lots of good students) in which case a PhD student is way more "expensive" then a post doc. You ideally want to ask for whatever is cheapest (which includes money and political capital), for the department.

Another thing to consider is what is typical for a startup package. Also what can you justify. Often startup package negotiations are between the department chair and the dean. While it may seem like you are negotiatin with the chair, you are often equipping them with the information to battle the dean on your behalf.


Passive discouragement and less supportive senior colleagues: What should I do?

You may be reading too much into their behavior. It is normal for academics to be interested in their own stuff and whatever supports it directly and uninterested in everything else. There may also be the effect that some of them have a long history of trust with others, but not yet with you. Hopefully this will change over time, and, in any case, if you stick around long enough then they will disappear and you will be the "older colleague".

But, under the circumstances, you seem to be doing the right thing: publishing your work. You can also seek the positive feedback you'd like to have outside your own institution, by attending conferences and expanding your circle of contacts.

But maybe they are just jerks. Don't let them wear you down. Finish your degree and look for employment at a more collegial place.


Is it advisable to apply to graduate programs after the deadline has passed?

You could try contacting the graduate administrator for programs you wanted to apply to, and ask them if it is too late to apply. I would consider doing this before I'd start throwing hundreds of dollars in applications to programs who wouldn't consider my app at all, anyway. However, most programs I've dealt with have online applications that are all marked as closed and won't allow any new applications, even if you wanted to apply, if it is after the selection date.

I don't personally know anyone who has tried this, but I suppose the most it will cost you is a polite email.

In all honesty though, I really don't expect anything other than a "you are welcomed to apply next year" response. A few graduate programs with deadlines in December have already made their decisions, some have contacted students for interviews, and some haven't started reviewing files (but admissions has still been processing their files, ensuring everything is attached, etc). Those that haven't started may still not allow any new applications.

You can ask, but most likely you will need to consider alternative plans, such as looking at programs that have spring admissions, dates that haven't passed, or just waiting until fall of 2017 to apply for fall of 2018. Good luck, regardless!


How does academics form discussion & study environments efficiency and effectively?

Let me suggest that there isn't any magic answer. Certainly not for efficiency. But a few things can help.

Many (most?) such groups have some leadership. Often it is a senior professor and the group consists of other professors and some students.  Often the subject of the group is the main research interest of the senior professor and others are looking for their insights to help in their own research, likely in the same or a related area. Here the leadership is fixed and the cohesion of the group is guaranteed by the stature of that professor.

Student groups are a bit different. If you can include a professor as leader, then you have a seminar, and many/most of the ideas come from the prof. That can be both stable and productive.

Some student groups are driven by fear. In some universities, students that don't band together to study will likely be unable to understand everything needed in the course. Some law schools are like this. See the movie Paper Chase for a dramatic example. These are pretty stable and are a way for a group to share out a huge amount of readings and provide summaries for everyone.

But if you want something more informal, what you need is someone to get it started with some ideas to study and also some commitment from a group of people. Of course the commitment needs to be sustained and that depends on the "work" of the group being mutually interesting. One way to manage the leadership issue is to pass it around. One way to do that is to have people contribute ideas for what should be discussed at the next meeting(s) and then vote among members on what should be pursued next. Whoever contributes the idea becomes "leader" for the discussion of the idea. That person probably has some commitment and the voting may add a bit more. But it is especially helpful if the proposer of the idea can give an initial outline and list of tasks before the meeting(s) at which the idea will actually be discussed.

This, of course, isn't the only way to do things, but leadership and commitment are, I think, the two essentials.


How can I tell if a journal is reputable?

If you know your field, it is easy to know how reputable some journal is. You find papers in it by the best people in your field publishing the most important results there you are already familiar with.

On the other hand if you do not know your field yet, I would advise you to get to know it at the glance at least first. Familiarise yourself with the most important and fundamental results and findings and the most influential authors. You should identify these authors quickly by seeing them in many various papers cited again and again by different researchers. Then look where these authors published the papers to find out what journals are likely to be more reliable than others.

Moreover, if you know your field, you should be able to discern a value and validity of a paper quickly from the abstract.


Determining common knowledge in an unfamiliar field

By far the simplest way to get around this problem is to simply give it to a colleague who is more well-versed in the field and have them judge which statements need to be backed up by citations and which don't.

The next simplest way is to read papers on a very similar topic to yours (which, no doubt, do exist) and see what they cite.

On a related note, my advisor gave me the advice of "when in doubt, cite." His point was that the only real downside of an unnecessary reference is added length to the paper. If you get to that point, and the only thing left to cut is citations, then you can start to worry.


Almost identical general statement with different citations – is this a problem?

This form of basic sentence is common and hence would not be regarded as plagiarism. You are not taking any distinct sentence and hopefully you are not providing the same references as specified in the first sentence.

Plagiarism occurs when you use the work of another without proper attribution. I would not consider your query to fit in this description.


How common is it to work extra with one's professor after getting a M.S.?

Your concern that this is "risky" is somewhat vague, but generally, I'd say that working on something like this is extremely common. I've never "cleanly" finished a project, where it is fully wrapped up, with nothing else to do right as my degree was awarded, I moved to a new position, etc.

I'd say it's extremely common, and if you think that extra work might result in a publication, fairly valuable. There is the possibility of things being too demanding, but generally people are pretty understanding of other obligations that come up, especially if you let them know in advance.


Is reading novels helpful for GRE Preparation?

No doubt you can encounter useful words in novels, but you will encounter them at a much slower rate than with targeted study.  If your goal is to learn GRE words quickly, a simple GRE study book would be more efficient.  At the least, you should take a practice GRE test and see how you do on the vocab sections.  If your vocab needs major improvement, reading novels is probably too slow to be of use for passing the GRE.

In the long term, I think reading novels and other texts is a better (and more fun) way of learning how to actually understand and use a wide range of vocabulary, but for the short-term goal of improving your GRE score it may not deliver as much benefit.


How to get people to reply to emails and what to make of a no response?

If you want to know why you get faster responses from grad students than professors, just take a look at this comparison of email volume when transitioning from student to professor.  Afterward the load just continues to rise (the number of emails I get per month is now much greater than anything shown there).
Many researchers -- particularly faculty -- have an email address that is publicly listed on the internet.  That means that anyone in the entire world can contact them about anything at any time.  Some well-known researchers get a huge amount of email, and could not possibly respond to it all even if they did nothing else.  Even a fairly ordinary mid-career professor with some research funds gets a pretty high volume of email from total strangers.  I'm not referring to outright spam but to things like applications for student/postdoc/researcher positions; requests for research assistance, or inquiries about research collaborations and so forth.  Replying to such email cannot trump essential duties like research, student advising, and teaching, so the time for it is limited.
Initial message
Given a queue of tasks (emails) that perhaps cannot ever be completed in the available time, one must prioritize.  If you are emailing a complete stranger, your email is not likely to be at the top of the queue.  The best way to make sure your email stands out is to

Ensure that it does not look like a form letter.  Currently, the only messages I don't reply to at all are those that look like the sender could have sent identical messages to everyone in my department (usually, they did).
Show that you have done your homework.  If you're applying for a job, do you have some research ideas that the professor would be interested in?  What makes you especially qualified for the job?  If you're looking for a collaboration, reference specific things in the contact's papers that are of interest to you.
Along the same lines, don't email a stranger asking them to do (home)work for you (yes, it happens a lot) or requesting information that you could find for yourself on the internet.
Be polite.  Recognize that you are interrupting a complete stranger without having been invited to do so.  You are not entitled to their time; you are requesting it.
Write clearly and concisely.  If it's a first contact and you want to ask questions, try to ask just one question.

Lost messages
It does happen that messages get lost, due to spam filters or by being buried under other newer messages.  If you don't get a reply, there is no way to know whether the message was lost or just didn't make it to the top of the queue.  If it was lost, a reminder may be appreciated by the recipient.
Reminders
Typically, I would wait at least a week before sending a reminder. I feel that a reminder to a total stranger after 2 days is not polite.  In your reminder:

Be extra polite.
Do not blame the recipient.  A good strategy is to say you are sending a follow-up in case your original message went to spam, or something similar.
Remember that you have no idea what is going on in the professional or personal life of the recipient, and you are certainly in no position to  judge their actions.

If you are corresponding with a collaborator, the above rules still apply.  Last month, a friend and collaborator suddenly stopped replying to emails just when we had nearly completed a manuscript.  I waited two weeks, then sent a message just asking if she was okay.  In fact, it turned out that a major personal issue had arisen that -- among other things -- prevented her from doing any work during that time.


Switching from physics Masters to machine learning PhD

I would suggest that you make as smooth and timely a transition as you can. The more dramatic a change you make, the more damage you risk doing to your network of relationships. Tell your advisor about your interests while making clear that you remain committed to the program you're in.

Now, there are some advantageous tactics for studying several fields at once. First, modulate your commitments -- if half your courseload is in another department, that might be too much. Second, combine them wherever you can. Certainly you could train a neural network on solid models to recognize favorable heat dissipation, say.


Assume an undergrad has something worth publishing: how might (s)he get it published?

Here's what you should do:

Find an appropriate journal with a double blind review process.
Submit your paper.
See what happens.

Double blind means that you do not know the identity of the reviewers, and they do not know your identity.  The ostensible purpose of this setup is to encourage reviewers to evaluate the paper based on its academic merit, rather than the pedigree of the author(s).

In reality, of course, there will always be politics in reviews, and many reviewers will nonetheless formulate theories about who you are and where you're from.  Moreover, things like hot trends in the field can influence judgement—which is why it's important to identify a journal compatible in spirit with your chosen topic.

You will also be judged on the style of your writing, and the visual style of your submission.  Reviewers will be much more comfortable accepting a submission that looks like a published article than one with strange typography, layout, etc.  E.g., don't submit a paper written in MS Word when everybody else in your field uses LaTeX.  Strange as it may seem, you will look like a nut job!  Even different linguistic tone and structure can make your reviewers think you are a quack, even if your idea is legitimately awesome.  In short: be a conformist when it comes to your first few submissions.  Once you understand how the game is played, you can start to break the mold (hopefully for the better!).

Even accounting for everything above, there is an extremely good chance your submission will get rejected.  Coming up with genuinely good ideas is hard; developing political/cultural/intellectual savvy in academia takes time and experience—especially as a lone undergrad.  And rejection will sting!  But the submission process will be a valuable experience nonetheless.  After a few days, go back and read your reviews calmly, and think carefully about why the reviewers wrote what they did.  Was the typography too bizarre?  Are they protecting their political interests?  Or is your idea simply not as good as you thought it was?  The more papers you submit, the better you will get at answering these questions objectively and honestly.  Eventually, you will master the game and can just focus on the work.  I hope.

Good luck!


Is validating the results of an article important before citing such an article?

Reading yes. It is important to avoid extraction of sentences or results which can be less general than as they appear at the first glance.

Validating not at all, unless you feel you must do it because something is suspicious or you think to deal with a particular or new case.

You can't validate each statement for every cited reference, and you can't do so for several reasons.
Also a referee does not. Papers exists to be used. That is an implicit form of validation.


Should one take a 2:1 Bsc or a 2:2 MSci?

It really does depend on what the short- and long-term career objectives are. If someone really has no desire to continue on to a PhD, then it probably doesn't make too much of a difference—they're being hired based on what they can do with the master's, rather than the grade, and only a handful of employers will care about the difference between a 2:1 and 2:2.

On the other hand, if at some point, someone wants to go back to graduate school for further training, a 2:2 master's may not be the most useful credential to have on one's record.


How is a student perceived if he took more time to graduate?

Would he have any disadvantage as a PhD applicant?

Yes of course. But how big this disadvantage is, or if it is even relevant at all, depends on many factors:

country
field
courses taken (that might actually be an advantage!)
reason for the long time
was that long time used properly (e.g. to produce a really good Master Thesis)
other applicants
how common an A-Master is in your field/country/at your university
...

I would personally say that the disadvantage is not that big, but that is only my personal opinion, and chances are low that I will sit in your PhD admission committee...
I don't see how you would be able to get a general answer even when providing all these answers and I would suggest asking someone who knows your situation (e.g. your advisor, if you already have one).


How to deal with a complete failure in a group research?

Failure is intrinsic to science: how can you think of exploring the unknown without ever failing? Alas, it's a certain modern, distorted, entrepeneurship view of science that brought us thinking that science should always be successful.

For my master's thesis, my PhD thesis and part of my subsequent research, I worked on an experiment that eventually didn't work. Ten years. But I learned a lot, and now that more than ten years have passed from the moment I realized the failure, I don't regret it.

So, don't be discouraged and focus on what you have learnt and not on the failure.


When reference letters are requested, does this say anything about the chances of getting an interview?

An assumption to my answer: That a school is exercising the (imo correct) decision to only ask for references from a limited part of the pool to save everyone time.

It says something but not very much.

I've been on several committees where letters are only requested from a limited subset of candidates, but that subset is fairly broad. It's not necessarily just the short-list, because letters factor heavily on who makes the short list.

Mainly, it says you have a chance, instead of no chance, but no more than that.


Having collaboration with other professors

Professors are people, too. They are not robots to be sent a formal instruction code. Write an email like you are talking to a human. Introduce yourself, introduce your background, clearly explain your proposal. Don't forget to clearly say what is X and Y and why you think working on their combination is a good idea.

Professors are often very busy but they also value good collaborations and will respond if your idea is clearly explained and is promising.


At that level, the only value for which there will be no issue is perfect marks, usually 4.0. But admissions, especially for top students to top schools doesn't work like that. More is considered than just GPA. Otherwise there would be no need for admissions committees.
You need a good, but balanced, application. And at the level you are speaking of, once you make the initial cut the non-quantitative things ae probably most important. What do your letters say about you? What research in field have you done? How is the quality of your insight? Do people actually like working with you. What do they predict will be your trajectory.
But "near perfect" is probably fine as long as the rest of it is here. At the margins, in selecting between a couple of candidates, it won't be GPA.
And coming from a good school doesn't hurt, but you need to do well there, just as you would at a "lesser" place. A "C" student from Yale isn't very impressive, I've been told. And lots of students are admitted from those lesser schools.

Actually, if you want better advice than you are likely to find here, ask any of your upper division professors whether you'd be likely to admitted to Columbia if you chose to continue there. Especially someone who has been involved in doctoral admissions in the past several years.


Can I use facts from surveys which are done by others and are available on internet?

From my perspective, there is nothing wrong with using results of surveys in you text. In many cases, this can help your argumentation and give the reader the idea of the state of the art. And in deed, surveys are used in research papers or other publications as a source of argumentation. Survey papers have their place in academia.
This is one papers using survey in the introduction:

Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SME) are the most common employers across the world. In 48 out of 76 nations covered in Ayyagari, Beck and Demirgüç-Kunt (2007), SMEs employed more than 50% of the formal workforce

What have we learned from the Enterprise Surveys regarding access to
finance by SMEs?,Kuntchev V.,Ramalho R., Rodríguez-Meza J.,Yang J. S.,2012

This is THE TECH WRITER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE written by Janet Van Wicklen who uses surveys many times:

A 1999 survey by the Society for Technical Communication (STC) found
that 95 percent of its membership had a bachelor’s degree or higher1.

with references after every chapter:

1STC 1999 Technical Communicator Salary Survey (Arlington, Virginia: Society for Technical Communication, 1999)

Anyway, before you will use the information you should check:

reliability of the source - you do not want to include results from a company which is considered to be unprofessional and discredit your research
sufficient statistic sample - surveys which say: 9 from 10 asked doctors recommend using alcohol as a medicament against cough will not help your credibility
check the survey closely to avoid some misinterpreting

And you should:

include appropriate citation
be careful when interpreting the results
NOT to change numbers : )

If you are interested, you can take a look at more surveys and related papers at Enterprise Surveys


"Published" is a vague word, since for example you can even self-publish a book.

Ideally, a published book will have been carefully selected and edited, widely distributed, archived in many libraries, etc.  How close it comes to this ideal varies, of course.

I don't know whether what you are describing would meet a formal definition of publication, but I'd be careful about how you describe it.

For example, if your book has an ISBN, is labeled with a publisher like "X University Press", and is publicly offered for sale (perhaps only through the university's website and university bookstore), then I would consider it published, even if only on a small scale.  (It may be cheap, but there's no requirement that a published book must have gilded pages.)  However, that sounds unlikely to be true in the case you've described.

Instead, you could describe it in other ways:

If anyone who wants a copy can buy one by getting in touch with your department, then you could describe it as a "book distributed by the Department of ... at University X".

If your book is not offered for sale to anyone except students in the course, then you might describe it as a "book prepared as course materials for ... at University X".

You might also want to specify something like the number of pages, to help distinguish between a lengthy book and shorter lecture notes.


Does copying facts from Wikipedia, with attribution, constitute plagiarism?

I'll assume the quotation marks were used in the advertisement.  Since you represented the text as coming from the reference, and provided the reference, it's not plagiarism.

That doesn't mean it's necessarily okay.

If the purpose of the assignment was to practice writing advertisement text, then you didn't do that and didn't complete the assignment.

If the purpose of the assignment was to practice graphical design, you might have done that, and the text might be okay.

In any case, ask your instructor what they want you to do before you submit your assignment.


Are there rules dictating that a Ph.D. supervisor must have a Ph.D.?

No, there isn't any general rule.

First, a PhD degree is awarded by a university, not by an individual.

The education system of a country or the university rules usually define which positions can officially act as supervisors. The same education system or the university rules establish which titles should have a person to be eligible for those positions: if the PhD is not required, which is not uncommon, there can certainly be PhD supervisors without a PhD.

Another case is the following: in Italy the PhD degree has been established some thirty-odd years ago. This means that most of those who became professors in Italy before that time don't have a PhD (as Federico rightly observes, some might have taken it abroad), but they surely can supervise students officially.


Recruiting coauthors for sake of the Introduction section

I suggest that rather than trying to enlist someone else as a co-author, you just do the best job you can with what you know and can learn in a reasonable amount of time. If you only have a few references, rather then 30, then so be it. If it is enough to explain what you are doing then it is probably enough.
Use your professor for feedback on what you write. They will probably have some ideas about things you should include. And get advice from them on where and how to submit it for publication. Perhaps a student-oriented publication is best, but you need advice on that.
But if another person hasn't contributed to the intellectual advances you have made, then it isn't really proper to include them as authors.
If you submit it to a reviewed publication then you will probably get feedback from reviewers if it has any merit at all. The feedback will help you improve it even if they don't end up publishing it.
I think that it is unlikely that you have missed anything so important that it would invalidate what you have done. Your professor would probably have caught that already. But a reviewer certainly will.
But, write the paper as best you can including what you think is necessary to explain things to a reader. The practice will be good.


Should I always expect to receive proceedings at conferences?

No, obviously you shouldn't expect to always get printed proceedings. Your recent experience proves it.

Yes, giving out proceedings to participants is a tradition to make sure they have access to the papers during the conferences. Nowadays, everyone attending a scientific conference has access to the internet, and everyone as a whole is becoming aware that wasting resources (paper, electricity to run the printer, etc) is harmful to the environment. (Of course, it doesn't prevent attendees from flying around the world to attend the conference, but "one step at a time I guess".) They have put the proceedings online, so you have access to them.

And honestly, if downloading the papers one at a time is such a hassle, maybe it's a sign that you weren't even going to read them all anyway. Finding one paper is a stack of dozens is also a hassle! And if we are not talking about dozens of papers, then the argument that downloading them one at a time is annoying does not really hold much water. You can report this minor inconvenience to the conference organizers, but be prepared to the fact that it will be dealt with like all other minor inconveniences.


Is the PNG file format acceptable for academic papers?

Running a journal with Wiley as a publisher, Wiley's instructions state JPEG, TIFF and EPS are acceptable formats. Since many authors supply figures in PDF and PNG I started to pass these on to the type-setter and found that no issues erupted. It is therefore clear that publishers may lag behind with their recommendations while type-setters are quicker to adapt to "new" formats. I imagine the lag is possibly a lack of interest to update what works, but can also be because they work with many type-setters and printers and wish to maintain a largest common set of files that they know all can accept rather than having to constantly adapt to individual services' capabilities. I am fully aware that this thinking is a bit arcane and that any type-setter/printer that cannot handle almost everything has very little potential for survival in today's competitive world.

Anyway. I would suggest asking the journal if it is possible to use PNG in your case, or do as many authors have done in "my" journal, send them in anyway. It may, for example, be possible to send in a JPG and a PNG copy of the graphics asking them to use the PNG if possible.

As a side point: PNG is in my opinion the best pixel format because of its strong loss-less compression except for photographs, something it was never intended for anyway. Using PNG graphics will keep down the size of final PDFs of the article which is a good goal to have. So in my case, I encourage authors to provide PNG even though Wiley does not.


Re-applying for the same PhD program abroad after finishing it in one's home country?

No, it's generally not possible.  Almost all Ph.D. programs have a rule against admitting someone who already has a research doctorate.  Under special circumstances, one might be admitted as an unfunded Ph.D. student in a completely different field; but in the same field, never.


What to do when you are a promised a research-based research associate role but are required to act in an IT support role?

Your writing certainly does not betray a "lack of eloquence"; in fact, it's probably better than most of the computer scientists I know!

That said, as JeffE has indicated, you are being mishandled by your employers, and I would strongly encourage you to find a new position as soon as possible. However, it is important to point out that your situation is not academic versus industrial, but instead good employer versus bad employer. The distinction is crucial.

In any position, there will be parts of your job that are less appealing than others; the absolute "dream job" which you're happy about 100% only exists in Utopia. The key is to make sure that the important parts of your job give you more satisfaction than the less desirable aspects take away. Here, this clearly isn't the case. That does not mean that you can't find what you're looking for, either in industry or in academia. What it does mean is that you need to find it somewhere else than where you are, because it's clear the job isn't going to change in any sort of meaningful way in the short term.


How to ask professor to post more example?

Well as simple as you explained the problem in the question. start by explaining how his solved examples helped you understand X and Y ( e specific as much as you can). Then ask for solved example related to Z ( again be specific ) end with simple show of appreciation.

Good Luck!


Very odd interview/hiring timeline for physical science field

All I can say is that different universities can take different amounts of time to process things. The process can take even longer when the process drags out over the summer, as many of the key people who need to approve such a hire (and usually there are several) are often out on vacation, which can drag the process out even further.

I know, for instance, that there was nearly a five-month gap between the time I had my interview and was told I'd be getting an offer and actually receiving it. So delays are possible.

However, it may also be possible that you were not the top-ranked candidate after the search, and they are currently waiting to hear back from that candidate before deciding whether or not to make you an offer.


Workflow for long-distance collaboration with a dyslexic researcher?

There are interesting aspects raised by this question, not the least at which end of a distant interaction does the adjustment take place. Should the dyslexic collaborator make adjustments or should the other party make accommodations? The issue of the influence any legislation is also interesting.

If the collaboration arrangement is a formalised one, does any anti-discrimination laws apply at the US end which would require the US party to make adjustments? Not knowing details of local laws I cannot say, but local advice might need to be obtained. Even if it is not a requirement to do anything there may be other imperatives such as the protection of university reputation that could be affected by not being able to enable effective collaborations with disabled students.

At the European end the location would indicate if their university should be providing resources to enable adjustments. If it was the UK (I know it is not) the the student's university would already have an obligation to support adjustments to enable the participation in the collaboration on equal terms.

Having discussed who might have to make adjustments, lets looks at possible means of adjustment. The most obvious mechanism is speech to text software, but even the best software has trouble with non-native (and some native) accents as well as the technical material often contained in Phd research discussions. Many regular uses of text-to-speech use a special "talking-to-the robot" form of speech to ensure accurate transcription.

This leaves two other approaches. The move to a reduced text content or human transcription.

Many dyslexic people find lengthy textual prose difficult. Often diagrams or speech are better. A tools that is often recommended are idea capture using brain-ware mapping. An example of such a Tool is Inspiration. The research ideas can be captured in diagram form and pasted into a discussion wiki. Using a diagram the dyslexic and non-dyslexic collaborators can communicate on equal terms.

If speech transcription seems to have a rôle then, perhaps, junior researchers, such as undergraduate volunteers could be used to transcribe. This could happen at either end depending on availability of labour or funding.

For a dyslexic student where funding is available there are software solutions that are very helpful in preparing text. Some tools assist in the conversion of non-linear expression into structured text (such as Inspiration as already mentioned), but there are also writing tools. I find Texthelp gold can be very useful, but others are available.

I final thought; It is often said we are two nations divided by a common language and as such there can be linguistic difficulties between the most erudite writers on different continents. Just think how much harder it can be when dyslexia is introduced into the mix. As with both issues dialect or dyslexia, a little tolerance goes a long way.


Interviews for academic teaching positions and "diversity"

Now I'm just a simple boy from the farm, so can somebody explain why this is important to teaching mathematics?

Sure, I'll give it a try. The "this" that is supposed to be important are the qualities of being empathetic to, and understanding of, and passionate about, the unique challenges facing people who belong to certain racial, ethnic, or other demographic groups. Although the primary role of a mathematics teacher is to impart knowledge about mathematics, there are many ways and approaches to doing this, some a lot more effective than others. Part of the philosophy of diversity is the belief that a teacher (of mathematics or any other subject) who has a good understanding of and empathy towards those groups will be a much more effective teacher to students who are members of those groups, and, for example, in addition to successfully imparting the desired technical knowledge, would also have the ability to inspire their students, teach them additional useful values and habits, and overall improve their educational and life outcomes.

  Aren't people, well people?

Yes, that is technically correct but is probably not a very helpful way to look at a question such as what makes someone a good candidate for a teaching position in a community college. The sad fact is that humans are programmed in many subtle ways to treat different people in different ways. The ability and desire to be aware of such tendencies and overcome them are very desirable qualities for a lecturer in a country as heterogeneous as the U.S.

  And if a person knows how to do deal and relate well with others, knows how to respect other's differences and is a good teacher, what more is there to say really?

I think this question carries a premise that a person either relates well to all "others" or to none. That is not the case. Many people who belong to a certain group A will be able to relate fabulously to other members of group A and could be great teachers for them, while having a very poor ability to relate to members of another group B. In fact, we all feel more comfortable with and have a much better understanding of people who are similar to us - that is just human nature. But imagine that you are a community college administrator interviewing candidates for a math lecturer position, and along comes a member of group A who is able to convince you that he/she has a very good understanding of the challenges faced by members of group B and is really passionate about helping students from group B overcome those challenges and succeed. Wouldn't you be impressed and see great value in the possibility of employing such a person - at least assuming his/her general math lecturing credentials are just as good as the other candidates you're comparing them to?

Note that those sorts of qualities the colleges are looking for are of a much more specific kind that just someone having generally good people skills and a general ability to respect others. So yes, there is a lot "more to say" than the level of generality you are addressing.

With that said, of course having exceptionally good people skills can be impressive in its own right, and to some extent I believe you can tick off some of the right boxes without necessarily going down to the level of showing that you are passionate about helping very specific groups of people. Certainly showing a general respect for all people, whoever they may be, is a very good starting point for selling yourself in a job application.


Do people compete for self-funded studentship?

At most reputable schools, self-funding will not exempt you from the admissions process. At the best schools, admission is often completely independent of funding.


What to do when phd advisor wants me to work on side projects but i'm starting a post-doc?

I am currently in a similar position to the one you describe, except that in my case I agreed to take on a brand new side project with my previous supervisor. I spoke to my postdoc supervisor about the project as soon as I started and received his go-ahead to spend some of my time working on it. In my experience, it seemed like my postdoc supervisor thought this was totally normal and expected after a PhD.

In your position, I would agree to the rewrite (after verifying with the postdoc supervisor that this is not an issue) because it seems like it will not be too significant a time sink - you already know the work and have a reasonable estimate of how long it will take. It is always nice to publish your work. Note that you do not need to spend the first two weeks of your postdoc on it - you can allocate some time each day to it and then you will still have time to do new stuff.

I have one caveat based on my own experience which is that even if you have permission to spend some time finishing up old work, it is quite difficult to commit to doing this because it feels like you are not putting 100% into the new project. It can also be tiring to have a task that needs extra work after hours when you are trying to get established in a new place. Thus, I would limit the number of "side projects" you agree to bring along from your PhD and try to make a realistic plan for how you will finish them quickly.


Order of a PhD application in the United States

Does it look something like the following?

Please include information on

motivation
experience
Why this school?
...

If yes, I wouldn't worry about the order.
If, on the other hand, it is more like

Please include the following information in that order:

motivation
experience
Why this school?
...

then of course you should do that. However, I think it is rather uncommon to demand a fixed order, are you sure they want that?


Unacceptable quality of writing in a letter of recommendation

I would certainly request a corrected version. Like you said, in a careful measure, I would keep the tone of the message somewhere along the lines "some minor mistakes, happens to all of us, but these little changes go a long way in credibility of the letter". In other words, don't criticize, put together a list of things you want corrected and send them to the referee. I deduce from your question that the letter was proxy-written, i.e. you haven't been told that it was the assistant who wrote it. That's why I'm recommending to contact the referee and not the assistant. However, if that is not the case, include both of them.

I can't see why someone other than an extreme ego-maniac would choose not to correct their own grammar mistakes. Even it they for whatever reason do, it's still better than just to "forget about the reference".


Typical experiences of transgender people in academia?

(Original answer March 2015)

I guess it's time to answer my own question.  Not long after posting the original question I began living exclusively as a woman (barring some short family-related interruptions).

I'll list some themes that applied to me that I think would apply generally:

Work interruption: As much as I tried to avoid it, transitioning interrupted my work.  I spent a lot of time learning how to behave, e.g. to minimize the likelihood of being attacked, to know how to react when people ask intrusive questions, and so on.  Medically, you're sent to doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, etc., who make you jump through all sorts of hoops over a long period of time.  The various surgeries trans people get can take you out of action for weeks to months.
Comments at university: There were some "hiccups" transitioning at university (smart people can make some really dumb comments).  However, they were a drop in the ocean compared to the hate I received from elsewhere.
University accounts: IT were totally unprepared for my transition.  E.g. my request for a Rebecca Stones email was refused and a subsequent email about the matter was ignored.  So my students referred to me by name X but email me under name Y which I found humiliating.
Bathrooms: There were a few surprised looks initially when sharing the ladies room with my female students and other female academics.  I never heard any complaints about it, and it didn't seem to be a big deal.
Applying for jobs: I have noticed no significant difference when applying for academic jobs in my area.
Academic record: It takes time to get your academic history records updated, which makes applying for jobs beforehand awkward.  During this time, I took up an adjunct position where administration requested a record of my PhD; I refused to supply this but indicated that several professors at the university witnessed me obtaining my PhD.  They refused to accept this, which resulted in a prolonged exchange of emails.  Eventually, I cited the university's privacy policy, after which they backed off.
Prior publications: I had to come to terms with having publications under my dead name.  I absolutely hate hearing or seeing that word refer to me.  I had to decide whether or not to include those publications on my CV and cite them in my publications (which could out me as transgender).  For my CV, I include these publications, but I list only the author surnames (I still feel uncomfortable with the thought that whoever reads my CV will Google these publications).  I cite them in my publications, as citing them doesn't directly imply that that name belongs to me.  I'm hoping I can bury these publications in new publications over time.
Travel: As an academic, I travel a lot.  Consequently, I have to keep in mind (a) attitudes towards transgender people when going through immigration (you're not at your most "passable" after a long flight), and (b) local attitudes towards and laws regarding transgender people.  E.g. I want to go to a conference in Chile later in the year, so I Googled "transgender Chile" and upon reading things like "had her face disfigured with a blowtorch" was a bit unsettled.

(Update August 2015)

I attended the conference in Chile (SIGIR 2015) and I'm pleased that my face was not disfigured by a blowtorch.  Here's a photo of the women's support group (I'm in there somewhere):

I'd also like to add:

Travelling can also interfere with (a) access to medicine, (b) access to [non-prejudiced] medical help, (c) other procedures, e.g. hair removal, and (d) the ability to buy clothes that fit.
Sometimes conference accommodation will be organized by gender (with or without the participants' prior knowledge).  This opens the possibility of being humiliated in front of colleagues (e.g. if the accommodation staff have their own opinion on your gender), and the possibility of sharing accommodation with someone who is uncomfortable with you.

Reacquainting with colleagues: I have a lot of international contacts, many of whom are still unaware of my transition.  From my experience, it's much better to meet in person than email someone an explanation (when all sorts of weird ideas about who I am can arise).  This is hard to do when your contacts are spread globally.
Transgender students: Transgender students seem to significantly appreciate that someone employed by the university is transgender.  Having a transgender member of staff goes against the stereotype that it's just undergraduate activists out to cause trouble who are transgender.
Online university resources: From my experience, university LGBT webpages cater almost exclusively to LGB students, with no usable information for transgender people.

(Update August 2015)

Male-dominated area: I'm currently in computer science which is kind of a "boy's club".  Outside of academia, being in a male-dominated career is sometimes used to discredit transgender women (among other things).  This results in a tug towards more female-friendly career paths, both outside of academia (e.g. nursing) and inside of academia (e.g. biology).
Female role models: It has become important to me to see and interact with successful female academics, especially those in my area.  (I was very encouraged by the healthy female presence at the SIGIR conference.)  Interestingly, it seems that I'm meant to be a female role model nowadays.
Female co-authors: I'm not sure if this is just a co-incidence, but I've recently found myself with a rapidly growing number of female co-authors.
International lifestyle: I'm currently a postdoc in China.  While I speak enough Chinese to "get by", and while my colleagues here are friendly, I feel isolated and lonely, and this is exacerbated by the lack of access to a transgender community.  (See also this question: Is feeling lonely and uncomfortable in my (foreign) country of study a valid reason to drop out of a PhD?)
Unwelcome attention towards my gender: Generally, I don't mind if people know that I'm transgender, as long as (a) this is not the only thing about me they consider and (b) they are not mean to me or my friends and colleagues as a result.  Thus far, to my knowledge, unwelcome attention has been negligible at university.  However, it's unclear if this trend will continue (after all, we only need a one-in-a-thousand to cause trouble).  Things I'm concerned about:

Maybe some transgender person somewhere does something evil, making headlines.  How would a university react to the resultant anti-transgender backlash?
What if a student makes a complaint because of my gender?  What if the student is well-prepared, having extensively read online anti-transgender literature?  What if the student makes a religious objection?
If I become successful and notable, hate material will probably be written directly about me.  Here are some examples (and it doesn't take much Googling to provide more examples):

  Boylan, a member of the all-male, all-white, all-heterosexual, all-middle-aged transgender leadership... (ref.)

  "Lynn" Conway, computer geek and head honcho of the raging autogynephiliacs who tried to destroy Michael Bailey. (ref.)

  Deirdre McCloskey isn’t a woman: wishing can’t make it so, not even wishing and flashing scalpels. Neither is Joan Roughgarden. (ref.)

Unwelcome attention from men: After meals, I like to go for a walk to get some exercise.  Consequently, I have now had three four unwelcome sexual encounters within walking distance from my office, during the day, and with other people around at the time.  I also had a male staff member in another faculty ask for "random sex".  I'm afraid to tell others about these incidents, fearing they might think I encouraged them (esp. if they attribute it to being transgender).  I also simply don't have time to waste sobbing about each one; they're much too frequent.

(In today's encounter, an elderly gentleman approached me and asked for the time.  I found my phone and gave him the time.  I also discovered his penis was hanging out of his pants.  He indicated towards some nearby bushes and said "gēn wǒ péngyou wáer", which translates to "play with my friend".  I walked straight back to the office, nearly in tears.  It's thirty minutes after the incident now, and I need to discuss a paper with a student.)
Paper cited during talk: Recently, one of my co-authors referenced our joint paper at a conference talk while I was in the audience.  I was not impressed that my dead name initials were on display, forcing me to sit there with that on the screen for all to see, and I was quite fearful that someone might ask if there was a connection between the two names.  If I had known that was going to happen, I would not have attended the talk.

(Update February 2017)

Surgery: I'm not sure if I should say this, but I ended up having "bottom surgery" back at the end of 2015.  It was the most physically painful experience of my life, by a long way, and the pain didn't go away until about two and a half months later.  So much pain.  During this time, my spoons were limited.  E.g. I'd go to the office to prove I still work there (I mostly just stared at the walls), and I'd need to spend the next day recovering.  I would bleed a lot, and this resulted in some additional accommodation expenses.  I would not be able to stand for longer than around 5 minutes without it being too painful (requiring a wheelchair at the airport).

I managed to go to the 2015 CMS meeting shortly after surgery, where Yuval Filmus (who I knew through math.SE) sat next to me just after surgery, although I don't know if he realized any of this.  (And I remember being a bit snippy with David Pike.)

The painkillers caused hallucinations, e.g. I'd be walking and suddenly "There's no floor! I'm falling!! Oh wait, there is a floor."  I became afraid of stairs.  This was happening while I was at work, although I tried to conceal it.  I also sent out a few "interesting" emails.

More than a year later, I have no regrets about having surgery.  It has resulted in me having a lot more confidence.  If someone denies my gender, they are simply being unreasonable (although, nobody ever does).  I'm now far less afraid that someone is going to find out about my past.
Bodily maintenance (dilation) is both time-consuming and painful, particularly at the start.  It's embarrassing but it nevertheless must be done, including while sharing accommodation with other women.  I got used to making "chit chat" while doing this.  Airport security sometimes inspect your dilators (which need to be in carry-on baggage) which can be embarrassing and worrisome (esp. when travelling through non-transgender-friendly countries).
Conversion to Islam: Perhaps contrary to popular expectations, Islam is a relatively transgender-friendly religion.  Often the attitude is that someone's gender is innate and decided by God, and being transgender is considered along the lines of a birth defect.  Of course, being Muslim results in its own complications (e.g. hijab).  I haven't had any problems praying in the female prayer areas (including on-campus ones).
A publication about transgenderism: Perhaps this is not a typical experience, but I published a paper about transgender bathrooms usage (here), which was mentioned in the Washington Post.


It's difficult to think clearly and make good decisions when you're stressed. Obviously, we can't tell you whether or not you should leave the PhD programme, but here are some suggestions to help you through this difficult time.

If you have a mental health issue, try to address it before making any big decisions.
Your school will generally have a counsellor to help students. Contact them and make an appointment.
Meditation can help with stress. There may be a meditation club, or free meditation lessons on offer at your school (this is particularly common near exam time).
Think about YOUR goals rather than just trying to please parents/advisors.
Realise that a PhD programme is very different than anything you've likely done before, so don't expect to feel comfortable in it for the first six months or even a year.
Talk to your advisor about the problem. If you don't feel comfortable doing this yet, perhaps visit a counselor first.
Try not to be overwhelmed by the number of problems you're facing. Try to think about each problem in isolation. Imagine all of the problems but one magically disappeared; what could you do to alleviate the remaining problem?
You may be able to take a leave of absence from your studies.
Try doing sports, it helps your focus and your health. In fact, this would be one on the first things to do no matter if you are at PhD or not.


Changing thesis supervisor to avoid bad letter of recommendation from current supervisor?

Delaying your graduation by a semester would be a huge cost to bear due to the mere suspicion of getting a bad recommendation letter.  Right now it's only a suspicion.

Yes, it's clear that your reputation with your supervisor isn't the greatest.  But still, writing a bad recommendation letter is an exceptional step--especially after being asked and agreeing to write a letter.  Most professors in this situation will write a positive (though perhaps not particularly strong) letter.

Being asked to write a recommendation letter, agreeing without stating any concerns about the content, and then going on to write a bad letter is pretty unprofessional.  If you don't feel you can write a positive letter, the normal response is to not agree to write one, or to agree with a warning that you don't think you can give a good recommendation.  That isn't to say it never happens, but it is pretty unusual.

The examples that show your concern, to me don't indicate that he is planning to write a bad letter.

The negative general comments are unfortunate but hardly prove he will write a bad letter.
Your idea to report back regularly after you leave his supervision and hope that improves the recommendation was quite odd, and was rightly rejected by him. The recommendation is supposed to be based on the period he worked with you.

Unless there is something more concrete that makes you think you won't get a good letter, I would not do something drastic like delaying your graduation.


Getting Letter of recommendation with letter head

There shouldn't be an issue if they use letterhead of their present employer. They will probably say something about the change of affiliation. But it might be improper for them to submit on the old employer's letterhead.

But a letter on plain paper should also be fine, assuming that the letter writer provides contact information so that their affiliation can be checked if necessary.

Or you can also indicate in application materials that the affiliations of letter writers are new.

Note that I'm retired and so have no current affiliation, but my last employer is happy enough for me to use their letterhead and has provided me with an electronic template for it. Perhaps that is available to your writers as well if it seems important.