How deeply should one understand other people's work before building on them?

This depends on the individual case and requires judgment.
On the one hand, understanding the past work completely gives you a better base of understanding going forward.
On the other hand, there are circumstances in which you understand the past work sufficiently to go forward, and you have enough trust in it to know that you won't be embarrassed in future for doing dead end work.
That complete understanding takes time, as you note. It is seldom necessary for a mathematician to recapitulate the entire history of mathematics since, say, Euclid, to do significant work.
For some problems in some (sub) fields, more understanding is needed. In others, less. But there is an old saying "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." (Usually attributed to Voltaire.)
If you are good enough to recognize problems with lines of thought and you have insight into the underlying structure of the field, then trust your judgement. If you smell a skunk, delve deeper, otherwise, move on. It isn't a perfect defense against error, but.... Voltaire, again.


If the publisher has to be mentioned in a citation depends on the document type (e.g., journal article or book) and the citation style (e.g., APA or Chicago).

You can find some examples here:

Journal Article in APA style
Book in APA style
Journal Article in Chicago style
Book in Chicago style

I'm not aware of any citation style which doesn't require to name the publisher for a book. For journal articles, it is relatively uncommon to name the publisher.


Is it possible to get a list of everyone who graduated from a college in a given year/field?

Such data exists at the universities and departments. However, in many jurisdictions there are legal restrictions that would limit their ability to share it with you. There are also practical limitations: the departments want to keep a good relationship with their alumni. If the alumni get contacted every other week by someone doing a project, then that would be bad.

So to get access to these data is hard work. You need to convince them that this is a serious project, maybe you need IRB approval. You'll need to find a way to use that list without violating the law. Sometimes this involves you don't contact the alumni directly, but the department does, who will sent you the annonymised results. All this requires quite some investment by the department, so what is in it for them? Maybe they want to add a module to your questionair?


Attending a conference in a field of interest outside PhD field?

I think this is more a pragmatic matter than a question of whether it's appropriate or not. In a vacuum, yes it's entirely appropriate to attend a conference outside one's own specialty, perhaps even without presenting (just going to learn). The big question is: how do you fund your attendance?

It's quite likely that you plan on asking your advisor, group leader, or department to pay for the trip. In that case, would you going stop another group member from going? Perhaps a PhD candidate about to defend who'd want to present their research and look for a postdoc position? That might be considered stepping on toes, yes. You'd have to talk to said group members to find out how they'd feel about it. However, presumably whoever holds the money sack has the responsibility to divvy up the funds in a beneficial way, not you. So go ahead and ask if you can and should go, and see what happens. Perhaps there is enough money for all of you to go, in which case everyone should be happy with the situation.


Postdoc dilemma: Top department vs. top researcher

Would you be publishing with that top researcher? If yes, you will probably produce more cited publications in better journals with better impact. Nobody cares about departments when it comes to publications, if there is a person whose name they recognize. Otherwise it is all about department, because as an average researcher you do not deserve a personal slot in anyone's mind. You will be assumed to be the mean of that department.

The effect is actually really small because academia is meritocracy. After you have merits you will be evaluated based on those. If I feel busy or lazy, I may skip a paper that does not look good after a quick eyeing if I do not see any seals of quality, such as a researcher I recognize or a department that has the good stuff on average. Also the top journals matter. So the point is that when you are under a rigorous evaluation for your future positions in Tenure Track, they will read you papers and make the decisions based on those. But you will have a slightly better metrics on those papers if you publish with a top researcher or you are from a top department, you might have a small advantage because people are slightly more likely to read your paper. But if you make it to the top journals or produce high quality publications it does not really matter.


Should papers under review be listed in CV?

Obviously, we cannot predict how any individual committee member will react to this. However, I think it is quite common to list 'in review' papers on a CV. Two caveats:

If the number of 'in review' papers seems unusually high (compared to your past output, and submission/review rates typical for your field) people may start to wonder whether these are serious submissions, or if you've just fired off a load of half-baked stuff in order to pad your CV.
If it's on your CV, you should be prepared to talk about it during interview. Having to tell the interview panel that no, none of those papers have come out yet, in fact they've all been rejected, is not going to come across well. Personally, I would only include stuff that I'm reasonably confident will progress smoothly through the review process.


Is it approriate to point out errors in the literature review in a thesis?

If such errors in published literature are relevant to the question of your thesis, then yes, it is not only appropriate, but even necessary that you address them.

Otherwise, if the question of your thesis is not affected by these errors, and they are not major problems, I don't think they are important enough to mention in the literature review.


How do I go about getting into the engineering field with only a design degree from almost a decade ago?

You have a Bachelor's already, which already makes you nominally qualified for graduate school! What comes next is figuring out how to make an entrance into the field when you don't have a background in it. The Bachelor's system currently in existence generally requires a basic education requirement, so I wouldn't suggest going for a B.S. in physics or engineering. I would instead suggest one of two things, combined with a healthy regime of self-teaching:

Simply take courses at a local institution
Get an associate's in physics or engineering

Would this make you a non-standard applicant, having your most recent degree be an associate's, or a bevy of post-bac coursework not for a degree? Well, yes, but you're still qualified. You're really quite young within the camp of non-traditional, older students. If you can back up a shorter (cheaper!), more focused set of courses with some experience doing applicable work (volunteer at a lab, try to land a position as a tech at a nearby school), that makes you just another applicant, albeit one with very different life experiences.

There is a guy in my research group who has a wife and kids who transitioned into engineering when he was 30, and he swept right into an M.S. and then a Ph.D. program without getting a transitionary degree after eight years of no classes. It's definitely possible for top programs, as we're at a Top 15, but I would advise trying to get some experience and insight on the field at local institutions.


Will a journal reject my paper just because a grad student is the sole author?

Publishing paper does not necessarily need co-author and supervisor. However, it is strongly recommended. Having experienced co-author (not another unexperienced author) with couple of publications like your supervisor has several benefits, including:

Your co-author reads paper and puts effort to make it more professional and  mature for publication. He/she checks to ensure there is no mistake in technicality, presentation, and English.
It gives more confidence to reviewers to ensure that what you did is scientifically correct and is also producible. Though rejection of papers with several experienced authors is also a very common issue.

In research, there are several small hints and tiny things to consider that can impact on the final results/outcomes of the research. If you submit without your supervisor/advisor's, particularly without his help and actual supervision, it is very likely to have those error.

In reality, research is very much complex, though it might look very simple. There are many many things to consider before undertaking research, reporting it, and even trying to submit it. Thus, your idea might not be yet ready for publication yet. Your supervisor may want to help you do not get a quick rejection that discourages you.

I don't think that exist any supervisor on the earth that avoid publishing paper unless there is either threat to its credit or the work is premature. Your supervisor may exaggerate on the quality of your work/paper though it is not yet mature enough to encourage you. So, if he admit that your paper is good, it is not 100% sure that your paper is ready to publish at the moment. Remember that your supervisor can see lots of other things that you cannot see in this stage.

So the bottom-line is that, try to further work on your idea and convince your supervisor that the paper is good and he -as a normal humankind- should be more than happy to co-author the paper with you since publication is one of the main KPIs for academicians across the globe.


Is deferred enrollment normal or acceptable to graduate programs? What are the acceptable reasons for it?

Many (but not all) graduate programs will let you defer enrollment for a semester or a year.  At the institutions I am familiar with, they did not particularly care about the reason for the deferral; in fact, some of them did not even ask, except in the most general terms, why the student wanted to delay entering the program.  People understand that students may have other obligations and things that they want to do, and taking on an internship would be a perfectly normal reason for a deferral.

To find you whether a particular program will let you defer acceptance for a year, you will have to contact the program.  However, assuming they allow deferrals, what you are proposing does not sound like it should be a problem.


What are the typical differences between doing a math phd and an engineering phd on the same research topic?

There is a wide spectrum of possibilities in doing research in either mathematics or engineering. There are definitely people doing research under the auspices of an engineering department that is nearly as mathematically rigorous as in a pure math program.

The only exception to this is that pure mathematics programs do not look highly upon a fully applications-driven project under its auspices: there needs to be some sort of additional theory or analysis development.

But it's certainly possible to do a very highly mathematical project in an engineer department. My own thesis work amounted to algorithm development and analysis, with very limited application demonstrations. While I didn't have formal proofs the way you might in a pure math thesis, the project wouldn't really look like an "engineering" project—and certainly wasn't published in engineering journals!

So, in short, the main distinction I'd make is that one might expect to see more formal proofs and analysis, but no real distinctions in the kinds of problems that are tackled.


Websites to publish for mathematics and statistics similar to arXiv.org?

I don't know about statistics, but in mathematics it isn't common practice to post preprints to any website, which has any sort of feedback or commenting mechanism on the site itself. Such sites might exist, but they aren't in common use.


Is it ethical to tell my teaching assistant that I like him?

Wait until after the course is over and grades are in: don't put your TA in a difficult situation.

After that, you are just two adult humans, assuming you won't have any other courses with this TA.


Relationship between PhD applicant and recommender

'Research project PI' as in your Question, or maybe 'Research project supervisor'. You seem to want something more distant (less personal) than 'thesis supervisor' The word 'project' implies that distance.
Given that the PI is essentially signing something written by another person, that
distance will likely come through clearly in the letter of recommendation.


What to do when wrongfully accused of cheating?

First, you should check and read the entire academic dishonesty statement at your university. This should give you an understanding on how the university normally treats these types of issues. Actually being proactive on contacting an office of academic integrity or student conduct, depending on its name at your university, can help you understand what the standard route for a professor to take for academic integrity.

While it is appropriate for a student to come to a faculty member to talk about another student's cheating, it seems to be a red flag for your instructor to ask others about your cheating by name.  A vague announcement about seeing that people are not looking at their own papers or looking at their phones is appropriate, but actively singling a student out for their academic misconduct could violate one's privacy in a case of academic dishonesty. This is something you should check with your university though.

Another person who may be of help is the undergraduate chair of the department in which this is occurring, but it seems in the comments you have tried.


Using "Smith et al" when another Smith is also referenced

If your references clearly can be traced to a unique paper then the name is not (or should not be) confusing. Yes, someone may mistake you for someone else or vice versa but then their checking of sources is out of sub-par. You can safely continue referencing the (standard) way you do it.

If two publications exist as Smith yyyy (Smith et al. yyyy) then it is common to use letters so that the references become Smith yyyya and Smith yyyyb (Smith et al. yyyya; Smith et al. yyyyb). So not even in this case is it necessary to add initials. You may find that initials are used in older puiblications but by introducing the letters to distinguish several similar references initials have become obsolete.

It is also possible to add indicators in the text that allows the reader to understand where your work is referenced by using "we" or "I" (as the case may be) when discussing a particular reference/result, that is use an active voice instead of passive.


Who Owns the Publishing Rights of my Ph.D. Thesis?

Did you sign an agreement to transfer copyright to someone else?

Does your university policy (example) or employment contract specify that someone else holds the copyright to your thesis?

If the answer to both questions is "no" then you, as the author of the thesis, hold the copyright.

In the US, most university students retain the copyright for their thesis. Often they are required to grant the university and/or ProQuest a non-exclusive license to distribute the thesis, but without giving up copyright.


How do you know the project you are working on is worthy of a PhD dissertation. How does it differ from MS dissertation

I've had this discussion recently—the major differences are in the scope and independence of the work.

There is no easy, absolute method to say "X is a master's thesis" and "Y is a PhD project" without knowing the amount of work involved in each approach, and how independent the student needs to be.

Ultimately, a master's thesis represents a body of effort designed to show that you have successfully completed the project to the satisfaction of your supervisor. A PhD thesis indicates that you have produced a sufficient intellectual contribution to your field, and that you have the capability to be an independent scientist.


In the UK it's relatively unusual to apply for an MPhil - MSc and MRes are much more common. MPhils really exist to cover failed PhD candidates. When you apply to study for a PhD in the UK, for the first 12-18 months you are placed on "probation" (even if you alread hold an MSc/MRes). After this time, a review (and mini-viva) of both your progress and quality of research is conducted and you are either "confirmed" as being a PhD candidate or are relegated to MPhil.


Increasing the chance of being accepted by keeping a Ph.D. Co-Author

Does the chance of being accepted a paper to a journal increase if one of the Co-Author is Ph.D./Professor ?

No, not under normal circumstances. Some reviewers may like a paper just because one of the authors is a great guy, or the paper is coming from a great institute - and a reviewer might suggest to accept a paper even if he doesn't understand it - but this should not be the rule.

  Should one keep his thesis supervisor as co-author for above?

No, one should only keep authors that deserve authorship. There are likely reasons why you should have your supervisor as co-author on the paper. He might have helped you in other ways, and this way, made a significant contribution to your work (discussions for example). However, you should not add someone as author to please them, to make a better impression, or anything else.

  I mean, is there a chance that the reviewer will consider my paper a bit differently/lightly/neglectfully ?

No (except in cases described under the first question). However, it is not unlikely that you - as bachelor student - don't have the experience and overview of the field, the methods, and the art of paper-writing, to create a publishable paper on your own. If you do - congrats.

I would suggest you

think carefully about if your supervisor didn't contribute after all, and
discuss the matter with your supervisor.

He might not even want to be on your paper (because he didn't contribute, or because he thinks it's not good enough). If he does want to be on your paper, but you don't agree with his arguments, you might want to come back here and check other, related questions, for example this one: Should you include your main supervisor as a co-author?


Is there any automated way I can detect if a co-author plagiarized before our paper is submitted?

I am both confused and concerned about the description of your work process:

  I was doing the math and simulations, my co-author was taking the care of writing and my professor was editing the paper.

It seems clear you are making a contribution worthy of authorship, but as for your "co-author" and professor, it is not clear if their contributions are worthy of authorship. the fact that the co-author is unavailable make the situation difficult. High end plagiarism detection software is still not particularly good and I would be hesitant about using any work written by someone who is known to have plagiarised in the past, especially in the absence of drafts to confirm the absence of plagiarism.

The issue with using software like TurnItIn is not its abilitity to detect and parse copied material, but the limitations on its underlying database. Plagiarism detection software generally does not have access to non-open access publications. If your co-author copied from non-open access publications, then the software will likely miss it. A publishers, like elsivier Edith a large amount of pay walled material may add their own publications to their database making it easy for them to catch the plagiarism.

My suggestion would be to rewrite all the material by the co-author. You could either work from his version and maintain his authorship, or if his only contribution was the writing as you say, then rewrite those sections from scratch and drop him from the list of authors.


Thesis: does the first page of Chapter 1 need to be in odd page?

This isn't just PhD theses: many books are formatted so that all chapters start on a right-hand page. Conventionally, all right-hand pages have odd numbers, and left-hand pages have even numbers. However, theses are often formatted single-sided, for the convenience of examiners, and so there would be no right/left distinction in that instance.

Another possibility is that page numbering sometimes uses Roman numerals for the "front matter" (all pages before the start of the first chapter), and then begins again with Arabic numerals for the "main matter". In this case, the first chapter will start with page 1, which is an odd number.

Your observation will not be the case for all theses, but it may hold when the institution's rules, or the software tools being used, follow these standard formatting principles.


Resources for students designing surveys?

What they need is proper training in survey design and analysis. Let's say, around 80 hours of teaching and then a lot of practical work, assuming they've already got a basic stats grounding.

It's a serious technical skill, and you won't do them any favours if you don't treat it as seriously as any other tool they might use.

One option might be to work with a colleague who does teach survey design and analysis. They may well have students who are looking for some material on which to practice their new skills. Perhaps your colleague can set for them, as homework, the task of working with one of your students on the survey design. That way, your students get to introduce their students to their subject (learning by teaching), and they get to see survey science done reasonably well (assuming your colleague has taught them well).

Just because survey design looks easy and online tools enable any fool to do it, doesn't mean that any fool should do it.

A complaint about "giving them a well when they only need a drink", doesn't hold water. How could any teacher encourage their students to do bad science, or cultivate a contempt for other experts' fields?
(are they physicists?)


Should I apply for financial assistance to go to conferences?

Is it worth me applying for financial assistance in these cases? Or is financial assistance restricted to people from developing nations, or to people researching the primary area of the conference, or to people who are submitting papers to the conference?

Every conference has its own specifications for what kind of applicants (if anyone) is given preference for travel grants. Sometimes paper authors are given preferences, sometimes they are de-prioritized. Sometimes participants from underrepresented groups (whether in an academic, racial, geographic, etc. sense) are prioritized and sometimes only US citizens are eligible. Refer to the conference website for details.

  Is the paperwork involved generally long and complex? it is not worth the time to spend a week filling out forms, for a 1% chance of getting to go the a conference -- I could be spending that time on actual research.

No, it's not usually long and complex. Generally it involves some or all of the following: a statement from you on why they should give you a grant, a letter from your advisor indicating that your attendance will be to your benefit and the conferences' benefit, and an estimate of your expenses.

  Are places highly competitive?

Depends on the conference. Conferences that many people want to go to tend to be more competitive.


How to validate scientific ideas outside the academia?

First, I am not from the field of psychology, but I assume that the research rules are equally applied to all fields.

A general comment: any idea you think that it is new -in any research area-, it is more likely to collide with the fact that it has already been explored and patented -if you have a small experience in the field of course-.

Validating your idea does not necessitate a direct involvement in academia. However, it is important to know the academic process, that consists of:

Reviewing the state-of-the-art sufficiently. This means, reading the recently published papers (mainly from reputed journals and proceedings) and books by using specific search engines (e.g. google scholar) and references/cited-by of the publications you know. Please be aware that key-words might be different across different communities.
If you are not directly involved in research, you may contact researchers interested in your topic and idea. Btw. your assumption that they wouldn't even listen is wrong. Researchers and academics (regardless of their research area) are always open to new ideas. We (a CS research group) do this all the time, where we discuss with companies and individuals about new ideas and collaborations.
If you don't prefer contacting research groups and labs or you don't get an answer for any reason (which I don't it would happen), you can write the paper by yourself following what you have learnt in reviewing similar works (you can also check tutorial how to write a good paper). You will need to follow the journal or conference instructions (e.g. number of pages, etc). You then submit the paper and wait a couple of months to get the first decision.

Now regarding your assumption:

  Write a book. This is definitely a non-scientific approach ....

It is incorrect if you aim to publish a scientific book. Generally, good publishers won't easily publish the work of unknown authors unless they publish it in a series which requires the acceptation of its editor. Here also, the work has to be proved by the editor to has the chance to be published.


How can I most respectfully leave my current PhD position for a new one?

If you are moving to a new university, I think you can ignore most of your fears. You need to get accepted, of course, and may require letters of recommendation to do so, but I don't think you need to be very explicit about disagreements with your supervisor or your assessment of his flaws. It is enough, for most purposes, to simply indicate that you had an incompatible position and are seeking a better one. Keep any disagreements out of your written materials for application. If you are asked, don't emphasize the disagreements or the treatment. The old advisor probably isn't going to change and you are interested in finding a better situation rather than correcting the old one.

Write your materials, initially, as if you were starting fresh. Then add just enough to show that you are in an unhappy situation and want a better one. Don't try to hide it, but emphasize the positive.

I suspect that, except in a few narrow fields, what people think of you at the old place won't matter much if at all. The old professor may be known and can have some impact (hence being cautious), but other people in the lab are pretty invisible from the viewpoint of another institution.

On your CV, mention your current position, of course but without comment. In your SOP stress that you find your current situation "unsatisfying" and "not sufficiently productive".

While it may be unsatisfying not to complain about bad behavior, doing so from a position of little power can hurt only you.


I can tell you how I've been seeing this handled at the K-12 level.  (I don't know if this is a good way to do it at that level or at the college level.)

A math problem is posed.  Then the narrator outlines how a fictitious student, e.g. Marisol, reasoned.  Often, this reasoning is flawed.  Then the student is asked to evaluate Marisol's reasoning.


What are the minimal screen parameters for tablet bought for reading papers

The screen size really depends on how much scrolling/zooming you want to do...I would suggest trying both the 7" and 10" out in person.

As for the retina display, text is going to be much sharper. Again, I would check this out in person.


How professional should my query for a PostDoc position be?

When asking about possible PostDoc positions what would be a good grade of professionalism? How long should the mail be and what should be included? (merely asking if somebody knows something would only take a line or two)

Obviously you want this to be professional (e.g., "Hey dude, I need a job" isn't great in any case), but not necessarily very long or formal. Your milage on this will vary based on the discipline, geographical region, and the individuals involved. However, in STEM fields and assuming this is a professor in the US or Europe, I would opt for an extremely short and informal mail to establish first contact.

Dear Prof. Farnsworth / (or: Dear Rupert, if you are on first-name basis)

as you may know, I plan to graduate in summer and am currently evaluating postdocs options. Given our joint interest in FTL travel, I was wondering whether there could be any openings in your lab that would fit my time line. Alternatively, are you aware of any postdoc stipends or grants that we could jointly apply for?

Thanks a lot in advance,

xLeitix

In my experience, such a super-informal mail has the highest chance of actually being read and is entirely sufficient to get the discussion going. Let the prof. decide what documents, if any, he actually wants to see before progressing (letters, CV, just a link to your Scholar page, etc...).

Important disclaimer: this really only works because the OP has stated that he assumes the potential postdoc advisor will recognize him when he receives the mail. If you have never met the person, or suspect that he won't be able to match your name to your face, add at least a link to your website. If you don't have a website, build one before doing anything else related to your job search.


Is there evidence that suggests students should take notes?

You said you're not looking for research on note-taking, so consider this a freebie.

That said, I'm not entirely sure what you are looking for here. There's a preponderance of research showing that (1) putting things in your own words and (2) recall exercises over time significantly improve memory. This pdf has some good overviews, and points to this academic publication (note: paywall) which contains a bunch of actual references.

Actually, the more I'm researching here, there does seem to be significant evidence that the act of note-taking itself is beneficial to recall and understanding. Two more recent examples relate to mock jurors watching a mock trial while either taking notes or not [1][2]. There's a paper which I can't seem to download but I've seen cited a few times that discusses the positive effect of note taking on student performance [3].

All this said, there's more to it than this. There are numerous note-taking methods, and they have a literature all of their own (e.g., [4]). The way you take notes definitely affects how effective the note-taking will be.

So yeah, it helps.

Edit based on comments: There is substantial evidence that note-taking, by itself, improves retention. That said, the OP seems to be curious whether the fact that we take notes at all is biasing our results; perhaps we should be focusing on comparing pure memory recall techniques to note-taking. Said differently, will someone with memory training outperform someone proficient at note-taking?

I still think that this question itself has issues. Specifically:

There is a significant difference between someone who simply doesn't take notes and someone who has trained themselves to not need written notes. I know people who avoid writing anything (mostly psychiatrists who don't want everything written down and subpoena-able), and it took years of mental training to get there. That is different from the lazy kid who just says "I can remember everything."
As with note-taking, there are many different techniques for remembering without notes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. I think that ignoring the techniques ignores an important part of the question.
I don't think this question is even answerable anymore. Most of the modern world takes notes in some form (source: I made this up), whereas a very minor percentage of people nowadays use purely memory-based techniques (source: I made this up too). As such, finding a representative sample from the second group for our comparison would be pretty doggone difficult.


Why people put the details of publication process like revise and resubmit in their CVs?

In economics, the publication process takes a long time.  The slow review process largely results form a slow review and a slow resubmission process. Because editors know that reviews are slow, they only send items to review or give an R&R if they think they have a good shot of being published in the journal.  The fact that a paper was sent for review or given an R&R a particular journal means that it passes some bar of quality. This signal is important on a junior researcher’s CV. Noting a paper is under review also allows the CV reader to understand that the paper is fully written ( although of course there are other ways to note this).

There are few downsides to the researcher to noting that a paper is under review or has an R&R because It is such an established norm in the field. I would not hesitate to follow this norm if you are preparing your CV.


How to establish ties with the industry as a young engineering professor?

First, Congratulations!

Second, I see you are in Canada.

The first thing you should do is join your local Canadian Society of Civil Engineering chapter.  Become a member, and attend their events (this may include dinner meetings, speakers, tours, etc.).  Talk to people: start with "Hi, I'm Dr. X and a new professor in Civil Engineering at the U of X, where do you work, what do you do?" Get to know the local executive of the CSCE, offer to do a talk about what you do.

Attend the CSCE conferences.  There are many practitioners there who are presenting on their most technical and most research-y work.  Get to know them, they might like to collaborate.

Next, make sure you are on the mailing list for the local chapter of your provincial engineering association.  Go to their events.  Offer to do a talk for them (at lunch meetings, annual events, etc.).  They also likely host professional development workshops, another great way to meet practitioners.

At these events and though your colleges and students, find out which consulting firms do projects that are closest to your research area.  Find people that work there at local engineering events.  Great ways to get to know a firm as a researcher is "Hey, I am teaching a class on (insert topic here) do you have any interesting case studies I could use to illustrate (insert concept here)."

Finally, (as Mad jack says) in engineering programs in Canadian universities, students often must complete a capstone design project.  Find out how your department handles that, and if you will be involved.  Perhaps volunteer to mentor a group.  Then at local meetings you can say "next year I will be mentoring some fourth years students doing a capstone project in (insert discipline here), do you guys have anything interesting coming up that would be suitable for a fourth year group to tackle?"  Then make sure your students do a damn good job.


At different time periods and in different countries / academic cultures, either one or the other was more popular to denote (essentially) the same thing.

I won't go into the historical details (in which I am not too well-versed), but here's an example: In my own Alma Mater, for example, they used to award D.Eng. and D.Sc.'s, and no (?) Ph.D.'s until the 1980s or so, but at some point they switched, and these days everybody gets a Ph.D.

Did this matter to anyone? By and large, no. I've never heard anybody complain about the latter or the former having caused him/her any trouble being recognized. So while it is theoretically possible there will be some kind of issue, it doesn't matter.

My personal opinion is that it's a shame we are losing these discipline-group-specific titles and going with something generic - even if it has older historical roots. So I would go for D.Eng.

Also, if your friend has a signed official letter saying something like

  We can award you with either a Ph.D. or a D.Eng. and we consider them equivalent in your case

then she can use that specific letter with whatever degree she is awarded, if any questions come up.


Is it advisable to get copyright on a research proposal and an academic article before submitting them?

A copyright exists on your original work from the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form.  No marking or registration is needed.

Here in the US, this may be helpful:  Copyright in General

(In 1989, the US became a party to the Berne Convention, now followed by 171 countries.  So the law here should be similar to where you live.  But check your government's site or with an IP attorney if a lot is at stake.)


To act against rearranging authorship irresponsibly

To play with the author order is not fair and perhaps unethical if it unfairly changes the picture of the intellectual contribution to the paper. Unfortunately, the ordering is largely an internal problem within the group since only that group can assess the appropriate ordering. So, discussing the problem within the author group would be the first choice of action. When doing so you need to have a good argument for why the division of authorship should look the way you see it and have good arguments for that. The core problem therefore seems to be a lack of communication.

It is a good idea (necessary) to discuss a system for ordering of authorship. There are guidelines for authorship and contributorship based on the Vancouver Protocol. You can also look at the post Paper contributions and first authorship. Requirements for authorship are quite strict and each author group needs to work out how authorship should be divided along a clear set of rules. An example of how such a discussion is given on, for example, the site AuthorOrder.

There are cases when authorship changes can be unethical, but those mostly concern the first authorship so I do not sense this is the main problem in your case. Nevertheless, for some input on disputes, I recommend looking at COPE's How to handle authorship disputes:a guide for new researchers.

If you do not think you can discuss the changes with the first order, then you have to learn from the experience and insist on discussing the grounds for authorship and ordering in future collaborations.


Is there a difference between simplification and spoon feeding in education?

I think that these concepts don't really overlap that much:
Simplification is about how you explain something. When you explain a concept, you might leave out some details which make the concept more complicated to grasp. By focusing on the most essential parts (and possibly adding the details later), you don't overwhelm the students with information and allow them to understand a concept in a "step by step" way.
Spoon-feeding is about how you let students solve tasks, in classroom or homework assignments. The goal of such assignments is to let students practice the learned concepts by applying them in an independent way. Spoon-feeding means that the students don't need to think because you have already done the thinking for them and just let them execute some clearly defined, straightforward tasks.


How does one get involved in technical committees in international conferences or commissions? Does one need an invitation or does one volunteer him/herself?

As you say yourself, this has been asked and answered. The executive summary is that as a first approximation, PCs are typically by-invitation and there is no "formal" way to apply or volunteer.

  Also, why are many relatively more experienced or outstanding academics often not involved in these committees?

Because time for "outstanding" academics is limited. You can only be in so many PCs before you do nothing but review papers, and for some very distinguished professors even one large PC may already be too many. Further, some conferences (e.g., ICSE) regularly rotate their PC).


Submiting a two page paper to a math journal

I am no expert in number theory, so I can't really help you with the last question (if you should submit your paper to another journal). However, it sounds like the editor stated the reason for rejection pretty clear: In his impression the results are not substantial enough. This is a valid (and frequent) reason for rejection. So in this respect you are in good company. If the editor did not state explicitly that he finds the paper "too short" than there is no reason to believe that this was the reason for rejection.

To get good feedback on how to proceed with your paper and your research you should ask your advisor (or find one).


What is the name of the office in an institution where graduates and alumni are helped with employment?

In US universities, this office is commonly called Career Services or some variation on that, such as "career center", "career development", etc.


How do active researchers start and solve a scientific problem?

As Jeff pointed out in his comment, there's no one answer here -- it's fairly dependent on your field. But here's my stab at a very general overview:

Read a large number of papers in your field. I like to focus on the most recent ones and then read backwards as needed to acquire background.
Make note of the "open research problems" identified in these papers (usually discussed near the end of the paper as future work).
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have a nice list of possible paths.
Discuss your list with your adviser (if you're a student, at least).
Be prepared to repeat step 3. Numerous times.
Eventually, you'll find something to investigate.

At that point... defining the "end" of the project is much messier and field-dependent. For my field, computer engineering, the "end" might be a working software prototype that I can evaluate in terms of performance. It might be a theoretical model that I then intend to try implementing. Or it might be something entirely different. (If I were to be cynical, I'd say that the "end" is whatever you promised in your funding proposal ;-)

As to how to get to that end -- that's the research, and it's almost entirely field dependent. Talk to an adviser or researcher in your area.

Also -- don't be so quick to aim for a single-author publication. Often times, the big interesting problems are just that -- big. They'll require multiple researchers working in tandem. And if your worry is prestige - the paper describing the first observation of gravitational waves had over 125 authors, including 3 who were deceased at the time of publication. I highly doubt anyone considers that paper to be less prestigious on a C.V. because of that :)


In the social sciences, does it make sense to embark on a longer-term project but write a dissertation on one part of it?

Research is rarely a one shot affair. Whatever you do you'll likely be building on later on, whether it was your original plan, or some offshoot you didn't even dream of initially. So I'd say you should be glad to have some plan for "after dissertation" now.


Is it possible to survive in university academia without applying for grants?

There are certainly some situations in the US where you can be a tenured professor, do some unsupported research, and never bring in grants.  However, the expectation that you will bring in research grants is fairly wide spread, and having at least some grant funding is necessary to obtain tenure at a surprisingly large number of institutions (not just the "Research I" nationally ranked universities.)

Research funding varies dramatically between disciplines.  In the following I'll restrict my attention to mathematics since you mentioned that was your area.  I'm including statistics since in many cases statisticians get jobs in mathematics departments at these kinds of institutions.

The exceptions boil down to universities in which research is not a high priority and teaching is more important.  These institutions are typically "Regional Comprehensive Universities" often with names of the form "directional state university."  For example, in New Mexico we have "Eastern New Mexico University", "Western New Mexico University", "New Mexico Highlands University", and "Northern New Mexico College"

Teaching loads at such institutions are typically high (3-3 or 4-4, plus lots of advising) and graduate programs are small or non-existent.  Undergraduate
science and engineering degree programs are also small.  Many of these universities don't offer any degrees in engineering.  Much of the enrollment in math and statistics courses is in freshman level service courses like college algebra and intro to statistics.

In order to get hired into a tenure track position at such an institution you'll need a PhD and some teaching experience (many candidates for such positions will have worked in "visiting assistant professor" positions for a few years.)  There will typically be some expectation that you will publish research during your time as an assistant professor, and you may be encouraged to apply for research grants, but very few faculty at such institutions actually have grant funding from the NSF or other federal agencies.

In mathematics, the number of tenure track positions has been in decline in recent years.  The competition for these kinds of positions has become extreme, with institutions reporting hundreds of applications for each position.


Meeting dishonest ex-supervisors at large international conference -- Should one speak out?

There is a lot going on here. If you want to play power politics make sure that you have the power first.

You contemplate making an accusation. Depending on local law and custom this could open you to a charge of slander that you would have to defend. Far in the past a duel on the green would be seen as the appropriate response. Now it is lawyers instead of pistols, of course.

If you can make the claim fairly and can also do so anonymously you protect yourself. If the journalists you intend to speak with can really protect "their sources" (i.e. your identity) it might be possible. But they will need evidence even though they are less susceptible to a charge of slander.

But an emotional response won't help anyone and might reflect badly on yourself.

But I see your dilemma. Others may be at risk here if you don't make some attempt. I think that the conference chairs that I have worked with would listen to your complaint if you can contact them. This won't guarantee anonymity, of course, but in the best case it could put other powerful people in your camp. On the other hand, if the committee is somehow aligned with the PIs in question it would be the worst situation of all.

One rather scary possibility is that you confront them privately and tell them your complaints and that you don't like to see them recruiting others into the same situation you faced. If you know of any others who already faced the same situation and you can confront the PI as a group it would be even better. Some people have no shame at all and some are driven by forces even they can't control, but you might let them think that withdrawal is a better option than continuing. Scary, though.

Ethics don't require, in a case like this, that you put yourself at risk to save others.


Responding to papers which reinvent ideas without citing them

From what you have described, it is unlikely that the author's decision to omit mention of the previous paper would constitute any breach of the journal's policies, or any violation of academic integrity requirements.  You have stated your assessment that this is not a case of plagiarism, notwithstanding some similarities between the present paper and the previous paper.  If that assessment is correct then you are really just talking about a decision by the author to omit mention of a previous paper, which is a decision that is within his discretion as a researcher, and which has gone successfully through peer review.

Since there is no evident breach of policies or academic integrity standards, the journal is unlikely to change the article unless its authors request an addendum.  You could either write to the authors suggesting this, or you could try to publish your own "letter to the editor" supplementing the information in the recently published paper by mentioning the previous work.  A letter to the editor could draw attention to the omitted work in a respectful way, noting the similarities of the ideas in the two papers, and noting the way in which the present paper formalises the previous idea with a new model.  That would make a nice supplement for readers who are unfamiliar with the previous work.  Of course, there is no guarantee that the editors would publish it, but if you feel strongly about this, it might be worth a try.  If you can say something valuable about the connection between the two papers then the editors might decide that it is a worthy supplement.


What is the best way to express my condolence to a professor?

If you found this information online then it’s hardly an invasion of privacy (unless of course you hacked his email or something). I wouldn’t worry about that.

If there is a public announcement (an obituary) of a religious service (eg a wake or a shiv’a), you can probably attend as these things are usually open to the public for exactly people like you- distant relatives or acquaintances who wish to comfort the grieving family. For example, if they’re Jewish, it’s customary to bring some simple baked goods (say, cookies) since the family is hosting a seven-day event. I’m not familiar with grieving customs in other religions but that should be easy enough to find out. In these situations your professor would most likely greatly appreciate your presence and the gesture.

If there’s no public announcement then wait for the professor to come back to the university and try to catch them in person to offer your condolences. Again, the gesture would be greatly appreciated I believe.

My condolences...


Is a "big ego" necessary for a tenure-track faculty position?

I think a "big ego", or at least a healthy dose of self confidence, is necessary for survival as an academic. Our jobs are one of repeated failure. Success rates on grants, publications, experiments, and job applications are often less than 10%. In the face of such frequent failures an abundance of confidence is a require for maintaining ones sanity. Further, many departments verge on dysfunctional and there is generally someone looking to push you down to get ahead (I am not saying everyone is out to get you, but there is generally at least one person in every department looking to get ahead at your expense.) Being confident, outspoken and to an extent self prompting is useful for dealing with these people. The difficult part is not being too self confident and too outspoken and being able to admit when you are wrong.


It refers to the reviewer writing the review. It's not that widely used (and personally I don't like it), but I have seen it in reviews, and as a native speaker I don't find it that unusual. It allows the reviewer to respond in the academic third person (a bit like saying "the authors" in a paper) - a grammatical construct to allow them to write with an academic tone.
Personally I just say "I think"!


I found a paper with a similar structure, method, and conclusions from an attendee of a conference I presented at. Is this plagiarism?

(I agree with the comment from UJM.)
Since she was "curating" the journal, I guess that means it was a special issue, and there are other, permanent editors. You can approach them. I think if you do this carefully, there is not a great risk. What I mean by that is to focus on yourself: you have concerns that your paper is damaged by this. Don't speculate on her process or motivation.
If you are a student, obviously discuss it with your supervisor first.


Can I ever know if my question has been answered before?

I am going though the dissertation process myself, and have discovered that your advisor is always the best way to go. In theory, your advisor is an expert in the field, and ought to be current with the literature in the field he is guiding you through. Your committee also has this job. Trust them - if you publish on something that's already out there, their reputations as cutting-edge researchers would be on the line.

Still, your advisor and committee are human, and part of the job to make sure your topic hasn't been hijacked already is yours. In my case, being primarily a teacher, research isn't my forte, and my advisor is close to retirement; this meant that we discovered very late that the problem I had been attacking for my dissertation is in literature under a topic name unknown to either of us nor to my committee (compressed sensing). Even after having found my topic addressed, major open questions still remained, and some approaches I had may still be considered original. In short, the point here would be to keep looking in every corner even after you've picked a topic and started writing. The most sure way to "look in every corner" would be to find the most inspiring research papers you're using for a project and check to see who has referenced them, and check to see who has referenced the papers these works themselves referenced.


Discussing diversity and underrepresented groups in personal history statement for PhD application

"How your perspectives or activities contribute to social or cultural diversity and/or make you sensitive to the experiences of underrepresented groups"

I think a useful way to approach this question is to not think about it in terms of race, but instead consider what it means to be socially diverse. As an example, consider this brief response to the question:

"Growing up in a small farming community in Canada has given me an opportunity to see how many of those in my community - many of which have never stepped foot on a university campus - can benefit from feeling represented in institutions that they might not naturally feel apart of. Growing up in a rural community gives me the advantage of being able to personally relate to people who might not have college degrees, or even high school degrees, and develop a level of trust when communicating scientific information that might be the topic of the day in the news. When I come to U of X, I hope to be able to share and encourage this level of empathy among my peers to help unify communities that might otherwise feel divided."

So, what's happening here? In this paragraph I mention that I am an international student - as I assume you are - and I am reflecting on how my own experience in my country might be able to bring about some type of positive change to the United States and the immediate community I am hoping to be in. In the example that I listed above, the 'underrepresented community' happens to be just the local people I grew up with. What I believe you should do is examine your own lifestyle in your home country and think about what you have experienced that might bring about positivity in your studies. Your response does not have to include gender or race because there are TONS of communities that might be relatively disadvantaged to you - these could even be immigrants from your own country that are not in touch with the institution you want to attend.

The question you ask is a challenging one, because it's actually a somewhat divisive question: Do you talk about racial disparities? Do you talk about gender disparities? What you want to really try to reflect on is how your own story can bring about some type of positive change when you go to the institution that you want to attend. It's a tough question to answer, but hopefully this response gives you some type of idea about what you want to say.


Will it affect my Reputation to leave my MSc without finishing the Thesis?

I would advise you to go on with your MSc degree, maybe right now the thesis doesn't seem relevant but the topic it covers may turn out to be essential in future (getting a job for example). Moreover by completing it you will learn how to code (to some degree at least) which is exceptionally valuable these days in every field.

having said that, what i would advise you to do is either asking somebody for help (or paying them to help you) by help i mean sitting with you by the same desk (or using TeamViewer) and writing code with you. learning on your own by referring to books materials etc is the most effort and time consuming way if you are a beginner (later on it is the best way to learn coding). Another thing i would advise you to do is online courses, programming on beginner level is probably the best covered skill you can learn in the internet. The courses are cheap and truly amazing for beginners.

you can try Coursera, but remember that courses where you don't have to submit your code to autofrader are not very good in teaching real coding skills.

Udemy courses are mostly video based and assignments are presented and then solved through video. there are interactive code assignments in more recent courses only.

you can try datacamp if the topics they cover are relevant to you. I find datacamp to be too easy - everything is interactive (you type code in your browser) and most of the code is provided, the user many times is asked only to fill it with some methods. datacamp removes all the stretches of programming and presents you with methods of doing stuff, but without going through the typos etc you will nkt learn too much IMHO.

there is also edx and LinkedIn learning and probably dozens more but i didn't try them out.

i would advise you to try udemy first and pay somebody to teach abd most importantly learn coding (by finishing your thesis), its the most important skill on a job market and in academia in 21st century. (sorry for formatting of text)


What do I do if my results are not ready before a conference?

I would recommend another option: present the current truth of your work and results. You can get feedback on the methods and approach and somebody may even be able to point out adjustments to your approach that may help the work. Even just talking to people outside of your lab can be an important part of developing as a researcher. Don't try to hide the state of your work or pretend you have more than you have: people will be able to tell and it will not help you. Instead present yourself as you are: an early student looking for interaction around these ideas.

Note, of course, that this is all subject to your professor's approval: they know your community better than random strangers on the internet.

Finally: let this be a lesson for the future. Don't give in to pressure to claim results that you may not get. It is always better to say "And here are some new results not mentioned in the abstract..." than to explain why you can't deliver what you promised.


Should I ask for a confirmation of my interview if I answered late to the invitation?

You should attempt to confirm the interview.  It's quite possible that somehow your email was somehow missed or there was a miscommunication.  The people doing this stuff are human and make mistakes.  Even if they are actually planning to do it, getting confirmation is a reasonable request.  If you don't hear anything, you should probably be ready by the phone at the appointed time, but don't be surprised if they don't call.


Generating a connection of researchers graph out of DBLP

Microsoft Academic Research can do something similar for you, you just need to have Sliverlight plugin installed in your browser. Search for the first author, click on it's name (orange background), click "Geanology Graph", Click "Co-author Graph", enter the name of the other person on the right and press enter.


I'm going to advocate for using the style "[1] discovered that the sky is blue," even though you dislike it for grammatical reasons. I don't think that citations written like this need to be considered as parenthetical comments - they are just references, and can be used in place of the authors' names. Sometimes I will also see "Ref. 1 discovered that the sky is blue," which at least avoids putting the citation at the beginning of the sentence.

I agree that using "X et al." for an alphabetical paper is often misleading, and even though people are aware of this, it is difficult to avoid that bias. I have seen, in related cases, people refer to, e.g. "work from the group of Y" to avoid this. However, I do not recommend this, as it attributes more importance to the supervisor's contribution, and it is very easy to misunderstand the roles of people on a given project. (This also intersects with seniority, gender, etc. - big shot authors are more likely to be credited in this way.)

Author names as an acronym also seems quite useful, but I've mostly seen them used in cases where either A) there is a paper or idea that is classic in the field, or B) a single paper is a subject of focused discussion, and is discussed in depth by many other papers. For an example of B, there is the AMPS "firewall" paper in physics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(physics) - they are also not compatible with giant author lists more common in some fields!


contacting post-doc in a lab to join his research instead of his mentor

For this short answer, I'm using information from an earlier question that you asked here; namely, that you are a 2nd year undergraduate student. I'm not familiar with how Asian universities operate, but the below would by and large apply to both Europe and the U.S.
If there is any researcher at your university you are interested in working with (probably as an undergraduate researcher), then just talk to them. If you hit it off both personally and academically, then the postdoc (in the case at hand) will discuss with their PI (professor and research supervisor) if they can take you in. The PI will then decide if yes; sometimes after first talking to you as well.


Unable to present accepted conference paper after mentioning it on submitted applications

If this is something like a doctoral symposium in which papers are discussed but not printed in the proceedings, then you should just inform everyone who matters of the situation. It shouldn't be a problem. Acceptance actually means something in a situation like this. And you can always, in this case, submit the paper elsewhere if it doesn't appear or if acceptance is withdrawn by the committee due to not being able to attend.

On the other hand, if the paper will be in the proceedings whether you are there or not, which may be the case in CS, then you don't really need to do anything. You could still inform people, but the acceptance for the conference and publication in the proceedings is all that is really required.

But in general honesty and forthrightness is a plus.


Is asking an editor for soft copy of his book acceptable?

Asking directly for a free copy, unless you have a close friendship or working relationship with the editor, will sound rude.  (And if you do have such a close friendship, there's a strong chance you purchased a copy, or you may have even been gifted it.)

What I have done is an extension of a model I use for friends who publish music or books.  I never expect to get anything free or at a discount, as supporting their work is important to me, and most of the time each work sold has direct implications on the royalties, etc, that they receive.  So instead, I ask them which way of purchasing (directly from them, digital download from a given store, physical copy from a retailer, etc) gets them the most, that way I can also recommend the same method to friends who may want to purchase it.

In academia, I apply the same model, but there's one (not so) small difference: oftentimes, the author/editor has already received all or virtually all that they will get from the book publication, so they don't care if anyone gets a free copy.  When I ask, even for books I intend to purchase because they are worthwhile to have in my personal physical collection, I have occasionally been offered a digital copy of the book at no cost.

In reality, this isn't too different than with articles — many of us will happily send out a copy of our articles to someone on request because rarely (never) does anyone make money each time an article is paid for.  That and citations.

But, if you go this route, note that you should be fully prepared to actually pay if they offer to personally sell you a copy.  It would be at least as rude to reject such an offer after you've effectively said you wanted a copy and were willing to pay $x, and when offered it less than $x, you backed out for cost.


Two papers with identical introduction and related work

If you treat a different aspect of the topic, it is absolutely fair to split it up in two parts. The introduction will sound quite the same, but this is also the case for most introductions in a specific research field. If you define well the objective of the paper you are presenting, you should be fine.

Here is an example of a paper (among many) splitted in two parts that takes interest in one main topic : Part 1 and Part 2


What should I do if my former advisor wants to use my research project data (including dissertation) for the current PhD student's dissertation?

It would be good if you can find a way for this to work to everyone's benefit.
I'd suggest that you start with your advisor and express your concerns and get some assurance that the other student won't be stepping on your research. You should be able to get a great acknowledgement in work of the other student. And your own work might well be eligible for citation under these circumstances.
But also express your need for the time for your own work and that  you can't prioritize helping the other student at this time.
Once you have some agreement from  your advisor, initiate a three way conversation in which everything is made clear. You'll help when can, but have other priorities that must come first. But from your description, it sounds like it is possible for everyone to win as long as the others respect your limits.


Publishing company's reps refusing to send desk copies to my home. Any way around this?

Just say “thanks for your help, and mention an equivalent from a different publisher”... also drop in how many copies you would need :)... they need sales and work hard to get them.
Also consider contacting their boss by email, saying you wanted to consider their book but you crossed them off as you can’t inspect the book.


Is not being paid in an internship common in academia?

Sadly, yes. It is all too common, though not universal. Not only for internships in labs, but also in businesses. The US Congress, even, doesn't pay its interns, though there is some move to do so in future.

The "justification" of this is that the students are "learning", which can be true or false. But normally they do work for which pay would otherwise be required.

In my opinion, this is just wrong. If people are contributing, they should be paid. If they are not paid then many people who need to support themselves - somehow - will be closed out of these opportunities. I would have a bit less objection to it but for this fact. In economically diverse countries such as the US (and others) it is especially important.

The solution to it is political, however, whether at the university level or the governmental level.

As you say, of course, an internship teaches you things that are hard to learn otherwise. They are valuable for themselves. Your CV can reflect internships you have done.

Well, some internships teach you things. There are also examples in which "interns" become bottle washers, not learning much of anything. This is pure exploitation.

But labs, agencies, and businesses need to include sufficient funding so that students don't get exploited.


Are ethnic "minorities" given preference in PhD admissions in the US?

There is a slight preference in the US for what are known as "underrepresented minorities"—that is, people who belong to groups who are not adequately represented in college enrollment relative to their proportion in the general population. That currently includes groups such as Hispanics, African-Americans, and Native Americans, but not groups such as Asian-Americans. So long as someone is a citizen, it does not really matter if one was naturalized or was a "born" citizen.

This does not mean that quotas are used, but it can be used as a "plus" quality in terms of admissions and hiring decisions.


What is the role of your advisor and other lab members in your research work?

I don't think there is a universal answer. Different advisers have different styles.  I look over the code that my students write and offer suggestions on how to improve it (and sometimes do it myself); my students like that. My adviser did not have any significant programming skills despite being in computational mathematics, and was mostly hands-off -- but I think he was an excellent adviser anyway.
In the end, different students need different advising styles, and one of the things I have learned advising 8 graduate students so far is this: what works with one student does not work for another one. I suspect one could also turn this around and say from the perspective of the student: The style of one professor may work for them, whereas the style of another may not.


I cannot get funding to travel to conferences, is it normal to target journals instead and would it affect my future Computer Science career?

Very likely having only journal publications will NOT harm your future career prospects. Let me elaborate.

If you plan a career outside the US, this is even truer. As far as I understand most countries are moving towards a more journal evaluation of computer science. I cannot point to a paper to that effect, but most of the papers that discuss conference x journals in CS are from non US researchers, which may indicate that there is some pressure in these countries to move out of the conference publishing business-as-usual model for CS.

For a career within the US, @jakebeal answer to this Academia question seems to suggest that journal publications are also the important metric of evaluation in "lesser institution".

I heard from someone that was applying for faculty positions two years ago that the most prestigious CS departments were only considering candidates that had at least 1000 citations - so the most prestigious institutions do not seem to care for number of publications and where (this is hearsay information).

Now for the caveats, as you realize, a journal-based career will imply in less papers - which I argue is not necessarily a problem, but you have to be sure that you will have some paper/papers published when you apply for a job. Avoid, if you can, journals with too long a review cycle - you may not have any/enough papers published by the end of your PhD.


I am about to be a senior in high school and I just have a question about doubling majors, minoring, and getting Phd's

Savannah-Jane,

The future is always exciting, especially for someone who has promise. But I would caution you into looking too far ahead and "smell the roses".

You have probably one of the most important decisions you will make in your life right before you; where you will go to college as an undergraduate. That is the decision I would focus on. The questions you are asking now are important to consider when choosing a school; no one with graduate school aspirations wants to attend a college that sends very few people to the types of schools you might want to attend. But, conversely, it would be unwise to make a decision about where you study just because you want to go somewhere else afterword: make sure that you go to a place you love for your 4-5 years. If a school doesn't provide enough undergraduate research opportunities, you can always do a masters degree before your PhD. If your classes are too hard senior year and you can't study for the LSAT, you can find a way to take a year off and apply next cycle. These things are important, but they aren't the most important.

When looking for a college, look for a place you can see yourself living. And studying. And getting drunk Friday nights if you are into that sorta thing. A place where you might fall in love. A place where you can make friends you can trust. Look for that professor that takes a special interest in his students, and work with him or her. When the time comes, bring up graduate school, what you are interested in, and these things will work out. There is always a way to study what you want if you work hard and are curious. There are certainly kids who would do better at a small liberal arts college than a large state school, but the converse is also true. Figure out the differences between those types of experiences.

My very good friend ended up studying computer science in college, but is now getting his PhD in political science. English majors go to medical school. Physicists go to law school. There will be some "general" decisions you will have to make in the beginning, like if you are more science or humanities inclined. It would be very hard for an English major to go into a Physics PhD program, but that's all you really need to know. There is no rush in picking a particular major. Don't try to design your whole life. Leave some things up for chance. Curious minds always remain curious.


Pen name similar with real name: Zu Yangzu instead of Zu Yang for papers

In CS, no publisher I am aware of strictly requires the name on the paper to be your unaltered true (in the sense of "as written on the passport/birth certificate/ID card/...") name. Customs in other fields might differ, although I see little reason to.

However, some issues might arise where the name from the paper has to match with some other information about you. These issues can sometimes be solved, but you should be aware of them:

Funding agencies may wish to see what you published. If you use a different name on the papers than what you are known as to the agency that funds your position, your participation in a paper you indicate to have contributed to may not be obvious.

Publishers sometimes ask for some meta-information such as your personal website on your institution's website. If you have no influence on how you appear on that personal website (again, because that information may be administered by your employer), the connection might again be non-obvious. The publisher might not care, but readers who see your paper and look at your website might assume an association mistake by the publisher unless the website explicitly states in a prominent place you are using a pen name.

Things might indeed get more complicated if you are in a field that puts emphasis on conferences:

Your conference registration might be coupled to the publication of your paper, in a way that the former is a prerequisite for the latter to happen. Some conferences explicitly ask upon registration which paper (number) you will present, but others will try to do a simple name-match. If you decide to register with your pen-name, though, a chain of other problems might ensue:

Conference registration is sometimes coupled with hotel registration, and the hotel will need to know your real name.
Your funding agency probably needs some registration confirmation from the conference, which may have to show your real name to serve as valid proof that you really paid for and attended the conference.
Even before that happens, you may need a confirmation of acceptance of your paper as a valid proof that you are required to embark on the respective conference trip, which can be more difficult if the confirmation of acceptance is seemingly directed at a person of a different name.

While it is a minor issue (because the existence of workarounds is likely), sometimes employers provide business cards with the information they know about you, without a way to indicate something such as a custom name. Handing out such business cards on conferences (point from above), or also other kinds of meetings with collaborators from other organisations, might be confusing with respect to your publication history.

Note that the workplace-specific items are also relevant because they might apply to any future employer of yours, not just the current one.


Could I submit a paper that I'm not sure about its proof?

It is your responsibility, not the referees', to make sure that a published proof is correct.

The reviewers should make sure that the results have some merit; some check proofs line-by-line, and some merely check that the result is plausible and that the proof methodology looks sound. Sometimes errors slip by. Nevertheless, if the result later turns out wrong, your reputation is at stake, not the one of the reviewers.

So speak with your advisor and make sure that your proof is correct before you submit. It might be the case that the proof is correct and you just haven't grasped all the details because you have less experience. Or it might be the case that there is a flaw to address and correct, in which case you should act before submission.

It is not a good research mentality to think "We only have to fool convince one or two referees", in my opinion.


Talk to your current professor. If he likes the idea, he might give you the opportunity to use his resources and provide guidance. This could be a preparation to your future master thesis.

If you have less of an idea what you want to do exactly, look out for research assistant/student assistant positions (or ask around if someone needs help), where you could be part of a research project by helping out with simpler (but no less important) tasks. Though I'm not sure this is a thing in computer science.


Is it okay that my supervisor insists for me to work from my room at night?

This sets off all kind of red flags. In the absence of an extremely good rationale, this is very strange and entirely unacceptable. I would recommend that you make an appointment with your graduate program director and discuss the situation ASAP. That person will have more background about the situation and more perspective, and can offer you better advice than we can here.


Can oral tradition be used as a reliable source in scholarly papers?

You ask specifically about an "oral tradition", but only speech which has been somehow recorded can be cited. Oral history is a whole subfield with an Oral History Association which has published Principles and Best Practices for using these histories. Most of the best practices pertain to the acquisition of new oral histories, but there is also a section on using existing oral histories:

All those who use oral history interviews after they are made accessible should strive for intellectual honesty and the best application of the skills of their discipline. This includes
a. avoiding stereotypes, misrepresentations, and manipulations of the narrator’s words;
b. striving to retain the integrity of the narrator’s perspective;
c. recognizing the subjectivity of the interview, including, when possible, verification of information presented as factual;
d. interpreting and contextualizing the narrative according to the professional standards of the applicable scholarly disciplines;
e. contextualizing oral history excerpts;
f. providing a citation to the location of the full oral history.


Typically, GREs are required for entry to graduate school, not for being hired as a postdoc.  GRE requirements are set by admissions committees who are collectively filtering a vast number of applicants with little background records.  Postdoc hiring, on the other hand, is typically handled more as an individual professor hiring an individual employee.  A particular professor might ask for GRE scores, but to the best of my knowledge that would be quite unusual, as they would typically be more interested in your thesis, publications, and other such recent and directly relevant scientific accomplishments.


Mention a potential adviser in Statement of Purpose who is in another department

I think that in general this would be fine, but don't give the impression that working with him or the other lab/prof is, in any way, a condition of your acceptance. You want the department that you are applying to to be interested in you but not to give others the impression that you are inflexible in any way. But stating that you have a well worked out plan and have at least partial buy-in on it from a professor shouldn't hurt you, and might help.

Your first goal is to get accepted, then work out the details. Make it obvious that your background supports your SOP goals.


Very few research groups: continue doing PhD in this area?

are there good reasons not to choose an area of research in which very few people work worldwide?

There might be.

a research clique might be at work: sometimes, often unintentionally, you can observe a bunch of researchers starting to push some topic and ending up absorbed in their own little world proposing extensions of extensions of extensions and not noticing that they became irrelevant. Usually because something is wrong with the problem they work on. But sometimes such a niche might be actually very healthy, except the topic did not caught up more popularity in the relevant mainstream community.
something might be wrong with the problem they tackle: sometimes a group of absorbed (as above) researchers looses connection with reality and pushes towards solving a problem which does not exist anymore because somebody else solved it just by the way along a route to some other problem and everybody else recognized.
something might be wrong with the method the small group applies to the problem they tackle: sometimes the problem is good (see below), but the bunch tries to hopelessly push a method which simply does not yield anything. Often this is accompanied with use of a highly specialized terminology so that it is difficult to see that the method they use and the problem they tackle is in fact very much related to something else what yields more healthy research in the relevant mainstream community.

More generally, don't worry about the size of the field. What matters is whether the problem at the core of the niche is real and sound. Real means that solving it can have an impact on the society at large. You need to believe in your cause. For the sake of this blob, let sound mean that you see a solid way to articulate it and get a grip on it, most preferably including a method to measure progress. If you have the two, you are set even if the community tackling the problem is relatively small. All the rest is up to your capabilities and the difficulty level of the problem.

Trust your judgement.


If your sole purpose of comparing the grades is for International school admission, then I suggest you to look into WES evaluation. Visit the link for WES: http://www.wes.org/students/igpacalc.asp


On Copyright permissions for references in an article

No, you do not need to get permission to cite other works. Citing works is the way you give credit for existing ideas to the people who originally generated or made accessible those ideas. (and it's a bit troubling that you are asking this at this stage - have you not cited other work before at any level?)

You often do need to get permission for copying parts of works, such as figures, but where it is actually necessary is a legal issue that depends on a variety of circumstances. See for example: Is it necessary to obtain permissions for copying figures from published articles in your proposal/dissertation?


How Important is the rank of a school in a certain specialty?

Don’t trust the US News grad school subfield rankings at all.  They’re based entirely on surveys and most people don’t actually know a lot about things outside their speciality and their university.  So you infamously end up with high ranking places that actually don’t have anyone in the subfield.

If you want to know how good a school is in a subfield you’ll have to look into it seriously yourself.  Ask people you know in that subfield, look up the research interests in the department, find out whether their have been grad students their recently, after you get accepted visit the dept and ask questions.

That said, I think in the US in math it’s a mistake to narrow down to a specialty before you go to grad school.  You have a year of grad school before you have to pick an advisor, and you’ll learn a lot in that year.  Plus you’re more likely to find a good advisor match if you are picking between 20 potential advisors and not 2.


What is limit for the number of students for one supervisor in India?

I did a quick search on this and I could find a document that suggests this:

  At any given point of time, the maximum number of Ph.D. students allowed should not exceed 8 students for a recognized Professor, 6 students for a recognized Associated Professor and 4 students for a recognized Assistant Professor.

Read point number 4 on page 2 of the guidelines for the Recognition of Fellow Programme of Self-Financing Autonomous
Management Institutions recognized by AICTE towards Equivalence to Ph.D Programme of Indian Universities.


Is there a way to register now for the GREs, or attend grad. school some other way?

I recommend you go for a Masters degree first. Some schools admit Masters students without GRE. While doing your masters, you can prepare for GRE and take courses that would eventually count for your prospective PhD degree which you are intending for. This will benefit you getting into a good PhD school which otherwise may be very difficult to get in.


What to do with students requesting deadline extension due to the death of a relative (but without a doctor's note)?

Should we just let these things go?

Yes. Either the situation is real, in which you would be causing great harm in refusing and distressing the student further OR the student is lying and they get an extra 48 hours. Do you really care if the student is getting an extra 48 hours? Is the ability to complete work within a very specific time frame one of the key learning goals of the course?


My partner posted our code on Github and I am now being investigated for cheating. What to do?

I am sometimes involved in panels that investigate unfair means. I am also in the position of checking my own students' code for suspected plagiarism, often by comparing code from a large pool made from the current and past submissions. There are several tools that assist with this, such as Moss and JPlag.  I have experience with both these but there are others, and some that academics have made for themselves for local use.

It is quite possible, therefore, to get a match between a current student's submission and a previous student's submission without the lecturer or university knowing how that occurred. All they can do in this situation is to convene an investigation to determine the facts. Often these investigations are formal affairs, mainly to protect the interest of the students concerned and to ensure that the decision makers are impartial.

This is highly likely to be the position you are in. At the moment they do not know how another student came in possession of your code. If the investigation is organised properly you will be given the opportunity to explain your position, just as you did here. Most investigations should allow you to submit written and verbal statements. You should ensure you do this. I also suggest you seek advice from others who can assist you locally, such as a students union or student association or other student advisor. They will have assisted other students in the same position as you before and help you make the best of the procedure that you have become involved with.

Although it may not be your fault, at the moment the university does not know this. Help them to understand.


How to treat an under-performing coauthor?

You might simply consider that the current situation is fine: you say that you do get help from your collaborator, so there is little reason to stop working with him or her; you lead the collaboration and, for this, get first authorship. This will earn you much (well deserved) better opportunities; by comparison, your collaborator will have a hard time, because no recent first-author publications will look bad on his or her CV.

You might have wanted a more active collaborator, and it is a good idea to try to help him or her do better, but you just cannot push someone against their will. It is possible that he or she does not have what it takes to handle more core tasks, or that so he or she believes. In this case, pushing too hard would amount to cornering him or her into an impossible situation, no good would happen.

Learn to change what you can (e.g., if you have the option to start another collaboration with someone else it might be a very good idea; if you have another job available with potentially better co-worker, you might want to try it, etc.) and do with what you cannot change. Ultimately, you have the upper hand on your own work, and that is how it is supposed to be.

Ho, and about getting co-authorship in exchange for your work: no one is supposed to give you co-authorship in exchange for anything; you can rather be invited to work on a project, and then this work is what grants co-authorship. I am not sure how you meant it, but giving co-authorship as a mere reward for something unrelated to the publication is a serious academic misconduct.


This is quite possibly both US and CS-centric.

Negotiating raises as an academic is rather tricky. You don't have the same kind of leverage that you have in industry unless you are actually willing to go out there and acquire another offer. In fact, the only times I've heard of faculty getting non-scheduled raises (i.e tenure, or when everyone gets a raise) is by

Threatening to leave
Participating in senior administration work and negotiating a deal before signing on.

Having said that, you might be able to increase the raise you get relative to others when there's a general raise if you can argue that you're underpaid relative to your peer group, or have done exceptional quality work.


What is the key difference between the term "Research Gaps" and the terms "Literature Survey" or "Literature Review"?

The difference between "Literature review" and "Literature survey" is small, if it exists at all - people may use the two terms to mean the same thing. It has been discussed in this question.

A "research gap" is an area of research that has not yet been done. You may identify a research gap by doing a literature review or survey.


How PhD projects are acquired in pure mathematics

As mentioned by Buffy in the comments, you're unlikely to find an actual ratio to answer your question without gathering some data. However, it seems like your question is actually where your research project would come from as a PhD student in pure math.
The answer is quite simple: it depends on you and your advisor.

Have an idea for your project? Tell your advisor about it and get their feedback! A thesis project (or even a side project) needs to be both interesting and manageable within a restricted time frame. One of the main reasons you have an advisor is to learn how to ask interesting but manageable research questions. Your advisor's experience is a valuable resource for learning this skill.

Want your advisor to give you a project? Ask them about it! Some advisors have lots of project ideas and are happy to share them with their students. Other advisors will be more hesitant to give you a project -- I know some who think it is important for students to come up with their own questions.

Want to come up with your own project but don't know how? Tell your advisor and ask for advice! They will probably tell you to read lots of papers, listen to lots of talks, and ask lots of questions. You can tell them the ideas and questions you have, and then you can ask if any of the questions are interesting. Again, asking research questions is a skill that you need to develop.

A corollary of this discussion: don't just pick an advisor based on their research area or whether or not they're "famous." Every advisor has a different approach to research and mentoring, and you want to make sure that your advisor's style is compatible with your personal working style. If you don't like the idea of your advisor making you find your own question, or if you have your own idea for a research project that you want to pursue, then you should be sure to ask potential advisors about this before deciding to work with them.


Can a Guest Lecturer be my Referee?

Yes, they can. To determine if they are the best referee for a graduate application, try answering the following questions:

Can this person attest for my strong research potential? (Not just performance in coursework) (e.g. did you talk to them after lecture about ideas outside the scope of the course? Did they seem interested in discussion research-level topics with you?)
Will this person's name (or at least their University affiliation) be recognized by the admissions committee or by the professors whose groups you apply to?

If the guest lecturer satisfies one or both of those criteria, they could be a good choice. If they don't satisfy them, see if there is someone else who would satisfy them. It is still a trade-off here -- someone who knows you better is more likely to give a good letter than someone who does not know you as well. It may be that the guest lecturer is the best choice even if they do not satisfy these criteria, in the case that no one else really does either.


“making it look good”- is it always important?

A good-looking report will put me in the mindset that you took the assignment seriously, and aimed to turn in quality work. I think that counts for something, not nothing.

That said, if a report is just that – good looking, with little substance behind it – I will see through the façade very quickly, and all those superficial niceties might even count against you.

Assuming that's not the case, though, if two people turn in equally good work, yet one is formatted much more professionally than the other, that might earn an extra point or two – assuming I'm grading with some level of subjectivity, and not merely following a strict rubric. Shame on me, though, if I let mere appearance carry much more weight than that.

That all said, your classmates seem to be very shortsighted. Okay, maybe your extra effort will get you a 94 instead of a 93. Or maybe you'll just get a 93, with nothing more than a mental note that I thought your report looked really good. However, what you do in my classroom might – and perhaps should – extend far beyond my class. Presumably, you're in my class for an education, not merely for 3 or 4 credits. Get in the habit of turning in good work, and that might turn into something that translates into a valuable life skill.

One more thought: what's going to happen after you graduate, when all those folks from human resources ask you to include the names of three professors on your job applications?  One of them might well call me, and ask, “What do you remember about this guy?”

Perhaps I'll answer, “Oh, I remember him. He always turned in exceptional work.”

Those two sentences might prove to be worth far more than an extra point or two on an assignment.

Incidentally, I had one student bring her term project into a job interview. They hired her, largely based on what they saw in that class project. Just a couple weeks ago, another student asked if my name could be listed as a reference.

“I hope they call me,” I replied in my email. “I distinctly remember how your work always seemed to go above and beyond what everyone else was turning in.” Imagine how that will sound in the ear of a corporate recruiter who is sifting through a pile of job applications.

It's your call. It's also your future.


The solution will depend on what the survey respondents meant by "too authoritative". For example, it might mean any of the following:

your talk is pitched at too high a level, so people feel dumb when
they don't understand, and are too intimidated to ask questions
your style is argumentative
one or two people did ask questions, which you didn't answer clearly
your style is pompous
you sound overconfident
you state your opinions as fact
...and so on

I assume the survey was confidential, so you can't go back to people and ask them what they meant. So I suggest you ask a few colleagues who are good speakers what they think you need to improve on.

  My voice is very deep and, in order to project well, I tend to speak
  loudly (no microphones).

A deep (low-pitched, bass-y) voice projects farther than a high voice. You may simply be speaking too loudly for the room.


Is there a website that lists for a set of at least 1000 journals OpenAccess fees for publishing an article?

There is no comprehensive list.

Some partial lists are listed below: (please update when new are found)

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/scholarlycommunication/oa_fees.html


Regarding a PhD advisor rejecting student due to health problems

In most cases, discrimination on the basis of disability or illness is wrong and in many places it is also illegal.  This applies in places where PhD students are considered employees and in places where they are not.
However, there are certain exceptions.  If the disability makes it impossible or unreasonably costly for the student to conduct their duties, discrimination might be permitted.  If the student has a health problem that makes the research unsafe, then discrimination might be mandatory.


How to approach being accepted into PhD lab group verbally while explaining grades

(I see you are from New York) In the US, in most fields, it isn't typically possible for a professor to "admit" a student to a doctoral program and you must go through a process of application and evaluation. It is unlikely that such a process can be entirely bypassed, though having a sponsor can be helpful. You can ask them what your next steps should be.
Unless your field is an exception, you need to write a good application, including letters of recommendation that assure any evaluator of your potential for success.
Don't spend a lot of time apologizing for poor grades, but emphasize the positive. What is it that makes you a good candidate? Make sure you have letters that attest to that. Depending on possible regulations, this professor might be a letter writer.