It really depends, but more description would be helpful. For instance, if you're getting an NIH grant running a drug trial, then the system will be entirely different as if you're on another grant checking people's quality of life using questionnaires. A data set with 10,000 rows and 10,000 columns is definitely not considered as a big data set in today's data analysts' point of view. Of course, what exactly goes into the cell matters as well: coded responses like 1=male and 0=female versus thousands of genomic data inside one cell will mean a huge difference.

Assuming you're working on just collecting data in the level of questionnaires or clinical observation, I feel that general commercial software you mentioned (SPSS and MS products) should work.

  Data entry can be restricted to specified, plausible values for each
  variable (string, number, integer, value from 0-2, etc.) in order to
  minimize data entry errors.

Excel and SPSS are the wrong tools for that purpose but their related products like Access and SPSS Data Collection Data Entry do that. For freeware, CDC's EpiInfo can also do that.

  Double data entry checking (users enter the same data twice and the
  system flags discrepancies to minimize data entry errors).

The SPSS program and EpiInfo mentioned above do that. Even the SPSS base program can also do that. In fact, most statistical software have some of this capability. e.g. Stata compared file command (cf) and SAS command COMPARE, just to name a few.

  Data from different measures are entered in separate forms, but data
  can be easily merged by one or more matching columns

To me, this is more of a management and planning rather than system. As long as there is a well developed ID assignment scheme, most software can pull up and merge data pretty efficiently. I agree that SQL would be nice, and most software have some of SQL incorporated into it as well: Access, SAS PROC SQL, Stata odbc, R, etc.

I'd consider a good documentation trumps all on any day. If there is a clear linkage between data sets or tables, even Excel's VLOOKUP is an okay tool.

  Data can be easily imported into R

Packages like foreign, sas7bdat, and xlsReadWrite are readily available.

  Efficient to open and use

Efficient on what? Time or effort? Some of these software suggested have a steeper learning curve but eventually can be highly efficient (R, SAS) while some are more icon-based point-and-click (SPSS, Access) that are easier to pick up but eventually will become a bit slower if the users do not advance into the script-based interface (aka running SPSS and Access using scripts.)

  User friendly (undergrad RAs would be using it)

That depends on what your school is teaching the undergrads. But no matter what they know or what they claim they know, I still train everyone.

  Can interface to import data from other sources (iPad-entered data, website-entered data, physiological data, etc.)

For iPad you'd need to talk to the programmer (if you have one) to make sure the exported data can be read. For website-entered data (I'm assuming you mean something like Survey Monkey,) SPSS and Excel are still dominating. But both can be easily read by most statistical software. Physiological data are device specific, you may get comma separated, tab delimited, or even proprietary encoded data, you'll need to check with the device makers.

  Low (or no cost) and a one-time license that can be installed on an
  entire lab's worth of computers

I'd check if your institute has any site license agreement with the major software retailers and start from there. If no license agreement, then expand your search to educational discount agreement. A statistical software that is about US$2,000 can be bought at less than $200 if your institute has agreement with the retailer.

I like R (as a free stat software) but am other totally ignorant when it comes to free database or research management platform, can't help here.

  Platform independent (can be run on Mac & PC)

Then you probably want to avoid SAS unless you are willing to install Windows parallel onto your Mac. Most others mentioned in this answer can run fine on these operation systems (like Stata) or have separated versions for each system (like MS Office.)

If you're not sure what is a "good system," I'd suggest looking for general guidelines from data repository organizations. They often have guidelines like this one which delineate what are good enough data sets to be hosted by them.

Books on "data cleaning," "data management," and "work flow management" may also help you refine the system. The tools are important, but the rules of using them are a lot more crucial for a less frustrating data management experience.

And finally just a disclaimer, I don't have financial affiliation with any product that I mentioned in this answer.


Is time spent in data collection considered "contribution" in Academia?

I've been educated that the correct scientific theory and analysis are far more important than the data collection.

I disagree: Neither is more important.

In your example, the second paper may not have been possible without the first. Similarly, perhaps third, fourth, and fifth papers could be written given the first, maybe independently of each other and the second. In this scenario, paper one is more important, it provided the basis for future works. But, maybe the second group could have collected their own data, then paper one has less value.

It really depends on the circumstances, I don't think there's a general answer.


When citing a paper on arXiv, how important is the category?

The arXiv documentation page on "Understanding the arXiv identifier" contains the following sentence which directly answers my question:

"Note that the identifier no longer contains any classification information and thus reclassification after an article is announced is possible."


How to reply to your boss when your boss ask you whether your new subordinate is competent/ good to let the boss have a good impression of you?

Reply honestly, especially if the supervisor is in a position to help the student overcome any deficiencies. It is fine to give facts, such as the lateness issue. But don't give either overly-positive or overly-negative interpretations of the facts.
Your statement that they seem to take care in reading was the right approach. Saying that they were late would also be fine, especially if you also ask whether that should be expected generally.
But the question "is the student good" is pretty hard to answer, as most everyone has both good and, shall we say, less good aspects to their observed behavior.
Honest. Objective.


How do I approach a professor for research

I've advised nearly 30 Ph.D. students during my academic career as a professor. My advice to you is to be careful here. You've sent him a few emails, and you've received no response. Hopefully you attached your CV to those emails. If he is looking for someone to join his research group and he thought you were an exciting candidate, he should have responded to one of your emails by now (or maybe he still will). Given that you are already in the program, he really should either invite you to meet with him or else let you know that he doesn't have an opportunity for you. Given his lack of responsiveness, maybe he isn't a very good choice as a research advisor in any event.


What to do if I am on a hiring committee and I am aware that a candidate has exhibited unethical behavior in his previous position?

If you're on the hiring committee, then your job is to evaluate the candidates.  I see no need to back away from that (and by the way, I can't see what your being a "foreigner" could possibly have to do with any of this).

One has to exercise some restraint in repeating "hearsay" in official matters: unless you can find evidence about the changed research, I would hesitate to bring it up because it's hard for everyone else to independently evaluate.  On the other hand, if you are a coauthor of a paper with the candidate in question, then your colleagues should be very interested to hear your take on that.  I think you should certainly describe the candidate's contributions -- or lack thereof -- honestly to your colleagues.  I might avoid putting the banner of "unethical behavior" on it: the ethics of it are really for your colleagues to evaluate as well, right?  In general I think that in these kinds of matters it is more collegial and also more convincing to provide information which is factual rather than subjective or purely evaluative.

There is also the issue of why you, as the first author of a paper, allowed a coauthor whom you feel did absolutely nothing.  Isn't that at least arguably unethical behavior on your part?  I think it's better not to open that can of worms, but rather say that in fact the candidate's contribution to the joint work was minimal and that you do not feel like he should get much credit for it.


How can I find out a researcher's current affiliation?

If contact details of a specific student/postdoc are hard to find, contact details of the supervisor or group leader are likely much easier to find, and you can always politely ask him or her as to the whereabouts of the student/postdoc.


Is it considered academic misconduct as a tutor to help your student with homework that is for marks?

It is unethical to do their work for them. It is certainly ethical to teach them how to do their work. But somewhere in between those is a dividing line so it takes some finesse.
Ideally, as a professor, when a student asks for help on an assignment, I'll try to determine why they have a block that is holding them back and then try to clear that block with some minimal hint that lets them have an insight. Of course, this requires a back and forth conversation to discover what they have tried and why they have taken the approach they have done. It also assumes that they have made some initial effort before you start.
For a tutor, especially one who could be in contact with the professor, it is actually easier than for the professor or a TA, since the scale is 1-1, rather than many-1. A professor may not have time to follow through with each needy student according to the ideal.
But, as long as you stay focused on the learning and unblocking then you should be fine.


Conflict with conference Program Committee

First of all, I don't think there is a "conflict" as long as you don't make this one - and you really shouldn't, as there really is no indication of unethical behavior on their side.

Let's go over your questions.

  Is it normal PC members to ask you change the review score when the review does not vary significantly from the others? I never heard such a thing, even in personal cases where was a large deviation between reviewers.

In many conferences, there is a PC or reviewer discussion phase wherein, after everybody has formed her or his independent impression, these impressions are compared and discussed in one way or another. Optimally, there is physical PC meeting where borderline papers are discussed, but often a mail or forum discussion will do. "Amount of deviation" is not really the right metric to decide whether a reviewer discussion will make sense, but rather whether the paper is borderline or not. There is no point in discussing whether a "Weak Accept" should be a "Strong Accept" if everybody else voted for "Strong Accept", given that the paper will likely be accepted anyway. Similarly, there is little incentive to discuss a "Weak Accept" if everybody else voted "Reject" - the paper is likely dead. For a good conference, "Borderline", "Weak Accept", and "Accept" may just put the paper on the brink where it's not entirely clear on which side it will fall.

  Since my review was virtually the same to the one of the 3rd reviewer, wouldn't it be more fair if all other parties were involved in that exchange? Maybe the 3rd reviewer would have change the score to "0" after reading my response. Why this process should involve only me?

This is a good question, and in fact I think that the model of chairs communicating 1-on-1 with the reviewers is fairly ineffective (as compared to a reviewer forum, for example), although I know a few conferences that handle things like that. That being said, it makes sense to contact the person with the "lowest" rating first. Also, you don't know whether they have also contacted the other reviewers to take your review into account.

  I responded by noting the above and by standing by my initial decision and score because I really felt it did not deserve anything more than "0".
  Do you think my response was appropriate, given the circumstances? Was there any other way that I could have handled the issue?

Sure, your answer was completely ok. Note that, as said initially, you don't have a "conflict" now with the chairs - they asked whether you think your review was too negative given the additional information of the other reviews, and you said no. That's a completely valid discussion to have, and no side acted in bad faith here. From my point of view, there is no "issue to handle", just a conversation that you will have many times over as part of the peer review process.

The only thing that might be inappropriate (depending on phrasing) was noting that it was unfair that they contacted you rather than the 3rd reviewer. As said, this is probably a mail that they also sent in similar form to 2 dozen other reviewers, and they may not quite understand what the problem is. It's not like being asked whether you want to change your rating is a personal insult.

  I think it's responsibility of the PC to have valid arguments for acceptance. Is it ethical to put mild pressure on the reviewer to do their (the PC's) job of accepting/rejecting manuscripts? My job was to provide an honest opinion, which I did. My job is not to push a paper for acceptance because the PC run out of valid arguments.

I think you are overthinking this. I don't ready any pressure at all from the mailing you copied, and I have received similar mails many times over. Sometimes I changed my mind, sometimes I didn't. You provided an honest opinion, and they gave you some more info and asked whether your opinion still stands. I really don't see much agenda behind this.


I submitted the correct essay in an exam, but I did not remove my draft outline at the beginning of the essay. Is it going be a problem?

Probably not.
But there is really only one person that knows for sure: the professor in question. So, as Mark Meckes already mentioned in the comments, send them a message, explain that you forgot to remove the draft outline at the beginning of your essay and ask them to ignore that part, and to exclude it from the word count limit if applicable.
Be aware that you might not get a response if the professor is busy, which doesn't mean there is a problem.


I am an editor for a lousy paper and I found a better algorithm than theirs. Must I share it with them?

I think you are treading on thin ice, ethically speaking. Obviously you, as an editor, have no obligation to help the authors in any specific way, and you are free to tell them about your improvement or not, but rejecting their paper, taking the idea/problem, applying a different method to its resolution, and then publishing this under your own name seems problematic.

As an editor, you are usually expected to treat the papers you are handling as privileged information, and you are specifically expected to not use your knowledge of rejected papers to scoop the authors - which is exactly what you plan to do. Say you reject the paper with comments along the line "important problem, solution is too simplistic". The authors now go back to the drawing board, come up with a solution similar to what you had in mind, and get their paper accepted. If you publish your idea first they obviously can't do this anymore - you have effectively made use of knowledge you learned as an editor to pull the rug from under the people who initially thought of the research project, even if they did not do a great job with the first submission.

I understand that it sucks that if you told them about your idea you would be giving away information that, in different circumstances, may be sufficient for co-authorship. However, I would argue, as a reviewer / editor we sign up for helping the authors "for free" to some extent (that is, without expecting recognition).

If you really don't want to tell the authors about your idea your best hope is that the authors get their work accepted somewhere else. In that case you are free to write your follow-up paper and cite the original paper.


I love pure math but detest teaching. What non-academic options do I have after finishing a PhD in Complex Algebraic Geometry?

It might be too early for you to claim you detest teaching and believe this could remain for the rest of your life. Teaching  does not only consist in "repeating and repeating again", and after a while you can find interest in teaching. Especially if you try novel ideas with your best students.

Part-time teaching can be an interesting way to stick to your field of interest, while doing something else.

Then,  it is unlikely that you get paid for a very focused topic outside academia. Meanwhile, there exists a belief, summarized by E. Wigner in:

  The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences

Many people outside academia have some fear of mathematics. Yet, it has found many applications. And those people need some fellow that master black magic. Topology has found applications in data science, algebraic geometry has potentials in cryptography or computer, and possibly other domains:

What are some applications outside of mathematics for algebraic geometry?
“Real”-life applications of algebraic geometry

So why not invest time in applied sides, while keeping connexity to mathematics, at least closer that with dealing with white powder (I mean flour for bread of course)?

Finally, in some countries (like France), there exist research  institutions where teaching is not mandatory (CNRS, INRIA). You could apply there, say for a post-doc position, and see what happens.


The right thing to do when plan to include an image from another article is to first ask for the permission from the corresponding author of the article. If approved, you may include the image and cite them along with the lines after the caption

  Included with permission from [citeno].

General citation would only allow you to refer information in literature. Any form of replication whether it is an image or even a set of sentences of text is not permitted without acknowledgement from the authors of the published material to be referred. The exception is for quotes and equations (with appropriate citations). That doesn't forbid you to use the text at all. It means that you ought to rephrase the information referred in you own words.


Do Universities make fully-remote contracts?

No doubt there is someone, somewhere, who has a fully-remote contract from a university. However, it is not something I have ever encountered, and I think it is inherently unlikely to be something any traditional university wishes to offer in the near future. A university's 'business model' is built around advertising that their campus is a better place to be than the competition's (because libraries, or labs, or equipment, or people, or sports, or...). Advertising 'fully remote' jobs would simply serve to undermine that message. In addition, having remote (and particularly overseas-remote) employees creates administrative and legal concerns that universities are not well-placed to manage.


Quitting physics master's degree for another physics MSc. degree due to family/financial-health reasons

Moving between different BSc/MSc programs, at least within Europe, shouldn't be seen as a problem: After all, one key point of the whole Bologna process (ECTS points etc.) was to make it easier to switch between different places in the course of your studies.  (Whether this worked is a different question, but at least, that's the philosophy behind.) So in fact, when you change programs you should not have to start all over again, but be able to (at least partly) use the credits you earned.  (This might speak in favor of trying to take the exams in the next weeks, or possibly postpone them due to the arguments given, rather than just dropping the courses altogether - given that many exams are online these days, this might be feasible.)


What's the point in appending your CV to your Master's thesis?

At the University of Vienna, it has been forbidden to add a CV to master's or PhD theses since 2016 (see e. g. here: http://web.archive.org/web/20170415151405/https://ssc-lebenswissenschaften.univie.ac.at/formulare-und-infoblaetter-download/diplom-und-masterstudium/).

Internationally, I have seen this practice very often, though I cannot see a clear advantage of it (I think most people would prefer not to look through a long thesis to find a CV, but would rather look for it on your homepage).


Is it true that M.Eng. is considered an undergraduate degree in the UK? If so, why?

It is considered an undergraduate degree because no degree is required in order to start the degree. Undergraduate masters degrees are increasingly common in the UK, due to the funding system. Postgraduate taught degrees are not currently eligible for government funding, so an integrated masters degree is often the cheapest route to a masters degree.

The integrated MEng degree developed early, since an accredited masters is a requirement to become a chartered engineer in the UK. Such courses, at least in theory, include the content of a bachelors degree, plus the content of a standalone postgraduate masters degree, often with an option to abandon early and receive a bachelor's degree. PhDs, MScs and MPhils almost invariably require a degree as an entry requirement, hence they are postgraduate degrees.


You can think of your thesis as a preprint. Thus, you can extract manuscripts from it and publish them. This is essentially how arXiv works.


Keeping email records when moving between posts

You can use a permanent account while still having the emails sent to your official address.  I do this by getting gmail to check my university email accounts for me (Settings > Accounts > Check email from other accounts).  I am then able to reply to those emails directly in gmail, while having them appear to come from my university address (there is an option to always reply from the same address to which the email was sent).

I'm not sure whether this solution can be any use for the emails you have already received (you may be able to use it, if you can for example mark all your emails as unread, so that gmail maybe sees them as new), but it might be worth starting now to reduce future hassle.


Unless you are presenting a paper at a conference, there isn't much advantage for your résumé. From a professional and educational perspective, however, conferences can be very informative, for the reasons Peter outlines.

I would go a little bit further than Peter, however, and recommend that, if possible, you try to attend multiple conferences per year, particularly if you are relatively early on in your career. At least one should be a relatively large meeting, where you can make many contacts in your general field; and one, if possible, should be a smaller meeting or workshop, where you can interact with your peers in your specific field. That way, you get the benefits of learning about the overall field—which is important for networking and job-finding, as well as the close-up exposure to work related to your own.


How much time is typically spent reading reference letters?

When I was on the graduate admissions committee, for each application that I personally read, I would read all three reference letters.  In general I would do this about as quickly as my reading speed allowed.  If there was something especially notable in a letter, I would either mark it down or orally call my colleagues' attention to it.  In a substantial minority of cases I would look up the writer on the internet and get a sense of their academic profile.

I estimate that the average amount of time I spent on the "first run" through a single application is about 6-10 minutes.  For the majority of the applications, a first run is sufficient.  But then when we get down to ranking the candidates in any group that could potentially get admitted, we go back and reread the applications as seriously as is required to make the rankings.  This could conceivably involve comparing one letter to another.  Relevant passages may get read out loud which takes...as long as it takes.

A well written graduate letter is not a subtle or difficult piece of writing: it makes a clear recommendation and lays out the evidence in a way which is apparent on a rather quick reading.  As a rule of thumb, if I felt the need to spend much more than ten minutes on any single letter, I would consider contacting the writer directly and asking for more information and/or a clarification.


Is it possible to remove an author's name after publication?

All journals that I've come across require the submitting author to certify that all authors have consented to publication. I would think that therefore if an author gets in touch with the publisher to indicate they have not given consent, the publisher would be forced not only to withdraw the paper, but also instigate investigations into misconduct.


Is it unusual to get an informal offer before any recommendation letters have arrived?

Hiring for a limited-term position like a postdoc is a much lighter decision than making a tenure-track offer.  Often, there is an urgency to the hiring as well, as many postdocs are tied to specific contracts with specific tasks that need to be executed on a fast time-frame.  As a result, "ordinary" postdoc hiring can sometimes run a lot more like corporate hiring than academic hiring: a fast process where it's more about the person's ability to fill defined responsibilities and less about their long-term potential as a researcher.  In a case like this, references are still important, but are more like a corporate hire, where they are confirming the candidate is what they appear to be, rather than causing them to be noticed in the first place.

It sounds like this is the case for your acquaintance.  That's great, if the position is one that they want.  Nothing is certain, however, until the offer is in hand: just as easily as an informal offer can be extended, so can it be retracted if the circumstances change.


How to structure presentation to avoid getting questions that will be answered later in the presentation?

I'm constantly being asked questions that will be answered later in the slides.

You have to understand that this is a great problem to have. There is nothing worse than giving a presentation and facing a bunch of blank stares. Questions mean that

People actually understand what you're talking about.
They care enough about your idea to actually ask.
The problem you're explaining is not trivial.
You actually have an answer to the question - later in the slides!

You mention both conference talks and lab talks. In the first case you need to be a bit more prompt (always respect the time assigned to you in a conference, you're not alone and you'll put everyone in an awkward position if you go over time): just say "this is a great question, can we wait for the next slides?" or "can we take it offline?". I have yet to have seen anyone respond to this by insisting that you answer them right now.

  But there are sooo many questions being constantly asked and it completely throws off the presentation because constant tangents are being drawn and one person's question confuses another person.

This is less a problem of structure than a problem of you not controlling the discussion. If there are many questions and people start discussing amongst themselves you need to take command of the room - say, "it's great that we're having this discussion, but I'd really like to move forward!", or something to that effect.

I believe that neither of your approaches (if I understand them correctly) is as effective as it can be. In conference presentations you need to focus on one big idea and explain it well - the objective of the presentation is to get people to read (and cite) your amazing new paper. Avoid giving broad overviews, and getting into every little detail. The audience needs to know why they should spend time reading your paper, and that's it.

In lab presentations make sure that the group knows what the big plan for today is. If there is a constructive discussion that's great. Tell them in the beginning the big points and then try to cover everything else. Give references to stuff you didn't cover so that the group knows where to look for things that weren't covered in the presentation.

Good luck!


Does applying for FAFSA make a school less likely to offer you funding?

You should not worry about this. First of all you have already applied and usually you are not supposed to add any additional documents to your application. Secondly these information are separate so I doubt one will influence the other. And I wouldn't want to go to a program where they make you pay more to save money.


Transfering between graduate programs at the same university

Programme transfers are pretty common and most modern universities have established procedures in place to allow this to happen. At my university -- a research-intensive one in the UK -- this would only be allowed if you meet the following conditions. For the sake of clarity, I will call the programme from which you wish to transfer programme A and the programme into which you wish to transfer programme B.

You meet the entry criteria of programme B. In most cases in which programmes A and B are related, this is not a problem. The greater the difference, the smaller the likelihood that these criteria will be met. The most common cause of grief in our experience is potentially different English language thresholds. For example, programme A might have an IELTS requirement of 6.5 while programme B might require IELTS 7.0.
You have no outstanding incomplete requirements in programme B.
The programme director of programme B is willing to release you. This is relatively easy because most programme directors have no desire to keep anyone who doesn't want to be there.
The programme director of programme A is willing to accept you. The programme director will want to review your academic qualifications and performance. This review may involve an interview or skills demonstration. For example, you might need to demonstrate facility with a piece of lab instrumentation or software.

If you meet all four criteria, then the question becomes about inter-programme credits. Depending on the coverage of the taught components of programme A and its overlap with programme B, you may be asked to take courses to make up the taught credit load for programme B.

Finally, you will be asked to choose an academic supervisor who will oversee the research component of your degree.

If you want to transfer out of a programme, I suggest that you do so now. Unlike PhD programmes, master's degrees are churn out students at a much faster pace. Thus, the academic supervisor you have in your original programme isn't likely to have developed a strong working relationship with you. I wouldn't overthink the issue that you are inconveniencing him or her much. This happens quite often and is the reason that policies are in place.

Finally, if you are professional about your reasons for departure and your approach to the process, there is no reason why you will be "blacklisted", should you then try for a PhD or post-doc position in your original programme.

Good luck to you.


How to prepare for long-term dissertation fieldwork?

The most relevant advice (about the research, not life in the field) I can give is to keep on top of the analysis as the data comes in, and do not stockpile data in the hope that you can make sense of it when you're home. Analysis will reveal gaps and problems, which you need to address before you go away. Though if you're stuck with a rigid methodology where everything has to be set up before you go and then you just grind through the questionnaire, then you have my sympathies.


What is the difference between a "I" or "II" after a job title?

In a job title, "I" or "II" usually denotes the level of experience.  You will also see "assistant", "senior" and similar adjectives used.  The idea is that employees can be hired at one of several levels of experience and that employees can advance through these levels as they gain experience.

Someone hired as a "Analyst I" may be promoted to a "Analyst II" after some number of years.  Sometimes these kinds of job titles also have additional educational requirements (such as an advanced degree or certification) for the higher levels.  Typically there are different pay ranges that apply to employees as they advance through the classifications.

The definitions of the different levels will vary from one employer to another so there's really nothing more specific that we can say in answer to this question- you'll have to check the definitions used by your employer to see what the requirements are for each level.


Postdoc that refuses to follow the terms of her contract

Your additional information that you put under the comment section and I think it should be placed in Question also, is that post-doc is paid for by the University, not paid by you/from your grant. So you are not PR, you are an advisor.
Nick S, pointed out something that is not specific for mathematics, also physics, material science, applied science, engineering and some types of medicine (biomedicine), I will quote him

  a Postdoc position is supposed to be the time when the researcher
  starts working independently. I don't know how it is in your field,
  but for me a postdoc wanting to work independently would be a good
  postdoc.

Dan Fox also pointed out very common thing

  A postdoctoral supervisor's primary responsibility is to help the postdoc develop into an independent researcher, if the postdoc is not already an independent researcher. The notion that a postdoc should just take orders and be another cog in a big machine is sad. So is the notion that a postdoc who independently obtains interesting results should add the nomical supervisor as a coauthor.

At my university, it is explicitly written in contract that mentor/advisor needs to be the corresponding author of a paper from a postdoc.
I am aware that some contracts don't have this clause, and they can be purely independent.
However, if this is the case with her contract, you should stop giving her any resources. If she is not dependable on your resources and still yields some kind of results that are publishable, I am sorry to tell you this, but according to info that you provided in your question, she is in the right.

You need to report progress as it is to head and to above you body.
You need to be honest with people that are above you that you don't have any control over her and that you don't know direction of her investigation. Does she know you need to write a report about her progress? I think if she knew that she was evaluated, she would tell you how far in research and what she is doing now.
Again you should be more precise about the content of her contract.
As far as I know, contracts with universities are very liberal and give a lot of freedom to the postdoc.


Is it worth to do PhD in machine learning/statistics for work in industry?

You can answer this question better than almost anyone, because you already know what you need for your work in industry.

I suggest paying close attention to your work environment and thinking about questions such as:

For what you're currently doing, will having a PhD in machine learning / statistics help?
For your job, will having a PhD allow you to do something else (preferably something more advanced, more technical, and commands higher pay)?
Do you have any colleagues with a PhD? If so, are they more effective workers than you because of superior knowledge about ML/statistics? Do they get different responsibilities that you find attractive? Do they get offered those responsibilities (instead of you) because they're more capable than you? Because they know more than you? Because they have PhDs and you don't?
How much more can you reasonably expect to earn if you have a PhD?

The comparison is easiest if you have colleagues with PhDs, because the most obvious result of you acquiring a PhD is that you become like them in terms of job responsibilities, pay, etc. Even if you don't have colleagues with PhDs however, you can still draw conclusions. For example, if you look at the problem you're currently solving and think, "boy, I can do this so much better if I just understood this algorithm" then that's a sign that a PhD can be helpful. Your current supervisor is someone else whom you can discuss your long-term goals with. Who knows - maybe for the problem you're currently working on, your competitors have people who understand the algorithm and that's why they're gaining market share. In that case your supervisor might actively encourage you to try for it.

tl; dr: use your knowledge of the local industry and job market to figure out what jobs you're likely to be doing if you get a PhD, then decide if you want to do those jobs enough to commit to doing a PhD.


Do I have the legal right to demand information on plagiarism of my work from another university?

In my opinion, what seems to have gone wrong is that the examination office employees do not have an interest in pursuing this issue. After all, the student having handed in your thesis may sue the university if the thesis gets rejected. After the degree has already been awarded to the student, it is quite difficult to retract the degree. This is probably why they asked for an official translation. By the way, the examination office does not rate or examine anything - they are concerned with the administrative processes of examinations, and are thus probably unable to deal with this issue correctly. They might have felt that they need to deal with this issue, though, which is why they asked you to provide an official translation. As you wrote, you shouldn't be expected to pay for this.

As a suggestion, you may want to consider contacting researchers at the university directly. Point of contact number one should probably be the advisor of plagiarizing student. Other points of contact may be the secondary examiner, or the dean of studies. Provide them with bibliographical information about your thesis and a PDF of your thesis. At larger universities, there may probably be Russian PhD students that they can ask for a first look. In the east of Germany, it is not entirely uncommon that older professors can read Russian themselves. Once they have some indication that your accusation may be correct, they are likely to arrange for a closer check.


Discussing Related Work: Use of the phrase 'the authors'

It sounds like you have a sensible reason why you shouldn't just replace the phrase "the authors" with the names, without making any other edits.  Introducing the names abruptly would read strangely if it happens several paragraphs into the discussion, since it wouldn't be clear who these people are.

You can solve this problem by introducing the names earlier.  Instead of opening with "In [1] a system is described...", you could use "Jones and Smith [1] developed a system..." or another variant.

There are several advantages to this:

It provides more context for readers.  In particular, it's easier to recognize the names Jones and Smith than a reference like [1], so readers who have heard of this work before can catch on more quickly without having to flip to the references.
It is more generous in offering credit to the authors.  Too much use of the passive voice and phrases like "the authors" could even look like you are going out of your way to avoid naming them.  (I don't think most people would be upset about that, but it could be an issue if the authors are particularly touchy.  I've occasionally known people who were irritated by how they were cited in situations that seemed innocuous to me.)

You may have to edit a bit more to make this work, but it shouldn't require big changes.

One general principle here is that when you have to edit something in a paper, you shouldn't restrict yourself to making only local changes.  Sometimes you can't really fix it without further changes or rearrangement.


How to cite a paper as shortened first author name and year [Ste2002]?

There's an easier LaTeX solution (compared to another answer):

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\section{First section}

First statement \cite{gascuel97}, and a second statement \cite{sokal58}.

\bibliographystyle{alpha}  %Sets [Ste2002] bibligraphy style
\bibliography{sample}      %Imports bibliography file

\end{document}


What to report as impact factor for a journal that had one the year I submitted my manuscript, but not in the year of publication?

Quick answer: the safest is to give the IF followed by the closest year of estimation: IF 3.5 (2013). The wisest is to understand why the journal does not have an IF for 2014: did it change its name, was it withdrawn from the JCR (journal citation report)?

Impact factors for one year can be available after a few months.  You can mention other sources like Scimago, that may have other figures (eigenfactor, etc).


Is it ethical to send my research proposal to a potential supervisor, when another professor has accepted to be my supervisor?

Any person could change his mind about everything: universities, supervisors, jobs, etc... The important thing is to be clear, honest and understand the possible consequences.

I'm supposing that, at this moment, you didn't formally signed any document indicating the first professor as your supervisor. In this case, you could tell what is going on and indicate that will continue your conversations with both and make your final decision in the next days as they are very qualified and would be great supervisors. And reassure that you are doing your best to be ready for September, tests and all paperwork, as probably both have the same deadlines.

Personally, I talked with three professors till I made my decision. I asked about possible projects and how I could fit in their research groups; read papers on their current work and talked with other PhD students about supervising styles, lab facilities, etc... to make an informed decision.

If you already formally indicated one professor as your supervisor then check the rules.


My biggest piece of advice is set expectations from day one and then work with them very very closely until you feel like they have "taken off" and are also on the same page.  It is such a short amount of time that you may have to have them do some shadowing to get them on board as soon as possible.

The worst thing you can do is tell them to do things, not get what you expect, then in week three you have gone no where, you are frustrated, they are frustrated, and then they are gone before you know it.


Number of months a year that faculty get paid in UK and Australia?

In the UK, you get paid 12 months a year. I'm not actually aware of any other country that uses the US 9-month system.


Advisor walked in while I was complaining about her; How can I minimize the damage to our relationship?

From what you have said, I am not sure even if she heard you. All you need to do for now is to STOP this attitude. You will never find a perfect supervisor... Yes, you can talk with a friend about how difficult your life is with this supervisor. But this should be out of the lab and avoid -- as much as you can -- other students with the same supervisor.

Show her that you value her research and expertise (in case you don't value her research, then find another supervisor).
Do not talk about anything happened unless she started the talk.

I completely disagree with @Penguin_Knight on the gift thing. Being so nice in a typical meeting indicates something weird is happening. Do not do it. (I believe this is a cultural thing some people may see it really good others will think about it in a very bad context.)


Do professors benefit from undergraduate research?

As you suggest in your question, this likely will vary from both field to field, and from lab to lab. In the two research labs I've worked in, one engineering and one neuroscience, undergraduates did a tremendous amount of useful work. In engineering, they would help with circuit design and fabrication, as well as doing background research and presenting their findings to the group as a whole. In the neuroscience lab, they would do cellular recordings and prepare cell cultures, as well as participate in paper writing.

In both cases, the undergraduates benefitted tremendously from the experience in a number of ways; they experienced the life of a researcher, they got to perform actual research work, they published articles and conference papers, and they received excellent letters of recommendation. The lab also benefitted, in that they had a (most of the time) highly motivated student who was interested in doing work performing research, the grad students/professors had more time either prepare other experiments or write papers, and all the benefits of simply having someone else around to bounce ideas off of. All in all, if the lab is organized enough to handle the logistics of providing the students with regular (non-busywork) tasks to perform, it's a win-win situation for everyone.


There are a bunch of software to do this. First, check with your institution because they might already have one. This can totally depend on where you are but in the US, Canvas is very popular, but I believe you need institution or individual subscription for that. Google classroom is another cool solution which is free of cost. Both these are good and kind of widespread. Other than these there are countless number of software that you can find, and they all have their pros and cons.


What is OK and what is wise may not be the same thing. I doubt that this would be wise. Instead, I'd list it as "in preparation" if you intend to revise and submit elsewhere. Showing work in progress is a good thing and forward looking. Being rejected is less of a good thing, and also backward looking.


Taking PhD course with potential advisor?

It is certainly worthwhile to get to know your potential advisor, and get noticed back. Taking the course might help you explore common interests, even hint at potential thesis thema.
Taking a more advanced course can get you faster to the bleeding edge where your thesis will presumably move, if it is primarily in the area. Then again, you'll soon have to move beyond coursework. Perhaps somebody teaching the other courses is a better match?
Knowing nothing about your background, the involved courses, your interests and the ones of potential advisors, it is impossible to give real advise.


How can one know if some of the content presented by a paper is protected by a patent?

Patent law varies a lot by place, of course. But patents are specifically not secret information. Nothing in US law, I'm pretty certain, would prevent anyone from talking about a patent or its contents. You can't implement it, of course, without a license, but words are free.

Don't confuse patent with copyright. The latter protects words, the former protects inventions. You can't operationalize the algorithm in a software patent, but some representation of the algorithm is actually part of the patent.

For that reason, you aren't abetting the breaking of a law by writing about it. Anyone who reads the patent can see the descriptions.

However, if you are actually building things then you can run afoul of patent law since it isn't words, then. You are implementing the "invention" described in the patent. This is why patent lawyers earn more than you or I do.

Depending on your location, that may be different.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_infringement


When does self-citation become citation padding?

I think this is easier to think about if we drop the "self" qualification.

  When does citation become citation padding?

After all, people will also gratuitously cite colleagues ("I'll scratch your back so you'll hopefully also scratch mine") or likely reviewers. And I'd say that the criteria for self-citations should not be any different than for other-citation. Why should they?

That said, I stumbled over this part of the question:

  some amount of self-citation is appropriate (and usually necessary) to provide an indication of what one has done in a field

As José comments, this is incorrect. A citation is not there to show what someone (the author himself or someone else) has done in a field. It's there to give context to the new work, to show what has already been done and how the new work relates to prior art. The causal arrow goes from the work to the author, not the other way around.

(Of course, this is contingent on this question being about an article. In a grant application, you need to self-cite to establish that you know what you are talking about. And if you are writing an editorial to celebrate Professor X's fifty years in a field, you will of course cite his work to show what he has done over his career.)

So the question should be: does this citation provide relevant context to the new work? Who the cited authors are should ideally be immaterial. In your example, it would probably make sense to cite the original derivation of the results. And possibly other applications of such results that were similar to the new applications reported on in the present paper, similar enough to be helpful to the reader.

The problem is of course that "relevant" is subjective, field- and situation-dependent. One field may require a lot more context to make sense of a new piece of work than another one. A review article written in a general interest journal will need more background than a submission to a highly specialized journal whose readership can reasonably be assumed to already have a lot of background. And even then, one reviewer may prefer you to give more background, the other to focus on the closest related work.

And all of these factors apply equally well to self-citations and to other-citations. You will usually work in one direction across multiple publications, after all, and so your previous publications will often indeed be relevant for later ones... just as previous publications of people you collaborate with (because you collaborate with people with similar research interests) and of likely reviewers (because reviewers of course should have worked in this field - otherwise, why have them as reviewers?). So a somewhat higher proportion of self-citations, collaborator-citations and likely-reviewer-citations than of other-citations are to be expected, even without any conscious padding going on.

Reviewers and editors will need to make choices and draw lines to curb excesses, in line with the field's and the journal's conventions and expectations. In case of doubt, you can always ask the author to clarify the relationship of the reference to Foo & Bar (2015) to the present work, or to "consider removing the reference in the interest of brevity".


This answer is based purely on my own experience -

I applied for a job a few months ago, and had recently completed a MOOC relating to an aspect of the project that I did not need to be qualified for, but demonstrated I had an interest in that area.  Rather than add it to my CV, I mentioned it in the covering letter.
Personally, I wouldn't want to clutter the academic CV too much or detract from my main qualifications - I wouldn't put it under the Academic Qualifications section for instance. However, I sometimes include a section at the end of the CV entitled 'Workshops and Classes Attended' which I tailor to include things that are relevant to a particular role, so I might put a MOOC there if it related to a position I was applying for.


How fast is the admission procedure for single-slot PhD applications in top universities in the UK?

It can depend on the time of year. At my old UK university,the standard PhD admissions process would take over a month. If the timing worked out, we would generally lump single slot applications in with everyone else so that interviews and decisions happened at the same time. If the timing did not work, we would do them individually. This meant it was really down to how fast the PI wanted things to go. The PI would do all the leg work, screening, and interviewing, and then put a single candidate forward to the admissions committee. A week would generally be very quick, but a month would be on the long side.


How to cite/credit a photograph using Turabian?

Would the Turabian Tip Sheet on Figures & Captions be of help?
The pattern is:
Figure {Number}. {Description of the picture}. Photograph by {Name}, {Date}. {Source}. {ID}.
The example provided by the tip sheet is:

Figure 3.1. Helpers in a Georgia Cotton Mill. Photograph by Lewis W. Hine, January 19, 1909. The National Child Labor Committee Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. LC-DIG-nclc-01581.

No footnote and no bibliographic entry is needed.


Why do so few universities offer OpenCourseWare videos of their lessons?

Making an OpenCourseWare course isn't as simple as getting a team of kids with videocameras and uploading the course onto YouTube. There is a surprisingly high standard that the Professor and the University attempts to meet when they prepare a course to be deposited onto OpenCourseWare.

Stanford had built entire classrooms for the purpose of sharing online classes. Many of them have 3-4 cameras controlled by two operators while another is entirely responsible for the sound. Classes that require a balance between boardwork, slides, and discussion require a very well-trained team of videographers to recognize what they are supposed to be looking at without breaking the rhythm of the course and capturing the intent of the lecturer.

Ask any Professor how prepared their lectures are. Despite how absent-minded most professors seem, there is a large amount of practice and slidology behind each lecture. OCW adds a whole other layer to preparation since the course actually has to run on schedule and conclude with the course completed. The materials used require additional thought since OCW is limited to only a single camera. Look at some of Yale's early OTC courses; the professor will make references to a figure and the camera will be focused on his gestures rather than the actual information that they are trying to portray.

Lastly online courses are extremely expensive and don't truly make the return on investment as one would imagine. For instance, Utah State was forced to end their OpenCourseWare initiative.


Applying to PhD programs when you have two research interests

I'm not sure how to go about this when I have two distinctly different areas that I'm very interested in

A PhD research project is judged on many attributes, one of which is if it has a single focused reasonable, scientifically interesting and unique research question or null hypothesis that can be studied/test.

You seem to have a problem identifying between two of your interests. This is quite common, scholars always have a number of interests and choosing one among them could be daunting and anxiety inducing, but the simple fact is that it is better to take control of the situation and decide between one of them, lest other external factors decide that for you with you having no say.

Also, please mind that it is not just your interest that decides your research project, but a myriad of factors such as your guide's and the research group/department's own long-running interests, laboratory facilities, your long term plan (how will your PhD help you in your career), etc. Please look at the topic again against other factors you might have ignored - you will find that your two topics are not equally attractive.

If you still can't, you could probably identify two guides and write two research proposals. The quality of each may suffer since you will divide your attention between them. But you might have postponed your decision crisis.

  When my past professors ask me for my research interests I want to mention both of these

Guides usually will prefer their PhD candidates to be utterly loyal to their one research project - fidelity will ensure that the project has your undivided attention. Having two interests is not wrong in any way, but might be less appealing to a Guide. You may want to downplay the other interests.


Another student used my completed work, what should I do?

If I understand correctly, the other student took the class after you took it, so it's clear that she cheated from you, not vice versa. I suspect they merely want to talk to you to find out exactly what happened. You are probably not in any trouble, unless there is a school policy against sharing old assignments, or the professor asked students not to do this, or you knew that she would have the same assignment when she took the class. So I would simply answer any questions they have, and explain why you did what you did.


Can I use a graph or figures of a paywalled paper under fair use?

Whether the articles were paywalled or not, you should resolve your problem in three steps:

Content license: check if you can find a version of the figure with liberal licensing terms. The paywalled version certainly does not fit the bill… but you may find the same figure (or a similar one) in a pre-print version of the paper, under a different license.

Obtaining permission for use: even if the content is not available under a free license, the publisher can grant you permission to reproduce the image. Nowadays, many publishers use a nice interface called Rightslink. If you look for example at this random article from the American Chemical Society (which is far from being the most liberal of publishers), you can see a “Rights and permissions” link. In that particular example, the publisher will grant you reproducing of up to 4 figures of the paper on the internet, even on a for-profit website.

Fair use: the fair use doctrine is a tricky, murky area of US copyright law. It's not as wide as people generally assume. It has to be judged on a case-by-case basis: see here and there. See here a notorious case from back in 2007 which is very close to your particular case.
So, my own conclusion on fair use: it's nice in principle, but unless you're ready to hire a lawyer to double-check (or get formal training on that), just play it safe.


U.S.C. sex and drugs scandal: would attending such a graduate school hurt one's chances at an academic career?

One cannot, of course, guarantee that there will be no negative outcomes for going to a school currently being rocked by a scandal. But I cannot imagine they'd have significant repercussions outside the occasional comment about "What was that like?" Especially given the current scandal appears primarily focused on a Dean (a position fairly far removed from the average graduate student) and his colorful private life.

If that scandal had major repercussions in terms of academic fraud, human subjects protections, or specifically involved the lab you were in, the answer might be different.


You must cite them!

Failure to cite photographs and figures is just as much plagiarism as stealing quotations. To some extent, it is tougher to use pictures from other sources, because you need to make sure you have the permissions to use them.

You should add the citation in the caption, as well as the requisite acknowledgments required by the author or publisher.


How portable are NSF grants between institutions and internationally?

I just participated in a NASA grant-writing workshop. This question came up there, too. The following rules apply for both NASA grants and for NSF grants. (I'm sure there are differences, but at least what I'm writing is the same for both.)

Can the grant be transferred from one institution to another?

Yes.

Check out AAG II.B.h which describes NSF's grant policy:

  Contracting or Transferring the Project Effort (Subawards)

  a.    Excluding the procurement of items such as commercially available
  supplies, materials, equipment or general support services allowable
  under the grant, no significant part of the research or substantive
  effort under an NSF grant may be contracted or otherwise transferred
  to another organization without prior NSF authorization. The intent to
  enter into such arrangements should be disclosed in the proposal
  submission.

  b.    If it becomes necessary to contract or otherwise transfer a
  significant part of the research or substantive effort after a grant
  has been made, the grantee shall submit, at a minimum:

  (i)   a clear description of the work to be performed;

  (ii)  the basis for selection of the subawardee (except for
  collaborative/joint arrangements5); and

  (iii) a separate budget for each subaward.

  The request must be submitted electronically, and NSF authorization
  will be indicated by an amendment to the grant signed by the Grants
  and Agreements Officer. The NSF grant conditions will identify which
  articles flow-down to subawardees.

  c.    Procurements under NSF grants are also subject to AAG Chapter V.C
  and OMB Circular A-110 Sections .41 through .48. (2 CFR §215.41-48)

The grant is awarded to your institution, not to you. Because of this, your institution would choose to do one of the following:

Nominate somebody (e.g. a Co-I) to take over when you leave
Terminate the grant outright
Initiate the grant transfer process (if certain criteria are met, and both institutions agree...)

According to the NASA VIP leading the workshop, transfers between US institutions happen, though they are rare. Either way, if you plan to do this, you should contact all involved parties: your current institution, the destination institution, and your program officer/manager (your designated NSF/NASA contact person) for the grant.

Can it be transferred to an international institution?

No.

As indicated in 3.c above, AAG Chapter V.C.1.i indicates that funds can be sent under the following condition (among others):

  (i)   grantee is not an individual or a foreign institution;

Since both NASA and the NSF are government organizations, they are prohibited from funding foreign institutions.

There are additional rules for certain countries, at least for NASA: if applying for a NASA grant, you can't have any affiliations with a Chinese institution via the Wolf Act.


Serving your country while in academia, or before going into academia

I think you should really consider what you are willing to do in the military.  Are you going to enlist or apply to OCS?  What is your desired MOS?  If you want to join the military while continuing in academics, this is very field specific.  For example, the Navy/Army/Air Force employs a number of medical physicists and will pay for their masters degrees.  You need to specify exactly what your goal would be while in the military.

"I am not, of course interested in industry, at all. I would sooner do math on the streets than go into any other job where I cannot continue what I am doing 24/7."

If you join the military, you will almost absolutely break your 'string' of math achievements.

"the wars that are fought are antithetical to my conception of American values"

If you are enlisting and you branch infantry, what will you do?  If you become an armor officer, what will you do?

All academics aspire to 'serve' humanity in their own way.  Research pushes mankind forward, not nations.


Should I include test scores and recommender information given elsewhere in my application in my CV for graduate admissions?

Do you mean references? Occasionally you will see a CV that lists references or it will say "References available on request." I myself have always just left them off.

As far as test scores go, it is typical to leave off them off since you have to send the official scores separately anyway.


PhD Student, written my first paper. What are my next steps?

First of all, your advisor should judge whether your paper is worth publishing. If the answer is "yes", then go for it and follow the process outlined in the author's guide of the respective journal/conference/etc...

I don't know about the habits in finance, but a 70 pages paper sounds rather long. Maybe you should condense it (if possible / appropriate) before you ask your advisor. But it depends on the habits of your field (which you can learn by reading publications of others).

If your advisor has no answer for this question, go look for another position/advisor.

If they liked your work and ask for new ideas, you are on a good track - write down some proposals and ask for a discussion about the ideas.


Is it possible to get a master's in speech language pathology online or part-time?

There's at least one program at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire. It's designed as a part-time, online master's. You're required to attend 3 one-week sessions on-campus each summer over three years.

If you don't have an undergraduate degree in communication sciences and disorders, there are 30-40 credit hours of required courses - PDF before you can start the master's.


How to decline answering details about my thesis?

The one valid point I can see here(*) for not sharing the state of the thesis:

  For the research, I am visiting classrooms at various public schools.

You should not share the preliminary details of your thesis if this could affect the outcome of your study.
As I understood the question, the school (or some teachers or students) may be the subjects you study, so they should be as little influenced by you as possible (that is, don't tell them that they are in the placebo group).

(*) things would be different e.g. if you were in an engineering field and working towards a patent


What counts as a research experience in mathematics?

As you say, some people accept those as research experience, but would you be expected to have completed novel or original research - most likely not at this point.

But perhaps what they are looking for is relevant activity in the field, and if you are active with attending or organizing seminars etc etc then that may be what tips the balance in your favor compared to some other application.


Student responsibility for synchronous online assessments

This is something you need to work out locally and before the course starts if possible. People here will have opinions, but only the local opinions at the university will have any actual weight.
Some things here seem foolish to me. Especially a large student population with insufficient TA support. There should be a dozen or so TAs to make this possible. Harvard's CS 50 course is also huge, but the student to staff ratio is about 20 to 1.
It may not be fair for the course designers to make such assumptions but you are probably going to be stuck with them whatever they are.
You point out some of the deficiencies of online instruction at this time. Even worse is that some students just don't have access to the equipment or bandwidth. But it is a chaotic situation.
Probably the best you can do is file a statement, say with a department head, and get acknowledgement of it that (a) internet connections can be flaky (b) cheating can be rampant no matter the technology (c) policies need to be established to fairly account for as many of the potential problems that might occur. And the policies will need to be somewhat flexible.
But demands are likely to be ignored. Enter into a conversation so that you have some assurance that fairness will be maintained.
On the other hand, some things about this course seem fine to me, such as frequent small assessments rather than a few high risk exams. Question-answer sessions is also a good idea if the times are flexible. Mailing lists can also be used to increase communication.
The course may actually need to oscillate a bit toward a successful outcome as there has bee insufficient time to even design the research needed for successful pedagogy. But if those assessments are well designed it can work out.
And you should prepare a quiet place in which to work if that is at all possible. Especially for the assessments.


My Prof Does Not Know My Thesis Field Well

I don’t think this is that strange. My PhD supervisor had almost no clue about the intricate details of my field, and no previously published papers in the field until we began to work together.

I was able to identify his strengths and use them to my advantage. For example,  he was a very talented mathematician and I was working on some heavy-duty equations which I struggled with. I knew he would be able to help, without having the slightest idea about what the equations physically represented.

In your words, I (and probably many other people) had to “lonewolf” the majority of my PhD with only little nuggets of help along the way. I think it is our own responsibility to read the literature, find gaps etc. then seek help when you have a real problem? Not just “what papers do I need to read” and so on.


Why do American colleges and universities have sports teams?

Here is one side effect of a university having a famous sports team as mentioned by Federico Poloni in a comment: people know your name. This helps recruit new students, it helps alumni impress potential employers with a degree from somewhere they have heard of! I only know that Boise State University is actually a real university (and as it turns out a pretty good one) because their football field has blue turf.

One feature of American colleges and universities that is easy to forget is that they are often in the middle of nowhere. Pennsylvania State University is in a town named State College. You can guess which came first. So imagine you have thousands of young men and women in a place that is barely a town. What do they do on Saturday afternoon? Some will start organizing teams to play sports and then start going to nearby schools to play their teams. This grew greatly since the old days but the idea that a residential university is partly responsible for providing non-academic activities for their students take part in still exists as a real force. At smaller schools which do not have sports scholarships the sports teams are more about playing because the students enjoy it and it is just part of campus life.

Also at many schools the mission statements include character formation such as "building leadership skills." If this is the case you can actually argue that having some level of athletic competition on campus actually is part of the core mission. Maybe not an absolute vital part but one that contributes to the mission.

I am of course ignoring in large part the money and corruption that is part of the NCAA Division I level of college athletics. Of which there is an extraordinary amount of both.

Most schools, except for d3 schools, break even with their athletic programs. Americans want to be proud of something, that something for colleges is athletics. Most people wouldn't want to go to Harvard if they didn't have a good football team. I helps to bring diversity (age, interests, grades, and money) into colleges.


How to prevent students from having an unfair advantage on exams, when they are held on different days?

There are various ways of preventing students from showing up on the wrong day or showing up more than once. The first step would just be to tell them straightforwardly that it's not allowed. You could also assign seats for the exam. Assigning seats has the added benefit of reducing opportunities for copying from a neighbor's paper; they can't just choose to sit next to a friend or sit next to someone they know is doing much better in the class.

  I teach a writing course [...] The classes are large, and the school offers me no assistance in managing the exams.

The enrollment of writing classes taught by a single instructor is usually limited because it's not practical for the instructor to grade large amounts of written work from a large number of students. At some schools, writing classes are large, but there are TAs who read papers. If you're a single instructor teaching a writing class to a large number of students, then that's a problem in and of itself; these issues with exam arrangements would then be a symptom of the more general problem.


At what point in the rankings is having a PhD from one university no different than a PhD from another (differently ranked) university?

It's worth keeping in mind that the overall university ranking is not synonymous with how they are regarded in the field.  Even the breakdowns by discipline are not always going to reflect how the university is perceived in a specific field.

For example, a university may not be in the top 10 in these overall rankings or even in a discipline (e.g., Computer Science), but they may be considered in the top 10 or even the top 5 for specific research fields (e.g., Database research).

For a PhD, the ranking in the field will probably carry more weight than the general ranking of the university (depending on the field), as will the overall quality of the research.


Who to ask to proofread my MSc dissertation?

There's no formal process that you are required to use for proofreading, but it's certainly required in the sense that your dissertation should not be full of typos.

You are the most important proofreader.  You care the most and have special expertise on the specific topic you are writing about, and eliminating errors is your responsibility.  However, it's worth getting assistance from someone else, since some errors can be tough for the author to spot.

You should not expect your advisor to do proofreading.  It's possible that he/she will provide a list of typos, but that's really not the advisor's responsibility.  Ultimately you'll benefit far more from higher-level advice about content and writing, so it's in your interest to provide drafts that you have already checked carefully.

One good way to arrange proofreading is to swap dissertations with a friend, with each of you looking over the other's draft.  If you can't find anyone to do this, you could try asking friends or relatives to help you proofread, but you'll have to be careful not to let it become a burden for them.

I would not recommend trying to hire a proofreader, unless you have clear approval from your university for exactly what you plan to do.  (If I heard that a student had hired someone to help proofread, I would worry that "proofreading" might be a euphemism for an inappropriate level of writing assistance.)


How to improve the quality and visibility of research?

I think this is a very relevant question, but also a very broad one. Clearly there is no simple answer, so I will try to give a few general directions. Also I think it makes sense to distinguish between the field-specific aspects and the more general aspects across academic fields.

Reproducibility in Natural Language Processing (NLP)

I happen to work in this field as well and I can relate to the problems described by OP. The field has a quite serious problem with reproducibility: this is mostly due to NLP being a very experimental domain, where experiments often involve a lot of complex parameters and where data is extremely diverse by nature. Additionally there's no strong incentive for strict reproducibility protocols in NLP, as opposed to other domains where mistakes are not an option (e.g. health or security).

Still, the community is aware of the issue and has been trying to address it for some time:

There's now a well established tradition of "shared tasks", scientific competitions meant to (1) provide benchmark datasets and (2) compare different approaches in a uniform way.
While still not the general rule, it's becoming the norm to not only publish a paper but also the code and/or data used for the experiment. Conferences have been encouraging this for a few years now by allowing the submission of supplementary material.
Through various other initiatives: proposing a specific category for reproducibility papers, building a repository of language resources, etc.

Of course technical results ("new model X improves performance by Y%") are the bread and butter of conferences, but my impression is that the best papers acknowledged by the community (e.g. best papers awards at conferences) are rarely pure technical papers, original ideas and insights tend to be valued more (but this might be a subjective perception based on my limited experience).

Visibility and academic reputation

  blog posts, how-to guides, stack overflow answers, discussion group records, are all of zero academic merit.

This is not completely true, because:

Building a reputation through various means can help your research get cited
Outreach and communication towards non-academic publics is increasingly encouraged (see for instance the growing trend of citizen science projects)

However it's true that these activities (unless very successful) are usually less valued than the good old publication record. Unfortunately at many levels research and researchers are evaluated against simplified indicator (publications, citations, h-index...), despite the obvious biases in this. Note that most researchers are aware that publications are not necessarily synonymous for research quality, but funding bodies are happy to use this kind of performance indicators.

My personal publication strategy is along the following lines:

Target top conferences/journals for any (potentially) significant contribution.
Target reputable specialized workshops or small conferences for prospective ideas, work in progress and other kinds of moderately significant contributions. It adds a modest line to my publication record, but more importantly this way I can meet and see what the community is doing on a specific topic.

Caution: I don't have a particularly successful academic career myself, so don't assume that my advice is good ;)


How is PGCHE by distance learning viewed relative to in-class?

In the UK many universities require new members of academic staff to obtain a PGCHE. The universities that I am familiar with offer the PGCHE curriculum in house via the School of Education. Since it is presented to new staff as a hoop to jump through, I know of no one outside of university administrators and schools of education that think the PGCHE, in any form, seriously. Further, I have seen many job adverts where a PGCHE is a "desirable" qualification, but never one where it is "essential". During hiring, we briefly consider the presence/absence of a PGCHE, but never more than that.


Is it best to avoid all interactions with disreputable or predatory conferences?

Publishing in predatory journals looks bad on your resume.  It suggests that your work was not good enough to publish in a respected journal/conference, and, frankly, you're better off not publishing the work.


What is the chance of making a successful appeal to dismissal decision from a PhD program after failing the qualifying exam in the 2nd attempt?

I'm sorry for the tough situation you find yourself in.

First things first: no one outside your university and department can speak with any authority whatsoever as to what this particular group of faculty administrators will do.  At best they can speak in general terms and give general advice.  That is what I will try to do.  Let me also begin by indicating my own experience: I am a mathematics professor at the University of Georgia.  For the last three academic years I have been the Graduate Coordinator of the mathematics department.  Thus if you were in my department you would be appealing to me (more precisely, to the committee of which I am the chair).

It seems to me that you are getting overly caught up on the legalistic aspects of your "appeal."  You grasp at several things that might perhaps lead to bias on the part of committee members.  But let me be honest: in the kind of academic culture of which I am familiar, this is not a very good strategy.  Without evidence of clear and bias that changed the result of the exam, I think it is very unlikely that (say) the director of the PhD program will do more than inquire of the faculty members whether there were any serious problems or irregularities with your exam.  When they say "No," there is not really any other group that can spring into action at this point, again unless you have something much more serious to allege and more material reasons to allege it.

Here is the reality of the situation: the committee who administers a graduate qualifying exam has extremely broad latitude in deciding whether the student passes or fails.  There is probably not going to be a "rubric" that they did or did not follow or anything of the sort -- rather, they are empowered to use their best judgment.  To be honest about it, a student at this stage is probably not in a good intellectual position to question their decision: you don't have the experience to know whether their standard is a good one.

Rather than thinking of the appeal as an argument that you have to win, I suggest that you appeal to the sympathies of the most sympathetic faculty member in sight.  In particular, I do suggest that you mention your health issues of anxiety, depression and ADHD.  As a longtime faculty member and administrator, I can tell you that (i) many students have these problems, (ii) they can become significant impediments to otherwise very strong students and (iii) these issues are (happily!) not nearly as stigmatized as they used to be, to the extent that "zero sympathy" for such a student is not such a tenable position for e.g. a public university in the United States to take.  If you bring medical documentation of the problems, explain the serious steps you are taking to treat the problems and ask for another chance when your health issues are under better control, then I think you have at least a fair shot at getting another chance.

Good luck.


Is there any non-commercial alternative to ResearcherID?

ORCID is supposed to take care of that and it seems to gain significant traction. According to this presentation, it should be launched in fall this year (2012). However, I am not sure whether it falls under your definition of "non-commercial".

I am myself very curious about it, my hopes are that finally it will take care of disambiguation of names like "John Smith" - for me e.g., Web of Science database is practically unusable as it shows several thousands of papers for my name :-|.


Professor gave full credit for incompleteness

It seems an odd policy and, as a colleague, I'd be interested to know why he does this. But I wouldn't condemn it without more information.
However, if it is clear that he actually reads your work and comments on it when necessary to avoid having you develop misconceptions, then it might be fine. It is even possible that what you do provide makes it clear to him that you understand what needs to be understood. But it is hard to say.
If you got full marks by not trying at all, of course, then the standards are too low, but it seems to be a "carrot but no stick" approach.
But the fact that you are asking here seems to imply that you are conscientious, at least and if you get feedback when needed you will probably be fine. But, I think that asking about the teaching philosophy behind it is also fine.
It is also possible, I suppose, that he has a reading difficulty, the same as some students do, or is so occupied with things like research (or family) that he fails to notice things. That wouldn't be so fine.
But, as I've stressed in other answers here, the essence of learning is reinforcement and feedback. If you are getting that, then all should be well. Some people don't need to be graders in order to be good teachers. I wish there were more, to be honest.


If you have two bachelor's degree in related fields, can you mention in your CV only the latest of the two?

I think it would make for an awkward line of questioning at an interview when they inevitably ask what you did during those years and you reply that you completed a Bachelors degree but didn't feel it was good enough to include it.

Worst case scenario: your interviewer went to that institution and you've just shot yourself in the foot.

Always include your full educational and work experience as it makes for easy nitpicking at an interview that is easily avoided.


How does graduate admission committee detect plagiarism in letter of recommendation?

This will not be classified as plagiarism. A letter of recommendation does not pretend to be original, it is just a bureaucratic document that is supposed to give information on the extent to which the recommender recommends you.


How to respond to questions about my own progress in my PhD

I used to answer to such questions by describing the current concrete state of my research:

recently accepted/submitted papers
papers being prepared/written
upcoming plans

I then left it up to the asker whether that is enough information or whether they want to make any more specific enquiries.


Are there instances where citing Wikipedia is allowed?

I'm not going to try to answer the question of "is allowed" or "isn't allowed" but instead I'm going to try and answer if citing Wikipedia is, in general, a good idea or not for research papers.

Here's five points I can think of for and five points against.

Good idea:

If Wikipedia is your source, and you learn something from what Wikipedia's editors have provided, then citing Wikipedia is the Nice Thing To Do™.
Wikipedia is a convenient, well-known, easily and freely accessible source (vs. final-copy published papers that are pay-per-view if not out of your wallet, then indirectly out of your university's).
Content aims to be written in an accessible manner targeted at a wide audience (vs. arguably the bulk of technical articles published in journals and conferences). Plus there's clickable links for jargon! Sweet!
Notable or Featured Articles will probably have undergone more scrutiny from experts (w.r.t. bias, technical correctness, sources cited, etc.) than your average peer-reviewed article on a similar topic.
At least with Wikipedia, readers should know where they stand with such a citation. Compare this with the artifice of citing papers for claims made in poor-quality journals or conferences that can be considered authoritative solely on the basis of being "peer-reviewed".

Bad idea:

A Wikipedia article is subject to frequent editing and the content you cite it for may not be there when the reader goes looking for it (adding a date-accessed only partly addresses the issue since it will be difficult for the reader to start going through versions edit but as per the comments below, you can use a citing service within Wikipedia to cite a specific version of a page).
Relatedly, the content may have been correct at the time of citing but errors may be edited into the content at a later point, making you look bad by association (edit, again, citing a specific version could work around that)
There is no minimal guarantee of the quality for most Wikipedia articles (which peer-review, at least in theory, should provide, depending perhaps on the venue).
Wikipedia is not a first-party source: in theory, no new knowledge is "created" in Wikipedia. Where feasible, you should try to attribute knowledge to those who create it (and optionally thereafter add a reference to those who report it or better describe it in a book or survey)
Attribution for the content of a Wikipedia article is difficult: multiple editors may be involved in a certain piece of content, many editors are anonymous, etc. This means that there is no culpability for information (unlike peer-reviewed papers where authors have something to lose by publishing crap). This opens up further possibilities, such as authors anonymously adding content to Wikipedia that they can cite to support the claims in their paper.

Okay, back to academic convention and "isn't alloweds" and "is alloweds" ...

  Maybe it's not very well known or something but suppose there is a small Wikipedia page with the correct mathematical proof. How much effort are people going to go to to find a proof in a book when there's a (correct (which we know, because it's maths and we can check it)) proof on Wikipedia?

According to Wikipedia policies, it should have a reference to an original source. Cite that.

If it doesn't have a reference, or if you copy how the proof is expressed directly, I would recommend to add a footnote (rather than a formal citation) stating the Wikipedia article you found the proof on and how you verified it (and the CC-BY-SA licence if you copy the expression).

Generally avoid citing web-pages (unless they are normative online standards or something) if only to avoid getting your hand bitten off by a reviewer. Using footnotes is much safer in this regards and serves a similar-ish purpose (though it won't be counted as a formal citation).

In research, if enough reviewers believe something isn't allowed, then de facto it isn't allowed.

  Or if you do find it somewhere else why not say: "Proof taken from Wikipedia and verified by the proof shown in "Triangles and their properties, Nature, 2014, p113 etc..."

Why not say "Proof sketched for me by Fred, the guy who sits next to me, who had previously read it in 'Triangles and their properties, Nature, 2014, p113 etc...'"?

In other words, what's important is the reference, not how you found.


Is it ethical to ask students to proofread a textbook?

Is it ethical to give a grade (or extra credit) based on student feedback?

I think the key question is, will reading draft material from your textbook help students towards their understanding of the subject of this class?

If yes, then it honestly sounds like a great exercise to me. Not only does it force the students to actually read some material related to the class (albeit in an unpolished draft form), it also could allow them to "check" their understanding by comparing the draft with the material they are already familiar with. Some suggestions:

It seems best if they are asked to read material that you have already covered in class and that there are other sources on; that way they are not just completely lost, but they have something to compare to and a way to reliably detect errors.
If this is part of the grade (extra credit or otherwise), I think it should be mainly based on completion, not on how many errors and typos they find. You could also ask them to write a "summary" of the chapter to check their understanding and thoroughness.

If no, then it is unethical. Your job as a teacher is to help the students learn the material, and using them as free labor to proofread your book is inappropriate.

This could be the case, for example, if the book is not exactly on the subject of the material that the class is covering, or if it is in such an unpolished form that it is difficult to get anything out of while still a student, and not an expert on the material.


How do some researchers consistently get published in venues with low acceptance rates?

Since people rarely document papers NOT published, a 100% success rate for papers in a CV is kind of guaranteed.

It does often seem like some PIs have the 'magic touch' when it comes to publishing, and here are some factors that may contribute to this success:

they work on a very hot topic
they are very established

[a] unfortunately publishing begets further publishing as ones name becomes associated with a high quality record
[b] they are possibly personally acquainted with some of the reviewers, which could help grease the wheels

they are at a top institution (yes, this probably helps)
they are working on several projects in tandem and so submit more papers in general
they may be a pro at working the review process: invalidating certain dissenters by request or by inviting comments on a  manuscript prior to publication (disqualifying them), or through fierce contest when papers are rejected.

The publication process is far from a perfect or even acceptable, and many factors contribute. Those that know how to exploit these factors will be more successful, deserving or not.


How can I make self-studied course in undergraduate official when applying to graduate school?

I don't know much about Turkey, but in most systems there isn't really any way to get credit for a course you didn't take.

You may be allowed to enrol on a course, skip all the lectures, and just turn up to the exam, depending on how strict your department is about attendance, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Courses are taught in a certain way for a number of important reasons. University is not just about imparting knowledge, but also familiarising students with the norms of a field. Concepts may be introduced or explained in a way that seems silly to you for the sake of demonstrating some property or relating disparate concepts (like electromagnetism and gravity).

You may be unsatisfied with the mathematical rigour of your physics course, but this is deliberate and necessary. Most of the equations you will learn as an undergraduate are empirically derived (or derived under certain assumptions), and will probably prove to be inaccurate or incomplete later on. But they are useful, and teaching them "properly" would require bogging down first-year courses with complex and mostly-irrelevant mathematics. Imagine if, instead of stating Newton's third law, your lecturer had diverged for several lectures to discuss conservation of momentum, introduce Lagrangian mechanics, and prove Noether's theorem.

You are, of course, encouraged to dig deeper. There is nothing better a student can do. But university courses are (usually) carefully designed to teach you important concepts and the "language" of the field in the simplest and most efficient way.

And, uh, the lectures are what the exam will be based on.

To get the grade on your transcript, you must enrol on the course and pass the exam. That probably means attending the lectures. It may not seem like it, but your lecturers know more about teaching their subject than you do.


How do I regain my momentum in research after a long period of slacking off?

This may sound stupid, but a good place to start when confronted with a seemingly unsolvable problem is just to start doing something. There are always some simple experiment/simulation one can run, some related papers one can read, or some results that can be written up. The point is to get back to making consistent and incremental progress, no matter how trivial it may seem or how many mistakes you make. Once you get the ball rolling everything else should follow, given your background.

Don't worry too much about coming up with research questions. Good research problems are not dreamed up in a vacuum. You have to immerse yourself in the literature and your research problem to see the gaps that others have overlooked or come up with new methods to tackle old problems. So when you are still trying to get back to speed don't expect brilliant ideas to just pop into your head.

Another thing you should do is to set up weekly meetings with your advisor. Or if your advisor is not available, then write up regular progress report, both for yourself and send it to your advisor. The fact that you can slack off for years and get away with it means that there is a lack of structure and discipline.


Who is earning money when users buy access to a research article?

Regardless of political considerations, the answer to your question is that publishing companies are collecting the revenue from subscriptions and individual article sales. Some publishers are commercial operations, some are non-profit (such as the American Institute of Physics).

The price you pay at this time is related only to the publishing process (organization of submission process and peer-review, typesetting, archival strategies, printing, administration, etc.) and all other aspects of a commercial company including, of course, a margin. Some people have strong opinions about what this margin should be.

The actual research is paid for by other means, including government grants, university salaries, non-profit and foundation grants, funding from commercial companies, etc. If you had to pay for the actual research behind a given paper, chances are it would cost you something closer to 30k $.

There are various other business models for publishing, some where the whole process is paid for by an institution, and is thus free for both authors and readers, some where authors have to pay to publish, etc.

There are important aspects in keeping money out of the editorial board - publisher - reviewers - authors relationship, because it reduces the risk of conflicts of interest (although author-pay open-access advocates think otherwise).

Options to obtain scientific papers without paying (yourself) include: going to the library of your local institution, checking out pre-print servers and government-sponsored repositories or ultimately, contacting the authors to obtain electronic copies. More on that subject in this useful thread.


Why should we give the number of pages on arXiv?

Page length is one of the most basic things you can know about a document, and one of the few useful numerical measurements of a piece of writing.  I personally find it helpful as an indicator of how "serious" something is.  (This holds for novels as well as papers.)  If I see one set of notes on a topic that are 8 pages long versus another set that are 56 pages, I have a good sense that the latter set is much more detailed than the former.  Similarly, a 6-page paper entitled "Bounded gaps between primes" (a famously hard problem, very unlikely to be solved in so short a work) gives a very different impression than a 54-page paper with the same title.

While page length is not equated with how deep or interesting something is (and of course depends on format), it can be at least suggestive.  As a corollary, I also take page lengths into account when evaluating job candidates to get a sense of how productive they are.

Regarding the definition, I think it's safe to interpret page length as the number of pdf pages, as this is what most people will immediately see when they open the pdf.  That said, if it's a book, it's perfectly fine to put something like 286+xvii pages, but I doubt people will care much either way.  Remember, this is just a preprint server.


Are there any decent online undergrad computer science degrees or courses

You may want to try Coursera. Their courses are quite good and the instructors are some of the top computer scientists in their fields.

They give you a certificate signed by the instructor if you finish the course well.