How detailed should I be when describing what material was covered in prereqs on a masters application?

The forms probably have some space reserved for this, that should give you a fair idea of how much you are supposed to write. In any case, concentrate on the final courses of the relevant line(s), don't list everything from freshman up.


What consequences are there if, having already graduated and received my degree, I do not pay up my tuition fees?

Some universities (perhaps most) will refuse to provide transcripts for students who owe money. Example.

This can be a serious problem for you. Some employers insist upon an official transcript as a condition of employment. Your  diploma or similar certificate  will not suffice; the  employer wants a document directly from the university, which has not passed through your hands (to avoid the risk of you falsifying it). If the university won't send a transcript because you didn't pay them, too bad, no job for you.

Also, you say you are done with academia, but if you should change your mind someday: US  graduate programs generally require an official transcript from your undergraduate university as a condition of admission. So no grad school for you, either.

Academic matters aside, the university also has all the same options that would be available to any other creditor. This side of things is more on topic for our sibling site, http://money.stackexchange.com, but as a partial overview:

They can report you to a credit agency, which will damage your credit score and make it difficult or impossible for you to get credit cards, car loans, mortgages, etc. Bad credit can also keep you from getting a job in certain industries, especially defense and other work that requires a security clearance.
They can refer your account to a collection agency, who will try pretty hard to bother you until you pay.
In principle, they could sue you, and they'd almost certainly win, as they can easily prove you owe the money. This would enable them to get a court order to seize your assets (eg take money directly from your bank account) or garnish your wages (take money directly from your paycheck).


How can we find out who was nominated for Nobel Prizes?

The Nobel prize nominations are confidential for 50 years. An official online database that has most of the nominations (that aren't confidential) can be found at the website of the Nobel prize. As of today the site claims that it covers nominations up to 1963 for all prizes*, except for the physiology and medicine prize, which has data up to 1953 only. However, it does appear to list some more recent nominations. Perhaps it's best to consider lists for later years as incomplete for now.

In particular, for the case of Kazuhiko Nishijima you can find that he was nominated at least four times.

*The prize in Economic Sciences was instituted only in 1968, with the first prize awarded a year later. Thus, 50 years have not yet passed, so you won't find any of those nominations in the database.


Our final exam has us work in pairs. I am struggling with personal issues and worried about being able to pull my weight. Should I ask to work alone?

It is possible that there are an odd number of people in the class and that someone might need to work alone. Put in a request to be considered for solo work, giving your reasons.
But, there is value in joint work and your professor may be depending on this being a valuable lesson for everyone.
And, to be honest, I'd much rather have a partner who was worried they wouldn't be able to do their part than one who wanted a free ride on my hard work.
If you can't make it happen, just do your best. It is all anyone can do, after all.


What do departments/universities do about unethical behavior by faculty?

The main problem as I have experienced it is hearsay vs. facts. By hearsay, I mean rumours or coffee-table talk and the like. The university and departments can do a lot but not on hearsay. I know of one case where all PhD students finish and then distance themselves for life to the advisor. If one of them had made a formal complaint, things would have been easy but no-one has. In this case the department has behind the scenes "decided" not to grant the person any more graduate students. I am sure many who read this can see that it is highly unsatisfactory "punishment" since it is all happening behind the scenes, but without official complaints there are no other ways to go.

To widen the perspective a little. When it comes to discrimination due to sex and  ethnicity the situation is different, there not much is needed for action. A person can be unfairly branded by almost anything regardless if any evidence exist (such as a student unsatisfied with grades and eager for revenge accuses someone for -ism). In such cases, we, rightly, have the approach no smoke without a fire. Unfortunately the other types of misbehaviours are not generally acknowledged as problems of similar dignity and so a wealth of hard evidence is required and lost of benefit of doubt exists in the process.

So although much can be done, many cases go on for long periods due to lack of hard facts. Sometimes problems are taken care of behind the scenes but these cases can drag on for very long periods. The fact that they are handled behind the scenes does not carry legal certainty and can be a problem by themselves. So clearly problems exist but the processes of "pressing charges" are unclear and uncertain. So to cap off, it is a legally tricky situation where anything but an open process carries unsatisfactory issues.


Best practices when allowing exam cheat sheets

There is no way to cover every eventuality, but what helps is to have a clear paradigm as to what cheat sheets are supposed to achieve.
Then view every decision you make regarding your exam in this respect.
My paradigm (which may align with yours) is:

  I do not want to gauge the students’ ability to blindly memorise stuff and recall it in a stress situation because it is not relevant to their lives and not what my course is about.
  The cheat sheet thus replaces the procedure of blindly memorising certain stuff.
  Moreover, what they write on a cheat sheet is a good emulation of what they have available through Internet searches, reference books, and similar in their non-exam future. (After all, they may just keep the cheat sheet.)

Applying this, I would add to your points and answer your questions and concerns raised in the comments:

Memorising is your benchmark for fairness.
You cannot avoid slight unfairness to some students (see below for some examples), but as long as your process is more fair than relying on memory, you have won.
Communicate your paradigm to the students.
This way, you avoid that students use the cheat sheet in misguided way that is detrimental to them.
Moreover, by teaching them the spirit of the rule, you reduce the chance and strengthen your position in case of any rule disputes and allow the students to answer certain questions about the rules themselves (do not rely on any of this though).

  Would it be better for me to simply give them a formula sheet that I’ve prepared?

The most important part of memorising before a classical exam is structuring and reiterating the relevant knowledge as this strengthens the actual understanding of concepts (which is what your exam should be about).
Making the cheat sheet handwritten replaces this.¹
Provided cheat sheets are not good for this.
The same applies to machinally created cheat sheets, as they can simply be created by copying and pasting.
In a perfect world, restricting the cheat sheet in size would not be necessary – you cannot prevent students from blindly learning the entire textbook either.

However, it does prevent students from wasting their time – before and during the exam – with an overly extensive cheat sheet.
Moreover, it may increase the perceived fairness of the process.
Finally, there will always be some idiot who manages to blindly copy the solution to every exam task ever given for the subject.

On the other hand, make sure that whatever size limit you give suffices for the content the students should need, so you do not inadvertently reward those with a smaller handwriting, better eyesight, finer pen, etc.
Giving them slightly more space than they need is not a problem; giving them much more space is.
You cannot avoid that some student just fills the cheat sheet with solutions to exercises or previous exam tasks.
However, such a behaviour should not be rewarded:
Make sure that the pool of possible tasks is sufficiently large.
If you cannot do this (e.g., certain parts of theoretical physics have a notoriously low number of exam-suitable tasks), your exam may not be suited for handwritten cheat sheets – but then it is not suited for eliminating the advantages of memorising either.
Handwritten cheat sheets will pose problems to some handicapped students. (Just like memorising is bad for people who have issues with memorising or anxiety.)
Ensure beforehand that every student can voice such problems so that a reasonable alternative can be found for them.

  Should I require students to turn in their notes to me before the exam? After the exam? Is their anything to be gained by me reviewing their notes?

This does not agree with the above paradigm:
You cannot control what students memorised for the exam either.
It may be helpful to verify and helpful to evaluate your approach to cheat sheeting by collecting the cheat sheets anonymously, but this deprives the students of re-using their cheat sheets².

¹ In fact, my own memorising process for exams (that required me to do this) was to write a cheat sheet for everything I had not memorised yet, check my memory with this cheat sheet a few times, write a new cheat sheet with the remainder of what I had not memorised, and so on.
² My cheat sheets¹ are probably the most useful written thing I kept from my own studies, but then I have not revisited them yet.


Should I send a mail to query the process of my manuscript since it is in the "Awaiting EIC Decision" status for two weeks?

I am encountering the same situation and I fully understand that how it feels when it comes to a final decision.

There must be many papers awaiting EiC's decision. The request to jump to the queue is a bit impolite.
I think it has small chances that the requesting email would affect the final decision because I think AE already has a decision or recommendation. But it would have a negative effect for your next submissions;
I would suggest to send email to EiC directly after 4 weeks.


How to manage/avoid stress during manuscript writing?

Your problem is common to many researchers, I think. However, the solutions are very different for each and everyone. My key concepts to avoid stress while writing, especially articles at the moment, consists of the following steps and ideas:

Strict time management. I set deadlines for every step I have to take. Like 1 week literature search, 1 week literature examination and reading, 1 week to construct a thesis and a research question etc. (or how long you need)
I try to create a structure of the article beforehand and extend it during the process of writing the paper. In the structure (I make a table of contents) I add bullet points to remember what important things I have to go through.
I continuously read and revise the mansucript I have already written.
When writing with co-authors I try to work together with them in one space, rather than skyping now and then. However, your time management is only as good as theirs, when you have to cooperate. So: direct communication with opennenss and honesty is important.
Never ever I plan to use extensions of deadlines. I only make use of extensions if things really are in trouble. Inform the persons who are awaiting your manuscript in time that you won't make the deadline.

All in all, the strategies against stress can also include recreational sports after an afternoon of writing. Or explicitly doing other things so that no other tasks are left behind. The perfect strategy is quite individual I think.


Listing all papers which cite my references

You can do this using Google Scholar: Suppose your paper is Alternative to mental hospital treatment: I. Conceptual model, treatment program, and clinical evaluation. The cited by link lists the papers citing your paper (and can be sorted by date). Now you just need to click the cited by link for each of the papers identified in the previous step and merge the resulting lists.


How does the ranking of a university relate to a future career in mathematics?

First, let me answer an easy question.  It is not frowned on to get a masters at one school, then transfer elsewhere for a Phd.  In fact, this is often encouraged.  Next, let me confirm that yes, the ranking of your PhD institution really does matter for a future career as a research mathematician.

In some sense, Gerry is right when he says that the ranking of importance is (1) quality of dissertation, (2) reputation of adviser, and (3) ranking of department.
One big problem though, is that many of the people evaluating you won't know how to evaluate criteria (1) and (2).  Hiring committees often include many (all?) people who are not familiar with your research area.  So they will often rely on what they (at least think that they) know, which is quality of department.

I have written elsewhere about why you should go to the strongest program that you can get into, particularly if you want a career as a research mathematician.
I don't know all the details of your personal situation, but I strongly encourage you to at least take the GRE again and reapply.  It may be possible for you to wait to see whether you get accepted to a school that you prefer before you decide whether you'll leave with a terminal masters or not.


How to comfortably interact with famous professors?

From a student's point of view, here is how I tackle the situation. You can break it down by the circumstances in which you meet, and thus guesstimate how much time the professor has for you.

Asking "may I talk to / email you later about...?" can be useful if it's not the right time and place for a useful discussion.

DTK's answer has good points about how you should approach a conversation.

Of course there will be some variations depending on the culture and environment of your department, and how well you know the prof you're talking to.

Hallway / elevator encounters

If they look busy or rushed, perhaps best save it till later. Otherwise, keep questions very brief, concisely answerable, and related to something you know they're interested in (i.e. their own research field).

Discussions at semi-social occasions, such as at a gathering after a seminar, or breaks at a conference

Here, the professor probably has no immediate obligations or things urgently pressing on his or her mind (or else they'd have disappeared by now). This is a better opportunity to ask broader or more complicated questions, or if they work in a related field you could ask for an opinion on a problem you've been thinking about.

Social occasions such as at lunchtime, conference dinner, etc.

As above, but they may even prefer to talk about something other than their own field of expertise -- sports, politics, an interesting paper from a completely unrelated discipline that you read whilst procrastinating, etc. If you don't know the professor very well, you might want to wait for him or her to initiate steering the conversation in that direction.


Does it look bad as a candidate if I apply to two post-doctoral positions at the same national research laboratory?

It's fine.  A lot of times the divisions are pretty separate profit (err...cost) centers.  I've also seen people apply to CRD and an SBU also at conglomerates.  It's usually fine.  Just let them know if things get serious with both of them (invited for visit, say, or for sure competing offers).  They won't want to negotiate against each other and one will likely bow out.  You should have a preference at that time to control which direction you want to go, rather than letting them make the call.  But this only applies when things are at a later state.

If you are just prospecting, spread your availability wide like tree pollen.  Ideally, you will have some competing offers that are completely outside the given national lab as well (so you still end up with multiple offers).

P.s.  (in answer response to a comment above)  I would not feel bad about HR seeing resumes that differ slightly either.  Go ahead and tailor the resumes versus the opportunity.  Obviously your name, etc. should be identical.  And use the same format.  But if you have enough experience that you can emphasize computer work for the computer position and lab work for the lab position, that is fine.  Don't misrepresent yourself.  But respond to their stated needs.  That is normal.  I would also add that the likelihood that they end up on the table together is low.  Even if you go through a central system, they will probably be presorted by job posting.  In any case, as long as you can look at the two documents and see that there is not a lie, you're fine.  Emphasizing Aishness for A and Bishness for B is not wrong.  And in fact, HR experts will tell you to do that!


What are the potential pitfalls of having a PhD?

Though a Ph.D is not necessarily a disadvantage, depending on the field and the nature of the Ph.D, it may also not be as competitive as the equivalent number of years in industry.
Think from a perspective of a hiring dev team leader who needs a good systems engineer yesterday to help integrate some obscure API from a vendor into their product. You're choosing between a pile of resumes.
On one, you have a candidate who has 3 years as a junior engineer in a company that worked on image sensors, 2 years of work as a systems developer II, and one year as a lead developer on a computer vision project. He's delivered seven projects in total and has worked in a highly cross-functional team of hardware and software engineers, salespeople, and on-site support staff. The products he worked on brought the company revenue of $86.3 million dollars over seven years.
On another, you have a candidate who has done 6 years in a Ph.D and 1 year worth of internships in total. He's worked on a computer vision project and has contributed a novel algorithm to solving "Line tracing under low UV light conditions" (I made that up, I have no idea if that's a real problem in computer vision), and has written six publications. He also has taught a course on 3rd year systems programming and has TAed robotics three times.
While they are both good candidates, chances are that unless you need someone who does "line tracing under UV light", the first candidate might be more attractive. Less training, less having to work with that person to integrate them into a product-based flow, proven record of delivering product and making sales, etc...
I personally feel that the "disadvantage" of a Ph.D is more about opportunity cost than an actual disadvantage. In many cases, the culture of academia vs. industry are different enough that it's like switching fields even if the technologies are similar. Basically, someone with 7 years actual work experience has enough to basically go from a new grad hire to a project team lead, whereas someone with 7 years of Ph.D is proven to deliver in an academic setting but not in a for-profit product-based one. However, at the same time, there are many industries that want to have Ph.Ds on their staff as well because they are long-term, deep thinkers who are rigorous and detailed.


Tools to help retain knowledge from coursework?

Unless your own university provides you with such software, it would probably be too hard for the software to know what topics you have studied exactly, and in how much detail. But you are right: if you do not work with your knowledge on a daily basis you will forget things. But this is not a problem. The "magic" solution you are looking for is called a job :).

Inevitably you will forget some of the things you do not work with every day. But your education will provide you with enough knowledge to look up the answers you need, and quickly be up to speed again.

The way I see one of the main goals of an MSc is to be able to read the scientific books and papers in your own field, and the fields close to it. This is how you will refresh and update your knowledge constantly when you start working in science.


Is it ok to cite my own paper, currently in review, in my own thesis?

In most fields, a thesis is not counted as publication for purposes of avoiding duplication.  Thus, it is acceptable for the same material to appear in both a peer-reviewed article and your thesis, in either order: it is both acceptable to "staple" published material together to form a thesis and to "extract" thesis materials for publication afterward.

This means that you have two different options for your case here, depending on the particulars of your circumstance:

If the work you want to publish is something your thesis depends on, then submit the article and also include the work in the thesis (adapted appropriately for context in both circumstances, of course).  You can the put a citation in your thesis noting that this work is submitted.
If the work you want to publish is largely independent of your thesis, but just useful for you to note exists in your discussions, then don't include it in your thesis, and again, cite it as a submitted work.

In either case, for purpose of your advisor and committee's evaluation of your work, you can give them a copy of the article that is under review.  Thus, even though your article may not yet be published, its content can be easily made available to everybody who matters for acceptance of your thesis.

Finally: your advisor will likely have opinions and should probably be involved in the decision in any case.


Should I complete a master's thesis if I intend to move to a different graduate school?

Since the doctorate is about research, having some solid evidence of doing that successfully is a plus. You can change your main focus to another subfield after writing a master's thesis, so don't worry that it will limit you.

But my main question back to you is what you will be doing in the meanwhile if you don't do the thesis. Will it be at least as positive an influence on admissions committees and potential advisors? It seems doubtful, but possible, depending on your situation.

An MS isn't really required for admission to the PhD in the US, but a positive record that predicts success certainly is. Do whatever you can to build that record.


What to ask a prospective supervisor regarding advertised PhD position?

I would like to know if my profile fits their requirements.

If I were you, I would not ask this. First of all, it's not really clear what you mean by "requirements" -- you have already indicated that you meet the published GPA and language requirements, so it's unlikely that there is anything else they could tell you. Second of all, it's not relevant to your possible connection with this specific professor. Third and finally, professors are generally busy and do not always respond to unsolicited mail; the chances they will respond are even lower if you ask vague and/or logistical questions.
Instead, assume you do fit the requirements, and instead focus on your interest in working in this professor's group. Talk briefly about your qualifications (e.g., research interests and research or classroom experience related to the professor's area), and simply ask if they have open positions in their lab. Keep it brief but indicate your interest and knowledgability about their research clearly.
If you successfully establish credibility and the professor likes what you say, and they have open positions, it's likely you have good chances of getting in (because the professor can vouch for you). Typically, the actual "requirements" are not so important and may not even be well-defined.

I would like to know what to specifically ask professor when I write a mail regarding the advertised position?

The best question to ask is already in your post:

Do you have any open positions or upcoming projects related to [topic of interest X] in your group?

It's clear and to-the-point, and assuming your email has indicated you are a strong candidate, it gives them a direct opportunity to express interest in having you as a student.


Graduate Internship - Collaborating with other divisions

1- do you think that it would be appreciated? Or will I sound as an annoying climber?

No, I personally would not think that. Instead, I would appreciate your initiative and passion.

  2- do you think it could upset my first division? (provided that I'll give them full priority, doing parallel activities ONLY in my free time)

Here it comes the important point. It is ok to collaborate with other groups but you should ask your supervisor first. Even if we are talking about your free time it could still sound very shady to work with other people without saying anything. When you ask this to your primary division, you can say what you said to us "I would like to collaborate with lab X in this way to improve my CV, for networking [...] HOWEVER, I will give full priority to your tasks [...]"


How soon to send dissertation to committee before defense?

The exact requirements vary by institution and program (e.g., some may require a dissertation draft to be submitted to a committee within a minimum amount of time before the defense, perhaps around a week or 10 days) though I suspect that these requirements are rarely enforced. The presumption is that you will give your committee members sufficient time to read your manuscript before you present it to them, both so they're familiar with your work, and so they can catch any obvious problems with the document. It's not their job, of course, to proofread your work or even to review the entire document in great detail before the defense, but they should have the option to read it, and you may find their suggestions are more helpful if you give them more time to review. Otherwise, you may find yourself referring to portions of the written dissertation during your defense despite having only made the material available for a few days. The material is less likely to be surprising if you give your committee ample time to see it beforehand.

So, if your question is "am I good?" then your answer is "possibly, but don't make peoples' lives harder than they already are." A defense is not a good time to irritate your committee members. Give them a week, at least.


This is known as the "Administrative Site Visit and Verification Program" (USCIS site link) and it's not a response to the Trump administration; the site was last updated on 2014. Not every H1B applicant will be visited. So, chance is you'll find more "never heard of it" than "oh yeah."

And I highly doubt if there has been an increase in rate of visits in the last two weeks since the new presidency; this kind of measures seems too much of a finesse compared to what had been passed down from the executives.


Difference between HS & college math teaching

There are several pretty big differences. Perhaps not all of these would apply, and not all of them are appropriate to mention in an interview context, but here are a few:

You will likely be teaching students older than yourself (depending on your own age). This can be intimidating if a lot of your classroom presence and authority derives from age. You can't use lines like "because I said so" or "you'll find out when you're older" - not that you should in high school, either, but you're more likely to get away with it there.
Discipline might be different. You can't send adults to detention (and adults includes both mature students returning to study to reskill, and 18yo kids whose parents are insisting they get some kind of an education despite their protests).
Academically, you may be required to teach a higher level of maths. Not all classes offered by the college will be high school remedial level, and the college may want to know if your own mathematical knowledge is sufficient.
"College is not free" can lead to students expecting more of you than you believe is appropriate academically: "I'm paying a lot of money to be here, so you have to give me more notes/help/assistance/marks..."
Nobody has to be there (depending on attendance requirements at your college, but they can always just not take your class). Attendance may vary significantly more than in high school, with some weeks being almost empty and others (near due dates) crowded with students with a months' worth of questions each. Controlling this can be difficult.
You might need to hold office hours outside of class times, and depending on the needs of your students, possibly have classes or office hours outside of regular business hours (such as evening classes).
Students are much more likely to see you as being "on their level", and you may feel the same. It's nice to be friendly, but the boundaries between teacher and student are a lot more blurred and it might take more effort to avoid friendly or romantic relationships.


Go to Google Scholar.

Search for label:discipline (such as "label:nutrigenomics").
If the discipline contains more than one word, then use an
underscore to separate the words (e.g.
"label:international_relations").

Click on "Profiles" in the menu.

The result should be a list of scholars (who have set up Google
Scholar profiles) within the selected discipline, sorted by citations. Like here.


What are the challenges to publishing a paper when you have a huge number of collaborators?

I have recently been the primary organizer and lead author on a large-scale collaboration, in my case an inter-laboratory study that took place over two years and with more than 100 contributing teams.

The paper has been accepted and is currently in press, and my experience so far has been actually a remarkably low amount of pain.  The way in which we organized the study and the subsequent writeup had very clear roles, so there was never any question of having 600+ people trying to collaboratively write up a document.  Instead, I led the writing with help from the other core authors; once we were satisfied with the draft, we circulated it to the whole community of authors for review, consent, and corrections, with a one-week deadline for responses.  Lots of small corrections came back: we integrated them and submitted the paper as planned.

With all of those eyes on the paper, it is perhaps unsurprising that the reviewers requested only truly minor revisions, which meant there was no need to involve the entire community in the revision, just the core authors.  A live-updated draft has always been available to the full community, however (Overleaf is great for this purpose), and additional small corrections have continued to trickle in, up to the very final revision.

In short, then, we simply short-circuited the challenge of many authors by using the project organization to divide into a small group that managed the actual writing of the paper and a much larger group that gave advice and consent.  There was one very busy week while the bulk of the feedback was coming in, but other than that it has not been very difficult to manage the paper-writing process in the least, and it appears to have been a good experience for all involved.


Who benefits from the anonymity of the peer review process?

The readers and the editors can benefit.

I know this is a contended issue, and there are many different views.

But as you've asked specifically whether there's somebody else who is interested in the reviewer remaining anonymous, let's just look at that.

As a reader, I want the peer review to have been fair and thorough.

If the reviewer is able to review freely, without fear of comeback, then they can be much more frank. They can shoot down a bad paper, even if one of the authors or one of their colleagues could hold some kind of power over the reviewer, whether it be funding, future job applications, peer reviews with the roles switched, whatever. Anonymity may enable reviewers to be more frank, more honest, and more direct in their reviews. And that directness can be of benefit to the editors, too.

I'm not saying this is the way. I'm not saying this has to be the way. I'm discussing possibilities here.

It would be great to have some solid evidence on the pros and cons of anonymity. At the moment, there seems to be a great deal of discussion, but I don't see much science on the subject.


Is it possible to acquire a letter of recommendation without meeting face to face?

Is it possible to acquire a LOR without having a face to face meet up/agreement?

Yes, of course. It happens all the time. People are not always geographically co-located with their letter writers.

If you are worried your professor might not remember who you are without a face-to-face meeting, then the major concern is whether he will be able to write a strong letter for someone he barely remembers without a visual reminder - not whether you have met to discuss the letter in person.


Any way to get credit for publications that I drafted as a fellow for a law professor?

What you are describing is actually ethical misconduct. If you were the primary drafter of an article, then you should have been listed as an author on those papers; the fact that you have not is inexcusable on the part of the professor. In the scientific world, such a revelation coming to light would be sufficient grounds for retraction of the articles in question.

So right now, the problem is that if you try to claim ownership, you may be creating a lot of problems. I don't know what the right solution is, but you should definitely talk with someone at your law school such as an ombudsperson before talking to your advisor. The last thing you need right now is having a former advisor who can "spike" letters of recommendation.


University is not issuing me my convocation certificate

Assuming that it is a lack of communication that is causing your problem, you need a way to create the needed conversation to get the problem resolved.

I'd suggest sending an email to both the department head and the college office explaining the difficulty and asking for a resolution. This should be one mail, addressed to both offices so that you put them in direct communication with each other.

You may learn something from whatever response you get from either or both parties. If the problem goes beyond communication, you need to know that in order to figure out what else might be done.

But you need, also, to phrase things respectfully, even if you don't feel it. Calling names such as you used in an earlier question here will only get you ignored.


Team conflict in a large research project

Deal with the issue head-on: send an email apologising for the ambiguity and saying that you weren't trying to be critical or suggest others weren't pulling their weight. That you wrote the email in haste and didn't phrase it well as a result.

Don't wait for others to draw their own conclusions. It's very easy to misunderstand a terse email.

It's probably also worth talking to the grad student in person, if you haven't already done so, to make the same points and defuse any ill feeling.


Can I do a PhD after being out of academia for 5-10 years?

Why would you want to do the PhD?

I don't ask this question to be nasty, but you really do need to know why you want to do it. I am currently working for a PhD in subjects that I have not studied or practised for 50 years (yes! 5-oh).

I could not have afforded to interrupt my reasonably successful professional career to take on academic research that would not have enhanced my subsequent career, but, in my case, having ended my professional career I was free to pursue my academic interests.

I know why I am doing it, and am very happy with that choice, but the crucial thing is to be really clear with yourself about your motives.


Is using the phrase "... is left as an exercise for the reader" considered good style in academic papers/theses?

I believe it's only appropriate in the type of writing where you are in a position to give the reader excercises. That is, in course books or other learning material. There, I think it's fine, assuming you've already given enough information for them to be able to perform such an excercise.

In papers or theses, you're actually trying to convince the reader that you're right - the reader is in the position of power, not you, as you want something from them (to accept your ideas) and not vice versa. Therefore, I'd never write such a phrase in a paper or thesis.

It's of course a viable requirement to leave out some parts of the work, either because of space constraints or because they're trivial, long but straightforward, would derail the course of the text, or something similar. If possible, such parts can be delegated to an appendix, or left out entirely. But I would accompany this with different phrasing, something like this:

  The formula (7) can be obtained from (6) using straightforward application of [insert appropriate math branch here]

  A detailed proof of statement (4) unfortunately exceeds the scope of this paper.

  The derivation of (3) from (1) is too long to present here, but it can be worked out using a symbolic computation system such as Mathematica.

  Equation (7) follows from a straightforward application of this-or-that theorem to equation (5); we refer the reader to existing literature on the topic for details of this.


Generally I would say No, people do not put restrictions on CVs unless specifically asking for it.

In a case such as the one you decribe you should send a complete CV that lists everything that can be meriting for the position you will apply for. The following would be of interest:

A brief description of your drive and interest to pursue a PhD
Course work includig grades
Scientific/equivalent experience is a given of course.
Any publications and scientific/equivalent reports you have written. If you have some significant report/thesis that you have written during your education, you can list that as well. I would say that any report longer than, say, 10 pages of text might be useful to list. In such cases you should perhaps add inwhat context (Course) the text was written. In the end what a person looking for a PhD position will be looking for is someone who can successfully complete work and write it up in written form.
Scientific/equivalent presentations in a public context, open department seminar, scientific meeting etc.
Any academic work experience such as working inlabs etc.
General work experience. This can be listed to highlght work experience of any kind. This shows how active you are.
Anything else that you think will be meriting.

If you have written a paper (thesis) of some sort, provide a copy. Only one, the most important though. If you do not have one that is fine, no one would expect you to have written much.

Despite the length of the list try to make it brief and clear so that it can be assessed with ease. ry to find a good layout that make sthe structure easy to see.


Using Fiverr for proofreading/editing essays

Answering your questions:

1-Does it count as academic fraud? Has any University taken action against students who have used online proofreading websites in the past?

No. fraud is intentional deception to secure unlawful gain. Proofreading is not a problem. In fact, many universities and event governments demand professional translation and proofreading for important papers and/or tramits if they are in a language different than the official one.  The thing is that proofreading is done after you already wrote your work, so it is still your work. The problem is when you use a service to write the work itself.

2-Can the seller use my essay to write other essays? If yes, will it lead to plagiarism

Yes and no. Yes because they can indeed grab the text and paste it in a new doc, which would be indeed plagiarism on their part and fault.If you publish it first then you are protected by author's rights. And No because an essay has a personal way of writing and it's on a very specific topic, which makes it hard to use directly without it being obvious.

3-Would you personally recommend using Fiverr?

Yes. If you are just proofreading. But do check the qualifications of the people offering the service first. Being native to a language does not mean people are aware of the language and it's rule, which is specially common for monolinguals. Also check with some editorial agency to contrast prices, not to mention that any of these agencies can give you written proof that it isnt/wont be used for other works. I understand the price for this is a concern, more so for a mere essay, so I can suggest you check a language teacher/school. They can proofread too, possible at a a decent price, and they will understand better what you meant to say in your original language.


Are there any aspects of PhD work that do not translate well to distance learning?

A general answer is that a lot of PhD training is informal: it involves things that are taught by example, by osmosis, by noticing someone doing something wrong and correcting them (or right, and praising them). This kind of informal training is much more difficult in online interactions. Some examples are given below...

One specific aspect that does not translate well to online learning is the cross-pollination of ideas via proximity.

A big part of training PhD students involves putting a bunch of smart, talented, hardworking people together and letting them learn from, motivate, support, and bounce ideas off one another. A prerequisite for this is proximity; you just can't have the same kind of interactions over email. Some research centers are explicitly designed to encourage this. At the Bell Labs facility in Murray Hill, NJ,

  Some of the hallways in the building were designed to be so long that to look down their length was to see the end disappear at a vanishing point. Traveling the hall’s length without encountering a number of acquaintances, problems, diversions and ideas was almost impossible.

(Source: New York Times)

The research center I currently work in was built with a long hallway with this in mind, specifically to foster collaboration between students in different groups!

Another thing that does not translate well is learning scientific communication and mentoring skills. As a PhD student, I have many chances to practice speaking about my work to other graduate students, professors, and undergraduates. I also get to mentor M.S., B.S., and high school students in my lab. These skills are much more difficult to learn over distance.

A third thing that does not work well over email and Skype is learning the etiquette and standards of the field. This is something that isn't explicitly taught (usually) but that students are expected to pick up by osmosis from spending time with other academics and others in their field.


How to get recognition of research as an independent autodidact?

You need not have any institutional affiliation to submit your work to the usual peer-reviewed journals. The only downside to lack of affiliation is that people might wonder "who you are". But there's no rule against anyone in the world submitting...

The "gotcha" is that if your writing style, formatting, referencing, and so on do not approximately conform to the standards of the milieu, people will almost surely reject your submission out of hand. That is, it is critical that you not communicate any sort of "crackpottery", which is often signalled simply by extreme, random non-conformity to simple professional standards.

So you might want to try to get advice from a seasoned professional, who knows the "parlance/standards/prejudices" of the profession. This may not be easy, especially if you approach them with a snarky or combative attitude, but I'd wager that you really do need this help.

That is, to get any kind of hearing, you "need" to demonstrate that you can comply, to some extent, with the implicit conformity demands of the milieu. Otherwise people won't pay attention to you at all. No, of course, this is not any official statement, but it is obviously the mechanism in almost every human activity.


Data supporting educational entertainment media as an ineffective method to stimulate students to learn academic concepts outside of the classroom?

If you consider the ability to perform robotic surgery a 'classroom concept', there is this study showing that surgeons who play video games are doing better:

http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=399740&resultClick=1

On the other hand, it cites an earlier study that links violent video-game use (for kids) to lower grades:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197103000927


What date should I put on a paper that I hand in to my teacher?

Regardless of whether it is homework or any other sort of technical document, the correct date to put on a technical document is the date of its most recent revision.  If the history is important, other dates can be added as well (e.g. the submitted/revised/accepted dates on some journal papers).

As for your professors never saying anything... they likely had no reason or even ability to discriminate between the different systems you used to date, and it likely did not matter for the purposes of the class.


Quitting PhD program during a probationary period and applying for other programs

If you are in the middle of a "probationary period," then you should feel no qualms about having to apply elsewhere. You tried to make the current position work, but you feel it is not a good fit for you. That's the whole point of the period—it's a tryout for everyone!

Obviously, working somewhere for two months is not enough for someone to form a strong opinion of your true capabilities, so I would not ask your present advisor for the recommendations you need to look elsewhere.

As far as your supervisor goes, I wouldn't worry about it too much; after all, your advisor may also feel that this isn't the best situation, and may think ti better to go your separate ways than to continue. Again, you're in the probationary period, not halfway through a PhD, so the overall commitment of time and resources is not enough to really justify (much) anger or resentment on the part of the PI.


Is it hard to get a scholarship for graduate school in Mathematics?

At most US universities, Ph.D. students in mathematics usually receive full financial support that covers tuition as well as a modest stipend (i.e. money paid to you directly for your living expenses, usually between $15,000-25,000 per year).  This is normally some combination of:

Teaching assistantship: requires that you teach.  Often this starts with discussion sections for calculus and other introductory courses, and can progress to more specialized courses.
Research assistantship: requires that working on research (usually your own thesis research, but sometimes a different project).  This often comes from your advisor's grant funds.
Fellowship: doesn't require you to do any extra work, just your usual coursework or research.

In my experience, the word "scholarship" is not usually used when talking about funding for graduate study.

Note that the above only applies to Ph.D. programs.  Masters students generally have to pay their own tuition and living expenses (perhaps via loans), though sometimes a limited number of teaching assistantships, etc, are available.


Having caused a lab accident, how to mend my relationships with fellow students?

It results in a lot of unnecessary administrative work and greatly slows down our research progress.

If you do something, intentional or unintentional, that causes more work for others, you are going to be resented. In my opinion, the best way to minimize the resentment is if you are seen as being proactive in taking on your share of the new work. I would suggest you step up and take on a significant portion of any new group work related to the fire. If labs need to be move/rearranged to comply with fire safety standards, it would be best if you came in on the weekends/nights to help people. If the department needs a fire safety officer or first aiders, it would be in your best interest to volunteer. If a new committee has been formed to deal with fire safety compliance, ask to be on it.


Review or research paper for junior undergraduate students

Research papers by their very nature need to often focus on a very, very small and specialized topic. This means that it is hard to get an overview of the field by just reading research papers. Reviews are generally better at that. However, those reviews often still depend on the reader being familiar with what was previously done in that field. So beginning students often still struggle with these papers. Of particular use to students and researchers entering a new field are reviews aimed at a more general audience. For example, in economics there is an entire journal aimed at this type of review: the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Once you have an overview of the field, you can decide what kind of sub-topic interests you and find a research article. You can use those articles to refine your knowledge, and learn about the typical structure of a reseach article.


The Pros and Cons of Volunteering in Organizing Workshop in High Prestigious Conference

There's a lot of work involved in organising workshops, but as the most junior member of the committee, you're not likely to be asked to take the lead on soliciting for sponsors and so on. There would probably be a lot of grunt work involved for a few days leading up to the workshop and perhaps scattered calls on your time here and there overall.

If organising a workshop prevented researchers from doing their primary research, I doubt that any researcher would volunteer for the job. Getting to meet leading researchers in your field on a personal basis is a 'Pro' that you shouldn't dismiss too quickly. You could end up discussing their pet theories while driving them around or asking them about your own research over lunch. Or you might be assigned to stack chairs and have to make your own opportunities.

The opportunities are there for the taking, and the time commitment shouldn't be onerous. It would be wise to ask previous committee members about their experience, especially about whether / how it impacted their research. You can also speak with the workshop chair about how much time you have available for the role, should you take it up. This would help you judge whether it is practical for you to volunteer in this instance.


Does it make sense to publish papers/ theses online?

My goal is to earn a bit with the texts

My understanding of book publishing is that making money is really hard, and even harder if you do not have the backing of an established publisher. Established publishers often have contracts with university libraries that guarantee them a minimum number of sales. They generally like authors who will then teach off the book which gives them some more sales. When the author convinces colleagues at other schools to teach with the book also, profits can be made. You do not seem to have that type of network, so I doubt you will make any money.

The hit rate of established publishers to actually turn a profit is pretty low. With their network and approach, their costs are generally covered such that a couple of successful books is all they need. This means they scoop up anything that even remotely has a chance of being profitable.


What are the opportunities to do research under good professors/organisations?

This is a common scenario for many students. The answer really depends on your flexibility and any networking you have done. If you are willing to live in any country and gain the appropriate visas and work for nothing, then you will have more opportunities than if you restrict yourself to a single university and require to be paid competitively. Ideally you will have some professors who can help you find a lab that might be interested in your services. Otherwise you will need to do a lot of work to find someone who is willing to look at your CV.

Another option is to simply set your sights on a lower ranked MS program and do well in that.


Do people want to work in overseas branches?

You will have to ask these specific people to know the exact details. But in general, in the UK, the employer cannot force you to relocate unless you have a mobility clause in your contract and the relocation is reasonable. It's unlikely that the employees had a relocation clause to Malaysia right from the start, and asking an employee to relocate halfway around the world is probably not reasonable. So no, these people certainly volunteered to move abroad.

More generally, most (tenured) academics expect to be considered more like citizens of their universities than the usual work-related subordination relationship implies, and tend to want to have some agency in defining their working conditions and goals. In particular, this implies stable employment conditions unless the employee wants to change.

As for why they wanted to move abroad: there can be plenty of reasons. They want to form new collaborations with people from there. They want to strengthen existing collaborations with people they already work with. They want to take up the challenge of teaching to students in another country. Their pay is better compared to the local standards of living. They want to learn a new language. They want to discover a new country. Etc.

(PS: This isn't the 16th century anymore. The mindset of thinking "We'll open up an establishment in the colonies to spread our wealth and knowledge for the indigenous people" should be a thing of the past. There are simply smart people living and working in Malaysia, and the university of Southampton wants to work with these people.)


What words to describe "revisions" and "resubmission" to distinguish revise and resubmit versus submission to new journal following rejection?

I personally tend to distinguish these words as follows:

"Revise" and "Resubmit" are reserved exclusively for updating a manuscript with the same journal.
Shifting to another journal is "Editing" and "Submitting again"


Does the order in which you list committee members in a dissertation matter?

Probably you are overthinking it. If they have different roles you can list them with their role and avoid ordering problems. Otherwise I'd consider alphabetical.

I'll admit that in some fields there may be a tradition about how to do it, but I've never heard of that. And note that in some circles the one listed last is considered the most prominent. It is hard to really draw conclusions, hence alphabetical.

And, your advisor might have some good advice about this.


Can you cite a workshop or conference in a paper?

The issue here is that conversations are not normally "on the record." The point of a citation is verification: you are giving credit by citing the "original source" that you are using. Since you would not really be pointing them to material actually associated with the workshop, you should cite "Private Communication" with the involved individuals—although you could cite the event as the "location and date" fields for the communication.


Retract an already submitted recommendation letter (written for an undergrad student)

I think you should do nothing.

(Nothing with respect to the letter, that is.  You may of course want to consider intervening with the student as you would with any other student whose performance suddenly drops off.  As Azor Ahai says, he may be experiencing some sort of academic or non-academic problem.)

  By putting my name on the letter I effectively vouched for him and his ability to perform at a certain level. To me, it's as if I made a promise to the other university, but now I see that I misled them (albeit unintentionally).

I don't see it that way.  You couldn't possibly make promises about his future performance, and the receiving university will not have interpreted it that way.    They are well aware that "past performance is no guarantee of future results". Provided you made an honest assessment based on what you knew at the time, your letter was in no way misleading, and you have no obligation to correct it.

Proactively sending a followup unrecommendation would come across as somewhat vindictive, and I think it's sort of an ethical gray area.  The student consented to having you send a letter, sharing his academic progress, at a particular time; I think it's a little questionable whether that consent extends to having you send additional letters.  (However, if the other university should contact you to ask about him, I do think it would be appropriate to give them an update on his more recent work - but to me that feels different.)

That said, I don't think the student is really likely to profit from this anyway:

Your initial letter, saying "I've known him for half a semester and so far he's doing fine in this one class", can't really have done much good for his application in the first place.  If the other university is "much stronger", having such a letter, in place of a very positive letter from someone that knew him well, may have sunk his application from the outset.
If he does receive an offer of admission, it will almost certainly be contingent on continued satisfactory academic progress.  The other university will review his final transcripts before he actually starts in the program.  If he receives a poor grade in your class, they may very well revoke his admission.  Indeed, discussing this possibility with the student may encourage him to shape up.


Strategy for submission of articles to highly ranked journals

I am not an editor so I don't think I can definitely say how editors treat this, but I suspect that if you keep sending manuscripts that are not appropriate to the journal, it won't be helpful in promoting your next submission and won't gain you respect. Consider the fact that you have to convince the editor why your manuscript is important in the cover letter - you don't want to keep sending a paper every week saying it is the most important paper of the decade. Even as a reviewer I can tell you it is annoying to review a paper that is clearly not suited for the journal (although maybe it is the editor's fault that it passed to review in the first place).

If you think your manuscript fits a high-impact journal, it is fine to try a few journals to increase your chances. But try to be sincere with yourself - many papers belong to specialized journals, and that is fine.

Another fact you might want to consider is that high-impact journals tend to get recognized experts in the field as reviewers. You probably don't want to gain a bad reputation in those circles. Second, the pool of experts can be pretty small which could mean that when you resubmit to a different high-impact journal, you will get the same reviewer or someone who already heard about the paper and is biased (yes, sometimes reviewers mention papers they review to colleagues).

So the bottom line is: it is ok to resubmit a few times, but be careful not to overdo it.


What happens to a research group when a principal investigator (P.I.) dies? Is it common to have existing contingency plans?

No. The nice thing about most academic departments is that the bus factor is fairly high such that if an individual PI is incapacitated, there is generally enough slack in the system to compensate.

Most funding bodies allow for contingencies. They understand that things happen and that the funding often affects people other than the PI. In the case of the death of a PI, the funder would likely allow for a change in PI to take place. If there is not a single PI who has the required administrative and scientific experiences, co-PIs can be appointed (e.g., someone who has managed grants before and a post-doc who understands the research).

Experiments being run by PhD students, post docs, and RAs, would likely continue unchanged. Experiments being run directly by the PI would probably cease immediately unless there were ethical concerns (think a drug trial). In these cases there is probably someone else involved or a contingency plan in place.

Supervision of PhD students would likely be covered by someone else on the thesis committee.

Teaching and committee responsibilities would simply be reassigned. Immediate teaching duties will often be given to a post doc or graduate student.


Should response to an email of accepted article with some comments

It is probably worth doing that, unless your revised paper can be re-submitted very soon. Don't leave them in suspense. You might even want to give an approximate date by which you will have the revisions ready.


Is it possible to automatically obtain cited-by lists?

Try OpenCitations.
Using OpenCitations' COCI (guideline for their REST API here), you should see all references to {DOI} via https://opencitations.net/index/coci/api/v1/citations/{DOI}.
Example: There are 243 works citing the paper 10.1177/03058298020310031201 (according to CrossRef: is-referenced-by: 243). Use this DOI in COCI to see all these 243 references DOI-by-DOI.


Letterhead in application letters for tenure-track in computer science in USA?

I've served for 15 years on my (top-5 US computer science) department's faculty recruiting committee, including three as committee chair.

At least in my department, whether your cover letter uses letterhead  Does. Not. Matter. Really.  The hiring committee is looking at the information in your application; formatting is at best a secondary concern.  Most committee members will never even read your cover letter, because all the relevant information is repeated elsewhere: In your CV, your research and teaching statements, your web page, your DBLP profile, your Google Scholar profile, and especially your recommendation letters.  I did read cover letters as committee chair, but only because that made it slightly easier to classify applications into our target research areas.

As a sanity check, I just went through a random sample of the candidates that my committee rated highly in last year's faculty search.  About half of their cover letters were on institutional letterhead.


What to do (years later) with otherwise good student who has accidentally plagiarised part of PhD thesis?

Did any of the plagiarized material make it into journal papers, or was it all literature review that was never published outside of the thesis?

If some of it made it into papers, then it's important to contact the journals and publish corrections.  This is more straightforward and predictable than dealing with the thesis itself.  If the plagiarism is confined to background material, then I don't think retracting the papers would be necessary.  Instead, I expect it would be possible to publish a correction that indicates the plagiarized portions and provides citations.  This would be embarrassing and would hurt her reputation a little, but it would solve the problem as far as the papers were concerned.  It would also strengthen the student's case for dealing with the thesis if she can say she voluntarily corrected the publications and did not need to retract any of them.

If none of the plagiarized material was published elsewhere, then it's trickier.  Once all the original results are published in research papers, I doubt anyone will read the thesis and discover the plagiarism.  Even if they do, they might take pity on the student and ignore the plagiarism.  (I once ignored some mild plagiarism of my writing in the background sections of a thesis at another university.  The student had already graduated, and I found no evidence of plagiarism in any of his research papers.  If I knew for sure he could just file a correction to the thesis, then that would make sense, but I wouldn't want to potentially destroy his career over this mistake.)  So she might well get away with it if she doesn't say anything.  Still, I'd advise her to officially confess to the university.  Turning herself in is likely to lead to a much better outcome than being caught by someone else.  Plus it's the right thing to do, and it will save her from years of worrying about getting caught.

  We both risk losing our jobs, and she is at risk of losing her degree as well (which, by the way, was a very strong thesis with a good number of top journal publications).

Unless your university is extraordinarily strict, I don't think your job is in jeopardy.  On the other hand, the student's degree or job might be, depending on how the university handles the situation.  Based on your description, I think it would be unfair for her career to be ruined, but I can't predict what will actually happen.  I hope your administration's sense of fairness is the same as mine, in which case a correction will suffice.

The hardest situation will be if she decides to remain silent.  In that case you probably have an obligation to turn her in, and it would look terrible if anyone found out that you knew but didn't say anything.  On the other hand, turning her in would be a tough decision.  Much better for her to turn herself in voluntarily.


Is it possible to keep publishing under my professional (maiden) name, different from my married legal name?

Yes. You get to decide what name appears on your publications.


Do you have to have PhD or employed in academia to publish a textbook?

No, there are never any degree requirements in academic publications.

I am in the field of mathematics, and I have some colleagues who published academic books while in graduate school and even, in a few cases, as undergraduates.  There are also academic textbooks published by people who have no degrees whatsoever in that field.

It is possible that the editors and reviewers will look into your credentials and may apply a bit more scrutiny to someone without a terminal degree...but more scrutiny when it comes to textbook publishing is not necessarily a bad thing.  In any case, if the book really is good they'll be happy to publish it no matter who you are.


Tool to manage and/or make available a list of my publications on the web?

You could consider hosting it via one of the reference / citation managers, such as CiteULike or Mendeley, which can take imports of Bibtex files. Your own university may (should!) have such a web-front plus publication database available, for you to embed into your university home page.

Wordpress

If your webpage is hosted directly on wordpress.com, then no, you can't host your own PHP script. If it's Wordpress hosted elsewhere, then you should be able to add your own PHP script, by incorporating into your plugin. There are skeleton plugins available to get you started. It may be that asking on Wordpress.SE will give you some useful pointers.

Mendeley

On Mendeley: there is an embedding plugin for Wordpress. I haven't used it, but it might be worth looking into. Or, on your Mendeley profile web page, select edit, then embed. Or Share > Embed elsewhere on Mendeley pages (groups or whatever).

There's an article on Beta Science on embedding Mendeley that may be useful. It uses the same Share > Embed as above, but recommends creating a "Publications" group in the desktop client first, putting your own papers into that, (in order, from oldest to newest).
Then right-click -> Edit Settings, then under "Collection Access" choose "Public - visible to everyone". Then click "Apply and Sync". Then, from the collection web page, select "embed" to get the appropriate html.

CiteULike

If you prefer CiteULike, they have an excellent API, allowing you to customise your own tools. And the staff on the discussion forum are very responsive (a marked contrast with Mendeley).

Academia.edu

If you prefer Academia.edu, you could always embed your publications page (and maybe your talks page too) in an iframe


If the arXiv had referees, would conventional journal publications still make sense?

I used to think in a way similar to the question, but I had a meaningful conversation with a prestigious scholar one time in graduate school, who pointed out that I was missing a key purpose of journals: permanent archival.

The arXiv has been around for about 25 years. We have no idea whether the papers on it will be readable in 100 years. But we know that we can read documents on paper from ancient Egypt, and we have every reason to  believe that journals printed on paper and stored in archival libraries can last just as long.

The scholar I spoke with was not particularly worried about refereeing. He was worried about whether his work would still be available in 1000 years. Of course, I didn't ask him if he thought anyone would still be interested in it :)


Unfortunately, arXiv's internal search is not smart enough to consider search queries with and without diacritic equivalent.

Searching for "Čech complex" on arXiv's paper titles provides 11 results, all with the diacritical on the PDF.

Searching for "Cech complex" (without the diacritical) provides 7 results, all of which do have the diacritical on the PDF.

A similar search for "Cramér Rao" (51 results, almost all with diacritical on PDF) and "Cramer Rao" (48 results, more than half have the diacritical on the PDF) shows a similar trend.

It seems like it is not a problem at all to have a diacritic appear on the PDF but not on the submission form (your options 2 and 3). It also seems like there is a slight majority of people that choose to include the diacritic everywhere (option 1), which is also what I would do if this is a name I have chosen for my newly introduced method. After all, you do not want most people to get this new name wrong.


In a tenure-track position application; Is it appropriate to ask for recommendation letter from a professor for whom I only served as a TA?

It depends on the school. At a SLAC (small liberal arts college), the hiring committee members will pay more attention to teaching experience and may be more willing to be impressed by a Big Name®.

At a R1, faculty are not only inoculated against Big Names®, but they have enough experience with individual Big Names® to read between the lines of otherwise blandly positive letters with hermeneutic vigor.

I've been repeatedly surprised by my senior colleagues discussing letters from other Big Names® with "he only wrote two pages of song and praise? He must not have liked that person" or of a fairly damning letter with, "she's a grouch. The fact that she wrote at all means that this person is brilliant." Context is important.

A letter that spoke only of your teaching and not of your research would be seen as faint praise in this milieu.

Note that I'm in the humanistic social sciences at an R1. Your mileage may vary.

TL;DR: save the references from this person for SLACs where the praise for your teaching ability will be seen as a strong positive.

Also note that at larger R1s, we are familiar with the difference in writing styles between American (where everything is excessively effusive) and European/Asian letters (where a strong letter of recommendation reads: "Jon Smith was a member of my lab from 2005/10/1 to 2012/5/1. His work was perfectively adequate with no complaints. Sincerely, XX"). Smaller institutions may not have that experience and in those circumstances, you may ask one of your American letter writers to include a short paragraph noting that European counterparts thought highly of you but that might not show up in the letters in the hyperbolic form we are used to in the United States.


What to do when co-authors want to submit manuscript for publication and you think it still has problems?

I wanted to add a fourth possibility to @artalexan's nice answer that might be more diplomatic:

Make the paper technically correct with the results you have (even if preliminary) and submit to the current venue.

The major problem with submitting the paper is that it is dishonest, not that it is preliminary.

If the paper can be made technically correct and honest -- even if the results are preliminary -- it would be fine to at least submit it and let the reviewers judge if it is mature enough.

If you are a co-author, you should have the power to edit the misleading text. If the main author is stopping your efforts to do that, then ask to be removed from the paper.

Of course if the results themselves are incorrect (rather than preliminary) there may be no saving the paper.

On a side note, the attitude of the senior researcher in question towards publishing may be productive in the short term (getting some initial papers published quickly by misleading reviewers), but it is utterly counter-productive in the long run. Having a reputation for sloppy results/writing will seriously harm the trust that reviews/readers have in your paper ... and reputation is so important in research! I don't know your situation, but if the researcher shows no inclination to change their attitude, try to put distance between yourself and them.


I'm of the opinion that internet access should be absolutely forbidden or impossible during exams. It's a can of worms that is best left tightly sealed.

Every modern tablet computer, and most e-readers, have Wi-Fi capability – therefore internet access. Really, it only makes sense to allow these if it is non-trivial to access the internet and if you have sufficient deterrents in place for the more determined cheaters.

If the exams are held in a lecture block that is isolated from any offices or research labs, it should be feasible to request that the Wi-Fi network is turned off for the duration of the exam.
Some tablets and e-readers have cellular network capabilities. For an exam with many students, this might be difficult to police. But if you check the model of each tablet or e-reader on entry to the exam and remove the SIM cards, that will remove their internet access. Unless the student puts a fake, inactive one in the device and keeps their active card in their pocket, that is.
The Kindle 3G e-ink readers (perhaps others, too) do not have user-accessible SIM cards. Sure, web browsing on them is a pain and limited to 50MB / month – but you can still have email or webchat conversations with a friend on their computer at home who is telling you the answers. You cannot reasonably ban Kindle 3G readers but allow iPads.
Anything with Wi-Fi capability can connect to an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network that someone created with their cellphone hidden in their bag that they left at the front of the room. This is absurdly easy to set up, though it is also possible to detect hidden SSIDs which would alert you to a possible cheater.

As the years pass, although it does seem increasingly unreasonable to disallow e-readers into an open book exam, allowing networked devices owned and controlled by the students will make cheating easier. All we can do is make it hard enough to deter casual offending. A determined cheater will always find a way.

Other than locking everyone inside a Faraday cage, you simply cannot stop people who have their own devices from accessing the internet. You do your best to find them, though!

Other mitigation strategies might be:

Increased presence of invigilators. If the exam is held either in a room with individual desks, or in a lecture hall with every second row empty, it is easier for the invigilators to see up close what everyone is doing. If there were 6 to 10 invigilators in an exam hall of 100 students, as opposed to the usual 2, that might be a sufficient deterrent.
Use electronic surveillance / prevention, such as a PocketHound.
Ban all electronic devices, but have enough copies of the course textbook in the library so that anyone who does not have one can borrow a copy. This might get expensive for a large class!
Hand out university-provided e-readers to everyone without a paper copy. If the network capabilities are locked down under a password, this should be safe. Again, not a cheap or easy option.
Only allow one or several pages of handwritten notes into the exam. In most subjects, spending too much time flipping through a textbook during the exam is a waste of time and an indication of a lack of study. The time spent in carefully curating a "cheat sheet" is usually worth far more in the exam than the cheat sheet itself. Is a full open book policy really necessary? If every question needs the student to refer to a textbook, perhaps the exam isn't asking the right sort of questions.


Advisor is moving. Issues with quitting PhD and settling for a MSc

Honesty is the best policy. It means you should not lie. It does not mean you must say everything about yourself on your resume. For example, you do not need to say where you attended high school on the resume. If you do not have PhD, do not say you have it. If you have MSc, say you have it. You do not need to say you were doing PhD unless they ask you that question.

If and when they ask you whether you were doing PhD, you should tell the truth with brief explanation why you did not get it. This will hurt your chance getting an academic job. Most industry people would not care that much. They are more concerned with your ability to make money. However, you probably will not get an industry job if PhD is part of job requirement.(Some companies do want PhD only)

You need to ask the international student office at your school or immigration office to see the requirement for F-1 visa. They are the authority to answer that question. We are not.

Internship is always helpful. You gain experience which you can put on the resume.


Can I ask a lecturer for letter of recommendation

If you're applying for a research-based position, it is almost always better to have letters of recommendation from people who know you and can comment on your research skills.

However, if you do not have enough letters of recommendation that can come from such people, then a letter of recommendation from someone who knows your work well and can comment on your strengths and weaknesses is also acceptable—even if it is not a "permanent faculty member."


What is the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement?

To the best of my understanding the two differ in the following way:

Plagiarism is primarily an ethical issue: it refers to a false claim of creative work.
Copyright is primarily a legal issue: is refers to use of a work without a legal right to do so.

They can be confusing to differentiate because a person committing one is also often committing the other as well.  However, it is possible to violate copyright without plagiarizing and to plagiarize without violating copyright.  For example:

Darwin's "Origin of Species" text is old enough that it has entered the public domain, and thus is no longer protected by copyright.  A person who claimed chunks of it as their own would be plagiarizing, but not violating copyright.
If a person reproduces an image in a new paper with appropriate citation to its original but fails to pay the publisher of the original paper a $35 fee that publisher demands, then they have not plagiarized, but are in violation of copyright.

From a scientific perspective, plagiarism is a major problem, since it is a deliberate ethical violation that significantly undermines the credibility of the author.  Copyright violations, on their own, are much less of a big deal, since they may well be caused by legitimate misunderstanding or disagreement about the interpretation of a minor unclear point in a gigantic wall of legalese.

Thus, in the example given of image processing being applied to an unattributed image: if the contents of the image are not of scientific significance, I would interpret it as primarily an issue of copyright and thus not a significant violation worth reporting (as a scientist).


Inquiry for Ph.D admissions in European countries

PhD students in the Netherlands are usually employed by the university (these are AIO, or "assistent in opleiding", positions). As far as I know, anyone can apply for these jobs and it doesn't matter where you're from.

You apply directly to the faculty that is advertising the position, and after you are chosen for the position the university sponsors you through the visa process as a "knowledge migrant".


Admitted to a masters in Cambridge - no scholarship!

Here is the actual list of funding sources that may be available to you.
http://www.graduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/funding

But you should give their financial aid office a call. They're the definitive source for this kind of information, and they should be able to give you advice that is not listed on their web site.

Since you're in an EU country, your tuition should be comparable to what the British people pay. And because you're coming from an EU country, funds may be available to you solely because of that reason. And yes, loans can be a good investment, especially for what you'll be studying.

Obviously, if you were studying something like Archeology or Art History, I would try to steer you away from taking loans.


Tanked the GRE Writing section, should I retake before applying to CS Ph.D.?

Difficult question.  Some universities impose minimum scores to keep their selectivity rankings high. However, some advisors won't care, especially given the discipline.  If you're courting an advisor, let him or her know and ask for advice. If you're applying blindly to programs, the score will probably hurt.

At the same time, as an advisor I would see such a score disparity as a fluke, and probably interview you anyway.

In the end, it's a competitive environment. If you think you can do much better, then definitely retake it. Study first :)


Should I tell the interviewer that I solely rely on scholarship to finance my MBA?

I recommend being forthright with your interviewer: Answer if asked, but don't volunteer excessive information such as an explanation of why a scholarship is your only option. Aim for factual and try to avoid appearing as if you are seeking pity or extra consideration for your circumstances.


Typically grants are administered by institutions, and therefore the grant is really to the university and not the individual. Therefore, it is likely that you will be applying for funds on behalf of your new, rather than current, affiliation.

In that case, it certainly makes sense and is more or less necessary to include that new institution.

From the perspective of NIH, for example, they say explicitly:

  For individuals who are not currently located at the applicant organization, include the expected position at the applicant organization and the expected start date.

referring to the "biosketch" document which for NIH grants serves the purpose of a formatted CV. And also:

  If your proposed career development award will be at a different site than your current institution, the proposed sponsoring institution will be the applicant organization. You must affiliate your Commons account with that institution so that you have access to records submitted on your behalf.

(this is referring to the class of NIH grants that would most likely be applied for by someone transitioning from a post doc to asst. professor position)

I would suggest looking for similar instructions for whatever organizations you are applying for funding from. You also likely should be working with grant support people at your new institution.


How to write a Literature Review when I'm not researching anything

Figuring out what to put in a literature review usually involves taking a giant step back and thinking about (1) what someone needs to know in order to understand your work, and (2) how your work fits into the overall body of research. For example, you might want to address the following:

What are vector graphics (like SVG) and how do they differ from bitmap graphics (e.g. PNG).
Why is there an interest in automatically generating code?
What other attempts have been made to automatically generate code (not just from UI designs, but also from other types of designs like UML diagrams)?
How successful were these attempts?
What problems have been encountered?
What is the state of the art in automatic code generation today?
Why isn't automatic code generation more widely used?
What benefits and drawbacks are there for automatically generating code from a graphic, as opposed to from a drag-and-drop approach as is typically used in Visual Studio.


This issue has undoubtedly come up before, and your university probably has an explicit policy in place for how to deal with it.  For example, Harvard's policy says:

  It is the expectation of every course that all work submitted to it will have been done solely for that course. If the same or similar work is to be submitted to any other course, the prior written permission of the instructor must be obtained. If the same or similar work is to be submitted to more than one course during the same term, the prior written permission of all instructors involved must be obtained. A student who submits the same or similar work to more than one course without such prior permission is subject to disciplinary action, and ordinarily will be required to withdraw from the College.

Similarly, Yale's policy says:

  Students may not submit the same paper, or substantially the same paper, in more than one course. If topics for two courses coincide, a student must have written permission from both instructors before either combining work on two papers or revising an earlier paper for submission to a new course.

In particular, you should not improvise a response, unless you find out for sure that there is definitely no official policy (strange but possible).  If there is a policy, then it will specify what the rules are and how they should be enforced.


Contributing to a software project vs double blind review

I think you should submit the article to the venue of your choice, with a note to the editor/administrator explaining that although your names will not be on the paper when it goes out for review, a reviewer in your field could easily deduce your identity from the references to public software.
In double blind refereeing the onus on blindess is shared. You don't say who you are, and the referees don't try to find out. The fact that they might be able to identify you from something in your work is not necessarily your problem.


Applying to MSc vs PhD in CS with science background in US

I'm no expert, but with research experience and already having a Masters in physics, I think that you should directly apply to the PhD programs.  During your first two years, you're going to take courses anyway.  So unless you don't think that you'll be able to handle those courses, I think that doing another masters and then your PhD will be a waste of time and money.  It depends on where you want to go, but a lot of schools will make you take courses in your PhD even if you already have a masters in CS.


After revision: the paper is not anonymized - what does it mean?

To add to @Brian's answer, in double blind review besides submitting your manuscript without author names, you should eliminate any information about datasets, affiliation or previous works that may betray your identity. E.g. for an Elsevier journal here instructions for double blind review to authors say:

  Besides the obvious need to remove names and affiliations under the
  title within the manuscript, there are other steps that need to be
  taken to ensure the manuscript is correctly prepared for double-blind
  peer review.  To assist with this process the key items that need to
  be observed are as follows:

  Use the third person to refer to work the Authors have previously undertaken, e.g. replace any phrases like “as we have shown before”
  with “… has been shown before [Anonymous, 2007]”.
  Make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier
  Do not eliminate essential self-references or other references but limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those
  reviewing the submitted paper.
  Cite papers published by the Author in the text as follows:  ‘[Anonymous, 2007]’.  For blinding in the reference list:  ‘[Anonymous
  2007] Details omitted for double-blind reviewing.’
  Remove references to funding sources
  Do not include acknowledgments
  Name your files with care and ensure document properties are also anonymized.

Of course, this hiding of information is limited only during the review rounds and after your work gets accepted, the camera ready copy of the publication should include all the relevant information , that was hidden / anonymized during the review rounds.


Shall I be listed as technical program committee member if I accepted an invitation and did three reviews?

I am not sure if I understand you correctly. Basically, there are two ways to interpret your question:

Interpretation a) you have been invited as a member of the programme committee, did the duties associated to the role in this conference (for instance, but not necessarily restricted to, reviewing papers). In this case the answer is unsurprisingly that yes, you should be listed as a member of the programme committee. It is completely acceptable to remind the organizers to add you to the website if your name is not listed if other PC members are (it is conceivable although unusual that a conference would just not list the PC on the website).
Interpretation b) you have specifically not been invited as a PC member, but as a reviewer (or in whatever other role), but you feel that you did the same work as a PC member. In this case, I am sorry to say that there is no obligation for the conference to somehow upgrade your status, and mailing them about it is unlikely to lead to anything else than you seeming somewhat needy. It is not uncommon or immoral for conferences to distinguish between different roles (e.g., reviewers without voting powers and PC members with voting rights in the PC meeting), even if most of the "work" (writing reviews to papers) is the same or similar. That reviewers don't get mentioned in your case is certainly unfortunate, and you have every right to just not agree to be a reviewer anymore for this conference, but it's not inherently immoral or oblige the organisers to upgrade your role to a more visible one. The underlying faulty assumption here (which I assume is an easy to make mistake given how many conferences at least in CS nowadays work), is that reviewing and being in the TPC is the same. While is is indeed true for many conferences, there are plenty of exceptions as well. In many, particularly very strong, conferences, there are multiple layers of reviewers, PC members, senior PC members, track chairs, and program chairs, with increasing impact on the actual selection.


What are the most important points to emphasize while pitching for a dissertation to be published as a book?

Editors need books that will have an audience, a point, impact, and a connection to their "lists".

In a conversation you should be able to briefly summarize your manuscript -- and in this summary make clear its central argument / narrative, scope / evidence base, and its what is novel, important, and exciting about it. You should also summarize the audience for the manuscript,  -- how it fits into the market: what other books are competing for this audience, and what distinguishes your manuscript. These summaries should be honest, and direct -- avoid both negativity and overstatement. Choose language to appeal to a smart, and critical, but not  specialize reader -- avoid jargon, and if you have to use specialized terms, define them briefly, in common-sense terms.

For a written prospectus, follow the same model, but expand to two pages; and include an outline of the work, list of figures/tables, and note any special features such as data, or an accompanying website.

For more details, see: Germano, From Dissertation to Book and Luey, Handbook for Academic Authors


How to handle team member who is unable/unwilling to collaborate

I am always willing to learn something exciting whenever I do any coursework

Great.

  However, this adventurous mind of mine is risky and can often put my grades in jeopardy.

Less great.  I am concerned that you are setting up a false dichotomy.  Being ambitious in coursework does not have to involve risk of poor grades.  It is part of being a mature student and researcher to learn how to reach for the stars in such a way that not attaining your full expectations does not result in complete failure but in work which is itself still valuable.  (This is admittedly an "advanced lesson": I have known people who have made it to the tenure-track without learning it...sometimes with grave consequences.)

It sounds like you are getting an assignment -- let's say a coding assignment since I see you are a computer science student -- and planning something much more ambitious than is actually asked of you, even to the degree that the chance that you will not be able to pull it off gives you a bit of a thrill.  But you don't need to work in this way.  With planning -- and applying some insight early on; it's not all grunt work -- you can design a project in which you first complete what is asked of you and then move on to the more ambitious aspects that you are (happily) more interested in.  Coding work in particular is best done incrementally.  If you work on code over a long period of time, it is much more useful for everyone if some of the code that you write can be used (and tested, responded to...) right away than if you write things in a way so that you have nothing that works until the very end.

So far this advice is just for your own work.  In collaborative work I think you should be clear about (i) what you are definitely going to do -- i.e., what your collaborators can count on you doing -- and (ii) what you would like to aim for in your remaining time (which if you are talented and hardworking, you will almost certainly have).  Also, if you are actually more talented/quicker/have more time to put in, then it is reasonable to use at least some of your leftover time to try to help your collaborators with their projects.  That will certainly go a long way to getting your collaborators on your side and avoiding bitterness.

In general, when you are working with other people you should stop every so often and really try to view things from their perspective.  This sounds almost condescending, but it is not meant to be and it is really a skill: some people are good at putting themselves in others' shoes and others just can't let go of their own perspective; the former are much more valuable team players.  One tip here: would your classmates describe themselves as wanting "an easy way out"?  Or do they have goals which are just different from yours in some way?  Moreover, do they see your flirtation with failure that, in your own words, can often put your grades in jeopardy and think, "Gosh, I wonder whether whoknows is going to come through with what we agreed he would do or come back proud of the fact that he bit off more than he could chew?"


Mentioning courses taken on coursera.org in the statement of purpose

I don't think it would necessarily hurt your application. However, if you have a limited number of words for your SOP, I think a better use of space would be to explain why exactly you want to obtain a degree in geoinformatics. Your Master's coursework will give you all the background (and probably more) that you need in the field, so it might be better to explain your motivation behind applying for the degree in the first place. Of course, if the Coursera course was a primary driver in your decision, that is highly relevant and should be mentioned.


How to proceed after being threatened and treated poorly by university faculty after reporting physical assault?

There's a lot to parse here, particularly in the lengthy comments section.  The way I see it is you've got two options:

Go outside of the department for help
Avoid these conflicts and finish

It seems apparent that the department is not going to help you through this, since you mention both the Dean and the department chair being involved negatively.  If you opt for number one, you should look for school-wide resources, similar to Title IX coordinators for gender issues.  I'm not aware of this being standardized, so you should look through your university's resources.
I think whether you go with option 1 probably depends on how close you are to finishing.  If you're close, and you've been able to work successfully with your advisor, is it possible to minimize, or even cut, all contact with the rest of the department, and just get your degree?  It's hard to swallow injustice, but from a utilitarian point of view, there may not be much to gain by fighting with the people in charge of the department you're in.  Letting bullying by fellow PhD students go unanswered by simply avoiding them galls me, even, and I'm the one giving the advice!  But you should at least weigh the option when considering what's best for you; fighting racism in your department, or escaping with your PhD.
Of course if you're not close to finishing, option two becomes far less viable.  I'm sorry you're in such a toxic environment, and I hope you can finish your degree successfully despite it.  Perhaps some combination of 1 and 2 is possible - it seems sensible to immediately begin avoiding the sources of conflict in your department, even if you do opt to challenge their behavior at a higher level.


My associate editor cannot contact the 2nd reviewer

You cannot suggest the editor do something - the editor doesn't need your advice on how to do his or her job. What you can do is ask for a decision. Say something like, "it's been four months since I submitted this revision. When can I expect a decision?" The aim isn't to get the AE to make a decision, but rather to look at your paper and its status. The AE should understand that four months is a long time to wait, and that he or she should decide what to do next instead of continue to wait for reviewer #2.

As for probable outcomes, there's a good chance you might have to wait longer. From your description, reviewer #2 was the one that suggested major revisions, which is why the AE is particularly concerned about hearing back from reviewer #2. If the AE is unable to contact the reviewer, then the most likely decisions are 1) accept or 2) invite more reviewers. If the AE trusts reviewers 1 & 3, (s)he is more likely to pick option 1; otherwise option 2 might be the choice and you might have to wait another 4+ weeks.