How to explain a physics mechanism that I study from other paper in my report while avoiding plagiarism?

You can quote (within reason) and/or paraphrase quite freely as long as you cite the source. For some things there are only a very limited number of ways to state something accurately so "using the same words" is not an absolute prohibition in certain fields. There are scales of measurement here. But in those situations in which you need the exact words (such as, perhaps, definitions), quote and cite.

Plagiarism is when you try to represent another's work as your own. You aren't doing that here. Copyright infringement is when you copy another's words without permission or other justification. Normally, academics expect that short phrases may be quoted from their work. For longer passages, however, it is wise to seek permission from the copyright holder, of course.

However, there may be another way in some circumstances. Sometimes it is possible to take older work and summarize it in a way that loses almost nothing. Rephrasing work in a simpler form may help both you and your reader to understand it better than the original sources. It isn't always possible, but may be worth the effort. This takes insight, which is worth cultivating.


Choosing between primary advisors for a PhD program

This paper asks about postdocs, but I suspect the conclusions would be the same:
https://f1000research.com/articles/6-1642/v2

After surveying Postdocs, they find that the only singificant predictor of life satisfaction is having how collegial atmosphere in the lab is.

Thus I'd say pick the supervisor who's group you feel most at home in. Your PhD will inevitably suck at many times, and the only people who will really understand what you are going through are those in your group. Make sure they are people you can trust and who will be there for you.


Where can I find someone to proofread my article?

If you're interested in submitting the article to the scientific community then it does not only need proof reading but also specialist editing. The scientific community relies on the process of peer review to ensure that the information published is factually accurate and contributes to the spectrum of accumulated knowledge.

If you feel that your review article does fit these criteria then it may be worth getting in touch with someone at your local university and run it by them. They'll be able to give you some hands-on guidance with your article.


Should I send an email to authors of a paper I enjoyed reading?

Is it polite or even acceptable emailing the authors of a paper you
  enjoyed reading?

Yes! Who doesn't like getting a compliment about work they did? Nobody, that's who. On the somewhat rare occasions it happened to me, I was delighted. And I don't think it matters how famous the author is -- trust me, no one in academia is so busy that they will not enjoy receiving fan mail.

The only caveat I would make to the above advice is that the email should be 100% genuine in its intent to express your admiration of the authors' paper and achieve no other purpose. Do not appear to have a hidden agenda or ulterior motive of any kind. Do not start telling the email recipient elaborate stories about yourself, ask leading questions about jobs or collaborations, etc., and for heaven's sake don't attach a CV. Keep it short. And please don't make up a technical question to have an "excuse" for sending the email -- in my opinion, aside from being dishonest, this runs the risk of coming up with a question that is clearly lame and inauthentic-sounding, which may spoil the whole effect. On the other hand, if you do have a genuine question, even a vague one like "that formula in section 3 is amazing, how did you think of it?", go ahead and ask it, but be considerate of the recipient's time, and make it clear that you would be extremely grateful for a reply but that you are not expecting one and that the recipient should feel free to ignore your email if they are too busy.

Here is an example of how I would go about phrasing such an email:

  Subject: your awesome paper (no reply necessary)

  Dear Prof. Goodpaper,

  I hope you'll excuse this unsolicited email from a grad student.
  I recently read your paper "Traveling salesman optimizers in pseudo-logarithmic time". I'm writing to let you know that I was simply blown away by how good of a paper it is. Not only was it an incredibly clear and fun paper to read, but I was also really inspired by the clever ideas. In section 3, your definition of the class of problems solvable in pseudo-logarithmic time really captures the essence of the kind of algorithmic complexity that was previously studied only in a few special cases in the Jones-Truckey paper you cited. And your idea of taking the Mellin transform of the recurrence relation to get the asymptotic behavior of your TSP optimizer was also very inspiring -- I've never seen that trick anywhere, and was wondering how you came up with that idea. I'm currently working on a problem involving an asymptotic analysis in a graph connectedness problem that has a somewhat similar structure, so I'll definitely try to see if the same technique could apply.

  Anyway, thank you again for the inspiration, and thank you for reading this. If you have any references to other papers you wrote or other books or papers by others on pseudo-logarithmic time problems that you think I should look at, I'd be very happy to hear about it. However, I realize you're very busy, so please do not feel obliged to send me anything or to reply to this email at all.

  Sincerely,
  [your name]


Software to draw illustrative figures in papers

A free, fairly portable, and very complete tool for general illustration is Inkscape. It uses SVG as its native file format, and aside from attempting to be a decent drawing tool in its own right, one of its design goals was to provide complete coverage of the features available in SVG.

For block diagrams, flow charts, and other simple sketches of process and data flow there is Dia. It's primary design goal is to duplicate the features of Visio in free software. Like Visio, it uses a stencils and connections drawing model that works really well for diagramming relationships and flow, but gets tedious when attempting to do art.

For clean layout of directed or undirected graph diagrams, it is difficult to beat the Graphviz tools. They are primarily designed to be used from a textual description (a concise intro here (PDF)) of the graph, but there are various GUI tools that can edit their .dot files.


Should PTAs be allowed to mark exam scripts?

In large courses, it is impossible for one person to be able to grade all the exams—it takes far too long to grade hundreds (or thousands) of exams. Even a class of 70 students typically would take me 20 hours to mark up a single exam.

However, if a single person is assigned responsibility for devising a rubric for and grading a problem across an entire exam—a “latitudinal” approach—it should be fair, because it treats all students equally. A “longitudinal” approach in which graders are responsible for completely grading a portion of the exams is tougher to make fair, since then grader bias becomes a possibility. To get around that, you’d then need some system to “equate” grades between the graders, such as ensuring their means and standard deviations are normalized to the same values to reduce the impact of bias.


In addition to Google Scholar and searching for work by influential scholars, as suggested by GrotesqueSI's answer, it is often helpful to look at the works that have cited the reviews you have found already.

Frequently, new reviews will cite previous reviews of the topic, especially in fast-moving fields, so as not to waste space describing the same information. The review article you linked has 100+ citations, and maybe one of those is by a newer review.

Also, if you can find a landmark or high-impact article in the field, it is almost certainly cited by all good reviews, so looking at the "cited by" list of such an article is often helpful too.


Several questions about getting a master degree in mathematics in US

Q1. Not rare at all; especially for Masters programs. They probably deal with it as everyone else: contact a professor that they did well in their class and that class relates to what they want to study afterwards and ask politely for a reference letter. There are some cases (eg. you are more than 5-6 years after your graduation) that you may not need an academic reference but these are edge cases and do not apply to your case.

Q2. Depends what you want to study. If you are thinking of doing something with conjunction with Mathematical Finance or Econometrics/Economics this might be viewed as a positive thing. For Ring Theory? Probably not so positive.

EDIT (based on your edit) As you clarify now you are not thinking of something associated with Finance and/or Applied Maths generally.  If that is the case, most probably not having honours class will be detrimental. Having said that, if you apply for MSc it should not have a significant impact. After all you are apply for a MSc so you can do classes like that.

Q3. The only rule of thumb I can think of about pursing a PhD is liking your subject a lot. And even that is a rule of thumb. Sorry to say but your friend's advice about "six A's requirement" etc. is ungrounded advice. Sure enough if you are not good at something you should not have illusions of grandeur either though. :)

EDIT (based on the comments)
According to the interesting discussion in the comments: Take into account that you risk not having a house mortgage at 27 as well as one day waking up and realizing nobody will pay you to do Approximation Theory. (Actually, I think you should consider this as extremely likely. Don't worry though, even if this happens chances are you 'll survive it.)


Recovering your energy after back-to-back teaching

Don't forget to eat and rehydrate. If possible, get out of your building to do so; that adds a change of pace, which also helps. Give yourself permission not to do anything intellectual while you fuel up.

When I have a schedule like that, I intentionally save relatively mindless chores for afterwards. Work gets done so I don't feel like a slacker, but I don't have to break my brain either.


Which role should other graduate students serve in a PhD defense?

The first thing I would do is to ask the committee chair what are my rights and responsibilities as an advisory member. In short, what is it expected from me. I guess I would be expected to ask questions but I will not participate on the final decision of the defence.

Participation in a PhD defence committee seems to me as a good opportunity to learn critical thinking about research. The thinking every researcher should apply on his/her own work. Therefore, as a preparation I would recommend:

(as you mentioned) Carefully read the dissertation and

if you find something which is not clear to you even after several readings, ask about it
look at some of the references you find interesting and try to ask yourself: "Is this reference appropriate here? Why?"
in case some formulas or computations are present, you can try to reach the same result as the PhD candidate
if you are interested in methodology you can ask the
candidate why he/she used that particular method

to do more, you can try to find another works on the same topic, read them and compare them with the dissertation as it is always good for discussion to have more information about the topic

In case of public PhD defence, the audience can be very broad from family members who do not know what is the research about to an expert from another department who came to rise his/her ego by asking non-answerable questions. Here, the question depends on the person who is asking. No background knowledge is expected here and one should not feel restricted by the circumstances.

My personal opinion is that one can ask really about anything as far as his/her intentions are good. If the question is irrelevant the PhD candidate or one of the committee should kindly explain why.


I am an assistant professor, looking for the right PhD candidate: is it ok to contact a professor who is not listed in the references?

I don't know about HR standards for PhD candidates versus faculty positions. However, I have chaired faculty search committees and the general practice for equal opportunity hiring is that you treat all of the candidates the same. So, going above and beyond for one candidate over the others could be viewed as unfair.

If that is not really an issue for you in this case, I agree with The Fire Guy's comment that the student has a reason for not including this professor as a reference. Since you do not know this professor personally, there could be a number of issues at the workplace that could lead to an unfair assessment of the candidate. Although it could be that the candidate hasn't worked with that professor long, like you suspect, it could also be that there are personality differences between the two or the professor may be an unreasonable supervisor. Also, the candidate might feel that their applying to work with you may cause problems at their current position, if this professor knows about it. If you feel that the professor's feedback is important, you could ask the candidate if he or she is okay with you contacting the professor before hand.

When I have applied for jobs, I would have been put off if I learned that the employer was contacting people who were not on my reference list. How would the candidate know that this professor is the only one you contacted?


Is it possible to publish a research paper using an alias?

Yes, it's possible and plenty of people will have done it.
Rather than try to repeat what has already been said in other answers on this forum, I'd invite you to take a look at the many questions that deal with what name people should choose when publishing articles. The short is:

It doesn't have to be your real name, but it should be the name by which people in the community know you in person, so they can associate the paper with the author.
You want to choose a name that will allow you to continue publishing under for the entirety of your career.

You can find some more considerations in the answers to other questions.
But it's possible that I misunderstand the question. Maybe you are interested in a one-off publication under a pseudonym because you don't want to be identified as the author? That's uncommon, and as an editor in a journal I would strongly argue against this because the free exchange of ideas also requires that one can have a conversation with an author. If the author doesn't want to be identified, that's not possible, and it's to the detriment of the development of science -- even though I understand that there are cases where a younger colleague may not want to write a critique of some senior scholar's publications, for example. I understand that such cases happen, and I get that publishing under a pseudonym is one solution that one can pursue, but I still think that that's not quite the right avenue either.


Going into a PhD expecting to take longer

My advice, for the US, is to share your medical condition as narrowly as possible. Most US universities will have an office for student support in such things and they may need to know so that they can provide some services that will help you. But I, personally, probably wouldn't share it even with an advisor unless and until it proves to be an actual issue. I don't know whether this is a purely US view, but there are rules about discrimination for medical conditions here.
I also wouldn't try to work out in advance some "part time" degree. Just take as long as you need to take (caveat below).
I'm guessing a bit here, but also suggest that you are better off in pure math than applied math here, since the former seldom has deadlines to worry about. Research takes as long as it takes. And you are probably better off in a subfield that you already know pretty well to help you get through any coursework and comprehensive exams.
Don't worry about or suggest "partial stipends". Most doctoral students in the US serve as TAs, working with students in elementary classes, grading or running study sessions. Stipends without duties, as such, are pretty rare, though you seem to be writing about a pretty high level place where they may be a bit less rare. But they are likely funded by grants, even then.  If you can put in the time for that, then it doesn't need to end since you are providing a service that the university vitally needs.
Caveat: Some universities have a quite firm maximum number of years of study. Make sure you know about that before you begin, but also that you know what accommodation can be made in your case. And many students take seven years to complete for other reasons. You don't have to hit the median to be successful.
Again, the student support office can be your friend.


Letter of Recommendation Etiquette: Asking Only for Certain Schools

There is no need to explain to the LOR writers that their letters will only be used for programs that require more than three letters. Ask them for a LOR as you normally would. Provide them with the info they need to write the letter: a list or the programs they need to send their letters to, your transcript, your resume, what you hope the writer will emphasize in their letter, etc. as usual. You do not need to tell them the other programs for which their letters will not be needed, nor do you need to elaborate on where they stand on your "ranking system."

Also, it is perfectly okay to have someone as the "fourth choice", as you put it. When you need four letters inevitably some potential writers will know you better than the others. The fact that someone doesn't know you the best is in no way a judgment of your (or your professor's) ability, and I'm sure your letter writers will understand this.


Show accepted (but not published) paper to potential advisor

In general, I would think so, but I suppose this depends somewhat upon the culture of the field that you are in. To be on the safe side, simply check with your co-authors and get their permission beforehand.


What is the key difference between literature review and related work?

I've been looking last week for the difference between the literature review and the background. And I found this which may help you, a good definition of what the literature supposed to be (in my opinion): https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/49629/57676

I'm not sure, but I think the literature review can be regarded as related work in more storytelling style. And yes, related work is more frequent in research papers because you don't have enough space to "build a conceptual structure that ties together all the key ideas". Therefore, you just describe briefly what has been done and maybe try to compare it theoretically against what you're proposing, I think.


To become a professor in anthropology, can I get my PhD from a university in the UK and still have it be on the same level as a PhD from the US?

Most UK doctorates make more assumptions about your prior preparation within your specialty than do those in the US. But they end up at the same place - qualified researchers who have proved themselves through research worthy of publication.

There should be no difference. Also, anthropology is well established in UK and has a very long history.

The UK degree likely requires fewer if any courses prior to beginning research.

In the US you can start a doctorate immediately after undergraduate school and the undergraduate degree is a generalist one here, with much less specialization and research.


I suggest that you need as a matter of urgency to extract from the administration of your university a copy of the regulations for your PhD programme. (I am surprised that you were  not given these at the outset of your course; most universities claim to provide that information to their students. It's probably part of "good practice" that universities have to sign up to.)

I suggest that you also need to write down exactly who said exactly what to you about the word limit not mattering.

I suggest that you need to address the issue of the supervisor not responding to emails: have you a record of 8 months' non-response? Have you had regular meetings? How frequently?

Does your university have a system of "graduate advisers", or is there someone who is "in charge of" the programme -- I don't mean your academic supervisor? Is so, I suggest that you take this whole sorry tale to them (in confidence) and get help in dealing with what seems to an outsider to be a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.


I think there are two important factors here:

Reviewers are typically the closest subject experts a journal can locate.
Most journals have (or want) a target audience that is considerably broader than the expert reviewers they enlist. Think of the industrial practitioners, novice grad students, and other interested non-experts.

If it takes you a lot of effort to parse and understand a paper as the related expert, it seems entirely plausible that a non-expert would not follow the paper at all. Particularly if the poor exposition is so bad that you can only follow the train of thought because you as an expert can fix errors in your head or make logical leaps, then it's definitely beyond the scope of the general reader.
Both are valid complaints that could lead to a rejection of a paper, depending on the particulars of the work and the venue.

There are other avenues to address these problems than simply rejecting the paper. If the work otherwise is adequate, you might say so but tell the editor that the work does not meet the language standard for this journal and let them handle it. Some journals have a notion of "conditional acceptance" or "shepherding" where an agreement is worked out between the authors and editors that certain items must be addressed or revised prior to publication (however, they need someone to oversee such papers, so you might be volunteering for the role if you suggest it!).

Nobody wants a rejection, but most authors do want their work to be read and appreciated by others. Addressing these issues is a short term frustration for authors but a long-term win in terms of the visibility and impact of their work.


What author affiliation to put when you work for one university and study at another?

Traditionally, affiliation address must be where the research has been conducted therein (this is the statement given by some scholarly journals in Guide for Authors).

Professors normally use their official affiliation for any publication/presentation even if their university has not supported that research. Probably, because their secured salaries let them to work on an external project. This is different for graduate students, but still can be applied.

In any case, nothing stops you for using both affiliations in your poster. Normally, a graduate student is gaining credit from his/her affiliation. Then, two affiliations can be indicative of your research potential, as you have not stuck to your academic project.


Usually PhD admissions in the US are by a committee of several professors. Everyone on the committee will see your application (except that applications are often triaged or only read in full by certain members); the professor you mentioned may or may not be on the committee.
If your application suggests you are interested in working with a particular professor, then your odds of admission go up if that person is taking students and wants to advise you - one of the things an admissions committee is looking for is "fit", and "fit" is pretty good in this circumstance.
Your odds of admission go way down if that person is not taking students or does not want to advise you. Again, the admissions committee will be looking for "fit" and this would suggest you would not "fit".
I wouldn't expect other professors to be offended, but it's quite reasonable to not admit someone who will not have a place. Typically I don't think it's a good idea to mention an individual professor unless you have had previous positive interactions with them and are applying to the program specifically to work with that person.


Transforming the PhD thesis to a paper to publish and iThenticate

iThenticate might check your paper against your thesis.  Many universities send theses to Proquest, which shares them with iThenticate, as you mentioned.  However, you have no problem.  Most journals allow you to publish parts of your thesis as journal articles. If iThenticate tells the journal your paper is a copy of your thesis, they will ignore this information.

You should check the policies of the journal before you submit your paper to it.


Unfair penalization of Bachelors thesis resulting in a "downgrade" of my degree

I think that your assessment that there is not much that you can do at the moment is correct. Your supervisor (and the other faculty member) should be the ones to address this issue at the faculty level. You should however check the University's regulations regarding the possibility of appealing grades and decisions about "summa cum laude" status. In particular, check if there are any deadlines for doing so. (If there is no tight deadline, you might want to give your supervisor some time to try to sort things out internally before filing any official appeals etc.)

As far as this issue affecting grad school applications. Again your assessment that you should not mention this in your application is probably accurate. Doing so may come off as "whiney" or you trying to avoid responsibility by blaming others. However, if your supervisor is providing a reference letter for your applications, it would be good if they could address the issue in their letter.


Your friend is probably thinking of Sci-Hub. Warning: it's likely illegal, including to use the service (as opposed to uploading stuff onto it), in most jurisdictions. If it's not already illegal in your jurisdiction, the trend is towards illegality (i.e. lawsuit after lawsuit has been ruled on, and they are usually in favor of the copyright holder).
If you want to do things legally, try something like Unpaywall, or ask your local librarian. Librarians are incredibly good at finding papers, and they can often access something for free even if you can't.


Reviews, feedback and comments from collaborators/supervisors when writing in RMarkdown

In principle you can use Markdown on Overleaf (tl;dr; with a few "wrapper" lines in LaTeX at the beginning and end, the body of the document can be in Markdown format), but the RMarkdown layer would be an extra challenge (that is, if you actually have R code embedded in your document).
There is an interesting possibility here but it's unstable (I know the author but haven't used it). You could give it a whirl (maybe try it out with a collaborator who's up for a small adventure) and see if it seems OK for your needs. It's supposed to handle bidirectional conversion from Word tracked changes to Critic Markup.

I don't personally have a good solution for this; I either suffer the burden of propagating changes back from marked-up Word or PDF, or work with people who can handle (R)Markdown or LaTeX.


You should inform your coauthors, use this opportunity to search for other misprints and finally write to the editor.


What should you do when your professor does not pay you for completed research work?

Is this normal?

No.  In most places, wage theft is a serious crime.

Who should I speak to about this?

The HR department.  Possibly also the department chair.  Provide a detailed written statement of what happened and when.


How should a student address a professor in a letter of recommendation?

I wouldn't worry a lot about it.  The worst that can happen is that part of the letter sounds a little off, but I'm sure promotion committees see much worse in letters from students, and understand it doesn't reflect on the professionalism of the professor.

If I had to chose, though, my personal inclination would be to write "Professor X" in the letter, rather than the professor's first name.  It's much easier to go wrong in the direction of being too informal, rather than being too formal.


can one write a research paper which is based on his previous paper

Writing follow-up papers building on previous work is not at all self-plagiarism. So long as there is a material difference in the main emphasis of the paper, you should be fine. In your case, it sounds like the original article was the introduction of method X, and the follow-up article or articles will be incremental improvements of method X and descriptions of a practical implementation.


Want to add new data to my recently submitted paper

As long as your paper is under revision, you can improve things.  Those improvements are not limited to those suggested by the reviewers, however:

The improvements should not change the nature of the paper too much, or you will annoy editor and reviewers.  Make sure they haven't wasted their time by reading the first edition.
Make clear that you have made this addition.  Some reviewers may only look at alterations based on their own recommendations, rather than re-reading the whole paper from start to end.

Once your paper is accepted, you can no longer add new data, text, or figures.


How long should a CV for Masters application be?

Ok. The proper CV is the one that is well-tuned to a particular job. So, in general, there is no best CV template. If you apply for internship and other industry jobs, you might need a differenrt CV than when you apply for a master or Phd.
The rule of thumb is to show the person who is reading your CV that you have the majority of the job requirements in their job posting. If it is a master program, then they probably have listed some requirement. You should try to tailor your CV as much as possible so it can show the best version of you in terms of those job requirements. For example, if one of one the requirements is having experience in doing research, then putting a research project you have done or a publication (if you have any) would help a lot.

So, again, you should read the job requirement (in this case the master program requirement) very carefully and tailor your CV accordingly.


Good idea to start PhD with a potentially obstructive medical condition?

Part way through my PhD I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, requiring major surgery followed by chemotherapy. I went to one course unit for a quarter, so that I kept my connection to the department and parking pass, but was not expected to do much work.

I don't know whether the school where you will be doing your PhD will allow that sort of option.

I agree with the advice in comments to discuss with whichever professor is responsible for first quarter students.


What to expect from a PHD in Computer Science? (UK)

I don't generally see much information on the day-to-day life of a PHD student

Watch The PhD [Comic] Movies, sure they're make believe, but you can read between the lines


Should authors be required to report a paper is being resubmitted?

The obvious downside is that you can't verify it. You could have a policy which says "if your paper has been rejected elsewhere, you must attach your previous review and a cover letter explaining how you addressed the issues". However if the authors don't do it anyway, how would you find out? The only chance is to invite either the editor or reviewer(s) who reviewed the previous submission. The odds of this is small, especially since you don't know who edited/reviewed for the other journals, or even which journal it was.

The other danger is that you open a potential path for fraud. Currently the most common form of fraud is for authors to suggest as reviewers people who are linked to them (or to themselves using obscure email addresses). With this policy, one could easily write the "previous review" oneself to give the paper a sheen of reputability. The new conference cannot verify these previous reviews are legitimate. In principle this should not fool the editor, but in practice it is all too easy. Example of the former ploy fooling journals; this is likely to manage as well (at least some of the time).


And what if the next author likes neither your terminology nor the previous one and decides to call these elements bars and joints? And then the next one goes for arms and knees?

I'm an electronic engineer: what if I decide that I don't like the terms resistance, capacitance and inductance, and I decide to use the terms opposance, tankance and springance?

Readers should not struggle to follow author's idiosyncrasies about terminology, the effort is already enough to understand the new concepts that are typically introduced in a paper. And recall that the first readers of your papers are the reviewers, and sometimes the reviewers complain for even more conventional terminologies. Moreover, if you are free to make your terminology choices, they have even more freedom in rejecting your paper.

Here is an example. As I said in the above, I'm an electronic engineer. However, due to the tradition of the field in which I work, most of my readers are physicists. When I write a paper, I typically use terms and symbols that are widely employed by the engineering community, and are even defined by standards. For at least three papers, the reviewers complained that I haven't used standard symbols or terms (standard for them). And so I had to reply with references to standards, literature etc. It's annoying, but at least I had references to provide, and eventually symbols and terms were accepted. What do you have to backup your choice of terminology?

  I think it's more intuitive (to a modern audience) and it would be better if people adopted this convention

Aren't you generalizing too much?

  we'll never get rid of all the poor choices made in the past.

Are you sure that there are so many poor choices?

  So my question is, is it acceptable to use nodes/links?

I think not or, better, as I explained above, I think there is no sound reason to use nodes and links in place of the accepted terminology.

  Is it ever smart go against convention, just because you don't like how things are done?

It is seldom smart, unless there are good scientific reasons or the existing terminology is really misleading, but before going against an established convention, you have to provide evidence that that convention is wrong or misleading. An example in this sense is that of relativistic mass, a term which was introduced at the beginning of the theory of relativity. In later years, however, the concept has been criticized [see e.g. Adler(1986)] and the term is now considered utterly misleading, and modern books on relativity avoid it altogether.


How many professors should I mail in a single university?

This isn't an answer to your question, but the remark that professors might meet over coffee and find out that you emailed a lot of them seemed funny to me. We do meet over coffee and chat. But you have to recognize that (i) we're people too, with families, kids, etc, and when we have coffee, we often have better things to talk about than students emailing us their applications (we might also be talking about actual science, gasp!), (ii) we get a lot of emails from students applying, and the likelihood that we would notice that one of them has emailed a lot of us is very small.


Can political escalation between Iran and western world affect Iranian students?

Can political escalation between Iran and the western world affect Iranian students in getting admission from university in Canada, Australia, and European Countries?

I will go ahead and disagree with Buffy, many other on this page and get plenty of downvotes. The truth is yes, it can very well effect your chances. Here is an example,

https://nltimes.nl/2019/10/17/amsterdam-univ-scientist-fire-rejecting-turkish-student

This was just one extreme incident where nationality based bias was explicitly mentioned. I am pretty sure anyone can get away with implicit bias to a certain extend. The very sad truth is some  people get railed up in politics and start to overlook people or institutions based on their governments decisions. I was talking about a fairly old Romanian mathematician and he impilictly mentioned similar issues. Romania, as you well know, was very much in the USSR orbit. From what I understand, he or people around him had various issues regarding their country of origin and he was still troubled by the fact. I have also heard (from the 2nd or 3rd hand) that goes along the lines "students from X country can't do well here" allegedly uttered by an admission offical for a doctoral program. There are also some alleged bias for certain ethnic groups for undergraduate admission in US. Court on that is still going on I believe. I have also been personally warned by an American mathematician saying something along the lines of "you will have a harder time getting admitted because of your nationality".

  I am ready to apply for many universites to pursue my PhD, but I am wondering if it would be successful or not.

You should apply. These are relatively fringe cases. Although it is possible that a bias exists, it is less likely for an entire admission board to be biased. You might not get into a program that you normally get but that is life. We can't give up on our aspirations because of some sugar coded facism. If you have the financial resources, I would advice you to apply more places. Most schools publish names of their graduate students as well. You can check and see if they have students from Iran or another Islamic country.

  universities may reluctant to accept applications because of sanctions or any other reasons. Even they issue the admission the embassies may cause some trouble for students.

I have no opinions on this point.


Attribution Required

  You are free to ... Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

The Creative Commons license blatantly specifies right in the license that attribution is required for a CC-BY-ND.

There are some things that you can do to help communicate this, like linking to the license, making the license more prominent, copy-pasting the terms of the license, or even appealing to emotional sensibilities.

What's On The Internet...

However, no matter what you do, what is on the internet is prone to being copied, used, and modified in any manner of ways, including stripping attributions. This is the risk that all content-creators take. Whether or not it is worth the risk is up to you.

DMCA Take Down Requests

If you decide to release your content to the internet and you find that your content license is being infringed, you may be eligible for a DMCA Take Down Request on the hosting website. If the website company will not, you can then go to search companies like Google and go through their process to remove the listings (greatly reducing its visibility).


What should I do if I think a researcher in my university is intentionally employing incompetent people?

My suggestion is that you let it go for three reasons:

This is hardly the last time you'll come across this problem, inside or outside of academia.
There are factors here you might not be considering or know nothing about.  Maybe the person you're tutoring in math has excellent people skills, or is the instructor's nephew, or the Dean's. Whatever the reasons they're really not any of your business.
As you say, you will indeed end up being considered a malicious and jealous man.

If it really bothers you you should probably find somewhere else to work where this isn't a problem, but then see point #1, above.


Most PhD programs that I am aware of have "residency requirements"—that is, you must be registered at the university and in general physically present in the department for some period of time. However, most PhD advisors that I am aware of in disciplines in which people can "work remotely" do allow their students to "telecommute" if necessary. For instance, if a spouse gets a job far away from campus, and daily commutes are no longer a realistic option.

That said, the idea of a purely online PhD strikes me as highly unlikely to work out—because the nature of a PhD is fundamentally different from a bachelor's, in that it is a research degree, not a coursework degree. You are learning to become an independent researcher, and I don't think the online format translates well to that goal. There's too little direct interaction with other researchers. You'd definitely be independent, but there's no guarantee that you'd learn how to do research.


Copyright and reference for explanatory diagram

You should check with the original publication and the submission journal. Technically you are re-using copyrighted material so it seems little to no trouble to ask and get the correct answer rather than go ahead and correct a later misunderstanding.  The journal, for instance, might care to know that they are publishing material copyrighted elsewhere.


How do grad schools design courses for potential students?

I agree with @aeismail's and @dmckee's answers, but let me add a different spin:

Students are admitted to strong PhD programs not on the basis of how much or what they know, but rather on their potential for successful research.  Every program admits students from all over the world, who may or may not have undergraduate degrees in exactly the same field.  Beyond a few fundamental concepts, it is not reasonable to assume that incoming graduate students have any specific prior knowledge.

That said, most courses for PhD students are generally taught as if the students have a strong undergraduate background in the same field.  The definition of "strong undergraduate background" depends strongly on the graduate program; the expectations at the top PhD programs are generally extremely high.  More importantly, PhD students in top departments are expected to have the intellectual maturity to recognize and correct weaknesses in their background, even if the missing material is not normally covered in a strong undergraduate program.

Also: Courses are arguably the least important part of any PhD program.


Here is what I did during the beginning of my third year (of 5) in my phd-

deleted all statistical software from my computer save my language of choice (for me it was R). Begin to work on mastering this language.
Watch videos and lectures, get involved in the online statistics community
TAKE CLASSES in advanced stats (though I know this might not be as much of an option in Europe as it was in the US).
go to luncheons with phd students in computational fields
begin to help people who you can with what you can in stat: nothing helped me learning like taking what I had just watched, practiced, thought about and then applying it to help a lab mate.
READ, READ, READ (this cannot be understated).
Practice- learning to code can be frustrating but it is necessary.
Submit articles using the methods you learned for publication. Getting blind reviewer feedback was extremely helpful for me to see what I was doing wrong.
attend more classes, continually watch videos, write code daily, publish (or attempt) papers using your methods, practice coding, and READ, READ, READ!

And when I say read, I mean in the medium that is most effective for you. For me, I gained the most from reading journal articles and reading associated blog posts about those journal articles. In this way, if there was something complicated that I did not grasp, the blog would help shore that up in more laymen terms. I did not gain much from reading textbooks, but others do.


Referee wants me to do more experiments, but I already submitted these results to another journal

I think the normal thing to do is to forward-reference the experimental results.

That is, you can briefly outline the experimental results as per the current referee's desire for more information, and reference it as "paper submitted to xyz journal, 2/9/2017."  Down the road, if the experimental paper turns out to be accepted before the theory paper, all the better and you can actually reference it as such.

As a caveat, it may also be true that either paper is too thin for separate publication, and the two should be combined into one. This sounds like what the referee is getting at. From your point of view, having one strong paper may be more desirable than two weak ones.

Finally, most often I have seen two papers of this type published back-to-back in the same journal.  But even if this is appropriate here it sounds like it may be a bit late to go this route, unless you were to withdraw one and resubmit the pair. (BTW, If you do this, an explanation to all the editors involved should definitely be included in your correspondence.)


Whether to publish a paper as both a university working paper and on ArXiV?

ArXiv and KIT scientific working papers are meant to make scientific research (in selected areas) more accessible. They are not traditional scientific publication venues, but rather a mirror of publications that might be otherwise less accessible (ArXix) or fast outlets for ongoing research (KIT).

It is less common to directly cite ArXiv or KIT working papers, when there are equivalent journal or conference versions of the article, which you might consider when you are deciding how to make your work available to the public.

It is perfectly fine, though, to publish in the traditional journals and conferences, and on ArXiv or KIT, provided that there is no conflict of copyright (typically, there is not when you put an author created preprint version on ArXiv or KIT).

Nonetheless, you should not feel obliged to follow the traditional scientific paths (i.e., publish on ArXiv or KIT only). Just keep in mind that it might impact the citations you get from other researchers.


How to pick the brain of a professor with whom you have no connection

You are right that it is difficult to make contact with a busy expert when you have no network contacts to draw upon. One of the best ways to make contact is to attend a conference that covers your area of interest; this can be pricey, but in my field the major conference even has "Meet the Experts" lunches for student attendees. At the conference, register for pre-meeting, student, and/or special interest group events that may have a either a career development focus or are likely to have a more specialized attendance and thus more opportunities to approach individuals with whom you'd like to talk.

While some experts may, in fact, respond to a "cold call" (or cold email, as the case may be), the fact is that most are probably putting out fires and dealing with higher-level responsibilities, and may simply be too busy. In that case you may want to try moving down the ladder a bit...a graduate student or postdoc in their lab may be a bit more available to chat, and may actually have good advice for you about the next step in your career, as well as information about the nitty-gritty of the specialized area their lab works on.

My best advice is just go out there and make your best effort to get in touch, provided you convey respect for their time and withdraw gracefully if they aren't able to make time for you. Some investigators may respond very favorably--you might be surprised! Nothing ventured, nothing gained...


White Paper & MS in Mechanical Engineering?

In the research field a white paper is not so important. However, if you plan to work in an applied field,a white paper is valued highly because it shows you are aware of the current issues in your field. In general, white papers are issue-oriented.
For example, in the field of architecture "green" building materials are valued over traditional. But why? A white paper could present facts on "green" building materials versus traditional materials in terms of cost and performance. Other factors could also be weighed such as customer preference. Therefore, when the executives of a firm read the white paper it could help them make a major decision on materials they will buy in the future.
See below the definition of white paper:

White papers in business-to-business (B2B) marketing
Since the early 1990s, the term white paper has been applied to documents used as B2B marketing or sales tools. Far more commercial white papers are now produced for B2B vendors than political white papers for governments[citation needed].
B2B white papers are long-form content designed to promote the products or services from a specific company. As a marketing tool, these papers use selected facts and logical arguments to build a case favorable to the company sponsoring the document. B2B white papers are often used to generate sales leads, establish thought leadership, make a business case, or inform and persuade prospective customers, channel partners, journalists, analysts, or investors.
Many B2B white papers argue that one particular technology, product or method is superior for solving a specific business problem. They may also present research findings, list a set of questions or tips about a certain business issue, or highlight a particular product or service from a vendor.


When doing comparative evaluation among different research tools should we debug others research tool?

You could do that, but then you wouldn't be doing a comparative study anymore. You would, in effect, be comparing one thing you created with something else that you modified. It would bring your comparison into doubt even if it didn't invalidate it.

Report that your tool produces X and tool A produces no result for such cases. That is a valid comparison.

But improvement of the tools of others can also be a valuable contribution, though of a different sort. Decide what it is you are after.

You could also point out the flaws to the developers of the other tools and see if they wish to update. If so, you can compare with their new versions.

You can also, perhaps, enter into a tool-building collaboration with some of the others.


How to collaborate with unmotivated postdocs

How can I properly motivate my postdoc to get him work for me?

You don't. Changing anyone's behavior is difficult; changing your "superior's" behavior will be even less successful and will lead to conflict.

I would start by trying to figure out how long the post-doc is planning to be around. It may be that he is on his way out; this would explain both his lack of focus and the professor's apathy.

In any case, I agree with the discussion in the comments -- the situation as you describe it is inexcusable. But as a PhD student, your options are very limited. I would suggest asking the professor for a private meeting. In the meeting, I suggest making the following points.

You successfully published a paper in a top journal
The post-doc contributed virtually nothing to this work, and in fact delayed progress
You feel it "may have been inappropriate" to even list the post-doc as an author of the paper
Based on this experience, you think it would be more fruitful to work independently from the post-doc on future efforts.

The professor will likely not be receptive to this, and will make some vague promise about speaking to the post-doc. So, the real question you should be asking (yourself) is:

  Should I finish my PhD with this advisor or find another group?

If you are willing to leave (and you are sure!), you can mention this to your advisor if his initial reaction is not satisfactory. This may change the calculation for him -- or he may be more candid with you (e.g., telling you that he is about to fire the post-doc). Or he may let you go.

If you are close to graduation, then it's probably worth sticking this out. Adding people as authors when they didn't contribute much does not really rise to the level of serious academic misconduct, so I would simply avoid relying on the post-doc as much as possible.


Is being an honors student really worth it?

Being an Honors student is a prime example of signaling: you could just as well learn the content by yourself, but having that distinction on your degree signals something to potential employers or grad school admission committees. And those people hope that this signal correlates with something useful, e.g., flexibility in thinking, openness to new ideas, conscientiousness etc. (Yes, being able to sit through boring meetings can be a survival skill in many bureaucratic settings.)

It has been seriously suggested that much of higher education is explained by a signaling model.

So you will need to weigh the current pain of boring meetings and uninteresting people against potential future benefits. Your trade-off will depend on what else you could be doing in the time you could free up by de-Honoring.

I personally have profited from being a member of a similar German institution. When I applied for a job in a (mature) startup, one of the founders, who happened to be a university professor, saw this in my CV, and he explicitly said that this helped me get an interview.


Should I charge entry for a public lecture?

I doubt exclusivity as represented by an entrance fee would attract people to a lecture. After al, it is the subject that is of importance. thus the advertisement is key and the way you set your topic in a wider perspective. If the topic concern people such as climate change, environmental issues, medicine to mention a few, people will come. It will be more difficult to attract people to topics they either do not know anything about or are not interested in (or in the worst case, is not widely reported in media). Thus, my negative perspective is that the success of attracting an audience is to a large extent a question of how the topic is known by and an interest of the public.

So, I would advice against charging for the lecture and put all efforts into making the lecture as interesting as possible for the intended audience. And, to do this by coupling the topic to a larger picture that is relevant to the public. And finally, if you do not get a huge audience, it does not mean there is anything wrong with your research or lecture, public interest varies over time and research can have huge relevance for important aspects of society and life without attracting a wide audience.


PhD in Quantum information science/ quantum physics without intensive formal education

If the professors you have spoken to (who presumably know you better than we do) believe you need more formal education in the field to be successful, you should pursue more formal education in the field (such as a masters.)

  I consider myself to be extremely motivated and determined to pursue a PhD in Quantum physics with a goal to get into academia.

If you really want to do quantum physics and you're told that you need some formal background to be taken seriously as a PhD applicant, then get that background.

Given that you are, in fact, passionate about doing quantum physics, you should presumably even enjoy that masters, especially if it is a research-based program and not just taught coursework.

  I somehow don't want to apply within the US because I am more attracted to the European research philosophy or the research carried out in Asian countries like Singapore or even Australia.

In many places in Europe, a master's degree in the field is a requirement for starting a PhD. In the US, however, many PhD programs do not expect prospective students to have a master's. So if you're really set on not getting another master's, you should strongly reconsider this attitude.

You wrote in a comment:

  Let's say I do go for masters. Spend a huge sum of money from my parents pocket or perhaps take a loan. So then I would have three degrees. What's the point. Is there any respect for people who have spent so much time, devoted their years to science. What respect do people have for intellectuals unless you are an Einstein or Feynman; what I mean is unless you are from some top notch university who's going to notice you.

I don't know what "respect" has to do with anything. There is no number of degrees that is sufficient to guarantee that people will "respect" you.

If you, personally, would find it extremely distressing to devote years - decades, even - to science and still not be respected as an Einstein or Feynman, then you should probably look for another career.
A significant portion of people who seek to become professional scientists do not succeed in this goal. Of the ones who do succeed, the vast majority never reach the level of influence of Einstein or Feynman. If the overwhelming probability that you will not become a "famous" scientist makes this path seem less appealing, you should probably find another.

("A man must love the thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame or money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well." --G.K. Chesterton)


Is it ok to email my professor something I found related to class?

Yes, it's appropriate.  No halfway reasonable instructor would hold this against you.

On the other hand, please don't be disappointed if your instructor doesn't respond contentfully to your email.  Faculty are extremely busy and many get dozens of emails a day, so they have to prioritize which they can respond to.  If you want to have further engagement on this topic, that's what office hours are for.


My conference paper got rejected. Will it be bad for my PhD performance?

In short, no. In long, this is a normal stage of going through a PhD: nobody gets all of their work published all of the time.

The best case scenario is that the reviewers have given you some useful feedback to work with, in which case now you're in a better position than you were before. Worst case, you got a flat reject with no helpful feedback (which happens sometimes: I've seen reviews that say "Insert review here"), but at least you'll still have something to talk over with your professor. In the latter case, try and work out why your paper was rejected: was the idea not considered novel enough? Was the explanation not clear enough? Or does this particular piece of work need some more data, more evaluation or more analysis before its publication worthy?

In either case, once you've talked this over with your professor, you should now have some idea of what direction you can focus your efforts on. This will help you get your paper ready for submission to a new venue.

EDIT: You mention in your comments that the reviewers said there was nothing theoretically new with your approach. This gives you a few options (which you should talk about with your professor). Firstly, if you disagree, then you need to make your case for this stronger (by citing similar papers in the field and showing how your approach differs). This is often easier than you might think; there are enough niches in research that you can often find a way to show that your work can be applied to specific cases in a new way, or in such a way as to tackle new problems. Secondly, reframe the work: the approach itself may not be novel, but you can frame it in a new way by, for example, comparing it to other approaches or by using it to form a position paper on a certain issue. Thirdly, if you've been scooped, or you feel this ground has already been trodden, then talk to your supervisor about exploring other approaches in this area.


What should I do when my supervisor wants to delay my graduation?

Based on your description, one of your supervisors is behaving in an unethical manner.  A faculty member must not delay a student's graduation purely for personal benefit.  Nor should they coerce a student into beginning a PhD under their supervision.  Most programs have a procedure for removing or replacing a supervisor.  I recommend you use it if your supervisor is behaving unethically.

You might get a better answer if you said why you have this supervisor or what your goals are.


Should I submit a revised version of my paper before hearing back about the first version?

You should not submit your revised version at this time. If it had been just a day or two since you submitted, it would be a different matter. However, more than six months later, it is quite likely that the reviewers will be angry to receive a new version of the paper, particularly since you have made a great deal of changes. This will be even more so if they are a substantial portion of the way through the review process. (It is also unfair to the reviewers and editors if the author can keep changing and revising the paper while it is under review.)

Your best bet will be to wait until the reviews have been returned, and use your revised version of the paper to "jump-start" the revision process.


Writing a thesis acknowledgement: should I address the person as "you" or use 3rd person?

I'd go (and did go) with the 3rd person format, for a simple reason: It's not a letter to that one person, nor a (handwritten) dedication/signed copy of a thesis. Instead it is something that is printed and which is (hopefully) read by more than this one person.

So you talk to a broad audience about that person, hence 3rd person. Only if it were a handwritten, personal message in one particular copy, I would ever go with "you".

(Another exception could be a dedication. In contrast to the acknowledgements the dedication is more specific and -- usually -- to one person or specific group of people, like family. In this case 'you' might also make sense, because here you address them personally.)


Withdrawing from project I am helping in

Withdrawing is a loss-loss situation and I will not recommend it. You have done your work and they seem to have the motivation to release it some day. If you withdraw now, the work is gone, tension arises, friendship threatened. These are not worthy for a short moment of revenge-induced pleasure.

If you feel your input is so instrumental then take this as a lesson to bargain better; in future when similar collaboration comes along, make "have the right to present at xxx conference [year/month/day]," or similar terms as your condition. You should also raise the issue of authorship from the get-go.

Ascending one more level, if you're indeed that much more experienced than the team in terms of how the research realm works, why not help them further? Connect them with this very meeting that you plan to attend, and propel the work forward by letting more people know about it.


What to do if following website redesign, an online-only journal no longer lists my paper?

You should address your concerns to the publisher, not to the editorial board.

The editorial board is not in charge of the actual publication of the articles but only of their handling until acceptance. The only thing that members of the editorial board can do, is to forward your concerns to people at the publisher. (However, this may help, since the voice of the editors of the journal may have more weight…)

If the only thing that happened was a website redesign, than, presumably, all copyrights are still in place and you have to check your copyright agreements, if you can make the article available anywhere else. Depending on the copyright agreement, uploading the paper to some repository, a private homepage or a homepage at your university may or may not be allowed.


Can I refer readers to link to a large figure?

In the journals I help edit, we receive figures such as these. Some can be extremely massive, involving high-resolution images of photomicrographs or diagnostic tests. If the figures are a necessary part of the paper, then we would insist that they be submitted to us as is and we will work with the authors to find a suitable option for presenting the work if it passes peer review.

We have never allowed pictures or files to be hosted outside our ecosystem for two reasons. First, we have no control over those files so we will not know whether they have been modified in some way. Second, there may be issues with copyright.

I suggest that you flag this issue with the associate editor handling your manuscript for discussion following the peer-review process.

Good luck.


Make sure you are thoroughly on top of the material before every student interaction.

This sounds obvious.  Moreover, it sounds like it could be condescending: if you're, say, a PhD student and you're teaching, say, freshman calculus, haven't you known the material cold for most or all of your adult life?  Probably yes...in some sense.  But the sense in which you need to know the material cold in order to answer students' questions effectively is much stronger.

Imagine that when you were a calculus student you were assigned to do ten applied optimization problems.  Let's say that you knock out eight of them immediately, spending no more than 5-10 minutes on each.  There's a ninth one that you keep doing the algebra wrong and it takes you 20 minutes instead, but no problem: you get it.  There's a tenth one which has some weird thing inscribed in some other weird thing and the first time you think about it you just get a bit confused.  No problem: you put it down for a while, go about your business, and you come back to it later when it's the one thing occupying your attention and you solve it correctly.  How good at applied optimization are you?  The answer is you're excellent: an A student with room to spare.  This level of skill more than qualifies you to be a TA for this material...but you had better do some advance preparation before the session itself.  As a TA, the students are very likely to ask you about the two hardest problems.  If you make more than one or two algebra mistakes in front of a large group, it's not great for them or for you.  If you try to solve a problem and fail, then -- even though you know you'll get it later, and even though "getting it later" is absolutely what matters in the world of actual mathematical work!! -- then the session itself is probably a failure, the course instructor is going to get some "How am I supposed to solve this problem when even the TA couldn't..." questions, and she is perhaps going to be less than thrilled with you.  When I was a TA it seemed to me that my on-the-spot problem solving skills actually had to be at a higher level than if I were actually teaching the course: if you are teaching the course, then you are controlling the pace of the information flow and choosing the problems. (In particular, if one of 50 problems from some section of a textbook is slightly confusing to you, you'll probably just not pick that problem!)  I haven't had to deal with course TA's for a while -- in my current job, graduate students do grading but rarely TAing -- but upon reflection I still find some truth to that.

(By the way, I have picked what was and maybe still is for me one of the shakiest topics from freshman calculus.  Of course there are lot of calculus problems that I really have always known cold...and after many years of TAing and teaching I really know which is which.  But there is something in the psychology of math students which makes you think that you should know everything cold or there's something wrong with you, so why don't you proceed under the assumption that there's nothing wrong with you and see how that works out.  What I'm saying is that there is likely to be something that you will screw up if you wing it...and that doesn't make you a bad math student, it just means you shouldn't wing it.)

How do you make sure you are thoroughly on top of the material?  As a first time TA, I would actually work every problem in advance.  Maybe this sounds obvious or most TA's know to do this...but I don't think everyone does.  Even as an experienced instructor -- say, at 10 years past my PhD -- I have had the experience of teaching a new course, thinking I knew exactly how something was going to work out, but because I hadn't written it down in as much detail as I was going to cover it in class, encountering unexpected challenges -- more often expository, but sometimes actually mathematical -- when it came to the lecture.  In fact this happened to me about two years ago when I taught a first course in linear algebra.  I really know linear algebra: like most mathematicians, it comes up in my work, and unlike many mathematicians I have a published paper in the area.  But there are certain things that I didn't have to worry about as a research mathematician and did have to worry about as a linear algebra lecturer.  I was actually rather embarrassed at the shakiness of my lectures.  I compensated for this by being more attentive to the students' concerns and writing more straightforward exams ("How are they supposed to solve problems when even I couldn't..."), and in the end I was surprised that the teaching evaluations were as satisfactory as they were: not great, but no worse than certain calculus classes where my lectures were pulled off exactly as I wanted to but the students were not as thrilled.

By the way, I well know that a lot of people will be tempted to roll their eyes a bit at an answer which is entirely focused on the content of the subject and says nothing about pedagogy, is focused on the mentality of the TA rather than that of the students, and so forth.  But this is where you have to start.  A first-time TA who knows how to solve all the problems and is just starting to learn about everything else is doing okay...and in fact better than some.  The next most important thing is learning to present mathematics in a clear, orderly way and the best and onliest way to do that is to get a lot of practice doing so.  The next time you teach the same course is when you really get to concentrate on the "higher aspects" of teaching.

Good luck, and good luck to your students.


Re-applying to the PhD Program after Illness

I'll slightly replicate my answer to this question: mention this, but don't be too melodramatic. You have dealt with an illness that was out of your hands and got a handle on it. This is not something that a reasonable admissions committee will see as a point against you, but be sure that they understand you are not looking to get accepted because of your illness. It is also might be illegal to discriminate against you because of illness, depending on its nature and the country you're in.

Good luck!


How to abbreviate the name of a university when there is no official abbreviation?

Do not do this.  Especially since there are often many smaller universities that you do not know about that partially or entirely share the same name.  For example, does "Rochester" refer to University of Rochester or Rochester Institute of Technology? Does "University of Massachusetts" refer to the well-known research campus in Amherst, or the very distinct and semi-separate institutions in Lowell, Boston, Worcester, or Dartmouth?
If you are forced to, ask Wikipedia, which will generally have an accepted shortened version in its article (e.g., "UMass Amherst").  If there is no Wikipedia article, then it's definitely not notable enough to abbreviate.


How to thank or apologize to an associate editor of a journal?

I would simply write a brief email along the lines of "Thanks for notifying me of the mistake, I will bear that in mind for future submissions. Apologies that I didn't catch it sooner."


How to explain the reasons to change Phd. supervisor

You didn't say in what situation you need to explain this, which may change the answer.

If it is merely coming up in passing in a conversation, "It was not a good fit" is a good neutral way to give the general idea and leave it up to your interlocutor whether to pursue the topic or not.

If you are specifically asked for your reasons for leaving, a condensed 2-3 sentence version should be enough in most cases. Try to avoid placing blame, it is not a trial of who is right or wrong, you or your advisor. E.g. "our research interests do not align, I would really like to go more into topic B" rather than "he keeps making me do grunt work on things I hate". If you have academic reasons you probably don't need to go into the personal reasons at all, but if you do want to bring it up at some point, frame it as something like "our personalities do not mesh well". Stay carefully factual when recounting details. (This doesn't mean downplaying the issues. Think of a way to formulate it neutrally but still exposing the crux of the issues barefacedly.)

Generally, potential other supervisors will see themselves in the role of your current supervisor, so they will imagine that you will talk about them in the same manner as you will talk about your current supervisor.


What does "indicative" mean for the literature review

Your reviewer might be Italian! In Italian, you can say that something is just "indicative" (or indicativo) if it is only there to give you a rough idea.
You can probably just state that your literature review is not exhaustive.

Some examples of a titolo indicativo


Do I have to prove all the theorems I mention in my paper?

Generally speaking, every statement in a published mathematics paper needs to have a proof somewhere that the reader can find it. (If this paper is for a class assignment rather than for publication, ask your instructor. The rules are also a little different for "expository" papers which are mainly intended to discuss previous work, rather than to present new results.)

If you use a result that is well known, you can mention it by name. It is not necessary to include a formal statement or proof,  nor a reference. This would apply to results that are found in most standard textbooks in your area, and that most people reading the paper would be familiar with.
If you use a result previously proved by someone else, give a reference to the paper containing their proof. It is often also helpful to give a formal statement of their theorem. You do not need to include the proof in your paper unless you think it will be specifically helpful to the reader (for instance, if you are planning to extend the same ideas yourself).
For an original theorem, not previously proved by anyone else,  give a complete and careful proof.


How to quickly understand the main idea when reading a paper?

How to efficiently read a paper is not something that can be taught over the internet in broad generalities.  It seems pretty futile to try to teach it "in general" in general (!!), by which I mean that if you're trying to teach someone how to read a paper, you had better have at least one actual paper in hand.  You can try to draw broader morals, but whatever lessons are there to be learned should be grounded in the reading of that particular paper.  Thus for instance

  How to find the those parts which talk about the main idea?

would be silly to address without seeing the paper.

I find more promise here:

  My advisor said you should understand the main idea of a paper in one hour, or at maximum in two hours. But I need at least 5 hours.

Your advisor knows me?!?  Sorry, just kidding.  Anyway, that's exactly whom you should be talking to.  But even with your advisor you are stuck on a way too general discussion.  Go to her with with paper you are trying to read now, and learn how the advice applies to that paper.

Let me also say that I am a bit skeptical of the hard limits your advisor is imposing, or more precisely with the way you are construing whatever your advisor told you.  Obviously 1-2 hours cannot be the amount of time needed to understand the main idea of every paper: some papers are just significantly longer, more difficult and/or more obscure than others.  Speaking for myself: after some years of experience for reading for the main idea, depending on the paper, sometimes I can now grasp the main idea just as soon as I run my eyes over the first page; sometimes it takes me an hour or two; sometimes it takes me a full day's work; sometimes at the end of a full day's work I find that I don't understand the main idea.

Where is this 1-2 hour figure coming from, and what does "should" mean here?  Maybe she means "Come back if you've spent more than two hours on it and I'll give you more help."  Or maybe she means that's an upper bound for how long it would take her to read the paper.  But she's not a student, she's supervising one.  If there's one matter in which students should be skeptical of their advisors, it's in their advisors' estimations of how long it will (or "should") take a student to do something.  It's not a matter of arguing with your advisor but rather letting her in to understand your process.  If it's taking you so much more time than she expects, show her what you're doing and see what she has to say.

Let me also say that a longer time spent on something isn't inherently problematic.  If you are reading in a language different from your own native one, it will take you longer -- and skimming will take you much longer.  Most academics eventually realize that the people who can complete tasks more quickly are often but far from always the ones who can do the best work on those tasks.  Real breakthroughs are things that people chew on and work through for weeks, months or years.  Some speed freak types simply don't have the patience or focus to linger on something for much longer than it takes for others to see how quick they are.  So if you are eventually understanding what you're reading quite well and you're not lagging far behind in other tasks: ask yourself whether you really have a problem or just a certain skill that you'd like to optimize when you get the chance.


I have 14 F's on my transcript and I am finishing late. Do I have any chance of getting accepted into a master's program in Germany?

Your chances might be not that bad. MSc admissions in Germany, specifically in CS, are not highly competitive. In fact, universities have an incentive to admit and keep as many students as possible, since the number of students has an effect on how much money they get.


Getting published: writing a book chapter in linguistics

In my discipline in the social sciences, book chapters are typical outcomes of workshops or of (repeated) conference panels. The book editors usually organize the workshop, which includes funding, establishing contacts and sending out invitations or an open call for papers. As a participant (rather than organizer), it is difficult to know from the outset whether the workshop will result in any form of collective publication, but sometimes the intention to work on a publication is specifically advertised. As an organizer, this is in your hands; and it of course leads to several follow-up questions (how to edit a book etc.) that are beyond the scope of this answer.


I expect that typical European professors will be sufficiently aware of the situation in Hong Kong to understand that some PhD students will feel pressured to leave; and to be sufficiently sympathetic to the democracy movement to not think any less of those students. Mentioning political pressure should do a lot to overcome the usual stigma against people changing PhD positions. That you have not actually engaged in activism is not going to be relevant.
Some universities will have minimum candidate periods for PhD students, and will be more or less flexible in waiving them for you. I would not worry about that too much in advance, contact suitable supervisors and ask about what accommodations can be made for you. They'll know best how to work the local administration.
Since you will want to complete a particular project for your PhD, you really want the right people as new supervisor. Someone who already knows your published work will be ideal.
For context, a few years ago the Saudi government decided that all Saudi-funded PhD students in Canada (of which there were a lot) had to immediately leave and move to a different country. While this was undoubtedly very stressful for the students, my impression was that there were plenty of understanding European professors willing to help.


How do commitees evaluate candidates from foreign / unknown universities?

I work in a European institute and we get a fair number of applicants from Middle and East Asian countries for PhD positions. It became obvious rather quickly that grades, curriculum, prestige etc. are basically incomparable. In fact, we only took these into account when we know the country of origin very well.

Instead, we put quite some weight on individual skillsets, what undergraduate research project applicants had done, whether their studies fit well with what we are doing, and letters of recommendation.

In other words, we do not take anything on your list into account, with the sole exception of the opportunity to do research: if a candidate hasn't done any independent research and we do not know how to interpret their grades etcetera, then we do not have enough information to make an informed decision. These candidates could be really good but we're unfortunately not in a position to determine that.

This works because we typically know pretty well what kind of students we are looking for; we are not selecting for the US-type Masters-PhD structure, these students immediately start with their PhD projects.


Using relative numbering for tables and figures

If your school does not have a specific scheme in place for such reports, then you are free to use whatever scheme you feel most logically identifies things. Personally, I prefer the longer style of numbering, because it helps me to orient myself through a large document. It's certainly not bad practice, although it's somewhat unusual to "drill down" all the way to the subsection level.


Affiliation on a paper written mostly in previous position

There are no fixed rules but I would opt for your option (2). The affiliation is intended to aid in facilitating contact with the author but is of course useful to a department to show count the paper as a product from that institute. By listing your former address first indicating that that is where you did most of the work and then adding the second as present address provides the best and useful information for all parts. Option (1) means your present location is not disclosed which is a missed opportunity to locate you. Option (3) has the disadvantage that your former department are not associated with the work you performed there. So although all are acceptable, (2) would be the best (most polite and useful) way in your situation.


A student in my course does well on exams, but doesn't do the homework: Go easy on them, or make them "pay the price?"

As an instructor, when I find myself in this situation, I invite the student to make an appointment to speak with me privately in my office.

During that private meeting, I will discuss his/her current performance in the class, and point out the likely consequences if he/she does not submit the required work.  I will advise the student as to what he/she must do to achieve the grade he/she needs.

Then it's up to the student to earn the grade he/she wants - or to fail. You can't live their lives for them.


I don't have statistical data on this (and I doubt any exist). Personally I find "Best regards" and "regards" to be very formal, but it depends on who you're speaking to.

I prefer to use "Best wishes", "All the best", "Best" (if the email is brief or we're in a hurry) or "Ciao" (my supervisor is Italian).

As for salutations, I don't think Prof. Dr. is used anywhere outside of Germany, because usually only the most recent or senior title is used. In other words, use Dr if they're a PhD and Professor if they're a professor. If you don't know which they are, find out.


Are there any students at the United Nations University?

The United Nations University does not really work as a normal university, but rather as a research center. The difference is that they recruit students from developing countries as for a period that can go from several months to a year, in order to make them work on concrete research projects, so that they can gain experience (which can help them to apply for a Master of PhD program somewhere else).

For instance, this a job position for students at the UNU-IIST (International Institute for Software Technology). Note that the UNU-IIST also plan to offer a joint PhD program with the University of Pisa. Note also that it seems that each institute of the UNU is to some extent independent, so maybe other institutes provide more academic programs.

So, to answer your questions, technically speaking there are students at the UNU (when I was working at the UNU-IIST, there were something between 10 and 20 students), but they are not "enrolled" by the UNU, it's more like some kind of internship.


Why do PhD admission committees focus on your bachelor's degree grades when you have better master's degree grades?

In the U.S. and in math, at least in my experience, graduate grades tend to be less reliable measures than undergraduate grades for how one did in a class. Graduate grades tend to be A -- "good" to "excellent", B -- "total-incompetence-but-attended-class" to "acceptable", C -- essentially you failed (for some programs, you're gone if you accumulate 3 C's).
Universities and departments range from "B's are rarely given and C's are almost never given" to "A's tend to be given for work consistent with passing the Ph.D. qualifying exam in the subject", B's tend to be "not horrible" to "good-but-not-exhibiting-future-Ph.D.-potential-performance", and perhaps a few C's are given for especially bad work.
Nonetheless, I would think nearly all A's and well above average recommendations in a Masters program would undo all but the very worst of undergraduate grades, and maybe even those. But a 3.3 Masters average and typical-good-sounding recommendations are not going to undo a 2.8 undergraduate average in one's major.


How to help a student researcher with narcolepsy continue research

I have had Narcolepsy for ten years now. I am also currently an undergraduate at university. In my opinion, based on personal experience as a person with narcolepsy, there are a few things important to consider.

Firstly, the severity of narcolepsy is different for all those who suffer it so abilities vary. I am at university full time and whilst I am offered accommodations to assist me, on the whole, I produce high quality work.
Secondly, a person with narcolepsy may doubt themselves regardless of their abilities because others around them are quick to doubt them. This is why, on most occasions, I have not disclosed my condition to employees. Once I am employed, the quality of my work speaks for itself and then I disclose it for safety reasons. This is an internal battle because I fear that I am being untruthful to start with. At the same time, I know the stigma narcolepsy brings and that given the choice between a candidate with narcolepsy and one without, I would lose. If this person has told you about their narcolepsy it means they trust you and respect you and feel compelled to be completely truthful with you. They probably don't want to let you down so they will probably downplay their abilities in fear of this.
Whilst narcolepsy is characterised by 'sudden uncontrollable bouts of sleepiness', it's usually brief and full alertness is resumed after a short nap. Narcolepsy occurs because the hypocretin/orexin have been fought off by an autoimmune disease. This means sleep/wake cycles aren't regular. A person with their hypocretin intact do all their sleeping in one block, usually when the sun goes down. A person with narcolepsy sleeps in smaller blocks of time and stays alert for a shorter amount of time. Theoretically then, a person with narcolepsy can be awake and alert for the same number of hours a day as a non-narcoleptic but needs to do this by by breaking it up into smaller blocks. (You could liken this to differences in diet - some people eat three big meals a day while some people eat six smaller meals a day.)

To conclude, yes narcolepsy makes my life more difficult. I wouldn't be able to succeed at university without the support and understanding I get from the staff. But life is full of challenges and it is the way in which we deal with them that sets us apart. If you have developed a good working relationship with this person, then they already fulfil one important aspect of those needed for the position. A person with narcolepsy is aware of their shortfalls and given the chance, will do what is needed to overcome them. Don't let a diagnosis change your perception - just because a person doesn't have a medical label attached to them, doesn't mean they don't have other relevant faults or issues.

My advice is to write down what is required to fulfil the needs of the research - do it in measurable terms. For example., how many hours a day/week is sufficient? Then sit down with this person and discuss it with them. Approach the requirements as you would anyone else. (For eg. Can you commit to these requirements? etc) If you were happy with their work previously tell them that. Also admit that you don't know much about narcolepsy but you know that everyone is different. Tell them you want them to succeed and you have faith in them. Tell them how important the work is to you and if you think you are a good team, say so.

I hope this has been helpful and thank you for not listening to your human resource department who clearly lack knowledge and empathy.


Who is responsible for "blinding" a paper for double-blind review?

It will depend on the journal, and if the journal follows double-blind review, they will tell you how to properly format your paper. For example, the American Journal of Epidemiology:

Manuscripts must be submitted online in a double-spaced, blinded format, with pages numbered, in at least 12-point type, do not insert line numbers.
When uploading the manuscript to the Web site, please delete any text reference to the paper's authors, affiliations, and acknowledgments.


Are student papers treated differently from main papers in a top conference?

In my area of research there is no special category or process for student papers. All papers are submitted using the same process and the overwhelming majority of conferences uses double blind peer-review.

By design this implies that reviewers should not even be aware whether a paper was written by a student or not. Also during conferences, all papers are treated exactly the same.

The only thing I can think of that's special for papers written by students is that some conferences offer a special "Best Student Paper" award, for which - naturally - only student papers are eligible. (What defines a student paper can differ between conferences.) But these awards are decided after all accepted papers have been chosen and do not influence acceptance/rejection.


What to do with a very long research paper?

Most journals will make any page limits public. Some will take long papers, but that assumes some significance to the result. The best way to find out is to make a submission to one that doesn't clearly state a shorter limit.
Navigating the publishing process isn't co-authorship and shouldn't be offered.
It might be necessary, however, to split the paper into two or more papers, assuming that there are intermediate results worth publishing independently. In applied math, it might be that some intermediate results have their own application. That might be a way to look at it. But the sum of several smaller papers can be expected to total more than the original.
If you make a submission, the editor and reviewers will comment on the writing and if it is "too dense" will suggest edits, though maybe not in specific terms. But you can decrease the density by increasing the length (more explanation) and this, again, leads to the possible necessity of splitting the paper.


Fired/project given to another postdoc during F32 fellowship

Generally speaking, it is VERY difficult to fire anyone in academia.  Speaking as a professor with a postdoc of my own, there are generally negotiated contracts between the university and the postdoc.  Faculty and the university can get in trouble if they violate the terms of that.  I highly suggest you talk to your HR person to see if they was all above board.  They will be able to tell you if any of the terms were violated.

Futher, NIH funding, like other pots of government funding, is a contract between the government organization and the institution, not the individual.  That being said, that is frequently overlooked for things like professors leaving one university to go to another and then taking their funding with them.  I would strongly suggest you get a copy of the exact contract between NIH and your institution.  There might be some language in there that can help you.


Is it an offence to ask a professor to share a soft copy of his recent book with me for my semester?

As an author I'd feel uncomfortable when someone asks me to share a digital copy of my book. I find it very much different from sharing digital copies of papers. An author of a journal paper gets these days a digital offprint (basically a pdf file), which one can share privately with colleagues. However as an author of a book you get (at least in my discipline) several free hard copies, which one can distribute among the dearest colleagues, but as their number is finite one may not be not always willing to share these with students. Sharing digital copies (which can be the technically last proofs the author gets before the book is printed) of the book may be a breach of the contract the author signed with the publisher, and one would feel uneasy if one has to choose whether to break the terms of the contract or to say no to a nice student interested in one's work.
So if I were you (and as I myself do when I miss a book written by someone I know well) I'd try one of the following: 1) request that your library purchase a digital (or print) copy of the book; 2) order the book via interlibrary loan; 3) buy the book. Otherwise you may send the author a nice letter saying that you are very much interested in their book and asking if they could advise you how to get hold this hard to find publication. (But again if you are at a university that has a library with access to ILL it would imply that you find it easier to trouble the author rather than order the book via ILL; hence I'd resort to this solution only if you are at an institution that doesn't provide other access options [which is surely the case in many countries with undeveloped library systems], and your request would look more reasonable if you explain in more detail why you cannot get the book without the author's help).


Is it okay to scan a book (that I own) strictly for personal use?

I am not a lawyer. This is a general caveat, and it is also why I don't know which copyright law applies: Australia's (where the book was published) or Germany's (where you reside). I would think Australia's, but I don't know for sure.

Under the laws of both countries it is illegal to make a full copy of a copyrighted book, but different exceptions apply. In brief: Under German and Austrian law, only manual copying is allowed. Under Australian law, you can legally scan a book that you own for your private use.

In Germany and Austria

According to the Urhebergesetz (copyright-holder law), a full copy may only be made by handwriting or -typing (§ 53 Abs. 4 Nr. 2 in Germany and § 42 (8) in Austria). This restriction also covers non-commercial personal and research purposes. An exception applies to works that have been out of print (for at least two years in Germany).

In Australia

The Copyright Act governs the reproduction of artistic, literary, dramatic, and musical works. Presumably this is an open list that includes also scientific works. The following information is taken from the official brochure "A Short Guide to Copyright Law".

In general, reproducing a copyrighted book is illegal, but there are exceptions.

There is a "fair dealing" exception for, inter alia, research purposes. Whether this exception applies depends on "the amount and substantiality of the portion copied". As a rule, several articles from a journal or one chapter from a book may be copied.

The most important exception for your case, however, is the format-shifting exception. It "allows certain types of material that a person owns to be copied into a different format for private or domestic use. For example, a book can be scanned into an electronic form".

Finally

On a pragmatic and ethical note: You bought the book, and there seems to be no ebook version that you could buy instead of scanning the book. Thus no harm is done if you scan it. As the German adage goes, "wo kein Kläger da kein Richter" (no plaintiff -- no judge).


What is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation?

"Work" is just as good as either. There's no need for precision or rigor here. All three would be acceptable.


Finishing with only 2 papers (both co-authorship)

One suggestion I can provide is to try and make it to a, related to what you're interested in doing for a post-doc, conference and network. Hopefully present some good work and meet PI's you might be interested in working with, you're far more likely to get an interview or offer if they have a face to put with the application.

If it's too late for a conference, you could and should try to leverage your advisors connections. A good letter of recommendation / Introduction can go a lot further than an lengthy CV, especially if your advisor is known and respected in the field.

I personally used the first method when applying to a postdoc. Having met my eventual post-doc advisor at conferences. When I was applying I had 3 not first author papers and two in preparation first authors (which languished on my PhD advisors desk 2-3 years after I graduated).


What happens when a journal changes its editor-in-chief in the middle of a review?

Most likely, nothing changed. The previous editor was probably waiting for referees responses and the new editor is probably now waiting for the same referees to respond. Only if the new editor strongly disagrees with the choice of referees (which is very unlikely), he would ask for new ones and you would have lost time. But you are probably safe.