Strategies for dealing/interacting with a colleague who have suffered from academic burnout

It is a tricky situation, and there is no 'guidebook' way of helping your colleague or how to deal with their recovery - I can only offer an account of when I burnt out.

When I burnt out, my colleagues - both work and academic, rallied around and helped me get back on my feet.  The way they did it was to be there and to simply listen - this was the key thing that helped me rise up.  They also kept things as normal as possible and understood the times when I needed to vent - which over time, became less and less.

They also gave me my space - like an open invitation for me to join in the conversations or activities when I felt I could.

Having also been in the situation from the other side, listening and giving time and space did help.

One more thing, you have to take care of your own well being as well - you are doing the right thing, by being there, it is not an easy road - but believe me, you are making a difference.


Are there any differences in how new vs. well-established professors select students?

This will indeed  be highly  dependent on field. For instance,  in pure mathematics, there's a rather dramatic difference: most faculty don't take on any graduate students at all until after tenure.

The American Mathematical Society has written one of their culture statements about this issue. Generally, (pure) mathematicians have no labs and hence no need for bodies to fill them. And in math, on the time scale of a tenure clock, advising grad students is felt to have a net negative effect on research productivity (in the longer run there can be dividends). So the clear incentive is to wait until after tenure, and departments are usually fine with this.


Entropy measures how much information you learn on average about each student from the exam results.  For example, imagine an exam on which everyone gets a perfect score.  In that case, you would learn nothing, so the entropy is zero.  If half the students get one score and half get another, then you learn one bit of information about each of them.  If you want to assign meaningful grades on the usual U.S. scale, you'll need at least several bits of entropy, and the 3.5 or 4 bits mentioned in the quora answer sounds reasonable to me.

The idea behind the answer you link to is perfectly reasonable: if your exam results have low entropy, then that basically means they are clumped together on too few possible scores, and you don't have enough ability to distinguish between students.  On the other hand, I don't see much point to actually computing a mathematical measure of entropy (e.g., Shannon entropy), except perhaps for fun if you enjoy that sort of thing.  Instead, you can just look at the range of scores and judge how well they distinguish between students.  Think about how you might assign grades, and you'll rapidly see whether you run into problems, without any need for mathematical computations.

Furthermore, doing it by entropy is a little subtle anyway.  Strictly speaking, Shannon entropy pays no attention to the distance between scores, just to whether they are exactly equal.  I.e., you can have high entropy if every student gets a slightly different score, even if the scores are all very near to each other and thus not useful for distinguishing students.  The quora answer obliquely refers to that (in the discussion of bins), but still this means you can't just compute a single number without thinking.

So I'd view entropy more as a metaphor than a number most professors should compute.


Is ignoring emails acceptable in academia?

I agree that it can be frustrating, but this  is not uncommon in a big organisation (I don't think this is specific to academia). People get a lot of e-mail, and are very busy. Answering each and every email can be a lot of work in an already fully packed day. This either leads to people forgetting, or simply ignoring their e-mail to some extent. Also remember that something might be a really high priority for you, but a relatively low priority for the person you mail. So I don't think ignoring mails is acceptable, but sometimes understandable.

I think the best way to deal with it is to try and work with the system. If you see that professor X is very unresponsive to his mail, approach him in person. If a department does not return your mails, give them a call. This kind of personal approach makes it harder for those persons to ignore you, an email is very easy to ignore.


Math: Perception of only or mostly doing research in Master's for Ph.D. admission folks

Background: I am the director of graduate admissions in the pure math department of my university.

In my experience, we basically ignore "research" conducted by undergraduate and masters students (unless is it truly remarkable, in which case you will almost certainly not need advice on the internet to get into a strong PhD program).  It just isn't a good predictor of whether or not you will be successful in a PhD program.  You will get very different advice from people who are not mathematicians, but you should ignore it -- graduate programs in math are very different from graduate programs in the other sciences.  This advice also might not apply if you are applying to departments of applied mathematics.

What we care about are

The courses you have taken, and
Your grades, and
Your letters of recommendation, and
Your GRE scores.

The above list is un-ordered; different members of the committee weight the above factors differently.


Acknowledgment to friend in research article

This sort of thing is quite normal in books. In articles, one frequently sees the author(s) thanking a colleague for fruitful discussions and such. If you really feel so strongly about your friend's impact on your work, I think it would be perfectly appropriate to include it. Just avoid specifics such as "X helped me deal with the effects of my depression and drug dependency". (In other words, use common sense.)


Merging ArXiv paper and conference paper on Google Scholar

"My citations", then tick the square boxes next to the papers you want to merge, then click on the "merge" button that just appeared.


How to judge a Ph.D. applicant that arrives "out of thin air"

I would tell them what you expect from a PhD student: prove theorems/run empirical tests/conduct human studies or all the above. If their profile is a clear mismatch, I wouldn’t bother.

I would next ask them to review two papers of their choice out of your recent publications. One page review each. The review should include at least one idea for future directions.  It tells you whether they’re serious, what they want to work on, and whether they can reason about ideas in your field. It also guarantees that the problem is at least somewhat tractable (you’ve solved it after all).

If you’re happy with the write ups, schedule a video interview. You both are committing to 4+ years together, best to make sure you can discuss things together.

Good luck!


Per the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)'s guide to open access income models:

  According to one survey, article processing fees are wholly or partially subsidized, either by a research grant (34%), a foundation grant (5%), or by the author’s host department (8%) or institutional library (27%). The payment of such fees out of an author’s personal funds appears relatively low—about 5% across all open access journals.

The most common sources of funding for open access publication are research grants (that allow open access fees to be charged to the grant) and institutional library funds. PLOS has compiled a list of some institutions and funders from around the world who have Open Access funds or policies to support open access publishing charges. You can check that list to see if any of those are available to you.

If none of these options are available to you, find out if the publisher can offer a fee waiver. According to the SPARC guide:

  Most publishers using the model make allowances for special situations (for example, individuals without a host institution or from less developed countries), assessing lower fees or waiving fees altogether when no institutional subsidy exists. Society publishers often discount article publication fees for members, or waive them entirely.

For example, PLOS waives fees for research from eligible low-income countries and offers fee assistance for authors who have no other source of funding that covers the open access publication charges. Similarly, Elsevier offers fee waivers "in cases of genuine need." Wiley offers an automatic waiver to authors in certain eligible low-income countries, and discount to authors from another group of countries. Springer has a similar automatic waiver, and also allows authors to submit individual waiver requests.


Can I take two consecutive classes simultaneously?

The policy will be in the prerequisite requirements for a class, in your case, Intermediate Spanish II.  In the U.S., you will find prerequisite requirements in the official catalog of the institution, and probably elsewhere. Somewhere in the official catalog there may be a policy about whether prerequisites can be overridden, and if so how.


What to write in the section "what will be the impact of proposed research on development of applicants academic profile"?

You should not base this document on your dreams, but on your plans.

You need to write about the impact of the position on your academic profile in view of its potential effects on your depicted plans for the future. In contrast to the SoP, you better merely focus on the future and denouements, in this case.

As a matter of fact, every post-doc researcher has implicit mental themes, corresponding to his/her plans for joining the academia in a specific manner. For example, just consider a researcher, who does work in the field of biomedical engineering. He/she might be eager to chase a typical faculty position in the realm of the tissue engineering. Furthermore, suppose that he/she has applied for a post-doc position about the design and manipulation of the chemical polymers to invent new kinds of the cardiovascular tissues. Now, if he/she is supposed to declare the impact of this project on development of his/her academic profile, he/she could assert that this project would, considerably, expand his mind not only to dig into the more multidisciplinary projects between different departments, but also even to show the probable tendency to join a variety of departments, such as medical and science, instead of the engineering schools.

That was just a typical reasonable justification for declaration of the potential impact. You need to determine the outcomes of the program upon your specific case and elaborate them, efficiently.


Undergraduate, graduate or post-graduate student — is that Bachelor/Master/PhD or Bachelor/Master+PhD/postdoc?

I am almost certain that post doc is not what is meant.

In English speaking systems outside of North America, and especially referring to Europe under the Bologna accords, an undergraduate refers to someone who is studying for, but has yet to receive, his first post-secondary education degree. Typically this degree is some equivalent of Bachelors, but in some cases students maybe enrolled in accelerated programs with a longer term of study that leads directly to (the equivalent of) a Masters degree.

A graduate student can, but not necessarily, refer to someone who is studying for a graduate diploma. In many countries having a Bachelors (or equivalent) is not sufficient in itself to qualify one for starting a postgraduate degree. One often requires a "good enough" Bachelors degree (such as one with honors). The graduate diploma is an intermediate step in which a student who has already received his first post-secondary degree studies further in order to qualify to enroll in a masters (or sometimes doctorate? I am not sure about this) degree program.

A postgraduate student refers to someone who has already obtained a first degree, and is now pursuing a second, third, or Nth degree beyond it. See, e.g. this Wikipedia entry.

A postdoctoral researcher is generally not considered as a student.

In English speaking North America, an undergraduate typically refers to someone studying for a bachelors, since almost all (if not all) degree programs go through that stage in North America. And a graduate student refers to any student studying for any degree beyond that of the bachelors (so that would be typically the masters or the doctorate).


What is a "description of professional interests"?

It's legitimate to contact the school and ask how they define that term, you know. There's nothing wrong with admitting that you haven't run into this particular phrase before, or that you're concerned that their definition might not be exactly the one you're familiar with.

"Better to ask and have them suspect you're a fool, than to assume and remove all doubt."


Which type of paper is best for computer science, journal or conference?

Computer science is a bit of a special case, in that high-profile conferences can be even better than high-profile journals.
Here's an in-depth discussion.

But it's still important to get journal publications because the rest of the scientific community (including perhaps the chair of your department) tends to believe they're better.

Now this distinction is only important once you have a few publications already.

Also, one of the advantages of conferences is that they have set deadlines and processing times, constrained by the conference dates, whereas journal submissions can take months and months to be processed.


Is it safe to use pirated software for Doctoral research?

It’s not OK to use unlicensed software. I would suspect that advisors would be very concerned about one of their students using an expensive software package for which they didn’t have a license, since they might have liability for letting you use it.

If it’s so important, then you should talk to your advisor about getting a license.

While I am not personally familiar with people having degrees revoked for using unlicensed software, I could certainly sympathize with arguments calling for sanctions against people who do so.


'Expert' interviews of academics - Consent and Ethics

If you've had to go through ethics approval process, you are bound by the protocols that you come up with them. We've carried out interviews with other academics and are bound by ethics, and when I have been interviewed by other academics, I have gone through the ethics process.

I would be skeptical if somebody was carrying out a research interview with me without obtaining formal approval from me.

As for your question:

  So, in asking for consent to record interviews and use the information for my research, do I need to ask each participant whether they want their contributions to be a) attributed or b) anonymized?

Your ethics board will probably approve the protocol you want to use. But yes, when I obtain permissions from interviewees, I usually ask three questions: (a) do they of their own free will agree to the interview; (b) do they agree to be interviewed; and (c) do they agree to have quotations in the paper that are attributed to them/anonymized to them/etc. (the last part depends on the study)

Sometimes a study has a mixture of anonymous and named participants.


I can't judge whether the advisor is making a correct evaluation and being a jerk about it, or just being a jerk.

But, at a minimum, you need a different advisor. It should be someone who has some faith in you and encourages your best work. Staying where you are, under this advisor, is unlikely to result in success.

But you have to evaluate your own position and whether any of the statements have any validity. If they have some, then what can you do to improve the situation? If they have some validity, then what is the cause of it? Lack of preparation? Poor work process? Undiagnosed illness? There are lots of possibilities.

In the worst case, you may need to abandon your program, at least for a while, but no one here has the perspective to recommend that.

And, not that it helps, perhaps your advisor just doesn't belong in any advising situation. You probably have little chance of fixing that problem.


After initial contact, how long should I address a professor as "Dr. Smith" or "Professor Smith"?

This is so highly dependent on particular universities -- let alone particular regions -- that it is probably best just to ask students and faculty what is the culture at their particular university.

I will give one example.  At most American universities you should begin by calling all your instructors by "Dr." or "Professor", although in some cases your instructors will be neither one of these and should probably say so in response.  For anyone who is either a Doctor (i.e., has a doctoral degree) or a Professor (in the United States this usually means "is on the tenure track", but already there are variations...), it seems a bit rude not to use one of these two appellations.  When students call me "Mr. Clark" I assume they are just forgetting that they are not in high school anymore.  But whether "Dr." or "Professor" is preferred is highly variable.  At my university it seems that "Dr." is the go-to appellation: I have even heard other faculty refer to me as "Dr. Clark" when talking to students.  Nevertheless I prefer being called "Professor": getting my PhD was nice.  Getting a tenure-track job took place three years later, and that's when I really made it big.  However at some places you call people "Professor" because you are not sure whether they have a doctorate, and for the ones who do, "Dr." is the superior honorific.  Et cetera...

(I believe I learned some of this from Paul Halmos's Automathography, which I highly recommend to all academics and not just to mathematicians: to mathematicians I would require that you read it if I could!  He goes on to explain more nuances than I did above.)

What you call your instructor also depends on things like their age, their gender, and honestly perhaps even their ethnic background.  As a tenured Caucasian male, the desired aura of authority is already there: I don't have to do anything special to summon it. On the other hand I am still "young" -- closer in age to some of my students than some of my colleagues -- so if I met a student in a non-academic context I would not want any deferential treatment.  (This is also a generational thing: telemarketers, phone company employees and so forth now call me and refer to me by my first name, and I wonder where our civilization is heading...) I am totally okay being called by my first name by any university student.  Whether they are similarly okay doing so is another question, but I encourage this behavior particularly from former students and in contexts outside out of the university campus.  If I were 65 years old and wearing a suit, calling me by my first name would seem less appropriate.  (In fact I had to steel myself at first to call all of my colleagues by their first names, even the ones who were famous mathematicians before I was born.  But that is definitely contemporary American academic culture: any of my colleagues who calls me "Dr. Clark" is signalling that they want to strangle me.)

I feel that it is especially important not to use less formal appellations for female faculty.  I covered a colleague's class a few weeks ago, and one of the students asked a question, beginning with "Miss Matic said..." And my answer began "Well, first things first: it's Dr. Matic..." I then got the student to agree that that was the correct thing to say before moving on to address the question.  Also I feel honorbound to stand more carefully on honorifics when addressing minorities.  It is sad to me that contemporary American society has not gotten past the point where this seems necessary...but it hasn't yet.


Moved to a new city – how to start academically networking?

Contact the schools doing relevant work and ask to be added to their seminar notification lists. Attend the seminars and participate in discussion afterwards. You needn't mention your affiliation.
Contact the people doing relevant work and offer to present a seminar yourself (if your employer will allow it). Most university schools run seminar series and are always on the lookout for new speakers, especially external speakers. List the affiliation you had when you did the research about which you will be speaking. When they accept your seminar offer, ask if they would also mind scheduling you some time on the same day to speak one-on-one with people working in your field.
If you are in an applied field, look into whether there is an active professional society group in your field in the new city. Join it and attend their events. If there there is no active group, consider starting one: if you are willing to do the leg-work involved in organising a few good seminars, professional networking dinners, entertaining debates or other activities, people will join.


Can a person register a conference using someone else's credit card and still get IEEE membership discount?

Generally speaking,

the name of the person registering does not have to be the same as the name on the credit card. You can pay for your co-author's registration if you want.
the IEEE discount applies if the person registering is an IEEE member, regardless of who is paying.

If your co-author is registering to attend the conference, it's fine for him to use your credit card (if that's what you want) and he can still get the IEEE discount, since he's an IEEE member.

If you're the one registering to attend the conference, you can't get the discount if you're not an IEEE member.


Your advisor's advice is probably worth taking. They know you better than we do.
But your current goal is to get a doctorate. The specific sub field is less important than that goal. You can always take up a different specialty later if it isn't too different.
Find a path to success. Examine the obstacles (exams, ...) and find a way through them. You may have made some judgmental errors, but don't make any more.
But to find that path, in mathematics, find a field in which you have true insight into how things work. Math insight isn't general. You can have deep insight into one field (analysis) and little in another (algebra).


Raising money on the Kickstarter or GoFundMe websites

There have been a number of successfully crowdfunded research projects already, see e.g. this write-up. Specific crowdfunding websites have even been set up for research projects, such as Experiment and Petridish. As you might guess from all this activity there is no general issue with crowdfunding research. However, your particular university might have specific policies or restrictions to be aware of. (Your advisor should know the right people to get in touch with to find out for sure.) I've heard that a common roadblock is that the university's accounting offices might not know how to (or want to) handle this kind of projects, where the funding comes from many small donations, rather than a central funding agency. In any case, there are no obvious global restrictions that apply.

There have been some other crowdfunding questions on this website you might be interested in as well: What are some tips for crowdfunding science off websites like PetriDish?, and Can a PhD be crowdfunded?.


Graduate early with average GPA, or later with better GPA?

Your answer will depend partly on what you want to do in academia.  If you want to teach, but don't really want to emphasize research much, you might do fine to graduate now.  However, if your goal is to become a professor at a research intensive school, then you really should go to the strongest grad school you can get into.  (Based on your description, I strongly suspect that if you bust your butt for another year or two, in particular working to earn one or two strong letters of rec, you could get into a better grad school than you can currently.)

Yes, I know there are considerations about who you will work with, perhaps geography, potential two-body problems, etc.  So, why's it so important to go to the best school you can?  Again and again I see that in academia (as everywhere) networking is crucial.  Generalizing and stereotyping a bit: the best schools have the best researchers, who know the other best researchers, who have the biggest grants, which fund the nicest postdocs, etc.  If you want to thrive as a researcher, you will do well to get into that network.  (To a large extent, it's a rich get richer system.)  As an undergrad or early grad student, one way you can get into that network is to work with a professor who is a central part of it, and is willing to weave you in.  And your chances of working with said professor typically go up with the reputation of the school.

Now a personal digression.  Through high school and undergrad I was in a hurry to get to the next level as soon as possible.  I skipped 7th grade, finished undergrad in 3 years, and started grad school at the age of 20.  I even turned down a year abroad in the Budapest Semester in Math, because I was worried I'd miss out if I waited too long to get to grad school.  The sad truth is that I wasn't ready.  Maybe you would be; I've never met you, so I can't say.

Eventually (after 8 years), I finished a PhD, and am fairly happy with where my career is headed.  However, I don't regret that time in grad school at all.  I learned a lot of useful stuff.  In fact, I think it's because I took my time in grad school that my career has gone as well as it has.  One interesting feature of academia is that you're typically judged by your productivity relative to the time since you earned your PhD (rather than your age).  As a result, I encourage you to take your time and learn as much as you can.  You'll never again have as much free time as you do now.


What's going on: I got nothing when many applicants got rejection from the same grad program

The only people who know are involved with the admissions process. Maybe they have accepted you, but just have sent the acceptances out or maybe they rejected you and you rejection is in a later batch. They also could have never received or lost your application. You just cannot know. In a situation like this, where you think something is up because other people have heard, it would be inappropriate to ask the admissions team what is happening. If you think they lost your application, and if they sent you an aknonowledgement it is very unlikely, then it might be reasonable to ask. Then again, it is pretty late to check and they are probably not interested in getting a late application.

In simple terms, not having been rejected yet is much better news than having been rejected. Not having been rejected when others have, is not particularly predictive.


How to approach bad communication with my department

If your department is like any other US math department I’m familiar with, it will have a graduate program coordinator (or similar title), a graduate program chair/graduate vice chair, and a department chair. The first two on this list will usually have office hours you can visit to talk to them about any issues you need help with. The department chair ought to be available to talk to you, either as a walk-in or by scheduling an appointment, if you have failed in your efforts to get one of the first two to listen. Through some combination of email, phone, showing up in person and knocking on doors, and gentle assertiveness, it is difficult for me to imagine that you will fail in getting someone to hear your concerns and work out a solution.

Good luck!


Transfer of credit (masters) in Germany?

Credits must¹ be transferred if you are changing universities, this includes courses you have failed. Any course with the appropriate amount of credits that is 80 % or more equivalent to a course in the program you are transferring to will be transferred. Be prepared to do the paperwork, documenting the “Modulhandbuch” for all of the courses you have attempted.

You can only transfer, however, if there is space available in the target program. This is not always the case.

¹ This is demanded by federal law (Hochschulrahmengesetz, § 15(3)):

  Zum Nachweis von Studien- und Prüfungsleistungen soll ein Leistungspunktsystem geschaffen werden, das auch die Übertragung erbrachter Leistungen auf andere Studiengänge […] einer anderen Hochschule ermöglicht.

  (For certifying studying or examination accomplishments, a point-based system system shall be created that allows to transfer accomplishments to other degree courses of other universities.)

Specific realisations depend on the state or even the university. For example, the Berliner Hochschulgesetz states (§ 22 (2)):

  Die Hochschulen haben Studiengänge und Prüfungen so zu organisieren
  und einzurichten, dass insbesondere

  […]

  bereits erbrachte Studien- und Prüfungsleistungen bei einem Wechsel der
  Hochschule weitestgehend anerkannt werden können,

  […]

  (Universities have to organise courses and exams such that especially […] already achieved studying or examination accomplishments can be largely acknowledged when switching universities.)


I recently realized how bad my mental health (anxiety or insomnia) condition is. Should I apply to US universities for grad school this year?

I voted to close because this is highly individual; however, I have something to contribute that will fit better into this box than the comment box.

If preparing your application makes you feel worse, don't do it.

If preparing your application makes you feel the same or better, then go for it.

You don't need to attend just because you are accepted.

Anxiety and insomnia are often related to each other like the chicken and the egg.  When one is anxious, one is more likely to lose sleep; when one is chronically short on sleep, one has a harder time dealing with difficult situations and is more likely to feel anxiety at an impairing level.

There are some conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), that tend not to go away unless a very specific treatment protocol is followed (exposure and response prevention).  However, many other types of anxiety do get better with more ad-hoc treatment approaches.  Even OCD does sometimes improve by itself, or through self-treatment, or through a less-than-ideal therapeutic approach.  And sometimes, finding someone who is a great listener is all that's needed.  So, why not look for someone you feel comfortable talking to?  Even if the therapist's formal studies haven't been hugely impressive, you still might find that it clicks, and talking with the person you found is helpful for you.

I'm not sure why you are concerned about the medications you were given.  I'm guessing maybe you're concerned about getting habituated and/or addicted.

The internet is a great place to find out about a particular medication's potential risks and side effects.

I have no idea what is at the root of your problems, and I don't even know what your symptoms and patterns of symptoms are.  Even a doctor wouldn't be able to match up medications with your needs after reading your post.  But what I can do is to share a list of medications that are sometimes helpful for anxiety and/or insomnia, tend to have a relatively low profile of side effects, and are relatively mild.  I'll include a tiny bit of information about each one.

Melatonin: over the counter (no prescription needed).  It's best to use the smallest dose that is helpful -- some people start with 1 mg and increase gently only if needed.  I have heard recommendations that the starting dosis be tiny, tiny -- by counting drops of the liquid form of the medication.

Zaleplon: 5 mg is the smallest dose (in the U.S).  This helps one relax and drop off and takes on the order of 20 minutes.  This is a relatively mild sleep aid and has a short half-life.  Some people are able to take it if insomina strikes at 5 am and still get up alert and ready for the day two hours later.

SSRI: sometimes helps for other conditions besides classic depression.  It can take up to six weeks to see an improvement after beginning to take it.  To be effective it has to be taken every day, religiously.  Dosages that are helpful for OCD are much higher than the standard dose for depression.  One has to ramp up slowly, with careful medical supervision.

Ativan or Xanax: these are in the Valium family and in small doses can help an anxious person stay on a more even keel.  Watch out, this is a medication that might be incompatible with operating machinery such as a car.  Note, one can cut the tablets up into pieces with utility scissors.

Zaleplon, Ativan and Xanax can be habit forming, especially if they're taken every day.

Regardless of where you are living, a big part of self-care involves building a support network.  It is generally more difficult to do this in a strange country.  However, maybe you could use the next 11 months to get better at building a support network, as practice.

Another good general coping mechanism is exercise.  You might find it helpful to start getting into good exercise habits now, if you don't already have them.  There are lots of ways of getting exercise and each person just has to find what's fun for them.

Now, about graduate studies: sometimes a person is able to feel better about him or herself when involved in a major endeavor, such as graduate studies.

It really is incredibly individual.

Note.  Just because the culture where you are is to hide anxiety, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to hide yours.

A little more:

Any therapist that tries to send you to grad school or prevent you from going to grad school is the wrong kind of therapist.

I want to share one possible non-medication intervention for insomnia: listen to a book on tape or a podcast that you have already listened to at least once before so that it won't be too exciting.  Set the timer feature on the mp3 player so it will turn itself off after 20-30 minutes.

There are also meditation or mindfulness tapes out there for insomnia but if you don't like them you might have better luck with what I described.


Is wrong salutation by editor in email reply considerable?

It's very common for editors and such people to address unknown researchers as "Professor" or "Dr" without checking that they actually hold such a position.

It doesn't mean anything; just ignore it.  There is no point in replying.


Chances of Being Accepted for a Book Author as a Graduate Student

I don't know about physics, but in Computer Science book chapters tend to be the lowest class of peer-reviewed publication. Most book editors are struggling to get any good contributions, and the only chapter-books (as opposed to text books with a single, or few, dedicated authors) I really see succeed nowadays are written by a closed group of people for a specific purpose. For instance, I know that some Dagstuhl seminars collectively decide to write a book - every participant writes one or two chapters, often together with (a subset of) members of their research group.

For books with an open call, you can in my field basically never be too inexperienced to write a chapter, as long as your English is good. That said, I generally advise my students against writing one anyway. Chapters are fairly long, so they may take an inexperienced writer substantial time to write, and the reputation and scientific impact of having a chapter in a book that is virtually never read is so negligible that the same effort is better directed to writing a different kind of paper.

Finally, the reaction of your advisor may also be a hint that they don't value book chapters either. Even if you can get your chapter accepted, is it a good use of time to work on something that your advisor appears to not put much stock in?


Articles don't usually have an ISBN since they are for books. It should be sufficient to give the title of the article you are interested in to copyright.com, which is AIAA's preferred mechanism for copyright license clearance. That being said, searching your article's title on copyright.com gives a null result. As such, you should probably contact AIAA directly, or stick a sequence of zeros into copyright.com's extended request form.


displaying mean with sem or confidence interval

My guess: SEM needs to be multiplied with the constant from the probability distribution of concern (e.g. t-distribution) to become confidence interval. In some study, sample size is so low that the constant can make the bars look huge.

Yet, in your cited link there is another important phrase:

  No surprises here. When SE bars overlap, (as in experiment 2) you can
  be sure the difference between the two means is not statistically
  significant (P>0.05).

So, SE may not serve to tell if there is a significance difference, but can tell if there is likely none. Depending on the researchers' motive this could be a good feature.

What I'd advocate, however, is not to believe these visual comparison as if they are definitive. One illustrative explanation can be found in this online pdf.

Anyhow, a graph is a graph and as long as it's labeled clearly I'd consider that acceptable. What can confuse people is when the authors use this kind of error-bar like device but did not footnote what the bars represent.


How to deal with mistakenly reporting old GRE percentile scores

Here is a quote from one of the academic forums about the changing GRE scores, over time.

You may find it useful:

  The ETS website maintains that the reported score represents the same
  level of academic ability from year to year ..., e.g., a 720 Quant in
  1999 represents the same level of math ability as a 720 Quant today
  ... though the percentile may change, due to variations in the makeup
  of the test-taking population.

  That said, an 11% change DOES seem like a lot, given that almost
  500,000 people take the GRE every year. On the other hand, it seems
  almost universally accepted that the AW is the least important part of
  anyone's score ... unless it's very low (3.0 or less) combined with
  great pre-prepared writing samples, in which case it suggests the
  applicant may have hired somebody to write the writing sample.


Can't decide which research project to work on as an undergraduate to prepare for graduate school?

I am by no means an expert in the realms of academia, prestige, or research papers and am an M.S. student myself, but my logical evaluation of this situation is that you probably have more to gain by doing project 1, for the following reasons:

1) Professor 1 is probably a better connection to have in the long run, especially if the school they went to is one of your top two picks. He/she will probably be able to be more helpful with explanations and sticking points during your research than Professor 2 as well, if only because they share a more similar background to you and can understand your mindset better.

2) Project 1 seems (from your description) as though it is more likely to get your name on a published paper, which is always a perk when you put months of work into something.

3) Project 1 has fewer people involved. More collaborators is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does allow for more time lost to communication (or miscommunication), introduces more potential for error, and almost certainly requires some overhead in the form of proper project management in order to efficiently utilize everyone. A two person project, while it can certainly benefit from the same processes, would not need nearly the same amount of organizational structure. Another thing to mention here is that having a majority of undergrad researchers on the project may mean that it goes slower than you might like, due to the fact that they are less experienced than you

Keep in mind, though that bigger groups introduce more perspectives and usually better ideas. Additionally, the undergrads at your school could be brilliant and leave you behind, rather than the other way around

4) Project 1 is more directly aligned with your interests and should serve you well going forward. Especially since you have essentially been offered complete control of Project 1, you can shape it so that it directly feeds into the next project you want to take on after you complete this one.

5) Finally, I would like to recognize both of the original commenters for their contributions, because they are absolutely right (Sorry for omitting tags, fairly new to SE):
    - a) If the project is not interesting to you, don't do it! I only wrote this as a guide with the assumption that you were equally interested in both, because you said both were "equally as good"
    - b) Evaluate the professors based on their own merit and what you know about them personally. If you don't know them well, try to find students that have had their classes and ask them. Try to get a feel for their personality and ask yourself if you're comfortable working with them for a long(-ish) span of time.


Do postdoctoral studies have official certificate?

Certainly not in the US.  I never got any kind of certificate for the postdoc I did, and in fact I'd never heard of such a thing until your question.

My current employer never asked for any formal verification of my postdoc.  They received letters of recommendation from my postdoc supervisor and other colleagues at that institution, and I think most US academic employers would consider that sufficient.

Then again, they never asked for my PhD diploma either.  In the US, we don't use the diploma for official purposes; it's just a decorative piece of paper.  The official document of choice is a transcript sent directly from the university (and my employer did ask for one of those).


How to improve scientific writing skills?

The way to learn to write is, simply, to write.

But then get feedback on your writing and re-write in light of the feedback.

The Software Patterns community has a process called Writer's Workshops that are quite detailed. When you submit a paper to a patterns conference you are assigned a Shepherd who is an experienced pattern writer, usually with knowledge of your field. The shepherd works with you (the "sheep") to improve the paper over three or four iterations of feedback-rewrite.

After shepherding your paper may be accepted to the conference, though not for presentation in the traditional sense. The conference consists of a set of writer's workshops in which a few (8-10) authors each have their papers discussed by the other participants while they listen and take notes. The author has a very small part in the workshop other than to think about what others suggest about how the paper can be improved.

After the workshop the author can ask questions, but never gets to "defend" the work. The idea is that if others misunderstand you then it is your job, not theirs, to fix it.

The paper is then revised one more time and it is this version that makes it in to the proceedings. The whole idea is to improve the print version, not present a version prepared without help.

The patterns community is pretty close knit because of this working together to improve one-another's work.

This process was brought to the software development community by Richard P Gabriel who is both a geek (Lisp et al.) and a poet. The same process is used by poets, in fact and is quite old. RPG has written a book on the process: Writers' Workshops & the Work of Making Things

If you don't have the patterns community behind you, or if you aren't writing patterns, it is relatively easy to set up a local writers workshop and follow the process. You can do this for any sort of writing as long as you have some people with domain knowledge and some writing experience.


Send updated manuscript before referees' response

There is nothing you can typically do during review -- the reviewers have received their copy of the manuscript that they were asked to review, and as an editor I would leave it at that even if I got an updated version. My response (in different words) to the author would have been "Well, these are things you should have thought about before submitting the paper."

But assuming the first version wasn't terrible, you will get the opportunity to roll your changes into any revisions you make in response to the reviewer comments.


CrossRef has an API, and this will resolve metadata for most papers. (Not all DOIs are registered through CrossRef, but it's going to cover most of the cases you want.)

However, it may not have all the detail you need - it won't always have author affiliation, for example.


Is participating in professional forums good or bad for my career?

I work in a much less controversial field (I mean, in an uncontroversial field), but I've been participating to various online communities for more than 10 years, first during the newsgroup era, then in forums and now mostly with SE. So, let me share a few ideas.

  Could participating in online professional forums related to my field become a hindrance in the future for both my Ph.D. and future work?

I don't have any hard data: in theory, it could; in practice, unless you do something egregious, I doubt. And many forums are actually virtually unknown to the wider audience (see e.g. this meta question of mine about Academia).

  Should I "scrub" my presence in these groups (especially the one that are more social than academic and accredited)?

I don't think that dropping your participation is warranted, but consider the following points:

Check if your university has any policy setting boundaries around the participation of employees or students to social sites (e.g. public shaming of your university can lead to expulsion).
Beware that as a professional in your field you might have a different perception of certain topics with respect to untrained people or people working in a different field. Things that can be obvious to you might be difficult to understand from another field's point of view. And this can lead to controversy. A curious (non-serious) instance is the following: I've been criticized on the only answer of mine on this site related to my profession.
Disengage early from lengthy pointless discussions when you see that they are draining your time and energy. As a young researcher, you should now be focused on building your background knowledge and producing your first valuable works.


How to email Graduate Director that I will not attend (F1 student)

Agree - you have to tell Y. I agree with the above but add capitals to Admissions Committed.

Dear Professor X

Thank you very much for the offer of funding to complete my PhD with [name of uni]/your Faculty/Department [match to the Director's level of appointment].    After some thought, I have decided, respectfully, not to accept the offer.

I remain though very grateful for your consideration and I would like, through you, to convey my thanks to the Admissions Committee for their support.

With kind regards,
Sincerely,
ZZ


Non-degree courses and Masters admissions

I was an international student and did not have amazing bachelor GPA. But I got accepted master degree in NY, plus without TOEFL which was requirement.

How?

I met department chair once. So, probably the department chairman liked my works and it was a good enough first impression on him.

Conclusion:
Show your works to department chair. Proof that your bachelor GPA is just some numbers on the paper.

Good luck


Any novel work can be published regardless of what time it was first produced provided the following conditions are met.

The method/concept/matter itself was not published before by anyone.
Inclusion of a survey of recent literature addressing the present significance of your work.

The second point also includes a third: your work should be still of scope and interest at the present time.

If the above factors are considered, it is (technically) never too late to publish. There are papers that are published that span decades of research.

It also depends on the field/domain. For instance, when it comes to computer science, the sooner the better. This is because in fields where the current trend is volatile, you can never tell when your work will become obsolete or already published.


What are some fields of computer science where your stuff has to actually work?

I work in the field of computational social science and during my PhD, there were many instances in which I had similar thoughts.

You provide me a hint in your second paragraph - you are affiliated with the CS department in your university. Unfortunately, a common fallacy of most CS departments which have programs in computational social science is to focus on the "computational" part and not really on the "social science" part. It is not an uncommon workflow to use machine learning techniques on a dataset collected using other computational techniques and then report results. This is because of many reasons, the least of which is that folks need to know computation in great detail - this is at many times possible in computer science departments and not in social sciences (although that is changing in many departments that I know of)

This is what is probably causing the disconnect in your mind. I strongly suggest either expanding your reading to the parts of social science that you work on or are interested in and talking to more social scientists. You need to think at the intersection of both computational and social sciences and not as a computer scientist. Social science contributes many understandings of individual and collective behavior (often in networks) For instance, there is a big difference in paper writing and reporting of results in WWW, KDD versus CSCW and CHI although all these venues promote and support computational social science.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, if you feel like you need to change your field you probably should! You should do what excites you the most but I just wanted to point out possible avenues of thinking about computational social science since it is quite novel.


Effect of duration taken to get phd degree when applying to faculty positions?

This answer reflects a North American perspective at an R1 or R2 university - answers in other parts of the world may be different.

If I saw someone who completed a PhD in two years I would want to know things like:

What work did they do before their PhD? (Did their prior experience make the PhD faster?)
What were the primary contributions of their PhD? (Are the contributions significant?)
How many of their contributions were their own versus their supervisors?
What teaching experience do they have?
How well will they work with other students and faculty?
What leadership have they taken during their PhD?

There are of course many other qualifications to evaluate and questions to be asked.

Hiring a faculty member into a research/teaching position is always a bit of a gamble that they will be able to continue to do productive research and teaching. With just two years of a PhD, there may not be enough evidence of what will happen in a long-term position, and this could hurt your chances to get a position. (This also depends on the strength of the advisor and the letters of recommendation.)

In Computer Science the approximate qualification I use for a PhD is that a student has learned to do independent research. That is, they can formulate the ideas and experiments for and write a complete research paper more or less independently. (And get the paper accepted in a top-tier venue.) I'd be looking to see evidence of this in a faculty application.

So, would a two-year PhD have a good or bad impact? There isn't a single answer. It depends on the answers to the questions above and other cultural factors. But, I would look very closely at someone who had completed a PhD that quickly, as 4-5 years might be more typical in my field.


They are asking if you are able to self-fund or if you have received any of the (extremely rare and competitive) bursaries/scholarships. It sounds like the university thinks you would be a capable student, but unfortunately the other new PhDs were considered more competitive than you in the eyes of whatever committee decides funding. These decisions are made by a university committee, so this does not reflect on your prospector's adviser's opinion of you (most of the time).

What country are you in? This is a very common thing in (e.g.) the UK for international students. I wrote a very extensive answer about this topic here although the advice is UK-centric.

If you managed to get an assistantship/technician job, it would have to pay well enough to pay both your tuition as well as a suitable salary for you if you have no other financial sources (jobs/loans/scholarships). I think that parallel teaching/lab jobs are commonly done in the US to fund PhD students, but I'm not sure whether it would pay 100% of your needs or not. If you're in the US, hopefully somebody more familiar with the American system will chime in here.

Personally, I would not recommend self-funding unless you are rich. If you are good enough to get a position here and to have an interested adviser, you shouldn't have trouble finding a paid PhD elsewhere. Alternatively, you could enquire about a full time position with the lab, and use the experience gained during that period to leverage your application in the next admission cycle.

If you think that your adviser intends to apply for a grant to fund you, you need to ask them. Basically at this point, go to your adviser for advice.

Typically, students apply to a range of universities so that when something like this happens, they have other options. To give you an example, I applied for 6 PhD programs in the UK and whilst I had offers for most, I ultimately could not get funding (my tuition alone would have been 22k per year) and went to Europe instead where everyone has an equal chance at being funded.


Is the masters a requirement for applying to a Philosophy PhD program in the USA?

Best way is to approach the institutions/departments you are interested in considering for application, and ask for their specific requirements, which should be very clearly stated.

They will know better than anyone else. Different departments are likely to have different requirements.

That does not meant your set of circumstances will satisfy any of them.


Study expanded from three to five rounds: How to write this down?

Just describe what actually happened like you did to us. Also explain why this happened. There is no reason to slavishly adhere to some style that doesn’t fit special situations like yours.

In general, your thesis (and any other scientific publication) should contain everything needed to reproduce and assess the results. As the circumstances you describe are certainly relevant to this (e.g., participants may drop out of the study after prolongation), you cannot possibly leave this unmentioned.


Finding academic collaborations by location

You can, to some extent, use traditional publications databases for that. For example, with Web of Science:
(CI=Berlin) AND (CU=Australia) AND (SU=Chemistry)

will give you the list of publications with affiliations listing both Berlin and Australia in Chemistry. You can then skim through the list, or analyze it further, for example here by institution:

Another way to find a destination for your next holidays can be:

Start with a senior colleague you know well

Try to see who he's been working with recently: find papers, sort by institution

Pick your location and ask him to put you in contact with them!


On the ethics of continuing current project with another advisor

It's really not clear what you are asking. Here is what I understood from your question: You took a course from Professor X. Part of the course was a project, which you did with generous input from Professor X's TA. The course is finished, but somehow the project is not. Now you want to take this project and shop it around for supervision by one of Professor X's colleagues. You want to know whether this is OK.

This strikes me as a misguided approach on a number of levels. First, I don't quite understand how a course can be finished, when the project that was part of the course ("a course project") is still going on. (Did you decide to do some additional work on it?)

Second, how much of the work on the project was actually your own, as opposed to the TA's? Could you have done the project on your own? Could you do a similar project on your own going forward? That is what research is, and the supervisor's role is mainly to make sure you do not take too many side tours in your research, and do not waste time re-discovering known results.

I do worry a little bit about your statement "despite having topics that interest me, I am unable to find specific problems to work on". Admittedly this is often a daunting task, but taken everything you said together, I am wondering whether you are properly prepared to even start a PhD project. My diagnosis (from reading liberally between the lines) is that Professor X shares this concern, and this is the reason why she is not ready to commit.

You've been in your PhD for one year; depending on the field that may be a rather short period for finding a thesis topic. Did you finish all your courses? How did you do? In particular, how did you do in the course taught by Professor X?

I think, if you really would like to work with Professor X, and you are interested in the topic, it would be best for you to talk this over with her, in particular addressing the question of whether she feels you are ready. Shopping the project around to Professor X's colleagues is definitely not a good idea. You did not come up with the topic, and you needed generous help from the TA to do the work. You are not going to be able to rely on the TA's input going forward.


Who should cover conferences expenses for research work done in a lab a researcher just left for another lab?

My perspective comes as a research group manager at a US national lab.

I pay for conference attendance for my people - it is part of their job, and their ability to grow as a researcher depends on attending conferences. Whether they are post-docs or new staff, I hired them in no small part because they were performing work that was at least tangentially relevant to their first assignments. So, I will get them to the conference to maintain and grow their reputation and skills. The cost of registration and travel is really small compared with a loaded salary. And I at least get my institution listed as their current address at the talk.

For post-docs in particular, I tell them that 'the job of a post-doc is to get a job.' The way they will get a (permanent) job is by doing good work, publishing, and presenting at conferences. They need to be visible, have chances to network, and come back with good ideas. So what if the first conference they go to is based on older work? They need to be out there to keep developing, and it is my job to make sure they develop.

Finally, I do this at least partly because that is how I was treated as a post-doc and new staff. That first conference at each institution was based on my 'old' work, but it was at conferences and in areas that were important to my 'new' job. And, my bosses agreed. The least I can do is arrange that for others.

I understand that there may be budget issues in other situations. However, the PIs really should consider if they are being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Good things happen at conferences, for both the post-docs and the PIs.


Publication charges are not sent to the right address?

I'm afraid there is an extremely high likelihood that you have been scammed, by a predatory journal or just a run of the mill scammer.

The first red flag is the requested use of Western Union. Any payment requested by Western Union is highly suspect - I have never once encountered a legitimate use of Western Union or Money Gram other than to personally send gift money to a family member personally known to you, and never as a payment for anything. I've never heard of any legitimate publisher of any kind using either service.

The next red flag follows from the first, about the "mailing address of the publication fees" being wrong. They are trying to get you to pay them again, and will likely come up with some nonsense story about how you can get the other money refunded but they need proper payment right away to the "correct" address or they won't be able to publish your article (or some other lie). They will do this over and over again, so long as you keep paying them money, and you will get nothing worthwhile in exchange.

From the sound of it, you have selected an illegitimate source to try to get a publication, and they will attempt to get as much money as they can from you. Regardless of what you pay, the most you will get is a meaningless "publication" in a predatory journal, which may not even exist and even if it is every put online it may just vanish overnight.  From the sounds of their trying to shake you down for additional money, I suspect they won't even give you a fake publication, they'll just disappear and stop responding.

I rather doubt you will get any of your money back, but I would suggest if at all possible to back out of the deal, request a refund, withdraw the article by any 'official' means (I doubt they have any true official way to contact them by certified mail, of course), etc. Cut your losses, don't pay them any more money, try to avoid losing your work (by being technically published and not easily publishable in a reputable place), and spend extra time researching any potential publisher in more depth before submitting your work in the future.


Are there tenure track academic jobs where teaching and research are given equal importance?

As a TT at a small liberal arts college let me just say that to gain tenure I have to do both. In my field this amounts to having five or six new articles or a book before tenure. There is a very large spectrum of liberal arts colleges and the top end (figure top 100) all claim that research active professors are better able to teach up to date content in their field and to better demonstrate to their students why the field is exciting and worth studying. (By `all' I mean I do not know of a counter example.)

At the very top end of the liberal arts spectrum you have schools that give their professors R1 teaching loads and more funding. The only thing they would lack are the graduate students. Sure at the lower end of the spectrum are places that only expect teaching. Then there are the community colleges which openly admit they are teaching only institutions but they acknowledge that their mission is distinct.

Another section of schools I'd suggest you could take a look at are the second tier state schools, places like CSU Pamona, or University of Central Florida. These are not flagships and focus more on teaching than R1s but you still have to be research active to get tenure.

Next time you go to a conference, chat up those folks who seem to be pre-tenure and ask them what their institutions demand. The US is a country with other 4000 colleges and universities. They do not form a linear order from liberal arts colleges to R1 universities. So as always, the situation is more complex than you might think at first.


At a conference, should I visit other people's posters during my poster session?

It depends on the venue. In a small room, you can easily wander around and get back to your poster quickly if you spot someone interested. In a huge conference hall, if you abandon your poster you may never know who visited it and when.

So, if you have a large venue, ask yourself, what is your priority: to get your work out and have a chance of presenting yourself, or to check out what others are doing. Both are valid options, and both are important. It's your call how to balance them.


Mentioning unpublished research paper in Statement of Purpose/Resume

You can certainly mention "work in progress" or "submitted, not yet accepted" and the like in your materials. Just label things for what they are. Two years isn't really a long time for research in most fields, so I wouldn't worry much about the time. It is also natural, if you have been working in the field to immerse yourself in that for a while.

But submitting the work is marginally better than not.


Is it common for a managing editor of a University Press to solicit book proposals from PhD students at a conference?

I interned at a university press, and it was common to go through conference programs and identify interesting topics/papers written by PhD candidates/early-career scholars. It sounds like it's a little early in the process for you, but it is definitely worth taking the meeting.


What is the affiliation of an industry author that works for a consulting company?

He should just use his official employer.  There are lots of scientific papers from people with affiliations in industry.  Most of the time, these authors are working for companies in technical fields that are at least somewhat related to the research, but not always.  (I knew of somebody who was still working with his doctoral advisor doing research in theoretical particle physics, while he was employed at a company making speech recognition software, and the software company was his listed affiliation.)  Especially if most of the other authors have more conventional affiliations, listing a consulting company for one authors is not going to raise any eyebrows.

If the manuscript was completely written while he was a student, he could use his university affiliation, with a footnote indicating his current position.  However, I would imagine in this case that the text was not finalized until after the author moved into industry, in which case the university affiliation is not appropriate.


Is it possible or common to receive a scholarship from home country for international students?

Some countries (most notably developing countries, such as Vietnam or Pakistan*) have such grants available. I am not convinced that the same will be true for Israel, but it can't hurt to ask. Your best contact point may be the grant office of the university in your home country. They should be able to point you in the right direction.

Note that such grants often have stringent rules about returning back to your home country after finishing your PhD (i.e., they are sometimes constructed as a "loan", which is only forgiven after you have worked back home for a certain number of years). This may not be what you want.

*These countries offer such grants mainly because they themselves lack internationally well-established research universities to train their own scientific next generation (it's essentially a bootstrap problem). The reason why we don't typically see similar grants in developed countries is because they don't need for their young scientists to be trained elsewhere - they can also just study in their home country to similar effect. Given that Israel has a number of strong universities of its own, I doubt that they provide such a mechanism.


Why do most U.S. Ph.D. programs accept fewer students with masters degrees?

I'm not sure that your basic premise holds. What you've stated is not common knowledge, and you don't give any particular source for your numbers.  More importantly, you haven't answered @NateEldedge's question about total numbers vs. acceptance rates.

Based on my own anecdotal experiences, however, my guess would be that the actual circumstances are this:

Students with a Masters are more likely to get into a U.S. Ph.D. program than students without a Masters, for exactly the reasons that you suspect.
Most students interested in a Ph.D. program, however, apply directly without bothering to get a Masters first. As a result, it may well be the case that most U.S. Ph.D. students do not have a Masters.

The underlying reason that would cause such an apparently counter-intuitive situation is that in the U.S., it is typically the case that a Ph.D. and a Masters are both terminal degrees that serve different purposes. A Masters is frequently a focused collection of coursework in support of one's profession, whereas a Ph.D. is an apprenticeship into the world of research.  As such, most U.S. Ph.D. programs do not require or expect applicants to have a Masters, and there is often little incentive for students inclined toward a Ph.D. to delay and acquire one, unless they have some particular reason (e.g., they aiming to shift fields, improve on a past poor record, or escape the effects of a poor undergraduate institution).

Note however, that in other parts of the world, like Europe, Ph.D. programs are organized to assume that students have already acquired a Masters, and in such programs it is the case that nearly every Ph.D. student will have a Masters.


Disiplinary offense whilst a grad student, will university employers ask for it

To answer the question directly - it depends on the employer.  However, if the employer has no reason to suspect that you did something wrong, it is unlikely that they will specifically ask "please provide details of any misconduct that this student has faced".  That being said, it really does depend on the employer. I know that anecdotes are not data, but personally my alma mater was only contacted to confirm that I had my degree and nothing else.
It is unclear how this information would have been put onto the reference letters in the first place.  If you approach your supervisors directly, would they be obligated to follow the university's advice?  If not, then you should find out from your university the specific circumstances for how this information will be revealed - what, specifically, must the employer ask for and how will the information be presented?
Your misconduct case seems strange, so there must be more to it than you are letting on, otherwise the university is in the wrong.  Were you a TA for the course or otherwise employed by the university at the time you counselled the students?  Were you acting as a representative of the university?  Did you give them advice for how to pass a confidential exam that you had prior knowledge of?  For example, if you knew that this year the test would be the same as last year, and that information was given to you in confidence, then you would be in a breach of conduct.  However, if you talked about the test you took last year and were under no obligation to keep that a secret, you did not commit misconduct.

If it comes up in an interview you're in smooth sailing - you just need to answer the question "why did you do X" with a good, solid response.  This doesn't mean to sweep it under the rug, it just means to show what you did, why, and what you learned from it, then how you moved on.


Editor sent a mail asking me to revise my submission based on reviewer comments. the reviewer comments were missing. What to do?

I think you need to stop emailing people and just wait patiently for a response.

It seems to me the original editor may have just made a mistake and sent the wrong set of comments.  At that point, you could have simply replied to him, saying "Thanks, but these appear to be the comments from the previous round, which are already addressed in my latest revision.  Were there comments from the latest round?"

Instead, you escalated to the senior editors.  Now they are going to have to communicate with the original editor to understand what is going on, probably sending several emails back and forth between themselves.  Five days is not nearly enough time for this to happen.  Keep in mind that all the editors are most likely professors who are busy with full-time teaching and research duties; journal editorship is usually unpaid volunteer work, and will not be their highest priority.  And now you have escalated to the journal office, which adds yet one more set of people who have to be brought up to speed; that will make it take even longer.

At this point, I think anything further you try to do will only make things worse.  So just wait until somebody contacts you.  It could be several weeks; just be patient.  When you do get a response, answer any questions they have, and if it seems like they have misunderstood the situation, then explain it as clearly as you can.  But don't involve any more people.  There is a risk that they start to consider you as "troublesome" and might decide to just reject your paper rather than dealing with you further; it could also prejudice them against future papers you might submit to this journal.


How to proceed when a professor's timekeeping error hurts my course grade?

Let me restate what happened:

The professor informed students of the exam rules.
You followed the rules and failed the course.
Other students did not follow the rules.
The professor, as far as you know, has not punished the students who did not follow the rules.

Certainly, the professor should have punished students who did not follow the rules.  I would expect that students who turn in an exam late would get a grade of zero.  However, punishing other students will do nothing about the fact that you have failed the course.
Your reasonable course of action, as the student, is to retake the course.


If my research is addiction related, can I tell the professor I have first hand experience?

Yes you can.  Even may.

The question is should you?  What is the motivation? To brag your worldliness?  To earn pity?

I advise no.  Concentrate on learning the topic academically.  Let your personal experience enrich your learning but more as deep background.


How can I improve my research experience for PhD application?

From my experience, there are three reasons why potential advisors want to see undergraduate research:

Show that the student cares enough about research to actually have participated in research during their undergraduate years.
Student is at least somewhat familiar with the ins-and-outs of performing academic research in a university setting.
The quality of the performed research may give some indication as to how "good" of a student the candidate will be.

If you perform research yourself outside of the university settings, you'll provide a strong showing for (1), nothing at all for (2), and given that you're unlikely to publish anything, nothing of much use to the advisor for (3).

To that end, I would try to get a job as a research assistant before applying. (I'm not sure this position exists in all fields.) This is usually a paid position, and will give you an experience to work with research, help run a lab, learn about academia, and and even possibly work towards being acknowledged--or even possibly a co-author, although that's unlikely--in a paper. It should help your application significantly.


Is it acceptable practice to make the source code of a re-implemented paper available online

Science is all about reproducibility. You should reimplement others work and make it available to third parties, just like the original author made his work and results public so that others can learn from it. (They may not have made any software available, but they did describe what exactly they did, after all.)


Move Mendeley's Database to Another Computer

Your best bet would probably be an external storage device such as these on Best Buy (not an endorsement of BestBuy, I just clicked the first online retailer link). However, you should be careful when doing this. If the computer in question isn't attached to the internet for security reasons, it might not be acceptable to plug an external storage device into it without special permission.

Edit: In response to your edit, if the software absolutely requires an internet connection, then it seems impossible. If there is a loophole, you should use the loophole. However, I don't know any loopholes in that particular program (as I have never heard of it before today), and I suspect asking for such a thing would be off-topic here.


Did BSc, doing MSc, applying for PhD. Is it frowned upon to not have a letter from my BSc advisor?

Will you get a recommendation letter from your current (MSc) supervisor? I would assume that would be the most relevant and important one. References from your last position will likely be the most relevant for the next one, as those are the people that have worked with you most recently.

It might be a bit curious that you omit a recommendation letter from the only completed work you have by the time of application, however if the references you attach to your application are more relevant in terms of timing and topic I think it wouldn't hurt your chances.


How do academic grants work in the U.S.?

This answer is for the United States, though I believe that it works in a similar way in Europe.

The money goes to their university, not to them.  The terms of the grant say what the money is allowed to be used for.  The university either pays these expenses themselves or reimburses the professor if they pay out of their pocket.  Everything is documented by things like receipts, and universities periodically get audited by granting agencies.

Sometimes the grant includes money for salary (in mathematics, it is common for NSF grants to include 2 months of summer salary), which is dispensed by the university as part of the professor's paycheck.

In mathematics, the typical things that a grant pays for in addition to salary include travel, books, and graduate students, though often there are other things as well (for instance, my current grant has money for a summer program for high school students I run).


Good engineering practice suggests:

An executive overview: a couple of sentences (3 lines) which states either "The objectives for the period have been reached." or "The objectives have not been reached, because ..."; then "No obstacle in the way to the next objectives." Or "Possible obstacle are ....; contingency plan is ....".
A summary: what were the objectives for the period; then for each objective what has been done towards that objective. A little reuse of figures/graphs here is acceptable.
a main results section, as space allows: here you select one or two "main achievements" from the previous reporting period, and you give more details about that, with possibly references to external reports / draft papers / additional materials that the report reviewer can go analyse if they are interested.
an optional  obstacles & contingency section: if the executive summary lists problems, here you details what these problems are (either the obstacles in the previous period, or the foreseen obstacles in the next period, or both). Also detail your planned contingency actions.
a report of effort spent: here you detail where your budget (and man-hours of work) was allocated to each objective/task.

Also, don't make it too long. It's extremely important that the reviewers of your project can get an overall impression of the progress in a very short time. (they will typically have many projects to evaluate in a short time)


How to avoid writing a grant with an advisor

Short answer #1: Talk to your adviser about these things. Tell him that you wonder how joint proposals will be perceived and get his perspective on things.

Short answer #2: Remember that it's easy to write proposals, and hard to write winning proposals. How are you going to learn what to say and not say in a proposal? The easiest way to learn this skill is to work with someone who has done this many times and who may have been on review panels many times. I have reviewed many a proposal by junior scientists in my lifetime where it is clear that they mean well, but have essentially no idea what to write in a proposal that can be funded. That may be your fate if you write by yourself, unless you have an experienced mentor who is willing to help you with it.

As far as demonstrating independence: If you're already on the job market, then this proposal will not be funded before anyone will look at your file anyway, so it's not going to make a difference one way or the other. It might make a difference come time for tenure, but that is so far in the future that you will have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate your independence till then. And for the moment, any funded proposal is better than no funded proposal.


Completing German master's programs in less than allotted time

This is something that you have to ask the respective offices at the schools you apply.

You can savely assume that completing a Master's in Germany in less than two years is in general possible if you complete all required things in time, i.e. you've got enough credits in all required categories. It will not hurt if you double check with the "Studien-" or "Prüfungsordnung" of the respective programs.

If the program will award credits for courses that you have taken somewhere else is something that nobody but the program office can answer (and will probably finally decided on an individual basis by the dean of student affairs).


Getting a Masters at a school without courses I want?

I don't think it's necessarily a problem.  At the graduate level, you're expected to learn things in many other ways besides formal courses: self-study, informal seminars, independent or supervised research, individual discussions with faculty or other students, thesis work, etc.  Likewise, you'll have evidence of your learning in other forms besides course grades: published papers, your thesis (if it's a thesis-based program), recommendation letters from supervisors, etc.

So this isn't necessarily a red flag.  However, it is worth bringing it up with prospective advisors or others in the program: "I want to work in NLP.  What opportunities exist for building skills and doing research in this area?"

One note is that besides being accepted to the program, if you want to work in a particular research group, the faculty leader(s) of that group will have to agree.  And there could be obstacles unrelated to your abilities - too many students in the group already, not enough funding, etc.  So if you are really tied to working in this particular area, then before deciding to attend the program, you should talk to the group(s) that work in your area of interest, and find out if it is feasible for you to work with them.


Do I need to cite a source when defining terms?

The purpose of defining terms is to make it clear to your readers how you are using these terms, for example because:

there is no consistent use of these terms in the existing literature,
because your paper’s audience is not familiar with these terms, e.g., due to coming from another field,
you created a concise term for some concept that you introduce in your paper.

First of all, this is not a case of common knowledge: If it were, why define at all? However, that does not mean that you must cite somebody. Instead cite somebody if:

You rely on a specific piece of work.
If you had to look up the definition instead of coming up with it yourself, this almost certainly applies.
Keep in mind that coming up with a useful definition of some things is a challenge and deserves credit.
On the other hand, as a rule of thumb, you do not need to cite if you would not know whom to possibly cite in the first place (possibly after a short literature search).
You want to affirm that you are adhering to some standard.
Using established definitions does not only make your work easier to read but also may make it comparable to other works or reüsable.
If nothing else, providing a source for your definitions may calm down Reviewer 2.

Some examples:

I would not cite in the following statement, which is essentially clarifying a well-known conflict between two common definitions (whose history I do not know):

  We here define the natural numbers ℕ to include zero.

I would cite in the following example, not only for giving credit but also for affirming my approach:

  We here define epilepsy as […].
  This is equivalent to the definition by Fisher et al (2008), except for […].
  This difference is due to the practical reason that […].

  Do I quote a dictionary, […]?

Regular dictionaries reflect the common non subject-specific usage of terms, which is by nature often broad, fuzzy, context-dependent, and different from academic definitions (if they exist).
This usage is also what you have to expect readers to understand if a term you use in a paper is not specifically defined and there is no established use in your field.
With other words, the dictionary definition is the fallback default anyway.

Therefore quoting a dictionary for definition is pointless in my opinion: it changes nothing and clarifies nothing.
If you think that a dictionary definition is the best guidance you can give to your readers, you may as well skip it.

(Note that field-specific dictionaries are a completely different thing.)

  Do I quote […] another research paper in the field, or do I paraphrase either one?

This may depend on your field, but I would refrain from paraphrasing definitions just for the sake of paraphrasing.
If I rephrase definitions, I risk changing it.
Therefore I would only do so with a good reason and when I can be confident that my changes do not affect the outcome, e.g., I could change symbols in mathematical definitions to match the conventions of my paper.

In all other cases and particularly in fields where exact words are important, I would rather use a huge quote than paraphrasing.
Still, conventions here may vastly differ between (sub)fields, so best check what is common in yours.
Either way, once you build upon somebody else’s work like this, you should cite.


Attribution of diagrams made with Creative Commons software

You just add yourself as the source (Like - 'Source: Self elaborated with X software using data from...') in the citation and then in the methods you mention which software you used.


Academic salaries at European universities

http://www.glassdoor.com/ works by getting anonymous information from users and sharing it. It is really vast and accurate as far as I am aware.

Examples:
TA: Brigham Young University $10.41/hour
Professor: University of Warwick: £103/year-£112/year

You must only Select Salaries on the dropdown menu, add a description or phrase of the position and/or location.


Hosting a graduate student on a campus visit

Always follow your school policy on the matter, if there is one.

  Is it appropriate for a faculty member to try to arrange for a host stay with a current student in the department?

It's appropriate for a faculty member to ask current students if they can help, then tell the visitor, "Here is the email address of a current student in the department who can help you arrange a host stay, if you're interested."

Then let the visitor make contact with the student. Don't be pushy.

  Would it be appropriate for a faculty member interested in working with the student to offer to host the student in a guest room in their home?

I vote "no" unless there's really no alternative - especially if the faculty member makes the offer directly to the visitor.

I have seen something similar (students living in the guest room of a researcher in industry who they are working with for the summer). Those students apparently were OK with it.

However, I have been offered this (visiting a professor in another country for the summer, he offers me a guest room in his home). I did not want to live in this professor's home, and it was mildly uncomfortable and awkward to turn down the offer. There is a power imbalance here that can be a problem.

If you decide to offer a guest room in a faculty member's home, definitely do it through a third party (e.g., have a student contact the visitor and say "Here are some possible hosts, including a guest room in this professor's home"). This way the visitor can turn it down without having to worry about offending the faculty member.

  Are there other or better options?

If your school has a dorm with spare rooms (or if a nearby school has a dorm), this is a good option.


I am a graduate student, though I am not getting a research masters. However, what I would do is this:

In most cases, it is a board of admissions counselors made up of multiple professors and maybe some administrative positions that will be making the decision as to whether to accept you or not. So, in that case it means that the decision to admit you into the Research Masters program would likely not lie solely on the one professor that you have listed on the application. So what I would do is contact the main office of the department that heads the research masters program that you have applied to and tell them something like
"Hello, my name is _____. I would like to check on the status of my application. I have been in contact with professor _____ but I know that he is busy so I wanted to check with you all to make sure that you have everything that you need from me and to see when I can expect a decision to be made pertaining to my acceptance.

Sometimes calling and speaking to someone directly will get you a lot further than an e-mail, so you might need to try this method.

I hope this helps!


I have three answers to this question; I'll put them all here for you.

Don't.

Multi-tasking is a necessity when there are many tasks that demand your attention all at once. The people who most need these skills are either managers, whose work demands that they divide their attention among their subordinates as necessary, and those working in a highly collaborative environment, where interaction with colleagues happens regularly.

As a graduate student, this will almost never happen. Your responsibilities will typically include coursework, teaching assistantships, and research duties, and writing. Even your collaborations will happen at a slow pace. You'll rarely be in a situation where you need to get in touch with someone within the hour; almost all your issues will be able to wait a day. Considering that almost all research shows that multitasking decreases productivity, consider yourself lucky.

To that end, if you can train yourself to focus on a single task at a time, your work will benefit from it.
Pomodoro technique

I recently (~6 mos) read about this technique online, and I've found it very useful for certain tasks. The concept is ridiculously simple. Before you start working, write down the task you're about to start on a piece of paper. Start a 25 minute timer and work until it runs out. Take a 5 min stretch, put a tic next to the task on the piece of paper, and then repeat until you're done. If you need to switch to something else, write it down on the paper as well, and switch every 25 minutes. This way, you always have at least 25 minutes to do each task, and you can set up your multitasking in 25 minute chunks. (As an added benefit, you're taking stretch breaks every 5 minutes, which is good for your health.)
Getting Things Done

There's an answer below that mentions this, but doesn't do it justice. I've been using this for years and it's a wonderful way of keeping track of what you need to do. At it's simplest, the technique just advocates that you make a to-do list of everything you need to do. The useful part of this technique is how he separates tasks; he puts them into "contexts", which you can think of as "environments". Some tasks will be done at home, some at work, some wherever you have email access, etc. By breaking up tasks like this, you can easily see what you need to do at any given time by simply consulting the correct list.

This technique has gained immense popularity, and because of that many to-do lists online feature "GTD compatibility". This basically means that they let you make lists of your to-dos.

This method comes with a catch; if you don't do it rigorously, you may as well not do it at all. As soon as some tasks aren't on your lists, then you'll stop checking the lists, and then the whole thing goes to pot. However, if you keep the lists current, then it's an immensely helpful technique. For forgetful people like me, the to-do concept is a veritable necessity, and the context idea is a good way of segmenting what you need to do.


I think a colleague deserves authorship but my PI doesn't agree

This is an extremely sensitive issue that must be handled with care. Although no decision can be stated black or white, there are a few things you ought to keep in mind before making it.

The decision you make depends on your morals, survival and comfort.

Assuming X to be the contributor in question whose name is being excluded from the author list in the first place, let's first review through the possible options you have:

  Discuss this issue a little deeper with your PI.  Inquire about the guidelines of authorship on her point of view (as suggested by @FábioDias). Ask why should be a contributor's name be omitted while a non-contributor be included, in a diplomatic way of course.

This option could worth a try as you wouldn't be directly opposing the choice made by your PI depending on how diplomatic you are in your conversation. Try to understand the rationale behind her decision. Her experiences may clarify your views on what an author is to be. Though this may make you a little uncomfortable by asking this, choosing this option shows that you value your morals and keep you at a relatively good term with your PI too.

  Discuss this covertly with X's PI. State the situation and let the two PIs come to a conclusion. Or, discuss this with another trusted faculty member of the same institution.

The covert part might not always work out right. This could backfire on you quite badly if the other abrasive PI do not agree with your condition of anonymity or if your PI comes to know of this by other means.

  Try to strongly convince your PI to include X's name in the author list of the paper. If not, go against your PI and submit the paper with the list of authors you choose (provided you are the corresponding author).

By doing this you are really staging a protest here. The next objective would be then find a different PI who matches your ideals. Frankly, I don't know of many prospective PIs who would welcome rebels. You may have to endure quite a long cold war. By choosing this option you are making a point that your value your morals far more than the survival in the institution.

  Tell your PI that you would not submit unless X's name be included.

Now, this does seem rebellious too but not as strong as option 3. Ultimately you may even have your paper published even without your own name in it (a very unlikely event).

  Just do as your PI instructed and ignore that any of this had happened.  You don't include X's name and publish the paper.

This is the safest option if you want your rapport with your PI to be smooth in the future. Choose this if your survival weighs over your moral in this case. How much discomfort you feet in the end about yourself depends on your mindset.

There may be more options to this, but at any case, think through this carefully and make a decision based on what matters to you the most.


As a undergraduate math student, what are some of the benefits of joining the American Mathematical Society?

You get a discount on registration fee at their meetings, which is pretty much the biggest reason why people join AMS.


Does knowing the language of the country of a prospective institution influence admission chances?

I doubt any selector would mark you down because you don't speak the local language on the evaluation sheet. At the same time, I would also assume that it's in the back of the mind of evaluators: After all, succeeding in a place isn't just tied to the language in which classes are taught. Knowing the local language has many other benefits:

You can participate in the coffee conversations of your peer students.
You will have an easier time having a large and supportive social environment.
You will likely be happier. It's hard living in a place where you don't speak the local language: Many otherwise mundane things (registering your residence, getting a driver's license, dealing with visa issues) are all difficult if you don't speak the language; they will eat your time, and they will in the long run also eat at your happiness. You will feel lonely and isolated.

Evaluators know all of this, and it will be on their minds when comparing applications even if there is no specific field on the evaluation sheet.

I'll add one other thing: Universities in Europe are largely funded by taxpayers. It is clear to everyone who works there that that comes with the obligation to educate the next generation of people living in the respective country. They do not necessarily have to come from that country, but it's a loss to the country to educate people who end up not staying in the long run, and someone who doesn't speak the local language isn't likely going to stay.


Listing an offered (but not taken up) position on CV

Personally, I wouldn't list jobs I hadn't taken up on my CV. Whilst it could give a prospective future employer confidence that you would be up to the job, I feel for me I would rather discuss this face to face in an interview where they can hear you out rather than let them make unnecessary and potentially false assumptions about you based on your CV alone.


Why would a tenure-track job posting ask for an undergraduate transcript?

I had to submit undergraduate and graduate transcripts to several schools each time I applied for jobs in mathematics. I believe the main reason is simply to allow the school to verify that you really have the credentials you claim.

There have been examples where faculty and administrators were caught claiming credentials that they did not possess, so schools are more cautious about such things now. The same is true for background checks - many schools now run a background check before they make an official job offer.

At my institution, when we have a mathematics job search we don't really look at the grades on the transcripts. The cover letter, reference letters, teaching statement, and research statement are scrutinized, but the transcripts just get a cursory glance to make sure the person has the right coursework (e.g. if we want to hire someone in a specific subfield, we might check that they have coursework in that subfield).