In law schools do JD professors supervise PhD students?

I am an academic in a different field but my spouse is a (tenured and endowed-research-chair holding) law professor without a Ph.D. They supervise doctoral students with no issues.

The Ph.D. is a marker, a rite-of-passage that the young academic has made their initial significant novel contribution to the corpus of knowledge, and has learned enough tradecraft to be standalone researcher. While a Ph.D. is a big deal when you're getting one and when you've just received one, it is but a first instance of what a research academic does over and over again for the rest of their academic career. So a mid-career (or later) research-focused academic has loads of experience in "Ph.D.-level" research, whether or not they actually obtained that degree at the start of their careers. And a teaching- and/or service-prioritizing professor who does fairly little research has pretty limited relevant experience irrespective of whether they actually did an actual Ph.D. way back when.

As @astronat wrote in the comments, the Ph.D. is actually awarded by the university, on the recommendation of the department, and on the basis of the evaluation by the whole dissertation committee. So to the extent the issue is whether a non-Ph.D. can judge the specific level of achievement (etc) warranting the Ph.D., if there is any uncertainty at all, the broader set of voices involved will provide additional feedback. As you can imagine, my spouse found this useful as a sanity check the first few times they were supervising without themselves having the specific degree, but this became less relevant over time.

Bottom line is the same criteria for what makes a good supervisor apply as in other fields (research proficiency, care for students, time to advise, well-connected to help find students jobs, etc.) and the Ph.D. credential is just less important in fields (like law) where historically this credential has been less commonplace.


Costs of having a US-based PhD supervisor doing a PhD in Germany?

Even when cooperating with a German university, the candidate will be subject to any terms or requirements given by the "Promotionsordnung" of the university. (It is true that many of those do not require any additional coursework, but there are formal criteria to meet nonetheless).

Therefore I assume that, also in your envisioned scenario, the student would have to meet any formal requirements that the US university usually imposes on their PhD candidates. This may include not only paying for, but actually taking the coursework for example. The fact that the German "Hochschule" may be satisfied with "thesis only" work will not be relevant then if the US university is the one awarding their degree.


Is there a formal way to aggregate the Web of Science Categories?

Both Web of Science Categories and Essential Science Indicators are journal-level categorizations (with some reclassification of papers in multidisciplinary journals going on in Essential Science Indicators), with the difference that each journal can belong to multiple Web of Science Categories but only to one Essential Science Indicator category. This usually means that individual papers within a journal (at least within the same issue or year) will be assigned to the same Web of Science Categories (one or many) and also to the same Essential Science Indicators category. By mapping the Essential Science Indicators categories of journals (found here) onto papers you will therefore automatically get an aggregation.

However, since journals (and papers) can have multiple Web of Science Categories attached to them (without any prioritization of what is the "main" category), you cannot have a simple one-to-one mapping between them, at least not without some further work.


I'll give an answer which is specific for the PhD in Italy. In other countries, things can be/are different.

  Now i'm 47 and i wish to have a bachelor or masters degree in Math

If you want to apply for a PhD in Italy, you should have a Master's degree. Since you have already an MSc in Physics, you can probably stop to a BSc in Math, but I suspect that this would strongly limit your chances of being accepted for a PhD in Math.

  How difficult might be for me to have a Phd after the degrees, considered my advanced age?

In principle, no more difficult than if you were 20. In practice, it depends on several factors.

I want to highlight one practical factor: Do you plan to drop your current (or another) job during the PhD or do you plan to pursue the PhD while employed? In the first case, you would have to cope with the fact that you should get a scholarship and that PhD's scholarships in Italy are around EUR 1000/month [*], which is probably difficult to accept when one is about 50 years old with 15-20 years of work experience. In the second case, it might be difficult to find an advisor willing to accept you as his student, considering that you would not be able to work full time on your PhD. Moreover, it would be difficult for you to follow the mandatory courses which are requested by some universities.

[*] Currently, they can vary (free of taxes) from about 1100 €/month to about 1500 €/month (rare).


A site hosted by your university, on your university website, will probably be a better choice than an externally hosted website. This is because you'll be able to immediately identify the seminar series with your university, and that will help to improve its branding. (It also looks a lot more professional!)

As for software, there are a lot of different options. I can't really offer a lot of guidance on this, as we have staff whose job it is to maintain our websites. Which one you pick will depend a lot upon the kinds of features you want, and how steep a learning curve you're willing to negotiate.


Understanding the works of intellectuals

These authors wrote for a particular audience and you, as a person living in 2017, are not who they had in mind. Part of comprehending text is being able to attach it to something that provides context to the text. You probably don't have this. Before reading books such as these try reading a modern summary that also provides context. This will give you a better chance at comprehension.

Additionally, the style of writing has evolved substantially since these books were written. Today authors (should) write for clarity. This wasn't always the case.


What are the benefits of participating in workshops related to good conferences?

At a certain point in your career it might be very valuable to attend. In some CS fields workshops are a great place to extend your learning. They are also a great place to make professional contacts that will serve you well as you grow into the profession. I don't work in Machine Learning, however, and can't speak specifically for workshops at this conference.

In some conference, "workshop" actually means getting help in improving your work or at least getting feedback on it from a wider audience than you normally have. This, again, is valuable for a new scholar.

If you haven't attended a lot of good conferences, attendance itself for a student can be very valuable for the same reasons stated above. Senior faculty will often wander around in the poster area just to meet people, encourage them and look for potential future junior faculty.

Like anything, you may need to balance the funds against other opportunities, but it could, depending on circumstances, be well spent here. If you haven't been to the conference in the past, your advisor or other faculty can give you an idea about what goes on.


Should a graduate student instructor write a recommendation letter?

If the class is yours entirely (meaning you're not merely covering one day out of three weekly sessions for a faculty member), then I hope you do write the letter. You are the instructor of record, you are filling the role of faculty in this class and the role of professor for this student, and I cannot imagine someone being qualified to teach an upper-division seminar but not being qualified to compose a recommendation letter.

If it helps you feel less impostor-like, you can disclose the nature of your assignment in the letter. "Student A was an exemplary student in my "Life as a Repeat Game" seminar--a course I taught as a teaching assistant during my final year of graduate study." I would stay concise, highlighting essentials and avoiding flowery praise, but your question doesn't ask for advice on writing a letter of rec. :-)


What do they mean when say “the French equivalent of a Ph.D.”?

According to a 1985 biography in PC Magazine:

  During his college days, Kahn played saxophone in Paris jazz clubs while earning an Agrégation de mathématique, equivalent to a Ph.D. in math.

Another 1985 PC Magazine biography states:

  Kahn, who received the French equivalent of a Ph.D. in mathematics from the French Academy of Sciences, taught mathematics at the university level in Nice and Grenoble before coming to the United States.

Both Wikipedia and Kahn's LinkedIn page state only that he received a master's degree in mathematics from Université Nice Sophia Antipolis in 1975.  This is not the equivalent of a Ph.D., and Sophia Antipolis is nowhere near Paris.

The agrégation de mathématiques is a competitive civil service exam used to recruit high school and university mathematics teachers.  While the exam is extremely rigorous, and agrégés are qualified to teach at universities, the agrégation is not a research degree.  French doctorates underwent a major reform in 1974 and again in 1984, but I believe the closest French equivalent of a Ph.D that Kahn could have earned in the late 1970s was the Doctorat du 3ème cycle.


possibility of paying fees by bitcoins in IEEE transactions?

I don't think so. At least for the IEEE Transactions I know of, payments are managed by RightsLink, a company external to IEEE. In the help center of this company, you can find information on how to pay:
How do I complete the RightsLink order? How can I pay the charges due?
It is there written that (bold mine)

Select your preferred payment option (invoice or credit card)

and

If you submit your order with the “invoice” payment method, you can pay that invoice later using a credit card, wire transfer, or check.

They want the good ol' dirty money!


How can I join a university class conducted online as a non-matriculating student during COVID-19?

What types of schools will allow non-matriculated participation?

I'll skip this part, because honestly it was news to me that there are universities that don't do this.  Usually the emphasis is on job-related courses.

What is the application process like?

Very simple, if you can pay.  They want your money.

How do I find these?

Look for a "school of continuing education," "university extension" or similar.  If you do not want something job-related, you might look at programs marketed to retirees.  In some places, such as those with a shortage of classrooms during teaching periods, this may be easier if you look for summer courses.  Availability of classrooms is not, of course, relevant for online courses.


Is there a programmatic way to check that a journal submission follows a style guideline?

Instead of automating the checks, minimize them by reducing the guidelines!

The critical pre-submission guidelines are only those where papers that don't follow them would have to be severely edited in a way that will change the referee's opinion about the paper. This is, e.g. a draft that is twice the permitted length, or one where the section organization used is not permitted. Many newer journals are pretty good about things like this (eLife, for instance: https://elifesciences.org/inside-elife/a43f95ca/elife-references-yes-we-take-any-format-no-we-re-not-rekeying)

If I took guidelines 100% seriously, I would be spending a great deal of time not just on margins and formatting (mostly fast once I have a template), but on things like:

Does this journal use Fig., fig., or Figure?
Should subfigure captions be a) or A) or a or A or a or A
Should journal names be abbreviated?
Are the acknowledgments I wrote allowed?
Are footnotes permitted, or is everything an endnote?
Do figure captions have titles?
Is it appropriate to use a comma in an axis label (1000 vs 1,000)?
Is it Eq. 1, Eqn. 1, Eq. (1), ...

Eventually these have to be settled by work from the authors and the editors - but I've found that even different copy editors at the same journal can have different interpretations!

I view rejecting a submission for issues like this as being a waste of everyone's time. With an automated system, it might be less of a waste of time - but I think it also encourages journals to be nitpicky at a stage when it is not important.


How much decision time is given for tenure-track offers

In my experience, this depends somewhat on the level of the hire.

A search for a full professor, named chair, department chair, or dean might result in a long period of negotiations with the candidate.  These kinds of searches often go "one candidate at a time" rather than bringing in all candidates for on campus interviews at nearly the same time.  Since the process is sequential, there's obviously more room to give the candidate time to consider the offer.

However, when it comes to hiring a new assistant professor there are typically several reasonable candidates that were all interviewed on campus at about the same time.  If the university suspects that a top candidate isn't likely to take the offer they may make an offer with a short deadline in hopes that they can still get their second or third choice.

In the past when I've made offers as a department chair (in mathematics) the offers were open for one or two weeks (with some possibility for an extension if there was negotiation going on.)  I have had to say "no" to requests for extended time to consider an offer.

You can always ask for an extension of the time period, but I wouldn't count on getting one.

I've also participated in searches in other academic departments.  The only reason for extended time on offers that I've ever seen was negotiation of startup packages- in the physical sciences and engineering new faculty often have very specific needs for laboratory space and equipment that have to be negotiated and this can take time.


"Taking summers off" and the impact on tenure decisions

This is really dependent on your department culture.

Officially (at least for all the tenure systems I've participated in), tenure decisions are based on the quality, reputation, and impact of the candidate's research (and to a lesser extent, teaching and service), and their potential for future intellectual leadership and international stature.  (Woo, that's a mouthful.)  In particular, the decision is based on what the candidate has actually accomplished.

Are they publishing high-quality work in high-visibility venues?  Is their work highly regarded in the research community (as described in the letters)?  Do they have a solid track record of external funding?  Do they have a solid track record of successful graduate student advising?  Have they accumulated other indicators of respect within their research community: awards, plenary talks, invitations to program committees/editorial boards, well-placed and successful students?  Do they have other evidence of research impact: open-source software, community-standard data sets, or patents?

If this case is strong on these merits, then the day-to-day work habits of the candidate shouldn't matter, and usually don't.  In particular, the reference letters, which are by far the most important component of the case, will be written by people who are probably completely unaware that the candidate disappears to a fishing lodge in the Adirondacks every summer.  There have been multiple successful tenure cases in my department where the candidate essentially vanished every summer.

More strongly: If their research case is strong, then what assistant professors do during the months the university is not paying them is really none of the promotion committee's business.  I work in a field where a three-month vacation in the Adirondacks (with a sufficient supply of pens and paper and reliable wifi) would be amazing for my research productivity.

Nevertheless, faculty are apes; we do apey things.  Every department and every field has its own cultural norms, and assistant professors must be aware of and sensitive to those norms.  Some departments have a shared belief—which may even be correct in their field—that the research required for a successful tenure case requires being physically present and visibly productive 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.  Others won't even notice when you're in the office being productive, because they all keep their office doors closed, or they work at home, or in coffee shops, or in a shack in in the Adirondacks.  Others have a de facto list of accomplishments that are necessary, sufficient, or both. (NSF CAREER? NIH R1? Three papers in Science? H-index above 50? IEEE Fellow? Letters from five Nobel laureates?)

Whether or not tenure decisions should depend on these local expectations is utterly immaterial.  They do.  Either you meet them, or you find a job somewhere else.  And the only way to understand what these expectations are in your department is to ask directly, and to insist on regular mentorship and feedback from senior faculty.


In a master's thesis, should relevant theory be part of the literature survey?

The age of theory really does not matter.  If there is a relevant contribution from the 17th century that still matters today, then it is includable.  It doesn't mean you should include it, but there is no reason at all to exclude it.  Because of the pressure of "publish or perish," many current articles are of poor quality.  Indeed, I just wrote to authors of an article because I felt they missed a very obvious explanation.

Conversely, there were fewer scholars the further you go back in time and they were often the pinnacle of the profession.  While there was less knowledge to work with, there tended to be greater rigor.  There are two important reasons to quote older works.  The first is when the older work implies a broader range of options than the profession has taken or unintentionally foreclosed a path of research.  The second is when an important element of prior theory is wrong.  A quotation from a prior author can illustrate how incorrect thinking developed.  For prior theory to be wrong, it has to make perfect sense as to how it is correct.  The error has to be subtle.

Your literature review should include prior theory.  The scope of that review should be deep enough and broad enough to cover the discussion of your research project.  You should be aware of controversies that could impact you, the timing of that discussion is irrelevant.  There is no virtue to an article written in 2017 and no reason to not quote older works, even including the ancient Greek mathematical writings.  There are good reasons to quote Euclid's Elements.

If it is in print, ever, it can be used.  Relevance is up to you and your advisor.  As to whether it should be in a separate chapter, we can't really help you.  You are writing a book.  It needs to make sense.  How can you best make sense.


How to use contacts on an application in an unassuming way?

How about writing something like: "My masters thesis advisor, Prof. X, has encouraged me to apply for this summer school". No doubt you can adapt this to suit your particular circumstances.


How was the Doctorate/PhD title awarded in Italy in the 1980s and now? when can someone apply for Post-doc?

The doctorate in Italy (dottorato di ricerca) was officially instituted in 1982, and the first courses started in 1983, so it was definitely not a common thing in the 1980s. People even got full professor positions without having one (since it did not exist).
Post-secondary education was not standardized across nations then like it is today; Italian scientists did their first research experiences with other research contracts, 'assistantships' (assistente) and other early-career positions that just weren't formally a PhD and did not end with discussing a thesis.
Regarding that CV, the most likely explanation is that "post-doctoral fellowship" is a liberal translation of the name of the Italian position she held. Note, though, that another non-standard practice of Italian academia is that people can legally be called dottore as soon as they get any university degree, even a 3-year bachelor. (although in the 1980s university degrees came after a single 4- to 6-year course, which was roughly equivalent to a BSc+MSc course with today's standards). So maybe in the eyes of the translator that position was "post-doctoral" because she was already a dottore (although not a dottore di ricerca).
As for your last question, it depends on the exact kind of position, but for instance I think you can still apply for a RTD-A (non-tenure-track assistant professorship) without a PhD [EDIT: not anymore since 2017; thanks @MassimoOrtolano for the correction].


Quality and quantity of contribution to a scientific field from an industry position

Speaking as a researcher in industry, there is absolutely no reason to think industrial research need be inferior to university research.  Top industry labs and top university labs regularly both compete and collaborate.

Industrial labs and university labs do tend to have somewhat different strengths and weaknesses, however.  The key difference is the fact that universities tend to be based around students, while industry tends to be based around employees, which has the following implications:

Students (and especially undergraduates) are much cheaper than industry employees, and so it is much easier for universities to take risks.
Employees are much more predictable and reliable in their work, so industry research can take on bigger and more complex tasks.
It is OK for papers-per-person-per-year to be much less in industry, so industrial research can do projects that require more infrastructure and less "sexy" work---even though they may be just as important a piece of research.

Now, it's true that most of the industrial world is not doing good research, or even any research at all.  That is, however, also true of the world of education.  For the top groups, however, I would suggest that the right way to think about it is not even "industry vs. university," but about complementarity and partnerships between the two, as both sides tend to be acutely aware of their advantages and disadvantages and therefore frequently collaborate in order to get the best of both worlds on their projects together.


Journal employees offering free publication in return for co-authorship and citations: is it a scam?

This is a scam.

You are not the ones being scammed, however.  The editors are proposing to scam your readers, with your assistance, making you scammers as well.  Walk away before you damage your reputation.


How to filter data obtained with practical measurements and simulations to be concisely put into a paper?

Read a couple of dozen papers that are similar in nature (that is, in terms of the method and how the research question is addresssed) to yours and are in your target journal. Look at how they've supplied the sort of detailed information you're talking about.

As a rule-of-thumb, put it all into supplementary information. And then follow the advice of your edit and peer-reviewers, if they advise moving things. If there are particular numbers that contribute to your main narrative, put those numbers in the body of the paper, too.


What you describe is not teaching with slides, it is teaching very badly with slides.  A teacher can teach very badly with the board too: as an undergraduate, I had one mathematics professor who only mumbled inaudibly while either facing at an oblique angle to the class or else while writing small unintelligible letters on the chalkboard in a descending arc.

Slides can be an excellent teaching tool, in that they allow a professor to show images, data, illustrations, and other things that cannot be readily drawn by hand.  I find that their main disadvantage is that they are fixed before the class, and thus cannot be readily adjusted or corrected to track the interaction with students on the fly.  Conversely, working on the board can be more interactive, but must remain much simpler, which can be either a good or a bad thing, depending on content.


Purpose of IP address and timestamp on open-access full-text article

Most likely, they are still doing it to track copyright violations. If the document is made available under a license that permits non-commercial, attributed redistribution, then the publisher might wish to collect evidence in cases of commercial or unattributed  distribution.

It's also possible that the same publisher, or even the same journal, also has articles that follow the traditional "all rights reserved" model, and that this information is applied to all downloads indiscriminately.


Coronavirus, school lockdown and future uncertainty

“don't worry about graduation, you will be able to graduate online”

In this context, I would translate your advisor's thought process as:

  This student sounds like they are anxious and worried about graduation. The best way I can help them worry less is to simply tell them not to worry.

Nothing there about wanting to meet or not. Indeed, if your advisor does not want to meet in person, it's more likely to stay out of the public and help contribute to reducing disease spread.

I think it's fine to write an email with some bullet points about things you'd like to discuss further. Thank them for reassuring you about graduation, but make it clear that there are in fact things you could use advice on besides just a path to graduating.

Then you can ask whether the professor would prefer to discuss those things over email, to meet via phone or video chat (like Skype, Google Hangouts), or to meet in person.

Be as patient as you can be, because this is likely a stressful time for everyone. Your advisor may not be able to meet or respond right away - don't let that worry you.


How can I find somebody to chat about papers?

Ask your supervisor and other people at your institute if something like this already exists, maybe you can join an existing group.

If it doesn't exist yet, maybe you can get their endorsement and assistance to set one up. It could help if they spread the word a bit even if they don't have time to join themselves.

Another avenue to explore is Meetup, trying out a variety of keywords in your field. Although that might end up being a bit more industry. Which doesn't have to be bad, if you had thoughts about going into industry after your PhD.


Is it unethical to take a photograph of my question sheets from a sit-down exam I've just finished if I am not allowed to take them home?

Taking a photo is effectively equivalent to taking the question sheet home.

For either of these: it’s not inherently a bad thing, and (as your friend said) it can be good for personal study, and so on.  However, it can be used for unethical purposes (passing the questions on to students who haven’t taken the exam yet), so the school have prohibited it.  Given this, it is unethical, since it’s breaking a rule (and, moreover, a reasonably justified rule).

If the rules happen to be written in such a way that they just prohibit “taking the sheets home” and didn’t mention photos, then taking a photo may be allowed by the rule as written, but it is clearly still violating the intention of the rule.

So yes, the supervisor’s ruling was reasonable, and you were right to comply with it.

Edit.  There is, however, no problem with politely emailing the instructor afterwards and asking if you can get a copy of the exam (or parts of it).  No need to mention ethics or taking photos in the email; just say that you’d be grateful to have a copy for your own studying, if the instructor is willing to share it.  Maybe the instructor will say yes; maybe no; maybe “yes, but not until next week”.  But provided you are polite, and ready to accept a possible refusal, then I don’t think there can be any harm in asking.


How to talk with my advisor about PhD project?

You're going to be stuck with your adviser and the chosen topic for several years -- so you better be honest in your conversation and say what you really think. I don't think there are any off-limit topics. The worst that may happen is that the areas you are interested in have no overlap with those your adviser has knowledge of/is interested in, and which he might decline to advise -- but that would be good to know as well.

When I have these conversations with my students, I actually do not offer any topics. I ask my students to come up with areas they are interested in, and to think about what they want to do before we make decisions about PhD topics. There is nothing worse -- for both sides -- if a student is stuck with a topic they are not interested in, and so I let my students choose what they want to do, and only steer things a bit to the left or right given my knowledge of what the relevant topics today are.


Changing a mathematical field once one has a tenure

I found changing fields after tenure to be not much of a problem as a tenured mathematics professor.  The threat of losing some funding for a while is a serious issue if one has an expensive lab.  If one is doing theory, then grant funding is not so critical.  A sabbatical is a great time to study up on a new field.
I should add I am talking about moving to fields that have some connection with the old.  If there is no overlap in people or background theory, then this might be more challenging.
The greatest difficulty is the bruising of the ego.  The new field may not be open to your ideas, and you are essentially heading in as if you are a graduate student without an advisor to make the introductions.  You need to realize that it might be years before you get invited to the right conferences or get referees who really read your papers.
It can take a few years to really switch fields, but if one has tenure and a decent sabbatical program, it can be worth the effort.  One can keep some side projects in the old area to keep some papers coming in and to get excuses to meet your old friends at conferences at exotic locales (someday).  Coauthors are great for this.


What are the benefits for a PhD student working on small problems vs solving a big problem?

[I'm an American theoretical computer scientist; some of this advice will not translate well to other fields and countries.]

  I am confused about this: should I work on one particular problem for a year and get a result (there is a high risk with this thing) or should I work on 2-3 small problems and combine them to make a result?

Neither.  You should work on problems if and only if

You find them interesting.
You enjoy being frustrated by them.
You have time and energy to work on them.
You (and your advisor) believe you can make progress on them.
You (and your advisor) believe you can convince your target community to care about them.

As a beginning PhD student, your first goal should be to publish something.  Don't worry about whether it's big or small.  It doesn't have to be important.  It doesn't have to have anything to do with your later thesis research.  It doesn't have to be in a top venue, although it does have to be in a venue that people actually care about.  Your only goal here is to successfully walk through the process of writing, submitting, revising, publishing, and presenting a research result, so that later, when your much harder research isn't going well—and that will happen—you have direct evidence that you can do publishable research.

Once you have that, your next two goals are (1) publish something at a top conference in your field, and (2) have something rejected from a top conference in your field, and then later publish it anyway.  Note that these two goals can be met by the same paper.  Satisfying these goals requires understanding the expectations/standards/style/taste of the community you're aiming for; this understanding is far more important than (but related to) whether the result is "big" or "small".  Again, both of these goals are important bulwarks against Impostor Syndrome.

If you've gotten this far, whether your realize it or not, you've built up some significant expertise and intuition that is unique to yourself.  Exploit it.  Your next goal is to exploit that and publish two or three papers on some common theme — similar tools, or similar problems, or at least similar venues.  You don't have to fix the theme in advance; you may not even understand what the theme is until you're done, and that's fine.  Your earlier papers can be used as part of this body of work, but they don't have to be.

In parallel, you absolutely must publish something without your advisor.  That can be part of your coherent body of work, but it doesn't have to be.  It can be a solo paper or with other collaborators; that doesn't matter so much.  But it is absolutely vital that your advisor is not a coauthor.  In particular, your advisor must not contribute enough to the paper to deserve to be a coauthor—gift non-authorship is just as unethical as gift authorship.

On the other hand, your advisor must be fully aware and supportive of your independent work, while they keep their hands off.  If your advisor is likely to object to you working independently, you need a new advisor.  (If your advisor's objections are dictated by your university, you need a new university.)

Once you have a coherent body of work, all that's left to do unify the presentation (especially the terminology and notation), write a coherent introduction/literature survey/conclusion, cram everything into the horrible thesis style dictated by your university, and convince your thesis committee that you're done.  Congratulations, it's a thesis!  This is the easiest of all the steps listed so far, and by far the least important.

Over time, as you gain experience and confidence, your results will naturally get "bigger" (at least on average).  Don't worry about making it happen; as long as you keep working on things that you enjoy being frustrated by, it'll happen on its own.


Harvard referencing and in-text referencing for Chapters

Yes, inline citations can cite subsets of texts like sections, chapters, or (more commonly) pages (e.g. when sourcing a direct quote).   Different styles might have different rules on abbreviation (e.g. "Chapter" vs. "chapter" vs. "Ch." vs. "ch.")


I think it is a good idea to include a link in the version of your CV that is likely to get read electronically, such as from your website or from an email.
However, you could put a small icon or short text to click the link, instead of showing the complete URL. This saves space, looks neater, and anyone who does not view your CV on a computer would likely search for the publication directly instead of typing in an URL, so that is unlikely to be of much use.
An alternative option is to mention a single source where all the papers can be found (such as Google Scholar, or your website) at the top of the section, optionally with a link, instead of providing links for individual publications.
For the second part of your question, just naming the section "Publications" should be sufficient, since the author list would be shown anyway, and you are not filtering your publications to a small strict subset where you are the first author.


Is it OK to ask a professor if they have a postdoc position available?

Yes, it is fine. It never hurts to ask. Some people will ignore you, but some people will reply.


Dismissed from PhD due to disability-related misconduct: how to answer question about dismissal?

It's not easy to understand how a mental health issue can lead to plagiarism, and it's less clear still how a medical practitioner could reach the conclusion that a specific instance of plagiarism was a consequence of a mental health issue. Unless those things can be documented and explained in a credible way, it is unlikely people will overlook the circumstance.

If people can be convinced that the plagiarism was a consequence of a mental health issue beyond the plagiarist's control there remains the issue of convincing them that it will not be repeated. Since plagiarism is professionally unacceptable, its cause, while relevant in a moral sense, is not relevant in a practical sense; someone who plagiarizes cannot work as an academic professional, whether or not that person is morally responsible for the plagiarism. Consequently, even people who have accepted the difficult to believe claim that the plagiarist could not control committing the past plagiarism will have to be convinced that he/she can always control him/herself in the future.

Summary: people have to be convinced the plagiarism resulted from a mental health issue, and people have to be convinced that the mental health issue will not recur. Convincing an admissions committee of either seems difficult. There are many people trying to get into PhD programs, and those deciding on admissions generally are reluctant to dedicate resources to candidates who they judge to be at risk of not completing the program. The slightest hint of a lack of forthrightness or an unwillingness to accept responsibility is likely to condemn the application of a candidate who has already failed to complete a PhD program for the reasons described.


Complete stranger asking PhD student to review paper before submission

I'm not surprised to hear this.  I often encourage my students to reach out to others working in their specific field.  Do it if you have the time, interest, and expertise.  Ignore it if you don't.  Don't think there's more to it than that.


Single author papers against my advisor's will?

You describe behavior that is certainly unethical and should be grounds for dismissal. One doesn't threaten graduate students or try to bribe them (with graduation) for what is in CS, in the US, anyway, improper co-authorship.

That said, your options are limited. I think the best option is to start with the department chair and see where you stand. If the chair is willing to act ethically you may have a solution, but otherwise you may just need to try to do whatever is necessary to accelerate your graduation and move on.

One option that the chair might suggest is a mediated meeting with your advisor and either he chair or another faculty member. Your ideas about working independently and getting someone else to sign whatever is needed to graduate might be worth pursuing.

The problem will then be finding proper letters of recommendation to move you to your next position. That will be difficult unless you cultivate opportunities around you.

I'm going to also suggest that if the chair isn't supportive that you explore opportunities elsewhere. If other faculty aren't available, it might be worth looking at other institutions. It might actually be less disruptive to do that and someone with a publication record might be seen as a "catch" by another university.

But I'll guess that your option (2) is the worst.

Note to readers. Co-authorship by advisors is not the norm in CS and mathematics in many places. My advisor (math) never would have thought of it even though he had substantial contributions to the work, and I never would have considered it for my own students (CS). It would have felt "icky".


Research adviser is trying to give my thesis to another student. What to do?

What would I do?

Mentor the guy, get him involved in my project, train him up. If you're as experienced as you claim, and he's as inexperienced as you think, you've got nothing to worry about except the time investment it will take to get him up to speed.

Have I heard of something like this before?

Yes, it's absolutely normal. Your research advisor is paying you a compliment -- she obviously thinks you're ready to mentor someone more junior. As someone who supervises more than one person, she's probably also planning for the future -- when you leave ultimately, someone will need to understand your work so that others in the group can build on it (this is a plus for you, in that you'll hopefully get citations).

There's absolutely no mileage in being melodramatic or defensive about your work. If someone were trying to take credit for stuff you'd done, that would be one thing (and there are ways of dealing with that), but in this case it's nothing of the kind -- you've been asked to mentor a more junior student, and the right way of looking at it is as an opportunity.


Ramifications of withdrawing publication offer (question from student editor)?

I believe the author is in the right here. Accepting an article is morally binding and should commit the journal to publish it, barring exceptional circumstances. Authors should be entitled to rely on that commitment.

Although you may not have any legal obligation to publish the paper at this point, to refuse to do so would be extremely unprofessional and reflect very poorly on the journal. Given the deadlines, you can't publish in the current issue, but you should queue it for publication in the next issue with available space, ahead of any other articles not yet accepted.

Your idea seems to be that the incoming editor should have sole authority to determine the content  of the next issue, and as such that he should have the right to decide not to publish the article if he so chooses. I would disagree with that. I believe the incoming editor has a  professional duty to treat your acceptance of the article as binding on him as well. If you want to think of the journal as a continuing entity, rather than a sequence of unrelated anthologies, there needs to be continuity of this kind.

It is somewhat awkward for the incoming editor, as now he will have less space to fill with articles he selects. He may have a right to be annoyed with your poor planning, but that's between the two of you; you shouldn't make the author suffer for it.

I'd make exceptions only in very unusual cases, such as if the incoming editor discovers fraud or plagiarism in the article, or finds that your review process grossly violated the journal's stated standards.


Are there writing style guidelines as to the use of "some of us" in a journal paper?

This probably depends on the area of research, but in mathematics, the sciences, or engineering, "A subset of the authors..." might be better. "Some of us..." is a little informal for my tastes.


Should I add my current supervisor as the coauthor of my paper if I am going to transfer to a new university?

Everyone who makes a sufficient contribution to your paper for authorship should be an author on your paper (and no one else).

It doesn't matter what institution they are at nor does anything else: everyone that contributes at a level appropriate for authorship is an author.

Standards for what contribution constitutes a sufficient contribution for authorship vary by field, and your plan to consult both your new and old advisor is a good one because part of their mentorship is in helping you make decisions about what governs authorship in your field.


Ethics in putting my co-supervisor's name in a conference talk: his name did not appear in the book of abstracts

I would think that most people would understand if you explain it just as you did here. You listed four names and the conference removed the fourth. I think it is common, even reasonable, for your supervisor to want to advance the interests of your co-supervisor, but it is too late for any correction.

However, in the future you would be wise to check such things with everyone before you submit anything, especially when the conference or journal imposes rules that you think are not optimal. I would then try very hard to follow the advice given.

The fact that the co-supervisor didn't contribute shouldn't be raised in your meeting as there is nothing to gain from it - for anyone. While in the best of all possible worlds it should mean something, you can only lose by seeming to speak against your supervisor at this moment.

Whether your supervisor and/or co-supervisor is behaving well or not is also not a consideration for you at this point. If you can't make a change in the situation, work on the relationships so that everyone can move forward and work effectively. In poker terms, play the hand you are dealt, not the hand you wished for.


How to make notes on journal readings – necessary, or emergent skill?

I work in the field of biological sciences, specifically computational biology and am a newly graduated PhD. I say this, because I may make statements which are field specific.

  Is note-taking an essential skill?

Partly no. While I do not consider note-taking to be an essential skill (because I have never been able to take good notes), now I lend much higher import to organisational skills and tools for the job.

For example, I have never been much of a note taker, but I have good contextual memory. So for most of my PhD, I invested in a reference manager, where I can quickly access my papers. I read papers end-to-end in the beginning because everything was very new at the time. But, for the better part of my PhD I have never read a paper end-to-end, I start from 1 paper and within the next 2 hours, I will have skimmed through another 5.

Afterwards, for the rest of the day(s) I will keep on thinking about what I had read, what it means, how does it conflict or fit with previous literature and how it relates to my work. These are all my mental notes.

If I need to go back to the paper, I can open up the reference manager and I can locate the paper to read the paragraphs of interest once again. There are many cases where I may not remember the author, title or journal and year of the paper (rarely happens). In such cases, I fallback on other papers which cited the paper of interest and which I may have happened across the same time.

  Would it develop naturally if I 'needed' it?

In my experience, my current process works the best for me. Note taking did not help me when I needed it (under-grad, masters). But, the above process which I developed during my masters works the best for me. The only time I take notes, is when I need to visualise some ideas. Even then, they are not notes, but rather abstract drawings.

  How can I rectify this moving forward? It's gotten to the point where my academic future literally seems to hinge on this silly issue, because it takes me so long to make notes on content that I fall behind, all the while feeling that I am struggling to understand

I would suggest that you make your peace with the idea that you (like me) cannot suitably apply note-taking procedures that have been developed by other people. Once you do this, you can try to tailor a procedure that works best for you. This should also help you boost your confidence. This, I think is key towards increasing your productivity.


Ph.D. in engineering after Ph.D. in mathematics

From what I know, it would hurt you. From the MIT ECE website (just as an example):

If I already have a PhD, can I apply for another PhD in EECS?
No, we will not admit an applicant who already holds a PhD degree (even if it is in a different area such as Physics or Math).

I'm sure it's like this at many of the top schools in the US. Here I'm assuming what you refer to as a "doctoral degree" will be treated the same way as the American/English "Ph.D."


(Author Date) inline citations vs anonymous references with ISO 690

ISO 690 is rather unambiguous about this (section 5.6. "Anonymous works"):

  For  anonymous  works  cited  by  the  name  and  date  system  (see
  A.2),  “Anon”  may  be  used  instead  of  a creator's name. For
  anonymous works cited by the numeric system (see A.3) or running notes
  (see A.4), the title may be treated as the first element. If the
  creator's name is known, it may be supplied.

If your publication venue requires you to use ISO 690 with name-date, you really don't have any choice here. After all, consistency is why journals etc. require you to follow a citation/publication style.

As per appendix A.2, you can distinguish different anonymous works from the same year by appending letters: (Anon., 2016a) vs. (Anon., 2016b). This is standard in Harvard style derivatives.


How does PhD admissions committee look at my old gre score after starting my Masters

I do not have experience from the perspective of a committee, but I believe that the general way to look at it is that the GRE scores, no matter how old they are, are simply another part of your application package, regardless of timing.

There is no difference in consideration for undergraduates if their GRE is new or from their freshman year; I would imagine that there is no difference that you took your test before your Master's.


Is it a good idea to include the writing of a wikipedia article(s) on your CV before grad school application?

The notion of authorship in wikipedia is rather antithetical to the notion of authorship in "standard" academic works.  Wikipedia articles don't have "bylines," and the point is that anyone in the world is welcome to make constructive edits and/or additions to an article at any time.  Even if you feel that you are the primary or sole author of an article at time t_1, at some time t_2 > t_1 this may no longer be true. Finally, the ethos of wikipedia is such that other wikipedians would not necessarily be happy to see a given person claiming "credit" in this way.

If you are motivated to write such a wikipedia article, I suggest that you give it a go -- it has the potential to be both a learning experience for you and result in something of interest and use to many people.  However, if you want academic credit I suggest you write something more substantial, formal and/or independent.  As the head of a graduate admissions committee (albeit in mathematics, not physics) I would be more impressed even by a sequence of blog posts than by a wikipedia article.  Still probably not crucially impressed by the way, but more impressed.


Including link to professor's page in resume

I would assume taht someone really interested is capable of using a search engine. Personally, I would find it strange if there are any links.


Is it worth going to preview event for accepted students?

If by "admitted (accepted)" you really mean "those who accepted their offer," it's just a nice, welcoming gesture. During course work, you'll work so closely with and next to your future fellow students that you needn't worry about falling behind socially if you don't attend.

If people have been admitted but still weigh offers from different schools, it's a marketing event in which faculty and current students will try to present their program - and the campus it's on, and the city and state it's in - in their best light. While it would certainly be nice to get to know other prospects, it is probably more helpful to use such events to get a feel for how you might get along with professors and such, and if the city is too busy - or not busy enough - for your taste.

If you're not rich with extra time to spare, it's probably only necessary to fly in from Europe if it's case 2, and you have genuine questions or concerns. These can be nice events, but I'd think twice before flying for 6-10 hours each way on your own money - as long as you can't combine it with a longer vacation or so.


How can I share my Google Scholar profile with selected people only?

Presumably a profile can be public or private, not somewhere in between, so

  I want the ability to share my profile with [a] few of my friends

this isn't possible unless you adopt an ad hoc solution, e.g., you could save the page and share by email. (More sophisticated solutions exist, for instance, you could mirror the page somewhere and grant a few friends access to the mirror, but such a solution will be time consuming to deploy.)


When mentioning the author of a journal I am using in my Literature Review, should I mention author's credentials?

What matters is the work presented in the paper. So you just write

  Ruist [1] studied the effects of refugees on public finance, finding similar results.


You can withdraw your paper at any stage before it's published, although the longer you wait the more annoyed the journal might get (you are using up their reviewer resources after all). After it's published, you'll have to retract as opposed to withdraw it.


Two papers from different authors with identical content – which to reference?

Is this not considered a commitment of plagiarism?

If your account is accurate, yes. You should report your finding to both of the involved journals or publishers. Sites like Retraction Watch may also find this interesting, in particular if the journals do not react. (We have a few questions on how to best report plagiarism, e.g., this one.) You may also want to take a brief look at the publication history of the alleged plagiarisers and see whether you can identify similar incidents.

  Which paper shall I reference in my project paper?

If you can identify the original with some confidence, cite that. Why should you credit a plagiariser? Note that the original may not necessarily be the one with the earliest publication date (also look at submission dates, published preprints, or similar). If you are unsure, just cite both, and possibly add a remark that you noticed the anomaly and reported it (or similar). Though playing plagiarism detective may be an educative exercise, it is not your duty to do anything beyond reporting something fishy.


Should my math teacher talk about my grades in his letter of recommendation?

Your advisor might be limited by local law about what s/he may say about your grades. But they can probably say that your grades don't completely reflect your abilities and then comment on those abilities. But, IMO, a too-detailed letter won't serve you as well as one that is more general and speaks about your abilities. If they focus on the positive then it should serve you better, I think.

However, if you have difficulty in exams you should find a way to work on that. Perhaps it is just ineffective studying. Cramming is a poor way to learn, if that is it. Taking and reviewing better notes throughout the course is a much better way to learn.


Applying to graduate school in an unrelated field after a year working in unrelated job?

In terms of "logistics," I would try to get one recommendation from a Computer Science professor, one from a language professor, and maybe one from an East Asian Studies professor (if not, then find the closest equivalent).

You are in a stronger position than you may think. Most applicants in East Asian (or similar studies), are stronger than you on the topic, but weak on "tools" that they need to pursue the degree. Two of those "tools" happen to be computer science (they call it quantitative methods) and languages, in which you are strong.

As a person that may be weak on the topic but strong on "tools," you are actually a rare commodity. Most faculties in soft sciences and social studies fear that their graduate students will be unemployable outside the field. You are the exception to the rule, and therefore represent a "lower risk."

My father, a retired engineering professor, used to say that it was easier for a good math and computer science person to take a graduate degree in Economics than for someone with an undergraduate Economics degree (and not the others).

Your minor in East Asian studies is enough to demonstrate your interest in the topic. The strength of your "tools" probably gives you an advantage over others.


How to spot problematic pictures in a publication?

i once saw a presentation by a journal editor about what they do to check on modified, altered data.

as you can guess, they ask for the raw data, and check imagies with photoshop.

a very easy way to spot altered pictures is to blow up contrast and brightness, which tends to highlights cropped and modified areas.

obviously people are getting smarter at that too, but if the goal is to deceive, i think at some point it will be difficult to tell what's fake and what's not.


Is Lambert Academic Publishing a reputable company?

No.

Publishing a thesis this way has no academic value whatsoever.  (I.e., it will lead to no prestige, respectability, credit, etc.  For academic purposes, it will not count as a published book, except for interfering with other forms of publication.)  LAP's business model seems to be collecting as many theses and other unpublished academic documents as they can and then selling printed copies.  I don't see much value to this, but it could be harmless if you do not plan to publish the thesis in any other form.  If you like the idea of seeing your thesis for sale on amazon.com, then you should investigate other options as well and choose whatever seems like the best deal.  However, it's unlikely that you'll make any money from this, and certainly no more than a small amount, so you'll be contributing more to the academic community if you make the thesis available for free online.

See also I Sold My Undergraduate Thesis to a Print Content Farm for a detailed account of LAP's business practices.


How large is the effect of one's appearance on the recognition among scientific peers?

I doubt how a scientific study could measure "beauty", in order to conduct the study. Perhaps human labelled? A study that would like body mass index to citations perhaps is a research waiting to be done!

Yet, unlike CEOs, you don't see the authors when reading a paper. Altough, being popular at conferences might help them get initial citation count.

Go for it :)


Untrue negative comments on RateMyProfessor website

As the comments suggest, just ignore it. You will always have disgruntled students even if you do a great job. Some will blame you for their own shortcomings.

But the best "defense" against such negative comments is the positive comments from those who think you served them well. If those appear also, then a reader can easily judge it for what it is.

If you want to "sabotage" such things, just point other students to the site, without comment. You don't need to "defend" yourself when your other students naturally do so themselves.


No. The GRE is an adaptive exam. Different test-takers are given a second section of varying difficulty, depending on how well they scored in the first section. If you get a section with more difficult questions, they will be scaled differently than if you would have answered easy questions.

The number of questions you answer correctly on the Verbal and Quantitative sections become your "raw score" for each section. Then,

  The raw score is converted to a scaled score through a process known as equating. The equating process accounts for minor variations in difficulty among the different test editions as well as the differences in difficulty introduced by the section-level adaptation. Thus a given scaled score for a particular measure reflects the same level of performance regardless of which second section was selected and when the test was taken.

You have no way of knowing how your scaled score will be computed based only the number of questions you answered correctly, because it also depends on the difficulty of the section you took.

(Reference: How the Test Is Scored, ETS)


Advisor suggested me to typeset my thesis with a software that I don't know

Learn how to use LaTeX.

LaTeX is not hard. If you have any experience programming you'll probably find LaTeX extremely elementary. You can conceivably have issues rendering certain characters or equations, but Google is likely to easily find solutions to that. TeX is also quite powerful as a word processing tool, allowing you to write obscure symbols (for example, \cdot) easily. This doesn't mean LaTeX is better than Word; certainly some things are easier done in Word than TeX. But knowing both means you have an additional weapon in your arsenal, and you'll have a better idea which weapon to deploy given what you intend to write in your dissertation.


Are undergraduate courses grades matter, if one change major in graduate schools?

If you haven't taken any pure math courses, you are very unlikely to be accepted into graduate school in pure mathematics. How can you prove to the school that you know the stuff they expect incoming graduate students to know? (The first courses in real analysis and abstract algebra, at an absolute minimum.)

If you have taken pure math courses, then you will have grades in these pure math courses, and these will be taken into account by the admissions committees.

If you have A's in your pure math courses and B's in your physics courses, then likely the admissions committee would weight the grades in your math courses more heavily.


In terms of academic careers, does the department type matter between Computer Science, Engineering, or Information?

My short answer is that if you're staying in academia, it probably doesn't matter much at all. If you're considering leaving, then CS > "Engineering" > IS (for many tech companies, at least), to a mild-to-moderate extent.

My longer answer is that it depends how you sell yourself. The material you learn will likely be very similar, but different communities will focus on different aspects of HCI. This will probably be most evident in the research coming out of each group. To that extent, I recommend taking a good look at the research coming out of each program. The focus of the researchers will give you a good idea about the differences between the programs.


What is (if there is one) the equivalent of the tenure-track phase in Europe?

In the UK there are four levels of permanent academic employment: lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, professor. These four positions between them are roughly equivalent to the three US positions of assistant professor, associate professor, professor. These days lecturer is often a probationary position for the first few years, but higher positions are permanent. Promotion to senior lecturer does not follow automatically upon being confirmed as a permanent member of staff. Apart from this practice of probationary appointment there is no formal tenure system. In my experience (which is limited to mathematics departments) it is quite unusual for probationary appointments to not become permanent.

In my understanding, not very long ago senior lecturer and reader were seen as roughly equivalent, but senior lecturer was seen as more heavily emphasising teaching and administration whereas reader was seen as a position which more strongly emphasised research. However, there is a developing tendency to see the two positions as having essentially the same nature, with reader simply being more senior.

Some British universities are in the process of adopting the three-tiered U.S. nomenclature, but such universities remain a minority at present.


Breaking an axis - is it ever a good idea?

I used to be a "don't break the axis" purist. I like to think that I have learned better. Nowadays, whenever I know that zero does not make sense for the data I am visualizing, I don't hesitate to break the axis.

A little example: I recently started recording my weight (in kg) and reducing my calorie intake. Here is the time series. Does anyone think that the plot on the right is more informative? It isn't. Because zero is not a possible weight for a healthy 39 year old male.


Paper work came to halt - what can I do?

Why not ask your supervisor to give you examples of what editing he wants done and see if its something you can do on your own? If you've worked on the paper up to the 5th draft, it seems a shame to then allow someone else to take the credit for your own hard work. You can also read some good books on academic style of writing. Depending on your field, I can recommend this book. I'm sure there are many others.

So in summary, if I were in your shoes I would do it on my own. I'm sure good writing skills is something that's valued even in most jobs.


Value of a German Industrial PhD in India

As to address the second part of your question, almost all IIT's have a strict requirement that after your PhD (Which can be from Germany) you need to be a post doctoral fellow for a minimum of three years (assuming you took 3 years to do your PhD, bringing your total experience to 6 years). It is also mandated that this must be outside your home country.

Hope that helps.


What are strategies for minimizing student questions during exams?

I explain at the start of the first test that, "Questions clarifying what you're reading are okay (raise your hand, I'll come over). I cannot tell you how to solve a problem. My response may be, 'I can't tell you that during the test.'"

If Question #1 comes up, I do as stated. Questions #2-3 get a fairly loud (but polite) repetition of, "I can't tell you that during the test." (Or, "That's what you're being tested on."). Question #4 may get, "Just read the direction carefully" (which itself is a repetition of something I need to say during almost every single class meeting).

I find this public act tamps down on questions as much as I can hope for. The main thing is to be solidly consistent. Counterexample: I was co-proctoring with another professor in their class. That professor got a question, shook his head in disgust, muttered "You should know that", and walked away. Then turned around, walked back, and actually did talk the student through how to solve the problem. This can only encourage more fishing questions like that.

Due diligence: In liberal-arts math courses I have occasionally had students express disbelief and/or outrage that I wouldn't help them during a test. "But you're the teacher, that's your job" kind of thing.


Conveners change. After five years, surely change is expected. Dropping one of your co-conveners is a little suspect though, it suggests an individual is at fault. I recommend dropping several co-conveners and having a more radical re-shuffle.

Because the title and proposal are same as previous years, is it ethical to drop one who was already a co-convener of the same session since last 5 years?

Assuming you have no agreement, then, yes, it is ethical to drop and add co-conveners. Journals and conferences typically work this way.

How to inform the one that you won't be in the list this year?

That's been partly answered elsewhere on this site and is partly dependent on your individual circumstances.


Is mathematical aptitude the limit of how well I can do in an interdisciplinary life science field as a computer scientist?

Speaking as a computer scientist who works with life sciences: there is a lot more use for computer science than just modeling.

Consider:

Who makes and maintains the instruments?
Who handles LIMS development and deployment?
Who develops automation systems and precision protocols?
Who develops the control mechanisms that actually implement biomedical intervention concepts?
Who develops taxonomies, interchange standards, and data representations?

This just scratches the surface of computer science opportunities in the biomedical
Unfortunately, the view that you hold of "you're either an experimentalist or a modeler" is far too prevalent in biomedical culture, and computer scientists often get little respect for their contributions.  That culture is starting to shift however, and especially in younger and more engineering-centric subfields like synthetic biology... and especially in some of the awesome things the younger practitioners are doing.


One key difference between plagiarism and violence is that plagiarism is a specifically academic offense, while violence is already handled by the legal system.  If a violent incident is sufficiently serious, it can and should be dealt with in court.  This means university rules only need to deal with cases in which the people involved prefer not to take legal action, and they can leave more serious cases to the legal system.  In particular, the university rules are typically geared towards the less serious end, since those are the only cases they expect to handle.  (If a student or colleague punched me in the face, I would press charges in court, rather than relying on the university to administer justice.  By contrast, if two athletes got worked up and started fighting during a high-stakes game, it's possible that neither one would consider the incident worthy of legal action.)

Plagiarism is not always punished severely: a first offense or minor case may be treated leniently.  However, the rules allow severe punishments because there are no courts to fall back on.  By contrast, universities don't need to have special rules for how to punish a truly dangerous student.


Advisor trying to patent an idea for himself even though we wrote the paper together!

The proper place to handle this, now, is the IP office at the university. Raise the issue in your own name so that your colleague doesn't suffer any consequences, but if negotiations follow, make sure everyone appropriate is included.

But you may also want to consult an IP lawyer. The university may be able to help you with this also.

It is hard to avoid all negative consequences in a situation like this, of course. Especially if the professor is a bad actor with power.


Why pay a fee to have your article (in a subscription-based journal) made open access when you can just put the preprint on arXiv?

If you work in a field in which people use and trust the arXiv, then there's little reason to pay fees for hybrid open access.  One reason would be if your funding agency requires open access publication and does not consider the arXiv to be an acceptable substitute.  Another would be if you wish to encourage the journal to transition to fee-based open access publishing.  In your case, I doubt either of these reasons would be compelling.

From the publisher's perspective, it's a no brainer: why not offer authors this option?  It can't do any harm, since it pays for itself.  If few authors choose to pay the fee, then the publisher can use this as evidence that there is little demand to change their business model.  If many authors do, then it smoothens the transition to becoming a fully open-access journal.


How to cite oneself as co-author without all names, for resume or presentation?

For a presentation I would use @Jan Kukacka's answer. Say in the presentation "This work was published in our 2015 paper".

For a resume you've four options as I see it:

List all the authors (put yourself in bold).
List the first x authors (where 10 is a common value of x) then put et al (several journals/funding bodies use this format). Choose x so your name always appears
List all the authors up to and including your name, and then put et al.
List just the first author. As the papers will probably appear in a publications section on your resume, its fairly clear that you are going to be an author.

Which ever you choose, it might be worth including a very short sentence that described your role in the work.


Can I copyright materials I developed if it was asked to be written by the school I'm working at?

As I understand it, in the UK the answer is that your employer owns the copyright, unless they have told you otherwise:

  Where a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or a film, is made by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work (subject to any agreement to the contrary).

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ownership-of-copyright-works#works-created-for-an-employer

(Note: the question 'can I copyright the materials?' doesn't actually make sense. Copyright automatically exists on the creation of a work. Your question is really about who owns the copyright in this case.)


Is it a good idea to spend one year on a pre-PhD diploma to learn advance research methods?

I'm going to suggest that spending a year would not be a good use of your time. The end-all and be-all of doctoral education isn't the methodology, but using the methodology to do something interesting in your field.

I would answer differently if you thought your background is weak and that you would only be accepted by spending this year, but with an MS that isn't likely true. If it were a matter of a summer spent on methodology then, again, it might be worth it. But a year feels like spinning wheels.

On the other hand, the course you suggest is in your field. If it can also get you closer to the research frontier in that field then it would have value for that, rather than methodology. At some point you need to cross that frontier so you need to approach it somehow.

Of course, this isn't my field, and I don't know how difficult the methodology is, but I suspect that you can muddle through and pick it up - especially knowing that you have a need. It would probably delay your completion less than spending a dedicated year that might not even give you a benefit in your application.


Would you consider using another's analysis as a basis for your own analysis on a poem/story plagiarism?

It might be plagiarism or not, depending on how you present it. If you do it in such a way that the ideas seem to the reader to be yours alone, then it is clearly plagiarism. It isn't the "word-for-word" issue at all. That is irrelevant.

But if you quote the original work and then take off from there, extending the ideas of the others(s) and you provide a citation for it then it is clearly not plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking the ideas of another as if they were your own without attribution. It is always fine to extend the ideas of others, provided that it is clear that it is an extension and clear that you don't attribute the underlying ideas to yourself.

Don't confuse this with copyright, which is more to do with the actual words used.

However, if this is for a class, then the standards set by the professor may go beyond mere avoidance of plagiarism. So, while you may avoid plagiarism by using proper citation it isn't necessarily true that you meet the course standards. The judgement on that will only come from the instructor.


Master's and PhD at different Japanese universities

Institutions prefer their recognized terminal degree to be the final education before its graduates continue in their careers. By doing so, the graduates provide the evidence of the efficacy and value to society of the institution's academic programs.

However, as you have said, in Europe, the MSc is not recognized as a terminal degree. An institution in Europe from which you might graduate with a MSc should expect, if you continue your studies, for you to be successful in the program to which you apply.

The correct way to ensure that you contribute to the local reputation of the institution to which you consider applying is to ask them if the degree is intended to be a terminal degree, or if it is considered strong preparation for the terminal degree that you wish to pursue.

You should also inquire about this at your terminal degree school of interest, and you should strongly consider the advice that the institution you want to pursue your terminal degree at gives you in that matter.

For example, I inquired at Columbia about their PhD in Economics, and they suggested, as I expected, that I complete a Masters in Statistics first.

Communication, in the spirit of your notable tactfulness, is the best way to ensure that you meet the expectations of the institutions that you are interested in.


Contacting a Professor for a PhD in the US (Engineering)

"Talk to the professor first" is the norm in most of the rest of the world, but in many graduate programs in STEM in the US admissions decisions are made by a graduate admissions committee and students are matched to research supervisors (and funding sources) after they've been admitted to the program.

It's quite common to have some specialized source of funding (e.g. teaching assistantships or fellowships) for first-year students to support them until they have matched with an advisor who can fund them through a research grant.

One reason for this is that many Ph.D. programs in the US have substantial course requirements, while in other systems it's more common for the graduate coursework to be completed in an MS degree and the Ph.D. degree only encompasses the dissertation research.

An important advantage of this approach is that it allows the faculty in the department to compare applicants and pick the best overall group of applicants while maintaining an appropriate balance between subfields in the department.

There's nothing particularly wrong with sending an introductory email to a professor and expressing interest in working with that professor, but don't assume that the professor has the power to admit you to the program.  A response of "Get admitted first, then we'll talk" means exactly that- the professor can't make any promises to you until you've been admitted.   Even then, the professor might want to see how you do in course work before agreeing to be your advisor.


Can my school fire me on the grounds that I have applied to another school?

Not a direct answer since I can’t presume to know what someone else would do, but you have several misconceptions about how university departments think and act, and maybe understanding them would help guide your thinking. Departments are quite used to spending money on “nothing” — your derogatory but totally inaccurate term for students who leave without completing their degree. From the department’s point of view that’s a completely normal and predictable part of the cost of running their operations, and nothing to get worked up about.
Second, a student who leaves without a degree is in no sense a waste of time or money. Such a student came, gained some useful knowledge, learned some things about themselves that made them a wiser person who is better able to fulfill their potential in the future, and left to go somewhere else. Degree or no degree, the resources spent on such a student are entirely consistent with the mission of a university.
Third, donations are to be given because you have a genuine desire to give money rather than out of a sense of duty, coercion, or a fear of retaliation. If those are your motives, then it’s not donation, it’s extortion.


What's a good way to prevent students from saying I lost their paper?

First, get organized.

You need a good defence. Make sure that you are not at fault.

What I've done is to put student assignments in a folder and keep it entirely separate from any other papers I have. When I bring their assignments home, I transport them in a plastic bag to further distinguish them and prevent papers from falling out somehow. For situations where the class turns in lots of assignments and students don't always pick up their graded assignments, papers can get out of order, so I make sure to keep each assignment in a separate folder, or I put all graded assignments in a single stack alphabetized by last name. I know with full certainty that students' assignments are in my "to-grade" folder, or my "to-return" folder, and nowhere else.

Second, respond to the student

If they say you've lost their paper, give them the benefit of the doubt by looking through your stack. If it's not there, you know it won't be anywhere else, short of a devious third-party intervention, and you can tell them so. :-)

Alternatives

Use an electronic submission dropbox (e.g. Blackboard, D2L, etc.).

You could have students email their assignments to you, but there's always the possibility that it gets caught in your spam filter. If you did this, you should send them an email ASAP to confirm that you received their submission.

Keep all papers in a single room: never take them home to grade, etc.
Keep a list of students who submitted their work as they turn it in.
Scan in assignments, keep an electronic copy and send the copy to students (idea from @MadMyche, in the comments below).


My PhD supervisor cannot promise me a date to defend my dissertation before my visa expires. Should I just quit my PhD and start over?

You should talk immediately with the International Office (or equivalent) at your university, as well as any student-coordinated offices at your university. This is by no means the first time that they will have dealt with such a situation. Usually there are workarounds available—for instance, you could be extended on a part-time contract for a few months while waiting for the defense to be completed. You certainly do not need to be employed full-time to qualify for a visa—you just have to be able to show sufficient income, which even a 50% contract would be enough to satisfy.

However, I should point out that, depending on the university, there is no way to guarantee that you can turn in your thesis in July and be able to defend it in September. For instance, in the faculty where I used to work, reviewers were given three months to review a thesis. So if you turned in your thesis in July, you probably would not be able to have a defense before the beginning of November. You'll need to check the regulations for your program to see when the defense can be scheduled relative to the thesis being handed in.

Moreover, the "art" of scheduling a thesis defense requires getting enough examiners together at the same time, never an easy task in the German system.

However, to answer your main question, don't you think that quitting and starting over is counterproductive? If you're already writing a thesis, that shows you're relatively near to completion, and that your advisor thinks you're ready to move on. Giving that up because of the logistics of scheduling a PhD defense seems very shortsighted. Why would you not think that the same thing couldn't happen if you started over and worked somewhere else? Since you're so close to finishing, get it done!


Can I make an exam question for graduate & undergraduate students to find an idea in making a breakthrough in my research?

I find the whole idea as proposed in the first point quite underhanded. Just announce that you are looking for ideas on how to solve a specific problem and that you'd be happy to provide support for developing it to a thesis and/or publication to any students who got a promising idea. That way you create a win-win situation and avoid all potential ethical issues.


Are there any institutes removing teachers based on less performance in publications?

Yes, of course. At least in the United States, assistant professors generally do not have "tenure", and they will be evaluated at the end of the tenure period (typically 6 years). If they do not pass this evaluation, their position is terminated and they lose their job. That happens all the time -- most departments at R1 universities will have a case in the last 20 years where this happened.

Once you have tenure, things become more complicated. There is the concept of a "post-tenure review" at most universities, which is triggered when a tenured professor is not productive for several years (as well as for other reasons, such as misconduct). It does happen that people lose their jobs if they do not pass such reviews, though admittedly this method is rarely applied: In most cases, the person in question just gets poor job evaluations, doesn't get a pay raise, is not further promoted, and gets assigned higher teaching and/or administrative duties than everyone else.


Why is it that many academic books are written by a different expert each chapter?

Many times such a book is dedicated to a broad subject with many sub-subjects and experts from each sub-subject are invited to write the relevant topic. This is actually very good. The potential downside might be that different authors might have much different writing style and flow and it can lead to a highly non-uniform  book if the editor does not pay the required attention.


Evaluating a salary for a physics postdoc in Canada

There are at least two aspects of your question: is $55000 good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada; and is $55000 a decent salary to live on in Canada (regardless of profession)? I will answer based on my past experience as a business professor in Montreal (though I will tailor my answer for physics). Right off the bat, though, I will note that your question has nothing to do with the United States, since cost of living issues vary widely not only between adjacent countries but even between cities in the same country. (Actually, I have lived in several different cities in both countries.) I will only answer for Canada.

Is $55000 good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada? A good point of comparison is the amount of the fellowship awards granted by NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada), which is the government agency that grants postdoctoral fellowships in physics, among other fields. Here are two key points of comparison:

The most frequent amount that NSERC awards is for their standard Postdoctoral Fellowships Program. This should be considered "good", since that would be the standard point of comparison if a university were to fund its own program without a government grant. This amount is $45000. Although universities might pay someone less than this amount, the NSERC award amount is considered a benchmark.
An excellent amount is the one that NSERC awards for the extremely competitive Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program. This program awarded 23 fellowships in the last year (not in physics, but in all science and engineering fields). You would almost never see any university fund a postdoctoral fellow that amount, or anywhere near it, unless the recipient is a Banting Fellow. This amount is $70000.

Based on this, I would consider that, YES, $55000 is very good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada funded directly by a university.

But, is $55000 a decent salary to live on in Canada (regardless of profession)? This is a cost of living question. My best source for such information is Numbeo, which lets you compare cost of living city by city, which is the most meaningful comparison. I used it a couple years ago when I moved from Montreal to Paris, and I found its estimates to be very accurate and extremely helpful in my financial decisions and negotiations.


Will my undergrad thesis be considered for my Master's admission given that my areas of interest has changed a bit?

It’s fairly widely understood that people’s research interests can evolve over time, particularly in the transition from undergraduate to graduate. So, yes, the committee will consider your undergrad paper, precisely because it shows potential for research, even if it’s not in the field you want to study in the graduate program.

You should, however, be sure to make an affirmative argument for your new field of study in your statement of purpose: talk about why you’re gravitating toward the new field, not away from the old one.


What should I do if the admission committee has missed something in my application and rejected me?

I am assuming you don't have a prospective advisor at this institution working with you on your admission. If you do, they will be in a much better position than us to tell you how to navigate this situation!

The concrete policy would depend on the country or individual institution, but to me it seems unlikely that they would reverse such a decision after the fact. In all probability they have limited places that they have filled already. They might also have rejected you for reasons they don't like to say openly, such as because the other candidates were equally good and didn't require double-checking the paperwork.

To know more about your chances of appeal, you would have to look into how similar cases have been handled by this department in the past, but that might be quite difficult without a connection to someone with historical insider info. While you are contesting the decision, the administration will naturally try to say as little as possible to avoid giving you ammunition.

If re-applying next year is an option for you, I would try to strike a more collaborative tone and ask how you should present your documents so as to avoid confusion in the future. And also try to strike up some contact with a faculty member who might help you. They don't necessarily need to actually do much, but an internal interest will give the administration some incentive to spend time answering your questions.


The main problem is that your impressions seem to be incorrect. (At least from my maths perspective) Putting a preprint on arxiv is just that, namely putting up a preprint. Almost everything put on arxiv will be sent of to a peer reviewed venue as well, usually at the same time (there are exceptions, e.g. when people put up non-articles such as lecture notes for posterity). It is useful to make a result widely available and in cases even to establish priority, but it is not "proper" publishing and generally is not accepted as such. It is just a way to put the result out there right now instead of waiting until it is published (which in cases can take years).

In a way this approach is an attempt to please both sides. The bean-counters and bureaucrats who care about numerical "publication record" generally ignore arxiv and look at peer reviewed stuff only. But the actual peers reading your papers care more about the content than about the venue it is published in. (Though they still will cite the published version if available)

Also keep in mind that people can only cite what they actually know about. And in some disciplines, the use of arxiv is so prevalent that it also functions as a unified source. Since every preprint is on there anyway, many people only check the new releases on arxiv, so not releasing a preprint is not an option anymore.


Tenses in introduction and summary of every chapter

Always use the logically correct tense. Present or future for references to later chapters (that's a matter of taste), present for things that will be true at any time in the forseeable future, past for references to past events (e.g. a decision on how to proceed the studies, observation made during your own experiment, summary, where you recount what you did prove twenty pages ago).


Is it easier to obtain H1B / green card as academics in the US?

First of all, IANAL.

The H1B process requires a declaration from the employer that the skill set provided by the candidate cannot be found within the US. This is typically not too hard to satisfy, and is required regardless of whether you're in academia or in private industry.

The Green card process can change dramatically depending on which process you use. Academics will typically go through what is execrably called the 'Outstanding Researcher' process, which awards a green card based on scholarly excellence. But Ph.Ds in private industry also go through this process (I did!). It really depends on the willingness of the employer (because of the legal processing involved).

The alternative is to go through the "regular" advanced degree process, which has different qualification requirements and has a different queue/wait time. Arguably, this could take longer, and I don't think academics ever go through this.

So the bottom line is: it depends on the employer, but there's a technical sense in which being an academic can help slightly.


As an Undergraduate student can Join at conference with Full research paper?

I assume you have discussed this with your advisor and figured a way to pay for the airfare before you submitted an abstract to the conference. What makes you think this is a good conference?

I have no idea if this is a valid conference or not.  Perhaps another answer will tell you.  Have you already paid the registration fee?  If not, please wait.  There are conferences out there that just want your registration fee, and make a nice excuse for a vacation.


I've not heard the term before, but the description seems clear enough from their website:

  Participants submitting proceedings-published posters/demos are required to submit a short paper of 2 pages describing the poster/demo content ... If accepted, this short paper will be published in the proceedings of the conference.

In other words, they will publish an associated short paper in the proceedings as well as displaying the poster. This is distinguished from the other option for a paper, which will be displayed, but not have anything published in the proceedings.


Article about doing a PhD by prominent mathematician or computer scientist

Here are some sources I have found that speak to the topic of not getting a PhD.

Perhaps this document is the one you are looking for? Both the authors are mathematicians with PhDs. I would not say they are necessarily prominent, but they are established.

http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/media/eps/schoolofmathematics/study/guide_2011.pdf

This is a short article reposted by a professor at Stanford University.

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/545

Here are three other online articles about the topic.

https://medium.economist.com/why-doing-a-phd-is-often-a-waste-of-time-349206f9addb

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/15/should-do-phd-you-asked-autocomplete-questions

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/12-reasons-not-to-get-a-phd/

I will add my own brief commentary here. Obtaining a PhD has never hurt me financially. I have a well paying full-time job that requires a PhD. (Now should the job require a PhD is a different story). There are many, many, many jobs in my field (statistics) that prefer a PhD. I have never regretted obtaining a PhD.


Is it appropriate to ask colleagues opinions when reviewing a paper?

I think that this practice violates the usual "confidentiality agreement" that presents (formally, or customary) in a review process. However, I would agree that this is a common practice, and for some people it is just hard to work on their own, although technically you are supposed to give your own opinion on a paper you review.

I would say that if you really need to show the paper you review to someone else, you should check the following boxes:

make sure the person understands that they are looking on a paper under review, and agrees to maintain the confidentiality, i.e.: not to talk about the ideas from the paper with someone else, not to produce own work based on these results until they are made public, etc.
 The actual material paper, and the file, do not change hands: do not send the pdf manuscript to your colleagues, do not leave the printed paper with them for a while.
 Ask specific question(s) about the paper, for which you need second advice, not just a general opinion. Remember, that you should review the manuscript yourself. Definitely do not use the second opinion to shake some work off your shoulders and go.


Basically, you can cite this user's manual just as you would any book-like publication. The only difference is that you don't cite the name of an author:

  User's Manual for Foo Instrument, Model Bar. Random City: XYZ Corporation (Year).

or whatever is the appropriate reference style for your work.


From which level of education, is it better to choose teacher assistants?

Some universities have rules about what kind of student may be a TA.  Assuming no such rules exist, the TA should be qualified to fill that role, whatever that means for a given course.  That is, the TA should have both the domain knowledge and pedagogical ability that the job requires.

It doesn't matter what level of education the TA is at. In my own department it is quite common for TAs to be "peers" of the students in the class (B.S. students hired to TA the B.S. level courses, M.S. students and PhD students hired to TA graduate courses including both M.S. and PhD students.)


Some questions about the time for a PhD program in the USA?

The requirements for a doctorate in the US vary both by state and by institution, but you seem a bit misinformed as to the general process. Some institutions have required courses and you can be asked to leave if you don't do very well. A C in a doctoral level grad course is like a D- or F in an undergrad course. It is not acceptable. One or two out of the set might be ok but more and you will not be invited to continue as you don't show sufficient seriousness. While the GPA itself may not be too important, you need to demonstrate that seriousness.

Even if there aren't specific required courses (which are there to assure you have knowledge of the breadth of the field, primarily), you will certainly be required to pass Qualifying Examinations. There is usually a set of these (maybe three or four) and again they cover breadth, primarily, but at an advanced level. They are normally hours long. Fail any of these and you can (probably will), again, be asked to leave. The courses, required or not, prepare you for these exams. The exams are quite rigorous as are the prep courses. It is even possible to be asked, in an oral, a question on an unsolved problem, just to see how you attack it.

The "sufficient amount of new research" is required, also, to be of a fairly high quality and you will need to show in this research that you have delved quite deeply into some, usually small, area of the field. This normally requires spending time in seminars with a professor (and group) who specialize in that area. All of this takes some time. It isn't just a paper count, but something that the faculty considers significant.

It used to be regularly doable in about four years, but that has been extending for quite a while. Often this is partly due to the fact that students support themselves working in labs or teaching, which, again, takes time and adds to the total. If you are self funded and can devote yourself full time (60-80 hours per week) then you can shorten the time.

My doctorate had two requirements. Pass the qualifiers (both written and oral) and write an acceptable thesis. I don't think I knew anyone who did it in four and this was many years ago. No professor will want anything to do with you unless you show seriousness of purpose. Poor grades and low expectations won't get you there. It is quite a bit more than putting in minimal effort and checking a few boxes.

On the other hand, it can be exhilarating to be associated with a community of scholars, both helping and being helped by smart and dedicated people.

Every once in a while an Einstein or Feynman comes along and if they are lucky and recognized early, may have a shorter path. But likely not. Seriousness of purpose.