Are there grants and fellowships for PhD students past the first year, but before candidacy?

Yes. Several of the fellowship and scholarship mentioned in a previous question (Options other than the NSF for PhD level grants?) are open to non-first year graduate students.

For example, The EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship,  The Ford Foundation through the National Academies, NSA Fellowships, Google Research, and The Data Incubator all allow people to apply past the first year.

The NSA, Google Research, and Data Incubators Fellowships all target computer science. "The Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students." The EPA Fellowships target environmental science, which could include computational science applied to studying the environment.

Edit note November 2019: The EPA no longer offers their fellowship program.


How to search in Google Scholar within a particular conference?

To search within a particular conference, go to the search result page (using an arbitrary search term), click on the small triangle that appears in the top row to the far right of the page and click on "Advanced search". This will open an extended search dialog where a field "Return articles published in..." exists.


What does the status "under editor evaluation" entail after a 4-month review phase?

According to this answer:

  The status "under editor evaluation" indicates that the paper is now with the Associate Editor (AE) who will evaluate it based on the reviews and decide whether the paper should be accepted, rejected, or revised. However, the AE's decision is not final: he/she can only give a recommendation to the Editor-in-chief (EiC) in this matter. The final decision is taken by the EiC. This is when the status changes to "decision in process." Thus, to put it simply, "under editor evaluation" means that the paper is with the AE, while "decision in process" indicates that it is with the EiC.

Also see:

the Elsevier's peer review process,
and this answer: After with editor the current status is submitted to journal


Etiquette for sending another email after the first one went unreplied

The important question is the interval between the time you applied and the time you expect an answer.

If you applied on the day before the decision were announced it is quite possible there was not time to assess your file and sending another email will not help.

If on the other hand your documents were received months ago then another email or better yet a phone call if possible is not inappropriate.

Be mindful that applicants are often optimistic to expect academic decisions to be made within a few days of reception of documents.  Admissions officers may have to deal with 100s of files each containing multiple documents to be scanned so the information can be properly stored and distributed to appropriate faculty for later evaluation, and every link in the chain takes time.


How much would writing a thesis help for a person's career in industry(not in academia)?

I can think of two reasons you might want to write a thesis.

If you would inherently enjoy the challenge.
If digging in and writing up specialized knowledge in a particular topic might be related to your future work on the job.

Either of these would be a good reason -- you don't need both.


What should I do as a teaching assistant when I find cheating behavior from actual grading?

Disclaimers: Firstly, how cheating is treated varies a lot among different countries, so what I'm going to say might not be applicable to your case. Secondly, you actually ask several questions, and I shall concentrate just on the following one:

  More importantly, what I should do for the future to the class to prevent cheating?

The students' behaviour you describe in point 1) should be cut off directly during the exam, and not discussed afterwards. In general, I enforce the following rules:

Students are not allowed to talk to each other. If I find two or more students trying to talk to each other, I warn them once, but the second time they're out.
Students should bring their own calculators and cannot borrow calculators from other students. If a students forgets her/his calculator, too bad, she/he can employ the good ol' pencil and paper method of calculation.
We don't have movable chairs, but, in case: if you're too close, the first time I come to pull you apart and warn you; the second time, that's the door and you're welcome to walk out of it.


Missed including undergraduate degree information in graduate application

If you know you’ve omitted information, I would correct the situation as soon as possible. If the information is received before a decision is made, then you cannot be accused later of hiding it. It may impact acceptance—materials weren’t sent according to deadline, after all—but you’re reducing your later exposure by coming forth now.


What is the difference between “Hochschule” and “Universität/Technische Universität”, especially for master degrees?

First we should get the words right. In Germany, a Hochschule is the general name for higher education. A University and a University of Applied Science are both a Hochschule. It is the generalization.

A Fachhochschule on the other hand is just the University of Applied Science.

When it comes to Germany, a graduate from a "Fachhochschule" is allowed to write his or her PhD at a normal university. However, some universities may have some reservations and force you to "prove" your scientific skills, or to attend additional classes.

From the legal point of view, an M.Sc. from the Fachhochschule is equal to the one of the University.
However, the Fachhochschule often awards the Master of Engineering, instead of the Master of Science from the University. (While the M.Eng still allows you to write the PHD)


GitLab Project or Group for version control of 2 subprojects in my thesis, which consists of code and the latex report?

For most cases, it doesn't really matter and you should do whichever one makes most sense to you.  There are, however, some exceptions.

One significant reason I know of to split the two is if one will contain a lot more data than the other (e.g., you might have very large image files for figures in your thesis or large output logs from your code), in which case you'll have a faster and nicer time managing the smaller repository much more easily if it's separate from the large.
Another reason to split the two is if you might want to later release the code but not want to encumber it with the thesis source.
Your professor might also have requirements for people they work with in order to promote code reusability, in which case you'd need to follow those.

There are probably other exceptions as well, but for most cases, either combined or separate is OK, and you can always do surgery on the repositories later if you change your mind.


How will an online MBA be perceived in applications for a faculty position in economics and accounting?

It will take you out of consideration for any faculty appointment. MBAs are headed to industry; to teach (be hired on tenure track), you need a relevant Ph.D. This doesn't depend on whether your program is online or not.

Come to think of it, depending on how interesting and high-level your prior job was, and if teaching (as opposed to research) interests you, you could target an adjunct position instead.


At which level (D or E) should I apply for an advertised faculty position in Australia?

It is my understanding that when a position is advertised so broadly, i.e. D or E, they are likely looking for someone really big. That being said, I think they are likely looking for someone at the level E, but would consider a strong candidate at level D.

If it were me, I would evaluate my qualifications and fit with both D and E positions honestly, and then put all my effort into whichever feels like the best fit.

If the only motivation to try for E is salary, and you probably fit better for D, then you are likely risking both.


Can I include my published paper in the mail?

Honestly, I find the whole discussion in the comments and the other answer rather strange. There are two options:

The professor doesn't care about reading the paper. If you sent the paper attached to the email, he can just ignore it.
The professor wants to read the paper. If you attached it, perfect. If you didn't, either he has to go look for it on the journal's website, log in the publisher's website because many don't do IP-based authentication anymore, and eventually find the "PDF" button behind all the crap that publishers put on journals' website these days; or ask you to send it to him in case it's not public yet (e.g. it was accepted today and it will be months before the journal even mentions it publicly) or his university doesn't have a subscription to the journal. That's a complete waste of time.

We're in 2019. Getting a 5 MB attachment in one email is completely insignificant. If the professor is on a roaming data plan in Belize and hasn't set his email client to not download attachments automatically, it's his own fault, and he will rack up hundreds of dollars in charges anyway from all the email a professor routinely gets every day.

My opinion: write your email with your additional queries and so on, and conclude with something like "By the way, the paper 'XXX' that was listed as submitted on my CV is now accepted in journal 'JJJ'. I have attached it to this email in case you would like to take a look." Unobstructive, no pressure.


How should English reference be cited in a non-English work?

For what concerns citations there is a general international standard, the ISO 690, but at the moment I don't have access to it. Therefore, I'll give you an answer based on an Italian style guide and on a number of Italian and French popular science books, from different publishers, that I have on my bookshelf (e.g., [1-7], but I can find many others).
All books report English, German and French references in the format

Authors, "Original title," Journal Date

No translation of the title is provided. The translated title is reported only for books which have an Italian edition too.
Il nuovo manuale di stile (The new manual of style), edizione 2.0, by Roberto Lesina, §15.4, explicitly says

I titoli di scritti in lingua straniera vengono sempre espressi nella lingua originale.
Titles of writings in foreign languages should be always expressed in the original language.

There's no distinction between academic and popular science books.
Books [1-6] are written by Italian and French authors; [7], instead, is a translation of the original Russian edition, and there are Russian references. These are not translated either, but the Cyrillic letters have been transliterated. This is in agreement with the recommendation of the cited style guide for titles in non-Latin alphabets (§5.4.3).
To sum up: I think that there is some, possibly strong, evidence, from at least two countries, that references in popular science books should be treated exactly as references in academic works.
[1] G. C. Ghirardi, Un'occhiata alle carte di Dio, Il Saggiatore, Milano, 2003.
[2] M. Ageno, Le origini dell'irreversibilità, Bollati Boringhieri, 1992.
[3] R. Lamouline, Du Thermomètre à la temperature, Éditions Ellipses, Paris, 2005.
[4] J.-P. Parisot, F. Suagher, Calendriers et chronologie, Masson, Paris, 1996.
[5] G. Lolli, La crisalide e la farfalla. Donne e matematica, Bollati Boringhieri, 2000.
[6] A. Guerraggio, P. Nastasi, Matematica in camicia nera. Il regime e gli scienziati, Bruno Mondadori, 2005.
[7] V. I. Arnol'd, Huygens & Barrow. Newton & Hooke, Bollati Boringhieri, 1996.


Is there an easy/good way for professors to connect with corporate consulting projects?

I am one of the founders of a company that does exactly what you are asking.  It matches professors and businesses together for consulting and executive education.  The company is called LIFTPhD.


Difference between computer science MS and MCS

Many Master's degrees exist that could reasonably be considered "computer science" degrees, and the distinctions between them differ from one university to another.  Thus, you should probably ask someone familiar with the programs that you're considering about the particulars for that scenario.

The best general answer to your question, if there is a general answer to it, is that many of the degrees named simply "Master of Science" require writing a thesis.  For example, compare North Carolina State's Master of Science program with their Master of Computer Science program.  Often the thesis degree is awarded to PhD students who have completed their qualifying exam and coursework, but this also varies from one university to another.

Since writing a thesis is an important distinction for Master's degrees, you may wonder what a thesis is and how it might be viewed by potential employers.  A thesis is a document produced as the result of academic research.  While you will learn more about analyzing academic research, formal writing, and how academia works in your field of study, you will not typically learn more skills that are directly applicable to the profession.  For this reason, you can think of the thesis master's as an "academic" degree and the non-thesis master's as a terminal "professional" degree, but that's also a bit of a simplification.

If you're looking at degrees that start with "Master of Science in" and end with something like "Computer Science," "Computer Networking," or "Software Engineering," then you probably won't have to write a thesis.  These Master of Science names differentiate a degree in science, engineering, or medicine from a degree in English, history, or philosophy, which are Master of Arts degrees.  Often, these are both shortened to just "Master's" degrees.  So instead of a Master of Arts in History, you might simply say that you have a Master's in History.  For example, NCSU has a Master of Science in Computer Networking, which is regularly shortened to Master's in Computer Networking.


How often do people find mistakes in papers and not tell anyone?

I'm not sure what you are looking for. I know for sure that the seminal paper that made one of my bosses famous had glaring mistakes in it. Despite the fact that his result was completely wrong, the paper started a new research field and is now highly cited (around 1700, I think). No one ever bothered to point out the calculation mistakes, without which the paper would have never gotten accepted, because his proposal got confirmed experimentally. More detailed calculations done by others showed his mistake, but confirmed his intuition. In any case, I can't find survey data in my field dealing with un(der)reported mistakes in papers. But, as you do research, you are bound to find quite a few.

On the other hand, I found this oncology paper on unreported mistakes in oncology papers http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3031354/

Looks like less than 25% of those who spotted mistakes in the papers, actually went on to report them.

The practice in my field is to write the authors about the possible mistake. If they are willing to correct it, there is not much point in escalating. If not, you can write a comment on how wrong the paper was, post it on arxiv and send it to the journal editor. This, assuming you're sure they made a mistake. Most people aren't willing to go through all this pain, but I've seen this many times.


Unless you were told not to resubmit then a complete reworking of the paper (from the data up) could be submitted. It might be rejected immediately, of course.
But I caution you about a "rebuttal". If you try to explain why they were wrong to reject the paper it will probably fail. If you, instead, submit a note of changes, updates, and improvements of the paper it will be better received. Unfortunately the word "rebuttal" is often misused in this context and the literal meaning gives the wrong impression about what should be included. If you think you need to explain why the editor was wrong, you should save yourself some time, effort, and pain and jut submit the paper (with improvements) elsewhere.
But note that "reject" means different things to different journals. Sometimes it is absolute and final (i.e. "go away"). Otherwise it just might mean "you've got a lot of work to do here - more than we care to deal with". Hopefully the rejection note from the editor lets you distinguish which situation applies.


One of my former professors no longer works as an academic, Can I still ask her for a recommendation letter?

Yes, you can ask your former professor.  No, it's almost certainly not required that all referees be current academics.  There'd be no sensible reason for a graduate program to require that.

Your professor can use her best judgment as to whether to fill the form with her current position or something like "Professor (former)".  In the letter, she should explain what her position was at the time that she worked with you.


Would a good AP Calculus exam score help for admission to mathematics graduate programs?

I would say a graduate admission committee in pure mathematics would consider AP Calculus scores completely irrelevant.

Good scores (even perfect scores) on these exams show only that you are (or were) competent at high school / freshman calculus; if this were not the case, you probably should not be applying for grad school in mathematics at all.  As a mathematician would say, calculus competence is necessary but not sufficient for success in a grad program.  Of more direct relevance is your preparation in more advanced, proof-based subjects (abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, etc), of which the GRE is a better (thought not necessarily good) measure.  You must have observed that these courses are of a very different flavor from calculus, with much more theory and less rote computation; at the graduate level this trend will only continue.

Even if you are brilliant at calculus, math professors know that this does not necessarily carry over into more advanced subjects.  They really want to see what you have been doing lately.

(Disclaimer: I am a mathematician but have not been on an admission committee.)


Should one include grants that were not finished on the CV?

The main reason to include a grant on a CV is to show that you can get a grant, which you did. Whether or not you made productive use of the grant is generally measured from the publications arising from the grant. You can provide explanations, if necessary, in accompanying letters -- a CV does not contain explanations, it just lists the essential facts.


Master's necessary post-PhD for switching field (neuroscience -> bio/statistics)?

Future learning may be necessary, but a formal degree probably is not. What you need is to have a  position that gives you some flexibility in what you do and a base from which to do it. Your current degree is technically sufficient, if you can find the position.
From there you can learn what is necessary, start research in the new field and put together some papers.
But, in the short term you may be required to also produce in your current field to satisfy an employer and keep your base secure. This implies it may be necessary to morph over time, rather than to make a clean break.
It might even be that if you have a position in a large university that you can sit in on the occasional course in the new field to help you fill holes in your education that you might have. Even discussions with faculty in the other field can point you to a quick path to pick up what you need.


Keeping your throat comfortable after hours of lecturing

Make sure you can lecture without having to raise your voice, ever. When I did lecture a lot, I sometimes used a microphone even if the group was rather small, if only to be sure that I wouldn't raise my voice more than the minimal.
Drinking is good: I find that hot beverages heavily loaded with sugar are the best. I usually drink some light-flavoured tea (green tea, jasmine tea, …) with lots of sugar or honey. If the weather is hot, lemon-based drinks make you salivate more and help preventing dry sore throat.
Deal with your boss to avoid those horrible teaching conditions in the first place. He might not care that it's not in your best interest, but explain to him that it's not in the students' best interest either! (Sore throat aside, I don't know anyone who can teach with as much passion on the 8th hour as on the first.)


About the job prospects and skills learned during physics/math PHD

As a preamble, I don't quite understand why you suggest that fundamental physics is connected to high energy physics since the bulk of recent foundational experiments have been done with lasers and atoms, but to each his/her own.

The large majority of physicists work in industry and do quite well, as you can see from the salary chart below (source).

Employment tends to be related to solid state technology, information technology or optical technology (the areas that produce the largest number of graduates) but even graduates in less industry-obvious specialities like high energy physics find industry jobs.

The running joke is that a physics and an engineering graduates are sitting next to each other at a graduation ceremony.  The engineer is happy to get a degree, but the physicist replies that he (because there aren't that many female graduates) not only got a degree but also an education.

PhDs in physics have a capacity to reason abstractly and comfortably deal with the abstract.  As a PhD candidate, you will have to learn a good deal of programming on various operating systems.  You will be faced with challenges of data integration (or data fusion) and data interpretation, understanding filtering of data etc (especially true if you do high-energy phenomenology); these are but examples of a number of techniques that have wide direct industrial applications, irrespective of the field you specialize in.

Transitioning to industry is not necessarily hard, but you will not get an industry job because your thesis was on 10-dimensional supersymmetry: some flexibility is required.


Number of potential PhD advisors at a school

It sounds like this subarea might be somewhat marginalized in the larger area the department represents, and this is consistent across universities. Why is that ? is the subarea not particularly popular, or interesting, or does it lack the ability to get funding ? In all these case, you do have to ask yourself whether the risk of getting into such an area is worth it.

But on the more direct question of whether you should favor the few schools that have more than one professor, the right question is: what are you planning to do after a Ph.D ? And in what way can this professor (or professors) help with that goal ? If you want to go into academia (say), are these professors the dominant players in the area ? and so on.


What is the best way to address misinformation given in a lecture?

...the topic is quite sensitive and the professor has made note on how uncomfortable they are when lecturing on the topic

I am confident that the professor would be less than open to addressing the class...

My gut says this is the wrong way to do this...

Okay, so you've sold me on "let's try something else", rather than publicly calling this person out.

If they are not likely to change their mind, then I assume you want to do something about it in the spirit of being "true to your subject", not wanting false information disseminated by an academic. However, your comment suggests that they may not have actually done "any research on it", which is problematic.

Given all of this, I recommend going to the professor privately and explaining the research you've done. Let him/her come to the realization based on your evidence, if indeed he/she hasn't read the same information you've read. If they seem unwilling, I would suggest bringing this up to the class.

Coming from a (perhaps?) less argument-prone subject, where nearly every claim is testable or provable, I can only sympathize with what must be a difficult choice for you to make. That said, now a question:  If you have ever taught students of your own, how would you deal with a student who, say, rejects a commonly-held claim because they find fault with something in the research (e.g. methods, sample size, confounding variables not accounted for, etc.). How would you handle a conversation with such a person? This might be a way to determine how you might deal with this professor.

Now, obviously it could depend on the forum (an in-class comment, a question in private, etc.), but you might want to correct this person's confidence in the research, and you might want to protect other students from adopting such skepticism. With your professor, however, this will be a harder nut to crack, it seems. Without trying to put them in their place yourself, I suggest letting the facts speak for themselves. Let her/him know what you've found. If this professor seems unwilling to yield to the evidence, then you may just have to accept the fact that people assert all kinds of things all the time, whether true or false. If there are negative repercussions in store for you, you'll have to decide if playing this part is worth it for you.


A good source of information regarding TV-L is the TV-L calculator at https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/west?id=tv-l-202, which is supported by current TV-L employees (but not actually official).
The calculator has the following main options (from top to bottom):

TV-L level, e.g. E13
TV-L stage (with increasing work experience, you get more money)
Percentage of a full position

The other options are useful to compute salary after taxes (taking pensions and healthcare costs into account), but are set to reasonable defaults.
After choosing options, click the gray "berechnen" button. The number marked in bold in the left column will be the exact salary before taxes, the bold number in the right row the salary estimation after taxes.
EDIT [Updated answer]: Regarding your specific question: /2 appears to most often refer to the percentage by which the position is funded, as you proposed. However there appears to be some ambiguity around this. Does the main body of these  adverts you're looking at contain more specific information?


Is it common to buy a gift for a supervisor when he invited me to a dinner?

No, there is no reason for buying a gift. The most you might do is send a follow-up email thanking your supervisor for the dinner.

Having lunch/dinner with colleagues isn't uncommon, and they usually aren't all that formal unless there is a special occasion (e.g., it is banquet organized by the department/university).


Is it okay if I provide my personal email address on my paper instead of my institutional one?

It is ok to use e-mails other than institutional (academic) addresses in your publications, but there are some points to consider if you're planning to do so:

Availability/reliability: you want other researchers/readers to be able to find you. The paper will hopefully be available for a long time (forever?), and it is impressive how much visibility and opportunities you can get years after a good publication;
Keep a professional address: It may sound silly, but some people insist on having funny e-mails and use them professionally. It does not look good. Also, if you plan to have a professional e-mail for years to come, I recommend registering a domain and have control over the address, even if you plan to SMTP to Gmail or similar services;
Some universities keep email accounts (or forwarding services) for alumni (McGill is one example). It is good for them (you feel more secure in using your institutional address) and for you (people can contact you long after you graduate). Of course, that means periodically check the account or make sure forwarding is properly configured.
University policy: check your university policy. Some institutions require specific affiliation statements and using institutional emails for publications related to them, especially if the research is funded by the institution.


How to avoid gender bias when writing letters of recommendation?

When I write my letters, I try to consciously avoid the biases that have been reported in the literature. Namely, I try to avoid stressing the effort/emotion/affect of female candidates. For both genders,  I try focus on research capability and competence.

You may find these helpful:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2572075/
http://www.academic.umn.edu/wfc/rec%20letter%20study%202009.pdf
The graph below can be found in this paper: https://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/resources/avoidingunintendedgenderbiaslettersrecommendation.pdf
the original source is: Exploring the Color of Glass: Letters of Recommendation for Female and Male Medical Faculty doi: 10.1177/0957926503014002277 where the caption reads "Semantic realms following possessives. Rank-ordered within gender sets from equal numbers of letters ‘her training’; ‘his research’."


Pointing to problems without suggesting solutions

Does "peer review" mean you have to re-write the material, or just point out where the flaws may be and the author is meant to sort them?

I suggest it is the latter, so point them out and expect the author to edit / correct or justify what they meant.


Quitting a PhD program after four years and applying elsewhere

Consult Professor B; he thinks highly of you, and can suggest someone for you to work with, who is not professor A. This may entail moving elsewhere.


What to write in an award nomination letter about your supervisor?

I am guessing you are writing this because you want to nominate him and you have had interactions with no one else that is writing for him or nominating him.

Typically such letters for discipline-wide awards are written by senior members of the academic community, unless explicitly stated in the call for applications that very junior researchers are supposed to do the nominations. Very likely what will happen is someone will see that you are his student and consequently write off your application for your advisor as a conflict of interest. If you are nominating your advisor for an award based on their research level and you are a graduate student, chances are it is not going to hold the weight that other letters will have and they will pass over your nomination.

This being said, if your letter is in a bigger file of people writing in support of your advisor, then it will carry some weight. If you are applying with a group of people that are nominating your advisor, it has a shot. If you are doing this, I would focus on the other contributions aspect of the call.


Should I remove a coauthor if he did something detrimental to the project?

This is a tricky one but you might just have to bite the bullet and keep his name on the paper, making a mental note both not to work with him again and being careful about who you name as co-author.

  one of my coauthors had done some bad acts against the project
  (related to the paper) in the past and now I want to delete his name
  from the author list.

But have these acts impacted on the quality of the paper? It sounds like they have affected the project but not specifically the paper. This is a similar criticism to people complaining against the internal bickering and politics of e.g. software development which affects how software is made, yes, but doesn't necessarily affect the quality or accuracy of the overall output product.

  Meanwhile it should be noted that his collaboration with study had
  never been scientific and I wrote with negligence his name.

So he did make some contribution? What was this contribution? Conceptual? Literary in some way? I would doubt that you included his name with negligence at the time you did so, but now it seems negligent in the light of new information.

  However, my big concern is now that removing his name might be
  un-ethic!!

I think it would certainly raise some questions that might be difficult to answer without possible repercussions on yourself. I would grit your teeth and let the paper go through further revisions, it sounds like it's too far down the line to remove a co-author's name, but be careful who you include - and why - in the future. Academia is a learning process in more than one way.


If the research is of sufficient quality, you can write papers and submit them for publication in peer-reviewed journals / conferences.

Check to see if your institution has specific rules about publishing material from a thesis.  Also, if your advisor or any other person made significant intellectual contributions to the work in the thesis, they may be entitled to co-authorship and you'll need their approval before submitting any papers.  (It is probably a good idea to consult with them anyway about whether the work is of appropriate quality, and what revisions should be made before publishing.)


How closely can I follow a cited mathematical derivation in my PhD dissertation?

The appropriate wording for something like what you envision -- making clear that you are closely paraphrasing another publication -- would look like this:

  Since the derivation of the result by [ABC, 1956] is not widely available in common textbooks, the remainder of this section closely follows the excellent outline provided previously in the MSc thesis by DEF, see [DEF, 1987]. In this thesis, the author shows that ...


As a discussant, should I discuss my points with the presenter beforehand?

I would go with the second option; send the slides to the author beforehand. This will help the following:

The author would be prepared in terms of the questions and topics he is going to get the questions from. He would think on a lower level and add more clarity to his answers.
Give the author a higher confidence to defend, if there seems to be any surprise.
If he feels, he can ask you for additional clarification beforehand.


A short research conference paper benefits

It depends heavily on what field you are in. In a small number of fields (mostly ones adjacent to theoretical computer science), the majority of new work is presented at conferences. Having a paper published at a good conference in those fields is just as good as having it published in a good journal. If you are in one of these fields, the thing you should find out is whether or not it’s been accepted for an “archival track,” “archival conference,” or similar (the word “archival” is very important). If the answer is yes, congrats! You have a full fledged research article that’s been reviewed by your peers and judged worthy of publication.
If your paper was accepted to a non-archival track or if you are not in one of those fields, then presenting your paper at the conference is primarily a learning experience. You are going to meet more established researchers in your field, and have a chance to present your research and ideas to them. This is a great experience to get (virtual) face-time with other people in your field and share ideas. Coming away from the conference, you’ll hopefully have received by praise and criticism, and can use what you learn to extend your conference paper into a full paper.


How to effectively navigate a large library?

Ask a librarian.  They usually know the place well, and are often quite happy to help.


How to prepare for a meeting regarding a Ph.D. program I'm wait listed on?

For each faculty member you would be willing to accept as an advisor, know at the abstract level what their recent papers are about.  Search for grants they just received to determine what areas they may be hiring in.

In the meeting, express enthusiasm for all of these subjects and describe how your background prepares you to work on them.

It sounds like this department has space in only one or a few research groups.  You have no way of knowing which group(s) that is.  If you want to get in, you should market yourself as suitable for as many groups as you can.  It is normal for the openings available to vary by chance and for you to have no information about it; much is left to chance in graduate admissions.


What will I spend to license historic images?

The answer to this question is content, item, and archive specific I'm afraid. No one here can give you a ballpark figure without detailed information...and you assembling that detailed information will give you your answer. Some things that the figure may depend on:

If you are using an archive's scan of the image or if you are using an image that you, yourself created while visiting the archive
What country you are publishing in
How old the archival material is
If the rights holder has academic rates or waves fees for scholarly books (as they assume you aren't going to make a profit on it)
How many images you're going use (5? 50? 500?), though even with a number there's no way to estimate (see 1–4)

The way forward is to email all of the institutions, ask them for their publication policies and charges, and work out how many images you're willing to pay for based on that. So for example, for the SBML you're looking at giving them $45 per image and a copy of your book, see: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/224541_7ae89e7b824c4dc69d1739111fa71070.pdf


how remind a professor we were supposed to have a conversation through Skype?

This is a starting point.  You can adapt this to your own style.

Dear Prof. X,
I hope all is well with you.  Did I misunderstand when our Skype appointment is?  I thought it was yesterday.  Maybe I should make sure I know what your skype ID is.  Is it profx?  Mine is maryam.
If you have time next week -- days that would work for me are m, n, or p.
I'm attaching my unofficial transcript.
Sincerely,
(name)


Using nonstandard gender-neutral pronouns to refer to myself in academic writing

It's your decision what to write, but to my mind, adding a note trying to explain your preferred pronouns seems like it puts the emphasis on something which you probably don't want to make the focus.

I'm young enough to be fairly familiar with this stuff, but I have to be honest, the thing I'd remember after read your paper would be "Huh, I've never seen anyone write a note like that before."  I don't want to suggest the way you identify is something you want to hide, but remember that your article is going to be read (hopefully) by a lot of older people or people from other cultures who have no idea what "ze" is supposed to mean, and I assume your main goal is not to educate them about that stuff.

I would encourage you to instead use "they" or "we" when referring you yourself ("the PI presented on their research" or "we presented on our research"); these might be a little awkward, but they have an established pedigree in writing, and shouldn't strike people as too out of place.


Is it important to dress in formal clothing for a postdoc interview?

Personally, I can't think of a single 'genuine' post-doc I've known over the years who had enough mental capacity left to even begin worrying about what to wear.

On a more serious note though, based on my experience within the field of computer science in The Netherlands (seeing as regional differences do matter), taking some care not to pick an indecent or dirty pair of clothes should be the minimum. Suits would be way overdressed.


Do I need to cite a working paper that was written after I wrote/presented my manuscript?

Asking your editor is a good solution to an unusual situation. You could also include a note at the end of your paper citing the more recent work and giving an explanation that is complementary to the note in the other paper.

But someone who reads either of the papers would want to be apprised of the other, so the citation would be useful to researchers.

I think the priority of your work is clear, from what you say, and is recognized by the other authors, so there is no reason to disguise or omit any information.


How to achieve successful collaborations?

In my experience, starting a collaboration is incredibly easy: you use your network of contacts to identify someone who'd be willing and interested in solving a problem. You talk at a conference or meeting, or arrange a visit to their laboratory.

Maintaining a collaboration, however, is next to impossible. It only works if you have a history of successful results early on, or if you have already had a long history of acquaintance with one another before the collaboration began. (In other words, were you friends or colleagues before the work started?)

Otherwise, I would recommend making sure that you start off with "low-hanging fruit": problems that can be solved mutually within the framework of existing funding on both of your parts, with value for both of you. This is important because one of the challenges of getting grants is that reviewers for funding agencies typically want to see an existing record of collaboration—mutual publications and effort—before they're ready to award money to a new collaborative proposal. There are exceptions to this, but they're by no means common.

After that, you have a track record of working together which will let you grow the collaboration into something further.


My supervisor plagiarised my bachelor thesis: what can I do about it?

Unfortunately, your story does not seem implausible to me at all. Here in central Europe, some computer science departments seem to have a very lax mentality when it comes to acknowledging research contributions coming from undergrads or non-research master students. In some places, this thinking seems to be so ingrained that even otherwise honest and fair researchers do not even consider putting the name of undergrads on papers despite their work making up a significant part of the paper's research contribution (something that the same faculty would never do and, in fact, consider highly unethical, if the student was a PhD or a master student on a research track). I guess part of the problem is that around here, the majority of students heading for an industry career (which is almost everybody at many large universities) does not care one way or another, so nobody really complains about this practice (which, of course, does not make it ok).

(the following is written under the assumption that what you wrote is actually correct - clearly, my advise is terrible if you vastly overstated your contributions)

  If i have no more contact (only an email) with supervisor is there any way to write to the person who published that? and how can I prove that content is that of my thesis?

You should definitely get in touch with your supervisor. Keep the mail friendly, but do make clear that you are not ok with how this has went down. If (s)he is one of those that simply did not consider whether you should actually also be a co-author of this paper, there is a good chance that (s)he is in fact pretty embarrassed by the incident. Presumably, the first thing that the faculty will explain that this "is just the way it works around here". Don't accept this excuse (even though it might be factually true). Be aware that you are in the right here, and that you raising your valid concerns to the conference organisers will at least be really embarrassing for the faculty (and, as stated on this website once, reputation is the currency of science), so you do have some leverage.

Essentially, I think the onus is on the faculty to come up with a solution here. It is not like you need to think of a way how this can be resolved sufficiently. Maybe your supervisor will think of a solution for your issue that is acceptable for you.  As a last resort, you can contact the organisers of the conference, as stated by just-learning, and give them the information that you also gave us above (now deleted). Be aware that you will likely gain little by this move, though - presumably, either nothing will happen or the paper will be removed from the proceedings. In any case, the reputation of the authors will likely be tarnished quite a bit by this incident, and, as stated in another answer, you will have certainly burned all bridges with this group of people.


Want to form independent research group outside university, while working?

You need to find people that will share your research interests. To get them interested, you first have to offer something. Let's talk software prototypes.

Publish your (possibly beta version, possibly not-very-product-quality) software prototype so that other people could download it.
Publish documentation so that those people could use it after they download it.
Arrange a mailing list / forum so that people could suggest improvements after they use your software.
Possibly, make it open-source so that people could make the said improvements themselves.

Having some prototype to touch, explore and work on will, based on my experience, bond your newborn community more than just discussions. It is important to have something tangible before you start scouting for people.

Also, it may be easier to find people for your project offline. Talk to people of your age and interests in your local university (even if you are not affiliated), in computer science conferences and enthusiasts meetings (there might be some in your area).

The advice above is based on my personal experience of involving people into collaboration and inspired by this article.


Some authors can use variants of their last names in two different publications. How does one write their last name when citing both inline?

Inline citations should match what appears in bibliographies, and bibliographies should match what appears in the publication record. You can augment what’s listed—for instance, you could provide the original Cyrillic rendering in the bibliography to indicate the authors are in fact the same person—but I would leave the citation uncorrected.


Do journal editors disallow paper from college X to be reviewed by someone from college X?

Conflict of interest rules vary between journals, and some are far stricter than others.  In general, it's not clear where to draw the line for what's appropriate.  Asking someone from the same department to review their colleague's paper would generally not be done, even if no rule forbids it.  Beyond that it's a little less clear, and you can make up all sorts of borderline cases.  (It's considered fine for people from different University of California campuses to review each other's papers.  What about someone from the Harvard biology department reviewing a paper from the Harvard medical school?  I don't know, and it's not clear to me that there's a simple rule for deciding what constitutes a conflict of interest.)

Handling conflicts of interest responsibly is an important and difficult part of being a journal editor, since there are all sorts of relationships that are not as easy to detect as a shared departmental affiliation.  For example, some people have been best friends since they were in grad school, while others may be enemies or rivals.

Sometimes when evaluating a submission it's valuable to get advice from someone who has specialized knowledge you need, but who also has a conflict of interest. In that case, you should be aware of the conflict and try to adjust for it (for example, by asking the person for objective information rather than opinions). By contrast, it's much more dangerous to rely on someone who has a conflict of interest you are unaware of.


Should I agree to referee a paper when I don't feel I can judge its importance?

I also started reviewing just recently (pure Math; mainly Algebra/Combinatorics) and when writing my first review with some assistance from my advisor, she taught me that it is not the reviewers job to judge if a paper fits well into a journal or not, that is the editors job.
Apart from checking the paper for correctness, giving helpful comments to make it nicer, etc. you can and should of course also judge it. However, I would not say "this is a good fit for journal XY because ..." but rather something like "this paper is really well written and generalizes the prominent result by A. and al." Or, if it is not well written, then you might also say that, e.g. "while the paper seems technically correct (up to minor points listed below), the page long calculations make it hard to follow and the authors fail to give an abstract overview of what they are doing."
The editor will then decide if the paper should be published in the journal or not, taking into account all reviews, maybe also how many papers were sent for this issue, etc.

Of course, as user2768 pointed out, you can let the editor know that while you will happily judge the correctness and readability of the paper, you are still to junior to properly give a statement on its expected impact.
That is totally ok and editors are aware that there isn't an infinite amount of perfect reviewers, who can comment on every aspect (in finite time...).
I would suggest that you also discuss this topic with your PhD-advisor; if he/she is willing to, you might even let him read over it before you send it.


How to find out if a preprint has been already published

(Added after @Wolpertinger's suggestion) Does the preprint itself include a link to the final paper? Arxiv abstract pages have a "journal ref" field where the author can include such a link, and some publishers mandate that a journal link must be added to preprints after publications.
Search on literature databases (Google Scholar, Scopus, etc.) for a paper with the same title.
Maybe the title has changed? Search for publications by the same authors to double-check. Has another paper with the same authors appeared in the years immediately following the preprint's date? Author changes are less frequent than title changes, in my experience, and most of the times authors are added, not removed.
If everything fails, try a full-web search for a sentence or two that appear in the paper.

If all these attempts fail, you may safely assume that it hasn't been published. If you want to be 120% sure, send an e-mail to one of the authors.
That said, note that a preprint still counts as "previous literature", and you should cite it exactly as you would cite a published paper. However, be a little more wary about blindly trusting the results contained in it: there may be a reason this hasn't been published, in the end.


How important is an (Honors) undergraduate thesis to graduate school admissions?

The part of an undergraduate thesis that helps you with graduate admissions is that it is a form of research experience. It's not so much the finished product, the thesis, but the process of getting there and putting the work in. Even if it isn't complete before your applications are due, just that you are working towards a thesis is useful if it will get you into a lab and learn among other people doing research.

In my personal opinion, a literature review isn't nearly as useful for building the skills that make you a good grad school applicant, it's a lot more like the rest of the (upper-level) coursework you do as an undergraduate.


How long should I wait for an IEEE conference proceeding?

For IEEE conferences (such as this one), there is a relatively standard procedure:

You should have gotten your own copy of the proceedings at the conference itself: typically with IEEE conferences these days this will be on a USB drive.  By the standard IEEE copyright policy, you can feel free to post your preprint on your website.
The full proceedings typically appears in IEEE Xplore a few months later, but there is a lot of noise and randomness in this timing.  IEEE is very good at maintaining communication and schedule before the conference to ensure the proceedings are ready for distribution at the conference, but are much more lax in following through after the conference has completed.


Should a young professor avoid using dating apps?

Professors both young and old are known to use dating apps. So do students, doctors, engineers, lawyers, dental hygienists, and any other kind of person. In other words, there is nothing about being a professor that disqualifies one from using dating apps (or that makes one a special kind of human being in any other way, contrary to what seems to be the popular belief on this site at least).

The only pitfall I can think of is mild embarrassment, but that's true for everyone using these apps whether they are a professor or not. My advice is, go out there and have fun, worry about yourself and don't care too much what other people think. And if you want to date students too, personally I don't see a problem either (especially considering your age) as long as they are not your students and you otherwise behave ethically and responsibly.

(Edit: in certain U.S. institutions there is a general prohibition on faculty dating undergraduates - thanks to @EllenSpertus for the reference in the comments. Given your stated age preference this is not very relevant to your question since students in that age range would typically be graduate students, but it's worth at least checking the policy at your institution to make sure you are aware of the rules.)


How to know if one is suitable for pursuing academia or Research work their entire life?

So you are going to finish your PhD soon and you are thinking about what to do?

I understand your regrets, but they don't help you (as you probably know yourself).

The question remains: What are your options now?

First of all, you do not make a decision for your entire life. You can start a research position and leave it after three years, it is not really helpful to try to plan for 30 years of more. You can either try to get a research position after your PhD, and if you get one, decide again after two to three years. Or you can look for challenging positions in the industry. Both approaches are entirely sensible.

Just don't consider leaving academia as a failure. Most people leave academia sooner or earlier and many find an interesting, good job.


What to do if one has had an unsuccessful PhD (because of others' fault)?

There sure are cases, every now and then, of researchers (professors or other) abusing students in various ways. As everyone, I have heard stories, and I know at least a couple of people who have been put in dramatic situations during their PhD. However bad the behavior of the advisor is, it turns out that there are multiple venues one can try, during the PhD, when the alarm flag is raised. These depend on the institution and type of employment, but they include:

Going to see the PhD program director, explaining your situation (diplomatically) and asking for advice (read: help).
Finding a friendly researcher/professor in your department, and ask him for advice (and possibly help) with your issue. They know the people and local “politics”, and might have efficient advice.
Your employer's HR department
Going to your professor's hierarchy (department chair, dean, …). As a last recourse, file a formal complaint.
Get someone to speak for you: a union representative, a member of the local “PhD association”, etc. That can help if you are worried about the fallout of intervening directly.
Changing your plans to work on a more “independent” research. In your example, your friend was denied access to a given experiment. If the experiment had broken down beyond repair, he sure could reörient his research, so the same thing could be done in the case at hand (I'm not saying it's easy).
Walking out (or, as JeffE would surely say: don't walk, run!)

Regarding legal action: I don't think this avenue can lead anywhere, unless there is factual evidence of gross misconduct or unethical activity. The burden of proof relies on your friend, and I think it will actually be harder to complain after the fact if he did not raise his concerns formally during his PhD.


Ethically, I do not see a problem with this. If you reference the original work and make it clear that it is translated then I think it should be fine.

The problem here is from a copyright point of view. Many journals are subject to copyright and if you post the findings online then someone could not pay to read the documentation and just go to your website and then translate it into whatever language they wish.

I must mention that even though you think you're doing something that benefits others, without even making profits, you can still be in trouble.

If you're really interested in translating a particular piece of work you would need permission from both the author and the publisher (if you're going to publish it online).

My advice would be to ask permission from authors who have unpublished work. An example in finance is John Cochranes guide to PhD writing, this was translated from English to Chinese and placed on his personal website with credit given to the translator.

This way, you don't get in any trouble and you are still gaining the benefits of translating that you mentioned in the question.


High likelihood I'll be unable to submit my thesis before the deadline... What's my outlook?

The situation you are describing might sound like a difficult one, but I am pretty sure that if you go and talk to your doctoral school you will find that is not an uncommon one.
Instead of relying on what your supervisor says, you should probably just describe your situation to your doctoral school and see what possibilities are before you. It is, in a way, the role of the doctoral school to provide counseling in such cases.
In the meantime, if you do not know what ATER are (Attaché Temporaire d'Enseignement et de Recherche), have a look at these specific positions. They are sort of TAs positions. The link is in French, but in your case, the most important sentence might be:

Pour devenir A.T.E.R., il faut être dans l’une des situations suivantes :

[...] soit être inscrit en vue de la préparation d'un doctorat, le directeur de thèse devant attester que la thèse peut être soutenue dans un délai d'un an ; [...]

This means that you are eligible for such a position, only if your advisor is positive that you can defend within a year.
Finally, while your experience feels wrong, you sound like you have learnt quite a lot from it. I guess you should focus on finding the positive sides your experience.


Submitting open LORs as "Supportive Documents" scans?

No one needs more than three strong LORs, especially if that's what's been requested.  I don't think these additional letters will be helpful to you, both because it might make it appear you have trouble following directions and because the non-confidentiality, the fact you're delivering them yourself, reduces their value.


How to disclose in a review of an edited book that one was offered a chapter?

I would suggest that you do not need a disclaimer in this particular case: the bottom line is that you did not contribute to the book. If you had participated, it would be a clear-cut case… yours is more complicated, but the fact remains that none of the text of the book was written by you!

Another way to see it: a disclaimer would not raise distrust, but it would certainly add confusion (or at least, not add any clarity). You'd have to explain concisely your situation, stating the facts. You could come up with something like “The author of this review was asked to participate in the book, but had to decline due to time constraints”.

Finally, if you want to be sure to do the right thing: ask the journal editor! You then make it his call, since it's his journal. He's the best person to ask, really…


Changing affiliation after getting a position in another university

Alex, you may not realize this, but if your advisor indeed got a position at another university, it is quite likely that he is technically already considered a member of the faculty at the new university, even if he is still physically present at your old institution for another semester. If that is indeed the case, he has every right to represent himself as having an affiliation with the new university.

This situation is very common in the academic world: Professor X has a job at University Y, then is offered a new position at University Z. He accepts the offer but on the condition of being allowed to remain at University Y for another year (to finish up some projects, or for family reasons, or because he has a student he does not want to abandon). This type of request is almost always granted by the hiring institution. Professor X is then officially appointed to the faculty at University Z but put on unpaid leave status for a year. During that year, he is temporarily a member of two departments at two universities. It may sound strange but there is nothing untoward or improper about this.

So, based on the information you've provided so far, the scenario I described above seems to me like a perfectly innocent explanation for your advisor's behavior that does not involve any unethical behavior. If I'm off the mark here, please add more details about the situation and what you find wrong with the affiliation change.


I don't have any statistics about how common it is, but that shouldn't really concern you. The more important question is whether it is possible.

I assume, without statistics, that in a competitive job market that many people must, in fact, change their direction. If there are too few jobs then people must look elsewhere or find a way to be more competitive themselves.

The issue you face is really only finding a job. To do that you have to be attractive to the ones offering the job. Math is a great background on which to build as it gives you analytic and deductive skills that can be brought to bear on many problems. But you can also appear over-qualified for some positions.

But if you want to work in specific fields, you probably need to get some qualification in those fields, even if it is pretty informal. Employers probably don't want to support you while you learn if it takes too long and there are other, better qualified, candidates.

Some applied math or statistics might put you in a better position.

But you need to search out jobs, selecting those that best fit your skills, but also finding a way to promote your skills as appropriate.

You might, in fact, look for a "bridge" position, say as a postdoc, that gives you time and an opportunity to get some qualifications in an applied field that appeals to you.


Applying to US PhD during first year of Master's program

I can't speak for computer science (my experience is in Math), but I wouldn't regard it as a serious issue.  Typically programs are more concerned with your general level of preparation (for example, the content of the courses you have taken) rather than the formalities of earning degrees, especially in a foreign system which can be a bit confusing anyway. Certainly if I saw your application and it looked good otherwise, I wouldn't have a problem with you not finishing your masters program.


How to mention a recently dead scientist?

I would strongly advise you against that idea. A well written article has to remain objective. Your relationship with that scientist is not a matter of any importance in the research you are describing in the article. Even adding qualifiers to the name is a bad move in my opinion, as you would be imposing your judgement to the reader.

I know this might seem a nice gesture in the moment, but the article is here to (hopefully) stay, and this type of personal/temporal address will become even more irrelevant to the reader.


What can academics and students do to reduce racism in academia?

One of the forms of racism that UK universities suffer from is that they use unfiltered student opinion to inform hiring as well as evaluation of academics.  Academics with foreign accents or unfamiliar (or particularly formal) appearances that the students don't like then suffer.

Interestingly this form of racism is widely understood and largely eliminated in the retail sector where no one would be allowed to choose the race of an employee based on the preferences of their customers.  It is also a form of racism we could easily eliminate from academia if we honestly faced up to it.

I think the point of my answer has been slightly lost (see comments below). The point is that the students are not asked "Can you understand what the academic says clearly?". They are merely asked to rate the academic using a number and are not required to give any reasoning. This hides any prejudices they have and allows the hiring/evaluation committee to use racial preferences without having explicitly to admit they are doing it. The committee just says "They got low student evaluation scores".


Is overlapping of two dissertations in TCS acceptable?

The correct answer is always to check you local (faculty) rules for theses.

I'm not from TCS, but here are my 2 ct:
If the same chapters are actually papers in a staple (cumulative) thesis, that is acceptable over here (the papers will appear as their print version in cumulative theses). We have rules that establish a point system depending on who is first and who is second author.

Here's an example: student T focuses more on theory and student A on an application (or maybe for TCS, on simulation?). Then 2 papers (not LPUs) are written, one focusing on theory with short application example with T 1st author and A 2nd author; the other paper discussing the application in detail and just briefly the theory. Here authorship is the other way round. Both students can take both papers into their theses, and each gains 1.5 publication points.  If, say, the application example isn't worth a full paper, then only 1 paper is written and T gains 1 point, while S gains only 0.5 points (not being the first author). Both put the complete paper into their thesis.

In any case, the non-stapled parts of the theses need to be different in order to establish who did what part of the work, because the degree is given for the own work of each student. So if all work was done as team work, there will probably be trouble because the committee cannot know how to assign grades to whom.


If I get a paper for anonymous review, can I discuss it with a friend?

The main point of peer review is that the reviewers and authors are blinded, which you would not necessarily violate in this situation. In the past, I have been given articles to review where I did not understand the statistical methods used for that particular study. I felt that it was a larger disservice to write a positive review about the article without knowing if the stats were completed correctly with adequate results than to consult a colleague about the issue. I printed out the manuscript and asked her questions about the methodology without sharing data or findings with her. I did not email or share copies of the manuscript with her. I also did not tell her what journal I was reviewing for to further blind the process. I felt that this was appropriate and you could do the same.


Can I use the texts in my paper for bioconductor?

The customary way to do this is to refer in the manual to the paper.

You are probably not allowed to copy-paste the text of the published paper. If you are concerned about the paywall, many journals allow you to use/distribute the manuscript which you submitted to the journal (prior to editing) - but you should verify this first for Nature Methods.


From my point of view (as someone whose eyes are still tired after reading 180 application packets...), having this on your CV would not be a negative thing.  It should of course be on a separate list from your peer reviewed journal publications along with other technical reports, conference proceedings papers, etc.

The positive aspect of this is that it shows that you worked collaboratively with other people at the workshop.  This is a particularly valuable thing for an applied mathematics faculty member, since our department (and our dean and VP for research) want to see faculty in applied mathematics who collaborate with other mathematicians and more importantly collaborate with scientists and engineers on inter- (or trans-) disciplinary research.

In short, don't try to avoid being listed as a coauthor, do list this on your CV in a section separate from your peer reviewed journal articles and don't worry about it hurting your chances of getting a job.


In an ideal world, publishing great research with a renowned professor who writes you an excellent letter of recommendation is the best outcome. However, if you are more interested in Professor B's work, and are more likely to get published, then working with Professor B is almost certainly the better option.

There are several factors to consider here (and more of course, this is just a quick list):

Which professor is doing work I am more interested in?
Which professor will have more time to dedicate to helping me with my research?
With which professor will I be most likely to be published? (This is likely the most important point if your goal is to get into a good PhD program, and follows directly from the first two points)
How well known is the professor?

You should realize that the goal of an admissions committee first and foremost is to determine whether or not you are capable of, and interested in, performing high quality research as a PhD student (and after you graduate). That being said, you want to work with whichever professor will be able to best help them determine that. All that a recommendation from a famous professor really does is add a seal of authenticity to his/her recommendation on your abilities, as they have demonstrated that they are fully aware of the requirements of being a good researcher based on their own body of work. However, that seal of authenticity is typically granted to any professor at a respectable institution. If Professor B is performing well-received, high quality research, then their word will still be trusted by an admissions committee.

With that being said, if you think you'd be able to do great research and get published with Professor A (and are interested in his/her work) then that's probably your best bet. If, however, you are more likely to do great research and get published with Professor B, then that is almost certainly the better option. There's really on better indicator to an admissions committee of your abilities as a researcher than being able to point to your own publications. In fact, if you're able to do this, your application would almost certainly dominate other students who had not performed research / been published, but had received letters of recommendation from well known faculty.

Two last points that are worth mentioning:

You should assume that letters of recommendation of the form: "This student did well in my class" are essentially useless in a PhD application. These are often called DWIC (Did Well In Class) letters in admissions committee circles, and from my understanding, they are typically completely ignored (the committee already has your transcript, so these letters don't tell them anything they don't already know). On the other hand, a letter of recommendation saying, "This student demonstrated an ability and interest in performing high quality research, and would almost certainly be successful as a PhD student" are very valuable in a PhD application.
As user2390246 mentioned, famous professors often don't have time to work directly with master's students. If this is the case, then you're probably better off working with Professor B. Working directly with a professor is very valuable, as they can fill in background knowledge needed during your research, point you in the right direction based on your interests, and perhaps most importantly, show you how to perform great research by example. Of course, they'll also be able to write a more detailed letter of recommendation for you, as they'll have witnessed your strengths and talents first hand.


PS. I have only been part of the Dutch system for the first 8 years, but I know it pretty well as I know a lot of Dutch people, still I might have made mistakes. If so: apologies.


How many reference letters requests is considered too many?

You haven't asked for too many.  Write to your supervisor, tell him what happened, and ask whether he will write "a few" more reference letters.  People will generally be willing to help you if they understand the reasons for your requests.  (Do not ask for "one more" or you could find yourself in the same situation again.)


How to greet when having a PhD panel interview?

Assuming you're referring to the proper addresses of faculty members at UK institutions, the general form is "Doctor" for faculty members who are Lecturers (known as "assistant professor" in some other countries) or Senior Lecturers (known as "associate professor" in some other countries) and "Professor" for faculty members who are Readers (varies between "associate professor" and "full professor" in other countries) or Professors (known as "Chairs" in some other  countries.  In some UK institutions, the North American standards have been adopted, so it's not completely uniform.

If you're uncertain as to the academic rank of the person, defaulting to "Doctor" will not likely offend.  If someone is introduced as "Professor", then use "Professor" in such cases.

In terms of matters of greeting not related to the proper address of the members, there are no formalities upon entering or leaving that you should be concerned about.  A general "Hello" / "Thank you.  Goodbye" or any variant are perfectly fine.


Does taking courses of various subjects matter in PhD admission?

If you are attending universities outside of the US, you normally wouldn't have much in the way of diversity—almost all of your courses are directed toward the general area of your major. So it's not that big a deal not to have too many outside courses.

In general, though, I also think that admissions committees do not place as much weight on courses outside the major as courses in the major. If you are a physics major, for instance, a C in a US History course is not going to be as problematic as a C in electricity and magnetism.


In this context, "letter of interest" should mean the same thing as "application letter."


Do applicants who are exempted from paying application fees get any other benefits

I've served on a doctoral admissions committee and we were not made aware of these fee waivers or special organization ties unless the individual directly wrote about them in their statements of purpose or resumes.


Co-author wants to remove herself in author list after revisions

It sounds like she withdrew from the paper, but not from the collaboration. In other words she's saying she doesn't trust the results of the paper enough to have her name attached to it, but not that she doesn't trust you. Therefore it doesn't mean the collaboration is over. Besides, if she contributed to your future work at the level of a co-author, she should at least be approached for co-authorship.

In response to her withdrawing from the paper, the best response is probably talking to the other co-authors, if there are any, about how to answer the reviewers' comments. If the consensus "best way" is unacceptable to her and she wants to withdraw anyway, then c'est la vie.


What is a typical retirement pension plan for professors in the United States?

AFAIK, all pensions are calculated basically the same, and I'll use Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia as examples since I'm familiar with them.  In the public system, these are often pooled between all universities and colleges and often with the K-12 system or all public employees.

You have three variables: the eligible salary, the number of years worked, and the multiplier.

The eligible salary is calculated through a variety of methods, but tends to be the average of the highest X years of work over the last Y years.  For example, in Alabama, it's the average of the highest 3 years of the last 10 years.  In Tennessee, it's the average of the highest consecutive 5 years.  In Georgia, it's the average of the two highest consecutive years.

The multiplier is probably the single most important variable, though.  My father, for instance, worked in Alabama, with a 2.0125 multiple.  Let's say for instance his eligible salary was 100k to make the math easy.  If he retired with 10 years of service, he would receive ~20k per year.  With 20 years of service, ~40k, etc.  For me in Tennessee, my multiplier is only 1.5.  If when I retire I have an eligible salary of 100k, with 10 years of service, I'll only make 15k.  With 40 years, I'll make 50k.  (Yeah, my dad got a much better deal, and that's before we talk about the DROP program).  Georgia, for reference, has a 2.0 multiplier.

A minor difference thing to consider are time to vesting (Tennessee is only 5, but Alabama and Georgia are 10), but over an entire career, those don't make much of a difference for overall payout.

Because the ways to calculate the eligible salaries (highest two years really helps folks in departments with rotating chairs), I'm not sure how well one can generalize about the pensions.  One thing for sure is that they tend to be quite decent since you also collect social security benefits.  Anecdotally, for instance, between his pension with 30 years worked, social security and differing retirement tax rules, my dad takes home more now than when he worked.  Plus in academia we tend to be able to work well into old age which really boosts our pension income.

Based on what I've read, private pension funds work the same way, just with ever so slightly different variables.


Creative solutions to convince research dean that I deserve PhD candidature

I think you are focusing on the wrong part of the issue here. Trying to prove your attendance is not going to help you at this stage anymore. Bringing in others like the guest lecturers is only going to make matters worse.

Instead, here is the three main steps I suggest (plus a very important bonus step):

1) Apologize.

As you report having to leave a lecture due to anger after talking to her, I would almost take it for granted that your behaviour was problematic. Apologize. Do not attempt to justify your anger.

2) Express gratitude.

You mention that you feel it. Express it, and be sincere.

3) Detail (maybe in writing) how you have applied the lessons you learned from her.

While Steps 1) and 2) are just plainly proper behaviour, and will hopefully make her want less to fail you, this step is about showing that you actually learned what you were supposed to learn. Really go in depth here. This is the base for your case to be advanced to candidature. Be specific over what you learned and how you used it.

Bonus step: Given the overall dynamics of your story, it is completely unsurprising that the lecturer is female and you are male (that is making an assumption from having a wife that got pregnant). Examine whether you have an issue with female authority (the answer is probably yes), and search for ways to mitigate this. This will probably take you way longer than the two days that you have, but it is going to be a worthwhile endeavour.


How to write an Statement Of Purpose for Masters' in Computer Science given it covers a broad range of topics?

I suggest that you think, and write, more generally. Don't emphasize that you want to learn topic X and Y and Z. Think about why you want to learn this stuff and how you intend to capitalize on that in the future. Think about your career plans (your long-term purpose).
If you have already determined a narrow specialty, which is probably uncommon for a masters applicant, then you can focus somewhat on that, but the why of it all and the future goals are probably more important. It is also more likely that it is that the admissions committee is looking for.
Long term, not so much short term goals.


Can a rejected manuscript be submitted to another Elsevier journal?

In general, when a paper is rejected, you can resubmit it to another journal as soon as you feel you are ready.  There is no minimum waiting time, and it doesn't matter whether both journals have the same publisher or not.

As far as I know, publishers don't generally share information about submissions between journals.  (However, it could happen that the second journal would require you to tell them about any previous places the paper has been submitted.)

In theory some publishers might have special rules, but I've never heard of this.


This is a highly opinion-based question, and difficult to answer. A more suitable question might be, "what are the negative effects of interrupting and how bad are they?". My short answer: you will delay your PhD when compared to a healthy version of yourself not interrupting, but not necessarily compared to your current self continuing. So, the first thing to assess is "will it actually go quicker if I stay, or will I burn out?". The second thing to consider is how bad taking longer on a PhD is. Short answer: not that bad, many students take long, sometimes many years longer. These students still end up with post-PhD work.

Concerns over other PhD students should be cast aside, you are comparing apples to oranges. The other students are presumably psychologically healthy, they do not need a break, whereas you might need a break. The taboo surrounding psychological and similar problems means we, somewhat irrationally, treat the issues differently from other health concerns. But you should address this in the same way as any other serious health issue.


Advisor ill, out all year... how should I proceed?

Your best option, in my opinion, is to discuss it with him. You may need to wait a bit until he feels well enough to think about it, but you really need his advice about how to proceed. He may be able to help you in your current studies, or not. Depending on the illness he may also never return to work. But, if you need to change professors and projects, he can probably help you get started with someone else, and is probably the best person to do that.

If you stay with the current project you will need to prepare for the eventuality that you will have to finish on your own. If that is the outcome, you will need to find resources to make that possible. It might be possible for you to continue yourself or not, depending on many things. But the professor will likely have advice on all of that.

I would advise against just making a decision without such advice. It may be that other professors in your department can give you the best advice about how and when to contact him. Good luck to you both.


Is it reasonable to write the major part of my statement of purpose on machine learning for masters in data science?

Actually, the SOP should look to your future, not the past. Your CV tells what you have already done, so you don't need to repeat that. But if you want to talk about machine learning, talk about how that background applies to your future in data science. If you intend, for example to work at the intersection of the two fields, talk about that.

But in general, you want to convince the admissions people that you have realistic goals and are well suited to achieve them. The main focus should be forward looking, not backward.


You can always compare the length of publication lists, e.g., using Google Scholar, ResearchGate or even your colleagues' homepages.

Summaries of publications and their impact are (attempted to be) provided by the h-index and similar measures. (Impact factors really pertain to journals, not researchers... but indices for researchers may take into account whether the researcher publishes in a low- or high-impact journal.)

There can be, uh, lively discussions about the merits or not of such measures, especially in the context of hiring and remuneration decisions.

One problem with using such measures for short- and medium-term motivation as you propose is the lag between the work and the publication - feedback is far too slow. If you are looking for motivation, you may want to check Productivity.SE.com.


Is it appropriate to apply again for an internship you've previously turned down?

I've been in this situation twice so far in just the last few years, and having to turn someone down who gave you an offer seems...well, downright unpleasant and awkward, doesn't it? I think this is because most of us do not like to receive rejection, and so we feel that saying no is itself unpleasant, and thus we can make the quick assumption that surely the person we said no to will dislike us or bear us ill-will, right?

Here's the funny thing: human behavior almost never actually works this way! It has taken me a long time for me to personally accept that people don't think the way I imagined they did, so I assure you this unpleasantness is completely natural - and something you'll need to get past right away, or it is going to hold you back.

It turns out that most decent people, when offering a job/position/opportunity, genuinely want you to take the best offer, even if they might be a bit disappointed that they couldn't offer you the most compelling option. Most people in positions to offer other people such opportunities have had to tell other people no themselves, and in fact regularly tell people no all the time now. They don't bear anyone ill will for this, and they themselves remember having multiple offers and having to take the subjectively best option at the time.

As a personal anecdote, the first time I recall experiencing this was for a summer internship at a company. I'd received a much higher offer to work somewhere else (nearly double), and I called the first company back and explained that I was very interested in their company, but received a very compelling offer and wondered if they had room to negotiate a bit. They checked, explained they could not for interns, but welcomed me to reapply once I graduate and they promised they'd be able to make a much more compelling offer. I thought they were being polite and would never seriously consider me again, but their corporate recruiter contacted me multiple times over the next few years to see if I might be interested in working with them. I had it happen again in a research position, where again the people I turned down seemed keen on trying to recruit me again!

It turns out that not only do reasonably people understand if you take a more compelling offer (especially if they consider the other offer impressive!), but the fact that you had the other offer - and how politely and sincerely you handled turning them down last time - reflects very well on you, and sometimes you'll find they end up liking you and wanting to recruit you even more! Not all the time, surely - but I've had it happen more times than I had the reverse occur. People who have a lot of options are desirable for lots of reasons, and the funny thing about being desirable is that a genuine expression of interest from you in them and their program is a far more valuable compliment than from someone who is deemed "less in-demand". They know you can afford to be picky, and that's often a desirable trait in any recruiting effort.

So by all means, it is absolutely appropriate to reapply - go for it! Be sincere, and if you feel like it you can even express how you hated to be unable to accept their offer last time, and would very much like to work with them. One caveat, though - this will only work so many times. If you decline them again and again, that's going to get old for just about anyone, so I'd suggest you be reasonably sure you actually want to work for them, or otherwise you're just stringing them along.


Should an Editorial be considered as a regular paper in CV, or should it be put in another section?

I am editing an ISI listed journal and have also noticed that the editorials I or others write end up as if they were regular publications and obtain citations. I do not think they should be considered as such but believe it simply is a flaw in the system. The persons entering data or who made the system that scans published papers simply cannot distinguish between editorials and papers, despite the word "Editorial:" occurring in the title of such contributions in "my" journal. Since these editorials are not reviewed by others than the editors-in chief (in my case) they are not fully peer reviewed and would definitely not pass a regular review since they were never intended as journal articles.

So, do one want to put an editorial "paper" in the CV? I do not think it belongs under the heading of papers published in refereed journals. But, having written an editorial means you have been instrumental to produce a thematic journal issue and so you can list it in conjunction with "meriting academic missions" (or whatever you might call it). It will represent the journal issue and the work done there which, in my opinion, is probably worth more than a paper. The fact that it might also be cited can be taken as indicating interest in the jorunal issue that you have summarized in the editorial, but should be kept separate from regular papers.

I should add as a final note that the key for me is whether or not the contribution has been properly peer reviewed. I doubt many editorial receive proper peer review.


Chair Offers COVID-19 Compensation... But Asks ME to Put Out a Number

There are really two parts to the Chair's question:

How much additional work have you had to do so far? What additional work do you anticipate going forward? Are there any time savings that should also go into the calculation?
What is the appropriate renumeration for that work?

You should be able to estimate the answer to (1), and explain where the number comes from. You should certainly include this information in your response to the chair. Then, as in the answer by @Allure, you can propose that they pay you for the additional time at (broadly) the same rate as you usually expect to get. For example,

  Hello,

  I estimate that I've had to spend 80 hours preparing new material, and
  there will be an additional 4 hours work each week going forward.
  However, I'm saving an hour on travelling between campuses. Assuming
  this continues for the next 12 weeks, we're looking at something like
  120 hours additional work. I think my usual salary works out at around
  $30/hour.

  Thanks,
  Mndifldz

Note that all you have done here is state facts, so there is nothing anyone can criticise you for. You leave it up to the chair to do the maths, and decide what they can afford to offer. However, you lead them towards a number that (hopefully) you think is fair.


Why do some academic papers have sentence-cased titles?

Many journals prefer sentence-case to title-case - in this case, a quick glance at the contents list for that particular journal shows they use sentence case for all titles. Neither is "proper" or "correct" in all circumstances.

If you are trying to conform to a particular style, check if it has guidelines on preferred capitalisation for citations. For example, the ACS style guide recommends:

  In [articles from] ACS journals, capitalization follows that of the original publication;
  in other publications, the main words are capitalized

If there is no firm guidance in your particular style, then you can either leave them in the original capitalisation, or standardise them all in whichever form you prefer. (Personally, I default to sentence case...)


Where should you mention the name of potential mentor in research statement when applying for a post doc?

Your research statement should probably mention the new potential mentor's name in the context in which his research interests align with yours. So give a bit more than just the statement that he has agreed to mentor you. In other words, say why it would be a good plan for you to work with him.

As to having your previous advisor give you advice on your research statement, there is no ethical concern at all. It is natural for you to continue to seek professional advice from your doctoral advisor. Your relationship doesn't break when you finish your degree. It changes a bit, as you become his colleague in the field, rather than his student.


How to cite a complex web-based resource?

If a resource tells you how it wants to be cited, cite it that way.


What's the difference between "research grant" and "fellowship" ? (what to choose for a postdoc?)

Not sure what country you are in, but the usual difference between fellowship and grant funding in the UK is eligibility.

A fellowship is for somebody who does not yet have an academic position (that is, they are not a lecturer with an ongoing job). The fellowship supports them to do research that they choose and usually has a strong element of mentorship and other development.

On the other hand, a grant is for someone who already has an academic position and will lead the research. The academic wins the grant and then hires postdocs to conduct the research. The postdocs hired do not get to choose their research topic.


Offering of a grad class rescinded for incomprehensible reason

Look, the thing with these kinds of questions is that process varies significantly from institution to institution based on their regulations, bylaws, etc.  I actually agree with the instructor's decision, even though the email is unprofessional.  It is usually not allowed for a student to take a course in which they have not yet completed the prerequisite for that course.

Having said this, there may be a solution.  In many institutions, exceptions like these are handled by a specific entity such as the Faculty Council, the Department Council, the Vice-Dean for Undergraduate Studies, the Vice-Dean for Graduate Studies, the Faculty Dean, etc. Since I don't know your institution, I can't begin to say which one of these would be the proper route to take, but typically a request or a petition could be sent to the responsible body, and they would then study it and make a decision based on your unique circumstances.

My advice in this situation would not be to get upset, nor to talk about how the reason was "incomprehensible" or anything along these lines.  I would say you that you should write a letter/email/petition to whomever is responsible in your faculty and ask that an exception can be made based on the circumstances and situation that you pointed out in your question.  Talking with the instructor of the Math 311 course probably won't help because technically, the professor of the Grad course is simply following proper university procedures and guidelines. if you are close with the instructor of the Grad course that you want to take and are familiar with him, I would say that you should talk to him in person, and ask him about what the official channels would be for getting this exception and see if he would support you in this.

Don't attack. Don't accuse. Don't get upset. Just try to find out the solution that complies with all relevant bylaws and regulations.  That is my humble advice.


Is it possible to work on independent research project with a professor from previous university?

You can work with anyone you like who will also work with you, so yes. Whether the paper can be published depends on the journal editor and reviewers, which depends, in turn, on the quality and novelty of the paper.

There are no real barriers to doing research. There are no real barriers (maybe a bit of money is needed) for submitting a paper. In particular, affiliation with an academic institution is not a prerequisite for publishing papers.

Nike said it best. Just Do It.

Additionally, some research experience now will enhance your application later and will keep you mentally engaged. A productive gap is much better than the alternative.


Placing a paper under review on my website?

The answer depends critically on your field: you need to talk to your advisor and find out what the general policy is.  Three examples along the spectrum of radically different possibilities:

In mathematics, theoretical physics and theoretical computer science, papers under review are circulated publicly long before being published.  This practice is a key motivator behind arXiv.
On the more empirical/applied side of computer science, making a paper under review publicly available wouldn't be a problem except in case of double-blind review, but would generally be considered rather gauche.  Circulating privately in advance, on the other hand, is quite accepted.
Many biology journals aim to tightly control the timing and release of information. In many cases, posting a paper under review could actually be considered prior publication, and result in the paper being disqualified as a submission and automatically rejected.

Find out which are the practices of your field and follow them.


how to recall a request for recommendation letter from professor

Why not just write what you just did?

  Dear Professor X,
  A while ago we talked about whether you would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me. I have given this some more thought and have decided, instead of going to graduate school, to try to find a job in industry instead in order to get more work experience. For the time being, at least, I will therefore not need your letter after all, though I appreciate your willingness to provide one. I might come back to your offer at a later time if I decide to go back to graduate school!
  Sincerely, Y


Is it appropriate to ask for a pay raise as an adjunct professor with a Master's degree?

There are myriad factors that go into pay rates, but the bottom line with this or any job is your pay should reflect what you bring to the table.  Sounds to me like you have a rarified skill that is in demand in this specific instance so yes, absolutely, ask for a pay increase.  Politely, sweetly, and prepared to hear "no."


What is the correct way to write a follow-up email in case the first one ended up in spam folder?

Do not send a duplicate email. Send a follow-up email, with the previous one at the bottom ("several weeks" is already long enough without even an acknowledgement of receipt). Send it from your other address without mentioning the spam issue.
If your email was indeed lost to a filter, this resurrects it, without being an annoyance in the opposite case. Out of the 1% of people who will notice the different sender address (assuming the name you configured to appear is the same in both accounts), 90% will not care and 9% will guess why.
(If you are not sure how to write that follow-up email, it is a different question, that likely has many duplicates at workplace.se).