What happens to unproductive professors?

This depends on a lot of things, including how you define productive. I think you mean "produces publications", but there are other definitions. In particular, some professor who hasn't done a lot of recent research, but is otherwise well known, might, on the basis of letters of recommendation, send a lot of undergraduates to great doctoral programs. That would be highly valued in some institutions, especially small ones. In some other places, grants received, measured in dollars/euros/krona/yen/..., is the main measure of productivity.

While there are many (many) exceptions to the following, in general, assuming this is the US, an Assistant Professor who isn't productive won't get tenure and will likely not advance in an academic career. A tenured Associate Professor won't be advanced to Full Professor and will receive only minimal raises over the remaining career. S/he might be a bit ostracized by colleagues, but that depends on other aspects of "productivity". A Full Professor will probably only get minimal raises, but might be able to use such things as textbook revenues or consulting to supplement a relatively poor salary.

My experience was mostly in Professional, not R1, universities. Where I worked we had a sensible system in which a Professor (even a Full Professor) was evaluated each year. The professor was allowed to set the terms of the evaluation, within limits. The stated "things of value" were Research, Teaching, and Service. Different universities will value these differently at different times and an individual can also value them differently as their career progresses.

But the process might work like this: The professor writes an annual dossier in which s/he comments on contributions to the main criteria, and others if desired. This dossier is a few pages and lists papers and conference talks, grants, professional contributions (conference chair...). It discusses contributions to teaching, such as courses developed or improved. It also discusses, as appropriate, service to the university, its students, and the general community. The dossier can also include a suggested plan for the coming year mentioning each category.

Then, after the dossier is submitted, someone, such as the Dean, reviews the dossier and comments on it. Some of the comments are laudatory and others point out places where the "contributions" are less valuable as seen by the university at that moment. The reviewer will also suggest a plan for improvement, if necessary, that becomes an expectation for the following year. For a tenured professor, the job itself isn't in jeopardy, but the level of compensation normally is. But the university also sets ranges of possible changes in compensation and the bottom is normally greater than zero. Actual reductions in salary would be rare, and possibly illegal. But inflation catches up pretty quickly if your salary is stagnant.

I consider this to be a reasonable evaluation plan. In an R1 university using such a plan, research would be the category most valued and most weighted by the reviewer who looks at the dossier. In a teaching university or college, Research would be expected, but at a lower level and teaching and service to students (especially) would be more highly valued.

But the beauty of the system is that an individual initiates the evaluation and can establish their own "most valued" contribution and, while it can't ignore the value system of the university, need not adhere to it absolutely. For a university, even an R1 university, it isn't necessary that everyone treat research as the most important thing at every point of the career. There are other things of value and other sorts of valued contributions. Carl Sagan, for example, may not have done a lot of research in later years, but was highly valued by Cornell and others. It is enough, for the university, that all of its goals are met and that overall, there is a good balance (as defined by the university) between the valued elements.

In fact, it is possible that a Dean in trying to optimize something like research contribution at a micro level, actually sub-optimizes it at a macro level, creating an unhappy and unproductive environment.

Of course, some people get lazy as they grow older. But if you have a valued position at any kind of university it is probably true that your personal goals align pretty well with those of the university. You do what you love to do and it is just about what the university wants to see done. So there is a lot of personal drive, even inertia, to keep doing that. If you've been doing research since forever it is likely that you love it and want to continue doing it. For many people, it is harder to get them to stop than it is to get them to do more.


Not every university demands such a declaration (e.g., stating that it is your own work, and all external sources have been properly cited, referenced, and acknowledged). I had one in my master thesis, but not in my PhD thesis (performed at a different university). Just follow the university rules. If they demand a declaration, then typically there is a verbatim text that you have to put in.

If your university does not prescribe where it should come, but does demand that you have a declaration, then you are free to put it anywhere. It is, however, wise to follow the convention of your university, and put it where others have put it. As @scaaahu indicated, you can go to the library and look what others did.

(Btw, I have seen it typically somewhere at the beginning.)


Should I accept suggestion to move my name to the front in a field where authorship is usually alphabetical?

I think you should be honored and flattered by your professor's suggestion. He/she thinks you deserve a larger share of the credit for the paper and is trying to help you get that credit.

Your concern about the CV/publication list is somewhat valid, but there is a simple way to address that issue. In your publication list, put a small asterisk next to the paper in question, accompanied by a footnote saying: "For this publication my coauthors agreed to name me first author as credit for my contributions. In all other publications my name appears in alphabetical order, as is the custom in my discipline and indicating roughly equal contributions from all coauthors."

Of course, adding such a footnote is a bit tedious and awkward, and the benefit you will get from being first author may not be very large. Perhaps you may conclude that it's not worth the hassle. Or you may feel it could distract people looking at your CV from other things about you that you feel are more important. Or you may think this is just too trivial an issue to care about. All of those would be completely reasonable reasons not to accept the offer. But there would certainly be nothing wrong with accepting it.


Is it considered unethical to pay participants differently based on some quality?

I don’t see on what grounds anyone could regard this as unethical, but one might legitimately wonder whether paying the two groups of participants unequally might inadvertently create a bias that would compromise the integrity of your conclusions. After all, your research is presumably premised on the assumption that the participants from the two groups are both fairly typical representatives of those groups. But if you pay participants from one group $10 and those from the other (for argument’s sake) $5000, the participants you’re likely to get in both groups might differ in some ways that you didn’t expect - for example, the lower-paid participants might be people who are more motivated by an altruistic desire to help scientific research than the higher-paid participants

Whether this is a genuine concern or not depends on the difference in the pay and on the precise nature of your study, but it’s something to think about.


Loss of motivation to do either academia or industry. Wasting days and feeling lost. Any advice?

Sounds like burn out. Take a vacation. Do something fun and not work.

These sorts of feelings are pretty common for someone completing an advanced degree. But in most cases the feeling doesn't last unless you continue to add stress.

In many cases it is worth seeing a counselor.

But your current activities are probably too related to work to allow for stress reduction.


Peer review: how to deal with a paper based on an already published work whose validity to the reviewer is uncertain

From what you have written, it seems that you have determined fairly clearly that the results of Paper A are conditionally correct.  That is something that is clearly worth reporting in your review.  You're also dubious about Paper B, which is also clearly worth reporting, even if you have no solid evidence that it is wrong.

I think there is one further question that is worth making a clear statement on: are the results of Paper A interesting as a conditional conjecture, or are they only interesting if Paper B is solid?  For some problems, work based on the consequences of a result is interesting even if the result itself is not solid: famous examples include the Riemann hypothesis and P vs. NP.  Paper B is almost certainly not so significant as these, but it still may be interesting---or it may not be.

I would thus recommend reporting what you have written here, plus your assessment of how interesting Paper A is given the conditionality on Paper B.  This should give the editor sufficient information to proceed.


Can I get a letter of recommendation from a professor who didn't teach me BUT I did research with?

The point of a letter of recommendation is for the receiving party to obtain third-party verification that you are, indeed, awesome. Generally speaking, people like to receive letters from individuals who know you well professionally. In most cases, teachers cannot write good letters, as they only know you as a face in the class, and never really got to know your work ethic, personality, and capabilities. A research advisor would be able to comment on all those things, and would be able to write a much stronger letter.


Should I inform my professor of a very recent paper vaguely related to his research?

Yes, send it. We all like to get links to papers we might have missed. I would leave out the "breakthrough" part. He may have seen it (or even reviewed it), but there is no harm in sending it along to either him or his entire research group.


Should a special issue follow the regular frequency of the journal or separately?

Both ways are possible, but usually they are called differently. If the issue is replacing a regular issue, it is called special issue.

If the issue is added to the standard set of issues, making an extra one, it is usually called supplement. And even here the conventions differ; some supplements are published with a regular issue, and some are published separately. Most often, they are numbered as 1S, 1A or alike, but form an integral part of the volume.


My experience is that emails are far less effective than face-to-face interactions. If you are at the point that an email is all you can do because the relationship is dysfunctional and you just want to get out of there, then a simple statement acknowledging the validity of the approach in general but not in this domain, with the reminder that you need to graduate in a bit, would do the trick. Your advisors have no interest in needlessly prolonging your PhD (at least unless they have a serious grudge against you).

Dear X

Thank you for suggesting method Y. I think it's a potentially useful approach that I am happy to explore in detail; however, it would seem that prior work indicates that the approach may not be as effective as we believe in domain Z (see attached PDF of the study by Alice and Bob Smith on the topic). I will be happy to add a discussion on this to the thesis (in the relevant section), but I do not believe that running a detailed analysis will yield fruitful results given the current state of the art.

Given that I have to submit my thesis in 6 months, I think that the best course of action would be to focus on the results we have now, rather than expanding in new, potentially unproductive, directions.

Regards

Maryam


Is it a bad idea to express my personal feelings about the subject when writing email to a professor for PhD application?

To express that you are motivated is  a good thing. The difficulty is getting the "tone" right. This is in part a cultural problem. If you are not German and you happen to know someone who is, then you could ask her or him to read your letter and see if you get the right message across. It would be even better if that person is also from the same discipline, as cultures also tend to differ between disciplines.

In general I would keep this part short and to the point. If you have a specific reason why this is your dream (and it is not too personal) than it might help to mention that.


Taking a year off from Master program due to severe injury and doing online courses as I am not fit for work.(Future Prospects)

Your future is impossible to predict. But online courses, under the given circumstances seem to be a positive thing, indicating that you are keeping engaged with your studies. But use them well. Remember that just seeing lectures isn't the same as learning. Good online courses will provide ways for you to reinforce the learning (exercises). The best will find a way to give you individual feedback on your work, just as would occur in a face-to-face course.

But, I think your primary current responsibility is to regain your health, which will make all things possible.

The people for which gaps are a problem are those who have no reason for it other than lack of focus and commitment. You don't have any issues like that. Good luck and good health.


Studying for mathematics comprehensive exams

Going through problems on old exams will give you some idea of the kinds of questions that are used in these exams, but the committees that write these exams will change over time.  This means that very old exams might not be representative of what you'll be given this year.  Even if you focus on more recent exams, the committee might have changed and you could well get an exam that looks very different from last year's exam.

In any case, solving problems from previous exams should not be the only way in which you study.  You should also take time to review the subject and consolidate your understanding of key concepts, definitions, formulas, and theorems.

In my experience of grading these exams, I've seen that students who have difficulty typically fail for one of the following reasons:

Not knowing some required definition or theorem.  If a question is of the form "Show that A has the Frobnitz property" and you don't know what the Frobnitz property is, you simply won't be able to answer that question.  You can avoid this by having read broadly on the subject and by making sure that you have committed important definitions and theorems to memory.
Not having good problem solving skills.  Although doing old comprehensive exam problems will certainly help with this, doing problems from many sources is likely to be just as helpful.  The key here is to focus on solving hard problems that may involve several non-obvious steps rather than the trivial exercises that fill many textbooks.  Keep in mind that with a textbook you've been given a lot of context- if the problem appears in the chapter on contour integration than you can assume that the problem involves contour integration.  This won't be true of the problems on your comprehensive exam.
Poorly written solutions.  Sloppy logic in the solution to a homework problem might get substantial partial credit in an undergraduate class.  In a comprehensive exam this is much less likely to happen.  You need to give precise and rigorous solutions that cover all aspects of the problem, and there is no room for arithmetic or algebra errors.  The difficulty in preparing for this is that you need someone competent to critique your solutions.  If you have a study partner, I would suggest that you pick some problems to solve separately and then grade each other's solutions critically.   If you find that you're making seemingly minor mistakes but usually have the basic idea for a correct solution, this is an indication that you need to check your work more carefully.


How much can a one really bad semester destroy my chances for MS in the top US/Canada Schools?

Several points.
First of all - yes. You should definitely mention it. If there is a separate personal statement than that is the place. Often the first cutoff is mostly based on GPA and GRE. So mention it early, be concise, avoid any temptation of trying to gain sympathy (many have some difficulties along the way), and explain how you overcame that personal hardship.

It is what it is and you cannot change it. So chin up and forward march. Try to polish whatever you can polish. I you have a publication in a decent venue and good LOR's, it might cover for GPA issues any way. If your LORs are 'decent' and that is not modesty, I might start from there.

Good luck!


Resume Question: How do you put mastering out of PhD on resume?

My suggestion is to list the degrees you have earned. You don't need to list or mention the ones you haven't.

But be prepared to be honest in any interview in which you are asked. There are a lot of reasons for leaving any degree program.

In any application process stress the skills you have and your suitability for the position.


Is re-taking a course seen negatively in PhD applications?

I doubt that it would be seen negatively by most reviewers, but who can speak for everyone. It shows some evidence of seriousness.
But it might not be necessary, in fact, especially if this is for application to a US institution where the acceptance is based on an overall assessment of the likelihood of success without individual small things having much effect. If you have letters of recommendation predicting your success then it probably isn't necessary to retake the course.
But the "hardest and most useful" comment suggests that it might be worth it.
But if you are ready to make application now and the course would delay that, then there is no reason you can't do both. Send off a few applications and also register for the course.

Caveat: In France things might be different, especially if you have a masters and not just a bachelors. But in the US you would likely have an opportunity to learn the required material as part of early doctoral studies.


In conference review process, what do "author response" and "author notification" mean?

It has to be a conference with a rebuttal phase, where the authors can answer the main points raised by the reviewers, who in turn will be able to draw more conclusive remarks on the paper itself

see also here: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mckinley/notes/blind.html


Is it possible to make minor (making a space between two words) proof corrections after already submitting a proof reading to a journal?

Email the production editor as soon as possible that you've found this extra correction. If it's still not inconvenient for them, they'll probably fix it. However, because it's such a minor error, you should be ready for them to say "it's too late" as well. This probably won't lead to an errata or corrigendum - it's just too minor.

If your previous reading had contained lots and lots of corrections, it's possible they're already planning to send you a set of second proofs.


Publish more in less cited journals, or publish less in more cited journals?

Actually, high impact journals get that way from the quality of the papers in them, not the other way around. So, I'd suggest that you look at it a bit differently.

Write as much as you can based on your research. Make the papers as high quality as you are able, with new and interesting results.

Publish them in the "best" journals that will accept them, but "best" means the most appropriate for the subject matter as much as anything.

If you get rejected somewhere, revise and send the paper out again, perhaps to a less prestigious journal.

Over time you will have a "mixed" portfolio. But you will have a good portfolio if you keep at it.

Keep a lot of irons in the fire. You will probably spend the bulk of your effort at one project at a time, but keep notes on other ideas that arise along the way and outline new potential publications as you have the time. If you get stuck on your main project, pick up one of the others.

No, the answer doesn't change. In fact it is the way to get, successfully, to the later stage.


How does a petty marijuana possession charge affect graduate admissions in math?

Do applications for a PhD in math ask about petty charges like this? I know some ask about felonies and convictions, but that doesn't apply here. I know if I were applying for law school or medical school, my situation would be very different.

No. The part of the application that faculty look at has nothing remotely like this.  If you apply to a public university there may be a portion of the application which is run through the university itself, so there is some chance that you might be asked about felonies. But as you say, you have not even been charged with a crime.  You would have to be asked something extremely specific in order to have divulge this: e.g. "Do you have any pending fines for possession of drugs?" I've never heard of such a question asked in any context.

  How badly will this affect my application should this show up in a preliminary background check? Do math graduate programs even do background checks?

No, math (and other "arts and sciences") graduate programs do not do background checks, so far as I know [I was involved with graduate admissions at my program for several years].  Assuming that this information were disclosed to the faculty: well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but to me this sounds roughly comparable to a moving violation in terms of its legal and moral seriousness.  In fact, some kinds of moving violations present a potential or actual danger to others; possessing marijuana really doesn't.  I would put it squarely into the "Don't worry about it" category.


Should I have undergraduate class papers on ResearchGate?

From experience, both as a member of ResearchGate and as a postgraduate, I would say the main question is more about worth than about acceptability.

Sounds like you did the right thing when you posted these papers the first time, with characterizing them as undergraduate works, therefore managing expectations.

You feel these papers may be of interest to others; fair enough. Statistics of opens and reads, and any message you get about them could be a good indication of how worthy they are to peers. If nobody gets to see them, you might as well keep them to yourself.

Over 100 reads for an undergraduate paper sounds rather cool, and might give you an interesting clue about the popularity of your paper topic, and might encourage you to work further around the same topic for further research and papers.


How should I frame my transition from an unsafe situation as I apply to other universities, pre-tenure?

Your personal circumstances should not affect your attractiveness as a candidate.
People move for personal reasons all the time: spouses getting better jobs elsewhere, proximity to better medical care or schools for their kids, less taxes, affordable housing, or because the weather sucks where they are now (shoutout to the British Isles!).
This question may arise in personal conversations when you interview, but should not be a factor (or even mentioned) in your application materials.
If your department head is supportive and your move is motivated purely by personal reasons, then you should have them write a letter.
I would advise against getting into details that may present your current institution in a negative light. Interviewers like candidates who present themselves as team players. Statements like “the university put me in a situation that threatened my health” may come across badly. Try to word it a bit more gently: “I heard that prospective institute name has excellent healthcare and this is a factor in my decision”.
Good luck!


How to deal with non-reproducible research?

R crashing

  errors in R code rarely cause the session itself to crash; usually they result in an error message, which one may easily find the source of

yes. There are a few situations where session crashes are more probable:

with compiled code and
libraries installed on the system (as opposed to R packages) which are incompatible across versions/OS boundaries
particularly libraries that are "close" to the OS (I've had trouble in the past with interactive graphics across OS boundaries Linux vs. MacOS vs. Windows)

Thus, if the lines in question can (easily) be replaced by equivalent (though maybe slower or more memory conuming) R code, the crash may be avoided and the scientific merits of the model may be evaluated.
We may have an example here of the famous "premature optimization is the root of all evil".

Amount of cooperation to be expected?

As author and maintainer of scientific/academic software packages I certainly appreciate bug reports etc. I even more appreciate bug fixes, btw.

However, I also have only limited resources available to maintain such software, and the longer back the publication was, typically the less resources (e.g. new employer is not willing for their staff to maintain projects at former universities) are standing agaist increased maintenance requirements. (Probably less of a problem here as the paper is quite recent compared to some code that was developed years and years back)

Please also have a look at Why do many talented scientists write horrible software?

The authors may be seeing the publication of the code as them being extremely nice in giving the public not only the abstract description of the model but even an example of an implementation.
In fact, they may even have had an uphill fight to get permission to publish their code under an open license (I've been in the situation of not being permitted to do this by an academic research institution.)

Of course it would be much nicer if they had written more rugged code in the first place or would now help you debug. But you don't have any kind of hard right to their time.
I'm chemist and we sometimes have lab procedures that are difficult to describe in such detail that another lab with somewhat different conditions is [easily] able to reproduce them. Thus, people visit other labs to learn their techniques - this means a whole lot of effort for both sides and IMHO that needs to be appreciated. Similarly, I appreciate if a package maintainer does put in the time to deal with my bug report. And in consequence, I try to make it as easy as possible for them.

There may be a mismatch in software development ability/possibilities here: guessing from the crashes that their code isn't at the highest level of robustness and that you didn't find them using continuous integration etc. vs. you providing them with a Singularity container: they may not know how to use that or may not have the possibility to use it or may not be willing to put in the time to get that particular virtual machine up and running.

I may add that in many places (including universities and research institutes) there is in addition daunting burocracy to get the IT department to install further software on their machines (and they are the only ones with installation rights). I teach for the carpentries and it is not unusual to find course participants do not have the necessary software for this reason - even if they are officially sent to the course.

You may get further if you ask them whether they do have the ressources to resolve the issue with your help and how you can help resolving the issue.

Misconduct?

  I do not feel that this amounts to research misconduct

No, it isn't misconduct - it's just that the situation could be nicer.

It would be academic misconduct if the code at the time of writing and submitting their publication on the authors' machines had not produced the results described (incl. crashing and not producing any results).

In contrast,

writing code that is not portable or
fragile in the sense that it is quite likely to break when its surroundings (OS, interpreter, dependencies) evolve and
abandonware

are not scientific misconduct even if it is not "best programming practice".

Trust in their results?

That's a difficult one.

On the one hand, with the possible exception of computer science, the scientific ability of the authors may be quite uncorrelated to their software development abilities (see linked answers above)
On the other hand, if their software doesn't calculate what they think (claim) it does, then also the scientific content may be compromised.

For the case in question:

I tend to think that crashes (or stopping with an error message) are often relatively harmless in terms of scientific integrity of the paper. Short of blatant misconduct (claiming results that weren't obtained) this points to the code not being robust/maintained in an evolving environment (or data/formatting subteties) and not necessarily an incorrect implementation on their system.
I'd be more concerned about the lack of unit tests confirming the results of calculations that actually run through: statistics offers lots of possibilities to have logical error which lead to wrong but often even plausible numbers. That's what is scary to me...

What to do

Be extremely nice to them.
In many fields, it is not (yet) standard to publish code at all. They did you a favor in giving you an implementation that presumably works on their machine. In fact, as long as it takes you less time to fix & test their package than to write & test your own implementation of their paper, you have a net gain!

I don't want to insinuate that you are not nice to them.

However, my experience of some 10 years as (more or less active according to the ressources described above) maintainer of an R package is that the majority of help requests is answered with RTFM and many bug reports do not provide a minimal working example that I can reproduce and there are a few insistent and obnoxious help requests that suck up your time like a black hole because they try to offload the time they should put into learning R onto you package maintainer. While I try hard to treat all requests in a professional, friendly and timely manner, I also sometimes fail in that (most often fail is: timely). (And I have to say that those bad experiences are offset by also receiving extremely well written issue reports, sometimes with immediately usable pull requests and finding online contributors whom I'd otherwise never have known and even occasional "thank you for this package" emails. But there's a whole lot of truth to bad interactions producing far more impression than good interactions.)
You may just have had the bad luck to happen to be the one after a couple of toxic requests and/or may have inadvertendly triggered such an alarm with the authors.
Again while that is not the ideal interaction, you best bet to get the issue resolved is to be so supernice as to convince the authors that not all interactions on the internet are bad... Gives you good karma, too.
Encourage collaboration and make it easy for them: do put in the time to dig into those lines for debugging. Or write an R workaround and ask them to be so kind as to review your suggested changes.
In order to get the code up and running, ask them whether they can provide you a sessionInfo () of their system and the versions of the relevant underlying libraries. The logical step after you trying several configurations that didn't work is to try and get a reproduction of "their" system to work.
Of course, it is completely fine if you decide to stop sinking time into a not-so-well designed package and either

write your own implementation of the model described in their paper, or even
completely abandon that model if you distrust the science behind it.


Mentioning non-academic pre-PhD work on one’s website?

Your professional website should reflect your professional identity.  That obviously includes all of your scientific work, but may also include other aspects of your life that you choose to share broadly with colleagues.  For example, some people put bits of their hobbies or family life on their page; others (like myself) choose not to do so.

If your political involvement is something that you feel is relevant and that you want your possible future colleagues to be aware of, then by all means keep it on there.  If you feel it is likely to be distracting (e.g., you were campaign manager for a famously corrupt and now-indicted politician) then removing it might be better.


My CS teacher thinks I'm cheating for some reason, what do I say?

You seem to have done exactly the right thing, explaining your work. Just keep insisting that you didn't cheat. It isn't your job to prove your innocence.
And no, there is nothing wrong about learning things other than what has appeared already in lectures.
I'll guess that the professor had an idea about what answers "should be" based on the current point in the course and didn't anticipate using tools not yet introduced. But unless there are clear instructions to the contrary, there is nothing wrong with using what you know.
If you are really accused, then next steps might be to see a student support office or escalate to the department head. But hopefully it won't come to that.


How to reference the official oracle documentation?

Abstract concepts such as datetime or longs are generally not attributed to Oracle or similar companies, if anything you should cite an earlier work that discusses and introduces the concepts. The earliest mention that I know that introduces most of these concepts that are used in many (if not all) modern databases and programming languages derive from C, it even introduced us to the Hello World concept. Therefore a good reference would be:

  Kernighan, B. W., & Ritchie, D. M. (1978). The C programming language.
  Prentice-Hall, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA (ISBN: 0-13-110163-3).

Co-incidentally, according to Google Scholar this work has been referenced 8000+ times as of the 4th of December, 2018.

PS: There may be earlier references of specific datatypes, but I argue that no other work has brought them all together in one place before the work of Kernighan and Ritchie.


I think the reason ResearcherID is sometimes used on CV's is because it's a quick way to link to (and host centrally) your publication list as well as bibliometric information (h-index, number of citations, etc.). I also see people use Google Scholar as an alternative service for that, although the quality of citation data is not as good.

For LinkedIn, it may be field-dependent. I see a large number of people around me (chemical engineering, both academic and industrial) semi-actively using it, i.e. maintaining a network of peers and getting the occasional introduction/reference through it. I do not often see it used in CV's, however. It is clearly used for networking.

ResearchGate, as you stated, is neither here nor there. It's not very widely used yet, and rather aims to be a "Facebook for researchers": it is centered around papers, comments and discussion. While it can be used to host a publication list, the metrics it offers access to are not commonly used and, one must say, rather opaque. I think that's why it has little value to add to a CV.


Professor and Class Laughed When Asking About Overflow In Project. Did I do something wrong?

Assuming that there are no missing information on the situation:

Your question does make perfect sense. Overflows are a serious flaw that can lead to security problems, not a laughing matter.

However, I can see myself leading the students to an overflow as motivation to explain how to deal with them, that might include answering your question with the same words your professor used (to not disrupt the 'plan' for the topic - Indeed, I did that a couple of times already).

This would not, however, include me laughing (a smirk maybe), and I would certainly not tolerate that reaction from your colleagues, which would lead me to reveal what I was planning and that your question was not only valid, but the point of the whole thing.

Ignore the reaction of the class. Herd mentality... As if they knew any better :)

On a side note, who teaches visual basic nowadays? :)


Is it appropriate to ask a Professor to write a recommendation letter for applying to another university?

Yes!

In fact, it would be inappropriate not to ask at least one professor at your current university for a reference letter, as direct evidence of your success.


If you can be open with your formal supervisor about the "personal problem" s/he has with you, you could simply ask, "I am interested in pursuing a PhD. I know that we have disagreed about XYZ and so I wanted to ask you if you believe you could write me a fair recommendation."

Note, that this is still risky - the supervisor can write a bland recommendation (which holds little weight) or agree to write it and write a bad one anyway.

What about the director of the program you attended? That could be weighed more favorably. Other faculty members? My PhD dissertation chair never wrote recommendations for anyone, so I never even asked him (we never had a falling out or anything, it was just his personal policy). It never hurt my chances of jobs or other things because I had other faculty and references write litters for me instead.

Good luck!


Got rejected with limited scientific validity

You write:

  The topic is regarding the development of a numerical code where I compare the results with the theoretically expected ones. Therefore I do not solve a problem but show that the numerical code works,

The question then becomes from the perspective of a reviewer: What is it about the paper that is novel? If I understand the quote above correctly, then (i) the numerical method you use is not new, (ii) there already exists some theoretical analysis of the method, and (iii) the problem you are solving is also already known. So this sounds like you implemented a code that can solve this problem and produced numerical results. But this is not new in itself -- other people have likely done this before, and unless your paper is about the technical details of this implementation and how they differ from how other people have implemented these algorithms, there really isn't anything new in your paper.

As a consequence, it seems entirely reasonable to me that your paper was rejected: Just doing what others have done before is not science.


This is how I usually see students present education and work in progress:

  Bachelor of Science, expected December 2019

  University of State

  Major: Physics

  Senior Thesis: "Reflection of bivariate light distributions" (Expected completion July 2019).
  Major GPA 3.78/4.00

  Minor: Greek History

Using the "expected" tag is usually an indicator that the work/degree is not yet completed, but is in progress. If the project lead has further questions he/she can ask you about your work in more detail. They likely are perfectly aware that you have not completed everything for the degree. People apply for jobs all the time under the premise of expected education/projects.


How should I respond to a professor's email following up on an offer of admission?

Well, the potential supervisor explicitly mentions "Please let me know if you have any questions about living and studying here in xxx"...just email him/her if you have any such questions. If you are waiting for offers/rejections, I think a polite reply stating the same would be alright.

If you are excited to work with him/her because of reasons X,Y,Z, just mention them in the email. In any case, it is highly likely that the potential supervisor understands your position (of waiting for all offers).


Is a Master's degree in Europe valid for a teaching career in the USA?

The short answer is that your EU Master's degree would typically be about as useful as a US Master's degree in your subject area, which is not very helpful by itself.

Most of the requirements to be licensed as a teacher in most states in the US have more to do with what training you've had in education rather than your subject matter expertise.

A further important point is that if you aren't already a US citizen and unless you can immigrate to the US through some other pathway (e.g. by being married to a US citizen) you'll find that it is difficult if not impossible to get work authorization to teach in a school in the US.


Is it generally accepted to take months off (unpaid) during a PhD?

This is almost completely dependent on two things:

Your departmental policies and program structure
Your advisor

In the US, most programs (all of the ones I'm personally aware of) work on a 9-month academic year schedule, so there's generally 2-3 months a year left over. This is a time that is variously spent on research, conferences, teaching appointments, or internships, so you generally want to be on the same page as your advisor (and department) on your plans.

Not all doctoral programs run this way, though, so if this is important to you, you should ask current students, potential advisors, and administrators in prospective programs how this generally goes.

As to affordability, that's really up to you in how cheap you want to (and are able to) live, choosing programs that are in affordable areas, and availability/pay of internships in your field.


Making future goals clear in statement of purpose when changing fields

I think you've essentially written an outline of your SoP in the question. Namely,

"I'm interested in theoretical computer science and mathematics. I've worked in differential geometry, and here are my results, but I'm now fascinated by algorithms research, and I have extensive math background".

Now just expand on it.


To what extent can you change a conference article after review, when implementing reviewer suggestions makes the paper too long?

Within the guidelines set by the conference publication process, I see no reason why you can't make small changes that can reduce the page size. I will often edit things down for the final version to fit in the desired format. Of course, if your review comments were "everything is too terse, please expand", then you might have a problem with complying with review comments and page limits :)


Bored with PhD - should I tell my supervisor?

I would think that framing it as "being bored" isn't going to be helpful, even if it is true. But you can certainly have a new conversation, suggesting that you think you would make more progress with a different strategy.
And burn-out is pretty common at your stage of things, so maybe it is that. I don't know whether telling the PI that you are starting to feel burned out and need something to refresh you would be helpful or not, but likely better than "bored". But it is a question of knowing the supervisor well enough to judge their likely reaction.
And be sure to telegraph that you aren't at the point of quitting.


Can Budapest Semesters in Mathematics outset the disadvantage of not attending a prestigious undergraduate for top graduate programs in Mathematics?

I have pretty significant anecdotal insight here.  I went to a very good but not quite top tier ( in math ) school and jointly majored in a humanities degree and a math degree.  I was active in the math department, but was not the top student.  I took maybe one or two graduate courses as an undergrad.  By my senior year I decided to focus more on math, but didn't think I would get in to a top tier graduate program ( and, for me, it wasn't worth it not to go to a top tier program.  Please keep in mind that this is not true for everyone and was a personal choice ).  I was confident, and received confirming feedback from professors, that I probably would not be able to achieve this goal with my background.

In my senior year I applied to several scholarships for graduating undergraduates, like Fulbright and Marshall scholarships, but did not succeed.  I then applied to and was accepted into BSM.  It's an excellent program, and I would say that it's an even better opportunity to learn a lot.  When I was there, academics was not 100% the goal for around half of the other students; for many of them it's the "study abroad" experience.  I do not mean to disparage them at all; this experience can be very important for personal growth and perhaps even more important than the academic experience.  I simply mean to point out that you're working with absolutely top tier educators and mathematicians who care very much about the program and if you're there for the academics then you have an opportunity work closely with them and have a lot of access.

I focused extremely hard both during the summer before BSM, and during my time in Budapest, working on a ( small ) independent research project and rounding out my background, while making sure that I excelled while in Budapest.  I can echo the other answer that the courses were quite difficult, probably closer to a graduate level than undergraduate ( although I probably took more advanced courses ).

Anyway, punchline of the story is that I got in to the top school of my choosing for graduate school.  I had recommendation letters from BSM professors and from professors from my undergraduate institution.  I don't know how they evaluated, but I believe that my strong grades from undergrad ( at a near top but not top school ), my activity in undergrad activities within the math department, and my performance and dedication ( eg. research ) in BSM were the major contributing factors.  Regarding the school I attended for graduate school, most students were high school olympiad medalists ( I didn't know what the olympiad was until college ) and/or putnam finalists ( I participated 3 years, never getting honorable mention, but scoring okay ).  I definitely felt like I was the "least" among them, but learned later many of them felt the same about themselves ( see "imposter syndrome").  There were a couple of top tier graduate programs that rejected me, so I'd say that the experience put me in the mix.

So, moral of the story for me is that it can absolutely help you.  It requires, however, a lot of effort and at least a pretty good background on top of that. I would also like to emphasize that I know many people that had amazing experiences and learned a ton at next tier and next next tier graduate programs, some of whom have successful academic careers.  The best of the best students in my graduate program got something out of being with those stratosphere level professors that, to be honest, I was not capable of.  My guess, although every story is different, is that you may have an even better experience at a next tier graduate school rather than top tier.


Development Economics Minor for CS Major

I agree with the others that it makes sense to explore what interests you at this stage. CS is already a strong major and you will be forced to specialize more later on. A few points in favor:

I don't think anyone pays too much attention to your minor, to be honest. I would weigh the transcript more heavily than the precise name of the major or minor, so if your coursework shows a strong foundation in math/stats/CS classes then I see no problem with having an additional interest.
Economic thinking is an interesting and new perspective in and of itself which could benefit you as an intellectual. I think it would broaden your horizons and give you an approach to modeling that many CS majors won't have. The intersection of econ + CS is also growing in popularity.
There is a decent community of emerging around computing for development. Some resources you might find useful are:
https://acmcompass.org/
https://didl.berkeley.edu/
https://crcs.seas.harvard.edu/
https://www.ml.cmu.edu/academics/joint-phd-mlpp.html
Maybe you can find some profiles that look like yours for inspiration.

That said, I agree with the commenters that math and statistics will be very valuable to you if you pursue ML at a higher level. So it would be good to load up on these courses now if you plan to move on to a competitive graduate degree.
Also, if by "graduate school" you mean PhD, I believe research would be much more important than adding a single line to your CV as a minor. Perhaps you could do some research at the intersection of computer science and development?


During junior year, should I focus on taking advanced courses in my major for admission to grad school, or can I take courses for my minor?

It sounds like you've got a plan to take all of the courses required for your chemistry core. That being the case, having a physics minor won't hurt you since physics and chemistry are closely related sciences. Having a broader background in a related science will likely help you as long as you have the required core courses. You will also have a chance to do some more upper level chemistry work in your senior year.

Doing research will really stand out in your application as well, and this is at least as good as having done an upper division special topics course. Since graduate school is more focused on research, having undergraduate research experience lines up well with your plans, and that will stand out to the selection committee.

My one suggestion would be to start looking ahead to where you want to go to grad school. Look at their graduate college page and see what courses are required for applicants and make sure your remaining course work lines up with that. Also look at the faculty research pages and start thinking about who you want to work with as a graduate adviser (a critical decision!). Contact a couple you're interested in and ask for a phone or skype informational interview. In addition, talk to your current research adviser or the principal investigator you're going to be working with this summer. Most likely, they will be very happy to mentor you in preparing for graduate school, and also helping you establish contacts at your schools of interest. My undergraduate research advisor helped me open doors to both graduate school and a prestigious post-grad internship that really boosted my appeal as a grad school candidate. Good luck!


Is there a publication or citation based indicator of the pace of change in a field?

Although far from perfect,
Citation half life is one citation-based indicator often used to quantify how quickly a field or journal is moving. It basically looks at how long a paper takes to get half of all its citations. So for example, a fast moving field might have a citation half-life of 4 years, whereas a slower moving field might have a citation half-life of over 10 years.

In the Journal Citation Reports you can see these values for each journal.

Of course, there is the question of what exactly this means. For example, I believe fields like statistics and mathematics have much longer citation half lives, perhaps because seminal articles remain important.

Understanding citation half-life is also important when you want to compare impact factors for journals across fields, or compare citation counts and h-indexes across scholars.


Taking into account word lengths when writing humanities articles

Aim for what you want to say, and then see where you are. Every paper I've ever written was too long in the beginning because I wrote down what I thought was necessary to say. Then you cut to what the limit is, by omitting unnecessary words (the English language has many options for that), critically rethinking whether a sentence is necessary, etc. But that should be the second step: Start by putting down what the paper should be, absent word limits.


Popular science magazine for a scientist

"Science" from AAAS. If you're a student/post-doc, $95. Otherwise, $160 (for personal subscription). Strong medicine component.

Nature, $119 for student/post-doc, $199 otherwise. Significant discount for a 2-year subscription.


Question about reference letters on mathjobs

The reference letter is automatically added to your applications by mathjobs when it is uploaded by your letter-writers, and there is no need to resubmit.

However, I recommend sending gentle reminders to your letter-writers!


In the example you give (https://grainger.illinois.edu/about/directory/faculty/ghmiley), the person is "professor emeritus" in one department, and "department affiliate emeritus" in another.
I can't speak to that university in particular, but in certain universities, a professor in a given department can only take on graduate students from that department.  Affiliate status with another department allows a professor to take on students graduate students from that department as well.


Advisor and co-advisor of PhD with different areas of research

It is hard or impossible to answer such a question directly, not knowing the culture of both universities and the personalities of the two potential advisors. However, I can give advice about how to maximize your potential for a good outcome.

Pick one of these advisors and universities and approach the person personally with your request to be a student. Either one will likely do. But pick the one you'd most like to work with if the overall plan doesn't succeed. First try to get accepted. Then broach the possibility of working also with the other professor and give reasons why you think it would be helpful to you and that you already know the person. If you get push-back on the idea, yield graciously. If the first person thinks it would be fine, approach the other, giving the current state of affairs and saying why you'd like to also work with him/her. You may wind up in the desired outcome.

If the first seems hesitant to work with you at all, it is then time to approach the other as if it is a first request.

Don't make it seem unnecessarily complicated at the very beginning. And don't worry about the (slight) difference in fields. It seems likely, in fact, that the two people already know one another. Distance is less of a barrier than it once was.

Even better if you have any research ideas that might appeal to both of them. It might work out less well if you are depending on your advisor(s) to supply a problem.

If you are working for one of these people then it might be possible for you to occasionally get advice from the other on a less formal basis, provided the person is interested in you and/or your research problem.


Creating a reading group with one of my students

As far as having an "unfair" advantage by preparing over the summer is concerned, I don't think that having a "club" or some other form of advanced preparation is a problem. Studying in advance is not inherently unfair if anybody can do it. (Some students take a class that a grad school might require as an undergraduate; is that unfair as well?)

The ethical question here is whether or not you will be an active instructor for that student in the coming year. Showing favoritism to individual students that would put them in an advantage—or give the appearance of having done so—should be avoided. If you're not teaching them again and anyone who wishes to participate can join, then that mitigates the problem significantly.


What software to cite in a manuscript, and how?

After some thought on the matter, my own approach in my next manuscript will probably go like this:

Which: To choose which software to cite, I would try to answer the following questions:

Is there a scientific article that can be cited and are the authors of the software asking to be cited?
Was this specific software relevant to the results of the manuscript? If there are plenty of alternatives to the software and you use it merely because you knew it, this is probably not a reason to cite it. But if I used and profited from the specific features of a software, then it is probably worth citing it.
Do I explicitly want to give credits to the software? Maybe I found the software very good to use and I want to tell other scientists to use it, then I would cite it.

How: If there is a scientific article, I cite it in the classical way. However, I would also cite a URL of the software, as this makes it significantly easier for a reader to find the software. Otherwise, cite the URL. Citing the manual doesn't make sense to me, the only reason to do so would be to give explicit credits to an author.
Where: If I can cite a software in the course of the text, I do so, otherwise, I would make an appropriate paragraph in the Introduction or Acknowledgements.


This can be a little tricky.  There are two issues: what your obligations are to the university, and what could look bad on your CV and hurt future job searches.

Your legal obligations may vary depending on the country or the details of your contract, but my understanding of the U.S. social norms is the following:

Once you have accepted a job, you must show up for it.  (I.e., you will offend people if you try to change your mind and accept another job instead.)  You should stay for at least a year, except for health emergencies and the like, and preferably for a couple of years, since it looks bad if you apply for other jobs immediately upon arriving.  Beyond that, the department may be unhappy if you leave, but you won't be doing anything offensive.

On the other hand, you shouldn't make a habit of this.  When a department hires someone for a tenure-track job, they are looking for a long-term colleague.  It's still possible to get hired even if the department knows you are unlikely to stay long, but you have to be extra-brilliant to make up for this.  If you leave a couple of universities quickly, then it will look like a pattern, and everyone else will be less interested in hiring you than they might otherwise have been.

If you end up in this situation through bad luck, then the next time you apply for jobs you should try to explain what happened in a way that makes it clear why it is unlikely to happen again.


Should formatting affect grades of student essays?

Is LaTeX better than Word? This is a holy-war kind of a question. I personally agree that LaTeX documents often, but not always, allow to produce a better typeset document in less time (as soon as you know enough of it to write the document, and do not spend time googling for "how do I do X in LaTeX").
Are LaTeX's floating objects perfect? Some things are less than perfect even with LaTeX, and handling of floating objects is one of them. You can suggest using [p] instead of [t]/[b]/[h] options --- this can still generate under-filled pages, but at least it looks like it is done on purpose.
Should you Professor comment on the layout? The way how the document looks definitely affects how it is perceived by the reader, so if something looks weird / unusual, it is all right for your Professor to comment on it.
Should the layout affect the grade? There is no general answer to that. Some Universities even have a very rigid guidelines on layout for theses submission, which sometimes, sadly, prescribe the use of Word, and sometimes, conveniently, the use of LaTeX (particularly if LaTeX is taught as a part of the Program). In this case, of course, students can be penalised for not following the guidelines. Sometimes points for "presentation" are included in the task specification --- and you can lose them if your Professor decides that bad typography affects the presentation of the document (I don't think LaTeX can be that bad, though). However, Professor should not simply reduce the grade if they feel that the layout is unusual.


Upset by male classmates openly comparing female students according to physical appearance

You don't say where you're going to school but if it's here in the US, I would report the problem to the university and demand they do whatever is necessary to fix it.  Title IX requires them to provide an inclusive environment free of sexual harassment.  If you are unsatisfied by their response, I would report the school to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.  You'll find additional helpful advice here at equalrights.org.

Added:  Several comments express concern that reporting the harassment might result in retaliation.  But it's worth noting that retaliation for filing a harassment complaint is also against the law and cause for a new complaint.  The school has to do whatever it takes to fix this, even if means expelling the perpetrators.  It is not sufficient for them to claim they did the best they could.

Still more:  Having conducted some other disciplinary actions, even if not any that were exactly like the one described here, I would expect the result of complaining to the university is that the Title IX conduct officer will call the students to a meeting that might go something like this:  You start by asking the students if they know why they're there.  After the usual squirmy they-can't-think-of-anything denials, you describe their offensive behavior and ask if the reason they can't remember any of this is because they think it's such completely ordinary behavior.  You point out that in a workplace, it would get them fired and might subject the company to a lawsuit and an expensive settlement.  You explain that university has an obligation under Title IX to maintain an inclusive environment free of sexual harassment.

You then ask, "Do you think you should be allowed to stay at the university?"  Typically, the students' lives flash before their eyes as they realize the seriousness of the stakes and they decide they will never do this again.  There are lots of ways to make this even more, ahem, memorable, e.g., by asking if they have a backup career in mind if this computer science thing doesn't work out or by making them wait a few extra days to hear the disposition of their case (especially if you expect to let them off lightly).  It may seem a little like pulling the wings off flies, but trust me, the problem behavior will end, hopefully for the entire rest of their lives, in which case they will have learned something far more valuable than yet another algorithm.


How and when should I identify my specific research interests?

You are an undergrad now, so that means you have neither experience nor plenty of free time. But this doesn't mean you can't give it a shot: read up about research, and find interesting projects to do. Aim for something small, that you can, for example, accomplish in one year. The next year, try something different. I'd probably focus on topics that are not exactly covered in your curriculum, as those you are going to learn anyway.

I studied Physics, but on the side I experimented with computer simulations, to later go to image and video processing, analysis of experimental spectra, and complex networks (graph theory). All this taught me tools and ideas that I am now using, in a completely different field (Bioinformatics).

The truth is, before I started looking for a PhD, I didn't even considered Bioinformatics as an option, but I saw one offer, looked appealing, and decided it was exactly what I wanted to do. How is everything I did helping me? For example:

I have to compare some pieces of data. Comparing them pairwise is simple, so I remembered networks, and designed a robust way of combining the comparison into a global measurement. As a plus, I knew already of a good library, and how to use it so I could start coding my ideas right away.
Now I have a matrix, and I have to dig out some patterns (with lots of gaps). From my time doing image processing I remember reading about the Hough transform, and it turns out it looks a promising start point. But I also remembered when I was analysing spectra that the output is quite complex, so I will keep in mind the caveats.

The bottom line is that you don't have to start now in what you want to do. In fact, you will be a more efficient researcher if you know many different things, as you never know where you are going to end up. All this, of course, keeping an eye on your official studies.


Do authors always have final approval over what gets published?

In the answer you are referring to there is nothing to say that approval is not required. The issue is rather that an editor can request certain things can be removed from the paper so the author cannot demand everything written is finally printed. Editors have the right and obligation to weed out materials that are, for example, offensive just as we can flag posts that contain such phrasings on Stackexchange. Jokes, which was the point of the post you referred to, are not edited out by any means as a rule but can be misunderstood or considered offensive and might be more likely to be edited out than other material during the review and editorial process. In such a case, the author will certainly be part of the process and asked to revise or accept changes. the point here is that the editor has the final say through approval of the paper as well as a responsibility to make sure the publication is free from material that violates, for example, ethical of the publisher. As an example, in Sweden, where I reside, I as an editor am responsible by law for what is printed in "my" journal. This responsibility may lie with the publisher in other countries.

So, authors will definitely be part of the revision process and sign off on final proofs, it is just that some changes may not be subject to additional discussion and will have to be accepted. Does this happen often? Not at all. In my case, I have had to deal with this in heated "Letters to the Editor" where authors have been in a written, published, exchange over issues in a published paper.

Edit (to expand based on earthling's comment): Basically all changes except typos and changes to adhere to journal or publisher style are subject to an "OK" from the author (although it would not hurt to also get an OK on these). The publishing of a paper is a joint venture between an author and the journal, so with a functioning working relationship both parties should agree on changes. But, again, some changes are non-negotiable, which does not mean they can be imposed without the knowledge of the author who always has the option to go elsewhere to publish.

So changes can come in three forms, (1) those that can be changed without consent (e.g. typos), (2) those that must be made without discussion (subject to ethical considerations) and (3) those that can go either way after, say, clarification (most of the normal changes). In  cases 2 and 3 the author need to approve the changes it is just that for case 2 the option might be accept or withdraw the paper.


How to quote a passage with a punctuation error?

Just delete the offending comma. No one will accuse you of misquoting; if they track down the original quote and notice that you've made a minor grammatical edit, they will not dwell on it long.


Strategies for reviewing a paper that has non-English references

Evaluate the correctness and significance of the results as best you can.  On the topic of novelty, include in your referee report exactly what you wrote here:

  [This paper] quite heavily builds upon work that has only been published in Russian and Romanian, which are languages I (unfortunately) do not speak. Therefore it is quite difficult for me to assess how this new work builds upon this previous work.

Then let the editors decide.


Why are there no DOIs for NeurIPS papers?

I work at Crossref (there are other DOI agencies too) and it looks like the proceedings used to be published by MIT Press and registered with Crossref as book chapters - see search results. But there isn't anything with us since 2007 so not sure whether the conference moved to a new publisher that isn't a Crossref member or something like that? I searched the ISBN database too but that doesn't help much. Probably best to ask the conference/organisation directly? Let me know if you find out!


Did requesting more info/contacting admissions too early hurt my chances of getting in?

I am 100% sure you did NOT hurt your chances of getting in merely by requesting additional information. Asking for clarification is never a negative. I expect the admissions office would simply send you links to the school's webpages that give the information you requested, and end their email with "Feel free to email us if you have any more questions".


MSc in education for an assistnat professor in computer science

More important that what we think is what your university thinks and how it will impact your career. It sounds like that value it pretty highly. There is nothing magic in a PhD that makes you an adequate teacher of your subject.

If you intend to stay at your current place and build your career there then it might be worth any effort. Likewise if you want teaching to be an important part of your academic life it has value.

And your current place seems to require at least part of it, so, ...


Why is the city of publication important in most bibliography format?

Mentioning the city in the bibliography is important because sometimes the same edition published in different cities would have different pagination, and occasionally even redacted content. Therefore when someone wants to look up the original source, they need to have this additional information available to them.

Another important reason to keep the bibliographic information on place of publication is for reasons of style. Many of us might have bibliographies stretching a century or more, and it would look odd to mention place for some and not for others.

But naturally changes in citation styles are continual, and another element of the citation that is of lessening importance is the page number for journal articles. For one of my publications, I was actually required to remove the page numbers in the in text citation, because the relevant information is easier to find using a search engine rather than by leafing to the correct page in a printed copy.


Are there forum-like collaborative Q&A/Annotation tools out there?

This is likely my shortest answer ever.
Check out NB (formerly "nota bene") via MIT
 http://nb.mit.edu/welcome

Instructors upload pdfs and students can highlight particular sections of it and ask questions.


Blog posts don't need to have a formal bibliography, but you should always provide attribution to others work, whether it is an original piece of research, or just a textbook whose presentation you are following. In a blog post, you can do this in a conversational style: point out results you enjoyed (with links!) and textbooks you find helpful. Not only will the folks you mention appreciate this, it will be helpful to your readers who want to follow up and learn more.


Does anyone have rate the relative quality of scientific papers, rather than authors?

Rating the quality of a paper is extremely difficult. Journal impact factors tell you little about the quality of individual papers. Citation counts are also misleading since papers that are wrong tend to get lots of citations. There is really no substitute for reading and making your own decisions.


My name in publications as an author is different from my name in the passport, how to prove that I'm the same person?

I would not be worried about the passport having a different name. However, if you want to claim the publications as your own, I would setup an ORCID. That would link them to you and each other. On your ORCID account, list your full name. ORCID also lets you list other names as well.


Does a Meta-Study contribute to the Body-of-Research and how?

It depends on how you define the "body of research". If you see it purely as a collection of all raw data, then no, a a meta-analysis would not contribute to it. However, I would argue that most people use the term "body of knowledge" much more widely, to mean all research that has been conducted and all knowledge that has been generated and published in a field.

In order to be publishable, a meta-analysis should produce new knowledge (e.g., through new experiments or analyses, or by increasing our confidence in previously-published analyses through comparison over a larger sample size), and in that way contribute to the sum of all knowledge in the field, even if no new data points have been collected.


Multiple references to the same author but without a date

You can use the same approach as for multiple sources from a single known year, adding an additional letter. For example one way of writing it would be "(Company, n.d.-a)" and "Company, n.d.-b)", where 'n.d.' is short for "no date". Adapt as needed to meet the requirements of your citation style. The hyphen is required for the APA style, for example, but might not be universal:

  Also remember that if you have two or more “in press” or “no date” references with the same authors in the same order, you should use lowercase letters—a, b, c, and so forth—after the publication date and alphabetize the references by their titles (excluding A, An, and The; see p. 182 in the Publication Manual). The only difference between these types of references and references with publication years is that “in press” and “no date” references contain a hyphen before the a, b, and so forth:

  American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.-a). The knowledge . . .

  American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.-b). A strategy to . . .

  Schafer, G., & Plunkett, K. (2011a). The power . . .

  Schafer, G., & Plunkett, K. (2011b). Task complexity . . .

  Schafer, G., & Plunkett, K. (in press-a). The rapid learning . . .

  Schafer, G., & Plunkett, K. (in press-b). Sometimes a child . . .


General structure of Research Statement (applying for faculty position)

Should it contain a detailed overview of my (recent?) publications?

NO.  It should contain a detailed overview of your research program, including both your past accomplishments and your future plans/vision.  Of course you have to describe your published results in technical detail, but as part of a larger narrative, not as stand-alone pieces.  Focus on the big picture, not on the tiny technical details.  Remember that your audience is not just other theoretical computer scientists.

  If the answer to 1 is yes, should I highlight my specific contributions in multi-author papers - as opposed to "we proved this and that..." ?

NO.  "My coauthors and I proved..." is fine.  The public dogma in theoretical computer science is that in every paper, each of the authors contributed 100% of the work, which is why they are listed alphabetically.  You own any paper that has your name on it.  Your narrative will naturally focus on the parts of the paper that you are the most proud of, which are usually the parts that you worked on the most.

Of course, if you're writing papers with your advisor or other more senior coauthors, there is a natural tendency for people to wonder if your aren't really just riding their coattails.  This is why you need a larger narrative in your statement—to convince the reader that you understand your results at a deeper level than someone who merely read the papers.  This is also why you have papers with different sets of coauthors—so that the common thread through your work stands out as your contribution.  In particular, you have at least one paper without your advisor.  Right?

  If the answer to 1 is yes, I must list the references here that I'm mentioning, which are also stated (in the full list of publications) in my CV, right?

The approach I always recommend is to treat your CV as your bibliography, and to include a footnote like "Numbered references indicate papers listed in my CV."  Of course, this means that your research statement never cites anyone else's work, except in broad narrative strokes, but for a brief document intended to sell your research program, I think that's appropriate.

  Assuming there's no page limit, what's an appropriate length for a research statement?

Aim for three pages.  Less than two is too short.  More than four is too long.

That may not seem like a lot of space, but that actually works in your favor.  You want to give the impression that you've done just gobs of really amazingly cool stuff, but dammit there just isn't room to write about everything.


How to transfer non graded subjects to gpa?

While this was ultimately cleared up in the comments, for future readers:

In the US, the term for a class which counts as credit but has no grade attached is "Pass-Fail". You either get credit towards the degree, or you don't, but there is no grade attached. In general (I'm aware of no exceptions to this in the US, at least), pass-fail courses do not count for purposes of GPA, so there's no way to convert a credit-only class to GPA - it's just a class you received credit for.

One situation which is more complicated is if you have a class that provides something like a "narrative grade", which I'm told exists but have no personal experience with, and it doesn't have a direct correlate to GPA systems in the US. If you encounter that you'll simply need to speak with the institution to which you are applying and they'll have to make the determination as to how to handle such coursework.


What is the best way to archive all references in phd?

Absolutely begin using a reference management software.  If you're planning on writing in LaTeX (which you will if you're in many sciences and engineering fields), something that manages Bibtex files is essential.  I tried several more sophisticated programs like Papers (which is made to work like iTunes) and Mendeley, but I now use a very simple program called Jabref.  Now when I get a new paper, I go to Google scholar, copy-paste their Bibtex entry (they have one for pretty much every published paper) into my master Bibtex file.  Then when I'm working a separate project, I start a smaller Bibtex and copy references over when needed.  Personally, I didn't like programs that tried to offer an "all-in-one" experience with built-in PDF reader, file management, etc.

My other tip is to name your files in a logical manner to make local search easier.  I use "First few words of title First Author Year"  E.g. "Stochastic Relaxation Gibbs Distributions Geman 1984"


Changing tactics when natural ability is reached?

"I am at the point where I have eliminated everything else in my life except classwork and research projects."

That is likely to be counter-productive. You need to leave room in your life for inspiration to strike, not just perspiration. Go for a walk. Take up a hobby that does not require total concentration. You may be limiting yourself by not allowing enough time for rest and relaxation.

I know I am much more likely to get a creative idea for solving a problem doing something else, rather than staring at it, once I have the background firmly in my mind.


I would like to know if a Research paper is possible for making a change in Open Source software tool

Impossible to know without further details. It might be, it might not. You might want to have a look at the Machine Learning Open Source Software track of the Journal of Machine Learning Research, accessible here: http://www.jmlr.org/mloss/


Recruiting process time for assistant professor position in Japan?

It depends on the position, but couple of month is a reasonable scale. If you go through the first round (your resume is picked, which itself easily a month), you are contacted for an interview generally at least a month before the interview. However I have seen cases when it took months just to appoint an interview.

Note that many assistant professors are getting jobs by internal promotions and not through public advertisement.


Are employments in universities affiliated (or named) with a specific religion restricted to people with the same religion?

In my experience, the answer is usually no but occasionally yes.
Note: This answer is specific to the United States.
Most employers in the US are forbidden by law from discriminating on the basis of religion; they have to give equal consideration to candidates of any religion or no religion, and generally they will avoid asking about religion at all.  This includes non-denominational academic employers.
However, religiously affiliated employers (such as churches, religious charities etc), are exempt from this rule, and may use religion as a criterion for employment if they so choose.  This includes religiously affiliated academic institutions.  Each such institution will have its own policy on whether they consider religion and what the criteria are.  These policies will usually be mentioned in job postings.
In my experience, most intentionally choose to not consider religion as a factor, usually giving the justification of creating an inclusive community.  These may be institutions that were founded by a church and may still receive funding from them, but operate mainly as a secular institution, accepting students and faculty without regard to religion.  Job postings will often indicate this with phrases like "equal opportunity employer".  They may have a "mission statement" with religious wording, and a tradition of religious activities on campus (such as regular church services), but nobody is obligated to participate.
There are others which choose to be more overtly religious.  They may accept students and faculty only if their religious beliefs align with those of the institution.  These are more likely to have formal religious activities on campus, and sometimes strict moral conduct codes.  Their job postings often ask explicitly about the applicant's spiritual beliefs.
The institution's name is not always a good indicator of where they fall in this spectrum.
As one example, Nebraska Wesleyan University describes itself as:

an academic community dedicated to intellectual and personal growth within the context of a liberal arts education and in an environment of Christian concern.

However, they also say:

Nebraska Wesleyan University provides equal educational opportunities to all qualified persons in all areas of university operation, including education and decisions regarding faculty appointment, promotion or tenure, without regard to race, religion, age, sex, creed, color, disability, marital status, national or ethnic origin or sexual orientation.

At the other extreme, Dordt College included this wording in a recent job posting:

The Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science department at Dordt College has a history of preparing students for graduate school, industry and K-12 education. This preparation is infused with an unashamedly Reformed Christian worldview, in order to prepare students to be global citizens in God’s service.  [...]
We look forward to receiving applications from candidates who wish to join us in [...] teaching mathematics from a Christian perspective in the context of educating the whole person.
Qualified persons committed to a Reformed, Biblical perspective and educational philosophy are encouraged to send a letter of interest and curriculum vitae/resume [...]

Generally, institutions that will only consider applicants of a certain religion will make this clear at the outset.  However, even if not, you will have to decide if the religious environment (or lack thereof) on a particular institution's campus will be comfortable for you.  This is an appropriate  topic to ask about during an interview.


Mental Heath for long-term success in Academia

I suggest that you take up some stress reducing activity that you can perform for an hour or more several times a week. It shouldn't be a completely mindless activity or you may wind up just working when you should be giving your mind/brain a rest.

Burnout is a terrible thing.

On the other hand, periods of intellectual "rest" can actually enhance your work since the mind works on its own when you aren't constantly pushing the 'starter button'.

There are a lot of possibilities for this. When in grad school I used to ride a bike with a group of mostly faculty members. We would ride at a fast pace for 35-50 miles a few times a week. The physical activity helped and we didn't talk math on the ride. The grad students I studied with had a weekly softball game for themselves and spouses. Nothing like a little competition. Something like Chess is fine for the mind part, but a bit of physical activity will keep you healthier.

Currently I use Tai Chi for stress and general fitness (but not aerobics). The fact that it is a mind-body activity, not just body, helps give the brain a rest from whatever it is doing.

Many people notice that they wake up with new ideas in the morning or after a quick nap. That is the effect of giving the brain a break.

Stress can kill you. Find a way to do something (a) enjoyable and (b) not work related. Taking a walk now and then probably won't be as effective as an activity that does engage the brain but in a different way from the rigors of your field.


How to handle off-topic questions during an interview for a PhD/academic position?

Such a question at the start of an interview sounds to me like a poor "warmup" question - meant to be an easy lowball, and failing miserably. As such I think a light answer is all that would be expected - they are not asking for help, but thinking this is one you could easily answer. Your reply should demonstrate you can think on your feet, without appearing to put the interviewer down and without really engaging in an answer. For example

  I met such a variety of people there that I really can't tell you what they had in common - I guess you would have to ask the admissions office

That's probably quite truthful, while being completely evasive. And then you can move on.


How to cite my own submitted but not yet published work?

In principle you can cite other, submitted work in a research paper. Just give the authors, paper title, and either "Submitted." or "Submitted to [venue]." in the reference list.

However, both as a reviewer and reader, I usually find this disappointing. I already came across several cases where I wasn't able to find the cited paper even years after publication of the paper with the citation. It is well possible that the cited paper is rejected, and maybe someone just doesn't follow up to really get it published. As a better alternative, check whether you can put a preprint version of the paper you want to cite online (e.g. on arxiv), and just cite that.


Is it worth attending the Grace Hopper conference without presenting anything as a first year PhD student?

GHC is less of a research conference and more of a networking and educational event. They had over 12,000 attendees last year but only ~700 presenters, so clearly most people do not present anything.

I've known several people to go (Masters and PhD students) and none of them have presented. They all loved it and at least one got a job out of it.

You'll get to listen to some great talks, attend workship-like events, interview with many companies, and meet a lot of other students. It seems like a great experience so you should definitely consider it.

The scholarship applications just recently opened, which would cover your costs of traveling and attending the event.


What does "The references in general are not current" mean?

Your references apparently refer to literature that is too old, and probably superseded by more recent research.

Look for more recent work pertinent to your topic and include it in your paper.


Will addressing reviewers comment and accepting drawback of work take back my acceptance?

In general, if you got an acceptance notice from a conference, then you are accepted.  At this point, it's up to you just how much to take the reviewers into account in revising your paper.

Personally, I do recommend changes in response to every issue raised, because that will generally make you paper stronger.  Even if a reviewer is dead wrong, it at least points to a place where readers can become confused. In this case, kudos to you for taking the reviewers seriously and thinking carefully about their feedback, rather than just being defensive.

Note that in some cases you may get a "conditional acceptance", and in that case you definitely have to be concerned about the reviewers' opinions of your new version.  That does not seem to be the case here based on what you have written, however.


How to determine if I'm just incompetent, or if my work is more difficult than expected?

let me introduce you to my friend the impostor syndrome. In all likely-hood you are behind but not incompetent. From my experience, almost all people I interact with in academia have something that is past it's "due date". I think you need to take a deep breath and remeber that what you're doing is dificult and you should expect some (if not a lot) of trouble.


How to react when professor wrongly corrects you in public?

Did you pass your thesis defense? If so, it's all water under the bridge.

If it is eating you up inside, you could send a polite note to the senior professor (cc:ing your advisor) thanking them for the question and that now that you've had a chance to re-check things, that you are ever more certain that your method is different from the suggested prior method because of x, y, and z; but perhaps you misunderstood his question and there was another earlier method he was referring to, and if so -- could he please send the reference? (tip of the hat to @gnometorule)

If you go this route, I would frame it as a letter of thanks, appreciation, scholarly inquiry, and to keep the tone as non-accusatory as possible. As @guifa notes, some jerks professors view thesis defenses as a type of hazing -- a no-holds-barred opportunity to test your mettle; and what happens in defense should stay in defense. You do not want to drag this out. It can easily blow back in your face or the face of your advisor if the senior faculty member has a thin skin (which unfortunately many academics seem to have).

Again, if you have your Masters, then I would just be happy with that and just make rude gestures towards that senior faculty member from the safety and privacy of your own home. And don't ever do this when you become that person in a position of power.

You changed the question slightly from the initial posting from [what to do after the fact] to [what you should have done at the moment]. As note above, all questions at thesis defenses are fair -- even ones that are built on false  or falsified premises. It is, after all, a "defense" and as a scientist you should be able to defend yourself from both truthful and false/falsified statements without having to resort to ad hominem counter-attacks. You respond based on your training and experience what you believe to be correct. And obviously given that you passed the defense, the examiners thought that you gave satisfactory responses on the whole. As Queen Elsa teaches us, let it go.


Should one put poster presentations on their CV in maths?

Given that you are a PhD student (in math; I am also in math), I think you probably should put this on your CV.  Going to conferences shows some professionalism and interest, and giving poster presentations does too.  I don't want to suggest that this will be a key piece of information for your job search and/or early career, but...it certainly can't hurt.  You may want to take them out later when your CV has filled out in other ways.

The fact that they are not peer reviewed does not seem directly relevant to me, as long as you don't lump them together with publications (why would you?) or suggest in some way that they are something they were not.


I am not an expert in neuroscience or BCI. However, I found BP-Endure program where your current school Hunter College is a major partner.

On their web page,

  During the academic year students will work with a research mentor at Hunter or NYU and during the summer in one of the partnering institutions. The BP-ENDURE program selects students from both Hunter College and NYU to participate. Hunter students will receive funding in the form of tuition remission and a stipend during the academic year and will also receive summer funding.

I am not sure why you said the resources in my school seems very tight and my school offers no program in any close proximation. Are you having difficulty getting into that program?

Transferring to another school may cost you a lot than what you'll gain. You may lose the credits you already have and retake courses you have taken plus your financial loss. However, if you have other difficulties with your current school(which you have not mentioned), then transferring may be an option for you.

My advice for you specifically, stay there and study hard, grab any opportunity to enter into the BP-Endure program.

In general, however, if your research area requires resources you don't have in your current school, it's worth considering transferring. You need to weigh on the cost vs. gain. You can either stay in the current school acquiring fundamental knowledge and apply to a graduate school where you would have better resources after you graduate, or transfer to another undergraduate school with much better resources.


GPA weightage for changing fields in higher studies

A good GPA, etc, will give evidence that you work hard. That won't be an issue in the new field. But the admissions process/committee will need some assurance that you have the necessary prerequisite courses and knowledge in that new field or can quickly pick that up. That will weigh more heavily, perhaps. So, other things, such as the indicated research, and letters will be helpful.


Traspararent evaluation in lab exams -- good or bad idea?

My experience (in the UK) is that provisional marks for all assessments, whether coursework or exams, need to be returned to students within a set timeframe. 15 working days is a common one, but this varies from university to university.

Early feedback is a good thing, as you said, as it lets students know where to concentrate their efforts. This may include subject areas, but also, sometimes a student receiving a lower mark than they hoped for, might be spurred to working harder towards the next element of assessment.

I say provisional marks as, although the marking standard will have been internally checked at this point, it unlikely to have gone to an external examiner to ensure that the standard is comparable with other universities. So, the mark could potentially still change after that process.

The question asked if there are any cons with this approach. I can't think of any, but I'm really not used to the idea of marks being held back unnecessarily.


Convention regarding inclusion of both an abstract and introduction in a mathematical paper

The purpose of an abstract and an introduction are very different, so it may be useful to include either or both. An abstract is a summary of the whole paper, focusing on the main result. It might exist separately from the paper itself as, say, an online "teaser" to get people to read the paper. But an introduction is intended to give background on the problem to be addressed in the paper and to situate it within the literature. You would almost always include an introduction. You might also write the abstract, but not actually include it within the paper itself.


As a TA, I had sex with someone who turned out to be one of my students, what do I do?

Note: I'm a department chair at a US university. The following represents my thoughts about your question assuming you are in the US. I will stick to comments pertaining to university policy. I am not a lawyer and am unqualified to offer any legal advice of any sort.

  What do I do? How do I make this right? I'm sure this is bad, but just how bad?

This is awkward, but if indeed you are telling the truth and you didn't realize the person you had sex with was your student at the time it happened, and assuming it was consensual and both of you are of legal age, I don't think it's that bad, if you now proceed to handle the situation correctly and with maturity.

The important thing (and I mean really, really, really important) is that you must immediately act to remove yourself from any position of authority over the student to avoid ending up in hot water over what is certain to be (if you fail to act as I am suggesting) a pretty bad violation of university policy, and potentially even legal trouble. That means speaking to the instructor for the class, telling them honestly exactly what happened (yeah awkward I know), and asking for their guidance about what needs to be done. (It's a good idea for that request to be documented in writing/email.) The department chair will likely need to become informed of the situation as well. My guess is they will either have to remove you from your role as TA for the class, or arrange for the student to switch to another TA if that is a practical option, and find ways to ensure you are not involved in grading or other assessments related to the student in question.

If the instructor and chair are sensible people, I don't expect that there will be any disciplinary action or other formal repercussions to what happened, although you should certainly expect some unpleasant discussions, possibly having to be interviewed by campus officials who handle sexual harassment and discrimination, receiving unpleasantly-worded memos counseling you about university sexual harassment policies, and similar headaches. It's also quite possible that the incident will cause the instructor for the course and/or the department chair (hopefully no one else in your department will need to learn about what happened) to form negative opinions about you. As I said, if they are reasonable and professional people they will keep those opinions to themselves and move on.

Finally, if the people who handle the incident  are not reasonable people, well, all sorts of things may happen, so you'd better make sure you protect yourself against unfair treatment by not committing any missteps that could end up making your situation worse. Such missteps may include trying to keep the incident secret from your department; telling about it but lying about some details (out of embarrassment or because you think those details make you look bad) or omitting important details; or any other immature/unethical/foolish behavior. Ultimately, as I said, you have a reasonable case to argue that you essentially didn't do anything (at least not knowingly, and not so far) that violates any university policies, so if you handle this with maturity chances are you should be fine.