What can I do to get an admit in a Neuroscience program?

I completed my PhD doing almost all my research in neuroscience, so I can give you a few tips from my personal experience.

Neuroscience is by nature a very cross-disciplinary field. I was coming from a psychology background, and my classmates had backgrounds ranging from biology to computer science to mathematics to pre-med. You will be at a disadvantage given your relative weakness in biology, but not a very significant one. Your math skills from the bachelors in engineering will serve you well as you learn about neural and systems dynamics, and the chemistry you learned will be of immeasurable use in understanding the biochemistry of the nervous system.
Given your background, you should definitely be able to apply directly to a MS or PhD program without having to retake (too much) undergraduate coursework. Do note that you may be able to get into the program with the caveat that you will be required to take some undergraduate courses during your first year; this was a common practice in my program. Given how long it takes to complete your PhD anyway, it should not delay you much, if at all.

Coming from an IT/engineering background, you may be interested in computational neuroscience, a subfield which attempts to understand how the brain works—both at a systems-level (i.e., whole brain) and cell-level (i.e., individual neurons)—using computational models. There are entire departments dedicated to such research; it's a fairly large field.

Your action items listed above are all excellent ideas, and should serve you very well. The only suggestion I would add is to simply google the term "neuroscience research labs" and begin browsing around the web to see what types of research is being performed. As you search, google again using narrower terms, to see how broad each subfield is. Consider writing down some of the schools that house labs that sound interesting to you for future reference.


Is it okay to judge projects on the basis of how long it took to develop them

Charitably, it sounds like you put in about 200 hours of work during a nine-month period. That works out to maybe five to six hours per week. That may not meet the minimum “level of effort” expected for such a project. The evaluator may be well within his rights to terminate the evaluation at that point, particularly if this is a “project course” that amounts to a significant portion of your total credit load for the semester. Is it fair to do so? Probably not. Is it allowed to so? Quite possibly.


How to write a review for a strong paper?

The key principle is this: just as with a negative review, you need to demonstrate that you have read the paper thoroughly and are making your judgement for sound scientific reasons.

If you like a paper, you should be able to say why you like it.  Beyond the paraphrased summary of goals and contributions (which should begin any review), you can spend a sentence or two saying what aspects of the work or its presentation you found particularly compelling or particularly elegant, and why.

It's also a rare paper that doesn't have any minor errors or needs for improvement, and you can also point out those, prefaced with something like, "The only things I see needing improvement are a few minor points of copyediting and clarification."

In the end, your review might be quite short, and that's fine.


Repeat citation for consecutive sentences

I've heard that in fields different from mine this is referenced with (Ibid.) for footnote-style citations. I am not sure about inline citations, but the Chicago manual of style says it is ok. If you google for "ibid references" you get more hints how to use this.


Should I mention in my PhD application that I'm quitting my job in a month to spend time learning about the subject?

From the admissions perspective, it shows dedication but also chutzpah in a bad way.

Many competitive programs have an admissions rate between 5-20%. Even if you are a strong candidate, it is not guaranteed that you will get in anywhere this year. This is why you have to apply to multiple programs as well as have a backup plan if you don't get in anywhere. Staying in a job (you might hate) would be such a backup plan and would show that you are someone who has Plan Bs.

If I read your application, I would have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that you are rather sure of yourself and/or desperate and/or headstrong. None of these are good qualities for doctoral programs.

There's also a slight feeling of being extorted - as in, if you don't admit me, I'm screwed. But that's not our problem, you put yourself in that situation, yet it still leaves an unsettling feeling.

Neither of these are enough to tank your application but it could sway someone on the cusp of denial/admission towards denial.

tl;dr: A much stronger application would be one that says, "if I am admitted, I plan on quitting my industry job in May and spending the summer ahead of matriculation preparing for graduate studies by doing xyz."


TA for the class versus taking the class?

Some classes are more about the skills than the material. For example, I was once a TA for astronomy 1, despite never having taken astronomy -- but I knew the math, physics, problem solving, etc., and so the actual "content" was trivial for me to pick up. I do not know what this class may be, but if you are a grad student in CS and this is an undergraduate CS class, it may be similar in that you already know how the "big ideas" and how to program, so it will be trivial to learn the course-specific content.

Being a TA can be more efficient. I assume the alternative is (a) TAing a different course, where you would learn nothing, and (b) taking this as a class, which would require doing the learning and the homework. Combining these into one activity could save nearly 50% of your effort.

Of course, you do have an ethical obligation to your students to be informed. Your graduate-level experience in this field combined with reading ahead will put you head and shoulders above freshman/sophomore students, even if you're not an expert in this particular course material. Conversely, if this is an honors course for senior CS students (for example), then it does seem unlikely that you would be able to offer them much guidance.


How should multiple anticipated degrees be listed on the CV?

I would do something like this:

*Ph.D. Theoretical Junk, Enormous State University, 2019 (defending June)

*M.S. Useful Shiznat, Enormous State University, 2019 (May completion)


Assessing the citation rank of a conference

Google scholar has a search engine for venues. You cannot see how many citations a venue has, but they show you the h-index and the h5-index (i.e., h-index considering the papers published in the last 5 years only).

Here is the link:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=search_venues&vq=human+computer+interaction&btnG=


What to do if Professor offers an internship position

Then ask him, either when you happen to meet in the corridor or a nice email - he may be waiting on you...

I don't think he will run around looking for you.

But think of the difference between "desperate" and "motivated" - he will be happy / pleased to find someone motivated !


How to cite simple definitions when writing university papers?

Standards for papers and homework is not the same as for publications. Moreover, there is nothing fundamentally right or wrong about a definition as long as you introduce it as such ! (in University words mean what you decide they mean -- within reason, that is). You can definitely write something like

  In this paper I will use the definition of a virus as a '...' (1)

and refer to a footnote that says

  (1) definition taken from Wikipedia article Virus, retrieved on
  2014-10-04".

Of course if Wikipedia's definition is taken from a printed reference, use the latter.

If you want to be extra-cautious you can have a look at the change log and discussion of the Wikipedia article.


Are unimpressive grades in core courses an indication of not being competent for a career in the field?

You are overthinking it. First, if you complete your degree and get that first academic job, no one will care anymore what your grades were.

Second, you seem to be implying that your learning ended in those subjects with the courses you took. I think that isn't very likely.

In fact, for teaching purposes, it is sometimes valuable to have had the experience of struggling earlier, so that you have an appreciation for those students that don't find everything easy, or even trivial. You will probably be required to teach students who are not at all like those who go on to earn doctorates - i.e. not at all like you. Every student is different and the strugglers need to be taught along with everyone else.

There are many reasons for mediocre grades, though yours are a bit better than that. I suspect that things may have been hectic at the time and there wasn't time enough to reflect and gain deeper insights. But that level of insight isn't forever closed off to you.

As for the research, in many fields the research is so deep and narrow that it is almost necessary to give up a deep knowledge of other somewhat related, but not essential companion fields.


Is it okay to directly address your reader when writing a scientific paper?

Except when outlining a motivation for a particular section in a paper, I would recommend speaking in third person as much as possible. An example of the exception is:

  Because our primary interest is in ____ we have chosen to follow the method developed by ___.

For your case I would reword your sentence as:

  Depending on the operating system used, the implementation will differ.

Always shift the focus to the things being manipulated, whether it be an experiment, computer program, or anything else.

As for your sentence in the comment you could write it as:

  How the scripts are run is at the user's discretion; it may be interactive, line by line, or in batches, depending on its function.

I have used the at the user's discretion a lot in my work; it's a professional way of saying you can do this part however you like. Also, whenever I have to identify somebody whose completing a task, I try and identify them based on the task they are completing (e.g. the analyst, the user, or the programmer). If you say you, you are assuming that the reader is the one who will be carrying out these tasks, which may not be the case.

If you have to address the reader, then you can say something like:

  For the reader's convenience, the pertinent information has been summarized in Table 5.

or the famous, albeit witty, cop out:

  _____ is left as an exercise for the reader.


Why would professors pay to publish in a good journal?

Note: as pointed out by Pieter Naaijkens, PRL indeed has a publication fee, making most of the original answer incorrect. I've rewritten the answer as a result.

When one pays a publication fee that isn't open access, one is effectively paying the publisher to distribute the paper. Most (subscription) publishers and journals are quite content to distribute the paper for free - a publication fee is bound to reduce submissions, which the journal needs to function. In this sense, Physical Review Letters is very unusual.

I have no knowledge of the internals of PRL, but I will guess that they have more expensive costs than normal because of the numerous full-time PhD scientists they have on their journal staff. They are presumably offsetting some of the costs by charging a publication fee. Cynically, they're able to get away with it because 1) APS is perceived positively by people (even though their open access APCs are on the high end of the market rate) and 2) they're such an important journal (note other APS journals don't have such a fee).

Why would professors pay the publication fee? I imagine the most important reason is because they really want the prestige that comes with publishing in PRL. Other lesser factors could be they like the review process, and because PRL as one of the premier journals in physics has a very wide distribution.


Reference letter on mathjobs - more than one

MathJobs has a demo server which is a good way to see what other roles see.

For a letter already written and uploaded, the letter writer can log back in and select the letter from their list:

This brings up a form with various options for the letter.  One of them is a text field for "Entry Name":

They can type in something descriptive, and then check the box "allow applicant to see Entry Name".  Then click "submit" to save the changes, and confirm on the following screen.

There is a similar "Entry Name" field, and "allow applicant to see" checkbox, when uploading a new letter.

Then as applicant, when you apply for a job that asks for letters, you can click the yellow down arrow to see the list of letters from this writer, and you will see the "Entry Name" description for each one.  It looks like by default all letters from the writer will be available to the employer, but you can click the green check mark to unselect letters that are not appropriate.

(As a general comment, whenever you have a question like this, where you want to do something but can't figure out how, I have found that the MathJobs support staff are extremely helpful.  I've contacted them a few times with queries like "In my obscure situation, it'd be helpful to be able to do X".  Half the time the response has been "Yes, you can already do that, here is how", and the other half it's "That's a good idea, we went ahead and implemented it.  See what you think.")


Does a research group actually review every applicant's documents in case of overwhelming number of applications?

When I get applications to review, I usually do a pre-pass on every application. I look for GPA, test scores, and compliance with requested application materials (i.e. did they even have anyone write them letters of recommendation?). We usually have explicitly stated bottom line cutoffs for GPA and test scores. Those falling below these marks are automatically set to the side.

I next try to scan the research statements / statements of purpose. This eliminates a large amount of the candidates usually.

I then cut the remaining applications into about half. I select who I want to accept from this half stack and order them roughly from strongest to weakest. I then do a spot check to see if anyone in the other half stack is clearly superior to the weaker candidates in the already selected stack. If so, I do an insertion of the new candidate and the weakest person is dropped from the list.

In the end, yes, I've looked at everyone's application, and no, I have not given heartfelt and deep thought to each applicant.

We then send out an accept/reject form email to every applicant. I very rarely even reply at length to students who fight their rejection.


How much is a PhD worth without publications or a reputation?

It's worth quite a bit, especially if you're going into industry. Even if you have no publications, you still have the PhD title. I know of quite a few employers where simply having a PhD means you are awarded a higher starting salary even if your job scope and title are the same as others.

As for the things themselves: publications is less important but references still matter.

Publications: if you look at a typical job advertisement in industry, they don't say "you must have published 45 papers" or anything like that - these kind of criteria can determine promotion from assistant professor to associate professor for example, but are simply irrelevant when it comes to finding a job in industry. As long as you can demonstrate you have the skills to do the job, you have a chance at landing it.

Nonetheless, a savvy HR person might notice that you have no publications, which will be unusual (people with PhDs have generally published at least something). Before going to a job interview, I'd prepare a response to this question if asked.

References: there aren't many jobs that require references, but they exist. These are typically very important jobs where the company can't afford to make a mistake in the hiring process. The process might involve multiple interviews, aptitude tests, and references, before you are hired.

The good news is this kind of job is rare. It might happen for example if a company is replacing its CEO, which is not the kind of job you'll be ready for fresh out of grad school in any case. You can also get references from people other than your supervisor. The bad news is, if you are asked to provide a reference, you have to provide one.


How to ask student for more information in order to grant makeup final

Unless this is a very urgent trip, then there's no way I'd allow the change.  There are always students who want to play "airfare wars."  They buy airline tickets for a date half-way through finals, knowing full well they might have an exam scheduled late.  They think that coming to me and showing me their ticket, "But I already spent $480 on tickets!"  will leverage compliance from me.  The best they'll get from me for their manipulation is that I'll give them an incomplete and give them their final MUCH later (so they have to retain their fresh knowledge a couple months.)

If his sister is getting married or the Army Reserves has called him up or is mother is hit by a bus, then OK, I'm happy to accommodate.  But I didn't take "But I have plans" from my own children as an excuse.

I'll mention here that my syllabus contains a sentence that says plainly that I won't budge just because you already bought your ticket.

To your specific question, I'd say to, or e-mail the student and say something like, "Unless this is a crisis, then I can't move the date of your exam."  Then it's up to him to convince you that it's a crisis.


Have people been prosecuted for using fake degrees?

See here for one case:

http://www.employeescreen.com/iqblog/fake-degree-leads-to-arrest/

And here's the official announcement:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doi/downloads/pdf/pr46feraca05_26_2010.pdf

Apparently, in the US, one can be charged with "criminal possession of a forged instrument" and "offering a false instrument for filing".

However, this case concerns a fake degree from a real institution. As noted below, the Diploma Mill case is much more complex. See here for a discussion of the legal issues:

https://journals.law.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/stanford-law-policy-review/print/2010/01/gollin_21_stan._l._poly_rev._1.pdf


How to respond to "When are you graduating" when I'm behind

It is well known that "When are you graduating?" or even "How is your research going?" can be touchy questions among graduate students.  But this is well known in part because they get asked these questions constantly, including by each other.  And even if they can be unpleasant to answer, they are still fair questions.  I'm not sure that the problem lies where you think it does.

  I'm working solely on my dissertation project now, and I'm working as quickly as I can.

That's a pretty defensive thing to say straight out of the gate.  Basically you sound like you want to ward off in advance any thought of optimizing or improving your path to the PhD.  An academic who sees no room for improvement is setting the bar pretty low.  I am a tenured faculty member, and if you came to me saying, "I think you could work faster / more efficiently / with greater output if..." then believe me, you would have my attention.

  We have group meetings once in a while. Another faculty member and his student also attends because they collaborate with my advisor. In the past several meetings, my advisor has been too busy to attend.

Forgive my prying, but I have already seen something that to me looks more serious than some other faculty member asking you some questions you don't like.  Your advisor is too busy to attend your group meetings?  You know, I think you might work more quickly if....

  When I say "no" "I don't know" etc., he has an expression of concern (or maybe pity).

Both concern and pity are positive emotions.  This guy sounds like he is -- you got it -- concerned about you.  The fact that he is showing up at several consecutive meetings while your advisor is not makes me think that he is indicating a desire to help you out.

  I am really annoyed by this. It's like someone keeps on asking me about my fish when it died recently.

I find your simile to be pretty strange, but I'll try to play along: isn't it like he's asking about your living fish who has looked a bit less than healthy recently?  Maybe I'm not getting the picture: who or what has died in your recent life, metaphorically speaking?

  I'm already under enough stress trying to do research.

Yes, you sound like you are very stressed out.  People who are too stressed out are not doing things in the best possible way, or even in a healthy way.  Most commonly there is some kind of disconnect between their future hopes and their present actions.  Talking through that kind of dissonance, and adjusting either or both, could be very helpful.

  The last thing I need is someone reminding me I'm behind schedule - it's demotivating.

If being reminded that you're behind schedule is demotivating, then something seems off-kilter.  Being reminded that you're behind schedule should be motivating, unless the schedule is not reasonable, in which case that should be directly addressed with your advisor.  If it has been, then the problem seems to be that you haven't been honest enough about your situation.  If he expects you to graduate next semester because you're an Nth year student, and you and your advisor have decided that you're not going to graduate until the following semester, just say so.

  Not to mention this makes me look bad in front of my group mates.

Your group mates should know your situation better than someone who has been sitting in for a few weeks, so I don't really understand why this makes you look bad.  Unless they don't understand your situation and these questions are revealing it....which is not the visiting professor's fault.

  What should I do? Tell him bluntly "it's none of his business"? Stop attending group meetings?

Stop attending group meetings?!?  Presumably the group meetings are an important part of your own research and progress [although with your advisor absent, I have to wonder...], in which case not going would be a terrible overreaction.  (If they are really not valuable, then okay, don't go.  You'll work more quickly without having that waste of time.  But tell your advisor about it: why is he having you go to meetings that are a waste of your time?)

I think the bottom line is that this faculty member is trying to be helpful, but if you have fallen into an interaction with him that from your perspective is only getting you down, then you should talk to him directly about that.  I would suggest making an appointment with him privately and at that appointment have the conversation that he wants to have all at once.  Tell him about your situation.  You can tell him that you think he might be concerned about you but that now that he knows Extra Information X, you hope that he can see that you are now firmly on track.  If he disagrees, then he can share his opinion with you privately and perhaps even give you some actual help.  At any rate, one can only ask questions like "Have you formed your committee yet?" "How many years have you been here?" so many times.  If you give him the chance to spend as much time as he wants asking those questions, then with any luck he won't ask them again at your group meetings, and if he does you can say, justly, "We discussed this thoroughly last week, so I don't want to take up everyone else's time revisiting it now.  We can talk later if you like."

Anyway, please don't dismiss the idea that this faculty member could help you out.  Good luck.


Is it acceptable that a teacher assistant encourage students to read his authored materials too?

Your role as a teaching assistant is to further the educational goals of the course (as determined by the instructor and/or the department).

If encouraging your students to read these materials furthers the educational goals of the course, then you should do so. If not, then you shouldn't.

Since the instructor and/or the department determines what the educational goals of the class are, you should check with them first, and use your extra material only with their approval. (Besides for the issue of making sure your material is consistent with the goals of the course, it also makes sense for them to be aware of what is going on.)


Is it possible to claim my Elsevier submitted papers on my ORCID publication list?

No! Unless you uploaded a copy of your submitted paper to public preprint server like PeerJ Preprints, ArXiv or BioRxiv. If you uploaded a public preprint you can add that to your ORCID profile.

Extra note: About your published works, as you know, you can add your publications from any publisher to your ORCID profile (after you sign-in to your ORCID account) by clicking on "Add Works".

More information is given here: http://orcid.org/blog/2013/12/05/i-claimed-my-orcid-id-now-what

I'd recommend the CrossRef Metadata Search as often the easiest method of importing one's publications, provided those publications have a registered DOI.


What constitutes a proper scientific result in Computer Science?

Coming from a similar research area myself, I can say that in practice the borders between science and engineering are often not clear-cut in applied computer science.

That being said, usually, the starting point of our  research is indeed a hypothesis, but more of the style it is possible to build a system that does X using Y in order to achieve Z. (and, consequently, this new way is better in some meaningful regards than the traditional way of doing it via X^*). Naturally, the way to falsify such an hypothesis is to set out and do a proof-of-concept, optimally in a realistic setting, and compare it against the traditional way.

Note that the proof-of-concept implementation here is not the scientific output. It is a vehicle for scientific validation. The scientific output is the knowledge that X can indeed be usefully done via Y to achieve Z. Maybe, the proof-of-concept can be improved into an open source tool or product (either by the researchers directly or by partner companies), but this productization is not science anymore - this is pure engineering (we know that it can be done, but now it needs to be done properly, which takes time, effort, and domain knowledge - all things that researchers often don't have in spades).

As such, to answer your question:

  Is the resulting software a scientific or an engineering result?

It is not the scientific result, but it was used to validate the scientific result. It may be considered an engineering result (depending on the quality of the proof-of-concept).

  What would constitute a proper scientific result?

I strongly dislike the term proper in this context, as it implies an ordering of value between science and engineering.


Holding a PhD in math would usually disqualify you from being admitted into a PhD program in mathematics. Even if it does not do so officially, I'd consider it next to impossible to get scholarships.

That said, being a postdoc in math is not really much different from being a PhD student. However, even being a postdoc forever is not easy. Many funding sources have restrictions on how long ago your PhD may have been - after 5 years you already have fewer options, and continuing long after 10 years will see you face exclusion from many funding sources, as well as a strong social pressure to get a "proper" job (i.e., a faculty position).


How to transfer or delete a Google Scholar profile from my own account?

Google Scholar profiles are not transferable. But you can delete the Google Scholar profile from your own account. Then create a new profile while signed in to your advisor's account.

To delete the Scholar profile from your own account, go to Google Scholar and click on "Settings":

then click on "Account":

then click on "Delete or recover your Scholar account."

There, you'll have to affirm that you are sure you'd like to delete the account, and that you understand you have 30 days to change your mind. Check all the boxes, then click "Delete account":


Is it common to allow professional compulsory activities over personal activities?

This is a US specific answer, perhaps, but yes, some of the things you describe are done, but it requires some perspective. For example, if you are working as a TA in a course there may be requirements on the timing of getting grading done so that feedback can be given to the students in a timely way. These may be university requirements, actually, but could be made by an individual. But I would expect to be told of these requirements early on so that I could schedule my other activities, work and life, around them.
The second kind are also done, if less frequently, but I'd expect to have some notice and I'd expect them to be rare. While you describe them as "voluntary", others would call them "professional". They take time and effort, but can pay you dividends as well. A professor may treat them as part of your professional training.
But imposing chaos on your life is bad. You need advance notice and the opportunity to schedule.
I'll note also, that professors have such requirements thrust on them as well, especially until they earn tenure. And even afterwards, the educational mission of the university has to be kept moving forward.


How do academics reconcile simultaneously collaborating and competing with colleagues?

How do you handle in every day life, at conferences, in hallway conversations this paradox of collaborating and competing at the same time in academia?

I ignore it, except around known jerks.  I'm lucky enough to work in a research community that generally values collaboration over back-stabbing.  There are a few exceptions, of course, but they fall under the category of "known jerks".  I'd much rather gain a coauthor and get the result out together than to keep secrets and risk being scooped.

Yes, I have developed coauthors this way.  Yes, I have published papers this way that might not have been published otherwise.  Yes, I have been scooped, but only by people I had not discussed my ideas with.

Your mileage may vary.

  How do you determine what to share?

I don't share ideas or problems that students (either mine or not) are actively working on, without the students' explicit permission.  Otherwise, I'm open about everything, except around known jerks.  In particular, if you want my latest grant proposal, just ask.

  Do you avoid colleagues who are known to 'tell only the minimum' at congresses and then surprise later with an accepted grant?

No.  Why should I?


Should a program I have not finished yet be mentioned in the SOP?

If the experience was positive for you in some way, then sure, you can talk about it.  For example, perhaps it gave you a greater appreciation for what research entails, or the scientific method, or it made you excited to get to school every day, etc. etc.

If you only have one sentence about it, then don't include it in the essay.  You can always mention it briefly somewhere else in the application.


How to deal with my own sloppy research published when I was an undergrad?

Just don't worry about it, and keep doing your current good work.

It's pretty cool that you were able to publish a paper at all as an undergraduate.  Anybody who notices your old paper will primarily notice that.  The sloppiness will reflect much more on your senior co-authors (who should have been expected to know better, and educate you likewise) than yourself.  And if you didn't have much more experienced co-authors, so much more cool and understandable.

Do good work now, and the sloppiness of your undergraduate paper will simply fade into insignificance.


Should a programming Instructor urge students to use more efficient practices?

I'm not a coder but I am familiar with learning something for the first time. As a teacher, you have reached a level of mastery that allows you to do things automatically. As such, you are able to monitor your learning and catch mistakes that you make.

Students on the other hand, are completely overwhelmed with learning the basics of your field. We all remember learning to tie our shoes and or driving a car. There were many things that were not done in the most efficient manner when we learned these skills. Now however, these skills come second nature and we all have are own shortcuts to do them that we expect are children to acquire the first time we teach them, which of course they don't to our frustration.

In short, your students are experiencing cognitive overload just learning the basics and cannot process doing more than what they are doing now. Once the learn it the hard way they will start looking for ways to be efficient and fast. At this point, you can stretch them by showing them the faster way. To expect industry standard from a rookie is perhaps asking for too much from cognitive perspective.


How to respond to a possible supervisor asking for a CV I don't have

The professor probably doesn't want to see your CV in order to determine your competence, but to see your previous research experience, to provide some structure for your conversation.
I'm a bit surprised you don't have a CV from your application to grad school, but regardless, it shouldn't take you more than a few hours to make one, and you'll probably need it in future anyway.


Obviously we can't answer this question explicitly for you, since it's an opinion.  But I would approach it with this thought process, and maybe you would find it helpful too:

First, I would hold each option up against an outside third option of not doing a PhD at all.  Assuming an average outcome, would be willing to chance an engineering PhD if it meant a lack of funding and job opportunities?  Repeat with the second option - would you be willing to suffer through a social science degree you don't necessarily love, just to have better prospects?  Or would you rather do whatever it is you would do without a PhD?

If both of those answers are that you would rather do the PhD, I think the real thought needs to fall on the second option.  A PhD is a huge, often demoralizing undertaking.  You will almost certainly want to quit at times.  And while most fields, as you said, allow some interdisciplinary flexibility, at least at first you will almost certainly be immersed entirely in the field itself.  Do you enjoy this field enough that it could sustain you through down periods?

Also, European and US programs are often quite different, in particular in that US PhD programs start right out of undergrad, then do several years of coursework that earns you an incidental Masters, followed by your research.  European programs generally require you to have your Masters coursework done already, then you come in to the program just to do your own research.  Make sure you're familiar with the structure of the programs you're interested in - it's possible that might help narrow your choices down some.

I would also add, especially for the engineering program, that you should talk to some people who have gone through it if you haven't already.  Find out first-hand how good or bad the opportunities were.

Good luck!


To answer some of your questions:

While there's no set guideline, education often comes first. You should include the university where you earned your BS/BA (list major, GPA, and any honors), masters university (field, GPA, and thesis title if applicable), and doctorate university (field, GPA, thesis title). High school and similar degrees (including A-levels) should not be listed. Note that a brief (one to three sentence) explanation of your masters and thesis work may be useful here; most people in industry won't have any idea what "Detailed Sprockification of Remonstrantized Grommits in Hypernormalized Framistans" means, so a short layperson description will show (1) that you can communicate and (2) that you did cool stuff that they can understand.
Work experience should include company, position title, responsibilities. You can summarize responsibilities in bullet points or short (two to three sentence) paragraphs, it makes no difference either way.

To answer some things you left out:

Strongly consider adding an Objective Statement to the beginning of your resume. It should summarize your career goals in a sentence. Check out this website which I found on Google for some discussion of what this is.
Include publications, teaching experience, grants awarded, trainees mentored, and notable community service (awards received, board memberships, etc).


Is it better to add a transcript of a non-completed degree for a master's degree admission?

Many universities will demand a full transcript of your academic history, so, in that case, you will need to attach both (or a combined) transcript(s) to your application.

Even if they only ask for the transcript of your main studies, you might want to attach the transcript for the math lectures and exercises. Especially in this case, where math acts perfectly as a supporting discipline for a phyiscs major.


Why do American universities receive lots of endowments?

There is a greater tradition of alumni giving in America, which European universities are trying to also foster (especially in the public funding cuts to universities seen in the UK).

In America there are also generous tax breaks when giving money to charities and foundations which encourages gifting.


Do universities in the UK start making PhD admission decisions before the application period is closed?

This is kind of complicated.  There are in theory two stages of acceptance at a British university:  getting accepted, and then getting funded.  Generally, any student can get accepted if and only if a supervisor says they are willing to take them as a student.  Getting funding is harder because that is in more limited supply. If funding is allocated to the department or faculty, then probably it will go to the best student, but it may well go to a particular supervisor instead, e.g. a new young lecturer that is seen as needing extra support, or someone whose current research project is seen as important or promising, or just someone who hasn't had a student for a while. But quite a lot of funding is won by particular supervisors themselves, in which case they advertise a studentship like a job, and review as many applicants as they can and pick the best one. This can happen any time of the year.  Actually, so can the departmental funding -- you never know when the university, government or some benefactor will suddenly come up with money they want spent.

I said "in theory there are two stages": in practice, sometimes a prospective student (perhaps one responding to an advertisement, or just one who's folder has been sitting on a desk a while) is clearly the best applicant for some funding, and there is a sudden rush to formally accept that applicant so that they can be put forward for the funding! In the specific case you mention, there will normally be a competition between supervisors for the funding (not all of the advertised possible positions might be filled) so there will be a deadline that allows departments to compare the applicants.  But a truly outstanding applicant might still be made an early offer, if the committee is certain from past experience that they are likely to get the offer anyway, and if they are concerned the student might get snapped up by another university if they wait.

In general, and in any country, it's important to apply to multiple universities because there is such a large chance component in getting accepted, even if you are very good.  Certainly in the UK you should contact specific supervisors in advance and show them convincing evidence that you will help with their research and are likely to get funded.  This means showing you've read (or at least read about) their work, and that your record to date is very promising (e.g. already having published papers helps a lot with university funding.)  If you don't already have an outstanding resume, it might be a good idea to pay for a masters degree and then try to get a publication out of your dissertation project, or try to get a lab position where you can help with publications.

If you've done all that, and are not sure you can wait to find out if you got the funding you most want, be sure to let the person who might be your supervisor and your director of studies know that.  Not every supervisor will know all the options, but the director of studies should, but your supervisor is your main champion.  Good luck!


Don't want someone else to continue on the topic of my thesis

Congratulations on the successful defence of your thesis. If at all possible, take some time to relax.

I understand your concern, but you have no real reason to worry. In general, there is always room for more research on any given topic. Now, anyone who wishes to advance your work will either be more senior than yourself or working for someone more senior than yourself. It will be their responsibility to decide if they want to invest their time and energy in the project.

If you are ever contacted about your thesis, then you can explain why you are less optimistic today, than you were in the past. It is very likely that the other person has some fresh ideas and together you may move forward.


As a postdoc, how to deal with supervisor who keeps trying to involve my student in other projects?

This is a tough one.  The German academic system is more of a pyramid than in the U.S. Too often, the guy at the top of the pyramid got there by, shall we say, not being the politest, most patient piglet in the litter.  So I understand your reluctance to assert yourself.

I also understand your resentment of the boss setting up distractions for your student.  You have described a pattern of subtle sabotage.  The student should be your responsibility.  From your point of view (and mine), the boss has no right to butt in.  From his point of view, he has every right, because he is the great man, who has earned a high position of great respect, and has years of wisdom and good judgment to draw on.  Since you are the student's advisor, and the boss is your advisor, the boss concludes that he has the ultimate responsibility for the student.

I think the dilemma you are in is inherent to the hierarchical structure of German academia.  I've never heard of a situation like what you described, in the U.S.  In the U.S., which is the academic system I am most familiar with, post-docs don't advise PhD students.  But, from what I know of the German system, my guess is that it is not extremely common, but not rare either.  Is that about right?

I hope you can get a different job soon....  In the meantime, the best that I can offer is empathy.  Possibly you could talk this over with the department chair, or with the equivalent of the dean of the graduate program?  Or could you say to the boss, "Frank (I made that name up) is very interested in such-and-so project that you have proposed for him, but he can only spend x % of his time on it (e.g. 10%), because his primary responsibility is his principal project."  In other words, start with an assertive stance, but be prepared to negotiate somewhat on the percentage.

I wonder if there are any gender aspects of this?  If so, is there an office at your institute that supports women in tricky gender situations?

Have you talked things over with the student?  Perhaps he feels some divided loyalties, and finds it difficult not to defer to the big name?


What is an academic and formal way to define variables?

The academic way to define variables is to simply describe them in the text. For instance,

  F = ma,
  where F is the force acting on the point mass m and a is the acceleration.

In fact, we want scientific texts to be readable, and not overburdened with unnecessary and obscure notations. Symbols have their role, but don't overuse them. Even more, a symbol like the triple bar has different technical meanings in different disciplines and using it in that way may just generate confusion.


What could be the possible consequence if a professor knows about a student's review?

This totally depends on country, culture etc. (unfortunately, no country tag is given).

A student can of course always file a request. However, this situation sounds so unlikely (how should the student know that the professor guessed and takes revenge) that, without any more evidence, this request will always certainly be dimissed. (And there are also places where no stuff members cares at all about any requests, even if there was proof given.)


What are the things one should consider when invited to contribute a book chapter?

It almost certainly won't earn you any money.

It probably won't be read by many people. It will be cited by even fewer.

The collaboration may lead to future projects together.

It may involve a lot of work.

You might enjoy the process. Or hate it.

It may or may not help your career progression, depending on your field, your career to date, and the posts you apply to. If it's a book that will become a standard for one or more taught courses, your contribution may be crucial for your future teaching career.

In this particular case, when the putative author is a rising young authority in an engineering field, it's a rapidly-developing field that's attracting significant international interest, and many universities are introducing new courses in the area, then, (depending on the publisher, the other authors, and the other chapters) there's potential for the book to have quite a significant audience, so contributing to the book chapter would be attractive.


How to deal with a student lacking commitment

First of all, people are not mind readers; so first tell the student that he/she needs to work harder. and then:

Longer Time Intervals: This worked for me for number of students. Basically double the time intervals between meetings. So for example, if you meet the student every week, tell him/her that his/her progress is not satisfactory so meet me in two weeks time and tell me what you did.

Warning With a Help of a Senior: Then give a warning for the next time interval, and tell the student if he/she keep working like this, you will not support him/her anymore. For this, it is better to have a senior lecturer (e.g., head of a group) in the meeting as well.

Refuse of Support With a Help of a Senior: Then, if the student progress is not satisfactory, have another meeting with the student and with the help of a senior lecturer let the student know that you did you best and because of the student's lack of progress you are not willing to work with him/her anymore. So, he student needs to find another supervisor to work with him/her.


I have been invited to peer review a manuscript for a reputable journal. This is my first so I have a few questions to the more experienced

It is not unusual that PhD students get invited as reviewers, after all a PhD student will likely be a true expert in the field of the PhD. If you are a student during your first years of study, the request may be a little premature, generally speaking but if your are in your final year then it will be a good experience. What you need to consider is whether you can provide an insightful review of parts of or preferably the entire paper. You should have a sense of why you were invited, i.e. why your expertise may have been asked for.

Peer review is a vital part of the publishing process so getting experience of reviewing other's material is very worthwhile. If you continue in academia this will be expected of you so you will have to start sometime. You can definitely add reviewing for journals in your CV, not mentioning what you reviewed but certainly for what journal you have reviewed.

If yo have not done a review before you should probably ask someone (or preferable more than one) more experienced within your field for a brief outline of what should be included in the review and how to formulate the review.


If my lecture is done via a presentation (not my preferred method, but necessary for some classes), I record the audio of my lectures along with a "video" of the slides I use. I use Camtasia to record everything, so the only other thing I need is a microphone.

When I give lectures at the blackboard I don't record them. However, for those lectures I provide a fairly detailed set of course notes.


My paper's content is slightly changed from the abstract I have submitted to a conference, can I edit the accepted abstract on my poster?

I work in astronomy.

I have never heard of anyone in authority at a conference complain about a slight deviation from a submitted abstract.

I suggest writing your poster on your new direction, with a corresponding abstract.

I would also submit your amended abstract to the LOC of the conference as soon as possible. Mention that your work has taken a slight turn but the main topic and co-authors are unchanged.

If there is time, the LOC can include your amended abstract on any web-page or hard-copy documentation. Apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause the LOC and ask nicely that they make these amendments, if possible.

Even if these documents cannot be altered, I doubt that anyone is going to get upset that your new abstract is not exactly the same that you originally submitted.


Is it a good idea to add a link/reference to experience or relieving letters in CV?

I personally have several links in my CV:

Links to my publications. This allows for a reader to quickly find my publications without having to search.
A link to GitHub. This allows for a reader to see the code that I have produced.
A link to LinkedIn. This allows for a reader to interact with me on LinkedIn if they so choose.
A link to my Math Genealogy. Just for interest's sake.
A link to my university page. My university is sometimes confused with another university in the area (similar names...it's a long story). This is to clarify which university I am speaking of. And it lets readers see what my department is up to.

When I am looking at a CV, if it has a number of tasteful links, I am rather likely to click on them and see what they are about. (Excessive linking can be overkill and a distraction of course). I am never in a situation where I am having to go through hundreds of CVs at a time, so I usually have time to explore links. And even if your CV is in an environment where the reader does not have time to click on links, why would it matter if you had links? So they do not look at them. It's not the end of the world.
I personally would include links to resources that help support your CV. (Like I said, do not over do it). Even a relieving letter would be okay in some cases. If the reader is not interested, they don't have to click the link. It's that simple.  But for me, I honestly might click on a relieving letter and read it. If it reflected positively on the candidate, that would never be a bad thing in my mind.


How can I avoid inadvertently offending my female peers and getting into trouble for it?

When I step on someone's foot in a crowded subway, I apologize, even if I didn't do it on purpose. I don't refuse to say I'm sorry, I don't imply in a sarcastic way that the other person should have gotten their foot out of the way, I don't suggest that it cannot have hurt all that much, and I don't tell them they should relax, it's just a prank.

If you read the full story, you will see that Prof X's problems really started when he reached out to Prof Y to tell her she was wrong and had no right to complain, and even further refused to formally apologize when asked to. When you read the organization's reasoning, you see that they also consider that it is not so much the intent of the actions that matters, but rather the consequences and hurt they caused.

So I would suggest apologizing if someone tells you that your actions hurt them, instead of telling them that they had no right to feel hurt. Showing that you are a human being capable of empathy helps, usually. I have never witnessed an attempt at going down the second route that worked out well.


Should I talk about myself while writing a letter of recommendation for a student?

Only write about yourself if it clarifies why your opinion would be specifically relevant to judge the student.

The reference is about the student, not yourself. Where more information about yourself is required to understand what you wish to say about the student, provide it. Otherwise, leave it out. The recipient will have to make up their mind as to whether you are (for them) a suitable referee or not.


Based on a little Googling, his white paper sounds like a preproposal. It is likely a short overview over your research project: the problem you are working on, your approach to solving it, how much it will cost, and what you and/or the agency will get out of it. Consider this white paper an outline of your full proposal.

Many agencies will ask for these if they expect a particular program or funding opportunity will have a high response or if the purpose of the program is to provide a single large award to one project. The prepreposals are used to narrow the field before they ask for full proposals from a smaller set of submitters.

I have not been successful at finding examples, since proposals and affiliated documents are almost never released unless they are funded. However, I have found some tips for preparing white papers from Rochester Institute of Technology and Purdue.


Unless you're specifically applying for a MS in graphic design, your CV should, first and foremost, show off your academic and research accomplishments, not your graphic design skills.

Keep it simple.   Creativity is fine; good typography is great; but emphasize the content.  The fourth image on that page (with the blue dot) is much more suitable.

Good design is invisible.  A bright yellow background is not invisible.  Therefore....


My research work stolen and published as his own by the co-author without my consent

Let me echo scaaahu's excellent advice: Calm down.  Obviously you're scared, and with good reason, but you need to approach the situation calmly and professionally.  Otherwise, even if you are in the right it will be difficult for other people to take your concerns seriously.

Your comments suggest (to me) that the situation is not as straightforward as your initial post describes.  Without considerably more detail about what  happened — which would be inappropriate for you to post here — it's difficult to make specific suggestions.

I think you need to discuss the situation with someone who understands both the politics in your department and the publication culture in your field.  Find another senior faculty member in your department (or in a different department, or in the dean's office) who you can trust to keep confidence.  (Yes, this can be difficult, but ask around.)  Write up a timeline of events in advance, and make copies of documentation for each event in the timeline.  Calmly and carefully describe the situation.  Just present the facts; don't panic, and don't accuse.  (One of the facts is "I'm scared"; that's okay.)  Ask your confidant how to proceed.  Listen to them.

In the best case, this is a simple misunderstanding, and talking to an informed but neutral third party is the best way to convince you to relax.  In the worst case, your department chair is being egregiously unethical, and in particular threatening your chances at graduation, in which case you absolutely need a senior faculty advocate to help you navigate the resulting political mine field.  (Your primary goal in this case should be to graduate and get out, not to optimize your grade or to punish your department chair.)  Most likely, the actual situation is somewhere in between those two extremes.

Good luck.


Can you teach at a community college with a master's degree?

I teach physics at a community college and have been on a number of hiring committees for full-time positions, as well as participating in a bunch of hires of part-timers. Different departments and different individuals have different priorities. Some full-timers who have a master's might actually feel threatened by a PhD applying for a part-time position. Often we get applications, for both full- and part-time positions, from people with PhD's that clearly show that the applicant has no real interest in teaching and thinks it should be easy to get a community college job as a fallback. A PhD will typically be somewhat of an advantage in applying for a part-time job, especially if the course to be taught is at a high academic level (e.g., differential equations). The bigger problem is your lack of teaching experience.

There is a lot of randomness involved, and you can maximize your chances if you're in a big urban area and apply for a lot of jobs. Sometimes a full-timer gets sick or there is some other last-minute reason to hire someone to teach a class. In these emergency situations, you basically have to be available, meet the minimum qualifications, and give a non-disastrous interview.

The fact that you want to teach in the evening is a good thing. Many full-timers don't want to teach evening classes, so often those are the hardest to find a teacher for.

I think MHH is right that this discussion is going to be more valuable if we widen it to include full-time positions. For full-time positions, the value of a PhD seems to vary greatly. At my school, for example, the math department has 3 PhD's and 27 people with masters', while the natural science division has 21 with PhD's and 11 with masters'. One department clearly considers a PhD more important than the other does. This may be partly because the math department's offerings are bottom-heavy with remedial classes. For a full-time position, there will typically be a list of minimum qualifications, which are set by law, and a list of desirable qualifications. The two biggies on the list of desirable qualifications are teaching experience and a PhD. It helps if you have both.

When we hire for a part-time position, we're hiring someone to teach a specific course. If the course is low level, then we don't care as much about whether the candidate has a PhD. When we hire a full-timer, theoretically we want someone who can teach every course their department offers, but realistically we usually have something more specific in mind. When someone with a master's is hired full-time, usually that person ends up getting slotted into teaching gen ed courses, remedial courses, or other low-level courses for the rest of their career. Many people are very happy in such a slot, e.g., I hear that many folks in math see teaching remedial math as their ideal job, and they have no interest at all in teaching calculus.


You should absolutely inform your co-authors

These people care about your career. They will be your recommenders, they will help you find jobs. People will ask them about your work. "Hey, I just won a big prize" is something I'd want to know if it was one of my students or postdocs - because I'd proceed to cheerfully show off the awesome work people in my lab are doing.

You can broach the subject of splitting the prize with them, but personally you did the presentation, and you won the award. If I was on the paper, I'd settle for a warm fuzzy feeling.


Is a PhD needed after an MD or DO if one wants to pursue a research career?

Look at it this way; an MD says you are qualified to practice medicine, and a PhD says you are qualified to do research. In theory you could practice medicine without an MD (it'd be illegal in many countries but not having an MD does not mean you don't have medical knowledge), and likewise you could do research, especially part-time, without a PhD.

Leaving semantics aside, having that degree significantly increases your chances of pursuing a career in a particular field. If you intend on leaving the clinic and devoting your time and energy to research I'd say that a PhD would be expected, when you look for jobs. Whether or not you can bypass that expectation with other qualifications would be speculation.

As it turns out an MD & PhD combination is... uhmmm how to put it delicately..  "so money". :)

I say you put your hat in front of you, figure what you want to do, and go for it. Many doctors here (in Sweden) go for a double degree and it is definitely not something that's frowned upon. On the contrary, in many cases it is an additional merit for future promotions.


Why do editors sometimes accept a paper even if a reviewer recommends rejection?

It is up to the editor whether to accept or reject. The reviewers only make recommendations.  Even if the reviewers give positive recommendations, the editor can decide to reject a paper.

If both reviewers give negative recommendations, it is much less likely for the editor to accept a paper. If there is a mix of opinions the editor  has to make a judgment, subject to whatever internal procedures the journal has in place. It seems like, this time, the decision was favorable for you.


How should a teacher approach a student with distractingly strong perfume?

I might ask quietly and privately to speak to the student immediately after class. At that point, when no one else is present, I would politely say, "I am sensitive to the strength of your perfume". After that, I would let the conversation unfold. When the student would be defensive, I would just politely repeat the one statement "I am sensitive to the strength of your perfume". I might add "This is a health-related issue for me, as much as an allergy might be. It could eventually affect how I could continue to teach in the class". I would NOT ask or even suggest the student should NOT wear the perfume or take any action. I would hope the student would volunteer that step.


Pretending pure math is applied math for grant funding

This won't be a direct answer to your query, but I hope will be useful advice. First, if you must do pure math and you must get funding to do it, then you have no option but to apply. If you don't apply, you don't get funded.

Next, being devious isn't going to help you and will likely be recognized, as you fear.

However, on some time scale, all mathematics is applied. The time scale may be long, of course. In my personal case, it took about thirty years for someone to find an application for my "beautiful" but extremely arcane dissertation to find application. I'd predicted that it would never be done. But thirty years isn't very long, so that doesn't help you directly.

You work in some subfield of mathematics, of course. It might be very narrow and it might be a currently popular subfield, or not. But it is likely that others in the same subfield, or a closely related one, have seen applications of their work to some problems. If you can learn what those applications have been, you have the basis for a statement that "Advanced work in X has been known to contribute to Y as evidenced by (citation)". That isn't devious, or phony.

But note that "applied" is actually a continuum, not a discrete thing. Pure is pretty far to one end of the continuum, but it isn't disconnected from the other. But it will take some investigation on your part, and I suspect that you are good at that sort of thing.


Publishing phd work after joining another institute for job

I had the same thing recently and was advised to include both if you have used any resources (including time) while working at the new institute on the paper. I chatted with my advisor at the new institute and we agreed that as any work I had done on my PhD paper was done in my spare time, not during time my new institute was paying me for, I didn't need to include them as an affiliation.

But if you're taking significant chunks of the working day to work on this paper (including during review response) and the institute is paying you for that time, I would include them, as they have then been funding the time you're spending to work on it. Also in my case, I totally switched fields to one my new institute doesn't do any work in so they didn't really want their name on my old work.


As the official DOI FAQ mentions, you need to go through a recognized registration agency to get a DOI:

  How do I get a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for my material?

  You must use a service offered by a DOI Registration Agency (RA). RAs
  collect metadata, assign DOI names, and offer other services such as
  reference linking or metadata lookup. See the list of RAs, and contact
  the ones whose services best meet your needs. If you do not see an
  appropriate application listed, consider approaching an existing RA or
  developing a community to build the service you require (see the DOI
  Handbook, 8 Registration Agencies, for more information). You do not
  need to be a member of the International DOI Foundation in order to
  work with an RA.

Now, you don't necessarily need to go directly through one of the listed  Registration Agencies (of which Crossref is one). Often the Registration Agencies have arrangements with other agencies to assign DOIs. (e.g. arrangements Crossref makes with publishers) If you go through those sub-agencies you can also get DOIs, though they may come with limitations.

Depending on your affiliations, there may already be a sub-agency arrangement in place. For example, the Harvard, CERN, and the British Library have arrangements in place with DataCite for providing DOIs to their materials, and there appear to be facilities in place by their national research councils for allowing DOI assigments to datasets from a number of countries.

There are a couple of places which have an "open" policy on submitting and assigning DOIs to material, regardless of affiliation. The ones I know of are Zenodo, Figshare and Dataverse. -- These are mostly based around datasets and Supporting-Material-type information (though not necessarily attached to any publication), so if you attempt to use them for other purposes you may fall afoul of their Terms of Service. They're also limited to assigning DOIs for material that is uploaded to their servers (so no DOIs for third-party websites).

If you're looking to attach a DOI to a biology-related publication, bioArXiv assigns DOIs to submitted pre-prints (though the math/physics arXiv does not, and there are some reasons for that. - Though keep in mind that pre-publication release of articles (at least in the Biology field) may limit where you can publish.

If those options don't work for you (say you're starting a new journal and wish to assign DOIs to publications hosted on your own website), then you probably don't have much choice other than to go through one of the DOI Registration Agencies. Note that there's several of them, not just CrossRef, so it may pay to talk to others to see if you can come to an arrangement that's more suitable.


PhD in Education - How competitive is it and what are admissions committees looking for?

It sounds like, on the whole, you're in a pretty good place regarding your credentials. Have you checked out the Grad Cafe? The forums there are a fantastic resources for people in the process of applying.


Alma mater (USA) refuses to remove my name from public search

In the United States, educational records - including the fact of your enrollment in this particular course - are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

FERPA prohibits disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records without the student's consent (except for directory information, which class enrollment is not - and you also have the right to limit disclosure of directory information, on request).

You can contact the professor and insist that he remove your information from his site, as he is illegally disclosing course enrollment without your consent. You can also find out who fields FERPA complaints and questions at that university (typically the registrar's office) and ask them for help in limiting disclosure of your education records. If this doesn't help, you may file a FERPA complaint here.


List of Subject Dependencies for building a subject taxonomy

I think that prerequisites do not apply to topics and subjects, but to lectures and books. For example, I can tell you what you have to know to follow my course on calculus, but it is quite difficult to say what you have to know before you can understand a derivative. You can either take the real numbers for granted, or give a fake-definition via Cauchy-sequences or Dedikind cuts, or give a real definition within the framework of a fixed set theory. Bourbakists would choose the latter, while all courses I know, which are actually aimed at first year students, pick one of the first two options.

Another problem is that prerequisites are subject to substitutions. If subject A is considered important, and subject B is not part of the mainstream, a lecture on A will rather make detours than using B, while a lecture on B will freely use everything from subject A. For example, the fundamental theorem of algebra is most often proven by complex analytic or topological, and not by real analytic or algebraic means. The reason is simply that most people learn complex analysis before they learn Galois theory, and the real analytic proof is more computational, i.e. not "nice".


Remote postdoc in the US legal questions

You are a Russian, with a US social security number and a US bank account, but no current right to work in the US. (These details don't seem to help.) You are considering applying for a position in the US, with work being conducted remotely. You cannot be employed as a US employee, given that you have no right to work in the US.
You can be employed as a remote employee or contracted as a remote company. For the former, the employer would likely need to engage an intermediary to handle payments (unless they have operations in your country of residence). For the latter, you'd need to incorporate a company in your country of residence.
TL;DR: Yes, it is theoretically and practically possible, if the employer is willing to employ/contract you remotely. (I can't comment on the likelihood of an employer's willingness.)


What is the meaning of “In Proceedings Of ...”?

When it comes to conferences, if there were submitted papers, and they were published as a volume, that volume is called the proceedings.

A paper that was published in the proceedings must have been accepted by the conference.

Sometimes the proceedings are published as a standalone work, and sometimes they are published as a special issue of a journal.

It should be noted that some societies publish a journal that has "Proceedings" in the title, such as the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" or the "Proceedings of the Royal Society". These should be distinguished as standalone journals and not confused with the proceedings of a conference.


If you don't want to pay for Adobe Acrobat Pro, as @schultem mentions, LaTeX can do this with embedded hyperlinks. See this page, Section 3.5 for more information. Note that if you use this method (as far as I know) you will have to click for sound, it cannot be automatic.


Can I submit a non-research "article" on ArXiv?

See Is it possible to upload expository papers to arXiv? .

I have seen linear algebra notes on the arXiv, and also notes on other undergraduate-ish subjects (including some pretty good ones, e.g., http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.6946 and http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.0585 ). I absolutely don't mind them, and I don't think others do (although I would suggest using github for course notes due to the possibility of frequent corrections and updates). Expository papers for nonstandard material definitely fit well on the arXiv, and there are several; e.g., almost every chapter of the Tamari Memorial Festschrift has been posted on the arXiv.


Can you use quotes / poems in published papers?

The normal copyright laws apply. Old works don't have issues about reuse/republication, but should be cited to the author to avoid charges of plagiarism. Newer works need to observe that "complete" works can't normally be copied without permission. A poem, even if short, is a complete work.
Quotations are probably fine if cited to the original speaker, but these are seldom enough to be considered "complete works" even if new. But over quoting from a speech might bring you problems.
And note that it doesn't matter whether you gain revenue from a work that cites a poem or whatever. For copyright purposes, the issue is whether you are likely to reduce the value to the originator or not. So, short excerpts are normally fine, but at some point you cross a line making it unnecessary for someone interested to go to the original. IANAL, but something like that, anyway. It is a civil matter to be judged in a lawsuit if a copyright holder chooses to bring it.

Note that plagiarism is not the same as copyright infringement. You avoid plagiarism by citation and you don't need to use any form of copying to commit it. Plagiarism is about ideas. Copyright is more complicated and is governed by law. But copyright eventually expires letting you "copy" the words (or sounds or ...). But citation is still needed even if not always to a specific source.
And note that even public domain works should be cited to the originator.
And finally, plagiarism is a social construct, not a legal one. You can be accused of it and suffer the consequences even though you break no laws. The clear implication is that, in any doubtful/edge cases, you cite. Over citation causes no harm.


What do professors really want in a PhD student in Europe?

Every advisor is different and each wants something different in students they advise. At one extreme is a person with a well established, ongoing, probably funded, large scale project who needs students to do a lot of the research work, leading, one hopes to a lot of papers and doctorates for the students. Their needs are very specific. If you have the skills they need and they judge that you will probably work hard enough (pretty hard) you may find a place in their lab. Unfortunately, the advisor is also likely well known and prominent and so the competition to join the lab can be fierce. If you get in, the work will also be very intense. However, if you can handle it, you will probably wind up at the end with a good, if very intense career for yourself.

At the other extreme is someone like myself who only ever had a few students and only one or two at a time. I didn't need help on the kinds of research I was doing, other than from colleagues elsewhere, so all I really required in a student was interests similar to mine and the drive to complete the degree with only my advice on their plan and progress. I wanted people with similar interests so that I would be able to give them good advice and so that it wouldn't be impossible for me to judge their progress and completion.

Anything in between these two extremes is possible. My own doctoral advisor was more like myself than the hard-driven lab master, but he was full of ideas and ran a weekly seminar attended by a few students and also a few other faculty members. He was admired by students and faculty, though he was a bit aloof and very professional. If a student could get over the fear of meeting him, he probably had a problem or two for you to work on and if it went nowhere was able to help you change direction. This seems to me to be the ideal.

I had an earlier advisor who wasn't nearly as helpful. Part of that was that he was untenured and so spent most of his time on his own research and publications and wasn't able (or skilled enough) to give me much help and direction.

My advice would be to avoid advisors who are too busy to really advise, either because they have that extremely high powered lab or because they are too new to academia to know what and how to properly guide a student.  Of course, if the high powered option appeals to you, then the superstar prof with the giga-lab may be what you want and need.

If you arrive for graduate study without already having an advisor, possible in some places but not others, I suggest that you look and ask around for suggestions about who does a good job with students in your field and who does things that interest you. Choosing a compatible advisor may be the most important thing you do as a beginning grad student.

I should note, I guess, that in some fields you don't really have an option. If you require the Large Hadron Collider for your work, then giga is probably your only option.


How to assign grades in a game development course?

I would think that one technique you might choose to use in this case would be to establish what your learning objectives are for the assignment and then construct a simple rubric for evaluating each project.  You will likely have some areas that will be present for each assignment (e.g., documentation, code clarity, compiler warnings, possibly even a baseline score for a runable attempt, etc.). However, you will probably have a few aspects that are required to be present for each assignment (e.g., sprite usage, pathfinding, narrative) which you can then assign points for.

For example you could use something like the following:

Narrative

5 points - had a clear and easily understood narrative
3 points - had a narrative, but some portions were confusing or difficult to pick up on
1 point - an attempt was made at a narrative, but it was generally insufficient
0 points - no attempt at a narrative

Pathfinding

5 points - no (or almost no) issues with pathfinding
3 points - pathfinding mostly working, sometimes units get blocked behind obstacles/jump through obstacles/etc.
1 point - pathfinding is clearly deficient

For project based courses or assignments, I find that a rubric like this will greatly simplify my life when grading and lets me focus on giving constructive feedback over trying to decide if this is an 82% vs 85%.

Alternate approach

I have also had project based courses where the grading was not based on the artifact, but on a report and presentation/demo that the student teams had to submit. I also used rubrics for scoring those, again greatly simplifying the process and letting me focus on feedback over points.


Are there systems to automatically blind a paper?

No.
AI is getting smarter every day, but they're still not smart enough to realize that "In [paper] we showed [result]" is a self-reference that breaks anonymity. You will unfortunately have to anonymize papers yourself.
It's not a proof of course, but if such software existed, Elsevier would know about it. Since they didn't mention it in their "prepare for double-blind peer review" page, it doesn't exist.


How much material can be changed between an accepted manuscript and "camera ready?"

In my (very limited) experience in CS, a lot (if its a conference), but only if you are somehow improving the paper - you can't obviously publish after removing key results that caused the acceptance in the first place!

Anecdote: My first publication happened after I was able to solve one of the 3 open problems posed at the end of an accepted paper by my advisor - this caused the entire paper to be re-written in terms of the more generalized result, and it did not go through any further reviews (only an informal mail from my advisor to the editors outlining what we did!)


Popular Science References in Statement of Purpose for Ph.D

From my experience, telling the tale why you became so fascinated with one particular topic is to be kept to a minimum. It does not add any weight or edge to your SoP, other people will have their more or less interesting story. You can use maybe one or two sentences and I don't see any need to have a "not a specifically small" paragraph on why you became fascinated with a topic. It might sound harsh, but they will not care. You have to use the limited space in your SoP for other things. But that's another question/answer.

In short, I would avoid citing pop science to a very bare minimum, especially in a field as rigorous as physics. Unless you use this reference to show something you have achieved. For example, I read pop science X which inspired me to run experiment Y which has produced Z.


Is it right and polite to ask for a free copy of a published paper?

I don't think that it could be a problem to ask politely for a copy of this paper. It is understood, however, that you are polite and say thank you.

So, if you are interested, you should show it that way. It doesn't hurt to ask.


I cannot comment on the legal issues: I'm not a lawyer and you don't specify which country you are in.

In any case, I'd ask them a written consent before listing any information. In particular:

In the consent form, report clearly which items are going to be listed.
In the consent form, specify the time frame along which you plan to show that information.
In the consent form, specify that they can withdraw the consent any time and you will oblige.
I'd list only name, title and possibly abstract.
I wouldn't list the current position because it is typically subject to change without notice.


Can I transfer during the last year of a 5 year Master's program?

In general, most universities in the United States have a residency requirement (total number of credits that must be completed at the school that grants the degree) and/or a limit on the number of credits that can be transferred towards a particular degree.

So while you can in theory transfer at any time, you will not necessarily be able to bring all your credits with you  Similarly, if the new program has different requirements than the previous program, you may end up taking more courses in total (to satisfy these requirements) than you would have had you stayed in one program for the entire duration. (Joint B.S./M.S. programs in particular often have very inflexible timelines that make it difficult to transfer in middle without losing time and credits.)

You will have to check the policies of the school you plan to transfer to for more details, to see what this will mean for your plans. But be warned that the policies that will apply to you are those that are in effect when you first enroll - so even if you have it all figured out when you start your degree at University X, by the time you transfer to University Y, their policies may have changed.

TL;DR; while you may be able to transfer, the later in the program you transfer, the greater the likelihood of "losing" some of your past work and extending your graduation date (i.e. taking more than five years total to finish).


Translate academic titles (lecturer, assistant and associate professor, tenure track, instructor) in French

To be honest, the first three title (Lecturer, Assistant/Associate Professor) were always quite nebulous to me. What you must understand is that the two systems are completely different.

Basically, if your job is permanent and your activities are split between teaching and research, you have the rank of a maître de conférences (MdC) or professeur des universités (PU). Note that the answer on the "related" question mentions the habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR), which is more of a degree than a rank. You need to have a HDR to apply to full professorship positions, but you are still a maître de conférences in the meantime. Finally, there are several tiers within both positions (MdC and PU) based on seniority.

If your job is not permanent but still have to teach and do research, you are most probably an Attaché Temporaire d'Enseignement et Recherche (or ATER).

If your job is permanent and only have teaching duties, you are most probably a professeur agrégé (or PRAG).

And finally, if your job is not permanent and only have teaching duties, well, you are not really in the academic system and I don't think there is a rank or title for that.

So to answer your questions:

No, I believe maître de conférences is the equivalent of a tenured professor (in terms of service/duties but not necessarily experience).
I have seen some people using maîtresse de conférences, so I guess it is accepted.
All your translations are not valid since they aren't associated with anything in the French system.
Since there is no tenure track in France, it doesn't really make sense to try and translate it.
Extra item: If you are searching for translations because you are writing your CV, I also recommend what has already been said in the comments: just use the official title and don't mind too much about translating it one way or the other.


Talking about accepted offer in job interview

If you accept an offer you should immediately withdraw from consideration from all other potential employers. This is simply to preserve your own credibility for the future. Failing to do this will, perhaps, cause them to expend resources wastefully and it can come back on you in the future.

They won't want to talk to you in the future if they think you might do this again in the middle of negotiations.

Alternatively, you can back out of your earlier acceptance if possible so that you are really available. This is risky, of course. But this is a situation that if you try to play games, you will probably lose.


Is it Worth the Risk of Going into Debt for a Masters Degree Versus a PhD?

When I was studying for my MBA I also thought about this choice. However, a PhD is long and I was looking forward to working with my new-found knowledge sooner than a PhD would allow. For me, I prefer to balance practice with theory. That is, I did not want to wait for longer than I had to before being able to use my knowledge in the 'real world.'

That said, I'm now looking seriously at a PhD and I certainly do not regret my decision. I could work while I was studying during my MBA. Now, I do understand that one can take some time off during a PhD but I wasn't really looking forward to starting something which would likely require a break. I prefer the clean completion which the master gave me.

Since I could work while studying my MBA, finances were not much of an issue. The cost of my education was easily offset by the higher salary which came with the degree. The payback period (considering the increase in my income directly related to my additional qualification) in my case was less than 18 months.

It is a little different from your situation in that many people who study business for work in the real world do not go beyond an MBA. I will, but I also teach.

In short, I'm glad I got my MBA before pursuing a PhD.


What is a correct way of evaluating the effectiveness of criteria for admissions?

Define "effectiveness of criteria for admission". Collect data on the potentially relevant independent variables. Do statistical analysis on the resulting data set.

Be careful, you'll probably be considering just the people who were admitted, so the results will be skewed.


Is it OK to ask my host for an externally organized stay which hotel is being booked?

Given that it's in China (and I'm assuming you're not Chinese), I would let the host do it for three reasons:

It's important to be gracious to the host. This is a general rule in most cultures, but particularly in East Asian ones. Letting your host be a good host is part of this. Trust your host's judgement here.
My experience with Chinese hotels from Shanghai to Xinjiang is that there is minimal to negative correlation of the quality of the hotel to the website or the official star rating.  It is highly doubtful that you could ascertain anything superior from afar than what the local person would know.
Logistics. The host may want to put all of the people in a particular hotel (or spread them between a particular few) because of logistical reasons: geography and   they have only one van to pick everyone up, etc. etc.

I would let your Chinese hosts handle everything. If you have particular needs (room must face towards the south; hotel restaurant must have halal food; etc.) then let them know. Otherwise, let your host be your host.


Number of Funded PhD Positions available to applicants

At US universities, it typically doesn't work that way.

The department usually doesn't think of having specific PhD positions that have to be filled.  Rather, admissions is done on a department-wide basis. Each year, the department sets a target for how many new students they want to admit, based on available resources.  Let's say for example that this number is 20.

Now, most applicants are applying to many different programs, so not every accepted applicant will actually come to study in this department.  Thus, if they want about 20 new students, they will offer admission (with or without funding) to some larger number, perhaps 40 or 45 (assuming there are at least that many qualified applicants).  This number would be chosen based on past experience as to what fraction of accepted students choose to attend, and can be varied if they have applicants whose applications suggest that they would be particularly likely or unlikely to attend.  A few additional applicants might be placed on a waiting list.

But it's entirely possible that the number of students who actually choose to attend is larger or smaller than 20.  If it's smaller, they could try to admit some more people from the waiting list, but that still may not bring them up to 20.  That's okay; they will just have a smaller cohort that year, and probably try to use a larger target number next year.  If more than 20 accept the offer of admission, then the department just has to come up with the funds to support them, and use a smaller target next year.

Also, seats aren't necessarily restricted by research area.  In mathematics departments, for instance, departments won't typically break down their targets as "we want 5 students in algebra, and 3 in number theory, ...".  They'll just admit 40 good students and let them sort out their areas of study after they arrive.

So the number you are looking for may not exist.


How can I quickly prepare an application for a tenure-track assistant-professor position?

For context, let me first answer a question raised by RoboKaren in one of the comments:

  Once you have three or four applications filed at different types of schools (research university vs. small liberal arts college; different types of departments) I am unclear why it would continue to take more than 3-4 hours per application to tailor.

This is probably true in the US, but in Europe, where OP is apparently also applying, universities often have weird standard CV layouts to use (see bottom of the page) or specific templates for all application material.

The rest of my answer really only relates to applying in Europe. I think for the US, you should be able to just send your standard package anyway.

  What strategy could you propose to reduce the time while maintaining the quality?
  If you have gone through this process already, what was your personal way of reducing the application effort?

I have gone through the process, and I don't think there is a silver bullet. In reality, I have, for every application, made a conscious decision of whether my predicted chances or my preferences for this position warrant spending however time I expected to need. That is, if they university used a sane, standard application process, I would apply to everything where I saw a sliver of hope or which I thought I might like even a little bit. Conversely, in the few cases where I thought I would need to basically re-write the material from ground up, I generally decided not just to apply.

That being said, a full week absolutely seems excessive just for adapting your material. The most I was ever willing to spend was one or two days per application for reformatting / rewriting (not taking into account when I originally put together my application package). Obviously, we can't remotely tell what you are doing wrong, but maybe you are focusing on the wrong things here? My basic principle has always been that these formatting requirements usually come from administrators who are not deeply involved in the actual decision making process, so as long as you are not obviously violating explicit rules (e.g., if they ask for a 5-page CV, don't send them 18 pages), I have always taken a lot of liberty in interpreting the rules so that it fitted my standard package as closely as possible.

As for how long different stages took:

  adapting the cover letter,

About 1 hour. The cover letter was usually fairly geared towards the university, but it needs to be short anyway. And in reality, after a few applications, I had a number of standard phrases that I mixed and matched as suitable.

  adapting the CV,

Between 0 and 1 day.

  adapting the teaching statement

About 2 hours. My general teaching statement remained the same, but I usually looked through their current curricula to figure out how to best position my teaching.

  adapting the research statement,

About 2 hours. My general research statement remained the same as well, but I tried to familiarize myself with the relevant faculty at the institution and I had a dedicated section that explained potential for collaboration that I sw.

  adapting the publication list,

Was part of my CV, nothing to adapt.

  filling the forms on the Web page of the prospective employer,

Very much depends on the position, but even in the worst cases this should not be more than an hour or two.

  getting informed about the prospective employer,

This really is the most time-consuming part, as university web pages are often horrific, and this part I think actually matters to some people on the hiring committees.

  asking questions via e-mail or phone and receiving answers regarding the advertised position,

0 hours. I know some people are big on getting in touch with the committee in advance, but I never did it and my personal impression from observing people who do it regularly is that it gives you little new information and no competitive advantage. The story is different if you know a person in the committee well personally, but I am assuming this is not what you mean here.

  requesting reference letters,

0 hours. I told my references I am on the job market and they should not be surprised if requests come in. For the positions that require you to upload the letters yourself (yes, those exist in Europe), I had generic versions of the letters available.

  I have to apply a lot (200+ applications) and widely to get a chance of, say, 50%.

If you do the math, you will learn that it is unlikely that you will actually be applying to 200+ positions. Frankly, if your scope is Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK, Canada, and the US, you are not going to find 200 suitable positions to apply to. I am all for not putting too many eggs into one basket, but you probably need to be realistic here. Your field may be small and competitive, but other fields are also competitive, and if you are currently working in a different field and you yourself judge yourself to be a somewhat middling candidate and you are unwilling to spend any time on your application package, your chances are so low that you should evaluate alternatives.

I would propose that you write serious applications for the, say, 30 to 50 most suitable positions you can find, and then figure out what to do if none of them pans out.


Do we cite results in Arxiv which are obviously wrong?

Disclaimer: I have very limited experience, so what follows may not accurately reflect professional conventions. That said, from my limited experience I think it does.

EDIT: Disclaimer the second: the answer below assumes that you are correct, and also says nothing about what you should do besides what to write in the paper. Noah Snyder's comment below is absolutely correct.

I think this is something that you need to do, to provide an accurate history. This doesn't have to be done "loudly" - I think a footnote would be fine (e.g. "A weaker version of this result was claimed in [people], but the proof given there is incorrect - they [thing that they do]") - but I think it's important that an accurate history of the result be presented.

In my opinion, this is true whether or not you knew of their work before starting/finishing your own; we all benefit from a clear discussion of the literature (and in particular this may do a service to others who read the 2009 article and don't notice the error at first).

This is assuming that the article in question is "serious" - as we all know, there are of course "articles" which are too wrong for the above to apply. I think my criterion would be: "Is this article something which a 'reasonable' mathematician, competent but not necessarily expert in the specific subfield, might take as generally correct?" Obviously this is subjective, but I think in most cases it's actually pretty clear which side of the divide a given article lies.


The practice of cover letters predates the now common online submission systems by centuries: Before online submission, papers were submitted by sending a hard copy via postal mail to the editor-in-chief (in person, not via a journal). Now it's mostly a formality, but since scholars are a traditional bunch, old habits die hard.
(EDIT: Even so, if the journal demands a cover letter, you must provide one, or risk having your submission rejected for not following the guidelines.)

In principle, any information contained in a cover letter should also be put somewhere into the submission form, so those can be of some guidance. Things usually appearing in the letter include

the title of the work;
the type of manuscript (if the journal not only publishes standard papers but also short notes, literature review etc.);
the name of the journal you are submitting to (since the editor might manage several journals);
a brief summary (one or two sentences) to give the editor some idea
whether the manuscript is within the scope, and which associate
editor to forward it to;
a clear statement that the manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere;
the full contact details of the corresponding author (presumably the one signing the cover letter);
a list of preferred or excluded referees and/or associate editors, if applicable.

Here's what I usually write (addressed to the editor-in-chief at his department address):

  Dear Professor X,

  please find attached our manuscript "A Note on Piffles", which we
  would like to submit for publication as an original research article
  in your journal Wuffle Review. Our main result is that all universal
  Piffles are strictly ascending, which proves a conjecture of Smith et
  al. This work has not been submitted elsewhere.

  The corresponding author is

  [...]

  We are looking forward to hearing from you.

  Sincerely,

  Y