Should a reviewer trust promises made in the rebuttal?

I thought about this a lot when I first started reviewing for conferences and discussed this with other people. I will give a sum up how I handle it as a result of these discussions but it seems to be a quite controversial question.

I choose to give the benefit of the doubt except there are explicit reasons not to. Rebuttal periods are normally one week and limited to 1 or 2 pages, there is only so much additional results that can be produced and included. Also, generally doubting the sincerity of all authors is not feasible on the long term. You might also doubt that the numbers they report are not true because you do not have the code to check it.

Although it was not really the question, the second part is about how to avoid only getting promises:

Precisly state in the review which of your concerns are crucial for acceptance. I often see reviewers who do not make it clear what their priority for the rebuttal is and then the rebuttal is full of replies to minor comments. (For example, stating all the parameters used for training is useful in the paper but not useful in the rebuttal.)
Phrase your actual concerns instead of saying which additional experiments/comparisons would ease them. (The difference between "Please compare to initializing with this baseline" (easily promised) and "I do not see why this complicated strategy should be better than this simple baseline") In my experience, this leads to more interesting answers.


What happens if the editor cannot find reviewers?

Short answer: the editor will continue to try and find other suitable reviewers, sending them invitations and waiting for replies. At some point, they may come back to you and ask you to suggest names (additional names, if you had already given some when you originally submitted the paper).

It can happen that an editor has a hard time finding suitable reviewers that accept to review a manuscript. There are a few factors in play, such as:

the journal is not well-know;
the editor is new, or not well-know in the field, or does not have a very good network;
the research reported is atypical, in a very narrow subfield, or joins different areas (so that no one reviewer feels confident in accepting)
the elements sent by the editor (title and abstract) are rather boring or tend to confuse the potential reviewers

Note that most of these factors do not reflect badly on the manuscript, so there is no need to feel bad about it. The editor is likely to continue his search of reviewers. I see two other options that the editor could choose from, but I judge them as rather unlikely:

Evaluate the manuscript himself, and make a decision based on his own review. After all, it's his job, and the reviewers' role is only to help the editor reach a decision.
Refer the manuscript to another editor, or to the editorial board, so they can make a decision on it.

Finally, note that it may take quite some time to find suitable (and willing) reviewers. In the case of one paper of mine, it took the editor 3 months to find adequate reviewers, and that was actually for a prestigious journal. However, the paper was atypical enough (and the research was quite novel) that many potential reviewers did not feel able to review it adequately. (And in case you wonder, it was accepted on the first try, once the editor found reviewers.)

Edit (regarding your comment): my advice is don't retract your submission, unless you think it's the journal's fault (unwilling editor or unknown journal). I know it's tempting! But especially if your work is multidisciplinary, it will take time to find reviewers, even if you submit it to another journal. Thus, better let the current submission process go to its end.


In computer science, what should be the typical author list if it's postdoc's idea and professor's student?

In general, author lists in CS are usually in order of contribution. For practical reasons this often means that you end up with student/postdoc/professor, simply because that's also the order of effort that the various parties can typically put into the project. This would also be my "default" if there are no special circumstances that warrant a different author list.

Some possible special circumstances:

You, the postdoc, don't only have the idea but also do most of the actual work in the project. In that case it would be warranted to put your name first. However, note that for a PhD student being first author is often more useful than for you, so take this into account when distributing tasks for the project. That doesn't mean that the postdoc should gift the PhD student with first authorship if not warranted, but often it's better for everybody if the project is laid out in a way that the PhD student gets enough tasks so that their first authorship is actually warranted.
The professor is not interested in the project and does not want to get involved. In this case he may not even be part of the project at all and it becomes student/postdoc. However, if you want to go for that, make very, very sure that the professor is also ok with not being on the paper. There are many CS labs where the professor assumes to be on every paper that their students write. If you can't live with taking such a professor on, don't work with their students. If you decide to kick off the professor (even if warranted due to contributions), you may not only get into a fight yourself, but you may also make life much harder for the student.

Note that there is in my experience rarely a case where the ordering student/professor/postdoc would be warranted. Actual contributions rarely seem to work out like that, and it's also much less useful for the postdoc than some may think - the postdoc does not become the senior author in the collaboration just because they have been put last in the list.


Should I refuse to be named as co-author of a low quality paper?

First, if you think the manuscript is not worth submitting even after major revisions, or in other words, if you as a referee would recommend its rejection, then the answer is clear - you shouldn't be coauthor.

However it seems that you evaluate the manuscript as ok-ish, and the main concern is that its content is somehow outdated. I would do what your old group asked you to do: review and possibly improve the paper. Do this to the maximum extent you can - given the fact that your are likely busy with other tasks and research - and then leave the main responsibility to the first author and your old group.

After all, you are still a young student / researcher. This paper could be your first entry in your publication list, and some more time and more papers have to come before you get concerned about your papers being all of the very best quality. A published paper normally cannot be too wrong, and various journals can accommodate different quality or differently tailored papers. So perhaps try to influence also the choice of where to submit, especially to avoid a non-ending revision phase.

At this stage of your career, you can only benefit from a published article. To those who read it, it will show that you actively entered the research of a group even when you were younger than now. To the rest of the community, it will be just a publication. And that is better than no publications.

The main point is how much you can improve it, and if there is space for it. As a "publish as it is" decision seems to be highly unlikely, you must be prepared to work on it further. But again, leave the responsibility to the group from which the research originated.

See it as an opportunity to publish, and not as an annoyance.

The above applies to a salvageable manuscript. For a better and definitive answer I should be a specialist in your field and evaluate the manuscript myself.

Rejection would also fix the issue. Although I always tried to avoid rejection even as coauthor, I don't think it should be your concern at this stage. Nobody will know except the referees, and even they won't blame or remember you.

edit: I want to make clear that the recipient journal should not be a predatory one, or one with such a low reputation that is not worth working to publish therein. The above answer assumed this.

Also, above I wrote " A published paper normally cannot be too wrong, and various journals...". Beside that "normally" means what should be the normality, this doesn't mean that errors and, even worse, frauds, have no room in literature. It must be seen a concern for the whole community and is not related to the OP situation. If the manuscript will be accepted, it will most likely stand as an acceptable paper, indeed. Not to say that the manuscript is in the hands of the OP. With this respect, the paper cannot be too wrong already. Otherwise there wouldn't be this thread.


Device for writing a lecture with a stylus for video lecture recording

If your department has a document camera, especially a newer model, then you could use that. I currently use a document camera for my regular lectures. I write on the paper under the camera, the camera sends it to the computer and the computer sends it to a projector, where it gets projected onto the big screen in the lecture hall. This way I can look at my class the class the entire time and I do not have to worry about whether students in the back can read the writing on the whiteboard in front.

The document camera I use can also be set up to display the images it captures on the computer. Then, with video capture software, (CamStudio is an example of one with a free option), you could record a video as you write.

If your department does not have a document camera, you can set up something similar with a webcam, which would be cheaper to buy but produces lower video quality. Set it to look down on the paper. You write your lecture, and the computer records it. Alternatively, your institution may have an instructional technology office that could loan you a document camera (or may even have a more advanced set up).


My applications for PhD in Neuroscience got rejected? How to be an extraordinary candidate for PhD?

You're being rejected because you're applying to top universities where the other candidates are better.  You're getting beat out on both GPA and GRE.

All but two of the schools you listed are R1 universities.  These are the top universities in the country and will be very hard to get into.  You also have a medical school, Icahn, on the list, and that also will be hard to get into, simply because it's a medical school and all of them are always deluged with applicants.  You only have one R2 university, Rockefeller, on the list.

For a top school, you pretty much have to expect that successful PhD candidates will likely have a 3.8 or better GPA and GRE scores that place them in the 80th percentile or better.  Your 3.2 UG and 3.6 master's GPA is low and your GRE scores are very low.

Consider applying to some more R2 schools or even, possibly, some R3 schools.


Is using other's survey questions verbatim considered a plagiarism

Perhaps, it's somewhat dependent on the field, but, AFAIK, in social sciences this situation is very typical. Nobody places questions in quotes, of course, however, a set of questions (questionnaire), which is usually referred to as an instrument, is cited. Such an approach is usually applied, when researchers use some reasonably well-known or validated instruments, or, at least, the ones from peer-reviewed studies. They are placed in appendices and are cited, based on guidelines of the publication style used in the paper in question.


Statement of research interest for summer schools

So my question is, what is the difference between statement of research interest for graduate schools admission and that for summer school?

The way you phrase the question suggests that you see this statement of research interest as a form to fill in some details. But it's not like there's a "P27.B: Statement Of Research Interest for Summer Schools" form that's slightly different from the usual "P27.A: Statement Of Research Interest for Graduate Schools" form in Annex B. These things don't exist.

I think you're approaching the question all wrong.

A research statement is a letter you write to a person with a specific purpose. So a better question would be "what is the purpose of writing a research letter for a summer school?".

The answer is pretty much the same, but instead of trying to demonstrate why you and your background are a good fit for a grad school, now you're trying to demonstrate why you and your background are a good fit for a summer school and that you will benefit greatly from that school.

There's lots of tips on the Web on how to write a good research statement. Maybe some personal pointers ...

First and foremost you need to appreciate that it will be read by a human being, not a machine. So don't make it boring or clichéd, esp. if that human being will have to read hundreds of statements like yours. Keep it concise and interesting. Many students are too concerned with filling "the requirements" than communicating; the key part of such a letter is communication, not topic lists.

Second you need to figure out what that human being is looking for from you. Such statements are not just paperwork; they have a purpose. Why are they asking you for the document? Why will they spend valuable time to read it? What is important to them?

Third you need to frame your personal context into what they are looking for.

If you can, try to figure out specifically who is going to read it ... what kind of technical expertise they have, what are their research interests, etc. That person will probably be a postdoc or junior professor in the area.
In the research statement, they'll want to see how the student will benefit from the school ... why that student is worth the chair space. They will simply be looking for enthusiastic students with a convincing story as to why they will benefit from the summer school. If the school is very narrow and technical, there may also be a check to make sure that the student has sufficient background knowledge to follow the topics. If you sound too expert in a topic, that's not good either; they'll want you to learn!
In the text, discuss your research interests and goals. Relate your goals to the types of topics covered by the school. Add details; perhaps a specific lecture or lecturer or topic you are especially interested in and why. Be enthusiastic but not fake. Don't get stuck in technical details. Try to make the letter sound personal, almost conversational, like a person wrote it ... versus someone taking a template and filling in topics. Edit and remove irrelevant statements. Get feedback from peers or an advisor.


Looking for Mathematics Subject Classification

(originally this was a couple of comments, but perhaps it should be an answer)

Section 11: Number Theory is on pp. 4-6 of this current Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC) document. Besides just looking for what seems to be appropriate there (often, however, this requires a much broader knowledge than the specific topic you're looking for), you can look for similar papers and see how they're classified. For example, you can try a google scholar search for "Pythagorean triples", pick a possibly similar paper such as Height and excess of Pythagorean triples, and if you don't have access to it and you don't see any MSC's for it, you can look it up at MR Lookup (freely available), click on the MR number to get MR2126355, at which point you can see "11D09 (20M99)" (11D09 is the primary classification, 20M99 is a secondary classification). Repeat with other papers you find. Thus, in the case of Clifford algebras and Euclid’s parametrization of Pythagorean triples I get 11D09 (11E25 15A66 20H20). It appears (but do some more checks of this nature) that Nate Eldredge (in a comment) was correct -- 11D09 seems an appropriate classification, probably the primary classification.


My bosses force me to add an author to my paper who didn't contribute to it

There are a couple of clauses in your question which you may want to reconsider.

I worked completely independent — did you? You wrote a paper working on your own, which is indeed a big achievement. However, you've been working with data, and the data have been obtained by A in the lab run by X. This definitely does not sound like a completely independent work to me.
X contributed nothing to the work — did s/he not? They set up  and run a lab, where the data have been obtained. Could you write the same paper without the data A collected? Could A collect the data without X's lab?

The arguments above do not necessarily mean that X should co-author the paper, but this is a matter of agreement between all collaborators. In ideal world, this should be discussed before the project is started; in reality, discussions like you've had are often held too late into the process, and the frustration you're feeling is understandable. Be strong — you will be a completely independent researcher one day very soon, and hopefully you will manage your projects and relations in much more thoughtful and transparent way. Until then it is best not to waste your life in such battles.


Am I obligated to finish my post-doc term before starting my tenure-track job?

Congrats on getting a tenure track position!

You are not the first person to whom this has happened.  Of course, there may be specific circumstances that make the early departure more difficult - say, if you are the only person who can operate a certain instrument in a lab.  But people do leave post-docs early, from time to time - it's not at all unheard of.  And, if you applied opportunistically, you probably have a job that you are happy to take.

My advice is to break the news to your advisor as soon as possible - once you have made the decision to accept the offer. Your current institution might still be able to find a replacement for next year, which would be good for them. If you reflect on it, it's hard to see real advantages of telling your advisor later.  And there is a good chance they will be happy for you that you got a tenure track position.

Remember that you will still be in touch your advisor professionally, so you want to try to keep the relationship on the best terms that you can.


Elsevier Computers and Security "With Editor" status just after 12 hours - what does it mean?

In electronic submission systems the manuscript (MS) is handled according to a certain work flow. When a MS is submitted it has to be assigned to an editor who will check, for example, if the MS is appropriate for the journal or adheres to journal "Instructions for Authors" (or equivalent). The editor will then either start to assign reviewers to your MS or pass it on to an Associate editor (equiv.) to do the same. Then several rounds follow that is beyond this post. Thus there are lots of steps that your MS will undergo and the system will signals some subset of all steps involved.

So the likely interpretation of your observed change in status is that the journal, possibly through some administrator, has assigned the MS to an editor for further processing. This does not necessarily mean much but it shows your MS is on its way forward in the journal work flow. The process of moving a MS to a new step can be done very quickly and will largely depend on the timing of the person doing the chore. In the journal where I am editor, there is a six day limit to move MS from submitted to an editor. Usually the move is made within 24 hours and shorter depending on when the MS is submitted and when the admin checks the newly submitted MS list.

Se also this Elsevier link


Do publishers care if a book manuscript was freely posted online before submission to the publisher?

Data point: within the last two years, Cambridge University Press made a deal with me, without fuss, that will allow me to put a PDF of a forthcoming monograph on-line without any waiting period ("embargo"?). The deal was that I forego "e-book" sales. The general philosophy was explained to me by the acquisitions editor as "we're not for profit, but we try to not lose money".

Another enterprise whose implications I've not thought about too much, is the Amer. Math. Soc.'s relatively recent program to have lightly-vetted PDF "books" on their site, to invite comments and so on... most likely toward eventual publication... but without any apparent obligation from authors. I was solicited to put some of my notes into that machine, and, even when I commented that many of these would never become any sort of physical book (mostly because of all that entails, but also because of the paywall/editorial-corruption, ...) the acquisitions editor said it didn't matter. Yes, that is what I would have said, too, if I were an acquisitions editor trying to engage established writers-of-notes, but, still, ...

As usual, these situations can be evaluated by the "value added" criterion, where "value" of course includes, status, money, etc, and the relative value of those things to the parties involved. The value added of a physical book is ever harder to understand, but to many it is still considerable. Indeed, having committed to CUP to make a physical book (beyond on-line PDFs), I did feel compelled to put a great deal extra effort into minimizing flaws... which are essentially uncorrectible in a physical object, but are endlessly correctible in an on-line document.

I think that, unsurprisingly, we're still in a crazy transition period while publishers figure out how to cope with the internet, and academics figure out that literal "publication" is no longer bottle-necked through "publishers". That is, acquisition of "status" points enough to get tenure or get grants once was only possible through conventional publishers (and whatever procedures they hit upon), but now there are choices. In many peoples' minds, "publication" has inherited the archaic sense of "published through conventional publisher, with whatever vetting (in some peer-review sense) procedure they declare, as opposed literal publication. Perhaps unimaginably, once-upon-a-time, there was really no such thing as publication other than that now-archaic one. The habits and conventions of it permeate academe, along with self-perpetuating mythologies and traditions.

Happily, some publishers (maybe not the ones panicking at loss of traditional high profit margins) have caught on to the fact that the internet "is a thing", and that many modestly technically savvy people can create PDFs that are as good as anything their own "typesetters" can create. Rather than pretending otherwise, they're adapting.


Working as an Academic researcher difficulties

If you are a student, then you have, I think, two options. Struggle through the project to help assure your degree. Or drop it, which might require getting a different advisor or even moving to a new institution. Both of those have a downside, and only you can determine which is worse. If you only have a short time to finish your degree, then the first might be preferable. But if it is a long way off, then  consider the second (with all of its implications).
The project is the responsibility of the PI, not yourself. So, think about how it meets your goals or fails to do so.
If you are a post doc then you may be stuck, depending on your contract and the need to have a good recommendation from the PI to be able to move on. But do move on as soon as possible.
If you are faculty already then I don't see much downside to just leaving, provided that it is financially feasible.
But, only you can balance the ups and downs of this. Think long term about your career, however, not just about the short term pain.


What types of questions should I ask in a cold-email to a professor?

However, I feel like just asking something like "What type of research do you do?" would just come off as lazy since most professors already have information on their website.

Yes, don't ask anything you could reasonably learn from their web site, their publications, textbooks in this area, web searches, or Q&A sites.  It's incredibly annoying when people write to ask me to put work into explaining something to them, when they show no sign of having put any work into this themselves first.  (The worst question of all is "how can I apply to your department?", since that one can be answered in a few minutes by anyone with internet access.)

Also, don't volunteer your services for the professor's projects or propose a collaboration in a cold e-mail.  This might be appropriate later, after you have established a serious research connection, but until that point it's awkward.  Nobody is going to say yes based on very limited information, and the choice of no vs. maybe puts people in a difficult position: if they say no based on very limited information, it may come across as insulting, while if they say maybe it can come across as overly encouraging.

  So that leads me to wonder, what are some productive questions that I could actually ask professors in the context of a cold-email or scheduled phone call?

From my perspective, the only really productive approach is to engage seriously with the professor's research area.  If you can propose new ideas or questions and start a conversation with genuine intellectual content, then that's great.  It will be a worthwhile discussion for both of you, regardless of whether it helps you get admitted, and you may end up impressing the professor.  But this is a high bar, and you shouldn't expect to be able to send substantive messages to many people.  If you can't think of anything genuinely interesting to say, then it's better not to say anything at this stage (you can think a little more about this area before e-mailing the professor).

The focus should be on the subject matter.  When random strangers write to me, I'm not particularly interested in telling them about myself (to the extent I want to tell the world about myself, it's far more efficient to do so publicly, rather than telling one person at a time).  I'm even less interested in hearing an infinite series of random people tell me about themselves.  Most of them want to be admitted to grad school in my department but aren't going to be, and it's just not a good use of time to read a lot of e-mails in which applicants tell me more or less the same things they are going to say in their actual applications.  On the other hand, I'm always pleased when I get an e-mail that starts a genuinely interesting research discussion.


Is it a good idea to email the admission committee after a suboptimal interview?

I think you are overthinking this. A polite email followup to an interview is always fine ("Thanks for the opportunity" "I was really impressed by ____" etc), but it shouldn't be used to make excuses or justify deficiencies in the interview.

It seems likely to me that one of two things are true:

A) You are not adequately prepared for the master's program. This is okay, it doesn't mean you are a bad person, but it means that other people may be selected instead of you, and it may mean that you would struggle in the program and are a better fit elsewhere.

or

B) You are overestimating the importance of the answers to the questions you were asked about X, which may have been geared to measure where your current knowledge is at rather than an exam per se.

In neither of these cases does it matter if you try explain your interview performance after the fact.


Course planning: How to assign homework to highlight important sections

A few options are open to you here.

Simply highlight a proportion of the questions.  So out of the 40 you have for vectors, lines, planes and distance just highlight or set half of them for homework.  Pick and choose problems that give a good overview of the entire section so that they get a taste of different types of problems.  Of course if students feel the need then there are plenty more questions in these sections that they may attempt in the text book which is no harm.
Make up new parametric equation questions.  Have a look at the questions that are there.  Are there any styles of questions that are left out?  If so create some based on that style.  If there are not simply modify the questions that are there already.  Try to come up with corner cases to test their understanding (or at least show them there is a bit more to the topic). Cases that display certain tricks or potentially weird (from your students point of view) answers.  You will have to make the judgement call as to what is missing to the current set of questions yourself.
A combination of the above.  Highlight a selection of the vector questions while adding in a few parametric equation questions.

Finally in addition to the above you can explicitly mention that these topics are more important for the course.  While a bit of a blunt force object if they are expecting trickier/more parametric equations they will spend more time studying it.  You can also explicitly state that studying the other topics will help them with the parametric stuff.


What I should write to a professor to decline a PhD offer, while I have accepted it months ago?

I would suggest writing something like this:

  For personal reasons, it turns out that I cannot attend this university after all; I will be moving overseas. I am sorry I will not be able to work with you. Thank you very much for your time. I apologize for the inconvenience and late notice.

It is possible that he may be a little disappointed or annoyed, or  suspect that you  are moving because you have another offer that you prefer for academic reasons, but I don't think it should be a huge deal. You've exchanged some emails, but it isn't as if he has invested years of his time in working with you. It's generally not a good idea to go around alienating people in the small world of  academia, but I don't think one slightly annoyed professor will cause any real harm to your career. Anyway, clearly this decision is important enough to you that it's worth the risk.

It's possible he would be more understanding if he knew the real reason. It's your decision to whom you want to come out, and I can't offer any advice on that. But you should only tell him if you're really comfortable with doing so; I don't think the academic consequences of keeping it private are significant enough to enter in the decision.

The phrase "personal reasons" is intended as a polite signal that you don't intend to discuss those reasons, and that it would be rude for him to press you. There is some cultural context there (I am in the US) so it's of course possible he won't take it that way. If you know a better way to express this to him, by all means use it.  If he is rude enough to demand more information than you want to share, you can just repeat that "it is a personal matter".


Which authors to cite for open source software

@MadeOfMagicAndWires,
I have worked with open-source software and even using it (Linux).
So citing an open-source software in your journal will require you to check out the main source (repository owner as in GitHub) and cite according to using APA format or the format of citing you are required to use.


Are there any online platforms where I can discuss my research idea with experts?

You can use Quora to ask your questions and also discuss with experts on your interested field.

This site needs registration with your email (institution based is not required).


Implications of being accepted without funding to a computer science PhD in the United States?

My answer applies exclusively to CS in the United States, or other scenarios in which the standard PhD offer comes with guaranteed funding.
Implication #1: How the department feels about you
First, I will quote from an answer by JeffE (who is a member of the admissions committee at a top CS department in the US) to another question (also about CS PhD offers in the US):

A typical PhD offer from a strong department includes guaranteed funding in some form.

That may come in the form of guaranteed RA/TA work, or something else, but whatever it is will be promised at acceptance. Therefore, the main implication of a PhD offer without funding is that (as you have intuited), the department does not consider you a top candidate for their program. As JeffE remarks in the same answer:

Do not accept a PhD admission offer without funding. If they really want you, they'll pay for you.

You asked: "I have heard that people who can show their capability may get funding after getting into the program. Is this understanding correct?"
It's not impossible to get funding after beginning the program (e.g., if you really hit it off with a potential PhD advisor who has grant money to spare).
But this depends very much on luck and circumstance, not just on merit; so unless you like living dangerously, it's not an advisable strategy.
Implication #2: How it will affect your future prospects
Having said that, if you somehow manage to support yourself while doing a PhD, it probably won't matter to anyone that you were self-funded. Per Suresh's answer to another question:

There's nothing on your CV that needs to indicate exactly how you were supported during your Ph.D.


It's perfectly fine to define an abbreviation the first or second time you use a word and then continue to use it. You don't have to continually use the abbreviation after that, but there are not many reasons to switch back to using the full version.

Using your example:

  We examine the Expectation Maximization (EM) of underwater basket weaving techniques in tropical locations. We found that the EM is normally ...


How to start doing "more theoretical" research?

I believe that you are at the transition between BSc/MSc(where one is used to textbook level research) to PhD where one is requested to read and publish papers. The transition is not smooth, it has to be done in various stages. You can start, by examples by reading different papers in domains related to your knowledge(and also what you really like), and try to understand in detail the methodology. The effort has to be continuously, 2 3 hours everyday, and also not to get distracted and stop the research. Also, don't forget that some answers might come after months or even years of research. I would start by reading and finding papers that are approachable in the present context, and try to understand the detail in one of them. This would lead you to another papers to learn and understand, and after you gain some background(a few months), you can start to explore new ideas connected to what you have learned. In the end, if an approach seems that is leading you nowhere, try another approach. Also, related to the question context, working at one side on real-world publishable experiments and on the other side on theoretical approaches seems to be the best option. Good luck!


Giving tenure if you know the faculty member is leaving

Usually people leave before they are up for tenure when they think the answer won't be a good one. A tenure package that doesn't get you tenure at Princeton might get you tenure no-questions-asked at state school. If you make that move as fast as possible, everything you have in the pipeline can be attributed to your new institution and help with promotion there, rather than throwing your output down a poisoned well. During my time at Mid-Ivy university tenure candidate A (best candidate) was denied, future tenure candidates B and C (weaker candidates) promptly left as soon as they lined up offers elsewhere.

Is the committee at error here? Ethically if they have submitted their package, I suppose it "should" be evaluated without respect to what the candidate does afterwards. However in the real world any offer of tenure or permanency is only provided at a cost of significant intraorganizational capital all the way up to dean & potentially president level and is only offered when the expected returns on such investment are likely.

At my previous job my colleague was up for a permanent scientific position in government and had completed his entire package when he started having stomach pains. Turns out he had stage 4 cancer, and the division did not put forth his package. We all donated our sick leave to him so he could keep his salary and insurance. When I resigned I brought up that he was not put up for the permanent position he had worked over a 6-7 year period to attain and my director said "well, when he beats the stage 4 cancer and can come back to work we will put his package forward" (paraphrasing). While extremely cold, I took it to mean that he would not create a permanent position for a terminally ill employee because then he wouldn't have the capital later on to get another one. So certainly if someone is unlikely to accept the offer of tenure the tenure process would not continue. For example, try interviewing for a job and then telling the hiring manager that you were going to take an offer elsewhere. Do you think you would still get a formal offer from this hiring manager?


Do I need to attach the letter of acceptance of an accepted paper along with the paper itself to my CV for applications to phd programs?

The typical way to list such a paper is

  'author, author, and author. "Title", Journal of XYZ, to appear'

That should be enough with regards to your C.V.  Anyone in academia will be familiar with this notion, and is unlikely to be think that you might be lying.  After all, the truth will become obvious one way or another shortly.

If they want to see copies of your papers, it's OK to attach a preprint as well, as long as you clearly label it: "Preprint, do not distribute." Many journals will in preproduction have sent you a proof copy with exactly this as a watermark.
Sharing in this way clearly falls under fair use protection, even if you have transferred copyright, just as if you were showing it to them in person.


What options does college dropout with great grades, research projects and CV have to return to university (or thinktanks)?

I'm with @rocinante here: you're handicapping yourself if you can't get past whatever block is preventing you from discussing this personal issue with people from your past university.  I don't know whether it's embarrassing or emotionally painful (and you don't need to tell us, we're just yahoos on the internet), but you have to be able to give some account of it:

First of all, you should make a good faith attempt to finish your degree at your old institution.  I'm sure you did burn some bridges there when you left, but if you can't get past that to try, that doesn't sound especially driven to me.  Credentialism may be a little silly, but you're locking yourself out of a lot of doors if you don't finish your degree.
Also, if you want to be successful getting a position in any area of research, recommendations from "one of Europe's top ranked universities" would be pretty helpful (for getting into a graduate program of any description, they are essential).  I know less about think tanks, but in most graduate admission committees, even with a completed bachelor's, no letters from professors you had as an undergraduate and an unexplained gap in your transcript  that's not explained extremely well in your personal statement would be an immediate disqualification.  So, not only should you go back to your old university, you need to set up meetings with the professors you disappointed, apologize sincerely, explain your situation, and knock their socks off with where you are now.


Is it normal for a department not to specify where a PhD candidate's funding will come from before the candidate accepts the position?

It is certainly not unusual to not specify where funding will come from, even when funding is guaranteed. Often, funding sources aren't obtained until immediately before the funds are used.

Research assistantships are probably the most predictable, because they can come from grants that last for multiple years. However, even long-term grants may not perfectly overlap with the timing of a graduate career and can shift from year to year. Project assistantships are similar, though they may also have similarities to teaching assistantships.

Fellowships, traineeships and other types of scholarship are probably the least predictable. They are often competitive, short-term, and although some may be within a given department (so the department knows it has 2 fellowships to award, for example) they still cannot promise them for a specific student until the competitive process is complete. An exception would be a traineeship/fellowship that is offered to a student for their first year, but funding after that is less concrete.

Teaching assistantships are often a way to make up the difference and to fund students who can't be funded another way, although in some cases departments may require students to fill TAships to fill a need. In my experience, when a department guarantees funding they only mean that they promise you they will find you a TAship (or PAship) if they cannot fund you with other means or you cannot transfer to a different professor who has RA money.

For your situation, the most important information you have is that your funding is not guaranteed. In my experience at large R1 universities in the US, it is the norm to not have guaranteed funding in some disciplines (humanities, social science) and to have guaranteed funding in others (engineering, science) - it mostly depends on the availability of research funds. I would suggest that senior students in the program you are applying to may be your best source of information: if you have an in-person interview where you can meet students, you should ask them what their funding situations were like, or if you already interviewed, hopefully you met with some students that you can ask. The program may also have some statistics, but otherwise you have to base your decision on a fairly vague non-promise.


Does Title IX require U.S. universities to have grade expungement policies?

Schools don't have to create an expungement policy, though it's strongly suggested by the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

Per the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which amended Title IX, universities are required to make "reasonable accommodations" for survivors. Universities have some latitude in what they may deem reasonable or not and furthermore may decide whether or not to grant such an accommodation on a case-by-case basis. Thus, there is no general answer to your question.

Of course, given that the accommodation you're asking about has showed up as a suggestion in official Office of Civil Rights communications, there's a pretty good chance that your university offers something along those lines. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigates and sues schools for failure to comply with Title IX, among other things, so their "suggestions" carry some weight.

Universities are required to let students know what sorts of accommodations they offer, and how students may go about requesting them. Identify your college's Title IX coordinator, and ask them whether or not your college offers expungement as an accommodation, and how to go about requesting it.


Is it bad to apply for the same Master's degree program in consecutive years?

I applied twice in two consecutive years for graduate school. Some universities do not track or compare current applications to previous ones, so those schools likely would not notice (and thus would not care).

Some institutions do track if you've applied previously. This isn't a deal-breaker, but then you'd want the year gap to show you made significant gains and improved your application.

Thus, my advice would be: if you want to apply this year, go for it. If you don't get in, find a job or internship and/or take classes that let(s) you improve your application significantly. Develop new skills, showcase an ability to be successful in more advanced projects.

Then, were you to apply that next year, don't mention that you applied to that institution before and got rejected, but do emphasize all the skills you gained during your time off. Talk about how that year prepared you to be a successful graduate student in your essay, make sure the skills developed during that year are clear on your resume and in your description of projects (if there is one).

Edit: If you are concerned the graduate program is a reach for you, you might consider taking a year off to build your skills anyway. You could probably make a decent amount of money for that year, and you may be less stressed and able to get more out of graduate school.


In what ways can a PHD student who asks me to do some of her work give me due credit for my work?

She should mention your contribution in the acknowledgments section of her thesis and the related article(s) she might publish.

Additionally, she could provide monetary compensation for your time. Or, as per Dan Neely's suggestion, she could arrange that you receive academic credits or that your work counts as one of the requirements for getting a degree. This is only applicable in a subset of situations where you are pursuing a degree and where the involved institutions are willing to do so.

In response to comments arguing that you should get co-authorship, or that you could bargain authorship instead of a salary, I'm copying the authorship guidelines of the ICMJE:

  The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

  Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the
  work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or
  integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

  In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

  All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged.


What is freshman undergraduate engineering enrollment in total nationwide in the US?

According to the National Science Foundation's report "Science and Engineering Indicators 2016", as of 2013, there were 124,437 full-time freshmen enrolled in engineering programs.  See Appendix Table 2-21, which also includes data from past years.  Their source is "American Association of Engineering Societies, Engineering Workforce Commission, Engineering & Technology Enrollments, Fall 2013 (2014)."  AAES doesn't appear to have any more recent data available.


After 3 years... Should I stay at a PhD position that I think is holding back my thesis?

The situation you are in is unsustainable. If you let it happen they will continue to abuse you forever. Evaluate the various people around you and separate those that are supportive from those that are not. If it is your academic advisor that is supportive then you might have a path in your current program, but if not, you need to find a way to exit.

You don't give any evidence here that you are unsuitable for continued study, but you need to take a more proactive stance to realize your goals.

Not every place is like what you are experiencing, nor is every boss or advisor an exploiter of students.

But take stock of your options and don't be shy about moving on.


review a review paper with unpublished data

A review paper contains commentary about previously published work, a critical evaluation of that work, and possibly a synthesis based on that published work. I can imagine a rare case where an author might want to include one or two pieces of new data, possibly referenced as "to be published." If there was very much of this I would recommend that it be removed.


Which of these works to cite when critiquing?

It is not your job to protect an advisor from being linked to a paper he chose to sign. Think rather about your reader when making your choice.


What to do with long equation-heavy solutions?

This happens not just in mathematics but in many other disciplines as well: modeling of biological systems, for example, often involves a vast number of terms in the equations.  The best approach that I have found for these sorts of situations is to look for the structure in the system and to build your presentation around that structure.

In most cases that I have encountered, it is not true that there are simply a bazillion essentially unrelated terms.  The true story of the equation, then, is not the expanded mathematical form but the process and relations that generate it.    This opens up a number of approaches for factoring out the equations in order to make them more tractable to present, including:

Abstracting sub-structures as variables (e.g., X^2+XY+Y^2, where X and Y are complex terms presented separately)
Separating variables from parameters (e.g., a reaction network where each reaction uses one of several standard Hill equation models, with the parameters of the models presented in a table)

These sorts of factorings also lead to a much more informative and interesting presentation of the equation as well.  In fact, the Big Equation itself may often end up being relegated to an appendix, where its page-busting form is of little concern.

There may be, of course, certain systems in which such factoring is impossible---and that fact is quite interesting and worth clear discussion!


One of my co-authors is an "IEEE Life Member" can I add this to my IEEE transaction manuscript?

Being a new graduate student, I never knew that you could add "life*" to the paper. I felt you can only add member, senior member, follow. After googling, for a while, I found out that one can add life member, life fellow, or life senior member to an author's name.


There are several reasons:

Publishers want their papers distinguishable. Everyone1 knows Elsevier by the logo and font.
Consistency itself is a good goal, to an extent.
It means you easier meet certain quality standards. (If I could, I would show you things people submitted as final versions for publication.)
I'm afraid that if you let people do what they wish, it would be seriously disasterous. (I speak from a Copy Editor/Typesetter experience.)
I would not call it inertia, from my point of view, journals are typography and typography is art, and art should be done artfully, no matter we live in a crazy fast-cooked world.

Last but not least, note that AMS does not require you to comply with everything, I published a paper where some enumerations are numeral and some are alphabetic.

1Almost.


In general, I think graduate schools want students to pursue their entire PhD candidacy at a given institution. Moreover, schools may be reluctant to count work done a long time ago as part of the requirements for obtaining a degree, as it likely sets a bad precedent.

Moreover, there's the question of financing. If you're in a program where students are financed through TA's, it's a lot easier to convince a school to take a chance, rather than in the sciences. The reason for this is that funding in the sciences is often tied to specific projects—which means that you will most likely need to change topics if you pursue a PhD in such a department. This would of course set your time to degree back considerably.

That said, you may find a sympathetic department that's willing to take a chance. My best advice is try to talk to the graduate admissions officers of some of the departments you're thinking of applying to. They'll help you to figure out what are the requirements and possibilities.


How harmful is it for a PhD student to work with a supervisor whose ambition is greater or lesser than that of the student?

It does not make much sense to me to compare the supervisor's ambition for herself to the student's ambition for himself: the supervisor is probably older (more often than not, significantly older) and certainly more experienced and accomplished than the student.  If a student feels competitive with his thesis advisor in any direct way, something has probably gone wrong.  Students should take on advisors that they view as distinctly wiser and more knowledgeable in the main topic they're trying to learn!  (The notion of a student who is comparably knowledgeable and skilled as his advisor is something which appears in the premise of a question on this site at least once a month.  Strangely, I have never seen it in real life.)  "Ambition" isn't exactly the right metric, because it aims at the future, and some very successful, eminent researchers are not pushing hard for the future: they've done plenty already.  Such "big old dogs" can make great thesis advisors.

On the other hand, some advisors are much more ambitious than others in their expectation for their students.  This is an important thing to take into account when choosing an advisor, and too great a mismatch in either direction is going to be a problem.  For instance, it is likely that at some point in the relationship the advisor will say "I want you to do X, and when you do it you'll have a PhD."  If the student thinks that there is no way in hell that he is going to get anywhere near X it is worth a conversation ASAP, and if X really needs to be attained to get a PhD (probably not, by the way, but just for argument's sake) then the student should look elsewhere.  On the other hand, if the student can (or does) do X in a month or two and the advisor says "Great -- now you have a PhD!" then the student may want to start over with someone who is more ambitious on his behalf.


Finishing a PhD that I started abroad, in the USA?

I disagree with the other answers. Virtually all reputable US graduate schools have a residency requirement. Further, they will have little interest in a "pass-through" candidate who feels that they have already earned a PhD elsewhere and wants to obtain it as quickly as possible.

Your best bet is to follow up with your old program / contacts. Even retired professors might be willing to work with you. Perhaps someone knows someone who will take a special interest in you. With a professor on your side, rules can be bended or special arrangements made.

If that is a strict no-go, then you would essentially have to start over at a new institution. You could shop for an institution that will minimize the additional work you will need to do, but I would still expect it to take multiple years.


Can a journal article contain a personal circumstance description as motive for justifying the literature approach?

If you submit the article to a peer-reviewed journal, the reviewers should not (be able to) look at your academic history or status. If it gets accepted, the fact that it has been accepted shows that people think the findings are relevant for the field. There is no need to defend yourself in the text.

Furthermore, I would avoid any personal statements, especially if it concerns your own mental health, as it may jeopardise your career in the future.


From Virginia Tech Libraries:

  Trade journals are geared towards professionals in a discipline. They report news and trends in a field, but not original research. They may provide product or service reviews, job listings, and advertisements.

  Scholarly journals provide articles of interest to experts or researchers in a discipline. An editorial board of respected scholars (peers) reviews all articles submitted to a journal. They decide if the article provides a noteworthy contribution to the field and should be published. There are typically little or no advertisements. Articles published in scholarly journals will include a list of references.


When do you italicize the name of a book, article or website in APA style citations and references?

APA style does not include the website, book, or article title in the in-text citations. You would use the  (Author, year) format. The only exception is when there is no author listed. In that case, you include enough of the title to enable to reader to find the relevant entry in the references.

For example, if your article by an anonymous author is titled Evidence of influences of Eurasian mythology in Charles Darwin's unpublished works, published in 2010, your in-text citation might look like this; (Evidence of..., 2010). You do not italicize the in-text citation, even when using a title which is [correctly] italicized in your reference list.

For more information on the correct use of APA style, consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth edition, (2010), or check online at the APA website.  For quick reference, the APA blog is also useful.


My PhD defense is next week and I am having negative thoughts about my work and knowledge. Any advice on how to tackle this?

Take a deep breath. You will be OK. You're suffering from impostor syndrome.

PhD defenses are traditional formalities. Your advisor wouldn't let you schedule yours if they didn't think you ready.

The examiners are more likely to want to know what you did than  theory from your first year you have forgotten.

When you pass your defense come back here and tell us about it.


How to politely decline an interview for a PhD program?

They seem to have all the facts already. Just tell them that you had already made travel arrangements to visit A and B on the dates that C wanted you to come out, and that you have to regretfully decline to come to C. They're not going to be mad at you.


Is this considered "research worth publishing" in computer science?

Is re-rewriting the core function of a world class - well known open source project (where performance is a crucial) and optimizing it to be 2-3 times faster, considered research?

It might be, but only under certain restrictions:

You need to be sure no-one has written about the improvement before. And I am not talking about the particular piece of code in the particular project you are looking at here, but about the conceptual idea of how to improve the code. If you want to present your work as a scientific contribution, it needs to be conceptually novel in a way that no-one has described the methods you use in an abstract way before.
You need to present your improvement on an abstract, generalized level. Modifying a particular project is nice, but it is not research. Showing a novel method how to modify any number of projects that feature a particular problem can be.
Your change should not be entirely obvious. While research contributions do not necessarily need to be totally unexpected or groundbreakingly obscure ideas, if many developers could make the same modifications to the project simply by applying their professional knowledge, your contribution is probably not considered valuable enough, even if no-one else has described the actual procedure before.

To answer concretely to your points:

  The idea is to parallelize it as much as possible,

This might be interesting for a paper if it involves any methods for parallelization that were previously unknown, and that can be applied to other applications, as well.

  modify (a bit) well known data structures to be faster for the specific case,

A "specific case" is usually not interesting for research results; it only becomes interesting if you can show the "specific case" is generalizeable in some way.

  use a more suited language

If you design a new language that is specifically suited for the type of applications in question, that could be publishable as research, at least if that language has conceptual advantages over existing domain-specific or general purpose languages for any class of applications. The mere translation into an existing language is most probably not publishable as research.

  and (a bit) more suited algorithms than the open source project used.

If those algorithms are already known, it is probably somewhat obvious that they could be used on that particular proejct. As such, this is not a research contribution.

  I am applying what others made.

Yes, fine.

  I don't create an entirely new algorithm or data structure.

Well, do you create anything conceptually new at all?

  But on the other hand, I guess there are 1,000s of papers published out there and many of them add little value, while my work will help improve the open source project.

"little value" is relative. In research publications, value does not mean a solution can readily be used. Rather than that, value is usually seen as the product of

the degree by which a problem is solved/situation is improved if the presented knowledge is applied
the amount of cases in which that problem occurred/to which the solution is applicable

Due to the second item, whether or not you already apply your method to one particular project is hardly relevant. As soon as it is known how to solve the issue, the research is done. Implementing the solution in a project may be helpful to the users of the project, but it does not advance the knowledge of humanity and as such, does not warrant a research publication in and of itself.

To summarize: A research publication is not about what has been done, but about what has been learned.


How do I find graduate level topics and textbooks after graduating?

You can search university reading lists, e.g., https://www.google.com/search?q="reading list"%20"applied mathematics"%20site:edu, replacing applied mathematics with phrases to hone in your search.


Should I list campaign consulting on my CV? (the campaign I consulted for was Republican)

If the experience is related to your academic work then yes, you should list it. Ideally, the party you worked for shouldn't matter, though our politics in the US is very polarized. So, while I likely disagree with your policy stances, should that affect how I view you professionally?

No, it should not, and many would fight against the tendency to view you negatively, but not all. And while many might not consider it disqualifying, some might consider it a negative factor. Of course this is all true if you had worked for a different party as well.

There is no need to specify which party you worked for, though it may be obvious from any letters of recommendation. Be honest if asked, of course.

On the other hand, if you are viewed as very political then polarization would be a bigger factor.

Two additional thoughts came to mind a bit late.

First, if you are volunteering, rather than a paid consultant, there would be no need to mention it as it is more part of your private, than professional, life.

But in general, it is almost always an error to hide anything from your past. People don't normally react well when the learn the truth.


Is there a credit hours requirement for applying to a masters course?

No.

Since there is no universal standard for what constitutes a "credit hour", imposing a required number of credit hours is simply impossible.  If you have a degree, you have a degree.

On the other hand, which courses you've taken definitely does matter.  For example:

If you're applying for graduate school in computer science at X, but your classes have small overlap with the undergraduate computer science program at X, that raises a red flag.  That gap makes your undergraduate program look weak, or at least that it develops a different set of skills than the grad program at X normally expects.
If you claim in your application that you're interested in (say) artificial intelligence, but you've never taken an artificial intelligence class, that raises a red flag.  How an you claim interest in a field you've never been seriously exposed to?  How can we judge your abilities in a field where we can't see a single grade?

Of course, all this is secondary to your potential for research excellence, as described in specific and credible detail in your statement and in your recommendation letters.

(I'm on the graduate admissions committee in a US CS department.)


You should explain.

Unlike (say) mental health problems, there is no stigma attached to having a parent in ill health. If you don't explain, people will be wondering what the reason for the bad grades was, and whether it was mental health problems or some other cause that reflects poorly on you. If you explain, they they will know what caused them and will see these bad grades in a much less negative light.


When summarizing my sources methodology for my literature review, must I add a citation?

The answer to the question in the title is "yes, always". In your example text I would simplify to

  Aldén and Hammarstedt (2008) examined ...

This only works in the author-year notation though, not the numerical or footnote-style. In those cases (I have no experience writing in those) I would probably say

  A study by Lina Aldén and Mats Hammarstedt (Citation) examined ...

and then use a full paragraph to set off this part from the rest of the text. This implies that there is a connecting topic in the paragraph and the early citation makes it clear what the topic is.


Is it ethical for departments to have publication requirements for students

For an individual course (assuming a time-limited scenario, e.g. a semester, quarter, or even year), it's certainly ridiculous to have a publication requirement.  The timing is far too variable, and even the best researchers can have papers rejected or discover before submission that they've been scooped.  If it were possible to reliably publish a worthwhile paper within the timespan and amount of effort required for a typical course, then there would be a lot more papers published.

A requirement of submission is not as absurd, but still unreasonable.  I see no advantages over a mock submission sent to the professor teaching the course, but there are severe disadvantages: it can put pressure on students to make inappropriate submissions, and it can waste the time of editors and reviewers on submissions that may be withdrawn once the course requirements are complete.  My cynical interpretation is that submission requirements deliberately use the threat of professional embarrassment to encourage students to work harder, and that seems unethical.

The one scenario where publication requirements can make sense is for a degree program.  For example, some PhD programs require that a dissertation must be based on peer-reviewed publications.  Of course that's reasonable only in fields with a sufficiently rapid publication cycle, and even there I'm not fond of this idea personally (but I wouldn't call it unethical).


Does a reply to comment count as a publication?

Yes, but you would probably want to make separate lists of refereed and non-refereed publications. By putting the comment in the latter list, you do show that you engage with academic discussion, but you do not overclaim it as yet another refereed publication.


Stick to one citation-style throughout your paper.

Do not combine different citation styles!

The pros of being consistent:

Paper looks nicer and more professional, i. e. like a real scientific paper
It's easier to read, because the text is not interspersed with different kinds of foot- or endnotes (reduced cognitive load)
Makes checking your sources easier

Cons of being inconsistent:

Some professors are quite allergic to inconsistent notation (I know of fellow students who learned it the hard way).
It gives a very bad impression

It wasn't understood how citations work and what their purpose is.
Perhaps, at least some material was just lazily copied from different sources (each using different citation styles) and you didn't do it yourself. Not the case, for sure, but you don't want to create that impression and have to prove your innocence. And it really looks like a good explanation for the strange mixing of different citation styles.

In general, stick to one style. If you have been told which one to use, then use that one. Else, choose one you like (sometimes you are free to choose a style) or ask. But mixing them has no benefits, just downsides. In your case, use APA notation throughout your paper, just as you have been told.


Would getting started in research in something outside my specific interest hurt my ability to research in that area later?

I don't see any reason why doing research in one area would prevent you from doing research in another area later on. Many people do several different research projects before they figure out what it is that they want to do and, in some graduate programs, it's even a requirement to do several different "rotation" projects before officially selecting a research group and project.

So I would view any research project as worthwhile. You could find:

you really do like research and find a new area that you'd want to pursue.
you don't like the project but want to try something else.
you really don't like research.

Any of these would be a notable and valuable end result. So don't worry about getting into machine learning later on if you can't get it into it now. Doing research in something that has piqued your interest (at least temporarily) is all that really matters, especially early on in your career.


Is it reasonable to require students to bring a laptop to every lecture?

I would go with the computer room option. There are several issues with getting everyone to bring a laptop:

As you mention, a few students may not have one, and this could cause embarrassment.
People are using different operating systems, and may have different versions of the software installed. This increases the chance of code working on some computers but not others, which is always tricky to deal with as the lecturer.
High chance that at least a few students will forget their laptops, or their power supplies.

To deal with the issue of the computer room being poorly laid out for lecturing purposes, I would suggest providing all the materials (powerpoint, code scripts, etc) to the students electronically. This way they can have everything displayed on their screens and can follow along even if they don't have a good view of the projector screen.


Should you mention your ranking in specific courses in statement of purpose?

I'm assuming that you're talking about Ph.D. admissions, rather than masters' admissions, which often play by very different rules from department to department and institution to institution.

Comparing classes across institutions is virtually impossible, to the point where some graduate schools require you to state the textbooks associated with your undergraduate courses in order to evaluate you.  A better way to think about how grades relate to Ph.D. admissions is as a negative filter: if you have iffy grades, then you will not be considered.  If you have excellent grades, then you will be placed into a large pile of other excellent students, which is then sifted to see who also has interesting potential to do something besides problem sets.

As such, rather than putting down a rank, ask yourself this: are any of the classes you performed excellently in ones where the professor might be willing to write a letter recommending you for insight or creativity or something else beyond mere mechanical brilliance?  That will go much farther toward getting you admitted.


Fine-tuning parameters for existing methods

Can I use default parameters from the existing methods?

Yes, but should you? Default parameters are unlikely to provide optimal performance, so you may like to try various parameters.


Filing a patent before collaborating with industries?

As Nate notes in his comment, you should talk with your University's Office of Technology Commercialization, Intellectual Property Office, Office of Technology Transfer, Office of Industrial Programs, or equivalent (just to give a few key words to search for). However, you should be able to just talk with a potential industrial collaborator after signing a mutual non-disclosure agreement that includes the restriction not to exploit each others IP disclosed under the agreement for commercial gain without further negotiation. These kinds of NDA are common in work between industry and academia, and they allow for discussion to begin without everything having to be patented ahead of time. Your university's industrial office (as above) ought to be able to help you draft the NDA. Don't do it without the support of your university's attorneys.


Can I submit an abstract to present already published work?

I think generally speaking you're thinking about your advisor's point the wrong way round. The point isn't that the journal now owns your work and presentations thereof (re: point 2), it owns the copyright, and the right to distribute their presentation of your work.
Rather the point is that conferences are expected to be new work, ahead of the literature. People don't go to conferences to hear a paper read aloud, they go to hear about new things they can't read in the literature. It's a venue for feedback (which can't be applied to a published article).
I'm not in preventative medicine (but at one time was in a medicine-adjacent field), but have heard this before. Generally, an oral presentation might be the better avenue for work that was just published, but you should ask your advisor about point 1.
To point 3 - no.
To point 4 - no, the managing editor is not the one imposing the "restriction," if you wanted to ask someone besides your advisor, you would ask a conference organizer or someone else familiar with the conference to learn what level of novelty is expected there.


Is it rude to ask an adviser at my current university to help me transfer?

You have think this matter in a practical way.
You should not tell your advisor that the reasons linked to your transfer are linked to the fact that you prefer the other one. In my experience, you should be diplomatic, focus on what is important, saying that this would be a good opportunity for having new experiences, specially in terms of academia. You should express your genuine will to grow as a student.

Moreover, I believe that you should not fear your advisor. If he becomes rude or irritated or whatever, it is not your fault because nothing justifies aggressiveness

So, this is a risk you will have to take in order to take a chance and try to go wherever you want to go. This is kind of the part of being an adult and dealing with stressful situations in life, specially in academia.

Good luck and don't waste your time overthinking this.


I handled three cases of Plagiarism so far. The fastest way is to write an email to editor-in-chief of the journal and provide some documents showing that this is your work. For example, you can sent your master thesis and specify the similar parts. For me, in all cases, the editor-in-chief quickly removed the paper because they are responsible for the reputation of the journal. In case this doesn't work, then you can ask your university to handle this, but the procedure would be much longer.


Conferences and journals for network science?

I would say you are approaching it in the wrong way. Since network science (as Wikipedia defined it) is multidisciplinary concept, then I really doubt finding a consistent venue (conferences/ journals) for it.  This is specially true if you are interested in the application side.  If you are interested in the theory behind it, I see Graph Theory is the way to go.

I have worked in different applications of what so called network science including bioinformatics, social networks. I only knew graph theory (I had no clue what genes really are). So this largely depends on the application domain.

So simple steps to go:

Pick an area/interesting problem related to your expertise/background.
Read its literature.

If you saw a good paper related to your work, then keep an eye on the authors.


How to contact another PI as a PhD student wishing to discuss their research?

Essentially, the best way to ask is to phrase things exactly as you have.

“Dear Professor $Name,

My name is Anon, and I’m an Nth year PhD student studying at University of Science. I’ll be in Wakanda for a conference from Date1 to Date2, and I was hoping to use the opportunity to meet with some local researchers whose work I have been following.

I was wondering if you might have time during that period to sit down for a chat about research, or perhaps have me visit your lab? I understand schedules can often be quite busy, so I’m happy to be as flexible as possible given the conference schedule.

Regards,
Anon”


Communication skills are very important, maybe more important than academic ones.

Stay human and be empathic. When you ask someone 'how are you' make sure you actually mean how the person is, not just the result. People need to be treated and seen as people, not as machines. Never ask judgemental questions, never say: 'I have told you so!', 'I have already shown/told that', 'why don't you know?'.
You must gain people's confidence and you can only earn it if you are open and non-judgmental.

Before becoming an advisor, it is important to improve your communication skills through activities that might be outside your curriculum: courses about public speaking are a must have, but theatre is a good and funny way for achieving this as well.

Moreover, it is important to discover if you really like being an advisor.
You could be a trainer for various small events, like a workshop.
Or you could teach school kids different topics, as a volunteer in an ONG. Even if it is not your topic, even if they are not students, you will have the experience of teaching.


Should I focus on GPA or publishing (undergraduate)?

There is, unfortunately, no single answer to this question. In most fields undergraduate publication is uncommon enough that any publications look good. However, the amount of value added by publications compared to GPA will depend on a range of factors, including the following:

Area of study: Some disciplines may place a higher importance on social or community projects rather than publications, while others may prize GPA. You will need to determine how your discipline prioritizes these academic goals. Within my discipline (psychology) undergraduate publications can be helpful if applying to graduate school, but are not expected of incoming graduate students.

Intended career: Similarly, if you are entering an applied field once you graduate, they may be far more interested in other, more concrete forms of experience. Again, for someone pursuing a clinical career in psychology, publications (especially those that are clinically relevant) might be nice, but employers are more likely to be interested in clinical experience. If you are entering industry they may pay little attention to your GPA, assuming it hits a basic threshold. If you are intending to pursue an advanced degree publications may be more useful, but again this will depend on your discipline.

Amount your GPA will drop: If you have an excellent GPA and will be risking only a small drop (so that you would still consider your final GPA to be competitive), then it may be worth pursuing publication. Many graduate programs in the USA look for a basic cut off in GPA when considering admissions; that is, so long as it is "good enough" it is ok. However, what is considered "good enough" will vary by discipline and program. If you are risking a substantial drop in GPA, it may not be worth it. Be sure you have a sense of how low your grades could be while still maintaining what you consider to be an acceptable GPA. Then determine if you feel the burden of publishing will put you at risk of missing that mark.

Quality/timing/authorship of publications: The overall impact of your publications will influence how much "extra value" they add to your career or academic pursuits. Obviously, higher impact journals will look better than lower-tier. Beyond just having the publication on your CV, the quality of the work and your role in the work will also matter. Being involved with the development or conceptualization of the project will be more valuable in terms of experience than if you assist with data entry. That type of conceptual involvement will better enable you to discuss the project and its implications in job or graduate school interviews. Additionally, in some fields the order of authorship on papers is important and holding a valued authorship position (first, second, last, etc. depending on field) may be beneficial. In disciplines that do not assign weights to the order of authorship (e.g., mathematics), this is a non-issue.

Impact on your personal life: Finally, you will have to determine whether pursuing publications is worth the significant amount of time you believe it will take. Think about this carefully. If you begin to make some trade-offs with your GPA to pursue publishing, and then decide the work load is too much of a burden in other aspects of your life, it may be difficult to refocus on your grades.

If you are having difficulty evaluating these different factors, seek advice from a mentor, professor, or someone who is pursuing the career you are interested in. You may also be able to gather some information about how your field and possible career paths value these factors by looking at graduate program entrance requirements, job postings, and the publicly available resumes or CVs of people in your field.


How would you classify these types of research publications

Category #1 I would call a literature review (or survey.)

Category #3 is a meta-review (aka meta-analysis).

The papers in category #2 tend to be described by their methodology (case study, experiment, etc).


Like anything that you need to learn, the key is practice. Reading alone won't make you a better writer. You need to write. Moreover, you need to get feedback on your writing. Of course, if you submit a paper and it is sound but uses poor English, the reviewers will often try to help, but their patience is limited. So, in some way, poor skills in the language of expression can hold you back until you improve.

I assume that you are also in a place in which it is easy to use your first and second languages, so English may not be in everyday use in your circle. But if you are in India, for example, there are plenty of competent English speakers around you. You can try to associate with them to improve your speaking skills. You can also, perhaps, find or create a small group of people to work together on improving your writing skills, giving feedback to one another. The writing needn't be scientific writing, actually. Anything will do to start. But in such a group you should all force yourselves to use English nearly always. The only exception would be to provide definitions of uncommon terms.

You can probably also find local classes in English as a Second Language (ESL) which offers help both in speaking and writing. The local secondary school might be able to help, for example.

Practice, practice, practice. Get feedback. Practice some more. Getting feedback is probably the harder part of the problem.


Considering a second PhD, this time in statistics. Will any professors be interested in working with me?

As most of the comments already say, doing a second PhD is probably not a good use of your time and not very helpful. From an industry perspective you have a math PhD, that means you are very smart and can learn anything, especially any maths very quickly. Learning some statistics or machine learning can be very helpful for an industry career but there is no need to get a formal degree in it. You can state in job applications that you have a math PhD and that you know statistics. Even if the statistics is entirely self taught in the real industry world this is equivalent to a PhD in statistics.


Ethics: donation link on github repository for an academic side project

It is ethically acceptable to ask people to give you money when they are receiving nothing in return.  The fact that the request is on a Github repository, or that it is attached to software, or that it is attached to a university project, are not particularly relevant.
You should not use university resources to ask people to give you personally money.  A personal Github account is not a university resource.
Asking for money is unlikely to lead to receiving money.
Before selling anything (like software licenses) you need to check your university policies and see if the university has a legal right to your work.


Accepted for Masters, Is It Rude To Ask About Scholarships?

It's definitely not rude to ask about scholarships! Some are easy to get, while others have stringent requirements, so it might be more appropriate to ask "what scholarships am I eligible for" or "what scholarships can I apply for" instead of "what scholarships can I get."

A tip about word usage: If you're doing a masters degree than you're almost definitely attending a "university" rather than a "college." In the US, a college refers to an administrative unit that awards undergraduate degrees. The term "school" is also used to refer to degree-granting units that award any kinds of degrees. A university is a collection of schools. For example, Harvard University contains a college and several other schools as can be seen here. Some universities (especially larger ones) have multiple colleges, generally separating Engineering from Arts and Sciences. If you tell someone in the US that you're attending college, they will almost certainly assume that you're an undergraduate. "Attending university" or "attending graduate school" are the common things to say.


Is it advisable to cite papers in PhD Statement of Purpose?

For the specific question of "should I cite a paper by one of my people of interest whom I want to read this application", I don't see a reason why you couldn't. I think there is no way in which your question, at the high level, is any different from the others you referenced.

However, there is more subtext to your decision to cite this professor. "I know your work", you want to say: "I'm ahead on my literature. I stay up to date." Well, you need to be careful making that statement because you could totally be wrong and not know better. If you say you want to work on exciting new problems and pick a 2012 paper (it's the latest on his CV!) where the conclusion is "this field is tapped out", the professor will specifically know you're talking out of your ass.

You need to do your research here especially, and be very careful about your statement. Don't be stupid, generally. But no, I don't think the answer is any different still, it's just a more careful balancing act. Go for it. One of the other questions points towards successful NSF applications, and I find them to be generally good guides. I used my application as the basis for all but one of my personal statements.


What can happen if a recommendation letter falsifies information?

Few cases can happen (probability will decrease as we go from case to case).

(They don't find out) nothing happens.
(They find out) they'll remember the professor and his recommendations will be considered of no value

The reader of this recommendation can have the professor marked as a dishonest person within the facility or keep it for himself

They contact the professor ask him about it. Then they contact the current professor's employer and he gets in 'trouble' - some people get aware of it.
They contact current professors employer, he get's fired for dishonest behavior
They make a lot of people aware (Including his colleagues and newspapers/media?) he gets fire and it's going to be hard for him to find another job, highly unlikely.

It really comes down to the credibility, you're not going to jail because of that. It can only really hurt your trustworthiness in the academic and human sense. If you're going to lie it should be something small like if someone worked in your company for a year you can say he worked there one and a half years.

If the one recommending someone isn't aware of something chances of this affecting him are very low ~0. This is in the case of something that common sense dictates, he shouldn't be aware of I don't know, Like does he have a dog, and on the other side, one can't say he's was not aware of his e.g. effort or performance.


First of all, let me state this, because this does not seem to be understood by the OP but none of the other answers actually try to clarify this confusion. "Series volume no" is an abbreviation of "series volume number", i.e. the number of the volume in the series. The journal is asking you what the position (number) of your book (the volume) is in the series "Modern Birkhaüser Classic".
I have another volume from the series Modern Birkhaüser Classic in my hands. No number for this volume is to be found anywhere. Nothing on Springer's webpage either. None of the usual bibliographical databases (mathscinet, zbmath) mention any kind of number. My university's library search engine does not make mention of a number either. If such a number even exists, it is useless to anyone.
Simply tell the journal that despite being part of a series, there is no number attached to this volume. If the journal is somehow adamant on having a number, then your other option is to cite the original edition from 1992, if you are certain that the content is exactly the same, but this sounds pointless.


What to do if I found out the preprint paper missed a citation of others' work?

Contact the journal as soon as possible with the correction, and see whether they can change it before the paper is officially published.

When they had real (and not electronic) typesetting, you had to try to change the text as little as possible. That's still a good idea, although it's less important now.

If they can change it before it's published, that's ideal. If they can't, you can decide what steps to take after they tell you it's too late.


I feel like the right answer must be to continue the conversation with the Japanese postdoc and ultimately give him the responsibility to understand and accept your position.

I understand that at first he interpreted your lack of desire for coauthorship in a certain way.  And then you explained your position, as you have written here.  How did he react to that?  If someone insists on interpreting your behavior in a way different from how you are explicitly identifying it as being meant to be interpreted, what can you really do other than ensure that your future actions are consistent with the interpretation of your present behavior that you have conveyed?

I don't see any insurmountable "cultural differences" here.  In my field (mathematics, which sounds like it is equal or close to yours) there are plenty of singly authored papers by Japanese people, so obviously the practice of supervisory coauthorship is not a fundamental tenet of Japanese culture or anything like that.  Even if it were: if the postdoc is in the US working in your group, then he has volunteered in a very strong sense to participate in your local brand of Western academic culture.  If he cannot understand that actions can have different meanings in your neck of the woods than what he was used to earlier in his career (whether by virtue of his being Japanese or for some other reason), then he's headed for big trouble.

I would say: clearly explain the situation as best you can, in several sittings if necessary.  Don't put your name on a paper that you don't feel you contributed to just because that makes the postdoc uncomfortable.  In the near future, try to go a little out of your way to show that you still want to do business with the postdoc (assuming you still do, which sounds reasonable).


MBA recommendation letter from the board member of another business school?

I can see it harming my application because if I am such a good applicant for an MBA then why would the board member endorse my application for another university? Why wouldn’t he try and make me attend the MBA at his business school?

Because, like you said, the other program is much better. If he knows and wishes you well, he won't try to prevent you from benefiting from a better program. Also, he cannot force you to attend his business school and you may have very good non-academic reasons to prefer another place. Perhaps your partner lives there, perhaps the job opportunities are better or the school has better career services, perhaps you just want to change your environment.

  Do I ask this board member for a recommendation letter or find someone else? What are some of the pros and cons of asking this board member?

First of all, it doesn't hurt to think of a back-up plan in advance, in case the board member declines to write a strong letter.

Generally speaking, a recommendation letter from a board member of a good university should not harm your application. However, whether it will improve it depends on the capacity in which he knows you. Was he your professor in some classes where you performed exceptionally well and can commend on your analytical abilities? Does he have first have experience of working with you in the industry and can talk about your leadership potential, etc? Does he know you from some outstanding community service that you have performed? Look at how business schools describe their ideal candidates (they usually have a section like this). You want your recommendation letters to speak directly to those qualities based on their first-hand experience and giving specific examples as evidence.

In other words, his status of as a board member can amplify an otherwise strong application letter. However, if it is going to be something superficial, then it's better to look for someone else. And, of course, you don't want to be related to that person.


Is it unethical to poorly translate an exam from Dutch to English and then present it to the English speaking students?

There are two different questions in here that are mixed up: one about whether the Dutch and English exams should be identical and one about exam quality.

Regarding the first question: I fail to see why this should be unethical. On the contrary: It seems very good that the standards on what you are supposed to know are the same. After all, you get the same degree.

Regarding the second question: Also here, the answer is obvious: Of course, exams need to be of good quality. If that is not the case, sure, this is a problem to be addressed. But that has nothing to do with the question of whether they are a translation or not.


What is the difference between research intensive vs. research extensive universities?

"Research intensive" and "research extensive" are obsolete terms from the Carnegie classification of research universities.  They are terrible, confusing terms that should never have been introduced (see page 5 of Rethinking and reframing the Carnegie classification).  The idea was that "research extensive" means there's an extensive research program covering many areas at a high level, which "research intensive" means there's just a narrowly focused, intensive research program in certain areas.  Basically, extensive is supposed to be better than intensive.  Of course the problem is that this really isn't what they sound like.  For example, most people would say Harvard is a research intensive university, but in this classification it's not.  Because of massive confusion, the Carnegie classification was updated to use other terms, but the old terms still persist.  One reason is that some people just got used to them and found it hard to develop new habits; another is that every time the classification changes, some universities end up moving to a less prestigious category than they used to be in, so they have a strong incentive to describe themselves using the old terms.


Is it unethical if I did not inform the current lab I am in that I am looking for another position?

Generally speaking, no, you can seek other employment at any time without ethical constraint. This is especially true if the work environment is abusive in any way.

There is one consideration, however, that you should keep in mind. If other people depend on your work, you need to do what you can so that you don't unnecessarily disadvantage them. So, you may have an obligation to complete joint work before you actually leave, or see that it is put into a proper state. But you don't have to do that first.


Group members barely doing any work but studying a lot for exams

There are basically 3 options I can personally see:

Do nothing

Normally with this kind of assessment there is some scaling of marks based on effort/share of the work. If the professor has indicated that, I would personally do nothing.

Talk to the professor

If you are still concerned about the group effort, talk to your professor about it. It's likely this activity is designed to help you navigate group dynamics and your professor will likely be all too happy to help you learn.

Talk privately/one to one with the 'offending' party

If you feel that neither 1 or 2 is appropriate, try talking to them directly. Try not to confront them. Instead, look for reasons they may not be contributing as much. Perhaps they feel unable to contribute. Listen to them. If they feel they are already contributing enough or that everything is 'done', maybe suggest additional things they can do. The main thing to remember is to try and persuade and listen rather than accuse.


Does one really have to consider having a co-author to avoid being considered as a nerd?

There are reasons to be more careful about sole-author papers from young investigators, but pretty much none of them are the ones this professor told you.

I would be more cautious when considering a sole-author work from a young investigator simply because inexperience plus lack of supervision means there are more likely to be mistakes.  These might be in the technical work, the scoping of the problem, the design of the investigation, or the interpretation of results.  On the other hand, if your paper went through meaningful peer review, that's a pretty good initial filter for simple mistakes, and that means I'm likely to take the paper as seriously as any other that's made it through peer review (i.e., still with significant skepticism, but assuming basic sanity).

None of this, however, has anything to do with gratuitously insulting an undergraduate investigator.  I would consider the professor you describe to be both a fool and a bully. Perhaps this attitude is widespread in the community where you published, perhaps it is not; certainly, there are toxic scientific communities.

I would thus advise you, if you want to continue working in that area, to keep doing so and meeting more investigators.  If you find they are more constructive in their criticism, then ignore the first, nasty person that you interacted with.  If you find the first scientist was representative in their attitude, then find a better scientific community to participate in.