Can I publish my Master's Thesis that I've claimed copyright on?

Generally, the agreement that you sign with a journal publisher is not just to allow publication, but rather to transfer ownership of the copyright to the publisher.  After that point you don't own the copyright and can't publish the material your self except under the terms of the copyright transfer agreement.  Some agreements are quite liberal while others are more strict.

However, most journal publishers specifically allow for the publication of papers that are substantially similar to parts of "published" MS theses and PhD dissertations- under this system you can still make copies of your thesis or dissertation freely available online.  Furthermore many publishers are OK with theses or dissertations that basically consist of chapters that were previously published as papers in their journals.  A few publishers (for example I believe that this was an issue with the American Chemical Society although they've updated their policy) have not allowed these practices.

In short, copyright is most likely not going to be an issue in publishing research papers based on your thesis.

Another issue that you didn't discuss in your question is rewriting the thesis material to fit into the short form of a journal article.  Thesis chapters usually need to be significantly shortened for journal publication.


Can I use someone else's research commercially?

If the subject material in the research paper is a patentable invention, it might also be the subject material of a patent.

The inventors of an invention may be the first applicants of a patent application. However, if they were employees, employed to invent as part of their normal duties for their employer, the employer is usually considered the first applicant for a patent application.

The rights in a patent or a patent application may be assigned to another person.

So: if there is a patent for an invention relating to the subject material of the research paper, it might be owned by someone other than the company from where the research paper originated. How did you check whether a patent or patent application exists for this subject matter?

Bear in mind that patent applications are made publicly accessible a certain time after the application for a patent is made. So, an applicant may have filed a patent application for the subject material of the research paper, and then published the research paper. The patent application - if extant - may not be publicly available yet. What this means is, if you put into practice the subject material of an unpublished patent application, you may in future receive notification of the patent application, and be advised to cease your operations. If the patent is granted, and you haven't ceased your working of the subject material, you might be liable for damages.

Bear in mind again, that there might be other patents - or patent applications - which relate to the subject material of the research paper. For some degree of certainty, you will need to do a patent search. You can do this yourself, but you have to bear in mind the warnings I gave above in relation to unpublished applications.

There are patent search firms who will do this service for you for a fee.

For a professional legal opinion, ask a patent attorney.

EDIT: If there are intellectual property rights to the subject material of the research paper, you can ask the proprietor of the rights for a licence.


How do you comment on rapid improvement in a student's performance?

I agree with JeffE's comment -- this is an opportunity to show fantastic improvement, which looks great in a letter.  If the improvement really was because of "serendipitous success," it seems that it would be difficult to sustain, unless it happens that the groundbreaking work was so monumental that it is prize-worthy (and even then, chance favors only the prepared mind).

If I'm writing a positive letter (which is almost always the case--I'll try to convince a student that I'm not the correct person if I feel I won't be able to justify a strong letter), my goal is to convince the letter-reader that I'd hire/accept the person now, and why.  Something like the following might fit this case:

  I have been particularly impressed by X's recent work on her project, Nuclear Powered Time Travel via a Modified Consumer Vehicle.  Despite a frustrating set of circumstances that returned limited results in the early stages of the project, her hard work and persistence led to a breakthrough that she is currently preparing for submission to The Twin Paradox Journal, and will undoubtedly lead to further successful results.  Specifically, she was finally able to properly shield the flux-capacitor plutonium containment compartment in her design, reducing temporal errors by 99% and leading to far greater box office returns.

If the student's previous attitude, or struggles don't put her in a particularly good light, don't include them explicitly.  Again, it goes back to would I hire or accept the student now?  If you believe that by not including the specifics you're not being honest, then maybe you wouldn't feel comfortable with such a positive letter anyway.


Almost everything we know is taken from someone else, so what do I cite in a paper?

I didn't know when I was a child that I needed to remember who told me that Rome was a global power back in the 1st century :)

You are broadly correct with this. If something can be deemed common knowledge in your field there should be no need to cite it.

MIT define common knowledge as(taken from my answer here);

  Broadly speaking, common knowledge refers to information that the average, educated reader would accept as reliable without having to look it up.

Other examples(not exhaustive) of where you should cite include;

When using a primary source to support an original thought or idea of your own then you should cite that primary source material
When using an idea to support your ideas that is contained in an secondary source/literature.
If you are taking something verbatim from a source you should cite it.
A caveat on common knowledge - When in doubt, cite your source.

Depending on what level you're writing at there may be university/department guides in relation to citations.

Finally I think in your case that you could ask your professor(as suggested by ff524 in their comment) to show you some of the area's in your paper where they thought lacked enough citations so you can use this knowledge going forward.


Consequences of a master thesis with errors

Relax. Nobody is going to take away your degree for some honest mistakes in your masters thesis.

The errors you describe are not even that serious

  I identified a lot of typos, some references errors, and some improvements that I should do, but I did not.

as it sounds like they don't even invalidate the main results of your thesis. But even if you found a major error that completely invalidated your thesis results, if it was a genuine mistake and not the result of misconduct, you would not have to worry about losing your degree.

You can minimize the impact of the errors by putting an updated, corrected version on your website (and marking it as such). Not because otherwise there would be serious consequences, just to correct the record.

The best way to minimize the impact of your early work (thesis and paper) is to make sure that your most recent work is high quality, so that it is obvious that the mistakes in your early work are due to inexperience and don't reflect the work you produce now.


Can a single college course section be taught by two professors?

For several years I taught a doctoral level course with a colleague. We were both always present for every class. Each of us took a different "perspective" with the material. One of us would take the lead at any given moment and the other would comment as he felt inclined. Students could ask either of us questions at any time.

The course was very broad, but, generally speaking, centered on Agile Software Development, both its technical and managerial aspects. It was a bit broader than that implies, actually.

We were both salaried, as is typical in US, and each of us got "full credit" for a course taught. The course was considered important enough by the university that the pay issue was basically ignored.

Not every university would be willing to ignore pay issues, of course, and, I suspect, no university would make a general practice of it for many courses. Few would, anyway.


What can a student do if a professor makes special allowances for one student in a course?

The arrangements that the professor makes with any other student are absolutely none of your business. I don't see any indication that your grade is threatened. If you are learning what the course aims to teach, it is not your place to second-guess the way that your professor chooses to run her class.

Faculty are often asked to make accommodations for individual students for any number of reasons, and these reasons are not to be made public. In fact, I'm required by law both to offer alternative forms of evaluation where appropriate, and not to explain why I am offering the student an alternative form of evaluation.

For a US perspective, read up on the ADA and FERPA and you'll see an interesting intersection of required accommodations and required privacy on behalf of students with special needs.

[Comments converted to answer by request.]


Which are the most relevant sources on the goals of university and their relation to its origins and evolution?

Germany has had the model of the Humboldt ideals. Unfortunately, it has now become slowly eroded through the Bologna process of educational reform and unification in Europe. If you want details, these topics are important and influential and you should look up the terms Humboldt ideal and Bologna on the web.

However, in a nutshell, the Humboldt ideal is about educating enlightened citizens, both in terms of expanding one's personal horizon as well as contributing to society. It is a highly influential and (in my opinion) beneficial way of looking at university education.

Developing the personality of the students is the foremost goal of this way of thinking; for which, of course, the development of a skill set is an important, but not the only or ultimate component. Responsibility for the society at large is part of it, as well. Enlightenment means here that, of course, the individual can and should identify as an individual how to balance the different components.

The "elite" may be implied here, but should not be understood as a privilege rather than a responsibility and duty. Ultimately, the ideal would be that every single member of the society would belong to this elite in their individual responsibility for the world around them. Of course, this is illusory in reality, but it is clear that this is the goal to aspire to.

In short, being educated in the Humboldtian sense means that you understand the world around you, and you can meaningfully interact on things outside your immediate reach.

For people who are not interested in anything but their immediate agenda, my question would be why they are considering themselves at all "students" at "university". After all, "student" means "the zealous"; and "university" is not by chance related to "universal".


How to deal with left over work from a Post Doc

The easiest way to do this is to politely inform your previous advisor that you no longer have the time to commit to the projects you were working on as a post doc. It is not your responsibility to train others in his lab, or to take on duties beyond what you're comfortable with.

One option to consider, if you're working on a "for hire" basis, is to offer the possibility of hiring you on a contract basis to do the work. You would then be able to set the scope and extent of the work, as well as your compensation. If your advisor was unwilling to accept the terms, it would put the refusal on him, and you'd be more or less "in the clear," so to speak.

As for the pay rate, you should probably select a rate that is between the academic and corporate rates, but leaning more toward the former—remember that academic pockets are typically not as deep as corporate ones.


Should I include a course in which I was strikingly successful in a statement of purpose?

Actually, I suggest that you find somewhere else to mention this, and make the SoP entirely forward looking. The CV and such give your history. The introductory letter can give something of motivation.
But the SoP should be used for just that, what is your purpose going forward. It isn't about what you have accomplished in the past. What do you want to study? Why do you want to do that? What are your long term plans after you earn the next degree? That is what people need to hear in the SoP. Don't assume people will correctly extrapolate your future from your past. Spell it out. Don't waste the limited space on other things best said elsewhere.


Are publications on arxiv.org valued by graduate admissions committees?

"Publishing" on the arXiv is not a big achievement; actually, it's not an achievement at all.  In terms of how prestigious it is, it's not really any different from putting an article on your own personal website.  The arXiv isn't a publishing venue, it's a preprint server---it's purpose is to serve as a public repository for potential articles.  It has various benefits (it's probably more reliable than your own website, it gives credible evidence about when an article was posted and modified, which is sometimes desirable), but it achieves those in part by not refereeing the articles on it.

However, writing an article as an undergrad is certainly a meaningful achievement, and given that it can take a while for a paper to make its way to being in print, an appropriate unpublished article is still a positive for an applicant.  Of course, the admissions committee wants to distinguish a good article from a bad one, and since posting on the arXiv isn't a good proxy for quality, the committee will look for others (recommendation letters, for instance, or possibly just reading the article themselves).


What is a fair metric for assessing the citation impact of journals across disciplines?

There is no such index.

Publication and citation standards vary significantly between disciplines and even sub-disciplines.  Without direct, deep knowledge of the standards in each community, it is simply impossible to compare impact of a journal in field X with the impact of a journal in field Y.  (Eigenfactor's extraordinary claims to the contrary require extraordinary evidence, which they don't provide.)

Moreover, it's not clear why you should even try.  Any judgement about the relative importance of Journal of X versus Journal of Y necessarily requires a prior judgement about the relative importance of field X versus field Y.  HC SVNT DRACONES.


I think a hat would be overdoing it. Men will typically wear chinos, a collared shirt and a jacket to such things. Ladies have somewhat more choice: perhaps a dress, or smart trousers and a nice jumper. Colleges vary; some are smarter than others!

Ultimately, the most important thing is to be comfortable - the point of the reception is to meet people and make new friends, so you want to feel as relaxed as possible! So don't feel you have to dress up unduly if that's not your style.


What is meant by the requirement for an "outstanding academic record"?

That means you have to have demonstrated that you're a really good student. Your "academic record" is what your undergraduate career says about you (transcripts, letters of reference, publications, awards). It must be "outstanding" - top of the heap.
Only very select schools (or those that think very well of themselves) can ask this explicitly of their applicants, though many require it.


As a referee, what should I do if I think the other reviewer of a paper is not objective?

My perspective as an Elsevier editor: This happens sometimes and is easy to see through. An outright "accept" on a first submission is so rare as to raise eyebrows in any case (at least, in my field). The editor has probably noticed the lack of thorough review by this referee and will give the review the appropriate weight (i.e. none). That said, I would not see any harm in emailing the editor if you are concerned, so long as you keep it polite and to the point.


How to know a community of researchers in order to be more successful in research and getting papers accepted?

1) Communities usually revolve around research topics, rather than journals. There are smaller and broader communities. The smallest ones are about a very specialized topic that only three research groups in the world are knowledgable about. The broadest ones are about an entire overarching research field. Of course, there also are overlaps between communities.

2+3) In my field, the only correct answer would be: Go to meetings and conferences. This is the place where people go to exchange ideas, in talks and informal conversations.

4) This is a very broad question. There can be all kinds of relations between communities, personal ones (overlaps) and emotional ones (respect, envy, disregard).


Academic prizes and awards vs academic achievements

First note that "achievement" isn't an exactly-defined term and is at least somewhat subjective.

Academic achievement: An act or process which, when concluded, expands human knowledge or understanding of some subject by means of (academic) research; or alternatively, disseminates or improves in the dissemination of such knowledge in an academic context (e.g. via teaching). In some context this may also mean achievements in studying some academic subject matter yourself.
Academic awards: Awards given in academia or by academia, for academic activity (supposedly).

There is obviously some overlap between the two terms ("achievements" vs "prizes and awards"); awards are usually given to recognize or encourage academic achievements, or to compensate for the travail of making those achievements.

Example:

Presenting a research paper in a well-regarded conference is an achievement.
Your paper being recognized as the "best paper" for that conference is a borderline-achievement.
The "best paper" is an award (possibly including some money, gift or other perk).


How to list a published reply to editor in publication list

A conference paper, journal article, letter, book chapter, ..., they're all just publications, they can each appear as independent entries on your publication list. A blurb can describe relations between works, e.g., I pioneered X [1], with extensions to Y [2] and Z [3], where X is your original article, Y is your letter, and Z is, I don't know your work, something else you did in that area.


What are the requirements for admissions to a masters degree in computer science in Canada for an international student?

You should check the minimum requirements of the program you are aiming to apply.

But, generally speaking; you may need some proof of language skills (depending on whether your language of study in your BS was English or you are native English speaking, you may not need this document) and official report of your grades and GPA.

Some universities may need a statement of purpose and depending on the entry requirements, you may have to sit an entrance exam or an oral interview via internet. Some universities may require a report of GRE score which you should prepare for separately.

Also you need to find a way to pay your tuition fees and living costs. If you are not self-funding, it is a good idea to check the scholarships which you are eligible for (some of these scholarships are reported on the website of the departments and universities).


Is a hypothesis necessary for empirical research?

You fail to recognize you already had a hypothesis. You have method A and method B, so clearly both are important And you knew that a priori.

That said, you can remain agnostic as to the direction or non-direction of the effect (better? Worse?) - and that is the difference between one-tailed and two-tailed tests.


In what situations would it be appropriate to include one's photograph in a CV?

In the United States, you should never include a photo in an academic CV.  It comes across as somewhat inappropriate, like you are deliberately drawing attention to your appearance and hoping it will influence the decision.  (I know that's not actually the intent, but many people's gut reaction upon seeing the photo will be "Why is the applicant showing me this?  Do they think I should know what they look like before making a decision?  How is that supposed to be relevant?")  If you are from a country in which photos are often included, then that will be understood as a reasonable explanation, but it will stand out as foreign.  If you aren't from such a country, then it will look bad.


How to overcome losing of appreciation for the work done during manuscript preparation?

Having a strict deadline looming over you is really effective in overcoming those feelings and replacing them with total panic instead. But to be more serious, it is best to realize that most, if not all of us felt something like this at some point. It is just another part of the usual impostor-syndrome. Talk to your colleagues as a form of group therapy. Also there are two things are good to keep in mind here:

Personal growth: Why do you know now that you could have done better? Congratulations, it's because you improved so much that what was hard to get right back then now seems terribly obvious to you.
Don't waste time on things you cannot change. Worrying about what you did not do does not change your previous work, it only takes away time from other things you could do now, so focus those.

Finally remember all the published work you read while working on your PhD. How much of it was truly perfect? And how much of it was badly written, full of incomprehensible sentences and small mistakes? If the underlying ideas are good enough it will still get published (and worrying about that is your adviser's job). You might not get it accepted on the first try, in your favorite top journal, but again that happens to everyone.

So in short, just try to "get on with it". (But as a footnote of course don't be afraid to look for professional help if those feelings start to impair your work.)


I have asked a professor if he were available for being my graduate thesis advisor, now my bachelor thesis advisor is angry with me

It sounds like you've found out the reason that Y is no longer a collaborator of X.  Furthermore, you should thank your lucky stars that you found out now, before you committed to working with X.

Assuming there are no important missing pieces in what you report, the situation is pretty straight-forward: you were entirely reasonable in telling X that you wanted to talk to some other professors before deciding, and it is entirely reasonable for you to contact Y without reference to X (X has no claim over you and your interactions).

The email that you report X having sent is absolutely inappropriate, and also clearly disingenuous: if X thinks so badly of you, why would X have invited you to work for them?  It seems clear that X is wanting to control you, and so you should definitely NOT work for X.

At this point, I would recommend writing an email to X, stating that you found the email both highly inappropriate and also confusing, particularly given that X was also asking you to work for him.  State that because you find this inappropriate, you are no longer considering working for X.  It is very important that this interaction be in email, and that after this point you restrict interaction to email, since X has proven to be manipulative and untrustworthy and you need a written record with which to defend yourself if necessary.  I would also recommend continuing communication with Y, if this is possible despite the attempt of X to sabotage you.


Is it necessary to have only recommendations from Computer Science professors for an application to Computer Science grad program?

Yes, absolutely.  Your references should be people who know you, your work and your capabilities best and can give the admissions committee the best possible insight into what to expect from you.  That matters a lot more than what department they're in.  For that matter, they don't even have to be former instructors.  You might also turn to a former supervisor at an internship you did one summer if the work you did for them was especially impressive.


How can I email a professor to ask if I am still being considered for an RA?

Given that you prefer an offer from them to all others, I suggest the following.

First, the opening and closing remarks are a bit trite unless you know this person already. You aren't writing to a friend, so keep it professional. I sometimes use "Stay safe" as a closing salutation now days, but nothing else.

But the important point is to leave out most of the detail.

  I'm juggling some other offers now, but would very much prefer to accept one from you and would accept it if offered before I need to make a final decision. I wonder if I could have some decision from you by June 1. Also, thank you for the advice on things to do now. I'm following up on those and find them helpful.

That is really all you need. The date you give should be the drop-dead date for the other decisions.


You may want to separate two types of issues here:

the presentational issues of your work
the scientific issues with your work

The first of these types spans presentation style, style of writing, and the structure of your written deliverables. The second one spans all scientific aspects of your work.

You should definitely be able to get some feedback on the scientific issues. If your advisor says that the data leaves room for improvement, (s)he should be able to give reasons for that. Also, if you ask how (s)he thinks how the data could be improved, you should get a usable answer, as this is part of the role of an advisor.

As far as the presentational issues of your work are concerned, you may be well-advised to ask ofther people for help (e.g., your fellow PhD students). Scientists often learned how to do that well by "learning by doing". This doesn't imply that they are also be able to explain how to do it in the right way. The quotation "these slides could use a little more oomph" suggest that this may be the case. But actually without knowing your advisor, it is impossible to tell.

It may also be that that your advisor is expecting you to engage more in discussions with him/her. For example, if (s)he said "the standard way to analyze this is to...", then (s)he may expect that you provide a rationale for the choice of your approach. This discussion can then lead to a better understanding of your work, both for your advisor and you.

Again, because of the limited knowledge of your situation, it is difficult to tell whether this is really the case in your situation.


Job search advice for possible PhD dropout

Way too many personal details may look unprofessional. You might try something like

  I was not satisfied with my progress in academia, and I do not want to lose any
  more time by trying. I believe I can fully utilize my productivity and develop myself better in the industry, by the help of financial means.

This is both honest, motivational, and looks less pretextish.
Not everyone will care about what you lived in your personal life.


How to organize digital documents for administrative work?

The lovely thing about organizing things electronically is that it's much easier to re-organize than physical paper.  The problematic thing is that you can let things accumulate for a lot longer before noticing there's a giant pile forming.

My own personal solution is thus to start each new commitment as its own single folder.  For example, if I'm serving on a committee, that committee gets a folder and everything about it goes in that folder.  Likewise, I have a folder where documents about required trainings go.

If only a few documents show up, one folder is enough.  For example, for the journal where I'm an assistant editor, I've got only one folder with just a handful of files, since almost everything I need to remember about that responsibility is in its online system.  When more than a dozen or so documents appear, however, I'll create at least one subfolder that can hold a cluster of documents that I don't want to have staring me in the face every time I think about the project.  As things further accumulate, swelling the contents of the top-level folder or the subfolders I've developed, I'll continue developing structure and substructure reactively.

Thus, by deferring organization until there's a quorum of things to organize, I give myself time enough to learn about the organization of information that I need to do.  By beginning organizing when there's a dozen or so items in a location, I deal with organization at an early enough stage that it's not a daunting and time-consuming task.


How can I answer the question: "What do you hope to achieve during your studies at University X?"

At this point, you can't really say what you will achieve or accomplish, exactly.  I mean, if you knew all that already, you kind of wouldn't need to go there to study, would you?

What I did was I described my fantasies, of what I wanted to study, which I hoped I would find there.  At the time, I was working as a COBOL programmer.  It was tedious.  Once in a while there was a fun logical challenge, but mostly I was pulling data from the student database at a community college, and writing tedious code to format the results in a nice report for a college administrator.

One fantasy was that I would write a program that would generate the tedious COBOL code.

That's not what I ended up doing once I was in the grad program.

But that was okay.

I don't remember what my other fantasy was, but I think it was something that I imagined as a result of programming a spline fit for a numerical methods class I took as an undergrad.  That was a really fun project and I wanted to do more of that kind of programming.

Just write about what sorts of things you'd like to learn more about when you are in a grad program.


Access to journals for individuals outside of an institution?

As a preamble: maintaining a publishing system has a cost. You may shift it to the authors, or to the reader, or have it financed directly by governments or supranational organizations, but there will always be a cost. It's true that in the current system, with a mixture of private publishers and non-profit ones (academies, learned societies, some well-administered professional societies), some players may be making a bit more money than we wish. Academic publishing has not yet fully adapted to the digital age, and it will get leaner by doing so. However, we have to recognize that this will always have a cost.

Now, answering your first question: there is a growing trend to go towards open access journals (and open access options in many other journals), which shift the cost onto the authors. Moreover, some funding agencies (for example NIH) have a public access policy, meaning that they ensure that publications stemming from research they fund are publicly accessible in some form (in the case of NIH, the final version of the preprint must be made available on PubMed). Now, different fields of research are moving toward this new paradigm at various speed (biology is faster, chemistry is not moving at all). In the current state of things, it must be noted that apart from a few renowned exceptions (PLOS One, for example), most open access journals are far from prestigious.

In some fields, the publication system has hoped earlier on the digital bandwagon, and it is routine for authors to publish only preprints of their work (and publishers have copyright transfer terms allowing it). For example, in mathematics and physics, arXiv.org is a very popular source of preprints. In some other fields, most journals don't allow preprints to be posted at all…

Regarding your second question, there are a few options for you to gain access to some paywalled journals:

Public library: if you live in a big city, the local public library likely subscribes to a few major scientific journals: Nature, Science, things like that.
Get a guest reader status at the closest university: some institutions allow access to outsiders in their library, either by not actually checking who gets in (as long as you behave), or in some cases by actually having an official “guest reader” status (which may require some paperwork or approval).
Membership in a professional society: individual membership in the American Chemical Society gives you access to their journals at a rather decent price.
Writing to the authors: if you see a paper you don't have access to, just write to the authors asking for a PDF.
Reddit Scholar :)


Difference between contributed and invited talk

The distinction between contributed and invited talks applies to conferences, and not to departmental seminars.

The details of who asked first, etc, are no reasonable basis for any distinction between seminar talks.

Since getting yourself invited to give a seminar talk tends to be very easy, I would recommend to list them apart from invited conference talks. One can either go for "Invited talks / Contributed talks / Seminar talks" or for "Invited talks / Contributed & Seminar talks" as subcategories.


I'm not sure that any such specialized term exists, or at least I have never heard of such.  The process, however, is quite familiar to me.  I find it most interesting when I discover that several different subjects have all approached the same topic from different directions, each typically having invented its own largely unrelated terminology.

As for what to call it? I would typically refer to it simply as searching for related work and then connecting my work to the prior results.  It might be a fun target for a neologism, though!


How does a book editor's scientific reputation affect how the work of the chapter authors is evaluated?

The expertise and reputation of the editor(s) is of prime importance, with the publisher's reputation being a distant second, at best. I answer from an applied materials science perspective, which should be close enough to applied physics; although I don't see the situation changing much across fields. One exception would be if the field is highly specialised and only a few publishers operate in it.

At the outset, l believe there is no major difference in evaluating a journal and evaluating a book. In both cases, one looks for unflinching ethical conduct, respectability and high visibility. The first is non-negotiable; any hint of predatory publishers should deter submissions immediately, whether journal or book. The presence of a reputed and respected editor is a good indicator that the publication will be handled ethically.

Second, the matter of respectability. It is not much of an extrapolation from respectable editor to respectable book. Remember, any full citation of work published in a book will carry the editor's name, so the association is long-term. Often, such books are parts of series, or are associated with legacy conferences. In these cases, the repute of the series/conference can take precedence over the individual editor's, because different books are edited by different people. In these cases, the priority would be series, editors, publisher.

Finally, visibility. For journals you have an impact factor and other merits. For book chapters, there is none such. Here a well-known publisher is good because they will typically have better distribution than a smaller publisher. You mentioned Wiley and Springer, I'd like to add Elsevier, who somehow seem to be flooding the market. Yet, books tend to generally be thematic, so a well-known editor guarantees enough publicity within the respective field. Incidental/interdisciplinary readership may be affected less by editor and more by publisher.

On the basis of these three points, it's safe to say that a big publisher is desirable, it is not decisive. Why not? Primarily because publishing is ultimately a business, and like all big businesses, all eggs aren't put in the same basket. Every big publisher will have a spectrum of publications, varying in impact, quality and degree of specialisation. You can easily see this in the publishers you mentioned. So the same publisher could put out an average book or a great book, and you'd be none the wiser without looking at the editor.

Secondly, if a book is associated with a conference/seminar series, the publisher is decided by how much financial muscle the organisers have. It's a no-brainer that better finances don't necessarily mean better quality. Again, the visibility to a general audience will be higher for a larger publisher, but in the long term, once the chapters notch up enough citations, this is likely to be offset.


Are engineering PhDs more relevant to industry careers than science PhDs?

I have a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and work at a university, but I'm not really on a traditional academic track. So non-academic jobs are possible for PhDs with engineering degree. I work for UT Austin's computing center, and while I publish some, it's not my primary focus nor do I teach often. There are jobs at large centers of knowledge production and problem solving for engineers and technical non-engineers alike!

Also, everyone who quits a PhD program probably takes a small knock to their CV or resume. Physicists and chemists who don't complete a PhD also have lots of options for employment, but there's a risk that they will also have trouble finding a job because they may be seen as unable to complete a hard task by sticking to the work. I think you are being to glib or flip when you assume that you can bail out of an engineering PhD program and land softly immediately after in an industry job. Maybe, maybe not.

Also the idea that PhDs employed by industry are the wise men(!!!) who come up with the ideas is both quite sexist and shows that you have some thinking about the world still to do. Non-PhDs and non-men often come up with good ideas and solve research problems in industry and academia both.

You are likely to get burned because your thinking doesn't really reflect the world. Men and women both, engineers and scientists both, can all solve hard research problems inside and outside academia both.


Should someone mention her admission to other prestigous universities in past years when she applies for a PhD program?

I just don't see that information as appropriate... it doesn't belong in a CV or the application. It could be appropriate for a letter of reference to mention it, though.


Are the Master Program & Certificates I am about to embark on relevant to my career & academic plan?

Did the scientist know that you were thinking about doing a PhD or did he or she think you were staying in industry?

The certificates may be good ways to see if you're interested in the field, but I think they'll be almost worthless in PhD admissions. The exception might be if the certificate is given by a well-known, reputable university and the program itself has an excellent reputation. In addition, it might need to be known by one or more faculty members at the universities that you're applying to.

Do some searching here for related questions like this one: PhD in pure mathematics for a student in computer science

And a more general question: Undergraduate research field different from PhD field


Submitting an extension paper of a paper that is currently in review for a considerable amount of time?

I wouldn’t submit the follow-up paper while the first is still under revision. For the moment I’d consider the time that you’ve waited as pretty normal. So stay calm and wait some more time. If the first paper eventually gets publish, fine, then proceed with the follow-up paper. Otherwise, I would consider the option to merge both versions to a more influential single version and submit this one (maybe even in a higher-ranked journal).


Mediocre research career so far. Can I salvage my career by continuing as a postdoc with my PhD advisor?

Am I heading on to disastrous career by considering her offer?

No.  There is nothing wrong with considering and accepting a job offer from your PhD advisor, or an extension thereof.
What is disastrous for your career is not looking for a better job and taking one as soon as it is feasible to do so.


Is it common for professors to use questions from the internet on an exam?

they don't seem to understand the subject very well.
You sound like you are in a level of expertise that you could judge the quality of the lectures. You may then ideally speak to the professor about your allegation they still do this. I am ignoring the regional limitations and considering the question in a general context.

  Is it even considered an accepted practice?

Assuming that there are no institutional guidelines that goes against assembling questions from the internet(which you must check if you haven't done already!), from a logical perspective viewing this as a student, the practice is similar to posting questions from the text book or peer reviewed journals. The professor in any case is responsible for the question and its relevance can be questioned with supporting evidence.

From the point of view of a student, you could also do a student peer review about the quality and relevance of the question supported by discussions and critical reasoning. If the result of such an assessment goes against the question, you could then report him/her with proof your views about the practice.

NOTE - This is not limited to internet based questions but also any questions even from the sources you think are authentic.


Asked to tutor in a class I am currently taking

Like most things in life, being open and honest is a good policy.

Since you (presumably) are not close friends with this individual, and he is asking for assistance it is reasonable to request compensation as a tutor.  Every person on this planet has finite time and resources.  Having a near stranger request time should result in some kind of compensation, mutual friendship, or you should decline.

You can tell him that you're happy to catch him up to where you are while tutoring him, but if the topic advances faster than your learning, either work through the problems with him at a reduced rate (or free if you feel like it's equal contribution) or simply suggest finding another tutor at that point.


Confusion about writing acronyms in section title

A third option:

Section 1: Effect of VLW
It is seen that Very Long Word (VLW) used in article sections are confusing part.

This is useful if VLW is truly very long, and messes up your titles, and you can trust most people have at least heard of it, and will have a clue of what you are talking about. Placing the full version next to it makes it discoverable.
Note that the operating distinction is "will have a clue", reading the title should give the reader a quick idea of what it is about.
If the acronym is not well known enough, use the full word, and assume people will skip titles when they read the article in detail.


If you are affiliated with an academic institution, many have some sort of mechanism for publishing tech reports, e.g. via DSpace.  This is the ideal solution, since it is designed for exactly the sort of publication that you are looking for.

Failing that, I would suggest looking a little bit closer into arXiv.  Many of the topics are quite vague, and depending on the topic, your work might well fit into something like cs.IT (Information Theory) or cs.SY (Systems and Control), or a number of other areas.

Finally, a possible fallback is to simply publish via a fairly stable repository like GitHub, which means it is at least not dependent on your own server, but an institution that is intended to be maintained over many years.


Filing discrimination claim against my department

You might consider meeting with your university's ombudsman, if there is one. His/her job is to listen to concerns brought by any member of the university and to keep them confidential.

In particular, you could explain the details of the lawsuit you are considering, and ask what the possible non-legal consequences might be. This is likely to depend on the specifics of your situation, and h/she would be bound not to disclose these specifics to others.

The ombuds might also be able to suggest an alternative to a lawsuit. This would presumably not involve compensation, but the administration might be willing to take steps to prevent similar discimination from occurring in the future. Depending on your priorities, this is something you might consider.


Do npj and Nature-branded journals have the same reputation such that I can say I published "in a Nature journal" after publishing in npj?

The answer is a resounding no, they don't carry the same reputation. The npj journals are quite clearly on a lower rung of the prestige ladder. You can easily verify this by comparing the impact factors, which is >40 for Nature, and ~9 for npj Computational Materials, for example. It isn't only age either - the Nature Publishing Group clearly has an incentive to offer a range of journals for different topics and levels of impact, while preserving the reputation of their flagship journal.

As for whether you can say that you've published in Nature, see When someone says a paper is published “in Nature”, does that mean it's published in Nature? In short, you're much better off not misrepresenting where you've published.


Can I send math subject GRE scores to programs that do not require them?

You can still send it in. You can always add more information to your application, but there is no guarantee that they will consider it. I know a few schools have stopped asking for GRE subject scores because they don't feel that it's a good way to predict performance, and if that is the case they will not look at it. Assuming you have a good score, it will not count against you.


How to prepare academically-minded students and postdocs for the eventuality of not finding secure academic employment?

A few of your students may just study your subject for the pure love of it. More of them, I suspect, will settle for nothing but an academic career. You may not be able to convince them to aim otherwise.

But, you can still, with some effort, show them all what the alternatives are. In particular you can do two things, one simple and the other harder.

The first is to develop a list of sources in various industries that utilize the sorts of things you teach. Invite someone to visit your class about one day a month and to talk about the sorts of applications that are done in their industry. Even better if they can talk about their own personal involvement. It will take a while to get started in this, but a contact might be willing to return annually. You can expand this, possibly, if there are several sections of your course, even those taught by others, and have a late afternoon or evening seminar with such a guest.

The second thing is to develop, over time, an internship program with local industries, where students visit the companies and maybe perform some tasks there. But just visiting the companies to see what life might be like in industry might be enough. Many universities have internships and some depend on them as a fundamental part of the education, so you might be able to get some help in this.

One of the problems of the future academic mindset is lack of knowledge of the alternatives. You can give them at least a hint of that.


Is 15 sections too many for a journal article?

Yes, you improved it a lot with the 9-section outline, because:

It is much easier to communicate the tiered the structure of the paper to the reader, which makes readers and reviewers much happier.

It is easier for readers to scan through and understand the main outline of the paper, instead of having to figure out for themselves which points are more closely related.
It is easier for your to preview the shorter outline in words near the beginning, than if you're thinking of it as 15 sections.

It may slightly save you space, because subheadings likely take up less room than main headings.

Here are two additional potential revisions to further streamline:

Change point 5 into a subpoint under point 4. It's still about that simple algorithm. (As I just saw, lighthouse keeper also advises this.)
Shorten the title for 8.3. (Obviously, you're giving a generic version, but it could be done briefly by saying "Addressing Entropy Concern," replacing "Entropy" with a reference to whatever issue thoughtful reviewers may anticipate as a problem.)

Someone in your field may have better comments about whether the information you want to pack in here is all too much to effectively demonstrate in a 10-page paper. In particular, the simple, unscalable, mathematically interesting algorithm might not be as related to the rest, if you must cut something.


Two distinct papers solving same problem to same conference, allow update post-acceptance?

Sounds like a pretty straight-forward case of simultaneous invention.

There's nothing wrong with these papers being published without reference to one another, just as though they had been submitted to different venues.  At the same time, if the conference wants to arrange for the authors to add citations to one another (as would likely happen if they were to be published in the same issue of an journal), then that would be a neat and elegant refinement that would probably benefit both sets of authors.  Moreover, the associated society publisher (e.g., IEEE, ACM), is likely to be able to handle arrangements without much trouble as long as they aren't too far into production of the proceedings.  Don't do it if only one set of authors can update, however: an asymmetric arrangement would inappropriately benefit one side over the other.

Thus, I would recommend making the extra effort if it's within reasonable bounds, but not going to heroic lengths if it will badly complicate things.


Letter recommender hasn't responded to request and has conference deadline coming up. Should I remind them?

You sent the request last Friday. It is now Wednesday, i.e., the third working day after the request. That is not a lot of time at all, in the calendar of a professor. Moreover, the deadline is on December 1, which is still almost four weeks away.
Give the professor at least one more week. Maybe then send a reminder, and mention the deadline in that reminder.


Applying to graduate program - propose research project?

It is not standard in the US, since you are not expected to know enough about the subject to make a good proposal.  But if you can make a good proposal, it is helpful to do so.  Just be clear in your message that you are flexible, because the PI probably already promised a funding agency that they would work on something particular, and you most likely do not know what was promised.


How many papers per week does a professor typically read?

There is no typical, even within a field, because different professors tend to find different "niches" in how they relate to the literature, and the depth with which they read papers.

I have known some professors who establish themselves as the "scholars" of a department and deeply read dozens of papers per week.  I have known other professors who rarely read anything, because they focus on construction of new gizmos instead, pick up their knowledge of the field through conferences, and make their collaborators and postdocs fill in the "related work" section of their papers.

Likewise, it's a mistake to think that "read a paper" has a single definition. At one extreme, sometimes one wants to spend a great deal of time working through the contents of a paper. At the other extreme there are times one just wants to check the "headline" conclusion and see if it can help you with your problem or not.

Bottom line: there is no good answer to your question besides "it depends".


What are the drawbacks of HTML5 presentation software?

From a web developer perspective, the only issue I can see is compatibility. If the provided computer does not provide an HTML5-ready browser, the presentation may not work. Unfortunately, having been in labs and lectures with institution-provided computers, there is no guarantee that an IT department has provided the newest browser. While I'd like to think that people, especially at institutions, are keeping their machines up to date, we have to assume that some machines have been forgotten or have not been maintained.

This HTML5 readiness graph demonstrates that IE8, which still has a huge market share, is woefully prepared for any HTML5 feature. IE9 has some functionality over IE8 and appears to cover the audio/video portions you require, but only IE10 appears to be HTML5-ready as of last year.

I tried the reveal.js demo on IE8 just now. The rotating transitions don't work at all (it acts like Powerpoint basically), but it was usable. Since there are no videos or audio, I can't test those, but a standard presentation would at least be doable even in that browser.

It is unlikely that any IE9- browsers will ever reach full HTML5 support due to the security risks and time drain required, so any attempt to present on an IE8 browser is likely to be bare-bones and equivalent to viewing a PowerPoint.

However, this can be largely mitigated with the use of a PortableApp web browser such as Portable Google Chrome. A small footprint that can be carried around in a flash drive with the presentation.

From a student perspective, reveal.js might appear to be more confusing if you share the files, as it probably isn't just a foo.ppt file, but a source document, the JS, and so on. You will probably need to provide a read-me for being able to view the presentation. I'm sure everyone here knows how to open and view a PowerPoint, but some of us might stumble a bit with a more complex solution that may depend on multiple files and folders. That, and the student would need an HTML5 browser to get all the features working.

You probably will also need to direct PDF copy of the slides because I didn't see any noticeable way to print the presentation unless the stylesheet natively does that from the print menu.


My best guess is that you are well and truly stuck. There may even be contractual considerations that prevent your desired action. Some places (though mostly in industry) claim that anything you produce, even on your "own time" belongs to the institution. You can look to see what binds you legally.

I also don't know your field and won't judge whether a paper without your supervisor would be looked at a strange or normal - especially if he objects. That expectation varies widely by field.

But my advice would be to do what ever you can to find a different, and better, situation. Run, don't walk, to the nearest exit. If this means bowing and scraping to the chief to get a good letter of recommendation, then go along for now.

I don't know how hard it will be to move with few/no publications. But it is usually pretty hard to go without good letters. If you can use him to get a better position you will have a chance for a career.


As an undergrad, how to leave a research group that I told them I will do my PhD there

Pick out the one that you have the best relationship with and just say that you have a fantastic offer elsewhere and think it is time to move on. Thank them for all they have done, but note that you think you want and need a broader perspective. This is true, in fact. You may have already learned about everything that your current faculty has to offer and a fresh perspective would benefit you.

But be upfront about it. And be honest that your intentions were sincere at the time, but new opportunities have caused you to reevaluate your situation.

You want to walk away with best wishes and great letters of recommendation.

Maybe do this with both (all) PIs together. And this is best done face to face, though it is difficult now, of course. But email is a bit impersonal for this type of thing. Video chat of some kind, perhaps.


Could I change my research direction after graduated master?

You can always change your field, but it may not be trivial to do so. Study in a new field, and getting accepted in to a program usually assumes certain prerequisites. If you don't already have those, you will need (a) to get them somehow and (b) to convince others that you have the skills.

People change their minds about what they want to do. Others recognize that, so there are no hard barriers. But there may be a long period of study to achieve what you want.

Also, study of some fields, like CS or mathematics or statistics may make some things in other fields easier as many of the tools used in research generally are based on one or more of those things.

But you may have an easier path overall if you spend some time exploring your options before you set out on the journey.


Is it advisable to use formal citations in a statement of purpose?

If you're going to use others' ideas or arguments, use citations.

If you use someone else's ideas in any piece of academic writing, always include citations with sufficient detail for your readers to locate the source of the ideas. To do otherwise would be plagiarism.

Correct attribution of ideas is not boastful; it's a basic requirement of writing.


Bachelors thesis on my desired topic already written by previous years students

Unlike dissertations, bachelor’s theses need not be on an original topic or advance the frontiers of knowledge (although those goals are desirable!). A bachelor’s thesis is intended to show that the student is capable of synthesizing information to produce a useful result via research in some form or another.

So unless the school has a requirement that topics cannot be repeated, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to produce a work on a similar topic. That said, your work should not be identical to the previous work (which you should cite and discuss in your thesis!)


How strict is the definition of "native language" in PhD admission?

You should contact the department directly, preferably by phone. I had a similar issue when applying for PhD, and the graduate admissions person was able to help me waive this requirement since he "could confirm that I am fluent by speaking to me on the phone". It all depends on the people you run into. But most of them are reasonable, so hopefully it will work out!


The other school is hiring your adviser because they think they'll be a good researcher and faculty member. This means that at some level they trust your adviser's judgement.

It's not impossible, but it'd be highly unlikely that they would refuse to admit you against your adviser's request. The more likely situation, if they're concerned about your ability, is that they would ask to have you repeat some courses or milestones like an oral exam or portfolio review.

When they hire your adviser they're essentially saying that they're impressed with their research program. It'd be a little self-defeating to hire that person but say that they can't bring substantial portions (the students) of that effort.


Is it okay if research problem is vague in the initial phase of research?

In my opinion this is the definition of "research" everything else is "development". Of course, from "devlopment", serious research questions may be derived.

In my personal opinion, a PhD work whose proposed result is known from the beginning is worthless.

It's a different story if the problem is too large for one person or maybe not solvable at all - then it needs to be re-adjusted based on the experience made so far. But this process can / shall be part of the PhD!


It seems that almost all succesfull academics have had distinguished advisors. Is it really true that pedigree defines success?

I don't have a copy of the Krebs article, but I'm going to guess that he didn't mean to imply doom for every doctoral student who doesn't have a world renowned advisor. Your success is up to you and what you do, not some mythical inheritance from your legacy in academia.

Actually, I worry that if such a thing were true then scholarship would only  go down hill from wherever it started and never upward and outward. People who go beyond the the people who taught them are celebrated, actually, even by (especially by) those educators.

But, renowned people do have an advantage and they can pass part of that along to their students in some cases. If a person is a star in their field then lots of people want to work with them and they have lots of collaborative opportunities, even if they are often small ones. This means that there are a lot of ideas flying around in the presence of the luminaries and students can get into that sphere and exploit it. They can also exploit the contacts and build their own circle of collaborators.

But, it is also possible for people to form such rich research groups and seminars even when their own advisors are more modestly "endowed". Find ways to meet and interact with people who know more than you do and are willing to share it. In many fields, that means going to conferences and finding ways to participate there. You can also just correspond with people who might be able to help you put ideas together and focus your research.

But starting out with an attitude that you can't really succeed because your advisor wasn't in the very top ranks is something of a cop-out. If you really believe it, then it is a self fulfilling prophesy and you aren't likely to work hard enough to move upward in the estimation of your peers.

Work hard and swim in a sea of ideas, however you can make that happen. Luck helps too, of course. Others may have advantages, but that is true in everything.


Are there any resources to find modern (or effective) assignment types, knowledge control techniques?

The number of students in each blended course is definitely a consideration when creating effective assignments and assessments of student learning, however, the most important consideration is the student learning outcomes (SLOs) - what are students expected to do, think, or know by the end of your course?  The SLOs will direct the design of the assignments, as well as the assessments of student learning, for your course. Here is a very short training to help you learn to create assignments and assessments from student learning outcomes: http://jeandowns.weebly.com/  There are additional resources and references at the end of the training.


For conferences with an abstract deadline shortly before full paper deadline, does the "no simultaneous submission" rule include abstract submission?

To answer this question, let's recall why many journals and conferences do not allow multiple submissions. So,

  Is it OK to submit a paper to A and an abstract to B simultaneously, cancelling the submission to B in case the paper is accepted at A?

Multiple submissions are beneficial for authors, since they generally increase the chances for a paper/talk to be accepted and/or reduce the time until acceptance.
However, this strategy is not beneficial for journals/conferences, since each venue will spend time and resources on processing the submission (register and peer-review it), and only one journal/conference will eventually publish it. The efforts spent by reviewers of another journal/conference will be wasted.
This strategy is also damaging for the community of researchers. Firstly, peer-reviewers and editors are also academics, and they do not have much time to spare, so it is best not to waste it with pointless review process. Secondly, and more importantly, readers generally benefit from well-written and well-edited papers, and this relies on careful and time-demanding peer-review process. Faster acceptance may indicate better organised peer-review process, but it can also mean that the process is superficial (like it is in predator journals and such). By preferring a faster route, one can waste time of highly professional reviewers and also rob himself of a chance to get their valuable advice and improve their paper/talk accordingly.

So the answer is no - it is not OK.


How much time do academics in fact spend refereeing the research of others, on average?

Short answer: One day in a month.

In a piece on the "challenges and opportunities" of peer-review, Ware (2011, 25) estimates the median time spent per article to be 5 hours, and the average to be 8.5 hours. He acknowledges that these figures "vary by discipline and also by experience" (ibid.), but doesn't go into more detail. "Active reviewers" report an average of 14 reviews per year (ibid., 28). There is no explanation in the paper of what counts as "active" or how many papers the average academic reviews in a year.

However, in a follow-up publication, the same author defined active reviewers as those who review more than one paper per month (Ware 2016, 3). The same publication reports a follow-up survey with a slightly different methodology. Although the findings are therefore not directly comparable, their thrust is similar, with the average (mode) number of papers reviewed per month between one and two (ibid., 33), the median time spent on the last review at five, and the mean at 8.4 hours in 2017 (ibid., 34). The survey included more than 2000 respondents from different fields and demographics, with the arts and humanities somewhat underrepresented (ibid., 45).

Figures: Ware 2016. CC-BY-NC-ND.

References

Ware, M. (2011). Peer Review: Recent Experience and Future Directions. New Review of Information Networking, 16(1), 23–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614576.2011.566812

Ware, M. (2016). Publishing Research Consortium Peer Review Survey 2015. Mark Ware Consulting Ltd., Bristol, UK. http://publishingresearchconsortium.com/index.php/prc-documents/prc-research-projects/57-prc-peer-review-survey-2015/file


Is It Acceptable to Contact the Professor of a Publicly Uploaded Lecture?

Of course it is acceptable. But you also might not get a reply. The professor has to prioritise their actual students over someone who saw a Youtube video, and they are generally busy people that may not have time to respond to your question. However, they will not find it rude that you ask. You can find most professors' email addresses by simply Googling their name anyway.

To maximise the chance that you will get a reply I suggest writing your question in the most concise way possible (hint: not the way your question here is written) and in a way that clearly indicates that you've understood the basics in whatever field the lecture is about.


How do authors deal with figure copyrights when writing review articles?

The rules vary widely by publisher here. It also depends on whose work you're "copying." If it's your own graphic, then there's usually no issue associated with it. However, if it belongs to someone else, then you should either request the permission from the rights holder, or redraw the figure yourself (if it's a schematic, then this would eliminate copyright issues).

Similarly, a journal or publisher may allow you to reuse people's work from within the same publisher's journals without fee. But again, this is something the individual publishers determine.


Associate Editorship in a high-impact journal

In my field, associate editors are not usually positions you apply for.  Someone (usually someone else on the editorial board or from the journal staff) recommends you for the position on the basis of your reputation or previous work done with the journal, v.g. member of an advisory panel, long history of refereeing for the journal, i.e. you have to be a known entity.

Depending on the level of support, it can be quite time-consuming, especially if you want to do a good job, v.g consider going beyond the referees recommended by the system or by the authors, keep everything on track.  I would ration myself only to so-many manuscript at once or else this would become all-consuming time wise.


Are there any area in arxiv without requiring endorsement?

Nope, you have to get an endorsement to post on arxiv. After you have an endorsement in a specific area, you can crosslist your paper in other areas, which will give you the ability to post and give your own endorsements in different areas.


How to approach a potential supervisor for "research students" in Japanese universities?

It’s normal to contact potential supervisors in advance to express your interest and they can support your application. It’s not uncommon to visit their laboratories or call by Skype with prospective international students. You can offer to meet them or give a departmental seminar, especially if you are attending a conference nearby and have travel funds. Many supervisors encourage this.

However, there are some things to be aware of. Japanese laboratories are highly hierarchical: lecturers or assistant professors do not have the same independence as in other countries. They typically defer to a more senior academic who runs the lab and may not have the power or funds to recruit students directly. If in doubt, you should contact the head of the laboratory (a tenured professor). Please be aware that they are busy including traveling to attend meetings and may be near retirement. It’s typical for candidates not to be contacted at all if they weren’t interested in taking you in Japan (this is the same for job applications). If they are interested, they should apply promptly.

The enrolment procedures in Japanese Universities are complicated and vary considerably between institutions. They can assist you with this but it understandable that some prefer to take students already enrolled in their institution. This includes research institutes which prefer to take students already enrolled in a Japanese University, although they can arrange to a host institution via collaborations.

It is a huge commitment to host an international student. They should only take you on if they’re prepared to support you including the process to settle in to living in Japan and throughout your degree. In addition to the usual guidance required, an international student will also need help with the language and cultural barriers. They will also have to do a lot of paperwork in Japanese that you cannot. Not all Japanese laboratories are prepared to do this or take the risk on someone from an unknown institution in an unknown country. It’s best to introduce yourself clearly and point out any common interests or collaborators of theirs that you know. If anyone recommended to contact them, you should mention this. It helps to show initiative, show what you’ve already done to investigate your options and what you’re prepared to do (in terms of research techniques and funding your studies). Make sure you are eligible for funds if you are planning to apply for them to support your studies (and whether they will need to support your application formally).

If you can show a connection to Japan and that you’re serious about living in Japan with realistic expectations, that is helpful as well. There are genuine fears that international students will have poor manners or experience culture shock and abandon their studies to return home. You need to show that you are not such a “flight risk”.

They will also typically have stronger written English skills than spoken. As such they may not feel able to guide a candidate entirely in English. If you have any Japanese language skills or willingness to learn, you should show this. You should also try to show that you will share the burden of the language barrier, please use clear simple English to make sure they understand you. Avoid idioms, ambiguous terms, technical jargon, and of course: be polite and respectful.


How to ask for expanding scholarship duration from grad school?

My department offers full fellowships (tuition + stipend, healthcare is publicly funded in the country) to most academic Master's students. They are all limited to two years. The department does not have the ability to extend the scholarship, nor does the university.

That being said, it happens that some students take longer than 2 years to defend (it's an academic Master's, so it's generally expected that the students will have published/submitted at least one or two papers before they graduate). In those cases, the remaining months are fully funded by the advisor, usually in the form a research assistantship from a grant that is directly related to the student's Master's project.

However, if you were at my institution, your request for an extension would sound naive and borderline preposterous and arrogant. An extension is something that occurs organically as you show that you are doing good work and need the extra time to finish and polish your thesis. This is not something that is requested as soon as you start doing research. If your advisor/university is going to invest more money on you, you must demonstrate that you are worth the money and have a good motive not to have finished your thesis in time. Writing a "qualified" thesis is, I'm sorry, a terrible excuse.

The least awkward way to approach anyone about this is to ask about the possibility of (and not demand!) an extension once you are more acquainted with your advisor. A good way to approach them about this issue would be by leading a conversation like this:

  As you know, I have been studying the effect of wheel geometry in the
  performance of hamster-powered supercomputers. I demonstrated that
  heart-shaped meshes are very efficient, but as you know, that's the
  expected result, given that hamsters tend to work harder in the
  presence of love-displaying figures. I think that it would be very
  promising to investigate whether plastic or steel wheels are more
  efficient. If we demonstrate that plastic wheels are just as good as
  steel, we could see a significant cost reduction in hamster-powered
  supercomputers, and would certainly yield a very impactful paper. But
  as you know, that would require 3D printing the wheels, which would be
  very time-consuming, and would likely require more time than the four
  months I have left. I will start working on the plastic wheels as soon
  as possible, but if more time is necessary to finish the experiments,
  do you think it would be possible to grant me a fully funded extension
  of a few more months so that I can finish the last experiments and,
  hopefully, write the paper?

All of that is, of course, assuming that the possibility of getting a funded extension even exists.


Will 2 years of non relevant work ex affect ms in cs prospects?

Every university is different, but two years shouldn't be a big problem as long as you haven't lost the knowledge you once had. But in the US, even that is less of a problem as the MS usually involves a lot of course work.

Most admissions systems are looking for evidence of success that you can demonstrate. If your record is good and you can get good letters of recommendation you will have a chance. And, the internships and papers are a plus, of course.

But note that, depending on where you apply, you may find tremendous competition for limited slots. Don't make your search for a university too narrow.


How can I make my work available to the community, when it is in conference proceedings that are not online and self archiving is not allowed?

This is a challenging situation to be in. If you have signed over the copyright to the publisher, then you cannot legally redistribute the work without the publisher's authorization. I assume you did not realize the publisher's policy was so restrictive when you first submitted the paper; you might want to make a note to self to take a closer look at author rights before submitting, in the future! (And warn friends and colleagues away from that publisher.)

Copyright protects expression of ideas (e.g. the text and images), not the ideas themselves. Even if you have signed away the copyright to your paper, you are free* to write a new paper on the same ideas, using new text and images. So, I suggest:

Write a new version of your paper, without directly copying large parts of the conference paper verbatim. It can be a much shorter version. Include in it a note saying that the version from the conference proceedings is available on request; give your email address so that people can contact you for a copy.
You own the copyright to this new work. Post it on your website, on arXiv, anywhere else you like.

This way, people can still learn about the contents of the conference paper, and can contact you if they want you to email the full version, which you can't redistribute online.

* Free, in the sense that no copyright restrictions apply. However, in terms of ethical standards on duplicate publication, if you want to publish a new paper based on the same ideas in another conference or journal, make sure the new venue permits it.


Is it ok if I write to all professors that are offering Ph.D. positions the same email?

It is okay in the sense that it doesn't violate any ethical rules. However, I think it is unlikely that you will find success on this path.
Professors receive an unhealthy number of emails every day, and this increases with an unhealthy number of PhD application emails in PhD application season. If you want an email to a professor to be successful, it may pay off to carefully balance two counteracting forces: on the one hand, you want to be economical with the professor's time, and on the other hand, you want to stand out in a positive way. The most straightforward way to stand out is to be specific about the professor's research: why are you particularly interested in working with this person on this project, and where in this project do you see a first solution strategy that could potentially lead to a first paper?
It is a big ask to craft an email that satisfies these constraints. However, generic emails are very likely to be ignored. So that route is probably best avoided.


Is there any evidence of a benefit to distributing documents to students vs taking notes?

There is contradictory evidence I think on whether for the general student, providing materials is beneficial or not.

For example, a study finding a benefit in providing notes:
Raver, S. A., & Maydosz, A. S. (2010). Impact of the provision and timing of instructor-provided notes on university students’ learning. Active Learning in Higher Education, 11(3), 189–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787410379682

A study finding that providing notes is detrimental:
Weatherly, J. N., Grabe, M., & Arthur, E. I. L. (2003). Providing Introductory Psychology Students Access to Lecture Slides via Blackboard 5: A Negative Impact on Performance. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 31(4), 463–474. https://doi.org/10.2190/KRW7-QHFY-AY3M-FFJC

Lots more on google scholar.

However, i think it is better established that providing notes is beneficial to those with various specific learning difficulties (SpLD) like dyslexia and dyspraxia (although I don't have the evidence to hand) and we are required to provide materials to this group of students. Given the large number of such students in a modern classroom, and the effort it would require to distribute materials to only this group, it is easy just to give it to everyone.

I tend to provide my slides, before the lecture, but  - my slides contain little to no text, meaning some notes must be taken. I also draw a lot of diagrams during the lecture, that are represented as blank slides in the pre-lecture notes.

After the lecture I provide the slides with the blanks filled in, and my speaker notes.


Are there post-doc grants available for non-US citizens in the US?

There is relatively little funding of the sort you are looking for--funding that non-U.S. residents can apply for directly to fund post-doctoral work inside the U.S.  However, that is not really that important, since that is not how most post-doc positions are funded anyway.

Most post-docs do not apply for their own funding.  The funding comes from the institution that hires the post-doc (Very often--but not always--the money ultimately comes from a research grant from an outside agency, but the post-doc would not be involved in writing or administering the grant.)  If an institution has funds for a post-doc, they will advertise a job opening and hire somebody.  Generally, the search is global; they would be willing to hire somebody from anywhere in the world, provided they are a qualified.  (There are some technical caveats about how this works, but they are of little import in practice; and--again--they are things that the hiring institution mostly needs to worry about, not the person they choose to hire.)


Is it possible that an incremental work may get selected by a top conference?

It's possible, in the sense that there's a non-zero chance of acceptance. A couple of factors strongly contribute to this chance: How well can you explain the significance of the problem? How big is the novelty delta, for example, are there some entirely new concepts? How big is the runtime improvement? How rigorous is the evaluation?

In essence, you need to write a very strong paper, which is naturally easier for some contributions  than for others.


How to correct plagiarism in my own Master's thesis, years later?

I cannot tell you what the university will do if you confess; I am not employed in a position which would be involved in such a decision, and besides, I think that this will depend on cultural and legal factors, plus the personality of the decision makers in your case.

But I still think that it is better if you confess. There are several reasons for it:

Your own inner peace. By contemplating confession and posting here you show that you have matured and have higher integrity and a better understanding of academic rules and the seriousness of plagiarism than back when you submitted your thesis. If you don't confess, you will have to live with both 1)the guilt of not only having made the mistake once, but still actively deceiving people,
and 2) the anxiety of being discovered someday. I have been on both sides of a "hidden guilt" situation (although when it was on academic matters, it concerned milder cases), and I can tell you from experience that it is a bad situation, especially for the person who feels guilty and dreads discovery. It burdens you with a stress which can permeate to many unrelated areas of your life and make you miserable.
Your risk of discovery rises with time. Nowadays, universities start to routinely employ plagiarism software. Who knows what funky electronic agent will snuffle in your old thesis ten years from now? Twenty? What if such software becomes so ubiquitous and cheap that employers start running it on your old theses when you apply for a job?
If you confess, you will suffer negative consequences - but not nearly as bad as if you are discovered by a third party. Confession, especially if you are repentant, shows that you are capable of feeling remorse, have high integrity, also courage, and are willing to take responsibility. Being caught makes people see you as a cold-blooded fraud not deterred by social emotions like guilt and remorse. This makes you dangerous to them and reduces their empathy for you. They are much more likely to be lenient if you confess than if you are caught by others.
The later it comes out, the worse for you. If you are either caught, or confess yourself much later (e.g. because you notice the negative effects of guilt and anxiety - and yes, this happens, I have witnessed such late confessions), it will have negative effects on your career. But right now, you are at its beginning.

You have relatively little to lose yet. If you wait until later, you will have much more to restore after such a reputation blow.
The younger you are when it happens, the more time you have to build a solid career without having to start anew. At times when you advance into more leading positions, it would be better that this story is a thing of the past, forgotten by most, than that it hits you out of nowhere.
The sooner you confess after the mistake, the less reputation you lose. The less time you carry the problem hidden around, the less callous you appear, and also people feel less deceived.
Once it comes out, everybody who has relied on your thesis being correct will be miffed. The more your life progresses, the more this number of people grows. If you confess early, you limit this number.

Your university is not interested in a public scandal. The dean doesn't want to open the morning paper and see a "university duped by brazen plagiarist" title. They will be unpleasantly surprised by a private confession too, but they will not feel that the situation is out of their control, or that the worst that can happen has already happened. They will have some incentive to cooperate with you, as long as you confess. If you are caught, their best strategy becomes to distance themselves from you and denounce you.
Time has shown that redemption is more beneficial to society than punishment-as-deterrent. This has been repeatedly shown in many situations: religious context (most of the New Testament is based on it, even though many Christian churches have historically been on the side of harsh punishment), law enforcement (prisons which are pleasant for the prisoners show better reformation rates) and parenting. So many people who have advanced to leadership positions have the wisdom not to mete out severe punishment for misconduct. Especially if you indicate that you are unlikely to repeat the mistake (and a confession is a very important part of it), they can be lenient. There is no guarantee that the leaders of your university will share this belief, but it is not exceptionally rare either.

They will still have to enforce some consequences. It would be both unfair to the students who played by the rules to get their degree, and damaging to the university's reputation to just let you have your degree when you did not follow all requirements for it. But they will not be vengeful, seeking to end your career. This is something which certainly happens when academic misconduct is caught much later by a third party after the fact, see the German examples Peter Jansson cites (and notice that in some cases for the German politicians, their plagiarism was limited to a few sentences), but also cases like this one in which a renowned professor's academic career came to an end after academic misconduct (although not plagiarism) was proven.

You may want to find support before you go straight to the people who have the most to lose from the news. The behavior of your current employer is also hard to predict (they might be legally required to terminate you if a Master's degree was required for your acceptance into the Ph.D. program), but if you think they will be on your side, you might want to talk to them first so, when you come to the university, you have somebody who can testify that your current level of work is as good as one of a person who obtained a Master's degree regularly. Especially if you have coauthored with somebody with a good standing in your community, they may be interested in helping you rather than having a publication in coauthorship with somebody whose reputation was destroyed (but gauge them as a person too, some people will prefer to just drop you and forget you).

I hope everything turns out to the best for you. As Nikana Reklawyks said, we are all human and make mistakes. If you are willing to repair the damage yours caused, this makes you a better, not a worse, human being.


Is it acceptable to apply for two different postdoc positions in the same institution at the same time

It is entirely reasonable to apply for multiple postions at any one time, even at the same institution, provided you do it appropriately. There are a number of considerations to digest, but pretty well most of what is discussed in your linked question is relevant.

The most important thing to consider is that the application you make is tailored for the position you are applying for. You need to be able to highlight what amazing skills and abilities you will be bringing to this partnership, and how it will benefit the project. You need to avoid a cold call approach, otherwise your applications will sound like spam. This means you need to change your cover letter a lot. It is likely, though, that the skills you bring to any project will be very similar. You are, after all, a product of your previous experiences. If you were to apply for two different positions, highlighting two very different sets of skills and abilities, I believe this could be to your detriment if this information was shared between prospective employers.

You need to weigh up the relative value of each position. If they are both about equal, then I would apply to both simultaneously. If, however, one was far more cherished than the other - one was your dream position with a triple Nobel Laureate with access to the best research facilities and guaranteed ongoing funding opportunities and endless publications and the other was with an also-ran professor (do they exist?) who publishes once in a blue moon, I'd probably hold back on the application for the latter, just in case.

However, if there are two positions being offered in the same institution that you are qualified and suitable for, I believe you'd be crazy to let the opportunity slip.

There is an added consideration in that if your two professors discuss your applications, they may realise the potential to be able to share your expertise. And let's face it - professors do discuss applicants.

No professor/academic/employer is going to be that precious to believe that they are the only person in the world that you are willing to work for. No, I take that back - I've met a couple who are like that, but you wouldn't want to work for them!


How to keep track of line numbers in response to reviewers?

This is always a pain, but I find it's not actually hard to deal with, just somewhat tedious.  My method for doing so is rather low-tech: I keep a copy of the old document to be able to track the old line numbers, then leave all of the line numbers in the response as XXX until I am done with the revision.  Then, for each entry, you just cross-index in both places and write both line numbers, e.g.,

  'co-occur' was replaced with 'correlate' in line 245 [prev. 243]

For minor wording/grammar edits, however, I usually don't actually respond in such detail, but simplify both my life and the reviewers by just saying something like: "thank you, fixed"


It's not necessary to ask this question, but it's a perfectly normal to do so. I don't see any negative repercussions from asking. The information is useful if you are having another interview or waiting to hear the outcome of another application, as it can help you work out when you will have to make a decision on which to accept (if you get another offer). The interviewers may even ask you if you have any such deadlines.
I also find it helpful to ask this type of question because it helps me manage the stress of waiting for a result: if I know I won't find out for two weeks, then I won't be checking my emails daily expecting to hear. You may find the information helpful in the same way.


Does a professor need a student's permission to cite the student's unpublished essay in their own work?

I imagine that undergraduate essays rarely contribute to the knowledge in a field, but there is nothing stopping them.

There is no rule that you have to hold a PhD to contribute.  You can be a graduate student, an undergraduate, or completely unaffiliated with a university and contribute.


Should an errata contain header and footer text and a page number?

Consult the APA Style manual, which you can probably check out of a library. The full manual is not available online, although I was able to find this information about lists. You may want to consider the guidelines for appendices, since this list sounds like an appendix (if it is long). This document from Walden University(pdf) describes how to format appendices using APA), but is mum on header and footer. I expect that you should include such information.
Consult the recipient of your paper. If this paper is being written for a class, ask your instructor. If this paper is to be submitted to a journal or conference, then said journal or conference likely has detailed guidelines available for lists and appendices. If such information is not available, you should contact a member of the editorial staff.


How should one respond to 'Call for Paper' e-mails?

Every conference and workshop will issue a call for papers. The editors of special issues of journals may issue a call for papers. Editors of books on a special topic may have call for papers. How else will they advertise their conference, workshop, journal, book and get submission?

Many of these will be perfectly legitimate and even highly reputable venues. Naturally, some of these might be poorly ranked conferences or even in-it-for-the-money ventures, rather than serious scientific venues. But if you mark them all as spam, how will you know what is out there to submit your papers to?

The best strategy I can think of is to create a folder to collect these call for papers and use a filter to move them into that folder. When you need to submit a paper, you can search through the folder to find an appropriate venue. As most conferences repeat yearly at roughly the same time, you can collect the names of those and the approximate due dates in another file (or calendar), so that you build a good picture of what the major events in your field are.

Every now and again you will need to find a new forum or perhaps there will be a book that you could contribute to. By filtering all call for papers, you miss these things.

On the other hand, you can find most of this information using Google ....

Answering the title question: generally you shouldn't respond to these emails. That said, you could send an email to be asked to be removed from the mailing list, but this is probably ineffective.


Could an undergraduate with an applied physics background get a research spot in a university lab in aerospace?

Yes, that seems reasonable.  Start knocking on faculty doors.


Trends on time spent studying over the the past few decades, for students outside the US

For Germany the data is there in the form of the "Studierenden survey", which exists since 1982. However, I don't know if it is analysed. The datasets are available, so I added a list of links to the datasets for the different years in case you want to do the analysis yourself.

2012/13: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.5126

2009/10: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.11059

2006/07: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.4263

2003/04: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.4344

2000/01: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.4208

1997/98: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.3511

1994/95: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.3131

1992/93: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.3130

1989/90: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.2417

1986/87: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.2416

1984/85: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.1885

1982/83: http://dx.doi.org/10.4232/1.1884


For astrophysics grad school, is an undergraduate major in "astrophysics" better than "physics with astrophysics focus"?

It's fine and probably even optimal.  for one thing, you don't know for sure that you will want astrophysics four years later.  And you are even open to math versus physics.

Do the general physics degree.  Gives you most flexibility. You can take a class or two in astro topics, but pick up general physics degree.  You don't even know if you won't like some other area when you learn it more (optics, solid state, etc etc.)  But in any case general physics program will serve you well for detailed astro study later. Make sure you get a solid grasp on mechanics your junior year, as celestial mechanics is an application of general mechanics

Since you already have some interest in a subfield of physics, I recommend not to major in math.  The nineteenth century math (hard calculus and diffyQ computations) is alive and well in physics departments but has been killed, buried, and pissed on, in modern math departments.  Also read why Dick Feynman left MIT math major.


When are professors most free during a semester?

The end of the semester particularly the period between the end of lectures and when students finally leave campus (which may be well after you've submitted grades) can be the busiest part of the semester because that's when you spend a lot of time dealing individually with students that have questions, complaints, or problems.  The reason that this is so time consuming is that there are typically lots of these students, and each complaining student can easily take an hour out of your day.

Meanwhile you may also be grading a lot of term papers or student projects and you're also busy writing, proctoring, and grading final exams.