Should I be asked to serve as a peer reviewer for other universities' Pre-Proposal Support efforts?

Science, and academia more broadly, is and should be a community effort.  Of course, we should all work to support the common cause of advancing and disseminating knowledge.

Science funding is a different story.  Funding agencies establish a competitive process for different researchers or groups of researchers.  It is hard for me to imagine any good alternative to a competitive process for funding, but we can't deny that any specific funding competition is a zero-sum game.

Thus we as scientists unavoidably relate to each other in two fundamentally different ways:  As collaborators in a global scientific quest and as competitors.  (It's not just funding that forces this on us:  For example, we also unavoidably compete for job opportunities.)

Universities have a direct financial interest in having their researchers win competitions for grants.  So they put resources into improving their researchers' grant proposals.  One can't fault them for doing so.

But we should be candid about what the universities are specifically trying to do when they put resources into improving their own grant proposals:  They are trying to win more grants.  If they also contribute to the global effort of scientific research because grant proposals get better, great, but that beneficial effect is better understood as arising directly from the competitive process.

If [Unnamed university] wins more grants, then undeniably, some other institution wins fewer grants.  That is the university's goal, and specifically the goal of [A particular Office at Unnamed university].  But that is not my goal, and in fact opposed to my goal with respect to funding competitions.

I object to being asked to help [Unnamed university] win more grants, and I strongly object to the insinuation that, because I object, I am not a good citizen of the scientific community.  It appears to me (through very unscientific departmental-lounge polling) that others agree with me.  The reputation of [Unnamed university] has suffered greatly in my eyes because of this issue, and if, as I suspect, others feel the same way, [Unnamed university] is hurting its own reputation more broadly by acting in this way.


Do any British universities still offer degree registration from afar to those who study alone, without tuition?

The University of London still offers self study courses for international students. The list of courses includes both undergraduate and post graduate degrees in a range of subjects. While these courses are self study and do not include tuition, they are not cheap. For example, the fees for the Accounting and Finance (BSc) are:

  Academic year 2016-2017

  Application fee (non-refundable)  £ 84

  Initial registration fee  £ 760

  Examination entry fee (per full course)   £ 224

  Examination entry fee (per half course)   £ 112

  Continuing registration fee   £ 380

  Total for BSc degree  £ 4,292

  Other fees (as applicable)

  Additional registration fee for students taking law courses (per course)  £ 51

  Application fee for consideration of accreditation of prior learning (per full course)    £ 89

The fees are a little confusing since they are using course in two different ways. I think £224 fee is for a full year module.

At a total cost of £4,292, this is considerably cheaper than the £9,000 per year (£27,000 per for a degree) that most UK universities are charging. That said while program includes study materials, it does not include teaching.


What are the guidelines for using public datasets for publication?

A public data set is just that: public.  They have been made available for the specific purpose of being used by other people.

Thus, you generally do not need permission, but you will need to appropriately cite the source of the dataset, thereby giving appropriate credit to its originators.  For a well-curated collection, you can find appropriate citation information embedded within either the "packaging" or metadata of the dataset or at the online source where you obtain it.


Writing a research proposal in mathematics for graduate school

My recommendation is to try to ask some current students if you can see their proposals.  Obviously, what they did can't be all that terrible.

More generally, I would agree that methodology is not a extremely well defined concept in mathematics, but you can write something intelligent about it anyways.  How are you going to approach the problem?  Are there special cases that might be illuminating?  Stepping stone lemmata you might get to before the whole proof?  What areas of mathematics do you hope to use?  Unfortunately, I can't speak for the system in Italy, but certainly in the US with such research proposals, the main point is to see if the candidate can write about and analyze mathematics in a cogent way, not the details of the problem.


Should I give an overview of my research program at the beginning or at the end of my job talk?

I agree with your inclination: explaining your research programme, arguably the most important part of a tenure-track job talk, at the end seems counter-productive, to say the least. Moreover, I would definitely not spend only 5 minutes of your talk on your programme. 10 minutes seems like the absolute minimum in a one-hour job talk.

More generally, job talks tend to consist of five parts:

The "About Me" part that usually kicks off the talk. Keep this short, as it is essentially pretty boring for the audience.
The "Intro" of the research field. Explain your audience what you are actually doing. Here, the point is not so much to sell your own work within the field, but to sell the field itself to the faculty.
Your "Research Agenda" within the field. As I mentioned above, arguably the most important part of the talk. The biggest mistake here is to step into what I call the "parameter optimization" trap - making it seem like your research agenda consists primarily of small incremental improvements of your PhD thesis.
The "Zoom In". Take out one part of your work, and explain in detail what you have been doing.
The "Outlook". Wrap the talk up with an outlook. Where is your field going, where are you going, how would your joining change the research of the faculty?

One problem is knowing how far in-depth each of these segments should be. My PhD advisor used to say that bullets (2) and (3) need to be easy enough to understand that every CS faculty can follow, but deep enough that it still perceived as important and valuable research. For bullet (4), it is ok (maybe expected) that the details are not all that accessible anymore for faculty working in very different fields. However, at Bullet (5), you need to pick up your entire audience again.


Why do some Universities give honorary degrees?

Benefits to the university include donations, drawing important people or celebrities to give commencement addresses, and publicity. I'm sure genuine attempts to give recognition are a factor at least some of the time :)

Here are some data points:

Higher ed writer Tim Johnson asked the University of Vermont for a list of honorary degree recipients from 2002-2012, and how much each of those people has contributed to the university over the last decade.

Of the 60 recipients, 35 were on the record as having made donations to the university, for a total of >$13.6 million for an average of $228,248. (Excluding one degree recipient with an outsized $9 million contribution, the average was $68,854).

According to the chair of the UVM honorary degree committee, it's not only a thank you for a donation:

  Gary Derr, UVM’s VP of executive operations and chair of the university’s honorary degree committee, defends the practice, explaining it has to do with recognizing individuals for outstanding achievements or service to the university, state, nation or world. A degree is not, he insists, just a thank-you for writing a fat check.

From the New York Times:

  "Sometimes they are used to reward donors who have given money; sometimes they are used to draw celebrities to make the graduation special," said Arthur E. Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University... "I've always viewed it as a last lesson a college can teach, by showing examples of people who most represent the values the institution stands for," Dr. Levine said.

An unusual benefit mentioned in the same article:

  Chapman University in Orange, Calif., awarded an honorary degree to the author John Fowles after he agreed to let it create a writing center and literary festival in his name.

Similarly, former George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg reports that "people have asked for an honorary degree in exchange for a donation" but adds

  We also give honorary degrees to people who don’t give us a penny. It's just because their lives are exemplary.

Another potential benefit to universities is publicity. Reportedly, when Southampton College awarded an honorary doctorate to Kermit the Frog in 1996 (commencement address here),

  31 newspapers picked up the story, a free marketing bonanza that raised the college's profile and drew hundreds of new admissions

Of note: honorary doctorates are an easy offering for diploma mills, since they don't have to pretend it's about anything but money. Here are some examples:

The University of Berkeley Online offers honorary doctorates for a minimum "support honorarium" of $2,000.
The Los Angeles Development Church & Institute awards honorary degrees for "a simple, one-time donation of $89." You can get the degree in a wide range of diverse fields, including Ufology.
The Abundant Life Bible College and Theological Seminary recently offered honorary degrees for a limited-time offer of $85, down from the usual $150.


I am not detailedly aware of European Training Networks, but it sounds like you are grossly misunderstanding some things here.
1. €200k for three researchers for three years are absolutely certainly not only for your travel and consumables.
As you correctly assessed, this would be very lavish and no EU project that I have ever seen gives you that level of funding. European Training Networks in particular are, as far as I have seen, generally underfunded when it comes to travel, and assume that the host institutions also chip in. Assume that there are costs calculated in here that you are not seeing, for instance institutional overheads or the costs for organizing trainings.
2. I understand that the "lack of transparency" is disappointing, but this is not your project, it's your supervisor's.
Quite frankly, PhD students generally have no detailed insights into the finances of the projects that they work on because they are also not formally responsible for them (i.e., you are probably not formally responsible for signing expenses).
Your supervisors report to their administration and to the European Union, not to you. They do not owe you an Excel file of where the project finances go. But do not worry - there is a formal audit at the end of the project which will look very carefully into where the different funds went. If it was actually grossly misspent (as opposed to spent on things that you or the other PhD students didn't want), legal issues will come up. However, I presume this will not be the case, as your supervisors are almost certainly aware of the mandatory end-of-project audit.
3. Project politics are a thing.
Your university presumably commited to sending you to certain trainings when they signed up for the network. Yes, it sucks if they are unrelated to your work, but sometimes you'll have to do things for your project that are not key to your personal research agenda. In a Training Network those are a few trainings here and there - in an IP project it could have easily been as much as 50% of your work time. Without knowing the details, I would still guess that you are complaining on a fairly high level here.
That said, your institution still screwed up.
There should be money for you to go to conferences and present your research. If the project funds do not suffice for that, they should have made sure that the university can co-finance from other sources. If they are unable to do that, they should not have hired a PhD student.


Is there such a thing as a "1.5 PhD degree"?

No. It is difficult to prove a negative, but the idea of a "1.5 PhD" seems far-fetched on its face. Negative search results on the internet coupled with the lack of answers here over the past six months further indicate that the answer is no.
Where did this crazy idea get started? Apparently, from some claims made by the President of Taiwan. As stated in this report by a faculty member at the University of North Carolina:

[President Tsai Ing-Wen] also claimed that the committee decided not just to award her a PhD in law in 1984, but also to add the remark “she has extraordinarily strong academic background in international trade” to her PhD diploma. She went on to say that the thesis committee lionized her work as “worthy of 1.5 PhD degrees.”

There was some controversy in 2019 about whether Dr. Tsai had earned a PhD at all (in fact, the linked report concludes in the negative). However, the London School of Economics confirmed that she was "correctly awarded a PhD in Law in 1984." The LSE did not mention anything about an "extra half PhD," nor is there any proof that the faculty added any remarks to her diploma (indeed, adding remarks to a diploma is not a typical practice).
I suspect that what happened is that her advisor made the remarks when introducing her at the defense, and she simply paraphrased and/or embellished those comments. Indeed, some commenters suggest that the introductions at public defenses tend to have "gushing praise," to the point where suggesting she deserves "merely" an extra half-PhD could be considered rather faint praise. I suspect this varies culturally; no one made such remarks at my defense or at others I attended (maybe we are just slackers...).


How large may included parts from other people's work be in an academic paper?

You can include any material that is published as long as you appropriately cite the material (source). If you think any phrasing made by the author(s) is key, then you can do it as a quote where the text is reproduced in verbatim. If you do not use quotes you need to rephrase the text in your own words since it would otherwise be considered as a form of plagiarism. So, just be careful with referencing and quotes if necessary. It is better to have cited one time too many than the opposite.


Getting PhD opportunities abroad in my thirties

It is not easy to answer your question, since it is not clear what is your goal (e.g. what you mean by a "good" school), and what is your current situation (e.g. research expertise and area).

If by a "good" school you mean a University in US or Western Europe, then you probably know that there is a really strong competition there. You should carefully evaluate your personal strengths and play on them if you want to be admitted. Your current age will not be seen as disadvantage (but perhaps will not be seen as advantage either). However, you slow progress through your degrees may raise questions. Your potential supervisors want to choose a candidate who is likely to complete the project in time. You had to spend a lot of time doing TA's in your country, which slowed your progress - how can you ensure this will not happen with your PhD program?

Another important factor is your research field and research expertise. You don't have published papers, which is usually a disadvantage for PhD admissions. You will have to provide a sample of your academic writing - do you already have it? What about your research area (educational background) - is it modern and currently developing with a huge demand for specialists, or is it classical, well-established, and producing a lot of unemployed PhD's every year?

Lastly, your consider jumping a ship in a middle of your PhD program. How do you think you current School will like it? They invested resources in someone, who took them and left them for a better place. If the only reason for doing this is your personal comfort, then the decision you consider is (in my opinion) very non-ethical. I would not personally consider hiring someone as a PhD candidate if I am not sure they are committed to work to completion. Please, realise that our resources (time and money) in academia are extremely tight - don't waste them for your own joy.


How can I use parentheses in google scholar?

As you correctly recognized, Google Scholar doesn't understand parentheses. I don't think there is a solution other than making two separate searches and considering the results of both. If you wish to get a literature overview, that should be sufficient.

If you wish to count the number of hits, you may want to make a third search for intitle:preeclampsia  AND intitle:toxemia AND intext:pregnan* and use the inclusion-exclusion formula: |A or B| = |A| + |B| - |A and B|. (Warning: the number of results is just approximated in Google searches, and this method may return numbers that are way off).

If you wish to do something else, just tell us in the question next time. :)


Asking to present paper as first author, when the second author's travel has already been booked

I think it is certainly appropriate to ask and wonder why you hesitate to do so. I think that a note that you are able to attend and that you would like the opportunity to present the work and that it would be a boost to your future career should be received positively.

Having registered for the conference (the advisor) should mean little or nothing in this situation. Whether it is good politics to demand your right to do this is a matter of personalities, of course.

But the fact that you are spending your own money likely won't count for a lot. Your presence at the conference should, however arranged, count in your favor.

But, yes, it is reasonable to ask, and I think it would be unreasonable for the advisor(s) to refuse you.

I'll also note that there are a lot of reasons to go to CS conferences beyond presenting something. Your advisors should recognize this. They haven't "wasted" money if you present in their stead. There are normally a lot of ideas floating around and a lot of interesting people to interact with.


How to balance studies and part time job

You should take two cases into account, simultaneously:

Concentration on the courses, deservedly.

Keeping on earning some money.

You might be lucky enough to be recruited for an academic-driven working position in the university, as either TA or RA, instead of working out of the university.
Such approach (as a potential solution) could lead to some accomplishments for you:

Your work is in the academic atmosphere... It not only lets you keep
yourself in the mood of university, but will be considerably helpful
to improve your academic linguistic skills, as the right thing you
need, now...

Your current working site might be far from the university. Transporting
back and forth does waste both your time and energy (and even your money!). Involving in a job within the university lets you share your energy, in every aspect, within all of
your plans, in a more optimized way.

Your salary could be even more by working in the university, if you
could prove your both enthusiasm and capability to handle the tasks.

Such academic activities in the university (putting aside the
acquired financial outcomes) will strengthen your progression within
the path of studying and potential research; because, as an
instance, you can find your research path, under the aegis of a RA
position. A TA position would also lead to deepening all of the subjects,
were which unresolved for yourself, partially, in a complete manner.

...

It does not sound to be a bad idea, does it?!..
Best


How long should a book proposal review be?

The editor of the press should have given you guidelines -- or even a response form to fill out. If they didn't, it'd be simple enough to e-mail the editor back and ask him/her how detailed of a response is required.

I personally vary the response length depending on how promising the book proposal is. If the proposal has a lot of merit but is undercooked in some areas, I may spend a considerable amount of time discussing what needs to be done. If the book is stellar and ready to leap onto the presses, then not much needs to be said.

If the book is terrible because of severe methodological or analytical flaws, my review might be less than a page. If the ms is in severe need of proofreading or editing, I may respond with a just a paragraph noting this and suggesting that I'll re-read when the ms is actually ready to be reviewed.


Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (AISC) template for Latex?

This kind of questions are not encouraged in this site. However, here is what I found.

There is LaTeX template for this here: https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/conference-proceedings/conference-proceedings-guidelines


How to deal with rote "publication shopping"?

I don't know about any sort of formal blacklist, and it would be a bit hard to deal with because someone may be listed as a coauthor but have so little to do with it being resubmitted that they're truly blameless.

I've encountered serial submissions before, including cases where a draft is completely unchanged (with ample time between rejection & resubmission).  In some cases these are rejected by the program chair(s) without review and with stern words to the authors similar to what you said: they waste and disrespect the reviewers' efforts.

Bottom line: Consider a preemptive rejection with the program chair(s) rather than simply repeating your review.  But if that doesn't pull the paper, I would submit a review saying I have reviewed this before, and the paper is unchanged.  Because ignoring past reviews disrespects the efforts of the reviewers, I recommend rejection.


Including unofficial teaching experiences in CV

In the unlikely event that there is a formal requirement on teaching experience, it’s up to the them to decide what fulfills it. In that case, it may be worth contacting them to see what kind of proof they require. But if that were the case, you wouldn’t even be considering omitting this experience, so I presume this does not apply.
For everything else, I would not worry too much about what is an “official” experience and what is not, but rather on whether it is something that demonstrates or enhanced qualities relevant to your success as a PhD student.
The only way something can be negative on your CV is if it is ridiculously minor (say, you only tutored for one hour), your CV is already filled with more powerful stuff, or it is obviously irrelevant to the position you are applying to.
You have to be the judge of the former points, but even if the program does not explicitly mention teaching experience as something it values, they should consider it relevant:
not only for its own sake, as you may be required to teach during your PhD, but also because it enhances your communication skills and requires a deeper and structured understanding of the subject matter, which in turn is particularly relevant if you taught advanced topics or they were related to the program’s subject.
If it was voluntary, it additionally evidences commitment.
If you list your teaching experience, make sure that whoever reviews your application can understand what you did there:
What did you teach?
In what format: Was it rather a lecture, an exercise session, personal tutoring, or something else?
(From your description, I presume something lecture-like, and lectures are usually considered more valuable as they require more effort.)
Mention if there any quality evaluation or other quality control (e.g., how well your tutorials were viewed or attended), but do not worry if there are none as this often applies to teaching experience.


How do you send personalized information to each student in Moodle?

Here's a quick thought based on a different learning management system (LMS). Sometimes in other LMSes you can upload feedback to assignments: you batch download each person's file, add comments, and upload each file with exactly the same name. Perhaps you could try a workaround like that, perhaps requiring you to create a fake or trivial assignment and get everyone to submit it.

For a more general approach that is LMS-independent, you could use a spreadsheet and your email program with mail merge. That is, one field would be email address and another field would be the comment, and optionally you could have the person's first name in another field. Then you could send a generic message with blanks filled in by the program. (You could send out a practice message to your own addresses or without any personalized content beyond student names and you can check your Sent log to see if it worked right.)

(The latter solution defeats the purpose of a LMS, but limited feature sets do, as well.)


How to manage the web presence of a research group

There are many things that could be useful for the web presence of a research group, namely:

A brief presentation of the aims of this research group
The members of this working group (past and currents) with a link to their homepage
a list of publications by this research group
if there are working groups organized by this research group (for instance a presentation every two weeks by one of the member of the work done)
Other results such as software ...
Maybe a link to the people funding this research group, a little advertisement never hurts.


How common is it to have a demo at a doctoral thesis defence session?

I've seen a couple of PhD defenses with demos (in engineering/computer science).

It's not common because many PhD theses don't naturally require a demo due to their subject, or because a demo would be logistically difficult (e.g. requires special equipment that can't be brought to the room where the defense will take place, or takes too long given the time allotted for the defense). Also, live demonstrations are somewhat prone to failure, and a PhD defense is not a good time for a failed demo :)

But if a major contribution of the thesis happens to be something demonstrable, and it's not too difficult logistically, then a demo can definitely enhance a defense. (If logistics are the issue, a short video of the demo can also enhance a defense.)


What does it mean a "writing sample of recent scholarship"?

I believe that this is simply a request for two examples of your written works, say publications, book chapters, or any other relevant material (I know that for literature applications this can include, perhaps unsurprisingly, literary works).


Does anybody have some research papers writing advices?

Each writer has their own style and many of the things that pass for good writing for some, are bad writing for some others. But, if you are in a certain research field, the scientific papers always follow some kind of template.

For example, I'm a physicist. The typical paper structure (e.g. Phys. Rev. B) is:

Introduction
Formulate hypothesis in the context of current research.
Method/Formalism
Describe your methods.
Results and Discussion
Show your results and explain them.
Conclusions
State your most important results and discuss their value in the context of current research in the field.

The way I see my ideal paper is like a mathematical proof. In the introduction I discuss what others have done and what method they used to get the results directly relevant to mine, and explain why obtaining my new result is useful for the development of my subfield of physics. In other words, this is where I formulate the problem and refer to the tools (models, methods) I'm going to use to solve it.

In the second section I briefly introduce my model and method, but I only explain in detail stuff I have done beyond the current state of the art to solve my problem. Very technical things go into the appendices or supplementary information. Stuff that is known and explained well elsewhere is cited.

The third section is where the results are reported and explained. I would probably write "I measured this and got that", but not without explaining how is that agrees or contradicts previous results. I would also highlight the novelty of the result if it's new. This section is hard to write because one often has many interesting graphs and formulas, but needs to keep only the most relevant to the conclusions that are drawn. Again, interesting stuff that further supports your hypothesis, but it's technical, or you don't have space for it here, can go in the supplementary material or appendix.

The conclusion section is the most important because you explain there how is your result new, relevant and important, how it advances the field, and what future work you suggest (without giving away more than you need to).

Most papers follow this kind of model, but each publishing venue has its own, most of the time annoying, templates and standards. If you write a paper in PhyS. Rev., you have to have in mind their template, if your paper is written for Science, you better prepare a draft using their template.

This is my answer, and I hope you get better ones. But, if you don't, check some links you can find with google:
Elsevier article, Nature article, this paper.


Doing a habilitation in Mathematics in Europe for a non EU citizen?

I'm starting this by answering some questions for Germany:

  1)  people do it for getting a permanent academic position in Europe.

Note that even being a professor does not imply a permanent position:

junior professorships run 6 years, and according to Wikipedia only 8% of the junior professorships can be considered proper tenure track (applying for a permanent position at the same university without a public job advertisement), for another 4-10% of the junior professorships it is possible to apply for a permanent position at the same university, the remaining majority will not be considered for a permanent position.
"Hausberufungen" ("in house appointments" = offering the professorship to someone from the same university) are somewhere between extremely uncommon (having a fishy taste) and forbidden.
Also regular professors can have a probation period before getting a permanent position.

  How many years or how much/many publication does it normally take to obtain a habilitation degree?

A junior professorship is 6 years and is supposed to be an equivalent alternative to the habilitation, I think that gives a first rough estimate. Besides, I'd recommend that you look into habilitations in your field: they are published in the respecive university libraries and nowadays usually available electronically.

  2) Since you could be admitted as a PhD candidate, but not as a 'habilitation candidate' (but instead, say, as a postdoc) can you publish in your postdoc and write the paper(s) as a book and submit it for the defense of habilitation?

Cumulative habilitations are very common. Again, look at some in your field.

  3) Suppose you do a one year postdoc in university A, and a second in university B, can you apply to university B for habilitation? How about university A?

No idea. But the habilitation is supposed to show that you can teach the whole field and one distinguishing criterion (from dissertation) is that also the presented research must cover some breadth.

  4) If you do your PhD and postdoc in unrelated areas, or say even if you switch from pure to applied math, would that be a problem for getting the degree?

Not sure, but as a habilitation in maths means that you are allowed to teach all kinds of maths I guess that would not be a problem. I know physicists and engineers who habilitated in chemistry (though doing the scientific work in a chemical institute).

  5) How much does the chance of getting a European tenure increase if you do a successful habilitation?

Well, in practice in order to become a professor you either need a habilitation or become junior professor (for 6 years) and then successfully apply for a professorship.

number of habilitations / year is about 1600. Approximately 650 professors are pensioned / year, so  approximately 1/3 of the people who habilitate actually become professor
Update for maths & natural sciences: ca. 160 profs pensioned / ca. 260 habilitations per year => would correspond roughly to a 60 % chance.
roughly 3% (total: 1439) of all professors (43 862) are junior professors, that is aproximately 240 new per year.
Maths & natural sciences: 305 of 7500 = 4%, corresponding to ca. 50 / year.
Wikipedia says that somewher between 1/3 and 2/3 of the junior professors work at their habilitation despite being junior professors.

Here's what the Statistische Bundesamt says about these subjects.


Request for startup package details at interview stage

I've also never seen this at universities in the US (or elsewhere in the world) but I've seen it a lot in industry. I'm guessing someone came in to 'shake things up' or they hired a consultant and are trying things differently this time. Therefore, I will answer with respect to industry which I'm guessing will actually be applicable in the end.

It is a common negotiation technique to get 'the other guy' to make the first offer with the belief this puts him in a weaker position. This seems to be what they are doing and as you stated in your question, when they make the first offer you are indeed in a stronger position.

In your last question, could you ignore their request and simply not give them a number, tread lightly on this point. Some hiring people will become angry when you don't follow the rules and will count it as one reason not to make you an offer at all (or lower your offer because you are unable to follow simple instructions).

As far as how to actually handle the negotiations, like any negotiations, it is MUCH better if you are negotiating from a stance of understanding how you can work together to benefit each other. That is, don't get locked into a 'the more I get, the less you keep' train of thought. The goal is to be creative and find a way that you can actually ADD value to the equation and then divide that new value between the both of you...leading to the win-win settlement.

The problem is if you must make some kind of an offer blind and you have no personal rapport developed with your counterpart, it is very difficult to go down the win-win path. At that point, I would see if you can find a way to change the situation and start building some kind of relationship (even a telephone call can make a huge difference with regards to finding a genuine win-win solution).

If you are stuck and you cannot have any any meaningful conversation before you give a number, then the best I can say is to make a serious statement about what you would like but make it in terms of ranges (say between $100 and $120 [replace with reasonable numbers for you] per month depending on the rest of the details). By offering a range you have retained some flexibility but allowed them what they demanded: Something.

As you might guess, they may lock in on the lower number. However, you have not committed to that lower number firmly because of 'the rest of the details' you included.

Congratulations and good luck!


Are the criticisms that finishing too fast valid in the context of extreme debt?

Yes, the criticisms are still valid: the world, unfortunately, does not care about any particular person's debt problem.

The answers/comments given at the linked question in the OP are spot on; thus I would encourage you to try to find other sources of aid to fund your full-length undergraduate studies, if you haven't already done so (scholarships, etc.).

Having said that, some schools have a diversity statement that you are to submit along with your application. In this statement, you can provide some background on the adversities that you have faced and how you overcame them. If you have significant financial hardships that you are battling through, for example, then a diversity statement would probably be the place to talk about that and hope that someone would care enough to have it positively impact your admission decision.

Whether the "diversity statement approach" will work or not depends on (among other things) your particular situation (e.g., how inadequate is your preparation for grad school due to graduating early relative to others in similar situations?) and the number of available slots the school has for cases such as yours. I still think this approach is too risky to count on, and I would, again, encourage you to look for other ways to stay in your undergraduate program for the "normal" amount of time so that you may reap the many benefits of doing so.


Read what you have written, and check. Altering the order of punctuation and citation might seem a logical way to do it, but many style guides actually impose the respective order of those elements, and not logic.

In the end, I'm afraid you have to choice of either:

accepting ambiguity of your example
using the author's name to make things clear: “Twit et al. demonstrated that […]. As a consequence, it is categorised as X, Y or Z [Mr. Twit, 2013]”


How to engage interdisciplinary professors in forming an MS thesis committee and project?

I sometimes have the stinking suspicion that "interdisciplinary" is a codeword for "disorganized, incoherent, or train wreck". What you're encountering is precisely the problem man such programs face, there's no central management of what you are working towards or way to corral the cats into working with you.

My suggestion is to save the interdisciplinary until you've mastered one discipline. Otherwise, expect more of the same -- having to convince everyone to be on board and losing focus on a current research topic.

Right now, you're an MS student -- focus on finishing that degree first. If you want to develop research skills outside of that, then take the courses without adding a "minor" to your MS. If after you finish, you want to pursue a PhD that bridges some of the knowledge fields you are working in, make sure that the place you go has a coherent program for bridging them rather than a dream that they can be bridged.


Is it usual to write referee reports in the first person?

Resoundingly, yes.  At least in my field (number theory).  I just looked at the 15 most recent referee reports I received, and only 1 out of 15 of these reports avoided writing in the first person.
Note: I restricted to reports on initial submissions to avoid obvious duplication of referee styles.  Of the 15 I looked at, the reports were written in sufficiently different styles that I'm confident in saying there wasn't too much duplication of referees in this sample.
Added: To address the "mishmash" aspect, in none of these reports did the reviewer refer to themself in both the 1st and 3rd person, but I have seen it before and have possibly done it myself.  The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter.  Referee reports are not formal pieces of writing meant for public display (like parts of grant applications or MathSciNet reviews), and while some reviewers may prefer to refer to themself in the 3rd person (presumably to make the review sound more formal/professional or less personal), I think most prefer to write more directly.


Standard recommendations and steps for writing introductory books

My recommendation (having done something like this) is to first teach one or more courses in this area for at least five years before writing your text.
Start off in year 1 by making slides or notes for your lectures using LaTeX. If you post those, you will have an incentive to get them right (and students will also find some errors). Fix the mistakes as you find them before year 2. After year 2, consider changing the organization or splitting up some material if students have more trouble with it.
After five or more years, you will have come up with a sensible organization of topics. You will know how to foreshadow and set the exposition up for later developments; will be familiar with common questions and misunderstandings; and, will have exercises already written (with answers).
Then write the book using your slides or lecture notes as a skeleton and incorporating the exercises you found helped students the most. (Don't forget to thank the students who found errors.) You can also add in topics you wanted to cover but previously did not.
As I mentioned, LaTeX is your friend for this. With the right organization, it can make your table of contents for you (as well as a table of figures and tables), create an index, and show a list of references with clickable URLs (if you create a PDF file).
After that, teach a couple of classes using the text and you will find areas to improve. You will also likely see tweaks to make your old slides/lecture notes fit the text better.
As for publishing, you can choose an academic press or self-publishing. Both stink.
An academic press will not do much editing, will probably re-type all of your hard work and introduce errors, will charge a high price that students may not want to pay, and will likely give you no revenue; however, they will distribute the book widely (often to libraries).
Self-publishing using a print-on-demand place will get you about the same amount of editing help, will earn you zero credibility, and will receive far less distribution. However, you may actually make a little bit of money, you will have much more control over pricing, and nobody will retype all your work and introduce errors.
I know people who have done both and most thought both options were not great but more seemed to be considering self-publishing because academic presses seem to offer so little for services now.


Should I be patient with this postdoc application?

So, I am wondering if this is the norm, if this happens sometimes. or
  if this never happens [and I should forget about the job

Yes, this happens. I have been in the exact same situation myself: application, shortlisted, interview, informal acceptation by the PI, but then the formal confirmation was postponed several times over a couple of months. This doesn't depend only on the PI, sometimes the administrative process gets stuck somewhere. I wouldn't say that it's the norm but it's not uncommon.

As long as the PI answers your emails and confirms that it's in progress, It's likely that you are going to get the job. It would be unwise to take it for granted though. Keep applying for other positions, and don't close other doors as long as it's not confirmed. From time to time, email the PI; in particular you should ask when the contract is supposed to start, and try to politely tell the PI that you cannot wait forever; if you have other job offers waiting for an answer, you can mention it, it might speed things up.


Made some great course slides, now what?

Here are some ideas:

Make a video of yourself presenting the slides (either to a class, or just to the camera), and upload it to YouTube (or similar). Others have done this, and as a result there are some great free resources available for people who otherwise would not have the time or money to take the course. For example, N J Wildberger has several maths courses online. If you don't want to be on the video, you can just have the slides, with your voice presenting them. (See the videos of Bill Shillito, for example.)

Put the materials on your website, and spread the news.

Turn the materials into a wikibook, where others can add to them.

Put the materials on OER Commons, Curriki, MyOER, or Share My Lesson. I haven't used any of these myself (yet), so I don't know which would be most appropriate for university-level or postgraduate teaching materials.


Should I ask for generic reference letter?

Faculty members will not write "brand new" letters for every school and program you want to apply for. However, once the basic letter has been written, addressing it to the intended recipient is not very challenging. So it is OK to ask your advisors to write a letter for you, and to send it to multiple places. (If you're applying to schools in the US, the faculty member will be responsible for uploading it herself in any event.)


Funding of research by commercial companies, what is the sentiment in the USA?

Speaking from epidemiology as a field, with some dabbling in clinical and translational research:

Commercially funded research should absolutely show up on your CV (it does on mine), and it probably won't hurt you, especially in the early stages of your career. There is however definitely more prestige behind having NIH/NSF etc. funding, or foundation funding - several departments I've talked to have all said they prefer to see that. NIH funding especially is something of the "brass ring". Commercial funding isn't bad per se, but a notably dependence on it might have people wondering what is it about your work that isn't passing muster in the traditionally peer-reviewed federal funding system.

There's also some uncomfortableness around conflict of interest - industry-funded science doesn't have the best track record in terms of creating unbiased medical research, but they're also the only people who fund some research, so it will depend very heavily on what specific area you're in. I've worked in some areas where it gives people an uncomfortableness, and in others where nearly everyone has industry funding of some sort.


How to deal with the extreme social hierarchies in research meetings?

I think the previous answers make some assumptions that I am uncomfortable with: they describe how academia should work, but not always how it does work, especially for people who are from disadvantaged groups.

For a basically healthy academic community, I think the advice in the other answers is pretty good about essentially how not to block oneself.

A lot of academic communities are so not healthy, however, and often in ways that are not readily visible to their privileged members.  For example, I have female colleagues who have frequently had the experience of having their ideas denigrated and dismissed for apparently rational reasons, then hearing the exact same idea readily accepted when spoken by a man.  Or there may be a power-clique and anybody who isn't "blessed" by the clique may have a much harder time being heard.

Some academic communities are also simply downright toxic and not good for anybody.  I have seen groups where any sign of weakness meant students and postdocs would start verbally attacking one another, trying to gain favor in the eyes of their professor.

I think the first thing to do, then, is to try to get some perspective on what type of academic situation this really is.  Find some more experienced friends or a faculty mentor outside of the group that you can trust and who is generally "good at people", and talk to them about your experiences---not your feelings, but the actual words that people are using.  That person can then help you figure out whether the problem is in the group or in yourself, and what the best path to take is, whether it is changing your attitude, improving your standing, or simply finding a different group.


My advisor delays a lot of time in checking my paper before communicating. What should I do?

I had a similar issue.  I found that the major problem was that I was a "drafter" and my advisor was a "planner" in terms of writing style - my style was to write a draft, get the technical points correct, and then wordsmith the exact meaning and clarify my points.  My advisor, on the other hand, wanted me to carefully plan each of my arguments before even starting to write so that it was absolutely clear what my contribution was, why it was important, why it was novel, and why my work was sufficient to support it.

It was quite frustrating, to be honest.  I strongly recommend meeting with your advisor to clarify how exactly he wants you to work on each paper.  One of the purposes of a PhD education is to turn you into a researcher who is independent, so eventually you'll have to learn to edit your own papers anyway.  If the issues are typically minor, like English and grammar, don't wait on your advisor.  Send it off to an editor and get that part out of the way.  If there are common issues on things like clarity and whether your arguments are sufficient, spend more time planning out how you are arguing each point, how you are backing up each claim, and why it's valid, before even writing the paper.  This will give you a much stronger paper anyway.

Now, I don't know your field, but 7 journal papers out of 1 PhD seems excessive to me.  I've heard from top researchers that they expect 3 from a PhD, and I myself graduated with only 1 in a great journal, plus two more in a smaller journal.  I think that expectation is also something to discuss with your advisor.  What do other grad students in your group say?  Are they having the same problem, or is it just you?  if it's just you, what are they doing differently?


Motivations for PhD students to present at a conference session for work in progress

These have been part of ACM conferences, such as OOPSLA, for a long time. They give students, especially those nearing completion, a source of feedback on their work. Typically the participants will be not only the students but at least some of their professors and some others interested in what is happening with current doctoral research.

Before I retired we always encouraged our doctoral students to develop an "elevator talk" in which they could explain the essence of their research in the time it takes to ride or wait for an elevator, say about 3 minutes. It is an extreme form of abstraction that is useful for a student to consider.

But the potential for (a) a bit of early visibility and (b) a bit of independent feedback are worth the effort.

Some of the conferences would also have some scholarship/travel money for attendees. And the student could, then, also attend the rest of the conference and build a circle of contacts.

I don't know how a remote version will work, or whether it will have enough of the right elements to make it viable, however. But it was valuable for face-to-face conferences.


What should I do as a reader if a paper misrepresented earlier papers?

In general, there is not much you can do. If a misrepresentation leads to erroneous results, one way is to write a "letter to the editor" straightening out the error. Such an approach does not seem right in your case since the error is to state that someone has not reached conclusions they really have. I do not mean to say that this is ok but it is harder to get a comment published when the problem, for example, does not affect future research by introducing errors. One also has to bear in mind that the error apparently escaped both reviewers and editors on the way to publication. It may also well be that the author actually see it the way they write it which means the misrepresentation is not intentional (as you seem to imply). So in the way I read the particular case, I cannot see an immediate way forward. If one writes about a problem where the conclusion you refer to is cited, it is of course possible to point out who was first and thereby contribute to setting the record straight.

So, if a misrepresentation leads to errors, it can usually be pointed out in a published letter. If the misrepresentation concerns a non-critical issue, it is still just as bad, but the possibility of publishing a clarification is much smaller. Now, clearly, these issues are on a sliding scale, so it may be difficult to see where a correction may be reasonable. In such cases, the editor of the journal where the paper was published should be able to provide some feedback on how to proceed.


Okay, he doesn't like to chit chat with students, and he is conservative in his choice of topics and methods.  He's not proactive about arranging postdocs and he doesn't edit his students' manuscripts.  None of these things strike me as deal breakers, necessarily, but of course you'd have to weigh these things against what he has in the plus column.

But speaking of pluses, all I got from your post is that he is a highly regarded scientist in his field.

I suggest you take the next couple of months to try to find the pluses.  Find out what his strengths are.  See if you can figure out what makes him tick.

One of my best memories of my advisor is that once, on a long drive to the airport, he told me his memories of staving off hunger by working as a translator for the U.S. army in postwar Japan.


How do I address my research publication being 'scooped'?

You cannot speed up the publication/review process. Suggesting to an editor that they need to speed up the process because you might get scooped is inappropriate. In the future, you need to choose a journal with a better turn around time. Assuming the majority of the time the manuscript was with the editor/reviewers and not on your desk being revised, you can, and probably should, complain to the journal that their review process is too long. Explain to them you will no longer be submitting to or reviewing for them.

In terms of being scooped, your concern of the other authors having access to your manuscript is a valid one. The editor of your manuscript can easily check if one of the reviewers is an author of the competing. In the case where the reviewer shared the manuscript with one of the competing authors, things are more difficult to "prove". As you only became aware of the competing manuscript as a reviewer (which hopefully you turned down), even talking to the competing authors is difficult. You probably should contact the editor of the competing manuscript as discuss the issues. The editors can then work together to try and resolve the issue.


When does a researcher become a computer scientist?

When do you call a researcher a computer scientist?

A runner is someone who runs; a writer is someone who writes; a researcher is someone who does research; a computer scientist is someone who does computer science.  So if you're doing computer science research, I will call you a computer scientist and a researcher, even if you aren't yet published, even if you work full-time as a plumber, even if you're still in junior high school.

  Is there a certain level of experience after which the researcher will be called a computer scientist?

No.  There is nothing you can do to make other people call you anything.

But to call yourself a computer scientist, the only requirement is that you are doing computer science.  So in that sense, yes, there is a certain required level of experience: More than zero.


What makes academic failure different from failure in another career?

Many other careers are not structured around "success" and "failure" in the same way that academia is, and the jobs that are are acknowledged to be high stress. I agree strongly with what Anyon mentions about the pyramid structure of academia, as well as survivorship bias. Jack Aidley also nicely captures the difference that "In most careers you do not 'fail' you simply cease being promoted." Here are a few other ways that the idea of failure is omnipresent in academia. (This is from a U.S. perspective, and I do not know how widely it pertains elsewhere.)

First, success or failure is very personalized and visible in academia. Academics are not very interchangeable: like artists and few other professions, everyone does the job differently and produces creative output. It is often hard to separate yourself from your work (whether being critiqued or praised). Further, on the research side each person is essentially an entrepreneur who is their own publicity, branding, fundraising, management (if there's a lab or students to supervise), R&D, and administrative department. There's a lot of personal investment in this job, and failure cuts deeper into the sense of self than in other jobs.

Second, in other jobs, most people are rarely evaluated by strangers, and often the people evaluating them are invested in their success. Performance evaluations in offices are usually with co-workers and they are often two-way. Managers and HR folks often care about improving the workforce they have, rather than going through the hiring process again. In contrast, the entire tenure process seems designed to give people anxiety (which a professor complained to me about when I was a grad student--he was worried another professor was working against his tenure case). The tenure process is a years-long audition, after which you can be essentially told that you no longer have a job in whatever tiny college town you uprooted yourself to live in. In most industry or government jobs, there's much more flexibility to move between jobs (not just one big annual switch), less stigma about switching jobs, and often lots of small evaluations rather than a few huge hurdles.

Third, academics need to "hustle," constantly seeking new opportunities for funding, research materials, ideas, and labor. Both applying for funding and submitting papers are processes with routine failure built in, and it can be somewhat opaque what is being sought. (Not to mention that the content of research may turn out not to lead anywhere interesting, after all.) However, many jobs don't have such stark success and failure. Annual sales income is a continuous number, or the quality of a project is within a range of acceptability. In many occupations you can gain or lose clients, but usually no one client is crucial. In the industries where grants or contracts are key sources of funding, there are large teams devoted to the project, and often a lot of projects in the pipeline. In contrast, academics are often pretty much alone in their success or failure, and for someone "on the tenure clock," how a particular project turns out--which may have a large random component to it--may change their tenure case substantially.

Fourth, professors are hired not only for what they can do right now, but an entire track record of what they have done and how they are likely to adapt over time in the future. Especially in combination with the large number of people with PhDs competing for a small number of tenure track jobs, this rewards people who have very linear career paths, moving from success to success. Many people worry about deviations from the norm, as well as about failures.

Some of these components are present in other jobs. I mention these other jobs not to compare who has it better, but to point out that things like high-stakes evaluation based on partly random outcomes is not a universal trait of many jobs, while it characterizes investment banking and (I argue) academic research.

Investment bankers are often individually held responsible for their performance, a lot of which relies on investment markets, which have a large random component.
Writers face a lot of the same problems with submissions and rejections, but writing is very rarely their main job. (That has its own problems...)
Salespeople have to deal with a lot of rejection and often work on commission. Their job and their salary are contingent on their success. However, there are low hurdles to switch in and out of sales, and often people can hedge their bets by working part-time at another job. (The precarity that goes with sales and service jobs is also part of what adjunct instructors--aspiring academics--face.)
Doctors need to pass a lot of hurdles on the way to their profession, and not getting past a hurdle may mean that one is saddled with lots of debt without a lucrative career. Then, depending on which field of medicine, failure may mean a patient dies or has bad complications. These sorts of consequences have a legal and financial complications, on top of the large emotional toll. Doctors may also have to relocate nationally or internationally if/when they switch jobs.
Founders of start-up businesses will have many of the same pressures as professors (the same people must develop and execute ideas while securing funding, with large personal investment). However, failure is a celebrated part of the culture in, say, Silicon Valley, and the potential financial rewards are tremendous. (The restaurant industry also has serial entrepreneurs, though with less potential payoff.)

While each of those jobs mentioned above has a lot of judgment of and consequences around failure, those descriptions hopefully remind you that these extreme conditions around failure are largely NOT present in many other common jobs (service industry, teacher, programmer, manager, IT person, mechanic, engineer, nurse, technician, counselor, administrator, banker, accountant, office clerk, interpreter...).


Is it ethical to use another university's journal subscription if yours doesn't have access?

Is it against the law? Probably.

It it scientific misconduct? A breach of ethics? Hardly.

It is acceptable? It's your decision to make based on risk analysis. If you don't do it on a large scale (i.e. someone supplying many people with papers), it's probably okay. It is common practice.

Also, be aware that many journal articles can now be found either in pre-print or post-print form online (though this depends widely on your field), either on institutional repositories or on the authors' webpages. If you're merely missing access every once in a while, you can also nicely ask the corresponding author.


How significantly does the salary amount for tenured faculty impact the quality of a deparment?

There are several main financial factors faculty candidates must consider when weighing offers:

Salary and resultant standard of living
Overall compensation package (health, retirement and pension, other benefits)
Institutional support (resources, personnel, infrastructure)

The first two are with respect to the financial resources committed directly to the faculty member; the last is the amount of resources committed to the professor's working group. It is difficult to say how much the different factors are weighted, as this is highly subjective and personal.

However, I would caution against considering absolute salaries as a metric; salaries always have to be considered relative to the cost of living in one's environment. (Would you rather have $50,000 in New York City or $40,000 in Akron?)


You cannot completely withdraw a paper from arXiv; instead, the system can add a retraction notice on it. So, if you follow option #1, you'll end up with 1. an old paper, 2. with a retraction notice, 3. a new paper. It's a bit of a mess…

I would suggest the following:

Consider your much-improved version as a new article: get it published, upload it on arXiv. In the arXiv version, you may refer to the older arXiv paper (“This article is based on the same results as …, but the presentation of results and the whole discuss have been reworked substantially”). Put it either in the introduction or, if you don't want to disrupt the flow of text, as a footnote or “banner” before the introduction.
Most importantly: make a update to your old paper, for a version that links to the new paper. That way, you make it completely clear that a improved discussion is available.

This addressed the only issues I see, namely making sure that people can find your work, and that you're not suspected of duplicate publication (which, on an open platform like arXiv, doesn't make much sense anyway…).


Would a paper on the integration of multiple technologies make sense?

The general criteria for something being publishable is that it advances human knowledge in some way.

As you note, it is clear that a scientific publication can be made about the efficacy of your creation at its intended task.

Whether there is anything else beyond that, however, depends on whether the things that were learned during the development and integration process are interesting and generalizable in some way.  Some possibilities:

Did you have to combine the existing elements in an unusual or unexpected manner?
Was there a process that you followed that will make it easier to design more things of the same type?
Was this an example of an emerging set of cross-field collaborations that in itself would be interesting to tell other practitioners about? (e.g., is "postural robotics" an area with a lot of potential that other roboticists would like to hear about?)

It might still be, however, that there are no other papers in this particular effort at the moment---and if so, that's OK too.  Don't try to slice the salami any thinner than it should be.


Applying to masters program to further explore my interests, should I mention specific areas of interest in statement of purpose?

Short answer: be honest and concrete.

It's not typically expected that you have very specific, highly focused interests for masters programs in mathematics.  For a masters, you won't get too specialized anyway (at least assuming you're not doing a thesis).  Read the application directions carefully to see if the schools are looking for anything in particular, but what I look for in SOPs is a sense of the applicant's goals, background, motivation, seriousness and maturity.  (And maybe other things in special cases.)

You should try to explain your goals as clearly as you can, but be honest about it.  So you don't need to say something specific like you want to do KAM theory for Hamiltonian PDEs, but if you can give specific examples of things that made you want to study applied math, that would be good.  If you can list specific topics in applied math that you would like to learn about, also good.  It's also not a bad idea to get an feeling for the strengths of the departments you're applying to and say why you're interested in them (e.g., strong in xxx, but you don't need to mention specific faculty, unless you're honestly really interested in workin with them).

See also here and here for other points of view.


How to get Chartered Engineer in the UK? Should I pay some fees (every year) to keep this title?

A CEng qualification (it is post-nominal) is awarded on the accreditation of the engineering experience and qualification achieved. The full specification of the necessary standard is shown in the document entitled The UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC). Although CEng is not a title it does enable you to work towards the Engineering title of EurIng (pre-nominal) which is awarded by FEANI.

In Academia in the UK it would be expected that researchers and Academics in engineering (STEM) hold both professional and academic qualifications and titles as they are part of the education path for professional practicing engineers. Thus only possessing a PhD would make you a less qualified than other applicants or colleagues. For career development it is useful to have a full set of qualifications, including membership of the relevant professional bodies.

A BSc and MSc (in an accredited degree subject) would normally be considered the academic level necessary for the CEng topped up with an appropriate amount of relevant professional practice. If the PhD contained an appropriate amount of project management and technical engineering content it could satisfy the professional component of the CEng, but not always. Sometimes a period of employment might be needed to top-up.

A fee is payable for the application to cover the accreditation of your qualification and experience and then an annual membership fee thereafter. If you stop paying the membership fee you are not considered an active professional and therefore the qualification/title lapses. If you use the qualification/title without paying professional fees then this is considered an act of unprofessionalism.

I have a set of such qualifications in computing and use the letters:

  Eur Ing MBCS CITP CEng

in formal academic contexts. It is useful in explaining to students about the paths to qualification and professional practice in our subject. It also shows that the person teaching them is fully qualified to do so, and knows the material from professional practice and not just from books.


Back door route to top research schools?

I wouldn't call this a backdoor route.

It takes time to get quality publications and letters of recommendation yet undergrad goes by fast. Your friend also wasn't from a top university which makes these opportunities even harder to come upon.

There are a lot of details missing here (what were his letters of rec like, quality of publications, etc.) but it sounded like your friend did some good work and got accepted because of it. Whether you do this work during undergrad or after you graduate, doesn't necessarily matter.


Should I drop out of gradschool or finish out a Masters?

At the very least, I would consult with other students or faculty with their opinions as to your situation.  Keep in mind that even if you drop out, you will likely still have to list your time at your current institution on your CV.  If you finish your masters, you will have something to show for your time here.  However, you may be better off consulting with faculty/department first and see if it is possible to transfer midway to another institution to complete your PhD.

Best of luck!


How to determine which college textbooks are most widespread?

This is not a literature review question; this is a market research question. (That's not a problem, but understanding the nature of the question helps to determine the most appropriate approach to take.)

Are you asking this question out of personal curiosity, or do you want to undertake a formal research study?

Personal curiosity: I recommend that you contact sales representatives of multiple publishers and ask them these questions. You should first contact the representative for the books with the contradictory definitions. You can ask each of them which are their main competing books, and why their book is superior. (If you only ask the main competitors, they might be reluctant to give you that information; however, if you ask them to compare themselves, they will likely willingly volunteer that information.) You can ask each sales rep your questions about the market penetration of their textbooks. I doubt looking at Amazon rankings would be meaningful, since I would guess that most university textbooks are still purchased through university bookstores, not through Amazon--I don't know that for a fact, though.
Formal research: You need to look into how to do a formal market research investigation. Sorry; I can't help you much here with practical details, but at least I hope this points you in the right direct.


You should list whatever your official job title is, as designated by the university.  (If you aren't sure, ask whoever hired you.)  You should do this even if the title is vague or misleading, in which case you should add a few comments on your actual job duties.

One reason to stick to the exact title is CV verification.  Some employers (both academic and non-academic) actively verify CVs, and if they call up your university and ask whether you were employed at job X during a certain span of time, then it's best if they get a definitive "yes" rather than a "kind of" or "there's no such job title".  In particular, some universities care about distinctions between seemingly similar titles, such as teaching assistant and teaching fellow, so you should make sure you aren't inadvertently awarding yourself a title that your university considers fancier or fundamentally different.


PhD Interviews for CSE at US universities

Disclosure: I am myself a person who stutters the severity of which depends on the position of stars in the sky.

First, I want to point out, that stuttering is OK. In the same way, as not stuttering is OK. Discrimination based on stuttering should not happen, and all the common misconceptions regarding people who stutter (not confident, less knowledgable, less prepared, etc) are simply misconceptions. While there are still a lot of people who believe in them, the situation is getting better for people who stutter; in particular, in the USA.
Regarding the interviews for candidates (whether domestic or international): that highly depends. In some universities/departments, some professors would want to interview their potential students. In others, the students are not assigned a particular advisor until the 2nd year; thus, no interview. It is a rarer situation when an interview is conducted not by a potential supervisor themselves. However, the specific fields like MBA or medicine might have a separate "Interview" stage in the application process.
Thus, I suggest you find that information directly from the individual program you are intending to apply.
However, I would strongly advise not to be discouraged by the interview. You should be judged by the essence of your speech, its organization, logic, and particular answers, and not by "the occasional repetitions and blocks". While there is very little you can do about the stuttering itself, there are many things you can do regarding your preparation and the way you formulate your thoughts. That is important. Focus on that.
One of the very useful tools is a self-disclosure statement. One can provide it in a written form before the interview, right at the beginning of the speech, or both. For example, I can suggest something, as follows (which you should modify so it becomes yours):

Hello, [my name is XXX]. Sometimes, in my speech, you will hear blocks and repetitions as I do stutter. Please, feel free to ask me a question if something is not clear, I would be really happy to clarify on that.

That has several purposes:

explicitly allows you to stutter during the interview (or any other speech or speech-related activity)
prepares the other participants that you stutter
calls to action of asking questions if something is not clear

Consider using one if you feel like it.
With that, I hope that whether you have an interview or get to a program where no interview happens, you will succeed despite the stuttering. As research (which is why you want to do a PhD, I assume) welcomes people irrespective of their stuttering. It simply should not matter.


How does a book chapter in an edited volume compare to a peer reviewed paper?

Like a lot of things in academia, I think this will heavily depend on what discipline you're in. In computer science for example, while there's nothing wrong with a book chapter, a paper at a conference or in a journal is typically more valuable.

The reason normally given is that papers are peer reviewed (as compared to edited), so they are somehow more 'valid'.

Having said that, there's always myriad exceptions. Writing a whole book that everyone uses is much better than a few papers. Later in the career, book chapters perhaps gain value as they're a mark of respect and prestige (once you've already proven your research ability).

As a counter-point though, from my limited experience, it seems that book chapters are much more common in bioinformatics and operations research, and thus are viewed more highly.

Talk to fellow academics in your area, their opinion will be the best guide.


In which countries are academic salaries published?

Short answer: Germany. Somewhat.

To explain in more detail, there are four common modes for researchers in Germany:

Unpaid. (Typically PhD students in social sciences. Poor sods.)
Scholarships. ("Stipendiat"; PhD students and post-docs)
Employee of the state. ("Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter"; PhD students, post docs and (rarely) non-professor senior researchers)
Civil servant. ("Beamter"; professors and senior researchers)

The first needs no explanation. The second kind is -- from the perspective of how our system used to work traditionally -- a bit of an abomination with little to no regulation. The amount of the scholarship tends to be similar to the salary employees in similar circumstances get but is, ultimately, for the awarding institution to make up.

Now, for employees and "Beamte", there are well-defined salary tables which anybody can inspect. Be aware that these are gross figures. Depending on your circumstances 30+% won't even see your bank account; you can use the provided calculators to get an idea of the parameters and results (if you know enough German).

PhD students usually get (some percentage of) a TVL E13 position, post-docs can get E14-15 depending on their responsibilities.
Senior researchers with life-long positions usually start at A13 and can move up to A16 in leading positions.
Professors used to get C1-4 but that was changed to W1-3; junior professors (with or without tenure) get W1, full professors W2 or W3 depending on the position.

However, professors are eligible to negotiate for higher salaries

during the hiring process ("Berufungszulagen"),
in case of above average performance ("Leistungszulagen") and
when they get offers from other universities ("Bleibeverhandlungen").

Therefore, the real salaries of professors differ wildly (i.e. by integer factors). These figures are not public, not even in one department.


Is it possible to obtain a second PhD degree in Europe?

I am most familiar with the situation in Germany. There it is in fact possible to get more than one PhD degree. Different departments award different types of PhD degrees, depending on the academic field. In physics, you will typically earn a "Dr. rer. nat." (PhD in science), while in engineering you will get a "Dr.-Ing." (PhD in engineering). While most dissertation regulations will explicitly exclude the possibility that the same degree can be awarded twice, it is of course possible to earn a "Dr.-Ing." degree even if you already have a "Dr. rer. nat." or vice versa. Then you would have two PhD degrees.

In addition, there are honorary PhDs, which are awarded independently of and in addition to real PhD degrees. But I assume that your question wasn't aimed at those.

However, that it is possible to get two PhD degrees does not mean that it is a wise thing to do. To others, it may just be a sign that you didn't take the next steps in an academic career after getting your PhD, but didn't leave academia either.


Grading by assigning points to exercises

If good students who understand the topic well are getting bad grades because they don't do all the problems, you should think very carefully about whether you've made the exam too long.

If this is what is happening (and I suspect it is), there is a very easy way to fix it:

  Assign fewer problems.

Then you don't have to worry about coming up with a new kind of grading scheme that looks at the test as a whole, and which the students who get low exam scores will undoubtedly complain about.

If you designed the exam by looking at exams that professors had set in previous years, they probably also made the mistake of putting too many problems on the exam. It's a very easy mistake to make. I've heard the guideline that professors should be able to solve the problems on the exam in one third of the time that you give students, and I'm not at all sure that it shouldn't be less.


Advantages and disadvantages in working after PhD while waiting for postdoc

Work in a research position rarely starts or stops cleanly at a particular time: in addition to the work one is doing right now, there are proposals to develop for the future and the ghosts of projects past to write up and work their way through the publications pipeline.

When you move around between research-linked positions, whether in academia or industry, this is generally understood, and there is at least some space to keep these subsidiary aspects of a research career in motion.

If you step out into the "normal" working world, however, this is likely to not be the case.  This is doubly so in a high-intensity job, like being a quant, where you are likely to be asked to work quite a bit of overtime.  Thus, the impact of taking a non-academic job is likely to extend well beyond the apparent time that you work it, as you find yourself forced to abandon opportunities that you might have been able to pursue in a job more closely connected to the research world, putting a "bubble" into your career that will take time to work out even after you rejoin the research world.

That's not to say it's the wrong choice---your preferences and circumstances may well make it a better choice---but it's important to understand this is an important reason why what are intended to be temporary periods outside of the academic/research world have a tendency to become permanent.


How do I tell my professor that I am volunteering with another project? Should I?

If you can handle both projects without compromising either, then there should be no issue. There, actually, shouldn't be a reason not to tell the other professor and they should support you as long as you haven't made a commitment to full time work on either project.

Taking on an additional project shouldn't give the impression that the earlier one is boring, just that  you want some additional experience.

On the other hand, if you are working satisfactorily with A, there is no real need to complicate things and talk about the other.

Think about the personalities of the two professors and choose. I don't see any ethical constraints either way, as long as you can do the required tasks.


Would it be appropriate to email a professor about the culture of an undergraduate college before applying?

Most colleges have this information available on their website. If there is any specific question you have that is not covered on their website, of course it is appropriate to email someone in the department and ask. But if what you want to ask, such as the admission requirements, is already posted somewhere, then by asking this you will come across as someone who does not bother to search on their own before asking them.


To what extent should I follow "style rules" in academic writing?

Your writing should strive for maximal clarity in conveying your intended meaning to the reader -- that is the ultimate goal that overrides all other considerations. Style manuals are simply sets of rules that people came up with that aid writers to achieve that ultimate goal. To the extent that I would perceive a particular style rule on a particular occasion to be in conflict with the goal of conveying meaning effectively and concisely, I would see myself as free to ignore the rule.

The upshot is that as long as it doesn't happen too frequently, ignoring style rules is fine if you do it not out of laziness but out of a sincere desire to make the writing as clear as possible. If you do find yourself wanting to break the rules very frequently, you may want to consider the possibility that your intuition about what makes for clear writing is not yet sufficiently well-developed for you to make the best judgment calls on such things. In that case I would try to stick with the rules until you gain more experience.


I realized I made a mistake after my paper was accepted for publication

This kind of error won't affect acceptance. Chances are you'll simply get to fix it during copyediting/typesetting. An eagle-eyed production editor might notice you are changing nontrivial aspects of the paper and confirm with the editorial board that the change is OK, but if the error is as simple as you describe, there's nothing to worry about.
If you had noticed this after the publication process is completed, then you'll probably have to issue an erratum/corrigendum.


Are there any universities in US/Europe which will give PhD in Engineering in 3-4 years?

In Europe a Phd normally last from 2 to 4 years. But to be admitted to it you must have a Master degree.
The American and the European system are pretty different I think.

check this link about education in Europe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process


How to motivate students to complete low-point homework?

Some students had determined that each assignment had such a low
  value, they did not bother to complete the work. These students all
  did very poorly on the final.

One important way to combat this attitude is to show the actual statistics from the course you just completed.

"Here is the distribution of homework completion across last semester's course.  And here is the distribution of final course grades.  Notice that every student who completed less than XXX% of the homework failed the course."

Repeat this exercise after every midterm, showing similar statistics for the current class.  "See, here is the distribution of homework completion so far, and here is the distribution of midterm grades.  Notice that every student who completed less than XXX% of the homework failed the midterm, which is completely consistent with last semester."

In other words: "I am not bluffing."

If you want to be even more direct, you can announce in your syllabus that anyone not completing XXX% of the homework automatically fails the course, regardless of their performance on the final exam.  Be sure to read this sentence out loud in class on the first day.

Of course, you also need some carrots to go with the stick.  The homework should not only be useful, but also interesting.  The students should have access to any resources they need to master the homework material, including rapid and useful feedback.  The homework should be realistically tuned to the skill and maturity levels of the students, and you should carefully discuss your expectations with instructors of any prerequisite courses.

  My supervisor will not be happy to find that I am failing 25% of the students.

I assume you mentioned the abysmal homework completion rate to your supervisor as soon as you noticed it, which was relatively early in the semester. Right?  So how did your supervisor respond?


Applying to informal call for PhD students

I suggest you contact them with a letter of interest as soon as you can. You should have a CV and a SoP in good shape, but you probably have a short time to refine it if they show interest. Letters and such can probably be safely delayed for a bit until everyone is serious.

But, since they ask for references, names will probably do for the moment. But you should contact those people so they know that a formal request is forthcoming.

But, if this is an informal sort of thing, rather than a formal application, you can probably ramp up the details as they emerge.

It is a good idea, of course, to keep your CV up to date at all times. It is painful to have to put one together quickly and you are likely to forget some important things.

I'm assuming this is pretty much a universal thing. Not limited to EU. In some places, I think including the EU, applications often start and sometimes end with a PI. So, it isn't wise to be too informal.


Note that in many places, engineering is a licensed and regulated profession. One of the requirements may well be a degree from an accredited engineering program. That depends on local laws, of course.

The aerospace industry employs a lot of engineers, of course, but not everyone there needs to have an engineering degree. It may well be that, depending on laws and the policies of an organization, modeling of various phenomena may not require such a degree. In fact, as a guess, it may well be that engineers (licensed) may only be required in the actual design and development process.

And, it might all be that a degree in math or statistics or CS might be a better qualification for some of the tasks required in the industry.

However, you are in an excellent position to learn the specifics for your case just by asking someone at your current company. You can get some pretty good advice by going to the employment office and just asking for a bit of guidance. Professors in your current program are also well positioned (or should be) to answer this question in light of local laws and such.


Reusing part of my thesis within the same thesis

Yes, of course. There are no issues with this at all. Self plagiarism only occurs when you don't cite your own words from other publications. Within a single document there is no problem. The reason that we self-cite is to let readers easily find the original source. But that doesn't apply here.

OTOH, make sure that it doesn't read "awkwardly" when you do this. It is just a style consideration, though.

I'm assuming that your abstract is actually part of the thesis, say a preamble.

However, if the abstract is to be published separately from the thesis, you should cite the thesis in the abstract. But you would do that in any case.


Is it illegal or unethical to use plotting and graphics styles that mimic those from newspapers and websites?

It's fine to base your graphical style on that of other publications that you think are doing a good job.  There are no ethical issues with this, provided you are not actually reusing images—or parts of images—from other sources.  (For example, you cannot copy parts directly from other figures without either proper attribution or permission; what precisely you need depends on the context and the use you are going to make of the images.  You might also run into issues if you directly copied The Economist's proprietary house font, which was specifically designed for that publication.)


Is a professional doctorate beneficial for someone looking for a career as a programmer in industry?

You might get different answers for different countries. This answer is for the US.

Speaking as a person who has hired many programmers (both for my own company and for other companies) I feel quite confident that having a doctorate of any kind will not help you land a job as a programmer. The simple fact is, people care about what you can produce. What frameworks, models, patterns, languages, etc. are you effective in? This is what people generally care about from a technical perspective. They will care about other things like how committed you are, how many hours you can work, etc. but what you would gain from a doctorate will not be of value to people who hire in industry.

That said, it can be useful for career mobility. For example, I have see people chose one person over another for an IT management position because one had a doctorate. That turned out to be a terrible choice for the company, but I don't think the problems were connected to his doctorate (he simply had no experience managing people). Some people might see the value in the doctorate but only at a higher level (not entry level).


How to avoid procrastination during the research phase of my PhD?

I have found (and continue to find) two kinds of strategies that have some success in preventing me from procrastinating.

Silly, but scarily effective:

As silly as this might sound, implement a blocker like Leechblock or Chrome Nanny and block sites that you waste time on. I used to scoff at such things, but once I installed them, I found myself being forced to spend more time working.
Along the same lines, disable email alerts. Once I did this, I found that I could spend many hours working without getting distracted by random emails.

Less silly, and also less effective

Much of the procrastination when starting research in grad school comes from the lack of clear structure (as you indicate). So the trick is to create structure. For example, if you're working on one problem, and you've spent a little time generating a few ideas, write them down, and methodically start working through each of them one by one, going as deep as you need to go in order to test out an idea. When you're doing so, try to forget about the larger problem, the context, your Ph.D, your future career, and all other "big picture" matters.

More likely than not, the idea won't pan out (most don't!). In that case, move on to the next one.

The problem with early-stage research is that it doesn't look like you're making any progress, so it's easy to slow down and waste time. But if you can measure progress not in terms of "papers published", but in terms of "ideas tried", you'll get some sense of the amount of effort you've put in, and that can help motivate you to try more ideas, and so on. All these failed ideas are teaching you valuable things about your project, and they will eventually be useful because of what you've learnt.


Should a CV for a fellowship application ever include test scores even if these scores are not requested?

If you are going to cite your scores, then you should check to see if there is a reporting mechanism from ETS that will allow you to send official copies of the scores to the recipients. For instance, NSF had a "college code" so that you could send a report directly to them. Other fellowships may be similar.

One caveat that should be mentioned: if a university or fellowship specifically instructs you not to send something, don't send it. I know that some schools do not want and will not accept additional letters of reference, award citations, publications, and so on. If this is the case for the specific application you're completing, then you'll want to find some other way to provide the information. This might be in the form of a mention in one of your essays (if appropriate!), or in a "supporting information" box in the application.


Is it appropriate to ask for a $220k piece of equipment on an ESI R01 application to the NIH?

Get the tool that helps you do the job properly and efficiently.  Your previous experience and history of using another instrument makes your case stronger, not weaker.  Shows you will use the machine.  It's not some new angle, for you, that might get abandoned.
I really doubt NIH gets into the minutia of where competing machines are located.  If you get any static from the school or NIH, just put on a confident face and say "I need it...it's a workhorse machine for my lab."  Don't be bashful.  Fortune favors the bold.
The one thing is I would think about if you will be able to maintain it properly.  E.g. if you're a synthesist, probably not best to buy an SEM.  You almost need a technician or a group of SEM only types to keep it aligned and the like. But if you think you can handle running it and keeping it going, go for it.  Maybe mentally budget some ongoing costs for techassists from the vendor.  So if you are going to struggle with it, or it will be a waste since you have a hard time keeping it operating, then pass and use the remote facility instead.


Unless I am mistaken, "next cycle" is half a year from now. There are many ways to enhance one's PhD prospects, but many big ones are no longer available to you due to timing.

Robert Peters in Getting What You Came For cites an ETS study about how important various parts of the PhD application are considered by committees, on a scale from 1 to 5:

3.9 Undergrad GPA in major field
3.8 Recommendations from faculty known by committee
3.7 Undegrad GPA in last 2 years
3.6 GRE verbal score
3.6 whether undergrad major is related
3.5 Undergrad GPA
3.0 Educational or career aspirations
3.0 Recommendations from faculty unknown by committee
3.0 Whether applicant is known to the committee
2.9 Academic achievements (papers, projects)
2.9 Quality of undergraduate school
2.7 Personal statement
2.7 Interview
2.6 Work experience
2.6 GRE analytical score
2.5 Non-faculty recommendations
2.5 GRE Subject score (related to program)
1.9 Other test scores
1.9 GRE Subject score (related to undergrad major)
1.6 Particular subscores on GRE Subject

You have half a year. Some of these things, like your GPA, obviously cannot be changed. What you can do is:

Try to publish or present at a conference
Make sure you don't get low grades from any classes you are taking
Make sure you get strong recommendations
Study for the GRE, especially the verbal part
Make contact with faculty at the programs you think of applying to
Research thoroughly the programs you are interested in
Start working on your Statement of Purpose so you have time to edit it


Are scientific conferences important for a PhD-student?

To the question in the title, the answer is yes, but only typically at a later stage of the PhD. The exact timeline varies by field because in some fields students are already publishing early, but a general rule is that conferences are valuable after you have published at least one good publication in the area of the particular conference, and less valuable earlier.
A PhD roughly involves two stages: the first stage is getting matched with an advisor, learning about an area and about one's interests, and progressing along in a project in order to get a good publication. At this stage, attendance at a conference can be fun and interesting, but is typically not that critical. More useful for early PhD students is attendance at summer schools, literature reading groups, and more self-knowledge type of events.
Conferences are not the best for self-knowledge, but much more designed for professional networking and for learning about other cutting edge research in a field where the attendees are already experts. Once you feel you are confident as a researcher in the area and can talk to others in the field without feeling out of place, that is when you get the most value out of conferences. Ask yourself these questions:

If I were watching a talk that was about something I didn't understand, would I be able to ask a meaningful question of the presenter after the talk?

Do I understand the basics of some of the topics that are hot at this conference? Would I be able to discern talks that are related to my interests from those that aren't?

Do I know some of the names of professors working in my area? Would I be able to recognize names and would I feel comfortable introducing myself to those people to chat with them about research?

If the answer to some of these questions is Yes, then attending a conference is good. If the answer to all of them is No, then a conference is likely not the most effective use of your time.

Furthermore, I would like to ask for an opinion of how important participation in conferences can be for a scientific career. Can you do without them or are they indispensable for a PhD-student?

The answer is different for a scientific career and for a PhD student. For the former, conferences are typically very important. They aren't strictly indispensible, but if you don't go to conferences you would have to find some other way of networking effectively and it would be much more challenging. For the latter, PhD students often don't need to attend conferences early on. They are helpful later on, but depending on the level of growth, it could be fine to skip conferences entirely and only attend them later in one's career (e.g. after starting a postdoc).

I would also like to know how to get to participate? Does the chair or my professor organize the participation in conferences? Or should I apply for conferences myself?

You will have to ask your professor about this: you will need funding for travel to attend, so your professor may say that you should only attend once you have a good conference paper to present.

And what is the best way to find conferences that correspond to my field of research?

The best way is to ask your professor and fellow PhD students what are the conferences that people typically attend. Good luck!