Boost grad apps profile without getting a second master's: Subject GRE? Self-study? Soft skills?

I have a master's in applied math and want to get a PhD in pure math. I'm applying to universities that don't require GRE, GRE Subject and IELTS/TOEFL for fluent English speakers.

From the context of the rest of your question, it seems clear that you are mostly applying to pure math PhD programs in the US.  But in that case: more than half of these programs require or strongly recommend the GRE math subject exam.  So I don't understand why you would restrict yourself in this way.  It doesn't make a lot of sense to plan your graduate education and future career around not wanting to take a certain exam.

  My bachelor's grades are bad and my non-pure math master's grades are bad.

Well that's bad, sorry to say.  Having higher grades in pure math in your master's program will help a bit, but grades are much more meaningful and competitive for undergraduate students than for graduate students.  (For that matter, what constitutes an unsatisfactory grade is much different for graduate students.  In my math graduate program, a student needs to maintain a 3.0 GPA in order to be in good academic standing.)

  I've had a lot of research projects in master's (mostly by group)

Group research projects will not be weighted highly by most pure math PhD programs.

  and cannot get very strong letters of recommendation from main research project (sort of a thesis, also by group) supervisors.

And that's also bad, sorry to say.

  On the one hand, the GRE Subject may make up for low grades or the fact that I haven't had complex analysis, number theory, graph theory and abstract algebra.

Number theory and graph theory are completely optional classes in most American programs.  Complex analysis and abstract algebra are not.  Not having these courses, especially as a master's student, and wanting to get a PhD in pure math is once again bad, I'm sorry to say.  Complex analysis and algebra are courses that most PhD students would take (or place out of) in their first year in the program.  If you haven't had undergraduate courses in these, you would be starting behind most students with bachelor's degrees.  That you haven't taken these courses as a master's student is yet more concerning: it seems to undermine your stated interest in a pure math PhD program.

The keys to a strong application for pure math PhD programs are:

Good GRE scores.
Good grades received in courses which the committee will recognize as either good preparation for graduate courses or the equivalent versions of basic graduate courses.
Strong recommendation letters.

So I'm sorry to say that your application sounds like it will not be strong on any of these fronts.

  How does one boost PhD admission profile...

You boost your PhD admission profile by improving on 1. through 3.

  Anything else?

Nothing that is as important as what I've said above.

  Is it possible to work for a professor for a research project?

Yes, but in pure math PhD admissions, research projects are not weighted very strongly at all, as has been discussed thoroughly on this site.  Especially, the very few students who can do serious pure math research before they begin a PhD program will (with very large probability) be exceptionally strong on the metrics 1. through 3. above anyway.

  Or pay a professor to supervise my own research projects?

Wait, what?  Definitely don't do that.

  But on the other hand, the GRE Subject doesn't seem to show ability for research...

Admission to a PhD program is not a debating contest that can be won if you find the right argument.  Overall you seem to be asking how to spin a poor application into a good one.  Well, you can't...or certainly, you can't if that's what admissions faculty realize you're trying to do.  If you want to convince us that the metrics we're using our faulty, here's how to do it: get a PhD in math, get a job at a university with a math PhD program, join the graduate admissions committee, and argue that applications should be weighted differently or that certain metrics should not be used at all.

  Even if I were to study the basics* of complex analysis, abstract algebra, number theory and graph theory I'm not sure that that translates to a much higher GRE score. Does it?

I thought you hadn't even taken the GRE Subject exam, so I'm confused when you talk about a "higher GRE score."  Certainly I would advise you to take the GRE Subject Exam now (or ASAP; I think it is too late for the 2017-2017 admissions season) and see how you do.  It is certainly possible to get a good score without this coursework.  Whether it helps to increase your GRE scores is a kind of irrelevant question to my mind...it helps your application a lot to take these courses anyway, and it helps you to take these courses and know this material (some of it more than others, as mentioned above).

  *I mean come on, of course I'm just gonna use Schaum's Outlines or a GRE Subject book instead of actually learning from a textbook,

(Probably not the point, but: although students treat "Schaum's Outlines" as being the mathematical equivalent of Cliff's Notes, many old-timers know that you could do worse than trying to learn a subject from these books.  Gian-Carlo Rota famously wrote on this subject, praising several of the books in the series.  When I taught linear algebra a few years ago and spoke to one of my older colleagues, he lent me his copy of the corresponding Schaum's Outline: it was very nicely done in many respects.)

Why "of course"?!?  At this point you've halfway convinced me that you don't actually want to be a pure math PhD student.  You seem to have one or more unstated assumptions that are strongly undermining your stated assumptions.  I can't tell exactly what they are, but I suggest some introspection on this point on your part.


How to efficiently get a mention of your just accepted paper in journals like Nature and Science

If you think this discovery was big enough for Nature or Science then why didn't you send the article to either of these journals?

You can't tell people what to be excited about and if the work is good enough then it will make its own headlines.

In the mean time, speaking to your university press officer seems like a good start and they can put something out to local newspapers. If its big enough, then it'll be picked up by bigger outlets.


Professor asked me to hand in a plagarism report. How do I do it?

Many universities have plagiarism software that is used for detecting plagiarism in theses or other project reports. At my previous institution there was a time when students were not allowed to submit their thesis and graduate without first running their thesis through this software and providing the report.

If this is the type of thing that is begin asked, there should be an official web page where you can submit your document and generate a report. We won't be able to help you with those details, you'll need to talk to local administrators to get help with that.


Your ethics vs the ethics of your community

It may well be that your personal ethics differs from the dominant ethics of the society where you happen to live, the society which is also setting the rules that influence your research.

While for many cases there's more or less a worldwide consensus about what's acceptable and not, there are genuine debates where multiple options are plausible, and in the case of such debates it's feasible that the IRB's of different countries would have contrary opinions.  One such factor where it's obvious why there are differences (and also obvious why some people may not consider the other's arguments as binding or even relevant) is religious influence which has some impact on medical experiments (e.g. stem cell debate or certain aspects of sexuality in some parts of the world), other factors of medicine include things such as research on certain recreational substances and euthanasia. There are also topics (or findings of fact) that are highly unpopular for political reasons, which again are local.

It may well be that the IRB considers a particular type of research unethical and unacceptable (i.e. it wouldn't be minor adjustments to do that thing properly but "your goal is taboo"), it's not a fluke and every IRB around them would consider it unethical, but the researcher, taking all the arguments provided by the IRB into account, still finds that they personally believe this action to be ethical. In such situations, a reasonably valid option would be to move to a location where the locally dominant ethics matches your own - and which would likely not have objections to that research.


Will anyone know if you fail out of a master's program?

It may be that they would learn of it, or possibly not, but the consequences of them learning that you omitted something that they considered important could be dire. It would be treated as a mark of dishonesty and neither employers nor universities generally value dishonesty.

The record exist and might come to view at some point, though they would, in most cases, not be sought. But you need an explanation for the time you have spent. If it is a black hole it looks pretty bad on your record, both for an employer and for a future degree.

You are probably safer to just be honest. There may be reasons for failing out that others would consider valid. Academia isn't for everyone and many people have various struggles that make success difficult.

If you have access to an academic counsellor, you should make an appointment and go. You may get good advice there about withdrawal and your future plans.


No, your talk was not in a session that would even pass the definition of plenary session.  More importantly, it sounds as if the conference organizers also did not name you as a plenary speaker.

Definition of plenary session: In a conferences running multiple simultaneous sessions, a plenary session will be a special session when  only one session will be scheduled.(no other sessions scheduled in that slot). The plenary speaker(s) are usually quite senior or somehow big-name-draws, and may give a general, high level review talk(s). Rarely there may be only one plenary speaker with a few (only) invited speakers in support without the 'plenary' title,  particularly if the organizers wish to not dilute the honor they are giving to a particular big name draw.

Common sense rule in CV or similar document is to use the exact nomenclature used by the conference program to describe your talk  (This includes also not messing with the listed author order in pretense of making yourself look better). If the organizers did not distinguish your talk  from the regular talks as  being an 'invited', 'plenary', 'keynote', or  'review' presentation, then do not rename it yourself. (You can always add some sentence or phrase that explains some additional context why you think it is so much more important than it sounds, but usually, if the prestige of one presentation makes or breaks your document, then you have other problems!)

Not all multi-symposia conferences will choose to spend time to run plenary session(s), or they may not use the nomenclature for what seems like a plenary-look-alike session. However, if they do not, renaming it yourself will usually lead to you look like a potential sleazeball when people inevitably check a few details of the CV.

(edit) added keynote to the list of prestigious designations that a program may designate a particular speaker.


Learning new things after coursework duration of PhD

First of all, unless there is a policy against it, you should feel free to enroll in subsequent courses even though you are done with your requirements.  The caveat is that this will take time, and your primary responsibility after finishing those requirements is to do research in your specific area to make progress on your PhD.

To a first approximation, a PhD program is designed to have you focus on one particular problem until you are the only person in the world that completely understands that problem.  That is not to say that you won't find research inspiration from those other seminars, and in fact you might find that you will tailor your research based on one (probably not more) of those other fields.  But, if you continue an academic career after you get your PhD, you'll have more flexibility to collaborate outside your particular field, and that is probably a better time to do it than right now.

To answer your specific question: you're on the right track by going to seminars, and if you can justify the time, taking subsequent classes is not out of the ordinary.  You could also get on mailing lists for other fields that interest you, and nothing is stopping you from becoming a member of professional organizations outside your immediate field (and, they're cheap when you're a student!).  You could also consider collaborating with folks from other departments on projects, bearing in mind that you'll need to be able to differentiate your contributions if you want to use that work in your dissertation.


Can I report the same study twice but with different authors?

There is a general prohibition on publishing the same work twice, whether with different co-authors or not.
One option is just to add both of them on same paper.  Put yourself as first author.  After that, it's other people riding the sled.  Most people understand the main contribution is first author.
Potentially there is some way to carve the study into different pieces and do different papers with each person without violating (1).  Or maybe give one of them some later co-authorship (say on a review or followup study).  I wouldn't go through too many contortions though just for the purpose of doing separate co-authorships.  Divide your overall work as you think it makes most sense to the reader and most benefit to you.  Then figure out what coauthors are deserved where.
Also consider to use the "acknowledgements section" if a contribution was made but you do not think it rises to coauthorship.
Finally, I would make sure that A knows about what B is asking for.  They may be buddies/colluders or rivals or whatever. But he can advise you. I bet he says go with (2).


Changing an experiment due to preliminary data

Consider this:
What question is your paper trying to answer?

This is the real question to consider. If I were writing a paper about average milk production of cows and my question was "How much milk does the average cow produce in a year?" and then I only selected the 10 best cows, then I am really answering the question "How much milk do the 10 best cows in my selection produce in a year?".

If your paper's aim is to compare two or three algorithms, then there's no problem. If you write a paper about A and B, it's no different from writing a paper about A and C or A, B, and C. How you arrived at the algorithms does not change question you are answering.


No field that I am aware of has a list of "officially approved sources". So there is nothing which formally forbids you from using a specific source.

However, your work will be judged based on not just its own qualities, but also the sources you use, and how you use them. Quoting a source just because it has a good, concise definition of a term is no big deal. But that same source might not be a good source for facts and numbers. Your average "pop culture" book will not document how those numbers were obtained.

Now for your specific case, I understand that the topic is eating orders, and not the public perception of eating orders or a similar meta-topic. In that case, you will likely be using academic definitions of your terms. So even if the pop literature would offer some concise, readable definitions of particular terms, they would likely not be the definitions used in the other sources that you will be quoting. So be consistent, and use the definitions from the academic sources.


Many universities (both public and private) in the US have campus police.  These are actual police officers who can carry guns and have the power to arrest someone or write a citation.  On a large campus with tens of thousands of students, this can be a quite sizable police force.  The campus police typically have jurisdiction limited to the university campus, but in some cases, they share jurisdiction with local police in the area near campus.

Other universities have campus security.  These are security guards who operate much like the security guards you might find at a sporting event or concert.  They don't have full police powers, but they can certainly remove someone from campus who is misbehaving.  When an incident becomes serious, they'll call in the local police force.

"Security" is often used as a generic name for these forces, whether or not they have actual police powers.  On many campuses, there is a mixture of police (more highly trained and paid more) and security guards (less trained and less expensive) that are assigned to deal with different kinds of situations.

So,

Not exactly.  Campus police have full police powers (to arrest, use
deadly force, etc.)  Campus security typically has less authority.
Campus police or security are typically the first responders for criminal activity (robbery, assault, etc.)  They enforce campus rules that may not carry criminal penalties.  Campus security can call in the local police for more serious incidents.   Anyone on campus (students, faculty, or staff) can call in the campus police or security, although making a frivolous complaint could get you in trouble.
Unless there's some jurisdiction agreement between campus police and the regular local police force, it wouldn't be appropriate to call the campus police to respond to an incident off campus- the campus police would transfer your call to the appropriate police department.  Note that "campus" might include all university-owned buildings, even if they're physically distant from the main campus.  In particular, university-owned housing is typically "on campus."

At another level, most campuses in the US have their own set of rules for student conduct and an administrative process for judging students who are charged with violating the rules.  This is separate from the legal system.  It gives some leeway to university administrators to deal with infractions that might be crimes if they were handled by the regular legal system.  This can be controversial, particularly when it extends to more serious offenses such as sexual assault.

P.S.

Some large campuses in the US also have their own staff to provide firefighting and emergency medical assistance.  When there are science and engineering labs, it's particularly important that firefighters be trained in how to deal with emergencies involving hazardous materials.

Many campuses in urban areas have free escort services- a student (or even a staff or faculty member) calls up security to request an escort to walk with them (or give a ride in a car) from one part of campus to another. You can't expect instant service, but a typical wait time might be 20 minutes.   The escort might be provided by a campus police officer who is already out on patrol, but it's more common for there to be a group of non-police employees and vehicles dedicated to this. These services are mostly used late at night- if you've been working in your lab until 1 am, you might want an escort back to your dormitory or the parking garage.

In the US, the Clery Act requires colleges and universities to prepare an annual report with statistics on crimes and other incidents (such as fires) that occur on and near campus.  Potential students often read these reports to determine whether a campus is "safe."   This has made campus safety an important concern to administrators.


Is the English-version of a paper previously published in a different language considered an "original contribution"?

No.  A translation is not considered an original work in the context of submission to an academic journal whose stated policy is that submissions must be original work that is not published elsewhere.*
You can still send an email to the editor explaining your idea and asking if they’d make an exception to the policy. Some journals, in some circumstances, might consider it.
You can also translate your paper anyway and make the translation available via a paper repository such as arXiv. It will undoubtedly increase the exposure and impact of your work.
*Translation is of course a creative activity requiring skill and expertise, and in other contexts would certainly be considered a kind of original work.


Can a response paper agree with the initial paper, or must it disagree?

In general, 'comments' can be comments in support or comments in disagreement. Usually people tend to only submit comment when they are moved strongly to point out  a disagreement.

But, as question specifically referred to Nature's "brief communication arising" (BRA)  the answer is NO.  The BRA  notes that "Submissions should challenge the main conclusions of the Nature paper and contain new, unpublished data to support the arguments.". (i.e., pointing out errors, reinterpreting conclusions, coming to a different end result, comments to refute). Showing that there is an alternative method that is better than that presented in the paper doesn't seem to fall under that 'challenge' to the paper. (Unless perhaps you can write it as challenging some final conclusion that their method is the best possible ever? )

They offer the option to add extensive comments under the paper on the website. But then it will be difficult for others to be able to cite or even find your work. It sounds as if you should find a journal and submit your  your method as improvement in XX algorithm/method, citing the original Nature paper.

For comments and criticism there is a brilliant new service of pre- and post-publication reviews called Publons. For example, a recent and very harsh criticism of a sensational paper in Nature. Each review is assigned a DOI, so others may easily cite your comments. Also, it is well covered with Altmetric, which provides quite a visibility to your comment. Yet, no official impact factor for you reply publication.


Would a 5-year prison sentence totally ruin one's academic career?

A five year prison sentence would damage an academic career in at least two major ways.  The obvious way it would damage it is from the possible stain on a person's record.  In the U.S., at least, being a convicted felon can be very difficult to recover from, no matter what the crime, due to general societal prejudice.  Add to that the fact that most crimes indicate either dishonesty or being a threat to others, and you've got a serious problem.  It does, however, strongly depend on the crime.  For example, if the crime is an "honest crime" that derives from ones intellectual inclinations (e.g., the notorious example of Timothy Leary, the sad case of Aaron Swartz, or the youthful recklessness of Robert Morris) then it may be "forgiven" from an academic point of view.

The other, perhaps less obvious, source of career damage is from the interruption in ongoing work.  Typically, any working scientist has a number of simultaneous multi-year projects at different stages: preliminary work, proposal, execution, publication.  Each of these fuels the others, e.g., papers from more mature projects help support proposals for new projects, pieces of ongoing work in project execution include preliminary work that leads to new proposals, etc.  With any major career gap, this "pipeline" can empty, and there is often difficulty in restarting it.  This can be a significant problem even for academics who take family leave; a multi-year gap for prison would be much bigger to overcome.  Either, however, can be overcome with time and help from supportive colleagues.


How can a graduate school applicant improve his application for next year's season?

Publish.  I have seen the following pattern more than once.  (1) Applicant X applies to my department's PhD program and is rejected, not for any major flaws, but just for not standing out from the crowd.  (2) X joins a MS program at a different university.  (3) As a master's student, X publishes one paper and has two more in submission (or at least preparation).  (4) X reapplies to my department's PhD program, with a detailed technical discussion of his results in his statement of purpose and stellar letters from his new department.  (5) X is admitted in the first round, with a fellowship.

If you haven't done so already, show your complete application to the people who wrote your rec letters, and ask for their brutally honest feedback, especially on your statement.  Often students who write statements without some faculty feedback write them to the wrong audience. ("I'm smart; hire me." makes a bad statement of purpose.   "Here is the mathematics I've worked on and what I'm interested in looking at next." is much better.)

It's a long shot, but if your recommenders know faculty at the schools you applied to, you might be able to get some second-hand feedback through them.  Maybe.


Why did it become so much more expensive to start a university?

Besides all the factors that the other answer already lists, the elephant in the room is that KAUST has explicitly been designed to be a world-class university (rather than organically growing into one, as was the case with your other examples).

In short, it is not so much more expensive nowadays to found just any university - in fact new universities get founded all the time, virtually always spending considerable less money than $10 billion - but founding a university with the expectation that it will compete with the best in the world in a very short time frame is expensive. You need to compensate for all the natural growth in budget and prestige that established universities had over the last one or two centuries.


Uneven skill set and customer service attitudes of University Support Services

There are many excellent, competent, and dedicated staff and administrative people at universities, but there are also a visible percentage who are not. Universities face several hiring challenges:

1) Salaries are low and opportunities for advancement are rare. Talented people could make more in industry. Those that remain are sometimes there because they don't have mobility (because of a faculty-spouse ties them to that location, etc.).

2) many people are hired for reasons not related to their skill sets: second-body problems, hiring recently graduated students to reduce the appearance of post-graduate unemployment, etc.

There is no easy solution to this problem. However, even second-body hires are not resistant to getting fired (or worse, transferred to the dining unit). Like all bureaucrats they are afraid of complaints and the additional paperwork this would cause.  Anonymous complaints can usually be made via the university ombudsman (if you have one).


Letter of Recommendation Reminder (deadline tomorrow)

With a deadline of tomorrow I'd say it's too late to email him. Phone him instead. Try to pick a convenient time (accounting for timezone differences). If you can't reach him, call the department office and leave a message.

If he's already committed to writing a LOR for you, it's unlikely he's backing out now. Yes, he might have underestimated the amount of work he has left or procrastinated a little too much (don't we all), but he'll be well aware that you've put your faith in him to write, and if he refuses to write one now you'll almost surely miss the deadline (and by extension fail to get admitted). It's only responsible for him to finish the letter then.


Submitting a paper to a peer-reviewd journal after putting it on medRxiv

Most journals allow this, probably pretty much all of them. If you look at a journal's Guidelines for Authors, they should normally state that this is fine (occasionally it is probably elsewhere but this information should be given on the journal's website). For example, "Statistics in Medicine"'s guidelines say "Statistics in Medicine will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. Authors may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article."
I'm not aware of specific rules for peer review though - I do realise that "double blind" doesn't really mean "double blind" in this case, but what can they do? (Some journals got rid of double blind peer review because authors could be identified in too many cases too easily anyway, this being one of the reasons.)


In a conference, when will the decision of best paper (or other award) be made?

It depends.

Some conferences, such as ACM CHI, announce them before the conference even starts. This has the advantage/disadvantage of letting people know which talks they should see. And in my experience, these sessions are packed!

Other conferences announce them at the end of the conference. This has the advantage of keeping everyone at the conference until the very end (people might try to leave after their own presentation...) so they don't miss their own award!


Should I stay in my uni for four years even though I already have 50 credits?

First of all, I know nothing about Biology at all. I can't comment on specifics. Instead, I rather say something about the comment:

  Do you think double-majoring using the available time gives me a significant advantage in my admission? Or should I just concentrate on the area which I will study in grad school?

You are far away from grad school yet. Undergrad education is for you to build the foundation of your academic career. You need to use it to broaden your knowledge base. Many courses can be benefit for you. You should consider taking the courses about humanities, fine arts, other sciences (math, chemstry, physics, computer science, etc.) and writing, etc.etc. Just don't limit yourself to a specific field. You won't know you're interested in something until you learn it.

The above is from the bottom of my heart. I wish someone would have told me this when I was an undergrad student.


Do I have to implement published algorithms in the same manner as the original source?

You don't need to use the same programming language, but it would be wise to use the same data sets (if available), to check that you get the same results and to compare performance.  Of course, you may want to use additional data sets.


Impossible further progress on problem of PhD thesis

This sounds very familiar. Concrete advice in this situation: Focus on writing the paper.

You have some contribution, new arguments as to why the general problem is hard, progress on parts of the general problem. This really sounds like a possible paper - so write it and, if discussed with your advisor, submit it to the right journal.

Postpone your decision on further steps to this point. The situation may have changed completely until then - and if not, you will still be much better prepared to discuss the matter and to decide.

(Caveat: It may also happen, that, during writing, you'll find new ways to attack a more general version or find flaws/gaps in your current reasoning… anyway, writing the paper also help with this.)


Will ResearchGate eventually find and create links to my publications?

ResearchGate does not support this feature, and has no current plans to do so.

The only way to attach information to publications that ResearchGate must be added manually (because ResearchGate fails to find them) is to add that information manually for each publication as well.


(Computer science/Machine Learning) Is it better to take lots of math classes or AI/ML courses the first year of a PhD?

Based on vague phrases such as "[not] as much math maturity as I'd like", you may get a spectrum of advice on this site. You should ask people who know you and your background and an adviser in the PhD program.

Presumably, if your background (in math or other subject matter) is lacking, your new adviser will have noticed and will have recommendations how to remedy that.

Issues to consider:

(1) There are probably some CS and ML courses you will need
to take at the beginning in order to be on track to finish your degree during the time the department is prepared to support you. My guess is that these
will not have heavy math requirements.

(2) You will not know everything you need to know even when you finish your PhD, much less at the start.
Learning much of what you need to know is a lifelong adventure.

(3) Your primary objective should be to find an interesting and do-able
thesis topic as soon as possible, to finish a high quality thesis on
schedule, and to get your degree.

(4) A thesis requires original research. If you know exactly what you're
doing, how long it will take, or how much support you will need, then
the project is not research. So you need to anticipate uncertainty and
delay. Accordingly, you should not build any avoidable delays into your program.

(5) All other things being equal (which they never are), you might
consider looking for a thesis adviser who is in the middle of his or her
career, and heavily engaged in pathrbeadking work. Assistant professors may be so frantic trying to do their own
research to get tenure that they have little time to worry about yours. Some senior
professors are not entirely up to date, and may suggest topics that would
have been more appropriate five or ten years ago. A really promising
adviser may have great advice what courses to take early in the PhD program

(6) Most people who get into PhD programs are from the top of their
undergraduate classes. They cannot all be at the top of their PhD class.
There may even be some areas in which you are near the bottom of your
PhD class and you can hope for some in which you are near the top. You
may have as much to learn from some of your classmates as from some
of your professors.

(7) Soon there may be other Answers disagreeing with everything I have
said. Maybe they will be right. But these are some issues worth considering.


Reasons for not releasing bottom-line answers to old exam questions?

One, it's extra work, as pointed out by @NoName.

Two, the answer may not be as helpful as you think. Just a month ago, I was grading a stats and probability exam and for one of the questions students who made two very common errors (out of 200 exams, about 40 students made those mistakes) in their work got the right answer, because the errors 'cancelled'. If bottom line answers to that exam were released for the students next year, those making those two mistakes would mistakenly think they knew the correct solution.


Is referring to a textbook solution considered academic dishonesty?

I agree (as usual) with @ff524.  Consulting an outside source is not academic dishonesty in a global sense -- academic culture does not prohibit students and faculty from reading academic sources! -- but it may be academic dishonesty in a local sense: i.e., it may be against the rules of your course as set up by your instructor.  You can find out whether you are being "locally academically dishonest" in this way by consulting your instructor.

Two further points:

1) Since the homework grade is only 10%, unless the homework is wildly more difficult than the rest of the course, a student who consults answer books to do their homework is unlikely to gain a competitive advantage against other students.  In fact, as you hint at, it is more likely that such a student would miss the learning opportunity the homework is designed to provide and this would show up in lower exam scores.  The old chestnut "You would only be cheating yourself" seems to apply here.

2) Although consulting an outside source is not academic dishonesty, as ff524 brings up there is still the question of what happens after you consult it.  If you do the problem, then look at the textbook, then change the answer if it doesn't match, and never mention that you consulted the textbook, then yes, you are at least in danger of having committed plagiarism.

Overall, you should talk to your instructor and find out whether it is permissible to consult the textbook.  If it isn't, then obviously you shouldn't do it.  If it is, then it really is and you should mention in your homework when you do so.  To an undergraduate student this practice may seem strange, but it is really the right thing to do and I would expect your graders and instructors to react well to it.


How can I effectively challenge a final grade?

I would go through the process set out by your university. Talk to the professor first. You don't have to phrase it as an attack on the TA. Just tell the professor that you feel the grade was too harsh, and you would like him or her to review it. If you feel that the professor doesn't fairly address your concerns, then take it to the department head, and perhaps ultimately to an independent review committee. Typically, in order to get a grade changed by a committee, you will have to show that there was an error in grading your paper or that your paper was not graded consistently with the other papers. If the TA graded everyone's papers harshly, then there's not much of a basis for a complaint. As was pointed out in the comments, if you go to the department head before you talk to the professor, the professor will likely be annoyed at being blindsided by an issue they were unaware of. Also faculty are given broad leeway in grading their classes as long as it is done consistently. Unless there is an egregious mistake and the faculty is uncooperative, it is not the department head's place to interfere, and they most likely will just leave it to the professor.


Non-consensual authorship order change after paper submission?

You agreed on something, worked together and he then changed the conditions without your consent. That is not ok in all, neither in academia nor in any business.
However, both in academia and everywhere else, it happens. The question now is: What can you do? Ultimately, you have to decide for yourself. To help you with that, here are some ideas:

He might actually be right that you contributed less than anticipated. Still, changing the order in the last second without giving you the chance to earn first author is not a nice move.
You can simply accept it and be happy to have a (maybe even the first?) publication, even if not at first author. On the other hand, this might mean that he will try the same thing next time.
You can confront your advisor about it. Depending on how he answers, you might decide how to proceed.
You can contact and notify the conference about it. This might mean that you loose the publication and get on your advisors bad side, though.
You can ask others at the institute what they think about it. Maybe they already know the tricks your advisor plays? This might also backfire if you badmouth him to much.

As you see, all options also have drawbacks. Personally, I would try to get a detailed explanation out of him. Don't blame him, rather try to make clear that you want to know your mistakes, want to know how you could have contributed more, to work better on your next paper. If you are lucky, he will point out your weak points, you will agree that you could have done better and everything gets resolved.


Do you have a sufficient background in Economics to publish a high level research paper? I would say share your paper with a researcher/professor in Economics near you, and see if he/she thinks its a good idea to publish, from there, you can ask his experience and ask him to go forward. You need to connect with a local professor though, so I would say email one, and share your ideas (or find one at the university you're attending)


What to do when advisor does not want to work together?

Since you want to go forward, rather than quit, you have only a few options. One is to find a way to get everyone, including yourself, calmed down and focused on the future. The other is to find a different advisor locally or at another university.

I don't think it is unusual to work on a problem for a while and have it end up with nothing. I've done that and so have many others. However, your advisor should have been more aware of the situation if the work had previously been done. But your literature search should also have turned up a hint of that, at least.

Maybe someone at your university can set up a "soothing the waters" meeting in which you all come to an understanding of the way forward for you. Focus on the future, not the past. If there is blame about the past, then it is likely shared. It is also normal for people to be upset, and your advisor may be acting badly because s/he is embarrassed about misleading you.

You probably need to have that meeting even if you want to move to another university so as to make it possible to get good recommendations. Nothing good will come from acting out of anger or in the presence of the anger of others.


Patent vs Research paper for a top university admission?

The best answer, I think, given so little information, is "it depends". But for things of equal quality (however that might be measured) a paper might hold a bit more weight, given that academia is more about ideas (papers) than products (patents). The specific university department, however, might have its own ideas about the balance.
There is also some controversy about software patents, that you are probably aware of.
But it is quality and innovation that will be the important consideration for most.


How to shorten an article before submitting to a journal

In my experience, I have found there are four main strategies for reducing the length of a paper.  In order of most to least radical, they are:

Write a different paper.  For example, one of my recently accepted papers really wanted to be about four times as long as the page limit, and also would have required at least another month of work beyond the deadline in order to properly complete.  When this became clear, it was time for radical surgery: most of the original manuscript was pushed off into future work and only the first key result was expanded into the full presentation it deserved.  We added the word "Toward" to the front of the title and started working on the follow-up paper that contains the rest of the work.
Drop significant chunks of the paper. A slightly less radical version of the first, it may be that you can keep the narrative and main results, but drop some of the secondary explorations entirely.  This is the course I dislike most, because it can significantly weaken the work and "less important" dropped sections are unlikely to be able to form a separate publication on their own.  This can work, however, for a conference publication that will be followed by an extended journal version (e.g., the conference version sketches an analysis of less important properties of the system being studied, while the journal version contains full exhaustive proofs).
Shove things into supplementary material. If you're submitting to a journal, it's typically possible to put unlimited amounts of information into the supplementary material.  This can be a win-win situation, in which you drop significant chunks of the paper without actually omitting them, just tucking them off where only those who really care will read them.
Squeeze blood from a stone. Careful and thorough editing can often remove a remarkable amount of length from a paper, but it's a very time consuming and painful process.  I can typically halve the length of a manuscript without omitting anything simply by dint of streamlining the presentation down to the level of individual words and phrases.  Cutting 10% is not too hard for a native speaker with enough time to invest; getting all the way to 50% is an exhaustive exercise in scientific haiku. Usually, it's better to use one of the more radical but less painful strategies instead, but I have had special occasions where squeezing blood from a stone was the right approach.

I actually recommend that your consideration move from most to least radical, the reason being that the more radical actions are often actually easier, because they require less precision.


Should I leave the first authorship of our paper to the student who did the project whereas I solved it?

It would, perhaps, be generous of you to do so, but not necessarily wrong. In math and CS, listing authors alphabetically would probably be appropriate with little or no attention to "first" authorship.

But an academic being seen as generous is not a bad thing. Too many questions here are just the opposite, demanding first authorship, sometimes properly and sometimes not. But such generosity is more typical in a professor with an established reputation than in a current grad student.

But a serious consideration would entail looking at whether the student made a significant intellectual contribution to the work. If not, then first authorship is probably overly generous and might set a bad precedent in the mind of that student.

I'm with your professor on this. Your call. But the advice in comments (BrianH) on setting expectations at the start is good - even essential.


Let's start with the disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

If you're over the age of 18, it's not illegal to watch most types of porn in the US. Certain types of porn, like child pornography are illegal. Don't watch that crap.
It is illegal to download works without permission of the copyright holder. From what I've seen, porn companies are more likely to sue than others.
Streaming copyrighted works is a legally gray area. Mostly it seems that
the sites hosting the material get hit with lawsuits, not the
viewers, but this may change.

Certain universities may require that you don't watch porn. This will probably be the case at the more religious ones (e.g., Liberty, BYU), so check the school's honor code/student policy if you're concerned.

As to watching porn in class or lab or the library or any public space: Don't. I imagine most every US university has a policy against this. If they don't have a specific one, they'll find another one that applies. It's not only rude to those around you, but watching porn where non-consenting people might see it can be considered sexual harassment. This may get you expelled.

If you want to watch porn, do it in your apartment or dorm. Social norms dictate you shouldn't watch it when others are in the room, but you can talk with your roommates about that if you want.


My PhD adviser is objecting to my request to change my PhD topic

What you need is a realistic option. According to what you write, your advisor may leave soon and your advisor doesn't want to work with you on a different topic. Consider those as given. You aren't going to "wear the advisor down" or impose your own will on the advisor. That seldom happens and even more seldom successfully.

If your advisor is satisfied with your current progress and expects completion before he leaves then one viable option is to keep on with what you are doing.

If you really must abandon the topic, then a different advisor is probably a viable option as well.

I don't see other possibilities here that have much likelihood of success. Either of those two options has implications on time to completion, of course, as well as on how you act and feel in the short term. But either can be leveraged into a career. Keep your eye on that prize. Not the short term.


Should a postdoc apply for a tenured position?

Under most circumstances (not an exceptionally brilliant candidate or a field that is very difficult to recruit in), if a postdoc applies to what is advertised as a tenured associate professor position, then I would interpret the application as asking whether the university might consider hiring at the assistant professor level instead.  That's not unreasonable, since job openings do not always get filled the way the department had in mind.  The chances are lower if the department is hoping for something else, but it's not impossible.

I'd recommend being explicit about this.  If you are actually trying for tenure straight out of a postdoc, you should say so, but it will be a waste of time unless there are unusual circumstances (and it may make you look arrogant or out of touch).  If you would like to be considered for a tenure-track position should the department decide to hire at that level instead, then you should make that clear.


Does a preprint include revisions made in response to peer review?

I am using Elsevier as example since they are often picked on for many of their policies. Elsevier attempts to be clear about their sharing policy and allows both preprints and accepted manuscripts to be shared. In "Elsevier speak" (which may not agree with standard usage of the terms in academia)

Preprint

  This is the author's own write-up of research results and analysis that has not been peer reviewed, nor had any other value added to it by a publisher (such as formatting, copy-editing, technical enhancements, and the like).

Accepted manuscript

  An accepted manuscript is the manuscript of an article that has been accepted for publication and which typically includes author-incorporated changes suggested during submission, peer review, and editor-author communications. They do not include other publisher value-added contributions such as copy-editing, formatting, technical enhancements and (if relevant) pagination.

Elsevier allows for "accepted manuscripts" to be made available via "preprint" repositories (e.g., ArXiv) which of course speaks to how confusing the terminology is. So at least for articles published by Elsevier the difference between the published version and the version in a preprint repository might be limited to "copy-editing, formatting, technical enhancements".

That said, and one of my pet peeves about preprint repositories, is that the "preprint" may have any number of non-peer-review changes. Maybe during the review process some controversial data or conclusions were removed from the manuscript. There is nothing preventing the authors from re-inserting this into the "preprint".


Legal matters: making non-open access content available publicly (mathematics/software context)

I'll answer the first question because that's what I'm familiar with. Copyright attaches to a concrete piece of text (or other ways of dissemination, such as music, but that's not relevant to us here). So, in your context, that would be (i) the paper that describes the software, and (ii) the source code of the software. But it does not apply to the idea that is behind the software, and consequently the copyright in the paper that describes the software does not also cover the software itself (unless, of course, you have put the software into supplemental matter for the paper and signed over copyright for that as well -- but you said that you didn't).

As a consequence, even though you have published the paper about the software, you still have the copyright of the software and can do with it as you please -- including making it open source.


Research on active learning in mathematics tutorial/practice classes

In a german university where I go to, (also studying math) we have two tutorials. In one we have an exercise sheet that we work through during the course of  a bit less than 2 hours and the solutions get presented at the end by the lecturer.We also have tutorials where we go to to recieve our homework and a lecturer, you or your classmates present the solutions.


Is it acceptable to ask the editor for feedback about a review I wrote?

This is totally acceptable. It means more work for the editor, of course, but I think most of us are also teachers and hope that by helping you become a better reviewers, that we can draw on your again in the future.

In particular, in your email, you might want to ask whether it is possible to get the other reviews. That may, strictly speaking, not be quite allowed, but I have often done that to help younger scientists see what other reviewers saw in the paper in question.


How interchangeable are PhD students to most professors?

Most PhD advisors invest a great deal of time, money, and effort in their PhD students. This is a sunk cost.

If the advisor acts as a selfish rational decision maker, he/she would evaluate the prospective (future) costs of continuing to work with the student, the likelihood of the student becoming productive again given some level of intervention on the part of the advisor, and the benefit to the advisor if the student becomes productive again. Other contributing factors may include the cost to the advisor's reputation of having a failed PhD student and the impact of a failed PhD student on the advisor's promotion prospects.

Based on these parameters, a selfish rational player could evaluate whether it is in his/her own best interests to try and "fix things" or whether to cut his/her losses and "replace him like a cog in his machine."

In other words, there is no single action taken by "most" advisors here - the best response of even a purely selfish advisor depends on the parameters of the situation.

Finally, most of the PhD advisors I personally know also feel some level of affection for their students and personal interest in their future, and would not necessarily make the strictly selfish decision described above. Rather, most PhD advisors I know would make an irrational decision that would consider the students' interests in addition to his/her own selfish interests. Depending on the situation, it may or may not be in the student's interests to be "fixed."


Feeling incompetent about a written exam scheduled for today. Should I skip it?

In general, blowing off an agreed-upon meeting is strictly worse than not performing well in that meeting; the only exception being a temporary issue, such as a scheduling conflict or illness. In either case you would need to contact them immediately, explain the temporary and serious issue, and ask to reschedule.

In your case, this does not seem to have anything to do with a temporary issue, its just that you don't feel you'll do well in general.

My advise is to prepare to the extent you can, such as by trying to brush up on basic facts if you can find any that seem related to the interview. So if it includes programming, for instance, remind yourself of basic data structures and algorithms (at a high-level), the general syntax of any specific language mentioned, etc. If there are a few basic facts you can review on the math, such as if they mention stats you can brush up on your definitions of standard terms (regression, deviation, distributions, etc.).

Then go in and give 'em hell, i.e. do your best. Remember, you have no idea what is actually expected in terms of performance. This could be like the Putnam, were anything better than miserably failing every single question is considered a fantastic result. It could be an interview that is mostly about testing you with overly hard things and seeing how you react - can you calmly reason through hard problems, break them down, point out assumptions, clarify, suggest potential approaches? Are you affable and interesting to talk to, or do you break down the first time you encounter something you don't know?

If you don't perform well, oh well - at least try to do it with a good sense of humor and a bit of grace. If you don't know, you don't know. This attitude can make the conclusion "this job isn't a good fit for this person's background", which could be true, in which case now you both know, and this would not usually prevent you from re-applying to the company later. You are generally welcome to re-apply later, and you can then know to emphasis the highly related experience you picked up in the mean time.

But since you don't actually know what's on the test in terms of actual questions, and you don't know what their real expectation of performance is, I can't really think of a worse strategy than admitting total defeat and giving up before even trying. If you applied to a job that seemed like it would be a good fit for you, and they agreed enough that they want to interview you, it seems like a good time to give it your all and learn as much as you can from the process regardless of result.


Professorship without PhD in the United States

At most US institutions, you need the terminal degree in your field. For many fields this is a PhD, but in some it might be an EdD, a DMA, a DPH, a ThD, etc. However, all of these degrees are considered to one level or another to be research doctorates. Presumably faculty positions at a medical school require an MD or equivalent. Likewise for other professional schools. Positions in the visual arts, theater, dance, creative writing, cinematography, etc., may only require the MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree, as it is considered to be the terminal degree in those fields.

"Regulations" about the requirements to hold certain academic ranks and perform certain academic duties (like mentor graduate students) are made at the institutional level.


In general, the answer is: Provide the landscape of your field, and show how the new-ground you are covering is missed by other people who passed the question by.

If your thesis is a branch of of another topic, then show where the branching occurs, and how people on the dominant branch missed it; If your topic is truly novel, then show the problem its solving and why you found it interesting enough to spend a year or more of your life on it.

I have a feeling that intuitively you know the answers to these questions; get them out and people will understand why your thesis has worth.

90% of the advice from your last question still applies; It's incredibly difficult to do an apples to apples comparison between degrees, even under the same supervisor.

The crux of this question in my mind, which prevents it from being a duplicate, is how to present new-ground while avoiding comparisons to other work which has a stronger theoretical background.

A important part of the answer is almost certainly going to be 'Sit down and talk with your supervisor about this concern'. That's what they are there for. They will have a clear view of how this will fit into the landscape of the field, and will be able to help you avoid the feelings of theoretical inadequacy.


Do Conferences provide the facility of pre-submission inquiries?

For some conferences the Program Chair might respond to an email enquiry. In others, perhaps not.

But there is no reason that you can't just submit your paper. If it is inappropriate in any way, you will be told as part of the review process. Don't waste people's time with something obviously off-topic, but otherwise just do it.

If a PC does respond to an enquiry it would likely be something like the above paragraph. Note that deadlines are pretty firm because of the limited time prior to the conference itself, though some conferences also extend deadlines when they don't get sufficient papers.


How should I thank an interviewer after an interview?

Honestly, in this and at least one other question you are worrying about things that no one on the employer's side will care about in the least.  You do not need to send a thank-you letter to any of your interviewers.  If you feel like you made a personal connection with a specific faculty member, you certainly may write an email (or a letter, or whatever...) saying that you enjoyed meeting them / look forward to seeing them again / whatever.  Or not: we won't care either way.

Math departments are not evaluating candidates for their general etiquette. Please remember that:

(i) We are drawing from a worldwide applicant pool, and there is no such thing as worldwide academic etiquette.  We expect that once someone is hired they'll learn the local ropes.

(ii) Mathematicians have a reputation for being a bit eccentric / weird / exhibiting non-standard social behaviors.  Probably this is somewhat exaggerated, but the truth is that math departments are a great haven for those whose professional competence vastly exceeds their social skills.  If you are not too weird, it should not be a problem.  Likability is, obviously, a positive, but we are really not running a popularity contest: the gentleman who was pretty quiet at lunch but gave a nice clear talk and has one more strong paper is going to get hired over the life of the party whose talk was a bit fuzzy and whose CV is not quite as strong.

The above is centered on research departments.  Liberal arts colleges value collegiality more, but they too will make a distinction between someone who is simply socially dexterous versus someone who knows what to do in the very specific, content-related interactions they will have with students.  They will not assume that because someone is well-mannered they will be good with students (or inversely): there are people whom I find painfully awkward who are wonderful with students, and students are surprisingly good at seeing the difference here as well.


Techniques for teaching reflection and critical analysis to unprepared students

Almost certainly this is going to be a multi-stage, complicated process, with no simple answer. However, here's something relatively simple to start with, maybe.

I'd suggest starting with collaborative peer-evaluation. Create an assignment which has a peer-evaluation stage (with no reflection on the final grade). The peer-evaluation stage consists of sitting them down and working through each person's output as a group. Ideally, you'll act mostly as guard-rails for the discussion, keeping it on-topic and professional, while providing some initial thoughts.

The goal of the peer-discussion phase is to start getting them to think critically about the output, from both the perspective of a creator and a consumer.

After the discussion stage, then allow them to take the feedback and re-edit their work to improve it, grading only the final result.


Co-authors are not responding due to their very very busy schedule, How should I handle it?

In general, you are the lead author. If you are keen to progress a paper, then you need take the lead. This may mean that you wont get as much feedback from your co-authors as you might want. But this is generally better than delaying a publication for months and months. I also find there is a real cost in having to get back in the zone on a paper that I'm leading when it is put on hold because of such issues.

I would typically give co-authors a specific timeframe to make a contribution. For example, I might say that I am going to submit the paper in four weeks, and thus, any feedback they can provide in the next two weeks would be most welcome. I'd also try to get feedback from them about when they might have time to have a look at it, and I'd try to arrange my own schedule for working on the paper so that I'm able to send something through for when they might be free.

Of course, this is something to be negotiated. Sometimes, co-authors may want or expect to have greater involvement. Or you may think that their input is worth waiting for.

The case where a student is the lead author is also another variant. In that case, the supervisor would have more influence over timelines. In this case, the student may also be relying on the supervisor more to make sure that the manuscript is ready for submission.

What about co-author consent?  Nate Eldredge raised the following issue in comments:

  Don't you need the consent of all co-authors in order to submit a paper? So if they don't respond by your deadline, I don't see how you can ethically go ahead and submit anyway.

I agree that co-authors need to consent to having their name listed on a paper. That is very important. And you can imagine situations where consent would be an issue.

However, from my experience, in many situations the consent is implied. First, co-authors have usually already agreed to be involved in a publication at the start of the project. And in the above case, the co-authors have already submitted a paper and now they are revising it to submit it again. It's common for one author to take the lead on these kinds of revisions.

Then in the usual case, the lead author will send  emails to co-authors outlining a publication plan with a timeline as well as follow-up emails as it gets closer to submission. The lead author would also send emails about when a submission occurs and when the status of the manuscript changes. At every stage, co-authors are free to negotiate the timeline, their input, and whether they wish to remain a co-author.

In most cases, co-authors respond to emails. Busy co-authors may not have time to actually make a contribution to the paper at that time, but any reasonable co-author will reply to emails in a reasonable time at least indicating their intentions about the paper (or they should have an auto-reply to say they are on leave). Furthermore, a submission is not the final word on authorship. For example, if a co-author didn't respond to emails for four weeks and then finds out their name was put on a submission that they did not approve of, there will still usually be plenty of time to withdraw their name, or make sufficient changes at the revisions stage.

So, I think if the lead author engages in reasonable correspondence about the publication plan and the submission process, then the issue can be navigated.


How to choose between industry and academia after mediocre past work in both?

You're in the lucky position of having both industry and academic experience. That gives you a much better view of what to do next, and you can use your experience to inform yourself about the better option.

If you go to industry, chances are you'll have a more stable life. You won't have to move as often (possibly never). This could be better not only for you, but also for your child/significant other. You'll be paid more. You'll deal with different kinds of problems. If you're considering this path, I wouldn't worry too much about you being "not good" at machine learning because you've already excelled at your previous role. The odds are also good that you'll have learned something transferable in the course of your PhD.

If you stay in academia, chances are you'll have to move, a lot. Postdocs are transient positions that don't usually last longer than a few years. You'll also usually be paid less - often substantially less - than in industry. On the other hand you'll get to think about blue-skies problems that you might enjoy more, you'll have more flexible hours, and you can often work from home quite easily.

So which option do you want? Only you can make that decision. I'll just suggest one more thing: compare the time you spent in industry (2009-2013) against the time you spent in the PhD (2013-present). If you were stuck in a time loop and had to relive those years again and again, which epoch would you rather relive? I would favour that option.


Do academic journals ever recommend software writing tools for scientific writing that suggest better paragraph construction?

Yes there are such tools. An example is Grammarly. Caveat: they won't be as good as having a real human proofread your manuscript.
Journals will probably not recommend any tool or service, unless they've formed a partnership with the tool/service (example).


I was invited to an unexpected and urgent second postdoc interview (in less than 24h) - Is this fair?

It's not respectful to applicants for the interview process to be unclear or changed at the last minute. However, for various reasons, many of them completely innocent (busy people, miscommunications), this may happen.
It's also not always transparent what an interviewer is looking for. If the interview has you attempt "Task A", it may not be performance on Task A that you are being evaluated on. Instead, you may be evaluated for how you handle an unexpected change in plans. Or you may be evaluated on how you ask for clarification around a task, how you manage time if a task cannot be completed within the window you are given, what you do when you find you are stuck on something (do you ask for help? Stop and admit you are stuck? Make something up that might work? Pretend you know what you're doing?), etc.
Judging "success" on this sort of task is entirely up to the interviewer's views and opinion. As far as whether it's "fair", well...the definition of "fair" is a moving target and various opinions would give various descriptions of "fair". In one sense, as long as the same information is communicated in the same time frame to all the candidates, and all candidates are judged by the same criteria, it is "fair" among those candidates.
As far as whether it's the process that selects the true best candidate for the job, well... if we had a better way of determining the best candidate than the clunky interview process, we'd use that method instead.

I'm not sure you can do much about this except for continuing to interview for positions that interest you. Positions at desirable universities are likely to attract many qualified applicants, and you aren't guaranteed a job just because you're qualified. Ultimately, they have to select someone, and it's not even really possible for the person doing the hiring to know that they've got the best one.
I'd recommend not spending more time thinking about the process of this one interview. Maybe their expectation is that programming is a bigger part of the role but didn't think it was necessary to mention it. Maybe they had a preferred candidate already but lacked the justification they needed and invented this task on the fly to create it. Maybe they're disorganized. The answer, whatever it is, won't help for your next interview. Maybe you even dodged a bullet and this is a bad work environment, and had you been hired your next Academia.SE question would be about being stuck in a post doc where you're just treated as a programmer and aren't making any progress on independent research projects. Move on and forget this one.


From what I have heard from students and academics in the UK there are a few key factors:

I think you may be undervaluing the effect of language. English is by far the most widely studied language and is the primary language of communication in academia. Students want to improve their English while they study. While universities in non-English speaking countries may teach in English and it is most likely possible to do research in English, day-to-day life can be isolating without knowing the local language, for example see here. It's also much less daunting to live in a country if you are already competent in the local language. Similarly for faculty, its much easier to work in a country where you're already fluent in the language rather than starting from scratch in a new language.

The UK is widely seen as welcoming and accepting of different nationalities and cultures. You could debate the extent that this is actually true, and it may be changing. It is certainly true at least of university cities such as Oxford and Cambridge as well as major cities such as London.

The UK is home to some of the best universities in the world in Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College are all in the top 10 (the rest being in the US - which also suggests a language effect). These universities are also widely known worldwide. Oxbridge in particular offers a certain prestige which attracts many people, mainly due to its history.

I don't think the UK is necessarily attractive to top academics, especially in STEM subjects. The cost of living is high, especially in cities such as London, Oxford, Cambridge and academics (especially junior academics) struggle to live in these cities. There has been a large push by Oxford and Cambridge to provide subsidised housing for staff in order to attract/retain staff. I know many top academics who have left the UK for the US.

I also don't think the UK is particularly extraordinary in terms of research funding.

In conclusion, I believe language, culture, and brand recognition are the main factors for making the UK attractive to students and academics. Although this is threatened by the cost of living and rising xenophobia. The outlook for research funding is also uncertain due to Brexit.


Is it possible to apply graduate program in a different major?

Your specific degree doesn't matter as much as your other experience. If you are a business student, but have focused on coursework in CS/engineering, done undergraduate research in a CS/engineering lab, etc, you have a better shot.

I am assuming you are roughly a senior undergraduate student based on your question, but I would also advise that if you are truly finding yourself more interested in CS/engineering it might be to your benefit to take an additional undergraduate year and get some of the required courses under your belt for the graduate programs you will be interested the following year. Graduate program staff at your current institution are probably a good resource for what types of courses would benefit you.


How should I format code words in my personal statement?

Probably you are thinking about this too hard: as long as it's clear what you're saying and choosing a reasonable form of presentation, it's probably fine.  Monospace font is one way to do this, another way is to put the names in quotes, just like you did in your question.

If you want to be really cautious, you can look at scientific papers from the field and see what conventions people tend to use.  That way, you will be certain that your readers will find your presentation familiar.


Sensible measures to ethically use freely available, but personal web-based comments in research?

Talk to your Institutional Review Board (IRB). You will not be allowed to use any of the information you are collecting unless your research plan has been approved by your IRB, and they will likely require you to deidentify or anonymize data. What exactly is sensible or not, we cannot advise you here -- it's not a question of common sense but of what you can get approved by your IRB, and approval by the IRB is the single important factor in what you can and cannot do.


Is it beneficial for the applicant to mention other universities she is applying to?

From a strategic viewpoint it's best not to reveal this information. Revealing this information would not benefit an applicant in any way.

For example, if you tell a second-tier school that you're applying to lots of first-tier schools, it becomes a bigger risk for them to give you an offer.

I would suggest omitting this information from your application if possible.


A PhD in mathematics education is a highly sought after qualification these days, although it isn't clear to me whether the long term prospects over the next 20+ years are particularly good for any academic career.

Getting a PhD late in life is certainly possible- two of my colleagues in a relatively small mathematics department got their PhD's in mathematics well into middle age after other careers.

Given that you got your bachelor's in math more than 20 years ago and haven't done anything in mathematics since then, you may have some difficulty doing mathematics at the level you were at when you completed the bachelor's degree and without current letters of recommendation you may have a very hard time gaining admission to a graduate program.

One approach that might help you to reestablish yourself in mathematics and get into mathematics education would be to start taking graduate level courses as a part time student.


Level of detail when reviewing the language of a low quality paper

From Alan Jay Smith's The Task of the Referee:

  Refereeing a paper can require considerable time and effort; don't waste that effort on a detailed critique of a badly flawed paper that can never
  be made publishable. Finding one or more fatal and uncorrectable flaws excuses the referee from checking all subsequent details.

The trick is to determine what is indeed "fatal". If you believe that your corrections have some non-trivial chance of improving a published paper at some point (possibly in a less-competitive venue), go ahead and make them, as you are contributing something to the body of literature. Otherwise, do not waste your time.

As an addendum, you are not a copyeditor, but a scientific reviewer. Ways to deal with papers with many language/grammar issues include:

If grammatical errors are very numerous, point out classes of errors, instead of individual ones.
Focus on errors which actually obscure scientific meaning, and let ones which are merely poor or nonstandard style go.


Fair use (in the US) has nothing to do with being "transformative." Here's a quote from section 107 of the US Copyright law (highlights are mine):

  Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

I'm am not a lawyer, but as long as you are paraphrasing sections and including the correct citations, you should be good.

EDIT: As Oswald Veblen points out below, there is more to copyright here than what a casual reading of the law would lead one to believe. Please see his comment below for more information.


Are you required to write down a specific, formal hypothesis by your departmental or university dissertation requirements? Much of science is done without this level of formalism. If you are required to do such a thing, it might be better to write something like:

  Using approach X to model Y will lead to quantifiable improvement in Z.

Where Z is the error in approximation, efficiency of the method, or some other quantifiable measure of the performance of the approach. You probably don't need to know what level of improvement will obtained before you start the work, but you're better off stating a quantifiable improvement in some specific aspect rather than a vague statement that X is better for modeling Y.


Nervous about submitting a paper - what if I made a mistake?

(Upon @Massimo Ortolano's kind suggestion:)

Your issue is not even about "retractions", much less "breach of ethics", if you (and all your co-authors, and advisors/mentors) are acting in good faith. "Making a mistake even with due diligence" cannot be a punishable offense, or no one at all risk-averse would ever do any new work/research/etc. In other words, it's not like a school course where there is some "ultimate judgement" and "absolute standards". In this regard, many school systems from kindergarten through high school (the U.S. name) through undergrad school (the U.S. name) cultivate terrible reflexes, yes.

That is, even if you did make some sort of serious mistake, it's not like it "goes on your permanent record, and a letter is sent home to your parents, and you'll be 'grounded' for two months". The paper just gets rejected (if the referee detects your supposed error!), and hardly anyone in the world knows about your gaffe... whether or not it is upsetting to you personally. People have to "go out on a limb" (English idiom) to make serious progress, and this oughtn't be punished.


Should a cover letter always be included in faculty job applications?

The cover letter is one place in your application where you can explain why you're interested in this particular position including both professional reasons ("I'd really like to work with your library's archive of original manuscripts by P.D.Q. Bach")  and personal reasons ("My in-laws happen to live in your small town and my spouse would like to move back.")  Showing that you know something about the location, the the institution, and the particular position can be a helpful factor if you're on the borderline for an interview.

If there's really nothing special that you want to say then a generic two sentence cover letter won't greatly hurt your chances.


How to toughen up against hostile students as a TA?

Your responsibilities as a TA do not include being verbally abused or physically threatened by irate students.  At the first indication of abusive behavior, immediately stop arguing or doing anything else that might further provoke him.  Instead, in as calm a voice as you can muster, inform the student that you understand his concern but that you don't have authority to grant his request but that the course instructor does and that you propose to set up a meeting for him with the instructor.  Immediately afterward, send email to the instructor explaining the problem and let the instructor deal with it.

If it's already gone past that point, and he's pounding the table, shouting and exhibiting threatening behavior, get away from him as quickly as possible.  Tell him you need to go to bathroom or whatever it takes to get away without being followed.  Do not return. Call campus security.


Would this be right to respond to all the reviewers queries simultaneously in single files along with their queries?

As a reviewer I have no problem with all the responses in one document. In practice I will quickly scroll down to my comments, but I may glance at responses on comments I find interesting.


How to handle intellectual theft by a colleague

I am sorry to hear that you find yourself in this situation. Academic integrity is one of the central values around which academic culture as built, just as basic honesty and morality is fundamental to our society. Unfortunately, some people still lack one and the other. This situation is not your fault, but simply an manifistation that unfortunately bad things still happen in academia and in the world.
Consider doing the following:

Drop the case completely. It is damaging to your morale, but it may be the best way to progress your career in this place. Many people do it at some stage of their academic career, and report that in the long term the decision not to engage in a conflict did more good than bad to them. If (0) is not satisfactory for you, procceed to the following.
Collect all evidence that you were asked to do the analysis by the colleague (e.g. emails).
Collect all evidence that you actually performed the analysis (timestamped files, git commits, source code, etc)
Identify people responsible for academic integrity in your department. It may be the Head of Department, the Ethics Champion / Committee, etc. If you are a PG/PhD student, it may be someone in Research Office or Student Office.
Identify people responsible for academic integrity in the journal where the work was published. It is usually the Editor.
Approach people in your department to discuss the situation. You may start by writing a detailed email with well-documented chain of events. Explain clearly what you want to achieve (e.g. they retract the paper, and re-submit with you as a co-author, apologise, etc).
If you are not satisfied with the results of (5), send the email with evidence to the journal. Prepare mentally that at this stage you may be in a serious confrontation with your department and (depending on the culture in your department) it may negatively affect your chances to succeed there.

Good luck.


How to tell about mistakes made in a previous publication to adviser?

One way or the other, you will have to build a relationship with your adviser in which you can discuss such questions. In this regard, your relationship with your adviser is no different than with your wife or girlfriend: waiting too long doesn't make the problem go away.

This might just be the right time to start talking about difficult issues.


How to "dress up" a CV that has a PhD but no peer reviewed publication record?

If you have submitted manuscripts to peer-reviewed outlets, you can say so.  If you have anything under second-round review, be sure to say so because that's all the better.

If you haven't submitted manuscripts, you could do so.  One of my peer-reviewed publications was originally a paper I wrote for a Ph.D. seminar.  I blew the dust off, firmed it up and made it stronger, and I submitted it.  It was a nice little paper.  My point is that you have doubtless done work that you could turn into a submission with X weeks of work.

Lots of people list their current research projects under a title such as "Current Research."

Beware that search committees know all the tricks.  You're not going to fool anyone.  But, I'm sure your goal is not to "fool" anyone at all.  You just want to put your best foot forward, and there's nothing wrong with that.


If I am enrolled in Bachelor's degree taught in English, Can I in the future continue with Master's Degree taught in different language?

There is no need to repeat the degree. Just as non-English-speaking students can do graduate studies in the US after passing the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), other countries also have language proficiency exams. For example, Germany has the "Test Deutsch als Fremdsprache" (TDAF). When you apply for your master's degree, they may require this test or something else (e.g., an interview) to prove your fluency.

The more subtle point is that not all degrees are interchangeable. As my answer in this question points out, there may be a whole procedure to verify that your degree is compatible with the foreign one. This is unlikely to be an issue if you go to a reputable English-language school, but you may want to do further research before committing to this.


Should one keep record of papers one reviews? (and of the reviews themselves)

I do the same (i.e., save all versions of a manuscript I receive and all of my and the other reviewers' comments that I receive through the review process). I save them in a single directory according to their manuscript number, which tends to keep things fairly organized and easy to find later.

Why might I want to find them later? First, when I receive a revision, I find it is a lot easier to go back and look at the files I have stored locally to see what I recommended change (in case it has been months since I first saw the manuscript), whether the author(s) did, in fact, change anything, and whether the changes were actually in-line with my and the other reviewers' suggestions. This came up recently when I received a revision that claimed to make changes but I found they had actually not made changes in the manuscript (the original and revision were strikingly similar) and I suggested a rejection.

The second instance where this can come up is receiving the same manuscript from a different journal (e.g., because it was rejected by the journal you reviewed for first). Having your previous comments and the previous version allows you to see how the manuscript has developed and either provide original feedback or reiterate points that still need improvement that you highlighted in your previous review. Or, decline to review because youf ind it difficult to present an unbiased opinion.

A third, and final, reason that I find it useful to save these things is pedagogical. In graduate school, several professors sent us versions of their reviews for manuscripts so that we could see how to write a peer review. Having manuscripts and your reviews available makes passing down that future pedagogical activity much easier. (Note that sharing manuscripts may be more controversial than sharing one's review, but if the paper was previously available as a working paper or conference paper and was subsequently published, I see little ethical concern with sharing the manuscript with future students.)


Where does Computer Science background students fit in Theoretical Physics

Given a background in CS, that probably means you have a sophisticated view of software development—at least one that is far more advanced than the average physicist or materials scientist.

It seems to me that you would probably find that you would be working as a programmer on a computational project: perhaps a new numerical method needs to be implemented, or the performance or functionality of the existing code base needs to be improved. Or perhaps they want somebody to help prototype new interfaces between experimental hardware and computer hardware or software? There are a lot of possibilities.


What do I do if a university does not inform me of my masters application status?

There are multiple questions that remain unanswered here:

Did you meet all of the deadlines for the admissions process?
Did the people who wrote your letters of recommendation send in their references on time?
Did the school promise you a reply-by date?
If so, why did you not contact them at that time?
Did you get an email confirming that the application was complete?

If any of those were missing, then it's entirely possible that you didn't have a complete application—in which case, the school is not necessarily required to do anything, because they don't have a complete record to consider.

Moreover, a lawsuit is a horrifically bad idea under the circumstances—it's far more time-consuming and expensive than anything you're going to get back from the school. It's a waste of your time and money (unless they rather unlikely made written promises of admission, in which case they may be in bigger legal troubles than just having to return an admission fee).


Is it common for professors to ask a postdoc to start working without compensation while waiting for paperwork to be completed?

Asking someone to work without compensation is illegal in many jurisdictions. It is also hardly ethical. Unfortunately, it is also not uncommon in academia.
In modern "publish or perish" academia professors are often under a huge deal of pressure from university administration to produce countless high-quality papers and teach ever-growing number of courses. A significant proportion of academics feel that they are forced to work extra hours to meet the expectations of their universities. This draining and insecure work environment often impacts the judgement of academics when they manage the work of their PhD students and postdocs.  Many  sincerely believe that they should "prepare" their students/postdocs to the hard realities of academia and make them more competitive by demanding to produce results at a cost of personal life and well-being. This is wrong, but unfortunately, wrong things do happen in this world and in academia as well.
UPD: Answering some questions in comments, I feel that I have to explain why the PI's behaviour is wrong. I don't think it is a subjective judgement.

Forcing someone to work without compensation and without contract is modern slavery. Slavery is wrong. Postdoc are employees, they have terminal education degrees, they are professionals and they do important research work, not some glorified "training". Forcing a postdoc to work without contract and compensation is wrong.
But perhaps, the PI was not forcing the postdoc, but merely asked them nicely whether they would like to volunteer? Well, let's see. Postdoc does not know whether they can say "no" to their PI without risking their contract or compromising the work relations with their PI during their contract. There are so many ways in which postdoc's whole career depends on their PI's opinion (access to research resources, appraisals, extensions of contract, letters of recommendation, etc).  In this situation postdocs are under a huge pressure to say "yes" to unfair and illegal proposals. That's why even proposing to work without contract is abusive, morally wrong and often illegal.


Is it acceptable to ask a professor for advice regarding a subject not taught in, but related to their class?

Is it acceptable to ask a professor for [...]?

Yes, the worst it can happen is that it doesn't answer.

But: be polite, short and to the point (if you have a long question, ask for an appointment), and don't expect an answer in two hours.


Is tertiary education free of cost in Spain and Portugal?

No it's not.
You always have tuition fees, which in absolute term may seems negligible (between 1 and 2 thousands euro per year), but it can be a relevant chunk of a family income, considering the average salary being in the 700-900 euro range for most of the people living outside the major, rich, urban zones (Madrid-Valencia-Barcelona-Lisbon-Oporto, to name the largest).
Specifically to Portugal, there is a rule[1] the Ministry of Education establishes a minimum amount that varies each year depending on the minimum national wage rate.
According to Portuguese regulations, the minimum amount of tuition fees students are required to pay is 1.3 times the minimum national wage rate. For the year, 2010, the minimum national wage rate amounted to 475 EUR per month.
For upper education (like Ph.D enrollment) in Portugal the tuition fees may reach easily 2-3000 Euro.
[1] rather absurd, in my opinion Art. 16, comma 2 https://dre.pt/web/guest/legislacao-consolidada/-/lc/107958193/201708090100/73459622/diploma/indice


Is there a test equivalent to a bachelor's degree?

No, there is not.

A bachelor's degree isn't a generic thing like a high school diploma.  For example, it makes a big difference what institution it's from and what your major was.  Unlike high school, in the US there aren't government-specified standards for what should be taught or tested for a college degree; each institution makes its own rules (usually under the oversight of accrediting organizations).  So there's no way that a standard test could substitute for a bachelor's degree in general.

There are some reputable colleges and universities that offer online degrees, but it involves a lot more than a single test.  You'd do roughly the same coursework as if you were physically attending the university, and you should expect it to take multiple years.

There are some disreputable "colleges" which will offer a degree based on a single exam, or your life experiences.  These are scams and their degrees are worthless.


Should I include a publication where I'm only acknowledged (and not one of the authors) in my CV?

I've never seen anything like this on a CV.

If you have other publications, I certainly wouldn't include this. It would look like you are trying too hard to find something to put on your CV, which could do more harm than good. Let your publications stand for themselves.

One thing you could do when describing the various jobs you've had, is to include the statistical analysis work in the description of the activities you performed in that job. You could also mention it in the cover letter, if it is relevant for the job. Finally, do bring it up in the interview as an example of how you work in a collaboration.


How to cite paper with several co-first authors in APA style?

Short Answer: You should follow the standard citation style. E.g., "Anderson et al".

As far as I'm aware, there is nothing in APA style that speaks to an exception for the situation where the authors of a paper contribute equally or that set out multiple "first authors".

More generally:

Ultimately, author order is a thing that exists independent of contribution. It is often related to size of contribution. In particular, being first author is often related to making the greatest contribution. But disciplines vary substantially in the meaning of author order. And even in fields where first-author usually indicates greatest contribution, authors in other positions sometimes make greater or equivalent contributions. For example, in some cases the first and second author will have contributed equally. It seems more sensible to say that both authors contributed equally than to say that they were both "first authors", because at the end of the day, a reference has to have a canonical order to the authors. So whether the order of authors is determined by contribution, agreement, a coin toss, or a game of croquet, there is an order to the authors, and someone is first.
It seems strange that it would be the citing person's responsibility to adopt a citation style that captures every nuance of relative contribution in a given cited paper. An appropriate place to mention relative contribution of authors is in the author note in a paper. More generally, there are a lot of variants on the "co-first-author" scenario. In some cases, authors will note equal contribution or that author order was determined by a coin toss. Ultimately, this could all get very fuzzy.
It would make citations and references even more challenging to compile. Relative contribution of authors is not usually encoded in abstract and indexing services. And it is not encoded into reference management software such as Endnote or BibTeX formats as far as I'm aware. So it would be an additional hassle to keep track of these things.
The primary goal of citation styles is to unambiguously direct readers to sources. Managing author credit effectively is a secondary goal.


Is it appropriate to request that the department hire a female faculty member?

the new faculty should be female in order to help address the wildly disproportionate gender ratio in our current faculty.

This is not a good reason. Gender imbalance is fought by educating everybody (males, females and any possible group) equally and hiring the best people, regardless of their gender, not choosing people by gender; that's sexism.

  The candidate that we support is highly qualified in terms of research and teaching. Moreover, among all the candidates who have visited, they are the only one who have any experience with diversity initiatives and getting underrepresented groups into stem. This is very important to many of us, especially since the department is planning to add an undergraduate program in the near future.

These are very good reasons to hire someone, and reasons to be proud being hired for. If I were her, I'd find disrespectful being hired first because I'm a woman and second because of these good reasons.

  We are planning to write an open letter to the department in support of this candidate, citing her qualifications as someone who has worked to make science a more inclusive place for women and other underrepresented minorities.

Again, these may be good points to write in the open letter, but the fact that she's a woman shouldn't matter. She's a great candidate no matter what her gender is.

I find this logic of hiring women because they are women very sexist, towards both men and women. Towards men because they are at a disadvantage, towards women because you're treating them like kids, giving them a preferential route they don't need. Women can clearly be good enough to be hired just for their skills and not for their gender.

Fight for her to be hired if you think she's the best choice. Write the letter and explain why she's the best choice, that she's better than the other candidates because she is better, not because she's a lady.


Who's the Principal investigator if you are doing your degree project abroad?

Send a joint email to both professors involved, and ask them what you write here. Showing that you care to do the right thing is unlikely to upset anyone.