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ACM-IEEE Proceedings publication notification (2015)
Is there a way for me to be notified automatically when a ACM or IEEE conference proceedings is published? I was unable to find such option in either of their websites. How else do researchers (professors, students, industry folks) who are interested in a particular conference, know that the Proceedings for a particular conference have been published?
TIA,
Jake Clawson
PS - I am aware of Google Scholar Alerts but I wanted to know when the entire proceedings have been published as compared to following an author or a specific paper.

I usually receive an email from the editor when the proceedings have been published

I have written for IARIA and IEEE. Usually the notification are in Google Scholar few days after the proceedings.

Last year, I was the publication chair for an IEEE conference, meaning that I was responsible (among other things) for working with IEEE to get the proceedings onto Xplore.  Now, more than six months since we turned in the proceedings to IEEE, and nearly as long after the conference was held, only one part of the proceedings is online.  The IEEE repeatedly promises that the rest will go up "soon," but no schedule is forthcoming.  Moreover, even as publication chair, I have do not get any sort of systematic notification about the proceedings.
Long story short: with IEEE, at least, it seems you can't. Maybe ACM is better, but I haven't worked with them on this...

I know that you have asked specifically about IEEE/ACM, but assuming you are interested also in other CS conferences - with Springer you can get ToC of each new volume published, e.g., http://www.springer.com/series/558 for Lecture Notes in Computer Science (the major series for CS conference proceedings in Springer)


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Computer Science Original Position Paper Questions
I am submitting a research paper to a conference for the first time. I will be submitting an 'original position paper'. I believe this is what the paper should consist of:

50% background research (literature survey - summarizing the previous works/pointing out their drawbacks or areas not covered by them)
20% my new idea
30% implications of my idea and future work

Is this approach correct?

Do you have an advisor? Did you try to ask him/her? This may greatly vary across different venues, or even within a venue.

"Computer Science Position Paper". I have never heard of such a thing before. And what is this? "Implications of my idea". What does that mean? Is your work already done and finished? If yes, this is not a position paper. If not, and the idea is in preliminary stage why do you want to present it before it is done? Unless, we are talking about a PHD proposal - workshops which are suitable forums for preliminary ideas.

I've heard of computer science position papers. What are the constraints on the paper? Is it 1 page LNCS? Or 4 pages ACM? The size makes a huge difference.

This depends on your discipline and on the conference in a fundamental way. If your advisor (or anyone you know) has submitted this kind of manuscript to this particular conference before, you should absolutely ask him/her for tips and suggestions.
You should also go to the conference's web site and look for their requirements for submission. Nearly all such organizations have a page or document that lists their requirements for submission. In the unlikely event that there is no such information at all, or in the more likely event that you still have questions after reading it carefully, look on that document or on the website for a submission contact person who will be able to answer your question(s).
Good luck!

Why do you assume that something has been accepted?

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Can I copy a Lemma one-to-one from another paper?
Instead of simply referring to a Lemma from another paper I want to

copy it to my paper (using my Lemma numbering),
cite it's original source and
provide a proof of my own which might differ from the original proof in notation (it is adapted to my notation) and might slightly differ from the original proof in substance.

Is this good practice? Or should I simply cite the Lemma from the other paper?

Sounds good to me. I hate papers where to follow the train of thought you have to have 20 expensive PDFs at hand just to see what on Earth were they referring to. A double whammy when the author does this reference-only approach with obscure lemmas. A triple whammy is when their reasoning is subtly wrong or incomplete because the lemma isn't visually integrated into the narrative, and even reviewers miss that because nobody has time to hunt down dozens of papers just to review some often inconsequential paper.

You can use other paper's Lemma as long as you give the proper credit to it.
This is what science is all about.
All your options are valid, and might fit in different situations.
However, even if you give your own proof, you should give credit to the original proof (stating that your proof is different / better/ clearer).
Maybe to be clear, I usually do this:

If the lemma is secondary, I just refer to the other paper.
If the Lemma is important, but the details are not, I cite it and refer to the other paper for details.
If the Lemma is crucial, I state it formally with all the parameters and details. If the statement I use is exactly the same as the lemma in the other paper, I refer to the proof there. If it is slightly different, I acknowledge the other Lemma and state that "my" lemma is a simple variant of it. I add a proof when needed.

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How to address email to professor your advisor knows
My advisor recommended I email a well-known professor at another institution because of our shared interests.
He said I should use his name in my email so I'm good on that.
I (of course) refer to professors in my department and other professors who I have met by their first name. But having never met this particular person I am wondering what the least awkward least offensive most professional salutation would be in an email to hopefully set up a meeting.

Are you asking about how to address the well-known professor, or how to refer to your advisor towards that well-known professor? In any case, you'll have to tell us in what language region and country you are. Customs differ wildly (to the point that your "of course" concerning first names is by no means so universal).

Probably "Dear Professor [name], I am a student of Professor [your advisor's surname], and (s)he suggested that I write to you about ..."
At worst, a bit of excess formality may seem silly, but it will not seem disrespectful or rude, in any case.

Yes, always begin with a comfortable level of formal politeness in the first email.  With practice, you will get more comfortable doing this, and it won't feel stilted.

Thanks for the help  - I will accept this answer but wanted to ask a follow-up: Does it matter that this person is now employed at a research organization and is no longer technically a professor? He does not appear to go by Dr. anywhere I can see (though he has a doctorate). Thanks again.

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Declining a paper review after accepting it and seeing the manuscript
Most of the time, when I am invited to review a paper, I am only provided with the title and abstract. The full manuscript becomes available only after I have agreed to review the paper. As per this question, this seems not to be common in all fields, but it does seem to be the norm in the journals I usually review for.
I assume this is a way to minimize the number of people that get access to the content of the paper before publication, and only provide that "privilege" to those who actually give something back in the form of a review.
However, it might hypothetically happen that I agree to review a paper based on the abstract, but then I see the full manuscript and find that I do not have the required level of expertise to review the methods used in the paper.
If I now decline the review, then I am going back on my word, and the community will see me as less reliable. Furthermore, I have unfairly gained access to unpublished content without giving anything back.
If I do the review, I will not be able to accurately evaluate the contributions of the paper, and might (probably) recommend acceptance of something that might not warrant it.
What is the best course of action in this case?

For the future, it's totally acceptable to ask the editor for the full manuscript before you agree to review it, so that you can make an informed decision. For the hypothetical scenario, I would say it depends: Did the authors misrepresent the used methods in the abstract?

Is there a reason why you cannot briefly explain that from the title and abstract you thought the paper primarily involved "Method X applied to Topic Y" (or some such reasonably specific description), but instead you found that the paper involved [ ___ ] (fill in the blank with something reasonably specific)? In fact, if it were me, I would probably suggest a revision of the title and/or abstract that more clearly indicates the paper does NOT primarily involve "Method X applied to Topic Y".

The canon in mathematics is to show the manuscript upfront. I rarely accept to review a paper without seeing it first, unless it is a request from someone I know very well. Since we get too many papers to review it is quite rare to engage in any type of discussion in order to see that particular paper upfront, it is a problem of the editor.

@JohnB One reason this works is that it is very common that submitted math papers are already publicly available on arXiv, so restricting access to content isn't a consideration in the way that it may be in other fields.

Wow, I thought that only students are the ones who only read abstract. I wouldn't suspect that reviewers can review paper without actually seing it.

@TomášZato-ReinstateMonica No, you misunderstood. Reviewers (sometimes) agree to review seeing only the abstract but they review the paper reading the whole manuscript.

Aha, thanks for explaining.

"If I now decline the review, then I am going back on my word" suggests that you are unaccustomed to changing your mind as your learn new information, or that you are not aware that you in fact do change your mind when you learn new information (incidentally, this is how learning works :). The only problem here is that you cannot reasonably change your mind.

I assume this is a way to minimize the number of people that get access to the content of the paper before publication, and only provide that "privilege" to those who actually give something back in the form of a review. As far as I can tell, it's to preserve the confidentiality of the peer-review process - publishers generally say they treat submitted manuscripts with confidence. I don't understand how that works, but yeah.

The best course is to just inform the editor that you are unable to perform/complete the review as it is outside your area of expertise. The title led you to think otherwise. You are sorry, but others are better qualified to judge and give advice.
I don't see that as anything strange at all, and no one is likely to think less of you.
What would be wrong is to give a review of something you don't comprehend completely. No one benefits from that.
Just be honest with the editor. No one knows everything.

In fact, if the title/abstract is misleading, that is already valuable feedback.

In a couple of occasions I have added my comments anyway but being very clear of the situation and asking for a referee to be assigned.

Having very briefly -- and foolishly -- been an editor, I wish all reviewers shared your concern of "going back on [their] word".  Far too many not only don't deliver promised reviews, but do so passively-aggressively by just not saying or doing anything, leaving editors to chase them down.
I also wish reviewers who discover they are not qualified, or for any other reason not able, to do a review would politely back out and give information as to their reason so that the editors can redirect the paper more effectively to someone who can do a good job. Crappy, unqualified or cluelessly superficial reviews are a real problem.
With all of this in mind, I would think more rather than less of any reviewer who backs out for reasons such as you describe, thoughtfully and in a timely fashion.
As to the "access" issue, indeed authors reasonably expect their unpublished work not to be blasted out to an unknown selection of colleagues/competitors in their field. All reviewers should not let unpublished work received in confidence influence their own work. Of course, there is an unavoidable "what has been seen cannot be unseen" element, but I'd expect this be less of an issue when you have decided the paper is outside your ability to engage with in detail, and when the expectation is you should stop reading it, I'd say delete it once your refusal is a done deal, and try to forget what you have seen.

I fully agree with @Buffy's answer, but would like to a add two "middle-ground" possibilities.
I as well as some colleagues have been in a similar situation in the sense that an important part of the paper turned out to be outside our respective expertise, while the reviewer was fine with reviewing most of the paper (as they concluded from title and abstract).
In such cases, the reviewer has been telling the editor that they are fine reviewing most of the paper, but it turned out that a substantial part is about topic outside expertise and they suggest/ask permission to consult named colleague who's an expert on that topic (example: expert on the application area consults expert on statistical data analysis).
My experience is that the editors were happy with that suggestion.
I suspect that it is sometimes very hard work for editors to find particular combinations of expertise in one person (consider particular application area + particular measurement technique + data analysis/statistics all of them at a sufficient level of expertise to judge whether the authors have been working correctly).
(I've been in the position of asking to consult a colleague as well as in the position of being the colleague who was asked to provide further expertise.)

In case my level of expertise is "almost fine" for the critical topic, i.e. I only need additional expertise confirming/refuting my conclusions but I'm confident that I can extract all relevant information from the manuscript, I've been abstracting (like a minimal working example) the situation and discussed my questions with colleagues without revealing the paper. As this is like reading up the topic in literature or a textbook, the permission of the editor is not needed.

What is the best course of action in this case?

Ask for the full manuscript before agreeing to review. I don't believe such access is unfair (you needn't look too deep when deciding whether to agree), I do believe you've given something back (your consideration).

Having already read the paper, you might as well write a quick review on those points you can judge, and send it in along with a note to the editor saying you strongly recommend appointing another reviewer.
As you are surely at least close to the subject at hand, you likely know a few names to propose to the editor as additional reviewers.

This is both sensible advice and a suggestion of alternatives would be helpful to the journal editor.

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Asking For Letters of Recommendation
I am applying for multiple internships over the summer and most of them require 2 LOR's, is it okay to ask one professor to write me a LOR for each? I am a freshman and don't have many teachers who could write me a recommendation.

Ask a couple of professors who best know your work and think highly of you. Tell them when you first ask that there will be several letters for different internships. If they know in advance then they can easily do it, even if each needs a bit of tailoring. Ask early but follow up a week or so before they are due.

It depends on the requirements of your internship. If it requires academic recommendation, it is best to ask your professors. Professors here does not mean they are really "professors". You can ask your current lecturers/tutors who know you the most or you get a high score in that modules.
If it does not require specific people, you can ask your previous employer to write one of the letters of Recommendation.
Good luck with your application!


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How to inform conference organizers about your legal name
I am in the following situation. I have a name I prefer to use for personal reasons but the name on my passport is different.
If I apply for travel support for a conference, the recommendation letters will be for the preferred name but the invitation letter for visa, if I am to use it, should be for the legal name. What is the protocol for informing the organizers about this discrepancy?
In my previous experience, when my preferred name and my legal name were the same the organizers issued the letter for my preferred name without checking whether it is my legal name so action from my side must be necessary.
When you apply, there is a form; should I simply fill out the name field like "Preferred Name (legal name: Legal Name)"?

Your situation isn't uncommon. In particular, many women prefer to use their birth name rather than their married name for reasons of continuity, etc. Some people need to use an alias for various security and/or political reasons.
Just include a note explaining the situation as you have here. If you are asked, you might offer to provide a photocopy of the first page of your passport for verification. But only if asked.


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Definition of Book Classification
I understand that libraries can use a classification system like Dewey or LOC. Apparently, the decision as to how any particular book is classified, however, is made locally at each library. So this is my question: is there an agreed upon definition of the books that fit a particular classification? For example, I run a library. I just got a new book in. The book title is "Killing Others" and is nonfiction. The LOC number for murder is x. The Dewey number for homicide is y. I don't have time to read and analyze this or any other new book because there are just too many of them.  Is there a definition, or a descriptive list of features and attributes of all books classified as y or x that I can consult? Like "books about murder have this and that, but if they also have this other thing, they should be classified under homicide"?

If tou don’t know which system to use or which system is already in use then you need to make that choice.

@Buffy et al: Do you know where I can post this question, or where I might find an answer?


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What's a Professor of Practice do?
Are they tenured / on tenure track?
Are they more like clinical teaching professors?
Do they perform research?
I recently saw this job with lots of teaching duties but no research listed.

Caution: These positions are very rare. I've worked in U.S. academia for a generation and I've never heard of this title until today.

Just saw that Michael McConaughey is now Professor of Practice at a Texan uni - https://www.southernthing.com/matthew-mcconaughey-is-a-film-professor-at-the-university-of-texas-now-2640088348.html

This answer will be a little different from that of JoshuaZ.
Yes, such a position is intended for people wanting to build a career as teachers/educators, rather than theoretical researchers. But there are caveats.
First, the job may not come with a tenure track leading to eventual traditional tenure. Instead, as at Duke, after a probationary period the holders get long term (say ten year) contracts that are renewable. The ones I am familiar with also come with various ranks. You don't get a lifetime employment commitment, but you do get security. I know people who have held these positions over a long period. (I actually don't know of a situation in which traditional tenure is offered.)
But it isn't quite correct to say that there are no research expectations. The professors of the practice are expected to contribute to the profession and, normally, to publish and have a presence at conferences and such. But the research is more likely to be in pedagogy than theory. This is the situation in computer science at several very good universities. The people are very active professionally and may be text book authors.
These positions exist when a good university has both a commitment to research in a field, but also to high quality undergraduate education. Holders of these positions relieve the top theoreticians of teaching lower level courses, especially to large classes, but still provide high quality instructors for the undergraduates. Of course, such people are also able to interact with the more traditional research focused faculty.

This may vary from university to university and department to department, but in general at many locations a Professor of Practice is essentially tenured with a 100% teaching load. This sort of title has become more common, partially with schools taking people who were previously labeled as lecturers or senior lecturers and relabeling them as such. Iowa State University is one example where this happened recently https://www.inside.iastate.edu/article/2018/05/03/fs .


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When is the best time to reach out to potential advisers while applying to PhD programs?
I am specifically applying to computer science PhD programs in the US.  I have read the other posts similar to this, but I have some specific questions.
1) When is the best time to email professors I would like to work with to maximize my chance of admission to programs for Fall 2020?  I've seen lots of disagreeing advice. One post said that it was best to reach out right after application deadlines so the professor will remember your email.  This is what I have been planning to follow.
2) If my contact with the professor goes well, is there a risk I could be "locked in" or risk damaging my relationship with them?  Say I reached out this week, if they  said I would be a good fit would I be expected to reply now?  Or could I wait until I hear from other schools in February/March?
3) How do I balance these concerns of maximizing my chance of admission and being "locked in"?
**I only plan to email professors that have specifically mentioned on there web page that they wish to be directly contacted by potential PhD students.  Any other advice is welcome.
Thanks.

Interesting. In my field, the advice is to contact before you apply.

1) In my experience, it’s never too early to reach out to someone you’d like to work with. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to send the professor an email indicating that you’re considering applying to their group and that you’d like to hear more about their research & determine if you’d be a good fit. This saves you both time if you find out it isn’t a good fit.
2) I don’t think you need to worry about getting “locked in.” The professors will understand that you’re exploring your options, and you can emphasize as much in your conversation. You’re just exploring a potential collaboration - you’re not committed until you accept the admission offer.
3) A personal relationship with a potential advisor is, in my experience, a great asset during the admission process. Again, they will understand that you’re exploring multiple options. Just conduct yourself respectfully and professionally and there should be no hard feelings. (Thank them for their time, be up front about your goals and intentions, etc.) And besides, this won’t be time wasted: even if you end up choosing another University, there is always the possibility of collaborating with or being co-advised by the other professor.
**Of course, this advice is subject to any professor’s expressed preferences. If they say “let’s talk after admission decisions” - that’s fine! If they say on their website “feel free to contact me if interested in joining my group” - great! If they don’t respond to your initial email (perhaps +1 reminder email) - no worries!


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It seems that almost all succesfull academics have had distinguished advisors. Is it really true that pedigree defines success?
In his manuscript "The making of a scientist" [1], Hans Krebs highlighted the fact that great scientists are moulded for success by their renowned grad school advisors. Additionally, he talks about other things in the paper.
My question is, does the observation which Krebs made five decades ago still hold true? I was not lucky to get an inspiring PhD advisor during my PhD, in spite of my advisor having a really renowned PhD advisor. I did not learn anything substantially life changing (in matters of ethics, dedication, passion) from her apart from getting suggestions about my research. In such situation, should I just accept the fact that it is highly likely that I will never surmount to anything great in my future research career?
[1] Krebs, H. A. (1967). The making of a scientist. Nature, 215(5109), 1441.

Correlation does not imply causation. Having a distinguished advisor and having a very successful career are correlated, but to a large extent I would think they are both effects of the same underlying cause (being very smart, talented and hardworking) rather than the latter being the effect of the former.

To extend on the comment of @DanRomik: Even causation doesn't mean single cause. Of course there is some influence of the advisor. If they are really great and passionate about their topic, they can easily motivate others. On the other hand, if they are bad at teaching and the classes are boring, that might demotivate some. But this is only one reason of many, other include, for example: your own intellect, personal circumstances, luck.

Two of my colleagues from uni had famous PhD advisors. Nothing special they learn they told me. It just mean that you have funding and a lot of possibility with them. How you will use it is up to you. That being said science is increasingly incremental so I don't think in current system any PhD student can learn alot. Friend that was in Nobel winning lab said she felt as she is just a small part of paper publishing machine

As with all education, there is presumably a multiplier effect, where the underlying talent and drive of a student combines with the great teaching (and perhaps extreme demands) of a renowned advisor, and produces a more successful student than either typically would on their own. For one thing the smarter the advisor, the more efficiently the student's time would be spent, for example on cutting-edge, yet solvable, open problems.

and is there a country somewhere that spells "succesfull" that way?

There is a quality selection effect more than a training effect.  By analogy, Harvard grads are what they are more because of the selection than because of the training.  In addition, if you are going to be a cutting edge R1 academic, you should at this point have some sense for the quality of different researchers...and some self evaluation of your capabilities.  You ought to be able to tell if you've "got it" regardless of the small school setting.  Instead of coming here for reassurance.

I don't have a copy of the Krebs article, but I'm going to guess that he didn't mean to imply doom for every doctoral student who doesn't have a world renowned advisor. Your success is up to you and what you do, not some mythical inheritance from your legacy in academia.
Actually, I worry that if such a thing were true then scholarship would only  go down hill from wherever it started and never upward and outward. People who go beyond the the people who taught them are celebrated, actually, even by (especially by) those educators.
But, renowned people do have an advantage and they can pass part of that along to their students in some cases. If a person is a star in their field then lots of people want to work with them and they have lots of collaborative opportunities, even if they are often small ones. This means that there are a lot of ideas flying around in the presence of the luminaries and students can get into that sphere and exploit it. They can also exploit the contacts and build their own circle of collaborators.
But, it is also possible for people to form such rich research groups and seminars even when their own advisors are more modestly "endowed". Find ways to meet and interact with people who know more than you do and are willing to share it. In many fields, that means going to conferences and finding ways to participate there. You can also just correspond with people who might be able to help you put ideas together and focus your research.
But starting out with an attitude that you can't really succeed because your advisor wasn't in the very top ranks is something of a cop-out. If you really believe it, then it is a self fulfilling prophesy and you aren't likely to work hard enough to move upward in the estimation of your peers.
Work hard and swim in a sea of ideas, however you can make that happen. Luck helps too, of course. Others may have advantages, but that is true in everything.


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Should research service labs accommodate client requests for reformatting their data for publication?
We had a client who submitted samples for chromatographic analysis years ago to our research service lab. The client is now an assistant professor in a state university campus. The research is now under editorial review and the editors want some "cosmetic" touch ups to the chromatograms prior to publication.
We provide data processing fees since the processing of her data requires specialized software. We already sent the raw files and the plot numeric data in text format so the cosmetic processing can be done in Excel or Origin or other generic plotting software.
Yet the client still wants our lab to do the processing of the plots which can be done in Excel. Honestly I think the client is just too busy to replot the data with customized annotations themselves for their own publication.
The data processing request includes:
1) Replot the chromatograms so the more prominent peaks are better seen overall
2) Add annotations to the peaks
Honestly this is the first time I encountered such a request where the client requested something to be done by us that could be done by anyone who is publishing academically.
I mean an assistant professor who is about to publish their research should be able to plot data from a text file and do the annotations themselves...or get a subordinate do it for you and not ask the service lab to do it in Excel for their benefit...

I don't see how this question is answerable in Q&A format. Any service lab can determine the level of service provided according to budget, staff availability, and overall mandate.

This is me. I am like this. Once I paid 500 dolars for difractograms . Editor wanted 600dpi and some anotation I asked lab that measured my experiment to do it. This is also a way to protect yourself from accusations of tempering manipulating images

Payment:

Don't do it for free.  Tell him what it will cost and make sure he gives you a valid charge code or prepay (if external) ahead of time.
To be diplomatic, I would say something like "We can't do this service unless paid and will charge [double whatever you are first thinking].  However as you have the raw data, please feel free to make these edits yourself."

Ethics/responsibility:

If you think the data modification and presentation moves you too much to making an analytical inference (and taking responsibility for it)...or for sure if it is in any way "overegging the pudding", then just decline and tell him to do his own presentations. With some diplomatic comment about your center only providing data files and presentation work being responsibility of researchers.  I would also lean this way if you are worried about becoming his "secretary" (having the images sent back and forth for inevitable revisions and further touchups).

People:

He's probably hoping to get you to do extra work for him.  There will always be people who push a bit and who try to get away with what they can.  Just be calm and firm.

He bought and paid for his data in the agreed format at the time, contract concluded on both sides.
Re-formatting his data is in his domain now and there are many programs that can be used apart from excel.
If he wants to engage your services, then it is a new contract with rates that you define at the outset for your services. You are, of course, free to say that data analysis or polishing is not part of your remit as you produce the data, not analyse it.


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Contacting a potential research adviser
I wanted to know what the best next step is given my situation.  I have been interested in doing research with a professor, however after the initial response from him about setting up a time to meet he has not responded.  Given it was summer I assumed he was busy with travel and grant proposals.  Upon sending two more emails he did not respond about setting up a specific time.  As such, I went to his office.  He send he would send an email setting up a time.  How long should I wait to hear back with a response?  I understand professors are very busy, however there is a deadline to enroll in research credit.  I am hesitant in sending a "reminder" as I don't wish to annoy him.

If you think you are on the edge of being annoying, then it might be better to wait. But, you don't have to wait passively. See what other, backup options you might have with other professors and start a conversation there. Be a bit tentative with them, of course.
And, if he is negligent about responding, note that he might also be negligent about giving you the guidance you need. So, other options are worth a look.
But, it is also possible that he is just a last-minute procrastinator sort of person, so be prepared to spring into action if you get a favorable response.

Thank you for the information.  If for some reason he does not get back to me within a few days should I send another email?  I'm quite keen on working with this person and given he has acknowledged I would like to think I have a shoot.

I'd move on and find a different professor. The person you describe doesn't appear to have the minimal communication qualities necessary to be a good mentor.


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Revisiting/revised paper
I am wondering how can I split my research into two or more research article.
I heard that there's a type of papers that called revisiting which basically relies on previous work with some enhancements.
The question is what's the structure for the revisiting paper and what's the structure for the revised paper and what are the differences between them.

Although you can split a paper in two, it is often not the best choice, known as salami publication.
There are, of course, papers revisiting a certain topic, sometimes tens or hundreds years after the first publication. Revisiting a topic is not the same, as simply splitting a paper in two. There is no specific structure for a revisiting paper - the term refers to its relation with previous research only.
In academic publishing, we call a revised paper a version of the manuscript which underwent a peer review process (i.e. in a journal), received feedback and was already corrected (revised) based on the feedback from peers. This term refers to the stage of the publication process and not to the structure or purpose of the paper.

Note that the concept of "salami publication" is not universally acknowledged, but seems to be specific to empirical fields. The website you cited defines the concept as "a publication of two or more articles derived from a single study" -- in theoretical science, for example, there is no concept of "studies".

In my research area, software engineering, the concept of "revising/revisiting article" is not standard terminology.
There is, however, a very similar concept: the publication of extended versions. An extended version extends a paper by adding some new material. The extended version is always published in a journal, whereas the original paper may have been published in conference or workshop proceedings (which are legitimate publication venues in my area).
Almost all journals accept submissions of extended versions. They explicitly specifiy the amount of required material for an extended version (typically between at least 25% to 40%) and the nature of the extension. Some journals may be fine with adding more details (like a more detailed proof to a theorem), whereas other journals will require substantial new contributions (like a significantly extended empirical evaluation).

Revisiting papers
These are papers that are examining a topic from the past (probably years), and then providing new insights, a review, or new data/experiments/whatever that puts the old stuff in a new light. As pretty much all scienctific papers are in the business of "new insights", one might ask the question why does such a thing like "revisiting" paper even exist. In some fields there are certain topics that have been neglected, for various reasons. Then it is appropriate to do something like this. Usually the people who write a "revisiting" paper are experts in the field with years of experience.
Revising a paper
Just an ordinary process of peer review, that (almsot) every paper goes through. You submit a paper to a journal, it goes to review, and comes back with a list of issues the reviewers had. You revise the paper in order to address the issues and make the paper suitable for publication.

Both of these things are unrelated to your wish to split your research into two papers or more.
Some of the criteria to decide whether to split you research are:

Is the research in its current "one paper" form too long compared to other similar papers in similar journals?
Are there several main ideas in the research that each one can be in a paper of its own?
Is the research such that different aspects of it are relevant to researchers in different fields, such that it is appropriate for publication in different journals?

If you want to split your research just for the sake of having more papers, do not do it. It's called "salami slicing" (see the other answer here) and is usually frowned upon because it is a waste of everybody's time.

Thanks a lot for the explanation however, I found some papers in my field, authors have re-implement old algorithms and re-publish it again with some enhancements, for instance, this article "Revising Max-Min for Scheduling in a Cloud Computing Context" link, So, that was my concern about the revising.


text:
Life as a PhD student
I completed my Master's in Chemical Engineering recently as an International student in the US and now I wanted to go for a PhD as well in the same field.I completed a few Volunteer research work for a few professors to build up experience and gain vital skills necessary for research.One thing that I noticed was the lack of direction in research. While the PhD students I worked under were great, they would just give me a problem and tell me to solve it without any guidance or direction. I had no prior experience with the research topics in question and I had a really tough time to figure things out and as a result it was quite stressful.
I wanted to ask if this is to be expected in a PhD position as well.

One might hope for some guidance, but the point of the PhD is to learn how to do research with minimal guidance.

@JonCuster Unfortunately, the result of "minimal guidance" is this site: minimally guided and frequently plainly misguided students end up here searching that normal guidance that their PhD supervisor should have provided as part of their work.

@MassimoOrtolano - sorry I wasn't clear. The point is that, at the end of the PhD, you can do research mostly on your own. Some guidance is good, and necessary, but that guidance is more how to start doing it on your own, not actually step by step what to do. I have seen cases where there was too much help throughout the PhD by the advisor, leaving a freshly-minted PhD unable to do the work expected of them.

How much guidance you get depends on your advisor. Some give a lot, some give none at all. The latter is not the ideal. Some will give you a problem to work on (or several) and others expect you can come up with your own. The latter is not the ideal.
Part of your experience is due to the fact that PhD students have little experience as yet in advising.
Most advisors, I think and hope, and closer to the ideal, will assist you in coming up with a suitable problem and with help along the way. But they will also expect a lot of initiative on your part.
Becoming a good researcher isn't something you necessarily learn how to do on your first outing. You should get pretty far along on the learning curve while doing a doctorate, but there will still be things to learn and refinements you can make.
But, if you are getting in to the process at the beginning, look for an advisor who suits you and your ability. Some people will actually want no assistance, but most will want at least some guidance throughout. Don't choose an advisor randomly or for the wrong reasons. It is an important first step.

Yes +1 plus if they don't see any use of helping you they will not provide you with help. I experienced on my skin. Benefits.

Heh. You are so right about profs helping. Especially for really prestigious profs with too many students. One of my profs described his PhD under the Great Man (GM). He once gave a talk on his PhD research in front of the whole group. The GM was in the front row, asking good interesting questions. At the end of the talk the GM came up to him and said "That was a really good talk. Who is your PhD supervisor?" "You are Dr. GM." "Oh! Oh! Well come see me in my office tomorrow and we'll chat."

@puppetsock, the story may be apocryphal, or at least legendary. I've heard it also. The opposite story is the GM who told his student "I don't mind writing your dissertation for you, but I'll be damned if I'll explain it to you when I'm done."


text:
Inclusion of a non-contributor co-author
On the last day before the submission of our paper, a Ph.D. student in my group got her name added on the paper. She did not do anything but reformulate a sentence in our manuscript. I replied to that decision saying that I was surprised to see her name on our paper.
And now I feel horrible. I did not talk to other colleagues in the same lab about this, because of I afraid I might blame her. However, when I came back to work, other colleagues (even the one who is not related) came and asked me why I was sad about that. I then understood that I made her hurt a lot by being surprised at the decision and that she had to talk to our colleagues to clear her image.
She said that she didn't take anything away from me as I am still the first author, that she couldn't care less about the paper and that I made her a wrong person. She could not understand why I took such an importance on the coauthorship.
I do not know why I was that sad about it, or why did I value my works that much. I was too egocentric and egoistic, but even until now, I could not make my feelings of unfairness go away. I do not know why I am that sad. Maybe it was because I did a lot experimentally and numerically I felt entitled. I do not even know, and I was just really sad.
I always say I want to help her with the experiment and works and everything as I am finishing my Ph.D., but I do not understand why I couldn't be happy helping her by having her name on my paper.
My feelings are really weird. I felt so wrong on something that shouldn't be a big deal. I only cause hurt to people, everywhere I go. I want to disappear.
In general, my existence in the scientific workplace is wrong. The boys always say that I was not normal and that I have sexuality's problems because I refuse to date them and remain single. The girls always say that I was slutty because my classmates and co-workers are mostly male. But other people did not have such problems to blend in and did not cause so much pain to others. Because of me, people do things they do not usually do, such as sexually harassing me or verbally abusing me. Maybe it was the way I dress, or the way I talk, or the way I work. I made others unhappy. I only victimize myself while I was probably the main reason for every sadness.
People were so happy without me, and I have to come to disturb everyone. I can not be an egoist and remain. Why can I not die, is it because I am a hostage of life? I'm still chained to my family. But I hate myself so much. Why am I like this?
I just want to vent, I guess. I am sorry for saying all of this nonsense, because, the problem was just me

Sorry to hear you're going through this.  On this site, we can discuss how to deal professionally with the authorship issue you mentioned, but the emotional issues you describe in the second half of your question are probably best to work through with someone in person - friends, family, therapist, etc.

I think you'll get more helpful responses on this site if you edit your question to just focus on the first half, about authorship.

Welcome to Academia SE. While I am very sorry for your experience, I am afraid we cannot help you with your question as it stands. If you can formulate a goal that you want to achieve, e.g., how to resolve the authorship issue with your supervisor, we could help you with the first part of your question.

As for the second part: The way you dress and your dating life are your choice and your choice alone. If others attack you for this, it is them who are wrong, not you. Something similar goes for expressing your surprise about the co-authorship. Nothing in your post indicates that you acted egoistically or wrong. You are either in a severely abusive environment, suffer from a severe depression, or there is another severe problem. Either way, please seek professional help as soon as you can.

Finally, please consider calling a suicide hotline. People are on call there to talk to people struggling with the same kind of issues you are, regardless of location. If calling is not good, you can chat with them live online. It might not help, but what’s the harm?

I'm sorry to hear all of this (and also sorry about the downvotes without hints how to improve the question (but sometimes they seem to be just a way to greet new users in this site)).
It was right to question the authorship. On this site you can find many good answers on this topic.
I have two hints for you: first, as Mr. Eldredge says in the comments, please see a therapist. Your problems are far too serious, you need someone to talk to.
Moreover, please look that academia is not your complete life. Do other things in your spare time that fulfill you. Don't work too hard. Spend time with hobbies and friends. Then problems at work/university will be not so important as they seem.
Good luck! I give you morally 1000 upvotes and wish for your best!
Edit: I don't know whether it is allowed to say here, but there is also "AskAcademia" on Reddit. My opinion: The topic is similar to this site, but the people there are much more "human" than here and in general, friendlier. (The quality of answers is not always so high as here, though.)


text:
Springer special issue status
I submitted a paper to a special issue of a Springer journal.
The notification was supposed to be few days ago.
On that day, the current status became "review completed" and "Submissions with Production Completed (1)".
However, today the status changed to "Reviewer Assignment Pending" but there is still "Submissions with Production Completed (1)".
Does it mean that the paper is gonna reviewed again? (even though it has already been reviewed) or does it mean that an editor is going to make the final decision ?

A very specific question. In general I wouldn't assign too much importance to what the electronic systems says. You may want to drop an email to the editor.

@Dilworth You are right, maybe I should email the editor to ask more information about that.

I'm going to guess that the "submissions with production completed" are submissions to the special issue which are ready for publication online. The (1) just means there's one such submission. It's not your submission, which is why the review status changing still leaves 1 submission ready. However, it's surprising because I would not have thought this information would be available to all authors contributing to the special issue.

I feel that the comments posted were really the answer to this question, so I will say it:
You should email the editor to find out the status of your paper. While such online status updates are meant to be helpful, their terminology can be opaque (as you have seen) and they don't accurately reflect the nuance of the peer review process. The change you note could mean that, yes, you paper is going to another reviewer, or that perhaps your paper has been assigned to an internal reviewer among the editors of the special issue, or it could just be a random mistake.
I do suspect that by now the situation has resolved itself, but anyone else who is having questions about online status updates for peer review would be best placed to get in contact with the human behind them if accurate or detailed information is important.


text:
Withdrawing from PhD with or without a Master Degree
I have taken a leave of absence from my PhD program due to health reasons and since my health has improved dramatically over the past year, I am seriously considering never coming back.
I have completed 3 years worth of classes but only completed one qualifying exam out of two, so I am currently not eligible for a Masters Degree from my program.
I already have a Masters Degree from a slightly less ranked school but in pretty much the same subject.
Would it benefit me to spend all summer to study for the other half of a qualifying exam to get the second MS?
From your experience, would employers look at me more negatively if I had dropped out without any diplomas from the degree or would it be worse to have two MS degrees in the same discipline?

Since most of us here have academic jobs, maybe Workplace SE would be a better place to ask what would look better for non-academic employers.  (Personally, I don't imagine the MS would make a big difference one way or the other.)

It's quite common for people to leave a Ph.D. program. In my experience, employers don't really see that as a negative; people leave for many reasons, and they'll likely rather focus on whether or not you learned anything while you were there that will help you do the job they're interviewing you for.
It sounds like you have a time-investment vs. reward tradeoff to consider here. A summer is not that long, but you may have to make some sacrifices in order to free up that time. A second MS in the same discipline is not going to help you very much at all, especially in industry jobs, unless there's something significant about it that makes it stand out (is it a thesis-based MS vs. a class-hours based MS, or perhaps it's slightly different but the difference in topic is something employers will respond to).
If you can delay a job search for the summer to get the second MS, and you'd like to cash out the "sweat equity" you've accumulated in your current program by getting a degree for it, then I don't think there's a big problem with doing that. If you didn't already have an MS, I'd say definitely get this one, but that's not your case. Just keep in mind that getting the additional MS is unlikely to open doors any wider for you, and not getting it is unlikely to close them.


text:
How do I cite sources in a math paper
I've written a paper that [still] seems original to me and feedback tells me it needs work. The paper is about Pythagorean triples which has been done for ages but I've yet to find prior art on the [presumably new] Formula I created, the [mostly primitive and including all primitives] subset that it generates, or the ways I've shown that it and/or Euclid's formula can be used to find specific triples.
I did get help on Mathematics Stack Exchange on trigonometry and combinatorics to help prove some things and feedback that gave me an online source that shows one result of my work but not a method of achieving it. (My Formula demonstrates, perhaps, a new way of arriving at some conclusions but that's off topic.)
I'm not asking whether I should cite them. I'm asking how. I've written college papers 40+ years ago with footnotes and bibliographies but I don't know the techniques to be expect in a paper when submitting to a professional publication. I know how to show a link in MSE but I don't know how to show one in TexShop or even on this forum. One commenter suggested a book that I've ordered but I don't know how to cite that either if it is useful.
Can you show me the mechanics of citing these varied sources in a paper?

Look at some recent papers published in the journal you are considering.  See how the references are handled there.  You may also count to see how many references (in particular recent references) are usual for a paper of similar length to your paper.

In BibTex, the following allows you to cite questions and answers respectively:
@MISC {cite_question,
    TITLE = {The name of the question},
    AUTHOR = {the author of the question},
    HOWPUBLISHED = {Mathematics Stack Exchange},
    NOTE = {URL:[url goes here]},
    EPRINT = {[url goes here]},
    URL = {[url goes here]}
}

@MISC {cite_answer,
    TITLE = {The name of the question},
    AUTHOR = {The name of the answerer},
    HOWPUBLISHED = {Mathematics Stack Exchange},
    NOTE = {URL:[url goes here]},
    EPRINT = {[url goes here]},
    URL = {[url goes here]}
}

This is the officially recommended style. It can be seen by clicking the "cite" button under any question or answer on some stack exchanges such as Math Overflow and CS Theory SE.
If you are directed to a book or webpage by an answer, you should cite that book or web page rather than Stack Exchange.

Do these go in the middle of the document (as I'm talking to the reader) or at the end? Also, can you explain the difference between the question and answer if they are the same URL and what is the difference between the NOTE and URL parts of the citation? Also (pardon me for being such an amateur) how do I site a reference (online or in print) that I just happened to find? Thanks.

These lines go into the bibtex file for your paper, along with your other formally published references.  In the main latex file, include "\cite{cite_questions,cite_answer}" at the point where you want the citations to appear. You can find many tutorials for bibtex on the web.

@poetasis As Jeff says, these lines go in your BibTex file, which is an auxiliary file that holds your references. The url field can be relevant depending on the meta data and style files. I'm not sure what you're looking for about questions vs answers. Sometimes you want to cite one, sometimes the other, sometimes both. They have the same url, but they don't have the same authors. I have no idea what you mean by "Also (pardon me for being such an amateur) how do I site a reference (online or in print) that I just happened to find." How you find a source is (mostly) irrelevant to citing it.

The answer would be improved by editing in info from the comments.

Thank you JeffE, Stella Biderman, and Tommi Brander. @Stella Biderman my 'also' question was, "How do I cite a book or a web page that was not part of a question or answer?" If you think I will find it in the 'cite' button, you need not reply here.

@poetasis If you are directed to a book or webpage by an answer, you should cite that book or web page rather than SE.


text:
Getting into graduate school and then switching fields
I am in my final year of an honours undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science.
Over my undergraduate years, I have built up academic and research credentials in the field of mathematical biology. I have done two summer research projects in the field, given presentations of my research at seminars and conferences, received a travel grant to attend a mathematical biology school, have a professor in the field who is likely to write a strong recommendation letter, after he said he was impressed with my work, another professor who says she wants me to work for her, and hearsay that I did good research among professors outside of the field.
When I was doing research, I really enjoyed my work because it was all computational mathematics. I happened to not deal with any biology at all. As I became more involved in the field, however, the biology which I was not interested in became ever more important.
I realised that if the computational mathematics kept me going and not the interest in studying biological systems, I may not have the motivation to continue if I went into the field further in graduate school. As a result, what I really want to do is study computational mathematics. An area which interests me, for example, is shape optimization. I want to become a researcher in this topic, and eventually become a professor as well.
The problem here is that my chances of getting into graduate school are much better if I apply as a mathematical biology student, rather than a student in a different field, because of the credentials I have built up.
So my question is: Is it possible and acceptable to apply as to graduate school as a student in one field, and if I get in, immediately switch to the field I want to study in?
Right now, I am doing my undergraduate thesis with a professor in the field of computational mathematics (numerical analysis to be specific), so I feel like this is a little step closer to my switch. But I am unsure if I can build enough credential to be a good candidate for this field in graduate school.

Do you mean you want to apply for biology and immediately switch to an unrelated field? Don't do this.  It is not easy to switch departments - you'd presumably need to apply again to the alternate choice anyway, and moreover, it would be taken very poorly since you would have hidden your true intentions. Just apply for what you actually want to study.

I won't be applying to the biology department. I will be applying to the mathematics department. Mathematics departments usually have a mathematical biology research group. So if I switch to computational mathematics, which is most of the time in the mathematics department but sometimes in the computer science department, I figure it won't be so huge of a jump. But I wonder if this is still OK.

Also, if I apply to what I want to study but I don't have credentials in that field, is it true that I won't have as good of a chance of getting into graduate school? Is it maybe better then that I stick to mathematical biology even if it isn't totally something I want to study?

Getting into a reputable graduate school is important to me since finding a position in the academic world is extremely competitive. Of course, I also want to be in a good research environment and have access to a lot of resources, which reputable graduate schools have.

It sounds like you have good credentials already.  You need to think about what university would be best for what you actually want to study.  Many good math departments do not have a biology group - e.g., in mine, it was part of Applied Mathematics, a separate department from Mathematics. if you only limit yourself to those math programs that have a biology group, you may miss out on other opportunities. And if you write an application letter indicating your intentions are laser-focused on biology, and then immediately veer away, this may raise some eyebrows.

My advice would be to be very honest as to your intentions - it's not at all strange to switch subfields between undergrad and grad school.  You could still potentially use recommendation letters from bio if they are very strong and they demonstrate competency that transfers to your current interests.  But please don't take my word for it - I would talk to an advisor in your department about how best to approach this.

Speak and chat with your thesis supervisor and get more advice from him. I suspect he would know more about the competition and how to navigate the issues better.

@JairTaylor Can you please turn your comment into an answer so that I can vote you points?

@jakebeal Oh, thanks, but I don't need the points and I'm happy to let the comments stand :)  Don't take my advice too seriously, though, since I don't know much about admissions processes. Better to talk to an advisor. Best of luck!

@JairTaylor Actually, I'm trying to help clean up our answers-in-the-comments issue on this site, per this recent meta discussion.

@jakebeal Oh, oops, I confused you with the OP! Still, I'd rather just let the comments stand as is.

@JairTaylor OK, I may attempt to condense them into an answer myself, then.

@jakebeal You're welcome to.


text:
Two professors want me to work at their labs, and I'd rather work with one of them than the other
I'm an undergrad who wants to do research but I don't know many professors, so I asked my school's Dean for Undergraduate Research for help. He told two professors about me, and both showed interest in having me in their labs.
So my problem is, I only have time to work for one of them, and I'd rather do research with Prof.A than Prof.B because Prof.A is more senior/experienced professor, and just seems to be a much more interesting and approachable person than Prof.B. However, they share almost exactly the same  research area/interests, so I can't really say "I prefer working with Prof.A because his research interests align better with mine". But of course I'm not going to say to Prof.B's face "I think I'll have a better time working with Prof.A" either...
How should I politely/gracefully let them know of my decision?

I am voting to leave this open as it is not specific for undergraduates, in particular given the variety of academic systems.

I don't think you have any obligation to explain the reason for your decision.  Just tell Prof B that after consideration, you decided to work with Prof A, and thanks for his interest.

It's perfectly reasonable to explain what happened and that you can only work in one lab.

authors: Юлия Романенкова


text:
How common and expected is it to have published papers or patents as a Master student in Europe?
I am writing my master's thesis and applying for PhD programs in Europe, where Master studies are usually composed of mostly coursework and voluntary research projects. I do not think it is very common for papers to come out from such short projects.
How expected or common is it to have publications under your belt when you are applying for PhD programs in Europe?. If I remember correctly, master degrees in the US/Canada are more research oriented from the get-go and a publication record is more expected there.
The most probable option I can imagine is a paper or patent coming out from your master thesis. But taking into account the time it takes to publish/patent something, I can not picture it being expected at the time of applying.
All I have is a patent from my bachelor thesis (also in Europe). How bad are patents seen in comparison to a paper?. Do they even have any importance in the PhD admission process?

While it would be a good indicator of research interest and definitely a good merit to have published prior to graduate studies, but I have never heard of it as a requirement. Definitely not at my home university, but also never from my friends and colleagues at other universities around Europe.
Also I would venture to guess patents are very rare at Masters level students, as it's not as common for universities to apply for patents, as it is in the U.S. The only people I know whose work ended up in some form of a patent application were my friends/classmates who did their thesis work at a company.
Also to answer your question, I don't see why it would be bad to have a patent in your resume, if anything it shows interest in the business side of things. Whether it weighs as much as a publication is difficult to say, however. Practically, it depends on the admission committee, or the group leader for the position you are applying for.

Indeed, I did my thesis work at a company in their research group. Thanks for your answer.

I can definitely see how, in some fields and for some admissions committees, having patents could be a bad thing.  Whether software should be patentable at all is highly controversial, so having software patents on your CV could be viewed negatively by those who oppose them.
Even in fields where patents are widely accepted, listing a "bad" patent (for example, on a trivial or unoriginal invention) that somehow made it past the examiners would be just as bad, if not worse, than listing any other bad publication that somehow made it past peer review.

interesting insight about software patents. Otherwise as you say a bad patents are just as harmful as bad publications


text:
Using my university email address as correspondence address to apply for PhD positions in the same university
I was just about to send my first PhD application to University XXX. I am currently finishing my master's thesis at University XXX. Would it be incorrect to use my university address to apply for PhD positions?.
Could it be taken as unrightful use of the "university name"?.

I certainly had no problem when I was in exactly the same situation.

That's something that only your university can answer for sure, though I can say that it would seem like an absurdly draconian policy if you couldn't. Just do it, and if someone kicks up a fuss then you probably don't want to work at that university! As an aside, you should check up on when your current address will expire after you finish your Master's. It will be a nuisance if the university deletes your email account when you are halfway through the application process. A sensible personal email, i.e. firstname.lastname@provider.com is absolutely fine to use instead.

Using your university email is appropriate in this case, since it is a relatively more formal academic address which aligns well with your application for further academic study. It also identifies you to the university, making you less of a 'wildcard.' Lots of other applicants will be applying using their home university email addresses, so you are only being true to form. Besides, not only is it totally OK to use your academic email in this case, but I would encourage you to use any and all formal and informal relationships and affiliations at this school that may strengthen your applic-n.

Thank you all for your answers, I sent the application using my uni mail. It is done.

I don't see any possible problem with using your current university email address in your application.
The university issued you this  address with the expectation that you would use it to communicate with people inside and outside the university. I can't imagine any way this would be considered "not rightful".

Do your terms of use for the university address specify any restrictions on using the address for such purposes?
If they do not restrict you in that way, just make sure the address remains in existence for long enough once you have finished your master's thesis - some universities automatically and irrevocably delete their students' accounts including inbox content sooner than expected (e.g. on the day of giving the final presentation ...).
Note that some professors explicitly refuse to receive any e-mails not sent from university addresses (because they expect common, or at least free e-mail providers to sell out address to spammers sooner or later). Universities are probably, to some limited extent, aware of this habit and thus should usually allow their students to contact such professors with their university addresses, including for PhD applications. **
In all, I do not see any reason why this should be problematic with respect to the "university name". If you are afraid that a bad* application of yours might shed a bad light on your university, using the university address should not be any more problematic than writing the name of your university onto the front page of a bad* master thesis, which can then be found world-wide on Google Scholar.
*hypothetical, not claiming this badness applies to you
**Based on a discussion with Bill Barth, I figured that this only works to some extent as in my place, most student issues are handled by other people in the department beside the professor, so there is hardly ever much of a reason for students who do not have a university address (and even for those who do) to contact a professor by e-mail.

"[S]ome professors explicitly refuse to receive any e-mails not sent from university addresses." They must not get much work done with people outside of academia. That's a very closed attitude. It's maybe the craziest thing I've heard all week.

@BillBarth: I suppose addresses issued by companies or otherwise reputable organizations would count as well. The point is, they won't accept e-mails from providers where "everyone can set up an address".

They must lose out on communications with lots of their students who would like to have an address that lasts longer than their stay at University. I don't think it would be allowed for a professor at my university to drop email from students that came from any outside address.

@BillBarth: I am genuinely a bit surprised that this could mean "losing out on communications". At universities I am used to, even for students who are currently studying, there is hardly ever any reason why a student should directly e-mail a professor (as opposed to contacting one of their scientific employees, or their secretary), and thus much less so for former students. And yet, their inboxes abound with e-mails every day, to an extent that even e-mails from their permanent employees usually drown among all the more important and more urgent e-mails. Of course, that may be place-specific.

I have had plenty of email contact with professors about issues or questions related to classes. Is that not common at your university? I also had lots of email communication with my PhD supervisor. All of this was between 12 and 20 years ago for me. Plus I have had frequent email contact with students in the handful of courses I have taught since grad school (I have primarily a research job). It seems like something normal at my university.

I know of several institutions which require all students conduct university correspondence using their university email account. It is against policy for staff to deal with any matter of student business using another email address. This ensures someone can't set up an external email and make enquiries about someone else's progress or status. This does help as a student though, as it means email is acceptable even to request graduation from a course etc, which likely wouldn't be the case otherwise.

@gdp, FERPA requires that discussions of grades  and other specific things be protected in the US, but I doubt that would reach to asking a question about the course material or the timing of a make-up exam or homework extension. As such, that seems like overkill, though I can understand not wanting to be liable to a break under FERPA. This is also a long way from student shouldn't be emailing with professors!

Indeed - the example I'm using isn't based in the USA, but we essentially try to achieve the same as FERPA. A query about the course obviously would be answered, but if it were flagged as spam, the policy protects the university from any issues. Agreed - nothing near that! I was adding this mostly just to raise the suggestion that it may even be expected to use your internal email address in some universities (taking into consideration dates accounts may be disabled).

Wow, every class gets 2+ TAs? At my university, there's a minium (around 20) to get half a TA covered. Many classed don't have a TA at all. I understand that students and employees should be eligible for university email in some form, but are they required to use it?

Where are you? Are all doctoral candidates required to TA? This is something that most STEM PhD students in my experience in the US try to avoid, hoping for a research assistantship instead. On the second point, if the student wants to use their long-term Google or other address, why would their professor tell them otherwise? Maybe this isn't worth arguing over much more, but it seems pretty different from my experience.

I totally understand not sending confidential information through unapproved channels. It's federal law here in the US not to do so, but black-holing non-academic email addresses would seem to cut you off from potential contacts that find your information on your website, etc. Seems needlessly restrictive. You're gonna get the spam anyway. Also, there are probably some cultural issues at play here.

@BillBarth: I have condensed much of our discussion into a footnote edited into my answer; please feel free to edit the answer if you feel some extra information from our discussion relevant to the question should be added.


text:
What does a PhD application rejection mean for other applications?
If you applied to several PhD projects, all in the same "level" of university prestige.
Could a refusal from one of these applications be interpreted as a inadequacy for the rest?. Could it mean the applicant should start aiming for one "level" lower?

Virtually everyone gets rejected from at least one of the places they apply to. I have never heard of anyone who got through the process without getting rejected somewhere. I even got rejected from several places that were lower ranked than the ones I did get in to!
So no, one single rejection is not a sign that you are applying to the wrong level of universities. In fact, you should probably expect more rejections. Depending on the subject there can be 5-10 qualified applicants for each spot, so lots of good candidates are rejected every year. If you discussed what universities to apply to with the professors writing your recommendation letters, you are probably applying to universities of the right "level". The sheer number of applications means that you will get some rejections anyway.
With that said: if your are really set on graduate school, it is a good idea to apply to a wide range of schools on different levels.

In fact, if you apply significantly below your qualifications, a school might smell that they are a safety, and just pass (instead admitting someone who is more likely to actually accept). I +1ed; just came to mind as an additional thought. It might explain some of your rejections (even though you might not have considered them a 'safety').

@gnometorule Good point :)


text:
Sending several PhD applications to professors in the same university?
I am looking to apply for PhD programs at university XX. My background is in chemical engineering and biotechnology.
Said university XX has a very ample offer on these areas and there are several projects ranging from rather small scale biotechnology-related topics to projects in a larger scale and more close to process or chemical engineering. And everything in between.
I find a lot of them very attractive and even in the hypothetical case of being accepted for several I would have a hard time deciding between them.
How bad would it be seen if I sent applications to several professors?. Will the professors even find out that I sent applications to their colleagues?. How many are too many?
The university in question is a swiss one, where it is traditional to send your application to each professor individually and doctoral programs where you enroll in a program instead of with a supervisor directly are not very usual.

Does this answer your question? Should I make 2 applications to the same university

Your situation isn't that uncommon, actually. You have many options in front of you, and more than one appeal to you. There's no shame in that...
To answer your questions:

How bad would it be seen if I sent applications to several professors?.

I can't see why this would considered bad. If anything you are excited about applying to projects. If you have a good portfolio/application, and if you don't look too desperate there shouldn't be much of a problem. Just make sure that your applications are relevant and fine-tuned for each position. Nobody likes boiler-plate applications spammed all over the place..

Will the professors even find out that I sent applications to their colleagues?.

They may or may not, it depends on the requirement process (whether it's electronic/web-based etc) used by the institution, as well as the ethical considerations by these professors in question. If you are but a name to these people, what makes you think that they'll even recognize that you have applied to more than one position?

How many are too many?

See the part above about boiler-plate applications, and spam. You don't want the person reading your application to get the feeling that you have applied to every possible position. If you can actually muster up a solid application to 15 positions, I say kudos and good luck! :)
But seriously, you don't want to come across as "I'll do anything, just pick me!" Take your time, think about your interests, strengths etc.. And submit one or a few strong applications to positions that are most relevant to you.
If you don't get one of your favorites, but your profile fits some other open position they'll likely call you in for an interview anyways. Especially if it's the same group.

Finding (and utlimately succeeding in) a PhD is in a great part a question of a good match between the student and the supervisor. Thus, it's completely natural that you apply to several labs/supervisors in a same university.
Some places do even have some kind of global application program, where all the advisors can see your data and choose to make you come for an interview.
You don't have to feel bad in anyway.


text:
I want to write a historical research paper
I apologize if this isn't the place to post a question like this. Feel free to close it if that's the case.
So I want to write a historical research paper on a particular event in a past U.S. president's life. However, I'm not in academia. In fact I only have a high school education. Writing the paper isn't my problem, but I'm not sure what to do with it afterwards. Should I even try to publish it or just keep it to myself as a personal exercise?

Sometimes it is worthwhile joining your local historical societies or the more formal groups. They can provide good support and mentoring if you are lucky, at least good discussion. Just finding out what the standard and expections is required is usually the hard part. Some of the big societies have a section on US presidents, I googled and found this one - https://www.oah.org/lectures/featured/presidential-history/

There is no requirement to be in academia in order to be able to publish. You need to find a "suitable" journal for your work and figure out how to submit to them. Now a days it is mostly via an online form. They may ask for some background on you, such as affiliation, but that is more for informational purposes than anything. Independent Researcher is a valid "affiliation", generally.
But you may want to get some advice from someone in the field if you have any doubts about the quality or relevance of your work. You may need to decide whether the academic or popular press is more appropriate for your work, and a pro may be able to help you with that.
But, hopefully, your research took you through papers written in reputable journals. Those are the ones to consider first.


text:
How do I respond to "how do you like your program" if I completely hate it?
I hate my PhD program. I absolutely despise the program and many people in it. Sometimes at conferences, with new faculty, etc. I get asked what I think of my program. The real answer is "it's horrible, I despise it and I  totally regret going. Please stay far away".
I don't want to lie and many people seem genuinely curious especially new grad students/faculty etc.
When I say things like this, the conversation either turns really awkward or they start asking questions. I really just want to keep my head down, do my job, and finish. I don't want to complain. I don't want to cause problems. I just want to do my job.
Many people seem genuinely interested like new faculty etc. I hate lying. And I especially would hate saying anything good about the program after being burned. I felt like when I was choosing grad programs people lied to me about this one and I'm super resentful. I never want to do that to someone.
I also don't really want to elaborate because some things are sensitive. Say, a professor is a jerk and is screwing me over somehow. I don't really want word to get out that I'm talking about that person.
I've found answers like "Well, I'm working on a cool project right now" or other deflecting responses sometimes work but some people keep pushing and really want to know.

How to I respond to this question without lying?

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/126720/should-i-warn-new-prospective-phd-student-that-supervisor-is-terrible

"My experience hasn't been great" is a clean way to indicate the problem without criticizing anyone. You may want to couple this with something honestly positive -- such as "I really like my research topic, but overall, my experience in the program hasn't been great."
If they follow up -- and they probably will -- you can say something like: "I've had a number of issues with the faculty. I probably shouldn't go into all the details though." In this way, you give a reasonable answer to their question without inviting further discussion. You can then redirect the conversation to something you're more positive about -- for example, your research or graduation plans.

I prefer this answer to the one that Dan pointed out is saying negative things while stating saying negative things is wrong, but I'd go further and leave out the "with the faculty" part too, to stick with the advice in your first paragraph. Keep it entirely personal. The lack of praise is sufficiently informative. "I don't want to go into all the details" is fine.

I like this answer. It's honest, not overly emotional, and nonspecific. Thanks.

Just flat up say something like “There are some things that I like, and there’s some things that I dislike, and that’s as much as I’m going to say about it because saying negative things about your employer is unprofessional.” That way, you can indicate your feelings about your situation both without lying and without acting unprofessional and saying negative things about your employer.
If they miss the hint, and continue asking questions, simply say, “I’ve already said everything that I’m going to say on the subject” or simply “No comment”. Eventually, they should realise that you were being serious about not wanting to talk about it.

Saying that you won’t say more because saying negative things about your employer is unprofessional is itself an obviously negative thing, hence meets your definition of unprofessional. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

PhD programs aren't "employers" in the usual sense, so I would take your characterization of your PhD program as your "employer" as significant criticism.

@JeffE Well, someone’s footing the bill for you to be there. I doubt that the grant money used to pay for PhD students just poofs away into fairy dust. ;)

@nick012000 "Paying for PhD students" is not the same as "employing PhD students".  Not even close.

I suspect that you already realize this from what you have written, but note that your first responsibility here is to yourself, not to the truth and not to informing questioners of the reality. You don't need to lie, I think, but you need to find a way to protect yourself from any potential harm the the truth would lead to.
A prisoner in a POW camp dare not tell the truth, but needs to reach a point in time at which the consequences of the truth can no longer harm them.
Do what you need to do to finish your degree. Find a position of independence. Then you can be frank about what you experienced. Don't say things, even if true, that will harm you if they get back to people who currently have control over your future.
But, for now, "The university has made it possible for me to have a great future. I'm looking forward to that."
Not a lie, I think.

The real question is not how you should be responding to others, but how you should be responding to yourself. Your dislike for all of it is a message to you, that whatsoever you are doing is not for you. There is nothing wrong in this. You will need to gather the courage to live according to your own feeling of things, not according to the feelings others have about what you are preoccupied with.
We have this one brief life. Forget your response to others. Live in response to your own feelings.

I cannot completely agree. Say I completely hate my program but in 6 months I finish  and have a deree from one of the best schools. Then I certainly can answer that question to myself, however, not the question posted here. So this does not answer the question.


text:
Am I too late to get research experience before applying for a master program (Canada)
I mistakenly waited too long before I really looked into general expectations before graduate school applications. Research experience was something I always saw only as a bonus to applications if you were able to get any. Recently I have been reading up on the subject more and many things I have been seeing seem to heavily indicate I really should be having some form of research experience to show interest in/preparation for graduate school.
My current situation:
I am a Canadian student currently in a 16 month long SE internship that will end August 2020, after which I will be finishing my last year of University.
I plan to apply for a masters program at U of Waterloo fall of 2020 for the computer science quantum information program
Overall GPA: 3.91 (last 2 years probably increases it by 0.01)
TA experience: was a TA for two CS courses, believe I can get good LOR from these professors
Worked experience: 16 month internship in a general development position
 not related to my field of interest
Research experience: None
Since I will be working until august, and applying by december, I don't see it as a possibility I can get research experience in time, especially before contacting possible supervisors. Is there any advice that can be given to attempt to improve this gap? I am currently trying to heavily study up on the relevant material, but this is informal and doubtfully worth much outside of conversations with supervisors, if it gets there.
I appreciate any help, and I'm sorry for another "grad school chances" thread. (I am not expecting an answer on whether I have a chance as I know that is not a question that could be answered)

I don't know any specific expectations in Canada but I doubt the expectations about research experience are very high when applying for a Master. Also you seem to assume that informal experience doesn't count, but it probably does: for instance you could do a small project, e.g. reproducing state of the arts results for a problem of interest and analyzing the results. It might not count as much as a formal research internship but it certainly qualifies as research experience. If a professor accepts to guide you in such a project and gives you a good LOR at the end, then it's virtually equivalent to a research internship. At least that's how I would interpret it, but you should discuss this with somebody involved in this particular Master programme.


text:
Following academic development, citation, new publications - From a pre-existing "library"
"Library" in this context means the papers/books that you have in program X (Zotero, Mendeley, etc.) forming the literary core of a project or topic.
Is there an already-established method to automatically get the latest citations (from papers in your library) or new publications (from authors in your library)? I picture something like having a "Latest developments" panel in the program X showing a list of the newest items which could be of interest according to your library.
I have never seen or heard of something like this and it might well just not exist. However I can see how this could be something very valuable for researchers looking to optimize how they keep up with literature, so maybe there is an app already out there which I might have missed so far.

I think Sparrho was, at one point, moving toward something like this but has since changed their business model.

I'm not sure that your question is properly specified, particularly concerning the word "library". You seem to be conflating "your personal reference collection" with "external database". So, you seem to be asking how you can can automatically locate new articles from an external database based on existing articles in your personal reference collection. However, your question as phrased says nothing about what kind of external database you have in mind or how the linkage is supposed to be set up. Please rewrite your question in these terms, and then it would be easier to answer.


text:
Is peer review process by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science anonymous?
The title says it all, could not find anywhere this information clearly written. Would appreciate a short feedback.

Do you have a link to the funding/grants you're applying for? Your question could be better framed.

I haven't submitted grants to those departments, but for most federal grants, the researchers applying are not blinded. The reviewers for other departments are also often not blinded, but you have to dig to find who they are- for instance, for the NIH you find the study section that will review and find the list of who is in that review group.

For NIH, you can find out who was in your study section, but you can't find out who were the actual readers.  I suppose they're ALL reviewers, as each assigns a score, but usually three section members read the grant and recommend the scores.

Yes, that is true. Even with the study section list, you do not know who exactly reviewed the grant. Thanks for the clarification!


text:
Is it appropriate to promote my article to a professor related to the article's field?
Pardon but I couldn't find a better title for my question.
I am one of the editors of an undergraduate journal, created alongside 2  other undergrads of the same school, in which we publish upper-undergraduate articles related to our school courses(mostly expository, sharing our love about our studies). We publish the journal both online and in print, with printing costs covered by the faculty.
Is it appropriate if I publish an article related to, for instance, fluid mechanics, to pass the journal volume in which my article is featured to the professor teaching fluid mechanics in my school?? Will this be considered as a 'showing off'? I
would like to mention that the professor knows me well from the first year of my studies in which I expressed to him my interest in his field and asked for extra references for self-study.

It isn't inappropriate.  He may or may not find time to read it.

It's an article showing that you are still interested in his area of expertise. You have taken your own time to pursue studies in this field. There is not really any downside from showing him the article (unless it is incorrect or poorly written) and your worst case scenario is that he doesn't read it.

I find it interesting that on here, many students seem super (I should say, overly) concerned with wasting their professor's time. My personal interactions with undergrads, on the other hand, have typically rather been painted by their flagrant disregard of my time :) (that is, they seem to assume that all I do is teach the course they are currently in)

@xLeitix This is explained by selection bias: Students coming to a site like this are already pre-selected heavily for being considerate people who think about academia in general.

What a nice idea!  This professor mentored you in the early days of your studies, so he will be pleased and interested to hear that you are continuing to progress in his favorite topic.
Also, consider that your article having been selected to be published is good news for those who work in that area at your institution.  So he will be pleased in that regard as well.
It's important to learn to be courageous in this way.  You will benefit greatly over the years from 'networking.'  Sharing your good news, by giving him a copy of your publication, is an example of networking.
A nice touch would be to write a personal inscription on the copy you plan to give him, thanking him for the mentoring he gave you back in 20xx, and for sparking your first interest in the area.  Something like that.
The best gift of all is a sincere thank-you.

Thank you for your answer. I would like to clarify that my article has not been "selected", because it's an undergraduate journal in my school and I'm one the founders/editors. I agree with your opinion on 'networking'. I like the idea of pesonal inscription on the copy, but I'm afraid if it will be taken as too formal.

@Nickolas - Between a student and a professor, isn't a bit of formality okay?

I mean perceiving the inscription as a**-licking.

@Nickolas - Thanks for explaining.  Here's my take -- if you fawn in public, that's bad.  If you express sincere appreciation for the trouble someone took to mentor you, in a succinct way, without being repetitive, that's good.  Imagine that as a sophomore in college, you helped a high school student with his college admission essay.  He sends you a copy of his first A+ paper in his freshman year.  Won't you be pleased he's doing well?  Won't you be pleased he thought of you?

Yes, I would definitely bee pleased. However your example states that I helped someone and I'm not a professor who grades papers (seriously, if I was a professor I would perceive fawning, in person or in public, as an attempt to get a higher grade). I like the idea of the personal inscription though, but I guess I have to write it in such a way to keep my butt of any misconception.

He gave you extra references for self-study; hence, he mentored you.  A polite, friendly thank-you is never out of place.

Quite the opposite, I think. In mathematics, in the days before the Internet, people did this by mail. The mailed reprints of their published papers to their peers.
It is important to consider the time of people you interact with, especially busy people. Giving your professor a copy of the paper will take only very little time. He or she can then choose to read it or not and it would be polite to accept also the case that he/she does not read it.
In this sense, asking about feedback would be a completely different ballpark already, because that would imply asking him/her to read it.

Yes, indeed, "in the old days" (in math, I think throughout the world), people would send preprints to (friends and) important figures in their field, so that they'd be aware... and maybe to establish priority. Otherwise, the (typically) two-year time lag to "publication" (at least, not counting rejections, etc.) would delay things even more (than the delays of trans-atlantic physical mail!).


text:
Should I include self-studied courses/topics in undergraduate resume?
I'm preparing my resume for internship application.
I have already included courses that I emphasized more on (reading extra advanced material outside of the course's material scope).
I read lots of books. Should I include topics that I self-studied to my resume as extracurricular knowledge?

For what its worth: my reading habits when looking at CVs are such that I mostly care about the stuff that is verifiable (at least in principle) like course grades, transcripts and the like, and very little about things that the author just claims without any evidence. It is probably not harmful to include these things but at least for me that would make little difference.

What kind of interships and will this knowledge be helpful for the internship?  (E.g., statistics and data analysis are very marketable skills.)

@Kimball some related directly, some not.

In that case I would say at least put the useful skills in your CV and you may get asked more about it at the interview stage.  Just make sure it's not framed in such a way that makes it look like you're, say, an expert in regression analysis when you only know how to do simple linear regression.  Then this would be a disappointment if it comes up in an interview, rather than "oh good, he knows a little bit about regression."

I am sure that there is a very wide range of opinion/reaction to what some people call "self-study". For me (grad admissions in mathematics in the U.S.), evidence of interest in reading things beyond what coursework demands is an extremely positive and unusual indicator. That is, so far as people seem to let on, no one reads any math book that's not a textbook for a course they've registered for, does not read ahead, and so on. I don't understand it, although I've seen it for decades.
Yes, it is not as easy to "document" reading things as it is to document "grades in courses"... but my own opinion is that even excellent grades in courses form only a limited positive, since it refers to compliance, obedience, etc., even if at a challending level/rate/whatever.
That is, for me, mathematics is not merely a school subject, nor merely a thing that one might get research funding for... :)

Thanks for your answer. When you mean "evidence", I guess the only evidence that is either recommendation letters from my prof's or copies of textbooks in my personal library? haha. I agree that excellent grades often refer to obedience and compliance.

By the way, that's what my professor told me when I asked for additonal references to read when he refered to Neural Nets in class (Math student). It seemed to him "remarkable and unusual".

"evidence" can also include public repositories, for my degree private but shareable github repositories or stackoverflow can be used or, for math, mathoverflow or proofs/lessons/etc on blogs - particular if they reference the book read and show the work (thinking process)

Although certified studies would be given a higher weight, it should be fine to add your self-taught knowledge in a résumé as long as you are able to back it up with any related work or your speech during an interview.