text:
Is there a setting to prevent Google Scholar from only showing the best matching result?
Often, when searching Google Scholar, I get a single result with a bit of text "Showing the best result for this search. See all results" and I have to click on that hyperlink at the end to actually see a full set of results. Is there any setting to automatically have that clicked so that Google Scholar displays a full set of results automatically, instead of only showing one?
Example:

I've already gone in to Google Scholar Settings and Results Per Page is set to 10; making it 20 doesn't help.  Neither of those values are "1," which is what actually gets displayed.

I know it is not relevant to your question, but would you mind sharing what your search terms in Google Scholar were to produce the result in the image? [I'd be curious to see if I can replicate your results.]

@MadJack Click on the screenshot - does that do it for you?  (Middle-click to open in new tab.)

Do a search with the conjunctions and and/or in omitted.

it looks like you've searched for something that (intentionally or not) is an exact match for an article title. In this case, I think that the result you got is exactly what I would hope for.

Though it shouldn't matter for the purposes of this question, it's not.

My bad, I thought that was a screenshot :-) Thanks.

@MadJack It is a screenshot, and also a hyperlink.  "It's not [exactly the result I was looking for]" was a reply to Phil.

I gathered that, but I suppose I was interested because I've never seen this kind of result, even when I've wanted it!

I think you got a single result because your search matched the title of the article exactly.
I replicated your search and removed "and" and "in" -- and my results were significantly different than yours.
Moral of the story: try removing articles, prepositions, and other function words that are frequently part of titles but offer little in the way of content.

It is interesting to note that, in OP's example, clicking on "see all results" yields "about 478,000" results, and in your example, "about 477,000" results were generated.

This answer should probably credit adipro as it matches the comment above.

@WBT I didn't notice the comment, but you're right, adipro got it first

Sometimes it's worth pasting an exact title (especially in quotes) if all the words used are common in the field.  Also pasting a title and then going through deleting the little words seems a bit tedious.

Compare the contents of the address bars:
scholar.google.com/scholar?lookup=0&q=Differentiation+and+integration+in+complex+organizations&hl=en&as_sdt=0,39
for the full results and:
scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Differentiation+and+integration+in+complex+organizations&hl=en&as_sdt=0,39
where the difference is lookup=0& after google.com/scholar? and before q=... (though the location of the lookup=0 bit doesn't matter so we can append &lookup=0
Here's a greasemonkey script (firefox) that does the job (updated to fix a couple of bugs, see below).
// ==UserScript==
//  @name        Full  Scholar
// @namespace   Example
// @description Add &lookup=0 to google scholar links
// @include     http://scholar.google.com/scholar*
// @include     https://scholar.google.com/scholar*
// @include     https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar*
// @include     http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar*
// @version     1
// @grant       none
// ==/UserScript==
var url = window.location.href;
if (! /lookup=0$/.test (url)) {
    window.location.href = url + '&lookup=0';
}

So you need to install greasemonkey (on Chrome, apparently tampermonkey is the equivalent) and paste this is as a new script.
Bug fixes 2016-08-09:

redirects to local google domains were broken (I've added .co.uk, substitute as required)
some pages were broken, giving a 404 error.  These didn't have /scholar in them, so I've added that to the URL match.

(Note, this is my first greasemonkey script and I don't really do js, so criticism appreciated)

Appending "&lookup=0" to the end of the URL would have the same effect, if there's a script for that.

@WBT good point, might make it easier


text:
Any way to know what version of a book I'm buying?
I recently purchased this book from a vendor that is not Amazon, but who listed the same image:

...but this was not quite the same as the book I received, which had a different cover and omitted the "New Afterword by the Author." The book I received has the cover shown in the right side ("sand dune" image) for this Google Books listing, that has what I'll call the "stars and frog" cover as the thumbnail on the left:

It seems that the "sand dune" cover goes with a first edition and the "stars and frog" cover goes with a later edition (containing at least a "New Afterword by the Author").  I inquired with the seller about the difference between editions, and the seller wrote:

"We stock all of our books by the ISBN number... that book we sent you matched the ISBN we received in your order... Please note that you cannot always count on listing images to be accurate."

Looking more closely, the Amazon listing shows the "stars and frog" picture with the term "1st Edition" to the right of the title, and the ISBN-10 below the image matches the ISBN printed on the back of the book with the "sand dune" cover:

I didn't buy this book through Amazon, but instead on a different website where I'm purchasing directly from the seller rather than through a marketplace.  The other seller also showed the "stars and frog [and New Afterword]" image on the product listing.  However, exactly where I bought it seems irrelevant to this question.  If I were to buy this from or through Amazon, new or used, it seems I could very easily have the same experience.  Is there any way to know just what book I'd be getting when I buy online?
I've also experienced this in the past, getting International Edition textbooks with the same ISBN instead of US editions.  (Some publishers slightly change the content in international editions, such as altering the numbers in example problems.  Along with the durability and printing material, these may not be major differences, but the differences sometimes matter.)

Note: I know that most of the text of the book is the same, and that the differences between the two may not be that significant.  However, there are situations where the difference might matter (e.g. where the key text to be quoted/verified/etc. is in that Afterword, or, as an especially relevant situation around Christmas, if it's a gift where presentation matters for someone who's into the study of complexity with particular interests in stars, frogs, and cities but who hates the desert, etc.).  This question is about if there is a way to know which version of a book one is buying without regard to why a purchaser might care.

The same ISBN apparently applies to multiple versions of the same book.  Buying the "stars and frog" version (ISBN-10 0671872346) caused me to receive the "sand dune" version (same ISBN, 0671872346). The question is how else to disambiguate.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about academia but rather about purchasing books (not even textbooks) online.

The same question applies to textbooks too, as well as books like this that can be used as textbooks/scholarly books.  See also comment about international editions. You might want to go through the "books" tag and see if any others are off-topic by the same reasoning.

Online sellers of books typically maintain their inventory by ISBN and make no distinction between slightly different versions of a book that bear the same ISBN.  These differences can include different cover art, new introductions or afterwords and corrections of typographical errors.
Both of the versions of the book you've described have the same ISBN-10: 0671872346.  If you look in more detail on the copyright page of two copies of the book you can find additional information that should make it possible to distinguish between these two versions of the book.
You'll commonly find a line of numbers like

10 9 8 7 6 5

This printers key is used to keep track of "printings" of the book.  Initially the line ends with "1", indicating the first printing.  With each successive printing a number is removed from the end of the line.  The example above would indicate a fifth printing.
You can "Look Inside the Book" on the Amazon web site to see the copyright page for the newer version of the Waldrop book.  The Amazon page shows a 16th printing of the book by Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.
I don't have a copy of the earlier state of this book at hand, but if you look at the copyright page, you'll see that you have an earlier printing by Simon & Schuster.
Collectors of first editions of books typically are only interested in the first printing of the first edition.  Buyers and sellers of these books pay careful attention to the printers key and often check for corrections to particular typos to identify the true first state.
For technical books, readers typically prefer the most up-to-date version of the book.  It is common for authors to provide lists of errata in the book that are organized by the printing.  If you have the 5th printing of the book, then you can assume that the errata corrected in the 2nd through 5th printings have been corrected in your copy of the book but that errors corrected in later printings have not been corrected in your copy.
If having a particular printing of a book is important to you, then you'll have to work with a seller who is willing to talk to you about exactly what you're getting.  Responsible sellers of collectible books are typically happy to provide this information, but the kinds of folks who sell books on Amazon typically won't take the time to check this or share the information with you when you ask for it.

Thanks for your answer.  I apparently got a 4th printing, but in this case am more in the "technical" category preferring an up-to-date version.  Your answer indicated that sellers in the collectible category are more willing to provide detailed information about printings; is there any way to find out just what I'm getting when buying a more technical book?

There's simply no way to search for a particular printing of a book on Amazon.  You can contact the seller directly and ask what printing they've got- the seller may or may not be willing to check for you.

source: Stack Exchange

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sort: votes


text:
Motivation to write the dreaded dissertation
Ok... so I have hated graduate school since day one but have slogged through because I couldn't find anything else to do (I have applied for hundreds of jobs as an escape route with no success). It has been an enormous amount of ungratifying work, especially because I am not interested in the subject I am studying and am not interested in the obtuse contributions of the study. But I am only a dissertation away from completing my PhD and being finished with my poor decision, but I am having enormous difficulty finding motivation to write it. I sit down every day and nothing comes out. I can't find the energy to read any more boring articles I need to cite or find the energy to write a complete sentence. Every time I start I find an excuse to distract myself and I don't know how to find external motivation since I lack internal motivation.
Exacerbating my lack of motivation is that I am skeptical that this degree will lead to employment (if I would want it in this field of study anyway): as I haven't been interested in my subject I haven't made the connections and done all of the networking I think is necessary to get a job with this degree, so I feel it is pretty useless to finish because I will likely have to reinvent myself after I am finished anyway. But leaving without a degree seems wrong somehow, given all this wasted effort (aren't we all subject to the sunk cost fallacy?). Any ideas on how to find the final burst of energy to finally finish?
I should add, I have already written 3 chapters and am about half through the fourth. I only need to finish the fourth, revise the 3 earlier and then write an intro and a conclusion. Plus I will need to find the energy to defend something I don't care about to my committee and the public before I can call it over. But even after all of this work it seems impossible to find the energy to write another sentence.
Update:
I wanted to thank those who chimed in and offered me kind and sincere advice. Thank you for taking time to help me, a stranger, with my life's problems. I think your suggestions were solid, practical and generally useful. I have been thinking about your advice for the month since I first posted this, and I unfortunately have to admit these strategies haven't helped me find any motivation to make much progress on my dissertation.
I thought I would respond to a few of your suggestions and see if anyone has additional thoughts or considerations.
There was the suggestion that I should go visit a counselor and to be screened for depression. I had been seeing a counselor using the services provided by the school. It is a very nice service and I have had access to what I felt was a high quality counselor, they screened me for depression and gave me the all clear. I am not depressed, although disappointed at my decisions (or lack thereof).
I like the suggestion to talk about my work with an interested person but do not think that my work is interesting in anyway, and have no pretense that the work is contributing to make the world a better place. I don't feel the need for the work to make a difference is required to get it done and think trying to convince someone it is interesting is wasting my time and theirs.
I think Paul Garrett hit a nerve with his comment that is at the root of my conundrum. I know continuing with something that I don't care about is a waste of my time, but the social (personal) obligation looms large and quitting this close to the finish line seems so foolish (and ire provoking for my program and committee). But despite these social pressures finding motivation to complete the daily tasks has eluded me. I know I need to finish, but the only motivation I have is to Be Finished and that isn't helping me with the daily drudgery.
To Wolfgangs comment: part of me fully agrees with you (that I should finish because of the unknown channels that may open if I complete the phd) but part of me feels the same logic applies if I quit. I will never know the future and perhaps not completing will open up doors that wouldn't exist had I completed... and anyway because of the lack of success in getting job interviews my career counselor has suggested that I leave the phd off my resume for the jobs that are outside of academia (which are the bulk of the positions I have been applying for and don't require the phd as a qualification). This is again another factor that has sapped at my motivation to complete the degree. And this brings up a side question of how I am supposed to spin the 4 years as a phd student on my resume without saying I was a phd student (but I will ask that as a separate question at a later date).
Given my current degree is so poorly valued by the market (or maybe it is myself) I have set a deadline of 400 job applications and if I haven't gotten an offer by that time I am going to reinvent myself (such as a job in customer service, which will have the benefit of paying more than my graduate stipend). I am at 290 now, and I only got one interview. It went well but they cancelled the position (the grant fell through).
My tails of the job market is winding away from the original question of this post and I need to return to that. And I need to comment on the solid advice from Peter. I think is is exceptional advice and I should implement all of these practices into my life, but unfortunately I don't feel this advice pertains to this situation as doesn't help me with the core underlying issue: that I lack any interest in my work and do not have any internal motivation that comes from  connection and passion about the research I am doing. All of these practices, in my estimation, would help one to train and develop ones internal motivation, but I have little internal motivation (only guilt) for completing my work, and think it is late in the game to try and find personal connection and interest in the work and think that external pressure should be good enough (although it hasn't been enough).
I am very happy for the people in this world who have developed a personal connection to their work and to their jobs, but I don't think that everyone is so lucky as to be personally connected to their work. I think it would be wonderful if it were the case but Peter's reason #3 is an example of the disconnect between ideal and reality. Many people in this unequal world would be ecstatic to be earning $10K a year for the chance to write papers and do research for a professor, but no amount of counting my blessings (and I am very thankful I was born into a world that allowed for the luxury of higher education) gives me the belief that the dissertation is anything but wasted time and paper. I may have felt that way in a different project, program, school, country, etc. But that isn't my luck to care about my work. And now I am not looking to find internal motivation to channel my passions to create my life's master work but to finish writing something that is good enough to pass the defense and can be forgotten about on the back-shelves of the library. I haven't been interested in what I have studied since day one and now is beyond the time to expect it to get interesting now. Of course I regret I chose this field of study and my decision to continue but I am too deep now not finish.
Again, I don't want anyone to think I didn't appreciate their advice. I do, and think it applies to other parts of my life that I am proud of and want to develop. I am very thankful you took your valuable time to console a stranger. So I am elaborating my post today hoping I can distill the question a bit more and tap the expertise of this community, because the comments on the earlier iteration of this question were earnest and insightful. So now I ask for more help because what I think I need is a strategy to help me do something I do not want to do and hopefully there are strategies that do not require convincing myself I want to do it. So, my question for all the thinkers and experienced sages of the forum: how do you convince yourself to do something that is enormous amount of work that you don't like to do, you don't want to do, and don't think will help you but to do it anyway?

Is it just a matter of writing up results you already have?  If so, find an interested person to talk to about your research.  That is a great way to get over writer's block.  If all you have at this point is a topic, then now would be a good time to go back to the drawing board and re-evaluate the path you're on.

It's fine to not do your dissertation. Few outside of academe care. The dissertation requires considerable effort, and if that effort is not even remotely interesting to you, it is literally stupid to spend your effort this way. However, if you suspect that you are being childish about it, then there is another whole course of issues...

Many universities offer counseling and grad student support groups that can be very helpful with issues like this.

Before your edit, I thought this was a question by an "all but dissertation" student who doesn't realize that this means pretty much "all but everything, really." If you are as burnt out as you sound, and if it is feasible (talk to your adviser), I would completely step away for a while - traveling the world, or something like that. Just be careful, and really dig in after.

Voting to reopen; I don't think this question is that similar to the "duplicate" one to deserve closing.

Thanks for the additional info.  It was very helpful.  Here's what you need to do now: get yourself screened for possible depression.  Please.

Thank your for your long comment to clarify things. I will add another thing to my list for you to consider. It might seem a little extreme, but I assure that it has worked for me.

Ok, so here are some things that worked for me.

Attempting to strongly connect what you are doing to avoiding negative outcomes and achieving positive outcomes. Here are some examples. If you have ever experienced unemployment (and the resultant sense of worthlessness) then make sure that you make the connection between not finishing the PhD and being unemployed clear in your mind. Similarly, if you can see ways in which the PhD will enable you to achieve goals in life then fixate on how happy those goals will make you. For me, it helped that I could connect the boring irrelevant stuff I did to the social impacts I wanted to make - I watched documentaries to help me to keep these things at the forefront of my mind.
Use cognitive behavioral therapy. This involves identifying ineffective/sub-optimal thought processes and cutting them out. For example, when I was about to start academic work, I would often spend a lot of time thinking about how pointless it was. I would think "what is the point of this" or "why do it this way when that way is so much more effective". This didn't get me anywhere - I often didn't even start the work or stopped very quickly. later, I started to cut out that thought process. Funnily, enough my technique was to imagine that I was a medieval peasant and that I had no option other than to do the work assigned. Eventually, I overcame my counterproductive habit and managed to start working whenever I needed to rather than putting things off until the last moment.
Stop making upward comparisons with ideal situations. As related to the above I used to always compare what I was doing to what I could be doing in some perfect world where it would be the most relevant essay, or research, or whatever. That was really not a good idea as it was not a productive comparison to make. Instead it is much better to remind yourself of how lucky you are to have the opportunities you have when so much of the world does not. Sadly their are geniuses who killed themselves for want of making greater contributions when people with equal intelligence but more unfortunate circumstances were denied any chance to achieve anything at all due to no fault of their own.
Develop and maintain a positive association with your work (where possible). Basically this involves making your work something you like rather than hate (to the extent that this is possible). When I was younger I saw work as something that took me away from what made me happy. I wanted to party, play computer games, socialise etc., and work was the reason I couldn't. As a result I worked badly and did badly in academics. In turn this ensured that I got bad marks and felt bad about myself. Now things are quite different for me. I changed my perspective so that I treat my work as my personal interest - a form of personal expression and journey of learning that I treat as a priority. Partially due to this and other changes I start all tasks early and work hard on them. Inevitably I stress less than I used to and do better, which gives me more positive reinforcement. Additionally, you should try things like avoiding work when you are stressed (don't want to associate work with stress), working in places where you are calm and relaxed (I tried moving out of my office near the end of my PhD and it was a tremendous help to work in other places). Having a comfortable seat, and a quiet room at the right temperature are also very important.
Do lots of exercise. This is crucial - most people have too much energy to spend a lot of time sitting in front of computers. I work out every day (even if it is just a short workout) so that I get to burn off excess energy. Speaking from my experience, I think that a lot of my problems in the past were due to having too much energy to relax and focus on what I was doing. Additionally exercise makes me happier and more relaxed which really helped throughout my PhD where I was occasionally too unhappy and stressed to work well.
Meet your bodies needs. A happy person works better than a stressed person in the long term. If you are not getting what you need then you will struggle to focus on other things (like work). Maybe you need to talk more with people? Maybe your brain needs novel information or situations, time in nature or whatever. You need to figure this out. For me, I need all of these things and if I don't get enough of them then I won't be working well until I do.
Have a prioritised to-do list that breaks down the tasks you need to do. I used an Eisenhower grid on evernote. One advantage of a to-do list is that it will give you a sense of productivity and success when you get things done. It is much easier to find the motivation to do something small as part of a larger goal, than to feel like you achieve nothing at the end of a day. A second advantage is that a to-do list will free you from having to remember things and keep you on track. If you can wake up and see a list of things you need to do today then you don't need to think through the "what should I do today process" - you get straight to work. A third advantage of the to-do list is that it can give you direction and clarity. Often people don't know which task to do first therefore they switch between them. However with a good to-do list and discipline you have a clear list of things to do, and an order to do them in.
If the going is really tough, and you need to get something that you hate done, then manipulate your hormones to make it easier . Your motivation and energy to act, is based on your levels of dopamine {1}. Accordingly, if, for whatever reason, these levels are extremely low, then you likely won't be act. Based on your recent update it seems that you may very well have reached a point where your levels of dopamine are too low to enable you to work. Consequently, you should consider doing things to increase them. Here are a few things that should work. First, you can take substances to increase dopamine, such as St. Johns wort,  rhodilia rosea, and nicotine (gum works with few health risks). Second, you can do more exercise {2}. Third, you can listen to music while you work {3}. All of these were useful for me at the very end of my PhD where I was very depressed at times.

That is all for now - I will add more if I think of it :). Happy also to dig up references where they might reasonably be needed.
References:
{1} Hoebel, B. G., Rada, P. V., Mark, G. P. and Pothos, E. N. (1999) 'Neural systems for reinforcement and inhibition of behavior: Relevance to eating, addiction, and depression'.
{2} Young, S. N. (2007). "How to increase serotonin in the human brain without drugs." Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience : JPN 32(6): 394-399.
{3} Salimpoor, V. N., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A. and Zatorre, R. J. (2011) 'Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music', Nat Neurosci, 14(2), 257-262.

Peter Slattery already answers the immediate question of how to motivate yourself. I'd just like to add one more thought about why finishing up your degree is worth it.
If you look around you and start asking how many people in their 40s or 50s are still doing the work their college degree qualified them for, you'll realize that the fraction is not actually all that large. Having a degree in one field does not lock you into employment in this field for life. What it does is open doors: you will be considered for some jobs and career steps simply because you have a degree at the required level, oftentimes regardless of the field where that degree was earned. For example, in many "traditional" companies, non-PhDs will rarely become heads of units that have a significant fraction of PhDs. You can often see this in job ads that say "expected qualification: MSc in a relevant field" or similar, where "relevant" is often broadly interpreted as long as your qualifications (not your degree) matters to those seeking to hire you.
Maybe seeing that your PhD will allow you to do things in life you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't finish it, provides you with the impulse to actually go finish it, regardless of the level of (dis)engagement you feel with the subject.

Connected to this--set aside some time now to research what's possible or what would be interesting to you. Does the department keep tabs on alumni? What are they doing? If you've applied unsuccessfully for hundreds of jobs already, rewrite and polish your resume and interviewing skills--if the uni has a career counseling office, go see them!

I don't have much advice, but I have a lot of sympathy! I'm in the same boat. I understand it makes sense to finish since I've already come this far, don't know for certain what my opportunities may be post-degree, have no other immediate path to fulfilling employment, etc... I had planned to stay in my institution after completing the PhD, and largely pursued the degree so I could maintain employment there. However, personnel changes have negatively affected what used to be an amazing work environment, and I can't see myself being happy if I stay. On top of that, I was forced to change my dissertation topic from one I was quite interested in, to a topic I don’t care about at all (but data is readily available). I don’t want to relocate so working at other Universities isn’t an option, and since I have little support in my current position it would take a lot of effort for me to make my current position be anything less than soul-sucking. I’m left wondering why bother?? I’m paying out the nose to stay enrolled and haven’t touched my dissertation in entire semesters. I’m mystified about my inability to just get the damn thing done, or at least make some progress. Feeling frustrated with myself paired with genuine apathy means I feel really shitty all the time, and make no progress. I’ve tried all kinds of methods to motivate me, but I just don’t care. Nothing makes me care about it! Although hemorrhaging money is enough to keep me continually stressed about it.
We’re in different fields and I have almost completed a clinical license that would allow me to provide direct services without supervision (in other words, I could open a private practice). Private practice takes a ton of work and hustle, areas in which I now doubt myself due to this dissertation garbage.  Plus until I build a client base I don’t have money, and I’m the breadwinner for my family; not exactly stepping into certainly. However, I do have an “out” with the private practice option and have decided to focus on that: I will eventually escape this place, and wherever I end up is bound to better than here. My mission now is to salvage resources as much as possible, which involves finishing the damn dissertation so I can at least put the stupid PhD on my business card. It also involves salvaging my conception of myself as professional. It was (IS) painful to let go of my academic career – and the feeling that I’ve ‘failed’ by not wanting to stick it out in academia – but when I got real with myself, I found that I don’t care about the PhD.  Things that I care about, I get done EASILY. This isn’t a reflection of my inability, it is a reflection of my priorities. And it is okay for priorities to change – academic validation is no longer important like it used to be =)  I’ve only started to revisit the issue today (that’s why I ran across your post), so I’m not sure how this will play out, but I’m in full-on survival mode.   My plan now is to write a formal timeline along with ridiculously large bribes ie finish first chapter and buy the dining room table I’ve wanted for years, get halfway and allow myself to a one-week break to lounge at home free from work and school, etc... On top of that, I plan to implement ways to support me emotionally as I drag myself through a miserable process: Scheduling regular time with friends, allowing myself to do mediocre work (this was a big, hard one), sending myself silly encouraging notes, regularly venting to people outside of work, etc…
For me, the most helpful thing has been changing my thinking from “Why can’t I motivate myself to work on my dissertation???” to “This dissertation work is the shittiest of shit. Although I am able to accomplish all kinds of amazing things, this dissertation is a stupid, meaningless, and exhausting task. I will get through this to be done with this shit, but it is shitty, meaningless work and no wonder I don’t care.”  I think there is something to be said for being honest with yourself:  Maybe I’m not a great researcher (I secretly suspect I’m at least an okay researcher…) but I am more than my career, and happiness is a priority in my life, even if that means I make less money or have a less prestigious title.
Even if you don’t have a clinical license to fall back on like I do, I encourage you to seriously investigate alternate options. If you can allow yourself to let go of academia and think about where else you’d like to land, you may be able to allocate your resources (emotional energy, especially) in more helpful ways and/or finish the dissertation.  Even if that means working in customer service with a PhD you may be much happier – that’s worth it to me. Best of luck!

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text:
PhD application: my country isn't listed
I'm from Palestine (or West Bank). Now I'm applying to Boston University (the deadline unfortunately is just  a few hours from now), and my country is not listed in their online application.
What can I do? There is not even an "others" option listed. Could I safely choose the nearest country to mine (Jordan), where incidentally I had earned my B.A. degree from? Or is that stupid to do? I can't call Boston directly now because their offices are closed now.
Should I forget about Boston University? (I did that, sadly, with UCLA for the same reason). But I really care about this school and I already sent both my GREs to them.

EDIT:
I have both Palestinian and Jordanian passports, in both of them my homeland is Palestine. I don't hold an Israeli passport or citizenship.

UPDATE:I submitted an application and followed it with an email explaining the issue. I'm still waiting for a response.

Pick something close, and send an email to the department to clarify. They, likely, will not care and be annoyed at whatever random bureaucrat didn't know what they were doing.

In other universities applications, either "West Bank" or "Palestine" is listed

Which passport did you provide as identity proof for the GRE test?

Neither. I used my local identity card.

For the future, a word of advice: next time, just take your best closest guess (so, Jordan). Never stop yourself from trying to do something important that you really want to because of some small bureacratic matter. Sometimes these things do stop/block us and there is nothing that can be done, but don't help them do it by giving up. Get as close to perfect/true as you can, send the application, and email the administrator first thing. In a case like this, I cannot imagine a school caring about this detail if it was promptly followed up by an explaining email. Good luck!

To add to what @Chelonian, I would suggest even emailing both UCLA (whose recent deadline you missed) and Boston University (if you missed today's deadline), explaining the problem you encountered and that it caused you to mistakenly not apply to the school since you believed your application wouldn't be considered, and ask that they allow you to apply late. Even include a link to this page that documents what happened. At my university (part of the same university system as UCLA) no one would care which country you were from as long as there was a realistic chance you could get a visa, and...

... if the decision were up to me and allowing you to apply late were not disruptive to the application process (which is very possible if the deadline was only a few days ago), I would most certainly approve a late application based on such a reason. Good luck!

@JonCuster: I think your comment should be an answer!  This isn't about politics or US state policy.  It's just a beuracratic screw-up, that has slipped through so far because there aren't many grad school applicants from Gaza and the West Bank.

Worth noting that this may not even be a deliberate move by the university - many web-form designers slap in a list of countries without ever reading it through or realizing that not all "lists of countries" actually make sense. (I've seen several places list 'Antarctica' as an option for nationality, for example...)

I'll eat my hat if it was deliberate.

Comments are not for off-topic discussion; conversation about politics and not specifically about graduate admissions has been moved to chat. Further discussion is welcome in chat.

You hold a Jordanian Passport, you lived in Jordan, you got a degree in Jordan so just list Jordan and do not worry about it. I agree with Jon they will not care. As  Chelonian said ,Get as close to perfect/true as you can, send the application, and email the administrator first thing. In a case like this, I cannot imagine a school caring about this detail

This is probably 'just' an error on their part (although Palestine is not a country), so just treat it as such. Do not go into or imply political reasons into it. Everybody remotely involved will just try to remove themselves from the matter if it remotely looks like you got a chip on your shoulder.

The United States does not recognize the statehood of Palestine (meaning technically that can't be your home country as far as that government is concerned), which makes it somewhat unsurprising that an American university might not have it listed as a country.
The Department and School likely doesn't have a particular stance on the issue - they probably didn't even design the application. Of course the ideal option would be to call them, but as this isn't an option at the moment, I'd put something close (Jordan - which as you mention you hold a passport for) and then call them to clarify as soon as you are able to do so.
Also, as this is clearly a recurring problem, you should seriously consider finding out if a given school's application has this problem well before it is due.

"that can't be your home country as far as that government is concerned"
In fact, I have Palestinian friends holding Palestinian passports who study in the USA with Palestine as their homeland. But in their case, at least, it's neither UCLA nor Boston University. And they have F-1 visas on their Palestinian passports.

@Mohammed Like I said, it's likely not a particular stance a university is taking, as much as just an artifact of "Is this a country?" having a complex answer between the U.S. and Palestine.

@Mohammed the USA can – and clearly do – let people with a Palestinian passport into their country. But doing so doesn't require that the USA diplomatically recognize the State of Palestine.

The US has a One China policy, but that doesn't stop anyone from listing Taiwan as their nationality on graduate school applications.  In complicated scenarios there's just not a relationship between whether the state is recognized and whether you acknowledge that people are from it.  I think the first paragraph of this answer is unnecessary and somewhat incorrect.

@NoahSnyder The US also politically and militarily supports Taiwan. They're not really analogous. All the first para is is "why this might have happened". It's almost certainly just an error in a "list of countries" drop down form.

The US does give $300 million/year to the Palestinian Authority.  And unlike Taiwan it's the policy of the US government that the goal is an independent Palestine.  But this is, as you say, totally irrelevant to why someone forgot to list this as an option.  The main reasons that schools get many more applicants from Taiwan than from the West Bank, so they don't catch this as quickly.  I still don't see the point of the first paragraph.

First, this is just an error on their part, and not an issue of politics or policy.  Contact them and they'll fix it, and in the meantime pick something close, as said in comments.
That said, it might be best to just pick Jordan anyway.  If you were to be accepted, which passport would you use to get a visa?  As a practical matter, this might be affected by which consulate you go to, which is obviously this is a little tricky since there's no consulate in the West Bank. If the answer is your Jordanian passport at the consulate in Jordan, then I'd pick Jordan as nationality, even if you currently reside in the West Bank.  They're asking this question because they want to know what your visa situation would be.

My Palestinian friends used their Palestinian passports at the consultant in Israel to get their US visas..

Ok, if that's your plan then you're right to list Palestine or West Bank and my first paragraph applies.  It wasn't clear to me which was more practical in terms of checkpoint rules.

Which US consulate you would go to is irrelevant. You're not required to go to the consulate or embassy in your country of nationality to get a visa.

@DavidRicherby: You're right that I should have emphasized the passport not the consulate.  But your comment isn't correct.  At least some offices will only issue visas to nationals and residents of the country they're located in.  I looked into this when I realized I would be closer to a Chinese consulate while traveling in Australia than I am in the US.  Here's another example where you can only apply for a US visa at a consulate in Mexico if you are a US or Mexican resident or if your passport was lost/stolen.

I really mentioned the consulate, because it seemed likely that it might be easier to use a Jordanian passport for business in Jordan.  But I really don't know.  I tried to edit the post for clarity, emphasizing the consulate.


text:
Can cited works hold grammatical positions in sentences?
Though I read this style quite often, I was recently told unambiguously by a reviewer that I was NOT supposed to use citations "as if they are objects in a sentence."  The following sentence is an example of what the reviewer considered unacceptable:

We analyzed the data using the Wilmerding method, guided by [12].

The references section might include the following:

[12] Smith, D., Marshawn, J., & Devenshaw, A. 2011. Techniques and
  Procedures for Applying the Wilmerding Method.  Prince Publications,
  Inc, New York, NY.

The Wilmerding method1 is not a step-by-step algorithm that can be precisely followed as if by a machine, and thus [12] does not provide a step-by-step algorithmic description but rather guidance for using  the method. [12] is a relatively slim but authoritative textbook about how to use the Wilmerding method.
Within this question, for the purpose of discussion, I have intentionally put [12] in grammatical positions where it's an important element of the sentence and the sentence would make less sense without the reference.  Sometimes that seems to be the most efficient way to communicate the intended message.  Is using a reference as a grammatical sentence element like this OK?   Why might this not be considered acceptable?   Should I be rewording those sentences?  Is it enough of a violation to be worth passing the note on to authors of papers I review?
I considered posting this on EL&U but it seems more specific to academia than general English usage, and the comment came from a content reviewer rather than a copy editor.  This question is related but it seems to be more about when to put authors names' in vs. outside of the parentheses in an APA-like style.
The numbered citation style (as opposed to following APA, for example) is required by the venue.
1: Fictionalized for the purpose of this discussion

I wonder how many people know how to use things like \textcite in LaTeX.

My impression is that there are two styles of writing: Either citations are regular components of the sentence (e.g., "From [13], we conclude that" or "As is proven in [12], we have" or as you say "guided by [2]"), or they behave as annotations which are not supposed to interact with the grammar (e.g., "From a paper [13], we conclude that" or "As has been proven before [12], we have" or "guided by John Doe [2]"). I have seen both of these standards used and I wouldn't call either one wrong. (But beware of my example "proven before [12]": it means different things depending on the standard).

I wouldn't call either one wrong — I would.

@JeffE care to write an answer explaining the reasons why you would?

@binaryfunt Thanks for your helpful answer, +1 to that! The content recently reformatted as the third blockquote is not actually meant to be just additional examples of that citation style, but background information about the document being cited, to head of some of the possible "just word it this other way which is inaccurate/invalid for the content" responses, and in part to respond to O.R.Mapper's request for more information.  The sentence after that information tried to make this more explicit.

Conceivably the reviewer objected to the non-mention of peoples' names, thinking that should write "guided by J. Doe [12]" or "guided by [Doe12]" or "... by [Doe2011]"... Something in that direction would be my preference, also, since numbers in a bibliography are completely artifactual, not really adding any information. Names are far more informative.
But, still, it's possible that the objection was completely stylistic, so ... "it's just a rule"... which means rational discussion of it is presumably out-of-bounds. Such things seem silly to me, but I am acquainted with people for whom such rules are the only defense against Darkness and Chaos, etc.
I'd not comment on such things in any review/referee-report I wrote, but I can imagine some might. The operational point probably is that if the referee chose to mention it at all, it means they do have that particular fetish, so just comply if you want approval. But don't "pass it on", if you were to ask my opinion... :)

I can imagine some might — Hi.

@JeffE, I have a powerful imagination... :)

Can cited works hold grammatical positions in sentences?

I recall a couple of discussions on this also here on Academia.SE (at least in comments). For many people, the answer to this question is a sound no. However, if you read a number of articles across different fields, you will find that for many other people the answer is, actually, yes. Unfortunately, as far as I know, style guides do not seem to address this specific issue.
Actually, I'm on the yes side for the following reason: different kind of brackets identify different kind of elements: parentheses identify equations, and brackets identify citations. Therefore, the symbol [XX] should be really interpreted, and read, as "reference no. XX", a noun group which can hold a grammatical position. Similarly, the symbol (XX) should be really interpreted, and read, as "equation no. XX".
That said, if the journal style guide requires the authors to write "Eq. (XX)" or "Ref. [XX]" (or similar constructions), then I'd avoid using a citation as a noun. For instance, in this case, I'd reword your example sentence as

We analyzed the data using the Wilmerding method, according to the implementation described in Ref. [12]

I think this is the best answer here, specifically because you refer to the reality of published articles across many fields. Scientific writing never had a purpose to show off somebody's stylistic language abilities; it often sacrifices style for brevity and clarity and has evolved with its own rules and conventions. (I was often told, "The official language of science is bad English") You saying the answer is no for many people, due to each person having their stylistic preferences, but also yes for a large number of people and accepted by communities of different fields, is spot-on.

This answer refers exclusively to "atomic" citation references based on numbers or abbreviations, such as [42], [ABC+95], or (M09). My opinion described here does not expand to citation reference styles that do not require a fixed form, but instead integrate naturally into a sentence, such as "Picard and Galen had discovered in 2336 ...", thereby indicating the key information of author names and year necessary to find the appropriate item in the bibliography.
As a further restriction of my claims with respect to Massimo's answer, I would like to point out that my subfield rarely uses numbered equations. If we do, they are explicitly referred to, like other inserted pieces of information, by writing "From Equation 15, we can conclude ...", rather than using the mere equation number like "From (15), we can conclude ...". This may well influence my opinion.
As a bit of a counterbalance to the existing answers, I am going to state my opinion that using a citation reference like a word is extremely bad style.
I would not point it out in a review, as it is too minor, but I definitely rewrite such sentences in papers that I participate in when one of the other authors uses that style, and I ask them to write complete sentences instead.
One issue I see with considering citation references such as [42] as words is that papers that do so apparently never do so consistently. More concretely, a sentence like

We analyzed the data using the Wilmerding method, guided by [12].

is often followed by a sentence such as

As numerous problems have been pointed out related to the basic Wilmerding method [13 - 15], we have used the Thunderbolt Approximation.

So, [12] is a word; it should be read as "Reference 12"? Fine, but then [13 - 15] must be read as "References 13 to 15". Evidently,

As numerous problems have been pointed out related to the basic Wilmerding method References 13 to 15, we have used the Thunderbolt Approximation.

is not a sentence.
Conversely, if citation references are considered as words, each additional reference makes the sentence more convoluted, as additional sentence parts have to be added. In particular, the action of inserting a single reference to provide some evidence for a given statement becomes one of actually changing the respective text. This is simply not necessary if citation references are seen as meta-information super-imposed on the text, without any influence on sentence structure, that can be skipped while following the flow of the text, unless the reader specifically looks for references.
In general, I consider in-text citation references as an artifact from the days when scientific publications were still text printed on paper. We have various of these artifacts, such as papers being nailed down layout-wise on a fixed-size paper format like PDF, with what seems like physical page numbers and fixed-format section numbers, rather than per-document page numbers1 and a semantically nested structure of sections and subsections (that just imposes order and hierarchy, but not superficial things like numbering style). In my opinion, citation references are exactly this - an artifact that, sooner or later, will disappear and be replaced with meta-information embedded in the document, used by viewers to provide on-demand source information (e.g. upon mouse-hovering over the passage of text based on the cited work, which otherwise just contains a subtle visual cue indicating that there is something more embedded there), similar to context-aware editing helper popups found in some code/text editors:

In my opinion, citation references are like these context-aware popups. They are displayed near the text they refer to, but they do not belong to the text flow (and wouldn't be read out when reading the text of the actual document).
One additional possible issue when treating citation references like words is the fact that citation references in some styles just do not look sufficiently like words to be treated as such. One such style is used in another question, and the examples in the question illustrate themselves that citation references in superscript do not look nice as words:

However, in⁴ only a small uncertainty has been introduced ...

This is partly coming back to my aforementioned statements - ideally, the appearance of citation references should not be nailed down by the document, and consequently, citation references should be inserted in a way that will essentially work no matter how citation references end up being styled in the final document.
1 Things are beginning to change, as evidenced by a question here, and also some publishers that give their papers page numbers of the style <issue>:<in-paper number>.

Good point, though I suspect that, for the time being, there's no way to write in a totally coherent way with respect to a certain interpretation of the citation references, while sticking to the journal style recommendations.

@MassimoOrtolano: That may vary by subfield; style recommendations I have been exposed to so far have usually been so superficial that just the citation reference style was more or less determined, but not a single remark on how to embed citation references in sentences was made.

"Extremely bad style" conflicts with "is too minor". Other points are valid, though.

@MarchHo: Stylistic issues are still just that. Compared to verifiable mistakes such as in spelling, or issues that actually impede comprehensibility, stylistic issues are a matter of taste to large parts, and therefore too minor to mention in a review.

A further comment though -- I doubt the meta-data-hover will catch on for a long time if ever.  Many readers like to work on paper; hover on touchscreens has been "just around the corner" for 10 years, with only poor workarounds; non-touchscreen reading would be third choice for many people (after paper/tablet in either order).  Besides, a superscripted number tells the user where to hover.

@ChrisH: Thanks, I clarified my text to state that there may still be some visual cue that indicates where to hover, just not necessarily something that looks like it could be part of the text (and of course, not a key that needs to be remembered so it can be found again in a locally separated bibliography). As for the other concern, once again I think that is a non-issue once "papers" are stored with their logical structure rather than their visual appearance. A view-with-hover-info style will happily display references on demand by hovering, while a print-out-style applied to the very ...

... same document will simply add the traditional optimized-for-paper citation reference numbers or letter combinations.

I could get behind that idea. Iff it was an open, accessible format which supported offline access on all devices. Most attempts to supercede typeset papers appear to be going the other way, e.g. Readcube.

@O.R.Mapper Next time you edit, I'd suggest fixing the very end: maybe put it in backquotes so you get <issue>:<in-page-number>, or use square brackets instead of angle brackets, or something.

I'm not sure I agree that the inconsistency in usage is a real problem. Many things are used in different ways in different places, and I haven't encountered a case where this hinders understanding.

@JiK: When done inconsistently within one document, it interrupts my flow of reading. It doesn't necessarily hinder understanding, it's a bit like pointless, commas in the, middle of a sentence. I can still understand the sentence, yet the commas will signal to me a break in text flow where there should be none. Your mileage may vary.

My opinion above is probably affected by the fact that I often don't translate non-word elements (such as "guided by [12]" or "let $\mathfrak{A}=[\mathscr{C}]$) to words when reading, which many others apparently do, so my opinion probably doesn't correspond to what would be best for most readers (and thus the best option for the writer).

As was mentioned in a comment, the IEEE Editorial Style Manual (p. 4) says

Grammatically, they may be treated as if they were footnote numbers, e.g.,

as shown by Brown [4], [5]; as mentioned earlier [2], [4]–[7], [9]; Smith [4] and Brown and Jones [5]; Wood et al. [7]

or as nouns:

as demonstrated in [3]; according to [4] and [6]–[9].

For what it's worth, the excerpt from a styleguide you cite does not answer this question. It states that (by that styleguide), both variants are equally acceptable (without providing a reason for either).

@O.R.Mapper I cannot help the OP specifically, seeing as I don't know what their venue style guide says. I can, however, answer the question in the broad extent of IEEE citations, which the OP's resemble. If the OP was meant to follow IEEE, I don't see how this wouldn't answer their question.

@O.R.Mapper As OP, I think this is a great answer to the question, and gets a well-deserved Necromancer badge including an upvote from me. Q: Can cited works hold grammatical positions in sentences? This A: For publications where the IEEE style guide applies, unambiguously yes. The answer links to an authoritative source including page number pointer, quotes the relevant portions, and applies formatting markup appropriately.

One minor negative aspect to this answer is that the first sentence, recently edited in, isn't generally true in my experience, motivating the posting of this question.  IEEE providing clarity on this point in their style guide seems to be more the exception than the pattern.  I might say In some cases, this may be answered... instead of This is usually answered... (unless one "usually" publishes with IEEE).

@WBT Yeah, I meant that the style guide is usually the place to find a definitive answer to a question like this, although it might not broach the issue. I've decided to just remove that line.

Yes, in at least some venues.
Including a citation in a grammatical position is explicitly given as an example for what you are supposed to do for CHI 2018:

Avoid “As described in our previous work [10], … ” and use instead “As described by [10], …”

The example you list, however, is not talking about grammar. It's about anonymization. so the focus of the above juxtaposition is on avoiding "our previous work". Actually, I am quite certain that whoever wrote the above example failed to notice the different grammar.

@O.R.Mapper I'm not so certain.  While I agree the main objective there was anonymization, the suggested means of achieving that objective was putting a citation in a grammatical position.  While I don't think the source answers a question about if that's the best way of writing something, that's not the question being asked here.  I do think this source answers the question about if that structure is considered fine/OK, at least for that venue and the others which follow its rules.

I still suspect the author of that sentence did not notice they changed the way the citation is grammatically embedded into the sentence while dropping the explicit "our". The styleguide for the same conference does not seem to mention any explicit rule, but is consistent in not assigning a grammatical position to citations.

It depends on the stylistic standards of your field. In linguistics, it is standard to use references as nouns, e.g. "X shows that" or "as demonstrated in X", where X refers to some publication. Generally our citations are of the form "Dewey (2011)", "Cheatam & Howe (2005)", but a few journals (all Elsevier, I think) use and require the nameless number system.

Technically X normally refers to an author not a publication, as shown by the fact that the date is put in brackets. "Dewey 2011 was a pivotal study..." would be how an actual publication would be referenced.

The brackets are by individual journal fiat. It can be hard to discern an author's ideology, but there are subtle clues like "in Dewey (2011)" which has to refer to the work.

There is a huge difference between "Dewey (2011)" and "[12]", I don't see how they are equivalent.

I think the issue is plainly linguistic, on the basis that a sentence should be complete without the elements being in brackets.
From that perspective, you cannot use 1 or (Doe et al., 2017) as a subject or object, cause if you remove either of them from your sentence, the sentence will make no sense.
In most cases I came across this type of sentence, it was formulated as

According to Doe et al. [1],

or

According to Doe et al. (2017),

and I think this is the proper way to have this information.
Copying from Oxford Dictionaries website,

Round brackets (also called parentheses, especially in American
  English) are mainly used to separate off information that isn’t
  essential to the meaning of the rest of the sentence. If you removed
  the bracketed material the sentence would still make perfectly good
  sense.

and

Square brackets (also called brackets, especially in American English)
  are mainly used to enclose words added by someone other than the
  original writer or speaker, typically in order to clarify the
  situation:
He [the police officer] can’t prove they did it.

Why does the sentence need to be complete without the part in brackets? I can see having that as a rule, but it seems quite arbitrary now that the brackets are no longer a footnote.

@TobiasKildetoft I edited with some reference.

You added an example of a completely different use of those brackets.

If you click on the link, it describes the use of () and [] in English. The important is that the information in brackets is supportive and as such, it cannot be used as object or subject in a sentence. That's what the question is about and that's why the content reviewer was against it. I think it's a very simple reason/rule and I'm not a linguistics researcher to argue whether it is arbitrary or not. I assume that the content reviewer and the journal want the articles to be written in proper english.

@TobiasKildetoft My point is that there is no reason in discussing how we think they look or sound better, when there are specific rules in language about how brackets are to be used. The examples of user6726 who seems to be from the linguistics field, avoid this issue, as they use the name of the researchers as grammatical elements and the date in brackets (agreeing with the rules attached in my reply).

Please don't cite general use in language in this context, it is completely irrelevant. We are talking about a specific use of brackets in a specific type of writing, namely academic research papers. These are not written in the same style as everything else, nor are they written in the same style across disciplines, so an answer that claims to speak in this generality can never hope to be correct.

@TobiasKildetoft If there are rules in language, they are beyond "styles", as long as we want or we are required to follow such rules, i.e. write properly. If some disciplines or journals do not mind about proper use of language, then yes, I cannot hope my answer to be correct.

These are nowhere near "rules" in the strict sense you seem to mean here. Are you also saying that mathematical equations cannot be part of a sentence?

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

The short answer (IME, and it is a matter of opinion, including the editors') is no.  But you can make it into a grammatical entity with a word or 2.
I'm most used to numerical (especially superscripted) styles¹.  I might want to follow the method set out in reference 1, for example, rather than follow the usual method¹.  Here's another example of how I used this approach in my thesis:

Otherwise the combination of my reference style and the footnote (tablenote) symbols would have led to table notes like ⁿ ¹²³, or confusion with powers (it's normally easy to avoid putting a reference next to a number, not in tables).  I see no reson why this wouldn't adapt to the style in the question: I might want to follow the method set out in reference 2, for example, rather than follow the usual method [2].
¹A Author, "Notes on referencing"
2 B Buthor, "Citations that interrupt reading"
Textual referencing styles are more varied.  Jones (2012) developed a method is fine if that's the style you use, as you're discussing Jones and their work.  The rammed-together AuthorYear styles for example are harder.  I've seen things like [Jones2012] in line.  That, treated as a noun, could only refer to a paper, not (logically) an author.  So you could follow the method set out in [Jones2012] (though I don't like the brackets in this case). Alternatively, Jones and Smith, in [Jones2012], derived the function from first principles. Some of the other text citation styles may take more work than this.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Conference registration fees by sketchy means?
Most conferences have registration fees that can be paid online.  However, some conferences (such as IBIMA) don't offer Web-based payment processing and instead require that fees be paid by (a) wire transfer or (b) by sending all credit card details (including card number, expiration date, CVV, cardholder name, signature) in a scanned attachment over standard e-mail.
Is this common practice, or should it be raising red flags?

In what sense a wire transfer is not online?

“Is this common practice, or should it be raising red flags?” Unfortunately, the two are not mutually exclusive.

@Pont +1 Yes, I thought that when I was writing it...the answer could be "both." I still couldn't come up with better wording, though.  @ Miguel - I changed "online" to "Web-based."

How is wire transfer sketchy?

@JiK It is sketchier than a credit card transaction because there is no established procedure to contest or revoke it.

The thing about wire transfers may have to do with local practice.  For people in the US, they're awkward and slow and expensive.  For people in Europe, they're convenient and fast and cheap.  So if a conference is organized in Europe, with most participants also coming from Europe, they may think it's fine for bank transfers to be the only way to pay, without really thinking that this will be a big pain for participants from other continents.

The conference you linked seems dodgy. The journals liked to the same editor are too many and not well known. Reading some papers within the journals that are in my scope only reaffirms this feeling. Unfortunately Beall's list is not a thing anymore, but it is very likely this conference/editor was on it. One ovbious red flag is thelist of academic editors/pages listed in the conference webpage for no apparent reasons. Avoid this conference at all means.

@Ander Biguri Unrelated to the question, which is about economic practices, not about scientific quality.

@Miguel that is why I wrote a comment, not an answer.

(Not an answer but a long comment)
Sending credit card numbers via e-mail is a violation of the security standards of the credit card industry. See, for instance:

Does sending credit card info over email violate PCI-DSS?
Is storing CVV complaint with PCI standards?.

If you report the conference to your credit card issuer, they will risk a fine. The conference will then have to switch to another means of communicating credit card numbers that complies with these directives, such as an electronic payment form, fax or snail mail (sigh).
Note that these are indeed arguably more secure than e-mail, because they are much less vulnerable to remote hacking.

One of the big conferences in my field did this. I facepalmed, but ended up mailing a scan of a form with my credit card details.
Unfortunately, conferences are organized by researchers, who are generally not event planning experts. They are likely to select the cheapest or easiest to set up solution, and not follow best practices. That makes it sometimes difficult to tell the difference from scams.

"Unfortunately, conferences are organized by researchers, who are generally not event planning experts. They are likely to select the cheapest or easiest to set up solution, and not follow best practices." I feel this is a bit too general statement: Some universities provide services for this purpose. For example, when we organized a conference, setting up the webpage for signing up and paying was handled by people who actually were kind of experts. But unfortunately, as your answer shows, it's not the same everywhere.

(cont'd) My point being, the current state is not something that we necessarily need to accept (although this answer kinda might seem to imply it in a way). I would encourage researchers to do what they can to get more and more universities offer such services. So we can have solutions that are both "easiest to set up" and secure and practical.

@JiK That sounds amazing and I've never heard of it before. Hundreds of graduate students would cry out in relief if such a service became more generally available.


text:
Statistical precedent?
Suppose that an author [or team] writes a paper making heavy yet very questionable use of some particular statistics, without a convincing argument, demonstration, or test that the statistics are appropriate for how (and on what data) they are being used.
The argument in support of their use relies primarily on citations to previously published work in the same venue (generally regarded as a high-quality venue) where the new work is being submitted.  While statistics are often important in that field, the reviewers are not necessarily statistics experts and may not have given those previous papers any detailed statistical review.
What impact, if any, should these prior publications have on the review of the new work?

I have been in that situation as a statistician moonlighting in psychology. I have seen my fair share of voodoo statistics here. (Sadly enough, the original manuscript title did not make it into the final article.)
My opinion is that prior errors do not justify later errors. I call out statistical errors and insist they be fixed, no matter how many authors have made the same error before.
Yes, I see the point that then new results cannot be compared to previous ones. But then, how reliable or useful were those previous results, anyway? Standing on the shoulders of giants is not overly useful if those giants are walking in the wrong direction.
It is always useful to refer to published work on specific errors if this exists - especially published work in venues that cater to the specific field. Psychologists will trust a statistical exposition more if it comes from a psychological journal, rather than JASA. I have lost count of how often I have referred to Miller & Chapman's "Misunderstanding Analysis of Covariance" (2001). Statistics in Medicine also often has articles that explain particular misconceptions. If there is nothing in article form, I sometimes include links to CrossValidated.

That original titel would have looked nice on your résumé... On topic, your point on the shoulders of giants is spot on IMHO... Sadly it's often overlooked is many applied fields

@Repmat: just to avoid confusion - the voodoo paper is not mine. Its (original) title is just extremely spot on.

Well oops, I just assumed...

"Sadly enough, the original manuscript title did not make it into the final article.)" Yes it did -- not just as the title.  (It seems slightly odd to me to have a footnote proclaiming your former title.)

@PeteL.Clark: I don't know whether it was the case for this paper, but if a paper was widely distributed, and possible cited, as a preprint with one title, and the journal insisted on changing the title, then such a footnote could prevent some confusion.


text:
Will ISIS attacks hurt my PhD application as a Muslim?
I'm a dedicated person, very passionate about physics and pursuing my PhD at a good school is crucial to my life. I've been preparing my application documents for a while now. GPA is almost 4 and Physics GRE is 980. My general GRE is at the 97 percentile. Good recommendation letters. I have other few decent ranks since high school as well. HOWEVER, I'm from the Middle East, and yes, my name is Mohammed. I can feel how the world is infuriated about the Islamic community in general, though the vast majority of Muslims are vulnerable to (and on daily basis thousands are already subjected to) similar attacks from ISIS. The majority of us, including myself, are terrified by ISIS, sorry for and mortified by these attacks by ISIS.
My question: Will these events perhaps hurt my application? If you were to decide on my application on the admission committee, how would my citizenship, religion and name affect your decision?
So grateful for any attempt to help. In fact, I'm sort of developing anxiety due to this issue.

EDIT: For those wondering, I'm applying only for universities in the USA.

You wouldn't want to be accepted at a department stupid enough to conflate "Islam" and "ISIS."

I think there is a great question buried in here about how wars/political conflicts affect the "availability" of higher education in the affected countries. I would think there is some good scholarly research on this, but I really have no idea.

I have deleted a series of comments not related to graduate admissions. Off-topic comments about the reactions of Muslim individuals to current events do not belong here.

Let us look at it from a scientific perspective instead of ranting on about it. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537109000451 provides evidence of hiring biases of employers against muslims. There is no evidence why this should not hold for admission committees as well. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119008001137 provides evidence that terrorism indeed has an effect on attitudes towards minorities. Concluding, until further scrutiny, yes, you will be discriminated more because of the ISIS attacks.

Will ISIS attacks hurt my PhD application as a Muslim?

Only indirectly.
Admissions committees have good incentive to get the sharpest, most hard working people into their programs. They will care about your excellent results, as they should.
But administrative procedures may hinder people coming from your part of the world more than other applicants. I am basing this on my experience of being a Serb who wanted to study at Western universities, while Serbia was screwing up royally on the political scene, waging wars and making enemies everywhere. Sanctions made it difficult to travel. A friend of mine was denied a visa even after being admitted into an academic program and obtaining funding. Tuition was more expensive for us (to study in the EU), but far less funding was available. Even though I obtained a scholarship that covered the tuition, it was paid to me in monthly installments while the university insisted that I (as opposed to EU students) pay the entire tuition up front. Nobody could employ me without massive administrative hassle, meaning I couldn't just work at a bar a few hours a week if I needed some extra cash. Phone companies would not let me have a contract with them, limiting me to expensive, pre-paid phone cards. And on and on the list goes.
So yes, I think your chances will be smaller, but not because of admissions committees within any given university. It could happen that academic staff are not sufficiently aware of the additional hurdles you're facing, though. On the other side of the equation, professors from your side of the world might be less experienced at writing recommendation letters, for example. So a number of small obstacles will accumulate, many of them stemming from recent and current world politics.
And my heart goes out to you. It sucks to be vilified by outsiders for things being done by people you don't identify with.

+1 Absolutely. And banks might not give you credit cards, loans etc.

Iranian students in the U.S. have had some similar experiences recently. Another common problem for students in this situation is only being granted a single-entry visa, so that if you want to go to an academic conference in another country you risk not being able to return to your program for an indefinite period of time.

Yes, this answer is right on target, so far as I know. That is, my R1 math dept's faculty will not care about country-of-origin, etc. There starts to be some push-back from the administrators over-seeing graduate admissions, which seems to be partly just practical concerns about the U.S. and home country's visa complications, but also some suspicion. Then banks, not only for loans, but just for essentials like checking accounts (almost obsolete) and credit cards, will be much more suspicious. Cell-phone companies, relatedly. My sympathies.

On the flip side I personally know at least a dozen people from the GCC who have gone to the US to study and had no problems whatsoever getting a visa, bank account, cell phone, car lease, student loan, etc... There must be some other factor at work but I don't know what.

Fantastic answer (+1). Though these problems are functions of the students' country of origin, not their religion – renouncing the Quran is not likely to help someone overcome any of these obstacles. Muslims from countries that are not facing sanctions (i.e. Saudi Arabia) should be much better off.

Depending on the size of the university, your nationality could be deterring for administrative reasons. When my advisor hired an Iranian student for a PhD, it took  more than 6 months to get his papers ready. He had to really push and call regularly to get the papers through all the services. On the other hand, an EU student could have started the next day. I believe if having to choose between 2 students with similar qualifications, the administrative hurdles would play role.

@ff524: I feel really bad for Iranian students; in my experiences, they are very nice people. Iranians being Shia Muslims face both the horrors of terrorism and the subsequent backlash.

His nationality (not religion) will also have some direct effect, as some research projects require security clearances and are restricted based on citizenship.  But this holds independent of the ebb and flow of terrorist activities, so not exactly relevant to the question.

The irony here being that a "suspicious" person or "troublemaker" would be more inclined to just use a prepaid phone from the outset (and probably change frequently); someone who's looking to sign up for a contract probably intends to stay put for a while and generally mind their own business.

At least in the case of the U.S., Moriarty is completely correct. A Muslim from, say, the U.S. or the U.K. would not be likely to face any difficulty at all being admitted to a Ph.D. program. Meanwhile, anyone (Muslim or otherwise) from Raqqa would face much more difficulty (in the ways this answer mentions, not in the admissions process itself.) Having said that, it's still very normal for Middle Eastern graduate students to study in the U.S. At least at my (engineering) university, I'd guess around a quarter of the graduate students were from the Middle East or North Africa.

I'd also suggest maybe discussing some of the things Ana mentioned with whichever professor becomes your advisor. S/he is invested in your success, may not know the hurdles you're up against, and would likely help if s/he did know. I have had a Pakistani colleague, for example, whose advisor co-signed her lease (I co-signed her cell phone application) to get around the 'no credit history in US' problem.

Exactly correct. I imagine most here have a story of a hire taking months to immigration paperwork in order, and sometimes the visas are just denied (happened to us just a year ago). Sadly I know of some departments that just trash international applicants if they don't already have a work permit because they've been burned (by government, not the applicant) so many times, but departments like that will be like that regardless what's going on in current events.

I wish that your opening statement were true, but demonstrably it is not. Westerners like to "pigeonhole" people and punish them based on that, both in academia and out.

@user Just being a normal Shia or Sunni has nothing to do with propensity for violence and terrorism which is, however, strongly related to political affiliation (e.g. Shia Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards) and politically-manipulated ideology (e.g. ISIS).

@dotancohen - I actually agree with you, but I will only say so gently, in this comment. That's because (research shows, and in my experience) people will listen to you more closely if you start out by agreeing with them. And look at all the other comments. So yeah, I think some prejudice is inevitable, regardless of what people think. Still, I do believe that his superb results can override this. He's not your standard candidate.

@ana: I hope that you're right. I agree that the OP seems an outstanding candidate, and that might work in his favour, but the fact remains that the 97% not two SD above average will in fact have our chances tarnished by actions that other people associate to us on basis of shared race with people they don't like.

@dotancohen - I'm actually surprised how firmly people in academia believe they don't do this. Especially with admissions procedures, where you only get a glimpse of the person through the documents they send in.

Will these events perhaps hurt my application?

No, I don't think you need to worry about this.  It's possible in principle that they could, but only if something went terribly wrong.  If I were on an admissions committee and detected any signs of religious or cultural bias along these lines, I would be shocked and would intervene, including getting the university administration involved if necessary.  This form of prejudice is utterly unacceptable.  Fortunately, it also seems to be rare in academia.  I've never heard any of my colleagues say anything along these lines, while I've heard a number of them speaking out against such prejudice.
I'd be horrified if any department could put together an entire admissions committee in which bigots had real influence, and I don't think this is a realistic possibility.  It's a little more worrisome in departments where individual faculty make admissions decisions.  Academia is large enough that every field must contain at least a few bigots, so it's possible that you could send an application to such a person.  I wouldn't worry about this, since bigotry is not at all common or accepted: I don't expect you'll run into it at all, and there's no way it could hurt many of your applications.

I think this is too narrow of an answer. While the admissions committee may not care (and I am not sure I would go that far), if the government tightens immigration rules or creates "internment/concentration" camps, I think that will have a big effect.

Adding to what StrongBad said: the main way that this could potentially hurt an application is if the national government makes it more difficult to obtain student visas. We dealt with this problem immediately after 9/11: we had a hard time getting visa for accepted students from certain countries (not in the Middle East, in fact) and thus were more reluctant to take students who would subsequently be disappointed by US immigrations.

I agree with this answer. However, one potential problem may be more restrictive visa application process, which, although technically not part of the application process, should perhaps also be taken into consideration.

It's worth underlining the point that any visa restrictions will be on people belonging countries and not religions.

@Dancrumb: That's not entirely true. I know that religious minorities from many Muslim-dominated countries can get a visum because of their religion, which logically means that the majority of people from those country would be rejected visa because they're Muslims (and therefore not subject to religious persecution)

@MSalters That seems like a quibble; there are certainly visas available that are only available to specific groups of people and, no doubt, there are visas that are restricted to those who are in persecuted minorities. However, it seems reasonable to assume that the OP would be applying for a visa by virtue of the fact that they are an academic.

I don't understand this answer.  The world is completely filled with racism, bigotry, religionism, countryism, sexism, and so on.  This answer seems like a rant on what academia should be and not about the real world.  Bigotry and treating each other is the definition of human history.  Will the OP be treated different because they are Muslim.  Of course!

It seems rather nit-picking to say, as @StrongBad does, 'this answer would not remain true if the government (presumably of a Western nation) created concentration camps and put all Middle Eastern Muslims in them'.

@jwg my point is that there are things outside the control of the admission committee. I think this is especially true for international students from countries that the university's country is at war with.

"I'd be horrified if any department could put together an entire admissions committee in which bigots had real influence, and I don't think this is a realistic possibility." -- I think it's far more likely to encounter an admissions committee full of math professors none of whom had watched the news over the past 3 months and who are completely isolated from such worldly concerns as terrorism ;-)

Will they? Yes. Is there anything you can do about it? Not much. Will it matter much? Hopefully not.
It is a fact of life that people are biased about almost everything all the time. Sometimes the biases are small sometimes they are big. That sucks, but it is human nature.
Usually people in most academic positions are able to overcome their silly biases and only rely on the ones that matter, like a bias toward good GPA.
What can you do about it? Exactly what you are doing: being a decent human being and excelling academically, this will hopefully move people's biases in a positive direction instead of the negative direction that well publicised attacks do.

Short answer: No.
Academic programs are normally very diverse and academics will regularly interact with people from different religions, nationalities, and ethnicities.
Hence the vast majority of academics know better than to judge an individual like you based on the actions of a few lunatics.
Nationality and religion will not be taken into account in admissions. (Although there is one caveat: some universities will have a preference for students from the country the university is located in for funding reasons.)

I think you're factually mistaken. Academic programs in many countries are not so diverse (although this varies with academic discipline, I suppose); and it's often the case that even if a person from a different language, cultural and religious background is in such a group, s/he is not expected to show it. There is racism in academia; perhaps not the rabid violent racism of riot mobs, but you do see it more than just here-and-there.

I'm from India, a country that has borne the brunt of terrorist attacks by different Islamic groups over more than two decades, and even witnessed several Hindu-Muslim riots. However, under normal circumstances, this does not affect recruitment, university admissions, or career progression in any way. When it comes to academics, people are generally more keen on your performance record rather than on religious, cultural, or ethnic background.
However, currently, the world is in a state of shock due to the attacks, and people everywhere are feeling extremely vulnerable. While they might not conflate Islam with ISIS, there might be an unconscious fear leading to momentary hesitation. Obviously, they would definitely not entertain that kind of bias, and would make an effort to ensure that they take a rational decision. But the point is, they might have to make an effort to push this thought out of their minds. However, during normal times, they would probably not even notice that you are a Muslim, as religion would be the last thing to come to their minds during an admission selection.
In your place, I'd wait for things to settle a little, and once normalcy is restored, start the application procedures. Perhaps I am being overly cautious, but I feel that unconscious biases might creep into the minds of even the most rational people in an environment of fear.
However, keep faith. You have been a hard worker and an excellent performer. Things like this cannot and should not come in the way of your academic career. I'm sure, you will get admission in a very good university.

India is a tolerant nation.. It has supported several religions for hundreds of years and still doing that.

@aProgrammer: You know that there's quite a lot of anti-Muslim racism in India, and the current prime-minister, Modi, is seen by many (?) as partially responsible for the anti-Muslim riots which broke out in Gujarat last decade. And you have areas in India which are sort of in open rebellion against the central government with a host of accusations... so, it's not that simple.

This is certainly not true.. One of the most respected Indian President Kalam (was a muslim), three most successful Bollywood Stars are Khans (Muslims), most respected musician is Rehmaan (Muslim), Most respected writers are Gulzaar, Javed and Saleem (all muslims).. India has more mosques than Pakistan. Most of the Indian muslims love India as their nation. Centuries back the Majority (Hindus) lost several temples and other heritage sites to muslim attackers and muslim rules and still they (Hindus) are struggling to get them back. Isn't that tolerance. Indians hate anti Indians only (.

In the US, your religion should not have any impact on admissions.  However, there are always random situations in which your nationality may have implications, such as being from Iran - Top U.S. university bans Iranians from studying chemistry or engineering because of sanctions.
While this was reversed shortly after, and in the case of Iran should stay stable as the new talks between USA and Iran have opened borders more, it shows there was at least enough prejudice from an academic university to push it through. I mention this specifically as it was not a government block as the other answers have pointed out in terms of visa.

Definitely not! Political/social events will have little to no importance in your academic life. Your admission will be judged by your test scores and other objective benchmarks.
You have no reason to be anxious, everything depends on how "performant" you are, not on different events that happen in the society.
Keep on the good work, you will do great!

If only this were true.

Your religion will almost certainly not have a major impact of your chances at a reputable university.
However, students from some countries that happen to be muslim-majority, such as Iran, may have trouble working in some sciences, such as nuclear physics, within some countries.
ISIS, however, does not change this at all.


text:
Confusion regarding manuscript status in IOP's article tracking system and ScholarOne Manuscript System
I had submitted a manuscript in an IOP journal a month back. In the IOP's article tracking system, the status changed from "1st reviewer agreed to report" to "Editorial Assessment" instead of "All reviewer reports received". However, in the ScholarOne Manuscript System, the status changed from "Awaiting Referee Reports" to "Awaiting Decision". What should be the interpretation of the current status of the manuscript?

@FedericoPoloni The IOP's tracking system shows that it has gone back to the editorial office for a check whether the submission is complete and meets the scope and quality criteria of the journal. I am not sure if there is a bug in the tracking system. I would have expected "Revision: All reviewer reports received" since the previous status was "1st reviewer agreed to report".

Have you checked the answer to the question I have linked? Does it answer your question? Can you identify where your manuscript is on that flowchart?

“Awaiting decision” is not incompatible with “All reviewer report received” or “Editorial Assessment”.  It means the editor, an associate editor or a handling editor will have a look and make a decision.
Remember that referees can only recommend a course of action: it is the journal through its editor or delegates that takes the decision to publish or not, usually based on the reports.
In particular if the review or reviews are inconclusive, the editor may decide to send to another reviewer.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
On the importance of an "honours degree" for PhD applications
I am currently studying in an undergrad programme in the social sciences/humanities in North America, and I am debating whether I should pursue the honours degree option (which would require me to take additional coursework, choose a concentration, as well as write and present a honours essay).
I want to apply to grad schools (MA programmes, but I want to try to apply directly to PhDs as well) when I finish my BA, so I'm wondering what is the impact of the "honours degree" in the application process? Will this improve (significantly?) my chances of receiving an offer?
The main reasons why I'm hesitant about the honours degree are (1) that it would cost me more money and (2) that since I've already graduated from a different programme (in a different discipline) this is my second BA and time is starting to be an issue.

Since I'm not an expert in the social sciences and humanities, I won't answer, but I'm very skeptical that that specifically matters; the system for determining things varies so much from school to school that you can't possibly expect graduate committees to know what it means at your institution.  In fact "graduating with honors" is so vague, one can't really answer the question without more info.  The only possible exception I can think of is if graduating with honors is so impressive at your school that it impresses your letter writers, and they explain this point.

Better with honors instead of no honors. simple

There are universities where having a BX (Hons) alone is insufficient for direct entry to PhD - you'd also need a perfect GPA from a credible institution, and preferably an MX. There are also universities where MX is a half-ass PhD and the programmes are identical except for the title of the degree awarded. You need to check sulabus, requirements and contact the universities you would apply to; we can't do that for you.

@Rüdiger - Can you provide any context for that statement? If so, please put it in an answer instead of a comment... that's what the OP is looking for.

@Nij What is an MX? Never heard of it before

X an unknown variable, in the set of specialty fields.

Serving on a doctoral faculty for many years, typically when candidates are evaluated there are specific criteria that first have to be met. So, they will evaluate basic things like your GRE score, GPA, TOEFL score (if applicable). They will also evaluate your writing sample, if required to make sure that you will be able to write at the graduate level (use of references, clarity of writing, etc.).
Other than that, they will evaluate how well you fit with their program. Are you planning to study a topic that is aligned with the work already being done? Do they have an appropriate mentor/advisor to match you with? Do you express a sincere interest in research (our program emphasized research, but we would receive applicants who wanted a PhD and continue working as practitioners in the community. We weeded some of them out if it looked like they would not excel at research).
So, the Honors designation alone won't necessarily put you ahead of other candidates. That being said, if a doctoral program has a limited number of graduate stipends available, they may only accept the most qualified candidates - if the honors program you mention has specific coursework that is in strong alignment with the graduate programs you plan to apply to, then you may want to consider the additional study. However, if you have a strong record of the programs' requirements and write a compelling statement or writing sample, the honors program may not be your best investment. Best of luck!!!!!!

I think the value of an honors degree is much more in the activities required for the "honors" designation rather than the designation itself.
For example, at my undergraduate institution for my field, it was a requirement for honors to write an undergraduate thesis based on research in a lab, and to complete several seminar courses: your institution sounds like it uses similar specifications. Because "honors" means so many different things to different institutions, it is unlikely that a given PhD program will know what your "honors" designation really means; however, they can evaluate your readiness for a PhD based on the work you have done in courses and undergraduate research.