text:
Can I publish my thesis online and get paid?
I finished my Ph.D. in mechanical engineering back in 2018. Recently, I found out that my Ph.D. thesis was not published by the university online. It is just in paper form at the university library.
Can I somehow publish my thesis online and get paid royalties for it? If yes, how? I know I have to ask permission to my university, but first I would like to decide what to do.

Please don’t write answers in comments. It bypasses our quality measures by not having voting (both up and down) available on comments, as well as having other problems detailed on meta. Comments are for clarifying and improving the question; please don’t use them for other purposes.

You might be interested: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/63619/how-much-revenue-do-academic-authors-make-on-their-published-books

It's said that the average number of people who read a dissertation is 1.6, including the author. This is of course a bit facetious, but it's unlikely many people will read it, much less pay to read it.

@NuclearHoagie My thesis has 61 downloads in two years, thank you very much. (I'm pretty sure it counts every time I download it again).

@ThomasMarkov Search engine bots. Even if no one else reads your dissertation, at least Google will.

@ThomasMarkov We have been distributing some software for work in our academic field; aside from our collaborators and their collaborators, from a couple hundred downloads over the years there seemed to be exactly two (2) downloads by researchers elsewhere who have taken interest in it. Download statistics can be very misleading.

About getting paid: A publisher can only pay you if someone else pays them for access to your thesis. That should prompt you to consider who the audience for your thesis is? Who would pay money to read it?
In reality, the market for PhD theses is quite small. Very few of us write about topics of either such importance, or so eloquently, that others are willing to pay for reading our theses.

People may pay indirectly. Many of us sent our theses to ProQuest. ProQuest's dissertation service is then sold as a subscription to libraries. A royalty derived from subscription fees is paid every time somebody at a subscribing institution views your thesis. This is similar to TV streaming services or flat-rate eBook subscriptions. That said, I don't know anybody who's ever gotten a check from ProQuest.

@user71659 That seems like an answer...

@Joe You prompted me to recheck and it appears you're right. I was under the impression that ProQuest requires institutional sponsorship, but it turns out they don't.

@user71659 The realities described by this answer don't change however. Getting a $0.10 check 15 years from now because one curious student accidentally opened your thesis is probably not exactly what the OP had in mind. Nobody is getting rich off a thesis...

I remember getting a $15 royalty check the year after I published my dissertation. I thought this may be good...never received another one...

Most likely no. It is rather the opposite: you might be approached by quite a few publishers that offer to publish your thesis but you will have to pay them and you are most likely not getting anything (at least not financially). Yes, academia is quite an odd field.

"[A]cademia is quite an odd field." True in general, but in this case, most non-academic writers are faced with exactly the same problem: Finding soneone interested in reading your stuff for free is already hard, not to speak of  finding someone interested enough to pay real money for it...

This answer misses the point. Publishers could publish your PhD thesis, but they won't make much money from it since very few people are willing to pay for it (see Wolfgang Bangerth's answer), so they won't publish it unless you pay them enough for them to at least break even. It's not an "odd field", it's just market forces at work.

@Heinzi: "Finding someone interested in reading your stuff for free is already hard". It seems to go both ways: finding people interested in sharing (in terms of having a back-and-forth-conversation) is also hard. In general "people-matching" "markets" are very clumsy.

Nothing odd about this. It's just capitalism. Money flows to where the power is. Power accumulates where the money is.

First you need to settle the copyright issue. Who holds it and if it isn't you then what license do you hold from the copyright owner? I doubt that even if a university holds the copyright that they would prevent you publishing your own work. It is more complicated, however, if the work can't be considered a "sole" work due to having been done in a research lab. But settle that first. Part of that is any issues of confidentiality that might arise.
In particular, I would consider a university explicitly monetizing the "sole works" of its students to be very wrong.
Assuming that you have the rights to do it you still have some issues. Publishing "online" is unlikely to result in any monetary payback unless you find a way to put it behind a paywall which has upfront as well as continuing costs. Publishing on arXiv, for example, doesn't pay you anything other than possible "reputation points".
You can, with the appropriate rights, turn it into a book. Some publishers might be interested and would pay royalties, but you will find, almost always, that those disappear within a couple of years.
You can also self-publish a book, perhaps through Amazon.com who provide support for such things. The upfront cost to authors is zero, but it is difficult for potential readers to find such things so the payment you get from the effort will likely be small unless most of the potential readers already know how to find it (and you). If you have an extensive online presence or otherwise high visibility in your field then it might be possible. I've self published textbooks successfully, but literally everyone interested already knew me and how to find my university website. But even that ends after a few years as the needs of the curriculum change.
Note that while a work might be important in a scientific field, the actual audience for it might still be small. The hugely profitable books are more likely to be popularizations of academic work such as those by Carl Sagan, who did real science, but was widely known for his more general explanations which were accessible to non-experts.
To sum it up. It is probably more effort than it is (monetarily) worth. There may be other "paybacks", but in visibility and reputation.

This is a very important point for "sandwich" theses that include published papers verbatim as chapters--you may not own the (whole) copyright!

It's unlikely that you will be able to get your published thesis be paid. There might be a few people who would be willing to pay to read your thesis because many universities and institutes have switched to an open access policy.
If no one else pays for the privilege of reading or critiquing your work, then you should ask yourself who will be interested in seeing what you have to say.

Many dissertations, at least in the United States, are sent to ProQuest, often a requirement of the institution. You can also submit your thesis, even if your institution does not require submission.
ProQuest archives dissertations, makes them searchable, and sells printed copies, microfilm versions, and online PDFs. They also sell subscriptions to many libraries. A royalty is paid when copies are sold, or somebody accesses your dissertation via a subscription.
Their searchable database is useful for accessibility, particularly if your institution does not have some sort of online repository. If you are interested in getting paid however, I have never heard of anybody receiving any money from them because the minimal audience and readership in most theses.
(In fact, when I submitted mine, they hooked me on fancy bound printed versions of my thesis, so I spent more buying copies for myself and my parents then I ever will get in royalties.)

If you are willing to put in the effort, and your dissertation is on an important-enough topic with a large-enough audience, it's possible a publisher will publish it.
Putting in the effort: see this source. You'll need some serious rewriting of your thesis, since it is now aimed at a different audience. Things like an Abstract or an Introduction need to be removed, and the common "this thesis is structured as follows, in chapter 1 we do X, in chapter 2 we do Y" also needs to be reworked.
Important-enough topic with large-enough audience: is your thesis on something trendy? Does it have major practical consequences? Did your thesis lead to patents or new + superior technologies that would not have existed otherwise? One way to tell if the answer is "yes" is if your thesis is generating a lot of views/citations/denials. If you don't know these statistics, you can ask your librarian.
If you are willing to put in the effort and your topic is important enough, then there's a chance a publisher will be willing to publish it. The next step is to approach a publisher with a publication proposal. Here's an example from Springer. You'll need to show why you are qualified to write a book - a PhD alone is not enough to be considered an authority - and why you expect the book to do well (Springer does not explicitly ask for these, but I can virtually guarantee that they'll be evaluating it internally). You can cite the research you did for "important enough topic" above to answer the latter question. You might also be asked for sample chapters. Your university press might be the best place to start, since they are the ones most likely to be willing to take a financial risk by publishing your book.
If the publisher agrees to your proposal, then they'll handle everything else, from drafting a contract to performing typesetting, etc.

It may depend on the institution, but often in order to defend a PhD one has to sign an agreement which settles exactly what you are asking for. Could it be you have done it, and forgot?
Yes, there are books based on PhD theses. They often benefit from additional editing suggested or required by the publisher. Of course releasing such book, or even posting your thesis online requires to follow the agreement with the institution.

tl;dr: You must not restrict access to your thesis.
Public access to research findings is important for the scientific community and for society as a whole. Government-enforced restrictions on copying published works originate in repressive and censorial measures by the British monarchy (read about the Statute of Queen Anne) - and we should not condone them. It is immoral to prevent people from being able to copy your thesis; and - it is detrimental even to your personal interest, of it being widely read, having greater influence, and inspiring others in their research and applied work.
Projects like SciHub (wikipedia.org) and Library Genesis (wikipedia.org) exist for the sole purpose of circumventing such nefarious attempts to limit access to publications only to those who pay. If you publish behind a paywall, your thesis will likely end up in one of these archives. Why not publish it freely to begin with, so that search engines and personal websites can more easily link to it?

Fields differ in what they consider to be the primary "unit" of scholarly output. In computer science conference presentations (e.g., at NeurIPS or a SIG Conference) are highly regarded; biomedicine places much more weight on journal articles instead.  A few fields, especially in the humanities, expect academics to write books.
In these fields, it's not uncommon for a dissertation to form the backbone of a person's first book. However, it generally isn't published as-is: one writes a book proposal for potential publishers and revises/expands the text. It is a lot of work and the goal is generally (academic) career advancement rather than the commercial success of the book itself.
Unfortunately, I don't think mechanical engineering is a very book-driven field, but your advisor or thesis committee could probably tell you more. If you're interested in the process, this book is often recommended: https://www.worldcat.org/title/from-dissertation-to-book/oclc/56329536


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How can I deal with a professor with very weird English?
I have recently enrolled in an elective course from our degree program. There is something that sometimes annoys me, namely the English used by the professor.
He is not a native English speaker, but it is not about his accent or pronunciation. These are decent. The problem is that he keeps applying the grammar rules of his native language to English. Sometimes, things he said in lectures were logically (sometimes, mathematically) nonsensical to everyone. The meaning of what he said was not always what he intended to convey (from a mathematical perspective).
That is also the type of English that we will see in the final exam. I have seen some past exam papers, and there is an inconsistency between the written requirements (in English) and his proposed solutions (mathematical translation of the requirements).
Normally, it is not a big deal for me. However, I occasionally gave him some suggestions in a very polite way instead of accusing him of using incorrect grammar, so it will be easier for students to understand during the lectures (and also during the exam). He always responded with something like "well, it is natural to use this in real life" and suggested that I should familiarize myself with his English instead. It disappointed me.
I want to take the matter further in a polite way (is it even a wise thing to do?). What should I do in this situation?
PS: I feel bad for asking this question as I quite enjoy his lectures
Update: We have reached a temporary solution with the professor. We will try to learn his English (through past exams), but he will also need to explain his "terminology" in detail. During the exam, we can ask him questions if there is anything ambiguous. It is something that we have to deal with.

Has he requested your feedback? And is his speech honestly incomprehensible, or just quirky? If ‘no’ to both, do not take the matter further.

"I feel bad for asking this question" No need to feel bad about being unhappy with your professor's unclear style of communication.

"I should familiarize myself with his English instead". You just reminded me of Mr. Brown (Mind Your Language) when he taught the Arab Sheikh how to understand Scottish Gaelic instead of teaching his Scottish chauffeur English.

It seems difficult to me to offer advice without an example of the sort of grammar that would make something logically nonsense. Language is often implicit among native speakers: that is, background information is needed to understand the logical meaning of almost every sentence in English. I certainly understand if you don't want to provide a specific example, but maybe you can construct a new one that follows the same pattern.

This method would have to be used judiciously, but if he states something using language that is confusing (and you think is due to his non-native English based grammar), ask a question where you state it back with correct grammar. E.g. "In that last statement did you mean X Y Z?". You might get a grumpy "Yes. That is what I said." and the best you'll be able to respond is "Ah, sorry, it wasn't clear to me, and it sounded like maybe you meant Z Y X. Thank you for the clarification." Won't help on exams, and probably won't lead to him realizing the confusion he's causing, but might help a bit.

Interestingly, there was a recent post on Linguistics.SE concerning applying the grammar of one language to another. According to the top answer on that post, this behavior is called interference.

Which country??

@BryanKrause I imagine it's probably more on word usage. Like, "There are upwards 5 potatoes in my shopping bag. Each potato is worth $1.00. How many more should I buy to get a bag of potatoes worth $10?"

@BryanKrause It is indeed too specific to include in my post, yet I cannot think of an equivalent example, but it involves "mathematical logic". There were some occasions when our solutions were significantly different from his just because he used phrases having totally different meaning from what he intended to say. That was why I complained. Otherwise, I would not.

I have had this problem with the supervisor on my Master's thesis.  They were from a German-speaking country and spoke extremely strange English, all I can say is that I feel your pain.  The only thing that helped is that I have studied German before so that I knew what they meant when they made strange verb choices, it might help if you know some of that person's native language, so you know what they mean when they try to speak English.

One time I had a Romanian linguistics professor who always said "Let's discuss about this." One day I wrote her a small note saying, "One says: 'Let's discuss X' or 'Let's have a discussion about X,' but not 'Let's discuss about X.' " The next day, early in the lesson, she said very pointedly, "Now let's discuss it. Yes, let's have a discussion about it." She then smiled, shook her head knowingly at how wrong it sounded to her, and went on asking us to "discuss about" things from then on. :/

Which course are you taking? If it's undergrad, there should be a book or online notes on the course that has clear definitions. You could maybe advise to your teacher to use a book or notes to prepare the classes or at least the definitions and problems so everything is clear.

Considering that

He is not a native English speaker, but it is not about his accent or pronunciation. These are decent.

the problem is not with understanding his pronunciation, but that

Sometimes, things he said in lectures were logically (sometimes, mathematically) nonsensical to everyone. The meaning of what he said was not always what he intended to convey (from a mathematical perspective).

So the information he conveys is confusing and hard to, conceptually, understand. Since you also mention that

That is also the type of English that we will see in the final exam. I have seen some past exam papers, and there is an inconsistency between the written requirements (in English) and his proposed solutions (mathematical translation of the requirements).

it seems that the communication issues also happen in writing. Now, if the issue with wording in assignments (or even in class) is recurrent and several students agree with your take on it, then it might be worth letting the professor know that you all are having a hard time understanding, without telling him what to do. Simple questions by a few students during class such as "could you explain that again, I'm not quite following?" or "are we supposed to do X or Y in the assignment?" will help you all conceptually understand what he is trying to convey at the same time that no one ".. [gives] him some suggestions ..." and be perceived as nit-picking his phrasing.

Academia is an international environment, so part of the skills you will learn is dealing with people who speak another language than you do. Remember that you are extremely privileged: you can speak your own native language and expect others to understand you. All you have to deal with is other people not speaking your own language perfectly. Most people around the world have to deal with speaking English as foreign language to other people who also speak English as a foreign language, and try to make sense of the resulting chaos...
So I would just treat this as an exercise of an important skill you will have to have in your later life, and be thankful that the trouble you have is a lot less than the trouble other people around the world have.

In academia, you can and should expect others to speak English the same way you expect them to be able to read and use the Internet. Your answer does not, in my opinion, apply. If they are hired to teach in an English-speaking environment, they are required to speak English on a level adequate to the setting.

Your answer assumes that the OP's first language is English. Based on the information we have, I'm not sure if that's truly a valid assumption.

First year students complain they can't understand an Indian instructor's odd grammar. 3rd years have forgotten it was ever a problem and feel sorry for classmates who have never had an Indian instructor.

Odd grammar is one thing, and we should just live with it, but when mathematical precision is important the professor must be able to speak with precision.

Absolutely terrible answer. Clear communication is of great importance in a teaching environment, especially for mathematics.

I've witnessed this problem in mathematics before. It's not necessarily the math part, because you can write language-neutral equations down and get by with a few simple words (integrate, solve). The issue happens when they're trying to explain, say, physics behind the equations, or in the OP's case word problems. They can be successful in 90% of the teaching, but it falls apart in a critical 10%.

Being able to understand weird English is a skill, but the classroom is not the place to learn it, and a maths examination is not the place to test it. It is OK to not be able
to understand a talk at a conference, but not losing points in a test because a question was unclear.

This might be correct if you're answering the question in the title without looking at the details in the question body. But in the question body OP explains that it's not just accent or pronunciation, but about the precision of the meaning where precision is required, such as in mathematical exam.

@user253751 The instructor is probably speaking in the most common mathematically precise way, but the OP just doesn't know that. Even if they somehow know something is being said in a different way, that's a thing in math -- multiple terms for something, or even terms which can mean different things depending on context.

Find support. Surely you are not the only student in your class with this problem. A request coming from many students has more leverage than one from a single person.

Make practical suggestions. For instance, suggest that he gets the final tests reviewed by a colleague for grammar before giving it to you.

Be polite. Phrase it as something like "Sometimes we have a hard time understanding the requirements", not "your English is weird". And, since you enjoy his lectures, start with a positive word.

If this second attempt fails, escalate the matter: get student union reps involved if you can, and speak to the head of studies.

All good points. However, #2 really shouldn't be necessary for a student to suggest. All exams should be subject to mandatory review before being taken. The main point of this is to catch technical errors, but it will also flag language issues.

@EspeciallyLime A review is not mandatory everywhere. And, even if there was one, it certainly was not effective in the past finals, so the process needs adjusting. The reviewer could be someone with an even worse command of English, or may have chosen not to focus on the grammar.

#1 is a good advice. I have not tried it as I normally talk to him privately.

@FedericoPoloni Yes, evidently it isn't mandatory everywhere - I was simply saying that it should be, as a matter of good practice. This was not meant as a criticism of your good answer, but of the institution in question.

Actually, I think #2 is excellent advice if you can make it happen.

@EspeciallyLime Just curious, where are exams subject to mandatory review?

@AzorAhai-him- it has been the case in universities I have worked at in the UK. I got the impression it was completely standard here.

@EspeciallyLime Good to know.

Like Federico Poloni wrote in their answer, getting more students behind the cause will make it much stronger.
You have attempted to improve their lectures, but failed.  Speaking correctly is very hard since you have think about the subject matter and language at the same time.  They are not willing to make that effort.
Give up on that and concentrate on what is important:
The Exam
The exam should be clear, unambiguous and correct.
If you have examples from previous exams that have failed any of these goals, that is where you should take the fight.  Be very concrete: "This sentence states X, but according to the suggested solution, you actually meant Y."
Make clear that students can actual fail because of the professors incorrect language.
Writing correctly is easier than speaking, since they can first think about the content and then go over a second time and look at the language.
You should suggest that they consult a native speaker to help them.
The exam is very important and should be worth the extra effort.
I am afraid you might have to take this fight twice.  First before the exam.  Then, when they haven't listened, repeat the fight so that people don't get bad grades because they misunderstood the questions.
After all that, warn the next year students they might have to repeat the fight.

I occasionally gave him some suggestions in a very polite way

So you have already tried offering him unsolicited advice...

He always responsed with something like "well, it is nature to use this in real life" and suggested me to familiarize myself with his English instead

and he responded poorly.

It disappointed me.

Yes, this is disappointing; you would expect that anyone speaking a foreign language would be pleased to get feedback from native speakers. Still, it is not really your role to provide this feedback, and he has made it clear that he is not open to receiving it. So, you should not broach the subject again unless you are invited to (e.g., in an end-of-course evaluation).

Although the feedback was unasked for, since "... some past exam papers, and there is an inconsistency between the written requirements (in English) and his proposed solutions (mathematical translation of the requirements)" the communication issue can and will affect the grades, and affect the overall quality of the class too. If the question was "instructor uses unconventional and inconsistent notation that stops us from correctly comprehending lectures and solving assignments" would you still say that unsolicited feedback from students should be avoided?

Yes, actually. It sounds like OP has already tried offering feedback more than once with negative results.  In really serious cases, you could try to insist, or escalate the issue, but that does not seem to be the case here.

I agree with the gist of your answer (do not broach the subject again). But I don't think that we can know from the question that the OP is a native speaker. If not, it would be one learner offering unsolicited advice to another learner. That's much more sensitive and potentially face-threatening than an interaction between a native speaker and a learner.

@Schmuddi OP's profile says they are from Adelaide, an English-speaking city, but the language of OP's original post makes me wonder whether English is perhaps OP's 2nd, 3rd, etc. language, e.g. "using wrong grammars" and "He always responsed" and "suggested me to"

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Are mathematics REUs absolutely limited to undergraduates?
I had an amazing time at my REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) last summer.  I would really love to do another one this year.
Problem is, I am about to graduate, so I will technically not be an undergraduate this summer.  I do intend to continue my education in graduate school in the Fall, and have been admitted somewhere.
I've been told that I should just kick back and relax this summer so that I'm fully unwound for grad school, but I don't have any money to travel, all my friends will have left for their grad school already, and there's really nothing that would stress me out more than sitting around and doing nothing for three months.  I love to travel, make new friends, and learn cool stuff, so I think doing another REU would actually be the perfect way for me to unwind.
At my last REU, we had a student who had graduated that year and was about to go into a Master's program.  It was rumored that she had omitted/lied about this on her application and the admissions people just didn't look into it carefully.  I don't know if this is true, though.  It seems possible that the program staff simply felt her application was strong enough to warrant making an exception - after all, she wasn't going to grad school yet.

Is it possible to be admitted to a mathematics REU the summer between undergrad and graduate school?

If not, would offering to go without pay (for only room and board) make any difference? What about REUs in physics, or compsci, or other sciences which might want somebody with a math background?

Why not write to the REUs you would like to apply to and ask them?  (It's best to check their web sites first - for example, http://www.d.umn.edu/~jgallian/inst.html says Duluth will not admit students in your position.)  I suspect most will not, but policies might differ between sites, so looking into each case individually is the only way to know for sure.

Incidentally, I think this is largely a funding issue.  The NSF funds REUs partly to help students decide whether to go to grad school, and from that perspective there's no point to admitting a student who is already going to grad school.  I don't know whether NSF forbids admitting such students, or just discourages it, but even if they forbid it some REUs may also have alternative sources of funding.

(Actually, on second reading the Duluth link I gave above does not say you cannot be admitted, just that you cannot receive a stipend.  It's hard to know how carefully it is meant to be read, but it suggests that perhaps the "go without pay" option might help there.)

I think I've seen (but am too lazy to find) REUs (probably physics) that would accept people at your stage, sans the 'already accepted' part. As others have noted, that kind of runs counter to the point of REUs. I agree with the other ideas posted - offer to go without pay, or look for other gap programs (research or otherwise). If you like travel but have no money, you might look into volunteer programs (possibly having nothing to do with your field of study).

I quote from the NSF REU guideline (emphasis mine):

Eligible Student Participants: Undergraduate student participants
  supported with NSF funds in either REU Supplements or REU Sites must
  be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United
  States. An undergraduate student is a student who is enrolled in a
  degree program (part-time or full-time) leading to a baccalaureate or
  associate degree. Students who are transferring from one college or
  university to another and are enrolled at neither institution during
  the intervening summer may participate. High school graduates who have
  been accepted at an undergraduate institution but who have not yet
  started their undergraduate study are also eligible to participate.
  Students who have received their bachelor's degrees and are no longer
  enrolled as undergraduates are generally not eligible to participate.
  For REU Sites, a significant fraction of the student participants
  should come from outside the host institution or organization. Some
  NSF directorates encourage inclusion in the REU program of K-12
  teachers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Please
  contact the appropriate disciplinary program officer for guidance.
  Within the framework of the basic eligibility guidelines outlined
  here, most REU Sites and Supplements further define recruitment and
  selection criteria, based on the nature of the particular research and
  other factors.

So this means that (a) your host will not be able to receive funding for you from the NSF if s/he accepts you into the program (b) on the other hand if you and/or the PI of the grant is able to secure funding otherwise, there's generally no rule saying that a student in your position cannot be involved in research in some way.
You will need to individually contact the REUs you are interested to find out whether they'd be willing to grant you the leeway.

There do exist programs for this period of time (between undergraduate and graduate programs). The ones that comes to mind are EDGE (which you can see on their webpage is limited to women) and the PCMI summer school. I believe there are others, as Henry points out one should google 'summer school' instead of 'REU' to get at them.

REUs are almost all a specific NSF program which, as Willie points out, generally doesn't allow students in your situation.
However the programs called "summer schools" (not to be confused with credit bearing courses offered by universities in the summer) often do allow graduate students (and some have graduate students as their main target).

You could consider doing an internship (for statistics openings, see http://www.amstat.org/education/internships.cfm), although doing this mid-March is jumping on a train that had left the station, judging by the deadlines. You also need to have something more applied in your resume than pure math to be of interest to industry folks, too.

Not all REUs allow graduating undergraduates, but some do. I know for a fact that the RIPS programs (both the ones in UCLA and Hong Kong) do. I personally did the REU in Hong Kong after my senior year and it was an amazing experience.
Note that this is an exception since the REU funding isn't directly REU funding but through the math institute IPAM, so maybe there are similar practices at other math institutes such as the REU in Minnesota run by IMA, though I am not certain because I do not have personal experience with the others.

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How to handle severe illness in promotion and tenure reports?
I have been suffering from a chronic, progressive disease the last few years, but during this past spring semester, it advanced much more rapidly, leading to massive declines in both my physical and emotional health. My teaching evaluations suffered, since I was just not in a place to spend much time working on prepping for lectures, and the changes I had hoped to incorporate didn't work as planned.
What's the best way to go about making sure this information is properly documented, so it has as minimal an impact as possible on my promotion and tenure cases? We do an annual review, and I have already been in communication with my chair and dean, who are aware of my situation.

What country is this? How are disability accommodations usually handled? I'm going to add a tag for "disability" since the issues are similar for any disability which interferes with productivity.

How this should be handled can depend a great deal of your university's local policies.  In my department, a colleague broke both her legs and was confined to a wheelchair for over a year.  It cost her heavily, and she was denied tenure.  Literally the day after her employment ended, the university announced a new policy to stop the tenure clock and provide accommodations for tenure-track faculty who had experienced serious medical or family problems.

@Buzz Wow. That is really unfortunate and illustrates why this kind of issue need to be handled through formal channels. Depending on the country, what happened to your colleague might be illegal.

I'm sorry to hear this. I think you should talk with your department chair/dean immediately, both to document your situation (if only informally) and to learn if there is any mechanism for medical leave or similar accommodation.  Sadly, policies differ wildly even within the same country (or at least in the US).

@JeffE Policies might differ, but refusing reasonable accommodation is illegal discrimination in the US, and I believe it is illegal in the EU. The OP seems to have already spoken informally to the chair and the dean, so s/he should probably get legal advice if s/he can't get some kind of written assurance from them or a clear answer about how to document the disability.

@ElizabethHenning: This is in the US; I've added the tag.

@JeffE: I've been keeping them in the loop, as the situation is still evolving.

There are organizations such as Chronically Academic and AHEAD that can help you. Google them. Also, check your AAUP chapter for suggestions.

(I'm very sorry for your troubles...)
To supplement other comments and answers:
In my experience (at R1 places in the U.S.), while mostly undergrads' and grad students' (broadly speaking) "disability issues" have a roughly appropriate procedure in place, just as an illustrative and ominous example, this does not seem to extend to grad students who've (e.g.) had their leg broken in a car accident through no fault of their own. That is, one of my students had this happen, could not do TA (teaching assistant) duties, and had to petition for "leave of absence" and was supposedly not allowed to be on campus, use the library, etc., but was allowed to (!) petition to return. This policy was beyond the power of my department to alter. I was told that the university is "more caring" about faculty in similar situations... presumably because they've invested more in them. But, my point is, I would be very suspicious and untrusting.
E.g., it might happen (given my observations) that dept head and lower-level deans are sympathetic, supportive, and quasi-promise that they'll accommodate... but then eventually discover that "university policy" prevents them from doing what they promised they'd do. E.g., even a signed document from them may easily (!) be countermanded by higher-ups, claiming that they did not have the authority to make the promises they made.
Yes, talk to the disabilities office. The "Americans with Disabilities Act" has not yet been scrapped (fingers crossed), and U.S. (especially public, in the U.S. as opposed to U.K. sense) have considerable power to set accommodations. Yes, they attempt to "negotiate" with relevant work-place authorities, but the rough idea is that you cannot be fired or marginalized for (new or old) disabilities. Having things in place with the Disabilities Office may be your best "insurance" against higher-ups' disavowing your departments' agreements with you, since they cannot so effortlessly over-ride them. I'd absolutely do this.
And, above all, no "accommodation" should include your losing your health insurance just because you have some periods when you can't teach classes!!! Obviously, in the U.S., anything like that is very, very dangerous for people who are not Magically/Luckily Healthy. The reason I mention such a thing is that my student, mentioned above, did lose health insurance exactly due to the broken leg that made him unable to TA... Luckily, I believe his partner's employment covered him. A bit too unfunny, non-recreational Kafka-esque for my taste.
(Again, very sorry about your increasing troubles, and best hopes for no additional troubles due to bad bureaucracy...)

Thankfully, our university is surprisingly progressive on healthcare. Even if you're on full leave, you can maintain your insurance by continuing to pay the regular premiums. Also, we've gone pretty high up the ladder communicating with the administration, so it should be clear what's going to be allowed.

My advice is that you decide exactly what you feel would be an appropriate accommodation and then check with whatever office handles disability issues for faculty about how to document that accommodation. Unfortunately, many US universities are still behind the curve in accommodating faculty with disabilities, so you may need to be persistent.
Do not "negotiate" with the dean or the chair  about this because compromising about your accommodations can be used against you later. I'm not saying that you should be adversarial about it, but any power you have here is now, while they are being cooperative. As Buzz's comment above shows, if you don't get this written in stone now, it will be too late after review.

We've already spoken about stopping the clock if I need advanced treatment (which I almost certainly will), but I will definitely make sure everything is written out. However, some things are still being worked out as we go along—as you said, they're not quite up to speed when it comes to faculty.

@aeismail As far as P&T goes, there should be no reason they need to see any medical documentation. That should be handled by the disability office, which might provide an accommodation such as excluding your Spring 2017 teaching evaluations from consideration. That's all the P&T committee needs to know.

Inagree with @ElizabethHenning. I have seen successful promotion cases where the applicant clearly had extra time on their clock. When members of the P&T committee asked why the tenure clock had been delayed, the chair told us the delay was irrelevant to the case (as per university policy), and the reasons were none of our business.

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text:
How much does being denied tenure damage your career?
I had this conversation with a friend recently (who's a tenure-track professor). He says although he's currently in a well-paid, highly desirable job, he is skeptical about his future because he's got to pass his tenure review. If he fails that, then the university effectively slaps a "not good enough" sign on top of his head that makes him unemployable both to other universities and in industry.
I suspect he's exaggerating a bit (since people who are denied tenure can't just disappear, they must be able to find employment somewhere else), but still:

How much damage is it to your career if you are denied tenure?
How does one explain being denied tenure to a future employer? (Both in academia and industry)

There is a delicate issue of causality that makes your question tricky to give a convincing answer to (even assuming the basic premise has some truth to it, which I am not at all sure is the case). If someone hypothetically was denied tenure and then found themselves unemployable, are they unemployable because they were denied tenure, or are they unemployable because they aren’t very good at what they do, which is also why they were denied tenure? How does one establish that it was the denial of tenure that was the root cause of the unemployability?

One important point: how would other people know that someone was denied tenure? Is it a public informartion, and in which country?

What happened to my comment responding to Dilworth? Presumably the interviewer will ask "why are you leaving your current job?" and one would have to say that one was denied tenure.

Has he considered lying and just saying he didn't fancy staying at that institution or he wanted to move to a new city?

@Allure, for some mysterious reason my reply has disappeared as well. So I repeat it: When asked about his motivation of leaving, the candidate can simply not reveal the truth, as is very common.

I am (really, really) shocked some people are seriously suggesting being dishonest. I might ask that as a follow-up question sometime.

"makes him unemployable both to other universities and in industry": I highly disagree. Industry standards are not comparable to university ones. I remember a funny quote: What happens to someone who fails an academic career? He/she ends up with an industrial job with 3x the salary.

Totally---I was also shocked when I discovered, around junior high school, or before, that some people say things that are not the truth. And I am (really, really) shocked that you didn't know that!

@Allure: Today information is widely available. You will be asked about previous experience at an interview. Lying on an interview is not the best thing. However, in industry, what you can do is often more valuable than a long CV. If you prove you can do the job, then losing tenure is not a problem.

It depends on why and it depends on where. Being denied tenure for misconduct can be a career killer if it is known, of course. But being denied tenure from a very highly rated place might have little effect except at similar places.
There are some places where it is very difficult to achieve tenure and a much smaller fraction of early career academics make the grade. But those are places where the standards are very high. I once heard a (perhaps apocryphal) story of a place that never tenured anyone, but thought of themselves a a sort of training ground for academics at other institution.
In general, standards for tenure vary and it should be obvious that it will be harder at those places that have a lot of distinguished researchers (and/or teachers). There are even liberal arts colleges in US with such high standards.
So, no, it isn't a block in itself, provided that you meet the standards at the place you are next hired. But you have to produce. There aren't many free rides.

I'll also note that it is possible to be denied tenure for "political" reasons in a dysfunctional department. That has its own problems going forward.
It is even possible to fail to earn tenure for financial reasons. A university suffering a funding crisis, perhaps.

As for how to explain it, you may not need to if your new target is appropriate and the place you didn't earn it was much higher ranked. You will need to explain things like your teaching philosophy and research arc, but that is true anyway.
But, if you don't, then people will make assumptions, which may be fine or not. If your publication and other academic record is appropriate for the new place then there shouldn't be much of an issue.
If you decide to explain it, avoid overly negative words (failed to earn..., denied...) for some more neutral terminology assuming that is appropriate. Perhaps you were told why: "needed more publications", say.

+1, Especially for the addition.

Nice answer. It is also possible to be "denied tenure" without anyone knowing it in some places.

I was told that at Yale in some departments, only 20% or so of assistant professors end up getting tenure. I suspect that most of them successfully land jobs at other universities and get tenure there soon after.

The premise of education is that it is possible to be at a point where you are not sufficiently accomplished to jump some hurdle at the present time, but you can train more and become more accomplished to jump that hurdle at a later time.  One would certainly hope that academics of all people understand this, and do not write a person off for the future merely because they fail to clear some professional hurdle at a particular time.  People generally get better at their work with more experience, so being denied tenure certainly shouldn't adversely affect your career, beyond the fact that it is the absence of a promotion at the present time.
Now, having said this, certain universities adopt an "up or out" policy** with regard to tenure track positions and even sometimes in other contract positions.  Moreover, there does seems to be an attitude amongst some senior academics that is quite impatient towards academic progression, and this augments formal "up or out" policies.  For example, some academics on hiring committees seem to prefer younger applicants with less track-record over older academics with an existing track-record but who they perceive to be "behind" an expected schedule of progression, even if they're far more accomplished than younger academics.  Having observed this kind of attitude, it is not unthinkable that being denied tenure might have an adverse effect beyond mere lack of a promotion.  It would be a huge exaggeration to say that this makes a person unemployable, but it is possible that some senior academics might view them adversely, under this impatient viewpoint.  I think this is quite a perverse way to run a profession, but it does seem that some senior academics adopt this kind of view.  I agree with you that your friend's view is an exaggeration, but it's not completely baseless.
I'm not sure there is any need to "explain" being denied tenure.  In academia people understand that tenure requirements are difficult, and they also require that academics follow a very specific pathway.  The absence of meeting those requirements is not something mysterious that would require any explanation.  Hiring committees in academia look directly at your publication record, grant record, and other direct measures, so they have the ability to directly assess the kinds of things that a tenure committee would consider.  (Ironically, a hiring committee would probably only ask for an explanation of why you were denied tenure if your record is really good with respect to the measures usually used in tenure decisions, in which case they might worry that there is some unobservable reason for denial.)  In most industrial jobs, most of the managers hiring people barely have a clue how academic tenure works (some don't even know that the concept exists) so an explanation is highly unlikely to be needed.

** An "up or out" policy for a tenure-track position means that if the academic is not granted tenure at the end of the review period then their position ends.  In many cases there is a limited grace period (e.g., one year) where the academic retains their job temorarily while they look for a new position.  The "up or out" employment arrangement is common in some countries, such as the US.

The OP didn't specify a country, but formal "up or out" policies are almost universal for tenure-track positions at American universities.

Clarification needed I think: (1) what is  "up or out" policy? (2) and what is the meaning of "an attitude [...] that is quite impatient towards academic progression"? [my emph]? What does it mean to be "impatient" here?

@Dilworth An "up or out" policy, in this context, means that if you are not granted tenure by the end of some fixed period, then your job ends.  (Again in the US, typically you get one more year after being denied tenure during which you can apply for other jobs.)

And what is "impatient towards academic progression"?

I've added an example of this to make it clearer.

Thank you! -----------

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text:
COVID-19 - how do I navigate this situation with my advisor?
I am a Master's student in epidemiology. It's an insane time in our field right now. Of course, I find what's going on fascinating (that's why I am in this field), but extremely stressful as well.
I have 2 advisors. My primary advisor is not working on COVID-19 related stuff. So, although she's really busy trying to re-plan all of her classes to be remote and just reorganize everything, she is not responding directly to the outbreak. My co-advisor, however, is on the response team for the outbreak in my country. Basically, she is working with the government to create models to predict the trajectory of the disease. I had a meeting with her 1.5 weeks ago and she said basically all she has on her mind is COVID-19. That was before the world went into quarantine so I imagine things have become even busier for her.
My primary advisor sent me an email today talking about how to move forward and in the email she mentioned that it does depend on how busy my co-advisor is (but also assured me we would figure this all out).
Unfortunately, the project I am working on now is a modelling project and my primary advisor isn't a modeller, so it's my co-advisor that needs to move the project forward. I still have other things to do for my thesis, but I am almost done those other things and I am just in the editing stages. I have a lot more to do on my modelling project, but my co-advisor is extremely busy right now. I am finished what she asked me to do a couple of weeks ago and want to send it to her.
Sorry for the long post explaining my situation. My question is, should I send her the things the I have finished or would that be a bit tone-deaf? What should I even say in the email? I don't want to come off as not caring about the biggest health crisis in at least a decade while asking her to review something that's not even related to COVID-19. How should I even frame the email or should I hold off from sending her things for a few weeks?
If it makes a difference, although I do have an office, I can do 100% of my work remotely (and do usually work from home at least 3 days a week).

You note, it's my co-advisor that needs to move the project forward, but surely it's you that needs to move forwards, especially as your thesis is nearly complete. Your co-advisor is on the response team for the outbreak in my country, which can be their only priority. If you cannot move forwards without them, then maybe ask your department to find a solution, e.g., find you a third advisor.

She tells me what to do next. For this project, I do small steps at a time. I work on creating something for a couple weeks, show it to her, and then she tells me what I should look at as next steps. After I finish that, she tells me additional steps.

At the masters level, it should be fine for you to drive your thesis forward yourself. You could come up with next steps on your own, and then send your thesis advisor your current batch of results and describe what you are going to do next. Say you understand she is busy with the response and you just wanted to keep her looped in. When you are interviewing for jobs, this will be a great story to provide evidence of independence and self-direction.

As someone who's been out of academia for a while, I would like to offer a different perspective. Yes, occupying your co-advisor's attention when the roof is on fire is tone-deaf. However: you have acquired skills that are obviously in high demand these days, and are thrown into a (hopefully) once-in-a lifetime situation to apply these skills. Especially since you're not on a strict deadline with your thesis, there are now more important things than finishing the thesis at the scheduled time. See this as an opportunity, not an obstacle.
Check if this is okay with your primary advisor, then send a mail to your co-advisor saying that you would be glad to put your thesis on ice and help her with her COVID work if she has anything you could be of help with. If you are a capable student, she probably will.
Then, when things have calmed down, reevaluate the situation, see what you have learned in the meantime, and continue from there.

+100 for “once in a lifetime situation”. It truly is a unique opportunity for OP to do cutting edge science that benefits humanity.

I'd add that from a selfish perspective, COVID-19 papers are likely going to get a fast track and a ton of citations right now.  If you can help out your co-adviser, it will likely be good for your career as well as helping the world.

I agree with this in total. I would send an email to update her on your status, ask for feedback explicitly saying you understand if it will not be a timely feedback, and then offer your help with sharing some work, this last only if it is in your interest (and it would really benefit you, so it should really be).

Yes, it’s fine to email her, but the email should be a lot shorter than your post here. Keep it to an absolute minimum and spare your poor overworked co-adviser having to read any unnecessary apologies, hand-wringing, expressions of sympathy and whatnot.
Something like this might work:

Dear co-adviser,
I’m following up on our meeting from last week. As you remember, I need some input from you on Project X. Specifically:

A (by March 29 if at all possible)
B (deadline April 21)
C (anytime before mid-May)

See attached documents.
I understand you are extremely busy with COVID-19 related matters. If you think you cannot help with this, could you please at least reply with a quick acknowledgement and/or suggest some other people or resources I could use to be able to complete the project? I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
aspire94

That's close to perfect. Maybe add an 'if I don't hear from you I'll be doing X' type of comment?

...and if OP is willing/interested, an offer to help with the COVID-19 work.

-1 because while the suggested email would work well in most situations, this is not a normal situation. The professor is literally working round the clock to save lives. This is no time to ask for "acknowledgment" or suggestions. You either help the firefighting or step out of the way. The thesis can wait.

@Sam thanks for the comment. We don’t know that the co-adviser is “literally working round the clock to save lives”, that’s your own interpretation. What we were told is that “she is working with the government to create models to predict the trajectory of the disease”. I’m guessing she still has time to eat, read the news, and do other mundane things, including attend to a few non-COVID-19-related work matters here and there. The situation is certainly not normal, but there isn’t anything offensive about the email. And if she truly doesn’t have time to read or answer it, obviously she won’t.

+1. I am not a native English speaker so I may be wrong, but "See attachments" sound imperative to me. I would recommend to set up some cloud service (Dropbox,...) or a github repository and write something like "I will put [work] in [service]. When the situation is back to normal, you can use it to check my progress."

@Taladris well, technically speaking it does use the imperative tense if that’s what you mean. But it’s a standard way of expressing things in English and not offensive in any way. (Apparently some cultures may be sensitive to this sort of thing though - reminds me of this question.)

@Taladris thanks for the +1 in any case!

I don't see any harm in sending this co-adviser the work you've completed, provided you include a cover message saying that you're aware how busy she is with the high-priority work on the COVID-19 epidemic but you'd really appreciate it if she could find time to suggest what you should do next.
That was assuming that, when you wrote "she tells me what to do next", you meant that you really have no idea what to do next without being told. If, on the other hand, you do have an idea, you might mention it in your cover message. Something like "Might it be reasonable to look into X next?" could make it easier for her to either just say yes or suggest an alternative.
By the way, although things may be very different in your field, my experience has been that the students who always need to be told exactly what to do tend to be the weaker students. You (and in particular your letters of recommendation) might benefit if you can produce, on your own, some ideas about how to continue.

I wouldn't call myself a weak student... I am actually one of the stronger students in the program. It depends on which project I am working on. My first project (which I am in the editing stages of now), I did that very independently. I had guidance at the beginning to set the project up, and of course I had questions during my weekly meetings, but in general I always knew what to do next. That was the project where my primary advisor was in charge of. My co-advisor just does things a bit differently. That being said, I could definitely suggest something to look into next. That's a good idea

I would +1 except for the last paragraph. It's not exactly false, but what it seems to insinuate is that the OP is a weak student, and that doesn't seem fair here.

@aspire94 I'm glad you did an earlier project very independently. That's what I was hoping would happen when I wrote the last part of my answer, and it's good that it had already happened. Encourage your first adviser to mention your independence in the letter of recommendation.

I actually think the last (third) paragraph is an important piece of information, and thoughtfully delivered.

The third paragraph is poorly considered because it gives causative weight where it isn't warranted. If you are a strong student and you come up with independent ideas, that's great and people will take notice. If you are any kind of student and you let your advisor come up with ideas, that's probably fine. If you are a weak student and you come up with independent ideas, you're sunk. Going your own way is not going to make you strong if you're not already; it merely highlights your existing strength.

I think the last paragraph is not true. I had a lot of weak students who showed a lot of initiative -- but in the wrong ways..

Can you adapt your model to deal with the problem that is interesting everyone else? You don't have to come up with a magical solution to modeling the COVID outbreak, just use your knowledge to say something interesting and relevant. Help your co-advisor with the collection and synthesis of data, do your bit of modeling and write it all up. The level of interest in the topic will out-weigh the downsides of having to change tack at this late stage of your studies.
You need to discuss this (or any other option) with your primary advisor first.
Keep the material you have already completed, and try to discuss it with your co-advisor in if and when the COVID outbreak is under control.

I can't really do that. My second project (current one) has to be somewhat related to my first one. And my first one is completely unrelated to COVID or even viruses (I am looking at a bacteria). My model cannot be adapted to COVID. It just won't work, what I am studying and COVID are completely different things. I have contacted my primary advisor who is asking what my other advisor is doing with regards to student feedback

OK, I can see that the idea of adapting your model was misplaced. Offering to help out with managing data might still be a good move ... though I don't know how this works in your field. Otherwise, I support the suggestions above that a polite email would be worthwhile.

@aspire94 All disease modeling projects are "somewhat related" - if there's an option to help with the modeling that your coadvisor is doing, you might do something of immediate practical use, and get coauthorship on a decent paper that's relevant right now, which iwould IMHO just as (or even more) useful for a final thesis than another bacteria-related modeling project.

@Peteris My first project is not a disease modelling project, so the topics have to be related. In this department, your topics need to be related. So if my results from my first project showed something, I have to somehow implement those findings into my second project. We can't do 2 completely distinct modelling projects. But I will ask my advisor if there is anything I can help with, and hopefully there is something (because I do really want to work on COVID-19)

I would go with
Dear Co-Advisor,
last week we agreed on ...
Of course, all our previous plans are now obsolete.
Please let me know if I can be of any help.
If not, as I want to continue my work withouth putting any burden on you,
I appreciate if you point me towards someone I could get in touch with.


text:
How can I report an author for using an unethical way of increasing citation in his work?
A professor of mine has been asking students to write research papers for conferences. I wrote a paper and submitted it to him, and he uploaded it in a conference through EasyChair.
While going through the uploaded paper on the conference portal, I found out he had changed the references and replaced them with his own personal work. I immediately withdrew the paper.
Now, while going through his Google Scholar entries, I found out he has been doing this continuously to increase the citation count.
What should I do?

Is there a disciplinary committee in your university?

Is the prof a co-author of the paper?

@MassimoOrtolano, yes there is.

@FedericoPoloni, yes he is co-author.

I’m curious, was the submission blind (authors hidden from reviewers)? A lot of citations to one person’s work can be a red flag to reviewers, and if that person is an author, a huge red flag.

@FredDouglis, yup submission was blind, and it was an IEEE conference.

If the professor is an IEEE member (I assume that the conference was an IEEE conference), then they signed an ethics statement and is subject to IEEE censure. IEEE has a way to denounce someone that protects the whistle-blower. If this was indeed an IEEE conference, but your professor is not a member, then IEEE might still get involved. People have been "black-listed" by IEEE and were not allowed to submit to any IEEE conference for a certain number of years. Since this action is public, it is quite embarrassing for the institution. At the same time, I trust that IEEE procedures are good, protecting both you and your professor.
Ideally, your institution has an ombudsman or similar person that you can go to to share your suspicions with. Unfortunately, often this ideal is not achieved and I will not assume that you (and your professor) would be protected by clear rules of proceeding and confidentiality.
Now, before you go to IEEE, you should do your homework. Write up your case, provide documentation (the conference should have access to your original submission, etc.) and why you are so certain that this is not an isolated incidence. You might also explain why the inserted citations are not appropriate. An obvious defense is that a professor is supposed to help students with publications, and this includes adding pertinent references. Once you submitted your request, you need to leave it to them. That can be very hard.

Given the OP withdrew their paper and the professor is certainly aware of this, keeping anonymity/confidentiality will be hard anyway.

"IEEE has a way to denounce someone that protects the whistle-blower." I hope that your intent was to convey almost the opposite of what you wrote there, unless you intended to paint the IEEE as quite evil.

@Glen_b "IEEE has (a way to denounce someone) that protects the whistleblower."

denounce - "... 2. (transitive) To criticize or speak out against (someone or something); to point out as deserving of reprehension, etc.; to openly accuse or condemn in a threatening manner; to invoke censure upon; to stigmatize; to blame. 3. (transitive) To make a formal or public accusation against; to inform against; to accuse. ..." . Why would the IEEE do that?

There is also "1. (transitive, obsolete) To make known in a formal manner; to proclaim; to announce; to declare.". But it says "obsolete".


text:
A free papers search engine
Someone told me that there is a search engine that gets you most of research papers I may need for free.
He told me that this search engine is working based on using other members access to researches and make it available for all.
I tried searching for this search engine, but I could not find it.
Which search engine is it?

Your friend is probably thinking of Sci-Hub. Warning: it's likely illegal, including to use the service (as opposed to uploading stuff onto it), in most jurisdictions. If it's not already illegal in your jurisdiction, the trend is towards illegality (i.e. lawsuit after lawsuit has been ruled on, and they are usually in favor of the copyright holder).
If you want to do things legally, try something like Unpaywall, or ask your local librarian. Librarians are incredibly good at finding papers, and they can often access something for free even if you can't.

There has been a lot of debate about the legality of SciHub, both here and on other posts. Since continued debate is unlikely to lead to this answer changing, I have moved this discussion to chat. Please use the chat for continued legal debate.

See also this meta post.

I suggest editing this answer to be more focused on the topic of the question.

It is worth noting that using your library to access such work is free to you, but is often not free to the library.

@commscho that goes without saying - sort of like "turning the lights on is free to you, but must assuredly is not free for your university".

In addition to Sci-Hub and Unpaywall mentioned by Allure, there are also databases for scientific papers which were published legally with an Open Access license, such as CORE an BASE.

I would also add to the above the very commonly used resource Library Genesis, which is less for paywalled papers and more for pdf's of books, including textbooks, but do keep in mind that this definitely falls in the same legal gray area as Sci-Hub and things like torrenting copyrighted materials.

Good answer, but I'll add a remark: In many legal systems there is a clear distinction between torrenting and downloading copyrighted material. Bittorrent is a protocol that involves uploading parts of the file you are downloading to fellow downloaders. Hence if you use it you can be prosecuted not only for using copyrighted material yourself, but for making it available to others. The law typically punishes the latter more harshly.

Google has a search engine called Google Scholar. According to them, "It provides a simple way to broadly search for scholary literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites."

Unpaywall is a good option to access free papers from most of the disciplines.
Arxiv.org is an open-source community of free papers. It keeps on growing nowadays.
https://doaj.org/ community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
Academia https://www.academia.edu/ offers a great way to connect to researchers. Refer to the paper you like and talk to the researcher and ask for it.

Simply put the full article name, and authors, as the input of the Google Search engine. Very often, the search engine will pull out some free version describing the same work by the same authors. It is most often some unfinished draft how it was while still in preparation and not yet reviewed, but you will be able to get the most of content, just less polished.

arXiv provides preprints of scientific articles that have not been peer reviewed. Many of the articles do subsequently get published in peer reviewed journals.
https://arxiv.org/

ResearchGate is also collecting the papers from authors and providing that to you for free.
Even thought publishers might serve the Research Gate with DMCA letters to take it down, it has a feature that allows authors to keep their papers "privately", which in that case, you can ask the author to let you see their papers, if it is "private".
The downside is that not all papers are in there. But, it has a good growing number of recent articles.


text:
I found some typos in the proof of the main theorem after submission. Shall I contact the editor?
I find a few typos a few days after submitting a paper in the field of applied math (mathematical social science). The typos are in the proof to the main theorem: I've wrongly written some variables "j" as "i". Some formulas were supposed to contain both i's and j's, but some of them were switched to the other one.
So I guess this could be a decisive factor.
I've checked two similar questions here; the answers are suggesting "Don't worry. Typos are not decisive factors". However in math, it is usual that the referees have a high standard of rigidity, and say that they cannot understand the proof, because it is mistaken.
Shall I email the editor as soon as possible? The status is "under review".

How major are the typos?
If they are minor and do not affect comprehension - e.g. if you spelled "typo" as "tpyo" - then there's no need to email the editor and you can fix the error during revision or production.
On the other hand, if you e.g. used the wrong symbol in an equation - then the typo can potentially confuse the reviewer. It's a more serious problem, and you should email the editor to save the reviewer's time.

I appreciate the answer. It is the second case: I mess-up with "i" and "j". It will confuse the reviewers and will be at least considered as sloppy, I guess.

If all the i's and j's are the same variable, I wouldn't worry about it. Only if the formulas were supposed to contain both i's and j's, but some of them were switched to the other one, would I worry about understandability at this point.

@GregMartin Yes the latter case was exactly what I did: some formulas were supposed to contain both i's and j's, but some of them were switched to the other one.

Certain kinds of typos in math equations can do a lot worse than just confusing the reviewer. Depending on the details, using the wrong symbols in a proof can not only impair understanding, but wholly invalidate the result. When the proof in question is the main centerpiece of the paper, typos can be critical must-fix issues.

@Douglas So you believe that I should contact the editor?

@HighGPA sounds like you should contact the editor to me.

@HighGPA Contact the editor, and don't use the word "typo" in your email to the editor. Instead, describe it as errors in the main proof's equations/formulas. That description will much more accurately communicate why you consider these mistakes important enough to contact the editor about.

Typographical errors can be dealt with during the proofing phase of an article, even after it is accepted for publication.  There is no need to contact the editor in this case; reviewers may point out typographical errors, but they would not usually be determinative of a recommendation on a paper.  If you receive a revise-and-resubmit then you can deal with the typographical errors then, and even if you receive an acceptance, you can deal with them during the proofing stage for the article.

Thanks for your answer. Here is what I did. Some formulas were supposed to contain both i's and j's, but some of them were switched to the other one. So I think the understandability is affected.

If you've accidentally switched variables in a formula, that is a substantive error in the formula, rather than just a typographical error.  In any case, you will have an opportunity for corrections in the revision stage.

A few misplaced symbols in a few equations seems too small to bother the editor with.  If your paper is well written, with examples in addition to theorems and proofs, the referee will probably work around these mistakes.  After all, for every mistake you notice, there are probably three you have not noticed.

Why not contact the journal? I cannot think of a downside.
I personally hate having to correct typos in an article I am reviewing. It makes me feel like the author is simply careless and is inappropriately relying on the review process to get things right.

Contact the journal is just like contacting the super-busy editor. A lot of people are suggesting that typos are ok: this is why I am hesitating.

@HighGPA - while I have never edited a journal, I know several people who have. I think this kind of thing is pretty much what they signed up for.  Many things they have to deal with (i.e. conflicts, inappropriate comments, childish behavior) are way more onerous than this :-)


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Creating a book based on an article (copyright issues)
I've asked this question at math.stackexchange.com, but a comment proposed me to ask this question at  academia.stackexchange.com instead.
Here is my question:
Elsevier explicitly permits me to make a book based on my article published with Elsevier.
What's about other publishers? May these forbid me to make a book based on my earlier article?

Are you trying to make a list of publishers that allow publishing  earlier articles. If you have some specific publisher(s) in mind, that would be a better question here.

Check with each publisher that publishes one of your articles.

@Vahid: Almost all books draw ideas from articles, but I think this question is talking about reusing text from the articles.

@Vahid: Certainly a citation is always required, but it also legally requires permission of the copyright owner.  For the papers used in Chapter 3 of that book, copyright is (probably) held by Elsevier and Springer, so if Connes and Marcolli reused nontrivial amounts of text, then permission was required.  In mathematics it is generally not hard to get permission, so it's not a big deal, but it's important to deal with the legal technicalities when publishing a book (the publisher will insist on it, because they do not want to be sued).

The answer is stated in each copyright transfer agreement (CTA) signed for publishing each paper. If the form says it is okay, then it is. Usually you can get your hand on the typical CTA used by a publisher on its website.
I would advise never to sign a CTA that does not allow reuse of the article content for a book, a dissertation and collected works.

If you need to publish the book and you have found one publisher that allows it.
Why do you seek more?
Elaborate what is wrong about Elsevier that makes you not to pursue it with them?

There are a few reasons why I seek more: 1. Elsevier may reject to publish some of my articles (many math articles and even articles by future Nobel laureates are published after several rejections, it is not counted wrong). 2. I may want to publish with open access what at Elsevier is possible only if I pay the cost from my own pocket. 3. There is a boycott of Elsevier and I'd prefer to be a strikebreaker as little as possible, only in the case if I really need Elsevier.

You'll need to check the particular policies of each publisher to see what is allowed and what is not allowed. However, it is important to remember that the journal's copyright protections are limited to how the material is expressed in the paper, and not the underlying ideas themselves.
Typically, that means that you won't be able to "recycle" text and figures from the article into a book. However, an expansion and reworking of the ideas normally is not subject to copyright violation claims, particularly if you're the author of the paper which was expanded in the first place. (This normally gives you additional privileges, depending on the publishers in question.)


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Discovered a serious error in a reviewed paper after submitting the review, what to do?
I have been reviewing a paper where the authors apply a computational method from an earlier paper they published to a specific system of general relevance. The paper seemed ok, and I recommended major revision in the review.
After submitting the review, I've been working with this computational method myself and discovered that the way the authors applied the method is seriously flawed, so that it makes in general no sense to interpret the result in any way without further tests. If I had noted this problem earlier, I would probably have recommended rejection in my review.
What's the recommended course of action in this situation? Should I notify the editor of this additional discovery, so that the authors can directly take care of it in their (presumably ongoing) revision, or is it better to just wait for a request to review the revised version?
I haven't heard any decision from the journal so far, but I don't think that the paper will be accepted without revisions.

Tell the editor that you have gained additional knowledge and you have changed your stance to reject.  Also the authors might appreciate being told directly what the problem is.  Consider conferring with your more experienced colleagues who can tell you what is expected of you in your circles.

What's the recommended course of action in this situation? Should I notify the editor of this additional discovery, so that the authors can directly take care of it in their (presumably ongoing) revision,

Yes, I think so.  This seems to be in the best interest of all involved: you, the authors and the journal.  It may be tempting to feel "embarrassed" about this or feel loathe to hold up the stately train of the editorial process, but you should resist these temptations: part of being a professional academic is being completely willing to change and adjust to new information and/or new insight you've acquired.

or is it better to just wait for a request to review the revised version?

No, I don't think so.  Put yourself in the authors' shoes: wouldn't you like to have this information as soon as possible?  Revising a paper without knowing about a serious -- potentially fatal -- error sounds like it could be a waste of their valuable time.  Moreover, the longer they think that the paper will be accepted with revisions, the more disappointed they will be when they learn about the true situation.
I would write up carefully your description of the error as though it were part of the original referee report.  In effect this does become a new referee report, but you don't necessarily need to edit this into the old referee report: having already submitted that, the matter of it is to convey the new information.  Of course, the final decision about in what manner to inform the authors lies with the editor.

I don't know about computer science journals, but most of the journals our lab publishes in don't send revised papers back to reviewers, the editor has final say. If you wait for a second chance to look at the paper, you might not get one.

@user137 In theoretical computer science I'd expect, as a reviewer, to see the paper again if and only if significant changes had been requested or made.

You should definitely contact the editor as soon as possible. It is not certain that the editor has provided your review to the authors yet and even if the editor has done so, receiving the additional information allows the editor to make additional decisions concerning additional revisions or even rejecting the paper altogether.
So it is vital that you send your additional information as soon as possible.

It is certainly advisable to notify the editor, so that she/he can pass on the information to the authors. The editor may or may not take this information into account for the decision.
When sending the information, you may want to offer to write a revised version of the review.

In addition to all other excellent recommendations I would just highlight that reporting a flaw in the paper is in your own best interest. Imagine the paper is accepted. Then others will try to reproduce the results or scrutinize the computational methods. If other researchers find flaws in the paper that may force a retraction. Depending on the popularity of the paper that may lead to wonder how it could have been accepted on the first place. In that case the blame usually goes to journals and referees. Although referees are frequently anonymous this hypothetical situation may damage your reputation as a referee in that journal. If referees are not anonymous then your reputation can be even more affected.
On the other side of the coin, if you report a potential flaw and it turns out the flaw does not exists, then probably means the authors needed to give extended explanations- your report will give them the opportunity to do so. That would not affect your reputation- referees' job is to question what its in the manuscript- even when sometimes we may be wrong.


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How should I structure exams when individual problems could use up the entire class time?
I am currently preparing for a new class in an area in which the individual problems can be very long. (My writeups for individual homework problems were often three or four pages long when I took the same course as a student!)
Solving a typical problem involves:

Identifying the correct differential equations and boundary conditions to solve.
Making the correct assumptions and simplifications.
Identifying the correct solution strategy.
Implementing the strategy and solving the problem.

All of the above steps are of critical importance, as we introduce new methods and approaches for each.
Given that, an in-class exam would only have enough time for one problem—so there would be no easy way to evaluate mastery of the breadth of the material. So I’ve been thinking of doing an out-of-class exam. The time would be long enough that the students would have time to think through things, but not long enough that they could spend a lot of time trying to look things up on the internet. The class is also small enough that it would be fairly easy to detect plagiarized work or students copying off of one another. (I suspect four to six hours is sufficient.)
Are there more viable or effective strategies for testing in such circumstances?

Could you give a more concrete idea of the type/subject of the problems that could help think on strategies for that?

Internet is pretty darn fast.   If you gave them an hour the Internet would still be a tool used.  Students discussing the problem but then breaking off to write up a solution might not be easy to detect.

The most time-consuming and least information-bearing step (at least for the purpose of evaluating understanding of the material) is 4. In this situation I've often just given questions asking the students to do 1-3 and explicitly told them to not go through the calculation. It's better if you prep them for this by giving such a question on a quiz first since many students tend to go on autopilot after a couple of decades of being trained to come up with an answer.

Split up the question into subsections that, in total, are the initial large question. Turn these into individual questions, in-place of the expected components of the large question.

Identifying the correct differential equations and boundary conditions to solve.
Making the correct assumptions and simplifications.
Identifying the correct solution strategy.
Implementing the strategy and solving the problem.

Wait. Do you want us to tell you how to test with a single large question, or how to make a test that would "evaluate mastery of the breadth of the material"?

One alternative would be to have multiple problems and with the steps necessary for the resolution in multiple choice questions regarding the process. This way it could be a matter of reading and thinking fast.
At the end they could one of the problems (let's say you proposed 4) and solve it completely.
-- EDIT --
Considering the new information, you could use in-class time for them to get to step 3 and let them solve step 4 out-of-class, maybe with MatLab or Octave (if that fits the course).


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Is it worth to split my book into articles and publish them individually?
In continuation of this question:
I have written a book with a new mathematical theory. I am an amateur mathematician.
I want to publish my book as LaTeX source under a copyleft license.
Does it make sense to split my book into articles and publish articles individually in math journals (after my book is already available)?
If the content wins over form, this seems unreasonable: My book is already available, why to publish articles? Moreover: Won't availability of the book already containing the content of the articles an obstacle for publication of the articles?
Having said that, I have already published one article. My second article was accepted for publication, not published due a LaTeX error and now again in review in the same journal because I made some changes in the article.

This question, and some others you have asked, are great questions to ask a mentor who personally knows your work.  I would encourage you to find someone you respect who could give you some guidance locally.  Happy publishing!

It seems like this has been already answered in your previous question: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/37817/19607 If you're worried about copyright/self-plagiarism issues, this will only be a concern if your book is professionally published (say with peer review), which it sounds like is not the case.

When I was in a PhD program, I knew an upperclassman who carved out several papers from this PhD thesis. You might well be able to do the same, with your book.

In order for your articles to be published in a good mathematics journal, they will have to be peer reviewed. Peer review followed by acceptance is the only real mechanism that will lad to anyone taking notice of your work. Serializing a book this way may give you a good chance to get traction with the mathematics community and to validate your ideas. Just putting a book up on your website is unlikely to achieve any of your goals because the community has no reason to trust you. Peer review is a mechanism to weed out bad ideas and highlight good ones. It's not perfect, but it is frequently helpful in this regard and is the way the modern mathematics community works.
Publishing your work as a book on your website could be an obstacle to publishing it in a journal. You generally have to transfer copyright or give some sort of license to the publisher that guarantees them some way to make money off your work by selling offprints or downloads of your articles. Some journals don't like it if there's any preprint versions floating around out there that are too close to their version. Fortunately mathematics is a heavy user of the arXiv, and so certainly pre-review copies on there (or Github) are less likely to cause a problem with the journal. Read the author agreement and copyright transfer/license requirements of the journal you'd like to submit to before putting things out on the web. The arXiv is well known in the mathematics literature, so you'd probably have better luck, more visibility, and less problems posting your articles/book there instead of Github.
BTW, LaTeX errors don't usually lead to rejection, resubmission, and re-review, they are usually just fixed after review. Hopefully your article does get published in the end, but something seems fishy about the details of your story.