text:
Sex worker student offering her (lawful) services
One of my students is an escort/stripper and she has offered me (and other faculty in my department) her "services". I am pretty sure my initial reaction of "thanks for letting me know, now can you answer the question about how to calculate the standard deviation", may not have been the best reaction. The offers have continued. My head of school is aware of the issue, and has asked if I want him to do anything.
Is the student doing anything wrong by offering her services to me? For what it is worth, prostitution is legal in the UK. Is this any different then a student telling me she works in a restaurant?
What is the correct response in a situation like this?

Did she offer her services free of charge, or is she simply advertising her craft?

@gerrit: Does it matter?

@JeffE I think it might, as one could be interpreted as a bribe, whereas the other cannot. I'm not saying either is appropriate, but the severity of a misconduct can be different depending on what is the case, perhaps (I'm not sure).

Is this any different than a student telling me she works in a restaurant?  If she was not your student, and she asked you to eat at the restaurant where she works, would you say yes?  If she was not your student, and she offered you her "services," would you say yes?  I think the two instances are different.  I think more people would frown upon the second instance.

@gerrit I took it more as an advertisement and not a bribe.

@LordScree The fact that they are in a student-teacher relationship makes the situation rather unique. If she was handing out fliers at a construction sites' lunch break it would be a different situation.

It's worth asking whether she said it in such a way that it could be construed as advertising to her classmates as well, or whether it was explicitly directed at you.  Not that it's appropriate for the classroom in either case, but if it was intended as a general announcement, the student/teacher crossover is less relevant.

@Bobson it was during my office hours. My door was open, but there were no other students.

You know, I knew a couple girls who stripped to pay their way through college, and both of them would have been mortified if any of their classmates found out, much less their prof. To them stripping was a fun, well-paying means to an end, not something they wanted to bleed over into their "real life."  They wouldn't offer their services to friends or acquaintances outside of work.  Maybe it works differently with escorts, but I'm inclined to say that it's not just "advertising her business."  She's hitting on you.

@AlexanderGruber: it could also mean she probably thinks nothing of it, it's a job and a legal one at her place; there is no objective reason she need to keep it a secret especially if she is the type that don't really care about other people's reaction. You're probably reading too much into it.

The offer is inappropriate because it could jeopardize the objectivity of the teacher/student relationship, which is important for a teacher to do their job properly. Let's not assume malice, she's probably just ignorant about when is and is not appropriate time to advertise a business, and classroom is never the right time to do so.

Prostitution is not legal in the UK.

@Matka According to wikipedia "In Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland), prostitution itself (the exchange of sexual services for money) is legal". It is only since January 2015 that it is illegal in Northern Ireland. I have not heard about any changes in the rest of the UK.

Even if it's legal in the UK, even if she's not simply interested in you, even if you don't feel sexually harassed, she is soliciting the same as if she were trying to sell you encyclopedias.  Treat her like any other salesperson who doesn't have a contract with the school.  Rain the fury of the bookstore down upon her.

It depends on you actually:)

I believe a clarification is needed in order to answer the question ("what is the correct response in a situation like this?") properly: is the OP interested in her services, or not?

I have edited the title so that it reflects the content of the question more closely (I think), but I am not 100% satisfied with the result; if you have improvements feel free to do so. I have also removed the tag:sexual-misconduct, because "misconduct" already implies a judgment which is not crystal clear in my opinion.

@Federico I think the tag "sexual-sphere" is somewhat ambiguous and may not be a useful tag. I also think it makes sense to have a "sexual-misconduct" tag on a question asking if the behavior is misconduct, without implying judgement, just as we could have an "ethics" tag on a question asking if something is ethical - even if the answer is that there's no ethical problem. I suggest raising the issue on [meta] if you feel strongly about the tag.

@ff524 I don't feel strongly about this. I don't object to you reverting the tag edit, but in addition to that I'd like to edit the tag wiki to specify that it is used for cases of possible sexual misconduct. I will do it right after writing this comment.

@Federico I approved the edit, but removed the line This tag is intended to be used mainly in questions of the form "is doing this OK?" because there are many other potential uses of the tag: for example, questions about creating a sexual misconduct policy for a university, or about impact of sexual misconduct accusations on future career, or about how to protect oneself against accusations of sexual misconduct in certain situations... etc. I don't think the tag is primarily for "Is this OK" questions.

@ff524 After a little thought, I have suggested a different solution in http://meta.academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3477/rename-tagsexual-misconduct-tagsexual-conduct (renaming the tag "sexual conduct").

If one of the faculty accepts her offer, perhaps she can use a hidden camera to record it and later on blackmail the teacher for a better grade.

@peterh except students are not employees (at least undergraduate ones).

@StrongBad Even if she would have an ice shop and would want to call the prof to visit, it would be problematic. But this student wants to sell sex. The decriminalization of the prostitution happened to defend the prostitutes from the misuses of their "managers", and not make such serious ethical misconducts legal.

It's an interesting asymmetry as if the situation were reversed, you would be fired on the spot. But as a student, in practical terms the university is very unlikely to do anything about it unless she physically assaults you. As it is your only option is to say you are not interested firmly and change the topic. I would ask your head of school to step in if it happens again as well. At least that way the problem can be shared.

Did you talk with your collegues about this and did she also advertise their service to them?

@gerrit: handing out fliers is so 1990s... reminiscent of a Soho phonebox back in the day

First, “thanks for letting me know” is not an unambiguous no. I suppose most people would actually get it, but she already appears to have boundary issues, so you should make it much clearer. The best thing to do would be to make it clear to her that you consider her propositions to be out of line. You can add, that while you don't think badly of her because of it, such offers have no place in the classroom (or in a student/teacher relationship).
In fact, you would probably do the same if she insisted on asking you to come have dinner at a restaurant she worked at: you'd be annoyed by it, because it is detrimental to her (and others) attention. I regularly have students who ask out-of-line questions, and I try to be firm: while I'd be happy to discuss if we were friends, we are not and my class/practicals/whatever is not the right place for that.
However, there is a distinction between talking about sex and dining: the law makes a distinction in many countries, including UK. From UCL's HR webpages (as an example):

Sexual harassment can take the form of ridicule, sexually provocative remarks or jokes, offensive comments about dress or appearance, the display or distribution of sexually explicit material, unwelcome sexual advances or physical contact, demands for sexual favours or assault.

which clearly covers your case, whether the sexual advances are of a paid or an unpaid nature.
Finally, regarding your head of school: the student clearly has boundary issues, probably for making the offer in the first place and definitely for renewing it multiple times after you declined. So, yeah, I would suggest your head of school or a counselor having a talk with her about it.

I agree that the student clearly has boundary issues — all examples I've read about of students doing such work went at great length to avoid ever running into a teacher while working. Whether advertising to sell sexual service is sexual harassment I'm not sure, though.

I'd add that you should make sure any further conversations with this person are conducted in the presence of a counsellor or other third-party, just to be safe.

@АртёмЦарионов I disagree: there are boundaries, set forth by laws, regulations and university policy. I strongly advise to set one's behavior according to one's employer policy, obviously.

In the OP it was not claimed that he didn't want to accept her offer. So maybe his answer 'thanks for letting me know' was perfectly fine.

Why quote from UCL's policies?  How do you know what OP's university is?  Did I miss something?

@aparente001 It's an example of an English university's policy on sexual harassment. Since all English and Welsh universities operate under the same laws and Scotland's and Northern Ireland's laws are generally similar, it seems likely that the asker's university has very similar policies and definitions to the one quoted.

In practice universities set a high hurdle to cross before they are willing to entertain complaints about student behaviour towards faculty.  The safest bet is most likely just to never be alone with the student.  (How many cases of sexual harassment of faculty by students have there  been recorded in the UK, for example?)

Your initial reaction was thanks for letting me know, now can you answer the question about how to calculate the standard deviation.
This answer is ambiguous and at risk for misunderstanding. I guess you mean no, but you're not saying no. If taken literally, this answer says neither yes nor no. Myself, earlier in my life, would have interpreted thanks for letting me know as an expression of interest, which explains the repeated offers. In sensitive cases like this, I think it's important to be very explicit:
I am not interested in your professional services and please do not offer them again.
Like this, at least it is beyond doubt that you have replied negatively.

No question, my initial answer was ambiguous and could have been better. I was so shocked that I didn't handle it as well as possible, but at least I didn't give my standard reply of "why don't you swing by my office to chat about that".

^ Which would have been both hilarious and very, very disturbing at the same time.

+1 Ambiguity can mean flirtatious, though it's clear from the OP's question that it wasn't the intention.

Big +1. I've mistaken things like "thanks for letting me know" for a sign of interest when I was a student. It can be very ambiguous. In a case like this you need to make it perfectly clear you're not interested.

@StrongBad I think yours was a fine response, especially on the spur of the moment.  Most people will get the message, which is that what you care about is how she is doing in math.  You can save the blunt response for people who can't get a message otherwise (like this one).

"Possibly adding as long as you are my student ;)." isn't that direction slightly dangerous as well?

This is the UK, right? "Thanks for letting me know" is a very clear signal of disinterest there. "We do offer xxx" - "Thanks for letting me know" [meaning, "I couldn't care less"]

It is a mild sign of disinterest, followed by a clear but polite "no" if she offers again. The OP has nothing to worry about.

@kleineg: No, Captain Emacs is correct. In the UK it's more than a mild sign of disinterest.

This is only a partial answer.  I would not vote it down if not for the slightly lecherous footnote.

From what you say, the student's actions are not illegal in your country. Most people, including most administrators of educational institutions, would consider this "wrong." The reason is very simple; it could constitute bribery, or a at least a conflict of interest. Apparently, this has happened to a number of people, your university is "wise," and is willing support you (and others).
The next time it happens, give her an uequivocal "no," and tell her that you don't expect to have to tell her again. You might add that you are "happily married" or "in a good relationship" if that is the case. The "second next time," you might threaten to report her to the university. In any event, whatever you do, make it clear that her behavior is inappropriate, and will not be tolerated.


text:
I'm an invited speaker. Can I send a coauthor in my place?
I was invited to give a talk at an upcoming conference. The abstract has myself and two other authors listed. Is it unreasonable for me to back out of the presentation (they were only paying for the hotel, food and conference registration fees and not flight) and have a co-author do it? The reason for me backing out would be over extending myself due to a combination of poor planning on my part and some luck on grant pre-proposals.

The fact that you were invited makes this quite different (versus if you had submitted a an abstract without being asked).

@DavidKetcheson I agree, but I couldn't figure out how to get that into the title. Feel free to reword the title (or the body).

Good idea -- I tried to make it more specific.

Logical nitpick: this isn't a true dilemma, since your proposed action makes no sense: you can back out (whether it's unreasonable or not, at least it's your decision) but you simply cannot "have a coauthor do it" any more than you can auction off the invited speakership on eBay (hmm, interesting idea come to think of it...). At most you can propose to the organizers to invite your coauthor in your place. As for the other aspects of the question, @AnonymousMathematician's answer offers an excellent analysis.

This paper?

This seems to depend strongly on the particular conference, the nature of the invitation, the time available between now and the conference, and possibly other factors. As far as I can see, your best strategy is to ask the organizers of the conference.

One question is whether your coauthor will do as good a job of speaking or otherwise contributing to the conference.  If you are well known as an excellent speaker and your coauthor is not, or if you are a much better known researcher, then the organizers may be unhappy with the substitution.  Another potential issue may be if your name has been used to advertise the conference, on posters or the web.  However, if you and your coauthor are more or less on an equal footing, then I doubt the organizers will object.
I'd recommend apologizing for being unable to make it due to reasons beyond your control (without going into detail), and offering your coauthor as a potential substitute, while still giving them the chance to decline and just cancel your talk or replace you with someone else entirely.  I'd make it clear that you are suggesting the coauthor as a possibility without having asked the coauthor yet, so that they don't feel trapped by not wanting to insult a substitute you have already lined up.

I'd say it depends on what the invitation was like. If all three of you were addressed, and were asked to have someone be the invited speaker, then it's perfectly reasonable to ask to replace yourself; and impolite but tolerable to announce a replacement. If you were invited personally, then - no, it's not appropriate.
However - and this is even more important than what I said above so I'll increase the font size:
It is infinitely better to say you cannot make it because of fatigue or just any excuse, than to collapse and cancel at the last moment, or show up completely unprepared.
in your specific case, it sounds like you're just going to have to postpone something else, even if that means reduced chances of getting a grant, missing a submission deadline etc.
PS - It's a question of ethics as well, not just of etiquette, which is why I retagged. You don't get off that easy...

I don't mean to be rude, but what on earth does this have to do with ethics? If you read the question carefully, OP is considering cancelling his conference talk because he has overextended himself, meaning he will either break the promise to deliver the invited talk (already a stretch to consider this an ethics issue even on a normal day) or be forced to break some other promise. So yeah, I think he does "get off that easy" because it would be quite unreasonable to criticize him for unethical behavior here. Incompetence, possibly (though I don't think so), but ethics? Please.

@DanRomik: He has not overexrted himself, he is planning to exert himself by doing things that are apparently more useful to him (e.g. regard grants he's been awarded). So, it does indeed involve ethics.]

I am just as committed to the grant proposals,  if not more so, than the talk. Someone else can give the talk almost as good as me,  backing out of the grants i am PI on would screw over my CIs and backing out of the ones I am a CI on would screw over the PIs.

@einpoklum I would speculate that if you had ever been a principal investigator on a grant you might not be so cavalier about breaking commitments you made in that capacity. Hopefully some day you will discover what that's like and recognize that StrongBad is being quite reasonable here.

+1 for the first paragraph. If the invitation isn't really personalized (i.e. not necessarily addressed to three authors, but perhaps generic bulk mail to all invitees) I don't think the organizers would mind.

@StrongBad: Note I did not say it is more or less ethical to break commitments regarding grants than it is to break a commitment to speak. But the question of whether you may break such commitments and the implications or justifications for that is ethical; it's not just a matter of etiquette.

Unless this is a keynote address (where the organizers specifically want you because you are a bigshot in your field) it is usually sufficient if any of the listed authors presents the paper. Many conferences have "no show" policies which prevent the inclusion of the paper/abstract into the conference proceedings (and hence prevent publication) when none of the authors shows up.

I think this is less true for invited talks . . .

In my field (theoretical computer science), "keynote address" and "invited talk" mean exactly the same thing. We're not talking about a regular conference paper, here.

@David and in my upcoming conference "invited" means "hey, you showed up last year, so I have your email, care to give a talk this year?" and sending a coauthor would be totally fine.

I'll assume "Can I send a coauthor in my place?" doesn't mean "is this legal or possible?" (obviously yes) but rather "is this an ethical or collegial thing to do?" for which the answer, I'll claim, is "no." The organizers invited you, not your co-authors, for some real reason -- maybe they expect you to speak well, or you're the leader of the work and can comment best on its future directions. And more importantly you agreed to speak. Barring personal or medical emergencies, this means you should do what you agreed to do, and what you were invited to do. Your time management skills are irrelevant. (And frankly, I find the complaint weird -- so what if you have to work on grant proposals? If it's so urgent, do this during the N-1 hours of the meeting that aren't occupied by your talk.)
Having organized symposium sessions, I'd be annoyed if an invited speaker flaked out because they were "busy," and it would not leave me with a good impression of their abilities.

-1 for Your time management skills are irrelevant. Perhaps you are fortunate to be able to predict with such stunning precision your future workload that you have never found yourself in an awkward situation of struggling to keep up with commitments. The rest of us don't have that superpower, and there's no shame in occasionally feeling overextended. How to deal with it is another question, but your statements about time management skills and workload situation being irrelevant or something the conference organizers will have no understanding or sympathy for is strictly false.

Very well-meaning, but none of this tallies with reality. It's common for profs. especially to backout and offer a coauthor/student in their place.

Have you never, once, in your entire life, had to cancel a plan because something else came up? Lucky you.

My phrasing, in retrospect, sounds harsher than I intended. I will again note, though, that the OP is not asking whether it's possible to back out of a commitment, but how backing out is perceived. Have I struggled to keep up with commitments? Yes, very much so. Have I helped out friends and colleagues in similar situations? Yes, very willingly. Have I left "my" tasks undone to keep a promise I made to others? The answer is also yes. These are not contradictory statements. I realize this job of ours is often overwhelming; I often struggle with this. But that is its nature.

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text:
Shortened version of a math book (without proofs)
I've authored a math research monograph (which can be however used as a textbook, as it is structured like a textbook).
Is it worth to make short version of it containing only definitions and theorems (no proofs) in the natural pedagogical order (not the order of proofs, as in the actual book)?
Will it be legal after copyright transfer?

What is the purpose of such a book ? Mathematics without proof sounds strange. Or do you mean to make a handbook ?

There is "main" book with proofs. I consider to create also a short version without proofs, only with results.

You'll have to talk with your publisher (and lawyer) about what rights you retain after transfer.

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text:
Duplicate content in multi-volume monograph
A scientist writes a multi-volume monograph reflecting his latest research results.
In the first volume a certain topic is presented but incompletely because at the time of writing the research on this topic was partial.
In the second volume, more research on the topic is presented and the researcher wants to present the topic systematically. Because of this the researcher wants to repeat information that is already contained in the first volume (otherwise it cannot be presented systematically enough). This amounts to about 8 % of the pages of the first volume.
Question: What response does the researcher have to expect from book editors for duplicating information on the topic which was already published in the first volume?

duplicate in second volume the former research done in the first volume, How much will be duplicated in the second volume?

I think about 15%

I calculated: 8% of the pages of the first volume.

What will be the response of the book editors for duplicating in the second volume information on topic X which was already published in the first volume?

This is unlikely to be viewed positively.  One obvious question is why not prepare a second edition of the first volume, rather than duplicating this information in the second volume?  Duplication seems like a strange solution to this problem.  However, there's a deeper issue:
In mathematics, books are not the primary mechanism for disseminating research results.  Instead, a subject is ready for treatment in the form of a book when it is relatively well explored and understood, so that you can write a coherent and definitive account.  If you are afraid that the subject will progress so quickly that volume one would be an inadequate foundation for volume two, then this is not the right time to publish the book.  I do not believe any reputable, mainstream publisher would publish a book under these circumstances.

But I have already written a book and put it at my Web site. I consider not to publish it officially at all, but instead put its LaTeX source online under a copyleft license. If the World will ignore my research because not disseminated in "academic" way, it's World's problem not mine.

I guess I'm not sure what you are asking.  Is your question whether self-publishing the first volume would make traditional publishers unwilling to publish a second volume that overlaps with it?  (Maybe, but they might view the first volume as unpublished, in which case it might not bother them.)


text:
Send book right before the deadline or now?
I have written a research monograph.
I think that the work on the first volume is finished except that it is not yet checked for errors. Well, I am not 100% sure that I won't make any changes, however now no changes (except of hunting errors) are planned.
I am going to send the monograph to a competition of such works and have the hope to win the prize. The deadline of the competition is Dec 3 (now it's Aug 8).
My question: Should I wait to Novermber (probably using this time to check for errors) or should I send the book to the competition right now?
Will the editors of book sent to the competition help me to find errors? If yes, will submission earlier make their help me to find errors more effective, as in this case we have more time which can be used to hunt errors?
I realize that this may be considered as an opinion-based question, but I ask for detailed arguments in either direction.

I'm a little bit confused: why do you think that we will know the rules of some random competition out there?

@jakebeal Because I have told you the only relevant rule: "submissions must be before 3 Dec". All other rules (such as size of the book, language in which it is written, topic, etc.) are irrelevant for my question

But you asked "Will the editors of book sent to the competition help me to find errors? If yes, will submission earlier make their help me to find errors more effective?" How would we know?

@mhwombat I thought that partakers of this site know typical workflow of typical competitions. By the way, the competition is for math monographs presenting new research in accessible way

@porton, I've never heard of such a competition, and you didn't link to its rules. I don't think academic book competitions are very common. Your best bet is to ask the people running the competition what they want. You'll have a better chance of them telling you then us.

I assume you are talking about the Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize, since the number of competitions for mathematics monographs is tiny and I bet this is the only one with a December 3 deadline.  If so, then:

There is no chance that the prize committee will help search for errors.  If they think the manuscript might contain important errors, then they will immediately eliminate it from the competition.  Typos or other minor errors probably wouldn't disqualify the submission, but they make a bad impression, and it's not the committee's job to help you proofread.
This competition is aimed at exposition of important results that are already well established, not proving new results.  If you submission contains lots of previously unpublished theorems, then I doubt the committee will consider it.  Preparing a submission is not worth a lot of time and effort unless you are confident that the committee will consider it suitable.

How have you concluded that they don't accept books with novel research? Do you have any other source of information than their Web site? It seems for me that they do not say anything like this at their Web site. And yes, my book consists mostly of new definitions and theorems. I will try to submit anyway: The cost of 350 sheets of paper and sending post package isn't that high not to try anyway

If Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer foundation won't publish my research, then I may go this route: I am going to put my research online in LaTeX form under a copyleft license. If the World does not accept my research as "academic" and use it in formal academic work, this is a World's problem, not mine. I just want to make it available for free. Too cheap to be academic?

@porton: Anonymous Mathematician is correct in his assessment.  You have not accurately conveyed the terms of the prize.  It is for a"mathematical monograph of an expository nature presenting the latest developments in an active area of research in Mathematics, in wich the applicant has made important contributions." In other words, it is not a monograph presenting new research, but rather describing an area of active research to which the author has already made important (published) contributions.  As another source of information: please read the prize-winning monographs themselves.

My understanding of your situation is this: you have not published any papers in reputable mathematical journals (I have just checked that you have no publications on MathSciNet) but have a lot of pages of mathematics that you would like to publish through whatever channel you can.  If that is a correct assessment, then submitting your manuscript for this prize would be a waste of your time and the money it takes to send a hard copy to Barcelona.  I write these comments because I've watched you spend a lot of time on this kind of thing over the years and am concerned for you.

I can't contribute anything useful to most of the things you asked.  However, I can give you a couple of guesses that I hope will be somewhat helpful:

I would imagine that the more error-free your submission is, the
better your chances of winning, or at least of making a good
impression on people who possibly could be helpful for your career in
the future.
I doubt that the judges of a competition would help you proofread or
fact-check.
I doubt that submitting early would raise your chances (but do ask).

Aside from all of that, it seems to me that you need to do something special to mark having finished a big project.  Some people go to a fancy restaurant, some people go for a walk in the woods, some people go on a trip to the beach, some people go bowling....  The sky's the limit, have fun!


text:
Are many new math results first published in monographs?
Are many new math results first published in monographs (not in articles)?

What's the difference between a monograph and an article ?

@Suresh: A monograph is a research article which is so long that it has been published as a book.  The refereeing process may also be different.  Certainly one wonders whether for a 300 page manuscript, every page has been read with the same care as for a 30 page manuscript.

@PeteL.Clark: Is a monograph an article? AMS refused my book proposal saying that there are too much conjectures in my work to be published as a monograph. Conjectures are not a problem with an article however. So a monograph is not just a long article, their conditions of review are different.

@porton: As a matter of definition, no, a monograph is a book rather than an article.  The goals of a monograph are however similar to those of an article.  With regard to your deductions about the differences between articles and monographs based on the rejection of your monograph by the AMS: it would seem that you first need to have equivalent content published in AMS journals in order to reason in this way.

One example is Dicks and Dunwoody Groups acting on graphs. This gives the first published proof of the Almost Stability Theorem, and currently has 152 citations on mathscinet.

@NajibIdrissi : See? This one is about monographs per se, not about books.

@PeteL.Clark Monograph doesn't mean "book". It means something focused on a single idea.

Research monographs in mathematics certainly exist, but they aren't the standard form of publication.  They are generally not as prestigious as papers in strong mainstream journals, they may be less widely read, and they may be viewed as being less carefully refereed.  Some important work in mathematics has first been published in monograph form, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a very good reason (for example, extremely long proofs, or lots of valuable material that would be harder to understand or appreciate out of context).
There are some journals that publish extremely long papers in monograph form, such as Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society.  If you want to publish a research monograph in mathematics, a series like this is a reasonable place for it, while a stand-alone book is riskier.

You are generous.

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text:
How to respond to the teacher who puts the feet up while talking to student?
A friend of mine who is from Japan told me that his professor in USA puts the feet up while talking to him. He was saying that he felt very bad with that. Is this acceptable culture in USA academia?

Try a google search for "obama feet on desk"...

Possibly useful to know what level of student.

Do you mean "put their feet up" as in "puts their feet on the desk" or "balances a foot upon the knee?" Those are considered two very different actions.

Or do you mean "put feet on student"? This is unacceptable behaviour in almost all cultures.

In countries where putting the feet on the table tends to defy etiquette, it can also be a sign of power to do so. For example, in German, a mid-tier employee or researcher would never put their feet on the table in a professional environment, whereas a professor or senior executive might.

Perfectly common.... At my lab at NYU, we even have "padded mobile peds" for that specific purpose (maybe not by design, but spot on for it!). But I do agree that sets an informal/trusting tone for the meeting, which is probably a good sign...

Not rude in US culture.

I've done my PhD in Japan, and have had much contact with professors in America and Japan.
The academic relationship and work culture in both countries are very different. In America it is generally not regarded as bad when someone puts their feet on the table while talking to you.
I had bosses and advisors in the US who did this. However, in Japan, the advisor-student relationship is more respectful and professional.
I would like to tell you that you should ask the professor to refrain from putting their feet on the table, but if they do it in their office, it is pretty much up to them. Since the office is the professor's space, I do not think it is your friend's business to ask them not to do it.

Agree except that asking the prof. to restrain from doing that. I believe It's common and acceptable behavior in America.

Commonplace or not, if it makes the student uncomfortable, the student has a right to request it not be done. Again, given the generally more collegial relationship between professor and grad student in the US, you are more likely to receive a favorable response.

Thanks a lot. If this is the culture in the US, do you guys also see the student putting the feet up when talking with the advisor (if the student does that in his/her office)?

@ketau yeah sure, here in Canada (mostly like US) it is not uncommon to do it.

My PhD advisor in the States used to take his shoes off and put his feet up. He almost always had holes in his socks. The way I looked at it was his office/lab his rules (within State and Federal laws). Further the more comfortable he was the more time and feedback I got.

-1 for advising them to ask the professor not to do that.  That is culturally incorrect.  In the US, that would basically be you making a demand about a trivial matter to a person that you should culturally be showing deference to.  Also, just weird.  I understand that it's uncomfortable for you, from your description--what I'm telling you is that from the US side, you're going to come across as neurotic if you bring this up.

You clearly did not understand my answer, first I say "I would like to tell you....," and then I say " I do not think is the place of your friend....."

Interesting, I never realized it was common and not considered somewhat impolite. I personally never minded people putting their feet on a desk/chair while speaking with me, but I guess my Russian upbringing caused me feel like I shouldn't do it except around friends. I don't live in the US, but the country I live in is extremely similar to the US culture-wise.

I do this when talking to students, but if I student told me it made them uncomfortable I would try my best to stop and wouldn't be offended.  I don't think a reasonable good advisor would, so I think the advice to ask is fine.

I think the sentence "I would like to tell you" should be interpreted as "I wish I could tell you"

In the orient showing somebody your feet/shoes is a sign of disrespect.
A person who puts his feet on the desk in the western world shows that he (this is mostly done by males) is at ease/relaxed in an informal atmosphere. However, also in the west this behavior is normally only shown by people who are talking to their subordinates or peers at their own hierarchical level.

Agreed. None of the profs I know in Germany or Switzerland do this, not even the younger and "more relaxed" ones.

Well, when I was a PhD student, many professors have been doing this (e.g., put their feet on the table--and they even wore shorts!). Today, when I talk to students I also try to behave informally. I do not believe that formality has anything to do with science. Formality is something that belongs to hierarchy and authority. I do not have any personal authority over my students. It is science that should be the authority in academia.

You're over-generalizing cultural norms here, both for the "west" and the "east".

Perhaps your friend could tell the Professor, in a somewhat apologetic tone if he doesn't feel confident enough about their relationship, that in his cultrual background, putting your feet on the table is an offensive act, and while s/he is certain the Professor does not mean it, s/he (the PhD candidate) is very distracted by it, so s/he is asking for the Professor's consideration on this matter.
That is, the request to not do this can be made with deference rather than as a form of rebuke.

Your question is "How to respond to the situation". The answer is quite simple in my opinion: do not respond, unless you really cannot tolerate it in which case you don't really have a choice but to respond.

Why would you encourage OP's friend to put up with something that bothers him with no recourse?

@einpoklum The OP's friend seems to have an internal emotional issue; that's his issue to deal with, not the professor's.  It'd be different if the professor were say, smoking in their office, and the student was choking on the smoke - that's a physical issue that would need to be dealt with.  In the US, making a demand like that of the professor would be considered controlling behavior.

@ChemicalEngineer: You're essentially denying that actions without a physical impact can reasonably be seen as offensive and inappropriate. Suppose the teacher would also hang up his dirty socks in the office and OP's friend had to smell them. He wouldn't choke, it would just be very offensive to him. It would still be an "internal emotional issue", wouldn't it?

@einpoklum As an opposite example, what if the OP was's friend was discomforted by the professor's choice to wear a shirt; would it be appropriate for them to ask the professor to disrobe?  These questions of appropriateness are handled by social convention; apparently the OP's friend would be within social norms to ask the professor to change their behavior in Japan, but not in the US.  It seems plausible that, at some point in human history, there was a society in which hanging dirty socks was socially acceptable.

@ChemicalEngineer: In your example, the professor hasn't done something active and out-of-the-ordinary (i.e. not what everyone does), while in both OP's friend's case and my example, s/he has. I think OP's friend is justified in voicing his/her discomfort in some way in these circumstances.

@einpoklum "What to do with a student coming to class in revealing clothing, to the degree that it disrupts the teaching environment?" generated a lot of debate on here.  I take it that you'd have been on the side that the student wearing revealing clothing should've been asked to dress differently?  I ask because you're not factually wrong; it's a social choice about whether or not people should ask others to change their behavior for personal comfort.

@ChemicalEngineer: Not necessarily, since professors have the advantage of authority/power over students and should strive to be more accommodating to compensate for that; will go read that thread now.

@ChemicalEngineer: Ok, totally different situation and I don't want to chat about it here.


text:
Has the DeWitt Clause, which prevents publication of named DBMS benchmarks, ever been successfully defended in court?
Several commercial database vendors include an end-user license agreement provision, known as the DeWitt Clause, that prohibits researchers and scientists from explicitly using the names of their systems in academic papers.
Has the DeWitt Clause ever been successfully defended in court?

Several users have suggested People of the State of New York vs. Network Associates as an instance of a DeWitt Clause being challenged, and struck down, in court. However, this case is hugely misunderstood by the media, and so these answers have been very misleading.
This case was an instance of a DeWitt Clause being challenged in court. However, the court's ruling did not directly address the issue of whether such a clause is enforceable. The court ruled on the basis of the specific wording of the Network Associates clause, and so did not generally rule on the enforceability of all such clauses.
Arguments of the Attorney General
Source: Attorney General's Argument in People v. Network Associates
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, mentions two claims in his preliminary statement for this case. The first relates to the general enforceability of a DeWitt Clause, and the second does not.

Violation of free speech and fair use:

Under New York law, a restriction that broadly chills or restricts important rights -- here, of free speech and fair use -- without a legitimate purpose, will be struck down. This Censorship Clause restricts consumers and the media alike from reviewing the software or disclosing important design or product flaws. Yet it serves no legitimate purpose, such as protecting trade secrets or confidential material.

Deception:

Specifically, it misinforms consumers that the company’s prohibition
  against publication of reviews or benchmark tests (itself an illegal restriction) reflects existing “rules and regulations.” Of course, no “rules and regulations” actually exist, under federal or state law -- a fact that most attorneys, including those who drafted the Censorship Clause, surely
  know.
...
Finally, the Censorship Clause is also void and deceptive because it conflicts with the License Agreement contained with the company’s boxed software. The boxed License Agreement, which is by its own terms the “entire Agreement between the parties,” omits the Censorship Clause. Yet the company then places that very Clause on the face of the software diskette -- even though it is by the very terms of the License Agreement void and unenforceable.

I'll elaborate a little bit on the latter point, regarding deception. The specific text that is the subject of the lawsuit is:

Installing this software constitutes acceptance of the terms and conditions of the license agreement in the box. Please read the license agreement before installation. Other rules and regulations of installing the software are:
a. The product can not be rented, loaned, or leased—you are the sole owner of this product.
b. The customer shall not disclose the result of any benchmark test to any third party without Network Associates' prior written approval.
c. The customer will not publish reviews of this product without prior consent from Network Associates, Inc.

This text was outside of the license agreement. The license agreement itself did not contain clauses (b) and (c). Furthermore, the license agreement contained a clause specifying that it (the license) constitutes the entire agreement between the consumer and Network Associates, and supersedes any prior communications related to the software.
The major claim of the deception argument was as follows: Consumers - having read the license agreement, with its clause that the entire contract between parties is contained in that license agreement, and without the "gag" clauses - will then read this text. They may reasonably conclude that the restrictions on publishing reviews and benchmarks are not part of the contractual agreement between the consumer and Network Associates, and are instead made and enforced by some other entity.
That is, the text deceptively implies that the restrictions on reviews and benchmarking are imposed not by Network Associates, but by someone else - such as the state or federal government.
Furthermore, the clauses restricting publishing reviews and benchmarking are not enforceable at all in this case (regardless of the general enforceability or legality of such clauses), because they conflict with the actual license agreement. Thus, consumers are deceived into believing that they have no right to publish reviews and benchmarks, when in this case, because of the way it is written, these clauses are not a valid contractual agreement.
Opinion of the Court
Source: PEOPLE v. NETWORK ASSOC., INC
The court rules against Network Associates. However, the ruling states that the Attorney General's claims of deception are valid. It does not directly address the first claim, of violation of free speech and fair use.
Furthermore, the ruling explicitly states that Network Associates is

enjoined from including any language restricting the right to publish the results of testing and review without notifying the Attorney General at least 30 days prior to such inclusion

which suggests that language restricting publishing of benchmarks is not necessarily prohibited. That is, Network Associates is not generally forbidden from writing a license in the future that restricts consumers' rights to publish reviews and benchmarks.

So, this is very nice to know, but the bottom line is that this was not an example of the DeWitt clause being successfully defended in court. Still, do you happen to have a link to the arguments by Network Associations rebutting Spitzer's first claim?

The New York Attorney General got a judge to ban Network Associates' licensing terms that prevented customers from reviewing their software without permission from NA. I think this started as a consumer protection suit by the AG's office instead of a customer defending themselves after violating such a licensing term. This was in New York state court, so who knows what would happen if a database vendor tried to sue someone in a different state.

This answer is not strictly accurate. The Network Associates ruling was on the grounds that the specific language they used was "deceptive," not on the grounds that such clauses are generally unenforceable. It was a much narrower ruling than various media sources made it out to be.

True enough, but it's the closest thing I can find.

Then you should clarify your answer. As currently written, it's very misleading

To paraphrase the court, the language was deceptive because it might mislead the consumer to believe that those terms were enforceable. They were not enforceable, so NA should not have put them in the agreement. I think that's close enough to not being enforceable outright.

See this answer. Hope that helps :) The language was not enforceable because it was stated outside of the license, and the license itself precluded the enforceability of clauses outside of the license; not because such language is generally not enforceable.

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


text:
Bulk download Sci-Hub papers
I wonder whether it is possible to bulk download all papers stored in Sci-Hub.

I am aware of the questions:

Is there a more user-friendly way to download multiple articles from arXiv?
Bulk download of arXiv (or other publication data set) with metadata AND citations

but they focus on arXiv.
Cross-posted question on Open Data (not encouraged by Stack Exchange policy): Bulk download Sci-Hub papers

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about the features offered by a particular website.

@DavidRicherby So how about the two arXiv questions? Why didn't you vote to close them, since they are the same question but for another website?

@FranckDernoncourt Because Sci-Hub is a recent venture of dubious legal status and no original content, while arXiv is a massive, long-standing joint venture that shapes the publication practices of several entire fields.

@jakebeal Sci-hub is much larger than arXiv in terms of number of papers. Also, Sci-hub is over 4 year-old. As for the legal aspect, it's up to the court to decide, and that shouldn't impact whether the question gets closed anyway.

@FranckDernoncourt Thinking that one question should be closed in no way obliges me to check every other question on similar topics.

@DavidRicherby Sure but I clearly linked them in the question.

@FranckDernoncourt: I think the real issue here is not legality, but rather the fact that arXiv hosts the files, while Sci-Hub merely acts as a proxy to get around paywalls; it can't let you access any interface (in order to, say, enable bulk download) except that which is given by the publishers. Frankly, I very much doubt there is a way to use Sci-Hub to mass-download papers without effectively DDoSing the service, which, ignoring the legal issues, would be simply unethical IMHO.

This is to say, there are no papers "stored in Sci-Hub", as far as I know. Still, I think the downvotes are excessive, so have an upvote.

@tomasz No paper is a valid answer. I guess I'll just look at it myself without the possibility of sharing the answer here, since the question got closed. They may save PDFs that got queried, I believe some similar services were doing so. E.g. libgen -> https://www.reddit.com/r/Scholar/comments/39dtdf/libgen_mirror/ Also, http://moscow.sci-hub.bz/ccc288e1864c9588274a4de0bd9ff766/10.1002%40%28sici%291097-0347%28199709%2919%3A6%3C545%3A%3Aaid-hed13%3E3.0.co%3B2-4.pdf

@tomasz As far as I know, libgen is holding a copy of every paper that sci-hub has ever got their hands on.

Step 1 will be getting your storage ready. An estimate of sci-hub volume was at 40 Tbytes (see comments in https://vk.com/wall-36928352_7448, in Russian).

Be careful - the last time someone tried to download a massive amount of academic papers from a website it didn't end well.

@FedericoPoloni: Another reason to not obey. Though it wouldn't hurt to be careful.

Meta question about this question: http://meta.academia.stackexchange.com/q/2219/22733

You need to ask how to download libgen, not sci-hub: that's the library where downloaded papers are stored. Libgen offers to download its database dump (libgen.io/dbdumps/ -- if this link does not work in your country, try typing the address in hideme.ru or similar). I see there two dumps, one is 350 Gb and another 3 Tb, no idea what the difference is. In any case, after you have the dump you can set up your bittorrent client to download the whole library (around 40 Tb with all books and papers). That is how one can set up a mirror of libgen.

@amoeba sure a valid (and afaik correct) answer is to say no paper are stored on sci-hub but one should download the dump from libgen..

This is not a useful answer. You can update your question to ask how  to download the dump of libgen. That is the relevant question here.

@amoeba Why wouldn't it be a useful answer? It sounds to me as giving a solution.

I don't think it is obvious how to download all papers from libgen. So the answer saying "download all papers from libgen" is only begging the question. Presumably the good answer would contain the specific instructions on how to download all papers from libgen...

@amoeba understood, sorry I thought you meant the question would indicate how to download all papers from libgen. I agree then it's more a comment.


text:
I can't access a reference of an article I am reviewing: what shall I do?
From time to time, I cannot access a reference of an article that I am reviewing, either because my university did not subscribe to some journals (and I failed to find it myself on sci-hub, Google, and other places), or because the article doesn't seem to be available online.
Pinging the authors of the article (either the one that I am reviewing or the one that was cited) may work, but not always: legal issues (some publishers do not allow sharing papers online), unanswered emails, blind review preventing from contacting authors, etc.
Shall I just ignore the cited article in that case, even though it could be useful to review the article? Or are there other options, aside from asking my library to pay for it (hoping they would agree)?

Good question. Another reason you may not be able to find the cited article online is that it may not exist, which seems like a useful thing to know about when reviewing a paper.

@ff524 Good one! I'll probably choose it for the next reading group, sounds appropriate for the April 1st meeting.

I like how this question has promotional links to OP's previous questions that have little bearing on the current question.

@Drecate You can't imagine how much money I make with those hidden ads.

References are also likely to contain typos which make them hard to follow.

I am confused as to why "ask your library to find a copy" is the casually-mentioned alternative at the end of this - it seems the overwhelmingly obvious answer. This is what your institution has a library for. Of course they'll get papers for you. Ask...

@Andrew Because it's so last millennium.

Possible duplicate of Literature searches in publications when you have limited access to journals

@iwantmyphd: I disagree. This is about lacking a reference as a peer-reviewer while the other question is about lacking a reference as an author or researcher. This is a crucial difference (see the answers).

While online access is very useful, it is not the only access. Every university I have been affiliated has provided an ILL service either at no cost or a nominal charge (e.g., a $1 processing charge). US University libraries can make requests to both the Library of Congress and the National Library of Medicine. I am less familiar with the ILL system in the UK/Britain, but I believe ILL requests can be made, possibly through a university, to the British Library.
There are of course some articles/books that are truly hard to find (e.g., not held by the LoC with deceased authors). In these cases, it seems reasonable to request a copy through the handling editor. You should never contact the authors of a manuscript under review directly.

In the UK, document supply requests can be made to the BL by individuals as well as institutions - but it's a more limited & more expensive service that way. The institutional approach is (usually) free to the user at point of service, as with the US.

So far, all my invitations to review contained an offer for access to publications via the publisher, i.e., they provide you with a temporary account allowing you to access papers. However, I have no experience with such a service as I’ve never required it.
If the publisher does not provide such a service or it does not cover the publication in question, you can still ask the publisher directly for it. This way, you do not break the anonymity of peer review and ask somebody who has a direct interest to supply you with the article – as you cannot properly peer-review otherwise.


text:
How should I deal with becoming discouraged as a graduate student?
I am a third year (starting fourth year in the fall) PhD student in mathematics. I've passed all qualifying exams and am currently doing research. As far as I can tell, I am not doing poorly. I have the good fortune of having a great advisor, being in a very supportive department, and having friends and family who genuinely care about my success.
The fact is research is hard. It appears to consist primarily of staring at a problem for days and days and days without getting anywhere. Sometimes, rarely, I do figure something out and that feels wonderful, but the overwhelming majority of my time appears to be spent banging my head against a mostly figurative wall. I am not complaining about the material being hard, and I am not averse to putting in hard work, but I get frequently discouraged when I realize the vast volumes of mathematics that I yet know nothing about (and probably never will). It's very hard to quantify progress - in particular, there are too few tangible returns after too many hours worked. I find myself thinking along the lines of "Oh, if only someone actually smart were thinking about this problem they would have solved it in moments" and so on.
I've talked about this to some number of people; here is some advice I have received:

Take a day off. Putting in hours upon hours of trying things doesn't magically lead to a solution, particularly if the brain is tired and just wants to sleep.
Have a hobby. Since math research doesn't exactly provide instant gratification, a hobby might provide some instead.
Talk to other graduate students. Realize that many graduate students go through this.

I'm interested to know how other folks have dealt with being discouraged as a graduate student. Does it get better with time and experience? Is this a sign that research is not for me and that I should seriously consider a life outside academia?

@aru I think you should watch PhD Movie ( http://www.phdmovie.com/ ). It shows to you that your situation in not unique...

I would like to impart on you some very good advice that my professor gave to me when I was researching under him: "In the thermodynamic limit, the ratio of time spent understanding things to time spent being confused needs to go to zero. If it does, then that means you're learning something new. Otherwise, you're just doing the same thing over and over."

I share a good amount of your feelings. When I compare to others, I feel I am always less good. I attribute most of this disparity to the fact that usually when other people explain me their achievements they only tell me the happy ending, the things that worked. And the explanation itself takes very little time. Instead, I know all the time and frustration I experienced in my research and study. So it is very easy for my brain to misjudge and think that it required me much more time and effort to do comparable things as them. But it is, of course, a completely deceiving perspective.

+1 for have a hobby to fulfill instant gratification. I'm not in research, but in development, and successful steps are similarly drawn out without any visible progress in between.

I don't know if this will help you. But something bad happened to me  the other day.  And the lesson I learned was this... You cannot move too slowly, if you're going in the right direction.    but anyway, I read the answers and lots of wisdom here from some pretty heavy-hitters. 3-years is really progress, Best

'It it were easy, everyone would do it.'  Read that twice, and really think about it.

This may sound completely silly, but try just walking around with a smile on your face.  Even if only one person smiles back, the feeling is well worth it at least in my opinion.  Feeling positive can help you focus less on any negative ideas you have floating around in your mind.  Or maybe I was just raised by hippies and their mindset has rubbed off on me a little.....I think I should go play Diablo III a bit, I feel awkward.

I rephrased the title slightly to avoid the impression that this question is about other people discouraging you.

I get frequently discouraged when I realize the vast volumes of mathematics that I yet know nothing about (and probably never will).  This happens to all of us.

The fact is research is hard. It appears to consist primarily of staring at a problem for days and days and days without getting anywhere. Sometimes, rarely, I do figure something out and that feels wonderful, but the overwhelming majority of my time appears to be spent banging my head against a mostly figurative wall.

Yes.  This.  And it wouldn't be so damn tempting if those bricks didn't wiggle just a little bit every time I slammed my forehead into them.  Sometimes I think my eyes must be playing tricks on me, what with the repeated cranial trauma and all.  But then I remember how good it felt the last time my head actually went through the wall, and so I keep plugging away.
I've found it extremely useful to have two or three walls to bang my head against at any given time.  Surprisingly, sometimes banging my head against one wall actually makes one of the other walls weaker.  But most walls prove considerably stronger than my head; so it's helpful to have options, so I don't feel so bad about walking away with some scalp intact.
If you're very lucky, one good smack on the bricks will actually bring the ceiling crashing around your ears.  That takes a long time to clean up, but sometimes the debris will knock down other walls for you.  And then you have a whole new set of even bigger walls to bang your head against!

I find myself thinking along the lines of "Oh, if only someone actually smart were thinking about this problem they would have solved it in moments" and so on.

Do not listen to the Impostor Syndrome.  Everyone "actually smart" is hearing exactly the same voice in their head saying "Oh, if only someone who actually knew how to hit walls with their forehead hit this wall, it would come down like a stack of cards." when in fact the wall really is made of brick.

Does it get better with time and experience?

Yes.  Eventually, you'll move from hoping that you'll be able to knock down a wall with your head someday, to being surprised at how often the walls you hit with your head actually fall, to finally believing that you really can knock down walls with your head sometimes.  (For me, the second transition happened some time after tenure.)
But your head will still hurt.

@DavideChicco.it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

Your "Aha!" momments will start increasing increasingly.  Just think of it as a compounding interest function: x^(1+i).  x is the amount that you already know and i is the rate at which you learn.  At some point, your gains will be much more noticable.

+1 thanks for a great answer, and also introducing me to the name of my worst quality/habit.

Over the past year, I've been coming back here to re-read this answer because it speaks to me so much. In particular, 'But your head will still hurt' :) .

am glad others are finding so much inspiration here but it has an overly masochistic frame/pov...

@vzn: But research is a masochistic endeavor; you really do have to enjoy feeling stupid almost all the time.  See also: http://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771.full

interesting coincidence just quoted that same article recently. disagree that the feeling of masochism is mandatory, its only one possible interpretation/ mood/ pov/ reaction see eg joy of research by Gilmore president of Sigma Xi

@vzn The joy of discovery is in no way inconsistent with the frustration of hard work.

& as in your final words/bottom line "but your head will still hurt..." :p

So much of this advice applies to my current tryst with preparation for going to the Indian Institute of Technology/IIT. Thank you so much for this answer :)

I could be wrong, but I don't feel that this is a proper instance of imposter syndrome. The fact is, if I were smart enough to have figured something out that I have not yet figured out, I would be smarter. The way I understand it, imposter syndromer would be more like, "I've just tricked my way into this position and now that I can't figure this out, everyone's going to find out that I've actually been an idiot all this time."

This is an awesome answer, and a great analogy (and there aren't many things I like better than analogies :) ).

@user124384 I think "I've just tricked my way into this position and now that I can't figure this out, everyone's going to find out that I've actually been an idiot all this time." properly describes the instance here. The hypothetical person is in a particular position (in terms of professional distance, like having done a certain amount in his/her professional life), feeling that he/she has tricked his/her way into such position.

+1000 ... sometimes banging my head against one wall actually makes one of the other walls weaker...

This is the best answer I've ever read on any stack X site.

12 years on, I still periodically return to read this, thanks for writing such an insightful answer!

It definitely does not mean research isn't for you.  Research is hard, and it takes some getting used to.  Your experiences sound normal, and it will indeed get better.
Part of the problem is that it's tempting to focus too much on the destination: proving theorems, writing papers.  These things happen only occasionally, and thinking about them (or their absence) too much is an easy way to become depressed.  Instead, you want to reach the point of enjoying the journey itself.  This takes some perspective and confidence, but it will come with time.
For example, imagine that one day you mention a difficulty you're having to your office mate, who tells you about a wonderful theorem that's relevant.  If you're feeling insecure, this is awful: you think about the time you wasted not knowing about this theorem, and you worry that your office mate knew it and therefore you should have.  On the other hand, if you're confident in yourself, then it feels great: you learned something beautiful that will help your research, and how can it be a bad day when you learned something like that?  This confidence can take time to develop, but as you feel more relaxed and bolder, everything will become more enjoyable.
Another thing to keep in mind is that progress is difficult to measure when you don't know where you're going (which is what research is!).  Grad students sometimes feel bad because they don't think they're en route to solving their thesis problems.  Often they're right, but that's not a problem.  If you knew in advance that you were going to solve it, then it wouldn't be research.  The goal isn't to solve the problem you started with, and indeed you often won't.  Instead, the goal is to find something exciting along the way.  Once you're used to this, you can say to yourself, "OK, probably I'm not going to solve this problem, but it's worth a try, and in any case I'm sure that if I think hard enough about it, something interesting and worthwhile will come out of that work."
Basically, I think of this as a phase transition that happens in a certain point in one's development as a researcher.  Before the transition, you think "Oh no, there's so much to learn.  How can I ever learn enough to be a good researcher?"  Afterwards, you think "Well, I don't know that much in the overall scheme of things, but I seem to be doing research anyway.  And I'm so glad there's a lifetime supply of great mathematics to learn, so I'll never be bored."  The key is to relax and trust that everything will work out, even when it feels overwhelming.
I know this is easier said than done, and I struggled with it myself.  For years, I felt like I wasn't a real mathematician, and I would tell myself I would be one if only I could accomplish some goal: publishing a paper, learning some difficult topic, publishing a paper I was proud of, getting a job, etc.  However, it was never enough.  I thought the end game was deciding I was a real mathematician, but it turns out it's developing the confidence not to worry about this, and I've been much happier since that point.

Developing confidence is so huge.  And you won't get it all at once.  Some days I have great confidence and research is grand.  Other days (or even just other times in those same days) my confidence wavers and it's easy to get depressed for a while.  I try to monitor my own thoughts (self talk) and correct it when it becomes less confident.  As Anonymous Mathematician said, staying confident is so much easier when you step back from the goal of proving that next theorem or publishing that next paper, and simply enjoy all the beautiful math you get to learn.

Since originally asking this question, whenever I feel discouraged about research I come back to this thread to read the different answers, and in particular this one. What you mention in your last paragraph (about not feeling like a 'real' mathematician despite milestones which sure sound like success on paper) has always worried me, and the fact that it can get better keeps me going. Thank you so much for this insightful answer.

@AruRay, I continually do likewise. This thread has been one of my life-savers.

It’s been 12 years since I asked this question - I had just begun to do research back then, and last year I got tenure, so it’s safe to say a lot has changed. This answer still resonates with me so much though. On most days I’ve learned not to worry too much, on the other days I tend to come here to read this answer :)

Does it get better with time and experience?

sort of, in that you become smart enough to realize that there ISN'T anyone smarter who would have figured it out in a couple of minutes  :)

Is this a sign that research is not for me and that I should
  seriously consider a life outside academia?

Certainly not !
Research is hard work. You're on the cutting edge, charting territory no one has explored before. It takes courage, persistence, energy and a VERY THICK SKIN for rejection. After all, (and this pertains to CS), probably 95% of your job applications will be turned down, 75% of your papers will be rejected the first time, a grant proposal has a 1 in 10 change of succeeding.
But it's the small sublime moments of joy when you realize that you've discovered something that no one else knows that make it fun. And the feeling, as time goes on, that you're immersed in a wonderful lake of , with beautiful new ideas around you as far as you can see.
p.s the advice you were given is very sound. Take breaks, find fulfilling things to do outside of work, and realize that everyone (even seasoned researchers) feel the same frustrations and highs that you do.

Well, there are people who are smarter that could have figured it out in a couple of minutes, but since they are not working on your project it wouldn't matter much anyway :)

@MichaelLai and conversely, those people that could figure out your problem in minutes might themselves be working on a project for a long time that YOU could have figured out much faster. Everyone has different strengths, and whether or not you already have the knowledge to solve a problem might just boil down to luck.

I love the answers above, but here's another possible bit of advice: find ways to work with others.
Research on your own can be isolating.  Working with other graduate students can make the process much more enjoyable.  Staring at a problem on your own is both less fun and generally less productive than trying to work through it with a colleague.  Synergy happens.  Two brains isn't just better than one;  it's better than two brains working separately.
In graduate school there's an artificial sense that you should be working on your own to get "your" PhD for "your" work on "your" problem.  This mindset is counterproductive, but it may be unavoidable depending on your field and school.  If you have to keep some problems to work on on your own, but then find one or two problems to work on with your officemates or others.  Once you're done with graduate school, the artificial "work on your own" constraints will start to disappear.

Your situation was once mine. I suffered through the challenge of having a project that just wasn't working, while at the same time both of my advisors happened to be on sabbatical. Adding to the indignity, it was a theoretical/modeling project, which meant that the failure wasn't because some experimental device wasn't working, but because I simply wasn't clever enough. If I were, of course I'd see exactly what's wrong, and figure out what's going on! And, to make the pressure worse, I found out that the next semester, I'd be responsible for giving the very first departmental seminar among the graduate students in my class. So, yeah, it was a bit of a perfect storm brewing there.
Ultimately, though, the "Eureka!" moment did come—I was literally walking around campus when the idea struck. And, the next time my advisors were back (a few weeks later), I had a working prototype simulation to show them!
What am I trying to say? Well, a few things:

Don't give up. The course of true research never did run smooth.
Failure is normal—and even to be expected. Just about nothing works exactly as you predicted it would. More importantly, if something doesn't go wrong, then your project  has been badly designed, and in fact, I would argue that you're only doing development, not research!
Don't be afraid to fail! Failure teaches you lessons that you will never learn from success. I needed a few really abysmal grades in college to get me on the right track—the proverbial kick in the pants that allowed me to realize I couldn't coast through college the way I did through high school.

I was literally walking around campus when the idea struck. -- Carry around a small notepad and a pencil in your pocket, for just such occasions.

That last bullet point defines my transition from under-grad to post-grad life.

@JonathanLandrum How about recording yourself with the phone?

I have a perhaps different view, I guess, from most people here...hopefully my experience can be helpful.
Like Louiqa said, it is better to think about it now than later. And it is not about whether you are good in research, of whether you are smart enough (don’t underestimate yourself!). It could come down to what you see yourself doing in the future, perhaps in the next 5-10 years.
I used to be very sure that I wanted to be a researcher for the rest of my life. I did quite well, and actually went straight into a PhD program after undergrad. But I am a very project/task-oriented person (like to “complete” things) and I really enjoy talking to people about science - the basic science research work I did didn’t give me many of such opportunities (long hours at the bench not talking to anyone else). I also don't see myself becoming a post-doc and do more research work. It took me a while to realize that it is not just another PhD student day (and this happened after I passed my PhD qualifying exam with flying colours). I decided to wrap up my project and apply to graduate with a MSc instead.
After everyone went into shock, I freaked out for a week, and then started to look into my past experiences, trying to combine what I liked doing with what I had the skills for. I now work as a Communications Coordinator at a physics dept and I LOVE my job (despite occasionally hating the fact that I don’t have a PhD and cannot lead my own research project) I cannot be happier that I decided to do something else.
To be honest, everyone is different. Another friend of mine just finished PhD, and became a research scientist for a hospital and loves what she does now (she said she also had some really bad moments). In the end it comes down to you. My advice is to start looking at your plan for the next 5-10 years. Do you want to stay in research in academia (post-doc, faculty position, etc). Do you like teaching and inspiring students (teaching only positions?)? Do you want to go into industry?  Perhaps you have other skills (a lot of what I do now depends on the soft skills I acquired during grad school, so still time well spent) that might lead to something that you want to do? What are the qualifications required for what you want to do? These are questions that you can ask yourself now, instead of later.
Good luck and I wish you the best!
(btw, a lot of the other advices you got here are also very good, and were found useful by my other PhD friends)

Can I ask you what exactly a Communications Coordinator do? I have googled but the results are not informative.

The fact is research is hard. It appears to consist primarily of
  staring at a problem for days and days and days without getting
  anywhere.

Here is what I found helpful in this regard: consider switching to a different style
of research. Instead of studying problems, study techniques. Avoid focusing on questions
like "Is X true?" Instead, focus on questions like
"No one seems to have observed that object X is as an instance of object of type Y. Does the available theory about objects of type Y say anything useful about X?"
"There seems to be a parallel between techniques used to prove statements of type U and statements of type V. How deep does the parallel go?"
"Objects A and B appear to both satisfy property Z. Can we prove a general theorem about when property Z is satisfied? What are the really important parts in the proofs that A and B satisfy Z? "
I don't mean my advice to apply generally - this is only my personal experience. I found working on questions of the type "Is X true?" to be very frustrating - immensely rewarding if I succeeded in resolving them, but they felt like banging my head against the wall most of the time. When I changed my research style to study techniques, there was a lot less blank staring involved and research became more fun.

I love the answers here, and I just want to add that I find the following things helpful.

Read the literature. You can get a lot of good ideas from seeing how other people have solved similar problems before. (It's also rather frustrating to have your manuscript rejected by a journal because you didn't do enough reading. It's better for you to find these things out on your own.)
A related point is that learning the vocabulary in another discipline may show you that your problem was actually already solved, but other researchers just called it something else.
Describe your problems to a colleague. Just restating the problem to a third party can help you to see something new. ("Confessional debugging").
Find something bigger to procrastinate on. You can fool yourself into working on an unpleasant task A if you feel like you're avoiding a harder task B.

YMMV because my research is engineering, not math. Good luck!
Edit: I forgot to say that for a short term boost of morale, consider reading all of the Phdcomics. They're funny, cathartic, and painfully true. If you like posting to a forum to complain about the problems in academia, The Chronicle of Higher Education will show you that you're not alone at all. Finally, if you want proof that your problems have occurred before, The NIH Catalyst goes all the way back to 1994 with hilarious comics about the types of people in academia.

Your last point is John Perry's “Theory of Structured Procrastination”, I have found it useful.

The research experience varies considerably across disciplines. I hold appointments in a computer science department and a business school and also collaborate with biologists and medical researchers. In some disciplines you are expected to work solo but in other domains, collaboration and working with a team is encouraged. The depth of the problem being addressed also varies widely. Plant biologists may spend years working on a specific gene and I believe this is true for mathematicians as well. The pace is much faster in computer science and in business schools breadth and applicability to the real world is often favored over deep thoughts.
It is good that you are asking these questions now. I have seen many faculty asking these questions long after they have received tenure and realizing that research is not for them.
Keep in mind that a doctoral degree does open many doors beyond research and that the skills that you have required (logical thinking, formal reasoning) apply widely.

All researchers-in-training must constantly grapple with:
Uncertainty – You have no idea whether the hard work you are putting into your project even matters.
Isolation – Nobody around you understands or empathizes with what you are doing, since they either lack technical context or are too busy with their own creative struggles.
If you can properly manage these two emotions and make consistent forward progress every single day, get private feedback from a mentor every week or two, and get external feedback from paper submissions a few times per year, then you can successfully finish your Ph.D.
The bad news is that it's impossible to fully eliminate uncertainty and isolation when doing research. But if it's any consolation, recognize that these feelings are completely normal; all of your fellow grad students are facing them as well.
Additionally, you have to deal with discouragement. The very fact that there are others like you can be encouraging.

If at any time you feel

You are not understanding what supervisor is saying.
You are not on the right path.
Your colleagues are performing better than you.
Only you don't understand a thing and lagging behind in deadlines.
Your supervisor is not happy with your work.
Your advisor is rude to you but you saw him laughing with another student.
Your work seems easy but others' work is very impressive.
You just want to quit.
You can't quit because of social pressure.
You just wanna go with flow.

Any symptoms like above mean you are doing PhD and almost every student get such mood swings any time. I almost gone through all but when I talked with my colleagues they were thinking exactly like me, some even saying my work is very nice and their work is easy etc... So don't worry just work and read.

Obviously research is difficult but the gratification, though not instant, is worth the effort in the end. Problem solving requires you to bang your head on the proverbial wall. You have to experience failure because working through an obstacle builds resilience. Resiliency stems from your beliefs & attitudes about yourself and your experiences.

Does it get better with time and experience?

Yes, it does. You learn how to cope with not finding the answer. You will also stretch your brain to find other ways of arriving to the answer. As you progress in your career & continue to build your knowledge base you will have more information to pull from when you get "stuck."

Is this a sign that research is not for me and that I should seriously consider a life outside academia?

I would advise exploring other options not because "research is not for you" but because it is necessary to see what life is like in the industry. Then after having experienced both you can make an educated decision. Furthermore, nothing is set in stone. You could start in academia and then move to industry or the reverse.

A duplicate question directed me here. My answer adds another piece of evidence that doing research (in mathematics) can be a drag and it is normal. I've recently read the preface to the textbook "All the Mathematics You Missed: But Need to Know for Graduate School" by Professor Thomas A. Garrity. I recommend reading the entire thing, but in particular, these few sentences made it clear to me that struggling is part of the journey for everyone:

Math is Hard. Unfortunately, people are just not that good at
mathematics. While intensely enjoyable, it also requires hard work and
self-discipline. I know of no serious mathematician who finds math
easy. In fact, most, after a few beers, will confess how stupid and
slow they are. This is one of the personal hurdles that a beginning
graduate student must face, namely how to deal with the profundity of
mathematics in stark comparison to our own shallow understandings of
mathematics.
(...)
Mathematics is exciting, though. The frustrations should more than be
compensated for by the thrills of learning and eventually creating
(or discovering) new mathematics. That is, after all, the main goal
for attending graduate school, to become a research mathematician. As
with all creative endeavors, there will be emotional highs and lows.
Only jobs that are routine and boring will not have these peaks and
valleys. Part of the difficulty of graduate school is learning how to
deal with the low times.
Thomas A. Garrity - All the Mathematics You Missed: But Need to Know for Graduate School

Does the book provide strategies to deal with the low times? It would be useful to outline them in the answer if that is the case.

It's very hard to quantify progress - in particular, there are too few tangible returns after too many hours worked.

This comes down to something called Delayed Gratification. Certain jobs, schools, activies, or frankly anything else, require different levels of Delayed Gratification. For example, at the lower levels, there is the Marshmellow Test. In the middle there are things like studying instead of having fun with your friends. And on top there is college and graduate school. I once heard the following saying, "The Greatest Test Of Delayed Gratification Is Graduate School" or something similar. You clearly have a bunch of it, as you are most likely in a good graduate school and have survived high school and college with good grades. Researching can be one of the things that takes the most. This is a life skill, so try to work on that too. Research will get easier because you'll get better at this - but it will never be easy. If you go into mathematical research then easy discoveries are not what's in store for you - ever.
As to the quantifying progress - Don't try. Also, instead of looking at it as a step function, even if it may be, instead assume you are making progress all the time. And I think you really are. Every path you go down is progress - You've now ruled something out or discovered something. This a tangable return.


text:
At American colleges, are student evaluations of teaching subject to code of conduct?
It is well-known that student evaluations of teaching tend to be spiced with language that is insulting, sexually harassing, sexist, or racist.
Most American colleges have a code of conduct that is would disprove such remarks if they were face-to-face or anonymous writings on the wall.
Does that code of conduct apply to student evaluations of teaching at American colleges, or are they considered exceptions? These course evaluations are largely anonymous, which is why students feel enabled to engage in speech they usually wouldn't utter. But this occurs via university media, not somewhere out in the streets or the dark web.

Does this answer your question? How can I address a student systematically boosting their grades by filing frivolous complaints?

No, not at all. That question is about a completely unrelated matter.

I suspect every college has its own policy, so we won't be able to give a general answer.

"It is well-known that student evaluations of teaching tend to be spiced with language that is insulting, sexually harassing, sexist, or racist." Strong introduction there, totally not leading the question. I am not sure where you are teaching but if that is your experience, damn....

A possible mitigation for this issue would be adding a profanity filter to the online feedback system.

Can you say how this is well-known?

Yes, they are subject to the code of conduct.  However, they are usually anonymous, so there is no means of enforcement.

As far as I know, when those evaluations are submitted online, then there are records of who submitted them. Furthermore, if a University institution relays such comments, aren't they violating the code of conduct themselves?

@Ambicion so anonymous is not relevant - if you promise students the evaluations are anonymous should you keep your word?  Surely that comes under “ethical” or does that not count for you?

@SolarMike Veiled accusations are not called for.

@AnonymousPhysicist afaik these evalutaions are given by students as they are told that they are anonymous... is there a different meaning somewhere then?

@SolarMike: that counts as balancing competing values. While keep the promise of anonymity is a value, the ethics is not as clear cut.

@Ambicion so you make it clear to the students that the survey is no longer anonymous? If you don’t then that must be unethical.  Calling it a balance of values seems weasely words...

@SolarMike You said "Surely that comes under “ethical” or does that not count for you?"  This implies "I think you do not care about ethics." which is inappropriate.  Also, your suggested duplicate is inappropriate.

@AnonymousPhysicist the answers in that duplicate do discuss the code of conduct from a couple of directions.

@SolarMike Mark duplicates based on the question, not the answers.

@AnonymousPhysicist then read the answers - may be there is useful information...

Could we please move the discussion about the duplicate question to the comment thread where it belongs?


text:
Efficiency techniques for recording screencast lectures
I use notetaking software on my tablet to write lecture notes, and then I record myself reading and explaining my lecture notes. I use those recordings as teaching.
However, I find it very time consuming to produce good videos that way. I do not enter the same 'engaging' mode as when standing between an audience and a huge black board. I frequently get muddled, forget what I want to say, and falter.
I usually edit those videos but I believe it must be possible to deliver videos with a presentable performance right from the get go.

Recorded lectures only seem harder because you are listening to yourself afterwards.  I think if you never listened to them or thought about listening to them you would not notice the difference.  Listening to yourself or watching yourself perform is always painful because it's never as good as the imagination.
I recommend limiting your lectures to three minutes.  That might seem extreme, but it's what I was taught by several experts and in my experience it works.  Several reasons:

Shorter recordings are less likely to have serious mistakes, so less gets discarded
A normal student's attention span is 3-5 minutes.  If you lecture longer than that, they can't pay attention.  Target your lectures to less than the attention span, because they tend to turn out longer than planned.
Faculty attention spans are not much longer than students'.

Separate your lectures with activities.
Also, during a crisis isn't the time to do a perfect job.

"Also, during a crisis isn't the time to do a perfect job." Just for comparison: A bunch of my lecturers only update their scripts and expect us to work through it by ourselves. The lecturers which actually try, are already great :D


text:
Do advisors typically fund travel for PhD students in non-conference settings (e.g., university seminars, industry meetings, etc.)?
Do advisors typically fund PhD students for travel to events other than academic conferences? Examples include:

Seminars at other universities so the student can promote their
research
A Technical Program Committee (TPC) meeting
An industry conference where the student hasn't published anything but is there to promote their work in a talk or demo

These events are not directly related to the bottom line of publishing papers, but are helpful for the overall career of the students.

If you're in a discipline which involves fieldwork, they certainly ought to... :-)

Depends on the funding. I was lucky and had enough to get paid for everything PhD related. Some of my co-students did not have as good project-funding as I had and needed to make the choice of going+paying or missing it.

All work related travel that has been assigned to you by your advisor should be funded. That's a general rule (also outside academia, at least in Germany).
You may also ask your advisor if they'll refund travel costs for the things you mentioned. In this case your advisor may ask you to check for other funding resources (travel grants for conferences, possible refunding by the university that invited you…). More concretely for your examples:

Seminars at other universities: If you are invited to give a talk but the other university is not funding you, then I'd hope yes but no for just attending that seminar.
A Technical Program Committee (TPC) meeting: If you are a member of the TPC then yes (however, for the TPCs I know, the member usually have their own funding).
An industry conference where the student hasn't published anything but is there to promote their work in a talk or demo: If you have a talk or official demo at the conference then I'd say yes, if you only want to go there networking then generally no (unless there are some funds that are going to expire).

The only thing that I 100% agree with in this answer is the part that if your advisor "asks" you to go you should expect funding. In all other cases, the answer is always "it depends on how much money there is, how conservative your advisor is with fund usage, and how well you sell it to her/him".