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Teacher has done nothing all semester - should I say something?
My Teacher for a required course has been completely unreliable for any amount of actual teaching. He is honestly the worst teacher myself or pretty much any of the other students have ever had.
It's online, and it's actually very obvious that he's taken the format of his lesson plan directly from another teacher as many of his materials have their name listed instead of his. He'll ask for things on assignments that are very confusing (for instance, meet with your groups and discuss x) and the student body will be frantically messaging each other trying to figure out if we missed something because we were never assigned groups etc. It's not just us asking each other either, we send him messages. At several points it took him until after the assignment's deadline to respond to any one of us, so this isn't a one off occurrence.
His version of MLA format that he expects is adjusted, but how it's adjusted is up to speculation and seems almost dependent on how he's feeling. The only thing that he actually has to grade (since everything is online - he just pointed us to do pre-programmed worksheets from the book company) are three written reports at the tail end of the semester.
The problem with those reports is that because of the unclear formatting I, and a few others, received a drop in grade with no explanation or "this isn't what I was looking for". Nevermind that we've been wondering what he's been looking for but rarely responds to anyone about anything. The same thing happened with the next assignment but I lost significantly fewer points and I have zero idea what the difference was between the two formats.
I understand that Teachers have to work incredibly hard and they are often undervalued comparatively to that, but even giving him an incredible amount of leeway I have to be honest and say that he should never have picked up this course if he wasn't actually going to teach us. Is this something that I should bring up to the school's HR? This semester has been absolute torture for all of us and it's ridiculous that anyone should be "taught" like this.

Does your institution asks for anonymous feedback from students at the end of semester?

I think this might be a problem beyond evaluation, as students seem to be treated unfairly. Try bringing this up with the department chair?

@TheDoctor They do. It just seemed so outlandish to me that this person is doing such a reprehensible job that I was considering reaching out openly. I hate to pull out the old "I'm paying for this." but it's true. I will say (and I state this afterwards because it's just occurred to me) there have been massive cuts to education lately and it may be the cause to him having to pull extra classes because of lack of educators, but then maybe my complaint will help them with that cause as well? I'm not sure.

I bold the actual question to make it more clear. But, I think this question needs more improvements. Can you take sometime to organize and shorten it to make it more answerable?

@Ben it's an explanation of a bad teacher asking if it should be brought to the attention of the school. I'll look at rephrasing or deletion as it seems to currently fall under opinion.

It's quite common for a teacher to use materials produced by someone else. Sometimes they're even required to. Also they don't always have a choice in what class they will teach. Overall from reading this it is difficult to tell if you are blowing a few slip-ups out of proportion, or really are dealing with the worst teacher ever. What specifically do you want done better? Better feedback on your grade? A chance to discuss assignments before they are due?

I would say definitely yes, do issue a complaint. Though as others have pointed out, get a group together and formalize it, so (even if correct) it does not sound like a "whiny rant". - Something I would add, is that potentially the group leader is well aware of the problem, but has no support from management to change things...

@ASimpleAlgorithm Sometimes really weird things happen if people are kept due to internal politics... - The ones who suffer are the staff that want to teach/work well and the students...

If you had done something organised in the third or fourth week things could have been changed, but leaving it until the course is complete - this can be taken as you just finding an excuse for not doing so well... Bringing up this type of issue early is much more effective for both sides...

@SolarMike I've maintained an A in the course, though just barely, and the problem is that it isn't a big enough issue within the first 4 weeks to warrant attention. The Lesson Plans are two week durations and typically the first LP is basic reading and chapter problems. I do understand your point, but there seems to be bias in the comments and answers to this question. I'm not a punk kid who screwed up his semester and hates the teacher, I'm a near 30 year old who literally has an A in all of his courses this semester, and is legitimately concerned about the lack of quality in the course.

@zfrisch my point still stands - if this had been raised earlier, then changes could have been made. How would you accept the solution of this course being cancelled and replaced so you do it again, in a new format with a new faculty member, next semester? The options are limited , at best, for you and your colleagues, but for the next incumbent there may be a possibility of change...

Not if this is the format you're going to bring your complaint in. You really need to get a group together with very clear, well documented, explicit examples of the problem behavior and bring that to the attention of the administration. You've probably got an ombudsman who would be a good first place to bring such a complaint to.

In an online class, luckily everything is pretty well "documented," except perhaps if attempted communication was by email instead of the learning management system. (This doesn't take the place of preparing a few explicit examples, but this does mean there's a lot more documentation available once someone in charge agrees to look.)

Don't make them look it up. Print it out and bring it with you.

Agree with ombudsperson as the place to start rather than HR. Figure out your top ~three complaints (maybe "incomplete syllabus", "lack of direction/rubric for assignments", "lack of feedback/response") and find 1-2 good clear examples of each to print out and bring with. Also do some thinking about what outcome you're looking for - do you just want it brought to the university's attention? Do you want a different grade or someone else to re-grade your work? Do you want a refund and the chance to retake the class?


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How to respond positively to a scientist's rejection e-mail (PhD program)?
I am a Molecular biology post graduate from India. I enquire about PhD vacancy to various potential principal investigators (PhD supervisors) by sending my CV and cover letter. When I receive a rejection mail like mentioned below, how do I respond to the scientist? I would like to have good rapport with the lab as I aspire to join the lab later. Or should I ask any questions?
Examples of rejection e-mail:

Thank you for your interest in joining our lab. Unfortunately, I'm not looking for a phd student. Good luck

I am sorry but the lab is full

I would probably not bother to reply; the negative answer that you got seems to have to do with the fact that there are no open positions. The best you can do is to keep an eye open for PhD positions being announced in the future.

Many labs receive many such email requests every week and don't even have the time to look at them in any detail (unless, of course, you are applying to a particular advertised position, but that was obviously not the case here). The best course of action on your side is to not respond.
You should try to apply to advertised PhD programmes rather than just send uninvited CVs and covering letters to all possible labs. The chances to secure a position in this latter way are very slim, IMHO.

These are per se not mails that require any response. Most likely, the matter is finished for the scientist. The most I would write back is

Thank you for the information.
Sincerely, Ak2817

If you wish to stay on the "good side" I would definitely not respond with further questions or inquiries at this point.

source: Stack Exchange

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text:
Easy going advisor versus expert advisor and research experience
I am fortunate to have a very nice, easy-going advisor (the last because I have seen some horrible PhD advisors). He respects me and my work (I did my master degree under his guidance). Then, I went to another university and returned to him again last year. I am a first year PhD student now. However, I have some issues regarding my research.
First, my advisor does not know much about my area even though he's encouraging me to pursue on it. To make it clear, I can't consult him in my specific area (I do consult him on other things though).
Second, he's not aiming high (top conferences) on publications. He mainly publishes on mid/ lower mid conferences and happy with that.
On the other hand, I have met a professor who is a big name, expert in my area, affiliated with a top university and my work is highly influenced by his research. He also seems to have a very nice personality (I have chatted with his students). I met him several time on different occasions. and he showed an interest to work together for a joint paper.
Most importantly, I believe changing university will result in a  better research experience for me. In particular, I will join a lab with different enthusiastic grad students with critical guidance unlike my current situation where it is only me and my advisor.
About funding, I have external funding and will continue regardless where I am.
I am really wondering which path to take. I am addicted to what I am doing but need the guidance and research experience which I am greatly lacking with my current supervisor.
Update:
The question is: How to approach this professor for acceptance ? specially without saying anything bad about my current advisor.

It seems like the academic choice is obvious to you. To the extent to which this is a personal choice, I'm unsure strangers on the internet can help much.

@CharlesMorisset I have updated the content. Hope this will make it more clear.

@AlexBecker My main concern is what to say if he asked me why I want to work with him instead of my current advisor.

he showed an interest to work together for a joint paper. is the answer to your question. I think your true problem is how to tell your current advisor.

@scaaahu I am new to the academia culture but working together is totally different from working under his guidance. what the  legitimate academic reasons I do have when sending him an email to accept me as PhD student? Obviously, *my current advisor does not know the area, your university is a top school, * are not good reasons.

@scaaahu Yes that's true but I need to email him first just to make sure he's willing to accept me.

I think saying you're interested in his research area and the school he is in without mentioning your current advisor and school would be fine. Still, I think getting the consent and the recommendation letter from your current advisor is your problem. I bet he will say yes because he is a nice guy. However, you'll have a bad feeling when you do it.

@scaahu one shouldn't feel bad for making a perfectly logical decision. There is no personal attack on the supervisor, but simply a set of very good reasons why moving institutes makes sense for seteropere professionally.

@PaulHiemstra I agree with you. Just that knowing it's the right thing to do is different from actually doing it.

Maybe you can ask your current advisor (the easy-going guy), to be your co-supervisor. This is done by many Ph.D. students and sometimes the co-supervisor is even from a university in a different country. It could be a good solution to work under the supervision of this expert in your area and at the same time maintain the collaboration with your current supervisor with whom you get on so well. That's what my supervisor suggested for my future Ph.D.

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Tenure-track reference letters: previous supervisors versus outsiders
I remember reading in The Professor Is In that the tenure-track references should be from external members, not only your past advisors/supervisors.
That book is written aimed at social sciences, maybe, so, for Computer Science, in Canada (and the US), how important is it really?
I imagine that it would not be a dealbreaker for a rockstar, and that exactly how much impact would depend on the case/institution/competition, but what can I expect the impact to be?

Are you talking about the applications for the applications for tenure-track jobs, or for the tenure conversion application?

@aeismail For the jobs, not TT->Tenure. One problem at a time :)

I think the direct idea from the book is that the reference letters could be strengthened by including at most one from a more objective person not on your committee or not at your university. Certainly the main letters would be by those knowing you best.

It's a lot harder to have non-advisors write letters for a tenure-track application in most STEM fields, largely because of the more direct connection between projects, funding, and supervision in STEM fields versus humanities fields.
In the applications I've reviewed as a hiring committee member in engineering, pretty much every letter came from either a PI or co-PI of a project the applicant worked on as either a graduate student or a postdoc. If there was a letter from an "external" member, I don't recall seeing it. However, it certainly wouldn't hurt if such letters were available, so long as it's a helpful letter of recommendation.

This isn't true in all of STEM.  In (pure) math, it's typical to get "external" letters.


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Applying in Germany - how far back should the documentary evidence go?
Let's assume that some of your applications go for W2 professorship positions at the German universities of applied sciences. One of such potential employers asks the candidates to supply

Lebenslauf, belegt durch Zeugniskopien und Nachweise der beruflichen Tätigkeit [...]

(CV, supported through credential copies and evidence of occupation [...])
Let's assume you have been on a lot of academic short-term contracts and stipends since your undergraduate studies. Is it really expected that you supply all the documents (over 15 in your case)? Or are documents for the recent n years sufficient? (Yes, you asked the person in charge, and that person did not respond. Moreover, you know noone from the faculty...)
On the one hand, you may be afraid that in case of a huge number of incoming applications for the position there could be a pre-selection phase, in which some assistants would reduce the number of applications to look at by simply filtering out the applications which are not 100% conforming. Or that some committee members insist strictly on the rules.
On the other hand, properly preparing all the documents would take you 1 full working day. Reason: the documents are not in easy-to-handle formats (PNG, multi-page TIFF with different-size pages, white paper, etc.), the salary needs to be blackened, all kinds of printer issues have to be dealt with, etc. One day is a lot for you. It is unknown whether any of the next 100 potential employers would need these documents (the previous 60 did not need them), so the work you are doing might not be reusable.

@Roland It's in other formats than PDF, including pure paper. Not only some scanning of old junk is necessary but also blackening the salary (partially to meet the obligations of the former employers and partially to have a better basis for negotiations). Overall, simply preparing the documentary evidence would be 1 full working day or more for you.

@Roland Even if I work in Germany later, it can happen that I'd never ever change the employer...

@DSVA Each single action (say, purely scanning) takes minimal time. The scanner is done within 10-30 seconds per page. But scanning properly (failures do occur from time to time), organizing the scanned documents into directories and files, naming them properly such that you'd be able to find them later, blackening the salary (without adobe acrobat in linux), and printing (dealing with the tranditional issues while printing) -  all that, combined, does take a lot of my time. How did you do it?

@DSVA Oh. I see. Batch-scan is possible if you both (1) have a document as separate sheets (and are not afraid to detach the sheets if it's not the case) and (2) have access to a machine that does batch-scanning. As for me, I'm afraid to unstaple the original document (since I might need to show it in its original form to someone else later), and I don't have access to a batch-scanner. As for blackening, are you not afraid to show your old salaries to the new employers? Or are they always sufficently high?

If you did not get an answer from the person in charge, I see two possibilities:

Go all in and send all documents. You have them all ready anyway (you have them, right?) and if they request it, they can have it. If you go for this option, make sure that your CV is well organized and that the whole application document is perfectly ordered as well.
Just attach the most recent ones and add something like "Complete documents can be given if needed". This may save you some time and maybe the committee will not need the documents anyway.

From my experience, these rules often sound more strict than in reality and in reality the committee often does not know the exact rules anyway. But there is always the possibility that some committee member insists on following all rules to the single letter.
Another thing: Often there are two people to ask questions about the ad: The dean and the head of the committee. You may also ask other faculty members at the institution if you happen to know somebody there.
Another remark: As a head of a search committee it is pretty normal to receive phone calls close to the application deadline, so it a question is urgent, rather call than write an email.

Thank you. I'm afraid that there could be a preselection phase, in which some assistants would reduce the number of applications to look at by simply filtering out the applications which are not 100% conforming.

I haven't heard of such a preselection process by assistants happening for such a position.

I would not bother to include any contracts that pertained to your time during your undergraduate days, either at the bachelor's or master's phases, since it essentially represents part-time work during your studies. Nor do you need to show a work contract for your doctoral phase—your diplomas and transcripts represent the needed documentation for those phases.
You do need to account for your time after your doctoral studies are complete, and for any significant period of time that elapsed between your undergraduate and graduate studies, if any. (If it's a summer, you don't need to submit anything; if it's a year or more, you should have some sort of accounting for that period. If you were working in Germany, you can request Zeugnisse from employers to confirm your applications, without having to disclose your salary and other confidential information.


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Is it immoral to read scientific articles if you find them as pdf on Google without having access to some official libraries?
I like to learn things even outside my university degree and I wonder if it is moral to read articles found online on blogs and other sources?

Then Google simply becomes the library and you would have to dig elsewhere to uncover what the library does not (want to) show you.

There's nothing morally wrong with reading blogs and most online sources, so I'm going to assume you mean published articles and books.
When it comes to journal articles and books, it depends. Many articles that are freely available online are legally published / published with the author's permission. Others are not. Obviously papers posted on the author's website, or websites like arXiv are okay, but for other listings it's a lot less clear. It's up to you to make your best judgement as to the legality and the morality of the access you have.
This also of course presumes that you think it's moral to support closed-access journals. Some people feel that closed-access journals are a bad thing and should be opposed. To those people, doing anything other than seeking out illicit versions would be morally wrong.

thanks for the answer. my question was more related to morality not necessarily legality although I think legality is also a complex issue here. But if someone did not made his article freely available maybe it is not ok to read it anyway without paying.... it is his right to make his article paid but when I want to read about something and I just search on Google I get many results and I cannot verify the source for all of them... it is really confusing. I guess it is not easy to be careful about things like this.

@yoyo_fun I did write about the morality of the action. My personal opinion is that people who publish research are contributing to a whole sum of human knowledge that it is immoral to deny people access to. If you want to be selective, go to a different field. Academic research is a public good.

I don't see how "some people feel" can remove a moral question.

I’ve reworded my last paragraph.

Note that many journals allow authors to post preprints or even the "official" full text on their websites. In such cases, there's clearly no ethical dilemma involved.
In cases where such behavior is prohibited by the journal, then there is a bit of a dilemma. The "fault" is shared, between the person who posted the infringing content and those who read it.

As I see it, the fault lies with the journal prohibiting this.

@Arno: The journals are exercising their rights under copyright law. So do we blame the people who devised copyright law? (I'd say yes, given the excesses of it right now, but that's personal opinion.)

The fault also lies with the author if they don't make it freely available.  Also with congress and with Disney's lobbyists for supporting our ridiculous unconstitutional copyright regime.

@aeismail The fact that journals are legally allowed to do it doesn't make it automatically moral/ethical. Sometimes the ethical thing to do is waiving your rights, or even going against the law.

@Federico Poloni you're right, but neither does the fact that a law is morally wrong make it automatically right to go against the law. We cannot just dispense with the law because we have different moral convictions. There are many convictions in a plural society; the fact that it works regardless is not least due to there being just one Law.

@FedericoPoloni: fortunately, things move (if slowly). E.g. in my country (Germany) authors (if the work was mostly publicly funded, and after some embargo period) always retain a right for secondary publication now.

If you're talking about research papers, there is absolutely no ethical reasons why you should buy the access to them. In fact, publishers like Elsevier are taking advantage of the power they have to gain money on what's free and open : Knowledge.
Research papers are never meant to be sold but shared so the unethical part comes from publisher. If you want to find free research paper, go on Sci-Hub!

Publishers provide a service that was needed and they get money for it, I don't find that unethical. The problem is that technology is changing and at least the distribution aspect - one core service they provided - is a lot easier/cheaper to do, yet the old distribution way hasn't died out yet. The immoral part of selectively providing access to something that arguably should be public data is how we as a society "decided" to organize and finance the publishing process.

Well, here's one ethical reason: if nobody paid for journals, all the people that journals employ would lose their jobs. You can decide for yourself how big a reason you think that is, but it's certainly not no reason at all.

@David: If nobody bought cigarettes then a lot of people would lose their jobs.  That this is an ethical reason for buying cigarettes sounds really screwy to me.  Replace it with "crack cocaine" or "Somali pirates" if it helps.  I would certainly like to claim that this is "no reason at all."

@Darkwing The unethical and immoral part of the publisher's deal is to force the authors to pass them all copyrights for their published work.

Well, there's the point that it's against the law. Maybe the law is wrong, but that doesn't automatically make it right to break it.

@henning Soocks hasn't mentioned the law. Their answer is about ethics. Whether it's ethical to break an unethical law isn't really a question for this site in my opinion.

@MJeffreys Maybe it's not a great fit for this site, but the question can't be answered without considering the legality of the action.

@DmitriZaitsev:  but then, there's no law whatsoever that prevents you, me or others of founding a journal that doesn't have such practices. So IMHO, the power of the publishers is based on the lazyness of scientists. (And there are some examples where sufficiently important scientists decided to do something and actually did it.)

@cbeleites Most scientists prefer to focus on their work rather than fixing the unethical work done by publishers. I don't think it is fair to call it laziness. There is now some hope to change this impasse and everyone is welcome to help: https://gitlab.com/publishing-reform/discussion/issues

Reading things on blogs is fine, it's what blogs are for, but you shouldn't cite them, blogs are not peer reviewed.  Well, maybe you can cite them as "personal communication", obviously you shouldn't plagiarise them.
There are a number of legitimate ways to get PDFs on line, for example if they were published open access (the journal or conference lets you have it for free, probably because they charged the authors or their universities already), or if the authors put a pre print online (this is entirely legal) or if the authors or someone else put the final version illegally on line.
This last, being illegal, is as such at least somewhat immoral; it is theft from those who hold the copyright. The next question is, are you culpable for reading such a PDF, or indeed obliged to figure out whether a PDF you find online was "liberated" illegally, or whether it was circulated legally?  Even if you decide or know that the PDF is illegal, if you are a utilitarian of some form you might ask: is the good that would come from you reading it greater than the (probably negligible) harm you do by reading it? Of course, other forms of ethics never accept that the ends justify the means.
Thrown into the mix, it has long been legal and common practice that if you ASK an author for a copy of their paper, they will just send you an offprint. In recent decades, this is a PDF.  So you might also consider starting to read a paper, deciding whether its good, and then asking for a legitimate copy that way.  Or you could decide the good you would do by asking he author is outweighed by the time you would cost the author, and keep on reading the PDF you already have.
As an academic, if I find out about a paper that I can't read, I both ask the author for a copy AND ask my library to buy access to the journal. That's because I think it's far more moral for publishers to charge for reading than for authoring an article, but I also think the reason I accept a low university salary is to be in a university with access to knowledge.  That's another way to read articles legitimately of course – go to a library!

"but you shouldn't cite them, blogs are not peer reviewed" is a dangerous statement. Surely if the OP uses ideas presented in a blog post in their writing, they should cite them!

Thanks I've addressed that inappropriate interpretation. (But not the inevitable libertarian jerks that downvote any time I defend people getting paid for their work.)

There is the concept of open access wich many journals are starting to focus on more. There are many quality peer-reviewed papers that are open access. I think most easy way to reach those quality papers is through  scholar.google.com. As far As I know when you see the PDF or HTML link in the scholar.google.com, they are open access and you can find most of the paper's abstruct there even if they are not available. If you are interested on those, you can mail to author as said above. In short, If you find open access journals, you can read them, to find legal, open access articles, you need to choose your websites carefully or you can ask for full text articles that you can't find  online.

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Should I pay up the rest of my tuition?
I'm from a third world country sponsored by my government to study in Canada. I messed up my last year and my full scholarship was revoked, so I had to repeat a whole year with my own money. You won't believe how much I have to pay as an international student just for 2 semesters.
Fast forward, after I graduated and a couple month of unemployment, I manage to land a good job in my country with my audit (transcript and diploma held by the uni until I fully pay tuition fees). But the tuition fees are still a lot due to the conversion rate.
So now, I don't know what should I do. They (the university) will throw away my cert and transcript in one year. Should I pay up the fees which I had to take loan at my country bank when I could use it to buy property?
I know it is immoral to not pay debt but when you are in third world country, immoral is least my concern. I might even fake my certificate just in case I want to change jobs, which is unlikely.

Do you really want to mess up again? Apparently you did not learn the first time.

IT doesn't make sense for the university to destroy your transcripts if you don't pay. Destroying the transcripts removes all reason to pay because w/o transcripts to get there is no reason to give them the money.

You can't seriously be asking to be put at ease to not pay fees due (additionally, to who might be the employer of some members of this site), or to counterfeit your diploma. Given the tone of your question, I assume you might be trolling; but if not, the answer is:
Yes, you should pay up the rest of your tuition.
No, you should not fake your diploma.


text:
Admission for MS/Phd in Computer Science after BE/BTech from India
Should I go for MS/Phd CS (Masters en route to Phd) in USA? I'm very Passionate about research in my field. But I have very little to no research experience. But have done internship in my field of area. But I'm average in my academics. rest of the requirement I can satisfy like SOPs and Recommendation letter. also my Gre score is 324. should I apply?

If you don't apply, you don't get accepted. But you know that already.
I don't know how to evaluate your undergraduate education, nor should you ask this site for an evaluation. But it will be evaluated by any school you apply to. The analysis (breakdown) of your GRE will also depend on the field you are in, in this case CS. Lack of research may not be an issue for an entering MS student, but that depends, like everything on the institution.
Being just "average" in your academics doesn't sound like a plus. However if the entire institution is very rigorous, then that needs to be taken into consideration. Being average among the world's ten best scholars is not so bad.
Your acceptance, however, will depend on more than numbers. The competition for admission is steep so be able to explain in any application what is unique in your background that makes your future success likely.
You can do a quick evaluation of your own, by comparing your own course of study with what you find typically in undergraduate CS programs in the US. If the courses are about the same and you did well you will likely get consideration. But if the courses are vastly different, you will, again, have to show how and why you are qualified. Make your own case.

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


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Does Arxiv count as publication?
I am an undergraduate student graduating next month. I wrote a research paper done by myself, but it's been rejected by two journals sofar so I haven't been able to publish it.
I am applying for scholarships and  having a published paper would improve my chances.
If i upload my paper in arxiv, is it considered as published paper? can i write it in my cv as published paper and what is the most suitable way to write it *in my cv?
Thank you!

@NajibIdrissi then should i just let it and take it to bookshelf for ever? Is there any place to put "a rejected paper" or a place to collect a bunch of rejected paper?

Not an answer to your question, but if the paper has been rejected twice you need to know why before you decide if you want to make it part of a permanent public archive. If you have not gotten useful feedback from the journals then you probably want to find your own reviewer—a person with solid domain knowledge who and experience in writing published papers but not affiliated with the work who would be willing to read it and give you an honest enumeration of it's weaknesses.

No, it's not considered a published paper in the usual sense of peer-reviewed publications. ArXiv is meant as a preprint server where you upload preprint versions (essentially polished draft versions) to quickly disseminate your research, before submitting it to a scholarly journal where the paper undergoes peer review. Only after the paper has been peer-reviewed and published by the journal do you have a "real" publication. (Depending on your agreement with the journal, it's then possible to update the arXiv listing to reflect revisions made to the manuscript during the publication process.)
It's still appropriate to list such preprints on your CV - especially early on in a career, when you might have few peer-reviewed publications. This is fine as long as it's made clear that these are preprints, or manuscripts under review or similar.

This. It goes on you "List of Publications", but you don't refer to the paper as "published".

I would say it does count as a publication if you need to reference it in your own work/papers. So if you publish a result you can reference this ArXiV paper.
However, it does not count as a peer-review publication in the sense that it does not "add" points/credit to your cv.


text:
Can we add articles downloaded from Sci-Hub to a meta-analysis study?
Is it safe and legal to add articles downloaded from Sci-Hub to a meta-analysis study(unpublished)? Will it make any difference? Are there any consequences?

Are you intending a meta-analysis of Sci-Hub itself?

Based on the answers so far, you may need to clarify whether you discovered papers by searching SciHub, or just used it to access articles discovered in a structured search elsewhere. Many meta-studies use structured searches on sites like PubMed that often direct you offsite to access the full text of an article. A reviewer won't know (or ask) if it was accessed via SciHub or an institutional subscription service. But if you're searching SciHub and discovering articles there, you would report that in your study, and the legality/safety of using it would depend on the materials accessed.

I greatly appreciate your reply!

If the study is done from home (due to COVID) hence, unable to get institutional access and 2. If a structured search is done in popular databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, etc., but unable to find a few open access articles, 3. if there's a narrow deadline; what is the best way to find full-text articles, to include in a meta-analysis study?

If you disclose that you downloaded it from Sci-Hub, one cannot rule out that you will suffer legal consequences one day (alongside, perhaps, social punishments based on moral grounds). But given the almost non-existence of a legal enforcement against the individual use of this 'pirate', I find it unlikely.
To be on the safe side, you should simply not disclose the source from which you downloaded that publication. Mention it, discuss it, cite it, but do so without telling the reader how you acquired the PDF. This would be too much detail anyway.
(Yes, a meta-analysis would do good to disclose how it came to include certain studies, but it does not have to tell the reader in minute detail how you downloaded each study's PDF.)

On a fundamental level, science is (needs to be) reproducible. Obscuring how one acquired one's data makes it difficult for others to reproduce one's work, not to mention raises questions about how reliable the data is in the first place. -1

Hiding things seems to me to have ethical implications. Not disclosing things, for example.

@Allure How often do you encounter manuscripts mentioning how and where they accessed a given cited article? Excepting citations to rare historical manuscripts I find it incredibly rare to mention anything beyond what's contained in a standard citation. Do you also object to such citations, which generally say nothing abut which online repository or physical library was used to access a given article? I agree it's preferable to use an official source, in order to guarantee one's research is based on the official version of record, but that's a somewhat different matter to obfuscation.

@Allure In light of MikeyC's comment to the question, I should clarify that I assumed OP just downloaded articles from SciHub, rather than using SciHub as a search engine to identify articles to use for their metaanalysis. If SciHub is part of the methodology that should certainly be disclosed.

@Anyon I assumed the opposite side of MikeyC's comment, pretty much.

One use of Sci-Hub is just laziness. There is a lot of stuff there that was put there illegally, but most of that stuff is also available from ethical sources. An academic librarian, for example, can get access to an enormous amount of stuff perfectly within copyright law. Perhaps it isn't so convenient, but no one will, at any time, question your ethics.
Some things can even be provided by their authors and/or publishers if it supports research.
There may be some expense, but grants can cover such things. Better, I think that you use only things ethically obtained.
Getting proper access also makes the question about reproducibility moot.

If I understand it correctly, some of the stuff on Sci-Hub was uploaded by authors perfectly legally and without copyright restriction. For such things, the source is immaterial.

People may have legal objections against Sci-Hub. But ethical? Really?

@Maeher, sorry, I don't understand. Are you suggesting use of Sci-Hub in general, is ethical? The legality is pretty much settled, I think.

@Libor, if you want a change then work for an ethical solution. First, find a way to finance the publishing system in a way that doesn't disadvantage people. The system we have isn't perfect, but nothing seems to be replacing it. Piracy is not the answer. But I expected this to be a downvote magnet. That doesn't make it wrong. But it does bring out the folks who don't much care about ethics. Or are willing to compromise themselves when convenient.

@Buffy Of course the use of Sci-Hub is ethical.

@Maeher, how about buying stolen televisions in a back alley? Same? You make no argument. The statement alone is just lazy.

@Libor I should hope you're not under the impression that subscription journals don't give out copious discounts to "Anyone who doesn't live in the US and have a grant".

@Buffy You are the one making the claim that something completely benign is unethical. The burden of proof for that extraordinary claim is on you. No party is hurt by the use of Sci-Hub, so what is your argument that it's use is in any way unethical?

@Maeher what do you mean it's completely benign? It breaks copyright law. You can't claim no party is hurt, since the copyright holder is hurt. Even if there really is nobody hurt, there are other things which hurt nobody that is nonetheless criminalized, e.g. incest.

@Allure You're confusing legality with ethics. Being illegal does not imply being unethical. And no, the copyright holder is not hurt. The author (who still hold the moral rights in my jurisdiction) still gets nothing. The publisher would not get a single cent more if any of the legal alternatives described here were used. Just because something beaches copyright does not mean damages actually occur. The only way the publisher could make any additional money would be if a person is clueless enough to buy the individual paper. And such a person wouldn't know about Sci-Hub to begin with.

@Maeher Two things. First, some people (like me) consider what is legal to be ethical, and what is illegal to be unethical. Second, if you truly believe the copyright holder is not hurt by piracy, you would also believe that copyright law is unnecessary. The fact that Pirate Parties worldwide have failed to be elected is a sign that that is a minority position.

@Allure that is an .... odd stance to take, considering how much laws differ between different jurisdictions, whereas ethics should largely remain the same. It's certainly not a mainstream view among jurists and I'm sure ethicists would strongly object. And no, it does not imply that copyright law is unnecessary (my own views on that are irrelevant). "Piracy" can cause actual financial damages, but in this specific case it does not.

@Maeher ethics should largely remain the same it doesn't in my view, and ethics vary by jurisdiction. You have probably heard of examples, e.g. whether it is ethical to breastfeed in public. As for the economic argument from piracy, that is a complicated topic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#Economic_impact_of_copyright_infringement) so I will need evidence to believe that "in this specific case it does not".

As I've made my point clear, I will leave this pointless discussion here. Suffice to say that your views on ethics vs law are really "out there".

@Maeher or so you say. Do you have any statistics to back that up? You've already claimed in this specific case piracy does not cause financial damages, which is likely problematic by the way. For example, the reader could request the document from their library, which notes that the journal is in demand and therefore decides to subscribe to it. Are you aware libraries track denial statistics closely?

No.

Yet Sci-Hub has drawbacks for text-mining research, Hart-Davidson says. The pirated papers are in unstructured PDF format, which is hard for programs to parse. But the bigger issue, he says, is that the data source is illegal. “How are you going to publish your work?” Then again, having a massive private repository of papers does allow a researcher to rapidly test hypotheses before bothering with libraries at all. And it's all just a click away.

Source

This may be a bit too strong. Not everything at Sci-Hub was uploaded illegally, breaking copyright. I think the site itself has an ethical issue, but not every person using it does if they take responsibility.


text:
how would you consider an offer of 8000 shekels (2460 USD) in Israel for a postdoc position?
Hi, how would you consider an offer of around 8000 shekels (ca 2400 Euros or 2460 US Dollars) in Israel for a postdoc position?
A bit of context: it would be a 3rd postdoc, applicant's age 36 yo, with international experience (4 countries), including R&D in multinational corporations and a second master degree (I mean in addition to bachelor, master and PhD).
Note 1: the first offer was around 6,100 shekels per month. Then, it became around 8,000 shekels per month.
Note 2: According to the website Glassdoor, the average monthly salary of a PhD student in Israel is 8,047 shekels per month (Ref.1) , while the average monthly salary of a postdoc is 10,489 shekels per month (Ref.2).
Note 3: From April 2022, the minimum monthly wage in Israel would be 5,400 shekels per month (Ref.3), while the average monthly salary for Israel would be 11,667 shekels per month (Ref.4) (in September 2021).
EDIT --> Note 4: As far as I understood, the contract would be for a trial period (up to 6 months), and, based on achievements/performance, the contract would be extended to "several years" (and I guess still as postdoc, but just my guess)..
Any thought is very welcome!
References:

(Ref.1):
https://www.glassdoor.it/Salaries/israel-phd-student-salary-SRCH_IL.0,6_IN119_KO7,18.htm?countryRedirect=true
(Ref.2):
https://www.glassdoor.it/Salaries/israel-postdoctoral-salary-SRCH_IL.0,6_IN119_KO7,19.htm?countryRedirect=true
(Ref.3):
https://www.timesofisrael.com/minimum-wage-to-increase-gradually-to-nis-6000-by-2025/
(Ref.4):
https://www.timesofisrael.com/average-wage-in-israel-dips-slightly-as-economic-recoverycontinues/#:~:text=The%20average%20monthly%20salary%20for,from%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic.

Note that 8000NIS scholarship is tax-free (while the average of 11k you state is before tax). In STEM fields, postdocs in Israel commonly get ~10,000NIS, Phd students ~8500, MS.c Students ~7000. In non-STEM fields there are less funding options and the amounts might be smaller.

@RanG. please note that it is not acceptable to use scholarships to replace working contracts, especially at the PostDoc level.

Would you please state the field?

Thanks @RanG. for your comment. However, I do not understand why you assume that 8000 NIS is (i) a scholarship and (ii) tax-free. I/we do not even know if it is a scholarship and/or tax-free. Also, in case it was a scholarship, I do not understand why it would not be a regular contract for regular worker (i.e. not a scholarship). Indeed, as far as I know, scholarships are generally for students (right?). Again, many thanks for your comment!

Thanks everyone for your comments, very interesting! @Nobody, the field would be multidisciplinary / physics

To obtain an estimate, compare your current city and salary with the potential future salary and city here: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

I assume it is a (tax-free) scholarship, because this is the most common method for paying a student/postdoc in Israel. 99% of the students/postdoc positions are paid that way. But certainly, you should verify this with your host, maybe their funds are of the 1%. Last, it is tax-free by Israeli laws. However, if your own citizenship imposes other rules and there is no tax-treaty, then things might be different for you.

This seems like an awful offer, but it really depends on your personal circumstances.  The pay is very low and the contract duration is very short.  I was paid more as a first year PhD student, and that's a long time ago.

@RanG. Thank you for commenting... Talking to some Israeli friends I understood that there are not many fundings in Israel for research and this is the reason why many people end up in doing research abroad.... However, I still think, but maybe someone will make me change idea, that offering, as initial offer an amount very close to the minimum wage (i.e. 6100 shekels per month), and around 2000 shekels less than the average PhD salary is not fair

@AnonymousPhysicist thanks a lot for your comment.... Looks like you did the PhD in Israel... If yes, it is very relieving to see that someone who did the PhD there could confirm that such offered salary (6,100 shekels per month first and 8,000 shekels per month after) would be similar or even less than for a PhD student.... This is unbelievable

an offer of around 8000 shekels
average monthly salary for Israel would be 11,667 shekels per month

If the average salary is a realistic value, I think it is a very good offer, if and only if one of these two conditions is true:

it allows you to get an unlimited visa for working in Israel and in the following 2-3 months you find an average position with an average salary
accepting the position you are guaranteed you will have a professorship or at least permanent employment afterwards (and you are 100% sure you would accept such a professorship/permanent contract).

Otherwise it is just exploitation: you are doing independent research work as a PostDoc and you are paid less than the average worker in a country? That's despicable, such behavior should not be promoted nor accepted and it should be called out. Please name at least the field and the University.
You are doing your 3rd PostDoc, probably in a 3rd different country: what are your motivations? what is your plan A? what is your plan B?

I am a hard time understanding what you are saying in this answer. What makes you think there would be a guarantee of a professorship afterwards??

@xLeitix In short: I am only saying this offer is appalling, even more considering the first offer was around 6,100 shekels per month, unless there are future benefits attached. I am in no way thinking there is a guarantee of professorship afterwards, but it may be the case as such kind of offer is(was) possible in other countries.

Hmm, ok. It seems to me if there were substantial additional benefits to the position OP would have probably mentioned them, but I retract my downvote.

Hello @EarlGrey, thanks for your comments!
Please see my "EDIT --> Note 4" about future perspectives.. The contract would be for a trial period (max 6 months) and, based on the achievements, the contract would be extended for "several years" (not specified)....

@EarlGrey: About your first point: I do not know if there will be an "unlimited visa for working in Israel", and I do not know if "in the following 2-3 months you find an average position with an average salary". As far as I remember, none talked about possible changes in the salary for the postdoc after the trial period.

@EarlGrey: about your second point: As far as I remember, none talked about a possible professorship after the trial period (up to 6 months)... only about a contract for "several years"...

About "you are doing independent research work as a PostDoc and you are paid less than the average worker in a country?", I can say what I found on internet, the same references I posted, i.e. the offer would be around 8,000 shekels per month, the average monthly salary for Israel would be 11,667 shekels per month. But also, I would remind you that the first offer was around 6,100 shekels per month, i.e. almost 1/2 of the average monthly salary for Israel (11,667 shekels per month), and not that far from the minimum monthly wage in Israel (5,400 shekels per month).

@EarlGrey: About "You are doing your 3rd PostDoc, probably in a 3rd different country: what are your motivations? what is your plan A? what is your plan B?"... I would prefer not to comment in this regard... but thanks for asking! :)

@EarlGrey: In addition, an offer around 8,000 shekels per month would be, according to Glassdoors, the average monthly salary of a PhD student in Israel is 8,047 shekels per month (Ref.1). Therefore, does this offer look like for a PhD student instead of an offer for a 3rd postdoc worker?

@limone Regarding salary increase: what i meant is that you can take that offer, start working in Israel and then get out of the academia and find a better salary (and another job). That is connected to my question about your motivations: if you plan to stay in the academia, in general it is a good idea to apply for your own fundings, especially after PhDs, to show you can be a research manager (professors are unfortunately required to be manager, too), if you enjoy research ... it is time to look for a research position, either in research industry or in a research public body.

@limone it is up to you, we cannot decide for yourself if working (underpaid) several years as a postdoc is meaningful or not. It maybe the best option you aim for, the only one or whatever. Purely money-wise, it is a bad offer unless you get one of the two benefits I listed in the answer.

Given the state of the world, this is very likely OP's plan B. Plan A is "PANIC!!!1".

@Lodinn Given the state of the World (nuclear power occupying foreign land) I really hope this is plan Z ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_occupation_of_the_West_Bank#:~:text=The%20Israeli%20occupation%20of%20the,continues%20to%20the%20present%20day.

"I am only saying this offer is appalling"  You should edit the answer so it actually says that.

I agree with @AnonymousPhysicist.... I accepted the answer, but it is not extremely clear...@EarlGray: I mean, you wrote "I think it is a very good offer, if and only if" and then "I am only saying this offer is appalling"...... Please just state clearly if the offer is very good or very bad (looks like you want to say "it is very bad", except in case that two conditions can be met...but still it remains a bad offer, or something like that, right or wrong ?)

@AnonymousPhysicist "it is a very good offer, if and only if  [...] Otherwise it is just exploitation" I cannot be clearer than this.

@EarlGrey Yes you can.  For example, replace the sentence with "This offer is exploitation unless one of these conditions is true:"

@AnonymousPhysicist thanks!

EarlGrey I agree with @AnonymousPhysicist here. You can certainly be clearer. Starting an answer with a sentence that contains "this is a very good offer" simply does not communicate "this is bad offer", even if you add a lot of unrealistic conditions to it. Why not write "This is a terrible offer unless the (highly unlikely) following things are true:"?


text:
Becoming good at writing papers without being overwhelmed?
After a career in the industry, I started to work in research as a graduate student/research assistant, and I am learning to adjust my working and thinking style. That process is a little painful, but I also enjoy broadening my perspective.
I am genuinely thankful to work in a great team with bright and friendly people. Everyone is younger than me, including the Head of the department. I can imagine writing a dissertation someday if I find an interesting topic.
The thing that puzzles me most is the process of writing papers. My Head of the department and two colleagues that have more experience seem to be especially good at it. While I seem to be good (or very good? I get good feedback.) at writing sections of papers that I get assigned, the initial idea-finding and structuring work elude me completely. I listen to these guys talking about paper structures on topics I am familiar with, and it is as if they speak in another language. So I decided to play on "easy mode" and structure a paper that I had planned to be the lead author on in the classical approach, following the steps:

This is the problem.
This is how I show it's a problem.
This is how I solve the problem.
This is how I show that I solved the problem.

And be done with it. So I called a meeting with my colleagues and the Head of the department and presented it (poorly). In the same session, my experienced colleague presented his paper idea and had already picked a conference with a date and deadline and a Call for Papers. And not only that. The Head of the department went off and looked for stories to tell around my topic and how to use it in connection with historical data that we got and how that would distinguish us in the eyes of reviewers and that it would be best to present practical, applicable research results to go with it. Now he is much better at this game than I (and everyone else in the room), and his advice is excellent. But I also feel pretty overwhelmed and discouraged. I intended to keep it simple and not overextend myself on my first try, and he raised the bar and expectations by a factor of three. I bet he didn't even notice because it comes to him as quickly as breathing.
My wife, who is also a professor, says I should not give up and not be discouraged.
So I want to know:

How do I learn that way of thinking?
What are the questions I need to ask myself?
Are there checklists or so online?
How can I avoid burning out on my first paper?
What do I miss?

Please try  to boil it down to one single question, as otherwise the question will be closed due to being too broad.

Does this answer your question? Are there resources for learning how to write a scientific paper?

"We excel at what we repeatedly do." (Aristotle) Your concern is like someone who picks up basketball and happens to be neighbors with Michael Jordan who shows him tricks, and gets discouraged by Jordan always beating him in pickup games they also have.,

@Sursula, I can limit it down after having distilled the useful (for me) stuff from the other link you posted. give me a little time, please. :-)

Also look at "The sense of style" by Steven Pinker, I found it useful for getting a feeling of how to think about writing papers

Your story suggests you need to become better at storytelling.  That suggests you go read stories.  So pick some novelist you like and some popular creative nonfiction writer you like and read their work.  Also, read Eco's How to write a thesis (or however the title is translated into your language), not so much because any of the practical advice helps but because it's good (i.e. entertaining) storytelling on a familiar topic.

Actually your "easy mode" steps look pretty good. Maybe what happened shows in the first place that you did a pretty good job, giving the others the idea that there is much potential in your work. No reason to feel discouraged there, rather encouraged.

There Are Only Two Good Ways To Learn To Write Research Papers
1. Read Research Papers
If your current path requires publications or original research, you have to be reading academic/research papers anyway.  When you do, pay attention to how they are written.  They have structure associated with them, and they really don't vary all that much.
When it comes time to write something up, you will have a venue in mind, so go read (or at least skim) some of the recent papers from that venue.  Read them specifically for how they are organized and structured.
2. Write Research Papers
The only way to truly get good at something is to do it.  But there are built in guard rails in most academic settings to prevent you from writing your first paper "blind."
One will be the publishing guidelines of whatever venue you select.  Much of this will be devoted to minutiae that you're really not worried about right now-- margin spacing, fonts, captioning of diagrams, etc.  But in my discipline, those documents are usually structured like the academic papers themselves. I've been known to use them as templates.
Another will be writing workshops or perhaps even full fledged writing courses given by your university.  Depending on your prior writing experience (or lack) these can be very helpful.
Finally, it's not reasonable to expect a starting graduate student to produce a flawless research paper, as the sole author, the first time.  That can happen, but that is not the expectation.  My cohort of graduate students generally co-wrote our first papers with our advisors in some form or another, even if it is just "Student writes draft, advisor gives feedback, lather, rinse, repeat."  This is part of what you are learning.
By the end of your program, you should be much more accomplished at this, and need minimal guidance.  But at the beginning, yes, it can seem daunting.

Throughout the course of my Ph.D., I've been collecting resources, books, articles and videos on improving academic writing. I collected links to all of them in this Notion page.
All of these have helped me enormously. Not only in improving my writing, but also in gaining clarity of thinking, and in developing research ideas. It has been a long journey, but with enough time dedicated to writing regularly, drafting, and editing, you will improve. ...and you might even find that academic writing is enjoyable! Good luck!

My papers have a specific structure; i.e., I think of writing a paper as filling in a 'form'.  Consequently, writing a paper becomes easy because its organization is given.  For each section and its corresponding paragraphs, I know exactly what type of information to gather and also their flow.   All I have to decide is which information or arguments or facts to use for each section and paragraph.

For me, the structure is one of the challenges. How do you find yours?

@AndreasSchuldei After many years of trial and errors, and looking at what other people do, and learning from reviewer comments.    Also, have a look at academic writing or tips.  There are many resources on the Internet.

There is a good deal of literature to suggest that to be able to write good academic papers one needs to master multiple skills. The good news is that the skills are both identifiable, separable, and learnable. I have found that it has been helpful to have a guide to the various skills involved, and also helpful to have a way of practising the skills individually rather than trying to master all of them simultaneously. By identifying and separating the various skills, I have found the process of writing much less overwhelming than I used to, although I would hardly claim to be an expert.
I wish that I could claim to be the originator of the ideas in the previous paragraph, but in fact I have learned them by first discovering (in my university library), and then obtaining, a copy of the book "Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success" by Wendy Laura Belcher (ISBN: 9780226499918), and by working steadily through the book not just once, but several times.
I commend the book to you.

Thank you for addressing the topic of being overwhelmed. Reading through the material suggested in the other posts (and linked from the comments and answers in this post) seems to be an underestimated part of the learning process.


text:
Second MSc degree after a PhD
I hold a MSc degree from a small university and had planned for a second MSc degree from a highly-ranked university.
I am now uncertain about my plans since I have received a PhD offer from a top university and I am wondering whether pursuing a second MSc is necessary for securing good postdoctoral opportunities or not.
To make my question clear: If I apply for a postdoc after successfully completing my PhD, will my application be assessed based on my performance during my PhD studies, or will my MSc be taken into consideration as well?

Regarding an ambiguity in your question, would the second MSc degree be something obtained after completion of the Ph.D. you currently have an acceptance offer to, or something obtained before accepting any Ph.D. offers? In any event, it seems silly to me to pursue another MSc degree (presumably in the same field, although this too probably should be clarified, which in fact could give the appearance that you didn't learn the material the first time) if you feel capable of successfully completing a Ph.D. at a "top university". (continued)

So I suppose the real question is, do you feel that you are very, very seriously incapable at this time of completing a Ph.D. at the university you received an offer from? If so, it would also mean -- which seems very unlikely to me -- that they seriously misjudged your background and potential when you applied for the Ph.D.

A month ago, I received an admission letter for an MSc program. However, this week I received an offer to pursue a PhD. Now, I am considering whether it would be beneficial for me to undertake the MSc program part-time while pursuing my PhD studies.

Are the fields of the second MSc and the PhD program the same? or different?

Not same, but some how close to each other

To make my question clear: If I apply for a postdoc after successfully completing my PhD, will my application be assessed based on my performance during my PhD studies, or will my MSc be taken into consideration as well?

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19424/is-getting-a-second-masters-frowned-upon

All the time you spend on doing that second master is time you cannot spend on something else, like publishing an article. If I were hiring a postdoc and I saw you with the second master and you with an extra publication, then I would be more impressed by the extra publication than by the second master. So my advice would be to not do the second master, and instead use that time to be good at your PhD.


text:
Current state of French mathematics school
France has a very strong reputation historicaly in mathematics, and many famous mathematicians studied in their top universities. But is it still the case? I am particularely interested in the current state of their top graduate programs. How do they compare to top programs in the US/UK? In your opinion, is France an atractive and competitive option for graduate math school? I have read very mixed opinions about this and rankings are very inconsistent with French universities. For example in Shangai ranking in mathematics, Marie Curie is in top 3, while in other ones using a different methodology it is not in the top 40.

Not exactly the same, but I did my PhD there in computer science, and every professor I talked to had an impressive grasp of the math/theory part of it. Even people that worked in non-math parts of CS. It's rather impressive...

I agree with @NajibIdrissi. One should also notice that all those Fields medallists  studied in Paris. So Paris is a top place in maths, other parts of France maybe less so.


text:
Is it possible to apply to a masters program without letters of recommendation?
I've been out of undergraduate for several years and am applying to graduate school. However, I'm hung up on how to obtain the required letters of recommendation.
While I did exceptionally well in undergraduate, I am pretty introverted and I graduated awhile ago. I didn't cultivate deep, long-lasting relationships with any of my professors.
Since graduation, I have worked exclusively with individuals who speak minimal English and come from cultures where letters of recommendation do not exist besides, and with people who are living with extreme mental disabilities. In both of these professions, I have been my own supervisor.
Frankly, I am feeling very up the creek without a paddle. I don't know where I would be able to get one letter, let alone multiple. Is it possible to apply for graduate school without letters of recommendation? How do you go about compensating for this?

Please ask only one question per post.

How many is several?

This varies across countrires. E.g. in Germany, I'm not aware that any letters of recomendation are involved. Your Bachelor grades must be sufficiently good and that's pretty much it.

If it is within a few years, you may be able to contact prior professors that you feel may remember you.
Otherwise, if you do not think that you can produce letters of recommendations, then I recommend you contact potential graduate schools. In fact, I believe that you should always contact potential graduate schools BEFORE applying (no matter the circumstances.) This helps you understand what they expect, prepare for potential problems, and ask any questions that you may have.
In your case, they will be able to talk with you on how to “compensate” (as you called it) for your lack of letters of recommendations. I do not know what country you are applying in, but I know that in my country (America) there are admissions counselors per each school you are applying to (for instance, religious studies admissions counselor for somebody who is majoring in Southeast Asian Religions.) If that is the case with you, then make sure you contact the school rather than the university directly to get the best possible answer.
Every school, let alone university, operates differently, and there are some schools where it may be a nonstarter to apply and then there are others that you may be able to get a waiver and/or a probation easily. Honestly and again, your best bet is to contact potential graduate schools directly.

You might get lucky if you look for them, but most programs will want recommenders who can speak to your abilities, and be able to overshadow shortcomings such as low GPA, etc.  Not having recommenders is going to be a serious issue, even if you do find a program that doesn't require these recommendations, especially if you have a low GPA or some extenuating circumstance that would need to be explained.
If you are thinking of professors from who you would want letters of recommendation from, why not just ask them to start with?

These questions might also be of use: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/20323/if-i-cannot-get-sufficient-recommendation-letters-what-can-i-do?rq=1 https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23485/3-4-years-since-i-graduated-how-should-i-time-asking-for-recommendations


text:
Can one host professor take multiple JSPS fellows?
Almost 2.5 months ago, I approached a professor in Japan to be my host supervisor for JSPS fellowship. I also sent him my research proposal and he asked me to do some correction.
In the mean time, I got busy with multiple other works (research paper  writing, examinations etc) and therefore it is taking almost 2 months to give him my updated proposal.
My questions are,
1.Is it normal to contact host after such a long time?
2.If he has already decided to host someone else already (due to my delay), is there still scope for him to host another JSPS fellow (i.e. me ?)

Firstly, it is important to understand that there are 2 categories of JSPS Postdoc: one for Japanese applicants and another for foreign applicants.
UPDATE: The previous text was  incorrect: according to last year's FAQ posted on JSPS site, it says there is only a limit in terms of simultaneous applications by one host researcher, but there is no limit to the number of Postdocs that a researcher can host:

Q2002: If I, as a host researcher, am already hosting a fellow, may I
also apply to host another fellow? A: Yes, you may. There is no limit
placed on the number of individual fellows that a researcher may host.
However, the hosting of multiple fellows should be done in a way that
is not disruptive to the hosting system. As many researchers must be
supported under the program with limited financial resources, limits
are placed on the number of applications that may be submitted at one
time. Please check the Application Guideline in advance.

Nevertheless, this fact does not have a significant effect on the rest of my answer: just because a professor is allowed to receive multiple  people does not mean that they will necessarily accept anybody. Some professors may decide that they only have time, resources and patience to accept one single person, or even no one at all.
In fact, I know one case where a professor had already accepted one JSPS applicant, and refused to accept anyone else from a different category, unless the applicant was strongly recommended by some trusted fellow colleague.
To be blunt, you should not have taken so long to reply. At the very least, within the first month you should have sent a short email to apologize for the delay, and give an approximate timeframe for submitting the revisions. By waiting so long, you are at risk of sending a strong message to the professor that you have given up, or that you are not taking the JSPS application very seriously, or that you have moved on to something else. Just because the professor has discussed the proposal with you in the past, this does not give you any excuse to neglect your duty to keep him informed about your situation. In any case, you should urgently contact the professor, give a sincere apology for the delay, and ask if he is still able to accept you as an applicant.
The only person who can confirm whether you can still be accepted as an applicant is the host professor, so you should contact the person as soon as possible.

I don't understand. If a fellowship can last for more than one year (can it?) then, can a professor add up to two new researchers each cycle or only maintain two at a time?

Thanks for bringing this up, my original answer was based on what Japanese professors had told me years ago, but it seems that at some point the rules have changed. My apologies for the incorrect info.

Makes more sense now, thanks.

Thank you  for your response, it helped a lot. Yes, I am trying to send him the updated proposal as soon as possible

The other answer is not correct, the JSPS application guidelines explicitly say that

Each applicant (host researcher) may submit up to three applications. However, if an applicant submits more than one application, s/he should assign them a priority order.

This answer seems to be about applicants. The question is about (host) professors. Clarify?

@Buffy It appears JSPS uses the terms "applicants" for "host researchers" and "candidates" for "invited overseas researchers". The link also clarifies that "Applications must be submitted to JSPS by a host researcher in Japan via the head of his/her university or institution.".

@Anyon, then their remains the issue of "submitting" multiple applications vs supporting more than one, especially in terms of the prioritizing requirement.

@Buffy Yeah. I also saw that the FAQ Q2002 indicates "there is no limit placed on the number of individual fellows that a researcher may host", but that the application guidelines may limit the number of applications submitted at one time. The quote given in this answer is about the rate limit.


text:
Is there a powerful exam template that doesn't require an engineering degree to use?
Microsoft Word is the standard product for documents in my department as far as the administration is concerned. Final exams go through a work-flow that involves department secretaries creating a standard cover page, professors providing "content", and the final product is approved by the department chair. In 2001, this was OK. Now, after having used online course systems such as Moodle with question banks, I find it really frustrating.
Word has been inadequate (for my exam preparation) for years. Here are some of the reasons:

There's no template (.dot or .dotx) file that contains the formatting information for that which is a university exam, including styles for short-answer questions, multiple-choice, essay, etc. Secretaries just send me last semester's exam, with the updated cover page, and I'm asked to update the content of my exam. I once attempted to define numbered questions in Word styles, but the Word styles have become polluted over the semesters (especially when other instructors are involved, who may or may not use Word styles properly). It's a nightmare to try to strip out the junk (especially since the cover page has some formatting styles that get introduced). Sadly, most secretaries use Word as a kind of hi-tech typewriter, and there's no separation of content from presentation. A template idea means nothing (which is a human problem).
Although there is auto-numbering for questions/pages/etc., I haven't found a way to automatically number the various question types, e.g., essay questions, multiple-choice questions along with the answers to questions, keeping them all on the same page, etc. Again, the result winds up being some hacked-up typewritten solution where one must manually re-start numbering at the proper place, etc. Moving or adding a question or answer is disruptive. I'm sure there's a clean way to do this, but I've never had the time to grok it or found the .dot/.dotx file that made it easy in Word. Customizing lists is a nightmare in Word (it has to be done with care or the numbering is all wrong). Surely someone has solved this problem for exams!
Exams are manually graded, so it's very useful to have grader zones to keep track of points when marking. The solution is to make a Word table on the cover page (or the last page) and update it for each question and its value. Again, it's a failure (to me) that in 2015 we must update these tables manually when the points/question or order of questions change. We're basically using Word as a typewriter despite the power of Microsoft. I tried in the past (2005?) to use Word variables for the point-values in questions, but short of writing a macro in VB, I wasn't able to generate a grading table automatically.

So, along comes a graduate teaching assistant who points me to the exam class in LaTeX. Awesome! It solves all of the above problems! Except, it's a LaTeX environment, and that's going to cause problems with the non-technical part of our exam workflow. Getting the secretaries (or technicians) to 1) install the proper LaTeX environment on their machines or 2) to learn to use typesetting language is going to be a barrier for several reasons. What's more, I'm pretty sure I'll get stuck maintaining the cover page for the entire university in LaTeX if I convinced them to go down that road (the post-doc who created the LaTeX style for a PhD thesis here got stuck with supporting it).
Even the more use-friendly LyX is too much, because of the complex installation in Windows. The Exam layout for LyX is far from easy to use (there are a lot of embedded LaTeX commands still necessary).

But the exam class in LaTeX is awesome -- here are just a couple of examples:

I started using Word in 1984 with 5 1/4" floppies, before a mouse was needed (it was optional). I remember thinking how cool the idea of paragraph styles was... They have existed since then. But where is the Word equivalent of the Exam class from LaTeX? Did it die when Framemaker was bought by Adobe in the 1990s?
OpenOffice has a couple of templates, but they're specific for styles of questions (e.g., Multiple-choice template, Essay template).
What powerful exam template do you use that's secretary-friendly?

Word processing programs just do not have a document class concept.  The best way to make them work like LaTeX is to turn them into LaTeX.

What do the secretaries do? Is it fixed content (subject/year), or may it change from time to time?

@davidmh Secretaries check grammar and general readability. They verify %, total points, and update the cover page with the numbers of questions and total pages. They will add date, time for final or midterm exams.

As far as I know, my department doesn't provide secretarial help for preparing exams (except possibly in huge multi-section courses, but probably not even there).  I prepare my own exams in LaTeX, without even the benefit of  template (except for copying last semester's exam and deleting all the content).  It works for me; maybe it would work for you.

Final exams go through a work-flow that involves department secretaries creating a standard cover page, professors providing "content", and the final product is approved by the department chair. — [shudder]

@AndreasBlass it's not so much "help" as it is work-flow. Once a secretary has received approval for the content of an exam, she validates the format, cover page, etc. She sends it to a repro service and then to the proctoring service (who take care of verifying student ids, etc.). We actually have to prepare finals like 3 weeks prior so all this can happen...

Can you generate the whole thing into a PDF, in LyX or LaTaX and then get the sectary to give feedback as a PDF comment then update it? Then they only need a pdf view like adobe or foxit

I think "[crappy situation]...despite the power of Microsoft" must be a typo for "...because of the power of Microsoft".

More seriously, let me just comment that I have worked in a number of departments where secretarial staff deal with LaTex documents, e.g. for exam typesetting. Of course there is the issue that it is more technical than word-processing, but if the main jobs to be done are validation etc, rather than actually typing anything, the secretary will hardly need to look at the underlying .tex file at all. For any data such as date, start time etc. that need to be entered, one can help by commenting the .tex file appropriately .

"she validates the format, cover page, etc"  in LaTeX these tasks go away, because the style makes them correct.  The remaining tasks (making copies, etc) can be done using the PDF output.

@potentiallydense The trouble with validation arises when the higher administration decides some new directive (about using cell phones or how many times a student can go to the toilet during the exam) must be included on the cover page, or the font size for page numbers changes, etc. In LaTeX many changes like these require expertise beyond what most secretaries are trained for.

"Microsoft Word is the standard product" <- That's your problem right there.

For LyX, I created my own, improved exam.layout (available on GitHub) that uses LaTeX's exam class and it's working well (although LyX does have its quirks).
It's documented in exam_layout_doc.lyx and a sample is included as sample_exam.lyx.
Here's an example from the cover page (based on the Exam Class samples in its documentation):

... and some questions:

Not all Exam Class features are supported, but a lot of things are doable from LyX with my layout file.

So, you want LaTeX without having to write LaTeX. The solution? Write a LaTeX code generator!
You don't seem to have many different kinds of questions, so your user can input them through a form, similar to how Google Docs works. Then, compile. Last time I tried, MikTeX was pretty straightforward to install on Windows, and it will automatically download necessary packages as needed. Another alternative is to offer it as a webserver.

Isn't LyX a LaTeX code generator? Anyway, I like the idea, but it's still only half-baked. There are more and more online LaTeX environments being made available.

LyX generates LaTeX code, but it is a lot more powerful/general that what Davidmh is suggesting.

@Fuhrmanator you need only three or four kinds of templates. The backend is just a few lines of code. To your user you don't expose a full LaTeX environment, but just an interface that lets you choose type of question (free text, multiple choice...), and a box for the text.


text:
Submitting the same paper to more than one conference in economics
I am aware of the post relating to this topic here. However, it doesn't say anything for the paper relating to the economics. I would be glad if seasoned econ colleagues could clear out the confusion in this regard.

Do you have a specific reason to believe the answer would be different for the field of economics?

Yes, because I didn't see any restrictions clause on the calls. However, I want to make sure whether this implies that it is ethically acceptable.

I wouldn't expect to see a restriction on the calls; they don't list all possibly types of bad behavior, with the disclaimer, "don't do this." Looking at the site in the linked question, there are a number of economics journals who are members of the organization; I would imagine that would be demonstration enough that this behavior is universally recognized as unethical.

The "duplicate"'s answer appears to say that doing this is taboo, but in Economics academia it is perfectly common practice. I just returned from a conference where I saw some of the papers presented for the third or fourth time.

If in doubt, ask the conference organizers about their policies. I have seen people give essentially the same talk at multiple conferences.


text:
What is the downside of not pursuing postdoctoral fellowship position?
Suppose after graduating from a PhD program, you don't do a post-doc. Are the chances of getting a tenure-track position severely reduced? Also is it possible to do a post-doc after a completion of a masters program (probably should be called a "post-masters")?

What will you do instead of a post-doc?

@DavidKetcheson: take a break.

is it possible to get Assistant Prof position without post-doc (i.e. right after PhD completion)?

@seteropere - It's possible, but in most cases, it's pretty unlikely.

@eykanal - It depends on the type of institution. It is extremely unlikely to get a tenure-track position at a research level institution without a postdoc, but it is considerably more likely in a lot of fields to get a tenure-track position at a primarily undergraduate institution without a postdoc. In my department we have 2 individuals who did postdocs and 5(myself included) who did not.

@BenNorris - Excellent point. These positions also make great springboards to other positions at larger universities later on, with the added benefit of more security at the outset (as compared to a typical postdoc position).

The purpose of a postdoctoral fellowship is simply to gain the skills detailed in this answer to a similar question, notably:

Get involved with obtaining funding
Build an international reputation
Start collaborating with external parties
Learn how to manage projects and a lab
Start to devise a strategic research plan
Improve your publication record

If you have all those things from your work as a graduate student, then you should have no problem finding employment and furthering your academic career immediately after you earn your PhD. Most students don't, which is why they try to find a postdoc position to help them  gain these skills before attempting to run their own lab.

Currently, I believe this is a very field-dependent issue. In physics, for instance, it would not be possible to get a faculty position without a postdoc (or even two postdocs) unless you're an Einstein-level talent. In some fields, such as engineering, it may still be possible to get a position directly after a PhD—but in such cases that candidate is usually told to take a year or two, do a postdoc, and then start the faculty position.
However, I think that it is in general a very bad idea to just "take some time off" if one is planning to pursue a faculty position. Working in industry or doing something that keeps one active in research is probably OK, but a "sabbatical" that doesn't contribute toward a CV in any way will likely set off some hackles on the part of the search committee.

In computer science, postdocs are relatively rare.  I believe this is true in most engineering fields.

At least in my field (ChE), nowadays all faculty candidates are expected to have a postdoc before beginning their positions. This also appears to be the case in math and physics, as well as materials science.

What people expect from a candidate for a tenure-track faculty position is the ability to guide research and to set up an independent research group. The candidate will have to prove extensive (almost) independent research experience and a research vision to last for many years. A post-doc candidate will be stronger in these requirements than someone just graduating with a PhD. It is not impossible to get a tenure-track position directly after the PhD, but I think chances are better with a post-doc.
Nevertheless, if you just graduated and there is a position announced which fits your profile, by all means apply for it. Even if you're not successful, it may give you valuable experience.
All types of faculty positions I know of have a formal PhD requirement, so usually it is not useful to skip that.

What if you are interested in teaching colleges?

@bobbby It depends on the educational system. Check the formal requirements for positions that are announced and that you would be interested in, and do what best advances you towards those. For pure teaching probably gaining more practical teaching experience will be useful.

I'll also add, that even if you are at a teaching college there is a good chance you will be involved in research at some level (primarily with undergraduates, but possibly graduates depending on your institution) if you are in a STEM field. However for a teaching college having some teaching experience is probably much more important than a post-doc. Of course it all depends on the institution.

Let us start from a different perspective. What is required to get a tenure-track position?
I would say that two things are primarily used as criteria in the selection process: number of publications and ability to secure funding. Related to the publication list is of course aspects of publications, publication rate number of citations and the impact factor of the journals in which you publish. Exactly how these aspects are weighted is varying. Note that rates are important so it is not exclusively a matter of pure numbers.
In both cases time is an aspect and obviously you will standa a better chance the more merits you can accumulate which takes time. I do not know what other possibilities might exist to get some time to improve your merits. In some cases you might be temporarily hired to do teaching. Teaching will of course also be a merit but not on the expense of research. and under such circumstances contnued research output may be a challenge. So obviously a Post-Doc should give you a head start but I would not see it as an exclusive prerequisite.
"Post-Master": Since this concept does not formally exist, I could see there being opportunities to partake in research by being a lab-assistant or something similar. Any opportunity to widen your experience and possibly getting you into the research activities, especially publishing would be beneficial fo r the future.

what if you are interested in liberal arts colleges?

@bobbby Yes think of everything in a broad sense. I do not know what typical work opportunities might exist in different disciplines and of course opportunities might be better in some than in others


text:
Should graduate study be done when you are not fully interested in the subject matter?
This question is somewhat broad, but this place seems like the best place to ask. I have been accepted for an information assurance program, but I am a computer science major and my main interest lies in software development. Should that deter me from deciding to study information assurance?
Another factor in the decision is that the program is through scholarships for service, so it is a 2 year program with 2 years of work in a government position for information assurance. Ultimately, I recognize it is a subjective decision. The core question I am trying to ask is, should you do graduate study even if you are only partially interested in the subject matter? In other words: how committed do you need to be to the subject matter for graduate study to be worthwhile?
On another note, we continually see news about huge networks with cybersecurity issues. Sony's Playstation network, LinkedIn, and I think I read today that Yahoo! accounts may have been compromised. With the growth of businesses and services online, it seems only natural that an adept skill-set in information assurance would be beneficial.

An unmotivated graduate student will usually be a lackluster student at best. These students will be more likely to be distracted by whatever their true interests are.
Moreover, in a program like the one you are describing, you will be making a very significant career detour. You would be advised not to make such a move unless you are absolutely sure that it's something you'll want to do for the next four years, since you will have a payback requirement. If you're not sure about it, this is the kind of move that can wreak havoc on your career—particularly if you (re-)discover your dissatisfaction after the classwork is complete, and the service period begins.

This is very good advice and reiterates what the little voice inside of me has been warning me of. I have great motivation, but not in the interests of information assurance.

Some people do further study because they are interested, indeed passionate about the topic matter. Others do it to improve their job prospects/career outlook/ultimate pay packet.
Ask yourself which category you fall into. If you are not interested, then you may not enjoy it and may not succeed unless your motivation is more financial.

I think this advice applies more to terminal/professional degrees than to research-oriented degrees.  Certainly you should not join a PhD program to study a topic you don't care about.

@JeffE: Which is what the question is about.

That's the OP's specific situation, sure, but the question asks about graduate study in general.

Some students (especially graduate students)
might take a few courses for credit to see how things
go. Invariably, at a later time they can usually be
used toward a degree or transferred.
The standard to be admitted as a special student varies.
Within the Ivy League, applying as a graduate level
special student, say at Harvard University,
is competitive.
See my answer regarding this as stated on this forum
below:
https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/61120/123306

I do not think this is an answer to the question.

The very first sentence he states is important.
So I apologize if I was I was broad
To be specific, you should probably not go into anything that you are partially interested in, but that is obvious I feel


text:
Is it possible to create a mutual relationship between full-time work and a PhD program?
Having experienced academia through masters, and work via part-time and full-time jobs, I plan to pursue PhD and keep working full time. However, my plan is to create a mutual relationship between work and PhD program in which research feeds work and leads new assignments, and work assignments helps research through results and my employer as well.

I am not sure about the case in the other fields, but I think this should be valid for CS people. Do you think or know whether this is possible? If so, do you know any examples of such programs or people who work in this particular way?
The other questions is how might this relationship help or hurt PhD studies?

There is already a question about possibility of working full-time and pursuing PhD simultaneously. However, this question considers working in a completely unrelated area with respect to PhD program.
There is another question that explores the possibility of working on extra activities such as start-up project while pursuing PhD.

It is not unheard of to have people work outside of an academic setting on their PhD thesis. For instance, in the US national laboratory system, there are a number of graduate students working on their PhD thesis. It's not a large number—maybe a dozen or so per laboratory—but it's not zero, either. In countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, it is also not uncommon to be employed as a PhD student in industry; however, the financing of that is somewhat unclear to me. (They may receive the equivalent of their stipend, or they may receive a "professional" salary.)
That said, I suspect it will be difficult to find an arrangement which will allow you to work full-time and receive both a graduate stipend and a full-time salary. Such arrangements would be generally frowned upon by both university and the external sponsor.

Disclaimer: This originated as a comment to @aeismail's answer but rapidly got too long and complex to warrant being an answer. It's however intended to complement his answer primarily...
I can't speak for Germany or Netherlands but in Sweden you are officially employed as a PhD, thus you do get a "professional salary" and not a stipend, albeit that salary not being on par with what you could earn out in the industry. I cannot say for sure but I have heard that it's a similar system in Germany.
The so-called "industrial PhD"s come in multiple flavours. The type I have seen most commonly are employed by a company which has a certain interest in a particular type of research. Basically by establishing a collaboration with a research group in a nearby university where there might be more resources (time, instruments and most of expertise) they send this student to do a PhD "in-between" the two organisations, figuratively speaking. It's usually a beneficial position for all parties involved, at least on paper, since;

the company gets the research done, with near-minimal costs.
the research groups gets a grad student that is practically free
and the student gets well-paid (often better than her colleagues in the research group) and usually gets better deals through her arrangement with the company in question.

Another way the industrial research might work is, if the company in question decides to have the necessary resources to conduct research in-house. Then you are practically working as a regular employee, you just get to do R&D and publish your results (usually after being filtered to a level which your company is content with).
Finally, about keeping a full-time job and a full-time PhD position at the same time, if you do pursue such a course, make sure you double check your contract(s). Because we are government employed here (in my university for sure, but I think it applies to the rest of Sweden as well) and have pretty decent salaries, we are required to prioritise our research duties. In other words, we are required to not have any other full-time commitments besides our employment. I can imagine that similar fineprint might exist elsewhere as well