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How can I hire a professor to write a research paper?
I'm part of a trade group that's looking to hire a professor to write a whitepaper on our industry. We plan to release and promote the study to help people understand our business. What's the best way to do that? Find a professor in our niche and reach out to them directly? Or do you go through the department chair or some other means? Are professors generally receptive to this sort of for-profit work? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Why do you need a professor? Why not write the white paper yourself?

We could write it ourselves, but we'd like something with more weight that might actually get picked up by the mainstream media. It would also be new research that's never been done before, so we're not entirely sure how to go about it...

@JeffE It's a fair separation of concerns: if someone else is better at some activity than you, outsource the activity.

Define a financial support program which is related to your industry and advertise it. Graduate students, professors, independent researchers and whoever interested in receiving your funding will contact you and will send you proposals. That report you want can be part of their contract. Moreover, their research work can help your R&D section.

Yes, some professors are available for consultancy work. Find one or two in your specialty, and approach them: some universities have directories of experts listed by subject, to help you identify suitable researchers. You'll find they're typically lower-priced than the equivalent grade of management consultant, as well as doing better work.
However.
Though you're paying the piper, you won't be calling the tune (with the exception of a handful of rogues).
Which means that they'll publish what they find. It is highly likely that there will be some of it you don't like, which will mean you won't want to publicise the final report. They will write one or more papers based on what they've found, and if the university's legal team has done its job properly, you'll have no say in the content of those papers, nor how the university promotes them, so it will be out of your control.
If you want to learn something about your industry from an academic angle, you will get your money's worth, subject to real data being available. Academics are sometimes able to get access to information that others could not, precisely because of the pressures on them to remain independent and treat data impartially. However, the fact that you're funding them may impair their access.
Do bear in mind that an academic will typically put a lot of work into describing the uncertainties: so on first skim, the impression you'll get from the report is that it mostly says "we don't know this, and we can't know that; there are indications of those. More research is required". The report may take some digesting, as a lot of academics are very experienced at writing, but surprisingly few write lucidly and accessibly.
If you're looking for promotional material, this really is the wrong tack.

Excellent point that hiring an academic is not like hiring a PR firm...you will get something different.

These are the main reasons why research should precede production

There are several issues at work here.
The biggest issue here is credibility. The fact that you want to hire someone to write a study of the industry creates a conflict of interest: since you are paying the bills for such a paper, then presumably there won't be anything significant which could be construed as either negative or critical of your industry.
Compounding the matter is that you then want to publicize the study you have paid for, which makes the credibility issue that much more serious for the faculty member in question.
Any professor whose opinion on this might actually mean something would likely not want to touch such a project with a ten-foot pole, because this doesn't pass the "smell test."

Thanks for the feedback. I know it's a thorny issue, but it seems like this sort of thing is done all the time. We definitely wouldn't want to influence their work, either. They would have complete academic license to report their findings. If we didn't like the results of the research, we just wouldn't publish it...

@aesmail's points are decisive. And, note, user10232's comment that "if we didn't like the results... we just wouldn't publish it" is exactly why reputable people would not want to get involved, and the outcome would have less credibility in any case. E.g., one could keep hiring people to do work-ups until one of them happened to be positive, and just keep that one? The process is fatally tainted.

Apologies, I should have said "we wouldn't publicize the research." The professor could use it as they please (i.e. publish it in academic journals, etc.). This reminds me of the chicken and egg debate. How can we know what the research says if it's never completed? In my mind, we'd find a professor working in this area, and pay them to produce research. Isn't that similar to a grant? From the responses here, though, it seems like if I approach a prof, he or she would reject the offer out of hand?  I know this sort of thing gets done, though, so maybe it's just not talked about publicly?

Even if it's "not publicize" rather than "not publish", it's still similar, in terms of conflict-of-interest and such. Yes, such stuff happens, but it is very iffy, and participation in such a thing could permanently mar an academic professional's reputation, not to mention the business entity's.

Instead of hiring a person for a single white-paper, you could submit a call for project proposals, if your funding permits. Here is an example of Facebook doing this.
If you want to make a general project proposal call or one that is topic-specific, then the key way to "get it out there" would be via mailing-lists. You can also directly contact research facilitators, whose job it is to help staff write, submit, and manage research proposals. There are research facilitators at many universities, institutes, and departments.
The advantage is that projects may be proposed on topics you didn't think were important to your industry and you'd get more research.
Others have highlighted the conflict-of-interest angle in asking for a whitepaper. That conflict-of-interest can also exist with corporate or industry-funded projects. But in both cases that isn't necessarily the case. The project I am currently on is funded by a company, but we have academic independence.

Bear with me for a minute, there is a logic to the exposition I am about to make.

I'm part of a trade group that's looking to hire a professor to write a whitepaper on our industry.

In my experience of this, it would imply heavy competition within your industry, but with no value in branding.  For example, there is a great value to promoting the beef industry, but no value in promoting the beef of the Bar-X Ranch, except maybe locally as a source of fresh, locally grown beef.

We plan to release and promote the study to help people understand our business.

My experience of this is that the industry, maybe for the first time, is having public relations problems and people are so disconnected from the industry that the perceptions of the industry may not align with the facts.  Hence, hiring a professor may allow some credibility to the idea that people are misunderstanding the reality that is being lived.

What's the best way to do that?

Having a professor explain it through a whitepaper that is picked up by the press implies the professor would be asked to be interviewed on television.  There are two problems with this tactic.  The first is that the tobacco industry tried this and America has been a bit jaded ever since.  If the professor had spontaneously produced research, not funded by the industry, and if it were newsworthy, you would have free PR.  Professors are valued as experts because they do not get paid to produce research or disclose the conflicts of interest in their writing so that the reader can discount it.
It is possible, however, that someone is already producing your PR work right now and you just do not know about it.
If your industry is large enough, there is almost certainly at least one university that teaches it as a class.  I teach industry specific courses from time to time.  Others do too.  In fact, just about everyone does.
You need to search for someone who already teaches what you need explained.  They fit the criteria of "doing it for free."  They may not be saying what you want said, but they are talking about you.  You can search for courses at universities by restricting your searches to .edu and making sure you include the word "syllabus."  Then you can see what is being taught and what books and articles they are using.
From that list, and it is probably a small list, you can look to see what they are talking about.  Then, instead of funding a whitepaper, fund an online class and get it put on YouTube.  You could then ask the instructor you chose to be sure to cover some topics because you feel that all sides are not being explained.  If they are a legitimate academic, they will bring out all sides.
A sequence of videos is also nice because they will come up in searches by those who are actually interested.  Videos are nice because you can ignore the parts of the topic you don't want to know about, whereas you have to read the entire white paper.
Once you have narrowed down the list of professors who cover your field explicitly, you could then reach out to them.  For some professors, they are so underwater that you could offer any amount of money and they couldn't take it.  For others, the opportunity to fund something they are going to do without you will give them a boost in income, maybe give the institution some extra exposure, and create the opportunity for future work.
If you are in a very narrow field, such a the makers of cheddar cheese, the people teaching it who are any good would be teaching it as part of a larger class on either dairy production or agricultural products, or they are not so good and will just teach you how to make cheese as in an extension class.  This isn't to say they are bad at their job, but they do not need to understand the industry to teach a hobbyist how to make cheddar.
If you are in a narrow field, then look at who is publishing research on your field in the academic papers.  Any academic librarian could help you figure out what papers are out there and who is producing them.  It will take a lot of papers to start figuring out who the luminary or luminaries in the field are, but I can almost guarantee you that they exist.
A whitepaper is probably the wrong way to go.  Also, if your industry has opponents then the opponent can now see a lecture on the topic and have someone to contact to see why they are teaching such wrongheaded ideas, even if those wrongheaded ideas are factually true.
People can see through whitepapers done as cheerleading for an industry, but if it is a legitimate lecture on the topic, then it should work.  The bigger issue on your side is making sure everyone has "clean hands," or it will not work.

There are caveats.

Check the level of industrial readiness. Academia is often working on level which does not pay off yet or at all, and it's legitimate for them, while you are working on a level which has to pay off. You have to find the Golden middle.
Depending on his/her contract, a professor might not be allowed to do some extra job legally above his/her 40 hours per week or so. You should find one that offers consultancy as a business outside of his/her regular hours.
When professors are not working for their institutions but for you, they are not acting as professors in their duty. Therefore, in the strict sense of the word, they should not sign the paper as "Prof. Smith" or put the institution's name there; the best they can do is to sign off as "Dr. Smith", "Mr./Ms. Smith", "Jack/Jane Smith" in the paper's title page without the institution's name. The paper might not get the weight you wanted.

If you are o.k. with that, find the person and hire him/her. As others said, some professors even offer consultancy services in their free time.
If not, you should establish an academic-industrial cooperation which would allow the professor to do his/her proper academic job that would also correspond with your interests. The terms of such a collaboration are highly country-dependent; you should really check the country's specifics.
Now how to find such a chap? As a start, go through the websites of several nearby institutions and write a few e-mails asking directly what you want. Then take it from there.

Ask the professor to collect together the most respected opinions on the question and summarize their results for you.  Don't tell them anything that would make it seem that you want one particular answer.
Problem solved.  (Unless someone just can't take a solution as an answer.)


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Whom to suggest as an editor when submitting a paper?
Some journals let authors to suggest who should handle their submission. How should one choose the suggested editors? In my particular case, I struggled with selection because

One of the possible choices was an editor who was one of my co-author's opponent when his dissertation was publicly examined
One editor was affiliated with the same institution as one of my co-authors
One editor had published with one of my co-authors
Two editors were well known by my co-authors (no shared projects)
Two editors I had never heard about

Our paper had about 10 authors from 6 different institutions. I selected an unknown editor because I felt there was some kind of potential conflict of interest (even if just perceived) in selecting someone else. However, I have been wondering whether I did the correct choice? My paper got eventually rejected but I got some nice feedback to improve the work. Therefore, I might face the same situation soon again, when I get to the point of resubmitting the paper to some other journal.

@Alexandros I edited the question. Yes, he was an examiner of the completed PhD thesis.

@Alexandros opponents are used in some countries.  I think Denmark is one.

@AnonymousPhysicist Only in some fields. In others they are just called the examination committee.

@alexandros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorate says that Denmark in Finland indeed have officially assigned opponents for the disputation. Another case of "academia varies more than you think".

That is exactly the case. In Finland, there is an opponent that may ask any questions about the work. The candidate must be able to answer them. This is the case in every field as far as I know.

You are correct, selecting an editor the authors have not met avoids perceived conflict of interest, which is a good thing.  I think "editors were well known by my co-authors (no shared projects)" is also a good choice.
It's not always possible to eliminate all potential conflicts of interest.  I would prioritize avoiding selecting an editor whom I had coauthored a paper with, since that is a very important form of professional relationship.  Ultimately, assigning the manuscript to an appropriate editor should be the journal editor-in-chief's responsibility, not the author's.

My preference would be the "editors well known by my co-authors (no shared projects)"
The two editors I had never heard about could change my mind if I learned more about them

If you are not sure whom to suggest, just do not suggest anybody. You seem to have a good reason: it is complicated. The editor-in-charge is able to see your co-authorships with other editors and stuff like that, and then choose whatever he prefers. After all, unless it's a scam journal, its their ethics in these matters that are important, and not your perception of the correct ethics.
If you wish, you could explain your lack of choice of a communicating editor in the note to the editor, but equally, you can omit this.

Probably making a suggestion is enforced by the submission software.

Bit hard when journals such as IEEE ones require a minimum of 2

There are some things to consider when choosing an editor:

The editor should not have a conflict of interests himself.
The editor should know who is qualified to review the paper.
It's an advantage if he knows some of these people personally
(because that makes it a lot easier to recruit them as reviewers),
and it's also an advantage if he knows which of those people might
have a conflict of interests.
And finally, the editor should have an idea what to do if the
reviews are inconsistent.

As a consequence, one should not pick close friends, current
collaborators, or researchers from the same department,
but one should also avoid to choose somebody who is known to be
overly critical of your research as a whole.
On the other hand, it's usually a good idea to pick an editor who is
at least remotely familiar with the topic. Which means that,
if I have been working in this area for quite some time, the editor
whose name I've never heard would not be my first choice.

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Is there a way to finding an author's H-index on Google Scholar if they have not created a profile?
There are quite a few professors at my school that do not have a Google Scholar profile at all. I may search them in Google Scholar's search engine and hope their most recent papers come up, but I am not able to access their h-index or any of the other metrics supplied by Google Scholar. If I search a paper by them, I can see it listed, but the author's name is not underlined and it doesn't seem as though they have a profile.
Microsoft Academic seems to create "profiles" for people and then allow them to claim it, letting others at least view data about the person in question even if they have not created an account. Is there any way to do this with Google Scholar?

Regarding creating public profiles for people who don't have one, see this. If you just want to calculate someone's H-index other databases like Web of Science exist.

No, finding the H-index from Google Scholar of someone else who does not have a profile does not seem to be possible. While I could not find a source that confirms this, there is no mention of such an option in the help pages of Google Scholar, and the wording strongly suggests that seeing those metrics at an individual author level are one of the benefits of creating a profile.
From this page (emphasis mine):

Google Scholar Citations provide a simple way for authors to keep track of citations to their articles. You can check who is citing your publications, graph citations over time, and compute several citation metrics. You can also make your profile public, so that it may appear in Google Scholar results when people search for your name, e.g., richard feynman.

However, a few relevant notes:

A profile may exist and be public, but may not be searchable. A profile, even if public, needs to have a verified institutional email address added in order to appear in the search results. To account for such a scenario, you could check if you can find a link from elsewhere, such as the researcher's web page, or from the "Co-authors" list in the profile of one of their co-authors.

To just search by author, you can filter your results better by using the author: operator or using Advanced search.

One important issue is that without a profile, you don't have any reliable way of determining which of the many publications by John A. Smith in Google Scholar are publications by the John A. Smith that you're interested in.

@BrianBorchers that's true but the chance that there are 2 John A. Smith's in the same department in the same university is almost 0. Google, with all their researchers, should also be able to scrape the data off their robots crawling people's CVs

Supposing the person has a fairly unique name (within their discipline), you can search for the name. Google scholar will typically start with the highest cited papers first, more-or-less. Then you can count papers they are an author of. When this count matches the number of citations a paper of theirs has, you have the h-index, up to an unknown error margin. If the count of papers exceeds the number of citations, subtract one to get the h-index. Check the next few publications in case some of them are more highly cited than the immediately previous ones for a bit of extra accuracy.
Note that if you only take a look at a subset of papers authored by a researcher, you get a lower bound on the h-index. This method gives you such a lower bound.
Since h-index is fairly robust to missing single papers or having a few extra ones, supposing the person publishes under a single name that Google finds and you do not confuse them with a productive researcher with the same name, you should get a fairly accurate number.

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How to deal with former student requests to be co-author?
I am a fairly new assistant professor in a social science discipline and I've started encountering the situation where students I've supervised at the masters or PhD level finish their dissertations and want to publish papers based on their work. Several have contacted me asking whether I would like to be a co-author on the resulting paper. In some cases, I feel uncertain about accepting co-authorship. Here are the reasons I’ve considered for and against it, and I’d appreciate your thoughts on which are the most compelling.
Reasons Against Being a Co-Author:
Ability to take responsibility for the work. I believe all co-authors, especially senior ones, should take responsibility for the paper’s arguments, methods, and conclusions. If the papers I was being offered co-authorship on were in an area that I'm an expert on then I'd have no qualms about taking this responsibility. However, students are offering me authorship on papers that are outside my core areas of expertise. They are either ones in which I was one of several advisors, and advised on a small area of the content, and have little knowledge about other aspects, or ones where I felt comfortable to supervise a students' work, but wouldn't feel comfortable taking ownership of the specific conclusions they came to in the published literature.
Relevance to my own CV. I worry that having a large number of papers on my CV on areas not directly related to my core areas of interest/expertise will dilute my CV, and make it harder for people to understand what my research is about. I'm already publishing a large enough volume of papers to keep up with expectations, and in my country quality of research outputs is valued more highly than volume. As a result, my own research is deliberately concentrated into a small number of papers at fairly high impact journals.
Time and effort. If I put time into reading and commenting on drafts, and helping students through the publication process (e.g. dealing with peer reviewers) then this is time I could spend doing other things.
Reasons to be a co-author
Publications on my CV. Surely, all else equal, more publications is better.
It provides evidence that I am an effective supervisor.
Do I have a responsibility to students to help them publish their work?  Students' work may be evaluated more positively by journal editors if it has my name on it as a coauthor. I can also help students to deal with responding to reviewers and other aspects of the publication process.
According to ICJME guidelines, if I provide substantial feedback on the draft, I would meet the criteria for co-authorship. But I’m still unsure how to balance these considerations.
How do others handle this situation? What factors should I prioritize?

You accept authorship for papers where you had important input and agree with the message (and quality) of the paper. If you had input, but do not agree with message and quality, you can be generous to let the student publish while acknowledging you.

(1) I'm confused how you were supervising students whose topics were so far from your own they would look irrelevant on your CV? (2) Do you work in medicine? ICJME's guidelines are not universal.

@AzorAhai-him- 1) in my department/discipline masters' students have a lot of latitude for choosing their dissertation topic, so students can end up writing dissertations on topics that aren't the direct specialism of the supervisor. In the case of the PhD student, I was assigned as a second supervisor to advise on a specific methodological aspect of the project. 2) No I'm not in medicine - this issue only arose when one of my students submitted to a journal that does use ICJME criteria for determining authorship

and in my country quality of research outputs is valued more highly than volume. Are you sure? I have never heard of an academic system that does such an amazing job of measuring research quality that they do not put significant value on volume as well volume. It's hard to say for sure without knowing more details, but your calculation of the drawbacks of agreeing to be added as a coauthor seems exaggerated to me personally, and your estimation of the benefits sounds too conservative.

Maybe it's because I'm in a different area, but I don't think having a few papers from outside your core areas of interest will dilute the CV. A CV section called "Research interests" or "Research overview" makes it easier to understand what your research is about than an ever-expanding list of paper titles anyway.

First, I guess I'm a bit of an extremist on this, but my advice is to not consider yourself a co-author on a student's paper, even at the doctoral level, unless your relationship with them was collegial/collaborative rather than an advisor role. Let them have sole authorship and list your contributions in an acknowledgment section.
Note, importantly that the ICJME guidelines have four aspects with the word and not or between them. They are all important aspects, not just one.
My view is that those guidelines are the minimum and that the first of them is essential. While I advised my doctoral students on their dissertations and provided help, I was never a co-author on their resulting publications. Nor was my dissertation advisor an author on mine (in math, of course), though he suggested the problem and advised on the results.
I do acknowledge that in some fields, such as lab sciences requiring massive funding, advisors, PIs actually, are authors quite naturally because without their support the work could not be undertaken in the first place. I find that a bit distasteful, but also natural. Likewise something like field-work in a field like anthropology might be similar, due to the required funding and the cooperative nature of such investigations.
The key for me in authorship is who has provided the key intellectual content of the paper. There can be several contributors to that, hence several authors, but "hard work" and "review" isn't enough for me. Who has provided the ideas expressed in the paper?
An alternate reason, important to me, is that sole authorship for a beginner can be a boost and I'd rather not have people question their work, suggesting it was "really" mine.
I don't work in social science, so math and CS may be giving me a bias here, I recognize. But generosity is a virtue.
But yes, help them get published in any way you can. There are many other ways than your possible name recognition. That focuses it on you, when, IMO, it should be on them and on the work itself.

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Include Poster Paper in Academic CV
I want to know how much does it matter to include poster paper list in an academic CV. I see some researchers and professors put poster list in their CV, however, it is not widely used. Note that, I am talking about the poster papers that are often accepted as a separate track e.g., Demo/Poster Track in top-tier computer science, electronics and communication engineering-based conferences.
(I am aware that some flagship conferences put some paper as poster presentation instead of oral presentation due to the huge number of accepted papers, however, all of them are included in the conference proceedings irrespective of oral or poster presentation.)
Here is some relevant discussion:
How do you include a poster in an academic resume?
Poster author added me as coauthor after abstract was submitted. Can I include it on CV?

If it is included in the conference proceedings then sure, include it. It is important to make it clear that it is not a full paper so people have a separate section for listing things like posters or workshop papers.
But how much does it matter? For impressing a hiring committee, not much. It usually isn't very prestigious to present a poster and the acceptance rate is often very high
It is still your work though and was published, so I would list it mostly for completeness.

If it isn't included in the proceedings, then I probably wouldn't include it. The advice I have been told is that it will reduce the signal-to-noise ratio of my CV. Although, I have seen some of my friends in the humanities include such things so it might depend on your field.

Got it. How about a poster paper in top-tier IEEE conference compared to low grade conference (even supported by IEEE)? Still don't it have any credit? Yes, I agree that we can put in separate list in CV.

@Mithun From my experience, posters are weighted very low, regardless of the venue. But if your publication list is short then I do think it could be beneficial for applying to PhD programs or scholarships.

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Paper Indexed by SCI
One of my papers is online published with volume, issue, and page number. The journal is published by IEEE and SCI-indexed with high impact factor. I need a report from Web-of-Science to obtain the results that indicates that my paper is SCI indexed. But, unfortunately, Web-of-Science does not able to search the paper. The paper is online on October. It is non-trivial to estimate the time.
Possible duplicate: Here

Is there any other way to say that my paper is SCI-indexed?
Any expected time?
Any help from IEEE or Web-of-Science?

if it's online, why you need to prove that it is indexed? Just write it yourself and let them find it (whoever might need the information)

I did the same. They ask for the report from web of science.

Web of Science has a lag of potentially several months before a given paper from an indexed journal is uploaded. There is (I believe) nothing at all you can do about this - it's simply a matter of their workflow taking time due to the level of manual involvement needed. I would normally say that you could reasonably expect it to be up after about three months - but I wouldn't in the least be surprised if it takes longer, especially if it was up as some kind of "advance publication" and its official publication date is later than October.
Howver, I've never heard of anyone asking for proof a specific paper is indexed - the decision to index covers the journal, not individual papers, so it's normal to talk about "a paper published in an ISI-indexed journal" in this context. I would point them to the entry for this title in Journal Citation Reports or similar, to confirm that it is included, which implicitly states your paper will be indexed as part of it.

This is simply ridiculous. I also knew that if the journal is SCI-indexed (2nd ranking in Telecommunications by Impact Factor), then obviously the paper published in that journal would be included in web of science. I really don't know why they are asking for that report.

Anyway, do you have any source that indicates the above statement?

I believe you could get a screenshot about the journal being indexed.

@mithun I'm sure if you dug through the WoS or JCR helppages you could find something stating explicitly that indexing is on a journal level, but I don't have one to hand.


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Should a full manuscript be available for a book proposal?
I've been given some conflicting advice about preparing book proposals and manuscripts for academic presses. I'm aware that writing books is a lengthy process etc; however, I've also been told by a friend in the research office who handles applications that to be competitive at all for DECRA and other fellowships, I need at least 9 publications and one book behind me to be considered a strong applicant.
So I've been thinking about this book idea (cross-disciplinary social sciences/cultural studies) for awhile, some of which would come from my PhD, other bits as new material. It is something I would like to write, not for money, mostly for myself, somewhat for career. I submitted a brief enquiry to a potential publisher who said they'd be interested in seeing a book proposal on the topic I offered which I have the template for.
My question concerns whether the book should already be written, or if a proposal and sample material can suffice in early stage? Some colleagues have told me that the latter is preferred, I don't need to have a complete manuscript prepared. Advice online is conflicting, some telling me I should have a whole manuscript prepared as an ECR to be ready to submit, others telling me only a partial is fine.
Any guidance would be appreciated!
Below responses were not helpful:

Is it bad practice to submit the entire manuscript for an initial book proposal to a publisher?
What are the most important points to emphasize while pitching for a dissertation to be published as a book?
Publishing thesis as a book
When to publish a book?
Publication Strategy for book manuscript
How do I convert my PhD dissertation so that it can be published as a book?

Those I know who wrote a book, afaik, signed a precontract with the publisher before writing the book, with an agreement on the topics, rough length, deadline etc.

@MassimoOrtolano thank you, that's quite helpful, and well put.

The reason there is so much conflicting advice going around about book publishing and book proposals is that in this area there are no clear rules, only different approaches, each with their own pros and cons, risks and rewards. Some authors do it one way, others do it another way; some publishers will only consider a largely complete manuscript, others are fine with a short proposal and a chapter or other sample. How you would want to go about it would depend on virtually everything about you, your goals and career situation, your book idea, and the publisher you are thinking of publishing with.
Here are some of the pros of submitting a book proposal at an early stage in your project:

You will be able to get feedback on your writing and on your idea at an early stage. Especially if you are uncertain about whether your writing is good enough or whether your idea is attractive enough, such feedback can be crucial and enable you to either back out of the idea at an early stage without a high sunk cost if it turns out to be a really bad one, or recalibrate and redefine the scope of the project if the idea is good but can be improved even more using the feedback you get. The end result can be a much better book than you would write by yourself without any feedback.
If your proposal is accepted, you will then sign a contract, which is a psychological reward that can motivate you to keep working.
The contract will come with a deadline for delivery of the completed manuscript. Again, psychologically this is very helpful for many authors who may find it hard to make consistent progress with a project that spans several years without concrete goals, someone they are officially accountable to, and a timeline they can reference to measure their progress.
Although (as far as I know) a book contract for a book in progress usually does not count officially towards tenure and promotion decisions, in many places it can count unofficially, in the sense that you can tell your colleagues about it, they will be impressed, and will be inclined to weigh your case a bit more favorably and to cut you a bit more slack for the reduced number of ordinary papers you will likely be publishing during the book writing period.

Here are some of the cons of submitting a book proposal at an early stage, or equivalently, the pros of waiting until your project is more mature:

If your writing and the book idea are good already without any feedback (or if you have some other very knowledgeable person who can give you feedback so you don't need the publisher's input for that), then your proposal will have a higher chance of being accepted if you submit a more mature proposal later on when you already have several chapters completed, since the publisher will see that you are serious, committed to your project, and will have more completed material by which to judge the proposal. (In an extreme case, when you have a finished manuscript, obviously that can be quite reassuring to a publisher and eliminate a large source of risk to them, again assuming the book is actually good.)
This one is a bit speculative, but I believe that for similar reasons, submitting a proposal in a more mature stage of the project puts you in a better negotiating position. As a result, you might for example aim to publish with a more prestigious publisher than you would otherwise. Or, depending on how much you care about the terms of your contract and what precisely you are hoping to achieve, you may be able to negotiate higher royalties, or other things about the book that may be important to you (e.g.: color figures; keeping ownership of the copyright, translation rights, rights to use another publisher for a future edition; permission to make the book available to download on your personal web page; etc.). Money-wise you almost certainly won't be making much money anyway so it's probably a non-issue, but the other things could be important and are worth putting some thought into.

To summarize, this decision is a delicate balancing act. Much depends on factors like where you are in your career; your personality; how many years you can afford to wait before you get the satisfaction and professional prestige of a signed book contract; how much you trust yourself to deliver on a very substantial commitment made early on in the life of the project when you are still full of passion and energy (trust me, by the time it's over you'll want to never look at the damn thing again...); how confident you are in the quality of your work; how much you value and need feedback from others; and many other things. Good luck!
[Source: personal opinion, informed by my own experience publishing a book.]

There are no Grown-ups, and there are no Rules, only different approaches, each with their own pros and cons, risks and rewards.  This would be a good preamble to advice on so many different issues.

I voted this down. The advice is helpful, but your language is incredibly condescending and in some cases, treating the question as if it came from a child. I'm aware there are no one rules for book proposals, I was looking for guidance as a new academic with all the conflicting information I've been receiving about how to go about a book proposal.

@postagepaid I appreciate the feedback. Good luck with your book, and sorry you did not like the tone of my answer.

@postagepaid I've edited my answer to tone down my sophomoric humor which you took offense to. Hope things work out with your book idea.

Thanks for the edit, I think the answer is better for it.


text:
Getting faculty position in the US: after Postdoc in the US or Lecturer in the UK?
I am a postdoc in a US university (Rank A, edit: R1). I tried to get an academic faculty position in the US, but was unsuccessful. I got an offer (lecturer in the UK system) from the UK university (say, Rank B, edit: "new university"). Is it worth to accept the offer, and again try from the UK to get a faculty position in the US? Or I should try to get another postdoc in the US only? Would it be difficult to get the position once I move out from the US?
I have gone through In order to get a CS faculty position in the U.S, should I have a Ph.D. from an "American" university?, Is it more difficult to score a Tenure Track position in the US when applying from outside?, and What should a faculty member outside of the US do to move to a top-tiered American university?. But still not sure in my case.
One of the reasons of not short-listing is that I do not have a PhD from the US, (I thought). I got only two on-campus calls (from college/new univ. only) for the interview out of many.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Your terminology is confusing to me. What do you mean by Rank B. In the UK there is a big difference between college and university. I have only heard of "new university" being used in the UK. Can you give an approximate REF ranking of where you got an offer? Are you only looking for a "Rank A" school in the US, or would an R2 (or R3) be acceptable?

You are correct! it's a "new university" that falls under top 50% of this list http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings. My preference is to get a TT position in a research university in the USA. I do not apply in "Rank A" US universities, as I am sure, not receiving the interview call.

Is your field really captured by "art/music" institutions?

Usually the main criteria for getting a research TT position is how strong your research is. Consider how much a postdoc position would contribute to your research profile vs a lecturer position - usually research goes very slow when just starting as new faculty, so I think a postdoc is probably the better choice.

A Lecturer position can also be a research focussed. Sounding "lecturer" does not mean a high teaching load. This is the term used in the UK system, which is very different from the "lecturer" in the US system. Lecturer in the UK system is equivalent to "Assistant Professor" in the US considering teaching, research, and services contributions.

Of course it is possible to switch from a UK lectureship to a TT, or even tenured, position at a US Research University. Being at a lower ranked "new university" in the UK, however, means that you likely not get a lot of research support and have a heavy teaching load. Further, the obsession with the UK REF will likely push your CV in directions that are not ideal for getting a job in the US. You don't mention your citizenship, but there is currently a lot of uncertainty regarding immigration and access to funding for non-UK citizens.
Overall, I would say that it will be easier, or more accurately, less difficult, to get a US TT position by spending another year or two as a post doc than as a lecturer with a high teaching load. US research universities just do not care that much about teaching and if you really need teaching experience you can always get a little as a post doc.
While a lecturer position might put you at a disadvantage, assuming it is a permanent lectureship in a UK city that you do not mind living in, having job security is a major benefit.

(1) "the obsession with the UK REF will likely push your CV in directions that are not ideal for getting a job in the US" - can you clarify it?, (2) "there is currently a lot of uncertainty regarding immigration and access to funding for non-UK citizens" -  this will also apply to the US. I'm from India. This lecturer position involves teaching, research, and services.

Note postdoc position generally does not come up with teaching duties. I remembered i was always asked for teaching experience in the US and research funding exp.

Also worth noting that most professors at R1 universities have post-doc'ed for multiple years before they got TT positions. My recent mentors both were post docs for over 5 years before getting their jobs (ex-postdoc here)

@user24094 The UK situation is in much more flux than the US, because of Brexit.  The US system has plenty of issues, but they are basically the same issues it has had for many years.  In particular, funding from the NSF and NIH is indifferent to citizenship status in most cases (though if you need DOD funding, that's a different kettle of fish).

@BenWebster: What are the flux situations in the UK due to Brexit?

@StrongBad Can you say a little more, or provide a link to any relevant discussion, about the consequences of the UK REF on applications to US institutions?

@Ian_Fin I think that would be a good question on its own...

@user24094 Um, everything?  Future migration policy could be very strongly affected (not to mention the limbo of EU citizens in the UK right now), but there's also the issue of access to ERC funding, which could go away.

One important issue is being able to get to an on-campus interview.  Although prestigious research universities would often be willing to pay the cost of flying from the UK to the US for an interview, many other institutions (regional comprehensive universities, four year colleges, and lesser ranked research universities) might not be willing to reimburse you for the cost of travelling to the US for an interview.
If you're interested in positions at these less prestigious institutions and aren't prepared to pay for your own travel expenses then you might have trouble applying from the UK.
I think the more important question for you to consider is whether this lecturer position in the UK would give you better experience than continuing as a postdoc.  That depends on what other teaching experience you have and the kinds of positions that you're applying for.

We interview by Skype.... I'm sure other institutions do this in the modern internet connected world. We also get candidates to teach and give a seminar via Skype.

@BrianTompsett-汤莱恩 I suspect this would be against the rules at many US universities (though I only have experience with the ones that would be willing to pay to fly someone in from the UK).

At my institution we do final interviews on campus and reimburse candidates only for travel expenses within the US.  It's possible for an overseas candidate to combine such an interview with another trip to the US, but the scheduling is very difficult.

Many thanks for your responses. the question is: compare lecturer position in the UK with a postdoc position in the US? To whom would you prefer to offer the AP position in the US considering this lecturer position involves teaching, research, and services? Note postdoc position generally does not come up with teaching duties. I remembered i was always asked for teaching exp. in the US and project funding  exp.

In most science/math disciplines, for tenure track assistant professorships in the US at strongly research oriented schools the only relevant factor is your research experience.  For the vast majority of tenure track positions in those same fields at four year cooleges, regional comprehensives and lesser ranked research institutions, teaching experience is also important.  Are you looking for a job at Directional State University, Flaship State University, or MIT?

I am happy as far as it is a TT position in a research university. I do not have high expectations.


text:
How do solicited recommendation letter drafts work if the forms are released only after the rest of the application?
Apparently, this varies even in the same country (I'm in country A).
Case 1. University releases recommendation letter questions right away.

recommendation letters are submitted at the same time as the rest of the application.

Case 2. University doesn't release recommendation letter questions right away.

release is only after rest of application is finished.

So how will this work? My understanding:
In case 1:

I work on my statement of purpose (or equivalent).
I also draft recommendation letter, solicited by letter writer.
I give my draft, again solicited by letter writer, to recommendation letter writers several weeks before deadline.
Then I continue to work on statement of purpose.
Maybe update recommendation letter draft, solicited by letter writer.
Submission: Recommendation letter writers and I submit.

In case 2:

I work on my statement of purpose (or equivalent) but can't do so as much as in case 1 because I have to draft recommendation letter after it is released
I am unable to draft recommendation letter, solicited by letter writer, until completion of step 1, but at least I can work on the content if not the presentation as if working on a reference letter. There's also hoping universities of case 2 have similar questions to universities of case 1.
Submission: I submit statement of purpose after about half of the time as in case 1.
Recommendation letter questions are released to recommendation letter writers.
Recommendation letter writers give to applicants to draft.
I draft in about half the time as in case 1, solicited by letter writer.
Maybe update recommendation letter draft based on not knowing questions prior, solicited by letter writer.
Submission: Recommendation letter writers and I submit.

Might I have missed something? Did I get anything possibly wrong?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

I think the case here is, someone (your family member, your friend, your professor etc.) has caused an obsession about reference letter questions. I strongly suggest you get rid of this obsession.
There is no such thing as recommendation letter questions. Some universities require the referees to fill out a form. Some don't. If there are no such questions, all you have to do is go to your favorite professor, and tell them the following sentence.

Hello Professor, I will apply for graduate programme in this
  university and they require reference letters. Can you write me one?

If, on the other hand, the university has a specific form, you just hand in that form and say:

Hello Professor, I will apply for graduate programme in this
  university and they require this form to be filled by my referees. Is it OK if I put your name and you fill the form?

Other than that, you are just overreacting. If you desperately want to see the reference letter, just ask two of them and read one.
But keep in mind that academics can hint some things with specific words in the letter and you might not be able to understand even though you read it.
TL;DR: If there is a form, hand the form in. Else, just ask for a reference letter. Reference letters have absolutely nothing to do with your statement of purpose.

I would agree with this except for the last line. Ideally reference letters have SOMETHING to do with your statement of purpose. If you are saying in the statement of purpose that you want to be in field X and your letter writer is talking about your suitability for field Y, it will look bad. I would not write a letter without seeing a statement of purpose to make sure I am understanding the students' prospective path and am speaking to their suitability for it.

I am not interested in seeing the letter. I am interested in making their lives easier. Also, my question is about recommendation letters not reference letters.

@JackBauer reference letters and recommendation letters are basically the same thing. Also, you are spending way too much effort to making people's life easier. Giving letters of recommendation is part of their job. Noone can make this task easier.

padawan, can we change easier to less difficult?

You're right, as a matter of fact. I'm changing it.

Cannot change it because the comment was written a long time ago. But I understand where you're coming from.

I am going to address the problem of the questions and the order of occurrences specifically, without addressing the issue of drafting one's own letter. That topic has been covered elsewhere on this site.
The questions you are referring to are not open ended questions designed to affect the text of the letter. The questions are basically a form required by HR.
Typically, the reviewer drafts the letter before looking at the questions. The questions are typically multiple choice or very short answer. They are often answered outside of the letter context (i.e. on a website form). Questions may include:

How do you know applicant?
How long have you known applicant?
In your opinion, is the applicant in: top .1% of students; top 1% of
students; top 10% of students?

As you can see, these types of questions do not impact the letter text, because they are already included. I have not seen schools ask faculty to change their letter text to include unusual/special information. If this is asked for, it is handled through the web form.
TL;DR: Think of the letter as being separate from the "questions" or "form."

You mean it is ok to draft responses for letter writer for questions such as those but not for questions such as 'Why do you recommend this applicant?' ? If so, how do I know which questions belong in which category, and why? If not, what do you mean please?

The "questions" you are thinking of are just a form. They will not be open-ended questions and require nothing from the applicant. If you give a dossier to your letter writer, just make sure it includes information like list of courses you took with them and dates of those courses. This will allow them to remember how long they have known you. You will not be drafting responses for these questions. If the letter writer doesn't himself/herself remember the answer to those questions, the letter writer will email or call you to ask.

There is no need to draft responses because responses are a couple of words per question. "Student" "3 years" ".1%"

Dawn, can we pretend I asked the question with dossier (new word learned) instead of draft?


text:
Indicate leadership/groupwork in research experience for graduate applications?
For academic CVs, should/how do/how might I indicate leadership/group work when describing certain research projects?

Option A: Use words

Project A, Subject X11, Date
Group
Description
Project B, Subject X12, Date
Individual
Description
Project C, Subject X12, Date
Group, Leader
Description

Option B: Use letters

Key:
G for Group but not leader
I for Individual
L for Group Leader

Project A, Subject X11, Date, G
Description
Project B, Subject X12, Date, I
Description
Project C, Subject X12, Date, L
Description

Option C: Do not indicate on academic CV, but describe in application how many research projects are included, how many were by group and how many were led
Option D: Other

Couldn't find any samples/templates with clear indications or articles discussing such or maybe I missed in the templates or articles I've already read.
If the answer may vary, please indicate source of variance eg depends on whether or it's not for PhD applications. Then pretty please provide conditional answers. =)

Contexts:
see revision history

Could you indicate that you were the group leader in the project description?

@Dawn How is that different from option A please?

Don't use option B, it is very confusing.

Thanks for the via negativa I guess @Davidmh. How do you suggest communicating this in a non confusing way?

@JackBauer I don't have a good way. It is uncommon to include this kind of information in normal situations, but I see your point in including it.

@Davidmh What's a non confusing way even if not good as long as not bad? =)

@JackBauer I don't review PhD applications, so I prefer not to give you an answer that may be wrong. You could ask one of your professor, since they will be the ones reviewing them, and more familiar with the details.

Just keep it as clear and as short as you can. The key point here is to make it easy to understand for the reader. Giving too much detail is not good. Giving too little is not good either. Use common sense, and let a friend (or supervisor) check your CV when it is done.

I am assuming that Option A includes some sort of bulleted text in the description. If so, you can include phrases like "Led a group of ...." The description can cover not only the project but also your role. This would eliminate the need for an additional line. Or, you could include the names of group members with (Project lead) after the lead. This more closely mimics how papers are shown. I agree that Option B is bad because interpreting a key requires more work by the leader. It is not a lot of work, but reviewers have to go through so many documents, any additional work irritates them.

@Dawn I was thinking 'Led a group of ....' because I guess that's how I would say it if this were a job application. The thing is the local government is looking for leadership and interpersonal. Sooo it also seems like additional work if the reader would want to count how many projects were by group and how many of those were led by me? Please and thanks!

@louic The thing is the local government is looking for leadership and interpersonal. Sooo it also seems like additional work if the reader would want to count how many projects were by group and how many of those were led by me? Please and thanks!

@Davidmh Ok thanks. Btw, are you opinionless for the other options?

You can always include it like A (or my modified A) on the CV and then also tally it up in the personal statement or letter. I don't think it has to be an either/or.

@Dawn Good idea. thanks! Post as answer?

@Davidmh What do you think of Dawn's suggestion? Say 'Led a group...' but then also tally it up


text:
What do mathematics graduate schools look for in undergraduate students?
I'm just curious. I have a strong GPA, but I heard that's not enough. I was told that among a GRE score, schools actually place stronger emphasis on performance in 4 classes: a proofs/logic course, analysis, discrete math, and a linear algebra course (this was apparently has less emphasis than the first 3). I was told that these classes are the bread and butter of most graduate math classes and are indicative of how well you can learn the more rigorous content. Is this true?
I have some research experience under the NSF in mathematical epidemiology with a few poster presentations and abstracts at conferences.
Do these schools care about extracurricular such as volunteering experience? I know these aren't going to get you into Harvard per se, but do they slightly augment your profile? I know academia is primarily concerned with research so this may not be too relevan.

I am neither in the US not a mathematician, but whenever somebody tells you that A, B, C and D are the things that "mathematics graduate schools" are looking for, be wary. Different schools are, well, different. I would be very surprised if all schools on all levels are looking for the exact same things.

@xLeitix: You are right, but I think mathematics in the US is more consistent than many other field/country pairs.  There is a fairly standard core graduate curriculum, and in order to succeed in those courses, students need an appropriately strong background in prerequisite topics.  As such, a significant piece of admissions is evaluating whether the candidate has such a background; good performance in those areas will thus be important.

I am an (associate) professor of mathematics at the University of Georgia and was involved in graduate admissions for several years.  My answer is based on a perspective which is somewhat skewed towards pure mathematics: we have applied mathematics in our department as well, but it is one of seven research groups, so when looking at applications, to a first approximation we select for the same things among pure and applied applicants (and in fact not all applicants clearly identify themselves as one or the other, which is fine).  There are other departments that are more than half applied mathematics, and yet other departments (e.g. at Harvard) where applied math is a separate department entirely.
The main things we look at are competitive  GRE scores (including the math subject exam), strong grades attained in strong courses, and very strong recommendation letters which convince us that the student would have a good chance of succeeding in our program.  These letters generally come from faculty who have taught the student multiple courses, including an advanced course and/or a reading course.  Getting one letter of recommendation from someone who directed undergraduate research is a popular choice and is fine, but it does not really make a big contribution to the application because most such letters sound exactly the same (no one is going to say "So and so did an REU with me, and let me tell you: we got nothing done over the whole summer.")

[S]chools actually place stronger emphasis on performance in 4 classes: a proofs/logic course, analysis, discrete math, and a linear algebra course (this was apparently has less emphasis than the first 3).

I don't find this to be especially good advice.  For me, the key courses are
(i) real analysis, (ii) abstract algebra, (iii) topology, especially the first two. These are in fact three of the four topics in which most of our PhD students take qualifying exams [some applied students take numerical analysis and/or probability].  Moreover, every graduate program in math I've ever heard of requires students to take exams in real analysis, abstract algebra or both.  Because these courses exist at both the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level, we really want students to have taken the undergraduate versions and have done well in them.  If they haven't, then they need to begin a graduate program taking these undergraduate courses, then make the transition to the graduate versions and then take and pass the quals, all within a couple of years.  That's hard.
Concerning your list:
(i) proofs/logic
Many students do not take a separate course on this.  In my undergraduate program we have a course on this but the strongest track of student avoid it by taking a kind of analysis class in which this material is taught on the fly.  Whether a student knows proofs and logic should be clear from the rest of their coursework and their recommendation letters.
(ii) analysis
Yes, this one is dead-on.  Let me say that a lot of courses are called "analysis".  We look carefully to see what the text is and what the topics were.  Something at the level of Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis should be taken in order to be competitive.
(iii) discrete math
No, this is really not a critical course.  I can't think of many graduate courses that have such a course as a prerequisite.  Also the name "discrete math" is often used for a lower level course not even taught to majors.  But if you mean something like combinatorics, probability or graph theory: these are courses which most students enjoy, but they are not the courses we are looking to see if our applicants have taken.  This is not to say that the material from these courses is not important or useful in mathematics: it most certainly is, increasingly so across all parts of mathematics.  But it's not hard enough to learn to separate applicants like certain other courses.  I have never taken a course in graph theory, but some of my papers contain results about graphs: it's just not that hard to learn graph theory on the fly.
(iv) linear algebra
Yes, you need to have taken such a course, just like you need to have taken a course in multivariable calculus.  But this is (at the latest) a sophomore-level course for most students who go on to graduate school.  A course (or more) in abstract algebra, which will in places build on the linear algebra, is much more critical.

I was told that these classes are the bread and butter of most graduate math classes and are indicative of how well you can learn the more rigorous content. Is this true?

As above, I don't think the list is well-chosen to be among the most important courses.  Also "indicative of how well you can learn the more rigorous content" is a red flag to me: a student's graduate application should be replete with evidence of how well she has learned the more rigorous content, by successfully completing coursework containing this content!
Who is giving you this advice?  Faculty in your department?

Do these schools care about extracurricular such as volunteering experience?

Not really.

I know these aren't going to get you into Harvard per se, but do they slightly augment your profile? I know academia is primarily concerned with research so this may not be too relevant.

Very slightly at best.  Just putting it on your CV is probably worth precisely nothing.  If you can describe your volunteering experiences in your personal statement in a way which makes them sound compelling and relevant to your graduate career then....well, then you have written a good personal statement, which could help you a bit.  If you did something really substantial which shows
off organizational and administrative skills that most students lack, that would also help a bit...but not as much as the time you put into it.  Obviously there are other good reasons to do volunteer / community work that have nothing to do with an academic application, so you should certainly feel free to do so.  Just don't think of it in terms of improving your application.
Added: The OP asked for followup information from an applied perspective.  I can only give the perspective of a math department that admits some students who study applied mathematics.  In our department, the requirements for applied students are only slightly different from all other students.  In particular, see here for qualifying exam information, which shows that all students are required to take both real and complex analysis and (algebra or topology); students who do not want to take both algebra and topology can take probability (which by the way is very close to real analysis and quite challenging) or numerical analysis.  I believe that the vast majority of students in my PhD program specializing in applied mathematics have taken the abstract algebra qual.
My department has recently added on applied area of emphasis for its undergraduate math major.  In this track, abstract algebra is not requrired (though it is required for all other majors): see here for some sample programs.  On the other hand, as a student interested in graduate study you need to know that these major requirements are very intentionally designed to be as minimal as we can get away with.  We want to have more math majors, not less.  Students who want to take more classes are always free to do so.  Moreover we tell our students that for certain career paths they should take more classes.  Especially here we recommend further classes, including two semesters of algebra.  This advice is not specifically targeted at students who are interested in pure mathematics.  And by the way, there are many kinds of applied mathematics which you would be absolutely locked out of without an undergraduate background in algebra.

I do not think I will need abstract algebra directly, but I'm slightly ignorant.

It is very unlikely that any undergraduate math major can say with any assurance what kind of mathematics they will not need in their PhD studies or later career.  Making this kind of decision is a kind of negative investment in the future.

Some schools of interest do not have that content in the curricula.

Please let me know what specific programs you are looking at.  That would be useful information to me and I could give you more targeted advice.  In particular, all of this advice is predicated under the assumption that you are applying for graduate study in a mathematics department in the United States.  If you are interested in an interdisciplinary program, or e.g. want to do mathematical biology from a biology department, then things will be very different.  If you are applying to a university which has separate programs in pure and applied math -- or has separate posted admissions requirements -- then things will be different again.  But for general admission to a math department in the US: not having abstract algebra will be a huge point against you, I believe.

Indeed, the "currency" of the REU has been inflated to the point that it's almost worthless, sad-to-say, although not so surprising given what has driven it. (As I've said elsewhere...) while it's observably lots of fun, motivating, perhaps inspirational, to participate in an REU, it's not so much a CV-padder as it might once have been.

My original research is in epidemiology, and I'm interested in biomathematics, and I'll be doing an REU at a medical school/research institution. It's very local to my undergraduate school, and I've unofficially started about 2 months ago. The research area is in development of numerical methods to sample a certain type of cellular phenomena that is related to disease, computationally. I was told that I could get a paper with the data we have now. Would a LOR from this person still be seen as inflated content?

Thank you Dr. Clark. Your input helped. My specialty will be a little more applied, and my current undergraduate track swaps out abstract algebra with numerical analysis. I do not think I will need abstract algebra directly, but I'm slightly ignorant. Some schools of interest do not have that content in the curricula. Would you still recommend that I take a course in abstract algebra.
By the way, this information was about 1/4 from faculty, and 3/4 from graduate students/people applying to graduate school.

@JohnYates: Other students are a well-known source of misguided advice.  You want to get advice from people (like Pete) who've actually been involved in making admissions decisions.  Anything else is, at best, second-hand.  (Even successful graduate students don't necessarily have a very accurate idea of what it is that made their own applications successful.)

I have been involved in grad admissions only once, and for the theory group in a computer science department rather than for mathematics, so take the following with a big grain of salt. My impression was that REU letters make little difference for students from big/well-known schools. But there are the candidates from small schools, who have taken the right courses, earned excellent grades, and their profs swear they are great. For them an REU letter, and even better, research results, can make a difference. I'd be curious whether others agree.

I strongly second @MarkMeckes' comment about misguided advice...

A late, second-hand addition to the advice here: My department has a separate undergraduate major in applied mathematics, which does not require abstract algebra.  However, one of my applied mathematician colleagues recently told me that she tells all her advisees who want to go to graduate school in applied math that they should take abstract algebra, since many good applied math PhD programs want to see that background.

Seconding @PeteLClark's points, and continuing on certain points, such as Mark Meckes':
First, as Mark Meckes' comment: even successful grad students (both in admission and in the program) very often do not understand what it was about their situation that gained admission, and has allowed them to succeed afterward. That is, people with little perspective cannot know whether success came because of X, or despite X, etc. Ask faculty, especially people who've been involved in admissions.
About REUs: while "applied" REUs can be more genuine, if you're part of an ongoing research team that was not called into existence just for the sake of "having an REU", then this starts to be a plus on your CV. On the other hand, if you're the most-junior author on a five-author paper, that in itself is not so special. If the project is genuine and on-going, and you can get a letter saying that you made a contribution at the level of somewhat-more-senior team members, that's worth something... But, still, application of routine mathematics outside of mathematics is not strong evidence of future potential. In many cases, letters from non-math people endorsing grad math applicants are not so helpful because they give immediate evidence of having too little idea about what is routine versus new, etc., in mathematics.
I would think that "swapping out" abstract algebra for numerical analysis is ill-considered, even if the (minimum?) standards of some program allow it. The very-basic abstract algebra (much like very-basic analysis) is necessary to avoid pretty-serious illiteracy (e.g., in understanding some aspects of numerical analysis...) Over-narrowing, or misguided premature "specialization", is unwise. "Advanced undergrad" material is ... not very advanced: it's just the basics. Don't short-change yourself.


text:
Should I send a copy of a closed-access paper requested on academia.edu?
What is an appropriate response to a request for a copy of a closed-access paper on academia.edu?
For the paper in question, I only provide a link (doi) to the publisher's site on my academia.edu profile, since uploading an actual paper would be illegal. Academia.edu allows other users to request such papers, which sends an auto-generated email to me informing me that someone would like a copy of my paper - if I reply, the copy would be sent to this person only.
Here are my options, the way I see them:

Do nothing (ignore/reject the request) - as much as I don't like publicly-funded research being hidden behind a paywall, people requesting the paper are all associated with universities that should be able to provide them with access to the journal that hosts it. On the other hand, many labs make copies of their published papers available on their sites, even if they are not open access, so this seems to indicate some other aspects of academic paper-sharing culture. Besides, all parties use a full name, and I don't want to come off as inaccessible or unresponsive.
Send the person a copy. I don't know if this would be the right thing to do, but then again I have no experience with such situations.

I'm strongly leaning towards the first option - ideally, I would provide the recipient with an explanation on how to access the paper legally and explain why I cannot provide him with a copy, but I don't know if the message would even make it across given the auto-generated nature of the inquiry.
As a side note, while looking for an answer to this question, I learned that academia.edu has brutal terms of service and am in the process of closing the account anyway, but in the meantime I'd still like to handle this situation.

I'd ignore everything coming from ResearchGate, Academia.edu, and other questionable web sites. If they really want the paper, they will write an email.

I'd send the article.
I am not a lawyer. However, it's quite common for people to send me e-mail messages requesting reprints of my papers. The Academia.edu and ResearchGate websites have mechanisms to request a reprint of closed-access papers for similar reasons.
Now I think it depends a bit on the journal. The chemistry (ACS) journals that I tend to publish in, allow 50 reprints in the first year, and unlimited reprints after that point. So far, I haven't run into trouble with exceeding 50 requests for a paper in the first year. I'm happy to e-mail PDF reprints or handle them - in my case through ResearchGate.
Your mileage may vary (i.e., depending on the journal). Personally, if the journal expressly forbids sending such reprints, I'd find a different journal for my work.
In my opinion, blocking such infrequent requests for reprints impedes scholarly work.

I should point out that in the unlikely case of exceeding 50 reprint requests in the first year, I'd probably send the un-formatted manuscript with a note saying that I've exceeded the reprint limit for the year.

Yes, of course you are permitted to send a copy of the article, but doing that would just help to make Academia.edu, ResearchGate, etc., look like a useful service, and it would encourage people to keep using them.


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Conference is on the Yom Kippur holiday
After doing well at science fair, I started working with an extremely nice professor at the local university who encouraged me to submit my work to the relevant conference. I was rejected at large, but accepted to one of the workshops. The workshop is the day before the conference. The professor reviewed my paper twice, probably taking him a half hour or hour total (it's a short paper). He also told the conference he would shepherd me, which kind of puts his name on all of this. However, looking at the calendar to plan my flight etc, I noticed the workshop is on the day of Yom Kippur! I am not that religious, and if this was some huge event for me I could possibly make an exception, but I'm not sure if presenting my mediocre work (the work is good for a high school student, but really lame for an actual conference) to the few people who will come to the presentation supersedes such a holiday. Also, after being rejected I didn't really want to go anyway, since I won't understand most of the presentations and I feel they only accepted me to the workshop to encourage me since I'm a student.
How do I talk with the professor and the conference/workshop about my problem?
Follow-up: I decided to go. I'm just not sure what it's like submitting to a workshop of a conference but not the conference at large.

Re the side note: Not everyone grew up with any awareness of holidays other than their own. The scheduling is indeed foolish, but was probably just a matter of their making the same mistake you did and not checking the calendar carefully enough.

"I'm just not sure what it's like submitting to a workshop of a conference but not the conference at large? Do a lot of people do that?" - Yes, absolutely. Also, and perhaps especially, in situations where they had originally planned to submit a conference paper, which then got rejected, e.g. for being too premature, so instead, they converted it into a workshop paper for a workshop on the same conference. As a matter of fact, I'm quite sure it is not entirely arbitrary that often, workshops will set their submission deadlines a few weeks after the main conference notification date.

Concerning your side notes: in which country is the conference? If it was in France for example, I would not be surprised that no one thought about Yom Kippur. Every country has its own tradition and it is difficult for an international conference to take all traditions into consideration.

I once attended a major international conference (thousands of participants) which overlapped the world cup soccer finals. The talks in the session that overlapped the game were nearly empty.

I voted to leave it closed because the new question doesn't seem clearly formulated either.  By the way, if a second question comes up, it's okay to compose a new question, and you can even include a link to a related question. Last comment: the surefire way to find out what such a workshop is like is to attend.  Think of this trip as a way of dipping your toes in the water.  It's good preparation for some future conference paper!

@aparente001 I have recovered the original question (which I think is still valuable), moved the followup, removed the new question, and voted to reopen.  I hope you will find it appropriate to reopen now as well.

@jakebeal - Um, what's the question the asker currently wants answered?

@aparente001 I did one more clarification pass, focusing on the communication problem that is what the answers well address.

@jakebeal - I tried to take this to Academia chat but I don't seem to be able to write anything there.  Anyway, I thought of another reason to close -- the asker doesn't seem to be a grad student.  (I'm not sure if undergrad or high school.)

It's fine, you can close it, I'm happy with the answers.

Unless you're presenting joint work and had worked out your attendance with your coauthors in advance, not attending a conference is always your choice.
Not attending a conference for religious reasons is also completely standard and understandable. (Though your claim that Yom Kippur is just like Christmas is a bit unconvincing.  83% of Americans identify as Christian, whereas 1.4% identify as Jewish.  Moreover, a lot of Americans who identify as Jewish do not fast/atone on Yom Kippur and would be happy to attend a conference on that day: I do and I would.  Though not with as much glee as I would attend a conference on Easter, I admit.) I think it's an A-class excuse: i.e., if you tell this to your faculty advisor he will accept it without any comment.  I would keep to yourself however the fact that your amount of Jewishness is enough to get you out of a conference that you view as inferior but not a really important one.  That's not the most mature perspective, and if in your later life people observe that you seem to be using religion as an excuse to improve your schedule, they will not be so thrilled with you.
By the way, I would think that there would be a lot of other reasons that a high school student could not fly to attend a conference.  Saying "Sorry, I've just learned that my schedule doesn't allow me to attend" ought to already be more than sufficient (B+? A-?).
I think you may be off in your appraisal of the situation and the opportunity that going to any part of an academic conference is for any high school student.  My advice would be to, when you say that you can't go to this conference, tell your advisor that you really appreciate the mentorship and would be eager to go to a different conference, possibly a bit later on and/or during the summer.
Finally, your faculty advisor does indeed sound extremely nice.  Academics are extremely busy, and quality mentorship takes time and energy.  Your estimate that he spent half an hour looking at two drafts of your paper sounds rather naive to me unless he explicitly told you that.  I would spend more than 15 minutes looking at a student's cover letter, let alone their paper.  By the way, the fact that he is willing to spend the time probably means that he thinks you are extremely talented, so I hope you do not give up too easily.

"A lot of reasons" — you bet.... The professor got them to waive registration, which is the biggest single expense, but still...

Maybe he took longer... The second draft was nearly the same as the first, and there were only 3 pages of math and 3 pages of writing.

You should go! It's not like you're going to some Girls-Gone-Wild kind of event... God will understand!
It will be a great opportunity to see what an academic conference feels like, and you will meet people. Don't worry that your work isn't going to win you a Fields Medal, nobody is expecting that anyway.

Ya, I did decide to go.

Fantastic! I wish you a productive and enjoyable career.

Tell them exactly what you told us. Scheduling disasters happen, whether due to illness or unexpected conflicts. Someone else in your group might be able to attend in your stead, present for you, and report back; if so the airfare is the main problem and it may be possible to convince the airline to apply at least part of your ticket to the other person's travel.
If it's a completely "use it or lose it" ticket -- as the cheapest ones tend to be -- that's annoying but is a hazard your lab (or boss) accepts when they tell you to take that sort of fare. Usually it's a good bet, but occasionally something unexpected does happen and you lose the gamble... and that's embarrassing when it could have been prevented but not much more than that.
If there isn't anyone willing and able to cover for you.. well, at least you'll get a copy of the proceedings.
I don't have to tell you the lesson for next time, do I.

Haven't bought a ticket yet :)


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Whose responsibility to detect plagiarism during peer review: editor or referee?
Around a month ago, I was requested to review a paper submitted to a well-known APS journal. The main idea introduced in the paper was nice and the experimental implementation had fairly good results. I therefore sent my approval with some minor revisions.
Last week, I was shocked to find (through a poster presented at an international conference) that the idea in the work I refereed had been blatantly plagiarized from another work published earlier this year. In fact, a few sentences had even been simply copy-pasted.
In the course of reviewing, I had checked all the references in the paper and not surprisingly, the original work had not been cited.
I immediately sent a correspondence via the APS referee interface to revert my earlier decision and reject the paper outrightly. The editor later sent me a detailed reply saying that the paper has been rejected by the journal and the authors have been made aware of the original work.
But anyhow, the question I wish to raise here is: whose responsibility should it be to find out if a work submitted for publication is an act of plagiarism ?
While I feel both referees and editors must work on this aspect, I think the primary onus should be on the editors/publishing team. They have far more resources to investigate plagiarism. Furthermore, in contrast to editors, referees do not get paid and are doing this job mainly because of their belief in the edifice of peer-review, to add to their CV, etc.
Perhaps the experts and experienced researchers can give their opinion here?

I do not know about APS journals, but an editor of another physics-related journal told me some years ago that editors automatically get the result of an automatised plagiarism check for every new article they handle.

Neither. The primary responsibility belongs to the author.

@JeffE: The work I refereed is a case of blatant plagiarism.

@JeffE It's the responsibility of the author not to commit plagiarism. Detecting plagiarism is an issue of enforcement, since there is always the possibility of an unscrupulous author.

Most publishers now routinely check all incoming submissions by comparing them to large databases of previous papers, such as the CrossRef database.  The editor will typically be provided with a report that either shows that the paper is free of plagiarism or indicates what parts of the paper are similar to previous publications.

Well, we now have two opposing views, so I'll add a third: Neither.
I don't think that either the editor or the reviewer has a responsibility to try to detect plagiarism.  When I read a journal, I don't assume that anyone has taken explicit steps to check for plagiarism.  I don't see it as incumbent on either of them to take steps like matching against a database of previous papers (indeed I think such things cause more trouble than they are worth; see arXiv's "textual overlap" detector).
If a plagiarized paper should make it into print, I blame the author, but I don't blame the editor or referee for not catching it.  They are victims of the plagiarist, along with the rest of the community.
The referee is typically asked to judge the novelty of the paper, so they should be reasonably familiar with the existing literature (if not, they should decline to review the paper).  If the paper seems very reminiscent of a paper they've seen before, then they should certainly compare them, but not so much to check for plagiarism as to better understand the innovations of the new paper.
That said, the referee certainly has a responsibility to report plagiarism if they do notice it, and the editor has a responsibility to thoroughly investigate any reports or allegations of plagiarism, and take prompt and decisive action if warranted.

Good point. You are right it is not really the editor's responsibility either. That being said, is not good for the journal's reputation if one such paper gets published, so journals should try as much as possible to detect those before going through the review process. This also prevents wasting everyone's (editors and referees) precious time on a plagiarized work. Being sometimes not an easy task to accomplish anyway, it is great that now we count with the help of software tools.

That's a very thoughtful answer.

Good answer. I would like to add that it depends on how you define responsibility. If the question is simply, who should try to catch plagiarists, it's everybody in the community. If the question is who gets the blame if one slips through the net, it's nobody but the author.

I think the primary onus should be on the editors/publishing team.

I don't think most editors would agree with you here.
Further, you say:

in contrast to editors, referees do not get paid

Neither do most editors of scientific journals. Both are community service jobs taken up by academics. Many journals do (in addition) have copy editors and lectors, but those are typically not responsible for any content-based decisions. Those copy-editors are responsible for making sure that the layout is correct, that references etc. are in the right format, and (in some cases) improve the language, grammar, and spelling. They do not have the field knowledge to judge whether the document they are currently looking at is plagiarized, except for maybe the most blatant cases.
Finding plagiarism (both, in sentences and ideas) is the job of the refereeing team, which consists of  the reviewers, the responsible associated editor (if any), and the editor-in-chief.

I agree that being or not paid has nothing to do with this. However, I do not think finding plagiarism is responsibility of the referees, although when the referees find evidence should be reported, as I mentioned in my response.

As referee I would say I never actively check for plagiarism- neither I have been asked to do so in the instructions for referees (my fields are life science and bioinformatics). The responsibility falls mostly on the editor's side. Indeed, many journals will pass your paper through plagiarism tools like iThenticate and they warn you during the submission process (indeed, you have to agree with this before being able to submit). I think all journals should do this.
Of course, if we find proof of plagiarism or self plagiarism we should report it to the editors, as you did. During my reviews I have found a couple of cases of limited self plagiarism when looking for information related to the manuscript and noted that to the editors in my review.


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What is the average number of references in a PhD thesis in the humanities?
How many references on average are typical for a PhD Thesis?
More specifically, I'm looking for a comparison of the average number of references for an engineering PhD thesis and PhD theses in other fields.
I'm looking for references or data on the subject.

I'm speaking from what I've been told as a grad student, not from a position of authority, but....as many it takes to show that you've done an exhaustive review of the literature surrounding the subject and are the (new) expert in your chosen area.

Related: How many references should be included in the bibliography of a Master thesis?

As always, PhD Comics has the answer to all your questions: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd091615s.gif

Somehow related, see this blog post and plot: Average dissertation and thesis length (by field). He shares R code. However, the analysis is being done on a single university repository. You can use a similar methodology to calculate the number of references.

Also: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1823 (but it is for papers, not - theses).

As alluded to in the comments, there is no generic "right" answer: the number will depend strongly on the nature of your thesis, the state of the literature related to it, and your personal scholastic style.  Nevertheless, in the spirit of engineering approximations, I will supply you with some rough guidelines.

As a lower bound, I would be startled if it was possible to place most theses within the context of pre-existing work in less than about 20 references.  In certain contexts such as an obscure corner of pure mathematics perhaps this might be possible, but in most cases work does not take place in a vacuum, and other people will have either used similar techniques or cared about similar problems in the past.
As an upper bound, I would be concerned with a thesis with on the order of 200 or more references that the student hasn't been doing enough work on their own original research and has been investing too much time and energy in building a literature review, rather than a thesis.  Again, there will likely be cases where a thesis with an extremely high number of references would be reasonable, but these are likely to be unusual.

Notice the extremely wide range and suspiciously round numbers in my estimates: really there is no "right" answer for how many there should be in general, but perhaps these will help with some initial first impressions in one's thinking.

"upper bound... 200 or more": In a corpus of PhD theses in Agricultural Botany or Agricultural and Food Economics at the University of Reading, average number of citations per thesis were 248.8 and 333.5, respectively.  (Source) (I don't know how many unique references these citations were to, though)

"lower bound...less than about 20 citations": as a fun data point, John Nash's PhD thesis had 2 references.

@ff524 Apologies for any confusion between citation and reference in my original writing; I've clarified.  The citation data point is interesting, but doesn't answer the references question---I certainly tend to see many citations to key references.  Nash, I would definitely count as an unusual data point. :-)

I think your upper bound is too low. In energy studies, I expect to see 150-250 references. 200 is not unusual for a lit review.

Nash referenced two other sources - one of which his own. :D

As I vaguely recall, I did my references on a per-chapter basis (the better to easily integrate/staple together) my published papers. that meant a number of references were, well, referenced in multiple chapters. Untangling that mess would be hard.

Thanks everyone and jakebeal, it's always good to know the bound for a given problem.

A quick look at the mostly Mechanical Engineering theses I have on my computer at the moment gives an average of just over 100 references, with a range of approximately 80-150.
I haven't been able to find any quantifiable data but I feel this is about right. Some people will have significantly more and a few less.
I also suspect there is significant variations between subjects with arts and social sciences having significantly more references and more theoretical subjects having slightly less.

In essence, the number should be small enough to prove that the major composition of your thesis is your own work, yet large enough to satisfy the committee during your thesis defence.
As first stated, there is no actual upper or lower bound per se. But required number of items to be referred is more of a hidden factor that is highly dependant on your doctoral committee. Thus it would be best to consult your advisor and, if permitted so, members of your doctoral doctoral committee. In addition to that, you ought to look through some PhD dissertation accomplished by others in your field to get a good idea of the average number if that is what you really want.

It really depends on the subject. Imagine you are writing a thesis on three complex inter-related medical conditions and you include a well-sustained hypothesis for further study. It would not be very hard to reach 300 or more citations.
You know that people reading your work will not be specialists on the three subjects at the same time, so you have to provide a good and comprehensive introduction on each subject, so that everyone can understand the results and discussions. This alone can take 200 or more references, some of them will be used in the discussion.
Now imagine that two of these medical conditions have recent definitions and guidelines that are completely different from those from two years ago, and you have to contrast results with papers using the old guidelines, as well as some few papers that use the new guidelines. Now you have to explain both guidelines and in which way they differ from each other.
Furthermore, the pathophysiologic models for the interaction between these conditions are complex and comprise systemic, organic, cellular, molecular levels, and you have to explain some of them in order to establish your hypothesis.
This is where I'm headed... around 320 references and counting...

For me, I think that the use of references should not limit the creativity of the Doctorat candidate. Rather, they should be that springboard that get them produce more than what they get as intake. Numerically, I expect to have each single reference to be equated with two pages of the candidate's work as a maximum. This would mean that a dissertation of 300 pages should not have used more than150 references. The number wil' vary according g to the length of the dissertation. The higher the number of references, the more limited the originality of the work and the poorer  the creativity displayed.


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Referencing references within a quote
I don't think this is quite the same as enter Referencing the reference? apologies if it is.
I am quoting someone in my thesis, they say:

... blah blah as noted in experiments by Tom (2013), Dick (2014) and Harry (2015)...

Should the three references in my quotation appear as in my bibliography even though they are not directly referenced by me but rather via the quote?

Hi, and welcome to Academia.SE!  I agree with your assessment that it's a bit different, and also want to thank you for taking the time to check carefully in formulating your question!

Chain referencing is not required unless you reference some information from the chain reference that is more than what is already referenced within the first citation.
To add clarity, if you want to cite a matter from [A] which is cited as a quote from [B], then citing [B] would be appropriate. Otherwise if [A] adds some insights to [B], then citing just [A] would be fine. If in addition to this you derive some insights from [B] which is not noted in [A], then you must cite both [A] and [B].

So, to clarify (a bit more): assuming that the references in the quote, Tom, Dick and Harry, don't provide anything more to the text they do not need to be referenced?

Well, if "Tom Dick and Harry" is the only thing you refer from A which is actually from B, just refer B instead.