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PhD Application Email
I am working as a researcher in a research lab, and I want to apply for a Ph.D. position. I have read that most of the professors read emails sent through professional email-id only. But my current professional email id is restricted to be used in the research lab only. What should I do to make my application email stand out?

Use Gmail or whatever provider. Just be careful with your username, ask for receipt, and especially write a clear subject, PhD application from XY might be OK.

@Alchimista I delete email that asks for a receipt on the grounds that it's none of their business when I read email.  Here is an SE answer about receipts from a decade ago: https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/544  Perhaps my "just hit delete" reaction is extreme, but a search on "should i use email read receipt" suggests that they're nearly universally disliked.

What country (countries) are you applying in? The application process differs, and also, in some places, depends on your current degree(s).

@BobBrown upvoted your comment by mistake. What you intend is correct for most communication except a kind of application, or application enquire. It just signal that the potential applicant cares of the procedures, not that s/he dig into what the recipient does or not. Actually, if that would be possible, even a call meeting should be welcomed by a serious senior leading research. The problem is that not everyone has dedicated secretary service. Moreover, I am able to read email without agreeing sending receipts, so I do not see the problem. Of course, an upsetting email having a receipt...

... request is even more upsetting. But such an enquire from a student shouldn't be.

@Alchimista I guess we must agree to disagree.  I find that receipt request to be off-putting no matter the purpose of the email.  Your advice about a professional user name and a clear, meaningful subject line is bang-on.

@BobBrown how would you react if someone call you to enquire? I am also one of the multitude that dislike read receipt, unless when it is clear the request is there for safety purposes, like a student who want to know if s/he got me, and not to push me under pressure. Anyway nice that s/he can get the message, at least, that an institutional email has less chance to end up in the spam box but it is not a requisite.

@Anjali Make it clear why you apply/want to work there. Of course, this requires that you don't mass-apply. (Copying buzzwords from the PIs most recent papers is most likely a bad idea.)

For most of my academic career, I used a personal email as much as I could. I never had the impression that doing so is harmful or appears to be unprofessional.

Use an email which sounds serious, like firstname.lastname@emailservice.com. Also have your full and real name as a name in the From: field. Whether it is a professional email does not matter. But it should look professional, in the sense mentioned.

Keep your email itself concise. Make it clear why you want to apply to this specific place. This, of course, means that you apply to a few selected places which you picked for the specific research they are doing. Note that just looking up the professor's most recent papers and saying "I find $PAPERTITLE1 and $PAPERTITLE2 very interesting." is likely not going to work, for several reasons.

Attach a CV, and possibly some other documentation. Don't say "I can send you a CV upon request." You want to minimize the professor's work to learn about you. If possible, also mention who they could ask about you, either in the CV or the email itself.

Don't misspell the addressee's name, or their institutions name, etc.. And address them directly. Emails starting with "Dear Sir" look like you sent them to many people.

Thank you @user151413 This is really helpful. Is it fine to talk about the paper published by the professor, if I mentioned more about it?  For instance, if it intersects with my area of research or if I want to add something to it. Because most of the articles I have read about application email specifies that mentioning the professor's publications or articles makes the mail look less general.

@Anjali Anything which makes clear why you wan't to work with him/her, and you don't just apply randomly, helps. What does not help is to just copy paper titles, abstracts, and the like: People will notice. What also doesn't help: Picking their last 3 papers. It might be that for some reason, those are not at the heart of what they do (they just got involved/sidetracked into that), so then saying that you find this aspect particularly interesting will not have the desired effect. Making this personal is time-consuming, and cannot be done if you mass-apply. That's precisely the point.

An institutional email address is not a requisite nor it does make your inquiry looks less serious.
I personally was suggesting a receipt request, but apparently most people dislike the option no matter the purpose. I personally can see the difference between a peer of mine pushing for some action and a student in trepidation. However, as the chance that I would be the recipient is ridiculously low, don't ask for a receipt.
Be cautios and clear filling the subject field. I do suggest something like "PhD openings inquiry, name surname" or so.
I also suggest that the body part shows that you didn't choose the particular recipient at random. This can be very short, at this stage.


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Is it appropriate to acknowledge Satoshi Nakamoto in a paper devoted to blockchain?
My question is highly relevant to this one: is-it-appropriate-to-acknowledge-stackexchange-in-my-msc-thesis; however, in my case, Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous person (or persons) who developed Bitcoin.
I believe, would be great to acknowledge Satoshi genius and the importance of his invention to my current research, but not sure whether appropriate (in academia context) is to thank the pseudonymous person(s)?

Guys, remember, if a question is legitimate but the answer is "no", we should answer "no", not downvote the question.

Note that Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin algorithm in a preprint, so you could always just cite it and describe how your work relates to it, instead of using an acknowledgment.

I think it would be appropriate to thank him in a thesis, but not in a paper.
There is a big cultural difference in how acknowledgments are used in theses and papers. In the common use (at least in my field, but I think this is general), acknowledgments in a paper are reserved for:

people that actually helped on the topic of the paper, via direct personal interaction, for instance "We thank X for useful discussions" or "We thank Y for providing us the reference [5] and an alternative proof of Theorem 5"
funding agencies
host institutions for a visit, such as "This research was conducted when the first author was on a sabbatical leave at the University of W; she thanks UW for its support".

Other acknowledgments (such as general help, emotional support, parents and partners, etc.) would definitely look out of place. You can put these in your thesis, but in a paper you'd better stick to business and keep it as brief as possible. The acknowledgments section of a paper is not intended as a soapbox (unlike that of a thesis). There are exceptions, but they will raise eyebrows.

The non-eyebrowraising exception at least in my field (maths) would be dedicating the paper to someone fundamental to the area of research, but that is generally reserved to special occasions such as deaths and round birthdays, but those do not quite work for someone anonymous.

@mlk In case you are unaware. Nakamoto contributed significantly to the academic literature on verifiable computation and blockchain. So the exception you mention would apply to them, although as you note it’s rather hard in the case of an anonymous author.

you might want to replace "parents and girlfriends" by "parents and partners" to avoid making assumptions on the gender/orientation of the researcher in question

@TashiWalde Oops, you are right, fixed.

@FedericoPoloni Now you wrote 'parents' twice instead :)

@jnanin oops -- double fail. :) Thanks.

Why don't you just cite their original bitcoin paper in your introduction? I don't know the history of your field but if that was really a fundamental result it seems completely reasonable to cite it. Whether the author is anonymous or not doesn't change that.
According to google scholar the paper has over 7000 citations so you would have lots of company.
In general I would say a citation that acknowledges the importance of the work is a much stronger form of thanks than a mention in the acknowledgements section.

No one acknowledge any scientist leading/having led to a field with no direct interaction on the paper. So no.
I would find it inappropriate even in a thesis. You have other sections to highlight the importance and merits of someone, and you do so in a scientific and pertinent way, by referencing his/her work, for instance.

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Should I use an out-of-order version of my name for academic publications?
I have a common US first AND last name, but a unique middle name. Think John Aardvark Smith.
I am nearing my first publication and want to decide on my name for academic/scientific publications now so that it can remain consistent.
I like to be called John and would like to be Dr. Smith when that time comes, however there are a million JA Smiths, including in my field.
I'm considering being JS Aardvark for publications instead, a completely unique name.
My questions are:
Would I HAVE to then be John Smith Aardvark for all intents and purposes? If you click my JS Aardvark link on Google Scholar, would it make any sense to link to a person called John Aardvark Smith? Would I have to accept that people will call me Dr. Aardvark? What should me email address and sign-off then be?
I may be missing other potential pitfalls as well. I'd be glad for any feedback on this, positive or negative, personal anecdotes, etc.

In British culture it seems to be common for someone to be known as J. Aardvark Smith professionally and John to friends.  Maybe this would work for you?  And then make sure that you have a unique Google Scholar profile and arxiv identifier (if relevant to your discipline).

This is definitely a good consideration. However, I would likely still face the trouble of being listed in authorship as JA Smith, where I am lost in a sea of other JA Smiths. I do immediately plan on registering for relevant accounts and setting this decision in stone (or, at least 1's and 0's) soon.

Have you considered using an ORCID? Those are unique identifiers that do not depend on the uniqueness of your name.

I definitely plan to use an ORCID whatever decision I end up making. Does this eliminate the issue though? It definitely will help once people have found me, but I'm not convinced it's enough.

@Aardvark No, ORCID wouldn't help that much. Your options would seem to be to do "J. Aardvark Smith" and accept sometimes it's shortened to "JA Smith," or two adopt both as a "last name" so it's always abbreviated to "J. Aardvark-Smith." Putting them out of order seems like a recipe for disaster

Pretty much anything will work. Just be sure that you will be happy with it for the rest of your career. Changing a professional name for any reason can be problematic. A personal web page can keep people on the right track about names.

You can even use an alias unrelated to your actual name, though don't be too cute about it. "Euclid Cantor Methuselah" is probably not what you want.

I suspect you need to use one version of your name professionally, and stick to it. Writing papers as J Aardvark and introducing yourself to people in person as J Smith is going to create far more confusion than just being J Smith everywhere - at least in that case people know it's a common name and expect to have to deal with the consequences of that.

Does this answer your question? Taking an academic pseudonym?

I do something rather similar with my name.  My publication name is 'Aardvark Smith" and I go by 'Aardvark' in everyday life.  It mostly works fine, but occasionally a computer system will get confused.

Thanks everyone for the input. This discussion has been perfect and exactly what I was hoping for. I am heartened to hear of other people going through similar (and more substantial) versions of this and feeling fine with how it's worked out.

I do know someone who signs their email as "John Aardvark S.," and authors their papers as "John Aardvark." In their case, the "S." is a married name, so I would guess they added it after their first publication (but don't know for sure).
Putting them out of order makes me think that your name would constantly be getting rearranged (people thinking you filled out your name wrong, especially if your middle name is typically a first name, and your last name is typically a last name). And think of nametag confusion! In other words, being known as "Dr. John Smith" but publishing as "Dr. John Aardvark" isn't a common fix, so people won't know how to interpret it.
Another option would be to make "Aardvark Smith" your last name (hyphenated or not), I definitely know people who go by only one name of a double-barreled name. Or to just accept that sometimes your name will be abbreviated to "JA Smith." I suppose it depends on the usual citation format in your field. Most of time time, my field uses initials only when the author uses them, so that wouldn't be a big deal to me.

Thank you, this is a really great perspective from a few different angles. I appreciate the time and care! I probably... Well, the hyphenation is an interesting avenue. I'll think more on that. My overall takeaway though is that my original idea was indeed crazy/more trouble than having a common name, at least to me.

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Updating CV with Grant Funding Awarded but not used/PI internally but not externally on grants and contracts
I have a couple of questions about how to report the funding I earned or maintained while at my previous employer on my CV. I worked for a public university academic research center where we had several state government contracts. The center director was listed as PI on all of these contracts, even though I led every aspect of the projects (developing the scope of work, budget, managing the project and staff, etc.). The center director submits the contract (along with other contracts) to the state agencies and negotiates any final budget details. The total awarded over two years was about $900k. How should I report this funding on my CV?
The second issue is that I was PI on two grants (one for $245k and the other for $650k), one was awarded two days before I left the center and the other a month after I left. I wasn't allowed to transfer the funding to my new organization (a non-profit research organization), so the center has all of that funding and the two projects to manage. I oversaw every aspect of the idea development and grant application process and would've been PI had I stayed.  Can I report this funding on my CV? If so, how should I do it

Were you named in the first grant?

@Buffy I'm named in the scope of work as project director even though I truly served as the PI. But due to center policies, I couldn't be listed as PI on any state contracts.

Ethically, you can list all grant writing and management activities that you factually performed, regardless of whether you received official credit for it. You do need to clear about the fact that you are not officially credited as PI, though. So you might want to use a section header like "Involvement in funded projects" rather than just "Funded projects". In this section, you would list all funded projects and describe for each of them what you did. You should also list the official PI for each project.
Pragmatically, there is the issue that someone who reads the CV might try to verify the information with the PI, and there's a possible outcome that the PI will (unethically) deny your involvement. To avoid this, you might want to show your CV to the PI before you make it public/submit it anywhere.

Just list them as honestly as you can manage.
For the first, that you were named as project director for a grant awarded to XXX (either the individual or the institution or both).
For the second that you developed and submitted a grant that was awarded, but that you left before the work was executed. If the grant was awarded to you, specifically, say that. Or say what the grant lists as your role, had you stayed.
It doesn't take a lot of words to get it right.


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Can I do an MS in CS in USA after a 5-year integrated MSc degree in CS?
I'm currently pursuing a 5 year integrated MSc. course in Theoretical CS in India. In my search online, a little under half of the 'top' universities in the US explicitly state that they won't take students who already have a Masters degree in CS or related fields into their Master's program. But my degree is structured in such a way that we have only 4 years of course work and two 6-month internships/research interns. ( like a Bachelors degree + 1 yr of work experience )

Will my degree make me inelligible for those programs even though my course is just a glorified undergraduate degree?
If I apply to the universities which don't have that rule (explicitly stated on their website) will I stand a chance for admission or is it also highly unlikely?

The rules are theirs, not mine, but I would interpret what you say as indicating you would be ineligible. Your current university doesn't consider your degree to be a "glorified undergraduate degree", of course, nor will a university that you apply to.
There is some resistance generally for accepting people who already hold an "equivalent" degree even if there are no firm rules. This is to allow others the opportunity to advance when there are limited slots available. The question that would be asked, even if only in the minds of some, is "Why do they want to do this?" and you would need a compelling reason to overcome that sense.
One possibility for a compelling reason is that the MSc part of your degree seems to be practical, not theoretical. Applying to a highly theoretical MS in the US might seem like something new to readers of your application. Maybe enough to overcome any reluctance.

And, for the record, you are almost certainly qualified to apply to a doctoral program in the US. This would probably come with a paid position as a TA (or similar). Likely also no costs for tuition if you are a TA.


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Is a short CV problematic?
I am currently an undergraduate student in mathematics, applying for graduate programs. To this end, I need to create a CV.
I have no research experience, no scholarships/awards, no academic/volunteer service, no work experience, and my first teaching experience will occur next semester.
My CV includes:

Personal Data
Education
Teaching Experience
Languages
Interests and Activities

and as of now, it is barely more than half a page long.
Is this problematic? Is there anything else I should add to my CV?

Having a rather short CV when applying to grad school is not particularly uncommon. Moreover, I find the general academic trend to focus on the "length" of the CV somewhat misguided. Nobody cares whether your CV is 0.5, 1, or 5 pages per se. That is, padding your CV with unrelated chaff ("worked as barista at Starbucks from A to B", "plays the flute and gitarre on XY level") is not getting your anywhere. What admission commitees etc. care about are mainly two things:

What relevant experiences do you have for grad school? What specific jobs, service work, special courses, papers, etc. did you do that are relevant?
What distinguishes you from other candidates? What makes you better / more suitable for grad school than all the other applicants with reasonable undergrad schools and grades?

Note that I am not saying that a CV without undergrad research experience, no previously published papers, no relevant extracurricular activities, and no strong research letters will get you into a great grad school. However, it is important to recognise that the problem here is not the CV document. It is that you do not have those experiences, and no way of formatting your CV will fix these problems.

If you lack experience, focus more on who you are.

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Is it ok to put old papers on the arXiv?
In my field (I am a condensed-matter theoretical physicist) it is such a normal thing to put papers on the arXiv, that people sometimes look at other people's arXiv list of papers instead of their publication record to get to know what they do, etc.
It just so happens that a few years ago I did a PhD with a supervisor that does not like the arXiv that much (he apparently had some conflict with some authors of a paper that was very similar to one of his papers, but one was already published while the other was just an arXiv preprint -or something like that). As a result, from my list of less than 20 publications, there are four of them from my PhD that are missing on the arXiv.
I was thinking of submitting the latest versions I have of them as arXiv preprints now, four years after their publication. For this I already have the agreement of all co-authors (including my supervisor), and all the journals involved seem to allow to put preprints of the material they publish. Do you see any problem with this? I fear that some people might take it as a way to advertise as new something that was already published a long time ago (though I would of course give the full reference to the published version). There may be other issues I am not aware of. The reason why I would like to do this is that I am applying for fellowships, positions, etc. and I am afraid some of my (best) publications may go unnoticed if somebody looks me up on the arXiv.
Thank you,
Stephen

If you own the copyright, go ahead.  If the copyright has been assigned to someone else (a journal, a university,...) check their terms.

Yes, this is in general OK. The main limitations on posting old papers to the arXiv are (1) copyright considerations (i.e. you must either hold the copyright, or have permission from the copyright holder to post the e-print) and (2) the approval of your co-authors, or at least the corresponding author, which can put you in a hazy gray area if you can no longer find them or they explicitly deny it. You seem to be OK on both counts.
The criteria for publishability on the arXiv are lower than a journal, and there is no previous-publication requirement or disbarment. From the arXiv primer,

Material submitted to arXiv is expected to be of interest, relevance, and value to those disciplines. [...] Submissions are reviewed by expert moderators to verify that they are topical and refereeable scientific contributions that follow accepted standards of scholarly communication (as exemplified by conventional journal articles).

There is no requirement that work be unpublished; indeed, post-publication posting is an integral part of the self-archiving, green open access model in the post-print variety, often with a specific embargo dictated by the publisher.
That said, each community uses the arXiv in subtly different ways, and someone who repeatedly posts old papers may get called out on it (either positively or negatively!), so if you're nervous, find someone in your field who is very active on the arXiv and ask, or simply look for precedent - it's a bit tedious but not terribly hard. For example, arXiv:1601.06054, first published in June 2014, is currently on the cond-mat front page.
One thing you should do is make sure that your metadata is pristine and complete, and to get it right the first time. This includes the DOI and journal reference - you're not there to hide anything, you're there to make your research more accessible and discoverable, and the way you do that is by having good metadata. A comment saying that this is a late posting of an old paper would not go amiss - it will defuse the people who see the posting and think it's new and would otherwise be disappointed or annoyed.
And, of course, if you're looking to make your research discoverable online, think carefully through your online presence - arXiv, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Dissemin, Mendeley, or whatever services you choose to use - and make sure that they're all what you want them to be.

So long as you clearly indicate the origins of the paper, including the publication details, there should be no problem, as you're not "hiding" that the papers aren't new. Another way to help offset this impression is to make sure all the papers are posted as close to one another chronologically as possible. (That is, it's unlikely that someone would have, say, four new papers to publish on the same day.)

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Which academic subjects examine the efficacy of counting systems?
Which academic subjects examine what the advantages and disadvantages of the various number bases are, e.g. besides base ten: base twelve, base sixteen, base eight, base two and the ways that they can be written and pronounced.
For example, base eight 10001 can be pronounced "one zero zero zero one base eight", "four thousand ninety-six one", "two to the power twelve one", and some other ways, and there is no consensus about which way is best. Would this be a mathematical question, or a cognitive science question, or some other kind of question?
For another example, to what academic subject does the question of how to write thirty-six in base thirty-seven?

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

First, there is no authoritative taxonomy of academic subjects. As one example, the author of The Professor is In talks about how her research led to job interviews in departments including anthropology, gender studies, and Japanese. Even in the hard sciences, the boundaries between math, physics, chemistry, and computer science are quite blurry.
So how do you know whether topic X falls under discipline Y? The only real way is to see whether there are experts in Y that are working on X. And even this will not yield a one-to-one mapping; there are plenty of perfectly fine subjects that are not being studied at all, and other subjects that are being studied from many disciplines.
Second, there is little interest in developing new nomenclature. Famous physicist Richard Feynman once went down this road, coming up with his own (better, in his opinion) notation for trigonometric functions. He eventually abandoned this effort. From his autobiography:

I thought my symbols were just as good, if not better, than the regular symbols - it doesn't make any difference what symbols you use - but I discovered later that it does make a difference. Once when I was explaining something to another kid in high school, without thinking I started to make these symbols, and he said, "What the hell are those?" I realized then that if I'm going to talk to anybody else, I'll have to use the standard symbols, so I eventually gave up my own symbols.

More generally, there are plenty of places where the nomenclature really could be improved. The names of the quarks, for example, are a bit silly, and the mesons/baryons are not assigned names in any systematic way. Similarly, Dvorak is faster than Qwerty, Python is cheaper than Matlab, and English is more widely spoken than Hungarian. But even if we agree that making these substitutions would be wise, getting large groups of people to invest the time to learn "the new way" is difficult.
Finally, these are not research questions. Developing a new language, or a new software tool, or a new novel, is not usually academic research. Since it is not academic research, it may not fall under the purview of any academic department.
Now computer science researchers who work with binary and octal may find that your tool helps them do research, and that is great if so. But like all tools, researchers will have to judge whether the effort of adopting the tool is worth the benefits the tool can provide. And this can be tough: I put off buying an iPad for years, even though I could afford it, because I just couldn't see what problem it would be solving. More alarmingly, plenty of older researchers still code in Fortran rather than making the effort to learn a modern language. If it is this hard to "sell" a shiny new electric device or to replace a 60-year-old language, imagine how much harder it is to "sell" more marginal improvements. And if the proposed solution seems silly or seems to be solving a non-problem, getting widespread buy-in will be even harder.

Python (poor person's Matlab?) and Matlab coexist, as does zip code style pronunciation(quick) and normal number pronunciation (clear?) in base ten. So is it really so unlikely that only having zip code style pronunciation of numbers in all other bases except base twelve (thanks to the dozenalists' efforts) could give way to a situation similar to that in base ten and base twelve in each of the other bases? This should have happened long ago, in my view. What my system does is to make the transition to the two-ways-of-pronunciation situation extremely easy.

That xkcd chart is interesting. I often do calculations like that. I think we tend to underestimate how much time we lose in the long run. It adds up fast. My idea however is not primarily about saving time, but fully experiencing binary counting in the way we fully (as far as I know) experience decimal counting. The time saving aspects are mainly to reduce the actual and perceived costs of learning to pronounce binary in a way that is analogous to the way we normally pronounce base ten, i.e. using names of the powers of ten.


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Institution wide style guides for theses - rationale and context
Under this answer here on Academia StackExchange, Xander Henderson and I observed that there seems to be a large difference between the United States and, for instance, Germany regarding how specific some universities and colleges tend to be with style guidelines for PhD theses (and also other theses):

When I did my PhD in Germany (at Ulm University) there was not style or formatting guide at all. There were merely two general regulations about the processes of awarding PhDs (in German: "Promotionsordnungen") - one for the entire university and one for the department. They said that a PhD thesis must contain a title page, a table of contents, a summary, a complete bibliography, a CV, and a certain declaration, but aside from the contents of this declaration no details whatsoever were given (it was not even specified what has to be on the title page).
From experience, things seem to be similar at other German universities.

On the other hand, it seems to be rather common that many US institutions have quite detailed style guides for PhD theses.
Examples: The format guide of UC Riverside specifies the page margins and says that the text has to be double-spaced.
The University of Chicago has similar requirements in this document.
The MIT gives their students a bit more choice, but still specifies that "[t]he text of the thesis may be single-, double-, or one-and-a-half-spaced", see here.
(Thanks to Xander Henderson for providing those links under the answer linked above.)

I understand why it can, for instance, make sense to specify that certain things have to be on the title pages. But I'm wondering why one would regulate, for instance, the page margins or the spacing between the lines.
Question: I'm interested to understand the rationale - and the cultural or institutional context of this rationale - for having such detailed formatting requirement for a thesis at all and, if one decides to have them, for having them at an institutional rather than at a departmental level.
The "cultural or institutional context" part is important: I'm not looking for a mere list of features or consequences of having such a guide (e.g. "specifying the page margins and the spacing makes it easy to compare the length of different theses"), because this alone is likely to provide little insight. Rather, I would like to understand the context: why do some US institutions find those features and consequences of having a detailed style guide sufficiently important that they choose to impose those restrictions?
Note: I explicitly took the United States and Germany as examples since the question popped up in a dicussion of US vs. German universities (and because I know the German system much better than other countries). If you know the situation in a different country where such detailed style guides are common, I'm of course also very interested to learn the reasons for doing this there.

For the UK, I can comment that it is quite frequent to have a detailed guideline. The details vary in between university, some are quite lax, some are very precise. I made a public Latex template for the guideline at my Uni and I spent a lot of time on it. For example page numbering in Arabic, but the preliminaries should be in Roman number. The chapter header should be font 10 points italic not bold, while the section should be... etc

Example for Newcastle Uni, Edinburgh Uni, Leeds Uni, Heriot-Watt Uni

During my PhD time in Germany, we had a LaTeX style file going around that satisfied the style required. The same is true for all universities in the US I've worked at.

@WolfgangBangerth: Do you happen to remember how specific those style requirements were for your thesis? Regarding the LaTeX style file: yes, using templates or style files is of course the way to go if there's a detailed style guide in place. It doesn't explain, though, why some universities consider a detailed style guide a good idea.

That said, what surpises me about the existence of such detailed style guides is not so much the work to implement them (as @WolfgangBangerth said: use templates), but that they enforce layout restrictions that some people might find quite uncomfortable (which might even depend on the subject). For instance, I find double-spaced text really unpleasant to read in general and in particular in math. So I'm wondering what's the rationale for regulating those things instead of leaving them to those people who are mostly affected by them (to the invidiual students and their advisors).

Closest I found for the uk is "[Higher education] providers offer practical advice, training or support to research students to prepare for submission of their thesis, for example, on the required presentation of the work, and viva. Support may include training, written guidance and/or opportunities to participate in a mock viva or similar experience". Available on the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Advice and Guidance for research degree

@JochenGlueck I don't recall whether there are style requirements. I never bothered to check, at any of my universities, because the fact that everyone else who had used that style file managed to graduate, meant that all one had to know is that one should use the style file -- whether that was written to satisfy an existing style guide, or whether that was the style guide did not matter to me.

@WolfgangBangerth Weirdly enough, at my phd institution, they provided a LaTeX.  This template had not been updated since the 90s, and didn't meet the formatting guidelines.  I ended up having to build my own from scratch.  I am not a TeXpert, so it is pretty kludgey, but I still get requests for the file several years on. :/

I got my Ph.D. from a US university with such a style guide now nearly 25 years ago. It annoyed me so I asked, in polite fashion.
The answer I received was a sensible historical reason. Ph.D. theses would historically be microfilmed and distributed to libraries and other interested parties as microfilm, or printed on paper from microfilm. This was done through a single provider, UMI (University Microfilms International).
Dissertation offices developed standards in response to legibility issues that arose through this process, in particular font size and margins due to limitations of the to-microfilm and from-microfilm process, as implemented by UMI. Those standards have stayed due to inherent conservatism, even though in this electronic-pdf age they seem rather obsolete, and were already obsolete 20+ years ago.
I personally experienced that if an old Ph.D. dissertation reprint had something illegible, you would write a letter to the Ph.D. institution's dissertation office, and they would send an individual to the library or archive, wherever the original dissertation was kept. There they would take a good quality photocopy of the page and mail it to you. I expect any such task could easily translate to tightening the dissertation formatting requirements so that it didn't happen going forward, leading to accretion of picky requirements over time.
I asked but didn't get a satisfactory answer about double spacing and obligations on word-wrap and justification, which I felt were particularly annoying and unnecessary. I hazard a guess that interspersed with fully rational and reasonable conditions on resolution/legibility were added other prescriptive standards borrowed from when people actually wrote typewritten manuscripts for University department "working papers" series or similar, that were photocopied and distributed. And from literary agent and publisher historical manuscript submission guidelines, from times when manuscripts needed space for editors and agents to handwrite comments and corrections. But that is my speculation.

All my high school (1973-1977) and undergraduate (1977-1982) term papers had to be double-spaced (at least when they were required to be typed), but I suppose this was for teacher comments. However, I will mention that it additionally made it easier to make white-out corrections. Also writer submissions to journals or popular magazines or as book manuscripts were required to be double-spaced. In checking with many older (1920s to 1950s) Masters and Ph.D. dissertations I have copies of (continued)

(e.g. 18 Ph.D. and 33 Masters under Chittenden -- I can't believe he doesn't have a Wikipedia page; a strong candidate for "most eminent mathematician without a Wikipedia page" -- photocopied from library copies, from which I then made .pdf scans of) from many different universities, in every case the typed text was double-spaced, except maybe for footnotes or longer quoted passages.

I meant to include the following in my earlier comment, but forgot. I had looked it up before looking at many of the theses copies I have, and then writing my comment, and I didn't notice I had overlooked it until 30 minutes later (now) when I was closing-out several no-longer needed Chrome windows. Google Books search for thesis + "double spaced", date-restricted to 1910-1940.


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How do I lift my spirits after giving a bad examination paper today?
I had my Mathematics paper today. Its of 90 marks. In the past, I have always scored 90 or at least 88. Today, the paper was extremely lengthly and I made a silly mistake in a question of 4 marks although I knew the answer perfectly well. I am sure other answers are correct. But I am feeling very depressed for failing my expectations. I have got my Science, Social Studies and English Paper in the next week. I think I will mess up in other papers too. I am afraid my classmates will tease me. I am afraid someone else will get full marks. How to lift my spirits?

Marks can be a fun competition against oneself. However, in actual career, marks play a smaller role than you would expect. I estimate the half-life of marks at completion of a degree to be 1-2 years, after that it will count what you have done since the degree. If the marks are not degree-relevant, the half-life is even shorter. So, take them seriously, but not too much so. Now, find out why you made the silly mistake; didn't you have time to do a final check? Were you giddy or overconfident? Once you find the reason, try to fix that for the next round. Mistakes happen, learn from them.

As someone who has lived through this, the solution is to stop trying to be perfect and forgive yourself for making mistakes.  Classmates would tease me because I built up a shield of "perfection" to try to defend against criticism.  There's a big difference between setting goals for yourself and not allowing yourself to be human.  We're all human, including very smart people like yourself.
Try to turn the fear of someone else getting full marks into encouragement of others to get full marks.  I understand that many education systems around the world use rankings in classes for standing.  I did part of my education in such a system, and I understand how it leads to complex social implications.  The best approach is to encourage one another and whoever is on top that particular examination will be respected instead of envied.  The next examination, it may be another person, and that's ok.  By focusing on encouraging each other and being happy for each other's successes, you'll collectively raise your marks and achievements, which will server you much better later in life and your career than always being on top.  You will find that the opportunities in life, even in the most restrictive of harshly competitive academic environments, are not based solely on top grades, but rather a whole picture of the person.
You will NOT mess up the other papers because you clearly study hard and know the subjects.  Once you get into working on them, your spirits will lift themselves as you find your comfort zone in those topics that you know well.  You might even find that the previous slip up will help you with your creativity, which is even more important in Social Studies and English.
You'll look back in 10 or 20 years and everything will look different in retrospect.  Trust me.  I've done it myself. :)
Good luck!

Perform service for others -- especially those who are less fortunate. Help at food bank, read books at children's hospital, play chess at local prison (I don't know if that last one is actually a thing). Helping others puts life in better perspective.
Do something that raises endorphins. Run, lift weights, go climbing (especially indoors where you can achieve top of something), swim, jump into cold water, have sex with committed partner, beat Angry Birds, eat a modest-size ice cream cone, etc.
Do something very outside of normal comfort zone -- go speed dating, sing karaoke, attend a cooking class where you get to make something, go clubbing (don't binge drink or sleep with stranger though; that will just depress you more afterwards), go to a comedy club with friends, go race go-karts, go (safely) fire guns at a shooting range (under supervision of an expert), go to an amateur chess club and play some pickup games, etc.
Do something even farther outside of normal comfort zone -- attend a renaissance society event, go watch Madrigal Singers perform, make hot chocolate and offer to share with a stranger (in a very safe / campus setting), attend a debate club meeting and attempt to speak, attend a poetry jam or open mic poetry reading. Read something on mic.
Accept that you are only human, and unles you are God (you're not, are you?) then you will make mistakes. It's part of the human condition.


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Back door route to top research schools?
Is there a way to gain admission to these institutions by getting paid experience prior to applying?
I have a friend who graduated from a top 150ish school in the US and did moderately well (biochemistry, 3.8 GPA). He had some research experience on hand during his undergraduate career, but didn't have publications. He had about 2 year's worth of research, and maybe ~5 poster presentations at conferences. He did a summer internship at a medical research institution where he now works as a research assistant (after he graduated). After catching up with him and talking, he admitted to me he could not get PhD admissions to top tier universities with rudimentary statistics straight out of underad. He spent about 2 years working at said medical research institution, got I believe 4 papers under his belt, took his GRE, did moderately well but not amazing, and applied.

Now he's been receiving admission into institutions such as MIT, Stanford, etc. Institutions by his own admission that he could not get into with a snowball's chance in hell before he started working/publishing. I was curious, what was the catalyst? Did paid experience prove he was worthy of the skills and not cheap undergraduate level (aka solidify he was "the real deal")? Was it the papers? Was it him now riding the prestige of his employer and not his undergrad? Was it him being 24/25 and a little more mature/realistic in interviews as opposed to the bulk of his 21 year old competition? Was it showing graduate schools that his 2 years of succeeding at his institution meant he's more likely to succeed into graduate school life? This whole idea got me curious if it's possible to massively increase one's chances at admissions to higher tier or even above average graduate schools in the sciences if one is patient and willing to wait enough to gain experience once they're done with their undergraduate career. Academics of SE, could I have your input?

You seem to already know the answer to your question.

And the answer is: 4 papers under his belt

I wouldn't call this a backdoor route.
It takes time to get quality publications and letters of recommendation yet undergrad goes by fast. Your friend also wasn't from a top university which makes these opportunities even harder to come upon.
There are a lot of details missing here (what were his letters of rec like, quality of publications, etc.) but it sounded like your friend did some good work and got accepted because of it. Whether you do this work during undergrad or after you graduate, doesn't necessarily matter.


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How PhD projects are acquired in pure mathematics
In pure mathematics (please only answer for this field, as other areas are different), what is the ratio of PhD students finding a project on their own, versus working closely with their supervisor to find a project versus the supervisor giving their student a project?

I think this is unanswerable without carrying out a research project to get some evidence. The ratio is greater than 0 and less than 1. I'll guess that it is less than 1/2. There is a third option, which is a jointly developed idea, and a fourth, one proposed by a third party. And, who cares???

I care. That's why I asked.

Why would knowing the ratio matter to you? Are you in an uncomfortable place with your own advisor? That is a different issue. Every interaction is individual.

I want to understand what a PhD student in pure mathematics should expect from their supervisor with regards to helping find a research project. Is it mostly the case that supervisors give their students a project? Is it mostly the case that the student and supervisor work together to find a project? Is it mostly the case that the student finds the project entirely on their own? I don't care about a precise number, I just want to know what is expected and happens most of the time.

@Peter which country are you in/ interested in?

@astronat All countries

https://xkcd.com/1856/ suggests one option...

@Peter If you care, then please ask the question you actually want answered instead of some faux-generalization that is both unanswerable and useless.

an edit as simple as saying  "how often do PhD students ..." rather than "what is the ratio of PhD students" would, I think, make it much clearer that you are not actually looking for a quantitative answer. But editing your question to include most of the details you have given in the comment section would be even better.

Adding to @Stephen_McKean's answer, and also considering @Elizabeth_Henning's comment that the question is very likely not the real question in the questioner's mind...
My first point would be that it is entirely reasonable for a math grad student to not be able to come up with a research project that is do-able, interesting (to experts!?!), and hasn't already been done (or is viewable as a routine application of well-known methods). Or won't be scooped by more experienced people during the time it takes to get done by a novice. So if this situation seems daunting... well, you're being completely reasonable. Note: very talented people without experience cannot reasonably "compete" with equally talented people with decades of experience. Or at least that surely cannot be what "getting a PhD" is about.
On another hand, sure, if by good luck one has by chance stumbled upon a do-able, interesting, not-easily-scooped project... GREAT! Hopefully one can find an advisor/mentor to give technical advice and so on. And/or, more subtly, to steer from the idea for which you had great enthusiasm to something more professionally interesting and more viable. The latter is a serious trick, and I myself am not able to routinely execute it.
I am skeptical of the (math...) advisors who declare that their students should come up with their own projects. My reaction would be "wow, if you can do that, without advice from experienced people, you are in a different league from me... and you should probably get your advisor's job!"
Yes, now and then, but quite rarely, this can happen. But it cannot be the required or routine part of the business.
EDIT: to clarify, based on comments, I certainly would not at all discourage anyone from coming up with their own projects... But/and professional viability is a different question. In my own experience, I'd come up with some projects that seemed "original" and at least a little bit interesting... but when I got to grad school at Princeton, I discovered that my little projects were literally super-easy exercises for serious people, and that the genuine contemporary progress-in-math was barely intelligible to me.
Yes, one can choose which culture one wants. The high-end biz is rough,  not reliably gratifying, and many of the people in it are not really sensible as people. And, all the worse, apparently one has to make decisions about "paths" at such an early point in life that one has insufficient information of and/or appreciation of what the ambient culture will do to oneself...

I know of at least one highly respectable advisor who requires his students to come up with their own thesis problem (http://virtualmath1.stanford.edu/~vakil/potentialstudents.html). Of course, you are right that coming up with good research questions is especially hard for a new researcher with little experience (speaking from personal experience). But I think learning how to come up with new projects as a grad student enables one to have a more productive postdoc, which hopefully leads to a more successful tenure-track job search, etc.

@StephenMcKean This is neither what Ravi actually does nor quite what he says he does in the page you linked.

@ElizabethHenning See the second sentence after "My personal style as an advisor." I'm not saying that Ravi leaves his students to fend for themselves. I'm sure he gives lots of feedback and guidance as his students figure out their thesis problem (for example, by suggesting toy problems earlier in their studies).

As a variant on my remarks, certainly trying to come up with one's own project is a worthwhile project-in-itself.

As mentioned by Buffy in the comments, you're unlikely to find an actual ratio to answer your question without gathering some data. However, it seems like your question is actually where your research project would come from as a PhD student in pure math.
The answer is quite simple: it depends on you and your advisor.

Have an idea for your project? Tell your advisor about it and get their feedback! A thesis project (or even a side project) needs to be both interesting and manageable within a restricted time frame. One of the main reasons you have an advisor is to learn how to ask interesting but manageable research questions. Your advisor's experience is a valuable resource for learning this skill.

Want your advisor to give you a project? Ask them about it! Some advisors have lots of project ideas and are happy to share them with their students. Other advisors will be more hesitant to give you a project -- I know some who think it is important for students to come up with their own questions.

Want to come up with your own project but don't know how? Tell your advisor and ask for advice! They will probably tell you to read lots of papers, listen to lots of talks, and ask lots of questions. You can tell them the ideas and questions you have, and then you can ask if any of the questions are interesting. Again, asking research questions is a skill that you need to develop.

A corollary of this discussion: don't just pick an advisor based on their research area or whether or not they're "famous." Every advisor has a different approach to research and mentoring, and you want to make sure that your advisor's style is compatible with your personal working style. If you don't like the idea of your advisor making you find your own question, or if you have your own idea for a research project that you want to pursue, then you should be sure to ask potential advisors about this before deciding to work with them.


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Applying for FAANG after completion of MBBS?
I have recently applied for undergraduate programs at many universities
and after all, I've got into a medical school for the 4 years MBBS program (MBBS stands for Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery).
However, my dream is to work for Big Tech Companies like Google, Microsoft or IBM, or even NASA or some Big Biotech Companies like Pfizer or AstraZeneca.
But unfortunately, I got rejected from all the CS undergrad programs that I applied to. So, I decided to go for MBBS which is mostly psychology/medicine or Human Biology based. And After I graduated with the MBBS degree, I would like to apply to Big BioTech companies
However, I have no idea if BioTech companies do hire people with MBBS degree? because MBBS degrees are mainly for Doctors
So, Could someone explain with reasons whether I should pursue MBBS if I have a dream to work for BioTech companies or FAANG ? or What would be wiser to do now ?

If you want to work for FAANG companies, the best strategy would be to have a degree in CS. Can you try to apply for a CS undergraduate program at some other universities ? It does not have to be a super famous university such as MIT, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, etc... I honestly know many people who only get a BS or MS degree in CS from normal state, local city, or  public universities, and are working for FAANG companies.

What's your goal, exactly?  I mean, you say that you want to work for a big bio-tech company or FAANG, and a simple way to do that would seem to be to apply for a low-level job, e.g. work as a janitor or something.  But assuming that's not precisely what you'd want, then what would be?

@Nat, My goal is to work for Bio-Tech or FAANG as a higher-level position. And I would like to be in the research field that could be the intersection of Maths and Biology or CS or whatever. Im fine with any scientific or engineering or any Bio research field. So, Is it wise to get a MBBS degree ?

"Preparations for a non-academic career" is an explicitly off-topic category of question here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic

Wait, How could this question about MBBS is related to Non-academic ?

Your degree matters less than what actual skills of yours could be used by a company. You may have gained some knowledge about how medicine works and it could be used in a biotech project. Or maybe not. Whatever your circumstances are more specifically, you must be able to answer "what am I bringing to the table". Higher education does not exist solely to make people learn things about the world, and it does not end with a nicely wrapped diploma. No, you get skills enabling you to perform some kind of a job.
Now, I do not advocate for the existing, but rather extreme view of the hands-on approach being all you need. But most certainly, do not pursue degrees for the sake of getting a degree, that would be just wasteful. Instead, think about

What do you want to do - not in terms of a company or a job title,
but rather of the job itself - and what skills do you need to perform
that job?
What skills do you have and how can you apply them to do
something interesting?

I would imagine you to need IT-related skills (programming, software architecture) to work for most of the companies you have listed, but they do not necessarily have to be tied to your formal education.

As for now, I have got into the MBBS program which is related to Medicine or the medical field. So, would it be okay to apply for Big Tech companies with my MBBS degree ? I mean, will these companies ever value this MBBS degree  ?

They won't value even a CS degree per se if you don't have skills to back it up. And they will be testing those skills. It is believed to help though. But again, you are focusing on the wrong thing - the hiring process is not about looking at the CV and opening the door for the most impressive candidate. It is about finding the best fit for the company or even the team within it. Will getting an MBBS degree make you a valuable asset? Explain how. (The same question can and will be asked about any degree).


text:
Review claims reference was omitted, but it was not
In a review to a manuscript I wrote one of the reviewers claimed in strong words that two important references were omitted. In fact, both references were cited in the text. I suspect the reviewer is among the authors of these references, since I recommended one of them as a reviewer during submission. The manuscript was rejected and I do not plan to resubmit, still I am contemplating if I should respond to this presumptive mistake by the reviewer. The reason is that the perceived omission likely affects the reviewers opinion of me as an author in a negative way. I think that there is a non-negligible chance that the same reviewer may also review future work. Should I accept this and move on or should I ask the editor to forward to the reviewer a statement that the references were not omitted?

Are you sure you properly cited the 2 items you mention? maybe you have read them wrong until today and your citation were not proper, such as you state "fact A [33]" while the reference [33] in  reality states "fact Ab000" and not "fact Ab005" as your text is presenting.
Read carefully what the reviewer wrote, if you cannot understand it without resorting to guessing who the reviewer is, in your reply to the editor (if you feel like).
What were the reasons given for rejection?

@EarlGrey The reviewer claimed that the reference were omitted as relevant prior work in the literature survey. In fact, they are cited exactly there. One reference is also cited for comparison in the results section.

then before second guessing the reviewer intentions, triple guess your understanding of the work.
And no, formulating a citation as "[33] previously investigated the topic" although common, it is not useful and it may be the reason why the reviewer didn't found the reference.
Disclaimer: I am playing Devil's advocate role, we know only one side (factual and emotional) of the story, so I am playing my role being biased toward the other side of the story we don't know.

The manuscript was rejected and I do not plan to resubmit

Then do not respond.

Should I accept this and move on

Yes.  Reviewers make mistakes.  That's normal.
Most people who think they know who the reviewer was are wrong.

The editor rejected your paper, not the reviewer. You can quickly write to the editor that the reviewer may have overlooked your work, as seen in the not capturing/fully reading the citations you gave.
However, it is unlikely that the absence of them was so relevant to the decision.
"the perceived omission likely affects the reviewers opinion of me as an author in a negative way": it is not the opinion about you, it is about your work. If you take things so personally you are bound to a lot of insatisfaction in your life (academic and not). This apply to how you perceive yourself, as well as you perceive the others: stop assuming or guessing a reviewer identity and the "hidden" motives behind the request to cite certain works.


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My research work is published before me
My project work which i was planning to publish somebody else published just 1 month before. what should i do? Is my total research work of 8 months going to be a waste?
I was working for a novel phytochemical and planned to publish my paper. When i submitted the journal manuscript in December, the editor replied in the month of January that some other Chinese group published paper for the same product in January. Is my whole research of 8 months going to be a wastage. What other options do i have? Please suggests.

Have you discussed it with your supervisor or senior colleague?

Actually we submitted the manuscript then the journal editor highlighted this issue in front of my guide

Perhaps the more important question is whether you can still get your degree without this publication. That may still be possible and the thesis can, perhaps, stand. In that sense it wouldn't really be wastage. Especially if you learned things about research.

This is a common problem that researchers face. The fear of being scooped partially explains the publish or perish culture in academia. This is definitely a setback for you, but there are a few options which you can consider to make at least some use of all those months of research:

You can try to build on the published paper. If required, conduct a few more experiments and move over to the next logical step in the idea.
Using your original idea as a base, try to come up with a related but new research question that allows you to use some of the old data.
Go through your paper again and see if there is any secondary finding that you might not have focused on at that point of time, but which could be developed into a new research idea.

Now that you have been scooped once, you should try to get your results out before anybody else does. Since the publication process of journals can take up a lot of time, one thing you can do to avoid getting scooped is post a pre-print or present at a conference as soon as you finish your research. Also, make sure that you do not take too long to write your manuscript. You should actually start writing certain sections, such as the methods and results section as and when you perform the experiments. That way, you will be able to save up on the writing time.
Most importantly, do not lose motivation. The fear of being scooped is part of a researcher's life and there is no foolproof system in place to avoid it. So just keep your spirits up and move on.

Hey Kakoli thank you so much actually even i also came up with the additional finding idea. Thanks i will start working on it and this time for sure no delay. Thanx duh

Hi, could you clarify what you mean by "scooped"? I interpret it as "somebody saw my materials or heard me discuss my idea in some details, then (usually to better funds and larger team) reached or confirmed my result before me". But what actually seems to have happened (the way I see it), is that an independent research group found the same chemical/process/something independently, not based on OPs research. Which is still very uncomfortable, but not as bad (with some good connotations - e.g. somebody actually confirmed the validity of your research).

When your research is scooped, it means that somebody else who was conducting the same research without your knowledge has published it before you. The person(or group) that publishes a research first has their name associated with it. So, technically, even if you have spent a lot of time and effort on your research,  if somebody else beats you to it, your work will no longer be regarded as unique or novel. Your study would then be seen as replicating the results of the other study.

Some journals (like PLOS One) specifically accept papers like this ("scooped research") as long as it has only been a short time since the first paper came out. It is certainly not a wasted effort, because two people independently getting the same results on an important problem only increases the confidence that the solution is correct. But you should carefully go through the other paper before you try to just publish your work - you will probably find some hole or assumption or other imperfection that you can base another paper around that came from your own work.

Yes! Replication is important!


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Will university marks/qualifications obtained during the pandemic largely through online assessment hold reduced value as we progress back to normal?
Do you think when we reach a point where students/graduates can be separated into pre-covid, during covid, post-covid, that the world - for the purposes of postgraduate admissions, employment - will view marks/qualifications from during the pandemic with increased skepticism? Speaking personally, I have to admit that the online situation boosted my results above what they were before/likely would have been, but at the same time I do think my actual understanding of the material was also enhanced.

Too early to tell, really. We are far from a post-Covid world.


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Is it a bad idea to talk about the city/country in phd application letters?
Obviously not the primary focus, but briefly mentioning things like atmosphere and standard of living as one of my motivations for applying to the program... Is this a waste of space? Does it come across superficial? Or maybe it shows realistic interest beyond the material that could be sent to any university in the world?

My advisor suggested mentioning a personal connection or reason because it shows genuine interest and helps you stand out, as most people don’t do it. Just one or two specific lines at the beginning are enough. For example, referencing a hike around, a local attraction, or something unique about the city/country is more impactful than a generic statement like ‘I love this place’.

It could be helpful in a small way, by signaling that you are more likely to enroll if admitted, and that you are not just copy-pasting the same statement to every program you apply to. So it's fine to include this, but I wouldn't devote more than a sentence or two to it.

Having served on PhD admissions committees a fair few times, I’d definitely agree with this answer.  This sort of point certainly shouldn’t be given much space or prominence, compared to more academically substantial issues, but a small mention near the end of a cover letter is never bad.

Since this is a professional application, I'd suggest that while any implication of economic or cultural freeloading will be inappropriate, an acknowledgment that the region produced notable workers in the field and an aspiration to meet their associates and students might be read with appreciation.

If the location and the university are both seen as desirable by most people, I'd recommend not mentioning it. People evaluating your CV will want to be confident that you are very interested in the research and not primarily motivated by the opportunity to move somewhere better. After all, if the location is your primary motivation, you might not find yourself very motivated to excel in your PhD once you arrive.
If the location or university will be seen by many as less desirable, then it might be worth mentioning why you like them, because that might help to alleviate any doubts that you will actually take up the offer. For example, if you have a CV that could easily get you into a much better-known university, they might wonder whether they are your safety school and might prefer to make an offer to a student who will be more likely to take it up. Or if the location is one that many people would dislike (e.g., too hot, too cold and wet, or too small and isolated) but you like those things about it, they may be reassured to know that you will do well there. Still, make sure it doesn't look like your main motivation.

"if the location is your primary motivation, you might not find yourself very motivated to excel" That may describe younger applicants perhaps? And even then - when I was young, I did better in nicer places. I can't explain why but so it was. If I was going for a yet another degree, I'd definitely be motivated by the environs to a good degree. A nice place makes thinking go much better for me, and makes me more upbeat and willing to work hard. I'm sure I'm not the only one? I'm an adult in the "middle" of a career for reference. I've moved just to be in a nicer place a few times :)

I would not bother with remarks about the location that are "generic" in the sense that almost everyone would praise Sydney's location and food or the cultural offerings in London.
What could make sense is statements about the location that are specific to you (and would potentially contribute to your success in the new location) -- family members or significant others living (or moving) there, having lived in the country in the past, significant cultural connections, such as fluency in the language (if it is not broadly spoken).

It depends on the location.
Someone I know well interviewed for a PhD position in an institute north of the Arctic Circle.  Snow on the ground from October to May, three weeks of mosquito-infested summer per year, more than 1000 km from the nearest major city where interesting cultural events happen, connected by maybe one flight per day (weather permitting), winter temperatures often between -20°C and -30°C, but sometimes -40°C, and six weeks during which the Sun doesn't rise at all.  The panellists had experience with candidates dropping out either before or after starting.  Some panellists more or less drilled her with the reasons why their place sucks, and would she still want it?  She successfully convinced them that she did, although did have some doubts when her first day at work had such a bad snowstorm that she got stuck and had to call for help to get to work at all (bad by her western European standards, not by local standards).
(One could equally describe the place as: an outdoor paradise, in particular for skiers; a huge wilderness where you can enjoy the midnight sun or the northern lights during a break from work; a wonderful community where people organise their own fun and therefore make friends more easily than in the city — I loved interrupting my PhD writing for a forest hike at 01:00 in the night — but not everyone views it that way — a Russian visitor once asked: "how much extra do you get to live here?", much to our amusement.)
In my experience, if you are applying in a location that not everyone might consider attractive, it is worth convincing the panel that you can tolerate or even thrive living there.  This is not necessary when applying in a big city.  I find that people in big cities are somewhat surprised if people say they would enjoy living there (of course they would love living in New York/London/Paris/Berlin/Toronto/Barcelona, why do they even need to say this, everybody does), whereas people in smaller or remote towns are more humble in that sense.  Personally I find that unfair, because I would take the remote northern town over an alpha world city any day, but I find it is what people expect.

Works the other way too: "I know your campus paradise by the beach with year-round summer weather has an ultra high cost of living such that even faculty can't afford housing, so I'm content living in a 8-person home and have money saved up so that 85% of my stipend can go to rent."

@user71659 Maybe.  I don't have experience with it myself.  Do such campuses have problems with people dropping out when they realise they were too optimistic about making ends meet with extremely high cost of living?

winter temperatures often between -20°C and -30°C, but sometimes -40°C, and six weeks during which the Sun doesn't rise at all My kind of a place :) I can hide in the mosquito season and go out when it's cold :) It actually sounds amazing, I'm not exaggerating. For sure it'd not be everyone's favorite, though. But then there are people happy as clams living in say Florida, where I'd have been just about miserable. Different strokes for different folks. Are snowball fights allowed? :)

@Kubahasn'tforgottenMonica I loved it, but climate and remoteness are a show-stopper for quite some people (my professor was happy there, but among the reasons he moved south is because recruiting is easier in a more central place), and as I said, a Russian visitor assumed people would get extra to live there (they do in Russia).  Snowball fights don't work at -30°C, the snow is too dry and the snow too powdry.  But you can make clouds by throwing hot water into the air.

@gerrit Sometimes; it contributes to people leaving with a master's. It also has caused grad students to get a secret side job, which severely drags out their time, but that also happens in itself, at least until the savings run low.

This can be very subtle, but I would suggest not dwelling too much on it or spending too many words when other ideas are more important.
Most people want to go to graduate school for, in part, reasons related to standard of living, though academia is unlikely to make you rich monetarily. The rewards are elsewhere. Likewise, many choose schools based on location.
But a few words about background in poverty might not be inappropriate as long as you put the focus on more vital things related to the application. The opposite, saying you are interested in the culture or economic situation of another country or place is even less useful unless that is related to the field of study.
For example, in a Statement of Purpose, focus on what your goals are for graduate school, especially research, and beyond. In letters of recommendation that you write for another person, focus on their skills and the (hopefully) high likelihood of success in meeting requirements and their goals. A few words about "overcoming" unfortunate backgrounds might be ok, but if that is the main focus it won't work. People don't get admitted because other people feel sorry for them.
Nor are they likely to admit a person in, say, mathematics, because they express a desire to explore French culture and language.

Note that this answer may be a bit broader than the specific concerns of the OP, though I hope it helps future readers as well.


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What are some good data driven astronomy research project ideas for a high schooler?
Does anyone here have sone good astronomy research project ideas for someone with a a background in AI and programming? The projects don't really have to be anything groundbreaking. They could just be confirming something that has already happened or something else that is simple. The only condition is that it should be very data intensive.

Unfortunately your question is off-topic as we don't discuss specific research projects here. But some ideas could be writing a program that detects bright sources against a dark background (i.e. stars in an image from a telescope), or template fitting for supernova light curve or gravitational wave data.

While I cannot answer your question in substance, I may offer you a glimpse on how you can find a response by yourself. The approach would be to search for 'review' papers discussing your topic of interest.
I thus did a search in Web of Science using the query TOPIC: (astronomy) AND TOPIC: (artificial intelligence) AND DOCUMENT TYPES: (Review).
It led me, inter alia, to the paper "Surveying the reach and maturity of machine learning and artificial intelligence in astronomy" (2020).
If you access the paper*, you will find some areas of astronomy on p. 10 that are supposedly "emerging" in the sense that the application of AI has only been nascent so far. This might offer a wealth of ideas to you.
Good luck!

* Please do not spend money to buy that paper if you do not have access. There are many cost-free ways to obtain it. For example, just ask a nearby university library, or ask the authors directly to send you a copy.


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How to decide between two differential geometry journals
Suppose I have a result in the field of differential geometry (and geometric analysis) and I’m considering two different well-known journals by the same editor: Journal of Differential Geometry and Cambridge Journal of Mathematics.
I know how respectful is JDG journal and articles therein, and I was wondering how can I decide between them, based on their objective differences. Thank you!
(Hope not to end up with a shopping question, since I followed the piece of advice suggesting that I ask how to distinguish between two journals. Otherwise, please suggest how can I change it to save it).

Strongly related, possibly duplicate: How to decide between sending paper to a specialized journal or to a journal with broader audience? Journal of Differential Geometry is specialized, Cambridge Journal of Mathematics has broader audience.

It's a shopping question because you're asking for a judgment between journals. As @Nobody points out there are already q&a here about making this sort of decision more generally.


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Change Ph.D. program
Suppose it is October 1st, I am a first-year math Ph.D. student at University X (medium rank university), and suppose I managed to get good reference letters in the summer/fall thanks to ongoing collaboration on an article that attracted the interest of well-known professors of top rank universities (with whom I am in contact and that I did not know one year ago at the time I was applying for my Ph.D. program). Is it possible to apply again to more prestigious universities even if I have already started the program? I would of course terminate the Ph.D. I am already in: would this cause any bureaucratic trouble in the University I am already in?

Please see:  https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/186035/how-can-i-go-back-to-a-phd-program-i-left-for-another     It would seem that most of the answers there seem to discourage switching programs.  Your situation may be different, but I think some consistency is valued.

I can't say if this is universally true, but in the US and, I'd guess, many other places you can do as you like. Of course you need to be accepted by another program and the standard may be higher at a new place, but you can apply.
Most places you will need to honestly divulge that you are already in a program, but the opportunity to work with some specific professor elsewhere can be a valid reason for changing. Increasing your opportunities is a valid path.
You might explore the likelihood of acceptance before you apply, given that you have contacts to do so.
It isn't even necessary to inform the current place that you want to move until your leaving would interfere with ongoing work and affect others. One year into a program isn't very far, actually. And, in math, disruption of others isn't very likely.

I agree with this... but/and, if by chance your work and recent success are due to collaboration and advice with a faculty member at your current place, it is a more delicate issue. E.g., (1) perhaps you under-estimate their contribution to your success, and (2) they may be hurt if you "ditch them"... Or, they may be happy that they've launched you into a higher orbit. :)


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Where to look for lectureships in mathematics in the UK?
I am currently halfway into a 3-year postdoc position in mathematics in the US, and I have a good publication record (two papers in top general mathematics journals, one alone, one with a senior coauthor; another preprint, at least as good as these publications, with a different senior coauthor; several other publications in good-but-not-top journals).
I would like to pursue an academic career in the UK. I am only looking for jobs roughly equivalent to the tenure-track level (e.g., departmental lectureships, but I'm open to other options if they exist). In other words, I would like to get on the lecturer-senior lecturer-reader-professor track (or equivalent). I would like to try both Cambridge/Oxford and other universities in the UK.
I have been looking for lectureship job ads, but have found very few of them. I feel like I'm missing something. I've been looking in jobs.ac.uk and in departmental websites.

When? Are mathematics lectureships in the UK generally advertised year-round or mostly in certain months?
Where? Where are they advertised?
How many jobs? Do departments usually take at least one new lecturer per year?
Cold emailing? In departments where no job is advertised, is it worthwhile to contact professors in my subfield and heads of departments to express my interest in a lectureship?
External fellowships? Is it common to get on the lecturer-senior lecturer-reader-professor ladder by starting with an external fellowship? What, if any, are the relevant fellowships?
Oxbridge different?: Are the answers to the questions above different between Oxford/Cambridge and the other UK universities?

I understand that the recent COVID-19 situation added uncertainty to the process. I am interested to know how things were before the pandemic, and if you have concrete information - how they are now.

Please only ask one question per post. Question 2 is a shopping question, and off topic here. In answer to 3: no way. Maybe one every few years, depending on research output and department funding. Some universities are actually closing down their maths departments as we speak (e.g. Leicester). It's not a good time to be a mathematician in the UK. In answer to 6: no. Some of "the other UK universities" actually have better reputations for mathematics than Oxford and Cambridge... shocking, I know.

I do hope @astronat that you'll enlighten us about these UK universities with  better reputations than Ox and Cam: one may not believe the league tables but they are still up there at the top.

Just to turn what Daniel Hatton said into an answer. Note that the following answers apply to UK academia generally, but I've no reason to believe they differ for mathematics:

Jobs are advertised at whatever point the department manages to secure approval to hire from their school/faculty.

Everything will be on jobs.ac.uk. Some things might also be advertised in the Times Higher Education, NatureJobs and on the departmental website. But everything will also be on jobs.ac.uk

Very much depends on whether the department is expanding or contracting, what student numbers have looked like in recent years etc, but in general, I'd assume department hire one person for every person that leaves. Actually at the moment many departments arn't even doing that - we've hired one person in four years, but had 8 people leave.

If you do this, the answer will be to look for fellowships (see below)

Yes, one common way into the Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Professor path is via an externally funded fellowship. These do vary field to field. You should at look at the EPSRC, the Royal society, UKRI future leaders fellowships. There are likely also things specifically for the maths field I don't know about.

All of this is more or less the same at OxBridge, although there you might find that the colleges may also fund research fellowships themselves occasionally. Again, these will be advertised.


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Professor proposes a question she would be extremely happy to get solved and I solved do I have to write a paper solo or with her?
My professor once came to my office and she proposed to me a well-posed research question: it was a theorem to prove that she was extremely happy to see and that would be a nice research question. After some months I went to her office claiming I solved it. She read it and highlighted some points that were not clear to her. I made the proof clean and neat, even generalizing it more than what she wanted. At the very end, she said: "well, I see you solve it. Nice!" and all ended up like this.
My question is: I basically did everything on that problem and my advisor "just" (even if I am grateful for this) made me aware of the research topic and basically read the first draft pointing out some things to explain a bit more. Now she seems not to be interested in publishing the paper, while it is for sure worth of publication since this is what she told me at the beginning. Hence, I am willing to do the job on my own. The question is: should I write it as a solo author, just with some thanks in the intro page or is it more polite to put her as co-author (even if, honestly, she did no more than what I told above)?

if she's your supervisor why don't you ask her?

Because I interpreted her silence like "your paper is actually easier than I thought", probably not worth of publication. And I honestly think this is not the case. Just this.

@Porcupine There are lots of possible explanations for her reaction. If she's your advisor, part of her job is to advise you about publication, so just ask her.

As I say below: it should not be just a thanks but a proper credit in the intro: "We [author's we] here prove the following problem/theorem conjectured by XYZ [your supervisor]."

I went through the answers. They are more than sensible. But in my opinion you should discuss with the supervisor. Perhaps there is nothing publication worth and you might get convinced of that. Once this point gets clear you might ask yourself, her, or here about authorship. I would expect a supervisor to have commented "write it down and publish" or "let's publish it", as it is in your description, her enthusiasm about the proof seem to have scaled down.

She is used to publishing in top journals and she's pretty lazy about publishing stuff. She prefers to avoid everything that is not necessary or important and is absolutely not the one that comes to the student and says "come on, let us publish it". This is why I interpreted her behavior like "well, ok, you did all the job, it's all up to you now" and, at the same time "it's not such a difficult proof (a posteriori, because a priori it was a tough problem), hence it will not probably be accepted in a top journal, hence not worth of deserving my time". In this situation, how should I proceed?

You owe her an acknowledgement in the paper, but nothing more. If she wasn't involved in the solution or otherwise in the paper, then she is really not a co-author and most would agree.
In some fields, advisors are regularly given authorship when they really shouldn't be, but that is more due to things like funding a lab and providing general support that makes research possible. But nothing you describe suggests that she is an author. Editing a bit and cleaning up the presentation isn't authorship.
But put a thank you in the paper for suggesting the problem.

This is exaclty what I was thinking about. Thanks for the nice feedback!

Not enough. The prof may not deserve authorship for the proof, but they deserve credit (not just thanks) for proposing the problem. Identifying conjectures/problems are, if interesting, worth academic credit. Formulation should be something along: "The following problem was posed by ....". An acknowledgement is too weak here.

@Captain Emacs: Also, putting the credit in the paper's context/motivation discussion of the problem makes more logical organizational sense. Indeed, some papers even have titles like "On a problem of XXX" (an extreme example), although this is not a good idea unless the title includes additional wording that gives some idea what the problem is (not good -- this title).

Makes sense! Thank you both!


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Decision between time or high-rank try
Suppose you have a well-written paper that, in your supervisor's opinion,deserves a bit more of a Tier 2 journal, but it is difficult to get published in a Tier 1 journal. Would you suggest, in general, trying the higher rank journal first, getting a rejection (likely), but also possible improvements and eventually try a second-tier, or would you aim to the second straightforward to save time?

Work on it more till it becomes suitable for the better journal. You'll likely regret short selling good work in the long run.

Circumstances can differ, but generally, unless you're in a sort of time trouble to get it published, it's never wrong to try a higher-impact journal first. In the worst case, you paper will be rejected by editor (and not sent for peer-review), which means that you won't lose too much time and will be able to submit it elsewhere.
Of course, it does not mean that you should send every paper of yours to Nature. In case of doubt, ask your supervisor if it has chances to be published in your journal of choice.

I think you (or the hypothetical person here) are gaming the system to your own disadvantage. I'm reading the first sentence as "...more than a Tier 2 journal...".
You don't know you will be rejected. The suggestions of the reviewers might, when incorporated, result in acceptance.
And there is no guarantee about the time to publication for any journal. It is highly unpredictable for most journals, depending on the work load of reviewers, etc.
Moreover the break between "tiers" is pretty fuzzy.
Send it to the "most appropriate" journal for the work itself.


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Got rejected after giving Postdoc interviews for the umpteenth time. Am I doing something wrong or am I just unqualified for jobs?
I am fed up with getting rejections after rejection. I have applied to over 30 Postdoc positions and got just three interview invitations. I thought I did well in the interview consisting of 15-20 minutes presentation. However, for each of these, I never got the second interview call.
I don't know what I am doing wrong. These openings were quite a bit different than what I have done in my PhD and am doing now. But, I thought it natural to do work in slightly different topic than PhD work, so shouldn't the employers be more interested in my ability to do the job rather than whether I have done similar work before.
I don't know if I can get anything. For the past year I have been working with my PhD advisor as a postdoc due to issues in leaving the current place of residence considering covid and associated visa issues. But now as things are getting better, I want to move out to other places.
I am just not getting any positive response. I might just not be capable or might be too mediocre to get anything. I just want to roll up and cry. I have lost all motivation to study, work and write the pending papers.
Is there any way to know if I am doing something wrong or am I just unqualified for jobs?
I have applied is 20 industrial jobs as well, I got rejected from the only interview call I received.
I am just fed up.

You could try asking the three places you interview for feedback, if you haven't already. You probably won't get anything useful - everyone's afraid of saying the wrong thing and being sued - but you might get lucky and get something specific.

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. —Michael Jordan

You say: " shouldn't the employers be more interested in my ability to do the job rather than whether I have done similar work before", so let me ask the obvious: what are you doing to convince them that you can do the job, if you have not done it before?

@jasmine unfortunately Michael Jordan does not apply here.  You don't have the luxury of playing the long game.

Did you apply for your own fundings? The PhD to PostDoc is the second step of the academic pyramid,  someone has to succumb to it, most often on no other basis than "statistically unlucky" ... only few PhDs will get a PostDoc position, likely the ratio PD/PhD is even smaller than PhD/MSc ...

I feel the number 50 "positions applied" isn't that big a number. With so much competition around, I feel you should try to apply to a lot more opportunities.

Do you offer what they need? How do you demonstrate this?

Oh man I had the same exact situation! 3 postdoc interviews, but I didn't get any offers. So I know how frustrating it is, especially not knowing "what I am doing wrong." You probably aren't doing anything wrong, though. I mean, your interviewers decided based on your application, recommendation letters, etc., that you were a top candidate! I think with the job market, you might have to go through more than one round of postdoc applications, depending on the field. A similar thing holds for tenure-track jobs. Some people don't get offers the first time they apply, but get it next year.

@CaptainEmacs I don't know how OP is supposed to answer this question. Usually the only feedback you get from the potential supervisor is "I was very impressed. But you weren't picked. Sorry. Good luck." Keep in mind that OP made it to the interview stage, so there was probably nothing off with their application.

@Mehta  I agree, many times it's not answerable, but sometimes it is.

Though your field/location may be different and norms vary, I'd say it would not be too unusual for interviews to be done for only the top 2-3 candidates. So if you've been the top 2-3 candidates 3 times, that's still a fairly good sign, while also not particularly unusual that you didn't an offer: most candidates have to be rejected for any given job opening.

@BryanKrause But let's say that you were one of the top 3 candidates for 3 interviews, and you had an equally likely chance. The chances of being rejected from one is 2/3, so the probability of being rejected from all 3 is 8/27, which is about 30%. So OP would have a 70% chance of getting an offer, which could be better but are still decent odds.

@Mehta Things that happen 30% of the time happen quite a lot.

Times are hard in academia. There is little you can do but keep trying, but also evaluate your application materials from top to bottom to see if there is anything there that might be misunderstood. Talk to your letter writers, for example.
I finished my degree in very bad times (mathematics). I sent several hundred applications and got two offers for temporary positions, not even postdocs. I explored actuarial work, but hated the idea. The temp position I took ended in two years, during which I sent several hundred more applications and got one offer - from an essentially invisible place. I started a good teaching career there and after several years moved, with some more painful points, to a better position.
It wasn't the career I envisioned as a student, but it turned out to be rewarding. But there were few options at the time. Some of my contemporaries at graduation were pumping gas (yes, it was that long ago).
All you can really do is keep trying and make the best compromises for yourself. You can still think. You can have an active intellectual life. You can make enough money - somehow - probably. But the times are what they are. Wishing for better isn't going to change that. Keep your mind alive.

It's hard to predict the future. A friend of mine, years ago, was starting PhD work in Mathematics. The future looked bright, the American Mathematical Society was falling over itself with optimistic predictions for the job market in the four years, the huge shortage of mathematicians, etc. This was sometime round 1988. A few years later the Cold War ended, the academic and nonacademic job markets tanked, and there was a flood of excellent ex-USSR talent into the remaining tenure track positions. All you can do is take your best shot and go with it. Set your goals but don't be deluded by them.

+1 for the two last sentences alone!

"Some of my contemporaries at graduation were pumping gas" Or they lived in Oregon or NJ


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Building corpus from PubMed Central
I am trying to develop a retrieval system for which a corpus is required. Since PubMed hosts many free articles, I decided to use it. However, now I found out that PubMed central has licensing restrictions.
Since my intention is to release the corpus formally along with my software (which obviously is not related to biology and I am not using the publications scientifically), I believe that any license will do. However, I don't want to take any chances. Can anyone tell me which license to use in PubMed?

Is the idea to redistribute papers downloaded from pubmed?

Thanks for your reply....I would like to redistribute as it is