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Abbreviation of a journal name
How do I find abbreviation of the journal name Engineering?

Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1325/abbreviations-in-journal-papers and http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10714/official-abbreviations-for-cs-conferences

Scientific Research Publishing is on the Beall's List of potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers.

How to find journal title abbreviations? (in general)
There are various sources of abbreviated journal titles, and though most of the time they agree, there are definitely cases where they do not. So:

Check the citation style of the journal you're writing for (if any). They may specify an authority on abbreviations, or specify that journal names are not to be abbreviated.
For example, the American Chemical Society style guide says to “abbreviate the name according to the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI)”. Chicago style forbids abbreviations.

Then, see if the journal you're looking for is included in the authoritative list.

If it's not covered, then then the best source for information is the cited journal itself! How do they abbreviate their own name, e.g. on article page headers/footers, or in citation to articles from their own journal?

An alternative is to look into one of the very large citation indexes, such as Web of Science; they maintain a list of journal abbreviations for the journals they index.

What about Engineering?
Well, that's not an easy case. First, it's a very low-profile journal: despite its claims that it is “indexed by several world class databases”, I don't think it is. Let's take ISI Web of Knowledge, which they cite as their first example. It indeed has a journal named Engineering – London in its index, but a quick search reveals it is another journal entirely, published between 1969 and 1994. Moreover, the citations given as justification in a screenshot by the publisher of the modern-time Engineering cannot be found on the journal.
So, the journal is not present in the ISI index, and does not given information about how to abbreviate its name (it does not use journal abbreviations in its succinct style guide). In other engineering journals, the word Engineering is usually abbreviated as Eng. So, either go with that, or use the full name and let the copyeditor worry about it.

I got stuck at "Engineering - London." Glad that you solved my mystery.

@Penguin_Knight I serve to please :)  Also, the claims on the  journal's website piqued my curiosity

In addition to the answer by @F'x, there is one more resource: the List of Title Word Abbreviations (LTWA), which, according to Wikipedia, is "the complete list of ISO 4 standard abbreviations"; ISO 4, in turn, "is an international standard which defines a uniform system for the abbreviation of serial titles" (Wikipedia again).
The LTWA (not to be confounded with the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, by the way) is accessible here. It's a little tricky to use since entering "Engineering" in the search box only yields a match for "neuroEngineering": LTWA stores entries in their most general form. (You'll see what that means.)

Successively remove letters from the end of the search word to find what you are looking for:

How to read this? Any English word beginning with "Engineer" (including Engineering) is abbreviated as "Eng." So, the "Journal of Engineering" becomes "J Eng" or "J. Eng." (because "Articles, conjunctions and prepositions shall be omitted from title abbreviations" [with some exceptions]; ISO-4, section 4.3).
There is one more caveat, however: "Titles consisting of a single word, exclusive of an article or preposition, shall not be abbreviated." (ISO-4, section 4.2). So, "Engineering" remains "Engineering" - there is no abbreviation.
The third edition of ISO-4 is currently available here (or here), but I doubt it will stay there forever.

Indeed, it's gone, but see here.


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Which month to cite?
Which month to cite, the month of acceptance or the month on which the paper was published online?
I am using bibtex and a custom bibliographic style where specifying month is not required. However, to update my bibliographic database and to know specifically what is the norm, this question has been asked.

In certain citation styles, you indeed need to add the month (respectively day and month) when you cite monthly (respectively weekly) periodicals. In which case, definitely use the month of publication: online publication if it's an online-only periodical, print publication otherwise (either print-only or print-and-online).
But such styles are a rather rare occurrence. It may be that using the month is not correct at all for what you intend. Could you give more details?

+1 for "online publication if it's an online-only periodical, print publication otherwise"

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Journals similar to Journal of Chemical Education in style
What are the journals similar to Journal of Chemical Education which are helpful from middle school through graduate school? I mean the journals which publish articles which are good resources for learning the basics (complementary to books).
[Note: The journals need not be necessarily in the field of Chemistry]

this is an open-ended list question, so I'm voting to close

@EnergyNumbers we have some great resources question that follow this format. And I don't think the list is going to cover more than a few resources, so it seem acceptable to me

While I am a regular reader of J. Chem. Ed., I wouldn't really say it's a good journal to read for learning the basics. It is more a journal of educators in the field of chemistry, and while I think some articles may be useful to chemistry students (including lab experiments and activities), overall its goal is to be a forum to discuss how we teach chemistry, rather than a place to learn chemistry.
For other journals about chemical education, you can find a very short list on Wikipedia. Also, as stated there, most such journals (especially for junior or high school chemical education) are localized, i.e. limited to a specific country (because of differences in curricula). Among the international ones, I would recommend Education in Chemistry, which is more readable than its sister journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice

Would you like to suggest some journals please ? :)

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Work Resume vs Graduate School Resume
I've been working in corporate IT for the last two years and would like to apply to graduate school for a MA in East Asian Studies.
I was told I should keep my work resume to one page, so I have done that. It wasn't that hard to do because jobs aren't as concerned with your volunteer experience as a masters program would be.
The MA program is asking that I attach my resume. I'd like to add back in my volunteer + other experiences a graduate school would be interested in... but that would put it over one page.
Is that okay? Is there any difference (apart from content) in the structure/general guidelines of submitting a resume in the work world vs the grad school world?

Look at the CV of an academic you admire. I bet it runs over 10 pages. Academics love lists.

I am not a fan of the "1 page resume." If you have had a number of relevant educational experiences and work experiences (and relevant volunteer experiences), and it goes over two pages and is in an aesthetically pleasing form (e.g., 10-12-pt font, 1-in margins, etc.), don't worry about it.  I've seen some absolutely horrible resumes where the applicant has tried to cram everything onto a single page, and it is a detriment to that person's application. I haven't had a 1-page resume since just after undergraduate school.
Graduate schools are normally looking for a proper Curriculum Vitae (CV), which would include education, work experience (primarily academic), publications, awards, and possibly references. Now, this isn't to say that you must reformat your resume into a CV, especially if you don't have research/publications/awards/etc., but you do want this document to highlight your experiences to some degree.
Finally, your resume/CV is not as important as some of the other documents you will provide with your package: letters of recommendation, transcripts, and your research/personal statement. Your resume/CV should list the pertinent information from your past, but it will be amplified in your other documents.

So If my main job is IT, but my Masters will be East Asian studies, I should move my IT work experience below anything I've done related to East Asia?

It depends, but that's probably a good idea. You do want to highlight the EA work and experiences, and if you can break your resume into sections that do separate the work from the EA experiences, then do so. If it doesn't make sense, then keep it in chronological order (e.g., if you had an EA related job, you would still put that in the work experience category in chronological order).

What about the summary / profile? Should that be included in the resume for graduate school application?

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Can I get into a top 50 school with a bachelors degree from an unknown state college?
I went to a relatively unknown state college for my Bachelor's degree.  I've been working in the field for about 5 years now, but I'm interested in going back for a PhD.
Would it be nearly impossible to get into say, MIT or Carnegie Mellon given where my Bachelor's degree is from?
Also, how much does work experience account for in the selection process? For example work related patents or product development work.
Edit
Some of this question is duplicated see How handicapped am I in graduate admissions if I graduated from a lower tier university?
I would like to focus more on how relevant work experience can aid in the selection process.

The answers to these questions are very dependent on the field of study. My perspective is mostly from economics and some statistics, so things might be different in other fields.
From an unknown school, it will be very difficult, but not impossible, to get into a really top program. Top programs tend to be risk-adverse, and you're facing pretty stiff competition in the applicant pool.
The biggest issue is that they are going to have a difficult time evaluating the difficulty of your coursework. Assuming you get that far, you're often going to be compared to a second-tier candidate from a top university. They know exactly how to evaluate the latter's grades and can even compare him/her to past students from that school. You will be much more of an unknown, which is not a good thing.
To make up for this, you're going to need exemplary letters. But that's the second issue, your access to great recommenders is more limited than someone at a top program. Letters of recommendation are often put in context by comparing them to previous letters from the same person, and here you might run into the same issue as evaluating your grades. Personal and professional relationships can also come into play, and your recommenders are less likely to be well-known in the field. Letters from people who aren't active researchers are much less valuable as well, and depending on the college you might not even have good access to active researchers.
At minimum, you'll need near-perfect grades in the most difficult courses offered. This probably means being one of the "superstar" students at your school, easily the best in your class. You'll also need fantastic letters from the top researchers that you have access to, and, for econ at least, significant research experience.
For your second question, general work experience is worth almost nothing in economics. All that matters is research experience. If the work you're doing isn't contributing to something that will eventually be published in a peer-reviewed journal, then it's extremely unlikely that it will be helpful.

I should also mention an option that is often available in economics, though I don't know if other fields have analogues. And that is to take a job as a research assistant for a professor or research group. These are often 2-3 year jobs that offer a chance to do real research with just a BA. Ideally, you could apply to graduate schools in two years with a coauthored paper on the way and a fantastic letter of rec from an active researcher.
Classic examples in econ are working for the Federal Reserve or for a professor's research group (example).

very good points.  So getting published seems to be the most promising avenue.  My field of interest is computer vision and automation, but your response seems general enough to fit even though your background is in economics.

@FelixCastor +1 for significant research experience (publication). Of course this can be difficult to achieve. This is really the only way for the committee to evaluate you relative to others, since other factors will not be comparable.

@FelixCastor I don't think getting published on your own is a feasible option. You'll have a better chance at second- or third-tier schools. If you really want to go to a top program, another option is to work for a research group for a couple years. Ideally, you could spend two years doing some real research, maybe coauthor a paper, and get a fantastic rec from a known researcher. These kinds of jobs are common in econ, though I don't know if other fields have analogues.

I don't think it is feasible either.  I'm a part time master's degree student (paid by my employer) right now.  I wasn't going to go for a thesis option but I might consider that moving forward.

@FelixCastor Yes! Take the thesis option if you really want to get a PhD. Also, while MIT might be a stretch, there are 50 schools that meet the "top 50" criterion. The competition at the 1-10 range much more intense than the 40-50 range. Especially if your "unknown" university happens to be known by one of them. You'll never know this until you start interacting with the faculty.

1, with just one remark: I think if "work- related" means 'patents' (as is implied here), this can help if you make it past the first round of selection - assume it's chemistry or CS or similar. If it is economics (as answer focuses on), then an alternative would be to go for an MBA at a good school where work experience certainly matters, then strive to be near top of class and express interest to stay on for a Ph.D. I've seen that happen - in fact, the former dean of my b school had 3 degrees from the school himself with I believe the MBA first (although I might be wrong about the order).

@gnometorule MBAs very rarely lead to PhDs. Many PhD programs at business schools give you the option of obtaining an MBA on the way, but it is extremely rare for someone in the MBA program to go on to get a PhD. Rare enough that I would never suggest it as a realistic option.

You are probably right. I know the case of the Dean (I checked; the PhD was actually even his 3rd degree at that b school), and one other case; but it is by no means common.

authors: Евгений Васильев


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Mass (spam) emails seeking short term internship, solutions
This question asking if the subject of current question is spam or not serves as the motivation for further, seeking solutions. As can be seen from the answers and comments, the emails from undergraduate students seeking a short term internship in en masse can be identified as a legitimate problem faced by many in Academia. Most of the emails have a common design or made out of same template and an equivocal tone. Even the researchers who doesn't even started a group were targeted asking them to consider the application to join the group(which doesn't exist) and claiming that the applicant had read the publication(doesn't exist either) on so and so topic. The epicenter of these mass outbreak is a particular country according to the OP and the answered. Some pointed out that most of it are indeed from legitimate students but overly opportunistic and some pointed out the reason why. If this is indeed a growing trend and a real issue,

How can the target weed out the emails considering that some applications are indeed real?
Taking into account that this may harm the chances of talented students and may form a negative general opinion(?), what measures can be taken to make the students aware that sending out emails in mass is not a professional way to attain a position?

You could place, in a prominent position on your academic webpage or in an advertisement for an open position, a notice that applicants' emails must have a specific subject line (i.e. bananas!). Most people who are sufficiently interested in your work should notice such a requirement.

@Moriarty The applicants doesn't seem to notice the target even have a group or not. I guess it doesn't stop them from spamming, but your suggestion is a good filter.

What I do is to provide on my web page a very explicit set of directions for how to contact me about possibly doing any kind of work with my group. I have separate sections for undergrads, grads, and postdocs. For undergrads, I explain a bit about what we do in my group, describe what undergrad research in the group is like, ask them to answer a few questions about what draws them to our work in particular, what they hope to gain by working with us, about their skills and background, and about their general interest and experience reading primary literature. I also ask for a transcript. You could ask anything, though.
With something like this in place, you can either ignore with good conscience any emails that fail to address these questions, or you can send a brief form-letter response asking that the applicant address these questions in order to be considered for a position.

In many email clients, you can set up rules for where the incoming messages would appear. You can set up a rule that will send a message with a particular set of phrases directly to the thrash/spam, which would at least filter out all the template based messages. You might be able to also set up an automatic response to such messages.

The emails doesn't follow a particular pattern(the OP linked the motivation as this), indeed they are real in the usual sense. The problem may be that there are a huge number of students suddenly found a key and they are trying to unlock a large number of locks at a time. The spam filters obviously kill the chances of genuine applicants.

OP stated that they often do. If they don't, you can still make rules based on what what @Corvus said. Or even ask for something specific on your website, like an title of the message in some specified format and everything else will go to thrash. It will kill the chance of genuine applicant only  if they are spamming and/or can't follow simple instructions.


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Does a master's research project (not a thesis) count as a "publication" for PhD applications?
My master's in mathematical finance doesn't have a "thesis" exactly, but it has a research project where we helped a bank develop a model to help with credit risk by identifying which variables were more important in credit risk management (based on the particular data set we had which was the financial information, such as net income or return on assets, of the clients of the bank). This wasn't some report at the end of an internship, so our research project is somewhere in the middle of an internship and a thesis, I think.
My coauthors and I printed out a document that had an abstract, review of related literature, scope, methodology, etc which was then put in hard bounds and is now sitting on the shelves in the math department of my university.
We gave the first/a mock presentation to the risk management department and then the second/a real presentation to our "thesis" advisers.
The document is about the application of some articles, journals, papers, etc that led to us developing a model.
In a PhD application form, I'm asked for any publishing. Does the "thesis" count as a "publication" ? If so, is the "publisher" the university?
The options for type of publication are:
"Books/Book Chapter, Conference Paper, Journal Publications, Others"
The options for status of publication are:
"Published, Not yet - accepted in press, Not yet - Under review, Not yet - writing in progress"

Is it really public? Is it available online?  If not, could any person off the street come and read it?  Would your university send someone a copy upon request (and payment of copying fees)?  And is it written with the scientific community as an audience, or would it only be useful to the client?

You might be able to list it as a technical report, if it seems to fit that definition.  Note that however you list it, it is going to carry much less weight than a peer-reviewed paper.

Thanks @NateEldredge. Nice to see your username again. Your comments are always appreciated. I believe it would be useful to the scientific community as an audience. I don't believe this is a report, although we did report. I edited the question. I apologize for any confusion and highly appreciate your feedback.

Requirements vary between countries and universities, without further details this question would not be answerable.

@JackBauer: Be aware that a technical report is not necessarily comparable to a student internship/project report. The latter are reports in that they actually report on what happened during the internship/project, often including secondary factors such as describing team dynamics, the concrete internship arrangements, "background info" on how much time was spent on acquiring which skills, etc. A technical report, on the other hand, can be virtually indistinguishable from a paper except for not having been published in a peer-reviewed venue.

@O.R.Mapper Sorry I forgot to delete my comment after I stupidly commented before reading the wikipedia page. Thank you! :)

@NateEldredge Never mind. Thank you! :) How about posting as an answer?

If it's printed in your institution's library it is fair to say that it was published by your university. You may want to explicitly list it as a technical report in your bibliography to clarify the type of publication that it is (your audience will want to know if your publications are peer reviewed or not).
Under the list you have here it would be an "Other" that is "Published".

If I read that application form, I would not consider what you have as a publication. I do not consider my doctoral thesis to be a publication. The publications are the papers that make up the thesis, intended for peer-reviewed journals. (In other fields 'journal' might not be the appropriate format necessarily, but the principle holds.)
You work should, however, appear somewhere on you application form, just not in this particular box.


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How to clarify that supervisor writing a reference is not related to me even though we have the same last name?
By chance, I have the same last name as one of the supervisors of a project I worked on. If I ask him to write me a recommendation letter, will the admission committee misconstrue that we are related and how do I provide proof that we are not? By the way, I am Chinese, so there is perhaps more overlap in last names.

One of my letters of recommendation came form a professor who's name differed only from mine, by the switch of a 't' for a 'l' in the last name.

Are you sure that you and your supervisor have no relation? Maybe there is a relation you are not aware of, but a DNA test could uncover it.

On the other hand, you could surreptitiously take cheek swabs from your supervisor (while he or she is distracted) have the DNA analysed, at your expense, and include the test results in your resume proving without a shadow of a doubt that you are unrelated to each other (I'm joking!)

There is a very easy solution. Your supervisor can simply write something like

To whom it may concern,
It is a pleasure to write in recommendation of John Smith (no relation). John is...etc., etc.
Sincerely,
  Professor Tom Smith

Exactly. I'd just add, in reference to your comment "how do I provide proof that we are not", that proof in such a case is not necessary. In general, if you say "no relation", people will believe you. If they think the person giving the recommendation is lying about not being related, a fact that could be proven by showing appropriate records, why would they believe him when he sys this person is a hard worker or very intelligent or other highly subjective things?

By the way, I am Chinese, so there is perhaps more overlap in last names.

Perhaps?  Come on.  Any worldly person who is paying attention knows that the ratio of people to surnames is orders of magnitude higher in China than in most Western countries.  There are more than 1.3 billion Chinese (i.e., citizens of the PRC) and only slightly over 4,000 Chinese surnames, 100 of which account for about 85% of China's population.  A 2007 survey reports approximately 92,881,000 Chinese with the surname Wang: more than 7 percent of the population.  (Only about 1% of Americans have the surname Smith, and it drops off much more rapidly from there.)
I completely agree with @Corvus's answer: with a two word parenthetical expression any writer can allay all concerns in this regard, and it is probably a good idea to do so.  (When I describe work of other mathematicians named "Clark" -- and, because I am ever tolerant of the imperfections of others, "Clarke" -- I generally do say "no relation".)  But I wouldn't worry too much about this.  You're Chinese, not Macedonian: even we Americans know a thing or two about where you're from.

I pay attention, too, yet I didn't know that this ratio is that high. And even if you're chinese, it doesn't mean you know thousands of people and have hundreds of name-clashes in your town. Even in Germany, we have towns with just a few tens of citizens, and even few-house towns called "Weiler" and one-house towns called "Einzelsiedlung".

Pete, you are perhaps too generous in judging how worldly and attentive most people are. A Chinese person in the US worrying about this is not being weird.

It's worse for Koreans. The surnames Kim, Park, and Lee account for half the population of South Korea.

@Colin: I took out the bit about weirdness because it didn't seem very constructive.  Also, I confess that I had construed "I am Chinese" as "I am in China"...but upon more scrutiny it seems that is probably not the case.

Just curious. What's wrong with Macedonia? Just less popular (whatever that would mean) or some fun fact?

@luk32: I chose that as an example because I myself didn't know it was an actual, modern-day country until a few weeks ago.  Silly Americans...


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In US universities, are the sport coaches typically considered tenured professors?
The title says it all. In many universities you see coaches for a team in some popular sport hanging around for many decades. I was wondering if in general those people had  a status of tenured professor or equivalent, or if on the contrary they can be "fired at will", if for example the performance of the teams they are in charge of are considered disappointing?
If the answer is really "it depends, there is no rule", then let me say I would like to know what status the Basketball Coach of Brandeis University who has just been fired had (see this Boston Globe article).

Could you clarify what is so odd about the firing of the basketball coach at Brandeis that it would make you think that the coach had the status of a tenured professor? Reading the article made it sounds like a very typical process of HR investigating complaints about employees at similarly sized institution, academic or not.

No, athletic coaches are generally not considered faculty and do not have tenure.  I've never heard of any place where they are.
The conditions of their employment would be based on whatever contract they negotiate with the university.  Typically the university would have the right to fire them for any reason, including poor performance of the team, but the contract might call for a severance payment in some cases.
(There could be small schools where someone is a professor and also an athletic coach.  In such cases I'd expect they would have tenure protections in their capacity as professor, but could be removed from the position of athletic coach at the university's discretion.)

I do know of at least one endowed coaching position, but over the course of time holders of the position have been fired...

If only professors got severance packages for poor performance like coaches do... I'd get myself let go and retire with the millions.

Typically, no.  But there have been exceptions.
Woody Hayes, in addition to being Head Football Coach at Ohio State, was also Professor of Military History.  When he was fired as coach in 1978, he stayed on as Professor.

At large D1 universities, the athletic department is usually set up as a quasi-independent entity.  They are part of the university and are considered university employees, but their finances and fundraising are largely separate.  When a coach is hired by the athletic director, they have to be formally approved by the university president and board or directors (or whatever the specific titles are).  The coaches are almost never professors of any kind (though other athletic department employees sometimes teach) and are governed solely by their contracts.  When a coach is fired, there is usually a buyout clause in their contract.  This can be clawed back if there is evidence of a crime or wrongdoing.
This setup is why coaching salaries tend to be so high, in some cases the highest of all university employees.  People often get upset about this because they think the salaries are taking away from the academic mission, but this usually isn't the case because those funds tend to be drawn from the athletic department's own pool of money.  For less profitable athletic departments, the university will sometimes subsidize the department, but the more profitable departments often return money to the university.  A better argument would be whether donors should donate more to academics than to sports, but it's their money, so...
The dynamics are much different for smaller schools with smaller donor and alumni bases.  These athletic departments are almost never profitable.  Coaches as professors are still rare in those situations though.

It's not unusual that the highest paid employee of the state of California is the head coach of the UCLA football team.

Historically, some coaches in the US were tenured professors. My very small, D-III institution had a "teacher-coach" model into this century, meaning that tenure-track faculty in one department were expected to coach, and most coaches were expected to teach. Under this model, the tenured faculty coaches could not be summarily fired as faculty, but so far as I can tell they could be replaced as coach without any special process.
However, this model has fallen out of favor, to the extent that it ever was in favor. Our own faculty stopped coaching around the turn of the millennium (and the last of these have just retired), though some of our coaches do still teach. It would not surprise me to find some small schools who still follow a teacher-coach model, but they would be a vanishing breed and I don't see evidence that Brandeis is one of them (in particular, the online athletics overview doesn't mention anything similar, and Brandeis has no major that would easily fit such a model).

My experience at a military academy, decades ago, was that all of the coaches except for football and basketball were also PE teachers.  And there was a very active, required, graded, PE aspect to the curriculum (boxing, swimming, etc.).  So it was sort of like high school where coaches are also PE teachers.  I don't know if they ever got any tenure though.  Would make it hard to fire them.  But it did help with getting them a better salary.  In some cases, they would even bring them into the military, which was a good deal in terms of benefits.


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My co authors backed out after paper acceptance, how to proceed
My paper was accepted in an open access journal, I am the corresponding author, but soon after acceptance my co-authors refused to pay their part of the article processing charges (APC) and sent me the email requesting removal of their names citing inability to pay the APC.
I immediately contacted the academic editor, and informed her of the whole situation, in response the journal clearly stated that they won't waive the AP nor allow me to remove the names of the co-authors, they say that once accepted one cannot add / remove names in accordance with ICMEJ policy.
Now my paper is stuck. Is the journal's stance correct? What should I do in this case? Should I withdraw this paper or should I approach editor in chief to solve this matter?

Is the journal reputable?

Are you offering to pay the APC? If not, who is paying the APC? (given that your co-author is not paying)

Yes i have offered to pay apc but they are not ready to remove names of the co authors

If you offer to pay the APC, the co-authors get the free authorship, what seem to be the problem?

The problem is that the co authors are not willing to be part of this paper any more can the journal publish names of authors without their consent?

In case they consented to be part of the paper and acknowledged the final version to be re-submitted /published, it is your co-authors problem ... If they revoke their consent after the paper has been accepted, it is no longer your fault.

What were your prior arrangements with the co-authors regarding APC charges? Did you have any? I am asking the same question as @Allure, but specifically about what did you agree upon BEFORE you have submitted the paper to the journal. You offered to pay APC now, but what was your plan going in into this submission?

Well the apc charges are quite high 2500 Usd so before submission they agreed to pay their share they are actually five in no! But after acceptance they become non respondent and then upon inquiring they sent me the email i mentioned.!

Now that you've offered to pay the charge, what are your coauthors objections to being listed as authors? You can't know how to proceed without that information.

"Yes i have offered to pay apc" Did you offer to pay the whole amount (USD$2500) or only partial amount? If you'll pay the whole amount, did you tell the co-authors that?

which country in the world?

There seems to be confusion here:
Paying part of the APC is neither necessary nor sufficient for being a co-author.
So if the other authors can't pay anything but you can cover the full APC, there is no need to remove them as authors. On the contrary: I assume that they are authors of the paper since they contributed significantly enough and then it would not be ok to remove them from the work.
Moreover:
The issue of APCs has to be discussed before submission.
There are many possible arrangements (the APC is split, one of the authors pays all, some author has a grant to cover it,…) but the group of authors has to agree. In the case where I was part of some team usually one of the authors offered to pay all of it.

Also: See this this related question.

Is academia the only field where workers pay to work? "When I started, I had to pay Mr Krabs a hundred dollars an hour!"

Well, they don't pay to do the research and usually APCs are not paid of the own pockets of the researchers but by some budget/grant,…

@user253751 No.  Lots of kinds of workers pay for their own tools.  Machinists often buy their own (very expensive) measuring devices--though work tools are provided at the factory.   Lots of workers pay for their own work uniforms.

ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) policy actually has a provision for this specific situation:

If authors request removal or addition of an author after manuscript
submission or publication, journal editors should seek an explanation
and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all
listed authors and from the author to be removed or added.

It is technically possible to salvage the paper, but the journal is, IMHO, rightfully concerned about the ethics of the process here, as denying authorship on the basis of refusing to pay APC is highly problematic. I would say that the most ethical thing to do in this situation is for you to decide whether you are still okay with paying APC and if so, keep them as authors. That advice is given under an assumption you have already come to an unambiguous understanding of what happened here.
If not, you would first need to get that shared understanding. Can the paper, take a step back and review your work process. More specifically, your point of view can be described as following to the co-authors ("you" collectively refers to the rest of the co-authors here):

We have all agreed to submit our paper to this journal, AND
We all knew there would be an APC, AND
You have confirmed that you are willing to pay your share of APC, AND
You are now refusing to do so.

If any of these points are challenged, all six (?) of you need to agree on why that happened. Maybe they knew there were APCs, but did not expect them to be that high, in which case it is entirely on them. Maybe you did not tell them clearly enough there will be charges, in which case it is mostly on you. Maybe they have agreed to pay, but circumstances have changed (e.g. experiencing troubles dealing with their institution) - in which case it is on them again, but you might be willing to pay. This is what I meant by "decide whether you are still okay with paying APC" - first of all, figure out if you have enough information about the issue or not.
Either way, most of the scenarios converge at this being a monetary/workplace dispute, which is separate from authorship (see Dirk's answer). Authorship is often reviewed under something collectively known as moral rights:

In continental Europe, moral rights are “inalienable and cannot be transferred or waived.”

In other words, you might have been scammed out of two grand - which you need to figure out and dispute accordingly with them and, possibly, institutions involved. But all that does not make it right to revoke the authorship UNLESS they are now strongly objecting to be associated with the paper at all, in which case you badly need a clarification as well.
The entire situation sounds like a huge breach of work ethics - from your description, they are at fault, but we do not see the other side of the story here (e.g. do you have a clear confirmation, in writing, that they have earlier agreed to paying these charges?).

Fully agree with this superb comment. Yet, it is questionable whether a consensus might be achieved with the "other side".

" I would say that the most ethical thing to do in this situation is for you to decide whether you are still okay with paying APC and if so, keep them as authors" - this is potentially dangerous given OP's apparent lack of understanding about what's going on. It's critical that the OP come to an agreement with coauthors over what comes next, not just pay the charges and keep them on if they're asking to be removed.

Its true , first they breached the committment because it was decided before submission that they will contribute for apc , secondly, now they are asking to be removed, what if i pay apc , but after publication they ask editor for retraction. ? I dont know why journal is unable to understand this point. This is complicating things!

@PG You keep changing the subject and not responding to questions for clarification here. Your situation is very unclear based on what you've written here, so it's no wonder the journal isn't understanding. Please clarify so that we can help you communicate with the journal. It seems like you or your coauthors are complicating things, not the journal.

@P G Find this rather confusing.  Co-authors knew there was APC.  Presumably contributed time, effort, and (possibly) money to the work.  Had the work accepted.  And then asked to be removed?  Feels like there must be something not included like:  Bad journal, Worse journal than hoped for, Shame in research results?  Are the co-authors adamant about being removed, or just hoping you'll pay and foot the bill?

@BryanKrause I agree. To me, there are two possible courses of action: if what has happened is truly unclear, take a step back to first figure it out, or, if it is clear that co-authors have, indeed, agreed to pay their share of APC and then bailed, it becomes a financial/workplace issue, possible with the institution involvement. If OP's responses are representative of their communication with the co-authors, clarification is much needed. I will add an edit correspondingly, thank you.

I have added several clarifications - unfortunately, the changes ended up being substantial, so I apologize to the voters here. If that was out of line, I will delete the answer and post it anew.  I believe it has been overall improved, however.

I would like to clarify point by point 1.authors were aware from day 1 that they have to pay Apc. 2.Apc charges of 2500 were also clear to them before submission 3. Their role was in formal analysis and provision of resources not in write up. 4.we agreeably submitted to this journal 5. My concern is that even if i keep them on paper and I make payment and later after payment, they write to the journal for removal of thier names ?

Your question reads:  Is the journal's stance correct? Yes, yes it is. Please reach an internal agreement between yourself and co-authors first, the journal could not possibly be responsible for that. I hope "we agreeably submitted to this journal" means "all authors affirmatively confirmed the decision to submit the paper as it was written" (is that so?).

Ultimately, write to your co-authors and demand that they either 1) Provide a written request for their names to be removed from the paper along with clarification for the editorial office (they have presumably agreed on the paper and all the prior corrections, after all!) or 2) Confirm (in writing!) that they do not object that you pay the APC and the paper is published in its current state. If they decide to write to the journal even after that, that is on them and you have no control over it. Either way, raise the issue with your institution(s) and/or never work with these people again.

They did provide the written request for names removal and I shared it with the assistant editor but then too she is insisting on adding their names!

@PG Well, yeah, authors are supposed to be determined based on contribution to the paper, not based on whether they're willing to pay. Either you included them unethically in the beginning, or are removing them unethically now, or there is a very special case here that you still are not communicating properly. I still don't know whether this is mostly a language barrier or whether you have no idea how academic publishing works, and I think it's very dangerous to proceed without resolving what's going on.

@PG Now that you are paying all the publishing costs, have you asked your coauthors if they want their names back on the paper? If you asked, did the coauthors refuse? If they refused, why did they refuse?

@PG Do their objections extend beyond simply the cost-sharing?  Do your co-authors not support your conclusions? Are they suspicious of you for some type of academic fraud or other malfeasance? In other words, are they suspicious that your data is overly "massaged" or created out of "thin air"?  Did you submit them as a corresponding author, perhaps providing a signature on their behalf, without verifying that they authorized it?

@mpag, the issue is more work ethics related than such gross unethical practices which you mentioned.what i have understood from their message is that they are not willing to pay their share of Apc and simply think that withdrawal of names might spare them from payment. Because in their email they just mentioned inability to pay and request for removal of thier name.

If I'm understanding your comments right, this happened:

You submitted the paper to an open access journal with your co-authors' agreement & with the understanding that the APC will be split between authors.
Your paper is accepted. The journal sends you an invoice for the APC.
Your co-authors refuse to pay the APC and want to withdraw their name from the article.
The journal does not let you remove names from the paper, and your paper is in limbo as a result.

If this description is accurate, then this is a dispute between the authors and not the journal's concern. From the journal's perspective, they can't just waive the APC without reason, and they can't just let you remove an author's name either. This is because authorship rules generally say that everyone who contributed substantially to the paper should be an author (example). The journal can no more publish your paper without your co-authors' names than you can submit it without your co-authors' names.
So: discuss with co-authors. First figure out exactly what the problem is - it's not clear what the co-authors' objections are. Then figure out what to do. If your description (co-authors didn't want co-authorship because they didn't want to pay the APC) is correct, then the obvious result is that they will no longer object since you are paying the entire APC, and the journal can publish it. Alternatively they could be refusing co-authorship even though you are paying the entire APC, because they have lost faith in the manuscript for some reason. If this is indeed the case, you could submit signed documents from the co-authors verifying this to the journal.
Either way, do not email the journal until you have resolved the problem. It really is not something for them to solve.

Thanks, for the correct understanding, I have also reached to this conclusion that I need to resolve this on the authors level.

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


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Paper stuck in “ASAP” status: what does it indicate?
I am looking at a paper by some colleagues, that has been in ASAP status for 4 months now. In that particular journal, “ASAP” indicates accepted papers after the authors have corrected the proofs: i.e., they are just like the final paper, except they have not been attributed an issue and page number yet (and have thus not yet appeared in print).
Most papers in that particular journal only stay 2 or 3 weeks in ASAP status, before being assigned an to an issue. This paper stands out, being the only one so old on the website. Yet, no indication additional information is given on the publisher's website.
What can cause a paper to be stuck so long in ASAP queue? Would it be impolite to ask the corresponding author what's going on? (I admit it would only be to satisfy my own curiosity…)

Possibly waiting for a special issue?

@DanielE.Shub that's a good idea… but I don't think it'd be all alone like that, if that were the case

Does the journal have an image on its cover about a paper that issue contains?  This has happened before in one journal where the paper was kept in limbo because they wanted to showcase it on the cover and were waiting for the right time.

Canadian Math Bulletin and Journal publishes the articles online as soon as they are ready, and then in the printed version as soon as possible (they are removed from the online list at that point). So being published online is exactly like the ASAP from the question (I think). Right now, the CMB has about 70 online papers, and another 10-15 which are almost final (author draft, typically means only esthetic changes are needed). With 4 issues/year of about 25 papers each, it means that typically papers for about then next 9 month are online for that particular journal.

Of course, in math the waiting time is most of the time much longer than in other areas...

How did this work out?  Was the paper featured on the journal cover, or in a special issue?

As was mentioned in the comments, one possibility is that the editors are waiting for a better time to publish the paper, perhaps as part of a special issue or to highlight the paper on its cover.
Another possibility is that the authors have not fulfilled some requirements for publication like signing a copyright transfer form or paying the page charges.
Or perhaps there are some problematic issues about the paper.  Maybe the topic is controversial and some members of the board don't want it published, or perhaps the editors suspect some unethical publication practice.  (If it is this last reason, then perhaps it would be impolite to ask the authors about it.)

I think it is the “highlight the paper on its cover”… I hadn't thought about it, but it makes sense


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Do other countries have a oral exam system similar to French “colles”?
The French classes prépas system includes, during the first two years of undergraduate (post-baccalaureate) education, a series of regular oral exams, known as colles. Basically: every week during your first two years, you have two oral exams, each lasting one hour, with one teacher examining two or three students, each using a blackboard. A science student would typically have math and chemistry on week A, then physics and another topic (engineering, foreign language, …) on week B. This system prepares students for national competitive exams after their second year, which includes both written and oral components.
Now, whenever I have to explain that system to a foreign colleague, I have to do it from the start (as above) because I do not know any other similar system they might know (especially, I don't know of any equivalent or similar system in the US). Is there one?

That sounds nothing like any system that I know of in the US. But I'm not sure that "no" constitutes an answer, hence posting as a comment...

And it must be noted that this is a minority system (13.3% of the "bac général" students are going in "classes prépas", and 1.4% of the "bac technologique" students).

I also haven't heard about anything like this. The closest thing I've heard of are the comprehensive exams in fields like chemistry in graduate schools as part of the qualification procedures. But those exams are all still chemistry, not a mixture of different disciplines.

This question is perfect for this SE new site: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/49571/teachers-school if you find it useful you can follow and make it more popular

In Poland usually there are two final (i.e. end of the semester) exams for each subject - one written, and one oral.

This question is perfect for this SE new site: undergraduates if you find it useful you can follow it and help us in spreading the word about it.

@PiotrMigdal please consider adding the polish system to my CW answer.

@DanielE.Shub I might misread the question (or it was vague), but in Poland there are oral exams for university courses (which IMHO is way better than only a test or written exam, but also more time consuming; I heard that such thing is rare in UK/US), but there are usually no for admission (at least in STEM). I don't know French system, so for me it's hard to compare (or OK, I can ask French guy in my group).

I did not get! This so-called colles is two-years of four-year undergraduate programs for BSc? or it is a preparatory program before entering university?

The correct answer to this question is either yes or no. To answer yes one would simply need to provide a single example of another country with an oral exam system similar to the French system. To answer no we would need confirmation that no other country uses a similar system. To start the alphabetical list:

United Kingdom: Undergraduate students at the top universities tend to begin their studies immediately following their A-Level examinations which do not have a substantial oral component.
United States of America: Undergraduate students at the top universities tend to begin their studies immediately following their high school/secondary education. Admission is based upon performance throughout high school and standardize test neither of which have a substantial oral component.

I think that the question was on the undergraduate studies, not on the admission procedure (unless I misread). I'm willing to contribute, but first I need to know if we are writing about the same thing.

I agree with @PiotrMigdal, it is interesting to know that if other universities take oral exams for their current students or just using paper exams!

This is the same system in Russia and it’s the standard. Although not once every two weeks as you describe. They are more like end of semester exams. Usually students will be given a list of 30 questions on the subject. Let’s say it’s chemistry.
The students will have to know how to answer all these questions, as 2 will be asked at random by the professor on exam day. Students should talk for about 5 minutes for each question. So actually the professors have the longer working day going through all the students. And students come in for their 10 minute slot. I believe this system is only in universities.

There may be oral exams in others country but as far as I know there is nothing like "colles", colles aren't "exams", they are trainings for the oral part of a national competition.
The reason is simple: the classe prépa / Grande Ecole system is unique to france. The main reason to go to "classe prépa" is not to learn but to go to the best "grande ecole".

I'm from Serbia and study at the Faculty of Philosophy. Almost all exams are oral, except for some that require you write a paper on a topic of your choice. We  also have a few courses that require tests, that you have to pass so you can take an oral exam. This system is used for all humanities studies and other social studies as far as I am aware of.

If it is in Serbia, it must be popular in the Eastern Europe.

In Italy almost all exams are oral. We get used to it since elementary school.


text:
Logistics of co-authorship for assisting business
There is a business(sole proprietorship) which has collected a large amount of data relevant to a scientific (psychology) publication, and is providing access and helping implement unique meta-analysis of their data in assistance to the research.
Should I consider a co-authorship with this individual, and if so (given they themselves only previously had a bachelors degree in a different field and are unaffiliated with any university or large institution currently) what would be the proper format for their inclusion in the publication?
They have not been involved in previous publishing work as part of their business so they do not have a previous protocol for this. Their contributions could be considered to be worth more than an acknowledgement.

I'd prefer an answer that is field agnostic but provided the clarification in case such an answer is impossible.

This may vary by field, though common sense suggests some general applicability. I'm in CS and will offer my personal experience.
You raise a couple of independent points.
Does their affiliation/experience matter? Not in the least IMHO. I saw a paper at a strong conference with a high school student as coauthor!
Do they merit coauthorship?
I'd say if they simply provided data, likely not, but you've already asserted they go beyond a simple acknowledgement. And you can certainly involve them enough going forward for there to be no question.
Seems to me you've answered your own question. But if you specify a field and someone in that field says no, you can't possibly publish if you aren't somehow credentialed, it's another story.
Good luck!


text:
Calculating Cumulative GPA Across Multiple Colleges?
When a place asks for a cumulative GPA do you include all coursework taken at all universities (e.g.: do a weighted average of the unique units of coursework you did at Junior College + University), or do you only use coursework at your most recent institution, or do you report two or more cumulative scores where you can and then fallback on a different method when you can't.

You provide exactly what each place asks - and they are not likely to all ask the exact same thing.

I'm surprised you are asked to provide this. Most places ask for official records and do a computation themselves.

There are many scholarships and other programs that just have this single "cumulative GPA" field that is hard to determine. There are also jobs which descriptions say "cumulative GPA greater than 3.5" and ask for that single field. Most may ask for a transcript too, some may not. It's just very unclear

If you are asked to self report (seems weird to me) and don't have a way to provide a full explanation then you do what you can. Some type of average weighted by credits. You are likely expected to consider post-secondary education only unless it is for admission to undergraduate programs or scholarships for such.
But, you should retain the details of the computation and how you arrived at the number in case you are ever questioned. This is especially the case if you have attended more than one institution.
But, I doubt that they are looking for only the most recent institution unless they say that. More likely they want a "complete" picture. If that picture isn't very flattering you will need to explain it, but don't leave things out.
If you produce other materials than just what fits on a form, you can, perhaps, include the GPA computation. Then, if there is any question, they can give you better instruction on what is needed.


text:
How should the session chair introduce presentation titles which are ungrammatical?
As a session chair recently, I was to introduce a talk where the title of the talk was ungrammatical (in both the abstract and talk slides), likely due to the presenter not being a native English speaker.  Two words should have been in plural when they were not, which became clear after reading the abstract.
I faced a dilemma:

read the corrected title, and possibly embarrass the speaker (possibly putting them off their talk), or
deliberately read the ungrammatical title.

I attempted a compromise: I acted casual, as if I wasn't reading the title word for word.
Question: How should the session chair introduce presentation titles which are ungrammatical?
I'm just wondering what's the best solution in this situation (or perhaps what I did "on the fly" was the best).

Your compromise of paraphrasing the title sounds pretty optimal.

I'd assume "and possibly embarrass the speaker" is a possible consequence of both courses of actions you suggested.

I would not know any reason that forces chairs to read the title of the talk.
On the contrary, even with grammatically correct titles, it feels rather lazy and unnatural to me.
Also there is a certain kind of speaker who will read their title, no matter what you do.
This is a little bit less awkward, if you haven’t read the title already.
Hence, if I am sufficiently comfortable with the subject (which I think I should be when chairing), I would always attempt to paraphrase the title.
For example, suppose your title is:

How should the session chair introduce presentation title which ungrammatical?

Then I could introduce you with:

The first speaker is Rebecca J. Stones, who investigated ungrammatical presentation titles and will talk about how chairs should introduce them.

Perfect. And, please, at the end of the talk, don't invite the audience to "thank the speaker" because that suggests that you don't even care enough to remember their name.

@DavidRicherby - I strongly disagree. I cannot remember a talk where the audience wasn't asked to "thank the speaker", and it feels to me like the optimal way of putting it. Say the speaker is Dr James Smith who happens to be friends with the chair and most of the audience --- do we then thank "James" or "Dr Smith", or maybe someone else?

I fully agree with the answer. One addition I would make is that it's often not necessary to know anything about the subject to paraphrase the title.

@JakubKonieczny Maybe my field's unusually informal but "James" seems fine to me. Or turn to the speaker and address them personally: "Thank you!" and start applauding; the audience will follow. (This is tangential to the answer and question, so we should probably take this to chat if you want to discuss it further.)

@JakubKonieczny In my field, too, in a case like that of your example, a chair would thank "James" most of the times.

As session chair shouldn't you have access to the presentations / titles before the actual date. That may be the right time to fix these things, right?

And how would you fix them?

@MassimoOrtolano 100% of the time, the titles of the presentations are the titles of the papers submitted to the conference and they appear on the list of accepted papers/presentations. The error should be spotted and corrected there. I never saw any presentation with different title than the one submitted.

@PsySp, "100%" is definitely the wrong figure when interpreted across all academic fields.  In mathematics conferences, often conferences do not have an associated collection of papers, and talks are presented without an associated paper.  (In fact, it is much rarer that this does happen in mathematics, at least in my experience, than that it doesn't.)

@PsySp In many fields, there are no conference papers, just short summaries or abstracts which don't get any corrections from the technical committee.

@MassimoOrtolano Isn't the responsibility of the technical committee to correct the titles/abstracts? Somebody submitted short summary and someone approved it. In all cases, the title carry over to the presentation (and to the list of accepted abstracts). There should be a checking at that point.

@LSpice 100% of the time, the title of the presentation corresponds to the submitted paper/abstract or whatever submitted, and can be found in the conference program.

@PsySp For many fields (or depending on the conference), no, the TC doesn't make any suggestion for improvements or corrections, just accepts/rejects the submission as is.

@PsySp, aha!  Now I agree that the percentage is very high, across all fields, but not 100%.  There are many examples of speakers changing their titles slightly.  I have even had a speaker decide to talk on another topic entirely after the programme had been printed and posted online.

@MassimoOrtolano I know that it doesn't, I say that it should.

100% of the time, the titles of the presentations are the titles of the papers submitted to the conference — Um...no. I have seen many CS conference talks where the words on the title slide were not identical to the words at the top of the paper.  I may even have given some of them.


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Does inclusion on the ARC ERA 2010 journal ranking list imply the journal is not predatory?
Leading up to 2010, the Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative categorized journals (and conferences) into four categories A*, A, B, and C (see this Wikipedia page for details).
C-ranked journals (with the lowest ranking) are described as journals:

that do not meet the criteria of higher tiers

which is not particularly informative.
I’m not sure if this initiative excluded journals that would be considered predatory (check your email spam folder for examples of predatory journals).  B or higher ranked journals would not be predatory, as there are people who vouch for them as containing some high-quality publications.  I’m not sure how the C journals were included.
Question: Does inclusion on the ARC ERA 2010 journal list imply the journal is not a predatory journal?

Do you mean "is not" or "was not in 2010"? Because journals can change (see e.g.)

To be honest, I didn't even think about the distinction.  I want to know about journals as they stand now, e.g., if a journal I don't know sends a request to review review a paper.  (I wonder if it's a common occurence for non-predatory journals to turn predatory?)

In general terms I would assume that any list like this is effectively a whitelist - there's a minimum inclusion standard - because otherwise the bottom category would include "everyone else" rather than a named set. But I can't speak to the ARC list specifically.

There are various point systems that I've seen used that assign rewards based on the number of publications at A*, A, B, and C levels. Also, as the Wikipedia page says, proposals for inclusion needed to have endorsement by academics. Thus, my starting assumption would be that a journal with a C ranking was considered by the ARC to be legitimate, and therefore not predatory.
Of course, it's possible that some of those assessments were incorrect or a journal could change its practices over time. And there are a range of pay-to-publish journals where the practices are in a grey area (e.g., publishing mixed or low quality work). So I don't think that knowing that a journal is ranked C is enough. If you are submitting your work, you should know more about a journal than that. But it might be a reasonable working assumption for administrative purposes.


text:
Interpreting Math GRE chart
So in this data set, around 50/245 admitted prospective graduate students from 2009-2012 were part of the top 5% in his/her exam?

I didn't sum up the bars, but yes, it seems to be saying that 50 of the admitted international students scored in the top 5% in the math GRE, but only 5 of the admitted domestic students.  Typically schools have a wider pool of international applicants so can set "higher standards" for them.

Sure.  By the way, I'm not sure it's literally true that most schools get more international applicants than domestic ones, but at the least the international applicant pool tends to be stronger.  This may be due more a result of self-selection, as well as the educational systems in different countries.


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Do research/teaching assistantships count toward financial requirements of visa applications?
This answer says most PhD students in US universities are funded through research or teaching assistantships.
So research or teaching assistantships count toward any financial requirements in terms of applying for a visa to study in the US? What about other countries? If a certain country does not count research or teaching assistantships toward financial requirements, how are students in those countries funded?
I heard that in the UK or for some places in Europe, research or teaching assistantships do not count toward financial requirements. Is this true?

Research funding would count in the UK, AFAIK. In Europe it's the same; I am in France and my PhD contract is more like a salaried worker than a studentship. I didn't have to provide anything else in terms of financial proof other than a document confirming my monthly salary.
People in the UK who are non-EEA either self-fund, or they get one of the very few and very competitive scholarships. See an answer of mine for a comprehensive reply about the UK PhD funding situation.
I don't know anything about the US at all, so I'm putting as comment and not an answer.

@lafemmecosmique I'm a little confused. I'm not from the UK but if I were to apply to UK for a master's/PhD and luckily am granted a scholarship and a way to pay for my cost of living namely through being granted a teaching assistantship, is this enough to get me a UK student visa in terms of the financial requirements?

@dan1111 So definitely in the US, assistantships count toward financial requirements of US student visas?

If you're granted a scholarship which covers your tuition AND your living expenses (which is a set amount in the UK or more in London) then yes, that's all you need. If you don't get all of that funded, you will need more in your bank as proof for the visa. And the scholarships that cover all of those things are extremely rare. It's not an easy path and generally you have to accept a place before applying for scholarship. But yes, if you get one, that's all you need.

But that will not be via a teaching assistantship. An assistantship is secondary. It's a stipend for you to do the PhD + the tuition that you need and that's separate from teaching. And teaching assistant stuff, in the UK, is done later. It's bonus money. I think (but not sure) that it would not be done quickly enough to constitute visa financial proof, and in any case it wouldn't pay enough to cover your LE or your tuition.

@lafemmecosmique Thank you! To your knowledge, is this applicable outside the UK too? For example, I think in the US, teaching assistantship would count toward financial requirements.

@dan1111 see comments of lafemmecosmique

Also, TAs aren't a thing in the UK the same as they are in the US (in my field anyway). Lecturers are the ones who teach. PhD students mostly just demonstrate labs or mark 1st year coursework. YMMV for your field / uni.


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Strength or Existence of letters of recommendation do depend on the intent right?
Related to:
How should I ask for letters of recommendation whose strength is dependent on intended program?
So I found out that one of the professors recommended a junior coursemate for an internship even though that coursemate got a 1.0 (0.0 is the lowest, and 4.0 is a the highest with 1.0 being the lowest passing mark) in the class.
Letters of recommendation do depend on the intended program right? If I were leaving math completely for say law or business I'm going to have a higher chance of having a recommendation letter and even higher strength of recommendation letter compared to applying for a PhD program in math right?

It's not like there's some objective scale that maps quality of the student to quality of the recommendation letter. Different students may impress potential letter writers in different ways (one might have impressive grades, another might have poor grades but shown impressive insight despite that, etc.) Similarly, some students may show aptitude for different things than others.

My answer is that Student A might get better letters for Path X than Path Y, while Student B might get better letters for Path Y than Path X. The answer to "Strength or Existence of letters of recommendation do depend on the intent right?" is yes, the answer to "If I were leaving math completely for say law or business I'm going to have a higher chance of having a recommendation letter and even higher strength of recommendation letter compared to applying for a PhD program in math right?" is no, not necessarily.

@ff524 So you're technically not answering my question but addressing the motivation coming from the situation with the junior coursemate namely that the junior coursemate may have impressed the professor in some other way leading the professor to write the internship recommendation letter and that may or may not have something to do with the recommendation letter being for an internship?

@ff524 Okay i deleted my comment and posted a new one. thank you for answering my stupid questions though :) So you're answering and also pointing out that thing about the low relevance of the recommendation letter being for an internship?

I wouldn't call it an answer so much as a comment on the flawed premise of the question, but yes.

Your question seems to contain an assumption that there's some inherent ordering of programs from "easy" to "hard" (law and business being "easy" and math being "hard"), and that a letter for an "easier" program would automatically be stronger.  There's no such ordering.
Any reasonable professor would try to write a letter that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the student in skills that are relevant to the program in question.  Different programs and areas of study require different skills, and the strength of the letter will depend on the student's strength in that specific area.
For example, suppose the professor has observed that a student excels in logical reasoning, but struggles with public speaking and analyzing real-world situations.  If the student were applying for a program in mathematics, in which logical reasoning is important, they'd likely get a strong recommendation.  If the student were applying to a business program, in which it is important to analyze real-world situations and speak convincingly about them, they'd likely get a weak recommendation, or the professor might decline to write one at all.

Okay about what about the internship? Is that considered easy while PhD is hard? Another example is masters vs PhD. Masters is easy while PhD is hard? Relatively of course

@JackBauer What I am saying is that the whole idea of trying to classify things as "easy" and "hard" is unhelpful.  Again, a professor's letter will address the qualifications of the student for that specific educational or job opportunity.


text:
Should universities give extra time or related accommodations for students with mental illnesses?
Based on this question: Is it unethical to accept extra time on exams when I still do well?
To my knowledge, I don't think my university or home department has a policy on extended time exams or a "disability office". In my entire stay in the university, I have heard of only three people with mental illnesses. Two graduated. One is still in the university, but I have not yet asked her. It seems like she is entitled to have extra time on exams or homework or something that evens the playing field.
Are there any legitimate reasons a university may have for not allowing extra time or something for mentally ill students, assuming of course that the student can prove mental illness? It seems that they ought to give extra time or something to be fair to students.
Relevant links: this comment, this answer, this answer.

This seems to be comments, not a question. Vote to close as "Unclear what you're asking".

Do you really mean students with learning disabilities like dyslexia or those with mental illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder etc? It's unclear. Also, where is your university? A lot of what's required and what resources are going to be available depend on where you are.

@scaaahu: The title is a question and I found a few question marks in the body.  Nevertheless, I agree with "unclear what you're asking".  For instance, how do the three numbered things at the end fit in?  (Also what DLS3141 said: really mental illness, or learning disabilities?)

I find the more compact question quite clear and have voted to reopen.

A legitimate reason would be if the infirmity was not one that was properly addressed by allowing additional time, or if it is episodic and the student is not impaired at the time in question. This is simply not an area where one size fits all, or even one size fits most; cases and situations need to be considered individually. In other words, I can be a depressive and turn in homework late, but the latter may or may not be related to a bad period of the former, and I certainly don't expect special treatment while I'm stable.

@keshlam: It sounds like the question is whether the university should have a policy of offering such accomodations at all.  In the US this is required by law under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the OP's country may not have any such law.

The question in the text is whether there's any legitimate reason not to. I offered the one reason I could come up with.

The answer to your question is yes, absolutely. Any assistance that can be given to help people better themselves with an education and allow them to become independent and productive members of society is a good thing. And why is the only value of a person's worth how quick they are. If I know more that you but am not able to complete an exam in an arbitrary amount of time, does that mean that you are smarter than me or more qualified because you do not have an issue with completing than exam in  a fixed amount of time? Are they required to depends on the laws in your country.

The other thing is that in the United States, the Americans With Disabilities act only requires institutions up to High Schools to actively advocate for the student. It requires that Universities have resources and provide suitable accommodations for people with disabilities as defined by the law,  but it requires that the student self advocate. They need to seek out the accommodations, inform and make agreements with their professors, etc.

@jakebeal The problem is that the way the question is posed, it really leaves a wide open door to make this an opinion fest between those who feel accommodations are valid and those who do not. The only factual answers that can be provided are whether or not a jurisdiction has legislation in place to provide for accommodations. I think for that reason it is likely better put on hold or closed until the OP can provide details such as where their university is so that factual answers can be provided.

"I have heard of only three people with mental illnesses"  But actually about 30% of students have invisible disabilities.  There is an unfortunate stigma, so people do not talk about it.  Also, FERPA in the USA.

@AMR Ethics questions could be an opinion fest right? This actually seems like an ethics question, equivalent to: "Is it unethical for universities to give no accommodations for students with mental illnesses?" Would that suit you?

@AnonymousPhysicist 30% only? Stephen King might say over 90%. Thanks anyway. I read more on mental illnesses recently.

In answering this question, I think that it is important to consider the distinction between mental illness and learning disabilities.  While there is a spectrum of different and complex effects, for the purposes of making policies it may be useful to consider these two "prototypical" classes of challenge:

Many specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia or speech impairment, have a rather focused affect on perception and action, rather than more generally impairing cognition.  In many cases, relatively simple interventions (such as giving a dyslexic student more time) can have a big impact on educational success by mitigating the impact of the disability.  I think of this as little different than the intervention of glasses in mitigating the impact of my poor eyesight.
Mental illness such as depression or bipolar disorder, on the other hand, is much more subtle and difficult to deal with, since it strikes at "core" aspects of an individual such as motivation, interpretation of the world, and outlook on life.  Even when an intervention is plausible, the ethical boundaries are much less clear, particularly given the difficulty in balancing the need for consent against the likely harms from a possibly distorted mental state.

For an educational institution, then, the approaches to supporting students with mental illness and specific learning disabilities are likely to want to be very different, and the type of support that is needed is likely to be different for different types of challenges.  Giving a dyslexic student more time on an exam makes a lot of sense; it's like letting a student who is hard of hearing sit up in the front of the lecture hall.  Giving a highly depressed individual extra time on an exam is not likely to be a meaningful intervention; letting them take time off without penalty and return in another semester with a clean slate is more likely to be effective.
A good institution should then try to figure out the needs of each student, and how far they can reasonably go to satisfy them given the institution's resource constraints.

A conversation on this answer has been moved to chat. Participants are welcome to continue the conversation in the dedicated chat room :)

Are there any legitimate reasons a university may have for NOT
  providing needed accommodations for students with documented mental
  illness?

Legitimate reasons, no, absolutely not.

Should universities give extra time or related accommodations for
  students with mental illnesses?

Yes, absolutely.
A student with a handicapping condition should look at lists of possible accommodations, and do plenty of experimenting, to find out what's helpful.  The university has a moral obligation, and in many places, a legal obligation, to provide needed accommodations.  Not to do so constitutes discrimination.  In the United States, a refusal to provide needed accommodations is a violation of the student's civil rights.  An educational institution that refuses, risks losing all federal funding.
The nature of the handicapping condition is only relevant to the choice of accommodations, not to the initial decision of whether to provide accommodations.
Here is one list of possible accommodations -- there are a number of them on the web.  Reading them is a great way to brainstorm what might fit best for a particular handicapping condition and for a particular student.

I will provide one small example.  My son sometimes, but not always, writes and erases each letter, or word, or sentence, sometimes multiple times for each such unit.  At first, this symptom occurred only with handwritten work, but then it crept into typewritten work as well.  The solution: a scribe.  He dictates, the teacher types; she reads it back and shows it to him, and he can edit the text himself, or dictate edits.  This accommodation is very helpful for him.

aparente001, thanks, but is your list or example even relevant? we are talking about adults not children. also could you please provide a source or something for "Not to do so constitutes discrimination. In the United States, a refusal to provide needed accommodations is a violation of the student's civil rights. An educational institution that refuses, risks losing all federal funding." ? I really hope that is true. I would like to look up if something like that exists in my country

@JackBauer - "Violations of Section 504 can result in a loss of the federal funding"  (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_504_of_the_Rehabilitation_Act).  /  There are many, many lists of possible accommodations on the web.  Here's one focused specifically on psychiatric conditions: http://www.washington.edu/doit/academic-accommodations-students-psychiatric-disabilities.  The TS catalog was only intended as a sample, to encourage you to find your own favorite list, and to show that accommodations are much more than extended time.  /  Would you be comfortable identifying the country?

Suggestion: Students with other types of special needs than psychiatric can be helpful allies.  When everyone is struggling on their own, in an isolated way, it's hard to accomplish much.  But when people with a variety of special needs coordinate their efforts, you can end up with an Americans with Disabilities Act (which has profoundly transformed our society in the U.S.).

Thanks aparente001! I unfortunately reached my voting limit. I will be sure to tell my friend.

In the US, a student with a disability (learning or otherwise) has the right to accommodations under Federal Law (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973). In most cases when a hidden disability such as a learning disability is diagnosed, a plan, typically referred to as a 504 Plan, is developed with the school for what accommodations are to made. This can mean someone in class to take notes for the student, extra time for assignments and exams. A good discussion of how the ADA applies to post-secondary education is here
The point is that the ADA doesn't differentiate between learning and physical disabilities and that providing appropriate accommodations for either isn't something the schools "should" do, it's something they are required to do.
Section 504 defines a disability as "individuals with disabilities are
defined as persons with a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities" The HHS Factsheet for Section 504 (pdf warning) specifically includes mental illness as a disability.

I really mean mental illnesses not learning disabilities. Thanks anyway

That really wasn't clear in your OP.

In any case, under Section 504 mental illnesses also qualify as disabilities so the same requirements apply.


text:
Coming back to finish my PhD after 4 years
Four years ago, I withdrew from my Ph.D. program for several reasons. I had passed all exams and only needed to write and present my disertation, I had a 4.0 GPA, several publications under my belt and plenty of conference presentations. I did not pass two dissertation proposals. I was feeling burnt out and a lack of support from my advisor.
After withdrawing, my advisor floated the idea of finishing in the future. She also asked to used the data I collected for my dissertation for a conference presentation, and we published a paper together. She gave me the green light to apply this year, but I was not readmitted. No reason has been provided yet.
So my question here is what are the chances of finishing at a different university relatively quickly (with the understanding that some courses or milestones may need to be repeated).
Edit: In the US, Cognitive Neural Science, focus was on visual perception and spatial cognition

Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion may be removed.

Is your former advisor still at your former university?

Yes, still there.

Even though you got turned down by your department, I believe (could be wrong, as your explanation for what happened is rather terse) that your best chance for picking up your degree program anywhere near where you left it is with the university and department you withdrew from.
Regardless of whether you intend to try with your old Uni again (I'll outline how I would go about it, if I were in your situation), there will be a flavor that your application package would need to have, I think, for any PhD program to consider you.
If I were reading your application package, I would be looking for

a fair acknowledgement of your own role in the previous outcomes
why you feel the same outcome is unlikely to happen again
what you've done over the last 4 years to maximize the likelihood that it won't happen again, and
some evidence that you haven't been sitting around doing nothing for 4 years.

Now, back to how to reapply to your old uni.  I recommend trying to set up a meeting with the head of the grad program in your department and your old mentor.  If your old mentor is unwilling to take you on, you're probably dead in the water, so you may as well have that very adult conversation as early as you can.  You'll want very good answers to the four points I listed in your pocket, both when you try to have this meeting, and for any application this may generate.  Any official status associated with your separation will need to be determined.  If you "withdrew", that's one thing, and you can probably work with that.  If you were "separated" based on performance, that's a different kittle of fish, and your chances for success in getting back into this school would be much lower.  Your description of these circumstances is less than perfectly clear, and they're not really any of our business, but rest assured, your old mentor and the director of your grad program will know, and any euphemisms you place on your exit won't help these discussions at all.
Next, you should have frank discussions with these people about how much more time you need (a realistic estimate, not a pipe dream), whether you need to collect more data, whether the project you were on is still active, ..., and most importantly, the level of financial support you would need, and for how long.  If the program gets the feeling that you've spent some time resolving any issues, that you could be productive, and that you'll be fast and inexpensive, they may be able to find a way for you to rematriculate.  You might also ask about finishing up on a part-time basis -- the more reasonable options you can give them, the higher the chance that they can get you back in the program.
In these discussions, it would be wise to avoid the term "ABD".  It doesn't feel accurate, especially without a passed proposal exam, and won't help your discussion about how much time you would need to finish up.
As to "finishing up" at a different university, I think there might be a chance to start again fresh, but I believe that if a university gets the feeling that your admission won't contribute to the career of a faculty member, that would be a non starter.  Perhaps you can transfer some or all of your academic credits, but admissions committees expect you to find work with a faculty member to help them develop their portfolio.

Thanks for the very thorough response. Your thoughts here are in-line with how I attempted to approach my application this past round. I think a meeting with the head of the grad program could be fruitful, at least in terms of understanding where I stand.
Also agreed concerning finishing at a different university. I will need to demonstrate that I can provide immediate value to whichever faculty member I can work with.

Just to add another viewpoint on part of this fantastic answer, it doesn't sound like his mentor is unwilling to take him since they published together (but who knows); but if this is the case I believe it is feasible to switch to another (willing) PI within the department.  In the Ph.D. program I did I believe several people did this.  Of course every department is their own little fiefdom so I'm just guessing here.

@syntheticgio -- I think that's right.  Departments, every now and again, need to "rescue" a student from a situation, whether it's a mentor losing funding, or just a mismatch between mentor and mentee, where another faculty member can pick up a student.  For this case, in particular, I think it's probably important for the original mentor to at least not have something too bad to say about the student.

Unless there are some special circumstances, I'd guess that your chances of a quick solution at another university are remote. They will have procedures that must be followed, etc.
If you are co-author with some senior person at another place then something could possibly be arranged. But your best course is probably to work something out with your old place and get your old advisor involved in insisting on it. That would seem to be the best place to have exceptions made. If she has some clout it might be made to happen.
Good luck.

Thanks for your thoughts. The fastest route would definitely be through my old advisor/program. Doubting that I'll find a viable alternative solution.


text:
What is the difference between all of these impact factors?
While searching a Thomson indexed journal to submit to, I found this one :
http://www.bepls.com
And they are showing different impact factors :

Impact Factor: 0.971 [UIF, Germany]
Global Impact Factor 0.533 [ Australia]
Scientific Journal Impact Factor: 2.59 [ Canada]
Scientific Indexing Services Impact Factor: 0.982 [USA]
NAAS Rating : 4.95

My question is : what are the differences between all of them, and How can I evaluate the quality of a journal beside its impact factor.
Thanks!

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/101/how-do-you-judge-the-quality-of-a-journal

They are fake impact factors, or bogus impact factors.
For instance, the first two you name (Universal Impact Factor, or UIF, and Global Impact Factor, or GIF) were identified as fake impact factors by this paper in 2015. Some others on that list are in the 'list of misleading and fake metrics'.
The original Impact Factor (IF; or Journal Impact Factor, JIF) is the one calculated by Web of Science (which belongs to Clarivate Analytics, or formerly to ISI which belonged to Thomson Reuters).
I just checked the Journal Citations Reports (JCR) of Web of Science. (The JCR is the section where you can find the JIFs). The journal you link to, BEPLS (or Bulletin of Environment, Pharmacology and Life Sciences), can not be found there.
In other words, it does not have an Impact Factor (other than the fake ones).
(EDIT: As you mentioned in your edited post and in the comment, the journal is listed in the Master Journal List. To be clear, it is in the "Zoological Record" index of Web of Science, and not in the SCI, or Science Citation Index, which may be the reason why the journal does not have a JIF. But I am too unfamiliar with the "Zoological Record"-part of Web of Science to know the details.)
It is most likely a predatory journal. Beware.

Thanks a lot for the clarifications. One thing I don't agree with you on is the fact that the journal is not indexed in Thomson, it is actually indexed I could find it. Don't copy paste the ISSN, but instead type it and it will show up or copy paste the title that worked for me. That's why I was confused. is it possible to have such misleading Journals indexed by Thomson ?

Indexing means very little.

Thank you, Amine Chadi - - see my edited post. I meant to write that the journal is not in the JCR (where the JIFs are located). But you are right that it is indeed in the Master Journal List. There may be various reasons though why a journal is "indexed" but without a JIF - most often, this is due to a journal being indexed in the ESCI-part of Web of Science. In the present case, the journal is indexed in the "Zoological Records"-part, with which I am too unfamiliar to say something in detail. Whatever the background, the journal you name does not have an Impact Factor.


text:
I am a 2nd year undergraduate student. What should I do now to prepare for my PhD?
I am a 2nd year undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering, in India. I am really willing to go into Academia as a researcher. I am specifically interested in Aerospace Controls. Some points to consider :
1) I love the fast internet access in university, so that I can research and learn all I want.
2) I have read up a few research papers regarding error reduction in GPS measurements, when I was doing a Supervised Project under a professor. Reading research papers are gruelling, but after 2-3 days of bending your mind over them and finally understanding what the author intended to say, I feel elated.
In this specific case, I read up a few algorithms and got excited on the prospect of developing my own algorithms for error reductions.
3) I have a fair academic standing with a cumulative grade point of greater than 9 out of 10
So I would like a few pointers on what I can do now, as an undergraduate student to prepare for my PhD.

To the person who voted to close: This question is about entering research academia and therefore unambigiously on-topic.

Agreed! The [faq] clearly states that questions about "Transitioning from undergraduate to graduate researcher" are on topic.

It might be point 1 that's leading to the close votes.

Possible duplicate of Importance of Undergraduate Research

As an undergraduate student, the best thing you can do to help your admissions case is to get involved in research. This will allow you to demonstrate that you have the capability to do good research, which is one of the biggest things admissions committees and individual professors are looking for when choosing among applicants. Maintaining a solid academic record is also useful, and having an understanding of the literature in the field you're interested in is also good. However, direct experience will let you see if academia really is what you want to do or not.

It depends on where you're getting your PhD, but in countries (like the Netherlands) where a PhD position is treated like a job that you interview for, I would say get published. This is encompasses aeismail's answer, but I would focus on the specific goal of getting a paper published. Every student project you do, ask yourself what kind of results would make your professor say "we should publish this". This has the following advantages:

Publishing a paper takes some psychological development. You need to be able to deal with the drudgery of finishing a project without procrastinating, and getting it to a certain level of quality. If you can show that you've already mastered this skill, you will be a much more valuable PhD student.
It forces you to work to a higher standard, so you'll learn more, and you'll focus on the details that are important for research work.
It gives the person evaluating you for a position something to look at that is much more informative than a grade list or a CV.

Of course, if the threshold to PhD-ship is an exam rather than an interview, you should study with the exam in mind, but the goal of publishing while you're still an undergrad will help you be a better PhD student once you get in.

Here are a couple of pointers that are distinct from aeismail's answer that research is the most important thing you can be doing to prepare for and to be competitive for graduate school:

Read as many papers as you can from high profile conferences and journals in your field.  Even if you don't understand everything right now, you'll start to get a feel for where the cutting edge is, and and also about how to write good papers.  You'll probably also start to see which schools publish the most papers, and if you're looking for top programs, these are probably the ones.
Take hard classes, and get good grades.  Eventually, if you have the right prerequisites, try to take a graduate-level course or two and excel in it/them.
Start talking to your professors about graduate school, and try to form relationships where you will be comfortable asking for letters of recommendation.  They all went to graduate school, and some will have good advice on your path.  If you are doing research for a professor, especially make sure you discuss your future plans with him/her.
Learn LaTeX.  Although this seems like a little thing, you'll certainly find it helpful to be competent in LaTeX during graduate school.
Try to track down former students from your school who went on to graduate school in a similar field, and ask them about their experiences, and for suggestions about applying.
If your research leads to good results, attempt to publish those results.  Even if you get rejected, you've at least gone through the sometimes-obtuse submission process, and it is a worthwhile exercise.
Start looking into scholarship and fellowship opportunities now.  Even if you don't apply for a couple of years, you'll know what you may qualify for, and can start tailoring your application materials now.

Good points all. Number 3 is especially important, and I should have mentioned that in my original answer as well. (It's second on the priority list!) Number 4, while true in number-driven disciplines (math, physical sciences, engineering, even economics), may not be so useful for grad students in biology and the humanities—the infrastructure isn't there. I'd imagine a history professor, for instance, wouldn't know how to edit a TeX file for an article (even though there's no reason they couldn't!)