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How to select an internship topic from a set of suggested topics?
How would a student best select a topic among several suggested especially if it's her/his first time doing an internship and the internship period is short (2 months or 6 months)?
What are important things to consider?
Also, any suggestions to select an internship topic that would contribute to the skills needed to work in the industry (i.e. purely academic versus industry-related topic)?
PS: The topics suggested are accompanied with a select of corresponding papers.

If I were the student, I'd read the list of topics, look at some of the corresponding papers, and see whether any of the topics or papers makes me say to myself "Hey, I really want to look into this more deeply." If so, then I'd choose the topic that excites me the most. Working on a project is much easier if I feel that I really want to learn the topic than if I feel that I'm obligated to learn it because it's my job. (Fortunately, I get enthusiastic about mathematical ideas quite easily and spontaneously.)


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How common is it that publishers withdraw a paper due to incorrect conclusions?
Today there has been significant news coverage (at least in the UK) that the BMJ are withdrawing statements from two papers on the possible harmful side effects of statins. Here are the Guardian and BBC articles on it.
This led me to wonder how common such issues are in academia in general. In this case it appears the authors made an incorrect conclusion from a study which was not picked up in peer review. I can think of lots of similar possible situations where proofs may turn out to be incorrect or other data may be wrong/not properly dealt with.
In particular I'm thinking about less popular/controversial subjects where such things are unlikely to make the general news. Is it standard practice to issue a retraction if things are incorrect? If anyone has any numerical data on this that would be ideal.

Retracting every paper that has an incorrect conclusion would mean retracting a large part of past literature in some fields.

COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) have recommendations for what circumstances should lead to retraction of papers. Retraction is considered a very severe action and is not generally done lightly. In a document from COPE on retraction guidelines you can see what they recommend.
Clearly that does not answer your question but the problem about being general in academia is that the effects of problems in written articles differ between fields. What is wrong is obviously wrong, but if the effects are risking lives  or is harmful in some other direct way will be more likely in some fields than in others. Hence retraction is probably far more likely in life sciences than in, say history or philosophy (feel free to disagree or add other better examples).

Good point - Reinhart and Rogoff is considered to be a pretty egregious example where false claims in social science research probably directly harmed individuals - but that paper (at least the one in AER) has not been retracted.

It would help to give at least a brief summary of COPE's guidelines here, so that you answer still makes sense if COPE reorganize their website and break your link.

Not numerical data, but the Retraction Watch blog reports on retracted papers in the academic literature, including many papers retracted because they are wrong.

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Is it wise to contact the editor of a journals with my concerns regarding the length of the acceptance process?
I have finished writing my first paper to be published in a journal. My intent is to try to publish in a high-impact journal (there are two candidates from the IEEE Transactions class). However, my advisor and another professor, who is close to our research, both suggest that I should refrain from trying to aim that high, i.e. first publish in a lower ranked journal. They state that the reason is not the insufficient quality of the paper, but rather the length of the acceptance process, which is in their experience particularly for first-time authors very prolonged. The argument is, that I would lose many months, perhaps even more than a year in the back and forward process of rejections and resubmitions, when all this could be cut significantly, if a l. All that seems a bit pessimistic to me, of course, I don't want to wait so long, but I was under the impression that such a process would take at most 3-4 months.
Are those considerations regarding first-time authors deemed accurate?
Would it be appropriate/advisable to contact the editors of the journals with my concerns regarding the length of the acceptance process?
PS: the field is computer science

A big difference for first-time researchers is that you are in more of a hurry than everyone else. Your advisor can afford to wait an indefinite time for a publication to happen, as long as it gets published where they want; a PhD student close to graduation needs the publications now.

I am really not sure what you are asking, but is this related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2677/how-to-let-a-journal-know-that-its-submission-process-is-very-painful

I was under the impression that such a process would take at most 3-4 months.

No. 3-4 months would be, in my experience, extremely quickly for Computer Science transactions. That would mean that your submission would get accepted without modifications in the first revision, which almost never happens (and even then 3 months would be very fast). 1 to 2 years for the entire process is more common.
However, this has nothing to do with it being your first paper. It is the same for every submission. Those journals have pretty rigours peer review, which simply takes some time.
That being said, it will also be similar for other non-spam journals. I am not aware of any reputable CS journal that would suit your 3-4 months expectation.

Would it be appropriate/advisable to contact the editors of the journals with my concerns regarding the length of the acceptance process?

The answer would very likely be "deal with it or submit somewhere else". Frankly, if a journal had a reasonable way to cut down on the time required for the review process without hampering review quality, they would arguably do it anyway. They are not going to "make an exception" or anything of this ilk.

my advisor and another professor, who is close to our research, both suggest that I should refrain from trying to aim that high, i.e. first publish in a lower ranked journal. They state that the reason is not the insufficient quality of the paper, but rather the length of the acceptance process

I would assume they meant not "a lower ranked journal", but rather "a conference". Review durations for conferences are indeed much more predictable (and, generally, shorter, in the 2-month range on average).
Submitting to a weaker journal to get your notification a little bit faster does not seem like overly good advice to me. If they indeed were speaking about a lower-ranked journal, you should consider the possibility that they were sugar-coating their judgement that your paper is not good enough for a very strong journal.

I think it is perfectly appropriate to contact the editors with whatever question you have regarding the submission process. But first check the information in the web site. If there is not explicit information about the time it takes to review the manuscripts in the journals' instructions for authors (or elsewhere) then you can of course contact the editors. Personally I have contacted the editors previous to submission in several occasions to inquire about different aspects of the submission process or the journal's policy or even status (e.g. IF, indexing in PubMed, etc.).

By all means ask questions but don't ask for special treatment: you won't get it.

@DavidRicherby, I never said asking for special treatment. Of course you won't get it and indeed that would be unethical. However, it is perfectly appropriate to contact the editors with questions regarding the submission process, including how long it takes on average to complete the review process.

I know you didn't suggest asking for special treatment; I was just making sure the asker knows it's not a good idea. (The question refers to "contact[ing] the editors of the journals with my concerns" and it's only a small step from contacting somebody about one's concerns to asking them to alleviate those concerns.)

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Applying for internship in the US as a European Student
My question is about applying for a US internship(4 scale GPA) as a European student(with 10 scale GPA).
I took a look at this thread. An answer mentions that 93% of grades are 'A's, thus leading to a 4.0 scale GPA. In my country, the average GPA in my school is 6.3/10, which depends on lots of factors (difficult exams, professor unwilling to help etc). Practically, students scoring A's (10/10 or 9/10) in courses are very limited and in some courses like Calculus non-existent.
I've seen many internship programs from large corporations where they require a GPA of 3.5 and above.
When only one student in the history of my school has scored 3.9/4.0 (converted to 4 scale from 10 scale system, 9.9/10 in 10 scale) only 1% every year graduate with 3.5/4.0 and above GPA, what are my chances of being accepted at a US program even with experience in my area of interest? Are European GPA's handled differently than US GPA's? I believe a direct comparison between the two is impossible since in reality they are two different grading systems.

Your last sentence pretty much covers it.

"only 1% every year graduate with 3.5/4.0 and above GPA" That sounds about right. I'm guessing it's the same way at my school, and I'm in the U.S. Consistently getting an A in every class is supposed to be difficult. Granted, I'm in engineering. "depends on lots of factors (difficult exams, professor unwilling to help etc)" And you think it doesn't in the U.S.?

@ParthianShot Sound legit when average GPA in US is over 3.0. Take a look here http://www.gradeinflation.com/

As has been said, your last sentence hits the mark - a direct comparison is impossible.  I would argue that it isn't necessary, either.
I am a US native.  I am currently working an internship in the United States at a child company of a larger pharmaceutical business.  I know that my company had a "minimum" GPA for the application, but this was never mentioned in the interviewing process.  To me this implies that companies use GPA to see if a candidate meets a satisfactory minimum - it's a way to weed out applicants they know they don't want or need.  I think if you explain that your GPA is good by European standards, if indeed it is, then your application will be strong.
A few of my fellow interns are from Germany.  I don't know them well but I mention this to show that success is possible and that some companies in the United States, at least, have a good grasp of how grading scales work in Europe.  I think it worth mentioning that Europe seems to have a relatively smaller amount of grade inflation as compared to here.  That's an important point - grades are somewhat inflated here, and a 3.5 GPA probably indicates a level of performance that is different than you imagine.  Given this, I would say your chances of getting a job are good, especially if you adopt the normal tactics of applying to many positions and being prepared to take a few rejections.

Thanks, I appreciate your answer a lot. Do you believe it's worth mentioning the average gpa of my school or my current ranking(eg. top 5%) ?

I'm not 100% sure - the aforementioned internship is my first job in industry.  I don't think it too bold - in your place I would list my percentile ranking right after the point value, but again my experience here is limited.


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How to explain to department's president that my time spent as an undergraduate assistant/intern was goalless?
This is a follow-up from my question here on my atrocious relationship with my internship/assistance as an undergraduate at a teaching lab.
Since I only have some weeks left to end this awful experience, I am planning to visit the department's head(who is also my professor) at his office to explain how unproductive and pointless my "training" was and how I was being exploited by my supervisor.
The problem is that the president is also my professor(teaching courses I'm interested in), and I wonder if anything I say against my supervisor or my experience will worsen my future studies (and relationship) with my professor until I graduate.

Could you clarify whether the department presient (do you mean president?, which would be an unusual term) == "my professor" == "my supervisor"?

"President" == "my professor" != "my supervisor"

I'm not familiar with the term "my professor".  Do you mean "my advisor"?  I suggest clarifying within the question, not just in the comments.

I mean he is a professor in one of my courses.

You should think carefully about whether it's worth burning bridges. Academia is a very small place with large power disparities, and making enemies isn't necessarily the best way to start your career.

In your last question you described an unpaid internship that you regarded as exploitative, and you were advised by more than one person to quit the internship and/or discuss the prospect of quitting the internship with the supervisor of the internship.  So...?

@PeteL.Clark as mentioned it's not an unpaid undergraduate internship, as an assistant to the university I'm studying at. I clarified that since I have only some weeks left it won't be wise for me to quit because I won't even get a certificate!

@Nickolas: I am afraid I am now completely confused by "it's not an unpaid undergraduate internship" after the comments on your previous question, in which I thought you said exactly that.  "I won't even get a certificate!" I don't know why that's a problem or even what the certificate is for.  I don't even know where in the world this situation is taking place: some place where departments have "presidents", but I don't where that is.  You seem to think that you're providing enough context, so maybe someone else will see it that way.  Good luck.

@Nickolas I see no reason why talking to your Professor (not supervisor) about this will worsen your relationship with him... unless you were planning to jump in there and say its all the Professor's fault (it's clearly not anything to do with him). If you're just updating/explaining/complaining then there should be no problem. Go for it.

I wonder if anything I say against my supervisor or my experience will worsen my future studies (and relationship) with my professor until I graduate.

It could, and this depends on many factors (including the character of this professor, his relationship with your supervisor, your character and how you explain things etc...), I don't think anyone can predict whether or not it actually will.
I recommend first considering what you hope to achieve in discussing this with the head of the department (aka president/professor). I can imagine a couple of possibilities:

You feel the need to unload and feel some sympathy.
You care about the system and hope this can be avoided for future students.

If it is mainly the first, I strongly suggest talking to a friend over a beer instead. You'll avoid the risk, and also won't essentially waste your professor's time (which would probably negatively affect his impression of you).
If your motivation is the second, I think this is quite a noble and selfless thing to do, showing high integrity, but it does put yourself at quite a bit of risk with essentially no gain (it helps future students, but if I understand correctly, not you). If this is your goal, I urge you to first consider whether you think this professor would actually care about the advice of an undergrad (I have known professors who would appreciate it, but also some who would simply consider the student to be complaining, in which case relations with that professor would indeed worsen). If you think he will, then I suggest the following:
Before speaking to your professor, make sure you can present the situation clearly, as objectively as possible and concisely (the longer you speak, the more it sounds like a rant and you lose interest - also professors tend to be very busy, and thus have low attention spans for issues that don't seem important). Be very clear straight off the bat that you understand and agree that what has already happened has happened and nothing can/will be done for you, and your intent is solely to raise awareness of the issue so that it can be avoided in the future. Possibly put this intent in writing when contacting the professor for the meeting (again, as short as possible).
In the end, taking action here will involve risk, regardless of your intentions. You will have to weigh how much you care about the issue, and what chances you think you have.

I see this question as a duplicate of the other one, but I don't know how to make that official.
Here is what I said in my answer to the other question:
"Try to get out of there as gracefully as possible."
"Q: Should I talk to a professor about this topic?
"A: Yes, that would be fine, as long as you can avoid whining or complaining."
Perhaps it would be easier for you to avoid whining or complaining if you waited some time before sharing your constructively critical comments.

Since I only have some weeks left to end this awful experience, I am planning to visit the department's president (who is also a professor) at his office to explain how unproductive and pointless my "training" was and how I was being exploited by my supervisor.

Newsflash: Slavery has been abolished. If you were "exploited", it's because you didn't do your due diligence to find out what you were getting into. You should've asked "what exactly will I be doing?" and, if you were not satisfied with the answer "delivering mail", you should've looked for a different position.

The problem is that the president is also my professor(teaching courses I'm interested in), and I wonder if anything I say against my supervisor or my experience will worsen my future studies (and relationship) with my professor until I graduate.

It might very well have this effect, since nobody likes a whiner. I'd recommend just dropping the issue, forgetting about the past and focusing on what you can do in the future to further your career. I forget the saying exactly, but there's a saying that goes something like "pushing other people down won't float you up".

Of course I asked "what exactly will I be doing" before accepting the position. He said we were going to work on some interesting projects but instead I'm only wiping, cleaning and doing chores.


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Include Acknowledgements while submitting PhD thesis for review
I will submit my PhD thesis for review next month. Do I already include Acknowledgements within this version?
This seems a bit wrong to me since it indicates that I expect that I will definitely receive a PhD even though I have not had my defense yet (anything might theoretically happen...).
There is a similar question (Should supervisors read acknowledgments before the printed version of the thesis?) but I need a more PhD related answer. I mean, all members of my dissertation committee will read the Acknowledgements before I actually published my revised thesis.

Yes, include them. I don't find it arrogant at all that you believe at review time that you will do well and pass even if there are changes to be made. Lots of people are asked for some minor revisions, and your committee members know that. Your supervisor should not let you submit it for review if they don't believe that your work is sufficient to pass review. They should also not allow you to have a defense or viva or whatever it's called in your locale unless they think you will pass. It's fine, but you could also ask your supervisor their opinion.
Believing in your work is OK. How would you ever publish a journal or conference paper after your PhD if you didn't think it would be accepted? You have to start believing in your own work, on your own, at some point soon. That's part of being an independent researcher which is what your near future is about.


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Should I not ask my students about their hometown?
Recently, I taught a class of five students. I asked for their native place and all  said that their hometown is X, but I didn't tell them my reason for asking.
I asked them because I can communicate easily with them if they are from Y, since I can speak the language of my hometown Y well.
Although I can communicate in our common language, I cannot communicate as well as I can in Y's language.
My doubt here is whether this would constitute discrimination based on place or is it perfectly fine to ask them?  Is it similar to asking about race, religion, caste, etc., which is generally not recommended?

Why can't you ask about their country or language? Why do you need to know their town?

You should probably state what part of the world you are in; cultural norms vary widely. There is also a huge difference between a global institution, where the answer would probably be a country, and a more regional institution, where the answer would probably be a neighborhood.

I edited your question to fix up the English a little. I suspect you're getting downvotes because the idea is offending people, otherwise it's an OK question.

@Polygnome I know that all of them are from my country only. But, each state has its own language. Yeah, I think it may be okay to ask language, but unfortunately, discrimination is prevalent based on language only.

Just offer what languages/dialects you speak. (However it might be inappropriate to speaking anything which is not the official course language in class)

@hanugm has the course been advertised to be in a specific language? is there an official "course language" that has been set y your Institution?

"Where are you from?"

@Polygnome in some countries like India or the Philippines, different regions have different languages.

A problem you might not foresee (I don't know enough about India, specifically, to be able to make an answer out of this) is that let's say there are 4 students who say they are all from Tamilnadu (? I saw it on a map)... only one of them was actually raised by her American father in a home that speaks American English. Her father also ensures she speak Hindi (?). She doesn't tell you that, so you start speaking in whatever language or dialect is used in that particular area... and completely lose her, and maybe she's too shy to speak up? (Yes, this is a real world example)

Your conclusion might be discriminatory, regardless whether you ask your question or not. If a majority of your students understands the language from Y well, the minority that does not understand it as well can feel compelled to accept that you teach in that language.

I don't have sufficient rep to answer, and anyway I think the point has been covered, but just to reiterate; this seems unprofessional to me. It's agreed or understood by all those attending your course that it is taught in a specific language, so teach it in that language.

I thought it would be good to edit my answer to start with a link to an article written from the perspectives of people who have had the question "where are you from?" asked repeatedly and who can explain some of the issues with it much better than I can: https://hbr.org/2020/10/whats-wrong-with-asking-where-are-you-from

No, don't do this the way you describe.
I suspect you're talking about local languages in a nation state where there are many many languages, and yet there is a standard lingua franca, perhaps government-imposed, in which business at your institution is typically conducted. I don't have any personal experience with this situation, being an English speaker in a primarily English country, but I think there are some more general ideas that I'd recommend you think about.
Three recommendations: first, if you must do so, why not merely relay where you are from? If a student recognizes this location and can infer you can speak an additional language with them, they can make this connection on their own. Avoid asking questions of others that they might be uncomfortable with or that might lead to stereotyping.
Second, avoid playing favorites (or even appearing to) as an instructor. I think it is natural to associate with someone who shares something with you (fans of the same music? same hobby? same language/hometown?) and to treat them differently, as well as to view someone from someplace less common as "different" or "other". I'd avoid asking questions that categorize people. A safer alternative sometimes used as a mnemonic by instructors is to ask about a more generic "something special", where students can choose exactly what piece of information to share (that said, not all students really like these get-to-know-you games, myself included).
Third, although I think there are a lot of good reasons to promote and cultivate languages and prevent their loss, I'm not sure the university classroom is the best place. Students who learn concepts from you in a common local language to both of you may have difficulties when they advance and are in other courses (or the "real world") needing to use the same concepts in a more typical language. Practicing using the language of the course may be better for both of you.

Yes, exactly. Resist "having special connections" with some of your students. It can all too easily generate alienation or suspicion-of-favoritism among the others...

This dos not directly answer the question.  Not all bad practices are discrimination.

@AnonymousPhysicist I'm not going to opine if it's legally discrimination according to any local laws or discrimination according to their university policies or anything. If it's enough to make people feel uncomfortable due to their place of birth or to make it appear like an instructor has favorite and not-favorite students, that's reason enough to not do it; that's my answer, and I think it covers what OP asked just fine: should I ask? No.

I agree with you.  I don't see the relevance of laws or policies.  But I think it's good to directly answer yes/no questions with a yes or no.

@AnonymousPhysicist I see. I feel the explanation is a lot more important than the yes/no, but I've added it anyways.

@BryanKrause Before someone else corrects you (and I am pretty sure much rudely), Hindi is not the national language of India. It's an Official Language along with English. It's quite a touchy topic due to the Hindi Imposition, especially among the South and North-East Indians.

@Aadhavan Thanks; I didn't mean to say "National Language" as in it's the one official language, just that it's a common tongue used by many who would otherwise speak a local language (though not necessarily all). Is there an alternative phrasing you would suggest that would convey that meaning? Maybe "lingua franca" instead of "national language"? Alternatively I could just leave mandarin as the only example, though that can be a bit touchy too.

@BryanKrause It's quite difficult to think of any alternative phrasing and as you highlighted the imposition of Mandarin is systematically wiping out Hokkien, Cantonese, and Teochew, so that's touchy too. I suppose you could say that in a country where Hindi and Mandarin are understood by a significant number of people would be quite agreeable.

@Aadhavan Please let me know if you think my edit is an improvement (or further feedback if it has not).

@BryanKrause This is great! Lol, Achievement Unlocked: Successfully avoided angry rants from the aforementioned groups.

I see two issues here:
The first issue is that you don't even need to know about the students' hometowns - your query is actually about their language proficiency. In an attempt to make your question more palatable you are using hometown as a proxy for language proficiency.
But answers about hometowns give more information than merely about language proficiency. The answers combined with other pieces of public data like surnames might contain hidden socioeconomic information - financial status, caste or class, family literacy level, family migration and parents' inter-caste marriage patterns, etc. Things which certain students might feel uncomfortable in revealing or discussing.
Asking about hometowns might also be code to know which students will be favored over others. Teachers should not appear to favour linguistic or cultural groups. Just to avoid this appearance of potential discrimination is in itself a sufficient reason to not ask such questions.
The second issue is that every course already has a certain language. This language is predetermined, and is connected both with courses taken prior to this course, as well as to coursework or industry work the student might take up after this course. There is a continuity of thought, jargon and even culture across the students' education, which is part of the learning.
Because of this continuity, is not appropriate for a teacher to unilaterally change the language for a course even if it results in a temporary improvement in understanding or retention.
Twenty years after your course, when the student needs to keep abreast of the latest developments in the industry, they will need to self-read journals or publications in the dominant language of the industry. If their education is already in that language, then having a few intermediary concepts delivered in their native tongue might be counterproductive. If the student is forced to work through their language difficulties now, it will result in a better long-term outcome.
This goes doubly for instructors. Teaching is not merely about knowing the subject - it is also about transferring information effectively. An instructor who is not comfortable with the language the course is to be delivered in, cannot be considered fit to deliver the course, regardless of the instructor's expertise with the subject matter.
Instructors need to use the course language instead of switching to their native language even if the class solely comprises of students proficient in the native tongue.

"The second issue is that every course already has a certain language. This language is predetermined" - I cannot quite agree with that claim. At least the way teaching is handled in Germany, it is commonplace for instructors to pick either German or English as a language used throughout the course in accordance with the students present during the first lecture, for instance. (It is well possible this is done differently in India, and it is also possible there are arguments why it is better like that; I'm merely disputing the claim that the course  language is generally predetermined.)

@O.R.Mapper Fascinating. Can't help but wonder how this can be done practically apart from the verbal lecture component. Does the instructor also swap the textbook from a German author to another textbook of an English author, after the first lecture? 1:1 translations would surely not be available... What about say HBR-like case studies, printed course notes, past years' question papers etc - or is it safe to say it effectively becomes a bilingual course with the verbal component and written components in different languages?

@Pranab: There is no such thing as a "textbook" for lectures here. In a few (very few!) lectures I witnessed that one or two books were recommended as further materials for those interested, but those were absolutely optional to read, by far not on the level of importance that I see here on Academia.SE "textbooks" are granted in some countries. With that said, any materials, such as slides and worksheets, are usually written in English. The ad-hoc agreement concerns the "talking language" during the lecture, as understanding complex spoken explanations/engaging in a dialogue is ...

... quite a different skill compared to reading materials in English (which all students are expected to be able to). So, yes, in a way, it effectively becomes a bilingual course.

In the US, and I suspect a fair number of other countries, it would be frowned upon for a professor to ask students in their class where they are from, unless perhaps that had direct relevance to the topic of the class. This is considered a personal question, and while generally appropriate in a social setting where you are having conversation with someone you do not hold authority over, for a professor asking that of their students (especially in a class setting in front of other students) would be perceived as nosy, intrusive, and at least mildly inappropriate.

Lots of towns have reputations, good and bad. In the US, some people might not want to admit they're from a tiny town (for fear of being treated like a redneck), a town with a reputation for violence and poverty (e.g. Gary, IN), or perhaps even from a wealthy suburb after all your classmates say they're from less wealthy places.

I guess I disagree. I've asked it quite a lot in the US without negative issues. Funny story. I was once in a place with very few Chinese students (near zero). I asked a student named Wong where he was from. California. And your parents? California. It turned out that his family had been in the US about 5 generations more than many of mine. It was actually an education for everyone, And the history of the Chinese in the US is very sad. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

But part of my success with doing this was that I was truly interested in the students as people and was able to project that.

@Buffy Your story sounds like an uncomfortable experience for that student to me ...

@Buffy sure, a sufficiently socially aware person could probably be trusted to judge when asking these sorts of questions would be appropriate. In general, I’d say it’s inadvisable. (Also, I wonder how you can be sure that there were no “negative issues”. It seems completely possible that you caused annoyance or offense to some students with those questions but not enough for anyone to raise a concern.)

Again, my experience was that this was always quite positive. A way of making a personal connection, not an interrogation. And personal connections are a good thing. It is how mentorships can form.

@Buffy I think what Dan is saying is that while your experience, and the experience provided to you by the student, was quite positive, for the student it may not have been. They may have felt pressure to conform to the idea that it's an interesting fact that their family has been in the US for generations, whereas for them it's not an interesting fact but a daily annoyance that so many people still treat them as an outsider and express surprise at their life history.

One recurring trope is the constant surprise that a US-born student has "such good English"; your example is another: "oh but where are your parents from" can come across as a "oh I don't mean where were you born, I mean where are you from, 'for real', that is, you can't be from here so where do you really come from?", even if you mean it with complete sincerity and even if you'd be just as curious about the life history of someone born in Kansas who looks white.

@Buffy Positive for you, alienating for the student.  I suggest you delete your comment.  Experiments on stereotype threat show that minority students who are asked about their identity learn less.

@Buffy: See also this video.

For me, I don't mind that much because I understand that it is often asked out of curiosity. But it can be frustrating to be asked it over and over again over the course of one's entire life. If you are curious, you could ask, "What's your ethnicity?" To me that would be preferable to asking, "Where are you from?" Some people won't mind, but some people will, so err on the side of caution. Also it comes across differently if a minority asks. Even I have asked someone's ethnicity.

@Andrej Americans are overly sensitive about some things, and not sensitive enough about others. Probably similar in that regard to people of most nationalities. As for whether it’s wrong or not to ask this, it depends on the context. In the context described by OP, as I said I think it’s inappropriate. In general, professors tend to think they are more charming and relatable to students than they actually are, so trying to “make a connection” by asking personal questions in a situation where students may feel compelled to answer is misguided at best, and potentially can cause real offense.

@Mehta: good point asking directly about ethnicity if that's what you are interested in. BTW: in my culture (German), "where are you from?" is one of the (not too many) opening questions for smalltalk among natives. Not asking anyone who may be of a different ethnicity where they are from feels, well, discriminating to me... (The answer has the level of detail they're happy to share ($village/next_big_town/$state/...). Polite follow up asking for more detail is not poking further by repeating the question, though, but relating more detail about yourself.)

Directly asking about a particular ethnicity may be just as offending, though: when I was undergrad student (in Germany) a fellow student (originally from Iran) asked one of our TAs "Are you Persian?" - the slightly offended answer was "No, I'm Armenian!"

My doubt here is whether this would constitute discrimination based on place.
Asking a clear and direct question with no offense meant (whatever it is) would certainly not constitute "discrimination" of any sort, especially if the students are not obliged to answer. Discrimination means preferential treatment or mistreatment and you haven't done anything to that extent. The current attempts to extend the notion to everything that some people may possibly find somewhat "sensitive" under certain circumstances are just mere abuse of common sense and communication norms.
As to languages, I'd better stick to the official language of the university whatever it is: that is what is normally expected and what the students signed up for regardless of their native dialects. It is OK to switch to a particular student dialect in a one on one conversation during the office hours if you both find out that it facilitates the communication but I wouldn't do it in the classroom even if everybody there were speaking my native tongue (and I had such small graduate classes a couple of times). The reasons vary from the fact that all terminology and other similar things the students need to learn and use in parallel courses (as well as the textbooks) would be in English, so I'd better make my presentations coherent with other lectures and texts, to just my desire to practice the language of the country I am currently living in as much as possible.

Asking someone about their identity, including their place of origin, is not discrimination.  It is not necessarily a bad thing to do.  Not talking about identity perpetuates the idea that some identities are bad and should be hidden.
However, in an educational context, drawing attention to students' identities can cause harm.  If you ask students where they are from, students who are from disadvantaged areas may experience stress, which reduces how much they learn.  This phenomenon, which is known as stereotype threat, has been found in many experiments.
If you ask students about their identities after they have finished learning and taking exams, then stereotype threat is no longer relevant.
You can asks students about themselves in a more general way, such as "What should I know about you?" at any time.

Let's say half of the student were coming from Y: you would be able to build a special relationship with them ... what about the students coming from X?
You have to be fair.
You could provide an excellent "service" to students from Y and a very good "service" to students from X. Do not proceed that way: you have to provide a common "service" service to students from X and from Y. Will it be only "very good"? probably.
Let's say you are employing two persons, a man and a woman. They do exactly the same job, performing the same tasks, carring the same responsibilities ... and the man is paid an excellent salary of 90 carrots per hour, while the woman is paid a very good salary of 80 carrots per hour. Someone[1] may argue that people from all genders have a very good "status" since they get a very good or an excellent salary, but they all got a salary.
What do you think?
In these relative terms, students can say you discriminated them, and they would be completely right. If the solution is to strive to give both groups the excellent service, or set just the minimum common, giving both groups a very good service, it depends on external conditions/forcings.
[1] someone not particularly brilliant, I admit.

It is possible to ask such a question as a way of making a connection, as long as you say something about yourself.
But it is also possible to ask it in such a way that you imply that the person is somehow an "outsider" or "other". Avoid that, of course, though it may take some finesse.
In other words, the question can be an inclusive or an exclusive one as well as being neutral. The first situation is fine. The last might be misinterpreted, so use caution.

However, I worry about your motives for doing this. In a class, even a small class, you should speak a language known to all students. A language in which they are proficient. If your use of language would exclude some students you should rethink it.
My understanding of language in India is that, an educated person probably speaks at least three languages; English, Hindi or Tamil (maybe both) and a local/regional language, possibly several. I don't know how much the local languages differ from each other or from the more widely used languages, but using one in class (rather than in private conferences) could be problematic if they aren't shared. Again, it is the inclusion v. exclusion issue.
An additional principle, is that if a student in a class asks a question, then all students should hear and understand both the question and the answer. Questions asked by one student are also of concern to others, some of whom are less willing to ask.

Not sure why this is being downvoted. It seems entirely accurate to me, at least from an education perspective. I dunno how accurate the statements about languages in India are.

Try to replace India with Switzerland, where the languages are English, German, French and a local/regional language (either variations of German, or Italian, or the other latin language they have in the mountains).
Will the downvotes disappear? who knows.

Since the question "What is your home town" has many possibilities for misinterpretation, and in addition it is not even the question you want to ask, don't do it.
Most of the courses I teach are taught in English, and not the local language, due to the presence of many non-native speakers, exchange students etc. The official course language in those cases is English. In smaller classes I will usually ask all students to just briefly present themselves, using open ended questions such that they can choose what information to relay themselves. In most cases it is clear already from that presentation if I happen to be in a class with only native speakers. In those cases I will simply ask if everyone is a native speaker to comfirm, and then I switch. If not, I of course stay English.
I think you can use a similar approach.

No question is discriminative; the reaction to the answer may be.
For example: "Are you pregnant or are you planning to be within X months?" is a question that will start up fanatic spree and the highest-qualified job for the asker will be a dustman. In my work this is a must-answer-truly question because we are working with radioactive materials; any answer but "no" means the candidate is immediately rejected or offered different position.

Lectures, meetings, conferences, exams,... It does not matter what type of "venue" it is, the rules are the same.
Hometown, county, continent,... It does not matter either - it is about communication proficiency, language mostly.
Asking about the members' origin does not cover their abbility to communicate. Even though 90% of attendants are native in language A it does not mean they are all proficient in language B.
Your question should be "What are the languages you are proficient with?" and pick the one with 100% coverage. Otherwise stick to the oficial one. For the lectures do cover all mandatory parts in the official language and use the preferred one only for clarification and finetuning the nuances. The test will be in the official language so the students must be given informations mandatory for the test.

I have attended few international conferences where English was the official language, or one of them and all of them were in non-english speaking country. English is my second language as well, after Czech. There some of them with language issues.
#1: The conference was held at the 100 years anniversary of the organising body. For the first day the speeches were demanded to be one in english and one in the native language. I and my colleagues were pissed off by that choice and looking in the audience we were able to find all the attendants who were not fluent in the native language as well. They didn't even ask whether the audience is okay with this. Even the presenters were surprised and one was kindly but strictly asked to return to the native language (her #3) when she slipped to english (#2) because her slides were english.
#2: The conference was organized by a department of a university and most of the presenters were from the university and many were PhD students there. Many struggled with english and sometimes they switched desperately to their native language and kept there for few presentations even though the official language was english. It was annoying for few of us who were not able to speak the native language.
#3: At the conference there were few attendants that were known not to be profficient in the native language. When the chairman saw they left the audience and saw the presenter was struggling talking english he asked the audience whether all are okay with switching the language. After the nod from almost everybody and no complaint then they asked the presenter to switch to the other language. Next presenter was asked to give their talk in english again.

The radioactivity example is confusing because that is discrimination - just because it's ethically necessary doesn't mean it's not discrimination.

Why confusing? The question is not discriminating at all. If the candidate would be rejected from office position, it is disrimination. If the candidate is rejected from position of neutron imagining specialist it protection of the fetus.

Both of those are discrimination.  One is unethical discrimination.

I'd think you should not do this, probably in any of the main cultures (that I'm dimly aware of) in the world. It invites trouble. Those who can feel they're part of the same smaller cultural group as you may feel happier, but those not in that smaller group will have reason to wonder what impact that will have...
I've said before, and do truly believe, that a good teacher should have a substantial "professional persona", but it should be somehow personal yet impersonal, specific yet non-specific...

In some countries it is quite common to have an idea of the home town or region of most students. First because certain surnames are localised; second because the pronunciation is strongly affected by the local dialect (anyone in Italy can understand that I’m from Piedmont just from the way I pronunce the letter ‘e’); and third because frequently you can read it off the ID the students present at the exams.

Do the opposite: tell them about your background.
Your motivation, if I understood the question correctly, was to offer an additional means of communication, i.e. in addition to the common language you can also communicate in the local language Y.
So, instead of asking them if they're from Y, just tell them that you have a Y-related background. The students can come to their own conclusions: thus, if there are any students who also speak Y, they can choose to communicate in Y instead of the common language, if they feel the need for it.

First of all, asking about one thing to find out another is sneaky and somewhat manipulative.  If/when people find out, they may feel hurt by this.  Secondly, I like the idea of expanding a class to include another language, but it has to be done right, and if it's done without prior warning, I strongly disagree with it.
A lot of answers focus on the harm that can come to students who learn concepts and jargon in a language that isn't the predominate industry language.  And that's a valid concern.  On the flip side, sort of next to the 'favoritism' thing, but beyond perceptions and hurt feelings... It's unfair to the students who don't speak your native language to have parts of the class that they can't access.
I'm an American English speaker, and I'm now imagining being in a class with 30% hispanic students (which is accurate to how my elementary school was), and having the bilingual teacher teach certain math mnemonics only to those students who understand Spanish.
Granted, the reverse exists here, and is just as (or more) problematic, especially for children.  But I agree with the other answers here: There's an understanding that the course is taught in a specific language, and the students signing up for the class are not expecting to need to know a different language.
If I were in your class and was one of the few students who did not know your native language, and you were to explain important concepts to only those who did, and I missed valuable information because of this, especially if my grade suffered or I felt like I couldn't apply the rest of the information because of the missing content, I would likely go to the dean or try to ask for a refund for the course.  And although there may be no intentionally missing concepts, it's easy to forget that you haven't explained a concept, because you explained it on the side.
On the other hand, if it was in the course description, "Professor speaks X and Y", or "Office hours help available in language Y", then there's no problem with that.  The students know what they're paying for before they sign up for your class.  And the students don't have to tell you personal information to get to the point.  To my previous example, if my parents had enrolled me in a bilingual English/Spanish school, no one could be upset if half of math class was inaccessible to me because I don't speak Spanish.

I don't really understand this answer. OP seems to have been hoping that all 5 students were from Y, at which point it would be natural to ask "would you like to do part of this course in [the other language]"? I see no hint that OP was considering switching languages without the consent of all involved.

It's really easy to fall into if 4 out of the 5 students speak the other language.

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text:
Computer science classes and their strange feedback standards
I'm young undergraduate kid who just stepped into the big world of computer science. I've had experience working as a developer at a companies and really liked it, and I decided that if I wanted to pursue Computer science seriously, that I should pursue an undergraduate degree in computer science.
A few quarters later, I'm utterly frustrated with how TAs and professors answer student questions regarding homework as vaguely as possible. For instance, a common pattern is "I don't understand how policy XYZ works in contexts A, B and C" is usually met with "It says XYZ in the assignment sheet." However, it seems that all the CS classes offered at my university follow this bizarre procedure of just telling the student to just read the assignment sheet.
The reason I'm so dumbfounded is because when I was working as a developer, questions like these were applauded and were answered with enthusiasm. In my other subjects, the same enthusiasm occurs. It just seems that computer science academia has this strange standard unique to all others.
Perhaps it's a product of how competitive it is, perhaps the professors and TAs just don't have time for thousands of student questions that have "obvious" answers. But I have to ask, are the majority computer science courses at other universities like this as well?

I don't understand your example/pattern. Can you elaborate? More explicitly, I don't get "policy XYZ". Grading policy? Something else?

Also, the question is subject to closure since you only have a yes-no question. The answer would logically be no, but that won't help you. What do you really need from the community here? Say more.

On one assignment, we were given a snippet of code that we were to use in our assignment. The assignment spec sheet wrote we were to use it "without modification." On top of that, we were to use some old code from a previous assignment "without modification." One student noted that the tabbing/comment format on the snippet provided by the professor differed from from their old assignment (we lose points if we're not consistent, but the professor has expressed they do not mind if our comment/tab standards are different from his) and what they should do. He was met with "Read the spec."

If the answer is "yes" then I'll suck it up. If the answer is "no" then I'll consider pursuing other universities/other majors. How did you conclude the answer is "logically no"? I'm unfamiliar with with the world of academia. I apologize if this sounds like a rant, I just thought appropriate backstory was warranted. Let me know if I should delete parts of it or rephrase parts of it.

I doubt that it is the university/department as a whole. I wonder if the TA has just been given instructions to give minimal help. Some professors might have such a policy. Some TAs might just interpret policy that way. Or just be clueless. Did you specifically point out the inconsistency? I doubt, however, that re-tabbing is considered a "change". I'm not in charge, of course.

"I doubt that it is the university/department as a whole." You have no idea how much relief you've brought me. As for your question, it's all on an online message board where all TAs and professors are active participants. I didn't explicitly say "look this clearly is contradictory" but you'd have to be very ... special .. not to immediately notice it. I also am inclined to agree with you, but if a professor keeps restating "without modification," you start to second guess yourself a lot.

I think what Buffy means is that since there are so many computer science courses at so many universities, it is inconceivable that they all have the property you describe. Hence the answer to your question is “no”. Although I suppose a rigorous proof of that would require giving a specific counterexample.

@DanRomik, my classes are a counterexample, but that doesn't help the OP. Also, I'm retired.

I'm wondering if the majority of universities share these properties and if these properties are just going to be present as I climb the computer science academic ladder.

I don't understand your question. "It says XYZ in the assignment sheet." could be a very reasonable answer.

I've been advising CS teachers for years (in person and in print) to give complete feedback. I think you are in an anomalous situation but can't put my finger on why with just the information you've given. It now reads like a rant and not a question.

Apologies, feel free to close it then. I clearly need to spend more time in academia before questioning my professors!

Not at all. But you need to help us better understand the nature of the issue. Moreover, make us understand what it is you really need. The first answer (just given, below) may be great or terrible. I can't say without knowing more.

Incredibly common trope. Not restricted to CS. See the following (q.v., "This message brought to you by every instructor who ever lived"): http://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1583

And also this: https://www.zazzle.com/its_in_the_syllabus_t_shirt-235055245426509042

If its any consolation, the quality and helpfulness of any instructor - from personal experience in multiple academic settings - can range from "I can't believe you people are allowed to keep your job" to "I can't believe anyone can be as good at their job as you are at yours". I've experienced both of the extremes, and the vast majority of cases are in-between but mostly well to the positive side. Computer-related fields are some of the most tolerant of interpersonal "quirkiness", as is academia generally, so embracing a strategy of "how can I make the most of this" will aid your sanity :)

It is! This is just more evidence that I selected the right major! I'm happy to hear that I don't have to grit my teeth for the next few years, er, at least not for a majority of my cs classes.

I don't really understand your question. However, I think there is something wrong with your premise:

However, it seems that all the CS classes offered at my university follow this bizarre procedure of just telling the student to just read the assignment sheet.

This is not a bizarre procedure. It is entirely reasonable to expect students to read the assignment sheet.
Of course, you can and should ask questions when the assignment is unclear or there is an error in it. However, it sounds like the TAs don't think that is the case and they think you should just re-read it and think carefully.
Also the TAs cannot tell you the answers to your assignment. Perhaps the questions you are asking are effectively asking for the answers. If that is the case, then it is correct for the TAs to deflect back to the assignment sheet.

when I was working as a developer, questions like these were applauded and were answered with enthusiasm.

When you were working as a developer, everyone is working together to solve the problem. A course is a different situation. TAs presumably know the answers, but they aren't going to give them to you. They are there to help you figure it out yourself.

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text:
Can I thank websites that host illegal book downloads in the acknowledgements section of my thesis?
My stance is that these websites are a great boon to the research community and they were certainly extremely helpful for my research. I think they should be applauded rather than persecuted, and while they may be illegal now, I think a way to make them legal should be found (in the same way I can download articles legally through my university's subscription to all the major publishers and journals).
Can I thank them in the acknowledgements section of my thesis?

You can, but it would be unwise to do so. Just like you wouldn't write "I thank Mr. X for sending me PDFs of articles that I couldn't download legally", you shouldn't acknowledge illegal websites.

you may simply donate its founders, that will be the best way to thank them

I think that such an acknowledgement is likely to create a bad impression as it basically says that you do not respect intellectual property rights, which would be regarded as a negative quality in most academic disciplines.

That makes me wonder if you should also thank all the authors and publishers who are either too busy or too oblivious to go after those illegal sites.

If you do, and I wouldn't recommend it, you should keep in mind that any specific acknowledgement could be used as a legally binding means to persecute that website and the people that run it for their illegal actions.  So, the consequences would not affect you and you alone. (Though they would still affect you)

A phrasing suggestion: "Thank you to those who provided me with copies of X textbooks".  It could also refer to people who donated them.

I think it is not a great idea, for the reasons cited in Pete L. Clark's answer (more or less). On the other hand, I think that just posting this question (and it receiving as much attention as it does!) is a step in the right direction (with respect to freedom of information). In fact, I believe that most likely, the impact of this question is already greater than whatever you would write in the acknowledgements will ever have (usually, not many people read a thesis, and probably less of those who carefully read acknowledgements, so unless it turns out to be truly exceptional...).

These sites don't operate on the behalf of freely available scientific content. It is just a source of income for those operating the site (ads, bitcoin donations, ...) Don't be naive and blame yourself by thanking them. It is highly unprofessional.

@Ben Crowell intellectual property is not a matter of "political opinion" it is a matter of ethics.

... and by the way "face our wrath" is a rather hyperbolic representation of "likely to create a bad impression"!

It would be a good idea to thank also those who share books and articles legally. For instance, authors uploading their papers on arXiv or on their webpages.

@lejonet: that varies, I’m pretty sure.  Some sites — e.g. the ones styled as general file-sharing hosts, for instance, which strongly encourage one to sign up for an account — are certainly out for money.  But there are others — more library-styled — that don’t encourage registration, don’t carry ads, generally don’t otherwise appear to be monetising their content, and claim that they are motivated by ideals of openness.  If you find this implausible, compare all the hours of volunteer labour that go into the free software movement, from largely similar motivations.

@DikranMarsupial : Is it ethical to charge 150 euros for a book to a university professor whose monthly pay is 1000 euros and whose state funded university has not purchased library books in some years? Is it ethical to charge the public university 15 euros for a scan of an article?

@Dan Fox It is what is known as "commerce".  If books are over-priced, then publishers will bring the costs down if we don't buy them.  If we do buy them, it is an indication the book is worth the price, and hence it is a fair trade.  If authors want to make books available cheaply (which I would applaud) there is nothing to stop them from publishing their books using a publisher such as lightning-source of lulu.  If an author wants to make some money in return for the effort in writing a book (which is a lot), I see nothing unethical in that. If someone wants to support making ...

high quality academic materials freely available, then the solution is simple, produce the material and give it away (or support those who do make it freely available).  Personally it is not clear to me why academics still use commercial publishers, as it has been demonstrated that journals and books can be competently compiled and distributed without them at little or no cost to the author or the reader.  However, in my view, high cost doesn't legitimize the theft of intellectual property, I think Ferrari's are over-priced, but it would be unethical to use that as an excuse to steal one! ;o)

Should we thank a library, a bookshop, or Amazon, that provided legal copies? Should we thank the office suppliers, that provided paper to write?

@DIkranMarsupial: Your claims about how commerce works suppose a lot of conditions about efficiency and freeness of markets that are (badly) false for the markets under discussion. In the particular market under debate, that for books and journals, the pricing is determined mainly by institutional factors in the US and to a lesser extent Europe. For the individual professor, particularly one not in the US, there is no market and no choice. For many researchers there is no "legal" access available at all. That's of course not what your "commerce" argument assumes.

If any of the committee members has any book on that site, book which you might have not even used, I wonder what (s)he would think about the acknowledgement.

@DanFox Your comments about the efficiency and freeness of the market suggest you didn't read the part of my comment where I pointed out that there are plenty of publish on demand printers that mean that authors can publish academic text books at very low cost, should they choose to do so.  Mrs Marsupial does exactly that and I have helped edit books published in that manner.  Commerce has already provided the means to bring down book prices, you might ask yourself why academics choose not to use them more widely.

And as for journals, see jmlr.org - a top CS journal that is free for both authors and readers.  As I said, any academics capable of using LaTeX have no real need for traditional commercial publishers, which indicates that the market is not as "false" as suggested.

Absolutely not.  If you use such a website to obtain downloaded material, that is something to keep to yourself.

You can thank whomever you want in the acknowledgments of your thesis, but there may be consequences that you have to live with.
In my opinion it is a bad idea to admit to illegal activity in a formal document like this.  Once you write that, you cannot unwrite it: it will be archived for the rest of your career.  I don't really think you'd get in any trouble directly, but by doing so you're advertising the fact that you are willing to break rules that you don't like and do so entirely openly.  I think that a lot of potential employers prefer employees who when they break the rules for a good reason, do so more quietly.
I also don't really see what you're gaining by doing this.  A thesis acknowledgment is not a step toward legal free downloading of texts.  I happen to agree with you that "a way to make them legal should be found".  One way I work towards this is that I make all of my lecture notes -- some of which are very close to being textbooks -- freely available on the internet.  Whenever I have spoken with publishing companies, I mention at the first meeting my requirement that my material be made freely available on the internet.  To my surprise, they have not walked out of the room.  I also have largely stopped assigning expensive required texts.
In summary: an acknowledgment to the providers of illegal content is a microscopic flouting of the establishment, not a helpful act.  I recommend that you think a bit more carefully about what you can do to actually improve the situation.

From a personal-benefit standpoint, I think your answer is well-reasoned. But I disagree with the claim that OP's idea is not beneficial. Publicly declaring that you are one of the people who has done something taboo is a strong way to dispel the taboo. Some (much more serious) examples that come to mind are LGBT coming-out, undocumented coming-out, and the recent phenomenon of women publicly telling abortion stories. Of course there is a personal cost, but it may reduce the personal cost others face in the future.

@R.. But does that public declaration have to be made in a thesis? I'd much rather see it on the author's personal page or blog than in a serious work of scientific literature. I'd rather not see science and politics mix if I can help it.

it will make it very easy for a publisher to take you to court for the cost of each book on your bibliography that you didn't pay for!

@R: First of all, the activity in question is not "taboo" in any sense like the examples you've mentioned.  In my opinion it's hardly taboo at all; it's just illegal.  Second, putting something in a thesis is a kind of public declaration, but as publicity goes it is virtually guaranteed to have no effect.  If the OP really wanted to help the cause, he could write a piece "In praise of illegal downloading" for the Chronicle or something like that.

Acknowledging the website by name also leads to the possibility of the site being taken down, thus going against your goal. Acknowledging the site with no name is just a political statement and doesn't actually acknowledge anyone.

@JamesRyan: It's worse. Any book he downloaded from an illegal website is a book that he didn't have legal access to. So the author of the book can demand that he remove anything that comes from that book from his thesis. It's like making a photocopy of an unpublished paper, perhaps one that the author didn't want to publish.

@gnasher729: No, copyright does not work that way, at least not without a sufficiently narrow definition of "comes from". Moreover, everyone has "legal access" (not a relevant concept to citing a work anyway) to all of these via (possibly distant) libraries. It's just not convenient access.

@neuguy: I'm not convinced that it does need to be made there or that it's a good idea. I just think the assertion that there is no value in doing this is unwarranted. There are potential benefits to be weighed against the costs and the possible benefits of different approaches.

"Once you write that, you cannot unwrite it: it will be archived for the rest of your career."  Does that apply to StackExchange questions where the OP has probably forgotten to use a fake name too??

I had a similar problem in my ethics class but I approached it differently. My argument was that piracy forces legal content providers to provide better services. I’m not going to drill down on that as it’s a much bigger topic. Thanking piracy for illegal but freely available information isn’t ideal as it sounds like you're endorsing it. In a scholarly context, that’s not overtly wrong but it’s not ethical. Debating that with professor’s and/or ethics boards is radically different than here or with your peers.
Thanking piracy for forcing legal content providers to provide better services is better. That way you can structure arguments around what drives business change for the better. You can focus more on liking the end result without directly endorsing piracy. That might seem like dodging the issue a bit but I wasn’t comfortable directly thanking piracy in the context of my ethics class.
In the context of learning and freely available information, I think we’re all a little torn. I love the idea of all college level information being freely available to everyone but that’s not feasible. Someone has to put together that information. Someone has to help others understand that information. If actual books are being made there’s a production cost. Everything that goes into producing that information has a cost be it in time or money. It easy to think of free/piracy as a great idea but it’s usually sharing that end product that had a cost to produce, for free. If it was just shared for free no money would be made to cover the costs of producing that information. Why would anyone produce information if they lose time and money? They wouldn’t. Then there wouldn’t be that great information to pirate.
On the other hand, the legitimate cost of that information is very high. For a country with over a trillion in student loan debt, is more debt the right answer to get people trained and into the workforce?

"Why would anyone produce information if they lose time and money?"
Because their interest in knowledge and free flow of information, progress, etc. is genuine? That is how I see it, at least, but well, I'm not the kind of person that gets incentive from monetary value, but achieving a goal I find valuable.

It's a fine argument until you are at the receiving end of it. And I'd love to see any study that shows that "providing better services" is in any way stopping piracy.

@Ennar I should clarify and maybe edit that. A lot of people produce open source material and it's awesome. But it's usually volunteering their time, meaning they have a different income source. In the context of teaching college, professors need to be available full time, coursework needs to be updated, plus production of those materials. That process can't be completely supported by volunteers. Coursera is different but interesting because it's free courses from major universities. Universities with their own income volunteering a piece that makes Cousera great.

@gnasher729 Stopping piracy is impossible, reducing piracy is definitely possible. Think about buying music when it was locked up by DRM and you weren't allowed to listen to music you bought on your device because DRM wouldn't allow it. Pirated music could be listened to just fine. Later listening on devices was allowed and eventually streaming apps came in. Now people can pay, or not pay (Pandora and several others are free) to listen to music where-ever they want. Some people will always pirate, but most people are happy just listening on free/cheap services that are now available.

@Paraplastic2 I do agree that there are materialistic costs to effectively spread information which someone needs to take care of, like production of (paper) books or costs of running an university. But, I do not think that scientific inquiry (search for knowledge) and spreading of discoveries are mostly stimulated by materialistic gains, but are rather goals in itself.

@Ennar Agreed. The scientific inquiry (search for knowledge) and spreading of discoveries is motivated by curiosity ...and funded by someone/something else. I wish that there was a better/easier way to fund the search for knowledge and make all of that available for free but it's not that easy.

@gnasher729: The evidence has been abundant for years and years.  Spend some time browsing the archives of Techdirt, a news site that chronicles such matters (among several other things--you'll want to filter by relevant tags) and you'll find plenty of proof.

@Ennar I assume you have enough to pay your bills before you put sense of achievement first though!

@JamesRyan Sure I do. But I'm not sure what is your point exactly? Can I not simultaneously accept pay for actual work that I do and still pursue higher goals without monetary compensation? Or your point is that one needs to ensure one's own existence before satisfying idealistic goals? My point was that scientific discoveries are not always driven by desire to pay one's bills, but also by genuine curiosity and wish for the benefit of all, even at the cost of one's own time and resources.

@Ennar my point was that those who haven't got their basic needs met yet don't have the luxury of giving some of it up for ultruistic motives.  So it still has to make enough money even if there are other draws to it.

@JamesRyan "those who haven't got their basic needs met yet don't have the luxury of giving some of it up for ultruistic motives"
Surely there are counterexamples to that as well, but I won't try to make them. But, when you say:
"So it still has to make enough money even if there are other draws to it."
I fully disagree. Education and health care do not make money. They are investments in future. Just like spreading information in general should be treated, as well.

@Ennar both of those do make/save money, just in the longer term

@JamesRyan Of course they do. Hence the "They are investments in future". Any cause worth undertaking, no matter how idealistic seems in present, will make/save money in future. Science is example par excellence of that. But "making money" argument is actually ridiculous. Short term profit is cause of products of lesser and lesser quality being made, overexhausting our planets resources, stopping free exchange of information. People do not do great things for materialistic gains, but for idealistic ones. Only petty stuff needs money incentive.

@gnasher729: does "providing better services" cut piracy?  One anecdatum: since Springer made much more of their back catalogue easily downloadable for subscribed institutions, I have been going to dubious sites much less often, and I would support my university’s continued subscription significantly more than before (or at least, I would oppose it significantly less).

By the way, my alternative would not be to pay for the books. It would be to sit at the library all day instead of at a more convenient location and waste time looking through books physically instead of hitting Ctrl-F.

@Ennar I don't know what country you're from, but in the USA many universities and hospitals make outrageous profit for a certain few.

@YoniRozenshein That's a good call and probably the best alternative.

Why would anyone produce information if they lose time and money? Ironic that you are asking this on a website where people answer questions and contribute information for free, without any monetary incentive.

As a counterpoint to the other answers, I'd say you should absolutely thank these websites. Why?

It takes minimal effort on your part. Some have suggested that instead you write an article praising illegal downloading. I hope you do that too, but adding a sentience to your acknowledgments is easier.
You shouldn't be worried about it hurting job prospects. There's a pretty good chance your next employer isn't going to read your thesis anyway. Actually, there's a pretty good chance no one will read the entire thing. Furthermore, I'd be wary of any employer who judges you based on your acknowledgments section---I'm sure they've seen weirder things there. Just keep your pontificating out of the rest of the thesis.
There's nothing wrong with supporting a cause. People who do read (parts of) your thesis will probably be impressionable young grad students. What you say is one more hint at how stupid our current system is when it comes to paywalls. Hopefully these new students will break the law just like you did, and that's great: there's nothing good about breaking the law for personal gain or just for the sake of disorder, but fighting for a cause (even if it's illegal) is half of what academia is about.

That being said, phrasing and tact are everything. Make it subtile and keep it focused on the cause and not the disobediance. Something like

"I'd like to thank those who have provided open access to otherwise prohibitively expensive material."

is better than

"A big shout-out to all the all the pirates out there! @#ck The Man!"

You're probably not going to get a lot of respect by sounding like an anarchist.

NOTE: I may have a biased point of view, given that I'm in a field where most researchers equate paywalls with extortion and all our most prestigious journals are free. If a subscription to the the top journal in your field costs thousands of dollars a year and your colleagues are OK with that, I'm not sure what to tell you.

@PeteL.Clark, sorry, that was sort of a rude way to phrase it and a bit presumptive as well. I've edited it. Actually I hope the OP does write an article about it, but I acknowledge that some people are lazy / busy.

For our entry level positions, I can assure you that we do read dissertations. And writing something like this would be a sure way to get dropped off the list.

@RoboKaren Good to know, but I guess it must depend on the field.

"I'm in a field where most researchers equate paywalls with extortion" <- You mean, the field of science :-)

Since this move is politically risky, should you take the risk? Richard Hamming addresses the general point in the famous You and Your Research when he talks about ego assertion. The discussion is worth reading—let me quote just the following:

And I think John Tukey paid a terrible price needlessly. He was a genius anyhow, but I think it would have been far better, and far simpler, had he been willing to conform a little bit instead of ego asserting.

What was the ego assertion there? Funnily, it was just dressing casually instead of formally—these were the '50s.
Also, there are better ways to fight for the cause, like joining one of the movements for changing publication models—legally. (See open access, though that's mainly for papers). Any actual work in such a movement could even go (I guess) in your CV as community service.

I think there are more cons than pros to writing this in your acknowledgement. To me it seems more like a written declaration claiming that you participated in some illegal activity.
Many in the academic community write books which are pirated and they probably will not take it well if they read that in your PhD thesis. If you plan on pursuing a career in academia, these people will probably be a thorn in your side.
Also, if you are in a graduate program where you submit a thesis before you defend it. Your defense committee may decide to give you a hard time during your defense (of course I understand that in some graduate programs you may not have any other exams left after you submit your thesis).
All I'm saying is that it may cause you much pain without contributing to your cause.

No its not okay to knowingly receive stolen property and thank the thieves.  If the information provided in the reference was relative to your work, and you are receiving a degree because it helped you to so so, then thank the authors who created this work and took the time to write it down and get it published by buying their book.  And next time please find a valid library and borrow a legal copy.

My alternative would not be to pay for the books. It would be to sit at the library all day instead of at a more convenient location and waste time looking through books physically instead of hitting Ctrl-F. It's not customary to thank every author and buy their books every time you write a thesis so I don't see a reason to do this. By the way, my Books folder has 130 books (a few of those were legally obtained), and 31 of them are mentioned in my thesis bibliography.

Not everything you read may be relevant to your research.  But that still provides value as it may be telling you what doesn't work or apply and saves you the time of having to research those threads further.  Or maybe there was an obscure reference that you followed which did pan out.  Or maybe you're subconscious combined multiple innocuous concepts that helped to form your new idea.

The right to private property is a fundamental principle of a free society.  The extension of private property to ideas, thoughts, words, speech, and their exponential growth has created the world in which we live.  All of the books, music, and movies in my library have been paid for.  The price I've paid is an insignificant token of their true worth.  I have bought and read many duds, but whose to say that even they have not contributed to the quality of my life and my own original ideas?

Theft of fire is not actually a theft unless the one that took it extinguished the source afterwards. It's merely sharing. If someone wouldn't want one's ideas to be shared, why bother and write a book in the first place?

Copyright violation is not theft, and pirated works are not stolen. You can't steal something if the person you've "stolen" it from still has it afterwards. Copyright violation may or may not be wrong, but it's not theft.

@Mike Scott, sorry that argument is pure sophistry.  We all have a right to earn a living from the work that we do.  Copyright violation and pirated works are both theft; what is stolen is the royalties that were due to authors in fair exchange for their labour.

@DikranMarsupial No, you also can't steal something if the victim didn't have it before you "stole" it. It is an essential element of theft that the victim has it before the theft, and doesn't have it after the theft. Note that I'm not saying copyright violation is right, I'm just saying it's not theft, and if you want to show that it's wrong you have to argue about it as something in its own right, not just lazily saying "It's theft, so it must be wrong".

@Mike Scott O.K. the authors control over the exploitation of their intellectual property has been stolen.  They did have it before, they don't have it after (or at least less of it).  The meanings of words change with time and usage.  The idea of copyright violation and piracy being "theft" is well understood and quite a reasonable adoption during a period where the nature of intellectual property is still developing.  It isn't wrong because it is theft, it is wrong because it is wrong; it is "theft" because that is the word that best expresses the nature of the activity.

note "piracy" isn't actually piracy as defined in the dictionary (it doesn't generally happen at sea) but everybody has become accustomed to the usage, to the extent that it is now in dictionaries.  I'd say "theft" was a more reasonable word than "piracy".  It has also long been a common idiom to say that someone has "stolen" an idea.  It would be ridiculous to claim that we should stop using this phrase because it can't be stolen as the subject still has the idea!

As a publisher and author I would be extremely annoyed that someone actively promotes those who commit the criminal offence of illegally copying and distributing our intellectual property.
First, I would refer to your university that your research was conducted using illegal obtained materials: that is undoubtedly in breach of your contract with the university and I would press for the cancellation of your degree. Harsh? Yes, but you are a criminal benefiting from the knowledge, expertise and labours of others.
Secondly, I would take steps to have the site removed from major search engines and references to it blocked. We routinely do that now, when we become aware of them. We refer the site hosts to the relevant authorities in the countries where they are hosted with a view to having the site taken down and the owners / operators prosecuted.
We would publicise the internet host and its IP range with a view to responsible site owners blocking that host's customers from accessing websites around the world.
And finally, we would publicise your name and that you were prepared to use criminally sourced material for your own advancement, demonstrating both a tendency to criminality and that you operate in a moral vacuum, in the hope that no employer would engage a person with such a lack of ethical values.
If the book you want is not legally available on-line, go to a proper library where publishers and authors are rewarded for loans. See if the book is available for lending for Kindle (you pay a small membership fee) because, again, publishers and authors are paid when you borrow.
Would you thank the photocopy shop that makes illegal copies of text books?
No, because you know it's a crime.

You are writing on behalf of a publishing company anonymously?  I don't understand that.  Please have the courage of your convictions to identify yourself.  I would certainly be interested to know which author and publisher is threatening to try to get people's degrees revoked.

Am I a criminal for downloading a digital copy of a book I could have freely read at the library anyway? De jure, maybe (I am not convinced). In my moral point of view, definitely no. About reward for loans, I would be surprised if my library operates this way. My library has never heard of Kindle, and I don't have one (am I required to have one?). Finally, did you declare a witch hunt on me? Just because I am saying what everyone's doing? May I suggest to start with every grad student I know, and probably a few professors.

Yoni, we do not get to decide what is or is not a criminal act, that is decided by the society in which you live via the system of law that it develops.  Pointing out that you could have freely read the book at the library makes your position less tenable as you are admitting that you violated the rights of the author simply for your own convenience.  I think the answer given above is rather hyperbolic (to say the least), but I think there is more than a little Rashomon effect going on here.

As a publisher, you must make all scientific research you publish available online,  gratis, and in an easily searchable and accessible fashion. And if you won't do it, then it is the duty of others to do it.


text:
Is there a preferred citation style for computer science papers?
Is there a preferred/standard/popular citation style within the computer science field? By citation style, I'm referring to these three general methods:

Using #'s, like [1] or [6,7]
Using short strings like [SM15] or [Bob14]
Using author-date style, like (Smith, 2015).

Browsing through the recent CS submissions on arXiv.org shows a roughly 50/50 split between options (1) and (3) above, with the occasional (2).
So I really have two questions:

Which citation method best communicates "this is a computer science paper"?
Which citation method best communicates what's actually being referenced?

(The answer to both may be the same, but I can imagine, e.g., something like "Everyone uses '[1]', even though 'Smith (2015)' is clearly easier to read.")

#2 is fairly common in math, which is probably what's behind the ones you saw citing things like that.

#2 is also common in cryptography manuscripts. It's how we typically end up referring to protocols -- RSA, GPV, BLS are all good examples.

Regarding your Q1: Both ACM and IEEE use citation style #1 -- "[1]", so it's safe to say that most readers of academic articles in CS are most familiar with that style.  Therefore, if you use style #1, your paper will look similar to most conference and journal articles in CS.
Regarding your Q2: it is my experience that citation style #3 -- "Smith (2015)" -- is most effective for the reader.  This opinion is shaped by my department -- Computational Social Science -- so I read a mix of papers from CS, Statistics, Social Science, Economics, and others.
My reason for favoring #3 is that it makes it easier to read the paper in line.  Having read many papers in a given field, I am familiar with the most cited and most seminal work.  If I see "Padgett and Powell (2012)", I immediately know what that reference is, or I can guess.  But if I see "[5]", it tells me nothing.  I have to go look at the reference list, then memorize that "[5]" stands for "Padgett and Powell (2012)" every time I see it.
But the nature of the discipline and the nature of the paper lead to some differences in the role citations serve in the text.  In Social Sciences in general, citations have a structural in the discourse in a field.  Citations often mark schools of thought, lines of argument, or research lenses.  In contrast, in Computer Science citations have a much more utilitarian function -- they point to papers that provide theoretical foundations, that attempted other approaches to the problem, that solved sub-problems, and so on.  In a way, these are the intellectual "bill of materials" for the research behind the CS paper.  The numbered references are sufficient for this, giving anyone pointers to the "bill of materials" should they need them.
Another justification for citation style #1 is to shorten the page count for papers.  In my opinion, this is less and less justified in an era where most people read papers electronically, not in print.

Page count is a big deal in the way computer science is organized today. Even for a conference that doesn't print proceedings, limiting page count helps limiting the amount of work referees have to do, and forces the author to avoid digressions. If #3 were the norm for a conference, I think a likely outcome would be that people are more keen to cite Li (2025) rather than Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, Satyanarayana and Swinneton-Dyer (2041). Which may be a problem in this age of bibliometrics...

A lot of computer science papers go through either the IEEE or the ACM, so if you use one of their standard citation styles, it will "feel" like a computer science paper to many readers.  Author guidelines, including LaTeX/BibTex, can be found here for IEEE and here for ACM.

the IEEE link is now broken. I'm not sure whether this is the replacement


text:
Securing an Impact Factor rating for a journal
What's the process to secure an Impact Factor rating for a journal?
I am taking over a journal which has been published for 10 years (2 editions a year) and has a wide readership, albeit in a specialist area. I am hoping that by getting a rating we can improve the quality of submissions. The journal is English language, business related and peer reviewed with a strong international editorial board of established academics.

Are you taking over as Editor in Chief? If the journal has served for 10 years, then it must have an impact factor? How much is it at the present? Kindly, provide some information in the question itself.

The necessary information is available in the Clarivate Analytics website, which is the official body which calculates and publishes impact factors. The info is based on their citation indexes, which were originally developed by Thomson Reuters.
Information on the journal selection process:
http://wokinfo.com/essays/journal-selection-process/
Journal submission form:
http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/info/journalsubmission-front/
Other relevant information on impact factors:
http://wokinfo.com/essays/impact-factor/


text:
symbol list and nomenclature
I received this comment from a reviewer in journal of "Optimal Control Application and Methods": "The notations need to be added in the revision to add the readability, because many symbols appeared are not very familiar with the readers. For instance, what is the meaning of <…> in (2) and (3)?"
Is it necessary add a nomenclature with a list of used symbols of variables, operators and abbreviations?
Is there any specific position for this section ?

Quite similiar but slightly different: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8052/what-is-the-location-of-the-nomenclature-section-in-a-scientific-paper?rq=1

Is it necessary add a nomenclature with a list of used symbols of
  variables, operators and abbreviations?

You should treat this comment like any other comment from a reviewer: It tells you that one potential reader of your paper (and, if the editor did a good job, a qualified one) had a hard time understanding your paper. Hence, you should improve the presentation of your paper in this respect, so you should make the effort and help potential readers. (There may be the chance that this particular journel even requests a nomenclature, but I did not check this…)

Is there any specific position for this section ?

For this, there are two good answers here.

Thanks for your comment.
I have studied some of the recent published articles in the journal of "Optimal Control Application and Methods". A Notation is added at the end of Introduction section to introduce  the special symbol and operators. The table of symbols and nomenclature is located at the end of Introduction section.
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