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Answering student's question that is already in the upcoming exam
I am teaching a course and classes are over. I have already created and printed the final exam. One of my students emailed me with a question that happens to be identical to one of the questions in the exam.
I am unsure how to handle this situation. Should I respond to the student's email, knowing that it might give them an advantage and potentially be unfair to other students? Or would it be better to ignore the email entirely to maintain fairness?
What is the best course of action in such a scenario?

"knowing that it might [...] be unfair to other students?" How might this be unfair?

This is pretty common when lazy tutors endlessly recycle past papers. It becomes very easy to guess what questions are going to be asked.

Do you think this is all just a coincidence, or could your upcoming exam have leaked out to the students (either directly, or indirectly due to reusing questions from a few years ago)? The best course of action is very different depending on if this is an attempt to cheat or not.

I had this happen in high school. A friend asked the teacher how to do a particular question, which later turned out to be on the exam. The teacher answered it.

I've given the exact same problem on a (long) practice exam as on the exam itself and students still couldn't do it. This has happened multiple times. I think you're worrying a bit too much.

A useful answer need not be comprehensive.

Okay: Imagine being the student who earnestly asked a question they were struggling with only to have the instructor refuse to answer it and then put it on the exam. They won't know you already made the test, so it will look personal to them—like you stole the question from them after refusing to help them with it. It will look like a combination of cruelty and deliberate sabotage. And if they push back, are you going to explain to them (and the chair/dean they drag in) that this all basically happened because you didn't want to reprint an exam and that was more important than helping them?

I once studied on a (computer science) course where they tried to make questions unpredictable (by random selection if necessary). On one occasion they repeated a question from one paper to the next. Good students did better on the second one, because they had gone home and thought about their answer to the first.

@TooTea - I studied my department's past papers and noticed a significant pattern. I revised heavily in the direction that I expected to see on exam day, and was rewarded with a solid grade. Did I cheat?

@Valorum No, I certainly wouldn't say so. Cheating would require somehow getting hold of the current version before the exam. Say sneaking into the teacher's office and taking a photo of the paper,or having a TA friend share a copy with you.

@Valorum: Is there a particular dialect of English that uses "revision" in this way (which I would consider wrong, it should be "review"...  view and vision are related but review and revision are not)?  Or was it auto-correct-induced?  I ask because the blockquote in Allure's answer uses it identically.

@BenVoigt British English uses "revise" in roughly the same way US English uses "study"

If it is true that your answering the student's question gives them an advantage, then I would argue that it is a fair advantage. They are studying diligently for the exam and making use of the support resources being offered to them, including emailing the professor with questions. Any knowledge that they obtain through this process is fairly obtained and if they are then asked about it on the exam and demonstrate that they have acquired it, they fully deserve the points. So there is no reason to treat this question any differently from any other question a student might ask you.
Moreover, as an instructor you have two dual roles, to teach the students knowledge and to assess their knowledge. Intentionally withholding knowledge from the student in order to (ostensibly) increase the fairness of your assessment method goes against your responsibility as a teacher of knowledge. To me, that seems backwards: I see myself as a teacher first and as an evaluator of knowledge second (or perhaps third or fourth - it is an important aspect of my job, to be sure, but not what I would regard as the highest priority). So again, from a philosophical point of view I think it's misguided to intentionally refrain to answer a question from a student because of considerations related to testing.
Of course, if you do answer the question, you shouldn't tell the student that it will be on the exam! Just treat it as any other question.

This is the right approach. Generally, I would try to design the exam and then "forget" about it. Your answers to students should be the same as if they asked some other lecturer who has never seen the exam.

I have very occasionally heard of professors who don't answer questions between the end of class and the final. Not necessarily endorsing this plan, nor would doing it out of the blue be very fair, but I have heard of it.

@AzorAhai if they are not answering any questions, I’d guess this is more an issue of the professor wanting/needing a break from teaching-related duties than some deep philosophical conviction related to pedagogy.

@DanRomik Perhaps. This was a decade ago and not my philosophy.

In a sense, if OP had and followed a policy of not answering questions that are on the exams, he would be giving the student arguably more of an advantage by not answering the question, because then the student might deduce that the question is likely to be on the exam if they don't get an answer. A model answer is probably easy to obtain for the student anyway from other sources, if they are persistent about it.

I have two suggestions, one short term and the other long.
The short term answer is consistent with my general policy that students should be given minimal answers to questions. The answers send them back to learning materials so that they need to do a bit of work, hopefully leading to some insight. Full answers are a bit too "lazy" for my taste.
But a "minimal answer" is not something like "Go look at the textbook". It takes thought to understand what is blocking the student's progress and points them in the direction of a solution without giving the solution. "How does the mean value theorem apply here?" for example. It takes a thinking person to give such answers and is actually a bit harder than just giving the solution.  Seeing answers has much less educational value than working out the answers, even with hints.
But, you should provide some answer to the student no matter how you do it. Hopefully the exam as a whole won't be much affected by this and also hopefully your grading scheme isn't competitive so that a small advantage for one implies a disadvantage for others. Learning isn't, or shouldn't be a competition.
Note that not providing an answer at all is, itself, a hint to the student which keys them to the likelihood that something similar is on the exam.
Also note that you don't normally know what students have most recently thought about when the exam is given. This is an exception, but the good students will presumably be looking for answers to likely questions wherever they think to find them.
The long term solution, too late for you now, is to communicate with students via a mailing list (or similar), to which all are subscribed. Then every question and every answer is seen by all students simultaneously. I used this successfully for many years. I also had the policy that students could answer questions as well as ask them, so I only needed to monitor posts for incorrect answers. But, again, answers there from me were minimal.
I've assumed that changing the exam isn't an option and would not recommend that it be changed.

Can I ask, what is your purpose as a teacher? If you only give "minimal answers", and, I suppose, not sticking to the Moore system, then what's the difference between you and a text-to-speech add-on for a textbook?

@denist. there is an important distinction to be made between answering a question during the term and answering a question during the exam period.  Students had the entire term to ask questions.

@denist., I think about what is misleading or troubling the student before I answer and my answer is intended to guide them to better understanding. I think, unlike an AI. And this is my practice during the term as well. Seeing an answer isn't learning how to develop the answer. My "minimal" answer isn't ever "Go look at the text." But it might be a question in response to a question: "What does the mean value theorem tell you here?".

Nothing good in this answer. Denying a student an explanation is only an option when 1) you have an ideal course, 2) the course is perfectly consistent with a textbook, 3) all your students never get ill or be absent due to important reasons.

@yarchik I don’t deny them an explanation. I guide them to insight, which takes work. I deliver an education, not “facts.”

@yarick this answer is particularly important when a choose isn't consistent with a textbook, or rather,  when no textbook exists. Helping a student find the relevant primary sources and seeing how those sides are relevant to the question, but leaving it to the student to actuality work it out best fulfills the role of a HE teacher in teaching students how to think and research.

Credits to Its Me:

A very similar thing happened with me in the last year of my undergrad. The professor had given an exercise in the class as an homework. The question wasn't too hard, but still it was on the harder side. None of us were able to solve it properly; all of us just had some intuitive idea. After few days everybody just forgot about that problem. But before the final exam, as I was doing my revision, I again decided to give it a try, but, again, no luck.
Few hours before the exam I went to the professor's office to ask him about this problem and he told me the solution. To my surprise, that exact same question appeared as a bonus (or "challenging") question in the exam.
Obviously I was able to solve it and my other classmates couldn't. Then, after the exam, I talked to the professor about this and he said,"well, lucky you".

Or, as Andreas Blass wrote in a comment to that answer:

If you've already composed an exam and then a student asks you a question that's on the exam, you answer the question and you leave it in the exam.

Something similar happened to me as an instructor: during an exam review, a student asked a question that I knew was going to be on the test. I answered the question without any hesitation and did not change the exam at all. Those who read the exam review slides closely would have an "advantage", but this advantage was available to everyone in the class since they all had access to the exam review slides even if they did not attend the exam review.

Happened to me as an undergrad, due to either intention or laziness. There was a type of problem that was the capstone of the class, it was relevant and used a broad selection of concepts that were taught. One such problem was assigned for homework. The review guide listed the exact same problem. As it seemed so important, we got the TA to solve it in the review session. I put the solution on my equation sheet. The problem showed up on the final, not unexpectedly, but with the exact same numbers. I decided to add some random erasures and crossed out 1+1=3 mistakes.

What I do is that all questions of this type should be posted on our forum (all courses have some type of discussion board on Canvas). So when students ask me questions, I tell them to post it on the discussion board.
Then I, my TAs, or preferably other students answer the question.
That way, no student get an advantage of asking me questions (in theory).

If, as likely in this case, you don't normally use the discussion board, you can just send an email to all the students along the lines of "Multiple people have got stuck with xyz question" (even if only one student has), if you don't want to have any chance of being percieved as unfairly helping the student, without penalizing them for having had difficulties with that specific question.

Props to this student for diligence --- answer the question as normal
You should answer the question just as with any other question that a student would ask about the course material.  The resulting advantage the student accrues on the examination results from their diligence in investigating problems that other students did not investigate.  As a general rule, if a student is diligent and examines a broad range of practice questions during their study period then some of them will be the same or similar to examination questions.  That is the general pattern in any study session preceeding examinations.  That outcome is perfectly fair and is a result of diligence in studying the course material --- it is not appropriate to withhold normal teaching support to avoid this outcome.

You should answer the question and not change the final.  Kudos for the student to study, and the student should not be penalized for asking a question.
On the other hand, I always tell students they have until 72hrs before the exam to ask questions; I do not answer questions too close to the exam to avoid the situation you are in.  I start a draft exam well ahead of this but I finish the final version after the question window is closed.
This is a reaction to a situation where, one year, I had a student in my office until 30mins before the exam trying to extract info about the contents of the final.  After explaining my logic to every class since, I’ve never had issues or complaints with this policy.  In fact because students know of this policy they tend to start studying earlier rather than later.

If I come up with a question: I make sure it's not identical to one on the test.
If a student comes up with any question: it's fair game.

Instead of considering this as an isolated situation, consider which policy would be fairer in general.
If your policy is to refuse to answer questions which will appear on the exam, then a student who gets a refusal, can infer that the question they asked will appear on the exam. That student can then put more effort into solving that question, or look for a solution elsewhere, and memorise it for the exam.
Other answerers have explained why answering the question does not give an unfair advantage to that student. But even if you think there is something unfair about answering the question, it is much more important to not give away clues about what will be on the exam. If you (indirectly) tell the student that their question will appear on the exam, then you give that student knowledge they really shouldn't have.
A better way to address your concern might be to use a shared forum for Q&As, so that all students can see the answers you give, rather than provide them only to the one student who asked it.

It happened to me as a student: I am from a country where exams are not such important matters and mostly there to judge your level, make you progress and study.
The professor answered the question to the best of their ability. When I realized that the question was in the test, I answered it using the explanation from the professor and probably got 1 additional point out of 20 as a result. Is this such a big deal?
I would rather think that this is the rewards for curiosity of the student. What would be unfair would be to answer some students and not others (if multiple asked). Chances are that this student will share this knowledge with others, ultimately increasing the level of your class, is this not the aim?

I don't fully get this, what's the point of giving you 1 out of 20 if you answered the question (presumably) right?

I'm also confused by this second paragraph. Do you mean you got few points on that question, or that the question you got the answer to was worth 1 point with a total of 20 points on the exam?

Actually, I interpreted the "1 out of 20" to mean an additional point. But even that estimate would be a guess most likely.

1 additional point out of 20

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How serious is plagiarism in a master’s thesis?
I published my PhD thesis three years ago.
I have just come to know that a master’s student has copied three chapters from my PhD thesis half a year later. My PhD supervisor was also the supervisor of his master’s project. Each and every word and mathematical symbol is exactly the same. That person is now a PhD student himself. I’m obviously extremely shocked, angered and hurt by this. But before I take any action I wanted to ask the community.
How serious is plagiarism in a master’s thesis? I suspect that my PhD supervisor also had a role to play in this. He either tacitly ignored this blatant plagiarism or even actively suggested it. How should I deal with this given that my relations with my PhD supervisor will become strained if I report this?

The answer you are seeking is different. "How should I behave? ". And this is difficult to answer given to the fact that you are caring of your relationship with the phd/master supervisor. I personally would talk to him first. He should be aware but perhaps not. Particularly brilliant student get lot of freedom and get trusted. Trickery can go on even between writing/correcting anf final submission. Check it out first.

Many good answers on here. I just wanted to add: at no time, publicly or privately, accuse anyone of anything: especially your supervisor. It is the job of the authorities to assign blame, if there is blame to be assigned. It is not your job. All you need to do – at a high enough level, and verifiably so that it can't be ignored – is to say "My work has been copied; plagiarism is one possible explanation; I am asking you to investigate".

Your post and comments here sound a bit "soft" to me, so ... In addition to what other people tell you here, I want to add that anything bad that happens to them after you report it is nor your fault. If this person loses degree, job, and whatever, don't tell yourself afterwards you're to blame because you reported some paperwork stuff. You're not. It's completely that persons own problem. ... Had an almost-neighbor that went to prison because such things (his offenses included what he did with his unearned degree in the business world), I don't pity him either. He "earned" that on his own.

Please incorporate additional information that you provided in https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/132751/how-serious-is-plagiarism-in-a-master-s-thesis#comment352977_132753 (and other comments if there are) into your question as it significantly changes its premise.

When the supervisors are the same, then it should be easier to report this to the advisor. He already knows both thesis and both students and does not need to coordinate with a second advisor for a fact check. Report the copy to him and then let him decide what should be done. Make sure, that you insist on being the original author, if there should be any doubt and give him the opportunity to convince himself that you're the right author. But I think this is probably quite obvious in your case.

It may be worth checking if the other chapters are plagiarised from other sources.

Plagiarism is a very serious form of fraud, report it. It sounds a bit weird but whether your supervisor had something to do with it or not is really not relevant, since the student that copied your work is ultimately responsible. If your relationship with your PhD supervisor becomes harmed by this, I think in that case you have reasons to question his integrity...

Edit based on subsequent info by the OP...
This has to be raised with the relevant department / committee / Dean so that it can be addressed in a manner they see fit.
They could demand changes, or they could leave all alone.
If you don't report this, then if the Master's thesis gets published first YOU will be accused of plagiarism...
So you have to report this, but how you do that is going to be a difficult choice.

you could see your advisor first and get the master's student to change those chapters.
If that is not successful, then you have to go further, as the possible consequences of leaving it could be serious for you.

Some time has passed already. It's been 3 years since my PhD thesis was published and about 2.5 years since his Master's thesis.

@yaska making that clear in the original question would have helped. Plagiarism has a habit of catching up with people, sometimes many years later... So, see the relevant people at the university.

Sorry about that. But that's what I'm wondering now. Is it now just a moral dilemma for me and that I should just swallow my feelings and let it go? Or is it my duty to report this to the institute?

@yaska did you read my comment where I put "Plagiarism has a habit of catching up with people, sometimes many years later"... There are some (in)famous examples...

Neither the answer nor comments answer the question. Admittedly, the answer was reasonable before the question was edited. Perhaps @SolarMike can edit their answer to respond to the revised question?

Can you elaborate what you mean by that? Do you mean that it could still turn out to be a problem for me even in a few years? Thanks very much.

@yaska a quick google search gives : https://examples.yourdictionary.com/what-are-famous-examples-of-plagiarism.html and top of the list is Melania Trump...

since the OP's PhD dissertation is "published" (in the library of the University, at least) and time-stamped half year before the offender's Master's thesis, I do not think that an accusation of plagiarism against the OP will stick.  and such an accusation by the offender would be dangerous to the offender because a record exists.  likely the offender will never bring up that plagiarized result in a paper or in a presentation and claim it as his/her own.  likely the offender will sit low about this.

I think that a competent liar can come up with a version that offers them plausible deniability. Just the thesis dates won’t be enough I think...

@Spark can't say I have the experience....

How serious is plagiarism in a master's thesis?

In a word - very.
If someone knowingly copies verbatim three chapters off of another thesis (within a group or not), this is cause for severe disciplinary action.
You have graduated, but this puts you in a bad position as well - if you published your thesis after them, then your work will appear to be plagiarized, which may come back to haunt you.
First of all - do your research: your advisor may not be aware that this happened (they may have inadvertently given access the student to your thesis), and such a heavy accusation should be well backed up with timestamped details of both your thesis and the masters student. A person who will lift three chapters from another person's work may easily turn this into a I-said-they-said situation. For example, did you submit a draft to your review committee? Did you send a copy to a friend/colleague to read through?
Next, talk to your advisor immediately; raise the subject directly and politely, with the evidence you have collected.
If I were your advisor - I would immediately check the details of the case and see what happened. It could be a simple misunderstanding (the student took the chapters as reference and meant to completely rewrite them in their own words, and hadn't had a chance to do it), sheer stupidity/incompetence, or malice. Depending on that, I would act. If it were a simple misunderstanding, I would alert the dean of graduate studies (or the equivalent) and demand that the masters student apologize in writing to you (so that there's a timestamped email describing the incident, just in case). If the student is doing a PhD in the same institution, I would require that their studies be suspended/terminated/put on disciplinary review (they misrepresented themselves to the selection committee). If something unethical went on, I will push for both the masters degree and the graduate studies now to be revoked and terminated, respectively.
If your advisor protects your intellectual rights, you're fine.
If not (e.g. the advisor doesn't care enough, which is unlikely honestly if you are indeed correct in your assessment), you need to bring this up with an ombudsman or student affairs in your school. One of you won't be able to publish your thesis (in particular whomever publishes last). You must understand - the advisor and the school's prestige is at stake as well; having students publish plagiarized work is not something one wants to be known for.
Good luck!

"It could be a simple misunderstanding" I think you are being too charitable.  No one cuts and pastes three chapters from someone else's thesis into their own because they "hadn't had a chance" to fix it.  You may as well say that someone who, given the keys to a car to test drive and simply drove off with it, "hadn't had a chance" to return it.  Being pathologically absent-minded is not a defense.

The question has been clarified to say that the OP published his thesis 6 months before the other student. So the OP is unlikely to be accused as the plagiarist

@Peter L. Clark, of course! I am trying to think of a best case scenario of some sort

@Barnar, thanks! Though somebody is certainly going to get in trouble here...

I like the sentiment to take the issue serious, however I don't think that yaska is in any position to demand actions. I would rather bring it to the attention of the appropriate body (dean/ombudsperson/...) and work something out with them. Otherwise you might receive push back from them.

@PeteL.Clark - It could be as simple as forgetting to attribute a quote.

@Valorum THREE chapters?

The other answers are correct.  This has to be reported.  Doing so both protects yourself from accusations of plagiarism and protects the value of your degree.  An institution that allows academic fraud quickly gets "a reputation."
Other answers have suggested that wholesale copying means that the plagiarist had access to an electronic copy, and that's quite likely.  However, that does not indicate that the plagiarist was aided by someone in authority.  Isn't your doctoral thesis available electronically in a database like ProQuest or one operated by your university library?
The real question is not whether to report; you have to.  It is how to report.  The question says, "I suspect that my PhD supervisor also had a role to play in this."  That would be bad.  My guess, based only on what's in the question, is that it was a passive role; your supervisor either didn't recognize the plagiarized text or chose not to do anything about it.  You don't want to antagonize your supervisor by going over his or her head, but neither do you want to give the supervisor a chance to choose independently to do nothing about the matter.
So, pick someone in authority, like a department chair, dean, or university ombuds.  Write to that person and your supervisor in the same message.  Request a meeting with the two of them.  Explain that the purpose of the meeting is that you have come to believe that a portion of your doctoral thesis has appeared unchanged in another student's master's thesis.  Go to the meeting armed with the proof.
Most important, do not accuse your supervisor, who will surely deny complicity and will in any case be embarrassed at not having caught the plagiarism.  Just present the facts and let others decide what, if anything, should happen to the supervisor.
There are three potential outcomes.  First and best is that appropriate action is taken against the plagiarist.  Second, the university either recognizes the problem but declines to take action or decides there really is not a problem; the latter seems very unlikely.  Finally, your request for a meeting could be declined.
In the case of no meeting, you probably want to insist on seeing individually someone other than your supervisor so that you get your case on record.  In the case of no action, you will have to decide whether to escalate to a higher authority in the university.

One point: when I finished my PhD a few years ago, I had the option to block electronic access to my dissertation for 2-6 years. For people who had done this, I could see the record for their dissertation in ProQuest and in the library database but could not access a copy. Only someone with back-end library access or someone sent the dissertation by the author or as a part of their approval system would have a copy. Given the six month gap between the PhD dissertation and master's thesis, the original asker would know whether the other student should have had electronic access.

Someone at that level has been warned repeatedly about the dangers of plagiarism. Someone can't accidentally commit plagiarism to that degree any more than they could accidentally shoplift a book from a store.
If the problem is not addressed, the problem could get worse because the person has already been rewarded for "getting away with it."
Many universities have an ethics department (or something similar). I suggest you start by reporting it there to ensure it's handled appropriately and not just ignored. They may just bring the matter to the attention of the supervisor, but if it goes through the proper channel, then it will receive the proper due process and University control to ensure it's handled correctly.

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Word for the practical portion of my Ph.D?
Is there a (reasonably common) verb I can use meaning to perform the practical work of one’s PhD thesis that I can use to put in the following blank:

I have ____ my Ph.D. in the laboratory of Professor M. Hatter.

I can’t use completed because I’m lacking my defence as of I-don’t-yet-know-when-exactly.

What's wrong with "performed the practical work of my PhD thesis"?

If the only thing missing is your defence, then you should actually be a step further than "having performed the practical work" - you should have submitted your PhD thesis already. If this is the case, then say this in your statement, to avoid misconceptions.

Well, you could say the honest truth, which would be: "I have not yet completed my Ph.D. in the laboratory of Professor M. Hatter." And once it's actually done, you can take pleasure in removing the words "not yet". Best of luck to you.

You could say

I am pursuing my PhD in...

or

I have undertaken my PhD research in...

Both work in this context.

This may depend on your program, but stating that you've completed your candidacy will be understood by most. There's also the term ABD but that usually refers to a dissertation rather than a defense.
Perhaps stating it as "I am preparing to defend my Ph.D. dissertation/work/etc..." may also work.

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Does using one offer to "pressure" another school actually work?
I am applying from Europe to the U.S. for tenure-track positions. One of the advice that I heard from my colleagues is that once one offer is received, one should contact the other universities that one has a preference for, and tell them about the offer. However, I do not understand how this act of telling another university about an offer could actually put any pressure. What does one say in such a communication? And what is one expecting from it? (For example, if all the interviews are already scheduled, one can hardly expect the university to "hurry along" and pick a candidate...) I am interested in hearing the answer for American institutions, but as long as the region is specified, I should like to hear the European versions as well.

Simply say that you are writing to let them know that you have received an offer from institution X. If there is a deadline for you to answer the offer, tell them what it is. This may be helpful for the department chair to use in pressuring their administration or other involved parties to make a decision sooner than they would have otherwise - yes, people can often "hurry along" when the circumstances warrant it. It may also have a psychological effect of making you look more attractive and desirable, especially if institution X is a prestigious one. But let them be impressed by the news itself; keep the tone of the email neutral and informative and avoid coming across as smug or entitled-sounding.
As for what to expect, that seems beside the point. Just like you would update the places you've applied to if you had a paper accepted to Nature since that would make you a more attractive candidate, you want to let them know about a job offer from another institution. It may or may not have any positive effect, but it sure can't hurt.
If it matters (I don't think it does, but you asked), I'm in the US. Good luck!

Does this mean that if the second institution hasn't held its interviews yet (but say that they are already scheduled), there is no point in letting them know? I doubt very much that they would move the interview dates up and inconvenience the other candidates.

On the contrary, there is no point in not letting them know. Let them worry about their scheduling issues and worry instead about the things you can control. Letting them know about positive news is one thing you can control, and as such, it would be foolish not to do it.

@DanRomik ... assuming that you're actually willing to take the offer you received. There's always a (small) chance the institution you're "hurrying" will jump at the chance to narrow the candidate pool by wishing you well at your new institution. That will probably only happen if they're on the fence about you in the first place (so unlikely to actually offer you the job anyway), but it's probably worth mentioning to caution people against "gaming the system" by mentioning offers they have no intention of possibly accepting.

@R.M. That's not good advice I'm afraid. You have some misconceptions about ethics and about how departments approach hiring: 1. Informing a place (politely and professionally) that you have received an offer from another place cannot conceivably swing their position from "on the fence" to "reject", but may swing the decision in the opposite direction. 2. Such a communication would be completely ethical, and not even remotely a form of gaming the system, even if one does not intend to accept said offer (although arguably in that case it may have been unethical to apply for the position).

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Can you put awards from a project on your CV, if you had help with the project?
I have a somewhat stupid question that has been bothering me for a few weeks. So, in my sophomore year of high school, I had conducted a physics research project that involved electric generators. I dedicated a lot of time to this project (around 100 hours), but I am now having some concerns. Here is what I did on the project:

In the research investigation, I proposed the experiment, conducted the background research, developed the hypotheses, developed the procedure, constructed the generator (with the help of my father), carried out the experiment, analyzed the data, interpreted the results (with the help of my physics teacher), drew the conclusions, and presented the research.

Here is the help that I received:

I received assistance from my father with the construction of the generator used in the project. My father helped by providing suggestions (for example, my initial idea was to construct the generator frame out of wood, but my father suggested using LEGOs instead for cost-effectiveness and simplicity; this was in addition to other suggestions regarding the generator construction). My father also helped me with parts of the experiment that were dangerous (i.e. parts that required the use of an X-Acto knife) and parts that used tools that I had no experience with (multimeters), and he supervised the experiment. My physics teacher helped with the interpretation of the results.

I was wondering if this research is my own. My main problem regarding this is that this research allowed me to win a number of science fairs, including a regional one. However, when I place these awards on a resume (for example, a college application), I do not put the "acknowledgements" down with it, so the places that receive my resume expect the research to be my own. Does this meet that requirement? I am sorry for such a ridiculous question, this has just been really bothering me (I have even considered excluding all of those awards from my resume, but that would greatly hurt my resume and it is not as if I did no work at all). Thank you!

If you had published a paper based on your research, you and your father (and possibly your physics teacher) would have been co-authors.  At least in my field, all co-authors can take individual credit for their joint papers.

I think I'm getting deja vu here. This is an exact, verbatim duplicate of a question from a couple of weeks ago. I can't find the original, but the comment I left on it still stands: Did Peter Higgs build the LHC with his bare hands? No. You're fine to put this project on your CV.

I commend you on taking ethical authorship seriously. Authorship requirements are not entirely clear, and customs may vary across academic disciplines and cultures.
I would include the awards on your resume/CV. Based on what you described, I doubt that you will ever have the legitimacy of your claim to authorship questioned, since you developed and executed a majority of the ideas for your project. Also, you are not trying to take credit for others ideas (you are very clear and forthcoming about who thought of/did what), you are just saying you won awards, which you did.
There are many articles in peer-reviewed journals on authorship ethics. For example, this article in Nature.
Nature also published an article on a physics paper with >5,000 authors.


text:
If an assumption proves to be false, is the research then meaningless?
Last year, I did research (while in high school). My research was relatively successful and I was able to get a lot of amazing opportunities out of it.
However, looking back at it now, I realize that it is possible that one of my research assumptions was incorrect (not definitely incorrect, but possibly). This was my first research project, so I was not really accustomed to making assumptions. Now, though, this is really causing me an extreme amount of anxiety and I am not fully sure why. I was proud of my research, but I feel like that one assumption makes the research worthless.
Is all of one's research meaningless if an assumption proves to be false?

Sorry for the ambiguity. I conducted research independently while in high school (and I took this research to high school science fairs)

If your research is in math then making a false assumption makes anything which follows useless.

The answer is not necessarily, for two reasons:

It may not actually matter. There are many assumptions that get made in research that are probably not true, in retrospect. Some of these are known to be false from the outset (in my field, it's the assumption that people mix randomly). Said assumption may not actually have all that big an impact on the final outcome, either numerically, or often as importantly, in the subjective takeaway from the project (Should I do X or Y? The difference between X is twice as good and X is 2.17 times as good doesn't really change that you should do X).
You learned something - presumably from actually doing the research, but also about the importance of critically evaluating your assumptions. This is a good thing, and at the high school level, probably the most important.


text:
What is the correct way of citing scientific publications?
The APA citation basics write:

If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source: Permanence and Change. Exceptions apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs: Writing New Media, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
(Note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Writing new media.)

(my highlighting).
I realize that this is a matter of choice and convention, but as I read scientific publications in Computer Science, it strikes me how often these practices are mixed.  In the document, the "capitalized" version is predominant, but in reference lists, they are quite often mixed.
When I was in school I remember being taught that this was the right way of writing headlines, so I understand those who force bibtex to cite this way by curly-bracketing first letters.
But what is the reason for this convention?  Is it fair to say that it is incorrect?  Otherwise, how can it be argued to use small caps in the reference lists?

"capitalize all words that are four letters long": at least in scientific papers, I try to avoid four-letter words :-)

Note that Capitalizing All Words in a Title is heavily culture dependent - in many languages, titles are always typeset in sentence case (capitalization just like a normal sentence), and to non-native English speakers, Title Case may look like the writing of a 6-year old.

It might make more sense if you look at the ACM Journals Word Style Guide. They provide standard templates that abstract those pesky formatting decisions away for you.

The reason I used APA guidelines was simply to provide an example of the problem.  It was easier than showing the actual reference list of a publication.  There are numerous publications in many disciplines, also my own (CS) where you can observe mixing of these two ways of doing it.  My interest is more theoretical, i.e., what is correct from an English philology standpoint.

Each venue has its own set of rules. Sometimes it can change from within the same publication (on special issues and such).
Therefore, sorry, there is not straight answer. Check the guidelines of the journal/conference you are currently aiming...
ps: I don't remember ever mentioning the title of any work in my articles. At most "The method X was introduced by A et. al [1]".

Please note that I was not referring to people mentioning the full title in the actual articles, but rather that the conventions used for titles and headings inside the document differ from the ones used in the reference lists of the articles.

As Fábio says, it is very unusual in academic writing to mention the title of a work in the main text of an article. In the rare event that you do this, I suppose I can understand the rationale for capitalising most words (using "title case"): it makes it easier to distinguish the title from the surrounding text. Other ways to achieve this, IMO preferable, would be to put the title in italics, or within quotation marks.
However, when listing the title in the bibliography, the usual standard is simply to reproduce capitalisation of the title exactly as it appears in the published work. (In most cases only the first word, and terms derived from proper nouns, will be capitalised.)
You mention small caps at the end of your post. Using small caps is not inconsistent with maintaining normal capitalisation. Small caps doesn't mean everything is capitalised; it is simply a font style where capitalisation is distinguished by size, rather than shape. Only the full-size caps are genuine capital letters; the small-size caps are lower-case letters.


text:
How do I determine if a paper has undergone anonymous peer review of its statistical analysis?
I heard on Twitter today about a paper stating that after the Snowden leaks, people looked up terrorism-related topics less on Wikipedia.
I'm not worried about deliberate fabrication of data, but I'm worried that poor quality statistical analysis may have happened. I'm not expert enough to look at the paper's statistical analyses myself and determine whether they're appropriate, so instead I want to know whether rigorous peer review has taken place.
The journal involved, the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, doesn't seem to mention peer review either on its about page or the page about the journal. The page about submissions says "Evaluation involves scoring by multiple different editors, and rarely lasts fewer than 3-4 weeks.", which suggests that it's evaluated only by editors, not by academic peers. Also, evaluation and scoring sounds different to what I'd expect to happen in peer review - it sounds like they're only evaluating whether it's a good fit for the journal and of enough interest.
How do I determine if a paper has undergone anonymous peer review of its statistical analysis, short of contacting the editor of the journal?
Related question: How do I recognise a peer-reviewed journal article? but the answers seem to focus on science related subjects, as opposed to the humanities.

"BTLJ’s eponymous journal is a student-produced publication covering emerging issues of law in the areas of intellectual property, high-tech and biotech" (emphasis mine). If it is a student-produced publication, it is probably not your most trustworthy outlet of science :)

@mmh That is not true for the field of law, in which many important journals are curated by law students.

@jakebeal That's interesting! I did not know that. Thank you for pointing this out. Why is it so?

@mmh I don't know why it developed so differently in law than in other disciplines, but it has historically been the case in the United States: see this Wikipedia article, for example.  If you search US law journal rankings, you'll find they're almost all student-run journals.

Let's tease apart two issues here:

Has a paper undergone peer review of its technical content (which will include the statistical content)?
Should you believe the statistics in the paper?

If it's in a well-respected peer-reviewed journal, then you can assume that it's undergone reasonable peer review.  That means it's unlikely that the content is blatantly and obviously crazy, and that in fact it's likely to be fairly solid.  It does not mean, however, that it is correct, particularly when it comes to something as subtle and frequently mis-applied as statistical analysis.
Bad statistical analysis is extremely common in every field of science, for a number of different reasons. Ignorance is a really big one, though, and one that's likely to be shared by the peer reviewers.  Thus, if you want to know whether to trust statistical analysis, you need to look at it yourself.


text:
Choosing PhD advisor in a field different from your undergrad research?
I am applying to grad schools now, in physics dept. I have been doing my undergrad research on high energy and astrophysics. But recently I have started to gain a lot of interest in condensed matter physics. If I get accepted to grad school, I will be selected on the basis of my massive undergrad research which is mostly focused on high energy physics. But, I want to do my PhD on condensed matter. But one of my main concern is finding an advisor. I am worried that the professors in top tier universities may not comply with it.
Is it possible to persuade advisors in condensed matter to guide me? (especially in a top tier university)
If yes, how easy is it ?
I am not so sure about it....But is this thing really common among grad students?

Related (duplicate?) topic.

@ddiez, thanx for the link......but I have a very specific problem, which is slightly different from them.

You are talking about what you did as an undergraduate. When talking to a potential supervisor, you have to remember that you are still going to be a student. You will be learning things. A supervisor will see your previous research and your potential for additional research.
As an undergraduate, I'm pretty sure that you did not become a world expert in astrophysics. So it's not like that you will have "wasted" knowledge, now that you will switch to a different topic.
Also, it's not like you're changing from biology to physics. You are staying within the realm of physics, and any skills that you gained doing your ("unrelated") undergraduate research will only benefit you when doing your graduate research.


text:
Should I include derivations elaborated in other's paper in my paper's appendix?
I used results from derivations of a theoretical physics paper in my paper. Is is appropriate for me to include the derivations with a few adaption specific to my work with citations like: 'most of the derivations can be found in paper XX' or should I just cite the final result of their derivations, without writing an appendix section elaborating the derivations?
a little more to ask : is it considered plagiarism if I write down all the derivations with most of them from their paper and a few adaptions even with proper citations?

It might depend on whether the other paper (or that techniques) is well-known in your field. In my fields there are several results that are never written down rigorously and used for 20-30 years.

It's standard to write "The derivation can be found in X and is included in the Appendix for the sake of completeness." It may happen that the reviewers suggest to remove the Appendix but in this way the presence of the derivation should not influence the overall suggestion of the manuscript.
You may well give other reasons than "sake of completeness" (e. g.  self-containedness, slightly different derivation...) but some reason and proper reference should be given.

'most of the derivations can be found in paper XX'
If by "most of" you mean that there are some simple additional steps missing from the derivation but in essence it is the same derivation, then a simple citation would suffice.
If the derivation is more complex, or if there are significant steps missing from the paper you meant to cite, then I think including them in the appendix would be useful.
It is also possible, that the editor of the specific journal you are submitting to would also have an opinion on this.

It's a long paper and the whole derivation is complex and I don't need the final result but only half of it, which is 1-2 2-column page's derivation. There are no significant steps missing in the original paper.

authors: 香港濕疹處理中心 HKEZC


text:
My first authorship is being turned into co-first authorship, what can I do?
I am currently submitting a paper for Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. I worked on this project for the last four years and was the only one working on this project. I had everything going very well. In order to get the crystallization, I gave the plasmid construct to another laboratory which has expertise in crystallization. Fortunately, they got the crystals.
After the crystallization got successful, one researcher (say, A) from their lab came to my lab and my professor told me to teach him all the methods. I happily agreed to do so. After A went back to his lab, I got the draft of the paper from my professor, where, my name appeared as first co-author! I almost fainted. There were 20 figures in the paper. 13 were contributed by me, 4 by A and rest by 2 other people. The paper was mostly about my work. But in the contribution section, my prof and the prof of A  mentioned that I and A had equal contribution. In fact it is mentioned that A was solely contributor of crystals and he equally contributed in all other results.
I discussed this issue with my prof, but he tells that he is getting pressure from A's prof to make A the first author. And my prof does not want to estrange relationship with A's prof. I am heart-broken and I don't know what to do.
Please suggest me what to do.
Edit 2021: It has been quite some time since I posted this question. I accepted the authorship as recommended by my advisor. Now I feel mature and realize that maintaining a cordial relationship with one's advisor and colleagues is more important than anything else. If one is capable enough, s/he will get more opportunities to prove their worth.

If the contribution section says something incorrect, you ought to be able to at least get that part changed to something more accurate.  (Especially if you're willing to compromise on the authorship point.)

Crystallization and structure determination can be a rather large amount of work, enough for a paper alone. Depending on how difficult this case was and how much of the paper's conclusions are based on the structure, shared first-author might be a defensible choice. If the crystallization is simple and the structure not novel, and the paper is mostly about non-structural aspects, it is far more dubious.

My paper is not mainly about crystallization and structure determination. We included that part just to increase the impact. A and his professor also did not want to send their work for publishing because the impact of their work, alone, was not that high. Combining both works together has increased the impact. Moreover, without correct plasmid construct, they could not have got the crystals. I gave them the right construct.

"I got the draft of the paper from my professor", does this mean you did not write the paper? A first author is expected to have worked on the paper itself, not just on the research described in it.

In line with @terdon above, a possible strategy to avoid this in the future is to take initiative when preparing the manuscript. If the work is mostly your own, start writing the paper and set the order in the list of authors yourself. If you are taking care (and charge!) of things it is more difficult for anyone else to question your decisions (and they'll have to do it explicitly).

In my lab, students are not allowed to write. The student performs all experiments. And then he explains everything to the prof. The prof, then, writes the paper. We only do proof-reading.

@user146290 that's an extremely odd arrangement. when are you supposed to learn how to write a paper? as a postdoc? who will write your thesis?

@SashoNikolov It seems then you may have bigger problems than whether you are first author or co-first author. For instance, that nobody will hire a graduate (as a postdoc, as a assistant prof.. etc.) who didn't write his own papers.

@user146290: Will your advisor write your dissertation as well? It sounds like your advisor has massive control issues. I would strongly recommend taking the path of least resistance until you have your degree in hand and your next position lined up.

@aeismail I write my dissertation. He does the proof reading.

How did the whole thing turn out? We need closure.

Please see the latest edit.

First, try to calm down and don't react hastily.
Your situation is very frustrating, but it is not horrible. Let's say that the current author ordering would be the final one. You would be what's known as a co-first author. While it would be slightly more advantageous to be the sole first author, in my experience being co-first practically will not have a significant negative effect on your CV (BTW - are you a grad student or postdoc?). This is important for you to realize - the worst-case scenario that you mention is upsetting, but definitely not a disaster.
Some additional points:

You can try explaining your perspective to your professor. If you originally decided that you would be the sole first author, you should definitely remind him/her of that. Do this politely, of course, but show your professor this is a big deal for you. This could cause the professor to reconsider, depending on his/her personality.
Instead of being the sole first author, you can consider being co-first but listed first. This doesn't make a big difference, but people might associate you with the paper more easily (Whatshername et al.).
Consider that regardless of the number of figures, the other author might deserve being co-first. For example, in many papers an experimentalist produces the data and a computational person analyzes the data and produces most of the figures - and they would often be equal co-first authors (even though each of them could think of themselves doing "most of the work"). So I do not know all the details of who did what, but it does not sound completely implausible that the other person did work which justifies being co-first.
Regardless of what happens, I suggest you talk with your professor about how to get a more satisfactory outcome next time (if this is relevant for you). Discuss authorship in advance and what happens when things change.

Good luck!

I am a PhD student and going to defend my dissertation in November this year. A has just joined PhD program this year in his lab.

In your position, I think you should try to get things right for you inside the lines of academia ethics, and this probably means not to fight too hard on this; but for the record, let me add something. Assuming the first coauthorship of A is undeserved, one important reason why what your advisor, A and his advisor are doing is wrong is that it misrepresents A's work even more than yours. They are therefore cheating on all A's eventual competitors for postdocs and faculty positions.

Disclaimer: My Ph.D. is in Theoretical Comp Sci, so I am speaking from a very different kind of experience.
Some Meta suggestions and notes

I'd say don't calm down - but still, don't react hastily. Especially since there are about a zillion different ways for you to act.
The whole name ordering and who-contributed-more haggling and intrigues are quite unbecoming. In some fields, authors are listed in alphabetical order, period. Maybe one guy/girl did almost everything, maybe it was a real team effort, maybe someone was simply the higher-ranking person - it doesn't matter. Or rather, maybe it matters, but it doesn't matter to the promotion of science, so it's not part of the paper. It would be extremely rude for an article to include a sentence such as "person X contributed more than person Y".
Unfortunately, academia is not living up to its ideals, and your Professor is playing politics too much at your expense. You need to consider whether it's more important to you to try and make a stand and try changing these norms of behavior - at least locally and to some extent - or rather endeavor not to cause a scene, maintain good working relations and move on to doing more actual science. I can't entirely fault the second alternative, and in fact it looks like the vast majority of people choose it, but I suggest the first. Of course, there's a third option...
Maybe this is all dirty politics. Maybe your Professor is not really your friend. Maybe you're surrounded by frenemies. If you adopt this view, treat everything like a cut-throat market interaction and try to make the most of it personally without getting your heart broken. I don't recommend this approach but it's the basis for at least one suggestion below.
Whatever you decide to do, try to run it confidentially by other people who know what's going on, or who know your Professor, etc. Of course, these people may then run to your Professor, or A's Professor, and mention your plans to them; this might be undesirable, but might also be desirable - getting a kind-of-a-response from one of them before actually acting in a way you can't go back on.
From your description it seems that A made a significant contribution to the paper; and that he is not involved in trying to get his name as a first co-author. Keep that in mind; avoid antagonizing him and try to avoid courses of action which make him your antagonist on this matter - either because you want to be fair to him; or because you want to work with him in the future; or because you don't want him to try and get back at you.
How do you know your Professor told you the exact truth? Maybe there are other reasons for making A co-first-author. Try to obtain more information, maybe from other people, maybe in A's lab.
Many of the possible courses of actions are dangerous to you, some to your Professor, some to others.
You're suggesting there's some sort of a quid-pro-quo between the Professors. Try to ascertain what your Professor is getting in exchange, specifically for this decision or in general. That is likely to help you decide how to handle the situation.

So, what might you do?
These are mostly mutually exclusive alternatives, and each of them makes some assumptions regarding the above.

Insist. Tell your Professor that you're sorry for possibly putting a strain on his relationship with A's Professor, but you do not accept making A a co-first-author. Talk like he needs your permission to do this.
Conspire with your Professor. Suggest to your Professor that he should oblige you, and have you talk to A's Professor to explain your case, or arrange with your Professor for it to appear like you threw a fit, or would have none of it (suggestion 1) - while actually this was not the case.
Appeal to A: It is not inconceivable you could get A to support your position, in a group meeting or via email. If he's a person with some integrity, he should, and then the co-first-authorship becomes an untenable position, for both Professors.
Peer pressure on A: Tell your common acquaintances and friends about what they're trying to do to you, and how A is going along with it. Have some of them inadvertently or advertently talk to him about it.
Collective action. Get your Graduate Researchers Union (I do hope you're unionized!) involved. Then you can play the good cop, while your union rep comes see your Professor and tells him "Look, we cannot allow this to happen. If you promote certain graduate researchers at the expense of others, we may have to resort to denouncing your action publicly, with multiple people bringing it up in departmental or all-university fora." Your Professor will likely rethink his position then.
Haggle. Tell your Professor, or your Professor and relevant other people involved, that this they're hurting your feelings and your career, that they're demanding quite the sacrifice, and without being compensated somehow you're not willing to accept it (perhaps without naming the exact sanction you are thinking of). Maybe you could get a Post-Doc promise (in writing of course, otherwise it's useless)? Maybe A's lab can do some work for you which they usually don't have time for? Maybe they could promise reciprocation in a forthcoming paper?
Accept your fate. Maybe, like @camelcc's answer suggests, A sort-of deserves it anyway. Maybe where you intend to go after the Ph.D. you can establish your merit without people counting positions in author lists. Maybe the price of antagonizing people / making a scene are too high, and you're about to finish and need some peace and quiet to write up your Ph.D. research thesis.
Cry bloody murder. If your Professor insists, and you can't influence any of him, A's Professor or A, publish an open letter to both Professors of them, with copies to the Dean/Provost/Rector/whatever it is you got, and send it also the faculty Ph.D. candidate mailing list, put it up on the bulletin board etc. Be super-polite, super-reverential, as non-accusative as possible, say things like "I believe it is inappropriate to misrepresent" rather than "You are lying in claiming" etc. This is a weaker and more dangerous variant of options 5. and 9.
File a disciplinary/ethical complaint. Of course, it may be difficult to make anything stick, plus, it very much depends on the regulations and the norms in your university and in your more immediate surroundings. I'm guessing this is considered a highly unusual course of action and is at least frowned up if not worse... also, note you need to make an official demand of all authors to correct the listing, since if you don't have that rejected you can't really complain about anything.

I am also a theoretical computer scientists, and I understand your puzzlement with the non-alphabetical name order. However, it is the norm everywhere except in math and closely related fields like ours, and there are reasons for that. In an experimental science like biology, research projects can involve many people who do make very different contributions. The custom there is to list the person who drove the research project first, and the PI of the lab last. Everyone's role in the project is sometimes described in the paper. A first-author paper in Nature/Science/Cell can be very important!

First of all, in TCS it is also pretty common for people to make significantly different contributions. I was listed as an author on a(n eventually unpublished) paper in which my only contribution was to erase 1/4th of the original paper by finding a hole in some of the proofs. Anyway, so what if the contributions are different? Why does the author list need to measure penis length like that?

The difference is that usually in a biology project the different authors are assigned genuinely different roles from the start, and one person "owns" the project. I doubt you ever start a TCS project with "I am going to find some bugs in the others' proofs" as your role. If in TCS we attempted to list each person's contribution to a paper it would usually be ridiculous. In biology it looks like "person A designed the experiments, person B analyzed the data, person C drew the graphs, person D gave the money".

Moreover, in math and TCS contributing one key proof idea can be more essential than figuring out all the other details. This is why we do alphabetical order. You cannot make this assumption with a straight face in bio when the assigned role of some co-authors (say an undergrad) would be to run some of the routine experiments, while the role of the senior PhD student was to outline the whole approach. The PhD student should get the credit. I am not saying it doesn't become dysfunctional and I am glad I dont have to deal with this kind of system: but it is not a purely evil or arbitrary system.

@SashoNikolov: So what if different authors are assigned genuinely different roles? If you contributed significantly, you're an author. If you really like, put a paragraph saying "Subset S_1 of the authors prepared the plasmid thingie, subset S_2 constructed the crystals, subset S_3 conducted the experiments using the crystals" to reflect these differences, without saying who's more important than whom.

General note for math/TCS people: This is mostly not a matter of pride or vanity. People will evaluate your work and make decisions about your career based on these orderings. For example, funding agencies can ask you to list on your CV only papers in which you are the first author (or co-first). So authorship order is a big deal.

@Bitwise: This is a matter of crooked power relations. A corruption on the scientific spirit. And it is not a coincidence that we immediately focus on funding agencies.

@einpoklum: Not really, as it's a neat and boiled down representation of your academic work. You should not have to read through all of his work to understand how much your potential hire has contributed to each of his papers. In most fields it's possible to just take the impact of each paper and their relative position on the author list and get quite a good representation of their skill and standing.

@DavidMulder: You're talking from the position of an employer, and moreover, one that's beholden to mechanized evaluation of employee qualities. So I feel you're buttressing my claim above rather than refuting it.

I have never heard of anything like a graduate researchers union at my university/department. Is this a common thing or is it country-specific?

@MarcClaesen: It's country-specific and sometimes even university-specific. In the US there have been some conflicting NLRB rulings regarding whether or not graduate researchers are to be seen as employees, and one of them annulled a previous collective agreement, IIANM. Anyway, that's a subject for another question...

@MarcClaesen: There have been positive strides on this issue recently following a brave struggle by the Graduate researchers' union at the University of Columbia, who won a strong NLRB ruling in late 2016.

Unfortunately I have seen this sort of thing actually happen - and have seen 1 paper withdrawn, and resubmitted, and another that was never published because of it.
Your professor is looking to get tenure - you are in a strong position.
Get your thesis defended 1st, then worry about this.
Id actually refuse to let the paper be published at all rather than this. If you are looking to stay in academia, the 1st coauthor will be a massive deal, unless you have multiple other papers. We are talking the difference between a sucessful academic and the eternal post doc. If you are looking outside academia, whether or not the paper is published will matter little.
If you have to write to the journal to request withdrawl, it will end your advisors chances of tenure, though get the thesis defended 1st, or he'll likely refuse to let you graduate.
If you can't get your thesis done first, go to the department chair now - do not wait. It's academic misconduct, though in my experience you will only make things worse by discussing with your advisor.

would the 3 down voters like to explain what they dislike about this? If faculty were prevented from treating students how they like, academia would be a more plesant place

There is nothing in the question to suggest the Prof is looking to get tenure. Further, the Prof is not one of the co-first authors. The paper does not appear to be submitted yet, so I am not sure what withdrawal has to do with anything at this point. Finally, I think some insight into why co-first authorship is a "massive deal" would be helpful.

The point of having papers at all is for your future academic career if you plan one. Like it or not, thos is a hyper competitive field to get into, and count of 1st author papers is a massive deal. Withdrawl comes in if the advisor submits it like this without telling the stident - Ive known that happen. If you dont plan on an academic career, no one is going to care what papers you have published. If you have 6 other 1st author papers, I might let it slide for keeping peace. If you dont have 1st author papers, then trying to persue an academic career is idiotic.

@camelccc: Excuse me if this sounds condescending, but I would claim your induction into the scientific community has been corrupted. The points of having papers at all are: 1. Effective sharing of information with with the community of scientists, or the general interested public; 2. Stabilization and conservation of a quantum of new information and insight, as a methodical step in the cycle of research work and knowledge development.

@StrongBad see the comment on the below downvoted answer...

This is a "political" situation, and must be treated as one. You have two alternatives, "go along," or fight.
Your professor clearly wants to go along. Clearly, the other professor has "called" a favor and put your professor in a tight spot. On the other and, the other professor now owes your professor (and you) a favor. Speak candidly to your professor, without being too blunt, and ask what will be in it for you in the future. Hopefully. someone will return the "favor," eventually. And, of course, be more careful in the future. (I made a similar mistake myself.)
Your second alternative is to fight. Start by going to the dean, and if necessary, go to court. Hire a lawyer to advise you of your rights. Make sure that you have logs, diaries, etc. establishing the fact that you did research on this topic before anyone else.
Be aware that if you choose to fight a powerful professor, "no one" in your department and probably not in your university will have anything to do with you again, and they may even "blackball" you to the rest of the academic community, meaning that you may have to change fields. If you are really that talented, it may be worth it. Otherwise, consider the "go along" alternative.

Agree to co-first author, but demand your name is listed first

On the paper, there will be an asterisk on both your names noting you contributed equally (despite the fact that you disagree) but you can still ask that your name comes first in this list. This is a compromise, but it is beneficial to be the first name on the list when someone quickly reads your CV.
On a CV you just list the publication with the author order as is, with no asterisk explaining author order, or with a small asterisk explaining the contribution of all authors, and let folks correctly assume you had the greatest contribution.

Correct author description to say you also contributed crystals
Your professor is less likely to fight back on these suggestions than demanding sole first authorship. It's a good compromise for all parties involved.

I discussed this issue with my prof, but he tells that he is getting
pressure from A's prof to make A the first author.

If you want sole first authorship then tell your adviser to push back on said pressure. This doesn't mean you need to be rude or go behind your adviser's back.
Explain to your advisor you find it unfair to you (and your future career) that A, whose contribution you feel doesn't merit first authorship, is getting co-authorship when you're the one who spent the past 4 years working on these results. That this diminishes your contribution as first author.
There is an open communication line with your advisor, use it. What's the worst that can happen? Maybe you'll get what you want, or maybe he'll say no. But at least you gave it a shot.

In fact it is mentioned that A was solely contributor of crystals and
he equally contributed in all other results.

If this is not true, then I think you should ask for it to be corrected. Otherwise the lie will forever be imprinted on that paper and no one other than you will remember it.

Your professor is being bullied, and he's telling you to go along with it because he doesn't have the guts to defend his student.
Treat it as a bullying situation. Why should you, your work & your career be victimised because your professor is being bullied?
And further, why do they all think you can be the ultimate pawn? You've to stand up and fight back but in a way that you can win. No point rocking the boat and losing. Do it quietly and hit hard in unseen places that hurt but they can't cry out. They have to smile and grin in public and back away from you.
My advise to you is to become a b*stard that they did not see coming:

Gather some facts, know the weaknesses and pasts of the other professor and Mr A.
Do not talk directly with the other professor. Be very nice to him if you meet him.
Go and talk to A, face to face. Demonstrate that you have his weak spot in your hand, and you are going to squeeze if he doesn't back out. Give a deadline. Send him messages at odd hours that make him lose sleep. Keep the pressure up. When you have someone's weak spot in your control, they will find it extremely hard to think rationally.
He might react according to stages of trauma/grief: Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. Be cold, know what he's going through and it's according to your plan. Be merciless, be relentless, force him to get to acceptance. Do not accept bargains.
He's got to be sure you're serious.
Once your deadline is up, squeeze hard but not all at once. Act more than your threat. Don't show your ultimate cards though, promise further pain. Give another deadline, shorter this time. Keep the pressure on.

Be absolutely cold and logical. This is your 4 years of work. They want to play you out and profit from it? Well find their pressure points, weak spot. How can you hurt them without hurting yourself? Let Mr. A run to his professor and cry. If the other professor wants to meet you etc, avoid as much as possible, say all the right non-commital things and make him feel at ease, but behind his back, squeeze Mr A with righteous vengence.
Second, don't trust or turn to the system to help you. The professors are the system and they will burn you.
Third, don't expect the story to end here. Stories like this will be whispered behind your back and impact your reputation and career further on. Make a stand, win quietly or spend your career walking with your tail between your back, wondering "what if..".
Source: I've been successful when I was bullied at workplace by a boss, by doing something similar.
Good luck, I hope you win and report back. Cheers!

This is rather horrible advice.

@Arno why? In a horrible situation, you need to stop being a nice guy, or you won't win. If you don't agree, why? Just because you become an "academic", doesn't mean you have to be a nambie-pambie softie.

Ethical issues aside, as you say, stories get around. If you have a reputation as being a bully to collaborators, it stands to reason that people will no longer wish to collaborate with you, and this includes to hire you as postdoc.

Ethical issues aside, what you propose is illegal in most countries: you basically suggest harassment.

@Arno reputation as being a bully to collaborators, or reputation as not putting up with being bullied? Mr A is definitely not his collaborator, Mr A and his professor pressured OP into accepting their terms. Are you sure you're not a professor yourself?

The question is: who wrote the results down? Writing down the results in an appropriate form is taking much more time, and maybe even more knowledge, than doing the research and coming up with some figures.
Did you write your intermediate results down; and if so, why didn't you publish them? Did you really do four years of research without leaving the nuthouse called "university" once, heading for a conference?
If three years of intermediate results are all written down and published, A will have to take all the conference papers into the list of sources, so everyone can see who the researcher behind the paper really is.

The OP is apparently working in experimental science. In this field, it is (a) uncommon to publish conference papers at all, and (b) not so uncommon that 3 to 4 years of experimental work actually result in a single (maybe coauthored) paper.

My professor did not allow me to use my intermediate results to be known to anyone till the end. He was afraid that people might steal his idea. My prof is working to get his tenure and is very cautious right now. So, I could not attend any conference. This is A's first paper. So, he has not cited any other paper. However, his prof has cited couple of his papers which was written in collaboration with my prof.

@user146290: So, your prof, while working to get his tenure, is actually damaging you, who are in a much weaker position, by not allowing you to publish. A very nice move on his part...

@MassimoOrtolano: Not to mention damaging his own tenure case. . . .

@user146290 Ok now we know the idea belongs to your adviser. FYI: At least in my field, the ideas and the writing are the most important parts: others are just RA (research assistant) jobs.


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GDPR and PLOS One Data Sharing
A fair number of PLOS One articles have statements like the following:
Data Availability: Data cannot be made publicly available as the dataset contains sensitive and identifying information. The authors confirm that the data will be made available upon request. Requests may be sent to the corresponding author.
My question is, what effect does the EU General Data Protection Regulation
 (GDPR) that recently came into effect have on such statements?  Does it render such statements void (i.e., the authors cannot share the data any longer), or does it not apply to this situation (but perhaps some authors will blindly cite GDPR so as to not share their data)?

This seems to be both a legal and opinion-based question (and not just legal opinion). We have not idea what various authors may or may not do. They may just get better at learning how to strip personal information out of their databases to make copies that could be made available.

What does GDPR stand for?

Added link to website with explanation of GDPR and spelled out the acronym.

This is a very broad topic, and specific guidance should come from lawyers and the requisite PIs, but in general terms:

there are a lot of reasons a given data set may be too sensitive to share, and containing PII- the domain of GDPR- is only one of them, but when PII is involved, it absolutely applies, and academic research is one of the many domains specifically identified in GDPR language, and is granted more privilege than other domains
when it comes to PII, GDPR does not prevent the storage, sharing or processing of data for legitimate purposes, it just prescribes lifecycle protocols that those who participate in storage, sharing or processing have to follow
those lifecycle protocols are intended to allow for the enforcement of the rights provided by GDPR to the humans whose data is legitimately shared, stored, and processed- to have their data removed, to have processing explained to them, etc.
those who participate in the sharing, storage or processing of data are either "controllers" or "processors" and different responsibilities are attributed to each. Controllers generally are responsible for the acts of their processors, and processors have to do their work in accordance with their controllers
a data sharing agreement has to define those roles and responsibilities for the parties involved, and ensure the sharing protocol fulfills the requirements of GDPR

A granular review of the issue in the context of research is here:
https://iapp.org/news/a/how-gdpr-changes-the-rules-for-research/


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What are the aspects associated with working in a 'liberal arts environment' in academia?
I am asking with respect to decoding a job ad for an assistant professor position at a US University. The ad essentially asks how my talents and goals relate to a 'liberal arts environment'. Previously I associated 'liberal arts' with the major that goes by that name, or thought that it simply meant well-rounded, which is something a student could get at any school. So I guess another version of my question is, what isn't a liberal arts environment at a US university?

Was it a university per se (generally a large school, often with a research emphasis, and offering graduate/professional education in addition to undergraduate studies), or a liberal arts college (generally the opposite)?  I'd imagine it was the latter, in which case they are trying to filter candidates to find the ones who are genuinely interested in a small teaching-oriented college, not just as a backup in case they don't get hired by a large research university.

There is an important distinction to make between a "liberal arts college" and a liberal arts environment in general.
The former indicates a particular kind of school, normally without graduate schools and professional degree programs, which specializes largely in undergraduate education. While faculty and students do participate in research activities, they are not nearly as extensive or as important as at research universities.
The liberal arts environment, on the other hand, is the tradition in which essentially all modern Western university operates.

While I don't mean to make these binaries -- because they really aren't and there is a lot of fluidity in humanistic endeavors involving technology and likewise technology that is deeply invested in humanistic thinking, etc --  what "isn't a "liberal arts environment" is a STEM environment (science, technology, engineering, math).
Working in a liberal arts environment in general means there is room for and the expectations of independent and outside-of-the-box thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving, rather than what some might call more rigid practices and procedures.  Often, a premium is placed on one's ability to communicate opinions and interpretations effectively, and to listen to and consider alternatives -- sometimes to the point where the conversations and the path toward problem-solving ends up more important and useful to the organization (and yourself) more than the actual answer itself.  Projects and research tends toward better and fully understanding human nature and society, rather than tangible products, per se.
Or, it could simply mean you'll be working with a bunch of English and History professors instead of Biology professors.
Note: This answer was written when this question was at The Workplace SE, and it did not have specifics about the position itself as it does now. This answer is more appropriate for someone taking a general staff position within a college or university and not for a faculty position that is already in a specific field.

there is room for and the expectations of independent and outside-of-the-box thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving — So, just like STEM, then?

@JeffE: Nice one :) Here's one of my favorite quotes about this misperception.

I've worked in both fields. I know the differences. I was answering a very generalized question (at the time it was posted, where it was posted) in a very generalized way, without the intention or interest to participate in the Great Disciplinary Debates.

A liberal arts environment generally focuses on teaching, research, and service. Teaching seems to be the biggest component of a liberal arts environment. Service is also important. A good research program is important also, it is just that more time is spent teaching and honing teaching skills. Usually, teaching evaluations have more weight than publishing in high impact journals.


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Quoting or paraphrasing in a review article
While writing a review article as an undergraduate student, can I directly copy some information from another article or book? Or should I summarize it in my own words to illustrate a topic?

In most fields verbatim copying of sources is frowned upon. You should usually paraphrase what you need to convey and adapt it to the flow of ideas in your own publication.
And of course, you need to properly attribute any material you took from any source - paraphrasing does not absolve you from the duty of proper attribution. Your university will likely offer some guidance on proper citation and attribution, and there are lots of textbooks on academic writing that cover this.

So, that's the general answer. I'd say that your situation of a review article specifically offers one added wrinkle.
A review article is supposed to condense and organize the state of the art on a particular topic. You will typically read, summarize and organize a large number of primary research articles to pull together the common strands along which you can build a coherent semantic structure. Review articles routinely have reference lists 100 or more entries long. (If this is an undergraduate project, your particular review article will likely not be that all-encompassing.)
Therefore: if you are even tempted to copy a whole passage out of one source for a review article, you can immediately deduce that you are likely going into too much detail for this one particular source. Take a big step back and concentrate on the larger picture again.

You can find guides on the internet on how to quote and cite in a scientific paper. For example, this guide by Timothy T. Allen:
http://tim.thorpeallen.net/Courses/Reference/Citations.html
DRTL Always make sure you refer to the sources you have used, regardless whether you verbatim copying or paraphrasing. When verbatim copying, make sure that this is apparent, e.g. by using quotation marks.


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Transferring / re-applying to PhD programs - Humanities
For humanities PhDs:
If you find that your research topic has changed such that you no longer are a good fit in your program, is it possible to re-apply and get accepted into the same program at other schools that would be a better fit?  Can anyone speak to this experience?

I think it would help to specify why the topic has changed so dramatically.

My professor mention to me, do you want to do a Chinese research? how is that, well look for a well researched topic and see if you can improve it a bit or apply it in other context.

When I served on a PhD admissions committee we saw a few candidates like this--people who were in their first or second years at highly regarded programs, but their research statements portrayed more alignment with the faculty in our program. I have two thoughts on this: 1) despite being worldwide, academia feels pretty small in that the professors at your institution might know or know a friend of the professors in the department you are thinking of applying to. Therefore, you should probably have their blessing before applying. It is not uncommon for faculty on admissions committees to reach out to colleagues at the school you are at to find out about you and your research interests. 2) you should probably address the reasons for your switch in a note to the admissions committee or in your personal statement that describes your evolving research interests because people on the admissions committee will likely have questions as to why you feel the need to switch. Admissions committees are trying to find good people to invest in and might be concerned about your ability to make a long-term commitment to the program if you are already switching out of another.
An alternative to switching programs--get a meeting with your POI to strike up a conversation about your latest project. They might be interested in working with you or have students that you could co-author with in the future.

Another thought, might your current department or advisor be willing to allow an external examiner or reader to be on your committee?
Depending on how far away what you want to study is from what you can at your institution, they might be very amenable to helping you do your project within the department in conjunction with other resources.
I know, for instance, that Baylor's Philosophy Department has made provisions of this sort. And I know several other departments where a large part of a project has been guided and checked by an external advisor.
I've also seen changing programs. It can make you an exceptionally strong graduate student and candidate later, but it most definitely will slow your graduation.

If your current department is not complaining... stay where you are.  Switching departments could set you back.

authors: 春晚国宝七情六欲_梦想照进现实独舞苍茫长生不死