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What if in hindsight a Nobel Prize is wrongly awarded (for example, after the concerning theory has been proven wrong)?
I read in this paper (maybe popular, but I think they didn't tell nonsense) observations have been collected by a group of researchers that maybe after all dark energy doesn't exist. Dark energy implies an accelerated expansion of the universe.
For these observations, a Nobel prize (if I remember correctly in 2011) was awarded.
More generally, does anything happen for the winner(s) of a Nobel price, financially-wise or price-wise, or whatever-wise if it turned out later in time that their awarded theor(y)(ies) turn out to be wrong?
To be clear, I'm talking about physics, chemistry, medicine,...Not about literature, economics, peace...

Theories being disproven is part of the process of scientific progress. (It has nothing to do with fraud.) There's nothing wrong with it and scientists should not be afraid of it.

But couldn't they had waited until it was 100% sure (which it still isn't)? Maybe it's never possible for one hundred percent, and I do find they made a big effort, but not big enough if it turns out that dark energy doesn't exist at all. Of course, it's easy for me to say, but hey, they have a high paid job for doing things they like and which is (I think) of little importance for the major part of all people. 300 000 euros, in the name of the cosmological science!! Better, give to people who barely can survive (thanks to western intervention).

The 2011 Nobel prize was not awarded for the discovery of "Dark Energy", but for the measurement of the accelaration (called decelaration at the time) parameter of the expansion of the universe. This is not in any doubt, and has been independently confirmed by other measurements.

Well, this is on the contrary exactly what's in doubt right now, because of recent observations (about a month ago).

Scientists don't make true claims, they make refutable claims (that make more sense of the facts than some other claims for some time).

If so, then you're a follower of Popper who says that science is only science if proposed theories can be refuted. But why should that be the case?

@mmeent And measurements were implying dark energy to exist. Why was it called deceleration, because it seems to be quite obvious that the implication of the then-made measurements was that the universe was in a state of accelerated expansion?  Even without hindsight. At least that's something easy to come upon while looking the observations made then.

@descheleschilder It was called deceleration because prior to its measurement, it was widely assumed that the expansion of the universe was slowing the down. The question at the time was whether this slow down would be big enough to cause the universe to eventually collapse in a Big Crunch. Even if they had found the expected result the measurement of this parameter would have been a likely Nobel prize candidate.

In science, all theories "are wrong", only some of them are more useful and insightful than others. If a theory helped the field going forward and had enough impact, it was useful.

Nothing happens. After all, many, many scientific papers are wrong, and many of them aren't recognized as such for a long time. It's often not fair to criticize the prizewinners this way either, since they can be very careful and competent scientists, they just weren't "lucky" enough for their life's work to be correct.

Perhaps the most clear-cut example hearkens all the way back to 1926, when Johannes Fibiger won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for "for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma." In layman's terms, he found a tiny parasitic worm that causes cancer. Subsequent research conducted in the decades following his receipt of the award would show that though the worm definitely existed, its cancer-causing abilities were entirely nonexistent. So where did Fibiger go wrong?
Though widely respected and considered to be a careful and cautious researcher, Fibiger fell victim to improper controls and inadequate technology. To elucidate his hypothesized connection between parasites and gastric cancer in rodents, he fed mice and rats cockroaches infested with parasitic worms and observed what he thought were tumors grow inside the rodents' stomachs. Later studies would show that they were not tumors but lesions likely caused by vitamin A deficiency, which resulted from a poor diet.
It's hard to fault Fibiger or the Nobel Committee too much for this blunder. At the time, cancer was much, much more of a mystery than it is today, and Fibiger worked tirelessly to solve it, exploring all sorts of hypotheses, not just those involving parasites.

That said, I wouldn't put much weight into the argument that dark matter/dark energy don't exist. There've been many attempts to do away with one or either ever since the 1980s. Every now and then they make the media too. But standard dark matter theory has scored many significant successes to the point that Sean Carroll said in 2012 that "by now we’ve accumulated enough data to conclude that the universe cannot be explained solely by modifying gravity". The evidence for dark energy is less compelling, but still getting more compelling constantly. Until we know what they are people absolutely should work on alternatives to both of them! However, these papers come with big caveats about how likely they are to be wrong, which the media seldom mentions when they write about them. For example, the paper cited by the article you link dates to 2017, which is ample time for the community to process it, but Lambda-CDM remains the gold standard (i.e. the paper hasn't convinced the community and is most likely wrong).

I was referring to dark energy. Not to dark matter. Just as a sidenote.

@descheleschilder this answer mentions both dark matter & dark energy if you read it.

Yes, you're right about that.

By now I even more like this answer!


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Is it okay to send a connection invitation on LinkedIn to an academic event director?
As a just graduated student, I have submitted my contribution proposal for an academic event and the organising committee has accepted it.
Despite I have still met none of the above mentioned committee members, would it be fine to already send a connection invitation on LinkedIn to most of them (in particular to the event director)? If yes, would it be better to include also a custom message into the invitation request?

It is unlikely to cause harm for you to send the invitation.  It is likely to be ignored.

Since my connection invitation “is likely to be ignored”, are there some hints you suggest in order to minimise the probability that the invitation is ignored? For instance, would it be better to send it after an in person meeting during the event?

No hints.  In my experience academics don't care about linkedin.

Yes I think totally appropriate. A lot of academics use Linked In to expand their networks. Some can be a bit precious about 'curating' their connections but most are all about expanding their networks.

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How can a double major in Physics and Math help outside Academia?
I am a freshman at Stony Brook right now and intend to pursue Theoretical physics in the future. I will likely apply to graduate school immediately after graduation and have no plans of working in the industry for too long. So, I chose to double major in Physics and Mathematics as I think they complement each other quite  well and will prepare me adequately for Academia and Research. But I am slightly concerned about the kind of jobs I'll get if I can't go to Grad school immediately.
What sort of jobs are physics majors usually offered? And what courses should I take for them?
I've been told time and time again, to the point of exhaustion, that physics majors make good Data analysts, Software engineers etc, but I would like to work in something that is a little closer to physics.
And how much of a role can independent study play when applying for a job? Is it treated equal to courses or less?
I ask this since I do not have a lot of space for courses that aren't Mathematics or Physics. So anything else that I am interested in or that is required for a job, I will have to independently study during the summer (e.g- Fluid Dynamics, Stress Analysis etc).
I am not sure whether Stack Exchange Academia is the appropriate site to ask this question but any help is much appreciated.
Edit: What I want to become, first and foremost, is a theoretical physicist. Not entirely sure where this will lead me, but I am not bothered about the pay of a physicist. The reason I talk of getting a job is because I am International student on a loan and need a way to keep paying after graduation if I cannot immediately make it into grad school.

This is a question about preparation for non-academic careers, which is outside of scope.

"I ask this since I do not have a lot of space for courses that aren't Mathematics or Physics." That's the fundamental problem with a double major and why I almost always advise against them.  You might be better off majoring in physics, minoring in mathematics and using the remaining time on courses that will make you more industry employable.

"kind of jobs I'll get if I can't go to Grad school immediately."  There's three situations where this problem can happen.  1.  You didn't prepare for graduate school far enough ahead.  Since you are asking this question in your first year of undergrad, you have avoided this problem.  2.  You prepared for several years but still didn't get into graduate school.  In this case (which I believe is very rare) trying again later probably won't help.  3.  Some sort of disaster struck which prevents you from getting into graduate school.

In case 3, the disaster might also prevent you from getting a job.

I think you should be more worried about what sort of job you will have after graduate school instead of before.

What sort of jobs are physics majors usually offered?

Jobs that require smart people! Physics is hard, employers understand physics graduates must be smart (without necessarily knowing why), and hire such graduates for a range positions that require smart people.

And what courses should I take for them?

The specific courses don't matter so much, unless you're targeting a particular skill set. That said, in today's market, having some business and computer science courses will surely help.

I would like to work in something that is a little closer to physics.

You'll need to give more clues  before anyone can help direct you.

how much of a role can independent study play when applying for a job? Is it treated equal to courses or less?

I consider independent study to be largely incomparable, but potentially more valuable. For instance, suppose you apply for a stockbroker position. Your physics degree might get you through the door, but knowledge of stockbroking, markets, etc. will get you the position.

You're asking in the wrong forum. I'm not saying this is more suited to another Stack Exchange, but rather that you shouldn't be asking someone else for help with this question in the first place because you are the person best-positioned to answer it.
Go to your local jobs portal and search for "degree physics". You'll get more relevant results than anyone here can tell you. For example I put "job new york" into Google and reached Indeed.com. Searching for "physics", the top three results are:

Research assistant
Intelligence research specialist, level I
Adjunct instructor - physics

Look through some of the more common (or more enticing) jobs and find out what they're asking for, and then go get the required experience. For example the third job says:

Qualifications, Credentials, Experience: The successful candidate will have
(a) At least an M.S. in Physics Degree
(b) Fluent English Language Skills
(c) It is also desirable for the applicant to have experience teaching recitation, lecture or laboratory sections at the college level.

This disqualifies you because you don't have a MS degree. But if you like this job and want to do it for a career, it means that 1) you should do a MS degree in physics after you've completed your double major, and 2) try hard to get some teaching experience.
In New York, you'll likely find tons of jobs, so you can try refining for those that explicitly suit you - e.g. by searching for both "mathematics" and "physics". You could even search for "fluid dynamics" and "stress analysis" to see what taking those topics open up for you.
There's a good chance you'll discover that "I think they complement each other quite well and will prepare me adequately for Academia and Research" is not good enough. Don't depend on rumors and feelings about what jobs you can do, actually find out. What you think might not be what is actually out there.

Let me make a few suggestions that may add up to an answer or not. But, I hope they are worth considering.
First, and I think most important, is that you don't try to lay out the trajectory of your work life to firmly too early. You are probably young enough that your future will be long. Setting things firmly in place now might deny you opportunities later. Not everyone ever has a chance in their life to just do what they love for a while and are burdened with responsibility. I doubt that you have such problems now. So, if you love physics and math then, just do it. Just for the joy of it. Full Stop.
Next is that studying anything will establish patterns of thought appropriate to that field. Writing will make you a better writer, for example. And, physics and mathematics are very different in the thought patterns that they enable. Physical sciences explore the world as it exists. It is grounded in reality and searches for the nature of that reality. Mathematics is pure mind stuff. It need not have any relationship to anything outside mathematics itself. So, the mind develops in different ways by studying two such fields. This gives you mental capability that can be used to learn and do those things, but also other things. The flexibility of thought is an important skill to develop for any professional person. This is independent of any synergy between math and physics, by the way, though those also exist, as you note.
Next, you need to give a bit of thought about what you really want out of life. I hope it isn't just "a job." That is boring and the sort of thing too many people are forced into by circumstances. Since you are attending one of the premier state universities in New York, you are likely be be able to go pretty much where you please in life, provided you take advantage of the opportunities. And if, say "doing physics" is more important than "having a job" then I suspect that you will be able to find a way to do that, even if you wind up earning less than you might if you had studied law or finance.
If you have the opportunity to do what you love, then do that. And if you learn to think powerfully in a variety of ways, they you will be a valuable resource to many employers, in or out of academia.
I heard a comment elsewhere, but don't have a source: "We don't choose mathematics. Mathematics chooses us." That truly resonates with me.

The statement about math choosing us comes from here (pdf)

"Closer to physics" is still an extremely wide category. Physics grads work in aviation, automotive, petrochemical, nuclear (that's me), electronics, computers, etc. etc.
First, always make sure you are completing the requirements for your degree.
I would suggest that you pick your undergrad courses for things that you find engaging so that you have a strong tendency to work hard on them without being driven by threat of bad marks. If you find a particular subject in the course catalog interesting, load up on it.
Being your are a freshman, you have lots of choice and time to modify your plans. If you take classes this year that you find keenly interesting, load up on them in 2nd year. If the plans continue to satisfy, then keep going. If you find they don't work out so good, look back at the course catalog.
Don't neglect those acquired skills. For example, learning to program in any computer language is likely to be useful, and quite quickly. Especially in a class that will get you doing something non-trivial. If the class takes you beyond "hello world" and little ASCII graphs of y=x^2, so much the better.
And don't neglect those lab courses. Learning to use some cool lab equipment can be a door opener. Does your university have an electron microscope? Some cryogenic labs? Some wind tunnels? Or any other keen lab with specialist equipment you might find interesting. Find out from your course catalog, your university web site, your guidance department, and maybe even things like open-house night at the lab.
McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada has a pool type nuclear reactor.
https://nuclear.mcmaster.ca/
Any physics student who went through Mac and didn't at least take some training on this reactor would be passing up a big opportunity.  Find out if your uni has something of similar interest.
Also, glance around the course catalog outside of physics, even outside of science. Does business interest you at all? There are a lot of physics grads doing stock market analysis. If that grabs your attention, maybe some business classes. There's physics in weather and climate models. There's physics in design of river management. There's physics in design of commercial items. And so on and so on.
Glance through that course catalog. Look for the item that "glimmers." That is, the item that keeps you coming back and thinking "I could be satisfied doing that. I would find that interesting."  On the other hand if you are thinking "that would be a chore and I would quickly find coming to class totally a drag" then maybe you need to keep reading the catalog.

A few areas that interest me and that I have in mind are Aviation (Analyzing fluid flow and working on engines?), Nuclear, automobile, and working on accelerators. I believe stony brook conducts very interesting nuclear physics experiments through the relativistic heavy ion collider. But I am afraid these areas usually require at least a Masters.

In real-world quantitative problems, although people are good at what they do, they don't think like a major in math or physics. They only see what is physically present, and don't know how to think in abstract but quantitative ways a mathematician or a physics major does. So all fields are wide open for you. In my opinion, in the beginning, it can be quite challenging and there could be a lot of failures, but I guess one could do wonders if they keep at it.
In applied fields, people have a habit of looking at theories as only successes or failures in producing desired results. They can't estimate the value of partial success of a failed attempt or theory...they just throw it aside. Only a mathematician can learn even from a failed theory.

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What it takes for a Math department to develop a minor program in Statistics?
What it minimally takes for a Math department to develop a minor program in Statistics? Do the department require to have a major in area X to have a X minor?
Edit: How many courses at minimum does the department need to have a minor in Stats.  I see many departments requires students to take 5-6 Stats class to have a minor in Stats, so I thought if a department offers 5-6 Stats classes, can they develop a minor in Stats in general?  Are there any common rules one needs to follow to create a Stats minor, or any minor in general?

I think some context here would be incredibly useful.  Are you a student?  Professor?  TA?  Something else?

If your real question is the last sentence - "Can a department offer a minor in X and not a major in X" - the answer is "There are some departments that offer a minor in a subject in which they do not offer a major." But the titular question is not answerable given the level of detail you've provided.

Although on hold because it is unclear... the answer is "a lot!" It would take the prolonged work of several people competent in an area to develop a coherent minor program that is presentable. This kind of thing cannot be an afterthought. There might be an issue of accreditation, too. And "statistics" can sometimes be an eminently practically-oriented field, so your students would be expected to really do things, not just have a piece of paper! Your faculty would need to know... or be willing to hire several statisticians! No trivial answer here.

Every university is different.

@paulgarrett I share your assumption that this is a professor asking but I'm not entirely sure. Mostly because if it is a professor then why ask here?

@DavidKaye Some faculty are as clueless as anyone else, outside their specific competence, especially with regard to administrative issues.

Other than my "context" comment above, this standard simply will not be the same at all schools.  Your best bet is to ask your department dean/chair who will either know the answer or where to find the answer.

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My advisor asks about my salary?
It seems that my advisor keeps pushing me to answer this question, and I am not comfortable answering it.  How should I respond him?
Update: I just recently graduated and landed a tenure-track position.  The salary mentioned above is of this position.  I was wondering if it is normal for the advisor to know your salary?

There is not nearly enough information to say anything about this. Does your advisor pay your salary out of grants or other funds that he or she controls? What country do you work in? What sort of job do you have - grad student? lab tech?  Postdoc in art history?

I just recently graduated and landed a tenure-track position. The salary mentioned above is of this position. I was wondering if it is normal for the advisor to know your salary?

@OswaldVeblen I can only imagine he means his PhD advisor.

@Oswald: I'm sure OP means the adviser of his Ph.D.

@AustinHenley and gnometorule: yes, of course. It never occurred to me that someone's PhD advisor would quiz them about salary once they were at a different institution

@bankrip: I suppose it will depend on the relationship you have with your PhD advisor. You can probably just change the subject, and they will eventually take the hint that you won't talk about your salary. Really, it is not something they need to know, if you don't want to talk about it.

If you are uncomfortable answering any question from anyone, you can always tell them that.
From my experience in the US, it is common among close colleagues and friends to discuss salary. In fact, some (all?) states release salary information to the public. As a grad student, I have discussed professors' salaries with them on several occasions. But again, if you aren't comfortable with doing so then don't.
It probably isn't a big deal. Your advisor may just be genuinely curious or maybe he is looking out for you to make sure you are getting paid adequately. I can't imagine someone who invested so much into you as a student to do something bad with this knowledge.

I just recently graduated and landed a tenure-track position. The salary mentioned above is of this position. I was wondering if it is normal for the advisor to know your salary?

@bankrip It certainly isn't unheard of. In the US, this is rather typical to talk about with colleagues and friends. I've updated my answer to reflect your edit.

At the public universities I have been at in the U.S., although salaries are public information, it has been very uncommon to discuss salaries with colleagues.

@OswaldVeblen Even with me being a grad student, I have discussed professor's salaries on several occasions with them. So I suppose it depends on culture and the professor's background. In some of my discussions, they openly discussed it with me so that I will know what to expect once I graduate and how to negotiate.

I am not sure, and trying to figure out, why I feel uncomfortable telling him.  I do know that there is a good chance that he will tell his current students, who also my friends, that number.  I have been sharing with him a lot of my private life such as who I am dating, my plan for marriage, etc.  But this time I feel very uncomfortable when he starts asking me about the details of the offer.  It is just very difficult not to tell him everything.

@AustinHenley I think in most states, state employee salaries can be learned using FOIA requests, but are not proactively released by the state.  Thus, if you want to know my salary, you have to look in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://data.richmond.com/salaries/2014/state), not a state website.

@BenWebster Tennessee has a nice website that lets you look up salaries by employee name/departments/job title instantly, as does Georgia, so I assumed it was common.

I haven't done extensive research on the topic, so maybe I should have said "some" rather than "most."

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Are there introductory graduate courses for non-American PhD programs in mathematics?
For instance, on the course page for the DPhil in Mathematics at Oxford (http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/dphil-mathematics), they mention the requirement of taking "100 hours of broadening courses before confirmation of status" in the third year of the program. Are these "broadening courses" essentially the same as introductory graduate courses in the US? They involve "submission of written work," so they do not seem like colloquia or seminars.

From Oxford's webpage, Broadening Training,

Courses should be designed to broaden your knowledge and understanding of the Mathematical Sciences as a whole. They should, by definition, not be directly related to the topic of your dissertation ..

And it goes on to list where these courses can come from. I took a look at some of the offerings, and as a US graduate, to me they essentially amount to any approved graduate-level course. Whether you can call them introductory is a bit subjective (course looks cool, ends up nightmare, etc.), but they also confirm that part of these 100 hours of broadening does include seminars and colloquia.


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Is it ethical to obtain journal articles from places other than the publisher's official sites?
When I am at home and looking for journal articles I often find article PDFs  through google that have been uploaded to various websites (e.g., universities, institutions, arbitrary websites, etc...).
I am worried that using these files may infringe copyright since these articles may be bought by these universities (for example) and (by mistake?) were freely uploaded to their domain name like: www.university.edu.lb/journal_article1.pdf (probably for their own students?).

Is it ethical to use these downloaded PDFs during my research without going back to my own university elibrary to use them?
When, if ever, would I be breaching copyright or breaching professional ethics if I accessed these files?

EDIT: my question also covers books as, sometimes, these are entirely available on some sites (whether they are institutional sites or not).

You may want to distinguish ethics question (is it ethical..?) from legal questions (infringing copyrights).

IANAL, but my understanding is that (at least in any juristictions I'm aware of) you can never breach copyright by reading, or downloading, something. The person who may, in some cases, be breaching copyright is the person who made the material available.

If you download copyrighted material, then you make a copy. If making a copy is not allowed by the copyright holder, then you are breaking the law. Whether you want to do this is your decision, but don't kid yourself.

@gnasher729 Depends on the jusrisdiction in a given country. Making a copy for personal use is indeed permitted by law in some countries and authors and publishers are getting some money for it by other means.

@gnasher729 - From a certain technical perspective, the server providing the document is the one that has made the copy and transmitted it over the internet. Once you're viewing it at your computer, it's already "downloaded". In that regard, I doubt you could get prosecuted for this, as the server could potentially entrap anyone who visits a website by simply serving viewers copyrighted documents.

You may wish to ask also on the philosophy beta.

Is it ethical to free hostages by different means than paying ransom money to kidnappers?

Yes, it is absolutely ethical to use these files during your research. Many publishers allow academic authors to upload a so-called "preprint" version of a paper to their own institutional websites or put them in repositories, and of course these can be used by others in research.
There's maybe just two minor things to be careful about:

You should try to verify that the preprint version is mostly up to date with the published version, comparing e.g. publication dates.
It is common practice to put the "official" publication source, i.e., the journal version, into your reference list. Nevertheless, if you can't make sure that the versions are equivalent regarding what you're citing them for, it may be necessary to state that you were using a preprint version.

In some cases, authors may put papers online even though it's technically a breach of copyright. But since you don't know the author's agreement with the publisher, you have no way of checking that, and in any case, it would be the author or institution that violates copyright, but not you.

Thanks for the answer. Yes, regarding your second point, I always make sure to cite everything as if I have the actual hard copy of the journal between my hands (author year, title, title of journal, vol., issue nb, pp...) + a URL of the uploaded document to make it easier for readers to track the ideas if they don't want to (as I do) bother trying to get the actual hard copy. Is this enough?

@R.AS. Unless the URL is in some way official (e.g., arxiv or institutional repository), you generally would not include it in an offical reference. Include the doi instead. Random URLs (e.g., to pdfs of course websites) die often. You may find that such URLs no longer work a year or two later.

I am pretty confused because, well, I am actually including the reference as if I've read the actual hard copy (name of journal, vol., issue no., etc...) but I am also adding the URL as a "plus point" if you want just to maker it easier for readers AND since I got the info by opening up the online PDF files rather than reading the actual hard materials...

@R.AS. Adding an incorrect location for something is unhelpful. It's a bit like saying 'available at Waterstones', and I go to Waterstones and find they don't stock it after all. At least you should include the date it was available. But the DOI is designed to remove that problem.

One issue this otherwise good answer overlooks is that, IME, fairly often the PDFs found by Google Scholar may be on sites that are clearly not affiliated with the author, and which may not even be intentionally public (e.g. course web pages that are meant only for sharing material with students in the course, but which have been accidentally leaked to Google's index). Whether or not using such sources is ethical, it's not really the same situation as when the author him/herself has made the paper freely downloadable.

My usual publisher/journal (OUP/MNRAS) gives me a 'free-access' link to my papers when they are published that I may post on my website. Anyone can use the link to get a free copy of the official journal version of my papers. I'm not sure why they allow this, but it is explicitly allowed.

@IlmariKaronen, this is exactly the point of my question! I sometimes find books and journals uploaded to many sites (unis, non-unis, etc...) that are not affiliated with the author. Question: is accessing such materials and citing from them ethical/legal?

@JeromyAnglim: beware that ensuring DOI to point to the paper even after website move etc. is the publisher responsibility, so DOI may break too. Beside, there are URL or identifiers that have proven quite stable, notably arXiv ones.

@BenCrowell My first sentence is Yes, it is absolutely ethical to use these files during your research. I'm not sure what more to say about ethics here.

@R.AS. From my perspective, there's nothing wrong with using files from sites not affiliated to the author, as you generally have no way to check whether putting them online was unethical. But others may have different opinions for this point.

In addition, there are jurisdictions where the authors keep a right to put their manuscript online, whatever the publisher says (e.g. in Germany, this is the case for papers that were written mostly by public funding and after some embargo period).

I mostly agree with silvado's answer but want to emphasize a couple of different things.

It is ethical to look at freely available pre/e-prints, if they are permitted by the publisher.  They often are, and often are not, but it is not your responsibility to check.  However, you should cite published versions, which means you should look at published versions to make sure they contain what you want and section/page/etc numbered references are correct.  At most universities, you can get access to the university e-library from home by logging in.
Many libraries (including mine) monitor how often journals are electronically accessed through the library subscription, and use this to determine the value of this journal subscription.  Journals with less perceived value (from the library's point of view) may get cut to account for rising costs of other publications and/or budget cuts.  So it can be beneficial for both the journal and the university for you to make the effort to download the article through the library subscription.

#2 is especially important.

Thank you for the answer. So, does that answer my question if I, after reading what is available online, simply go ahead and cite the information of the originally published material with the name, vol, issue... information? Since it's not efficient to go and search for the hard copy of every published journal and I can assume that what I am looking at online is the actual hard one since they usually start at a specific range, as if it's cut and paste from the journal itself.

@R.AS. From your question (the word "(e)library"), I assumed you could get electronic access to the official article through the journal website.  I would only assume what you download from some other site (e.g., author's webpage) is the same as the published version if the journal+publisher name and correct page numbers appear in the header/footer of the article.

Sorry for the confusion and yes, that's exactly what I am doing now. If everything is identical, I move on. If not, it is likely a pre-print file (sometimes it's explicitly stated as being such) and I am including the URL anyway but I am not sure if I should mention "(pre-print version)" at the end of the reference line.

@NajibIdrissi My supposition is if you can access some but not most of that journal's papers through other means.  The library then gets a false sense of how much you use that journal and possibly you'll lose access to a journal you use a lot.  (One might argue that the "value" of a subscription should be in terms of how much you need the articles not otherwise accessible.  However, I think it's best to subscribe to the most overall useful journals.  After all, not all article accesses are equal.  Also your department might lose out to other departments.)

to add to #2: it makes young authors happy when they see that more people read their papers. They won't notice if someone read their paper when they read versions that fall out of the publisher's reading counter.

One thing not mentioned in the answers written so far: in some fields, including applied mathematics, many leading journals now allow the author to put the final typeset article on his/her website.  This is exactly the same version provided by the journal.  For instance, all SIAM and AMS journals now allow this.  So in this case there is no concern about copyright for either you or the author, and no need to worry about whether the version is "up-to-date".
I make almost all my papers available in this way.

Formerly, IEEE was allowing that as well. Unfortunately, they changed this policy some time ago, and are now only allowing the author's version to be put online.

Are you saying that authors can publish the official Siam version of their papers on their website? With the Siam title and all?

I am a researcher in mathematics who published over 60 articles. In almost all cases, the publisher left me no option other than to transfer all my copyrights to them, for my own work. Is it ethical?
I write articles in order to be read by other researchers. The last thing I need is to prevent them from doing it. If my articles are placed behind a paywall or hidden from the reader in any other way, it is definitely not in my interest, as the author. And even if someone purchases my article, I won't see a cent from that money. Is that ethical?
You would think that we have some choice, but now we are in 2017 and there is only 1 (!) broad interest journal in mathematics I could find of some quality caliber, that is completely free and open for both authors and publishers. I mean, no embargo, no author processing charges, no subscription charges.
And yes, there is Arxiv.org that is truly free for its users. But that does not replace a publication and is not counted as such. It is not peer reviewed and can be changed or withdrawn. Sometimes the version there is final, sometimes not. Sometimes people post there, sometimes not, for various reasons. And finally, you still have to cite the actual article, not the one posted to the arxiv, so you still somehow need to make sure what you cite is actually there.

I would like to point to
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-woman-has-illegally-uploaded-millions-of-journal-articles-in-an-attempt-to-open-up-science
and
http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/a-pirate-bay-for-science
and the sequel to that.
where it is argued that yes, this is morally perfectly fine.
Quote from the second link:

In her letter to Sweet, Elbakyan made a point that will likely come as a shock to many outside the academic community: Researchers and universities don’t earn a single penny from the fees charged by publishers such as Elsevier for accepting their work, while Elsevier has an annual income over a billion U.S. dollars. Elbakyan explains: “I would also like to mention that Elsevier is not a creator of these papers. All papers on their website are written by researchers, and researchers do not receive money from what Elsevier collects. That is very different from the music or movie industry, where creators receive money from each copy sold. But the economics of research papers is very different. Authors of these papers do not receive money. Why would they send their work to Elsevier then? They feel pressured to do this, because Elsevier is an owner of so-called "high-impact” journals. If a researcher wants to be recognized, make a career — he or she needs to have publications in such journals.”
This is the Catch-22. Why would any self-respecting researcher willingly hand over, for nothing, the copyright to their hard work to an organization that will profit from the work by making the keys prohibitively expensive to the few people who want to read it? The answer is ultimately all to do with career prospects and prestige. Researchers are rewarded in jobs and promotions for publishing in high-ranking journals such as Nature.

The researchers get paid (by their institution, by grants, ...) to produce said papers, and they also pay for making them available to the researchers (by subscribing to the journals, buying the books, ...). Very different from the case of artists.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


text:
I have an undergraduate degree and no research experience -- how to begin now?
I recently earned an undergraduate degree in computer science*. I had no interest in going to grad school, so I focused purely on coursework. I have no research experience.
I am now more open to the idea of further education, and I think life will be more fulfilling if I produce knowledge than if I just apply my knowledge in developing a product.
How can I get started on research in a way that will (1) let me know if it is something I want to spend my life doing, and (2) pave the way to a PhD in CS if I decide it is something I want to do? (I ask this question under the assumption that applying for a PhD is off the table for now because I do not yet know if I even like research, and even if I did know that, I have no research experience to show off and no one to write letters of recommendation that vouch for me as a researcher.)
Could I...

Get a master's degree? (Tuition and moving out of state are a steep price to pay just to see if I like something. Plus, I doubt my potential to get into a good program due to a lack of CS professors who know me well enough to write a letter of recommendation for me.)
Enroll in a post-baccalaureate program with a non-CS major (e.g. math) just to be an undergraduate again and have professors to do some research with, even if I do not intend to complete another undergraduate degree?
Get an entry level software development job and move from there into R&D?
Get a job as a research assistant for university faculty? (Or volunteer to do it for free?)

Whatever the answer, I need the opportunity to prove myself to someone who can write a letter of recommendation that is taken seriously for PhD admissions. (I originally titled this question "How to get LoRs with no undergraduate research experience" until I realized the scope of my question was much wider than how to get into a PhD program. Getting LoRs is still essential, though -- if I decide I want a PhD, then I need to have a shot at it.)
*Or rather, I will in six months -- this question is from a future perspective. I am also considering the options I have before graduating, but those are for another question. The point of this question is: if none of those options work out, then what other options will I have left?

@MadJack I am looking at undergraduate research opportunities, but six month is a very short time, and there is barely any undergraduate CS research at my school. I want to know what other options I will have.

Is it expected that you have research experience before applying for a PhD program in CS?  It isn't in math (in the US), and many people leave after a master's if they decide research isn't for them.

@Kimball I don't have a particular source to cite, but I have read hundreds of Q&As on this site and several articles/blogs by academics. They are pretty much unanimous in that (1) I should not apply for a PhD unless I know from experience that I love research, and (2) a successful application requires at least 1 letter of recommendation from a reputable professional researcher that says I would be an excellent researcher. I can't imagine how to do that without doing actual research with a real profesional. (Which doesn't mean publishing a paper; it just means attacking a research problem.)

We all started that way...

One method you can try is to delay graduation by one year and start working on a research project under the guidance of a faculty member in your CS department. If no such undergrad research program exists in your department, it may be possible to arrange something with individual professors (under the name of senior thesis, independent study, or on-campus employment, etc.) who are interested in taking on a student. Another good option is to find an internship or research assistant position in another university after you graduate. However, even such opportunities usually come with the expectation that you have some research experience to begin with. So a more realistic approach may be to start doing research now in your undergrad institute as a stepping stone while you are still a student, and then apply for an external internship/research assistant position with the help of your research supervisor.
Getting a master's degree is a possibility. If you choose this approach make sure that you are not getting a terminal master's degree that is intended to prepare for professional work in, for example, software development, rather than to prepare for further PhD studies. Finally, getting a job in software development is probably not a good idea, because usually the practical experience you get has little direct bearing on the content of a PhD study. Spending one or two years coding does not help to develop your ability to do theoretical research.
No matter which approach you take, the key to a meaningful internship is to find someone who is 1) well-established in the academia and 2) good with mentoring. Ideally, you want to spend 1-2 years in this person's lab, so that you have enough time to grow as a researcher and demonstrate your ability (and potential) to consistently produce good research work. You may want to talk with some professors who are familiar with you for recommendations, or talk with students in your prospective mentor's lab to get to know the professor's reputation. Remember that it is not enough to simply spend 2 or 3 months in a lab just so that you can pad your resume with some extra fluff.

very good answer! also applicable to other fields.

How can I get started on research in a way that will (1) let me know if it is something I want to spend my life doing, and (2) pave the way to a PhD in CS if I decide it is something I want to do?

I get that you only recently determined that you may want to do research. However, the fact that you haven't already sought out some research projects with faculty at your school may suggest some degree of a lack of seriousness on your part about really finding out if research is right for you or not. That said ...
You are still enrolled in your undergraduate program, and you have 6 months left until you graduate. So I think a logical first step would be to talk to professors at your school now to see if they have any projects you could work on for the remainder of your time at your undergrad institution. While you may or may not obtain any research breakthroughs during a 6-month time frame, this will be a great way to learn very quickly if research is right for you, and could even help you narrow down your areas of interest. Time is of the essence; don't let the last 6 months of your undergraduate career go to waste!
Looking beyond your undergraduate career, there are a few options to consider. Some of the options that you mentioned in your post don't really make a whole lot of sense to me. As I see it, here are the two main, logical options that you have going forward:

Get a job related to your subject area in a city that has a decent graduate program in the field you are interested in, and enroll into the grad program as a part-time Masters student. If being a part-time student while working full-time doesn't appeal to you, check with faculty to see if they'd be willing to work with you as a non-student. Either way, get involved with those faculty who are doing the types of research that you find interesting.
Skip going into industry and go straight into a full-time Masters program. Don't get caught up into the same cycle you are in now, where you are only focusing on your coursework. Be very proactive with the faculty and try to scope out a project where you can really get exposed to research and what it is all about.

For either of the above options, so long as you do good work, and if you decide that research is what you want to do, then obtaining quality LoRs for admission to a PhD program should be a no-brainer.
The key decision that needs to be made is whether you should go into industry after graduating with your undergrad degree or not. This is a very personal decision, and nobody can make this decision for you.
I did my Masters degree part-time while working full-time. It's not easy, and nobody said it would be, but it was the way forward that made the most sense for me at the time. In my case, I felt like I needed to do some industry work before I did any research to

acclimate myself to where my subfield was going, and
figure out how I could plug into that.

Whether to go the part-time or full-time Masters degree route is a very personal decision, and the right path for you depends on your preferences and the particulars of your situation.
In the comments, you wrote:

I am looking at undergraduate research opportunities, but six month is a very short time, and there is barely any undergraduate CS research at my school. I want to know what other options I will have.

Again, I am concerned that you are not quite up to the challenge of really finding out the answers you are seeking; stop looking for excuses and start attacking the problem now.
In the end, I can't stress the following enough:
There is no substitute for being very proactive and highly motivated to find out for yourself if research is really right for you or not.


text:
Student continues to email me after I told him I would not regrade his paper. Do I need to reply?
I have a student who wrote a final paper for a class in a masters program. He was disappointed with his grade. His paper had extensive copying, so I had a zoom call with him explaining why that was a problem, and then both my teaching assistant and I gave extensive written feedback on his paper, final grade of 69. He has written several times about it, claming that we took points off unfairly. I re-explained why points were taken off, and where, He writes back "but I thought the grading rubric meant..." or "I explained this, here is what I meant", etc. After five go arounds, I said I had nothing further to say, so I would no longer reply, and he would need to raise this with the department if he would like further review. Today, he sent me an extensive email again re-hashing points that I have clarified and explained again. I should add that he has a history of grade grubbing. Since I told him in 2 emails that the mattter was closed, and I would no longer reply, do I need to reply? Thank you.

Copying is plagiarism and an academic offence. Can you offer it to be evaluated by the misconduct board?

It could be. It was weird copying though, and badly done. Evaluating by the misconduct board would be a large process and I'm not sure it would be satisfactory. Our policy states that we can do that, or we can provide a failing grade. Given the kind of copying (he copied the structure, but not ideas of other sources, replacing with words to fit his paper, which ultimately did not work), I opted for the latter. I wish I had the nerve this student has to continue to persist in this manner.

You need to follow both answers: email trail and the heads up.

Fool me twice; you ain't going to fool me again. - what happens if you do reply for the third time? You lose integrity yet again for the 2nd time.

In some universities, the penalty for copying/plagiarism is an automatic zero on the paper. In other universities, it's expulsion. He should be happy with his 69.

@shoover I agree if it's really plagiarism (here it would be expulsion I think and I think that's fair), but OP clarified in a comment it was "strange copying" and "structure not ideas".  If the structure itself is not a significant idea, then I think it's okay or even a good idea to try and mimic the structure of a good paper. Not everything that is heavily inspired by something else is automatically plagiarism.

What is the official policy at your university for this type of situation?

In my former institution, if the mark was reduced copying/plagiarism this would normally have been reported to the relevant academic board and the student offered a chance to defend themselves

I might tell him that understanding why the paper was graded as it was is more important than grades themselves.

troll: remove 1 point from his grade for every email you receive?

Someone needs to tell this student to put as much effort into studying as they do into disputing grades. Imagine the benefit if the student had done "five go arounds" of asking for help prior to the exam, or working with you on concepts they didn't understand throughout the course.

This strange copying sounds like what someone would do if he were trying to write in a language which he did not know well. This suggests three possibilities: 1) He is trying to write in a style that is above his ability, 2) English is not his native language, or 3) he is functionally illiterate. Perhaps he would benefit from a remedial English writing program. Some universities offer them.

@David42, that's right. English is not his native language.

You could recommend a career path in politics, sounds like a future president in the making. ;-)

No, you don't need to reply, but you should make sure that you retain all evidence for your decisions in the event the student complains to some higher authority. Retain the email thread as well.
You've already said it was closed. Stick with that unless your chair or other such people force it to be reexamined.

No, you don't need to reply. You might find out the name of the person above you to whom he would logically escalate this and send them a heads up.

Thank you. I'm new, and part time, so don't know much and am a little hesitant to call negative attention to myself, although recognize it would be worse if my student did first. Would it suffice to say "Dear ____, I wanted to make you aware that I had a student (named X) who is not satisfied with his grade, after several attempts by me and my teaching assistant to explain where his performance fell short. I informed him I could no longer help him, so he may reach out to you,or not. In the event he does, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will support the inquiry in any way I can."

That sounds completely appropriate to me.

I think this is a great suggestion to make the immediate higher up aware of the event. +1

The downside to advance-informing the chair is that it might simply be a waste of time. Consider: If every faculty member followed that practice, the chair would be getting hundreds (?) of emails like this every week. Personally I would choose to skip that -- although the downside is probably minimal for a new teacher like the OP, so if that makes them comfortable, then I guess ok.

While informing the next step in the ladder of every minor problem would be a waste of time, I think that this is precisely the kind of thing that they should be forewarned of. This student clearly has the bit between their teeth and it's a reasonable guess that they might escalate. I think this issue crosses the threshold of sensible escalation on the teacher's side.

@DanielR.Collins having read your response, maybe I can identify the middle ground here. I think you're absolutely right that escalating this with the intent of putting it into the hands of one's superiors would be unhelpful. I think that giving them a brief heads-up that it might land on their plate from the student, a very brief summary of the issue and a clear notice that you require no action from them at this time is good communication.

Minor nitpicks: "I informed him I could no longer help him"... no.  Say "I would".  "could" suggests an inability, incompetence.  Speaking of which, your job is to help students, right?  Actually, giving a low grade is a way of helping.  I'd prefer, "I would no longer review the same work for possible further adjustments to the grade".

No, you do not have to reply.
You do not have to confirm receipt of further emails in any way. In fact, my department staff usually recommends in cases like these that the faculty member just stop interacting in any way. Total radio silence is acceptable and recommended.
You also do not have to provide information or assistance in how the student could contact your superior or engage grievance procedures.
You do not have to touch base with your chair or superior at this time. In my experience, the chair appreciates faculty who can "handle" this without escalating and making more work for the chair. There are a legion of students who want to complain about grades, and the chair doesn't have time to handle them all.
As others have said, keep your documentation and be ready to provide it to the chair if the student does engage them (without your assistance, again) and the chair then asks about it.

Radio silence it will be. Thank you for letting me know that that kind of response to that kind of behavior from a student is seen as appropriate. And I am keeping everything in case things go further, which hopefully they won't.

While you’ve received good advice about how to proceed in the current situation (Daniel Collins’s answer is the best one IMO, and I say this as a former department chair who would indeed find the “heads up” email pointless and unnecessary), to avoid similar situations in the future, don’t repeat this:

After five go arounds, I said I had nothing further to say, so I would no longer reply

(emphasis added). You should have cut off the exchange after one or two go arounds. Grade grubbers perceive a willingness for an instructor to enter a prolonged debate with them as a sign of weakness and that the instructor may eventually cave to their demands if they keep arguing long enough. In the future, my suggestion is, do not even enter such a debate - state the reasoning for your grading decision if one is called for and refuse to get drawn in to any further discussion on the topic.

Yes, that was a mistake. I'm new to these types of exchanges with students, and I  very much appreciate your seasoned perspective. It really does seem like this student just wants to keep me in a long and exhausting debate.

@beto To add to this, when a student complains about the grade, check with an open mind if you haven't made any mistake in the grading—they happen—but if there isn't any, truncate any discussion at the very first iteration.

@beto Another thing you can do to prevent this happening in the future is to tell your students that you're always willing to discuss an assignment until the due date.  Once the due date has passed, assignments will not be discussed any more (De facto excluding grade discussions).  ;-)

I'm not sure why you graded the paper at all if you found evidence of plagiarism, which I assume is what you meant by "extensive copying".  At most schools, you're required to report this stuff.
Personally, what I would do is respond to the student by telling him that his emails have prompted you to take another look at his paper and that unfortunately, in this new examination, you discovered extensive plagiarism and have reported him to your honor council or academic conduct officer, as appropriate at your school.
Don't like the 69?  NP.  Here's a zero and a misconduct report.  Have a nice day.

I agree with the first paragraph, and the second would be okay after a first or second exchange, but to do it now together your last paragraph makes it seem spiteful.

I'd have reported them immediately.  But even done late, I prefer to regard it as both fitting and most likely to cause a lasting change in behavior.  I look at it as a teaching moment, if you will:  Don't plagiarize and don't be a jerk.

Is that "zero plus misconduct report" covered by university rules? Because if not, the professor might get into legal trouble if the student likes to take things to court.

When you enter the zero depends on your school's policy.  Here at Michigan, where I teach, students get an incomplete until the honor council rules.  If found responsible, the usual penalty is a zero on the assignment + 1/3 letter grade deduction on their final grade.

Here, we have a process by which the prof and student can either agree on a penalty, with the outcome reported to the Board, or the student can request a board hearing and determination.  Any penalty due to honesty considerations requires formal reporting, though.

... also, anything beyond the first offense, even if the prof and student negotiate a penalty, will eventually end up at a Board Hearing.

No.  Stop engaging the student unless absolutely required to (by the Dean or the chair), and stay away from arguments.  When the student states “but I thought...” the answer is “I’m sorry but you thought wrong”.  If the emails persists answer politely but firmly as you suggest: “Sir, all has been said and there is nothing for me to add.”
Let the student escalate, i.e. let him waste his time (and possibly $$) on this:  presumably there is a formal appeal process in place to review marks if the student disagrees with the instructor and no understanding can be reached.  (Here it starts with Chair then Dean then academic appeals committee).  Because you want facts to drive any appeal, keep all correspondence and email threads, and start a timeline of past events: even if approximate it is useful to recall when this or that meeting took place, and who was present.  Ask any teaching assistant to also keep correspondence on this matter, in case it is needed.
If you have to meet the student, write a short memo summarizing the discussion and promptly send it by email to the student so there is a contemporaneous record of the discussion.
Unfortunately some students think that if they ask sufficiently many times the instructor will eventually give in.  Others think a submitted mark is the start of a negotiation.  It is true that the path of least resistance might look like acquiescing to the student but in the longer term if you are known to flinch others will try their luck.
I found it good practice to keep an appointment calendar where the names of students that come to my office, and the date of their visits, can be recorded. I don’t do this for regular office hours but if a student is possibly problematic I insist that he or she make an appointment.  This way, it is very easy to check if said student has indeed discussed the situation with me at some point in the past: it is very useful if the appeal starts some time after the final marks are published.

This is really solid guidance that I can and will use moving forward. Thank you for taking the time to share it.

You might reply with a one-liner like "Thanks for your mail. I have nothing to add to what we have discussed earlier", which will work as an acknowledgement receipt, which is in a way also fair and might be preferable to plain silence.
In my view an interesting underlying question is whether you should continue reading and considering what the student writes; I would say yes, since he may realize to be wrong and apologize or announce further initiatives.

To add to other answers, I would set a rule in my e-mail client to detect a message from this student.  The actions would be

auto-reply with something briefly reaffirming the instruction to stop the harassment; and stating that you didn’t read it.
Mark the message as read
move it to a folder with the others.

That rule might catch legitimate emails from the student about other topics, though.

Thought of that.  He'll just have to walk to the office.

Focusing on whether to escalate yourself: Some people have said "your department chair doesn't want to know". Others have said "As a former chair I would rather have it come to me from the faculty member than from the student".
In the UK I would definitely send a heads-up to my head of department or similar. Maybe this differs between academic cultures. But in general I would advise that if you new to this, and are not sure, then it's worth escalating - both to make sure that somebody more senior is aware, and potentially to get advice on how to handle it.

What may help is to write an email were you put everything in a broader perspective. The student is enrolled at university to study. Grading of work to judge if the student has mastered the topic well enough, while a necessary part of the system, is not what it is all about. The attitude of the student is self-defeating regardless of whether or not the student is able to get higher grades than he/she should get.

Pdf everything and share with your chair.  Ask your chair what to do next.  Tell the student that you are escalating the discussion to the chair and sending the chair a copy of the email correspondence, the paper and your analysis.  Also, depending on your country,your institution may have a process for grade appeals and you should tell the student to pursue that. Also, in many cases on a US campus you can contact the office of student affairs if it seems like the student is behaving in an out of control or harassing way. Those people are experts at talking to students who interact inappropriately with faculty or other students.

I'm pretty sure your chair would prefer you to handle it yourself.

The person has already tried and failed to handle it themselves.  As a former chair and current Dean I would rather have it come to me from the faculty member than from the student, Dean, Provost or President.  When and if the student or one of the others contacts me I want to say I am aware of it.  Plus it is a chair's job to help with difficult situations.


text:
How to refer to descriptive information of variables as exogenous variables
I am writing the methodology section of my paper in management and one of the models I use takes descriptive statistics, such as min, max, mean, std, of entities as its input (classification model). However, I do not know how to refer to such input academically.
The way I have written it is:

Our exogenous variables consisted of the descriptive information of
  main variables and item pool characteristics. It allowed us not only
  to rely on item side characteristics, but also on their
  relative location in the environment space and relations to one
  another.

How acceptable or academic is this? Should I explicitly refer to min max std etc. too? Or it is already clear to a reader


text:
Copyright of microscopy data acquired by myself
The question is the following: What is the copyright of imaging data (microscopy) I acquired during working in a research laboratory? Can I use this on my homepage / personal website?
I took the images with a microscope on my own. So is this my data?

It's not possible to answer this question without knowing what contracts you're under and your jurisdiction. It's also a legal question that can't be definitively answered for you except for by a lawyer.

I recorded the data during my master's thesis. Probably should consult my old advisor.

Duplicate of https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/11359/can-you-copyright-data

Copyright law varies over the world, but in many places data itself can't be copyrighted, but interpretations of it can be.
From the Wikipedia article: "Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works"."
Your best action is to contact the source and ask them. It may be that what you have is "data" or it may be something else to which copyright does apply.
And copyright doesn't necessarily mean "no use whatever". There are permitted actions also.

Photos certainly have copyright associated with them, explicitly or implicitly. But there are many details to the issue here that would need to be looked at in context of the country and working arrangement. Likely, just asking if the image can be posted on your homepage will generate a 'yes, of course' answer...

@JonCuster, yes, that is certainly true of photographs, but do such microscope images qualify as creative works or as data? It seems to be an edge case. IANAL.

there are contests of the best artistic images from microscopes, so certainly for those. Good microscopists aren't just snapping images but using their skill and judgement to get a picture that reveals the result in the best way possible - there is lots of creative work (but I'm biased, mostly because I was never a good microscopist and was always amazed at those who were).

If it's not plain data, there's probably a hierarchy of claims to it under copyright starting with whoever composed the image and pressed the shutter release and working up the chain of command to the top of the university and maybe the funding agency. All depend on local, regional, and national laws and arrangements. Where is @stephanmg located? How was the work funded? Who is their employer? In some nations it may matter who funded or owns the microscope.

Interesting comments, I will try to refine my question to make it answerable, if not feel free to flag it.

@JonCuster Is not correct.  Photos are only protected by copyright if they are creative works.  If they are data which is not a creative work then they are not protected.

@AnonymousPhysicist - again, it would take a court decision on artistic intent. The microscopists I know are indeed artists, working hard to get the best rendition to reveal what is there clearly. They aren't just snapping photos.

@JonCuster I agree.


text:
Publishing dissertation with ProQuest and include CC BY-SA 4.0 images
I was wondering if images with license of type CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en can be safely (legally) included when a dissertation is published with ProQuest by my university.
Also: The question is: If I do not publish open access, can I include CC-BY-SA images?

What do you mean by "safely"?

Well, I want to be legally safe, so I can publish my dissertation with ProQuest and not be liable.

Presumably the question is whether the "sharealike" requirement of CC-BY-SA would "contaminate" the copyright of the dissertation. If you are OK with having your dissertation under CC-BY-SA, and your university and advisor are OK too, it is not really an issue. (Your university and/or advisor may impose restrictions on what goes into your dissertation. Follow them even if unrelated to copyright and even if they seem nonsensical.)
If not, in the US (and most Western jurisdictions), there is some form of "fair use" doctrine under which critical discussion allows to reproduce otherwise-copyrighted material, sometimes with a particular notice, indication of source etc. Under this, whether the image is CC-BY-SA or any other license (or no license at all) is irrelevant - you reproduce it under fair use or the local equivalent. Again, check your university is OK with this.
(On a side note, many scientific journals will refuse that you reproduce graphs from other papers without written permission, even though that use would usually satisfy fair use requirements. That is because being sued is costly even if you are guaranteed to win.)

Yes, you are right. I am just wondering what will be the license my university will be using for my dissertation. As I understand it CC-BY-SA licensed images are of no problem, no matter what the university will chose as a license. Correct?


text:
Are conference proceedings included in Springer's Lecture Notes on Computer Science considered to be indexed by Scopus or WebOS MJL?
I see that Springer's Lecture Notes on Computer Science (LNCS) is indexed both in Clarivate's Web of Science Master Journal List and Scopus. Does it mean that all the proceedings from conferences inside LNCS are regarded to be in equal status with the other journals that are indexed by both indexers?

Whether a journal or conference has a high reputation or not is not directly connected with whether the journal or conference in indexed in such indices.
Rather, the indexing bodies define some minimum level of quality assurance and will not index anything that they believe to be below this level. There may also be highly reputable venues that are not indexed because of various reasons.
LNCS defines some minimum quality levels as well (for instance in terms of peer review), which seems to allow them to be included in these indices. The conferences whose proceedings appear as LNCS volumes still vary in terms of reputation, and such reputation also changes over time.
So they are not of "equal status" except perhaps for the scenario where some researcher may be assessed not by the quality of their work, but by the number of indexed publications.


text:
Can lowlighting less important text improve readability? Are there alternatives?
I think many experience the following: Sometimes I want to get the main message of a paper within 10 min then I am annoyed by any less important details distracting me. And sometimes I spend days or weeks to understand a certain part of a paper, where I would highly appreciate any further information on that aspect of the paper. Or I am just very curious if the authors got further results on a very specific aspect of their paper.
So I think good papers should be more interactive in a way that the reader can easily choose which parts to read and which parts can be skipped without missing the main message (or the introduction of the notation necessary to understand the main message).
I know about the following methods to achieve this goal:

less important stuff in the Appendix
Using remark environments to indicate that a certain remark provides additional information.
Using good section titels to let the reader choose which aspects they want to read.
Using footnotes to provide optional additional information that is specifically related to the content at the position where the footnote appears
Using lowlighted (i.e. grey / half transparent) text to indicate less important additional optional information.
Using smaller fontsize to indicate less important additional optional sections or paragrahps.
\underbrace, \overbrace to explain certain terms (that might be obvious to some readers)
\overset such as $a\overset{\text{Th. 1}}{=}b+c$ to indicate that a=b+c holds true because of Theorem 1, which might be obvious to some readers, but not to others.
(Writing something unimportant in parenthesis.)
There are probably more options...

I think all of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages and I think for each of them there exist scenarios where they can be very helpful for readability. I don't really understand why some journals and even Arxiv forbid some of them.
Question 1: What are the pros and cons of low lighting text by making it half transparent? Are there situations where it is helpful?
I think for example for papers in the intersection of mathematics and computer science grey symbols inside formulas can be useful to allow readability for both communities. E.g. a real valued random variable X is typically introduced as $X:(\Omega,\Sigma)\to(\R,\mathfrac{B})$ in mathematics literature, but this might unnecessarily confuse some computer scientists, because in this field of computer science the assumptions expressed by this notation are typically made implicitly without explicitly writing it down. So making :(\Omega,\Sigma)\to(\R,\mathfrac{B}) half transparent is understandable for both communities.
Therefore, we wrote our paper using lots of lowlighting and uploaded it to Arxiv a couple of months ago. Now, we wanted to update it fixing some typos and to furhter generalize the theory, but we got a mail, that highlighting and lowlighting is not accepted by Arxiv, because it is too unconventional.
Question 2: What can we do know? Is there an equally good alternative instead of lowlighting?
Related other questions:
Is there a way to improve the readability of equations in research papers?
Is highlighting important references a good idea?

You will be deeply hated by anyone who has any vision difficulties. This includes many of the older leaders in your field. You will be old one day yourself. Don't go there. Don't even think about it. Improve the writing instead.

It does not have to be exactly half transparent, it can also be a bit darker, so that it is equally well readable I think? Thanks a lot, that was the first important rational contra argument that I have heard so far. But what are the alternatives? E.g. for the given example?

Note that Google Maps is now useless to me and to many others like me. The streets themselves are no longer visible. You need contrast in text. I actually have fairly good vision so it isn't a question of blindness. Just age. I read a lot and don't use large print books. Nothing like that. My browser, however, is set for high contrast. Web designers are failing many of us. Don't make it like that for print as well.

If you want to summarize the main results, just put the main results in a summary in the beginning! There is no need to make the reading experience more difficult for the majority of your text. If something is truly so superfluous that it's worth making it almost impossible to read because nobody will care about it -- delete it!

Or maybe think about it this way: the majority of the person-hours spent reading your paper will be by people who actually go through the details (since they contribute so many more hours each). Why should they have to be squinting and straining to read the entire time?

Another factor is that people who believe in lowering the color contrast tend to be computer science people who read exclusively off high-quality computer monitors. This isn't the typical use case. Try printing a physical copy of your paper on a mediocre printer and reading it in typical (dim) office light.

@knzhou: Just a suggestion, but your three comments above could be written up as an answer.

@EdV I think the author can do so after receiving a reasonable amount of feedback from multiple readers. As an author I know that skipping certain parts makes it impossible to follow the rest of the paper. There are other parts that are not necessary to follow the rest of the paper. In personal discussions with my readers, I encounter that some aspects are of interest to all readers, but other aspects are only interesting to some readers. And some reader complain that my papers are too long, but a binary decision like black text or remove text would disappoint certain subsets of my readers.

Yes, there is an alternative to de-emphasizing the less important parts (which might possibly impair readability): Emphasize the most important parts. Something you can do is to use clearly outlined boxes with "take-home" messages, like in the example below:

I could fill a book with my (unorthodox) opinions about this. The arXiv is incredibly conservative about what it will accept, but I find it gratifying that you are thinking about this. Formatting makes a huge difference for a lot of people, due to disability, cognitive style, or just personal preference.
Something I imagine in my academic fantasy world, but have neither seen nor attempted myself, is to have papers posted in HTML format with customizable stylesheets. So the author would tag various sections as notational, of varying importance, etc., in very much the way you describe, and then the reader could load their own preferences about how they want that to be visually coded.
The old guard will probably go with print-like high-contrast plain vanilla, but I personally am strongly in agreement with you that visual cues reinforcing the organization of the paper would be extremely useful. However, those decisions are best left to the individual user.

Yes, this would be great! One could still write papers in LaTeX. In my LaTeX-file I also tried to seperate content and style. So there is one global variable, where you can adjust the grey scale. Would be awesome, if platforms like Arxiv would implement an user interface, where the user can change the global variables of the LaTeX-code corresponding to their reading preferences. e.g. font size, coloring of hyperlinks lowlighting and highlighting preferences.

Not a fan of smaller (inline) text or greyed text.  You should be able to use structure, appendices, footnotes, abstract, conclusion, figure captions (left out of your list) as good enough keys to allow the time-pressed reader to skim to key parts and/or inspect details as needed.  There is no need for the textual tools you propose given the other tools available.
I would avoid using greyed, or small, text as it is hard to read.  Consider especially that some readers may be over 30 (start to get presbyopia).  Also that some people may print the article for reference (faint type is a printing/copying problem, even worse than the eyestrain on screen).

Think of this as an engineering project. You would read the existing literature, and learn about best practices in a field, before even thinking of creating your own new solutions.
Do the same sort of web searching, book selection, and reading on formatting technical material for readability as you would if you were trying to contribute to a field of engineering you have used, but not previously studied.
While articles are often formatted by their authors, who are experts on the subject matter, textbooks may benefit from formatting by experts on readability. Select a few of the textbooks you have found most helpful, and study them again analyzing their formatting rather than their content.
I suggest looking at a few issues of Scientific American. Its economic survival depends on producing articles that can be enjoyed by anyone from a total novice to an expert. Many of their readers are experts in some of the fields they cover, but novices in most.
Most likely, after studying the field, you will find that simply following existing best practices will meet your needs.
If, on the other hand, you think you have an advance to contribute to the field of technical typesetting, test it carefully. Measure readability of different versions using experimental subjects who vary in age, eyesight, familiarity with the language, and subject matter skill. Of course, you may have a minimum level of subject matter and language skill.

Learn about whitespace. Learn about line length. Learn about typography.  Learn about font choice. Combine any of those with "readability" in a google search. Note that this site is pretty terrible overall on all those measures.


text:
What master combines application development and modeling and simulation engineering?
I am engineer in  process and chemical engineering but now I am working for a small company where I am research and development engineer (most of the tasks I work on is developping applications and now it was said I am going to work on modeling and simulation)
I would like to know what kind of master can I do in order to have a diploma covering application development and modeling and simulation?

Welcome to academia.SE and thanks for your question! Our scope here is pretty narrowly defined (perhaps too narrowly defined) - we don't accept "shopping" questions, and we're not experts in your field. You might consider editing your question to be more broad, e.g., "how should I search for an appropriate master's program?"

We specifically exclude "shopping questions" because they tend not to be "portable"—in the sense that they wouldn't help anyone except the original poster.

In this case, however, I don't think there are a lot of programs that combine both—the skill sets are very divergent. But you might want to get a better sense of what you're working on before you try to plunge into a master's—especially since the length of such a program may be more than your bosses are willing to wait for the project.


text:
What does "contributed paper session" mean?
It may be a silly question, but what it the general definition of the "contributed paper session" (especially in the mathematics community)? In particular, I am not sure of the following:

If I register for a contributed paper session, can I register with the paper that has already been published before in a journal (I am the author of the paper)?
Can I use my paper that has not been published yet?
Does the title/abstract of such a talk need to be the same as the title/abstract of the paper the talk is based on?
If I am not the only author of the paper, but I am the only speaker at the conference, should I list only myself as the author of the abstract?

These questions came up when I decided that I wanted to give a talk at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, 2019.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

In some fields, a contributed paper session is for people to submit talks that do not fit any other theme sessions at the same conference.

A contributed paper session is a session where anyone can submit a talk (rather than having to be specially invited).  The criteria for approval are usually not selective and mostly just involve a check that your topic is appropriate for the session / conference.

If I register for a contributed paper session, can I register with the paper that has already been published before in a journal (I am the author of the paper)?

Yes, it is fine to give a talk on work that is already published.  You should include a citation of your paper in your presentation.

Can I use my paper that has not been published yet?

Yes, this is also fine.  If you have a preprint that is publicly available (e.g. on arXiv), it would be good to give a link in your presentation.  You can even give a talk on work for which the paper is not yet finished, but this  is a bit risky, as someone in the audience may decide to work on it, and get their paper submitted before yours.

Does the title/abstract of such a talk need to be the same as the title/abstract of the paper the talk is based on?

Not necessarily, but it's a good idea if the titles are similar.  That way, someone who attends the talk or sees the abstract will have an easier time finding the corresponding paper.  For the abstract, your abstract should describe what you will actually speak about, and so the abstract from your paper may not be directly suitable.  For instance, your paper probably contains lots of details that you won't have time to address in your talk.

If I am not the only author of the paper, but I am the only speaker at the conference, should I list only myself as the author of the abstract?

For the Joint Meetings, all the authors of the paper should be listed as authors in the abstract.  (For projects not yet published, list everyone who is expected to be an author of the paper when it is finished.) There is an option to indicate which author is actually giving the talk.
Other conferences might have different practices.  If coauthors are not listed explicitly as authors, they should be acknowledged within the abstract, i.e. "This is joint work with Name and Name."

This complete correct answer says you can go ahead. I hope it works out well for you.

Thank you very much for this comprehensive and wonderful answer.


text:
Asking for recommendation letter from manager for graduate school
I asked a mentor on my research team to write my letter, but he has not been responsive (he normally is terrible at keeping up with e-mails, this is no different). My manager only saw the high-level aspects of my research, but the mentor isn't responding and asking my manager might prompt my mentor to help him write the letter.
Is this a good way of approaching the situation? If not, what would be a better way?

It seems reasonable to me, especially since rec letters are typically on a hard deadline. Worst-case, line up another recommender in case the one you hope for doesn't come through.
Slightly tangential, but... I've noticed a few things about rec letters from people outside academe that can make them harder to take seriously:

Extremely brief -- like, five sentences or fewer brief. Cover-letter length is more desirable.
Vague and general, not giving a strong impression of the applicant's specific individual potential
Make mention only of very low-level skills and abilities (e.g. showing up to work on time -- nice to know, but not exactly helpful in an admissions decision)

You may want to coach your recommender a bit, carefully and politely, about things it would be useful for them to say. You don't have to ghostwrite (and probably shouldn't; that's on the razor edge of ethics), but you can ethically suggest anecdotes about your work, or projects you've done, that you think say something unique, positive, and discipline-relevant about you.


text:
Sent emails asking for letters of recommendation, but no responses/agreement to write letter
At my undergraduate school I was hired by my advisor to work in his lab. Now I want to apply to graduate school at the same institution and have begun asking for letters of recommendation, but the only responses I've received have been no, I'm unable to write letters at this time or I'm at a meeting (conference) and will reply when I get back (not automated and I'm pretty sure the prof is already back because we work in the same building).
The other people still haven't responded and it makes me think they're either really busy and can't do it and so are delaying informing me they can't do it or they didn't see it or saw it and forgot about it. The deadline is approaching quickly.
Is it obnoxious if I email them again to ask if they received it or when I can expect a response?

If you work on the same campus, you should visit them and ask in person.

You might also brace yourself for the possibility that non-response is an unfortunate passive-aggressive way of avoiding writing letters. In particular, you might think about back-up letter-writers ahead of time...

They are probably just very busy. Try to ask in person if at all possible, since emails just get lost in inboxes.
Also, the referee may not feel they have the time to write a reference, since there can be a substantial upfront cost in time just to figure out what needs to be said. You can help them, and you, by providing a draft of a reference that contains the main things you think should be said. This sounds a bit cheeky, but can be very effective at cutting the perceived effort in writing your reference, and thus improving the chances they'll agree to provide one.

I definitely made sure to list (in sentence form) what was unique about our interaction and remind them of my specific contributions to the course. I also provided fodder/context (namely my research interests, academic accomplishment (yes, singular), and the work I do in the lab I'm in) about who I am as a student and potential researcher. The word count was around or above 600.

Could I send one more brief reminder email before confronting them in person?

"Confront" seems a strong word. Your email is probably at the back of their mind nagging them to get round to responding. I'd try to catch them briefly to remind them in person rather than filling their inbox with more emails.

It is not 'confronting' (or should not be) to ask for a letter of recommendation. And, if at all possible, it really should be done in person. I might be a little insulted if someone who is normally in the building just emailed me - that shows no real effort or desire, and I might reciprocate.

600 words is too much; include an informal transcript.


text:
What masters level courses should one take to prepare himself for a future career in the Internet of Things?
I am a graduate student looking to pursue MS in Computer Engineering. I wish to have a future career in the Internet of Things domain. Can someone suggest me the courses I should take that would prepare me for the same?

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this seems to be about prerequisites of finding a job not related to academia.

I would suggest that you don't focus so much on IoT in particular. Since you are in Computer Engineering, study programming for embedded devices, and take some courses on practical electronics work. IoT may not (some say it will not) be a hot topic once you graduate. But someone who can write good embedded code and handle a soldering iron will always be relevant.

Internet of Things (IoT) is a very large cross-disciplinary domain. Therefore, if you want to become a well-rounded IoT professional, I think that you would have to take core classes from essential to IoT disciplines, such as electronics engineering, computer science / engineering, embedded software development, information systems and data science. Obviously, if you want to focus your career toward a specific part of IoT spectrum, you would have to study relevant topics at a more detail than the rest (which is still important, firstly, to be well-rounded enough and, secondly, to be ready for potential changes in your professional interests). Reading corresponding Wikipedia article, which is quite comprehensive, should be a good starting point and provide you with more information on various disciplines and areas of study, relevant to IoT subject domain. Good luck!


text:
Obtaining a non-digitized thesis
I have been trying for a few weeks now to obtain a published thesis (this one, if you're wondering), but have had no luck in doing so.
There currently exists only one copy of this thesis, at the Lewis Library of Princeton. It has not been digitized. I have contacted the library to enquire about obtaining it, but not being currently affiliated with any university, the best they could offer me was to ask local libraries about inter-library loan programs. I have done so, and discovered that people were amazed that inter-library loans were still a thing, and after ferreting out the person in charge of it, discovered that they would not even consider an ILL from the US (I am in France).
Are there any other process I can try to obtain a copy of that thesis?

It is interesting to me that they don't offer to make copies. My thesis (admittedly 25 years later) is in the Mudd Library collection, and has a little link to request a hard copy that takes you do https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/senior-thesis-order-form. I'd contact one of the librarians about that.

Note that, if the catalog entry is right, this is an undergraduate thesis.  That is part of what is making this hard; for instance, PhD dissertations are usually archived by UMI ProQuest which will sell you a digital or paper copy for a fee.  On the other hand, it's also somewhat unusual for an undergraduate thesis to really be academically useful, since typically they don't contain significant original results (or if they do, then those results are usually published separately as articles).

You can try contacting Robert Marzke himself. There is a chance he has a digitized version of his own that he is willing to share.

I'll try, although as this was 60 years ago I have fairly slim hopes of that.

He may be willing to get someone to digitize it for you, if legally possible.

You can try to find either a book that published that thesis as an article or another article by the same author that builds upon the original thesis.
Chiu & Hoffmann's (1964) Gravitation and Relativity, available for free loan with an account at the Internet Archive, contains a chapter by Robert F. Marzke and John A. Wheeler titled "Gravitation as geometry -- I: The geometry of space-time and the geometrodynamical standard meter." The references section of this article contains the following reference to the thesis you are looking for:

R. F. Marzke, The Theory of Measurement in General Relativity, A. B. senior thesis, Princeton, 1959, unpublished (the present paper is based upon and constitutes a publication of the results in this thesis).

That is, the chapter in the book is based upon and constitutes a publication of the results in this thesis.
Reference for the book:
Chiu, H.-Y., & Hoffmann, W. F. (Eds.). (1964). Gravitation and relativity. New York, Amsterdam: W.A. Benjamin.

I already have this book, yes, that is where I heard of that thesis (I don't think it's mentionned anywhere else). The book only contains an article about it, which is a somewhat shortened version of the content of that thesis.

You could see if you know anyone who is physically located in Princeton. Any faculty or student there could just go the library and put the thesis on a copy machine for you. Somebody you know academically might be easiest to ask this kind of favor.

Already tried this route, and although it netted me four pages of it, more is not forthcoming, and my list of friends at Princeton isn't that long.