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How to approach someone who has stopped replying?
Recently, I applied for an advertised post-doctoral position with a researcher in an well-known institution.
After two weeks of not getting a reply, I sent him a reminder, and he replied
"Oh, thanks for getting in touch again, I hadn't seen your previous email. Can we have a chat on Skype tomorrow at X?"
He never showed up for the chat, and has not contacted me since.
Would it be sensible to approach him again, or shall I write it off as a lost cause?
Perhaps it would it be a bad idea anyway to work with someone who lacks the professional skills to keep up with email contact, and stick to commitments?

Although the question is different, the answers at http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/8224/1033 apply fully.  Phone the person.

If this is a high-profile researcher, they are likely quite overcommitted and may have indeed legitimately accidentally missed connections.  When dealing with somebody like this, you also need assume that you need to be the one taking the initiative in contact until you've have an established working relationship.
But it also might be that they are uninterested, and either too polite, conflict averse, or culturally trained such that they are unwilling to express their lack of interest directly.
How to tell the difference?  I personally tend to follow the maxim: "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."  After the third failure to connect (or whatever number you set as your threshold), then it doesn't really matter whether they're flaky or evasive: it's not productive to pursue the connection any further without some sort of positive encouragement from the other side.

I suggest you to give a phone call.
International phone calls have become very cheap nowadays, you could use for example Skype, MegaVoip or Google Voice.
Obviously you have to be very polite, don't become angry or upset.
Explain clearly the situation and ask about news.
G-Luck!


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IEEE journal or conference total number of publications?
Pardon me if it is a basic question but I don't seem to get the solution. Is there any way to get total number of IEEE publications for a specific journal. e.g. I would like to know the total number of publications of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering from all of its issues but I don't see any option of that on journal's home page. Is there a way to do it?
I have tried Scopus as well but It does not seem to include all the publications from this specific journal.
Any help would be appreciated.

I'm curious: what is it that you want to do with this information?

This addresses your journal of interest, specifically.
More generally, academic.research.microsoft.com can be used to find such information for other journals, as well as conferences.
Disclaimer: As user ff524 has pointed out in the comments of this answer, Microsoft Academic Search has stopped indexing/tracking "even a fraction of papers published since 2011", as reported by this article. I thank ff524 for pointing this out.

Microsoft Academic Search has basically stopped indexing all but a tiny bit of new content years ago.

@ff524 Thank you for pointing that out. I had not seen that article and would explain the asymptotic decay in reported publication numbers for the last few years. I will update my answer to include this disclaimer. Thank you.

Thanks for the answer. Before posting this question, I also tried Microsoft Academic but as pointed out, they don't seem to index all the articles. I was wondering if IEEE has that option. I am doing Literature review and I don't want to miss something important because you never know.... So I guess I'll have to do it manually?

@JewelThief Yeah, that makes it kind of hard. I know of no other sources by which publication counts, by journal, can be obtained, unfortunately. My lit reviews, for what it's worth, usually consist of traversing citations backwards and forwards from the papers that I know of and have been able to find. Maybe a scholar more knowledgable than I has an answer to your definitive quandary. Best of luck!

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Identifying assumptions in a research article
Sorry if this is a very basic question but I have to clear my head.
When reading a research article, how can I identify the assumptions it makes? Can I "assume" any non referred part/sentence to be an assumption by the author? For example, if an article in the field of computer science states in the normal flow of the discussion that "micro-controllers have become the bedrock of automation systems" OR "open source operating systems are more secure than propriety operating systems", but the author does not refer to any source for his/her claims, Can I consider these sentences to be "assumptions" by the writer?
Am I right? If not, can anyone explain it to me?
The other question is that whether stating a universal truth should be considered as an assumption by the writer? e.g. "mobile phones have communications easier and more reliable".
Cheers

What effect does the classification as an "assumption" have for you?

Why is "mobile phones have made communications easier and more reliable" a universal truth and "open source operating systems are more secure than propriety operating systems" an assumption?

@MaartenBuis, as a reviewer, I'd want to see a reference for both those statements. As a reader, I might let the first go.

In regarding "mobile phones have communications easier and more reliable" as a universal truth you are making an assumption (namely that that statement is an universal truth). (There are, after, people who deny the notion of "universal truths".) // I am only being partly facetious. What is considered as universal truths depend on societal norms, and can differ between cultures and eras.

@BillBarth When do we stop making references? We need to stop somewhere right?

References serve two purposes: 1) It makes sure that you don't take credit for the work done by others. Anything that does not contain a reference is assumed to be your work. So you need to be very very careful not to stop citing too soon, otherwise you will be accused of plagiarism. 2) It can act as an "external appendix". It is like saying I don't want to discuss the reason here, but you can read more about it here. Any statement you make needs to be supported by evidence, either within the article or in such an "external appendix". So, when in doubt, cite.

@JewelThief, any time I think "oh, yeah!? Prove it!" or "really?!?" when I read a line, I want to see a reference. Sure, you have to stop at some point, but neither of your lines has reached that point. I doubt, seriously that mobile phones are more reliable than land-line phones, so I'd like to see a reference, and I don't think that all open-source OSes are more secure than closed ones. You either need to cite something for that or narrow it. I don't think that even all Linux versions are more secure. Cite that or get a request from me as a reviewer to. As a reader, I might just stop.

There is no clear way to distinguish hidden assumptions, but let's discuss your example (I'm unfamiliar with the field):

open source operating systems are more secure than propriety operating systems

Some possibilities:

The author makes an assumption here. It can be, e.g., based on their personal experience, or justified by some common sense.
The community makes an assumption. This may be a generally accepted assumption, but nobody has actually done research on it.
This is a generalization / rule of thumb which usually holds true.
This is a well known fact, so old or trivial that nobody bothers to cite it anymore.

I usually consider all nontrivial statements as assumptions/hypotheses/conjectures unless I find evidence to the contrary.

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Where can I find results of various experiments and studies in fields such as medicine, biology, chemistry, psychology, and so on...?
During my statistics class I have encountered some nice studies, some of them having some nice and interesting results. This brought me to this question. One example of such studies is  on http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10229312 , but this is just a summary of the actual experiment.

Results of scientific studies are usually published in one of many field-specific peer-reviewed journals. A list of some of these journals, sorted by the discipline can be found on Wikipedia. Access to these published data is rarely free. You may need to obtain access through your institution's library. It is also worth being aware that most papers will only include a summary or overview of entire data collection sets, and you can often find deeper analyses and more comprehensive experimental data in the published supplementary information
There are also a number of open access journals, which, as the name implies, are open access. These may be of interest to you if you are just looking for general sets of experimental data.


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How can we differentiate a "completed working paper" from "incomplete working paper"?
There are many governmental or non-profit or for-profit research institutes in economics or finance. I see working papers and discussion papers which were cited many times. Although 3-4 years passed, the authors probably did not consider publishing it in a journal. So, what makes a "working paper" a "completed paper" ? Without publishing it in a journal how can we know that it is really an incomplete piece of work or actually complete work but has to be named as "working paper" because of the "environment that paper available"
Is it possible to have a "final draft of working paper" without publishing it in a journal?

In practice it is very hard to determine when a paper is done. So there is no easy answer other than read the paper, and make up your own mind whether you consider it complete.


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How many courses should I take in my PhD
I finished my masters at University X and I am continuing my PhD in the same university which allows me to transfer up to 20 credit hours of my masters coursework to my PhD course requirements which is 27 credit hours. So now I only need to finish 7 credit hours and I will be done with the PhD course requirement. I heard from couple of friends that I should take more courses because finishing my PhD with a small number of courses might potentially hurt my future by making my PhD less in value. If this is true, how many courses should I take to make a good PhD courses count?
I am interested in both industrial and postdoctoral positions after I finish my PhD.

Good PhD is not measured by how many credits you took, but rather how quality research you have conducted.

This depends a lot on what your field is.  Could you provide some additional detail?

@Buzz the field is computer science, I added that to the question's tags.

Your success in a PhD program will be judged based on your research, not your course work.  You should take the minimum number of courses required to get the degree, and spend your remaining time performing research.
The exception would be if you are seeking a job at an institution where you would teach multiple disciplines, and are required to have taken a certain number of graduate courses in each discipline.  This would not be unusual at American community colleges.

Interdisciplinary fields are another exception. For example, it's rare to see a fresh bioinformatics PhD with a sufficient background in both computer science and biology. Postdocs in bioinformatics tend to involve a lot of self-study.

Another potential red flag might be that both degrees are from the same institution.  However, this is something that can be surmounted.
For me, though, the major red flag is that you don't seem to have an advisor yet.  This is a very important part of the process of getting a PhD.
So how do you set that up, you might be wondering?
You could start by reading about the different research areas represented by your department.  Pick a couple that look intriguing, and read the faculty bios in that area.  Once you have a short list of possible advisors, observe them at seminars, etc., perhaps take a class or sit in on some classes.  Talk to other students.  This part of the process might take on the order of a month.
Once you have a pretty good idea whom you would like to work with, it's time to read some of the papers that professor has written.  It's okay if you don't understand everything yet.  Start making a list of questions based on your reading.
Visit that person's published office hours, and ask for an appointment to discuss (name-of-paper).
When you get to that appointment (or in that pre-visit), mention briefly that you are a new PhD student and you don't have an advisor yet.
If the conversation goes well, ask if that person would mind giving you some advice about course selection.  If the answer is yes, then send the professor an unofficial transcript by email, and any specific questions you may have about specific next courses.
Connecting with an advisor doesn't always happen exactly that way -- I tried to boil a complex, extremely varied process down to a simple procedure.  You don't have to follow it precisely.
Happy advisor hunting!


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Is there a correlation between where I finish my PhD and where can I secure a Postdoc position
I am currently pursuing my PhD in computer science at a mid-rank US institution (ranked 50 in US-news graduate computer science ranking). Assuming I have a decent publication record and good references. Would I have better chances of securing a postdoc position if I applied to openings in the US or would I have better chances if I applied to openings in other countries such as Canada, UK, Australia?

Why do not you try US, Canada, UK etc? If there is going to be any correlation, I would assume (since my background is not CS) that it is going to be small.

The correlation is certainly going to be your region, because that affects the places where you met others. Networking is very important for these kinds of things. It's not a showstopper, but it will be easier for you to be 'known' by people you've met, and you're more likely to have met people in your country unless you have a lot of international collaboration.

I guess you'll have a better chance to be accepted to a group that is doing research similar to yours. These groups are likely unevenly scattered around the world, most being in the US, Germany, UK, and France.

In addition to what is said: there are just more jobs in the US then UK/Canada/Australia (the total population of the last three is not even half of that of the US). // Also, implicitly you seem to think you should send out a limited number of applications. Why?

@WillieWong I am not going to send out a limited number of applications, I just want to know my chances of getting a postdoc position outside the US after graduating.

In short: your chances of securing a position is higher with people that know you (or someone you have worked with).
Whether that is people that are physically around you, or people that are working on the other side of the globe (whom you met in a professional setting e.g. at a conference). This is in line with what @la femme consmique, mentions in the comments, networking is important.
That aside, I have noticed a general skepticism in the U.S. towards Europe. I mean if you are applying for postdoc positions in the US from a European university, you might have to deal with a certain skepticism that does not exist amongst European institutions. It's almost as if you need to convince them that the university actually exists and you haven't made it up on your own (yes, I am exaggerating a bit).
[I would like to make this very clear that this is a subjective statement from personal experience, not a fact.]

I agree with Alexey B. regarding higher chances of being accepted in institution which have one or more research groups in your area despite the country.
Also, i would like to add that here in Europe it is highly suggested to spend your postdoc period in another country. This will show that you are truly independent when it comes of research.
Although i am not sure whether this apply also in USA or in other countries you might want to consider this aspect too.


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Salary of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowships
Does anyone have information about the standard salary packages for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action fellowships inside a Initial Training Network (ITN)?

If I am understanding the "Work Programme 2014–2015" of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions correct, then the amount of the living allowance is 37,320 Euro for early-stage researchers and 55,800 Euro for experienced researchers. This sum is multiplied by a "country correction coefficient" (see the very end of the Work Programme).


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IEEE templates for Transaction journals
I am trying to figure out which template to use for the journals
IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
and
IEEE Transactions on Multimedia
Both are journals published by IEEE comsoc, but both also are transactions.
On the IEEE template info page I find separate template for both of them:
http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/author_templates.html

When in doubt: contact the editor!

If you downoload the templates for Communications Society Journals and open the README, you will find the following note

This package contains the IEEE Communications Society subset of the full
  IEEEtran package and is intended for use with IEEE Communications Society
  publications. The included version of the IEEEtran_HOWTO.pdf has been
  specially formatted in IEEE Communications Society (comsoc) journal mode.

and the disclaimer

NOTE: Take care not to confuse the "comsoc" and "compsoc" class options/modes as they are very different:
comsoc  ==> IEEE Communications Society
compsoc ==> IEEE Computer
  Society

The IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence is not published by the IEEE Communications Society but by the IEEE Computer Society (compsoc). Thus, I think that for this you should use the templates for Computer Society Journals.
The IEEE Transactions on Multimedia seems to be published by both societies and by others too. The IEEE Transactions on Multimedia home page links at the information for authors page which further links to the author digital tools page, but saying (bold mine):

The style files are available on the web at the IEEE Author Digital
  Toolbox (link is external) under "Template for all Transactions."
  (LaTeX and MS Word).


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What can a PI do about a low-performing postdoc?
This is a hypothetical question inspired by a flip side of the situation described here.
Consider a PI on tenure-track position, facing tenure / promotion panel in a few years. The PI has just got their first significant research grant, allowing to recruit one postdoc (research fellow) and maybe buying out a few hours per week of PI's time to administer and manage the grant.
After careful selection and recruitment process, following the regulations of the University HR Department, a shortlist was composed, the interview was held, the best candidates were identified and finally one of them accepted the offer and arrived to start the post. Suppose the project and the funding is for one year only.
Following the usual induction process, a program of research has been agreed and weekly meetings has been set to monitor the progress. A few weeks later, the PI is worried that the progress is slower than anticipated. The majority of time is spent by the postdoc on reading the  literature, discussing the problem with other PhD students in the group, formulating strategic suggestions on how to solve the problem and possibly also problems of other students in the group. However, when it comes to writing publications (and scientific code when appropriate), the progress is insufficient.
Suppose that the PI has tried to focus the postdoc on their area of responsibility by making verbal remarks, but it did not improve the situation and only made the relations a bit tenser. The PI feels that the postdoc is under-performing, but the postdoc denies such discussions and in discussion with other students describes them as non-constructive and abusive.
The question: Assuming the restrictions and processes of your current University (or other places your are familiar with), what would you do as the PI in this situation?
I assume that the short-term goals of the PI in this situation are to produce enough high-quality publications to successfully complete their grant, secure the following grants and increase the chances of successful tenure. However, if there are also long-term goals which are more important and should influence the chosen strategy instead, please describe them. I also assume that 3-4 hours per week is just about how much time the PI has to manage this grant, and the rest of the time is spent on teaching, working with PhD students, etc, so the strategies requiring let's say 2 hours of PI's time per day are not very realistic. This is based on the typical breakdown of time for EPSRC First Grant scheme in the UK — please feel free to point out if it's not applicable in other places.

In certain cases, adding 2 hours of PI time is the only thing that can be really done. For just one year, especially at relatively young age, it is certainly stressful but feasible.

@MassimoOrtolano Could you make it an answer and expand on what you would do as a PI given that you have the extra 2 hours (per day / per week)?

Wow a few weeks in already and still only a minimal number of high-quality publications? Seriously though, give them tasks they can do in a short time and hold them to deadlines on them. The main problem with the prof's behavior in the other question was their abusive behavior, not their job requirements and expectations.

@ASimpleAlgorithm Let's try to separate the unacceptable manifestations of clearly abusive behaviour and the issues related to low performance. Could you make your comment an answer and expand on which milestones you will set and how you will respond as the PI if the deadlines you set are not met.

This really depends a lot on the contract situation. In some countries, such as Germany, there is a “probationary period” of several months wherein either side can choose unilaterally to end the contract. This lowers the risk from a bad hire. Saddled with a hire gone wrong, I’d try to get what output I could from the postdoc during the period and start a new hiring process right away (or see if anyone from the previous search was still available!).
In countries like the US where contracts may not include probationary periods, you have to try to figure out how to best help the postdoc out, since you’re stuck for a potentially much longer period. If it’s some sort of missing knowledge you figure out how to provide that. If it’s some other issue, you try to work around it or solve that problem. Without a more specific example, it’s hard to draw up a good “plan of action.”

In Germany, is the decision to terminate the contract during the probation period made by PI or HR? How realistic is for PI make a case to convince HR to terminate the contract given that  the postdoc is attending work but not producing a research paper or code of significant quality?

Either the PI or the postdoc can end it during the probationary period by notifying HR. It happens frequently enough (a few percent of hires) that it’s not too hard but not trivial to make the necessary argument.

I find it really strange to have several candidates and the one supposed to be the best didn't meet your expectations. A project of one year would force the PI to keep his/her postdoc until the end by encouraging him/her, teaching him/her and pushing him/her forward. I don't think, finding a candidate who accepts a job offer of a few months for a one-year project would be an easy task after ending the contract.

@Younes Very few projects are funded for one year and sometimes you can get “burned” by an unscrupulous graduate PI. I know of two very highly regarded PIs in my field, one of whom took a student from the other’s group based largely on the PI’s recommendation when the student should never have been given such a good recommendation. It would be an understatement to say that it “froze” their relationship considerably for a long time.

Answering this question highly depends on the institutional situation and context. BTW: very interesting initiative in adding a flip side to a conflict of interests.
I will consider the following scenario: the "competent" postdoc was screened based mainly on CV ticks, such as expertise and # publications & impact; the postdoc salary is paid by the university or government directly; the contract is for 12 months; the postdoc needs to publish 1 Pubmed paper in order to finish his duties.
First of all, let's admit that 12 months for demanding a published paper is a straightjacket. As a PI I would have emphasised and focused on this obstacle/requirement since interview selection. The postdoc should focus entirely on getting any published Pubmed paper as a first priority. (I would not pressure hard on authorship and IF in such case.)
Second of all, I state my view of a postdoctoral fellow. A postdoc relationship is a chance to establish a long-lasting collaboration with an experienced peer (and associated collaborators) and secure interdisciplinary/diversity in one's group. I am sure that if these two main points are successfully met during the temporary stay, a lot of mutual advantages (e.g. better research) should ensue for an indeterminate period of time.
This is why I'd face the first publication as the obstacle (imposed by the department or contract) and thus main potential point of dispute. Let us say it turns out like that: 7 months into the contract and the postdoc hasn't submitted a paper to meet the sole requirement of any publication remotely related to the topic of research without the need to include me as a coauthor, in spite of a known record of publications. Now, this is big bummer, isn't it?
There isn't too much I can do, if I am not directly responsible for the payments. Probably I misjudged the hire and/or the guy is failing to meet a fair agreement which should be trivial. However, still the postdoc is interacting with other group members well (post description) so it looks like the two main goals of the relationship can be met.
I'd be upset and would state it directly. I would state in written that no funding is to be allocated to the postdoc while the publication isn't met, as previously agreed. This should be put very professionally. Perhaps there are clear penalties in contract in case of failure to meet this requirement. I'd state this will be communicated to colleagues but also the fact that I appreciate any technical & sensible input to my lab group members during and after the stay. I would not isolate this person and would probably be forced to allocate my available hours  writing the damn postdoc paper, which wouldn't please me.
But it is the best way around the situation I can see. I would reconsider what I can learn from the experience to avoid such issue in the future (e.g. negotiate the requirement with department and/or adjust project with next postdoc)

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The review of one of the reviewers is basically a copy and paste from my paper. Should I care?
I just received the reviews of a paper I submitted. The paper was reviewed by three anonymous reviewers, two of the reviews provided valuable insight suggestions and comments. However, the third reviewer just copied text from the paper. Should I care about what the third reviewer did?

In the body of the question it says "just copied", in the title it says "basically a copy and paste". Can you say a little about what was copied, and what was novel? It might help get a sense of what exactly has happened here.

@Ian_Fin The reviewer copied text from my paper and submitted the copied text as his review. I am not sure what is not clear in my question?

The definition of basically is that something includes most essential respects. Most implies not all. By saying "is basically a copy and paste" in your title, rather than "is a copy and paste" implies that there's something more to their review than just what was copied. It appears that the review was of a low standard, but knowing what that something more is would give an indication of quite how low it was

Did the 3rd reviewer also add any comments at all, or not?

@Blaisorblade No he did not.

As you've described it, this sounds rather odd. Reviewers are under no obligation to accept a paper to review, so to accept one and then submit what sounds from your description like a complete cop-out is strange behaviour. It's also a bit odd for the editor to send you completely uninformative comments. It's possible that they genuinely did write a review, but that the text has been copied mistakenly, either by the reviewer or by the editor. It might therefore be worth sending a brief email to the editor to enquire about this review. Something along the lines of: "Thank you for consideration of our paper. In the copy that I received one of the reviews does not contain any comments, only text from our paper. I just wanted to double-check that the correct version has been sent through, in order to make sure that I can respond effectively to all of the reviewers." Be very polite, and make sure you phrase it as a request for clarification, rather than a complaint.
If it turns out it was their genuine review, you are of course allowed to care - it's a bit frustrating if one of the reviewers has not fulfilled their role properly. But it's not a big deal, and there's not much that you can or should do about it. Some journals only get comments from two reviewers anyway, so just think of it that way and ignore the third.

+1 for 'tactfully ask,  indicating it's probably a mistake'. People do do absentmindedly silly things - I once sent an entirely different paper (by someone else from the same journal!) instead of my responses to comments...

Why should you care?  One function of a referee's report is to explain to the editor what the paper is about.


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Deadline For PhD offer while waiting for other results
I have been offered a PhD position with full funding from my backup university, however they gave me a deadline of April 5th to either accept or decline their offer. I am still waiting for replies from other more prestigious universities. What should I do?

In the U.S. the nation-wide deadline is April 15, not April 5. If the place is here, they may be trying to bluff you into an early response.

@paulgarrett I am sorry if this isn't clear but I used the "canada" tag and not "U.S.". I am not sure if there is much difference in PhD admissions procedure.

Oop, sorry, overlooked the tag... The specifics in the U.S. are a purely artifactual outcome of attempts to make things saner. The magical date here is of no innate significance.

It is my personal opinion (from my own anecdotal evidence and everyone else who I've talked to about this) is that if a school has waited this long to respond to your application, it is very unlikely that they will accept it. Take that as you will...

@PVAL does this apply to Canadian universities too?

There are generally two things you can do - and you can and should do both at once.
1) Try to extend the deadline. Contact the people who've offered you the position and ask for extra time. They aren't going to give you an infinite amount of time, but ask for ideally how long you'd like - say, an extra two weeks? - with the expectation that they might be willing to give you less time than that. They might say, "Sorry, we can't extend the deadline" or "we can only extend the deadline X days" - but hey, that little bit of extra time could be very important! If you are polite it can't really endanger your offer at any place you'd want to dare attend, and they could always say yes. Just be 'reasonable' in your request - asking for an extension until days before the academic year starts won't be granted and might encourage them to give you no extension at all.
2) Contact the programs you haven't heard from and let them know you've received other offers, and that you'd really like to still consider their program - but you are on a deadline. Inquire if you'll be able to get an answer from them before your deadline. Everyone in the process understand that candidates who get in anywhere often get multiple offers, and deadlines don't always sync up. If you've had contact with a prospective adviser at the institution, consider CC'ing them as well (on the chance that they have already made a decision but the institution is being slow).
There's not really anything to lose if you act professionally, and potentially a great deal to gain. You could get an extension, you could get an early response from other programs, you could find out responses were sent but did not reach you - or worst case scenario you end up in exactly the same position as you are in right now.


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Internship paid vs unpaid on CV
I have interned in two companies while I was conducting my undergraduate studies, one of the internships was unpaid and the other covered transportation expenses.
My question should I mention in my CV that these internships were unpaid or voluntary?
And does this issue make a difference in the eyes of the graduate admissions committee?
The nature of the internships is related to my undergraduate studies (general computer skills), but not very related to my research topic I want to peruse.

Just a suggestion... don't be so quick to mark an answer as "accepted", as it reduces the likelihood that you'll get other answers. I would leave it as unaccepted for at least a day or two to allow others the chance to see the question and respond.

@eykanal♦  Thank you for your suggestion, I will withhold my acceptance till tomorrow.

Whether you were paid or unpaid is a matter of compensation, which is not something a reviewing committee would care about. All that's important is that your credentials were strong enough to earn you the internship. Whether you were paid or not is irrelevant to the strength of your credentials.

To me it's very relevant. "It's not about the money. It's about sending a message." What message? you may ask. It's not the same that some guys are willing to pay you as some guys accepting your free work, the difference is huge. Also, it's not the same committing to your work to the extent of working voluntarily for free when compared of working for a salary, which most of the people do much more gladly.
However, I would not mention that, again because "It's not about the money. It's about sending a message." And in this case whatever the message is, you don't want to send it. This is not going to be used in your favor, and it can be perceived negatively (in either of both cases). Therefore it is some information not to tell (unless you are explicitly asked) so that people reading the CV can focus on whatever you want them to focus, which will be your skills as the best possible candidate (on any plausible universe!).
Then you can play the card of: "I'm committed" (thus expensive) or "I'm expensive" (thus expensive) or whatever card you may want, either to get the job, a better salary, more responsibilities, a plant in the window or whatever.


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Can I use the sealed TOEFL score report I receive from ETS as an official score report
ETS sends a score report to me after each TOEFL exam in a sealed envelope. And since I already have online access to my scores, I would like to know if I can use the sealed score report as an official score report, would it be considered official by universities? Or only test scores sent by ETS directly to the university are considered official.

Some schools will accept a copy of your test score report as an unofficial report of test scores. However, if this is the case, this will usually be explicitly stated in the admissions documentation from the university. If they do not specify that this is allowed, then normally only the report submitted directly by ETS is acceptable.


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How reputable is the online journal scientific.net: Materials Science and Engineering
How reputable is the online journal "Scientific.Net: Materials Science and Engineering"
http://www.scientific.net/

Could someone point me to the duplicate question and answers? Searching for "scientific.net" produces no results.

It isn't.  Scientific.Net: Materials Science and Engineering is a journal publisher.
It publishes, for example: http://www.scientific.net/MSF Materials Science Forum ISSN 1662-9752


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How should I talk to an unwelcoming future research group colleague so no interpersonal issues raise?
This year, I am going to join a research group in which one of my past classmates who used to study in the same university during my the bachelors degree years is also working. The professor who is going to supervise the position is completely supporting my attendance and likes my resume. However, that friend of mine reacts not so friendly. He does not answer my emails or even quick phone calls which I wanted to check the correct paper work or document submission process. Even the content of his conversations is not so friendly and warm.
That friend has nothing to do in my attendance (before I know he is working there, I had contacted the professor to talk about the position) and our research topics will also be different.
I am worried on how I should possibly deal with such person in a research group who seems not to be welcoming to me. I mean, how should I continue my connection with him, so that no interpersonal issues raise here which may affect my performance in that group and position.
Should I completely ignore such person or try to behave constructively; for instance, for easing the connections and trying to make warmer friendship, should I try to call him and discussing topics, try to talk about my attendance there, etc? I am worried, since it seems he is not happy with me attending that group and he is a senior person (he works there for about three years), he does not allow me to have my best performance, connections and cooperation, etc.
Although, I have a sense that I am overthinking this issue and the condition may not be that problematic since the professor likes my resume; I need to know how to successfully behave to that person so that such possible misunderstanding be solved and we have good days in our office in future.

Just be nice and professional. Also, he may simply be very busy and does not want to be "bothered", so it may help to ask him a little less (depending on the situation, of course).

@louic thank you, I only contacted two times during the past months and thought it would be better not to contact him, but now I think "not contacting" him may adversely bother him... I do not know. Sure, I will try to be professional...

From your description, I'd say it's not time to worry yet:

Meanings convey poorly via words. See e.g. this "joke" that turned out to grievously hurt someone. You can't be sure your former classmate doesn't welcome you ... yet.
It's possible you're asking your former classmate the wrong things. For example you're asking about paperwork. Why should he know the paperwork better than, say, the professor or the department receptionists (or you for that matter, I'd expect the paperwork needed to be on the website)? He could be annoyed you're asking him questions you should ask someone else, which should resolve itself if you stop doing that.
He might simply be going through a bad period. For example if he just broke up with his wife and is fighting over the divorce agreement, you can't expect him to be very enthusiastic about anything.

If you're keen to join the group, I'd say join it first and only start worrying if it really doesn't work out.

And, he might be jealous in some way, or overly competitive.

@Buffy I think the classmate is too competitive.

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


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How to attract student attention in difficult/technical topics
When teaching, at some points I sometimes have to go over "boring" technical stuff. By doing so, I see students attention decreasing: they look at their mobiles, at their laptops or, in lab environments, fool around in facebook, youtube etc. Their attention comes back when the lecture moves on to "lighter" subjects.
The thing is that you cannot just omit the content from the slides, as it is crucial for the course (e.g. IPv6, TCP/IP protocols etc.). However, only a small percentage of the students seems to be interested, even after I underline that the material will be examined in the final exam.
The question is: how to increase student interest and maximize the percentage of students that actually assimilate the lecture content?

Pure speculation, but maybe for things like TCP/IP protocols, where is is just a case of memories the spec, you could give them a summery printout (/pdf). and give them a lot of practice questions, telling them that some of the practice questions will be in the exam (and some exam questions will not be in the practice set. Or a inclass programming lab where they (possibly with, possibly without the spec)  have to implement part of it, in a simple simulation.

It's ironic that students are slacking off using the very thing you're trying to teach them about...

add cool hip funky james-bond spy hacker references in you're covering sand-dry protocol related lecture material, daddy-o!  This will grab your students attention and keep them licking knowledge out of your Doritos dust covered palm! >:{3

As a student there have definitely been times when I have tuned out most of the lecture, for a variety of reasons: (1) sometimes I already knew the material, (2) sometimes it was so boring I couldn't listen, (3) sometimes it seemed like I could pick up the material in 10 minutes later, and I could better use my lecture time to do something else instead. This didn't usually result in me doing poorly in my exams or overall in the class (though it occasionally did), so I wouldn't recommend trying to attract attention if students aren't inclined to give it to you. Just don't take it personally.

And, by the way, I only had ~2 professors who prohibited laptops and/or electronics, and it was quite irritating when done on a regular basis. (I could understand the policy for maybe a small portion of one lecture, or maybe one or two specific lectures, but for the whole semester was unnecessary.) The only thing it did was make me be more likely to sleep in class.

@Mehrdad Why did you attend the lecture then? You could always walk out (edit: at any point of time) and be more productive in an environment with less distractions.

@mucaho: Well, it's not always possible to know what's going to be covered in lectures beforehand, and it's useful to be there in case I would have missed something later in the lecture, so it doesn't hurt. It's not like I knew 100% of the material of every lecture that I didn't pay attention in... sometimes there's stuff at the end of the lecture that's new, but the first half (or longer) is a repeat of what you already know.

First of all, you can't expect that all students are interested in the same manner. Concentration has its ups and downs over time. Also, some things are dull and will remain so, no matter how good a lecturer presents or how interested the audience is. This doesn't mean that you should skip it on the exam, students just have the choice to absorb it in class or later by themselves.
You seem, however, to face that the majority of students is uninterested. You could try to change the dynamic of class, for example, by going over the "heavy" parts at the beginning. That may include that you pace your schedules so, that that particular part of the curriculum comes at the beginning of the next class. If the "heavy" part is too elaborate, try splitting it into meaningful blocks, that can be intersected by "lighter" material, of course in a meaningful way. Ideal would be blocks that you can cover in 20-25 minutes.
Being a good lecturer is not only about the eloquence of talk or the skill of rhetoric, it is also about understanding that how to "pre-chew" the material for a given audience to keep their attention but still convey the knowledge. Dull things must be included, you can't change that. You can, however, change how you approach them.
PS: I don't think forbidding cells, laptops, youtube, etc. would help very much.

It seems obvious but: Make it come alive!
My subject is something completely different (philosophy of religion). Under my professor's predecessor (I'm "only" TA), the subject had somewhat of a niche existence. Students went there, because they had to.
Students hate it, when they are just "receivers". They want to be involved. I do not know your field enough to give any particular advice, but I can tell a little what we did.
Instead of just "feeding" the audience with information for the exam, we let them do research on it on their own. We bring quotes, each can choose one and from that they have to figure out who said it and how to understand it. Furthermore my professor and I have some very distinc differences in our views on certain topics (e.g. the "liberus/servus arbitrius"). We both set up small challenges for students where they can try to "silence" us (meaning: bring us to the point where we cannot directly reply to their arguments anymore without having to read up first). They get some small rewards for that. Furthermore we re-introduced the old academic tradition of "disputationes". It's between professors and students and gives them an opportunity to actually use what they learnt.
I don't know if any of these suggestions can be applied to your field, but one thing for sure can: Let them try out and make mistakes. That's where they learn most from.

Try to lighten the load as much as possible without reducing the actual amount of information taught. An example I found last week, in a certain setting we want to find the maximum of a function. Now, knowing that we have that gradient is a good thing, because we can optimize it more efficiently; but writing down the specific formula for the gradient is not that useful, unless you are actually going to implement it. And furthermore, computing it in class is even more boring, as it only involves standard algebra manipulations.
Once you have chosen your battles wisely, try to justify why you have to go through this. After all, I know that TCP/IP is that thing that makes computers talk to each other, and I have been very happy not knowing more than that. Some of your students may feel that this is something that only the people working on IPv7 would ever use it. Briefly explain why this is not the case, and why should they learn the details.
Lastly, candy is always good. After a hard lecture learning a complex algorithm, you can explain how someone used it to do something completely unexpected or fun. This gives the motivation to go back to the topic, study it deeper to better understand the particular application.

Not all students learn in the same way, so not all will find the lecture presentation the best way of understanding or engaging with technical material. Injecting an element of practical or laboratory work is often a way of focussing their attention.
I find with networking they often do not realise that it is technical or detailed. They just look at the surface layer (the application in ISO model) and think they understand how email or the web works because they click on it every day. I ask them to program small clients and parts of protocols and they begin to realise that it may not be as straight forward as they thought, this then brings the lecture material back into context and focus for them. This only works, in my experience, when the practical work has some assessment marks associated with it. It depends if you are in a position to make changes to the assessments and the teaching facilities that you use. Some people might be stuck with an exam and a lecture theatre!
I did create a role playing game to teach some of the aspects of networking protocols which worked fine for 12 year olds, but for some reason I could not get 19 year olds en-masse to engage. Those that understood RPG loved it; but at least I can say I used kinesthetics in computer science teaching.

I'd love to see your RPG.  A link, please?

@BillNace I would like to publish this at some time, so not going to post the URL here. Email me via my university address. Click on profile website etc. to find address.Can show you details privately.

roll 2d6 to see if your packet gets dropped

I like many of the answers that have already been posted, but there is one additional aspect that I think is important in all cases -- your own attitude.
Make absolutely sure that you aren't projecting the idea that this topic is boring!  You need to raise the energy level and show a very positive attitude toward the topic.  Your voice should be loud, your gestures wide, and your face beaming -- you're absolutely blessed to be teaching such a great topic.  "Hey, look, isn't this cool?  The SYNACK flags being set will tell the client that their request has been accepted -- and further, that the server wants to talk to the client!  Whoopee!"
Otherwise, the students will sense your disinterest and immediately head to their laptop, without taking the time to figure out the topic is boring on their own.

Give them a project to do. Tell them that they can create any program they want, as long as they use the technical stuff you talk about.
They could, for example, develop an RPG. Or, they could make a program that allows them to, say, turn off a computer using another computer.

Change the way you deliver content for such topics, and break lectures into segments.
For example, once you get to a technical topic, say "The next topic is going to be a bit technical, so let's take a 3 minute break before we get back to this." They'll have so much more attention if you don't just glide into it.
One thing that's worked well for me in such situations is to just shuffle class. I ask students to leave their seats and come huddle closer to me with their chairs, a bit like in a circle if the tables weren't in the way. You can't do this 3 times per lecture, but once a week is totally possible, and it changes the dynamics: it's more like a personal communication than a lecture, and it allows me to talk in a different way about things I find important. It doesn't work if you need to use the projector of whiteboard, but it allows to talk about the big picture at least. The shuffling to get everyone away from their phones and seats also serves as a nice break from the previous topic and clears everyone's minds.

I belong to the field of literature and in that to make things clearer our professors give us examples from the daily life. It not only helps to understand the the thing momentarily but it somehow seeps into your mind and you tend to remember it longer than the information given without examples.
Another great technique is to try to elaborate the tough or the boring part in their own language. As in, if English isn't the first language of all the students and they all share the same language then try explaining things in that language. People tend to grasp things faster in their own language than any other language.

If you're teaching it, and calling it 'boring', what must the students think?
The simple solution is to tell the kiddies that this subject will be on the exam, and it will also be on the retake exam, so it's best to learn it now.
Not all of the problem is yours. If the students don't want to learn, you can't force them. But you also don't have to give them a passing grade if they don't know the correct answers.


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How to decide which university to study for PhD
I have seen many different research students that want to apply for a PhD or MSc program but they are so nervous about their choice. Sometimes they pay most of heir time, reviewing the websites of the universities, profiles of the professors and do their best to gather information and choose the best PhD program or university to apply for PhD but they are still nervous about their choice.
Some students only think that the universities with higher rankings are best to apply for and they miss some middle-ranked universities which are so good at their majors. This way, their chance to apply for those high-ranked universities is so low and they may lose two or three years preparing and applying for those university. While in the same period of time, if they had applied for that middle-ranked universities, they had higher chance of applying and in this period of three years, they would have finished most parts of their PhD program.
My question here is about these things:

To what extent a person should be realistic in choosing a university for his PhD program. A normal student may be more successful in a middle-ranked university than a higher-ranked university.
I think that sometimes, normal students lose their confidence when they study at high level universities, while; if they study in good middle-ranked universities, their academic output may be much higher and they will be a more successful person.
Does it worth that a person that has high chance to be accepted in a good second ranked university, wait for two or three years to modify his curriculum vitae and apply for a first level university?
Which one is more acceptable and appreciated? A top student at a second ranked university or a poor and not so much successful student in a very good ranked well-known university?

I can not decide in this period of each persons' life, how he should make decisions. This also applies to other circumstances. For instance, working in good company with lower income or working in a not big company with higher level of income. Making clear how a person should make decisions like this may be so much helpful to me.

The text of this post makes it clear that despite the very broad title, it is really a question about how university ranking should factor into your decision of where to attend graduate school. This has already been asked and answered in the linked question.

Choosing a place to do a PhD is a hard task, but one that needs to be completed before you start. I would call your attention to three main points that you need to consider to choose well.
First point is alignment of research interests, methods, and schools of thought. Different research groups have distinct ways of thinking even when looking at the same research topics, therefore, it is important to carefully look whether you fit or not with the research they do, and how they position themselves towards that research. This you can see in the research papers that are published (or not) by them.
Second point is the personality and ways of working of the professors and colleagues. The time you spend in a research group will shape the way you think about and approach research. In some way, you will level your conduct through the examples of the ones around you. For this reason, I would advise you to look for a group that works in an professional, collaborative, open, and ethically sound way (in your opinion). This you can discover by talking with other PhD students and with people that used to be in that institution.
Third point is what you want to do next. If staying in academia is important for you, it would be important that the group publishes in top venues in the area. If going to industry is a path you would prefer, maybe you should look for a place that already has many connections with companies, or that enables you to do some part of your studies while working in a company.
These points are the most important for me.
I do not think that you have to be in a top-5 university to be successful during or after your phd. In the end, it is all up to you. Of course the environment helps, but you will be the one driving your papers and manuscript, so it is up to you.
Top students will be top everywhere, but it is important that they have people around them that can recognize and foster their talent. Look for someone that understands what you want to do and that trusts you from the beginning to take it to another level.
good luck!


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Ranking in class + Resume
I have a question about how to write my ranking in a class in my CV. I mean, after graduation from the university for my BSc degree, my ranking due to overall GPA among the class of 30 students was 2. The class and the students in which we started our BSc degree education and graduated after 8 or 9 semesters. I want to high light this ranking in my CV in the section of honors and awards. How should I mention this?

I think this is usually done in the section where you list your degree:
2008-2012 University of Big City - BSc (Hons.) Difficult Subject (Class rank: 2 of 30)
or similar.

Can I also categorize this honor as honors 2nd, honors 2i or something like this? I am not familiar with such categorizations or literature of the honor.

No. The descriptions 2i, Upper Second, and the like are titles that may be used by a university to differentiate between their graduates (so five people might get a 'first', the next 10 an upper second,  etc). Given that you're asking this question, I suspect yours doesn't use this.

No, the university doesn't grant it's graduates such descriptions. However, they have certified me that I am ranked second among the graduated people in the same class. And I think I should exactly mention such thing in the Honors section of my CV.

Indeed. I'm just saying that you shouldn't describe it as "honours second", or whatever, as that is likely to mislead people (and underrepresent your achievement).

Exactly. The best way of putting such honor in my CV seems to Copy/Translate word by word of what they have certified me. Not to add more or less; and not to use unfamiliar words and expressions.

It depends who's going to read it. I certainly wouldn't know what "honors the second" meant. I wouldn't interpret it as meaning you were ranked 2 of 30 in the class. If your readership is likely to be familiar with the phrase, translation may be ok.

As you said, it is more safe not to change the phrases and to use the most exact words. Thanks, You helped me so much Avid.

In addition to avid's answer; you may write a Degrees and Awards section:
Degrees and Awards
2009 September, ABC Corp. Project Competition, "Saving the Earth from Pollution", 1st place
2010 March, Very Good Conference, "Research About Humanity", Best paper award
2010-2011, fall semester, University of the Worls, GPA: 4.00/4.00, Outstanding student
2012 June, High honor student, graduated with GPA: 3.97/4.00, Degree: 2 of 30
etc.
One more thing, you should put only the highlights of your educational life. If you don't want to highlight something, don't write it in your CV.

Is this section different from the "Honors and Awards"? Because I have seen some CVs that mention the phrase "honors the 2nd" in the education section of their CV. How should the literature of such honor be like?

No, this is the same section. Title might be different. I prefer the word degree, you might prefer honor. I think nothing changes.

GPA: ...
Ranked 1st ... (if you want to include details, include only the class. I do not recommend to include the number of studends, if there are 50 or 350 students, it does not matter.)
It's short and descriptive as it needs to be.


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How should I introduce myself (a graduate student) at a conference?
I am a fifth year pure mathematics graduate student; I'm currently on the academic job market. I'm traveling to a few conferences this semester and I believe that I should take this opportunity to meet and talk to people from different universities. I don't find it particularly easy to strike up conversations with relative strangers (while I have some skill at this in 'real-life', the added pressure of 'Oh my God this is a person who wrote a seminal paper in my field' is somewhat nerve-wracking)

What is the best way to introduce oneself as a graduate student to senior members of one's academic community?

I've considered the following:

Hello, my name is X, I'm student of Y at University Z
Hello, my name is X, I work on ABC
Hello, my name is X, it's great to meet you, I really enjoyed/am currently reading your paper on DEF [[assuming of course that this is true]]

Ask your advisor/senior colleagues for introductions.

Related question: “How to grab the attention of a new area's big names to read my work?”

By starting a discussion on a point of interest to both them and you. This can typically be a question, or introducing yourself and suggesting that you would like to discuss some of your results with them. But before you can get this conversation started, you'll have to give your name, and state your position, so: all of the above.
I think the best time/place to introduce yourself is at a poster session, if your conferences have some. And the purpose of these sessions is for people to discover new research and new names in their field, so that's where it is most easy to do so.
I'd suggest the following:

Hello, my name is X, I'm a PhD student at Y in the group of Z.
(now, you've given him enough context… time to start a discussion)

I've read your recent papers on W, and I had a question about it which I could not really solve myself. I was wondering whether, in the diagonalisation step of your algorithm, you could use a direct-space method based on partial sampling of the matrix, rather than transform it to reciprocal space. Do you know if someone ever tried that?

or

I have a poster discussing the economics of greenhouse gases' role in global warming, and how it will enable us to save on the costs of construction of actual greenhouses. I think it may be of interest to you… I'm over there in row 307, and I'd really love to get a chance to discuss this with you…

Scientists are curious, and the best way to approach them is to pique their curiosity…

Yes, setting context by telling who you're a student of is the critical thing, since this is the information-densest thing that one can say. The other party will most likely already know where you are, then, and the general mathematics culture you're in, and the sort of projects you're seeing and probably involved with.


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Is it worthwhile to find a teaching letter writer who can also speak to research abilities?
When applying for academic jobs in the US, one is often asked for a recommendation letter from someone who can attest to your teaching abilities.
Should you try to find a teaching-letter-writer who can also speak in some way to your research? (For research-focused jobs, since you get to submit a bounded number of letters, this could be a sneaky way to get more research content into the letters.) Or do search committees for research-focused jobs generally not read teaching letters deeply/at all?

I am personally in mathematics. I am assuming the answers will not be too field-dependent (please correct me if I am mistaken), so I left it out of the main body of the question.

Search committees that I know read all the letters written for the candidates in whom they are interested, though of course some people read some letters more closely than others.  I will admit that at my "research-focused" university, I often read teaching letters very briefly.  In my defense, many teaching letters are not worthy of more than a very brief reading.  They simply do not separate out the candidate or provide any really incisive or useful information.  If teaching letters are to be believed, then approximately 99.5% of all candidates are above average teachers.  Why do I find myself skeptical of this?
That said, I don't really see much advantage to "hiding" research in a teaching letter (or vice versa).  If you get a teaching letter written by a "research professor", then they may be a little nervous about not mentioning the research whatsoever or feel through force of habit that they must say something.  But really, when we read a teaching letter we want to hear about teaching, so saying something at the beginning like "Dr. Ray has asked me to write about her teaching, and so I will" would be fine.
You speak of a "bounded number of letters".  That must be true, but the supremum may not be what you think. In most jobs that I know of, nothing stops you from submitting more letters than the number they ask for.  Past a certain point maybe it looks obnoxious: I remember one candidate for an assistant professor position that had nine letters of recommendation (8 research, 1 teaching, I think).  I felt that was a bit much but we certainly didn't disqualify the guy or write back to say how many of the letters we had burned without reading.  In fact he made the short list and almost got an interview.
I would say: if you want to send one or two more letters than the application asks for: just do it.  If you want someone to talk about your research, don't have them do it in a way that other people might not read, or might read but dismiss because they are expecting to hear about the teaching.  Just get another letter.  For that matter, it is increasingly common to get more than one teaching letter even for a research job, even though I know of no research job that asks for more than one.


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Is it safe to assume that all faculty know what a DOI is?
Can I refer to DOIs without explaining what they are?  I am writing for an audience of experienced academics.

Related https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3097/publishing-dois-instead-of-traditional-references

Refer where? In a paper? In an email? In a conversation?

@darijgrinberg All of those; the linked question discusses the need for traditional references, so I'm not asking about those.

Well, the answers will depend on the situation. (Though in most cases you can solve the issue by hyperlinking to the Wikipedia page like this: DOI. But this goes into general writing advice.)

@darijgrinberg I am not asking about how to write; I am asking about what faculty know.

"know" what a DOI is in what sense? Knowing that a DOI is associated to a paper? Knowing that it stands for "Digital Object Identifier"? I think the answer to your question will largely depend on how deeply you expect the audience to "know" about DOIs.

@YiFan "Knowing that a DOI is associated to a paper?" That's sufficient.

From personal experience, I know that you cannot assume that faculty (particularly older faculty) will know what a DOI is.
While most younger established faculty will be generally digitally savvy and have encountered DOIs, ORCID, preprint archives, etc., that will not apply to all.

Some people are in narrow sub-fields where shifts to more integrated electronic publication just haven't fully taken hold yet.
Many older faculty are not particularly active in "normal" publications any more, either mostly just doing books and invited pieces or else being a senior collaborator who doesn't actually directly deal with the mechanisms of publication directly any more.

My own personal anecdote is on a senior colleague who I often interact with, but who had never even heard of DOIs until I recently explained the system to them. This person also typically interacts with all of their publications on paper.  They do use a computer to compose and not a typewriter, but that's about as far as it goes.
You probably don't need to do an in-depth discussions of mechanisms, though, just add a phrase or sentence to get the gist across.

I wouldn’t assume faculty in general know anything.  Faculty in a particular field or subfield have certain common knowledge, but faculty in general have little to no common knowledge since they’re trained in different fields, in different countries, and in different decades.  Probably you’re on safe ground assuming they know the earth is a sphere, but probably not HTML, and certainly not DOIs.

The Earth is an oblate spheroid not a sphere... :) Mind you I think some faculty think the Earth is flat...


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Is it impolite to ask a professor who was not my master's thesis advisor (but with similar research field) to help me to work on a research topic?
I have finished my master's thesis and graduated from the university in which I used to study for my masters degree. Now I have two or three months free time and I am searching for a PhD position; in this period of time I want to work on research topic, I see two professors at that university, whose research fields are really interesting to me. Their research field is really near to that of my master's thesis advisor.
Is it considered impoliteness to my master's thesis advisor if I ask another professor in his department (with similar research field to him) to help me work on a research topic?

Not at all. You are not committed to doing your PhD with the same advisor. Even if you did want to work with the same advisor, he/she should encourage that you talk to others to hear out their ideas. I highly doubt your advisor would be offended to hear that you were interested in speaking to other professors about their research interests. After all, a PhD is a long road, and you need to be really happy with your advisor, and your work, to survive it.
In fact, I think it looks positive, even to your advisor, knowing that you have multiple options. I once had a job interview where, upon disclosing that I was also interviewing at other places, that "they would be worried if I wasn't".

No.  You finished your master's.  Therefore it is okay to work with a new group.  In most situations it is okay to ask people to help you.


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How to write source information for tables if I'm using data from multiple sources?
I am using data from 3-4 different sources in my table. How to cite the source information in MLA format? As far as I know, Source information is written below tables in the MLA style. But is it okay to mention multiple sources below the table? Won't it look cluttered?

Yes, you need to cite it. Yes, it can look a little cluttered, but you need to cite all the sources. I've seen published tables with a dozen or more citations listed underneath.

Thank you @JonCuster. Yes, citing is of course a must, I was just wondering if there's any other way. But since you've seen tables with multiple sources cited below it, I think it should be fine.

The MLA Style Center now provides an answer to this very question:

Indicate the sources of your data in a note beneath the table or figure. If that is too cumbersome, give the sources in an endnote placed in the text that introduces the table or figure.


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Do authors appreciate the work of peer reviewers?
It’s International Peer Review Week, and this year’s theme is “Recognition for Review.” This makes me wonder whether authors feel a sense of appreciation for their reviewers. As an author, I have always felt intimidated or depressed by peer review. But on some reflection, I feel that reviewers have actually helped me improve my papers. Have you ever felt a sense of appreciation and gratitude for your reviewers? If you had the opportunity to write a note of thanks to your reviewers today, what would you write?

The question should not be whether, but when authors do feel a sense of appreciation for their reviewers. I have appreciated reviewers for giving me great suggestions that helped me to drastically improve my papers, for pointing me to important work, and for fairly considering the strengths and weaknesses of my work in their decision. I have despised reviewers for reading my papers hastily, for being overly opinionated in their criticism, and for ignoring my rebuttal in their final decision.

Honestly, the moment I receive the reviewer's reports I think che palle!, and I repeat this for the whole day, possibly with the company of my coauthors. Then, after a while, I can recognize that some remarks are useful... let's say I'd offer a beer to a few reviewers ;-)

A good indication is usually given by how the authors respond to the criticisms made.  Sadly all to often I find that the authors pay only lip service to the comments I make as a reviewer and do as little as possible to get their paper through review, which is a shame as my intent is to make the paper a better paper.  It is always nice though when you get an example where the authors have obviously taken your advice seriously, which is a good demonstration then have appreciated your efforts.

I'm voting to close this question in its current form because it's not possible to answer in a reasonable way. Unless someone has access to stats on the matter you're just going to get a list of personal anecdotes.

Contrary to the impression you may get reading this forum, mostly authors do appreciate the work of referees.
On a few occasions, when a referee provided valuable information, I have added it to the paper and thanked "an anonymous referee" for it in the paper.

We just finished revising a paper in response to three peer reviews that were clear, well-reasoned, and thoughtful, and our paper is undoubtedly much stronger as a result. I definitely appreciate those peer reviewers.
I would say that maybe one in ten of the papers I write end up like that, with all three reviewers giving suggestions that are unambiguously helpful.  Probably seven out of ten times, one reviewer will make one or two moderately helpful comments, and the remaining times, the reviews are mostly trivial, or actively wrong, and are not helpful.
Still, that means that the vast majority of my papers are at least a little improved by peer reviewers' comments, and sometimes I'm helped a lot.  So, yes, as an author I definitely appreciate the work of peer reviewers.


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Where and how to publish research paper as a non-academic independent researcher
I am an independent researcher with out a PhD and because of my curiosity in science in my free time I carries out some minor experiments. Using those experimental data I wrote a paper and I want to publish it as a research article.
My first question; Is there any journal available where an independent researcher can publish his/her work?
As I believe no such journals are available I thought of sending my articles to other peer reviewed journals?
But the problem is how will I address my author information
In this paper author information is given like this
Nora D. Volkow,1,2 Gene-Jack Wang,3 Joanna S. Fowler,3 and Dardo Tomasi2

1National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
2National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
3Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973
Nora D. Volkow: vog.hin.adin@woklovn

As I am an independent researcher who is not working in the similar field of my research work, how should I give my author information?
Do I give my current employment details as author information
Eka,
Supervisor,
XYZ company

or my last school details
Eka,
University of Earth

Is there any journal available where an independent researcher can publish his/her work? As I believe no such journals are available I thought of sending my articles to other peer reviewed journals? – I fail to make sense of these sentences. If there were no peer-reviewed journals that allow publications from independent researchers, there are no “other peer reviewed journals” to send your article to.

On the first question, you can and should submit to "normal" journals. There is no special publication track you have to use. Independent non-academic researchers are unusual in some fields but quite common in others,
On the second question, see this discussion - in short, you can give your own address, your company (if they're happy with this - ask), or just something like "independent researcher". Do not give a university you attended in the past, as this implies you carried out the work there and could be seen as misleading.


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Role of the Report section in Neuron (journal)?
The journal Neuron has a section called Report.
I am having hard time finding the answer to the following question:

What is the intended role of this section?
Are this papers written by submission or by invitation?

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because more accurate answers can be obtained directly through communicating with the said journal editors.

Is there a criteria that topics should be closed for that reason?
If a lot of people get the answer here and if sufficient time is saved from the editors and the overall knowledge of the public is increased then this is a good public service.

It possibly asks for the summarized yet complete description on major contributions you are giving to the community. I am not sure. You might want to talk to editor of the journal.

Yes, the more out-of-the-can one is perhaps "The answer to this question strongly depends on individual factors such as a certain person’s preferences, a given institution’s regulations, the exact contents of your work or your personal values." However, I opted for a customized one so that I can put the suggested action into the closing reason.


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A question about continuing education in an Engineering major or Sciences
I am MSc student of civil engineering and I am so much interested in sciences, mostly applied mathematics. My MSc thesis research is also focused on some analytical and numerical solutions to governing equations in field of the civil engineering. It is too difficult to start a BA in Mathematics, because I have to whether continue my education in civil engineering and apply for a PHD or seek for a job. I am so much interested in analytical solutions which exist in mathematics and applied mathematics; differential equations and PDEs. How should I satisfy my interest in mathematics, besides my future job or in my future academic life?

It is very possible to go to a PhD program in applied math with a masters or even bachelors degree in engineering. I am in an applied math PhD program and many of my colleagues only took a couple of upper level math classes in college. Applied math is very broad and people with all sorts of backgrounds can get into these sorts of programs. But the question is what can you do now to explore your mathematical interests (an perhaps get into an applied math PhD program too)? The key is to do a few of the following

take a few junior/senior level undergraduate math classes (or if you can handle it, graduate level math courses). You likely have the requisite background to take a class in undergraduate Real Analysis or differential equations. Basically you need to convince an admissions committee that you are capable of writing proofs. You don't need a math degree to do this; you don't even need a math minor to do this. If you do well in a single semester of real analysis some great applied math programs are more than willing to take a gamble on you if you have interesting engineering research and a good personal statement that really explains how you got a passion for math while working in engineering.
incorporate math into your research. You say you do numerics, so prove your method converges, develop analytical error bounds, prove the existence or uniqueness of a solution. If your method is too complex to do the above, or you lack the knowledge to make progress in such an endeavor, create a "toy" problem which is similar but vastly simplified and prove something related to it. Toy problems often lead to stand alone publications, they are interesting to us applied mathematicians in and of themselves, and they have the added benefit of giving insight into your engineering research.
Read math. Get yourself a book and work your way through it in your spare time. Just 1-2 hrs a day, of intense mathematical focus will surprisingly allow you to learn a lot more math than you would think. Start at the right level, for some this will be advanced and for others this will be not so advanced.
think about math a lot. Just ask yourself questions a lot. Math is a mindset. Get away from the computer and coding and work with pen and paper (or a whiteboard) for a couple hours each day. Do problems -- putnum exams, course websites, math.stackexchange. They are all great resources.

The problem is that, it is so hard to enter a program or even to choose some course of our my desire. I mean, if somebody wants to study maths in the university, here; he has to sit entrance exam and then apply for the course. There is no way to apply without those qualifications. Furthermore, it is so hard to prepare for the entrance exam, it needs longterm studying which is not possible for me as a graduate of engineering. By the way, the other three comments of you are useful, as far as I can self-study maths or incorporate math into my research.

Can you sit in on a class, do the hw, go to office hours and talk to the prof without officially taking the class? You might ask a prof if you can do this.

Of course this is possible. Good advice... But first I have to be sure about the prerequisite courses and choose the right course to attend.


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From which level of education, is it better to choose teacher assistants?
I think that it is normal to choose teacher assistants for BSc courses from MSc or PhD students and TAs for MSc courses to be from PhD students;
In case that the PhD or MSc students are not interested or are not applying for a teaching assistant position of the lower courses (lets say a BSc course); is it a good idea to choose an assistant from the interested last year BSc students (with good academic records and background) or it is better not to have TA for the course for a period of time until a PhD student applies for the TA position?

The best BSc students, although having less experience, are often better than some of the MSc students.  And both BSc and MSc students may be more interested in the particular course topic than a PhD student who signs up for a TA position just to fulfill stipend requirements.  Varies by school, of course.

Some universities have rules about what kind of student may be a TA.  Assuming no such rules exist, the TA should be qualified to fill that role, whatever that means for a given course.  That is, the TA should have both the domain knowledge and pedagogical ability that the job requires.
It doesn't matter what level of education the TA is at. In my own department it is quite common for TAs to be "peers" of the students in the class (B.S. students hired to TA the B.S. level courses, M.S. students and PhD students hired to TA graduate courses including both M.S. and PhD students.)

I would add "enthusiasm" to your list of job requirements (knowledge, pedagogical ability).  I often use undergrads as TAs and find they tend to have more enthusiasm for the role -- often because they recently took the class and remember more of the experience.


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Do non-English papers/publications have value in a CV which is going to be sent to an English company/university?
Some of the students are doing research in another language than English because they are living and studying in a non-English speaking country; they may be doing research in their mother-tongue language because they are studying in their own country or they are studying in another country in which the language is not English.
If these students have non-English language publications which are published or sent to a non-English conference/journal; Do these publications still have the same value in their CV when they are going to send it to an English speaking university/company? Or only publications in English are of value in those institutions.
PS: I think the situation is easier for the students having English publications in their CVs and want to send it to a non-English speaking university/company as they welcome and accept those publications.

I think that's going to depend largely on how the journals are perceived by the evaluator in the English-speaking context which is partially a function of the language the publication is written in and the degree to which the journal is seen as prestiguous.

@virmaior May be the conference or journal is well recognized in a non English country (because of restrict peer review, quality of papers, etc.), but it is not that much known in the English context because of its language.

Recognized in just that country or in many countries? Academics tend to know leading journals in their fields in other countries as well.

@virmaior recognized in that country. First publications and papers of non-English speaking students who study in their own country is usually in their native language and sent to their own countries conferences and journals which are not in English context. These are very good papers and come out of their thesis research, but published in a non-English journal. Journals with high reputation in those countries.

I akways put my non-English publications in my CV - the reference itself is in English and then the language is stated in brackets. To my knowledge they have never been ignored by the potential employers - they usually asked questions about my earlier research and the questions were based on the topics of these publications.

@greenfingers "I akways put my non-English publications in my CV - the reference itself is in English and then the language is stated in brackets." Me too. I think this is a standard way of citing non-English publications.

Of course they have value. If the journal or conference is not widely known in the country of the person reading the CV, then that person might find it hard to tell how much value to place on the publication. But you have two options: either you leave the publication off your CV and you're guaranteed to get no value from it, or you put it on your CV and get at least some value from it.

Thank you. I want you to answer from the perspective of a person who reads the CV. Of course, as a person who is writing the CV, it is better to fill the publication section by every single publication the person has (either English or non-English papers).

@EnthusiasticStudent I don't understand your point. The only way that something could be better for the writer of a CV is if it makes the CV more impressive to the reader. My argument is that adding more publications can only make the CV more impressive to the reader (albeit that if the reader is not familiar with the journals concerned, the CV will only be a little bit more impressive).

The person prepares his CV as impressive as he can, but will the employer care about non-English papers too? Could you please take a look at this comment of mine? I want you to answer from this perspective too (because, to me you are answering my question very well).

@EnthusiasticStudent I have already answered the question from that perspective.

In an academic mathematics context: it's not a question of English itself, neither of the paper itself nor of the journal, but of the reputation of the journal. At the very least, French, German, English, and Russian are languages in which there is a very well established mathematics literature. I think all the better mathematics journals accept submissions in English, French, and German, at least.
It is true that perhaps one's paper will have the widest readership these days if it is in English, although 40 years ago anyone learning mathematics had to learn to read French and German, perhaps more than English, because the previous 150 years' mathematics was written primarily in those languages.
It is nevertheless possible that a very provincial situation or person would have a prejudice about non-English (or non-whatever) research papers or journals, and there is little one can do to guard against this.
It may also be the case that there simply are very few high-reputation journals published in "minor" languages, and this may be tangled up with the difficulty of readership. I do regret that I never learned Russian well enough to read mathematics in it. Similarly, there are many important mathematical papers published in Japanese in Japan, and I cannot read them. I would not be surprised to learn that the same is true in China, but I cannot personally certify this.
But any reasonable scholar would certainly recognize the possibility that a good paper can be written in a language other than English. The question of its inaccessibility if written in a language not widely used in the subject at hand is different. Perhaps one could wonder about the wisdom of writing in a not-widely-read language, but, again, that's different from the science itself.

My impression as someone in Japan (but not in Math) is that all contemporary math, science, and engineering publication of any merit in Japan is now done in English. But I cannot speak for the past.

@virmaior, that wouldn't surprise me so much. I know that in the early 20th century many Japanese mathematicians wrote papers in German or French, to be sent to the then-most-prestigious journals, namely, in Europe. If, as would presumably be the case, accessibility to a world audience is an important criterion, one writes in the currently-most-widely-read language(s).

@paulgarrett If you be an employer and a recent graduate comes to you with a CV in which he has two or three non-English publications (which are outcome of his thesis), how would you treat his application?

It depends hugely on what journals, not so much the language. If the language is not a widely-read scientific language, then probably the journal is not widely-read, either. And, then, if the language itself is not one I can read, I have no way to find merit in the work. So, indeed, writing in  "purely local" languages will probably gain nothing in a CV, if that's what you're asking.

Non-English publications will have significantly lower value in terms of reputation. This is because their target audience is usually very limited (often to a single country), while the target audience for English publications is usually the whole world. Thus, the reviewers of an non-English publication are likely to not be as good as for a typical English publication (since they were chosen from a far smaller pool of experts), and thus your publication may not have been evaluated as thoroughly. It also means that the number of rivals for acceptance was far lower than for international English papers, suggesting an overall lower quality of your publication.
Note that these points hold even if the audience of your CV actually speaks the language the publications were written in.
If - additionally - your CV audience does not even understand the language the publication was written in, then the value of these publications is even lower, as your audience cannot directly evaluate the quality of your contributions. In this case they may opt to use numerical metrics to evaluate either you (e.g. based on the h-index) or the journal/conference you published at (e.g. based on the impact factor), or they may decide to ignore non-English publications entirely. In my opinion, the latter is far more likely.

"Non-English publications will have significantly lower value in terms of reputation."--- Any citation?

No, but instead I gave a justification for that statement, which you may asses for its merit.


text:
Why do we cite books with publisher and city?
Or just city in some formats? I mean, I could maybe guess why it was marginally helpful a century ago, but why now? What use is it for my reader to know that a book I'm citing was published in Berlin, Boston, and Fresno, or more to the point, that the nearest city to me where a certain book was printed years ago happens to be Fresno? If the point is to look up the book, wouldn't the ISBN be far more useful?

I wonder about this as well.

Some of us don't.

Versions published in different countries can differ - it's not uncommon for books to be published in one version in the US/Canada, and slightly differently elsewhere. Even a minor difference like binding could conceivably affect page references, so it's important to be clear in that sense. There's also a wider principle of redundancy; if the author does get some part of the citation wrong (say, misspells the author's surname) the more information included in the rest of the citation the better the reader has a chance of recovering the actual item.
With regard to why we use human-meaningful information rather than details like an ISBN, I would venture that dense information like an ISBN is actually quite difficult to read for a human; it's easy for the author to mistype the number when producing the bibliography, and then easy for the reader to mistype it when looking up the reference. It's comparatively harder to get details like publisher name and city wrong. If I'm looking through a bibliography or list of references I much prefer to see information I understand than a collection of opaque numbers.
Having said the above, I'm sure to a large extent it's an historical tradition that has persisted. Certainly before the development of international reference standards like the ISBN system the above arguments held even more weight, and in the days of much less extreme globalisation the various global offices of major publishing houses were much more autonomous. It might conceivably have been quite a different undertaking to be published by, say, Oxford University Press in Oxford rather than Oxford University Press in New York.

Unfortunately, journals often add a city without regard to where the book was actually published. As I recall, I've had a paper where all the European-published books and conference proceedings I cited were credited to the US operations of Springer and so on...

As per the human errors: you can use DOI to get automatically the .bib citation with all the information, so there is no risk of mistyping. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10507049/get-metadata-from-doi (in the comments).


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Part-time PhD in Mathematics (UK)
I am interested in pursuing post-graduate (PhD) studies in Mathematics, preferably applied/financial mathematics with scientific computing combined. I have undergrad and grad degree in quantitative fields (maths/stats), and I am much more interested in reading/writing papers/research than just go through another taught degree where quite often one has to regurgitate things but not really do what one wants.
I am, however, not able to do so as a full-time student - full time work / life, so I am only planning on doing this part-time. However, this would help with work as I already work in the field, so would ideally be able to curb things so that I take advantage of the studies and apply them to work.
There are universities (BTW: I'm in London, UK) which offer part-time PhD, provided you can really commit and have an impeccable time management.
Question is: has anyone (successfully) done this and what would be your recommendation?
PS. Not looking for answers like 'it's too difficult/intensive' or 'part-time PhD has no value'. I want to do this because I care and because I am interested in this; it's not about (greatly) improving career prospects.

Aa a small hint, in my experience for such things, it helps if the employer supports it. If you can do something that is somehow - even just remotely - related with your work or where someone at your work could even be advisor, you can plan it into your work life. For a lot of people it is easier (motivation/organisation-wise) to do it, if they can consider it part of their work-life and work on it in their work environment. It also may give you free peers to discuss things with.

Possible duplicate of Is it possible to work full time and complete a PhD?

I'm not sure what you're looking for here. You're considering a part-time PhD and want to know... what? Whether it's possible? Whether it's a good idea? Something else?