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When to use a doctoral title
Last year, I finished and defended my doctoral thesis in a STEM field, and have continued working as a researcher in academia since. I am proud of my doctoral work, yet I feel somewhat uneasy about flaunting my newly earned title and refrain from doing so in general.
All senior people in my field have doctoral degrees, so it doesn't really signify anything. Besides, often when people use their title it seems like they do it to show they are an authority of sorts (Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, for instance). In my field of work that doesn't get you very far; if you're full of baloney people will realize in minutes.
I'm also hesitant about signing off e-mails as a Dr.; there's usually some back and forth with suppliers we work with, for instance. We really depend on their technical experience and I wouldn't want to come across as pretentious or elitist.
My basic question is this: in your experience, what are good circumstances to use ones doctoral title?

Which country? Which STEM field?

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/15439/when-should-you-require-to-be-addressed-by-your-title

This may vary by country. I'm in the US, and use mine rather rarely. As you say, senior researchers all have PhDs (or MS + many years' experience), so it's hardly something significant in such contexts. I also don't use it in personal correspondence (e.g., bank paperwork) since that might lead to confusion about being an MD ("real doctor"). So what's left?

CV and other biographical documents
e-mail signature
formal presentations and documents (e.g., grant proposals)
anything related to undergraduate teaching

Note, professors might use "Prof." rather than "Dr." for all of these, particularly in contexts where it is obvious that professors are a subset of doctors.

In places where doctors are a subset of professors (e.g. many community colleges in the US where a lot of instructors have only MS/MA degrees), it's common to use "Doctor" rather than "Professor" for those who do have doctoral degrees (and many of those doctoral degrees are not Ph.D. degrees but Ed.D., DBA, etc.)

I'm also in the U.S., and I use "Dr." or "Prof." with my name even more rarely. In particular, my CV has (on the first page) sections about my education and employment, so it's clear that I have a doctorate and that I'm a professor without my also putting that next to my name. For undergraduate teaching, I introduce myself on the first day of class as "Professor Blass" but that's usually the only place that students see or hear my title.

I am also in the US.  I have never used "Prof." except in online forms that don't let me submit without specifying a title.  (And even there, I prefer to fill in "Required Title",)

some might say PhDs are “real doctors” and MDs are “ medical doctors”

I think this varies by country. In the US there seems to be some unwritten rule that it is only used in a professional context(?). In Germany, it is much more restrictive and regulated. In the UK, it can be used in both professional and social context, but in practice no one really uses it. I am about to be conferred my PhD from the UK, and I almost never had to call anyone by their title - even Profs asks to be addressed by name without the title. In Asia, its alot more varied, and can depend on the hierarchical context. For instance if my boss/employer is a PhD holder, I would more likely address him as Dr. If the person is my colleague (say I'm an RA talking to a post-doc), they might be ok addressing them by name.

A lot of answers about US, which seems the focus of the question. So...
Germany
Except those, who got their PhD in the US, the actual German title is "Dr.", in most cases something like "Dr. rer. nat.", "Dr.-Ing.", or "Dr. med.".
As a professorship includes the doctoral title in 99% of cases, but is not obliged to, the formal writing for a professor is "Prof. Dr.". And yes, people use those in email signatures all the time. You can even put a "Dr." in your passport, as there is a thin line between a title ("Dr.") and a job description ("Prof.").
Basically, as soon as you have your doctoral certificate, the "Dr." is part of your name here. You can omit it and many people do, because they don't like to rub it in other's faces. But, basically, you can demand to be addressed as a doctor, if you want to.

Your question appears to indicate a general uneasiness with the use of degree titles, even in contexts where expert knowledge in that field is relevant.  There may certainly be some contexts where use of the academic title of "Dr" constitutes "flaunting" your degree, and is pretentious.  (If you're on a plane and someone has a heart-attack, and the flight attendants yell, "Is anyone here a doctor?" then I wouldn't recommend putting your hand up.)  However, in academic and professional contexts where your skills and training are directly relevant to your authority in that field, it is not unreasonable to use the title that signifies your training.  Few would regard this as "flaunting" your degree, and for those that do, it is likely to be based on a more general objection to titles in general.
It is worth noting that in an academic context, the title of "Dr" is not really that high an attainment, relative to other staff.  (Titles of "Prof", etc., are generally more impressive.)  As you point out, most academics have a doctoral degree, and that is gradually becoming the minimum expected training for an academic.  Thus, you are totally correct when you say that this doesn't get you very far --- it is a baseline level for the vast majority of entry-level academics.  If you use your title then that is fine, and if you don't use it, people will probably play the odds and assume that you probably have your doctorate.
Personally, I think it is legitimate to use your title in any academic or professional context (i.e., papers, grant applications, correspondence, email signatures, etc.).  In such contexts, your education in your field is potentially relevant, and it is unlikely that anyone would hold your use of your academic title against you.  Moreover, people do not expect you to have to change your email signature to remove titles in contexts that are less formal.  When you have back-and-forth email conversations with people, your signature block will only appear in the first email, and after this you can use informal sign-offs, so it is unlikely you are going to look pretentious.

All senior people in my field have doctoral degrees, so it doesn't really signify anything.

Kinda.  But then, by implication, the absence of a doctoral degree would be unusual, and would signify something potentially significant.  Use of your title of "Dr" indicates that you have the academic training that is standard for that field.  Possession of a doctoral degree might also be required for some tasks in your field (e.g., supervision of doctoral candidates) and so it is legitimate to signify that you have this degree.

...often when people use their title it seems like they do it to show they are an authority of sorts...

And that is illegitimate how?  Possession of a doctoral degree in a field (or a medical degree for MDs) is a legitimate indicator of expert training in that field, and therefore valid information suggesting that one is indeed an authority in that field.  Having a doctoral degree in your subject puts you at a level of knowledge that is far higher than the average person and so you are indeed an "authority of sorts".  You needn't shy away from the fact that you are highly trained in your field, and neither does Dr Phil.

"your signature block will only appear in the first email" is very dependent on the email client you use and how you configure it.

Nordic countries
I have never used my title as a title and I have only used another's title as a title in a playful way with a close friend. Titles might be appropriate when introducing a speaker or an expert, for example in the context of news.
Experience from Finland and a bit less in Norway and Denmark, but not from Iceland. Interpolating to Sweden is fairly safe.

UK perspective
You should always use the doctoral title, both in professional and social contexts, unless the degree is an honorary doctorate.
Even if you do not feel strongly about the importance of the doctoral title, your failure to use it encourages society at large to be less respectful of academics, which is very unhelpful, especially for female and/or ethnic-minority academics (there is published research on the fact that, even at academic conferences, women are less likely to be addressed by their proper title than men), and especially when it comes to getting society at large to take the findings of academic research seriously.
See also https://www.debretts.com/expertise/forms-of-address/professions/ (scroll to the bottom for a table showing that you address a person holding the doctorate as "Dr ___" in both formal and social contexts)

I suspect you're getting downvoted because that link and what you've written seems more relevant to how one uses others' doctoral titles, not how to use one's own.

Use "doctor" only in academia, only in formal circumstance, and then prefer the degree, e.g. Ph.D.  In real life, "doctor" is a person with medical credentials.
I answer my phone, "Doctor Brown" in case it's a student on the other end.  My email sig says, "Best regards, Bob" and then has "Bob Brown, Ph.D." on another line.
Business cards, professional stationery, etc. should always use the degree, not the honorific.  If you can afford engraved personal calling cards, then you can use something like "Dr. Bob Brown"
And by the way, congrats!

Business cards, professional stationery, etc. should always use the degree, not the honorific. If you can afford engraved personal calling cards, then you can use something like "Dr. Bob Brown" Shouldn't that be "Bob Brown, PhD" on your calling card, then?

@AzorAhai  Nope.  It's a personal card.  If it were a business card then, yes, it should show degree, not honorific.

Huh, I've never heard of anyone having a personal "business card."

@AzorAhai  A "calling card" is smaller than a business card, usually engraved, not printed, and has nothing but title, name, and post nominal honors if any.  When you go visiting, you hand the card to the person who answers the door so that you can be announced properly.  Really.  In the 21st century, about the only use for a calling card is to enclose it in a wedding present.  So, my business card says, "Bob Brown, Ph.D." and has a bunch of other blather on it, like the University logo, email, etc.  My calling card, if any, says "Dr. Bob Brown."

See also this

This answer seems to be about a certain region (US?) but it written as it holds worldwide. -1.

Never. Never, ever.
Seriously, there is absolutely no need to use the title, ever, under any circumstance. I have never come across a situation where it might have been advantageous to use the title. Worse, if people are in need of a medical doctor you may find yourself explaining you are "actually not that kind of doctor" - which for the general populace means, not a real one.
Sure, for some appointments a PhD certificate may be required. A bored HR flunky will take a photocopy and file it somewhere.
(As for letters trailing the name, this seems to be a peculiar obsession of the English-speaking world in which you may indulge if you must. It always reminds me of Animal Crackers In My Soup for some reason.)

downvote? I am right about this, but I guess the truth is neither here nor there on the Internet

I cannot speak for the people that downvoted you, but I can offer a counter to your argument. To be honest, in a way you are right, i have never personally needed to use my title.  I used to believe like you that titles were unnecessary. But i having seen the difficulties that some of my colleague have being given the respect they are due: young or female or minority, who are dismissed, or assumed to be the cleaner or tea lady, or at least someone it is not necessary to listen to, that i now do use my title in some cases. Not for my own benefit but to normalise it for those that need it.

See my answer to this: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/114713/dr-first-name-a-good-nickname-or-a-professional-cancer and in particular this poem: https://s3.amazonaws.com/external_clips/2337575/My_First_Name_proof_.pdf?1489269078


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How to conduct academic research across different fields as a undergrad?
I'm a freshman computer engineering major doing a summer research internship at a large public metropolitan university . My internship is a bit unusual. My internship is based in a Latino Studies Research Institute, and my research for the summer concerns using machine learning methods to statistically  analyze possible correlations between race and socioeconomic status in certain Latino groups. This is my first time conducting research, and I'm a bit lost.
For example, my research advisor told me I'm looking into a new area of  (which surprised me heavily) since nobody has ever approached that area in the way that I'm before. Basically, my research won't be heavily conclusive (I'm working with only a few hundred data-points, a threadbare amount). I intend for my paper to at least get some interest in using machine learning for social science/ethnic studies.
Also, I'm unsupervised. I basically come in everyday and look for machine learning algorithms to better fit my data, along with more information for the qualitative aspects of my soon to be report. And for the most part, besides a research associate who is a statistician, I'm left to do the grunt work of looking up all the programming and statistical techniques for my project. Also, the professor that I was recommended to talk to isn't in the same field as me ( he's in Environmental Engineering ), so I don't know what to do from there.
So, I would like to know -
As a undergrad researcher whos conducting research in a field that is not my major, what is expected of me? I'm a Computer Engineering major in a Sociological/Ethnic Studies Research Institute.
How can I bring up issues to my adviser? Sometimes it feels like I'm being left out to do my own research. Every other intern seems to have somebody who our research adviser brought in to help them out specifically - e.g a intern doing Latin music has a musicology grad student to advise them , a intern doing migration patterns in Latin America has a sociology research associate to advise them, etc.
What should I do to stay with the institute? I really like what they are doing, and they seem to like the research that I'm doing, and do tend to hire people that are beneficial to them after they graduate college. SO how can I make sure to not only keep that up, but to possibly be employed by them post-grad?
Also, what should I be doing in my research in order to complete it successfully?

If you're a freshman doing research in your first year, and your professor has mostly left you to your own devices, then I think it's reasonable to assume that:

The main benefits of this research will be the experience you gain
There is a high chance that what you are doing will not result in publishable work, and that is okay

The most important thing is to communicate with your advisor. If you are unsure of what to do, then relay that to your advisor.
They will not look down on you for asking for direction or expressing confusion, and if they do, it is their fault for hiring a freshman to work in a brand new research area. Helping you out in areas like this is precisely why you have an advisor.

what is expected of me

That you do what you're told to do, communicate when you're confused, and when they give you freedom, give it your best effort.
Do not flounder for weeks on end without asking for help!

How can I bring up issues to my adviser?

I like email, because it lets you gather your thoughts and think about what you're saying. Your professor will likely either respond by email, and either set up a meeting, or give you some advice for email.
Tell them you're unclear on what exactly how to do, and you'd like to ask if they have specific expectations, or if you're free to try things on your own.
Be honest, but be brief. Professors are busy, and if you get to the point, they will take it much better than if you waste their time dancing around what you're trying to say.

How do I stay with the institute

Honestly, in my experience, starting with a group is the easiest way to stay with them. Work hard, communicate well. If they see potential in you, they will likely want to keep you.
And, be honest! If you like working there, say it. Professors like students they know and trust when recruiting for post-grad studies,
and often your undergrad projects can lead into your graduate work.

what should I be doing in my research in order to complete it successfully?

This is a very complicated question. Communicating will help. Try to manage risk: try out ideas on a small scale before you devote your time to them. And, you will read a lot. Knowing what has already been done will guide what you do, as well as ensuring you're not accidentally duplicating someone's research.

source: Stack Exchange

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Systematic observation vs survey: thinking about validity
Please, I will perform a systematic observation (naturalistic observation) over a group of users. As my observation will be completely non-obtrusive, I can not gather detailed data directly on each individual observed. My question is, how valid can be a survey conducted on the sample as whole (the large group of individuals present at a given area), but not being exactly the individuals observed?
Thanks!

Might this be a question for Cross Validated?: https://stats.stackexchange.com/

I did not know about Cross Validated. Thank you.

I assume that the set of individuals surveyed is not the entire population of interest, but only a sample. If it is the population, then, of course it is valid. If it is a sample it can be valid or not depending on the usual factors such as sample size and assumptions of randomness, etc.
The observations can be valid or not (as giving information about the population) also, depending on how conducted.
But what you wind up with is two pieces of evidence about the population and they might agree or not. But they need separate analysis as well as argument about what you have overall based on the two separate experiments.
But, I also caution you about doing the observations yourself. It is a dangerous practice and can easily lead to observational error. You might "see" what you "want to see", introducing observer bias. It is much better to use an uninvolved observer that you train to record what is necessary, rather than doing it yourself. Such bias can be entirely unintentional and still be present.

Thank's @Buffy. From your response, my question could be formulated like this: considering same population but different samples, can I do correlation analysis with data collected from survey and data collected from observation? How valid can be this correlation among different samples of the same population? Also, regarding observation, although I know that participant/non-participant observation could give more valuable and meaningful data, I am trying to reduce bias through a strictly and systematic observation method (behaviour mapping). Feel free to give me more insights about that.

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How do I ask professors to give feedback on my online articles that are based on their work?
I am working on a website that contains a list of free courses. My aim is to promote our field (semidefinite programming).
Each course consists of a number of articles.
Each article is built using different resources (books, posts, talks). Those resources are listed in each article.
I strongly believe that participation could improve the work.
For each article, I want to send emails to the professors whose works were used and ask them to give a read the article, check and suggest small improvements if necessary. I will not ask them to write. The participation could be done by mail, github or comments on the website. I will also keep a list of all the participants as a reward to every person who agreed to help (I am trying to find another way to be grateful to participation but).
However, I don't want to feel spammy. Any suggestions on doing that in a good way?
PS: my work is not sponsored by any organization.

Is there a mailing list occupied by practitioners of the art, or a wider list to which many would be subscribed?

Will your website have a university (or other recognized organization) as sponsor of your site?

@Buffy no it's not sponsored by any organization. It's an independent work.

@Buffy Unfortunately, as far as I know there is no such a list. I was thinking to reaching them by mails one by one with a personalized email, no copy-paste.

In terms of promotion, once it's up and running, it's probably worthwhile to send out some notices on other optimization/operations research listservs (e.g., INFORMS, IE.Fac listserv, Math Opt society, IOS). While SDP is definitely it's own methodology, plenty of other folks know what it is and might be interested in your site. Other links: http://www.mathopt.org/?nav=links Best wishes!

You might also be interested in asking this question on the @OR.SE: https://or.stackexchange.com/

So, you're planning on creating derivative work based off of researcher's copyrighted research, then asking them to review and authorize it after the fact?

I will try to be honest. If I received an email from a random person with whom I had never interacted before, asking me to do work for free, without any recognizable institution/organization/group/... behind that person, then I would consider spam, no matter how well the email was formulated. Sorry.
Getting your name on a random website is not enough of a "reward". You have to convince people that investing time in your project is valuable to themselves and/or the community at large, not just that it "could improve [your] work". You also have to convince them that they are not going to sink time in a project that is eventually going to be wasted because it will never gain traction and it is managed by a one-person team that will eventually have other things on their mind.
Think about it this way: you are essentially asking people to conduct a kind of peer review. I would never accept to review papers for a journal run by a single person with no institutional support. This would simply be pointless: a paper published in such a journal has essentially no value, and my effort is almost certainly going to be wasted once the journal inevitably disappears.
I do not think you can "bootstrap" this kind of group project by contacting random unknown people. Start with your colleagues, your peers, your contacts, etc, insist on the importance of outreach once the project starts to take shape, and then let the network expand on its own. If it works then great, if it doesn't then you just had a nice idea but with no audience.

If you're planning on making this a commercial site with pay-for-access or ads in the future, I wouldn't do this.
You might turn this around. Make the website and articles as good as possible, copy-edited for spelling and grammar, great layout, no broken links, etc.
Send an email to the resource authors just letting them know about the website as a resource for their students. Don't ask for any reviews or participation. If you send the email to multiple people at once, make sure you bcc them, not use the To: line. You might get a response if only from students who have looked at it. However, you also need to be ready to remove links to resources if someone objects.

Didn't understand the last sentence: why would there be an issue in just linking to the resource?

If the site is commercial or plans to be commercial or the author doesn't feel the other content is good or...It's unlikely, but something to be aware of.

No the website is not commercial, further, it's open source, meaning, anyone could make a clone of it , edit it and host it on his own website if he  wants to. I am wondering though how to get the emails of the students.

Ooh, careful with how "open source" you make it; you clearly mean well but you don't want a dozen copycat sites selling clicks by cloning your content (and the work of the people you diligently based it on).

You would only get emails if they looked at the site and had a comment for you. So you don't email students directly, you email the paper authors and suggest they recommend to their students.

The answer is: if you want stuff reviewed, you have to pay for it. Not in terms of money, but in terms of reputation or visibility. Reviewing can be amongst the most dull tasks in a scientist's life, so without a clear frame to do this, it is not something that people will be willing to carry out.
What you aim for may be probably best viewed in the context of free software development. There are core developers and then further contributors, and finally bug reporters.
So, if you create a useful website with a well-curated collection of resources, people may want to contribute and with time to start suggesting improvements. But you have to do the mid-term upfront investment of creating value before hoping for people to join in the effort (if that will at all happen, it may just fizzle out).
Alternatively, a well-regarded expert in the field could chair a relevant conference or workshop, invite the top people in the area, and kickstart a web resource which you may offer to organize. It is not you that would then be the head of this undertaking, but rather the top people in the field. You then would have only a marginal role in the matter. Whether you would want to take such a path, is for you to decide.

The Professor will usually become happy and encourage the work of student, if kept informed about the work before it gets published.
However, if a Professor is approached for feedback on an already published article that is based on the Professor's work, then the same enthusiasm or encouragement may not be guaranteed.
The easiest way to get blessings and encouragement from a Professor is through in-person communication / phone / formal letter well before the article is published.
The Professor must also be given enough time (one or two weeks) to review the article and suggest minor changes to wording or quotations.

Keeping the Professor informed and allocating sufficient time for review will result in maximum encouragement.
Approaching the Professor after the article is published, or not allocating sufficient time for review will result in minimum encouragement.

The question isn't about a publication.

'Publication' refers to website / online article also.

Thank you it already helps =)

This is very naive.  Most professors (95+%) have no time to waste reviewing stuff that will go on a random website.

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Motivating myself to continue being a very good student?
I have just obtained my Bachelor's in Computer Science (CS) at one of the better universities in Germany. Let me call it AM (Alma Mater). My results during these years were great, i.e. I impressed some professors and I graduated with the highest possible GPA. I decided to do my Master's in CS at the same institution. This was a somewhat forced decision: I did not want to go to the US, and the better universities in Europe (for CS) seem to be located either in the UK or in Switzerland, which are both too expensive for me. I was too focused on my study (and too lazy) to try to fight for a scholarship in either of these countries, so the natural choice was to remain at AM, where I already have a scholarship.
However, I am now realizing that I am not very happy with my situation. The truth is that my impression of AM is not very good. Whenever I discuss CS concepts with my friends/colleagues from AM, I can not help but notice that they are superficial and do not really understand the material. I often get this feeling even when I interact with the tutors (who are mostly Master's/PhD students, but also assistants). Sometimes, I even feel that some professors have embarrassing holes in their knowledge, although I must admit that most professors did not disappoint me. Don't get me wrong: I also met students that impressed me and that helped me stay modest, but it is frustrating to see how many of the AM (future) graduates are very shallow in their knowledge.
I think that most of my frustration is caused by the German system. It is almost trivial to be admitted to AM's CS program, and even though some filtering is done in the first study year, the pressure to produce many graduates clearly affects the quality of the teaching and of the... graduates. There are too many students. And, to be honest, it saddens me to see that many severely unqualified people get the same degree as I do. The only thing that officially separates me from them is the GPA, but I am not convinced that the GPA plays any serious long-term role.
Moreover, the fact that I only rarely came in contact with students that are "better" than me affects my motivation. All these years I only worked alone, and I am struggling hard to push myself to work constantly. My passion for the subject decreased. I became very good at perfecting the necessary work for the exam, and at perfecting the exam, but I feel that my creativity plummeted and that I am no longer as curious as I should be. I go through the concepts very thoroughly, but am not really interested to do more than that. I am working mostly because it's the thing that I am very used to do, but there is no longer any conscious will to do it. I am worried that it is only inertia that keeps me afloat. And now that my Master's at AM is about to begin, I am generally quite sad, which is ironic, because objectively my situation is not bad at all.
The truth is, I (maybe erroneously) fell under the impression that I deserve to be at a slightly better place than AM, and am now struggling to motivate myself to continue performing at AM. For me, Academia makes sense as a career option if I could do it at one of the top "teams", where truly influential research is carried out and where imposture is as low as possible. I know that such great "teams" can be found everywhere in the world, and am sure that AM also has strong departments, but I am still young enough to dream about going somewhere even better. And I struggle to see a clear path to get there.
I would be very grateful if any of you had the time to just comment what I wrote here. I do not really have a specific question, except "How should I assess my position?". I just want to hear the thoughts of someone that has a mature view on Academia.

You're about to finish your master's, and say you are objectively doing well, and you want to do research in a better place and in a top team, so why not apply for PhD positions in such places?

+1 @GoodDeeds. Apply to places where there is great work going on, considering the fact that you aren't satisfied where you currently are. There are a lot of places in Europe as well, apart from Germany, Switzerland and the UK. There are very good institutes with great research in the Netherlands, Denmark, France, etc.

Also, anywhere in the world where there are great teams with exciting research going on are not going to admit students easily. There is a lot of competition. You did say you were lazy to apply for a scholarship to study in the UK/Switzerland, You will have to work hard to strengthen your profile and get admitted.

I am about to begin my Master's, not finish it. I am aware that I will be able to apply for PhD positions after I am done with it in two years. You did not really address my concern. I am struggling to find my motivation now, and am worried that I will not be able to excel during my Master's, as I did during my Bachelor's. It's not that I am not satisfied with my learning experience at AM; I feel that I can learn a lot here. But I am often underwhelmed by the fact that many other students are significantly below my level, which makes me worry that maybe I'm in the wrong place.

@StrugglingStudent Sorry, I interpreted "Master's at AM is coming" as "I am about to receive my master's degree". I have edited the question to make it clearer.

You are not alone in how you feel about fellow students lack of understanding and holes in professors knowledge. Only the best students will experience these things. Try applying to a higher ranking university.

Here's just an outside impression. It doesn't look good to me that your motivation, your love for your subject, is affected by the fact that most students around you are weaker. Actually this is a situation in which "the best" regularly are, just by being the best. And if they are really the best, it will not drag them down. Why do you even care whether some others who are not as good as you also can graduate? You have stated that actually there are students and lecturers from whom you can learn, so stick to them.
I think you should not assign responsibility for your lack of motivation to fellow students or your institution. You have to ask yourself seriously whether what you do is right for you, and if it is, how you can change in order to keep your motivation up. (Of course it may be true that there are better universities and top groups, but if you are really cut out for doing something good in the field, you should be able and motivated to start doing that as long as you are still in the place you are.)

This is a good point. However, it still seems reasonable for me to lose motivation over the fact that I am very lonely in my work. The fact that I have no fellow students to discuss my progress with gives me the feeling that my exploration of the subject is somewhat irrelevant, and that nobody cares. Indeed, maybe a "truly" passionate student would not care about such dialogue with his peers, but I still believe that having someone to discuss the subject with is important. And being lonely makes me ask "How productive would I be at a top place?"

Losing motivation is something psychological. It is not a question of what is "reasonable". If it makes you unhappy, it doesn't help you at all to find some reason for this in other people. You are responsible for your well-being, not your fellow students. I agree that it is good to have somebody to discuss, so what about asking a lecturer or professor for project work or special exercises, what about getting to know PhD students, what about online discussion forums etc.?

Agree. And stick to the teachers you respect and discuss with them.


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Is it weird to ask a professor you don't know if your potential project is already being worked on?
I am a graduate student in physics who has an idea for a project which I believe to be sound. It is outside my advisor's area of expertise, but I am reasonably familiar with the field. My main concern with this project is how obvious of an extension of recent work it appears to be, and I suspect that someone out there has likely thought of a similar idea and is currently working on it as well. Would it be inappropriate to email a professor who's more well-versed in the field and ask if they're aware of anyone who has begun working on a similar project?

Hmmm. Would they say no and then immediately start work on it?

Maybe? I guess that can't be helped. They seem like a reasonable enough person and I would hope they would at least be open to collaboration. That may not be the case, but I think it would be a risk I'm willing to take given the context.

Some random professor? or someone in your dept?

Not in my department, but at a nearby university.

In general, the question 'is this new?' always exists for all research projects.  I may have an idea, and to my best effort, Google doesn't come up with anything similar. So I assume it is 'safe' to move forward.  However, there is always an inkling that I might have missed something, or that the keywords I used are incorrect; someone called an apple something else for example.  Another possibility is that the idea exists in a non-English publication.  So you are never sure.  You just move forward when you are sufficiently confident and hope for the best.

If by 'recent work' you mean a particular single recent paper, you should email the authors of that paper.  That's because they will be the natural people for anyone to ask this question to.


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Can "revision authors" be dropped from a paper?
I have authored my first paper for a journal. I talked to some co-authors, hoping that they would help me with the design and intellectual work, but eventually their contribution has been minimal. I was not bold enough and they did not help. They don't satisfy the ICMJE authorship recommendations, since they have only provided manuscript review (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html), and provided limited feedback, and allegesly-impressed praise. All the design, and hundreds of hours of work is mine. They did not provide institutional or financial support and they are not my bosses or leaders.
Should they be excluded from the authorship? Do journals prefer a "well-published" teacher as the co-author of a paper?
I believe it would be overly fair to include them as acknowledgements, but I'm not sure what to do.
How do you suggest this "bad news" should be delivered to them? I really struggle with communication.

Is a statement of authorship (Conzeptualization, Experiments, Write-up: A-B, Manuscript improvements: A-B, J.S) an option to your field/journal? I see this rather frequently

Please ask only one question.  If "Should they be excluded from the authorship?" is the question, please clarify why the link you have provided does not answer that question.

Why do you think these people think they are co-authors?

I believe: The OP has written, but not submitted, a manuscript, which they discussed with some potential co-authors, who provided minimal input.
If the OP didn't discuss authorship, then they can immediately proceed to submission without listing the potential co-authors. (Discussion doesn't generally merit co-authorship.) Even if authorship was discussed, they may be able to immediately proceed, it really depends on the discussion.
For instance, the OP may have offered co-authorship in exchange for help...with the design and intellectual work and if there's no evidence of fulfillment, the OP can immediately submit without listing the potential co-authors. It gets tricky when the OP is unsatisfied, but there's evidence of partial fulfilment.
If the OP is in a position to immediately submit, then they are under no obligation to communicate with the potential co-authors. Nonetheless, the OP could send a thank you email, e.g., Thanks for your input on XYZ. Your wisdom helped improve my manuscript (attached), which I'll be submitting to ABC. I've listed you in my acknowledgements, which I trust is okay.
For trickier situations, I'd need more information to offer advice.

I understand this situation and I know colleagues having this situation. This is a tricky situation and could potentially hamper the progress of your paper and future collaborations. Firstly, although this is the right thoughts to ensure that authorship is properly credited, your co-authors may take this negatively and may affect future collaborations with them (but this differ from one author to another).
On a similar situation where it may explain why revision authors cant substantially provide a lot of comments, I recently co-authored a paper where I was invited during the "revision stage" only, I agreed since the main authors justified why I was invited and how I contribute. While helping on the revisions (of an almost complete paper) and ensuring that information are curated well, I realised it's challenging to provide a rigorous edits and feedbacks on the body of the paper as it is already good and it only needs some insights on areas I am working on. I am not sure what is the extent of feedback you need for your paper, I suggest pondering well before making such decisions, consult your trusted co-author or your supervisor.


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Should I put on my CV a postdoc which I am going to quit?
I am currently doing a postdoc but I am looking for something else as the position turned out to be completely different with respect to the job description.
I have been in this postdoc for 4 months and I will leave as soon as I find another job. Should I include this short period on my CV?
I am applying to research positions both in academia and industry.

It is impossible to give you good feedback here. "Military related" can mean a lot of things. There would also be the issue of explaining employment gaps. If you are ashamed of your current work there are more issues.

'Too low a workload' as a postdoc just means you get to do more work on your ideas...

it’s not so easy --- There's always something new to learn that one previously didn't have the time for, or polishing up or continuing something that you'd previously worked on that you had to stop for some reason, or something. Unless, I guess, you're constantly under the gaze of others or you have to account for all your hours at work. That said, I think any kind of postdoc looks better than none -- it's evidence that you achieved something, even if just getting the position. That's more than working at a call center, for example.

Sorry, I wasn't sufficiently clear. (There were several things I wanted to mention, such as dealing with free time, and I think I managed to have 0 characters left.) My intention at the end was that the posdoc should be included on your resume, because I don't see how it could be viewed as worse than nothing. As for whether you stay with it, that's another matter which I have nothing much to say because that involves many specific issues I don't know about (or have enough background knowledge to judge, even if I were provided more specifics) and also many issues specifically personal to you.

It would be unethical not to list a position you had on your academic CV.

You absolutely should put this postdoc on your resume. It is where you are currently working, and given the times you have no good idea just how much longer you will be working there. The fact that you have a position is a positive indicator.
Now, this will raise some questions in the hiring process at other institutions, but a 4+ month hiatus would be similarly questioned. And you have good explanations as to why you want to move on. Note that in 6 or so months nobody is really going to be worried about it, since postdocs are limited term in the first place.
As an aside, I would say that you should perform more due diligence in selecting your next position, since there seems to have been some miscommunication. And, no, having a postdoc at a national lab is not generally seen as a negative either in industry or academia.


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Should I be applying for positions if my applications were rejected last year and not much have changed since then? Please advise
I am 31 years old, materials engineering PhD graduate in Canada. I completed my PhD last year and failed to secure a postdoc or industry position mainly because of my poor publication record. After graduation, I published 2 papers. So now, I have 3 first author and 1 co-authored publications from my PhD in decent journals.
Since May this year, I joined my PhD advisor for my postdoc and I have been working on different projects than my PhD's. I have been collaborating with groups in my department and other universities in Canada. My PhD advisor is great and offered me the position out of pity.
I have submitted two first author papers this year till now. Planning to submit 3 more (1 first and 2 co-authored) by the end of this year.
However, I don't feel good about what I am doing. I feel so incompetent since I did not get a good position last year and now am working with my PhD advisor which is considered a career suicide.
My advisor has ensured that the contract will be extended till the end of the next year. And I am hesitating to apply for postdoc or industry positions elsewhere as mostly I am afraid of getting rejected again and partly from covid situation.
I know I should be applying for positions aggressively. But I am not feeling the motivation to do so. I always wanted to be an academic. But now I feel that I am not cut out for it. I just don't have what it needs to be in research field. I am also not a good teacher.
There's so much I don't know and so much skillset to acquire that many researchers of my age and in my field of study are proficient in. I just feel that I am going to fail again in securing a position.
I just don't know what to do. Should I be applying for positions if not much has changed since then?
Please advise what you think about my situation. Thanks.

Not much has changed? But if I understood correctly,  you have 5 more papers (published or submitted) since you applied before. That seems like a big change to me. What have you got to lose by applying?

Who have you had look over your letter and other materials? Have you tried getting a professional assessment of how you are presenting yourself in your letter and research statement?

You should probably be applying but with a broadened scope. Times are tough, both generally in academia and due to the pandemic. What was true this year may not be true next.
The ease of getting a position in a given academic field varies fairly wildly over time. There are downturns and also good times. But, unless you want to give up and become an Uber driver, you need to keep looking.
But you would be wise to expand your search to other sorts of institutions that rejected you last time. Cast a wide net. In fact, you may need to keep trying for more than a year, given current conditions. And bring other resources to bear to help you. Make sure that you have a strong application, matched to requirements with good letters of support. Get, and take, advice from advisors and others who might be able to help.
Times will change, but it will take time for it to happen. Stay connected to your field as best you can and keep producing as is possible.

Yes. Things may have changed at their end.
BUT  if you could not find a position in industry there is something more than your publication record that needs to be addressed.


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Should I stop worrying and work on my current postdoc till I get something else?
Last 11 months have been a roller coaster. Towards the end of my PhD last year, I applied to few places, did not get any offers. My PhD advisor offered me a interim postdoc to support myself while I searched for other positions.
To begin my postdoc, I had to get my work permit. So, I decided not to go to my home country and stay 2 months till I get my work permit and then take a month break before joining my PhD supervisor as a postdoc.
Then covid happened. My work permit processing got delayed. My source of income got indefinitely postponed. I lost all motivation to work and search for jobs.
Finally, I got my permit in June. And since June I am working on the postdoc position diligently. Since January,I had wasted 5 months doing nothing. But since June, I have worked on different projects. Submitted two papers. Have plans for more.
Now, I won't be able to move out of my current country of residence due to covid restrictions. And my PhD advisor offered me an extension on the initial contract till the end of next year.
I am worrying about how it would look to future employers. I already have a 10 months gap between my master's and starting my PhD.
I am very worried. Though I know I can publish 6-7 journal papers till the mid of next year, I am worried about my CV.
My mind says to concentrate on the current job. Keep applying but to accept the possibility that I won't get anything. One year is enough to make a huge change in CV. I should work hard on this postdoc position and consider myself lucky to have this job in the current situation.
What do you think? Thank you for reading the entire thing.

You don't seem to have any options, so what do you want us to say? "Don't quit your job?"

Maaaaan... If I were able to publish 7 articles in less than a year, I would consider myself to be the "king of the world"...

Don't worry about gaps that are easy to explain, especially by something that will have affected everyone to some extend, such as Covid in 2020/2021 (and hopefully not any longer...).
Keep working on your postdoc, and keep applying to positions that are in your interest.
Besides that, it is totally normal to have a few months between two positions every now and then. I'd love to have such a gap by the way, to take a long holiday without having to explain anything.

Yes. You can only do what you can do. And you can't erase the past. Make the best use of the opportunities open to you and search for other opportunities.

Interim postdocs are perfectly normal (in my field). Especially considering the a Covid situation this is not going to be a red flag.
Publishing lots of papers will turn you into a strong candidate.
On a side note: focus on actionable things and clear questions. Your post doesn't really include anything but asking the internet how you should feel. That does not strike me as productive.

It's also worth noting that, from the outside, it's not obvious that you're in an "interim" position. Even if the initial offer was mostly meant to help you out, it's become a real job since you can legitimately say "I stuck around to work on a few things, which were published as Matscinm et al. (2020a) and Matscinm et al. (2020b)."


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Will journals publish research that is already published in a PhD thesis?
At many European universities (I don't know how it is in other countries), you still have to write a proper PhD thesis, while others allow for writing a summary and attach three published articles. For the former case, it is still best to publish the research before submitting the thesis, and to reference the published work within the thesis accordingly.
The question is: Is it possible to make it the other way around? That is to publish the research with the thesis and later submit a proper article to a journal? The journal might reject it, because the research is already published and publicly available, albeit not peer reviewed in a journal. It could thus be comparable to a preprint, which most journals accept.
Edit: I work in theoretical chemistry
Edit 2: There is already a similar question (Can I publish parts of the Ph.D thesis as a paper in a journal?), which is however about publishing the thesis as a proper book instead of just making it available online in line with the universities requirements.
Edit 3: Another question (Paper was rejected for high similarity with parts of my own dissertation) is also close, but it is about steps to take, if the article was already rejected due to the previous publication within a thesis. It proves, that this question is indeed valid and there are some journals, which might object pre-publication in a thesis.
I identified three other related questions: Publicly available extended summary of PhD thesis and manuscript submission, Chapter in printed thesis vs. journal article, Paper from my already published PhD thesis -- How do I cite it?

It might be worthwhile to specify your field in order to get accurate advice and first-hand experience from people in the same field.

Does this answer your question? Can I publish parts of the Ph.D thesis as a paper in a journal?

We have a lot of questions like this one.  https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/151308/paper-was-rejected-for-high-similarity-with-parts-of-my-own-dissertation

Hmmmm.....  - indeed, they certainly used to.

I can't give an answer since my information is too dated, but 50 years ago it was standard for dissertations in math (and other fields) to be "published" by University Microfilms. It was a requirement and students needed to pay (in my case) a small fee to get it done. But top AMS math journals would also publish papers that were closely connected to the dissertation. Edited mostly for length, perhaps. But not really distinct works. That may still be the case. I also got a copy of my daughter's dissertation from them, many years later. They don't review, though, just make things available.

@AnonymousPhysicist I mentioned the other questions now, yet I think that they are both different from mine.

As an example: Nature Communications has the following paragraph in their editorial policies on duplicate publication

Nature Portfolio will consider submissions containing material that
has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis which has
been published according to the requirements of the institution
awarding the qualification.

Edit: There are similar paragraphs in most journal policies. Yet, one probably has to rephrase the text in order to publish the results (Paper was rejected for high similarity with parts of my own dissertation)

I think this answers your question? This is a perfectly normal policy, i've never come across a journal with a different one.

@IanSudbery while it is probably really perfectly normal, there seem to be cases, where it is not applied: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/151308/paper-was-rejected-for-high-similarity-with-parts-of-my-own-dissertation

That is different the problem there is not that the results were previously published in a thesis, but that the same text was used. The journal policies state that results/interpretation that has laready been published in a thesis can be published in a journal, not that sections of thesis can be lifted wholesale and just reformatted as a paper.

@IanSudbery actually, I don't see, why the same text is a problem. For preprints, that is also no problem

My point was that the problem in the case you cited was that the text was the same. I make no comment on whether it is right to bar the same text from being reused.

Usually there is no issue with publishing material in a journal article if it has been already included in a PhD thesis since a thesis isn't usually considered a "prior publication" for these purposes (and most publishers realize there will be overlap between published articles and thesis). If you are still uncertain, then the best course of action is to email the editor of the journal you want to submit to and get their opinion. They may also want you to cite the thesis in the paper if it is available already (e.g. if it is posted before you submit the initial version they could request a small footnote stating that).
You may run into issues with figures and tables though (and large chunks of text if you want to just copy verbatim from the thesis), depending on the copyright status of your thesis. Unless you publish in a journal that allows you to keep copyright of the article, you will generally need to assign the copyright to them. If your thesis copyright license is such that you can't do that, then you couldn't use the exact figures/tables from the thesis in the papers. In most cases, I think the copyright that most universities want you to apply would permit this - but you can always check with your graduate school/thesis administrator/library about it. This would be another case where if you are uncertain you should approach the editors with the question and they can tell you the publisher's policies.


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Two body problem in academia in the US
My question in about the general situation in the US universities related to the two body problem.
My impression from what I have heard is that most of American universities are located in small university towns where there are very few other job places. So for spouses of university employees there are not many options to find a job.
My question is whether my understanding is correct. Is it typical that spouses cannot find jobs?
At the moment I cannot ask a more specific question about concrete place.  By it is important for me to know what is going on in general.
ADDED. My spouse works in chemistry.  But in industry rather than academia.

This is a really broad question.  Does the spouse work as a writer?  A major league ball player?  A librarian?  A bond trader?  An IT specialist?  The difficulties, benefits and possible solutions vary tremendously.  Can you narrow this down a bit?

Your understanding is not correct, mainly because the US is a country of 330 million people. Any attempt to capture what life is like in “most universities”, “most cities”, whether it is “typical that spouses cannot find jobs” etc by generalizing from a few anecdotes on some Internet forum is going to be extremely misleading and do more harm than good. Now, if you were to focus on a specific university and/or include additional details about the yourself and your spouse, there’s a chance you might be able to learn something helpful.

So don't apply to small liberal arts colleges in small towns. There are hundreds of larger institutions in large towns, or institutions in large towns with many other institutions around. Many many many options.

I had to read a lot of the content here before I understood this question because I'm used to "the two body problem" being a problem of orbital mechanics and have never heard of this other use.

I am not sure this is limited to America: there are many universities in Europe and Asia, too, which are located in small towns or far from the city centers. On the other hand, junior university salaries are modest in most countries, so you often cannot really afford to live in big cities. The two body problem, as I see, is much more about the scarceness and rigidness of academic job market: if a couple both works at academia, there is a little chance that two jobs comes out in the neighborhood that would fit the career phase, the level of institute, research topic etc the same time.

@TerryLoring: I have added that my spouse works in chemistry, but in industry rather than academia.

Whatever answers this produces will likely be obsolete in 1-2 years once we see what parts of the industry have shifted to remote work and what have bounced back to physical colocation.

Your perception of the situation seems to me fairly accurate, but there are some critical details:
Yes, in a small college town, if your partner is not an academic (ok, there's a significant separate issue of "spousal hires"... addressed in a moment...), and does not want to be involved with pizza, there are limited opportunities. Obviously. And your department, and the university, cannot really do much to change this.
Happily, in recent years, the "issue" of academics being partnered with academics (unlike the "simpler" days of yore when wives just followed their academic husbands ... wherever...), is being much better acknowledged and addressed, at least intermittently, by some universities. It is my perception that there is still a tendency to stigmatize "spousal hires", but, also, given the realities (!?), this attitude is less and less acceptable.
Yes, I do think any sort of equity for partners (among many other equity issues) will involve major changes in pretensions... The pandemic has jarred things loose in some ways, which may be good, but it has also diminished resources, which tends to make people pull back and be stingy ... I don't know what will happen.
But it does not quite make sense to plan our lives on the most cynical premises, since then the optimum might be just to exit as soon as possible. In contrast, I think some gambles, even though definitely not "sure things", are worth making.

I faux-cynically remark that the down-vote is from someone who thinks I'm too negative? Too positive? Um, ... :)

Perhaps the downvote is due to "ingenerous" and "Im contrast"??

@DaveLRenfro, heh, yes, there is such a demographic... :)  Repaired... :)

@paulgarrett, I think SE answers should be neither "negative" nor "positive"; they should be factual and backed with sources. It is true that Academia.SE does not really strive to maintain this standard; it would be a much better forum if it did.

I'm not sure this is really an answer, but a bit of perspective. While it is true that "most colleges (at least) in the US are in small towns" that is because there are a lot of small colleges; more than six thousand degree granting institutions overall. And even some of the universities in small towns are very large with large departments and likely some non-academic positions open. So the situation isn't as dire as it might seem.
Also, many large urban centers from coast to coast have a lot of colleges and universities within a 10-20 mile radius. New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and on and on. "Small" is relative also. Champaign-Urbana is "small" by NYC standards but big enough for most purposes.
If a couple are in the same (sub) field it is harder, of course. But some places also recognize the issue and will accommodate a couple if one of them is especially desired. This can result in its own problems, of course, if one person gains tenure and the other not.

Champaign-Urbana is "small" by NYC standards but big enough for most purposes — Well... that really depends on your purposes. UIUC has a robust dual-career hiring program, which is great if your spouse is another academic, but they're mostly helpless otherwise.  The university is the largest employer within 50 miles by a significant margin.  (I live in Urbana; my wife also works at the university.)

I've heard from two separate professors they had to leave UIUC because there was nothing for their partner (+ homophobia). Obviously anecdotes aren't data; but when your partner is highly specialized too, anything smaller than the biggest cities gets challenging too. Maybe with more remote work it will be easier for partners.


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Should I explain my grades in my cover letter?
I'm a sophomore undergrad and I'm thinking of applying to research interns in various labs for the following summer. I do not have an excellent GPA because my freshman year had been a mess due to various reasons. I'm however working/planning to work on self/supervised projects currently which I believe might make up for the "why I'm fit" part. But, I still feel bad about my grades. It's also that most of them have nothing to do with my actual major (Computer Science) and the intern I'm applying to. This is because students of all engineering majors at my university do common courses in their freshman year. I did slightly improve my grades from the first semester to the second but they're still far below what I want. Usually, students from my batch who get interns at excellent labs have 9.5+/10 GPA, I'm merely slightly above 8.
I think that I might lose many opportunities just due to my GPA, as it demonstrates my inability to learn or focus even if the courses taken aren't really relevant (except few basic ones) but are easier to score in. Should I bother explaining my GPA in my cover letter? If yes, how can I put it so that it doesn't seem like they're just excuses to my supposed lazy-ness? Is there any other way of going about this situation?

Related https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29085/applying-to-grad-school-for-mathematics-with-low-gpa-but-reluctant-to-bring-up?rq=1

Are there recommendation letters as part of the application process?

@Buffy They are an option. Since, some programs require them and I have seen students attaching them along with their mails too (if applying by mailing to the professor - the most common way).

You only have one year of grades.  That is not many grades at all.  You said most of the grades are not from classes related to the internship.
We do not know what exactly the labs are looking for or who else is applying, so we cannot predict if you will get an internship.  But if you do not get what you want, it will probably be due to lack of experience rather than low grades.  Try again next year.
It is fine to say something like "My grades have improved because of..." and give a brief reason that implies the problem you had before is unlikely to occur again.  In your case, your reason might be "a traumatic event during my first semester."

Thank you for your answer! I agree with you that it'll be my lack of experience which will play a major role, however with a common experience of various previous students, beyond that factor they are expected to have good grades.


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Advantages of professional (student level) memberships (in computer science)
I'm a sophomore undergraduate studying CS and I look forward to getting into research in future. Is there any advantage of being a student member of societies like ACM, IEEE, etc? I think it might help me expose myself more in the area of Computer Science and research in general but I'm still not sure. I realised that I already have access to digital library through my uni. How can I maximise the benefits I derive from my membership if I choose to become one?
For example, the yearly student membership cost of ACM where I study (India) is ~$25. It says:

Access to the full ACM Digital Library
Access to online courses, ebooks and training videos,
Electronic subscription to Communications of the ACM magazine
Access to ACM's highly targeted Career and Job Center
-Subscription to XRDS, ACM's all new student magazine
Electronic subscription to ACM CareerNews (twice monthly)
ACM e-news digest TechNews (tri-weekly)
ACM's monthly online newsletter MemberNet
Free "acm.org" email forwarding address plus filtering

I don't know how much these subscriptions really benefit me.

I know I'll get access to digital library and timely newsletters along with it as well. You presumably have such access already via your university.

I don't know how much these subscriptions really benefit me. Some of those benefits will already be available via subscriptions your university already has. Take a look at what's already available to you and consider what a subscript adds.

Strongly related How useful are professional society memberships?

@user2768 I wasn't aware, I looked and found that we do have access to the digital library. Is there anything else that I can expect to already have?

@Iceberry Is there anything else that I can expect to already have? Look and discover.

It depends on your local access. It sounds from comments like your library gives you access to the Digital Library, in which case that is not an additional benefit.
However, the "online courses, ebooks, and training videos" includes access to O'Reilly's learning platform.  There is a wealth of useful books and materials in there, including most (if not all) O'Reilly books, as well as many from Manning and other publishers. That alone may make it worth the fee (and I am increasingly adopting books available on this platform as the textbooks for my courses, so students can access them for the flat fee of an ACM student membership). You should check if you can get a membership without the DL - US students can, and the digital library is the only difference (non-DL memberships still include the O'Reilly platform, for instance).  In my opinion, O'Reilly alone makes it worth the fee.
As you progress in your research, the discount for conference attendance also becomes useful. Many ACM-sponsored conferences require students to be ACM members in order to get the student discount (in part because asking the ACM "is this person a student member?" is a lot easier than verifying individual proofs of student status).

I can only address ACM. I would think that for an undergraduate, the benefits are small, though the fees are also very small. However, if you don't otherwise have access to the ACM digital library, a membership can come with a subscription (costs a bit more, though).
The digital library has just about everything published by ACM and its special interest groups, so is pretty valuable for research and some kinds of learning.
However, it is also likely that you university library can give you access for free, though it will be a bit less convenient as you have to go through a librarian.
There might be additional advantages if your university has a local student chapter depending on how active it is.
You can read more: https://www.acm.org/membership/membership-benefits

My university does have an ACM chapter but I'm not a part of it. Is gaining access to the library beneficial for someone at my stage? Can I extract something out of it?

That depends on how much and how widely you want to read. It is more valuable for someone who wants eventually to get into research.

It helps me with conference registration. For my accepted research papers, conferences do care if you have a membership or not. I publish several research papers every year so this kind of membership saves some of my chair money. For example:
Registration Categories:
IEEE Member including (IEEE Student Member)
GBP 250
Non-IEEE Member
GBP 300


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Grades in online semester
Given these times, many universities are having classes and exams online. There are several loopholes and drawbacks to this system, especially if trying to replicate the traditional system. For example, in my undergrad, we have non-proctored exams with endless possibilities of academic dishonesties and/or penalties due to something not as harsh; depending on courses and their instructors. Many other external factors might also arise. At our univ, we also have an option to choose up to a couple of courses to be marked pass/fail rather than be graded on a scale due to the negative uncertainties the online semester might bring badly affecting overall GPA.
My questions here are:

Will these times change how recent grades are looked upon traditionally in research roles/other positions in short term?
How will the courses that are not graded look like to someone? Especially if it's a core course.

I study in India, but students from my university apply for research interns (my short term interest which will determine my long term interests too) in European countries and the USA in general. If I'm disappointed/I fail, I'll probably run away to company internships, but I think that they don't care much, academia does.

Where, in particular, are you asking about? Probably not Antarctica.

@Buffy Thank you for responding, does the edited question make it more clear? I'm assuming you probably meant "for what role" and "grades at what level"
~I ran off to Antarctica to get away from worldly troubles~

Please mention why -1, is it off-topic? I think it's a serious issue since a lot of students around me are suffering - myself included - due to online classes and worry about traditional importance grades hold. I'm in one of the best univs of my country, and the race for grades makes it pretty ugly over here.

How grades are perceived depends of course on the individual person, but also on the country and "position" of who you ask. I can't find the country in your question. In my experience, most industry employers don't care at all about individual grades.

Also, what should be better or worse if a course is not graded (but is indicated whether passed or not?)? Again, there may be some specialities depending on your country.

@user111388 I added the clarification needed.

Since the question asks to predict the future it doesn't have a definitive answer. However, I can make some predictions that apply in the US. I can't speak about elsewhere.
First, for the next few years, people will likely remember the things that made these compromises necessary and so will treat them with the necessary caution. But that will likely fade.
However, the importance of grades also fades with time. How you did at one level has an effect on moving to the next level, though it isn't the only consideration. But for the level after that, the importance is almost nil. The recent successes or failures are what will be given the most weight.
And, at the level of possessing a doctorate and doing research, the grades you got in school are, and have pretty much always been, irrelevant. You are judged by what you produce and how effective you are in academia, not your distant past.
However, for a bit of advice for students in this situation now, in the US, you are probably better off getting real grades in your major subject and taking pass/fail grades as needed in the other required courses. But this is just to make the picture clearer for the reviewers who hold the gate to the next level.


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How to cope with failing qualify exams?
I am a graduate student in mathematics and I recently found out that I failed my qualify exams.
I have the chance to take them next year. But now I am really concerning my future. The problem is that faculty members explicitly told me they wouldn't supervise students unless they pass the quals. That means I have to waste another year because of the exams. I am concerning that this will place me into big disadvantage compare to other students because they are already doing research (as I observed, almost everybody passed). I also feel embarrassed when the others ask about my results.
I am reading on topics that I like now but I have a hard time adjusting my feelings and can't really concentrate. How should I approach this situation? Any advice will be appreciated.

"faculty members explicitly told me they wouldn't supervise students unless they pass the quals." I suspect that "unless" should really be "until" - the point being that passing quals is something you have to do in order to demonstrate that you're ready. Preparing for quals (assuming the quals are decent anyways) isn't a waste, it's time spent mastering the fundamentals.

@NoahSchweber Would faculty members have negative impression on me based on my performance on quals?

Does your university have separate general and specialist exams, and if so, which did you fail?

@Acccumulation I failed the algebra exam. The most frustrating thing is that the one of the problem that I failed to solve was chosen from homework from a long time ago, and I just didn't have time to review that part. I honestly think if I have more time to review I can do better.

From someone who's been there - I started in a PhD program in mathematics, received only a "Masters pass" on my written qualifiers the first time around, retook a year later to the same result. Left the program with a masters, since we only had two tries. Fast forward 2 years and I'm admitted into a different PhD program in mathematics. This school has oral qualifiers. First attempt at that and I literally break down and cry and ask to just stop and try later. Reprepared, and nailed it the next time.
I just finished my PhD in mathematics. I took longer than most due to qualifier issues at one school, changing to another, changing areas of mathematics, and dealing with increased imposter syndrome due to the experiences at school 1. Long story short, it's not a competition with other students. Don't compare yourself to others. You were admitted to the program and you can do it. Study hard, ask the professors for advice and follow it. If it doesn't happen, it's OK. You can still achieve a PhD, just perhaps at different university and at a different time. I am proof of that. Best of luck.

The problem is that faculty members explicitly told me they wouldn't supervise students unless they pass the quals. That means I have to waste another year because of the exams. I am concerning that this will place me into big disadvantage compare to other students because they are already doing research (as I observed, almost everybody passed). I also feel embarrassed when the others ask about my results. I am reading on topics that I like now but I have a hard time adjusting my feelings and can't really concentrate. How should I approach this situation? Any advice will be appreciated.

Let's approach this line-by-line.

It's natural that the faculty members will not supervise students until they pass the quals. The quals are supposed to indicate the student meets the prerequisites. Supervising someone who hasn't passed the quals is like trying to supervise a high school student in a PhD project - it won't work.
If you indeed didn't have the knowledge necessary to pass the quals, then the year isn't wasted (it's better to spend that year getting the knowledge than to try doing something over your head).
Will this place you at a big disadvantage? Well, you're behind by a year. One year is not a particularly long time. You are behind, but not critically so - just compare your case to those students who e.g. took a gap year to travel the world, who went to do full-time work in industry, and so on. You can catch up, if you put in the required effort.
Odds are you're feeling more embarrassed than the people who are talking to you think you should be. After all, most people have failed exams before.

While it's certainly not something to be proud of, it's also in the past and not something you can change. Focus on fixing what's still to come. You are almost certainly going to meet more failures in the future, e.g. when applying for fellowships, when submitting papers to journals. Put these failures behind you and move on.

@JeffE It appears the answer has been edited since your comment and DV.

I agree with your points. Perhaps this is the chance for me to face my lack of skills in certain areas of the subject that I failed. Now that I think of it, this is not necessary such a bad thing.


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Any formal clause to prevent publication of my submitted paper?
Is there any established clause to make a note of the fact that a paper is not meant to be published yet because part of the research is still pending and thence the final conclusions may prove inconclusive.
A case being a solid piece of work within reasonable framework and submission bound to happen. However, it should be secured with some kind of notification that would delay it as published material so not to prompt any rapid response.

It is ready - it contains coherent data but another part of research is still under labor and that is not a part of this specific paper.

If you want to prevent publication, why submit your paper?

I think what's confusing most people responding is what your motivations might be here.  Perhaps if you clarify those we will be able to give you a more useful answer.

thank You, Dave Kaye. My motivation is not to spoil the workgroup's pending efforts and not to fuel the reactions based on my sole findings.

You should only submit that which you would be willing to publish.
If you want to publish part of a piece of work, you should only submit a manuscript about that part of the work.  If you want to publish the data but say the conclusions are tentative, then the manuscript you submit should say the conclusions are tentative.
If you don't want to publish what you submitted, then you are wasting everybody's time and should withdraw your manuscript.

Don't let anyone see the thing if it's not ready. If that means you miss a publication deadline, that's it. There's no going around it - either it's ready or it isn't. I guess that if someone had it you could file an injunction against them forbidding them from publishing it, but I don't think that would really go over well with... anyone.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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Extended Abstract Publication
I am an undergraduate student in Electrical Engineering, and I presented my research as a poster at a reputable IEEE conference. In addition to this, my 2-page extended abstract was fully peer-reviewed (quoting the conference site) and published in the proceedings as a 2-page paper. Would I be able to count this as a publication on my CV? Is being peer-review and published in the proceedings the only criteria for something to be counted as a publication?

Yes, it is a publication and should be included in the CV. You would be wise, of course, to mark it as an extended abstract.
You may want to publish a longer version as well, so marking the abstract as such will cause less confusion when/if that happens.


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Is it wrong to cite your own definition of a concept in thesis viva-voce presentation
Recently, I defended my PhD thesis in the final viva-voce session. Post the presentation, one of the panel members questioned that I should not have stated my own definition of a particular concept. The panel member suggested that I should have rather given a industry-standard definition for that particular concept.
This makes me think and wonder that Why I should not suggest my own definition of the concept. After all the definition was published by an high impact journal and has been cited many times.  By the way, I understand what they meant. And my PhD supervisor too did not raise this as a concern when I sent them the presentation for checking.
My contention here is, I have worked in this area for several years and I do not get the right to cite my definition for my own viva.

Was your definition different in some way? Do you depend on the difference in your work?

@Buffy thanks for asking. Yes the definition was different and my work largely depends on it.

In other countries, the viva-voce is called "defense" for a reason. The onus is on you to defend your use of the definition, in particular, if it deviates from the industry standard.

@lighthousekeeper I see. Now it makes sense to me. thanks for the answer. Please post it as a formal one and will be accepted.

Thank you! I did.

In other countries, the viva-voce is called "defense" for a reason. The onus is on you to defend your use of the definition, in particular, if it deviates from the industry standard.

In this type of question, context is everything, and so it's hard to give an unequivocal answer. That being said:
I'd in general have no trouble with someone, in a Ph.D. defense, article, whatever, giving their own definition of a concept, as long as they demonstrated an awareness of what the more standard definitions are, and articulated why it is beneficial to deviate. In fact, a discussion of what the standard definition(s) miss and why the presenter's definition is either preferable, or at least provides an enriching if temporary detour, might be a great structuring device for summarizing what's novel about the results anyway.
I would have trouble with someone just asserting a novel definition of a term with established usage, but not engaging with more standard definitions. To the extent they are an apprentice scholar (e.g. student "defending"), it would make me wonder if they have sufficiently "done their homework" to place their contribution in the corpus of established research in the field. Were they unaware of the other definition(s) and/or did they miss crucial nuance? And to the extent they are now fellow independent research practitioners (and the Ph.D. is the inflection point for this, of course), redefining terms and making it stick invariably generates confusion in the field, so should not be done lightly. And the onus is on the one suggesting a terminological change to be crystal clear what the change is (and why). And whether it's fair or not, the bar for that is higher for someone new to the field than someone already well-established.


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Semester Long Research Internship
I'm a non-US Computer Science Student enrolled in a bachelor's + master's integrated program at a top institute in Asia. I wanted to do a semester-long in-person research internship in the Fall of 2022 semester (I'll be a senior then) under a prof in the USA whose interests align with mine. I'll be starting to mail such professors soon. However, I would like it if all my basic expenses (travel + stay) are fully-funded because I cannot afford them as a student. I do not have any letters of recommendation since I've never done significant research before.
I have an average GPA but a SWE internship at Google, which is a totally different experience (I'm going to do a similar internship next summer, should I mention it?). What would a professor look for in prospective students?
I have a winter break, and I'm planning to carefully read about professors' work and write good personalized e-mails. Is there anything else I can do to strengthen my application?
I'm not eligible for REU (also I think it's only summer) since I'm not a US resident or citizen. Do professors fund students from their allotted funds?  I've come to know that some universities treat such students as Visiting Research Students and fund them as student researchers (professors don't have to fund them) if a Professor invites them. I'll be aiming at those first.
I cannot find anything when I search for "long research internships," is there a different term for this?

I am not sure if my experience is universal (perhaps some universities are different), but I think that faculty research funds don’t usually include funding for travel and stay. They would include RA stipend, but would likely be used mainly for students at their own university. Something like you describe would be a REU program or similar externally funded fellowship exchange program (since you are non-US).

Agree with the above comment. There may be fellowships from you country to send students to other countries?

@Dawn Thank you for your reply. Actually, I've come to know that some universities treat such students as Visiting Research Students and fund them as student researchers (professors don't have to fund them) if a Professor invites them. I'll be aiming at those first. I've heard some students from my uni go on such internships before (very few) but I'm unable to contact them. I'll keep trying.

@JonCuster Same as above + yeah, but most of such fellowships are for summer only.

Visiting research students, in my experience, are PhD level.

I'll self-answer this question after I land one such internship. I'm sad listening that it's not possible.

This seems nearly impossible to me. Sorry. If you were a very top student with research experience already in hand and with great letters of recommendation available it would be easier, but still extremely difficult.
Most funding is for teaching assistants, who are in doctoral study at the given institutions. There is some research money available, mostly through grants to professors, but, again, the preferred assistants are those professor's doctoral students. Funding for an outside student, even a US resident, would depend on special skills that could be immediately applied to an existing project.
I don't suggest it is completely impossible, but suspect that the number of possible positions is very small and are very competitive and selective.
You might be better off finishing your degree(s) and then applying for doctoral study in US. A TA, would then cover both educational and (modest) living expenses.
I'd think that funding from institution in your home country would probably be much more likely than what you suggest. Perhaps the company you mention would offer some help.

Thank you. The only reason I wanted to try research in such way was to determine if I wanted to do PhD. I'll be still on my masters thesis during PhD applications so it'll be late then for me. I've seen students from my uni go on such internships, so I wanted to know if there's anything else I could do to strengthen my application other than what I've heard from them.

@Iceberry then can't you write up an answer about how other students from your uni went about it?

@justauser they did the same thing, they mailed. they have their experiences written on our college blog. But again, everything's been online for so long, we have no one who's in college right now and has ever done an offline internship. I have set up some meetings with such graduated students to ask them about the funding part in detail.


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Is ethical to rewrite tutor work and submit it?
I hired a tutor to help me with a programming task (he did the whole assignment for me) a few days ago, but instead of submitting his own work to my professor, I changed the code from him into mine (I rewrote the codes from him into something else, I modified functions, I changed the code structure, and I tried to make sure the similarity of his work and mine was nearly zero, and when I checked the similarity report the similarity was low about 10-15%)).
Is my action considered as cheating or academic dishonesty?

First: That you take into account a "similarity report" sounds worrying. Of course it is possible to commit plagiarism which a similarity report cannot detect (reformulation of ideas or translations, for example). You might want to read up or ask around what plagiarism is.
Next: What you did sounds very much like cheating (if the expectation was to do this task on your own): You got the idea from somewhere else and rewrote it. It seems to me that rewriting was not the idea of the task. "Rewriting" sounds to me like "changing variable names, restructuring, exchanging loops, some functions" but not like thinking again etc.
Finally: Whether this is considered cheating (and if the assignment was "important enough" to consider some action "cheating") is up.to the prof and your university. You might want to ask them. If you don't want to, this most likely either means your prof is unreasonable or you yourself consider your action to be wrong.

It's not just the idea they got from somewhere else, but a complete solution. In almost all contexts it would be considered cheating.

@GoodDeeds: I had some assignments which the prof didn't consider as important and some where the profs.explicitly said "I don't care where you got the answer from, you just have to explain it well" (the latter one was graded). There it would not be considered as cheating.

Did someone downvote? If so, why?

I'll have to guess that you have crossed a line and that what you did isn't proper. Also, your tutor served you ill by doing your work for you rather than helping you understand enough that you could do it yourself.
But the bigger problem is that you have missed out on the opportunity to learn things that might be important to know. Reading someone else's program (or math proof) is nothing like doing it yourself. Even if you "understand" the result you haven't done the necessary reinforcement work that assures you have any real knowledge.
I think you have made a mistake and should work to avoid making it again in the future. One way would be to talk to the prof and say that you have a tutor who "wants to do too much" by way of providing solutions and asking for help in how to establish a plan that helps you learn. It doesn't mean, necessarily, working without a tutor, but the one you are working with now is missing some things about how learning really works. You owe it to yourself to do more.
A wise professor, in answering questions of students will often respond with a question for you instead of an answer. Or they will give a minimal hint that will point you in the right direction or bring you back from a misconception. That is the sort of guidance you really need.
So, no, it wasn't really ethical. If you work harder and avoid such things in future, you will learn more.

Whether it is cheating or not depends on the rules set for the course, but if the assignment was primarily about doing that particular programming task, then it almost certainly is.
The fact that you substantially modified it does not change this. The expectation is to come up with a solution given the problem, not given another solution. The latter is usually much easier than the former, since finding a solution from scratch would involve understanding the problem, extracting key information, coming up with a suitable algorithm, deciding what data structure to use, etc., all of which is already done if you see an existing solution. Depending on the goals of the course, some collaboration might be allowed. For example, if the focus is on implementation, you might be allowed to discuss solving strategies with others, but would be still expected to write the code yourself, without looking at those written by others.
There may be certain exceptions — for example, starting from an example discussed in class or provided in the course textbook would usually be acceptable, but that doesn't seem to apply in your case.


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How should I write an appropiate email for a PhD position?
I am a graduated Master's student from Asia and really want to take a PhD position in Canada, America or Germany. My English language skills are good but I don't have an IELTS degree. Some of my friends say that if I talk to a professor who I want to work with, I do not need a high grade in English exams like IELTS and I do not have any reaserch or projects or paper because it is unusual in master of pure math(which I studied) to have any of them(because it is so hard to do). On the other hand, I wrote the following email but I am so nervous of the whole structure and its content. Would you please guide me for sending a better email for a PhD position? Thank you in advance.

Dear professor “ “:
My name is Dal.OL. This year, I graduated from
Shahid Beheshti University with a master's degree in geometry with GPA
3.69. My interesting field for researching is dynamical systems in geometry and my master’s dissertation was in hyperbolic dynamical
systems which was really exciting for me and made me Curious about the
hole concepts used around it, therefore I am deciding to continue
studying in this field of Geometry. I am seeking admission to the PhD
studies in related with my master’s dissertation and I also like to
work on the manifold concepts and their extension in dynamical
systems. In the other hand I reviewed your profile and thought that it
would be wonderful if you would be willing to take me as your PhD
student.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanking you for your consideration. Sincerely,

Does this answer your question? How should I phrase an important question that I need to ask a professor?

You may want to consider anonymising your sample email, if that is your real name and institution. Professors may google you!

Also consider asking a native English speaker to proofread the email before you send it; you have a few grammar and spelling mistakes.

@astronat Really Thank you. I forgot to remove my name!!! Thank for your consideration

@GoodDeeds Hello my friend. No it did not help in any way unfortunately

Welcome to Academia.SE; I personally think that many parts of this question are clearly addressed in answers to some other questions on this site; and I think that this may be closed. Just read the existing questions which answer many of your questions about writing emails, questions on requirements, language tests, etc.
As a general hint to form your emails, you should be specific in your emails about what mutual research interests are with the potential advisor you are contacting and how your academic background may help the research team with their current and on-going projects. This may be shown by mentioning your related projects you have been involved in, parts of programming and codes you have developed which can be found over an online repository or publications, papers and reports you have had out of your research projects and masters thesis.
Moreover you may attach a complete resume and possibly a portfolio which shows your academic activities to the potential advisor and make sure you narrate your resume and edit it to contain publications and activities which are specifically related to the topics of interest of the research group you are eager to join.
Official required documents like degree reports, language tests and recommendations are sometimes required to be pressented to the admissions committee of the university you want to join. Some of these (like funding letters and language reports) are required for students visa applications which may be less of attention to the advisor and more of importance to official procedures.
Good luck with your search and hope you find a good desired PhD position.

Hello dear, thank you for your helpful comment. I studied math and in pure math almost the MS do not have any research or papers to mention them. I would send an email to some professors with CV and SOP. if they like to take me for PhD position, then I will send him my language test result and three recommendation. It is they way that I heard it usually works. Am I right? please guide me. Really thank You

Sounds great, the documents you need differ from a school to another. Also, if research is not mandatory at your level, try to present any positive documents which are normally needed by professors at your major. Probably your CV, SOP and transcripts would be great. Ask your classmates, graduates at your institute and those who succeed to find funded positions. They can give you clear guide on this.

I do not know how and why, but you arnswer and commets encouraged me alot. Thank You again.