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Is significant repetition across multiple journal papers (intro and model) an issue?
Let's say I've developed a model for some process X. Using my model I can investigate (a) the effect of changing a underlying assumption used in other literature; and (b) the effect of a different equation for calculating some part of X. The assumption and different equation are not at all related but my model is fundamentally the same. Given all this when I come to write a paper for each of my investigations my introduction and model sections of the papers will be very similar - likely with a small difference in the last few lines of each specifying what is different from the baseline case.
So my question is: is this repetition across multiple journal papers acceptable? Is it considered bad practice? Should my second paper reference my first due to plagiarism?

Similarity is not a problem in this case, but you absolutely have to cite the earlier papers in each of the later ones. Make sure that a reader of any of them can find the earlier ones.
It is better that you don't copy/paste between papers and you don't suggest that you will. But if the papers are related they need to show the relationships.
The introductory material you "repeat/paraphrase" is there for the convenience of the reader so they don't necessarily need to read all the early papers.
Just distinguish what is new and cite what is old and you will be fine.
Your last question is confusing. If you don't cite it could be self-plagiarizing. But it isn't ordinary plagiarism since the ideas are your own.
But if you build a significant model and it has various applications, it would be foolish to require that all implications appear in a single paper. The paper would be too long, for one thing, and some of the implications probably won't have been discovered by the time you have something worth reporting. So, what you are doing seems quite natural.

It will depend on a bunch of things.
Basically these papers are not "stand alone." They are elements of a series. The way to answer such questions is to put yourself in the place of your readers. Imagine you were a researcher from a related discipline, and you were encountering these papers for the first time. What level of duplication would make your life easy?
For example, if these are 5 page papers, and you have three pages of repeated intro material, that's a problem. If these are 50 page papers, three pages of repeated intro is probably not a problem.
For example, if the papers are in the same journal every time, you should be more inclined to simply cite a previous article for material you are considering repeating. If it's a different journal, you may want to avoid forcing your reader to hunt up that other journal to figure out what is going o n.
Maybe there's a way you can get some kind of consideration from a journal. If you are going to have several papers on the same topic in rapid succession, maybe you can get them published back-to-back. Or at least in the same volume so a reader will get them all at once. That way you could simply say "see the first paper" or something like that. It is certainly not unknown, though it is also not all the common either.
Another possible strategy is to publish a "state of the union" paper in a review journal, then reference that. When I was in grad school I wore out several volumes of Physics Reports that had review articles about my research subject. So much so that I eventually had to buy my own copies. Is there a similar journal in your field of research? You could put all your intro material and notation and introductory calculations in there and just cite it. Publishing a review article on a subject you are "pioneering" in can also be a good boost for your CV. And it will tend to get cited by a lot of people who are just getting their toes wet in a subject.


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How do you decide whether or not to collaborate with an acquaintance?
Some time ago I met someone at a conference who was doing research in an area that I was just beginning to delve into. We've had a few (minimal) e-exchanges since, and recently they suggested we "work together on something" - the "something" being the project I'm developing, I think.
I like the idea of working with this person and even sharing authorship on the project I'm starting, but I'm still somewhat new to the research side of academics and - based on the mixed experiences I've had collaborating with people I don't know well - I feel very cautious about jumping into a collaboration with someone whose work I don't know well (they're still a student and don't have much out there yet) - and more importantly, whose work ethic I don't know at all.
Does anyone have an approach to potential collaborations - particularly with people you don't know well - which may help to minimize the possibility of things going awry?

Are you in a field in which order of authorship matters a lot, or not at all?

@Buffy Yes, I'd say it matters a bit.

Thanks for your perspectives! This specific project is not high stakes or super important to me, so there's less risk involved in that sense. I will do some more research on this person and try to draw out the conversation a bit more to get to know them before making any sort of commitment. I don't know why I find discussing potential issues at the onset to be so awkward, but I agree that it's probably the best way to prevent them from becoming actual issues!

It is good to be wary if you don't have much experience with the person and their basic ethical patterns. On the other hand, collaboration is a good thing generally if people contribute on an equitable (not necessarily equal) basis.
It depends on how much risk you are willing to take here and how important this particular project is to you. Once you agree, and the other person contributes anything, it will be difficult to back out. If success in this project seems vital to your future, I'd suggest not taking on much risk here. If it is "just another paper among others" then you can afford to take a chance.
But, I'd suggest that you work out the issue at the beginning of the project and not hope for the best. In particular: Will you be co-authors of the work? Who is the first/primary author of the resulting paper, assuming that is a consideration? Or, will one of you be the author and the other get appropriate acknowledgement? How much effort is each willing to put into the project. If it is a major effort for one party but just a minor (hobby) project for the other, then misunderstandings are possible. Are you willing to do the work yourself if the other party quits? Will you still be OK with co-authorship in that case?
Think about the worst case. Is that acceptable? But think about the most likely case, given what you do know about the other person.
Lots of questions on this site arise because participants didn't set up parameters and understandings at the start. The writers are mostly unhappy with the outcome and wonder how to recover. There are usually comments that indicate these things should have been worked out early and it is too late, at the end, for a happy outcome.
However, I think that most collaborations are more successful and can lead to long term productive relationships. Valuable, but with both upside and downside potential.

Buffy's answer already makes a key point: discuss the potentially thorny issues at the start, not at the end when you feel the sting.
I'd like to add to that: put some work into getting to know this person. Rather than agree to a collaboration right away, gather some information first;

Look up this person's previous publications. What's the quality like?
Look at their academic profile - how productive is this person? Where do they work? What previous topics have they worked on?
Find out if you have any shared acquaintances that can tell you a bit about the person. Has this person done any collaborations with people you know? Does your supervisor or any of the senior academics in your department know them, or know something about their institution?
Get to know them in person a bit before saying yes. Are you planning both to go to any conferences? Are they living nearby enough to go for coffee?

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Submitting similar work to two conferences
I have a pilot study that I conducted, the results of which I'd like to present at the upcoming Conference X. I am also expanding on this study so that I not only have additional data, but will also have a broader focus, since my original one ended up being rather narrow.
I'd like to present my updated results (not yet available) at Conference Y several months after Conference X, but I certainly don't want to do so if it's unethical. Essentially, if I were to do both, I would be repeating some of what I present at Conference X (similar research objectives and methods, some of the same data), but I anticipate having further analyses to offer. Thoughts?

Have  you asked your advisor about  the norms in your research area?

Besides the above suggestion, which is always valid of course, conferences in most disciplines are not journals. The same work can be presented and discussed until you find it necessary or interesting and the community does the same.

Certainly it isn't unethical to present new and improved results at a conference. However, the reviewers may have questions about novelty if your earlier work overlaps too much. But that is up to them to decide.
Just cite the old work in the new so that it doesn't appear as if you are doing a double submission. Then, let the reviewers decide.

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Using other people's data for dissertation: ethical or not?
It was recently shared with me that a professor in my department (and if anyone saw my question about the verbally abusive ex-advisor...yeah, same guy) offered one of his PhD students his own corpus of data for writing her dissertation, and apparently made this offer in response to her deciding to quit the PhD program. As I understand it, she accepted this offer and decided to stay in the PhD program because of it; I also believe that this corpus -while used in a number of publications - as a whole is not publicly available or anything.
Because I am admittedly biased (see the aforementioned question for context) against this professor, I don't entirely trust my judgement. Is it just me, or is this a ridiculously unethical offer?
Next question, if it is unethical, do I say anything about it to anyone? The person who told me did so in confidence, and I don't want to betray that. I'm hoping he reports it (he said he's thinking of talking to the graduate director in our department about it, as he thinks it's shady too) but if he doesn't - should I say something or just let it go? Because I already have a bad relationship with this professor and have complained about him, I feel like me complaining yet again about something else will just make me look bad and not be taken seriously, not to mention there is the whole matter of this not being any of my business.
My heart and soul are all riled up because I just want to see this professor be held accountable for something (I'm pretty sure he's going to get away with how he treated me. See linked post), but my self-interested brain is telling me to let it go and stay out of it. Thoughts?

Thanks for your comments. After sleeping on it, I think I'm going to just tell the guy who originally told me about this to either a) talk about with the appropriate faculty, and/or b) have an open and honest conversation with said student about the shade factor of going along with her advisor's offer. And I'm just going to step out of this.

Holding grudge like this is only going to affect your career and life. Time is precious. The less time you spend on getting revenge and more on yourself the better. I am speaking from personal experience. I was exploited during my PhD by my supervisor and was angry for years but sweetest revenge is in building a career and marching ahead while not doing what he did to you to anyone else. Life ia a marathon, good chance you might get opportunity to settle scores - be ready when that time comes.

Let's deal with the ethics first. It is undoubtedly unethical if:
(1) The corpus was generated by other people who are not credited.
(2) The data used from the corpus was used for another dissertation or for publications not part of the dissertation.
(Edit: It has been pointed out by @Dawn, @Fomite and @Stella that this is not applicable to several fields, eg. Economics & Public Policy. Possibly this point is relevant only if you are in an experimental field, so please judge if it's applicable to you.)
Anything outside this falls into a grey zone, which can be defended as:
(1) PhD is a joint work between the supervisor and student,  so between them data may be freely shared.
(2) The student is able to answer questions based on data, meaning she has understood and engaged with it. If she credits it partly to superviser, it may again be accepted. Remember, there is no evidence of who actually generated the data between these two.
Now coming to what you can/should do- let somebody else take it up. Preferably the whistleblower who told you. Encourage that person. A complaint coming from you could be dismissed on grounds of prior bias.

In my field, (2) is not unethical.

Thanks, could you mention the field? Will edit accordingly.

Economics and Public Policy.

(2) is definitely applicable in this situation; (1) might be, but as @Dan said, it's premature to assume that the professor isn't going to be credited. However, they had a similar arrangement last semester in a course we took together, and she didn't acknowledge him at all when she presented her paper in class.

Yeah, (2) is not applicable to a wide variety of fields.

I don’t understand why 2 would be unethical. I’m in mathematics and computer science, and to take the example of AI, people train AI algorithms on the same data all the time. In fact, using the same data as other people is encouraged because it allows you to make better and more meaningful comparisons between techniques. It is certainly the case that the production of data can be itself a research project, but as long as it’s properly cited I don’t see why it would be a problem.

(cont.) I see comments along the lines of “this evaluation of our methodology was done using data sets A and B, by Alice (2012) and Bob (2013) respectively,” in papers all the time. Sure, if you represented it as your own data collection that would be a problem, but you’ve listed that separately. What field do you work in, and why would it bother you to find out that someone is reusing data, but doing original analysis?

@Fomite & Stella - Thanks, you have a point. Possibly  the conventions are different in experimental fields that I am familiar with. In these, it's okay to use someone's data/results for a paper, but in a thesis it is discouraged because it means you have not generated your own results (which takes significant time, effort and skill). It is not uncommon to certify that the results in your thesis have not been used in another thesis. So the objection does not come from the original author so much as from the reviewer.

(contd.) I have in fact, received a reject decision from a journal because I used previously published data to perform original analysis. Not that the journal felt it's illegal, they discourage it. In case of PhD dissertations, the rules are more stringent. Nevertheless, thanks for educating me on your field conventions, I have modified the answer accordingly.

@user153812 the issue with your paper getting rejected or the fact that generating data takes effort has nothing to do with ethics. The journal probably simply felt your contribution wasn't substantial enough, and similarly the referees of a PhD dissertation might feel a student hasn't done enough independent work to deserve a PhD. Nonetheless, if the student acknowledges the source of their data in the dissertation, they (and the advisor who gave them permission to use his data) have not done anything unethical, regardless of the separate question about the quality of the work.

@Dan Romik- Right, it has nothing to do with ethics. The comment about the paper was not in response to OP's question, but to Stella's question about why someone would be bothered by it.

Unless the student claims that they collects the data himself/herself. I do not see any scientific misconduct in using other people's data with their permission.
Of course collecting good data is a contribution. However, even if the student collects data themselves, I would be very surprised if that is more than 30% of the contribution in their thesis.
TL;DR: No big deal. That might be a bad professor, but it doesn't mean everything he does is wrong.

"Of course collecting good data is a contribution. " - very true. Excessive emphasis on data collection often means the analysis is inadequate or  uninspiring.

Whether it’s unethical or not would depend on whether the student acknowledges where the data comes from in her dissertation. If she does, and assuming her thesis committee is okay with it and considers her own contribution (there will be other aspects to it aside from the data collection, I assume?) to be sufficient for a PhD, I don’t see an ethical problem. And since you can’t know at this point whether the student will acknowledge the source of the data, it seems premature to throw around accusations of unethical behavior.
If you do have stronger grounds to suspect anything shady or unethical going on, there is the option of making an anonymous report to avoid getting entangled in the affair. However, even with an anonymous report there are risks.
Finally, I must say that from reading your question I’m getting the sense that you may be driven by feelings of vindictiveness related to your own ongoing conflict with the professor (you pretty much suggest this yourself when you say “I just want to see this professor be held accountable for something”). Needless to say, such feelings would be a really bad reason to take any action on unrelated matters. If you are considering taking such action, I would urge you to be very careful and apply a lot of doubt and skepticism to your own thought processes (including consulting other people, as you are doing now) to make sure your decisions are free of such dishonorable motivations. If the professor mistreated you, that’s bad and you should do your best to get him held to account in connection with that, but I don’t see how it has any bearing on his offer to his student to use his data.

A dissertation is not the collection of data. And the collection of data is not a dissertation.
My entire PhD was rooted in the analysis of other people's data, and I collected none of my own (a model generated some, but this is not generally what people mean).
Your question also implies that if I spend say, three years and potentially tens of thousands of dollars funding a student's project and they decide to drop out of a PhD for whatever reason, that the data from that is lost forever, and should never be used again.
So long as the student doesn't represent the data as something they collected themselves, I see very little ethical issues.

Thanks for backing it up with your personal experience.  However the hypothetical case that you mention does not hold, because all IP generated during research work is joint property of the institute and the researcher, and typically registration letters have clauses specifying exactly what will happen in such situations.

@user153812 That hypothetical case is what follows from the OPs assertion, not a hypothetical agreement regarding IP. Also note that the statement "all IP generated during research work is the joint property of the institute and the researcher..." is really overly broad and not universally correct.

@Fomite- not disputing your statement, but I have frequently come across and signed such clauses. It appears logical to have everything covered in an agreement, to prevent conflict and misuse later. This may not be universal across fields/departments, I concede that. Nevertheless, it's good for OP to know all the different possibilities so that (s)he can choose what's most applicable.

@user153812 I think it's misleading that you refer to scientific research data as "IP". IANAL, but I don't believe that scientific research data is a form of intellectual property in any meaningful legal sense (e.g., it doesn't fit any of the categories listed here). It's true that there are academic conventions that research data should not be used without permission from the people who generated the data, so I sort of understand what you meant, but still I feel that "intellectual property" is not an appropriate term to use here.

I don't see anything unethical about this offer in itself. There may be some field-specific norms I'm not aware of, but assuming he's not breaking any confidentiality/IP/etc. rules, sharing data with a student seems like a good thing that should happen more often.
However, it becomes a little more bothersome when taken in the context of your previous post. You mention that when this guy was your advisor, he exhibited controlling/bullying behaviour including sexual harassment, and punished you for setting boundaries.
Controlling types often use gifts/favours as a way to create a sense of obligation, and sometimes as leverage down the road. If he has the power to revoke permission for her to use the data, after she's invested a year or two of her life into analysing that, then obviously that's pretty powerful leverage.
If your contact does take it to the graduate advisor, it might be worth him suggesting that this data-sharing agreement should be formally documented, to ensure that it can't be used in this way. But I think you're right in saying that you are not the person to be raising this issue, for the reasons you've already identified.

I can see several aspects to the question, and I can't see that reflected in the existing answers. Overall I'd say that the situation is fine. There are many ways there could be problems, but each is unlikely unless you have particular details pointing to them.

Is it ethical for the supervisor to make such an offer in response to the student's stated intention to leave? This probably depends on the way it came about and how it was done, but I'd err on the side of assuming it's fine. A plausible situation would be that the student doesn't get on with data collection, and the supervisor agrees to change the focus of the PhD from data collection to data analysis. That would be a very sensible approach.
Is it ethical for the supervisor to pass on the data? Again, probably yes, in the absence of other information. Sharing your own data is totally fine in general, unless there are specific restrictions on it. If the data is of a sensitive nature, there might be a need for permission to be sought, but it is entirely possible that such permission has been received.
Is it ethical for data to be shared privately but not publicly? Yes, unless there is a strong public-interest case, in which case the private sharing is irrelevant. The related case that would not be ethical is where someone in a business uses information for gain by themselves or a third person without permission to use that private information. But that is not the case here. Subject to what I said above, the supervisor is in control of the data and so has the authority to share it. Is it fair for them to do share the data with this student but not others? A student-supervisor relationship is a fairly close one that carries a duty on the part of the supervisor, so generally yes. Potentially there could be a problem if, say, there were two students in similar circumstances, and the data was shared with one and not the other. But that's getting into extreme cases.
Is it ethical for the student to use the data to gain a PhD? As others have said, this is an issue of plagiarism (or not). Pretending to have collected the data when they hadn't would be wrong, regardless of where they got it from. But so long as the source is suitable acknowledged, there is no problem (and indeed this is pretty common, since not everyone is an experimentalist).
Is it ethical to reuse data? Yes (and you indicate this has already happened). What it does do is limit the interpretation of any pattern you find. As I understand it, reusing data is not accepted in situations where the results are likely to be used in a way that is not a valid interpretation of reused data (eg deducing causation when all that's been shown is correlation, or cutting the data so many ways that something comes out by chance). Results of the form 'in this data set we found this pattern, which matched with what we thought' are perfectly good if stated as such, just less likely to get published when there are stronger claims around.

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How often is "too often" for emailing journal editors?
Context: I submitted a paper for initial review May 2018, and not long after received a "revise and resubmit" response. I never got a confirmation regarding my resubmission, and the email I sent requesting that wasn't answered. A few months later, I checked in again, and finally was told they never received it. I resubmitted it (it's now January 2019, by the way.) Since then, I have reached out a few times to check in. Once in May - the associate editor said they were still waiting on the evaluations. I wrote again in August, only because I saw that the associate editor had changed, and I correctly assumed that the new one didn't know anything about my submission. When they did look into it, they said it was still in review. Against my better judgement, I checked in again in October (I didn't want to be annoying, but...in my defense, my previous submission had been lost, and this most recent submission had been sent way back in January.) However, I got no response. And here we are in December, shortly approaching the 1 year mark, and still no update.
Finally the question: would it be inappropriate to send another email some time soon? On the one hand, I completely empathize that people are busy and volunteering their time when serving on an editorial board, and I don't want to annoy them over things that are maybe out of their control. However, they don't have the best track record (I also consulted with another colleague who similarly had a frustrating experience with this journal) and keeping my paper in review for almost a year seems excessive (in my field the turnaround for a review is usually about 4 months). If sending another email is in order, any suggestions on how to inquire and point out the delays and unresponsiveness without sounding annoying or like a jerk?

As you point out, you've waited close to a year. You shouldn't feel bad about asking for updates after this long, especially since it's been two months since you last checked.
In your email I'd point out that it's been almost a year since you resubmitted, and you're wondering what exactly is happening. When can you expect a decision? If they can't predict that, then when are the reviews due?
If the editorial board member handling your paper is unresponsive, you could try asking the journal office instead, although it sounds unlikely the journal office will be able to say much (because my guess is the reviewers never agreed to review and/or never actually submitted a review, so the only way forward is to invite more reviewers, but the handling editor hasn't done it).

Thank you; I think I'm so used to walking on eggshells and treating any scholar who's senior to me (basically almost everyone) like they're a sleeping dragon, so I never feel justified in being annoyed or impatient. I'll send an email this week.


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What kinds of student mentorship and supervision merit inclusion on CV?
An academic can mentor or supervise a student in many different ways, but I'm unclear about what actually merits inclusion on a CV. Some examples that are clear cut to me include:
-dissertation director or committee member
-thesis advisor for masters student
-thesis advisor for senior or honors students at the undergrad level
Then there are other roles that I've occasionally or never seen on a CV and wondering about their acceptability, such as:
-mentor in a professional organization
-supervisor to a student research assistant
-director of an independent study (university   course for which the student receives credit)
-faculty mentor/advisor for a student research project (meaning, the faculty member is not an author, but instead is guiding the student author, or is maybe listed as the advisor on their IRB application)
I work in the U.S. and am in languages and linguistics.

Personally, I would include all of those, but some people record none of them.  Ask yourself what message you want to send.

@AnonymousPhysicist - these are not things I would have thought to include before on my CV, but I'm thinking about it now, since I will be working at a teaching-focused college where working with students is an important component for getting tenure. Since it's also an undergrad institution, I already know that I won't be doing any dissertation directing/committee work, and so being able to list some of the other activities might be a good way to showcase my mentoring/supervising experience. I just don't want it to look like padding.

If the message you want to send is that you work with students, then yes list those things.


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Difference between university/departmental service and extracurricular university service on CV
I'm a first year assistant professor and the service component of the CV is somewhat unfamiliar territory for me, since my previous jobs never required service. For the last few years, I've followed Karen Kelsky's rules of the academic CV, which distinguishes between "university/departmental service" and "extracurricular university service" as separate CV sections. Thus far, I've listed all of what I consider to be service activities under the former, but now I'm not sure if some of these activities fit better under the latter category, or even if some of these activities merit space on my CV.
Some specific examples of activities I have under the service section include coordinator/organizer roles (curricular development, study abroad, workshop series), committee work, advisor roles (student organizations), and other miscellaneous things like managing/creating content for departmental social media.
To me, all of these activities were/are time-consuming responsibilities that I've considered worth mentioning in my CV, but now I'm a little uncertain if they all belong there (is any of this CV padding?), and if they do - should they be in separate sections? (my thought is perhaps that distinction Dr. Kelsky makes is hierarchical in some way. For instance, is advising a student group not as highly regarded as committee work?).
And a more general question, if it's allowed, are there certain things you just don't list as service? For instance, I know I will be serving as an advisor to majors/minors soon, but that strikes me as something I should leave off my CV because that's something all TT faculty are expected to do.

"Karen Kelsky's rules of the academic CV, which distinguishes between "university/departmental service" and "extracurricular university service" as separate CV sections." For physics and adjacent fields, this advice is just wrong.  Lump them together or leave them out.  Karen is more right than most people, but not always right.

Extracurricular service is things you do completely outside the university setting. Volunteering at a food bank or such like these days. Tutoring disadvantaged kids.
The other is service given to the university and its students and staff in some way. Being chair of an admissions or hiring committee. Writing a report, or serving on a committee that is trying to make plans for the future.
There is also an overlap area. If you lead an informal campus Judo club or Chess club, just because you want to, you can probably list it either place, but "extracurricular" is more literally true.
They should probably be separated if the instructions separate them. But if they just ask for service without qualification, you could probably combine them.
And the required activities under Teaching and Research are separate, as you suggest.


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Is it okay to apply to more than one professors for internship at the same time?
I am a math undergraduate in my second year. I was thinking of applying to internship but I am confused about this.
1. Is it okay to apply to more than one professors at the same time? If so if I get selected in more than one and I consider only one will that affect my reputation with professor badly? If so how can I avoid it?
2. Will it be okay if I try to apply in two fields of the same
 subjects?
I am kind of inexperienced in this; so any help would be appreciated. :)

ask other (older) students at your institution, 2. i can apply for any number of flats or jobs at the same time, why no internships? 3. for internships i would expect "application" means you write an email or go to the prof and just ask, and he immediately answers "yes come by tomorrow to discuss the subject" or "sorry, we're full already for the summer".

@Karl, this is worth turning into a full answer.

@Buffy Not really imo. The question is very unclear. Also it sound quite off-topic (purely undergrad).

@Karl, I think that disfavoring undergrad isn't as strong as it once was, except for undergraduate admissions and "college life".

User Karl has good advice, I will only add that if you ask two professors for positions, make sure that you at least hint that there are other possibilities under consideration.  If you indicate that you would take an internship with a professor while you are looking for another, it might cause hard feelings later.
But if you present it as "I'm looking around for opportunities for an internship and wonder ..." then it doesn't immediately sound exclusive. If you get more than one offer you then have a comfortable way to go back to the ones you aren't taking with an update. "Thanks for the opportunity, but ..."
Keep your lines of communication open as much as possible.


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How to connect with a professor?
I am a mathematics undergraduate student from India and am presently in my final year. Being a bit less talkative, I had not had many conversations with my professors even though I had tried to maintain a good score in my subjects and learn them well. However nowadays,  when I am trying to apply for my master's I am becoming aware of the need for connections with your professors. However I am not sure how to do this and I have no clue whom to talk to. Isn't it awkward if you just go to a professor's office say Hi and try to start up a conversation?
   So can anyone suggest how to do this? Also is one year (or maybe a semester of 4 months as I have to start applying after that) enough to make good connections with professors?
Thanks in advance.

From my experience, whether you are outgoing or talkative is not that important. Myself and my former PhD supervisor would notice good students based off the academic merit even when they struggled with English as a second language or if they were a bit introverted. It is not necessarily about your ability to become friends but more your ability to produce quality research when you get trained. A good PhD supervisor will be able to recognise that.
That being said, depending on the culture of course, my approach was to first send an email outlining your interests and request either a brief discussion, or a coffee when they get a moment.
I don’t think it is awkward at all to knock on a professors door and say hi and tell them your intentions to become a researcher.
I am not familiar with how it works in India but in Australia, if someone knocked on my door and was interested in doing some research, I’d buy them a coffee and have a chat if I was free. Otherwise, tell them to come back another time.

Start by going to discuss a particular question or topic.
Students who show interest get noticed and it does not have to be about “chatty”...
If you have asked questions about material and subsequently ask for a reference then you tend to be remembered...


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How should I put my funding history in CV/cover letter?
I am applying for a faculty position after years of postdoc positions and a brief faculty position I held. My projects were rather unusual as I never received a big research fund. Instead, I received several smaller ones from different funding agencies. In total, the research funds I secured should be similar to those f my rivals.
My question is: Should I list the details of my funding history (in CV or cover letter) including the project title, the amount, and the funding agencies? Or it is enough to mention that I have received this amount of research fund in total from these funding agencies?

In a CV, yes. In cover letter, adding a line such as "Throughout my career, I was able to secure $XXX from various funding opportunities". Some might go into full details too!

This will vary greatly by field so look at examples of CVs in your field. In general, it is very common to list the title, the start/end dates, the agency, the amount and your role in the grant on your CV. In some fields, it's also acceptable to list unawarded grants (we all know that obtaining funding can be a bit of a gamble - so many departments like to see that you're trying). I've never heard of funding being listed in the cover letter - but, again, that may be something specific to your field.

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


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Is SPIE proceedings publication a real scientific publication?
I have some SPIE proceedings publications. However, in a scientific context does proceedings publication count as a publication?

In an academic context I would definitely say NO. However, at the research non-profit institute I am at now, they do count Proc SPIE as "peer reviewed manuscripts" when they as the local government and EU for money.

The SPIE proceedings volumes are generally fairly loosely peer-reviewed conference proceedings volumes.  The quality of the peer-reviewing can vary depending on the organizers of each particular conference.
People do cite papers from these volumes and they're indexed by some research databases including Scopus and Google Scholar, but not Thompson's Web of Science (at least not the last time I checked.)  Like any conference proceedings papers, you'll have to take some responsibility for deciding whether the material is good enough to be worth citing.
You haven't explained exactly what you mean by "count as a publication."  Here are several answers:

Will tenure and promotion committees consider these as publications?  Probably not at the same level as publications in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, but they probably will be considered as conference proceedings papers.
Can you submit a paper for journal publication after publishing it in an SPIE volume?  Probably not, unless the journal paper is significantly expanded.  Publication in one of these volumes typically would count as "prior publication."
Should you cite a paper from an SPIE conference proceedings volume?  Yes, if the paper has useful information.  Readers of your paper should generally be able to obtain these papers if they want to look into the references further.
Is the SPIE a predatory publisher?  I doubt that anyone would argue that it is a predatory publisher.


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How to cite in two languages combined with acronym at the same time in Harvard style
Let's say one is writing an academic paper, and one has to deal with two languages and possibly acronyms. How would be appropiate to formate the citations in the text using Harvard style?
If one is writing if for example German, and one wants to mention a company/institution that is located in the UK.
So I would format it like this:
company name in English (acronym in English)
But in the case one has a German translated version of the company name I would format it as follows:

German translated name of company (English name of company [English acronym of company])

Alternatively:

German translated name of company (English name of company; English acronym of company)

Alternatively:

German translated name of company (English: English name of company [English acronym of company])

But does this last example seem like overdoing it? Sometimes though the German translation is not widely known, or the English name is more common. Also some companies are commonly referred to with acronyms.
Let's say that the readers of you paper don't know/understand English, then the German translation would tell them what type of company it is, for example: The Electrical National Company of England in German.
When it comes to certain physical processes or geographical locations the same applies, would one use the same rules as above (replace company by process)? For example certain languages don't have direct translations of the English words, because English might have a wider vocabulary. In these cases one can experience that even lecturers and professors use the English terms (in lectures in the local language), because the English terms are more commonly used/known and maybe due to lazyness. But what if there actually is an appropiate equivalent term in the language you are writing, then it would make sense to include both versions right? Even the English acronym if there is one.
What do people normally do when encountered with this challenge?


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How to cite a figure that has been already modified from another source?
I am wondering how to cite a figure that has already been modified from another source. Normally one should get the original figure from the original source, but there are cases when that is not possible or difficult.
Let's say that we find a figure A in source 1.
Figure A is a modified version of figure B from another source 2.
So in source 1 figure A it says in its figure text:

...modified after [2].

Also I am wondering how to cite correctly when I want to modify the already modified figure? Saying modified after again seems quite silly:

modified after [1] which is modified after [2].

In addition one should include "with permission", but the following sounds wrong since it appears as if we have gotten "permission to modify":

modified with permission from [1].

This last example raises the question: does one have to ask for permission to modify a figure in addition to reproducing. Some organizations explicitly tell that no figures may be modified.
So my guess is that it should be formulated as:

reused with permission and modified after [1].

But this last I can't remember having seen any example of in actual academic papers. What would be the correct approach here?

"Reused with permission and modified after [1]." sounds good to me. It will also depend on copyright, which some journals require specifying in the figure caption. Whether the copyright allows re-use and modification is of course key.

I'd say something like "originally from [2], modified in [1], and further modified here"; it's longer than I'd like, but it gives appropriate credit to everyone involved, and it helps to prevent people from being blamed for what the modifiers later did to their work.


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Searching databases for scientific work/ articles
I've tried reading several guides on how to search in databases to get the relevant information that I'm seeking, either is my topic hard to find articles on or I guess it doesn't exist many.
Anyway I thought I'd give it a shot here to see if you guys could help me get relevant search-results for what I'm searching for.
Basically I have the idea of doing a bachelor degree work on the topic "How is data backups being handled at municipalities?" where I want to get in contact with IT-responsible people working at municipality offices around the region where I live to answer the research question.
The work requires me to find scientific work/ articles that relates to this subject to explore what has been done before me in the area which I wish to study.
How would I go on about finding scientific work/ articles about the subject that I wish to study.
Basically how do I search databases in the most efficient way to find earlier articles relating to my subject?
Any help and advice is appreciated.

Searching for articles on a topic is a skill that you get better at over time. Here are some tips to get started:

Ask your colleagues in your field which databases they use most commonly.  For instance, PubMed targets journals in the biosciences and medical fields.  PsychInfo indexes psychology journals, etc.
Google Scholar is a very capable tool, though the scope is typically broader than a more focused search engine.
Using a few articles you already have as starting points, review the reference list and pick out additional articles cited in the work that are of interest, then go read those, then repeat the process.  After time, you'll start to have an intuition on the authors, journals, and keywords that help you construct a search.
Use a 'cited by' search - first find a particular article you already have on your topic, then find the articles that cite that article. This can open up further routes for exploration.

Thanks for a thorough answer, I think point 3 is the most valuable to me. But seeing as I have trouble finding specific related work to my subject I might have to tweak my area of study/ research question to be able to make use of your tips.

@Andreas, This means that either you've found an open area of study, or you just haven't figured out how to find related work.  You don't usually change your research question just because you can't find articles.  Trust me, the more you read and try to find other articles, the clearer this will become.

Great answer. // I would add: don't neglect to spend some time with a good reference librarian.

@HEITZ I understand your point, the thing is at the first examination-seminar you have to provide at least three scientific sources of previous work done on the area of subject (and later more in the study more). If I can't seem to find any related work it won't work to even proceed and then I might have to tweak my area of study so I'll find previous work.


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Include F1000Research publication on CV
I am a biostatistics postdoctoral student. I recently participated in a coding festival and our work was published in F1000Research (https://f1000research.com/).
In your opinion, should I include this publication in my CV along with more typical peer-reviewed papers? Similarly, what are the pros and cons of adding this to my CV?
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Personally, I think that one should include all of one's significant scientific works in a CV.  What you do not want to do, however, is to give an impression of "CV-padding."
Accordingly, I recommend that you do what is done by many researchers (including myself) who publish not just in journals but in multiple different types of scientific venues: divide your publications list into different classes of publication, e.g., "Journal Articles", "Thesis Chapters", "Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers", "Non-Refereed Articles", whatever fits.
Thus, a work in something like F1000Research, which is citable archival publication but without traditional peer review, would be listed as a non-refereed article: noted as a possibly significant scientific work, but clearly labelled as different than your traditional peer-reviewed articles.

Note, however, that F1000 can be, and often are, reviewed. If the reviewers approve the paper, I would list it as peer-reviewed.


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A peculiar PhD situation, working full time in a government lab but getting my PhD from an unknown university because of formalities. Advice?
I am involved in a peculiar PhD situation. I am working full time at a government lab that is fairly new (<10 years of existence), but has however attracted some strong names in my field (Computer Science and Data Management) as appointed researchers. Government labs do not issue PhDs, so I had to enroll at a university. The university that I enrolled at (not my choice) is among the top 10 in my country, but lies in the top ~1000 area worldwide. Furthermore, my advisor is not really involved in my work and is generally active in somewhat different research directions. However, I had very good funding so I decided to treat this as exactly what it is, i.e., a formality, as I can't get my PhD from the government lab.
During the past four years, I have been very productive and managed to create a solid publication record at A-level and A*-level conferences and journals, as well as a decent citation count (~150). I am first author in most of my papers, and some of the people I worked and published with are very established and acclaimed academics in this field.
Before starting my PhD, a obtained an Electrical Engineering degree and a Masters degree from top schools in worldwide rankings. Now my question is, do I need to somehow reflect this situation in the form of a justification of why I am getting my PhD from an unknown university? Or the fact that after two excellent school names, I have this third name in my CV that is unknown and overall a weird addition?

I think your stellar record speaks for itself (from my experience: 150 citations is something that is rarely encounered on a a PhD-level research).
And where would you like to put that justification? As an asterisk in your CV? THAT would be really weird.

Exactly, If I read OP's CV and stumbled over the noname university, I would think it's interesting, not bad.

I think the OP can easily convey the point they wish to make on their without raising anyone's eyebrows. It would be reasonable to have an entry like"2014--2018 Noname University (in association with Government Research Lab), PhD Advanced Basket Weaving." This accurately reflects the context of the OP's PhD, and any readers who care enough to think about it will appreciate that the university/lab tie-up is probably determined way above the OP's pay-grade.

A PhD in Advanced Basket Weaving would be amazing though.

You need both in your CV, but you can easily split the employment at the government lab from when and where you have obtained your PhD. You can even structure your CV with a complete separation between the list of academic degrees (where and when you obtained them) and the list of research / industry employment and similar.
For the entry with your PhD, it would be reasonable to relate it to your employment at the government lab of course, for example by pointing out a cooperation between this university and the government lab. You don't state whether the advisor you mention is affiliated with the government lab or the university, but if someone who supervises you at the government lab is also member of your PhD committee, that may be sufficient to state a cooperation.


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General advice for A-level students wanting to pursue quantum physics
I am a student and I will hopefully start preparation for my A-level examinations this June. Unlike most students in Bangladesh, I plan to build my future based on Quantum Physics and thus have not received sufficient advise on what to do.
Edexcel offers many subjects for A-levels but I am unsure which ones do I need.
 So far I am sure that I need:

Chemistry (All 5 units)
Physics (All 5 units)
Core Mathematics (All 4 papers)
Further Pure Mathematics (All 3 papers)
Mechanics (All 3 papers)

Generally students take 4 subjects and ignore some units or papers but to have a good preparation for what is coming ahead, I have planned to take 5 subjects and not miss out on any unit or paper. However I am unsure whether I need statistics or not. I have understood it plays an important part in Quantum Physics (Feynman diagrams for one) but am unsure if it is really that important or not (3 more papers).
Recently, my grandfather's school friend came to visit. Despite being a geologist, he had sound knowledge of Quantum Physics (But not of the education system). He advised me to not drop Biology for my O-levels as it will play an important part in the 'Theory of Everything'. I did decide to appear for Biology in my O-levels but should I also take it for my A-level examinations? (5 more units)
P.S. Each unit requires one paper so I may have to give 28 papers (generally people give 11 papers). If you want to learn more about A-levels click here.
This may seem like personal advice but it will actually help many more students out in the world who plan to make a career out of Quantum Physics. Any help would be appreciated!

Look at the subjects required by a university that offers Quantum Physics and that you'd like to attend. Study the subjects they require.
You'll perhaps be surprised that universities don't require all the subjects you've listed. These subjects are nonetheless useful, they just aren't absolutely necessary, moreover, universities know that students have limited study time. Important aspects of subjects that you don't study will be covered at university. (Furthermore, you can study any aspects that you consider important, but aren't covered.)

Could you suggest one such university, preferably in Australia. I am quite willing to slave two years rather than fall behind later on (I am a studyholic). The subjects won't be as much of a struggle as I have studied hard for my O-levels and in my spare time have studied more advanced stuff. Could you edit your answer to include something on Biology as I know that no university requires it for Quantum Physics?

@MohammadZuhairKhan You should be able to find out what universities are in Australia - and the answer given is very apt.

@SolarMike do most universities offer courses in Quantum Physics? I do not know one that offers that in Bangladesh, hence my confusion.

@MohammadZuhairKhan I don't think Bangladesh is relevant as it is not in Australia, and, in your comment you specifically ask about Australia, so you need to find out which Universities offer Quantum Mechanics in Australia - they should list the courses they offer, along with the minimum entry requirements.

@SolarMike I only specified Australia as I may be moving there for University. But the minimum entry requirements surprise me. My O-level knowledge is more than sufficient for most requirements and others aren't that difficult. Anyways. thanks for the help!

@MohammadZuhairKhan You certainly need a willingness to work, but there is only so much you can study and it might be better to focus your studies on fewer subjects, to ensure you master those, rather than spreading your efforts on more subjects, for breadth. Of course, such discussion is highly subjective.

@user2768 thank you for your advice. I'll remember that.

Regarding biology, study it at A-level only if it is needed. (You can always study subjects in your spare time too.)

Typically for physics in the UK universities ask for A levels in maths and physics, plus one other - further maths and chemistry are both good choices. I think you're fine with your plans for now. If you want to try and get ahead - taking a degree is more about learning a way of thinking than more and more facts. So I'd suggest looking at physics/math challenges and trying out the knowledge you have on random problems. You could also look at programming; computational physics is a big thing and used to tackle for many quantum physics problems.


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How to obtain a readable format of an article?
It became a real problem for me. I need to read some old articles for my research but these qualities are so bad that I can't even read the text. For example, this article "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0012365X74901368?via%3Dihub".
Do you have any opinion on my problem?

Get the Library to obtain the original on an "Interlibrary loan". Or contact the publishers...

@SolarMike That should be an answer.

You have two options. Either you try to locate a paper copy (or a copy thereof) of the journal issue via your local library and if necessary via the interlibrary loan or you contract the vendor of the digital copy (sciencedirect in your case) and complain about the quality of the digitised paper asking them to upload a better-quality version. I tried this with another publisher (degruyter) and it took a couple of months before they updated the digital copy of the paper on their website.

How should I order via "interlibrary loan"? I don't know the process. I guess it is faster than ask the vendor.

You should ask at your library (your institutional library or another local library taking part in the ILL)

As per my comment you can ask your library to get the paper via an "Interlibrary loan" - just go in to the library with the details of the paper - make sure it is all correct and they will contact you when it is available.
Or, as the publishers - shown on the paper, but I don't know how long they can take...
When I last did an interlibrary loan it was 10 to 15 days and it was ready, but it may depend on how old the paper may be,...

I asked the publisher. For now, I cant access my local library that is a problem. Hope to get an answer from the publisher so soon.

@maha_ak1990 which publisher : sciencedirect or elsevier?

it is ScienceDirect.

@maha_ak1990 you are missing a trick, never mnd...


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Is it advisable to follow up journal editor for knowing the status of the manuscript submitted?
I submitted a manuscript to one of a popular Indian civil engineering journal 6 months back. They haven't given any comments yet. Is it advisable to follow up them via. mail.?

This question has been asked in various guises a lot. The short answer is "yes". If you hear nothing at all after confirmation of submission, ~1 month should be enough to ask for a status update.

yes. you can. but do not over do it. and pls note the editor is not bound to reply. he may do so courteously. but instead of 1 month blank, find the average time cycle for that journal (every journal has different response times) and wait twice or thrice the same. some journals have query/ redressal links; pls use them before email. use email as last resort


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Recent PhD graduate, can I change fields and get back into it?
I'm a recent PhD student who specialized in field X and have a couple options open in this field for my work. I like the field and it is field with opportunities in academia and industry.
That said, field Y is a passion of mine, it's very different and wouldn't have many skill crossovers. There is a job that has opened up for it that seems perfect for me. I'd love to contribute in the field and I could live off of it, but it wouldn't fit my field. I don't think I could easily find a another job in that field or move up really down the line.
My question is, can I have my cake and eat it too? Is it reasonable to take a job in new field Y and ask the employer if I can collaborate and contribute to field X still? If I have a break in my history of working at it can I get back into it without many (any?) publications?

Are you looking to work for a regular company, a research lab, or in academia? The answer is different for each of these.

Would be working at a regular compay's research lab that wouldn't be published in journals.

First, I'm assuming that field X and Y are not totally unrelated. (e.g. Greek literature and high energy physics.)
If you are working in academia this isn't usually a problem. In fact, it's great to have two areas where you can contribute, so that you continue to publish, etc, in area X while starting to do work in area Y. This keeps your productivity up while you get up to speed in area Y.
If you are working for a research lab this can also work, but may be a bit tougher. It depends on how strongly the lab wants you to contribute to the core work of the company. If there is a research lab that is doing work in both X and Y then you can probably find opportunities to collaborate in both areas. If they have no interest in X you need to see if they have flex time or if you can find some connection that would interest them.
But, in the end, the best option is to ask them. You never know what other areas they want to expand into, or what connections they may be aware of that you aren't.

The fields are very different, consider the change from a hard science in academia to soft science for an industry. Does that change your answer?


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Teachers asking for money as punishment for being absent
I was absent because of some domestic problems so now my teachers are asking me to pay rs.200 as punishment.Is this allowed?

Are you in elementary school? High school? University?

Could you add a country tag?

Please add more background (type of school (university?) / country / your position (student?) )

I wish I could charge my students for being late !!!

@CaptainEmacs Almost certainly a south Asian country (rs=rupees).

When I did my PhD, we had a system where anyone arriving late for our weekly group meeting would pay SEK 20 into a pot.  Once there would be enough money in the pot, we would go out to a pub together.  With the group being populated mainly by Germans, the latter never happened.

Germans don't go into a pub? ;-)

@scaaahu - Does this affect the answer?

I don't see how is this question unclear or out of scope.

@padawan - Would you join me in voting to reopen?  This is a question that could be faced by students at any level, in principle.

Bring this question to an administrator at your educational institution.  It's helpful to go into something like this with a mental image of yourself as though you were the student's lawyer or advocate -- by this I mean, ask your question in a very neutral tone, without showing any shock or negative feelings.


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Should I always force the use of active voice in my dissertation?
I decided to use first person ("we") and active voice as the primary style of writing my dissertation in the domain of Computer Science. I have read some discussions about this topic and the people generally agree that we have to be consistent.
Nonetheless I also noticed that are some instances in which the passive voice seems to be a better fit, like when I want to emphasize the action rather than the actor or when I don't know who is the actor (or it doesn't matter).
It seems hard to me in those situations to force the use of active voice (maybe because English is not my first language). To what degree should I force the use of active voice? Are there some guidelines regarding this topic?

Relevant: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.pdf

The guidelines proposed by the University of Toronto also make sense to me. http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/revising/passive-voice/

In general, one should not be a slave to style rules; clarity comes first, then fluidity and variety, I think.  I hope you are working with your campus writing center.

@aparente001 Thanks for the advice. To my knowledge we don't have a writing center.

Also, only use "we" if there are multiple authors. If you are the sole author of your dissertation, then the use of the pluralis maiestatis is a bit too pretentious.

@MaartenBuis It clearly have some advantages and disadvantages, But what are the alternatives? Using "I"?. My idea is to use primarily "we" and only use "I" when I have to empathize that is my opinion or my personal conclusion about something. The other alternative is to use third person...

"We" is simply wrong if one person is speaking. What I hate about it is that it tries spread out responsibility for that statement over multiple imaginary persons. If you make a statement, you should take full responsibility for it. You should not hide behind non-existing persons. I am not strict about style, but if I get a paper with "we" in it, I will sent it back immediately.  So to answer your question: yes, the alternative is definitely "I".

@MaartenBuis I understand. It makes sense, but sadly there is no consensus about anything regarding writing style. So I fear that regardless the choice I make there always be somebody that will disapprove my decisions.

Sure, but that does not mean that all choices are equal. If you want to write a professional scientific piece, you cannot use we for a single authored piece.

@MaartenBuis  Do you have a source to backup that claim? So far I only found  different opinions which quality is difficult to quantify. For example in https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/5512/87156 defend your style, but so there are similar posts that say otherwise.

Another possibility would be to use the third person, "the author."   Old-fashioned, quaint, elegant.  I mean, if you are really uncomfortable with "I" -- which to me sounds just perfect for what you're doing.  I suggest you reconsider -- try writing a few paragraphs that way and sleep on it.

In a scientific text it has to be absolutely clear who makes what statement. Unlike other texts there is no room for a "creative" way of handeling the truth. If you make a statement, and refer to it as "we", then you are lying, and lying is bad.

I decided to follow the approach proposed by @aparente001. I will try to apply the guidelines of https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/5512/87156 (regarding first person usage) and see what happens.

@RenatoSanhueza - Happy writing!  The beauty of modern word processing is that you can easily make a sweeping edit.

I don't think there's anything wrong with "we" in a single-authored paper, especially if it can be understood as referring to the author and the reader, as in "comparing theorems 2 and 7, we find that ...".  I'd avoid "we" only in cases where it can only mean "I", as in "In previous work, we and our co-authors proved ...". Returning to the actual question, I wouldn't "force" any stylistic decisions like active versus passive. Write whatever makes your ideas clear.

The goal of style guides is to give suggestions for how to write well. These are guidelines and suggestions, not immutable rules. Once you understand what the base suggestions are, and why they’re there, you can begin to understand when not to apply them. As you said, if you don’t know who the “actor” is, an active-voice sentence becomes more difficult to make clear without sounding stilted.
(I’ve tried writing a paper entirely in active voice when I was still a student. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the results.)

This. Never let style guides obstruct clarity. There are occasions where passive voice is appropriate and desirable.


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How to cite the same source across an entire subsection of a thesis?
My thesis is based on the application of a evaluation process. Therefore I want to add a subsection in the "Theoretical Background" chapter where I summarize the whole process. The process is described very well in an official (extensive) document so it is the only source I need to describe the steps of the process.
The problem is that it seems kind of awkward to cite the source 2 to 3 times per paragraph and several paragraphs in a row.
Considering that the whole subsection is based on this official document. What would be the best way to make the in-text citations?.
I am using IEEE reference style and my thesis is about Computer Science.

The following section summarizes the process as described by Smith [16, pp. 14-22].

Then summarize the process, using your own words

Can I also do this at Chapter level? (e.g. In the chapter that shows the implementation of the evaluation process).

@Renato Sanhueza If that is your only source in the chapter, the citation would be technically correct; but I'd be concerned about the originality of the chapter.

It is not the only source, so I can't do it. Thanks for the clarification.

You should give a reference at the end of each paragraph and start with a sentence telling that the following chapter is an excerpt from [source].
The citation at the end of each paragraph is recommended since it might happen that someone misses your first sentence), the first sentence is technically not necessary but helps your advisor.
If it sums up to several pages, I would recommend to put the whole subsection to an appendix and mention only in one sentence that you followed the process described in [source] which is summarized in appendix x.

How many pages are too much? If my thesis has a little more than 100 pages.

@RenatoSanhueza I usually start getting twitchy if it's more then one page. If it's more then two, there must be very good reasons regarding readability for it, otherwise I'll give a slight deduction. But my main criteria are readability and understandability. If I have to turn pages too often, I'm unhappy as well ;-). It's best to ask your advisor  if the current version is fine for them.


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Is there a chance for a new university in another country to accept my passed courses/classes?
I'm looking to transfer to another university in another country - University of Geneva.
Is there a chance that they will accept my passed classes in homeland university as all/most of my classes are the same with the one I'm willing to transfer?
I'm looking to finish the last year in University of Geneva.
Thanks

Where are you currently studying?

I'm studying Computer Sciences in Serbia and that's what I'm looking for to continue in Geneva as most the classes are the same.

@astronaut was asking you where? Not what are you studying.

While we can speculate about this, you should really ask the University of Geneva.


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Which way to grade assignments is better?
A way is to give specific marks, like 80/100. Another is to give grades like A+, B-. I am not sure which grading scheme is better for the work.

Which color is better?

Which country? undergraduate?

Your college or university probably already has rules for this. Afterall they need to be able to award meaningful GPAs.

If you give one student a 80/100 and another 79/100, is that 1 point difference real or just random noise? In my courses it would be the latter. So, if possible, I tend to avoid such fine grained schemes, that suggest precision which I just cannot deliver. However, I don't have perfect freedom in choosing schemes.


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Do some universities employ full-time TA in North America?
In my university, which is in Canada, TAs are part-time positions for graduate students as far as I know. So do full-time TAs exist like other faculty members?

Hard to prove a negative, but I have never heard of such a thing.

I've never heard of a full-time TA, but for what it's worth I was a 2/3-time TA (more pay than standard 1/2-time TA) during the 4 years I was at North Carolina State University (August 1989 to July 1993).

The TAs might work full-time hours, but they are not officially full-time employees.

A full time position (that is, you are not also a student) would not be called TA, it would be called something else.  Lecturer, Adjunct, ...

I'm aware of at least one R1 University in the US that allows some graduate students to be full time (100% equivalent appointment as a TA) during the summer, if they have no classes or other position, and if teaching needs require it. But in any case this was considered quite rare. My understanding was that the typical case was when the student was to be an instructor of record for a course, particularly one they designed or won a grant to develop, and usually they were also part of a teaching-preparation/certificate program. Even then the person would generally only hold such an appointment for one summer only.
At least in the US, part of the reason why this isn't more common is employment rules - a full-time teaching assistant would be a de facto employee of the University, and entitled to full rights and compensation for that time period, unlike the odd "not exactly just a student, not exactly an employee" category that graduate students possess in the US.
As GEdgar noted in comments, there are full-time people who are not full faculty in the US, but they are not called a TA (which is a title reserved for graduate students doing work part-time while also being a student); these people hold titles such as Instructor, Adjunct, etc.

According to my knowledge, No. As part of your graduate student funding package in Canada, the TA Fellowship is a part-time position for the semester and/or semesters in which you are appointed.
Note: You can TA several courses.
Note: In known cases, you may be given the position of the lecturer (if you adequately prove your capabilities) during your post graduate studies. I believe the pay is twice that of the TA position.


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Danish Assistant Professor job offer and recognition of Master's degree
I am happy to have received a job offer from a Danish university and we are currently discussing the salary. The salaries in Denmark are negotiated by a collective agreement and there are fixed scales for everything. So what is crucial is to make sure that I land on the right scale.
I have completed a 3 year (180 ECTS) undergraduate degree and a one year Masters degree (90 ECTS) before doing a PhD also in a European country. I can confirm that my PhD degree is recognized as a fully equivalent to a Danish PhD degree.
I am told that since my Master's degree with 90 ECTS is not equivalent to a Danish master's degree (which typically has 120 ECTS), the university can not put me on the salary scale for their regular Assistant Professors. Rather, I am put on a lower scale that puts me at a financial disadvantage.
Is this even possible? By deduction, since they do not recognize my Master's degree but a Master's degree is a prerequisite to do a PhD in Denmark and my PhD is deemed equivalent, this would imply that technically, the institution does not recognize my PhD degree?
This seems inconsistent with the confirmation that my PhD degree is recognized as being equivalent to a Danish PhD.
Is this a catch 22?
Kind regards!

It is not clear what you are asking. I assume that you want more than knowing whether or not this would count as a catch 22 situation (if you don't, the question would be off-topic). Please edit your question and make clear what it is we should help you with.

You might ask if the same issue would occur with a US Ph.D who never got a master's. Perhaps the longer duration would make up for the missing master's in a US case?


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Do graduate students placed on academic probation recover?
I just completed my first semester of my master's program in EE, and had a rough time adjusting. In the end I received two B's and C (in a class I should have done better in). I realize now that undergraduate effort won't cut it for these classes.
I have a semester to get my GPA up to a 3.0, and I'm sure that if I put in the effort I can get there, but I'm very worried about my ability to succeed. I had a 3.5 undergrad GPA (hard first couple semesters, but finished real strong once I got the hang of things) with good research experience.
Are there others that have been in this position? Does everyone hit the ground running and get a 4.0 first semester? Or am I doomed and not fit for graduate school?

I don't know how to answer this. You have a semester to get your GPA to 3.0. Therefore you are almost by definition able to recover (?) In the same vein, if you're doomed and not fit for graduate school you'd have been forced out of the program already. Of course, not everyone gets 4.0 in their first semester. Undergraduate GPA and research experience also ceases to matter in grad school; it's what you do in grad school that matters. Go and get that 3.0 GPA, or quit; it's your choice.

Your situation, and reaction to it, are very common. Yes, grad school is more challenging than undergrad, because it's selective, so that people who were "top ten percent" in undergrad are ... "average". Part of the point is to not think in those terms, because it is self-defeating and nearly non-sensical. Yes, you have to work harder, and not expect so much gratification in terms of "being the best" or "excelling", because things are starting to become more serious/real. The goal now becomes the work, and preparation for it, not "the game".

Some can - in my case it's difficult to recover.


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Am I interested in a Math-Fin PhD for the right reasons?
For the last few months I have been deliberating whether or not to apply to Masters and/or PhD programs in and related to Mathematical Finance. I am currently wrapping up a Mathematics Bachelors at my University, and have already received an offer to work as a Quantitative Analyst at a top 10 bank upon successful graduation. I very much loved the work I did there, and absolutely can see myself doing this type of work for a long period of time. However I have also been strongly considering graduate study in Mathematical Finance.
Some of my reasons for wanting to do a Mathematical Finance PhD are the following:

I love the work I did, and I love doing research in Quantitative Finance. The rest of my reasons are financial and career trajectory related.
The best offers in industry for Quants are usually off limits to anyone without an advanced degree in a Quantitative Discipline. Getting a Masters or PhD would significantly improve my long run earnings potential.
The more interesting roles (for me at least), namely those related to Capital Markets, are highly competitive even to those with strong degrees and work experience. Having a PhD could help me stand out from an already exceptionally talented crowd.
I have a significant amount of student loan debt from my undergraduate studies. If I go for a PhD, I can keep that debt deferred and invest any unused amount from departmental support and a part time job allowing me to grow my assets.

Some reasons why I am still unsure:

Although I have been already doing research in this area for years on my own, and I loved my internship experience, I am well aware doing a PhD is a whole different ballpark. Its a potential 6 year commitment, and not being able to remain committed for 6 years could screw me.
Since a lot of my concern is financial, is this really the best financial decision? It's not unreasonable that I could receive multiple pay increases after starting my job and bonuses that by far compensate me for not going to grad school right away.... In such case, I may not be better off for keeping my loans differed and investing the money I make.
Quality of Life: With my job, I get weekends, and depending on the needs of the business, evenings as well. With a PhD I am well aware that means potentially a 60 hour commitment. If I work part time for extra money, that means essentially no life outside of work. To be honest, for the majority of my undergraduate studies, I have had almost no life. Only Study and Work. I don't know if I can do that anymore. Honestly I am quite sick of it!

My current plan is the following: Apply to a select subset of highly competitive programs with good industry connections and or placements. If I can get into one of these programs, great! Otherwise, continue onward with my job, and perhaps a few years down the road pursue an MBA. Considering what I mentioned above, is this plan advisable, or perhaps should I consider a different route? Are the any other PROS/CONS that I have not considered? There are also other types of programs that are similar in trajectory e.g. Computational Finance, Financial Engineering. If I do go for a PhD, should I instead pursue one of those programs instead? I'd love to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation!

There's a third option.  Work for a year or so in the field and then go to grad school.  You don't have to pay back your loan for the first six months, and after that, if you have some financial hardship, you can request a modified repayment schedule.  // If you're really lucky you'll get your employer to pay tuition for one or two courses per semester.

Hi, welcome to SE Academia. Your post seems highly opinion-based and is thus likely to be closed. Can you make it more objective by focusing on a specific direct question?


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What is a good enough putnam score to include in an application to PhD programs?
Many people have said that having a good putnam score could improve one's application for PhD programs in Math / Theoretical CS.
I have certain putnam score, and I am wondering whether to include it in my applications.
In other words, what is the cutoff percentile, where you would / would not include the score in an application to a PhD program?
For context, I am applying to programs in CS Theory such as: UIUC, Rutgers, Cornell, Maryland, Princeton and UTAustin.

I am applying to programs in CS Theory such as: UIUC — We won't care about your Putnam score.  Tell us about your research.

@JeffE I would expect it not have much weight, but do you literally not care?

@BorisBukh Yes, I literally do not care. The Putnam requires a particular set of skills; theoretical computer science research requires a different and (in my experience) nearly orthogonal set of skills.

I think saying you were among the top "N" participants where N is something like 500, 200, 100, or less would be the right way to phrase the accomplishment.
The (anonymized) scores and rank of all participants are published, so you can find your exact rank.  Very roughly, I'd say top 50ish programs in math would view a top 500 rank favorably, top 20ish would like top 200, top 10 would like top 100, and the most elite would only view Putnam fellow or one of the (next "X") categories as noteworthy.  I think CS theory views math contest ability in a similar manner to pure math programs so that this mostly still applies.

I cannot speak directly about the programs in question: I was on a committee that did admissions for a masters program in math which had some students who went on to do PhDs in math (and occasionally CS). In that context, I would have looked favorably on any Putnam score of 10 or above (because that means you probably solved at least one problem or nearly solved 2). But you are applying to top programs which are likely going to be higher. I would sit down and discuss this with your adviser or with people in the CS department at your current school. I don't have a firm cutoff, but my guess would be that any school, even a top school would look favorably at any score of at least 20 or so.

Thanks for your answer. Wouldn't the percentile be a better indicator of how scores compare then the score itself?
Given this, what percentile is a 10 (20) on the putnam? I don't think I know my raw score just percentile.

I think anything above the 40th or 50th percentile would have made sense to mention for our program at least. Since one is talking about substantially stronger programs, I'm not sure if that would go up.

I'm a mathematician who's currently running our Putnam team, and I'd have no idea how to interpret percentile.  The scores were reported to me as raw scores with no percentile, so I'm not even sure how you're finding a percentile.  I'd also expect someone listing percentile to be trying to obfuscate that their score was like 2/120.  Score or rank (or better yet, both) are much easier to interpret.

@JoshuaZ: Isn't 50th percentile a 0?

Noah, that's a really good point. I should have looked at the numbers before making that comment!

It's easy to look at the statistics for past competitions and figure out the correspondence of scores to percentiles. In 2017, there were 4638 contestants. So the score for 50th percentile is 0, 10 is 70th percentile, 20 is 84th percentile, 25 is 90th percentile, 30 is 96th percentile.

If you score 20 or above, it's hard for me to imagine how including the score would hurt your application even at the top schools. Maybe it won't help much, but isn't that better than nothing?

Oops ... I made a mistake in my calculations. 40 is 96th percentile.


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Informal vs Formal Acceptance (Graduate)
So I might just be really paranoid
But I received an informal acceptance email from my potential faculty advisor! Yay! Really good fit for me!
But...Should I be feeling like I'm not really accepted, and that I shouldn't get my hopes up? I went to celebrate last night and now I feel really guilty.
The email says that I have been accepted, but the formal letter has not been released because of pending funding decisions.
What does that mean? "Pending funding decisions"
Thank you everyone! And happy New Year's!

"Pending funding decisions" usually means that they are awaiting the results of grant and fellowship applications.
If you're applying to a university that does department-wide admissions, then they are probably trying to figure out the funding situation for the entire class before sending out the formal letters, since the formal letters normally specify the funding source as part of the statement.
If you're applying to a university where individual faculty members handle their own hiring, then they might be trying to figure out which funding source they will be using to pay your salary or stipend.
But usually a faculty member is not going to tell you "you've been admitted!" if they're not sure they'll be able to pay for you, so you shouldn't feel guilty about celebrating a little.

Wow thanks. And yeah I will be going directly into a specific faculty members lab

Any idea why the professor would send me an informal letter in the first place? My mom says it's because he is polite and doesn't want to keep me waiting and worried but I dooooubt that is the case

And thanks again, I really appreciate your thoughtful  answer very much

More likely than not, he's doing it in case you have competing offers.


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Letter of Recommendation: Reputation vs personal relation
I want to apply for a graduate program in Computer Science and need a Letter of Recommendation to complete my application.
While thinking about who I could ask to write the letter I came up with two people: One is a full professor and has a lot of reputation but knows me only from some oral exams (where we had some good talks even beside the exam topics) and crowded lectures where he couldn't really take notice of me.
The other one holds a Ph.D. in CS but is no longer involved in research. However, he holds advanced lectures in the field I'm interested (and am applying for). Usually we are about ten persons in his lectures and he knows me very well from asking questions during the lecture and so on. When he's asking a question to the audience and I raise my hand, he usually says that he knows I know it and wants others to answer it.
I'm unsure if I should aks the full professor with a lot of reputation or the lecturer who knows me much better but has much less reputation, to write a letter for me.

Usually multiple rec letters are part of the application, so why not ask both?

@Thomas You are right and as usual I need more than one letter (exactly two) but have already asked another full professor who knows me well and has a good reputation.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you ideally want variety in the letters. So ask yourself who can best complement what the other letter says.

This is a really good point! Thank you @Thomas!


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Seeking Feedback on Research Topic Outside Department/University
I am about to start my third year in an economics PhD program and I'm starting my dissertation. Part of the dissertation involves subject matter that none of the faculty in the department know enough about to give specific useful feedback.
I want to ask faculty (who I know are knowledgeable) from different departments/universities  for some basic feedback on my current progress before plunging more into the research topic blindly (with only my understanding of the literature to guide me).
I'm thinking I will ask my current committee members to introduce me to anybody they know who might be helpful. If they don't know anyone I will consider cold-emailing.
So my question is:
Is my current plan a bad idea and is there a preferred alternative approach?

This post is also relevant if you didn't see it already: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36959/how-to-approach-experts-to-get-feedback-on-a-paper

I too had a topic which was outside of the expertise of my committee. If you are set on your topic, this seems like a good approach. After talking to your current committee and getting their buy-in on the plan, you could also approach other faculty at your current institution to tap their networks.
Another way of doing some networking to get feedback is to attend local or subject area conferences. The big AEA conference is pretty difficult to use for networking, but you could make contacts at these other conferences which could be helpful. Especially once you get your work to a poster stage.
I would also like to advocate a second idea, which is to change topics to something more similar to your committee's area of expertise. While this is not what I did, I definitely saw the merits of it as my friends who took this approach were able to coauthor with their committee, have more useful RA experiences, and come out with more lines on their CV for the job market.


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Does reusing my own code from one project to an other count as plagiarism?
I am currently a under graduate and will be going into my final year of a Computer science course in October.
The final year consists of a large programming project. Over the last 6 months I have been working on ideas for the project. To the point where I have a nearly finished application.
If I was to use large chunks of code that I have written over the last 6 months in the project would this count as Plagiarism? It doesn't feel right been able to just copy and past code to get a head start on the project even though I had written the code in the first place.

Interesting question (since I'm not a CS person, I cannot answer). However, I think writing re-usable code and reusing code is one of the design principles taught in CS, isn't it? So not doing that would kind of defy the purpose of CS, wouldn't it?

The purpose of writing code is automatise long and tedious procedures.

Note to the commenters: the question seems not related to academic publication, but for completion of a project related to a course. In that way, I could see two different viewpoints: one that treats it like code normally is, that is, reused and re-purposed whenever appropriate licenses apply, or like a written assignment for a course, where submitting the same paper for two courses, for example, could be considered dishonest.

Ask your professors. Your senior project professor/adviser/committee probably has specific expectations about the work they expect you to do, and this is going to vary from university to university.
My feeling is that you'd be OK using this code as long as it was developed for this project and it hasn't been submitted for credit in another class. Even if it has, re-using code from a previous class is not necessarily a bad thing if you can show how the new application is substantially different and worthy as an independent credit.
If your only goal is to avoid punishment then note that many schools have "honesty policies" not "plagiarism policies". It's not enough just to avoid plagiarism, but you must be honest in how you conduct your work. Finishing a project in six months and pretending like it takes you another six months to finish might be just as punishable as plagiarism. Finishing a project in six months and telling the professor that you think you've met the requirements and you'd rather focus on finishing your other classes is not dishonest, although your professor might disagree.


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Poster about a published article (Poster session in physics conference)
What is the usual way to indicate on the poster that the poster is just a summary of an already published article?
I plan to give the reference as part of the poster title at the top, such as:
Interestic topic
J. of important Results, 2017, p1-23
Author, affiliation
Background (and why I have no idea): I am mathematician and will attend a physics conference. I have been encouraged by a member of the committee to present a poster about one of my results (actually my only result in physics so far, which was published in 2017 in the journal "Foundations of Physics"). I have no experience with posters (never presented one nor attended a poster session ever) nor with physics conferences. It seems that in many fields, posters are considered to be some form of publication? In any case, I would like to avoid misunderstandings or the impression of self-plagiarizing or whatever.

I am not aware of any standard way to do this, coming from a physics background and having presented several posters. I would either include the paper in the references, or have a statement directly under the title along the lines of 'Results presented here published as [publication details]', as you suggested.

I see this all the time in biology; it's rare to submit a poster of already published work, but often work is published between the time a poster abstract is submitted and the actual conference, which can be 6 months or more. Your latter suggestion is always what I've seen: an explicit reference to the published work separate from the references, in some obvious place though not necessarily immediately under the title. Presenters want to draw attention to it so that attendees can follow up with the actual article, the poster is sort of an advertisement.