text:
Do graduate schools encourage collaborations with other professors?
I'm planning to attend a top 25 school in the US for a Ph.D. in Mathematics. Are research collaborations with professors outside of the school generally encouraged? This could include short or long-term visits to other universities or just an online collaboration.
I understand that an answer to this question might be advisor-specific. Since I do not have an advisor yet, should I just email one of my potential supervisors (who I've been in contact with for a while now) and ask them? I'm not sure how such a question might be received.
Additionally, since many people reading this question on this website might have experience with math departments in the US (as a graduate student, professor, or otherwise) - it'd be nice to know if you have an answer to this question based off of your experience.

I'm not a mathematician but to me, one of the fundamental tenets of research is collaboration. I would find it weird if someone didn't want to collaborate with others, or if they tried to stop their student from doing so.

I think major and specific university matters here. All the mathematicians I know are very reluctant about collaborations, and outright mock papers with more than one or two authors. On the other hand, collaboration is essential in most science fields.

@Greg "All the mathematicians I know are very reluctant about collaborations" This is does not correspond at all to my experience as a mathematician (after having worked in three countries and now moving to a fourth). I wonder if there is simply some mismatch in how you think of collaboration and how mathematicians think of it, or if you are describing some very local culture (which you perhaps hint at when you say that the specific university matters). Sure, mathematical collaboration tends to be smaller in scale and tends not to be a team of people with very clear cut and distinct roles.

@AdamPřenosil That was (as indicated) my personal experience, but I shared it exactly because I wanted to point out that local culture/major matters.

@Greg Understood. I commented mainly so that the OP does not get the impression that mathematicians in general are reluctant to collaborate.

@AdamPřenosil Thank you, that's such a relief.

This is not something that would normally be university-level or department-level policy; it would be more about your particular advisor.
I don't think very many advisors would oppose the idea of collaboration altogether.  Some might be proactive in helping you find collaborators, or connecting you with people in their own networks.  Others might not do that, but would have no objection, in general, to you working with collaborators you found on your own.
There might be specific cases where a conflict could arise though.  For one thing, your advisor's primary job is to help you write a thesis and graduate.  So if at some point they think you're falling behind on your thesis work, and that the time you spend on your outside collaborations is interfering, they may advise you to reprioritize.  In an extreme case, this could eventually come to the point of an ultimatum: "Either drop your outside projects and focus on your thesis, or else find yourself another advisor."  Try to get someone else to help mediate before it gets to that point!
There is also the possibility that they don't approve of the specific work you are doing with the collaborators, or the specific people you are collaborating with.  That also can lead to conflicts.
If outside collaborations are important to you (and they certainly can be very helpful), then this would be something to bring up in conversations with potential advisors, as you both try to determine whether it's a good fit.  It could be something along the lines of "do your students usually work more individually, or directly with you, or with wider groups of collaborators?"  Whatever they "usually" do likely has something to do with what the advisor encourages.

Not in math, but I go to Georgia State. I have collaborators from other departments, and collaborators from other schools out of state.
So even if they don't explicitly encourage it, I'm encouraging it to you! Trust me, you'll learn so much if you can put yourself out there and meet others not in your immediate field!!! I was asked to review for a journal strictly because the editor knew of my work and we'd talked before (of course, I still know what I'm doing!).
So do it. Meet others with your interests. Sign up for overleaf! And have fun pursuing your interests with them.
Note: I'm a phd student who's already developed really specific interests. I can do my own work and write my own studies without needing my hand held. So, I can see why some people whose interests are still developing might not want to encouraging collaboration with others from elsewhere, since you're still learning what you like. But if you know what you like, go right ahead. Have fun. No reason not to.


text:
Is it considered bad if a student replies late to a professor?
We know that professors are busy, and more often than not we (students) do not receive quick replies from them. However, the tables have turned (sadly, and just once).
This summer, I'm working on some advanced reading and possibly research under the guidance of a professor not at my institution (given the pandemic, all interaction is online, i.e. via email and scheduled Zoom meetings). After one of my meetings, I wrote to the professor summarizing whatever was discussed in the meeting, and heard back from the professor within a few hours (probably two). The reply also contained some information unrelated to the meeting, to which I may have been expected to respond to. At that point, I was in the process of completing certain work that was assigned to me, and I decided to reply back only after I had made some substantial progress to be able to give an update. So, I replied after approximately 60 hours with updates on substantial progress (as I had expected), and also replied to the extra bit in their email which was essentially some information besides what was discussed in the meeting.
In retrospect, I feel a little awful for sending in a late reply to the professor's email, though 60 hours hopefully isn't too big a deal. Could this possibly be interpreted badly/negatively by the professor? I intend to respond swiftly henceforth - but I am wondering if anything went wrong this time around. I haven't heard back from the professor in about two days now (that's probably okay, but still enough to trigger anxiety).
Please let me know in the context of the above situation if everything seems alright and if replying ASAP to professors is the way to go. Since many people here are at advanced stages in their careers (PhDs, postdocs, professors, etc.) - I hope to gain some valuable insights. Thank you for your patience and for reading this far!
Lastly (though somewhat less important), as the title suggests: Is it considered bad if a student replies late to a professor? (just in general, without context)

P.S. I'm not sure what location tags to use since the professor and I are in different countries. Should I go ahead with the professor's location?

Frankly, being busy I'm rather happy if students take their time to reply. Usually my work is not dependent on what the student does, but the student may be dependent on me. No reply from the student => no work for me caused. Meaning that I have no problem if I don't hear from the student quickly, I have enough other things to fill my time. The only person who could have a problem is the student themselves, if they for some reason need a reply to continue. (Except if they don't respond at all, because at some point I have to chase them up, but that requires weeks not 60h.)

Firstly, take a deep breath. You are fine. I know it's hard, but try not to overthink the situation
There is no "normal" or "expected" response time set by the laws of academia (those don't exist). Sixty hours is a perfectly fine response time, especially if the email from the professor was giving lots of detailed information which you needed to think about before answering, or as you say, you needed to make progress and report on it. Email is not instant messenger and should not be treated as such. Many people in academia only check their email once a day, so wouldn't notice a "slow" reply at all. Furthermore, as a recipient, I'd rather get a slow, correct response than a hasty one with mistakes.
If you are worried about this in the future, it's fine to ask the professor how quickly they would like you to respond to emails. In my new job, my bosses and I discussed this openly, in fact. We decided that a week is a good maximum response time, excluding holidays. It's good to have these honest conversations about expectations for any collaboration, and it's not too late for you to do the same.
Another option is to reply to the professor's email soon after you have seen it (not interrupting your work or concentration, of course) to let them know that you have read it and are working on it and will reply with a full answer tomorrow/next week/other timeframe. However, I think this could be a bit redundant (the sender will probably assume it anyway), it unwantedly adds to the sender's email traffic and is bad for the environment.
In summary, try not to worry and don't think of email as being like Whatsapp. It's more like sending a physical letter.

Got it, thanks! The email did contain information I'd have to think about in detail (and do some research online, etc.) before responding.

Upvoted, in particular (though not exclusively) for your first sentence. ;-)

In addition, even if the response were considered late (unlikely as that is): OP, you did your best. You're not perfect; none of us are. Stuff like this happens to all of us. It really is ok.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Is it appropriate to notify professors about acknowledgement in a research paper?
A paper I have been working on for well over a year is finally reaching submission stage. At the beginning of the project, I have received detailed explanations from two professors about the mathematical derivation of an algorithm that they designed, and that I applied to my problem. Their help is acknowledged in the appropriate section of the paper, and the paper presenting the algorithm is cited in the bibliography.
We never met in person and only interacted by e-mail as a result of my questions.
I am considering sending a new e-mail to thank them again and let them know about the acknowledgement. On the one hand, I am afraid they might think I am spamming to draw attention to my research. On the other hand, our field of research are distant enough that they may never read the acknowledgement, making it a little pointless.
Is it common to notify people you acknowledge in a research paper in this way?

Why not just thank them and share your paper, which they probably would be interested in because of its connection to their work, without mentioning acknowledgements explicitly? Caveat: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/19604/68109

If you associate someone by name with an idea in a paper (other than a citation), then it is actually necessary to get their agreement. So, yes, notify and thank them,
If they do think you are being spammy, then maybe you are, so think about that. I think that would be a rare thing, however.
Many journal editors will assume (or explicitly require) the agreement of everyone named, not just authors.

Thank you. Just to clarify, the explanations helped me follow the logic of their paper better, but in the text this only appears as "task X was performed with algorithm Y from Ref. [Z]", so I am confident the first "if" does not apply. I will keep the second in mind though.

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


text:
Publishing figures without embedding them?
I am preparing my first article to be published in a journal. According to the journals guidlines:

Figures should be high quality (600 dpi for black& white art and 300 dpi for color). Figures should be saved as TIFF, PostScript or EPS files.  Figures embedded in your text may not be able to be used in final production.

(emphasis mine)
My question is how can I send the figures I have if I cannot embed them in text? I'm using Word.

Send separate files in one of the required formats to the system/editor along with your manuscript. Send one file per figure, I would suppose. The copy/layout editor will place them in your final document after possibly some processing. The problem is that the flow of the published document may not match the flow of your manuscript if it isn't just a simple photo reproduction. They are looking for something of higher quality. You should properly label your files so that they can be placed in the correct order, etc. Captions on the figures may need to be handled separately as well, but you should get instructions on that.
Within the manuscript, don't refer to figures as "the following figure" or similar, but with a proper reference - which will depend on the publisher. Something like "Figure 3.2" perhaps.


text:
Website for scheduling and submitting homework
I'm looking for a website where I could publish homework at a scheduled time to a group of students and also allow them to submit their answers through it.
The homework is a single PDF file, and the answers should be a zipped set of files. It would be great if I could also be notified when someone submits their answer.

N.B. the most common solution to this is an in-house LMS (learning management system), such as as Blackboard. Does your institution use any service like that?

or ILIAS

...or Canvas, or Compass, or Moodle, or Gradescope, or Google Classroom, of any number of other options. I think this is off-topic as a "shopping" question.

You could even schedule a bulk email to send at a specific time and receive submissions by email, or even ftp’d into a specific location - had a prof who got us to do that...

I'm looking for something much simpler than a full management system. Don't want to kill a fly with a sledgehammer and also want to avoid a big implementation process.


text:
Are there any downsides to sharing a successful proposal with others?
Since being awarded a grant from NSF (my first!) I have received a few requests from strangers at other universities, who are themselves seeking funding, to see a copy of my funded proposal.  Initially I reacted negatively to these requests, thinking that somehow the "secret sauce" of the successful proposal would be weakened by sharing it.  However, I now feel that sharing a funded proposal has the following benefits:

It increases my work's exposure and may lead to complementary research by another group;
It may lead to an opportunity for collaboration.

The major downside is the prospect of plagiarism-- that the stranger would use my text in a publication.  Of course I am planning to do that, but they should not since I would probably find out sooner or later.
If it is appropriate to share funded proposals, then the next logical step is to make the entire proposal entirely public.  Here it seems like there is significant opportunity to weaken my chances of getting future funding-- but I can't say exactly why I feel that way.
What do other SE readers think of this?  This may be appropriate for community-wiki.
(Some related reading: http://jabberwocky.weecology.org/2012/08/10/a-list-of-publicly-available-grant-proposals-in-the-biological-sciences/ )

Funded NSF proposals are requestable directly from NSF through the Freedom of Information Act. Proposal authors are given the opportunity to suggest redactions to NSF of proprietary or other information that should not be disclosed generally, but their FOIA office has final say on what gets sent. This kind of information might include not yet released product specs that would be bought with the grant funding or salaries of non-public employees. I suspect that all non-classified US federal agency grants are FOIAable through a similar process, but I only have FOIA experience with NSF.
Some people put their successful grants online, some people keep them secret. Your special sauce, in the end, is probably not that special, but good writing and good organization may be informative to weaker writers in the world. We don't publish our grant application texts online, but they're definitely out there due to FOIA.

That being said, I think it'd be rude to tell someone to ask NSF for it if you don't care about releasing it. I just wanted to point out that you don't get the final say in who can see the text of your winning proposals.

There was a question here earlier in which it was pointed out that while FOIA is a path toward obtaining the information to identify where taxpayer money is being spent, it is frowned upon to use it for other purposes.

All government agencies, even defense related are 'FOIAable' (nice word!), but requests may be denied or (heavily) redacted for any number of reasons.

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


text:
How good is the idea to do MBA after an MS
I am currently in my senior year of engineering in Computer Engineering from India. I plan to do a Master of Science (preferably non-thesis) in the field of Computer Engineering from the US this fall. In fact, I've secured admission at the University of Illinois, Chicago. I, however, was planning to do an MBA in Finance directly after my Masters, or maybe after gaining some work experience after the Masters, since I also like finance. How good or bad is the idea?

Degrees are stepping stones, not final goals.  Why do you want an MBA?  For that matter, why do you want an MS in computer engineering?

Well. I want to do Computer Engineering because I'm interested in Microprocessors. I've been studying it since my eleventh grade, and I really want to know more about the modern processors. Likewise, I want to do an MBA because I love mathematics and accounts fascinate me. My dad and granddad are both into accounts, and I love it when they ask me to help them with balance sheets. I enjoy mathematical calculations. I may end up taking up computer hardware as a profession, but I really want to learn a lot about accounts.

@AyushKhemka: you won't necessarily "learn a lot about accounts" if you take an MBA. A professional course (as opposed to an academic one) might be better. As JeffE asks, why do you want an MBA? What good will it do you?

A modern US MBA has almost no math, so make sure you understand what the degree is actually for. It's not accounting, it's (at least in theory) mostly about being an effective manager.

Both are very diverse field. A general advice, MS may be done without any industrial experience but MBA should be done only after working for a couple of years with proper industrial exposure.

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


text:
Two months to go on my masters programme and I want to drop out what should I do?
I've been struggling with my MSc in political science since the start of the programme. The programme isn't what I expected. And I did a undergraduate degree in finance and already hold an offer from a top financial services firm. I now have two months to finish my dissertation and I want to quit.
I hated my programme with a passion. and I had 0 political knowledge before I applied so I've been struggling since day 1. I've already failed two modules which I'll have to resit after November. I failed because I didn't understand the content. These two modules were about advanced quantitative research and EU politics. And I jumped in with no foundamental knowledge whatsoever. Moreover, with work and professional exams which I will have to study for, I won't have time to study for the resits.
I also hate my dissertation topic. I addressed this issue with my two supervisors but they didn't seem to think it was a concern. Again I came up with the topic with very little background knowledge and without knowing it's actually not something I'd like to do.
I've been trying to re concentrate on my dissertation for a week with no success. The more I read for my dissertation, the more I dislike it.
I've already contacted my firm and my school to discuss any potential consequences of dropping out and I'm still waiting for a response. I don't want to quit but I struggle to continue. It's affected my life severely and I have pre existing depression for years which my school knows about.
Please give me advice

You should know that everyone passes through hard times, you should focus more on establishing an equilibrium with yourself-this can be done on many approaches, yoga, sport (I recommend climbing, snowboard, ski-this can also be done in the summer on the grass, these are personal favorites). Concerning your dissertation, can't you changed it with something you really like? I am sure that you can find something related. Nowadays, many approaches are used. I too in my first year undergraduate passed through a similar feelings, but I stayed in the program and I one of the best students inthegroup.

My heart goes out to you, it sounds like you're really unhappy with your current situation and feeling very conflicted.
It's hard to give someone advice on a topic like this because it's so personal so instead I'll give you a few of the questions that I might ask if we were able to sit down and have a chat about this.

What initially led you to apply into this masters? Is it your specific experience that is creating problems or is it that this masters does not align with your interests/goals?
What is the appeal of this job offer? Can you really see yourself doing that kind of work or is it that it represents a face-saving alternative to completing your masters?
What would have to change for you to be comfortable completing your program? Is it a change of dissertation topic? Is it extending by a term or a year to take the pressure off? Changing supervisors? All of the above?
Are there jobs that you want, now or in the future, that you can't have without this degree? How important are they to you?
Do you really hate your program/subject or do you hate the situation you are in?

Think on these on these until you hear back from your school and your potential employer. Once you have answers to them, take a break and step away from it for a little while; when you come back to it see if you still feel the same way about your answers or if your thoughts have changed.
There's no right or wrong way to do this - I personally trudged through a degree when I knew it wasn't right for me because I was so close to the finish line. Finishing that degree proved to me that I could see something through to completion (something I had always struggled with) but also kept me from finding my true path for another year. I'm still not sure what the right choice was, but I'm happy with where I am now.


text:
Opting out pension scheme when you are a postdoc abroad
I am soon going to start a postdoc in UK. I observed that, if you do not intentionally opt out, you will be by default  paying a certain amount from your salary towards pension. Of course, paying towards pension scheme is a good thing for your post-retirement age. But for me, I am not sure even if I will stay in UK forever. Postdoc is obviously a temporary job and you never know whether you will settle for ever in your work country, when you are a foriegn citizen. Under such conditions, it seems irrational to spend towards securing a pension in a foreign country. But still, can someone tell me a reason to not opt out the pension scheme? Can opting out pension scheme cost you more tax and lesser take-home salary than opting in? As much as I know, one cannot claim back the money spent towards pension, if one later decides to leave the country and go to other countries for work .

I am not sure this site is good for the question. Maybe even really bad!

The question is complex and requires professional advice. It may be more than a question of taxes. Some vested pensions are good, even for short term work, and perhaps even for foreigners. Ask a professional.

There is also https://money.stackexchange.com.

Just to add something to the above statements that this is a complicated question: some countries will allow you to transfer pension 'funds' from one to another! Also in many countries you will not have a choice but you are legally required to pay into your pension.

https://expatriates.stackexchange.com/ might be the best option for this

I’ll try to come up with an answer after some thought. I was in a similar situation 30 years ago and have some pension rights in a foreign country from my post doc.

The way I think of it: 30 years from now, it will be sweet to have a bit of money coming in from my postdoc country every month.

Related on Money SE: How to take care of pension funds if career is spread over many different countries?

Thanks everyone for your responses and suggesting me the websites. I will put this question up there. Thanks gerrit 4 for the link

But still, can someone tell me a reason to not opt out the pension scheme?

Because you are likely to get more out of it (at old age) than you pay into it (now) — and even if you don't, it may be safer for you to put away money in a way you cannot (easily) access until you no longer have direct income from work.
Both you and your employer are opting into the pension scheme.  Despite recent threats, it is still a defined benefit scheme.  If you and your employer have paid into the pension scheme for x years, you will get money out of it after you reach the retirement age, regardless of where you live.
Depending on where your next (long term) job is, your (next) pension scheme may have agreements which might allow you to transfer the money paid into your UK pension scheme to your next pension scheme.  Consult a professional.
I have pension savings from temporary (academic) positions in Sweden, Canada, the UK, and Germany.  Once I'm fairly certain to remain in the same country until retirement, I will consult with a professional for advise on whether it is possible and wise to pool them all together into the fund of the country where I will then live.

That is the key point. You don't need to live in the country to receive the pension benefits. How easy it is to transfer these between countries and whether it is wise to do so it a complicated matter but in general the money you put into a pension scheme is not lost, no matter where you will live during retirement.

The "standard" postdoc pension scheme, teachers pension, is not transferable. There are, however, other pension schemes that are transferable to different countries, but you need to explicitly switch. What gerrit means by "both you and your employer are opting in" is that the employer will match whatever you pay in there, so by opting out you "lose" your employers contribution. Also please note that this is different from UK state pension to which you may also qualify in part if you had worked in the UK.

@penelope Well, there is something I am not aware of (not transferable) and may not find out until the time comes that I do want to switch.  We did have information meetings about this but it was only about transfering to, not transfering from the UK pension.  Pensions are complicated.


text:
Is it possible to get into an elite physcis grad school for theory without having already taken graduate level courses?
I'm about to embark on improving my PGRE score for the fall test (didn't do so hot the first time) and I'm wondering if it will even be worth the year-long effort. Also, I'm taking a couple years off to get research experience/pay off my student debts.
I come from a small/medium school with no physics graduate program (wasn't interested in physics when I started, so I went with the place that gave me the most money), so I didn't have the chance to take any grad classes. I've also only had one semester of junior/senior level E&M, QM, and mechanics (all that was offered).
I've been reading different GRE forums and it always seems like the people who apply to (condensed matter) theory at elite schools like UChicago and get rejected still have a >90% PGRE and a number of graduate classes that they did well in.
I got all A's in the classes I did have and there is a decent chance I'll have 3 publications (one or two as first author) from national labs, but frankly, after reading about others' failures, I think there is a serious possibility that all of this effort will be in vain.

This seems to be in the US. Correct?

Not an answer, but I think you should start grad school next year whether you're in a "top" program or not. I suspect you could already get in to a well-regarded program, and there are serious downsides to postponing your career.

I wrote an answer to your question, but on a separate note, adding to cag51's comment, I don't think you have to rush into a PhD, but you should keep in mind. for physics, being fresh (i.e. no educational gap) could matter more than a few months of extra research. If you want to give yourself some time for improvement before PhD, perhaps it's not bad to consider the option of doing a master's in Europe too (although often practically tuition-free, it's not necessarily affordable, but some people can afford it, and you may be able to get a scholarship if you invest in searching for it).

But, also keep in mind that in the US, some professors on admission committees are likely to have mixed feelings about a master's for a person with an American undergrad degree strong enough to get them into a decent PhD program (that's also what a grad admissions vet told me). That being said, probably no one is going to punish you for doing a really strong master's degree where you learn a lot of useful things and do a strong thesis. They also understand not everyone is 100% sure they're actually ready and want to do a PhD right after undergrad (many of them have been there themselves).

Buffy: Yes, it is  the US. nra: I'll look into European schools. As for the few months of research, I started researching at a national lab right after graduating and I've been at another since the end of last summer. My papers will be a result of this non-stop research. Hopefully this will make up for the educational gap, and I hope to start a review process of my junior/senior level material soon.

If you want to make up a coursework gap, a common and good option is to go do a Master's degree, e.g. in the UK. Any kind of theory requires a lot of background, and at least in my institution I believe just about everybody comes in already having taken something like a year of quantum field theory (i.e. many body theory, to a condensed matter person).

Yes.  Graduate admissions committees at good universities are looking to recruit students who will publish a lot of high quality papers.  The best predictor of future publications is past publications.  By comparison, coursework is less important.  The Physics GRE is a very poor predictor of your ability to write good research papers.
You should still pursue a good physics GRE score because it is a good measure of the student's ability to plan ahead.

I’m sorry but you’re mistaken.  Most students accepted in top schools have very few if any papers.  There is a reason why top schools require a minimum GRE/PGRE score, but do not require x number of publications.

@ZeroTheHero In this case I am not mistaken because the asker says they will have publications.  Certainly publications are not required.

Let me rephrase.  I have not met or heard of a successful applicant that did poorly on the PGRE, and I know some people with papers who did so-and-so in the PGRE and did not get in despite publications.  The contribution of a student on a paper is too variable for this to be an indicator of anything.

"The contribution of a student on a paper is too variable for this to be an indicator of anything." I didn't think I needed to state that there must be a letter of recommendation which explains how the student earned authorship of the publication, or that simply counting publications is insufficient.

Nobody here is suggesting the asker shouldn't get the best physics GRE score possible.

First of all, keep in mind that graduate admissions is really trickier than matching acceptance/rejections with GPA and GRE results. That doesn't mean they're not important. With an all A transcript and a decent general GRE, your profile will almost certainly get looked at, and that's already great. Physics GRE is also important for Physics PhD application, but GRE subjects in general don't matter much if they're not extra ordinary or terribly bad. So, if you want to retake the GRE to score 820 instead of 800, then don't; it'd be just a waste of time, but if you scored really low on PGRE (I don't know how low is too low for Physics), then retake it. If you want to retake it just to score over 900 and you're confident you can, maybe it's worth it, maybe not (I can't comment on that).
On your main question: Grad school courses certainly do matter a whole lot for US grad school admissions, especially for Math and Physics. Once, a grad admissions chair at one of the top schools told me they almost never accept a person without substantial grad-level courses. BUT, you have publications, and this changes the story quite a bit. In areas like math and theoretical physics, not having publications is not a deal breaker as long as there is a strong transcript and LoR (letters of reference/recommendation). On the other hand, grad course (unofficial and unwritten) requirement for getting into top programs is not really a part of educational "prerequisite" for being qualified, and rather an indicator of potential for success and for being able to handle tough courses under pressure. Having publications while maintaining an excellent GPA also indicates such potentials, and it also shows you're already familiar with research and its challenges.
So, I can't tell you whether you'll get into a top grad program or not, and even the chair of the admissions of the program you're applying to might not be able to tell you that. What I can tell you is that based on the information you've provided here, if you've taken the courses that are expected as prereqs to physics grad courses, your excellent GPA and your publications combined with excellent LoR could tell the admission committee what they want to learn from grad courses on an applicant's transcript, and they probably won't punish you for having a slightly less common way of showing those expected potentials. But still, keep in mind that your SoP and LoR can go a long way, and at the end of the day, grad admission process is really complicated and not a nicely-behaved linear function; rather a chaotic one!

Thanks for the thought out reply. How intense is the pressure on graduate students regarding juggling grades and research? All of my publications will be the result of post-graduation work at National Labs (although I did do a few small projects as an undergrad).

@roshoka Most grad programs don't suddenly throw you into a wild jungle of research + teaching + coursework. Many start with little to no research expectations. They help you build the discipline you need for coping with all that work gradually and at the end of the day, no one wants their students to fail.
But what they expect to see in your application is evidence that you can cope with advanced intensive coursework and that you don't expect it to be easy (and grad courses are only one (common) way to show that, but publication at national labs could be an alternative proxy).

@roshoka If you're really concerned and want to get an estimate of your suitability for top grad programs, perhaps the best way is to contact professors in those departments, express (in a meaningful manner) interest in their work, and ask if they think you can work with them as their PhD student. Just make sure you sound confident (but not over confident) and considerate of their busy schedule. It's ok not to be certain about whether you're good fit for their dept before the application season, and many profs are nice enough to help you figure that out. But expect a very low rate of replies.

The results of the PGRE - which do not require any graduate level courses - are a reasonable predictor of success.  Another important point is the research potential of the applicant, which will typically be harder to demonstrate for someone from a smaller program with fewer research opportunities for undergraduates.

I don't think the couple years off to get research experience will help you.  Really they are looking for raw brains.  How were your SATs?  Or your math grades?
Theoretical physics has huge numerical odds against you in terms of jobs just based on numbers.  Going into the field when you are below average is an especially bad idea.

The OP is asking about physics grad school. What does SAT have anything to do with the question?

See the second sentence of my answer.

@guest I'm not American but isn't SAT the equivalent of a high school diploma or something? I would venture that there is an enormous gap between being above average in terms of SAT scores and being above average in an elite, graduate physics program. At least in my country, it is not really possible to truly gauge talent using high school diploma grades. Many people with perfect grades (to the point that they get an entry in magazines!) don't even reach the best schools. I mean, if OP scored badly this is definitely a stern warning to take heed of, but otherwise it is essentially meaningless.

Yeah, since the OP is mentioning grad school, wouldn't they mean the GRE instead?  From what I've heard it's not so much different from the SAT, which is taken for undergraduate admissions at least 3-4 years before.  Plus isn't this type of thing only used more or less as a filter?

If I'm understanding correctly, guest's point is that if OP's high school SAT scores are bad, then they probably don't have the "raw brains" needed for admission. (For the record, I disagree with the first paragraph of this answer).


text:
One reviewer in the committee rejected my Ph.D. defense but he didn't attend
Update on Feb 27
The extension is confirmed. I can get the different reviewer, but sadly the graduate school will be able to make a replacement for me next semester.
My additional advice for others who come here to read later.

Going to the harassment center is effective, but please discuss with
your professor before going there (if you can).
Checking the rule who you should contact step by step.
Checking the rule alphabetically that your case is in the scope of what you are going to report. If you are not confident, consult someone from the small position to the top (as mentioned in number 2). If you are ignored, you still have the bigger person to go for.

Thanks all a lot again.

Update on Feb 25
My professor exchanged some emails with the reviewer. The reviewer confirmed that "I am unable to change my judgement" but said he was ok to meet me for thesis defense. My co-advisor (who is the expert in machine learning) came to the lab and confirmed that the reviewer misunderstood many points of my thesis.
I think I will get an extension and go for thesis defense with the reviewer. My prof and my co-advisor are very supportive and understanding.
Now is the national entrance examination period in Japan, so all staff (the Dean and so on) have to manage the exam and I have to wait to get the official approval of the extension (I guess). So, I would like to open this question for a short while. If someone would like to add something, I would truly appreciate it. Thank you very much for all the support and answers here.

Sorry for the long story. Some advice/insight would be very appreciated.
I am a Ph.D candidate in Japan.
I had my Ph.D. defense on January 21st. One reviewer out of three did not attend to my defense without informing my supervisor. We had no clue why it happened. After the defense, I had 10 days to improve my Ph.D. thesis from questions and comments I got from the defense, and submit it to the committee. I sent all of the committee my thesis on January 31st. The committee had time to review my thesis until February 21st.
The absent reviewer contacted my supervisor saying that he was abroad on February 2nd. Anyway, his evaluation was rejection. Since he did not provide clear comments on which points of my thesis had problems, my supervisor and I did not understand clearly his reasons. I contacted him immediately to say I could go to his campus and would like to present my research for him.
He replied to me on February 15th. He said that he will be available in March or May which is out of the deadline from graduate school. My supervisor sent him a reminder on February 19th that if he had some comments, please gave me before 21st. He gave me comments on the night of 20th. I had one day left to reply to all of his comments, which were many. Anyway, in order to be within the timeline, I revised as much as I could and sent it to him before the deadline. However, my supervisor found out that he submitted his rejection to graduate school before he gave me comments. This situation is very unlikely, particularly in Japan where people really respect others.
At this point, my supervisor contacted the Dean and the professor in charge of the Ph.D. thesis. At first, I felt he was very sure that I would pass. However, today, he contacted me to say that I have to get 3 passes from 3 reviewers. Also, I think he checked the rule and found that it was not written in the book about the reviewer must come to the defense. So, he may be wavering. I have already got 2 passes, and I think what that reviewer did is not right.
To be fair, I think many of his comments are very valuable and I like to improve the quality of my thesis as much as possible. However, according to his comments, he is misunderstanding many points which I can explain but I have no chance to defend. I also feel he underestimated the complexity of my data (biology-based) and biased to the style of his field (machine learning-based).
My questions:

What should I do in this situation? I do not want to be emotional and react to the situation carelessly, particularly with my supervisor.
Is this a mistreatment or a common thing in graduate school?
Sorry for another question, which may sound off-topic, but because this is not the first time in my experience that I feel the graduate school cannot protect me, should I quit or transfer my Ph.D. to elsewhere? I am just thinking about what I should do now, in the near future, and in the long run.

Thank you very much.

Yes you are being abused. When some professor doesn't do their job properly the student shouldn't be the one to suffer.

In an ideal world (not in ours), this person should be fired from their.job.

Is there any way to negotiate an extension with the Graduate School so that you can defend your work in front of that reviewer and the reviewer could potentially revise their judgement? Even if there is, the reviewer may not be the kind of person to change their mind, of course. So the "ask for a different reviewer" advice seems good to me... if doable...

To give you an idea what happens elsewhere when a committee member cannot make it to the defense: Ouf of my 5 committee members, one knew that they couldn't come as they were abroad. The rules allow for one being absent. At the very morning, however, one of the external members called the university that he was stuck at a railway station still 100 km away where due to an accident with persons involved the whole station was shut down. The next thing was an ad hoc faculty meeting that voted two replacement members into my committee. Defense started on time with a complete committee.

@user111388 I would say that in our world this person should be fired from their job, but probably won't be because it's not an ideal world.

Short answer for #2: It is both mistreatment and common.

@anomaly Common? I know of many outrageous stories, but never heard about such a blatant disregard for procedures in probably the most important regular type of academic examination.

@Lewian Appreciate your comment that if I can get an extension, I still should ask for a different reviewer.

@cbeleitessupportsMonica Thank you for sharing me this story. As I mentioned above that my supervisor said there is no rule that reviewer "must" come to the defense, and at that point I really ran out of words. You are right that graduate school should have a way to manage this or at least, I should be alerted and ask for something. But I think because we believe that it might be ok at the end.. I will talk about this if I have a chance to talk with authorities (which I think I should ask for now).

Escalate this! Actually it should be a task for your supervisor and university.

There are cases where there is an external review without the reviewer attending. No problem. But then they have to submit this on time.

@CaptainEmacs: This particular configuration of egregious abuses? Not common. Egregious abuses in general? Fairly common.

@anomaly I read "this" as this particular type of occurrence, not as a generic term for any kind of abuse, as I do not think that it would be a helpful information to OP that generic abuses happen.

@CaptainEmacs: It's as helpful as noting that in an ideal world such abuses wouldn't happen, or that academics of this sort should be fired, etc. More specifically, it's helpful to note that the OP is not alone in being treated so badly, but also that they shouldn't expect pushing up higher in the department to have any real effect.

@user111388: Strongly reprimanded. Termination is too strong of a sanction. Note that Jan, while harmed, has not had his career ruined, been slandered, nor did said faculty member cheat his colleages or assaulted someone etc. Other than that, your point is well taken.  2. This situation is rare or extremely rare from my limited experience.

Ask for a different 3rd reviewer.
This person clearly does not respect the doctoral process and does not give you a fair chance to gain your PhD. He should be removed from the committee and replaced by someone else who does. You still can work in his comments as far as possible, as content-wise, they are relevant, but they should not be entrusted with judgement concerning your future academic (or otherwise) career.

Thank you very much for your solid advice. I should ask my supervisor whether this way is possible. Although, I’m not sure I would be allowed to have new reviewer at this point. The graduate school may choose professor’s side rather than student’s, and people tend to avoid to have conflicts in Japan. Whatever it will happen, I appreciate what you wrote here very much.

@Jan They don't have to side with a professor over a student: they can side with your primary advisor if they agree you need a different third reviewer. Given that your current third reviewer is unwilling to review your thesis prior to your deadline, there is a lot of common sense in that solution.

Actually I find it already astonishing that a reviewer who was absent from the defense without excuse was not replaced back then. Plus, if the rules say you get a list of required corrections at the defense and then have 10 days, that usually means there cannot be any corrections requested almost a month later.

@Jan I understand Japanese culture sufficiently that I realise that a "frontal assault" may not be the action of choice here. But you could propose that, to round up the examiners expertise, another expert could be added (who would then provide the required 3rd review). Or whatever sounds like a political move that will not embarrass your prof and the other prof (although they would deserve this). Find some nuance which sounds like it would be a "good idea" to provide a further review. It could be even a dummy review, as you already have 2 positive votes and process seems irrelevant anyway.

@CaptainEmacs I appreciate your understanding a lot. It is not easy even just to speak up here. Thanks to your comments and everyone's, I feel I have an insight into my situation much better. Everyone provide me many great points to make.
Since this Monday is holiday, I will propose this to my supervisor on Tuesday. If I don't get an extension for the process, the deadline is this Friday (Feb. 29). I don't know I will be articulate about this when discussing/confronting... do you think it is appropriate to show my supervisor this Q&A? Probably, no?

@Jan No, definitely don't show them where you got your responses from. Frame it into your language. If you demonstrate that you received external advice, it's an embarrassment for them, and you do not want that, since, in Japan, that means they will just block every request of yours, just to save face. Make this set of advice your own.

@CaptainEmacs Got it. Thank you very much. I'll do my best.

Or maybe one or two more, to make a 5 person committee who would (hopefully) vote 4:1 and that may be a passing vote. This is just a thought and obviously depends on the local rules. The main point of this comment is to open a door where everyone saves face.

Too new to comment, so following up on CaptainEmacs answer and whether it is "too late" to change reviewers.
I have a friend (albeit in the US) who had one reviewer out of three, not approve. And similarly, the reviewer was slow to give details, and asked for unreasonable amounts of not just changes but follow on work to be done before he would accept.  His professor and this reviewer could not see eye to eye, and my friend was running out of time before he needed to leave to start a job he accepted.  He basically had to choose to abandon all his work or take this job.
It was resolved in the following way: his professor decided to ask if the reviewer would mind letting someone else take his spot on the comittee, and the reviewer agreed he would give up his spot on the committee to someone else if the department found someone who would take his spot. Note, this was not required (I think with department approval, the committee can be changed at any point), but getting approval made anything easier "politics-wise", and also made it clear that it really was just that this reviewer did not want his name on it. In his case, it seemed the reviewer was an outsider to the field and did not understand how much additional research would be required to follow up on his questions (after all, interesting research always brings up follow-up questions; I guess there was a cross-field disagreement of where it is acceptable to draw that line).

In summary: Even in a case where all reviewers showed up, if the expectations are far enough out of line of the others, it is reasonable to change the committee.

Thank you very much for sharing me this. I will also propose my supervisor your suggestion. Asking him first is the great solution to save everyone's face, which is important here. Special thanks for the summary as well.

I worked for four years in Japan in a research setting close to academia (not a university). In my experience hiring and evaluating people in Japan is mainly based on the relationship of the boss/GL/supervisors to each other. What you call "they have respect for other people" is that in a normal setting in a Japanese hierarchy your would not do things which reflect badly on your superiors or people where you are either lower in the hierarchy (have to use honorific forms to address them) or to whom you owe a favour. My considerations may reflect the Japanese mentality as far as I understand it. It boils down to a few essential questions:

are you a foreigner? If yes, nobody owes you a favour
is the reviewer also foreign? If yes, he doesn't owe anybody (in the Japanese sense).
if he is not: how is his relationship to your supervisor.

My uneducated guesses:

If you are foreigner and all others are Japanese: Your supervising professor doesn't have a relationship to the reviewer which requires the reviewer to address him in honorific form -> your direct supervisor misestimated one or more of the following

The quality of your common work
the interest of the reviewer in it
Inter-institute politics
The support of the supervising professor/dean
The relationship between the supervising professor/dean and the reviewer

If additionally you are Japanese potentially additionally:

The relative power/fame of the institution you did your master with
Your master thesis supervisors relationship to the reviewer

If the reviewer is a foreigner, it takes some things off the table, since he will not be in the Japanese hierarchy. but some things will be added.

I have seen it happening before that due to communication issues the expected level and quality of work was not aligned between foreign collaborators/reviewers, i have been part of such constellations when it came to publications, where some people expected my formal collaborator "OK" but basically (even in a suitable diplomatic way) called out the bullshit. Some were as surprised as you (even if it was not a PHD thesis), since the GL obviously did not not communicate well before.
So my most likely estimation is that you direct supervisor did not communicate enough. I suggest that (if you are a foreigner)  discuss the situation mainly with the dean and push either for a formal non-acceptance of your university of the reviewers comments (your dean will be experienced in finding convincing excuses) and another reviewer. If the reviewer is foreign and his comments are good, you could also try to shift the date and try to have a research visit at your reviewers institution.

I am a foreigner, and everyone else is Japanese. I am with this supervisor since my Master degree. I would like to talk to the Dean too, and I must inform my supervisor before doing this. Hope he does not feel bad or something. Thanks very much for your insight!

I didn't understand the second last paragraph, despite reading it several times. Perhaps it's the convoluted sentences, but would you be able to rephrase?

@Richter65 To be honest, that's quite bad form to let it go to the examination without prior warning. OP can check for this themselves: did they get papers published? In good journals/conferences? If so, this probably does not apply (not a guarantee, but a good chance).

What should I do in this situation? I do not want to be emotional and react to the situation carelessly, particularly with my supervisor.

Your supervisor should be your most important ally in this discussion. Your failed thesis reflects very badly on them, and they will almost certainly be very willing to go to bat for you (if not for your sake, then definitely for their own).
An urgent crisis meeting with your supervisor is in order. They will need to alert the PhD school about this problem, and discuss options. If there is no official process, the school will have to make up their mind how to handle the situation. Possible options include getting more reviews, giving you the option of more revision time, or simply overruling the reviewer. Of course they can, in principle, also say "the rules are the rules, so you failed" - but they are only shooting into their own foot. They now have one additional failed student for their statistics, a very disgruntled ex-PhD student (potentially with a case for formal complaint, depending on exact circumstances), a very disgruntled professor, and a cohort of current PhD students that learned that the PhD school will rather let them drown than support them. Normally, none of this is worth it to the school.
I would avoid going over your supervisor's head as long as they seem willing to fight for you. They are in a much better position to argue why your rejection was unfair, and the head of the PhD school will have a much harder time saying no to them than to you.

Is this a mistreatment or a common thing in graduate school?

It sounds extremely rare, if for no other reason than that your reviewer likely also burned a lot of bridges with their action.

Sorry for another question, which may sound off-topic, but because this is not the first time in my experience that I feel the graduate school cannot protect me, should I quit or transfer my Ph.D. to elsewhere? I am just thinking about what I should do now, in the near future, and in the long run.

Transferring now seems incredibly late in the process. If there is no other way, your supervisor and PhD school really cannot or will not help you, and you still want to do your PhD, then transferring might be your best shot, but I still feel there has to be a better way to handle this.

This would be a good point in a US-style university, I do not think that many of the downsides for the school apply that directly in Japan. Their logic works different.


text:
Fast way to find out the ISSN number of Publications
I like to know can i get the Publications ISSN form DOI link?
Or what is the fast way to find the ISSN of Publications to find its impact factor ( any online site to find the impact factor for DOI link or ...)
Update: (Solved)
According the anpami  answer i have tried to do it for this paper, and don't find any ISSN number on the result:

And importing on this:

So does ISSN not exist for conference and only of journals or this answer is not correct?(Solved based on the anpami comment)
Thanks.

Thanks @Buffy, i updated the question and corrected it.

In your case, the paper is not a journal publication, but a paper presented at a conference. Conference proceedings, however, do not necessarily have an ISSN (see here: https://support.clarivate.com/ScientificandAcademicResearch/s/article/Web-of-Science-Core-Collection-Conference-Proceedings-May-Have-ISSN-or-ISBN?language=en_US). - And: You originally asked how to fetch the ISSN with the help of a DOI so as to get the Impact Factor. Note that conferences do not have Impact Factors, only journals do.

Thanks, @anpami, so i will add solved to last part of question.

To get the ISSN of a paper by using the paper's DOI, try CrossRef's API. Specifically, use the URL https://api.crossref.org/works/ and add the DOI to it.
For example, if the DOI is 10.1177/0047117819856397,
then use the URL https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1177/0047117819856397
There is a branch called "ISSN" in that JSON-file. If the output looks confusing to you, copy-paste it into a 'JSON beautifier'.
(However, note that you cannot find the Impact Factor of the journal using this approach; as far as I know, there is no API for accessing an Impact Factor by using the ISSN as a key. Also see "Where can I find the Impact Factor for a given journal?")


text:
Finding a classmate to achieve access to academic learning process and connection for non-registered learning enthusiasts
I will probably not be accepted to the Master of Cognitive Sciences program this year at a university in my country, but I don't want to lose my passion for learning and waste my time. So, I made an announcement on a website as a volunteer advertisement, as shown below:

I will probably not be accepted in the Master of Cognitive Sciences
this year, so I made this announcement so that I can be aware of the
courses and the educational path of this field and not miss the
pleasure of learning and new job opportunities in this field.
If you are accepted in this field and want to accompany an interested
person, please send me a message on the way to learning the first and
second semester courses of this field.

Also, I have a Telegram group in which there are some people who are interested in learning and connecting with students from foreign universities in various fields, like the below chat (link) :
enter image description here
How do I better advertise my intent to find a community for accessing the courses (without paying tuition) in my desired field of study?
What is the probability of actually finding and accessing these courses without being a student of the university? Are there any rules to be kept in mind?
Update 1:
Based of this question answer, I am trying to add more details and will answer to the below question:

What is your plan for after the program finishes? Will you apply to
the program again? Will you try to get jobs by claiming that you've
done all this self-study?
Why do you need to follow along with a particular course at all? Why
not just buy some textbooks?
If you succeed in connecting with a student who got admitted to a
university in your field, what do you want them to do for you?

So :
1- I am working as a freelancer and studied the M.Sc. at Biomedical engineer which like continuing my academic education with is related to my job field, so I will apply for University entrance exam in the Cognitive science with my new trained wights (or will apply for another academic field exam. The reason for this action is online academic opportunity and my eagerness to be updated and connected with university and its connection (teachers, students, facilities like labs and ...).
2- As I described, the connections and facilities of university and being in an academic environment is important for me (One of our masters had said every 4 year engineering science fundamentally would change, and I have seen this in my 10 years
Absenting and not being in academic programs).
3- In this connection I Hope to have access to :

accessing to public and predefined program contents, like course
syllabus, references, power points.
Also, if they don't have copyright problem or ... accessing to class
video recorded, but we could cover the course information on  the internet
source from  online course equivalents like said at the Stephan Branczyk answer (Coursera, EDx, or ...).
And be in connection with them for team working on their exams and
course experiment by our more desired field of study and courses,
this features give us more access to the teachers and academic
facilities and help us to newer connection and networks.
Also, if possible, I like to have some connection with them for
reviewing the course or asking about the misunderstanding  parts
of courses by creating some online group like skype for some meeting
at the end of weekends.

Thanks.

Per the discussion in this meta post, I have changed the close reason to "unclear what you are asking."

Thanks, I have updated the main question and the meta question, so after around one week I will try to write one post in medium or our suggested site for documenting the procedure and I guess after that I need to find out some community or advertisement site  like said at here or reddit site to publish this request.

If you are accepted in this field and want to accompany an interested
person, please send me a message on the way to learning the first and
second semester courses of this field.

Take inspiration from Scott H. Young who did something similar with MIT. A student from MIT did give him access to the extra materials he needed, but that was never a major concern for Scott.
https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
I think you should emulate some of what he did. Target a good school with lots of publicly available materials already. Keep a blog (or a vlog or a wiki), to document your progress and keep yourself accountable. Cultivate your own ecosystem of like-minded individuals, as you're already doing with your group on Telegram.
If you're missing some materials that first week, ask for what you need, but don't ask a perfect stranger for a commitment of two semesters. That's asking for a lot. Give anyone who helps you the option to leave you if they get too busy. In other words, use a broadcast medium like Twitter, a blog, or a Discord server to broadcast your progress and talk about the materials you're missing.
Also, don't depend entirely on someone else's access to achieve your goals. That's leaving too much to chance. I mean you'll probably find a registered student who is going to help you, but you should plan to keep your momentum going -- even if that doesn't happen.
Here is someone else's take Scott's MIT challenge. He even has some step by step instructions for doing something similar.

How do do the Learning Challenge (the MIT Challenge adapted for MOOCs
and 21st century)
1. Degree and syllabus discovery
Find a particular area that is closely
related to an MIT undergraduate or graduate course.
2. Define your learning goals
Understand and define clearly why you are
trying to learn this area; define clear goals and projects to be
executed related to it, in order to successfully complete the
challenge.
3. Build your own syllabus
Based on these projects, look into the
Departmental Program requirements for acquiring a major in this area
from MIT. You do not need to do the entire course, just look into the
recommended readings, videos, and assignments you are interested in,
and complement those with content from other universities/courses.
Unless you feel uncomfortable doing so, skip the General Institute
Requirements entirely, as well as any communication-intensive
requirements (CI-M).
4. Get your courses
Find online course equivalents from each subject you
are interested in for acquiring this “virtual major”; these can be
found in the MIT OCW itself, Coursera, EDx, or another equivalent. The
course can come from any university, not just from MIT.
5. Enjoy your journey
Execute all the courses, interact as much as
possible with peers, and complete all your defined projects. Compare
your performance with official solutions (if available) and ask for
peers to review them (if they are available).
[...]
https://thelearningtab.com/en/the-mit-challenge-my-own-take/

Also, I'd suggest you take a look at this blog post and scroll down. She found several other examples of people who created their own degree.
https://vocal.media/education/polyinnovator

Thanks, I asked the next question here.

I don't know what happens, but I have got this massage : not using fake statistics on reddit. But seriously now, over 100,000 organizations worldwide rely on monday.com, a visual project management software for teams. Track progress, timelines, and budgets and make key decisions based on real-time dat..., also you can see it via this photo.

So i asked another question  on Reddit (here with this content !) and the SE site (here).

@sosa, You just triggered the spam filter on reddit with the keyword "tuition-free". And the "fake statistics" message, that's simply an ad.  You can tell it's an ad because there is the word "promoted" in front of it. If you don't like ads, I recommend you install an ad-blocker for your browser.

@Stephan_Branczyk, so if I remove the tuition-free term or ask another question without this term it will not be deleted?!

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Sadly, I think your chances are not good for finding individuals to work with you. At least in the way you seem to be suggesting. You would need to be able to offer something in return. And you might just be a distraction for someone actually taking courses. It might also be breaking rules for a student to collaborate with an outsider on some things.
But, self study is always possible at low cost. You can purchase used text books, for example, and work through them. Many universities have online lists of the curriculum and online syllabus for each course, perhaps including suggested/required books. Note that the exercises in the books are, perhaps, more important than the text, so focus on those, especially, though I don't know if that is possible in your field.
A carefully tailored YouTube search for topic keywords might turn up some videos/lectures for some things.
You don't say why you can't be admitted "this year". If it is a larger problem, then you need to spend effort on rethinking your career overall. But for a short term problem you might consider trying to work in one of the (many) fields covered by your main topic, gaining some experience.


text:
Must my name be in the authors of paper (By giving the idea and creating the first research team)
I have introduced the idea and basic information of one important research field to one psychology experts.
Also I have created some other connection for that psychology experts by one phd master.
The research field is about the dark triad personality of humanity and its effect on the iranian new revolution at 2022.
So based of this studying, that psychology expert created one three person room and after arouln 3 meeting that the 3 persons have, then I can say they received the idea and the Information, then they created the new room and working on the paper by themselves. I were happy to give them the information and seeing some experts finding the correct scientific way to help the iranian people, but there are some ethical concerns.
So that psychology expert is receiving the academic scholarships for doctors at other university and it was so usefull fit her carrier.
According, for my security and protection against religion and fascism government which killed around 400 people, I prefer my identity be hidden (more information here)
So finally I guess that expert would write some paper and received some scholarships found based of my guidline and When they removed me from the new research group, I think that, my name not be in that research paper.
But I want to know it is ethically to be not my name in the authers of the academic papers which has been written by small team?
I don't say anything because the field of study is so clear and they are working on something which is about the dark and light personality of humans as you can see below (google search tags link)

What is dark vs light personality? The light subtype evidenced
affiliative interpersonal functioning and greater trust in others, as
well as higher life satisfaction and positive self-image. The dark
subtype reflected interpersonal dominance, competitiveness, and
aggression.

Finally I can say their action would be interesting for me because this situation not must be happening and showing my action or their action have some problem and failur.
Also, I suggested many other information and business plans and the reason for this free giving informations is finding light people. This is so warming and hopeful and the main goal.
Update 1:
Based of the answer of Buffy
I guess I have removed from the research group not to be in the academic paper too, but I have given the idea of research and added another person with higher degree and given many free consulting in around 3 meeting with every meeting around 1 hour duration, also I have tried to summarizing some papers but not completed that summarizing because of having some personal problem and I am in contact by them but don't ask them about that but I like to know what is the ethics and run of this procedure.
Also, I have engineering and I don't know that I can be an advisor or not, but this idea and information came from another big project.
When I have seen the project has been stoped and even by giving free information and plans and I am donig this project alone.
so I came to find out there must be some reason and find out the dark triad of perianality of humanity is some part of reason and given the information and my researches result, to one psychology experts and created one team for that psychology expert.
It seems that they do not want be any name of me in the paper.
So I asked that will be this action ethical and normal or not?!
So, I asked here to check them.
Finally, I don't want any things from them, but the research field is about the dark and light personality characteristics of hand so it is important to check that the writer of one academic paper about the light personality characteristics as love, empathy, altruism, compassion, corporation and scarification don't believe in those characteristics and act dark by having narcissism, psychopath and Machiavellian in their researches, by breaking the ethical rules or not?
Thanks.

Did I read it wrong? I thought you wanted to avoid visible authorship in this case. Is it, instead, a case that you believe you are being denied proper authorship? It was a bit hard to understand due to language differences.

Dear @Buffy , I think I will be denied in the academic paper authers names, and it is important because the paper is about the ethical things like dark triad of humanity like narsistism and light personality as love, corporation and..., So I asked here to know that persons better.

So, this is not a concern about political risk of being public about the situation in Iran, correct?

Yes, Dear @Buffy. I know that we could use one false name, but as I have said the paper is about the ethics and it is important to check that the authers of that paper have the right ethics. If they breaks some ethical rights I would stop my connection with them and will invest my time and connection by others groups.

The following was based on an earlier version of the question that I may have misunderstood. I may be able to revise it, perhaps radically, when the editing settles down.
One option is to create an alter-ego, a false name, used for publication purposes where only your co-authors know your true identity. There is no general requirement that publication needs to be under your legal name.
Evaluate whether that would give you sufficient security or not. If, at some future point, the situation changes and you don't need such protections, then the connection with you as an individual could be revealed.
In an extreme case, you can permit others to use your work without specific attribution, though they need to be careful not to make the situation one of plagiarism, suggesting they alone had the important ideas.
In some fields, advisors are not listed as authors on their student's work even though they did, in fact, contribute to it. They are normally acknowledged by name, however, though in an extreme case a carefully chosen false name might be used. Difficult times sometimes require exceptions to the normal rules.
You don't need to follow normal conventions if it puts your life or liberty at risk.

thanks for your answer. I have updated the question and add more information to clearfy the question.


text:
Publishing a new dataset, based on existing
Is it ethical and academically (or otherwise) acceptable to publish a new dataset, derived from an existing, well cited dataset?
The only novelty in this case are:

Newly computed features (based on published work), not currently part of the dataset
Data re-organisation, not existing previously, that aims to standardize partitioning of the dataset

The dataset in question pertains to Machine Learning.
(Related question at: Law Stackexchange)
Update:
The only reason I wish to publish my version is to provide an option of common grounds for paper-methodology comparison. Currently, every author prepares his/her own desired subset and publishes the ML task results. This makes it extremely difficult to compare the papers or sometimes even simple reproducibility.
My proposed subset will be a standardized subset that every one can use directly and will help in comparison across papers.

Are these pre-computed features from existing pre-processing techniques?

What license were the original data published under?

@Aymuos, the techniques for the computing the features are published already, but, not part of current dataset

@user2229219 well, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0
International License

I guess, I get the answer to my question from the License. But, what would be the answer in the general case, where such limitation is not there?

@Buffy, I am not sure if I can contact them. The license info is simply attached as a file.

While I do not have time to write a full answer, I will point out that I wrote a paper in ML that is similar to what you describe and was well-received by the ML community. Perhaps looking at that paper can help you design your paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Pile%3A-An-800GB-Dataset-of-Diverse-Text-for-Gao-Biderman/db1afe3b3cd4cd90e41fbba65d3075dd5aebb61e

@StellaBiderman, thank you. I find your work motivating and enlightening

As long as you cite the originals you avoid plagiarism. Citation removes the possible charge of plagiarism (unlikely in any case, here).
Just be clear about the origins and what you have done with it.
Also ask whether the license is even appropriate. In other words, does the dataset have enough "creative content" that it is copyrightable? Data per se can't be copyrighted. Only creative works can be. If it can't be copyrighted, then it can't be licensed. I don't have enough information here to help you make that judgement. But it would probably be good to make a conservative judgement.
But, you can also ask the authors for a more permissive license for your use if needed. They can do that for a copyrighted work.
The other question, of course, is how you intend to publish it and whether any publisher would be willing to work with you and consider your contribution worth publishing. This, of course, revolves around the issue of whether you have any creative content in the dataset.

I don't think the 2 novelties he has mentioned is any form of novelty. Normally the two steps he has mentioned are just added prerequisites in any paper.

I would suggest to just make the code available to generate the new features, and reference the data set you've taken from as well as the previously published methods that your code uses, rather than distributing the output.
The code is probably more broadly useful because it could possibly be used with other data, and if new versions of that data set come along your modification will be obsolete whereas your code will not (assuming the structure of the data does not change). If the combination of approaches you've used are themselves fairly novel, it may even be publishable as a paper as well, particularly if you have some results to show why doing these steps is useful in some way.
You could probably find a lawyer to argue that somehow you're allowed to do what you are proposing to do, but I don't see why. Even if technically legally allowed because of issues with considering data IP of any sort, it just feels a bit wrong to take someone's work and make it newly available with minor modification.


text:
Should I tell hiring committee about my interview opportunity at another institution?
My situation might be slightly different from the question Should I tell other interviewers where else I've interviewed?.
I have received an offer from my home institution (institution A), and the deadline for a response is fast approaching. I also received an interview request for a similar position from institution B, whose hiring decision may not be available before the deadline of the offer from A. Personally, I am more attracted to the position at institution B. Should I tell the hiring committee at my home institution about this interview at institution B to get an extended deadline for the offer from A?
One potential complication is that one of the committee members at my home institution provided a recommendation letter for me. My inclination would be to be upfront and honest, but my family have different opinions.

I don't understand. A decides before B does? But why do you need an extended deadline for B then?

@user111388 The question as written is clear; OP is asking about asking A for an extension to give time to hear back from B.

@BryanKrause Thank you. That is what I meant. I've made the edit to further clarify.

Consider asking for an extension without giving a specific reason. People should expect that you are exploring options and that they have different expiration dates. Ask if it would be a problem if you can't make a decision prior to -date-. If they ask for more, say that you are exploring your options and expect to be ready by that date. But the details can remain private. Don't give the impression, however, that an offer would be unlikely to be accepted if another comes in.
I can't predict, of course, whether you will get an extension. If you don't, then you need to deal with it as presented.
But assume that if they want to make you an offer then they actually want to hire you and not just fill a slot by some date. They have some incentive to deal with you, though they have other considerations as well.


text:
How to work in academic research as an outsider/experienced software engineer?
I would like to have advice on how a software engineer with a decent (>10 years) of industry experience can join a team doing academic research in the areas of physics, chemistry, biology or climate science. I am curious if there exists software engineer positions in these types of projects without having domain-specific knowledge or an advanced degree.
Is it necessary to be pursuing an academic degree such as a Masters/PhD or to have one already?
As I have never worked in academia before, I am looking for an insider perspective on this.

Do you need a paid position, or are you just interested in doing this for the "fun" of it while employed elsewhere?

I would like a paid position, but if that's not an option I am open to doing something part time / volunteer, as long as I feel passionate about it.

Please don't volunteer for a specific group. People try to make their living in academic research and volunteering is unfair to them. However, there are many open-source projects you could look into (I don't know those areas very well) and contribute your skills there.

Yes, it's possible, though the opportunities are likely to be somewhat rare, and might require specialist knowledge within software engineering just like you'd expect in your industry jobs.
Your work would likely be in more of a support role, though. Rather than driving the research project you'd be using your software expertise to write custom software or manage data. I disagree a bit with @Buffy on the scope of project that would hire software engineers; there are much smaller projects that can make use of programming skills, and in the past my small research group has had a share of a programmer's time.
I would recommend you start by looking at job postings at universities near you (or where you would like to live).
Expect salaries that are below what you would expect for your level of experience outside academia, and that many positions will be fixed-term.

I agree with this answer but wanted to add that such positions are becoming more common. Look for the term 'Research Software Engineer' (at least in the UK, see jobs.ac.uk for examples), though not everyone uses that. In addition to the lower salaries, the jobs are usually contract rather than permanent. This is because a researcher will have been awarded funds for some research project and will employ a software engineer for that specific project.

@JenB Good points, especially as far as the positions being contract/fixed-term (not sure about the UK, but in the US contract may suggest 1099/independent contracting; in a university the position would almost certainly be a fixed-term W2 position. The same is true for post docs and other research staff). I'd still argue that these positions are fairly rare, though the same is true for almost any narrow industry focus.

I think that for most projects there is little hope unless you get in to a doctoral (or maybe masters) program. The sort of work you envision, is mostly done by students and forms an integral part of their studies. Many projects in the sciences consist of testing hypotheses (made by students) by building things, again by those same students.
But if you are near some monster sized national or international lab in which a large number of specialists from different fields collaborate on things, then you might find a position. But we re speaking of CERN level projects, or TOKAMAK sorts of things. Or things related to astronomy or space exploration. These aren't typical projects in scope. I also can't predict what sort of career you could have doing such things as experiments eventually finish and people go on to do new things. But these are the sorts of things that require government (and grant) funding.
But if you want to get your feet wet, go to some local (large) university and ask there whether they can use some help, paid or not. This could help you decide if this is an avenue you really want to explore and also make the contacts and get the experience that could get you into some degree program. Having a doctorate is the normal path to an academic career. There are few other doors.
And if you can make a few contacts, it isn't impossible that a position might be written in for you in the next large grant proposal. But, that, again, is only a temporary solution. Grants end, though some are renewed.
However, there are also industrial labs, say IBM or Google, where the research isn't a lot different from that done in university labs. It is more applied at the current time (product focused) rather than pure theoretical research, but the organization of some of them is similar to that which you find in academia. Not all such places are very supportive, of course (think Dilbert), so you need to do some explorations before joining them. Some of the pharmaceutical companies still do real science.
And it would be a big plus in many projects if you are skilled in statistics and, maybe, mathematical modeling.

There are many extra-university research institutions that hire large numbers of software engineers. CERN or the tokamak-facility ITER are just two examples. In the US, there are also the national labs who have thousands of software engineers working on research. There are also labs such as NREL, NOAA or USGS facilities, NIH bioinformatics facilities, and many more.


text:
Aren't professionals from different countries the same?
I am a college senior in America. I was born in a very poor country, not in North America nor in Europe. I recently visited my home country and encountered a teacher from an elite high school. He told me that teachers from top high schools often have access to high school-leaving national exam papers ahead of the exams.
I also remember that when I was in high school(in my native country) a lab tech told a group of us, that students from even poorer schools in the countryside, who only saw equipped labs on the day of the national exams, often had their grades "boosted".
The high school teacher I met also told me that in addition to pure merit in national exams, exam graders also considered quotas when assigning grades ie how many slots do they need in med/engineering schools.
Are there any resources you would recommend that document and explain the motivations behind such practices? Of course, if I go to admissions officers of colleges in my country, they would tell me that all admissions and grading is based on pure merit only.
Where can I get the "real skinny" about such things?
Leaders in developing countries often travel abroad for medical treatment. Privacy considerations aside, isn't a physician/engineer from (insert your favorite third-world country here) just a good as his equivalent in Germany?
CLARIFICATION
I apologise if my question has confused you. There's a book called "Comrade Einstein". It describes systematic discrimination against Jews in Russian math departments. Link is here. Other similar books have been written, but I don't have them nearby. If I was a Jewish parent living in Russia, a book such as the above would make me want to send my children elsewhere. And, if anyone asked I would at least have some documentation, that would make a plausible defense of my belief and not make me look paranoid.
Are there any similar books, reports etc that deal with "3rd-world" countries?

I do not see how the first part of the post is connected to the last. Can you clarify? Also off-topic from my perspective.

Political leaders and my native countrymen with means often look down on our professionals. Usually for the reasons stated above. That's where the first part of my question comes in.

@Snijderfrey: If you feel that this topic can't be discussed here, please recommend an alternative forum.

No one has to recommend a different platform, we can, however, point out that it is off-toipic here. You should read the FAQ's before posting.

@SolarMike: I appreciate that. I am not demanding anything, if you feel that it's off-topic, fine.

I don't understand. You want to know what illegeal, unwritten rules exist in your country?

@user111388: Not my country per se. But, do such things really happen anywhere or is it just one of those strange things people talk about eg "Little Green Men", that have little basis in reality?

It’s not entirely clear to me what you’re asking, but I think you’ve answered your own question. If you needed medical treatment and could afford to go anywhere for it, would you prefer getting it in a country where “teachers from top ... schools often have access to ... exam papers ahead of the exams” and where many other similar corrupt practices exist, or in a less corrupt place where someone’s MD certificate actually means what it claims to mean?  And as for your last question, how do you determine what is “equivalent” in a place where, due to such problems, formal credentials mean little?

@user1801060: Of course, no place is 100percent perfect. But in poorer places, there tends to be more corruption. In some countries, you get your grades for a bribe. Of course, this cannot be a quality education then. In richer countries, there is less corruption.

@DanRomik: Despite being distrusted by politicians and rich people, doctors do fairly well in poor countries. A 3rd-world MD would consider himself just as good as any German MD. He would dismiss the incidents I've reported as one-off mishaps. Here's what I'd like to know: would you send your child to a 3rd world country to study medicine? Apart from concerns about him being kidnapped etc, is there any study/report that would make you doubt the quality of education in such places? Sure their politicians are corrupt, but that wouldn't necessarily mean their academic institutions also are.

@user1801060 I haven’t studied the issue of the education of doctors in particular. And I also think the label “third world” is outdated and misleading. But to give a sort of answer to your question, I would not recommend to my child to pursue his/her education (in medicine or any other subject) in a country that ranked poorly for corruption, for example according to this corruption index.

@DanRomik: Please see the clarification I've added to my question.

The medical example might not be such a good one. The key to good medical treatment is routine. A German physician is used to the diseases resulting from a western lifestyle (little physical exercise, lots of meat, drinking, smoking etc.) which a leader might have, because the German treats such patients every day. A doctor in a low income country simply is not, his leader might be the first such patient he sees in his life. This doesn't say anything about the quality of the doctor though, as in the same way a general German physician will have no experience in treating malaria for example.

@user111388: Please see the clarification I've added to my question.

@Snijderfrey: Please see the clarification I've added to my question.

Since the treatment of professionals of all kinds is highly variable by country and partly determined by long lived cultural factors, there is no place to get a definitive answer unless someone has done some research on it.
In some cultures, parts of India come to mind, professors are very highly regarded as they can provide a boos upwards in a stratified country. I've had students literally kneeling at my feet (just for lack of chairs) in my office. When I expressed discomfort at that, some students from India said that, no, it feel perfectly natural to be kneeling at the feet of their guru.
In some other places, professors get spat upon.
However, to say things are equal is a mistake. Often a good education depends on an institution having a lot of money for, say, laboratories, as you note. It is harder to get qualified to a certain standard in poorer places than in richer ones, just because of available resources. I suspect there is a positive correlation between the quality of education in a country and the economic well being there. It isn't perfect, of course. Even in the US, the quality of pre-college education is suffering from want of resources in spite of the US being a fairly rich country.
But cultural differences can also lead to bad effects such as discrimination. Some well qualified medical doctors, moving to the US, find that they aren't allowed to practice medicine and the path to a license is very arduous.

Thank you for your response! In places where there are disadvantages, are there other criteria apart from grades? You are a lecturer and in many poor countries you have an almost "life or death" say in a student's financial future. If I come from a notoriously corrupt, tribalistic country, has anyone written anything about how high-schoolers and undergrads are graded?

It is possible it is explored in local press and in articles by local or regional publications. But in corrupt societies it can be dangerous to discuss things publicly. In the US we can complain pretty openly, even if we get push back.


text:
Responding to doctoral offer letters - What questions to ask?
'Tis this season of doctoral offer letters. I have been accepted to a few of the institutions I have applied for thankfully and now I want to ask the deans questions about their offer letters. For context, these are U.S. and Australian mathematics doctoral programs. A few I thought of are:

Is there a healthcare plan included in the offer letter? Subsidized by the institution?
How many hours do other students spend on their TA duties? How many are formally requested?
What is the average housing price of the area?
Does the department have a tea time? Regular seminars?
Does the department have regular funding to send students to conferences such as the Joint Math Meetings?
What is the passing rate of students for Quals on their first try?

I should also note that, unfortunately, I have not heard back from my top-pick school where there is a professor that I very much want to work with. The schools I have been accepted to do not seemingly have a person that does the research I am currently interested in. Can I ask how they would see my future pursuing research in XYZ at that institution? i.e, advice on who to work with there to do that sort of work.

This question is too broad.  Please narrow it.  Questions that have many valid answers do not work with this site.

Many of these questions are inappropriate to ask a dean.  Healthcare and housing information can be found on the internet.  Deans are responsible for overall strategy, not practical details.  Ask current students and alumni about quality of life.  Ask about what happens to students after they leave.

Where else may I ask this "broad" question?

I assume this is UK, correct?

Buffy, I apologize for not mentioning that. These are U.S.A and Australian programs.

Most of this information can be found at the website for the program or university. Start there - asking these questions before trying to answer them yourself comes off as a bit rude to me. Several of them are things you probably should have researched before even applying.

I had found some of the information on their respective website. I'm not sure why it is assumed that an attempt to answer them myself before asking was not done. Since I am a first generation student this whole process was new so I apologize if these were questions I should have asked beforehand. Thank you for the advice.

I think here you want to figure out who is the director of the graduate program (or even the program assistant) and ask these questions of that person, rather than the dean.

Ah, apologies. I check and I misused the title. The persons I have been in contact with are the graduate directors of the programs. Not the dean as I now understand to be a higher position.


text:
Guide for Undergraduate Research (trying to find a PDF document)
Some time ago, a friend showed to me a 3-4 page guide for undergraduate research, which was really good. However, now I am not able to find it online anymore (and do not know anymore, who showed me the document).
In brief, I am looking for a:

Three to five page guide / code-of-conduct for new prospective undergraduate researchers
The guide addressed all types of aspect (documentation of results, email etiquette)
PI was an evolutionary (?) biologist at a University of California-university (Santa Cruz possibly)

Does anyone know the guide/lab-homepage, that I am looking for?
PS: If anyone knows other useful guides from any other Lab homepage for new applicants (or FAQs), I would of course be interested too.

First of all, this is a shopping question to me. Second, are there some reasons you are looking for this particular guide? I searched "undergraduate research guide" on the net, tons of results returned.

Dear scaaahu, regarding the reason to look for that specific guide, I have mentioned above ("which was really good") the quality as primary criterion. Most results that come up when searching for "undergraduate research guide" are plain copy/pasting of generic life advice and not useful at all (a.k.a., "find your passion" type of advice).

After quizzing many colleagues, I was able to find the document again. Nevertheless, thank you for the help to anyone that took the time to consider the question.
If someone is interested:
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.ucsc.edu/dist/4/216/files/2019/12/Thompson-On-being-a-successful-graduate-student-v9.pdf