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Best day of the week to hold an exam?
I'm a course instructor and was finalizing my syllabus when I hit a bit of a wall and would love to hear the community's input. If you're teaching a class that meets twice per week, do you prefer to hold the exam on the earlier meeting time, or the later one? (E.g. if you have a Tuesday/Thursday class, and everything else is held equal, would you lean towards holding it on the Tuesday meeting or the Thursday one?) I can see slight advantages for either, but am very unsure what others' thoughts are. If you're a student (or recently graduated), did/do you have a preference? Does it depend at all on the nature of the exam (short answer vs. essay vs. multiple choice, etc.)?
(Assume, for the sake of this question, that the material, difficulty, class time devoted to preparation, etc. are otherwise identical. If it matters, this is for a social science elective class, where the overwhelming majority of students are juniors/seniors.)
Thanks!

I suspect varies a lot on how long it takes to grade papers, when you have free time, the department's expectation for when tests should be returned to students, etc. For a Tues-Thur class I usually gave tests on Thursdays, as I'd have the entire weekend (no classes, no office hours) to get them graded, and thus I could easily find the 4-10 hours (depending on the class) to get them graded by the next class meeting. However, if I gave the tests on Tuesday, it was often difficult to get them graded by the next class meeting. Plus, students would not have HW over the weekend, which they liked!

The comment by @DaveLRenfro exactly matches my preference and reasons.  Let me add that the material to be covered on an exam usually does not include the immediately previous class.  So students have a week to study all the material, and they can ask questions about it in the last class before the exam.

It might be worthwile to specify the country. (For instance, where I studied, exams were almost never scheduled in the time slots of the course.)

@DaveLRenfro - please don't write answers in the comments. But, I think your answer is a good one; please consider moving it into the answer box.

I had to do quite a few exams on Saturday.  This had to do with the availability of rooms to hold exams in at university.

I do not see any way to answer this objectively.  What is best for one person will be awful for another.  The exam will presumably not happen in isolation from otehr events, not just in the institution but outside.

I'm an undergrad, and I do have a preference, so I will answer based on the information you have given in the question. But note that there are many other external factors, such as your students' class load on both days and any campus events, that will make a difference.
All else being equal, I would prefer an exam on Thursday.
Students often like to clarify any questions about the course material or the pattern of the exam before it's coming up. This would be more convenient to do on Tuesday when there are only 2 days left for the exam, and hence, I would have covered more material and can ask more questions.
If the exam is on Tuesday, the last class would be on Thursday the week before, which is 5 days before the exam where I would have covered less material, and therefore, I may not be able to clarify all my questions. I could email, but asking face-to-face in a class would be better.
Yes, in an ideal world, I would have kept up with the material since the beginning and should be able to ask questions any time. But students procrastinate.
In conclusion, I would prefer it on Thursday, but since I do not know the true situation of your students, I suggest you take it with a grain of salt. The best way to figure this out would be simply to ask your students. Set up a poll and gauge their opinions.

Poll sounds like a good idea. An advantage of Tuesday would be that there could be an exam-debriefing in the last session on Thursday.

Ah, yes ... this is another reason I usually chose Thursday. There is a large gap between the last class meeting and when the test would be given. Students often wouldn't begin serious preparation for a test until a day or two before the test, at least if undergraduate, especially early undergraduate. I say "usually chose Thursday" because I rarely had pre-set test days, but rather chose the days roughly 2-3 weeks in advance, often asking students in class if there was a day I should avoid.

Thanks for the insight--it's very helpful!! I'm a bit hesitant to poll directly for a few course-specific reasons (the roster is still very much in flux, there are a few sections and I need all of them to be on a single day but wouldn't want to override one class's overwhelming preference because the other two mildly preferred the opposite, there will already be several elements of the class determined by poll and don't want to cause decision fatigue, etc.) but generally agree with that approach. Thanks again!

Suppose, instead, that the professor provides a channel, open to all, in which questions can be asked whenever they occur, not just while class is in session. I've used a channel (email list) to which everyone was subscribed and could ask (and, themselves, answer) any question at any time.

@Buffy out of curiosity, how long did you typically take to answer the questions?

First, I didn't have to answer every question, since other students were permitted to do so. Since I'm online when I'm awake, it didn't cause me any inconvenience. Many questions can be answered with just a reference. I was younger then, too, so it was easier to multi-task. Also, my scale was reasonable. I seldom had more than 30 in a class. When it hit 40, I got some help for it. The one thing I had to watch out for is incorrect answers given by other students, but that wasn't too often and also indicated some general misunderstanding that it was useful to know about.

@Buffy that's really nice. This could definitely work for OP if they could be as active as you. But sadly, not all professors are as active through online media (including email).

Scale is also an issue, but it can be handled. Harvard's CS50 has a huge enrollment, but the student/staff ratio is actually about 20/1, IIRC. There are a huge number of graders that can be used for out-of-band questions. The important point was that everyone heard every question and every answer. Things didn't need to be repeated once per student. And some students have questions that they hesitate to answer, thinking they will be thought less of. My success in academia was partly that I never left any question unasked. My mother hated that in me, though.

Yea, Thursday is good because you can also do an AMA/review on Tuesday (even if it’s not the entire class). Also, as far as a poll, this may be a minority view by I’m generally against that form of democratization of the exam process (and I say this from a recent student perspective) — it’s your class. The preferences are likely to be minor so most people who voted for x and got x will be only slightly happy about it. On the other hand, for the 1 or 2 people who really preferred y and got x, they’ll be annoyed. So skip the poll. If someone needs it on a different day accommodate as needed.

Another important point for some students: there are more parties on Thursday than on Tuesday. :)

Does this answer assume that the prior class session (Tuesday, here) is purely a review session? What if every session necessarily introduces new content -- same or different answer?

@DanielRCollins OP does say class time should be considered identical for both scenarios. But even if there was new content introduced, it wouldn't change my answer since the material covered in one class doesn't usually make much of a difference, and learning it just 2 days before the exam will also help retain the concept fresh in my memory. Just my opinion, can't speak for all students.

For my experience, the biggest factor that students will care about is what days do they have exams in their other classes.  If the students have two exams the same day, they won't be able to properly study for either of them. Whether you can arrange this or not depends on how similar their schedules are.
E.g. You said you are teaching an upper level social science elective. It may happen then that 80 - 90% of your students are also taking the exact same required social science class.  If that class has an exam on a Tuesday, then you should not have your the same day.
Now, it may also happen that your students have completely different schedules. Some have exams on a Tuesday, others have on a Thursday.  In that case it doesn't matter that much.  Just pick one.  Flip a coin if necessary.
To figure this out, you may just want to ask the students what day is best for them and see if there is a consensus or not.
Edit:
@Buffy's point about incentivizing cramming is interesting.  I decided to search if there was any research on the effect of time between exams.  I found this paper:  Devin G. Pope, Ian Fillmore. "The impact of time between cognitive tasks on performance: Evidence from advanced placement exams"
Economics of Education Review, Volume 48, 2015, Pages 30-40, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.04.002
It is AP exams, not college midterm exams, but the conclusions should transfer I think.  Here is the abstract:

Students are often required to perform several mental tasks in a short period of time, and their performance is likely to depend on how closely the tasks are scheduled. We examine this phenomenon in a particular context: Advanced Placement (AP) exams in the United States. We exploit variation in the AP exam schedule from year to year which results in a student who takes two exams in one year having more or less time between the exams than a student who takes the same two exams in a different year. We find evidence that more time between exams results in higher scores, particularly on the second exam, and that this effect varies across different types of students. Our estimates suggest that a student taking two exams ten days apart is 6–8% more likely to pass them both than a student taking the same exams only one day apart.

Here is a relevant quote from the conclusions section:

One could imagine various mechanisms for why more time between exams leads to better outcomes. For example, one possible explanation for our results is simple fatigue. Taking an AP exam is mentally and physically exhausting and it may be difficult to perform at peak ability when taking two exams in close succession. Another possible explanation is that last-minute preparation for exams (“cramming”) is important and more difficult when exams are close together. A third and related mechanism is that when exams are close together, students foresee their possible fatigue or lack of cramming time, and preemptively allocate their energies to just one exam. Our data do not allow us to identify a specific mechanism behind our findings, but may provide some clues. For example, we find that the detrimental effect of temporally proximal exams is primarily associated with the second exam taken. Our fatigue mechanism predicts this effect. The cramming mechanism may also predict this effect, but not so directly. For example, if two exams are close together and a student has to do last-minute cramming for both exams at the same time, this could arguably affect both the first and the second test score. Thus, this evidence is suggestive of fatigue, but cannot rule out a cramming effect

(emphasize mine).
So I would still stand by my suggestion of not having two exams on one day, to avoid mental fatigue of the students, even though it could potentially incentivize cramming to a certain degree.

Thanks for the reply--very useful advice!! While I'd generally be fully on board with just polling students, I think that might be tricky this time (for reasons mentioned in the comment to the other answer + the test separates two halves of the course, so its timing impacts several other decisions regarding course flow). Another good point is the potential overlap--I think this is the case for one class (i.e. ~70% of the class is in another), but intentionally picked a different week for the exam to avoid the conflict there. That said, I should probably ask around 1 more time to check! Thanks!

Actually, if students study correctly, and you may have to teach them how, having two exams on one day shouldn't matter. If you somehow advantage cramming, then you are doing them a disservice. The worst exam I ever took was the result of cramming overnight and it was open book.

"If the students have two exams the same day, they won't be able to properly study for either of them." How many days apart must two exams be to be able to properly study for?

@Buffy One can study well for two exams on the same day, but exams can be draining. How much depends on the length, I suppose. I remember having a day with two 4h exams and, well, I was not on the top of my game during the second one.

As Buffy said, students should learn how to study, and learn what "learning the material" means (it doesn't mean "remembering it for 24 hours and then forgetting it for the rest of your life"). When I was at university, grade were based entirely on end-of-year final exams - no "homework", no "quizzes", no "mid terms" etc. The final exams were six three-hour papers in three days. It was a perfectly fair system, since it was the same for everybody, and no students complained about it.

I have upvoted this answer, as it is the only answer (so far as I can tell) which offers any evidence from research.  While it starts off expressing something of an opinion, the evidence-based discussion of cramming is worthwhile.

I prefer to hold my exams on Tuesday (in your example), as that lets me provide more rapid and thorough feedback.  I believe it is of extreme usefulness to provide feedback while the students still remember their thought processes during the exam.
I work hard to get the exams graded quickly, usually by the evening of the exam or the next morning.  I can post results within 24 hours.
At the next class meeting (Thursday), I can discuss the exam, provide statistics, point out common difficulties, etc.  I'd rather do this bit 2 days after the exam than 5 days after.

Wednesdays and Thursdays seem to work the best for me as an undergrad
As an undergraduate, I preferred exams on Wednesdays and Thursdays for 2 reasons.  First, if I took a long weekend (either take off Friday or Monday), I wouldn't miss it.  Secondly, sometimes I'd pick up part time work on weekdays, so I'd study mainly on the weekends - this way I always had 1 class day before the exam to ask questions.
As a TA
I also liked Wednesdays and Thursdays - why?  Because it meant I didn't do (as much) grading on the weekend.  I've also found students are much less interested in their exam grade on a Friday than a Monday.

The decision I've made in the math & computing courses I've taught, for about the last two decades, is to give exams at the start of the week. Advantages:

This maximizes the amount of time students have to digest material after being introduced at the end of the prior week. (Note that every session has new material; there are no "review days".)
Weekly assignments practicing the material can be given in the prior week, received on the weekend (e.g., Sunday night), graded by me that night, and therefore have relevant feedback available to students Monday morning before the upcoming exam.
Likewise, online discussion groups can be occurring over the weekend (required in some of my higher-level courses), reflecting the entirety of the prior module, and completed before the exam.
Students have maximal time to email me with any questions in the days from end of one week to start of the next (although that's not very frequent for me).

In my courses I tend to have one "floater" day (maybe a lab or optional topic) near the end of the first quarter of the semester, that can be pushed either before or after the first exam, so as to make exams occur on the desired weekday (regardless of when the semester starts).

there are no "review days". - I would guess that if you do have a review, putting your exam later in the week would be better, as in justauser's answer.

"Likewise, online discussion groups can be occurring over the weekend (required in some of my higher-level courses)"   I hope I am misreading this and you do not require your students to work in the weekend.

@orlp: I don't; they could do it in advance the prior week; but in practice, none do, and all the work is being done a few hours before the due date Sunday night.

Seems like one of the opinion-based questions, though probably just "not friday" (or other culture-based "not giving a damn" day) would be the rule unless you want to be disliked and then discuss with the students.
Some will be fine with Mondays, some with early mornings and you won't be able to satisfy everyone with the same utility, thus discussion and perhaps even voting or checking with the peers (teachers/lecturers) would do better so the students don't have:

overlaps or blocks of just exams in a single day
all the week of just exams

Though personally I as a student have managed to do both just fine and depending on the exams even the annoyance was managable.
Probably the worst approach to this from the teacher's standpoint is to be stubborn and not adjust because that will affect both results (which retrospectively people might not care about) and reputation of you personally or the school you represent.

My most successful exam was held a Saturday morning.  I had obtained special permission from the chair or the Dean for that.
All the students were in the right headspace when they came in: no one had rushed from another class before the start of the exam, no one had to rush to another class at the end of the exam.
The result was such a success that there were rumours the exam had been leaked to students before hand.
I did that only one year: the logistics of getting this done (getting security to open an room, getting all the special permissions) turned the experiment into something that required non-zero extra work on my part, especially when the alternative is staying home on a Saturday morning.  None of the students complained (they were told well in advance) at the time, but I’m no longer sure no student would complain if I try this scheme again these days.

This largely depends on whether you have something useful to do with the left-over lesson if you set the exam on the first session of the week.  Two factors that will affect this are: (1) whether you want to separate topics by strict increments of whole numbers of weeks; and (2) whether or not you want to have a final "wrap up" lesson that occurs after your last in-class exam.
If you have the exams on the last session of the week then it is simple to separate your topics by increments that are whole numbers of weeks, ending with an exam.  This also means that you can end the session with an exam, and there is no further "left-over" class that comes after the assessable parts.
On the other hand, if you have the exams on an earlier session of the week then you will need to decide what to do with the "left-over" session at the end of the week.  There are some fruitful things this can be used for, such as a feedback session for the exam (if it can be marked really quickly), or a casual "wrap-up" session for the topic, or just moving on to the next topic (except in the last session of the semester).  If you decide to give a "wrap up" session, you need to carefully consider whether this is something the students would want before the exam, or whether it is useful to have a stress-free session that comes after the assessment has passed.  The latter gives you some opportunities to have a more general bull-session about the topics, the course, how it applies in the profession, etc., and students can sometimes enjoy these sessions.  On the other hand, students may resent being given information about a topic after the opportunity for the assessment has passed.

This is actually the opposite of how it works in my courses. Exams are at the start of the week, and the next session is the start/introduction to a new topic cycle. The bit about a last session after the last exam is not something I've ever heard of anywhere? Probably pretty uncommon. Do you mean the same as a final exam, or something distinct?

I am assuming that he is referring to in-class tests, since they are scheduled for lecture times.

That doesn't answer my question.

@DanielR.Collins: In-class tests would be distinct from the final exam.

Then I'm surprised that a midterm exam is scheduled so close to the end of the term (apparently either 0 or 1 session prior) -- I've never heard of that, and not sure what the point would be? Why have one exam almost immediately prior to the final exam? Any syllabus I've ever seen (and I've seen many -- e.g., work as head of assessment) has a several-weeks gap between last test, and end of term/final.

@DanielR.Collins: I have used an assessment structure of three in-class tests (one for each topic) followed in the exam period by a final exam covering all material.  So there is a little bit of overlap in testing in a small period of time, but only about 1/3.  The last last class-test is in the penultimate week of term, then there is one more wrap-up week, then one week university study period, then the exam period, so the students get anywhere between 2.5-4.5 weeks between the last in-class and the final (depending on when in the exam weeks the final is scheduled).

Thanks for the clarification. I guess that one-week university study period helps pad things out, which is not a thing at any institution I've been.

I've done a lot of this with large groups of trainees in the military (service schools).  Ideal, is to do it Friday morning, then work hard and grade it and post results (students WILL stop by!) FRI afternoon.  Given your TUE/THU choice, I would opt for the THU.  Let them unwind over the weekend.  Cry or celebrate or whatever.

I don't think letting students expect to get results in less than 8 hours is a good thing to set for yourself.

@MishaLavrov, posting can be done anonymously in a number of ways. They can even be emailed to individuals.

@AzorAhai-him- I had an instructor who graded and commented on 300 papers from a 3 hour exam that finished at 9 PM, and they were done by 8 AM the next morning.  I've also had another instructor's results come back 6 months after the test.   There's a huge range.   Being known for getting your grading done fast but properly, is a positive attribute.

@criggie Nobody should  grade 300 papers overnight.


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Questions to expect when interviewing for teaching-focused faculty position
I'm going to interview for a teaching-focused position in a couple of weeks, and I was wondering what kind of questions to expect.
I know there are plenty of resources on what to expect in a standard tenure-track interview. However, all the ones I found are geared towards research-focused positions, where teaching is an afterthought at best.

I guess it would depend on the individual factors. Also based on your previous experience. Giving some general answer would be difficult.

I do not think that this question is appropriate for this site because it has many answers and depends on discipline and country.  In my experience, it is quite common to get questions like:  Why do you want this job?  How do you teach?  What do you do about diversity?  What courses can you teach?  Usually the questions are like that, but with lots of extra words.

Make sure that you have some familiarity with phrases such as cooperative learning, active learning, flipped classroom, etc. Maybe look though the teaching statements, class syllabi, etc. of faculty in the department you're interviewing at, along with those of faculty from closely related departments, to see what types of teaching practices seem to be popular there. Be prepared to describe what you've tried, your successes and failures, how you motivate apathetic students, how you deal with classes in which some students can hardly keep up while others are bored at the slow pace, etc.

After your job talk, they might ask if any of what you presented is something an undergrad math major could work on with you. When I was an undergrad at a small liberal arts college, they asked that.

I'm going to assume that this is a teaching focused college or university. Some top schools have such teaching positions, but they are not on the tenure track (Duke, CMU, Stanford, ...). As such, your interviewers will probably be very experienced teachers.
The questions may vary, but the core of the exploration will be to discover what if any teaching philosophy you have. There are many aspects to this.
At one extreme (perhaps) is a philosophy that you must teach every student. Sink or swim is something like the antipode. (Other dimensions are possible, I suspect. Precise exposition vs. insight generating lectures, say.)
Also related to this is to explore your understanding of how students learn. This understanding (or lack of it) will likely affect your teaching philosophy, of course.
Questions may be detailed, but are looking, primarily, to see what you think the true nature of the job is. How you deal with problems, with diversity, with conflict, with individual needs, etc. all lead to a judgement about the nature of the job in your view.
Part of that is to determine how open you are to improving and advancing in the art of teaching itself. The details of the questions are less important than what they reveal about you and your relationship to students.
And, in some fields, it is also important to try to determine how your own knowledge of the field is likely to grow as the field changes, and how you might adapt teach to those changes.
Note also that professors with primarily teaching positions are normally required to produce some "scholarly output" or actual research. Don't neglect that. It may be very important for advancement to be known as active in your field.

Personal note: After forty or so years in the saddle, teaching at a very broad range of colleges and a very broad range of students, I have a pretty sophisticated view and have formally examined the question of "how to teach." But "early me" would probably fail to pass muster on questions asked by "current me".
I've learned that you can be simultanesly both kind/understanding and strict/demanding, for example. You don't need to "teach to the middle". You can be flexible.

Buffy's answer is quite good.  I'd like to add one additional nugget.
When I am interviewing a candidate for a Teaching Faculty position, I also ask about how you go about learning about teaching.  An amazing proportion of candidates don't seem to have ever thought about their processes for studying how to teach.  Part of that, of course, is that many universities don't do a great job of training PhD students in how to teach.
So, spend some time thinking about how you have learned and what you will do to continue to learn pedagogical topics and ideas.
I once had a candidate who didn't know what "pedagogical" meant.  Make sure you understand that word.

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I put a paper in arxiv months before the conference proceeding was ready and the paper doesn't show in google scholar
I have a paper in the AAAI proceeding. Before that the proceeding was published, I put the paper in arxiv. Now, The AAAI version of the paper doesn't appear in google scholar but only the arxiv version.
How can I fix it? I know that the proceeding is already crawled by google scholar because I have another paper in that proceeding which is already in my google scholar profile.

Does it not appear in Google Scholar search, or specifically in your profile?

Both papers has the same title (because are the same paper). If i do a search in google scholar by the name, I only found the arxiv version and not the proceeding version. My profile also only show the arxiv version.

If it does not appear in search results, it probably means it hasn't been indexed, either because it needs more time or because it missed it / incorrectly thought it was another paper. In any case, you cannot "fix" that, only publishers can. What you can do is edit the entry in your profile with the correct venue, and hope that citations get counted correctly (likely).

The proceeding is already indexed, I know because I have another paper in the same proceeding which is in my profile.

If you go to your Google Scholar profile there will be a list of papers.
At the top of that table is a "Plus" sign. If you click this and then "Add Articles" you'll have a dialog of papers Google thinks might belong to you and can also search for articles. I often find alternate versions of my papers listed here---sometimes because Google doesn't recognize them as mine, sometimes because it's reading an inexact citation.
You could also consider adding the article manually under that same dialog, though it may not accrue citation information.

One suggestion: The versions are not identified as identical. That is, the final version in the proceedings is not the same as the arxiv.org version, eg.  you might have addressed some reviewers comments. Possible fix, update the arxiv.org version.
However, to be frank, this is just a guess, since I am actually facing the same issue for one of my papers and a simple update did not work. I also noticed that in my case the abstract contained a URL and some tex formatting that was not properly shown on arxiv.org. Not sure if that is causing any issues.

I note that, in the abstract of the arxiv version, i put the latex command \emph (my bad). I have made a replace in arxiv and also add the journal reference. I just wait for the update.

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how to check if a AAAI proceeding is indexed by scopus
I have a paper in the SoCS conference which proceeding is edited by AAAI. How can I check if the proceeding is indexed by scopus?
Thank's

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Look in Scopus for it.
From https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/contact-sales , section "Help with Scopus"

Use our free Scopus Preview to get a complete list of titles indexed
in Scopus and access to Scopus metrics

Scopus is a product. Ask the product creator directly.


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Our advisor wants us to publish a paper, but we think it's not worth it. Need advice!
For my undergraduate project, we created an application that provided a bunch of features for small companies to analyze their target customers and public opinions. It was opinion mining of social media networks basically. Halfway through the project, our advisor asked us to compile the work in a paper and publish it in Springer/IEEE conferences or journals. However, we are not required by the university to do this. We never intended to indulge ourselves in academia, publishing papers and what not. We just used a basic LSTM network, used existing datasets for the sentiment analysis part of the project. We did a simple comparison of models like BiLSTM and vanilla LSTM though. Our project is basically a product.
Despite telling them that the project we have done is quite trivial and no top journal will accept it (which is what I think anyway), they are insisting (or better, hell-bent) on writing a paper. The team is also going separate ways and work at companies starting next week, so we won't have time to work with this anyway. Where should I go from here?

Your confidence is notable! Though the effort and results might not seem worthwhile to you, there's much to learn simply by the process of constructing a paper, and maybe that's what your advisor has in mind.

Can there be any bad consequences from just telling the advisor that you won't have time for elaborating this to paper standard (or even making any contribution beyond what you have already done)? If not, just tell them. (In fact I agree with the answer of @Arno that it may in principle be worthwhile to do a paper and be it for a lower level journal, so I wouldn't try to actively stop it from happening as long as it doesn't use much of your time, however you have the right to not be interested.)

Need advice? The more straightforward answer is consult your advisor. For the rest politely says no. The situation seems making you free of all obligations

You are allowed to just say no!
Assuming that you don't want to do that, here are two potential scenarious of what could be going on:
Scenario A: Your project actually has made a worthwhile (though certainly not groundbreaking) contribution to the knowledge in your field, and the world would be better off if this knowledge would be shared. You and your teammates may not realize this, due to lack of experience or self-doubts.
Scenario B: Your advisor just cynically hopes to get a quick publication out of this; or might overestimate the relevance of your work.
The following response is compatible with either scenario:
Dear Prof X,
its great to hear that you think so much of our work, and would like to see it published! As I/we are not familiar with academic publishing, and will take up full-time employment soon, I/we will not be able to contribute to the writing though. You have access to all our documentation through our dissertation(s)/coursework submission/here is a link to a shared Dropbox folder. If you have the time and inclination to produce a joint paper from this, you can reach me here and I shall do my best to read the draft quickly and get back to you.
If you are in Scenario A, and your supervisor finds the time, you may end up spending an hour or two to read the draft and sign off on it. While having published a paper might not do much for you, these two hours would certainly still be well-spent career wise.
If you are in Scenario B, that might just be the end of it. If it isn't, you have tried to be polite, and it is time to reiterate the "As pointed out before, I/we will not be able to contribute to the writing" ad nauseum (or ignore your supervisors emails).

I don't have anything to offer the OP, but it seems to me that the last sentence of your italicized sample letter could be a bit off-putting to the professor, as it seems to be something a superior would say to a subordinate, being not much better than saying "if you do all the work in writing this up, I'll look over it and let you know what I think" (which would definitely be off-putting).

I used to be in a similar position. I chose to listen to whatever the supervisor had said. But then, I ended up wasting a lot of time and didn't get published, wasn't even willing to post the paper on arxiv because I am not even convinced it has any value because good research needs intuition and original thinking. If you don't feel like having one, then talk to your supervisor with logical arguments explaining clearly why you think this way. Then cases may be like:

Your supervisor is a reasonable person and gets persuaded. ✅
You get persuaded by your supervisor because he naturally has a broader vision and better idea that you don't have, and he is willing to share them with you. ✅
You cannot talk your supervisor through. Based on my humble opinion, it is possible that

He doesn't even have a clear idea of the future path of your project. But he may just want to get you running thereby increasing even a tiny chance for him to get another paper at the expense of your time and mental health, which he doesn't care about. ❌
He simply doesn't have enough research experience. So he is not trustworthy on this matter. ❌

But I believe it really depends on the specific situation, the above is only based on my experience. You need to make the decision.


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How available is a return to academia for a mid-career professor headed to industry
I may leave for industry mid tenure case, with a strong funding and research record. I am hopeful one day to return, and am curious about how commonly such transitions in the industry/government to academe direction happen. I have never been party to one, but I do hear that they happen.  I'd also like to know how to facilitate that option for myself in the future.
I'd like to ask this in the context of the USA, and STEM Research at R1s. My work is multi-disciplinary, and so I could be portable across a number of department types. Possibly some fields do this more than others (Engineering, Business?).
Questions above, but more specifically: how common is this scenario, what might I do to make it more available, what have I not considered.

Non-vital backstory here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/175327/how-do-i-job-hunt-as-an-assistant-professor-mid-tenure-mid-pandemic


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What is the major difference in MSECE vs MSEECS and how should I pick?
I am a Fall'22 aspirant and looking for universities in the US. I have completed my undergraduate studies in Electronics and Communications Engineering. I want to pursue my master's degree in the domain that will be a blend of hardware and software for Machine Learning or edge computing as a whole. I am currently employed at SiFive and working on a project that is actually based on "AI on the edge". So, my work experience is relevant and projects too, what degree should I be going for MSECE or MSEECS? My main interest lies in modelling and also compilers for deep/machine learning. How do I compare and shortlist the universities based on the above filter?

The terms "MSECE" and "MSEECS" aren't standardized (or even especially common) in the US. You need to look at the details of any given program on their web-site. These things are set at the state (of which we have 50) and even the university level. Many programs will have a list of required and optional courses on their site.
For some, the list of faculty will also include which courses they teach.
If you find a program that seems interesting, you can communicate with the graduate program director (probably a faculty member) to see if it meets your goals.

Note however, that, in general, Computer Science tends to be more software based and Electrical Engineering tends toward hardware. Not a clean split, however.


text:
writing research proposal for extending work
Many suggestions are focused on the original idea of the research proposal, for which it should be unique, for it to get accepted. However, little or no suggestion at all to write a research proposal to extend the work based on some well-setup idea/work. That in fact has more chance to be successful, if the original idea has been proved and well developed. So why it is not promoted when submitting the research proposal? Any successful work is always based on some previous great ones. How many have set it up as a ground breaking and standalone one? few, right?

What's an "idea"? Isn't it also an "idea" to come up with cases where an existing technique fails, and to extend the original technique for those cases? Like you say, "[a]ny successful work is always based on some previous great ones." There is simply no difference between building on existing stuff and having that one great idea -- the one great idea is also building on stuff 99% of the time. It's all just a matter of how you explain things.


text:
giving recommendation for MSc student
A former MSc student asked me to write her a recommendation letter, so that she can apply for a PhD position. Although I feel that she is bright and dedicated, I only teach her in a hands-on course which last for 2 weeks. Sadly, during Corona time, we can only work online. Therefore I do not have a strong opinion about her. Should I proceed or inform her that I may not give a recommendation that she expects (Of course I will still say positive words but obviously not outstanding)?

I suggest that you let her know that she probably has other, better, options and that the best recommendation letters come from those who know her, and her work, well. They need to make a positive recommendation of the likelihood of her success and that, while you have a generally positive opinion, you don't have sufficient knowledge to do a good job.
Write the best letter you think is honest if she insists. She may or may not have better options in fact.
Informing her of how such letters are evaluated can help her make the best application, even if you aren't the recommender.

I would suggest you create a system for providing letters of recommendation. For example, before providing letters, I have:

known the requestor for at least 9 months,
read or reviewed at least one of their manuscripts, and
participated in at least one professional function (e.g., class instruction, research, conference presentation, article) with them.

I also ask them to write the rough draft for the letter. I then edit the letter to reflect my understanding of the requestor - this also acts to identify those people with an active interest.
Cheers,


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Article retraction: is it ethical to retract an article just because I am no longer happy with it
I recently came across a very old article of mine. The article was written at the beginning of my career when we were pressured to publish extensively. There is nothing really wrong with the article, but it is written in poor language (my English was very basic at the time) and it has no special academic value content-wise.
Do you think it is ethical to retract an article just because I don't like it anymore? Or do I have to accept that a badly written article is attached to my name and live with it?

Wouldn't someone seeing your article online (e.g. in the table of contents of the digitized archive of that journal) and seeing "An analysis of XXX using semi-metric dimensional flux flows by P. Q. Riez -- RETRACTED" be much more problematic than not having "RETRACTED" splashed over the title? Something like this is going to be noticed by anyone who happens to be looking through the table of contents, whereas what you're concerned with would only be noticed if someone actually went to the trouble to look at the paper (and also actually cared . . .). And what about print versions in libraries?

I doubt that it can be done, since a publisher was once happy enough to publish it. And if anyone has depended on this article, no matter how "primitive" you find it now, you would be disrupting the flow of scholarship. Whether that is ethical or not depends on your frame. Who now "owns" the work in a philosophical (not legal) sense.
But, let me change the frame a bit. Your dissatisfaction with your early work is nothing more than a sign of growth. If your best work is in your past then you have stopped moving forward.
I've been told that some poets, occasionally at least, sometimes cringe at their early work. But that is because they have gone beyond it. And that early work likely let to later, better, work. The same is probably true for you.
You did the best you were capable of at the time. You have advanced past that stage. Celebrate it.

Note that I've assumed that the paper doesn't contain actual errors or, worse, cause harm. If that were the case then the original author is an excellent person to provide a follow up paper dealing with the issues. That would be superior to a retraction in many ways.

You probably won't be allowed to retract the article, so the ethics of it doesn't arise.
See e.g. this policy on when retractions happen:

Journal Editors should consider retracting a publication if:

It contains infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, etc.
It contains major errors (e.g. miscalculations or experimental errors) or the main conclusion is no longer valid or seriously undermined as a result of new evidence coming to light of which Authors were not aware at the time of publication.

Since your paper is neither, the editor is not likely to approve a retraction.

I am guessing this is for when an editor can retract an article. What about the author, can the author not decide to retract an article by himself?

@mihalu no (see source). "It is a general principle of scholarly communication that the Editor of a journal or proceedings is solely and independently responsible for deciding which articles submitted shall be published ... Note that if Authors retain copyright for an article this does not mean they automatically have the right to withdraw it after publication. The integrity of the published scientific record is of paramount importance and these policies on retractions and withdrawals still apply in such cases."

It’s useful to keep in mind that the term “retraction” in the academic context is really a kind of shorthand for the act of the editorial board of a journal effectively stating that it does not stand behind the content of an article they published anymore. Thus, from that point on the article cannot enjoy the credibility of having been published in that journal. The article itself will still exist, but readers will draw different conclusions on what its existence means and how much its content is to be trusted.
So, as others have said, the decision whether to retract is not up to the author, since this is about a statement made by the journal. But, as an author you are free to issue your own statement on any forum or medium (say Twitter, or your personal home page) explaining how you feel about the work. You can state “I no longer consider this work valid”, or “I no longer consider this work up to my standard for publishable work”, or anything else that accurately conveys how you feel. In that sense, by making the statement you will be “retracting” the article.
Now, the value of taking such a step seems very dubious to me. As with a journal’s retraction, the statement changes nothing about the article existing. But regardless, you are free to make such a statement and I don’t see that doing so has any particular ethical implications, assuming that your statement is a truthful one.

As in the other good answers: first, in the U.S. and western Europe, as far as I know, it is not the author's choice whether to "retract" or not, in the traditional peer-reviewed setting. Second, the editors/publishers probably will not want to make a practice of this, for several reasons. Third, doing so can make a mess of bibliographic citations in other papers.
(Indeed, the impermanence of stuff on the internet is one problem with references thereto... but is probably inescapable. Yes, I do correct old on-line documents of my own, so that an old reference can become inaccurate... even while the factual aspects of the document have improved. No easy fix...)
Also, of_course we are all somewhat embarrassed of our earlier work. Nevermind. :)


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Isolating myself and focusing on studies
Looking for some useful tips for focusing on studies.
Three of my semesters were held in online mode. I was at home and was totally focused. Our fourth semester started in offline mode recently. I had to move to hostel. Here I don't have any other options than to meet several people throughout the day, in classes, in canteen (having food 4 times a day). Some of them have positive impact on my mind, some are negative. I am finding it very difficult to concentrate on studies. My interactions with other students, are getting repeated on my head 24 hours a day, difficulty getting sleep also. I just went home for 2 days, and I was again able to study. And after coming back, again unable to get people out of my head.
How do I forget about other people and concentrate on my studies? It is my final semester, I really need to complete all subjects and my final year research. So any good suggestion/ tips will be helpful.

I have seen this in many people, specially when you don't have much interaction, and all of a sudden many interactions. Like you attend a ceremony, and you keep ruminating on your interaction with relatives for a few days. Seen this occasionally. In my case, that ceremony is not a single day ceremony, it's continuing. So wanted tips for concentrating on myself.

You might have to dedicate some time to get used to being around people after all that isolation. I'm afraid there's no shortcut.

You can focus when you are alone
As you told, you were totally focused when you were at home. Try to make a similar environment here. After the class, rush to your room, put a "Don't Disturb" sign and concentrate. Come out for classes, food and washroom only.
Not so soft
If you are soft to other people, somebody will get you entangled with non-study activities. Be little unfriendly and tell you are busy.
Self study time
Change your self study time table.

Go to sleep very early (around 7 p.m.).
Sleep for 8 hours straight. Initially you will find some difficulty
with your friends who will try to disturb you. But be stubborn and
don't get up. In few days every one will know about your sleeping
time.
Get up at 3 a.m. and start you studies. You will be astonished how fast
you can absorb.

You can go to sleep when you come back from classes. Sleep for 8 hours. Get up at 12:30 a.m. and study.
This method has been tried and found very successful.

Yes, this method might be useful. I remember, in school, mom used to make us sleep after we come back from school. Only problem is, canteen will not be open at 12:30 am. However I can work on making my own arrangement for food.

@Sukti Sen If canteen is much more important than your grades and your future life then as Roland has written in his comment "consult a mental health professional".

It has got some relation. healthy food -> increased brain power -> increased grades -> hopefully better future life (debatable). Thanks for you original answer.

@Sukti Sen One of my friends (during exams) used to buy a carton of long life milk (12 liters or more) some bread, cheese, jam, apples etc., put them in his fridge and locked the room after evening. In day time, you can go to classes, eat a lot of very healthy food, even meet your friends. My answer is only for early evening till morning. I wish for you a very high GPA and very happy future life.


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What does it mean if a PhD supervisor has 20+ students?
In a department I'm applying to (UK), some professors have 2-3 PhD students while others have 20+ current students.
Would my chances of admission be proportionately higher if I apply to work with the supervisor with 20+ students?
This is a CS department so I expect that decisions are made by a central committee -- how does one end up taking so many students?

I'm not in a CS department, but it would be unusal for decisions to be made by a central committee. Funding decisions perhaps, although not department level, very few departments have an funding for students these days themselves. Most funding comes from doctoral training partnerships/centres, which are independent of departments, and generally cover several different universities. But I bet in CS, there is a lot of funded and industry funded students. In these cases profs may take as many or as few students as they please.

@IanSudbery Wait really? There are no admissions committees? So if the professor I contact is enthusiastic, that's all that matters (besides funding)?

You'll have to meet some basic requirements - like meet minimum standards in your lower degrees. But yes, generally the final say rests with the supervisor if funding is available. Don't underestaimte how much of a hurdle getting funding in place is though.

Equating more students to easy admission is wrong.   A person may have a high number of students if he/she is a good teacher, and/or has lots funding.  You should focus on finding someone that has a track record of graduating students.  No point joining a group or university to find out later you cannot graduate due to poor supervision.


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how to convert personal projects to papers
I'm an undergrad student in computer science. Throughout my undergrad studies, I did a few projects trying to solve problems that interested me. This necessarily meant something novel had to be done, although small advances early on and larger advances in more recent projects. I've shown my projects around to a few professors and was recommended to write a paper on the projects and submit it somewhere; however, I always pushed it off as writing the paper would interfere with actually doing the next project and I assumed I would do it later.
I am now applying to graduate school and have been informed that, while the projects are indeed good, it will not come off as such because I have not written papers on them; given how easy it is to lie about this and the relative difficulty of coming up with these methods, the signal/noise ratio is too low and so it will be discounted. To clarify, I'm not claiming that these projects are each solving major unsolved problems of the field; I'm just proud of what I have achieved and would like it to be actually considered appropriately.
Given that I only have 1.5 months until graduate school application deadline, is there any way to fix this issue?

There is no fix to the issue that works in a time scale of 1.5 months. A typical research paper probably takes 6 months to write, even if most of the results are already there, primarily because (i) it takes time to actually write 15-20 good pages, and (ii) one always realizes in the course of writing that something isn't quite right yet, was correctly understood, or for which one has the appropriate references to cite.
Then there is also the issue of publication. In most fields, one has to expect that it takes at least 6 months between submitting a manuscript to having it accepted for publication (and then another 6 months for it to actually become part of an issue of a journal that is "published"). This can be cut short by posting a "preprint" of the article on a web site such as arXiv, though publication there does not carry the same kind of prestige as something that has been published in an actual journal.
In summary, I'm afraid you left it for too late. That doesn't mean you shouldn't work on this -- it will always look good on your CV in the future, even if it isn't of much help right now!

Is there any way to add a note or something so that the projects are actually considered and not just thrown out of consideration by the committee?

You can (and should!) always mention it in your essay. The question is how much weight that will be given. There is a difference between someone tinkering with a toy idea and getting something published in a professional journal.


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how are internships considered when applying for grad school
I've heard that internships in industry are not considered in graduate school admissions. However, all but 1 of my internships are research-based internships, where I was doing computer science research, but specifically towards what the company wanted. I feel like these internships were more rigorous in the research quality and scope. Is this considered in the admission process?

What field? ..,

@AzorAhai-him- Computer Science

It is too strong to say that they are not considered. If you list them in your cv they will be considered. But other, more common, factors will weigh more. Think of them as having a somewhat marginal effect. In the US, graduate admissions is very broad based.
However, there are different kinds of internships. One that is focused on research (hopefully beyond product research) will have more wight than some others. Some companies (Google, IBM, ...) do real basic research, others just work toward the next product. If you learned a good research process and it is related to what you want to study, then a short phrase in your SoP can highlight it. But don't spend too many words there as the SoP needs a forward, not backward focus.

At risk of doxxing myself, the entire industry is maybe 1000 people, where the industry might take 100 in any given year at max. Thus, it's not so well known, even though the research is of the utmost top quality. Would this be an issue or should just mentioning the research in the SoP be good enough?

If you are doing real research, and especially if you have something to show for it (papers, ...) then it doesn't matter what the context is in which you do it. But, again, the SoP is about future plans (study and beyond), not about reinforcing the past.

I do have whitepapers, but they're internal only for obvious reasons. Most of the people in the company are academics that are well-respected but decided to go into private sector a little later, so the quality of peer review is also not lacking. That makes sense though - I'll touch upon it a little bit in by SoP and CV


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are years in university considered in graduate admissions
I'm a 3rd year computer science undergrad in a top 20 (read 10-20) applying to graduate school. Because I simply have less years in college, the papers I'm writing just don't have enough time until they come out. For reference, I am in 2 of the top ~6 CS labs in the school. One of them has a paper coming out soon, although it'll be close and the other has a paper coming out next summer.
Given that I've only been in school for 2.25 years right now and I started in these labs about 0.75 years ago, I think this is fairly reasonable. Will this be taken into account on graduate school admissions or does the committee not care? If the former, should I mention it somehow in my SoP?

3 or 4 year degree?

@nick012000 - 4 year degree

People will take relevant information into account, but you should also help them see your side by being explicit in your application materials.
For example, if you are submitting a cover letter or research statement (or similar), you can say something like "over the 9 months in this lab, I have produced research results X and Y that will lead to two upcoming publications." What will matter to the person reading that is what you accomplished in 9 months. If someone is wondering why you've only been doing research for 9 months, they can look at your CV and see that you've only been in college for 2 years.


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Should I submit my math subject GRE score?
I'm a US student applying to PhD programs in pure mathematics this semester. Most of the programs I am applying to are highly ranked schools which are making the subject GRE optional this semester. That being said, I scored an 810 (76th percentile) on the exam in September. I believe an 810 would usually correspond to a higher percentile (maybe 80th) regularly, but I assume that since the test is optional this round, the pool of people taking the exam is better than usual. I was wondering if, assuming the rest of my application is quite strong, I should submit this score. I'm not sure if this makes a difference but I also happen to be an ethnic minority (latino). Thanks.

There's a section in this question about GRE scores. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237/how-does-the-admissions-process-work-for-ph-d-programs-in-the-us-particularly

Does this answer your question? Can I send math subject GRE scores to programs that do not require them?

@GoodDeeds Not really since the user in that post didn't post what their score was. I'm not sure if my score is high enough to warrant sending in. Obviously it wouldn't be a good idea to send in a score <50th percentile assuming the rest of your application is strong for instance.

Does this answer your question? How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students?

Probably you should just go ahead and do it.  In particular, I think reading an application with no GRE score, I generally would guess the score is lower than the one you listed (though, this year, who knows).  It's impossible to fully predict the effect it has (most notably, you don't mention how strong the rest of your application is), but I think at most programs the GRE score is used try to sort out which students have reasonable preparation vs. those who don't, and your score is good enough to indicate reasonable preparation.  I don't think many people count on it to sort out who the very best applicants are.

When I review grad school applications, the math subject GRE scores are usually a binary pre-filter. If someone scores below our cutoff (which is usually a 600 for MS, 650 for PhD), they are pretty much automatically removed. We need students who can assist in teaching undergrad math and they need to at least have some base competency.
That is the extent of our use of the subject GRE.
I would report your scores if you have them. Your scores are high enough that I'm guessing most programs will not even think twice about them.


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Should a PhD statement of purpose focus on what you accomplished during previous research experiences or what you learned via these experiences?
I'm applying for PhDs in mathematics (in the USA). I've read a number of statement of purpose examples from friends and from those online. Generally, I see two different approaches to writing about previous research experiences:
(1) Some people focus on the hard facts of what they and their colleagues did during a research project, saying things like "we were interested in XYZ question, so we successfully used ABC methodology to show ZYX results".
(2) Others seem to focus more on the broader lessons that they extracted from a research experience: "Working with a large group on XYZ, I learned how to more effectively collaborate with peers... the process of doing ABC enhanced my ability to communicate ideas clearly and concisely".
Which approach should be prioritized in a statement of purpose? I feel like approach (1) is more straight to the point. I've read online that its bad to be overly flowery and expository in writing a PhD SOP, which (2) runs the risk of. But at the same time, I feel like in order to write 500-1000 words following approach (1), one has to go into considerable depth about their research, and I've read online that its bad to get too bogged down in explaining the minute details of one's research (using specific technical jargon that may not be familiar to everyone on the admissions board etc...).

Actually, I find neither of those approaches compelling. The SoP isn't about the past. The CV is for that. The SoP should be about what you want to accomplish in the future, both in grad study and in a career.
It should say what sub-field(s) you intend to follow (usually one or two) and, when possible, what problem(s) you think you would like to attack. It should, however, be flexible. Insisting on one problem with no options is sub-optimal. You will need to find an advisor at some point and negotiate a problem area with them, so you need to be "interesting" to the faculty.
I'll note, however, it is normally very difficult for an incoming doctoral student in mathematics to be very specific about a problem. That is expected, since it is the common case. But you should be clear about the sub field. In my case I preferred real analysis (old school, as am I) but would be happy in topology. That was enough, though a bit more refinement might have been good.
Use the past only to support the future and make such statements about your past brief and to the point. "I want to focus on A, and my previous work as detailed in the CV has led me here." A bit more focus than that, but not a lot more words.
The CV is about where you have been. The SoP is about where you hope to go, with something about how you hope/expect to get there. Put your (1) in the CV and most of your (2) in cover letters and such.


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Math PhD chances
I am a Math major currently in my second year. I go to a large US state school and I recently got my grades back for my intro real analysis class. It was disastrous but expected. I got a B+. I want to go to Math PhD and I am looking for suggestions to overcome this. I will be applying to the Top 20-50 Math PhD programs and would like suggestions to strengthen my profile. I know intro real analysis sequence is the most important thing but looking to see if there’s still a chance after this poor performance.
Any suggestions regarding what courses to take or how to study properly to get proper grades or how to improve other aspects of my application are welcomed.
I will be taking intro real 2 next semester along with algebra and topology.
Edit: I essentially wanted to ask will getting (A) in higher level courses after real analysis be sufficient enough for academic ability to not make a difference or does intro real analysis 1 have some inherent things one looks forward to in an applicant?

One "modest" grade isn't a disaster. Analysis, algebra, and topology are all about equally important. Maybe you need to do more exercises. Maybe you need more feedback. Maybe you need to ask more questions.

It was disastrous but expected. I got a B+. --- This is disastrous? You got "above average" in an upper level undergraduate course in your 3rd semester. That said, I think what will help a lot is to do excellent (best in the class, and then some if possible) work in at least 2 or 3 core classes (e.g. 2nd semester real analysis, abstract algebra, topology, etc.) to establish high upper limits on your potential and to secure some good recommendations. Maybe postpone upper level undergraduate courses until you're actually an upper level undergraduate. (continued)

Also, make sure you go well beyond just taking classes -- things like the Putnam Exam (and try to do reasonably well), REU's, Budapest Semesters in Mathematics, etc. As for "what courses to take or how to study properly", these are things you need to talk to some of your professors about, who are in a much better position to advise you than people who know nothing about you.

Thank you for the suggestions. Perhaps I shouldn’t have used the word disastrous. I will definitely try to improve my study habits to improve my scores in the next semesters. I definitely participate a lot in classroom and do exercises outside of the classroom but my proofs lacked considerations of edge cases or are correct but not very rigorous. As for Putnam,I will definitely keep on giving it as I love it. As for the research, I did one small project which got published in an undergrad journal but it kind of seemed trivial.

Grades are not the only deciding factor in a PhD application - and what’s more, a B+ in a difficult module is not a bad grade. As well as your academic performance, they will be looking for someone who genuinely loves maths, beyond learning content for exams, because after all PhDs are long and very difficult. Demonstrate this by describing in your application that you ask questions about maths beyond the curriculum, that you think deeply about the content, and that you are eager to research maths. Hope this helps.

@TopologyTitan: beyond learning content for exams --- Seeing this induced me to expand on my earlier comment about doing excellent in 2 or 3 core classes. I mean more than just doing very well (even perfect) on graded exams. I mean things like beyond-the-call-of-duty write-ups for turned-in homework, being clearly-on-top-of-everything in classroom participation, study of supplementary topics the instructor suggests that some might want to investigate (or better yet, topics the student independently investigates), etc. And doing so without coming across as a brown-nosing know-it-all.


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Publish a short summary of an accepted paper before proceedings
A paper I submitted as part of my PhD to an international conference has been recently accepted and I wish to publish a short translated summary to a national conference (which is allowed by them provided that I cite the original paper).
However, the proceedings for the international conference take place after those of the national one. Is it possible to cite the international conference paper before the proceedings?
P.S: My field is computer science

Yes, it is possible to cite a paper that is "to appear", even more so if you know where and when. But, both conferences need to be ok with this, so make sure you have all appropriate permissions. Some venues can be fussy.
There probably won't be a problem given that the short paper is just a summary. But it is their rules that apply.
But just mark the citation as "to appear, month, venue".


text:
The format of a follow up
Two weeks ago I had an interview for a postdoc position. Because of the immediate need to fill that position, the committee decided, at the end of the interview, that I won't be considered for this particular position. On the other hand, they have multiple open positions, to be posted in the near future and I have a very high chance to be selected for one of them. The reason for not being chosen for the current position is they need to start it as soon as possible.
How long to wait before following up? and what could be the suggested format/etiquette of such a letter?

They said the other positions will be "posted in the near future," so you should just wait till they are posted (i.e. advertised) and apply in the usual way.


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Reusing research proposal text in job application
I recently wrote and submitted a research proposal for a fellowship. I am now also applying for a permanent lecturer position which requires an outline of research plans. Is there any problem taking text, directly or with minor changes, from the proposal and reusing it?
Of course, the proposal has a lot more details, but there are a couple of paragraphs that summarize the research which I could use almost word-for-word.

Since a grant/fellowship application isn't a publication, you can reuse it freely. The overlap is natural and you should mention that you are pursuing funding for your research in the job application. You can mention, though it isn't essential, that "the following is taken from the application" or "the following describes the research proposed in the fellowship application.
It is publications of prior work that need citation. A fellowship application is a private communication. Private communications of others might need to be cited, but not your own.

I'm not an expert in this by any means, but from what professors and others have told me, I think a policy of "When in doubt, cite your source" could serve you just fine here. Just make a small note in an appropriate place that some of the used writings are adapted from a previous work. Cite it as specifically as you can.
I'm curious what others will answer, though, as the hows and whens of source citing are something I'm only recently needing to thoroughly consider.


text:
Left postdoc for a non-academic post in the same university - PI is chasing me to write a paper
I recently left a postdoc position (UK) due to the grant coming to a close, and I have moved on to a non-academic post at the same university. I had been looking to move out of academia for a while so this move was completely planned (and wanted!). In the last couple of months of my postdoc my PI decided he wanted me to write up a paper based on the (very little and uninteresting) data that had come out of part of the project I had been working on, but it took so long to decide what would actually go into the paper, that I only had about 2 weeks before finishing my post to write up as much as I could (which wasn't much since I also had to train another postdoc to take over my other project, and a bunch of students!)
I  am now only 3 days into my new role which is already much busier than anticipated, and my PI is already chasing me for a plan to finish the manuscript.  I am not able to do this during work hours, and also I have no interest in publishing the work (I believe it amounts to pilot data at best)! However I also don't want to burn any bridges with my old PI by ignoring his communication, or get a bad reputation since I still work at the same institution.
Has anyone else been in this position? And is there a polite way of saying that any further work I do will have to be on my schedule, or perhaps invite him to pay me for any more work I do for him?  Or should I just suck it up and get it done in my spare time?!

Sounds like a great initial project for their next postdoc!

I did say something along these lines many times over the last couple of months, but there are no plans to take that piece of work forward (no more funding, and it didn't really work as well as we wanted!)  but still... he won't let it go!

“No” is a complete sentence. Use it. Yes, successful people are in this position every day, and that’s what they use.

The only issue I see is that your refusal might deny him a publication. That would be the case if your intellectual contributions must be included and you deserve authorship.
But, even in that case, you could say that you can't contribute further, but that you would review and approve a joint publication. Your further participation isn't required in such a case, only your approval of the product.


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English translation of transcript for admission that can't be from university
I attend a university in Italy, and they don't issue transcripts in English language. The university I am intending to apply for in USA ask for English translation coming from the same university and not through certified translators which I find bizzare.
The transcript is only for admission, and therefore it's not official, I can submit the final one once admitted and finished the program.
Now, I can easily translate the transcript and copy the stamp from the original Italian transcript and it's not a big deal. But, I fear they might contact the university to ask if they have provided the English translation as well, which they don't.
What do you think about this situaion?

@NateEldredge, that is probably a good answer.

Contact the university where you are applying, explain the situation and ask what to do, or what documents you should provide instead.
My guess is that they will accept a certified translation. They might even be willing to accept your own informal translation, with a certified copy to follow later if you are admitted, but ask them.
If you do provide your own unofficial translation, make sure that it is clearly marked as your own.  Do not copy an official stamp, or in any way attempt to pass it off as official.  This would be considered fraud, even if your translation is perfectly accurate.  If detected, you could expect to be immediately rejected, regardless of how good your record is.  This can also happen retroactively if it's discovered after you are admitted - even years later, potentially leading to degree revocation.


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Seeking advice regarding masters programs in US
Background
I have just completed my second year as an undergraduate in Computer science and Artificial Intelligence from India. I have developed a keen interest in mathematics and particularly analytic number theory. I have written six papers so far where two of them have been published in good journals while rest are submitted. However, I have only done very basic courses in mathematics at my university like linear algebra, multivariate calculus and probability, discrete mathematics(with A in all of them). Since the stream I have opted for in my university is tangential to mathematics, I have not been able to score good grades in non math courses which has affected my GPA. However, I am confident that I can get strong recommendations for my masters applications.
Question
In my scenario, is it possible to get selected for a decent masters program in US?  In case it isn't, is there something I can do to increase my chances?
Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Is a doctorate your ultimate goal? An academic career?

Yes, I desire to pursue a career in mathematics

In your situation, for study in US, you are probably better off applying for a few doctoral programs, rather than a masters. Do this early in the final year of your undergraduate study. Most doctoral students here start with only a bachelors and a masters is very seldom required for doctoral study (unlike some parts of Europe).
I'd guess that you'd be a good candidate with the background that you describe.
Funding is usually available for doctoral students, probably as a teaching assistant. It is very rare for masters students. TAs don't normally pay any fees, but masters students almost always are charged tuition.
Expect about 6 or so years of study after the bachelors for a doctorate. Four is sometimes possible. A bit more than 6 happens often enough. The early part of study is advanced courses that get you ready for comprehensive/qualifying examinations.

I actually aimed at masters programs so that I could compensate for my bad GPA and lack of mathematical courses in UG

Probably not essential. Even changing fields is common here. Early courses will compensate and can lead to a masters along the way as well. GPA in major courses and in math will be more important than the overall.

@Hhhhhhhhhhh: In addition to what Buffy said, I also think committees looking at your credentials will wonder why someone is applying to their masters program who has a research output, after only 2 years of undergraduate work, that is greater than many (most? virtually all when I was an undergraduate) of their Ph.D. students, even by the time their Ph.D. is awarded. Or are the papers in Computer science and Artificial Intelligence, and not in math? (From my reading in this group, I've learned that publication expectations in some fields are quite different than those in math.)

@DaveLRenfro All papers are in number theory and the two papers of mine are published in ijnt and bulletin of australian mathematical society

Interesting. After I posted my comment, I began thinking that your context seems to suggest the papers are in computer science and artificial intelligence, but it was too late to revise my comment and I didn't want to delete it. I guess I could have copied it, then deleted it, then pasted the saved version of the comment in a new comment box, then revised it (I've done this several times before), but I didn't think it was important enough for all that. Anyway, given what you've said, you definitely want to apply (in 2 years) to Ph.D. programs, at least as far as the U.S is concerned.

@DaveLRenfro, careful. Not all bachelors programs are four years. Some are three. Apply in the last year of the program. FWIW, I was also wondering whether my assumption that the papers were in math or not. Serendipity, I guess.


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Masters and PhD

I am currently an undergraduate student in Asia. In my university, there's this unique program where students can pursue their bachelor's and master's degrees in 5 years instead of the normal 6 years. Is this program worth pursuing? or should I continue my graduate studies separately?

I have a plan to get a Ph.D. in the US after I complete my undergraduate studies. Will getting a master's degree be advantageous to me? or is a bachelor's degree enough?

Engineering programs with a 5-year BSE/MS are not that unusual here in the US. But for many engineers who wish to do engineering, a masters degree is a pretty standard advanced degree for many engineering firms. How it impacts PhD application will depend on the field and particular university and how they view the program.

See this canonical answer about applications in US. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/176908/how-does-the-admissions-process-work-for-ph-d-programs-in-country-x/176909#176909

If your plan is to go into industry, a 5 year option to finish with a master's is a no-brainer. You should absolutely do it. Hiring managers in industry often have master's degrees and they like hiring people with master's degrees.  Engineers in industry often change jobs every 3 to 5 years.  Over a career of 45 to 50 years, that's likely 10 to 15 times when a master's degree might help your resume stand out to a hiring manager and perhaps help you get the job or negotiate a better salary, title or assignment. You might as well start getting that advantage as soon as possible and this is the quickest possible way to get it done and out of the way.  Next best is a regular full time program that usually takes two years.  Part-time has the advantage that your employer may pay for it but takes years.
If your goal is PhD, it's a different story and one big reason is you usually pay for a master's but they usually pay you for a PhD.  It's a small stipend but it's something.  On occasion, students drop out of a PhD program but it's not unusual for them to cash in whatever credits they've earned on a master's as they leave.  (Universities never ask for the money back.)
If you have a PhD, no one will think less because you didn't bother with a master's along the way. Browse the CVs of tenure track faculty at top universities and you'll notice they all have PhDs, but lots of them do not have a master's.  Many of them skip it.
Perhaps the biggest reason I've heard why someone whose goal is a PhD might decide on a master's is if they're hoping to improve their record and get them into a better program.  But I'm not sure how well that works as a strategy.  I suppose it depends on whether you actually do that much better.
Is there an option where you might begin the 5 year program while also applying to PhD programs?  Could you drop out with the bachelor's you'd need if you get accepted into a PhD program you like or stick it out and get the master's if nothing better appears?


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APA 7th edition. Page number of direct quote vs referenced in-text citation
I'm stating a direct quote using APA 7th edition standards that is re-quoted by other authors.  I have a page number for the quoted statement, but then I have the referenced in-text citations that have the quote elsewhere.
Hyun et al. (2020) addressed this by stating, “to achieve organizational agility, companies must implement both high-speed and high-quality decision-making” (p. 39) (Ghasemaghaei et al., 2018; Westerman, 2009; Samsudin & Ismail, 2019).
Do I have the format correct?  I'm not sure, as I can't find the relevant guidance for this.
Thanks!

I tried to answer your question but then got confused. Could you highlight precisely the entire part of the source that you are using. Does your source, for example, say "Hyun .... (p. 39)" or does it include the author list at the end ... and does it exclude the words "Hyun ..." and simply run fro "to achieve" to "p. 39)"?? Or does it omit that page number. Separating what you are writing from the exact text of your source would be helpful.

so the quote is what I need and it's on page 39 in Hyun's document...but the quote is also referenced by three other papers.  I was trying to show all the referencing going on.

I found the original source of your quotation and worked from there. The source is Hyun et al. (as you mention) and can be accessed through here. The words that appear in Hyun et al. are

To achieve organizational agility, companies must implement both high-speed and high-quality decision making (Ghasemaghaei et al., 2018; Westerman, 2009; Samsudin & Ismail, 2019).

I think that most people would shorten this simply by writing:

Hyun et al. (2020) addressed this by stating, “to achieve organizational agility, companies must implement both high-speed and high-quality decision-making” (p. 39)

... but if you really want to quote the extra referencing at the end of the sentence, then you should treat it according section 8.32 of the Publication Manual as mentioned on this APA page, and write:

Hyun et al. (2020) addressed this by stating, “to achieve organizational agility, companies must implement both high-speed and high-quality decision-making  (Ghasemaghaei et al., 2018; Westerman, 2009; Samsudin & Ismail, 2019)” (p. 39)

Note that the quotation marks surround the entirety of the quoted material including the quoted in-line referencing, and that the page number on which the quoted material appears is situated at the end of the entire quote.
Do not include any of the following: Ghasemaghaei et al., 2018; Westerman, 2009; Samsudin & Ismail, 2019 in your own reference list, whether or not you include them in the block quote To do so would be to suggest that you had read them.

Thank you so much for this

This helps alot

Apa is somewhat complicated when learning

APA is  indeed complicated but the actual specification is one of the clearest of any style-guide that I know of, despite its complexity. If you can find a copy of a 5th edition (NOT the latest) APA Publication Guide, you will find that it has a lot of material omitted from the 6th and 7th editions despite the material still being current. It's worth looking for a 2nd hand copy.


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Should I avoid sending my research proposal?
I am currently applying for a PhD position in data science, and my potential supervisor is asking me to write a research proposal. This professor is working on "ML & NLP methods for Digital Health."
I am very interested in NLP technologies, and I really want to pursue a PhD in this direction. The problem is that I have no ideas to provide in this research proposal.
I could probably write something, but I'm not an expert in his field of specialty and I think it's ridiculous to send a bad proposal just because he's asking for one. I wonder if it would be better to just tell him that I don't have any ideas to submit.
What do you think?
Thanks in advance.

What country is this professor in?

I assume that in Switzerland you need to send something, no matter how tenuous. You aren't expected to be an expert yet. That is why you want doctoral study.
Try to narrow it down to something that you would "like to explore". Even a couple of things. But send something that indicates interest. You can also say (guessing a bit here) that you are open to suggestions beyond your own ideas.

I would guess that the professor won't decide whether to hire you depending on which problem you propose to study.
The professor is instead trying to find out whether you're well prepared to do research. Grades from past study aren't great indicators of that ability. If you're able to formulate a research proposal that makes any sense at all, then you're probably well prepared for a PhD (= to start a PhD).
On the other hand, if you tell the professor that you have no ideas, it doesn't really send the message that you're curious and creative.


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Recommendation letters in different fields
Currently, I'm applying for PhD positions at several universities in pure mathematics and computer science. Despite the fact that these two fields are content-wise different and do not have too much in common, I'm open to do a PhD in both of them. However, if I ask a professor to write a letter of recommendation for each them, I'm not sure if the professor would negatively understand it. He may think that I should choose only one of these fields for PhD positions.
My question are the following and may be based on common (best) practices/experiences:

Is it recommendable/valid to apply PhD positions in different fields
at different universities?

Does a professor perceive it as inappropriate/negative when he is
asked to write recommendation letters for two different fields?

Furher recommendations regarding this issues are very welcome.

You can and should apply to any position in any field in which you are interested and have the background. But it is probably useful to give a lot of thought about what you want to do with your future before you make any applications at all. I suspect nost mathematicians are driven to math. Nothing else will do. If you don't have that sort of drive/compulsion for a field, evaluate carefully. It isn't like choosing McDonalds v Burger King.
Before you ask anyone for a letter of recommendation first have  a conversation with them about your long term plans and get some advice from them. If you just make a blind "ask" you don't know what you are likely to get. And, of course, some professors will guide you to one field or another whether that is the right choice for you or not. If you really need a letter from an individual for both fields, make sure, in your conversation, that they happily buy in to the plan.
But if you are doing very well in both fields, it might be best to ask professors in the specific field for a recommendation in that field.


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Best grading statistics
I am fresh at teaching computer science. For this subject, students must write an exam. Are there any statistics beyond avg, median, max, min points which you can recommend calculating? Furthermore, can you recommend any visualizations for year over year comparisons or comparisons with various previous years?
Any help is appreciated.

Why do you want these statistics?

I want to assess wether the dispersion of the grades, changes significantly year over year. To better understand if the teaching improves for example

How many students take the exam every year? Think carefully if you will have enough data points to derive meaningful statistics.

About 60-80 students every year. Is that enough?

Trying to do statistics, with no formal education in statistics, is likely to lead to faulty conclusions.

I never compute the median or mean, I only compute distributions (histograms).  That said I don't compare exam results year-to-year as things vary.  But I do occasionally compare final letter grades from semester to semester or between sections.

Your question is perfectly on topic here, but I'd also suggest checking out https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/

I used to do this heavily (M.A. in stats here) for several years, but never found any real use for it, honestly. There's just too much noise and too many variables in the social system to draw out any actionable inferences.

@GEdgar - to be fair, faulty conclusions only occur in 5 out of 3 cases...

Do you have background information on the students?  For example, can you tag each student with their age, sex, gender, GPA, race, major, SAT scores, years in the program, number of times they've tried to take that course, etc.?  If you don't have such information, then you'd probably need huge sample-sizes to compensate.

As a thought: major standardized exams, such as the SAT, tend to have a lot of analysis done to their results.  They often do have a lot of demographic information about test-takers, plus far larger sample-sizes than you'd likely enjoy in a classroom-setting, plus many years of data, along with other nicer factors.  So if they're able to easily calculate something, then you might be able to do a rough version of the same.  However, if they've been unable to get data for something, then it may be a bit too ambitious.

@Galen: Unfortunately not. Thanks for asking.

.... although I will quote Ernest Rutherford when he said, "The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the ‘social sciences’ is: some do, some don’t."

When presenting exam results to students, I usually post a bar chart of the distribution of scores along with min, max, median and mean and call it good.  I always look at the bar charts of average scores by question (Gradescope is great for this) but I don't usually post those charts unless there's something interesting I want to share with the class, e.g., that a question turned out to be much more difficult than we expected.
But allow me to soap box for a moment.  The exam itself is more important than how you report the statistics.
A good exam has several objectives.  Students expect grades so of course it must fairly measure and differentiate your students' performances and give them useful feedback on what they're doing well or not so well across problems of varying difficulty.  Plotting scores as a bar chart, you should see a nice bell-shaped curve distribution.
Second, a good exam should measure your performance as well.  Assuming different questions or problems test different things, a bar chart of average scores by question can right away tell you which learning objectives were generally achieved and which were not.
Third, a good exam is one last chance to teach or reinforce your learning objectives, e.g., with a problem that asks students to take what they've learned one small step further, resulting perhaps in an ah-hah moment. (One of my staff used to call problems like this "spicy".)

I like most of this answer. But I believe that "ah-ha!" moments, while absolutely desirable in general, should not be a goal of timed exams specifically. Students are under enough pressure that they're not going to appreciate any teaching that an exam is trying to do. I prefer to save "ah-ha!" moments for when students are open to them—classes, office hours, or untimed assessment such as homework. (Moreover, leaning into the desire for "spicy" problems often results in exams with negative issues—too long, too difficult, etc.)

I usually post a lower quantile rather than the actual minimum, to spare that student or two.

@GregMartin A good timed exam is one where almost all the students run out of answers they could improve before they run out of time. Also, please note the emphasis on "one small step further".  It should never be a trick question or one where the ah-hah moment is obscure.  A reasonable example would be a recursive problem on an intro CS exam with one more recursive or base case than in the examples from lecture, asking the student to slightly generalize what they've learned.

Don't overthink it and don't put too much significance into any set of numbers. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the most fundamental is that any given class is not a random sample from the "population" and the population itself changes from year to year as well as being difficult to define.
Your list of possible statistics is fine. The harder you try to push it the less reliable your numbers will be. And don't put a lot of effort into why some statistics (min, max) vary widely from class to class. Larger samples tend to even out the mean, of course, as expected, but maybe not the mode, or even the shape of the distribution.
But an even bigger issue is that, for a professor, you need to treat each student as an individual, not as a data point. Every student is different, and every student is likely different from you. The very fact that you are where you are, with your educational background and interests sets you aside from nearly all of your students who have different goals than you do. You need to learn to deal with that.
At whatever level you teach you will find that some students find it all very easy and others very difficult. This is aside from differing motivation for what you teach. You need to be willing (and I hope able) to give full marks to everyone in the class. Or to fail everyone in extreme cases. You need to work harder with and for some students than others. You need to learn the tricks to do this efficiently. Statistics won't help you much, and, in particular, they may not say anything about you, though if you need to fail everyone, then you need to reflect on that and make changes.
I've had classes where everyone was (more than) capable of full marks. I never worked harder in my life. I've also had classes where I needed to tell them they might all fail if they didn't change their (learning) behavior. Both sorts of situations can turn out well, though in the latter case I had to take time out to teach them how to learn effectively.
One practice I used in teaching was to look at the grades overall at the end of a course to see whether, informally, the distribution matched what I "thought" the general level of learning was overall. If I thought that the grades "seemed" lower than my judgement of their learning then I would adjust the grades overall a bit upwards, though not downward. This still fulfilled my "contract" with them that if they earned X points their grade would be (at least) Y. Any surprises at the end were happy ones. And yet I was viewed by the students as a very demanding instructor.
But I also realize that when I was a novice instructor I was far too rigid. Experience helped a lot and for many new university teachers there are no pedagogy courses that teach you how to get it right early on.

Edited to add: If your 60-80 students are divided into different sections then be prepared to find that there might be differences between the sections in performance even though the "teaching is the same" for them. One of the hardest things I ever did, and I'm still not sure I was successful, was to teach three sections of the same course of about 30 each "back to back" in three consecutive hours.

There is one statistic, however, though I can't remember its name, that tests the validity of individual questions. It is possible that the statement of some exam questions is confusing or misleading, and the best students to worse than the average on that question. In essence it measures the distribution per question vs the distribution overall. This isn't a measure of student performance, but a measure of the validity/reliability of an exam itself. Perhaps someone with more background in statistics can supply the name of the measure. This one is worth considering.

And if your department constrains what you are allowed to do then see the following: Grades are too high for the department - what should I do?

I would like to upvote this answer several times. I hope the OP takes it to heart.