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How common is it for academics to write fiction?
I have submitted a few papers to academic journals. I love writing non-fiction articles and long form "literary" non-fiction. I also would love to write at least one novel. None of my fiction is anything that I would not want a relative to read. None of my fiction is embarrassing. My question is how common is it for academics to write fiction? I use a pen name when I write anything that is not meant for more formal situations like academic journals. Is it common? Is it frowned upon?

I don't have numbers, but yes, it is common and not frowned upon. Good fiction requires intelligence and imagination. Who better than an academic? Some popular writers were academics in the past and remain in the vicinity of their former employment to enjoy the benefits of living in a community of intellectuals. A pen name is probably a good compromise for a working academic so as not to confuse people about your priorities.  There are a few books (Moo - Jane Smiley) that made people uncomfortable as they recognized themselves in the characters. But brilliant satire of academia.

What exactly do you think professors in the English (or your local language) department do?

I am an academic and a professional writer. In my particular field of writing (interactive fiction), a large chunk of writers are academics, so it’s definitelt possible.
Most employers are not concerned about outside activities as long as they don’t interfere with your responsibilities. However, writing commercially requires a large enough time commitment that it will be very hard to conduct research at the same time. The most prolific and successful academic/writers I’ve seen either stopped writing or stopped being a research academic. A few are able to find a position where there writing is valued as academic research (such as Nick Montfort).
If research is an expectation for your position, then your best bet would be to take a more teaching-focused job or to work only a small amount of time each day and marketing your writing after you finish it in your own.

And even geeks and scientists can do it.


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What does "inclusive page numbers" mean?
I am preparing a manuscript for submission to Journal of Cardiology. The author instructions say "Please provide inclusive page numbers, e.g., 51-9." What does that mean? How else can you cite page numbers.

inclusive page numbers presumably means giving a range from the first relevant page to the last relevant page, rather than a range from the page after the first relevant page and the page before the last relevant page, the latter being "exclusive page numbers."

That instruction seems rather poor. inclusive confuses, rather than informs me. Presumably exclusive page numbers shouldn't be used. But that'd surely be non-standard anyhow. The example looks to contain a typo, unless 9 abbreviates 59. (If it does, that should surely be mentioned.) Without context, it's difficult to know what should be avoided. For citations, some might find page numbers preferable to section numbers. (I don't, because page 576 of an eleven page paper isn't useful, unless I happen to know the paper starts on page 572.) Perhaps the instruction is common in your field.

@user2768 In some citation styles it is normal and standard to use the minimum digits for page ranges. 51-59 is written 51-9. You can read it as "pages fifty-one through -nine". If it were 251-269 you would write 251-69, etc.

@BryanKrause Introducing an abbreviation—which readers must learn—for the purpose of dropping a digit, perhaps two, maybe even three, seems illogical, outdated if I'm being kind. Nonetheless, I've learned something (+1).

@user2768 Yes, it does seem a bit outdated even to include page numbers at all in today's digital world. It makes sense in a print journal, though. Especially with volumes that number pages across issues, you can easily have 4 or 5 digit page numbers, and dropping 82340-82349 down to 82340-9 saves several characters and could easily prevent overflow to a subsequent line, which in turn could overflow to a subsequent page. It's an abbreviation that is common in citation styles so the expectation is that readers would be familiar, it's not something particular to any one journal.

@user2768 - and page limits used to be much more firm in the days of actual print. An Applied Physics Letter was 3 journal pages, absolute maximum. Physical Review Letters had to adjust their limits a bit for the (very) large big science papers (e.g. CERN) where the author list could be longer than the paper itself. Anyway, I remember hunting through the galley proofs to find where I could cut the minimum number of letters/words/numbers to get rid of an extra line or two to fit (hint, look at places with as little as possible left in a paragraph/citation, and cut there).

@JonCuster Historically, characters were expensive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metal_movable_type.jpg)—I understand the rationale for abbreviations. They're just outdated. Much of the publication process is. (Physics is indeed notorious for long author lists. I guess they've gotten longer, as the world has gotten "smaller.") Absolutely agree with trimming words. (Another hint: Look for whitespace in paragraphs.) Personally, I take a hatchet to bibliographies, likely to an editor's chagrin. Entries need to be comprehensible, not necessarily prescribed (in proceedings of is redundant)

The alternative is to include only the first page number, which is sufficient to clearly identify the referenced article but in this case the journal is wanting to use a style that includes the end page.
They probably included this in the directions because they cannot reformat references with missing info, and to save their publication staff the time of pestering the authors for the info at a later date.

Depending on the context, page numbers can be reported also in other forms, e.g. from 51 to 59. They thus want the authors to use an inclusive page range (meaning that all the numbers from the first to the last reported are included; I suppose it's for the bibliography) with the page numbers separated by a dash (typically a en dash) and, from the given example, I would say that they also want the authors to use an abbreviated form, that is, 51-9 instead of 51-59.

What if it is 19-25? They are really bothering authors in many ways. :)

@Alchimista There are some standard guidelines about how and when to abbreviate, e.g. the Chicago Manual of Style gives some guidance. But indeed the specifications given by that journal are awfully unclear...

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Are US researchers prohibited from sharing journal articles via university-sanctioned cloud resources?
I want to share PDF journal articles with my research team, where the team members are all affiliated with my academic institute, a US-based university. The articles are not necessarily my publications. I can use freely available tools such as Mendeley or Zotero to accomplish this sharing. In counter to this, I am under the distinct but perhaps incorrect impression that I am prohibited from using a university-sanctioned cloud based resource such as Google Drive to accomplish this sharing even when I would follow exactly the same guidelines as I do when posting to Mendeley or Zotero.
For reference

I have read the Terms of Service at Mendeley and Zotero. The former states ... Accordingly, you may only post versions of Academic Papers or other Content (as defined below) on the Site if you have the right to do so. The latter states ... You have sole responsibility for the accuracy, quality, integrity, legality, reliability, appropriateness, and intellectual property ownership or right to transmit, post or upload your Submissions and to grant the rights granted by you herein.

I only post (share) PDFs from journal articles that can be obtained directly by our library subscription or through our library inter-loan processes.

I only post the PDFs to team members who have the same access as I do (i.e. all team members are affiliated with my university).

In summary, even if I post only a DOI reference to Mendeley, Zotero, or by email to my team, every one on the team can obtain the journal PDF. I (presumably) therefore also have permission to post (share) the PDF directly to Mendeley or Zotero. What would prohibit me instead from posting the PDFs directly in a team-restricted, university-sanctioned cloud service, specifically Google in this case?

Check the sharing policies of wherever you got the articles from.

I suspect you'll get a more accurate answer from your librarian than from us.  In particular, I would not be surprised if the answer differs from university to university depending on the contracts the library has with publishers and Mendeley and Zotero.  (It may unfortunately even depend on the specific publisher of the journal in question (as well as your university), since your library may have different contracts with different publishers.)

Are you the author of these articles or are they the work of others?

The subscription agreement with your institution would describe what permission you have to share.  Otherwise, copyright law says you cannot copy the documents, except under whatever conditions your jurisdiction may consider as fair use / fair dealing.  I would be very surprised if it makes any difference whether the sharing takes place via a "university-sanctioned cloud based resource" or by some other means (non-sanctioned cloud service, email, photocopy, etc).

So long you only share the articles privately, nothing bad will happen. Anyone who contests this claim: please provide a real-world counterexample.

I have revised my post to try to address the comments from everyone.

You have to comply with copyright restrictions.
While you can share an article you lawfully possess with "a few" colleagues without issue, so long as it is done privately, you can't "publish" the work of others without permission from the copyright owner(s).
So, if your "cloud" is public facing and someone like myself could access it, then it is almost certainly a form of publishing and therefore likely infringing if done without permission.
But, if the "cloud" is nothing more than a private repository to which only a small group, say a research group, has access and to which others have no access you are safe enough, both legally and ethically. It isn't the "cloudy" nature of it, but who (and how many) can access it.
Note that authors normally get a license for some things when they yield copyright to a publisher, but the license is unlikely to include republishing the article, though preprints may be allowed. But it is the author, not others, who have that license.
From what you write, I'd guess you would be infringing, but it is the lawyers and courts who make the decisions. Note that if a publisher believes that you are reducing the economic value of the copyright, they will be unhappy. How unhappy is up to them.
But if you just want access to your local group, the library already seems to provide that to you.

You can, of course, publish your own work to the cloud as long as you retain copyright or an appropriate license. You can, assuming you own copyright, then attach a license to it for reuse if you desire, or you can retain all rights, which is normally the default. (Caveat: copyright law varies though it is somewhat unified across the globe.)

Thank you. Access would be restricted to colleagues at my institute. In further consideration, I likely hesitate because I know that any cloud service can (and will) harvest my postings for their own use. The question is therefore ... Do I violate copyright by posting to a cloud service that I know will harvest my posting for their own ends? I presume the answer is that not only must I take all actions on my part to limit who can access what I post, I must also assure that the cloud service explicitly states that it will not (purposely) release what I post to anyone in the public domain.

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Should I abandon any further higher education knowing that I was dishonest as an undergraduate?
This feels uncomfortable to ask, because I know my actions have undermined what I've worked toward.
A little background: I graduated with a bachelors degree, and then went on to get a masters degree in a different field from a different school. I did well in both programs, including a few years of research during my undergrad. That was a few years ago, and since then I have been working professionally outside of academia. My goal has been to eventually go back and earn a PhD.
That is still my goal, and although I didn't behave unethically during my masters, I am troubled by academically dishonest actions I took as an undergrad and I'm not sure how to reconcile them. There are two specific incidents that particularly bother me.
In the first incident, I gave a class presentation that kind of followed a secondary source while only citing the primary sources. I now understand that is also plagiarism. In the second incident, I was panicked because I was struggling in a class. Another student had evidently found the solutions manual to the homework. He approached me, and I ended up giving him a small sum of cash in exchange. This is especially bad.
I have a few questions. Although it could certainly never happen, If I faced sanctions from the undergraduate university, would they revoke my degree? Would sanctions prompt the other universities to revoke my other degrees, including my masters and a PhD if I had earned it? How should I move forward? Would it be wrong for me to enter a PhD program?

Sounds like you have had some insights to your past behavior, and understand what you did was wrong - that could serve you will in future situations where you might be tempted to game the system. That experience could be a positive rather than a negative.
You escaped any consequences, and I don't think it's productive to think about hypothetical situations where you didn't, especially for something that is at least a few years in the past.
There are lots of good reasons to not enter a PhD program. I don't think you've found one here, but you should think about what goals you would have as a PhD student since a PhD is unlikely to advance your career unless you want to enter academia. You'll need a lot of internal motivation to get it done. Focus on those things rather than dwelling on your past indiscretions.

"unlikely to advance your career unless you want to enter academia": There are many career options where a PhD is now preferred, including industrial R&D and finance.

@aeismail That's true, and why I said unlikely rather than not going to. I am assuming that the OP is working in the field they want to work in, and in that case in most fields another 5-6 years of experience in the industrial world simply counts more than a PhD, which necessarily ends up quite narrowly focused. There are certainly exceptions where industry is looking for PhD credentials in certain positions, I just don't think for most people it's a good motivation for doing the degree.

First of all, the fact is that you have a conscience about your behavior is very respectable and you should appreciate (and guard) it.
Regarding your dilemma, rather than giving up your goal, you can check with your undergrad university to see what their policies are about your situation. It is better to do this anonymously, lest they take drastic measures against you. Maybe, they have a lenient or forgiving attitude (I am not aware of regulations in your country and rules may differ from my country. Sad to say, in my country, both of your incidents are rather common and there are no written rules against them). Or, maybe they just require you to retake the courses again. Or maybe, they do not have any laws against you now that you are graduated.
In the worst case scenario, it is possible that regulations may revoke your degree (which is, for your case, very extreme and unlikely in my opinion). This is something that depends entirely on you and your moral codes.
To be honest, unfortunately, unethical behavior is not uncommon in academia (just browse this website and you will find plenty of questions from victims and even from perpetrators!). In your case,  IMHO, you have done an insignificant plagiarism in the first incident and in the second one, you have just bought a solution manual. Compared to many crooks that I have personally seen in the academia, you are pleasantly clean. Of course, this statement does not mean that I agree with this behavior. It just means that, considering all factors, sometimes one can be forgiving about it.

I do not think you ought to abandon. Quite the contrary: you seem to be a sensible person!
The truth spread out: there is an awful lot of misconduct in academia. There are many references, such as this one, or this discussion. The system in fact is claimed to be remarkably permissive towards cheaters and abusers. Therefore, to answer another part of your question: apparently, in most places nothing substantial would have happened to you had you been caught redhanded. Perhaps someone would have blackmailed you on your second "crime" forcing you to part from even more bribery money.
However, typically "bad apples" anywhere never admit to their own flaws. Most of them reportedly fool themselves (and close friends) into believing that (i) they are actually on the right; (ii) everyone else does it, so that in the end there's no wrong done. Many cheaters are psychopathic in nature, meaning they have no true sense of guilt nor empathy.
You are clearly not that kind of person: you question your (past) self and then you feel guilty. That means you feel the urge for self-improvement. That makes you a sensible man who should continue to grow for the benefit of others. Please stay in the academia.
Now, on a final remark, I do not think you have committed very serious misconduct. I have seen way worse, from people who wouldn't even blink when accused. Thus had I caught you I would not have pushed to revoking your degree, or anything to that effect. (And I am tough on cheaters; I have had some serial plagiarists fired.) Some exposure and public shaming would have been enough to "set an example" and apparently you would have been psychologically impacted enough to prevent you from repeating yourself.


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Last year of my Ph.D studies
I am a Ph.D. student in pure mathematics and I am in my final year of graduate studies. I found that academia is not suited for me: unstable job, low salary, and a self-sacrifice culture that it is based on the motto "Publish or Perish". I want to ask you what are the odds to get a good job with a Ph.D. in pure mathematics? I am truly lost. I consider myself a big failure. I have expended three years of my life in pursuing a thing that it is useless and purely theoretical. Currently, I only want to make some good money in the industry. I want to ask you: what can a pure mathematician do in the real world? Is there any kind of investment banking or hedge funds interested in hiring mathematicians holding a Ph.D. in pure mathematics and a master´s degree in big data and business analytics?
Thank you very much for any response.

You will probably be a great asset to a data-science team (in the fintech sector or elsewhere), especially if you have knowledge of programming in Python or R, but even without that you could contribute with math knowledge and ability to think logically and understand abstractions. Once you start you could further improve your data-science and programming skills, or make steps in the direction of management. Your PhD is an excellent way to show a company that you are intelligent and capable of completing and possibly also managing a difficult project.

I know how to programming in Python, R, C, C++, Mathematica, Matlab, SQL, Scala, Huskell ectc.. but I find myself lost to look for jobs. I think I can contribute a little bit in hedge funds or invest banking but I don´t know if there is any kind of period recruitment, or I just have to send my CV to some of this companies. Do you know any what kind of companies does this jobs?

Its best if you know someone in the company (family, friends, ...). Otherwise just search on the company website or jobs websites and apply. You could think of: banks, insurance companies, pension funds, credit card companies, and so on. But you should be able to accept starting with a "low" salary (probably better than academia, but still). Then you can move to your next job or get promoted when you have more work experience (most companies consider that to be very important). After a few promotions and/or job changes you will get your "good money", if you are good.

What have other students in your department done over the last few years? What kind of folks have you talked to at conferences? What talks from industry or national labs seemed interesting?

First of all I want to thank you all for your answers. I am the first phd student of my research group for 7/8 years due to the low financiation by the Goverment of my country. I have talked at conferences with academics and big data analyst and also quants. I dont mind to work as a quant, I find it very interesting. I see that D.E Shaw Group hires fresh PhDs, but I dont have any references

Please don't take this question as snarky or a put down. But why did you go into this program in the first place? What attracted you to it? What kept you it it? The answers can go a long way to  finding a solution.

@Buffy I love maths that was my first motivation. I wanted to publish high quality papers and know more and more about mathematics.  I consider my advisor a good friend and it is a well known mathematician, in adition I find the topic of my thesis amazing. But, I have discovered in the last years what academy is about, and this is just not the enviroment I want to be in. I dont want to go from on podtdoc to another and can’t have any kind of emocional or professional stability. I hate the rotten side of academia, and I dont want to expend the rest of my life in this situation.

Is your advisor also dissatisfied with their decisions? Other than publish or perish what rotten sides of academic life do you see?

I think we are in different points of our lives, in the sense she is a full professor at my university so she does not have to worry about the future anymore. 30 years ago it was easier (at least in my country) to finish your Ph.D. and then get a stable position in one of the universities of the country. Things have changed a lot in my country in the last 30 years...

I feel trapped in a routine of work work and more work who does not impress my advisor, I am badly paid, and the future does not seem brighter...

On hedge funds, you may want to read this and this.

Well, I think few people make a lot of money doing mathematics unless they are "quants" in stock investments, or actuaries in the insurance industry. People don't normally go in to mathematics for the money, but, rather are driven to do it by some internal inescapable mechanism.
My advice, such as it is, is to evaluate your options. It may be that finishing is the best option now, as it shouldn't be far off.
Yes, academia is in a bit of a mess now and the post doc merry-go-round is pretty destructive, but many people in the past have also finished their degrees in terrible economic times. My advisor had just started his studies when the Russians came over the border into Czechoslovakia and shut the universities down. He was delayed for years but did well (after escaping later). I graduated into an economy with no jobs for mathematicians. When we landed on the moon, funding for science and math dropped off a cliff after years of growth. More people had already been hired than could be justified in the new world. I had to take a job at a very low level college, though some thought I was one of those "most likely to succeed" types (My mom, anyway). I also had to change fields to CS and was only able to make partial use of my math skills. But I survived and eventually it worked out.
But, someone who can do mathematics can do a lot of things that require analytical skills.
Your advisor seems like a resource. I hope you are using that to advance. She may not need to worry about her own future anymore, but I hope she worries about yours and her other students. I assume that she has a circle of collaborators with whom she is in contact. If you aren't part of that circle, you need to become part of it. Have her, for example, get you invited to give talks at other places. Right now your advisor is your chief mentor, I suspect. But as you move on, look for others willing to help you advance.
Build your own circle.
And, publish or perish isn't universal, though it is at top places. And it isn't so terrible if you really like to write papers. You are down now, but you want to make your trajectory and exponential one. Once it gets better it will continue.

Thank you very much for your insights. At this particular moment, I am pretty down. I am in a dark circle of depressive thoughts dreaming of finishing my thesis and run away to the industry or to pick strawberries in a little village.  I consider people who survived through all this academic craziness truly heroes.  I am considering my options carefully, but anyway thank you all for your comments and responses.  Anyway, I am going to finish my thesis this year and after that, I am going to take a little time for myself. Once I am in the right set of mind I will decide what to definitely do.

I live in that village, actually. And strawberries are on tonight's menu. But it sounds like you have a plan. Don't make big decisions when you are depressed. And think about getting a counselor if it seems that dark.

Thank you for your advice and comments Buffy


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How does peer review assess the validity of experiments carried out?
In a research paper scientific experiments are carried out and their results recorded.  Anybody can just fabricate experiment data saying they did an experiment and these were the results. The only way you'd know if it was true is if other non related people repeated the experiments and found the same data.
Does the peer review process ensure experimental data being reported is accurate and how so?

Does this answer your question? How can editors and reviewers detect data manipulation?

Also relevant: What should raise red flags to detect fabricated data

The answer is different for each experimental design.  Peer review does not "ensure" anything.  It is always possible the peer reviewer is a dog.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog

No.  Peer review ensures the analysis of the experiment and associated data is correct.
Thankfully oftentimes the reviewers will have some experience and may question how this or that manipulation was done, may challenge the justification for a hypothesis or an assumption, or may ask why this new data is so much like or unlike previous data, but it is very unlikely that a referee will have the resources in time and/or funding to redo an experiment and verify the accuracy of the data submitted..


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Should I self-fund my PhD at one of the top 10 universities at UK?
I will start my PhD in the field of Biomedical Computer Vision soon at one of the top 10 universities at UK. I am an international student from Asia.
But unfortunately I haven't received any source of funding yet (no university scholarship, no supervisor grant) to cover my PhD. The tuition fees alone per year is only slightly less than 20,000 British Pounds, which is something I cannot afford on my own for all my years of PhD.
I am thinking of going there initially for one year with self-funding, by taking money from my savings and some from my parents, and will risk it initially and try to secure a source of funding there after starting my PhD, and if everything goes well will have figured a way to fund myself from some grant or scholarship.
I have been thinking about this since many many days now and am not able to make a decision about whether I should go there or not. And if things go really bad financially, what would be ways out ?
Any comments or help is much needed and highly appreciated.

Doing a PhD is questionable financial proposition even when it's funded. Self funding is not a good investment. Also, I doubt your ability to find funding after you have started. I do not know who you would apply for funds from.

That sounds like a really bad investment. What is your life goal? A career in academia?

No. And you are unfortunately unlikely to find funding, because of these reasons. (http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/66687/why-is-discrimination-based-on-citizenship-allowed-in-phd-funding-in-the-uk/66689#66689)

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Do EPSRC-like Centres for Doctoral Training exist outside the UK?
I'm looking into starting a doctorate next Autumn and am currently exploring my options. I really like the program style of EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training which started sprouting around British Universities a couple of years ago. I'm wondering if any other places in Europe (or outside) have programmes which a similar in structure.
Here's some key qualities of such a Centre:

the course is a four-year studentship
first year consists of taught electives and small project. It gives one the time to find their footing in an institution and the field and decide on the subject of their further research that would suit them the most.
years 2-4 are when the actual research + thesis writing happens
all throughout, the course is complemented by courses in general transferable skills (business, management, entrepreneurship, communication, public speaking etc.)

I know American Universities tend to have their grad programmes start with a bunch of requirements in taught courses followed by the actual research. Do I have any alternatives?
If it helps at all the field I'm interested in is robotics and their applications in environmental sciences / preservation.

That's very country and scientific domain specific and based on policy of government which may change every election cycle.

e.g. in UK the established UKRI encapsulates research councils STFC,EPSRC,MRC, ... and fulfils UK specific policy.
AFAIK in Germany there are 4 major non-university institutions doing research and PhD training - Max Planck Institute, Leibnitz Institute, Fraunhofer Institute, Helmholtz centres and many others - some of them multidisciplinary.
As I'm currently in Czechia (Czech Rep.) there is Academy of Sciences and it's centres some of them connected to relevant universities with doctoral training program. But most are based on individual labs and mostly individual training with courses available in multiple institutions.

Based on my personal experience in UK, in Czechia and little in Germany I cannot generalize. Thus you should do your own research in your domain of interest, find rather individual lab which may fit your scientific domain in a country you'd like to study.

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Not sure when exactly will be applying for a PhD (and what program) - is it a good idea to ask for letters of recommendation now?
I graduated last year (MEng) and since have been working in an office software development job. I figured that I want to start pursuing research, in order to contribute most to the issues I care about (dealing with current / imminent environmental troubles). However, I am not yet clear what flavour of tech research my skills/interests are most suitable for, as this would be a career shift for me. I'm planning to quit my job later this year and get involved in various relevant non-profit organisations, personal projects/research and short internships to gain more appreciation of the current state of affairs in the field.
I'm planning to apply for Autumn 2017 entry but there is a high chance I will not have all the necessary information to apply for that date and will have to delay it for additional year. Thinking about the practical implications of that - Is it a good idea to ask my contacts from the university to write me letters of recommendation now, while they still remember me (reasonably) well?
I guess that depends on a variety of factors. In particular I am not aware at all how programme-specific are such letters meant to be. Are referrers supposed to tailor them to my research proposal or are they more generic? Will they need to be much different if I apply for, say, Robotics (applications in disaster recovery) versus research in using low-cost tech to grow food in harsh conditions?
Detail: I am mostly thinking of doing a doctorate in Europe (UK in particular) but I'm pretty flexible.

It will depend on the relationship you have with your previous supervisors/contacts from the University and their personality. If there are exceptional mentors that are ready to support you, they will be more than happy to help. First you need to make up your mind and choose what sounds best for you, let's say 3 options. Then the best would be to contact them to know how they are doing. Then propose a meeting/ video call and discuss the situation with them if they agree. Hope that helps


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I want to do research in A about its applications in B. Don't know exactly what people in B need from A. What's a good way to acquire this knowledge?
Issues related to climate change, mitigating it and making humans deal better with its negative consequences are super important to me. I am not an environmental scientist though - I'm an engineer. I have a varied background and experience, which fits in well with a discipline I'm very interested in - robotics. I feel like pursuing a PhD in robotics, researching its application in environmental science would be good for me and for the field(s).
Now, the problem is I don't know the exact problems (in environmental science) that I could propose to work on in my research proposals. I really want to have a conversation with someone in the field about this, but I don't know how to go about this. I'm one year out of school now, so it's not like I can swing by a relevant professor's office and drop in for a chat. On the other hand sending a "cold-call" email also seems not fully appropriate, because asking "What kinds of problems do you have that can be solved by technology?" seems far too general.
So the question is - what is a good way to acquire this kind of knowledge?

I'm a little bit unclear on what you're trying to figure out.  Are you trying to formulate an application for a PhD program, or are you trying to conduct research?  What country are you in?

it's not like I can swing by a relevant professor's office and drop in for a chat -- why so?

@jakebeal - I am currently in the UK but I'm open to applying anywhere. Here applying for PhD = choosing exact topic of your research (most often). PhD programmes usually last 3-ish years so they expect you to start researching your topic from day 1.

@ÉbeIsaac I have a day job I can't just leave to take a trip back to my university for an uncertain meeting with a professor I don't know...

You don't know what they need and they don't know what you can offer. One of you has to give and start getting hands dirty in the other's field. And in this case you'll probably have to do that. Here are some possibilities. I study in the US so there could be some cultural/practical differences, but I would like to believe that they should not be big, if any.

Go to some university research seminars. Most of them are open to public and schedules are often posted online. Stay and chat with the presenter.
Take a few introductory classes. This allows you to acquire proper lingoes to communicate. If possible, I'd also suggest taking it for credit because later when you do your PhD, the issue of not having any coursework in this new area will come up. Some programs allow 1-2 credits transfer so you may be able to hit two birds with one stone.
Identify prominent research organizations in this area. For example, internationally there is IPCC, and in the US there is EPA. These organizations periodically produce evidence-based statements and reports, in which you can glean important research needs.
Regularly do some brief literature surveys in this area and perhaps even the combined area. Sign up for customizable article alert. Pay attention to the studies' limitations and applications. Take good notes and review them time to time when brainstorming.
Examine grant availability by visiting funding agency websites. In the US there is grants.gov and I'm sure there must be a UK or European equivalence. Look for related grant announcements. In most of these announcements, you'll often find problem statements and suggested areas from which the agency would like to see some grant proposals. Having a research plan that appeals to your future supervisor and funding agencies can make your PhD journey a lot smoother.
In the above processes, also pay attention to who are the leading institutes and researchers in this field (or the combined field.) Consider contacting them for a short information interview (15-min or so.) Don't dread doing it because eventually you'll need a person in the env. sci. to be in your committee; might as well start scouting earlier.


text:
A generic academic reference from a random professor vs. strong reference from my Technical Authority at work?
I am planning to apply for a PhD programme (probably in the UK). I have two solid sources for academic letters of recommendation (my Director of Studies and my Master's Project supervisor. Now, some places I'm applying to require three letters of recommendation and here I have a dilemma: I could go for a  generic academic reference from a random professor or strong reference from my Technical Authority at work.
Due to several random factors, I have not managed to establish a particularly strong connections at my university(ies) with anyone apart from the two people I already mentioned. I've worked with some people personally but I know if I ask them for a letter I shouldn't expect anything more than "SaladButt had been a good performing student, he grasped things fast and got good grades THE END". Being one year out of school does not help. On the other hand, I could ask my Technical Authority at work to write me one. I know it would be a solid letter as I have already seen the feedback she wrote me for annual reviews. On top of that I'm pretty convinced my field (engineering/robotics) values hands-on experience and that I could prove with my work history.
I have seen many people here say that letters from academics always win over ones from employers. Do you think it also applies in this case?

No, actually, in this case I think that the strong reference from work would strengthen your application.  (It would be different if you didn't have two strong academic references.)
I took the approach you propose.


text:
Will a research proposal of looking into applications of current technologies be frowned upon because it does not deal with fundamental research?
I'm interested in robotics and particularly in how we can use autonomous systems to aid with environmental conservation. I'm currently looking into PhD programmes but it seems to me that the vast majority of research happening in the relevant departments covers pretty fundamental, low-level technologies which might sometime see an application if they get a whole lot of development.
So, what's the deal with research in technology? Are universities/institutes not a place for, say, researching "Using Reinforcement Learning in Methane Monitoring Drones?"

I can't say anything about your particular topic or area, but what you need to do is find the right advisor.  The right advisor will not necessarily be doing something very closely aligned with your idea, but will support you in pursuing your idea.  You need to be in an institution that will support interdisciplinary research.  Thus, your home department might not be a robotics program.  But you might take some coursework in robotics.  Make sure the institution you choose to study in has the key academic elements you need in order to learn what you need to learn, and will support your getting the lab space and time you'll need.
I think the key is to find the right advisor.  It might be someone with a joint appointment in two departments.  I imagine most large institutions would probably satisfy the other requirements.


text:
How long do applicants ususaly have to accept a PhD offer? How committing is it?
I'm currently and full-time employment and planning a career switch. I've identified a doctorate programme as something I'd be interested in doing and so consequently I'm going on full steam with the application processes. However, I am not yet 100% sure a PhD is something I should do. I anticipate a bunch of life changes in the next several months and I'd like to generally keep myself open to opportunities which don't require a few-year-long commitment.
I want to plan the timing of my applications, as well as prepare mentally for potentially having to make that commitment. And hence my question:
How much time would I usually have between receiving an PhD offer and having to accept it? I am aware of that time when it comes to normal employment (approx. 2 weeks) but I don't know how that works in academia (and British academia in particular). Surely, they must be mindful of the fact that many programmes have different application deadlines and hence to make an informed decision one would want to hear from most of them... Although, must they?

What discipline do you intend to enter? For example, in physics, funding is controlled by the research council, STFC. As they say on their website: "STFC strongly recommends that prospective students should not be placed under undue pressure by departments to accept PhD places within short timescales. Therefore students should not be compelled to accept offers of PhD places prior to 31 March each year."

@NatalieHogg Engineering / Environmental Science

Are you applying for funded projects? If so, I expect the system will be similar to that in physics; the funding application deadline is the end of January and you have until the end of March to sort through your offers and make a decision. If you have your own funding, it's more likely you will be free to apply at any time of year and specify when you would like to start.

In the US if you are offered funding there is a nearly universal deadline of April 15th for programs starting in the fall...but it is my understanding that this is specific to the US and the UK/Europe doesn't participate in this rule. I'll just leave this here if people come across this regarding the US instead of the UK: http://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution


text:
Is it customary to be reimbursed for travel to a PhD interview day?
I'm applying for PhD programmes over in the UK and begun to get my first invitations for interviews. Some of them have to be in person as they include a tour of the facilities and such. Unfortunately, travel over here is not cheap and it got me wondering - is it customary for the interviewing institution to reimburse the cost of my travel?
On one hand the invitation emails do not mention anything about the cost of travel but on the other hand I got reimbursed even for travelling to my undergraduate interviews.

They might, if they have money for it. In some places (i don't know about UK) they can't, unless you dress the whole thing not as an interview but as you being a visiting scientist giving a seminar talk or something.

You'll need to ask them directly.

Did your undergraduate interview invites specify that you will be reimbursed?

If the invitation did not specify that you'll be reimbursed, then assume that you won't.

+1, I've had recent experience of such interviews and this is exactly what happens.

But it is legitimate to ask whether travel will be reimbursed.

@WolfgangBangerth It is legitimate to ask.

Yes, that's what I said :-)

@WolfgangBangerth Sorry, I read that as "but is it..." Whoops! :)

I figured so :-)


text:
How long should a personal statement be for a UK New Route PhD programme?
I'm applying for a few New Route PhD programmes in the UK. The way they are different from traditional PhD's is that they are preceded with one year of Masters in Research which gives you a good foundation in your subject, before you choose your exact research subject.
I was wondering what is the expected application personal statement length for such programmes. I don't want to flood the application commission with words but I also don't want to seem like I haven't put effort. Currently I'm aiming for 4000 characters, which is the same as the upper limit for UK's undergrad applications. On the other hand, undergrad applications aren't supposed to contain academic CV so I might make it shorter to avoid repeating information.
Most of what I could find online about personal statement length related to either US Application Essays (much longer), UK Research Proposals (very specific) or UK undergrad personal statements (simpler). I was wondering what others think about this particular case.

I don't know if there's a definitive answer to this. It is definitely worth seeing if there is any specific advice given by the universities or departments you are applying to (check their websites). If it helps, my personal statement for my PhD applications was a single page (I felt, as a scientist, I should be concise).

I checked the websites and they carry no information about this. Some of them have a vague list of things which such PS should contain, but no guidelines about conciseness / the floweriness of the language.


text:
How soon can I poke a potential PhD advisor for a response if contacting them about an advertised position?
There is a PhD programme I recently found which matches my interests very closely but with a deadline in five days. It doesn't require me proposing my own research, instead asking me to choose from a list of available projects. The application instructs me to contact the professor who advertised the project before I proceed with the main application.
I've sent that potential advisor a carefully-crafted cover letter and CV a few days ago but got no response. Normally I'd not try to send a second email so soon but I'm feeling increasingly pressured on time given the few days there is until the institution-wide deadline. I am find with filling in the forms at the late notice but I'm concerned my referees might not be as happy about copy-pasting the references they have already wrote for me.
I wanted to see what other people think on the subject - would it make me a disservice to contact the potential advisor again in a couple days or should I just give him a time to respond in his own time (potentially after the deadline or never)?

I do not think it will be disrespectful to send a follow-up email. I would craft it in a way that shows you value his/her time, but also demonstrating that you have an immense interest in the project, which is why you are reaching out. I would have a backup plan just in case.


text:
Should I mention personal information in this thank you letter?
So I got an email from my university that a donor is willing to provide me with a scholarship to help me finish my program. I don't know him and I never met him before.
I mentioned these points in my thank you letter:
Introduction:

Purpose of the letter / Thank you
Informing about the university and that I received the scholarship

Paragraph 1:

How would the scholarship reflect on my education
Appreciation
Willing to do better

Paragraph 2:

Introducing my major and all the projects that I accomplished so far.
Excitement
Thank you

Last paragraph:

Thank you

This might sound weird but am I missing personal information? Is it usually supposed to introduce yourself and maybe your contact information in a thank you letter?
I want it to be professional but I never done this before and excuse me this is my first time here

Consider substituting "prepared to work hard" for "willing to do better."

If I received a donor personally choosing to fund my education, I would include personal information in the thank you letter. The personal information I would include are things like "I grew up in .... I became interested in [scientific field] because..." and I would include it in the first paragraph. The reason that I feel that including personal information is appropriate is because you were personally chosen for this funding source (as opposed to applying to a scholarship committee, for example). Congrats!

Thank you for your response. I will include that. How many lines do you think the letter is nice to be?

3/4 of a page will show dedication while keeping it short.

Thanks :) What approximate font size if you don't mind? Because I am doing it hand written

12 point. I think around 500-650 words is appropriate.


text:
Can I apply for a graduate degree in Cambridge (MPhil/PhD) after I have earned a Bachelor's from Oxford, or vice versa?
I know that we can't apply to both simultaneously for undergraduate admissions. What about to each the other once we have completed our first degree in one? Thank you in advance.

Graduate studies are completely separate from undergraduate studies, so there is no constraint or conflict here.

Yes absolutely. I also think you can even apply for both universities simultaneously for graduate school.

There are no restrictions on doing as you suggest, and indeed, I know a number of people who have applied for (and completed) graduate courses at the University of Cambridge after an undergraduate course at the University of Oxford.

yes, most grads do so, or the reverse, the Oxbridge combo degrees is a potent one


text:
Should I consider legal action if my attempts to persuade my university to allow me to complete my PhD prove unsuccessful?
My situation
I could go into the details of the situation in some detail here, but I fear it would read like a shaggy-dog story. For the moment I'll limit myself to these (what I hope are) salient points:

I enrolled for PhD in October 2011.
I made a breakthrough in my second year, which would be the subject of my thesis. This work has been ratified by colleagues both within and outside of academia.
After this, I took a considerable time off for personal reasons.
The likely earliest date I would have completed is October 2015.
If I were allowed to do so, I could likely complete in October 2018, so three years late.
Some would say that because my PhD is two years long, I would be five years late. I would counter that that's two years of funding the institution has saved (this irony would not be lost on anyone familiar with the workings of academia).
A senior and respected academic is on my side and is currently doing his best on my behalf to persuade the powers that be. However, I no longer think it is fair to drag him into the dispute. He is kind and reasonable, and for that reason this has become his burden. I want him out of it.
Nobody has told me that I cannot complete my PhD yet. The university has not responded yet, and I suspect they never will.
I don't need any funding. I just need to be allowed arrange the final examination and get this out of the way.

My question
I'm wondering whether I shouldn't just force the institution's hand with (at least) the threat of legal action, rather than expecting someone else to fight my battles for me. At the same time, however, I don't want to start issuing threats. I would do anything to avoid this course, to be frank.

Can you offer any wisdom on doing this?
Are there any relevant precedents? The institution is UK-based.

Legal advice should be got from your lawyer, not from random persons on the internet. If you can stay in without legal action then that is to be preferred. Since you have someone working for you on the inside, it sounds it me too early for legal action. At the very least coordinate this with your ally. If I were working in your behalf, and you started legal actions without discussing it with me first, then I would be not amused.

If you need a story and are able to read the German language: http://www.danisch.de/blog/adele-und-die-fledermaus/
He is a german guy who got into conflict with his university and took this to court. Long story short, he still has no PhD and according to this descriptions, the university tries to postpone  and block any actions.

It looks to me like there is no actual dispute yet, the problem is that they don't answer your request to register in order to complete the PhD, correct? If yes, I think you should simply ask the university administration what is the status of your request. There can be plenty of reasons why it would take time (most obvious one: the person in charge is on holiday!), it's not necessarily related to the fact that you are late in the PhD. In my experience it's very rare that a university would deprive themselves of a successful PhD just for the sake of duration rules.

Is it standard in the UK to have a hard deadline on PhD? In France, a standard PhD is 3 years but it is common, especially in social sciences where the funding is sparse, to take a longer time (7 years in social sciences is not uncommon).

I think the rules differ wildly. I'm told the situation at my institution is that they are trying to clamp down on PhDs that take more than usual. It may boil down in my case to whether or not they can apply stricter rules retrospectively or whether they would want to. There is some good will towards me in my department. It is a question of whether or not the bureaucrats can be persuaded...

@JamesSmith ok, please allow me to be frank: it seems to me that you are anxious about your PhD being terminated because it took longer than allowed. You said that your institution is trying to clamp down on PhDs that take longer than usual, but guess what: all the universities I've known have been pretending to be strict about PhD duration for 20 years, and I've never seen any of them actually applying such rules. Imho it's a strategy to put pressure on PhD students. Unavoidably many PhD students take longer than the official limit, and unavoidably an "exception" is made for them...

Why did you take time off? Reasons may be relevant here.

Check with the committee chair before hasty action, if you have a valid reason and the work is deemed valid you may be lucky : being a member of Queen is quite good remember Brian May...

I included a lot of information from the comments into your question and restructured it so it has the order a reader would expect. Still, one information is missing (as remarked by other commentors above): Has anybody ever told you that you cannot complete your PhD? Is anything actually keeping you from submitting your thesis right now? Please [edit] your question to include this information.

Thanks for the edit, I've made further small edits myself. The answer to your question is no. Given the circumstances, I'm going to wait for a response before proceeding.

What makes you think that your university will never respond to your request? What have you tried thus far? What does your ally say about this?

Yes. But that's all part of the shaggy-dog story and I'm not going into further detail here. I do, at least, still have a second supervisor. The ex-head of the department, no less. Reaching out to that person indirectly is one of the things I'm contemplating.

@JamesSmith Most of the votes to place on hold were cast before the revisions were made when the question first showed up in the review queue. To be fair, the first version was not clear, and I can understand why it got those votes. But the hold votes "expire" rather than being withdrawable.

Was your time off "official" -- or did you disappear?  Was it real time off, or were you resident without any progress?  I feel like you're not including enough of the story to yield accurate advice.

Especially figure out who in your institution has the authority to mint Ph.D.'s -- in the Germanic systems usually the full title "Professor" is very carefully regulated because it contains these implications; in the US system I believe the title "Professor" is more loosely handed out and you are looking for a "Director of Graduate Studies" or so, who can only do it with the permission of a committee of professors. If you can have a 30 minute chat with the person who has that authority, they can clarify the process and potentially save weeks spent with the folks in admissions.

This is sound advice. As I've mentioned, I know realise I am pretty ignorant of the process. I have two senior figures fighting my corner, so to speak, and they doubtless know most of the ins and outs. I have arranged a meeting with one of them next week so that I can get better acquainted with the whole process.

By the way, nothing is going to happen now until the autumn. It is basically impossible to get hold of the decision makers at this time of year and I am finding it easier than I thought to be patient. I think posting here has helped.

My broad diagnosis of your situation is that your time in your PhD program was too short and too long ago to give you a clear understanding of what the process of getting a PhD entails.  That lack of understanding is definitely going to cause you problems so should be addressed right away.  What other problems you may have, if any, is hard to tell at this point.
Let me now try to address some specifics:

Nobody has told me that I cannot complete my PhD yet. The university has not responded yet, and I suspect they never will.

I'm already a bit lost.  The university will certainly respond to halfway reasonable questions directed to the right people.  Whom are you asking?  You should start by talking to people in your department: your advisor, the director/coordinator/chair/whatever of graduate studies, the department head....

I am considering legal action. I'm wondering whether I shouldn't just force the institution's hand with (at least) the threat of legal action, rather than expecting someone else to fight my battles for me. At the same time, however, I don't want to start issuing threats. I would do anything to avoid legal action, to be frank.

Please read this over yourself.  It's conflicted bordering on contradictory.  But let me chime in: no, you should absolutely not try to "force the institution's hand" with the threat of legal action -- certainly not at this point, and in my opinion and experience, virtually never for someone in your broad situation.  The institution knows its own rules and policies intimately and you don't seem to know them at all.  The institution employs a team of lawyers; you do not.  A legal threat is not going to spook them into any positive action.
Also, IANAL and doubly not a lawyer in the UK, but in order to bring legal action you need to have some legal basis: a law they broke, a contract they breached, something like that.  You didn't mention any such thing.  Timing out your PhD may not be very nice, but that's not the same thing at all.

If I were allowed to do so, I could likely complete in October 2018, so three years late.

You haven't been in academia for several years, but you think you could complete your PhD within three months from now?  Unless you have a completed thesis ready to go (or better, already submitted to your committee) that is basically impossible.  Your unrealistic time frame is a bit worrisome to me.

I made a breakthrough in my second year, which would be the subject of my thesis. This work has been ratified by colleagues both within and outside of academia.

This is a key point in regard to how close you are to finishing your PhD.  "Ratified" is a strange word to use, and "outside of academia" is not very relevant either.  If your "breakthrough" resulted in a publication in a strong journal, then you're going in the right direction.  But you still need to work out with your thesis advisor whether the work of this publication alone is sufficient to be written up into a thesis (such writing may or may not take substantial extra time).  If you haven't spoken to your thesis advisor about this -- or, and here I am cringing as I type and hoping I am way off, if you don't have a thesis advisor -- then you are much less close to finishing than you think, and whatever acclaim you have gotten from people outside of your department is good rather than bad but not nearly so directly relevant as you seem to think.
Let me end where I began: please talk to your advisor or other sympathetic department personnel.  Please do not try to strong arm the institution at this time.  Good luck.

Your answer echoes some comments above that I have taken on board. I am indeed guilty of being pretty much ignorant of the process and I am going to take steps to rectify that. On the issues of my PhD being short and completed some time ago, however, I think I can relate some good news. On talking to my contact, I was assured that if it can be shown that the work is of sufficient merit (and this is the purpose of the PhD defence after all), these issues won't present insuperable barriers.

@JamesSmith - the purpose of the defense is purely ceremonial - the merit must be clear before the defense.

There's more than a little truth in that. I will also take steps in this direction.

+1 for I am cringing as I type this and hoping I am way off - this was my exact thought. A strange omission indeed on OP’s part for not mentioning an advisor...

See my comment above.

Without knowing all the details, it’s hard to provide clear guidance, but a few general principles still hold.

Jumping into legal action before you’ve tried to resolve this via less obtrusive means is generally a bad idea.
What personal reasons delayed your PhD matters. For instance, personal time off for health or raising a family is almost always considered “excused,” and can be cited as reasons for extending deadlines. However, taking time off to work or do something unrelated may be problematic.
Equally important in this process is the view of your thesis committee. If everybody views this as being very important work that deserves a PhD, that will carry weight with the administration even in spite of their regulations.

So, instead of going for legal action right now, talk to your thesis committee and work out a plan. If they have your back, the administration will generally accede to their requests.

Additionally it would be useful to find out how other similar cases in your institution got dealt with in the past. If you are in contact with academics who have been there for some time, they probably know of former PhD students who faced a similar problem and what happened to them.

Thanks for the answer. I am absolutely not jumping into legal action. I would have thought that was clear and the insinuation is not needed. In answer to your second point, there are personal reasons, but I am not going into them here. They are, as to be expected, related to money, but that is as much detail as is needed. I am not quite sure what you mean by a thesis committee. To be honest, being in the position I am, I am still unaware of the exact process of obtaining a PhD.

@JamesSmith: "I am not quite sure what you mean by a thesis committee." To say the least: if so, then you are by no means ready to complete your PhD.  "To be honest, being in the position I am, I am still unaware of the exact process of obtaining a PhD." Right, that's your main issue here.

Answers on SE are written for the benefit of a general audience, not just the person asking the question. You might not, but someone else might. So the general points are there for someone coming to this question later.

However, more concerning here is that you don’t know the process for getting a PhD. Your institution will have a set of written policies to follow. If you are unaware of those, then you may create problems for yourself that will make your life needlessly harder later on. Educate yourself now.

See my comments to the other answer below. I will do my homework, and ask that others do some work on my behalf to. I am ignorant of the process, to be honest, that much is clear. I will be better off if I try to address this.

Where I did my PhD (in London, and I started one month before you), there are several strict rules regarding the time.

There are evaluations at 3-month, 1-year and 2-year milestone. In particular, if one cannot pass at the 2-year evaluation, they have to quit with an MPhil (or nothing)
Students have to enroll to the program every year. Several months before deadline, I received several emails saying that there would be serious consequence if I didn't enroll on time.
My funding was only 3 years. After exactly 3 years, I need to change to the thesis-writing stage, otherwise the school would start charging me tuition fee (crazily expensive for international students like me)
Students are expected to submit the thesis within 4 years, not one day later.

I'm not sure if all universities in the UK adopt the same procedure, but the 4 year deadline for thesis is very common. It is not clear from your question what is your current status. Before considering legal action, you need to check if you break any rule.

Did you pass the second stage evaluation?
Are you currently enrolled in the program?
What is your current stage in the program?
Did your PhD supervisor approve that you made enough contribution to write a thesis?

A good answer. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure my institution is not as strict as yours, although it is becoming so. I will be finding out about enrolling later this week.

Plenty of people have left school then finished their PhD up while working in industry. Though they generally have been at the ABD stage where you can maintain enrollment with a small fee. After only two years enrolled you are really asking for special treatment, regardless of your break length. When you say your work was "ratified", does this mean publication in an extremely impressive journal plus 1k citations by now or something? Because you need it to be so great that it will overcome rather unrelated requirements regarding your knowledge and expertise. A PhD is supposed to be mentored training to teach you to lead research investigations, not just a fishing expedition for a big score.
As for deciding how to proceed. You need to dig into the rules. Schools operate on legalistic procedures (which includes a massive amount of paperwork for handling exceptions and waivers of the rules). You need to do two things:

Determine the hurdles you need to jump through to finish, and their requirements in turn. For example there may be another exam prior to your defense. You may be required to be enrolled to do some of the steps. You may need to have people sign up for your committee and for them to sign off that you have successfully completed those steps along the way.
Find the show-stopping rule(es) standing in your way, if any. For example a hard deadline of 8 years is common. Then find out if you can get a waiver to get past that.

If people don't respond to your emails call them or go visit them in person.
Finally, legal action (or at least believable threats of it) can motivate people to sign off on your good faith attempts at actually accomplishing the graduation requirements. Though it is a drastic, scorched-earth approach to doing so. You can often accomplish a similar effect (for free) using the university's own internal procedures for resolving disputes. You may just need to convince them you are serious about finishing by showing up there regularly and submitting requests formally.

This is more like good advice. Thank you. I am in contact with another senior member of the university not directly associated with my department. Her role is to act as mediator in situations such as these. Finding out the exact requirements to complete my PhD sounds like a very good idea. I shall copy your points 1. and 2. to her verbatim and see what she says. It will involve some work for her, and I will offer to help out, but I think things are at the stage where I at least have the right to see some practical progress being made. Thanks again!


text:
How can I cite a report written by a Congressman in MLA Style?
The report is called The Path Forward: Rethinking Federal Policy on Marijuana. I have no idea how to cite this online source. It seems confusing since it isn't a bill but rather just something he wrote to inform. Website: https://blumenauer.house.gov/sites/blumenauer.house.gov/files/BlumenauerReport_ThePathForward.pdf

This question would fit better in the Writing StackExchange:
https://writing.stackexchange.com/

Whether here or on Writing.SE, we'd need to know what citation style you're using.  It'll probably be treated like an unpublished article.

I edited my question. It was MLA.

I searched google scholar to find your article The path forward: rethinking federal marijuana policy and from there you can cite it using several different formats including MLA by clicking the double quotation symbol as shown in the figures below:

Also in the second figure you can click the BibTeX link.

In my experience, Google Scholar's suggested citation style often fails for non-standard formats such as this. Also, I have found that Google Scholar's suggested citation often contains errors for scientific articles.

There are two different ways I might cite it. I have included the examples from the page I link to.
First, you could cite it as a webpage:

Poncelet, Barbara. "Mom Am I Fat?: Helping Your Teen Have a Positive Body Image." Verywell.com, About Inc., 20 Apr. 2016, www.verywell.com/mom-am-i-fat-3200843. Accessed 7 July 2016.

Second, you could cite it as a Government Document

Highlights from the Competition Bureau’s Workshop on Emerging Competition Issues. Competition Bureau of Canada, 4 Mar. 2016, www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/vwapj/cb-Workshop-Summary-Report-e.pdf/$FILE/cb-Workshop-Summary-Report-e.pdf. Accessed 6 July 2016.

I would not use Google Scholar's suggested citation. In my own experience, the suggestions are often poorly formatted for "grey" literature and contain errors for scientific article citation details.


text:
interdiscplinary phd communication
An engineer (me), a mathematician and a social psychologist (my supervisors) walked into a bar and decided to do a PhD project together. How do the three ensure that they do not have communication issues?
Each field comes with its own peculiar jargon and perspective. How does one achieve efficient communication while at the same time being true to their own discipline?
(we work in building dynamical models of human behaviour, the topic requires expertise from all three disciplines).

This is a really broad question. There are simply too many potential pitfalls in an interdisciplinary collaboration. Can you narrow your question to some more specific scenarios?


text:
How to send TOEFL score to a particular department?
I am applying to the Ph.D. program in McGill. As it says at the end of this page, we have to send our TOEFL score to the department. But in the ETS website I cannot find the department, I can only find the institute.
What to do ?

Have you tried asking the department at McGill?

The website lists the following:

Appropriate exam results must be submitted directly from the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or directly from the IELTS Office (International English Language Testing Systems) to McGilll University (Code 0935), Department code for: general Math (072) and Statistics (059).  An institutional version of the TOEFL is not acceptable.

If those codes are not available, I would reach out to the department for advice on how to proceed via email. Screenshot the list of departments on the website to show that it is not listed. Perhaps also CC the testing center/company.


text:
Changing research interest in Math
I am currently in my final semester of masters. I have some background in Algebraic Number Theory. I have one PhD offer from a US university.
When I started getting into algebraic number theory, I did not have much trouble as most of the pre-requisites were from Galois Theory and Commutative Algebra. But through my study in the last two-three semesters, I have realized that Number Theory is a subject which requires knowledge of many different areas like Complex Analysis, Algebraic Geometry, Topology(subjects which I have not learned properly or not learned at all). This has put me under a quite a lot of stress: Am I good enough to study Number Theory or should I shift to something else, something more self-sufficient?
Is it possible (and advisable) to change my research interest to something else? What should I do?
Edit- To add to my troubles, I don't know anything about Modular Forms or Automorphic Forms or Galois Representations.
Before voting to close this question down, I would like you to know this: I originally asked this question on Math SE. But people told me that it was more of an Academia SE question.

Is the offer for a PhD in number theory? If it is then it is probably wirth going for it. Yes, you will need to learn a bunch of topics that you may not feel that comfortable with right now, but you will have an advisor who can guide you on the order in which to learn these in a way that can at the same time take advantage of the knowledge you do have in other fields. I did something similar. I focused on finite group theory during my master's then got a PhD with a topic in the representation theory of algebraic groups and quantum groups.

You haven't mentioned any alternatives to Number Theory.  Hmm.  Maybe it would be reassuring for you to have a small list in your hip pocket of possible areas.
If you don't have to decide right away, then I would suggest that you hold off on deciding, and meantime start remedying these gaps as soon as possible.  Without panic, but without any shilly-shallying.  Obviously, don't work on them all at once, but do start somewhere, and make a tentative map through this subject matter -- in what order, what books will you use, what topics could be skipped or skimmed over, which ones will you do in a class, which as self-study, and which in an independent study.
Even if you end up working on something other than Number Theory, this study will be helpful for you in the long run, either directly or indirectly.
If it feels daunting, think one step at a time, or Rome wasn't built in a day, or some similar phrase that helps you.
In the U.S., one is generally not expected to hit the ground already doing research, right from the first semester.  It's okay to take some time and get the solid foundation one needs.
Do you have an advisor, potential advisor, temporary advisor, or mentor of some sort?  If not, look around for one, and if necessary ask the department to assign you one temporarily.

many areas of math use at least one of topology, complex analysis, or algebriac geometry.

@Rüdiger - Are you agreeing with me ("this study will be helpful for you in the long run, either directly or indirectly"), do we differ in some aspect of this, or are we having a misunderstanding, perhaps?

I agree, +1. I am just emphasizing this point once more. It is very important that the OP learns the subjects in question.... any mathematician worth the name knows the basics to some degree.

@Rüdiger - Thanks for clarifying, I understand now.

If you are an intellectually-oriented person, I would advise you to first and foremost follow your own genuine interests.
Another relevant concern is career planning: what do you want to work on the rest of your life? Your education should enable your desired career.
There is also the trade-off between money (wage), type of work, and general lifestyle.
In fact, there are so many concerns to consider that you are likely to change plans as you go. Therefore, aparante's suggestion of taking it one step at a time is an excellent one.
If you have a strong and genuine interest in the program of study that have been offered to you, I'd suggest you try it out. Don't underestimate yourself or overestimate others. Just have a go and see what comes out of it. That way you'll have no regrets later.
However, if this offer is more of a coincidence, or something someone else has pushed on you, examine your own interest in it carefully and let that be your guide.


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How long does it take for an article to get accepted to the arXiv?
I am a math student. I have submitted a draft to the arXiv. But it has been put on hold. How long does it usually take to get accepted ?
Can I do something to accelerate it or do I just sit and wait ?

Did you get an email stating the proposed date of announcement?

Yes, I did. The proposed date was 14th December.

From the arXiv help, emphasis mine:

On Hold
Your submission was identified by arXiv administrators or moderators as needing further attention.
Submissions may be put on hold for a variety of reasons, ranging from questions about proper classification, pending moderator approval, presentation issues, copyrighted PDF, etc., to editorial concerns. Most of these do not require any further input from the submitter and will be dealt with in due course. arXiv urges submitters to be patient. Due to the large volume of submissions, it may take several days before a resolution is reached.
Note that oversize submissions are automatically put on hold, and this is one particular circumstance in which submitters should follow up with arXiv administrators.
Submissions in this status will not expire. Authors must not create a new submission with the same content when a pending submission is on hold.
Please be sure to include the submission identifier of the form submit/NNNNNNN when contacting arXiv administrators.

In other words: wait a little while. Especially at busy times of year for academics, like now. After a week or so, if nothing changes, you can contact the arXiv administrators following the instructions above.


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How to efficiently use time while preparing for a class?
I am a teaching assistant for multivariable calculus this semester. As an undergraduate, I took the course but we learned few. To add, it has been more than 5 years since I took the class. So, every week I have to solve about a dozen question from one chapter. Even though I have got the solutions, I study enough to perform well and be able to answer questions from class. However, the problem is, this is not my only job as a graduate student and I should not spend hours and hours on it.
For example, this week I have to solve questions from parametrization of curves, curvature, torsion and some additional subjects. I want to understand every bit of the work. So, how can I study enough to solve questions and answer questions from students without spending too much time?

I should not spend hours and hours on it — [citation needed]

I want to leave an answer that points in a different direction.  You are a math graduate student (your profile says you are studying analytic number theory).  Your teaching assignment provides you with an opportunity to improve your own understanding of a basic and important area of mathematics.  I'd like to recommend that you take that opportunity and allow yourself the time you need to truly improve your mastery of the subject.
I am a 40ish tenured, full professor.  I also work in number theory, which -- like many parts of modern mathematics -- is a very "cosmopolitan" field, drawing upon many different areas of mathematics.  Over the years I have done research in various aspects of number theory.  While I have some core tools and knowledge that have stayed with me over the years, there are a lot more things that I learned and knew better before than I do now, and there are still more things that I sort of learned as a student and would like to know better -- for my own edification but even directly for my research.
By far the best opportunity I have to learn something is in a course I'm teaching, at either the undergraduate or the graduate level.  In teaching a course I am committing myself to several prep sessions a week for 15 weeks, and there are consequences involved in my slacking on this (i.e., the students!).  There is really nothing else like this.  So I have taken the opportunity to dig in and learn this material many times over the years.
For instance, currently I am teaching a senior level complex analysis course for the first time.  I haven't thought about contour integrals since I was an undergraduate (which would be to my detriment in many parts of analytic number theory, as I'm sure you can appreciate), about 20 years ago.  So I am taking the opportunity by putting in a lot more than the minimum prep necessary to give solid lectures out of the textbook chosen.  At the moment I am a little more than halfway through the course and I have about 50 pages of typed "lecture notes"...of which maybe 25-30% are not actually being covered in the lectures.  Perhaps I spend 3-5 hours a week more than would be needed to get by.
Having said that, of course moderation is key.  For most tasks that you do in academia you have to set firm limits on the amount of time you will spend, or each individual task threatens to take all your time.  That will never do.  In your case, you should ask "How much time do I want to spend digging into MVC in the context of this TA assignment?  How much time can I afford to spend?"  This is a good thing to talk about with your advisor, as it largely depends on what else you are trying to do.
One more piece of advice: no one said that the time you spend on various things needs to be the same from semester to semester or even from week to week.  When it comes to teaching in particular: the first time you teach a class is somewhere from 2-5 times as much work as when you teach it each subsequent time.  So one key question is: what are your teaching assignments going to be in the future?  Will you be TAing MVC again?  If so, then spending more time on it now is justified by the fact that you'll have a much easier teaching assignment later on.  (Pro tip: if it's not clear whether you'll be teaching the same thing again, if you want to, ask for it.)  When I was a PhD student I taught second semester calculus in the fall semester four times, and that was all but one of my teaching assignments.
When it comes to teaching/TAing a course, the real work comes when you have to learn unfamiliar material well enough to stay ahead of the students.  If you wait until that happens, you're going to find yourself having to commit lots of hours on short notice.  So I would recommend tackling it in advance.  As a graduate student, you can learn MVC much more quickly than an undergrad: an intense month at the beginning of the semester could power you most of the way through.  Most advisors will be very understanding if your teaching responsibilities are eating up your time for a few weeks.  (To be really honest about it: who among us has not wanted to go easy on the research front for a few weeks at a time?  Digging deep into your teaching can be a way of recharging your batteries.  It worked for Richard Feynman...)
Anyway, good luck, and sounds fun.  I haven't thought about curvature and torsion in years.  Hmm...

I TA'd for that exact class last year and it was a nightmare, primarily since I'd taken that class at a school that wasn't as good. But that experience taught me a lot about efficiency. The next quarter, when I TA'd a different class that I also had taken at a different school, I was ruthless about only brushing up on the things I knew the students would ask me about: the homework and the tests. Instead of spending hours studying every corner of the material, I just read the answers to the homework and tests. It kind of feels like cheating, but you're not the one taking the class. The point is to do whatever helps the students the most.

Set a time limit for yourself. Decide what a "reasonable" amount of time is to review the materials, keeping in mind your other obligations and priorities. Get as much done as possible in that time. Accept that you may be asked something that you do not know and that you will have to tell the student you will get back to them because you don't have a great way to explain that off the top of your head.


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Should article submissions be formatted in draft format, or in the format of a particular journal?
Some journals do not require article submissions to be in any particular format. Would it still be better to try and copy that journals usual format, or use a generic draft format? Would you as an editor or a reviewer prefer one over the other?
For example, many articles use a two column format that is nice and compact for publication, but is a little harder to review and markup - so maybe the reviewers would prefer the article in a single column draft format?
EDIT: I'm specifically asking about journals that state you can use any format you like (for submission), leaving you free to choose whatever will be most convenient for the editors and reviewers. Do you try and still present a "finished product", i.e. format it like it will be if published - or use larger spacing, etc. to make it convenient for review. What would you as a reviewer or editor prefer in the absence of set submission guidelines. Or would you not care in the slightest?

Welcome! I think the answers to the question I linked apply here too, even if the title doesn't fully match your question.

Thanks for pointing out that question. The consensus there is "yes, you should follow the guidelines set by the journal for submissions", though that still doesn't answer the question if the journal is open to any formatting for submissions.

I thought I made it clear in the body of the question that I am talking about journals that "do not require ... any particular format." I've edited it for further clarification.

@argentum2f Other answers to that other question already answer yours and talk specifically about when a submission format is not specified. In summary: Keep it simple, don't bother to format it like the journal typesets.

Depends from journal to journal.
There are journals like Decision Support System that require from author to use specific format for initial submission, which btw differs a lot from format of their online publications. It seems to me that format specified in their Guides for Author is designed to ease review process i.e. making side notes and underlining by hand on printed copy.
There are ones like Information Processing and Management, that clearly state they are following "Your Paper Your Way" policy, which in essence: allows you to use any citation style and format for initial submission.
And there are journals, like International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems, that make no such statement, but if you read carefully instructions for authors - they say: that you'll have to apply their template / style / format after being informed on acceptance of your manuscript.
So, unfortunately, there is no easy answer. It would make a lot of sense if all journals follow "Your Paper Your Way" policy, but it is not the case. Many times, you are left in uncertainty due lack of explicit instruction on this.

Thanks, but the question is specifically about "Your Paper Your Way" journals. If the journal specifies a format for submissions, then obviously that must be used. If I can choose though, is there any reason to pick a particular format (i.e. to make it easier for reviewers)?

But, if the journal clearly says it follows "Your Paper Your Way" - then there is no reason to worry about specific formatting as it will not (or at least should not / I can't imagine it would) affect the review process nor editorial decision. Do not count on kindness factor in the peer-review process - as it will not get your paper published or treated better than otherwise. Really, I can't see why you should worry about format in such case. Maybe some editor/reviewer can provide better insight from personal experience, but I would be surprised to read opposite.

The "should not" is part of what I'm asking about. The other part is convenience. Just because it won't make a difference in chance of acceptance doesn't me it doesn't matter. I'd still like to make it convenient if there's likely any preference.

Hm, ok. Let's see if we get any feedback from an editor or reviewer here. I'm curious now same as you.

One problem with spending time or money to elaborately format your paper is the risk of having to reformat it in other styles to submit it to other journals. I have many a time redone the same reference list in APA, CMS, and British styles. Expensive if you work with an editor.

I know the pain :)