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Meaning of draft status?
I would like to ask a question about the meaning of the status "Draft" of my submitted article in a Taylor and Francis journal?

See https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/55665/72855

Although I agree that the linked question is relevant, it doesn't once mention the word 'draft', so I disagree that it answers OP's question.

Are you sure that you pressed the "submit" button? Usually it is a draft before submission.
Otherwise it might mean that some sort of manual approval of an admin person of the journal is needed before the submission is further processed (e.g. it is not "fully" sumitted until they have checked that you are within a certain wordcount/format/etc).


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Is doing a postdoc at the same university career suicide: A two-body problem
I have read from multiple sources that doing a postdoc in the same university as a PhD is not ideal. It is heavily encouraged to go elsewhere once graduating. Furthermore, often one applies to many postdoc positions, and its the luck of the draw where one ends up. However, I am curious how future hiring committees factor things like the two-body (and soon to be three-body) problem.
For context, my wife's career is taking off and we are hoping to start a family (we are in our early thirties).  Both these considerations make it highly ideal to stay in the same city. That being said, the only professor in the area and is in my field is my current PhD advisor. A plus is my projects collaborate with non-overlapping sets of collaborators and my work is fairly diverse.
While my PI does encourage me to apply to other positions, it is possible to do a postdoc with him. I am curious the ramifications of such a choice. If I tell a hiring committee that I chose to stay because of family considerations, is that a deal breaker? Furthermore, I may just be kicking the can down the road, as at the end of the postdoc I am still left with the same problem, although stability in the early years of starting a family might be more warranted.
There are less ideal options that may or may not be available, depending on funding:

One of my current collaborators has a lab that is a 1.5 hr commute away. I am aware that he has an opening soon that I could potentially take advantage of.  Plus, I also mostly do simulations, so maybe he would be okay with working from home a few days a week (I have yet to ask him, as I have no idea if that is something that's even polite to ask).

Do a postdoc with a different professor within the same university. This is hard as there isn't a good fit, but there are a few that are similar enough that could work, assuming they have  availability and funding of course.

Bite the bullet and move to another city.

Any advice on what an acceptable course of action given these circumstances would be greatly appreciated.
P.S.: I am in East Asia if it matters.

A vague bit of advice - do what makes you happy and don’t risk your happiness by moving cities to somewhere you don’t want on a vague idea of becoming more employable. Perhaps it will, but life is too short to constantly uproot yourself to places you don’t want to go to.

My recommendation to you would be NOT to sacrifice your family plans for the sake of a better CV. While staying at your university may not be optimal (in the eyes of some), it will certainly be overweighed by the quality of your research.
As a compromise, you may consider spending a year at that other position 1.5 hr away (but only if they permit you to work from home 3-4 days a week) -- and then returning back to your professor for your second postdoc.
If the hiring committee enquires why you prefer to stay, you may explain to them that you and your current professor are now getting so important scientific results that it would be impossible to interrupt this so fruitful collaboration. If I were a member of the hiring committee, I would be satisfied with this answer.
As BioBrains rightly said, it may be better for you to somewhat change or broaden the topic of your studies, if you choose to stay, -- but you should mention these plans to the hiring committee only if you feel that this would help you.
One way or another, I would put my family plans first.

This is what I ended up choosing. All comments were valuable. Perhaps worth mentioning, as a computationalist working at home was negotiable, others mileage might vary.

It is looked down on by some people,  but I believe that is less common than it used to be.  We have several new profs in my dept that did their PhDs in the same labs as their postdocs.  Indeed in one case that PhD and postdoc was in the same dept where they are now a PI.
So will it hurt your career? Possibly. Is it career suicide? No. The key is to think about how you demonstrate your independence, show you can succeed without your PI. Particularly if they are a big name in your field.
Finally, just to reiterate what @user438383 said in the comments:  Don't sacrifice your happiness, or that of your family, on the altar of some vague possible career advantage.

It's not necessarily career suicide, but it's a bit like running a race with 10 kg weights strapped to your legs. It puts you at a disadvantage compared to the other runners. You may still win the race if you're good enough, but it clearly makes things harder.
Academia is very competitive, and good jobs are scarce and highly sought after. There are many people for whom the dream of a good academic job (in the particular geographic location they want to live in) is either unattainable, or attainable in theory but requires personal sacrifices they may not be willing to make. That may be frustrating, but it's no different from how things work in many other competitive professions and industries. You need to think about what your priorities are, and evaluate your personal situation given what you know about your own talents, the competitive landscape in the job market you're targeting, and how much doing a postdoc with your current PhD advisor is going to negatively (or positively!) affect your development as a scientist and your job prospects. Then make a decision. I won't lie, it's a real dilemma, and there isn't a correct answer or an answer that won't carry the risk of disappointment or regret.
Other answers offer advice such as "don't sacrifice your happiness" and "[don't] sacrifice your family plans for the sake of a better CV". I think this sort of advice is misguided (and the opposite advice to put your professional development above all else would be equally misguided). We can tell you what the possible consequences of each decision may be, but only you can decide how to factor that into your calculations and what decision is right for you.
Good luck!

+1 This answer is spot-on. Elaborating on the consequences of the available choices is likely to be much more useful to the OP than telling them what they "should" or "should not" sacrifice.

"attainable in theory but requires personal sacrifices they may not be willing to make." This is definitely true. It might entail moving to a country that lacks certain human rights, for example.

@cgb5436 as a side note: it is true and this does not seem to be an issue for "scientists", as long their own personal life has sparkling prospexts, see the high number of skilled people flowing to the US.

Doing something (in this case: uprooting your life) ONLY to make sure it makes you more employable later on is never a good enough reason, I think. There are no guarantees that you will ever get the dream career you have in mind, even WHEN you do everything by the book to make you "most employable" - so therefore, you should always do things because you, intrinsically want them.
Remember: it's rare that you get to have it all - you will have to make decisions in life and each choice will come with consequences.
So ask yourself: What do you want your career to be like? If you want to end up being a professor with unlimited research funds at Harvard, this means you will have to do everything you can to end up in that league. That will come with sacrifices (such as moving now, but also putting work first for decades to come). Maybe that will make you happy, maybe not.
Also sketch the scenario of staying where you are - how would you fill that position and what would a next step be? - and discuss this with your current PI. How do they envision your road to independency? What would you need from them to craft your own line of research?
If you do stay, I would in either case recommend that you do try to switch fields or topics somewhat - and with that I mean that you have to start working on a new question so you can expand your technical and conceptual horizon. Don't continue to work on your PhD thesis project, but start something new. That will allow you to develop a new project from scratch, build your own network etc. independently even when you are staying with your current PI.

"There are no guarantees that you will ever get the dream career you have in mind, even WHEN you do everything by the book to make you "most employable."" This is devastating but true. Just because you don't get the job you want doesn't necessarily mean you did anything "wrong." I think this is much more realistic than telling someone that if they work hard enough they'll land whatever dream job they want. A tough pill to swallow, for sure.

I see the question of postdoc location as actually irrelevant to the real career decision that you need to make here. Do you want to be a professor, or do you want to be a scientist?

If you want a career as a professor, it will be very difficult to get hired in the same city, no matter where you do your postdoc. Doing a postdoc will not change this problem, no matter where you do it.

If you want a career as a scientist, there are likely many opportunities in the city outside of "traditional academia". There is a much biggest scientific ecosystem out there than it looks like from inside of a Ph.D. program, and in that larger world the location of your postdoc is likely to matter much less than its content.

In short, I think there is no reason not to do a postdoc right where you are. If you and your partner do not want to move (and that's an entirely reasonable choice to make!) then don't move. Your next step after postdoc will be no easier geographically, and you can develop your career by good work in a lab you love.

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Couldn't attend IEEE Conference and unable to present my paper
My paper was accepted at an IEEE conference. I paid my registration fees even registered for doing a physical presentation( there was an option for video presentation). But when I will enter the country, immigration office restricted my entry due to some visa issues. I had to go back. Thus, I couldn't attend the conference.
Now, will my paper in the end counted as an accepted paper and will add in IEEE Xplore?

Contact the conference organizers - it's their decision...

I hope you contacted them immediately.

You need to provide all the details and proof of what you have faced with immigration or VISA related issue with the organizer. Most likely, you might have to arrange alternative speaker or video presentation for your paper and send to the session chair.

I think it is likely that the answer in your case is "no", as IEEE has a clear no-show policy the organizers have to follow. Talk to them, but keep your expectations low.

Actually, that policy is not so strict, and  I'd say that the answer is rather maybe.

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How to start a phd in algebraic geometry with an electrical engineering degree?
I graduated with a bachelor of electrical engineering and I like to start a phd program in algebraic geometry at Brown university or another similar university. During my undergraduate, in addition to engineering math courses, I have taken abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, differential equation, linear algebra, and vector calculus.
Given my background, how can I start a phd program in algebraic geometry? How should I transition to a phd program in algebraic geometry?
I know that my math background is very poor but I want to know what I need to do so I can do a phd in algebraic geometry?

Go visit Brown and talk to a few faculty in the math department to see what they would advise. You may have a worse opinion of your math background than necessary. I also wonder why you chose algebraic geometry, but that is something to explore with the faculty.

Why algebraic geometry? How were you motivated to choose the topic? Why not persistent homology (topology from samples), discrete Morse theory or computational geometry? I am asking because these topics are all linking abstract mathematical concepts with (esp. computational) applications closer to everyday life, and therefore may be more accessible to you but still offer a route into more challenging mathematical understanding.


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Can you change the Ph. D. supervisor but continue with the same job, regardless of the opinion of the previous supervisor?
Can you change the supervisor (advisor) but continue with the same job, that is, without changing research direction, regardless of the opinion of the previous supervisor, or can a job only continue with another supervisor, if the previous supervisor accepts that the next supervisor continues to guide the work?
The main question is whether the previous supervisor has ownership over the continuity of doctoral work in the legal sense.

Legal ownership of ideas is an alien concept. Things can be patented, of course, but in the absence of that, no. But the previous advisor could, if desired, make your life a living hell, depending on the power structure.

@Buffy Really, being owners of ideas that other people know is somewhat complicated. What is not complicated is the plagiarism, but the former supervisor being cited in the work as a co-author, it is not clear that there is a problem. That's what I think.

Hmmm. No, ownership is simple. You can originate an idea but you can't own it. Einstein doesn't "own" relativity. You can own (for a period at least) expression, but not the ideas themselves.

What do you mean by “same job”? What would your PhD supervisor have to do with your teaching load, or other employment at your university? Are you asking if you can continue working as a research assistant doing the same research under a different academic? I think that this might be a question you’d need to direct to your university’s HR department.

@nick012000 Continue exactly the same PhD work (thesis work) but with a different supervisor. Imagine that you are in the middle of your PhD course, or you are finishing your PhD course, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, you have to change your supervisor.

In general, yes
There's nothing that would prohibit you from pursuing the same research direction with another supervisor, or with no supervisor at all, should you choose to. However, there are some specific hurdles that may apply.
Co-authorship requirements
It may be that for your current unpublished research (which would be your next published paper) your current supervisor meets the criteria for co-authorship e.g. substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work. If it is so (it'll depend on your field) then it would be required to include them as a co-author (and get their approval!) when publishing that research, and if you have a sour relationship, then that may become a problem. It's possible that in this way you may lose a paper in progress which you won't be able to publish in time, but you can proceed with other, further research in the same direction.
Bureaucratic requirements
It may be that your local university won't allow you to switch supervisors if the previous supervisor objects sufficiently - either because of some official criteria or unofficial influence, e.g. it's quite possible that in certain institutions certain faculty have sufficient clout to ensure that such a change doesn't get approved or that the new supervisor is forced not to accept you.
Funding requirements
This was the first thing that came to mind as the "same job" was mentioned in the title. Depending on your institution and the conditions your particular employment, it may well be that the funding for your position comes from a grant or some other project of your current supervisor. In that case, that supervisor has a budget for a grad student to work on research direction X, and if you leave them, you'll also "quit the job" and lose the funding which they'll be able to spend on someone else. It's possible that the new supervisor might like to work with you, but they might not (at the moment) have the budget for you, or alternatively they may have an available funded position for a slightly different research direction Y - in which case the funding for that position would require you to change your research direction.
It's quite likely that none of these scenarios apply to you. But those are the things that you'd have to verify, most likely by asking your (potential) new supervisor who'll know the specifics of your institution.


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Didn't Pass Final Course for Undergraduate Degree - Already Have Full Time Job
Unfortunately I failed the last class I needed to get my undergraduate degree- even after walking on stage in front of my whole family. I emailed the professor back and forth to no avail and even applied to repeal the grade with the chair of my school (didn't work). This course is only offered during working hours for me and I don't think it can be done online. I am in panic mode and don't have a clue what to do at this point. Theres no way this is the first time this has ever happened to someone? Does anyone have any advice on what I should be doing? Thanks so much.

You're going to have to find a way to retake that class, or an acceptable substitute, if you want to get your degree.  So that's the starting point.
I would suggest you begin by speaking to your academic advisor.  They will know about possible options for retaking the class, or other classes you might be able to take as a substitute.  You can also ask about the possibility of taking an equivalent class through another university (which might include online options) and transferring the credit - but be sure to get the specific course approved by your university in advance.
Ultimately, you might have to consider rearranging your work schedule, or even looking for a different job with more flexible hours, in order to retake the class.  Which is more important to you in the long term, this specific job, or having a college degree?
(Another thing to keep in mind - if you were offered your current job on condition of having a degree, you would likely be obligated to inform your employer that you haven't yet graduated.  If that's the case, then going on with your current job and forgetting about the failed course may not be an option anyway.)

Definitely try to get the degree though! I've seen stunted careers because of similar situations where they never finished up.

You have to work this out with the school. No one else has any authority to help you. Talk to someone in the department or at the Dean's level to find out your options. They will have some incentive to help, most likely. But you may have to go through a painful journey to find a suitable ending.


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example of mail to send to supervisor after a long period without news
I would like to contact my supervisor after a long time and I do not know what to say to him, knowing that I have not finished the part that I am supposed to have finished.
indeed, because of personal problems (my father had an accident, I had health problems) I could not advance at the programmed rate.
I think I should contact my supervisor and tell him that I'm sorry for the delay and that I'm going to send him the work in 2 weeks but I do not know how to say that in a formal and professional way.
Help please

The professor would much rather have a communication sooner than a long professional communication down the line...

not my supervisor! he told me from the begining that he doesn't want me to send him the differents chapters separated each time but rather all the work once and for all.

What do you mean “not your supervisor”? See your opening line... Then what is it about multiple parts, thought thisxwas about personal problems to explain the situation to him...

I am looking for an email template to send to my teacher to tell him where I am in the progress of my master thesis. "example of mail to send to supervisor after a long period without news"
knowing that I'm late ( because of some personal problems), that I have not spoken to him for a long time and that I can not send him the chapters I did until the whole work is done.

How long is "a long time"? How often was he expecting to hear from you?

"Dear Professor,
I am sorry to have to inform you that a number of personal problems have disrupted my work programme. I am now fully engaged again on my work [if that is true] and hope to send you [say what it will be] shortly. [ I advise you against giving a specific date: hostage to fortune]. I should be happy to explain in more detail and answer any questions that you may have."
The basic idea is to state clearly that there was a problem and what you are doing about it but without making too many promises.

Thank you so much !!!

I agree with Solar Mike, at this point formality might not be the most important concern here.
I just had a big break, and recently returned to work with my supervisors, my first email to my supervisors after months of radio silence was simply

"Dear professor *, hope you are well. I have recovered and am ready to
  resume my research, I'd like to schedule a supervision meeting soon to
  catch up and plan the next steps. Regards."

For your supervisor, the message is "the student is resuming" and that's it, save the details (reasons why you were away from your study) for a face to face meeting.
Remember your supervisor is always there to support you. Don't over think it.


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when should we write the bibliography?
what do you recommend me ?
write the bibliography as I write my dissertation, or focus on the bibliography at the end of the writing? Thank you

You should never actually write the bibliography. As you write the actual content sections, you should add citations where-ever relevant as you go. The bibliography should then automatically be generated by your reference manager.

There are (mainly) two types of citations:

citations of methods/results by other researchers that you use in your work. These citations may appear anywhere in the document.
citations made to summarize the state of the art. These appear mostly in the introduction.

I would recommend adding the first type of citations as soon as you explain the methods/results you are using in the main text. It is very easy to miss some of these afterwards and forget to cite them, and you would be incurring plagiarism.
The second type of citations appear in the introduction, which is anyway usually written last. You can leave these citations for the end if you wish, though I still find it less time-consuming to just cite everything as I write the main text. Doing a "second sweep" of your text and trying to remember "what did I want to cite here again?" is bound to add some overhead.


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Ethics of "Double Dipping": Helping 2 professors with research during the summer
Some Context:
Over the past year, I have built relationships with 2 of the professors at my university. In this case, I was referred to Professor X by Professor Y. The professors work in two related fields (physics) and are friends.
I worked with Professor X on some of my research a few months ago and it went well. Professor X is allowing me to help him with his lab research over the summer and I am honored to do so. Of course, it would not be an every day thing and we will be working out a schedule.
Consequently, I spoke with Professor Y about a summer spot before starting my research with Professor X. Nothing was formalized here and I haven't spoken to Professor Y since beginning my research. However, I am very interested in helping Professor Y in her lab this summer.
My Question: Would it be seen as poor taste to ask Professor Y about helping in her lab this summer? In my email I would explain that I would also be working with her colleague.
I don't want to jeapordize my position or my relationship with either one of them, so, would it be considered "double-dipping" to help with both of them? If it is, would this have any adverse effects?
One option would be to ask Professor X if he would be alright with this. I am not sure about this option because again I don't want to put our relationship on weird terms.
This is undergraduate level, in the UK.

How much time would you spend in each lab if you worked in both simultaneously? How does that compare to the amount of time you would spend in just Professor X's lab alone if you did not work with Professor Y?

@BryanKrause I have not worked out hours with Professor X yet, however, I will be talking with him about that this upcoming week.

This shouldn't be a problem. The professors aren't your employers who demand 100% of your time - they might not even be paying you - so they are not likely to expect you to commit to their lab and their lab only (it'd also be unreasonable if they expect this). Meanwhile by working in two labs you're maximizing your exposure, which can only be a good thing for you.
The only serious consequence I can see from this arrangement would be that you might not be able to commit enough time to actually achieve something substantial. If you aren't going to get any real research done in both labs, you might as well commit to one lab only.

In my opinion, you are overthinking this. As long as you are clear with both professors and work out a schedule that works for everyone, it should be fine. I have seen many students that work in two or more labs either as an hourly job or just for the experience.
One thing I want to emphasize is that do not overcommit yourself. Nobody likes a person who fills up their plate too much that stuff starts to fall over. So make sure you have the time to do perform in both labs. Otherwise, commit to one lab and give your best to that one. However, if you can do both it will be good for you to develop skills in time management, collaboration, and communication.

I think a lot depends on your position with Prof. X.

If this is really "research", then it should require essentially unlimited time -- the more time you put in, the further you will get. In this case, even asking about working with Prof. Y shows that you don't understand this. While this may seem harsh, the fact is that hiring undergraduates is usually less efficient than doing the work oneself, so it rarely makes sense to hire a student that is intentionally reducing their productivity even further by working in two labs. That said, you are an undergraduate, so you should be able to ask Prof. X about what's appropriate without consequences.
But this may not be really "research." You mention a "schedule" and that it won't be every day -- maybe this is more like an hourly labor position ("lab tech")? In this case, I see no reason why you couldn't tell Prof. X that you're looking for another position on your off-days...this would limit your freedom to accept additional work in Prof. X's group, should the opportunity arise...but maybe that's worth it to explore Prof. Y's group.

Edit: Leaving this up, despite the downvotes...while it would be nice if every undergraduate could work in dozens of groups before committing to a sub-field, the fact is that undergraduate research assistants take a lot of the supervisor's time and produce relatively little, so it just makes no sense for the supervisor to hire undergraduate research assistants that are intentionally dividing their limited time among multiple groups. As I said, the situation is completely different for "lab tech" type positions.

even asking about working with Prof. Y shows that you are not terribly committed to this research — Strong downvote.  This attitude is toxic and dangerous. People can actively and significantly contribute to a research project without committing 40 (or 120) hours a week.  And at least in my own field, I would argue that it's more beneficial in the long run to work on more than one research project at once.

@JeffE - Thanks for the comment, but I disagree. No one is saying that they need to work 40-120 hours per week. But hiring undergraduate students to help with research (not just 'lab tech' work) is usually a losing proposition because they start at such a low level and have so many time commitments (classes, etc.). If they are additionally splitting their efforts among multiple labs, it's just not worth the supervisor's time. And regardless of whether you disagree with the concern, many professors (possibly including Prof. X) will share it.

What? No, working in one lab does not promise your entire intellectual capacity and time to that group. Presumably, the OP and Prof. X will reach an agreement over how many h/wk they will work together. What OP does with the rest of their time is no one's business. "Prof. X might offer you more hours, which you won't be in a position to take" This goes for many things, such as getting an external job. Since when does working 10 h/wk for someone mean you have to keep the other 30 free in case they offer you more?

@AzorAhai - I'm shocked this has proven so controversial. Yes, if I hired a lab tech or coder, then I don't care what they do "off the clock." But if I hired an undergraduate-level research assistant, I would expect them to give me as many hours as possible -- which is usually not very many, maybe 15 during the academic year and 30-40 over the summer. Otherwise it's just not worth my time. RE the part you quoted -- yes, I specifically said "giving up these speculative opportunities for the concrete opportunity...is maybe a good trade", I was just pointing out one potential downside.

Then you should clarify your answer is assuming OP is planning on working full-time for Prof X.

Doesn't it already say this? I have two bullets to clearly distinguish between "research" positions that require as much time as they can get, and "hourly" positions where there is a well-established schedule and number of hours per week.


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Towards the end of PhD with just one publication. What are my options?
I am a PhD student in Computational Materials Science in the US with just one publication in a Q1(according to Scimago Journal Rank) or Q2(according to Journal Citation reports) journal. Another as co-author in a Q1 (according to both) journal. I have manuscripts ready for two works with finalizing one more work and will be submitting them by July end. My advisor isn't available at the moment to work on my manuscripts. So, hopefully will get them done in July. But, I will also be submitting my thesis this August and hopefully defend in October. I will be looking for postdoc positions soon. But considering my poor publishing record, how should I approach prospective postdoc P.I's?

We cannot comment on how many articles are considered "too little" your field --- and we don't want to, in this forum. Maybe you should remove the deatils on how much you have published and reword your question to a more general one "how to approach prospective postdoc advisors when your publication record is underwhelming for the standards of your field". (Keep in mind, of course, that the impostor syndrome may be involved here, and you may be mis-judging the quantity/quality of your work).

Echoing @Federico Poloni: In my field it was generally understood, until recently, that you finish a PhD without any publications, and use your postdoc to produce publications from your PhD research. But I don't know about the standards of your field.

Possible duplicate: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/127657/93566

Towards the end of PhD with just one publication. What are my options?

Well, your options are the same as everyone at the end of a PhD :)
If you are interested in continuing as a postdoc, you should definitely apply.
As Buffy said, you should mention your work in progress in your applications. If possible, you can also give a link to a preprint version of your papers.
The only problem with a low publication record is the competition for a particular position: if in your field PhD students usually publish significantly more than you, all other things being equal a PI will choose another candidate who published more than you. But all other things are rarely equal in research, the PI usually wants to find the right person for the job, not only somebody who has published a lot.
Obviously a position in a major university or with a famous researcher in your field will attract many applications, so it's mathematically harder to get accepted. So
in the unlikely event that your publication record proves to be an issue (something you will know if your first batch of applications are rejected), you could try to adjust and target some less competitive positions.

Perhaps a low number of publications is common in your field. I cannot comment on that. In my field (engineering), I would have students target a goal of 1 paper (conference or journal) per year at high quality conferences/journals. I think that is a reasonable number.
But this is not all your fault. I view the job of reviewing students papers as one of the primary responsibilities of an advisor. Your advisor choosing not to review your manuscripts for a couple months is negligent. I would try to get your advisor to change their stance on this point. I would express your concern with them by stating that you view having more publications as essential to your future job prospects, and so these remaining months are extremely valuable to you.
For what its worth, it is not uncommon for students to be most productive in their final year... You are finally at the point where you have a good handle of the field, and are in a great position to make some impactful publications.
Now how to make the best of this situation on applications...
If you don't have a lot of publications, then you will simply need to highlight your skills well on your resume. Postdocs are expected to publish quite a bit, and to be able to work quite independently. Through your cover letter, you need to convince them that you have the skills to do this.
I think the most effective approach for you moving forward would be to start work on 2 papers as if your advisor will be able to review them. Presumably if you are writing a dissertation, then you have enough material. If your advisor does not have enough time to review them, then you will include this material as part of your application. As part of the cover letter, you can then explain that you do not have many publications because your advisor could not review your material for several months, showing the papers as proof.
If your advisor does get around to reviewing the papers, then you will have 2 more publications. Win win...

Whether you are in a good place or a bad place depends on too many things to be definitive. The simple number of publications means very little. A few high quality publications answering difficult questions is more impressive than a lot of simple results easily obtained.
Approach getting a position the way anyone does, no matter what their record. Make your best case that you are just exactly the right person for the position and that you have the skills required and plenty of ideas to carry you through. Tailor your applications to the positions offered, rather than just having a generic application that you send out randomly.
But it is also valuable to have a lot of "work in progress", so that the potential for future publication is there. Keep a notebook of research ideas that you can draw on, so that if you get blocked on one project you have others that might be advanced a bit. Add to it as new ideas come to you.

This question depends entirely on what the publishing curve in your field looks like. In some fields, its very normal and expected for graduating PhD's to have multiple publications. In others, its rare if they have a single publication.
Also, being ahead of the publishing curve does not necessarily mean you will get a tenure track position at an R1 institute. It increases the likelihood but does not ensure anything. Sometimes there is little rhyme or reasoning for hiring committees.
If you are worried about your publication record, I recommend on securing a postdoctoral position. If you can land one at a top institute, thats even better. As a postdoc at Duke, I had postdoc colleagues who published in Nature/Science to those who had not yet published their dissertation. It just depended on the field.

That kind of output is low.  It's not that hard to make the spaghetti (band diagrams).
Seems like there are a couple issues.  One, your own level of work/initiative.  Two, the advisor dependence.  My advice is to literally write papers as if you were going to submit it ON YOUR OWN.  Make it as perfect as you can (writing, style, etc.)  Then your advisor is only reviewing "staff perfect" documents.
In addition, after having submitted such level of quality papers, you should feel confident about being a squeaky wheel and just tell him to mail the things in (or to let you).  After all, the whole point is for you to become a functioning independent researcher and you are practically done with the training period.
Note, that I'm not saying to immediately go nuclear.  But definitely change your attitude to more of one of captaining your own ship and of the advisor as more of a gatekeeper, extra hurdle, etc.  If he can add some value great.  And don't be too obvious about it.  But definitely write papers that you would literally send in on your own (polished, perfect) and after that don't accept "don't have time to review for months".  That's UNSAT when you are doing all the work and he is writing grant reports and adding his name onto the lab group's papers.


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How to reference and cite the osgeo package from Python
i am a bit confused about osgeo, osgeo.gdal, osgeo.ogr and osgeo.osr. I want to cite and reference all my used Python libraries which i used for my masterthesis. I am not sure if it is enough to cite the osgeo package or if i have to mention gdal etc. as well. Also i can't find any information about the author or a reference for the osgeo Python library.
Thanks a lot for any help.

I want to cite and reference all my used Python libraries which i used for my masterthesis.

It is usually enough to cite just the package (not individual libraries), unless there are special circumstances.
Libraries / datasets with a science background (rule of thumb: papers were published introducing the library and/or it is part of an academic project) usually have somewhere on their websites some information about how it should be cited. In those cases, you should obviously use that. Example for MatPower - a Matlab package for power systems analysis (emphasis mine):

Terms of Use
  Please see the LICENSE file for the details. But here is the summary
  ...
Beginning with version 5.1, the code in MATPOWER is distributed under
  the 3-clause BSD license. MATPOWER is distributed in the hope that it
  will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. While not required by the
  terms of the license, we do request that publications derived from the
  use of MATPOWER explicitly acknowledge that fact by citing [2].
  Additionally, we request that publications derived from the use of the
  MATPOWER Optimal Scheduling Tool (MOST), explicitly acknowledge that
  fact by citing [4] as well as [2].

[2]    R. D. Zimmerman, C. E. Murillo-Sánchez, and R. J. Thomas, "MATPOWER: Steady-State Operations, Planning and Analysis Tools for Power Systems Research and Education," Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 12-19, Feb. 2011.
[4]  C. E. Murillo-Sánchez, R. D. Zimmerman, C. L. Anderson, and R. J. Thomas, "Secure Planning and Operations of Systems with
  Stochastic Sources, Energy Storage and Active Demand," Smart Grid,
  IEEE Transactions on, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 2220-2229, Dec. 2013.

For libraries with no such information, it is usually enough to put the link, or permalink if at all possible, to the website as a reference.
You should also check the institution's (or publishing venues's) reference guidelines, there should be something about citing online resources.

Uh, another crayon license.

@FedericoPoloni I'm sorry, I don't understand. Do you mean the example I provided, the license of OsGeo or some other part of my answer?

I meant to say that Matpower has a crayon license.


text:
Salary and academic career in Italy
What are the average salaries for the steps of an academic career in Italy (RTDa, RTDb, Associate Professor, Full Professor)? In the vacancy announcements that I've seen, this information was not included. Are there any tables containing this information? Are the salaries or bonuses individually negotiated or fixed nation-wide?

They are essentially fixed nation-wide, apart from a minor portion of local taxes.
Here are the tables for my university. Labels are in Italian, but "Costo a.l. Amm." means "gross yearly salary", and "tempo pieno" means "full-time". You get a raise every three years.

Thank you! Roughly speaking, what is the tax percentage to be applied on the gross salary?

I think it's going to be around 50% on that number when you factor in everything. For a more accurate estimate, sum up the "stip. a.l.", "I. I. S. a.l." and "A. A. a.l." columns, subtract income tax which has several brackets, and toss in about 100E/month of additional local taxes.

Also, there are some child benefits, but I am not familiar with them, having no children myself.

At the end of the day, my net salary is more or less what is in the first column of that table. This might be an accurate rule-of-thumb, apart from the RTD-B table which seems to be built differently.

Another thing that is probably not clear at a first read is that the various rows for professor positions essentially represent career years. In your first year you'll get what the first line says, then the second line, and so on. So raises are every three years, essentially.

I realize it's complicated, especially for a foreigner. :/ I know very little about the intricacies of salary laws myself, unfortunately.

Thanks again! So, roughly speaking, we range from 1500/month for starting rdta to 7000/month for the most senior full professors -- is that accurate?

Yes, that seems accurate, at least for the RTD-A; possibly a little more (1700-1800). I am not really sure because my assistant position was a different type under a previous law. I have never asked a senior full professor what their net salary is. :) I suspect the very end of that table is difficult to obtain, because you'd need to become full professor very early.

I am full professor since 2015, my net salary is around (a bit less) 4000 Euros…


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Criteria of grading teamwork
I'm an international student pursing master's degree in computer science in the US. This semester I was doing a course not even an elective to my program. I chose it because it seemed very interested to me in terms of plausible experience that I can get by working on some external project. Such projects were provided by external "clients".
I've been assigned to a project with three undergrads. The project that we got was pretty simple: build a website with a specific purpose. Our team chose programming languages and frameworks that I've not been familiar with but I have enough experience in coding at all. We separated in two subteams. Two person were working on a one half (frontend), me and another team member on the second half (backend).
From the very beginning I tried to be into the project as much as I can but, unfortunately, very soon I found that my other team members were struggling not just in these specific programming languages but in coding at all. "That's ok", - I told myself and tried many times to engage them in the learning process. During my studies of these technologies I tried to share experience with my team members many times. Quickly I realized that they were not just not familiar with technologies but didn't show any interested in learning at all. I had a conversation with our client about it and he agreed that all undergrads don't seem doing anything useful. Client noticed me that he's planning to have a talk about that with the class' instructor (who is responsible for technical questions) or professor (who is responsible for organizational questions).
After the spring recess the instructor asked me about a face-to-face meeting with me. At the meeting he asked what is happening with the project and what problems do we have? I explained that all my team members are not interested neither in the project, not in a learning process at all. Instructor acknowledged that and mentioned that undergrads usually start to work before the end of the semester (before grading). I asked him if I can take just the project on my own so we'll able to deliver our project to a client but he insisted to keep me working on my part (backend).
3 weeks before the end of the semester, my team members, for real, started to do something. They even started to ask a piece of advice from me sometimes. Unfortunately, due to the lack of knowledge and experience it was useless. I decided that I'd like to finish at least the second part of the project (backend) so client will have at least some foundation of the future project. I emailed to my instructor that I'd like solely to work on the backend and let another team member who used to work on the second part with me (backend) help others on the first part (frontend). As a result, three of them and I'm alone.
Since to that moment the second part was a mess of just copied pieces of information from the internet, I decided to start that part from scratch and spent many nights during last weeks on working with that. Fortunately, I finished my part in time. Polished, tested and ready for production. Unfortunately, the first part (frontend) wasn't done. There were small pieces of something. In the end of the semester, instructor asked the class to provide common information about what we did and what we didn't.
In time of grading for semester I found out that my grade was not what I expected. I came to instructor for a clarification about the grade and he said that I got reduced grade since the project (website) doesn't work. And, by the way, that he learned about the problems in the team from me at our meeting but not from our client I expected earlier. I replied to the instructor that the second part is done and it's possible to check it apart. He acknowledged that he checked it and it seems as the best work (code) in the class but, anyway, the project is not done and we (the team) didn't delivered what hasn't been done before grading. Since the syllabus says that 20% of the grade is shared between all team members, I got the reduced grade.
My question is:
Since the instructor knew about the problems in our team and I delivered alone solid foundation of the project, is it appropriate to get a reduced grade? Because it seems that I wasn't able to get a higher grade from the very beginning because of my team members.
I tried to cover all the details of the story but, probably, some small details are missing since the post is already too long

This seems to be basically about which deliverables you focused on : those for the customer (ie back end) and those for grades...

Did the syllabus or the instructor explain beforehand how the team assignment would be graded, in particular whether there would be a single grade for the whole project or different grades for individually assigned parts of the project?

Solar Mike, thank you! I agree that I was more focused on the deliverables for the customer rather than for grades. In my opinion it was like: happy client means good grades. I knew he wouldn't be happy for 100% but he knew about problems very well. After my decision in the end to work solely he agreed that now he has at least solid foundation for future work.

Henning, thank you for the question!  The only information that we got is that grades are all about the code and tests. It's quality, cleanness, readability etc. I didn't hear anything about "splitting" the grade except mention in the syllabus teamwork deliverables 20% (5% - mid term team presentation, 10% - final team presentation and 5% - partner evaluation)

Your syllabus clearly said that 20% will be shared, so, yes, it is appropriate.
Every teamwork exercise is also an exercise in organization, leadership etc. The way you present your story, your team has failed in that. (I also get the impression that you did not work well together with your team from your story.)
Projects in the so-called real life are similar: if the team has failed, then everyone failed.
PS: If the project really was "pretty simple" but the students would have needed more "knowledge and experience", something is broken with this university system as a whole.

Thank you for your comments!

In my understanding if it has to be close to real-life, then in real-life there is a chance to do something about it. If an employee doesn't work: find a replacement, fire him etc. At least, your supervisor (or a person who has more responsibilities) will do something about it: control the project and try to get rid of the problems in the beginning of it. In academic it doesn't work in this way since it's a choice of my team members (do not work on the project) not mine. How we can compare "real-life" and "academic" in this way?

About "pretty simple". It seems that this course is elective for everyone (at least for me) and there is an interviewing process (checking knowledge in the field) with an instructor before a student will be accepted to the course.


text:
"Extra teaching" (compared to the standard contract) for Italian researchers
For researchers (RTDa, RTDb, associate and full professors) in Italian universities is it possible to have some "extra" teaching duties (compared to the standard contract)? How would one apply to be assigned these duties? On what tariff are they paid?
A related question about the "standard" teaching duties is in Teaching duties in Italy for researchers, associate professors, and full professors

@Roland In my US university there are options to take on extra teaching duties for additional compensation (mainly summer courses or online courses during the regular academic year).

Yes, it is possible.
In my University, we have a number of hours of mandatory teaching ('included' with the salary), that depends on the level (e.g., 40 hours/year for a RTDa, 60 for RTDb, 120 for professors, and a lot of special exceptions). Only "classroom" hours are counted (so the time for exams, course preparation, student hours, etc doesn't count).
Any additional teaching hours are paid, but they must be authorized in the yearly teaching plan, up to a maximum number (that in our case is 2x the minimum).
The bottom line is that this is legally possible, but a lot depends on each University's regulations.


text:
NSERC (canadian institution) asks for Times New roman, can I use another font?
I need to write an outline of my research for a grant. The orginization I am applying to, NSERC asks for:
"Body text in a minimum 12 pt Times New Roman font"
Well here's a little problem, I don't own Windows and getting my hands on an MS product to write the proposal irks me a bit. I also don't like the idea that people's taxes are being used to promote a proprietary font. NSERC should ask for an open font, such as Liberation Serif.
In short, can I use another font or must I really use a microsoft product to type this proposal?
As a general answer to those thinking this is silly/non-important. The font times new roman is a proprietary font, meaning it requires quite a bit of effort to access it on systems that have don;t have a license for it (I am in such a system, so this is already affecting me).
But moreover, this is a public grant. This is effectively pushing people towards using proprietary software for research (or in this case to apply for research grants) and that is not ok when there are perfectly valid free fonts that achieve the same result.
NSERC does NOT give away free money, NSERC collects funds from taxes and reinverts them into research. It is not ok for a public organization to favour proprietary tools when free tools that achieve the exact same purpose exist. It literally disenfranchizes individuals.
Imagine if instead of a proprietary font, the grant process demanded that you submite a docx file or another, similar, proprietary file format. This would essentially be NSERC promoting MS software which would be, by definition, a corruption of academic incentives. This matters, it is not the most important issue in the world, but it matters.

Times New Roman is not owned by Microsoft and is available on MacOS and probably other non-Microsoft software. Also, expecting that your government only use your tax money in ways that you approve of is a tad unrealistic (especially when you have chosen this bizarre issue as the hill to die on).

Anyway, you can use whatever font you like… and NSERC can shower free money on whomever it, in turn, likes. Presumably they will choose from the many applicants who don’t disqualify themselves right away by blatantly ignoring the grant writing guide’s instructions.

Anyway #2: if your computer truly does not have access to Times New Roman, you can always email the grant program director to explain the issue and ask if you can use another font. I’m betting they wouldn’t mind.

@DanRomik This. But you should've written an answer.

Didn't Microsoft release this font for free a long time ago? Something about "core web fonts"?

As others have said, if you're using Mac OS you should already have access to Times New Roman. If you are using an Ubuntu derivative, apparently you can get Times New Roman for free in LibreOffice. I'm obviously not going to check every linux distribution, but I bet you can find it on most of them if you look.

This post feels more like a rant than a question meant for genuine feedback.

Unless the system blocks a submission, I would be surprised if any reviewers notice you use a Times New Roman clone such as Nimbus Roman. If you're using LaTeX, you might check out the New TX Font package.

My guess is that "Times New Roman" is there only to prevent you from using some horizontally squished (but still 12 pt vertically) font to cheat some page limits (and drive reviewers crazy).

@AndreasBlass Or to prevent people from using a font like Comic Sans.

@AndreasBlass if that is the reason, it is ignorance in the purest form: better to set a limit on words/characters, rather than enforcing an indirect minimal width on the characters that will fill the page(s), as it is now with the hard requirement on font.

On linux, install ttf-mscorefonts-installer with your favorite package manager.

@henning OP doesn't have a technical problem here, they have an ethical problem.

@Federico Poloni oh, I see. I wouldn't die on that hill, to be honest.

What do you mean by "disenfranchise"? I don't see how it takes a way a legal right to anything.

Research is meant to be accessible, by demanding the use of proprietary software you push away people that for economic, ideological or personal reasons do not have direct access the proprietary tool or refuse to support the organization that holds the copy right.
Basically it puts you in a position where you either support the copy right holder or you are blocked from funding.

@Makogan - 'Basically it puts you in a position where you either support the copy right holder or you are blocked from funding'- is not at all the case here, as so many technical solutions indicate. I suspect the answers would be different if the context was different. Many who may support your larger point may find themselves unable to align on this issue, precisely because it is not binding.

We are in 2021, we have been to the moon (well, we = westerners) and the concept that free \neq open is still missing in the eyes of many (and we are in SE:Academia !).
Since we live in a world described by physics law, and physics prescribes that there is no energy conversion without loss, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
If a proprietary tool is given to you for free, you are paying for it.

Microsoft has no ownership rights to this font. It has a license only. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_New_Roman

The question: can I use another font? is specific to the NSERC. Also, this question borders on a rant. Hence my vote to close.

Fortunately, there is a free software alternative to Times New Roman that is metrically compatible, available as part of the Liberation Fonts. Using it has the advantage that the letters consume exactly the same amount of space as they would for Times New Roman.
This leaves you two choices to handle the issue:

Ask the funding body if they permit you to use this same letter size font. Since the role of the rule is likely to be limiting the size of proposals, this is a reasonable request.
Finish your proposal and ask a colleague with a Windows or Mac PC to convert your document to PDF for you after changing the font to Times New Roman. This should not affect the layout of the document.

The second approach has the problem that if your colleague opens your document in a different program (e.g., MS Word instead of LibreOffice), the layout may be modified.
On a related note, if using Microsoft OneDrive is an option for you (e.g., when your point is not about using non-free software at all but really only about the cost of the font), you can write your document with the online version of MS Word there with a free account and select Times New Roman. When you download a copy in PDF, the font is not actually embedded, but the PDF should still work and be shown with that font on computers having it installed.

As has been pointed out by several others, the font is readily available on non-Microsoft products. You aren't the first to face problems with this; luckily plenty of people have come up with solutions.
There is no serious technical difficulty here. On the ethical front, I think Hanlon's razor is helpful here. The organisation most likely chose the simplest instruction that they could come up with which served a large group of people (most people, in their perception). Since it seems to work, they probably saw no reason to update it. They may have a point- a large number of people in my vicinity do think of TNR as a default font. Is it universal, or a clear best choice? Certainly not, and there is no universal choice.
If you want to correct the situation for the greater good, first get the grant (following their requirements) and then write to them. If you want to solve your immediate, individual problem, use one of the proposed workarounds. Doing anything else is unproductive.

This is a good question, because Times New Roman is a propriertary font (albeit free on many operative systems).
This is a bad question, because the only possible answer is "ask NSERC".
However, I am quite sure that if they had time to put such a non-sensical constraint, they will have time to answer questions about the same constraint (I am not sure about their opening to allow for exceptions, though).
Final note: if the requirement is "one page, written at minimum with Times New Roman 12pt" is to avoid people cramping tons of text with a thinner font, it is absolutely idiotic. One (I mean one as NSERC) should just fill a page of text Times New Roman 12pt, count the characters (or the words) and then ask for such a limit.

That is not exactly correct. The format also allows for tables and images. So if you used say 2k words with images and tables then it would not be the same as 2k words without images. It’s a strict format ( e.g NSERC DG grants are 5 pages and that’s it) and it is sometimes annoying, but the flexibility of being able to add as many images and tables as you want makes up for it.

I removed some unkind comments; let us remember our code of conduct. In particular: "Be inclusive and respectful. Avoid sarcasm and be careful with jokes — tone is hard to decipher online....If a situation makes it hard to be friendly, stop participating and move on."


text:
What if I have no students when I do a research?
Now I am a Ph.D student in China. I will get my degree at 2023.12 (if fortunately). But I only have three papers.  I wish a school with a good platform. Now I find a school with title "211", which means the school is good for me.
I major in computer science college, but now I can only apply for the international college.
The problem is that the college of this school is not good and has no masters and Ph. D's. This means that I will do a reseach without any students for a loooong time. (maybe forever?)
I'm not sure if this choice is correct.

What does a school with title "211" mean? Also what country are we talking about?

It is very rare for a school to have no students at all. Since you only mention masters and PhD students, then that suggests that maybe they have only Bachelor level students (undergraduates). This is in some countries quite common. These are typically not the strongest schools if you are interested in doing research. In that case the reverse of your worry is more likely: you will do a lot of (basic) teaching and very little research.

@MaartenBuis Thanks very much. The '211' means the school is 'important' and 'good' in China. Actually, I just worry that if I have no masters and PhD students, then I can't do research and have other troubles (though I don't know what is the trouble).

In some parts of CS you don't need students to do your own research.

@Buffy Thanks! My research is theoretical computer science and I think I don't need students. I just need the answer what you said!

Only three papers? for your next PhD please do better https://forbetterscience.com/2021/05/26/the-chinese-paper-mill-industry-interview-with-smut-clyde-and-tiger-bb8/ ;) !

In computer science, especially theoretical CS, external collaboration is more essential to success than having graduate students. And, even if you have grad students you need that collaboration anyway.
CS tends to aid in this by making conferences and conference participation an important part of the process. We value conferences because they enable people to get together and begin collaborative efforts as well as to get new ideas into the mix as soon as possible. We value work in progress, for example.
However, an undergraduate institution, while it can provide a great career environment will have some drawbacks. First, there is probably less money available for travel. Second, but maybe most important, is that teaching is the most highly valued activity. You need to be good at that and you need good language skills for that.
An additional drawback, potentially, is the likelihood of a small CS faculty so local collaboration may be limited. Collaboration with faculty in mathematics may help lessen this impact, or not. But a lot is asked of each faculty member in smaller institutions.
It is possible to begin your career at an undergraduate institution and move to a research-focused university later, but it isn't the easiest path. I'd suggest that, while the institution you note may be fine, that you don't give up the search for a more research focused place at the moment. But don't reject an offer unless you have some clear path to a better one. Good luck.
If some undergraduate institution makes you an offer, you might want to discuss the issue of funding for travel and conference participation before you accept.
Note also that some undergraduate institutions value research opportunities for their students, though at a less intense level (due to time constraints) than graduate/research institutions. Even masters level programs often have time constraints that limit the sorts of research that is feasible for students.

Your answer made me think. Thanks for your help. I will carefully consider how to respond to the situation.


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Forced to put my name on a bad quality and fraudulent paper
I am studying Computer Science in an unknown, crap tier university in India. Due to my interest in Deep Learning, I've done some strong projects and internships in it. Word passed over and people started asking for help with things, and subsequently my current situation also happened because a professor came with the Head of Department in my university and asked me to work on an ML project for them. I agreed to it since it was some small work. Later I got to know that this was going to be the PhD thesis of that professor, but I didn't mind it since it was a small work and also because the Head of Department is involved (if I rejected, they would probably punish me by intentionally reducing my internal marks and failing me).
The work I did for the paper was completely ridiculous but the professor was still very satisfied with it (it was on par with the quality of rest of the fake papers published in the journal he was going to publish in). I was also forced to fake the results for the paper and bluff up things. If anyone reads merely one standard paper in that area, and then takes a glance at this cooked up paper, they can easily figure out that its faked and is a completely worthless paper with zero academic contribution, and only helps the university and the professor to increase their paper count.
The problem is that the paper is now finished and the professor just said that he will put my name on the paper. I am strongly against this and I've tried saying this softly like "No sir, it's okay, you don't have to put me in the paper", but he is adamant and wants to put my name in the paper because I've helped him make it.
I'm still young in undergrad and I'm planning to pursue an MS in a good university and further pursue a PhD. I'm super worried about having a very bad and ridiculously faked up paper this early in my research career. Anyone in the future can ruin my career by mentioning that a paper that has my name on it is completely fake and unethical. I also won't be able to make it to any university for higher studies because the admins and professors at grad school can spot this ridiculous paper easily and reject my application right away. I am extremely worried about it and I'm having panic attacks thinking about this and my future, and I am not able to stop the professor from putting my name on the paper.
What can I do about this?

Addressing the points in the comments:

I did have two choices - yes and no. Had I said no and refused to participate in this fraudulent project, I would've been intentionally and illegally failed in the course, and committed to mental torture (this can happen in India unlike the US). This is like an offer that I cannot refuse and I said yes only to survive myself from this situation - which is why I say I was forced. It's like being held at gunpoint.
I cannot switch to another institution at this point (I'm a final
year student with still 8 months to graduate). And I don't think I
can harm my relationship with the Head here even after graduating
because I'm dependent on them for an LoR. Since an LoR from a
professor is better than one from industry, I have to obtain one
from the Head here because it is better than obtaining an LoR from
any other in this institution.

“No” is a complete sentence.

Who encouraged you to  "fake the results for the paper and bluff up things. "  What form did the encouragement take?  Are you sure that the people involved in this know that your results are fake??

I was forced rather than encouraged to fake it by the professor. I initially requested to give me time so that I can finish the work truthfully, but they forced me to commit fraud because honest work takes time (deep learning model training takes so long to complete). They kept ranting everyday that I am taking so long for a single paper and that training an actual deep learning model will take so long and kept asking me to do something small that is even potentially fake instead of doing the actual work until I eventually gave up and faked it for him.

@newres From your comment it now doesn't sound like anyone actually did "force" you to fake anything. Rather, you were asked to produce results more quickly than you could, and rather than standing firm and saying "I cannot produce results that fast" you decided instead you would fake the results.

@Bryan No, there was actually no deadline for this work. The professor just wanted his PhD fast and pestered me everyday to just go with the faking route. As you mentioned, he did initially ask me to just do it fast, but when I said that "it takes about 2 months", he instantly got angry and said me to just fake it instead of spending 2 months because he "wanted his PhD fast". This is actually what happened, and I did not fake it just because I was short of time. I was not short of time at all, it was just that this professor wanted me to fake it for him so that he can get his PhD fast.

@newres The correct response in that situation would have also been "No, I am not faking your results for you." This is also an unfamiliar situation to me where a professor is not someone who already has a PhD.

Yes, that is actually the correct response, and in an external setting, I would've clearly used that response. But this situation is very different because I am literally forced to go with their option. Had I not agreed to work on the project, my completion of the course would be in question (as I had mentioned in the post, they can literally choose to fail me on purpose if that's what they want. And this kind of stuff happens in universities like this in India). Because of these reasons, I'm not able to use the usual response (which is just a no), and that's why I said that I'm being forced.

Not a real answer (therefore I put it as a comment): ask your professor not to use your real name, or your other name, or your first/last name only. Then, don't claim that the paper is yours (in India, I think it is common to have the exact same name for different people).

I may have missed it in all the additional information in the many comments to the question and answers, but do you have any idea why the professor would rather have your name on the paper than not have your name on the paper? I would think that without your name on the paper (which is an option you have given the professor), the professor's contribution to the paper would appear greater (especially if no other authors). Perhaps identifying the professor's motive for having your name on the paper can help you in devising a way to avoid having your name on the paper.

I added the country tag. This is a cultural issue, not specifically linked to academia. It would be the same if you were working in a factory producing hydraulic equipments, providing fake data for their pumps.
I am sorry for you.

@DaveLRenfro Possible motives: adding credibility (look, somebody else with skill in this area was willing to sign their name to it), insurance in the event that the fraud is detected. ("Fraud, you say? How dreadful! But I didn't write that part of the paper, my co-author was the culprit.")

Thank you @sugab, that's quite clever. I'm planning to possibly give a completely different name and bluff that it's my given name at birth which is also in my birth certificates.

@BryanKrause "This is also an unfamiliar situation to me where a professor is not someone who already has a PhD." https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4471/academia-varies-more-than-you-think-it-does-the-movie ... plus a PhD or equivalent experience should suffice, otherwise the academia is going back to middle-ages convention, feudalism and tribalism ... well, it is already doing so :D

The work I did for the paper was completely ridiculous but the professor was still very satisfied with it (it was on par with the quality of rest of the fake papers published in the journal he was going to publish in). I was also highly encouraged to fake the results for the paper and bluff up things. If anyone reads merely one standard paper in that area, and then takes a glance at this cooked up paper, they can easily figure out that its faked and is a completely worthless paper with zero academic contribution, and only helps the university and the professor to increase their paper count.

If your description is fair, this is not a "bad quality paper", it is a fraudulent one.

The problem is that the paper is now finished and the professor just said that he will put my name on the paper. I am strongly against this and I've tried saying this softly like "No sir, it's okay, you don't have to put me in the paper", but he is adamant and wants to put my name in the paper because I've helped him make it.

Then don't say it softly. "It's okay, you don't have to put my name as an author" communicates "it is acceptable but not necessary that my name be concluded". A very reasonable response to this soft statement would be to include your name if they think your name should be included.
If you do not want your name associated with the paper, you must say this. You can still say it softly to start as, "I do not want my name on this paper," but you may need to insist with "I refuse to have my name on this paper". Ideally, I would get this documented e.g. in an email, so that you have something to refer to if your name is nonetheless associated with fraudulent work.
It's understandable that your position will be confusing to your advisor, because you've already participated in the faking of results, which makes it seem like you're on board with the whole enterprise. I would not recommend doing this in the future - if asked to produce fraudulent results, you should refuse immediately at that step and therefore not risk being credited for that fraudulent work. Of course, you could still be involved in a larger project in which other authors have not acted ethically and you feel your name needs to be withdrawn for those reasons, but you are still personally responsible for the specific individual work you do and the quality of that work.
Besides that, I don't know what to say. It seems you feel you are in a lab that regularly publishes fraud, in an institution that is permissive of fraud. I don't know what benefit you think you'll get from this arrangement. Maybe things are not really as bad as you make it sound here, but if they are, your next steps should all be about getting someplace else. Good luck.

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"your next steps should all be about getting someplace else" Easier said than done.

I’ll add some thoughts on top of @BryanKrause’s excellent answer. To summarize a lot of information from the comments, the story I’m getting is that you:

faked data, but did so under coercion (or what you perceive as coercion) by the corrupt head of department;

now wish to distance yourself from the fraudulent research by refusing to be a coauthor of the work; and

do not seem to think that you could have behaved in any other way, or that you have any ethical responsibility for this fraudulent research being published or helping to get someone a fake PhD, as long as it doesn’t mention your name.

Well, I’m sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but I think this last belief is not quite right. If this research ends up getting published, then, regardless of whether it has your name on it or not, you will have been complicit in academic misconduct. And you already are complicit in misconduct, since you helped someone get a fraudulent PhD. Thus, if your career is hurt in some way by this unfortunate turn of events, you might be forced to acknowledge that it was your behavior, and the choices that you made, that played a role in those bad consequences.
Perhaps you acted under coercion, and if so that would be a mitigating factor that reduces your culpability to some extent. I’m not passing judgment, since I know only very few details about what happened. And I don’t actually have much in the way of practical advice I can offer. But, before you make any decisions about how to act, I’d advise you to first of all do some soul searching and face the fact that you cannot easily claim to be purely a victim in this situation. Your mindset about the situation seems to be misguided, and this might have led you to make wrong decisions in the past. Changing your mindset might lead you to better decisions going forward. For example, you could adopt the view that a corrupt academic is not an acceptable person to even want a letter of recommendation from, under any circumstances, and look for a path forward in your career that doesn’t involve caving to corrupt demands from such people. Even if that seems like an impractical approach to take, I think it would ultimately serve you better in the long term.
Good luck!

Sorry, for some reason ppl seem to disagree that I've been forced.  To provide an analogy, if I were a bank employee with access to the vault, and a robber comes in with a gun and points it at me to open the vault, I do have the option to say "no" to not violate the banks rule of opening vaults at unnecessary times and also to not aid the robber in his act, but I'll get shot. I have no other option but to open the vault just for my survival. You can't arrest me for supporting a robbery since I was forced in this case. (Gunpoint refers to being illegally failed in the course in my case.)

As the bank employee who opened the vault, I do wish to distance myself from the crime if the robber ever says that I was in on this together. And due to our law system, there's a way to logically disprove that I was a partner of the robber. But this is not the case in academia, as the fraudulent paper will appear with my name and I've thus ruined my life for acting at gunpoint. And that's why I'm looking to distance myself from this situation. So far there doesn't seem to be a solution and I'm feeling very depressed :(

@newres that analogy makes sense. Actually academia is just as receptive as the legal system to accepting evidence that someone is not at fault as compelling and valid. So it sounds like you need to make sure to have evidence that you were/are acting under coercion. Whether it’s by creating an email trail of your refusal to go along with a scheme, emailing the journal, or some other way, having such evidence at the ready is probably the way to go.

I don't think I can acquire evidence for acting under coercion since it has all ended, but I will get evidence for refusing to add name in the journal.. But I don't know what that evidence would be helpful for.. Could you please shed some light?

@newres well, if your name ends up on the paper you can complain to the journal and use the evidence you have that you did not consent to this.

I think you have to be creative, and you should avoid fighting an injustice with another injustice.
There is a weak point in authorship, and it is the non-univoque relation between a person and the name of the person.
One smart solution is then to add noise to your name. This way, in the future, if you do not refer to the paper, it will not be easy to find out that the co-author of the paper is really you.
When you will give in to your professor request, ask them politely to put your name as "newres + the family name of your grand grand mother", in a form of respect towards her, and adding as well "Edgar" which is the nickname you always use to distinguish yourself from the other newres doing ugly stuff in CS.
Note: no paper publication forms, no publishers (not even the one doing big scams) are requiring ID to check authors'names.

More creatively, just leave a message in the acknowledgement, something like "In Developing Interesting Datasets To Help Inscribing Subject, Uttermost Nature Defied Enahnced Reasoning Clashing Outrageously Errors Regarding Cultural Indictementes On Nature."
Smart people may read I DID THIS UNDER COERCION

I'd initially planned to give a completely different name to convince him that it's my given name at birth. I'll try to do it this way if the previous plan doesn't work out. Thank you for this idea!

@newres additional suggstion: avoid like the plague research gate, as well as central database like orcid and the likes as long as you are in the network of these persons, otherwise they will surely connect you to the paper... I do not expect you to be in their network for longer than some months, but be careful and good luck


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Workshop dates on a CV
I am currently working on my CV (I am looking to apply to local community colleges as an English Comp and ESL Instructor) and a coworker recommended that I include the workshops I present for my job on my CV.
I am a writing tutor for a community college so every semester I get scheduled to present about 15-20 workshops to students. The subject of the workshops vary. For example,  I present workshops with the college's library on how to do research, and I also present workshops on grammar, essay organization, overcoming writing anxiety, etc. I have created power points for most of these workshops, but not all, and I have been presenting these various workshops for a few years now.
After looking at others' questions about CVs and workshops, I created a heading title "Workshops Facilitated" but since these workshop get presented a few times a semester since Fall 2020, I am not sure if I should just list the semesters I present them, or should I be specific with the dates since I do have the schedules.
And, should I even put these workshops on my CV?  I just graduated with my M.A and I feel like these workshops are valuable, but I am not 100% sure.

Those workshops seem directly relevant to the job. The fact that you do, and what is covered, seem far more important than any exact dates. So, I'd put it as part of your work experience as a writing tutor.

Since the workshops are an activity that shows your qualification for the job for which you are applying, they should be on your CV. However, you need to summarize them. For example, you can list the topic together with a list of dates.


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How to reply to a professor's encouraging e-mail after applying to a PhD program at their university?
I submitted my Ph.D. application to a University in December 2019. The following is the last email I received from a professor at this university (in June 2019):

"Thanks for writing and for the great ideas -- I see a lot of energy and promise in your thoughts, and I encourage you to try to pursue some of these questions -- most, in fact, are exciting and open research areas. I also encourage you to apply for PhD at YYY University.
Best wishes,
Professor X

Now that I have submitted my application, I want to send a simple email to this Professor reminding her about my interest to join her group and the discussion we had 4 months back (through emails). Please note that "Professor X works at YYY University" (important necro-edit from the future).
Can anyone suggest a draft of the email that I can send to this Professor?

I read this: "sounds like a nice direction which people at YYY may have interest to work on [which means, I don't]"

Can anyone suggest a draft of the email that I can send to this Professor?

Reply to the Professor's original email, so that your response appears in the same thread; perhaps include the original snippet, i.e.,

Thanks for writing and for the great ideas -- I see a lot of energy and promise in your thoughts, and I encourage you to try to pursue some of these questions -- most, in fact, are exciting and open research areas. I also encourage you to apply for PhD at YYY University.

and write something along the lines of:
Further to your positive encouragement, I have submitted my PhD application to YYY University.
Thereafter, it depends on your agenda. E.g., you might want to reopen discussion of  joining her group, for which you could use:
Given the seeming alignment between our research interests, I would like to join your group. Can we discuss that possibility, perhaps by telephone?

I believe further to is standard. seeming alignment is a deliberate weakening. The professor is rather vague. There's certainly encouragement, that's clear. But, there's no direct offer to supervise. Presumably, they choose their words carefully. Using the deliberate weakening acknowledges that, whilst finding common ground to build a relationship upon

If Professor X doesn't work at YYY university, this may be a soft dismissal. Maybe X doesn't have room for another PhD, or isn't entirely sold on you personally as a candidate. Or maybe YYY is actually more specialized in your ideas. Basically, it's hard to know what exactly is going on.
Maybe write something like:
"I'm happy that you like my ideas, I'm currently looking at several directions in which to take them. Thank you for bringing YYY to my attention, I'm looking at them now as well.
I'd like your advice on a good approach to take, could we have a chat over coffee sometime?"
That doesn't commit Professor X to too much, so a better chance they're willing to take you up. And you can try to get some clarity.
If it seems like joining X's group isn't in the cards, but X actually approves of you, then maybe you can get a recommendation from X to someone at YYY, or more specific advice on how to approach YYY yourself.

Professor X works at YYY University, in that case, how should I approach?

Ah, I missed that. In that case I think the advice of @user2768 is good. I think exact phrasing is less important than being polite, happy, and a clear message: you followed X's advice and if your application is accepted, you'd want to join X's research group.


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How to decide and narrow down the broad topics I should get an astronomy internship on?
This is to inform that I am a third-year Physics Major student. I am enrolled in a five-year dual degree BS-MS programme at IISER Bhopal, India. I had a keen pop-science-like interest in astronomy since childhood. I hardly knew anything on a mathematical basis but was deeply moved by the stuff when I learned about it.
I have a habit of getting deeply into the topic and understanding the core of it. I am managing fine in my coursework, but I am not able to figure out what I really want to try out. I garnered a fascination for programming in my first year and, gained Web and app dev skills, learned SQL, C and Python. I also tinkered with OS and familiarised myself with Linux, command line tools and server management. I went on to do a couple of internships in App dev, server management and made quite a few websites. I, however, had a desire to shift towards something related to astronomy, but whenever I delve into topics to try my hands on, I cannot figure out why I should choose this and not that!! I am fascinated by almost anything, and that doesn't help. I tried getting a casual read of an undergraduate course textbook at the suggestion of one of my professors, (Astronomy: A Physical Perspective by Marc L. Kutner (Author)). I enjoyed the read but mostly skipped the General Relativity part. I was most fascinated by the chapters on stellar evolution and galaxy formations. To probe more into the topics, I inquired my professors and started reading (https://www.astro.umd.edu/~richard/ASTRO620/MBW_Book_Galaxy.pdf) a book on Galaxy Formation and Evolution. However, it stopped making sense after 2.5 chapters, and I felt my knowledge of mathematics and physics was lacking.
What I wanted to ask was, when I am trying to look for internship opportunities, I am intimidated by the topics people are working on and hardly have any clue, so how do I really get into doing actual stuff? How would I approach people in granting me an opportunity to get my hands dirty?

Internship in Astronomy, with a degree in physics?
Get your hands dirty: do an internship related to the astronomy hardware (optics, electronics, hardware). Since India has an ambitious space plan, there must be tons of opportunities.
By knowing a little bit about what and how you need to observe something, you will start understand what it is the ultimate goal of the research.

The problem is not knowing the thing beforehand, if I approach a professor wanting to try out stuff and do an internship but I hardly have any knowledge, how do I convince him/her to giving me a chance?

Professors are used to undergrads not having experience. Comes with the territory…

@KartikMandar the question you are asking is not the one you asked! but the answer from JonCuster is what you need to know, i.e. you need not to worry.


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Is there generally a relationship between a dept's research grant numbers and the teaching loads they give PhD students?
To me, one of the most important factors that differentiates a good PhD program in the US and a bad one is the teaching expectations placed on the student. In some departments, PhD students are expected to be instructors of record without any TAs assisting them for 2 sections every semester throughout their entire program, whereas others have literally no instructor requirements. This makes a huge difference in how much time a student has to work on getting publications and conference presentations and finishing their degree in a timely manner, which then makes a huge difference in their prospects for landing research posts in academia.
However, I know of large programs and very small programs that manage to have very little if any instructor requirements for their PhD students. The size of the program doesn't appear to be a good predictor. My assumption is that it more comes down to how much money a department pulls in through external research grants relative to the number of students they have so that if faculty are not getting grants and hiring students as RAs, the burden is 100% put on limited internal funding, which means they need students to shoulder more work than they otherwise would have to.
Is this generally the case or is there some other major factor that creates this situation? My only other thought is that the way the university is organized or the dedication the state has to the university could make a big difference.

The specific subject matters as well, in terms of what courses they teach for whom. Math teaches to many STEM majors. Latin not so much.

Another factor to consider is that being an instructor with a reasonable teaching load is an important part of the training in certain field. It is just not possible to have every single graduates end up in purely research jobs.

There are two different issues here which need to be kept separate and unfortunately sometimes get conflated:

How much non-teaching funding is available, so that graduate students have semesters (or quarters or whatever academic term) where their funding does NOT come from a TA position.

How much work is expected during a semester from a student who has a TA position.

The answer to question (1) is definitely correlated with the amount of grants the department has, since most of the non-teaching funding will come from grants.
The answer to question (2) varies quite a bit, and is not as easy to correlate with anything else.  Mostly, a department takes the amount of teaching work it "needs" graduate students to do, and divides that by the amount of funding it has for TAs.  The amount of teaching work it needs basically depends on how many students it has and how many classes it has to offer.  The amount of funding it has for TAs depends on how successful it is at asking the central administration for money (since money for teaching doesn't come from grants, but rather from student tuition, return from endowments, and (for public universities) government funding for that purpose).
As a rough guide, the per student instructional funding of the university gives some idea of what the teaching workload of the graduate students (and also the faculty) will be.  A school like Dartmouth, with a huge endowment and high tuition (even after accounting for the fact that it fully covers tuition for students whose families cannot afford it and admits students without considering what they can afford) will have relatively light workloads for TAs, even though it isn't a top research university.  A public university in a state that funds its universities poorly will have high workloads for TAs, even if the university has a very strong research reputation and gets lots of grants.
A union for TAs usually prevents the most egregious abuses where TAs work far more than reasonable, but it does not prevent merely bad rather than completely abusive situations.

I don't think there is any one factor, though I'm surprised by the impression I'm getting from your post of extreme variation in your field; I'm mostly familiar with extreme variation in teaching expectations between fields plus variation on a student-to-student basis, based on funding available to them individually.
Some programs value teaching experience. They may see failing to provide teaching experience for PhD students as failing to produce well-rounded PhD graduates. Training faculty with research money may even find this irritating if they want their students to work on their grants and have the funding to support them yet the graduate program requires students to teach anyways.
Other programs may support their students almost entirely by teaching, and recruit exactly as many students into their program as are needed to fill those teaching slots. Unless the program is certain a student with funding can support themselves for the entirety of their stay so that they can open up a new slot and take on a new student who will fulfill those teaching responsibilities, they need everyone to teach.
Otherwise, I think it's mostly up to the funding available to each individual student. That may mean that the type of funding depends far less on the graduate program and far more on the student's specific research interests or mentor. Some mentors may be well-funded and able to support their students more directly; perhaps they have a rare source of funding in a field that doesn't normally have a lot of extramural money. Perhaps they have a more applied area of research that attracts industry or other types of money. Perhaps the student has applied for and received funding through a fellowship that funds the student directly; these opportunities are relatively rare and a student that receives one may have an entirely different experience than anyone else in their program.
Students looking at graduate programs should expect the programs to provide information on funding: what sorts of arrangements are likely, what is possible, how are current students funded on average, etc. - I do not think there is any quick way to get around needing to collect this information for a program that you're anticipating spending several important years at.

There is in fact one factor: how much the department wants to attract quality graduate students.
To summarize how academia works: a professor running a lab (or team or group or whatever) is more like a development director, using his time to promote his research, size out the funding agencies, and write and get grants. The actual research is mostly done by graduate students. University administrators want the big-grant-getting professors for the overhead benefits of the grant. To attract those professors they offer big salaries, secretaries, start-up packages, and access to pools of good grad students. As you are yourself figuring out, good grad students want, among other things, an institution that will confer them prestige, a good advisor, and a stable salary with low teaching load.
Thus, universities and departments actively investing in developing a research money pipeline will offer prospective graduate students things like:

No (or minimal) teaching requirements.
Guaranteed no-teaching funding for 3 years.
A promise of no teaching load as long as the PI pays your salary.

Many universities do not require you to teach beyond the minimum if you do not need the money, that is, if you bring your own money from outside sources. You teach if you need a salary (like most of us did.)
The most greedy of universities will require you to teach every semester, and treat grad students like lower than they treat adjuncts, which is a pretty low bar to start with.

"To summarize how academia works..."  Well, maybe this describe certain field. I don't know, but this is not universally applicable.

"good grad students want, among other things, an institution that will confer them prestige, a good advisor, and a stable salary with low teaching load." replace good with smart: the low teaching load is a pre-requisite because future positions may require "teaching experience" and smart students want to have done 1 hour of teaching load over 4 years so they can say "I have it!" without lying ...

"University administrators want the big-grant-getting professors for the overhead benefits of the grant." - this is kinda backwards.  The big PIs cost a lot of money to attract, so you front-load the investment, and then you are hoping that you will get a payoff, by maybe breaking even with indirect cost payments from grants. Large PIs often subsidize for the lack of payoff from less productive PIs.  At some point, the bills have to get paid for all of this--tuition is already high and it's not enough.  Facilities cost a fortune, and it's expensive to pay for necessary administration.