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Why do you need to do a postdoc after getting your PhD?
I never quite understood why you need to do a postdoc after completing your PhD. Is it like getting an unofficial second PhD?

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No, it's not like a second PhD, because there's little to no documented requirements, no thesis, no defense, no coursework, etc.
In the 'old days' (prior to the squeeze on academic funding and exponential increase in PhD candidates), one took a post doc primarily to:

Learn a new skill, technique, or method
Dedicate a few years time conducting research to strengthen one's CV without the added stress of teaching and other tenure-track requirements.

Ideally, the post doc came out a very desirable candidate armed with a great research program and toolbox.
Today, a post doc is quickly becoming mandatory for academic-track scientists, as the pool of jobs shrink and the pool of candidates expand. It is not uncommon to find people doing multiple post docs, or people finding themselves in a permanent post doc (or research scientist) position.
While this is somewhat discouraging, the simple fact that funding is scarce and science can be expensive suggests that the ideal candidate has a proven track record and is likely to secure additional grants. Post docs provide one the time and resources to prove that tangibly.

@BenCrowell it's also possible that the growth in both jobs and demand was linear, or at most polynomial, but that the misuse of the word exponential has grown exponentially.

@Bob way to call me out on the use of 'exponential' as a literary device. I can't argue with you...a polynomial trend is far more likely. I'm guessing not linear, but would love to see the data. Touché.

@HEITZ this Nature article is a bit out of date but has some very interesting graphs. Japan and the UK are linear at most, Germany is flat(!), but China is definitely nonlinear. Nearly all the growth in PhD numbers in the US is in biomedical sciences.

@Bob That's a great reference (though somewhat distressing). Thanks!

@BenCrowell: another trend that I would guess is that the funding for science has increased, but not as fast as the growing cost of science. Many CV's list how large the grants a researcher was approved for, suggesting there's a push to get larger and larger grants...which means for a fixed amount of funding, there are fewer and fewer grants.

Why do you need to do a postdoc after getting your PhD?

In practice?  Because very likely you won't be able to get any better (academic) job than that.
These days "postdoc" simply means a research position that is not permanent or indefinite (e.g. tenure track).  It is far, far easier to land (yet another) postdoc than a permanent position.
This applies to the fields I'm familiar with (mostly sciences).  The humanities may be different.

It's not a second PhD, because the length of the postdoc is typically much shorter than that of a PhD.
The function of a postdoc is sort of an "advanced apprenticeship," where you may choose your advisor (who should be different from your graduate advisor!) according to several possible goals, including:

Learning a new technique or field
Gaining further experience in a slightly different area from your graduate research
Personal needs (such as the "two-body" problem)

Such positions usually last anywhere from one to four years, depending on funding. Your duties will also likely involve helping to supervise some of the graduate or undergraduate students in the group. You may or may not also have some teaching duties. But you typically don't have the obligation to write grants and "bring in" money.

“The function of a postdoc is sort of an ‘advanced apprenticeship,’” — I strongly object to that depiction, though it’s fashionable to treat postdocs as students nowadays (many institutes explicitly hire for the post of “postdoctoral student”). It’s a racket to justify decreased salaries and benefits. A postdoc is no more an apprenticeship than any other normal job is. You always learn on a job. Accepting such a description from employers erodes the employees’ negotiation power and should therefore be opposed at every turn.

I think it is the other way around: Postdocs have no bargaining power and therefore they can be treated as students. This is not to say that that is any better, but just that you cannot solve that problem by avoiding terms like apprenticeship or student.

@MaartenBuis “Postdocs have no bargaining power” — that’s also unacceptable. It’s also not true, except by custom. In reality, postdoc applicants who get a job offer can and should bargain. Some institutes don’t accept this as a matter of procedure but these should be punished by losing applicants. To be absolutely clear: unless the institute is bound by law (collective labour agreement), refusal to bargain is unacceptable. I successfully bargained for a higher salary for a postdoc position.

You seem to suggest that universities are evil. Maybe, but lack of bargaining power of post docs is not the reason. That is just a consequence of the fact that there are many more desirable candidates as there are positions. What makes universities more or less evil is how they choose to use that power.

Your proposed solution to let universities loose applicants is in most disciplines just not a viable thread. This is just another way of saying that postdocs have no bargaining power. However, in disciplines where the private market is a viable alternative (maybe not history, but anything having to do with computers) this may work, and actually already does work.

@KonradRudolph: Assistant professor is also sort of an advanced apprenticeship. The contract is fixed-term, because the university is still not sure if the person is qualified for the job.

It's not a second PhD, because the length of the postdoc is typically much shorter than that of a PhD. The difference in length is not the key difference. Also, I'm told that in biology, for example, usually people spend longer as postdocs than as PhD students.

@Thomas: They may be postdocs longer, but not usually in a single location.

If you intend to work in industry, you don't need and should not do a postdoc.
If you want a job in academic, it often requires a strong profile. You need to do a postdoc to continue doing research, and building up your profile.

My post-doc has been immensely useful for my future work in industry. It's not all about what you put on your resume - the experience can be invaluable. Not always, but often.

1. There isn't really such a thing as a "post-doc"
A "post-doc" is just a non-tenured fixed-term research position which requires the maturity and experience which a Ph.D. degree is a recognition of. That's it.
Now, it's true that it's customary to spend time in such a position, and in many academic institutions tenured position candidates are considered to be inadequate if they have not first had a stint (or two) as non-tenured "post-docs" somewhere - but there's no fundamental principle at work here.
2. Weakness of the academic staff (in terms of collective ethos, organization and action)
You could rephrase your question this way: "Why not just hire people with Ph.D.s into tenure track positions?" And indeed, there is no good reason not to (generally). Tenure track does not mean you actually have tenure immediately on employment; and even tenure is not some carte blanche to not do your job, or a guarantee to not be terminated. It should really be referred to as the "normal track" for employment of academics.
The thing is, non-tenure-track researchers are cheaper, and require less commitment. Additionally, universities and high-and-mighty PIs can cast this employment as something inherently temporary, increasing the chance that these employees not expect much to begin with - they'll just shuffle along. Thus in many countries there's a glut of post-doc positions and a dearth of proper academic staff positions.
Had there been a resistance from the tenured academic, or support by them to their non-tenured, more junior colleagues, in a demand to be moved into the tenure track / promoted to associate professors based on good performance, plus for permanent positions for research assistants where relevant - the balance of forces would change, and fewer people would spend many years moving from one post-doc to another despite being worthy of a proper position.
Of course, this requires academics to have a strong sense of what really benefits research; a memory of the history of their field going back several decades (if not a century); a sense of community or solidarity with their junior colleagues; and organs for collective action independent of university management, namely - academic staff unions. As the latter are often missing or weak, the former tend to be missing or weak as well.

First, you don't need to have a postdoc. The standard for whether or not a postdoc is necessary (and indeed how much "postdoc" is enough) varies wildly by field. This, incidentally, makes interdisciplinary hiring committees an interesting experience.
But it's not a "2nd PhD". What it's meant to accomplish is to be the transition period where you start to view yourself (and the field starts to view you) as an independent researcher. While working on your PhD, it's quite likely that one's advisor had a significant hand in formulating the question you were addressing, etc. The idea of a postdoc is that you can begin to mature as an independent scientist, potentially mentoring others, seeking funding, determining the direction of a project, etc. while still in a protected, mentored environment.
By analogy, if a PhD is learning to ride a bike with training wheels, a postdoc is taking the training wheels off, but still having a parent jogging by your side.

My experience has not been quite as you describe. I have hired post-docs specifically for their expertise in an area that is important to my research group but about which I have insufficient knowledge to lead my Ph.D. students and myself. Aside from that leadership, they have not been expected to set group directions, seek funding, and the usual other PI responsibilities. I have had post-docs who previously were faculty or industrial research lab employees, and so did not need mentoring.

@E.DouglasJensen Hence "potentially" for many of those activities. Though I'd suggest "We hired an expert in X who is how we determined how we did Y" is a form of setting group directions.


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Nuances: PhD F1 Visa/i20 issuance for someone who did their undergrad in the US
I am currently almost done with my undergraduate education as a physics major in the US. I'm applying to graduate schools for Fall 2018, and when applying, I noticed that many (if not all) universities require that my 'Home/Permanent' address be an address from my home country.
So, when they issue an i20, is that going to be sent to my home country's permanent address (where my parents live), even though I'm already living in the USA?
If so, I have two questions:
i) Can I re-apply for a fresh F1 Visa (as a PhD student) while still living in the USA, or would I have to go to the consulate in my home country and go through the formalities as I did the first time?
ii) If the answer to i) is that I can do so while in the USA, do I simply ask my parents to send the i20 to myself once they receive it?
Please feel free to move/suggest a more appropriate forum for this question!

I am not sure which forum this belongs to (I am not sure if there is a "legal issues" one), but you should check your country's rules for issuing a visa. At least, for me, I have to go back to my country (and this is true for my J-1 friends, too), but it may not be the case for your contry's specific rules. You can also try e-mailing your country's consulate (in the US city you are located).

@AnnaSdTC the country issuing the visa is the US, not the OP's own country.

@Aru Ray Of course, but to request it, extend it, etc. we have to go to the US embassy of our country. At least for the people I know (from Europe most, some EU and some not-EU).

The main point is that the I-20 form is from the Department of Homeland Security and the F1 sticker is, like all visas, issued by the Department of State.
The F1 visa sticker in your passport is needed for the actual physical act of entering the country, and its validity has nothing to do with whether you're legally allowed to be in the country - that has to do with the dates on your (latest) I-20. This is why the stamp that you get in your passport when you enter the US has 'D/S' written on it, which means 'Duration of Status', meaning that you can stay in the US as long as you maintain your status as a student even if the sticker expires (but if you leave, you would still need a new sticker to re-enter the US). Conversely, if you stop being a student, you can't then use your F1 visa to enter the US even if the sticker still appears to be valid.
There is no way to apply for the F1 sticker without leaving the US (the department of state is fundamentally meant to work outside the US). It is highly suggested that you go through the process in your home country; technically it's not impossible to try in a third country, but there is a (small) possibility that they will reject your application as a citizen of a third country, unless you have a compelling reason for being there. Some US consulates, I believe, specifically say on their websites that they do not process visa applications from citizens of other countries.
What does this mean for you?

Don't worry, you'll have plenty of contact with the universities before they mail your new I-20. They are used to people in your situation, and they will ask you where to send your I-20. Alternatively, when you accepted an offer to a graduate program, directly contact the international students office and tell them where to send it, to avoid any controversy.
You don't need a new sticker to continue to be a legal resident of the US, as long as you get a fresh I-20. So you could have the university send you the I-20 directly, or have your parents mail it to you while you stay in the US. You only need to apply for a fresh sticker in your passport if you leave the US and wish to re-enter on the F1 status. (There is an exception for short travel to Canada and Mexico. )
Bear in mind that the sticker application process takes a bit of time. The break between undergrad and grad programs is probably the easiest time to apply for a new sticker. You can apply for a new F1 sticker even if your old one still has some time left in it. Probably good to apply sooner rather than later, given the state of US politics too.
The process for applying for a new sticker is the same as applying for a first one, except it might be easier since you've already had this visa and not caused any trouble.
There is a grace period where you are allowed to stay in the US between your undergrad I-20 expiring and your graduate I-20 starting.
You should confirm all of this with your local international students office, as well as the folks where you decide to go.

Best of luck with your applications!
PS: I think this is the right place for this question.

It could very well be crossposted on Law or Expatriates, but yeah, it fits well here.

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Viability: Physics undergrad to Neuroscience/Psychology PhD?
I'm currently an undergraduate physics major entering my senior year in Fall 2017. However, I've had a change of interests and I wish to pursue something along the lines of psychology or neuroscience for graduate school. I've only had the scantest formal psychology education, but I do have a 4.0/4.0 overall GPA in my favor (as a different major, but I've also consistently done well in my humanities electives).
How viable is such a transition from the point of view of a potential PhD advisor in these two fields? I know that there is cross-pollination across fields such as physics and engineering, but do PhD programs in neuroscience, for example, offer similar leeway?
PS: I should also mention that I'm an international student studying in the US, and I would also want to do a PhD strictly within the US.

A lot of people from a physics background do neuroscience - there is a lot of overlap, and neuroscience is extremely interdisciplinary (lots of more senior professors would have degrees in areas like physics, electrical engineering, because neuroscience is young). Your biggest difficulty will be a lack of any research experience in biology, though if you've done some research in physics that could count. You might be best off working in a neuroscience lab for a year (I know this can be tricky for international students). Skills in programming will give you an advantage.

You may get better answers at cogsci.se. if you flag the question, I can move it there.

According to this UC Berkley site physics is an appropriate background as long as you meet some additional requirements.
http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/ph-d-program/how-to-apply/

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Pathways to get into PhD program
I graduated in 2016 from one of the best-known private engineering universities in India with 3.97 GPA (just got my WES report). All i knew till Undergraduate is self-study and attend classes and score decent marks in Exams. I was guided in that way.
Unfortunately, No professor of mine encouraged to conduct any research or help publish the research that i have done on my own. Having no experience with research and no support, When I saw research papers i thought they were just more talented and I am not up to the mark.
I have done decent projects in my undergrad and have contributed my work to my company. All my research work has been going into my projects, but not papers. Because I have no experience. May be I am lazy or shy/afraid to ask help.
I am taking my next step in my career, I am currently applying to US universities for MS in CS for Fall'19.
Will Masters program help me get a kick-start for my research experience, leading to PhD program?
If so, should i know anything before going to college?
PS: your answer can change a life, Please answer if you feel you have something to say. Thanks.

I can only speak for germany and only my own experience as a researcher:
I don't know exactly what you mean by "kick-start leading to PhD program", but if you mean "will a masters help me get a PhD?" Then the answer is definitely yes. This should apply anywhere on the globe where bachelor/master is established. Where in general it is possible to do a PhD with "only" a bachelor degree, it is pretty rare and I personally know not a single case.
As for tips: If you want a PhD, do the masters program. Get in touch with people, professors and lecturers. In my group, a lot of people are hired after completing their master thesis here.
So the best tips I can give you are:

Enroll into topics which you are truly interested in
Make a good impression in exercises(talk to the lecturer after the session, don't slack off, get good grades...)
Get a position as research assistant in a working group
Do your master thesis in the group where you are most interested in(and here is the hard part: during this time you should work very hard, make good impressions, try to get good results... since you want to work there later)

Those tips are pretty much the route I took and I guess there are many more tips and life experiences out there to help you.

"Where in general it is possible to do a PhD with 'only' a bachelor degree, it is pretty rare and I personally know not a single case." ---- This is field specific. Our department has many graduate students pursuing PhD's without having received a Masters degrees. The basic rationale is that having a Masters degree is trivial once you have a PhD, so students whose end goal is a PhD are often better served by enrolling directly in the PhD program.

thanks for pointing this out. Yes that is certainly true. In my case I am in the field of computer science...and as I said those are my experiences as a researcher until now.

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How do you promote your papers in Mendeley?
A colleague of mine says mendeley is a good place for promoting published papers to be read by peers. However, as I tried, it is a private library for a person or a group of people.
Am I missing something? Is there an option to promote your uploaded papers publicly?

Mendeley has two types of groups- Public and Private According to their website

Create and join Public Groups to share knowledge and discuss new
  research with others with similar interests. You can also create
  Private Groups that are only visible to invited members, letting you
  share information securely.

When discussing setting up a profile it promotes the idea of you been able to publize your publications through mendeley.

Publications - Adding your publications to your profile allows you to
  publicize your work to a global audience. You can add your
  publications to the My Publications folder in Mendeley Desktop or Web
  Library, or upload them directly via your profile. You can also add
  the entire contents of your Scopus Author Profile in one batch

On another page it states that you can promote your work publicly

By connecting your Mendeley profile to your Scopus Author Profile, you
  are able to claim your work as identified by Scopus. This allows you
  to publicly promote your authored work, and access a wealth of data
  provided by Scopus - as well as several other Elsevier services - in
  the form of Stats.

For your publications to be seen publicly you probably would have to edit your privacy settings and select for you publications to be seen by everyone. Picture source


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How long does it takes to receive a master graduation document (degree)
Can any body tell me how long after the Master's thesis defense do it take the student to receive their Master graduation document (degree) in Spain, France, UK or USA?
I'm asking specifically about the degree in paper, the one stamped with signatures, etc (which you can hang in the wall :) ).
For example if the student were to defend their thesis let's say today. How long after that does it take to receive a piece of paper saying something like "University of SUCH Master Degree in favor of SUCH"?
I know Spain, France, UK, USA are very different countries and all systems must have differences. Any country of the previous ones mentioned is good for me. It is a simple curiosity of mine.

USA on average, you get the PHYSICAL DEGREE CERT ~1 semester after you defend, turn in your thesis and have it approved by gradschool. The key here is ~

It depends on the university you attend and how many credits they require for a master degree. In out university, 30 credits (10 courses) needed to complete a master degree. But finishing time depends on you. You can take all these courses in one year (spring, summer, fall) or do it in two years or even three. Its totally up to you.
The graduation document, I mean the degree, would be awarded the last day of your last semester. That would be your official "master" title date. The will mail the document to your home address. Plus you can also collect the document on graduation day at the end of spring semester. If you have graduated in Fall 2013, you can attend graduation day in May 2014 and get the degree with fancy clothing.

Thanks, I'm asking for the "title" the one in paper with signatures, etc. I mean the student defend their thesis. After that how long it takes to receive a paper saying something like "University of SUCH Master Title in favor of SUCH". My question was not properly asked. I will edit it.

@ElMarce I have added the answer

Ah... graduation document, thanks I'm spanish speaking and the word title is used for both significates. Thanks.

If this is a US-centric answer, I don't consider it complete. Some universities will hold graduation ceremonies after every semester or quarter. If everything is complete, you can either pick up the certificate at the ceremony or it will be mailed (I imagine within a few weeks).


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Is it difficult to get admission to a phd in stem cell biology in Europe?
I am looking for a phd position in stem cell biology and have been trying very hard for the last 6 months in Germany or any European country. I have  tried to contact many professors via mail but have nothing by way of a good response.
I have a good academic record and score.
Can anyone please help me out how to best proceed or where I may be lacking in my method so far?

As aid before, the process is very different from country to country. I personally have experience in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

More and more institutions move to PhD programs. Sometimes it is the only way to do a PhD, and Professors are discouraged to hire students without them going through the initial assessment of the PhD program committee. Usually, these programs are easily to find on the web. See e.g. here http://www.vbcphdprogramme.at, or here http://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/education/phd/overview/
Look for job advertisements at dedicated portals like ResearchGate (http://www.researchgate.net) or http://www.eth-gethired.ch in Switzerland.
Contacting Professors out of the blue might work in some cases/disciplines. In fields or countries were industry pays much, much more than academia, Professors have problems in recruiting talented PhD students, e.g. computer science or generally in Switzerland. They are glad if they can finally put a qualified person who does the work on the grant they already got month ago.

The process is going to be very different from one country to the next. But from what I have seen so far, the three most common ways to start a PhD in Europe are:

Reacting to a job offer. If there is a specific position available and no local student that's been pre-selected for it, it's possible to come to a university to start a PhD.
Coming in contact with a professor through a course (possibly while doing some preliminary research work with said professor). This would require (re)doing a master's degree in the same university, with an eye toward the PhD.
Coming with your own funding, very often a grand from a foreign government or possibly from a private company.

I don't know anybody who started a PhD by contacting a professor/research group out of the blue.


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Visited website on different dates - apa style
Ray, B. (2018, June 25). NB-IoT vs. LoRa vs. Sigfox. Retrieved January 4, 2019, from https://www.link-labs.com/blog/nb-iot-vs-lora-vs-sigfox
In the source reference of my paper I refer to a website. I consulted this website for example on various dates. Do I only have to write the last date or each date separately?

Has the information you retrieved changed?

@henning How would the OP know? Changes can be very subtle.

@user2768 I suppose OP references the website for a specific information. Whether the information is still on the website should be easy to verify.

See https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/6074/22768

From the link you provided I don't think you need to include the retrieval date for the following reasons.
The blog post you link has a publication date.
A blog post in the APA Blog states the following about website dates.

Determining Website Dates
A second source of confusion is that many websites or webpages do not include publication dates. If no date of publication is provided, use the letters n.d. (which stand for “no date”). The copyright date on the website itself should not be used as the publication date for particular content on that site.
If multiple dates are provided, use the most recent date on which the content was changed. For example, if the site says the content was first published in 2010 and last updated on August 6, 2016, then use the date 2016 in the in-text citation and reference list. However, if the site says it was first published in 2010 and last reviewed in July 2016, then use the date 2010 because a review does not imply that any information was changed.

The following 2 guides also indicate to use a retrieval date if info on page is likely to change over time.
From APA Style Website

When a DOI is not available, and a URL is included, do not include retrieval dates unless the source material may change over time (e.g., wikis).

From APA 6th Edition - University of Lincoln guide

When citing sources that you find on the Internet you only need to include a retrieval date if the information you viewed is likely to change over time.  If you reference an article from a wiki, for example, you would want to include a retrieval date because information in a wiki can be subject to a lot of change.

Given that researchers have no assurance as to whether material may change, surely a retrieval date should be included?

@user2768 I would be inclined to agree, but the APA style guide doesn't seem to promote that course.

I wonder whether the guide failed to consider that particular case. Regardless, the author will be blamed, rather than the guide, if any issue arises. So, I'd recommend erring on the side of caution and assuming all content might change. I'm tempted to suggest that some sources (e.g., the NYT) could be excluded when they include notes on revisions, but that isn't the most cautious.

@user2768 both MLA and Chicago also do not require retrieval dates. The requirement for a retrieval date was dropped from APA 5 to APA 6: http://owll.massey.ac.nz/referencing/apa-5th-vs-6th-edition.php#retrieval-date

@StrongBad I posit that numerous sources will change - simply because websites disappear (e.g., due to bankruptcy), administrators change URL structures, ... - hence, the retrieval date is typically needed, unless the author knows (which they cannot possibly) that the source will never change. (I haven't even touched upon the possibility of content changing.)

@user2768 posit what you want, but the 3 major style guides do not require retrieval dates. Both MLA and APA explicitly dropped the requirement over time. I think that is pretty good evidence that the people who know about these things do not think the retrieval date is needed. See my answer: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/6074/929

@StrongBad It isn't true that "3 major style guides do not require retrieval dates," MLA and APA only make such a requirement on a vaguely worded basis, namely, for "a reliable, stable source" and when "the source is [un]likely to change often." I claim no source is stable and there's plenty of evidence to support that. E.g., https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/51865/what-percentage-of-links-posted-in-published-articles-are-dead

then use the date 2010 because a review does not imply that any information was changed. This is odd ... it doesn't imply that, but it doesn't imply that it hasn't.

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When to tell current employer that I want to quit and switch to a different PhD
I am currently employed as a scientific employee at a research institute, which means I get a salary but am not currently working on a PhD. Originally I planned to begin my PhD at this institute within the first year of my employment (beginning right away was not possible).
However, since I began this position I realized more and more that I did not enjoy the work and therefore I do not want to start do my PhD at this institute and instead look for different PhD positions in a related field at the same university.
However, I do not want to quit on the spot and look for a new position because

Finding a new PhD position might take a long time because there aren't a lot of open positions and it is not easy (for me at least) to even be considered and I am not sure if I can find a position at all. This means if I quit on the spot I would have to live without a salary for 2-6 months (after this time I would most likely just cave in and look for a job in industry which I assume will be a lot easier).
The people at my current job have been nothing but nice to me and I don't want to upset them by quitting before I can at least finish some of my open projects and give them some time to find somebody to replace me.

Another alternative would be to not quit on the spot but instead to look for a new position "secretly". I am not sure how I feel about this option because it feels very insincere and I would be afraid that someone could find out about it (since I am looking for positions at the same university)
For these reasons, I assumed that telling my current supervisor about me wanting to quit at some point in the future but offering to stay for the intermediate period is in both our best interests.
The problem I have is that I have a feeling that in the period after telling them, the work environment will be very awkward because they will be aware that I do not like the job and am just doing it for the salary.
Also, I am currently assuming that I wouldn't immediately be "fired" after telling them that I am looking for something else. If this assumption isn't true then not telling them would be the much smarter move.
Is there anyone who could give advice and confirm my suspicion that telling them openly that I will look for new positions is indeed the best move or tell me why it isn't?

I wonder if the choice is as stark as you think. It ought to be possible to begin a search for a new opportunity without advising anyone of your search. You can do this informally, of course, with other professors at other institutions, but also formally.
The time that it will be necessary to make your desires know can be fairly late, say when the new place requires letters of recommendation and letters from other sources won't do.
In some labs it is required to release employees at the first hint they might want to leave.
But if you can line something up that is pretty firm, subject to letters, you can finesse the decision even then. "I just got a fantastic opportunity and wish to follow it up", rather than "I've been looking for something else for a while now...".
But even if you make a commitment to leave, don't neglect your current work. Good work will make those letters better and easier to obtain.
But, you won't really know how employable you are until you start to look and see what feedback you get.
It might be necessary for you, in the short term, to let prospective supervisors know that your search is still confidential. I think most people would respect that if you give them a reason.


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Same literature survey in first and final reports, Is it ok?
Is it considered bad to copy literature survey from 1st/initial report of the dissertation to the final report?
Does it count as self plagiarism?
Generally speaking one should include more recent researches, if any, related to the topic in the final report but what if there is only a 2-3 months period between two reports that happens for masters students in some countries (and in my case too).

How did your advisor answer this question?  (You did ask your advisor, didn't you?)

no, i didn't. I thought of having a polite answer first if that question sounds rude or offensive, I'm not sure.

In some institutions, one of the goals of the provisional report is to get the student to write something that will eventually be included in their dissertation/thesis. In this way the student feels that he or she has already made a start on the (dreaded) writing up process and therefore feels confident that - in further small, incremental steps - the rest of the document can be created.
In such cases, it would be unreasonable to consider the re-use of the literature review appearing in the provisional report in the final work as being plagiarism.
Matters may be a little different if the initial report was published in some manner, and released outside of the institution. As per one of the comments to your question so far, get your advisor's input.

Thanks, I will now because it doesn't sound extremely wrong now. Report wasn't published anywhere.


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Concern about possible conflicts between research sharing policies
Funders, publishers, institutions and others are increasingly moving towards policies that are aimed at sharing research.
The degree of openness — and other stipulations in those policies — vary quite considerably, so some sort of conflict between policies of a researcher's institution, funder and publisher or between those of collaborators is to be expected.
How much should a researcher be worried about these sorts of conflicts?  Are there examples where sharing policies that differ have turned out to conflict in a way that actually inhibits the sharing that they were intended to enable?
This question was originally posted on the Open Science SE private beta, due to be closed tomorrow.

"Funders, publishers, institutions and others are increasingly moving towards policies that are aimed at sharing research." – is that accurate as a blanket statement? Can you clarify which fields this may be true for? I've been out of Academia for a bit, but in talking with friends who are still there this is not something I've heard emphasized.

Also, asking us for examples is a bit more open than is typical here. We typically look for questions that can be answered, not ones that invite discussion.

@eykanal That blanket statement as such is probably true, but you are right that they have started out from basically zero and have not made great leaps yet. However, many funders, publishers, institutions now have policies in place that require (or at least encourage) open access to final publications, and some have policies that do the same for data, code and occasionally other research outcomes.

@eykanal I think this question can be answered by simply giving examples where the sharing policy of one funder, publisher or institution conflicts with that of another.

"Giving examples" is generally out of scope unless they're being used to illustrate a more general principle...

@DanielMietchen I've edited to focus the question and make it more answerable and less likely to be closed by this community; if you disagree with the edits, please feel free to revert.

Thanks for the edits. I personally think that the "how much" part is even more inviting for discussion, and I am not sure barring such discussions from happening is always useful, even though I can see why it is useful as a guiding principle. Have actually seen some example questions here before, and not to my discomfort.

From a UK standpoint, I've yet to see an example of two open-access funder/institution policies that fundamentally conflict with each other. There is a lot of variance between them in details, and some are more stringent than others, so you could certainly do something that would be enough for Policy A but not enough for Policy B.
However, it's very hard to think of a situation which would be required to comply with one but also prevent you from complying with another.
The main problem in practice is not that they conflict, but that they're all subtly different and they ask for subtly different things. This increases the reporting burden on institutions/researchers who may have to demonstrate compliance with subtly different policies, and provide almost-but-not-quite identical reports to different funders. It also increases confusion among researchers ("which policy applies here?"), and can understandably lead to frustration. More friction, more indirect costs, more headaches for all concerned...
On the plus side, there is definite interest in convergence. I strongly suspect that within a few years, we'll see more funders adopting a standardised OA policy (perhaps one of two or three versions - all-Gold, green permitted, etc), which should help solve this issue.


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How seriously will "related" areas be considered?
In ads about faculty positions, I often read phrases like "We are seeking candidates with interests in X, Y, and Z, but other related areas will also be considered"
In such cases, do candidates not specialized in X, Y or Z have a chance? Or how "exceptional" do they have to be in order to have a chance?

The answer to your (real) question is: Apply anyway. A department's hiring strategy is many times not fully expressed by an ad, never mind the fact that it's something in constant motion.

This is the correct answer. There is simply no way to tell from the ad whether the stated research areas are absolute requirements, mild preferences, meaningless admnistratve boilerplate, or inaccurate leftovers from three years ago that someone forgot to edit. Just apply.

Ironically I feel like if OP asked their "real" question that it would have closed as too specific.

To the best of my understanding, that generally means that they really do want a candidate in X, Y, and Z.
However, every candidate and every search is unique, and it might turn out to be the case that somebody good with an unusual combination that doesn't exactly match X, Y, and Z turns up, or that a candidate who is just too good to miss turns up, or that something changes internally during the search process (searches are often negotiated with a university far in advance), or some other such unexpected circumstance.  If something like this does come to pass, then the "related areas" clause lets them make the hiring decision they want, even if it doesn't match what was originally written.
Bottom line: yes, there is a chance, but it is probably very very small.


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Is reproduction of copyrighted material in a research proposal fair use?
Say that I am writing a grant application to be submitted to a funding agency. The application is not a public document and so it will be only accessible to the review panel, the collaborators involved, and administrative staff both at my institution and at the funding agency.
Now imagine I want to make a point, in particular regarding the wider interest of my proposed research topic, for which a figure that appears in Nice Paper by Reputed Author is a perfect fit. Unless Nice Paper has been published under some Creative Commons-type license (assume it hasn't) copyright in principle prevents me from freely using this figure in my proposal.
However, one could argue that if 1) I credit Reputed Author for the figure and reference Nice Paper in my proposal, and 2) given that I am not using the figure for commercial purposes and that only a very limited amount of people can access this document, then 3) it is reasonable (and it constitutes fair use) for me to reproduce the figure without seeking explicit permission. Getting explicit permission could potentially be a tiresome process since it's probably the journal that published Nice Paper that holds the copyright.
Am I right to assume that reproduction of copyrighted material on a research proposal with the characteristics described above constitutes fair use?

Related http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4787/is-it-necessary-to-obtain-permissions-for-copying-figures-from-published-article

Are you sure a grant application isn't a commercial purpose?

Related, even possible duplicate: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4787/is-it-necessary-to-obtain-permissions-for-copying-figures-from-published-article?rq=1

@posdef That question seems to be about putting copyrighted material on a thesis (the OP seems to use the word "proposal" in a different context). A thesis is a published document, so the situation is quite different from a research proposal to be reviewed privately by a panel.

A proposal is not a publication, and as such you do not need to worry about the usual strictures of copyright.  It doesn't really matter what the technicalities are: if the proposal is to remain private, de facto it is as though it doesn't exist from the copyright holder's perspective.
Academic honesty, however, is another story.  If the figure is not yours, you absolutely must give credit to its actual author.  Further, you need to ask yourself: is including somebody else's work actually good evidence for my ability to execute the work that I am proposing?  In some cases, it may still be the right thing to do, but usually if it is a diagram, you will probably do better to create your own independent version, and if it is data you will probably do better to cite the result but not to waste precious proposal space reproducing their figure.

I would do work on basic science (materials discovery) but want to highlight the real-world applications of these materials, which I think are very important when motivating the basic research. I was thinking more about reproducing those figures that I have no competence to produce myself.

@Miguel I can't judge without knowing your specifics, but typically proposal space is quite constrained and precious.  Ask yourself the following serious question: to what degree is this image really being used for its content vs. being used as a piece of clip art / stock photography?

That's a valid comment which however raises in turn another one: from the point of view of a review panel which has to handle many applications filled with technical details, is it more effective to use at least some art to catch the eye at the expense of removing some content? The answer is I don't know, I actually have little experience at writing proposals. I do know that this is a bit how people look at papers: 1) read the abstract, 2) look at the pretty pictures, 3) maybe discard the paper at this point if it looks boring, 4) look at the contents.

@Miguel Do you have an advisor or a more senior collaborator that you can talk to? Based on your inexperience with proposals, I'm guessing that you are a postgraduate student or a young postdoc. A more experienced opinion might help you to decide whether or not (in your specific case) the reproduced figure is worth the real estate. When there are serious stakes on the table, proposal reviewers will be much more serious about things than if they were just deciding on whether a new paper on the arXiv is worth reading.

@Moriarty Yes, this is a personal postdoc grant (I am already into my second year of postdoc) worth about 250k euro. I have senior collaborators (and professional grant experts) that will help me iterate this proposal into final form. At this point I'm just getting a general idea of what my zeroth draft will look like.

@Miguel For the first draft, just stick it in and don't worry about it (attributing correctly of course), but add a note that will remind you and your mentors to revisit this question later.

from the point of view of a review panel...is it more effective to use at least some art to catch the eye at the expense of removing some content? — In my experience, absolutely not.  Crudely: If your proposal has room for filler, it doesn't have enough content.  If the art isn't directly relevant to the content of the proposal, it's filler.


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Should I cite the paper from which I got the research question in my own paper?
While reading the paper of some authors. I have decided to work on a question which they listed as an open question in the conclusion section. I'm hesitating on whether or not to cite the paper, from which I got the question, because usually we cite papers providing answers rather than papers stating questions.
Is is unethical to work on the question on my own paper without giving proper reference  to the paper I got the research question from? if so, how should I cite the paper?

Do you have ethical concerns because you feel you are stealing the question from them? These concerns are unfounded, plus if they left an open question in a paper, it means they had no time/resource/will to address that question.
If you think it is worthwhile, you may try to invite them onboard, asking them if they are interested in a collaboration with you on that question.

If you got the question from that paper, it should be relevant to yours. I persume you use at least some of the general problem proposition they also do. If yes, it would be appropiate to mention the paper itself in your introduction (which generally contains a brief perspective about the topics anyway), with proper citation.

There is absolutely no doubt; you must cite the paper!

"... because usually we cite papers providing answers rather than papers stating questions."  As all the answers show, this assumption in the question is completely incorrect.

Good questions are intellectual property too, especially in mathematics.

To clarify: is that the paper which first proposed that question, or had it been around for longer?

I suspect you know the answer already. If you had posed the challenge, would you expect to be acknowledged?

Yes, I think you should. Questions are at least as difficult to develop as answers, I would not privilege one over the other.
You need not cite it as explicitly as "We got our research question from (Andy, et al. 2022)", though.
Rather, typically in the introduction of a paper you want to set up what current knowledge in the field is and what issue the paper at hand is addressing and why that is important. One of the most straightforward ways to make a case that the problem you are addressing is important is to say that someone else also thought the problem was important! Or at least, important enough to mention in their own paper as an open question. You can cite this motivating paper as you make your case.

Absolutely.  I don't so much see an ethical issue here -- the OP does not owe the authors of the other paper a citation because it inspired their own research -- but the other paper is clearly a relevant one to cite with respect to the state of the field at the time that the research was initiated.

@JohnBollinger Depending on how insightful (or specific) the suggestion was, they might in fact owe them for it as much as one owes anyone else who needs to be cited in a paper.

Yes, you should absolutely cite the paper. In addition to the reasons explained in Bryan Krause's anwer, here is another important reason:
People who read the open question in the paper might want to know whether the question has been solved meanwhile. The first thing they'll probably do to find out is to check where the paper was cited.
So by citing you will help those who are (or would be) interested in your work to actually find your work.
By the way, I really don't see any reason at all not to cite the paper. There's simply no disadvantage in citing it.

Usually it is difficult to proof that your research is relevant. You get a witness for free!
Further, it gives credit to the author which is justified.

Citing a paper that inspired your research is extremely common; refer to it the way you would any other background information that situates your work.
Some examples from a quick search of the arXiv (quotes are taken from the final published versions):

Arch. Math. Logic 43 (2004) pp. 583-663:

In this realm we may classify forcing notions using the methods of [23], [24] and, for example, declare that very Souslin (or generally ω–nw–nep) ccc forcing notions (see 1.3.1) are really nice. Both the Cohen forcing notion and the random forcing
notion and their FS iterations (and nice subforcings) are all ccc ω—nw—nep, and [22, Problem 4.24] asked if we have more examples.   It occurs that our method relatively easily results in very Souslin ccc forcing notions (see 1.3.4(3), 1.5.8(2), 1.5.11, 1.5.15(3))
…
[22] Shelah, S.: On what I do not understand (and have something to say). Fundamenta Math. 166, 1—82 (2000) math.LO/9906113

SIAM J. Discrete Math 16:1 (2003), pp. 99–113

In particular, we answer the question of
Erdős et al. [8, Problem B], who asked for the asymptotics of r̂(Ks,n, Ks,n).
…
[8] P. Erdős, R. J. Faudree, C. C. Rousseau, and R. H. Schelp, The size Ramsey number, Period. Math. Hungar., 9 (1978), pp. 145–161.

is extremely common --- In fact, even the very specific google scholar search for papers with the phrase "problem proposed by" in the title of the paper yields 64 hits.

I believe that you should cite the paper. One fundamental reason is that context is hugely important in conducting research and framing it properly for the purpose of publication. Here you seem to have gained a lot of the perspective you need in order to ask the main question for your paper from the paper you are referring to. As such, I think it warrants a citation.

The other answers have pointed out that the answer is yes, you should absolutely cite the paper you got your questions from.
I just want to emphasize how narrow a view

because usually we cite papers providing answers rather than papers stating questions.

is.
Providing answers is a reason to cite a paper, but far from the only reason. Citations are not a precious resource only to be used when absolutely necessary. It costs you nothing, and helps your reader, to cite papers “merely” because they provide relevant context for your result.


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How to contact the editor about a possible mistake in the decision letter?
I have received the decision on a manuscript that I have submitted. The editor in chief decided to reject the paper stating that the reviewers are advising against the publication of the manuscript.
There were four reports, two suggesting minor revisions and publication of the paper. The other two reports had major concerns which are not related to the submitted manuscript, which lead me to believe that they were sent to us by mistake.
Are these kinds of mistakes possible by the editor?
How should I contact the editor in order to get some clarifications?

Just email the editor stating why you think the reviews are not for your paper.  This has happened to me before.

Out of curiosity: was it ScholarOne? I had the same incidence once, receiving a review report that clearly belonged to another paper.

@Dr.M, no. This was EditorialManager.

Are these kinds of mistakes possible by the editor?

Of course such mistakes can happen, editors and all other people involved are actually human.

How should I contact the editor in order to get some clarifications?

Just write a polite enquiry to the editor, either as a reply to the decision e-mail or via the submission portal. Explain briefly that you think two of the reviewer reports were linked to your submission by mistake, and ask the editor to reconsider the decision, if appropriate. Do not be afraid of editors, in my experience they are reasonable people who are open to reasonable requests like yours.

This kind of mistake should not happen with a properly-configured Editorial Management System, unless the reviewer(s) made the error by uploading the wrong review.
In any case if there is an error, the journal staff should be able to see it in the EMS logs, so you can email the journal. If this email address is not available on the website or from the EMS, you could try replying to the decision letter email.

This happened on EditorialManager. What I find hard to understand is how it was unnoticed that the major concerns of the two other reports were not related to our paper. Especially, when they were two other reports recommending the paper to be published with minor revisions.


text:
Can I publish my paper on arxiv?
Suppose, I introduced a new idea in mathematics, which from my perspective, may be interesting and popular in the next decades.
Given that I'm not able to publish my ideas in any prestigious journals, would it be a good idea to publish them in a public preprint server like arxiv?

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

Usually when a mathematician (or any academic, for that matter) is not able to publish a certain paper in a prestigious journal (e.g. it was rejected after two or three different journal attempts, or the author clearly feels the paper is not suitable for a prestigious journal), then the mathematician (or academic in general) will consider less prestigious journals, of which there are hundreds (and I'm excluding those that would be on Beall's list, which you should also exclude from consideration).

You might be able to publish at arXiv, but that requires that you be registered there. Registration might require the endorsement of an established researcher, such as a professor. If you don't have an email address at a recognized academic institution that is likely. See https://arxiv.org/help/submit for the registration process.
People will, however, be skeptical if you suggest that you are introducing a new area of mathematics. That happens only rarely.
You can, of course, purchase your own domain and get a service provider and publish whatever you like. It will be hard to find, however.
A better plan is to try to get associated with one or more established mathematicians who can help assure others of the quality of your work, and even, perhaps, help you get published in regular venues. That requires a certain quality to the work, of course, which you will need to demonstrate to them.


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Can I post the abstract of my article on Researchgate?
One of my articles has been published by Routledge: Taylor and Francis recently under a subscription publishing model.
Can I post the abstract of my accepted article in Researchgate as shown in https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259112431_Social_Workers'_Roles_in_Addressing_the_Complex_End-Of-Life_Care_Needs_of_Elders_with_Advanced_Chronic_Disease ?
Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

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

Did you ask the publisher? If not, then asking the publisher seems to me how you would find an answer to something as potentially publisher-specific as this.

Sure you can. It's the abstract. You can generally read the abstracts of articles even if you don't have access to them.
This is clear enough that the Taylor & Francis sharing policies page doesn't mention it.


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Poor Grades in CS Masters, Applying for Biology PhD
Thank you for your help in advance.
I am considering PhD programs in the biology of aging. I am a 2020 college graduate with a Chemistry BA from a top 25 university in the US. During this time, I published 4 papers - 1 third-author publication in organic chemistry (JOC), and three clinical research papers (2nd author) in an area of applied medicine (think prosthetics, PT, etc. - I was also considering med school at the time).
I worked in the technology sector for two years after graduating and that is where I currently am right now. A lot of life experiences have sparked my interest in the biology of aging and I would like to contribute to the longevity field asap. I believe I can be a strong scientist in this area given my previous background in chemistry - where I also took biology courses, and performed lab research in both chem and bio. I have spent the last few months reading the literature in this field and have become more familiar with it.
My issue is I began an online master's program in computer science during these years, and I'm not doing very well in it. My GPA is around a 2.85 with two Withdrawals (Ws). This is a fully remote degree from a well-ranked institution, which allowed me to work my full-time software development job alongside the degree. There is no research or thesis involved in the degree - you can think of it as an accelerated bachelors with sprinklings of grad degree courses. I thought it was a good move at the time because I was unsure of what I wanted to do post-graduation, and I had the opportunity to work in tech, so I decided to get the degree because I did not have a formal background in CS. However, I realized now that while I love programming, it's more of a hobby and niche interest, and after working 8-9 hour days doing that as a software developer, the last thing I want to do is study more CS. Heck, I spend most of my free-time reading about stem cell biology and the like.
I would really like to attempt applications for PhD either starting fall 2023 or fall 2024 (although earlier is preferable). Do you have any advice on how to remedy this situation? Also, would a PhD program be willing to overlook those grades given that they are in an unrelated field (is CS distanced enough from biology?).

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

To tailor the linked duplicate a bit to your specific circumstances: Grades further from your major will matter less than grades closer to your area of study. How much less depends entirely on the individual people making admissions decisions and the other applications they review. PhD admissions in the US are broad-based, so strength in any area can help outweigh weakness in another, but it's not about your application being sufficient to some standard, it's about your application being better than other applicants; your chances depend entirely on other applicants and the committee.

"Also, would a PhD program be willing to overlook those grades given that they are in an unrelated field (is CS distanced enough from biology)"
I think you are missing one part of the meat-reading of the grade system, which is "how good you are at following certain topics".
Even more, if I should judge "french" knowledge of a candidate, and the candidate has only exams in "computational linguistics", I would judge the mark more than the exams themselves ... because I have no idea about the content of "computational linguistics" and I rely on my peers'judgements (the peers giving you marks)


text:
Are there any Books/Guides to developing researching skills for academia
I will be doing an Honours in Commerce next year at a GO8 university.
This is essentially a stepping stone into a pathway to academia (or sometimes a resume booster for getting into industry).
It will be my first time getting an exposure to reading and researching academic articles, and I was wondering if there was some sort of guide or standard to researching and reading academic papers, particularly in finance and economics.
In essence, I was hoping to find something of a similar nature to this guide on studying university level mathematics.
I feel this question may be received as vague, thus I will give an example:
suppose I am looking for research inspiration, for instance. Then, in searching it would (perhaps obviously, or perhaps I am entirely wrong) not be the best idea to read articles and thoroughly understand every single detail of each and every one of them, but rather, read articles and see where there are knowledge gaps and potential for future research.

there is surely a methodology to roughly follow or guide or book out there which helps you become/build the skills to be a good/more efficient/effective researcher?

any help is appreciated.

I'm not sure whether this post is within the scope of a SE site - see the [help/dont-ask]. This community has generally been against "big list" questions, except in a few specific instances (as discussed on [meta]). We'll see if anybody weighs in with close votes, but in the meantime I've converted this question to community wiki status (which big list questions - if they are deemed on topic by the community - should be.)

(You might consider asking proactively about this on [meta] - that's usually the best course of action is a question is really too open ended for the SE format, but seems to be exception-worthy.)

Since you're looking for recommendations, you could check your library for a copy of Cargill & O'Connor, "Writing Scientific Research Articles". Yes, it's about writing and not reading, but the Chapters 1 and 2 are dedicated to how research papers should be structured, so it's useful also for your purpose.

These are things I found useful
I don't have enough reputation for links, but you will be able to find them
Standalone articles/talks/papers/blogposts:
You and Tour Research by Richard Hamming
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html
10 Things You Should Know Before Starting A PhD from Next Scientist
http://www.nextscientist.com/graduate-school-advice-series-starting-phd/
especially the point that your job is to write papers
The care and maintenance of your adviser by  Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner
The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.by Matt Might
Advice books for scientist
Advice for a Young Investigator by Ramon Cajal, Old but good and everything written there is still relevant. Mostly about important mindsets, personality traits and skills for success in science. It's good to realize that in 1897 common concern of new grad students were that The most important problems
are already solved.
Crafting Your Research Future: A Guide to Successful Master's and Ph.D. Degrees in Science & Engineering By Ling and Yang, Has very concrete guides for finding a research gaps, branding yourself, reading papers etc
Books not necessarily for scientist
So Good They Can't Ignore You by Call Newport, about developing valuable skills
Valuable blogs
Next scientist
Matt Might
Thesis whisperer
Fumbling Toward Tenure

OP here (posted as guest), thanks for this, will check them out

I have found "The craft of research" to be a very well written book. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo5821939.html
It has a few chapters which guides the thought process of research, along with interesting written examples of different ways to frame a hypothesis in an academic setting.  This is valuable as it shows there is a difference between making a statement and arguing a hypothesis in the context of your field.

Before reading an article, you should know some information about journal where is this paper published, this means, that you know from what field is that article ( applied, basic, innovative), and to conclude via IF rating or scimago position of that paper so you can predict what amount of foreknowledge is necessary (most of the time(not always) higher reputation of paper, more complex and innovative research could be found).
Than, you should read abstract, introduction and discussion. Abstract and introduction will tell you about amount of knowledge that you acquired during your student life ( or life in general, either formal or informal)-this mean it is clear to you what is origin of that paper, how researchers come to point of conducting that research. if you dont have sufficient understanding, than you will need to read previous papers also!!!
Discussion will tell you if you can recognise patterns and methodology used in that paper, order to get to some conclusion, (new finding, to prove hypothesis, etc) So when you know introduction, than you should have idea in your mind what method and research plan they will use or implement,
next you should move on methodology and results and  see how is their design different from yours, and you should try to understand why they use that methodology, is it adequate for their purpose and critically to evaluate importance of every step in their work, as whole work, of course.


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Should I emphasize certain traits in my CV for master's application?
Should I modify my CV to emphasize certain traits before including it in my application for a master's degree or just include my usual professional CV?

An academic CV typically contains items you wouldn't want to list in a professional resume, such as a complete publishing history. Your resume may list as a bullet point that you are published, but they don't want 20 pages listing each publication, for instance. So, yes, your academic CV should be different.

Of course, a master's candidate isn't likely to have 20 pages of publications. . . .

@aeismail certainly, but it illustrates the point.

Yes, it's a good idea.
It's a good idea to tailor your CV and/or resume to each position you apply for. Keep two copies of your CV:

comprehensive (academic) version that has everything you've accomplished in academia and your profession, and
short version that only contains pertinent information.

Some applications require you to submit a short (2 page or less CV). You might consider submitting both a long and short CV to your program.

You should always modify your CV to emphasize certain traits.  If a decision maker is sorting CVs, you want yours to be noticed. Citing specific and credible experience directly related to the program (or company for a general CV) to which you are applying, gives you a much better chance of getting noticed.
I personally re-work my CV for each opportunity I ever applying for. It takes 15 minutes, and can make a huge difference between where you will spend the next few years of your life.
Take the 15 minutes to rework your CV and make it specific to the desired opportunity.

A CV is very different from a professional resume. Your CV should emphasize those elements that pertain to the Master's program that you are applying to. For example, if you've been working in a biotech lab and are applying to a bio MS, then filter that up to the top.
Academic publications should also rank very highly -- but deprecate most non-academic publications such as novels, unless you are applying to an arts or literature related MA>


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How do you read, learn from, and assess a textbook?
This seems like a vague question, but please bear with me before voting to close it:
Often times, when searching for a good textbook on a particular subject (mostly mathematics or physics), I see users who confidently suggest multiple textbooks on this same subject. (Here is a good example.) My guess is that these users have not actually read through each of these textbooks page by page.
I'm currently going through a few textbooks to learn and/or brush up on different subjects. I am reading them carefully, doing the exercises, taking notes on things I don't understand, etc. A chatper, at best, takes me a couple of weeks (and I spend the majority of my free time studying).
This being said, how does a person read these text-books in-depth enough to have a founded opinion on their contents? Is it done after already knowing the material?
(I know this is a strange, perhaps difficult to answer question, and I'd be glad to take any suggestions or criticisms to better it).

I think this is going to be awfully general.  You'd approach a math textbook very differently from a history textbook, for instance.

Also, I think "learn from" and "assess" are sufficiently different that they should maybe be separate questions.

@NateEldredge Would it be better to say something like "How do the processes of learning from and assessing a textbook differ?"

You have to read the answers and the individual items to figure that out.  I glanced at the answer at the top, and this information was provided.  In short, it is a mix. // If you are interested in someone's answer, and s/he didn't specify how intimately acquainted s/he is with the listed resources, it is certainly fair to ask.

Personally, outside of the elementary level I find there are very few (single) textbooks that I can read and understand the subject.  I find it very useful (although cumbersome, and oft expensive) to acquire multiple books on the same subject, so I can read sections from each side by side.  A given author may be better most of the time, but there are enough places when self-studying that I get lost that I need to seek additional explanations or examples.
The opinion of the use of the other books I think comes from answering whether it was it useful for me when learning the subject area.

Read what you need of that book. Many books are organized to be separated in topics by chapters. Don't waste time to read all of a 1000 paged book, for example, instead look for your current needs.


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What are the expectations for a Ph.D. candidate in Scandinavia in particular?
I am willing to pursue a PhD degree in Northern Europe (mostly in Scandinavia).
So, I take advice from differen professors of my university.
The exact question I asked was:

I want to complete my PhD degree in a Scandinavian Country

Some of them told me that it does not matter where I want to go.
Others told me that it changes with respect to the region I want to go.
I was ready to be satisfied with only one common advise, however, most of them told me completely different expectations.
They can be summarized as:

Cumulative GPA should be 4.00/4.00.
You should publish a conference paper.
You must publish a journal paper in a mediocre journal.
Most important thing is getting very good reference letters.
It is just luck. You should give every university a try.
They mostly look at your cover letter.
You should find someone that you know from that university. He/she should advise you.

Are these sentences professors' own expectations? Or are some of them completely true?
Or...
Should I take all of them into consideration?
To sum up:
I am pursuing a PhD in Scandinavia. What should I do? Are the expected qualifications same as US or Asian countries?

Some of the expectations listed are reasonable. Some, however, are definitely not. #1 is an example of the latter.

This seems like several questions bundled into one: are you asking about Scandinavian Ph.D. programs, or about regional differences in general, or about Ph.D. expectations in general?  Can you please focus and clarify?

@jakebeal Well, that's my recklessness. Sorry for that. I forgot to make my point.

I have no Scandinavian experience, but I think you have mostly gotten good advice from the professors.  You probably do not have to achieve all those things.  I doubt the cover letter is the most important component of the application, but certainly you should write it well.  My understanding is that the difficulty with Scandinavian universities is that there are not very many of them.

My supervisor didn't even look at my transcript, so 1 is definitely not true (in general). Also, I don't have publications. But the main thing is that the PI decide who to hire, and each one has their own criteria.

I'm afraid these questions are impossible to answer because the frame you give is too broad. What people look at varies from country to country, from university to university, and from field to field.

In Finland, you usually start your PhD studies after your MSc studies. If you don't have an MSc yet, get it first.
Other than that, there are no unusual requirements or expectations. You just have to convince your potential supervisor that you personally are the best person in the world for this position. Hiring a PhD student is a huge investment — in the ballpark of hundreds of thousands of euros of grant money, plus numerous hours of their time to supervise the student — and you really have to convince the professor that you are worth all that.
A fairly common approach is to do your MSc studies in the same place, get to know the professors, work as a summer intern in their research groups, write a MSc thesis under their supervision, etc., and this way gradually convince them that you really are not just an excellent student but you also could become an excellent researcher.

The same is roughly applicable to Sweden. Note that having a MSc is not a hard requirement, but almost a de facto one.

Finland is not in Scandinavia :)

@Sverre: Close enough.


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How to correctly cite adapted and translated course lecture notes?
I am making some lecture notes for a Computer Science course in my mother language, which is Italian. Some of my notes are based mostly on lecture notes by other professors. I do not copy and paste, but I paraphrase and put my own opinions in portions of the lecture notes. Apart from the references, I usually put this quote at the beginning of my lecture notes when it is necessary:

"The following material is heavily based on the lecture notes by Professor X given at the University of Y during the course Z"

Is that enough? I would not like to be blamed for plagiarism or any academic misbehaviour for making a silly mistake.

I would recommend including a link to Professor X's original notes in your translations, if they're available online.

I'd just cite them normally, via their URLs.

For course lecture material, unlike scientific publications, there is no requirement for uniqueness.  It seems that you are giving clear attribution and credit (which can be nicely enhanced by a link, as @JeffE suggests), so I think the only further thing to do would be to drop a courtesy note to the original professor(s) to let them know how you are appreciatively using their material.  Likely they will be happy and knowing that you are using it may even be beneficial to them; in the unlikely event that they are displeased, then you should not use their material (and should ask them to post a clear statement to warn others not to do so either).

Yes.  I just got an such an email recently, and was happy to know someone wanted to use my notes.  This also gave me a chance to caution them that some parts were not proofread and solicit feedback/corrections.


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Email affiliation for an undergraduate student with a complex university address
Imagine I'm doing research on my own, and studying at a university. I publish this research, get accepted, and now I have to provide my affiliation. I have no problems of course using my university and the department I'm studying for, and in fact, I want to. However, I've read (on this site) that using my personal @gmail.com email looks unprofessional even if you provide the university as affiliation. I have a student email but looks quite awful like: lmatteis.123112311@studenti.uniroma1.it - where the number is my student code number.
Is that ugly email better than a personal @gmail.com email?
Another option would be that I go talk to a professor, show that the paper got accepted and ask them whether they can give me a quick affiliation; provide me with the email... but then I'd probably need to add the professor as a co-author as well, which I guess is also fine? This option would however take much longer. But maybe a good way to build connections with professors in the department.
Thoughts?
EDIT
The question that appears linked is a different question. It talks about "rotting emails" and the possibility of using your personal email to avoid that. My question is regarding what email I should provide for a research that I want my university to be affiliated with, although I haven't been officially given any email by the university (apart from my student email).

Why would you need to add the professor as a co-author just because you show the paper to him? You absolutely do not need to add the prof as co-author if he has no contribution to the paper. However, if he does have contribution to the paper, hiding the fact that the paper is accepted is un-ethical. The e-mail address looks fine to me as long as it is legitimate.

possible duplicate of E-mail address to use in publications

Right, I'm of course aware of that. But my question was specifically related to email. The paper is accepted and there's no affiliation to the university except the studies being done as an undergraduate. Would I use the students email, or are there other options?

@StephanKolassa thanks but it's different (already read that). That question talks about "rotting emails" and the possibility of using your personal email to avoid that. My question is regarding what email I should provide for a research that I want my university to be affiliated with.

I did read your question and the one I believe is a duplicate. That question and the answers explicitly address the issue of whether a gmail or other address looks unprofessional, and of course you will provide your affiliation apart from your email address (there are enough institutions that are not obvious from their domains). In summary, I don't see how your question is appreciably different from the one I linked. Let's see whether four other people here follow your or my argument ;-)

Use your university address, even if it is weird and complicated.  Nobody will hold an official bureaucratic policy of your university against you.
You may, however, wish to see if your university supports email aliases.  Many universities have an official "full" email address, but also a shorter and easier version.  Others allow you to activate your alumni account even while still a student, and you might then use that alternate (and persistent!) address.
Separately: do not hide your paper from your professor.  Assuming your professor is basically ethical, then either a) your professor should be an author and will explain why you should add them, or b) your professor should not be an author, in which case they'll celebrate you without asking to be added.


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Should the supervisor work in the laboratory with the student during M.Sc.?
I was just employed in the foreign university as assistant professor. I am going to have one M.Sc. student soon but I am not sure how much independence should he get. At my previous university we needed to work with the M.Sc. students in the lab all the time as they were unable to do anything being alone in lab. How is it at your universities? Who teaches M.Sc. students the methods, presenting the rules in the lab etc.? (Food Technology.

The field is: Food Technology, generally lab work connected with chemical and physical methods like HPLC, spectrophotometer, rheology.

Food Technology, generally lab work connected with chemical and physical methods like HPLC, spectrophotometer, rheology.

If you don't show him how to work in the lab, are there other people who will? Lab technicians, PhD students, post docs? Is it their job to show him?

Having worked in different European countries I can tell you that would likely have to instruct the student basically from scratch. It is almost unbelievable how programs have sunk in a couple of decades. (IT, AT, FR).

So actually when you grade the thesis, so you assess your own job.


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Are research opportunities common in India and how can I enroll in a research program in India during my undergraduate studies?
I am an Indian, currently in 12th standard and I am pretty sure next year I am going to be in a decent UNI for my bachelor's in physics. I have read a lot about undergraduate research in Western colleges but I am not very sure about that here in India, as I have heard that a very small amount of money from the GDP is spent on research every year - like 0.6%. So I was curious if I will be able to get any research opportunities during my initial college years or not.
Another question is:
-- Are researches necessarily done by college professors or there are other groups of researchers who provide opportunities out of school?

Some observations:

In India, as far as I know, some institutes like CMI, etc. offer (or used to offer) internship programs. Please note, it is usually very competitive to get selected. Earlier, they used to select students based on NPTEL exam results. I remember reading somewhere that you could also email the respective professor and ask if he/she is willing to assign an intern. So, it is best to email the professor. He/she might invite you to work with him/her during Summer/Winter vacation.

Sometimes, I see professors of electronics asking undergrads to write codes. So, you can understand that they would let you do something which perhaps they might not be very comfortable with (reasons being, new languages, new areas, etc). I remember a friend of mine was assisting a professor by writing python codes for some machine learning experiment. Most of the Physics/Electronics professors in India above 50s are comfortable with FORTRAN, while the younger generation learns Python right at high school.

Usually, you would not see much research in a normal college offering undergraduate degrees. They wouldn't have the equipment, etc. They go to a university for those.

So, if you are willing to contribute to research the best thing would be to:

talk/email professors from your areas of interest. If you are in a reputed institute like in one of the IITs, IISc, etc. it becomes easier and it's best to try to get into one of such institutes.

Do teachers perform researches on their own in those colleges and would they allow a first year undergrad to be a part of their research?

@Devansh Undergraduate research has been a matter of discussion. There might be something new someday. As of now, I think the profs perform research with the PhD scholars or MS scholars only. However, I encourage you to do it if you get an opportunity and even if you are contributing something minimal. That would be a learning experience and would get to know people in the academia. Also, it is worth mentioning that many undergraduates of different fields have published papers.

Did they publish the research papers on their own? like did they not have a prof guiding them throughout the research process?

Also please answer my previous question, which is whether the professors of big private unis perform research related tasks or not?

While I am not sure of the entire process of research paper publishing, the process needs guidance of profs in various stages. Coming back to the original question, since you didn't mention which degree you are going for (3 years B.Sc or 4 years BS), my assumption was that of a 3 years B.Sc. In a 4 years BS (research) degree, research is part of your curriculum. That degree is offered by comparatively less number of institutes.

whether the professors of big private unis perform research related tasks or not? Yes, they do. Big private universities offer PhD, MS and MTech programmes, so yeah they do research.

It depends on your university, its professors and the institute policies.
There is significant research happening in universities, but in India, it's most prevalent in the top-ranked institutes/universities, which are mostly government institutes. Can you get involved in initial years? Yes and no. It's difficult to answer without knowing if your uni is decent w.r.t to the world or just the country. I study at IIT Delhi (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi) and I'll tell you my experience:

Yes, you can ask professors to get involved in research in your initial undergrad years. You'll most probably not have the required background, but there are professors willing to help you learn and develop and/or explore interest(s). You'll not contribute significantly but it'll help you start learning. To reach to the level of actually publishing something, it'll happen later in undergrad. A freshman is just getting started will college and sophomore with their major. It is after that that you'll start taking advanced courses - but who's stopping anyone from learning!

For summer and winters, many students apply for research opportunities in other institutes and universities for research interns in summer. A lot of people from the top IITs and/or IISc also go to research interns abroad. At IITD, we also have institute programmes to do projects in summer. A lot of information about such programmes is shared over mailing lists or informed by your seniors in college. Most of the research opportunities are obtained by emailing. Even for research programmes, a better path is emailing someone from the research team first - unless the guidelines state otherwise.

If you're not in IIT/IISc/IISER, you can mail professors from these institutes to get involved with them. However again, that requires you to show more dedication since there are already students from that institute itself showing interest. Very few to none have dedicated research programmes for external students.

Most professors will deny, some will be open to short projects while some might ask you to dedicate longer times. Usually the shorter projects do not provide a new learning curve, so research projects are usually the latter ones. Landing an opportunity depends on how you approach professors and show interest. They do not need you, you need them; show interest, be willing to learn.

In conclusion,

Can you have research experience in your undergrad in India? Yes.

In initial years? Depends on you and under whom you apply.

Are researches necessarily done by college professors or there are other groups of researchers who provide opportunities out of school? Not all researchers are professors but most of such opportunities are available to grad students so your best bet is first reaching out to professors in or outside your university since they're more open to working with students.


text:
Ethics of conducting research on a class
I'm a repeat Teaching Assistant in a fairly large (100-200 students/semester) core, required CS course at a large, private US research university.  I'm very interested in researching what factors influence success in the course, possibly with an eye toward SIGCSE.
I'm concerned about how to ethically conduct research on students.
Yes, I know a little about IRB, and I assume at some point I'd need to get IRB approval. However I'm so unsure about this, I'm not even sure what to ask the IRB yet. I'm hoping y'all can provide me some guidance and advice as I begin to plan for next year.
I assume I have to ask for explicit, opt-in consent? Obviously, participation or non-participation couldn't affect their grade. However, if only a very biased subset bother to opt in, the research might not be worth conducting. Can I compel students to choose to opt in, or opt out?
Additionally, the course is very similar year to year, so the extent that it would be very useful to be able to include previous semesters. I imagine this is even trickier.
I have the full encouragement and cooperation of the faculty member, but working with human subjects, much less students, if totally outside their expertise.
This is similar to this question, but slightly different and, I think, more difficult.

While the answer below is very helpful, it is important to stress that the best first step is usually just to ask the experts on the IRB.  I am sure they are happy to speak to people making preliminary inquiries, even if you are unsure of exactly what you want to ask them.

I conduct biology education research at my large, state research university, so I have experience with this process.
An IRB is necessary if you plan to make the results public. Educational research is considered "exempt" research under IRB regulations, but this really just means you have fewer flaming hoops, not NO flaming hoops. You will likely be able to convince your IRB that students do not need to sign consent forms, since you will post a study information sheet and they have the opportunity to opt out to someone else without it affecting their grade. You may also be able to get student data from previous years with a retroactive IRB.
An additional hurdle is that you will probably need the approval of your FERPA specialist in addition to IRB approval, as FERPA is very concerned with the sharing of private student information. Our FERPA guy is in our registrar's office.
As you can see, I'm being a bit vague. Every institution interprets the human subjects regulations a bit differently, and sometimes schools are relaxed... and sometimes they are not.
So, it's doable, but not at all trivial. If you still want to move ahead, I recommend you call your institution's IRB office and say you are considering education research and would like to meet with an analyst. And the first question to ask the analyst is, "who else on this campus has ever done education research?" and get the real skinny from that research group.
Then, the basic steps will be:

Design the experiment, do a lit review, write up the IRB proposal and study information sheet
Send the proposal and SIS to the IRB analyst, and they will help you make changes
Send the proposal and SIS to the FERPA specialist and they will send an approval letter to IRB (in a month?)
Wait for the IRB subcommittee to approve the proposal (another month?)
Post the study information sheet on the class website, and get another grad student or postdoc to be the "safe" researcher that students can contact to opt out. This researcher will make a short announcement on the first day of class.
Teach using your fabulous new technique
Ask the registrar for grades for previous years (if you've worked this out)
Do analysis, write it up, present it. Fair warning - most of the time we find that the first try is the beta test, and the SECOND try generates better results.

This is amazingly helpful, thank you so much.
I totally understand, re, beta testing. I've been doing a bit of informal poking around at the data on past semesters. Hopefully that means I only need 1 beta test ;)

You're very welcome, and I hope your results are significant AND have awesome effect sizes.

It's possible that the OP's research could be considered "exempt" by the IRB rather than requiring IRB supervision.  Getting a certificate of exemption from the IRB can be easier than getting approval after a full review of the project.


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What to write in a motivation letter where the template says "In a few lines, specify your professional project"
My program is structured such that I have to do two years at one institution, then transfer to a different institution for the third and final year. I am now finishing the second year and filling out the application to transfer.
This application requires a motivation letter, for which the university provides a template. The template states the following:

Pursuit of studies envisaged beyond this degree
Reason for choosing this university
In a few lines, specify your professional project

For the last one, should I talk about my 2nd year end of studies project? This is my fist time writing a motivation letter.

Some clarifications in the comments have been edited into the main post. Also: this is technically undergraduate admissions, which we consider "off topic," but I won't mod-hammer this one since this seems essentially similar to a graduate application.

I assume these instructions were translated from French. Was the original "projet professionnel"? "Projet professionnel" seems to be a term of art in French in a way that "professional project" is not in English. See for example here. Indeed, the word "projet" is a bit of a "faux ami"; a better translation would be "plan" or "goal."

nope, I copied the instructions as it is from the file. while yes most programs in France are in french the one I am applying to is in English and fully online meaning I don't have to move to France to take the classes. as for the finals for each semester I will take them at university in my city has a partnership with the one in France and in the end, students will receive a double diploma one from the university in their city since this program support other countries and one from the French university

They seem to be defining "project" in the sense of your long term career goals, not a short term academic project.
So, write instead about what you envision for a career. And, perhaps, focus on how university studies will get you on the path to those long term goals.
If you want to write about your end of studies project only do so in response to how this university might support you in extensions of it if you see that as a path to publication or another goal.
But think more broadly and long term for the third part. The word "project" can have a lot of meanings.

I thought the same about what they meant with project. But there already two previous questions one about "studies envisaged beyond this degree" and the other "Reason for choosing this university" . I thought since this program is focus on e-learning and my final project was also about e-learning that my give me some extra points

Actually, the three questions are, I think, intended to cover the ground, not focus. The further studies question is about just that (grad/professional school, nothing...). The why question is to explore the immediate term goals and values. But the project question is for the long term. Why = near term. Studies = medium term. Project = long term. This seems to fit normal patterns.

Thanks for taking the time to answer this. from my understanding here's what I did: in the 1st question, I talked about my interest in the field and my intention to pursue a master's and a Ph.D.. in the 2nd question I talked about my interest in the university's programs especially those that are online (e-learning), as for the 3rd question I am going to talk about my intention to pursue a PhD and become a college professor to share my knowledge with other students since I am not really interested in working for a company. does this look good?

No, you should not be focussing on the 2nd year of your degree.  Instead, you should follow their instruction to focus on "[p]ursuit of studies envisaged beyond this degree".  Comment on what you hope to do beyond this degree, your reason for choosing this university for your present program, and how this feeds into your overall professional goal.

specify your professional project

The prompt is not clear. My best guess would be along the lines of what Buffy wrote, but it would be reasonable to ask the university for clarification.

[the institution is in France, but the instructions were in English]

Ah ha! This French-speaking institution probably mistranslated the phrase "projet professionnel." A better translation would have been "professional goals." A full definition is provided (in French) here, but the gist of it is that they want a (brief) statement of purpose: what are your professional goals, how will you achieve them, and how does your application here tie into those goals.

I searched for it in french and what I understand from it is that it's like a standard university motivation letter where I have to talk about what diploma I have, my interest in the program, and future goals if I get accepted, right?

Indeed. With an emphasis on the latter.

Thanks for the help