text:
How to keep track of attendance and student-submitted excuses for absences?
I will be teaching an introductory class, in which attendance is important, with approximately 60 students in 3 sections.  I'd like to have a system that:

Enables me to quickly mark whether a student is present.
Allows students to see their own attendance record but not other students'.
Lets students provide information about their absences.

For small classes, students email me (or I email them) for information about absences, but it would be overwhelming with this many students.
A single Google spreadsheet would be great for data entry, and students could use comments to annotate their absences, but it wouldn't protect students' privacy.
Any suggestions (besides not tracking attendance)?  My school provides Google Apps and Blackboard, although I'm willing to use other solutions.
UPDATE: I know a hack that would work in Blackboard would be to create a fake assignment for each day (attending class) and enter attendance information (0 or 1) there.  This is not ideal because (1) entering data into Blackboard is slower than putting it into a spreadsheet, (2) it would bloat the grade listings seen by the students, and (3) I don't think students could add a comment to the "grade" (the excuse).
There is a similar question, but it does not address how to incorporate excuses/explanations, which, to me, is the tricky part.

"in which attendance is important" -- why? What do you or your students gain from enforcing that?

@Raphael It could be, for instance, that there are departmental/university wide policies on automatic failures due to absences.  There are very real reasons for attendance policies in classes like band/choir/theatre where if half the class skips out, the other half can't adequately have the expected class (trying properly doing a choir rehearsal with only a random third of the choir every day). If you have an attendance policy, but don't take roll... you're opening yourself up to students disputing any reduction you give them for non-attendance

@guifa My question was about enforcing attendance, not enforcing an attendance policy. Of course, if you have one you've got to implement it. I think you shouldn't have one, though.

@Raphael Your comment is off-topic.  This forum is not for unsolicited advice.

Voting to reopen. This question differs from the "duplicate" one due to the need to handle student excuses for being absent.

@MadJack Concur; I also see that this question aims to make the information available back to students, which is much more difficult than just tracking within a group of instructors.

@espertus I don't follow. It seems to me that the point of your question (and many others on this site) is getting (subjective or experience-driven) advice.

I don't think that attendance of the lectures is so important. It may vary for the students. When I was an undergraduate student, I have had top grades and even maximum without going to one of the lectures. I had considered that after studying at home for 3 hours I would be more advanced than after 3-4 courses. However, in some cases for some subjects, attendance is crucial.

@Raphael I'm sorry for not noticing your question until now. The reason that I objected to your comment was that I was soliciting opinions on technology on recording absences, not on whether I should be recording absences.

There is a sort of a solution using Google Apps, but it's ugly and it's still very much imperfect (more on that at the bottom).
You could create a master spreadsheet (that for the sake of example has the internal ID of "masterSheet") that looks like this:
      A          B         C         D         E         F
1| Name       | 9/1 | 9/1 Comment | 9/2 | 9/2 Comment | etc.
2| Student A  |     |             |     |             |
3| Student B  |     |             |     |             |
4| Student C  |     |             |     |             |

Then you'll create another spreadsheet for Student A:
    A            B                                C
1| Date | Attendance Grade                 | Comment/Excuse
2| 9/1  | =IMPORTRANGE("masterSheet","B2") |
3| 9/2  | =IMPORTRANGE("masterSheet","D2") |
3| etc. | =IMPORTRANGE("masterSheet","X2") |

You'll then make columns A and B (as well as cell C1) uneditable except by you.  You don't necessarily need to type in the IMPORTRANGE() stuff manually, and you do it formulaicly much easier if you have both the master and student spreadsheets go in the same order (although it's possible either way).
Initially, the student will just see
    A            B                                C
1| Date | Attendance Grade                 | Comment/Excuse
2| 9/1  |                                  |
3| 9/2  |                                  |
3| etc. |                                  |

As you put in their attendance grades for each day, it will show up automatically in theirs, but they won't be able to edit it if you properly protect the range.  Now, for their comments.  You'll do the exact same thing, but in reverse, and you'll get:
      A          B         C                           D         E                           F
1| Name       | 9/1 | 9/1 Comment                   | 9/2 | 9/2 Comment                   | etc.
2| Student A  |     | =IMPORTRANGE("studentA","C2") |     | =IMPORTRANGE("studentA","C3") |
3| Student B  |     | =IMPORTRANGE("studentB","C2") |     | =IMPORTRANGE("studentB","C3") |
4| Student C  |     | =IMPORTRANGE("studentC","C2") |     | =IMPORTRANGE("studentC","C3") |

If a student enters in a comment in their spreadsheet, it will show up on yours.
Now, a few comments about this:
It's ugly.  It's awful.  But it basically does what you want.  But there's also a security consideration that will greatly reduce its efficacy to be effectively useless.  Besides the fact that a student could get access to your original spreadsheet by using IMPORTRANGE() on their comment field, Google Apps requires a user to have viewing or editing privileges to the document referenced by IMPORTRANGE().  There are many ways ways to obfuscate, but it will only ever be obfuscation, and not real security.
What you should do from my experience
Just use Blackboard.  It does NOT take that long to take roll with it.  It is a spreadsheet.  On day one of the semester, I take five minutes and create a column for each day of class, and then don't have to worry about it again (and if you're teaching the same classes, ideally they're on the same schedule and you can either merge the course or clone the course so you only do it once for all three).  Then each day I just hit in 5,enter,0,enter,5,enter,5,enter,5,enter,0,enter (5 is fully present in my personal system, 0 is absent).
All the attendance columns get pushed to the bottom of the student's view (the right of the instructor's view) by using Grade Center -> Manage -> Column Organization.
For students to contact you, make it clear they must use a standard subject line that can be caught and filtered in your e-mail program into a specific e-mail excuse box.  If I accidentally marked them as absent and they weren't, or if they had an excuse, they are instructed to e-mail me using a subject line CC'd to themselves that begins "Attendance:" and that gets filtered into an attendance folder for that semester (you may want them to also add in a section, if you don't have merged courses) where I can then deal with it.  At the end of the semester, I have students verify that I properly tended to any necessary changes in attendance grades and then the one or two mistakes (if any) can be fixed then.
I regularly deal with 120 students a semester (4 sections x 30 students) and have had no problems with this set up.
Unless you have an attendance-specific module in Blackboard that provides the functionality you want, you are going to have problems finding anything that is FERPA-compliant or that is not going to be a giant PITA to use.

Thank you.  Out of curiosity, do they remember to use the special subject line?

@espertus For the most part, yeah.  I tell them anything that doesn't follow it is filtered automatically into the trash (maybe when I'm an older grouchier academic, I'll actually have it do that...).  If they don't and it flows into your normal mailbox, it's up to you whether you want to deal with it and manually move it to that mailbox since your syllabus would have told them otherwise or just trash it.

I think I'll also ask them to cc their TA, whose responsibility it will be to update the Blackboard record from Disappeared to Acknowledged.

For a multi-section course with this many students, you really should make use of a Learning Management System (Blackboard in your case) for an online gradebook and attendance tracking system that allows students to see their grades and attendance records.  My experience is with Canvas and Moodle rather than Blackboard, so I won't attempt to answer this question in detail, but I'm sure that Blackboard should be able to do this.
At another level, you'll need to record who actually shows up each day.  You can enter the information by hand, or you might consider using an audience response system ("clicker") and have the students check themselves in.  For large lecture courses this works very well.

A possible downside to using clickers for attendance: if a student who intends on being absent gives their clicker to a friend in the class and the friend checks them in. I don't know how problematic this is in practice, though.

Thank you. We aren't using clickers, although we are using computers they have to sign in to, so I might be able to use those.  Blackboard does not provide the desired functionality.

@MadJack Some of my colleagues have caught students doing that.   That's cheating, and with a sufficiently robust punishment (e.g. the threat of an F in the course) it's easy enough to stop.  I've never had any problems with it in my classes.

@espertus you can simply make an assignment for each day "attend class" and then either award 0 points or 100 points depending on whether or not the student showed up that day.

I neglected to say that I don't consider entering data into Blackboard to a lightweight task.  It's also ugly to create a column in the grades for each day.

Whether using clickers or a mere sign-in sheet, I typically give the class a few minutes (to allow for stragglers), and then at a convenient take-a-breath point, double-check the number of registered clickers/signatures against the number of heads actually present.  If they don't match we have A Very Serious Situation that I will bring class to a halt to address (since they do, indeed, invariably believe it's No Big Deal to sign in for others).
If necessary, ask those with clickers to hold them above their heads as they answer a trivial question, to confirm that no one is holding up two or more, and then check the record later to see which in-class remote was not triggered for that question. That person is, as Richelieu would say, TOAST.
(Alas, this is obviously impractical for auditorium-sized sections, in which the issue usually needs to be addressed the most often.  In those, I augment the clickers with signature sheets every once in a while so that I can scan for identical handwriting on consecutive names. Not perfect, but a start.)

And what is stopping a cheater from showing his clicker with his right hand and holding the extra one on his left, under the table?

(For that matter. what prevents a cheater from implementing a clicker-spoofer app on their cell phone to simulate ten of their friends?)

@Davidmh, I would do this only for the smaller classrooms, where I've got clear line of sight (<20 feet) to all students.  In an auditorium, there would indeed be no point to trying it.  (I'd also be asking them to keep their other hand on the desk, just in case, since oh yes they do indeed love to keep an extra smartphone concealed in the lap.)

@JeffE, I am highly interested in the spoofing apps you described; any names to look into?  To combat it, I would still rely on the head-count (again, why it'll never work in a large auditorium).  Should I get 30 responses in a room of 20, I would immediately bring the class to a halt and pass around a roll sheet. Those not actually present have  been revealed to have used a friend to "sign the roll" for them, in a class in which participation is a (tiny) part of the grade. Thus, they have just falsified the academic record of the class in order to achieve a higher grade. ACADEMIC FRAUD.

In one auditorium course, I brought in a cheating case the roll sheets that showed that the "good" student whose tests bore evidence of copying (identical arithmetic mistakes only at the same 3 moments) by the "weak" students had been signing them in (her handwriting) for weeks. Very unlikely they had ever been present at all. Before the Academic Council, the effort to obscure their absence was viewed by the (otherwise skeptical) faculty as genuine evidence of intent on her part (not just that she was unwittingly spied upon), and all were given an F.

She later came to my office and tearfully admitted, "I think my friends took advantage of me."

If you have only 30 students, you really don't need clickers. If you have 400 (as I will next semester), then one student impersonating ten is undetectable noise. No, I don't know of any spoofing apps/devices, but I don't know of any reason that a bright, motivated student couldn't build one, so I assume they must exist.

Aha. Found one.

Ha...love the immediate re-response follow-up. Yeah, if we think a student has thought up some new method of chicanery, it probably won't take us very long to find one. #Rule11 Oh, the effort they will go to just to avoid a 10am class. Thanks, @JeffE!

BTW, FWIW, my purpose in a smallish class using clickers is twofold: to keep them engaged more actively (after watching too many come to class and sleep to get around the school's attendance requirements), and because my own attendance-taking capabilities are often inhibited by my difficulty recognizing faces (even extended family members, at times). If you're really active, I might remember, but it helps just to have a bit of a paper-trail backup.


text:
Which review recommendation should I give to maximize the likelihood that a manuscript is rejected?
DISCLAIMER: As some readers have found the following question and prior title (How to best kill a manuscript as peer reviewer) outrageously unethical, I want to clarify that, by asking this question, I was simply and constructively trying to be provocative, not suggesting any means to hijack the peer review process.
I often peer review manuscripts for scholarly journals. In the most typical scenario, the editor asks me a quality appraisal and a priority appraisal.
For quality, the typical recommendations can be (mutually exclusive): accept as is, minor revision, major revision, and reject.
For priority, the typical alternatives can be (mutually exclusive): top priority, mid priority, low priority.
My experience and perspective is that most manuscripts do not deserve a rejection, as they most often have some merits, at least in the field of pragmatic cardiovascular research, where most works are only incrementally original.
If my will is to try to "kill the manuscript", i.e. maximize the likelihood it is eventually rejected because I find it unsuitable for that specific journal, but still finding it has some incremental value, I simply recommend minor or major revisions, but give low or very low priority.
Is this sound and appropriate? Am I wrong in this approach?

Note: Votes on questions should reflect whether a question is on-topic, well-posed, etc.; not agreement or disagreement with the idea reflected in the question.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. (Comments can't be moved to chat more than once, so future chatter can only be deleted instead.)

@ff524 I seem to recall that there was a way to migrate a whole chat room into another. I forgot the specifics, but definitely recall doing it once or twice to merge multiple migrated-to-chat discussions. You may want to ask in TL.

@FedericoPoloni I find this new title to be very unclear. Also, it does not seem to match the question body very well.

@Raphael I know it's not perfect. Feel free to edit it if you have a better suggestion. Did you find the previous title clearer?

@FedericoPoloni I think the previous title was harsh but at least fostered discussion. This one is a bit cooled down.

The question body says "my will is to...maximize the likelihood it is eventually rejected".  The title has NOTHING to do with that!  I've changed the title by simply quoting the key line of the body, so now they agree.

I'm trying to understand the reasons for the harsh judgement of the OP reflected in many of the answers and comments.  My reading of the question is that the OP feels uncomfortable recommending "reject" for sound, original, but not groundbreaking research, and is asking what the "best" course of action is when the submission is not sufficiently groundbreaking for the journal to which it has been submitted.  (I believe others have interpreted the question as "What is the surest way to kill a manuscript?", which, to my mind, is not assuming good faith on the part of the OP.)
My brief answer is that one should recommend "reject", but should state in the report that the research is solid and original, and would be suitable for publication in a different journal.  The reviewer might even make suggestions as to suitable publication venues.
The problem seems to be that the reviewer is being asked to assess quality factors including methodological soundness, originality, and clarity of the written report on scale of "accept as is", "accept with minor revisions", "resubmit with major revisions", and "reject", which do not form a scale of quality at all, but, rather, are recommendations as to course of action.  I agree with (my interpretation of) the OP that "reject" is not an accurate quality assessment for research that is correct and original, although it might be the correct course of action for a particular journal.  Thus it might seem that the only option left to a reviewer who does not want to send the wrong message regarding quality is to use the priority scale as a way to send the desired message regarding recommended course of action.  As I state in the previous paragraph, however, one may escape from the straightjacket provided by the checkboxes on the reporting form by spelling out one's recommendation in the text of the report.

There is no way to assume good faith for the statement: "If my will is to try to "kill the manuscript", i.e. maximize the likelihood it is eventually rejected because I find it unsuitable for that specific journal...."  The reviewer's job is not to "maximize the likelihood" of eventual anything.  The reviewer's job is to recommend a course of action and give his/her reasons for that recommendation.  Doing something else is inevitably in bad faith.

While I'm broadly in agreement with the other answers and with Wildcard's comment here, I think there is also room for the interpretation that `killing the manuscript' is just a loose, rather dysphemistic, phrase for what the OP proposes to do. Perhaps the OP is reluctant to simply recommend rejection, and seeks a more diplomatic verdict that achieves the same effect. As I say, I agree with the the consensus expressed in the other answers, but also agree with this answer that the implied judgement of the OP is perhaps harsh.

Then again, I haven't noticed the OP going out of his way to clear up misunderstandings...

@Wildcard: I think one can assume good faith.  I don't see how a reviewer who chooses "reject" can be characterized as doing anything other than trying to "maximize the likelihood" that the manuscript will be rejected.  This particular OP, however, appears to feel that, due to its overloading as a quality assessment, "reject" is not appropriate for many manuscripts, even when rejection would be his recommended course of action for that manuscript in that particular journal.

@ShaneORourke: the OP has made a couple of edits, adding "because I find it unsuitable for that specific journal", "where most works are only incrementally original", and "but still finding it has some incremental value", all of which, to me, suggest trying to do right by the authors of the submitted manuscript, rather than the opposite.

@WillOrrick, which just wastes everyone's time.  In the field of dating there's even a phrase for this behavior: to lead someone on.  "I don't want to turn her down for another date (even though I have no slightest interest in this person myself) because she would be a good match for someone...."  It's not a nice thing, whether deliberately malicious or unintentionally cruel.  However, I get where you are coming from.  I just strongly disagree.

@WillOrrick Thanks for the careful answer. I think we are on the same page...

Is this sound and appropriate?

No. Your job as a reviewer is not to choose which manuscripts are accepted or rejected. Your job is to advise the editor as to the merits and the flaws of the manuscript, and then let the editor decide the fate of the manuscript.
Thus, you should give the manuscript the ratings that most accurately reflect your perception of it, not the ratings that you think will get it "killed".

I think that there is an underlying misunderstanding

I don't think I misunderstood the first version of your question, and my answer still applies. It is not up to the reviewer to maximize the likelihood of any particular outcome; just tell the editor what you think of the manuscript, and leave the rest to the editor.
This means that if you are asked by the editor to recommend an overall decision, you should recommend an overall decision. If asked by the editor to recommend a decision based on quality and specifically excluding the priority, novelty, and usefulness of contribution, then you should do exactly that. (If you aren't clear on what factors should be included your quality recommendation, ask the editor.) If you believe that a manuscript should be rejected from a given journal because its contribution is incremental, you can indicate as much in the part of the review where you're asked to assess the manuscript's originality and/or in a separate comment to the editor.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

If your intention is to "kill" the manuscript, you should give a reject recommendation. Rejecting does not mean there are no merits to the manuscript. In fact, I would guess that most manuscripts are rejected because the journal is not a good fit, or the results are not strong enough for the journal, but might be appropriate for a lower tier or more specialised journal.
Of course you can and should discuss the merits of the manuscript in your report, as well as suggestions you think would improve the paper, even if your recommendation is to reject. It is then up to the editor to make the final decision.
In my opinion, you should only give a "revisions" recommendation if you will likely accept the manuscript after the requested revisions are made. Purposefully setting the bar for these revisions too high because your original intent is to "kill" the manuscript for that journal seems disingenuous to me.

It does not “seem” disingenuous, it outright is. Recommending “revisions” means: “I, as a reviewer, recommend the publication of this manuscript once these following revisions have been made”. If the revised manuscript then comes around and you fail to honour this promise, you’ve effectively lied to the authors (and the editor), and led them on a merry goose chase that, in many cases, has taken months and costs thousands of pounds in research money. Recommending revisions when you have no intention of accepting them amounts to theft of time and money, and is therefore deeply unethical.

@Konrad: Nice riff on "Nay, it is. I know not 'seems'."

There is no "kill the manuscript" in a reviewer's job description.
If the reviewer thinks the manuscript is unoriginal or flawed (e.g. technically), that's what they should say in their review. They can recommend it to be rejected for the given journal.
However, the way the question is put sounds as if the reviewer may want to try to manipulate the editor, and if they do, they arrogate to themselves a role which they do not have.
Their job is to identify whether the paper is sound, original, (and possibly) fitting to the journal, according to their best knowledge and in good faith. A scientist thinking in terms of "killing manuscripts" effectively excludes themselves from the pool of available reviewers, hands down.

Could not agree more........Kill the manuscript........seriously, this is the most egregiously unethical thing I have read on SE so far.  And what surprises me most, is it's not done through an anonymous posting, almost as if OP is proud of his actions >.<

@NZKshatriya Indeed, you nailed it. I almost thought this was a trolling attempt, but then came to the conclusion it was probably a seriously intended question.

I would have thought that "questions" such as these would be disallowed, especially here in Academia.

@NZKshatriya Questions like these should not be disallowed because the history of academia is full of unethical or borderline ethical practices and we should be able to give suitable answers pointing out the problems.

@MassimoOrtolano If the question was intended to be seriously asked, which we assume here, then answering it will give someone with complete lack of "natural intuition" concerning what is appropriate the opportunity to re-gauge their code of conduct. Some people may have grown up in less than ideal research cultures and need to learn what constitutes good/acceptable practice.

@CaptainEmacs In fact, I agree with you, as per my comment above ;-)

@MassimoOrtolano Yes, I should have added Shatriya to the addressee list, but I had to choose. I wanted to reinforce your point, thanks for the support!

Your strategy may have the effect of killing the paper more broadly than you intend. Suppose the paper has both merits and flaws, but is not suitable for the journal for which you are reviewing.
Suppose you recommended "reject" with discussion of what is good about the paper and what could be improved, and maybe where it would be a better fit. If the editor accepts your recommendation the authors can immediately get on with making revisions taking into account your comments, and submitting it to another journal.
Now suppose you recommend revisions, with no intention of ultimately accepting the paper, and the editor accepts your recommendation. The authors are going to waste elapsed time, personal time, and energy on trying to get it into the current journal. It may take more than one round before they realize they are not going to be able to satisfy you and move on to a different venue. That delay and wasted effort could reduce the chances of the paper being published as authors move on to other research.

The question suggests that you have the whole procedure of reviewing wrong, so it's not sound nor appropriate.
Rejection or major or minor revisions answer to what revisions the manuscript might need or it has inherent flaws that cannot be amended with reasonable modifications. In any case, you have to justify your recommendation (and thankfully there are other reviewers also). So, if you recommend minor revision for a manuscript that should be rejected in your opinion, then you are a bad reviewer. The same if you accept a manuscript that should be revised or rejected.
Another recommendation that you are often asked is the priority. This asks for something completely different. Usually it refers to the novelty or the significance of the results.
Thus, it's possible for a manuscript to be acceptable but of low priority. This would normally lead it to another journal. Although it sounds contradictory, there might be a manuscript with very important or high impact subject or results, but with some experimental flaws that makes it worth for a rejection. Wouldn't you "kill" it? (there are some famous retractions when flaws or manipulations were later discovered)
It's true that our recommendations as reviewers are accepted often as they are from the editor... unless the reviewers disagree. In that case, the editor has to make their own opinion and then it's your validity as a reviewer that is on stake.

I think there is some linguistic confusion in some posts here.  Deciding is not the same as recommending, and English language nicely gives different words for the two activities, viz “decide” and “recommend”.  A reviewer makes a decision what to recommend to the editor; the editor makes a decision what to do with the manuscript.
As for my own opinion on the question itself, it seems a bit unfortunate to accept the responsibility of being a reviewer—which is a responsibility not just to the editor and to the journal but to the entire scholarly community—but then to try to game the system for whatever personal reason you might have.  Regardless of your recommendation, if you think a paper has some merits, say that in your review, thereby making that part of the data which your review content constitutes.  If you do not think a recommendation of “reject” will get a paper rejected, maybe you should discuss that with the editor.

Answers and comments here jumping at your throat have to do with the publishing culture in computer science and maths (what most users of this site do), which differs significantly from the one in biology or medicine. I think your question is not optimally phrased, but if curating for quality is your ultimate goal, I applaud that intent. Quality curation is a critical aspect of academic publishing and there generally is too little of it.

How to best kill a manuscript

Unfortunately, you can't.
Authors almost never resolve themselves to ditch a manuscript because that's very frustrating, and that would mean a shorter bibliography. You can be instrumental in its rejection from the journal you review for, but it's simply going to pop-up in the review queue of another less reputable journal.

How can I maximize the likelihood it is eventually rejected because I find it unsuitable for that specific journal.

By recommending rejection exactly for that reason. Write a review pointing out what you think should be improved in the paper, that's the service you're asked to do to the authors, and tell the editor you think the paper's contribution is too modest to warrant publication in that journal.
If you want to have more decision power in that process, you should become an editor yourself. But that is not something you typically decide on your own. If a community values your curating abilities, then you might get that job.

I'm in math and I think your answer is perfectly applicable there too.  It's totally reasonable for a reviewer in any field to want low-quality work not to be published.  And as you say, the one and only ethical way to approach that goal that is to write a review suggesting rejection and explaining your reasons, and hope the editor is convinced.  The question seems to be suggesting "strategic" methods, whereby some other kind of report might actually lead to a higher probability of rejection, and I feel that is inappropriate.

@NateEldredge I agree that one should not look for "strategic" ways of having papers rejected. I mentioned maths and CS because it seems these fields have more a "publish everything" kind of culture, at least that's what I gathered from my experience on this site.

I don't think I agree that math has a "publish everything" kind of culture, at least if by "publish" you mean "publish in a journal that the mainstream math research community regards as legitimate."  (Maybe that's part of the issue?  I would be willing to believe that there are more authors of math papers who are really not members of the community of research mathematicians than there are authors of medical papers who really are not members of the community of medical researchers.)...

...For instance I have a couple of papers that I submitted several times for publication, without success, and eventually I tired of the effort of trying to find a reputable home for them.  When these papers are rejected, the referees and the editor did not identify any flaws and did not claim that there was no novelty, just that the results were not significant enough to be published.  In fact I think that in some branches of math at least, "routine" or "incremental" work is really frowned upon, and in order to get published anywhere reputable, a paper should contain at least one "new idea."

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text:
Is it possible to support oneself as a lifelong graduate student?
I don't care much for being rich. I don't mind a modest life if I can just do research in the field I love.
Thus I am curious to know if it is possible to make a living just by studying. (Suppose I could hypothetically get funding for every Master or PhD program). Is there an age limit or a limit to the number of PhD degrees that I could get? Are there any other reasons that prevent this?

if you "hypothetically" could get funding, yes. but that is a huge if, a completely unrealistic hypothesis.

I wonder if you make the same mistake I made when I was young, I thought that studying and doing research was the same thing. You can make a living doing research, studying not so much.

@henning Even with funding, a university is fairly unlikely to admit somebody to study a second PhD and it would be hard to find an advisor. For a third PhD, it would be virtually impossible.

Or you can live on welfare...on a recent trip to the UK it also appears that it is effectively possible to go to school constantly and live off of government loans without needing to ever repay them, and with forgiveness after 10 years.  Just talking to a few family members who'd been through the UK system, I wasn't able to find out how this loophole was closed.  Perhaps there is a class of perpetual students in the UK.

Step 1: realize that collecting PhDs is a fairly useless endeavour. Having 1 proves you can do research, having multiple proves little more. After obtaining a PhD in a field you like you would have to move to another one to get another PhD (or, you know, do what most people do and start a postdoc in the field you like).

In short, no - at some point you're going to actually have to get a job. Sad but true - the academic party bus eventually grinds to a stop. You can drag it out as long as you possibly can, if that's what you think you want, but perhaps you need to step back and ask yourself why this seems like an attractive option. Are you unduly concerned about going out into "the real world"? A lack of interest in/fear of change? Happy with what's familiar/don't want to do anything different? Perhaps talking it over with a counselor could provide some valuable insights.

@DavidRicherby, Why is it hard to get a second PhD? Aren't there university courses for adults? And aren't there also many people who switch fields?

@yters Do you have any evidence that it's possible to get loans for second and subsequent bachelor's degrees in the UK? I've never heard of such a thing happening.

@Pacerier A PhD is a university course for adults! A second PhD has very little value and is absolutely not required to change fields. PhDs consume significant resources: most universities and academics would rather use those resources to get somebody a first PhD, not to get somebody a second PhD that they don't need.

@DavidRicherby, not quite sure how it works, but my understanding is an acquaintance is working on her second degree in midwifery using government loans, after already getting a first degree in linguistics.

@yters It's possible that the distinction there is that a degree in midwifery is training for a specific occupation in a way that a degree in, say, mathematics or philosophy isn't.

@DavidRicherby, Oops, "adult" is the wrong word... What I meant is, aren't there PhD courses for "older people"? E.g. someone who retired at 35 and then started pursuing a PhD after retirement. Or someone who decided after 5 years that his current PhD subject is not something he want to do for his life and then switch.

@Pacerier The early retirement case sounds like somebody doing their first PhD. Nothing I said was about age: it was about getting multiple PhDs. Somebody who decides 5 years into their PhD that they don't like it should probably either buckle down and finish it or try to adapt the project to something they're more interested in. But, again, if they quit that PhD and start a second, that's not a case of somebody getting multiple PhDs. (Though I imagine most sources of funding would be very wary of somebody who'd quit one PhD asking for money to start another.)

@DavidRicherby, Ic. So the only people with multiple Phds are those that come from uber rich families (since they can simply pay themselves)?

@Pacerier People just don't do multiple PhDs. It's not how the system works. As I said, a PhD student requires a large commitment of resources from the university. Universities and, in particular, advisors don't commit those resources just so that people can collect PhDs as a hobby.

Why would you want to get multiple PhD degrees when the first one is all you need to do research for life? Much of the point of the degree is a certification of your ability to do independent research. After you've done that, you can get a job where you do research all day long! Many people get a professor's job where there are other duties, but plenty of people get jobs doing just research at government labs or non-teaching academic departments (like me!).

I didn't know that, and this is maybe what I was looking for! thanks (Is not so clear to me in how scientists manage to keep doing researches after they get their a-kind-of-degree and I thought they just do many PhDs)

No, not at all. We write grant proposals to government agencies which fund research like NSF and NIH. We use that money to pay salaries of researchers to do the proposed projects.

when the first one is all you need to do research for life? — In fact, you don't even need the first one.

@JeffE, yeah, but it increases the odds in most fields somewhat.

@JeffE Same as how one doesn't strictly need a college degree to get a job, but in some fields it increases the odds considerably.

@Bill Barth If you don't mind me asking, what field is your PhD in and what kind of research are you doing right now? People always say it is not worth doing PhD unless you want to stay at university.

@N0ir, I finished my PhD in Aerospace Engineering at UT Austin in 2004. I work for TACC also at UT. I have a managerial and research role leading a group of ~20 PhDs supporting our HPC user community and doing research. Clearly many jobs in the US have a PhD as a requirement and aren't in academia: pharma industry research, national labs, computer industry research, etc.

@BillBarth, You might be able to find a job that allows you to do research that you like, but the real problem is not everyone is as lucky to live in the U.S. where the government pays for research.

@Pacerier, yes, sure, but many people who will read this do live in the US, EU, Japan, and other regions or countries with governments that do pay for research. The question is not "can everyone" or even "can I" but "if it is possible" to do so. And the answer to that question is clearly "Yes!" In addition, many of my staff are international folks who have competed against strong pools of candidates to join our team from abroad, so it is also possible to move internationally to pursue a research lifestyle. If you are good at research and willing to move, there are lots of opportunities.

Another point is that many PhD programs (in the U.S., for sure) will not admit people who already have a PhD, no matter that it was/is in a different topic, etc., with or without funding.
And, these days, in the U.S., funding for graduate study in many subjects is shrinking, for many reasons. While it is illegal to discriminate based on age in the U.S., I think most PhD programs gauge their own success significantly by how well their graduates do in the academic (or other) professional spheres, and effectively promising to not participate would most likely kill chances of funding... Certainly does not help.
That is, in general consonance with the other answers, getting a PhD is just an initial step toward being an independent scholar (if not necessarily a commodified "researcher" in the grant-getting sense, etc). These programs are aimed at people who are intellectually/technically slightly immature (whatever their chronological age), and who do some sort of apprenticeship. If you think about it that way, an itinerant endless-apprentice is not what people want, because they want to have apprentices become "journeymen", in the archaic but useful sense.

independent scholar vs. commodified researcher -- that is an interesting distinction.

@henning, "Independent scholar"? Whatever is an "independent scholar" all about? What do they do?

@Pacerier, "independent" in the sense of not being an "intellectually dependent" student/apprentice to a more experienced person. No implication was intended about "financial independence".

@paulgarrett, Ic, so the distinction is not between "independent scholar" vs. "commodified researcher" because one could be both.

@Pacerier, yes, once could have become "independent" of  one's thesis advisor, and do genuine research, without necessarily having written grant proposals and gotten federal funding (thinking about the U.S.)

@paulgarrett, Actually most of these "independent scholars" are "commodified researchers". Just look at the number of Phds Google (and friends) are hiring these days.

Is there a limit of age in studing? Is there a limit of numbers of PhD that I could get?

No, but realistically there is a limit for how many years / PhDs you will find funding agencies and advisors who put up with you. Funding agencies / universities do not give out stipends just for fun - once it becomes obvious that you are really just studying everything without ever taking the next career step, nobody will be particularly thrilled to invest time, energy, and money into teaching you something that you actually don't plan to ever put to use.

I'm not saying that I'm not interested in use what I lear, or doing it just for fun, but more like improving my knodledge by working doing researches. I wouldn't like to study in some thesis that I know it will never be usefull. Thanks for the answer!, when you put like this, sounds more obvious, sorry, maybe my problem is thinking that just in school someone can improve his knodledge...

authors: Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні

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text:
Can a co-author prevent me from submitting our joint paper to any journal except the one he prefers?
I‘ve been told (by a PI who is a co-author of the paper) that I cannot submit a jointly authored paper to any journal in my field except Frontiers because anything else is “politically incorrect” or “too slow”.
We have a new method developed with a colleague in a different (more quantitative) field, the results are new, answer an open question and are replicated in two languages.
I found out this week that the PI saying we cannot submit to a regular journal has just had another paper accepted on part of the same topic at a good journal in our field. The findings we have in this paper go against the findings of the paper he wrote five years ago with that group (and I’m guessing maybe against this paper then too, but I have not read this paper).
Is there anything I can do?
At the moment, I have suggested PLOS One as a better alternative to Frontiers, but honestly this is just such a waste - the results are really cool, it took us a year and travelling to get them, and they come from a really good interdisciplinary collaboration. I’m really angry and upset about this - I’m in the third year of a postdoc with no publications, and we finished this data collection over two years ago. Do I have to accept the decision of the PI even though I am first-author and the decision has explicitly not been made on the content, quality or potential readership of our paper?
Note: The paper isn’t a particularly confrontational paper: it just presents previous conflicting results and then shows how the new method is more sensitive and so validates most previous experimental results whilst showing that the theoretical implications people were drawing from them. I‘m sure it’s solid, and I know the co-authors think so too - we had checks worked into the method, replicated it in two languages and again in one of the languages. This type of paper is usually published in a good discipline-specific journal (and it is very rare to have data like this in our field). Both professors are retiring - one already is and wants to use the data in a course he’s teaching - the other retires soon, and is very politically engaged (I have been told to turn down invited talks because they would have involved plane travel). The question is whether as first-author I have any say in where the paper goes.

Wait - you're writing a paper on a topic similar to one your PI has just had accepted and you haven't even read that paper? That seems like a very deep level of dysfunction. Anyways, post docs are typically quite brief - why are you still in the same one after 3 years?

It’s a four year contract

It’s weird he didn’t tell us he was writing that paper isn’t it?

Does the PI genuinely stand behind the research? You say the results "go against two decades of previous research", including one of his own previous papers. Does he now believe that these results are wrong?

I think he does - a lot of those studies contradicted each other, and the method we have resolve those contradictions by using a different comparison. The paper he wrote had one experiment that worked (we have replicated that one), and one that was a null result - we found significant effects with different materials. The paper drew a conclusion from the null result in comparison to the experiment with significant results, and the results we have now show that that comparison doesn’t hold, and so the conclusion doesn’t hold. The central topic was a different one though

But this is a good point - do you think it’s not just what he’s saying about political correctness? I specifically asked him if it was ok to argue against his paper and he said of course, and agreed with the points we made

I very much do not understand the "political correctness" argument. Maybe this is meant to be about open access? But I would not call that "political correctness". Unfortunately, without your advisor's own explanation I'm guessing that guessing is all we can do for you on that point.

@Nworb If possible, I'd recommend asking someone whom you trust, who knows (or has at least heard of) your PI, and who is broadly familiar with the subject matter. Your Ph.D. advisor, for example (if you have a good relationship with them). Your situation seems too particular to be able to give good advice here.

In comments to an answer OP says the PI is a co-author of the paper in question. That's critically important information and should be edited into the question.

Something’s not right.  If indeed you have a new method in a different field, how can this go against a paper written 5 years ago, and why would someone see this as undermining a 5yr-old result valid for a different field?

Is the PI your supervisor?  I'm confused as to why you refer to him as "a PI"; the more relevant questions are whether he is a co-author (apparently yes) and whether he is your supervisor.

@DavidKetcheson No, he’s not my supervisor, I have a PhD. He is the PI of the project I am employed on, and is a co-author on this paper. The main idea of the project he is PI of didn’t work, and we did this as a side project with a student (who is a co-author but not in academia).

@Nworb The question is who´s the boss in your shop.  The title "PI" does not come with disciplinary power.

@Karl It’s a humanities project. The two PIs are both professors in different fields. I’m on a fixed term four year contract. This PI has not helped with analysis and not written any of the paper. He’s repeatedly stalled publication (first by saying we needed to run more experiments, then saying we had to publish open access, then saying discipline specific journals take too long, now by not okaying the manuscript before he left for holiday).

For non-academics who come here from the HNQ section: Frontiers is a highly controversial publisher of scientific journals. They previously appeared on Jeffrey Beall's list of predatory publishers and their journals have been criticized for accepting too many low quality papers with fundamental errors. They have even removed editors from their journal for rejecting too many papers.

For “politically incorrect “ and “too slow” read peer reviewed. I’m afraid you might have to write off your entire post doc as a bust and start again. If you do a thorough review of your PIs works you may find serious issues with the quality and possibly accusations of academic fraud. To insist on a single journal is suspicious and fir that journal to be one that has previously been accused of predatory publishing is a big red flag.

Jointly authored papers require permission from all authors. If he is a co-author and you can't convince him, then you are pretty much stuck. Editors will expect it.
And fighting with your PI is probably not the wisest career move.
It is a different story if the PI isn't one of the authors, but that only applies to the first point above, not the second. The "we" in your question wasn't completely clear about who is included.
It may not be too strong to say that a good letter of recommendation from your PI is one of the most valuable things you get out of a post doc. It lets you move on and get away from improper behavior. Winning a battle, but losing a war is sub-optimal.

So you would accept your PI telling you that none of your papers can be submitted to any field-specific journal? Isn’t this harassment?

@Nworb, if he is co-author then you need to - or convince him. If not, then you are setting up a fight that you might win at the expense of your job and career. Tough working with someone unreasonable, but if they have the power and are willing to use it....

Yes - the PI is an author. I also didn’t mean submitting it somewhere without his permission. I mean is a PI allowed to stop a postdoc submitting any paper to a field specific journal because it is „politically incorrect“?

If you are asking about the ethical issue, then likely no. But that doesn't get you out of your dilemma.

@Buffy What you say is right but at the same time makes me fume. I hate when people exploit others for their own objectives. Very likely that this PI has some arrangement with an editor of Frontier. The politicians and salesmen have been ruining academia.

@kosmos, yes, it makes me angry too. But taking a long view and protecting your future career is sometimes a necessary response.  There are many such situations described on this site.

I'd suggest you analyze your options in a more strategic way rather than going heads-on against the PI:

First, is there a way to clarify things with the PI, maybe reach some kind of compromise? Ask them to clarify exactly what they mean by "politically incorrect" or "too slow". They might actually have reasonable conditions, in which case you could try to find a good journal which suits both of you.
If this doesn't work, you need to identify exactly the obstacle. Normally the PI should tell you, but apparently this might involve this other paper that they published. If so, is there a way to smooth things up? Maybe by re-writing some parts of your paper in some kind of diplomatic way, like acknowledging previous findings and presenting the present work as a contribution which goes beyond them, as opposed to bluntly confronting them. Scientific progress often involves healthy debate of ideas, it shouldn't involve conflict of egos.
You mentioned another colleague and also "a good interdisciplinary collaboration", so it seems that the work involves multiple co-authors right? Where do these co-authors stand on the issue? Could they be convinced to support your cause? Would some of them be in a better position than you to convince the PI, or at least to put a bit of pressure on them? If the work is really good, I would expect the other colleagues to also be eager to publish it in a good journal. And if your PI is blocking the paper for selfish reasons, their position is going to be weak in front of the other colleagues.

Thanks, this is the type of advice I was looking for. It sounds like you‘re agreeing that the PI decides where the paper goes, even if it’s clear that they’re not basing the decision on the paper?

I was thinking in the same lines. If you could talk to the other collaborator and arrange a discussion on this topic it could solve your problem.

@Nworb it's not the PI who decides, it's all the co-authors who have to decide together. There needs to be a consensus, but this can give you an advantage if the PI is obstructing publication against all the other co-authors. But as I said it's important to understand precisely what is their problem in order to find a solution they can agree to.

@Nworb: In some jurisdictions, where there is a situation like yours (multiple people have joint copyright, and all but one agree on something), it is possible to go to court for an injunction that forces the "lone holdout" to consent to the others, provided you get a judge to agree that the lone holdout is maliciously preventing a benefit for all participants. That brings you back to the question raised on the other answer, though about being strategic about whether you would rather win the battle or the war: do you think it is a good idea to sue the person whose LoR will likely significantly

… decide how the next phase(s) of your career go(es)?

Here the resolution/answer:
I spoke to the second PI/co-author alone. He agreed that he thought the data were excellent, and suggested he speak to the other co-author alone, recommending I choose which journal to submit to. This was definitely the right move.
Unfortunately, it turned out that there was a different motive: the first PI wanted to switch to a different project and so needed to show that he had one publication out from our project. He gave comments on the paper to change straight away although on holiday, and I was told that he would not accept any discipline-specific journal because they would not be out in time for his application.
I replied again to the second PI saying this was not right, and he apologised for the situation again and said the first PI would not change his mind so I would have to choose whether to make a formal complaint or accept the compromise of journal (not Frontiers but not a discipline-specific journal). I’ve accepted the compromise of journal.
Essentially: I spoke to the second PI alone, he agreed I could decide where to submit and agreed with what I had suggested, he spoke to the first PI, the first PI changed his position from Frontiers but wouldn’t accept a discipline-specific journal. We are proceeding with this. The next step would have been to make a formal complaint.

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text:
How will this departmental restructuring plan affect students and faculty?
I am an undergraduate Computer Engineering student at the University of Florida. In response to recent budget cuts to higher education in Florida, my department (Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering, CISE) could be undergoing some restructuring, namely the following:

All of the Computer Engineering Degree programs, BS, MS and PhD, would be moved from the Computer & Information Science and Engineering Dept. to the Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. along with most of the advising staff.
Roughly half of the faculty would be offered the opportunity to move to Electrical/Computer Eng. (ECE), Biomedical Eng. (BME), or Industrial/Systems Eng. (ISE).
Staff positions in CISE which are currently supporting research and graduate programs would be eliminated.
The activities currently covered by TAs would be reassigned to faculty and the TA budget for CISE would be eliminated.
Any faculty member who wishes to stay in CISE may do so, but with a revised assignment focused on teaching and advising.

(click here for additional information)
The Dean of our college claims that eliminating research and TA support within the CISE department will have no effect on the quality of the education future students will receive. She also claims that existing research in the department will be unaffected, except that it will be moved to ECE, BME, or ISE.
As an undergrad, I don't feel qualified to challenge these claims. Therefore, I would like to hear your opinions:

Will the quality of education in the CISE department be the same after this restructuring?
Can software-oriented research take place in a department which, until now, has concentrated solely on hardware/electronics?
Since only half of the faculty will be moved to a research department, half must remain in CISE and focus solely on teaching (with no TA support). Do you think these professors will remain at UF given the circumstances?
Will the teaching-only CISE department be able to attract quality professors? Top students?
Will employers value a UF CISE degree as much as they do now? [thanks for pointing this one out JeffE]

Faculty and graduate students in the department know exactly how these changes will affect them (and they aren't pleased!), however many of the undergrads are a bit uncertain. I (and the rest of us undergrads) would really appreciate any wisdom to help clear things up. Thanks in advance!

Similar question on http://www.quora.com/Computer-Science-Education/What-are-the-long-term-effects-of-The-University-Of-Florida-to-shutting-down-its-CS-school

One of my former PhD students works in the CISE department at UF, so my opinion is not exactly objective.  But here it is:

Will the quality of education in the CISE department be the same after this restructuring?  Absolutely not.  Teaching computer science well requires serious manpower.  Unless CS courses are limited to a very small number of students, which seems incredibly unlikely for a flagship state university, educational quality will plummet.  The near-certain increase in faculty teaching loads only makes this worse.  If nothing else, with less individual attention on students and more automated grading, cheating will increase dramatically.  (Also, in the longer term, educational quality will suffer because the instructors are not themselves active researchers.  Computer science changes fast; if the faculty aren't leading that change, they'll fall behind.  Obviously.  But in the short run, the removal of TA support is a much bigger issue.)
Can [CS] research take place in [an ECE] department?  Maybe, but probably not at existing levels.  If faculty treat the incoming CISE faculty as anything less than full-fledged intellectual peers who should be judged by the standards of their own research communities (as opposed to ECE community standards), then no.  Most recent CS-EE mergers have failed for precisely this reason.  This has far less to do with the distinction between "software" and "hardware" than cultural differences about intellectual values, publication standards (conferences vs. journals), funding, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and the like.
Do you think [teaching] professors will remain at UF given the circumstances?  I expect some faculty will stay, either because they prefer teaching anyway (or even support the restructuring), or because they have eternal constraints that make moving impossible, or because they are close enough to retirement that they're willing hold their nose for a few years, or perhaps because their recent research records are not strong enough for them to land a tenure-track position in a comparable department.  But I would expect most CISE faculty—including the research faculty forced into other departments—to leave at their earliest opportunity.
Will the teaching-only CISE department be able to attract quality professors?  Not as easily, and not as long as the current political players are in power.  Setting aside the common assumption that quality is correlated strongly with active research, I expect most strong teaching faculty would have trouble accepting a position from a college with such blatant disregard for academic freedom and shared governance.
Top students?  Undergrads, yes, although probably in smaller numbers.  Because UF is a flagship state school, it attracts a significant fraction of the top high school graduates in the state (at least by STEM standards).  The number of such incoming students is unlikely to change very much, but many of those students who would have studied computer science will go into other majors instead.  Graduate students, probably not, for the same reasons as faculty.

And one question you didn't ask:

Will employers value a UF CISE degree as much as they do now?  I doubt the restructuring would have a significant effect on the job prospects of current CISE majors, except possibly if some of the software companies who've recently announced plans to open offices in Gainesville change their mind.  But if the quality of education (and the strength of incoming majors) suffer as I expect they will, then a UF CISE degree will be less valuable than it is now, even for the best students.

The flagship state university where I work has attempted a few similar restructuring efforts, and currently faces similarly severe budgetary constraints.  Some of the resructuring attempts were successful (for example, our Theoretical and Applied Mechanics department was recently merged into Mechanical Engineering); others were not (for example, our Nuclear Engineering Department survived a proposed closure).  In the years leading up to the TAM closure, a significant majority of the TAM faculty moved or retired.  Although TAM survives as a degree program within our MSE department, it attracts considerably fewer students and faculty than it did as an independent department.

Awesome answer! Now do you have any idea how I can convince the Dean of all this?? :)

My impression is that the dean honestly doesn't care.  I think the existing replies from the Computing Research Association, the former director of CISE at NSF, and so on already make a solid case.  Now, maybe if you could convince Disney to chime in....

She's been using other universities as examples to support her plan, but you mentioned that most recent CE-EE mergers have failed. Could you provide some examples?


text:
How important are my grades to the rest of my PhD career?
Speaking to the faculty in my program, I've noticed that they seem to evaluate themselves and others using two criterion: (1) publication quality and quantity, and (2) ability to obtain grant money. No one discusses grades or performance in graduate school classes. Even when potential faculty candidates come around, this doesn't seem to be emphasized at all. What role do grades play in my PhD career?

Grades don't matter, sources say.

As far as your research stature is concerned, grades would matter least of all, below other non-academic stuff as your soft-skills, your personality etc. There are a number of reasons for this:

No one cares about your GPA once you are a researcher! While it certainly looks nice to have a stellar GPA, it's the work that you do and where you publish that would matter. Look up some resumes of notable faculty in your field - how many even list their MS/BS grades?
I might even say that your adviser would not be too happy if you have a 4.0 GPA - as it means you are spending time on perfecting your grades which is more profitably spent on research! I actually have read this on a faculty/university webpage - would post the link once I dig it up. EDIT: Haven't found the faculty website link yet, but here's a couple from an established source, phdcomics - enjoy!

PS: I'm actually waiting for JeffE to comment on this: His credentials are such that I'm not even qualified to state them, and he himself claims that he had the lowest undergraduate GPA amongst any professor he's ever met!
EDIT: I'm talking about grades in subjects that you have to take as part of requirements of grad school - you would be expected to master the subjects that are directly required in your Ph.D research thesis, so your adviser would expect great grades in them naturally!
tl;dr - They don't matter (as long as you clear all your subjects!)

I agree with almost everything you wrote.  My undergrad grades changed from embarrassing burden to amusing trivia the moment I became a PhD student.  I don't even think it's important to get "great grades" in classes directly related to your work.  Master the material, yes, but that's not the same thing.

Could anyone clarify how "master the material" and "getting good grades" are not the same thing? In my experience, it is extremely easy to mistakenly think that you've mastered something without actually being tested.

@Heisenberg - It is quite easy to get top grades but NOT master the material, by simply 'studying for the test'.

Ah, but tests in graduate schools aren't the template type.

@Heisenberg, yes, inevitably, exams are templates, but just at a slightly more sophisticated level. Also, the notion of  "master the material" is itself dubious at a sophisticated level. It's simply that all those supposedly well-defined school-work notions cease having quite the same sense...

To be a bit blithe about it, grades matter until they don't. When you are a PhD student, the grades will matter until after you've completed your "qualification" process, in whatever form that takes. If you do well on the exams, then your grades don't matter much; if you're "on the bubble," you might be helped by solid performance in your graduate coursework.
Where grades continue to matter are:

if you decide to apply for a graduate fellowship, in which case review committees will usually want to see evidence of strong academic performance at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
when you apply for jobs, as employers will similarly want to see evidence that you took coursework somewhat seriously. (Some employers may—wrongly, in my view—have GPA cutoffs for graduate students!)

Just to note one place where they do matter: they may help you find a willing advisor.  I am not inclined to take on students who don't do outstanding work in the first-year graduate course that I teach.  On the other hand, students who are at the top of the class may find faculty trying to attract them.

This is true—when the decision on advising is made following admission to the program.

In some graduate schools I've been to (I've worked at a few and tried working on a masters at one), a C lands you on probation, and a second C gets you dismissed. Other than this, you're correct, they're irrelevant as the important measures involve funding and publishing.

Generally, the requirement is that you have to maintain a grade of B+ on average - a C would definitely get you in trouble! I was talking about the futility of aiming for straight A's in breadth subjects...

I currently direct a graduate program and as others have said,  grades are most important while you're in a graduate program when decisions about funding are being made. C's may get you dismissed, and B's could lead to no funding in programs where funding is limited to a handful of students. If you are in a terminal MA program and applying to PhD programs, grades matter. After graduation and when you're on the job market, grades won't matter as much as your dissertation, publications and recommendations. The way that grades would matter then would be what they say about your professors' estimation of your work and whether they are likely to write you strong rec. letters. In short - if you get anything below an A, talk to the professor about what you could have done to do better and strive to get there.

I will actually take a strong opinion that my subpar grades from undergrad and graduate school are a large factor in why my PhD is going to take a long time. As David Ketcheson mentioned, quality grades and GRE scores are important denominators for Graduate fellowships. So far the NSF, NIH, and DOE have all denied me fellowships because I have a lowish GPA according to my reviews.
That being said, once you are an established researcher with a paper track record, the grades really shouldn't matter asides being a bragging point.

I think this claim might be a bit sketchy, since it isn't my experience that (the very tiny minority of) PhD students who get these external fellowships finish substantially faster than the department average. Do these agencies have data that show their fellows beat department averages in time to graduation?

Straight A's didn't get me into trouble with my advisor. My committee didn't care either.
I was always told there are three grades in grad school: excellent (A), adequate (B), and failing (C).

It depends, but what I have seen so far (w.r.t. Computer Science PhD perspective) is a bit different than other opinions in this post.
I am doing PhD (Computer Science) in the US (at a mediocre school) and most of my cohorts (not most, actually all of them) have a very decent GPA (like 3.9+ out of 4.0), even couple of them have perfect 4.0/4.0 and a very few of them are publishing pretty much good level of research works.
Moreover, most of my faculty members in my school have similar credentials (good grade, good research background, and most of them are from top notch schools like UMD, UPenn, UMich, VTech) -- although my school ranks 60+ in the nation (according to US News, in CS specialization).
Even PhD students in my department who did summer research intern in big companies like google, IBM, Microsoft are also equipped with a good GPA. Even some of them have no publication at all !!, even after being a PhD student for more than 2 years. You will be surprised to know that one of them is currently working as a research intern position at google with no research paper at all, he has been a PhD student for last 2.5 years !! Moreover, if you are from a good school, things will be lot easier.
So, what I see, situation is totally opposite in US. Here Pedigree > GPA > publications.
I used to be the "odd one out", I had a decent publication record (published 4 conference papers during my masters (from a top school outside US) and 2 more in my 1st year of PhD here), but I settled with a low grade (3.2+), compared to others it is actually a "bad". Moreover, the venues that I have published my research works are considered to be quite decent in my field (two of the venues are in the top 20 lists in Microsoft academic search ranking, even I got one best student paper award there. In the US, keeping up both research works and regular course load is quite challenging, at least for me.
Such situation compelled me to focus more on the grades and to start practicing problems from sites like "careercup" to land a job in industry -- that's what others are doing here, and this is a totally disappointing and frustrating experience for me.
I had to cut my time on research as much as possible, now just doing a minimal possible work to maintain my supervisor's "happiness threshold level". Here, landing an academic job is harder than in industries -- unless you are a "rock star" researcher -- and this is the reality. Being a mediocre researcher (like me) from a mediocre school does not count much, neither in industry nor academia.
Last but not the least, I am an international student deceived by the so called delusion of "the land of opportunity".

But it's not an either/or thing. The good grades and lack of papers are unrelated facts (except to the extent that focusing on good grades leaves you LESS time for research). While I see that you're frustrated in your current position, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

I guess my point is clear. Do not always believe what your professors say (after seeing the fact that the professor has a 4.0/4.0 GPA in his PhD course load) -- like "grades don't matter, so do your work". I am pretty much convinced that it matters the most (at least if you are doing PhD in US) -- and lets hope that other countries have better situation. So, ditch your research and start practicing matrix multiplication problem from your linear algebra text book.

I flagged your question because at first glance, your answer seems like an answer but then presents itself more as a rant. Some more coherence would be appreciated.

How do you know what your professor's grades were? I have no idea what grades my colleagues got, except that they were higher than mine.

@JeffE that's what I've heard from the supervisor, during a lunch, if my memory serves well.

@Shion In my own experience, industry seems to care more about grades than research papers. I kind of believe what ramgorur said. Many employees in industry with only BS degree don't know how to perform matrix multiplication. The companies would have to hire PhD students to do it when they need to.

It sounds like you should move to a stronger department.  The experience you describe is fairly typical for very strong students in weak departments.  The only reason to emphasize grades over research in a research degree program is to avoid being embarrassed by its research record.  Get a glowing recommendation letter from your advisor if you can, get strong recommendation letters from external colleagues (like the ones who gave you the best student paper award), and move up.

Assuming the situation there is as you perceive it, perhaps your department's choice to hire faculty on the basis of grades is not uncorrelated with its low research output. This is not a choice that is made universally.

I am getting the impression that this frustration is directed less at "grades vs. research" and is more a reflection about "What did I hope to gain out of doing a Ph.D?"

I am a Ph.D. student in my second year of research. I hold two MBA's and a bachelors degree. Each of my GPA's raised a bit in the course of my academic career (3.52 - 4.0). I am currently on the President's lists for Capella University. I do not think it matters to most. It certainly feels good to place a 4.0 in my application to teach at universities but I doubt it does much for my selection. The larger impact is what differences can you make. I have saught after a reputation to help develop peoples motivation towards academics, so a strong GPA helps prove that I know how to provide good advice on study habits to help others navigate through Bloom's Taxonomy. I would say, simply do your best! If you are in a Ph.D. program, you pretty much have a focused goal, and all the other crap is noise. Do your best, clear your classes, and focus on what is most important to you, not on what you think others will expect of you. Remember, Doctoral Students only account for less than 2% of America's population so take that into consideration when concerning yourself of what people will think of you. Be brave, take chances and have fun with your studies. You may lose points for being late, may lose points for a paper being too long, or perhaps you explored something not related to the assignment but got a lot out of it, don't stress about a perfect grade. A perfect GPA means nothing if you didn't maximize the opportunity to learn.

You may need good grades during the first two years of your PhD (the time you would be doing your MS, if you applied to a separate MS program) for the reasons listed above: fellowships, in case you decide to drop out and get a industry job, etc.
After two years in a PhD program, worrying about your GPA is a complete waste of time. I've yet to see any research university even ask for a transcript of your graduate classwork. Some research positions in industry might require a transcript and take into account your GPA, but I don't think this (misguided) practice is common.
What's true for certain is that if you're spending late nights and long hours polishing that final project in a class totally unrelated to your research area, so that you will get an A+ instead of an A -- please stop. You are hurting your career.

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


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Is it ok to have paragraphs that have only one sentence in a formal paper?
Or, is it a good practice?
I found most papers that I read are "block by block": they have paragraphs that are not so long, and not so short. Is it a convention? Should I mimic that?

What do you say about a paper with (disputably) only one sentence? http://fermatslibrary.com/s/shortest-paper-ever-published-in-a-serious-math-journal-john-conway-alexander-soifer

If the result reads like a newspaper, I would say, no, it's not alright.
If it reads like Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, then you are probably doing something right.
Unless you are an exceptional writer, my advice is to follow the accepted conventions of your field, which probably includes block paragraphs.
A longer paragraph allows one to build up an idea and explore it more thoroughly. The first sentence introduces the idea. Subsequent sentences explore it in more detail. There should be a logical connection between sentences, and sentences should ideally vary in length. Developing good style is matter of practice and reflection. And there is more to good style than the length of a paragraph.

i agree with this: any institution provides workshops on "how to write a paper", and they essentially stress the basic point of "each paragraph should be ecologically to the point: one idea, no repetitions, and, if applicable, referenced to existing work". This makes an interesting read on the topic

The Wikipedia article on paragraph says a para could contain one or more sentences. The very purpose of grouping content into paragraphs is to organise similar thoughts into one unit. Too many small or one-sentence paragraphs will affect the cohesiveness of your content.
But a one-sentence para may be fine at the end of a section in a paper if it adequately summarises the content within. (Like this, perhaps!)

The parenthetical makes your one sentence paragraph two sentences.

One sentence paragraph tend to result from flaws in the flow of the writing.


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Reproducing figures in blog/SE posts
Sometimes when I am writing a review blog post (or an answer on SE), it is convenient to include a figure from the original paper. Some journals (say PNAS) have policies that explicitly allow non-commercial reproduction of figures:

Anyone may, without requesting permission, use original figures or tables published in PNAS for noncommercial and educational use (i.e., in a review article, in a book that is not for sale) provided that the original source and the applicable copyright notice are cited.

Others, however, seem to explicitly disallow this, of note is the Nature Publishing Group. Today, I had to fill in an online form on RightsLink in order to ensure I could use a figure in my post. I didn't have to pay anything, and the rights were granted instantly after completing the form, but it was still a hassle. The biggest hassle is having to go to each journal's website to check their policies. Hence the questions:

Is there a general law like fair-use that allows me to place figures from published papers inside blog posts for non-commercial commentary/review purposes?
What if your blog has ads that generate revenue, is the use of the figures no longer non-commercial? What about SE that generates revenue but not for the poster?
Is there any extra etiquette one should keep in mind for including figures in blog posts?

Some thoughts on this issue:

First, the fair use doctrine is tricky. Assuming you're not ready to hire a lawyer, play it safe. If you're not sure, ask for permission. If you're asked to remove something, do it.
There has been some noise a few years back on the topic of blogging and reuse of scientific figures. See here, there and there for some links to that affair. The conclusion I would draw is, again: play it safe.
In at least some jurisdictions (France is one), having ads on your web will mean your blog is considered a commercial publication. Asserting fair use for commercial works is typically harder, though this distinction tends to diminish (here).
Attribute figures (source + link). Always. It's just good manners.

I'll finish by a general observation related to copyright law in academia, as I see it (at least around me): people tend to just do stuff, and then play dumb if they get caught (which rarely happens). Lots of researchers knowingly put up (without authorization) PDF files of their papers on their website, and say “I'll just remove them if I am asked too”.

Laws regarding fair use and copyright vary significantly by country.

I also write a blog, and sometimes I also tend to pull images from papers or bookstores.
I do not monetize in my blog, so I'm safe there, and as far as I remember, the current state of the law is that you receive a cease and desist before anything else can happen, so the worst that can happen is that you get a slap in the hand, for the case of the USA.
Now, other countries like Japan just passed really strict laws, where you are not allowed to host anything that is not copyrighted or you face 10 years in prison (no Cease and Desist).
So be sure to see where your blog is hosted, and whether you are hosting anything at all.
One suggestion I tend to follow is to publish things from Arxiv and Wikipedia, which are both for free use.

Things from Wikipedia are indeed licensed for re-use (under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license, specifically), but this is not true for the arXiv.  I.e., hosting your own copy of an arXiv paper or taking figures from it is no different legally from any other paper.  Authors of arXiv papers may be more likely to be open to this, but it's still polite to ask.


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Is my irrelevant field of work experience a negative when applying for higher studies?
I am currently working in TCS as an Oracle analyst. I did my bachelor's of engineering in Mechanical Engineering in 2017. Now I want to pursue my Master's in the same field. I am planning to apply to universities in Germany. Will my two years of working experience in IT sector affect my admission?

If you are applying to schools in Germany, your work experience is largely irrelevant whether or not it is in the discipline you want to study at the master's level. This is because the prerequisites for master's study at German universities is generally an equivalent bachelor's degree at the undergraduate level. However, if your bachelor's degree was not completed at a German university, you will have to petition to have your degree recognized as "equivalent" before being allowed to enroll.
There are some exceptions for "international" programs and special master's programs that do not require a specific degree program but their requirements and procedures must be investigated on a case-by-case basis.

Do I need to present a Letter of recommendation from my work manager if the irrelevant work experience doesn't count for admission process?

You only need to provide documents the university explicitly requires for admission. If they didn’t ask for it don’t include it.


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Ethics of experimenting on students without telling them
This question is prompted by two very similar examples reported online: this one (also on Twitter) and this one. In both, teachers introduce aspects of the political system described in the 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four to a classroom in which they are (or will shortly be) studying the novel, as an aid to understanding the issues it raises. Essentially, the teachers ask students to secretly or publicly report on the behaviour of other students, introduce points systems and punishments, etc.
In both cases, as far as I can tell, the students are unaware that the experiment is going on, and it's more of an exercise than an experiment; its purpose is not to gather any data or test a hypothesis.
My question is: from a legal and an ethical review standpoint, what would a lecturer typically need to do before introducing these sorts of activities into their class, in the way described above, as part of a learning exercise?
I am not asking for personal advice here, I'm just interested in how this sort of thing would be assessed by a typical ethical review panel. I work at a research institute where we do have a very well-defined ethical review process but only for animal studies; we don't do research involving human subjects. Furthermore, several of the steps we would normally be expected to provide (sample size, etc) do not actually apply here since the purpose is not actually research, it is teaching "pretending" to be research: the experiment does not need to generate any meaningful data to fulfil its purpose (unless you redesigned it as a study of the effectiveness of this method in raising understanding of certain issues).
Several of the comments on Twitter noted that this would probably be considered unethical as described; the participants have not consented to be involved, for example. Does the fact that the 'experiment' is not (scientifically) actually an experiment make any difference? Lastly, these experiments sound like they are high-school environments; does the answer change depending on whether the students concerned are above or below 18?
Somewhat related: Ethics of conducting research on a class.

I'm looking for answers that identify what the key factors would be in this general situation, so this question is intentionally light on specifics; if you think I need to add more detail to the hypothetical situation to make this answerable, please be specific about what those details should be.

This sounds like a famous novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(novel)

From your second link, the last paragraph seems to be interesting about whether the reading skills have dropped due to all the social media... I tend to agree with that...

I'm not in a field that uses human subjects, but my impression has been that IRBs regulate research only (loosely defined as "that which will eventually be published in a research journal/conference") and have no role at all in overseeing teaching per se.  There's no formal ethics pre-review for teaching that I've ever heard of,

There is, of course, a difference between performing an experiment on students and teaching them a lesson. Taken to an extreme, you could also be questioning a teacher trying out a new curriculum technique - there the students actually are part of an experiment...

@henning actually I initially assumed it was a reference to the Stanford Prison Experiment, but I have now discovered it's basically identical to the (real) 1967 exercise called The Third Wave, which resulted in the film The Wave, which resulted in the novel The Wave. So it's based on the experiment that the film the novel was based on, was based on. :)

What do you do, when you get something reported, which puts you in a real dilemma? You may be obliged to report something to authorities or similar after you got the report from a student. You may not want to be in such a complicated situation. Or you get reported something really intimate you never wanted to know. Its not only the students, you will get yourself into a difficult position depending on how serious the students take part in your experiment.

Whoever does this may start something that they are unable to stop. Don't. Unless they are prepared to expose their students to potentially life-changing (not in a good way) and irreversible experiences.

Virtually every modern university has an ethics procedure for experiments conducted on human subjects.  If an academic wants to conduct an experiment on students (especially one that involves deception) they would generally need to put in a proposal to their university ethics board.  This would disclose the details of the proposed experiment, and the nature of any deception of subjects, and the university would make a decision as to whether or not to allow the experiment to proceed.
Experiments involving deception of subjects are often approved (many psychological experiments are of this kind), but it is usual to require that the subjects be "debriefed" after the experiment, to disclose to them the deception they were subjected to, and how the experiment worked.  In cases where the deception is likely to be distressing to the subjects, or the gains from the experiment are minor, the ethics board might decide not to allow the experiment to proceed, or might require it to be altered in some way.

Now, with regard to the particular situation described in the Atlantic article, this does not appear to be an academic experiment at all; it is an extended High School class exercise that uses some mild deception to illustrate the world of the book through mimicking aspects of it in the conduct of the classroom.  Students are subjected to some overbearing actions by the teacher to give them a small taste of totalitarianism.  Nothing described in the article would be unlawful, since at worst it involves cases of nasty looks, overbearing control, or dressing down a dissenter.
High Schools generally do not have formal ethics panels like the universities, since they do not conduct academic research.  It is likely that there is significant teacher discretion on how to conduct classes, but this would be subject to oversight by the school principal.  In this case I think it is unlikely that the exercise would have been subjected to any preliminary scrutiny of the kind that would occur in a university ethics application.  Obviously students would be free to object to this teaching exercise and take the matter up with the school principal, but this does not appear to be a case of experimentation that would go to an ethics board.
The basic ethical question at play here is: is it okay to be overbearing and mildly bullying to your students in order to give them a genuine taste of what totalitarianism is like.  Personally, I see no problem with the exercise, since the likely distress to students is mild in comparison to the value of the learning experience, and the students are made aware of the deception after the exercise is completed, so that they can discuss it in relation to the book.  Others may disagree, but to me it sounds like a very creative and useful teaching exercise, and the teacher doesn't take it too far.  I think it is quite brilliant, and I would happily enrol my own children in this class!

This is a good answer as far as it goes (+1), but it would be useful to highlight whether there are any activities that might reasonably form part of this sort of exercise that would in fact be illegal or result in disciplinary action (e.g. discrimination against a minority, collection of personal data, etc). I can easily see someone deciding to try this in their classroom but modifying it slightly, and I wonder how easy it would be to do so in a way that gets you in trouble.

I think it is unlikely that discrimination per se would be unlawful in this context, so long as the discrimination is used as a teaching tool to allow the participants to experience and see the discrimination that occurs under the system that is being taught.  The relevant question would be: does the occurrence of discrimination in the exercise constitute discrimination in regard to the quality of educational service being provided to students, or does it merely assist all students in understanding the nature of the system being taught.

Short answer:  You have to make sure no one cries.  If you create an environment that results or reasonably could be expected to result in emotional hurt, then you've been unethical.
At university, there will be a "human subjects" review of some sort.  Anyone writing a grant or proposal for anything will have to be passed by this review.  I've never done experiments on human subjects, but every grant I've received required an additional piece of paper which stated that there were no human subjects involved (in my math research.)
In your case, as you say, it's not really an experiment, but a teaching technique.  I don't know what to say about this, exactly, but I would not be surprised to find that the human subjects panel or office or whatever also oversees such things.  No doubt you have to be careful.
Story from 1970:  I was in 5th grade in a small town in Nebraska which had a teachers college.  Every master's of ed candidate at the college had to do something for a thesis and often this was some sort of experiment on a classroom full of students.  Lucky us; those of us in town were the handiest subjects for all these theses.  As I moved through the Kearney, Nebraska school system, I was the subject of 4 or 5 experiments each year.  We were video-taped, quizzed, surveyed, lied to, etc., on a regular basis.
In 5th grade, my teachers along with some master's candidate thought it would be instructive if they did the "Blue-eyed /Brown-eyed" thing to us.  They announced one morning that a newspaper article stated, scientifically, that brown-eyed children were smarter than blue-eyed children.  Then then segregated us and the smart kids, not needing so much instruction, got to play games and have snacks.  While the inferior kids had to do extra math work sheets, you know, because they needed the extra practice, being so dumb and all.
Of course this was supposed to teach the (100% white) children about racial discrimination and how bad it hurt one's feelings.  We had girls in tears by the end of the day.  The next day, there were some red-faced daddies with their fists cocked at the school.  "You make my daughter cry; I break your ribs."  I tell this story to illustrate the ethical problem.
I don't think the situation would be much different with college freshlings.  If you hurt their feelings too much, Daddy is likely to visit you.  Set aside whether the human subjects panel approved of your experiment or whether there are legal remedies.

"I would not be surprised to find that the human subjects panel or office or whatever also oversees such things."  Hm.  I would be very surprised.

@NateEldredge Yeah, I don't really know.  But, I know universities.  Probably it's not on paper that the HSP oversees such things, but if trouble arises, they may well be put in charge of it, for the nonce.

Well, for instance, I've been involved in some educational research.  If, as part of an educational study, I want to give my class a calculus quiz and write a paper about how they did, that requires IRB approval, informed consent from the students, and a way for them to opt out.  If I want to give them that very same quiz to assess their learning, for the purposes of evaluating my own teaching, no approval or consent is required, and I can make it mandatory.

"If you hurt their feelings too much, Daddy is likely to visit you." seems to be a really bad moral to get out of what you've said. "Emotionally manipulating people, especially children, has the ability to do harm to the people involved" seems like a much better moral (as your "short answer" seems to say).

@StellaBiderman  I'm trying to make things concrete.  I'm flatly against situational ethics.  One can get wound up in one's own nonsense too easily.  Let's bring it down to earth:  You hurt kid, parent get angry, parent is justified.

@B.Goddard I see. It came off as a flippant "immature millennials will run off to their parents" kind of comment. Tone on the internet is hard :/ If you edit the post, I'll upvote it.

@StellaBiderman People who talk about "tone" are just projecting.  Try putting the best, instead of the worst construction on what you read.  And you can keep your upvote.

@B.Goddard I'm sorry for misinterpreting what you said. Whether or not you are willing to credit it, there are many things that go into how people understand and interpret statements besides the words used.

I would also point out that the "nobody cries" standard is not necessarily upheld by traditional teaching either - you should see our department after a calculus exam :-)

If I were a teacher

@NateEldredge  "Nobody cries" was not put forth as a standard for anything except judging your experiments.  I keep an empty box of Kleenex on my desk, because I'm so heartless.  If someone cries because they bombed your exam, then it was a good exam.  If someone cries because you tricked them, then you've probably been unethical.

@StellaBiderman And yet you used only the words and then put the worst construction you could on them.  My exact complaint about your comment was that you were NOT using the "many things."  You're the one not "crediting" it.