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What are the benefits of editing a special issue?
My understanding is that editing a special issue helps encouraging research in a particular area, and gives the special issue editor a higher reputation in the field.
But what makes this better than organizing a workshop in a conference, for example? is it just more reputable (i.e. similar to how reviewing for journals is more prestigious than reviewing for conferences)?
Are there any other benefits aside from that?
P.S. I come from a computer science background

The word "benefit" has many and various meanings. But to help those who seek to answer this question, I shall present a more-complete rewrite of the question: Basically, why should anyone [whose goal is to be hired to a tenure-track position, and who considers any accomplishment that does not result in a more attractive c.v. to be worthless] agree to edit a special issue?

The replies up to now are correct as far as reputable journals are concerned, but be aware that there are also non-reputable folks emailing invitations to edit a special issue.  (I just got another such invitation today.)

A good special issue will provide a snapshot of the current state-of-the-art on a given topic. As such, the editor gains:

An opportunity to influence how people think about the topic (by defining the scope of the special issue, and by soliciting contributions that align with the editor's goals; perhaps also by the opportunity to write an editorial/introduction to the issue).
Exposure. The special issue gives the editor a reason to interact and engage with anyone they consider interesting/important.
A long-lived association of the editor's name with the topic: people will continue to read (papers from) the special issue for years, whereas a workshop/conference is forgotten as soon as it ends.
CV points - as covered in other answers.

Interestingly, some of these benefits are probably lessened now that journals are largely read online only.  When special issues existed as printed books, interested researchers would get hold of a copy and at least skim-read most of the papers, and it would probably be given to new PhD students looking to get up-to-speed on the field. Nowadays it's just more pdfs on the journal website, and most readers probably won't even notice that a particular paper came from a special issue.
Finally, as noted by @AndreasBlass, none of these benefits are worth anything if the special issue is not in a well-regarded venue.
Edited to add: Many of the `classic' special issues I can think of exist in a wider context: often they arise out of a meeting or workshop. Usually the editors of the special issue also had a substantial role in organising this meeting, and the editorial task was probably a modest addition to their workload that ensured the highlights of the meeting were preserved for posterity. This is a rather different circumstance from the spammy 'We invite you to propose a special issue' emails we all get every day.

To push back on this a bit--1. Your first bullet can also be accomplished by the normal process of writing good papers. The only thing unique here is the opportunity to write an editorial/introduction. This could also be accomplished by writing a perspective piece. 2. The exposure is also not unique to special issues, and seems like it could be accomplished with much less of a workload just by normal networking at conferences, or reaching out about collaborations. 3. Do people really make this connection? As you later mention, these days most don't even realize when papers come from sp.issues.

CV points seem highly contingent on the impact of the journal, which is what I'm most interested in--how much weight does this tend to carry in evaluations? Your last sentence briefly mentions this, but there's a pretty wide range of journals between "well-regarded" and "not-well regarded". For example, I was contacted by a very middle of the pack type journal, and it feels like the benefit couldn't possibly pay off the work load. Regardless, thanks for your answer as I'm trying to get a better understanding of the cost/benefit here.

@spacetyper I don't think I ever suggested that any of these 'benefits' were exclusively available to those who edit a special issue. See also my edit.

It is a very good way of gaining practical experience with editing a journal and how the peer-review process ought to work.  If you had only previously been an author, it is a very informative exercise.  It is a lot of work to do properly.  Understanding the peer review process and what editors do ought to help you to write better papers, which will in turn advance your career.  It is an intrinsically useful activity (at least the first time), not all benefits are direct and immediate.  Gaining skills is likely to be a good way of progressing your career.
Also a lot in academia relies on this sort of service on a quid-pro-quo basis.  If we want to publish papers, somebody needs to review them and act as editor.  So if you are looking for career progression, this is the sort of work you will be expected to take on as a consequence of your more senior position.
ETA: @AndreasBlass makes an excellent point (+1) in the comments.  I would strongly advise against editing special issues for disreputable journals.  This is essentially exploiting the quid-pro-quo service of academics for commercial gain.  I have a paper with the word "cancer" in the title, but this is not my area of expertise.  Nevertheless, I get endless requests of this sort from disreputable journals.  The very fact they are asking me is evidence that they have no interest in quality control on the papers they publish - if the did they would have looked at my Google scholar profile (for instance) to find out whether I actually did work on the medical side of cancer.  Wait until you get invited by someone you know or who you trust.

It is promotional evidence of the kind senior leadership required for a distinguished professorship. Depending on your department standards (which are hopefully public), you may need both workshop organization and editorship to demonstrate senior leadership in your field.


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Searching for open source literature management software
I recently started my PhD and now try to find a convenient software for managing my literature research. What I want it to be able to do is:

Let me highlight PDFs
Add notes to PDFs
Add tags to my literature
(as a bonus:) load methadata and create bibtex files

I personally really like Mendeley as it does pretty much exactly that. At my institute we have a strict open source policy though, which excludes Mendeley. Is there an open source alternative to Mendeley, which runs under Linux Gnome?
Thanks for your input.

Wikipedia's Comparison of reference management software breaks them each down by license.

I would say that Zotero is an obvious alternative. It does all the things you mention and is free (in its basic form) and open. You can store the pdfs locally or buy cloud storage. It can be used to add multiple notes to papers, connect other files to papers (figures etc), add tags, and it will also allow you to extract metadata from pdf files. Individual papers or collections of papers can also be exported as Bibtex-files or other formats. You can run Zotero either as a web browser plugin or as a locally installed program, and it works on Linux.
Personally, I've mostly moved from Endnote to a mixture of Zotero and Jabref for my reference software.

I have been in your shoes before and am currently looking for some form of pdf organization.
Here are a few alternatives : http://alternativeto.net/software/mendeley/
What I use, is dropbox.  I even dropped Mendeley because it didn't sync well with android for annotations.  I can favorite papers I need to have on my phone/tablet at all times and always have access to them.  My fellow cohort feels the same way about the lack of pdf organization as we generally just print out what we need.  I've been searching for years and the only thing I can come up with is paper.
Sorry this is isn't more useful, but from my experience, paper is really the way to go.

source: Stack Exchange

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Is it appropriate to acknowledge StackExchange in my MSc thesis?
So, I'm just now finishing my master's thesis. When thinking about who helped me aside from my official supervisors some of the StackExchange fora (especially Stack Overflow and TeX) came into my mind.
I asked some questions in these fora but most of the time I was just looking for information in older posts (and finding it most of the time). Now one the one hand it feels weird to me to acknowledge a site I browsed to, e.g., find out a certain programming command (like I would not really think about acknowledging Wikipedia). But on the other hand I am really grateful for some of the quick and professional answers I got from StackExchange users.
So what do you think, should I acknowledge StackExchange in my thesis?

possible duplicate of How to acknowledge ideas/clue/discussions on StackExchange?

@EnergyNumbers: I read this question but in my opinion it was too specific for my case and also more about the technical side (how to acknowledge SE rather than should I).

The answers there completely answer that part of your question that is answerable here. The rest is fishing for opinion, which is out of scope on this site.

I won't point to specific questions, but I've had authors ask me whether they can cite or acknowledge me somehow for code or ideas I've provided in Stack Overflow questions.  I think that ended up as a footnote in a paper.  There's also a type of citation that you don't see too much anymore, but can still be very helpful, if you contact the author specifically: "personal correspondence".

I've seen it done: http://dwig.lmc.gatech.edu/projects/Quitmeyer/site/papers/Quitmeyer_Andrew-Thesis_Design_Document.pdf

I cited one or two specific answers in my thesis. E.g. one of them was a mathematical proof. I posted a question of how to proof that two equations are equal, and math.se gave me a proof. So it was only natural to cite the answer.

Your acknowledgement is a place where you are free to thank anyone or anything (I have seen dogs being thanked) you think deserve mentioning. To acknowledge StackExchange is highly appropriate since it is a community driven open site where help can be obtained to solve problems from many different perspectives.
In my PhD thesis, I, perhaps a bit over-ambitiously, thanked Donald Knuth for creating TeX. Had StackExchange been in existence back then, some of the terror of writing my thesis in plain TeX would have been eased and it would have been placed along-side Knuth in the acknowledgement.

To the down-voter: downvoting is a part of this stackexchange and according to the help center ...voting down a post signals [the opposite:] that the post contains wrong information, is poorly researched, or fails to communicate information. So in view of this, providing a down-vote without a comment is not very constructive and does not allow anyone the possibility to improve an answer or even understand what may be wrong with it.

Not only did I thank TeX.StackExchange, but the developers of LaTeX 2ε and the developers of a few of the most useful packages (namely TikZ and PGF Plots). Their code was just as useful as the scientific code I used, so I think the acknowledgement was well deserved. Perhaps I should have cited Knuth too... oops! A bunch of data points is useless if I can't plot them! I would be very hesitant in thanking paid software developers, though.

@Moriarty Even paid software developers that are StackExchange regulars?

@JAB Sorry, to clarify: I mean I wouldn't thank the developers of a non-free piece of software. I might cite its use, but not in the acknowledgements section. StackExchange is a free resource, so anyone on here should be thanked.

@Moriarty - What is the problem with thanking paid software developers?  You probably thanked your paid supervisor.

Thank you for your input. I like the approach of thinking (and thanking) more the community rather than the side or a specific forum (like also emphasised by @Christian Clason)

@sixtyfootersdude The acknowledgements section is to thank the people to whom you feel grateful. That's what it's for. Is MATLAB a nice tool? Yes. Do I feel personally grateful towards the company or any of the developers? No. But it's a blurry line that can be easily crossed...

"Do I feel personally grateful towards the company or any of the developers?"  You might if you spent a bit of time debugging some code and got their help on their mailing list, though.

"This thesis is brought to you by"..

Think of it not as acknowledging the site but of the community that contributes and curates the content. (From the way you asked the question, I think this is what you have in mind as well.) I'm sure a correspondingly worded acknowledgment would be appropriate (and appreciated -- in particular the TeX.SE community is by a wide margin one of the most helpful and welcoming I have ever seen on the internet, and they deserve the recognition).
Also, keep in mind that some future student might read your thesis when preparing her own; if she reads your acknowledgment and learns of the value of StackExchange, you are doing her a service.

I should echo Peter Jansson's comment to his own answer about downvoting here, too. I would normally upvote this answer, but it largely regurgitates Peter Jansson's. I am guessing that that is why this answer was downvoted.

@Moriarty, I just wanted to make explicit the distinction between acknowledging the people on SE (which is usual) and acknowledging the website SE (which is weird -- you wouldn't thank TeX, you'd thank Knuth). But I take your point, this should be a comment to Peter Jansson's answer.

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How professional should my query for a PostDoc position be?
I plan to finish my PhD in climate sciences in about one years time. I’m not yet exactly sure what I want to do afterward but I’m considering a position in academia. A professor at my institute recommended to me to start writing some people now, inquiring about possible positions (which is in line with this answer I guess).
I have some groups in mind where I know the group leaders on something I’d call a “we recognize each other at  conferences”-basis (i.e., they’ve probably read my publications and will probably remember who I am when I write them).
To be clear: I don’t want to apply for any specific position but rather want  to find out if there might be a position available in one years time to which I can then apply. Another intention is to make them aware of the fact that I’m looking for a position, so that they might think of me if something comes up.
I recently did a application seminar and the recommendation there was to write a very formal mail (possibly with topic ideas already) and attach a short cv and possibly two main publications. That seems way over the top to me (although that may also be because in geosciences we tend to be more causal about those things than in other disciplines).
When asking about possible PostDoc positions what would be a good grade of professionalism? How long should the mail be and what should be included? (merely asking if somebody knows something would only take a line or two)

When asking about possible PostDoc positions what would be a good grade of professionalism? How long should the mail be and what should be included? (merely asking if somebody knows something would only take a line or two)

Obviously you want this to be professional (e.g., "Hey dude, I need a job" isn't great in any case), but not necessarily very long or formal. Your milage on this will vary based on the discipline, geographical region, and the individuals involved. However, in STEM fields and assuming this is a professor in the US or Europe, I would opt for an extremely short and informal mail to establish first contact.
Dear Prof. Farnsworth / (or: Dear Rupert, if you are on first-name basis)
as you may know, I plan to graduate in summer and am currently evaluating postdocs options. Given our joint interest in FTL travel, I was wondering whether there could be any openings in your lab that would fit my time line. Alternatively, are you aware of any postdoc stipends or grants that we could jointly apply for?
Thanks a lot in advance,
xLeitix
In my experience, such a super-informal mail has the highest chance of actually being read and is entirely sufficient to get the discussion going. Let the prof. decide what documents, if any, he actually wants to see before progressing (letters, CV, just a link to your Scholar page, etc...).
Important disclaimer: this really only works because the OP has stated that he assumes the potential postdoc advisor will recognize him when he receives the mail. If you have never met the person, or suspect that he won't be able to match your name to your face, add at least a link to your website. If you don't have a website, build one before doing anything else related to your job search.

Another possible nudge towards reminding them who you are is to drop your advisors name I will be finishing my PhD with John Doe... This assumes they know your advisor better than you.

Even if the potential boss does not know "you" personally, they may know your supervisor or your collaborators, which is also a good starting point. Or someone in their lab may know you and give you a good recommendation. So, not knowing the potential boss personally is not a reason to not write them.

@AlexeyB. No, but the mail needs to be different in this case.  (also, if your supervisor knows the other person, let her/him put you in contact!)

"super-informal mail has the highest chance of actually being read" I agree! Sometimes it seems busy people read only as much as fits in the preview window of their mail software... This is exactly what my question was aiming at: too long might be worse than too short.

If you know them on a “we recognize each other at conferences”-basis, I would recommend bringing the topic up at a conference. That is, if you plan to go to any conferences during this last year.
From personal experience, I can tell you that this works very well. In my case, my entry to the conversation was the fact that one professor introduced an upcoming project during his talk. After the talk I asked him pretty straight forward, whether he still needed postdocs for that. I also told him from the start that I did not know whether I really want to stay in academia and that I will postpone my career decisions until after my thesis was done, so I can focus on that first.
Neither my informal approach, nor my insecurity about future plans seemed to have a negative impact, as he told me immediatley to apply for his group at any time, if I am interested. And he renembered the talk three months later, when I was done and applied in a formal way, including CV, and all the other stuff.
To sum up, I would recommend an informal first approach (in person if possible), and a formal application where you refer to the last meeting, once you are certain.
Edit in response to the comment: If you really intend to get the position, if they have one, I would suggest a rather informal test in the email, but attaching a formal application that contains your motivation, some bragging about why the professor should consider you for the job, and the other usual stuff ;)
If you are just scouting and are not sure whether you really will apply, even if there is an open position, I would keep it informal for now. You have still a year left for a concrete application afterwards. (For me, the time span between the actual application and starting the postdoc position was about two months. They would have taken me already after one month, but I needed time for moving.)

While this might be good advice in case the OP has plans to go to a conference where the person(s) in question will be, this does not really answer the question of how formal to be in an email.


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Is it a good idea to email to potential grad advisor with personal website email domain?
I was reading about email etiquette. Dos and don'ts when you are sending mailing your professor. One of them was about email domain. I was wondering if it is a good idea to use personal website domain? (eg. email@sadafnoor.com)
(Does the professor really look at those things? Seriously?)

This may help you: Should a student use the email account provided by the university to communicate with professors?

@EnthusiasticStudent: This is a different question.

Personally, I would view the email address as a small reflection of your personality, and nothing more. You will have a long and somewhat intense professional relationship with your graduate advisor. A good match of personalities is important. If you are the type of person who has a personal website domain that you use for most of your business, you might as well use it to contact potential advisors. If they view that as a turn off, then perhaps they were not the best fit for you.

Nowadays, I really don't think it makes any difference whatsoever. You are free to use whatever domain you like, so long as it's not somehow offensive or insipid (for instance, if the choice would be considered a curse word or epithet). If there's something potentially offensive, your email could get blocked by a spam server or filter.
Otherwise, though, it really doesn't make a difference. I'm not going to judge a student more or less favorably because they use an email address that isn't a school-based address, or if it's a "vanity address" like the one you've listed.

I'm not sure this is completely the case. Would you get the same impression from john@hotmail.com as from some_nineties_boy_band_fan_92@hotmail.com? Would everyone be completely indifferent to the difference?

I was addressing the issue of domain names more than usernames. I thought it was more or less a given not to use oddball user names.

If the professor's email is an university-based account (e.g., ends up with ac.uk), to make sure the email doesn't end up in the 'Junk' section (i.e., because of universities' firewall system), send your email through your university account. I had an incident through major free email providers, based on the username I chose.

I would recommend against using a university e-mail account for this because you are presumably about to graduate and you will likely be about to lose access to your current university e-mail account when you do so.
Any sensibly named personal account will be okay. But if your e-mail address is something like "wolflord_mcflorin@hallofthegamerheroes.com" or "hotdickforsex347@slutfinder.com" then take the time to get yourself a more sensible e-mail address (while those two aren't real examples you'd be surprised how often people use these kinds of e-mail addresses for serious correspondence).

I agree with other answers that assuming it's not obscene or childish, it won't make a huge difference either way. I just wanted to add that if you're sending it from a personal website, the domain may pique your potential supervisor's interest. Make sure that you have some information on there about your academic achievements, maybe a writing sample, things like that. Some personal stuff to make you a bit more memorable is good as well. It's not guaranteed to make any difference, but on the off chance they do type in the domain you want to make a bit of an impression.


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What are the most important factors evaluated when applying for Phd position?
I am sure this question has been posted somewhere in SE forums before. If not here is my contribution, otherwise please show me the pointers to similar well-voted questions.
Here is the actual question: In case someone is interested to apply for a Phd degree, what would be the parameters that head of the research group (i.e. professor) will consider when comparing different candidates?
Some of the factors that come to my mind are the following:
Grades,
Reference letters,
Publications,
Closeness of previous studies to the actual research taking place in that research group, Quality of final thesis (Master/Bachelor), Thesis adviser etc.
How would a professor prioritize these factors. I am sure here in the forums we have some experienced members who might have participated in acceptance committees, which can provide useful insights.
Thanks.

Related: PhD Admissions Importance: Research vs. Grades

Research, research, research, recommendation letters, research, baked beans, and research.

I believe this is a duplicate of the linked question. If that does not answer your question, please edit your post to indicate how it is different and then flag for reopening.

The answer is, as usual, "it depends". JeffE provides a perspective for a top US research university (Research, research, research, recommendation letters, research, baked beans, and research.). In my lab (small-but-good swiss university) PhD admission certainly works a bit differently.
First a bit of context: our lab usually consists of less than ten members, 2 of which are professors and one to two more being postdocs. We select our PhD students ourselves (there is no department or faculty-level hiring). Hence, PhD student selection is not something we do all the time.
Generally, the single most important factor for hiring for us is whether we already know the candidate. Broadly, potential students come in four tiers:

Tier 1: students that we personally know to be good, for instance because they have done courses or their thesis with us. This means that we mostly hire from our own university, but as I only moved recently from a different university, we currently also like to hire from my old institution. Generally, if you know somebody in the lab (even other PhD students) and the other person vouches for your qualities, you are almost certainly in.
Tier 2: students that people that we know know. If we need a position filled but don't have a strong internal candidate at the ready, we reach out to our personal networks. Usually, we don't cast the net particularly wide -- the recommendation of a professor that I met once at a conference likely isn't enough. We mostly contact personal friends and close collaborators here.
Tier 3: students that applied because of a job announcement we put out. We generally only do that (putting out job announcements) if we really  need a position filled and we could not find somebody in our network. In most cases, my lab head is more ready to leave a position unfilled than hire somebody that does not come with a strong recommendation.
Tier 4: students that applied with a cold email. As far as I know, we have literally never hired somebody that applied cold.

Which of those "tiers" you fall in is the single most important factor that leads to whether you will be hired or not. In the rare case that we have multiple students that come with strong personal recommendations, and we cannot hire all, we usually select roughly following these criteria (roughly in order of importance):

Research experience. A master is a prerequisite for PhD studies in my current country. However, most master students don't publish. If you did, it is certainly perceived very positively as long as the paper is at least ok. (publishing in predatory journals or other really bad venues might be perceived negatively actually)
Relevant industrial experience. We do research on software engineering, so if you worked as a software engineer before, this will be perceived positively. However, note the "relevant" here. Standard internships or jobs may not help much (most have done those at some point) -- it needs to be something that we think will clearly give you better insight into our area of research.
Technical skills. We don't expect future students to know how to do research yet, but we expect a strong programming background and fluency in standard tooling.
Perceived compatibility with the team. Finally, we also typically consider whether a student is a good fit for our lab culture.

The last two bullets are typically assessed in interviews. We generally interview candidates via Skype beforehand, and (when we are almost certain we are going to hire a student), we also fly her/him in to give a talk in our group and spend some time with us beforehand. (both things we only do for Tier 2 - 4 candidates)
We don't ask for letters of recommendation (of people we do not know), research statements, statements of motivation, or anything like that. Neither do we look at previous grades (except maybe in a corner case, but to the best of my knowledge it has not happened yet).

how would you relate it to Phd hirings in Germany and Austria? I think the Swiss approach should not be much different than the other two, or is it? @xLeitix

@WolfgangKuehne Depends on the lab head. But yeah, my old group in Vienna operated similarly, with the main difference that the lab was larger, and hence had to recruit people from the outside (via job postings etc.) more often.


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What is the impact of an invitation letter on a fellowship application?
I applied for a Fulbright scholarship as a non-US resident, for a research visit in the US.
I obtained an invitation letter from one of the top Professors in the field, from a public university in California.
During my Fulbright interview I was asked whether I would still accept the fellowship if I was not matched with the inviting institution. My answer was Yes. However, the more I think about this, I get confused as to why would they think of sending me somewhere else. I always thought that an invitation letter makes things easier for all parties involved. Maybe some of you who have participated in admission commissions can elaborate on this.
I can think of two reasons about why I was asked that question:

the interviewer wants to learn to what extent the candidate is keen to be part of the program.
the budget of the program might not suffice covering the living costs of someone in California.

Also the interviewers were not experts in the field, so probably the name and work of the inviting Professor was not relevant to them. I also did not make any extra effort to highlight that.

I doubt that either of your points is the reason. I suspect it is just benign and lets them keep flexible if you are. Whether saying no helps or hurts you, I can't say. I would answer it honestly.

@Buffy That's what I did, but I would prefer being sent somewhere where I have many years of collaboration and matching research interest, compared to somewhere else...

I think it is fair an honest if you express your concerns in a future correspondence. Paraphrasing Einstein, be as flexible as possible, but not more. Good luck with it. I assume that if you are offered a different position instead you could still do some negotiating.

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Should one cite other grants in a grant application?
This is referring mainly to the European setting, but of course perspectives from other academic systems are welcome.
For grant proposals (let's say ERC Starting Grant level), it is important to make credible that you're planning cutting-edge research in a relevant area that deserves funding. One way of ascertaining this is by pointing out that there is a multitude of projects that tackle related questions that are funded in the same program. The argument against this would be that it makes your project seem less novel, which is an other central evaluation criterion.
I'm leaning towards citing as many related proposals as possible, as long as it is clear that the questions targeted in the proposed project are still open and the methods are visibly distinct from what has been attempted before (e.g. because the PI has developed them themselves recently).
I have heard very mixed things from colleagues on this, and I wonder if there is someone who has deeper insights into how this is usually perceived by reviewers / the grant agencies.

Abstracts are public. Citing papers wouldn't accomplish the same thing. If I want to say: Look, this area is vibrant and important on a level appropriate for highly competitive funding, the best argument I can make is that significant funds did go to that area.

Speaking as both a recipient and a reviewer, your ERC reviewers (both the committee and the expert reviewers) want to see how your proposed research is unique, interesting, transformative, high-risk/high-reward, blue skies, etc. Simply citing as much existing research doesn't accomplish that. You need to make this all about you and your project. Make the existing research work for you.
The goal should be to introduce other/existing research and projects in order to directly explain your unique position and define your important research gap. They are contrast tools for you to use to help the reader see your unique vision and imagine the potential impact of your work. That's it!

This sounds very sensible. Thanks for your insights.

There's proving you have good ideas, and there's proving you can act and follow through on those good ideas.  A grant appl8cant needs to do both.

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PhD programs of medical school
I'm interested in stem cell, regenerative medicine, developmental biology, and genetics for reverse aging. Since these topics are dealt with in one or both of medical school and school of science, I'm confused about my grad school prep.
A PhD program of stem cell & regenerative medicine offered by Stanford's School of Medicine accepts both MCAT and GRE (as stated in the following webpage.) http://stemcellphd.stanford.edu/faqs.html
Also, the PhD program of my interest offered by Harvard belongs to both Harvard Medical School and School of Arts and Sciences. Thus, the boundary of PhD programs between medical school and school of science doesn't seem to exist. So, I'm thinking if I can prepare for PhD programs of med school in the same way as I do for programs of school of science.
Would you tell me the difference of PhD programs between med school and school of science in terms of the following factors?

standardized test (GRE & MCAT)
admission standard (focus on research experience or focus on GPA & standardized test)
competitiveness
undergrad classes required/recommended to take

In general, the biggest difference between PhD programs at med schools and those not at med schools is simply their research focus. Often they have differences in the administration and faculty associated with the program, but at least for Harvard (that's where I just finished my PhD), the difference between the med school programs and those not at the med school is probably smaller than the difference between Harvard's med school programs and Stanford's med school programs.
Each PhD program is different, and may have different requirements in terms of admission and selectivity, but for the top tier of graduate schools, the difference is probably not hugely noticeable. There are also likely to be differences between say the Immunology program at Harvard and the BBS program, even thought they're both at the med school.
I can't speak to Stanford, but at Harvard, your GPA and GRE's will have some influence, but your research experience and letters of recommendation will hold far more weight.
I'd say, apply to the programs you're most interested in, and then if you're invited to interview, make your decisions after you've visited the schools. You want to base your choice on the feeling you get from the students and faculty - different programs align more with different personalities. If you're choosing between Harvard and Stanford, you won't be choosing between different qualities of research (both institutions are phenomenal), you want to go where you'll be happiest because of culture etc.
Edit: Spelling


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How to ask my advisor from another department for research assistantship?
I'm a first-year Machine Learning PhD student supported by a TAship offered by my host (non-ML) department that does not have much funding. I have heard that RA is uncommon in my host department. A professor from the CS department (renowned for its ample funding) has recently committed to be my thesis advisor, and I was wondering if he would be able to give me research assistantship in the future if my research becomes successful. To be honest, I am not 100% sure whether a professor can give a RAship to a student from other department. If it is possible, could you describe how to ask, so that I can follow the advice once my research becomes successful? Is there any general understanding about from what year it is reasonable to have RA in CS and what the reasonable RA duties in CS are? Is RA something to be offered rather than to ask for?

Possible duplicate of How should I phrase a question about an *ordinary academic matter* to a Professor?

Possible duplicate of How should I phrase an important question that I need to ask a professor?

Just ask.  Generalities from the Internet are not going to be so helpful here.

Would you be willing to consider me for a research assistantship at some point?
What would you expect me to accomplish to get to that point?
If I had an assistantship, what would you expect me to work on?  Would it be part of my dissertation research?  If not, how should I plan to balance the two?
Given that I'm enrolled in another department, are there any bureaucratic obstacles to this, and is there anything I can do to help with them?

Thank you for your suggestion. I will ask him.


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How strict is the definition of "native language" in PhD admission?
I consider myself to have two native languages, including English; however, I'm not confident whether admission committees would consider this to be the case. One of the PhD programs of my interest requires all candidates whose native language is not English, including those who have obtained their Bachelor's degree in the U.S., to submit their TOEFL score. This requirement is stricter than that of other programs, and if I'm not considered to be a native English speaker, I would have to take a TOEFL for this program only.
I'm 22 years old, and I have lived in the U.S. for the last six years. Until the age of 15, I had lived in an Asian country, where English-speaking population is small. However, since my parents spoke both their native language and English, I have been bilingual since my early childhood. I went to a public elementary school in my home country, and I graduated from a middle school, a high school and a college in the U.S.,
 in some of which I skipped grades.

You've got a strong case for being exempt from having to take the TOEFL, but it's ultimately a decision that would come from the institution that you're applying to- there's really no useful way in which we can answer your question.  I've vote to close on that basis.

Would it be a strong hardship for you to take the TOEFL? Just growing up in a bilingual environment might not qualify you as a "native speaker" - if you had either grown up in a primarily English school system or if English was almost exclusively spoken at home, I think you'd have a better argument. In any case, you are unlikely to have difficulty passing as fluent/expert speaker.

@BrianBorchers see my answer below. Personal anecdotes (from me or others) might be helpful

@BryanKrause taking the TOEFL is fairly costly and it takes some time to prepare for it even if you're fluent (just like for any test). So "just taking it" is an option, but an expensive one

@neuranna I am aware, partly why I asked; $200 is quite a hardship for some people, not at all for others. I might be underestimating the prep necessary, though.

I was in a similar situation and couldn't convince them on the phone so I had to take the test. I prepared 4 or 5 hours for it and got 117/120. I only lost points in speaking because it is really weird to speak timed paragraphs on weird subjects into a headset without preparation time, in any language. If you can afford the fee I think you can do it by only preparing the speaking part with YouTube tutorials.

You should contact the department directly, preferably by phone. I had a similar issue when applying for PhD, and the graduate admissions person was able to help me waive this requirement since he "could confirm that I am fluent by speaking to me on the phone". It all depends on the people you run into. But most of them are reasonable, so hopefully it will work out!

If you need a visa to study, be aware that even if the University waves their language requirements, the border agency might not.


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What is the hourly pay for TA/RA at good math PhD programs in the U.S.?
I'm interested in the first tier (the top six programs e.g. MIT and UCB) and the second tier (the next ten programs e.g. Columbia and Caltech) math PhD programs in the U.S. According to the link, MIT's math dept. pays $3,050 monthly to a TA who works for 12 hours per week. Since I'm an int'l student, I can work for another 8 hours per week in this case. Since this TA job may cover a part of the tuition and fee (40k~50k) as well, working for an extra hour may increase the pay at the rate higher than $56/h(=$3,050/55), assuming that I work for 55 hours per week.
I'm sure the difference in pay scale between each program is large, but I'd appreciate if you could give me the answer for any program of the above type you're familiar with regarding the approximate hourly pay for a TA job above the required minimum length.

In my experience, although 12 hours per week may be the typical workload, the contracts are usually written based on a nominal 20 hours per week.  As such, I don't think you are allowed to take another job at all.  The page at http://web.mit.edu/iso/immigration/emp_campus.shtml confirms this.

I'm not familiar with MIT, but I'm surprised they're that generous.  In any case, I don't see why want to factor in tuition coverage or want to know this.  What's relevant is knowing how much TA duties are expected and how much you actually make (not counting tuition waivers).

Also, I don't know why you divided a monthly salary by a number of hours per week.

So yeah, the upshot is that you can't earn more money by working additional hours, neither by taking on more TA duties nor by getting a second job.  The "hourly pay" is irrelevant.

I graduated there a couple years ago, and these guys have it right: $3050/mo (up $500 since I started, wow) is the salary no matter how many hours you actually teach, and even if you advisor buys you out for a semester.  You're not supposed to take other jobs.  The one exception is during the summer, when you can either teach or work off campus somewhere.

I see. Then, the things got much simpler. I appreciate clarification a lot! Kimball, I did so, because I thought I would get $55 for each extra hour of TA-ing if the stipulated amount of stipend is what one gets for the standard TA work. Now I know I was wrong.

And just to clarify, as mentioned above, all the tuition, fees, and health insurance are covered as well, but that money doesn't really count as salary (and in particular is not taxable, except the insurance).  I think this is probably the case at all the programs you mention.

Maybe I should also note, I knew a guy who was interested in liberal arts jobs and so took a position adjuncting at a nearby college for one semester.  (At MIT, as various other programs, a grad student can't get experience as the instructor of a record for a course.)  Nobody from the administration ever hassled him about it, but I think they just didn't know.

Shane, you're totally right. I will definitely do as you suggested. Mark, that's interesting. I didn't know that it's possible.

@Mark presumably that student was not an international student on a student visa, though.

@ff524 This is true, good point.

@Mark Can you turn these comments into an answer, so that I can vote it up?


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What are some cons of going to a non-top-tier PhD program if one is primarily interested in professors in another department?
I'm a rising senior majoring in math, and my coursework almost exclusively consists of grad-level pure math courses. However, I'm getting more and more interested in Machine Learning. I've studied applied math and machine learning by myself, and now that I've graduated from a college, I'm going to do research in machine learning full-time with a professor in another institution until the next summer. Nevertheless, I suppose I have better chance for math PhD programs due to my coursework (note that I may not publish before the admission), and there are some non-top-tier (though strong in some areas) math PhD programs whose university has a top-tier group of ML researchers in the CS department. A good example would be CMU. Of course, it would be better if one can go to the universities which are both top-level at math and ML, but math programs of such universities (e.g Berkeley, MIT and Stanford) are harder to get into.
My guess is that I just should go to the math PhD program of CMU if it has a ML researcher of my interest, and everything that decides my career afterward is the quality of my publications. But are there some obvious cons for this option?

It's not just the advisor that you work with but also the course requirements, qualifying exams, etc. that will have a huge effect on your PhD experience.  You might not be happy (and will certainly not be well prepared by) taking years of course work in areas unrelated to your research interest.

I enjoy taking pure math courses as well as physics, CS and applied math all at graduate level.  For pure math, I'm primarily interested in symplectic geometry, algebraic topology and rep theory, and I've taken all the courses for oral exams (or called quals) covering these. I've read transcripts of typical oral exams in Princeton and Berkeley, and I'm certain I will not have problem with them. Of course, CMU and others have different quals, but I don't think I will have problem with quals or courses.

This strikes me as an extremely odd plan. Assuming you've done well in your grad-level math classes, and that your boast that you would have no problem with Princeton's math orals is not idle, you might be competitive if you simply applied to the (CS) programs you are actually interested in. I would certainly recommend doing so. You might acquire at least some formal CS background while you have the chance. But most importantly, seek out the advice of individual professors working in the area of your interest. Good luck to you!

Thanks for your answer. As I'm no longer in an university and I'm in another country, it is difficult for me to take some CS courses CS admission committee of, say, CMU would like to see on my transcript. However, if I will find any such course, I will definitely take it and ask the instructor, as well as my professor who will guide my research, to write a LOR for me.


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Working further on idea from patent for student project and publishing
I have simulated and aerodynamic concept from a patent based on aerodynamics for reducing Drag. Can I publish my paper ?
What is general trend ? Most patents on Aerodynamics concepts are just ideas or first they obtain promising result experimentally or numerically, then they publish patent.

Writing a paper solo is hard. Not only do you need to do all the experimental work yourself (in this case, simulating aerodynamics), but you also need to be on top of the relevant existing literature.
You need the latter, so that when you come to write up, you know what gets written up, how it gets written up, and when and where it gets written up.
Without that, you won't be able to write a paper that would get accepted by any reputable journal.
To find precedents in the literature for a particular patent, take the names of the holders of the patent, and then search for them as author names in the usual literature databases for your subject.
There are specific literature databases that will give you false negatives, but few false positives: that is, they will find much but not all of the good relevant literature, with relatively little junk literature, e.g. sciencedirect. Then there are general literature databases, that are much more inclusive, which means you're less likely to miss important papers, but they'll be buried amid a lot of junk results - e.g. google scholar.
As to your specific question: filing a patent is usually (depending on the country) time-consuming and expensive. Which means that patent-filers will either have done their due diligence on novelty and validity, including experimental and numerical analysis; or they've got sufficient money (or are so unaverse to risk) that they can file the patent application first (perhaps to establish precedence, or just out of vanity), and then do the work later.


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What are cautions to take with second hand data in an interview?
When analyzing second hand information in a data set (participant is recounting someone else's experience), if you cannot access that person to confirm their experience, what are some cautions to take in interpretation? Can you use the data at all?
Also, if you do use the data, wouldn't there be potential ethics issues considering the other person has not signed a consent form?

Could you kindly expand on what type of interview you mean?

I don't think there would be an ethics problem, if the third party is not identified.  I think the main consideration would be that you would not be able to assign the same a priori level of reliability to the second-hand reported data.  But I think you can still collect it.  Example: parents are the primary source of information used as a basis for diagnosing Tourette Syndrome in children.

@ÉbeIsaac A semi-structured interview for multiple case studies in social sciences

...what are some cautions to take in interpretation? Can you use the data at all?

The most obvious caution to take here is simply to be upfront in your research about the fact that certain data is unconfirmed 'hearsay' data, consisting of a recounting of another person's experience, without confirmation from the primary person.  Whether it can be used legitimately depends on the purpose.  There is no particular reason that data could not be used at all, but that really depends on whether hearsay evidence constitutes valuable evidence on your research question.  Regardless, in your description of your data, and subsequent interpretation, you should be clear about the fact that this data is hearsay, and your interpretation should take account of this (e.g., one possible hypothesis would be that the hearsay account is incorrect).
As in courts of law, hearsay should be considered to be weak evidence, due to the possibility that the account of another person's experience may not accord with that person's own description.  Hearsay evidence has an additional degree of removal from reality relative to direct evidence from a person about their own experience and actions.  As such, it has a higher chance of error, and this should be conceded clearly in your analysis and interpretation of your data.

...wouldn't there be potential ethics issues considering the other person has not signed a consent form?

As with any academic research project, if you are using data that identifies the characteristics or experiences of individuals, it is generally the case that you will need to present your results in a way that anonymises the data, and does not allow the reader to identify the characteristics of any specific individual.  The same should apply whether the information comes directly from that individual, or as hearsay from another person.
There may be cases where it is legitimate to report hearsay information about individuals as part of research.  For example, a research project might ask respondents to give feedback and opinions on the actions of local politicians, in which case it would be legitimate to report this data without the consent of those politicians.  (In this case the respondents would be anonymised, but the politicians probably would not be.)  In other cases, when you are dealing with people that are not public figures, it might not be legitimate to report outcomes that allow identifiability of those people.
If you are unsure about the ethical requirements for your study, you should contact the relevant ethics boards or ethics officers at your university.  Academic studies involving people generally require ethics clearance anyway, but if this matter has arisen as an additional issue, you should contact the ethics board and seek further guidance from them.


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Are multiple APA citations supposed to make the same claim or do they combine?
Consider this example from APA style:

Studies of reading in childhood have produced mixed results (Albright,
  Wayne, & Fortinbras, 2004; Gibson, 2011; Smith & Wexwood, 2010).

Do all these cited works above claim that "studies of reading in childhood have produced mixed results" or is it a list of studies of reading in childhood that have produced mixed results?
Consequently, if I am writing a sentence where I cite from one work but I add a detail in my sentence from a different work, do I cite both works together?

I'm not sure how fully these issues are part of protocol versus just style, but my approach is to try to be clear which works are cited for what purpose (Marks, 2011), which can include separate citations within a sentence (Edgar & Poppins, 1999).
For the example you have there, I would assume you are citing different studies that had different results, rather than three sources that say "there are mixed results": however, I would also expect the later references to refer back to the older results if they are in conflict. I don't think it's necessary for you you clarify any more than that, but if the results of those works are very important to what you are writing, you would probably go into more detail about those particular studies and cite them individually.
To add to my answer based on your additional question in a comment: the citations should be inside/before the punctuation in almost all cases. And I would typically avoid referring to the same work in more than one place in a sentence unless it really made sense to do so (i.e., chronology/natural order).

Children like to play games (Ralph, 1967), as do teenagers (Harris &
  Brooks, 1985) and young adults (Ralph, 1967).

I wouldn't consider the following wrong, though, either:

Children, teenagers, and young adults all like to play games (Ralph,
  1967; Harris & Brooks, 1985).

In terms of your first example, if you only used a specific part of a work in a sentence, (Marks, 2011) corresponding to few words (Edgar & Poppins, 1999), would you do this? (Marks, 2011)?

@Emilie Yes, but watch your punctuation: the citations should be inside/before the punctuation in almost all cases. And I would typically avoid referring to the same work in more than one place in a sentence unless it really made sense to do so (i.e., chronology/natural order). Children like to play games (Ralph, 1967), as do teenagers (Harris & Brooks, 1985) and young adults (Ralph, 1967). I wouldn't consider the following wrong, though, either: Children, teenagers, and young adults all like to play games (Ralph, 1967; Harris & Brooks, 1985).


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Which of these works to cite when critiquing?
I'm citing a study that brings context to my work and some of its methodology is questionable so I am highlighting this aspect. This study was published twice in slightly different forms, once in a lower scale journal with the PhD student as the sole author, and once in a more known journal with both the PhD student and their professor as second author.
This question partly addresses my problem. At first glance, I would cite the most recent, most prestigious piece. It's shorter but sums the bulk of what I need. However it does not address etiquette. If I cite the study by both authors, the professor's name is joined to the student's questionable methods (IMO).
Would it be preferable to stick to the work authored by the student only in this case?

Why not cite both and explain the differences?

In any case, it is not your job to protect an advisor from being linked to a paper he chose to sign. Think rather about your reader when making your choice.

@BenoîtKloeckner Thought as much, I'll go for the more prestigious/recent one.

@Christian I don't see glaring differences in the work. I think it was a case of going up the ladder in terms of publication prestige.

@DSVA https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5808/publishing-similar-same-paper-twice-regarding-economics-letters-journal

@DSVA And to add a nuance, one paper is the typical journal article format, the other is shortened and made to look more digestible. However, both use the same research topic, data, and methodology. Just the authors change (i.e. the student added his prof as a 2nd author)

@BenoîtKloeckner If you would like to write a formal answer, I would mark it as accepted.

@DSVA The longer paper has other content built around it (e.g. case study A+B+C), including a summary of the results published in the shorter paper (e.g. case study B in long form). But this is the only part relevant to me, hence why I'm debating which to cite.

It is not your job to protect an advisor from being linked to a paper he chose to sign. Think rather about your reader when making your choice.


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Can journals decide to refuse previously approved publications conditional to minor revisions?
I assisted a professor in writing a paper and it got accepted in a journal with minor reviews. I did the modifications I was asked to address and have been waiting on the professor the rest of the time. I've done friendly reminders once or twice to ask what's going on with the paper but decided to drop the ball as I know they are quite busy. This publication is also obviously more important for me as I don't have anything out there yet, so I'm not so surprised it's probably sitting on a hard drive somewhere. We have a great relationship and there will be opportunities for more publications later on. Still, it was a lot of work for me so I'm keeping my hopes up and the topic can change quickly.
If we do end up submitting the revised paper, can the journal turn it down at a later date on the basis that the delays have been too long? Do journals usually have explicit rules with regards to delays for re-submitting after reviews?

Usually, journals require revisions to be submitted within a few days. One can ask for an extension, but failing to submit within the deadline usually implies that the submission will be treated as a new one. Do you have the editor's email?

@MassimoOrtolano The professor had forwarded it to me so I traced it back and there is no deadline mentioned. However, they do state it could be reviewed quickly when resubmitted and be published in the next issue. That was a LONG time ago.

@MassimoOrtolano That depends strongly on the research area. In math and TCS, it's rather a few weeks (if it's a special issue, where the schedule tends to be more strict). Or a few months. If there is a deadline at all.

Yes, most journals require revisions to be submitted within a certain time limit as specified in the editors decision letter, typically 3-6 months. Failing that, the paper will be considered withdrawn and any re-submission treated like a new submission. However it is also possible to ask for an extension of the revision deadline, if one can provide good arguments.
Of course, I don't know the details of your case, but you should be able to find out from the journal website.
I also strongly advise you to contact your co-author (preferably in person rather than via email) and enquire about the state of the manuscript and their plans for resubmission.


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Academic Statement of Purpose vs NSF Personal Statement
Beyond the obvious, that the NSF Fellowship Personal Statement is "Why am I good for the NSF," and the Academic Statement of Purpose on a graduate school application is "Why grad school and why  grad school?", how different or similar are the two essays?
Having already written an NSF Fellowship application, I'm now in the process of writing my Academic Statement of Purpose for grad school applications, and I'm trying to figure out how similar these statements are going to end up being.

There will be many common features, but the NSF has many highly stylized requirements, including "broader impact" and such, which would seem stilted or hypocritical outside that venue. NSF has a page limit, rigid formatting requirements, many other formal requirements, none of which matter in a statement of purpose. You have room to be more sincere, more genuine, explain more fully in your grad school application's statement of purpose. Also, unlike the NSF, where there is some compulsion to pretend that you already know what you're doing and will start research immediately, grad school applications (e.g., in mathematics) can easily and reasonably acknowledge that it might be premature to be thinking about PhD-level research prior to grad school.
(I don't necessarily hold a grudge against NSF over some of this, because they have to "make the sale" to Congress, in terms Congress-people can understand and find compelling, in order to get the money...)


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What constitutes a conflict of interest by minimum?
When writing a scientific paper, one of the important sections to fill in are the possible conflicts of interest. Typically, I get to write

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Now, however, one of my co-authors has moved to a for-profit company before the study has been published. I am arguing whether it constitutes a conflict of interest.
What is a conflict of interest, by minimum?

Was the for-profit involved in your research, and is the topic that for-profit works on related to your research? Typically, conflicts of interest involve fiscal gain, i.e. you are testing the drug and also have stocks in the drug company.

No, the company was not involved in the research. However, it does operate in the same field. The co-author in question stopped actively working on the project when switching jobs, though is giving feedback on the final version before submission, just like the usual process goes.

Such a section usually isn't required for papers in my field, but you should probably put something like "Joe Smith moved from The University of Bobtown to ACME, Inc. during the preparation of this manuscript."

A publication that is examining the effects of a drug (let's say, Drug A) on inflammation that is funded by a private company trying to sell Drug A. This would be an example of a conflict of interest to be disclosed. This, of course, doesn't necessarily mean that there is misconduct occurring.


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How to address a knighted academic?
How should I address a knighted academic in a letter or in an email? The person in question is a chancellor of a university, so the odds are that he has at least a PhD. He is a CEO of a multinational company, too, so it is difficult to guess whether he has been a professor at any given time (at least there's no search results for "prof. [name]").

This is probably country dependent.

If you're at a UK university, I wouldn't expect the Chancellor to be a professor or even necessarily to have a PhD. The Vice Chancellor is usually a promoted academic; the Chancellor is usually somebody from outside the academic system, appointed to represent the University. This is reinforced by him being CEO of a multinational company: such a person might have a PhD but it's very unlikely that they'd get a top position in academia (professor), leave and then work their way up to get a top position (CEO) in a completely different area.

"the odds are that he has at least a PhD" -- never address someone based on a title you think they might have or ought to have. Either look up their title or just refer to them by name and the titles you know they have. Naturally the "proper" way is to look it up.

Not only is the Chancellor of a university in the UK almost certainly not a professor, I think it's pretty misleading to even call them an academic.  I'm very skeptical that the Chancellor is even the right person for you to be emailing.

Also, are you sure he’s not a Lord of some sort?

@DavidRicherby If he's the Chancellor of a UK university, he probably has the title "Professor" just from holding that position. (I don't know if this is universal)

Anecdotal evidence: Wendy Hall refers to herself using both titles in her website: https://wendy.ecs.soton.ac.uk/

The canonical reference for this subject is Debrett's (via the Wayback Machine). They recommend that a letter to a knight should begin "Dear Sir [given name]," regardless of whether they have other titles such as "professor".
In fact, they advise against mixing titles granted by the sovereign (such as knighthoods and ranks in the armed forces) with titles not granted by the sovereign (such as professor) but, as others have observed, "Professor Sir [Given name] [Surname]" is common usage.
In an academic context, your alternative option  for a salutation is "Dear Professor [Surname]". However, as I noted in a comment to the question, it's unlikely that somebody who's the CEO of a multinational company would, in fact, be a professor.

It says "In social usage it is not uncommon to find titles conferred by the Sovereign combined with styles emanating from other sources (eg Alderman Sir William Green, and Professor Sir Edward Hailstone), though this is deprecated by purists." I don't see them making a recommendation one way or another.

@StrongBad I think it's safe to assume that Debbrett's are purists but you're right that they don't make an explicit recommendation.

Some of the answers and comments above are just plain wrong. In my professional career in the UK I have written hundreds of official letters from the highest branches of the UK government to academics who have been knighted. The correct form of salutation to a knighted professor, with the sole exception of a letter to one who is also a personal friend, is: 'Dear Sir [given name]'.
It is a quite separate question as to how such a person should be described, for example on the address of the letter. Whatever Debrett's might say, the predominant practice is "Professor Sir [given name][family name]".
There are various types of knighthood and it would be discourteous in a formal letter to omit such post-nominals as apply. So, for example, a letter to the late Peter Swinnerton-Dyer would have been addressed to "Professor Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer Bart." after he inherited the baronetcy in 1975, but after he was knighted for his own services in 1987 you would need to add 'KBE' after the 'Bart.'
If anyone reading this thinks that the previous paragraph is ridiculously pedantic, I can only say that experience has taught me that some of the recipients of knighthoods are very proud of their honours and take offence if they are not properly recognised. If you are writing to a knighted professor you do not know, it is wiser to err on the side of formality until you are told clearly that he does not care about such things.

Within my university, knighted professors tend to use the Professor Sir {calling name} {family name} form as given by EnergyNumbers but I think that it is down to personal preference.
Just to add that the Sir / Dame is associated with the first name while Professor / Dr is associated with the surname. As you asked about a letter, if you would normally put 'Dear Professor {surname}' then that would still be correct. In order to use Sir / Dame you would need to also include the first name, or only use the first name.

You have a lot of knighted professors within your university, then? :)

@Cthulhu: it's not all that rare. People get knighted for "services to whatever their academic field is", plenty of those are also Prof. This article mentions 5 professors knighted in the last honours list (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27835298). There are two honours lists per year.

In Britain, the usual form is "Professor Sir {calling name} {family name}", e.g. "Professor Sir Peter Hall".
So to start a letter or email use:
Dear Professor Sir Peter Hall
or, alternately,
Dear Professor Sir Peter
if you're already acquainted.

I disagree, I think the Professor title is commonly dropped.

This is incorrect. You wouldn't start a letter "Dear Mr Peter Hall", so, likewise, you wouldn't use "Dear Professor Sir Peter Hall". Likewise, you wouldn't address him as "Professor Peter" if he didn't have the knighthood, so "Dear Professor Sir Peter" is also incorrect.

I believe that once someone is knighted, there is considerable latitude for dropping their surname. You can and should address or refer to someone as "Sir Peter" even if you've never met them and would otherwise (if they had no knighthood) address or refer to them as "Mr Hall" (or in this case "Professor Hall"). David's reference to Debrett's suggests that the generalization does indeed apply to this specific case.

@DavidRicherby Your basing it on "likewise" is incorrect. In the British system at least, it is standard to address a Knight as "Sir/Dame " only, both in letters and conversationally (i.e. instead of "Good morning Mr Smith", you say "Good morning Sir John"; it is never Sir Smith).

@Semaphore My "likewise" is correct. "Dear Sir Peter" is, as you say, correct; my objection was to "Dear Professor Sir Peter".

In the UK, for Knighted Professors, it seems the professor title is often dropped. For example, the Sir Peter Mansfield Centre drops the professor title. Both the knightly title and the professor title can be used, for example Professor Dame Sally Davies, but it can also be omitted (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Davies_(doctor))

This doesn't answer the question, which is about how to write the salutation of an email. The Sir Peter Mansfield Centre is an institute or building and such entities almost always drop the "Professor": this has nothing to do with the knighthood. Most buildings on campus are probably named after professors or donors; if they didn't drop "Professor", every second building would be the Professor So-and-So Building.

Personally, I would always address business communications to persons based on context. If I were writing to 'Sir Professor Richard Hall' on a personal level, I would address my email 'Dear Sir Richard'. If however, the learned gentleman was a professor at my University, I would switch to his academic title, and write 'Dear Professor Hall'.
Context is key here folks.

That would be "Professor Sir Richard Hall", not "Sir Professor". As you say, "Sir" goes with the given name and "Professor" with the surname.


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How write an article when the "waterfall model" is not a good fit?
Most scientific articles are written as if the research followed some kind of waterfall model. In other words, a typical paper proceeds pretty linearly from the idea to the results to the implications of the research, hiding the fact that one thing might have lead to another in a very non-linear way.
I guess the reason for the linear format is to attempt to make the research easy to digest for others, and to keep the paper as short as possible. However, what should one do when following the standard format becomes a too large burden (e.g. excessive cross-referencing), or hides a key insight about the research process itself, which could be valuable for others to know?

best strategy for me always has been to read papers in a different area of research, and look out for the way they structure things there. I find theory papers to be a good place to look for alternative structures. Seems that (from the outside at least) theoretical work is less prone to the streamlining. Is the waterfall model a US thing? I have never heard of it.

What field is this?  Paper writing can vary quite a bit from field to field (I'm in math and my papers never are organized in the order: ideas, results, consequences).

AFAIK there's no rule that says that a paper has to be structured in any particular way (although they may be the occasional reviewer who thinks that there is and that it is their job to enforce it...). If the usual way doesn't work, do something different :-)

Sorry to be blunt (and no offence meant at all), but to me it looks like you are trying to give a cover-up reason for your lack of effort in structuring the paper. Your research may not have been "linear", but there is no reason why you cannot reformulate your findings in a clear and direct way.

Whatever format you choose, you have to make sure that your audience can grasp what your paper is about within the first 4 sentences, that (s)he won't get "lost" while reading your article, and that it is easy to strategically skip much of the article and still get the main message. Remember that there is way too much being published, and that it is impossible to read it all. So most articles are only quickly glanced at and are only read if you convince the reader while (s)he is glancing at your article that it is interesting. This is the benefit of the standard format of articles.
While writing your article, you are obviously convinced that your article is worth reading, but keep that reader in mind for whom your article is just one of way too many and who won't read your article very attentively.
For example, the research process almost never follows the strick linear form in which it is presented in most articles. If that deviation is somehow relevant, then you can often use footnotes to discuss that without deviating from the standard form. For things that need more room, there are (web-)appendices.

Though most of the papers publish only  mention their liner approach, some do try to mention the multiple path summery (mostly psychological research), but that's where citing comes, an author conducts his/her research in a single path with controlled conditions, and opens door to other authors to take other path.
Even if you plan to include all the possibilities of your research outcomes, you should first follow waterfall model, and just jot down other possible outcomes for future, because reaching the destination is initially lots of trial and error process.
PS: it will mostly depend on your area of research and the approach you are taking


text:
Data collection methods without fieldwork
I am a graduate student in education who recently had a child. I have devised a few plans/topics that would work for my thesis but I keep revisiting them because they require a lot of data collection in the field, something I am not sure I will be able to achieve with a young baby at home and no babysitter/daycare for now.
So here I am, trying to come up with various data collection methods that could work without having to be in the field:

Giving directions to a research assistant and paying them to do it
for me
Interviews through Skype
Surveys
Self-reports
Document analysis

What would be other viable options that I haven’t listed?

Your advisor might have some ideas also...

@NateEldredge Of course, though I'm not sure I want to breach the topic of changing topics yet again until I'm fairly ready with a new proposal!

@MaartenBuis: First sentence: "education"

A good answer would require knowing what the data you collect would about.  Teachers?  Students?  The products of teachers' or students' work?  Adminstrators? Facilities?

@rolando2 I'm planning on using the questions' answers as a brainstorming tool to see what I can do (I don't expect people to decide for me what data collection methods to use for my topic) and hope that others can find a similar collection of methods useful.

Depending on your topic, consider working with an existing dataset. I highly doubt that would be frowned upon in an M.A. situation - you only have so much time to get things done!
I see you're in Ed Tech, so you have a lot to choose from. Most MOOCs provide open data you could work with (for example, see Harvard and MIT's Dataverse). The LAK conference is also an excellent resource for learning analytics datasets. Finally, there are also some governments that are providing open data pertaining to education, such as Queensland in AU.
But even if you can't find an existing dataset that provides the information you're looking for, the strategies you mentioned can all be used highly successfully. My own MSc thesis in Learning & Technology is one example. I designed a study where I combined an online survey with sentiment analysis to understand the role of personality in a set of online courses provided by large university. Never had to leave my laptop :)

I've seen other students do this and although that is something I prefered to avoid, you raise some very relevant points. I've also done research projects in the past year for which we have data that I could use but they are not my research interests so much... Maybe I should just come to terms with this :-)

Questionnaires
Written interviews.  If journalists can do it, I don't see why you can't.  There are some sub-options here.  You can send a list of questions by email, let them respond, send follow-up questions, rinse and repeat; you can set up a chat session and save the transcript; you can supplement a written interview/conversation with phone calls to clarify key points.


text:
When is it appropriate to close your office door when meeting with a student?
Generally speaking, keeping the door open to your office while attending with a student (or students) is a safe policy given the amount of danger one can get in should any allegations be made.  (I mention this last bit in light of the number of Title IX investigations that seem to be on the rise.)
However, is there ever an appropriate situation where closing the office door while meeting with a student or students is okay as a teacher/lecturer/professor?

Suggestion: default to open door, tell student that they're free to close it. By making it their decision you remove the power dynamic from the equation. If there's some reason you shouldn't let them close the door then you probably do want to consider the third party approach.

When it is private!! You should close the door if you have to tell the kid something really important or something very bad to him or her.

I usually keep my door open, but one situation where I may close the door (though usually not completely to the point that it latches) is when the hallway is very noisy, which happens semi-regularly at my office.  In fact, students have asked if they can close the door on occasion.

Your question reads to me like you are missing a "not" before "a safe policy", do you want to edit it?

I don't know how this is handled in your jurisdication, but maybe it is possible to use a webcam to record such private meetings just in case some allegations are made? If this is possible - closed doors are no problems anymore.

@StephanKolassa No, it's  correct as it is. Leaving the door open is safe because it indicates you have nothing to hide: it's unlikely that somebody is going to behave inappropriately if anyone walking past could see and hear it.

What about using a glass door?

There is also a cultural component there. In some countries where sneezing the wrong way gets you sued I would record everything and have someone with me in problematic cases (this is not a joke, I was suggested that during a "cultural training" as an expat). In the ones I leave in the norm is a closed door.

@StephanKolassa Given that events like this have happened, people take any allegation about a professor very seriously.  You close the door you're opening yourself up to such an allegation.  At that point, who would hire you ever again, even if they thought you were almost certainly innocent?

This is one of those topics for which different people have different opinions. Some professors (and some programs) have no issue with meeting with students one-on-one behind closed doors. Others will avoid it whenever possible. There are many, many factors that can affect the decision - including sensitive issues such as gender, power imbalances, tenure or job security, etc. It is impossible to give one-size-fits-all advice.
That being said, I think it is a fine practice to meet with your door open whenever possible, and simply lower your voice to avoid sharing private information such as grades.  For ordinary meetings, such as office hours, there is no serious reason to meet behind closed doors.
For situations where there are other concerns - such as concerns about of any kind of unprofessional behavior or claims about unprofessional behavior - it is often better to ask another faculty member to be present for the meeting. Even if they do not speak, their mere presence can genuinely help defuse tense situations by keeping you and the student more calm. Moreover, the other person is also able to recount their memory of the meeting should it be necessary, avoiding some issues that can arise when only two people were present for a conversation.

In my experience, a closed door is most likely when the two people have already established a trusted relationship and are on the same side in a tricky situation.  For example, when I was a TA and the professor and I were talking about how to deal with a possibly-cheating student, then we would likely close the door.

I think the convention, at least in the US is that if you are in a position of authority to convey anything confidential to the student, and if the conversation happens to be of confidential nature, it should take place behind closed doors. To be practical, I would make sure I have a clear idea of what I want to communicate and try to keep it as brief as possible. If there is a chance that things might escalate, may be have the conversation somewhere in the open such as a ground or a walkway around the institute.

The most safe option, if there is any real chance of escalation, is to ask a neutral third party (such as another faculty member) to be present.


text:
How will returning to your PhD advisor as a post-doc affect future career options in academia?
I am currently in a joint teaching/research post-doctoral position at a university that is different than where I obtained my PhD.  There may be an opportunity in the future for me to return to my old PhD advisor and be hired on as a post-doc once my tenure is up here.  I don't really NEED the job as I have decent job security teaching where I currently am.  It will, however, keep the door open for sustaining good research, publishing, and gaining grant-writing skills... the latter being something that my current post-doc advisor has never offered me...  And yes, personally I would like to go back and work for them again (for a variety of professional related reasons).
I understand this will be a lateral move at best but I am trying to gain sufficient understanding on how this will affect future career options in academia.  I've been told that this type of situation can cause people to simply overlook you when applying for faculty positions at higher-ranked schools.  I'm not really interested in joining some "Top 50" research university either but I'm not willing to join a pure undergraduate research program just yet either.
Please advise.

If you have decent job security in your current postdoc, and your long-term goal is a tenure-track position in academia (which I think is the case, but you didn't say it in quite those words), then I would expect you to be looking primarily for tenure-track jobs after your current postdoc.  Such a job certainly also keeps the door open for sustaining good research, publishing and grant-writing skills.  Could you explain why you are not thinking in these terms?  Or is this a backup plan for you?

Hmm.  I feel that I am several followup questions away from a good understanding of your situation.  With any luck, someone else will happen by who can help more immediately.

I'm also confused by not being interested in top 50 research institutions, but then you say you aren't ready for higher-ranked institutions - it seems like a contradiction to me. If your goal is tenure-tracked positions at a specific profile of school, it is most important that you be clear on a specific goal (if you have one) and what you think you are currently lacking that prevents you from that goal. Any action which does not further the goal will indeed be at best lateral, and probably a step away from the goal, but it's hard to say without knowing what you hope to accomplish.

It really depends on what country you are working, and what are your final goals. Most European academic institutions do tend to hire for tenure people who got their PhD in the same institution. I personally believe it is indeed an insular, unwritten policy, that is detrimental for professional development, and impoverishes the institutions research. Contrarily, most USA institutions take for granted your willingness to explore beyond your comfort zone.
As far as it concerns you personally, you see where I am heading by the language I am using :)

I have often heard that a student who stays too much in one place risks giving the impression of having a limited perspective, maybe being a bit insular.  However, a great thing about postdocs is when you're able to use them to build up your publications list.
In your case, it sounds like the opportunity to build up your publications might outweigh the other possible concern.  Also, I would think that your first postdoc in a different group would show that you have had the opportunity to broaden your horizons.


text:
How can I quickly sort what is peer-reviewed and what isn't in a wide body of literature?
I have long list of literature to review that I have inserted in Excel (title, authors, year, journal, etc.). I would like to quickly sort out which journals are peer-reviewed and which aren't.
I know I can check through each individual journal's site to see if they involve peer review, but is there a more efficient tool to do this? A search engine of some kind that would quickly show if a specific journal is reviewed or not?

The standards of peer review are pretty "volatile", so how would it help. Even for reputable journals you can often not see on the website if there are 1-3 reviewers. Better use https://www.scimagojr.com/ to see if a journal is widely spread, not sure it shows peer review info, even on wikipedia often not listed

You really would think that with all the talk of "peer-reviewed journals", there would be some kind of straight-forward way to see what journal is or isn't peer-reviewed, but I'm not aware of any way of doing so without manually checking each one. And that doesn't even consider predatory/fraudulent/phony/fake "peer-review", etc. Can't prove it doesn't exist, but I would personally suggest checking with your friendly local librarian to see if they have any suggestions on how you might make the process easier, like a meta-listing that only includes reasonably accepted journals, etc.

How many unique journal titles are there actually in this list? If it is literature on a single topic this list should probably (hopefully) not be too long...

I haven't actually carried this out, but here's a series of steps that might help:

The basic idea is that some academic databases have an option to filter search results by peer-reviewed status. You would use such sites.

At least two that I know of are EBSCO's Business Source Ultimate (BSU) and ProQuest.

You start by searching your chosen database with a generic keyword that would feature in every relevant journal (not necessarily every article, but surely every relevant journal) in your database.

For example, my field is information systems. So, I search for "information" on Business Source Ultimate (BSU): I get around 2.7 million results.

Now you filter by peer reviewed jouranls.

In BSU, I clicked the Limit To option: "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals": I get around 580,000 results. I further click "Academic journals" and get 540,000 results.

You might have to fine-tune the results to get a smaller number.

In the case of BSU, I can export a maximum of 25,000 results, so 540,000 is way too much. So, I fine-tuned my search until I found that searching for "information system" gave only 19,000 results.

Follow the instructions for your database to export ALL the results (not just the 20 or so that appear in your screen) to a spreadsheet file (e.g. Microsoft Excel).

EBSCO has instructions for exporting up to 25,000 results. Unfortunately, for some reason, this mass export option is disabled in my school library system, so my step-by-step example has to end here.

Use the spreadsheet software to remove all the duplicates in the journal column. (Here are instructions for doing that in Excel.)
So, there's your list of peer-reviewed journals in your field of interest.
You can compare your original list of journals with your list of peer-reviewed journals.
If there is any journal from your original list not on the exported list, then do not automatically assume it is not peer-reviewed (my steps are not foolproof); rather you can verify their peer-review status individually just to make sure. But that would be a lot shorter list than what you started with.

Actually, you could repeat all the steps above except to include ALL articles without filtering out non-peer-reviewed journals. Then the difference between the two exported journal lists would be a list of non-peer-reviewed journals, if that makes sense.

But all that said, you cannot assume that the database's marking of peer-reviewed journals is absolutely accurate. However, I hope this idea might help.


text:
When do you consider the writing of a theoretical framework to be complete?
As I am writing the proposal for my thesis, I am finding a lot of works to include in my theoretical framework with some items that take the spotlight because they are tied into my methodology. I'm doing an exploratory case study so many options are open and my topic potentially intersects a few fields. I am wondering, when does it become too much? When is it sufficient?
How should I decide what to include and what to skip when writing my theoretical framework? (in an exploratory study)

This will obviously depend on your field of study, but I'd expect it to also depend on the specific topic within that field, the conventions in your university and your department, and even the preferences of individual professors.  I'd say that only your adviser can give you a definite answer; all you can get from strangers like me would be wild guesses.

@AndreasBlass Hmm, would it be a better question if I asked what should form a theoretical framework, or what is a theoretical framework? It doesn't seem like it was asked before and might be helpful for me regardless.

I think that the questions suggested in your comment  will still get only wild guesses as answers. But of course you can try it out and see what happens.

That section of your document will help the reader understand your contribution, and it will show your committee that you know what you're talking about.  Try to accomplish that in as little space and time as you can.

Short version: Ask your advisor.

Long answer:
It's hard to answer that, as we neither know your field nor your university. Furthermore, a proposal is not a complete thesis, so there might be also differences because of that, there might even be regulations at your university that a proposal can only have some fixed number of pages.
As you are looking for advice, here is one:
Make a list of all the topics you deem relevant. Write down which paper you want to quote, write down who you want to mention, etc. Don't turn it into a full text yet, only put short headwords. Then, take your list and ask around at your university. A good starting point would be your (potential) advisor, as he should know both the regulations at the university and the field you are working on. If you don't have one yet, everyone with experience in this two points (other professors, PhD students, etc.) will do - you might even use this to look around for an advisor in this case.
As professors are often busy, your best chance should be to write a short mail describing your problem and asking for an appointment to discuss the list in person. Thus, your email won't land in a "to long, handle later" folder, you will already establish a personal contact, etc.


text:
What are the pros and cons of dealing with a very large dataset in qualitative research?
What are the pros and cons of dealing with a very large amount of qualitative data as a sole researcher?
Obviously, required time and resources come to mind, but what else?

What kind of research? Math, science, humanities, music...?

@Michael C. I'm personally concerned with social sciences but I couldn't find the question here so I think answering as generally as possibly could be worthwhile to more people

I think the biggest pro could be that you get the data all to yourself, so you can explore to your heart's desire. The biggest con could be inherent bias, which can be detrimental to statistical analysis.

What do you plan to do with the data? Are you using qualitative methods or statistics?

@henning Qualitative methods (which is why I didn't post in cross validated)

@Emilie then it probably depends on the precise method. If you are going to code a huge text corpus, for example, the obvious downside is that it is going to take forever.

There are no pros or cons just as there are no pros or cons to having $1,000,000 versus $1,000 to work with.  You are less constrained.  That is just a fact. The range of things you can do goes way up.  If you don't like things being larger, you can voluntarily choose for them to be smaller by sampling.  If you have a more specific question regarding methods, you should ask it on Cross Validated.

If the proper big data processing is done, you have more data to use. The con is that 'big data' is still a relatively new thing, and the resources may not be available for you to use easily.

What is 'the proper big data processing'?

I'm not a data scientist. I've been doing reading on data mining, and this seemed like a good use of big data analytics.


text:
Is there a way to get a complete name bibliography from Scopus? How can I set my scrape, in that case?
I need a complete name bibliography from a search but I'm only allowed to have the surname and then the names'initals. Is there a way to get them?

By "scrape" do you mean "filter"? Also, I'm not convinced that this question is on-topic, since it's basically asking for questions on how to use a very specific software tool to accomplish a very specific task.

@aeismail but it is a specific search in specific software that many others may like to make.

You just need to click on the author and it will take you to the author details page. There you will find the complete name of the author.
The bibliography you are exporting should be in the form as it is. While you can follow the above description for complete names.

The way you are mentioning works for one paper only. I think he is seeking for an automatic procedure by which he can change his report from a Family name, N. to Name, Family Name format in the author's column.


text:
How can I collect popular questions from my students?
This is a question about moving my courses online. I'm aware of the FAQ posted on this site to help these issues, but haven't seen my specific question addressed there. I also asked a version of this question on softwarerecs.stackexchange a few days ago that has not received any attention.
I'm teaching three different math courses. The students will be working on exercises assigned from the textbooks and also on exercises written by me. I am planning on posting videos of my lectures at the beginning of each week and treating normal "class time" as office hours via the zoom service. I can record and post these office hours in case any students miss them or would like to use them as a reference.
I imagine that many students will have questions about the same exercises. I'd like to be able to do some sort of triage on these questions. I'm curious if there is any online platform that would allow me to:

Collect questions from my students.
Allow students to "upvote" questions to measure popularity.

Such a tool would allow me to gauge where the students are struggling as a group. As far as I can tell, tools like google forms and surveymonkey do not have these features.
Does anyone have ideas?

Most campuses either use MS Office or Google's GStuite. does yours use either of them? Worst case scenario is that you create a spread sheet and use it as a polling tool.

I haven't used it, but I hear Piazza can do that.

@ff524 Yes, I suppose Piazza would work. It's not exactly what I'm looking for though. I'd rather not use an environment designed as a "forum" but it is of course nice to have something to fall back on.

Something like a wiki for your class will work. There are servers that are low impact that the department or IT might be able to manage.

I've been using Piazza for a couple of years now, and I can confirm that it could be used in that way, even though the students would have to understand clearly this unintended purpose.

A forum is quite handy as students post and can respond without you having to do it all... Moodle does a Forum and a Chat...

At one time I had a lot of success running a private wiki for my courses. Students could edit pages as is typical for wikis. I could distribute material, etc. But the advantage was that the wiki lived on from year to year, building up a resource.
There are a lot of servers, though they require a bit of management. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_software. Work with the university's IT department to deploy one of them, perhaps. There may be security concerns they can help keep track of.
But a simple email list server that subscribes students and course staff gives a way for students to ask questions at any time. And an answer you give to one student will be seen by all. This can help you avoid repeat questions from individuals.

There is more at this link than you ask about here, but notice at least the advice about short videos rather than full lecture videos.

Moodle has also a wiki activity. For courses already using Moodle it could be a simpler solution than dedicated wiki software. However, I've never used it.