text:
Professor gave me a higher grade than I deserved. What should I do?
During one of my undergraduate semesters I was pretty depressed (for various personal reasons) and was struggling with completing my coursework. One class in particular didn't have a final exam, there was a just a final essay to turn in worth 25% of the grade. I was really out of it, and in the end I couldn't meet the deadline and didn't even turn it in, I was so unable to concentrate that I was willing to just accept my fate.
For whatever reason, my professor gave me a B- in the class, which is just impossible. Though I did do reasonably well on the rest of the coursework, the highest I could've gotten was 75%, not to mention if there was some bigger penalty that my university had for not attending/doing a final assignment (like getting an incomplete or something, I have no idea). It's unlikely the class was curved that much either...I don't know whether it was a grading entry error, whether the prof accidentally swapped my grade with another person's, or if she just took pity on me (I had mentioned that I was going through some personal issues when I turned in an assignment late during the semester), but for whatever reason I got a B-.
At the time, I was surprised and just accepted it. But as I started to feel better I felt extremely guilty about not turning in the essay, and months later (I've since graduated) I sent my professor an email with the paper attached basically saying "Really sorry I didn't turn it in, I was feeling depressed at the time, I should've turned it in back then, here it is", to which she just hasn't responded. I'm fairly certain she doesn't care at all, but it's been bothering me for a while now.
I'm not sure what to do - should I turn myself in to the school? I feel guilty about the whole thing, but what's worrying me as well is that I also don't want this to bite me in the ass down the line later in life. Can I be punished for not turning the essay, or not telling my professor the grade might have been too high?  Was it a mistake to email my professor at all afterwards, maybe I'm causing a problem for her? All in all, I'm really not sure what to think or do.

Without knowing the grading thresholds at your institution it's hard to answer this.

You don't know what the grading scale was. (This past semester, for example, students who got an overall score of 55-65 in my class got a B-.)

"Merry Christmas" (My typical response to students that get a higher grade than they think they deserved).  In all seriousness, either (A) you really did deserve it, or (B) the professor, upon not finding your paper, presumed they lost it and made a best-guess as to your performance.  Both are quite likely.

This happened to me once on a midterm. I actually got the test back, had left entire answers blank, and had somehow gotten a B that I mathematically and clearly had not earned. I know the professor in question liked me in some personal and/or academic way (i.e., I think he thought I showed great promise). I was very ashamed at the time, mostly because others were upset at how poorly they did on the test. 20 years later, I still feel a little guilty, but also recognize that in the end, one grade in a undergraduate program doesn't affect my current life one way or the other.

Also, unfair grading happens both ways. You may find in some later class that you do what you feel is your best work and are given a D for it. The grace with which you respond to such things is more important than worrying about what you feel you deserve. Getting credit and blame you don't deserve is going to happen from time to time for the rest of your life, if my experience is any guide. Sometimes accepting credit you feel you haven't earned is actually more emotionally difficult than accepting blame you don't deserve.

the one thing you shouldn't do is worry about. just take it!

Oh the horror. You must complain about this blatant injustice!

@ToddWilcox Thank you for telling me that story, it's definitely an interesting parallel. One thing I didn't mention in the original post was that had I failed this course, I may have been put on academic probation, or perhaps worse (as I didn't do so hot in my other courses that semester either). So my professor's kindness may have been more impactful than just a GPA boost, which is maybe a contributor as to why I feel particularly guilty about the matter. It just seems like I got lucky, and am having a little difficulty coming to terms with it. Accepting undue credit might be harder...

That might actually be a fair grade; different courses have different grading scales, for various reasons. In many UK university courses (definitely the two I studied) a typical pass grade is 40%, and the threshold for 1st-class honours is 70%. That's not leniency; the course material is just that difficult - on purpose, to differentiate between the top candidates. A grading scale where any appreciable proportion of candidates all get 100% isn't very useful, because it doesn't help employers decide between them. On that scale, a B- might be 55-60%.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Frosh calculus - going into the 200-point final (1/3 of the grade for the class) I figured I need an 85% just to make a passing grade, and when I got done I knew I'd blown it. Although I figured I'd bombed my way out of college I went to the math building the next day to check the grade and found I'd passed. Woo-hoo!! I immediately went into the prof's office and basically asked, "What the f...?!?!?". He pulled out my test and said, "Well, it seemed like you understood what you were doing...". I got a 60 OF 200!! Wicked curve, dude!!! :-)

It may be worth noting that even if this is a genuine mistake on your professor's part, it might not be possible (by university policy) to correct it once it's appeared on your transcript. I know that when I was in grad school, the rule was that semester grades could only be revised up, not down, in the event of an error being discovered later. The graduate coordinator had a horror story about someone who accidentally gave everyone in their class the grade of the person alphabetically before them, and only half of them were able to be corrected once they figured it out...

@Micah sounds apocryphal to me.  It is true grades can be hard to change, but "clerical error" has always been a valid reason from what I've seen.  Universities are bureaucratic but rules aren't designed from the start to be inane.

I think it could be useful to you to read about imposter syndrome.

I'm thinking if you could accept good things that happen to you in life you might enjoy it more. For most people the subject of your post (it's not even a problem) is nothingto lose sleep over. I was actually wondering whether this was posted by a troll inventing some totally exaggerated story, it's so outlandish to a brute like me. But my gut feeling is that you are sincere. So my advice is to go out more, exercise more outside and generally focus on stimulating activities more than on introspection and reflection.

You may already be in complete karmic balance. The kismet that gifted you with the unearned passing grade is the same that afflicted you with the situational depression in the first place.

If I was deciding whether to hire or admit you and I learned this story about you, it would tilt the balance strongly in your favor that you are so worried about it. I see that your honesty and integrity comes from deep within your persona, instead of just a fear of being found out. The world needs more people who want to deserve good fortune before enjoying it.

Correct it with the professor. They will find out eventually.

As an adjunct instructor with depression, I could recognize students with depression, and often the final grade may be a bit of a "gift" if I know that they are having external-to-academia problems like this.  If I felt that your History 353 professor wouldn't be like "how did they pass ENGL 100, they can't write!", then I may grant a higher grade than the math said.  If it seemed another round of the class when you could focus would be needed for you to gain sufficient skills, then I would not "gift" like that.

Don't worry about it. No one's going to come after you for failing to turn in an essay in some random course. No one's ever going to check and, if they did, they probably won't care too much.
Should you turn yourself in? No. There's absolutely no reason to turn yourself in. You've done nothing wrong. The professor is the one responsible for assigning your grade correctly. For all you (or we) know, they felt you deserved a B-.
Should you have emailed your professor the essay? Probably not, but mostly because they probably don't care. I doubt they read it and I very much doubt that you caused any problems for them.

What you've said certainly makes sense Ric...but I still feel a little guilty  - perhaps with time, it'll sink in. I particularly wanted to send my professor the essay, I felt I had to do it to move on (as I, around the deadline emailed her to say I was working on it - but then didn't end up turning it in). But you might be right, it just might not matter.

There's no real harm in having sent it. My advice would be to try and not worry about it. Though that's easier said than done.

I think this 'feeling guilty about things' is causing all the stress and depression. I would hope you try to change your thoughts and not over think about everything. If we all think it's not worth worrying about than it's just you who is putting pressure on yourself. I feel concerned about it. Hope you feel better.

-1 "mostly because they probably don't care. " I would guess as someone who was himself an educator and knew a number of professors that most would care.  A LOT?  Maybe not.  But that's distinct from "don't care".

The best cure for guilt is penance.  Work off your guilt by doing some extra-good essays this year, and turning them in early.  Then you will feel like you don't need to feel guilty any more.  (This is a psychological phenomenon that the Catholic church has cleverly adopted - it really works).

As others have said, professors have a lot of flexibility in assigning grades.
It's not unusual for professors to have a policy of dropping a worst assignment and averaging the rest.  I've even seen this on final exams ("Happy with your grade going into the final?  Don't take it." or the variant "If you have an 'A' going into the final, you don't have to take it.").
If your professor had any clue that your outside-class troubles were preventing you from doing the final project, it's quite possible that she elected to use such a calculation for your scores, even if she wasn't doing so class-wide.  While at first glance this may seem unfair to other students, remember that the goal is to accurately evaluate your mastery of the material, not to make you do busy-work, and there's much more information about your performance in the assignments you did turn in than the ones after you got distracted.  The principle of "measure mastery, not busywork" appears in other ways too, such as credit-by-examination.
Your late submission of the assignment isn't likely to result in any sort of regrade, assuming the professor is comfortable with the calculation she used.  She might read it if she's interested, and your diligence in following up could lead to benefits beyond the course grade (recommendation letter, for example), but she's already decided she didn't need it to determine your grade.

I see other people are saying don't worry about it, and I completely agree. At the same time, I think it's worth acknowledging that your feelings are legitimate and that you have some valid reasons to feel discomfort about getting a grade you don't feel you've earned. Like many of us, you probably want to be judged and achieve success based on your real hard work and achievements and not due to some random error or act of charity. There is also an issue of fairness. For example, this grade might improve your GPA in a way that gives you a small but real advantage over another student who also didn't hand in their final project but was not so lucky to have such a compassionate (or absent-minded) professor. None of us who has any sense of fairness wants to benefit from this kind of injustice, so I completely understand why you find this troubling.
With that said, if this concerns only one grade in an undergrad class, the whole thing is really too trivial to spend any time worrying about, for the following reasons:

It is the professor's responsibility, not yours, to determine the grade you deserve. It's quite possible she saw your potential and sincerely believed you deserved a B+ even knowing that you hadn't completed the final essay.
Grades only contain statistical information anyway. It's quite possible and even likely that in other courses you got grades that were lower than you deserved (either in the sense that a concrete, measurable error or misjudgment of on the part of the professor occurred, or in a more abstract philosophical sense that the grade did not reflect your true knowledge of the material), or that in the course of your life you will suffer some other minor injustices. In the end those small injustices will more or less cancel each other out. In fact, suffering from depression is certainly its own much more major form of injustice.
You mentioned that later when you emailed the professor you actually sent her the essay you had completed. If in fact you did end up completing the assignment, then you got the educational benefit of the class and the assignment and demonstrated your knowledge, even if belatedly. So in the end you probably completely fulfilled the professor's expectations that caused her to give you the grade in the first place. So really, what do you have to feel guilty about, other than some technicality?
Lots and lots of students get grades that are higher than what they deserve, whether it's due to outright cheating, grade grubbing, or being intellectually lazy and just studying for the test without knowing or caring about the material. The injustice that you are describing (to the extent that it is one) seems to me like a pretty microscopic one that -- I'm sad to say -- drowns in an ocean of much worse injustice.

To summarize, I've often thought that guilt, while certainly a useful emotion, can at times be quite a counterproductive thing, and it is important not to obsess about it or let ourselves be paralyzed by it. The best thing you could do both for yourself and for the world is to focus on leading a good life and finding ways to help yourself and others, rather than worrying about a grade in some long-forgotten college class. I'm sure that is precisely what your professor would want you to be doing.

I appreciate the very detailed post Dan (in your first paragraph, you've precisely described my concerns, by the way), your thoughts have been very helpful.
Perhaps what's also adding to my discomfort is that, had I failed the class, I might've been put on academic probation or even a more severe penalty, as I didn't do stellar in my other classes that same semester. So if my professor wasn't so kind, I could've been in a worse situation. All of the reasons you've listed make sense...but I can't help but feel I got very (perhaps undeservedly) lucky in how my professor decided to grade.

Glad I could help. Yes, clearly you got a bit lucky. I'm not a psychologist, but from a quick google search it seems that people feeling guilt as a result of being lucky or fortunate in some way is quite a common phenomenon. See for example here and here. Anyway, I really hope you'll manage to forget all the what-ifs and come to peace with what happened, enjoy your good fortune and pay it forward.

@Apollofresh: As you realize, your late submission of the paper after already getting the grade is more for yourself than for your professor. After all, it is legitimate for you to want to complete what you felt you ought to have done, as Dan said, and since you have done it, that's good enough. If you really feel the need to, you can always find the professor to talk to her about it, but in my opinion you shouldn't ever say or suggest you think your grade should be changed, since you have essentially already made up for what you felt guilty about by completing the paper. Nobody's perfect. =)

+1 for #1. Often, the hardest part of grading is figuring out who gets the last B, and who gets the first C. Some professors choose to stick with a predetermined scale, but others give themselves some leeway. Many factors can play into this – overall effort, improvement over time, attitude and engagement in class, etc. Sometimes I'll cut a student some slack when most of their grades were very solid save for one outlier in the gradebook – like a paper that somehow didn't get turned in. In this case, I bet the prof felt a B- was the most accurate indicator of the student's overall performance.

Each individual must take responsibility for his or her own actions.  From your description, you have done that.  You did nothing to deceive anyone or to cheat in any way.  You never asked for a grade you didn't deserve.  While your guilt can't be ignored, you must realize and eventually accept that your grade was determined by your professor, who had all of the necessary information at the time to make a proper decision.  Without seeing the grades of the other students and comparing their work to yours, it would impossible to say whether your grade is fair or not, so you'll never be able to definitively say what your grade should have been.  But you should recognize that if the grade is not appropriate for the work you did, it is because of choices the professor made and not you.  It's time to let this one go.

Keep things in perspective here - you weren't accidentally awarded the Nobel Prize. You got (possibly, it's not certain) an extra letter grade in an undergraduate course.  And you made a reasonable and honorable attempt to bring the matter to the attention of the instructor.
You have absolutely nothing to feel guilty or be worried about.  Don't waste any more time or thought on it and put it behind you.

Enrico Fermi, though undoubtedly brilliant and deserving, got the Nobel Prize for a misinterpretation of experimental results. Though he must have undoubtedly been deeply embarrassed, it did not tarnish his reputation, and his regard in the scientific community is nothing but glowing. In short: it happens to the best of us. Instead of feeling guilty, it's better karma if we work at becoming worthy of the good things that occur to us rather than feeling guilty of them.

Not sure if there are any strict grading standards in the academic institution in questions, but in my experience, teachers usually have some liberty in deciding the grade the feel is appropriate for a student, in addition to the raw numbers behind it. Beyond plain sympathy, a teacher can bump a student's grade just to give them a better chance to keep going with their studies, when they see potential.
It is also possible the teacher based the final grades on the highest grade in the class. This basically means the highest grade (doesn't matter what it actually was) turns into A+ and mathematically recalculate all the other grades on a sliding scale based on it.

If it would make you feel better, you should talk to the professor (if you still can). You could tell them about your situation before the essay was due and apologize for not being able to turn it in on time. Also say that you had sent them an email some time ago, with the incomplete essay, and ask if they had a chance to look at it. You could offer to complete the essay, not for extra credit or anything, but so that you feel better about the whole thing. Professors are also people, and they like a student who is honest. You could save yourself some guilt as well :)

I wish I could upvote this more than once, it's such a sensible solution. Talking to the professor will relieve your guilt and might give you insight into where the mark came from. If it's actually a mistake, there won't be much consequence except the professor will be impressed by your honesty, but it's possible you deserve the mark in a way you don't know. It's not that you are obliged to look up the professor, but if you are still worrying about it, talking to them could only help!

Grades are often believed to be objective. They are almost never, except for some multiple choice tests, and yet, teachers can still weight answers.
I can only talk for myself as a teacher: I praise work, attention and effort. Some of my students have had grades they probably did not deserve, but I bet (experience?) that they have absorbed sufficiently from the lectures. I even have boosted grades when I thought they needed some self-confidence.

With all due respect to people's philosophical and ethical musings about your situation, you asked "what to do". And you don't seem like the kind of person who appreciates the "you got away with it, just let it go" approach. Well:

You are facing a dilemma regarding your studies which is not about the subject matter itself.
You are unsure what's the correct way to act.
Action may involve the professor or the faculty/university administration.

The answer seems to be: consult them. Specifically, do one of the following (in order of my preference):

Talk to one of the course's teaching assistants, if it has any, to learn about the grading policy and its exceptions, and to ask them whether you think you should approach the Professor about this.
Talk to the Professor him/herself, as suggested in Arvind Mani's answer.
Faculties/schools within universities typically have an academic staff member in charge of overseeing undergraduate student affairs, academically. Visit that person's office hours to ask him about this. I would suggest you begin by not mentioning the exact course and the exact numeric details, to make it a semi-hypothetical question first.

They might tell you it's alright and just to let it go, or they might say something else, but you would have certainly done the most fair and transparent thing you can and your conscience should be clear.

You're right in that it's been difficult for me to quickly let things though. With time, I may come to accept it...but I'm still struggling with things at the moment.

Sent prematurely^. I've certainly considered calling (I've graduated) my professor or the school...What's holding me back is: 1. I've already emailed my professor that I didn't turn in the paper...and she could've taken action at that point if she wanted to (e.g., if she assigned the grade in error). and 2. I don't want my professor to get in trouble if I go to the school - repaying her kindness by getting the administration mad at her (on off chance that the grade she gave was actually frowned upon) would just create more, perhaps deeper guilt for me. Any further thoughts? A conundrum.

@Apollofresh: Note you can delete your earlier comments. Anyway, option 1 then. And she has no TA, maybe a TA you know from another course - someone who's "part of the system" but who cannot directly act on anything you tell him. That's the best idea I've got, sorry. :-)

As with Dan and LaurenT, I suspect there's a good chance the Professor saw something in you when you could not yourself see it. I think it's good that you're reflecting on this so deeply. Take it as a gracious, priceless gift. Don't squander it. And pass it on.

Sounds like it's less a question of grading, but more a question of closure. That undeserved grade is nagging you. Some thoughts:

As others have written, what the institution does is not your problem. Things are done and you create more problems trying to change it than by leaving it as it is (for yourself, the prof, the university).
It won't bite you later because you were open about it and did turn it in. Usually, the cover-up kills careers, not the mistake itself, and you did not try to cover it up. Furthermore, there are legitimate ground for turning in papers later. It's easy to see when a person gets hit by a car, not so easy with mental disorders or the like. It probably wasn't formally correct, but that can happen when unforeseen things happen.
If this isn't the only instance when an undeserved benefit bugs you (in itself a socially advantageous trait, although undoubtedly career-negative), find out what helped in these other circumstances. People can tell you that you did nothing wrong (because you did not, e.g., you did not try to game the system), but you have to accept it for yourself (i.e., gain closure). Personally, I would see the turning in as end point, try to extract a few lessons how to act in the future (e.g., talk to the prof after getting the grade, although difficult in that situation), and move on.

LOL!  Good to see your concern about your unfortunate semester.  Professors often take quite a bit into account to raise grades, seldom to lower them.  Most likely, the Professor looked very hard at the grades before the grades were ever turned in and asked if any of the grades might be higher.  Perhaps yours was raised, perhaps the overall curve was lowered.  It was all very carefully considered and you got what you got!  Congratulations and please accept the good with the bad.
Over the years, I've seen a number of interesting situations.  The older trucker, wanting to be an Engineer, struggling through Calculus.  He had no Algebraic Discipline!  The Professor helped him through problems, one line at a time for a while, citing Algebraic Discipline.  The trucker struggled through tests with grades of D, then C, then B, with a near A on the final!  Did the trucker learn Calculus?  Yes!  Did he learn Algebra?  Oh, absolutely!  He finally had motivation to observe Algebraic Discipline!  The trucker argued that the Professor gave him too high a grade.  The Professor pointed out that the grade was simply the mathematical average.  After the trucker argued more for a lower grade, the Professor said, no, the only regret is that the class syllabus had no provision for raising the grade a letter!  (At that point, the trucker seemed satisfied!)
Perhaps depression is not the same as not knowing algebra, but each student is very important and you did not accidentally receive a higher grade.  On the other hand, the Professor may not be able to fully account for all the factors that go into the grading, so may not have a satisfying account for you!

...The trucker, by the way, worked very hard.  For example, he took three or four days of vacation, right before the final and worked on reworking all his homework problems, carefully observing algebraic discipline, ten and twelve hours a day!

What is Algebraic Discipline?

When working Algebra, each succeeding line must be logically derived from the previous line.  The professor seemed to come up with this as a humorous way to point out that a student screwed up the Algebra by saying that he'd lost his Algebraic Discipline!
The class was small and started with one of three classes being with students at the board.  In such situations, morale is very important to student performance and one does not want the students to fear going to the board!

The critique of Algebraic Discipline along with asking for a volunteer to help the lost student often works out to build morale, trust & friendships!

At least with that class, the technique worked very well.  By the last half of the semester, students were requesting every other session be at the board.  Moreover, the students were starting at the end of the problem sets and attempting the hardest problems first.  Sometimes the book answers were not obtained, or only obtained by correcting the problem's wording!  In any case, the students had a wonderful learning expeience!

...experience...

You may need to rephrase your concerns, in your own mind, to avoid this worry, and go forward.
Perhaps a better question for you, is "Do I understand the subject reasonably well, and will it allow me to do the work I want to do?".
Within a few years of working, the the particular grade of qualification will never be asked about, just like high school scores. Within a few years of that no one will even ask what course/degree it was.
Be wary of the idea that it's only hard work that counts, when you can work smart.

I think that learning and education encompasses also a human interaction between the teacher and a student - it is much more than learning tasks or execute tasks.
Apart the fact that it is up to the teacher to evaluate and give a grade, it is so also in the society : let the other judge your work.
And people build opinions also taking into account the effort, the struggle, the process a person undergoes to achieve something.
So, if you where pretty depressed, as you wrote, most problably others noticed it.
I do not say that they give votes for charity to encourage people, but probably take into account also the difficulties that a person has in producing a result - which is a formation process.
Otherwise, we could ask to write essays to machines, and evaluate the essay on quality. But how would you evaluate the people who come to build the machines? Do you think a scale of marks would be appropriate and would reflect evenly all the different background and paths in their education?
So enjoy that you are no more depressed, and kick-ass in your next essay, and proof yourself you deserve a good mark, or either you don't care that much about that subject.

authors: Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні


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In the UK, how do scientists address each other?
Let's say you have a PhD, and they have a PhD, and you are familiar with each others' work, but you never met personally. Would you address them as "Dear Dr. Smith" in an email, or "Dear John"?
A further source of awkwardness: Suppose you are addressing several people at the same time, and some do not have a PhD yet, do you write "Dear Dr. Williams, Mr. Johnson and Dr. Smith"?

This depends more on the field than anything else. Please specify what field you have in mind.

With great vengeance and furious anger?

What ho, fellow boffin.

I only call my PhD friends Dr XX whenever they do a big fuckup, to gently mock them. Otherwise its closer to "mate".

I have avoided this question during my entire PhD by starting my email by just "Hello,"

@JackRed It's better than "Dear," without a name. That's for sure.

Dear Barbara (if I may),
Xyz.
Kind Regards, Carla

Don't ever Mr., Ms. or Mrs. (urgh) anyone because it gets gross quickly for anyone who is not cis, and you don't want to assume their gender.

(+1) I share your dislike of the gendered modes of address, and avoid them myself. From a purely descriptive perspective however, they are (unfortunately) still commonly used.

"it's gets gross quickly for anyone who is not a cis male" Pardon me, but, I would like to make you aware that this exactly is gender discrimination of cis males.

@Hjan Most cis males I'm acquainted with do not find this gross (though a minority do). When you're explicitly talking about gendered aspects of societal convention, I don't think it's discrimination to acknowledge the fact it affects (typical members of) different groups differently. (I'm not sure it's important to include that information in this answer, but that's another matter entirely.)

@wizzwizz4 surely if it is "gross" it is equally gross for anyone who isn't cis. I don't understand why cis males should be singled out in particular. I am sure you have seen may cis females, for example, understandably objecting to being called "Mr". I edited the relevant part of the answer since I honestly think this was just a typo or editing error (also confirmed by the errant "it's").

@terdon Mrs / Miss, presumably. See Wikipedia. (I'd have edited out the entire qualifier, just leaving "it gets gross quickly".)

I feel like the advice at the end is way too categorical. I understand that the point is to avoid misgendering people, which is excellent. I'm not sure about the seeming implication that no transgender person would ever want to be referred to as "Mr.", "Mrs." or "Ms." More to the point, though, while if one has no additional information, one should clearly avoid assuming a gender, it's quite possible to have information on someone's pronouns or even their preferred honorific directly from their webpages, their papers, their email signature, their talks, or just from knowing them.

Also, I see that "cis" was previously "cis male," and the seeming implication from that version of the statement that being called "Ms." is perceived as gross by all cisgender (and transgender) women is facially incorrect.

@wizzwizz4 - I think it's a good and necessary point about avoiding misgendering people, but (initially) framed in such a categorical way as to suggest that no binary transgender person would ever feel comfortable being referred to with any gendered honorific, no women want to be referred to as "Ms." or "Mrs.", and perhaps even that one should avoid gendered honorifics even when one knows that someone would prefer them. (I personally would like gendered honorifics and pronouns to disappear, but I'm not going to do that by ignoring the expressed personal preferences of those who use them).

@terdon I think your edit is misunderstanding the meaning of the original guidance. The overlapping problems are 1) misgendering, particularly for trans people (hence the mention of "cis"), and 2) for all women, determining their title of address based on their marital status (gross). Though certainly not everyone is equally offended or equally okay with these labels, and though certainly cis men can have a problem with the system as well as anyone else, the point is that "Mr./Ms./Mrs." only "works" consistently for addressing someone who is a cis male where "Mr." most clearly describes them.

When it comes to titles, there's an easy solution, see what title is used on their staff page or in the staff directory and use that. If they get offended over it that's not your fault, that's the university's problem.

@BryanKrause - Ms. was specifically created as an equivalent of Mr. for women that did not signal marital status, though, relative to the Mrs./Miss dichotomy. And plenty of women use it for themselves regardless of marital status. The implication that "Ms." is universally rejected is part of what makes the categorical assertion there less than perfectly helpful, with the other half being that someone could easily get the impression that binary transgender people universally don't use gendered titles.

Well, and the fact that its wording is so broad as to either not contemplate the possibility that some (really, many) people actually both want to be referred to with gender titles and convey which ones are correct through various means, or to imply that even they should not be referred to with gendered titles despite their personal preferences.

@Obie2.0 It was popularized for that use but it's actual use goes back further as abbreviation for Miss; not everyone is comfortable with it.

@BryanKrause - I think it originated as an abbreviation of "Mistress" in a period when this term was not tied to marital status. That's kind of beside the point, though, because there's a lot of space between "not everyone is comfortable with it" (true) and "never use it with anyone" (what the answer perhaps unintentionally implies). Not everyone is comfortable being called "she," either, including many cisgender and transgender men, many non-binary people, and even some cisgender women, but declaring "never call anyone 'she'" would also be less than fully correct.

@BryanKrause - The fundamental issue with the assertion in the answer is that, less than encouraging the cautious and respectful approach of not using any gendered titles unless you know what someone prefers, it seems (again, perhaps inadvertently) to suggest the approach of never using any gendered titles, regardless of what someone prefers.

I accepted this answer, because I liked the (if I may) suggestion. But I don't really know what the social norms in the UK are.

@BryanKrause the original version was "Don't ever Mr., Ms. or Mrs. (urgh) anyone because it's[sic] gets gross quickly for anyone who is not a cis male". That sentence doesn't make sense, and the typo suggested it was a remnant of an incomplete edit prior to posting. In any case, it doesn't make sense to say that using Ms or Mrs gets "gross" if you are not a cis male. Had the sentence only been about "Mr" maybe that would work—although, obviously, at least some trans males would be more than comfortable with Mr—but with the addition of the female versions the sentence was nonsensical.

@terdon If you're not a male, then the Mr/Ms/Mrs system involves choosing your honorific based on marital status. That's the sense.

@BryanKrause I mean, feel free to edit as you wish, but the OP focused specifically on cis males as though everyone else is happy to be misgendered. And Mr vs Ms (nobody really uses Mrs anymore and the OP added an "urgh" for that one anyway) has nothing to do with marital status.

The hurdles to address someone by first name are very small in British academia. Being mutually acquainted with each others papers, or eg being introduced via a common acquaintance, are definitely enough to make using the first name acceptable.
If you are using a formal mode of address, you should get it right though. That indeed means using "Prof" for professors (associate professors are not professors in the UK), using Dr for everyone else with a PhD, and Mr/Ms for those without.

using the first name acceptable --- Unless in a movie or TV show, where it seems even close colleagues ALWAYS refer to each other as Doctor or Professor. This is one of those "Hollywood things" that I don't know whether the people involved simply don't know any better (presumably these people never overhead their college/university professors talking among themselves when these people were walking through hallway corridors to their classes or at any other time) or whether these people are doing this because they think this is what viewers expect (who also presumably never . . .).

As with all things, there are subtlies. So the hurdles to using first names are small in British academia, but they are not non-existiant. If you have no connection at all to someone, I would use Dr./Prof. I would also use title-lastname on my first email to someone, then probably revert to first name after that.

@IanSudbery "I would also use title-lastname" -- if you have no connection, or regardless?

@MWB I might well use it regardless if its my first ever email to someone, although not if I knew them very well. Also important here is respective seniority. I would definately always use formal address for my first ever email to someone more senior than me.

@DaveLRenfro It's not just academia. I've been on a first-name basis with every boss, colleague, and customer I've had in the US computer industry for over 40 years. Yet Hollywood usually shows much more formality than I've ever experienced.

Conversely, when I was an undergrad I called all my professors "professor ___", even when I knew they probably would have preferred their first names. Was it a sign of respect? Sort of but that's not the real reason. I'm just a big Futurama fan and I get a kick out of calling anyone professor.

Generally, "Hi John".
If you're in a formal setting, they're particularly accomplished, and it's the first time you've met them, maybe "Doctor X" but that would generally be the exception and, in my experience they will almost always tell you to use their first name.
If you're emailing, having never spoken to them before, Dr X might be more appropriate for the initial email and then go with whatever they respond with from there.
Now, you might get the odd stuffy one but in my experience next to nobody cares and most people are more than happy with just being called their name.

This is the correct answer in my experience. If I was emailing someone particularly senior and famous I would maybe look up their title, otherwise I'm going to go with "Hi firstname". The thing that throws me is when someone signs their email with a particularly informal feeling name (e.g. Deborah signs an email "Debs"), but I make myself respond with whatever name they signed with even if it feels weirdly informal.

Considering that the first contact is almost always e-mail, and the OP asks explicitly for a situation where they are familiar with the person's work but have never actually met, I would almost always go for "Dr X" or "Prof X" (whichever is correct, as listed on their staff page) for first contact. While true that 99% of the time, it will indeed converge to "Hi John" after a single round of e-mails, in my experience cold e-mails starting with "Hi Firstname" tend to be spam so I'm not particularly endeared to them.

If you've never communicated with an academic before, best to play it safe and address them either as Dr. Lastname or Prof. Lastname. Be absolutely sure to check which title they use by going on to the university or institution website (professor is an earned title in the UK, and most academics are not professors). If they don't have a PhD (they might be a student) then usual title conventions apply.
Include your full name (including your title) in your message if communicating in writing. If they address you with your first name and/or don't use their title in their response, then you can safely assume, at least in writing and one-on-one conversations, that you're on first name terms now, and should from then on communicate as such. I find most academics tend to prefer first name terms nowadays.
One important thing to note is if you're conversing with them with an audience. Some academics will be happy for you to be causal with them privately or with a group of other academics, or perhaps even PhD students, but they will be bothered if you don't use their title when introducing them or conversing with them with a group of undergraduates listening in, for example.

"Include your full name" -- to clarify, are you referring to the email signature, or the message itself? Here in the US, at least, I finish the message with my first name as a signal that it's OK to use it.

@MWB In the signature generally.

Include your full name (including your title) in your message if communicating in writing Signing off with your title may indicate to the other party you want to be addressed by it, which in a UK context would be rather unusual but they will be bothered if you don't use their title when introducing them or conversing with them with a group of undergraduates listening in, for example. In the UK anyone who was bothered by this would come off as having absurd delusions of grandeur, given undergrads more often than not use first names with lecturers.

@MJeffryes If you're concerned about your first  point, then you can use your full name or first name without your title and then include a signature block below with your title. That's pretty common in emails. As for your second point, I think it is important to remember that firstly UK academics are a very diverse bunch and may have come from cultures with different expectations of formality, and secondly it's not nessecarily about ego, it could be seen as showing the undergrads formal etiquette (which might help if they interact with other academics outside the UK).

@Crazymoomin On the second point, I just don't think your answer is actually grounded in how UK academics behave. Your answer is generic and not actually applicable to this country. That is, it would not be a reasonable expectation for anyone working in a UK university to have, and is not one anyone would bother to concern themself with catering for (unless I suppose they were directly asked to, but if someone did ask me that I'd think they were incredibly pompous, and I suspect so would the vast majority of my colleagues).

@MJeffryes I am a PDRA at a well-known UK university. We have academics from all over the world from different countries and cultures, and some of them prefer more formal communication to others. You don't know, so you shouldn't assume. Even some British academics can be a bit fussy about it. My English PI, for example, we are on first name terms in private settings and in small project meetings, but in some group meetings he addresses everyone by their title (if they have one), including when introducing himself.

Actually I think this the best response here; it covers all the points and mentions to check their staff page which will usually hint at a correct title. I'm also an academic in the UK, I'm somewhere in between in how I'd like to be addressed, have colleagues from all over this range of behaviours, and I don't think any of them have absurd delusions of grandeur. Which is why I think this answer (use Title Lastname to introduce, and give the person a chance to offer their first name themself) is right on point

For example, as a module coordinator, I will make sure to introduce the module team (myself and another academic; especially the other academic) as Title Lastname (and I'll practice pronouncing his last name the day before). I think both him and me tell students to address us by our first name, as our last ones are difficult for English speakers, especially if they are polite in their communication. However, if I get an email addressed to "Dear Sir" (I am female, and this happens often), I don't feel particularly inclined to offer to be on a first-name basis with that undergrad.

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Applying for a PhD during the pandemic
A buddy of mine who lives in Amsterdam told me that it is not a good idea to apply for a PhD as an international student because the chance of getting admission is narrow these days. I would just pay for the application fee and other things without getting tangible results. He said although we are free to apply, it is highly unlikely to get admission because of the pandemic and borders' restrictions. He also added that because as Iranians we have a lot of other problems regarding studying online and getting student visas due to a myriad of reasons.
Is a PhD application under the current situation less likely to succeed, and should I therefore rather wait?

I'm voting to reopen the question because I don't think it depends on individual factors. The OP brings forward a number of general aspects which could, in principle, make applications for international students useless. The available answers address these aspects in a meaningful way.

@lighthousekeeper I based my vote a bit on the title question "is it a good idea"; I'd also vote to reopen if it was instead focused on the various specific concerns raised in different answers, however it's a bit complicated to edit the question now that it's attracted a bunch of answers already without making parts of those answers unrelated to the asked question.

In Australia, Iranian students have no problems getting a visa and admission, unless they are working on projects with military applications.    The situation has no changed with Covid-19.  The only problem is the border closure, meaning a student would have to enroll remotely if they wish to start now.  Otherwise, they can defer until the border opens.

There are no university programmes or positions with application fees in the Netherlands.

I suggest you should do some (more) research, at least to validate the assumptions in your question:

Application fees and other costs. Some Ph.D. programs in Europe don't have any; for instance, when I was applying, many in my area (German-speaking European country / physical and natural sciences) did not have any costs at all.
Visa issues. My institute has admitted as many international students as ever these last two years, including Iranians, and the students have been able to get visas. (More specifically, internship admissions have been affected by visa concerns, but Ph.D. admissions have not, as far as I can tell).

Another perspective: how long are you willing to wait for things to improve? Unless you have strong reasons to believe that next year will be any better than this one pandemic-wise, I would strongly consider applying now.

Re. vias issues: The Netherlands specifically has recently made it harder for Iranian students to get admitted, for example https://www.delta.tudelft.nl/article/stringent-monitoring-iranian-students-and-scientists. The friend in Amsterdam is likely referring to such measures.

@BrtH Makes sense, thanks! I suppose it depends on where specifically the OP wants to study, which isn't really specified in the question.

@BrtH That's a very relevant comment that might be worth turning into an answer. But it seems to apply only to a small fraction of all students, namely those in sensitive studies. The mentioned examples are related to building rockets and nuclear physics and chemistry.

You have two options:

Apply for a PhD position and risk not getting the position
Not apply for a PhD position and be 100% certain of not getting the position

The choice is yours.

There may be costs associated with applying that may not be insignificant for someone living in Iran.

@AzorAhai-him- Can you explain more? OP says "application fees and other costs". I'm not aware of any European country that has application fees for a PhD program. A brief Google search brought forward that some US universities seems to have them...

@lighthousekeeper I'm not sure what else there is to elaborate on. I don't know which/if any EU/Dutch universities have fees (or tests that cost money in order to apply), but they will be a larger percentage of an average Iranian's income than a Dutch person's.

@AzorAhai-him- If there is no application fee, then it will not be "a larger percentage of an average Iranian's income than a Dutch person's" — they are both 0%.

There are no university programmes or positions with application fees in the Netherlands.

@Servaes Actually there are - for example, M.Sc. programs at Uni Leiden have an application fee of €100 for international students. But I couldn't find any example for PhD student applications, which are the scope of the question.

From the perspective of a professor who has hired PhD students during the pandemic (coincidentally, in the Netherlands -- where we don't have any "application fees" for PhDs):
Our ultimate goal is to hire strong candidates. If there is a chance to hire a strong candidate, we do what it takes to make the hiring possible and overcome possible limitations. Therefore, the potential limitations you cite either don't apply, or only apply to a limited extent:

"because of the pandemic" - That's a non-issue. There might be fields in which starting any PhD research currently is difficult per se, because they require physical attendance in the lab. But that's not specific for international students.
"because of border restrictions" - That's mostly a non-issue as well. The border restrictions are generally set up in a way that allows people to immigrate to start a new job, including a PhD. There could be temporary issues when the border to a high-risk country is closed entirely, but experience has shown that these will ultimately be lifted.
"because of visa issues" - This could be an actual issue, especially if the visa offices in your country are closed down due to the pandemic situation. Potentially, visa issues can delay the starting date of your position by many months. In that case, I as a hiring professor would be patient and show lots of understanding, in the hope that you will eventually arrive and start your PhD.

International student that did actually apply for PhD positions during the pandemic here. I have one now.

I didn't get the impression that chances were too narrow. Three international students were admitted to my professors group alone this term including one non-EU.

Universities are aware of possible visa problems. According to the welcome email we got, mine seems to be dealing with these cases individually (offer distance learning e.t.c.). I didn't get the sense that it affects whether or not students are admitted.

I applied mainly in Europe and didn't have to pay any application fees at all.

The only test that I had to take and pay for was my CAE English certificate. You would need this after the pandemic, too (for those Universities that require an English test). So even if you don't get a position right away, you can still use it after the pandemic.

Simply contacting the potential advisor is always a good idea. They probably know more about the specific situation at their university.

You're asking the wrong question.
The point is to make a connection with a potential advisor and talk about potential research work as a Ph.D. candidate.
If there's interest on both sides, the potential advisor would suggest when (or if) your friend should apply.

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Do bachelor's and master's degrees have to be the same in order to apply for a doctorate?
I got my bachelors degree in the field of wood and paper science engineering and got my masters degree in the field of industrial engineering. I have more than 15 years of experience in the field of industrial engineering (planning, production planning, mathematical modeling, and multi criteria decision making). Besides, I have 8 years of research experience in the same field with 15 research projects and papers published in international journals with IF between 1.945 to 5.467. I am wondering, is it possible to apply for a PhD in industrial engineering in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand? Or do my bachelors degree and masters degree have to be the same in order to apply for a PhD position?
I know there are many criteria and each university has their own rules and regulation, but can you give me an answer in general?

Those two fields are a lot closer together than many combinations. That background should be fine in principle. But, as you say, you need to discuss with the particular universities you are interested in applying to.

Thank you very much for your comment JenB

No, you do not need to have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the same field in order to apply for a doctorate. Each university will have its own rules and admission criteria, but I have not ever seen it be a requirement.
Some universities will only admit students to the doctorate level if they have obtained a master’s in the same field at the same university as the doctorate, but even this is not always the case.

I suggest you mention your experience in a least one of the named places. I know what you say would be true in US, but I have no way to judge elsewhere.

Thank you very much.

I can't speak for other countries. In the US, you can directly apply to a Ph.D. program without having a master's degree. I believe your really good experience can compensate a lot.

Thank you very much for your comment. Thank you.


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How to avoid getting lost in referring multiple reference texts at the same time?
I am a 2nd year PhD student working on a project which involves control systems and power systems. For the next stage of my work, I have to learn about a control systems technique which I am not familiar with. It involves advanced mathematics and control systems concepts. So I picked the most well-known book in that area and started going through it. However, when I was at the middle and I could not understand a certain concept which the book assumes that the reader is familiar with, I searched for some other references and ended up finding the 'best' references: lecture notes from top universities, video lectures, other books. However, at the end I am struggling to decide upon what to read, what not to read and the references which I am going to pick to learn the content which I need. Simply speaking I am overloaded with reference texts and struggling to make a judgement.
Having faced such a problem, in general, what would be the advice you could give to avoid getting 'lost' in trying to follow all the references ? How can I be selective and proceed with a single references and finish learning what is required.

It sounds like you have two (related) questions, I will try to answer both:

how to not get too distracted by references to other sources?
how to pick the best reference to read?

If your goal is to finish a certain book, but you get "distracted" by following references, you have to choose: (1) go back to the book as soon as you learned what is necessary to continue, or (2) decide that your new goal is to "learn about subject X" and that following more references helps you achieve this goal.
It is perfectly normal to find, follow and read references while studying (in fact, this is pretty much the definition of studying). If you have no specific learning goal in mind, you should either set such a goal, or just keep reading what interests you most.
If you have no good reason to pick any reference over the other: just pick one and start reading. It sounds like you want to pick "the best" reference, but what is "best" depends on your prior knowledge, your goal, and your personal preferences.
Of course the "best" reference also depends on its quality, but the problem here is that you need to read it first in order to assess the quality. There are not many people who have read all the text books, and even if you find one their preferences may differ from yours, and the order in which they have read them may affect their judgement: You can ask your supervisor to recommend good reference texts, but do not be afraid to ignore the advice.
Finally, it sounds to me as if you are being too perfectionist looking for the "perfect" reference (which does not exist, see above). So just pick one that looks interesting and start reading, but do not be afraid to switch if this reference turns out to be unsuitable (too hard, to easy, badly written, etc.) Also, reading more texts on the same subject will often deepen your understanding, and in addition repetition is known to improve memory.

When I am digging into a new body of literature or a new concept for the first time, I like to create a list to stay organized. I generally create some sort of reference tracker where I write the title, author(s), reference type, a link to the resource, and some summary. I use a spreadsheet (excel, google sheets, notion) to track all of this. This helps me keep track of all of the references I've come across that I want to read---especially if they come up in multiple places (when that does happen, it helps me identify a resource I think I should be reading, because it's being cited often).
When it comes to evaluating the reference to use, that is going to be based on your learning style. In the past, I often just pick something to start with and see if it works. Does this reference or resource answer my question or help me have a better idea of what I'm trying to learn? If it isn't, I move on to the next reference and try again. It's a time consuming process, but it will help you in the future when you have to do this again. You will have learned what types of resources suit you, your needs, and your learning style best.


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Will applying for a masters in the same/similar field where I did my postgraduate diploma and a postgraduate program a problem in German Universities?
I have read that doing a master's in a similar field and then applying for the same master's elsewhere will weaken an application.
However, my case is slightly different. After doing a BSc Industrial Engineering (4 years), I have worked in startups for 3 years and then, I have done a postgraduate diploma in applied statistics (1-year) and a postgraduate executive program in data science/business analytics (11 months). They aren't full-fledged masters. I am applying for MSc Data Science or MSc Information Systems programs. I am really concerned and confused if my postgrad diploma and postgrad program will increase application weightage or decrease.
Note: I'm applying to German universities.


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What is the difference between repeatability, replicability and reproducibility?
I have seen many instances where authors used the term "reproducibility" and "replicability" interchangeably in the social and behavioural sciences. Sometimes, they distinguish between the "repeatability" of experiments (same measurand/same measurement conditions) and "replicability" (same measurand/different conditions). If the three concepts are differentiated than, in most cases, there seems to be an inherent hierarchy between the three concepts:
repeatability < reproducibility < replicability
Where a successful replication means that the same finding has been achieved with different data (or sometimes methods) and reproducibility means that it is possible to get the same results given the data and analytical means from the original study.
However, it occurs to me that at least in computer science this seems to be different.[1]
I am not aware of the situation in other fields. Therefore, I am curious which definitions of repeatability, reproducibility and replicability are used in other disciplines.
What are the definitions most commonly associated to repeatability, reproducibility and replicability in your field?
Are the definitions the same but the concepts have substantially different meanings between fields e.g. because pseudo-random numbers generated by computer experiments are different from true randomness in biological experiments?

The American Statistical Association (ASA) has developed Reproducible Research Recommendations. The purpose of these recommendations are to create transparent science that can be recreated independently of the data creators and analyzers.  These recommendations have been motivated by several high profiles examples of studies being either retracted or not repeatable. The ASA includes definitions for Reproducibility and Replicability:

Reproducibility: A study is reproducible if you can take the original data and the computer code used to analyze the data and reproduce all of the numerical findings from the study. This may initially sound like a trivial task but experience has shown that it’s not always easy to achieve this seemingly minimal standard.
Replicability: This is the act of repeating an entire study, independently of the original
  investigator without the use of original data (but generally using the same methods).

I do not know repeatability fits into these definitions or if it has a formal definition. Also, this hierarchy seems to differ from yours. Reproducibility is using exiting data and recreating the same results using the described methods. Replicability is conducting a new experiment and reaching the same conclusions.
On a personal note, I have tried to reproduce studies while working with a statistician and most life science journal  articles do not include enough details to exactly recreate analysis unless they include their script (e.g., Python, SAS, or R code used to analyze the data). We were trying to recreate simple linear regressions and ANOVAs to find case studies for undergraduate stats courses, but often got different regression coefficients and test statistics. For example, people often make assumptions about NA values or transformations that are not described in their formal writeup.
For examples of replicability problems, search for psychology reproducibility problems. Also, notice the inconsistent use of the r terms here.
For examples of reproducibility problems, this lecture describes how a forensic statistician uncovered the Duke Cancer Scandal a few years back. Although outright fraud was occurring, there were other serious issues with the data analyzes.

In computaitonal research I would argue that something is "reproducible" if I can rerun your analysis with your code and get the same answer as you did. This might sound trivial, with differences really only being connected to pseudo-random number generation, but in fact this is far from the truth.

Many computational studies do not provide their code.
Even where they do, recreating the exact compilation/execution environment is next to impossible.

Are you using the same compiler and version
Are you using the same numeric libraries (BLAS/MKL) and the same versions
Does your system use the same precision in its floating point calculations
etc etc etc

You give me your code and enough information for me to produce and identical environment or (even better) your code is insenstive the environment, then your research is Repeatable.
If you describe your study sufficiently well that I can re-implement your study from scratch, without looking at your code and still get the same answer, then it is Reproducible
If I can arrive at the same conclusions as you, just from a description of its aims, then it is Replicable.


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What are good principles for creating figures?
This thought came into mind when I was reading Points of view: Elements of visual style.
While there are a lot of questions on software and strategies to make and edit figures, I am more curious about what are the things to consider (design rules) while laying out figures. Factors that come to mind include typography, color template, and proportion.

There are many books on this subject, as Peter Jansson points out, as it is something of an Art/Science in its own right.
However, if you don't feel like buying and reading one or more books on the subject, here are a few basic things that I consider both important, and easy to follow:

Consistency: While people can generally argue for hours over the merits of one colour scheme over the other, what is more important is that you use a consistent one for all your figures. Same goes for fonts and line styles. Also, if you're going to use blue squares to represent some thing in a figure, be sure to use blue squares for nothing else throughout your entire paper.
Conciseness: Try to reduce each figure to making a single point, i.e. try to think in terms of "what is this figure trying to say". It's tempting to pack more and more data into a single figure, but in the end this will usually dilute the message. One figure, one statement.
Clarity: Once you've decided what it is that your figure will say, remove anything from it that does not contribute to this single statement. E.g. do you really need every data point/curve you've drawn? If your statement refers to part of a flow chart or class diagram, do you really need all the other, less relevant boxes/labels/methods there too? Also, if the salient feature of your figure is not immediately clear, don't shy away from adding an arrow or something to highlight it.
Completeness: Holding the balance to clarity's minimalism, make sure there is also nothing missing from the figure which is needed for the statement you want to make. Figure axes labels are a favourite.

Funny how they all start with "C". This is not intentional.

I'd add Conformity (just to keep with the 'C'): If there are certain accepted standards in general or your field, don't go changing them unless you have a really good reason. For example, don't come up with your own flowchart symbols.

There are many aspects of designing figures/illustrations that are covered extremely well by the books written by Edward Tufte. I would strongly recommend his The Visual Display of Quantitative Information as a starting point.
Some basic notions are to strive for simplicity and clarity. This may seem very obvious but there are many pitfalls and Tufte provides good examples and ways to think about even simple graphics. Design issues such as fonts, line weight, color etc. and thinking about what it is that should be conveyed in a graphic helps to understand how to design efficient graphics. There is a defintion of graphical excellence by Tufte that says that an illustration that provides the reader with as many thoughts as possible in as short a time as possible by using as little ink as possible consitutes such excellence.
Obviously it is impossible to provide a full answer here particularly since it would repeat what is already in print. My personal view is that the book mentioned above is a good foundation to start critically view and discuss illustrations you encounter. Discussing with peers can be very useful. At the same time there is also much tradition in graphics so new ideas may not necessarily fall into fertile soil rigt away.

Tufte has been mentioned already, but since you're asking for principles, this one deserves to be emphasized:

Maximize the ratio of data-ink to total ink
  That is, remove anything that doesn't express data, or look for clever ways to make things express data.

Here's an example:

The standard bar chart from any plotting program has a thick border around it and usually some kind of grid. Here, the border has been removed, since it doesn't express any data, and the grid has not only been removed: Tufte has actually managed to express a grid, by removing ink.

I rather like the framework presented by Dan Roam in "The Back of a Napkin" as a guide for  S (simple/elaborate) Q (quality/quantity) V (vision/execution) I (individual/comparison) Δ (change/as-is) and the who/what (portrait), how much(chart), where (map), when (timeline), how (flowchart), why (plot).
In general, these two dimensions (technically 3 dimensions but some aren't used) are presented in a matrix to demonstrate the basic forms of diagrams you can use for communicating concepts. The book is a little more high-level than many books on this topic for scientific presentation but I think it's important to be able to select the right picture for your message.
Once you get down to nitty-gritty details, then Justin Zobel's "Writing for Computer Science" has a number of really good specific pieces of advice for how to lay out diagrams and tables, including how to typeset them so that people remember how to find them and how to make it so that tables don't look all crowded. The book's title says "computer science" but much of the advice is reasonably general to most quantitative research fields.

The manual for the TikZ LaTeX package contains a very good, 6.5-page section with very reasonable (tool-independent) guidelines (and examples).  Just to whet your appetite (and give an idea about the kind of advice contained there, and also to make this answer usable by itself – though please do read the linked document, there's much more to it than what I quote below!) let me quote the list of subsections and short quotations.

Planning the Time Needed for the Creation of Graphics (As a general rule, assume that a graphic will need as much time to create as would a text of the same length.)
Workflow for Creating a Graphic (In a good journal paper there is typically not a single sentence that has survived unmodified from the first draft.  Creating a graphics follows the same pattern.)
Linking Graphics With the Main Text (Stand-alone figures should have a caption that should make them “understandable by themselves.”)
Consistency Between Graphics and Text (Do not scale graphics. [...] Use the same font(s) both in graphics and the body text.)
Labels in Graphics (In addition to using the same fonts in text and graphics, you should also use the same notation.)
Plots and Charts (The first question you should ask yourself when creating a plot is: Are there enough data points to merit a plot? If the answer is “not really,” use a table.)
Attention and Distraction (When you design a graphic, you should eliminate everything that will “distract the eye.”)

"As a general rule, assume that a graphic will need as much time to create as would a text of the same length" - in my experience, this is a wild under-estimate, by a factor of 4-5 or even more.

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A technique adopted from a paper
Can we use a technique (equations and approach) from a journal paper in one section of our paper if we cite it like this: "Method X has been adopted from [Y], modified, and used in this paper"?

Method X has been adopted from [Y], modified, and used in this paper

I don't see why not. This is acceptable. In fact that is the most common form of citations you tend to see in papers that make an improvement over an existing method.
Just make sure you know ample knowledge of what you cite in this case as you are to make a modification to what is published. It would be best to know well about what X really is before you try to modify it.

That is why citations exist. You always rely on other researchers results. That is why science can make progress. You can leave certain fields blackboxed, as others already have robusts methods developed which you can rely on.
I would assume that most scientist take it as an honor, if their method is reused. You just have to make sure to cite your source of knowledge.
If you describe your modification, it is also necessary to give a summary of the original method. State why it does not work in your applied case and describe the solution - your modification.
Try to avoid citations, when the status reaches a point, where the results are common sense. No researcher in our time cites Turing, yet we all use computers. Make sure this common sense though applies also to your research field. A computer science method which is teached in informatics first class might still just be known to informaticians. If you consider this method should be applied more in your non informatics field, cite it to give it visibility.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
How to follow up with a professor who had received my transcripts but did not reply?
I inquired a professor at a reputable university regarding the per-requisite for his research group and if a certain knowledge is required, with a CV of mine. He asked for my transcripts. I mailed him my transcripts but have not got any reply yet. It has been 4 days.
How should I approach the matter?

Keep waiting.  4 days is not very long.  If you have not heard anything in 3-4 weeks, send another email asking politely if he has had a chance to think about your request.

3-4 weeks is a little long. I'd say 1 week to 10 days.

In my "career" in academia, I have found that some professors will only reply if they want you. On the other hand, four days is usually not enough time to warrant emailing the professor again. I would wait at least 10 days.
Sad to say, professors sometimes will not be bothered by tying up all the loose ends of research assistant, lab help, etc. type jobs they offer. They find their person and move on. I have had professors reply (very belatedly) to my inquiries about applications with terse emails like "I don't need you currently," or "The position's filled."
I would email the professor a week from now. If he still does not reply, he probably has deemed you unworthy of his time.


text:
Is it possible to get in to Genetic Engineering after completing a bachelors in computer science?
I am almost done with my bachelors in Computer Science. After BS(CS), I am interested in Nanotechnology/Nano-electronics and Genetic Engineering. I would prefer Nanotechnology/Nano-electronics first and then Genetic Engineering. My goal is not a good salary, I am very fairly skilled in Computer Science so that's enough for financial support. I want to study these subjects because I like them. So my question is that is it possible to get an admission for either of these courses after a bachelors in Computer Science?

Welcome to Academia SE. This site neither aspires nor is it equipped to be a database for admission criteria. You have to look into the criteria for your desired programs or ask the respective admission offices. See also this Meta post.

Why does very fairly skilled in Computer Science have anything to do with that's enough for financial support?

@Wrzlprmft: This seems to be an acceptable question. While I do agree with you, your comment itself entails an answer that could be helpful for the OP.

@ÉbeIsaac: your comment itself entails an answer that could be helpful for the OP. – Sure, but then that’s the entire point of the close reason in question: We got tired of answering questions with little more than: “consult the programme’s guidelines or admission office”.

It is common for graduates to jump between communications, electronics, computer science domains. But it is usually not so for something like genetic engineering even though it is considered an interdisciplinary field. Institutions might expect graduation from either of biotechnology, molecular biology, microbiology or biochemistry.
This would however be different for fields such as genomics and bioinformatics where institutions do accept CS graduates provided they have a background in areas like data analytics, machine learning, data mining, data science and the like.
As this would depend on the eligibility and preference criteria of the institution concerned, it would be better for your to consult with the prospective institution that would offer the program desired.


text:
Citing Math Lesson Plans
If I am creating lesson plans, do I need to cite the various websites I use for my work? It is for math, and the information I have used is found in thousands of sites. I have not taken any lesson plans, nor have I taken their math problems and claimed them as my own. I instead used the different websites and textbooks as a placeholder of "what do I talk about next". For example, I am on a site talking about multiplying whole numbers. The websites example is "256 times 5". I see that, and go okay how about "163 times 3".
Whether I do or do not cite, can I have my name on the lesson plans? So far, I have read if I use citations I can; "This work has been collected and combined by name".
Which brings me to my last question. If I do need to cite, can I create a work-cited page and put all my references on that page, or do I HAVE to put in-text citations? This is not for any kind of class; I am making this to help my fellow students.
Thank you for your time,
Samantha

For what purpose are you creating lesson plans?  A math / education course?  If so, probably the best answer is to ask your instructor.

Also depends on your students level? Masters or undergraduate or lower.

You may also want to ask at http://matheducators.stackexchange.com which may have a different set of people chiming in.

Do I need to cite the various websites I use for my work?

It depends on the work your are referring to. In your case, it is math lessons. One ought to cite for one or of the following reasons. Let's look at whether these points apply to you.

To show you've done enough research. You wouldn't have to prove to your students that you've done enough research; the study content should be sufficient.
To give credit for the source of the work. Is your work publicly available? Would it anyhow increase the citation count of the author you intend to credit? If so, it would be up to you.
To avoid plagiarism. You are not plagiarizing as you are not claiming the work to be your own; you are teaching what is established.
To allow readers to track the sources for further information. Do you feel that your students would have the need to go through the sources you've referred? If so, you wouldn't have to cite all of them, but only the ones you feel are important.

Whether I do or do not cite, can I have my name on the lesson plans?

Yes, as long as you don't claim the work to be novel in any way (which you obviously won't be doing). It would be better to add a disclaimer as you stated in your post like "This work has been collected and combined by name".

Can I create a work-cited page and put all my references on that page, or do I HAVE to put in-text citations?

That would be actually useful, a work-cited page can be referred by avid students who would want to receive more information on the topic. But in-text citations would be have to be a matter of preference, that depends on the utility of the majority of your students.


text:
Publishing: quality vs. quantity
I am nearing the end of my Ph.D. I need to publish a bit more, but am unsure what to do. So far I have published two rather large articles with my supervisor, where we develop new methods. I have also published a smaller article along with an external collaborator, where some of the new methods are used. My supervisor thinks we should publish another large article together, while I lean more towards two small ones alone. I am not guaranteed a post doc anywhere yet, and will most likely have to write my own grant application. What would be the best thinking in terms of securing external funding afterwards?

Presumably, your supervisor has a reason for suggesting that you publish another 'large' article, rather than 2 small ones. Is there a reason you believe that 2 small ones will bring larger benefit than 1 large one? My thoughts on this is that with 2 small ones, you will spend more time on the details (font, format, etc) and less time on results.

From the title and the body, you seem to imply that a large paper is automatically of better quality than a short one.

Quality of the journal is more important.

Also related: Should I publish a given unit of work in more smaller papers or fewer larger papers? and Many short papers or one big paper for a math postdoc?

@MikeyMike No, quality of the paper(s) is more important.

This is not a duplicate. This questions deals with a career span of publications where presumed duplicate with a single specific project!

Though I admit that the supposed original is a little ambiguous.

A direct answer for your question would be that quality would be better than quantity in this case.
By a larger paper would not always be of a better quality than a smaller one. But if you mean a paper with more extensive research and collation of results obtained from rigorous time consuming experimentation, then yes. Such a paper would carry more positive impact than multiple smaller ones that you could use just for the count. This is from the viewpoint of your advisor.
Some may prefer increasing the number of publications, but it would only matter if they are published in reputable journals, in other words, if they all hold quality (at least in most cases).
So if you intend to sacrifice quality for quantity, my honest opinion would be the same as your advisor's.

published in reputable journals, in other words, if they all hold quality -- Those are two totally different things. Lots of low-quality papers are published in reputable journals.

"in other words, if they all hold quality" - while I'm certainly not advocating applying sloppy standards or publishing in nonsense venues, there can be strategic reasons to break up some work in order to publish one or two papers in high-quality venues and distribute the other parts (focusing different aspects of the work) to other venues. For these venues, diversity is more important than absolute standing, as this gives authors a chance to reach different people in various subcommunities.


text:
Citing an ISO standard with multiple parts, using Harvard style?
I would like to cite an ISO standard that is split into multiple parts, I want to cite the whole standard but am unsure of how to do this in Harvard style.
ISO 14230 Road vehicles – Diagnostic systems – Keyword Protocol 2000 has 4 different parts

ISO 14230-1 Physical layer
ISO 14230-2 Data link layer
ISO 14230-3 Application layer
ISO 14230-4 Requirements for emission-related systems

In my text I would like to cite the whole document something like ISO 14230 (year) but am unsure whether this would be correct, Which year would I put the year of the first part or the last part? (The different parts of the ISO have been published or updated on different years)
My bibtex currently looks like this:
@techreport{ISO14230,
type = {Standard},
key = {ISO 14230},
year = {1999},
title = {{Road vehicles - Diagnostic systems - Keyword Protocol 2000}},
publisher = {British Standards Institution},
institution = {International Organization for Standardization},
note = {Available from: \url{https://bsol.bsigroup.com/en/}}
}

To clarify, the different parts were published on different years? If so, it would help to edit that clarification into the question.

After speaking to university librarians about this and although they could not find any official guidelines, they suggested that within the Bibliography I reference each part of the ISO individually:
@techreport{ISO14230part1,
type = {Standard},
key = {ISO 14230-1},
year = {2012},
title = {{Road vehicles. Diagnostic communication over K-Line (DoK-Line). Physical layer}},
publisher = {British Standards Institution},
institution = {International Organization for Standardization},
note = {Available from: \url{https://bsol.bsigroup.com/en/}}
}

@techreport{ISO14230part2,
type = {Standard},
key = {ISO 14230-2},
year = {2013},
title = {{Road vehicles. Diagnostic communication over K-Line (DoK-Line). Data link layer}},
publisher = {British Standards Institution},
institution = {International Organization for Standardization},
note = {Available from: \url{https://bsol.bsigroup.com/en/}}
}

@techreport{ISO14230part3,
type = {Standard},
key = {ISO 14230-3},
year = {1999},
title = {{Road vehicles. Diagnostic systems. Keyword Protocol 2000. Application layer}},
publisher = {British Standards Institution},
institution = {International Organization for Standardization},
note = {Available from: \url{https://bsol.bsigroup.com/en/}}
}

@techreport{ISO14230part4,
type = {Standard},
key = {ISO 14230-4},
year = {2000},
title = {{Road vehicles. Diagnostic systems. Keyword Protocol 2000. Requirements for emission related systems}},
publisher = {British Standards Institution},
institution = {International Organization for Standardization},
note = {Available from: \url{https://bsol.bsigroup.com/en/}}
}

and then within the text to reference using the years in brackets: ISO 14230 (2013; 2012; 2000; 1999). Noting that even though the years do not correspond with the order of the different parts but when referencing works by the same author the most recent comes first.