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Should I include a DOI/website URL for a publication in dissertation bibliography?
Context: I'm writing a dissertation in Computational Social Science using the Kluwer bibliographic style.  My question isn't specific to this style and applies generally to dissertations in computer science, sociology, economics, and management.
Q: Should I include URL (DOI or other) in bibliographic entries for all journal or conference articles, in addition to normal full citation information?
There is no such requirement or guidelines from my University or Department.  I've done numerous web searches, but I've never found any general guidelines on this.
Pro: All of my committee members and most of my readers now read articles on-line rather than through printed journals or proceedings.  All the URLs will have hyperlinks, so when they are reading the PDF of my dissertation, they can click on the hyperlink that will open a browser window to the article.  In addition, my dissertation will have internal hyperlinks from citations to bibliography entries and from key terms to glossary entries.  Finally, I use the Zotero reference manager, and I can usually acquire the URL as part of the "one click" import process.
Con: Adding URLs for every journal/conference article adds visual clutter to the bibliography.  When the URLs are not DOI, they may not be valid for a long time.  It will add some work to test and correct URLs that don't meet the basic criteria of usability, consistency, and stability.

Adding links is extremely useful for people who actually want to lookup the references.
DOI serve both as a link and as an identifier, so adding it is a good idea in general. (A similar thing holds for arXivID.)
Both for DOI and arXivID it should be visible as doi:1234/56781 and arXiv:1401.9999, with an underlying link so it is clickable.
With other links, I consider them only if both DOI and arXivID are absent.
It may be less stable, but still it is better than nothing.
If you are really concerned with the visual appeal, you can make the title (or journal reference) clickable without spelling out the complete link. But personally I think that for references usability is more important than visuals (at least, it is what I do for my PhD thesis).
To get you some taste, it looks more or less as (the citation style is temporary, just look at the style of links):

Another approach (from a paper) would be to hide link addresses as in:

See also:

How to get DOI links in bibliography - TeX.SE
BibTeX fields for DOI, MR, Zbl and arxiv? - TeX.SE

Adding DOIs and URLs to your bib references is really a good idea!
If you are really concerned on the visual clutter, you can "hide" hrefs under the author/title/journal line. In this case, the references are not visible in print version (which is probably not terribly bad, since only a few people will bother to type DOIs from paper back to a browser search line). In the pdf version, however, one can click on the bib reference  line to access the online document (which is really something people appreciate). If you hide hrefs under the titles, make sure your PDF readers do understand this (give them a clue with a footnote or so).
It is really a good idea to use DOIs as much as possible and avoid using potentially unstable URLs. However, if the document is not easy to find (e.g. not among first 3 references in the Google scholar), I would probably go with the URL to help navigate the reader.

With my copy editor hat on, I'm certainly for including useful things in the biblio, especially DOI and online repo (arXiv and stuff) links are very useful, since more information in bibliography prevents typos and mistakes from being significant.
With my thesis oponent/reader hat on, I have the very same opinion, since I'm very likely interested in checking some of the references, mostly because they're unknown to me and I'm curious what they are about.
With my article author hat on, I'm for as well, since it's more likely that people actually read my paper when you cite it.
Conclusion: The more information the better.

Your college should have people responsible for determining if a dissertation has been formatted correctly. Even if you are completely unconcerned about running afoul of this by adding links, check with them first and save a potential headache. They can be very demanding and unyielding.
And depending on what you're typesetting the bibliography with, changing formats can be as simple as changing a single word/setting. This would allow you to create one version with convenient links, and another without, and so on, as desired, with essentially no extra work.

I did check with the University library and they don't have any requirements for bibliography format, let alone for URLs in the bibliography.


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Why do many PhD programs expect a higher average physics GRE score for international students than US students?
Browsing various PhD admissions programs, I consistently find that there is a higher expectation of international students on the physics GRE for admission. For example, at UT Austin, the average score on the physics GRE for students accepted for Fall 2011 was 907 for international students and 777 for US students.
Why is there such a difference in expectations?

@CapeCode I don't think it's accurate to say that these schools "require" a higher score for international students. They simply report that the average score of international students is higher; they don't say anything about a policy requiring that. (And the rest of the post refers to expectations, not requirements.)

Ok, so OP is speculating that this is an expectation, I misunderstood that part. Would "seemingly expect" be better?

@CapeCode Probably

(Some) US departments seek to maintain a critical mass of US students. (I expect that) such departments accept a critical mass of US students - the best that they can get - and then accept some number of international students to fill up their ranks - the best that they can get. Since international students generally score higher on standardized tests such as the GRE general/subject test (for all sorts of reasons), this leads to the accepted international students having higher test scores than the accepted US students.
A more general point, I believe, is that international students are often 'unknown quantities'. While a US student might have recommendation letters, research experience, etc. that gives an admissions committee a well-rounded perspective on them and could potentially make up for less-than-stellar test scores, this is not always possible for international students. So in some sense an international applicant has to have exceptional test scores to make up for being an unknown quantity in other respects. I believe this partly because international students who have been undergraduates in the US seem to fall into the `domestic students' box more so than the 'international students' box.

The physics GRE is not a very good test of one's knowledge of physics or ability to solve physics problems. Most physics homework questions students will encounter are quite a bit lengthier and more involved than the sort of question that appears on the GRE. What the GRE tests is the ability to solve lots of very simple problems very quickly. Students who haven't specifically practiced for that will often do poorly even if they know the material well. Physics departments in the US typically don't give students this sort of practice. In some other countries, it's much more standard for departments to encourage such practice and provide assistance with it (e.g. students might train on lots of old exams). So it's a mistake to interpret this statistic as implying that international students are better educated than US students.

It might be a mistake to use this phenomena to infer that foreign students are better educated, but that's not what we are proposing. We are proposing that foreign students are better educated, and therefore they have a higher GRE requirement.

From my own experience it does not appear to be true that students outside the US are better educated than US students at the undergraduate (as opposed to, say, high school) level. I don't know if my experience is representative.

Another issue that may play a role is that it is much harder for faculty to accurately evaluate international students than US students.  The recommenders and their institutions are less likely to be known to the people evaluating, and there is generally less of a good match between expectations in the different systems.
Thus, it is often the case that an international student needs to be much more obviously excellent than a US student, in order to obtain admission to the same program, and this would be expected to be reflected in GRE scores as well.

First answer: education systems in the rest of the world include physics earlier in the curriculum than in the US, so one would naturally expect a student with more experience to score higher.
Second answer: Some countries have explicit "GRE training" to get their students into the highly-regarded US higher-education system (grad school). (this is an editorial answer - I have heard of such things but not in an official capacity).
Third answer: Before you get to graduate school, science/math education in the United States is terrible (googleable fact). If you held students to the same requirements, there would be zero US citizen graduate students in US graduate programs.

Possible fourth answer - people who want to travel to the US for grad studies (quite a commitment) might be among the best in their class; US students going on to grad school are a rare breed - and don't have far to go. In other words - is the foreign student with an 850 score rejected or is this pre-selection at work?

A comment on the second answer: "GRE training" exists only for the general test (mainly English). Few people take GRE physics, and it is hard to make a profitable business out of it.

^^ higgsss: My personal experience (from my foreign friends) was that it occurs with Physics as well, but that's certainly second hand. Not hard to imagine - a tutor can tailor to specific needs, and there's good money in that kind of thing. But yeah, I admit my answer is a personal one and not completely objective.

-1; it's clearly true that early US science/math education is not the best, but the claim "If you held students to the same requirements, there would be zero US citizen graduate students in US graduate programs." is just plain silly and insulting.

@aquirdturtle: of course, you are correct in the absolute sense - the number would never be zero. But the point is that the preparation level is extremely low and if the decision was based solely on GRE scores, the number of US graduate students in physics would be extremely low.

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How can I study PhD in business after masters in physics?
I got master in Physics and now I am thinking to continue for PhD in marketing, business or Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Is it possible to switch for Phd? How can I do that and how should I persuade admission committee?

It is very possible to switch majors. If possible, try to talk with a faculty member with whom you are interested in working. If they are willing to work with you then the admissions process is likely to be fairly simple.
With that said, a PhD in business is meant to prepare you for teaching or a career in academia, not in actual business. If you want business skills for work outside of academia, an MBA is the way to go. Considering this, an admissions board / faculty member is probably most interested in your aptitude to publish. Your masters shows strong quantitative skills and so if you have any publications, that will likely go a long way in helping you get started.
All of these are very general statements, if you are really serious about a PhD then you should definitely contact schools you are interested in and see if you can talk with faculty.

Switching fields this drastically takes some work. You probably will not be able to go directly, although many business schools are dying for more quantitative people, so that could change things.
Really, though, you probably won't have a hard time convincing the admissions committee that you are smart enough to do a PhD. What you need to show them is that you are genuinely invested in the topic and have legitimate interest in it - that it's not just a passing "fad" for you, which you won't complete. Ways to do that include:

Get a second masters.
Find someone who does the kind of research you do, and work with them for a year or two.
Since you want to do marketing/business stuff, you really should think about working in this field in industry for a few years, first. Many business PhD programs won't even admit people who don't have "real world" experience.

Of these, the third is probably best. It will take time, but will also leave you in the best position to pursue your PhD of choice.

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Did it become easier to land an academic job in the UK after the Brexit referendum?
This is a companion question to Why is Brexit bad for British science? Judging from the responses to that question, a significant number of academics are unhappy with Brexit and are not intending to stay in the country for the long term. The implication is that it's become easier to get a British academic position, since there are fewer people interested. Is this borne out in actual data? I'm particularly interested in whether the number of applicants for faculty positions / postdocs dropped, and if so by how much.
The closest thing I've seen to this is Royal Society president Venkatraman Ramakrishnan saying they have anecdotal evidence of people not wanting to come / wanting to leave, but no statistical evidence. It seems to me it should be possible to get that statistical evidence, e.g. universities probably keep a record of applicants for each position, so if there's a change in number after 2016 it should be noticeable. There was no drop in international student applications, but it's not obvious if that also applies to faculty positions.

And experience from, eg the 2008 financial crash, shows that it will take time (2-3 years) for even a major financial shock to have a clear impact on academic finances. Add to that the effect of existing austerity measures, I don't think the impact will be clear until after 2021.

It may be worth revisiting this question in 5 years.

My impression is that the long-term trend is one of increasing competition for positions. Thus it may be that Brexit causes a deceleration of this rate of change, without actually changing the sign of the trend. Given the noise one might expect in any data (e.g. due to local factors), I suspect it will be difficult to pull anything convincing out until significantly more time has elapsed.

The first thing I think when I read the question is "Huh. Easier for whom?" While I don't know anything about free positions to applicants ratio ("easier" in the sense of the question), I have noticed that our international hires rushed to start before January 2021, during the worst of the pandemic, implying that the immigration part would be "harder" for them post-Brexit. On the other hand, I have friends from different South American locations rejoicing that they are finally "on a level playground" with everybody else, implying that it got easier for them.

Fro the anecdotal evidence referred to by Venkatraman Ramakrishnan it appears that there are people who do not want to come to the UK post-Brexit. In your question you are implying a conjecture that the number of applications will fall and there will be easier to get an academic job in the UK.
The conjecture seems wrong to me. You seem to ignore the fact that the number of jobs in academia is not constant. Many jobs are funded by research councils in the UK but also EU councils like ERC. If this funding is going to reduce, so will the pool of available jobs.
Teaching-focused academic staff are funded by the Universities directly and this funding depends on student recruitment numbers. There is a certain rise in the numbers currently following the cap lifting in 2014 but it won't last forever and can't compensate for the expected reduction in EU student numbers.
Even if Universities disclose their records of application numbers for the academic posts (which is not likely), this information has to be compared also with the number of posts being advertised. Bear in mind also that with pound weakening, UK jobs are becoming less attractive for overseas applicants even on purely financial grounds.
To summarise, it is possible that the application numbers reduce and it becomes harder to secure an academic job post-Brexit.

A further complication here: economic uncertainty/downturn tends to reduce self-attrition in the workforce. People who might otherwise have retired, taken time out for parenting, or shifted from full-time to part-time work, decide that it's too much of a financial risk, and hang on to what they have. This reduces the rate at which existing positions become vacant.

I would argue that it is re-balancing away from EU budget towards global market. Between India, China, and Southeast Asia, there are tens of millions of students who have UK as their #1 choice for their university destination. Most of them don't plan to stay in UK after they obtain their degree. In fact, many can find higher paying jobs back in their fast growing economies with a UK degree. High tuition/living costs and visa requirements hold them back. Hundreds of my Chinese students would like to go to UK for masters. I've yet to meet one who wants to study in Germany or France

@ArthurTarasov China already provides UK more students than EU: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-from

@DanielHatton Athena Swan application documents are not public documents - the information in them is not easily accessible to public.

@DanielHatton Obviously, things are bright for Cambridge and UCL. But this is hardly representative of an average situation in the UK.

Kind of anacdata, but since brexit, at faculty level, we have had:

Two staff members  move to the EU saying they were fed up of the UK

4 staff members retire
We've advertised for one new post - but didn't get anyone we thought good enough, so didn't appoint.

Sub faculty level, I've advertised for two postdocs. One of which was filled by a European, and the other of we decided to re-advertise (still not filled at time of writing).
While by no means good data to answer the question, it does demonstrate two things - that the UK academic workforce can, and probably is, reducing and that not getting good EU candidates does not mean hiring a british person, it can just mean not hiring.

Perhaps implicit, but... do you sense a change compared to pre-Brexit?

Well, the two people leaving becuase they were fed up cited Brexit. Other than that... I couldn't say, other than we've never failed to appoint a lecturer before.

We've advertised for one new post - but didn't get anyone we thought good enough, so didn't appoint. Did you get fewer applications, or was the quality of the applicants lower than previous?

I don't now about the faculty positions, as I only get to know about the ones selected for interview. For the postdoc, we got plenty of applicants.

It looks like the answer is "no". There were shifts in demand, but academic jobs remain highly competitive.

Interest from Europeans cratered
Interest from the rest of the world held steady, even increased from some regions (countries named are India, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ireland)
The increase in interest from the rest of the world did not compensate for the decrease in EU interest for low-paid jobs
But this doesn't apply for high-paid jobs

Mathematics, which includes analyst and data scientist jobs, is in second place for attracting foreign workers. Engineering, architecture, scientific research, banking and finance, and media and communications roles also attract high levels of interest from overseas.

Source

I'm not sure this article is about academia. The words "university", "academic", "faculty", or "lecturer", don't even appear.

@N.I. there's the word "scientific research" in the quote.

Are you aware that scientific research is also performed outside of academia? The description of "mathematics" as containing "analyst and data scientist jobs" is quite telling.

@N.I. sure, but scientific research is also performed within academia, so it's a reasonable to infer that if scientific research is attracting high levels of interest from overseas, so is academia.

Also, relatively speaking academic jobs are clearly high-paid jobs.

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How should one advertise a program if it doesn't lead to jobs?
(Asking this since similar themes have come up in a conversation with a friend)
So-and-so physics department has decided to start teaching more astrophysics classes, because they need more students. Astronomy with all its pretty pictures is supposed to attract students - certainly the general education classes that cater to students fulfilling their breadth requirements are very popular. The idea is to add several more astrophysics courses and offer undergraduates who take all of them a "concentration in Astrophysics", so their degrees say "Bachelor of Physics with concentration in Astrophysics".
The problem: in that particular city - or country, even - nobody is looking for astrophysics graduates. In fact after being subscribed to "astronomy" and "astrophysics" job advertisements for more than a year, I've only seen like two jobs with those keywords, and one of them had nothing to do with astronomy or astrophysics. One could still get a job leveraging the fact that astrophysics is "sort of" physics which is a quantitative discipline that teaches its graduates to think logically yada yada blah blah. But at that point, the astrophysics concentration seems pretty pointless.
How do you advertise a program knowing that its graduates will not be able to find jobs in that topic? What is a good response to "what do your graduates do after graduating?"

I think it might help if you mention what country, as the cultural expectations of the relationship between education and employment is different in different countries.  For example, in the US, especially at elite institutions, investment banks and consulting companies will hire smart graduates without much regard to what subject they have concentrated in, whereas it seems a similar German company would hire only economics/finance/business students.

I imagine this is a common problem. What do other departments in the same university do?

As a meta comment - I don't think that the purpose of academia in general is creating jobs. If schools were to become vocational then teaching astrophysics (or physics in general) is a bad idea. Astrophysics is at the very least teaching its students some 'useful' skills like algebra/probability/basic programming, as opposed to some humanities subjects.

Why is the search space for jobs from that university only that city or country? I assume this isn't the US or other large country as I can't imagine there have been no astro* jobs posted in the past two years

I tagged by region, and I suspect conventions are similar across the region.

@YairZick yes but there are physics job, including some research positions (although those tend to be applied in nature). Usually the description would say "Degree in a quantitative discipline, such as physics, math, ___". Since astrophysics is never listed, it makes it feel like a concentration in this topic is useless.

@AzorAhai searching anywhere else might involve emigrating, which is never easy since it involves visas (especially if one has a partner or children). Even moving to a different city in the same country is not trivial, either.

Your question isn't clear on some key questions: did the program add an astrophysics degree?  And is it an undergraduate or graduate program?

@DavidKetcheson undergraduate program, adds astrophysics concentration only (the department doesn't have enough astronomers to add a full-fledged astrophysics degree).

@Allure Please add that important information to your question.  You should probably explain precisely what a "concentration" is, since I guess that's what you're advertising.

Please keep discussion on-topic and related to clarifying issues about the question. "Meta comments" don't belong here, take them to [chat].

@Allure For sure. But since I'm so used to reading these with a US or EU mindset, it wasn't clear. Thanks for clarifying!

Wait, is this mine University? They had similar problem. If you can connect to meteorology. Problem is aolved

If the basic degree is still Physics with a bit of astro tacked on I don't see the problem. Even pure Astrophysics degrees usually follow all the core physics classes before specialising.
For example, my Astrophysics degree is probably about 75% identical to my pure Physics counterparts, so as long as students make potential employers aware of this, they should be just as employable as a Physics graduate.
As a side note, perhaps students should be encouraged to study what they actually find interesting, not what will get them a job. They are likely to perform better if they enjoy the material, and with better grades and an enthusiasm for their degree, the jobs will come.

You don't find this to be a problem? That's surprising (and distressing) - see e.g. https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/hapless-graduates-sue-their-former-universities-in-shockingly-high-numbers/news-story/6f5a7be7093804775034301bacb07a23

Also an astrophysics concentration would teach subjects such as stellar nucleosynthesis, planetary science, cosmology, galaxy dynamics ... the opportunity cost of taking these classes would be missing out on topics like biophysics, surface science and material science, which could potentially be relevant (as mentioned there are some research positions requiring physics which tend to be applied - i.e. use these topics). One can still get a non-research position, but it would still be missing out on an option.

I don't see this to be a problem. I and all my friends with astrophysics degrees are doing just fine even though we never studied biophysics... No matter what degree you choose you have to make some sacrifices, for example, we didn't learn creative writing, or organic chemistry, or geology, or physiotherapy, or medicine, or....

But that's because you have a job in astrophysics. If you have to find a job outside of academia, in a situation where nobody is looking for astrophysics, not having taken one of these other topics is going to narrow your options, e.g. searching for "material science" yields pages upon pages of results while "astrophysics" yields one page.

If the students are adults, that is their decision to make. Besides, I imagine there are far more material scientists than astrophysicists looking for work anyway, so it's not surprising there are proportionally more jobs. Not to mention all the unrelated to physics jobs an astrophysics graduate could do.

Given the variety of some of the jobs that graduates land, the benefit of a science-based degree is the structured thinking/maths skills/theoretical knowledge that are useful to the employer, not necessarily the exact topic studied.
Many of the disciplines have core parts that overlap.

This doesn't seem to answer the question.

i seemed to have missed your answer...


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Reviews are in but incomplete. Is it preferable to send manuscript for revision, or wait till complete?
Let's say I'm handling a paper which has been reviewed, but the reviews are incomplete. For example:

The journal needs N reviews as a policy and I only have N-1 reviews.
The journal needs at least one reviewer who isn't a suggested reviewer, and all the reviews so far have been by suggested reviewers.
The reviewer said they weren't confident about [section] in the paper, and I need to invite another reviewer with expertise in [section].

However, I've yet to start looking for these missing reviews. If I do so, the timeline will be like handling a manuscript from scratch: I have to invite reviewers, wait for them to accept, invite others if they decline, and so on. Alternatively, I can make a revise decision now and get the missing reviews when the manuscript is resubmitted.
From the author's perspective, which is preferable?

Hmmm. You've change the question fundamentally. My answer may no longer be valid.

It's an awkward situation, and one which it would be best not to find oneself in. If reviews are going to take an exceptionally long time it may be polite to tell the authors about this. However, if you are going to request more reviews I do not think you can send the paper back. Think about it from the authors' perspective: You spend valuable time on revisions, resubmit, and then get asked for a load of new changes that were never mentioned the first time. That's just wasting everybody's time.

Just inform the author that you need more time.

The author might well like to get on with it, but it might not be fair to them. I'm depending on your analysis that the reviews you have are poor as the deciding factor. Revising based on poor advice seems to be counterproductive for the author, but s/he has no information about how much you trust the advice they have been given.
If your reviews to date were reliable, I'd probably suggest going ahead, but under all of these conditions, it is probably better to wait.
I once went through a series of revisions with an editor who didn't know me or trust me (I was new). After several rounds of revision, with different reviewers, the issue in question wound up back where I'd started. It was very frustrating.
It is best for the author if you give them a task based on information that you can trust.

Added after the question was changed.
Suppose you get the author started on revisions, but when the last review finally arrives it changes things fundamentally? Now what? I think the author will have a valid complaint. I think you editor rules are there for a reason. It is probably a mistake to subvert them in the name of "efficiency" that may be misplaced.

That's a good point, deleting the bullet point with "reviews are poor quality" since I clearly can't ask the author to make revisions based on poor quality reviews.

Re your edit: if I get the author started on revisions, I wouldn't be inviting new reviewers, until the revision is submitted.

If you trust the reviewers and the reviews then that would seem fine, to me at least. But if they are problematic? ...

If you are going to enforce the "having another review", than you need to hold the manuscript, go get the review and not have the authors do an edit.  It will disrupt things too much if they revise from what they wanted and A disagreed with, if C likes it (maybe they stand their ground then).  Or if there is some other clash, synthesis of changes needed, etc.  Don't send it to them early and then have the kerfuffle later...and definitely don't spring it as a surprise.
You might send them a note saying that you need a little more time (at least then it is not in a black hole and they are less likely to pull the paper).
If at all possible, I would read the paper yourself and see if you can just pass it without the need for the extra review.  At least to the point of getting it back to the authors.  But when you read it, you have to make a judgment call if you feel OK about it.  And yes, I realize this might be "breaking a rule" from your three bulleted scenarios.  But many journals and editors are capable of inserting a little judgment.


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Must I admit having started (but not finished) an MS when applying for a competitive PhD position?
I spent almost two years in a chemistry master’s program. I did many lab rotations where I learned many techniques, and I even made progress on my master’s thesis (though I never defended). Ultimately, however, I could not complete the required courses, and so the university asked me to leave the program (they suggested I transfer my credits somewhere else). After that, I worked as an research assistant in a lab where they only required a bachelor’s degree. I’ve been here for two years and am going to publish a few papers soon as a first author.
Now I have applied in a prestigious scholarship in Australia where they only require a bachelor’s degree. This scholarship will fund my PhD in chemistry. I was selected for further consideration. There are many steps (many committees, subcommittees, etc.), but I believe I am likely to be selected.
My question: I have not yet disclosed that I started but did not finish a master’s program. Should I disclose this? Previously I preferred to be honest and lost so many opportunities – they always seemed to be supportive but never ended up selecting me; I am worried the same thing will happen here. I do not want to lie or hide, but at the same time I am afraid I might lose this chance too. I really have no option left. If this goes on, I think I can never get into a PhD for being honest. Even I have tried to transfer my credits but its kind of impossible.
PS- I did not submit my CV yet as they chose me from my expression of interest and my publication lists.

Better to reveal it than to later be accused of fraud. You would have spent a lot of time just to wind up unemployable. Maybe the best solution is to seek help from an academic counselor who can help you  find a path to your goals. Possibly even this supervisor, but you would need to judge that.

If you are asked about this matter (e.g., "list all the graduate programs you've been in" or "what were you doing in such-and-such years"), then you need to answer truthfully. If you're not asked, then I don't think you're obligated to bring up the matter on your own initiative.

Possible duplicate of: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/107351/what-would-be-the-possible-consequence-of-concealing-an-incomplete-degree

@AndreasBlass - Yes they asked for 'all transcripts for all degrees attempted, including current and incomplete degrees'.

Because they asked, you must tell them. Hiding the information in this situation would be dishonesty of the sort that could not only prevent you from being admitted but, if you were admitted and the dishonesty were discovered later, could get you expelled from the program. Tell the truth, and explain the circumstances as clearly as possible.

Possible duplicate of What would be the possible consequence of concealing an incomplete degree?

You will need to disclose your enrollment in this unfinished master's and provide whatever transcripts or other documentation might go with that.  It's up to the scholarship committee to decide whether this disqualifies you.  If it's later discovered and they decide it was disqualifying and should have been disclosed, you're not going to want to try defending that since the whole point of not telling them is so they wouldn't know.
It's possible they may consider you to be still within their definition of holding a bachelor's only.  Lots of people start things, then don't finish for lots of reasons.  If you only have a bachelor's, there's a good argument that that's all you have and that you should meet their definition.  The committee may also be a lot more interested in what you did instead of finishing the master's.
Good luck.  But you will need to disclose.

Thank you. Yes I will disclose.I prefer to be honest. Its really sad that they might not consider me anymore but I cant carry that burden for rest of my life as I always worship my work. I wrote this question as there are so many professors who can give me a proper suggestion and I did not want myself to mark me as 'a fool' for telling truth all these years. I will write my supervisor tonight. lets hope for the best.


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What should I do when my work has been published by my supervisor without my knowledge?
I had worked on a project for my bachelor thesis in 2012 and in 2013, I moved to Germany for further study. Now when I am facing several interviews for Ph.D. and the supervisors ask if I have published my bachelor thesis or not. So I was thinking to add some computational data and publish my work in a good journal. But I noticed my supervisor with another student had already published my work in 2015 and I didn't know anything. Another student had a similar project(we worked together when we were working in the lab, we just had different solvents/medium for our samples) so he merged both projects together and published it and my supervisor was the first author. And anyone can find my thesis if they search in my university website with my name and the project name. Now my question is what steps I can take? It's my work and I worked for 1 year on this project and they didn't even mention my name anywhere or never asked me about this. Should I write to my supervisor regarding this? or should I inform the publication house?
(I did not have any contact with my supervisor after I graduated)

Was your thesis properly cited in the publication?

No. I already checked.

There are some "real nice" people in Academia... Your ex-supervisor probably won't want to change the authorship after so long... And if you take it to the publishing house then the supervisor will come up with something like " oh that student ran a few tests under direct supervision" so authorship was not an issue...

Same basic thing happened to me. The prof I worked for was a very nice person. I'm pretty sure the key difference between myself, who didn't get co-authorship, and my friend (who also worked there) who did, was keeping in touch with the prof. Getting co-authorship at that level is just a gift. If you leave and aren't heard from again, they assume you don't need favors from them anymore. Doesn't matter, though. It really isn't a numbers game; if you are smart and productive it will show in the CV.

Without your knowledge can't really matter. Without your consent would be actionable at law, if you could prove it. To what extent can you prove it?

There is probably little you can do formally or legally. Not citing your thesis was a lapse, but getting that changed is not likely to happen. You can, of course, point people directly to your thesis.
I don't see any ethical issues with the publication itself. The work was, in some sense, unfinished. It is natural to want to finish it and you weren't there to help. But you should have been cited. But the ethical lapse was in failure to cite, not the publication itself, assuming that it was an extension.
But you might also be able to obtain a letter from your old supervisor explaining that the publication in question incorporated prior work of yours. That might be enough for your current purposes.
However, you might also be able to publish your thesis unchanged with original dates attached. It would be a late publication but if you can convince a journal to publish it, you could establish priority on at least some of the ideas. Your university will verify that the work was done prior to the new publication's date. If you change/update it, however, you lose the advantage of priority.
But try to work first with your old supervisor.
Another option is to extend not only your own old work but the publication itself. Then it is new work. You can cite your old thesis and the newer publication in this work. Ultimately that is what you want to be able to do, of course.

I don't agree with @Buffy that it was a lapse!  It was bluntly unethical.
If you are in a situation where you don't need your advisor's approval or recommendation, you might want to consider filing a complaint to the ethics committee of your university. Of course, contact him first and demand that he will add your name.
I am just a MSC student, but I don't see how I am wrong.

I disagree that "publication" was unethical, assuming that the work was extended. It was failure to cite that was unethical. Sorry I wasn't more clear. I've made an edit to try to clarify. There isn't enough information here to evaluate a plagiarism charge.


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Can I suggest the authors to hire professional writer for scientific paper as a reviewer during second review?
I have reviewed a scientific paper and suggested a major revision. They corrected it but still, I think the language quality is not standard. In this case, can I ask the authors to hire a professional writer? Is it ok if I ask them now because this is the 2nd review?
Or I just ask the editor if he can suggest the authors hire a professional writer?

I think you can, and in some cases should, make it a condition of acceptance that the language quality should be brought up to an acceptable level. But you shouldn’t specify the precise mechanism by which the authors achieve that, eg requiring that they hire a professional writer. (This was discussed on another question at some point, try the search feature.)

Related, if not duplicate: Can I, as a reviewer, tell authors to get a native English speaker to proofread their paper?

Actually its slightly different. I asked if it's possible during the second review

@BlackSheep: Well, most answers to that question already advise against it for the first review.


text:
What is the benefit of review a scientific paper as a referee?
I got an invitation to review a scientific paper from a journal. I accepted the offer to review but was wondering what benefits I might get if I review a paper? Can I write it in my CV as I will be applying for a Ph.D. position soon?
Someone told me if I write it in my CV that I reviewed an article, no professor is gonna hire me thinking she already knows so many things and it will be hard to control her during the whole Ph.D.! Still, I accepted the offer out of excitement.
Also, if my review is not up to the mark, is it like the editors will never give me anything to review again?

Reviewing papers is hard - I'd only recommend doing it if you have an advisor you're working with now who can help you.

@AzorAhai--hehim It helps, but it is not required.  Of course, it helps to at least having received some referee reports.

@user151413 True, which is why I said "recommend."

@AzorAhai--hehim I'd recommend doing it either way, as the OP will gain experience that way.  And an experienced editor should be able to gauge the report accordingly.

If you are not a PhD student yet - have not submitted any articles - then it seems a bit unlikely an editor would have contacted you "out of the blue." is it possible your current academic advisor recommended you to review an article they were too busy to review themselves? I would agree with @AzorAhai--hehim that if you feel you cannot give a comprehensive and fair review on your own, find an advisor to help you, and confirm this relationship with the editor, since sharing material for review with others is a breach of ethics without the journal's permission.

@roger not being a PhD student does not entail not having submitted any articles

It is not clear from your question, but if you are not an expert on the topic, it would be wrong of you to agree to accept to review other people's work for publication. It is your responsibility to inform the editor if that is the case; the editor might not know. But if you are indeed an expert on the topic, then by all means go for it.

@AzorAhai--hehim yes, sorry that I phrased that incorrectly! I meant to write "...or have not submitted any articles."

As mentioned in the other answer, reviewing is an important service to the community.
However, you will also profit yourself from reviewing: You will learn about a new topic. You will learn about how a review process works. You get to see the other side, which will most likely helpful for your own future paper writing: Since you know how reviewing a paper feels from the perspective of the reviewer, you can better understand how to make a paper accessible to reviewers and readers, and how to best respond to reviewer comments.
And, in addition to these benefits, you can indeed list in your CV that you review for journal X, Y, and Z - this does not only show that you are willing to help the community (which will recflect positively on an application), but it also shows that the editors of the journal consider you competent to review their papers.

It's also good because it allows you to develop reputation and rapport with the editors, who are usually "high up" in your research community. There's a good chance they have some influence over conferences, funding, etc. And of course if you submit a paper to their journal, they will be more likely to take you seriously if they know you've carefully reviewed other recent research there.

In addition to the other answers: Being a referee might also help in obtaining a visa.
Some countries offer visas for people with special abilities (in the US e.g. the O-1 visa). This includes scientists.
Getting a letter of recommendation from a journal editor where one has performed a few reviews might be of great help in proving this specialist status. In fact this is listed as one criteria for the O-1 visa.
Also it probably does not harm to deliver good reviews.


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Comeback advice: how to return a decade after dropping out, when job schedule makes formal study difficult?
What helpful advice would you give an age 30-something woman to reach her dream with the following background? She dropped out from college a decade ago despite many hard years of dedicated trying, had to take on a low income, shift work job to earn a living, but never stopped to want to make a comeback in the demanding major where she dropped out and participate in science where her heart belongs?
The shift work prevents her a lot to get up to date again and prepare for college and nobody supplies support against her worries of failing again.

Advice for what, specifically? This site really works best when you ask a specific question - see the [help/dont-ask] and "Here's my situation, any suggestions?" is not an answerable question for details. Can you [edit] your post to narrow it down to a specific question?

Get connected with a support system.  Places to look: organizations with names like "women's opportunity center", campus women's organization, etc.  Community colleges are a great initial re-entry point, even if you are going to re-enter as a junior or senior.  Just take a class or two at a good community college to get your feet wet again, and because they are much better at integrating "returning students" like you than most 4-year schools.
If you have any specific questions please ask so I can give you more specific answers.
Note: my Calculus I teacher went back to school in middle age.  She was one of the best teachers I ever had.  And this was at a community college!


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How does a dropout influence one's later scientific career?
Dropping out/Take one's leave from college or Master school. It happens and the reasons are almost infinite.
Assuming dropping out/leaving from college but still wanting to pursue the same career and give a come-back after some time off. How will this failure in CV influence the admission to a later program? E.g. admission to some Master program or admission to a PhD in a public R1 university? Will the persons responsible for admission listen to the reasons?
What would help in this situation?
I heard that being expelled from a specific college would be much worse than just droping out but before being forced to leave. So will expulsion have more severe consequences than droping out?

You should be fine. I do not think anybody will reject a MS or PhD solely because you dropped a course. I would be more concerned about dropping out of college than a course.

Can you elaborate on the college aspect? Would it count as a dropout if one was not forced to go by regulations and still had some chances left like repeating courses or outstanding lectures that were not yet visited, but decided to take a longer break and get other qualifications before joining another college and try to finish?

I'm not an expert, but if you were an advisor and you were to evaluate the application of a PhD student who dropped out of a college, you would questions that more than questioning him/her dropping out of a course. I think if you clearly state the decision/context behind this issue in your statements or interview (as part of your graduate application), you should be fine. If you neglect or choose to ignore it, then more questions/concerns will rise and this might hurt your chance for admission/securing a scholarship.

Thank you. Might be helpful for others looking for this, too.

Especially if you are applying for funding, the admissions committee is taking a risk when they decide to admit each student.  If a student comes and does not succeed, the department may have incurred expenses for the time the person was there, and they don't have another successful graduate they can show for it.   Is the reason you dropped out before something that still affects your likelihood to drop out again?  That'll be a question on the committee's mind as they're reading.
Having been expelled before would be a bigger issue, because it means you were a major problem for the previous place and most universities don't want to have people who they think would be likely to cause big problems like that for them.  An applicant with this background would definitely be expected to explain what's changed.
Some departments expect a certain percentage of students to be "weeded out" or not make it through; find out what the norm is where you're applying.  Also find out what the culture is in terms of encouraging people to branch out and try new things, but then be able to recognize when something's not working out and stop going down a path that doesn't lead to fruitful goals (once that's recognizable).  These are important parts of research, and I think most faculty understand that.
In your applications, clearly explain what happened, and how you made the most of it.  Is the experience you gained an asset that can help you now?  Also (this applies more broadly) explain why you want to now go back into academia and into the program you're applying for and why you think you'll be able to make the most of that opportunity, if admitted.
If you just assume your history makes you ineligible and don't apply, you won't be admitted.
If you do apply and explain things clearly, you have a chance, higher than zero.


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Is there a difference between a (under)graduate and honours studies - also concerning thesis?
Is there a difference between an undergraduate and an honours thesis? I came across the latter during some online research on US colleges and it seems to me that honours are only known in those institutions. Is this correct?
Moreover, it seems that some colleges offer normal undergraduate as well as undergraduate honours studies/classes/degrees. I heard that the difference is that the latter have to write a thesis while the former seemingly don't. Is this correct and are there other differences?
Does this separation also exist on the Master's level and graduate schools?

Just about every possibility exists somewhere in the United States. There is no one answer.
Some colleges or universities do not require any type of thesis for an undergraduate degree. Others may require students in an honors program only to complete a thesis or project. Yet others may require all students to complete a thesis or project for an undergraduate degree.
At the graduate level, there are research master's degrees and non-thesis/course-only master's degrees. The latter may still have a project or paper. A research master's degree is usually for those who are going on to a Ph.D.


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What is the proper way of referencing journals, as opposed to papers within journals?
I am wondering how to reference a journal (not a paper published in that journal, nor even an edition of that journal). Ought I to give a formal citation or is it enough to name that journal in the text?
The specific example which caused my confusion is the Archive of Formal Proofs (AFP) which is a repository of proofs in Isabelle along with papers describing them. It is not exactly a journal itself, I suppose, but I think it is similar enough that I have generalised this question to ask about 'journals' (it describes itself as 'organized in the way of a scientific journal').
Another option I suppose would be to cite a paper written by the developers of the AFP about the technology used in the AFP, or the organisation of the AFP.

How much harder is it to give a "citation" than a "mention"?

It goes in the bibliography if it's a citation. But I guess my question is not so much 'do I need to bother?' as 'what is the standard/correct way to do this?'.

@IIM, perhaps you should revise your question to literally ask "how to do this", rather than "should/must one do this"...

I think you need to present a much more clear case of what exactly it is you are stating that you are wondering whether you need to cite or not. I can certainly think of (rare) cases where no citation is warranted, and I'm guessing yours is not one of those, but it's not really clear what you intend to say.

@Bryan_Krause I did give a specific example but do you mean that I should not generalise beyond this example? I am interested in the general case of 'journals' as a class also, but perhaps that class is not well-defined, or that question should be asked separately.

@IIM I don't understand what you want to say. You gave an example of "Archive of Formal Proofs" but no example about how you intend to refer to it.

@Bryan_Krause When I said 'name it' I meant literally name it i.e. to say the Archive of Formal Proofs as one might say the United Nations or Amazon Web Services. I mean, that is probably not specific or formal enough and I think the currently accepted answer is right to say that it should be treated as formally as possible and given a citation.

It is probably best that it goes in the bibliography, which should represent a full accounting of the resources you draw on. It is an obvious place to put the URL of the web site.
In general, it is better to be a bit formal in such things than informal, whether you literally need to cite it or not.

Yes, a certain riff is "be honest"...


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Is it important who submits the paper to the journal?
I'm a PhD student in computer engineering and I have recently finished writing and editing a paper under the supervision of my professor. Now it is ready to be submitted to a journal. We have chosen an Elsevier journal. Since my professor seems to be busy, I've decided to submit the paper myself. Now my question is that:

Is there any difference between submitting the paper myself or my
  professor? I mean if my professor submits the paper, is it better and
  may have a better influence on reviewer?

The paper contains the names of both of us (my professor and I), I just want to know if it is important who submits the paper (ant does the submission related tasks).
If it is not important, I don't want to waste the time and I want to submit the paper ASAP. Otherwise, I should wait until my professor find the enough time to submit the paper.

In my fields (pure mathematics and theoretical computer science) it makes no difference who submits the paper. I expect that it's similar in computer engineering. But some discussions on this web site have shown me that there are fields that attach importance to being the "corresponding author" (which to me just means the one who handles correspondence with the journal but in other fields may mean more).

It doesn't really matter who submits it, since it's just an administrative procedure.
What matters is that the authors and co-authors are properly listed in both the manuscript and the submission system.
In every submission system I ever used, you have to define who is the main author and who are the co-authors, and there's usually an option to register their contact/email address so they can receive updates on the status of the procedure.

It is common for more junior researchers to submit papers, since the submission procedure is an administrative procedure which more senior researchers don't want the burden of. Before submission, it should be agreed upon where to submit. It is also useful to establish which authors want to be included email communication, if supported by the venue.

We have agreed on where to send the paper, I was just hesitant about who should submit the paper. So it is not considered a negative point if the student submits the paper instead of the professor?


text:
pdf or word of the article for the first submission
I'm submitting an article to an Elsevier journal, but I'm hesitant about the file format I should choose as the first submission. According to this journal:

Your Paper Your Way
We now differentiate between the requirements for new and revised
  submissions. You may choose to submit your manuscript as a single Word
  or PDF file to be used in the refereeing process. Only when your paper
  is at the revision stage, will you be requested to put your paper in
  to a 'correct format' for acceptance and provide the items required
  for the publication of your article.

My field is computer networking.
The reason why I'm hesitant is that sometimes word files look different in other people's computer and the reason why I'm hesitant about submitting a pdf is that the quality of the images in pdf file is a bit lower than the word file.
I wanted to know which one is better for the first submission? pdf file or word file? or both of them in a zip?

Your choice, as they say. I'd use a pdf myself. But that's just me.

Your field? In some fields, Word get a better/worse treatment than our writing systems (which you would turn into pdf), so there might be bias

@user111388 I updated my post.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the correct answer "You may choose" has been copy pasted into the question, making it unclear what is being asked.

I recommend you submit PDF, for two reasons:

Only PDF gives you full control over the formatting of the document as received by peer reviewers;
Those who are accustomed to typesetting in LaTeX (of which I suspect there are a fair few in your field) may be biased against authors using Word. Admittedly a Word document with default formatting settings could not be mistaken for a regular LaTeX document, if only because of the characteristic typeface used by the latter, but a well designed document might almost be mistaken for a XeLaTeX-generated PDF. At any rate no one will be triggered from the production-neutral process of opening a PDF file, but some may resent having to deal with .docx.

The PDF image quality is a concern. Have you set image compression in the PDF export dialog to prioritize quality?

Thanks. I'm not very familiar to Latex. Does images and tables always appear in the above/below of the columns? Since some of my images are located in the middle of columns (surrendered by text) I wanted to know this. If Latex always move images to the up/bottom of the column, I should change this in my word file and then convert it to pdf.

@Pablo: If the paper was written in Word and you already got it converted by yourself (locally, without the publishers) converted into a .pdf, then this is a topic for the time after the submission of the paper.  The publisher's / the journal may have a template (e.g., https://ctan.org/pkg/elsarticle, but there are others, too (https://ctan.org/search?phrase=elsevier) and using these templates is to let you focus on the content instead of the whereabouts of tables and figures.  Rekeying / formatting the layout / final page numbers; these are the services the publishers [should] do for you.

@Buttonwood Unfortunately the journal does not have a template file. This is what makes it difficult to guess what to do.

@Pablo: elsarticle once was set (by Elsevier) as the least common denominator for LaTeX-accepting journals by Elsevier.  As just checked, this still is the case in March 2020 (https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/latex-instructions).  Note their note «Most journals accept a PDF of your manuscript at initial submission.», don't  convert your Word file into LaTeX just moments prior to submission if you have the .pdf already in hand.

This is wrong.  The journal always converts your file to a PDF which is different from the one you submitted.  There is no difference in control.  "well designed document might almost be mistaken for a XeLaTeX"  Improbable.

There's no better - they both work.
What is "better" is what is more convenient for you. For example if you're not proficient at Microsoft Word, you're better off using something else (like TeX) to generate a PDF file, and submitting that.

I have used microsoft word and now I have created a pdf file using word itself, but I don't know which one to submit.

td, lr: Use the .pdf set up «printer ready».
Check the .pdf generated to contain all text, all tables (if applicable), all illustrations (if applicable, in color [if applicable]) and all literature references to be present, in the order of consecution as the journal wants, and all completely readable.  Then print it on paper (because the screen output may fool you in terms of resolution (72 dpi vs. at least 300 dpi on printer) - don't hesitate to read it aloud.
Note: Some pdf writers allow you to save file space by lowering the resolution of the images, allowing an easy transmission as attachment in an e-mail -- double-check that this does not happen (i.e., you must retain at least 300 dpi resolution).  If this .pdf file is ok, submit the .pdf.
Why submitting a .pdf? Publishers may offer to convert the Word file for you into a .pdf which then is sent (with added line numbers) to the reviewers.  But, how many versions of Word are out in the field (plus, did you use Word for Windows, or Word for Mac?)  You have no control how Elsevier's engines are set up to identify this, nor are you able to change their settings; a .pdf however is intended to keep the content and layout regardless if read on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows (it is standardized).
If the interface asks you to submit the compuscript (here: your .pdf) once, and later asks for the image files at high resolution / as vector files:  upload both the pdf compuscript (with images embedded) for the reviewer's work plus the individual image files which will be used to set up the galleys by Elsevier later.  You typically get this line-numbered .pdf and a tracking number (sometimes already the doi) you need for further communication with the publishers.
Good luck for the reviewer's suggestions.  Meanwhile, keep and backup the word and both .pdf files at least until you see your paper in the journal with final page numbers.

This is wrong. The journal always converts your file to a PDF which is different from the one you submitted. There is no difference in control.


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Why do academics seem to view open access as some kind of panacea?
This is a parallel question to Open Access Success Stories? and is something I've been thinking about for a while.
If one reads the linked question, Spark makes the following statements about questionable practices in academic publishing:

They don't pay reviewers for their work.
They overcharge universities for subscriptions.
They prevent public access to publicly funded research.

And the solution to these problems is open access. Spark is not the only person who thinks this way about open access; similar sentiments have been expressed here on SE, and I've also heard from a senior professor in real life that Elsevier is disliked because they are "against open access".
The problem is, to say that open access is a panacea makes little sense from my perspective as a former publisher:

It's not like open access journals pay reviewers for their work either. In fact my experience strongly indicates that it isn't possible to pay reviewers anything more than a pittance unless the journal charges a substantial submission fee (which is distinct from an open access fee, since that is only paid upon acceptance).
You go from overcharging universities for subscription to overcharging authors for submissions. In other words open access just shifts money around.
It's not like open access is unprofitable. Hindawi is one of the most prolific open access publishers (everything they publish is open access), and last I saw, their profit margins of ~50% easily dwarfs that of conventional publishers (~35%) (however this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, because the 35% figure includes book revenue, and the profit margin for those is usually lower than for journals).
The statement that Elsevier is against open access is untrue, and many (most/all?) Elsevier journals allow open access if the authors are willing to pay for it (Elsevier is against piracy, aka. reproducing copyrighted material without paying for it, not open access. Ironically, worded this way, most people are also against piracy).
That leaves just the idea the subscription-based model prevents public access to publicly funded research. If this is genuinely a problem (in the vast majority of cases, the general public are not interested in reading research articles) then the authors can still usually make the papers available legally + for free.

Further, again from my perspective as a former publisher, open access is actively great and the industry would totally not mind if everyone just converted to open access. That's because it's guaranteed revenue. You no longer have to worry about convincing people that your journal is so good they should pay to read it. As long as researchers have research to publish, your journal gets revenue. You might even get to save on marketing costs. Besides, you barely have to do anything that you aren't already doing. In fact the most important reason publishers haven't just converted everything to OA is because many authors are simply unable to pay for OA (especially those from developing countries).
NB: The free-to-publish and free-to-read model, diamond open access, would indeed be a panacea. Problem is this model only works with external funding, so unless society becomes willing to commit millions of dollars every year to subsidize this, it's not realistic. Even if it does happen, it's just another way of shifting money around: we go from article processing charges to a direct subsidy for publishers.
tl; dr: from my point of view, open access just shifts money around. Accordingly, I don't view open access as either good or bad; it's just something that's there. Academics, however, tend to perceive open access as something "good". Why?

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

I think the premise of your question is false. I don't think anyone views open-access publishing as a panacea.
I think authors dislike the subscription funding model because the fundamental goal of publishing is to get people to read their work and paywalls undermine this goal. Also authors lose control of their own work by handing over copyright to the publisher.
The other thing academics dislike about publishers is that they overcharge for their services; they are making too much profit for what they actually provide. That is just a question of how much they charge relative to their actual costs. It doesn't matter who (authors or readers) is actually paying.
I don't think most academics believe that reviewers should necessarily be paid. It's just galling when you volunteer your time as a reviewer while the publisher makes billions of dollars of profits. I think most academics would happily volunteer for a non-profit publisher.
One more point: Giving authors the option of paying to make their article open-access (e.g., gold open access) is a fantastic scam. The publisher gets the money from the authors (something like US$5000), but doesn't need to reduce the subscription price of the journal! Publishers sell libraries subscription packages, rather than charging per article. As long as a large enough fraction of the publisher's offerings are paywalled, they can demand an expensive subscription to the package. The publisher then disingenuously claims that they "support open access".

I think your answer is symptomatic of the issue though. If the aim is to get people to read their work, then publishing OA is unimportant; one needs to do publicity & marketing work. If the amount of money publishers make is what matters, then one should publish in subscription journals because the profit margin there is lower. Finally, in your last sentence you referred to "non-profit open-access publisher", where again the word 'open access' is there even though whether the publisher is OA is irrelevant: why not just say 'non-profit publisher'?

@Allure I don’t understand your comment. OA helps people read your work. Of course you also need “publicity and marketing”, but it doesn’t need to be one or the other. You should be able to have both.

There's little evidence that OA leads to a larger readership however. If you really want a larger readership, you can do it more effectively for the same cost: publish in a subscription journal, make your article available for free on your personal website, and then hire a publicist with your APC.

(1) Many publishers won’t let you have an open-access (arxiv, personal website) version of your article that they published. (2) The “publicity” of publishing in a top journal is very different from what you get by hiring a publicist.

Are you sure about (1)? My understanding is that many, if not most, publishers will let you self-archive (this is the correct technical term; putting your paper on arXiv / personal website is not open access). Relevant policies from Elsevier (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/sharing), Springer (https://www.springerpub.com/journal-article-sharing-policies), and Wiley (https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/self-archiving.html).

@Allure: "...make your article available for free on your personal website..." -- that's the definition of open access.

You are confusing "open access" with "author pay". They are not the same at all. Every paper I write is open access (they are on arxiv.org, on my personal website, in my university's open repository, or all three). None of my papers go to author-pay journals.

If so, then open access seems unrelated to publishers: for example this question is open access, and complaints such as publishers don't pay reviewers are unrelated to open access (?)

David, I think @Allure makes a valid point that the cost of publishing does need to be met somehow and open access rules out the subscription business model. However, that does not necessarily mean authors pay. It would be helpful to explain how the journals you use are funded.


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Ask authors for some data (after already asking one of the three authors without getting an answer)
I have a question: I'm currently working on my PhD and I was looking for some specific data. After going through a lot of articels I found one from 2016 and one from 2017 both from the same three authors.
In this article the authors are trying to solve an empirical question and for this they create a very nice graph which shows exactly the data I was searching for. This graph is not the main subject of the article, only briefly mentioned and an interim solution to the main problem the authors are trying to solve.
Based on the article alone it is not possible to recreate the graph (because they are not using publicly available data).
Looking for a way to get the data I contacted one of the three authors via email (maybe this was a mistake). I wrote something like (my email was based on a question in this forum which I can't find right now):

I was reading your article
who I am and what I'm doing right now
what I'm interested in
what I need and that it would be very helpful if I could get the data (again I was pointing out that I only need the data points of the graph)

This was one week ago and I still got no answer. Should I contact the other two authors of the article?

"I only need the data points of the graph" Can you not just read these off the graph? Or get your computer to do it, see: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7671/software-for-extracting-data-from-a-graph-without-having-to-click-on-every-singl

Thank you for the comment. I already tried this. The problem is the following: The data I need are plotted together with some other data. Unfortunately the graph I need is depicted as a dashed line and the other data are plotted as constant black line. The two lines cross each other and lie partly on top of each other. Therefore it is quite hard to read out the data, but thanks for your suggestion.

Check the journal data policy

I would wait longer for a response before following up or contacting the others. (Sticking with the "corresponding author" listed on the paper should be appropriate unless they are currently on leave from their position.) The authors may be busy and may not have gotten around to it.
The process of answering may also take some time. If you're the first one to request the data, they might even be talking among themselves about who has a clean copy, whether they want to release the data, whether they can release the raw data as well, how to verify you would adequately protect (raw) data, whether they have updated data to share, etc.
In the meantime, I'd suggest digging a bit more into the source of the data (did they do the experiments themselves? did they tediously collect it? did they buy access to the underlying data or get special permission?) so that you can see if you could replicate or approximate it. You could also see if any of the works citing them have used the same data (i.e. if there is evidence they have been willing to share it with others, that would suggest they are more likely to share with you).
You could also scour their academic websites and CVs.

Is further information available on their websites, like an unpublished appendix?
Is there a rendering of the graph online that somehow has the key data embedded in it?
Through their CVs, can you find potential points of contact? (E.g., if an author attended grad school with your advisor, or coauthored with another professor with whom you've taken a class, those profs might be especially good to ask advice of. If the prof you ask is on good terms with you and the author, they may even write an email on your behalf asking about the data.)


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How enforceable is a payment penalty when a professor chooses to leave a university early?
My current university has a clause in our contracts that states that we have to pay a percentage of our annual salary if we terminate the contract early.  The percentage is quite large and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this or knows how enforceable that payment is.  Could it be paid in installments?

This is probably a question you have to ask at the university. I've never heard of it, but if it exists several places then it is probably defined only locally. We can't give legal advice here, but generally speaking, contracts are enforceable. And, of course, the law varies from place to place. Ask someone in the financial office of your university.

I've never heard of something quite like this, but generally such laws are defined per jurisdiction. Employment contract law is a very complicated issue, so if it is not a trivial amount of money I would consult a lawyer to ensure you are interpreting it right and if it is valid. For instance, it could be that the contract is for 12 months of work, and so it actually says if you leave in the 11th month then you aren't entitled to the last month of pay (as a made up example).

As authors have commented, this is a legal matter and depends on the details of the contract and the law in your jurisdiction.  No answer to this question could possibly generalize to other contracts, other institutions, or other jurisdictions.

I'd suggest you do NOT ask your university's staff, as they work for the university, not for you, and must protect the university's interests.


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Handling academia politics - an early career case
This question is based mostly not on relevant personal experiences, but is largely inspired by reading here and there mentioning of the politics aspect in academia. At the present time, I am interested in this subject from practical perspective - as a recent Ph.D. graduate, looking for a postdoctoral or junior faculty position. In particular, I'm concerned about the following aspects:

Should I care about this issue at this point of my career? (Next questions are based on Yes)
How should I assess the political situation in a department or lab of potential employment? (Here I imply both online assessment and on-site, should I be invited for interviews.)
What strategy and specific steps should I take, based on the assessment results?
What are political differences, if any, between postdoctoral and junior faculty positions? How should they impact my strategy and what steps should be taken, based on position type?

This question was closed as "too broad" and the OP has divided it into several separate questions. I have merged the answer given here into the most relevant of those separate questions.


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Can my degree be revoked if my relationship with my advisor sours post-defense?
I defended my thesis last year and was granted MS degree. After that my advisor pressurized me to work more with him and write papers. I refused after some time and my relationship with him became sour. Can this cause any problem in the future such as thesis being taken away. Note that there is no dishonesty in my thesis at all, but there are some weak areas.

If the thesis has been officially examined, signed by the committee and the paperwork submitted to the administration on the university, it cannot be taken away, nor your supervisor would try something that vindictive.

What possibly needs to be asked here is: How have you come to be afraid of your degree being revoked? If your adviser has threatened you with revocation of your degree if you don't work with him, there is a word for that: blackmail.

@Compass Good point. And there's an appropriate action for that: a formal complaint to the head of department, or perhaps the chancellor's office.

"but there are some weak areas" - there are two kinds of thesis. A perfect thesis, and a finished thesis.

@Moriarty:  That's for sure!  I set out to prove something was true for values of n  > 1 and settled for proving it to be true for n  =2.

Once a degree has been conferred, it is exceedingly difficult to retract at without clear evidence of misconduct. Having a souring of relations with your advisor definitely does not rise to the level where you should have to worry about your degree being revoked. It is definitely worth mending your relationship with your former advisor just on professional grounds, but the "safety" of your degree shouldn't be one of them.

If the OP has moved on to another research group or an industry job, it seems a bit out of line for his former advisor to pressure him to continue work (and hold a grudge when the OP won't). If the advisor is being clearly unreasonable, and if a polite discussion doesn't solve the issue, then mending that relationship might be more effort that it's worth.

I agree with both points here. Academia is small and people talk (see other comment) -- one (but certainly not the main) reason why integrity is so important. So it depends on what the OP wants to do in the future and the kind of person the adviser is. Personally, I would ignore the "sourness" and just focus on the (non-interpersonal) reasons why the collaboration did not work out (e.g., time, other interests). Stating that it's not the person might be a way to avoid a continued grudge.

As Aeismail already said, you would have to have commited some serious misconduct for your degree to be revoked (at least in any reasonable academic and legal system). And even then, the proceedings for doing so will cost your supervisor quite some time and effort.
Most importantly, however, it’s almost impossible for your supervisor to revoke your thesis without shooting himself in the foot:

If there is any lack of quality in your thesis, the reviewers should have noticed. And the main reviewer usually is your supervisor.
Misconducts that are not directly obvious from the finished thesis such as plagiarism, rigged data or employing a ghostwriter are much more difficult to perform under proper supervision. Thus making a corresponding accusation against you will almost certainly lead to allegations of improper supervision against your supervisor.
Revoking your thesis causes some noise that also reaches potential future students of your supervisor, moreover if you stir that noise up and have good arguments against the revocation. These students will think twice about choosing your supervisor as a supervisor, which will almost certainly not make up for the damage of a few papers not written by you. It may very well destroy his workgroup.

Finally, these points would also apply to a second reviewer to some extent, which gives that person good reasons to work against allegations against your thesis.

Some advisers might be willing to go this far (not only accepting a shot in the foot, but taking off the whole leg). But that would take much more than just a "sour" relationship. It requires the kind of conflict where a person does not care anymore about own losses or future well-being (way past mediation). Can happen but is highly unlikely. If the adviser really holds a grudge he might try to damage your future career in other ways. Academic disciplines are usually small and people talk. If you ever continue to work with the topic a good professional relationship can be helpful.


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How to highlight language abilities in cover letter for a scientific research position?
I'm applying for a scientific research position at a Welsh university and one of the desirable skills is to demonstrate an understanding of the bilingual nature of the University.
As I am fluent in Welsh, I would like to add a sentence to my cover letter stating that I am a bilingual. I would like to write something that makes them feel that it is important to have someone that can speak Welsh and that this would benefit the university.
Can anyone suggest an appropriate sentence to include?

Do you attach a CV? Would you consider putting it in the CV as sufficient?

I have already included this info in my CV but was hoping of making it stand out more in the cover letter.

Maybe mention that you have Welsh roots, which is one of the motivations to study there?

I don't know if it's appropriate in Welsh culture, but maybe nothing indicates your understanding of bilingualism more clearly than including two cover letters, one in English and the other in Welsh. It'd be perfect if the latter isn't a "translation" and follows a common style for cover letters in Welsh (i.e., it looks and sounds like a native speaker of Welsh wrote for other native speakers).

"makes them feel that it is important to have someone that can speak Welsh" -- if Welsh is listed by them as a desirable skill, why do you have to make them feel it? Don't they already think it's important? If so then your job is just to let them know you have fluent Welsh.

To address your specific question, I would propose the following sentence for your letter (or something similar to your liking) to highlight your language skills. I would position it toward the bottom, in the concluding paragraph:

I also believe that my fluency in Welsh will contribute to my ability
  to effectively support the university's bilingual nature.

(alternative wording):

...the university's mission of bilingual service.

I would not worry about providing any additional evidence of Welsh proficiency (as a letter written in the language) as you only want to submit the exact documents required in the application, nothing more. If there will be any need to ascertain your language ability, it can be easily done in a quick chat as part of your interview process or by phone.
Good luck!

Depending how committed they are to bilingual service, I wonder whether you'd have the option of writing the cover letter only in Welsh. I don't know what's common in Welsh universities, but they might be set up to translate internally as necessary.

I would go beyond what Aymor said and write a paragraph of your cover letter in Welsh where you discuss the importantance of the bilingual philosophy.  Stating you are fluent is quite different than demonstrating it.


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Selecting references for PhD applications: are industry references OK?
My background:

Final year computer science undergraduate in the UK.
Spent one year working in a scientific facility developing software for scientists. My colleagues had previous academic experience (PhDs in math or physics).
Researched for 3 months under professor N within my university.
My dissertation begins in February, so cannot use my supervisor from that.

I want to pursue a PhD, and am at the stage of applying for programmes. However, each programme requires "two academic references", and am unable to come up with a second one (professor N being the first) that would provide the best application.
Giving many of you read references, and recruit PhD students, which of the following references would you prefer receiving:

A senior software developer where I previously worked (he has a PhD in physics), but I feel this is not "academic".
My personal tutor (a professor who helps with any personal or professional problems), whom I have not seen in a few months, but have used for references before (to get the aforementioned job).
Professor B who has taught me over the past three months, but whom I am not close with (on a personal or professional level).

I know my question is a bit specific, so perhaps to generalise:
Q. Is it acceptable to have industrial references when applying for PhD positions, or should I instead use university professors as reference? Even if they may result in a generic reference letter.
Q. How can I speak with professor B to avoid him writing a generic reference letter about me?

Is the PhD you are applying for related in any way to what you did in the facility?

@Davidmh -- No, other than software development, which was my role. This would be applicable in the PhD case as I would be developing software to test/experiment ideas.

"personal tutor" apparently you are in the UK; Americans might not know what this means.

@AnonymousPhysicist -- Thanks. I have updated the question to reflect this.

Industrial references are fine when your colleagues have good academic credentials.  It may suggest that you will be good at finding applications for research.
Generic references are not fine in academia: unlike industry, academics generally aren't interested in verifying that you have held the posts your CV says you have held, and they do mark down candidates whose references are less than stellar.  It is well worth asking a referee what they will say about you.
The easiest way to avoid referees writing something generic about you is to tell them what you have been doing, ideally in writing, when you ask for the reference.  Referees generally appreciate this kind of help when writing references, which is a quite significant drain on the time of many academics.

I would say that having both academic and industrial references should make a strong point about one's versatility.


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Handwritten keys and ADA compliance
I'm a Math professor. I teach a face-to-face calculus course, and I'm in the habit of distributing handwritten quiz keys online.
I'm informed by a colleague that she believes that this style of distributing quiz keys (posting handwritten keys online) is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Can anybody confirm this, or weigh in on it, or let me know what they do in order to be compliant? I really don't want to stop posting keys, but I also want to (read, must) comply with the ADA.

What do you mean by "keys"?  Solutions to the quiz problems?  And what's the ADA issue?  Is it the handwriting, since that would keep visually impaired students from using screen readers?  (That's the only issue I can think of, but I'm not an expert in these issues.  My gut feeling is that this is the sort of situation where you do whatever seems reasonable and then provide appropriate accommodations if anyone needs them, but of course I'll defer to people who actually know what they are talking about with the ADA.)

@anonymous, yes, it's the issue with screen readers, but I doubt a screen reader does a very good job with LaTeX equations, either.

ADA requires you to accommodate the students you have.  If you have a student who cannot read the hand written documents because they have a disability, you must distribute them in a way the student can access them.  Your disability services office should be able to advise you.
Providing searchable, typed documents would help some students with disabilities and also some students without disabilities, so it would be nice to do.  I recommend the universal instruction design approach.
A UID book

This post from the National Federation of the Blind's site may provide you with an idea of the capabilities of screen readers designed to handle LaTeX. The post goes into more detail on how to make STEM accessible to visually challenged students.
However, I think Anonymous Physicist is correct in saying you would only be out of compliance if you failed to provide this accommodation to a student covered under ADA who was directly requesting it from you.
At the College level, ADA only requires that the institution make the services available to students that seek them out. Unlike in primary and secondary education where the school is also required to advocate for the student, advocacy is the responsibility of the college student, and they have to notify the school, submit the necessary documentation, usually with a campus accessibility service, and then seek out the accommodation for themselves. That means that they are supposed to notify the instructor of any accommodations they are entitled to under ADA and work with the instructor and the accessibility office to coordinate those accommodations.
I also think Anonymous Physicist gives you good advice to get in touch with the director of your institution's accessibility office. They may be in a position to set you up with publishing software for assistive technologies. They may even have the resources to take your handwritten answer keys and convert them into LaTeX documents.
You may want to consider switching to LaTeX anyway for the points that Anonymous Physicist brought up, that it could help students that do not qualify for ADA accommodations. Things like Spotlight search in Mac OS X will likely be able to index a LaTeX file.
Another advantage would be that if you are in the habit of distributing prior semester keys as study guides, and you have a semester somewhere in the future where you have a visually challenged student, all of the documents will already be in a format you can provide them without the need to convert them.

Last time I talked to the accessible technology people they had never heard of LaTeX.

@AnonymousPhysicist Sorry, I was trying to give you credit for mentioning the idea of going to speak with the Accessibility Office for guidance. I expanded on that with a suggestion that the OPs school may have services to assist in transitioning. I apologize if it made it sound like I was putting words in your mouth.

You didn't.  Unnecessary words to reach minimum.


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Encouraging students to be more social with each other via course wall exchanges
I find that students do not always use the course walls to talk to each other.  I want to help them be more social, but don't necessarily want to tie this to class participation grades.  I want them to create a sense of connection with each other, foster peer support, and decrease some of their dependence on me as the instructor.  What are some creative ways that others have succeeded at making the course walls a robust and vibrant social and learning space?

Course walls are online message boards, yes? Or something else? I have never heard of a "course wall" before.

Are you sure that communication is not happening outsider the classroom without you knowing it? I found it pretty challenging to make them talk outside the class time on a wall with no any grade associated with it.

@Penguin_Knight having them post on the course wall or whatever, ensures that students who may have issues are getting them addressed. It may not be the best avenue, but it will help the instructor gauge performance, participation, and mastery, which is beneficial for improving teaching and learning experience.

One idea that I have employed with adult learners, is to gently redirect them when the opportunity arises. For example, if a student asks me a question that I know is relevant to other students, and also doesn't require my decision making skills, then I will ask them to post that on the wall, and to address it to their colleagues. Then, to keep things moving, I might also encourage one of their peers to respond.I might pick another classmate that I know (or I might guess) has a certain POV on the question posted. To everyone else, this "crafted discussion" is inspiration, and shows a certain level of activity. Yes, it is contrived, but it can motivate others to enter into authentic discussion.
Also, a rating system that encourages good answerers to build reputation might help. ;-)


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Could/Should I cite a paper that I am refereeing?
I'm reviewing the paper X related to the topic Y for a conference which is single-blind (in Computer Science). Also, I'm about to submit a paper to a different conference related to the same topic (single-blind).
In fact, I noticed the paper X is a good recent work in the literature to which my paper belongs. However, it does not have the exact purpose as my work does, so I do not need to compare my results to those of paper X.
Therefore, I like to cite paper X in the introduction of my paper, but I'm not sure if it is appropriate. Well, based on the quality of the paper X I expect it to be accepted (with 75% of confidence!), but would it be appropriate if I cite it as a submitted work, especially when it is not my work?

You are committed to privacy and non disclosure

I changed the title.  The answer would be totally different if this paper was a preprint you found outside the peer-review process.

@DavidKetcheson: Ok. I try to see if i can find a pre-print :)

The question and current answers seem to be about your obligation to the authors of the paper you're reviewing.  You should also consider if you're willing to give up your anonymity as a reviewer of that paper by citing it before (or very shortly after) it is published.

Reviewers obligations in general include respecting the confidentiality of peer review and not revealing any details of a manuscript or related communications, during or after the peer review process. Detailed for example in the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
That said, by citing a confidential manuscript you reveal the title, potentially giving away a scientific message, and the authors, disclosing the fact they are working on a specific research question.
You can however cite a different version of the work in case it was previously published on a preprint server for example.

One thing I would add to this answer, is that maybe by the time your camera ready version is due, the paper is already officially published. At that point, you can cite them the correct way.

You should not cite unpublished work that you discover during peer-review, because the reviewing process is confidential and citing such work violates confidentiality. There's an exception when such works are publicly available (e.g., as preprints), in which case they can be cited (without harming confidentiality).