text:
Advisor unresponsive after agreeing to introduce me - What to do?
I asked a question over here about the best way to go about meeting a prospective PhD advisor (Prof X). It was mostly agreed that I should ask my current advisor (who knows Prof X) to introduce me. I did ask him, and he responded by saying that he is happy to introduce me, so all well and good. However about eight days or so have passed since then and I haven't heard from him despite a couple of spaced out follow up emails. No answer to my calls either. What can or should I do at this point? Should I go back to my original plan of directly trying to contact Professor X? This is a bit frustrating, since in the meantime other grad schools are finalizing and mailing out their decisions and this school is my top choice. Thanks for any suggestions.

The situation doesn't sound promising, but don't lose hope just yet. As C is your advisor and you are nearing completion, you would hopefully have some kind of relationship with him, that if, for example, there were an informal discussion with X and he had changed his mind about offering support, then something might gently have been communicated to you from C to dissuade you from pursuing X.
As to how to proceed, also in reference to the discussion to your previous question, C is likely going to be your best way in. I'm not sure what "spaced out emails" entails, exactly, but if no joy is to be had from email or phone, try visiting. A person physically there is much harder to ignore than not picking up a phone or answering an email. You may get a sense of whether what's happened in paragraph 1 is the case.
In the unfortunate event that C no longer wishes to support, of course you can go with your original plan, but it would be best (as was also previously mentioned) to remove reference to C from any correspondence, as the mention of the name implies some kind of endorsement (or is just name-dropping, which may also be looked on unkindly), and try your luck. It may be a long shot, if X is that big, but if the in-person attempt to bring C on-board doesn't work, no one can be forced to do anything he doesn't want to do. Just suggestions, borrowing from some personal experience, hopefully helpful. Good luck.

Thanks for your response. "Showing up" isn't really an option since C is in between institutes at the moment, so even though we're in the same city I have no other way to get ahold of him. Spaced out means an e-mail after two days, and another attempted call + email six days later. I haven't heard anything at all from him since he initially agreed, so it's really difficult to interpret the situation. I'm just wondering whether there's any harm done in directly e-mailing X.

Shame. Though that could be why response is lacking, which is a better explanation than "doesn't want to help." No harm in emailing X. Plenty of people reach out to bigwigs without an introduction and can be successful. Succinct is good, as no one has time to read anything, right? And still would probably not want to mention C in the cover letter. X, or X's assistant, may make the connection to C through your CV anyway (and C is perhaps listed as a reference).


text:
Can a student be admitted to masters programme even if his/her English level is lower than the minimum requirements?
Recently, I just won a scholarship from my government for pursuing a master's degree in some Canadian universities. I checked the minimum requirements for the English level and I noticed that almost all of them are asking for at least an overall score of 93 points or 100 on the toefl ibt examination (6.5 for IELTS but only 2 or 3 are asking for this last exam).
I recently received my score from ETS and I got 85 points in overall (26 points on the writing section as my strongest point). Although I know I am still missing a few more points, I have published one paper on the IEEE computer society, I have won 3 scholarships for continuing my education (70% scholarship in my home university, 100% scholarship for doing a summer internship in Canada and 100% scholarship for studying 6 months in Sweden), and I worked as a full time employee during my last semester as a web developer and programmer.
My bachelor is Computer Systems and IT. I am trying to pursue a MCs degree in Computer Science oriented towards data mining and cloud computing. The universities I am interested are McMaster, Dalhousie, University of Alberta, UBC and Waterloo.
Despite the fact that I don't have the "minimum English requirement", should you recommend me to retake and work on my English skills or should I try to apply for any of these universities?
All comments, suggestions and proposals are welcome :)

The only ones who can tell you are the admission officers at these universities. You have a good position, as you are providing your own funding; but it is impossible for us to know.

While the linked question is not exactly a duplicate (close to minimum vs below minimum), the answers address your case as well.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
What should a proper email signature look like for graduate students?
So far, what I have is
First and Last Name
Title

Group/Lab Name
School Name
Address and Phone

I'm especially confused about the "title". I'm not sure if it should say "Graduate Student", "Research Assistant", or "PhD Candidate".. What do you think is more appropriate?

is this necessary? under what circumstances? if you are emailing someone for the first time you need to introduce yourself to him in the text.

Concentrate on good, easy to read, body content that is correct and gets to the point and you will gain respect irregardless of the precise form of the signature line(s).  Like most truisms, this has limits that are left as an exercise for the reader.

This is also a useful debate for what to put on your business cards.

Just on a side note: while in academia you can spend hours and days meditating about what to put in a signature, I was told by my industry employer to put my degrees (to project the thought leadership) and my phone number (so that people could call me and figure out their research questions). So please have some mercy for the long signatures, sometimes it is a corporate policy -- I've seen corporate emails where people have fancy corporate logo graphics in signatures that weigh 50k... that's 1000x the information content of the email itself :)

I'm not in academia, but my email signature looks like this:

If someone wants to know my name, it's sent in email headers and shows up at the top of the messages. If someone wants to know where I work, they can look at the part of my email after the @ sign.
And of course, if I'm contacting someone for the first time, I'll tell them who I am and why I'm contacting them in the body of the message, so there's no need to repeat it at the end of the message.
Here's an article similar to the one that convinced me to stop doing this. Basically, by including a signature, you make it harder to read an email. This is normally just annoying, but it becomes extremely frustrating in long email chains or mailing lists, since no one bothers removing signature when they quote people. So, save everyone the trouble and don't send it in the first place.

“since no one bothers removing signature when they quote people” — if you really think removing all signatures is the good solution to people not quoting appropriately, you might also go one step further and advocate avoiding email altogether :)

I like to see some basic information in signatures, so I'll explain why point by point: 1. “the part of my email after the @ sign” — gives some basic information, but not always as clear… if I read, for example uts.edu.au it's not immediately clear to me what the institution is (apart that it's in Sidney). Sure, I can look it up, but why not give me this basic information? 2. Not giving a link to your webpage: people can sure google you, but if your name was John Smith or Jin Wu, you might change your tune!

and regarding the article you quote: sure, people should avoid lengthy signature and all sorts of disclaimers, but a concise (and standard) 4-line signature is not a bane in other people's life :)

Your email signature is entirely appropriate for most.  (In fact, I use the same signature.)  But the OP needs something appropriate for a graduate student  and it is -----  "Will Work for Food"

Any decent email client will strip out properly formatted (hyphen-hyphen-space-newline) signatures when quoting, replying etc. The main problem is that kids these days don't know how to properly format a .sig :)

@F'x There are cases when you need to provide extra information, but I'd argue that those are rare enough that your email client shouldn't be adding them automatically, and for the most part it's better to include information in the body of the message instead of in the footer. For example, I think an email in the form, "Hi, I'm [name] from [company], working on [project]. Can help me with [something]?" is more effective than "Hi, Can you help me with [something]?-- [name] [company] [project]".

@BrendanLong most emails I sent are not addressed to individuals, but to mailing lists… where you just don't introduce yourself to every newcomer, yet it may be useful to have a bit of information about you in the email

The link provided here does not appear to be active anymore, is there a new or archived location that it could be swapped out with?

@KevinBrown I switched to a WayBack Machine link.

Keep it simple.
-- Name

For initial, formal communication with people who don't already know you, adding a bit more identifying information is reasonable, but keep it short:
-- Full Name
   http://website.university.edu/~userid

If you don't think that's enough, introduce yourself in the body of the email.  If somebody wants your physical address, they'll ask you (or Google).

If someone wants your name, they'll look at the top of the message where all email clients display it..

@BrendanLong no, not always… I have my own account, and I maintain accounts for conferences I co-organize, etc. So, if the person who writes you is conference2013@my.dep.edu, including a signature (like “John Smith, on behalf of the organizers”) is a good thing.

@BrendanLong: I think of "signing" the bottom of the email like signing the bottom of a paper letter.  The signature isn't there to provide information; it's there to signal (to the human recipient) personal ownership of the content.

@JeffE if you follow that “paper letter” analogy, you'd write your own name, title, address (and sometimes more) as header

@F'x: Paper doesn't come with Google.

@JeffE depending on how common your name is, Google may or may not be useful

including postal address and phone number is useful because it can save two mails (the query and the reply).

Keeping it short, simple and provide only useful information:
John Doe
PhD Candidate / Teaching assistant
Squaring the Circle Research Group
University of North Vermont
http://unv.edu/circle - 1-761-861-1324

Four lines is already a lot, don't exceed it. You may not want the phone number (people from inside your university probably have access to a corporate directory, and people from outside would not usually call you except if you set up a call meeting).

You have quite an unusual concept of "four". :)

And "short".  And for that matter, "useful".

"people from outside would not usually call you" - I am not sure where that assumption comes from (unless it is a personal preference that you explicitly do not wish to be called).

Mine looks like this:
--
Ilmari Karonen, M.Sc.
Biomathematics Group, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
P.O. Box 68 (Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2b), FI-00014 Univ. of Helsinki
Tel.: +358-41-456 3263, E-mail: <ilmari.karonen@helsinki.fi>

That's basically all the relevant information, packed into the traditional 4 lines / 80 characters and preceded by the correct dash-dash-space-newline sequence.  (Yes, I know that academic signatures often break that old rule these days, but I'm kind of a traditionalist about that.  Besides, not having a foot-and-a-half-long e-mail signature is just plain common courtesy.  The dashes help many e-mail readers recognize the signature and render it differently, and also omit it when quoting the message.)
I haven't actually included any mention of my position in the group, although there would be room to append "doctoral student" or "graduate student" after "M.Sc." if I wanted to.  It's not really as relevant as noting that my current highest degree is Master of Science, though, which already implies that I'm probably a grad student and not e.g. a postdoc or a faculty member.  Anyone who wants to confirm that can just look me up on our group's website, anyway.

I also have a shorter signature, which just says:
--
Ilmari Karonen <ilmari.karonen@helsinki.fi>
University of Helsinki, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics

I use that mainly for informal correspondence with people I already know, who don't really need to be reminded of all the extra details in the full signature.

+1 for the old school dash-dash-space and "no more than 4 lines"

+1, although including the email-address is redundant. including postal address and phone number is useful because it can save two mails (the query and the reply). including the institution is useful, because it isn't always possible to tell from the email-address.

@henning: The e-mail address is redundant until someone prints out the e-mail without the headers, or forwards it to someone else in a broken way (e.g. copy->paste->send), so that the header information is lost. Yeah, that shouldn't happen, but I've learned never to overestimate the technical skills of senior faculty.

A link to a profile page that makes it clear you're a grad student should be enough. Putting your phone number and address in every email seems unnecessary.
I'd stick with:

Name
Email address
Group/Lab Name, University
Link to web page

A signature is the equivalent of a letterhead. It makes it easier to contact the sender on other channels without the need to inquire for details (and thus saves a mail and a reply). RFC 1855 defines a maximum of four lines, with 80 characters each. Originally, this was due to bandwidth constraints.
Today, this restraint just makes an email easier to read (less noise), as Brendan cautioned. The answer by F'x almost hits the sweet spot between too much and not enough information. Ilmari's answer also follows the convention laid down in RFC 3676 to divide the body and signature block by -- \n (hyphen-hyphen-space-newline). So far everyone failed to mention PGP, which recently has become more important than ever.
The following example combines all criteria:
--
Dr. Joana Doe | Smalltown University, Department of
Rocket Science | Main Street 10 | 12345 Smallville
phone: 0123 543 210 01 | web: rocket.smalluni.edu/~doe
pgp: 5DB3 3ADF 806B BD79 A18F D649 AC09 BDC9 9821 A79C

One more thing: Please, never use an image or other attachment as a signature. I never know whether the attachment is a substantial part of the mail or just a fancy signature.

Mine looks like this:
--
\\//_ Live long and prosper.

I prefer to keep email a bit more casual. Granted, most of the people I email are folks with whom I am already acquainted, so there is no need for introductions. But I typically leave the signature even when contacting someone for the first time, if for no other reason than to convey a bit of my personality.

Personally I hate signatures, I see it as trying to make a superficial impression based on a title. Better to have a personal friendly connection with the people you work with both clients and colleagues, they will know you and the quality of your work.
But on my last work place my boss demanded that I add a signature, because it creates superiority in his words ( i believe he is a jerk but that's beside the point), which looked like this:
FirstName LastName | Title | Company
email | mobile phone: work phone | Blog Address

So you need to ask yourself what is the purpose of your signature based on who is your target audience.
If it's for applying for work, you have all your information in your cover letter and CV. If I were you I would drop the signature, but if you insist on having one than the "Research Assistant" is your best option.

my boss demanded that i add a signature in his words it creates superiority — Your superiority, or his?

My signature includes my name, current job title, affiliation and website. It is short, fits on one line and gives the recipient a short summary of me and a link to more information such as publications, projects and teaching material. I don't like long signatures or signatures with images.

John Doe, Assistant Professor @ RandomUniversity | Web: ru.edu/doe

Mine (and that of about everyone in my department - professors, postdocs, and PhD candidates alike - who bothered to find the respective option in their e-mail client, as it is roughly the format suggested by the recommendations for all employees at my university) looks like this (here with placeholders):

--
  name and degree
  affiliation (in my case: department and university)
  address
  room number of my office
  phone number
  e-mail
  work website

This is optimized to cover basic identification and all generally applicable ways to contact me:

name and degree: Who am I? (when writing to someone who doesn't know me, and who would like to know whether I'm a student, a research assistant, a professor, ..., a biologist, an engineer, ...)
affiliation: On behalf of what (kind of an) organization am I writing?
address: In case the recipient wants to contact me by physical mail, or travel to meet me.
room number of my office: In case the recipient actually wants to meet me (and, in the case of students who want to be supervised, probably the most important part of the address information).
phone number: In case the recipient wants to call me.
e-mail: In case the recipient wants to send an e-mail after printing out the contents of the e-mail (and thus not having any access to header data).
work website: Contains all of the above information, but requires an extra step, an internet connection at the time when the recipient wants to look at the information, and is not directly included in print-outs of the e-mail, so it's unsuitable for totally replacing the other information.

Unfortunately, other forms of communication are not standardized enough to warrant inclusion there. There is a dozen of wide-spread instant messenging networks, and another dozen of widely used social networks with a communication feature, so there is no reasonable way to pick one that the recipient is likely to use (if they have any such account at all).

Some universities have "branding strategy", and therefore ask every employee to use the same template. If this is the case in your university, you should definitely use it.
Here are examples from Augusta University, University of Washington, University of Florida, Northwestern University, Seattle University, etc.
As for your title, I would chose "Graduate Student", to me that's the most accurate description of your status.

My university is one of those that has a corporate branding scheme, so I use it where appropriate. (For students I’m teaching or supervising, or with departmental colleagues, I omit it.)

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


text:
How do I remove myself from academic mailing lists?
When I was a grad student, I participated in a bunch of conferences, and sent papers to journals and the like.
But now I'm no longer in academia. I've been out for more than three years, and I still get a few emails a week notifying me of new conferences, hotel discounts for those who register, extended deadlines and the other usual stuff.
The thing is that none of these emails offer contact information or ways to unsubscribe from the mailing list. And it's not like they're from organizations I previously interacted with, but they are certainly about my former line of research. They are probably worse than spam, because I don't even think you could report them as spam.
I removed myself from all site registrations I can remember, such as IEEE and ACM, but these keep coming and coming and coming and coming.
How can a former academic get himself removed from all these mailing lists?

Use a spam filter?

You are so cute!  By which I mean: unfortunately, you can't

Change to a non-academic email address.  Oh, wait, you mean you used your personal email address for academic stuff?  Oops.

Sadly, that sounds like spam, and you should treat it however you'd treat spam.
I'm not sure you should assume good faith on the part of the people sending you those e-mails.  I'm an active academic with an e-mail address accessible on my university website, and I receive:

Legitimate conference announcements over e-mail lists used by people in the area, which I could unsubscribe from if I wished.
Announcements from people who actually know me.
Unsolicited announcements from scam journals and conferences.

I receive several of the last category every week (and more, unsurprisingly, than any other category).  I do not get legitimate mass e-mails that are not in the first two categories.  It's possible that in other fields there are some legitimate announcements sent the way you describe, but I'd guess very few.
In other words: spam is spam, and you should feel no compunctions about treating it that way.

I didn't know there were "scam journals and conferences", but it makes sense.

@Panda: Where there's a profit to be made, there would be people trying to make that profit. /cough/open access journals/cough/

+1 - also note that many ISPs let you report spam to them. This has the added benefit of ruining the spammer's reputation with the ISP and hampering their ability to send future spam.

I also get these mails, and I have the impression there is no way to cancel these kinds of emails. Your email address is associated with an academic context, and available in public. This makes it fair game for all obscure conferences and journals who want to lure you in.
The solution I see is:

Get a new mail address
Try filter out any mails mentioning conferences and such. Gmail has facilities for this kind filtering based on keywords.
Use a spam filter and let it train on filtering this kind of mails. Thunderbird and other mail programs, and probably gmail have these kinds of self learning spam filters. You just keep flagging it as spam until they are automatically removed from your inbox. Do check your spam box once in a while to catch errors.

Gmail does have what is widely (but not universally) considered to be one of the best spam filters available. However I think it uses all users' spam reports to determine what to filter, so if you're the only one flagging a particular kind of email as spam, it may not have any effect.


text:
How to write the data section when data is reused from a previous work?
I am writing a paper where I am using the same dataset that was used in the previous work which I co-authored. I have written the data and the methodology part of that paper. In the new paper I am using the same dataset but a different approach and different methodology.
When reusing the data, do I have to write a normal “data section” as in the previous paper, or I should rather give very general information and refer that first work if readers want to know more about the dataset?
Both papers will be part of my PhD thesis.

The “data section” has several purposes:

It allows the reader to understand everything that builds upon the data, i.e., the analysis and conclusions based on this.
It allows the readers (and particularly the peer reviewers) to assess the validity of your approach. For example, did you use state-of-the-art measurement techniques, did you avoid trivial biases, etc.?
It allows the reader to reproduce your entire study, should they be inclined to do this.

Points 2 and 3 can be covered with a citation in your second paper: For example, ideally the peer review of your first paper already validated your data collection and everybody who wants to reproduce your paper has to expect to follow citations anyway.
However, you do not want somebody who simply wants to understand what you did (Point 1) to have to follow your citation and flip back and forth between the papers.
Therefore, the usual approach is to cite your first paper and summarise the qualities of the dataset that are relevant for understanding the current paper.
Some details can also be mentioned ad hoc later, e.g.: ”That one odd datapoint is due to …”
Now there are some extreme cases, where the relevant information on your data spans the order of magnitude of a page or more. In that case, it might be reasonable to favour avoiding redundancy and rely on the reader reading at least parts of your first paper. At this point, it depends on to what extent the journal or your field require papers to stand on their own and you’ll have to consult somebody familiar with this (i.e., the journal or your supervisor).

Both papers will be part of my PhD thesis.

The journal and the readers won’t care or even know, so this has little impact. If your thesis is cumulative, you might consider marking the redundancy somehow (if the regulations allow for this). In my cumulative thesis, I replaced citations of my other papers that were part of the thesis with references to the respective chapters. Thus the reader of the thesis would know when redundancy was afoot.

thank you for the detailed answer! I will try to give some more details on the situation. My second paper is a continuation of the first one where we empirically prove that X has significant effect Y and in the second paper I use a method that utilizes the conclusion of the first one and builds on it.
I mentioned the Ph.D. thesis part for citation purposes too.

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


text:
How important are recommendation letters when applying to a PhD in Germany?
I am planning on applying to a PhD in engineering in Germany (either by contacting a group, which I will prioritize, or through a normal application at the graduate school).
The problem I currently face is finding good referees (by good, I mean respectable h-indices, for example).
For those acquainted with German academia: How much weight is put on the recommendation letters and, more importantly, the referrers when reviewing an application for a PhD position (more, or less, than in the US)?
For instance, if you had to rank these factors:

Letters of recommendation
Transcripts
Publications/internships
Statement of purpose

Where would the letters of recommendation be positioned?

The quality of a reference letter for a PhD application is determined by the writer's ability to describe your (potential) strengths as a researcher, not by flawed metrics such as their h-index. An excellent, positive reference from a relatively unknown professor will help your application much more than a mediocre reference from the biggest name in your field.

@astronat German professors get swamped with (international) applications from graduates of not-so-well-known universities, all with excellent references from unknown people, which ultimately are not reliable because they may have very low standards. A reference from Mr or Mrs Bigshot himself/herself would make an application stand out. These bigshots often have high standards, so a not-to-great reference letter may still get you invited for an interview. So while within the US, your comment may be correct, for the "coming to Germany" situation, I don't think it is.

Note that “a normal application at the graduate school” will get you into a master’s programme (with the PhD being a potential follow-up), while applying to a group usually requires that you already have a master’s degree (or equivalent). There probably are exceptions, but this is the norm. So, you usually do not get to choose between those two options (graduate school or group).

Rank according to which criteria? Likelihood to sink your application if you forget to submit it? The thing that is most likely to make a difference of it stands out? Ranking is completely ill defined here!

Also, what actionable outcome are you envisioning after you get such a 'ranking'? Obviously you should put your best foot forward in each of those. There (typically) aren't any inherent trade-offs between these categories...

You mention two different ways of applying: to a grad school and to (the head of) a group.
These ways of “getting in” are very different. Group leaders can, if they have the funds, normally hire whomever they want (if the formal qualification is given), and there is no standard process. For grad schools, there will typically be some committee that may have their own evaluation process.
A few points can be stated, though:

Letters of recommendation are a very recent occurrence in German academia. Some more senior professors may value them very little. If the group head is non-German, they are more likely to value them.

Transcripts are typically very important. The reason is that many PhD regulations require a more-than-average master’s degree. Hence, bad transcripts can be a show-stopper. But also they are often the best available information for how good an applicant is.

When applying directly to a group, you should have some courses on your transcript that are relatively close to the area in which the group is working on. You are expected to come with the knowledge needed to start researching right away, so this is important. Better have good grades in them.

If you have proper publications already, they help tremendously with your application. So they are, in a sense, most important. There is normally no expectation that an applicant has published research already. Note that papers in predatory journals have a good chance to count negatively, though.

If you apply to a group, it is more important to state why your interests align with those of the group. Be very concrete here, and do your homework. Groups with a lot of third-party funded projects will need PhD students to work on these projects, so if your statement of purpose being too concrete while not aligning with any of the projects would not be ideal.

I would add that if you apply via group leader it is very helpful if you have a recommendation letter from someone the group leader knows through joint research or at least meeting at conferences. Knowing the letter writer will count for much more than a good publication record if the group leader first has to google who the person who wrote this letter is.

It is hard to rank them, apart from the last one. The first three have definitely higher priority. Within those three, I think individual preferences will make the difference between institutions.
However I can say this. Compared to USA, standardized tests (GRE general, GRE subject, TOEFL, IETLS, etc.) are much less important when applying in Germany. In my experience, exams like GRE are not asked for or have very little importance. For language exams such as TOEFL, they will usually state a minimum and that will be the actual minimum (unlike in US) and they seem to be understood as sufficiency and not very effective on the preference. Also, unlike in the USA, none of my applications in Europe asked me to send them an official result (which costs around 20$ each) even after I accepted their offer.

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


text:
How do you make sure you don't plagiarize unintentionally?
Forgive my complete newbieness, but I truly don't to know the answer to this question.
If you decide to write a scientific paper for possible publication in a conference/journal (in engineering, for instance), you'd obviously need to choose a subject that adds something new to the status quo, but then, in doing so, you very certainly will have to tap into the existing research too. And as I understand, most publishing organization have access to special search engines that helps them identify plagiarism.
So where does the line between plagiarism and authentic work lie exactly? Stated otherwise, how do you avoid "unintentional plagiarism" so that the paper you submit doesn't look like you essentially copied existing work? What is considered new and authentic work? Because I have seen many many articles published by IEEE, for example, (especially conference papers) where the original/new contribution was very slight (like a 'new' model/technique that modifies ever so slightly a previous one), isn't this considered plagiarism?

Just to clarify, if you independently research some work, and then, when you write about it, you discover that someone else has done the same thing, that is no plagiarism. You won't be able to publish it, but you have not "plagiarised" anyone. Plagiarism is when you intentionally try to pass someone elses work as yours. If its your work, just not a novel contribution to research, then its simply not new, but not plagiarism. Its authentic work, just not novel.

I suggest you search online for how to cite sources. There is plenty of help out there. Here's one result: https://www.plagiarism.org/article/how-do-i-cite-sources

@AnderBiguri "You won't be able to publish it" Even that depends. A paper arriving at the same result with different methods can be publishable (e.g. different mathematical proofs of known theorems are regularly published in mathematics). A paper that gets a different result with the same method may also be publishable... (as long as the reason for the discrepancy isn't that you made a mistake, or if the mistake is sufficiently novel) Perhaps a paper arriving at the same result with the same methods may even be publishable as a replication, but that may depend on the field.

@Discretelizard agree, I was more focused on the plagiarism side and I didn't clarify that enough. Thanks for the comment :)

@AnderBiguri If you unintentionally copy and paste someone else's work, it's still plagiarism

@Strawberry ehhh we are getting technical there. If you unintentionally copy and paste someones elses work? Its not a very realistic hypothetical I guess.... There is this funny comedy film, "amanece que no es poco" in Spain, where a writer keeps accidentally writing Faulkner's books.  Its funny because its absurd.

It happens all the time. People grab bits of text from other people's work, for incorporation into their own work later, and then forget that they didn't actually write it!

@Strawberry. On the one hand I strongly suspect you are being sarcastic, but on the other I know you are probably right.

You don't need to be a giant to stand on the shoulders of giants.

Use citations for relatively recent work that is not your own (an exception to this is the idea of "common knowledge". For example, you don't need to reference Newton or Leibniz when you employ calculus).
You are not plagiarizing when you develop layers of references and then build on that body of knowledge to add a contribution to it (and hence, becoming part of the body).
When you state a fact, result, argument, assertion, etc, that is not your own but that of someone and do not use a citation, then you are plagiarizing because your readership will interpret that part of the paper as an original thought of your own.
Using citations properly is a skill you will develop over time, so do your best to cite everything that you think requires a citation early on and then you can always edit down things later. As time goes on, you'll understand what does and does not require citation.

The age of a work is irrelevant. If you use it, cite it. The exception is for "common knowledge", not for age. If I quote Euclid, I  cite it. If I state the Pythagorean Theorem, I don't need a citation.

+1 for using calculus as an example of common knowledge. I guess you know that Newton and Leibnitz arrived at calculus independently but ended up accusing each other of plagiarism!

There are two kinds of plagiarism, ordinary and "self". It is pretty much impossible to plagiarize unintentionally. It is an intentional act. Let me explain.
Ordinary plagiarism has two aspects. One is knowingly attributing the work of others to yourself. We avoid it by citing the work we use, giving credit to the originator of ideas that we depend on. But you have to know that the work belongs to another in order to be at fault here. Independently reinventing something yourself isn't plagiarism, though it may appear so. You may still be at fault if you don't know something that you should have known, but the fault isn't plagiarism. Something more like laziness. But intentionally appropriating the ideas of others is seen as an act of malice.
Again, reinvention isn't plagiarism. If I, as a kid, rediscover the Pythagorean Theorem without the help of books or teachers, or anything, just starting with the idea of a triangle, it is reinvention. It isn't plagiarism. It isn't likely publishable, of course, and if I try, people will laugh.
The other aspect of ordinary plagiarism is that we cite the work we use so that readers can trace ideas back to their source, finding complete context for the ideas, their origin and use along the way. The papers that originated the idea have a context, including the papers they cite, and it is sometimes necessary to go back and examine that. If you don't cite, you break the chain.
Self plagiarism is when you use your own previously published work without citing it. Only the second aspect, above, applies here, but it is no less important. Don't just copy-paste (or even paraphrase) from your own old (published) work without citation. But some people do this out of laziness, rather than malice.
But, aside from the technical details, a scholar will spend a fair amount of time researching what is known already about things they wish to explore. This gives the advantage of being able to catapult off of the earlier work (citing it) and deepening your knowledge. It also, hopefully, shows you what is yet to be done in a field, so that you can direct your efforts in meaningful ways.
But ignoring the literature is normally a fault if you wish to publish. People expect you to know the field to the point at which your own explorations begin. If you don't, then your papers will likely get rejected and charges of plagiarism might be made, even if incorrectly. But that is carelessness masquerading as plagiarism, not plagiarism.
As I said in a comment to another post, you don't need to cite things that are "common knowledge". This is a bit hard to define, but generally things taught in, for example, secondary school are common knowledge, though not universal knowledge. But, if in doubt, citing is safer than making assumptions.
Do your homework reading the literature, and, then, cite it if you use it.

Of course you can be accused of plagiarism, even if you havn't plagiarized: i.e. come can say you have copied someones ideas, even if you have co-incidentally rediscovered them.

@IanSudbery, true enough.

I disagree.  I would consider negligently attributing the work of others to yourself to also be plagiarism.    If you reinvent something and don't know it's a reinvention, that by itself isn't plagiarism.  However, if you reinvent something and a reasonable literature search by someone in your position would have found that it was a reinvention, but you try to publish without having done that literature search, it is plagiarism.  To some extent this is a judgement call and people will usually err on the side of unintentional mistake unless someone does it frequently.

@AlexanderWoo, actually no. Seriously no. Negligence is a different failing having nothing to do with plagiarism. Why confuse/conflate them. Or do you require every researcher to have perfect knowledge of every paper at all time, up to the moment? Negligence is exceedingly hard to prove.

@Buffy - Negligence is proved in legal situations all the time.  In fact, it's usually much easier to prove than intent, because it just requires comparison with what a reasonable person taking reasonable care would have done and doesn't require reading any minds.  (For legal purposes, one of the reasons we have juries is so that they can apply themselves as the standard for 'reasonable person'.)

@AlexanderWoo, I think you are writing of a completely different kind of negligence. I didn't read a paper, so didn't cite it. I didn't know about it. Negligent? Only if it is obvious that I should have known about it. Is it easy to find or obscure. But I can also choose to ignore the literature and try to resolve a problem on my own. If I succeed it isn't plagiarism and it isn't negligent. But it isn't publishable, most likely (with some exceptions in math.)

Doesn't "self-plagiarism" only matter when you're submitting material for credit, not for publishing research? Assuming an independent researcher (to ignore questions around citing co-authors) do you really need to cite previous articles of your own in order to reuse data you gathered or ideas you though up?

@curiousdannii, yes, if you use it, cite it. It isn't a rule for students only. Maintain the chain of context.

When I was about 14, and learning about negative numbers, I was quite surprised to learn that you can't take a square root of a negative number. So I wondered what would happen if you just decided that you could take the root of -1 and just get a number called x (not very original) with the property x^2 = -1. I didn't get any further than that...

@OscarBravo. NOT plagiarism. Congratulations to young you. For resisting authority, that is. ;-)  And are you now an Electrical Engineer?

How would someone maliciously plagiarize themselves?

@Abion47. To show past you who's the real boss :)

@MadPhysicist Assert your dominance.

@MadPhysicist Fair enough.

So the monkeys of the infinite monkey theorem are not plagiarizing Shakespeare?

One can engage in unintentional plagiarism. If you read something, then forget you read it, then think of it and think it's your own idea, that unintentional plagiarism. Examples from sitcoms are Fizbo on Modern Family and Bear Down for Midterms on Community.

There are two parts to answering your question.
One deals with explicit plagiarism which is copying text from another paper and showing it as your own. You clearly do not wish to do that. Now if you take inspiration from another work or build on another work, you should rewrite in your own word while citing another work.
The second part of the answer which is more relevant to your question is implicitly plagiarizing by reinventing something which already existed but you are not aware of. Firstly, if you are trying to get published in top conferences or journals you could be sure of reviewers pointing out lack of novelty in your work if someone has already done it. So you will do good to avoid plagiarism by always targeting reputed conferences and journals.
And of course, to ensure novelty you should read more papers from top journals and conferences.
Your observation that IEEE has a lot of work which is not of high quality is correct. Always look for A* conferences and journals to publish with. You will hardly find such issues with them. Look for CORE ranking portal to find such rankings in engineering and computer science area.

You reference all the work that you use (however you use it) that is by other people which is why some papers have lots of references.
Some papers are part of a series produced as the work, and results, progress. This is normal and expected, but you are expected to reference your earlier publications (based on the comment).

Actually, you have to cite your own prior work also to avoid "self plagiarism".


text:
Editor gave me five days to revise paper – chance of acceptance?
I recently received a review of my paper from a journal. Two referees suggested some changes and one referee just rejected the paper claiming that this study was not necessary. The editor decided a major revision. I revised my paper and two referees appreciated the rebuttal and paper while one referee still rejects.
Now, the editor gave me five days time to submit a revision. I sent. Is there a chance of acceptance?

If there is no chance of acceptance, the editor will not waste his time asking for changes.

one referee just rejected the paper — Referees don't accept or reject papers; that's the editor's decision.  You mean "One referee just recommended rejection".

In my field, the editor imposing a deadline would be very unusual. Is this normal in other areas of research?

@FedericoPoloni yes in biology / geoscience but 6 weeks to 6 months is more typical. Unless it is a special issue.

@FedericoPoloni: in (some subfields of) computer science, journal special issues associated to conferences make up a major part of the publication ecosystem.  For that kind of special issue, the editorial timescale can be very tight, for the sake of having it wrapped up by the time of the conference.  I’ve never quite met “five days to revise”, but I’ve had timescales of under a week for writing rebuttals/responses to reviews, and on the order of 2–3 weeks for making revisions.

Unless there are some general reasons to impose a deadline on your paper, such as that it is intended for a special issue, I would strongly guess that your paper is practically accepted and the editor only wanted you to apply some minor changes. I only ever heard of such short deadlines when the only things that needed to be changed were minor and quick to do.
If the editor expected you to present changes and arguments to sway the third referee’s opinion, they would have given you more time. If the editor had decided to follow the third referee’s recommendation, they would have rejected the paper immediately and not further waste your and their time with it.

Usually, if a single review is "reject" (for a journal), a paper is rejected straight away. Since you have been given a chance to amend the paper, the editor must have decided that the opinion of the dissenting reviewer is for some reason irrelevant (he did not understand the paper, his comments/requests are unreasonable, etc.). Short deadline is unusual as well, perhaps, as some other asked, there is special issue in play?

Usually, if a single review is "reject" (for a journal), a paper is rejected straight away. – This does not reflect my experience at all.

It is possible that the reject review is ignored by the editor, but this is then the situation where the editor does not believe the reviewer he personally chose. In this situation, I cannot imagine the same reviewer getting the revised manuscript for another review - since he said in the first place it is a reject. Speaking as an member of an editorial board of an SCI journal :)

That’s a pretty black and white view (which is not shared by any editor I know). Just that an editor disagrees with a reviewer’s conclusion (here: reject), doesn’t mean that they disagree with their criticism, let alone consider the reviewer inept. Also, the same argument applies to the other reviewer(s) who recommend to accept the manuscript: The editor chose them and put trust in them just as much.

I have experienced many cases where one reviewer recommended a rejection and the paper was eventually accepted after addressing that reviewer’s criticism and the reviewer’s opinion was swayed or the only remaining criticism was incontestable like lack of relevance. In many cases the rejecting reviewer did review the revision – which makes sense, as they were the most thorough critic. A typical case would be a reviewer misunderstanding a crucial part of the manuscript, which did indeed need better explanation.

Perhaps it differs between the fields. I may overrule the reviewer if I see that he/she did a poor job, but I never did this. Poorly written parts of the paper that cause reader to misunderstood the critical point are a big minefield. I had once a paper which was minor/major. After several iterations with a "pesky" reviewer it became clear to me and both reviewers that both reviewers misunderstood the critical point, and since the point was not valid, the paper was eventually rejected. After all, it is the author's responsibility do write a readable paper 1st time around.


text:
I got into grad school, now I need to retract my commitment
I got into a fully funded PhD program and accepted it. Somewhere along the line, my decision to attend grad school changed. My problem is that orientation week is in two weeks and I have not retracted my commitment.
I am afraid of what the outcome may be. My potential advisor was so nice to me and I assured her that I would be joining her lab. What should I do? I can’t just not show up... but I don’t know how to tell them that grad school is not something I want right now. I don’t want to offend anyone or ruin my academic reputation.

Is grad school not something you want right now or ever? I think the answers to this question will depend a lot on whether you're leaving academia entirely or only for a year or two

Maybe for two to three years, I just need to explore and develop more and really discover what my true interests are.

Just tell them. As soon as possible. Yesterday would have been better than today. Tomorrow will be worse than today.

Contact the grad-school's office ASAP. It might be possible for you to defer entry by a year or so (if that's what you'd prefer) but in any case you really need to let them know as soon as you can

The harder it is to tell someone something, the sooner you should tell them.

Note that, unless you have a very good, pressing reason for dropping out, you will have a much hard time getting in again.

I don't understand the question. Are you asking whether you should tell them that you're going back on your word, dropping out of the course, and won't be turning up? Well, yes, yes you should.... right now. How can there be any question about that?

I don’t want to offend anyone or ruin my academic reputation. — Sorry, but it's too late for that.  By withdrawing this close to the start date, you do risk both offending people and ruining your academic reputation.  On the other hand, failing to show up without withdrawing in advance, or worse, showing up even though you don't want to start graduate school, creates a significantly larger risk of offending people and ruining your academic reputation.

"I just need to explore and develop more and really discover what my true interests are." Looking back on a widely varied career myself I can tell you this feeling never goes away.  You are rejecting an opportunity to grow.  This is fine if you have a better opportunity to grow to choose instead.  Commitment is hard precisely because it changes other opportunities into might have beens.  But not choosing turns everything into might have beens.  In the end it's far less important WHAT you choose than THAT you choose.  Good luck.

It's never easy to break a commitment but you have to let them know as soon as possible, the earlier the better so they can make proper preparations for themselves, perhaps even extend a last minute offer to another student. Hang in there!

I can’t just not show up

Indeed. Tell the office/admin first- they are the ones that deal with the paperwork. Consider writing a longer email explaining yourself to your potential supervisor if it helps you. Or if you can meet up in person, why not?

I don’t want to offend anyone or ruin my academic reputation.

You won't ruin your academic reputation. Think of it this way: What would your reputation be after struggling through 4+ years through a program you don't want to be in?
Lastly I want to add:

Lots of people change their minds. In fact, some scholarships require commitment within X weeks, meaning that you will have to commit to some before you hear back from another place. (at least in the UK)
Plenty of people drop out even after starting their program. People realise it's not what they thought it would be; have second thoughts; or some life-changing events that change their perspective. It happens. That's life.

Unless you've been admitted to a tiny program, so that your personal absence would really practically disrupt everything, don't worry about it. Be straightforward, politely apologetic. Substantial universities/institutions are much, much less affected by your last-minute absence than your own life will be by any such choice... and any sane person in the university understands this. The worst inconvenience for the program is very small, almost un-noticeable in the statistical uncertainties of all these things.
And no other institution will hear about it, because no one will violate confidentiality by blabbing about such things, and hardly anyone knows (or maybe cares tooooo much) that you were scheduled to show up.
Just behave responsibly, forthrightly, and politely, given your change in plans. Although it's simpler to not see any need to change plans, in fact many people could do better by such a change! And no one should be surprised by the fact that early-20-somethings (or anyone else who's still sorting out "life") might change their minds.

You're options are limited but think thoroughly before choosing one.

Stay only if you really want to. You might rethink your current situation; not many scholars get an opportunity for a fully funded PhD program. I'm not sure what made you change your mind, but best to analyze it further to make sure it is not just an impulse.
If you wish to leave, then leave now. If you are pretty clear about not going to grad school, then don't delay your decision. With a kind apology to your advisor, leave.

Whatever it may be, the final decision is yours to make, do so wisely, you don't want to do anything that is going to give you regret for the rest of your career (that goes for both the above options).


text:
Is it generally worth the time and effort to challenge incorrect exam test items?
Background information:
I have just finished refreshing my high school courses in order to enter into university for engineering. Because I have a strong desire to become an engineer I have not moved past any material unless I fully understood it. That being said, the courses I took have had many mistakes in the material (online material as this is through online correspondence). I have had to fight tooth and nail to correct some of the material, even though I was a student, because I believe the material should be correct so that future students do not suffer the same frustration nor are taught improper concepts.
An example to convey the level of quality of the course material:
One example was in the Physics course, the concept of work being taught was equal to force times the distance the object traveled. This is fundamentally wrong; the real concept of work is force times the distance the force was applied over. I wrote to many people and eventually the business owner before my concerns were heard. The only reason I knew this was wrong was because it defied the law of conservation of energy. Though the fact that I, a student, was the only person who realized the mistake and sought to have it fixed reflects very poorly on the quality of the institution.
Strictly relevant to my question:
I have gotten into the habit of contesting test questions which are incorrect, and since every question on the final exam is worth 0.66% of my final grade, I take the time to make sure each mistake was mine. After contesting 2 questions on my last Chemistry final exam I have found that the head of the science department (whom I correspond with) does not understand a specific concept regarding a question. Now, I realize that it is only 1 question and my grade will go from a 97 to a 97.6, but I strongly dislike the idea of losing a mark for a concept which I deserve the acknowledgment of understanding (the grade). In order to explain why my answer was correct, I don't know how to do it in a way that is not condescending towards her (the head of the science department); no matter how you look at it, it will be a student explaining a concept to a teacher.
I am asking for criticism here. Please criticize me and tell me if I am being too much of a perfectionist. Is it appropriate to always contest questions during an academic career or will it have a negative effect on my success in the long run? Also, is it really worth it? What are the pros and cons?
EDIT: I can see my comment about the Physics concept of work is being met with a lot of skepticism; so I am including the link to the Physics.SE question I made in order to verify without a doubt that the lesson was indeed incorrect. When I saw that this was a mistake I took every measure that I could to ensure it was in fact a mistake before I proceeded to contact the head of the science department and then the business owner (when my concerns were not being heard). In no way did I take this lightly and assume I was correct, I did the necessary research before raising concerns.

To your specific example, "distance" is specifically defined in Physics as being a scalar quantity that is path dependent. It sounds like you thought it was talking about "displacement." As a student of Physics myself, I don't find the statement wrong; I just see the potential for confusion if someone doesn't understand their terms correctly. Be very careful of that sort of situation: it's easy to be confused about the minute details and think a statement is wrong when it's actually correct. An approach to consider is going in presenting your understand and asking if you have misunderstood.

@jpmc26 I see a problem with the definition the class provided; if I punch a box with a force of 10N, touching the box for 0.4m, and the box flies 3m, the work I exerted is not 30J (force times distance the box travelled).  Rather, it would be 4J, as I only was acting on the box for 0.4m (force times distance over which force was applied).

"the concept of work being taught was equal to force times the distance the object traveled. This is fundamentally wrong; the real concept of work is force times the distance the force was applied over." I don't see the difference. Definitions have always a context; from your definition, it seems that you consider a constant force acting on a object in linear motion (or a conservative force if the motion is not linear). Your extra assumption is that the force is applied during all motion, would it be a constant force if it was not the case?

How do you use italic or bold in comments?

@anorton I didn't say it was crystal clear. There's a lot of intricacies involved that have to be understood. We have to know what the "distance the object traveled" means in a very precise, technical sense, and this question doesn't go into details about what all the class discussed. My point is simply that the wording that the OP wants to dispute is actually a correct application when you examine and understand those intricacies. It's not wrong; it's just missing details (which might have been addressed in lecture). That possibility must be considered in situations the OP is describing.

@Taladris StachExchange sites use Markdown. Enjoy!

If you want to verify your thoughts about faulty exam questions, there are various StackExchange sites around, that can help you to get more information on the subject and/or a deeper understanding. On [chemistry.se] homework questions are very welcome.

The statement fails if you apply force to the edge of a disk - even a constant force. The center of mass will move less far than the edge of the disk, and the work done will indeed be the integral of force * displacement of point where the force acts - not the displacement of the center of mass. When you have a point mass these are the same thing - in the real world things are more complex. I applaud you for wanting to get things right - but in life you don't get points for being the know-it-all (I discovered this at your age...) even when you are right. So - good for you to ask here!

To elaborate on the error of the concept from the text; consider a batter in space that swings and makes contact with a baseball (negligible air resistance). According to the concept defined in the text, the work done on the ball is equal to the force the batter gave, times the distance the ball traveled (which will be forever since space gives no resistance). This means the joules, the energy, calculated will be dependent upon how far the ball travels. This defies the law of conservation of energy. It must be the force of the batter times the distance the ball was in contact with the bat.

@Klik Unless the text explicitly stated details of that nature, I suspect you are reading something into it that's not there. Already knowing the concept, that is not how I would interpret the wording you give us above if it's in isolation. Could it be clearer? Yes, almost all writing can, but it's a big leap to go from, "could be clearer" to "blatantly wrong." Give your professor the benefit of the doubt unless you have very heavy evidence to think otherwise. In other words, practice humility.

@jpmc26 I have updated my answer to include the question that I made on Physics.SE at the time. This concept of work was not the point of this question; I only included it to convey how poor the materials were so people reading the question would better understand my point of view. That particular example has been dealt with a long time ago. I would prefer not to deliberate that issue any further as it is not the most pertinent information. If you disagree then please feel free to view the question I had posed on stack exchange and see the answer that was given there. (the link is above)

::totters off to check out the linked question on [physics.se].:: Yikes. All I can say is that is a very weak and fragile wording which ought to be set right if this course is anything other than a minimum-math, conceptual introduction for non-scientists. But that doesn't mean that you should set it right, nor that the professor can necessarily do anything about it right now.

Though the fact that I, a student, was the only person who realized the mistake and sought to have it fixed reflects very poorly on the quality of the institution.

Yes, it does.

I believe the material should be correct so that future students do not suffer the same frustration nor are taught improper concepts.

Of course it should.  But ultimately, the correctness of the course material is the responsibility of the instructor, not your responsibility.

I have had to fight tooth and nail to correct some of the material.

That strikes me as quixotic.
It's certainly reasonable, and helpful to future students, to report errors that you find in the course material.  The instructor should then either fix it, or discuss with you why the course material is actually correct.
But if the instructor does not seem interested in doing so, then it's probably a waste of your time to "fight tooth and nail".  Unfortunately, crappy courses and instructors exist, and it's not your job to fix them all.  Simply quit giving them your money and attention: look elsewhere for better courses.  If you like, leave negative reviews.  Future students would be helped by having the errors fixed, but if the courses are as poorly managed as you describe, they would be even better off not taking them at all.

What are your thoughts on such educational institutions? My biggest issue with incorrect material and teachers having incorrect understandings is that this translates to poorer education for students. Perhaps I am an idealist, but I would like to see everybody have an excellent education. Khanacademy is a great example.

This addresses the issue of correcting the material for future students, but not the question of whether to fight for his own grades that were incorrectly marked.

Is it appropriate to always contest questions during an academic career or will it have a negative effect on my success in the long run? Also, is it really worth it? What are the pros and cons?

No ,it is not always appropriate to contest questions during an academic career! Let me hasten to add that most of the time, under most circumstance and with the right attitude, it is probably appropriate. The key is your attitude, which seems to be appropriately focused on learning rather than on showing up the professor. However, the second part is how successful you are at conveying that attitude, particularly in an online format, which, as others have mentioned, lends itself to miscommunication.
Approach this with an attitude of learning from the masters,  as in "Can you show/tell me why this answer is not what I thought it should be?" rather than, "This question is wrong and I want you to fix it!" Professors are human too, and most of us have hard time responding kindly to a smarty-pants student who is intent on showing that s/he knows more than we do!

Who cares if you have a hard time with smarty pants students.  If you did something wrong and need someone to caress you while telling you that your stuff is wrong then you are in the wrong field.  I have instructed engineers for years and some of my best relationships started with a smartass remark.  Your answer makes me think that you think the professor is a dominant position.  Don't take yourself so serious.

@blankip, you seem to assume that the smarty-pants students are always right, which is often not the case. On top of that, if they are trying to demonstrate how much they know during a lecture, frequent interruptions are often annoying for the rest of the students.

@greenfingers - No I don't.  Most of the time they aren't.  Do you understand that most people can't help themselves in this situation due to their own social awkwardness?  And I seriously doubt they would do this in the middle of a lecture.  They might hound you after class or at a break but that is the game.  Basically this attitude is saying those who are socially challenged shouldn't get the same privileges.  Teaching engineers for years, man this was half my class.  As a teacher you should be able to quickly explain your grading and if you could be wrong.

Do you understand that most people can't help themselves in this situation due to their own social awkwardness? — Then they should probably deal with their social awkwardness before going to college.  (I was one of those people.)

Professors are not allowed to retaliate for students asking questions/contesting test items so you have no need to fear. That being said, human beings are human beings and there is natural variation to how people respond. Most academics I know love having students who are as committed to their education as we are and we view questions (including contesting questions) a sign of commitment. Given professors are human beings, we will make mistakes and it is important to be aware that your texts are also filled with errors! So I would encourage you to continue asking questions and contesting items throughout your education. But I caution that you do so in a respectful way. Particularly for internet classes, it is easy to lose sight that the person with whom you are communicating is highly qualified in a specialized area and is due respect. They owe you an equal amount of respect, of course. But when communicating via email, discussion boards, class-related blogs, or any other means that does not involve being face-to-face, two errors emerge entirely too often. People are sometimes disrespectful because they do not realize how difficult it is to show respect via these technologies. People may also be disrespectful because the anonymity makes it easier to be rude/condescending or to lose ones temper. Make no mistake, asking a question is not disrespectful, it is the way questions that are sometimes conveyed disrespectfully. Avoid these errors and you should experience no problems.

It can occasionally be dangerous to believe too fully that "professors are not allowed to retaliate", even though that should be true. Retaliation can take insidious forms.

Any indication of retaliation should be taken up with a department chair. If this is ineffective, you can go to the dean or the university president. As I said, there is natural variation in how humans respond. But students have protections against this unprofessional behavior.

I agree, there are in-principle protections, but noxious faculty can easily see ways to torment students without quite documentably crossing the relevant lines.

A simple way of being respectful is to always approach your professor with an attitude of asking if you are wrong. This gives you the opportunity to explain how you understand the issue at hand and why you see a problem, while leaving open the possibility for the professor to correct you or for them to agree with your analysis. It's a humble way of raising these sorts of questions.

I would have to agree with Paul Garrett's comment from my experience in the workplace. If a boss is unhappy with someone, he cannot fire them for that reason, but there are enough safety rules these days that he can just keep his eyes open and watch for a slip up so he can fire them. Though, I don't what format that might take in the context of an academic setting, or how open people are to these concerns.

I'm writing as someone who has questioned/challenged exam questions, and even the entire teaching approach to a graduate-level course. (I'm a PhD student). I do this rarely.  I don't do this because my answer was marked wrong or because my exam grade might be improved.  In other words, when I challenged the professor I had no intent to have him change my grade.  My goal was 100% focused on improving "the system" that gave rise to that exam and exam question in the first place.
Look at this as a social system.  All systems improve their performance in response to feedback, a.k.a. error signals.  Your teachers and professors operate in social systems that include their training, their experience, their discipline norms and culture, their peer influences, their incentives, their resources, and so on.  Any given exam question exists within this larger "field" of testing, grading systems, degree programs, academic accreditation, and so on.
Consider how this is similar to customer complaints in commercial settings, complaints by line workers in a manufacturing process, or whistle-blower complaints in a government department.  Regardless of the merit of any individual complaint, these are all vital and essential signals for each of these organizations and institutions. Enlightened and mature managers (and professors) will understand this and will do their best to solicit such corrective signals, and will act on them systematically.
Alas, many (or most) managers and professors are not enlightened.  They won't learn and they will suppress the feedback, and maybe react negatively to the person or people who raise such feedback.
With this perspective, the best that you can do is provide feedback in a way that people can learn from it, and so they can change the system to benefit future students (or customers, or line workers, or citizens).

Using your example:

[In a] Physics course, the concept of work being taught was equal to force times the distance the object traveled. This is fundamentally wrong; the real concept of work is force times the distance the force was applied over.

You describe this as "fundamentally wrong".  Really? It may be erroneous at a conceptual level (i.e. how "resultant distance" is different than "applied distance") but "fundamentally wrong" to me would be "Work = Force X Velocity" or "Work = Force ^2" or "Work = Distance X Mass".
Most important: how would you modify the education material related to "work" and how would you modify the exam question associate with "work"?  And what modifications are required to the System that this exam questions lives in?
Is the professor not using the latest research?  Is the professor taking short-cuts, where a more complete treatment is necessary?  Is "teaching the formula" taking precedence over "teaching the concepts" or "teaching the theory"?
In my opinion and experience, it's these latter questions that you should address in your feedback in this particular case.

The problem is that you're accusing your elders of understanding the concept wrongly.  Possibly they are, but most likely they apply it perfectly, and the breakdown is in communication.
You should try to express yourself like this:

I believe I've found a clearer way to express this law.  "Work equals Force times the Distance the force was applied over."  Is it correct?

Assuming the others are not in fact incompetent, they will agree this is correct.  Probably they will even agree it is a clearer statement than the original.
If you just protest the original wording though, "Can't you see this is wrong?", then no, you won't find agreement.
All human communication is built on a foundation of assumptions and shared experience.  For them, that it is "the distance traveled while the force is acting on the object" not "the distance traveled ever" or even "the distance traveled as a result of the impulse transmitted by the force" is second-nature, and they never think to express it explicitly.
And that's also why no one else sought to have it "fixed".

I am asking for criticism here. Please criticize me and tell me if I
  am being too much of a perfectionist.

I think, what you do is not perfectionism. You're very close to being ignored by your instructors.

I strongly dislike the idea of losing a mark for a concept which I
  deserve the acknowledgment of understanding (the grade).

Going after what you deserve is a very natural and legitimate behavior. But there is one question: Does %0.66 grade change anything?
If your grade were to go from A to A+, or it is a matter of passing and failing the class, not a single person will be inconsiderate. However, if you're doing this for only numbers on a piece of paper, then you're not usually welcome.

no matter how you look at it, it will be a student explaining a
  concept to a teacher.

Human beings learn. All the time. Assistant Professor, Professor, Dean are only titles. In my opinion, if someone chose to be an academician, they chose to be a student for all their life. So, in this case, a student explaining something to another more experienced student.
Besides being a student, an academician also has a duty, which is to teach courses. This is a different aspect. This requires a skill to keep a group of different people up and awake for a period of time. Therefore, even though an instructor can make a mistake and have actually something to learn, time and place matters to teach him/her where (s)he is mistaken.
Actually, this is a question of respect. I'm sure that you don't want a professor calling your idea nonsense or calling you moron. If you raise your hand and tell him "you don't know this subject, let me teach you", two cases are equivalent.
The more you learn, the more you forget
At least, this applies for me. In my country, we take a test to enter a university. The test is so hard, only the math section covers all the topics those are taught in the university, in 4 semesters. I once could solve really hard trigonometry questions by hand. Now, I'm dealing with computational geometry, but am astonished when I encounter a simple question about complex numbers. Similarly, your physics instructor, or the author of the book might have missed some basic points. That does not mean they are wrong, that means they should be corrected (you can also correct something even it is right).


text:
What must a researcher know or understand about another researcher to ensure successful research collaboration?
What must a researcher know or understand about another researcher to confidently conclude that he or she can become a good partner in collaboration? Specific opinions will be appreciated, e.g. the researcher must understand how his or her potential collaborator's skill set.

Seems too broad to me.

The future.

This question is isomorphic to "What a husband and wife must know or understand about another to ensure a successful marriage" in my opinion.

So instead, what efforts can be carried out to increase the likelihood of a successful collaboration?

The most important thing to know about a potential collaborator is what their expectations are with respect to the collaboration.
For example,

Division of labor - who is responsible for which part of the work? If new tasks come up (as they will), how will the collaborators make decisions as to the division of labor?
Authorship - who will be an author on publications resulting from the collaboration, and in what order? If the collaborators are students, are they planning to involve their advisors in the joint research effort to the point that they'd also be authors? If the are professors, will they involve their students? How will decisions on changes to the author list be made?
Publishing - where will they publish articles resulting from the collaboration? Is one collaborator or another set on a specific venue, or specific level of prestige? Do the collaborators have a similar minimum level of reputation for conferences and journals they're willing to submit to? How do the collaborators feel about pre-publication dissemination of the work, e.g. preprints, presentations?
Timeline - what is the timeline for this research collaboration? Is this a strict timeline, or is it OK if things end up taking much longer?
Communication - how often will the collaborators check in with each other? Will they meet regularly, or just contact one another to share news (good or bad)?

There are of course no right or wrong answers to these questions; it's agreement that matters. More than any particular skill, compatible expectations are necessary for a successful collaboration.

The OP is not looking for answers to the question: What makes a good research collaboration?

@EnthusiasticStudent Nope. He's looking for answers to the question "What must a researcher know or understand about another researcher to ensure successful research collaboration?" My answer (as stated in the first sentence) is, "A researcher must know/understand the other researcher's expectations about the collaboration to ensure successful collaboration."


text:
How to promote research commercialization?
What efforts have there been to promote research commercialization (e.g. connecting researchers with investors interested in commercializing the researchers' research) and how are these done?

Where? In the United States, there are federal laws related to "technology transfer" from publicly funded researchers to industry. I am sure this will vary widely between countries, regions, and individual universities.

I think this is a very interesting subject. I'm presently only vaguely aware of how some institutions have special efforts for this where they actively encourage commercial "spin-offs" (along with licensing and royalties paid to the institution in the future if the company gets off the ground). I'm also aware that there are special grants and initiatives in various systems that encourage it. One I saw recently offered up to $100,000 for one year to develop an idea from the "business plan" stage into something that could potentially be ready to seek outside investment. Would love to know more.

Note: the grant I saw was very specific, I believe focusing on a business/technology concept based around renewable energy.

Hi Tim, may I ask as to how these laws will affect the process of research commercialization?

Hi Brian, may I know as to what this grant is?

I feel this question very broad. Not only the topic itself, but what is the angle? Which country/continent? Are you asking about federal policy, grants, institutional efforts, successful examples of individual efforts, local government supports, industrial efforts? What industry? Bio, chem, pharma or computational science works very-very different ways.

In the US, at least, there are lots of different mechanisms intended to try to facilitate commercialization.  The major players are:

Universities, who want to make money by licensing patents
Entrepreneurs and venture capital groups, who see new technology as  one of the best sources of profitable market disruption.
Large established companies, who want to acquire new technology in order to prevent their markets from being disrupted and to disrupt their competitors.
Local, state, and national governments, who see tech transfer as a both a major economic benefit and an important justification for investing public money in research.

A few of the many significant mechanisms:

Every research university has some form of Technology Transfer Office, whose job is to get researchers and business people introduced and help them figure out opportunities for commercialization.  Many universities also have "sabbatical for a startup" programs for their faculty, official or otherwise.
Regional associations, like the Massachusetts Association of Technology Transfer Offices or the Northwest Future Energy Conferences do the same thing on a larger scale.
SBIR/STTR programs are a whole family of programs where significant amounts of government grant money is allocated specifically to commercialization of new technology by startups and other small businesses.  Some small businesses effectively set themselves up as independent research institutes with this money.
Within subfields, there are often specific joint industry/academia programs specifically designed to facilitate technology transfer.  For example the Semiconductor Research Corporation is designed to serve as an industry/academia bridge in, well, semiconductor research.  Another example is SynBERC, a long-term NSF project in synthetic biology which includes a highly successful program for industry involvement at all scales.

The interface between academia and industry, in the US at least, is much more intense and complicated than many realize.  You just have to go looking for connections into it.


text:
Slow Response from Journal: Should I withdraw a paper?
I submitted a paper to an Elsevier journal in August and the status has been "with editor" ever since. I was concerned that it had not been sent for review for 4 months and I sent inquiries twice without getting any response. I am wondering if I should just withdraw my paper?

It's worth keeping in mind that the editorial system's status messages can be inscrutable, and even a paper that's under review may not be listed as such.  (Some editors recruit reviewers without going through the website, because they find it cumbersome.  Furthermore, even if the editor issues review requests through the website, reviewers may reply to the editor by e-mail without bothering to click on the web link, and the editorial system will think they never replied.  Some editors fix this by hand, while others don't bother.)  But getting no reply to an inquiry is more worrisome.

thanks for the explanation, it is actually a math journal. The system directs all the inquiries to a staff of the journal and so I do not really know which editor handles it. Otherwise I could contact the editor directly.

Just a note on terminology: Removing an article from consideration during the peer review phase, while "in press", or any other time before publication, is commonly called withdrawal. Retraction usually refers to withdrawing an article after it is published. (See e.g.)

I had a similar issue with a math journal which is considered good, but at the time had some issues with management.  There should be a managing editor listed that you can contact directly.  If the managing editor doesn't get back to you within a couple of weeks or so, it's probably reasonable to withdraw your paper (I didn't, but the whole process ended up being pretty slow, which is to say, normal for math journals).

I agree, math journals are typically slow. In fact, I completely understand that the reviewing process may take a while, but I am very concerned that the paper is simply with the editor for more than four months.

possible duplicate of How long should I wait for the response of the referee?

It's possible that the editor it was assigned to has left the journal.  Call them on the phone and then call another editor of that journal.  It's definitely odd for it to have fallen through the cracks like that.


text:
Is it worth registering for an innovations in medicine conference, being a CE student?
I'm attending an "Innovations in medicine" conference but the registration fee is a bit high, I am a computer engineering student and the conference will have various technological topics.
Do you think that having the attendance certificate from the conference will be of any value in my CV, considering the fact that there are some chances I might work in medical technology in the future?

By having the papers from the conference, do you mean to have the CD of the papers of the conference?

I really don't know what they give you, there's some document that proves you attended, plus some "bells and whistles", but at any rate I mean, is it worth getting the proof of your attending it? That's what I'm interested in actually, just proving I was there.

I edited your question to better imply what you mean.

Are you attending it or just thinking of going?

Attending, but it was worth the sightseeing anyway so you get the picture.
Thanks for the edit, looks better and is definitely more to the point.

Full disclosure: I originally planned to go to medical school, but things happened and I received an MS in CS instead.
The question on whether you should attend weighs heavily on something you haven't clearly specified: how serious is medicine for you?
If you're just "Oh, I might do something medically related and want to attend" feel free to attend. However, unless you're actually studying biology or other related medical topics, this conference will not provide you very much besides being a CV stuffer.
Both medicine and CS alone are full-time education paths. If you're learning 10 CS courses for 1 intro to biology course, then I would say medicine is not really an associated topic of study. I would say, at the very least, you should have enough credits to have a minor in Biology or some other medically related field to indicate an actual understanding of the medical field.
If you are super-interested in the topic of medicine and feel that "Yes, this is what I want to do," then this is a program you should attend. You will meet people, make connections, and possibly end up doing research with them. The conference is a source of opportunities. You have to back up that dedication with actually learning biology, chemistry, and physiology. Like any set of study, learning medicine is a commitment.
That being said, medicine and computer science together tends to be more towards the Bio-Medical Engineering field. Or Bioinformatics, both of which are graduate-level programs as well. Plenty of things in these fields, like robo-surgery or automated diagnosis, and all great research-friendly topics. Electronic medical records software and clinical trials software, however, medical knowledge is usually not required and can be provided by people trained in the medical field.

Bioinformatics are a path I'm considering seriously, and since it was mostly an engineering conference around medical technologies, I was interested. However it turns out that to get the papers would cost well over the minimum wage of a full time worker where I live, and I have more profitable plans for my savings, so there was no point in it. The answer was a great one, hopefully others with similar dilemmas will stumble upon it.


text:
One Extra Semester - Benefits? Trouble Planning
I am a junior mathematics/philosophy double major looking to pursue mathematics into graduate school. Philosophy is a hobby which turned out to satisfy many degree requirements at first. Now, due to some unfortunate planning on my part, and the fact that the university schedules mathematics and philosophy courses almost exclusively in the same time, I'm in for a real crunch to finish the philosophy side of the program. In short, I'm considering taking a 9th semester of undergraduate, but I'm not sure it's worth it for me. I have a few reasons to consider this decision, but I'm not sure how bad that lost semester matters. I understand that it might implicitly translates into an extra year, since many first year graduate courses come in fall/spring sequences.
In order to graduate on time, I would have to take 18 and 19 credits in senior year, respectively, as well as write a thesis in mathematics (it need not be any new or groundbreaking work, but it must be at minimum an expository paper covering some highly non-trivial theorem and/or applications). However, since I have completed all of the mathematics courses for undergraduate necessary, I am free to take graduate level classes. Since I'm primarily interested in algebra and geometry, I'll be taking the core courses in those two subjects that year if possible. However, I could always nix these to work on philosophy, but since I'm really going to school for mathematics, that seems less than wise.
But in the event that it's too much to handle, I have only two choices. Drop the philosophy major and make it a minor when nearly finished, or take an extra semester of undergraduate.
How much does one extra semester hurt my application? There are quite a handful of benefits to the extra semester if I stay:

It takes stress off senior year proper, which is important to me because I struggle with moderate anxiety, and the high course load could impact my GPA. I could do 12 credits/semester taking 6 in graduate mathematics and 6 in philosophy quite comfortably, with room to meet with professor and work on my mathematics thesis.
It let's me spread the philosophy work sufficiently thin that I can take an advanced algebra course, and/or a graduate course in real analysis. This is particularly important because I didn't do so well in my undergraduate course because of that anxiety. In a lighter semester, I could do much better, since I do understand the material, in spite of underperforming on exams. At the very least I could retake the undergraduate course and do better in it.
I can be a TA, something I have not otherwise had time for and I understand to look good on an application.
I can continue to work as a peer tutor at my university. I am a certified tutor through the College Reading and Learning Association. I don't know if that's useful or not on a graduate application, but it can't hurt. The extra semester would get me another level of certification. I don't know how much graduate programs know about this organization, so I don't know if this means much or not.
Since I'm not graduating after "senior" year, I can possibly partake in a (second?) mathematics REU. Hopefully I will be admitted to one this summer.

So in short, the question is, should I try to get through in two semesters, and nix the philosophy program if I can't make it, or do I go for the ninth semester with all the tradeoffs?

You should prob. state which country you are interested in (I am assuming US). In central Europe, an additional semester of undergraduate studies is nothing to worry about, especially if you also have a double major and research experience to show for it.

Yeah United States. All the school's I'm currently looking at are US, but I'm not against broadening my horizons.

I suggest you have a talk with your advisors in both the math and philosophy departments.  That's what they're there for.  Who knows, they may even come up with a great solution for you, like you can stay an extra year and get both degrees along with a masters.

In the US, I'd be surprised if anyone even noticed, much less cared, that you took an extra semester.

@Kimball Does staying that semester guarantee I'll have to stay a year? If so, then yeah a master's program would definitely be something to look into.

Alfred, no, you can graduate in exactly 9 semesters, which usually means in December.  But if you're planning to enter a PhD program, those usually only start in the Fall, so you would need to find something to do in between anyway.

@Kimball Maybe this is worth a new question, and I'll post again if necessary, but should I graduate in a Fall, and seek out a job for a few months maybe tutoring or working (I don't see the point in trying to go to an industry job for just a few months), will it be possible to continue to work with professors on the same kind of research problems that other undergraduates do, even though I'm no longer affiliated with the university? I guess that's really up to the individual, but I'm wondering if it's something that people do at all.

You should make absolutely sure your university allows this.  Since you have completed all the requirements for a degree (in mathematics), some institutions might require you to graduate now, and not allow you to stick around to get a second major.  Or if they do let you stay, you might not be eligible for financial aid.

Alfred, sure it's possible, and I imagine it happens sometimes, though I can't think of any specific examples.  (Overall, undergrad research in math is relatively uncommon at most places, outside of special things like summer programs, so I don't have a large dataset of personal experience.)

I would recommend eliminating the philosophy major in order to start your graduate degree in mathematics sooner.  It seems to me the philosophy major does little to advance your career goals; you described it as a hobby.  Taking an extra (presumably fall) semester to graduate will delay your career by a whole year because graduate admissions typically only occur in the fall.  The year you lose comes at the end of your career, when you will presumably have the best and highest paying job of your life, or can retire a year earlier.  On the whole, the costs of an extra semester seems very high compared to the benefits.


text:
How should one respond to 'Call for Paper' e-mails?
Of late I have been receiving a number of e-mails with subject 'Call for Paper' and invitations to contribute to new and/or open-access publications. While most of them immediately qualify for the trash bin, some do have a professional looking layout and language. Sometimes their publisher name looks very similar to reputed publishers.
Should I create a filter to delete and mark spam for all mails with 'Call for Paper' in the subject?
Do reputed publishers ever advertise or invite authors to contribute to their journals?

I do find it ironic that every CfP email I get states, "Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this CfP" despite the fact that they've cross-posted the CfP to about ten different mailing lists.

Every conference and workshop will issue a call for papers. The editors of special issues of journals may issue a call for papers. Editors of books on a special topic may have call for papers. How else will they advertise their conference, workshop, journal, book and get submission?
Many of these will be perfectly legitimate and even highly reputable venues. Naturally, some of these might be poorly ranked conferences or even in-it-for-the-money ventures, rather than serious scientific venues. But if you mark them all as spam, how will you know what is out there to submit your papers to?
The best strategy I can think of is to create a folder to collect these call for papers and use a filter to move them into that folder. When you need to submit a paper, you can search through the folder to find an appropriate venue. As most conferences repeat yearly at roughly the same time, you can collect the names of those and the approximate due dates in another file (or calendar), so that you build a good picture of what the major events in your field are.
Every now and again you will need to find a new forum or perhaps there will be a book that you could contribute to. By filtering all call for papers, you miss these things.
On the other hand, you can find most of this information using Google ....
Answering the title question: generally you shouldn't respond to these emails. That said, you could send an email to be asked to be removed from the mailing list, but this is probably ineffective.

Unsolicited CfP emails are a very bad practice, but there is little you can do. Just ignore and delete the irrelevant CfPs manually.
Reputable conferences and journals usually send their announcements only to the relevant mailing lists, so that only those who are really interested in the CfPs will receive them. Unfortunately, there are some reputable venues that resort to spamming, and there is also the grey area of people forwarding CfPs to their colleagues, departmental mailing lists, etc.
Automated filtering sounds tempting, but it is very dangerous. For example, an invitation to serve in the programme committee of a conference may look very similar to a CfP. Such invitations often include the same basic information as a CfP (conference name, location, date, topic, web site URL, chairs, etc.) – indeed, it might even include a preliminary version of a CfP. An automated filter might easily classify it as CfP spam.