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How to make sense of a 2019 paper published in 2016 journal issue?
I submitted a paper to a social sciences journal and it has been accepted. However, the publisher tells me it is going to be printed in the next weeks in the 2016 issue. How to make sense of this? Apparently the issue has been delayed a few years. However it will not mention the year 2019 and it is officially a 2016 paper issue. No digital copy since the journal doesn't have a webpage.  Can I still put 2019 in my CV? and if I want to present it in an upcoming conference?
It is an old journal in French that might had issues with their timeframe, collecting papers, printing, and moreover getting the editing work done on ambitious projects. Is it really an issue when the work was done? If this is part of PhD research, want difference does it make if it is possible to indicate in bibliography that the work was submitted and printed in 2019?

If any journal editor is reading this...please don't do this ever. Why, why, why.

In these days academics get evaluated on bibliometrics more and more aggressively. At least where I work,"you must have N papers published in the past M years" is a common requirement for various funds / promotions. With this in mind, having a 2019 paper published with a 2016 date is an even worse deal than it looks. Maybe it doesn't matter to you now, but it may matter 3-4 years from now.

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I would pull the paper. I would be worried that the issue is never going to be published and that the paper is going to sit in limbo for years. The fact that the journal has no web page, even in the social sciences, is concerning to me. Are you sure that libraries are going to get this newest issue when it comes out for it to be archived?
If I were to keep the paper in the pipeline for the journal, I would want some reassurances. I would look at the journal editorial board and review process. If the review process was exceptionally speedy and the initial decision was accept as is (or very minor revisions), I would worry the journal is desperate. A high rate of turn over in editors or reviewers (i.e., different people on every iteration) would also concern me. I would put a time contingency on the copyright transfer so that it expires if the issue is not published in the next few weeks.
Then you have all the issues with playing with the timeline. How are people (e.g., tenure committees or search committees) going to know when you did the work. Even saying that it was published in 2019, isn't the issue, committees want to know when you did the work. I can only imagine the headaches that it could cause with funders when trying to explain why work funded in 2018 is in a 2016 issue, regardless of when it came out. Screwing with the timeline is also probably going to mess up a lot of bibliometrics (e.g., 5 year impact factor would only go for citations through 2021 or really a 2 year window).

Publisher says it will be published in the next weeks. Without that assurance, I'd probably agree about pulling it.  I think it is worth a chuckle, not a panic, actually.

@Buffy yup, and I bet they keep saying that to the poor sap who submitted a paper in 2015.

Your "bet" is just a guess, of course. And pulling the paper keeps it unpublished for at least a while longer. Fine if you already have a good pub record and stuff in the pipeline otherwise. Less fine if not. Reacting with irritation to a journal, even when justified, does little to advance your own career. I can't say whether withdrawing is best, but I doubt you can either.

@Buffy I added some more suggestions about pulling the paper.

There might be an issue with pulling the paper if the author already signed over the copyright/agreement to publish forms.

@Kimball then let the universitys lawyers handle that. There's probably a way out in cases like this.

"I would not but a time contingency on the copyright transfer that it expires if the issue is not published in the next few weeks." I couldn't parse this sentence. Would you be able to rephrase it?

@LightnessRacesinOrbit that is because the sentence did not male sense (see edit).

In your CV, I think it would be proper to put the official date (2016), but also acceptable to note that it was (will be) "published 2019". For presentation at the conference, I assume you need to submit it first. You can send a note to the program chair explaining the situation.
It will always be a bit anomalous, but it is what it is. Even in a formal citation you can list both dates - 2016 issue, published 2019.

Chances are, the journal is having trouble filling its issues. It doesn't have enough papers, so issues promised to subscribers were never delivered - the journal now "owes" its subscribers the missing issues and your paper was put into one of these issues.
C'est la vie.

There might be a lot of reasons for not being able to produce issues in a timely manner. If the journal were dedicated to an especially arcane field, that would be pretty common, I think. But other, valid and invalid, reasons might come to mind.

If it's a new journal, my guess would be that the editorial board were overly optimistic about how well the community will react to it (e.g. by starting at 4 issues/year instead of 2 issues/year). If it's an old journal, then I'd guess either the field is becoming less popular, or the journal overestimated future submissions and decided to increase its issue count prematurely.

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What should I do if a student has already done all the work for my course elsewhere?
Some background info: I'm a graduating Masters Students teaching a Web Development Class. This is my first teaching gig and this is a required course for CS students.
I have one star student who is already VERY good at web development. He overhauled three of the university's sites, making them more accessible, beautiful, and more performant. He is also pretty known among the faculty because of this. Let's just say that he knows the whole scope of what is being taught in my class, probably more.
What I want to know is if there is something that I can do to help this student? What I'm teaching him is probably just tickling his capability, and he is also very driven enough to create sites for our university. Can I talk about my department (CS Department) to let him skip my class/have him create sites for the uni instead? This student is very smart and I really feel he is much more engaged with doing real world sites (our sites) that I want to give him my time to support this instead of simple workload.
I have also talked to him about this and he really does think that developing real sites is fun.
So would it be unusual if I approach my department about this request? If not, how should I phrase this?
*Also, he closely works with me and a few other faculty for the site creation.

I am not sure I understand your question. You said "He overhauled three of the university's sites,". To me, this means he is already doing real world sites. And then you said "let him skip my class/have him create sites for the uni instead?". What exactly are you asking?

@scaaahu basically, support him in creating real world sites, and still have him pass or 'finish' my class or earn credit. At the very least maybe allow him to take another class (like letting him pass on a credit by examination).

What are the requirements to successfully complete this course? I guess that some amount of homework is required in the syllabus, otherwise if there is only a final exam then the answer is trivial: he can take it without following the lectures.

Talk to the person in your department who is responsible for overseeing the undergraduate education program (the title is usually a variant on "undergraduate advisor" or "director of undergraduate studies"). Such individuals usually have the authority to waive and approve courses that are not part of the "official" study plan when exceptional circumstances arise. This individual should be able to tell you what is necessary to obtain a waiver, and what could be used to substitute for it within the program.

Awesome thanks! I do believe someone in our department carries "undergraduate advisor" as a title.

@user15966 Note that a waiver typically replaces a grade. If the student really is good at the topic you should ask him whether he wants the waiver (assuming you know you can get it) or whether he wants to follow the course anyway, and get the chance to produce a top grade.

If the course is waived, there may still be credit requirements to make up, which means that the student can spend the equivalent amount of time doing something that's more productive/more appropriate, too.

I am still an undergrad and a friend did exactly this for exactly this context several years ago

I encountered a similar situation in the past. The student explained the situation to the lecturer and the lecturer agreed to give the student all the exercises in advance so that he could finish them in one go if he liked (instead of waiting and submitting a new exercise each week). The student did not need to attend class but had to do the final exam. That way the student didn't really get unfair special treatment (he got graded like the rest of the students) but could minimize the time wasted on something that he already knows.

While I'd appreciate my time being minimally wasted as a student, I'd still be a little upset having to pay tuition for a course that wasn't intellectually benefitting me.

@Cornstalks sadly for those of us still in undergrad there are far too many courses like that. Requirements are requirements and it has to be a special case to get out of it, at least at my school

In my view, not being required to take a course when you can exhibit full mastery of its material is hardly "unfair special treatment".  It is more like "fair special treatment", although it is less special than "nonstandard enough to require some human intervention in the mechanics of the degree requirements".  In my experience different academic cultures have different attitudes about this: when I taught in Canada I was surprised that the attitude usually was: "You know the material?  Great.  Then just show up for the final exam and you'll get an A."  In the US this is not the norm.

Also, I have to point out that your proposal does not "minimize the time wasted on something that he already knows": the minimum amount of time to waste on something that you already know is 0 (you can pick the units).

Having the student do free labor for the department in return for a course credit is somewhat evil. Paid work should be paid work.
At my school, if a student can prove they already have the skills that we teach in core chooses, we have the option of waiving those applicable requirements and letting them take higher level courses instead. The core course requirement is waived, but the number and distribution of courses required are usually not.
In any case, talk to your chair or DUS/DGS as appropriate.

The choice of credit or pay is something that should be up to the student to decide. Some students would rather have the course credit than the cash, others won't.

I disagree. It devalues what a course credit means (free labor for faculty!).

Perhaps we're working at cross-purposes. I was assuming that this was some sort of "independent project/study" arrangement, not something directly within a course. (But I'd also note that this is very much a cultural phenomenon.)

It also raises questions of evaluation. Should he get grade on the basis of how many hours he put in? The quality of the final product? The beauty or sophistication of the backend algorithms? How happy the other faculty are with the work?  Should the department offer course credit to all of their work study students - even those engaged in physical labor?

And why stop at labor=credit, why not substitute cash for labor so that you can buy an A in the course for $5000, which could then be used to hire other student workers.

Independent studies are the property of the student. He should be allowed to do an intellectually stimulating project in lieu of credit but it should be for his own enlightenment and benefit not his faculty supervisor's. Otherwise, why not require data entry for all first year students?

@RoboKaren Surely the best sort of project is one where everyone (advisor and advisee) benefits? Or should I stop suggesting that my research students work on topics where I genuinely care about the answer, and where I intend to build on their results later? "Useful" need not mean exploitative. And the student here may be delighted to have such a high-profile "client" on his CV...

I assume your research students are not in a core course when doing such research? And I'm assuming research leading to their degree is different from creating a website for the department.

He signed up for the course didn't he?  I'd give him the same exams but different assignments. Sounds like you are teaching at a Tech School. Give him a University course. You have a Masters. Make him learn something. Let him work on something more scientific such as how to take the Opera source and replace the crippled WebView of Android with an Opera browser as well as make a one-size-fits-all by letting Opera be embedded in place of the UIWebView in iOS. I know, that's a bit extreme; but, you get the idea. Give him a challenge. I'm sure there is something in the Web Dev space which takes scientific level of understanding. At least he can catalog the various and nefarious async and two-way-data-binding frameworks and compare and contrast. Open the "Challenge" assignment to all of the class. You might have a few sleepers in there. make it worth an "A"; so, then legitimately everyone has the same opportunity. Just some ideas. (Teaching professional courses is even more extreme: almost always there's one person in the class who knows everything and several who know nothing.)

The problem with this is he's doing a lot more work for three or four credits to pass CS201, work that will not be reflected on his transcript.

At my university we have a system set up so a student can challenge a class and if they can pass the final exam then they get the credit for the class on a pass/fail system. The other choice in most colleges is having the student adviser for the program waive the class. I am a Computer Science Major and I have had entry level computer courses waived by my adviser because I knew the material well enough to advance to higher courses.

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Is it useful to add excerpts from teaching evaluations in a teaching statement?
Is it useful to add excerpts from teaching evaluations in a teaching statement included in a faculty application?
A fair amount of teaching statements seem to contain some, but since excerpts are  typically cherry picked I wonder whether the admission committee cares about them.

Here is an article that surveys how teaching is evaluated in a mathematics faculty search (YMMV in different fields). Based on this, in general, teaching evaluations are valued, even if they are not asked for. This leads me to think that including information from evaluations (e.g. comments but also summarized numerical ratings) is a good practice.
http://www.ams.org/notices/200710/tx071001308p.pdf

I think that including excerpts from teaching evaluations alone may not that valuable since, as you say, the excerpts can be cherry-picked. If you also add  the mean ratings along with standard deviations, the excerpts will have more weight, IMO. In addition, if these numbers and excerpts can be used to support that your teaching philosophy is contributing to improved learning in the classroom, that would be even better.

The question is best approached by looking at how sales and marketing organizations work; after all, you're selling yourself by applying for a position on the faculty and the way to be successful is by using proven sales strategies.
Marketing organizations know that customer testimonials are probably the MOST effective way to earn a new customer's business. The evidence is everywhere: TV commercials, online advertising, print media, etc. Present a client talking about how your product or service went beyond expectations, and new clients will feel a level of confidence in signing on with you.
So, YES, include testimonials, but do so in a way that's understated - NOT cocky!

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What are the downsides of using arXiv references instead of conference/journal references for the same paper?
I read in the instructions for one conference:

Please do not use arXiv references for papers that have been published at official venues such as conferences, journals or workshops. Please make the effort to identify these at least for all papers prior to 2017.

What are the downsides of using arXiv references instead of conference/journal references?

As a general comment for those advocating that arxiv isn't paywalled, I usually google the name of the paper I'm looking for if I can't access it by other means, leading to arxiv/researchgate/archives-ouvertes/etc...

@FábioDias (Ways to get free and legal access to research papers as a researcher)

When you say "somewhere", what kind of somewhere is that?

@E.P. Instructions for camera ready version of papers at EACL 2017 sent by email to authors.

@FábioDias: Even though the reader may be able to find open-access copies of a cited paper, there are valid reasons to directly cite the arXiv paper. At least: (1.) saving reader effort, in particular if you put a clickable hyperlink to the arXiv version; (2.) making it clear that references to figures/theorems/tables/etc. are relative to the arXiv version and not the publisher version (or some other online version), in case they differ; (3.) not give the impression to readers that they are encouraged to pay for the publisher version of the paper.

@a3nm On the other hand you lose the credibility associated with a known conference/journal - not worth it IMHO. "Article finding" is an art that all researchers eventually learn... And you can't really reference arxiv tables/etc directly, because they change more often than published articles (the argument is reversed).

@FábioDias you can cite a specific version of an arXiv article.

@FábioDias: regarding the credibility problem, you could always cite an arXiv paper with a note "Presented at [conference]" or "Published at [journal]"

@a3nm or just cite the published article and let the user find it at arvix, your site, etc... Honestly, I don't see the point of mixing the two citations "to save reader effort" because the effort of googling a title  is negligible (and par for the course for researchers). I fully agree with the guidelines mentioned by the OP, and it is what I usually do. I have cited arxiv, but only where there was no other version of the paper (and it was an important reference), which I had to vet myself, since it was not peer reviewed...

@FábioDias I disagree that  "the effort of googling a title is par for the course for researchers". Links in references should be more common in my opinion. Also, indicating arXiv in the reference shows that the paper (or at least a pre-print of it) is open access. Most articles aren't.

Using arXiv instead of a conference / journal reference has an obvious disadvantage: readers won't know that the paper eventually passed peer review and was published.  This is important context, especially if they want to cite the paper themselves later.
Using arXiv in addition to a conference / journal reference might make sense, but some might consider it redundant.

readers won't know that the paper eventually passed peer review and was published. Indeed, +1. They also won't know where it was published, which can be just as important a piece of context (e.g., Annals of Mathematics vs Predatory Journal of Mickey Mouse Mathematics).

+1 for do both. That's good practice, and not redundant as arxiv may contain a newer version, extra material and is open access.

@innisfree newer version than the journal version? Extra material over the journal version? Are you kidding? It would be extremely bad practice to add material and keep updating the paper on arxiv after it has already published, except maybe to correct some egregious error, and even then an erratum should be issued, since many people would go to the journal as the official source for the paper rather than arxiv.

Yep, extra material,  that was cut from published version for brevity or as it was e.g., speculative. And updates for typos, or even updates in light of new experimental data. Not considered bad practice in physics.

Journals often ask that any archiving (eg on the arXiv) has a reference and a link (eg by doi) to the published version. I've started including the arXiv number (inspired by Scott Morrison) in the abstract of the published paper in a reversal of this demand. eg https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11225-015-9603-6, https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/HHA.2015.v17.n2.a4, https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10485-015-9400-4 Thus if people leave off the arXiv number in their reference to my paper, then anyone looking up the journal version will have it in front of them with no effort at all, and ideally won't waste $£€

It's good to add that arXiv has papers which would not pass peer review, but this is not obvious from a mere skim.

@Szabolcs, what are fast ways to tell if an arXiv paper would not pass peer review?

ArXiv sometimes picks up on the publication of preprints automatically and provides that data in the meta information for a paper (one of several reasons to always link to the abstract page rather than the PDF). Even if the publication isn't auto detected authors can provide this data directly and it will (eventually!) be included. Personally, I cite the published version and add the arXiv URL as a note entry in bibtex for the best of both worlds.

One reason I haven't seen mentioned is indexing of citations. Some services that create citation statistics might not correctly associate the preprint with the published paper.
But linking to the arXiv version is always a good idea:

It's a lot easier for the author to update an arXiv preprint than the version in a Journal.
E.g one of my papers has some (minor) errors in the published version
which are fixed on arXiv.
Not everyone has access to paywalled journals, especially not all
the time (e.g. from a mobile device).

(Related to your last point: Persistent URL for each DOI pointing to open access papers when available)

To add another upside: arxiv versions show the year in which the paper was first made public, which is helpful for understanding the progression of ideas in fast-paced areas such as deep learning.

Venues are important for judging if a paper is worth reading.
ArXiv is a mixed bag, as it is not peer reviewed, and may even have been changed!
If I look at references, and they come from some predatory publisher or fake conference, I don't bother reading them. Experience tells me they are at most a rip-off of some other work, and in the worst case simply copy&paste from Wikipedia.
Now if your work is based on these things, I would be rather skeptical if it really works. Even many papers published in top conferences are nonsense and not reproducible.
So please, indicate which papers have at least passed some peer review, and in which venue - to at least hint at their quality.

"Venues are important for judging if a paper is worth reading. ArXiV [sic] is a mixed bag"   -- compare to the largest STM academic publisher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier#Criticism_and_controversies

"and may even have been changed" Non-issue, because you should cite arXiv preprints with their version number!!

The "not peer reviewed" thing is not as important as you seem to make it. Usually, authors retract their arXiv preprints if the referee finds a serious error (although authors don't always correct minor errors found by referees).

@darijgrinberg: Lots of arXiv preprints have not yet undergone peer review, and many never will.

@darijgrinberg you should does not imply that people do it right... people also should cite Wikipedia only with a revision number, yet nobody does. And I've seen many - even prominent, not only crap - unreviewed papers on arXiv.

@Anony-Mousse: I am not implying this. Sadly, few people do it right. What I mean is that this shouldn't prevent you from citing an arXiv preprint, since you can easily do it right. The problem with the crap preprints is more substantial, but authors usually understand well enough whether the papers they are cited are good or not (or at least whether the parts they are using are reliable).

Let's look for some statistics: Where are predatory publishers based?

The main concern should be to assist your future readers as much as possible, including to enable them to track down the source article. If you can direct them to the latest version and provide a DOI for them to track it easily, then it would be beneficial to do so.
If that version happens to be a reputable peer-reviewed journal, then all the better to get your readers to trust your claims. If submitting to a journal they will also use your references to determine whether your topic is relevant for their publication, they expect you to have cited publications in the field including their journal.
Disclosure of the version you've based your claims on is a valid concern. In my experience bioRxiv updates manuscripts to the published version but it may be worth checking that the aspects you've based your citation on have not changed, particularly if they've been retracted. However, it does look good to show that you have included the latest findings in your field in your literature review. Perhaps it may be suitable to cite the published version and include a sourced at arXiv note or url? Similar to how you would give the date accessed (version) for a website source.

The optimal way to assist readers is to link both the journal and the arXiv version, possibly even pointing out whether the two versions substantially deviate (if you know it). I tend to do exactly that in my preprints. Unfortunately, this kind of information maps badly onto standard bibliography formats, which is why I think not many people do it. (I write my bibliography manually, so I don't have troubles doing it.)

@darijgrinberg Ideally (as I've suggested) but where only one can be given, I'd recommend the (more credible) journal if possible. Giving both versions if may not be accepted by many journals in the interests of space. Even a note such as "sourced on arXiv" should be enough for most readers to trace it down on google if they had the journal reference.

The arXiv version is not always updated to match the published version, which is the official "version of record" (although these days it is rarer and rarer that the arXiv version is not updated to match the published version).

This is true, but not always: sometimes it may also happen that the arXiv version is updated after publication to fix errors that were found since then. It's up to everyone to decide what they consider to be the "official version of record".

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How much does it cost to make a MOOC universally accessible, as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990?
Is there any research/study/survey that tried to quantify the cost of making  a MOOC universally accessible, as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (mirror)?
I am aware that the cost depends on several factors, such as the type of content the MOOC contains ( video / text / etc.).
The question is motivated by the lawsuits some educational firms received / feared to receive to due to lack of accessibility of the course materials:

Berkeley will begin removing more than 20,000 video and audio lectures from public view as a result of a Justice Department accessibility order  (mirror)  (published on  2017-03-06)
Videos for Stanford's CS224d No Longer Available  (mirror) (published in  2016)
Settlement Agreement (“Agreement”) are the United States of America (“United States”) and edX Inc. (“edX”).   (mirror) (published on April 2, 2015)
Agreements with Colleges and Universities Regarding Accessibility (mirror)

Note that the incident that inspired this question isn't specifically about MOOCs but included much more general content, such as podcasts and videos of lectures. (This in no way affects the validity of the question.)

@DavidRicherby Thanks, good point, I'm also interested in the cost of making videos of lectures accessible.

The question asks for studies or research, and I don't know of any, but I do have some first-hand experience.
Meeting the Section 508* requirements for Web pages used in such a course is effectively without cost if one starts out to make such pages accessible.  Retrofitting might cost as much as the original project, but the cost should be near zero for modern MOOCs.
Closed (or open) captions are very expensive.  Unless done at a foreign sweatshop, cost is $5.00 to $15.00 per minute, so something like $12,000 as a minimum, up over $35,000, for a one-semester course.  In other words, the captioning can cost more than the professor.  That's at least part of why some institutions employ ASL interpreters for class sections with deaf students.
Edited to add: I worry about the quality of the content for captions of university-level courses produced offshore at cheap rates, but have no personal experience.  I have experimented extensively with captioning through voice recognition for my own courses.  It's getting much better, but still requires extensive manual editing.  The $5-15 number given above could be reduced by using student labor, especially if the students are majors in the material being subtitled.
Captioning addresses the needs of the deaf.  Making course materials available to the blind means being sure that everything that is shown is also described, either by the speaker who is presenting or in a manner that can be rendered through text-to-speech.  The latter means being sure that there are good "alt" descriptions of images and that appropriate markup, e.g. MathML, is used for things like equations.  In my own discipline, computing, that isn't onerous, and the costs sort-of disappear in the weeds of getting the course done.  Things might be very different in a discipline like the visual arts.
*Section 508 is part of the Rehabilitation Act, not the ADA, but you still have to do it.

If captioning costs $5-$15 per minute, how does it become effectively free if you start out with it in mind?

It's the Web stuff that's effectively free.  The Web pages used in MOOCs have to be accessible, and one makes that happen by not doing things that would make pages inaccessible.  There's more info here: https://www.section508.gov/content/build/website-accessibility-improvement  (Captioning remains hideously expensive unless, as in my case, it comes out of the professor's hide, and I can caption only a small part of the material I'd like to make public.)

There was a question elsewhere about the quality of YouTube's automatic captioning.  You can find an example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzhHKHSefZU until the government finds out about it.  Note that George Boole's name comes out right the first couple of times, but is later rendered as "pool."

"It's the Web stuff that's effectively free." You mean text-and-diagrams HTML pages? All of this stuff, video, audio, and all the rest is "web stuff" (which I think is why I was confused by your answer).

The question isn't about the cost of MOOCs, it's about the cost of compliance, or accessibility.  It's the compliance with ADA part that's free with respect to web material.  If you're going to compose web pages, record audio and video, etc. none of that is free; there's a cost to all of it.  Of that, some of that is "web stuff," and there's a cost to making it.  However, there is little or no cost to making it compliant provided one plans to do so from the start.

Now I feel I understand even less. Are you simply making the vacuous claim that, if you plan to do something from the start then it's not an extra cost so the extra cost is zero?

@DavidRicherby Nope, I claim that building accessible web pages costs no more than building pages that will not pass the accessibility tests, provided one plans to do so from the start and so avoids the traps that make pages inaccessible.  Vacuous?  I don't think so.  Did you look at the link I posted earlier?

@BobBrown also, captioning is very cheap if you are reading from a script — as I'd imagine made-for-MOOC courses's videos and audio clips are. It's a matter of breaking up the text into digestible chunks and then there are some great programs that let you just go hitting a space bar in time to synch them up).

There is software that makes good transcripts if it's just one voice.  Let me know if you want me to try to remember which one I used with good results.

@aparente001: I've tried Dragon Naturally Speaking with little success.  It captures words, but the result requires extensive editing and then synchronizing with the spoken words.  Google's engine does better, but see my example above, where "Boole" got turned into "pool."  One can download, edit, and re-upload Google's subtitles, and that's mostly what I do when the subtitle task comes out of my hide.  Except in the case of major corrections, the synchronization is already done by Google.

@guifa So, who writes the script?  That just moves the cost around, but  doesn't eliminate it.  I can probably count the number of professors who lecture from a script on the fingers of one thumb.  (I work from a topic list so I don't skip material or get out of order.)    "...you just go hitting a space bar..."   No, I don't.  The idea that you can effectively double a professor's workload, and with drudge work, is "free" is a concept up with which I will not put.  The result of a law requiring that my work be universally accessible is that very little of it will be made public at all.

@BobBrown Well, I write the script, of course.  Speaking off the cuff makes sense in person, but if you're going to give the course to several thousand people where they can't ask questions for immediate feedback like in a traditional classroom, tightly scripting things is how I have always done it.  But I got a stipend to develop my online course that paid for the extra work, and any extra accessibility issues beyond providing a script that needed to be worked out was handled by the disability resource center, not me.

@BobBrown - I have had very good results with https://transcribe.wreally.com/ for transcribing multiple speakers (meetings). // In my experience, training Dragon to your voice gives good results for a single voice and good audio quality.  I have used it with an additional layer of software on top called KnowBrainer, which was helpful. // Chrome has transcription software as well but I like Dragon plus KnowBrainer better.

Providing MathML or raw LaTeX versions of what's written on the blackboard in a math lecture (physics is probably similar) I would expect to be a lot more expensive than captioning.  I don't know of any examples of that being done on a large scale.

@NoahSnyder I fear you're probably right.  We no longer have blackboards, so I'm used to doing things the hard way.


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How important is publication for PhD admission?
As a master's student in computer science, I would really like to go for a PhD at a good CS department. However until now, I have no publications and really have no idea how to start research. I'm interested in many subjects but I have not yet been able to narrow down the choice to a specific one. For someone like me who just began his or her master's studies and wants to plan for a PhD, what is the real number one priority besides a good GPA?

In academia the currency is publications. In your PhD, you are expected to produce that currency out of thin air. If you have a dime on day #1 in your pocket, it certainly does not hurt you. However, what the admission committee will be thinking is your ability to produce some big $$.

I would say publications dont matter to start with a PhD, in general. Having them might help in reducing length of your PhD.
A good thing to have is liking for one area in CS, and good knowledge in that area atleast. e.g. systems or security or algorithms or formal verification or databases or distributed systems etc. Later when you join for the PhD program, you will do courses and talk with people to get an understanding on what is a good research problem etc.

Except if the particular PhD program does not involve any course work.

I would say publications dont matter to start with a PhD, in general. — You may be right in general but in strong departments (like mine), having publications is a significant advantage when applying for a PhD, and a de facto requirement if the applicant already has a master's degree.

If your Masters degree is a degree by research then you'll already be starting down the road of learning just how to carry out a research project. So you're in the typical position of most undergrads transitioning to postgrad studies. At that stage it would be quite unusual for you to have been able to contribute to a research paper (based on my experience working in universities in the UK, Germany and Australia).
As you progress through your Masters you will hopefully have the opportunity to investigate areas which may interest you, and narrow down which field(s) might suit your intentions to pursue a further degree. Perhaps during this time you will contribute to some piece of research which will be published before you graduate. Given the timescales involved in academic publishing though this is unlikely unless you, join and make a final contribution to, an established project (for example). This would possibly make you stand out a little more when applying for doctoral positions, but it would not be essential. Masters level research frequently does result in publications, but these may come out some years after you complete the degree (depending on the field of course)!
If your Masters does not have a research component then you will have to make some time to do some independent reading, study recent publications in your field etc and get a sense of what research groups / professors exist whose interests would match yours.
The number one priority would definitely be defining and establishing your interests. So you want to find out what in CS you are enthusiastic about and committed to investigating, and be able to demonstrate that genuine enthusiasm when applying. A good PhD student is in effect a colleague in training rather than a student to be taught, and you want to be able to show that's what you have the potential to become.
This, I admit is a somewhat idealised view of what I would want to see in a prospective PhD student. Where you're located, which universities you wish to apply for, and how they deal with admissions (among other things) will all have specific impacts on what is important. So you'll have to discover, and tailor your preparation to, those criteria too!


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Can postdocs in the United States apply for funding to support undergrad/MS/PhD students?
As a postdoc in the US, is it possible to apply for funding for a project, which can be used to support one or two undergrad/MS/PhD students?

The answer depends on the funding agency. Some agencies only require a PhD for the PI, in which case it's certainly possible, although it can be difficult to secure funding with only a postdoc as PI. (Many such proposals might have a more senior scientist as co-investigator.)
Other programs have specific requirements that the PI hold a more senior position, such as a tenure-track position, in which case a postdoc could not apply as the primary or sole or investigator.

Institutions also have varying rules about whether postdocs can apply for grants.


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Referring to the candidate in a recommendation letter
I'm writing a recommendation letter for a candidate that wants to pursue MSc program abroad. I've known the candidate since his first year of undergraduate studies and also I included him in some personal projects of mine. However, I wonder how should I address him in the letter. These are the options:

Address him by last name only:

Mr. Doe was...

Address him as 'the candidate':

The candidate's motivation...

Any opinions on which one is preferred?

In certain fields, the first name may prevail: "John was ..."

I think either method will be fine.  Note, however, that you are not "addressing" him, you are "discussing" him.

You are writing on behalf of the applicant, and are supposed to be providing information that shows how well you know the applicant's strengths and weaknesses. That knowledge is more convincingly implied if you refer to the candidate by her name, rather than as "the candidate" or "the applicant."
Also, most good letters of recommendation I've seen actually refer to the candidate by her first name, rather than as "Ms. Doe."

+1 for the answer. I find it convenient to use the full name once. For example, "I am writing this letter of reference for Mr. Coder Alive. ... Coder has been involved with me in my present project on how to answer question on academia..."

+1 for the answer. Although referring to someone using his first name is common mostly in anglosaxon culture, while other nations prefer the use of  First+Last name.

Plus, then there is no baggage of choosing a specific title for a woman.


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Is it bad to apply for the same Master's degree program in consecutive years?
I am an undergraduate majoring in computer science. I want to apply for a top Master program in the US. I have done the GRE test and most of the other things required.
I am currently doing research with my professor so there might be more publication to come but it will be later than the application deadline.
I don't know if I should try to apply this year. There are certain things I am concerning (my GPA might be lower, my reference letter might not be as strong as before, there might be more applicants in the next year) .
There is one thing I don't know how will the admission office work on.
If I failed the first year, will it be a negative factor for my application the next year (say if I could been admitted originally, but because I failed the last application the year before so I am not accepted)?
will it be like I revealed too much information so they can see my change between the two years(for example they found I didn't make much progress like the years before in that year)?
will they compare the two applications(for example they found there is lots of change in my SOP, like my life goal changed largely)  or will they be processed totally independent?
Just say I have 25% possibility to get admitted, my situation might be better or worse the next year. If I failed this year I will reapply the next year. Is it worth a shot to apply this year?

Decisions likely depend on factors besides the applications themselves, e.g. which faculty members are on the admissions committee this year, how many applications were received, how many 'spaces' there are in the program (a function of the funding available and/or number of people graduating) etc. Applicants have no control over these. @NMJD's answer points out that some schools will notice if you've applied before, but what I tell my students is that a rejection doesn't necessarily mean you're a poor fit for a particular program. It just means things didn't work out this time around.

I applied twice in two consecutive years for graduate school. Some universities do not track or compare current applications to previous ones, so those schools likely would not notice (and thus would not care).
Some institutions do track if you've applied previously. This isn't a deal-breaker, but then you'd want the year gap to show you made significant gains and improved your application.
Thus, my advice would be: if you want to apply this year, go for it. If you don't get in, find a job or internship and/or take classes that let(s) you improve your application significantly. Develop new skills, showcase an ability to be successful in more advanced projects.
Then, were you to apply that next year, don't mention that you applied to that institution before and got rejected, but do emphasize all the skills you gained during your time off. Talk about how that year prepared you to be a successful graduate student in your essay, make sure the skills developed during that year are clear on your resume and in your description of projects (if there is one).
Edit: If you are concerned the graduate program is a reach for you, you might consider taking a year off to build your skills anyway. You could probably make a decent amount of money for that year, and you may be less stressed and able to get more out of graduate school.

Thanks! Because I found in the online application, there is often a block says "if you have applied this institution(program) before". So I am concerning this might be an evaluation factor.

If I failed the first year, will it be a negative factor for my application the next year (say if I could been admitted originally, but because I failed the last application the year before so I am not accepted)?

I have done graduate admissions in the US (in mathematics), and in all of my experience I have never seen the phenomenon of downgrading an applicant in Year X because they previously applied but were rejected in Year Y.
Let me also say that when it comes to faculty applications, the "carpet-bombing approach" -- i.e., apply widely and often -- is very much the norm.  Thus it seems likely to me that the prospect of reapplying looks much more unusual to the student than it will to the faculty members who will be processing the application.
Combined with the trivial (but true) remark that you get into precisely 0% of programs to which you do not apply, I would certainly encourage you to apply in consecutive years if you still have interest.


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Does membership of academic honour societies carry any professional weight / recognition?
I understand honour societies have been around for years and it is a tradition more prevalent in the western world to recognise outstanding academic talent.
The largest honour society is perhaps the Golden Key which operates worldwide and has over 2 million members. It provides a range of services to members, including leadership training, networking and the opportunity to do good. Membership is by invitation only and only those who are in the top 15% of their class or high performing graduate students are eligible. The eligibility is based solely on academic performance.
I presume being invited to join a honour society is an 'honour' in itself, as the mere mention of this affiliation on the CV would indicate that you are a top achiever.
Question 1: Does membership of honour society carry any professional weight?
(i.e. does it give any additional advantages?)
Note: Honour society is not the same as professional society. The latter, as I understand it, is open to all persons in a particular field (irrespective of their academic achievement but as long as certain criteria are met, e.g. successful registration as a teacher to join a teacher's union).
Question 2: Are there other honour societies in addition to the Golden Key (which seems to be the most dominant one)?
PS: I am unsure of the tag, so putting CV. Please update!
Disclaimer: I am not associated with Golden Key.

I am not associated in any way with Golden Key. I have put a disclaimer.

Top 15% in your class is very different from "the best of the best".

Top 15% of your class is also very different from "top achiever".

"top 15% of their class" - given that class can be ill-defined depending on the university system, note that internationally, this sounds like a somewhat arbitrary criterion.

Does membership of honour society carry any professional weight?

No, not in general.  At a very early stage in your career, for example when applying to graduate school, it may be useful as a quick indication that you have received high grades.  However, the grades themselves are more meaningful than the honor society membership, and in any case grades only matter so much.  It's worth mentioning the honor society on your CV, but it won't make a big difference.
Once you are more than a few years past undergraduate studies, neither grades nor honor societies matter.

In general, I think honor societies (including Golden Key) carry very little weight. One exception is Phi Beta Kappa, which (unlike Golden Key) does not require paying a fee to be inducted. I would be suspicious of any honor society that requires payment for membership.

What is the significance of Phi Beta Kappa?

Alpha Chi is another. The significance of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Chi is as Aaron says, purely academic with no dues. Further, the cutoff point is top 10% rather than 15%. Additionally, chapters for these academic honor societies exist at more elite schools, ones where it's much more difficult to be a top performer.

But what does membership buy you?

Membership gets you nothing, except in two ways. (1) You can put it on your cv (not that helpful) and (2) if you are in academia, your college's/university's ability to induct students into PBK (i.e., "having a chapter") is contingent on having a set number of PBK members on faculty.

I think they are mostly a North American thing. As an European, I have hardly ever heard of them, and they wouldn't impress me at all on a CV. In fact, whenever I read a three-greek-letter-acronym, I can't help mentally associating it with John Belushi at a toga party.

@FedericoPoloni: Your first sentence explains it all. And the mention of John Belushi. It's something from the movies.

@FedericoPoloni sure, and so the Belushi image would make you much more likely to hire, right? Just think of the lift in mood at work socials.

This question mentions a $99 fee to join PBK (not clear if one-time or annual). This contradicts the statement in your answer that PBK "does not require paying a fee to be inducted".

Listing "prestigious" societies like Phi Beta Kappa or Tau Beta Pi is perfectly acceptable. While it probably won't do a whole lot of good, it also won't do any harm. Do avoid listing any societies where you have to pay dues or pay to be inducted: they are a double-whammy since they give the perception that 1) you are padding your CV with inconsequential honors, and 2) are exhibiting poor judgment by paying to do so.

"it also won't do any harm" - in an international setting, I'd be careful with that assumption.


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Which is more important for PhD applicants — Quality or quantity of research papers?
While applying to a PhD program in computer science, which one is more important?
Publishing 4 or 5 medium/low-quality journal or conference papers or publishing only one paper in a top journal?
The review process of top-quality journals are usually 1-2 years. Which means, one has to begin his/her research during the bachelor's and submit the paper in the beginning of master's degree. But as far as I know, this is extraordinary (especially in my country).
An extra question would be: Regardless of the quality of the paper, is publishing papers in distinct areas or publishing papres in a specific area more important?
I'm willing to move to Northern Europe (UH, TUT, KTH, KU). So, answers from the professors/students of those universities will be highly appreciated.

Having any papers before starting your PhD will put you ahead of most applicants. I don't know much about publishing in CS, but several years for the review process sounds a bit harsh. Even for mathematics (where refereeing is very slow) I thought that the average turnaround is ~6 months. In principle one should pursue top class research if possible, and 1-2 first author publications in a leading journal of the field should get you anywhere. 4-5 (first author) publications in a well-recognized journal sounds like a lot of work to fit in a couple of years for an undergraduate.

Neither. if you want exposure as a computer scientist, publish in a top conference.

@amlrg Note that, in much of CS (especially the theoretical end), there's no such thing as a "first-author publication": authors are conventionally listed alphabetically.

I disagree with the assumption that top journals with slow turnaround times are more highly regarded than top conferences with quicker turnaround times.  In most (all?) areas of computer science, the most competitive conferences are at least as highly regarded as the top journals.  It is also not unusual for longer versions of conference papers to later be submitted to journals.
As David Patterson (UC Berkeley), Larry Snyder (University of Washington), and Jeffrey Ullman wrote in Evaluating Computer Scientists and Engineers For Promotion and Tenure:

The evaluation of computer science and engineering faculty for
  promotion and tenure has generally followed the dictate "publish or
  perish," where "publish" has had its standard academic meaning of
  "publish in archival journals" [Academic Careers, 94]. Relying on
  journal publications as the sole demonstration of scholarly
  achievement, especially counting such publications to determine
  whether they exceed a prescribed threshold, ignores significant
  evidence of accomplishment in computer science and engineering. For
  example, conference publication is preferred in the field, and
  computational artifacts —software, chips, etc. —are a tangible means
  of conveying ideas and insight. Obligating faculty to be evaluated by
  this traditional standard handicaps their careers, and indirectly
  harms the field. This document describes appropriate evidence of
  academic achievement in computer science and engineering.

Your research advisor should be able to provide you advice more specific to your case.
I agree with amirg that having any publications when applying to a PhD program (especially based on undergraduate research) makes you exceptional.  Your advisor's recommendation also counts a lot, especially if he or she is well known.

I will not focus on the conferences vs. journals angle here, as this has been answered by other people and I really think this is not the core of your question. I will assume you meant to ask:
"Publishing 4 or 5 medium/low-quality venues or publishing only one paper in a top venue. What is better for PhD admission?"
Firstly, I am not entirely sure in which timespan you plan to produce all these materials. In my subfield of Computer Science, writing 4-5 B-level conference papers takes most PhD students at least 2 years. Writing 1 top paper requires a very good idea, solid research skills, and typically at least one half-year of full-time research (often significantly more). Doing all of that as a (presumably) inexperienced undergrad or master student besides course work seems very ambitious. From my personal experience, a very good master student will publish 1 or 2 good papers during his master's. That's about the best I have personally seen among my students.
Now, the simple answer to your (implied) above question is that both are likely ok.  Both, one top paper or 4-5 reasonable papers, are likely to get you into any of the northern european school in principle. However, note that admission to european schools is often not like in the US (see also here), meaning that it is well possible that you still need to find a professor to take you on, which may depend more on her/his available fundings than your CV.
However, when you said "4 or 5 medium/low-quality" papers, make sure that they are not too low-quality. There is a threshold from which a badly conceived paper can actually hurt your chances in some groups. It is hard to give a hard-and-fast rule here, but in the dark I would avoid any predatory journals as well as any conference that does not appear on any of the international rankings (e.g., CORE). If you have an advisor or mentor from the field, he will be able to help you with selecting reasonable venues.

Well, I think I did that mistake. I have published papers in two too low quality conference journals. I shouldn't put them in my CV should I?

@cagirici Hiding papers is generally not a very good idea. Put them in, but don't emphasise them in any way.

@xLeitix could you elaborate on why hiding it would not be a good idea? (I think this might make a good question in itself) For example, I have an acquaintance who does not list one of his papers on his CV. The paper is published in a decent journal and has a few dozen citations. It has no flaws per se, nor does the person disagree with the contents really, but he considers it "pseudoscience" which does not contribute "anything" to the field and wishes to distance himself from it. Would "hiding" a paper in this case, too, be considered unethical or "not a good idea", or is this case-specific?

@amlrg Will you ask this as a question or shall I? :)

@cagirici Please, you go ahead. While I am interested in the answers from the members of this community, your connection to the subject is clearly more personal (and you might be interested in the specific case of "predatory" journals as opposed to the general case of whether it is ever ok to hide papers).

@amlrg I have asked the question, including my story. In case you wonder


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Is there any regulation governing the accessibility of research papers? (to ensure they can accommodate the reading preferences of the users)
There exist some regulations regarding the accessibility of educational materials  (mirror), such as the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (mirror) or the  Section 508  (mirror).
Is there any regulation governing the accessibility of research papers?

@NateEldredge Thanks for the suggestion. Persons with "disabilities" may benefit from accessibility features but others may also like it. I prefer to distinguish accessibility from disabilities. I don't like much the disability term, we are all different and some have accessibility preferences.

Since they are generally private (I.e. Non government) publishers, no. However, for example the American Physics Society has been collaborating to make papers more directly accessible out of their internal work flow. One can find links to such efforts with ViewPlus, a maker of printers for the eyesight impaired.

@JonCuster Laws may also apply to private entities. Thanks for the pointers to AMS.

“Preferences” aren’t sufficient to drive ADA compliance. You would need to have a real accessibility claim to drive a compliance request. If all you need is to increase the zoom factor, a publisher need not provide you with a single-column, large-type format of every article in their archives.

Accessibility in mathematics in borderline impossible. Accessibility without having a specific person in mind is... something that would only be requested by someone who has no idea of what would be involved.

To the best of my knowledge, no such law has ever been passed (though I'm no legal expert).
Even if such a law was passed, however, enforcing it would likely be difficult or impossible:

How could one assess the accessibility of a paper that can only even be understood by a tiny community of specialists?
How could one ensure that an obscure or newly-invented notation can be translated to alternative formats?
How could one effectively force scientists to invest time and energy in compliance, when funding agencies can barely even get them to do quick and easy things like pre-registering medical studies?

The onus would be on the publisher, not the author. The basic “standard” is that the work is “screen-reader” friendly. As for notations, and so on, I don’t think it’s as big a deal. Visual impairments short of blindness can usually be handled largely by virtue of having larger displays. It’s for the blind primarily that special accommodations are needed.

@aeismail Have you listened to maths on a screen reader? Even for a human it's not easy to read out a research paper so as to be intelligible.

@JessicaB I’m just mentioning what’s formally required. I suspect publishers get some latitude, because of the technical challenges.


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Why would a conference discourage authors to submit their papers to pre-submissions platforms (e.g., arXiv) before submitting them to the conference?
I asked some conference organizers whether authors may submit papers to arXiv before submitting to the conference, and got the following reply:

though not encouraging it, [conference name] allows archiving pre-submissions on platforms such as arXiv: therefore you can upload there your article before submitting it to the conference.

Why would a conference discourage authors to submit their papers to pre-submissions platforms (e.g., arXiv) before submitting them to the conference?

The proceedings of the conference are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, so
the license isn't an issue. The only issue I can see is that it may jeopardize the anonymity of the authors (the conference review process is double blinded). Is there any other downside?
I asked the conference organizers why they do not encourage archiving pre-submissions on platforms such as arXiv, but I haven't heard back from them.
This question is different from the question Submitting ACM Conference papers to ArXiv: the latter focuses on licenses, whereas here the license isn't an issue.

The reply suggests that the conference doesn't endorse such behaviour, which isn't the same as discouraging such behaviour. The conference might not endorse such behaviour because the publisher might discourage such behaviour, and the conference organizers don't want to cause friction.

A reason could be: The conference wants to have original papers, not papers already known to the community.

"not encouraging" != "discouraging". To me this simply sounds like ass-covering language: The author of the mail was worried that someone somewhere might otherwise view his sentence as an official encouragement which he was not entitled to give.

Possible duplicate of Submitting ACM Conference papers to ArXiv

@dsfgsho The question you linked to is about license issues

Could one of the 4 close voters explain their votes?

Here is a nice article that explains your question from ACL2017 . Main aim is to protect double blind review system.


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Why are some academic research datasets not available to people who only have freely available email addresses?
Why are some academic research datasets not available to people who only have freely available email addresses?
For example,  ImageNet is not available to people only have freely available email addresses:

In the case of ImageNet, it seems the reason is to prevent commercial research/educational use, as ImageNet does not own the copyright of the images.

@101010111100 wouldn't having a research/educational use license be enough?

I suppose it's easier to verify you are part of a certain organization by using an email address with a domain which belongs to that organization. It's relatively easy to impersonate people with freely available email addresses. In fact, many places these days require university or company email addresses, exactly for the above reason.

@FranckDernoncourt it is a common concept for scientific databases: If you want to be sure only scientists (or scientists from a specific country) access the data. Some databases have a two step model: you can register with every email address but you cannot access all the data. Particularly for databases, which a large number of people want to access, this concept saves a lot of work for people hosting the database (otherwise they needed to control each new user).

@daniel.neumann I see. I guess that's too bad for people willing to perform research without any commercial intent but not affiliated to any universities (e.g., high school students, retirees, hobbyists, etc.). But that'd answer my question, so you're welcome to convert your comment into an answer.

@FranckDernoncourt Yes, that is a pitty. We had a research project with a non-academic partner and had a similar issue. I put my comment into an answer.

@101010111100 care to turn that comment into an answer?

If the owner/hoster of a database wants to provide that data only to a certain group of people (e.g. researchers, EU-citizens) and wants to keep the administrative overhead as low as possible, he has two possibilities:

open the database for everyone, put it under a specific license and a trust that the data is only used according to that license
provide only access to people with email addresses from a specific domain (i.e. official research institutions)

Verifying each registered user personally would be to much work.
The second way is a common concept for scientific databases. Some databases have a two step model (I think, ECMWF uses it): you can register with every email address but you cannot access all the data.
Often, there is no bad faith behind these restrictions. The server capacities might not be sufficient to provide the service to each possible user or the data (pictures, texts, ...) are provided by third parties, who only want to provide those data for free for a certain audience.

I don't think the first item is a realistic way of achieving the desired goal. I think it would even be seen as negligent.

@CapeCode At least when we assume that human is evil by nature ;-) .

@CapeCode Hmm, isn't that how open source or creative commons licences work? We put code online on GitHub for everybody to see under, for instance, GPL, and just assume that companies will not violate the specific terms of the licence we put forward?

@CapeCode is it so hard to have a .edu friend/family/colleague downloading stuff for you? (and +1 for xLeitix point, many companies are careful about license infringement)

@daniel.neumann I don't know about "evil" but OP clearly said on other threads that he thinks accessing content against the will of its owner is fair game. So clearly people will disregard a rule that says "you may only download if you're member of an academic institution we recognize".

@xLeitix that seem to be two different issues. CC licensing is an attempt at preventing content to be used in a certain way, while the issue here is restricting access to the content all together.

@FranckDernoncourt if it's very easy to circumvent, then how is it a problem? I didn't comment on the efficiency of the measure, I guess it's a relatively cheap way of filtering who access the DB. It's obviously not perfect.

@CapeCode You qualified the measure as negligent: isn't that a comment on the efficiency of the measure?

@FranckDernoncourt only on the absence thereof.

@CapeCode this implies that "provide only access to people with email addresses from a specific domain" is more efficient.


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How often do funding agencies require funded authors to publish their work in open access venues?
Some funding agencies such as the Gates Foundation require funded authors to publish their work in open access venues.
Is there any research/study/survey that tried to quantify the percentage of funding agencies that require funded authors to publish their work in open access venues.
I am interested in any data that could share some light on that question, e.g. historical trends or weighting by funding agency size.

For example,
The RoMEO Journals database contains thousands of journals, labeled with their archiving policy (preprint/postprint/publisher's version):

One could imagine a similar database for funding agencies with paper  access policies.

SHERPA, which produces RoMEO, also produces a database on funders' open access policies, called SHERPA/JULIET. There is a statistics page on the JULIET website.
According to this page, 26% of funders worldwide require publication in an open access venue, 30% encourage this, and 41% have no policy.
When it comes to archiving the publication in an open access repository, 68% of funders require this, 12% encourage, and 17% have no policy.


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Is deferred enrollment normal or acceptable to graduate programs? What are the acceptable reasons for it?
I am an undergraduate student majoring in computer science. I am currently doing graduate (Master's) program application for top US universities.
However, just now I get a pretty nice research assistant internship which requires me to work for them for one year.
I think I might take a gap year between my undergraduate and graduate study for the internship. But if I am accepted by the university I want to go, can I ask for a defer enrollment? I know I can reapply the next year, but despite the new research experience, my professor might refuse to write me reference letter again , the things might change (more applicants, less slots) and I might not be accepted the next year(I am also wondering will turning down an admission affect my application for the same program the next year). So I am thinking if I can use the defer enrollment to "hold" the admission.
Is taking a research gap year an acceptable reason for defer enrollment? Or generally, what are the acceptable reasons to take a defer enrollment?

Many (but not all) graduate programs will let you defer enrollment for a semester or a year.  At the institutions I am familiar with, they did not particularly care about the reason for the deferral; in fact, some of them did not even ask, except in the most general terms, why the student wanted to delay entering the program.  People understand that students may have other obligations and things that they want to do, and taking on an internship would be a perfectly normal reason for a deferral.
To find you whether a particular program will let you defer acceptance for a year, you will have to contact the program.  However, assuming they allow deferrals, what you are proposing does not sound like it should be a problem.


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Other students report that a student faked illness and asked classmates about the final exam before taking a makeup. Is it academic dishonesty?
I am an instructor at an American university. A student of mine, Student H, claimed that he was very sick and had to miss the final exam. Based on my trusting students in general, I allowed Student H to take a make-up exam, which took place about 4 hours after the actual exam finished.
About two days later, soon after I submitted the final grades (student H got an A-), I received emails from a few students (in the same class and in other classes) accusing Student H of deliberately postponing the exam, and asking other students, who took the exam on time, about what was on the exam.
I am attaching the emails below (without revealing any names of the students). I know these students personally and I do not think they would conspire together to make up stories about this.
I responded to them asking them to approach students who were asked, or witnessed someone being asked, by Student H about the exam questions.
Nonetheless, please let me know if you think these emails below would already suffice to accuse Student H of academic dishonesty?
If no, what else do I need? Even if I cannot make a convincing case of academic dishonesty against Student H, should I at least request a change of his grade (to a much lower one)?
I feel many students are angry about Student H's behavior, so I must do something about this.
Thank you very much for helping.
Student 1

Anyway, I just want to say something unfair that I've seen in my
  course. Professor, I couldn't understand you giving Student H makeup
  tests for several times; he wasn't sick. I kinda expected him going to
  take a make-up final, as he had done so far, and it really happened
  again on the final. He wasn't sick as far as many students saw him
  just a day before and also on the final, but intentionally making dry
  coughs while he was with us.
I really wanted you to notice him making lame excuses for getting
  make-up quizzes, the midterm, and the final, but you didn't. At least
  he had some conscience, he should not ask someone about the
  information for the midterm and the final, but he did. Unless he was
  that sick so that it was really hard to take the final, it wouldn't be
  a real problem. However, he always made excuses like being sick, and
  get information from students who already took to get better scores on
  tests. He didn't do such things to other professors, but he did in
  this course because he knows you were one of our considerate
  professors to us.
Many students were mad about it. I hope you deal with this problem
  well to resolve students' resentment.

Student 2

Student H, our classmate, kept on making an excuse in order to take
  exams late. If he was really sick, I could have understood it, but he
  was not sick that much; it seems somehow manageable. I have three
  evidences that his excuses were deceitful, and I will explain to you
  by chronological order.
First of all, when Student H skipped the first midterm exam, it seemed
  like he postponed the exam on purpose. No matter whether he was really
  sick or not, he asked others what was on the midterm exam. He should
  not have asked those to other students, and this is totally unfair as
  well as he is being dishonest.
Second, Student H asked me to postpone the final exam together. I
  cannot deny the fact that both of us were sick, due to the flu, but it
  was still manageable for both of us -I was not even sure that he was
  really sick or acting like he is sick. Since I did not see any point
  of delaying the exam, I rejected his suggestion. Aside from this, he
  even told me the process of postponding his final exam. He told me
  that he did not receive any e-mail response from you, and he even told
  me that he tried his best not to meet you in the hallway of the 4th
  floor while doing the work-study program so that he can prove that he
  is genuinly sick, while not. At this point, he is being dishonest
  toward faculty members to postpone the exam.
Lastly, after postponding the exam, he asked other students about the
  exam questions, and took the exam. I personally believe asking exam
  questions to other students is also committing of an academic
  dishonesty.
To summarize, as seen in the delay of two major exams without any
  valid reasons, as well as asking exam questions, I believe it can be
  enough evidences to prove that Student H committed the academic
  dishonesty. Plus, I wish this issue stay between us -make me
  anonymous, please.

Student 3

On December 19th, the day before the exam, Student H told me that he
  postponed the exam time. He told me that he intentionally postponed it
  not because of his sickness. What he intended was if he take the test
  late, other students who took early in the morning would tell Student
  H about the final. This is not my inference. This is what he told me
  directly.  I hoped no one would tell him what questions they had in
  the final. However, unfortunately, I witnessed Student H talking with
  someone who already took the final in the afternoon around 1:00 pm.
I am upset with Student H's behavior. He's behavior makes other
  students' efforts come to nothing.

You gave him the same final exam as the rest of the class, even though he took it later???

What reasoning would a student give to only postpone a final exam 4 hours?   There should be nothing else academically that would necessitate this.

More information is needed: What Is your position in a department?  Do you have the authority to handle these incidents or are you say,  a teaching assistant that teaches a course for a professor?

If the name you used for your user handle is your real name, I suggest changing it in order to to anonymize your identity. The combination of using your real name (if that's what you did) and quoting verbatim emails from three of your students, lightly edited to disguise their identities but retaining spelling mistakes and many other details characteristic of their writing, makes me rather uncomfortable and feels pretty inappropriate.

@Ramrod I am not OP, but a schedule conflict with a doctor's appointment would explain the 4-hour miss for me.

If the student is too ill to take an exam, then he or she shouldn't take it 4 hours later. You don't get fine again in only 4 hours. Either the student wasn't ill, or putting himself or herself in danger. Thus have such makeup exams a few days later, not only hours.

There is no way that a student can be "very sick" and be able to take the exam 4 hours later... if the student was really very sick you should have given him a few days "of leave" and give him a completely different exam afterwards.

@Bakuriu I tend to agree, but I misplaced my MD degree, can I borrow yours.  We should take such things at face value even if they seem ridiculous.  I would rather let 99 students cheat than stigmatize the 1 student with an embarrassing medical condition.  Do you really want/need her to prove how bad her flow is.

From the emails, I gather this happened repeatedly with this student taking late exams during the term.  Maybe you allow it once; but certainly for more than once, documentation should be required, and especially for the final. Check your school's policies, and follow the relevant procedure for a report or an investigation.

You don't need to reveal your department, and of course, if your username matches your real name, you should change it immediately.  Please post a link to your university's academic integrity policy.  Without that, we can only give you vague, general advice.

This question smells a little fishy to me.  There's something about the uniformity of the content and style of the question and the emails.

Based on the grammar used in the student emails, I certainly hope the class was not for writing English.

@aparente001 Indeed the language of these three emails is very odd!... They sound too polished and not a way anyone would write to his professor on such an issue.

The more I think about it, the more suspect this question looks to me.  "I am an instructor of some American university" -- hard to believe that an instructor at a university in the U.S. would describe him or herself this way, even allowing for English not being the person's first language.

The way this question is written, comes across too much like the old "I am prince/princess insert name here from Nigeria, I am contact you for much important fact"...........as in, as other have said, I cannot see an American professor at even the junior college level formulating a question in this format.

Most universities do not just take someone's word for being very sick. They normally ask them to provide reasonable evidences. I think you have too much faith in the humanity which would cause you trouble sooner or later

With the information in Student 2's e-mail as specific as it is, Student 2 is not anonymous. If Student H read this question they would certainly know who Student 2 was! If you've really made no other anonymization effort than hiding the names involved, you need to do more to protect your informants. Really, posting the verbatim text at all rather than just summarizing it is unnecessarily reckless.

Why saying it is an US university when the command of English and your user data points to another direction...We have all been students, and the complaints are only coming after your student got an A.

@BenMillwood Student 3 is not much better: “This is not my inference. This is what he told me directly.”

please let me know if you think these emails below would already suffice to accuse Student H as being academically dishonest?
If no, what else do I need? Even if I cannot make a convincing case of academic dishonesty of Student H, should I at least request a change of his grade (to a much lower one)?

Most American universities have dedicated units for handling cases of academic misconduct. Now, just like if you had strong suspicions and some evidence regarding a crime being committed the right thing to do would be to go to the police and tell them what you know, so it is true here that you have strong suspicions that the student has committed academic misconduct, and therefore you should inform the appropriate office on your campus in charge of handling such misconduct cases of what happened, and share with them the emails from the three students. It is not your job to decide whether the evidence is convincing enough -- let them worry about that. After all, universities have units to handle misconduct cases precisely so that experienced professionals can handle allegations of misconduct in a consistent manner and taking into account all relevant information; for example, for all you know, they might have information about the accused student that you don't know (perhaps they were accused of misconduct in the past or have a history of feigning illnesses to avoid exams).
To summarize, just tell them what you know and let them handle it. You do not need to present this as "accusing" the student of misconduct, simply say that you have information to suggest that they may have committed misconduct, and share the evidence you have.

they may also have information about the accusing students...

They may also say that not asking for a medical certificate has irretrievably messed up the whole situation and that there cannot be proof now that the student wasn't sick (the more so as one of the emails says the student was sick, just not that sick - which is obviously for a medical doctor to decide.

If there's evidence the student was inappropriately soliciting information about the content of the test, it shouldn't matter whether they were really sick.

@user34258: which is a claim even more difficult to prove than sickness. And again, there's only a student saying they believe this is forbidden - whether it is or not depends on the policy of the course/university (over here it is really unusual to forbid speaking about exam questions - some lecturers even encourage it as trying to solve exam questions is excellent excercise.)

Re: "It is not your job to decide whether the evidence is convincing enough -- let them worry about that." Unfortunately, that is not true at all (U.S.) colleges. Where I am, it is indeed up to the instructor to decide and request specific sanctions, gather evidence for it, and interview the student in question (the filing document has a specific yes/no box on whether student confessed when questioned to the violation). The burden of proof and decision-making is on the instructor where I'm at.

@cbeleitesunhappywithSX Exam questions should be fair game. But discussing them with a student who you know is going to take a makeup, which may contain the same questions, sounds like misconduct. Asking other students for information before you take a makeup is definitely misconduct.

@BrianDrake: I guess there's a substantial cultural difference  between where we are. Over here, those who were sick typically take their exam together with those who do a reexamination. So "same question" is not a concern. Discussing the exam questions is perfectly fine as soon as the student leaves the exam room after handing in. Asking the same question(s) would be seen as carelessness on the examiner's side.

@cbeleitesunhappywithSX My comment needs to be read in the context of the question, which seems to suggest: (1) The makeup exam uses the same questions as the main exam. (2) The students know this. (3) The student in question tried to use this knowledge to cheat. If, and only if, the students believe (1) is true, then discussing exam questions is misconduct.

I was quite surprised to hear that you allowed
the student to take a make-up final exam
4 hours after the other students took the final exam
In my university,
there is a system for handling cases where a student misses
an examination or in-course assessment
which makes up 20% or more of the total course grade.
A student who is unable to attend an exam
is required to submit a mitigation request through an online system.
When the student claims that the reason for not attending was sickness,
then the student is required to submit evidence
(e.g., a medical certificate from a doctor).
Only after the system approves the student's mitigation request
is the student allowed to take a make-up exam.
Given the delay (about two weeks)
in processing various students' mitigation request,
the teaching team is forced to set a different exam from the original.
I am not sure if such a system exists in your university.
Nevertheless, if you had a more systematic process
for reviewing and approving these mitigation requests
(e.g., require students to submit evidence)
and set a different make-up exam,
that would perhaps have prevented this situation from happening.

I've given the same test later as a make-up several times. I make the students write out and sign a statement affirming that they did not seek out or receive any information about the exam before they take it. I don't suspect (based on their mistakes on the exam) that any of them cheated.

The administrative handling of makeup exams may be trending away? E.g., it was abolished at my institution a year ago.

There are several things wrong with the story. Those emails are hardly sufficient evidence to make a case. Could be one person writing 3 emails.You must report the matter or leave it be. I do not think you lowering his grades is a good idea. What will you lower them to? If you do report it then the identity of the 3 informants will have to be revealed. You say you trust your students but you do not trust H. You, better than anyone else, know whether H was capable of an A or not... It did not amaze you when he got that grade, so obviously it is possible.
Your students know you are a soft spot and so do you. Make-up exams have to be different. I would not want anyone to know that I had given a student the same exam later on and now I think he cheated. Learn from this mistake and move on. In your place, I would just forget the whole matter and profit from someone exposing my weakness. But I am not you, this is your decision to make.

You need to do the following, go and see your line manager. Take with you all the evidence, do not breath a word of this sort of thing to random strangers on the web.
I have had to deal with student cheating twice in my academic life, first as a postdoc and then as a lecturer. The first case was students who colluded wrongly while writing lab reports, an older postdoc advised me to mark the reports as if nothing was wrong. Then to take both reports to the person in charge of the lab course. I showed this person the evidence and allowed this person to choose what to do.
The second time I was more senior, I found two students had done a plagiarism (copy and paste) from Wikipedia. Before acting I went to see my head of department.
My advice is unless you know the policy of the university and what to do next for certainty, go and see your line manager. This will protect you from the possibility of acting out of line with the rest of your university.
The problem is that either way around this story will not end well, at least for someone.

If the emails are true and reasonable then the student accused will be punished.
If the emails are a smear campaign intended to tar the reputation of an innocent student then if it was another student who sent them then this student should be looking at getting a punishment.


text:
How to submit a manuscript in two parts?
I have a new manuscript to be published in an Elsevier engineering journal that has a maximum limit of 8000 words. I can't fit the content in this space. Fortunately, the manuscript can be easily split into two manuscripts, say A and B. The first will be concerned with assessing the potential of, say, wind energy in country X and the measurements carried out, while the second manuscript B will be focused on simulating wind energy systems. The first manuscript will be independent, but I'll have to refer to it in the second one (although, the second article will be understandable without reading the first manuscript). So, I have the following questions:

Should I split the manuscript, or submit it to another journal with flexible space limitations?
Is it a good idea to do that, based on your experience? (I have read a lot about this, but I want to know what the editors prefer and how they handle this situation)
Most importantly, how do I submit the two manuscripts (to the same journal): at the same time or consecutively?

Speak with the editor. If he likes the idea, he will help you, if he finds out about your scheme by himself, he will be annoyed.

The answer to this is "it depends." Some journals do not approve of "series" of papers, expecting that each submission stands on its own. Others will publish extended series of articles (one such series had at least ten entries). So the question of what to do depends on how appropriate the journal in which you want to publish is for the content you're writing about.
If the journal you're publishing in allows it, then there's no problem submitting two manuscripts at the same time, and that's probably the best way to do it, because the related nature of the two manuscripts is much easier to assess. Waiting to send in the second one doesn't help.
As far as the appropriateness is concerned, my first four papers were published as two pairs of manuscripts, so there's nothing wrong with doing so to keep the length of the individual manuscripts reasonable.


text:
Is it a good practice to end a mathematical equation with a comma or a period in a scientific article?
I have noticed from different published articles that mathematical equations may or may not be ended by a comma or a period (depending on their position in the text).
Which is the best practice?

Looks like a web search could have solved this.

Very, very relevant

@FedericoPoloni, and as far as I understand one of the goals of SE is that the primary result of a web search will lead to a SE Q&A that addresses the query in question.

@LamarLatrell That was not my understanding; I thought that if a web search leads to, say, a Wikipedia page or some trustworthy reference that directly answers the question, there is no need to duplicate that information with an SE question.

@DavidZ, It's possible I have incorrect information on the matter, but my first thoughts were what if someone edits that Wiki or the webpage dies? (the same reasons why link only answers are frowned upon). Also, it may not affect you but my recent experience of living and working in a country with internet censorship has highlighted how helpful it has been for information to have levels of redundancy.

@LamarLatrell If we want to continue this discussion, I suppose it would be best to do it in chat or to raise the issue on meta so everyone can contribute

@DavidZ, I agree - however, I'd suggest that a meta discussion regarding this topic has probably been repeated on most SE sites (?) - but as for how to find it? No idea...  Also, as for how to start a chat, no idea there either (hence further polluting this comment stream with off-topic chat) - sorry all  :)

@LamarLatrell Not a problem, I've created a chat room for us in case you'd like to continue the discussion.

@LamarLatrell SE is not here to duplicate information on Wikipedia or similar. SE is here to collate information and to provide personalised answers to specific, personal questions. If it can be answered with a google search, the OP should have done more research.

@Tim, https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/65704/discussion-between-david-z-and-lamar-latrell

Is it a good thing to keep sticking to such rules when it's not necessary? If our ancestors had done that, we would still be speaking some ancient language with extremely complex grammar where besides  singular and plural forms for  nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs there also existed  dual, trial, quadral and paucal forms.

@LamarLatrell In any case, there are already several SE pages which answer this question.

@FedericoPoloni, please read and contribute to the chat linked twice above.

One word: style guide for the publication. (I know that's more than one word but this is the academia SE, not the mathematics SE. ;-) ) I'm sure a search of math.stackexchange would find, if not this very question, one very similar.

Tautology 2.3.1 — A mathematical text is, before everything else, a text.

In-line formulas are punctuated as required by the grammar.  For displayed formulas there are two conventions: punctuate as required by the grammar; or no punctuation.  See if the journal specifies this in their style (most don't).  Example

[Jahnke & Emde, Dover Publications]

I wouldn't take a German text as an example to back up your claim: different languages may have different conventions here, and German, in particular, notoriously has different rules than English for comma placement.

@FedericoPoloni You didn't notice that the text was bilingual?

@MrLister No, I didn't, but that makes it even weirder as an example. Mathematical conventions do not translate well among languages (case in point: that decimal comma). It's not like there is a shortage of mathematical texts in English that OP could have used instead...

@FedericoPoloni No, it doesn't make it weirder; on the contrary, it shows that formulas are simply part of the sentence structure, no matter the language.

@MrLister No, it shows that they were treated that way in this example of a bilingual text. There's no reason to assume the convention followed in English is the same as in German, and if they're not then the fact that this uses "," as a decimal separator suggests German conventions are being preferred over English. This is how I've always treated them, but nevertheless I agree with Federico that this is a very poor choice of example to illustrate that.

Also, seeing as there is no comma after following as one would expect in English ("In the following, n signifies. . .") I am even less confident of the value of this particular example.

The practice I'm familiar with is that equations are part of the text, and end with a period if they are the end of the sentence and with a comma or other punctuation mark if the sentence continues and calls for it.

Yes, that's a common approach. In other words, think of offset formulas as if they were part of the regular sentence structure. You will then know how to terminate them: with a period, if they end a sentence; and a comma, a semicolon, or nothing if the sentence continues in some way.

There shouldn't be a comma just because the sentence continues; there should only be a comma if one is required in that position in the sentence.

And, in some cases, there could be other punctuation ... colon, question mark, etc.  Whatever is required by the grammar.

@GEdgar : I agree, if $3 = 3$!

Yes it is good practice. You should read the papers of people are well known to be excellent expositors like Serre and his students Atiyah and Grothendieck (who also had quite a few students). They all endorse commas and periods. Perhaps the best guide to mathematical writing is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECQyFzzBHlo (Serre). Let me emphasize how  authoritative  Serre's opinion is: he is easily the most influential mathematician of the postwar period.