text:
Is it possible to guess the purpose of my potential PhD supervisor inviting me to lunch?
I am currently in the process of applying for a PhD programme. I have sent off my application and it has been deemed satisfactory from an academic standpoint i.e. my degree transcript and CV. I am now only waiting for the awarding of a studentship (funding) from the college I have applied to. Last week, I received an e-mail from my potential supervisor inviting myself to have a tour of the college, visit their research group and to have lunch. I suppose the purpose of this invitation could be to:
1) Give my potential supervisor an opportunity to assess my feasibility to undertake a PhD under their supervision or
2) Give my potential supervisor an opportunity to persuade me to accept a PhD offer.
Is it safe to assume that the decision regarding the awarding of funding from the college is all but guaranteed to be successful?

Never assume anything is guaranteed until it is in writing.

I went to lunch assuming it was aim 1 and by the end realised it was closer to 2, but more of a 'help you to want to accept an offer, if they are able to make one'.

Here's a crazy suggestion. Why don't you go to the meeting with an open mind and be honest with your potential supervisor. You are happy to meet them and you are curious as to what the next steps could potentially be.

Your transcript and CV show how much functionality your brain has. Your potential supervisor wants to check that the rest of you can also function at a reasonably "normal" human level - after all, you are going to be working together for several years!

Maybe they just want to show you around the lab, introduce you to their research group, and take you to lunch.

No one can really know what the exact motive is of the professor. However, if he or she is willing to take time to meet with you (especially for lunch, which means the person is also investing money into your meeting), I imagine that the program is able and willing to provide you with support and he or she is assessing your fit to work together.
Be aware that this could be something of an interview where he or she is assessing a few applicants to see which one is best suited for working on their project. Therefore, I urge that you to prepare for the lunch as you would any other type of academic interview (e.g. review some recent work of this faculty member, prepare questions ahead of time for him or her). When I applied to my PhD program years ago, one faculty member invited me to meet with her, but ultimately chose another applicant to work on her project. I received support from another faculty member to work on a different project, but the invitation to meet by the initial faculty member did not indicate a guarantee. Best of luck!

"especially for lunch, which means the person is also investing money into your meeting" - that's not actually clear to me from the question. This depends a lot on the culture; at least in my country, asking someone to come along for lunch while on campus does not imply paying for them. Based upon the information provided by the OP so far, I do consider it most likely the potential supervisor simply wants the OP to join the usual team lunch rather than setting up a special lunch event for the OP that would not happen otherwise. That also means the money investment may well ...

... be minimal at university lunchroom prices, not comparable to a "formal lunch" in a public restaurant.

@O.R.Mapper, It's true that is not clear from the question, but even if the person purchases their own lunch or doesn't invite the person to lunch at a public restaurant, they still are investing money into the meeting, which (to me) signifies that it has elevated importance. I meet with a lot of graduate students, but I don't go to l lunch with many of them.

@NicoleRuggiano: Fair enough, I just know in some teams it's usual to ask student RAs/TAs, applicants, and other visitors to join the group for lunch (that the group would go to have anyway) if they happen to be there around lunch time. Not all groups do that (and not all have lunch as a team, of course). In particular, from the question, I am not even sure the prospective supervisor is going to participate in the lunch themselves (many professors are too busy for a regular lunch), rather than sending the OP off with the group as an opportunity for socializing.

+1, it's pessimistic but I don't think you are guaranteed anything in this situation.

@O.R.Mapper If it's the case of a lunchroom meal, I'm guessing smart casual attire i.e. a full shirt/tie combination is unnecessary?

@Tim: Again, this depends on location and field: In applied CS in Germany, I'd say that a tie is always unnecessary (in the sense that it makes you seem disconnected from academic culture) unless it's the doctoral defense day or one is interviewing for a postdoc position or higher. The only exception would probably be some very traditional professors that prefer some additional formality.

@O.R.Mapper Even for a postdoctoral interview the tie would be overkill.

Both motivations are possible, but there is a third one that's more likely: To give you an opportunity to meet your prospective supervisor and your colleagues, to show you the campus, and so you get to know the town. This helps you both to make an informed decision and decreases the likelihood that you will regret your decision to become a PhD student at this university and bail after arrangements have already been made.
If you feel insecure whether the lunch and campus tour is actually a job interview, you can just ask your prospective supervisor (in an email) whether you should prepare for the meeting.

I would be careful about how to phrase the question, "Should I prepare for our meeting?" so that it doesn't look like you don't value the significance of this invitation and the person's time/effort. @Tim, if you want to ask about preparing for the meeting, make it something specific, such as, "Do you have any suggestions for specific readings that would help me prepare for our discussions about your current work?" Hence, the question is "What should I prepare," rather than "Should I prepare at all?"

@NicoleRuggiano I agree.

It absolutely is a job interview, so yes, one should be prepared!

Both.
Or rather, if (1) works out, then (2), plus (1.5): to see if you get along professionally.
The professor wants to have someone in their lab who is a good fit and has a good chance of success in the lab. Having lunch with you and giving you a chance to meet your potential future colleagues is an opportunity for them to see how you would fit there, as well as for you to see how you would fit there. Essentially, this is a job interview, so prepare appropriately (though I wouldn't expect silly job interview questions: just a conversation about shared research interests - after all, that's why you are applying to grad school in the first place!).
In this situation, you should be both demonstrating your suitability for the position and evaluating whether the position is a good fit for you. In other words, your goals should be exactly the same as the professor's.
As a side note, if you are someone who experiences a bit of "imposter syndrome" or just get particularly nervous in situations like this, it is definitely okay to internalize that this professor is willing to take some time for you and that is a positive thing, if that makes you feel better and less nervous. What you should not do is take this meeting as a sign that you are "in" and not be prepared to make a good impression.

Meeting with the group and having lunch (and perhaps drinks) is a standard part of an academic interview. If and when you'll be looking for a postdoc, this will also include you giving a talk. As any interview, it is a chance for both you and your potential supervisor to understand if you wish to work together (and also to present yourselves in a good way). The fact that they invite you means that you're shortlisted for something (maybe, for the funding that this person has), but there may be other shortlisted candidates as well.

I think it would be presumptuous/foolhardy on our part to impute such motives on the prof. The Prof is just following standard process in inviting you to a lunch and the courtesy will be extended to all candidates. It is likely part of the process to show the candidates that when it comes to comparing apples to apples, this university is well provided and would not be a pushover for your graces.
Additionally it might be part of the process to shower you with illusions of illustrious tradition, better than brand advertised, or that their professor is personally the best to get along with and were you good enough with him (without it being evaluative).  He may be allowed to make a few personal judgements about you more in the nature of assumptive inferences, but then he should probably leave that for the interview/second interview.


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Submitting a rejected journal article to an expert for suggestions
I recently had a paper rejected from two mathematics journals. From the first one it was rejected at the editorial level for being out of scope. Since there was no review we sent the paper as it is to another journal. My work is based on the work of researcher A who happened to be the editor of the second journal. The paper was sent for review and we received the reviewers comments which said that the topic was interesting but the proofs were not innovative and the examples didn’t use the concepts introduced by A in an exact and deep way. The paper was rejected. While I am able to accept the reasons for the rejection, I am unsure how to improve the manuscript based on these comments. Since researcher A is an expert in the field, I was wondering if I would write to him for more concrete suggestions. Is it alright to do this?
EDIT: I realise that the following background is probably pertinent:  I have completed my PhD in a different topic. By the end of my PhD I became too frustrated with the topic and the way my advisor kept treating me (long story) so I just completed with the bare minimum for my degree and graduated, which I was allowed to do. I took up a teaching position in a small college and am happy here. I have now started working independently in the topic that researcher A works in and have published one paper along with my colleagues. This would be the second paper if it gets published.

An option would be to propose to researcher A to collaborate. Usually, people are open to collaborating on topics of their interest. In this way, you could learn a lot from a more experienced researcher.

Without knowing any details, the general advice is to simply go lower on the ladder.

Are you a student? Do you have a research advisor/mentor?

@BryanKrause I have edited my question in response to your comment as replying in the comment section would have been too long.

How does your paper compare to others in the field?

It introduces a new concept that hasn’t been ever discussed before.

It is okay to email any person who has a publicly listed professional email. As long as your email is polite and respectful, you are not doing anything wrong by sending it.
However, the fact that it’s okay doesn’t mean it’s likely you will get a helpful reply. It’s possible that you won’t get any reply, and it’s possible (and slightly more likely in my opinion) that the expert will reply but they won’t want to spend more than a few minutes engaging with your questions. The least likely scenario is that you’ll get a reply that is extremely detailed and helpful; but even that is not inconceivable.
Basically, don’t set your expectations too high, but it’s fine to send the email. Good luck!

Just to add: don’t ask so much for “how do I improve my paper?” More “I am so interested in what you are doing that look, I even attempted a paper about it.” You might for instance ask something like “how have you yourself taken your ideas forward?”. People love to communicate about what they are doing, and you may find yourself pointed to preprints, perhaps even be alerted to forthcoming seminars… And will end up not being a complete unknown in this field.

@MartinKochanski yes what you say makes sense.

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Is it acceptable, as a Reviewer, to ask the Editor about another reviewer?
I recently reviewed a manuscript submitted to a Journal. Today, I received the editor's response to the authors, which included all the reviews made by the (anonymous) reviewers.
I was particularly (and positively) impressed with the review of another reviewer for several reasons. I'd gladly appreciate the possibility of contacting this reviewer, both to express my thoughts and also to discuss about similar topics.
Hence the question: would it be acceptable if I asked the editor to disclose information about this reviewer?
My only concern is that the editor may not appreciate a similar request, which could lead to not being invited to review manuscripts of this journal anymore (which is something I really like doing).
To provide more specific context:

The field is Computer Science;
The reviewing process assumes that the reviewers do not know the identity of other reviewers, but they do know the identity of the manuscript's authors;
The reviewers carried out their reviewing duties independently: they were able to read the other reviewers' opinion only after the editor sent their decision to the authors.
The (associate) editor knows the identity of both the reviewers and the authors;
It is safe to assume that no conflict of interest exists between reviewers and authors.

Finally, I remark that I am asking this question as a reviewer (and not as an author).

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

I have a very simple solution to propose:

Write a message directly to the other reviewer whom you would like to know. Address it to the reviewer, not to the editor.
In the message, identify yourself and give your contact information. Ask the reviewer to contact you if they are interested.
Send that message to the editor and ask the editor to please transfer it to the other reviewer, either immediately, or later in the review process (perhaps after a decision is made) when the editor feels comfortable doing so.

Note one important difference from what you ask in your question: rather than asking to be able to contact the reviewer directly, you are asking the reviewer to contact you. This is a very important difference because it gives other people more choice in the matter.
The editor will either transfer the message to the other reviewer (either immediately or after a decision is made, perhaps after you have sent a reminder) or will explain to you why they do not feel comfortable with your request. The advantages of this proposal are:

There is no moral concern because you do everything openly before the editor; you even show the editor the contents of the message, so the editor has no concern of anything improper going on.
You give the other reviewer the choice if they are comfortable with the contact. If they are not, the editor has not divulged their information to you. This relieves pressure from the editor.
You leave the editor free to judge the appropriateness of the contact. So, it is not your responsibility, but the editor's.
Even if the editor decides not to give you the reviewer's contact information, the editor should be able to respect that your intention was sincere, your approach was transparent without pressuring anyone, and the editor should not have any negative impression of you.

Thank you for your answer. Your suggestion is indeed very spot-on!

This is an excellent answer. Personally, I would emphasise waiting until after a decision has been made, or even publication. It is also field specific, in subjects where preprints are the norm this seems unobjectionable. In others where pre-publication secrecy is normal, an author might be unimpressed if the referees got together to discuss the implications of research shared in confidence.

I've never encountered this. My inclination would be to ask the other reviewer if they're OK with the request. If they decline, then that would be final. After all there is usually nothing stopping a reviewer from identifying themselves if they wish; I certainly know of people who gave away their reviewer duties during private conversations.
It probably won't hurt to ask, because the worst that can happen is the editor says "no". If you do ask, I would definitely give the reason, since otherwise it's rather suspicious. You may also have to reveal your own identity first.

Thank you. To provide more specific context, this question is related to the Computer Science field. So you confirm that there is nothing wrong in asking the editor?

@P. Shark. The editor might pass the info to the other referee like a receptionist can call a guest instead of giving the room number at first. I do not see problems with that. The editor might, but s/he would just say no bcz our policy etc etc.... So go ahead. Plus 1.

In the UK or Europe, it would normally be illegal for the institution to disclose any information about that reviewer… even to confirm your guess about an identity.
Why would it be a problem for you to ask the editor to pass on your own details, with a request for contact?

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I screwed up the final. What should I do?
I'm a master electrical engineering student in a state university and I just took my very last final exam on Wednesday. I totally screwed up. I could not solve any of the problems (4 problems). It has never happened to me before. I thought I studied enough for it but I guess not. I'm looking at like 20 on the final which is 35% of the total grade. I had about 80% before final. What's sad is that I did study for it and I feel crushed that I couldn't do it at all.
I had a 3.5 GPA before this. Since there are only 10 classes in masters, if I fail 1 class would be fatal to the GPA. My main concern is I'm about to graduate and look for a job, but this is going to ruin my GPA. I sent an email to professor yesterday saying:

I know I did very poorly on the exam. I thought I understood the material and would be able to perform similar like the midterm but clearly I was wrong. I spent a lot of time doing homework and study but I really don't have excuse for this kind of performance.
Would you please consider withdrawing me from the class if you are able? I really can not have a D or F. . . . I understand this is my own responsibility and thank you for the semester.

I sent it Friday 9 am. Of course, I haven't heard back from the professor. My question is: should I just wait for the grade to show up on Wednesday next week and see what happens or go talk to the professor?

Does your university actually allow a professor to withdraw a student from a class after the final exam?  My experience is always that only the student can initiate a withdrawal, it's handled by the registrar instead of the professor, and it has to be much earlier than the final exam.  If you've asked her for something that's impossible or forbidden, then you certainly shouldn't expect a positive response.

Yea, I dont know if he can do it that's why I said if he's able. I guess D or F is coming my way...arg.. Is it a good idea go to advisor and see if I can cancel the graduation? I was expected to graduate this month.

@NateEldredge: As you might guess, it depends on the institution. Some locales expand and encourage W's as a way to juice statistics to show fewer failures. At my institution we currently have 4 different varieties of W, one of which can be given by the instructor at the end of the semester.

It might be that the OP was upset, but I think it's a bad sign that they have at least 4 grammatical errors in this short email to the instructor.

@DaveL Since you aren't sure who can initiate the withdrawal, you should take the initiative to find out and make sure you know what deadlines need to be met. If you need to make the decision, then you should talk to your professor as soon as possible to let him know that you need to have your grade early enough to decide whether to withdraw and to the paperwork done. Be sure you know the deadlines!!! Since it is near the end of the semester time is likely short.

Since you seem to be freaking out, a bit of perspective: you're doing a master's in electrical engineering. There are companies and governments who will pay you six figures for just the bachelor's degree in that subject, once you've got a couple of years of working experience, and your grades are barely relevant (in that they will check whether you passed. that's it).

Is GPA equivalent to 1st, 2/1, 2/2, 3 in the UK? If so, what would a 3.5 GPA be?

Thanks everyone. I decided to do nothing for the time being. I already sent the email and i will respect whatever grade the professor thinks i deserve. Tim, gpa 3.5 is half A and half B. 4.0 is max for my school.

Oh i know the withdraw date was 10/30. I cant withdraw anymore, i was wondering if the professor could do it.

@DaveL: Probably the only thing the instructor could do is give you an incomplete. He can’t withdraw you from the course.

@XanderHenderson: Actually, something like that sometimes gets done in some European systems. Students are given the "opportunity" to fail an exam and repeat it rather than pass with a weak grade that shows up on the transcript.

@Tim A (top grade) is a 4, B is a 3, C = 2, D = 1, F (faling) = 0. A 3.5 would be a B+/A- which is a pretty good GPA... depending on your standards... ;)

Obviously I don't know the specifics of the situation, but I have been on the opposite side of similar situations more than once (seeing a hard-working student with a decent grade heading into the final unexpectedly bomb the final). In such a situation I tend to try to not penalize the student more than 1 letter grade (even if it means giving slightly more partial credit on some problems than I might do otherwise). If the instructor has some flexibility in grading it might not be as bad as you think. A single C or even a D on an otherwise good transcript isn't the end of the world.

As Nate Eldredge cautions in his comment above, it's probably up to you, not the instructor to submit a withdrawal request to the registrar.  Usually, the instructor's only involvement is to approve or disapprove your request.  But once you've taken the final and depending on your school's policies, it's probably too late to withdraw anyway.
That said, your life is almost certainly not ruined. If you wrote anything at all, you will likely get some partial credit.  And who knows how your instructor will curve the results.  If you had trouble even after doing your best to prepare, it's quite possible others did as well and that the curve will be much easier than either you or the instructor expected.  Sometimes instructors accidentally write a test that's too hard or has errors that make a problem impossible.  (I taught EE at Washington and now teach CS at Michigan, so think about how I would know this happens! :)
Finally, even if your final grade is low enough that you need to repeat, this is still not fatal.  Students are rarely aware of just how many of their peers have to repeat classes.  And guess what, they still get jobs.  Yes, of course I understand why you're upset.  But you're not dead yet.

Thank you. I will see what happens and act accordingly. This is just rather depressing.

I agree. If you didn't cram and you genuinely felt confident you understood the material well, the final was probably designed to be as difficult as possible.  The grade will probably be curved on grade distribution of the class, in which case, partial credit will mean everything.

Wait for the results, then go and see the relevant people - everybody can then act on a real situation instead of "well this" and "well that"...
You don't know what the marking scheme was so what you think you should have put and what is being looked for may be two different things.
I messed up a double compressor output temperature - expected zero and was panicking.... Grades came out with 18/20 : turned out the process was worth more than 1 temperature...

This may possibly be bad advice. It's certainly harder to change a grade after it's been registered than before.

@DanielR.Collins Perhaps this depends on the institution.  I've changed grades many times for many reasons and no one has ever questioned any change I submitted.  It's usually just an online form that takes 5 minutes.  Instructors typically have a lot of academic freedom to decide how to grade and whether to reconsider.

Do NOT wait for the results unless you know what deadlines need to be met. If you need to submit your withdrawal form on Thursday and you get your test results on Friday then it will be too late.

Twice in my student career I was sure that I had failed final exams.  These were at different institutions with different professors.  I received grades of A in both courses.  I asked both professors about my course grade.  The first one said, "You knew more than you thought."  I suspect a serious curve in that case.  In the second case the professor just replied, "Your grade is correct."  I think he made an actual mistake, but chose not to correct it.

What do you mean by "turned out the process was worth more than 1 temperature..."? Do you mean your workings-out were worth more than the actual answer?

@Pharap the calculation had several parts and the temperature was only an interim result for one part, so points were scored for the other parts...

First off, generally nobody cares about your GPA other than your school and any school you want to go to.
Second, I have had tests in Engineering school that I felt about the same way. In most cases, the test was overly hard, and some things weren't covered.  The teacher re-scaled.  I had many test that literally everyone "failed", and the scaled scores meant that almost everyone passed.
You can try to call the prof, go to their office, and/or email them to see how you did in the course as a whole. Or, wait until grades come out, and appeal to the professor.

Not quite true.  GPA does matter if you're applying for your first job out of school and some employers (e.g., Google) care no matter how long you've been out.  Some of the students I've seen in my advising appointments have reported their offers are conditional on maintaining over a 3.0, for example.

Heck, where my dad worked they continued to care about GPAs all the way through their entire career, and even posted it as part of their internal retirement announcements.

As other answers have said, you don't know how the professor is going to grade the final. You can talk to your classmates and see how they did to see if you're the only one who had trouble. I don't know what you mean when you say this will destroy your GPA. If you're taking 10 classes and each class is out of a 4 point scale, that means that each class is .4 points in your GPA, so a GPA of 3.5 would be brought down to 3.1. It would probably be more fruitful to ask for an incomplete than a drop. Also, most schools allow you to retake classes that you get worse than a C- in.

Thank you everyone. I went to talk to my professor today after all. He smiled at me and said he gave me a B-. I did bad on final and he told me dont even look at it. LOL. He said I did decent on mid term and my project. It is not right to give me too bad of a grade just because of a bad exam. I can sleep better tonight. XD
Now life goes on and I shall start doing a couple EE related projects myself while looking for a job.

Wait to see what mark you actually get first, then if you feel it necessary, try to have a word with your professor.
In my experience (in the mathematics department in a large university), staff are always interested in discrepancies between a student's past record and his performance on one exam.
This can of course be "negative interest" (he did surprisingly well... was he cheating?) but it can very well also be "positive interest" (he did surprisingly badly... should we give him another opportunity, for example a supplementary exam).  If your past record is good, I should think the least you can expect is for your professor to give you a respectful hearing and to carefully consider if there are any options.  Though do be prepared for the possibility that it is not the professor's decision and he/she may be unable to help.

In undergrad classes, there is often a bell curve used for assigning the final grade, with the people in the middle receiving a C.  In grad school, it's different.  Usually, excellent work will receive an A and good work will receive an A- or a B.
Let's suppose that up until the final, you were somewhere around an A-.  Of course, how the final affects your grade for the course will be influenced by how the other students did on the exam.  But let's suppose the worst case scenario for the moment: you had a bad day, or you misjudged what sorts of things would be emphasized in the final exam, or the type of problem solving needed for this course isn't a good fit... but most of the other students did well enough to validate the exam in general terms.  In this case I'd expect the poor showing in the final exam would bump you down to approximately a B (based on the weight of the final exam of 35% that you mentioned).  (Since you said you were at around 80% going into the final, I'd be very surprised if you got anything worse than a C for the course.)
I suggest you get in touch with your advisor if you have one, or the graduate program director, on Monday to share your concern.  S/he can ask the professor to take a look at your exam and provide some informal quick feedback about the exam and your overall performance in the course.
I hope you will be open to the idea of demonstrating your mastery of the material through alternate means over the break.  Possibly such an option could be negotiated.  But in that conversation on Monday I would just express your concern, without making any proposals.  (Also, no histrionics please -- you can say you're feeling anxious, but please speak calmly.)
While you are waiting, I suggest you do some housework, get some exercise, read a potboiler, and do some practice problems from your textbook, in case everyone did badly and the class is offered a re-take -- and also for your edification.

In undergraduate engineering courses, the median is usually curved to around 3.2, maybe 3.3 with a long tail at the low end.  In graduate courses, where everyone is already expected to pretty good else they wouldn't be there, the median is often curved to around 3.5 or better.

Where I teach, it's too late to withdrawal. You basically have two options: firstly, if you pass, you can just take the hit on the GPA. Unless your looking at a PHD program, most employers don't consider your GPA score important when hiring and after a few years work it's work performance that is important. The second option is like a withdrawal, just take the course over and the second grade replaces the first grade on the GPA.

You don't get hired based on a few years work on a job you haven't been hired for yet. What is your first employer going to judge you on other than your GPA unless you have a lot of relevant work experience?

@JeffC - Your interview?  Your other results?  I got hired as a programmer with a 2ii.  (I had excellent A-levels, a 1st in the 1st year, a 2i in the second year, and the aforementioned 2ii in the third.  The trend was not good, but I managed to convince them I could code, and 35 years later I can.)

@MartinBonner ...and how do you get that interview? Unless you are looking for a job with minimal competition, you will be filtered out with the others that are below a GPA threshold (most likely). You won't even get the interview. What "other results"?

@JeffC : I wrote lots of applications.  "other results": Results from the intermediate years; in my case (UK) results from the exams at the end of the school year (A-levels are the muggle equivalent of Newts, and not much like US High School graduation.) in the OP's case, the results from the Bachelor's course.

@MartinBonner I wrote lots of applications. that would fall under what I mentioned as "relevant work experience."

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Reviewers asked me to make my conclusion more "analytical" - how?
The editors of my peer-reviewed article asked me to write a more analytical conclusion, one that is more conclusive...Any pointers on how I can make it more analytical and less of just a synthesis?
PS: My field is educational science and my article is part empirical, part conceptual

Well, what was the point of the article? What can you conclude from what you did? What summarizes the work?

The answers to this questions are relevant.

Look at other related articles, particularly those in the journal you submitted the article to.  This will give you some idea of the appropriate length and content of a conclusions section.
It is difficult to give you specific advice without knowing more about your topic and results.  However, when I write the conclusion to an article I generally try to explain several specific things.  First, I summarize the major results of the article.  If any of the results resolve significant standing questions in the field, I point this out specifically, and reiterate why these answers are important.  Second, I explain what further research needs to be done in this area, with specific emphasis on how the current paper affects our expectations for what will be useful to study in the future.  Third, if there is a specific avenue of future research that I intend to follow up, I mention it.

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I have accidentally given students assignment guidelines that conflict with the course coordinator's. How I can rectify my mistake?
I am a tutor and I have given guidelines to students on how to complete the assignment. After three weeks later I found out that the course coordinator expected different requirements than what I have told students.
There is a clash now and students are very confused. They are emailing me about who they should follow. Given there is still one week left in the due date of assignment. How I can mend my mistake? I worry anything I will do now go against me.
I should have consulted with coordinator before deliver the guidelines to students. But I just wanted to help students as they were feeling lost because the course coordinator didn't provide any guidelines whatsoever. Students said the assignment is vague and I just helped them with the structure of it. But now coordinator wants a different structure than what I have given to students four weeks ago.

Talk to the course coordinator immediately and coordinate your next steps.
Apparently, there was a serious breakdown in communication, and

the course coordinator didn't provide any guidelines whatsoever

suggests to me that you are not the only one to blame.
Whatever your next steps will be, they need to be aligned with the coordinator and his expectations. You may be able to extend deadlines, adjust grading rubrics or something else.
Next time, make sure you know what the coordinator wants. (And the coordinator should make sure, too.)

That's the right approach. Maybe you can also find a compromise between his and your idea so that the students need to make only modest adjustments.

Thanks. This was certainly a lesson learned. Thanks for the answer it helps.


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Is it possible to pursue two distinct research interests in the same discipline?
Is it possible or legitimate to pursue two distinct research interests in the same discipline in the context of an advanced academic career (PhD and beyond that)?
For example, can I  have two research interests the one concerning History of Economics and the other concerning Mathematical & Computational Economics in a PhD program in an Economics department where there are always professors that have these but usually not the same person?
Or for example, can I  have two research interests the one concerning Political Theory/Philosophy and the other concerning Mathematical & Computational Social Sciences(Political Science) in a PhD program in Political Science department where there are always professors that have these but usually not the same person?
Just for the record, I have postgraduate academic education from prestigious universities both in Computer Science & Applied Mathematics and in Social Sciences(mainly Economics) & Philosophy. For this reason, I want to maintain both my strong qualitative and quantitative skills and have these, two in each case essentially, quite distinct research interests.

Yes, it is possible, and it is not even particularly unusual (I did it, for one).  You just need to be aware you'll have to work harder than if you focused on one topic.

Thank you all for your helpful responses. I really appreciate the fact that you devoted some time to my questions. Finally, depending on the particular department, I concluded that it is possible to approach a single topic from two quite different subdisciplines of one specific discipline.

For example, can I have two research interests the one concerning History of Economics and the other concerning Mathematical & Computational Economics in a PhD program in an Economics department where there are always professors that have these but usually not the same person?

Practically speaking, your PhD topic will need to be on one topic, so you will need to choose to some extent. Relatedly, you will also need one (and usually exactly one) advisor - you can have the other person as a member of your committee, or sympathies permitting, just as an unofficial mentor and collaborator, but typically the formal advisor will need to be one specific person.
However, this should not prevent you from conducting research on both your interests. Typically, there are two ways to go about this:

Find a topic that naturally integrates your interests. For instance, you may write a thesis in political sciences, but with a healthy dose of econ (which almost automatically also includes plenty of applied maths), or you may write a thesis in economics, but with a focus on political implications of economic theory. In this example, both versions sound completely reasonable to me. Of course, if your actual interests are farther apart, this becomes less reasonable.
Choose one of your interests as thesis topic, and work on the other as side topic. This you can do in most cases, as long as there is some understanding between the disciplines (and your advisor is generally in favour of side projects, which apparently not everybody is). This course of action has the disadvantage that ultimately, you will lose time to work on your thesis, and your thesis may accordingly take longer to complete or be less compelling than if you worked 100% on it.

That all being said, a common advice given to students is to remain somewhat narrow in their academic interests early in their career, and only start to branch out and diversify once one is strongly established in one particular aspect of a field or discipline.

Agreed, but I don't think you can generally say that every thesis has to be "on one topic:" so-called 'staple theses' aren't particularly uncommon, are they? Even where this is fairly common (e.g. economics and, I think, math), it's probably superior to do as you say, but by no means an absolute must, for all I know.

@gnometorule I was under the assumption that even in a stapler thesis, the papers need to fit (at least this is the case in my university). You can't just staple together a number of unrelated studies.

@xLeitfix: I did, say (it has some pseudo-unifying notion in the introduction...but very pseudo, honestly); and a local mathematician friend is considering to add something unrelated to 2 related papers he already has, telling me that it's common in his department. It was also common in my old school/department, not just me: and not uncommon among the stats-oriented people in my wife's. Now, obviously, maybe those are the 3 exceptions to the rule in the U.S. (schools in NYC, and California) :)

@gnometorule: I have also heard of math PhD theses having chapters which are unrelated to the rest of the thesis.  In my experience, this mostly comes under the philosophy "Once you have put what your committee agrees is an acceptable amount of material into your thesis, you can add more or less whatever you want."

In addition to the very good answers of xLeitix and Paul de Vrieze I would like to add a few thoughts on your question, especially focusing on the "and beyond" part. I am sure that it is possible to have different research interests within one field because (at least in mathematics) there are quite a few people who do that.
On the other hand, I think that, especially during early stages of the career, it is a somewhat risky thing to do. There will be some important occasions where your scientific achievements will be judged by experts in your field (e.g. if you apply for positions with a search committee or for tenure). If you are working in two different areas it is quite likely that they are only familiar with part of your work which on its own might be small compared to other people's work in this (sub)field.
I think it is less risky if you have a "main interest" and make sure that you are building a strong research record in this and consider the other field as side projects.

First of all, some of the practicalities depend a bit on the system and your ambitions. In a PhD, stick with a single topic. This topic may be approached from two perspectives (2 disciplines/subdisciplines). The most common way to "fail" a PhD is to not finish. Students that cannot choose, or cannot stick to a problem are frequently those that fail to get sufficient coherent material together for a thesis (and in any case they will have wasted time).
Once you have a PhD it is slightly easier (although you need to be careful if you are on some sort of tenure track). If you want to build some form of reputation you will have to again stay focussed on closely related problems (so that you can build a reputation as expert on that area). This doesn't mean you can't do side-projects (people will assume it was a student with an off-interest), but you do need to maintain sufficient focus on "your" area.
If you have tenure and don't have a wish to make a strong name in research, you can however do whatever you want. As an academic with strong side-interests I fully sympathise with your wish to be broad, but it is difficult. One thing that is maybe some consolation is that as you progress/gain experience, the size of your topic/scope tends to increase in size.

This sounds like a trivial question to answer in the affirmative, initially, but, upon reflection, there may well be differences across institutions in the level of flexibility they offer with regard to your autonomy.  An easy litmus test will be to ascertain how much funding may be generated by your proposed approach from big name global brands, who you can sell the benefits of the value you can bring to them.  If your proposal attracts significant investment in research funding and, perhaps, great PR for your chosen university, there should be no reason why the university would reject such a proposal?  Think of your proposal both in terms of academic value and net profit -- more like a business plan.

"An easy litmus test will be to ascertain how much funding may be generated by your proposed approach from big name global brands" - uh, no. PhD topics are, in general, not limited to those that bring in funding from "big name global brands."

I did NOT  mention topics are "Limited" to those which bring in funding.  However, I did try to emphasise the increased attraction and latitude that the student would have when asking for flexibility to research somewhat overlapping topics (potentially covered by multiple staff members), if this was seen as a step forward in BOTH academic value AND net profit through private investment.  Hope that helps clarify?

This answer needs a few more big words.


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How and when should I identify my specific research interests?
I am a Computer Science graduate, who is passionate about Computer Science and various topics and want to explore them in and out.
I am interested in research but I cannot refine my interests to a particular topic. It is possibly because I did not get a chance to play with various stuffs and do various projects. So how should I refine my interests to a particular topic?Is it too early to think about it,that is should I wait for getting a Masters or am I right to think about it currently?

Is it too early[...]. -- The sooner the better.

Since you haven't really specified how far you hope to go, my impression is that in most places it is okay (not great, but not terrible) to be as vague as "I really like graphics and algorithms" upon entry to the master's, but by the time you apply for a phd, you should be able to identify specific areas in a broader field that you think you could contribute to.

@Tim,can I do anything to refine my interests or explore my interests more?

@Trylks,any nice ideas to check my interests in a field?Can you suggest some sample techniques?

@user1369975 try to picture yourself getting a deeper and deeper knowledge about those topics for the rest of your life, if some of them don't seem unbearably boring then try to find 1) what do they have in common, 2) whether your expectations and reality are related (in literature and state of the art) and 3) the economic interest (opportunities, business models, how interested the markets are) to see respectively whether it is 1) interesting and personally viable, 2) technically possible and 3) economically acceptable.

You are an undergrad now, so that means you have neither experience nor plenty of free time. But this doesn't mean you can't give it a shot: read up about research, and find interesting projects to do. Aim for something small, that you can, for example, accomplish in one year. The next year, try something different. I'd probably focus on topics that are not exactly covered in your curriculum, as those you are going to learn anyway.
I studied Physics, but on the side I experimented with computer simulations, to later go to image and video processing, analysis of experimental spectra, and complex networks (graph theory). All this taught me tools and ideas that I am now using, in a completely different field (Bioinformatics).
The truth is, before I started looking for a PhD, I didn't even considered Bioinformatics as an option, but I saw one offer, looked appealing, and decided it was exactly what I wanted to do. How is everything I did helping me? For example:

I have to compare some pieces of data. Comparing them pairwise is simple, so I remembered networks, and designed a robust way of combining the comparison into a global measurement. As a plus, I knew already of a good library, and how to use it so I could start coding my ideas right away.
Now I have a matrix, and I have to dig out some patterns (with lots of gaps). From my time doing image processing I remember reading about the Hough transform, and it turns out it looks a promising start point. But I also remembered when I was analysing spectra that the output is quite complex, so I will keep in mind the caveats.

The bottom line is that you don't have to start now in what you want to do. In fact, you will be a more efficient researcher if you know many different things, as you never know where you are going to end up. All this, of course, keeping an eye on your official studies.

,sorry for the mistake.I mentioned that I am an undergraduate student but I am a graduate now.

@user1369975 what are you studying? Master's? Anyway, you can always do things on the side.

,nope I have got placed in a company so I will be starting my job soon

@user1369975 that changes completely the situation. How do you plan to do research? In your spare time? As a part of your employment? Do you want to pursue a PhD in the future?

,yes in my spare time.


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What should I do, as a reviewer, if I see another reviewer suggesting the authors to cite papers not relevant to the manuscript?
I have just submitted my review of a manuscript to a journal, which allowed me to see other reviewers' comments once I submitted mine. I have points of disagreement with this other reviewer, but I am sure this is normal. What alarmed me was that, his/her review comments ended with a suggestion for the authors to cite additional references which, in my opinion, are not directly relevant to the manuscript, but were suggested on the pretense that they were published in the same journal, which is weird. These references have something in common in them: they are authored by the same group of people. Although I cannot be sure that this reviewer is one of them, I have the feeling that h/she may be, and that this practice may be common. In the past, when I was the author, a reviewer also suggested me to include additional references, but these references were not authored by the same people, and anyway I ended up not including them as I thought they were not directly relevant. But as a reviewer, what should I do in this case?

In the past, I had the editor himself asked me (disguised as a reviewer) to include half his papers to increase his h-index.  So the editor could be the other reviewer.

I would recommend raising your concern to the editor. If the editor is honest, they will not ask the authors to follow the citations en masse.
Given that the citations are all in the same journal, however, it is possible that the editor is part of the same citation cartel and may blow off your concern. In this case, it may be worth raising the concern to the publisher and/or one of the major indices. Citation cartels have been gaining attention in recent years, and if this is part of a systematic pattern of coercive citation, then those larger organizations may be motivated to investigate and sanction.

Do you have any examples of succesful investigations and sanctions wrt such behaviour?

My answer depends on where in the review process the manuscript is.
If you believe the manuscript will come back to you for a second round of reviews, I would wait until then. At that point, see how the authors handled the issue. If they included irrelevant citations, tell them in your review. Something along the lines of:

While reviewer 2 suggested you cite everything ever written by Smith, they do not seem to be appropriate in the cited context.

I would then add a confidential note to the editor saying that they may want to comment on if the cited work is needed.
If you believe the manuscript will not come back to you (either because the authors will give up or it will be accepted), then you may want to tell the editor directly. I tend to defer to the editor on these issues, so would not say anything.


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No specific license & no copyright transfer agreement: do I retain rights without restrictions?
I have a question about publishing. If I publish a paper in a journal that does not specify any type of license used, and I am never asked to transfer the copyright.
Apart from this, the journal defines itself as "open" and there is no copyright notice of any kind in the journal's articles.
I think that I could retain all the rights without restrictions. What do you think about this?

Note that copyright law is variable around the world. It might be implied that you give them a limited license in order to publish, but whether it has further implications can vary.

Is a limited license to publish similar to when a paper is published on ArXiv with a non-exclusive license? In that case, the author also retain the copyright.

I think ArXiv is specific about what rights you grant. A limited license can mean a lot of things, but most places it is improper to publish the work of others without at least a license of some sort. "Improper" might mean illegal, but it varies. And the law, if it applies, is probably civil, not criminal, law. But no stated license is problematic, see what Anonymous Physicist writes here. The law varies but the journal probably needs your formal acceptance of terms in order to publish: license or copyright transfer. Dangerous otherwise.

But even if there is no license, there is a written consent (via email) that the author wants to publish his article in the journal. Therefore, the author's permission is granted. But that would be the only thing the author accepts: giving permission to publish the article.

Don't make assumptions. The bigger question is whether readers also get any license to the material. Depending on the law you may be giving up more than you want to.

As far as I know, if you find something on Internet with no license specified, you have no rights over it. And it is equivalent to "All rights reserved"

@Teresa It depends in which country something is hosted. I think you have no rights over it holds for the US.

I think that I could retain all the rights without restrictions. What do you think about this?

Seems plausible, but read the journal's terms of service, since you may be digitally bound by some terms, and maybe just send them an email to ask.

The journal does not contain terms of service, only very short paragraphs about the journal's scope. Considering this, if I continue to publish my paper in that journal, I think that in the absence of copyright transfer agreement or any specific license, I could remain as the copyright owner. And then, if I'm right, I could share my paper under the CC-BY license later, and allow people to create derivative works. On the contrary, if I ask them in writing via email, they can establish other terms.

@Teresa They can't establish terms retrospectively, unless you agree. They could establish terms moving forwards. You seem to think emailing them will notify them of an omission. I don't think that's the case - they'll have surely considered the need for a copyright waiver already. Without emailing them, you won't know if you are the copyright owner, so sharing your paper under a CC-BY license could mean you've violated the terms of some agreement. (Are you sure they have no terms of service? They're surely required now, if only to satisfy emerging privacy laws.)

The journal is a very simple journal. There is no license specified, no CTA, no terms of service. It only has an ISSN. But I understand it is not the best place to publish my paper. My question was more curiosity focused on the copyright issue.

What we "think" about it is of little consequence. The laws around copyright vary over the world. I think you are being a bit blasé about it. You need some explicit statement of any license you grant. If the publisher makes assumptions and does things you don't approve of with your work you may have little recourse other than a lawsuit that will probably cost you money. As Anonymous Physicist suggests, you shouldn't deal with such people as they are probably not reputable.
If they aren't willing to be explicit prior to publication and ask you to actually sign a clear agreement, then it is a giant red flag.
The risk is yours and yours alone. You may be fine, but no one here can provide any assurance of that. Talk to an IP lawyer to get knowledge of the local laws that will apply.
My worry is, if you give them an implied but not stated license, whether they can pass that license on to others. And, again, if they assume that, then it is a lawsuit that would be necessary to stop it. What "I think" is that you are stepping into a minefield. Don't do so blindfolded.
If you are associated with a university, they may have IP lawyers with whom you can consult.

Thank you for your good reply. My question is only about the copyright issue of a publishing option. Of course, there are other possibilities on the table.
And indeed, the laws are different around the world. But, if it were an American journal, I think publishing without a license would allow the author to retain the copyright.

Talk to a lawyer, not random people on the internet. You are hoping for the best, not planning for it. You seem to want assurance for an already decided on position rather than advice. No one here has any authority to give you such assurance.

If they aren't willing to be explicit prior to publication and ask you to actually sign a clear agreement, then it is a giant red flag. Social media is explicit with clear agreement, at least, legally. But, social media users are typically oblivious to what they've signed up to. Unfortunately, there's little they can do. The law needs revising.

From practical perspective the idea of engaging an IP lawyer for an issue like this seems ridiculous.

@Arno, not if the university provides the service.

@Buffy The risk of non-trivial headache quite certainly goes up rather than down when getting the internal IP-service involved. Either they just say that everything is fine, and it was pointless, or they freak out, and then it would have been better to never talk to them in the first place.

@Arno If they say everything is fine, that's surely not pointless - engaging IP services is buck-passing (except when the IP service doesn't accept liability), which can be useful

Do not publish without a contract.  The absence of a contract casts serious doubt on the competence of the journal.  You do not want your work to appear in a journal that gets shut down because they did not have their paperwork correct.  No quality open access journal would neglect to have a license.
If the question is "Will you retain your rights?" My answer is that this is a situation which should never occur, so you shouldn't find out.

Good advice, if not actually an answer to the question.

I appreciate your advice and I think you are right about the competence of the journal. But, leaving that aside, and focusing on the copyright issue, if there is no license specified, I think I would retain the copyright. And if there are no terms of service (unlike in the forums) and no copyright transfer agreement. Could there be something that means losing my article's rights?

This is not a good place to get legal advice.

@Buffy Fair enough.  This is a situation where "don't have this problem" is the best solution.


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How do I know the corresponding author of an IEEE conference paper?
I am a Ph.D. student in computer science. I found that the corresponding author is often not marked in conference papers.
For example, in the following paper, how do I know who the corresponding author is?
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9065598

Back in the day when one author would have reprints meant for distribution, this made much more of a difference

The practice of "corresponding author" only exists in some scientific fields, while other fields make no such distinction.
In general "corresponding author" is a distinction that strongly differentiates author roles, such that some authors are "workers" and others are "bosses", with the biggest "boss" being the corresponding author. It typically shows up in more experimental fields, such as biomedicine, where a single PI may have an army of grad students and postdocs acting as lab techs and a paper can easily have a dozen or more authors, some of whom made minimal intellectual contribution. It would make no sense to write to an author who knows little about the paper, and thus the notion of "corresponding author" can make a lot of sense for such a collaboration.
Other fields, particularly more theoretical and mathematical ones, explicitly reject this distinction. Some even reject the notion of significance in author order and expect authors to be listed alphabetically. For these fields, the collaborations tend to be much smaller and much more intellectually balanced. The notion of a "corresponding author" makes no sense for such a collaboration.
IEEE's breadth includes communities at both extremes of these practices, and thus if you do not see a corresponding author, you should assume that the paper comes from a community that does not make such a distinction.
Bottom line: if you don't see a "corresponding author" you can write to any of the authors with an email address listed or, better yet, cc the full collaboration.

The corresponding author does not generally correlate with being the "boss". It is rather a distinction of who handles correspondence, including the whole submission process and it can be any of the involved authors. It is often the main author (read: student/lab-monkey), and sometimes the PI, especially when the contributing main author has just finished his PhD and does not have time anymore for the submission and revision process. Different research groups handle this differently, so - like always - it depends heavily on everything.

Yes, there is a huge amount of variation out there. My description, however, describes a practice followed by a large swath of scientific communities. Moreover, in many cases it is compatible with your description as well, taking your "main author" as "boss" for project. The key is that there is a major difference in level of responsibility, which is generally not the case in fields that eschew the practice.

In my experience, CCing the full collaboration gives lower chance of getting a response than emailing a single author. Probably if I email one author, they feel they have to answer; if I email two or more authors, every author thinks "someone else will answer".

@And in some places/fields it's someone who could plausibly be expected to stick around for a while - i.e. not the grad student who's about to finish

You don't -- there simply is no corresponding author in that case. Don't overthink it: Just email one of the authors, or all of them.


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Naming inconsistencies in booktitle fields of BibTeX entries provided by IEEEXplore
Why are the booktitle fields of BibTeX entries provided by IEEEXplore inconsistent in the following way:
@InProceedings{
...
booktitle={2009 International Conference on Reconfigurable Computing and FPGAs},
...
}

and
@InProceedings{
...
booktitle={Image Processing, 2004. ICIP '04. 2004 International Conference on},
...
}

Is there a specific reason for that? I've come across both styles in references. I think (if I understand https://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf correctly) the IEEE itself prefers the first variant. I do as well. What are the reasons others use variant two and why does IEEEXplore emit styles the IEEE does not encourage?
Update:
It seems like IEEEXplore is in fact simply emitting the names of the conferences. So the question becomes why the conference name is slightly changed almost every year (except for the year, obviously). See also http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome.jsp?punumber=1000349 for an overview (click on "more history").

Why don't you edit (just position and few words) the booktitle field in your bibtex entry by yourself? That will solve the problem. Don't worry about what IEEE Xplore gives you while importing the entry. Make the consistency in your article.

In general, the quality of Bibtex entries produced by the IEEE website is low. For instance, they do not properly escape capitals in titles nor diacritics in author names, and they do not identify names and surnames correctly. See for instance the Bibtex for this paper (found searching at random on their website), in which they did two of these mistakes and even forgot some HTML character codes in the title.
So it does not surprise me at all that there is also this inconsistency. I don't think they even bother checking, they just spew out whatever is in their database as a raw string. They put zero effort in them.

Does that mean that the names of the conferences did not change almost every year, just someone entered the conference name(s) wrongly? I guess I should the IEEE directly what the correct conference names are, they need to be 100% correct and consistent in my bibliography.

I would not consider a "name change" the one from 2009 International Conference on Peanuts to Peanuts, 2009 International Conference on. It's just a different way to write the same name.


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Is the process for firing endowed professors different from that for tenured professors?
Tenured professors can be fired for a variety of reasons, the most common being incompetence, negligence, immoral/personal conduct, and financial exigency.
Several questions:

Do these four reasons also apply to firing endowed professors? I'm guessing financial exigency does not apply because the endowment covers the costs. The other three I am not sure about, since presumably the endowed professor doesn't have formal responsibilities (again since the endowment removes the need to teach/supervise/etc).
Between the donor, the department, and the university, which of the three sets the rules? For example, can the donor say "we require our endowed professor to do good research, and are opposed to termination for any reason as long as he/she is doing good research"? (I note King George V felt something similar about the Victoria Cross)
If the endowed professor can be and is fired, does the search for the next professor start immediately, following the standard process? I'm guessing yes since I don't see any reason why not.

I guess this is going to ultimately come down to the specifics of the legal framework (endowment, employment contract, etc) in any given case. However, I think the usual(?) setup is that the endowment is an agreement between donor and university, and then a particular individual is hired on terms agreed between the university and themselves. This latter agreement needs to be compatible with the terms of endowment, but not necessarily identical. Thus the employment is likely to be subject to standard expectations of behaviour etc, unless these were specifically excluded in the endowment deed.

Actually, someone could still lose their endowed position for financial reasons. Some departments and even universities are closed down. An endowed chair of buggy-whip manufacture will have no position, I'd assume. An endowment could also be ended due to poor management of the funds, but the professor's position would, almost certainly, continue if tenured. Unless there were other reasons including financial ones.

There is no legal difference between a tenured professor and a tenured professor holding an endowed position. The latter is mostly a honorific, and in practice just means that they receive the proceeds of an endowment as part of their salary or for research purposes. As a consequence, there are really no legal aspects that would make a difference.
Some of the other premises in the question are also questionable. First, endowments do not have to be large. They can be $100,000 and yield $5,000 per year for research purposes. If the university is in financial trouble, then this endowment isn't going to save the professor: The university is still paying all or nearly all of that person's salary.
Second, not every endowed professorship is directly related to a person or entity that has an interest in who actually holds the chair. It may be that the money was given 50 years ago by someone who is long dead, or that someone gave the money to honor the legacy of someone who is long dead, but who doesn't actually have any connection to the field in which the chair is. Or it may be an entity that for whatever reason really doesn't want to be involved in telling the university what to do with the money (think about the  regius professorships).
Finally, would the chair search start immediately? Who knows. If the university is in financial trouble, it may not be able to afford hiring someone right away. In that case, the position would simply be unfilled for a while. If there is a search, in all cases I am familiar with, the stipulations of the endowment make it clear that the entity in charge of finding and hiring candidates is the university or the department, not the entity that endowed the position. You cannot buy a position for a friend of yours by creating an endowment -- no university would accept such a situation. It will often happen that the university or department informs the donor if they have come to a conclusion about who they would like to hire, but it will not accept being told who to hire, nor offer the donor the right to veto.

From what I’ve seen in my old field…
As to your point 1, there isn’t a change in responsibilities. Endowed chairs teach, supervise, and research; it’s a honorific. So your premise is a bit shaky. As to 2, once the chair is established, appointment, etc, is handled by the department. I’m not familiar with special cases; it is conceivable that the donating entity/person suggests a first recipient. As to 3, there isn’t a search in the sense the term is usually employed. Endowed chairs (tend to) go to tenured faculty at the department.

I doubt any university would agree to the suggested stipulation in #2. It would be completely foolish to do so - obviously so. Possibly illegal.

@Buffy Why on Earth would it be illegal for a university to agree to not fire somebody?

@nick012000, because there are labor laws in general. Would you need to keep a rapist, for example, on the payroll? A murderer? But IANAL, so just speculating.

@nick012000 For the same reason why a kindergarten will not be able to keep someone in employment if they have been convicted of child molestation. You just can't make the promise to not fire someone.

@WolfgangBangerth I don't think you need a Working With Children card to work at a university unless your research involves interacting with children (e.g. primary/secondary education or child psychology). That's completely different to working at a primary school.


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Accepted into PhD program but just received a low Master's Thesis grade
European student here. I was accepted to a PhD program to continue my studies at the same university where I completed my Master's program with a near perfect GPA. Then the time came to write my thesis, and I messed up. I got a C. The feedback I received says the thesis contains a valuable contribution and relevant conclusions, but the research design leaves much to be desired. Considering the paralyzing anxiety I had surrounding the thesis, I'm glad I passed at all, but I have a few concerns:

The university (including my supervisor)  provided me very little support throughout the program. I'm confused as to how I can do research at the PhD level without having fully developed the necessary skills. Will there be training at the PhD level?
Do I want to do a PhD at a university that allowed me to flounder in confusion for the entirety of my Master's program and of the PhD application process? I doubt I can apply elsewhere with this thesis grade, and my ADHD/anxiety definitely needs to be under better control.
Will they rescind my acceptance? Is that something that they can do?

If anyone has been in a remotely similar situation, I would appreciate guidance. I've already reached out to my supervisor to prepare for my defense, but I'm left questioning if academia is for me or if my experience was worsened by the environment.

"how I can do research at the PhD level without having fully developed the skill"
Could you be more specific on which skill you believe you are lacking, and how this is connected to your thesis work?

As somebody who has a PhD here: most of us started the PhD without having the necessary skills..... A PhD student is still a student, so they may learn.

I'm sorry to hear about your poor master's experience. I'm also in Europe, but do understand that the answers to your questions require context we don't have. The situation is different in different European countries and across academic disciplines.
Generally speaking, you are correct. In Europe, the masters is meant to be your research 'training wheels' with your thesis meant to be proof that you are ready to do PhD level research. A poor result is demoralising, and also potentially a problem if your master's work was meant to lead into your PhD research line.
While you might have some half day trainings in your PhD, no you will not have classes. In Europe, PhDs don't take classes; classes are a master's level thing.
I think that instead of asking us these questions, you need to ask them of your prospective PhD supervisor. Ideally this would be in person, with your master's results on hand to discuss. This is where the country may come in. In the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, or UK for example, it would be totally normal, even expected, to email them, ask for a coffee meeting, and go over all these concerns and questions interpersonally. In a more hierarchical "esteemed professor" style country, it may be difficult to get a response. If that's the case, schedule a meeting with your graduate studies office to talk about these questions.
You are right: it will be very hard to get a PhD place in Europe with a C mark on your thesis. Only you will know if a PhD is right for you, but talking to the people within your uni is the way to find out.

Will there be training at the PhD level?
Depends on exact PhD program, but in Europe there typically aren't many classes during PhD level (as opposed to US). You will still be probably able to take graduate level research classes if you apply. Many universities allow external students to take graduate level classes but you will probably have to finance them yourself (but this varies a lot across EU).
Do I want to do a PhD at a university that allowed me to flounder in confusion for the entirety of my Master's program and of the PhD application process?
This is up to you but from my experience the following holds; the more prestigious university and your supervisor is, the less hand-holding you will get during masters and PhD program. There are exceptions, but generally people who do top research simply don't have time to hold hands of new researchers. I think that at any good university, unless you luck out with very attentive supervisor. At my Alma Mater, which is good ranking university you were only entitled to 4 meetings with thesis supervisors for bachelor and master thesis.
During PhD you will get more feedback and more meetings but you should not expect that someone will be helping you with every part of the paper.
My advice is to look for graduate level summer school or some good books in your area if you need to learn how to do research.
Will they rescind my acceptance? Is that something that they can do?
University can technically always rescind your acceptance. This is actually becoming more and more popular if some bad behavior is discovered. However, for a bad thesis grade this is very unlikely unless your acceptance was conditional on having some grade point average that you now don't as a result of thesis grade.

The main goal of all PhD programs is learning how to independently do research. In that sense, PhD programs are very much a training/learning experience: while you are expected to know the bases of your field, when you being you are not expected to know how to carry out your own research. Thus, if your concern is that you are not prepared to do the research work, do not worry: there will be many opportunities to learn, both formally (through courses, though that vary from university to univerisity) and especially informally (through your supervisor and your group).
For your second question, we cannot answer that. Is your PhD supervisor the same as your Master thesis supervisor? Usually, your PhD experience mainly depend on your supervisor and much less so on the university. It is also worth considering that research-focused professors may tend to spend more time and resources on their PhD students rather than Master students, although you may judge for yourself how correct that is.
Lastly, whether the university will rescind their offer will depend on their policy, but generally it is extremely unlikely that they rescind a full offer (rather than a conditional one), unless there is evidence of academic misconduct (such as cheating).

I note the OP is in Europe, not the USA. In Europe, the masters is meant to be research training, with the PhD meant to be research. In many European countries and the UK you apply to the PhD with a proposal and are expected to begin working on your research the day you start. You ARE expected to know how to carry out your own research to some degree, and with some guidance.


text:
My research is on specific publications and their publishers. Should I include all articles mentioned in the bibliography?
My dissertation is on magazine publishers. My primary source material includes magazines.
My query is, should I include all the articles mentioned in the bibliography? Or only those that I consider the main articles? Or only the magazine itself with the range of years that are included in the research?
The individual articles have all been referenced  in in the notes.
In the style guide it says: if an article is cited in the notes, then it can be omitted in the bibliography. One can include an article in the bibliography only if it’s central to an argument being made.
This does not really address my query, as central to the argument is the publication itself rather than individual articles. (As the response from my supervisors is not definitive  I'm asking for other valued opinion, thanks.)

Generally speaking
If you are referring to particular content of particular issues, you should cite them.
If you have a database of the contents of the magazines and you work with that, then ideally you publish the database, or in any case explain how you created the database and what was included. In that case you would cite the database, if published, or otherwise refer to it, but you would not cite specific articles unless you use their particular contents, as per the first paragraph.
What are the notes?
In your question you mention that individual articles have been referenced in the notes. Are these notes a part of the dissertation or something distinct?
If you dissertation is a collection of articles and these notes are the articles, for example, then you are presumably writing an introduction that ties them together. Then the introduction would cite whatever it mentions, but likely not very many individual magazine articles, as the details would be left to the research publications.
If you mean some kind of notes you have written for yourself and not to be published in any way, then they don't matter for the question of what to cite in the dissertation itself. The dissertation should stand by itself, without needing private information.


text:
Query regarding the academic journal submission
Asking on behalf of my friend.
He had worked on some problems in the summer of 2018 when he was a student at some X university. After a year, he again started working on the same problem and will be going to publish it in some journal. But now he joined university Y.
He has this query: what author's address and mail he needs to mention on the paper? Or what else he needs to do?
PS: The funding for the summer internship was given by university X.
Thanks

You want to provide maximal useful information. That should include funding sources and a current address.
Your friend should provide the journal with all that information. They will decide how to use it. A paper I wrote years ago needed three affiliations. It started with

The footnote read

That was in the days before email. Now there would be a current email address.

And a "Research funded by...." note might also be needed.

Can we provide the funding information in the acknowledgment section?

@Vans1904 You can put it there.  The editor may decide to put it elsewhere. Just be sure to include it somewhere.


text:
A journal published my private home address alongside my publication. Can I get it removed?
Some years ago, I published an article in a Springer journal. However, when I accessed its online version today, I found out that the publisher has swapped my residential address for my correspondence address. Since I am the corresponding author and this information is public, I am concerned about my security. I have already tried contacting Springer to no avail.
How should I proceed in order to get this issue fixed?

It generally is not hard to find an address given a name. Public records and such. But, bad form on the journal.

Usually about 10 people read a paper anyway.

It's too late to fix it.  The paper is already distributed.  If you want to keep secrets, you need to enforce that at the copyediting stage.

How did the journal get your residential & correspondence addresses?

@AnonymousPhysicist My residential adress is NOT printed in the paper (only the correct correspondence address can be found in the paper). It is available only in the "Author information" section in the online journal.

Ah, so copyediting was no help.  Well, it's still too late because the information has been distributed.

@JonCuster i was thinking that. basically anyone who knows where OP works can just follow the OP home from work and would therefore know OP's address?

Are you saying the journal basically stalked you to find out where you live and then doxxed you by making your personal address public? This is a very serious breach of privacy. How in the world could that happen?

Azor Ahai -him  That's not the point though.

@JohnSmithKyon - much easier than that. A simple web request and a few dollars gets you more information about you than you can imagine. My county has all property information on line in their GIS - who owns the property, the address the property tax bill is sent to, how much the property tax is, when it was paid, ... And you can search on most fields in the GIS.

@AzorAhai-him- But it could be him reading your papers and sending you packages...

@Tom It was more reassurance that it probably won't be consequential than an excuse for Springer's actions, since journals tend to not be very active about doing stuff like this.

@terdon: Stalking seems pretty far-fetched.  Presumably OP (or a co-author, secretary, etc) gave the home address to the journal at some point in the correspondence about the paper — this isn’t unusual, there can be many legitimate reasons for it — and then the journal mixed up the home address and institutional address in their system.  It’s a privacy breach to be sure, but it’s well within the realm of everyday incompetence.

@PLL fair enough, that does sound far more likely. I have never given my home address to a journal, nor can I think of good reasons to, but if you say there are I'm sure you're right.

@PLL that's exactly what happened

@JonCuster oh thanks for the info...that's really legal in your county?

@JohnSmithKyon - Absolutely. Many things are considered public records. The difference is that once upon a time you had to go down to the county office and ask for help, now they are all digitized and readily available. No more security through obscurity. But things like land ownership, business licenses, criminal records and what not are all public records.

@JonCuster ah makes a lot of sense. thanks for the info.

Springer has a privacy policy. It seems to be largely based on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
According to XIV, point 2, you can request a removal of your personal data on specific grounds, e.g. because the data are not needed, or because you withdraw your consent. This seems to be the case with you.
You can contact their Data Protection Officer about that (dataprotection@springernature.com). Explain your situation and ask for the data to be removed.
The Data Protection Officer should react swiftly, as there might be grave legal consequences if they violate your data rights (at least if the EU's GDPR applies to your case).

Part of me wanted to see their physical address in this answer. Obviously, their correspondence address and not any residential addresses. ;-)

I have the same situation with my email address being published on SpringerLink, and they agreed to remove it. I simply mailed the same person that I had contact with during the proof reading.
The usual process for Springer is to publish an additional paper titled "Correction to ..." (with the same authors) that explains what has changed about the original paper, and mark the latter with "A correction to this article is available". As in your case the original paper was not wrong and did not need to be corrected (in fact, it should not even be changed at all), I would insist on this not happening. Otherwise, the additional article would for example appear on your Google Scholar profile. In my case, Springer agreed to just remove my email address without an additional article after clarifying internally (but the change has not yet been made).


text:
Are my expectations for undergraduate student support unrealistic?
I'm attending a Russel group university in the UK, and studying Computer Science in the 2nd year of an undergraduate degree.
I'm reasonably happy with the vast majority of the taught content, but sometimes certain parts of the syllabi trip me up or I'm not sure if I'm correctly understanding how to approach solving certain problems. At Sixth Form, if I was stuck I'd try and work it out myself and then ask the subject tutor if I wasn't getting anywhere.
At university, there appears to be a stark difference in the academic support offered. Many lecturers do not have regular office hours and are unresponsive when asked if an appointment could be scheduled. Questions sent via email aren't comprehensively addressed, even when it's clear that substantial independent work using external resources (content from other universities, various textbooks etc) has been done to try and tackle the problem (vs. simply asking for an answer with no work to show for it). There's little I can do other than consult my peers when I don't understand something - and if many of us are stuck we feel completely lost.
There also seems to be a difference in the support materials provided. Many modules don't publish example problems or solutions, provide any form of solutions to past exam questions or sign-post relevant textbook exercises. This differs greatly to previous exams prior to university, where the exam board would make marking schemes, model solutions and examiner reports available each year. I feel ill-prepared for most exams, because I find it difficult to verify my answers to practice problems are correct.
Is this the norm for undergraduate study, or are these signs of issues within my department? Are my expectations in terms of academic support unrealistic?

I don't know about UK, but in my country some 30 years ago, and for many years afterwards, when I was a student, professors were not used to hold office hours and in most courses you were on your own if something wasn't clear. Now, in many universities, things are changing because of teaching evaluations which, among other things, assess also the responsiveness of professors. I can imagine, though, that a few old-style professors simply continue to ignore students. Does your university have a teaching evaluation system?

I don't know much about universities other than my own but I believe your expectations are indeed a little unrealistic. Generally speaking, in university you are expected to be able to study on your own. You should be able to solve problems with your theoretical knowledge of the subject. They are meant to test your understanding, so posting the solutions for previous exams is counterproductive. Regarding academic support: I understand usually it's the job of teaching assistants and, frankly speaking, professors have more important stuff to do than worry about failing students.

@ПетяНарышкин: Yours is an intriguing perspective -- because my undergraduate experience was almost exactly the opposite. Granted, I attended a smaller liberal arts school with a (relatively) strong engineering program, and many classes didn't have a TA. But every professor was expected to hold office hours at least once a week where you could go get support. Yes, they almost always wanted to see that you had attempted the problems first; but if you got stuck, they were usually happy to explain what went wrong. And you were encouraged to seek out this help sooner rather than later.

Thanks for all your thoughts on this. @ПетяНарышкин You mentioned "Regarding academic support: I understand usually it's the job of teaching assistants" - there are no teaching assistants familiar with/assigned to at least one of the modules.
MassimoOrtolano Yes, there's an evaluation system. But there's very little transparency as to what is done with (and indeed the actual values) the results. Certainly it's unclear what changes have been made.

I'm in the U.S., but first blush is your experience may be close to standard. Point 1: A college professor's main job is research/publication, teaching is secondary (and time/attention will reflect that). Point 2: In traditional college classes it is unusual to hand out "practice/model tests", prior exams, programming solutions, etc. Admittedly it sounds like your lecturers are on the low end for office hours/support. A CS major in 2nd year should find the material fairly easy to work through (possibly with lots of time) or later work will be unapproachable.

Thanks for your insight, @DanielR.Collins. I'm not likely to fail by any means - I'm on track to get a first for the year. It's just little parts of e.g. a module's lecture slides that might not make sense (even after reading related literature) - often because because all other literature does X/describes X differently or a problem Y that you (think) can solve [and /can/ solve similar exercises from texbooks], but you can't reproduce what's shown in a lecture or the module notes.

Consider also asking your extra topical questions here on the SE Computer Science forum ("Q&A for students, researchers and practitioners of computer science").

Voting to reopen, as this can occur in grad school as well.  The basic phenomenon described by OP occurred as he progressed higher and deeper in his studies.

@BenCrowell The question is Is this the norm for undergraduate study, the close reason is Questions about problems facing undergraduate students


text:
How to subscribe to journals so that I regularly receive only the Titles and Abstracts without necessarily the full content of the papers?
How can one subscribe to a non-open access journal such as "Nature Reviews Drug Discovery".
The subscription will be to have the abstract of the latest releases.

For a full-fledged subscription with access to all articles, look for the 'Subscription' section of the website: https://www.nature.com/nrd/subscribe. Usually, researchers are affiliated at a research institution so that they can get access to the journals through their institutional subscriptions (usually through university libraries).
However, it seems that you would be content with the headlines and abstracts of the latest articles of that journal. I see at least five possibilities for you to stay up-to-date with that journal Nature Reviews Drug Discovery:

Regularly visit the journal's website.
Register for their e-mail
alerts (through this link).
Make use of their RSS feed
(here - use a RSS reader for this purpose, such as Feedly, which you can also use on your mobile phone).
Follow the journal on Twitter (here is their account).
Program your own
app to stay up-to-date with that journal by using the
(machine-readable) CrossRef API (access it with the ISSN of that journal - the
link would be this one).

Thank you the second one was the one I needed. Not sure how the last option is working exactly but seems like the ideal one to do for multiple similar journals.

One example that uses the last point's approach - the one via CrossRef's API - is https://ooir.org/ (OOIR). Click on "About", then "Data" to see an explanation of how they do it.


text:
Publishing a paper in an academic conference being someone who works in the industry
I have been working in the industry of software engineering for 5 years so far. Lately, I am planning to take a PHD, I am interested in software architecture and quality, something that started fascinating me after experiencing failing/successful projects because of bad/good architecture mainly.
After doing some search about the matter, I see that most of PHD positions demand some publications so my plan B is to get something published to have the courage to email some possible advisors, especially that my master thesis was done in artificial intelligence, something that would be funny to tell a software-architecture-advisor about.
My question is, would an academic conference accept a paper written by me, alone, no advisor and no university to belong to?
Thank you all.

There is no requirement that a person be employed in academia to publish papers or submit them to academic venues, including conferences. Papers are supposed to be reviewed for their own qualities and insights, not the position or reputation of the authors (though some abuses occur).
But before submitting to any venue, you should spend some effort looking at the sorts of things that get published there, so that you style isn't too different and the quality of your results is at a similar level as that of successful submissions. There is no real bar, but, like most things, first attempts aren't always successful.
You don't even need to associate yourself with your employer for this. Independent Researcher is fine as an "affiliation".

You should, however, also explore whether your assumptions about how to get accepted are valid. It would probably be worth the effort to talk to some potential advisors and see if your current qualifications are sufficient.

Thank you for the enlightenment, I have bachelor and master degree in computer science, both my master degree and my only publication is in the field of artificial intelligence, those are the basic qualifications I believe necessary for pursuing a PHD, I don't forget my work experience which may also help.

Another question just hit my mind, would a possible advisor be willing to work with an "independent researcher" without him being associated to the university of the advisor?

That seems unlikely. Collaborations with industry people are possible, but you'd need to be an "equal" contributor, whatever that means.

Thank you a lot!

My question is, would an academic conference accept a paper written by me, alone, no advisor and no university to belong to?

All conferences I am aware of accept papers based on their scholarly content, without any (explicit) considerations regarding the authors, their networks, or affiliations.
There are, indeed, thousands of scholarly publications (in journals and conference proceedings) from authors whose affiliation reads "Independent Reseacher" or "Independent Scholar". See also the tag independent-researcher.
According to my own experience, publishing in journals and attending conferences as an independent researcher is unproblematic as long as the content you produce is acceptable. However, obtaining funding might be a different issue - many funders require you to be affiliated with a research institution (including for minor travel grants for conference participations).

Thank you for the answer, I had no idea of the independent researcher.

Oh, I wanted to link to somewhere else; I corrected it. By the way, Buffy was quicker than me...

Oh, Buffy's answer just appeared second, I checked green his answer


text:
How to check the duplication of the extended version of the paper?
One of my papers was accepted by the conference. I now want to write an extended version of the paper for submission to the journal.
The journal requirements are:

Extended versions of published conference papers are welcome, but
they must have at least 40% new impacting technical/scientific
material in the submitted journal version, and there should be less
than 30% verbatim similarity as reported by a tool (such as CrossRef).
Additionally, the conference papers and the detailed summary of
differences must be included as part of the journal submission to TC.

Why can't I find the tool CrossRef?
I want to use some other websites to check the duplication, but how can I check the duplication only compared to my conference papers?
Has anyone experienced something like this? what should I do?
Thanks

The tool referred to is the CrossRef Similarity Check. Only "CrossRef members" (i.e., mainly publishers) have access to it once they pay a special fee in return. In other words, the tool is not publicly available to you.
As regards a duplication-check you could conduct on our own, there are free text-comparison tools like this one where you can insert the two articles and see to which extent they overlap or differ from each other.
Here is an example (with a 68% match):

However, note that every text-comparison tool could spit out different results, simply because there is more than one way to calculate text similarities.