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When can asking a question during lecture be offensive?
During my masters, I used to ask a lot of questions in class and during the lecture. Whenever I had a doubt I used to ask questions. It was my habit which my undergraduate teachers inculcated in me and inspired us to do so. However, here, in my masters, I got the impression that this is probably a bad habit as professors tend to think that I am asking my questions to test them. Ultimately, it was proven to reflect badly on me.
I am about to go to another institution going for my PHD. Since then, I have changed my habit and I haven't asked a single question in the last several lectures. Instead, I wrote my questions down in my notebook and later read books or Googled them to search for answers.
Is this really the right way?
How can I ask a question such that the professors shall not think that I am somehow mocking them?

Asking questions is a good thing, but you need to make sure that the questions you ask are appropriate. The best thing to do is judge for yourself whether or not a majority of the audience might be interested in your question.
An example might be that the lecturer has made a mistake, or has forgotten to define something in a mathematical derivation. In such cases, perhaps you could whisper to the person next to you for a quick second opinion.
If a concept has been neglected or poorly explained, then you should ask for expansion or clarification if you think that most of the class will be in the same boat.
These aren't always easy judgements to make. If you're uneasy, save the question for after class. You can also simply ask the lecturer if he or she minds you asking questions, or your classmates if they thought your question was a good one. Good questions enhance the learning experience for everyone.
The bottom line is that most good professors like to have some interaction with the class. Many students audience don't like to say anything, so it's often up to just a few students to ask any relevant questions. But more than one question every ten minutes or so can start to get tiresome for the lecturer, so unless it's a tutorial class you shouldn't turn it into a Q&A session.

As a lecturer, I am always grateful to students who politely point out mistakes.  They're doing a service to their classmates.

@DavidKetcheson And thank you for being grateful! I'll take the opportunity to mention that students should of course always phrase questions about mistakes diplomatically, e.g. "should that be X, instead of Y", as opposed to "that should be...". It makes the dialogue a lot more congenial, especially if it turns out the lecturer was correct in the first place.

Also, I find it's always best not to point out the professor's mistakes unless it's a very important one. Correcting them on pedantic things like misspellings comes off as rude and wastes everyone's time.

From my experience in college as a student who asks questions (as opposed to those who stay silent even if they do not understand what they're listening to) you can divide the process into the student's part (asking) and the lecture's part (answering). The student's part is the one you have control over, and so there are at least two possibilities:

The question is pertinent: it adds to the discussion, is useful to the general audience and it does not disrupt the lecture.
The question is not pertinent: it is too deep (save it for later when you can meet the lecturer in a one-to-one basis), it is too shallow (you were not paying attention, or lack previous knowledge needed for the present course, etc.), or it is irrelevant (you're trying to correct or point out some insignificant mistake or make an appreciation that does not help anyone except your ego).

If your question is not pertinent then do a favor to everyone (including yourself) and don't ask it.
Now, if the question is pertinent it is up to your appreciation and experience in that class to figure out whether that particular lecturer will welcome it or not. Some lecturers will be happy to answer anything they think adds up to the discussion and to be corrected whenever they are wrong. Others will feel that their students are being intrusive towards their work and even get defensive if they're pointing out a mistake.
Examples:

I once pointed out a mistake a lecturer had made on the board and he dismissed me implying I was clearly wrong without even giving a thought about what I was saying. Right after class I talked to him privately and he was happy to acknowledge I was right.
I did the same with another lecturer and he immediately admitted his mistake and thanked me for pointing it out. Asking a tricky question to this same lecturer he admitted he didn't know the answer but came the next day with two sheets of paper where he had worked out the answer after class during his own time.

To sum up:

It is your responsibility before asking to make sure yours is a good
  question. But it is also up to your judgement to decide whether asking
  that particular lecturer that particular question benefits you or not.

You should not always resort to Google. If the professor feels bad if you ask in front of the class, note down the question and either ask at the end of the class on one-on-one basis, or ask in a separate meeting during their office hours. Consider asking TAs too.
This is not the ideal solution though, as asking in the class provides others the opportunity to ponder on the question.
One litmus test that you might want to do before asking the question is, whats the point of the question, and whats the point of the current lecture. Are you asking a question that goes deep down some unnecessary details, or does it ask for a piece of information thats relevant and important?
Another way to test your questions is, what would I lose (or what would I be not able to do) if I don't know the answer to that question.
One more way can be that before asking the question, you verbally clarify what you understood, and then ask which bit you didnt understand. Similarly, verbally clarify what details you know, and then for which scenario, you need the additional information. That would not only justify it as a legitimate doubt, but also clear the context of question A LOT in your own mind.

if your question imply that maybe you hadn't learned the prerequisite classes well enough, then they could be taken as annoying to both professor and some other students.  the prof wants to make sure he/she gets through a sufficiently prescribed amount of material (indicated on the syllabus) and spending a lot of time on remedial instruction might cost too much time to move ahead at the needed rate.
but, if it's relevant and at the correct level (like the level of the class learning this stuff), thoughtful questions should be appreciated by all.

The appropriate response from the professor is not annoyance, but "Let's talk about that after class/in office hours."

yeah, @JeffE, you're right.  at least for the first few times of being inappropriately interrupted.  at one time, back in the 80s and the early 90s, i was teaching electrical engineering.  every once in a while we get a student that thinks he knows so much more than he really does (it was always a male student, which is not surprising because 9 or 10 EE students were male at that time).  if he persists in trying to "redirect" the discussion (the class was about linear electric circuits, which are a conceptual topic) to the topic he wanted to discuss (which was electronic circuits)...

... if a student persists in pressing in appropriate questions, annoyance might be a very honest, measured, and human response.

Several answers have touched on asking the right type of questions. While this is important, how you ask a question can matter as well. (FWIW, these come from a US perspective.)
I find questions prefaced with "I know you covered x earlier, but I'm still not clear on..." get good results. It acknowledges that you were paying attention, that the professor covered some part of the topic, but it's asking for increased understanding. The same for questions like "You just said x, but the text seems to say y. Could you talk about the difference?"
Another factor is who asks the question. I'm usually the top student in the class, and the professors know it. So if I ask a question that starts with "I didn't understand how you went from step A to step B", they know it's because something was truly unclear -- I've already done the reading, and I've been following the lecture closely, so the professor is less likely to take offense. I often volunteer to ask this type of question for my classmates, because I know the professor will be more patient with the question if it comes from me.

A good talk from the auditory  that professor likes (or, even if one does not, sees as "ok") is the one that contributes to the lecture, increasing its quality for all students, for instance:

An answer to the question that the lecturer has just asked for the auditory, aiming to attract attention to important topic.
Asking to comment on unmentioned yet widespread or very obviously looking alternative hypothesis, point of view or simply common misunderstanding, if still in the scope of the lecture.
Asking to clarify something that was really covered too fast, leaving half of the auditory confused (a knowingly good student should ask).
A typo in a formula on the blackboard that 50 students just wrote down (but double check first as false alerts are not welcome).

It is very difficult to ask such questions as they may require more knowledge from the student than it would be presented in the lecture. Indeed, one of the possible replies from the professor is "a good question, now please answer it for us" that may not already be difficult. If you managed to ask one such question per semester, this is already great and enough. If you keep trying but the questions are not so good, you may get one or another hint to interfere less.
If a question does not add much to the lecture, professor may see it as a waste of the precious time that could be used more efficiently. The amount of personal attention professor is capable of giving to each student is limited even after the lecture, and during the lecture you are also using time of many other students.

There are many ways to ask questions in seemingly appropriate ways and yet completely ruin the flow of class and earn some negative points with the lecturer/teacher. Here are some examples:

Asking a question about something that was just explained in great detail (but during which the student who is asking the question was busy texting or browsing on their phone or was simply not focuses). This type of question adds nothing of value, but suggests that explanation was not good enough. I even see other students roll their eyes and some just laugh out loud at one such student who seems to have that special talent for asking really bad questions. For instance, right after stating a fact such as "The sky is blue" they would ask "Excuse me, I am just not sure - is the sky blue?"
Asking a question that on the surface seems relevant, but in reality is about material which was not covered yet. For instance "Today we learn that at noon, the sky is mostly blue" and the student asks "What about the sky on Mars - is it also blue?". Students who do that do it for few reasons: they want to show that they are advanced (they usually use terminology that was not even explained yet almost like "name dropping"), and they like the attention they are getting. This is counter-productive and I just ask them to wait until we reach that point later. But the worst ones will keep asking such questions: "So, I just wanted to ask, if it is middle of the night, would the sky still be blue?"... and earn a bad grade as a result (since they are focusing on stuff that is not covered yet, they are not focusing on matters at hand, and that shows in their work).
Asking trivial questions, to which they could simply find answers themselves if only they remembered what was covered in the past or even just tried before asking (I teach practical stuff that is done on computers, so they have their tools right in front of them). For instance "What would happen if I...?" to which I would say "try it, see what happens, and get back to us!". Or at other times "How do I (do something simple)?" - again just asking for attention. First it tells me they don't care to remember important details and cannot learn more advanced concepts which rely on previous knowledge, but more importantly, they show their laziness and disinterestedness as such simple tasks can be figured out within seconds. The question would be along lines of "How do I switch my mouse to left handed?" - they have not even tried to open options and see what is in there, and to make it all worse - both how to change options and how to "switch to left handed" was explained more than once. (and - no I don't teach such simple stuff, it is just an illustration)
Even if questions are relatively OK, they can be asked in such a manner as to interrupt the flow of a good class. I expect my students to raise their hand when asking a question, but some of them will do so every few minutes. Some will ask a question by raising their hand, only to switch to not raising their hand when it matters the most - like when an important "A-HA" moment is about to happen in students' mind. Some complex concepts and ideas need a bit of a build-up to be understood, and that moment of understanding can be ruined by a question, asked aggressively. Or some others will raise their hand at the most inappropriate moment and try and get my attention with no regard for the explanation that is taking place. All they need to do is wait about 30 seconds and they can ask all they want then, but they are too eager to ruin the flow of lecture.

Basically, those who do this in a class are psychotic individuals who cannot live without being the center of attention for more than a few minutes. Unfortunately, they are also very skilled at ruining a class without doing much of what is clearly prohibited so they are hard to deal with (you can't tell them "Don't ask questions"). I just fail them or give them a really bad grade; usually their homework is not that great either, so failing them is easy.

So I can ask you "What happens if" because I should try it myself out, but then I cannot ask about the thing you said because I paid not attention and tried the thing out?

Asking Question is a good thing but ask in a right way is cumpulsory and you can  not find your answer as you need to know on google so asking your teacher is a good thing but is to be done in a right way.

You need to explain what you mean by asking in a right way.


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How do I cite a result that I've only seen stated without a proof, and I prove myself?
I am writing my PhD thesis in mathematics.
It happens frequently that I use results that I don't have a reference for except

textbooks stating "it is easily seen that ..." or "it is well-known that..."
it is stated on Wikipedia (without proof)
I have derived it with colleagues or people from Q&A sites

Then I try to find a source for some time, before I write down a proof by myself. However, most probably, there has been an earlier mention of this result that I could  reference instead.
How should I proceed in such cases?

Whatever you do, DO NOT cite Wikipedia as an authority!  The reader might wonder whether you added it to Wikipedia yourself in order to cite it.  (But that's no reason not to cite Wikipedia for reasons other than using it as an authoritative source.  But remember that Wikipedia articles can change at any time.)

@UV-D True. I was more about what to do instead of giving a straight reference.

Wikipedia is the best place to start a search and the worst place to end it. If you cannot prove such "it is easily seen..." results, don't use them unless you can find a scientific reference. If you can prove it, just say also "it is easily seen that..." -because if anybody challenges you, you will be able to prove it to him.

@jakebeal this question mentions Wikipedia, but it's not really about Wikipedia, so I think the tag is misplaced here.

If it's a textbook-level result, you could just cite a textbook. Otherwise, if you derived it yourself or with colleagues, no citation is required unless you published that proof earlier (not likely if it's a minor one). But you should definitely thank the people who helped in acknowledgments.
Finally, note that there is a threshold for citation: if a result is trivial, and as such is likely to have been independently demonstrated by many people over time, with no clear historical/seminal work, then you do not need to cite it.

Ok, good points. I would of course cite a textbook if the result is proven there (and not left as an exercise). I see the threshold you mention. But it's rather fuzzy.

If something is left as an exercise in a textbook you can still cite that textbook as evidence that it's a standard result.  If the exercise is tricky you may want to include a proof though.

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What should I ask deans during my interview?
I managed to snag my first interview for a tenure-track assistant professor job. As I had heard, the itinerary seems somewhat gruelling. What caught my eye in particular are three 45min-1hr meetings with various higher-ups: The Dean of Science, the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, and the Associate Vice-president (Academic).
While there is certainly no shortage of topics to discuss with people in my potential department, I have very little sense of what the above three meetings will be like. So my question is:

What kind of questions should I be thinking about asking deans/VPs during these meetings?

You want to be friendly, of course, and make a good impression. Depending on the school, these meetings are not usually too grueling; one purpose of the meetings is just to put a face with your name. There is a good chance these meetings will end up being shorter than the scheduled time.

Be prepared to give a very brief "elevator style" summary of your work.
The deans may ask you about grant funding. You may have a good sense, depending on your field, how important grants are to you getting the position. (Andy W mentioned this in the comments).

Some particular questions I would ask include:

I would ask all three: Where do you see the program/college/university going in another 10 years?  This can help you tell whether your vision for a school fits with theirs.
I would ask the Dean of Science about tenure practices in the college. Do your homework and read the tenure policies before you arrive, of course. As long as you are polite and non-pushy, you can ask for clarifications for anything that isn't clear. You can ask about tenure rates in general, but don't ask anything that would require talking about individual candidates.  If you are in a field where grants are important, you should also be sure you know the weight given to grants when they make tenure decisions.
If you will need anything unusual (e.g. large start-up equipment costs), you should mention that to a departmental representative first, and they can advise whether it needs to be mentioned to the dean.
If you are trying to arrange a second hire for a spouse, the dean may be able to discuss that. Again, you can talk with the department first.  CAUTION: This bullet only applies to applicants who are also interested in finding a job for their spouse, and who have decided to bring up their spouse before getting an offer. There isn't room in this answer to get into the debate about whether it is preferable to wait until you have an offer to mention that your spouse is looking for a job, which is another commonly advocated strategy for applicants looking to find a job for their spouse at the same institution.

In most of my interviews the deans have asked me about grant funding, sometimes extensively (e.g. specific grants, granting institutions, specific projects, how much these grants typically bring in). So that is something to be prepared for (although it is not a bad thing to be prepared for in the interview in general).

I would also ask about the health of the university as a whole including student numbers, campus expansion, pay freezes, and hiring freezes and for US state schools past and planned work furloughs.

I would NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER bring up a spouse with the Dean's before getting the official offer. I would not even acknowledge the presence of a spouse.  This is incredibly bad advice.

@RoboKaren:  I'm glad you brought up that point.. As many know, there are two approaches to looking for two-body hires: keep the spouse secret until an offer is made, or mention them from the beginning in your application cover letter. There isn't room here to open that debate, but of course my advice doesn't apply to people keeping their spouse secret until the job offer. I'll add a disclaimer to that effect. I didn't think of it immediately, probably because my spouse and I mentioned each other in our cover letters when we applied.

@RoboKaren: I think that would be a great subject for a new question.  I'd particularly be interested in seeing answers supported by data, as there seem to be a wide range of opinions, each supported by apparently convincing logical reasons and/or anecdotes.

@NateEldredge  I asked a question (http://mathoverflow.net/questions/5424/) about this ages ago on mathoverflow.  I got a number of answers, but it still didn't clear much up.

@RoboKaren I'm curious: do you even think this is the case if you absolutely will not take the job if your spouse can't find one and the chances of them finding one in the area except as a spousal hire are essentially nil?

@RoboKaren: I don't want to pressure you, but I have posted this as a separate question. If you would like to write anything there, I am sure it would be helpful to many. http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/32369/when-during-the-application-process-should-a-candidate-mention-that-their-spouse

I am the asker of this question, but now that the interview is done, I thought I might add what my experience ended up being. I guess one thing I didn't really realize before is that they've had these meetings many, many times, and so they know already what topics should be discussed and brought them up themselves. So, as Ben indicated, much of the meeting was me listening or answering questions.

Much of the the time, the meetings felt more like a pitch to me of how great their university is. This made me feel more confident asking them to address any specific concerns I had about the university and life in their city.
Most of the meetings were indeed far shorter than the allotted time. The most common topic concerned grants. Mainly the local government funding agency and requirements to get funding from them. Also, discussions concerning start-up funds, and the resources available from the university to help me secure a federal grant.
There was also discussion of tenure, such as what things to focus my time on in the first few years (research, shockingly). I thought a good piece of advice was to avoid service, but not too much. In particular, that I should try to get myself on the Promotion and Tenure committee for my department so that I have a sense of what is needed for when my turn comes up.
Discussions about moving expenses and life in the city (typical weather, recreation, schools/daycare for my kids).
It should be noted that in all of my meetings, the topic of a two-body problem came up, completely unprompted by myself. Although this fortunately isn't really a problem for me, if it was, I would agree with the above advice that it probably would have been a bad idea to bring it up myself, if it should be even discussed at all before an offer is made.

My experience with these interviews is that mostly they will tell you things. For example, I have always gotten a long disquisition on tenure without making any prompts, as well as general discussion about the university.  It is possible they'll ask for your thoughts on general topics in education or research (for math, I think the connection between pure and applied math is popular). Grant funding isn't an issue that's come up for me; I don't think it's what people usually have in mind for math but it certainly wouldn't be a surprising topic.  Certainly it would be smart to have a few general questions (where they see the university as a whole going, how your department will fit into it) at the ready, just to fill any dead space.  I suspect the main thing is to just come across as a normal person. While deans sometimes try to influence hiring based on general considerations (the direction of the department, diversity, etc.) I've never heard of them trying to use their impressions from the interview for this (with the exception of Leon Botstein).
Also, don't hesitate to ask people in the department what it would wise to discuss with the administrators.  They'll know better than us yahoos on the internet what their deans' bugaboos are.

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ARC DECRA eligibility exemption: how to demonstrate unemployment?
For me to apply for an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA grant in the next round, I will need to include an application for an Eligibility Exemption.  The last round DECRA rules are below, and presumably next year's rules will be the same but +1 to each year.

D7.4.4 The ARC may grant an Eligibility Exemption for the DECRA Candidate who has been awarded a PhD on or after 1 March 2006, together with periods of significant career interruption (between the PhD award date and the closing time of submission of Proposals) which if taken into account would be commensurate with a PhD being awarded on or after 1 March 2010. Career interruptions of less than one month will not be considered.  The following types of interruption will be considered:

carer's responsibility;
disruption due to international relocation for post-doctoral studies or other research employment not exceeding three months per international relocation;
illness;
maternity or parental leave;
unemployment and/or
non-research employment not concurrent with research employment.

I was unemployed for 2014 for personal reasons I'd prefer not to go into on a grant application.  This means I will be eligible if any only if the eligibility exception is accepted.  I'm wondering if just asserting unemployment is acceptable, or do I somehow need to demonstrate it in some way?
Question: How would I demonstrate unemployment for an ARC DECRA eligibility exemption?  Do I need to explain my personal reasons for being unemployed?
If possible, I'd like to hear from others who have applied for this particular exemption.
(And, if you happen to know the answer to a related question: Do I have to write the whole DECRA grant application before knowing whether or not I'm even eligible?)

To demonstrate unemployment for an ARC DECRA eligibility exemption you must provide a justification statement.
"Justification Statement: In no more than 3000 characters, please provide justification outlining the special circumstances in support of the Eligibility Exemption Request being submitted."
- Eligibility Exemption Request: Instructions to Applicants (491 KB PDF), pg 2.
This justification does not require details of why you were unemployed. It requires you to state that you were unemployed, that you were not able to undertake research during that period, and delineate how long that period of unemployment lasted.
That is, the ARC wants to know that you were unable to undertake research for the required time. It doesn't need to make a value judgement about why you were unemployed. You do not need to explain your personal reasons for being unemployed.
In answer to your second question: No, you do not have to write the whole DECRA grant application before knowing whether you are eligible or not. As the ARC Important Dates page says, eligibility exemption requests will open and close in January 2016. You will have an answer shortly after that, about two months before the ARC DECRA closing date on 22 March 2016.
However, as someone who helps applicants develop their applications, I would always advise an applicant to draft their application well before January. Leaving it to the last two months doesn't provide much time to write, review and revise your application.

Great.  Thanks for your help.  That doesn't seem too difficult.

authors: 原来的我歌词超清画质点击观看_闫欢9986彦燕雀安知鸿鹄之志


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Should I optimize the content of a first page of a research statement (risking typography)?

The usual entirely-true cliche is that most people on the
  postdoc-hiring committee will not themselves read beyond the first
  page or so of the whole thing, so you should be sure to make your big
  points, of course necessarily in rough terms, just on that first page From Mathoverflow

My ideal first page for a RS, I thought, should not be a dense text (maybe that is secondary, but it is not appealing), and so is to use for the document a 10 pt font size. I might be wrong. Should I really optimize it so that more statements fit there?
What if my most impressive result would be a graph?

I'm not sure what definition of "optimize" you are using in your question, but smaller font is not it! (I think the crux of the advice is to lead with the "elevator pitch" version at the beginning of your statement and then elaborate further on the remaining pages.)

I think the spirit of the statement above is not to overwhelm or overload a hiring committee, because they do not have the time to go through everything thoroughly and are probably reading many research statements.
You need to make your key points stand out and make it as easy to read as possible. Make it something they want to read if you can. Think of this as more like writing a newspaper article than a science article - the most interesting stuff goes first, follow up with details further into the text if needed.


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What does "thanks x-institute for hospitality" mean in an acknowledgement?
What does

The author wishes to thank institute X for hospitality.

mean in an acknowledgement?
Does it imply that they paid me a hotel or a per diem, or is it enough if they provided me an office during my visit to motivate that statement?
Edit. I was just worried if this could rather interpreted as the institute X paid me, which in other country could be seen as a double funding (which is in some programs not allowed).

Surely the worst that could happen is that your funding agency says, "What's this hospitality thing. Were you getting paid twice?", you say, "No" and they say "OK, that's fine." If you're worried that obscure phrasing like "for hospitality" might be misinterpreted, why not just straightforwardly acknowledge what you actually received.

Usually it means that, during at least part of the preparation of the paper, the author was on an extended visit to Institute X, and X provided something that was helpful.  It could be as little as an office or a library card, or as much as free housing, use of expensive equipment, travel support, etc.  However, this phrase wouldn't normally be used if the author was actually a paid employee of X during that time, even if temporarily.

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Adding affiliation due to a 1-month visit during a salary gap
I worked at University A and did a research stay during one month at University B; I was not paid by them, but I got funding (from a third agency) thanks to them for accepting my visit during a salary gap, before going to University C.
About 80% of the paper I want to submit I wrote in my university, but I finished it at University B during said stay, even though my original aim of being at University B was another research topic.
I would like to put U A and U B both as affiliations, since the environment in U B boosted my research (and I don't want to be less thankful than I ought). Is it justified to write both affiliations? Or should I write only University A as affiliation and thank for hospitality to University B and my host there?

The usual practice in this case is not to list University B as an affiliation (since you never had a paid position there) but to mention in the acknowledgments that the work was completed during your visit there.
I wouldn't consider it appropriate to list University B as an affiliation on a paper if, for instance, you were never paid a salary or listed as staff on their institutional website.  I would consider it fine to list the visiting position in a CV, though.

Thanks. I'll put then just my (ex)-affiliation.

I don't think that the effect will be different no matter what you put, but the latter (...hospitality...) version seems marginally more honest. Being a visitor at a prestigious place caries some cachet of course.
I don't think that a one month salary gap is going to be any issue, if it is even noticed. But you will mention the funding agency, of course.

I think you should write both because you spent some time on it and it doesn't matter what's going wrong. Just do it, man.

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Should a figure/table go before or after the first paragraph that references it?
Should a figure/table go before or after the first paragraph that references it in an academic paper? I cannot find a definitive answer on this. The general advice is to place the figure/table as close to the reference as possible.

It doesn't matter - chances are the journal will mess with the formatting anyway. Ideally, figures and tables are on the same page as the reference and (field-dependent?) are put at the top of the page rather than in-line.

@Moriarty Not necessarily: in some fields, many conferences and journals do not reformat, so long as the author complies with the general guidelines.

@jakebeal So, the typesetter is completely excluded?

@user2768 Sure: an organization can run much more cheaply if it makes the authors do their own typesetting and just checks for compliance.

@jakebeal I do my own typesetting, then the typesetter adds mistakes...

Assuming that you are laying things out yourself, as opposed to working with one of the journals that will do it for you, think about the layout from the perspective of a reader: if you are reading text and looking at a figure, it's a pain to be flipping back and forth.  Thus, ideally, you want both text and figure to be on the same page.  Where, exactly, on the same page is not so important.  Sometimes this will be specified by the layout, and in many cases it is stylistically preferred to have figures above text on a page (this is standard IEEE style, for example).
Sometimes, however, it is either awkward or impossible to get them on the same page.  If this is the case, then, in my opinion, it's slightly better to have the figure come after the first reference in the text.  Figures draw the attention, and if you have the figure before the first mention in text, then it can interfere with your narrative.
This is a fairly weak constraint, however, and I often violate it myself when there are overriding reasons of paper narrative to put the figure in front instead, such as:

Spreading out figures through the text, so that you have less pure-text pages.
Getting a figure onto the first page of a paper, so that it can serve as a visual "icon" for the paper.  Example: in this paper, the figure on page 1 is not referenced until page 2.

Most of this, however, is stylistic preferences, and should not be taken as hard constraints unless the particular venue that you are submitting to provides explicit specification.

There is no hard and fast rule. This reference says:

According to the APA (2002), the “typesetter lays out tables and figures closest to where they are first mentioned”
  (p. 155).

I do not have the APA style guide to confirm. The author, as opposed to the typesetter, guidelines for APA style require the figures to go after the references and hence nowhere near where they are referenced. To the extent that LaTeX typesets things "correctly" figures and tables (or in LaTeX terminology floats) are placed as soon as possible (while preserving the layout) following the first call out. LaTeX will never place a float before the call out. I am not sure if this is a technical limitation or a stylistic limitation.

There are options in LaTeX to put the float "here", at the "bottom", or "top" of a page or on a "page" of its own.

The LaTeX placement is a technical choice (not a limitation per se) about how its typesetting behaves.

Journals usually have their own preferences on this, which can be found in their 'Instructions to authors' document.
The most common preference I have found is for figures to be at the top or bottom of pages, ideally on the same page as where it is first referenced. Rare exceptions to this rule occur when the figure is being actively used in a paragraph, for example in a mathematical proof, in which case the figures are much like equations and are reasonably placed exactly where they are used.


text:
What are some faculty positions focused purely on research in Europe?
In the UK we have fellowships at various levels depending on experience, in which there is no obligation to teach. What are other similar positions in Europe (including the UK)?

You do realize that the UK is part of Europe.

I think you need to provide a little more detail about the "level" (e.g., post doc, Lecturer, or Professor) and duration (e.g., fixed-term or permanent) and maybe even field.

Surely, yes. For example, institutes of Max Planck Society in Germany are primarily research focused. They offer positions of various levels (postdocs, group leaders, professors) which can be 100% research (i.e. there is an opportunity but no duty to teach).

I think the MPIs are a little different from what the OP is asking about. From my understanding they are not degree granting institutions and would be more like the MRC institutes in the UK. I think the Marie Curie fellowships might be closer to what the OP is asking about.


text:
Should I report a 48th percentile math GRE subject exam score for programs where it's optional?
I recently received my Mathematics GRE subject test score of 650 ( 48%). I know this score is miserable but in my country, I have the option to retake the GRE next year October only.
Assuming otherwise I have a strong profile (with achievements in other examinations in my country and some research experience ) Should I be reporting this score to universities where it is not mandatory (but highly encouraged) to submit Math subject GRE scores? I mean will this score weaken my application?
Before this score, I was thinking of applying to universities like Upenn, Penn State etc but feel really nervous about my admission prospects now..

If the university you are applying to requires GRE Math Test score, I don't think you have choice.

yeah, I think so. what about universities where it is not mandatory (but highly encouraged) to submit Math subject GRE scores ?

@RenaeLider I find it hard to believe that a very poor score is as good as no score. How certain are you that this is how admissions committees look at scores? My feeling is that a missing score would mean that there should be something else in the application that shows mathematical proficiency, which is still not as bad as basically telling the committee "look I am below average at math".

@Ben Webster asked me to answer this, so I will.  It's a tough one!
The problem here is that I don't feel that PhD programs are all on the same page here, and their differences from one another are not easily visible to the outside (e.g. two departments of similar quality may well differ on the issue).  Here are two different philosophies for departments that recommend but do not require the math subject GRE:

We don't take the math subject GRE that seriously.  A really good score is positive, but it is certainly not sufficient to get you admitted.  We don't use poor scores to exclude candidates...but we admit that all else being equal, higher scores are better.  A missing subject GRE score just means that we don't take this part of the application into account.
We do take the math subject GRE seriously, and a low score is a red flag for us.  However, although we will almost never want to admit a student with a poor score, we understand that sometimes really strong applicants just don't take the test.  If we get a fantastic applicant who didn't manage to take the subject test, we would like to have the right to admit them anyway.  Making the subject exam strictly required would call that right into question, so we won't do that.  But if you are trying to best compete with the heart of the applicant pool, we advise you to take the test and do well on it.

So you see the problem.  The 48 percentile score makes it quite likely that the OP is not (or not yet) a latter-day Gauss.  Thus for a department with the second philosophy, he should submit his score.  For a department with the first philosophy, maybe not...but there's another wrinkle.
The OP characterizes his 48 percentile score as "miserable".  That is a misperception beyond mere histrionics: I believe this is actually a decent score for a range of programs.  (I think it would be fine for mine, but I am no longer on the graduate committee so can't speak so specifically.)  Let's get real: the 48 percentile is on a test which is only taken by people who are seriously considering math grad school but the converse does not hold: a lot of people who are considering math grad school -- and even many that are admitted to a certain range and class of programs -- are not taking this test.  Further, I have heard rather convincing rumors that many of the highest scores on this exam are attained by foreign students taking the exam under what we Americans would politely call nonstandard conditions.  Apparently this is true to an extent that it does skew the results a bit, so 48 percentile is probably not below average for "reliably honest" scores.
So the situation is even more confusing: I'm not quite sure, but I believe that there are US math PhD programs which fall under the first philosophy, but for which nevertheless turning in a score of 48 percentile would help, rather than hurt, the OP in terms of his placement in the pack.
Let's bring this back to the poor OP.  He has gone to all the trouble (and money) of taking the test.  As a result there is information out there about the OP's math skills that most PhD programs would want to know.  Whether it is in the OP's best interest for them to know it is highly unclear: it varies in a way that is a bit opaque to me, let alone the OP.  Because his score is under 50% he thinks it is bad and thus doesn't submit it to certain schools.  (And maybe he is right.)  Isn't everyone but the Educational Testing Service losing out on this proposition?  What a mess.
For the math faculty who are reading this: I hope you now understand why I contributed in my own department's changeover from recommending the exam to requiring it.  I recommend that you require it too (!).  When people are taking the test, not telling us their scores, and we understand why they are doing so, then we are not setting things up in the best way.

Since the admissions office receive applications in large numbers they would prefer to work the application that corresponds to the "required list", otherwise it would delay the process. Sending in documents, in your case a low subject score, could have an adverse effect on your application. If the application does not require a subject score, do not send a weak subject score as it will not make your application stronger.
There is a GRE general test and subject test. As far as i know, the general test is mandatory for most programs, but the subject test is optional.
General rule: do not send anything that is optional and does not strengthen your application.

Lets assume a GRE test is a good thing to show on a PhD. So almost all candidates will take one, so to show their grade.
A priori the distribution of grades, in percentiles, is, by definition, a uniform distribution, from 0 to 100.
Assuming only candidates with a grade in the top half will submit it, then the graduate committee may make a a posteriori inference of the grade distribution of the candidates that do not show their grade. A rough first approximation is that those grades have a uniform distribution from 0 to 50. So they estimate the students not showing a grade had, on average, a grade in the 25th percentile. Or worse, they did not even dare to take the test because they assumed the grade would be lower than that.
So you'll be better of showing a 48th grade.
Actually everyone with more than a 25th percentile grade should show it. Now, if we plug that back in the starting reasoning, we may show by induction that any student with any vanishingly small grade should show it.
Yes, this is mostly a joke.
Or is it? :-)
(not on academia, not even a math student, but considering the possibility to get back and do a unfinished degree :-)

Sorry, I don't follow your logic. Why So you'll be better of showing a 48th grade.? To show that I am worse than many applicants?

@scaaahu The point is that the expected grade for applicants not showing their grade is 25, so 48 is better than that. So by showing a 48 grade, yes one shows to be worse than many applicants, but not as bad as it will look like if they do not show a grade. In other words, why would one want kook as bad as all the bottom half of the applicants, when one may show they are the best of that half?

I think they estimate the students not showing a grade had, on average, a grade in the 25th percentile depends on the school. For the low rank schools, 25th  percentile may be correct. But, I think the standard UPenn (The OP mentions that school) uses is higher than 25. So, I don't follow your logic.

So, you would make the test optional and if someone doesn't submit the result you would just assume that he would score 25 %. Seems flawed to me.


text:
Do Mathematics Grad schools in the US expect a research paper from a Masters Student for admission into a PhD Program?
I have recently joined a Masters program in Pure Mathematics in an Asian University.
My course does not have a research component, only coursework like - Field Theory, Algebraic Topology, Topology-I,II, Differential geometry, Module Theory, Fourier Analysis, Computational Differential Equations, Measure Theory , Complex Analysis, Algebraic Number Theory, Homology Theory etc.
Though, I would love to do research and publish a paper, however, some of the topics above would be new to me. So, I am not sure, if I would even get time to do research and do well in the coursework as well.
I plan to apply to the US for a PhD after my masters. So, would the school expect a research publication towards the end of my masters? Will not doing so affect my application for a PhD?

Short answer: no.

Another short answer. You are building the foundation for your research in the future.

Relevant quora question: http://www.quora.com/Can-you-get-into-a-top-math-Ph-D-program-without-being-published-as-an-undergrad

Note that most doctoral applications in US are from students with only a bachelors and little if any research. It is the doctoral program that provides that experience.

As mentioned in the comments, no.  In the US, there are typically 2 master's tracks one can take: a thesis option (with some coursework) or a non-thesis option (more coursework + exams).  Most students I know who do master's degrees in the US (many of whome go on to PhD programs) do the non-thesis option.  In fact, many undergrads do a non-thesis masters (or something like Cambridge's Part III) to help them get into good PhD programs.  So in the US, in contrast to some countries like Japan, it is not expected.

No, some master's programs do not even require it for the degree. To provide opportunities from people with different backgrounds, they necessarily pay more attention to GPA and personal interviews. They won't dig up specific coursework and papers, unless you are just particularly proud of some work or publication and want to talk about it yourself in an interview.


text:
College in high school and math graduate school admissions
I am a senior in high school and will be starting at the University of Washington in the fall.  My goal is to become a successful research mathematician (in academia), and, from what I can gather, my chances at this goal are increased if I am admitted into a "top" math graduate school for my PhD studies.  Hence I am trying to be as proactive as possible in preparing for graduate school.
Here is the deal: I have had a very different educational experience; namely two years of basically no math in 9th and 10th grade, and then math at community college in 11th, and finally an honors sequence at the University of Washington this year, in 12th grade. The class covers single variable calculus, some multivariate, ODEs, and linear algebra, all with rigor.  Going in to college in the fall I will have over 100 quarter credits completed (so I will be at the level of a junior).  Moreover, I will be in the senior level algebra sequence and in another honors sequence that covers some real analysis and complex analysis.  After my freshman year I will only have a few undergrad classes left to take (namely one year long sequence).  Lastly, I am currently self-studying (baby) Rudin.
So considering my background and current level, it seems I will be taking a large number of graduate courses in my college career if I stay for four years. (Indeed, theoretically at least, I could largely complete the coursework for a PhD by taking two sequences per year). I am worried that if I do stay for four years I will be looked upon negatively by graduate schools, since they might think I am being lazy.  Moreover, what will they think when they see 6 years of college transcripts? Should I plan to finish my degree two years from now to avoid this situation?  Or perhaps in 3 years?
Edit: Perhaps lazy wasn't the appropriate word.  I get the intuition that if an applicant had taken 6 years to complete his/her degree, whilst taking graduate courses even, the admissions committee would think them strange.  What I am wondering is, would my situation be any different?

Why would taking the usual amount of time post-high-school to complete a B.S., including lots of graduate classes, appear lazy? I would imagine it would give the opposite impression.

You are getting worried about nothing.  You will not be judged negatively for having taken college classes before starting your BA, even a lot of them.  Graduate committees want to have students coming into their program who are going to be successful, and they don't care much whether it took 6 years or 2 years to get that preparation.  They are going to look at what you did with your time, not how long you took.  As long as you're happy and it's not too much of a financial hardship, there's no reason to graduate in 2 or 3 years.  Instead, take the time to concentrate on things that will strengthen your application:

Take the hardest courses available which you can perform well in.
Build relationships with faculty.  Taking graduate courses can help with this, but you can also seek out research opportunities or get involve with things like math club.

Performing well in challenging classes and having stellar letters of recommendation are the basis of a strong application to graduate school.  Issues of timing make absolutely no difference in comparison to them.  Other considerations:

You could do a second major, if there's something else you really want to try.  I think this has probably taken on a totemic significance with students beyond its real import (math grad schools are mostly concerned with how you've done in math; being well-rounded is something like a tertiary consideration), but it sounds like you have the room in your schedule, and certainly no one will think you're lazy.
Find good ways to occupy yourself over the summers. REUs are one good possibility. It sounds like you'll have a decent shot of getting into one after your freshman year. Another is if you can find a counselor position at summer program like PROMYS.
Consider spending a year or semester somewhere else. There are highly regarded study abroad programs specific to mathematics in Budapest and Moscow, and also programs like Penn State's MASS.  There's also Part III in Cambridge, which perhaps you could do after graduating in 3 years (or in 4).

This is an excellent answer. Nobody will look down on a student for having started taking college courses as a HS student. In fact, if you're attending a different university than the one you did the work in HS in, the graduate school may not even see your HS transcript.

Well, of course, the student needs to submit the transcript; I think probably you should (certainly I've seen examples of it).


text:
Is it possible to publish a pre-print article on many sites?
Is it permissible to publish a pre-print article on many sites, or is one sufficient? Do intellectual property rights allow this?

What are you hoping to achieve?

Arxiv's default license is a non-exclusive license to distribute the text: https://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/license.html
Obviously it does not prevent you from posting the text anywhere else. This is very different from what happens when you cede your rights to a publisher.

This may be limited by the rules of the various sites, but, so long as you retain copyright you can publish without violating "intellectual property" rights. Likewise if you give a broad license.
But, it seems sub-optimal to do so, since any citations made will be to the various sites, not to a single one.
Moreover, if you want to publish with a commercial publisher, you might close out your chances, since some of them want more control.


text:
In how many universities should I apply for phd in US
I am from India and I want to pursue a PhD in statistics in the US. In each university the application fee is at least $60 which is around 4,000 Indian rupees which is a significant amount to pay for each application. It is not possible for me to apply in 50 or 100 universities. I need some guidance that how should I select universities to apply?

Americans don't apply for 50-100 either! Did someone suggest that many, or are you just joking?

By "50 or 100" I mean I can not apply in plenty universities... I am planning to apply in 10 to 15 but  I am confused how will I  select those universities.

We can't pick them for you, either; choose programs that have faculty that you'd like to work with. Consider that you'll be living in a place for 5-6 years, so you may want to choose a place you'd actually like to be for that time.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

@Learner 10-15 is a decent amoutn.

You need to get guidance from an experienced mentor.  Nobody should be applying to more than 10 PhD programs.  You need quality applications.

My suggestion is that you don't apply to a lot of places, but act to distribute your applications over universities at different levels. If you are really good and have a lot to offer, then one or two in the top 10, one or two with rankings around 50 or so and some in between. Some state schools, some private.
If you make a broad search you will likely hit on something. And see the answer for the US to this linked question.
Note that the university ranked, say, 50th in the US is still a marvelous place to get a degree. And, most state universities typically have a lot of openings.

10 is a good number. The idea is to have some (~3) universities in the "50-50 chance I'll be admitted" range, some universities in the "I'll be surprised if I'm admitted but if I am admitted I'm definitely attending" range, and some "safety schools" where you expect to be admitted.
You can apply to less than 10 universities as well, if you have backup plans in case of rejection everywhere (e.g. you are happy to attend an Indian university).

For a typical student, especially one from overseas, I imagine it's quite difficult to estimate admission chances.


text:
How will me leaving my program effect my lab's funding?
I'm currently dealing with some personal issues that are affecting my progress in my Ph.D. program. As a result, I intend to leave my program as soon as possible (end of this semester).
However, I want to do the right thing. We recently applied for a grant we are likely to get. I wasn't a student here when the previous grant was given, but I have been included on this grant just submitted. Could my leaving the program affect the chances of getting the grant?
If the grant is awarded, I stay some time to finish my project parts and then leave. Could my PI be penalized for losing a student? Does this affect his reputation?
Any insight would be appreciated.

What country? Usually students are "on" grants, but your pay may have been a line item, is that what you meant?

USA. I'm not well versed in how grants are written, but yes if in the grant he named his students and their pay...then loses that student. Does that have a large impact on his current funds? Or something they can explain later (in the end grant report)?

I'm not 100% because I'm not faculty, but individual students are not named. You leaving won't affect anything, they can fund someone else. Or worse case, they send the money back at the end.

Thank you for the info.

Hopefully someone who knows for sure can answer you.

Even if you were included by name, it should still be fine. The only person the grant depends on that much is the PI, and even then there are means to sort it out given unforeseen circumstances.

However, I want to do the right thing

The right thing is not to worry about anything as long as you are not breaking obligations or promises.
This is not your problem. The PI is an adult who (supposedly) was trained to manage lab. As any other team, labs need to be able to handle team members leaving due to various circumstances.

but I have been included on this grant

You are PhD student, which means you were included probably in form of "if grant funded, we'll pay one grad student". Realistically, whether you quit or not will not affect grant application.


text:
How to write an apology message to a professor when you've accidently been arrogant?
I'm a first year and our professor was taking students for a research paper; we had to call the professor so he could ask us some questions. I was kind of nervous, and when he asked me if I'd done any hackathons or had any experience with the subject at hand, (related to comp sci), I said I'd "studied computer science at school for three years."
What I meant to say was I took comp sci in school and I just kind of panicked and it came out that way. And then he said "okay." And the topic shifted so I couldn't elaborate after that about experience.
He's really nice but he doesn't know me at all, and I feel like I came off as arrogant. He also said they might not be able to take students and I just feel like he may not like me that much because of that.
I want to write a message explaining how I didn't mean to say it like that and also telling more about my CS experience. Also that sounds like I have a lot of experience but really I don't have that much (just processing.js, python data structures, arduino, atmega, thats it).
How should I frame this message? I'd really appreciate any help.

Why do you think that sounds arrogant?

Which bit do you think seems arrogant? "I've studied comp sci in school for three years" and "I took scomp sci in school" both seem to have the same tone and the same basic message, I personally wouldn't even remember one phrasing over the other.

You don’t need to send an email. Your reply was totally innocuous and a follow-up email would probably seem more inappropriate than what you said. The entirety of the feedback you got from the professor is “okay” - you are catastrophising (imagining the worst even against all reasonableness).
It sounds like you may be a bit anxious. This is really common among first year university students and, in my experience, more so if you have been a “good” student so far. See if your uni has pastoral support or mental health resources that could use. This particular incident is really nothing to worry about.

+1, though absent other evidence of anxiety, seeking psychological help might also be an overreaction. Things like this are more quickly forgotten as you gain experience.

How should I frame this message?

Concisely. Sending a follow-up e-mail seems like a good idea; it shows interest and allows you to clarify your answer. But do not do engage in a post-mortem of what went wrong during the call; just write a short, professional e-mail in which you clarify one of your answers and reiterate your interest in the position. Your e-mail should be one paragraph, 2-4 sentences long. (In particular, I recommend a fairly abrupt sign-off; no need for the typical undergraduate "thank you for your time and please do not hesitate to reach out if there's anything...")

I don't think any apology is necessary, but a note to the professor can be useful unless the class is huge. Say that you misunderstood the question about hackathons and might have given the impression that you know more than you really do. Thank the prof for providing the opportunity and express your interest. If you don't have explicit knowledge of the subject, do a bit of exploration of it first so that you have an idea whether any of your current knowledge might apply.
If you find relevant background in your own knowledge you could mention that briefly. But keep the mail short and fairly formal. Don't write to a prof as if they were one of your friends. Your writing here has the appropriate formality (i.e. no tweet-speak, etc)
For a class of hundreds, however, any mail might just be noise.


text:
What training is appropriate to get to help students deal with stress?
I often have undergraduate students in my office who are clearly under considerable stress.  These students are usually first years who are making the transition from high school.  This goes beyond the "school is lots of work" stress into the "I'm about to break down" level.  The university does have a counselling service that I almost always refer the students to, but they are often booked up and it takes a while to get an appointment.
I am not interested in becoming a therapist, but I would like to know some techniques for helping students through this sort of problem when they are in my office.  Things like how to get a student to calm down and how to get them to start working to solve their problems.
What types of training should I seek out to help me with this?  I'm not even sure what the right field of study is, so I'd be starting from scratch...

These are undergraduates, specifically first years making the transition from high school.  I agree there is something that isn't right - it's an extremely high stress environment.  The university is taking great steps to handle it, but the initiatives are slow to take effect

Surely a large part of the solution is that the University needs to expand the counselling services as if it takes a "while" to get an appointment that may not be appropriate in some cases...

I certainly agree that there are systemic issues.  The university really is taking great strides in this regard, but big changes take time.  I'm really more interested in how I deal with the immediate problem of helping a student through a short bout of extreme stress

If they're close to breakdown, maybe some of the "crisis intervention" techniques would help - e.g. this list. It seems to boil down to 1) identify what the problem is 2) ask what they're doing about it 3) give them feedback to improve that plan until they have a good plan A 4) also discuss plan B and C so they don't have to be afraid their life will be ruined if plan A doesn't go smoothly.

I think this is an interesting question, but my instincts tell me that the best answer is along the lines of "just send troubled students to any available counseling services provided at your institution."

I agree wholeheartedly, but the problem is that available counselling services are full. I hate just sending students away with a vague hope that one day someone will see them

Many of these students will be covered by their parents' health insurance, so in principle they could go to an off-campus provider.  Also they can see a medical doctor.  Here's another idea -- how about alerting a department administrator?  I wonder if your department's grad students have put together a peer advising program?  A healthy, supportive department helps new students build a support network.  Helping set up the infrastructure for healthy interactions within the department could be a worthwhile investment of your time.

It is admirable that you are trying to address this on your own, but I would recommend not trying to solve it yourself by trying to find resources. There are complex ethical and legal (like FERPA in the US) issue.
There are likely other faculty, staff, other students who find themselves in the same situation -- wanting to know what to do but not knowing where to go to learn. Graduate students also often find themselves in this position when teaching undergraduates
So why not try to address that issue for all of these groups? You say that your university has a counseling service. So why not ask that service if they would put on a one-day or half-day training course for any university member who desires to learn how to respond appropriately to students in need. My university does this, and it has been extremely successful. They even have separate sessions depending on the context in which you interact with students.


text:
Random access textbooks
I'm writing a series of study guides for a programming class I'm supporting.  The study guides are broken into three main sections: concepts (syntax, mainly, as well as common things to do), skills (using multiple concepts to achieve common or useful tasks), and applications (applying skills to an open-ended problem).
The study guides are going well, but I feel that a lot of this work has already been done, or that there are templates I can be using to make things more effective.  What I am looking for is a type of resource that fits the following criteria, if it exists:
I'd like to present the students with a framing problem in high level language.  I want to go through my design process.  At each stage, I want to have links to relevant sections of the study guide/relevant practice problems.  I want an effective way to organize these links so that students are not overwhelmed by having a deluge of meandering problems to follow through before progressing through the main problem.
Does such a thing exist?  If so, what's it called, and where can I find advice about writing them?  Alternatively, if they are common and available for multiple courses, I'm happy to not re-invent the wheel and just use something already made.
Edit: I'm aware that what I'm describing is technically just a web page.  I'm looking for best practices for its design, rather than a technology to do it.

It somewhat sounds like you're describing a wiki.

That's a good point, actually


text:
If a journal has optional costs, is it bad form not to pay them?
I've noticed that some of the journals I submit to, most of which are top tier, have optional costs.  For instance, there is an optional page cost that I could pay even though my paper is not open access and is under the page limits.  This cost is revealed upon acceptance.
I've always said no to pay it, but I wonder why the costs exist in the first place and if it's bad form to say no?
EDIT: I just realized how arrogant it sounds to say "most of which are top tier" :-P I meant "most of which are reputable journals that would not appear on Beal's list.

Could you clarify what you are being asked to pay for?

For instance, here: https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/submit_manuscript.html  They are called "voluntary page charges", and you end up getting actual prints of the article if you pay them (which is silly nowadays)

I see no reason to pay publishers unnecessarily. They already make exorbitant profits, by exploiting free-labour (aka peer-review) and by seemingly immoral distribution channels, see http://thecostofknowledge.com/.

@user2768: Many, but not all publishers, make exorbitant profits. If I had a paper accepted in an Elsevier journal (which I wouldn't, since I signed the boycott you linked to), and they asked me to pay an optional "voluntary page charge", then I'd enjoy a good laugh. But apparently IEEE is a nonprofit, so I think the request is worth considering.

@Anonymous, IEEE will charge a reader $33 to read an article that cost them nothing to produce. So, I'm against paying them too. (I appreciate that there is a cost associated with serving articles, but, in today's age, those costs are rapidly falling. We can haggle over whether IEEE edits the articles, which introduces a production cost.)

I'm not sure which discipline you are referring to, but I have published my articles in social and health science journals. Most journals offer options at a cost (optional Open Access, color reprints, etc.). If you do not want or need these options, there is no reason to feel that it is wrong to decline them. I have never paid these extra costs. Journals that are not strictly open access make their money from subscriptions, not from the authors. The additional costs are mainly to cover optional features that would make your article more costly to publish than other articles without these features. So, no worries!


text:
What does a textbook look like while you are writing it?
I've entertained the idea of writing a textbook for several years now.  The idea has taken several forms - a set of course notes that I provide as pdf, a text that is printed at my institution, or possibly a text that I propose to a publisher and (hopefully) get accepted.
This question is a practical one - when writing a textbook, what format is it in?  Is it just a big MSWord file?  Separate files?  Is there a specific "textbook editor" that people use?  For example, in books with separate sections for examples, callouts, definitions etc, I can't imagine doing that sort of layout on my own.  My guess is that the publisher figures that out for you.  However, the author has to indicate "box X goes here" doesn't he?  How does that work?
Edit: for clarity, the text will be used in a professional communications course for technical disciplines such as engineering.

Here you can find  the evolution of a huge project by mathematician Ravi Vakil: http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/216blog/index.html

At least in the sciences & technical fields, it is far more likely to be a set of LaTeX files.  Searching for "LaTeX book template" returns about 36 million hits.  Some publishers, like O'Reilly, appear to have their own templates...

"Is there a specific "textbook editor" that people use?"  This question is, at heart, a shopping question.  Also, it's very broad as David Ketcheson mentioned.

Very similar to a thesis, if written in LaTeX for a scientific discipline, though perhaps with a fancier laouy template is early versions are being used/tested supporting a course

Before you spend a lot of time on formatting, contact a publisher or two and see if they want to work with you and publish your book. If they are excited enough then they will sign you up. You normally talk to an acquisitions editor at this stage.
But each  publisher may have different preferred ways of working with your manuscript and it can affect how you work and the tools you use.
For the content of the book, work with whatever tools you prefer, but as you get closer to publication, the publisher will want its own formats.
Normally, for a textbook, you will be assigned an editor (in the sense of one who edits - a content editor). They will make suggestions about your wording and such. You will need to work with this person, using some mutually acceptable set of tools. It might be Word or something else. If LaTex is required, they might do that formatting themselves, and if not, will probably provide a required template for you to use. Even if they prefer Word, they will most likely have a template for you. Perhaps a required template.
You will have only limited control over placement of figures and other such things, and only limited control over layout. But the publisher will somehow prepare the manuscript for printing using its own preferred layouts: margins and such. They may even want you to use, or avoid, certain fonts.
I think that very few publishers will just print a photocopy of your manuscript. There is some processing done before production. So, don't obsess over formatting until you are working with a publisher.
Some publishers will want separate files for any figures (or even for chapters). High resolution images. Others will prefer to create the image files themselves. You may need permissions for any figures (or photos) that you don't create yourself. If the permissions need to be paid for then that may be your responsibility, or you may be given a budget by the publisher for that.
Once the manuscript is reasonably complete the acquisitions editor (or a representative) will probably send your manuscript out for review to a few people they trust. You will get suggestions for improvement of the text, possibly a lot. Especially for a first time author. Your book could get rejected at this point, but I think that is very unlikely. But you will be expected to respond appropriately to all suggestions, usually by modifying the text. This stage can be maddening for a first time author and there may be several rounds of review.
Once they have a printable version, they will send you galley proofs for your approval. These might just be pdf files and you can usually make minor edits, but a lot of money has been spent at this point, so too many changes will be problematic. But your prior work with the content editor should make this moot.
They will try to accommodate you, but you need to work with them as well.

Did you publish a textbook yourself? A lot of what you write doesn't mesh with my experience from the other end, e.g, the content editor doesn't need Word or Latex because they usually print out the manuscript on paper and do the editing on hardcopy; the publisher can change the fonts during production quite easily, and so on.

@Allure, yes, several. And with several academic publishers. Content editors I worked with all worked electronically.

I'm not going to recommend a particular program to use, but instead suggest considerations:

For any project that goes beyond 20 pages, it is no longer practical to change the formatting of things by hand. As a consequence you will want to use a workflow that (i) allows you to define styles for everything: headings, margins, placement of figures, fonts, etc; if you change your mind later on on how a second-level heading should be formatted, you only have to change that in one place, because it's going to be impossible to do consistently in a hundred different places if you use mark-up by hand. (ii) a workflow that allows using the same style file for each separate document that defines the book; so, if you use Word, and choose to have one file per chapter, then the style needs to be defined in an external style file that can be separately edited, rather than defined in each chapter's Word file.
Make cross-referencing easy. You will want to reference sections in other chapters and other chapter's figures. If you keep each chapter in a separate file, this is going to be difficult because you can no longer reference a tag -- and writing "see Section 5.5" is sure to become wrong very quickly if you decide to add another section before that. It must be "see Section < reference a tag>" where your word processor automatically inserts the section number that corresponds to the tag. That's most easily done if you keep everything in the same document, which also guarantees that your page numbering is always correct. I don't know MS Word well enough to know whether that requires you to keep everything in one file; in LaTeX, you can keep each chapter in one file and then just have one master file that "\include"s the individual chapters.
In your choice of word processor, anticipate what publishers in your area will likely accept. I know that you could write a book in troff, but you're unlikely going to make publishers happy with that choice.
Anticipate working with others on the project. A book is a big undertaking -- there may be areas where you want feedback from others, or simply enjoy working with a co-author. Choose a workflow that allows you to do that. A particularly bad way of collaborating, in my view, is to send files around by email. You are sure to cross paths at one point, and only one person is allowed to make changes to the file at any given time -- and it's not always clear who that is. Instead, consider a workflow that allows multiple people to make changes at the same time. An example is google documents, but you can also use github with formats that allows merging multiple people's changes to the same file (in particular, for latex). If you configure dropbox right, then that can also work: You need to make sure that the person who has a file open in a word processor locks the file so that others can't edit it at the same time.

My personal system of choice is to use LaTeX, and either share the files with my collaborators via github (if version control is useful) or via overleaf (if version control is not important). But I understand that LaTeX is not for everyone. For things that don't involve a lot of formulas, I've also happily used google documents.

It's also possible to use version control along with Overleaf, as it now allows easy syncing with GitHub.

While I'm sure that there are many ways to do this, the short answer is that if you contact a publisher about whether they would be interested in publishing a textbook based on your text, they will let you know how they would like the text to be delivered. I expect that they would tell you to use either Microsoft Word or LaTeX.
I personally have experience with writing a Springer textbook on computational physics together with five other co-authors. As the book is quite mathematical and every author was comfortable with LaTeX, the choice to use Springer's LaTeX template to write our book was an obvious one. With LaTeX, you can focus on content and let it handle the layout for you (helped by a little bit of markup from you). In the end, your publisher will take the the text and reformat the layout according to their standards. Still, the markup that you provide is very useful as it will let them know how you want the book to be — especially if you used a template from the publisher. For our book, the final layout was almost identical to the one we had while writing it.
You will also want to have some version control system for backing up older versions of your book, and perhaps also for collaborating with other authors. We used git for our book, though I must say that it's not easy to learn for non-programmers. These days, the online LaTeX editor Overleaf is a much simpler and more natural choice, as it handles version control and multiple authors very smoothly. With Word, I don't know of any half-decent version control system unless you also have access to Sharepoint, so you may be stuck with having to back up older versions manually.

There is some sort of vcs built into Word itself, but I have no idea how well it works.

@TRiG: I have actually used it myself and it works OK, but I think it requires access to OneDrive for Business or Microsoft Sharepoint. I may be wrong about that, though.

Answering this from the perspective of the publisher: basically, you can write using whatever text editor you want. You can even hand-write the textbook and expect the publisher to convert it into digital form (although of course the less of a big name you are, the less likely the publisher is to agree to the project).
However: obviously, some text editors are easier to work with than others, and different publishers will have different preferred styles. Therefore publishers indicate a so-called preferred "style file". Using that style file & text editor makes it easier for them to perform the typesetting. This in turn lowers costs, and means that they can give you a higher author royalty rate.
As for positioning of figures, yes, you can indicate where you want them. It's standard practice to try to position figures such that they are within two pages of where they are first mentioned in the text (this is actually why it's quite common to see author queries of the form "this figure isn't referenced in the text" - the publisher doesn't know where to position it). You don't have to position it yourself however, and it might even not be good use of your time, because by the final manuscript is not likely to look anything like the raw manuscript.

I've written several mathematics texts and one cs text. Each grew from class notes.
I think the only sensible formatting tool for a technical book these days is LaTeX. I've used it twice. While the book was under construction I generated PDF to distribute to students. In each case I did most of the writing before I had a publisher. When I found one they were delighted to take my LaTeX source and format the book with their own class and style files.
Separating form from function is one of LaTeX' major strengths. It's possible but unpleasant in MS Word. If you  need equations there is nothing even close to the beautiful TeX typography.
Treat this as a serious software project. Use version control. Write lots of small macros that wrap LaTeX constructs, so you or the publisher can change the look without changing the content. Folks at TeX & LaTeX Stack Exchange will happily answer questions as you come up to speed. Check out the workflow tag there. There are standard ways to keep each chapter in its own file, create a table of contents and an index, put the answers to exercises at the end of the book, ...

Word's equations look much better since they revamped their equation editor to have typesetting more similar to TeX in Word 2007. At this point, most equations from Word's built-in equation editor are almost indistinguishable from LaTeX equations. Word still lacks some math basics, though, such as numbering equations without workarounds.

Since you don't seem to definitely need to publish this with a commercial or academic publisher for all your goals, I highly recommend making your book an "open educational resource".  Whether or not you do, I still recommend trying out the new(ish) tool PreTeXt to write it.
One of the challenges of modern publishing is trying to synchronize web, print, pdf, e-pub, and/or other outputs.  PreTeXt allows you to write one XML document (or rather set of documents, typically one per chapter that are included in a master file) that then handles all the output types. There are starting to be more and more custom html styles, and some LaTeX style info as well.
Some of the better-known mathematics texts using it are Active Calculus and Judson's Algebra, and the tool is certainly still math-centric in some ways, but it is already really quite flexible, including support for poetry and a fair amount of musical notation.  Certainly for your purposes it sounds ideal, because you could use the best of showing web resources while still having full access to complex diagrams and mathematical notation done right.  For reference, here is source for another reasonably well-used book using it.
One of the best parts (full disclosure: I have used this tool myself for some time and given some workshops on it) is that cross-referencing, video input, and many other VERY tedious related things are handled more or less automatically if you do them right the first time - for print and html. For my own project I now have to make only one character of edit for the LaTeX file to compile perfectly with xelatex using four different character sets, for instance.

No matter what tool you use, I do strongly suggest the following:

Put every biblio item in early on.  Don't wait until later; it's horrible to do it later.
Cross-reference early and often, and then choose a tool that supports that being done easily and automatically.
Plan for multiple output formats.  I have students using phones, tablets, computers, and print.  And it really depends on the institution and the particular demographics, so if you want it to be usable many places, plan for that and use a tool which supports it.

You now know which tool I think works, but I think any tool which can do this is fine, and I imagine both some MS product combination and certain TeX-only tools may do so as well.

I don't necessarily recommend using Git or another VCS immediately, though it is certainly helpful in various ways and I do use it.  One learning curve at a time if you are pretty sure it's only for your own use for now.

PreTeXt appears to be even more painful to type than LaTeX (I mean, it's an XML derivate...), and I'd be very surprised if it allows for even the simplest of LaTeX's macros and packages. Are there any tricks to it? Are there WYSIWYG editors around?

Not yet, though you can search the lists a bit because people are trying to make some of the (proper) editors be pretty friendly.  But no, not WYSIWYG - which I would argue is a VERY bad idea for writing a book in any case, because you don't want to worry about figure floats while you're writing!  If you can do LaTeX, you can do this - or so says my workshop experience.

As for macros ... you'd be surprised, it is pretty flexible along those lines if you want LaTeX-only stuff.  For web you may need to keep with MathJax-supported things, but that is still quite a bit.  List at pretext-support@googlegroups.com is quite responsive.

As to git: I found the single-person part of the git workflow (commit, checkout and the likes -- basically, using git as a backup and history tool) extremely easy to grasp, but perhaps that's because I'm a combinatorialist. My impression is that git becomes ugly when you get to complicated (non-automatic) merge commits, which are however easily avoided if you have 1 or 2 contributors or more but with well-defined zones of action.

@darijgrinberg Given your interests, I will point out it also supports pretty good code example markup as well as live Sage, R, and presumably even Macaulay code ... but that seemed a bit beyond what the OP was asking about.

Git can be worth it, and the flow is good, but nowadays even "productivity suites" allow for things like checkpoints and reviewers, so it wouldn't be strictly necessary to start that additional learning curve, though it's not a bad idea to get used to.  For instance, the difference between staged and unstaged changes takes quite a while to get used to even if you are familiar with VC in general.

I mean WYSIWYG for formulas, tables and other unwieldy environments -- "small-scale WYSIWYG" if you wish. (IIRC texmacs does it for LaTeX.) I wouldn't insist on WYSIWYG for the document structure; it isn't generally a good thing. But if I have to edit formulas by hand, and these formulas go to the size that my formulas tend to go to, I end up either taking hours or introducing serious macros.

I'd ask on the list if you are interested, but I do know people use macros with it.  I don't have to myself too much.


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Anyone here experimented Elsevier's new "Data in Brief' and 'MethodsX' journals?
Since recently I have adopted the practice of depositing and publishing raw data and background information (e.g. original images, chromatograms, R scripts, etc) regarding my published papers. I am still learning the best ways of doing this.
I am wondering what was the experience of colleagues with using the new options offered by Elsevier journals towards sharing raw data and supplementary information below:
https://www.journals.elsevier.com/methodsx/
https://www.journals.elsevier.com/data-in-brief/
I have just tried my first attempt with submitting a paper linking to parallel supplementary data submission to Data in Brief, and received somewhat negative reactions from my Reviewers.
(In short they did not understand how it works, and why would anyone do it.)
Has anyone here tried such new data-sharing options yet? Opinions, please?
UPDATE 25/04/2018
I have just published a short manuscript with Data in Brief presenting data and images supplementary to another Elsevier paper. From my experience, I would not recommend others to publish with Data in Brief. (i) It is expensive for what it is; (ii) there was actually no peer review; (iii) the supplementary manuscript is pushed towards publication as soon as the linked main manuscript is accepted without opportunities to make significant changes; (iv) proof correction system is slow and mediated by confusing secretary editors; (v) it doesn't seem to add significantly more visibility than external, free data repositories. Feels like a money-making stunt by Elsevier. Hopefully it may prove more worthwhile over time.


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How many students are typical for an advisor?
I am an undergraduate student in China, majoring in chemistry. I am now considering which advisors would be most suitable for my future research.
Actually, I have been working in a professor's lab since over a year at my university and I am interested in their research topics. What concerns me is that he recruits many students. He is the only professor in our group with over 10 graduate students, expected to increase to 14–16 students next year (depending on whether I join this lab). I am hesitant because I unsure whether he would have the time to provide me guidance with so many students.
How many students are typical for a professor?
[EDIT]
Our group typically hosts 1-2 undergraduates per year.

Regardless of what is typical, it seems like the real question should be: how well does this particular advisor handle that number of students?  I would suggest that you talk with his current students and ask what their experience has been.

@NateEldredge I will try to talk with them, Thanks for your advice.

I have seen professors in Germany work with a huge flock like this.  The U.S. is very different.  Nate is right -- the absolute number is less important than the student experience.  Make sure to talk with both the high flyers and the less hot-shot students as well.

I do not think asking around will give you enough info, as the replies may be strongly biased. I recommend you search for another lab. I shall elaborate on my answer.

In my field, that would be crazy large. Six would be a lot ...

In China undergraduate students are also common in a lab. Please state how many undergraduate students there were.

@Scientist Our college, undergraduate  is very less,  average less than 2 per group. Our group have 1-2 undergraduates per year. They seldom "supervised" by PI, but graduate student. They do much less work than graduate student s, and their work is not important, like reproduce some experiment result for learning.

Thanks, I am adding this info to the question, along with suggested minor edits. This is relevant as undergrads can be numerous in labs elsewhere, and many readers will conflate them with your original numbers for graduate students.

I have worked as a postdoctoral fellow in China for two years. My experience was mainly with two institutions -- CAS/Beijing and SCAU/Guangzhou --, but I have visited a few others informally. Thus I write here from my experience as a visiting scholar.
My impression is that the academia in China is strongly pressed to produce papers, and that all sorts of strategies are being employed by opportunistic PIs in face of the prospect of large short-term gains and fast career ascension. Most labs I have visited were crowded, and working 12/7, managed by 1-2 PIs only intermittently present. There is a growing interest in hiring external postdocs, where institutions are competing in salary conditions (often not met).
At the CAS I worked in a lab with many students, each working on different projects in diverse topics. Whilst the local PI had a strong physical presence and held constant meetings, all students complained they were being demanded for results without any actual support nor apprenticeship. The numerous students were also demanded to manage the PI's paperwork, post deliveries (most not work-related), peer-reviews, and paper submission steps. Often on Sundays. At one period that lab had 18 students sharing the same 2-room apartment, payed from their salary... to the PI.
I heard such lab situations are quite common currently, and that fitted with my witnessing of crowded labs. I do not think this local practice is academically nor scientifically healthy.
Therefore my main advice is that you search for a more balanced laboratory, perhaps considering a different culture / location towards a more solid, sane formation. If you find yourself in a bad place, don't play their game and leave it at once.
Good luck!
UPDATE:
I just realised I did not answer your question objectively. The best labs I have dealt with had ca. 3-5 students per professor, most of them are typically Master students. Postdocs are independent and may assist in tutoring students, writing papers; I have seen well-reputed labs with up to 4 postdocs under the same supervisor.

It depends on many factors:

Does the professor have any intense other duties like teaching, committee work, own research, being an editor, writing grants, etc. or can they focus on supervising?
Does the professor delegate supervisory work, e.g., do PhD students have postdocs or similar as a first person to go to?
Is there a healthy communication and collaboration within the group? Is everybody roughly informed what everybody else’s areas of expertise are so they can seek help (e.g., from the resident programming expert) directly without going through the supervisor? Is this encouraged by the supervisor?
How much supervision does a typical student in your field require?
How efficient is the professor in supervising?

Due to these factors, the group size you mention can work very well, but may also be a total disaster. As it’s impossible to judge these factors as an outsider, the best way is to talk to actual supervisees and look at the graduation statistics of the group (if available). If you are actually working in a professor’s group, you should be able to assess this better than anybody else.


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About opportunities for international student in China?
Are international PhD students offered Teaching Assistant (TA) positions during their research programme in China?

tl;dr: It strongly depends on the relative perceived status of where you are coming from vs. where you're working at. If you're from a top-300 university (especially from the US) taking your PhD at a mid-tier Chinese university, you're likely to get offers. If you're from a low-status country/department in a large institution, expect empty promises.

I have accepted a postdoctoral contract in a mid-tier Chinese university, which was not a pleasant experience. One of the main conditions by which I accepted their postdoc offer was precisely a declared prospect of ultimately hired getting as a TA. Eventually I've learnt from other postdoc colleagues that they were all told the same story, but only the first foreign PhD that ever came from abroad got hired. Others worked hard towards pleasing local staff until they would burn out and leave. First they're told they can get a TA offer if they publish many papers, then if they publish higher impact, and after achieving that, if they can earn a top competitive grant. I've a friend who just went through all steps involving >20 papers and 2 big grants, and all he got out of it was a 6-month agreement to teach a single topic in exchange for a low pay.
We are all postdocs coming from 3rd world countries. I eventually met an English professor who got hired straight away from abroad. I've also heard from European and American colleagues from other institutions in China who had no trouble getting local contracts. I have nonetheless met dozens of Pakistani, Middle-Eastern, Indian fellows who were jumping from one institution to other without getting ever getting anything solid.
Chinese culture is strongly conscious over status. Abiding to very local standards. My general advice is, if you're not a US-passport holder neither coming from some US university, if you're not caucasian fully-fluent speaker of English, if you haven't published in top-prestige journals, or at least not from some top-300 [national rank] university or 1st-world citizen, don't nurture high hopes of being offered a staff position in China. And beware of empty promises.

I think most of what you say above is correct in the past. However, given the current situation between US and China, I am not too sure Americans would still have that kind of status anymore. I don't know if I am wrong or right. I am having a wait and see attitude.

@scaaahu This is one very interesting point. While I was in China the US Americans were very highly esteemed.

@scientist thank you very much for, the enlightenment, please can I have your email address, I want to have some discussion with you.

@Michael can you join this room: https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/81054/postdoc-in-china