text:
Report ancient harassment to the university?
During the pursuit of my degree, which I received in '92, I took a class where motifs in folksongs were routinely discussed.
I don't remember the exact wording now but I noticed a few songs with wording about a couple going to bed and the man putting the woman "toward the wall". I couldn't figure out what this motif might mean, so I asked about it in class. My male professor looked me dead in the eye, and answered "for leverage". The delivery was not lighthearted, and it was not followed by anything to lighten the mood. I read it as a kind of attack in the form of sexual innuendo. Why? Partly because of the aggressiveness of his eye contact, and partly because of the flatness of his tone of voice.
My reaction was no doubt colored by the fact that a friend had previously told me she approached this professor during office hours for a different class and he'd asked her out for coffee. She declined, and he retaliated in class.
My interaction with him quelled my in-class participation and made sure I never approached him after class unless there were plenty of other people there. Nonetheless, I got a good grade in the class and it had no lasting impact on me. I dismissed it from my mind and didn't think about it again until the rise of #metoo.
At the age of 20, he seemed... old to me, and it never occurred to me  that he would still be professionally active - until I heard him on the radio yesterday talking about a new book. As it turns out he is still at that same university, and I'm concerned that he's still "teaching" young women.
It has been nearly 30 years and the "harassment" seems nebulous at best. Should I report this, and if so, how? I started drafting an email to the department chair, but while the incident certainly had an impact on me at the time, it seems so... thin? weak? questionable when I write it out (even here).
So... now what?
For the record, this is not about me. I pretty much got over this a long time ago. My concern is for young women in his classes today.

Just to clarify, are you saying that these facts happened 30 years ago?

Yes. They happened when I was in pursuit of the degree I received in 1992.

I really hate to be the person who doubts that you felt harassed by his comment, but it sounds to me this isn't a fun motif and that your professor didn't make light of sexual assault (?). Can you clarify what the motif was supposed to mean? It isn't obvious to me.

That's a good question @Azor-Ahai. "For leverage" was all the answer I ever got.

Could you expand on how the comment came off as an attack?  For example, did you feel he said it to make you uncomfortable, or that the tone of his response was angry?

This situation kinda sounds like two questions: (1)  Was this actionable harassment?  (2)  What to do about harassment from 30 years ago?  [end]  The trouble's that, even if this happened an hour ago, I don't really know what could be done about it - it's kind of just... the tone of the instructor's voice?  But even if there's nothing to do about it in this particular case, that doesn't necessarily mean there's nothing to do about more clear sexual harassment from 30 years ago.

@G.Ann-SonarSourceTeam From the way you phrased it, it sounds like basically the husband is forcing his wife into sex because he has her forced against the wall. I wouldn't really expect his delivery to be lighthearted. // That said, I wasn't there, you were.

Welcome to AC.SE. It is unfortunate that you had to experience this when you were younger. As it stands, I don't understand your question. Are you asking how to report it to the university (which will depend on your university procedures), how to file criminal/civil charges (which is probably better at law.se), if you should report it (which is opinion based), or maybe something that we can actually answer within the SE format.

@StrongBad I'm asking whether I should report this to the school. And if so, what's the best mechanism since I'm no longer a student and this is really ancient history.

@G.Ann-SonarSourceTeam that is what I thought (so the question is clear to me), but I see those as not being a good fit for us. I think there is a good question about the nebulous aspect and how to address the concerns the administration will have so they understand that your complaint is not "thin" or "weak".

I wasn't there, but from what you're describing that flat, dead, direct answer he gave you is because you missed the joke. And he didn't elaborate any further because explaining why you'd pin your S.O. to the wall during some rough intercourse isn't exactly polite conversation.

Wrote up a response since I was otherwise gonna leave a bunch of comments.  That said, my suggestion for this question might be to edit it to be specifically about the incident, leaving out the 30-years-ago part.  I think that figuring out how to address the actual problem would be the big thing to do first; then, extending that to address something from 30 years ago would be a second question.

It might also help to signal your level of comfort with frankness.  Since this question seems to be about a problem resulting from emotional vulnerability, it's unclear how bluntly it might be addressed.

The Salem Witch Trials had a sounder evidential basis.

There seems to be a consensus in the answers below that if doesn't make sense to pursue this. But I think it's worth emphasizing that this doesn't mean it was silly to ask this question. These things are worth considering, and revisiting the past and thinking about whether there's anything to be done is a worthwhile practice in general.

Would it be harassment to explain Chaucer's joke about a beard in the Miller's Tale?

Honestly, I think this is way over the top. I am not even sure if there is anything that could be reported at all.
Let me just sum it up:

This way 30 years ago, nobody except you might remember your case anymore
Its unclear whether you have experienced harassment at all, it's even harder to tell after 30 years. Hurt feelings do not automatically mean that you were harassed.
You did not take immediate actions back then, as you said, you "got over this"
A friend has told you that he retaliated that she did not want to go on a coffee with him. I have heard way too many stories about (female) students who interpreted way too much into their professors'/teachers' behavior. I would be very cautious with stories heard second-hand. If your friend is really sure that something went wrong, she has to address this issue.

If your report this professor: Which reactions do you expect by the university? Is there anything that they could do now? On the other hand: Are you aware that you could bring him into serious trouble, perhaps just due to a misunderstanding 30 years ago?

For the record, this is not about me. I pretty much got over this a
  long time ago. My concern is for young women in his classes today.

I think today's women are confident enough to oppose against harassment on their own. Our society is way more sensitive now.

Just curious -- is your answer localized specifically to the U.S.?  Your profile mentions a German research institute.  It would be fantastic if you could outline (perhaps in a separate question) what action steps can be taken currently in Germany to report gender discrimination, and it would be even more interesting to learn when and how whatever is currently available got put in place.

@aparente001 I don't think that my question is localized to any specific country.
However, there should be similar possibilities in Germany. People are very aware of such issues in general. There are people like the "Frauenbeauftragte" who help women against discrimination at work (and also university).

J-Kun, there was a US tag on the question. // "There should be"?  Not sure what you mean by "should."  // It sounds like maybe the "Frauenbeauftragte" are similar to the Title IX Coordinators in the U.S. // If Germany still has Frauenbeauftragte, why do you say "today's women are confident enough to oppose against harassment on their own"?  I mean, not all women, in all situations, can handle it on their own.

Reporting it with just the details given would seem sub-optimal
It's been 30 years and you're apparently feeling distressed about the situation.  In principle, that sounds like a problem; something that, in an ideal world, shouldn't happen.  So, there's something going on here; empirically, there's a problem.
How to address that problem?  It's hard to tell just yet.
At the moment, I don't know how anyone could take action in response to the incident described.  There's simply not enough information to conclude that the instructor was acting inappropriately; for example, it's entirely possible that the instructor was simply disgusted by the subject matter, or perhaps they were attempting to be terse to end the conversation.  Or maybe they had something else on their mind entirely.
Since it seems unreasonable for anyone to take action against the instructor based on this information alone, reporting it wouldn't seem helpful, even if it had just happened minutes ago.
Doing nothing would also seem sub-optimal
In the question, you'd mentioned the #metoo campaign.  While I'm hardly an expert on social media trends, it's my understanding that this meme exists specifically because feelings like this have often been buried/repressed.
That's probably not the healthiest of approaches, even if common.  Rather, if this is bugging you, it'd seem like trying to figure out exactly why would be important.
In short, this probably isn't something to just completely ignore without some sort of resolution.
Possible solution pathway: seek more information
It seems like you may want to reflect on the situation and see if there's more involved:

Can you recall more information?  For example, are you sure that this was the first incident of this type, or perhaps there were other contributing factors that affected how you perceive the event?

At your discretion, you might consider talking to this instructor, either directly or through a mediator.  This might be emotionally difficult, but from a fact-finding point-of-view, it'd seem potentially effective.

Talking to a professional about your feelings and recollection may help.

In general, tough problems like this seem best addressed through reflection and fact-finding.
Suggestion:  Hold off on hating this instructor just yet
From the information given, it's unclear (at least to me) if this instructor was doing anything bad, either intentionally or unintentionally.  He may've been entirely innocent, which is a possibility to keep in mind.
That said, I really want to stress that it's a possibility, because it's also entirely possible that he's done a lot of bad things before and you've correctly picked up on a continuation of a heinous pattern of behavior.
The 30-years-ago part isn't too material yet
You're entirely correct that this having been about 30-years ago would be a huge complicating factor to resolving an issue of harassment.  Even if it were blatant and clear harassment, then that'd have been a barrier.
Still, I think that the question of whether or not this was harassment would be the bigger issue.  And for your own emotional health and well-being (which are important!), it seems like a question to address.
I mean, realistically, I doubt that there's much you can do about something from 30-years ago.  But if you choose not to resolve the issue for that reason, that'd seem to leave underlying emotional damage.  Ideally that'd be avoided.
Possible action:  Reporting the retaliation against your friend

My reaction was no doubt colored by the fact that a friend had previously told me she approached this professor during office hours for a different class and he'd asked her out for coffee. She declined, and he retaliated in class.

Clear, direct retaliation is something that might be reported.  Asking a student out to coffee may've been inappropriate, depending on the culture and context.
What was the retaliation?  And was it reported at the time?

I like most of this answer. 1) "At your discretion, you might consider talking to this instructor", I would not advise that. There is no way the instructor will remember the incident. 2) "it's also entirely possible that he's done a lot of bad things before and you've correctly picked up on a continuation of a heinous pattern of behavior." - if he has done a lot of bad things before, then she hasn't correctly picked up on it because the conclusion (that he has) is not justified by this one incident. I agree with the rest, other ways to address the problem should be sought.

@ThomasKing Yeah, that second part (about possibly picking up on a heinous pattern of behavior) was an attempt to go easy on an emotionally frail asker that I'd perceived to need an olive branch.  Probably too much. though?

If anyone could give feedback, I'd be interested.  I responded to this question in large part because it required something that I find challenging - specifically, trying to provide objective feedback to a sensitive person.

@Nat - Ah, that helps me understand why your answer was so long.  // My feedback would be that most of the time a concise answer is more effective than a long answer.  I don't think that changes when the asker feels doubtful. // Could you explain more about your assessment of emotional frailty?  Can you analyze what about the question or the way it was asked that gave you that idea?  And can you clarify what you meant by emotionally frail in this case? ...

...Thanks -- I find it fascinating to observe and understand how Academia.SE users' interpretation of posts is affected, or not affected, by perceived gender of post author.

@aparente001 Hah sure, love to discuss this (way we can spin up a chat room here?).  Guess the first thing is that it's not about perceived gender; I dunno where that comment came from?  Rather, it's because their entire question is about reporting on a sleight from 30 years ago that basically just sounds like someone giving a terse answer; as you put it, a "microaggression".  Having such concern over such an utterly trivial thing appears absurdly over-sensitive, so I took it to evidence an unbalanced emotional disposition that required careful handling.

@aparente001 Historically, I haven't been able to connect very well with highly sensitive people.  And in this case, my knee-jerk response would've been something like, "Jeeze, the dude gave you a terse answer and you're all worked up?  Get over it!".  But, 'course, that'd have been stupid.  But then, how could I respond to this question?  That wasn't obvious to me.  And so, I saw a personal challenge, and tried to meet that challenge by working on a sensitive, supportive answer.  I had to hit the relevant points while wrapping it up in a very delicate delivery.

@aparente001 A lot of the wordiness was an attempt to make the delivery less aggressive.  I perceived this to be necessary because hyper-sensitivity to perceived aggressiveness is part of the question's premise.  So, like that first paragraph was largely there to validate the asker's perception that there was a problem to be worked out; I feared coming off as dismissive if something like that weren't said.  Ditto for the part about the professor possibly having actually had a pattern of heinous behavior - doesn't seem probable, but didn't want to sound overly dismissive of the concern [...]

@aparente001 [...] that the OP had expressed in the question.  Specifically, the OP said that they were concerned that this professor was still teaching, along with the story about their friend, suggesting that they believed that the professor may have exhibited an abusive pattern throughout their career and until the present day.  I figured that they'd want to see that point addressed, or at least acknowledged.  I suspect that, without such explicit acknowledgement, they'd have felt that their concerns were ignored.

@Nat - Thanks for explaining.  It's so sweet of you to be embarking on a project of being more considerate of sensitive people. // I only have one tiny quibble with your analysis of the ideas in the OP.  I agree that the incident described was only a microaggression.  I don't know how much experience you've had to deal with, personally, with sexist, racist, ablist (etc.) microaggressions -- I hope little or none, as they're not fun -- but ...

...I want to make sure we're on the same page about why they can be damaging.  First, one starts overanalyzing.  There's more obsessive self-doubt when discrimination is less egregious and less blatant.  Second, the effects start to pile up when we get into multiple microaggressions.  (Which of course doesn't seem to be the case here -- but I wanted to clarify, make sure we're clear about what microaggressions are and how they can affect one in a sometimes surprisingly substantial way.)

Randomly choose a woman who graduated in '92.  The chances are not negligible that she'll have experienced something similar or worse somewhere along the way.
Times have changed over the past 30 years.  By now this professor will likely have come to understand some things better, or if not, will at least have learned to be more careful about expressing his true colors openly.
At any rate, statutes of limitations, and the nature of the allegation you described, would make it rather pointless to file any sort of complaint.
(Now, if he came to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and you had documented his behavior at the time, I suppose there might be some usefulness in your coming forward.)
Editorial comment about your question: The quotes around the word "teaching" bother me.  He apparently committed a microaggression toward you.  You heard a cautionary story about him, which  led you to protect yourself around him.  You say you did well in the class, so presumably you learned the material in his class.  So the quotes don't seem fair, and suggest that this may be more about jumping on a bandwagon than about consciencious activism.

"Jumping on a bandwagon" is a very uncharitable interpretation. When a topic that you have personal experience with is discussed, it is natural to remember and review your past (in)actions. Like everyone, I too had a teacher who made many inappropriate comments in undergraduate (e.g. going on tangents about extensions helpful for porn browsing). At the time, it seemed obvious to me that the administration was aware of his behavior and had already done all they were going to do (he kept going on rants about how in these PC days he wasn't allowed to hug and kiss his female students any more).

It's only in retrospect, 10 years later, that I realized that administrators are not clairvoyant, and that they wouldn't be able to even know his behavior continued if no one reported, and that as the sole female student in that class (everyone else chose the other elective since rumors about him ran rampant among students), it was a case of "If not I, then who?"

@nengel your case and the OP's case are quite different though. In your case the lecturer was doing something wrong. In the OP's case I am genuinely struggling to see how the lecturer did - anything - wrong (and I put myself firmly in the camp of harassment being prevalent). I'm sure the OP's feelings are real (although initially I thought they might be trolling), so in that sense it might not be "jumping on the bandwagon" (if it's not intended as such), but not because the OP has been wronged.

@ThomasKing: The details of my case might be different, but my reasons for thinking about it and wondering if I did the right thing are not. You remember when you felt uncomfortable in a situation. The judgement call about whether this was a situation where the discomfort stemmed from an action that others should be made aware of comes at the end of asking yourself (or academia.se, in this case) this question, not before you examine the situation... But you're right, I should have chosen a different example. This one was just the first coming to mind from "sitting in lecture in undergraduate".


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Plagiarism, ethics, software use,
I want to prepare video courses in the field of informatics sector such as programming, system administration, network administration, cyber security, etc.. and make profit them on Udemy, YouTube, etc.
However, to prepare good quality courses I'll examine technology giant's sites, articles on google scholar, SE sites, blogs, official websites, videos, even courses, books and combine all of them. Of course, I'll change sentence structures and words in my talking and tell in a different way as much as I can.
However, I can't determine if this is plagiarism or not ethical, or if it is needed to give credit how I'll do this.
Even, I don't know if I show the software UI on my courses is copyright or any other right issues.
Can you please give me any advice?

This question seems to be about copyright law as applied to a for-profit business, so it is off topic.

Another part of the question would be: in a video where do you put your references?

Plagiarism isn't just about copying words, it's about failing to credit sources, especially those contributing intellectually to some work.

Of course, I'll change sentence structures and words in my talking and tell in a different way as much as I can

You can't take something you've read and just reorganize the sentence structures and call it your own work. Even just copying paragraph structures and organization is plagiarism. You can, however, read something, then after understanding it, write about it in your own words, and credit the source as the place where your understanding originated.
As long as you write in your own words (different from changing sentence structure or using a thesaurus) and cite sources, you are not committing plagiarism. You can cite any source you can access, there's no limit on that (besides exceptions where something is provided to you in private under some sort of non-disclosure agreement, private information protected by law like health information, or censored by a government for national security reasons, etc).
Copyright is a legal issue, and especially if you are planning to profit off some venture you need legal advice beyond what you can get asking questions on StackExchange. You will run into copyright issues if you copy bulk text (even if you cite it and make the original source clear, if you copy "too much" a citation isn't sufficient; where this line is depends on jurisdiction and ultimately what is decided in a courtroom) or reuse images in a way inconsistent with the license those images are provided under.

Textbook writers regularly synthesize information in the way you suggest. Some information is common knowledge. When they take ideas from particular sources they credit those sources, whether they quote directly or paraphrase. Not doing that would violate copyright in many instances.
Without more detail it's hard to advise you. I suggest you look at several books in the areas you want to cover in your videos and see what they do. Look at videos too - you will want to do that in any case since they will compete with yours.

source: Stack Exchange

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How to deal with professor who is ignoring my questions?
I am studying data mining in a college in Nepal. In Nepal, students and teachers communicate using Facebook Messenger. Teachers don't share email, and are instead friends with students on Facebook.
I asked my teacher a question forty days ago. He saw the message but didn't respond. Later, I reminded him a week after that. He said "study yourself, find yourself, read books, youtube, google, learn yourself". I told him that I had googled that question, already read books, asked in Quora, Stack Exchange, Reddit, and found no where. Then he responded "Ok I will send the answer".
Then one month went by and he still hadn't sent the answer. Then today, I again reminded him "if he had forgotten about it" (after one month), he saw the message but didn't respond.
What kind of behaviour is this? What should I do in this case? I am considering asking my parents to talk with this professor. Is that right thing to do? What should I do?
This teacher holds a good chunk of internal marks this semester, almost 125 marks. Should I not tell anything to him due to these internal marks, or should I ask my parents to talk to him? Due to covid, face to face interaction is not possible currently.
Professor not replying to my email
This doesn't answer my question because he recommends to go to teacher physically, it is not possible at the moment due to covid.

Why do you need this answer? What is the purpose of your question?

He says to meet the professor or keep trying, which really doesn't answer my question as during covid meeting physically is not possible at all.

If your parents are not royal then asking them has little sense.

@MarkSapir thanks for bringing some humor. The thing is that I find this subject really easy(I am not telling that I will score good marks in this), but I have understood this well as there is really good book in this subject. And you get questions only when you understand. But this teacher is really giving me headache. He teaches 2 subjects this semester. And he always copies slides of others and puts no effort in teaching. I really want to know what is going on his mind. There is lots of internal marks he has in his hand this semester so I think that is why he is feeling superior to me.

I know very little about Nepal. The father of GM Anish Giri is from Nepal, as far as I know. But he is Dutch now.

There are a number of reasons a professor might not answer a question:

He is extremely busy with class loads or research and can't take the time to give detailed answers to every student's questions
He is suspicious of the question, thinking it borders on something he doesn't want to teach or that can be used in problematic ways
It runs too close to his own current research, and he doesn't wish to discuss something he is about to publish
He thinks the question is too basic — something that a competent student should be able to figure out — and doesn't want to waste time on students he thinks are incompetent
He thinks the question is too complex, and doesn't want to waste time on something students probably won't get to until graduate or doctoral work
(Always a possibility) He's lazy, absent-minded, preoccupied, or otherwise generally disinclined to answer student's questions, period

I don't know the question you've asked, so I can't make any guesses about what this professor is thinking. If this question is pertinent to your course material then I suggest you ask a TA or a fellow student about it; if it's a matter of personal interest you'll probably have to look elsewhere. The only way you might get a different response from this professor at this point is if you meet with him in person, where he will feel obliged to make better excuses, and won't be forced to commit an answer to written text (which is an annoying process with a permanent trail).

He really really really wants you to work it out yourself. Take the hint.

He thinks you've been a pest and is unhappy with you. Hopefully he is adult enough not to let this affect him, but it is possible.

And I certainly hope it isn't 3, but who can say.

@Buffy: Hah! I'd lump your #7 and #8 under my #4, but I can see the point.  And I'd personally be more annoyed by #6. If teachers don't want to be teachers they shouldn't be teachers.

He doesn't know the answer, and doesn't want to admit it.

You are exceptionally good AND he/she is a green-eyed monster!

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Should I spend a year studying computer science in my home nation, when I am already interested in a master's in a foreign nation?
Spending a year in my home nation to fulfill my dream of studying computer science, although I have an undergraduate degree in computer science, when I'm eventually interested in doing a master's in Computer Science in the USA?
My ultimate goal is to get a masters in the United States and I won't lie, settle there if I get lucky(I know the chance to get a permanent visa is very low for Nepalese). Or Australia, Canada anything is alright as well. I did a computer engineering degree here in Nepal, I got nice grades. I got first division. The order of good students goes as (Distinction, First Division, Second Division, Third division). However, I suffered from some issues that I am not comfortable sharing which (I believe) caused a drop in my performance. I said "drop" because earlier I was scoring a lot in tough courses as well and showed some glimpses of it in my computer engineering degree.
Thankfully, I fell in love with computer science and I can't stop thinking about computer science day and night. I don't know if this is eternal student syndrome or not, but I want to study the core computer science subjects once again. I've allocated a year along with my 9-6 X 5 days a week job. Which I know is not doable as I've just 2 days free per week where I can study 7 hours each. 14 hours of studying per week isn't going to lead my anywhere. I know that very well..
The subjects of my interest(The extent to which I study them are typical university courses level) are:

Database

Distributed computing/system and database

Algorithms

Computer Architecture

Computer Networks

Operating System

Python using Fred Baptiste course(all 4 of his courses)

Other interests are artificial intelligence, compiler design, and computer graphics. My goal is not to become a data scientist or a software developer. My goal is to work on Linux Administration and eventually transition to DevOps engineering. But I want to be a person who can build software, I want to understand the science of computers and software like a pro topper student in undergraduate. Whenever I try to make a snake game, the concept of data structures comes to give me pain which I've already forgotten. When I've tried to optimize/tune the Linux and MySQL systems, the concept of operating systems class, distributed systems class, database class, and computer architecture class comes and hits me.
So, I want to spend a year in Nepal attempting to learn all these concepts(Which I don't believe is doable). I can't spend more years than 1 because if I do so, my age of marriage will come and I don't want to marry before I am fully independent and the USA(or any European or North American or Australian country) is my opportunity to become independent. I'm 25 right now.
Please guide should I do this? Or should I leave all of this and just start preparing for graduate admissions?
I know I've to learn English, study GRE :D before I even attempt to move out of Nepal.

You are seeking advice in many different areas such as getting into a master's, moving to the US, career transitioning, learning English and even marriage. Stack Exchange sites work better for focused questions.

None of what you said is my question though. I think it's little bit unclear. My simple question is "should I spend a year self-studying"?

@Buffy I don't get it really, please explain.

@barnyard Your question is far too specific for your specific situation, e.g. listing specific courses you have taken, etc. You should distill your question down to something more specific in the question, and more general in the details. E.g., "Will I be more likely to be admitted to a master's in XXX if I do YYY"?

My goal of self study is interestingly not to get to master's degree abroad. It's for self fulfillment.

You can spend a year, or a decade, self studying. You can also make a few applications to universities in places you'd like to study. You can do the latter while also working on your self study.
But, you won't know if you are a good applicant until you actually join the process.
Note, however, that a masters in the US is seldom funded; especially in CS. The costs of tuition and living will be high. It wouldn't be a problem if your family has a lot (lot) of resources or if Nepal has a way to provide funding for citizens studying elsewhere.
A decent plan would be to make some applications while also beginning study of English. And English is also used in many other countries than the US.

No pain, no gain.

stackexchange is blessed to have you! Thank you for providing answers to our doubts.


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Coauthorship and feedback delays
I received my MSc. in 2020. Subsequently, I wrote a paper on the same topic of my MSc. dissertation. Initially, I was going to publish it with my advisor and co-advisor, and the work dynamics was that I first made substantial changes to the paper and then asked them for feedback. Our problem started when feedback started to take too long and reached a point where my co-advisor didn't answer anymore. She didn't seem too interested in it, and, honestly, the results are underwhelming compared to her average publication quality. Thus, I understood her position and didn't insist on her participation anymore. Meanwhile, I started my Ph.D. in 2021 and started working in a different area with another researcher at my university.
My advisor was slightly more available during the above events, but eventually, he also forgot about my work. I was disappointed, and I didn't want to give up on this work even though it isn't a top-tier paper, so I asked a friend, another Ph.D. candidate, for help. We gathered new data, obtained new results, and made significant changes to the paper. A month ago, we finally submitted it and put my advisor and co-advisor in the acknowledgments for giving feedback on early versions of the paper.
Today, my advisor sent me an email saying that we should reach out to my co-advisor again and try to rewrite the paper.
In resume, the timeline is as below,

2019: I conceived the idea of using my co-advisor methodology to analyse data from my country and wrote my dissertation about it.
2020-01/2020-05: Early drafts
2020-12: Sent a conceivably final version and received no answer.
2021-04: I sent another email, and the co-advisor answered it and vanished for months.
2021-09: On the last attempt at communication, I got a brief reply, but my co-advisor disappeared again when I sent her the last version of the paper.
2022-03: My friend joins in, and we finish the paper.
2022-05: Advisor asks about the paper.

There was no ill intent on my side, I just thought they weren't interested in my work anymore and I wanted to submit it as soon as possible to start working on my thesis.
How should I talk to him? If he asks for co-authorship, what should I do? I'm okay with that but how the journal will perceive this (The paper is still under review)?

As you have described it, it was probably inappropriate to remove your advisors. "How to talk to him" (and her!) depends on the personalities involved.

I'm okay with that but how the journal will perceive this (The paper is still under review)?

It doesn't really matter, you should put your MSc advisors back on. You can give a little white lie about accidentally omitting them the first time. It will not end your career to add an author. No one will know except the action editor, who doesn't really have time to care.

I'm relieved. He's really a pretty nice guy and I don't want to ruin my relationship with him. I just felt he was massively delaying the paper. I had to gather new data about three times to update the paper and make it publishable again and it was becoming cumbersome, this waiting-and-recycling loop.

@BelwarDissengulp I just edited because I realized I misunderstood who was who. Unfortunately, being a slow responder is not a reason to remove someone from authorship. That is just how writing papers goes.

Sorry, her=co-advisor, him=advisor. I get that some people are slow responders, but it was taking so long (months even) that the data was becoming outdated and making the paper less publishable.

@BelwarDissengulp Again, that's cause for a conversation, not silently deleting them as authors.


text:
How to avoid being (falsely) accused of plagiarism when reusing notations and definitions
I'm currently writing a paper of my results in a field of pure mathematics.
My work is a generalization of an already existing result, which is not mine. My adviser and I think that there is a substantial differences between my result and the already existing result, and so it's worth a publication.
Since I'm generalizing an already existing paper it will be very convenient both for me and the readers that I will use the same notations and definitions as in the other paper. So I wrote those down and cited the other authors.
The part of definitions and notations is roughly 10%-15% of the whole paper, and even though I properly cited the other authors, I'm worried to be accused of plagiarism by the "automatic plagiarism detector", which I heard most journals use.
How can I avoid being falsely accused for plagiarism?

"We follow the notation and conventions of [ref], reviewed below for ease of reference." or something along those lines?

@starless yes this is exactly what I've done. Is it enough to ensure that an automatic machine (not a human-being) won't accuse me for plagiarism.

I agree with David that you should write things in your own words, but this might admittedly easily lead to very similar passages if the text is very maths-heavy, since there is usually a rather rigid way of doing things. Usually those automated machines are bad at distinguishing anything mathy, so I'd imagine you'd be safe.

I don't believe that such a plagiarism detector is used in math: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/82056/19607

The plagiarism detector is usually a first step to flag for human review, often presenting the submission alongside what it might be plagiarizing from.  If you've properly cited your sources and added a contribution beyond what came before, a human reviewer/editor should be able to see that, and dismiss any flag as a false positive.

It is generally known that definitions and restated theorems can cause significant textual overlap between papers to an extent that could be considered problematic. There is no point in worrying about automatic plagiarism checks for journal submissions: If a journal is relying on that alone without an editor checking, it is not a reasonable journal to submit to anyway.

Thank you, and what about the arXiv? are they solely relying on these programs?

The arXiv runs an automated tool that will add a note to your article regarding its findings. For how that works, and how to deal with it, asking a separate question might be the way to go.

Don't copy that part of the other paper word-for-word.  Just introduce the notations and definitions in your own words.

Thanks for the advice, follow up question: Is it okay to cite their paper and then write it in my own words? Also I'm not quit sure how those automatic programs work, should I completely change the sentence or just change few words?

@Yanko There is some kind of misunderstanding. "Writing in your own words" doesn't mean that you copy something and then change it a bit. It really means that you write it yourself. Put aside whatever original paper you have been reading. Don't look at it. Imagine you explained the key definitions to a colleague with a whiteboard; how would you do it? Now do the same thing in writing. Start writing, without looking at the source; explain the definitions in a way that works best for you. It should be a story that you tell, not something you copied and edited a bit to obfuscate similarities.

@JukkaSuomela: "Put aside whatever original paper you have been reading. Don't look at it." - from the point of view of avoiding accusations of plagiarism, this may be good advice. For the content of the paper, however, it may not: Assuming the original work was of a high quality, not looking at its definitions sounds like a recipe for forgetting about some corner case that may have been covered in the original text.

@O.R.Mapper Of course you will double-check every detail once you have prepared the first draft of your own text, and at that point compare everything with the original if needed.

It becomes plagiarism only if you intentionally present [parts of] someone else's work as your own, otherwise it is citation. Robots may not be smart enough to distinguish, but that's why nobody relies on them much: they help to make decisions, not make decisions by themselves. What those automatic systems do is mark parts of your work as resembling parts of some other works to attract attention of human reviewers, who decide if that is plagiarism or not. Don't bother rephrasing the quotes just to game those systems.
I saw one of such systems at work, it would paint shorter indirect quotes yellow, indicating it has "79% overlap with [7]", a long direct quote it would paint red, because it's "100% overlap" with [19]", then add something like another "References" section, where those [7] and [19] would be, so the reviewers can examine them, if they want. Would be no problem for you if you made it clear that those are quotes and provided the references. (Also, it painted the entire "Reference" section red, because every reference was already used in like 200 other papers, but of course nobody takes that as plagiarism.)
The reviewers may still reject the paper because it has "too much quotations/too little original content", but that's a different story.

Great point about how these systems work. I have also used a system that works as you describes (for student papers), and a journal editor should not be confused when seeing these results and reading the attributions in the paper.

If it is your formula, then I would think you would be safe. You have cited those that you took directly from others. Also, some may be so generic that they don't need citing, such as 'E=MC Squared'that obviously came from Einstein but it is so well known it doesn't need to be cited.
In my experience, when I write a paper it is usually tagged by some percentage as plagiarized. Once as high as 15%, and when I checked the sources, I was one of the people who I plagiarized. Those automatic, computer-generated, reports are very inaccurate to a degree, so I wouldn't worry about it. If you genuinely think it is a problem, talk to your professor, advisor, or publisher.

What you don't want to do — is to copy their definitions exactly. Even though you are in pure mathematics, definitions, phrasings, and explanations can and should be different. Moreover, in a paper, the things are introduced in a specific order – and I doubt that you have exactly the same focus as the previous paper. Thus, even a very similar section with the definitions & notations will be different.
I also suggest to include in the paper:

in the introduction: the sentence/paragraph that highlights the connection (problem statement, similarity, differences) between yours and the original paper
in the main part: the sentence that discloses using the same notations as in [1].
possibly in the submission itself (if allowed): a PDF of the preceding paper that has to be read by peers to judge the novelty of this publication and how it extends the obtained results.

In general, for peer review in a reputable journal, you should not be afraid of automatic machines too much. Especially, if you/your advisor have a history of publications in this journal/field and good reputation. Also, if you follow the general guidelines for "writing in your own words for your own paper goals", you should automatically pass even the strictest automatic machines.

I strongly disagree with the first two sentences. Sometimes, one can reasonably adapt notation to different purposes, or clear stuff up or otherwise make sensible changes to definitions. Sometimes, one cannot, and rephrasing for the sake of it is a bad idea.

@Arno you certainly have a point, rephrasing for the sake of rephrasing is a bad idea. However, I cannot believe that one will not feel the need to reorganize/rephrase/restructure a big part of the paper that will cause the automatic checker to scream. The question if automatic checking is even an issue – is different, and here I totally agree with your answer.

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text:
How to properly cite an incorrect result?
This should be a common problem, but I could not find anything on Google (This question is relevant, but it is not quite the same).
I am writting a math paper where I prove a result, let's call it X.
This result was previously established (not once) in the special case p=2 by other people, and in my work I have generalized for general prime p, using different methods.
It is a common practice to cite related results. One of these results is a ~12 years old paper that was published only on arXiv. In that paper they prove the case p=2 by first proving X in the connected case and then reducing matters from the general case to the connected case. This reduction was more of a sketch (4 lines) and in the Appendix of the paper. However, I am convinced that this reduction is logically incomplete. More specifically, I tried, while proving the general case to take the approach described in these four lines and see if I can adapt it to work, but I could not, so right now I believe this approach can not work even with additional effort.
I contacted the author, but received no reply.
What is the right approach in this case? I thought of two options

I cite the paper claiming that the author only proved the theorem in the connected case.

I give full credit to the author, but write that I could not verify the reduction from the general case to the connected case.

But both of them seems problematic to me, as the author did not approve the mistake. Do you have any other ideas?

Given that this hasn't been published in a peer reviewed journal for 12 years, I wonder whether you need to mention it at all. I probably wouldn't, and I'd suspect that others (reviewers when this was submitted to a journal) have already seen that the approach doesn't work. (Of course a reviewer may ask to discuss it, but such a thing won't lead to rejection.)

@ChristianHennig Thank you. I think I should have also mentioned that I am also somewhat afraid of getting on the bad side of the said author. Although, I mentioned there were other authors who proved this result and now I see they did not cite that paper as well.

First, you don't need an author's permission to make a statement that their result is incorrect.
Second, if you want to make such a claim, then you'd better be sure of what you say, just for your own reputation.
I suggest that you spend the additional effort to either verify their result or have clear proof that it doesn't work, such as a counterexample.
For either of your sample citations, you might want to say a few more words in any case about why you make such a claim.

Buffy thank you very much for your answer. I think I should have mentioned I am afraid of getting on the bad side of that author. Does it follow from your answer that there is no diplomatic approach in this situation?


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Postdoc to transition from theoretical field (Statistics) to applied field
I am a third year Statistics PhD student. As I have become more involved in the field, I have realized it is not as good a fit for me as I originally thought. I excel in applied, collaborative work but fall behind my peers in theoretical work. It is not that I am incapable of understanding theory, in fact I can understand and digest fairly technical literature, I just do not find it interesting enough to devote the time and attention to be really good. This is unfortunate for me because the field of statistics prefers novel theory to interesting applications. That is not a slight on the field; I should have had the self awareness to know my own interests and limitations before committing to graduate school.
Despite this, I am quite happy in my program. I have a wonderful, supportive advisor, and I am in one of those rare departments where the faculty seem to genuinely care about the students. I have mentioned to my advisor that I prefer applied work and he has generally given me collaborative projects with epidemiologists. I do this work very well (I have an upcoming publication in a leading epidemiology journal) and enjoy it tremendously, but it is not viewed as prestigious by scholars in my field.
I am interested in an academic career. The way I see it, I can be a mediocre statistician or I can be an excellent statistically inclined epidemiologist. I prefer the later. I do not want to switch fields during my PhD primarily for two reasons: (1) I am pretty far into my PhD and do not want to start over. (2) The academic job market is horrible and a statistics PhD translates better to industry and government jobs than an epidemiology degree if I am unable to secure an academic position.
Is it possible to transition from (bio)statistics to epidemiology during a post doc and then be competitive for an academic job afterwards?
EDIT: Anecdotal experience of people switching fields is also appreciated.

There are a number of related questions (and answers) about switching from a field to another through a postdoc (they appear on the side bar on the right).

Answering perspective: I'm a PI with a degree in Epidemiology currently actively looking for postdocs.

Is it possible to transition from (bio)statistics to epidemiology during a post doc and then be competitive for an academic job afterwards?

Absolutely. This would be a good way to get applied experience that would definitely help you reframe yourself as a methodologically sophisticated epidemiologist, and there are a number of departments that you could then fit in - either combined Epi & Biostatistics Departments, or Epidemiology departments that heavily value methods.
Alternately, there are also a number of smaller "groups" which have biostatisticians in academic jobs where their primary tasks are working on applied problems. These often appear in medical schools or research institutes, where there is a need for consistent, good, but not necessarily groundbreaking biostatistical support. Some of these might also be staff scientist positions, but I've also encountered some with biostatisticians in faculty positions (albeit ones that are largely soft money funded). For those, having a postdoc in an applied area where you can show that you've done work in a setting with real data (and real data's problems), and can produce results that are interpretable in an applied field is potentially a considerable boon.
I know a number of people who have gone this route, moving from a more theoretical discipline (either statistics or applied math) towards epidemiology, and their skillsets are often viewed as quite valuable.

Can you explain a bit more those applied the biostatisticians in smaller groups? I've suspected these positions exists, but my advisor and department have been able to give me much information about this career path.

@Eli Certainly. I'll edit my answer to expand a little bit.

"The best thing about being a statistician is that you get to play in
  everyone's backyard."
John Tukey (1915-2000).

I am a statistics PhD, who has done some theoretical academic work, and I am currently doing applied industry work (though not in the fields you want to get into).  In my experience, a statistics PhD is highly valued in applied fields, and tends to mark you out as someone who is able to do applied statistical work, but with a stronger theory background.  Having a PhD directly in the field of statistics tends to mark you out as the go-to-person for all sorts of statistical questions, novel adaptation of models, and internal teaching for other professionals in your field.  I have found that there are a good number of professionals who learn applied statistics through other fields (e.g., psychology, economics, etc.) and they have a good working knowledge of most standard statistical models, but have difficulty adapting these to novel situations that require first-principles derivations.
Based on the information you have given, I would strongly recommend completing your PhD in statistics, even if this involves more theory work than is ideal for you.  There are plenty of avenues to transition to applied work afterwards, and if anything, your statistics qualification with a strong theory background will put you among the top candidates for applied statistical work.  You will also find that a strong grounding in theory pays dividends for any applied work you do later.

It's not fair to bring Tukey into an argument with a statistician :) I have looked into nonacademic jobs in pharm, at CRO's, and at consulting companies. I am aware of these positions and know they could be a good fit for me. I have not ruled out these careers, but I am still looking into academic options. Thank you for the input.

Good luck.  And remember, a PhD in the hand is worth two in the bush.

to be clear I am absolutely finishing my statistics PhD. I really do enjoy graduate school even though I'm not in the ideal department. I could not ask for a better advisor. I am weighing my options for after graduate school. Have a misunderstood your comment?

That is great - I am just echoing that you are correct in your inclination not to switch fields during your PhD.

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text:
Choosing between a masters at a top tier university, and a PhD at a lower tier university
I'm in a difficult situation, although I understand that I'm very lucky to be in this position.
I'm a final year UK chemical engineering student expecting a mid-high first class B.Eng degree from a fairly decent Russel Group university.
I'm looking for graduate studies and I have managed to secure 2 places:
The first is a fully funded 4 year PhD as part of a CDT in synthetic biology. My first year would be spent at Oxford and my final 3 years would be spent at Bristol University, which I will graduate from after that.
My second offer is for an MPhil in a similar subject at Cambridge University which they have offered to fully fund also.
I'm very unsure as to what to take. I cannot defer my PhD offer. On the one hand, Cambridge is a very good university but my fear is that if I do the masters there, I may have thrown away my only chance at a PhD, and that I won't be able to get one after that - And ideally I'd like to do a PhD at a top tier institution such as Oxford or Cambridge. On the other hand, the PhD at Bristol as a CDT, so I won't be choosing my supervisor until my second year after I finish my first year at Oxford, and I'm locking myself into a particular discipline, and to a specific list of potential supervisors for 4 years directly after my bachelors.
Again I'm well aware that I'm extremely lucky to be in this position, but any advice on what path might be the best one would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: The specific PhD that I applied is entirely taught for its first year, which is why I am not worried about the jump from the bachelors straight to PhD.

I see what you are saying. What I mean to say is that I've got such a good PhD offer already, in that it's funded for 4 years, and any future offers will probably only be funded for 3-3.5 years, and may be very hard to come by.

They are "fully funded" but in the UK it seems that most PhDs are funded for 3-3.5 years out of 4 years.

@difficultychoosing the unspoken rule is that you save up what you can from your 3.5 year stipend and use that to support yourself for the final 6 months/ however long it takes.

By the way, what does your personal tutor advise? They probably know you (and the field, and hence what's advisable) best, academically speaking.

This won't apply to everyone, but a resourceful supervisor may be able to arrange and extension of funding. Or, they may help you get a paid internship related to your thesis, which effectively extends your funded PhD time. So at this point I would not worry as much about 3 vs 4-year funding. You'd still have to save up money though, since you may not be able to find a new job right after your stipend stops.

Ah, yes. Normally, I think, you don't pay full fees during the writing-up stage which "may" take a year. So when 3-year funding is advertised, it does not always mean that you have to submit in 3 years.

On balance, I'd say go to Cambridge. If you do good research and write a high quality MPhil thesis, it is very unlikely that you will not get an opportunity to stay on for a PhD.

Thanks for your advice. The MPhil is mainly taught, but there is a small research component. My worry is that I might not get the grades in this MPhil, which may exclude me from may PhDs, whereas I have one secure right now and basically won't ever need to sit an exam again.

I agree with this answer. You'd have to do catastrophically badly in the MPhil to end up reducing your chances of a PhD the following year.

@difficultychoosing Any relevant experience improves your CV and does not invalidate your BSc grades. Perhaps the only risk is that lecturers from your current course may forget about you and not give you as good reference, but then it will be outweighed by good references from your MPhil lecturers. Another point is that not everyone thinks that students are prepared for a PhD right after BSc. This may be a reason why you're not getting many offers now, and the one that you got has one taught year. After doing MPhil in a top uni, your chances to get a PhD position should increase.


text:
Alternatives to classify.oclc.org for getting a book's call number?
I need to get the LOC call number of multiple ebooks.
I used to use http://classify.oclc.org/, but now the website doesn't seem to work anymore.
Is there a (freely accessible) platform, database, dataset, or API that allows user to retrieve a LOC call number for a book?
By the way, I have tried using university library catalogues, and the Library of Congress catalog, but, especially with ebooks, the data does not have the LOC call number.
An example of a title is:
Atlas of Male Infertility Microsurgery

I Google for "classify.oclc.org" and found it. Warning, it's http, not https. My browser says it's not a secure web site.

@Nobody thx but no that's not the issue.. it was just a typo.. go to http://classify.oclc.org and try typing any title into the search box, and no results appear

I just tried it.  After finding nothing for a recently-published book, I found this note at the bottom of the page: "The database is current thru June 2022."

@BobBrown no every title is not available

@BobBrown you may try an old title.. say this title from 2008: https://www.google.com.sg/books/edition/A_Textbook_of_Clinical_Pharmacology_and/TD59BgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=A+Textbook+of+Clinical+Pharmacology+and+Therapeutics&printsec=frontcover

@BobBrown still the same problem

@forgodsakehold I was able to find the LOC call number for A textbook of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, RM301.28 .T49 2008, by going from WorldCat to the University of Georgia library.  That took a certain amount of work, however, and as my answer says, not every book will have an LOC call number assigned.

@BobBrown yea I know that.. I did try that.. classify.oclc.org used to have call numbers for ebooks as well.. so now I am hoping for an alternative database.. other than the answer you posted, do u have any other suggestions? I was thinking of BL's MARC record database, but that's a huge hassle to access ;( if anyone has better alternatives, pls do let me know

I was able to find my own (print) book, published in August, 2023 in https://www.worldcat.org/, but apparently you need a paid subscription to see the call number. However, WorldCat does list libraries that have a book, and you can sometimes find the call number by checking the entry of a particular library.  I found Atlas of Male Infertility Microsurgery in WorldCat, but was unable to find a record with a LOC call number. (One of the libraries with this book lists the call number as "R1.")
The Library of Congress no longer attempts to catalog "everything," and unless a copyright registration is submitted, probably doesn't even know about most material, especially self-published material. The cataloging in publication (CIP) data in most books comes from catalogers who either work for publishers or provide a paid service to small publishers and individuals. For that reason, not every publication will even have a LOC call number.
Update: I found this note at the MiraCosta College Library's web site: "Keep in mind that only physical items, not electronic ones, will have call numbers."

try librarything.com i don't know how big that database is but I was able to find call #s there


text:
What warrants acknowledgement or citation in a dissertation?
I have just finished my dissertation and just have a question about acknowledgements and citation.
There was a line in a proof of a paper that I did not follow and someone told me what it meant.
Does that warrant citation or does it look silly citing such things? It wasn’t their own work, they explained where it came from.

Citing in this case is unnecessary. An acknowledgement would be gracious, but also not strictly necessary. My personal inclination would be to do it if their explanation led to some insight on my part.
But "Thanks to JDoe for their insights into Theorem 35 of Gauss", or whatever, is, as I say, gracious.
It is even less necessary if the person's job is to teach you stuff.

See it was a mathematical proof by induction from a paper and I couldn’t tell whether it was normal induction that was being used or something new. It turned out it was just complete/strong induction. Another person also helped explained a minor result in a proof. I’d never not want to give credit but this isn’t any new work or anything and I don’t know if it would just look silly pointing out such things in an acknowledgment.

Pretty standard stuff, once you understand it.

sorry I accidentally sent that before finishing

No, it isn't silly. Acknowledging mentors for their mentorship with no specific details is common enough. Gracious, but not necessary. But gracious is good in a dissertation.


text:
Using downloaded NES/SNES ROM files for research work -- is this covered under "fair use"?
The only official statement for Nintendo is their legal terms page, which prohibits anyone using downloaded ROM files.
Scenario -

If someone plays a downloaded ROM file (any ROM file will serve the purpose) on the FCEUX emulator on PC. The ROM file remains intact and will not be changed. Only the game will be played and in-game variables will be changed via emulator.

The reason someone can use NES/SNES games, is the availability of many diverse genres within the same platform.

Is there any fair use policy to use proprietary material for academic research. There are some YouTube videos and some projects on hackster.io, where people have used AI (Artificial Intelligence) to play Super Mario and Tetris in emulator. There was a research paper on AI playing tetris too. (A simple google search reveals lot of published papers with Super Mario and Tetris).

The for specifying any jurisdiction is to have blanket protection to anyone in the world using it for academic and research work.

When asking about whether something is legal, you really need to specify the jurisdiction. I would also recommend speaking to a local lawyer specializing in this area of law.

For your use case, however, obtaining/borrowing the original games might be easier than worrying about the legal and ethical aspects.

Is your research focused on the games themselves, or on the emulation aspects? (My previous comment assumed the former, and used "original games" to mean "original cartridges".)

Relevant question on a sister site: https://gaming.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/795/what-exactly-does-the-law-state-about-emulation-and-roms

Why does it need to be these particular proprietary games? Could you make do with similar free/open- source games, as an alternative? Perhaps you could clarify what the goal of the research is?

I think you should be prepared for the possibility that there may not be a way to do this legally. Ultimately, those games are the legal property of Nintendo, so I would think it would be up to them to decide how they can be used. For all you know, those other researchers might be on questionable legal ground. As other people have suggested, if you are concerned about this, you should contact a lawyer that works in this area.

I seem to recall that there are some developers making new games and distributing them as ROMs for play on emulators. Depending on the research objective, that might be the safest route across the board since you can get explicit permission from the author and avoid potential legal issues with ROMs of cartridges.

Interesting question. Here is a well-established Python library that has the necessary ROM + emulator prepackaged; this has been widely used for research and teaching. I don't see any discussion of why they're legally allowed to do this, however.

@cag51 Thanks for info. I did came across the gym-super-mario-bros during my research. The LICENSE.info of the said project highlights the educational use only. I think most of the times, there is greater flexibility with IPRs when there is non-profit academic use. Still, this broader assumption varies as per jurisdiction.

@cag51 Quite possibly they are not legally allowed to do this. There is a difference between "Is it illegal" and "Will you be sued". There are projects out there to decompile Nintendo games (newer ones written in C) and Nintendo has only taken action against the ones that included copies of ROM files.

What is legal, and legally enforceable, varies from place to place - especially for things like scientific study. But there is an additional ethical and respect issue.
I would suggest that you contact them with your research proposal. As long as it doesn't have competitiveness issues, or encourage activity that they frown on, they might actually support you. Of course it might also set them against you depending on what you want to do, but it is worth considering, at least.

I think this is generally a good idea, but Nintendo are known to be inflexible, and overprotective of their intellectual properties, so I wouldn't expect much cooperation from them. Can't hurt to ask, I guess.

As you clarify in a comment, your focus is on the emulation, and not e.g. a historical study analyzing different video games by playing them. Thus I'll assume that you need the ROM, and that playing other versions of the game won't suffice.
The problem is that the legal situation is far from clear, and varies from place to place, as different copyright laws have different exemptions, interpretations, etc. E.g. archive.org supposedly has an academic DMCA exemption allowing them to archive ROMs. Is it legal to download them and make academic use of them under US law? I simply don't know the answer to that, and other countries will have yet other circumstances. The Internet is filled with a lot of hearsay and personal theories about what the law does/should say, but I don't think there's established case law. In short, I think you need to consult a copyright lawyer familiar with the laws (and precedents!) that apply to you, to be sure, especially if you're looking for some kind of academic exemption.
Many countries do have a clause allowing for personal backup copies if, and as long as you own the original game. As Nintendo say on their site, this doesn't mean you're allowed to download a ROM from the internet just because you have the cartridge, but this is often interpreted as saying that you're in principle allowed to personally make a ROM file from a cartridge that you own. I think this is generally the safest route, and recommended for private persons who wish to emulate their old games. The downside is that you would have to acquire the original cartridge, as well as the required hardware.
I'm not a lawyer, so take the above for what it's worth. What I do know is that Nintendo, as a company, is generally considered inflexible and overprotective when it comes to their intellectual properties. Their Youtube Creators program (a policy regulating how they'd treat game footage on Youtube, recently announced to end) didn't make any fair use provisions, for example. Personally, given this company's past behavior, I would want to be certain that I'm in the clear before admitting in writing to using/downloading ROMs.
In an edit, you mention papers on AIs playing Nintendo games. It might be worth your while contacting the authors and asking how they handled these legal issues.

I am not a lawyer or anybody qualified to give you an actual answer, but my tentative opinion is that this is not really permissible because of the method you specified for getting the game.
Since you did not specify a jurisdiction I am going to assume U.S. copyright law applies, because it is the most populous nation of native English speakers. You might also want to keep in mind that you would be likely to be tried in the 9th Circuit, since that's where most of the big copyright cases happen, due to most copyright holders being headquartered in that jurisdiction (Redwood Washington, Hollywood California, and the Silicon Valley come to mind)
Downloading a R.O.M. is a flat out violation of U.S.C. Title 17 §106  because it is necessary for you to reproduce the file by copying it onto your computer in order to be able download it. There are some exceptions to this rule such as fair use, but they constitute an affirmative defense since you have to admit to the principle fact that you created a reproduction in the first place.
We do not even get into the fact that you do not plan to redistribute or alter the files, because it is illegal for you to obtain them in this way in the first place.

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;

Note that a popularly cited series of cases as it pertains to computer software is the Mai Trio. This series of cases includes Mai Systems Corp. v. Peak Computer, Inc., Wall Data Inc. vs. Los Angeles County's Sherriff Office and Triad v. Southeastern Express. To summarize the significance of these cases, authorized copies come with an implied license to make temporary copies as is necessary to use them by the licensee, but unauthorized copies do not and you may not exceed the extent of authorized use. The very means of obtaining these copies is illegal, and playing them is also illegal.
You do not have much in the way of a fair use argument that would exonerate you. Your only interest in the games may be for a nonprofit educational commentary, but those the only factors you have going in your favor, and the entire character of use needs to be considered so that may not be enough of an excuse:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the

The copyrighted work is a commercial game, and you are using it as a game so your work is not transformative. You need to download the entire game in order to play it. The effect upon the potential market in downloading these R.O.M. files is that you do not have to pay anybody for authorized copies. Moreover, there is relatively little about the purpose and character of your use which requires you to download the copies from a third party source: It is just convenient for you. This is not quite the same as taking a screenshot of a game and showing it off to prove a point to others. The character of use is so that you can personally play the games.
Maybe an argument could be made if you copied your own games. U.S.C. §117 has express provisions for making a backup copy of a game you own, although they were ruled to be irrelevant in Atari v. J.S. & A., Inc., which regarded cartridge to cartridge copying effectively illegal. Nintendo also managed to sue the pants off of the creators of the Game Doctor, which copied from cartridge to floppy.
Hypothetically, able to argue a case analogous to R.I.A.A. v. Diamond Multimedia that a mere cartridge reader to interface with a computer which does the copying is not a dedicated copier, and that copying your own copies for the purpose of format shifting constitutes fair use so long as you do not exceed license. However there is also a good chance that these could be ruled illegal too, and I do not know of a case which directly tests its applicability to games.
How do Youtubers get away with it? Well, copyright is civil law, so it is left up to the copyright holder to decide whether or not to sue, and it often is not worth the hassle to go after small time infringers. Publishers also might not know for a fact that they downloaded the games.
However, just to simplify matters, if you must use an emulator, what you should probably do is go a generation up and use a PlayStation emulator with the original game discs. That is expressly legal according to existing precedent such as Sony v. Connectix and Sony v. Bleem. Now granted, both of those companies ended up going out of business after the lawsuits, but that was largely because of extralegal reasons and the precedence set by these cases should make a future case easier to win if push came to shove.

While the suggestions that others have pointed out are good, I would like to answer your question with a follow-up question. Do you really need the ROM-files in question or just access to the games?
Many of the popular games are also available on other consoles. For instance,  Super Mario Bros. is available as part of the NES Classic Edition and on the Wii Virtual store.
If you don't want ports of the games due to possible differences between versions, then purchasing the original games and playing them on the original hardware (don't forget that modern TVs are not ideal for retro gaming!) is likely the best option. This is, of course, an extra cost but in comparison with salaries and other equipment costs connected to scientific research, probably rather low. Furthermore, depending on what you want to study in the games, ROMs might not be 100% perfect representations on the effect of the origninal hardware either. (I am no expert on technology though, so I'd suggest talking to somebody who knows a thing or two about hardware emulation and ROMs if fine details of the game and hardware performance is of importance.)

I can't answer the legal question; however, if you have seen other research that has been done on these games, then I don't think it would hurt to contact those researchers and ask them how they were able to use those games and/or deal with the legal issues.
Something else that may be worth considering is whether you could use similar free/open-source games as an alternative. There are open-source versions of most of those old Nintendo games that are extremely close to the originals, just that they don't include the copyrighted artwork and trademarks. Here are a couple of examples:

Tetris clone
Super Mario Clone

If your research doesn't absolutely need to use those proprietary games, then these would be completely free of any potential legal issues. I would think they could be run inside a virtual machine, which would give you quite a lot of control over how they perform.


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Will it look bad if I (tenured faculty) apply for a position at a different R1, a year after moving to my current R1?
I am a tenured professor. I recently moved to a new R1 university (less than a year) but always had a different school as my dream university. How odd is it to apply to another university given that I have been in my new university for less than a year? Is it something the new university will consider as a negative point on my application or are they just looking at the qualifications?

My suggestion is that you apply if the job description is a close fit. Not doing so passes up an opportunity that might not return. People may want to know why you want to move, but I'd save that for any actual questions. "Dream job" is a pretty good reason.
Don't worry about the place you leave behind. You've presumably done your job so there should be no complaints. The cost incurred in hiring you is a sunk cost in any case. At an R1 university, such things are not a (proportionally) major expense since the faculty is probably fairly large overall even if not in a single department. They will cope. It isn't their first rodeo.
However, expect an additional probationary term before you get tenure again. It might be two or three years and has some risk, though more in some fields than others.

As to the question in the comment to another answer, most R1 universities are bound in hiring to make a national (at least) search and to evaluate all applicants. Someone can be invited to apply but the process still has to be followed.

what is the probability of my current university knowing about this (me applying to another university)?!

Non zero. But hard to say beyond that. People know one another, people talk to one another. Some people ask that an application be kept confidential in the short term, but that is no guarantee. Your current institution is probably part of your application, of course. If you have friends in the department, consider making the opportunity known to them. But there is a bit of risk of seeming disgruntled even if you aren't. You would need to deal with that.

First, understandably, you do not say much about yourself and where you are. Academic customs differ in the US from Germany, etc.
It is not unusual for tenured faculty to apply to another university. Hiring is a costly procedure and leaving a university after only a year will leave bad feelings behind. At the dean's level, hiring someone after only a year at another university would be seen as an impolite act. This would be especially the case if it appears as if you were actively recruited, even if, as in your case, this is not the case.
That's being said, there are many exceptions justifying such a move. For example, you could be a much better fit for them.
Presumably, you know people at the other university and their estimate and advice is much more important than that of a random academic who does not know you and the two departments.

It is a US university, Engineering. I completely agree with you and am aware of the very costly procedure of hiring new faculty and that is why I have some doubts. At the same time, I am not sure when my target university will open a new position again. How the hiring is for upper-level professors? Are they often based on an invitation?


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Why can't applicants ask for letters of recommendation on potential employers/bosses?
Employers/bosses need reference letters from previous employers to assess applicants. Why can this not happen the other way round? It should've been a 2 way peer review stream. Applicants should have legitimate reasons to ask for reference letters written about the employers/bosses, shouldn't they?

There are some pretty fundamental asymmetries in the employer/employee relationship to begin with.  The big one is that if the employer has one less employee, it survives with minor inconvenience.  If the employee has one less employer, he starves.

I assume you mean in academia, because in industry reference letters are not common. And in academia, there is a big asymmetry of risk the other way, in fact. We can typically be pretty confident that the university we are applying to, which has been there hundreds of years, and which we can easily research in depth via the internet or various publications, is not a fake. Meanwhile every pile of resumes is full of exaggerations and outright lies about skills and credentials.

ok. then we assume by employers i mean the bosses/PIs, not the institutions

One could easily say try and look at the results. I don't understand. You can find out about the reputation and work of a potential boss in plenty of way, but not ask him. And one should indeed.

Short answer: supply and demand. Established universities are comfortable that they can get qualified applicants even with requiring letters; candidates would have a very difficult time finding a job if they required their employers to submit letters of recommendation to them.
The early stage (making a short list) is asymmetrical for sure, but it's sort of apples and orange.

There are only so many departments that work in a particular subfield, so the applicant is likely already familiar with the department and potentially even with the faculty members in that department. Thus, letters wouldn't provide much new information. (Possible exception for small R&D companies rather than universities, but such jobs rarely require letters).
Conversely, there are many applicants for any particular slot, and the hirers will know very few of them. Thus, without letters, there are few practical, effective ways to know which candidates should interview.

In later phases, the process does become more symmetrical. Both sides tend to make their own judgments at this phase rather than relying on reputation or letters.

These interviews should be both ways -- I would be surprised if any hirer would hesitate to discuss their interests, backgrounds, expectations, and style with a candidate they are seriously considering hiring.
You are also likely to have a chance to meet with the supervisor's group, colleagues, and employees at some point. If not, no reason you couldn't request such a meeting, or just set one up directly.


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Career prospects for a Math PhD student in pure math?
I have scoured the internet and everyone seems to be saying different things. These range from

"You will have no problem getting a job in quant/finance etc", to
"You are in a hopeless situation and are completely unemployable"

Consider the following situation:

I am at a PhD student at a mid-20s US institution studying pure math
I have very limited programming skills
I am an Australian national and want to live in Australia long term.

I am not overly optimistic about my future career prospects. Since I am near the beginning I thought I better think about this now rather than 5-6 years down the track.
Question: Is it likely that I'll be able to find a reasonably well-paid, stable job after graduation (even outside of academia)? Are there things I can do now to improve my chances (beyond "trying hard")? Would I be better off doing another masters in computer science or machine learning back in Australia instead of this PhD in pure math?

Welcome to Academia.SE. I took the liberty of editing your question -- as it was, it was a little too specific to you in particular, and flirted with being closed as either "shopping" (we do not recommend careers) or unclear. If I messed up anything, feel free to edit my changes. Also, you might consider making separate posts for your questions about math careers in Australia and about whether you can handle a programming-intensive project; our forum discourages "multi-part questions" (unless the parts are closely linked). Good luck!

what about remaining in academics?  Those who can, do.  Those who can't, teach.  (And those who can't teach, administrate.)

I agree with @Buffy - the edited version of the question looks fine to me, and even the original version had something to work with

I don't mean this to be flip, but you can take any job you like and still do (and publish) mathematics. You can be a rock-band drummer and do mathematics. Much harder to be a nuclear physicist, though, because of the needed equipment.

@Buffy I appreciate the sentiment but both the publishing and doing can be harder to achieve, depending on one's mathematical interests and training. There is a reason why professional mathematicians can get leery of amateurs (however keen and intelligent) claiming to have made progress on current research topics. OTOH there is the example of https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.02385 showing that it can happen sometimes

@robertbristow-johnson That's a pretty rude thing to say.

@AzorAhai, while I agree, it was really just a very old and tired joke.

@YemonChoi, I didn't consider amateurs as the OP is in a doctoral program, but it is still technically true. If reviewers actually read the work rather than assume it is ok based on a credential, then all should be well. Skeptical, perhaps.

@Buffy "Old and tired joke" and "rude" are not mutually exclusive.

well, at least it wasn't the B.S., M.S., and Piled Higher and Deeper.

There was an opinion piece in the NYTimes just the other day: "Those who do, can't teach". I thought it would be better as "Those who can't teach, do". But that is just me.

@Buffy You mean rock-band drumming is stable (I consider non-scalable to be stable or at least scalable to not be stable and rock-band drumming to be scalable) and well-paid or conducting independent maths research is possible?

I should add that the needs for most quants is declining in finance,  a strat/quant in a bank is really a software engineer

what exactly is the meaning of  Australian national? like student visa? or actual citizen? or resident?

nvm figured it out: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/168704/what-is-the-meaning-of-national-as-in-e-g-australian-national

Given the current market for academic math researchers, I'd encourage everyone in math to make serious plans for an alternative career that you'd be happy with.  Even for most people who end up with tenured positions, it's not clear until well after graduation whether that path is likely to work out, so even the strongest students should be considering other options.  In math the main alternative tracks are data or coding focused industry jobs in finance or tech, or teaching-focused academic positions.  In both cases, these job markets are competitive and they're not looking for people whose main qualification is that they didn't get a research position.  If your alternative option is getting a job in industry, you should already be learning to code and trying to get relevant experience, while if your alternative option is getting a teaching-focused job, you should already be looking for teaching opportunities that will make you stand out as an attractive candidate at teaching-focused institutions.  (In the US those are often small liberal arts colleges, but in Australia I'm not sure how many teaching-focused jobs exist.)
The good news is that there's lots of good jobs for math PhDs out there (much better than many fields), but you won't just stumble into them you need to develop relevant skills and experience.

Noah Snyder, given that you said 'you should already be learning' instead of 'you will have to be learning', should your last statement be '...you need to have developed relevant skills and experience', i.e. you can't put off such development until after graduation ?

It sounds like you have no idea what the career options for a Math PhD in Australia are like, which is understandable but not a good place to be. It's important to educate yourself about what the market is like, preferably as soon as possible. Since you're in the US, you won't be able to rely on your university's career center, so the burden of research is on you.
Go to an Australian jobs portal such as SEEK. Search for jobs requiring a PhD in math. If you know where you will settle in Australia already, then narrow only to jobs in that city. You'll get results like this one.

Our client is a leading provider of form and data software solutions for the global racing industry. They are an established and stable organisation who are perfect for those sick of the corporate life.
Working with some of the best mathematics and stats minds in the city in a small and focused team environment, you will work on challenging and rewarding modelling projects.
To be considered for this role you will have the following:

A strong background in mathematical and statistical modelling
Previous experience working as a Quant Analyst, Data Analyst, Data Scientist or Big Data Analyst - desirable
Masters or PhD in maths / statistics / machine learning / econometrics essential.
Experience using C++ or Python is highly regarded, although Matlab & R experience will also be considered.
Strong algorithmic coding skill and solid knowledge of data structures
Application clustering / Big Data experience using Apache Spark
Experience with statistical forecasting essential.
Understanding of machine / statistical learning techniques such as non-linear regression, kernel regression, support vector machines (SVM), neural networks, classification trees and similar techniques very beneficial.
Experience working within the horse racing / wagering industry highly desirable

It's up to you to decide if you find this job attractive. If the answer is no, then search for another job until you find something attractive. Once you have an attractive job, do your best to pick up the necessary skills. For example to be competitive for this job, you really want C++ or Python proficiency, and preferably Matlab and R as well. You want modeling experience, you want to understand neural networks, classification trees, etc.
Your PhD is an opportunity to pick up these skills. As you say, right now you have very little programming experience which immediately rules you out of this job. If you still want to do it, then should you get the chance to direct the trajectory of your PhD - e.g. if your supervisor asks you "what do you want to do next" - this is your chance to learn those skills.
As for whether it's better to do a second Masters degree, well, you can apply the same methodology. Search SEEK for jobs requiring a Masters in computer science or machine learning, and see if you find those jobs attractive (relative to the ones that need a PhD in math). If the answer is yes, then it's probably better to do a second Masters.

I don't understand why the OP would limit themselves to jobs that actually required a PhD in math.  There are plenty of jobs that would satisfy the requirements where a PhD might be helpful but not required (or even not particularly helpful but not harmful).

@AlexanderWoo, interesting concept. A job where a doctorate would be harmful. Maybe best not to go there on this site. ;-)

@AlexanderWoo I guess one can also search for terms like "quantitative phd". Not refining by the term 'phd' though I think would be underselling oneself, and one might find a job one is overqualified for.

Since a doctorate is geared toward research, the obvious place for you is somewhere that does a lot of research. Academia qualifies, of course, but most governments have/sponsor labs for research, especially econometric research for which a maths PhD is probably a good start. Insurance companies also hire a lot of mathematicians as actuaries and financial analysts.
There are other companies that, in pursuit of a business model, so a lot of model building of various things - populations, finances, products, etc. Mathematics is a good foundation in any model building scenario, though some domain specific knowledge is usually also needed. But most important is the ability to abstract away from the details, which is one of the most essential mathematical skills.
As to learning CS for use with mathematics, you don't really need to spend the time getting a MS for that. One can learn programming and data structures from books (and practice) quite well. That was my path, in fact. For the more esoteric studies of CS, a guide would be good, such as a degree program, but if you want to work as a mathematician, much of that wouldn't be essential, at least initially.


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Should I remind someone of a previous invitation to give a talk?
I recently emailed a senior professor in a neighboring state, that I've never met, with some comments on his recent paper and pointing to some of my papers with related results. It turns out he was aware of my research and invited me to give a talk at his University. I promptly agreed, but never heard back from him. Should I assume that he gave up on the invitation, or should I write back to him "inviting myself"? Several months have passed since our email exchange.

It's certainly reasonable to send another email just saying that you would really like to visit, and that you would like to take up the old invitation. By far the most likely thing is that the professor in question just forgot, and will appreciate being reminded.

Since several months have passed, it is more than reasonable for you to email the professor once again. I have been in a very similar situation, and the professor was very cordial in his response and apologized for his lapse in memory. Professors are usually quite busy so they will not be offended if you restart the email exchange. Don't worry one bit, you'll be just fine!