text:
Are there major non-APS/AIP journals that do not practice confidential peer review?
One of the things that I think is particularly notable about the Physical Review journals (and other journals published by the American Physical Society and/or American Institute of Physics) is that they do not ask that referees keep the papers they are reviewing confidential.  In fact, they encourage senior physicists to involve junior colleagues in the reviewing process.  In fact, the pages in their refereeing system have a prominent notice:

If you are an experienced senior reviewer, we encourage you to ask a less-experienced junior colleague to co-review the paper.

I assume that it is not unique to physics that people have been informally asking colleagues for their opinions about paper.  I was asked, circa 2005, by my post-doc advisor about a paper he told me he was refereeing for Physical Review D.  It was a notable paper in our field, and I had read the arXiv version carefully when it came out.  In theoretical particle physics, almost all papers are available on the arXiv well before publication, and this is true to somewhat lesser extents in other areas of physics, mathematics, and other sciences; so confidentiality is less of an issue that it might be elsewhere, as priority for innovations may be established by the dates at which preprints are published.
However, it seemed surprising to me when the Physical Review journals started explicitly asking senior referees to share the papers they have been sent with junior collaborators.  Are there any other respected journals that have this policy—of trusting experienced referees to invite colleagues to join the reviewing process?

The questions in the title and in the last sentence are not quite the same. For example, IOP has a co-review policy in which experienced referees are encouraged to invite junior colleagues to co-review, but this invitation should go through IOP, maintaining a sense of confidentiality. Would that qualify for an answer?

@Anyon Sure, that would be a useful answer.  I honestly have no idea what the policies are for this in general.  It's just a weird thing that I have noticed.  And I haven't refereed for IOP for several years, so I'm not so familiar with what they do.

American Geophysical Union (AGU) journals have a co-review program that seems comparable to APS's, at least if I read this Journal of Geophysical Research—Earth Surface editorial correctly:

Co-reviewing allows a reviewer to include and recognize early-career co-reviewers who contribute comments on a manuscript. The journal's online manuscript review portal has a space for listing co-reviewers as a review is completed. Co-reviewing involves sharing the manuscript with one or two early-career scientists but not a large group, for confidentiality reasons.

The general AGU journal policy does not provide a similar level of detail, so I suppose it's possible different journals could have different implementations.

Then there are also journals that encourage a referee to invite colleagues to co-review, but formalize how this is done, in contrast to the more laissez-faire approach of APS. In doing so, they maintain a more strict sense of confidentiality (or at least the appearance thereof, depending on the degree to which the policy is adhered to).
Institute of Physics (IOP) extended their co-reviewing policy across all their journals as recently as June 2023. (It appears that the policy was originally introduced in 2020 and trialed on Nano Express, Journal of Optics, and Journal of Physics D.) The goal of the policy is the same as in the question:

Co-review allows two people to collaborate on a reviewer report, with both receiving recognition. We offer co-review in the hope that early career researchers with limited experience of peer review can work together with more experienced colleagues or supervisors to build their peer review competency.

However, IOP's process is somewhat more formalized, in the sense that the invitation to the junior collaborator should go through them:

If you are invited to review and wish to co-review with a colleague, select the ‘Co-review with a colleague’ link in the journal’s invitation email. You will be asked for the name and contact details of the person you will be co-reviewing with. Your co-reviewer will be invited to review the manuscript if we still require reviewers. If they accept the invitation you can work on the review together. The completed reviewer report form should be submitted to the journal through the co-reviewer’s ScholarOne account.

It appears that the Nature Reviews journals (e.g., Nature Reviews Physics, but not Nature Physics) have a similar initiative. I don't know any of the details beyond the stated policy:

Supporting early-career researchers
The Nature Reviews journals are committed to facilitating training in peer review and to ensuring that everyone involved in our peer-review process is appropriately recognised. We have therefore started an initiative to encourage established referees to involve an early-career researcher (ECR) in our peer review process on all Nature Reviews journals. The review that they compile together will be considered a co-review, meaning that both receive recognition for their contributions. We will send instructions to the early-career researcher and ensure that their referee activity is logged on our systems so that they are recognised for their review activity.

I think the title of this question is misleading. You describe a situation in which reviewers are encouraged to co-review with junior colleagues (and from the phrasing, the journal encourages reviewers to get help from a single colleague, not a gaggle of them), which most researchers and academics would not interpret as "breaking the confidentiality of peer review".
In the strict sense of the word, I guess you are correct -- it does not matter whether the reviewer shares the manuscript with one other person or one hundred -- the manuscript is no longer confidential. However, I myself (and most if not all of my colleagues) would consider "confidential peer review" to mean "not made available to the public" (or any group of people).
In that context, I would consider "breaching confidentiality" to mean circulating that paper to a person or a group of people, without any intention of including them in the review process. E.g. the advisor asks their PhD student whether they'd like to learn how to do a review, the student agrees and the advisor shares the paper with a student -- that's completely okay. On the other hand, if the advisor said to all their PhD students "let's review and then discuss this paper together in our group meeting", that would raise some eyebrows.
After all, a number of individuals who have not reviewed your paper and are not in any way related to the journal will have had the chance to see your paper during the review process. Specifically, this would be all the reviewers that declined to review your paper -- the manuscript will often (but not always) be available to them in order to help them make their choice. So, I wouldn't distinguish between whether my manuscript was accessible to 3, 5 or 7 people before publication.
However, this is all fast becoming a moot point in some research fields which a very strong preprint culture. Even if the conference/journal is blind or double blind (so the reviewers can't see the author's names), in 80% of the cases, just sticking the paper name into a search engine will find you an arXiv preprint.
Now, to specifically answer your question with an example, this preprint culture has grown so strong, that some journals now offer their own preprint services. For example, the journal Computers and Electronics in Agriculture (no affiliation except having published there a couple of times) now offers to upload your paper, without review, to their preprint server at the time of submission. Specifically, from their "guide for authors":

In support of Open Science, this journal offers its authors a free preprint posting service. Preprints provide early registration and dissemination of your research, which facilitates early citations and collaboration.

During submission to Editorial Manager, you can choose to release your manuscript publicly as a preprint on the preprint server SSRN once it enters peer-review with the journal. Your choice will have no effect on the editorial process or outcome with the journal. Please note that the corresponding author is expected to seek approval from all co-authors before agreeing to release the manuscript publicly on SSRN.

You will be notified via email when your preprint is posted online and a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is assigned. Your preprint will remain globally available free to read whether the journal accepts or rejects your manuscript.

Now, this is what I would truly consider "not practising confidential peer review" -- while no author is forced into it, they are essentially offering to put your draft out there, with your name on it, for all to see while it is under review. (And again, due to the prevalence of preprint servers such as arXiv, I wouldn't bat an eye).
(Finally, to note, there's another dimension of "confidentiality" -- that is, are the words that a reviewer writes confidential (between the reviewer, author and editor), or not. I am also familiar with a number of Computer Science conferences where the reviews themselves are also made public -- for a list of conferences practising this, you can check OpenReview)


text:
Elsevier "Computers & Security" journal latex template
I am trying to target the Computers & Security journal to publish my research. I opened the journal's page but I didn't find the latex template that is used in the journal such as this paper's template. I searched for a template and I found  this one but it seems an old template and it also different than what is used in the papers published in it. Please where can I find such template?

You don't need to use a specific template to submit your paper to this journal.
https://www.elsevier.com/journals/computers-and-security/0167-4048/guide-for-authors

As part of the Your Paper Your Way service, you may choose to submit your manuscript as a single file to be used in the refereeing process. This can be a PDF file or a Word document, in any format or lay-out that can be used by referees to evaluate your manuscript.

So any generic format would be fine, e.g. the basic LaTeX article class.  If your paper is accepted, either you or they will redo the formatting for publication, and they'll give you the correct template if necessary.  But there is no point spending any time on that now.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Why should I add co-authors on Google Scholar?
Google Scholar wants me to add areas of interest, photo, and co-authors. I understand why I may want to add the first two, but why add co-authors? All the publications already list the actual co-authors. Is it an attempt to turn the site into more of a social network? Is it an excuse for Google to spam them ("X added you as a co-author!")? What is the benefit for the profile owner?
For example, I have some papers with dozens of authors. Should I "upgrade" them to "co-authors"? I have no idea who some of these people are, but maybe the goal is to get as many as possible. On the other hand, if I don't add someone I actually know, will they be offended?

Many people don't bother to add coauthors.

In general, I find the Google Scholar profile pages to be elegant and useful.
Some people choose not to add co-authors to their profile pages. You might not see any benefit. You might not want to play favourites (i.e., who is enough of a co-author to be listed; what if I forget to add someone, would they be mildly offended).
In general, random people will google you and land on your google scholar profile page. Seeing who your main co-authors are might be useful to such people to give them an understanding of where your work is situated and who you are working with. They can then also more easily explore the academic work of your co-authors.

The last bit is what I use it for (and quite a bit). It lets me quickly know who you worked with and I can go down the rabbit hole looking for other relevant work.

The bit about notifications when adding co-authors is my main concern too. Any idea about that part of the question? I don't mind ticking a box next to a name, but I wouldn't want google to start emailing these people either.

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


text:
Is it acceptable to write several small papers that contribute to a larger paper?
To keep this brief, I have two new math ideas that are supporting a larger work. I want to write two small papers detailing these math ideas (plus some other details I figured out about them), publish them to arXiv, and then cite them in the larger work. The smaller papers do not have enough substance for a journal or conference.
I want to do this because I want to provide details for the interested reader which are irrelevant to the larger work.
I am still new to this, so I ask: Is this acceptable? This feels like it might be unethical self promotion / self citation.

if they don't have enough substance for a conference contribution, putting them into the supplementary material/appendix of the larger work is imho the more reasonable/efficient decision for yourself AND the reader.

As you state it, you are probably going to be fine, however, you have a bit of risk. The first is that if the ArXiv papers aren't really "publications", then citing them doesn't really add much to your CV other than a bit of noise.
The second risk is that a publisher has to agree that your "combined" work is still sufficiently novel to want to actually publish it and that is up to them and not a question that can be answered here. If all the novelty is already "out there" you might have a problem. This is less of an issue in math, of course, which has a preprint culture currently.
An alternative strategy, that you can use or not, would be to write a good paper with the important results and then put the supplementary material somewhere that it could be found.
So, ask yourself whether the combined paper is more than the sum of its parts for your reputation. It might be, or not, depending on the results.

Why not combine the extra stuff into one document "additional results on X"?
Otherwise no one really cares. But you might want to label it as a "report" or "supplement" so it won't be mistaken for a sad paper that failed to get published. There are certainly some highly-cited unpublished reports on ArXiv.
And ArXiv can count as publication with some journals, so you have to take a little care if you build on the results later and want to publish the material.
It can be informative to put on your CV, for some uses. It tells people what you've been working on. Plus if someone likes your research and finds their way to your CV, they will be led to your reports too. I'd suggest a section tiled "Reports" or "Unpublished preprints" or something. And for formal situations where you want to avoid looking like you're padding the CV, just leave that section out.


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Is it okay to use ChatGPT for generating letters of recommendation?
Someone I know will be applying to universities in the US for their PhD. To that end, he sought LORs from his undergrad instructors. However, they told him to write those himself, and to send those to them.
He used ChatGPT to generate the LORs. He didn't fabricate anything though. He just used ChatGPT to write truthful things about himself in the recommendation letter. Is that okay?

What if he paid someone to write the letter?`
what if he used a word-processing program with a grammar and dictionary corrector?
I suspect the real issue is instructors delegating the letters to the student themselves ...

Sure, assuming that your friend entered truthful information I guess it really doesn't matter. I don't think there is anything unethical about it (certainly no more unethical than writing your own letter - which is pretty commonly accepted).
I would not do it only because I don't think the results are very good. But I wouldn't worry about the ethics exactly. This isn't a school assignment. Personally, I think that ChatGPT has an awkward sort of stilted writing style. It sounds very...generic. I guess it's probably an improvement over some people's writing but it lacks character. It is a good free-ish alternative to using the AI assisted editing tools available though (I think Word has one built in these days).

I won't contradict, but I suspect that when people evaluating the letter get the impression it is AI generated, it will not help the application.

ChatGPT is better than you think.  A little prompt engineering will go a long way. Also, GPT4 is already a lot better than GPT3, and these large language models will only get better with time.  People like to be dismissive of AI, but it really is just an excuse to ignore difficult questions and kick the can down the road. "it sounds AI generated" is simply not a good excuse to dismiss AI.

@Aqualone: "Also, GPT4 is already a lot better than GPT3, and these large language models will only get better with time." But OP didn't ask which version of GPT is better or what will happen in the future. They asked whether, as of now, it's a good idea to use ChatGPT for a specific purpose and this answer recommends against it based on the impression that the results are not good.

@JochenGlueck Well, GPT4 is publicly available now, and the original question did not specify which version. And even GPT3 can give good results with some prompting (e.g. by explicitly asking it to be expressive or to use a certain style or tone or formatting)  "the results are not good" is simply the opinion of the author. Of course, everyone can have a different opinion. My opinion is that ChatGPT is indeed quite good.

ChatGPT (3 or 4) can write decent stuff. But for anything personal, like a LoR or a personal statement, I don't think it captures the personality that is behind a good letter/statement.

Aside from the question of whether this is ethical or not, it's a bad idea because it will not produce a persuasive letter in the professor's style, and all of the letters will end up sounding about the same. Letters of recommendation need to be highly individual and personalized---they need to say what the WRITER knows about the applicant from direct personal interactions with and observations of the person. They should not just mechanically parrot what is already obvious in the applicant's CV and teaching and research statements. BAD: "Jane Doe has published six papers in prestigious journals and presented seven conferences in three countries." That's straight out of the CV. GOOD: "Jane Doe was a research assistant on my Project X. We strategized the research design together, and her input resulted in several key improvements to the hypotheses and methods. She oversaw three undergraduate researchers, performed the qualitative data analysis of the interview results, and wrote the literature review. I especially noted that she did not lose heart when the first part of the study did not yield significant results, but took this in stride as a normal part of scientific research." AI can write something more elegant than that, but not more personalized. This personalization is at the heart of all letters of recommendation. An AI-generated letter is (a) likely to be detected and (b) unlikely to impress---two big risks. I wouldn't do it. It conveys that the supposed letter writer doesn't feel strongly enough about the candidate to put in the effort and write an original letter. The same goes for professors who ask students to write their own letters. It also says that the professor doesn't care about the quality of the letters they put their signature to, harming the professor's credibility and hence the applicant. Finally, AI is not in a position to judge the quality of the applicant's work. I see no advantages at all to an AI-generated letter, given the real purpose of these letters, which is to tell the admissions committee about the writer's PERSONAL knowledge, experiences, perceptions, feelings, and professional judgments related to the candidate.

At least AI is good at using punctuation.

I personally would not ask any BOT to write letters of recommendation for my students.
These have to be personal and highlight unique qualities of a particular student. Also I like to include anecdotes  about my interaction with a particular students. The letter is then less bland and helps distinguish that student from the mass of other students applying for the same position.

I personally think this is “ok” in the moral and ethical sense, but be aware that a lot of faculty, who should know better, are really afraid of ChatGPT, don’t know its capabilities, and imagine that it is somehow spitting out Pulitzer Prize worthy tomes with the simplest of prompts and therefor using it is always dishonest and immoral.
I’m an enthusiastic user of ChatGPT for all kinds of things, like generating outlines, cleaning up email communications, getting cocktail recipes and travel itineraries, and getting a decent workout routine. If your friend spends time refining their prompts, using ChatGPT to clean up and edit, and then personalizing the ChatGPt output, this can be quite effective.
I’m seriously bothered, however, by the fact that the faculty members told your friend to do this. At this stage, a faculty member can write a much better letter about an undergrad than that undergrad can write about themselves. This is terribly irresponsible of them.

Generally it is quite clearly stated by graduate schools that no part of letter should be written by the student and it is duty of the student to let the recommendor know about this policy.
ChatGPT is merely a tool which can be used to refine the writing of someone's rough draft so that's not the problem. I see the problem of instructor making the student read it.
Often it is easy for graduate schools to tell that the letter is not written by instructor because of kind of way it talks about student which chatgpt might be able to parse through.

I think it is as unethical as writing your own LOR, because at the end of the day it contains information that you know about yourself, and not what your professor knows. Ofcourse, you can always talk to the professor about yourself and discuss what to write, but they will include it from their perspective not yours, and that is the important thing.
I personally think it is very lazy and wrong on your friend's professor's part to ask the student to write a letter which they will just sign. They can ask for a CV, or an SOP, or a personal statement, or any other info which will help them to write an LOR, but not ask the student to write it directly. And if they don't have the time to write it themselves, they should politely refuse to provide it.

I do not see any unethical situation when a professor asks someone to write a LOR on his/her behalf. At the end of the day, the professor reads the letter and adjusts it before signing it.

Writing your own letter (or providing notes, a rough draft, bullet points, etc.) is pretty common in my field. It is annoying, but I wouldn't call it lazy or unethical. People are busy and often times LoR are needed for students a professor may not know well enough to write a personalized, strong letter off the top of their head. Obviously the best letters are not really written this way, but given the choice between a weak, generic letter and writing my own - I'll write my own any day.

I do not see anything lazy or wrong about a professor asking a student to write a rough draft. It's the great irony of this website, faculty can do no right. If a professor declines to write a LOR then they are vilified. If they ask the student to help out by providing a draft that they can build on, then they are lazy. Realistically contracts reflect research, teaching, and service. Nobody is contractually obliged to write LORs for random students. Faculty take time out of their day to do so.

A LOR draft from the student simply provides the starting point to help craft a reasonable letter. Most of the time I delete more than half the stuff that is not pertinent from my point of view, but sometimes, some things are, and I would not have had time to dig through all their background to pick it up. A LOR is my professional opinion about the student's likelihood of success in a given program, written from the perspective of the nature of my interactions with that student, which is disclosed in the first paragraph.

On might argue that asking for three LoRs for grad school applications is an unethical draw on public resources.

To offset the various "this is common and there's nothing wrong with it" claims: Not only was I never asked to write my own LOR, I was generally not even been allowed to read them. That way, the professors would feel free to write honestly, even if some of what they had to say might have been bad.


text:
Why such apathy towards double-counting of courses?
Many universities in the US disallow double-counting courses for double-major students. Why is that? The course content is basically the same, right?

Besides quibbles that the course content might be slightly different, there’s the larger factor that most US universities are primarily businesses. They sell credits, and departments justify their existence by how many credits they sell. So to them, you’d be asking for the final result (the degree) without paying enough.

Is apathy really what you mean?

Are you sure double counting is actually the issue and not that they're requiring a "for majors" version of a course? By saying course content is "basically" the same, that means it's possibly not the same? It would help to explain the specific scenario.

@Aruralreader I think the OP means antipathy

Are there really that many? My university allowed double counting up to half of the coursework required for a major. Usually the policy is quite permissive

Some double major programs will have credit hour requirements in addition to specific course requirements. This gives the student the opportunity (forced) to explore other subjects, enhancing the overall education.
Each major may have a minimum number of credits to qualify.


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What is the verb for first-authorship?
I am helping someone write his CV. In the publications section, he wrote the following.

Authored an article titled "Dense Neural Network ...

Now, he was the first/main author for said article. Is it okay if he writes the following?

First-authored an article titled "Dense Neural Network ...

Should he instead write the following?

Authored (first/main author) an article titled: Dense Neural Network

Why use this kind of phrasing at all and not just provide a list of publications? From there it is easy to see which author position the person holds for each publication. After all, it is a CV and not a story.

To expand on Sursula's point, they should look at what CV's in their area look like. To me this question indicates that they might not have done so.

@Sursula "After all, it is a CV and not a story" I think viewing these as completely distinct is a mistake.

@JohnMadden can you elaborate? Because a story usually isn't succinct, and succinctness and precision is essential for a CV because most professors don't have the time or patience to read a whole story...

@JohnMadden Isn't the whole point of a CV to give a quick and comprehensive overview over the skills, experiences and achievements? In a story format all that will not be easy to extract.

@Sursula You are probably describing a resume.

@Sursula Some grant applications ask for a "narrative CV" these days so in that context it could be relevant. I agree that for a traditional CV they should just provide a list.

The publications section of a CV normally contains nothing more than a list of one's publications in numbered list (or sometimes bullet list) format. Any sentences with verbs or additional descriptive language would simply clutter up the document and add nothing. In particular, any use of the word "author" (or variants such as "first author") is redundant; this is a publication list in a CV, so obviously the person whose CV this is is representing themselves as an author of the papers being listed. Authorship order is indicated by listing all the author's names. The name of the CV's subject is often put in bold for emphasis, which makes it easy to see where they are in the list of authors. E.g.:
Good:

Publications

A. Person, B. Another-Person. Our fabulous paper. Journal of Interesting Things 11 (2022), 123-456.

C. Yet-Another-Person, B. Another-Person, A. Person. Another paper. Journal of Less Interesting Things 33 (2021), 999-1023.

Not good:

Publications

First-authored the paper "Our fabulous paper". Appeared in Journal of Interesting Things 11 (2022), 123-456. Jointly written with B. Another-Person.

Authored the paper "Another paper", which was published in Journal of Less Interesting Things 33 (2021), 999-1023. Jointly written with C. Yet-Another-Person and B. Another-Person. (I am the last author.)

As for the grammar question about whether "first-author" can be used as a verb: in a different context where you are writing a text with a more traditional narrative structure, I would say it is grammatically acceptable, but doesn't come across as particularly beautiful or elegant writing. It may make sense in contexts where space is limited, such as to meet a word or page limit or where the writing is generally expected to be on the telegraphic side (as in a brief bio-sketch included with a grant proposal).

While this is, at best, marginally on topic here, the proper verb is "to be" in one of its forms. When writing about self:
"I am the first author..."
When writing about another person "X is the first..." if they are living or "was" if they are deceased.

If first-authorship represents the primary contributor to the paper (and it might or might not depending on the field) then I would recommend that this person instead refer to themselves as having primary authorship rather than first authorship.  (And of course, if first authorship is just a coincidence based on extraneous factors like surname, don't mention it at all.)  This approach would lead to something like this:

Primary-authorship of "Dense Neural Network ..."


text:
What do these years mean?
I am currently reading The Limits of Realism by Tim Button. I'm having trouble understanding the convention of reference that he is using. On page 7, he writes the following:

That picture is of reasoning from a 'God's Eye point of
view'.1

Then at the bottom of the page, the following is written:

1Putnam (1980a: 100; 1981c: 49; see also 1982a: 38; 1983a:
x, xviii).

What do these years mean? I've looked at the bibliography, but I can't find sources corresponding to these years and the author. Here's the first two pages of the bibliography.

Instead of the first two pages of the bibliography, you should be showing us the page where items authored by Putnam appear! That said, this usage is common when more than one publication by an author(s) for a given year appears in the bibliography. Note that Carnap (on your page "two") has two items for 1928, and they are listed as 1928a and 1928b. As for the a-b assignment ordering, this is probably according to the (possibly guessed) chronological order the items were written or appeared (e.g. use received date for papers).

@DaveLRenfro Found it! I did not notice that the bibliography was alphabetically ordered.

This answer merely adds detail to the answer given by @Allure.
In his book, Button uses a referencing system that seems to be somewhat non-standard. He combines a footnote style of referencing (with footnote numbers in each chapter being separately numbered from '1') with an author-date system. The superscript after the word view in the text indicates, as you have correctly shown, that there is a similarly numbered footnote at the bottom of the page.
The referencing system at the bottom of the page is an author-date system exactly as @Allure has indicated. In the 2013 edition (i.e., 1st edition) of Button's book (ISBN 978–0–19–967217–2) the sentence you have quoted appears on page 7. The bibliography for the book commences on page 245 and commencing on page 253 is a list of works by H. Putnam. If you look through that list, you will find two works with a 1980 publication date, one listed as 1980a, the other as 1980b; the work listed as 1980a is entitled How to be an Internal Realist and a Transcendental Realist (at the same time).

Most likely, Putnam has written multiple works which are all being cited. There are four of them, written in different years (1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983), and the citation gives more details on where to find the relevant information in all four of those sources.

Actually, there's at least nine. The "a" implies there's at least a "b", and "1981c" implies there's at least three in that year. Prolific guy.


text:
Contacting a Potential Supervisor about Funding (after agreeing on project)
I am in the process of contacting a potential supervisor to pursue a PhD in his group. We have agreed on the project and that I am a good fit for the project. However, there remains the funding issue. The professor is only granted funding for a UK citizen (since it's a university in the UK) from the department. But since I am an overseas student (the fees are double that of UK/EU citizens) he has to make a case to convince the department to fund me. I emailed him once, a week after our agreement, asking about updates regarding this situation. I got an update but no definitive yes-no answer and I am still waiting for more information. He said he would contact me when he has more information. But it's been more than 10 days since our last contact and I haven't received anything. Should I email him again? If so, what should I mention in the email (without seeming too pushy)?

I wouldn't push unless I had another option to consider and might need to back out of acceptance for another position. Ten days isn't a lot of time to move a bureaucracy.
However, if you need to write to him on another legitimate matter you could add a note at the end whether anything has developed about funding. If your acceptance is contingent on funding he should know that.

Then, how long should I wait to contact him again? @Buffy

@Mkw, if you have decisions to make about the position, then contact him soon enough to enable those decisions. But if it is just your wish to know, I'd keep waiting. If you have doubts about whether it will happen, explore what other options you may have.


text:
will I get money back if I drop out of college?
Alright, hear me out.
it’s the second day of college, and I want to drop out. I never should have accepted enrollment at this college, I knew deep down for months that I didn’t want to go, but I felt pressured by my family. Is there any way that I can get my money back since I’ve only had one day of classes so far? (not to mention the first day of classes uses zero material, just purely introductions). My college is a state college (CSU). I know what path I want to take in life, and I’m already very sure that this is not the way to go. I can see how much time I’m wasting already. Please don’t answer just to tell me to stay in college, I simply want an answer.

There's more than one state university abbreviated CSU, so that detail does not really help. However, whichever CSU it is, they likely do have a tuition refund policy.

No one can answer this but your university. Policies differ. But you need to act now, as many policies put limits on the time for withdrawal.

@Anyon. It is likely Colorado State. Connecticut and California do not have any state universities abbreviated CSU as far as I'm aware.

@Vladhagen Well, both the Connecticut State and Cal State University systems exist and can be abbreviated CSU. I was thinking more about individual universities like Cleveland State or Columbus State though. Still, I think Colorado State University has the largest enrollment, so it is a likely contender for sure. Either way, the abbreviation is very overloaded...

@Anyon I will grant you that much. I overlooked the fact that their are state universities not named [U.S. State] State.

It is common that universities will refund a almost all of the tuition you have paid if you withdraw from the university within the first week. It is often gradated after that, with a smaller percentage of tuition and fees being returned the later you wait to withdraw.
If you attend Colorado State University (CSU?), then it looks like you can still get 75% of your money back. They give you until September 2 to withdraw and get 75% back. The first day of school was the deadline to get 100% tuition back. You would need to talk with the registrar's office directly about all of this though.
https://registrar.colostate.edu/faculty-staff/important-dates/

My school doesn't even make tuition due until like the fourth week of the quarter


text:
Should I do someone else's peer-review work?
My secondary advisor approached me; he is on the program committee of a conference and asked if I were willing to review a research paper that is in my avenue of research. The review is part of the peer-review process, to determine acceptance.
I accepted, but it turns out it he is planning to submit the review himself, just asking me to write it for him.
Should I protest? If they are my words, my name should be on the review. But I don't want to raise a ruckus if it materially doesn't matter anyway.
Do I gain any benefit if it is me who submits the review instead of him?

Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/46042/how-many-papers-should-a-ph-d-student-review-for-their-professor-per-year/46044#46044

Also see Is it common to review papers assigned to your supervisor?

No, you gain no benefit if it is you who submits the review instead of him. If you conduct a review on his behalf, you gain the advantage of his mentorship and advice. It will be good experience for you, as you will get to work through a work in progress and understand more deeply how submitted papers are evaluated. If you are concerned about credit, ask him to mention to the editor that he asked you to do the review and these are your comments. Ideally, he should ask the editor for permission before sharing the submitted manuscript with you, as it was sent to him under a condition of confidentiality.

Exactly this. I did this before, with a former boss asking me to help with a review that was more in my scope of experience than his. He asked the editor for permission and we handed in the review together, which for him reduced the load and for me made my name known to the editor as well as taught me how this works. Win-win.

In my discipline (CS), the review forms typically contain an explicit "Secondary reviewer (if you want to give credit)" field to mention the student who actually did the work. In some cases they then also get listed in the proceedings.

Student from Germany here (Information Science) - I can only speak for my university and my professors, and they are quite strikt about plagiarism. Submitting something written by someone else is just that. Therefore our profs would never allow, nor tolerate such a thing.
Now, I am not sure about your relationship with your adviser, but it seems like any other scientific one to me - so your name should be on the work somewhere, just for the professionalism.
Furthermore I am not speaking about any personal gain you might or might not gain - that's your personal thing.

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text:
Transferring PhD departments
I was wondering, I'm interested in both some aspects of pure math and some aspects of theoretical computer science. I'm currently in a PhD program in computer science at a pretty decent institution (let's say, top 5 in most TCS people's minds), but I think my interests are more mathematical than I had anticipated. (For example, I'm realizing I'm more interested in some areas of topology and geometry and connections to computer science.) Do you think it would be worth trying to transfer into the math PhD program/do you that would be viable? I'm just about to start my second year. It would likely set me back a year at least to pass the qualifying exam in the math department, but I sort of think that it would do me good to acquire a more robust background in math. Of course, this is a very individual consideration, but I wanted to get a sense of what the general feeling on this type of question would be before chatting seriously with faculty in the two departments. (I know that usually people move from math into CS, not vice versa...)

I can't balance your options for you, of course, but I'll give you a couple of things to consider if you haven't already.
One is the time to completion of your current degree project. If it is soon, then staying might be best and then moving gradually into your math studies, either formally or informally.
But another option than the one you mention would be to ask around to see if you can't find an additional advisor in math and work with both of them at the intersection of math and CS which you seem to be interested it. This pretty much assumes that you are not yet deep in the weeds of your CS doctoral research. You might be able to avoid the math qualifiers that way if you have already qualified in CS.
I would guess that there is already some collaboration between the departments at an institution such as you describe. You might be able to explore it painlessly without needing to make an immediate decision or burn bridges.
What would be on your credential when you finish would depend on a bunch of things, of course.

The first year is sort of a calibration period, so unless the stakes are too high, some fluctuation is to be expected. I usually advise people that dropping out or switching chairs during the first year is a much better option than being stuck for 3-4 years with a topic (or advisor) you found is not for you.
PhDs are hard as nails already, so why risk burning yourself out on a topic that doesn't match your interests. Matters like the level of your institution or in which direction people usually move seem secondary in this situation.
Regardless of what advice you get here though, being you i would go and talk to your advisor about this. Simply be open. They will more likely have a specific idea how to proceed, and who knows, maybe you can work out a pretty novel direction by involving a co-advisor.


text:
As a PhD student, should I list a conference travel grant in CV?
I know there is a similar question here (Should PhD students mention small grants on their CV?) but there is a slight difference between my question and this.
I recently went to a conference as a student. The conference awards a travel grant for some participating students. This stipend is based in part on need (e.g., distance), but it is also based on level of participation, i.e. merit--only students who presented a full paper at the conference got it (as opposed to an abstract or workshop paper).
Are things like this worth listing on the CV of a starting PhD student, or should I not bother? A follow up question, if it turns out that it's good to list this, is how to list it.

I think the answer here https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/45219/11047 also applies to your situation.

I would suggest listing the participation, but not the grant. At the point you are, starting the doctoral studies, it will have little to no effect in any case and by the time the CV becomes more important you should have more substantial things to list.
Alternatively, if you list the participation and simply note (funded) after the reference, it would be fine, I think. But don't try to make it sound like more than it is.

By your question, it seems that the grant is not competitive and hence it will not serve as a strong point in your CV (or cover letter)


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Asking for a letter medical school letter of recommendation from a class you failed, retook, and got an A in?
I failed one of my classes (E and M) and during the subsequent retake got an A. I was considering asking the professor for a letter of recommendation because I think the episode shows my willingness and ability to bounce back. Also, I asked him for help a bunch outside of class, so he got to see me putting in effort.
I'm of two minds:
On the positive side, this letter would address the F on my transcript in the best possible light.
On the negative side, I'm worried medical schools won't understand the effort that goes into something like E and M, and write this off as a fluff letter. Or that they will assume that getting an F in the first place (without a serious excuse) means I lack the academic prowess for medical school.
My specific question is, has anyone actually done this for medical school admissions and did it come up in an interview?

I won't provide a full answer, as I haven't done this. But I would talk to the professor him/herself to ask how he/she interprets your record and whether it is in a positive light or not. If the prof is supportive, then you can ask for a letter. If my search for E&M is correct, it is recognized as a challenging course, so I don't think a med school admissions group would misinterpret the letter.

Your second concern stands regardless you have the letter from the professor or not. So it's a non-concern. Given that, I'd favor having him as one of your reference person unless all other reference writers are much stronger.

I have not been in this specific situation (and I doubt few have, if any), but I can respond to your general concern. Obviously, an F doesn't look good on a transcript, and this is a creative way to assuage concerns about an academic failure. It doesn't involve making excuses or supplementary material, it's a direct way to say "I didn't succeed here, but I learned from it and I proved I can put in the work to succeed", and be backed up by a professor who knows you. If it comes up in an interview, it's simply another opening to prove—in person—what you learned and how you persevered.

I haven't done anything close to medical school. But (i) you don't lose anything by asking, (ii) a letter is precisely what will clarify the situation that you worry that people won't get right just by looking at your transcript.


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About Scopus journals
I would like  to submit an article in IJEAT Indian  journal for my  thesis but  has  what is called APC fee
Is this journal a scopus journal?
Is it a ligible publication for my thesis If i pay  the APC?
Does all journals includ APC fee ?

I would answer all your questions one by one.

Question 1:Is this journal a scopus journal?
  Answer: In order to know if it is indexed by Scopus you need to visit the website of the journal and check it. Usually journals provide that information in their homepage.
Question 2: Is it a good journal for your thesis?
  Answer: It is impossible for an arbitrary person in this website to comment about the impact of the journal you have chosen for publication.
  Your co-authors(if any), advisor, peers are more likely to help you in this regard.
  You can check if this journal is indexed in leading databases like Web of Science, Science Citation Index to get a rough overview about the impact of the journal.
Question 3: Do all journals include APC?
  Answer: Not necessarily. Most good journals are published by leading publishers like Elsevier, Taylor Francis, Springer and many more and hence don't charge an APC.
  But charging an APC does not imply that the journal is a bad journal.

Hope it helps.

I would add article processing charges (APCs) are predominantly for open-access journals (since they don't make money off subscriptions).  IJEAT is open access, so the APC is expected.

I assume you mean "not all open access journals change an APC." Which is why I said "predominantly".


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Can most functions of universities be categorized as teaching, research and service?
I am writing a research proposal and I plan to approach it by dividing the most important functions of university into three categories--teaching, research and service.
Teaching will include all forms of education afforded to students.
Research broadly refers to all attempts at generating new knowledge.
Service refer to service to the monarchy, state, the public and in some situations, to the students as customers.
Do these categories sufficiently cover most functions of a university? Is there anything important that I could not include in these categories?

Where do athletics fall into this? It's a big part of a lot of universities but doesn't exactly fall into any of those categories.

True, but sports, as far as I have seen from the samples I have been given, is never mentioned. While I understand that it is an important aspect of many universities, I feel that it is considered "trivial" for the particular discourse I must write in.

Universities, and their students, do a lot of community service. While this might fall under your service category, I wouldn't describe it as service directly tied to the monarchy, state or "public".
At a minimum I think your list is missing

Social: At the undergraduate level many universities actively promote social interactions via greek life which I would not describe as teaching, research, or service. Even at the graduate student level the social networking that students engage in is a critical part of university life.
Sports: Many universities, especially in the US, also stress sports.
Fund Raising: Unfortunately a large portion, at least in the US, of the university function is to promote the university by raising funds

This seems to be a pretty good response. However, I have a cynical feeling that aspects of the university such as students' social network and sports are too trivial for an "academic" discussion.
The point on funding is interesting, however. It certainly seems that an important activity of universities' administration revolves around fund-raising for the university and the similar is done for departments, but I feel that these actions purely aimed at sustaining the institution, rather than its function.

@user289661 no idea what your purpose is, but do realize that teachers at big sports school often have to deal with pressure from athletic departments for special accommodations.

Since you cite service to the monarchy, I'm assuming that you aren't in the US. The following therefore may or may not apply to your country (I simply don't know):
In the US, each state has a "land grant university" whose mission -- other than research, teaching, and general service -- it is to provide technical and agricultural support to the state. These universities typically have stations in every county in the state where they provide training to farmers through their Agricultural Extension Service, and mechanical advice to individuals and companies as well. These Extension Services are big organizations. They have some connection to the rest of the university through occasional joint appointments of central staff with academic apartments, but the majority of employees are out in the counties and are not directly connected to the academic enterprise.
I suppose you could subsume them into "service", but the mission of these Extension Services is sufficiently different from that of the academic departments that that doesn't do the situation real justice.

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What are the incentives for universities to recruit athletic student
Is there any special incentive for universities to have many athletic students? I am speaking based on my personal observation on North American universities.
I often hear that universities look for students that are "well-rounded", but I do not believe that alone explains the numerous special early offers given to athletic students. This phenomenon, combined with some acknowledged cynicism, led me to this question.

If there is any problem with this question, please leave a comment that I may consider fixing it.

It's the same as the answer to Why do American colleges and universities have sports teams? Universities recruit athletes so that they'll have strong sports teams; the reasons for that are given in the linked post.

There is likely more than one correct answer to this, but here are a few answers that vary and may be true in multiple environments.
Student athletes
If we are talking about athletic students who are going to be "student athletes" (i.e. play on the universities intercolligiate sports teams) then the incentive is to win those tournaments. Depending on sport, winning an NCAA tournaments can be a very valuable endeavor. Additionally, as noted in the answers to this question, noted in the comments above there is a publicity value to having a notable sports team.
Athletic Non-Student Athletes

Involvement in extra-curriculars with attendant good grades shows that students aren't just getting by in high school, or dedicating all of their time towards studying, and therefore are more likely to succeed. In these cases, members of the student body, people in the band and on the yearbook committee get more or less the same boost.
A different type of student participates in sports, and by seeking out those students, you can improve the chances of a well rounded student body. People who are sports minded are often different kinds of competetive from your "type A" valedictorian-type students, where team values are rewarded. Also, Charles Murray has noted that sports participation is more highly correlated with lower SES, although not perfectly. Relatedly, there are many who grow up in a very poor environment, who pursue sports because they feel, wrongly, that it is their only ticket out. They have shown significant capacity to learn, but not enough capacity to play on the college team, and seeking those students provides them an opportunity the otherwise might not have.
For some universities athletecism is part of their mission. For example the U.S. military academies require participation in intra-mural sports for all students, for somewhat obvious reasons. One can imagine that other schools might have primary training objectives that require physical fitness.
Some schools make an athletic student body a part of their sales "pitch." Places the University of Colorado play up the active nature of the campus and the student body, and consequently they want to ensure at least a modicum of that. On the other hand, if a student body is organically athletic, then recruiting students who are interested in that sort of activity is part of the "goodness of fit" that selection entails, and schools want to ensure that their offers are accepted, so they will tend to opt towards students that are like their current students, to increase the probability that the students they admit come.
Finally, the advantages of fitness for intellectual activity are well documented. Admissions may simply be trying to do what they can to skew in favor of this additional criterion for admissions that increases the probability of success at school. It is probably a less reliable proxy variable, but since all schools are chasing pretty much the same graduates they could be using a "Moneyball-esque" strategy.

All of this is based primarily on my own experience and conjecture. I doubt highly that any of these factors weigh heavily at any school, and certainly not all of them at any school. I doubt, further, that many schools actively recruit athletic students on principle, any more than they recruit people from a language club or the choir, but these are at least some reasons they might want to.

I'd think probably that if they are weighting it really really really heavily as claimed in the question, then reason #1 is probably it. There's always the possibility that they may join the team, after all, even if they didn't think they would the moment they go it. The others, while they may be enough to justify a preference, don't seem like enough to justify privileging them WAY above all OTHER groups meriting a special preference as the OQ mentioned.


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Applying for MS in CS - what are the programming languages I must know before starting graduate school?
I am an electrical engineer with basic programming skills in C, C++, Python and Java. I wish to pursue my masters in computer science to pursue research (PhD) after working for a couple of years in the IT industry (preferably product development).
So what are the programming languages one must master before starting graduate school - MS in CS?

You don´t need any specific languages.
Try to get your "basic" skills in (some of) the languages you already know to an "advanced" or "expert" level. Doing this you will automatically understand and internalize the concepts behind the programming languages.
All the rest is just syntax and you will be able to pretty much learn many other languages "on the fly" if needed.

While no particular language is necessary, but good programming skills are, the languages you know are from a very narrow range. Therefore the thought processes that go into the programs you now write are also from a very narrow set of skills. It is a big world.
If fact, it is possible to program in most of the languages you name by writing barely disguised C code. Python is a bit better for avoiding that trap, of course.
But if you want to expand what you know, then build something significant in one of the languages you already know. Something big and complicated. If you haven't done that before it will greatly develop your skill.
But in the language area, since you ask about that, I would suggest learning at least one functional language, such as Scheme or Haskell. Both of those require quite different thought processes from the languages you know and you will benefit greatly from the (initial) struggle of getting your mind around that. The difference won't be "just syntax" but a different mental model.


text:
How to Deny A Project?
I had a colleague who inquired if I would be willing to do some data analysis on a project of his. I thought, sure, why not and had the disclaimer that if the project is viable I'm on.

He's a sweet fellow when the conversation is about the weather, sports, or the work schedule at a cocktail. As a person he can be kind of caustic and says stuff off the record that makes me cringe and want to wash my hands. He wants me to do a quantitative analyses of research output over a specific topic and categorize authors. He is trying to look for factors that he thinks contributes to "high quality research output and citations". He wants to group authors by race and the way he is assessing race is conjecture off of name, which I find honestly kind of stupid and a little horrific for this to be in academia. For example, we have a colleague of African descent, and on paper you could not tell him apart based on name alone from someone of European descent due to his combination of first and last name. He also specifically wants to compare the United States against countries from a specific region of the world he has had an off the record vendetta against, which he has made insensitive jokes about in the past. This is an individual that has been reprimanded once by the way by our institution but it was more of a slap on the wrist for name calling in an e-mail.

I don't want to put my hands on this project, because hypothesis and everything aside, I don't believe in it. I also am not interested in this kind of work anyway as I thought he was going to have data about an experiment in our field, not about researchers in our field. How do I tell him no after I opened the door at the beginning to be willing to collaborate? He e-mailed me data files, etc. CC'd on e-mails.

What is wrong with saying "no"?

Wow. Yes, staying clear of that project seems wise.

I've recently realized I am very busy and just don't have the time to take on another project, especially one that is only tangentially related to my research agenda.

Or, this is a swamp I don't want to wallow in. Actually the IRB might have issues with such "research" in any case. It sounds more like proselytizing than research.  I don't often want to use "colorful" language here, but this is tempting. If you set out trying to prove a point it isn't research and nothing you do will salvage it.

@Dawn Sounds like an answer, can you please post it as such.

"I do not believe that this research is viable."

And for the future, a better initial response to all such queries is: "I'll have to think about it, can you send me some more information and I'll look it over?"

Don’t walk, etc.

I thought, sure, why not and had the disclaimer that if the project is viable I'm on.

It sounds like there may be some methodological issues with his proposed work, but setting that aside, it is not incumbent on you to work on a project that is not of interest to you, a fortiori if you think that his work will be driven by biases relating to the topic.  From your description, it appears that you have already told him that your participation is contingent on this project being viable.  In view of that, I think you at least owe him an explanation if you pull out, and an apology if this comes from some reason other than the viability of the project.  I see two broad options for pulling out:

(1) Tell him that you think his project has some methodological problems (e.g., tenuousness of inferring race from name, etc.) and that you therefore don't think it is viable research.  In this case your choice is consistent with your previous representations to him, so you do not owe him any apology.
(2) Tell him that you have changed your mind, and you have decided that --regardless of its viability-- the project is not something of interest to you.  Be up-front about this and apologise for changing your mind - acknowledge that you previously said you'd participate, but let him know that you have changed your mind.

Either way, the best thing in these cases is to raise this as early as you can, be up-front in your position, and acknowledge any previous representations you made to him.  If you wish him luck with his research then this is likely to smooth over any discomfort.


text:
Ethicality of submitting a manuscript without a peer's name on it if they didn't contribute and you didn't pursue their edits?
I work at a very large institution with multidisciplinary faculty and staff, and I was acquainted with someone (we'll call him Dr. StackExchange) by a close friend of mine for a collaboration prospect, as it was believed his input would be highly valuable. I allowed him to look over a manuscript over a novel idea, and he completely missed the point which was a little concerning regarding his proficiency. Moreover, his edits took away from the spin we wanted on our paper and made it very conservative (debased it to a topic that is relatively published as opposed to something novel). Nevertheless, I went ahead.
Later, Dr. StackExchange approaches me with the premise that they have an editor invitation for a topic that I have an expertise in, and if the manuscript is based on sound ground, it will be met with a positive reception. Excited, I dropped everything I was doing for the past few days to punch out a manuscript with data, and my trusted friends in the field are impressed. I e-mail this Dr. StackExchange a copy of the manuscript and inquire further on the nature of the invitation (APC, etc.) and it turns out this wasn't an invitation but merely thought that having a manuscript in this journal would be a good idea. Essentially this is an unsolicited manuscript, and I spent less time with my wife and family to crank it out by an artificial deadline.
Needless to say, I am livid and I do not want to collaborate with Dr. StackExchange for this false premise. They do not have substantial influence even though they are within my institution. We share a senior in common, but I have a great relationship with this senior that is mutually exclusive of this individual. Based on this person's preliminary text messages, he again wants to make edits that my group and seasoned researchers into this topic think are asinine. In terms of contribution, I would say I did roughly 88-92%, and my close friend who initially referred me to him did the rest. We place our senior on there as a PI after he gives his opinion. If I do not carry out Dr. Stackexchange's person's edits, ignore him, and send this paper to our senior as a PI, would it be inappropriate or unethical to exclude Dr. StackExchange as an author? In retrospect, he comes off as exploitative and I believe we have identified lower ranking students who have fled his projects.
I intend on carrying out this scenario, but I want to make sure I am not doing anything grossly unethical. My belief is simply if this person contributes 0% to a paper and he is not even ingratiating me with a receptive journal as a target...what does this person serve? Especially if they lied to me (this is not a "misunderstanding", initial e-mail correspondence explicitly states that there is an editor who asked him personally for a manuscript over this topic and it will be met with much anticipation if we submit before a certain date for an issue)

Most of the "question" is irrelevant complaints.  If someone didn't contribute, you cannot make them a coauthor.

I'm confused.  I understand the idea of letting non-co-authors read a preliminary version of a paper to get their feedback, but why would you give someone who isn't already a co-author the right to edit your paper?


text:
How much is expected to know before starting a PhD
I recently graduated with a BSc in applied mathematics and considering on applying for a PhD. In fact, I contacted a supervisor and he seems some what interested in my undergraduate academic performance. He also sent some articles to read so that I get an idea of what sort of problem is there to be analysed in the PhD, and of possible methods to follow. I read them, however I do not understand everything in those papers as I am not familiar with some of the methods used. However, as I have a basic background knowledge from undergraduate coursework, I believe, I can study those methods in depth and gain knowledge. But it would obviously take couple of months for me to learn the material. Although my PhD wouldn't start (if I get selected) for another 6 months, I have to tell the potential supervisor about what I read in the articles he sent and how much I understand.
So, if I say like I didn't understand all the details, but I intend to learn them before the start of the PhD, does it look negative? Does supervisors expect us to know everything before the commencement of the research?

An answer to your question would really depend on the country where you'd do your PhD. But generally -- no, it's not expected of you to know "everything" prior to starting your PhD. (If you did, you wouldn't need a PhD :). However you do need to know enough, and have the appropriate skills and qualities, to be able to work at that level. As a toy example -- you can't just begin working on a Random Matrix Theory PhD without some good working knowledge of Probability Theory.

PhD students are not primarily chosen based on their knowledge but on their potential to do research. It's pretty clear that you can't know everything when you finished a BSc. If you have firm BSc with relevant courses that's fine.  However you may or may not have developed skills that help you to do research. One helpful thing is the ability to acquire new relevant knowledge on your own. Another one is to work towards a goal and not get drowned in details in the beginning. Also it's important to ask good questions, think about extensions, improvement and so on. In fact advisors should be good in recognizing these skills.


text:
PhD interview questions
I am going to apply for a PhD in an Australian University and I will have an academic interview.
I am going from a BSc to a PhD in applied mathematics.
At the interview, they usually give me time to ask my own questions.
So, I want to ask whether I can take one or two theoretical coursework that is taught in the university, if I feel like it is required. Is this a good question to ask at the end, or does it sound like I am not confident about my undergraduate theoretical knowledge, and would reflect negatively.
Also, in a question such as Why choose particularly that university is it okay to mention that I found that the university offers several scholarship and that having a scholarship benefits me immensely to carry out my studies. This I am going to mention after saying about the university and the department's recognition, and of a particular professor's work and that his work seems to suit my interests. Here, is it acceptable to mention the professor by name?

I never had to do an interview for my PhD position in the US, but it seems like asking process questions is reasonable. Going straight from a BS to a PhD program in the US is pretty common, but you generally do most of a Master's degree on the way by taking lots of graduate-level courses. I understand that this is less common in other country's systems.You should read as much as you can about the requirements for a PhD in your target university so that you know as much as you can about the process, and then ask, as knowlgeably as you can, questions like the one you've asked here. If you've done your homework, your question will sound informed, and they can fill the gaps in your knowledge without thinking you to be too ignorant about what's allowed and what's expected of you before you join the PhD program.
I wouldn't be too effusive about the program or professor when you are asked about your interest in the program. It might sound like you are trying to flatter your way into it which might be off putting to some interviewers. You should be fine saying that you are interested in topics like what Prof. X is working on, etc., but I wouldn't say that they're the best thing since sliced bread. Be honest without over selling it.

Here in Sweden most PhD students have a Master's degree, but they are still expected to complete some courses.


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Replying to a university offer
I have applied to study at a UK university for a taught masters starting in 2017 September. I also obtained an unconditional offer from one university. They have mentioned to reply to the offer within two weeks. But, I would like to wait till I hear from other universities. Can I request from this university to give me more time to make the decision as I have applied for 2017 course and there's a lot of time till 2017 September?.
I also intend to apply for the Commonwealth scholarship for Master's and PhD study for developing commonwealth country citizens. In the scholarship guidelines it is mentioned that

You must take the necessary steps to secure admission to your
  preferred universities in advance of your scholarship application.

Does this mean I have to accept the offer at a university to apply to the commonwealth scholarship or I should only have been offered a place at a university before I apply. Because in the commonwealth application I can state up to 3 universities. But I can only accept 1 offer right? So, I think I only have to have an offer from university. Is this correct?
Also, is there a way I can delay accepting the offer until I get a decision from the commonwealth scheme.  I believe the decisions in commonwealth sholarships are made in around 2017 April. So can I delay that long (From 2016 August to 2017 April) to make my decision on the offer? Do I have to pay tuition fees to accept the offer?
I would be extremely grateful if someone with experience regarding these can give me some advice on these issues.

You can always request more time, but you might not get it...

If you don't accept the place they want to offer it to someone else, who presumably has their own scholarship application issues. The longer the university keeps the place open for you, without your commitment, the more of the alternative students will have accepted elsewhere.

And yes, you do have to accept the position before applying for the scholarships, which is silly on one hand, but makes sense on the other.

It is not wrong to request for more time to make your decision. But, as @Nate pointed out, you may not always be granted what you request for.
If you do not receive the time you ask for, then it is a gamble you may choose to make or decide to play it safe. Many go through this sort of situation.
There is however another option. If you can't postpone your decision for the first institution, you could try preponing the your offer result of the other institution. Give a kind request to know your status of the application to the other institution to be in a position to decide earlier. This is also just a request, however it is still worth a try.


text:
What does EE processing in peer review process mean?
I sent a technical paper for peer review at Manuscript Central and after 5 days the status is Awaiting EE Processing. What does this mean?

EE is probably Executive Editor.

Check out the canonical question, What does the typical workflow of a journal look like? Since EE is probably executive editor (per Nate Eldredge), that means your paper has passed the initial check. An editor has also been assigned. The next stage is editorial assessment:

The editors decide whether the paper should enter the review process or should be rejected directly, e.g., because it does not fit the journal’s scope or requirements on importance or quality. A rejection at this (or the previous) stage is called desk reject. The paper may also be returned to the authors for reasons other than rejection, such as to request more data or clearer figures prior to formal review.

That's the stage your paper is likely at.


text:
Is it ok to contact multiple potential supervisors?
I have applied for MASc. (graduate research) programs in Canadian universities and there is a requirement to have a supervisor.
My question is: Should I contact more than one professor from the same department of a University with similar interests? What would happen if more than one professor shows interest in me? How would I deny the acceptance of other professors and just choose one without giving a rude impression? Would it be better to be honest upfront and mention about "contacting more than one professor" in the emails?
I want to contact more than one professor as I am not sure about the situation of the professor i.e. They might be on sabbaticals, leaves or might not be taking any more applicants, which might cause them to reject me and I won't have enough time to contact another professor (also, I personally feel that this method is rude).

Yes, you can contact several. But before you contact anyone, make sure that your interests and background align with their specialties. If your letter states that you are exploring your alternatives and seeking an advisor, rather than specifically asking if they will be your advisor, it will be easier for you to "disappoint" one or more of them by choosing another, assuming you get a lot of interest. "I'm interested in potentially being your student and ..."
If it is possible for you to actually visit the institution, you could try to have face to face visits with some of the faculty. Try to visit them in roughly the same order of your interest in them and if you "hit it off" with one, you are done.

Is not only OK, you must contact multiple professor as you need to find the best opportunity that match better with your research interest.
But on the contrary do not contact to much, and be aware of their work: what they have published ? are they associated to other project ? And you can also look to the production of their alumni. It will give you an idea of how they supervised student work


text:
Googling my name reveals silly things from when I was younger. I am embarassed. How will this affect me in my future academic career?
I am a masters student at one of the top two universities in the UK and will be applying for PhD positions soon. When I google my (unique) name, the first few results are what you'd expect, my LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and some university web pages.
However if you keep scrolling and go through the pages of Google's search results, you see some silly forum posts from when I was 12-14 years old, and some poorly written Yahoo Answers questions from the same time. I am now 22 so this was almost 10 years ago.
I know it's stupid but when I was that age no one really taught me how to use the internet properly and so ended up using my full name in a number of places.
I've not written anything offensive and my name isn't on anything objectively bad, but it's just childish silliness (memes, poorly written stories, Yahoo Answers nonsense, and just weird forum posts) and I'm a bit embarrassed to be honest. I feel like as I continue to progress academically, it will become more likely that people will Google me and see all this which might make it likely that I will be judged. Again, it's nothing offensive or objectionable just old young teenager stuff. Benign but embarrassing.
Should I just ignore it and hope that as my career develops these old results get pushed further back in Google's search results? Should I try to remove this stuff from the internet (very difficult as I have lost all these old accounts)?
The stuff I posted back then has little to nothing to do with who I am now professionally, and I would hate for people to think it is. Having a unique name does seem like a curse sometimes and I have made it worse by being extra foolish when I was young.

Comments posted in answers and the ensuing discussions have been moved to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment.

In Europe we have the "right to be forgotten", If you make a request,
google should remove the results containing your name. I'd also recommend checking other search engines to see how you show up there. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/legal-removal-request?complaint_type=rtbf

Hi Qazed1234, There are two ways to take 10 year old silly posts - one is how you fear they will be taken, the other is that you became active early in online forums and learned as you went.

Is it possible that you could plausibly deny that the person who posted those 'embarassing' statements is a different person? Is your name particularly unique or uncommon?

Is the question really "how will this affect me in the future?"  That question asks random people who do not know you to make a prediction of the future based on almost no information; that's not a great question format for this site. Is there a way to make this question more crisp?

Relevant xkcd. No one goes to the second page.

I know you said you lost the accounts, but is there no chance you could use the "forgot password" feature to get into these accounts and rename them to something that isn't your real name?

You may be interested to know you can remove your name from a Yahoo Answers question even if you can't delete it. This Yahoo Help forum answer has instructions.

I'm deeply involved in web technologies, including search results. The simplest and fastest way to solve this problem is to add other search results. The more "legitimate" and positive results found, the less likely the others will be seen. There are numerous factors in raising search results, but still:

Create another Stack Exchange account with your name and use it.
Create social media accounts with your name.
Join groups and use your real names (in addition to pseudonyms).
Create a Disqus account with your name.

You don't need to make many posts on each site, but place professionally enhancing content there.
If you really want to spend time with this - open other accounts with simple variations of your name thus creating even more false results.
A little work every day and soon you'll have 100s if not 1000s of positive results that will appear above the other silliness.

Extended discussions, comments on the Gab issue, and answer in comments have been moved to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment.

Relax. No one cares, and no one will judge you on what you said when you were 12. (At least, no one who was ever 12 years old themselves...)

You are right most won't care. There may be a few who do, but you probably don't want to work with them anyway.

If someone cares about 10 year old posts online as part of their recruitment process, OP should consider himself lucky he won't be working with them. But lump the OP into the same bracket. OP is the one worrying about being judged according to those terms, so OP's value system equates to theirs.

@Sentinel: That’s hardly a fair assumption.  You can legitimately worry that other people will judge you by some standard, without in any way subscribing to that standard yourself.  If someone worries about possible discrimination for being openly gay, that doesn’t make them a homophobe themself.

@PLL I respectfully disagree. By trying to circumvent those who might judge you as being eg openly gay you are essentially accepting them into your life. Recognizing, tolerating, and circumnavigating them equates to acceptance.In other words, why tolerate intolerance?

@PLL it is not that the OP subscribes to the standard necessarily, though in this case clearly does, but that the OP accepts the value system at all. By behaving according to it, OP gives it meaning.

@Sentinel Because only the truly intolerant won't tolerate intolerance. It's in the definition of tolerance.

Google doesn't tell us the age of the poster, and in the results dates are often inaccurate, so if the OP's name is pretty unique those embarrassing posts will continue to resurface even ten years from now. The best solution is to delete them wherever possible. If he has a record of his username and PW it shouldn't be that difficult. No?

@PaulUszak That is semantically analagous to saying that only the hateful wont love hate. I think you need to reexamine your philosophy.

The OP has nothing to worry about as long as he or she can avoid getting nominated to the United States Supreme Court. :-)

@Mari-LouA It is not always so easy. There are lots of sites which log these things outside of user control.

@Sentinel If there were laws against being gay then one could have concern about whether or not someone will judge them or arrest them. Being concerned about backlash does not mean one believes the people doing said backlash are correct. It merely means that some people might judge because experience has shown some people do.

@TheGreatDuck I don't agree. Being concerned about a backlash is giving in to fear and to some extent accepting the backlash. Expecting backlash and still flaunting it in front of them without concern is an entirely different spirit.

@Sentinel backlash sometimes comes out of making people uncomfortable in some fashion. Accepting that it bothers those people and that they might disapprove does not mean you disapprove. It merely means that you are willing to accommodate them. Regardless, giving into fear as you put it does not mean that "OP's value system equates to theirs". Op is concerned that said person might fire them over this. Attempting to resolve it before that might happen is a reasonable thing to do. Flaunting something that might get you fired is NEVER a good idea.

Unless you go into politics.

European Union privacy rules include certain aspects of the right to be forgotten. I am not an expert on what this means precisely, but it seems to include the right to have search engines remove certain information associated with your name from search results.
Here is another page provided by Google with more information and a form for submitting privacy-based requests for removal of search results. I assume other search engines will have similar procedures in place to comply with the EU rules.
Note that these rules apply in the EU. I suspect the embarrassing results associated with your name will still be available in non-EU countries. See this related recent article where this somewhat controversial issue is discussed.

I added it only because you state that information may still be available outside EU. That is not the intent of the rule. Had you not made that comment I'd not have made mine.

@op may have a better chance at trying to recover the forum accounts in question and edit or delete the posts. I recently did a "Google cleanup" of my own, and recovered several decade-old forum accounts and deleted their contents.

Does the EU rule require the complainer to be an EU citizen? The OP had better do this before Brexit.

@DanRomik Buffy just stated that the RTBF is unenforcable by the EU. The EU might have enacted that regulation, but it effectively claims the EU to have power over every company and individual on the planet when it comes to enforcing it as they demand a company in say Monrovia will have to comply with their directive if an EU citizen wants his data scrubbed from their servers.

@WGroleau "EU cannot force a company outside of Europe to delete things from their servers that are outside of Europe." That's exactly what GDPR allows the EU to do, when the company is serving clients in Europe.

Decentralized blockchains will disrupt the ability for any laws to dictate what is forgotten from the Internet.

@ShelbyMooreIII someone will own the physical layer more than others.

“When the company is serving … in Europe.”  I have no doubt that some companies have chosen to instead stop serving those clients.  And no doubt that others are ignoring any fines, knowing that EU is not going to invade their country over it.  Should EU be silly enough to attempt blocking websites, people will get around it anyway.

@WGroleau some companies might, but Google (and likely also Yahoo) is earning too much in Europe to just ignore GDPR.

Google is just finding web pages.  The "silly things" are on other websites.  Google will collapse if they attempt to filter search results according to whether or not persons mentioned in the pages have given Google permission to find those pages.

@mathreadler My response was directed to what can’t be forgotten entirely, not what can be distributed entirely at all times. Decentralized archives will be  analogous to an endospore organism that even though dormant, can be revived thousands of years hence.

@ShelbyMooreIII I suppose you have a point. But how do we know these archives don't contain fabricated information?

@mathreadler cryptographic digital signatures for identities. And cryptographic hash chains for lineage.

@ShelbyMooreIII I think you are being a bit too optimistic. There are so many practical vulnerabilities to such technology. Any private key gets stolen and fabricated information can sneak in. With your name on it (or whomever owned the private key).

@mathreadler I don’t intend this to be disrespectful, but it’s amazing how naive people most people are. By implication you’d prefer instead of personal responsibility a global mafia fakes online identities via enslavement of Internet behemoths. Think that’s not coming. Please consider to read carefully my linked resource w/o the prejudice that normally blinds readers from the truth.

@ShelbyMooreIII It feels like the conversation is derailing into some scary fantasy land. I do like fantasy sometimes but prefer it in my computer games.

@mathreadler the fantasy is your belief that the reality is a fantasy. Wishing away the facts won’t help you. But I really think this is pointless. The free market takes care of educating those who stick their head in the sand.

@ShelbyMooreIII The ones who would need to be "educated" are usually not very receptible to that "education". The free market is thus mostly using resources to make sure that other resources become unused. Does not seem very economic to me.

This question is definitely more of a online reputation management question so my only advice is buckle up and try to anonymize your past actions.
Here are some suggestions:

Change your username on those forums and remove profile details

Often times this will globally change your name across all your posts

Contact the forums and ask them to de-associate your account from your posts; Stack Exchange does this so I hope others can too
Delete/edit your old posts if you can
Deleting your account can sometimes anonymize your old posts but some sites could maintain your username without a link to a profile

Ultimately, assuming you didn't post anything illegal or bigoted then it's not likely to come back and haunt you; unless you decide to become a politician then EVERYTHING will be used to smear you.

This is a good suggestion. Some questionable site added a user with my name without my asking, and I changed the username before trying to delete it.

Well, be assured that you are not alone. Things kids do were hidden from view in the past, but no longer. Now your entire life is on view for anyone who looks.
In general, however, as long as what you did or said isn't truly horrible, it will do little more than raise eyebrows or elicit a laugh. People generally realize that we eventually grow up and those older than you, whose background is less visible will look back at their own foibles as well.
But if you bragged at age 15 that you liked to blow up frogs with firecrackers, you might want an explanation for why that isn't the same you anymore.
More generally, however, I think that society needs to take more account of personal privacy, especially for those not yet officially adult. No one seems to have good solutions for that, however, other than parental supervision. Certainly the social media sites have little interest in your privacy when their business model depends on exploiting information about you.

Where were you going with "society needs to take more account of personal privacy"?

What’s the problem with blowing up frogs (a small brained creature) with firecrackers? Am I not supposed to use poison or my shoe to kill insects which carry diseases for example. Should I not eat meat because it involves killing animals? I could understand forming a wary opinion of a person that was skinning cats alive or otherwise maximizing the pain of another creature. The blowing up of frogs could simply be a learning “what if” experiment or the testosterone of young boys. And they get squashed quite often by car wheels and such unintentionally.

You are equating all killings of animals, but those examples are not all comparable. It seems quite reasonable to develop a more negative opinion of someone for blowing up frogs than for squashing an insect with their shoe, let alone for eating meat. In general the motivation of why we do things matters, and some childhood mischief could attract criticism even if it does not involve the killing of any animals.

While I do recommend the point, mentioned by other answers, of having more (non-embarrassing) internet entries with your name (that can be anything from blog entries to mailing list discussions), something that has not been mentioned is that the people looking for you on the internet won't know that the Yahoo answers poster is the PhD student.
Sure, you have a very unique name, but... are you sure no one else on the Earth bears that name? Do people looking for you believe that?
When searching someone's name on the internet it's not uncommon to find, in addition to the one you expect, someone else with that name -which clearly is a different one- living on the other side of the globe (and perhaps nobody else, just those two results). Then, there are those results that could relate to the looked up person or not, in which I guess all those embarrassing entries will fit, unless you included extra details there, like listing your school or the place you lived.
The people that really browsed a lot for entries by your name will conclude that maybe you said some silly things ten years ago.
My expectation is that, at most, you would get some questioning from other young colleagues for fun (are you the Mxyzptlk that said 2+2=5?), at which point it is up to you to acknowledge having made those posts... or not, after all, how would you remember if you made certain Yahoo answers post 10 years ago, even if it mentions a name like yours?

qazed1234 could possibly even help this along by creating fake accounts using his real name, but fake photos, nationality, interests etc. This will increase the plausibility of the existence of someone else with the same name.

From what you described, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you were earnestly engaging in public discussions before you had mastered articulate presentation skills, I personally would see that as a positive not a negative. But much more likely, I'm never going to search remote forum boards for a candidate I'm interviewing.
With that said, I think a very proactive measure one could take is to simply build a professional website. If I'm interested in judging the professional contributions of an individual, this is the very first and most likely the last place I will look for them; it gets straight to the point and typically communicates exactly what technical skills they do (or do not) have. If I'm interviewing you, I don't care if you're into sky-diving in your free time, I want to know what your research interests are and how well you communicate technical information. A website is a great place to demonstrate this.
As an anecdote, I also have a unique name (only one in the world) and for a long time if you Googled me, my website was the first result to pop up and some combat sporting events I participated in would pop up on the first page of the search results (it's now moved down much further). At the time, I similarly was slightly embarrassed, as I felt it was a bit unprofessional. Many of the people who have interviewed me were familiar with what was on my webpage. Not a single one was familiar with the sporting events.

This is the problem of unable to change from your perspective to other's. Pick a person you want to know right now and google their name, would you even scroll to the bottom of the page? No. Just a couple of first results is enough to overwhelm your mind. Even when they have read everything about you, they will feel closer to you, not to mock you.
By being able to put yourself into other's shoes, you can detach to your emotions and move on.
See more:

Perspective-taking
Empathy gap
The Spotlight Effect
Detachment (philosophy) - Wikipedia
F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content
Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think (Taming the Mammoth)

Whether someone will "scroll to the bottom of the page" surely depends on what they're looking for. A casual google search perhaps won't uncover negative material, but a background check by a potential employer might.

It's possible, but I think even the potential employer maybe too busy to check all the way down

@Ooker If they are too busy, it does not mean they will stop checking altogether. It probably means that they will rather start contacting others to check for them, as they already do to some extent by using  consultancy and recruitment companies and such. How they will be working depends on their owners and don't expect to have any transparency into that.

@mathreadler huh, I thought consultancy and recruitment companies are for non-academics?

@Ooker I have seen several post doc positions announced through such companies. Would not surprise me if the extent was to increase also in the future.

@mathreadler regardless they're probably going to look at the date when viewing material. 10 year old posts that are "silly and random and sometimes a bit incoherent" aren't exactly a red flag for an employer.

@TheGreatDuck the thing is it may not be a red flag for the employer. But the applicant may never be presented to the employer because it is filtered out as unprofessional or something before it reaches them.

@mathreadler That's bypassing my point. I'm saying that whoever is looking at these sites should be looking at the dates. If not then they are inevitably going to over filter people simply because they say.... played Roblox as a kid and made silly games. Children are by default not professional. To expect professional posts at that age is just being stuck up and is going to over-filer their results. It's impractical.

Relax.
What you did in your 12 is half your time here back. It will become a third soon, quarter slightly later, etc.
During this time you will feed the Internet with new and more relevant content and low-quality posts will become very obsolete and cannot backfire to you. If anyone tries to play that card in an argument, you can belittle it by "And you were a genius in your 12? You made a very poor improvement since then."
The only case your 12-year-old self can backfire at you is a very serious misbehaviour and it still can be dismissed as "I've learnt my lesson from that".
This is the part of growing up and learning. If you don't learn you don't improve. What actually happens to you is judging your old posts written with 12 year old knowledge and 12-year-old skills by criteria adjusted to recent knowledge and 24-year-old skills. Be sure that after 10 years you will see your today's work, you are proud of, with the same emotions as you are seeing the ancient posts Google has found.
If you are about to be assessed by a sane person they will know that and ignore that. If they will assess you because of your 20 years old posts, it is a strong argument for you to never meet them again.

But googling by potential future employers is a thing.

@PeterMortensen As other mentioned already, if one lives on the internets and grow up the ancient post OP is concerned about shall be burried in the heap of recent posts etc. And again, eployer concerned about your posts 20 years ago is the employer you do not want to work for.


text:
The status of my paper is "Ready for Decision (30 days)". Should I write an email and ask?
I submitted my paper in Elsevier, the status of my paper is "Ready for Decision (30 days). Should I write an email and ask why does it takes so long?
Thanks

Wondering if you ever got a decision on this.

Yes. 30 days is well past the normal range to make a decision after all reviews have been received.

Thanks Allure, I just chat with the Elsevier service and they said that they will contact with the Editor and I will receive email from the Editor within 5 working days

after waiting, now the status is "Ready for Decision (57 days)"