text:
What to do about referral for student I would not recommend?
In my field (computer science), students often get jobs through referrals, where faculty members pass on the student's resume to someone employed at the company the student wants to work at. In an annual talk and throughout the year, I advise my students to use referrals if at all possible rather than applying online. I accept LinkedIn requests from my students and encourage them to ask me for referrals.
There is currently a student in our small program who has negatively impressed all of the professors he has taken classes from, as well as many of the students. He is not the weakest CS student, but, in my opinion, he is the worst at getting along with others and behaving professionally.
I am wondering what to do when he asks me to refer him to companies (which I expect him to do). In the past, when a weak student has asked for a referral, I have said that I don't think they're ready for the job in question [due to their technical level], recommended that they ask a different professor, or refer them without an explicit recommendation (e.g., "Jane Doe asked me to refer her to SlackJaw.") I am hesitant to do the latter for this student because I don't want to hurt my or my school's reputation by putting forward a candidate who behaves inappropriately. I also dread his reaction if I decline to refer him for a job. I expect that he would get angry and allege persecution. (I'm a tenured full professor, so my job wouldn't be in danger if he complained about me, but I'd rather not get in that situation.)
In any event, I don't want to hurt his chances of getting a job. I'm happy to give him job-seeking advice and help him with his resume, but I don't want to recommend him.
What should I do if he asks me for a referral?

What about "don't"? If you cannot give a good referral, don't do any.

Why do you dread his reaction? You have no responsibility of giving anyone a referral. I doubt "this professor did not write me a referral" would stand as an excuse to allege persecution in any tribunal.  Don't get bullied by a student, just plainly refuse to do a referal if you are not up for it.

I agree, none of my fellow students at any point in student life felt entitled to a letter of recommendation. There was always some trepidation and a lot of groundwork done before approaching a professor, and it was not unheard of to hear 'sorry, no'.

I dread his reaction because I fear he'd bring his father in to argue for him (something he has hinted at before about a different matter). You're right that I shouldn't let my fear get in the way of being honest and using my power responsibly.

Agree. Further, I would avoid debating the point with the student -- explain your reasoning and then end the meeting. Any further whining (or intervention by the father!) can be met with "I have already shared my thoughts on this matter" and a firm request to leave.

@embarrassed the way I see it, the student can bring the pope to the table, they will win nothing. If they force you to write one (I can't see how they would) you'd write a bad recommendation letter. The student can't be so shortsighted as to not realise  that. As cag51 says, do not provide explanation. Just say you won't do it.

"I dread his reaction because I fear he'd bring his father in to argue for him" Then Daddy can get him a job, right? ;)

Have you considered that this student may be oblivious to their problems, not realizing they exist and hence not able to take any action to solve this? I have seen this a number of times, where nobody would like to work together with a certain student, but nobody tells the student in question this, and hence the student is not even aware that people feel this way.

I have spoken to him directly and indirectly (by addressing the entire class), but he seems to think his behavior is beyond reproach and that any criticism of him is wrong. I feel sorry for him at times. I guess this situation is his problem, not mine.

There are ways of writing a recommendation :
1) this student attended my course on snail migration in semester X.
2) this student attended my course on snail migration in semester X and was always on time , with the homework completed.
3) this student attended my course on snail migration in semester X, was always on time, always came prepared and actively and positively contributed to each session.
One other method is the “omission” method ie if timekeeping is not mentioned at all in the reference - then that says they are often late. Some do not like to put negative comments and just saying “attended” compared to “regularly attended” or “always attended” can speak volumes...

This is true, however I think its slightly dishonest (or not completely ethical) to write a "bad" recommendation letter to a student without letting them know, somehow. If I'd asked for a recommendation letter and only got 1) I'd be pissed if whoever did it did not tell me "sorry I am unable to write a good recommendation letter to you".

I have written exactly that and given it personally to the student saying “given your attendance I can’t put anything else” - the student agreed - however whether they used it is a different question... I also have a responsibility to the person(s) reading the reference...

I do also agree that this seems slightly unethical. Modt students can presumably not estimate if this is bad and how bad it really is.

@Udank I have had discussions with the HR people doing the interview and making the decision about a student directly so I have to back up what I have put in the reference which can vary from "don't let this one get away" to "you will need to watch them 24/24" ...

Is there a formalized student feedback mechanism in your program? E.g., an annual progress report where faculty give students a written assessment of the progress and performance so far, ideally with concrete goals. If so, referring to previous feedback the student has gotten might help present the situation as further removed from any conflict he may perceive to exist between the two of you?
If no such mechanism exists, it might not help with the current situation but could aid in similar future circumstances. Even if you think you've communicated your issues with him clearly, the fact that you suspect he will still ask for a referral makes me suspect that it has not been clear to him (even perhaps if it would have been to somebody else).


text:
Are there any studies on how lecturer review sites such as Rate Your Lecturer affect student choices?
A version of the lecturer review website Rate Your Lecturer recently became active in the UK.
Do you know of any studies which consider to what extent students use this or any other review websites to guide their choice of university?

This is necessarily incomplete, but I do recall a few studies on the correlation between ratemyprofessor.com rankings and student evaluations. Two such studies are:

Hotness and Quality
Student evaluations and RMP

These are disappointingly old though (2006/2007)
There's a more recent study from 2011:

Researchers and RMP

As for other studies, your google is as good as mine :)

People still use RateMyProfessor.com? This was a thing when I was in undergrad, and I have a Ph.D now :)

Well the studies are from a few years ago :)

Hmm. I must say that the study does not impress me. Teacher evaluations by the students on the internet correlate with teacher evaluations by the  students on a pencil-and-paper questionnaire? Not really shocking. Correlation coefficient of 0.68? Not really shocking. (that said, it's always good to read some real data rather than speculations).

What did you expect? They are not journalists, so it's not their job to distort numbers to impress people, right?

Not confirmed by genuine research, but a very strong hunch based on some decades experience: I'd anticipate that having a few crank-negative reviews among mostly-positive is tremendously beneficial, for more than one reason. First, your "supervisors" (dept head, dean, etc) are often not so naive as to think that there'd be no complaints, so it's harmless. Even better, and more significantly for your day-to-day life, the rants of a few cranks may significantly inhibit other cranks from signing up for your courses. "For the wrong reasons", but to your benefit, etc.
This would apply currently to top-50-research-schools in the U.S., I think, and I'd imagine to most other places in the U.S., since most have not committed to any quasi-automated officially validated anonymous rating system, or any other rating system for faculty teaching.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


text:
Seminar on How to Behave At University
Many students arrive at University and struggle with the transition from school.
Has anyone run/attended a lecture in which some or all of the following topics - or similar - were covered? Note - I am envisaging a mandatory single lecture for first-years which is independent of course/faculty.
How to behave in class
e.g. little/no talking while the lecturer is talking; what to do if arriving late (go in through a rear door, and/or apologise),
How to ask help of a lecturer/tutor
e.g. make an appointment and arrive on time if you want to ensure you get attention; don't arrive unprepared - show that you've done some reading and/or attempted to solve the problem yourself; have a series of well-defined questions ready, rather than just "can't do it"; don't show up 24 hours prior to a deadline set a month ago asking for help that should have been sought weeks ago and expect miracles;
How to engage with lecturers
e.g. forms of address - initial formality (e.g. "Hello Dr/Prof. X") is very likely to be appreciated and then met with an invitation to be more informal (call me "Phil"). Remind that lecturers are often engaged in other teaching and/or research and may often be too busy to chat if you just drop by their office.
How to engage with students
Remind the students that they are adults, this is not school, there are now serious consequences for breaches of behavioural codes.
Note, this subject material is not course or subject specific, nor am I envisaging the lecture as part of a lecture course, where only a subset of the year group attends. I envisage a mandatory class that all first-year students must attend at the start of the year. Furthermore, it sets out only the basic requirements of behaviour - specific lecturers might have their own additional policies on behaviour that they follow in their class.

Perhaps my view is overly cynical, but the only effect I can imagine of such a course is letting the students know that you don't really respect them. Even if that is true, I would advise against sending such a message. The students "know" everything you mentioned, but if they don't do it, I imagine they will "learn" it only the hard way.

Apologizing after coming too late is a great way to disrupt the lecture (or anything going on) even further while maintaining plausible deniability.

@darijgrinberg: This may be culture-specific, but I agree: Essentially, I'd argue that in the transition from school to university, students have to learn that they should not apologise when entering late any longer (or, in general, enter/leave at any time while a lecture is running), but just silently find a place.

@O.R.Mapper It is certainly culture-specific, since I have seen at least one faculty member at my alma mater scold a student for quietly entering/leaving a lecture instead of first asking for permission. Or, maybe it is not just the students that need to transition from one-mode of behavior to another.

I attended such a course during my first semester at a community college. It was mandatory for all incoming students, in all fields/majors.
This course covered most of the topics you mentioned, plus effective study habits, time management, basic computer and research skills, and brief experience with PowerPoint and givng a presentation. A major focus of the course was introducing students to resources they could use if they ran into difficulties with studies or life experiences. For me, the course was not very useful, since I already had a strong foundation in those essential life skills. However, to other students, the course proved very useful.

I think the most useful part of any such course is providing resources for students who are facing difficulties, both academic and personal: tutoring centers, testing centers for students with disabilities, counseling centers, crisis hotlines, safe ride programs, emergency deans, department ombudsmen, ...

These are four very different topics, with distinct answers for each.

How to behave in class

This is typically deliniated by each professor on a class-dependent basis, as expected behavior will vary from course to course.

How to ask help of a lecturer/tutor

This is pretty low-level etiquette, and these sorts of things are typically tacitly conveyed through interactions with the community rather than being formally discussed in a lecture.

How to engage with lecturers

Again, varies from lecturer to lecturer.

How to engage with students

I've seen this discussed in a wide variety of settings, including seminars, course lectures, lab meetings, and individual advisor discussions.

Agreed. We had a week long orientation program covering all of these in great detail. A single lecture would probably not be comprehensive enough.

I set up an introductory lecture for students. Some of it was along the lines you outlined but there were some additional points which I will mention.
I had the possibility to run a short written anonymous survey asking for (up to three) keywords about their (1) expectations, (2) reason for studying in general, (3) reason for choosing the topic, (4) what they are elt uncertain about with their coming studies,  (5) what they considered most important about studies, (6) listing differences and similarities between higher ed. and lower ed., (7) their roll as student, (8) the lecturers roll, and (9) what they look forward to the most. This was collected and could be summarized in an an hour before my lecture so I could use the outcome to discuss their answers directly.
First, I had students discuss in groups of four in the lecture hall to briefly answer the questions: why get an univ. ed.? How does a univ. ed. work? and what distinguishes university from lower level ed.? This formed the basis for going into, and this could possibly differ slightly between systems, the very clear differences between school and university. In school teachers are there to teach you and it is their job to make sure you understand. At the university, lecturers are there to present, help explain and structure material. The learning is the job of the student, not the lecturer. The lecturer facilitates learning. So, bluntly speaking, the difference is that if you do not learn in school it could be blamed on the school but if you do not learn at a university, you need to primarily blame yourself.
I also pointed out the importance of skill such as the written and spoken word, study habits and computer skills (many other specific to the particular education could be mentioned). These skills are usually not mentioned anywhere but are outcomes of almost every course in one way or another.
Second, I outlined the many rolls of someone working at a university: teach, develop teaching, teach and advice graduate students, research (including writing proposals), administration, maintain national and international contacts, and research information to society (please add if you can think of more tasks. It is important to understand the conditions under which the lecturers live.
Third: Professional attitude. Pointing out that studies are serious but also that they should be fun through good social interactions and that students and lecturers in a way are colleagues in a common project, to complete a successful and useful education.
I also re-ran the survey once they were done with the course (which ran a full term) and could then repeat and highlight the differences in their answers. The main point of this is to get everyone to at least have heard the same "truth" about what they were about to embark upon. For some it was no news but many expressed that they received a better picture of what it is all about. There certainly was a lot more understanding for the lecturers reality than earlier.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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


text:
What do you say to check-in or passport control when going on fieldwork/research leave?
I am going on fieldwork to UAE in a couple of  days' time. I'm researching parts of the local music scene in Abu Dhabi/Dubai. What is the right thing to say to check-in/passport control? Does one say one is going on research leave? Fieldwork? Or is it just simpler to say it's a holiday?
I take it one does not say "business" since no money is being earned. I ask because I think saying "fieldwork" could lead to question after question, but I just want to do the right thing.
EDIT: I would advise anyone reading this question to look at my answer at the bottom here which shows what actually happened when I came to the airport. In the end I did not say "holiday" or "business" but "academic research for music".

The nature of "fieldwork" seems very field-dependent, what sort of work are you doing?

@BryanKrause Maybe I should have been more specific, it's research in music. It's not scientific, it's arts-based. Basically researching the local music scene.

I see. I'm not near enough to your field to know how that would be treated and whether there's need for ethical approvals, etc. Some countries are really touchy on these things due to a history of colonialism, etc.

Do not under any circumstance say something that is not true, even if it seems “simpler”. In most countries, immigration officials will not take kindly to being lied to. I could easily see this as leading to denial of entry, deportation, and possibly even arrest.

@DanRomik "researching ... the local music scene" sure sounds like holiday to me...

Make sure you don't ''white lie'', these officials usually have a certain amount of power and can probably refuse you entry if they don't like something you say.

@RonJohn And there is musicology. Perhaps not on academic level, The Beatles did so in India, Menuhin. You don't have to divide an octave in 12 intervals, microtonal music is at least as popular than contemporary western 12TET / equal temperament in Iran and India (e.g., shruti.

@Buttonwood yes, this is for my PhD in music, which draws a lot from ethnomusicology.

@Buttonwood in highly urban Dubai, is "the local music scene" going out into the desert and listening to old men, or is it going to clubs and listening to Mustafa Ismail?

@RonJohn Again, this isn't my field, but in other fields it completely changes the interaction when any sort of research aspect is involved. For example, anyone can observe a classroom without special permission from anyone but the teacher, but if you want to observe a classroom for research you'd be expected to go through IRB. You don't need special permission to talk to people at a bar where music is being played, but if you plan to use those conversations for research you need IRB approval. Multiple approvals may be necessary when working across country borders.

"I take it one does not say "business" since no money is being earned." Regardless of the specifics of your situation, this is actually incorrect. In this context, the term "business" is as opposed to "pleasure", and the distinction is whether you are going because you felt like it, or because it's part of some encompassing activity, be it research, trade, technical work, or whatever. The actual exchange of money has no bearing on the question.

Not a single mention of "learning" or "studying" in any answer or comment on this page, yet that is exactly what you are doing and neither are going to be trigger words like "research" and "fieldwork".  "I've come to Dubai to learn more about the music here as part of my PhD studies"

@StingyJack: That sounds like a complete answer.

In certain countries 'research', particularly undeclared research, can be taken as 'spying'. Which is a ticket to some very hot water, particularly if you happen to be doing it in a way that strays into some sensitive territory (politics, strategic locations, etc). Being upfront about it is more likely to get a denied visa but less likely to get arrested. You may end up on their radar though, so you would best be aware of sensitivities in any case.

It is rather naïve to think its not business if money isn't earned. Is the trip entirely personally funded? Or is a 3rd party paying for anything? Are you being reimbursed for any expenses? Is there any 3rd party that is interested in the results of this research?

I'm going to answer this question myself to give feedback on how things transpired. There have been a lot of helpful comments, though there has also been some speculation and I think it's important that the record is set straight. I would like to thank benwiggy for his answer since it was the most helpful to me, though I still think it is better that I answer the question since I can report on what actually happened.
In the end I was not asked in the UAE at all what the purpose of my trip was. I was, however, asked in the UK outbound from Gatwick. First of all when I got to the Qatar Airways check-in desk the girl asked me if I needed a visa, which I thought was a nice question since a lot of airlines will just assume you have one sorted out. Now, as a UK resident, one does not need a visa if one is staying in the UAE under 30 days [and not earning]. I told her that I was doing academic research in music. She asked how long for, I said about 3 weeks, and she just said that was fine and took my bags.
At the gate when about to board the plane I was stopped by someone who identified themselves as a plain-clothes policeman asking me what the purpose of my trip was. He said, "you don't get many single guys travelling on Qatar, it's normally families or couples". I told him I was doing academic research - and that it was music-related. He asked me what genre and I told him it was hard rock/metal mixed with Middle Eastern influences - "that's quite a fusion" was his comment. He let me go after tapping a few things on his phone.
I transited at Doha and nobody asked me anything. When I got to passport control in Abu Dhabi the only thing I was asked was, "is this your first time here?" and that was it.
Now, of course the info at Gatwick could have been passed 'down the line' but it also could not have been. The reason I say this is because if there is one thing I have found in the few days that I have been here is that everyone is incredibly welcoming and friendly. Everybody speaks English [that I have met] and everyone is very respectful; I should also mention the architecture which is nothing short of breathtaking. The UAE is clearly successfully modernising while retaining its traditional core values and seems to want to welcome as many people here as it can. It has been a great stay so far and I would recommend others come here to see for themselves if they have the opportunity.

You will need to check in which category fieldwork falls for the UAE - and in particular, whether it is even covered by the visa-free/visa-on-arrival scheme there or not. It would not surprise me at all if you would need particular permissions/paperwork to conduct fieldwork. For example, the UK has a particular "research" purpose for the standard visa/visa-free route, which has some rather peculiar requirements.
Claiming to be there for a holiday is a clear lie, and could get you into significant trouble.
"Business" is the correct answer for most trips we do as academics (e.g. attending conferences, meeting with collaborators).
It is generally ill advised to ever use the word "work" when talking to immigration-related people if you do not have a work visa.

I suppose it depends what question they ask you, but "I'm doing some academic research" seems both simple and truthful. If they have follow-up questions, they'll ask them.
Broadly, they aren't interested in what you're doing; just whether your answers and your paperwork matches.

I guess you should tell the truth and the real reason you go where you go. There is nothing worse than a lie to a passport security I reckon. Maybe it would be possible to get some letter or a paper with a signature of your supervisor and a dean. That would help be more transparent at the gate.

It doesn't really matter what you call it. Either it's allowed or it's not allowed, no matter what you want to call it. It sounds like either you're not sure or you think it probably isn't and don't want to confirm that. This is a huge problem. (I'll note that the question you asked is not "Am I allowed to go on fieldwork research?" but "What do I tell them so they'll let me in?")
Your first priority needs to be finding out whether or not what you want to do is actually allowed visa-free. If not, your next priority needs to be finding out which visa you need to get and how to get it. Trying to trick or mislead a passport agent into letting you in on the wrong status is a very dangerous game with significant potential consequences.

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


text:
Drawbacks of participating in a conference boycott
There is a petition going round at the moment regarding not attending US conferences. It has been signed by many academics. In theory I would like to sign, but doesn't doing so shoot the academic in the foot by not contributing to conferences and therefore their field [in the case that the conference cannot be relocated]?
I include the link below for the interest of others who may want to:
Link

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

Yes, participating in such a boycott can come at a personal cost.  That is true for any boycott; the existence of this cost is what makes the boycott worthwhile in the first place.  If there was no cost at signing such a pledge, it would be much less impressive if many people sign.
However, again as with any boycott, as O. R. Mapper says, the marginal cost of participating drops if more academics participate.  Indeed, if a very large number of academics participate in a boycott, organisers may relocate or cancel the event, which brings your cost of boycotting, compared to people who chose not to boycott, to zero.

@C26 Also, how much it costs you also highly depends on which conferences you typically go to, and what alternative conferences there are and where they stand in relation. For example, if you typically go only to European conferences, or if you typically go to the US but there's a European one of equivalent stature, boycotting US conferences isn't too big of deal. Contrariwise, if the US conferences are the important ones in your field and there is nothing comparable in Europe/Asia/etc., then the boycott might hurt you quite a lot.

The cost also depends on where on your career you are. It is relatively higher for young researchers than for people already established in their community.

Is signing the petition binding ? If not you could sign, and if the number of participants for the petition is not high enough, you could still participate in the conference.

@HopefullyHelpful I doubt anyone will stop you if you go anyway, but people might ask why you sign a promise and then break it.

Well, it's like planning an event, and then canceling because noone signed up to attend. In this case the event would be the boycott of an event.

@HopefullyHelpful who is the controlling legal authority? Trump.  I doubt he is going to stop you, especially if one of his Trump Hotels is hosting the conference.


text:
What is more important for the admission of masters program?
For the admission in Masters Program, what is more important, ranking/reputation* of the University or the strength of the research group in the field (say, Machine Learning) you wish to apply ?
I have been told that the advisor and the research group is the most important criteria for PhD admission . So, I researched about research groups in various Universities. I found out that, sometimes a less prestigious university had a great research group in a particular field and a few times reputed university had a weak research group.  So, I am confused whether the prestige of a university matter more than a strong research group in

Industry (Job after masters )
Research (Apply for a PhD after the masters

For example, UT Austin has a strong reputation in computer science. However, it seems to me that their machine learning groupis small.  So, in situations like this what should a master's applicant do ? Go for UT Austin because of its reputation or decline the offer because of lack of strong research group in ML.
*The ranking/reputation here is the US news Grad Schools ranking in the field of computer science.

Outside a very small group of top-ranking universities, will anybody really care whether the university you went to was ranked 45th or 54th when you come to applying for jobs?  The most important thing is to find a research programme that suits what you want to do.

@Simon B What about admission in PhD program ?

Much the same, really.  It will be more about who you are and what you've done.  And people will know what other reasearch groups are active in their field.

For a purely course-based Masters, in which you do not do research, the research strength of the university obviously won't matter very much.
For a Masters in which you do research and create a thesis, however, the strength of the research group is likely to significantly outweigh the reputation of the school.  This is because the most valuable thing that you can have when applying either for a Ph.D. or an industrial job is a strong recommendation letter from a respected colleague.
If all I know about a student is that they got a Masters from MIT or Berkeley, well, a lot of students get such degrees, and some are excellent while others are worthless outside of the structured environment of the classroom.  On the other hand, if the student comes from Mid-Ranked U with a strong personal recommendation from somebody whose work I know and respect, then they are likely a much better prospect than the unknown from a high-ranked university.

First I would check what the requirements are for the Master's program. These seem to vary from program to program, but in general you will be required to take classes outside of your interest and lots of classes in general (in comparison to a PhD). Some programs have the option to write a thesis or have more opportunities for research, which is a good thing to consider if this plays into your interests and is beneficial if the school has strong research groups in your field of interest. I would probably weight the rank more heavily for the Master's than the PhD since it is so course oriented.


text:
How to apply for professorship in another field?
I am an associate professor of chemistry and all my education was in chemistry programs too. But my works were always in computational science. I developed various programs for analyzing chemical data. All I work with are programming language and algorithms.
I prefer to work in a computer department where I can use my skills for other applications (than chemistry) and work with colleagues who have knowledge about programming.
Can I apply for an assistant professorship in a department of computer science? How can I convince them that my experiences are comparable with computer education?
My worry is that because any academic position includes teaching at undergraduate level, department does not allow me to teach course as I have not studied that curriculum.

"Developed various programs for analyzing chemical data" is not the same as "worked with programming language and algorithms" in the way in which a computer scientist would work with programming languages and algorithms.

First of all, you do not have a CS skills or background just because you worked a lot with computers.  For example, I don't think you can do and publish CS research beyond the basics. On the other hand you still can collaborate with colleagues from different departments eg CS, and you may also consider engineering departments or for profit software ventures.

I would suggest to explore either double affiliation (primary: chemistry; secondary: computer science) path, or additional affiliation with an interdisciplinary program, lab or institute. An alternative route would be to teach and do research in now extremely popular data science programs.

There's nothing wrong with trying.  I've seen an economist housed in a nutrition department.  I've seen a physicist housed in chemical engineering.  I've seen a chemist housed in a fabric and fashion department -- and she did her research at the synchrotron.
It is helpful to have a strong ally -- someone to sponsor you, support your application every step of the way.
It might not be a bad idea to do some computer science coursework (if you haven't already), to counter the snobbish attitude toward programmers one sometimes encounters in computer science -- and to enrich your approach!


text:
Should an anonymous submission include acknowledgments to people who helped with the research work but denied to be co-authors?
Considering an event with a double masked (i.e. double "blind" process), should an anonymous submission  include acknowledgments to people who helped with the research work but denied to be co-authors, or wait for the final version to include such acknowledgments?
I assume not: if they are asked to be referee and feel there is a conflict of interest, they will just declare so, leaving the doubt whether it is because they are an author or just a contact, which will nicely help with the authors' anonymity.
On the other hand, I hope such people will realize that they WILL be acknowledged in the final version and not assume that no proper credit was given to them!

This seems like a very good reason to provide a list of who'd you prefer to exclude as reviewers during submission.

Good point: I will ask the organizers if providing such a list is an option.

Acknowledgments should always added at the final editing stage, after scientific review. The acknowledgments in fact must have no scientific content.
It is not a reviewer duty to check the acknowledgments (it may be, however, editor's duty to do that, to confirm that fundings are properly acknowledged).
Similarly, it is not a task for the reviewer to assess the author and co-authors contribuitions, the reviewer should judge only the content of the submission.
Ps: in the under review submission, you may already add a Acknowledgment section, with a formal sentence something like "when accepted for publication, fundings and collaborators will be properly acknowledged". Even funding informations may lead to identification of the authors.

A double-blind submission should not include any identifying information, including names of people who you know. In this case you would not acknowledgements to the submission at all (you also cannot acknowledge grants etc. because that gives hints about your identity).
If you want to make sure that it is clear there will be an acknowledgement (although I don't think that is really necessary), add the section to the submission but fill it with filler text like [removed for submission].


text:
What percentage of admitted phd students have peer-reviewed publications?
I'm interested in knowing what percentage(a rough estimate) of admitted phd applicants in top-60 university have peer-reviewed papers.
I'm particular interested in theoretical computer science.

top-60 university by what criteria ?

Say by US News departmental ranking.

The answer for top-60 departments is probably indistinguishable from zero.

@JeffE You mean very few of the admitted applicants have peer-reviewed publications in top-60 university?

Yes, that's exactly what I mean.

A more interesting question is how many have publications by the time they earn their PhD. In my field, economics, I knew of one guy...

I don't have statistics on that particular number, but my anecdotal evidence is that most PhD students in my field (chemical engineering) have zero publication when they start, while a small (but nonnegligible) fraction has one paper.
However, you can gather such statistics yourself! Publications are, by definition, public... And you can sample admitted PhD students by looking at current PhD students. So, take a random sample of CV from PhD students in your field (from the web) and look for publications prior to PhD start in their publication list.

This would result in a biased sample since admitted and enrolled are not the same. That said it is probably good enough.

Having publications when you apply for graduate school is typically unusual. The reason is that it takes time to get something published (review process). What I have experienced is that students may have a publication in preparation based on their bachelor or masters work. It is rare that these are more than manuscripts by the time they apply for a PhD program (they get published during the first year, perhaps). It is only those who may have worked between their earlier degree and the time of their PhD application that may have something. It is, however, easy to see if that is the case (a year of work rather than going straight from one to the other) so it is easy to understand why someone has come a little further than someone else. I therefore doubt it has a major impact.
To widen the perspective: In the application process, the fact that someone's earlier degree might result in a  paper can be covered in a personal reference/recommendation letter. Keep in mind that all studies done at a lower level may not be publishable (because of time constraints for the work). It is hence important to have someone evaluate your efforts since the quality of the research at lower levels may not necessarily be best judged by a publication alone and a good word is always taken seriously.
So published papers are rare and when they occur there is usually a clear reason for why this has been possible to achieve when moving from one stage to the next in the education.

While there might be reasons for wanting this data, I am not sure what it will tell you. There may be some data out there (I don't know where) that may show a correlation between the number of publications and the chances of getting admitted to a PhD program. While publications may correlate with admissions, I doubt that it is causative. The Phd admissions process is all about trying to assess the ability of an applicant to conduct research. A publication goes a long way towards demonstrating that ability, but there are many other ways (e.g., strong reference letters).


text:
How do you deal with trolling students?
This is inspired by the other question about dealing with stupid questions. The popular answers all seemed to assume that the student really wants to hear an answer. While this is a reasonable assumption, and the answers are very good, they don't cover trolls.
Imagine that you are teaching a computer science lab and a student asks you why our noses run and our feet smell. I agree that you should act professionally no matter what the student does - but what behavior would be considered "professional" in such a situation?

If you get a Dadaist question, give a Dadaist response: "Because someone had to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools" is my personal favorite.

"Good question! Now the 'run' may not really describe the nose dashing away, but rather the liquid inside, like running water; or the nose sounds like a running engine? Anyway, proper reference is a big thing. And 'smell?' You'd really need to study the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. While this is not an English class, referencing objects and understanding the classes of function are equally important in computer science... now let's talk about some examples..."

"You could also ask why we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway.  I'm afraid some mysteries are just beyond the scope of this class.  But, getting back to , ..."

@Paul in my experience, if you tell a troll how you expect him to behave, he thinks "Now I know exactly what to do if I want to make him furious". It is like putting a "Don't ever press!" sign under a large red button, everybody wants to press it.

My best teacher just replied with a quick "Unrelated" and then failed mercilessy all the trolls. Trolling was over very quickly...

@Penguin_Knight: Something that complicated and time-consuming would be guaranteed to encourage more such questions, to see how much time they can make the teacher waste. I've heard students explicitly say they have such games in other classes.

a student asks you why our noses run and our feet smell.

My answer would be

Sorry, I don't know the answer to your question. Please ask the experts.

This is the professional answer I'll provide. Professional in the sense that I only say what I know.
Be careful if you try to use some sense of humor to answer those questions. You can easily step out of boundry. In particular, the two examples you have may have something to do with health/privacy issues.
If the student keeps asking this kind of questions, you'll know he has other reasons to do so (such as another student has running nose or came to classroom with bare foot). Talk to the student privately or take it to your superiors.
Edit
I received comments about part of my answer "Please ask the experts". I'll explain. I am recommending to pretend the trolling question is a serious one. I cannot guess what trolling questions the OP was asked. There are many possibilities. Many trolling questions are of personal type. I give an example here. A young male handsome prof. teaches in a college. He is asked all kinds of questions every new semester. The most frequent one is "Professor, when are you going to get married?" The prof. always replied "Sorry, I don't know the answer. You need to ask my fiancee." In this case, the expert is his fiancee. You can use other serious ways to answer the trolling question. The point is to be serious (or jokingly serious if you can) about it so that the troller won't be able to continue the trolling.
End of edit

"Please ask the experts."  I was with you until you mentioned this.  This doesn't sound professional at all given its unhelpful nature bordering a fine line with sarcasm.  I don't think I would ever tell someone to 'please ask the experts' to a colleague or a boss.  It just isn't professional at all.

@LordStryker I would like to have constructive criticism. Would you suggest better words?

"Sorry, I don't know the answer to your question."

I go with "Sorry, I don't know. Please make an appointment so WE can talk about some ways YOU can find out the answer so that YOU can report back to the class on this"

@StrongBad Thanks for the suggestion. I'll sleep on it today. It's Chinese New Year(Horse) day. I don't feel like working.

To be honest, here's what I would do.  I'd start off with a few "I don't knows" and move on.  But if the student was persistent and truly asked stupid questions like the OP stated, I would eventually change tactics and respond with something like, "Mr. so-and-so, I don't know the answer to that question.  Please have a scholarly 5-page paper on my desk by next week carefully addressing the concept of 'why do our feet smell'."  Essentially, punish the person but in a professional way.  Endanger their grade. (if participation is part of the grade rubric, dock points there instead).

I don't know if there is a language barrier here. "Why noses run but feet smell" is a well-known pun in English, but your answer sounds as if you think it could be a real question. Are you assuming that there really can be a sensible answer to that question? Or are you telling me that the professional thing is to jokingly pretend that it is a serious question? Or trying to remind me that in a real case, my assumption may have been wrong and even the most obvious joke might have been said in earnest?

@rumtscho jokingly pretend that it is a serious question is what I am recommending. I was asked more funny questions before. The way I dealt with it was to be serious about it. Then the student doesn't know how to continue to troll. Of course, you can use some sense of humor to answer those trolling thing. I know somebody had serious trouble by doing that. His humorous answer was labelled harassment. Thus, my answer. I cannot guess what kind of questions you were asked so I used your examples.

@rumtscho I updated my answer to clarify my answer.

Looking back at this question, I realize why your proposition is so good. When I read it, I was confused. If I can get the troll into the same thoroughly confused situation, he will be so busy digesting that he won't have much mental capacity left for trolling. So, you get the accepted mark.

There isn't One Right Way, any more than there is one right way to teach or manage a class room as a whole. I've most taken note of a few styles:

"Old-school" academic style. They state clearly in the rules/syllabus they will treat everyone professionally, with respect, and they expect the same from all students. They will be more than happy to call you out, right then and there, for inappropriate behavior, and they will call a spade a spade without hesitation. They will, if necessary, be so clear and blunt that it will make you cringe, and if the person will not take direction then they will be shown the door - no one is required to be in their class.
Humorist. My dad always use to say, "ask a silly question, get a silly answer." Sometimes its just a fun invitation for a little ad lib comedy. Real smart asses find, if they push it too far, they will quickly end up the focus of the joke in a rather uncomfortable way (some people's version of humor gets very cutting in a hurry). These sorts tend to deal with such people like comics deal with hecklers.
Redirection - judo master. This sort of style will take any question, no matter how assinine, and turn it into a good question that relates to the task at hand. "Why do feet smell? Well, neurobiologists studying sensation often utilize specialized applications of neural networks to improve their understanding, but first we'll need to have a good hold on the fundamentals - which brings me to the next slide on genetic algorithms...any other questions on this slide before we continue?"
Sweet and simple, KISS. This style would just say, "that's not within the scope of this class, or course. Any other questions about this slide/class/topic?"
Tangential. Maybe you just have extra time or enjoy talking about what they asked about. It has nothing to do with the course, or maybe even anything important, but go ahead and answer the question fully, in depth, with citations, if you know it. Go nuts. Have fun with it, and sometimes you can over-load them with so much knowledge and facts about something they didn't actually care about that they will simply reply with a nod and feel sorry they asked. I'm sufficiently good with this that someone once remarked, "never trifle with someone who has a vastly longer attention span than you do." But obviously you'd better not be pressed for time!
Troll right back (thanks to Shion). Tell them you'll be happy to cover his question next class if he'd like, you think it would make some nice variety to add to the mid-term and comprehensive final. Tell the student you aren't sure of the answer, but you love to learn something new every semester - why don't they look up the answer and prepare a 5-10 minute presentation? You'll even give them a bonus point! You can ask them to email you after class if they'd be interested in the bonus point. If they take you up on it, schedule it for an office hour.

The thing is, most of the time you just really must assume good intent, because otherwise you will - especially if you are not in a fantastic mood - bite someone who genuinely wasn't trying to be unpleasant, or just wanted to be a touch playful. Anything you do to that student will ring much more loudly in the ears of the other students than the one you are addressing.
So be careful to promote a positive environment that encourages other students, rather than one that gets locked in on the one wise-acre who might just be playing a clown for the day.

+1 for the point about other students being the background audience for how you deal with the situation.

This is a great answer. Another viable strategy could be to simply troll back. :)

@Shion That's a good point...I think I'll add that :)

I favor the Old-School solution. I put in time and effort to prepare good lectures, I treat students as responsible adults, and I expect a similarly appropriate behavior in return. If they want to be silly, they can do so during any of the 166 hours a week that they are not in my class.

@BrianDHall "Old School Academic style" rules! I had a student yell at me in class the other day -- suffice to say, I threw her out and she cooled her heels in the dean of students' office.

+1 for Judo Master. My student experience is that most obvious trolls are trying to derail the class to get attention.

Don't feed the trolls.
The student is most likely looking for attention.  If you give it to him/her, then s/he would be encouraged to repeat the disruptive behavior.  I recommend that you reply "That question is not within the scope of the course" then quickly continue with the class discussion.

Be a buttface and just stare at them. Stare at them intently, and don't get phased. When they stop looking at you totally, and just stay looking away then turn yourself back to the task at hand. Just remember what it was, and this should put the student in their place.

I have actually seen this performed by a professor on some disturbance forces. He had to do it once.


text:
Is it a misuse of school resources to use school accounts for non-school work?
I work as a public school teacher. Due to a lack of current textbooks in my niche subject area, I am working on writing my own textbook which I hope to publish next year. In the meantime, and unrelated to this, I enrolled half-time in some college courses.
Being enrolled in the college courses means I have access to the state university's research tools, librarians, inter-library loan program, etc. I think I can get better assistance from the librarians if I am open about what exactly I am doing, however, it has no relation to the college courses I am taking. Can I be open about why I am doing the research, borrowing books and journals via inter-library loans or is this regarded as a misuse of those state-funded resources? How do university staff generally feel about assisting people with research not really related to the college?

Can any member of the general public become a customer/member/... of the library? Can you have the bills for inter-library loans put to you personally?

(There may be a totally different issue in that your employer may own IP rights to the textbook even if you write it during your free time - obviously depending on legislation, but you better make sure. E.g. where I am that would be true for software.)

Does this answer your question? How to properly adapt academic papers obtained from a university to private companies?

My junior high history teacher took us to our local R1 and checked out all the books we wanted for an extracurricular project. You could ask ahead of time, but typically I would think the libraries would be happy to help.

In the US and some other places there will be laws (at the State level) and regulations about use of resources in general, but for the things you suggest there should be no issues.
But this is because the libraries, in particular, at universities serve as a general public resource of information. You could probably get the same services even if not enrolled just by asking for assistance.
There might be exceptions, but for most universities the mission is varied and broad. A university is more than just a place where students are taught and more than just a place where research is done.
As long as nothing you do actually interferes with any of the missions (and sometimes even if you do), the resources are open to you and, it is citizen taxes that support much of it in any case.
Feel free.

The cases where you might run afoul of regulations would more likely be in the use of specific equipment purchased for one thing but used for something else.

There might also be restrictions with what you're allowed to do with software licenses you procure through the university (e.g. student copies of Microsoft Office connected to your student email).


text:
How common are romantic relationships between faculty and students?
Romantic relationships between faculty members and students are often depicted in movies or books, and the student falling in love with his/her professor seems to be a bit of a cliché. But how common are such relationships in practice?

I've found a rather old survey (1982) of David L. Rowland, Larry J. Crisler and Donna J. Cox that claimed

Of the 184 respondents (59.8%  female and 41.2% male), over
  one-third  of  both sexes reported flirting with their instructors,
  while 46% of females  and 32% of males felt that instructors had
  flirted with them.

Flirting is, of course, is not the same as a romantic relationship. Patricia A. Rupert and Deborah L. Holmes (1997) survey earlier studies of the sexual relations between faculty and students:

in a survey  of  807 male faculty,  Fitzgerald,  Weitzman,  Gold, and
  Ormerod (1988)  found that 26% of the 235 respondents  reported
  having sexual encounters with students;  in a similar  study  of
  483 male and female psychology  professors,  Tabachnick,
  Keith-Spiegel,  and Pope (1991) obtained  a rate  of 11%. Although
  there was a considerable  difference  in these rates  no doubt in part
  due to the inclusion  of female faculty  in the second survey -
  both indicate that sexual encounters  between faculty  and their
  students  are commonplace  on our campus

One notable example is the marriage of Professor Philip Bobbitt (Princeton (A.B.), Yale (J.D.), and Oxford (Ph.D.)) and Maya Ondalikoglu,Columbia Law School graduate.

It’s worth noting that these studies are from about 30 and 20 years ago respectively, and (my impression is) the culture has changed a lot in that time, with romantic relationships being considerably less acceptable now than then.

I think the closing votes are because of the statistics and the "notable examples" the OP wants, but this is an important ethical and psychological issue specific to academia.
With regard to the issue, I came across this paper by Prof Higgins published in 1998. One key issue seems to be the age difference between the teacher and the student. The second point is the drama it creates in the mind of the student, which is supposed to be focused on learning.

We [teachers] should be responsive to the fact that one of our students is going through a drama that will affect her learning and ought to be heeded in the handling of the relationship. This does not mean that we should treat a student’s avowal of love as something which calls for a life decision on our part. To do that would be to respond in kind and to lose sight of the fact that classrooms are in part like the playground of the analytic situation, a place in which we can express ourselves without every utterance leading to immediate action. When someone is in process, and you have devoted yourself to witnessing and facilitating that process, you are wary to treat as definitive any one version of the evolving being before you.

It is unlikely that faculty members at graduate schools will be punished for just having a romantic relationship. But frequent problems in romantic life will surely be noted by colleagues and some curb be introduced when the academic pursuits of the prof suffer heavily.

+1, in the context of this question "notable examples" sound like "witch hunting" to me.

The asker did not ask for names, just asked if there are notable examples.

I feel that this is exaggerated. Faculty/student relation does not necessarily involve the particular faculty member teaching the particular student.

I don't have references and statistics, but I know of one MIT PhD who later married their advisor and now they are both tenured faculty in the same department.  They did divorce later in life, but that doesn't seem to have outwardly affected their working relationship.
Nobody talks about it much; it seems like a nonissue, although perhaps it was different before the dust settled.  She never changed her name, so you probably wouldn't know they'd ever been married if you weren't close enough to know they have teenage children together.

This type of purely anecdote answer doesn't really answer the question. Romantic interest exists in all fields, and can be found everywhere. The question is specifically asking for broad trends.

There are several questions in the question, and some of them are subjective.  It seems to me that a question like "do people keep quiet" is the sort of thing that can only be answered with anecdotes.  My experience of the answer is that, yes, people seem to tolerate it as long as it's not causing problems.


text:
A potential collaborator and PhD student took a commanding tone with me (faculty) – how should I react?
Background about me
I am an early-to-mid-career teaching-track faculty (four years of cross-curricular teaching experience in engineering) in the USA.  I teach courses both at the undergraduate and graduate level.  I also try to keep up with research and publish a conference or journal paper or so every year.  It is hard work and my maturity is growing.
(About ten days ago, my research was identified by a rather senior faculty member (twenty years of research and consulting experience with multiples millions of dollar in grant money and more incoming) as being quite promising.  I had a rather pleasant conversation with him and he was genuinely interested in my work and wanted to collaborate. Happiness abound!)
Main question
A few days ago, his PhD student stopped by my office to discuss my research.  There are some common ideas I and the student are both working on.  I found that although he is a smart student (yet to pass his PhD qualifiers), his attitude was a little off-putting with a superiority complex I have not sensed in the hundreds of students I interact with every semester.  He wants to collaborate with me but kept saying things like “you should do ...” and “you could do ... for my research”. It is okay for a student to suggest a line of action, but I still feel that an instructor–student distance should be maintained.  I certainly did not speak to my adviser in such a fashion and neither did my colleagues (to their advisers, during their PhDs).
I appreciate the exchange of ideas but I am somehow repelled by the idea of a student who I have barely only met has a superiority complex.  This probably stems from him working with an adviser who is pre-eminent in his field.
I know that working with this student would likely lead to being co-PI on research grants but somehow, as mentioned earlier, I am repelled by this idea.
Is this common in academia, to come across PhD students with such a high superiority complex?  Am I just being overly conceited and self-absorbed by feeling repelled?  I am not sure if the student met with me on the behest of his adviser, but my gut feeling is to communicate research ideas directly with his adviser.  At the same time, I feel that ignoring the student could impact my relationship with his adviser (unfounded fear perhaps, but I don't know).
I am reaching out to the larger advisers on this forum to get some perspective and thoughts on such situations.  This is an immense opportunity for me to break into prominent research ranks after somewhat wallowing in teaching.

Is this common in [everywhere], to come across [people] with [disagreeable personality traits]?  Yes, of course.  Nothing specific to academia or PhD students.

I know exactly the kind of student you mean. They try to take over classes (easier to put them in their place here since you should have a rigid plan already), and haughtily thank your guest speakers for you in seminars. But your issue isn't really clear. Was the plan to do pretty much exactly what the student presumed? I.e. build on "their" research? And now you are in an impossible position because you don't want to do the very thing you need to do? Or was there another plan the student is trying to take over? Because then you can just veto them and shut them down.

I still feel that an instructor–student distance should be maintained — Or better yet, mutual respect between colleagues (all three of you).

While your, I hope preliminary, assessment of the student as having a superiority complex may be correct, I think you might want to consider another option.
It may be that the student was told to try to impress you that he isn't the dumbest rock in the pile and so laid it on thicker than normal. It might be hard for a normal student to find an appropriate balance if he is new to this.
Since you indicate that there would be advantages from an association with his advisor, you might want to withhold judgement until you know and observe more. One think you might want to pursue is a talk with the advisor and work in the question "Is he always like that?". You might get some insight on how the student normally behaves that might make you more or less willing to take on the task. Of course, you might also learn that the student has, indeed, thought hard and deeply about the issues before approaching you. It isn't always easy to work with a truly brilliant student, but there is something to be learned from it.
If you have won a Fields Medal (mathematics) but come up against a student who makes you feel small it can be quite a shock. (Movie Reference: Good Will Hunting)
True enough that some people play dominance games, of course.

I will second this thought. When I was PhD student, I sometimes felt that I had to come across as highly intelligent and superior, else professors would dismiss me as being inferior.  Academia is full of posturing. As my time went on, I learned how to taper my approach and I feel that I became easier to work with.

@Vladhagen that’s very interesting. For what it’s worth, let the record show that some professors intensely dislike such posturing, and would be much more inclined to like (and want to work with) a grad student who comes across as sincere, honest and curious (for example by asking many questions, including “dumb” ones) as compared to an arrogant know-it-all.

Academia is no different than anywhere else: it has people who are talented and pleasant to work with, but also people who are talented and less pleasant to work with, including ones with a variety of psychological issues such as a superiority complex or a patronizing/domineering attitude.
So yes, it’s normal. Your feelings of being repelled are also normal. But with that being said, I agree with Buffy that it’s very hard to judge someone’s personality based on a short encounter in what from the student’s point of view must have seemed like a delicate and fraught professional situation (unfortunately, in my experience it seems that for some grad students almost all interactions with faculty are regarded as similarly fraught). So perhaps you should give the collaboration a chance. Also, people are capable of change, and it’s quite possible that if you simply politely ask the student to refrain from telling you what you “should” do he will adjust his behavior.
On the other hand, of course some people are simply insufferable and the pain of working with them is not worth the benefit. But I think it would be premature to decide based on the short experience you had that the student in question fits this profile.

Unfortunately some students - sometimes gifted students - can be excited about a topic and not realize that some things they say or do come across poorly.  You ought first to make sure this is not a one-off or a misunderstanding: I would quietly talk your colleague to see if he has identified this kind of behaviour with the student.  You may discreetly point out to your colleagues that the “overbearing enthusiasm” (or such similar turn of phrase) of his student made you a little uncomfortable.
While you may think the student has behaved unprofessionally, make sure you yourself remain professionnal with the student.  One way to do this is to communicate directly your colleague on this topic but without seeking to avoid the student if he is present or nearby.  Basically,  you want to make sure your discussions on this topic are perceived to be (at least initially) primarily between you and your colleague, not between you and his student.


text:
Can I submit an abstract for an unwritten paper which will form part of my PhD?
I am applying for my PhD to start this Autumn. There is a conference coming up soon with a theme which is very relevant to my PhD topic and I would like to submit an abstract for it, write the paper and then develop parts of it for my PhD at a later stage. Is it OK to write a paper for the conference and then later use parts of it for my PhD seeing as it is so relevant?
EDIT: For a little more information, this is for a conference on music and the research has not been carried out yet. Additionally, the area that is being researched is one that has very little scholarly coverage. Due to this, the focus will not be so much on looking for a particular kind of result, but any result that will arise from literature review/qualitative interview data. Interviews have not been conducted but there is quite a bit of time to do so, I feel. I understand if this were a scientific conference that submitting an abstract would be a little risky, but seeing as this is the humanities, I think there is more room for interpretation.

Are you not supposed to have already written the paper before you can write an abstract for it?

From what I can see, there are two ways of looking at this. In theory, yes you are correct, but in reality - and seeing as a lot of the conceptual material is already in place as part of the PhD proposal - I think it would be doable.

How far away is the conference? Do you have the data and results but are just pending a write up, or are you yet to get this?

I am yet to acquire any data. The conference is about five months away, so quite a bit of time to get some qualitative data, I hope.

In my field this is very common. Generally, you submit an abstract to an international conference, which is followed by the full manuscript later. It is a means to get your research (especially if it is cutting edge) out first (as opposed to waiting months for a paper to be published). Generally, anything you publish during your PhD will be used in thesis write up.

In experimental science, I think one should do the experiments before submitting the abstract.  However, many people do not.

During my PhD, I witnessed that professors,  researchers and PhD students submitted to conferences for the reason that you mention in your question.
The only problem that you can have is if someone use your work and summary to develop and organise their study plan and design, since you don't have any experimental data yet.
Secondly, I think since you are from humanities, you don't really need to worry about the risks, because it is pretty common to present historical (review) and future perspective of some filed, on conferences for humanities field.

Thank you for this, I like this answer. With regard to someone using my work to further their study plan, I am not too worried about that since by the time the conference happens I am due to have a paper published which sets out my first inroads into taking on the topic, whereas the PhD is a macrocosm the same. I should have some data to present by the time the conference takes place as well. And yes, I think this would come under the banner of future perspectives. You've outlined things quite nicely.

@C26 thank you very much, I think I forgot to mention one thing, if PhD program require some number of conferences to attend or participate by you,(most of them do, especially humanities)  if this conference that you plan to present is before school year, I mean, day you start PhD program, in this case you cannot use it as a count for your PhD graduation.

that's OK, it's all important and relevant experience. The further I go to develop my research beforehand, the better, I don't mind if it doesn't go towards the conference count. Thank you very much.

You can do it, and people (including myself) do this - submit abstracts for still unwritten papers - regularly. There are, however, some pitfalls you should be very aware of.
1) Potential or existing collaborators
If you have collaborators, you generally want to be in agreement that results are in a state suitable for presentation, before you submit to a conference. Your presentation will not only reflect upon yourself, and your collaborators may have reservations about presenting unfinished work.
You say you are a beginning PhD student. If you already have a supervisor, it is very important that he or she agrees that the results should be presented. It could also be the case that the supervisor does not think that the results are important enough to present, in that case: listen.
2) Ethical implication: research is not fully predictable
It is quite dangerous to submit abstracts for results of research which is not carried out yet - still people sometimes do. You are often faced with having to submit an abstract maybe half a year before the conference, and you are full of confidence that the results will work out in that time. Here's the thing: Sometimes they don't. If they always did, it would not be research. I have personally seen good people been caught in this trap: Your results did not work out, but you have a pressing deadline to present these results. You could therefore be inclined to maybe fudge the results a little bit, to make them look nicer. Just always remember that this is scientific misconduct, and can never be excused. Consider if it is better not to put yourself in a situation like that.
3) Swallow your pride
You may think that these results are the most important thing the world is yet to see, or perhaps a close second. Other researchers will disagree. Since you are still pre-PhD, it is very likely that your abstract will not be accepted, because even though we would like to think otherwise, titles and affiliations matter. If your abstract is rejected, and you still have the opportunity to go: go anyway! Giving a presentation is by far not the most important thing for a fresh PhD student to do at a conference: learning, networking and asking questions are. It may also be that you are offered to do a poster presentation instead of a full presentation. If so, take it. Even though such presentations are often seen as "lesser" than talks, you will still get to discuss your research with more experienced people. This can be quite an eye-opener, and also serve as a good learning experience for giving talks later.

I updated the OP, thank you very much for your answer. Seeing as this is a humanities conference, I am not sure that such a focus on particular type of result is relevant, though if it were scientific yes, it could get me into hot water. But that is my fault for not being as specific as I should have been in the OP. I have no collaborators, but your third point is very useful and gives me a good perspective on the attitude I should adopt on approaching this [and other conferences in the future]. Thank you very much for that.

I don't have experience from the humanities myself, but I would be surprised if the same rule of thumb: "research is not fully predictable" does not apply. If it was, there would be no point in doing it.

I think norms probably vary by field.  In my experience, this would be totally fine.
I work in a business school, and the expectation is that various parts of the dissertation will be published both while and after you work on the PhD.  Doctoral students also present intermediate results from their dissertation work at conferences to get feedback.
However, do be sure that the conference does not take copyright for the work presented, or you may tie your hands in terms of publication later.

Thank you. I will check regarding the copyright situation. I did include in my PhD proposal a couple of sentences regarding writing a paper for the conference which would then form part of the PhD itself. My supervisor looked through the proposal and said nothing about that section. I suppose no news is good news there?

The answer for this depends very much on your field. There's also a little ambiguity in your question - is it merely the paper that hasn't been written, or has the research not been completed yet.
In many medical and biomedical fields, the expectation is that conference results are not necessarily from published papers. Indeed, many conferences either insist that the results are not yet published, or will embargo any publications until after the initial presentation. Additionally, the conference and the paper venue may (and often are) decoupled.
However many of these conferences also insist that the results are finalized, and forbid "in progress" abstracts or abstracts talking in vague terms about what will be shown, rather than showing the results.


text:
My PhD seems daunting and overbearing. How shall I regain motivation and interest?
EDIT: I should clarify this is not the first draft of my PhD, it's the first draft of my upgrade document to go from MPhil to PhD.
I have been working on my PhD for about two years now, it is a six year part-time program. I have a very good relationship with all my supervisors and they are very supportive. I am fortunate to be part of a good university which is open-minded and free-thinking. I also have attracted the interest of a well-known external academic who is an authority within the field and who wants to be involved. I am very lucky.
The problem is that I am just not that interested or convinced by my research [chiefly its significance]. I have to submit my upgrade document [MPhil > PhD] in about five week's time, and the viva is a week after that. I have written a draft document which is 12,000 words and my main supervisor has written a lot of comments which are suggestions for improvements. The issue is that I do not feel that interested or compelled to work through them.
I am under the impression that my supervisor is not that convinced by my research, even though she keeps saying she has no concerns. I feel my research is too vague, too broad but also too overbearing. It incorporates three disciplines [at the advice of one of my supervisors], disciplines A B and C. Discipline A I am not that interested in - I was for my master's but now I find it quite tedious but it is quite an important part of the whole. It is a well-worn discipline and feels rather old and stale to me now. Discipline B is quite new and interesting, I have published within this discipline. Disipline C is very new and up-and-coming. I find it quite exciting and my supervisor has written the least amount of comments about it in my draft paper, which I take to mean she has the least amount of complaints about it [she has a lot of comments to make about dispclines A/B]. She has also said that discpline C is a 'key' part of the PhD.
I do not know what to do. I am really not that interested and the whole thing seems so daunting. My PhD focuses on A and B mostly with C being only a feature, but I am wondering whether I should switch things round entirely and make it more about C. I feel I will not really be able to convince my panel about the significance of my research in the viva if I am not excited about it or convinced myself. In my master's I was always keen to research and write, now I am not, but I know I would be if the topic were carried out a bit differently.
What shall I do, how shall I regain interest? My PhD seems rather fluffy and not sharp enough. Additionally, I am daunted by the scope of the whole thing: it seems too large to work through and 'bigger' than me. I am kind of at a loss for what to do.

Sounds like the usual almost-done slump. The good news is this means you’re almost done!

What you are going through is common among graduate students. I had it back when I was doing my M.Sc. and then my Ph.D. Now my students have it from time to time. The other answers offer good advice but they might apply to different phases of a Ph.D. journey.
So here is my advice. Don't burn the bridge behind you. You've come all the way, so you might as well get your Ph.D. Ph.D. is not just a dissertation, but a journey. All the people you meet, all the new books and papers you read, all the new tools and skills you learn, they all contribute to making you a better person/researcher. From your question, I understand that you could be satisfied with those things. Even though you are not satisfied with your dissertation, you have all the time after your Ph.D. to pursue other interesting fields.

Thank you, very encouraging response.

You're most welcome. Good luck.

my supervisor (...) keeps saying she has no concerns

Believe her.
Having lots of comments and suggestions for improvement does not mean she doesn't like what you have done. It may be the exact opposite: because she likes what you have done, she wants to make sure your research is presented in the best possible way, clearly demonstrating its potential and value.
I would suggest taking some time off to recharge your batteries and then working through the list. You've made it this far, now do what it takes to complete your PhD. Judging the value of the research is most likely better done in a less stressful situation (i.e. once your done).

This is a good answer. Taking some time off would mean interrupting, since I have already taken a couple of months off for other reasons. I will consider your advice seriously, thank you.

First, I think that your first paragraph is a bit at odds with the rest. If I read it correctly, you are in a good place even if your current "mood" is down rather than up. But that is a common reaction for a grad student, especially one who is aware of things. One reason for thinking your research isn't very valuable is that you are now, unlike a year ago, understanding it much better. Before it seemed hard. Now it seems routine. But that is an effect of your mastery of it.
I suggest that you think both short term and long term. In the short term you want to complete your degree and move on. Changing your path radically now might negatively affect that. You have made some progress.
But thinking long term, you may also want to move to a somewhat different subfield. There is no reason you can't do that, but it would be easier to do so after you finish your degree and have a regular position. But you don't have to completely abandon thinking about, and taking notes on, the new field while you pursue the main thread toward completion.
I've recommended in a number of other posts here that researchers keep a research notebook in which they record ideas for research that might be explored and developed in the future. When any idea of potential research directions occurs to you, make a page in the notebook for it. Periodically review the notebook and update it whenever related ideas occur. With judicious use you can keep fairly current in a somewhat different subfield without abandoning the path you are on.
The advice you are getting seems to be good. Don't let it confuse you, however. Deal with the short term to enable the long term. Your first work (dissertation) isn't likely to be your best work over a long career.

One of my PhD professors told us something like this: "Make sure that you pick a topic that you absolutely love, because by the time you're done, you're going to hate it." I've found this to be an excellent piece of advise. The PhD journey is so intense and soul-consuming that you should not go that road on something that you're not emotionally invested in. By the end of the road, students are often sick and tired of their deep dive into the same topic over a few years, so it's best to start with something that you really like to begin with.
You don't have to literally absolutely love it (in fact, there are problems with taking that too literally), but emotionally, you do need to like your topic a lot and you certainly need to believe in its importance. Put aside your need to convince your committee: you need to first focus on convincing yourself. So, rather than trying to motivate yourself in your topic, I strongly suggest that you switch topic for something that genuinely motivates you.
That said, resource support is very important, and this comes primarily from the professors whom you are working with. So, I generally recommend to PhD students to look for a topic or sub-topic that a cooperative professor is already interested in, and then go with that for the PhD. If you can find a topic that you like that your potential supervisor also likes, then they are emotionally invested in supporting you and you will find that your PhD journey goes much more smoothly.
So, in brief, I recommend that you carefully examine the topics and sub-topics of interest of the supportive professors that you have access to, then pick the one you like best as your PhD topic.

It's a bit difficult to give actionable advice without knowing the specifics, many aspects of a PhD depend on the field, the institution, etc. So I don't know to what extent my advice below applies to your case. That being said, I see three points worth mentioning:

The supervisors. There seems to be many people involved in your work. You mention that they are supportive, this is obviously good and it's not always the case so good for you! But too many people involved can also make things messy, each might (consciously or not) put pressure on you to go in the direction that they favor, they might not always agree together and you might end up spending more time managing their expectations than focusing on your own ideas. It's important that everyone's role in your PhD is clear to them and to you: there should be only one supervisor who acts as the lead, this implies that the others have an advisory role only (don't try to satisfy their requests unless they really fit in your schedule). This is also important in order to know who has the final word in case of disagreement: it's likely to happen sooner or later when many people are involved, and this can have quite bad consequences if there's no clear strategy in place.
The scope You are right to be concerned about your topic being too vague and too broad. To me this shows that you have a good understanding of what you are doing, you are able to spot the weaknesses in this PhD plan. Identifying the issue is important, the next step is to find a solution to this. It's quite common to start with a broad topic and refine it along the way into something much more specific. I've seen many PhDs in which the final work covers only a small portion of the original topic, but this is fine as long as there is a strong rationale (why it makes sense to focus on this particular point). But here again it's important to make sure everyone is aware of that from the start: with a broad topic, it's unavoidable that there's going to be some parts left unaddressed. If possible, try to establish a preliminary plan or a list of priorities of what you are going to focus on, and make sure your supervisors are ok with it.
Your own interest. Your personal motivation is critical. It's normal to feel a bit scared. Every PhD student faces the question "am I really able to do that?", and the only way to get an answer is to try. The answer is almost always positive if you are persistent enough to go through it, small step after small step. In my experience, it's the personal motivation which makes the difference: if you start with an half-empty tank, you are more likely to run out of motivation in the middle of the work (or apparently even at the start in your case). So you want to make sure that (1) you know what you'd like to do yourself (even only intuitively, intuition is usually a very good indicator) and (2) you make sure that most of the PhD work is going to be about that. Of course, the largest the overlap between your interest and your supervisor's interest the better: some things you like might not be realistic in this context, adjustments are ok but at the end of the day it is your PhD, you should feel a sense of ownership with it.

Bottom line: if you really don't feel comfortable with the direction this is taking, re-discuss the details with your supervisors before committing to it. It might not be an easy discussion but the longer you wait the harder it's going to be.


text:
Paper author has not included all suggestions in peer review
I am peer-reviewing a postgraduate paper. I reviewed the paper and sent off my recommendations for major corrections. Now the paper has come back and the author has only implemented around half of my suggestions.
They restructured the paper as requested, but failed to add some detail when requested in a couple of places, neither did they change the referencing to fall in line with the house style. The paper also has some spelling and grammar errors.
Should I recommend acceptance to the editor anyway? I am rather disappointed at the fact that some specific detail, as requested, was not included, but at the same time I do not want to deter this author and the paper is quite good in its current format. I feel that the parts left out, though not detrimental, should have been included at least for good practice. I am thinking of recommending acceptance with a note along the lines of what I have written above. Or should I be stricter?

If you point out spelling and grammar errors, and they’re still in upon return, that’s a total no-no to me. It takes a few minutes to take care of that. If the authors don’t care, why should you?

Related, as a more serious case: Reviewing a revision, after the original review did not reach the authors.

I sort of surprised it didn't just get desk rejected for failing to follow the journal's style guide.

Can you just ask for further corrections?

What is "a postgraduate paper"?

@nick012000 Such rejections seem an unnecessary waste of time: Authors are made to jump through hoops for every submission, without much benefit to anyone. Sure, you can check the page count, but what else? Reformatting a paper surely be done at the end.

@nick012000 Must be field dependent. In math, nobody bothers to follow or read the journal's style guide. Usually, reformatting is done after acceptance by the publisher. I mean, if they're going to charge $5000/year, they may as well do something, right?

As reviewing process can take several turns, if you think these corrections are important, you can send them back to the authors. Also, she/he has no obligation to change everything to your liking: it is the editors call if those changes are ultimatly necessary or not. Nothing is written in stone. About grammatical errors and formatting: while one would expect to authors to correct them if they are explicitly pointed out, however I think it is pretty low to reject a paper for them.

You’re a reviewer. You don’t “let the paper through” or not - you make a recommendation to the editor which he or she may or may not pay attention to.

@rhialto thank you, I was aware of this but my phrasing was inartful. However, I kept the phrasing in the original question otherwise Ian's answer would make less sense. That said, I will edit it, since this question is getting a lot of views and I think others may point this out too.

I had reviewers stubbornly requesting that I follow the citation style - remove some URL addresses that should not be there. But actually - it was the publishers Latex style that was producing them not me. It is the typesetters work to make the final appearance not the authors. But I had to remove the URLs from the bib file to make the reviewer happy and the copyeditor then likely had to search for them and add them again to enable hyperlinks in the bibliography. It was pretty pointless and most annoying indeed. Please think twice what kind of detail you request.

I personally would never punish or even comment on the proper use of style as a peer reviewer. If it was really out of the ordinary, I might mention it in a confidential note to the editor. But my experience is in a field in which some reviewers use adherence to style as a cue for whether the authors are "outsiders" trying to publish in "our" field, an impulse I resist.

Do you have access to the other reviews? It is well possible some of your suggestions were in direct contradiction with what other referees suggested. Likewise, your suggestions might be in direct conflict with external limitations (such as page and time limits).

@FedericoPoloni a paper by a postgraduate student, i.e. a student who has already graduated from a bachelor’s degree

Why not take up with the author exactly what you Posted?

The author owns the paper. They should consider any suggestions you make but need not implement any specific recommendation. Give up your "personal" feelings. That isn't your job. Re evaluate the paper on its merits and give it a fair assessment.
You are, of course, allowed to repeat your old suggestions, but it is a mistake to judge it solely on whether all of your suggestions were followed.
Some, but not all, authors will state in a "rebuttal" their reasons for ignoring suggestions. It isn't normally required. Judge the paper as it appears before you. Complain to the editor if you must.
Also consider that some really good suggestions are saved for future work by authors rather than included in the present paper. The work may already be in progress.

Excellent answer on content matters, +1 for that. Although the failure to fix grammar errors and typos is not negotiable (unless these refer to disputed grammatical rules).

It seems to me like a "response to reviewers" is field-dependent, like so many other things. In the fields I am active in (forecasting and psychology), it's very common - not required per se, but as a reviewer I'm usually surprised if such a cover letter is not included. And sometimes we have spent a lot of time in crafting such a letter and explaining in detail why we do not follow a reviewer's suggestion. I would at least expect some such explanation in the present case, instead of the silent treatment.

I agree with Stephen, a rebuttal is certainly required i my fields.

@CaptainEmacs: At the same time, I’ve had reviewers who were certain that some variable point of punctuation was an unbreakable rule of English grammar.  (Fortunately, the editors didn’t seem so worried about it.)  As a reviewer, if the authors disagree with me on a point of grammar, however wrong I may think they are, it doesn’t seem worth a dealbreaker — the scientific content is what really matters.

@PLL Agreed, that's why I talked about "disputed grammatical rules" as an exception. If someone is just sloppy (and yes, that exists; e.g. fixing one typo, introducing another, or just inconsistent punctuation), I'll flag that. If they, however, have other conventions (e.g. US vs. UK or mixed standards), that's not a hill I would open a battle for, plus I accept that I might be wrong. If that's an issue at all, that's for the production editors to address.

It is not your job to "let it through" or not - that is the job of the editor. Write a review that points out that the things you asked for have been changed or not, and say how important you believe these things to be. Certainly for referencing style and spelling/grammar, I would just point this out rather than making a judgement on it. Then let the editor make the decision.

Right, but most reports require a recommendation from the reviewer e.g., accept, minor revisions, major revisions, reject etc.

Yeah, but hopefully the editor pays more attention to what you write that what box you tick. Just don't tick "accept without further revisions" if you still have any qualms.

Right but the fact that you must make that recommendation means you cannot just state what was changed and how important it was. You have to weigh it all up yourself and make a recommendation

In this sort of situation I don't pay much attention to what I recommend, generally what ever the weakest form of "its not ready yet" is of the options.

Well, I think the answer is incomplete and could be competed by the information in your comment.

I agree by and large with the two answers already given by Buffy and Ian Sudbery. However I'd like to say something more on who should do what.
It is true that ultimately it is the author who decides what they want to have in the paper, and you cannot enforce them to do anything. It is also true that as a reviewer you do not have the ultimate responsibility to make a decision, this is up to the editor. In particular, although it is nice and helpful to point out formatting, spelling and grammar mistakes, ultimately the job of enforcing correctness in this respect is up to the editor.
It is your job however to decide whether you think that the paper should be published as is, or with further correction, so on the scientific side you have to assess how serious you think the omissions of the author actually are. If you think that the paper should in principle be published because it has something good and original and is by and large correct, however you think that your ignored suggestions are quite important to improve the paper, obviously if the journal has the possibility to run through another cycle, you can state your objections again and say that in your opinion the authors at the very least should reply to them.
As editor I have been in in such situations, I have to make up my mind about this, and it has happened both that I told authors that I think this is really important and they need to address the issues next time, or I occasionally decided that these are side issues in my view or maybe not even justified, and then I wrote to the authors that this is what the reviewer still wants to see and it would be nice if it could be addressed (unless I think it should not), but I wouldn't insist on it.
If of course at this point a final decision of "yes" or "no" is required, you ultimately have to make your mind up about whether you think that this is valuable and should be published in the first place, or whether you think your remaining points are really essential and you recommend to reject if they are not addressed. This may also depend on the level of the journal, you could also think that a paper with these omissions shouldn't be published in a high impact journal, but it could be acceptable elsewhere.

I do second the other answers given in this post.
I wish to make a point about the communication channels in the peer-reviewing process:

the authors always address the editor;
the reviewers always address the editor;
the authors and reviewers never address each other

regardless of whether matters of contention arise on the manuscript ("the authors are idiots") or on the commentaries ("the reviewers are idiots"). 'Idiot' is here a one-size-fits-all placeholder for any attitude of confrontation.
In this game the only one who may start a piece of correspondence with 'Dear Author' or 'Dear Reviewer' is the editor.
This editor-in-the-middle arrangement is a great opportunity for authors and reviewers to let go of their behavioural biases, whether emotions or unconscious expectations.
So, for anything you disliked in the authors' response, please bring a sound argument to the editor on why this weakens the case for publication.
You may well be right, but it is the editor's responsibility to guarantee a publication standard for the journal. See other posts indeed.
My two cents.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава