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Can I volunteer to work with my Masters thesis advisor, when I am funded by different advisor for PhD
I completed my master's dissertation with an adviser and was interested in the PhD program. Unfortunately I was told that my master's adviser didn't have funding and the other professor in department was doing an interesting research about an emerging field and he agreed to fund my PhD for next 4 years. He is aware that my previous lab let me go because of funding issues. Research in my previous lab and present lab are completely different, they are in no way related.
Now I still have strong interest in my adviser's work partly because some of the projects were my ideas and I don't want others to end up implementing them and also research is significant enough to have a journal published on it (an important addition to my resume). They have time till August to finish them off and I estimate they require at least 2-3 hours of work a day. I was considering volunteering for my Master's adviser and finishing off those projects. Will it be OK if I volunteer in my personal time to try and finish them? Do students ever do this?

Is a PhD student allowed to have "personal time"? Some people consider it a "full-time" job, where full time means 24/7. You have to be sure your advisor agrees on this particular aspect.

@Trylks well your adviser doesn't own you. Its life and you should have time to pursue your individual goals. Otherwise its just an abusive relation. I will pitch to my PhD adviser saying  i am helping doing some code work for my previous adviser and this will help me keep my coding skills current and up to date and i will do only after i complete after my work and on my personal time.If he doesn't agree ,then i don't want to end up on an unhealthy relationship for next 4 years.I better go and get a job and do Phd later.

Congratulations on your attitude. Some people undergo an "abusive relation" because they don't want to postpone getting a PhD.

@Trylks well i am an software engineer and i can get job pretty easily(not to sound like jerk but i let go off 2 software engg jobs to do an PHD).I am getting an PHD  because i am truly interested in research. I believe people will perform better when they are allowed to have their own time and left to pursue their own life outside research. Why does google or MS ask their research interns to work only 8 hours ? Its not like they dont care about research but they realise leaving students to pursue their own goals beyond their research will make workers more happy and productive.

I wish more people and more companies realized that, in some places they simply shove work into people until they fail, blame them for failing and get a new slave. E.g. Spain. With a 27% of unemployment, there is a strong supply of fresh new guys to keep going. Thx for reminding me that there is hope at the other side of the ocean. I'm going offtopic. This is a nice opportunity to check what type of person is your adviser and that piece of information is useful to make a more informed decision now that you are starting your PhD.

Your personal time is yours by definition. A good idea though might be to talk to your
Ph.D. advisor. If your former and current research projects do not overlap to much and you do not use results obtained in one lab and not yet published in the other lab I don't see any problem. Of course there may also be some personal animosity or rivalry between the former and current advisor so its a very good idea that your Ph.D. advisor is aware of this other activity and does not find out about it from a third party.

Since your PhD is funded there will naturally be expectations from your supervisor and funding body to deliver results in the future. While you are free to work on other projects I would advise you not to divert too much time from your PhD project. Provided you can balance your time then yes why not enjoy yourself and finish your masters projects?


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Job Market in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
The question: Firstly, do I need to have a background in computing to be a research in human-computer interaction (HCI). Secondly, I need help with getting relevant work experiences which seem to be difficult because I live in a developing country (Nigeria) where there is basically no research in this area.
The story: I have a BSc in Mass Communication and MA in Communication and Media. I discovered this field while on my masters program and have since developed an interest in it. I'm more interested in human-technology (mobile) relationship than designing. I have tried to define my research plan to fall within this area. I intend to research on mobile phone and rural development in Sub-Saharan African countries. I would love to be a researcher and also lecture within this area.
Considering I took some  Microsoft professional courses (MCSA & MCSE), I can say that I have some networking/Computing qualification.
I'm wondering if getting a masters (something like a MRES) in HCI will give me added advantage or if what I have is okay because for most job opportunities I see usually request for some one with a computing/HCI background which I don't have. I won't mind interning to get the needed experience because it seems like all the
vacancies are requesting experienced people.
My Career Goal: To be a research/lecturer. I hope to be flexible enough to be able to indulge in other business such as running an NGO that is youth and women development inclined.
My Background I am a 26 years old lady with no experience in this field. My education was split between my country (which is developing by the way) and UK. I really hope to do a PhD in a more advanced country and at the same time get some relevant work experience.

Welcome to Academia.SE. One suggestion: Don not post long questions. By posting long questions you may decrease your chance to get answers.

The question about research experience in a developing country seems to be asked and answered already at How can an undergrad from a country with little 'international' research improve his chances of being a "good fit" for a top PhD program?

@EnthusiasticStudent: As questions on this site go, this one is pretty concise.

HCI- human centered computing

@user21891 Are you sure about that? Not Human Computer Interaction? Wiki

In HCI, you've set your sights on what I think is a very interesting hybrid field.  On the one hand, there is the hard-core technological aspect of creating new approaches to user interfaces, which these days often also involves some extremely sophisticated machine learning and signal processing.  On the other hand, there is the human aspect of it, in finding out how people actually interact with their technology and what are the ways that it can make the most difference in human lives, which has a lot more to do with sociological and psychological studies.
From what you've said about your background and ambitions, it sounds like you are more inclined toward the human aspect, which is great.  In terms of building your career, I would recommend thinking about what you need to do from the perspective of gaining the skills that you need in order to study the human aspects.  A solid grounding in statistics and analysis will definitely important, as well as learning how to design and conduct effective human subject studies.  Even if there's no HCI programs in your area, I'm guessing that it is much more likely that there will be programs where you can study some of these others.
For the programming side and for getting involved in the field, you might want to look into AppInventor and Technovation. AppInventor is a programming toolkit intended to lower the barrier of entry for people to develop apps for phones and other Android devices.  Technovation is a worldwide program/contest for getting young women involved in software engineering by building their own applications.  In fact, I notice that one of this year's finalist teams was from Lagos!  You might look to get involved in some fashion, such as coaching a team.  It's not something that will make you money, but it might be a good way to pick up experience and connections.
There is probably no easy path, but it sounds like you have good ambitions of a sort that a number of international programs are intended to encourage, if you can only build yourself a solid foundation and find the right connections.  Finally, as I am an American who knows a lot more about computer science than developing countries, please take all of my advice with a big grain of salt.  I hope that others will be able to speak to your situation more directly as well.

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How likely is it that PhD application is not reviewed by professors if TOEFL minimum isn't met?
I am applying to doctoral programs and I have a worry about the application.
Since I found that my TOEFL score does not meet the minimal requirement set by a school that I am applying to, I am wondering if it is likely for me to be screened out before my whole application is reviewed by the professors?

That depends on the school process. If they do initial scan to reject as much applications as possible , then your application chance to pass is very low.

Is it wise for me not to pay the application fee then? I won't take your words for it; just want to know more opinions from various persons. Thanks.

I would say it is very likely.  However, each institution, department, and faculty member has different policies.  Maybe you should name what you are interested in.

@AnonymousPhysicist: Okay. Is it likely that a department sets its own "secret" minimum requirement that does not show on its website?

@Kurt No. Departments are generally not trying to mislead applicants with secret requirements.

Related: Do admissions care how close a TOEFL score is to the minimum?

At our university the equality regulations require us to 'consider' all applications--even those that do not meet the English language requirements. Our department's interpretation of 'consider' is that all complete applications are reviewed by us (the faculty). However, a failure to meet the english language requirement always results in us declining such an application unless the application contains evidence of significant mitigating circumstances (which it almost never does).

I do not know about US schools, but for my UK university the IELTS requirements are non-negotiable. Most of the time we see this right away. Sometimes we screw up and read and evaluate the entire application before noticing. In all cases the student is not offered a place. Other UK universities, especially ones that struggle to fill their spots, sometimes will argue with the administration that an exception should be made. From my understanding, they almost always lose.

Note that this is associated with visa issues, so the university has no room to make an exception.

@Ian I don't think it is a visa issue since we set an IELTS minimum on EU students.

In most cases in the US, the TOEFL or IELTS minimum is set by the university for foreign graduate students and is non-negotiable. In some cases, a department may have a higher requirement, but I think it's highly unlikely to succeed.

Depends on many factors.
Who is the decision Maker?
If the decision-maker is a Professor who at the same time is the head of the research group where you ought to work, then its up to him. And I see some space for tolerance there, given that all the other parameters are OK.
You fitting exactly to the needs
On top of that, if all the other parameters (minimal admission requirements) are already met, and you have even more than the Head of the Research Group expects, then he/she might be willing to take a risk and make a trade-off, especially if you fill completely to what he needs in the group.
University Administration :(
On the other hand if the admission is handled by an administrative office of the University, then they will not care much about your scientific background, and will most probably dismiss the application.

I think it is depends on the program. For instance I have applied to the program where my TOEFL score was below the required minimum, but I still got a interview with this university and I had a feeling that I probably would get in. I did not wait for an offer because a better graduate school admitted me the next day.

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Do I need to wait for a journal to "consent" to paper withdrawal before submitting elsewhere?
I have a question about submission elsewhere and journal's "consent" of paper withdrawing.
Recently I have withdrawn a paper of mine from a journal, which I want to submit elsewhere. Since I knew that the journal had received my email (by read receipt device) on withdrawing the paper and since I am just in the stage of being notified that the paper has been accepted for publication, the problem is: In order to submit the paper elsewhere, do I have to wait for the journal to consent to the withdrawal?
I am looking for some ethical advice.

Do you really mean "consent"? Or just explicit acknowledgement of receipt of your withdrawal

@ff524: Well, I meant, right, acknowledgement, I think.

One important question is whether you have already signed a copyright transfer to the journal.  (This would normally happen after acceptance.)  If you have, then you legally need their consent.

@NateEldredge: Thanks so much for your attention. I have not signed any copyright transfer! And I am in the stage of being notified of acceptance.

I'd recommend waiting a week or two to see whether you get a response to your withdrawal.  At this stage it can't be urgent to resubmit immediately, and having their reply would guarantee that they are aware that you have withdrawn the paper.  (By contrast, I don't think an e-mail read receipt means much.  For all you know, an administrative assistant opened the e-mail and then mistakenly deleted it without realizing what it said.)  I wouldn't go so far as to say you are required to wait for a response, but better safe than sorry.
I think you've got a much bigger issue to worry about, though, and that's why you withdrew the paper after acceptance.  At least in mathematics, withdrawing an accepted paper is extremely unusual.  To a first approximation, it typically means there's something seriously wrong with either the paper or the journal.  You can certainly do it, but given the effort that has gone into handling and refereeing the paper, you will cause offense if you don't have a very good reason.
If you inadvertently submitted the paper to a junk or predatory journal, then you don't need to worry about causing offense.  (Offending the editors of predatory journals is not a bad thing.)  In that case, withdrawing the paper is certainly the right decision.
If you dreadfully screwed up in your choice of journal, for example by submitting a brilliant breakthrough to a respectable but not impressive journal without realizing how good the paper was, then you should apologize profusely for wasting everyone's time.  Hopefully they'll understand that it was a genuine mistake on your part, and they'll sympathize with the awkward position you are in and give their blessing to resubmitting elsewhere.
If the paper is seriously flawed, then that's a respectable reason to withdraw it.  You might look bad for having submitted it, but then again, the referee didn't find the mistake either.  But this isn't a compelling reason to submit elsewhere soon: if you don't check whether the original journal is willing to publish the revised paper, then it looks like the changes were just an excuse to withdraw the paper.
Under normal circumstances, it will cause offense if people think you are withdrawing an accepted paper just to try your luck at a more prestigious journal.  In particular, this is a dangerous impression to leave if you ever hope to submit to this journal again.  As an editor, I would certainly not be happy to see a new submission from an author who had previously withdrawn an accepted paper without a compelling excuse.
All this gives you another reason to move slowly and wait for a reply.  If you have a good reason for withdrawal, then it's worth making sure you have communicated it clearly.  In any case, you are doing something rather unusual and serious, and it's best not to give the impression you are treating it lightly or casually.

Much appreciated. Honestly the journal from which I withdrew the paper is a predatory journal...

@Comeseeconquer in the case of a predatory journal, you may have more reason to be concerned; see the answers to What should I do if I submitted an article to a predatory journal? for steps you should take to protect yourself

In general, yes, if by consent you mean you have written to say you wish to withdraw the paper for further review. Doing so, is in my mind and field, not something you should do light-heartedly. Waiting for a reply is also a good strategy, or etiquette, since you then know that the paper has been formally withdrawn (usually a click away in electronic submission systems). It is better to be 100% clear on what is going on. A return receipt in an E-mail is to me not sufficient and it can also be considered a bit arrogant.
In a request, you may want to add a few words to describe the reason why you wish to do so although it is your right. It all boils down to being courteous to the journal editors and reviewers, depending on how much work they have put into the journal paper.
Some authors seem to do this systematically just to get a sense of whether the manuscript will stand and to see if they can send it to a "better" journal. Such behaviour is of course not good etiquette and a slap in the face to those who do a fair amount of unpaid work on a manuscript.
requests for withdrawal should be easy and if you do not get a reply within, say, a couple of weeks, I think a reminder can be sent without hesitation. You may then also state that you will go along with the submission to another journal.

Thanks so much, real clear, giving me a holistic picture.

Yes, one should wait to get the permission.
Edited:
Journal's editors may have spent significant time and energy to contact potential referees. The same for the referees. So it seems unfair to withdraw the paper without a permission.

While this technically is an answer, it's not a very useful one, since it doesn't offer any supporting explanation.

@ff524 I added a supporting explanation.

What do you mean "permission"? You do not need the permission of the journal to subtract the submitted paper.

@TobiasKildetoft I mean the permission of the journal to be ok with subtraction.


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Retroactively turning down an accepted offer to a professional program from one school in favour of an offer from another school?
If I accept an offer to a professional program from one school (e.g., law, medicine, pharmacy, etc.) and then later get an offer to a better program from a different school, can I retroactively turn down the first offer to accept the second?
Both schools are in Canada, but answers relevant for US schools may also be useful.
I'm actually asking for my brother. The problem in his situation is that the acceptance deadline for one school is after the offer date for another ("better") school. The first school has refused to extend the deadline and the second school has refused to give early notification that an offer is pending.
I am hesitant to say the exact type of program because I don't want to expose his identity to anyone making a decision regarding his admission.
The following question is about grad school, not professional programs, so I'm unsure if the answers apply.
Is it legal to withdraw a signed offer letter from grad school?

The first school won't like it, but there would be nothing to stop your brother from backing out of the first offer and accepting the second offer, unless the schools work closely together to prevent this from occurring, which seems highly unlikely, especially because their notification dates differ so greatly.
If your brother is accepted to the second program, the most courteous way to inform the first program would be:

as quickly as possible, so they can accept someone from their waiting list or otherwise make use of the information.
without insulting the first program.

For example, he might write something like:

I realize that, as grateful as I am for admission into your program, pursuing it would not be the right thing for me to do at this time and that I should not have accepted your offer.  I am very sorry that I have to withdraw my acceptance.  I hope it is not too late for you to offer the place to a student who is a better fit for your program.


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Any place for people with fear of writing?
This isn't the best moment to ask the question, since I should be writing an overdue document and presentation.
However, is there any place where a person with fear of writing can work? I am studying for a PhD in Europe in a STEM field. I was always quite good at school and university. I was on schedule with my studies, but the preparation of my master thesis was quite painful and I have the impression than I should have completed it in 60% of the time it took me. After a short experience in the industry in a field close to my own (but for which I didn't have all the skills), I took the opportunity of a PhD in my field. Of course before that I had been making interviews for jobs in my field, but never got anything. Being extremely introvert doesn't help. I already feel embarrassed writing my CV, and adding details as hobbies or strength points (actually I ended up skipping those parts).
Now it's been more than one year that I'm in this PhD and each writing task is really making me desperate. Initial proposal, internal reports, and presentations torment me for weeks. From this emotional distress, I am often impaired both in my writing and research work. I have ended up crying at home at night in front of a white page (once even at morning at work, but I managed to hide in the bathroom in time).
I'm lucky that my advisor doesn't put too much pressure on me, but I feel so bad not being able to hand in what I am required, sometimes even after a deadline. The problem is that even if a deadline is reasonable, sometimes I cannot make it because it takes me 2 days to write 1 paragraph (no kidding). Guess how many papers submitted?
Still, I enjoy much more my time here than in the industry. I enjoy academic reading, I have thirst for knowledge and so on, but I see that communication is an essential part for a PhD student. So far I am willing to continue with the PhD program, but I am starting to doubt that I will ever be confident in writing and that this will cripple my academic future.
Any suggestion on how to turn the career path? Also a suggestion on how to overcome fear of writing would be good, but I am afraid I've already read all the good advice here on SE and in many blogs about procrastination, perfectionism, impostor syndrome...
If can be of interest, writing this question took me more or less 40 min.

Do you speak more than one language? If so, does this problem occur in all languages?

I haven't been required anymore to write anything scientific in my native language since master lectures (the thesis was already in English), so I would not be able to make a real comparison. Anyway I avoid drafting in my native language, so I guess the problem would be the same. I'm more concerned about the content than the form (I've already seen that with some effort and time I can get a reasonable fluid and correct text)

@user3411792 Do you have problems writing just academia-related texts or writing in general? I've noticed for example that it takes me extremely long time to write anything related to school, but writing non-school texts isn't that problematic for me.

Wait, what? You mean there are people who don't start off with a fear of writing? Have you tried Hemingway's advice: write drunk, edit sober?

@EnergyNumbers I find it inappropriate to encourage a person who very well might be struggling with depression to self-medicate with alcohol, even as a joke.

@DanPetersen IME, when I treat people like responsible adults, they generally behave like responsible adults. YMMV.

thank you everybody for the very insightful answers. in this moment i dont have time to WRITE better answers and comments but i hope to be able to come back soon!

anyway in this moment i am so tired that i am jotting down ideas without thinking and worrying to much... but they will really need to be revised with a fresh mind, so i think i am exactly in the condition described by hemingway! without even spending the money for the booze

How difficult was it to write this question? Maybe you're overthinking things.

It's sad to see everyone answering a question that is already better answered elsewhere (how to overcome fear of writing) and avoiding answering the question that was asked (Any suggestion on how to turn the career path?).

@AdamDavis "Also a suggestion on how to overcome fear of writing would be good". So that's what people have been doing.

Is it a procrastination thing or a perfectionism thing or something else? Counselling can help with these kinds of things.

@DavidRicherby And that is sad.

@DanPetersen Hemingway's advice is figurative. What it means is: Be lenient toward yourself while writing, be critical only when reviewing.

I do resonate with your experience because I was scared to write (English is not my mother tongue) and I am also an introvert. I have been reading much about writing and networking and here are some tried and working methods (by me) that I wish will also help you. In the case of real fear, I agree that talking to some professional will also be advisable.
Don't "write," instead, draft then edit
My biggest "A-ha--!" moment was learning that most writers don't really write a perfect sentence at the first go, instead, they draft and edit. And for me, my mind has eased up so much once I have learned this distinction and decided to split my writing tasks into drafting and editing. In drafting, I just freely interpret the data and plug in some discussion here and there, occasionally with some anecdotes, etc. I never edit them. Then, after a couple days, I return to edit the piece. On a good day, I got to keep about 40-60% of them; on a bad day, I may have to slash 80-90%, but also often have a good laugh at what I wrote.
This finding really liberated me. I'd suggest you give this a try as well.
Write to think instead of think to write
Instead of writing to tell people what you think, I found it easier to write it as if I am having a discussion with myself. I wrote the research question, and then gave some answers, and then went back to question the answers more. I was often surprised that many times I read the scribble and figured out "Oh, this is what it is!"
I would advise against crafting out a perfect sentence and then put it on paper. This is futile because mind works a lot faster and non-linear than typing/writing process. By the time a "perfect" sentence is written, a lot of useful thoughts might have been suppressed or forgotten.
Dedicate times to write
Silvia in How to Write a Lot introduces a method that involves making a time and a space to write. I adopted the method this way: I block out time a few weeks ahead as writing/analysis time, then I guard that time. I cleared up the wall and the desk I face when I work on the computer so that I can only see the computer (and other books/articles I use) when I write. There is no picture, stationery, picture frame, etc. 120 degrees in front of my eyes. I also close down e-mail, silent my phone, and close the door.
Boice in Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing even goes so far to suggest coupling important and crucial daily ritual (such as shower) with writing hour. No writing? No shower. I found this kind of stressful, but perhaps may work for people with a different personality.
Document time as well as words
Productivity aside, it's more fulfilling to document my writing effort in both time and output. High output is, of course, great. But I have also come to realize that reminding myself I have been dedicating a fixed time regularly to write, albeit slow and low, makes me feel more confident.
Free writing
Goodson in Becoming an Academic Writer explains some pretty nice workshops to foster a healthy writing habit. The starting one is to "free write." Free writing is not new, and some people use this to warm up or tune into the internal writer channel. It's really simple, just sit down, open an blank document, minimize the visible area so that you cannot see what you type, set a time limit, and pour out all sorts of thought that goes inside your mind. Anything, just type.
Usually, after the time limit (I started with 5, now 10,) you'll have a pretty clutter-free mind and clearer idea on what that day's writing is gonna be.
Use proxy of writing
There are many, many ways one can put down an idea without initially writing it out. Drawing a mind map, popularized by Buzan, can help forming a bird view of an article. Paper and colored pen are good enough, online tools such as VUE are abundant.
Doodling, such as Sketchnote recommended by Rohde, can also be a fun way to "play" with words and idea.
For scientific writing, a paper by O'Coonor and Holmquist in 2009 suggests a pretty interesting method: basing your writing on a key output, such as a graph of the results, or a table of an analysis, and then build from there. For most experienced researchers this may be nearly common sense, but for those who think a paper should be written from Abstract to Conclusion linearly, this paper would help re-orienting them. My former supervisor, knowing my hesitation for writing, actually used this very method when advising me.
Use a recorder to document your thoughts or use speech recognition software to dictate your spoken words into texts may also help you break away from the deep-rooted fear towards writing.
Harness creativity
When writing output falls, I feel tired. After some trials and errors, I figured out that I feel tried not because I lacked energy, but because of too much creative thoughts didn't get to be expressed. So, I play music, pick a challenging recipe and make a potentially horrible dish (and eat it, butter + pepper + red wine always save the day), play LEGO, knit and crochet, come to answer questions... etc. I actually picked up a lot of habits through my doctoral study.
Introvert vs. extrovert
Being an introvert is actually not bad! In most modern culture extroverts get a lot more praises and attentions, but if you cast a critical look at it, this world needs both types to run properly. Two books I read last year were quite inspiring: Zack's Networking for People Who Hate Networking provides advices on how to focus your energy and properly carry out quality networking; Laney's The Introvert Advantage provides a more holistic look at how extroverts and introverts work, and how to cope and thrive as an introvert.
Closing remark
Best of luck and, really, enjoy the ride even it's scary. After the PhD thesis, there will be more collaboration and you will not feel as lonely. When I am down and want some healing reading, I often flip through Lamott's Bird by Bird and Zinsser's On Writing Well. They are also a good choice before reading those more serious and pragmatic how-to guides on writing.
Whenever I feel cognitively/academically inferior/inappropriate, I would think about a remark of Florence Foster Jenkins, who slaughtered Mozart's Queen of the Night aria (Try listen to Edda Moser's version first, and then Jenkin's version): "People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing." Before worrying doing it well, do it first, and you will improve.
The fact is I have never met one person in my life who genuinely embraces writing as if they "love" to write. Most successful writers, when interviewed, often just say things like "What tips? I just write," or "I draft, and then I write, rewrite, and then I rewrite again." Betty's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain has made a lot of people realize they can draw; I wish there will be a book called Writing on the Right Side of the Brain that will make people realize that we all can write, but we probably have to wait until the neuroscientists get over their fear of writing.

+1. Excellent advice, well put. I make use of a website called 750words.com for free writing. For some reason, having a URL that presents me with a blank page each day and keeps track of when I write (and when I don't) is really helpful.

Another useful trick: Turn on the tape recorder. Explain the topic as you would to a technically savvy friend. Transcribe the resulting tape, and that's your first draft; now all you need to do is improve it rather than having the "where do I start" problem. Or trick yourself by saying the first attempt is just warm-up and doesn't need to be good (often it will be better than you expect), or start writing at the second paragraph or second section to overcome the paralysis of finding a good first sentence, and fix that later. Been there, done that; broke near-total writer's block.

The only thing you should do is to seek professional advice. Writer's block (in all its forms) is not uncommon and it is clearly possible to remedy. I cannot and will not get into possible reasons for why this occurs but clearly in a PhD, particularly early on, it may seem like a daunting affair. To avoid ones problems is not the solution. If you see yourself in academic jobs (in or outside academia) writing will be one of your main tools. To try to find a job where this is not necessary will be difficult unless you see yourself switching direction completely. So the advice is seek help now. You will not be the first one to do so and will not be the first who will be able to continue.

I'd like to add that many universities have some kind of office where you can get psychological counseling. They should at least be able to refer you appropriate professional help. If you don't know where to find them, you can try to ask your exam office (they regularly have students with exam anxiety and usually know where to send them for help).

There are well established clinical treatments for problems like these.  I've read papers about therapy for math anxiety, for example, and the therapy is effective.

It is your PHD. You have to write. Papers, reports, thesis. It cannot be done otherwise. On the other hand, you must know that all of us have collapsed (or constantly collapsing) under pressure, one way or another. Others have stayed in bed not wanting to get up. Others blocked out and could not perform. The "stronger" ones sucked it all in (externally) and developed serious health issues. So, you are not alone.
You should fight it. Get a girlfriend / boyfriend. Talk to your family and friends. Exercise, do sports. As wiser people have said "Whatever it takes to keep your hands free". But even then, you might not be able to fight it alone and might need to seek some professional help. It is not a shame. It is actually a brave action to admit you are not always strong in a world full of hypocrites and wannabes.
In term of practical advice. Select some successful authors in your research area that you really like their writing style. In the beginning, partially emulate their style. See how they describe the challenges and the related work. Rephrase the related paragraphs in your unique style. Then add in your what are you trying to do. That will be enough to make it through the introduction and the related work. Beginning is always the hardest part. Once those 1-3 pages are out of the way and you start to write "your" contribution and "your" experiments, you will see that things get easier. So, in the beginning emulate and adapt (but not copy) from the authors you like. After 1-2 written papers, you will see that you do not need to do that anymore and you have developed your style. Most of all, enjoy the process. Everyone has gone through your phase and you CAN and WILL get through it.

There are opportunities in research that don't require writing, usually in engineering, building things about which some other people will write about. I don't know about your area, STEM is for stem cells?
First point: you may not need to write.
However, if you happen to need to write or you would like to overcome these issues (which I would encourage, even if it may be a bad idea), then I don't know how to help you, but since I started writing I now need to put an end to this. There are a few things you could consider (I'm not an expert in this topic, this is just from the top of my head):

As you see, you don't need to worry [that] much about writing in a place like here. You are anonymous, and users here can get to be as moronic as I am (I think I'm the supreme in that ordered set), so no need to worry about sorting the ideas [that] much.
try to get a habit of writing, forums, blogs, whatever. Don't struggle to write properly (people clearly don't do so),   simply try to be natural, get a habit, have fun. Then, when you are confident (and fast) try to get better at it, you will get better faster (with your newly gained speed).
think in words. I always thought everybody did this, I certainly do, I guess some people may not (maybe deaf people think in different ways). If you are commuting, waiting in bed to get asleep or in any other spare time with nothing better to do, think about anything you may be interested, but try to structure your thoughts in a conscious way into sentences and a discourse (no big effort, try to do this naturally). Writing is simply typing this. Typing may be hard for handicapped people, I don't want to make any assumption here, but if Stephen Hawking can manage to write stuff, I think you should be able too.
get a template. Don't write papers, fill the gaps in a template. You can even use some other paper or set of papers (taking bits and pieces) to create one. All the papers of the same type (experimental, formal, theoretical, whatever) have the same structure. In this paper we address the problem of $topic when there is some $novelty.
We extend previous approaches by including $novelty. This provides
several advantages like $advantage1, $advantage2, $advantage3 in the
context of $limitations. We have performed an [empirical/formal/user
based/whatever] evaluation showing promising results about this
possibility.
Note: this is not a universal template, sometimes you
will add some novelty that is good, sometimes you will be able to
handle something that makes things harder and despite of that do
something cool, etc. there are different tacit templates for
different kinds of papers. When you get used to this, you will do it
automatically, the template will be engraved in your brain.
Don't worry about plagiarizing if you are starting, your supervisor
will probably make many changes and plagiarizing is (should be!) about what
people do, not how they write it. As long as you are doing new
things, it should not matter much if someone wrote other things in a
similar style. Or simply draw inspiration from several papers, researchers seem to like    collages.
submit your papers to journals. I'm an introvert and I hate conferences.

PS: listicles are easy! BTW: I wrote an answer that very bad written, mostly stupid and fairly useless, but it's still better than nothing, isn't it? Some people say: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt." But this is not true in academia, it's more like "What's important is that people talk about you, even if they only say bad things". It's all about impact!

STEM = "Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics".  It's an acronym/shorthand including any field which is technical and quantitative

Thanks  for the info. That's very general, but (in STEM in general) it may be feasible to research without writing, assisting to other people who write. Basically what I said about engineering, which also applies to technology. I don't see it possible in maths (which is about writing formulas, from my biased perspective) and science is... anything. It's a weird acronym, does it imply that maths and science are two different things and technology and engineering are also two different things? Are maths really quantitative? Is science really technical? Anyway, that's off topic, thank you again.

If you have quantitative technical activity, calling it STEM saves you trying to pigeonhole it into "math" vs "engineering" and "engineering" vs "science".  Some branches of math and certain sciences may not be quantitative -- and they aren't STEM.

Two books by Robert A. Day helped me a lot to have a feeling about academic writing: Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals, 3rd Edition and How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. But the next important thing, like the other answers suggested, is to practice thinking and writing regularly.

The best way around writer's block I've found is to have several parallel tasks, i.e., do experiments, analyse results, read up on (and summarize if useful) literature, re-read and proof earlier chapters, write up new stuff, and so on. That way, when you get bored or otherwise stuck doing one task you can switch to another one. One task is blocked, but the others move along nicely ;-)
Another tip is to write down (even as a rough draft, but in your final format) what you do as soon as possible. If you don't, you can easily waste a week reconstructing some earlier derivation. It is also easier to edit a draft to (more near to) final form than writing, and in my experience neither the draft-writing nor the draft-polishing are prone to block me (at least much, much less than "writing").

My advice:  By the time one is working on a dissertation, one has read dozens or more of articles, books, etc.  So just start writing. Hint:  You already have an 'emergency' plan in your mind of the minimal acceptable dissertation to write.  So, write that out.
If you are in math or sciences (or any other field where figures and tables are applicable), do them, put them in a coherent order and describe them.  This will get much of your goal accomplished.

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


text:
Ex supervisor published last month a photo from my PhD (5 years ago) with other co authors
Can anyone of the members of the committee of a PhD thesis use data of the former doctoral student’ PhD thesis without attribution to the PhD thesis?
An ex-supervisor used data at a conference with some co-authors. Unfortunately this data has been already presented in another conference as a poster 6 years ago by myself with different co-authors. This data was derived from my PhD thesis 5 years ago.
When I asked her, she told me that she had the right to. In my PhD thesis, I wrote that I retain the intellectual property rights. However in my PhD program, the university policy is that results from a PhD thesis can be used by both the student and its supervisor.

Copyright and academic norms aside, as the author of an original work in most countries you are likely have the moral right (an actual legal right) to attribution. This exists even when you have assigned copyright (the right to exploit) to another entity, and I would anticipate it's unlikely your uni contract waived your moral rights. That said this isn't a bridge-building route to follow.

It's hard to say for sure without knowing all the details and both sides, but typically, whenever an academic paper uses material that's been previously published (and a PhD thesis would count), academic ethics require that it be cited.


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Paper accepted for poster presentation in IEEE, what are the chances of it being published?
I had recently submitted a paper to an IEEE conference and got accepted, but for poster presentation. This is the very first time I have written a paper. Although it is a great achievement for me given my inexperience in the field, my goal is to get it published.

Does IEEE publish papers accepted for posters presentations?
Should I pass on the poster presentation and send my paper to a journal?

It never hurts to present your work as a poster, but as far as I know, no poster sessions are published. Which means you get to gain experience and still publish later. That said, I'd do both. Don't pass on a poster session, but don't give up on publishing your work, either.

It depends on the particular conference and the field.  In computer science (where the main publication venue is conferences), many conferences divide the published papers into "talks" and "posters" (eg NIPS, AISTATS, ...), and there's no difference in terms of publication.
In most other fields, however, acceptance at a conference means nothing, and you have to get published in a journal.
TL;DR: ask your advisor.

It depends on the conference. Many conferences publish the one page abstract that you're sometimes required to submit with the poster, but not all of them. If you didn't have to write the 1-page summary as part of the submission, don't expect it to be published. The poster itself is almost never published (I personally recommend that you make the poster available on the web).
Despite that, you CAN still list it as a publication on your CV, but posters are generally not worth very much and it's good to compartmentalize them to their own section of the CV so that your (eventual) journal and conference papers get priority.
A bit more description about "weight" and whether you should pass or not:
Generally, the weight of a publication (all else being equal, like let's assume for a moment that every paper's research content is the same) depends on the venue it's in and the type of publication it is. Posters are on the bottom, then short papers, then full conference papers. Usually, you get a poster because the work isn't developed enough to fill up a full paper. One thing to note is that if you "compartmentalize" your work well enough, you should be able to get the poster out and then later extend it to the journal without any issues - that is, if your journal builds upon your poster (quite often by adding more results, more interpretations/implications from the data, more analysis, etc.) then you'll have no problem with having both the poster and the later journal paper/conference paper.
I would like to take a moment to say that while this usually is okay for posters (poster to journal/conference paper), taking this path from a short paper/note to conference paper is often wrought with more problems. Because short papers already present an approach and sometimes results, you need to ensure that the full paper builds SIGNIFICANTLY on the short paper for it to be a real contribution. I've been seeing more recently people highlighting differences between short papers and long papers as a result (ex: "This paper builds upon the work presented in [1] by adding a thorough evaluation through two lab studies and one industrial field study"). You need to do this because if you don't, and someone does a web search for the topic of the paper, they might find your short paper and then be all like, "So it looks like someone has done this before". Unlike in a poster, where you really don't get that much space to talk about much of anything, you can usually discuss something of substance in a short paper.
Anyway, in general, it's usually okay to present posters and then later expand them into journals or conference papers. Poster presentations are healthy in that they are a quick and easy way to get yourself "out there", solicit feedback from the community, and get further ideas for what you want to do with your work. You can usually use the feedback from the poster session to build upon what you have and get a stronger research direction in the future. But do be aware that you're not "self-scooping" yourself by putting super-important results in a poster, because posters have low impact.

Ok..I am attaching a piece of text from the acceptance e-mail I received, it says : "Please note that for the paper to be published in the IEEE Xplore Digital
Library at least one of the authors must be present at the conference. Please do
take the comments and suggestions of the reviewers into account while preparing
the camera ready paper to further improve the quality of your paper." There is still a certain amount of ambiguity regarding whether it will be published even in its abstract form.Is it ok for me to contact the conference and ask them ?

In many CS conferences, a poster paper is basically the same as short papers. In fact most of the cases, you write a normal paper, which is bordeline so it only gets accepted as a poster paper. So, the camera ready copy should be trimmed to be included in the proceedings. I believe in the conference call for papers, it says the maximum length of the paper for poster presentations. So refer there for the correct length, before submitting the camera ready copy.

@Geekidiot If you submitted a paper and received a note about it appearing in the IEEE Digital Library then chances are high that the submitted paper is going to be published.


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How do I lower the similarity index percentage in iThenticate?
I have run into a situation where a "plagiarism detection software" (I believe the one being used is called iThenticate) is showing 31 % similarity index for my document. In the list at the end of the report, it shows 20 entries under "Primary sources" (all have a subtitle "Internet" which I think is supposed to say all the matches with my document were found in other documents on the Internet) where the similarity percentages for each entry ranges from 6%, 1240 words to 1%, 118 words. This document is in the Humanities field. How should my document be modified to reduce this similarity index?

I have some sections in this document that have been paraphrased from another article (literally copy/pasted), but they have all been cited in the reference section. Are these one of the triggers for the similarity? The report shows some paraphrased material as being similar to something else (understandable) but not others. Should the paraphrased sections be formatted in some way to have the software ignore it?

Some common words such as "Chapter", "Introduction", etc and few common phrases are flagged as being similar to something else (words such as "chatper", "also" are flagged on one page, but not flagged in another). How concerned should I be about these? If I need the similarity index to be below some threshold percentage how do I ensure words like these do not take me above the threshold?

Some sections of the document are my own words, but the phrasings used are common enough that the entire section is being flagged as being from someplace else. How should I modify sections such as these?

Why do you want to reduce this metric? Presumably anyone sane looking at it will be able to see that the detector is just detecting a lot of regular things and not plagiarism.

Are you running the software yourself, or is someone else running it and just giving you the output?

"paraphrased from another article (literally copy/pasted)" -- That doesn't really make sense. To be clear, you copy-pasted and then changed some words, or do you mean something else?

@DanielR.Collins may be paraphrased wasn't the right word. Its a copy/paste of a statement from another article, something like, According to Smith, ".....". This has also been listed in the references for the document. Nothing from another article has been listed as if they were my own words.

@JoshuaZ it's one of the requirements for the document to get accepted, similarity index percentage needs to be below certain threshold

@Anonymous a department at the University will run it through the software and give me the results. I think its one of those softwares where a single document check costs $130 or something for a normal person, so not really feasible for an individual. The software gives out a pdf file where sections it detects as similar to something else are highlighted in colour, and at the end of the document there is a list of colours and the associated source which my text is similar to. For eg if I copied a paragraph from wikipedia, it would be highlighted in blue and in the list at the end, ...

... it will show that the blue sections came from wikipedia .com

@user13267: That would of course be a "quote", not a "paraphrase" (I'm assuming you've actually got the copied text noted in quotation marks). It's, respectfully, kind of a red flag to not know that.

Is the goal of this rule to detect/prevent plagiarism, or is there some other purpose that you know of? As the answer states, for plagiarism this makes no sense, so are you able to make some other sense of it?

And is this mandatory?  If it is, whoever is mandating it should have guidelines on how they set the software up (and I've used it-- it definitely has settings) and what you should do with or about the results.

@Anonymous yes this is mandatory and after some looking around there seems to be guidelines (exclude quotes/bibliographies/phrases/small matches-10 words/source matches-by 1%), so now I don't understand how it's counting words like "Introduction" as a match. One issue I can think of is may be all the phrases cited from other articles are not properly formatted (not within quotation marks for example), but I'd assume such instances would be clearly highlighted in the report, as I'm guessing those are the easiest problems for the software to catch

@Snijderfrey This is apparently to prevent plagiarism. I'm not aware of anything else this is possibly being mandated for

@user13267 It sounds like the people running your institution are extremely foolish if they base things on this software output. Completely worthless education they're subjecting you to, I'm afraid.

Ignore it. You've identified bad software.
Similarity is not plagiarism. It can be a clue that plagiarism has happened, but you do not need to "reduce similarity". Be certain you have not plagiarized, and then be happy with this and stop sending content you haven't plagiarized to a similarity detector; these tools are for people who don't know whether the content they are reading is plagiarized or not.
Some better things to focus on:

I have some sections in this document that have been paraphrased from another article (literally copy/pasted)

This does not make sense. If something is paraphrased, it is not literally copy/pasted. If it's literally copy/pasted, quote it and be clear that it's literally copy/pasted, and then do not worry about similarity. Generally this is best done sparingly; if you find yourself needing to quote long passages frequently without special reason (like critiquing a specific passage in a work of literature) then there is something wrong with your overall approach to the writing project rather than a problem of similarity: you're regurgitating something that already exists rather than creating something new. Take a couple steps back and reevaluate your goals. You may not need to include this at all and just direct your reader to the source if they need further information.
If you've copy/pasted and then just edited a few words or changed the grammar/phrasing to try to make it less "similarity index", you've just plagiarized. Making more of these trivial edits will not make it less plagiarized even if you make it less "similarity index". Either mentally digest the content and completely rewrite it from scratch from your own head while citing individual pieces of fact necessary to support your argument, or go back and verbatim quote the whole thing with quotation marks and a clear citation that it came from someone else's writing.

If I need the similarity index to be below some threshold percentage

If this is a rule by someone at your institution, I am sorry to inform you that either this person is an idiot or your entire institution is a joke. You cannot solve this problem by changing your similarity index, you're still attending an incompetent institution if this is how they treat plagiarism. Just think about it: if you were actually able to make your work "not plagiarized" by doing things like using some other word instead of "chapter" or "introduction", what is the purpose of this? There is no purpose. Absolutely asinine rule with no educational value. How can you possibly trust someone who imposes rules like this that have no value, when they are clearly showing how little they understand academia and writing and the meaning of the output of the software they are using? You'll have to decide how to handle that information, though.

"Ignore it, you've identified bad software" -- why? I agree with the rest of your answer, but according to the body of the question there are 20(!) instances that have been flagged, each ranging from ~100(!!) to over 1000(!!!) words. In this case I think the software is doing exactly what it was designed to do...

I must in good conscience downvote this, because per the OP's comments, its use is mandated.  Ignoring it seems unwise.

@hiccups The similarity score is not actually what's telling OP they've copied something, though. If they've copied without quoting, that's the problem, not the similarity. If they've copied without quoting but then edited enough to trick the similarity score, that's still equally a problem. Worse, the similarity score may encourage this obfuscation behavior that resolves similarity while preserving plagiarism. So, the similarity score provides no additional information that the author doesn't already have about how they wrote their paper. That's why they should not use a similarity score.

It's hard to be sure, but it seems like the software is mis-configured.
If your institution's guidelines are, from your comment:

exclude quotes/bibliographies/phrases/small matches-10 words/source matches-by 1%

And it is still reporting those, then either someone is not setting up the exclusion criteria correctly, or you can ignore that part of the report.  You still have other issues to work through.
But, as much as I hate the expression, this is a classic XY Problem.
You are asking X:  How can I lower this score?
You should ask Y:  What are the guidelines for using this tool, how does it work, and what do I need to do with or about the result?
And you need to ask your professor, or advisor, or editor, or whoever is mandating the use of this tool for this paper.
Because we can't tell you.
(As an example, for my dissertation, I was told how to set up the software to run it myself, and then had to write a brief justification for each of the software's squawks.  Presumably someone read it-- I never heard another word about it.  I have no expectation that your process will be the same.)

Hi thanks for the response. The paper has been edited enough that the index is now within the required thresholds. I am curious about one thing though (and since you said you have setup the software yourself, I hope this is appropriate to ask), during the second run through the software, a section in the document that wasn't marked as plagiarized, is marked as plagiarized now, when nothing in that section was changed. Is this normal behaviour for this software? If the same document is passed through the software multiple times, is it normal for the software to mark different sections...

...of the document at different times, or does it mark the same sections as copied from the same source every time? There was about a week and a half time difference between the first and second pass of my document. Can this make any difference, or does it indicate that some settings have been definitely changed during the first and the second pass? In my case I only get a similarity report at the end of the pass (a pdf file that just says "certain %age" of "certain section" has been found similar to "certain site", and I don't have the option of going to the exact source where the section...

...is supposedly copied from. If you set up the software yourself do you get the feature of just clicking on a marked section and viewing the exact source where the section has been supposedly copied from?

How should my document be modified to reduce this similarity index?

Don't plagiarise.
From one of your comments, "quotes/bibliographies/phrases/small matches-10 words/source matches-by 1%" can be ignored. So any matches for singular words ("introduction", "chapter" etc.) as well as "common phrases" (each of which should be maybe ~10 words long?) can be ignored---sensibly so.
The bigger problem is where you have "20 entries... where the similarity percentages for each entry ranges from 6%, 1240 words to 1%, 118 words". Check each of these entries. Have you copied/pasted from those sources as suggested by the software? If yes, you have plagiarised. If no, follow the advice in Brian's answer.

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


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Where do general researchers make general discussions, online?
I am involved in a project team to build a decentralized tool for researchers to share and peer-evaluate their findings, without any intervention of third party intermediaries (publishers, journals, presses, ...).
The team aims to work as a non-profit foundation, and the service (or the platform) of course is gonna be open-sourced free software. The problem is, in building the designs and specifications of the tool, we need opinions from the academics.
So here is the question. Where on the Internet can I find active discussions and opinions from researchers?
(I've been told often that many researchers use Twitter, but if that is the case how may I reach them? Does it work like hashtagging #ScholComm, #SciComm, or #Researcher?)
PS. for those who're interested in what the project is, please message me... or am I permitted to link it here?

On StackExchange, on mailling-lists, on forums, nowhere, on twitter, in journals, on ResearchGate, ... The fact that you don't know where to look is probably not a so good sign, especially because renewing the way we publish is already discussed a lot. You can start by looking at the Jussieu Call and who signed it. This is a major concern for Academics, already discussed an drafted a lot: every contribution is welcome, of course, but getting a sense of how the Academics started to solve this question themselves would probably be a plus.

Thanks @Clément I've been looking at lots of references to hear on what they've discussed for more than decade about what needs to be fixed in the scene, plus asking many of my friends researching at universities and institutes. Looking at the prior discussions had some limitations tho, in that, I also need voices from those who don't care about it, do not know well about it, and even those against it. Will do more researches on this anyway :)

A lot of them are indeed on Twitter, but as usual with humans, cold asking them is probably not appreciated by many. What you can do, though, is simply follow them and see what they're saying, as they're saying a lot. You can find the people you might want to follow through hashtags indeed - the ones probably most open to your ideas will be talking about #OpenAccess (or #OA), #OpenScience, #ScholComm, #ICanHazPdf, off the top of my head.
Something that might work better is addressing them in real life. I'm told they mostly hang around universities, so you might try and approach people there to ask whether you can have five minutes of their time.
PS. I don't think there's a way of messaging on Stack Exchange, but if you make a Twitter account and share your username I'd like to contact you.

Thanks for your comment @Vincent. My username's colderbaek on Twitter.

Great answer. Limiting yourself to researchers that are active on social media means you will get a very biased selection of researchers. Most of them communicate by email or in person on conferences and meetings. Visiting universities and conferences is the way to go. I suspect most researchers will like the idea of this project so it should not be too hard to get their attention.


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What constitutes a unique research paper?
I have been working on a particular algorithm. It has many applications and I have found one for which a dataset is available as well as other algorithms used to parse that dataset. But the algorithm I am studying hasn’t been applied to that dataset as far as I know. If I implement that algorithm on the dataset, I don’t think I will be making significant changes to it. Will it still be considered as enough of a result to publish a paper?
I am an undergrad; if that is relevant.

Do you have a supervisor who you can ask about such things? They would probably have the best idea.

How about a conference? Many new researchers start with a conference paper because in most cases the bar for novelty and depth is quite low, but it gives you experience writing up a proceedings paper. The work can later be expanded to a journal paper. The main disadvantage to a conference is cost of travel and registration.

In computer science, conference papers are generally considered to be at the same level of accomplishment as journal papers.

@StellaBiderman I understand that in CS the highest impact conferences are equivalent or better than the best journals (e.g. SIGGRAPH) but I find it hard to believe that all conferences are of the same level as reasonable journals. For example, this group has listed a number of tier 3 and tier 4 conferences in distributed computing: http://www.mcs.anl.gov/group/pmrs/conference-journal-tiers/

@user71659 You misunderstand what I said. It's certainly not the case that all conferences are as good as all respected journals, but I am reasonably confident when I say that all conferences are as reputable as some journal. Unlike in other fields, conference vs journal is not a good predictor of impact factor or how well regarded the result is.

@user71659 In addition to what Stella said, keep in mind that there's also mid- and low-tier journals, rather than only top journals - a publication in a poor journal has very little value. However, actually, there's a main advantage of conferences that you didn't mention: the feedback cycle of conferences is usually faster than that of journals, which makes them particularly attractive to get feedback when starting a new research direction.

@StellaBiderman You're also making the assumption that because the question used the word "algorithm" that the field of CS is the only applicable field. For example, a denoising or foreground separation algorithm in astrophysics, or a computational imaging algorithm. Those would not necessarily be published in a CS journal.

@user71659 That is true, I read this question and assumed it was about CS

@user71659 how low is the bar for novelty in conferences ? how much can we get away with ? would appreciate some elaboration !

The following is general guidelines under the assumption that you're looking at this as a computer science project. If you specify the field, I can modify this advice accordingly. For advice about a particular project, you'll have to share the details of your project with someone with experience publishing in CS or whatever field you're working in.
The bar is, roughly, "is this something people would want to read." When you try to present new work to an audience, your job is pretty much to sell the arbiter (be it dissertation adviser, journal referee, or conference organizer) that the work that you did is something people would be interested in reading and using.
The most important question is: have other people used this algorithm, on any data set, before? If the answer is "no" than your work is almost certainly publishable, especially as it sounds like your algorithm preforms comparably well to other algorithms that preform the same or similar task. Your paper should explicitly analyze this and seek to give examples of data sets or contexts in which your algorithm out-preforms known algorithms.
If the answer is "yes," then your work may or may not be publishable. Applying a well-known algorithm like the Gale-Shipley Algorithm or Diijkstra's Algorithm to some random data set isn't generally going to be considered interesting because any researcher who is interested in this data set could do that, and the fact that no one has indicates that people don't currently care to. However, if you use a known algorithm to find an unexpected or surprising result then your project might still be publishable, and the more surprising or interesting the conclusions you can draw are, the more publishable the algorithm is. Here the strength of your paper is going to be determined by the data analysis you do, and how you show that your work is connected to work people are already interested in.
For example, I do a lot of research on social networks, and one hot topic in social network analysis is the detecting of communities inside of a broader social network. For the second approach, if you create a new algorithm for community detection, you can write a paper about your new algorithm comparing it to old algorithms and pointing out data sets where your algorithm is preferred. If you take a known community detection algorithm and use it to show that communities in certain types of graphs have an interesting property, that would be publishable. Additionally, you can somewhat blend these two cases if you were to take a known algorithm and show how it can be used for community detection, while everyone else is using it for some other purpose.

I disagree that the bar is "something people want to read" in many fields. The bar is often "is it something that should be reported because somebody may find it useful". For example, in astrophysics, the highest cited papers are often reports of observations, because people later use the data. (Leading to the phenomena that Astrophysical Journal Supplement has a higher impact factor than ApJ, but with a much lower bar). Likewise, a negative result is still useful in the record so that nobody wastes time trying it again.

@user71659 My answer explicit states that it's about computer science. Also, observations and negative results are both things that people would want to read, or read summaries of. I really don't see what the meaning of your objection is, or what it would even mean to have a publishable article that no one is interested in reading.

"Read" is too strong. Nobody wants to read a paper that shows the spectrum to a star. It means nothing in itself. I want to use the data to support my model. So quite literally, you skim the methodology to see if it sounds valid, and copy the data points.

@user71659 In the strongest sense of the term, I "read" 10 or even 20 papers for every one that I read. If it makes you happy you can think "skim" or "read a summary of" where I say read, but in my experience no one uses language the way you're implying. Can you explain what the purpose this objection has besides nitpicking that I'm using terminology as is widely used as opposed to how the dictionary says it should be?

I think I'm very clear. The criteria for mid and low-tier journals is best stated as "is this paper useful to a researcher in the field?". Certainly Science, Nature and Communications of the ACM heavily apply an "interesting" factor. But as I said, there's lots of uninteresting or even repetitive, but useful observations you can publish, like plain data and negative observations.


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Is it ethical to for a commercial organisation to get student interns to download journal articles using student's university access?
I'm currently interning for a small R&D company. The boss is notoriously tight fisted and prone to cutting corners to save any amount of money he can. In the past, he has attempted to use my student status to get free or discounted software for company use to avoid paying licensing fees. (To clarify, software purchased using my status as a student but not to be used by me but by other individuals in the company) He recently found out I get institutionally provided access to various journals and has started requesting I provide him with pdf or printed copies of papers so he can avoid paying for them. Is this ethical? Legal?

Have you asked your University about this? They are giving you access to these papers, and presumable they have rules on how you can use them.

Unlikely that it is legal - the university has access to support the education and research mission of the university, and they pay for that. They are not authorized to redistribute material to random companies. Similarly, the software licenses granted to students under a student discount are not authorized to be used for commercial purposes. Bad all around. An R&D company that will not properly invest in the tools (software and literature resources) is not a place I'd hang out at.

Requesting papers through friends who happen to have access is commonplace in academia, and considered perfectly okay unless it puts pressure on people's time. No one cares about the provenance of a PDF file. On the other hand, buying software through someone else's student account may be problematic, particularly if the software "phones home"; potentially both you and your company could be in trouble (more likely the company, unless you make significant money).

@darijgrinberg I totally agree that it's common and accepted in academia. A company requesting paper copies from a student, as in the described situation,  is a different framework.

he has attempted to use my student status to get free or discounted software for company use — Walk away now.  This is a company aiming for a lawsuit, and you do not want to get caught up in that.

If you can ask your school about this and get them to issue you a letter or something, that could help you get the boss off your back. "Sorry, Podunk U told me that I was not allowed to distribute papers under penalty of catapult, waterboarding, 10 years cleaning toilets in the Freshman dorms, and being publicly denounced via massive multiple publication."

Which country is this? It is difficulty to establish legality without that information.

People here are advising a student to damage relationships with their employer and someone they currently need to rely on for career advancement, over a trivial violation everyone does everywhere (referring to the journal articles). Seems rather hysterical. The software thing is lame though. It can prevent the student from getting it for themselves should they need to for their studies, as they may only be allowed one discount per software product. However what does "attempted" mean there? It never came to pass?

@Roland illegal and unethical are two very different things. There are many cases where it is morally imperative to break the law.

It is unlikely that your use of this journal subscription would fall within the terms-of-usage agreed by the university with the journal providers, and agreed by you (as a student) with the university.  You should enquire further into the particular terms of access for these resources, but I would imagine that they would be restricted to use for educational and research purposes within the scope of your position as a student at the university.
Either of these practices could potentially get you into trouble, though the use of software beyond the terms of the licence is probably more fraught with danger.  Downloading journal articles for work purposes is not that uncommon in fields employing academics and students, though it is probably not legal.  While some forbearance might be given for small infractions, certainly it is unethical to agree to access a resource from the university for the purposes of your education, and then to use that resource systematically to advantage a commercial business that is unwilling to pay for the service.

As to downloading articles, it's not ethical in one sense. However, many research articles are funded by public dollars. Is it ethical that they wind up behind paywalls? Institutional access to journals costs a lot of money.
Yes, the publishers are providing a service by disseminating the material, and yes, that deserves remuneration. However, once again - most research has some public funding behind it.
In my view, depending on the context, asking a student intern to download a few articles is not necessarily unethical. If unethical, it's not necessarily the sort of thing that you want to call the cops for. Asking an intern to buy student software for the rest of the company is definitely not ethical. That plus the OP's tone makes me think there is more stuff going on that he or she is not saying. In ethics, your gut does have to play some role in making your decision.

It's all how the question was asked isn't it? An owner of a struggling small business is painted as being merely a tightwad acting out his character flaws, and everyone immediately sides with the evil international conglomerates against him.

Why are you asking whether this is unethical? That's something for you to decide. Possible points to consider: is the paywall system underlying most academic journals ethical in and of itself? Is being "unethical" towards something which is unethical actually something that is really unethical?
Is it legal? No.

Based on the title of this question, of course not. It's violating terms of service not just unethical.

Pretty sure I'm in violation of the terms of service of every website I've ever visited. Not certain since I've never read them. What's more unethical, breaking arbitrary terms of service or writing terms of service that steal users' privacy?

Why on earth would you be in violation of the terms of service of every website you've visited? you most likely are not.

@NajibIdrissi your line of though is a logical falsehood. The university is sold access to materials, for academic purposes. It does not allow transferring the materials to third parties, who are commercial entities. Very simple.


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Should one threaten to quit to get a reasonable pay-raise request fulfilled?
I have a colleague who is a postdoc in a German university employed at level TVöD E13. She is currently in the early career phase but has very substantial responsibilities due to the circumstances of the working group. For example, taking over substantial responsibilities of the group leader in his absence over a prolonged period of time. Note that the group leader is almost always missing in action, i.e. very busy (due to reasons not relevant here).
Due to this, the group leader encouraged to promote her to E14 and they filed an application to HR. To promote an E13 to E14, it is usually required to show that “substantially more” scientific burden and decision making is involved. The wording is very important (according to HR). But they wont tell you what exact wording to use. Side note: The HR of this university is very incompetent and unfriendly in general. After five months of processing and two iterations of the application form (which includes reasoning as to why the new activities are more difficult) later, they have rejected the application once again arguing that they see the postdoc’s work as that of a ‘normal’ postdoc. Both the postdoc and the group leader are angry about this and do not agree with HR.
To resolve the issue, they proposed to have a meeting with the head of HR. However, a meeting was rejected and instead a reply came to this request repeating that: “The higher level of difficulty of the tasks is not recognisable”, and instead asked for a new (third) version again.
However, the group leader remains missing in action (not taking this as a priority problem to be solved).
This has led to the postdoc feeling let down and less motivated. She knows that if she quits the group would be in good amount of trouble (no other person to guide the PhDs, etc). After bringing this topic up to the group leader many times in the past five months, no progress has been made.
Should she bite the bullet and say that she will quit if the university is unable to recognize her value and promote her to E14 or is there a more effective method to get the request accepted?
She wants to have a career in academia and is hesitant about breaking good relations with the group leader who can ultimately potentially promote her.

If you are going to threaten to quit you have to be prepared to quit (or get let go). Are they actually going to quit? What is their Plan B? Why do they think HR cares given the data so far?

AFAIK, no plan B yet. HR doesn't care. The group leader and the university president cares.

Is there a reasonable chance this postdoc is overestimating her unique value to the university?

There is a reasonable chance, yes.

I manage payroll at an R1 university in the US.  Usually, the pay rates are set for more mundane reasons like how much money is available, requirements by sponsors, minimum wage laws, etc.  The only times I see PIs considering the individual, the variance is very low, like $1-2k, maybe $5k for someone truly exceptional.  At least in the US though, there is more pressure to keep rates exactly the same for everyone, so mundane reasons are what rule the decisions.  Also, never make an ultimatum you won't carry through with or you just lose respect and gain nothing.

Perhaps the difference in task difficulty will become more "recognizable" if she stops doing the work she isn't being paid for and continues doing only the job for which she was hired.  (It is possible that this is a bad idea for other reasons; I suspect only she is in a position to make that judgment.)

HR doesn't give a damn if she quits and the influence of her boss on HR will probably be very low. So why do you believe threatening to quit will do anything?

IMHO, the threat to quit would mean nothing to HR, even if the postdoc could show that a Nobel prize is forthcoming. HR and the financial department have interest in not creating a precedent along the lines of "PI offloads duties on postdoc and then gets the university to pay for it'. So, the threat to quit should be adressed to the immediate boss with credible alternatives.

Nobody mentioned yet asking a representative of the "Betriebsrat" what they think the denial of moving to E14. They are technically on the side of the employee but are also often involved in putting people into the payscale groups and have experience in what reasons are appropriate for which payscale. It makes sense to have an informal chat. Some members of the "Betriebsrat" may be able to give tips or even tell why this particular request was denied.

Regarding DCTLib's suggestion: the Worker's Council is likely to be called "Personalrat" at a state-run institution like a university.

Honestly HR is most likely right. What you describe pretty much sounds like every postdoc I did in the German-speaking area - your boss is absent for significant stretches of time, and it falls to you to supervise students and ensure research progress gets made. That in itself is not exceptional, and certainly not sufficiently exceptional to push you up into an entirely different pay group.

I should also say that HR most likely is not "incompetent", they just have different priorities. Their mandate is to protect the university overall, not support individuals or individual chairs. That usually means saying "no" a lot, lest other people get ideas the university cannot afford.

See also this discussion regarding the E13 and E14 pay scales with previous experience (https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/134088/what-is-the-difference-between-tv-l-e13-and-tv-l-e14-positions-is-it-negotiable).

How your friend can possibly get what she wants
E14 positions are very rare in German academia. You hardly ever see them advertised (I would very roughly estimate you get one E14 for thousand E13s).
Instead they are almost always acquired through promotions in later career stages, which are also rare.
Moreover, goodwill alone doesn’t suffice as the university must have the funds to back this up.
It already surprises me that the HR department did not directly send the group leader somewhere else to secure funding first.
Threats only help if following up on them would harm the person who can give you what you want, and in your friend’s case this may not be the group leader.
If your friend really wants to pursue E14, I suggest that she finds other people who got such a promotion. This would usually be staff scientists, habilitated people (“Privatdozent”), etc. Also ask the department or faculty whether it has specific funds for this, because without them this is likely hopeless.
Finally, as already suggested by other answers, I would start with smaller levers than quitting such as refusing extra responsibilities.
… but does she actually want this?
Most importantly, your friend should think strongly about whether a salary increase is actually what she wants, for several reasons:

The academic apparatus is not geared to rewarding people with money. In most fields, people who care about money leave academia, and academia doesn’t need people who are in it for the money. (This is not supposed to say your friend is obsessed with money or similar.) The rewards of good work in academia are rather that you get to stay in academia, get more funds (not for salary), etc., in particular before the professor stage. I would therefore suggest that your friend considers seeking alternative “rewards” such as a permanent position, personnel to help her advance her own science, etc. (Paradoxically, funds for this may be more easily available.) This is particular important as:

The main risk I see for your friend is this:
If she wants to pursue a classical academic career, one of the main thing she needs to show is her own research output.
Taking over the group leader’s duties can give relevant experience in teaching, supervising, etc. and those have value in future applications, but they can only compensate so much for a lack of research.
(Mind that this is a vague guess:
Your friend may actually get a lot of career-relevant research under her name, in which case she may be already in for a long-term reward, as she has well rounded group-leader experience.)
A salary increase does not address this and is worth very little if your friend has to leave academia – probably around the time when the benefits of the salary increase would kick in, because:

The actual short-term increases to salary may be rather low because the German public salary system has two axes, one for responsibility/qualification and one for job experience. If you friend progresses on the first axis, she will probably take a step back on the other axis. She cannot lose salary (by law), but the real benefits may only manifest as she steps up the experience ladder faster and with more benefits. Details depend on her current experience. This contributes to why this is usually done only in latter career stages (for postdocs and similar).

Possible strategies
If it did not happen already, I suggest that your friend has a talk with her group leader about how the extra duties affect her career chances and what benefits she can expect in compensation (other than extra salary). She should also talk to other professors in the field about this. The field is important here since different fields differently weigh publications, supervision experience, teaching experience, etc.
In German academia, successfully applying somewhere else may result in a promotion (or permanent position) at your current employer and is a standard way to get this – usually but not only at the professor level.
Instead of threatening to quit, I therefore suggest that your friend takes a look at the relevant job market and applies for suitable jobs, in particularly permanent ones.
An external job offer or even being invited to interviews are a much more palpable threat than just saying you intend to quit.
Moreover, this lowers the risk for your friend to end up without a job or having to concede that her threat was empty.
Your friend has to be the judge whether to seek her group leader’s support for this.
They may support this, in particularly if leaving the group is not the actual goal – but they may also equate it to a threat to quit or feel betrayed.

If the plan is to get the raise, not to quit, then the threat is not productive. The harm would be to the group, not to HR, so nothing substantial changes: Giving a raise to avoid someone quitting also requires sticking to the formal lingo.
The correct course of action is to figure out the magic words required by the Tarifvertrag. A German university should have several options separate from HR to help with this: Many universities have a department for young scientist careers, and sometimes a separate one for employee development in general. Unofficially, the department head and other professors have dealt with such a situation with HR previously and should be able to help. If that doesn’t help, the Tarifvertrag is the business of a Union (ver.di most likely) and they usually have representatives willing to help.
If none of that helps and the postdoc is sufficiently motivated, they should reach out to peers and professors at other universities. On the one hand, they likely have a more cooperative HR. On the other hand, they may open up the opportunity to follow through with the threat.

+1, though "they likely have a more cooperative HR": I would be very careful about expecting a more cooperative HR department at other universities. From my limited experience, most HR department stick to their core mission: protecting the employer, both from salary increases and other risks. And to serve as a lightning rod: if OP and their professor can gripe together about HR, this may release some tension; I fully expect this to be understood and accepted by HR departments the world over (in academia and outside).

In the end, the only thing that truly provides some leverage is a E14 job offer from outside. Accepting E13 elsewhere and hoping to talk this into E14 either at the current or at the prospective university will very likely lead to disappointment.

@StephanKolassa HR departments seem to be a bit of hit and miss at least in Germany. I would describe our local HR as well-meaning, though overworked. Many universities know they cannot compete with industry on equal footing so HR can’t afford to play games. Many a postdoc here knows they have to leave eventually and is already prepared even before admin starts the funny business.

As others have said, only threaten to leave if you mean it. If your bluff is called, you have to be prepared to leave.
The second thing to note is why would HR care if you left? What skin off their nose is it? You say your friend leaving would leave the research group in great trouble. But to be brutally honest, HR almost certainly doesn't give a **** how much trouble individual research groups are in. If the group fails to fulfil its responsibilities, that is the group leader's problem, not HR's problem.

It is only appropriate to threaten to quit if you plan to follow through on the threat. As another consideration: in more bureaucratic systems, those in HR probably do not have the leeway to accede to a threat — no matter how much hassle it might be to find a replacement — if they have already judged that the postdoc has not met the criteria for promotion.
A better way to proceed would be to ask to see examples of past successful cases, so that your friend can learn from the way they have been worded and the way the cases have been made clear. In my experience, HR usually has a few example successful cases up their sleeves, which they have obtained permission to share. If they haven’t, they might at least be able to put your friend in touch with someone who has been successful in the past, and who might be willing to discuss strategies with your friend.

HR is unlikely to provide such an example case.

@quantacad How do you know? In both the places I have worked, they have done so.

Here are a few points to bear in mind:

Never "threaten to quit" unless you actually intend to quit: Your friend should only threaten to quit if she genuinely intends to quit if her requirements are not met.  She should have a definite decision in mind in advance, including a timeline for how long she is willing to wait.  If this is a course of action she is considering, she should already be looking for alternative positions elsewhere and ideally she would have other opportunities lined up.

Don't do charity for an institution that doesn't value you: You mentioned that your friend is reluctant to quit because "...if she quits the group would be in good amount of trouble (no other person to guide the PhDs, etc.)".  That is tough luck for the institution.  If they aren't going to pay her what she is worth then they can take the loss that comes with losing her.  It is good for an employee to be aligned with the goals of the institution, and want to act in its best interests, but that should be a two-way street.

Be cognisant of the "principal-agent" problem: The principal-agent problem is a well-known problem in economics and institutional analysis.  Your university is the principal and the HR representative is its agent.  So long as the HR representative gets to exercise her power over her little fiefdom, she might not give a shit if her decision leads to loss of a good staff member to the university.  It is unlikely that she will pay any price for this if it occurs and it is unlikely that the university will penalise her, so she may act in her own interests and not necessarily the interests of the university.  In view of that, you should bear in mind that any threat to quit, while possibly damaging for the principal, probably has no adverse impact on the agent, so it is likely to be ignored.

I’m somewhat sceptical about the second point. The German science salary system is rather rigid, so universities have limited leeway to show valuation via pay. In addition, most scientists benefit from doing work beyond the standard responsibilities as it gives them a qualification that sets them apart from others.

While that may be true in general, in the present case the OP refers to an established administrative method for a pay raise request, and it is obvious that the friend in question feels that she is not sufficiently valued.

Several years ago, as a permanent assistant professor, I realized I was underpaid relative to my colleagues, and decided to go through formal channels and try to have the situation addressed.
To make a long story short, similarly to your colleague, my requests were refused -- although the situation was partially addressed a couple of years later.
One thing I did not realize at the time was how much it would take out of me: the process was thoroughly demoralizing, and for awhile I thought about my dean every day in anger. Although I believe my anger was "justified", there is a saying that holding on to anger is like drinking poison and hoping that someone else dies. Unfortunately, I didn't quite know how to let it go, and my productivity and morale tanked for awhile.
If your friend were in a permanent position, I would advise her to consider the situation carefully before doing anything more. Dealing with incompetent and unfriendly people (as you describe them) can exact a high toll. Given that your friend is doing a postdoc and will hopefully be moving on to a permanent position soon, in her shoes I would be reluctant to invest much more energy in this.

Is this advice actually for  Germany? I would be rather surprised if someone would not know their relative salary, or could expect to move to a permanent position soon as a postdoc. Salaries are usually public as per TV, BBesG, and similar; getting a permanent position easily takes a decade if it works out at all.

@MisterMiyagi I admit I'm only familiar with the US. Can one expect to be in a postdoc position at the same university for a decade in Germany?

Usually one would be called a "senior scientist" after the first, full postdoc or so (about 3-6 years) - so at least I doubt it matches the situation in the OP. While it’s possible (ain’t no rule against it) to stay at the same university for a decade and get a permanent position, it’s rare - basically it only works for specialist positions that are so unique that there is hardly any competition. Do note that permanent positions are already very sparse in German academia to begin with.

Has she considered the other route, asking for less work and less responsibility? She has a good point about feeling underpaid, and university groups are places where some people get a lot of work and good work is rewarded with even more work. HR probably won't care if she quits, and there's not much her group can do about it. She will only hurt the group and lose her current job. On the other hand, the group has the option of making her work situation less stressful. Threatening to quit might work for that, but it is not so unlikely that a reasonable feedback about having too much work will be accepted without threats.

She does not want to do less work. The work is beneficial for gaining experience and promotions.