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How does closing down a department affect a PhD student?
How does closing down a department affect the value of a PhD and your later academic career?
If someone has joined a university for a PhD in transportation, and that department is closed down, and everyone is moved to / absorbed by management engineering , does this have any ill effect on the quality of education that you will recieve, possible research opportunities, publications and academic career in general?
I have read this related QA, but it's about an undergrad student. PhD students have very fewer and much more specialised courses. In addition, a PhD student is supposed to assist in teaching some courses, how is someone with completely unrelated background (transportation/rural/survey engineering) teach management courses? I'm guessing that this curriculum will have some engineering courses as well, but it sounds to me too generic to be of any use to a student (I have never heard of management engineering before today, pardon my complete ignorance).
Given that some of the faculty will either lose their jobs, or quit, I do not expect their courses to be available, thus the available courses for a PhD student will be much worse (irrelevant to the field of transportation). Given that undergrad students have more generic courses, it is possible for someone to teach those, in contrast with the very niche courses of a PhD curriculum.
I should mention that I am posting this in behalf of someone else, who is only 3 months in that university. The person of interest, claims that it matters more to collaborate with a certain supervisor (who is a Computer Engineer, specialising in machine learning), as they had a great relationship and collaboration in the past; furthermore, since computational science courses are available, the lack of transportation courses seems acceptable to that person, but I am afraid about the fact that they are completely unrelated (computational science can be used in any field, from biology to sociology and statistics).

Where does in the university you speak-of a department fit into the hierarchy?  is it ResearchGroup->Department->College->University?
(ie one university, has many colledges, which have many departments, which host many research groups of PhD students/Postdocs)
Different universities have different names for there various levels of subdivision.

I think that it's a direct department of a university. It's actually the Transport department of the Danish Technical University.

In many cases, departments dont just vanish, but are orderly shut down. Questions like the ones you ask are discussed in the process. The only time I've seen this in person was when my grad school's OR department shut down, and was rolled over into Electrical Engineering. The impact on my friends originally in grad school there (OR) was zilch.

I will try to address some specific questions/concerns you pose. My comments are based on observations I made (and continue to make) as an MA and PhD student, and administrative staff member at a research center. I haven't seen this exact situation happen, but I've seen and contributed to many other restructuring events (advisor moving to another university, founding new department/lab/research center...).
In academia, the most important indicator of the value of your PhD is the quality and quantity of the research you do. While factors like your advisor, the team at your lab, the facilities available, etc. can affect this indicator, the name of the department you graduate from probably will not. In fact, it is not uncommon for researchers who have studied one field to be employed in a differently-named field. One example is Don Norman, who studied engineering and then psychology, and works in the field of design. The decision to close or merge departments most likely will have no bearing on the value of a PhD.
It is common for people doing work in a specific field (e.g. transportation) to have credentials or employment in a more general field (e.g. management, computational science), or vice versa. More generally, subject matter of your work and the discipline or methods you use to approach that subject can be different. It is normal for one's credentials or employment to relate to only one of these things. It is perfectly acceptable to be a researcher who deals with transportation (subject matter) using computational science (approach), while having credentials in management (general field).
In sum, the "person of interest" actually appears to have the right idea. While your concerns are valid, one's relationship with their advisor and lab/team is often a much more important factor, compared to the name of the deparment they belong to and the courses that are available.


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Can we add a finding to a paper which is known by other communities but not ours?
I’ve been working on a research project, and we have some findings that we are now writing a paper. However, I am unsure about one section of the paper.
We have done some experiments (related to images and videos), and after quite a lot of reverse engineering, we discovered something related to how cameras take pictures and videos. Later, we read a lot about camera internals and found out our finding is already there. So, there is nothing novel about it.
However, previous research/other researchers in my field don’t know it and due to that the performances of similar experiments were around 70–80 % whereas ours is 96–97 %. I wonder if our discovery is a valid to include to a paper. Or what is a good way to add it to the paper and make it look fancier than it is?

The comment below the paper is: The authors have simply (re)invented integration, a mathematical procedure taught to most high school students. So, you suggest I should go for it!

@NajibIdrissi Given the notoriety of that paper is at this point primarily as a cautionary tale, I'd suggest not going down that path.

In a similar direction as an example, some previously computationally-intensive statistical techniques are spreading into a lot of fields that once had no idea how to use them. There are many papers out now that are effectively "Hey people in field X, we are in field X, too, and are using a technique that is used by people all over other fields, maybe you should too..." I don't see anything wrong with these contributions - they make full reference to the existing work on the topic.

You've advanced the state of the art (from 70-80% to 96-97%), so your result seems publishable in that field. Moreover, you could publish a review of that field in your own field, by explaining how it is relevant.

Makes sense, I am just not sure whether my peers in the field will be convinced by the paper. I think the accept/reject decision will be related to how I polish the paper.

Taking an approach to one problem and translating it to another problem is a valid scientific contribution and can be a considerable creative achievement.
I know a handful of important papers that essentially do this.
If you actually achieved an improvement and it was a very obvious thing to do, why didn’t people do it before?
As you have already noted, the crucial point is how you sell your insight.
The first step is to identify the level on which you actually solved an unsolved problem (in a broad sense that captures performance boosts).
For example, you may not have developed a new method to track the movement of fast-moving objects, but you have found a new approach to study the movement of arrows by translating established techniques for studying the movement of sparrows.
This should be the leitmotif of your paper (or the respective part thereof).
Also, do not forget to cite previous studies which could have been improved by your insight.
The only thing that probably nobody cares about is your reverse engineering (unless you developed some new reverse-engineering methodologies or similar).
But as a scientist you are in company when spending a considerable amount of time on something that you could have achieved easier.
Science always looks simpler when it’s finished and nicely wrapped.

Did you mean to say "movement of arrows" or "movement of sparrows"?

@henning: Arrows. Sparrows wouldn’t make sense as they are already covered by birds.

@henning: I could replace birds with sparrows though …

I agree , is matter of cutting the paper the right way.

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text:
Is it customary to include a dedication in an honours thesis?
I am compiling my thesis, and have noticed that the LaTeX template that I am using provides space for a dedication.
Whilst I do have an individual whom I want to credit with being a source of inspiration for my research and career motivation, I'm curious as to if honours theses normally include a dedication, and if I would be better to wait until I write my doctorate.

In my university, honors theses do normally include a dedication, the length can be varying from just a few sentences to up to a whole page.

It will unlikely cause a detriment to your grade, and it's a chance to recognise any assistance in a way that will be appreciated. In my thesis (physics, condensed matter), I made a special note of my advisor (for going above and beyond to keep me focused on a main goal, but also for allowing me many opportunities to delve into specific elements much further than was necessary to achieve the main goal - leading to my "further work" section being much more complete and informed) and some open source communities (particularly those behind key programming libraries) that made my work possible.

Besides the suggestions in answers: look at some recent previous honours theses from your department/university.  See what is commonly done by other students in your position.  If you check ten and none of them has a dedication?  Then probably don’t give one.  But if at least a few of them do, then you should be fine to give one.

Dedication generally comes in your front matter section in your thesis. It will depend on your university rules and guidelines. Generally "dedication" is not mandatory in most of universities. However it is advisable to check with your academic office.
Quoting from Harvard guidelines for thesis writing,

Front matter may include: acknowledgments of help or encouragement from individuals or institutions; a dedication; a list of illustrations or  of tables; a glossary of terms; one or more epigraphs—pertinent quotations at the beginning of a dissertation or a chapter

My personal opinion is that dedication gives emotional touch. It is good to have dedication page in your work.

Thanks for your advice. I opted to include a dedication.

That is good :)

authors: Константин Фомин

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Can I submit the results of a poster to another conference as a full paper?
If I presented a poster at a conference that contained the results of some research, can I then write a paper using those same results and submit it to another conference as a full paper?

For any serious conference you are required to refer to previous work in your full paper. If you mention that the exact same result was presented at a previous conference, I'm guessing your paper would be rejected. Not mentioning that it's been presented at another conference is unethical. The only good option is doing some more work, such that the full paper is an extension of the work presented in the poster. (An obvious exemption is if you're invited to resubmit a paper, e.g. to a higher-level conference.)

What's the field?  This will depend on your field's norms, and to what extent conference presentations are considered "publications".  For instance, @semi-extrinsic's comments aren't true in my field (math), where you can present a project in dozens of conferences or posters and nobody expects this to be mentioned at all in the final published paper.

Most importantly: Was the poster associated with a publication other than an abstract?

@NateEldredge when you say my comments don't apply to your field, I take it you mean the "I'm guessing the paper would be rejected" part? Or would you also avoid mentioning in the final paper that this was presented previously one or more venues? I'm just curious. For reference, in my field (comp.phys) it's quite common for all conference contributions, even the posters, to have an accompanying paper in the proceedings.

@semi-extrinsic: No part of your comment really applies in my field (except the first part about citing previous work; but previous conference presentations by the same author on the same work do not count).  I have never seen a published paper mention the conferences at which the work has been presented.  Note that conferences in my field almost never have published proceedings.  If you did publish your work in conference proceedings, then what you said applies.

This depends on the customs of the field and the venue. I will answer based upon my experience from an HCI-related subfield of CS:
Conferences usually have some requirement of novelty for published works. Therefore, if a paper associated with the poster already appeared in some proceedings of the first conference, you might not fulfil this requirement. First, however, some different cases might apply:

If the poster was not "formally published" (i.e. did not appear as a (short) paper in any kind of proceedings), you should be good to go.
If the poster was supposed to be "formally published", but the conference organizers never got around to setting up the proceedings of the poster session, you're in a bit of an inconvenient situation. Your work is not published in a way that it can be cited (well, it can, but it doesn't look as verifiable as other papers and is not archived by any publisher), but it has been presented. You may want to contact the conference organizers in this case whether publishing your work again is ok, or else you may want to wrap your work in something larger (i.e. present something new, but reiterate the points from the poster as a part of the exposition).

Even if your poster was published in some kind of proceedings, there may be some options:

Posters are often allowed to present work in progress. If your poster (and the connected paper) was presented in a way to present work in progress, your new conference paper might indeed present the final state of whatever you devised. This can essentially match the content of your poster, but provide more details (see also below).
Even if the poster presented final results, the term "results" seems to be seen in a very wide sense at least in my fields, possibly in others. A full conference paper provides much more space than a poster paper, and on the poster, you probably presented different (more visual) things than you would in text. As such, you can shift the focus of your conference paper compared to the poster; where the poster focused on the results, the conference paper might discuss the methods used to obtain the results in depth, including design decisions, citations of similar experiments, a verification of the reliability of your experiments, etc. This kind of description can be useful for the community and subsequent works, and as such should provide enough new content, despite being based upon the same material as the poster.

Thank you O. R. Mapper for your help ,  My Poster result was never published so im good to go , by the way, im in computer science fielde


text:
How should I stay in touch with the professor with whom I have arranged an internship?
This professor has accepted me for an undergrad research internship in 2017. How should I stay in touch and continue our email conversations for the following months? I did ask her to send me some papers of hers and I read them. Now what should I do to continue to look interested in her research?

If you've already been accepted for the internship, and you (hopefully) intend to work hard and be enthusiastic during the internship, then why do you feel that you need to maintain an appearance of interest in the meantime?

It's a very prestigious International Internship. I thought it will be good to stay in touch till the internship starts. It's my first time to get selected for an International internship and I want to make the most of it.

Well, you don't really want to start the internship now, on a remote basis.  So just send an email once every three months or so with some news about yourself and your studies.

Would @aparente001 move their comment to become an answer so that the question would be marked as answered?

@G-E - Okay, I did, but don't hold your breath, it's been a year and a half....

Well, you don't really want to start the internship now, on a remote basis. So just send an email once every three months or so with some news about yourself and your studies.
If you want to write a bit more often, that's okay too.  I wouldn't write more than once a month, though.

@Roland - You're welcome to write an answer.  I don't want to edit my answer to follow the ideas in your comment, because I think that as long as the newsy email doesn't request assistance or information, it will take up minimal time on the prof's part.

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Evaluating a salary for a physics postdoc in Canada
I recently received a 1st-year physics postdoc fellowship offer at a university in Canada for two to three years. The annual salary is 55,000 CAD (44,000 in USD). I haven’t worked in North America at all. I was just wondering how good this salary is.
I vaguely remember some new law-enforced minimum postdoc salary of 47,000 USD in the US. Does it mean it’s not that good? Any information will be greatly appreciated.

This question is not about academia, it is about salaries and living abroad. Consider moving it to expatriates.stackexchange.com

@DmitrySavostyanov, On the contrary, the Academia SE community is probably better able to answer this question than the generic Expatriates SE community. As you can see, we have several appropriate tags for this kind of question. That said, there's no harm in double posting the question in both communities.

If I remember correctly, there were some lawsuits in the US about whether postdocs are entitled to overtime pay or not, which apparently depends on the base salay. Perhaps that is what OP is remembering. I was in California at the time, so I am not sure if this only relates to California or not.

As I'm not in physics, but in biology, I won't make this an official answer: I think it is good, depending on which city you are in. Remember that the cost of life vary widly between USA and Canada, and among Canadian cities...

@Tripartio Thank you, I retracted my vote to close.

Depends on which cities. Math postdoc in ubc (vancouver) are paid 50k. Living expense are around 1200 per month.

And I was offered a postdoc in us 38k annually last year.

@JohnMa You mean 50k, 1200 in CAD and 38k in USD?

Yes @xiaohuamiao. In US math postdoc I've heard from 38k to 80k (US). Not sure about physics though.

I should say in Vancouver, rent is <1000 for one bedroom if you live not too close to UBC/downtown. (But Vancouver is famous for high living cost).

There are at least two aspects of your question: is $55000 good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada; and is $55000 a decent salary to live on in Canada (regardless of profession)? I will answer based on my past experience as a business professor in Montreal (though I will tailor my answer for physics). Right off the bat, though, I will note that your question has nothing to do with the United States, since cost of living issues vary widely not only between adjacent countries but even between cities in the same country. (Actually, I have lived in several different cities in both countries.) I will only answer for Canada.
Is $55000 good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada? A good point of comparison is the amount of the fellowship awards granted by NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada), which is the government agency that grants postdoctoral fellowships in physics, among other fields. Here are two key points of comparison:

The most frequent amount that NSERC awards is for their standard Postdoctoral Fellowships Program. This should be considered "good", since that would be the standard point of comparison if a university were to fund its own program without a government grant. This amount is $45000. Although universities might pay someone less than this amount, the NSERC award amount is considered a benchmark.
An excellent amount is the one that NSERC awards for the extremely competitive Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program. This program awarded 23 fellowships in the last year (not in physics, but in all science and engineering fields). You would almost never see any university fund a postdoctoral fellow that amount, or anywhere near it, unless the recipient is a Banting Fellow. This amount is $70000.

Based on this, I would consider that, YES, $55000 is very good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada funded directly by a university.
But, is $55000 a decent salary to live on in Canada (regardless of profession)? This is a cost of living question. My best source for such information is Numbeo, which lets you compare cost of living city by city, which is the most meaningful comparison. I used it a couple years ago when I moved from Montreal to Paris, and I found its estimates to be very accurate and extremely helpful in my financial decisions and negotiations.


text:
Can I give up my degree?
I did a college degree in computer science abroad in England. I only chose this subject because my father did not want to pay for me studying sports. I did not like nor was I good at it. I only passed because my tutor said that I would be able to pass if I work on the theory part, and so I did.
I hate my degree. Can I give it up?

I sense an XY problem. Do you have any motivation to get rid of your degree other than hating it?

Seems like simply not telling people about any degrees you might not want to claim is often sufficient.

Potential employers consider any degree to be a measure of intelligence and determination.  You don't have to work in the computing field if you can find something that suits you better, but hang onto that degree and tell people about it when you apply for jobs..

Usually, you cannot "give back" a degree you earned. But of course, you can look up the regulations of your college and you can also write a letter asking them to invalidate your results.
But as anger seems to cloud your mind, please wait until you calmed down and think about it again.

I think by "give up", @sawsaw means quit midway through the degree, rather than erase it from history post-completion.

@astronat He said he "passed", so I assume he/she finished his/her studies.


text:
Professor wants to expropriate submitted code for commercial use
I'm a Computer Science graduate student enrolled in a US University. In a class I'm currently taking, the professor has just given us a strange assignment. The professor works full-time in industry and is teaching classes at the University by night.
He has given us a piece of legacy code from the company where he works, which he doesn't have time to deal with. Our assignment is to optimize this piece of code for him. For full credit, we must obtain a 10% performance increase, but the professor isn't sure that this is even possible. He has also stated that he will take the best solution and use it in his commercial applications at work.
Additionally, the professor has offered cash prizes for the top 4 or 5 students, ranging from $50 - $400.
I have several issues with this:

A successful assignment is going to require something new and/or novel to accomplish it, since the professor isn't sure how to do it himself. I'm not ok with just giving him and his company the copyright and other IP rights to the code I create to do this.
There's no direct educational goal associated with this assignment. He's simply offloading work he doesn't have time for or can't accomplish to his class.
To me, it seems unethical to try to monetarily incentivize the class to perform better at the work.

My questions:
Are my concerns legitimate and should I get my adviser or the department head involved?
Is there some way I can opt out of the assignment and request an alternative assignment to complete, based on my IP concerns?
Update:
I checked my university's IP policy and students do indeed retain all rights to works created without financial backing from the university. Also, it seems other students had similar concerns and got the department involved before I even had a chance to. The department had the professor alter the assignment so that the requirements were more clearly defined and he doesn't stand to gain much from students answers.

I agree that there are big ethical issues here but I disagree with (2) that there is no opportunity for learning. In fact, this sounds like a more useful and realistic learning opportunity than most class assignments.

Graduate students are supposed to be able to accomplish the new and novel, at least within reason.  There are some problems with what you describe, but that's not one of them.

It's not that I can't accomplish the new and novel, or that I think we shouldn't have to. My issue is that when I do, his company is going to claim ownership of it.

related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/24526/10643

This is unethical because of what the professor stands to gain from student work. The work itself is actually reasonable from a CS perspective in terms of real-world value.

I recommend that you check your university policy to confirm that you, as a student, retain copyright to your work. (Unfortunately, you can't assume that you do.) If you do, I would tell the professor you are not interested in the money, so there is no agreement of trading for your code. Next, if you retain copyright, I would submit a working piece of code with the copyright symbol affixed in the first line. (Not necessary, but recommended.) If you're not comfortable with this I would definitely approach the department head.

You seem to be asking about two different things: (a) is it OK to assign coding assignments based on the instructor's real-world experience, and where the instructor isn't sure how to solve it himself? (b) is it OK for the instructor to use your solution/your code in his company, without your permission?  You should keep them separate, as they're likely to have very different answers.
Is it OK to assign this sort of assignment?  Yes, absolutely!  It sounds like it could potentially be a great project, if designed well.  A course project that's based on a real-world problem?  Sounds wonderful.  The instructor isn't sure what the best way to solve it will be?  Open-ended projects can be great, too, as a way to boost creativity.
Of course, it's the instructors responsibility to design the course project so it will inspire learning and meet the pedagogical goals of the course, but nothing about "based on the instructor's real-world experience" or "the instructor doesn't know how to solve it himself" is incompatible with that (and those could even be beneficial features).  So, your negative reaction to that aspect is unjustified.
Is it OK for the instructor to use your solution in his company, without your permission? Almost certainly not.  There are both ethical and legal concerns.
From an ethical standpoint, this seems like a potential abuse of the instructor's position of power.
From a legal standpoint, this could run into intellectual property issues for the company.  At the university I am most familiar with, the university has an official policy on copyright.  It explicitly states that student coursework remains the student's property: the student retains copyright in essays, code, etc. that they write in their course.
So, look into your university's official policy.  If the university has a similar policy, then the situation is very clear: this is a great assignment, and the instructor has every right to offer this assignment -- but he cannot use your code at his company (without a written signed agreement from you transferring copyright, and it would of course be highly improper for him to expect/demand this as a requirement of the course).
Also, depending upon laws in your jurisdiction, it's possible that this abuse of the instructor's position of power could itself pose legal issues.
In his enthusiasm, your instructor might not have realized these issues or thought through them very carefully.  Don't assume bad faith -- this could well be a situation where the instructor saw a great opportunity for learning, and failed to recognize the issues with this aspect of the assignment.  I'd suggest you start by talking to the instructor in person and very respectfully having a discussion about this: you could start by mentioning that you are not comfortable with him using your code for anything beyond the course, and his statement that he would use solutions makes you uncomfortable.  Have a meeting in person -- an email is too easy to misconstrue.  Assume good faith, share your concerns, and see what he has to say.  It's possible that this might be a misunderstanding or that he might be entirely receptive to your concerns.

@cbeleites, ahh, thank you, that helps me understand what you are saying.  My fault: I misunderstood what you meant by "this".  I added a sentence to my answer to try to incorporate your observation -- see if I captured your point accurately or not.  Yes, you are very welcome to edit my answer -- feel free.  Thank you for the helpful comments!

You stated:

I'm not ok with just giving him and his company the copyright

I sounds like you would not be giving but rather trading your code for the prize money. As ctokelly wrote in another answer, you should check your university's IP rules for code created as coursework and who holds the copyright. It might not even be yours to begin with (but do not assume either way - check).
Selling custom code happens all the time but I agree, you should not be forced into participating. I applaud the prof's use of real-world examples in order to teach students. I suspect if you approach your prof with your concern, he would find a solution to your concern (like giving you an alternate assignment or simply not taking the copyright). That said, practicing on real-world problems is always good (even if you feel you do not want to submit your solution).

I guess technically it is trading the code, but the terms of the trade are being forced on me because it's being given as an assignment for grade. What I create could potentially be worth far more than $400.

@Tubs I understand and as I wrote, you should not be forced to participate. However, you may see a solution that requires 1 hour of your time, resulting in a $400 hourly rate (which is extremely high for custom coding).

The possibility of a stroke of genius is not typically a factor to determine the value of some work. And if this stroke of genius happens, it usually increases the value.

Your institution will likely have a policy on IP and assignments so that might be worth exploring. The IP will likely either rest with you or with the university itself, or with you but with conditions (such as you accepting the work be submitted to plagiarism checking software and the like).
Either way, it's possible that your institution would have something to say about professors using their professorial time for private gain.

I totally agree that this has a smell of abusing power maybe even extracting benefits.
But then you should never use conspiracy theories to explain things that may just be thoughtless.

All the rest of this answer depends very much on your legislation. I'm stating guesses (IANAL) from a German perspective.
Copyright thougts:

I guess that whoever holds the copyright is most likely not the professor (i.e. probably the student, possibly [for Germany: very unlikely] the university). So the professor needs to obtain a license to use the assignment code in their application.
But: copyright is about the actual work = actual code. The idea behind is not covered by copyright. So using someone else's algorithm for an application with their own implementation is usually legal (unless the algorithm is patented).

Ethics and related legal stuff:

But: doing this in an exam-like situation may constitute abuse of power, because the students are not free to decide whether they tell the professor of their solution: the grading assignment forces them to reveal their best idea. Thus, they are not in an equal position.
I really have no idea about the legal situation this, but I could imagine that this could lead to a special protection of the student IP (something along the lines of unconscionability).
The assignments need to be graded before the prize money could be offered to any particular student. If something like a license agreement plus "prize" is "offered" after  student already received the mark, the student may be in an equal position for negotiation again.
On the other hand, if the grading is not the final mark, and/or there is a chance to encounter the professor in other lectures, the professor may violate their duty (Germany) to avoid everything that could cast a suspicion of extracting benefits/undue pressure.
Note that a copyright transfer without proper compensation may be void, at the very least in a situation where the professor's side can dictate the price.
Putting the students under undue pressure in an exam-like situation may anyways void all kinds of agreements (e.g. license agreements before the assignment is graded).


text:
What's my professional title while working full time on my PhD?
After encountering a few official forms to fill out (tax, medical, LinkedIn, job applications), I don't know what my official job title is during my PhD. There doesn't seem to be a standard for this. I don't think "student" accurately reflects my role, because I'm doing research and getting a small stipend for it. What should I put down as my occupation?

Do you mean your official title for immigration, tax forms, your business card, professional webpage...? Is this more for Europe or the US?

"Apprentice ninja"

@smci For the US, and how I represent myself to non-academic entities

Your professional title is Ph.D. student, or doctoral student, or just student.

What about doctorand(us)?

@PatricHartmann I've never head anybody use those before.  Apparently, Doctorandus is a title in the Netherlands and Belgium, but I been have a number of colleagues from both countries and have spent time in both, and have never heard anyone actual use the word.  Even in the ultra-formal procedures of the Dutch thesis defense where I served as an examiner, we called the candidate "waarde promovendus," and not doctorandus.

I can't speak for those places but my institution, which is located in Switzerland, uses these titles on a regular basis, also as an address during defence.

In Belgium the title doctorandus (f. doctoranda) is definitely used to refer to a PhD student. At least in social and human sciences.

There's really three different things mixed up here.
Your job title, as an employee, is whatever it says on your paychecks. Maybe "Teaching Assistant" or "Research Assistant" or something similar. This is what you should list on job applications, etc, under  "employment". No choice here.
Your educational status is  "graduate student", "PhD student", or the like. You could also use language like "PhD (in progress)" or "PhD (expected completion 20xx)". You might be a "PhD candidate" but defer to your institution's rules as to if and when they consider you to have that status.
Your occupation is just a word to describe the field you are in and the type of work you do. So you could list "biologist", "historian", "physicist", etc, as appropriate.  You could also choose something more generic like "researcher", "educator", "scientist".
For tax forms in particular, I don't think it makes a lot of difference how you describe your occupation. I don't actually know how they use this information (maybe a good question for Money.SE), but I've always assumed it was mainly that if you gave your occupation as "oil baron" or "railroad tycoon" and then reported a tiny income, they'd probably audit you.

Occupation usually means your job or being a student.  Maybe profession is a better word for your third point?

I would consider it a stretch for a graduate student to declare that they are already a scientist, educator, etc: they are studying to become such, but are not yet there.

What's a "paycheck"? Oh, you mean those annoying pieces of paper we used to have to take to the bank? They never include my job title.

@jakebeal I've published papers, attended conferences, and contributed to science before starting a PhD program. I don't see why one would lose the status of "researcher" after starting a PhD program.

During the time I was studying for my PhD, I put "Student" as my occupation on my income tax forms, even when I was being paid as a TA or GSR. That was after my industry career, so I had a more complicated financial situation. The returns were prepared by a tax-specialist CPA who agreed with "Student".
I had a lesser form of the "oil baron" issue Nate Eldredge mentioned: the change in occupation from "Computer Architect" to "Student" explained both the disappearance of the relatively high wages I had been reporting, and the appearance of educational expenses.

Your department may employ you as a "graduate teaching assistant" or "graduate research assistant". In the US, at least, these title will be understood to imply that you are a student.

In this vein, in my graduate university students were "graduate student researchers", or GSRs.

It might be understood by academics but it won't be understood by anyone else. For example, every time I travel to the US, the immigration guys ask what I do for a living. I tell them I'm a researcher at a university (I'm a postdoc) and they invariably reply, "Oh, you're a PhD student?" because I didn't say I was a prof and the only people at universities are profs, grad students and undergrads, right? Also, "graduate research assistant" sounds, to my British ears, like a postdoc-type role for somebody who doesn't have a PhD.

@DavidRicherby: I fail to see any distinction between doctoral research and "postdoc-type role for somebody who doesn't have a PhD".

@BenVoigt Doctoral research gets you a PhD; a postdoc-type role doesn't.

@DavidRicherby: Being in a doctoral degree program and completing its requirements gets you a PhD.  The research is just one of the requirements, and the associated tasks are really no different from the postdoc-type role you mention.

@BenVoigt Obviously I'm not expressing myself very clearly. The point I'm trying to make is that, to my British ears, the phrase "graduate teaching/research assistant" sounds like somebody who is not enrolled in any degree programme (i.e., is not a student).

@osa: First, those quotation marks mean I simply commenting on the phrase David used.  Secondly, it isn't true.  By definition it would not be a "postdoc", but you can have an equivalent role filled by anyone capable of doing research at that level.  A PhD is a certification of research ability; it does not itself magically endow research ability.  The PhD program develops that ability, but clearly there's trivial difference in ability between a PhD candidate and that same individual a week later holding the PhD.  (And don't many postdoc interviews take place before conferral?)

Since you mention title for tax purposes and similar, if I were you I would assume the title of whatever your "job" functions are. Generally, in the case of a PhD candidate, you are usually either a "Assistant Lecturer" or "Doctoral Candidate Research Assistant." Otherwise, you are a Doctoral Candidate, which I would use to explain my job title, rather than student.

Student.
You may not like it, but it is: student.

I served three stints as my department’s grad program director. Graduate students were simply that until they passed the several qualification requirements for admission to PhD candidacy. Those who passed were then PhD candidates. And have an upvote, what the hell.

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


text:
Should you discuss childhood economic hardships in SOP?
I am currently filling out a few PhD applications for computer science, and I have noticed a strong pattern in Statement of Purpose (SOP) guidelines that try to incentivise you to discuss your economic background, and how that shaped your life. To be clear, I am not against this, I understand how overcoming poverty can be a huge part of someone's identity.
I grew up in a third world country, where my family was below the poverty line for a few years during the recession. My family's financial situation has since improved tremendously after my father immigrated to another country for work.
However, I can't help but be overwhelmed with extreme sadness when I think of that period of my life. I go to a therapist every week and I haven'd even had the ability to talk about that period  without having an emotional breakdown. There was simply too many stressful and pitiful memories during that period.
So I am left in a dilemma, should I discuss this in my SOP? I've really only discussed this with my long term girlfriend, and no one else knows about it. I feel it can provide a better "context" about my achievements, but to be frank, I believe my application is already competitive given my research and publication background without that context.

Who are the authors of these guidelines? If they come from "The Graduate School", or other administrators, then do pay attention to them, but take them with a grain of salt. It will be CS faculty whom you're trying to impress.

It has been covered in the answers, but this would be more appropriate for a personal statement, not a statement of purpose. So make sure you have the right one

To begin with, I think it is silly that application processes even ask about these things, but that seems to be the way of the world now.  If the guidelines recommend that you discuss your economic background (in the case where it is seen as a desirable "diversity" requirement) you could do this in a fairly short and sweet manner, which communicates the basic situation, without becoming too emotive.  I think this is likely to be the best way to do it, and it also jibes nicely with your desire to avoid dredging up issues that are upsetting to you.
I would think it would be sufficient to give a one or two sentence explanation similar to what you have already given in this post; i.e., that you lived in country X and lived below the poverty line during years Y-Z, but your family has since become better off.  This will give the desired context you want, without having to delve into deeply personal territory.  If it were me, I would even preface this by noting that the guidelines ask for this information, and then giving the basic information you have given here.  You could then follow this up with some simple aspirational statement --- e.g., that you would like to build a successful career to ensure that your own children do not have to endure the financial hardships you experienced growing up.
I don't think you need to worry too much about this, since your own desire dovetails nicely with what will work well anyway.  Most academics are interested in objective qualities of students more than background issues.  Even those academics who are particularly interested in diversity requirements, and positively predisposed to "under-represented" candidates, will tend to expect a light touch here.  They are usually going to be more impressed by getting all the relevant information in a way that lets them know there was some hardship/obstacle to overcome, but not laid on too thick.  Your goal should be to show that you are strong enough to have achieved high quality outcomes under circumstances where you faced hardship (while being careful not to sound like you are bragging).

First, only you can decide what you are comfortable with. While you are required to divulge some information (e.g., your academic record), there is no requirement to be so open with your private personal and health information. That said, I suspect including this information might help your application. As you say, it is helpful context for your achievements as well as your struggles. The challenge will be writing it up well.
In general the SOP should be a professional document that discusses your academic interests and plans (i.e., the reason you are applying to this program...hence the name). From our wiki:

Having reviewed certain applications, I would also like to mention one major flaw that shows up in the majority of the SOPs that get rejected. The SOP is not the document where you should get too personal. Don’t waste too many words discussing your childhood, or random thoughts you've had, or your theory of life. It's fine to state interests and hobbies and unrelated accomplishments, but make every word as objective (and verifiable) as you can. This is generally true, but especially so for STEM programs. Academics are impressed by crisp, concise writing.

This does not mean that you cannot or should not mention your economic background in your SOP. It does mean that you should be very concise and factual. This is not the time to delve into the "stressful and pitiful memories" you mention; rather, you should just briefly characterize the issue with a few "facts" or examples. Actually, the description you gave above is pretty good -- something along those lines would be fine.
By the way, some schools (in the US, at least) request a diversity statement in addition to the SOP. In this case, you might consider moving this discussion from the SOP to the diversity statement.

Considering that admissions committees are interested in anticipating/predicting your (professional) future, the more data points the better. Whether or not one believes that "overcoming adversity" is a good thing in itself, achieving this-or-that from a position of relative privilege and security is quite different from achieving the same thing in less convivial circumstances.
One simple example is about maintaining a good GPA while not working (due to economic good fortune), versus working full time due to economic need. There is no dishonor in good fortune, but good fortune of early life circumstances is not quite the same as a prediction of future professional success. (Unless, perhaps, we take an aggressive classist viewpoint that attempts to predict one's future success by the success of one's parents, etc.)
So, yes, without going on toooo long, give a small description of your circumstances. This will help admissions committees understand your future potential better.

As the other answers here suggest, this is a subtle issue so I won't give a firm recommendation. However, there are some things you might consider in making a decision.
First is that the SoP should be forward, not backward, looking. People evaluating your application will be looking for predictors of success in the future. This mostly involves your academic record including courses and also research. The fact that you overcame difficulties to succeed up to now is less important than that you have succeeded and can be expected to in future. The purpose of the SoP is to give a view of your future plans and goals and how you expect to achieve them. It isn't a general autobiography.
Second, is that an SoP might be limited in length or not. If it is, then make sure that what you are able to say in limited space supports future success, not past accomplishments. Of course, and this is where it is subtle, if your trajectory has been better than might be expected in the past, because you overcame obstacles of whatever nature, then you can probably be expected to continue that success.
But third, is that even if you don't mention it in the SoP there are other places in your application where you might be able to bring it up naturally. This includes any interviews that might be part of the process. So, think about the entire application process and make sure that all of the important points get covered and, in limited space, don't waste space in things that are covered already.
And, different institutions have different requirements on what can and should be included. If they ask, specifically, for such information, then give it, of course. But also consider that you may need to tailor the various elements differently for application to different institutions. Make sure that you show up as a good match.


text:
When graduated and thinking hard problems by own, how to get help on hard parts?
I graduated from maths with better than average grades. But on my free time I would like to learn a book Qing Liu: Algebraic Geometry and Arithmetic Curves on my own. The problem is that it has some really difficult problems I can't do. I asked the author of the book a hint for a particular problem but he was not willing to help in doing that problem. Here is an example problem: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1150852/complete-ring-and-unique-continuous-homomorphism
What would be the best way to learn to do difficult problems on my own or get some personal guide to help me through the hard parts? Should I hire a personal teacher or what?

"I asked the author of the book a hint for a particular problem but he was not willing to help."  This leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.  Qing Liu helped everyone in the world who is interested in arithmetic geometry by writing such a wonderful text on it: one can only imagine how many hundreds of hours of (not specifically paid or rewarded) work this must have taken.  Calling out the author of a text for not being willing to answer individual questions about how to do exercises from the text seems ungracious to me.

Study pre-requisite courses, study same or easier level books which have solved problems, study the book you want to learn, think about the hard problems for some time, study the guide books to the problems of the book you are mentioning (if exists) and finally, if you have some questions; ask from a friend, a PhD level student or a professor who has time to help you. This is how I used to study my courses for my BSc and MSc degrees and how I self study the scientific books I like after I graduated.

@PeteL.Clark It is true what you wrote. I meant that he didn't helped me in that problem but of course it is a good that there is such a book.

If you'll pardon me, I suspect that you are accidentally under-prepared for that particular book, as well-written as it is. That is, in U.S. terms, it'd presume a sophistication at second- or third-year graduate level, and would be challenging at that point. I think the very context of it would be incomprehensible, misunderstood, unfathomable, to even a fairly good U.S. bachelor's-degree student in the U.S. It's not that it's "difficult", but that it implicitly refers to many (yes, standard, but, ...) ideas without letting on where to follow up, nor letting on that there is non-trivial work to be done in doing that set-up.
Indeed, you might be hard-pressed (depending where you are in the world) to find a "tutor" who could parse the material well enough to explain it to you. Again, not that it's "hard", but that its context is sophisticated.
So I really should recommend some suitable prior reading, but I'm a bit out of touch with contemporary sources in this direction, so hopefully someone else can give pointers. One classic would be Atiyah-MacDonald, despite the fact that much of the work there is left to the reader. Still, it does implicitly admit that there is some work to do to have in hand a certain repertoire of riffs that Q. Liu's book may take for granted.


text:
I need certain courses not covered in my undergraduate studies, can I take them at another institution?
I recently got accepted into a graduate CS program (provisionally), but I need to take two classes that my undergraduate studies didn't cover. Now, where I got accepted those courses aren't offered until the fall which poses a problem for me. I would only be able to take one of the graduate courses without those missing courses in the fall.
Question:

Could I take those classes at another institution I'm not enrolled in?
If so, is there a database I could search comparable CS classes?

I know the standard procedure would be to contact the graduate school's admissions director and see what they recommend, however I feel like I've already annoyed them when I had to defer my summer acceptance. So, I would like them to have all the information needed in order to make that discourse easier for us both.

I would still suggest you contact the admission director (one more time)! He is the one with the "right" and "only" answer you need to follow. All what we can do is share relevant experiences that may or may not be along the lines of your school's standard/system.
Having said that, If I'm not mistaken, I think you can take the courses in other schools (as long as they are accredited and/or sister schools + cover a similar syllabus as the one your school has). As for a database, try to look through your school's graduate handbook or admission website.

I was afraid that was the answer. I will mark this as answered in five it seems I have to wait 5 mins. I guess my stackexchange rep doesn't carry over. While, I wait are there any funky procedures to take classes at a school your not going to?

Your case is very specific, and we can only speculate/share ideas. To be honest, these won't help you that much (and will waste your time!). As for a procedure to take courses, I have not been in your situation before but maybe you can take courses (not offered this term in your school) at a close by community college or even online. I do not know how much of that can be applied to your case thu. I hope somebody can shine in or add some helpful tips.

It's very important to get prior approval for doing this from the school whose graduate program you will be entering.  They're the ones that will decide whether the course you plan to take is an acceptable substitute for their course.  If they've given you pre-approval, then you can take the course with confidence that it will count.


text:
Change of rules & regulations after accepting faculty contract offer
I have recently accepted a new academic position in the Netherlands. Netherlands has a generous so-called 30% rule for high skilled expats:

you are paying taxes only for the 70% of your income and the rest 30%
is given to you as a tax-free allowance. This, in practice, means
about 20% higher net salary.

I easily got this rule 2 years ago for another academic position again in NL. The duration for the 30% rule is 8 years so I should have it for the next 6 years and nobody from HR mentioned any plans from the government of reducing it. Unfortunately, yesterday I read in the news that Dutch government completed a draft proposal which reduces the 30% rule from 8 to 5 years.  What is worth noting is that, in case the draft becomes a law (which most probably will, since this is the final proposal) will have a retroactive effect :

Concreet betekent dit dat het kabinet in het pakket Belastingplan 2019
zal voorstellen de maximale looptijd van de 30%-regeling met ingang
van 1 januari 2019 voor zowel nieuwe als bestaande gevallen met drie
jaar te verkorten.

One of the factors that made me accepted the new offer was the 30% rule for the remaining 6 years (I planned to buy house immediately). Now I see that this might not very well be true. What is even worse is that I turned down a great Research position (in a high tech company) offering about 60% more salary. I thought the 30% rule would partly compensate about it, but probably it will not.
I will not ask about the legal aspects of the draft law nor about the ethical dimension of this although you can see here what the relevant tax authorities say about shortening the period of 8 years.

Is it too late to turn down the academic offer? I have accepted it on e-mail but I haven't signed anything yet and haven't even seen the contract. If yes, what is the best way to do this?
Is anything similar happening to any other country and how do academics people deal with it?

Apparently, a lot of expats taking advantage of this rule get frustrated and set up an e-vote against the draft.

I suggest that you ask the accounting office or the professors' union or professional organization about this before you send anything to the department.  It would be important to find out how the university is thinking of handling this in general before you give the department any hint that you are getting cold feet.  Please keep in mind that this change, if implemented as described, would affect a lot of other university employees too.  The university may be making plans for dealing with this.

@aparente001 Thank you. I asked, and they were not even aware of that! Apparently, there is a huge amount of frustration in the expat community in NL taking advantage of this rule. There are even on-line petitions, for whoever is willing to sign (see my update question). But for some reason I lost any confidence that this will work out...

Have you reached out to the other offer to see if the position is still open?  I mean, if your gut feeling has turned sour about the teaching job, then....

One other thought.  You might take a look at the university's hierarchy chart and talk to someone high up in finances.  If they haven't published their hierarchy chart, then you could find out who's who by phoning a secretary in the office of whoever's at the top of the university administration.  At least, this approach has served me well in the US.

What we have here is the government behaving unlawfully. They will get away with it because there is no higher power that can require them to behave; but the behavior is unlawful by nature. This is a proven theorem both in computer science and in insurance risk calculation.

@Joshua I'm not an expert in Dutch law, so can you explain what's unlawful here?

@AzorAhai: Retroactive laws are inherently unlawful because it is necessary to have a lawful society for people to be able to depend on knowing what the law is.

@joshua: That's bollocks. The government allowed people every year they file a tax return to only count 70% of their income for 8 years, to allowing that to happen for only 5 years. They're not asking you to pay back taxes for previous years -- they simply don't extend a benefit people have enjoyed for as long as they did. By your logic, governments could never increase taxes.

@WolfgangBangerth: The only part that is unlawful is the part that says "will have a retroactive effect". They can change the tax law and it goes into effect that day forward just fine.

@WolfgangBangerth As I said, I am not qualified to discuss the legal aspect of the proposal. However, keep in mind that many people (myself included) made plans based on the duration of 8 years for this rule (and this is what is written in the document I received from the tax authorities). Now imagine you have a mortgage or a newborn child and made concrete plans based on that, only to suddenly realize that this will change to the worse without any provision.

@PsySp out of curiosity, are you currently employed by another institute, or is this going to be your first paid position (given that you accept the offer)?

@padawan I have been already under this rule for the last 2 years in NL, employed at a university.

@PsySp: I totally understand that you are annoyed, but everyone else is in the same position that a tax raise disrupts their plans to pay down mortgages etc. Governments raise or lower taxes all the time.

@WolfgangBangerth - Thanks for clarifying the limited extent to which this change is retroactive.  That term as OP used it gave me an inaccurate impression. // I think your main point is important, that OP is by far not the only person affected by such a change.

@WolfgangBangerth I do not understand what you mean: you equalize a tax raise with this particular rule that would lower my income by 20-21% for 3 years? This is a severe measure and affects the plans made by a lot of expats that were promised an 8-year period under this rule. I do not think this is a good analogy.

@WolfgangBangerth they simply don't extend a benefit people have enjoyed for as long as they did. No! We were promised 8-year period under this rule. It is not matter of extension. Is matter of reducing the promised period without transitional provisions (like they did in 2012 when they reduced it from 10 to 8 years only for new cases).

@aparente001 Noone said that I am the only one: All expats that were promised by the government 8 year application of this rule (and made certain decisions based on that) are affected.

@PsySp: You'll have to show me the place in the tax law that promises the benefit for 8 years into the future. Any reasonable person would write the tax code as saying something along the lines of "Holders of an XY visa will only have to state 70% of their income as taxable as long as they have not claimed this benefit for more than the past 8 years." That's not a promise. If your employer sold you this as a promise, then that's their promise, but I'd be quite surprised if the tax code made this promise this way.

@WolfgangBangerth https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontenten/belastingdienst/individuals/living_and_working/working_in_another_country_temporarily/you_are_coming_to_work_in_the_netherlands/30_facility_for_incoming_employees/the_decision_issued_to_you_has_a_maximum_term_of_8_years
from the Dutch tax authorities, where it says specifically when the rule should be less than 8 years and when the rule would not shorten. I do not know how more clear this could be. All the rest are legal shenanigans.

@PsySp -- <shrug>. That may be advisory information from the Dutch tax service, but it's not the law. I guess you will have to sue the Dutch government to get a legally binding decision.

@WolfgangBangerth You were talking about the tax code and I cite the tax authorities (belonging to the ministry). I do not know how more relevant it can get. As I said, I did not want to delve into the legality of the proposal. Technically speaking, it may  be legal (but I think even the most qualified lawyers will have hard time). However this raises a moral/ethical dimension especially in a country where a handshake is considered a contract and the whole economy, historically, is based on the element of trust and this bait-and-switch is not working for me.

This is an unfortunate situation were nobody really is to blame. You can't expect the university to warn you about a law that wasn't even in place yet, and the university cannot objectively be mad at you for reneging when your contractual situation significantly changed, even if it is due to outside factors. Of course the important word in the above statement is "objectively" - nobody can ensure you that the people that wanted to hire you will also see it like that, and that you won't burn any bridges.

Is it too late to turn down the academic offer? I have accepted it on e-mail but I haven't signed anything yet and haven't even seen the contract. If yes, what is the best way to do this?

As long as you have not signed anything you are always in the right to back out. The best way to do it would be to warn them that this new development significantly changes your view on their offer, even if they are of course not to blame. I would stay clear of any accusations that they failed to inform you in advance. Note that this also gives them the option to up their offer, which would presumably change your mind back again.
You should do it in the same form as you tentatively accepted the offer before - if you communicated that you would take the offer via email, send them a brief follow-up that you changed your mind, and why.

Is anything similar happening to any other country and how do academics people deal with it?

I am not aware of any concrete cases, but presumably when Brexit broke there had to be cases of academics changing their mind about moving to the UK.

thank you. The point is that (as Dutch people say) they consider a verbal agreement or an e-mail agreement as a contract. Of course this adds to the cultural situation. In any case, I do not blame them (I am willing to believe that this is just unfortunate) butt the difference on my salary for the next 6 years (taking into account the offer I turned down) would be up to 90-100k and naturally I am have double and triple thoughts on how to handle it.

While there are probably nuances to the situation, this sounds a lot like the tax laws have changed resulting in you having a much higher tax liability. Maybe the university will be nice and offer everyone a raise to account for the change in the tax law, but most likely (at least in the US), the university is not particularly worried about your take home pay.
Having accepted the contract in an email, but not having signed it yet, puts you in a gray area. Changing your mind immediately after a change in the tax law is announce, or even proposed, that will result in a 20% reduction in salary, seems reasonable. A quick email to the department chair saying you just read about the tax change and that by your calculations that reduces your take home pay from X to Y and that makes the position untenable for you.
Even if you had signed the contract (either from a legal or cultural stand point), you can still change you mind. If you legally signed it, they can come after you for breach of contract, but no employer wants to hire someone who is going to start unhappy with their contract. The more committed the department thinks you are and the more work they have put into closing the search (e.g., if they already told the alternative candidates that they were not hired), the more likely they are going to be upset at you.


text:
Does copyright restrict how I can adapt papers when compiling them into a thesis?
I am starting to put together my PhD thesis. The bulk of the thesis will be reprints of papers I have published during my PhD. I am wondering about presentation style.
My personal preference would be to reformat all of my papers into a single LaTeX document so as to have consistent style throughout. It's a bit of extra work, but I would prefer this approach. In several cases my papers have supplementary info which would not fit in the constraints of the main manuscript in the published version, but which could (and probably should) be coherently woven into the main text.
Are these acceptable options? Assuming I get reprint permission from the publishers, is it acceptable to change or partially reorganize the text for the sake of a coherent narrative within the context of the larger thesis? Or do copyright laws require that my reprints be exact reproductions of both content and style as compared to published versions?

Years ago I received a copy of a Danish thesis. There was a cover sheet with the thesis title, author, university, etc., and stapled behind it was a half dozen reprints of journal articles. Sadly, I did not manage to emulate that, since my university did not approve of it. Sigh.

I mean, on the one hand nobody is ever going to read it again so who really cares how it looks, but on the other that seems like a cheap way to do something you put 4+ years of your life into.

Sure, but will copyright law allow me to alter the published version for the sake of style while still reprinting large sections from it verbatim?

@KBriggs - the 4+ years was to do the work and get the PhD, not to have a beautifully formatted thesis that sits on your (and your parent's) shelf. In physics/materials science people read the papers, not the thesis. Other fields may be different...

@Jon Custer you're certainly right, thanks. I don't think it's going be all that much extra work, though. Maybe an extra week or two to translate my papers into LaTeX and get the references right.

@user37208 I assume that's the case, since I don't see why anyone would go after someone for the content in their thesis. Just wanted to be sure!

Re. the copyright question, this may be of interest: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/71135/chapter-in-printed-thesis-vs-journal-article/104040#104040
In most countries, use of copyright materials in a thesis is permitted via statutory exceptions to copyright. However, this could limit your ability to publish your thesis as a book (common in some countries, I think) or to distribute it online. Making sure you meet your institution's rules on self-plagiarism is probably more important than copyright, in your case.

Maybe an extra week or two to translate my papers into LaTeX and get the references right. – I am so grateful to be in a field where papers are written in LaTeX from the beginning. For me, the respective process took about an hour.

If only that were the case in mine

@KBriggs if you don't have much formulas, you could export the (Word? Libreoffice?) documents as HTML and then use Pandoc to convert them into LaTeX automatically.

@AndreaLazzarotto: Pandoc does a great job of converting a Word document to a starting point for a LaTeX document, but your job doesn't end there. Pandoc's not perfect, and you'll probably have a couple of hours of work ahead of you (for, say, a ten-page paper—I speak from experience).

@JonCuster: this is a way to do your thesis in France and Belgium (thèse sur publications)

@wchargin, and that's exactly my point. It's WAY quicker than retyping everything manually.

I did the first one this morning manually. Took about 2 hours. Really not that bad. I'd rather have a LaTeX document I made myself and know all the packages and such involved over something automatically generated which might have interactions I am unaware of.

@KBriggs, unless you explicitly ask for a standalone document, Pandoc doesn't even import any package. It only gives you standard LaTeX code for the document body, leaving the preamble as a responsibility of yours. I'm not criticizing your choice which is absolutely fine, just pointing out how the conversion works. :)

@AndreaLazzarotto: Yep; agreed on all counts.

I disagree with part of the other answer, in that the copyright holder of a work is not always the creators/authors. For some journals when you publish with them and sign the licensing agreement, you transfer the copyright of your work to the publisher. Then it is up to the publisher to decide how you can reuse your paper. I would advice reviewing the copyright/licensing agreement you signed with your publisher for limitations for reuse, and if still in doubt, contact the publisher.

Good point. I will check carefully with the journals I have published in, thanks.

@KBriggs Yes, this answer is better guidance than the other. Note that many journals have explicit allowances for their material to be included in a thesis, since this is a very common issue.

@Bryan Krause Yes, it seems you're right. There is some variation between journals, but some of the ones I have submitted to explicitly take over copyright.

It's the norm for journals to take copyright, there are a lot of good legal reasons for that to happen (and perhaps counterintuitively, good reasons for you as well as for them). They usually release back certain rights to you in the process, though, which often covers just about anything you'd want anyways: inclusion in a thesis, distribution of your own copies of the work, etc.

@KBriggs This answer sounds correct for the U.S. Further, librarians at your institution may help you navigate this process for your country AND university--this was part of a dissertation workshop that I attended.

@cactus_pardner good suggestion, I will look into that. FYI, I am in Canada.

As stated in the accepted answer, you should check with the publisher. However, this issue is often clarified specifically online. For example, AIP Publishing states on their website:

Q: May I include my AIP Publishing article in my thesis or
  dissertation?
AIP Publishing permits authors to include their
  published articles in a thesis or dissertation. It is understood that
  the thesis or dissertation may be published in print and/or electronic
  form and offered for sale on demand, as well as included in a
  university’s repository. Formal permission from AIP Publishing is not
  needed. If the university requires written permission, however, we are
  happy to supply it.

The same is also true for Springer: "Author retains the right to use his/her Contribution for his/her further scientific career by including the final published
paper in his/her dissertation or doctoral thesis provided acknowledgment is given to the original source of publication."
Source

Checking with publisher was mentioned, but not how. Factually all large publishers have this "Request permissions" link directly on the page with the paper. Basically, you click on the DOI of your paper and search for this link. Then you are taken to another website, typically copyright.com. There you have to make some choices, such as "yes, I am the author", "no, it's for the thesis", "yes, all the paper", "no, I won't translate". Finally, a price tag pops up. It is typically 0 Euro/US$/whatever, but I've also seen larger values. You agree (or pay, if you are unlucky), then you receive an email that you officially may use this paper for the purposes you stated. Rinse, repeat.
Small publishers typically state the availability of the papers somewhere close to their front page.
If you have not signed the copyright transfer form yet (i.e., the paper is not finally accepted), you are good. If the paper is Open Access (i.e., licensed under CC-BY or similar), you are good. If you have not transferred the copyright, but licensed the content (say, to ACM), you should be good, but better ask via the above copyright.com process.

Or do copyright laws require that my reprints be exact reproductions of both content and style as compared to published versions?

Why should copyright laws require such a thing?
The entire point of copyright laws is to protect creators¹ and restrict what others can do with your work.
In the sense of copyright law, you and your co-authors are the creators of your paper and you can do it with it whatever you want (presuming that you all agree on this).
Of course, you transfer parts of what is included in your copyright to the journal, but for this you have to consult the respective copyright agreement with the journal and not copyright law.
Sidenotes:

Consider using the accepted versions of the respective manuscripts instead of the published ones.
This is usually more compatible with copyright agreements.
Also, this is closer to your work, as whatever the journal did to your papers is missing.
Your university, supervisor, and committee may have special ideas as to what you can or cannot do in such a thesis, which are usually more restrictive than copyright.
As already noted, if there is any restriction imposed by copyright it is that your co-authors should agree on this – which should usually not be a problem though.

¹ or in some legislation copyright holders, which in turn are the authors by default

Thank you. You're right that the university probably has restrictions; unfortunately, being a university, they have not placed these anywhere that I've been able to find them.
Good point about using accepted versions. That's what I had to work with anyway so it makes sense.

When you transfer the copyright to a journal (unless it is open access), you cease to be the copyright holder. Copyright law is here to protect the commercial interests of copyright holders, not authors. Remember all the well known conflicts between authors of music and publishers/labels. Such music authors certainly cannot do whatever they want with their music and certainly cannot publish it independently anywhere else. Not without the label's approval.

This answer is clearly wrong. The laws protect the copyright holder not the author. If you have transferred copyright to the journal it is theirs; not yours, and you do not enjoy special protection as the original author.

@JackAidley The question doesn't specify where this takes place; In many places copyright law does indeed protect the author of a work and transferring the copyright post factum isn't actually possible (this does not preclude the granting of exclusive licenses, in that case violating the terms would be a breach of contract rather than a copyright violation). In those places the journal would still hold the copyright on any modification they made though.

@Cubic: That's interesting, I'm no international lawyer so could you give me an example of jurisdictions where this is the case?

@VladimirF: Right, but if you look at the question, the asker is obviously aware of having transferred (portions of) the copyright to the journal and assumes that whatever they do is in accordance with this. I mentioned this exception explicitly (and now made it even more explicit), but that’s not what I understood the question to be about (and nothing anybody can answer anyway). Also note that you rarely transfer the entire copyright (at least, I have never seen such an agreement).

@JackAidley: Germany, for example. Also see the above comment.

Just prepare your thesis the way you see fit and don't think too much about publishers or copyrights.

This seems like a recipe for a lot of frustration

@KBriggs This answer is actually fine - so long as your thesis is only ever seen by yourself, your supervisor, and your examiners, and you do not make it public in any way. However, since you presumably do want to make your thesis public, the "just ignore the law" advice in this answer is truly terrible.

@E.P. Not it is not. Often universities have a specialized office taking care of the thesis formalities. I had to provide for each paper in mine a formal authorization from the publishers.

@Zenon That's because you are making the thesis public.

@E.P. I guess by university rules it is mandatory yes. I’m surprised it is not everywhere! Interesting thanks.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


text:
What are the pros and cons of having two supervisors for my Ph.D. thesis?
I am going to be taking a Ph.D. program in statistics, and I kind of want to have two people for my supervisor (for my Ph.D. research), but I don't know if this would be a good or bad idea. I have two questions:

What are the pros and cons of having two supervisors for my PhD research?
In case of having two supervisors, would I be expected to choose the one of the two professors who will act as my "main supervisor" (can both supervisors be my "main supervisor")?

I have never taken a Ph.D. program before, so any answers would be appreciated.

In some places it's mandatory to have more than one supervisor.

What are your reasons for wanting two supervisors?

I was co-supervised during my own Ph.D., and have since been a co-supervisor several times, and I find that if your circumstances are such that co-supervision makes sense, it can be an excellent thing.
Co-supervision makes most sense when either:

You are doing cross-disciplinary work, and each supervisor provides expertise for their own discipline, or
the two supervisors already work together so closely that working for one means you are de facto being supervised by the other already, and you might as well acknowledge it.

This can help in providing two perspectives (especially valuable for cross-disciplinary work) and in allowing you to get help from one when the other is busy or unavailable.  The down side is that you may also find yourself being pulled in two different directions, and that it can be difficult to coordinate things that require approval from both two supervisors, especially if both are busy.
Most programs, however, will require precisely one person to be the primary supervisor, while the other is either listed as a co-supervisor or merely an unusually active member of your committee.

It is a good idea to have a co-supervisor, which only comes into picture when your work is interdisciplinary, but in some case, it doesn't work.
pros:

You will get different ideas form people with different expertise.
Your research can get interesting as you can have helpful discussions with both experts, and can approach other if one is occupied.

cons:

It may take more time to finish your PhD
More problematic if both don't have mutual understanding and don't agree on something related to your research.


text:
What formatting guidelines should I follow for my bachelor's thesis if some of them are not specified by the university?
I am writing my bachelor's thesis at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands.
The university has provided me with a document outlining some of the guidelines I should follow (like what format of citations is expected and what the document should look like overall), but it does not specify anything about, for example, fonts, font sizes and color schemes.
What is the correct approach to formatting in this case? Do things like fonts and font sizes matter very much or can I make that choice as long as it is reasonable?

I would check other submissions and ask your mentor / supervisor. In any event, I would choose a font with spacing etc. that is clear and easy to read with suitable line spacing.
Some "cursive" fonts look nice but are not "easy" for extended reading.

In general If the university did not specify a guideline for a particular issue, it is fair to assume you can make whatever reasonable choice you want for it. There is usually a step where the university checks the formatting of the final version (at least in the US), so be prepared to make some changes at that point.

Ask your supervisor and if you do not get a satisfying response than use a style similar to the most respected journal of your field.