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Funding ran out, can I leave
I'm a PhD student in experimental biology in the UK. My funding grants me a monthly stipend for 3.5 years (including money for consumables/conferences etc).
In my group, the standard practice is for people to work for 3.5 years and then write up (though actually different people have different funding, and the funding that the department provides directly does last 4 years).
When I started, I was quite happy to stay for 4 years (the stipend is sufficiently generous that I've saved enough to cover me), but, relationships with my PI have deteriorated significantly. * At this stage, I've said that I wish to write up at the end of 3 years, and be  ready to viva by 3.5. This is something that she refuses to grant.

What should I do in this situation? I don't feel that anyone can be expected to work for free (theres no expectation that I should have saved money), and therefore feel that (1) she should either give me her blessing to write up, and all the support that goes with it, or (2) she should find additional funding for the final 0.5 years in order to force me to write up in the department.

Note: the UK has a different funding model to the US, and I'd prefer to just hear answers relating to the UK funding situation (i'm well aware that students in the US have a far tougher time of things, both in terms of money, but also in terms of the very very long PhD's that some people must endure).

*: We've had  a difficult relationship from the start, truthfully. She is fairly old and established at this stage, and has very little interest in discussing things, but rather dictates her wishes via emails from her secretary and then comes to the lab to complain when things don't work. This has slowed my work appreciably as we're constantly jumping around to keep her happy.

How is she preventing you from writing up and defending? I have never seen a UK program in which the supervisor was directly involved in the defense.

She has to fill in paperwork and organise my viva. I mean, she isn't literally holding me hostage, she's simply refusing to help the process along. I could of course go above her head and force the matter, but I dont think that will help my future prospects.

Unless UK universities differ significantly between each other, your supervisor will not have any role in assessing your final thesis - this will be done by the internal and external examiner.
Your supervisor will normally propose these based on personal experience - and I suspect in most cases the university will go along with those suggestions (at least that was my experience).
So a malicious supervisor can give you an examiner who will give you a hard time - while a friendly supervisor will suggest a friendly examiner.
So where am I going:
If the relationship with your supervisor has deteriorated to the level where you feel you would just quit - but are nevertheless motivated to complete your work, it would be highly advisable to seek some advice within the university (and possibly also if you aren't motivated to make sure you don't make a mistake). There should be a person responsible for dealing with such situations - I forgot what they are called...
Ideally, you could be given an administrative supervisor and submit the thesis under their "guidance" - they won't need to be an expert in the field, but should understand your work.
The key question in this case is whether the work is sufficient to be considered for a PhD, but only you or your supervisor (be it old or new) can determine that.
A side note on funding:
The university as an institution is unlikely to continue your funding, unless you are employed doing some work, say on a part time basis to carry on with your work. Where people are paid beyond the standard grant duration, this is done by the department - potentially the sponsor if there is an industry sponsor. I believe it is up to the department ow they organise this - i.e. whether they pay you to write up or whether they pay you to continue/complete your work before/after writing up but before defending the thesis.

I forgot what they are called — Ombudsman?

@JeffE possibly - I'm not sure what the terminology in Leeds was.

Detlev: just to clarify, are you referring to someone at university, faculty, or departmental level?

There should be someone at the "school level" - so above the department, but below the university as an institution. For example it could be "School Chemical and Process Engineering" - or alternatively say the Faculty of Chemistry. Then again, specific arrangements may depend on the size of the university and the number of PhD students they take on. (The person in Leeds is/was apparently also the post-graduate tutor, or one of several - I'm not sure I have ever consciously met him though.)

You can most definitely leave with out a PhD. Further, every UK PhD program I am familiar with will allow students to defend at nearly any point. Most programs have max durations (usually 4 or 5 years) after which they will not let you defend. Some programs also require students to progress from an MPhil to a PhD after the first year. The standard route may ask for your supervisor to sign off on scheduling the viva (and schedule the viva). In the case of an unhelpful supervisor, students can approach other faculty or the director of graduate studies. If you push hard enough, you should be given a viva.
Your supervisor should have no contact, especially in difficult cases, with the examiners during the viva. That said, I would be wary about doing a viva without your supervisor on board.

The University of Leeds will consider you to have failed a PhD if it is not submitted within 4 years of starting (unless there are extenuating circumstances and an extension is granted). - I believe the University of Sheffield has also introduced a time limit.

@DetlevCM the OP wants to finish quickly so it is not quite relevant, but as a general answer, you are correct so I have edited that info in.


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What are committees looking for in a cover letter for a faculty application?
Several small related questions about how to present oneself in a faculty application, and in particular the cover letter:
Should it end by saying something, like "I am waiting for your call" or "I will follow up by phone or email"?  I have seen the latter recommended, but for me it seems somehow annoying.
Should the cover letter contain qualifications and skills like highly-motivated, fast learner, etc?
Some recommend mentioning potential members of the department that the applicant can work with in a faculty application. Is this a good idea? If Dr. A  is working on topic T, and I want to work on topic T, then should I say that I would like to collaborate with Dr. A, and if so, how?

Are you talking about applications for faculty jobs or for something else?  (It would be very strange for a faculty application to include "skills" like "fast learner".)

yes faculty application

Please ask one question per post

So should I delete this topic and write 4 questions?

@JeffE Why would that be strange?  Is this not as essential skill?  Or should it be obvious?

I have edited to make the question more coherent, and am voting to reopen because I think that the answers are valuable and it is too difficult to split the question and answers at this point.

@jakebeal I  think the very last paragraph (in parens) is a duplicate of Should I write "we" or "I" in my research statement?. You actually gave an accepted answer.

@ff524 Please see my previous comment.

@scaaahu I agree. I'm going to edit it out of this question.

@ff524 The last paragraph (Dr. A, topic T, etc.) was asked by the question How to mention possible mutual interests when applying for a job? by the same OP. I guess it was because we closed this question as too broad and then the OP split this one into smaller questions.

@scaaahu We only closed this question today. The OP asked these questions back in November. I'm not sure why he didn't edit it out of this post when he asked the new question.

@ff524 Yes, you're right we closed this one today(I was the last vote). I guess the OP realized it was too broad because we told him don't ask too many questions in one. Now, it's a headache for us. I'll leave it to you. This is a kind reminder, not a blame at all. Actually, as a user, I appreciate what you and jakebeal did for this one and the other one.

@scaaahu I'll leave it, just because I think (hope) the question will get reopened even if I leave it, it fits in fairly well with the rest of the question, and because  JeffE already gave a non-trivial answer to it.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

(1) For the cover letter, should it end by saying something,

In my experience (~10 years on hiring committees, starting my second year as hiring committee chair), almost nobody will read your cover letter.  If you have something to say about your research, say it in your research statement.  If you have something to say about your teaching, say it in your teaching statement.  If you have something to say about your personal life, don't.
If the department doesn't acknowledge receipt (typically by email), it's reasonable to call or email the department to double-check.  But "waiting for your call" is unreasonably optimistic.  Each department you're applying to probably gets hundreds of applications for each faculty position.

(2) Should the cover letter contain qualifications and skills like highly-motivated, fast learner etc?

Absolutely not!  "Motivated" and "fast learner" are neither skills nor qualifications; they're useless boilerplate.  Of course you're motivated and a fast learner; otherwise, you wouldn't have a PhD and a publication record consistent with a tenure-track faculty position.  Your actual skills and qualifications should be apparent from your CV, your research and teaching statements, and your recommendation letters.

(3) Some recommends to mention potential drs from the department that the applicant can work with. Is this a good idea? If Dr. A is working on topic T, and I want to work on topic T, then should I say that I would like to collaborate with Dr. A? If yes, what is a good way to say it?!

Don't just say it; make a convincing case.  Just dropping a few names into your research statement will be written off immediately as meaningless boilerplate.  If your research goals really do converge with Dr. A's research interests, that should be obvious from your larger research narrative, and it should be easy for you to draw specific, technical, and credible connections between your interests and Dr. A's.  Do not fake it.  We can tell.

(4) For the research statement, should I use "I" or "we" for joint papers, assuming that I was the first author?

"We" or "my coauthors and I"; using "I" for joint work is dishonest.  But this is a relatively minor issue.

Great answers! for question 3, I am not sure if I should mention some names. Does it make a big positive effect? I guess it may have some negative effects also, since Dr A may not be willing to share teaching his courses with a new guy.

Does it make a big positive effect? —  Not usually, no, but if you make a good case, it can have a small positive effect; other aspects of your applications are far more important.

Perhaps this is a difference between different kinds of schools, but I read cover letters very closely and I have voted against candidates because of their letter. I view the cover letter as a chance to comment on why an applicant applied for the job. My personal opinion is that if someone cannot say why they want to be at my school in particular, then I can't say why we'd want to hire them in particular, since we will have plenty of "qualified" candidates. I view the cover letter as one of several important chances for a candidate to demonstrate their "fit" with the school.

I would appreciate if you provide a sample of excellent cover letter, and other statements.

JeffE has given an excellent answer, but I want to give a slightly differing viewpoint on the purpose of the cover letter, which will address items (1) and (2) in the question. It will take a few paragraphs to motivate the answer; the summary is "Use the cover letter as an opportunity to show you are genuinely interested in the school."
Two important caveats: I am writing this from the perspective of "non-elite" U.S. schools. These schools often have a more teaching-oriented mission, and are often located in more remote locations. I am also writing from the perspective of mathematics, where even at such schools there will be a few hundred applications for each advertised position, and certainly over a hundred "qualified" applications even for a relatively specialized job ad. Things are very different in other fields where there may be a lack of applicants in a given subfield.
These non-elite, regional schools have a few common issues during job searches:

Candidates may have applied to the school only as a "safety net", without really wanting to have a job there. In math, when I was in graduate school, I saw some people who applied to 100 jobs (!) in the same search.
Candidates who are only familiar with larger, research-intensive schools may have unrealistic expectations about salary, teaching load, amenities, etc.
Candidates may come for an interview, but turn down the job offer because they get a better offer somewhere else.
Candidates may leave more frequently than expected to find a "better" school. Of course some turnover is natural and expected, but if the turnover rate is too high for too long then there may be a lack of experienced faculty. Some candidates may stay, but hate the area (e.g. if it is very rural) and wish there were somewhere else (e.g. in a larger city, or closer to the coast).

How does this relate to your cover letter? You can (and should, in my opinion) use the cover letter as an opportunity to address points like these:

Make it clear that you really do want to work at the school (e.g. by not having a boilerplate cover letter, by bringing up experience at similar schools, or by otherwise establishing a connection).
Avoid any faux pas in which you treat a non-elite school like elite schools (e.g. talking only about research in your cover letter).
If possible and reasonable, for remotely-located schools, establish why you would be  happy to be at the school. Perhaps it is near some of your family. Perhaps you have lived in a rural area before. Maybe they have some sort of outdoor activity that you enjoy.
Don't say anything that signals you view the position just as a stepping stone. You can always apply someone else, of course, but in your application you should have a plan for what you can do if you stay at the school for some time.
Remember that even if the search committee only skims the cover letter, the packets for the finalists will often be read by the whole department, and by the dean. At that stage, there are only a few candidates, and every aspect of the packet is subject to scrutiny.

From those bullets, you can guess my answers to (1) and (2).
For (1), you shouldn't say anything like that. Those types of statements go in a cover letter for a business job, not an academic job. When we have 400 applications for one position, we will not call every applicant to say we received their package. And, while you can call the committee, you can imagine the workload if all 400 applicants did so.  (For math, with the advent of mathjobs.org, this is less important anyway.)
For (2), qualifications like "fast learner" are meaningless. But you should think about the "extra qualifications" I mentioned above:

Why in particular did you apply to the school, besides the obvious fact that they have a job ad? What can you contribute in particular to the department?
Are there any special reasons you'd like to work in that location?
What are your professional goals for the next 5-10 years, and how do they fit into the mission of the school you are applying to?  For example, some applicants are keen on developing online courses, or are interested in various sorts of service. These things would be less relevant to a tenure-track position at a research school, and might even be red flags there, but service and teaching are much more important at non-research schools.
This is a more difficult choice, but if you have a spouse who is also looking for a job, you need to decide whether to mention it in your cover letter or not.

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How to respond to "How much funding will you bring?" as an interview question for a faculty job?
What are the possible answers for such interview question assuming a new graduate with no funds!
How much funding you will bring to the department?

"All of it! I shall crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their postdocs!"

This is an invitation to discuss your plans for obtaining external funding.  They want your answers to questions like the following:

What agencies fund research like yours?
What projects do you have that you think would be successful in gaining external funding?
Why do you think you would be successful?  Can you point to similar (but not too similar) projects that have been funded?  Why would a funding agency agree your work is worthy of support?  Why would they agree that you are a qualified person to carry out the work, and that your project is likely to actually produce useful results?  How would you convince them?  What supporting evidence would you use?
How large would those grants be likely to be?  How do you know?
When do you propose to begin applying for such grants?  Is there anything specific that needs to happen first?
Do you have collaborators in mind with whom you might co-apply?  Have you discussed this with them?

So the original question is not about how much do you have "currently"? And how would someone know how much funding he can get, and prove that, assuming there wasn't a previous record of PI grants?

@Thomas: The question may have been meant to ask about how much you have. But if you don't have any, don't just say "none"; talk about how you're going to get it. Of course you can't prove that you will get such-and-such an amount, but you want to make a convincing case that you have an excellent chance of obtaining significant funding.

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How does research contribute to teaching, and vice versa?
If research is related to teaching then research could have a direct contributions to  teaching.  However, if research is not directly related to teaching, then how can each of them contribute to the other?

Hello, could you please maybe provide a bit more background? What is your field and what is the position type - professor, TA, independent researcher (think French CR1 at CNRS), ...?

Hi, I guess disciplines and positions won't make a big difference. Assume computing or engineering major applying for assistant professor position.

It seems like the question in the body of your post is different from the one in your title; specifically, the question in the body asks how you should answer the question in the title (when applying for an assistant professor position, as I gather from your comment.)  You should answer it truthfully: how does your research contribute to your teaching and vice versa?  No one here can answer that for you.

@TrevorWilson my teaching is not directly related to my research, so this creates some confusion on how to answer such question.

Maybe you could show that they are indirectly related somehow, or you could say how you plan to relate the two in the future.

The only good answer depends on how your research informs your teaching and vice versa.

@JeffE Sure, but there are always general answers that a graduate student may not think of and can extend.

Personally, I struggle coming up with good teaching materials (lecture notes, homework questions, et cetera). I had lots of teachers that were either way too abstract where abstraction wasn't necessary, or gave really wacky examples that didn't have much basis in real life, and I silently vowed not to do that to my own students. One way that I've found to present real-life and relevant material is to draw upon my research. For example, if I'm lecturing about a particular biological system that I study, I might walk the class through a particular experiment that I ran to test an aspect of the system. I find that students feel these lectures are the most interesting, and they seem to grasp the material better than if I gave a "standard" lecture.
On the flip side, I always get 1-2 questions per semester where I don't know the answer, and it turns out no one else in my field does either. As such, the questions I get while teaching are a source of research questions that I may attempt to answer. If I actually think the question can be answered, I almost always invite the student or students who posed the question to help me with the research, which is also another way teaching impacts research (i.e., I expose more people to what research is, and I get help doing it).

+1 for "If I actually think the question can be answered, I almost always invite the student or students who posed the question to help me with the research"


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Send a question or thanks letter after receiving a notification of receipt of application?
After applying to some faculty positions, some professors send emails (not the automatic ones) that they have received the application and ask if the applicants have any questions. Should the applicant raise any question or maybe send a thank you reply for the notification to show their interest? Or just ignore and wait.

Saying "thanks, I don't have any questions at the moment." Would be appropriate and it would also be appropriate and perhaps show more interest in the position if you did ask a question or two about the department or the position.  For example, you might ask if anyone from the department will be attending an upcoming conference that you are going to.  However, you don't want to be presumptuous, so detailed questions about salary, benefits, etc. are not appropriate at this early stage.


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What is a good answer for an interview question "Why do you want to teach at this teaching university?" (when there are several others nearby)
Assume there are 3-5 teaching universities near each other. What would be a good answer for an interview question : why you want to teach at this teaching university?
To me I see no difference and it does not matter which teaching university to work at.

There several very different questions in here, some of which far are too subjective and broad. Maybe trim it down to a single question? We can't tell you why you want to teach.

Does it matter which teaching university someone work in? Matter to who?

I selected 1 question.

Forget the fact that N institutions are close to each other: you should have a solid answer for why you want to obtain a position at the institution that is asking you why you want to work there, i.e. come up with something better than "you're hiring."

Teaching position seems just a job that can be done at any school. I don't see a good reason why to prefer a teaching school over another, unless some reasons like higher salary, faster tenure, etc.

What about the atmosphere? How engaged are the students? Do you like the other faculty members? Class Size? What courses will you be expected to teach? What non-teaching requirements/opportunities will you have?

From your questions, I get the vibe that you assume that there is a sort of pre-canned "right" answer for these kind of interview questions that works for every place (akin to the graduate applications questions that ask "What should I write in my SOP?"). This is a fallacy - think about why you would want to teach in this place and tell them. If you can't think of anything, you shouldn't accept an offer anyway.

If you "succeed" in making clear to the interviewers that you see no difference, they'll hire someone else... And, if you see no difference, you are surely  missing some important facts... e.g., as in answers below.

I can see many things to factor in when choosing among several similar schools. Disclaimer: I am only a student.

What about the atmosphere?
What impression did you get after speaking to the other faculty? Do they seem enthusiastic and make you want to work with them?
What about the campus/building you might possibly be at for the next 20+ years?
Did you get a chance to talk to students?
Do most students live on campus or do they commute? (From personal experience, this makes a big difference in student involvement!)
Department size?
Class size?
What courses will you be expected to teach?
Which has better food?
What non-teaching requirements/opportunities will you have?

Good points. The atmosphere, campus, and food could be good factors for an applicant but I don't think they will be good for a committee. How students place of living makes difference?

@ThomasLee Again, we can not tell you why you want to teach somewhere.

@ThomasLee In my experience, where students live has a huge impact on how involved they are with the university, department, and clubs (e.g., ACM student chapter). There are statistics out there to support this. I remember my undergrad school advertising that students living on campus and involved in a club had X% higher GPA and were more likely to graduate, or something. So it is worth finding out whether these are "commuting" schools or not.

Good point. Sure, I don't want you to tell me why, I just need to know what justifiable reasons do others have.

Let me elaborate on xLeitix's comment.  Applicants sometimes feel anxious about interview questions with hidden meaning or context.  The stereotypical example is "What would you say is your greatest weakness?", which is not a request to confess something awkward or damaging.  Instead it's a test of social competence, of whether the applicant can offer a smooth, natural response that sounds like it is addressing the question and avoids disclosing anything problematic without sounding arrogant either.  These sorts of questions are less common in academic interviews, so you can usually assume a question means more or less what it says.
In particular, this question is trying to gauge how well you would fit into the university and department.  Teaching universities can be really diverse in how they function, which students they serve, or what they consider their mission.  They are looking for someone who will participate enthusiastically and help make the department a better place, not just someone who is willing to teach there (or, worse yet, will feel bitter or resentful about not having found their dream job).
The worst case answer is "Gee, I don't know.  You have students, and I can teach.  What's not to like?"  That basically amounts to announcing that even you don't think you're a particularly good fit.  Your comments sound uncomfortably close to this, like you really don't care or see any relevant differences between these schools.  If that's the case, then you need to spend some time looking into them online or asking your friends or colleagues.  Unless you've applied to an extraordinarily narrow range of universities, I can't really believe they are indistinguishable.  And if they are, then you must have targeted this type of school intentionally, so you just need to explain why.
Austin Henley's answer provides a nice list of criteria you could keep in mind, and there are also big-picture issues.  Are these schools public or private?  How do they present themselves to the world?  Is there anything distinctive about their history, such as a religious or social mission (former or current)?  Is there any special focus, such as technical or liberal arts education?  What sort of student body do they serve?
There are no right or wrong answers here: one person might prefer to teach diverse and economically downtrodden students, while another might be excited about working with exceptionally well-prepared students from the elite.  What's important is that your answer should reflect some genuine resonance between you and the school.  If it sounds like you are saying something generic or canned, then it won't really help your case, but anything insightful or heartfelt could help.

This is a good answer.  I would just add that another reason for such questions is that the school wants to know that you are seriously interested in the job; that if they offered it, you would be reasonably likely to accept; and that if you took the job, you'd be reasonably likely to stay.  There are very significant costs in interviewing candidates (in money, time, and opportunity cost) so before spending time considering you, they want to know that you are serious.

Indeed: Lukewarm responses will cost the applicant the potential position or potentially better offer. Enthusiasm rules.


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How to reply to an academic interview invitation?
What is the recommended way to reply to an academic interview invitation? And would there be a difference in response if the invitation was sent by a faculty or a staff? Should it be very short or should the applicant express his interest again in the position, maybe provide more details of his qualifications etc?

This is by email?  I think I always got (at least on campus) interview requests by phone.  Anyway, you do not need to provide more details unless they ask for something.  Just answer and express your gratitude politely.

Both, email or phone.

I usually answer with "Dear XY, thank you for the invitation. This date works for me. See you in AA weeks. Best regards, xLeitix." I am not sure what else you want to say.

If they call you and you answer, be excited and happy and keep the conversation really short. The person who called you does not really want to talk to you, they just want to tell you that you got an interview and possibly to dump some information on you. Your side of the conversation could be:

This is so great and I am really excited to come for the interview. I have to run to a meeting/teach (doesn't matter if it is true or not) can we set up a time to talk in more detail later today or tomorrow?

At that point the person calling will either setup a time or tell you they will email you the information they need to tell you.
If they leave a voice mail, you can either call them back or send them an email, unless they tell you to do one or the other. If they email you, you should probably only reply with an email, unless they tell you to call.
In the follow up conversation/email there are things you need to know, which search committees often forget about. You should of course express how excited you are to come visit and tell them about your work and learn more about them and their cool work, but you do not need to directly sell yourself at this point (or really during the interview itself). What you do need to do is:

Setup a date for the visit. You should tell them when you are available.
Alert them to anyone you want to meet during your visit.
Find out how travel is paid for and arranged.
What the interview consists of and who will be at those events.
If they need a title and/or abstract, and if so when, for the job talk.

The reason you need to know what the interview consists of is that a campus visit may include one-on-one meetings/interviews, a panel interview, a research seminar on your past work, a teaching demo, and a "chalk" talk on your future work. If they want you to teach an hour lecture of an actual calculus 101 class, you really need to know that beforehand. Alternatively, they might want you to talk through a syllabus of a graduate class you would teach. A 10 minute research talk aimed at the search committee is very different than an hour long seminar with undergraduates present.

Is it fine to ask what the interview consists of? Isn't that something they should inform the applicant if they are willing to disclose in advance? I opened a new questions regarding knowing the members http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36914/is-it-fine-to-ask-who-are-the-search-committee

@ThomasLee I interpreted "interview" as a campus visit. See edit about why you need to know what is happening.

@ThomasLee: I think it's fine to ask. I haven't ever heard of an institution that had "surprises" at the interview. They may not tell you exactly what questions they intend to ask you, but you should be able to find out what you will do and who you will meet. Even if for some reason they don't want to tell you, they shouldn't be offended by you asking.

PS Start gathering the email addresses of everyone you will meet now. You will be tired after your interview/talk so get your draft thankyou emails lined up ready to send.
And don't forget to thank all the secretaries, drivers, students who also do small tasks for you. First, they appreciate that and will remember when you return. Second, good schools find out whether you did. The general staff have a say in your appointment.


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Whom do I have to thank in the Acknowledgements section of a Bachelor thesis
I will soon finish writing my Bachlor thesis in physics and I don't know whom I "have to" put in the acknowledgements.
There are two professors who will grade the thesis, one the head of the work group I'm writing the thesis at and the other one from another work group. I didn't have much personal contact with any of the two other than getting their signatures for some paperwork and talking about half an hour about the subject. They appear on the thesis as advisors.
The actual advisor is a PhD student from the work group; a practice fairly common, at least at the physics department. He has been really involved and helped me a lot.
So I was thinking to thank the head of the work group for the possibiliy to write the thesis there and one or two sentences for the actual advisor.
But most of my fellow students seem to mention a lot more people like the second  advisor (Professor), friends, boy-, girlfriend, family...
My problem with that is that the second advisor is not involved at all in the process (he works in a related field, but the workgroups don't really collaborate), but I am concerned that it might be seen as an insult. I can see why one thanks close friends and family in a PhD thesis where one works on for years but I think it is a little melodramatic in a Bachelor thesis (which takes four months, not full time). But I'm afraid this might come off as ungrateful or heartless.
Is it expected or recommended to put second advisor, friends and family in the acknowledgements?

The absolutely crucial thing is that you clearly acknowledge and delineate any work, original ideas, results, images, figures, tables, charts, quotations, prose, etc., that were contributed by someone other than the primary author (i.e., you).  Failure to do so could taint your academic reputation, and in extreme cases, might be construed as plagiarism (or some other form of academic misconduct).
Beyond that somber admonition, the remainder of your acknowledgements are a pleasantry which can be doled out entirely as you like.  I agree that extensive acknowledgements in a bachelor's thesis are a bit misplaced.  On the other hand, it's a good opportunity to think about the people who actually made it possible to complete your BS research—e.g., lab techs who helped run and maintain equipment, or administrators in the department who made sure all the paperwork went smoothly.  These people are extremely important and are often overlooked (even in PhD theses).
As for secondary members of your thesis committe, it's up to you.  You can easily say something simple and honest like, "Thanks to Professors X and Y for agreeing to be on my committee."  But I doubt they'll be insulted if you don't acknowledge them for a deep and lasting impact on your research career.  They've signed off on BS theses before.  They know it's no big deal (for them).


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Statement of purpose for applying to graduate school in a different field of study than high school
I have to write a statement of purpose for a computer science graduate program. In high school I was in a different field of study (aeronautics), then I switched to computer science for my undergraduate course after attending a computer science course which I liked.
Now I can't lie about this, also because this university also asked me about which high school I attended. But is this a negative thing to write on a statement of purpose? Maybe I should just write it on the fly without giving it much attention. Or instead I should say it clearly and justify my choice?
I ask this because I see that many people on the statement of purpose say that they always liked their field of study, from when they were children. So I don't know if the admission examiners would consider it negatively or not.

I feel like this question deserves to be answered by someone with more relevant experience than me. But if I were on an admissions panel, I can't see that I'd think it was a bad thing for someone's interests to have evolved over time. Indeed, I'd see it as positive: it suggests you've thought about what you want to do, rather than just following the predestined route.

The edit was misleading: I studied (and I'm currently studying) computer science during my undergraduate course. I was in the field of aeronautics in high school, I would know if the fact that I started to like computer science when I was 19 years old could be considered negative or not.

many people on the statement of purpose say that they always liked their field of study, from when they were children and many admissions committees find that kind of thing to be completely useless for admissions decisions.

Nothing at the high school level deserves to be called "a field of study".  Sure, there are magnet schools and such that have a theme.  But the material is too basic, even if it includes some AP courses, to truly be considered a concentration.

Short answer: It doesn't matter at all.
Particularly in the US, high school degrees don't have "concentrations"; you simply get a high school diploma. In certain circumstances, your school may have a special focus, but accreditation rules for high school diplomas typically specify some distribution of courses which all students have to meet to receive the diploma.
Moreover, the statement of purpose tells us what you want to do in graduate school, why you want to do it, and why you're qualified to do it. That's pretty much it—most people on admissions committees aren't interested in knowing what early pearl of wisdom some random relative imparted, or other "humanizing" anecdote that too many applicants include. In fact, many of them actively hate it.
Statements of purpose are not your life story, they're a summary of your past and future career. Tell us about your relevant experiences, and why you should be admitted to our graduate program.

Writing about what you wanted to do when you were ten is a sure way to write a CRAPPY statement of purpose. It's not called a "biographical statement," it's a statement of PURPOSE -- i.e., a forward looking statement of what you want to do when you grow up.

Most graduate programs will ask which high school you attended but this is can be a roundabout way to ascertain where you grew up (and perhaps to some degree your socioeconomic status -- i.e., did you go to a public school or attend an elite private boarding school,etc.). However, to be honest, most admin committees do not weight this information heavily. What you wanted to do when you were 17 has really little to do with who you are when you are in your twenties or thirties and going into PhD programs.
What is critical for applications is why you want to go to graduate school in computer science. What are the problems that intrigue you, what sub-specialty are you interested in, who do you want to work with, etc.


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What is the best way to publicise an on-line survey for research?
I am doing my graduation project to become a Software Engineer. The project aims to study the behavior of freelance developers to subsequently design a process that allows more quality and efficiency.
To know the freelancer behavior I have made a survey, but I don't know what is the best way to publish the survey and get responses; after which I'll post an article.
I have published the survey in at least 7 forums, but in most of them my post has been closed for spamming.
Can any one tell me some advice for doing the survey? (on internet)

I don't have any experience with this, but you might look to your institution's social sciences departments (psychology, sociology, economics, education, etc). A lot of research in those areas involves surveys, so faculty and grad students in those areas may have helpful experience for you.  Don't forget that since your survey participants are "human subjects", this whole process probably requires approval from your institution's IRB or a similar ethics panel.

This question appears to be off-topic because it is not about academia. [stats.se] might be able to help, but the question may be too low quality for them.

I would image questions on "how to get people to take my survey" would be completely off topic on a statistics site. CogSci does appear to have a survey tag, though, it might fit there.

@EnergyNumbers I would argue that this is in fact a rather general question about academia. I certainly fits better here than at CrossValidated. I'm voting for leave open.

Your target are freelance developers, I think you can use your existing network and I guess you must know at least one of them. Start from there.

This would be on topic at the stats site. I answered a similar question here, Is there a site to post my survey to so I can get a sample representative of the population?. It is not specific to "freelancers" - but the advice applies the same. Spamming forums is not a reasonable way to get a representative sample.

If you're using forums, don't just make a thread and then write:

Class project, please fill out this survey. Link: www.xxxxxx984asdfac. Thx!!

Most of the time these annoying threads can trigger shutting down or be simply ignored as spam.
I'd recommend picking a few major forums and actually start a communication with the administrators. In no more than a few hundred words explain who you are, what questions you're trying to answer, and how your results may help both parties. If the outcome is positive, here are a bunch of wishes you can usually ask for:

Pin your thread at the top for a fixed amount of time to enhance visibility.
Tap into their membership e-mail or online messaging network for an announcement and about 2 waves of weekly reminders.
Provide you with important statistics including open rate, click rate, bounce rate, initiation rate, and completion rate. These are all necessary if you are to publish your results in an academic journal.

Try to enhance your credibility by, in the mail to the administrator and the message to the users:

Detailing the motive of your survey, what kind of questions respondents should anticipate, and how long would it take.
Getting an institutional review board approval, and report so in the announcement.
Explicitly mentioning the measures to ensure respondents' confidentiality and/or anonymity.
Explaining how the results will be used, and even be fed back to the communities that have helped you filling in the survey.
Being real and present by providing your official contact information (names and school e-mail are sufficient). Invite respondents to contact you if they have questions about the study. Check with your supervisor and department for policy of using the school's name.
Clearly stating the opening period of the survey.

You can also try contacting companies that hire freelancers, or talk to websites that organize freelance jobs.
I'd also suggest to make duplicates of your survey so that each forum will have their own referral link. You can pool the data later and compare the differences between forum. If you just make one survey you may not be able to figure that out at the end. Putting a "where do you learn about this survey?" question may also help, though probably not as objective.
Now, if you don't care about knowing all those rates, and just want a quick turn around of data, you may use your network to contact some high profile people in the field and see if they are willing to broadcast that for you. Most of the time, a tweet from them would be quite effective.
I also agree with the comments asking you to pay a visit to some social science faculty. At the very least, make sure your questions are examined by some professional for validity. Most researchers also do not mind share with you some templates of the survey introduction.
Some other technical strayed thoughts:

Do make a copy of online survey for each major source. Aka forum A will have its own link, and forum B will have its own link, etc. That way later you can stratify them in the analysis.
Invest in a good online survey service. Make sure not to enroll in those with limited responses. It'd be very annoying for the 501st respondent to get a "quota full" warning if your free service account only allows 500 responses.
Write good questions and include only relevant questions. Again, talking to some researchers will help a lot.
The Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) provides a good list of components you should include in manuscript. Read them before you start data collection and make sure you have thought about all these factors.

Lastly, check if someone has already invented the wheel for you. Secondary data sets may have already covered information you wish to collect. For example National Longitudinal Surveys maintained by the US Department of Labor (I just went ahead and assume that you're interested in the US market) does ask question about freelancing. They even once released a report about this.

I've never heard of a (reasonable) online survey being conducted through a list-serve like you are proposing. I've known people to be able to get email lists from professional organizations and then send emails directly. Posting a link publicly online is fraught with difficulty, at least sending a unique link through email potentially filters the results. (Either are both highly suspect to selection bias in who answers - especially since response rates tend to be quite low.)

Hi @AndyW! It's been a while and thanks for the comments! At this moment I'm actually analyzing one that was done through a patient-support group website. As you mentioned the response rates are indeed saddening (11-15%). As for selection bias, I really have no better way to tackle this other than suggesting reporting all the rates and anticipate how the biases would have changed the estimates. As usual, please improve my answer as you see fit. Thanks.

Over 10% is good! For email ones I am familiar with the norm was closer to 5%. My response was mainly in regards to I see (on regular occasion) people send out surveys willy-nilly across the internet to whomever will listen (post on personal blogs, to list-serves, etc.) These are not reasonable ways to conduct research, and seem often the hasty attempt to gather some data - even if the data is meaningless. This answer demonstrates the further thought that needs to go into the endeavor - I'm concerned though about how many people will make that effort or realize the bias in their findings.

I agree. Freelancers who frequent the forum or looking for jobs on a freelance websites are probably different kinds of people. The really successful ones could have been working and have no time to mingle online. Non-sequitur: I also had another occasion in which we set up a gift card lottery... 25% of the responses were all empty (they flew through with the skip button) except with an e-mail address to enter the lottery. Online surveys are full of amusements.

For in person surveys of deviant behavior I've seen instruments place fake questions that will potentially trawl out people just going through the motions and filling out the survey. (One was asking about recreational drug use, and they made up a fake drug - as some teenagers would say they used everything all the time!) The pure empty responses are easy to spot - but people may just pick random answers to the same end goal (if you have measures of the time it took to complete the survey this would be a good check as well).

Monetary incentives come with their own bag of problems - in addition to the hassle for getting it approved through IRB and such. From what I've seen they don't have a noticeable effect on response rates. (Take that with a grain of salt though - survey research is surely not my area of expertise.)

To borrow from Willie Sutton:

Why do I rob banks? Because that's where the money is.

You need to put your surveys where the people are. I've seen a few studies that used Facebook, which lets you specify exactly which demographic should see your survey. SurveyMonkey can also help put your survey in front of the people you'd like to see. I know that I had a lot of success putting up advertisements across campus offering to pay for participation, but that was for a study that involved more than just a single survey.
I would also suggest what was said in the comments... talk to the local economics, psychology, and sociology departments to see if they can give you any assistance with this. Researchers in all those areas will face this problem all the time.

@JuanCamiloCerón Sure! If this answer helped you, don't forget to vote it up!


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Using WolframAlpha for a take-home exam
Is it ethical to use WolframAlpha on a take-home exam for a math class? A couple qualifiers: this is a make-up exam where the original exam allowed for a scientific calculator but not a graphing/symbol-solving calculator.
The professor has made no other stipulations about the exam yet (no word on if it's the same rules as for regular exams or otherwise). He has simply just announced one will be given out.

Then it's too soon to tell. If the professor doesn't place any restrictions on allowed materials, then in principle it should be allowed. If he does, then those restrictions should be followed, as Fomite suggests below.

I would point out that asking something like this online is rather pointless, as the community consensus doesn't mean anything here. You really have to ask your professor.

@eykanal: admittedly, it's not my class/professor

@eykanal I feel like this is mostly generalizable advice. "Is it safe to stick my finger in this electrical socket" of course varies by socket, but some broad strokes advice is still relevant.

I'm really surprised to learn that calculators are still a thing that people use.

@MattReece I still reach for that over-priced Casio graphing calculator that I've had since high school because I can do calculations on it ten times faster than the undergrads who use their smartphones.

Always remember that "it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission." I had a mechanical engineering professor tell me that once.

@Inquisitive: if the student asks for permission, the worst thing that can happen is that he will learn that he cannot use Wolfram alpha on the exam.  If the student begs for forgiveness, the worst thing that can happen is that he will be prosecuted for academic dishonesty; especially if this is a repeat offense, there is a real risk that he will be kicked out of the university.  So your advice does not seem very sound.  In fact, you seem to be advising a student to commit likely academic dishonesty and hope for the best; I wish you wouldn't say things like that here.

@PeteL.Clark: I think it's pretty unsound advice in general, not just regarding academic dishonesty.  And the "digression" is frankly bizarre.  Anyway, it's possible the suggestion is to use it and then disclose to the professor that he did so (e.g. by writing a note on the exam).  That at least should avoid academic dishonesty charges, but if WA is forbidden as a resource (which seems likely) then the professor would likely award no points for those questions.  So the student could fail an exam which he otherwise might have been able to pass.

@PeteL.Clark Pete, it wasn't my advice. It was actually my professor's advice when I asked her a very similar question to what the OP is asking. In my experience, "ethics" is not identically interpreted from college professor to college professor.

In my experience, "ethics" is not identically interpreted from college professor to college professor. — This is also true of "mathematics", but only some of us are correct.

A side question would be:  Does the professor truly expect the student to adhere to any set rules, aside from not plagiarizing a source, when taking a take home exam.....in their own homes?

"Take home exams" is an oxymoron of such proportion that I am unable to feel anything against whoever wildly cheats on them...

Generally speaking, if a particular set of tools was permitted - in your case a scientific calculator but not a graphing calculator, I would assume those would be the only tools permitted.
This is especially true for tools, like Wolfram Alpha, that duplicate functionality of things that have been disallowed, like graphing calculators and calculators that can deal with symbolic notation.

That was along the lines of my thinking as well, especially with a class that can be practically done by just plugging stuff into WolframAlpha. When I took a similar class, we didn't even get to use calculators at all.

No, it is not ethical to do so.
In addition to the "spirit of the law" argument made by Fomite, you should consider that the computer running the WolframAlpha software is a "graphing/symbol-solving" calculator, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary's definition of calculator as "a usually electronic device for performing mathematical calculations," so not even the exam rules as written (the "letter of the law") would permit you to use it.
(I'm assuming that the make-up exam has the same rules regarding calculators as the regular exam did, which seems like a reasonable assumption until we see the make-up exam.)

I would say it depends on what kind of exam you're going to get. It's quite possible that the take-home exam will actually account for the possibility of students using online tools.

This is unlikely to be ethical on the student's part, as it would mean them bypassing the learning expected to form part of this assessment and so they may be gaining a qualification under false pretences.
If this qualification is then used to gain a job, for example, in many locales the end result could be considered a fraudulent activity.
It is likely that the university will also have wider guidance about plagiarism. Copying from an Internet source, without acknowledgement, which the use of WolframAlpha would represent, would be considered plagiarism.
Now, it may be that the take home assessment allows the use of the Internet. In that case, using, acknowledging and citing WolframAlpha may be acceptable. At that point, whether this was a good idea would depend on how the marking scheme was constructed. If the scheme only requires the answers (and possibly working) the student may be able to get full marks. If the exam (and marking scheme) is constructed to require the student to go beyond the information available online, then the raw WolframAlpha answers would not be enough.
In practice, if the assessment was set up to be so easily solvable in this way, it is unlikely to represent best practice. A wide body of literature exists for professors on how to set assessments that also positively promote academic integrity. It may be worth the professor actively engaging with these as part of their continual staff development.

Is it ethical for the professor to give a take-home exam with a set of instructions that probably can't be enforced by anyone? Is the professor going to police every student's taking of the exam by patrolling each and every domicile? The point is that in real life you have to consider and worry about what the other students are going to do. Trust me...it's generally not the "ethical" thing.
In all likelihood, the professor is going to create a very difficult take-home exam and then allow the students to have at it, no holds barred. This will eliminate the effects of the unavoidable tendency among students to be unethical.
Here's the crux of it. If you are going to break one of the professor's rules, don't get caught and never ever admit to it if you get accused. That goes for the rest of life as well because there will always be someone "holier than thou" who will try to hang you.

Most universities have honour codes, and most students abide by them. Perhaps it was not the best thing the professor could have done, but it doesn't make it lawless.

tl; dr: just because the police isn't looking, it doesn't mean is legal.

"Realpolitick" is a ridiculous thing to have to think about in a (well, ideally? in-principle?) scholarly context. Nevertheless, reality does intrude...

-1. The question asks "is it ethical...?" and your response is essentially to say that the whole idea of ethics is a sham, and to (obliquely) advise the OP to cheat on his exam.

Is it ethical for the professor to give a take-home exam with a set of instructions that probably can't be enforced by anyone? — Yes, it is!  It may not be practical or realistic, but it's certainly ethical.


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Is it OK to exclude 'extra courses' from the GPA reported in my CV?
I am a PhD student in a physical science major. I finished ALL of my required courses. Assume my current GPA is 3.5. Currently, I am taking 'extra' courses from another engineering department. Some of these courses are indirectly related to my research, but some are completely unrelated (am taking them for pure personal interests).
Now, say I got less than 3.5 in these course. My official University Transcripts will include these courses and report a GPA of less than 3.5.
However, in my CV, I plan not to do so and exclude these courses, and report 3.5, nothing less. My stand is that these were not required in the first place, and some of them are even not relevant at all. It is not fair for me to have them included.
Is there any problem with this?

Graduate students have GPAs? At my school we don't bother calculating them. The quality of a student is in their PhD research, not in the courses they took in their first two years.

You may want to consider taking these engineering courses on a pass/fail or audit basis, if possible.  Then they will not affect your GPA at all.

Unless your GPA would really suffer, I certainly wouldn't do anything. No matter how you twist and turn it, you are reporting a GPA that isn't the one that you actually received, and the potential fallout from that are much worse than having a GPA that is a few decimal points lower.

Why would you report your GPA or the courses you've taken in your CV at all? I can't imagine anyone evaluating your potential or quality as a researcher to care.

Recent PhD graduates usually report their GPA. I know papers are more important, but still some companies/ institutions would like to see the GPA.

If you write

GPA: 3.5

in your CV, this implies that your official cumulative GPA as per university records is a 3.5. So to write this is misleading, and unethical.
If you want to list your GPA only for courses in your own department, you can write

Major GPA: 3.5

or

3.5 GPA in physical science courses

But if I am majoring in, say, electrical engineering (EE), and applying for a job in Intel, then it is understood that the GPA I am reporting is the Major GPA. Why should anyone care about my, say, music course? I don't see why is that "unethical".

@student1 To write "My GPA is 3.5" when that isn't true is a lie. It's unethical to lie about your GPA (or any other credentials), period. (And if you're so sure nobody cares about your GPA in other courses, then you have nothing to lose by writing "Major GPA" or "Physical science GPA")

@student1 then it is understood that the GPA I am reporting is the Major GPA. - no, it's not. "GPA" with no qualifiers is understood to mean "The GPA that my university would report if you asked them."

@Omen: Not just academic consequences. If a corporation finds out you effective lied about your CV, it's grounds for termination.


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Name misspelled in first publication
I am an undergraduate student starting my second year. Last semester, I took part in a research project and earned co-authorship of their paper, which got recently published.
However, when adding names from our anonymous submission to the camera-ready version, the primary author misspelled my first name(Garret instead of Garrett). Because this was a fairly minor edit, I didn't notice it until a few weeks after it had been fully published.
I've already asked the advising professor about it and he said that it wasn't anything to worry about, and that I should create an account on Google scholar and manually add the paper to my account. I've done this, but is there anything else I should do? How bad is this, or is it actually fairly minor?

Related question http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/18827/546

Did you find a solution? Was one of the answers right?

I guess you can contact the journal publication and ask them change your name in the online version. Printed book is probably already published. But the online is very easy to change. I never tried this, but I guess this would not be a problem. Just give it a try.
I see one problem here. In case you want to use that publication in future, lets say in your thesis, your misspelled name may induce some problems, because you present the verified list of articles you published.

I don't quite understand your last paragraph.  Are you suggesting that somebody may not believe that the paper is actually his?  That seems very unlikely to me.

There might be, who knows. You submit an official document, with official list of publications and there is a guy with a slightly different name in the list. Reviewer may request clarification for that. It is better to change the name now to get rid of all future misunderstanding. Everything depends on the country and beaurocratic stuff.

This is probably not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. The journal can fix your name on the "linking page" for the article—which is the one most search engines will point to.
Secondly, in terms of the search engines themselves, the misspelling is not as catastrophic as if it were the last name that were affected. This is because most search engines only use initials for first and middle names, instead of the complete name. For instance, "John Q. Public" would be searched for in Web of Science as

Public JQ

not

"Public, John Q"

which makes finding your papers not so difficult, in spite of the spelling error. (Of course, if there's a problem with the citation databases, you can alert them to the error.)

The name error is a factual error and it should be possible to request a corrigendum to the journal. See for instance here:
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v16/n12/full/nn1213-1906a.html
All of the other answers hinting to the fact that you cannot change your name on a published article assume that the name was correct at the time of publication. This is not true in your case. Journals base their reputation on their being factually correct and I can't see any reputable journal refusing to change an incorrect name.
This said, I agree with others that it probably will not make much of a difference, but it would also be annoying to have to point this out every time it comes up (oh, yes, that is really me).


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Passionate about a PhD in math, but unsure how to explain my chaotic transcript due to mental illness
I'm passionate about getting a PhD in Math for a career as a research mathematician and then as an educator working at a community college.
I got A's in community college. I transferred to our local University and for my 1st semester got a 3.67 taking science courses and 300 level math courses. The next semester I got a 4.00 taking more science and math courses. The next year I started exhibiting symptoms of bi-polar and my grades tanked pretty hard. After that I muddled through, graduated with a total GPA of 3.5 and started on a long journey of learning to live and thrive with bi-polar and depression. However, I did probably the dumbest thing ever. I convinced myself that getting a C.S. masters was a prudent idea and proceeded to re-enroll at our University and fail a bunch of CS classes. Now my overall GPA (despite already having graduated) is 3.19. Since then I went into the workforce, decided I really just want to get my PhD in math and teach a community college and have been pursuing that for a year now. In working toward that goal I took an independent study course with one of my professors to refresh my linear algebra and got an A. Then I took graduate level analysis (B+) and graduate level applications of linear algebra (A-). I'm currently in the 2nd semester of graduate level analysis and feel like I've gotten the hang of graduate level course work (I'm confident I'll get an A in this one).
So despite having early success in math (A's in the Calc series and A's in several 300 and 400 level courses) I have what looks like a really really confusing transcript because I tried CS, actually hated it, and go F's in two of those classes. To add to my transcript/GPA concerns I have C's in the undergraduate analysis courses from when bi-polar threw my life off the rails and around the same time got a D in diff-eq (which I retook for an A) and a C in combinatorics.
Now that I'm looking to apply for grad school in Fall 2020 (possibly out of my small state if the program is good) I don't really know how to communicate what probably seems like a very confusing academic record. For what it's worth I have 1 math professor that will write me a good letter of rec, a retired math professor that will write me a good letter of rec, and the P.I. from my internship at a big name research institute that might write me a letter. So at least I have that. But damn, my transcript looks like something that will hurt me without explanation. How do I explain it? Is it possible? Should I reconsider my path? I'm very dedicated to this path but I worry that despite my passion current and ability to pass graduate level courses it won't be enough. Any suggestions on how to explain my transcript would be so wonderful =)
TL;DR - I got good grades at my local Uni in nowhere USA. Then I got bi-polar disorder and so did my grades, then I graduated, then I tried CS and got even crappier grades still. But now I'm doing well and getting better grades in grad-level classes but have no idea how to explain all of this to grad programs I apply to =/

You need to focus. Why do you think you need a PhD in mathematics? If you plan to be a serious researcher, how do you plan to balance that with working in your under-performing school district? What specific area of math is your intended focus? Are you trying to get into a top 5 program or any program? That also makes a difference. If you can show that you are focused today and have doable plans with a PhD, telling your story won't be as difficult as explaining a low grade in an entry-level math course such as differential calculus. You will have a hard time living that one down. Figure out why you earned a D and how that changed your approach to understanding math. You might want to consider applying to a MS mathematics program and state your intention to seek the PhD at that institution.

A research level math degree is not needed or probably even beneficial for teaching in pre-college schooling.  Instead of more subject matter schooling, you should be getting training at teaching.
If you need more math, it will be an ed degree (or more hopefully) a year or so to get a certificate.  The sooner you get into teaching the better. Rambling through more degree programs is avoiding where the rubber hits the road.  But even though ed cert programs have parts that are a little daft (pop psych and questionable edufads), the do have one powerful learning area: substitute and trainee teaching.  So you will be at the coalface.
For school jobs, nobody will care about your varied past.  They have people of all walks of life going into teaching.  It is more about what have you done lately.
(Not meant to cut, but serious direct advice.)  If your requests for help or information are anything like this question (verbose, rambling, long paras), you will get little help in the real world.  A big part of being a good teacher is being an efficient communicator.  Make a little more effort--I bet you can do better.

A phd gives extra career options. Maybe OP will want to do a postdoc after it, or maybe they will want to teach at a university. I don't think it is a good advice to limit your prospects to teaching at school.

Without knowing much about the American realities, I suspect that low GPA will hurt your chances to go to a highly-ranked fancy school, but you will still be a strong candidate for a mid-ranked one, given that you took extra classes and a research internship. First, since you are in touch with some math professors who consider you a good student, talk with them about wanting to do a PhD. They may give you advice or maybe even refer you to someone who is looking for a PhD student. Second don't be discouraged by the first few rejections that you'll inevitably get.

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


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Asking professor if I can be be external supervisor of master thesis
I am a scientist at a pretty reputable institution. I have some simple research ideas that I do not have time to develop myself. From my past career, I am in good contact with some university professors. Is it acceptable to ask them if they are willing to discuss such ideas and eventually open a master thesis project on the topic of which I will be the external supervisor? I think this could be a win-win situation for everybody, at the same time, I wonder if this will be considered rude.

The hard part is ensuring a professor does not run off with your ideas.   This has happened on many occasions.   Further, many professors have their own ideas.  For example, I have tens of ideas that I don't have time for.  Why would I consider your ideas over mine?  Unless.. you are funding them.

I don't know what reasons could exist that would make this not ok. In fact, things like this happen all the time already: external research institutes, companies or other kinds of institutions offer master or bachelor thesis positions that students can apply for. And in all cases, the main supervisor is still a professor from a university (as this is required by the universities).
Often, these positons are not even discussed with universities/professors beforehand, but simply created and once a student has been found that is interested in this position, they will bring the topic to their professor(s) to find someone willing to be the supervisor on that topic. As long as the topic is relevant for the studies, has enough substance and novelty to be a Masters/Bachelors thesis subject and fits within the area of expertise of the professor, it is normally never a problem to find a professor willing to supervise.
(I am based in Germany, it could be that things differ in other countries)

I don't think this sufficiently emphasizes that a faculty member would still need to be the "supervisor" of record. An external supervisor would hold a secondary place for institutional concerns.

"And in all cases, the main supervisor is still a professor from a university (as this is required by the universities)." - not enough?

I worried more about the opening of your second paragraph. "not even discussed..."

@Buffy "not even discussed .... beforehand". And they aren't - at my institute, we come up with thesis topics, advertise them and then we start looking for the right prof.

I would think that is pretty rare, though. Yes?

@Buffy no, that is very common in Germany. And why wouldn't it? Imagine you are offering a MA topic, that is kind of interdisciplinary. Lets say electrical engeneering and mechanical engineering students would fit. There are already multiple unis in my city where you can study both things (let alone in the whole country). Before you know which student from which topic at which uni wants to work on that topic, it hardly makes sense to look for a prof, as that prof would have to be a prof of that student in question.

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


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Can I correct a mistake that the reviewers didn't spot in a paper that has not been accepted yet?
Recently my paper was accepted pending major revisions (i.e., not yet accepted), and while following the reviewers' comments and revising my paper, I realized that both reviewers missed a mistake that I made in a function block diagram. What should I do?

Correct it and let them know in the joined point-by-point response?
Wait until they tell me about it?
Ask them to double check that diagram?

I'm afraid it may send the wrong message and I'd look disrespectful by showing them that they missed the mistake.

You could email them asking if that block diagram is okay .

@theenigma017 it was an anonymous review ! so the only way i can get in touch with them is by writing it in the point-by-point response.

Try asking your prof.

Just change it and add a note that you noticed and fixed a mistake in diagram 133.21.

It is a major revision. It will be reviewed again, supposedly. Fix it, consider mentioning the fix somewhere, but you don't even have to. The reviewers should review the major revision in its entirety, not just the changes.

Nitpick: I'm sure your paper was accepted pending major revisions. It's not accepted yet.

@Anony-Mousse As a reviewer, I wouldn't be too happy about an author who made amendments to the original manuscript but failed to mention them in the response. The author should definitely mention the changes made, as an addendum to the point-by-point response to the reviewer's criticisms. A lot of the time, the repeat review goes back to the same reviewer who recommended a major revision, it's only proper to mention all changes made, both in response to, and independent of, the reviewers' criticisms.

Possible duplicate of How to fix a mistake in an accepted paper?

Possible duplicate Does correcting the data analysis when replying to a Major Revision make a bad impression on the editors and reviewers?

Also, you first say the paper was accepted in the beginning of the question, then you say THE PAPER HAS NOT BEEN ACCEPTED at the end of the question, please clarify which case it is.

YES.  The responsibility for correctness of the paper is yours not the reviewers’.  The reviewers may help you find errors, but that is secondary to their main function: recommending to the editor whether to publish.

Which makes you look worse? Mentioning to the referees that they missed something or publishing a paper with a mistake in it?
Fix the error and include it in the list of changes you've made.
Don't mention that the referees missed it, of course. Just do something like "Response to referee 1: ... Response to referee n: ... Other changes: Figure 4 incorrectly showed blah; fixed.."

The text is yours, you can do whatever you want with it (within reason, if you want it to still get accepted, that is).
The reviewers' opinions are just that, opinions. You do not necessarily have to do what they said, although you should justify in the letter why you didn't and how you disagree with them.
And yes, if feasible, you should correct any and all errors that you spot in the process.

Thanks you very much, and It's not about reviewers as much as it is about misleading readers who may read the paper in case it got accepted. Thank you again

@rahul People usually have better things to do than worry with that. I'd just ignore it as childish. Because it is, pointing out that the reviewers missed something is pointless, mostly because hey, you wrote it, you missed it first :)

@KADEMMohammed Readers wouldn't see the difference unless you published a preprint, and if you did, you should probably update the preprint to correct the mistake as well.

If you plan on having other researchers cite your paper (which you hopefully do), then you can count on your mistake being found by others - either directly, by reading your paper and finding the mistake, or by calling out someone who used your paper, inherited your mistake, and will make sure to pass the bad rep on to you. This is the last thing you want.
Correct it. Even if it were disrespectful to the reviewers (it isn't), not correcting it can potentially affect you a lot more.

This is a no-brainer... it is your responsibility that the paper is correct, and it will be your reputation that is tarnished when people notice the mistake. Correct it and tell them in the response that you noticed that mistake, but it has been corrected. Nothing wrong with that at all.

I had made such a correction just three days ago for a paper that I had published almost two years ago. A couple of subscripts were missing from my equations in my published paper. I wrote to the editor and politely asked him to correct it. And within a week it was implemented. yay!
The online version has an editor note like:
(Received 13 May 2016; published 23 September 2016; corrected 3 May 2018)

This is interesting but doesn't seem relevant to the question, which is about corrections to manuscripts that are still in peer review, not manuscripts that have already been published.


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What is relationship between post-doc experience and number of publications on Salary/appointment levels in New Zealand universities?
This question is related to What is the average salary of assistant professor in New Zealand?
and
Are salaries for academic jobs in New Zealand negotiable?
Is the relation between number of years of postdoc experience and/or publications with the appointment/salary level at NZ universities quantifiable? I am mainly interested in the starting level appointment.

New Zealand is heavily invested in the "Publish or Perish" mindset, to the point where it's not even funny. Research funding is allocated entirely on the basis of an exercise called the PBRF (http://www.tec.govt.nz/Funding/Fund-finder/Performance-Based-Research-Fund-PBRF-/) and academics spend a significant amount of their time preparing for this. More publications are better; the venues are not so important (although New Zealand academics do not typically publish in predatory journals.) The quantity of publications is probably the single most important factor in any hiring decision by a New Zealand university.
[PS. Looking at your questions, many of them seem to be about "New Zealand Universities" in general. Bear in mind that there are only eight universities in New Zealand, several of which might not have a program in your area. It might be a good idea to address your questions to people who are in New Zealand, rather than random StackExchangers who may be tempted to Google the answer to earn internet points. For example, you could look for an Australia/New Zealand mailing list for academics in your subject and try asking the same questions there.]

I've seen a few New Zealanders on here (myself included), though I think most have moved overseas and I'm not aware of any professors in NZ on here. Questions about NZ are not bad questions, but I agree that unfortunately I doubt we have the expertise here to answer them any better than Google can.

I have a real opportunity to go to a ANZ university (shortlisted at three places with interviews lined up immediately) so questions on ANZ system. If it has only 8 universities, so does Ireland or other countries of similar population size. I am not from either of these countries. I am surprised by your comnts in brkts. StackExchange is the best way to get an answer to such questions compared to a more formal academic forum where people might be hesitant to express their negative views if any. I trust the StackExchangers that they are here to give honest answers rather than earning points.

That not enough information available about the ANZ system to outsiders is exactly why I have to use StackExchange.
Publish or Perish may be bad up to certain extent for sure. That's a different topic. But if you are publishing well on an average, may it not be better to go to a system which awards you (I never go for low-quality journals either)?

I don't think this is an accurate description of PBRF; you can't list more than sixteen publications (over six years), so more don't help, and four of them are to be singled out as the highest quality (you get to make the case in prose, so that's not necessarily by venue, but probably).

@Moriarty A few of us (myself included) have some New Zealand research and teaching experience. I drift over every once in a while. It is good that someone is asking NZ questions at least, even if they may wait some time for answers.


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What is special about the MDPI special issues?
This question is related to this question, but specifically regards the special issues by MDPI. They seem to have a quite high number of special issues for every journal per year and as far as I understand, they are only different from the regular publications by having a dedicated topic and an associated editor.
One thing that confuses me is that papers are already published before the deadlines (this special issue with the deadline in October already has 4 papers published).
Is there anything else that is special about these special issues?

When dealing with questionable publishers like MDPI (e.g., https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5466/is-mdpi-a-reputable-academic-publisher) never overlook the driving force of making money.

"Making money" is certainly the driving force of most publishers, even established ones.

Yup.  They are also known to plagiarise text from guest editors.

There really isn't a fundamental difference between their special issues and other publishers' special issues—it's just a "themed" issue.
As for publishing papers before the deadline, that's a relative feature of digital publishing—there's no need to wait for a deadline if a paper is ready to go earlier. The collection can be "built" as papers are ready, rather than presenting everything as a single fait accompli.

Let me add that having papers appear as published as early as possible is a Good Thing; often you need that extra paper on your CV when you are applying for a position/grant/etc.


text:
Is it a good idea to include participation in summer schools in my CV?
Is it a good idea to include participation in summer schools to my CV?

What sort of summer school? Who's the audience for this CV?

And what sorts of classes? Remedial or retake would raise questions. Advanced or enrichment classes would look good.

I read this as a question about attending a special summer program (like the ones mentioned here), not about taking ordinary coursework in the summer.

I assume you're talking about summer schools aimed at teaching graduate students or postdocs about recent developments.  At an early career stage, it's certainly worth listing participation on your CV.  If you're a beginning graduate student, then you probably don't have a lot of other things to list, and attending a summer school means something (namely that you are energetic and eager to learn, and that your application was strong enough to be accepted).  It's not a big deal, but listing it in your CV can't hurt and might help a little.
As you progress in your career, it becomes less and less relevant.  Eventually you'll probably delete it, on the grounds that when you're coming up for tenure, nobody cares at all whether you once attended a summer school for grad students.  But it doesn't really matter exactly when you delete it.  You can safely wait until you start to wonder why you are bothering to include it when you have so much more impressive things elsewhere on the CV.

Any worthwhile education that you have, especially if it came with a certificate, degree, or any other accolade should be listed in your "Education" section of your CV or resume. However, this is only true if it is 1) Relevant to the industry you are in and 2) there is room for it. Keep in mind no one wants a five page resume.

"Keep in mind no one wants a five page resume"—In Academia, 10- to 20-page CVs are not uncommon (even longer for senior researchers), so the considerations are different.


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How to Store Incidental Information Gleaned in the Course of Conducting Research
I'm in the throes of writing my first substantial research paper in the field of Information Science. The topic looks promising and my advisor seems pleased with the work. Because of the nature of the work, there are a lot of intermediate steps involved in obtaining the raw data, preprocessing the data, then running the experiment proper and recording the results. These intermediate steps involved a lot of programming on my part, building one-shot tools to solve problems along the way to conducting the experiments.
I understand that reproducibility is a huge issue in computer science and I wish to lessen the burden upon my future self and upon my lab mates if/when the time comes to follow up on this trail of experiments. Certain software has to be installed, path variables have to be configured, firewall settings have to be set up to allow transference of data - and similar technical problems that wouldn't be appropriate to include in the resultant research paper proper.
How do I record all of these technical and procedural steps such that a future interested party (be it myself or one of my lab mates, or perhaps even an outsider to the lab who has an academic interest in the resultant paper and software) can reproduce the experiment? Do I leave myself open to being "scooped" if I set up a website with an academic blog or wiki in it?

These are excellent questions! You are especially wise to recognize that your future self will have unfortunately hazy memories of what parameters you chose and why. (I've also been mulling this process myself, and was considering asking a similar question!) Your question is definitely related to prior questions here, but I think those don't necessarily cover collecting data, and some of the answers haven't aged as gracefully as others because they deal with "try this kind of software."
To the extent that your advisor and lab already have a workflow set up, try to work this into it. Is there a shared server for documents, or an application like Dropbox or Box? Do you have a shared Zotero group for bibliography and files? Do you use Git or other version control software? (Version control may be less relevant to you if you're the only one working on the code, whereas it will be critical if multiple people fiddle with it.)
Keeping notes about results
Many scientists are trained to use research notebooks, and there have been interesting discussions about those; aeismail suggested Colin Purrington's tips on maintaining a lab notebook. From looking at an excellent question across tools and a question about Python in particular (though it can be extended), Jupyter is the next tool I will look into for myself, and it may be what you're looking for.
For my own dissertation, for tables and charts I created in Stata, I had a clear file naming scheme about where I outputted and saved them. It was easy (conditional on already knowing LaTeX) to make a LaTeX doc that pointed to those files and could update with the newest version of the results.
File naming and organizing hierarchy
TCSGrad pointed to Jason Eisner's advice on file organization. In particular, I like his advice there of putting in files or file names or folder names the tags: to-do, how-to, logbook, acknowledge, and send-to.
I also highly recommend having, in your project folder, a folder called "Raw Data". This is the original data, as downloaded or found or whatever. In "Raw Data", have a readme doc, whether it is a text file or spreadsheet or whatever, that says where each bit of Raw Data came from, when, under what conditions, etc.
To capture the software setup and system parameters, perhaps have a similar Setup folder (with the executable files for software you install, and a similar readme). (Docker is one tool to capture and easily replicate the correct computing environment. A group like Software Carpentry might be able to provide guidance.)
A separate "Data" folder can have your cleaned versions of the raw data, and folders for "Code" and "Output" should be similarly separate. (Datasets you create should still go into Data, probably.) You might even find it useful to have separate folders for (nicely formatted) "Tables" and "Figures".
Whenever you submit something or have a major draft, try to save a copy of all the things you're relying on, as-is.
Making the notes available?
This prior question asks about the (dis)advantages of an open lab notebook, and there was some good discussion.

Yes, you  definitely DO leave yourself open   to  being  'scooped'  and plagiarized  if you make  a   blog  or  wiki  site..
Whatever  you   do     and  however  you  take notes  or make  records  FOR YOURSELF and  your  adviser,  DO NOT PUT THEM ONLINE.   you  cn make  hand  written notes  or  you  can  make  word   files  or  whatever   and   Save  them,  possibly  burn those   records  or   onto CDs  or  whatever  has   replaced Zip  files in  the    year  20  years.  part of  my   data  is 8mm
  tape  cassettes   from  Sun   work   station,  but  i know  i probably   was  not  given  all  the 8mm  tapes...  The  text  of  my   thesis  or   on   ZIP  files.  i  didn't have  my  own PC   until  2004.  I did  have    the  hardware  for  the  Zip  files on  that  PC,   but  now  i  am  on mey  second  PC.     which   i  bought   over  the  counter  in
30   years  from  now.     however you  record    and  save your  data   and  research  notes  or notebooks  NOW,  Is  the  hardware  you  use NOW  STILL GOING TO BE AVAILABLE   and  usable  IN     the  future.?  Hardware   DOES   become  outdated.     You've  probably never  used   3.5  inch  floppy  discs.  I have.
My  thesis  was  interdisciplinary    i  had   mainly  geologists   and  my    thesis  committee  ,  but  i  also had  one    geographer,   who  happened  to  be  the GIS   expert   i  was  WELL   aware     that  my
"audience"   would NOT  be  familiar   with  all   the  image processing,
 remote   sensing, and geographical cartography  and     computer     and  GIS   terms    and I made   very  sure   i  explained  what  something  like  "normalized   vegetation   index"   meant    and   which   Bands  of  Landsat  satellites images  were  used  t  create  an NDVI   image     were  used   and  how  image  processing   worked     statistically   with  the   data  in  a  satellite   image.  Data  is MEANINGLESS     until  it  is  organized  analyze  and INTERPRETED   to  become  information. oneof  of  my  thesis  committee  members, a  geologist, said  my    thesis  was  well  written  and  not  too full   of   jargon.
HOWEVER  you   record  your  data   and how you  organize  it,  DO NOT put  it  online outside  of   a   very limited sub-network,  and NOT  on   a  blog   or wiki page  that becomes  publicly  accessible..  You DO NOT     want  to put ANYTHING  online  because your  copyright   right WILL  be  violated.
When you  get  to the  the literature   research  par  of   writing your  thesis  or  dissertation, or ANY paper   for  publication,  i  suggest  you  spend  some  time   with  one  or  university   reference  librarians.    Ask   them    how  library digital    databases  work    and   what  citation indices   are,      and  how  you  can  access  them..    Publish or  perish may  be   trite,   but  it  is VERY   true   and yes,  IF  someone   CAN  "scoop'  you They WILL   I've  seen one  person  a Ph.D.  candidate,     who  had  to  stay in   school   another  2  or   3  semesters   because   some  else  got part of    their  dissertation  published  FIRST.   and  THAT   was  in  the  1980s., BEFORE  the internet  took  off  in  the  1990s  and  early
2000s.

How do I record all of these technical and procedural steps -- including installing certain software, setting path variables, and firewall configuration -- such that a future interested party...can reproduce the experiment?

You can write a script that automates the necessary steps and reproduces the results. (Writing that script after you've produced your results will be difficult. Try writing the script as you go along.)
(Anything more sophisticated is surely complimentary.)