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I have a strong suspicion and weak proof that the data in the paper are fake. What to do?
I reviewed a paper submitted for a smallish magazine. It presented an algorithm to perform some allocation task and compared its performance to that of several other algorithms from the literature performing the same task in several ways (the results, i.e. the allocation, can be evaluated based on the usage of several different resources, so a result could use less of resource A, but more of resource B, and so on).
My opinion was that, although the algorithm was badly presented and the paper was nigh-incomprehensible, the results presented seemed good, so the authors deserved another shot at better explaining themselves, so I did not suggest to reject it altogether.
The first review round went through with a unanimous "major revisions" verdict.
Then I was asked to review the second submitted version of the paper too. In this new version, the algorithm had been compared to a much broader range of algorithms. Problem is: even though the algorithms it was being compared to changed, the comparison charts remained exactly the same, and looking at them side-by-side revealed no difference whatsoever (no explicit numerical data was provided).
What is worse is that the change was not even one-to-one. In the first submission, the algorithm (let's call it A) was compared with the same three other algorithms in all categories (resource A usage, resource B usage etc.) while in the second submission, each resource comparison involved different algorithms, so for example, A was compared to B,C and D in resource A utilization, but it was compared to C, E and F in resource B utilization, and so on.
Nonetheless, each chart in the second submission was identical to one from the first submission.
At this point, I was fairly certain that at least the second round of comparisons had been completely faked, i.e. the authors just changed the labels on the charts.
Asking one of my senior coworkers, I was advised to just ignore the issue and to not raise a ruckus, since this issue has a high chance of backfiring: we are not an academic institution, we are the R&D department of a pretty small private firm, hence we have very little political weight and scientific reputation.
I am wondering if I really should raise this issue with the editor, with whom my firm has business relations, as we are partners in several government-funded projects, or I should heed the advice of my colleague.
While the paper has very little chance of being published as the second submission is also nigh-unreadable, a co-author of this paper has an extremely high h-index (100+), hence I feel if my suspicion is founded, it really should be brought to the light.

I don't understand how reviewing a paper can backfire. It seems irrelevant that you work for "a pretty small private firm, [with] very little political weight and scientific reputation." Nor do I understand why having business relations with the editor should influence your review.

Well, I'm not sure myself. I've been in this field for no more than a year, so your comment is actually half (or rather, the best part of) an answer to my question :)

Re: user2768's comment: Conversely, I would think if there is any political/relationship damage to be done, it could be equivalently done by you letting known errors/fraud slide through, when the editor was partly relying on your help for the review.

I agree with @DanielR.Collins here -- you risk just as much damage by letting a potentially fraudulent paper through. By asking for more information, you appear (and are being) thorough; better this than viewed as uninformed or careless.

This kind of discrepancy seems like it could arise unintentionally; is it possible they were rushing out the revised paper and simply mislabelled the charts by accident?

@MarcoCapitani If you're going to let such a thing pass, why even bother reviewing at all? If you don't have the power to point out significant problems, reviewing seems to be a particularly pointless waste of your time.

There are many answers what to tell the editor. Few say what to tell the authors. You might want to ask the authors (in the part of the review they see) to provide raw data in a supplementary upload and/or to expand the methodology to reflect the way they have measured the data. This would probably help you to understand more on the data origin. The easiest way is to plead for a reject anyway, though...

You said that "no explicit numerical data was provided". In my opinion, a solid performance comparison definitely needs to include explicit numbers.

Most (all?) peer review processes allow you to write a private note to the editor that isn’t shown to the paper authors. Use this to raise your concern with the editor, providing a detailed explanation of the evidence.
As for the public part of the review, it’s entirely legitimate to note that the description in the paper is insufficient to reproduce the results (which it seems to be, from your description): if the data isn’t faked, the authors should have no issue describing the method in sufficient detail that the reader is able to recapitulate it completely.
In fact, your description of the vague results in the paper alone would be grounds to demand an appropriate revision.
To address your senior coworker’s comment: they are wrong. Data fabrication is a serious breach of research ethics. As a reviewer, you mustn’t let it slide under any circumstances — regardless of rejection status of the manuscript.

I have contributed as a reviewer to over forty papers to date. In most cases, I suggested (or “hinted”, because whenever possible I prefer not telling the editor what to do) rejecting the paper. I have signed a third of my reviews, but I only signed a negative review once. I am striving to sign my reviews more often.
I understand there can be some backlash. More often than expected. Unfortunately too many editors nowadays have ties with authors, and some authors just cannot take being criticised. The main reason I do not sign all of my reviews is fear of backlash, especially because I am still a postdoc. Thus said, find my recommendation below.
Raise the issue of duplicated images openly, and emphasise on the fact that the submission had already deep issues in its original form. Comment on any other facets of the new submission and finish your review coldly. If you are forced by the system to suggest a recommendation, chose rejection. I believe you have all the reason to reject a paper which hasn’t improved significantly when given the chance, and there should be no ruckus over that. Just do not come around accusing authors of misconduct over duplicated images because sloppy behaviour is not fraud. If you just must, merely hint some concern over the issues to the editor in private, but in your place I'd avoid that because of potential side conflicts that you mentioned.

Considering that the paper describes the algorithm, by definition, the author isn't hiding it... so why not just require the author to send you the source code, not binaries, but the actual source, which you can build, run, and thus create the data yourself?
The source should include not only his algorithm but also all other algorithms that were used in the paper for comparison.
Then compare the data you got from running his code with the data in the paper and see if there are any differences.
IMO this should be a standard for any paper about algorithms - submit the source code that anyone can build and run and prove it.
You can also set up a standard regarding what is and isn't allowed to be used in the source, so that you (or anyone else) can easily build it without needing proprietary libraries. For example, "VS 2017 Community Edition - C++ or C#" or Python or Java will probably cover 99% of such cases.

"the second submission is also nigh-unreadable"
This in itself seems like a reason to reject it totally.
Either:

It is unreadable garbage (Reject NOW!)
The subject matter could be too complex for you to understand.

I would try and ask other about the contents of the rest of the paper to see if anyone understand any of it.  Find some skilled in that area of research.
Authors failed to understand the definition of "major revisions", send back for more major revisions.
If you let garbage through you will never by scientifically respected.

This sounds like a recommendation to find an excuse to reject the paper, instead of voicing the OP's real concerns.

That is why we have reproducibility requirement in science. Whatever was measured must be verifiable independently by others. Over and over and over...
But if the claims don't get accepted for publication anywhere it won't even be known to the community what to try to verify or to disprove. Imagine Mickelson-Morleys paper of the measurement of the speed of light being refused everywhere for example. Would clearly be no good.

@dan1111 why guessing when you can read what is written instead?

Disbelief of data is one thing. That data acquired seems strange can be for many different reasons. Maybe they used the equipment incorrectly, maybe they used the wrong equipment. Maybe they failed to describe what they actually did in the experiments.
But it is perfectly possible to get surprising results without having done anything wrong. Assuming bad faith is rarely a way forward in any sense...

Your hunger for "seeming-to-implies" would not make me want to have you as a reviewer, that's for sure.

@mathreadler This is Stack Exchange, not science. We're interested in answering the question at the top of the page, not arguing about how science should be done.


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How to get enrolled into a PhD program without a reference letter from a PI with whom you have worked for 2 years?
Right after I graduated by BSc degree in Chemistry, I joined the group of a professor as a research-assistant who was willing to work with me for a few publications before I could be admitted since I only had a second-lower honours degree. Long story short, I worked there for two years, and at the end of that, I had a episode of mental breakdown where I needed to be hospitalised. With all the stigma surrounding mental health,my PI just didn't believe me, saying "I don't think your problem is that important", and  "you may take leave if you want since it is your right, but there will be consequences to this". I ended up leaving, did a Masters degree, and am now trying to look for PhD positions.
I am now trying to look for PhD positions again, but I found out that my old prof has been speaking to other professors about me in particular. My old PI also hasn't published any of my work, and nor has he published any work since 2016. I happen to be in some city in Asia where the scientific circle is really small, so almost everyone knows one another.
Every time I get interviewed for a position, I inevitably get asked why I left my old prof. How am I supposed to explain this away?

If you are going to reveal your past mental health issues as part of the application process then you may as well also say that your past PI reacted unreasonably to your leaving. I don't think you need to "explain that away." Not everyone acts correctly and it sounds like you were treated badly.
It only becomes an issue, I think, if you don't want to reveal that past, for whatever reason. That is your right, of course. In that case, you should depend on recommendations from others to carry you forward, as well as the publications you developed under this PI. Your written materials need not necessarily mention that he was, in fact a PI. However, if it comes up in an interview, you can mention as much of the past as you need to. His name will likely be present somewhere in your materials and it is possible he will be contacted, so be prepared for a full explanation even if you don't introduce it yourself.
But if you are asked directly why you left, you can start with "an unresolvable conflict with the PI." Whether that is enough or not depends, but what you decide to say further is up to you.
But a lot of questions on this site detail various kinds of unreasonable conflict with advisors and PIs. so it isn't a unique problem. Your application materials need to stress that you will be a success.

While your geographic constraint seems to work against you here, it may also be that the opinion of the PI isn't necessarily very positive. So the fact that he is talking about you may not matter as much as you fear. But the only way to find out is to get out there and speak for yourself.

The geography really works against me here. It is crazy, but in the specific field where I work, almost half of the people in it come from the same pedigree, meaning that half of the profs in my field were labmates sometime in the past. And it wasn't just my illness that had triggered his reaction. My PI has been abusive to me and my colleagues for a long time now. He has done crazy things like throwing a chair across a locked room, and other strange rules. There was also no way I could have complained about it since HE was the person in charge of student complains, and so I left.

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Is paraphrasing Jack's sentence considered plagiarism, given I cite the original author Z?
I have a specific question. I am working on my academic paper.
I came across this unpublished paper online written by a PhD student. Although, his topic is different, some parts of his paper relates to the background section of mine. For my background section, I am using three different books as source material. This person, let's call him Jack, has also used the same books.

Question: If my sentences are similar to Jack's (i.e. I reworded parts of his sentences) is it considered plagiarism, given, I cite the original source (that we both used): the books?

Example (made up):

Jack: According to Greene (2001), the program was implemented in 1991 to ensure a more efficient organization of the workers and, subsequently, to facilitate their unionization.
Me: The Unity program was created in 1991 to efficiently organize the labour force and, subsequently, to help workers join the labour union (Greene, 2001)

Some terms are hard to replace with alternatives without fully changing the meaning or using too many words.
I have read the book, the main source material, and have cited it in my sentence. But, my sentence is very similar to Jack's. Would this be considered plagiarism even though the idea is not Jack's?
I have no problem referencing Jack's paper in my Reference section at the end, but I don't want to use intext citation citing Jack's paper.

Hi, welcome to SE Academia. Can you please rephrase your question to make it more objective, highlighting the specific question while removing any unnecessary information? It reads confusing as it is.

Possible duplicate of Getting secondary citations right. (It sounds like you are using Jack's summary of Greene, which is intellectual content, so you should cite Jack as well as Greene.)

Plagiarism is the act of passing off another work/writing as your own.
If I read the question right, you are saying something like the following:  you wrote a background section about about works [1], [2] and [3].  Jack also independently and prior to you wrote a summary about works [1], [2] and [3].  And some of your sentences happen to be similar.  This is not plagiarism.  This is normal, because you're talking about the same things, and because both of your descriptions are influenced by the original sources [1], [2] and [3].
What would be plagiarism is if you were to copy large chunks of text into your paper without marking it off as a quotation.  In my field (pure math) it's common that different papers have whole sentences which are virtually identical.  (There must be hundreds of papers with the sentence "Let G be a group.")
I also don't think it's necessarily necessary to cite Jack's work just to say they summarize [1], [2] and [3] also.  If you think looking at Jack's presentation also will help the reader, or you used aspects of Jack's presentation, then you should cite Jack.

TLDR: When you paraphrase someone, you should cite them.
I agree with the spirit of the answer by @Kimball, but I come to a different conclusion based on the specifics of your case.  You say:

I reworded parts of his sentences

If you take someone else's writing and paraphrase it, you should probably be citing them.  Otherwise you risk committing what Harvard's Honor Council calls uncited paraphrase, which is a form of plagiarism:

The rule of thumb here is simple: Whenever you use ideas that you did not think up yourself, you need to give credit to the source in which you found them, whether you quote directly from that material or provide a responsible paraphrase. (Harvard Honor Council: What Constitutes Plagiarism)

If you had simply read the same works and happened by chance to write a similar summary of them, then you would not need to cite the other author.  But if you read the other author's summary and then paraphrased them, as your question seems to state, then you are relying on their work and should cite them.

Note: If you meant that your sentences could merely be interpreted as re-wording the other author's writing, but that you wrote them before you read the other version, then @Kimball's answer applies (though you may still wish to cite the other author for the sake of completeness).  If that's the situation, then it might be helpful to re-word your question to make this clear.

It is hard to know from the detail you give what the correct response is. In general if you use someone's words or even ideas you should cite them. That is true even if the citation is to an unpublished manuscript (which you can describe as such).
It is also possible to paraphrase things you cite rather than simply quote them. Jack says in [1] that mumble mumble.
But taking sentences and rewording them (your description) seems a bit odd. If Jack hasn't expressed himself well, then a fresh paraphrase would seem to be more appropriate.
The big deal is don't give the impression that the words are yours.
But the citation should be given, even for an unpublished work. If you got it from Jack himself, you can also describe the "source" as a "private communication".
To be more clear, citing the joint source for yourself and Jack isn't enough if you use Jack's words even if paraphrased. But perhaps it isn't necessary to use his words at all, given that you can refer directly to the sources of the idea.

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Should I tell my class I am neurodivergent?
I am neurodivergent (autism), and I will be leading the teaching on a module of work for the first time this coming September.
While I have been preparing content to teach the module, a thought has occurred to me. Should I inform my class about my neurodivergence at the start of the module?
While I have done some teaching in prior years, my experience is still quite limited at this stage. This module is a much more significant amount of teaching than I have done before.
Previously, I have not informed classes I have taught, but my concern is that students may not understand the small but involuntary autistic tics I have (though when teaching/interacting with students I do mask as best I can). I am also concerned that I may misunderstand a student's (e.g. grade-related) question if they are not clear to me in their intentions.
Most members of staff in my department are aware, one way or another, of my neurodivergence.
For reference, I am teaching computer science in the United Kingdom. The students are in the third and final year of the degree.

This is similar to this question: Should I tell my advisor that I have an autism spectrum disorder?
…but specifically about telling a class I will teach rather than my supervisor.

For reading, perhaps informative: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/129624/as-an-international-instructor-should-i-openly-talk-about-my-accent?r=SearchResults&s=1%7C44.9367 (although I disagree with the accepted answer on a number of points).

Related: Autism & Emails: does a disclaimer help misunderstanding? (it's by a journalist: I misremembered the bit about students at the end).

I would argue "no". It's a common mistake for new lecturers to overshare personal information at the start of a course. I would give this same advice regardless of the exact subject (autism or anything else).
At the outset of a course, the critical things are to get students focused on the major themes of the course, how classroom sessions will run, and presenting the instructor as the confident domain-expert and authority figure in the room. Anything other than this will be derailing the students' focus. Becoming over-familiar with students by way of personal details undermines the authority needed to run the room. In a small number of malicious-student cases, it will be fodder for what can be used to emotionally take advantage of the instructor.
Steven Krantz in How to Teach Mathematics says this, on the point of students agitating for better grades (Sec. 5.9):

In short, younger faculty are more vulnerable. This is one reason for
dressing differently from students and maintaining a slight distance.
Again, this may sound cold. But I speak here from hard personal
experience.

Sharing to colleagues or mentors is very different from sharing with a classroom of students. Consider some questions on similar themes of how much personal info instructors should share with students, all asked by people new to teaching:

As an international instructor, should I openly talk about my accent?
Should I tell students that it's my first time teaching the course?
Should a lecturer be friendly with students?
Where is your line with students on social media?

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Unless it's relevant to the actual content of the course you're teaching, there's no reason to do so, so don't.
And the only reason it'd be relevant is if you want to show personal experience with autism, so that'd be a course related directly to autism (most likely in a setting of a course in psychology).
From my experience any teacher showing any potential weakness to their pupils or students is setting themselves up for failure. There's always a group who will abuse that knowledge to make your life hell.

I would advise caution. I work professionally in the field of autism, and have several friends who are autistic.  My experience is that the majority of people who have never met someone with autism find it very difficult to conceive of what it is like for someone to have difficulties with communication and social interaction, and it takes a lot of explanation to get them past this stage. This particularly applies to younger people like students who have limited life experience.  So you are going to have to explain very clearly what autism is and how it affects you.
If you do disclose, I suggest you are very explicit on what you expect from your students to assist you in your teaching and them in their learning e.g. "My autism means that I tend to take things literally, and may sometimes misinterpret your questions.  Don't be surprised if I ask you to clarify something, and if you think I have misunderstood please tell me".

Even saying what would help you can be done without invoking autism specifically.

I’m not convinced your point about this applying particularly to students really holds. While it’s true that they lack life experience, the number of people identified as neurodivergent early on, and being openly neurodivergent even in primary and secondary schools, is so much higher now than just a decade or two ago. When I left high school a little over 20 years ago, I had never met a single neurodivergent person (that I knew of); nowadays, most high school students are very likely to personally know several. Students these days have greater exposure to neurodivergence.

Your advice "I suggest you are very explicit on what you expect from your students" nails it. It's a big, diverse umbrella, everyone is different, so labels themselves are unhelpful/un-actionable.  Conversely, specific instructions or asks like your example will likely be welcomed, and naming the label itself seems optional. (as an aside, In technologically advanced countries, do most autistic adults not know they are autistic? could use a better answer)

@JanusBahsJacquet ditto.

Only share when it is relevant to the teaching of the course.
If you are inexperienced, I would not disclose it and first gather some experience in student-teacher interaction first. When you see that it becomes a problem that you misunderstand students or that the autism is impacting the teaching relationship, you can still decide to disclose it then. And even then- it doesn't have to be a whole disclosure of autism. It could simply be "I don't always pick up on non-verbal cues, could you be specific in what you want / need?".
Lastly, the cultural context matters. My experience with CompSci in the UK is that courses are majority Asian (mostly Chinese) students, and not many British, let alone EU. Different cultures have different understanding and acceptance of disabilities. I would take this into consideration as well.

I agree with the other answers which suggest that this may be over-sharing, and is probably not relevant to what you are teaching.  However, I would suggest a slightly different approach, similar to how accommodation letters work in the US.
At most US institutions, there is some kind of office which serves students with disabilities (e.g. at my current institution it is the "Office of Accessibility and Inclusion", at a previous institution it was the "Disabilities Resources Center").  Students with disabilities may approach this office and request an accommodation letter.  Such a letter, given to the instructor of a class, outlines what actions the instructor must take in order to accommodate the student.[1]  Accommodations may include things like extra time for exams, permission for a note taker to attend classes with the student, and so on.
Importantly, these letters do not say anything about the student's diagnosis or disability.
I tend to take a similar approach when working with students.  I tell them what to expect from me, but not what my diagnosis is (or even if I have a diagnosis which, for all you and they know, I do not).  This is usually in the form of a little joke at the beginning of the semester:

Q: How can you tell when a mathematician is an extrovert?
A: They stare at your shoes when they are talking to you.
I am a mathematician, and while I don't think that I am quite that bad, you might notice that I am a little awkward in social settings.  In listening to recordings of lectures, I have noticed that I sometimes sound a little angry or upset, even when I am not.  I'm also not super good at picking up certain social cues, especially when we are not in the same room together.
Please have patience with me, and know that I genuinely care about all of you and want you to be successful.  Please also feel free to let me know if I have misread some cue—it won't hurt my feelings (much).

Again, importantly, I am not talking about any diagnosis or neurodivergence---I am describing specific behaviours that students might expect, and giving them permission to respond in a particular manner.
In big letters: describe behaviours, actions, and appropriate responses, not diagnoses.
That being said, one other thing to consider is your own status.  I am a 40-something white man—it is relatively easy for me to make myself a little vulnerable, as both my age and gender provide me a lot of protection.  I have seen young female colleagues get torn apart when making similar kinds of statements—one, in particular, described herself has having "resting b*tch face" to a class; about the only thing on her evaluations at the end of the quarter was "the instructor is a total b*tch" and similar horribleness).
If you are young, inexperienced, or a member of obvious minoritized community (neurodivergence can often be masked; most of my students don't know that I am Jewish; but students can generally tell if you are a woman or black, for example), I would be a bit more hesitant to share these kinds of statements.  If nothing else, perhaps practice in front of people you trust (especially people in your department), and see how they feel things go over.
To be clear, it upsets me that I feel like I have to give this advice—but students can be cruel, and it sucks to lose a class over such pettiness.

[1]  These letters very much do require the instructor to do whatever is detailed in them (though the content of the letters if often negotiable between the instructor, student, and relevant student services department)—they are backed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (under Title II, if I recall correctly) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.  If a student has an accommodation letter and the instructor does not do what they are told to do in that letter, the student has grounds to sue the instructor and/or institution.

Good answer. However, I think you shouldn't comment on skin color because it can provoke racism.

@Etemon That is actually precisely the point that I am making.  Instructors of color are often treated quite differently (by students) than white instructors.  Women are treated differently from men.  When you decide how you are going to interact with students, you have to consider how their prior biases are going to effect their perception of you.  I am not saying that this is a good thing---indeed, it is quite terrible.  But that is also reality, and I think that pragmatism dictates that it should be part of the decision making process.

Good points, but the framing of accommodation letters as ironclad requirements isn't correct. Letters at most institutions surveyed explicitly invite negotiations between instructor and accessibility on the best design. We regularly push back, with success, against nonsensical requests. See top answers here: What recourse do I have if the disability office grants unreasonable accommodations to a student?

@DanielR.Collins I guess I am viewing it from the point of view of "once the letter has been finalized, it is the law".  If the instructor accepts the letter and then fails to adhere to its terms, then the instructor is opening up a can of worms.  I don't think that I have said anything which says that an instructor can't negotiate those terms with OAI (or whomever), and since that isn't really the point of this post, I didn't spend too much time getting into the nitty-gritty.

@XanderHenderson: That's not how it works IME. There's no "finalized letter" with force of law.

It's a personal decision that only you can decide.
However, you can see what others before you have done.
As a recent example, Holden Thorp, current Editor-in-Chief of Science Magazine recently had his page 1 editorial on his own disclosure.
He talks about his decision in a blog post as well.
From a society perspective, Thorp notes: In talking to all these superstars, I came to realize that it can be useful for people to disclose their autism diagnosis in order to lower stigma.
From your own personal perspective, Throp noted in his editorial that his disclosure helped his students understand him.
I would follow Thorp's example and discuss this with people close to you who can help you understand your specific situation.
I personally do not see any downsides, but people near you may see some that are not obvious from your webpost.

I am going to buck the trend and say "Yes".
I'm neurodivergent myself, and I have been a professor at times (not for long periods). I have nonverbal learning disabilities (NVLD) and have a website about it and have written two books about it (Screwed Up Somehow but not Stupid: Life with a Learning Disability and Twice as Weird: A Memoir about Twice Exceptionality)
I wouldn't go on and on about it, I'd just make a simple announcement at the beginning. Why?
First, it lets students know why some of your behaviors are quirky or odd. Autistic people can sometimes insult people without meaning to, they can appear to have inappropriate emotions (or lack of emotions), and so on. This lets students know.
Second, more and more, people are at least a little familiar with neurodivergence and autism in particular. Google Ngram Viewer shows the huge growth in the use of terms like this. There are movies and TV shows (and NOT just the Big Bang Theory, which was a parody) about autism.
Third, by mentioning it, you remove some of the stigma that is still associated with it. This may help your communication with your students. It may also widen your students' perspective (Holy *** my professor is autistic!).
Yes, a professor should primarily be concerned with teaching the material. But expanding kids' minds in other ways is also good.
Finally, some answers have said "only if it's relevant" or things like that. Well, autism is relevant. It affects how you communicate. And teaching is about communication.

No, as a student I don't care unless it's going to affect your teaching and I need to accommodate. Be a lecturer, and be compassionate when needed.

It's a good point and an important perspective. But "Be a lecturer, and be compassionate when needed." suggests you're not familiar with the challenges of autism, which often include the initial outward appearance of not caring, and lack of empathy or compassion. I don't know about the OP, but some autistic people in this position might indeed want to say something like "...so if I give you the impression that I am uncaring or insensitive or lack compassion, don't take it to heart, just take a moment to explain further how you feel and what you need...".

"Be a lecturer, and be compassionate when needed." in this case it is more "be a student and be compassionate" that is required - the question is whether the OP can be confident of that happening.  Unfortunately neurotypical people can find it difficult to be compassionate in these circumstances, IMHO precisely because they don't normally have to think very much about social situations.

I'm going to go slightly against the grain and say that, while it obviously is your own decision to make, it might be a good thing to do.  I think especially for a class that may be lecture-heavy, it could be a good way to humanize yourself to the students and make you more approachable.
I don't usually answer questions on here, but this one caught my eye because a professor of mine during my recent master's program had some tics while speaking, but she was one of the best professors I've had.  She addressed it on the first day by just mentioning that she did that, but I've actually seen some talks of hers online and she does the same thing at the start of each speech.  I'm not sure her personal reason for doing it, but as a student/viewer it interestingly made her seem more normal to me because of sharing something a bit personal instead of seeming disconnected from the class as can sometimes happen.
Hopefully that makes sense!

...my concern is that students may not understand the small but involuntary autistic tics I have (though when teaching/interacting with students I do mask as best I can).

Given that your condition leads to observable behaviours that may surprise or confuse your students, I think it is a good idea for you to share your condition with your students, to let them know in advance what kinds of involuntary tics they might observe when you are teaching them.  One reasonable approach here would be to put a short section in your course outline noting your condition and the kinds of things that students might observe while speaking to you or being lectured by you.  You could then reiterate this in your introductory lecture in your course.  That approach would give everyone advanced notice of what to expect, and it should ensure that there is minimal surprise or misunderstanding arising from your tics.
I disagree with the other answers here that consider this "over-sharing" --- if your tics are things that might affect your teaching then it is perfectly reasonable to let students know what to expect at the outset.  I would expect that students would be happy to be informed of what to expect, and they are likely to be highly understanding in their interactions with you.  An ancillary benefit is that your students will also learn about some of the involuntary tics that come with your form of autism, which will give them some mild additional knowledge beyond their coursework.

@Trunk Then those "humorists" can be reprimanded for their actions. I don't see why this could also not be mentioned to them at the same time.

How about taking a very very small step, just for your own current piece of mind.
No need to teach while carrying with you any extra stress.
So...
If there is a staff member that you feel you trust deeply. And might have useful personal knowledge on what to do. Then I'd say to start there.
Asking one person (and especially one person that has lived and relevant experiences) can be far more managable then opening a Pandoras box.
Could be a very common thing in your area. Could have an absolutely, beyond simple solution, that you just haven't considered yet.
Or it could be real bad.
But I doubt it will be bad.
On a personal level my openly dyslexic teachers were awesome. Yet I already knew they were awesome since before I even knew what dyslexia was.
Then learning later that I was dyslexic and Autistic was a breeze, because I had more in common with those wonderful teachers.
So I honestly feel that you can't go far wrong here.
And the fact that you are questioning this (and doing so while phrasing it all as you have above) is very reasuring and to me. As it practically to me that you will be fine regardless.
:)

Personally, I would say you can disclose it, but later on in the first class where the class is being introduced alongside the syllabus. As a fellow neurodivergent, I think it'll be okay as long as you're clear about the expectations. For example, "My autism means that I may make some involuntary tics." I'm not sure what your specific tics are, but for me I sometimes repeat words or phrases. So you could say something like, "if any topic needs clarifying during class, just let me know."
Usually when you disclose autism, there needs to be an explanation of why that's relevant. Will it affect how you teach (idk how to word this, but in a sense, what do you want your students to understand about your autism?). It's because autism is on a spectrum and no two neurodivergent people are the same. If you just say, "I have autism," people may not necessarily know how it affects you, so educating your students a tiny bit on that will help. Then again, I would say a brief summary would do. No need to go into the nitty gritty details.


text:
How do I convince professors that I have enough math for the PhD position?
It has been a month since I received the rejection email. I gave it a long thought for a month, about whether to pursue another try at the position, while applying for other PhD and job opportunities. I would still like to give it a shot, and the following email is what I am about to send. Please let me know if it sounds okay :) I took out the part pleading for a lower position (i.e. research assistant), as some comments pointed out that it sounded too desperate.

Dear Prof. A,
Despite my big disappointment about the decision, I would still like to thank you for taking your time to consider my candidacy and getting back to me with the result.
It took me some time to get back to you, because I just could not get over how much I find this project ideal for my research interests.  Hence, after a long thought, I decided to make my last attempt in convincing you to reconsider my candidacy for the position.
While I acknowledge that the "Z" project is a challenge, I also see it as a great opportunity to hone my mathematical training. I have proven records of success in facing such a challenge: I did not have solid mathematical or programming background for the Y master program. However, I put in a lot of efforts both prior to and during the program to thrive in mathematically rigorous courseworks (on my own and with the help of a mathematics professor affiliated with the Y program, Prof. X) and successfully completed a computational modelling project for my thesis. I am more than willing to do the same for the "Z" project, and I feel confident from the previous academic experience that I will not disappoint you if given a chance.
You could also provide me a test problem/project, with which you can gauge my abilities to work on the project.
In case you decide not to reconsider my candidacy, I would like to thank you anyways for the consideration and the close call again. I will remain dedicated to obtaining a PhD degree in the field of decision making under uncertainty and hope to meet you some day in a conference.

Below is the rejection email I've got last month:

"...Unfortunately, I can not bring you good news. Among all candidates you were the one with the highest scientific ambitions which really set you a part from the rest. However, our concern remained that your mathematical training is not enough for the specific problem that is subject of this position. We wish you all the best and especially that you keep up your inspiring passion for science...
P.S. If that helps you somehow: We finally concluded that none of the other available candidates fulfilled all necessary requirements and hence the position remains open."

This was my initial reaction to the rejection email:

I really want to work on this project! Is it a good idea to tell them that I am willing to go down the hard road? (e.g. taking online math courses or working as an intern/assistant at their lab before the PhD studies to meet the mathematical requirements for the position)? Also, should I make a case that my master's program was in fact mathematically rigorous by outlining the course syllabi and requirements? I have already sent them a transcript for this purpose, but I feel that listing only course names and grades do not really tell them much about what kind of and how rigorous math I worked with.

I'm curious what others here might suggest, but my personal gut feeling is that what you're wanting to do is something that should have been done during the interview in some way, perhaps in carefully walking a tightrope by providing answers to questions and steering conversations in such a way that your mathematical background could be inferred. The reason I say "treading a tightrope" is that if it's too obvious, then you might come off as showy or as not sufficiently respecting their ability to make such a judgement for themselves.

My personal gut feeling is that if the professor wanted to screen for mathematical ability, they would have made sure that the interview gauged mathematical ability.  And for all we know, it did!

Thank you for the comments. You both are right. But since the position remains open, I could give it a shot by saying that I will put in extra-work prior to the project. After all, I have got nothing to lose. Or do you have other opinions?

You can give it a shot but don't get your hopes up too high! They made a decision and presumably it was one reached after some thought and consideration. It's unlikely their decision would be completely different if only they had some additional input from you (remember they could -- and likely would -- have easily asked you about anything that would be a crucial dealbreaker like a commitment to take online math courses). I'd definitely for it. You never know, something useful could come of it! But don't get your hopes up too high.

I'm not interpreting "the position is still open" as a rejection. Am I wrong in that? It sounds more to me like they are  still considering.

@Buffy I agree and was wondering what thy could mean by that. My guess is they are currently holding out for someone better qualified, but may be wiling to pick this student later if they fail to find someone better.

I think that the rejection part is rather clear. I couldn't post the original message as a comment, so I added as an answer.

@Buffy No, it means everyone, including OP was rejected.

It seems you are interpreting "Among all candidates you were the one with the highest scientific ambitions which really set you a part from the rest" to mean you were the best candidate (i.e., closest to getting the position). I don't think that's necessarily correct. Every other candidate could have had the highest or most something else for them to compliment.

Thanks for adding the text of the message you received.  The text makes it clear that this is a rejection, and it should be understood as final.  There is no point in following up to try to convince the professor that you should get the position; it will only annoy them.
The best thing you can do with this information is to improve your applications for other positions in the future.  It suggests that you need to improve your mathematics background if applying for positions like this one, and/or to review your application materials to make sure that they clearly demonstrate your preparation.

This is exactly right. If all you were lacking was some skill-set easily and quickly obtainable, they wouldn't have had any objection. I'd wager that the questioner severely under-estimates the "mathematical deficit" that was perceived by the interviewers. Not to mention an apparent widespread belief that "oh, I'll take a course, and then I'll be up to speed on Mathematics"...  It's not that "math is hard", but that it takes some time to refine one's intuitions, and acquire vocabulary and world-view.

This is a rejection and you are unlikely to be admitted. Still, you have nothing to lose.

Is it a good idea to tell them that I am willing to go down the hard road? (e.g. taking online math courses or working as an intern/assistant at their lab before the PhD studies to meet the mathematical requirements for the position)?

Emotional pleas about "going down the hard road" just make you sound desperate. If there is a specific weakness, you should plan to patch it regardless of this application. That said, you have nothing to lose by saying "I agree that I don't have a strong background in topology, but I'm planning to take a graduate-level course in topology this summer."

Also, should I make a case that my master's program was in fact mathematically rigorous by outlining the course syllabi and requirements?

This should have been done during the interview. Stil, you have nothing to lose by saying "I can see how you might have that impression, but my background is actually quite rigorous -- we used X, Y, and Z books and I published Q paper."
If you decide to try either or both of these, it should be in the context of a brief, 1-2 paragraph e-mail. You should acknowledge the rejection, offer this additional information, and then state that you'd still be interested in being considered for this or other positions.

Actions speak louder than words.
It's clear from the professor's message that (s)he cannot be persuaded based on your credentials right now. What you need therefore is to actually acquire the math. Intention to acquire it isn't enough; you need to actually do it. How you acquire it is up to you, but before having acquired it, attempting to persuade the professor is probably futile.

What you wrote in a comment earlier (quote below) is a solid way to show your commitment and make the decision for your possible prospective supervisor easier:

possibly by joining their lab as a research assistant/intern

Another way is for her/him to give you a trial-problem for you to solve. This way, the supervisor can gauge your ability to work with him/her and your working style (persistence, frustration tolerance, creativity, etc.).
PS: That is, you should show your earnest motivation and problem-solving skills by asking for a small trial-project for you to work on (in the lab or from home, without being paid).

This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review

@cag51: Just that a (new) user writes that something should be a comment, doesn’t mean it should. This is actually an answer: It tries to solve the asker’s problem.

@Wrzlprmft Well, I agree ;)

Don;t get focused in so much on one opportunity. You need to apply to enough postings so you get multiple acceptable admissions.  And you need to recognize that even from luck you may sometimes not get one particular one.  This is even more the case with job interviewing (later).
Just say thank you, that you appreciate the close call, that you remain dedicated to getting a Ph.D. and are applying elsewhere.  Definitely don't suggest cming to work in some reduced position (intern or the leak).  That cheapens your market value.

What you could do is to write them a (very) positive email outlining that you would see this position as a great chance to up your math skills and that is your dream position and that you are willing to put lots of time into improving your math (already before you actually start the position) and that you have not only succeeded before in doing difficult things but you have actually thrived in them (+example(s)) and if they would give you this chance you will not disappoint them.
Changes might be slim but worth a short - let us know how it went!
--- EDIT ---
Based on the comments below "dream position" used as phrase might be a little bit over the top but your email should transport the message that it is your dream position without explicitly mentioning it.

Sorry. "Dream position" and similar sounds desperate. It won't help. Say you understand and are working to gain additional math sophistication. Then do that.

Randomly bold facing words is academia's most convincing style trick! ;-)

I think this is the right thing to do, in the wrong tone of voice.

I would first thank them, express my disappointment, then politely ask, since the position still remaisn open, if they are willing to reconsider me if i am willing to put in extra efforts in improving my math prior to the beginning of the project, possibly by joining their lab as a research assistant/intern. Does that sound better?

I honestly wouldn’t join as a lower level. I would outline a very specific plan for gaining math knowledge. Do x course on x dates, y course on y dates, etc.


text:
Does the school or the student cover health insurance for PhD students in the US?
I was just wondering what people's experiences were regarding health insurance at US institutions for PhD candidates.  Does the school, itself, cover the cost, the individual, or something else?  I am particularly curious how this may be changing in response to the Affordable Care Act.

It's also worth noting that many schools provide primary care through their own clinics to those associated with the university even if they don't provide general insurance.

If the person reading this comment is about to buy their own health insurance, it only took me 1-2 hours to parse my US University's policies page for the info I needed.  Hopefully your UNI's page is similarly understandable.  I put this off for quite awhile until my mom, grandma, girlfriend, basically everyone sane agreed that I needed to actually get health insurance, and then I was pleasantly surprised by how quick the actual reading was.

This varies tremendously from one university to another.  At some institutions you're on your own to buy insurance through the exchange. At other institutions the university pays for insurance for students and their families as part of the compensation for teaching/research assistants, similar to the way in which staff are insured.  It's important for students to understand exactly what is being offered as part of the TA/RA package.
Some institutions that used to offer low cost/low benefit insurance plans to students have had to stop offering those plans because they weren't compatible with the ACA.

It's also important to note that if you're under 26 (which may be the case for some grad students) and your parents have health insurance, the ACA allows you to stay on your parents plan.

The last statement in the answer sounds unnecessarily bleak. It's not that universities were forced to stop offering plans. They chose not to offer plans that are in compliance with the law because this is cheaper for the university and because graduate students don't have enough of a lobby to stand up to the administration to demand that they are treated like other employees.

@WolfgangBangerth the universities didn't have the option of continuing to offer the plans that had been offered in the past.  I agree that the universities could have spent more money or charged students higher premiums to offer new ACA compliant plans, but these wouldn't have been the same plans that had previously been offered.  I submit that's a completely correct statement to say (as I did) that the old plans could no longer be offered, and more specifically that they could no longer be offered because the old plans weren't ACA compliant.

@BrianBorchers: Well, literally speaking I suppose you're right :-) They had to stop offering those "health insurance plans", but they didn't have to stop offering "health insurance". I will assume that you agree with this :-)

Yes, but the actual details of the ACA do really matter, and it's best to get these kinds of details straight to avoid confusion.  I think its fair to say that some institutions that used to offer graduate students inexpensive insurance policies with poor coverage (premiums might or might not have been subsidized by the institution) can no longer offer such plans and that some of them have opted to simply not offer health insurance plans to graduate students and instead let students find their own insurance through the exchanges.

@GalenHarrison True, but not of much use to the very large number of foreign graduate students.  It's particularly difficult for these students because they come to the US with no experience of our "system" of health care.

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text:
Should final exams be comprehensive?
I teach in the school of sciences and engineering in the university where I work. I have asked professors several times if the final exams have to be comprehensive, and I usually get mixed answers.
So I want to ask, for a course with two midterms and a final:

If there is some criteria or organizations that require the final exams to be comprehensive (for instance, does ABET accreditation or legal statute require it?), or does it depend on the school or the professor?
What are the pros and cons of having a comprehensive final?
Will your answers to the above questions be different if the course components were 2 best out of 3 midterms plus a final, or if the course was a graduate course instead of undergrad?

TRQ is "should final exams exist?"  If a student hasn't shown via progressive tests/quizzes, homework, or other projects that he has learned the material, what good is a final exam?  The rest of your comments are offtopic, as accreditation or licensing is different from academics.

@CarlWitthoft: I strongly disagree: Like it or not, accreditation is one of the (ahem) inescapable joys of academia.

@CarlWitthoft except that you are assuming such things as homework/progressive tests exists in the first place. This might be true in the US where university is more high-school like but, for example, in Italy there is no such a thing as homework for a course. Projects are done only if the course explicitly has a laboratory associated with it (only few have them). Also attendance is almost never required in most of the courses. Courses tend to have only a final written + oral test.

"US university is more high-school like" How did you get this idea? Also since when are test the superior way to see if the student has learned....

@JeffE That's a completely different type of "accreditation."

@Bakuriu I understand that other systems have even worse (IMHO) evaluation methods.  Those are far worse from a stress, and statistical validity, point of view.

@CarlWitthoft Actually I prefer Italian-style university, because at least you are not treated as a 10 years old that still needs a baby-sitter... you have the choice of taking the responsibility of your studies or not.

@MikeJohn Erm because teachers give homework at high-school but not at university (in the US you still get homework => more high-school like). In the school you have to do tests like every month but at the university you have exams sessions once every 6 months and you have one exam for each course, not so in the US (=> more high-school like). Attendance in highschool is mandatory (even by law), not so in university apart from few exceptions, not so in the US (=> more high-school like).

@Bakuriu What determines that homework implies highschool-like? Could you just be mistaken that since in Italy, according to you, homework is not assigned in Universities, then all other Universities except USA do this and thus must be highschool like? Again, homework is far superior in testing a students knowledge than any test. You just need to design the homework well. Attendance in the two USA Universities I attended was not mandatory. Then (since you are a computer scientist) by simple logic one false => the rest of your assumption is false.

@MikeJohn I never stated anything about testing quality(and I can agree that form a teaching point of view homework might be better for learning). I only asserted the existence or not of homework in courses. In every country in the world homework is given at high-school level. This is not true for all universities in all countries hence my consideration. By "more high-school like" I mean that the student is not really independent in its choices about what/when/how to study.

@TheHiary while this question mentions ABET, it really doesn't seem to be a significant part of what the question is about. (It's also not really about [tag:legal-issues] despite asking about "legal statute" in exactly the same way.)

All of my final exams are cumulative, for a couple reasons:
1) I've always felt odd about non-cumulative exams. It seems to send a message I'd rather not send: “It's okay to forget about what you learned earlier in the course – you won't need that any more.”
2) Often, what gets taught later in the course builds on earlier concepts. If A lays the foundation for B, and B lays the foundation for C, it can be rather challenging to test on C without testing on A and B also.
That said, I try very hard to test on higher-level concepts rather than on minutia, so a cumulative final fits my teaching style. I expect my students to be able to speak intelligently to the main themes of the course. I've told students many times: “Come to class ready to learn, and be ready to engage with the material via the in-class discussions. That's the best way to prep for the exams.”
My goal is to structure my exams so that students who have paid attention in class and learned the material through other assignments should do quite well on the test – without the need to cram or commit the material to short-term memory. “By the last week of the term, you either know this stuff, or you don't,” I tell them. Many of my exam questions are essay questions that require students to analyze a scenario, and synthesize material from different parts of the course.
That might not always work, depending on the nature of the material; some material doesn't lend itself well to such questions. This approach may not be scalable, either. (It's not uncommon for me to have six or seven pages of essay questions per exam. Most of the time, I have between 15 and 30 students per course, which keeps grading manageable. If I had 50 or 60 students, however, I might have to rethink this approach.)
As a footnote, most of my courses are 400/600-level courses. I don't know if the style I've outlined would be a good fit for freshmen and 100-level material.

To address 1, I've never heard of any such policy on cumulative exams.  In my experience, such pedagogical decisions are made solely by the course instructor.  They make the decision as to what material appears on the final exam, or even whether to have a final exam at all.
In the case of large multi-section coordinated courses, this decision might be made by the course coordinator (especially if all sections give a common final exam) or by agreement of the various instructors.  There might be some expectation that they will respect precedent unless they feel strongly that it should change, in which case they might be expected to discuss it at the department level.
Otherwise, I think any explicit rule about the content or format of exams would be seen as a serious infringement on the instructor's autonomy, which is a central aspect of university teaching.

At my large public research university (in the US):
In physics, exams are nearly always non-cumulative. The finals are treated essentially as a third midterm, none of which are cumulative.
In math, the it depends on the professor and the course. If it is one of the "common"/high-enrollment courses that students in e.g. biology, chemistry, also have to take, then the final is usually cumulative. In courses designed for upper-level math majors only (e.g. topology, graph theory) it is up to the professor, but usually cumulative (usually the courses are very linear; it would be impossible to pass a test over the final material without knowing the material from the midterms).
In humanities, usually not cumulative. Or if cumulative, trivially so (e.g., one or two basic questions about the early material).
edit: I should clarity, it's always up to the professor, I'm just outlining general departmental tendencies

This is pretty much my same experience at a private university in the US.  I was once told by a physics professor that he couldn't make the final cumulative and still keep it a reasonable length, while a math one said "it doesn't matter" because compared to other courses, more of it builds on top of what was in the midterm.

Every single physics exam I've ever taken has been cumulative, and it's been my understanding that that is the norm in physics classes at US universities. I don't have explicit statistics on it, but I would bet your experience is relatively unusual.

@Izkata - RE: "I was once told by a physics professor that he couldn't make the final cumulative and still keep it a reasonable length." Interesting. I've interpreted "cumulative exam" to mean ‘anything taught in the course could be on the exam,’ not ‘everything taught in the course will be on the exam.’

@J.R. Comprehensive exams were the norm here, presumably since not doing so would skew the final scores higher for students who just coincidentally better understood the chosen topics on the exam.

I strongly disagree with humanities not normally being comulative. I think I only ever had one or two non-comulative finals, and I haven't ever given one. Now, having a final period is probably less common, as term papers or (esp. in fine arts) other projects are much more common, especially in upper level courses.

I'm responding to #2 and 3, as there are no rules regarding #1 that I'm aware of.
Pedagogically, there is evidence that repeated testing improves learning. Most of the literature is via authors Karpicke and Roediger.
Here's a list of resources from a research project at Washington University, and a rather overwhelming overview of student learning and good teaching by John Kihlstrom at Berkeley.
I don't see why the benefits of a comprehensive final would be lessened by a "two out of three" midterm organization or different for undergrad vs grad level students.

I suspect that "repeated testing"'s impact is akin to "repeated threats", which cause students to study and/or review. It's not the testing itself that improves learning, but the fact that it "induces" students to study.

@PaulGarrett: That's part of it, but there are also factors like: (1) more experience on-the-line-of-fire handling timed testing conditions; (2) experimental data on exactly how well the student's study process is working (or needs revision); (3) more feedback from instructor on their progress; (4) clarification of misunderstandings in reading problems or what qualifies as acceptable work/responses. A lot of this is basically more feedback to fight Dunning-Kruger effects.

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text:
How to set the threshold below which students get a failing grade in a university-level course?
What criteria (in light of the best practices or teaching experience) should one consider when deciding the passing percentage of the course?  (By the passing percentage I mean the grade threshold below which the student will receive an F)
How should the threshold below which students get a failing grade depend qualitatively on these criteria?

@ff524 Let us say that A is from 90% and going down step 4... that means D is above 54%. If there is no D- then 54 is the failing bar. Going down with a different step or setting a different bar for A will change also the passing percentage. My question is what criteria one should use to set the letter grades (which will lead automatically to the passing requirements you mentioned)

Ah, I see. I will edit the title to make it clearer; let me know if this preserves your intent.

My classes are typically curved to the median.  To grade, I first set what I think should be the median grade, based on my assessment of the class as a whole.  Then one half of a standard deviation away from the median is one half-letter grade (e.g. if the standard deviation is 10 raw points out of 100, then 5 points would move an A- to a B+).
Using this scale, an F is simply someone who is a certain number of standard deviations below the median.
Several points:

I explain my general scheme to students on the first day of class,
    so that expectations are clear up front. There is some wriggle room
    at the letter grade borders.
I typically look for clean breaks
    between student performers (i.e. if one cluster is 2 points above
    another cluster, then it makes sense to separate their grades).

I usually set 50%. However, I think the value is not of particular importance whatsoever - the main points are: Communicate the rule to the students and ask appropriate questions.
I usually tell the students that I have a 50%-pass policy and that this is basically arbitrary (I could easily devise questions such that nobody can pass...). I think, the question on percentages and grades can only be discussed in view of the questions on the exam and of the stuff covered in the  course.

I've honestly never understood the letter system for scoring. Is not intuitive and is open to so many interpretations.
Once I had to use letters, and at least for the case of failing the student it was quite straight forward.
Tests, homework, and every piece of work was graded in a scale from 1 to 10, at the end I just did a weighted average for the different elements.
So I ended up with a number between 1 and 10, I consider someone who has passed the class as someone who has at least more of half of the knowledge imparted in the class, so that would be having more than a round 5.
So the threshold was set at 5.1, I would fail those that got less than 5.1 and just prorate the rest of the letter upwards.


text:
Meaning of question "do you give permission to release a copy of this recommendation to another academic institution" in a recommendation form
While filling in the online recommendation form for Yale regarding one of my students, I was asked to answer the following question

If this student enrolls in the Yale Graduate School, do you give permission to release a copy of this recommendation to another academic institution upon request of the student and at the discretion of Yale Graduate School?
Yes   No

Any idea what this question is about and the meaning/implications of choosing yes or choosing no?


text:
Does translating an article for a magazine require permission from the author?
Is translating an article (that could be found written in a popular science magazine or online in a science blog or personal webpage say) for a public newspaper or an online blog ...etc, requires permission from the author?

Translations are considered a "derivative work." Preparation of a derivative work is one of the exclusive rights attached to the copyright holder.
If the article you wish to publish is not in the public domain or under a license that allows preparation of derivative work, you must get permission from the copyright holder to translate it. (Unless one of the copyright exceptions applies.)

Keep in mind that the copyright holder is not necessarily the author. It may be the publisher of the journal where the article appeared, or even someone completely different.

Besides the very good answer given by ff524 it's noteworthy that national laws apply and that those differ significantly. No matter what - it's always a good idea to get permission from the copyright holder (most likely the author or the publisher).
To give an example. German copyright law states the copyright as non transferable. So no matter how much the publisher would like to they cannot get the copyright from the author. However the publisher is usually granted an exclusive right of publication (at least for a limited amount of time). This license agreement between copyright holder and publisher might contain a clause concerning translations. So again the request for permission is necessary.

In Brazil the authoral rights are divided into moral and property rights. Only the property rights can be alienated (sold). The copyright owner could still be blocked from using the work by the original author in some cases.


text:
How can I find out whether I am permitted to re-use an online questionnaire in my own research?
So, I get this page's link: User Interface Usability Evaluation with Web-Based Questionnaires from my friend. I want to make one of them as Questionnaire for the design I made for Academic Research. But I'm confused, is that only an example, a guideline, or can I use the Questionnaire as it is? Is there any license for those questionnaire? I've tried to read the page, but don't really know if there's something like that.

Actually, the text on the page is pretty clear:

The script is freely available, AS-IS

So, yes, you can use it as it is.
Combine this with the (slightly) earlier text

allows the online reader to design and create their own questionnaire

and I think there is only one way to interpret this as "Feel free to use this!"

I thought that statement only applied to the script, or source code, for showing those questionnaire. Like, maybe you want to make an online questionnaire, then you can use that script to show your questionnaire in your web. Hmmm or is the freely use of the script also meant the freely use of the questionnaire 's contents too? Does the script also include the questionnaire's contents too?

The script doesn't seem to have a license but says, "question.cgi is a free script for administering user interface usability questionnaires on the web." In other places on the page you linked to, the authors encourage reuse. If you are unsure or unclear, you can contact the authors.


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Keeping academic credit on work with human rights impacts but fearing repressive regime retaliations
I am from a country controlled by a repressive regime. I was able to leave the country and continue my academic activity in a top US university. Most of my work is focused on equality, human rights and distribution of resources. Until now, I couldn't publish using my name. Always ends up collaborating on different projects but without being an author (this is my request and other co-authors are just respecting my wish).
Not all my works are in those themes but this is the field of research where I think I could contribute the most, and feel like I am achieving something.
I was arrested by my government (kidnapped and tortured for 5 months) before leaving the country. Arrested for humanitarian activities, ended up tried by court-martial and then terrorism court, while I am a civilian. This was the one reason for me to focus on those issues. I fear that if I go public this regime may arrest my family members and/or confiscate my properties.
Is there a way for academics to publish (in peer reviewed journals) and do research while earning credit for their work without using their real names? Or at least a way to prevent their identity from going public ?
I think that in academia there are so many ways depending on personal identity to thrive. I have this negative feeling that there is no way to advance professionally without using my personal identity. I do not know how to do it, but it is still early to make final judgments.

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8603/if-i-publish-under-a-pseudonym-can-i-still-take-credit-for-my-work

What kind of "credit" do you want? If it's public acknowledgment of your work, then you cannot get that without running the risks you're trying to avoid. If it's job opportunities, it depends on your field and on your colleagues' standing (you will likely want them to vouch for your tacit coauthorship in reference letters for you; but this requires said colleagues to be honest and well-respected).

@darijgrinberg, The simple credit of authorship.

@N00: Recognized by whom? Random people working in that field, or selected colleagues? Recognized when? Soon or eventually after the government in the pertinent country will have changed?

by academic institutions. to be able to say you took part in writing that particular paper.

This is a highly speculative answer - just a thought experiment.
It may be that you will never be able to publish, safely, under your own name. The secret police in such regimes may have a long reach into other countrie,s as Russia seems to have in GB.
It might be possible, however, to create a second identity for yourself that is known to only the fewest possible, most trusted, allies. It may be too late for that if you already have worked with others on these issues and they can connect you. The difficulty, of course, with a second identity is that it is necessarily not connected to your history, including degrees, employers, etc.
But academic publishing is normally by individuals and their institutions and credentials are not as important as when seeking employment. But, then, your human rights work would be attributed to a fictitious person, which I'm pretty sure is legal as long as you aren't using such a pseudonym for fraud.
I wonder if you already have connections to reputable human rights organizations (Amnesty International, ...) that can help you with legal advice on this. Certainly a human rights lawyer familiar with the issues in your home country would be worth consulting. If you work with a reputable lawyer, that person can cache the relationship between your true-name and the pseudonym, so that if it ever becomes possible to reconnect them, you have the legal means to do so.
I don't know if the US government would be of assistance, but I don't have much faith in it at the current moment. Even our own spies identities have been "outed" here for political gain.

such organizations are happy to publish such work and making every necessary arrangement to hid the identity of high risk contributors. But would that be the same for academic publishers?

@N00, I think that is unlikely if they know your real identity. But you can publish your other work under your true name. Say in mathematics. The reason for a lawyer is to have someone "official" who can speak for you as needed without revealing the true identity.

that is the plan ! do you know any examples where a lawyer represented a researcher in academia?  Thanks for taking the time to answer this question.

For some publishers it may be possible for a work to be submitted by a third party (a lawyer) who vouches for the author while revealing only the preferred naming convention for the work. I've never heard of that happening, but it might be worth the exploration.

I've never had a submission questioned, by a journal for the name I gave. I don't think that is done. I assume most just trust the names they are given. But if you  build up a body of work under the name Marcus Aurelius, it will be self consistent, I don't know how reviewers would treat such submissions.

You also would not be able to use the publications of M.A. in a CV, of course.

Yes, it can be done. Some historical examples:

J. H. Hetherington and F. D. C. Willard, Physical Review Letters, 35, 1442-1444 (1975) https://doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.35.1442

This paper has some amusing history which you can read about on F. D. C. Willard's Wikipedia page. The catch: F. D. C Willard is actually a cat.

Polymath, D. Mathematical Sciences (2014) 1: 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40687-014-0012-7

Again, Polymath isn't a person, but the name of a collaboration of mathematicians.
You'll note from the second example that one journal's editors objected to the use of the pseudonym, insisting that the authors use their real names, but another journal didn't mind. You can do the same. It's possible editors object to practical jokes like the FDC Willard case (if they're aware of it), but if you are protecting your name because you fear retaliation, editors are likely to be sympathetic.

Bourbaki is another example, of course, but none of those examples feared death and torture. The problem with being blasé about this is that if a lot of people know the truth it is more likely to be revealed. Editors may wish to go along, but they also keep records. A "sympathetic" editor isn't safe enough in the present case.

@Buffy yes, the more people know a secret the more likely it is to be revealed. I don't think there's a way about this though. Publishing anonymously also means one cannot take credit for the paper. Perhaps outright taking on a new identity is the best option. I'm only answering what is asked in the question.

Usually having a lot of allies is a strength, but that assumes that your adversaries don't have the motive and means to kill you and torture your parents.

According to Wikipedia, the cat only published two papers, and the second was not an academic article in a peer-reviewed journal. That's a bit different from having an entire career anonymously, which seems to be what the OP is interested in.


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Administration possibly forcing student out
In my (mathematics) PhD program, the administration has started to crack down on students who are not making their way through the program in a timely manner. This has only started in the last year, and is being aimed mostly at the lower years students who have not passed their qualification exams yet.
The problem is, there is a third year student who has not passed all of their qualifying exams, but is doing good research, and has a published paper, has an advisor, and so on.
They might pass their quals now (we offer them at the beginning and the end of the year), but if they does not, the executive officer of our has made it clear that they will be kicked out (they are one of the six, out of twelve, third years under such threat). This seems ridiculous to several of us, since they are working much harder and making more progress than many of the older students.
Several of us have decided that this outcome is not acceptable, given the circumstances. How should we proceed, if they do not pass the two quals they need to? At this point we are planning to draft a joint email. Should their advisor cosign this, or would a separate approach be better? There are several other faculty who would cosign as well, if that is relevant. Are there other actions we could take?

Are you saying that the students will be kicked out if they don't pass quals this month or at the end of the year?  If the former, did they know about this in advance?  And do you have some kind of "conditional pass" that's in between outright passing and failing?

Well, will they pass their qualifiers? What is preventing them? They are a hurdle that generally is a specific requirement. How long would you be willing to wait for a student to be able to pass them? Do you believe that there should be no limit, a 5 year limit, or what? Things to contemplate, and separate from the case of a single student.

You sound kind and thoughtful, but, if you're a student, you don't really have standing. You can help the student prepare for their quals, but there's no reason the administration should care what some grad students think of another grad student.

@Kimball The student will be kicked out if they do not pass quals this month. It has been made clear that there is no middle ground.

@JonCuster I am certain that they would have passed one, but this (recently implemented) policy forced them to take two at the same time, over the end of a summer where they were moving around a lot. I didn't say there should be no limit, but frankly that's the way it has been treated in previous years.

@Ryan: To clarify, are you a grad student or a faculty member?  Support from faculty may have an effect.  Support from grad students likely won't.

Can you clarify/specify if this is the USA, Canada, or somewhere else? (This might affect the likely institutional or legal options)

@NateEldredge I am a graduate student

@YemonChoi This is in the USA

The way your question is written (with expressions like "we offer [quals] at the beginning and the end of the year", "There are several other faculty who would cosign", and in general the use of "they" for the students vs. "we" for the people taking action), you make it look like you are a faculty member too. Since you said in the comments that you are not faculty but a grad student, you might want to make that clear in the question, so answers can be tailored to your actual situation.

Many institutions put requirements for progress for doctoral students. This has been going on forever and isn't special to your institution. It is only unfair if the people have inadequate notice after a rule change.
The problem, for the institution, is that such students use resources that might be better applied elsewhere. It is a judgement call. Some places have very strict rules and if you don't meet them, you must move on.
State sponsored universities, in particular have this problem as many of the funds are from public sources. A private university (by the US definition) can have a bit more freedom.
There is probably little pressure you can apply as a student, unless you can convince a large part of the faculty to oppose such a rule. You are making a judgement, of course. It may be valid or not, but others have their own judgements to make as well.
Sad to say, if a person isn't making progress it may be that they should do something else, instead. My preference is to let them see the issue and make their own decision rather than having it imposed on them, but the people who need to balance budgets may have a different view.
I once had to make a difficult academic decision and wound up moving to a different institution that turned out to be better for me in every way. It isn't the end of the world.

I understand that the student might be taking resources from others, but in fact this is exactly my issue with the administration's policy: there are many older students who are taking up resources and literally have made no progress on original research or thesis work, but will be allowed to stay (due to, e.g., advisor pull). The student in question is making progress, moreso than many others. Also, the rules have historically not been strict, they have been extremely lax, and only at the end of last semester has this new policy been talked about.

@Ryan If this student is getting support, is it from a professor's grant money or from the department? The dept may be undergoing (or foreseeing) a budget crunch.

I have never seen a department where these type of progression rules are not flexible. If the faculty want a student to continue, they tend to find loop holes. If they want a student gone, qualifying exams is one of the easiest ways to get rid of them. If half of the third year students are under threat of not progressing, something is odd. Presumably, the department wants people to take (and pass) their quals. Regardless, I doubt that you, and your fellow students, can influence the outcome.
This is all a precursor to making you (or me) feel better about my advice that putting your head down and STFU is in your best interest. If the student is at risk, speaking up will make you both friends and enemies. Part of being an academic is learning which fights are worth fighting. This one does not seem to be one.


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Applying for assistant professor position with limited teaching experience
I am applying for an assistant professor position at a research university (in one of the hard sciences). It is stated in the announcement that some teaching will be required, and a teaching statement is needed for for the application.
I only have limited teaching experience. I have never taught a full semester course. I have helped out colleagues by teaching their courses for 1-2 weeks at a time, while they were travelling. Thus I taught as many as 7-8 different subjects, mostly graduate courses, but always for a very short time (except once, when I did it for 2 months).
I did enjoy these short opportunities to teach and I was hoping to be able to teach a full course at some point, but at my current job this was unfortunately impossible for a number of reasons outside of my control.
Will this lack of experience seriously harm my application?  How should I approach writing the teaching statement in my situation?  I do have opinions on how to each effectively in the classroom, but they may be naïve: they are based more on my experience as a student than as a teacher.  I am even less confident about laying out a syllabus for a full semester (what is too much or too little, best organization, etc. -- following a textbook is not always an option).
Should I describe and discuss my background at length?  I fear that doing so will highlight my inexperience too much.  But not doing so makes it difficult to beyond generalities.

I have seen similar questions on this site. Mine is different in that this is not primarily a teaching job and in that I do have at least some experience, but worry that it is just not enough.

No time for a full answer, but note: your experience level will be obvious, you do not need to worry about "highlighting your inexperience." It is always better to be specific, even if you have limited experience.

Are you a finishing PhD student, or have you done some postdoctoral work? How your teaching experience compares to fellow applicants depends upon your career stage (for example, among finishing graduate students, you're actually reasonably close to the average).

Will this lack of experience seriously harm my application? - It really depends on the school/department/position.

@GregMartin Actually I have been a postdoc for several years, but at my current appointment it was not possible to teach.

We can't tell if the lack of teaching experience will hurt you or not; too many variables. But I can share with you how to prepare yourself on this front.
Make a clear inventory of all your guest lectures, reflect on them
Do know that most job market candidates have not taught a full course themselves and nearly none of them had developed a course for real by themselves. Your profile is definitely not in the dismal category so you shouldn't beat yourself up too much. In the teaching experience section, list all of the relevant guest lectures you have done, and make sure to highlight the 2-month one, as it's already 2/3 of a semester. If you can survive 8 weeks, you can likely survive 13 weeks.
Do also recall the title of your talk, class size, undergrad or graduate students, any in-class activities you have used, any evaluations you have applied (assignment, quiz), and if you can get a hold on your colleagues whom you helped, check if their course evaluations had any entries that are pertinent to your performance and ask if they would allow you to quote them.
Also, since it's a research institute, it'd be important to document your 1-on-1 mentoring experience as well. Any entries on supervising students or postdocs should also be captured.
With this inventory listed in front of you, try to dive deeper to remember how and why you explained the concept a certain way, why you decided the sequence of slides/notes were better this way. New teachers often worked on hunches, but most hunches have some reasons behind them. And most of them are a direct manifestation from their experience as a student. So, in fact I think it's totally fine that you based some of your teaching philosophy on your student identity.
Develop a clear set of vocabularies in learning and education
There are a few titles I enjoyed and found useful when learning how to teach:

How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Ambrose et. al.
Tools for Teaching by Davis
Student Engagement Techniques by Barkley
Teaching What You Don't Know by Huston
What the Best College Teachers Do by Bain
The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions by Seldin et. al.

If you have access to these titles, definitely check them out. You should be able to garner a healthy amount of concepts and vocabularies about teaching, and apply them appropriately in your teaching statement. By the end you should be able to sensibly talk about things like Bloom's taxonomy, backward engineering of syllabi, action words in learning objectives, summative and formative assessments, etc.
Some schools (perhaps your current one as well) periodically conduct teacher development workshops. While you're there you can also try to enroll in some of them, or at least contact them for online or published references on learning theories and teaching methodology. They will also be an excellent source for sample teaching philosophy.
(I think) there is no recipe for teaching philosophy
I have come to a conclusion myself that there really isn't a golden formula for how to write a good teaching philosophy. It is really an authentic statement about your current teacher's state of mind. (I looked at my teaching philosophy written 4 years ago and I found that silly as well.) A little bit of naivete is not going to hurt you.
What I found, however, is that it's easier to develop this document if you sit down and ponder about 3-5 statements starting with: "I believe learning should be..." and then elaborate from there. If you have done your inventory and literature review meticulously, you should be able to come up with a few that resonate with you.
It is also common to mention what kind of courses you're ready to teach. Most committee members would find that easier to imagine how to incorporate you into the teaching roster.
Seek help from peers
And since you mentioned you have helped some other faculty pals, definitely consider getting their feedback on your teaching philosophy. The people working at the faculty development will also be a good resource if you don't wish to publicize your job hunting.

And somewhere in these materials, acknowledge that full-course teaching was not an option at your current institution, and that you're looking forward (if that's accurate) to developing that part of your skillset as well. (And meanwhile, look here at all the cool things I voluntarily did even when I had no assigned teaching...!)

I've been on hiring committees for adjuncts and full time instructors at the community college I work for (I support our online courses and teach for the ITE dept. as an adjunct).
We do look at what has been taught, at what level.  We look for experience with things like lesson planning, planning content for an entire semester, how students grades are computed (labs vs projects vs exams).  Being in IT Education, we also look for real world experience, industry certifications, the skill set we need filled (can't really use a networking guru to teach iOS/Android programming), etc. just like any other job.
One thing that we always do is have candidates do a 15-30 minute "teach us".  We give a topic that has a few areas that tend to give confusion on first introduction and see how they do.  From what I understand most academic departments on campus do this when hiring adjuncts and faculty.
A total lack of "real" teaching (full term at a similar or the same institution in the same or similar department) isn't nearly as detrimental as a lack of any kind of teaching.  And since everyone has to start somewhere, the "teach us" gives us a chance to see what the candidate can bring to the table.
Re: Teaching philosophy - yes, we do get into that.  Teaching to certification tests, good or bad? Why?  What is better for evaluating the type of learning we care about (trying to product a halfway decent junior programmer or network admin) - exams or projects? Why?  Should we consider attendance as part of the grade (heck, my 7th grader doesn't have it as part of his grades!), etc.

I will give a partial answer because you've already got two good answers.  I will provide one suggestion that was not covered previously.
When you are in the classroom as a student, you of course notice some things the instructor does well, and some not so well.  But you are primarily there to learn.
When you go into a classroom as an observer, you are free to devote yourself entirely to the observation role.  You can take notes that focus on what's working in the teaching and what's not, and you can observe the level of engagement of the students.
You can prepare for this application, and for a teaching job, by observing classes and keeping a journal about your observations.  Doing this in conjunction with your reading would be the best way to go about it.
I think it's okay to be honest in your essay.  Try to strike a balance that projects self-confidence, humility, and a willingness to learn from your students and from your colleagues.


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Ok to ask about grading scale?
This is in the US. I have a professor (humanities) who grades everything with check, check plus, or check minus. Then, from these grades, she computes a numerical score and from there gives a letter grade.
I wanted to calculate my score in the class to confirm everything is being calculated correctly (don't trust English profs with arithmetic). The problem is that the professor has not disclosed to us what a check, check plus, or check minus represent numerically, other than to say a check is "in the neighborhood of a B plus".
Would it be fair/non-rude/appropriate to ask her what, exactly, these categories correspond to? Since the score is calculated numerically based on the syllabus weighting, I would like to be able to see e.g. check = 86, etc. (Also, this is a graduate class, but not sure that's relevant.)

I used to grade that way.  Check got full points, i.e. 100%.  Check-plus got full points with a smiley face.  That is, full points and recognition of exemplary effort or performance.
Check-minus got zero points, but with the opportunity to revise and resubmit for full credit.  (Your professor obviously has different meanings, sadly.)

"don't trust English profs with arithmetic" I have to say I find this statement troubling and I question whether you are reliable narrator.

Yes, it is ok to ask and to say that you really need to know how you are doing. But, I'll guess that  you won't get a specific answer, or, at least, not as specific as you like.
It may be that the "scale" is really just "preponderance of evidence" for the various grades. After all, the grading system in the US is fairly crude with only about five levels of grades. So, since you don't have a percentage score recorded at the end or a total this might be adequate for purposes of grading.
I would hope, however, that the instructor gives you some written feedback on what you write as well, so that you can see how you might improve.
But, yes, you can ask, and it isn't rude.


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Does a sponsored invited talk count for my cv?
I was invited to give a presentation in a lunch symposium of an important national medical conference. The symposium was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company (my talk was unrelated to their product).
Would this constitute an invited talk in my cv (or keep it a secret)?

I imagine most conferences and symposia are sponsored by someone or the other, is it not the case in your field?

The conference was organised by the national society of internal medicine, but they have slots for sponsored content, where there are usually 2 talks about serious subjects and one that may mention a product of said sponsor. This is the case for all national conferences I know and although it would be even better to be an invitee in the main program, this was not bad in my opinion. Just not sure if it would count.

The company didn't pay you right, or recruit you specifically?

Normally the sponsorship would be irrelevant to your CV, but in the unlikely case that you were invited by the company instead of the conference, you should specify that in your CV.
My expectation is that the organization of the conference presentations and the sponsorships are completely disconnected.  The sponsorship is simply an opportunity for a company to place their advertisement during the symposium.

You can put anything on your CV that you are proud of and that you think might be useful for someone to know. It is hard for anyone but yourself to really judge that. If it was paid and could be interpreted as a bribe, then it would be problematic, but otherwise probably ok.
So ask yourself, were they just currying favors or did they really want to know what you had to say.

Not trying to be insulting, but big pharma has a reputation that isn't the best.