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How to initiate the collaboration 'talk'?
Following my question How to effectively e-mail a professor I met briefly about collaborative work? here, I managed to convince the professor for collaboration. Now he has linked me to his post-docs and a Ph.D. student (his emphasis was more on the Ph.D. student).
He told me to contact them and see how we can collaborate. (actually he sent an email keeping all of us in CC, i.e. me and his post-docs and PhD student).
Now I have an idea that I should read a couple of student's paper and then proceed in the direction. But what would the veterans in the academia suggest should be my approach so as not to miss this opportunity?
PS. Not sure the second tag is correct or not!

Can you clarify what your goal is? As I remember the original question, you had a project and just wanted to use their testbed. But now it sounds like you're trying to joint this group.

Yes, I want to use their test-bed. I don't want to join their group AS OF NOW. First I just want to use their test-bed. The thing is using their test-bed, I need to inline my research with the research group as we are working in the same thing, but using two different technology. (wifi vs cellular)
IMPLICITLY, I aim to impress the professor and research group to join them (but as of now this is not my aim).


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Should I upload my conference paper to extended (but entirely novel) Journal submission?
I am submitting my journal article to IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.
This is a completely new work. However, initial results have been submitted
to IEEE Globecom 2018 (the result will be announced on July 15th).
My question is, should I upload my conference paper to the journal submission?

You should almost certainly check this with IEEE.

As I understand it, the conference paper and the journal submission are related only in that (you wrote them both and) the referees for the journal will need (or at least want) to see the conference paper in order to do their work well. Many journals have provisions for such "additional information for the referees". If it's not clear from the journal's web site, then you should ask the editor who handles your paper.

IEEE (at least in Computer Science) has a 30% new materials rule to make a journal submission out of a conference proceedings. You seem to have no problem meeting this threshold. Reviewers will be asked to speak to the novelty of your submission and whether this mark is there. Therefore, it is customary to mention the conference paper in the cover letter to the editor and to include the conference proceedings. When reviewing for IEEE, I often to Google scholar searches, and I would likely come across your conference paper. If you include it, everyone's life is easier, so do it.

As @Buffy said, it is best to check with the journal. However, in the social sciences, the normal practice is to write up a conference paper and present it for discussion with your peers.
Based on the feedback you receive, you will often rework your paper and then submit it to a journal. Most journals have the stipulation that they will accept articles based on conference papers as long as there is (at least) 20% or 25% new content.
If you have no new content, that might be a problem because the journal is not publishing something "new."

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About solving research papers involving complex Mathematics
Throughout my Ph.D., I have had difficulty in solving (maths in) research paper from other researchers. After the basic few steps, the researchers assume either one thing or the other thing, or have a complex integral or derivate (or any other) format and then come up with the solution that is entirely unknown to me. Sometimes after rigorous effort, I find the way authors solve. But mostly, I assume what they did is right and then carry on (which is not the right way).
How do other researchers (students) deal with this issue?
PS. I am from wireless telecommunication background

Learn more math...? There's no royal road.

@NateEldredge in some branches of physics and engineering, authors often omit important mathematical steps and definitions or make serious mathematical errors in their papers, even in top physics/engineering journals. I work in mathematical physics, and I've found sometimes that even the top mathematicians in my field don't understand the math underlying physics papers in our area. I don't think this is an issue of OP not knowing enough math, it could just be that mathematical rigour is not a high priority in journal papers in that research area.

@NateEldredge. Thanks for the comment. Yes, you are right one need to sharpen the math skills. But as DarrenOng pointed out, since we are engineers and not extensively trained for maths, it sometimes get a bit tough to merge Idea or design with math. This also leaves less time for us to practice more math due to time constraint. Example, the other day I was stuck with an equation in a paper where authors say that eq(x) can be solved to Hyper-geometric function. Now I have been looking for some time now and could not find how? Hence, I assumed what he said is correct.

I would start with e-mailing the authors, or perhaps other experts in your area that you are close to and asking for help from them. I've found that a lot of researchers, even big names, are happy to discuss details about their work (or at least they seem to respond to questions of this nature more frequently than you would expect).
Keep in mind however, that in some fields of physics and engineering (I am not sure if this is true of yours) mathematical rigor isn't a high priority, and so it can be impossible to verify the mathematical reasoning in the paper, even for expert mathematicians working in your area. As a mathematician I find this frustrating, but my understanding is that researchers in physics/engineering are more concerned with the big-picture ideas than making sure all the mathematical details are correct, and perhaps you can take that attitude too.
As an example, my collaborators and I were trying to understand this physics paper (from a top physics journal, written by a distinguished physicist), and we found it impossible to understand the mathematics- there was a step in the calculation where they had an infinite sum that clearly diverged! We emailed the author, and he acknowledged that the sum diverged and the calculations in the paper were not correct, but the idea was still valid. This is a fairly typical point of view in physics and engineering from my experience. So it might be good to adjust your expectations on to what extent you can recreate the mathematics in a physics or engineering paper.

How was "the idea...still valid," despite "the calculations in the paper [being] not correct"? I appreciate that a result can be valid, even if the proof is wrong, but how can we know whether a result is valid if there's no correct proof?

@user2768 typically when physicists say this their idea "intuitively" makes sense, and/or they have numerical/experimental evidence to back them up. Both were true in my anecdote, and in any case my collaborators and I were able to rigorously prove their claims eventually (after a lot of effort). This is just something one has to get used to in mathematical physics: mathematicians and physicists have very different standards of rigor.

I suppose less mathematical rigor should be expected by anyone who hasn't been extensively trained in mathematics, yet relies on mathematics, which includes physicists and many other disciplines, e.g., computer science, economics, engineering, ...

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Can I have two system models in the same paper, for the same research?
I am writing a paper in the field of telecommunication. I would distribute my paper into two parts. In the first (more general) part, the system performance for all mobile-phone towers is considered. Results derived from this part are used to study one particular mobile-phone tower. For the first part, I use probability over the entire region. For the second part, I only consider a single tower and revolve my study around it.
Question: Can I have two system models in the research paper with the explanation that I have given above?

I don't understand why you think there might be any problem with this. Whether the two parts support or contradict each other shouldn't matter either.

Just asking as I have not seen any example in my experience. Also, I am a PhD student so less experienced in writing

A Ph.D. student has an advisor to ask questions like this.   Someone who knows the normal of the field better than we do.

Yes, you can. But be sure to follow the common structure of a scientific article. That means that you have to have 2 subsections at least on the procedure section (AKA materials and methods) as well as on the results section and on the results discussion. These sub-sections are those related to your 2 systems.
I would conclude about the paper as a whole. Also, be sure that your introduction states at the end the interest of studying two separate objects: if the first object is more general, is the idea to apply the methodology to a smaller system in order to validate it. Or is it the idea to get a generalization of the findings obtained for the smaller sub-system? Usually the latter is widely better accepted. In that case, you should put the smaller sub-system first.
I hope I have helped you,
Cheers,
Miguel Andrade
Mechanical Engineer,PhD


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What tense should we use when referring to a paper or experiments from other researchers?
While writing the literature review section, I am confused about which tense should I use (past, present perfect, or present) while referring to other people's work.
I understand that established facts are presented in the present tense.
Work done is presented in past or present-perfect tense.
But in what tense should I define their (i) system model, (ii) experiments, and (iii) results so that the overall picture remains coherent and it does not seem like I am jumping from one tense to another?
What is the basis for using any of these tenses?

I present established facts in present tense, indeed. Other people's work that has led to these facts is presented in past or present-perfect. So for example: "Snippert et al. established a confetti mouse-line, and after doxycyclin administration showed that intestinal crypts tend towards clonality."

To do this, you do need to know what counts as an 'established fact' and what is just the latest theory. The history of science is littered with 'established facts' that no-one now believes. The Greek word hubris describes the attitude summarised thus: "Back then they thought X, but now we know Y". In truth Y is just the latest theory; it could be overturned tomorrow. These thoughts suggest to me that a sprinkling of "generally accepted" and such-like phrases would be prudent.


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The order of Aims, Objectives, and Research Question in the grant proposal application
What should be the order of my Research Questions, Aim, and Order in response to the following section. The order that looks logical to me is Research Question => Aim => Objective . Any suggestion?

Aims and Objectives (up to 100 words): Please state what the proposed project intends to achieve, what the achievements will look like, and what tangible activities and benefits are expected. This may
include a statement of research questions, if appropriate.

The manner that looks natural to me is the following. Any suggestions?

Research Question

This is the research question that has intrigued me.

Aim

This is my aim that I want to achieve.

Objective

This is Obj 1 that I will deliver.
This is Obj 2 that I will deliver.


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Should I share news of best paper award post-interview (for a faculty position) with hiring committee?
Last week I had an interview for a faculty position. I haven't received any response yet.
But today one of my papers received best paper award in an esteemed IEEE conference.
Is it professional, and wise to share this information via email to concerned people at the hiring committee? I don't want to look like very childish or eager for this position (although I am eager because the university is among the top-ranked in China). But I want to share this info - who knows it may have a positive impact on the decision!

The thing I'm definitely weary about is mentioning an "esteemed IEEE conference". IEEE is now essentially a label you can buy for money. It would be better to speak of "a top conference", "an A-ranked conference" etc. if that applies.

@lighthousekeeper Why not the conference name?

@GoodDeeds Oh yes, absolutely. One should mention both the conference name and the fact that it's a top/A-ranked conference, if that applies. (Still agnostic about the actual question if it's a good idea.)

The conference name is IEEE WCNC @lighthousekeeper

The word "esteemed" is an anti-word. Don't use it, it is often associated with scam conferences (e.g. invitations with the words "Esteemed Professor" are almost certainly scam invitations). This is one example where a positive word has turned into its precise negative.


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What is an "innovative statement" for faculty application?
I am putting together a faculty application for a university in Russia.
The University has asked for an "Innovation Statement", along with other documents.
This is the first time I have heard of any such statement. I have googled the term and did not found much information, except one interesting article about "innovation mission statement" which does not fit well with a faculty application.
Any idea what an "innovation statement" is?

A mis-translation of 'research statement', perhaps?

Did they ask in English, in Russian, or both?  If they asked in Russian, what was the Russian term they used?  Some of our Russian-speaking members may be able to help.

No, they ask in English only.
@avid, no I don't think it is a mistranslation. They have separately asked for a research statement.
Besides, their English website is very professional :D

What makes your research novel, exciting, ground-breaking or significant should be delineated in a innovative statement. How you are advancing your field by eventually accomplishing your aims.


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How to ask for reference from a non-academic acquaintance?
I have a non-academic acquaintance who is at a senior position in the telecom industry. He might have good links in academia. I am thinking to ask him for suggesting or referring me to his contacts in academia for a post-doctoral position. I do not want any favor based on nepotism or anything like that, just a chance of getting my CV noticed.
I am confused about it being ethical or not. Maybe I am being too eager.
How can I approach my acquaintance about this without giving 'him' the feeling that I want his favor or that I want to use his name?
PS. It is about North American institutes.

There is nothing unethical about asking.

How can I approach my acquaintance about this without giving 'him' the feeling that I want his favor or that I want to use his name?

You do want his favor and name, but that's fine: If he helps, then he is doing so because he wants to.

You ask nicely, and by wanting his name to push your cv forward you want his favor and support.
So, realise what you are asking and respect that.


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9 Years of PhD, bad supervision, no data. What should I do?
I am a PhD student since 9 years. I am working on medical technology where I need intra-operative surgical data. When I joined, I was told that they will have collaboration with hospitals and other universities around the world so, I can have my experiments there.
After 4 years I got a chance to have my first experiment to acquire my first data with an artificial plastic bone and I presented my results on that data in a conference. After that my supervisor gave me some wrong data (someone else acquired that data for some other research) from a human patient to work on. Within a few months I told my supervisor that this data doesn't fit to my research topic. He forced me to work on it and modify the data so that it fits to my topic. It didn't work. He promised to have an animal experiment or cadaver experiment. But even after 3 years ( total 8 years from start) he didn't arrange any experiment for my research.
Then I forced and fought with him and finally I got chance for an animal experiment. That was also for limited data acquisition, for only one day. As this data was acquired by myself for my research topic, I got good results from it. I have written an article but now my supervisor is forcing me to include the old wrong data. I think he wants to get rid of the obvious accusation against him for wasting my time with the wrong data. He forces me to include the best result I got from that wrong data which I think is unethical and biased.
Even after 9 years he has not allowed my thesis proposal. Now he pressurises me to include that old part in my article and says if not, he won't allow to publish it and without publishing it he won't allow my thesis proposal which actually should have been passed in the first year of my PhD. So I have been waiting for 9 years to submit my thesis proposal too.
Besides, he never allowed me to visit other labs for internships. I had an international full fellowship from the European Union, which allowed me up to 12 months of internships in any EU country. But my supervisor never allowed me to visit any other country or other lab.
After 9 years I am still stuck in the same place, frustrated and psychologically stressed. I lost lots of money living abroad. For the last 3 years I have been living without any scholarship, only with my own money. I can't live with my family and can't bring my family to me as I don't have any money and I am in debt. Moreover, I have no thesis proposal submitted. It's a total ignorance to a PhD student, the poorest supervision. The university ruined my career and life by accepting me as PhD student but not providing the necessary resources for the research.
What can I do in this situation? Any suggestion?

Does your University have an ombudsperson? Can you find another supervisor?

Yes, they have ombudsperson. I don't know how they work but I am worried if I go there I might fall in complete dark as my supervisor may deny my thesis! in this situation after 9 years if he refuses, I don't think I won't find another one!!

I think you probably should have gone to talk with the ombudsman five or six years ago! You haven’t listed a location tag, but PhDs are typically 3-5 years, depending on whether or not they include 2 years of coursework or if they require you to have already completed a Masters degree and thus complete the coursework separately.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/62469/13240

Thank you for your reply. I already have a masters which I completed before joining PhD. Still I had to go through some courses for 1.5 years. The problem now is that still after 9 years my supervisor is not allowing the thesis proposal which theoretically should be done on the first year of phd before starting your actual research. Moreover even after 8/9 years they have not arranged any experiment for my research.

Get out of this program, soon.

But after investing 9 years of my life how can I get out of it? I can't loose this as I am from a poor family of a village in India.

Every additional day is another bad investment, as the previous nine years have shown.

For the last 3 years I have been living without any scholarship, only with my own money — Translation: Your advisor fired you three years ago.
Unfortunately, even if you accommodate your advisor's unreasonable demands, I think the chances of your finishing the PhD and getting a supportive reference letter from your advisor are minimal.  Talk to your department chair, talk to the research director, talk to the ombudsman, get as much support as you can, but meanwhile, pack your bags.

"Your advisor fired you three years ago." - how can he do that? I was waiting for my experiment with my algorithm ready(presented in conference too) and tested in an artificial phantom 2 years back? Its their fault that they couldn't provide me resources!!! While I signed the contract with the university it was decided that  university will provide me the resources!! And data or experiments are the principal resources which they failed to provide me. Do you think they can fire me? If so, in which ground? Cant I sue then for their negligence which ruined my life and career??

Its not realistic to apply for a new phd in this age that also after 9 years of working in another phd program! No professor is going to accept me!

I'd like to know what country this university is in?

The university is in Spain

Imho you are past the point of risking a bad relationship with this supervisor. Your case looks like terrible academic behaviour on their part bordering on psychological abuse. You need external advice on this situation, so you should contact the ombudsman or somebody with this role in your institution. Please note that this first step doesn't involve burning bridges with your supervisor and they don't need to know about it. Once you get their (hopefully useful) advice, you can analyze your options. Some of the possibilities could be:

the ombudsman/institution asking the supervisor what is their plan (sometimes a little official pressure is all that's needed to make things move forward)
a mediation with the current supervisor leading to a clear plan for you to achieve your PhD as soon as possible.
a change of supervisor.

Should I go to Rector or the director of research of the university first before going to ombudsman or should I go directly to ombudsman? I am afraid that if I go to ombudsman the situation may go worse!! though I have nothing to loose as I am already in the worst situation.

in my opinion you should go with whoever you feel confident to talk to, if that's the director of research it's perfectly fine. Just be aware that sometimes it's necessary to escalate one level because academics in the same department might try to avoid conflict with their colleague.

I don't know the consequences. Can I ask the university to fund me for the rest of time of my phd? or some compensation for the loss of my career and life?

You can certainly ask about funding but I wouldn't be too optimistic (especially about the chances of compensation). You can legitimately expect them to sort you out so that you can finish your PhD, more than that would be welcome but I wouldn't count too much on it.

Don't you think that its a gross negligence from the side of university? University is responsible to provide the resources for experiment. In my case they didn't !! Isn't it breach of contract?

You would have to ask a lawyer about that, but be careful: imho going down the legal road against the institution is likely to be an uphill battle, and you're not sure to win. I understand your frustration, but I think you should think about what's best for you in the long term: the institution is not going to help you if threaten them with legal action. Of course it's your decision entirely, but my impression is that if they give you a reasonable offer to finish your PhD successfully, you should seriously consider taking it and then move on to a better job.

Also I doubt that the institution itself is responsible for providing the resources, it's probably the supervisor's responsibility. It's quite common for experimental research to face difficulties with obtaining resources, afaik if there's no specific project funding it's up to the supervisor to find a workaround. Usually the institution itself doesn't have a budget for research resources.

The university was a partner of the funding project. The European Union was responsible for The financial part but for the academic part i.e. the supervision and resources for the research University is responsible. And when I come with that funding and I cant get the resources for my research and waste my funding, i think its completely universities fault and it should take the responsibility of my loss.

The general idea in a PhD is that the institution is in charge of providing you with a supervisor with experience in the field of study. Everything beyond that is up to the supervisor and the PhD student: funding, PhD topic, resources, publications, etc. What was the original plan for acquiring resources in this EU project?  Why this didn't work? your university pays your supervisor to take care of all this, they are not involved in the details of the research.

Since you are feeling stressed, you should visit your university's counseling center, if it has one.
What you should do depends on your goals and the university's rules.  We do not know either of those things.  Your university's omsbudsperson can help you understand the university's rules.
You should not work on a PhD if you do not have financial support.

Thank you very much. I wrote to university psychologist for an appointment twice but its over 1 year they have not provided me any date.

Visit the university psychologist's office in person, preferably early in the morning.  Do not leave without an appointment.

I went, there was no one. A notice was there and it says, "Please contact to this email for an appointment"


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Can I post my manuscript to Academia, arXiv, personal website, and submit it to a green Journal at the same time?
If my manuscript is accepted and I post my preprint on the arXiv, that will be fine. However, if I submit my manuscript to a "Open Green Access" journal, at the same time, I post my manuscript on two or more public databases (Academia, arXiv), is this allowed?

The answer to your question depends upon the specific journal's policy. Some allow pre-prints to be posted. Others do not.

What do you mean by a "green journal"?

@Anyon Probably "Open Green Access" or whatever this is called nowadays.

@PaulYuan See Richard Erickson's comment. It applies to your question and to the comment you just posted.

ArXiv does not require peer review.  (I'm a moderator.)

Chances are extremely good you can, but check with the journal/publisher. Policies vary from publisher to publisher, but most publishers will allow you to share a preprint.
Example policy from Elsevier:

Preprint

Authors can share their preprint anywhere at any time.

If accepted for publication, we encourage authors to link from the preprint to their formal publication via its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Millions of researchers have access to the formal publications on ScienceDirect, and so links will help your users to find, access, cite, and use the best available version.

Authors can update their preprints on arXiv or RePEc with their accepted manuscript .

Please note:

Some society-owned titles and journals that operate double-blind peer review have different preprint policies. Please check the journals Guide for Authors for further information.
Preprints should not be added to or enhanced in any way in order to appear more like, or to substitute for, the final versions of articles.


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The content of my manuscript is too complicated to be rewritten in the format of a journal. what should I do?
My manuscript is actually a new theory, consisting of four chapters, 15,000 words, so it cannot be rewritten in the form of a journal. If I delete some of the content to fit the format of a journal, readers will not understand the ins and outs of my theory.
What should I do? Can I publish it as a monograph? Does the monograph also have a scientific credit, and can be cited? Is it possible to publish a monograph without peer review?
ADD:
See below comments. I really appreciate all of you! I will take your advice. I will divide my manuscript into four themes, and submit the most creative ideal first avoiding arguments.
I am not worried that some people say that I maybe a "crackpot" because my manuscript has no "imagination" but LOGIC and math. I am an independent researcher, who thinks outside the box.
I just want to make a contribute to science. But I have no idea how to make a connection for these four themes when my manuscripts under peer review process.

Do you have an advisor who can help you with these questions? Them seem specific to you and your academic field and are likely off topic for this site.

At least in my field, it's likely that anything you would publish without peer review would be completely ignored as junk or, worse, the work of a crank. The exceptions are books, which typically cover existing work rather than present new theories and any new arguments or unifying themes are treated as the author's opinion: useful when the author is trusted and known, rubbish otherwise.

What field? Looking at the Physical Review family of journals, several of them are happy with articles of 20,000 words or more. But, really, if you can't break things down into chunks and explain the pieces well, it is going to be a tough sell.

Good short versions are rarely produced by deleting from a longer work. You generally need to build up, picking a key idea and writing the minimum to explain and support that idea.

You really, really need to break things down into smaller pieces and start getting feedback from others on your ideas. Right now, your statements send up red flags of "potential crackpot."  You may well have discovered something true and interesting, but until you start communicating with a larger community on its own terms that will be difficult to discern.

Here's a test that might help: if you cannot write the nub of theory/contribution in what would be considered a standard abstract (250 words, I'm afraid) - there is a chance that you do not fully understand it yourself, or need a help from a kindly supervisor or perhaps a professional editor on how to pare it down. Mind, if you can do this (and your theory is, indeed totally novel), you might be on the verge of greatness. Good luck.

Just to caution you, words like "my manuscript has no "imagination" but LOGIC and math. I am an independent researcher, who thinks outside the box." are similar to those used by cranks: they deny that their ideas could be wrong, and focus on their independence and unique thinking. If you haven't published before, you will likely struggle to do so without an academic advisor. People don't get PhDs just because the pay is awesome, they go through it to learn the process of research, which includes publishing, from senior researchers.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank_(person) which includes some common characteristics of a crank: "overestimate their own knowledge and ability, and underestimate that of acknowledged experts" ... "insist that their alleged discoveries are urgently important" ... "rarely, if ever, acknowledge any error, no matter how trivial" ... "love to talk about their own beliefs...but they tend to be bad listeners, being uninterested in anyone else's experience or opinions"

Related, with an example: I'm an independent researcher with a very long paper, how can I get help editing it and submitting it to a journal?

I am sorry. The answer to your question is: rewrite it. If you wish to communicate your ideas you need to make it easy, not hard, for the reader. No-one is going to read 15,000 words to understand the ins and outs of your theory without some kind of motivation. What motivation are you going to provide: 'Trust me: you won't understand this unless you commit to reading 15,000 words'? Why would anyone bother?
Try to imagine explaining your theory to someone you have met on a social occasion. What is the theory about? Why is there some question arising in that field that you have put so much work into? What is the question? What is the answer?
If you get that far, you might be asked 'Why do think that is the answer?'.
If you can imagine that conversation then you will have created an abstract of your work. that might give you some clues as to how you might break down your work into manageable chunks for publication.

Yes. I am rewriting it.

As in other answers, I think a large point is about persuasion: presumably your goal is to persuade other people to seriously consider what you've written... apart from "peer review" or "publication" in whatever sense.
That tends to mean that you cannot require people to read huge amounts to be convinced. The thing has to "have a hook" from the beginning, to get people to commit themselves to looking at the larger thing.
I distantly understand that things may be different in the humanities, but, even then, surely a persuasive opening gambit is a good thing?
So, in particular, as others have said, do not publish a monograph _with_a_vanity_press_. No one will take it seriously.
That is, if you are not already established as a professional, but you want your work to be taken seriously, you simply must jump over some hurdles. Some of those hurdles (details depending on your field) require fitting things into the standard boxes. If/when, as a novice, but also later, you say to people "oh, my work can't fit into the standard boxes" then you lose credibility. If you're a novice, you have no stockpile of credibility to "spend", so this is a very bad idea.
So, a very serious issue (apart from the necessity of talking to your advisor... or getting one if you don't have one currently) is establishing credibility... which probably means conforming to format ideas. Just do it. At this point in your life, don't tell people that you "simply can't" make your work fit into traditional molds, because they'll just think you're 99.99% likely to be a crackpot... (because, without knowing you, they will have heard such remarks from crackpots...)

Yes, I am rewriting my article. Give a  "a hook" at first paragraph.

Good! And good luck with it. :)

Contrary to what other answers tell you, I'll say that 15.000 words may not be the problem. I have had a couple of 10.000 word papers accepted in journals that specialize in long papers about theoretical topics, where you are in fact encouraged to spell out the details. This is of course field dependent.
What worries me is that you say that your manuscript is too complicated to understand without all 15.000 words. No one will sit down and read it cover to cover. Try to have a colleague, a supervisor or really anyone experienced with the field to read through your manuscript and ask for helpful suggestions to extract important bits that can be understood without necessarily understanding all the background, and make that into a shorter paper, which refers to the long one for details.

I will delete partial of my article for shortening the length. I intend to publish the uncontested parts first. If I get it published, it will draw public attention. And then, I will submit the controversial parts. The publishing process takes months or a year. It is too slow. If I submit the detailed manuscript of the derivation, the peer review takes only one or two days.

Note the following:

Your manuscript will most likely not draw any public attention by itself. You will have to present it at conferences.
Yes, the publication process will take time. Peer review of theoretical papers with many details easily takes months.
In no situation will review of your paper only take one or two days.

Some journals accept longer articles or a series of articles. You, an especially your article, have to be very convincing for that to happen, but it can happen.
You could publish a manuscript. Depending on the discipline, that will be absolutely standard to highly unusual. In the latter case your book has to be extremely exceptional for it to have an impact.
Also stay away from vanity publishers. They ask you to pay for publishing your book, and obviously they will publish any c**p you want as long as you pay. People know that, and ignore anything published by those publishers. So that is worse than useless.

Thank you. I will be carefully to vanity publishers.

People simply do not have time to read such long manuscripts from authors unknown in the field.  The odds are overwhelmingly in favour of this being crackpot work.  From the info provided by the OP, the odds are also overwhelmingly against this being published is a reasonable peer-reviewed journal: maybe it shouldn’t be but provenance matters to some degree and unknown authors, unless they are immediately (within 2-3 pages) clear in their writings, will be dismissed out of hand.
If the results are sound, the OP should first expose them to a professional mathematician, who can in turn contact specialists in the field if warranted.  Finding someone willing to spare some time on this might be a challenge, but such a “sponsor” might at least push some levers to increase the credibility of the OP.

Yes, too many crack articles with no peer review on websites. I don't read them but only read text books and Wikipedia.


text:
Do indexing services update papers after a name change?
I am transgender woman and recently updated my name (which also changed my initials). In addition, I retroactively updated my name on most of the papers that I have published in the last couple of years.
Looking around on the internet, it seems that none of the bigger indexing services have not yet picked up on this change. This answer suggests that this process might not happen automatically; however, this answer says the change should at some point be picked up by the indexing services.
So I was wondering: Will the indexing services update my papers in their databases automatically (and how long would that take)?
(Examples of websites that still list my papers under my old name are Scopus, Web of Science, DBLP, Semantic Scholar, Google Scholar).

This question is about changing the records associated to the individual papers, not listing them all under the correct researcher account, is that correct?

Yes. My main concern is that other researchers will start using my new name when they cite me in their papers. Some indexing services already list the papers under my new-name profile, even though the individual paper metadata still contains my old name.

I'm not sure that I envy the indexing services issue. It is true that more societies and publications are now making policy to make this easier. Now the indexers have to figure out how to add this into their databases in a robust fashion that preserves all the linkages between your papers and papers where they are referenced. Or, how they can properly respond to searches on your prior name (say from a physical copy) to link to your updated name. Adding a bunch of stuff to a database schema isn't going to be easy or fast.

@JonCuster I can't imagine this is a new problem. Changes in names have always happened and were very common among women who got married after writing their first article. I can imagine some databases were not designed with this in mind, but that was a bad design since the beginning. But surely this is a difficult problem to tackle, which is probably why it wasn't solved in the first place.
Anyway, I'm not sure about citations with your new name: when I cite a paper I use the name on the paper, not the one in the metadata of some database which may be erroneous.

@stanton63 - Way back when, names were not (could not be) retroactively changed on journal articles - they were printed and that was that. The databases started back then, and nobody foresaw that one could easily update the name on-line. So, no, it was not a bad design back then, it reflected the state of publications then - nothing was online, the copy you had was physical, not electronic...

@stanton63 Very few women had opportunities to do academic research in the times when these conventions started, fewer before they were married, and traditionally only women changed their names. More recently, people who want to stay attached to their publication record tend to either not change their legal name when they are married, or to keep their previous name in professional contexts even if they do change legally. There are lots of existing Q&A about this here.

"I retroactively updated my name on most of the papers that I have published in the last couple of years" Did you write to the journals that published the papers asking them to change the name? If not, how did you do it?

@Allure Yes, I contacted them. Most publishers are open to updating your name if you are transgender. For example see Springer's Authorship Principles. On our community's pre-print server I uploaded new versions of the papers with my updated name (and sometimes some other erratas fixed as well).

@dusk hmm that's surprising. I'm under the impression that once a paper is published, it's not really feasible to change it, because the metadata is already out there and the paper would have been distributed. You might be seeing the impact in practice: Springer can change your name on their website, but they can't change your name in the various indexing services.

@Allure More and more journals are changing their policies to be more inclusive of trans authors. A similar question 10 years ago probably wouldn't have resulted in any journals being willing to change.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, most indexing services (with the exception of Google Scholar) do not state that they will automatically re-index publications after a name change.
However, almost all of them provide a form (or some other means) to request data corrections.
Here is an in-exhaustive list of all the indexing services I requested my a correction for my name with:

DBLP: email: dblp [at] dagstuhl.de. FAQ page. Time until resolved: one day
Google Scholar: I haven't figured this one out yet, but this answer suggests that this will happen automatically.
ResearchGate: request form. Time until resolved: one day
Scopus: data correction form. Time until resolved: one month
Semantic Scholar: Profile name changes (done after through signing up) are reflected on all the papers that were matched to your name.
Web Of Science: data correction form. Time until resolved: [TBD]

As I proceed sending in the data correction requests, I will append new indexing services to this list, and how long it took from submitting the request to the data being updated in the index.
Update: Google Scholar seems to recrawl the papers from their original sources, but it happens slowly. No paper was updated after 3 months. But after 4 months some of my papers have been updated now.

For "select publishers," there is supposedly a mechanism for Google Scholar updates to propagate "quickly" (5-10 days after the publisher notifies Google). Otherwise, it takes months until they re-index (~quarterly). This is overall not great.

Here I'm largely guessing about what is possible. I would think that many such services would consider it desirable to update such things, but the problem is very difficult given the nature of academic publishing: many publishers, many countries/languages, etc. Thus, any attempt to do this would likely be slow and imperfect. It might, actually, wind up in a chaotic situation for some people and scholarship generally. There are both ethical and financial elements to this.
It is also an problem that updating without explicit permission of authors is an ethical issue.
Moreover, it is an expensive process with servers needing to constantly search of name changes and make updates, when those name changes might not be obvious as they are collected, if at all, in various places. And such reindexing would need to be applied to older papers as well as latest offerings.
The biggest issue, of course, is that changing the name in an indexing service would complicate citations already made. For this reason I suggest everyone to choose a name for publication purposes and stick with it throughout their career whether they change their legal name or not.
So, the best situation might actually be to make such updates only on request of authors after some verification. That is, best overall, but not best for a given individual.


text:
Academic conference visa for China
Salam. Has anyone ever applied to any conference in China?
I am having difficulty in filing visa application here in NZ. The Chinese embassy has returned my application without processing twice and the demand "A Letter of Invitation (TE) from local foreign affairs in China"...
I do not have the slightest of idea what it means and why would foreign affairs in China invite me? Can anyone help me in this regard?

Perhaps a letter from the conference organisers will suffice.

Or the conference organizers should know the right paperwork.

I have already submitted the letter from the conference which is auto-generated. The conference organizers replied after 1 week that due to technical issues they cannot respond to queries and looking to resolve the problem.

Try going to the Chinese embassy and asking there...

Perhaps you should wait for the conference organizers to resolve the problem.

Perhaps Travel.SE is better for this.


text:
Is it OK to change my research tools/methods completely after/at the end of my PhD?
In my Phd, I was using tools of stochastic geometry for my research. But I realize now that the juice has mostly been drawn of this tool at this stage and the new kid around the block is now Game theory, Machine learning (ML), and AI in my field.
I don't have any idea of ML at this stage, but while I am writing my thesis, I am now taking an online course for it. I just want to ask if it is OK to change my tools of research after I have done my PhD with another tool, and if I apply for a post-doc position, how will my recruiters judge me.

You can't be asking whether you can retroactively change the methods that you have already employed for your PhD research, so you probably want to ask whether it's ever okay to learn new methods after finishing (or at the end of) your PhD. I certainly hope so!

It's usually seen as a positive for a junior researcher to be able to broaden their scientific horizon.

Undoubtedly, to me, the answer is yes. I am free to learn whatever I want, whenever I want, and do the research I want, as long as it is following right scientific methods. I may even think of multidisciplinary research where I can learn other disciplines and integrate them in my research. Science is all about curiosity and continuous learning and exploring.

I am not from CS field, but in general if you are using different tools to address the same / similar research problem, then this should be more than in OK. Even if you think about how you present a job-talk: you can show your results of Phd, to explain why some questions could not be answered and what you did by applying other set of tools. In general, when you switch, I would suggest to think how the themes of Phd and postdoc can be linked in some, even not perfect way. It is not forbidden to have completely two research directions in PhD and postdoc, but you might benefit if you can show that they are related somehow (e.g., you might present yourself as a stronger expert with more publications).


text:
Can I patent part of my work presented that in my own research paper?
I recently published a paper in which I proposed a new transmission design relevant to wireless communication (skipping the details here).
Now I am thinking to file a patent but I am not sure if the work already published can be patented? Can the community kindly suggest me if I can patent this work either fully or part of it?

Once it's published usually you can no longer patent it. It might be possible that there are some novel legal changes in the US (IANAL), but the above is the default. Publishable papers are often held back because the authors want to patent the results first.

@CaptainEmacs, I think that is now false (in the US) and that you have a window of time to file a patent after publication.

Patent law varies widely around the world. The proper answer can only come from a patent attorney in your jurisdiction. If you are at a university, they probably have an office to advise you and even file patents. But don't delay. Time can matter greatly.

@Buffy Thanks for the update. I cautioned in my comment that I might have overlooked a legal change. In any case, this is lawyer domain.

I can just offer my experience. I am coauthor of several papers in which a very very big company was involved by, eg, paying the salary for one of us authors and in the frame of target pointed projects. They were managing to patent (worldwide) essentially all after I publish my standard articles. It seemed to me matter of the resources and skills in writing patents. I don't understand how it works :)

There are caveats to the grace period but the U.S. you have a one year grace period to file.
35 U.S.C. 102 Conditions for patentability; novelty.
(a) NOVELTY; PRIOR ART.—A person shall be entitled to a patent unless—
    (1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention; or
    (2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(b) EXCEPTIONS.—
    (1) DISCLOSURES MADE 1 YEAR OR LESS BEFORE THE EFFECTIVE FILING DATE OF THE CLAIMED INVENTION.—A disclosure made 1 year or less before the effective filing date of a claimed invention shall not be prior art to the claimed invention under subsection (a)(1) if—
        (A) the disclosure was made by the inventor or joint inventor or by another who obtained the subject matter disclosed directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor; or

For most all of the rest of the world, the day something is published it is no longer patentable, at least to the extent of what was disclosed. Nor is anything patentable that is obvious from what was published.

Consult your university’s legal team.
Most universities will have lawyers on staff, and often they’ll be pretty experienced in patent law. This seems like the sort of question that you should ask them, since they’ll be the ones who will know the full legalities for your location, and they’ll likely be able to assist you with the patent application.


text:
How can I make myself eligible for Mechatronic Engg. faculty with PhD in Electrical engg,?
My major in PhD is Telecommunication and there is one position for Mechatronic Engineer. How can I make myself eligible for the post. Since I am electronic engineering graduate with masters in Aerospace engineering, I have sufficient skills to take Mechatronic engineering as a faculty.
However, my last degree (PhD) is in Telecommunication. Any suggestions about what should I put in my application which can weigh in as something special?

You're applying for a job. Treat it like any other job application. Write a cover letter introducing yourself, explaining where you heard about your job, and how you meet the posted job criteria, and attach it to a copy of your CV, which should include all relevant details of your previous work and study experience (and, depending on region, might also be expected to include a comprehensive list of all previous employment and study).


text:
How to calculate/decide impact factor of a new journal
I have published my paper in a new journal in our field. The reason for submitting for this journal was the editorial board which consists of some of the top professors from best global universities (including University of Cambridge, University College London, Technical University of Munich, etc.).
Now I am applying for a job which requires me to list the impact factor for all my publications. Since the journal has only two issues yet there is no impact factor. How should I deal with this issue?

Obligatory question: are you really sure that the journal isn't a predatory one, listing the names of top professors without their consent just to attract inexperienced authors?

Yes, it is indexed in IEEExplore and part of IEEE Communications Society. (Also it is not open access or does not have any fee associated to it)

Deal with it honestly.  Say exactly what you said here.  "Since only two issues of the journal have been published, there is as yet no impact factor."

If the journal is SCI indexed a shorter way to say this would be simply "Impact factor pending."

I don't know if Impact factor is important today as journals such as eLife, peeej or f1000 etc. Don't rely only on impact factor. However, such as is your case I personally feel two criteria are important. One is availability in SCI or SCI expanded index and the other is PubMed.

As this is a new journal, as explicitly stated by the OP, what do you think the ratings will be on the two you suggest?

OP must rely only on the impact factor as their job requires it (as terrible a metric it may be).


text:
How do you address holders of non-Ph.D. doctorates such as an Ed.D. or Sc.D. etc.?
It is customary to call Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) holders by the prefix "Dr.", but I wonder whether the same holds for other doctorates, such as Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) or Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)? Does it make sense to say "Dr. Name" to such people?
Logically I think the answer should be yes, but I do not know if it is appropriate and/or common to do so.
(If it is country-dependent, let's take the United States as an example.)

Although the question is not a duplicate, I believe this answer applies.

I typically address them by their first names.

Traditionally, you would also address these people as "Doctor", as the distinction into different types of PhDs is mainly a naming thing.
As an example, look at Britain. Oxford University confers "DPhil." degrees, while Cambridge University confers "Ph.D." degrees. If you look at academic web pages of lecturers of British universities, they will be listed as "Dr" regardless of where they get the DPhil or PhD from. This is the same for other variants of the PhD as well.
Note that it can be that a person with such a degree does not call himself/herself "doctor" (which can be the cause of such a confusion). This can be due to legal requirements in using the Doctoral degree as part of your name or as a prefix to it. As an example, in Germany, if you got a PhD from a US university, you will typically not put a "Dr." in front of your name, as legally, you are only allowed to do so if you got a PhD degree from an accredited institution in a country with which Germany has a contract about seeing the degrees as equivalent. It is however fine to put a ", PhD (University name)" behind your name in this case. And there is no obligation to correct somebody if he/she calls you "Doctor" if you only have such a degree.

An exception may be "J.D." (Juris Doctor), the degree held by lawyers in the U.S.  Lawyers are not addressed as "Dr. Jones"

I remember a case, many years ago, when a prestigious US institution send out mail to all graduates of its "Bachelor of Laws" program informing them that they could exchange their diploma for one that lists them as "Juris Doctor". For a fee.

On the other side of the coin is the case of "Medical Doctors" who are called "doctor" but most of them wouldn't know anything about research if it bit them on the toe.

@Buffy might as well say “what about those academics who call themselves doctor who have no idea how to treat a sprained ankle”; when the average person hears the title Dr they tend to assume a medical practitioner. If any doctoral degree qualifies for the (pretty meaningless) title, they all do.

@rhialto Oddly enough, I'm a practicing lawyer and I had to review a case once where a judge actually made a decision on when it was appropriate to call someone "Doctor" while addressing them. The judge's determination in that case was that it was proper, but contrary to tradition, to call a holder of a J.D. as "Doctor". On the other hand, it was traditional to refer to holders of a Ph.D. or M.D. as "Doctor" but that a refusal to do so was not a breach of courtesy in the courtroom context even if done flagrantly and after a request to call them "Doctor".


text:
Difference between Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) doctoral degrees and traditional math, physics, cs, engineering and biology degrees
What's the difference between these newer computational science PhD programs and PhD programs in the traditional math, physics, cs, and engineering depts?
From checking out a few of these CSE programs online, it seems that they are programs, and not departments, in general, so that the programs have faculty with different home departments.
The interdisciplinary nature of these programs sounds appealing but I wonder if it's better to land up at a traditional engineering dept or a math dept, etc.?
For example, here's some material from Stanford's CSE program:

Ask Big Questions.
Solve Big Problems.
Doctoral Program We develop innovative computational and mathematical
  approaches for complex engineering and scientific problems, attracting
  talented PhD students from across the globe. Advised in research by
  more than 50 faculty from 20-plus departments, PhD students are
  immersed in a wide variety of fields including statistics and data
  science, machine and deep learning, control, optimization, numerical
  analysis, applied mathematics, high-performance computing, earth
  sciences, flow physics, graphics, bioengineering, genomics, economics
  and financial mathematics, molecular dynamics, and many more. PhD
  graduates find outstanding positions in industry and national
  laboratories as well as in academia.

The last sentence seems that the CSE program is more aimed to prepare their PhD graduates for work in industry, with academic jobs not being the primary goal.

Different horses, different courses...

with academic jobs not being the primary goal -- This is the norm in engineering, too.

"so that the programs have faculty with different home departments": I wouldn't consider this as particularly unusual. We had also programs with faculties belonging to different universities.

In interdisciplinary research the course works you opt need to be cohesive to help you develop an in depth understanding of the scope and application of the undertaken project.

With interdisciplinary programs, you gain different skills and may have to prove your skills more if you want to do work that falls into a traditional discipline. You have fewer boundaries and less structure (pro & con). You have more room for creativity and innovation but have to work harder to get your ideas accepted/noticed. You learn a lot of skills translating across different disciplines.
Also, you will not have peers doing the exactly same things you are. You're less likely to fall into comparison traps, because everyone has a separate path, but you are also less likely to have really strong study groups and similar support systems (e.g. ones with the same people across classes and across terms).
Further, it's good you noticed the "programs" vs. "departments" distinction. If most of the people whose first allegiance is to the program are junior and/or adjuncts, then you may have a much tougher time being prepared for academia through this program. If you want to be more competitive for academia, you would want to explicitly build relationships with tenured professors and get a disciplinary Master's degree or certificate (often possible at Stanford on the way to a Ph.D.).

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


text:
How long after PhD Major Revisions sign off
I got the result of major revisions following my second viva, and completed these changes, to resubmit a third time. Is anyone able to indicate the typical length of time for sign off following submission? The thesis went back to the examiner.
I have contacted the relevant administrative bodies to be told to wait. It's almost been a month.
Cheers
Edit: I'm in the Southern hemisphere (winter)

If your school is in summer vacation period, I think you'll have to wait a little longer than usual.

Southern hemisphere

This seems too variable to allow for a good answer. It'll depend on your examiner's schedule and level of care, on the details of your revisions, and on what's allowed at your institution. Googling about this, it's easy to find anecdotal experiences ranging from a couple of days to over three months... Your best bet is probably to apply for jobs while you wait.

I can't answer the question per se (as I guess no other than the assessment committee can). But I can add my personal anecdote :)
At my University there is a general rule of 2 months assessment time (1st handin). But for me after about 1.5 month I got a mail saying that the Ph.D. School of my university forgot to send my thesis to the assessers.
In general I would suggest that revision should not take more than 2 months.


text:
How to sort all the papers referenced by a given paper by citation count?
Here is what I want to do:

Given a paper, find the set of all papers referenced by it
Sort this set of papers by some "importance metric,"  for example, the citation count.

I find some ad-hoc tools (for example, research gate) to do #1 and there are a few databases (Web of Science, Scopus) to do #2, but the two steps are disconnected and there seems no easy way to bridge them automatically. I have been doing this manually, but it is very tedious.
Are there any efficient ways to do this?
Thanks

Microsoft Academic provides an option to sort references of a paper by citation count. I am not aware how complete or accurate it is, but you could try it out. They also seem to provide an API for automated access.
Screenshot of an example for reference:

Note: I am not affiliated with this service.

That is exactly what I am looking for. It is saving me so much time. Thanks so much.

I tested it on a few papers and it works really well.


text:
Etiquette of Publishing a Paper
I have an idea inspired by class project readings but is significantly different from the class materials and published work. I already have some promising results. I am tempted to do the research and try to write a paper on it and send to the journals. (This is in the field of CS and not much resources are needed to do the research.)
I am a Master's student pursuing an online terminal Master's degree. I have no prior experience with publishing a paper. Being an online program, I have no face-to-face interactions with the faculty, but I do have a lot of online interactions with the helpful TAs.
I am wondering what is the best way to go about this.

Should I indicate I am associated with the school?
Should I indicate that I am working with my professors/TAs, although I have never discussed the idea with them?
I have done a reasonable search on the existing papers on this idea and haven't found any. But there are thousands of papers and I am worried that I won't be able to do an exhaustive enough search to see if there is anything similar to it. How is this usually handled?
Similarly, what about related ideas? I do see that some ideas are related to mine. Should I try to reference all of them?
Is there anything else I should be considering?

I know the chance of actually getting it published is slim. But it is worth trying and I want to do it right such that the only thing I need to worry about is to produce something with quality.
Note:

I noticed that the original version of my question was not communicating what I meant. I apologize that it caused some confusion and responses based on that.
I am in fact not sure if I want to get a Ph.D. and do research for the school as a way of making a living. I have not decided. Right now I just want to finish the research, write a paper, and possibly publish it.
The motivation is not career. I just find the idea and results interesting.

You need more than an idea to get published in a journal.
A research journal contains articles written about research which has produced new knowledge. If you haven’t done the research yet, you probably shouldn’t try writing a research paper.
Instead, you’d be looking at writing a research proposal, detailing the research problem and the gap in existing knowledge and why it’s important, the specific research question you’re intending to research and how it will help address the research problem by filling in a part of the gap in existing knowledge, and the specific methodology you’re planning to use for your research, along with the resources you expect you’ll need.
At this stage of your career, you would then likely send this proposal to various faculties at universities that have academics working on related fields as a part of applying for a PhD program.

@TomBennett The resources in question could very well be “a year’s time, a computer, open source libraries X, Y, and Z, an IDE for the relevant programming language, and a student researcher with a faculty advisor”.

I think my question caused misunderstanding.  I am definitely not saying I am publishing a paper on the idea without research. I am saying I have an idea and seem to have some promising results already and am tempted to write a paper. But, although I have a ton of industrial experience, I am new to the business of publishing papers and need guidance.

@TomBennett In general, I think discussing it with a faculty member at your institution who’s doing research in a related field is probably a good idea.

I see. Thanks. While I would appreciate the guidance from a professor, I am not sure if I should be employed by the school to do this. I am wondering if I can just do this independently as a student with some help from the professors if I can get it, or otherwise just proceed on my own. Maybe I am naive.

You wrote that you have never discussed the idea with your TAs/professors. I would recommend you do just that. Tell the professor teaching the class how you thought about some course topics and extended it to this new idea of yours. The professor can tell you whether this is exciting enough to make into a research paper. If this can become a scientific paper you want the support of a professor, even if just for the formal aspects of writing and submitting a paper. Even if this will not become a research paper it would still mark you as a top student who thinks beyond the core material of the course.


text:
Is it plausible to change my major from pure math to applied sciences when applying for graduate school?
I am currently a third year undergraduate student in university. A year ago I decided to study pure math because I liked its rigorousness. As time moves on, frustration accumulates because I don't know what I can do with all the things I've learnt. Maybe it's partly because I haven't learnt enough, but you know what I mean. Since I am already in the third year and it's impossible for me to change my major in my undergraduate study, I am hoping to change to another major when applying for the graduate school. Not that I don't like math anymore, but I want to be able to do something with it.
The following fields are of my consideration:

applied math
computer science
electronic engineering
artificial intelligence, machine learning, image processing
physics

These are the difficulties I believe am facing:

My GPA is okay, but not great. If converted to US standards, I have a GPA of 3.5+, ranking approximately 20%~30%. My university is world top 50 (maybe even top 20, but different ranking systems do differ a lot).
Lack of research experience. Honestly, there's just not much research to do for an undergraduate pure math students. We spend most of our time studying existing theories, and there's not much experiment to do for pure math.
Most courses I have taken are centered at pure math. I may lack sufficient knowledge of the fields mentioned above. For example, a CS major student studies data structure in his/her undergraduate years, but I don't. This certainly weakens my competitiveness if our applications appear together on the desk of the admission office.

On the other hand, based on what I've heard and my understanding of my own capabilities, I do think there are some advantages.

A professor who taught a CS course actually said to us that other departments (engineering, CS, etc.) are actually very fond of math students and that we are very welcome to join them.
Ever since I've gotten used to pure math and have built a solid foundation, I find it considerably easier to read literatures from other fields. Sometimes my friends would ask me (nontrivial) questions in their own majors (physics, chemistry, economics, etc.) and after a little research, I would be able to provide answers.
I have taken some graduate courses. And I am studying a graduate-level (maybe even research-level) topic under the guidance of a professor.

That's basically my situation. And I would like to know:

How possible is it for me to change my major when applying for graduate school? What kind of school can I hope to get into (preferably in North America or Europe)?
Is it true that other departments welcome pure math students, as is said by the professor mentioned above? Would an admission officer focus more on my advantages or disadvantages?
What other fields can you suggest?

p.s. It would be helpful if in your answer, you can tell me whether you have experience being on an admission committee.

How strong are your programming skills?

@cag51 C++ (the most familar one to me, I have been using it since high school and have taken two courses in university), matlab and python (learned these in univesity). I've learnt algorithms like dynamic programming, etc. But not as good as a CS major student.

@cag51 I'd say my knowledge of these languages and algorithms is enough. Data structure might be my weakness though. I only know the simplie ones like queue and stack.

How possible is it for me to change my major when applying for graduate school? What kind of school can I hope to get into (preferably in North America or Europe)?

This isn't all that uncommon. In the CS Msc programme at my university (Leiden) for example, we get a lot of people coming in from Statistics. The emerging field of Data Science has caused Statistics and CS to become much more closely related fields.
Exact requirements will probably vary by university, but at least in the EU the system is set up to make it possible for people to combine pieces of education from multiple universities. A BSc in mathematics together with some catch-up CS classes will probably get you in the door in a CS master.
That's not the of the story though. Individual courses often have their own requirements; a masters' course on advanced data mining might require prior basic data mining knowledge. But that doesn't mean you have to have taken the data mining class offered at that university. Our CS master attracts a lot of students from other universities. The requirement just means that if you don't know anything about data mining yet, you're going to get thrown into the deep end.
Since these requirements are mostly "you should already have a foundation in", not "you must strictly have this particular class", you could also fill in those blanks with online courses or reading relevant handbooks.

Is it true that other departments welcome pure math students, as is said by the professor mentioned above? Would an admission officer focus more on my advantages or disadvantages?

What the admissions officer focuses on will differ from institution to institution. However, you should not be too discouraged by lists for formal requirements. People move from all kinds of places to all kinds of places, so partial matches are extremely common. Often you should be able to come to an agreement along the lines of "You already match ABC, but you need to pick up XYZ as well before you can enter".
Me for example, I wanted to switch from History to CS. For CS I needed a particular flavor of high school math as an entry requirement, but the remedial course they usually used was already fully booked. I found a remedial course at a different university and proposed that one, and they accepted that.
So approach the advantage/disadvantage discussion as a discussion where you look for a mutually acceptable solution. Be imaginative and constructive.
Right now, about halfway in the current academic year, is actually a good time to do this. If you can come to an agreement with regards to requirements, there is still a whole semester to take some remedial courses in a university or an online course that the admissions officer considers acceptable.

What other fields can you suggest?

As a CS student I'm a bit biased of course, but if you want to apply math, I'd definitely consider a  CS Master. Machine learning and data science tends to be a significant part of that, and a strong math background is quite useful there.
Apart from the hip neural network side of things (which is much more about matrices than you'd expect), I would also recommend optimization/decision support as an area of study. This has a big mathematical component to it, which "native" CS students aren't always as strong in. In the field of natural computing in particular, there are a lot of people doing projects based on interesting proof of concepts, but lacking theoretical/mathematical analyis. That's something that a math background could help you with.

I don't think it should be too much of a problem if you want to go into AI, Applied Math, or CS — even the top schools in the U.S. are willing to take pure math majors in these fields if they've taken a relevant introductory course or two in their desired field of study (and you have enough time to do that before you apply to grad schools). I don't know what EE will think of this situation. Physics would be harder because physics departments expect incoming graduate students to have a much deeper background.
You should email Applied Math/CS/EE/Physics graduate admissions at some of the places you're interested in, and ask them about your situation, and how much background they require. Graduate admissions departments usually try to help potential applicants and will answer questions like this.
I suppose if you're at some school where they won't let you take courses outside your field of study, or where they don't have computer science courses (say), you could be in a much more difficult situation. Are you?

Actually there are plenty of courses to choose from, including all the fields that I am interested in. The problem is, to be able to graduate, I have to finish a certain collection of courses. And those courses take a lot of time and energy. Math classes aren't easy, as you can imagine. If I choose another course in another field, say a CS course, I am not sure I can handle the workload and guarantee a good grade.

In my opinion, universities which require so many courses for their pure math major that they don't have enough room in their course schedule to take a few courses from different measures are really handicapping their majors in the job market—they will be prepared for grad school in pure math, but not much else.


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Did any of the social science experiments by the Nazis in WWII get published?
I've read that the Nazi's did a lot of cruel experimentation on Jews during WWII. I was wondering if any of these studies were published, and if they still exist. Preferably available in English.

A place to look for citations might start here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1323276/

There was news coverage of a US company using the results of Dr Mengele's experiments a couple of years ago... don't have a link to hand, but should be easy to find...

ask on history.se or historyofscience.se, much better answers to be expected there

I wouldn't call these experiments 'social science', 'medical' might be ok but 'biological experiments on humans' would fit even better. They did a lot of stuff to humans no ethics commity today would permit you to do to mice.

Well, USA infected Guatemalans with STD's and has aided the cartels in México. The nazis werent the only ones and the controversy  about using such data is still around.
You can find some information here:
The Arolsen Archives ( Information on victims of the Holocaust and concentration camp prisoners, this can, sadly, give you some jkeywords to look for in repositories) https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/
Also the papers can still be found online. I'm not sure you will find them in english, but the library of the congress of USA and the holocaust memorial archives would be a good start if you want to search them out in english rather than german.

Sorry to be harsh, but this does not look like a good answer to me. The first sentence is more like a comment; it is a digression, and possibly one that might attract strong controversy. The rest is more or less a link-only answer, except that some of the links are too generic to be useful ("search in the library of congress").

@Federico Poloni The topic is already controversial. OP asked if the papers were published and where could they be found in english and if they still exist. The link is to records that does exist and a general idea of where are files in english. The question isn't precise enough, but at least we can try to provide a general help.

Could you add a direct link to one of these papers then? Or a citation-like reference to it and a brief excerpt?


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Noting posters/presentations (formal project titles/dates/locations) essential for statements of purpose in US PhD programs?
I am applying to biomedical PhD programs in the US. I have taken part in 2 summer internships that resulted in poster sessions and presentations at local conferences. I have also taken part in research for 3 years at my undergrad. university that will result in a publication within the next 6 months (unfortunately, not in time for graduate school applications as this is my senior thesis).
In my statements of purpose when discussing my research projects, is it okay to simply talk about my hypothesis/question, methods, results, and overall implications without listing out the formal titles of my projects or how I communicated these projects (e.g. a poster session or a presentation in my cases)?
I have very limited space in my statements of purpose to discuss research, so adding an extra 1-2 sentences about my presentations (place, date, formal titles of project, etc.) takes a lot of extra room. I also am given the chance to upload a CV and typically list my posters/presentations in some sections of the application.
The reason why I ask this is because my PIs and advisors have told me to always list the "proof" of my work (e.g. poster or presentation in my case) at the end of my research explanations in the statements of purpose.
PS: Some applications tell me to highlight "whether any of these research activities [research projects] resulted in a presentation or publication." In these cases, I most definitely will include formal project titles/dates/locations of posters and presentations I gave.
Thanks for your insight!

Don't confuse the purpose of the CV with that of the SoP. The former looks to the past, what you have already accomplished. The Statement of Purpose, on the other hand looks to your future and what you expect to do in the future, both in future schooling and beyond. Together they provide a more complete picture.
So, I suggest that you only mention your past research in the SoP if it has research threads that you hope to follow in the future. And then, you only need to briefly mention the papers or projects (name, say) to create a link in the reader's mind. If you have work in progress, you can mention that.
Don't leave the committee wondering how you view your future. "I've been great up to now but, .... (nothing)".

Agreed. The prompts are usually quite clear. Describe past research, current interests, brief glimpse into future after grad school. My future goals after graduate school are pretty short because I don't know them too well now. Obviously, it would be research-related (maybe PI, maybe industry), but I think what most schools want me to highlight largely on are my current interests for: matching purposes, what I want to do throughout their graduate program, if I'm a good fit for the program...but I may be wrong?


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To submit or not to submit GRE Scores for PhD programs in the United States
With the GREs being phased out of so many PhD applications in the sciences, I think this question is reasonably fresh.
I have taken the GRE and scored in the 70 percentiles for verbal and math. I scored a 6/6 on the essay. This score is fine, but not "great" for top biomedical science Ph.D. programs that I am applying to (e.g. Duke, that wants 90+ percentiles).
Do you think it would be worth it to send my GRE report to show that I have taken the GRE and did attain a "reasonable" score? I have a strong application when looking at other factors (e.g. research experience since freshman year, 2 summer research internships at a hospital and in Amgen Scholar program, strong GPA, 3 letters of rec. from my 3 research PIs). Thus, I feel that my GRE score is the one component that does not equally compare to the rest of my application.
This may be irrational of me, but I am somewhat worried that the programs will wonder why I am not submitting a score given that it's clear I have not experienced major financial problems throughout my undergraduate career (nor do I come from an underrepresented/underprivileged background, which is a large reason to why the GRE has become an "optional" test now).
Thank you for your opinions.

Only the admissions committee responsible for judging your application will be able to answer this question.  Personally, I would not pay any money to send an optional score report.

Possible duplicate of How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students?

If the institution requires them they must be sent, of course. But, as you say, that is becoming more rare.
But if they are not required I would only recommend sending them if they were truly superlative, which yours don't seem to be. I doubt that anyone would consider that you were hiding anything if they aren't required.
Your application need to contain (only) reasons why you are well qualified for the position and highly likely to be a success. Don't include things that point in other directions unless required.

It really depends on the rest of your application. Are you a top applicant everywhere else and the score brings the package down? And how competitive is the program you are applying to? Is your score within their typical range? When standardized tests are optional, applicants will self-select where disproportionately only those with good scores will send them. And those with terrible scores but great everywhere else will apply to GRE-optional schools that are ranked higher than they might have gotten into if test scores were required.
Of course because of this, another sneaky side-effect of making GRE's optional is that the average test scores of these schools will increase. But I'm sure their motives are pure.
I suppose that does answer your question to a degree. Some people may suspect you didn't send them because they would hurt you. But others will not care, or actually be staunchly against standardized testing. Also we obviously can't be sure whether you took the test and did poorly, or just wanted to save your time and money and skip the hassle of taking it.
One final caveat though, people who don't want to see test scores generally may still be interested in test scores where they are absolutely the only way to rate a student's background, such as if you come from far away and attended an unaccredited school no one knows anything about. I don't know how widespread it is, but I have seen complaints about "discrimination against schools" on the part of some western graduate schools, where they don't even consider applicants from many schools. Basically (I presume) they don't trust the school's grades. A lack of standardized test scores to counter this would only hurt you more.

You're completely right and I should have clarified more. The main reason why I would even consider not sending my GRE score is because it's the one thing I feel that does not equally compare to the rest of my application. I have a strong GPA and have taken part in research since I was a freshman. Unfortunately, I won't have a publication until the end of this (senior) year, but that's okay. I have a lot of posters/conferences listed in my application. Most significantly, I've done 2 summer research internships (one for the Amgen Scholar Program at WashU).

So, I feel that although 70 percentiles are not horrible, they really will not add anything to my work. Hopefully my GPA/research experience/letters of rec. are what really shows I am a strong applicant. I was just worried, as you mentioned, that some schools will think I'm hiding something even with my strong application outside of the GRE. And since the score isn't "horrible," I felt it may be okay to send. But at this point, I may just bite the bullet and continue with my plan of not sending my score so I can highlight everything else and hope they don't think I'm hiding anything.

Sounds like you might not be the sort of student capable of succesfully completing your studies in a top-tier program. This is okay. Just aim lower.

And this is why programs are phasing out the GRE.

Hahaha, what a useful comment. I'll update you in a few months, maybe you're right?

I'm sure a student that scored some percentile less on the GRE is far less capable of one who scored a few percentiles higher. In fact, I think the GRE can 100% predict whether a student will succeed. Oh wait, that's the exact reason why the GRE is being phased out.

They are phasing out the GRE because Chinese people are memorizing the answer banks and generating horrible score inflation. This is coupled with the practice of testing multiple times without score reporting so that you can then submit your highest score. The test means nothing now because of these things. If you aren't capable of achieving a >90th percentile score then yeah ... you are probably incapable of conducting rigorous research.

You can downvote me all you want. I am still correct. You want to do a PhD in biomedical sciences at a top university but you are can't break into the 90th percentile in verbal and math? Come on, man (woman?). Don't be delusional. Harvard isn't going to take you unless you check a meaningful diversity box.

I've never heard your explanation as a complaint against GE scores. Certainly people memorize (and cheat) their way to high grades so we should throw out GPA's first. The more common complaint I hear about GRE's is basically political correctness; there is a disparity in scores between groups, therefore the test must be biased. Wading into such an area is bound to attract at least a few downvotes as people seek to enforce their "political agenda". Though some just are against the test because it is imperfect, rather like banning medicine to protect us from medical mistakes.

@ASimpleAlgorithm The GRE doesn't provide no information, but it is certainly biased and there's little if any correlation between GRE scores and research quality. The problem is that the way it gets used--as a filter for the first cut--means that the people it's biased against never get their applications read. That's just basic fairness, not "political correctness."

@ElizabethHenning they predict performance in classes fairly well. I happen to think that this in turn must correlate with performance everywhere. Perhaps you don't? As for the negative studies, it's really easy to fail to find a correlation by doing a bad study. The most obvious explanation would be they are using biased samples, e.g. where the students with poor test scores are very strong elsewhere because they had to be under previous admissions criteria. As for supposed "mis-use" of the test, I pointed that one out. The solution is obvious, use the same info better...


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NSF GRFP Application for a Rising Undergraduate Senior
Prefacing this, I am currently a rising undergraduate senior who plans to attend graduate school after I finish this last year. I want to work toward a PhD in neuroscience. Over the past year, I have been writing a grant proposal to submit the the NSF GRFP (https://www.nsfgrfp.org/). Throughout this time, I have been working with professors/past graduate students who have had their work supported by NSF GRFP/etc. and my work is based on Alzheimer's disease (aim 1 discusses a pathological mechanism that needs to be better understood and aim 2 addresses understanding a linkage between two mechanisms, 1 of which was discussed in aim 1, while also providing details on future treatment options in regard to antagonist drugs). Throughout my time writing, nobody told me the NSF GRFP does not want disease research...unfortunately.
After reading the NSF GRFP guidelines for this year, I was disappointed to see that they specifically stated that "disease research" is something they do not support. I find this extremely ridiculous, especially for undergraduate seniors rising into graduate school. Do you know if this is strictly enforced, or know if there is an easy work-around (e.g. taking out the word "Alzheimer's Disease" and subbing in more basic terms, such as memory deficit/etc.). Thank you!
Also, if you know of an NIH one that I can apply to instead for disease research, I'd be happy to hear. After I searched, the NIH didn't seem to have a good one for someone who is "white" and is still an undergraduate (soon to be in grad school).

From what I've heard, it's a pretty thin line to walk. Yo u may want to take a look at fellowships offered by the NIH.

I have checked out the NIH ones and I don't see anything really for me (as a non "underrepresented person of science" aka white. Also, I'm an undergraduate, so most NIH ones are for people in grad school or after.

NSF will not fund disease research because NIH does that.  If you want NSF funding to study people you must have a very good explanation of why it's not disease research.

In the US in neuroscience, most people apply for grad school without their own funding.
Funding for your research is provided by your research advisor; in your area of interest this will likely come from the NIH and possibly other private organizations specific for AD. You may also be funded for between a semester and a year to rotate with different potential advisors, such as via a T32 training grant from NIH (training programs apply to these grants, not students; students are funded by applying to graduate programs that possess such a grant).
NSF grants for students in neuroscience are very rare (looks like about 60 GRFPs were awarded this year in neuroscience; only 4 don't have an institution listed so I presume applied before being admitted); it's a good goal to shoot for, but not something to rely on. The requirements for the specific fellowship you are looking at specifically exclude disease research because such research is already substantially funded via other means; NSF is trying to fill the other underfunded gaps in very basic work. I would not suggest trying to bypass this by tweaking the language of your application.
NRSA grants (the NIH equivalent) are also somewhat rare, but more achievable. You apply after you are already part of a PhD program, sometime before the end of your second year most often.

Indeed, so far as I know (having worried a bit for some decades about funding for interdisciplinary math grad students, etc.) the idea is that NIH probably funds more senior PI's, and you'd join their projects. Similarly, to varying degrees, engineering grad students are part of their advisor/PI's project. Things change a little in Chem and Physics, and perhaps the extremal is Math, where there are very few Big Projects with a PI, etc. So NSF is (among other things) trying to compensate.


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Margin spacing on graduate school applications (PhD) in the US
I understand the standard margin spacing on personal statements is 1 inch, but I've read that 0.75 inches may be okay.
Most of the statements specify 1-2 page limits and nothing else. I'm wondering if 0.75 inch margins are okay, given that I have 3 significant research experiences to describe in my statements.
Any opinions on costs VS. benefits in my case: to lose content (it would have to be from my research experiences, as I already have the bare minimum writing that addresses other aspects of the statement, such as why I want to attend the school or long-term career objectives) or to possibly annoy one of the readers that I have 0.75 margins as opposed to 1 inch margins.
Thanks!

Also, I know most readers of this question will tell me to condense my work. That's understandable, but with 3 significant experiences, it's a bit harder. I built my short paragraphs that describe each experience in a way that the application readers will enjoy reading (hopefully)...e.g. posing the question, hypotheses, results and/or conclusions, and posters and/or presentations that came from my work (no authorships yet). I could remove the hypotheses we had for the studies, and so on, but who knows if that will detract from my writing.

A more common (and irritating issue) is the difference between A4 and US Letter page sizes.  If you make a .pdf file sized for A4 pages and then try to print it out on US Letter sized paper you'll have problems.

Whenever in doubt in such situations, it is always best to err on the side of fewer words. You do risk annoying the reader (who will see that your margins are smaller than the margins on the others they are reading), and you are assuming that the reader will actually finish reading your longer statement. Page limits are there to guard readers' time, and if they only have x minutes to devote to each statement, your longer statement will not be as thoroughly read and digested. Yes, they should probably have word limits to get around this margin problem (my Uni works with word limits, not page limits, for this reason), but you do risk diluting the time they spend thinking about you.
While I know you think your three experiences are so significant that they each deserve extensive treatment, being concise about important things is part of academia. For example, I recently had less than a page to display how my research background is world-leading enough to warrant being awarded €1.5million. You are given 2 pages only to describe why you want to go to graduate school. Having to express important things in little space isn't going to go away as you progress with your academic career; as time passes, more info goes in less space.

Page limits are also there to force the candidate to focus on what is most important and to express it effectively. See: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/

Good points - I'll definitely stick to at least 1-inch margins. I appreciate the feedback!

Don't do it, for two reasons:
1) One of the most important things about application materials is that they are legible. The page looks and reads better with wider margins. I have used 1.25in and 12pt fonts even when the requirements where 1in and 10pt.
2) Abusing space (small font, tight interline space, small margins) screams "I can't summarize!". I understand your concerns, but as GrotesqueSI points out, your situation is just the tip of the iceberg. It's surprising how much you can squeeze in a given space. Google "writing concisely" to find free resources by university writing centers. Follow all rules 90% of the time, and you'll probably be able to add extra words the 10% of the time when you really need them.
Just as an example, your question repeats three times that you are seeking advice on 0.75 vs 1 in margins. You also mention twice that you are thinking to shorten the part about your research experiences. In both cases, one time is enough.
(As an aside, I think you mean "long-term" research rather than "far-fetched." Far-fetched means unlikely to happen, which is not want to want in this context.)

Thank you, I see what you mean. I'll stick to 1-inch margins.