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After a plagiarism complaint, the journal is slow to respond and not taking any action. What should be done?
Someone from where I work took a piece of work I wrote and published it in their name without informing me. I gave them almost a year's time to remove that paper. They did not. Now I complained to the journal and forwarded the proof (Proof with a time stamp showing that this was written earlier than the paper was submitted). They further wanted to confirm with the professor in charge. Since then I did not hear from the journal.
I wrote them to proceed further if they do not get any response from the witnesses. Now I have not received any response from them for 2 months. Could you suggest further what to do to make them act on it?

I have provided email conversations between me and the professor to the journal. It clearly shows that I wrote the stuff before their submission. Email has time and date stamp.
Journal finally replied and denied further action on the grounds that your professors did not reply. I told them they could ask me more questions to authenticate the complaint, but they were unwilling. Moreover, the editor-in-chief wrote to me this time and told me that they were doing a favor to me and giving their precious time.

Have you talked to the professor in charge of your place ? "I complained to the journal and forwarded the proof" Can you tell us what kind of proof is it ? What do you mean by "they do not get any response from the witnesses." ?

Closely related, answer there might be directly applicable to your case as well: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/192917/what-to-do-when-your-entire-draft-paper-has-been-plagiarized-into-a-foreign-lang

Is the journal reputable ? Please reply under comment section or in the question.

@Roland Change that comment to an answer.  The institution is unlikely to respond promptly.

Plagiarism may be copyright infringement (not always, but if I take your material unchanged without your permission then it is). If that is the case and it is in the USA then you can send a DMCA takedown notice. I'd contact a lawyer to make sure you get it legally right.

OP's institution may also provide legal support since this isn't only theft from OP but also from the institution.

Good idea, might be more effective than a lengthy plagiarism dispute. +1

@NOBODY... it happened under the watch of the professor in charge. They only made me write it for a different purpose. Initially, they supported me and told me that I could always complain if I wanted. When I did, they took U turn and told me to fight it by myself. Now Journal asked them about it and I do not know what they replied but since then journal has stopped replying to my emails. Proof showing that this stuff was written by me. Email conversations with the professor in charge regarding the write-up and the same as an attachment. Witnesses are the professor in charge and HOD.

@ROLAND... My professors are discouraging me now from escalating it further. If I complain to the institution body, then the faculty of my department will form a committee first and all of them are so much pleased with this person. But still to complain with the Institute is a suggestion to think upon. Thank you.

I am not from US, but still I can not go legal until I inform institute.

@AnjanaThakur "Proof showing that this stuff was written by me." Any proof that the stuff was written by you before they submitted to the journal ? Time stamp ? Please reply under your question, not under the answer here.

Lawyers are expensive.  Takedowns are not worth money.

@AnonymousPhysicist, that is frankly nonsense. If you are in the USA, a DMCA takedown notice is very, very cheap. A fully working example is here: https://www.minclaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Sample-DMCA-Takedown-Notice.pdf Took me 20 seconds to google. And > 90% chance of immediate success. If it is NOT taken down, then the publisher is now legally on the hook for copyright infringement. So any lawyer will smell money and help you.

@gnasher729 I agree that a DMCA takedown is cheap, but a lawyer is likely still expensive if you need to take it further. In the US, the damages you can get for something like this are most likely quite limited.

@gnasher729 I think you agree with me.  "Takedowns are not worth money" means the copyright holder does not get paid when the material is taken down.  Maybe you thought I meant "takedown requests are not worth the money."  It is free to send a request.


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Am I chasing an obsession or should I apply 3rd time to complete my 2nd masters in Mathematics?
I am from a poor Asian country and I completed my masters in math in July 2020. I really wanted to do a PhD in mathematics outside my home country as in my country there is too much politics and discrimination and quality of research is low. So, I prepared for 2 years (except a period of 6 months during which depression kept me from studying) reading many extra courses. I didn't worked for much time during these years.
In 2022 I was admitted to a 1 year masters program with scholarship (but no PhD program) in a European country X. Due to medical issues( depression came back, severe accommodation issues)I failed the master degree. I had to submit a lot of documents to get the visa and arrived in the host country late after classes had started.
I again tried to get admission for a 1 years masters and got accepted, this time without funding in the same European country. I inquired if the language of instruction is English and they assured me it is. On day one of classes I came to know that the language is not English though, but the official language of that nation. I have learnt that language but not up to B2 level, so I had to translate a lot and refer to a lot of books for reference in English. Due to this my speed of learning became slow and I dropped out in December of last year as I wasn't confident enough to pass the course.
I am thinking of applying to masters degree in Europe again in some other nation (Mathematics 2 year masters). I am stressed about my future because I don't have much work experience( some part time teaching, some restaurant work, some online form fillings and user testing) and not passing the course will be regarded badly in my country.
Is going back to Europe to get a masters degree funded by my family a good idea?Given that I am 26 years old or am I chasing an obsession?
**I don't have much guidance in real life unfortunately and career councilors are not available in my country. **

I'm sorry that you're in the situation, but this seems to be a personal matter/depends strongly on individual factors that isn't suitable for the scope of this site. Please try to find a professional, real life counsellor to help you.

Please make your post shorter.

related/duplicate https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19424/is-getting-a-second-masters-frowned-upon

"I enquired if the language of instruction is English and they assured me it is. On day one of classes I came to know that the language is not English though, but the official language of that nation. "
Nothing to loose from your side, please write an email to the head of the course complaining that you received wrong instructions. Ask to be allowed to take the exam in English, or at least to have refunded your tuition fees, at the very minimum.
Make a fuss, because they put you in a very uncomfortable position.

I will be rather direct, I do not want to be mean so if my words offend you please consider me a rude harsh person and do not transfer on yourself my rudeness. If I am rude is not because you are something, is simply because I am rude.
Why do you want to do a PhD if you have already a big burden of stress? Pursuing a PhD is a highly stressful activity.
See this non-peer review article https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2022/01/12/is-doing-a-phd-bad-for-your-mental-health/
You really really really want to pursue a PhD, but you probably have no idea what a PhD is. Additionally, although investigating the "far away" thinking is often useless, I still wonder what is your plan, what will you do with your PhD?
Do you want to be a researher? a teacher? a professor? What is your motivation to become a Doctor in Philosophy in Maths?
Since your current boundary and initial conditions are dysfunctional, especially because of your dependence on your family, I suggest you to build up a solid financial basis. Get a job where your Master title is put at use (financial sector, maybe?), work for 3-4 years, save enough to be independent from your parents'money, then reassess your situation.
Do you think Math is a young' person game? There are many paths and each one got its own ... see this article "Mathematical Menopause, or, A Young Man's Game?" for some food for thoughts.

If you have a masters already, I'm not sure why you want another. But it seems to me that the more important issue is to deal with health, family, and emotional issues before you make serious decisions about the future. If you can get that under control then you will probably make better decisions.
Beyond that, an analysis of why you get rejections would be helpful. Perhaps there is a trusted professor that can help you figure out why that is, whether it is a matter of weak background or just inadequate application materials. That, also, will help you make better decisions about the future.
And, finally, figure out what your career goals are and try, with help, to find a path to that end. Or, find alternative career options that would bring a satisfying life. There is more than one way.

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Why are there so few Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) for the core college curriculum for a BS in Math?
I've noticed that there are very few Massive Online Open Course (MOOCs) that cover the core college math curriculum, for example

Basic integral and differential calculus
ODE
PDE
Linear Algebra
Abstract Algebra
Probability
Statistics
Combinatorics
Symbolic logic
Complex Variables
Real Analysis

Anyone care to speculate what are the factors involved that make these bread-and-butter topics so much harder to MOOC-size or less easier to motivate professors to produce than Introduction to Water and Climate or Cybersecurity Fundamentals?  I.e. it seems that specialized niche topics receive far more pedagogical energy than basic ones.  But I know as a student that I would very much appreciate having the core fundamental topics available in MOOC form.

https://nptel.ac.in  in India, it has a lot. It's in English, you can try

https://mooculus.osu.edu/

Khan Academy has got differential, integral, and multivariable calculus, stats, probability, basic combinatorics, basic linear algebra, and basic PDEs, including exercises - all for free, without ads, and without selling your data. (Disclaimer: I work there.)

I would also like to mention Paul's Online Notes

I think most of the undergrad BA/BS math curriculum at MIT and Harvard are available through their online open course platforms. You don't have direct access to professors or TAs, but there are many resources and online forums where you can get help while working through the material.

I feel that this is heavily driven by the job-market. Topics in academic mathematics do not possess the necessary buzzword status to make MOOCs profitable. Very few job postings ever ask for competency in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, basic calculus, etc. Many job postings want machine learning, "big data," "artificial intelligence," virtual reality, etc.
When a MOOC advertises its wares, very few people are going to click on an ad that tells them they can learn abstract algebra and category theory. A MOOC teaching Python and "data science" intrigues a number of people who believe that if they can just learn a little Python, all of the sudden Facebook will pay them $150k a year to do data science.

First, as @DC 541 has already pointed out, the audience for relatively advanced math courses is much smaller than the audience for business and software courses, so why would somebody go to the effort?
Second, while having the lectures available for streaming is very nice, the real meat of any upper division math course is going to be the homework and exam problems. For more computational courses it's possible to set up sophisticated automated graders that essentially run a bunch of unit tests on the submitted code. I don't think grading proofs can be automated in the same way.
That means grading the homework is going to be a bottleneck. If you were to employ an army of TAs to grade a thousand real analysis homework assignments it would cost a fortune. MOOCS have tried to get around this for some subjects using a published rubric and grading by peers. I'm not convinced it works very well, and I've never seen it used for a math course.

I've been in advanced MOOCs with peer grading and it actually is fun and works rather well.

Also I don't think grad schools for example do a very good job of screening people's math skills (for remedial purposes, not acceptance).  I think it would be an interesting and fun challenge to write an automated grading system that "interviewed" a person and posed various problems to automatically assess their competency in a variety of math skills.

I happen to work in a quantitative area and we have to do this every other day: assess the math skills of job candidates.  If you can do that online automatically, you can teach core advanced math skills online automatically.

@LarsEricson: The upper division math courses aren't quantitative courses at all.  They are courses fundamentally about logic, not about quantities.

There are formalized, computer-interpreted mathematical proving languages out there that could (probably) be automated and checked for consistency. Of course, you might need a whole separate course in how to use one of them...

@KRyan Would you please tell me an example of computer-interpreted mathematical proof of Sylow theorem? I'll be very interested to read it. Or an example of an automated proof of Fundamental Theorem of Calculus? Thanks.

@scaaahu see here for example. I don't think KRyan 's suggestion is impossible, just not very useful for helping students who are pretty new to human readable proofs, let alone formal languages for writing proofs.

@CharlesE.Grant Thanks. That's quite a bit stuff for me to read for the rest of today.

@scaaahu To be perfectly honest, I am not a mathematician and know very little on the subject—literally all I remember seeing was an interesting-looking project seeking more proofs written in such a language, to build up its library of proofs. I believe it was on the Mathematics Stack Exchange, if you’re interested in searching for it. So I know it exists, but I have no idea how detailed it is, or whether anyone has written (or if it is even possible to write) a proof of Sylow theorem—for that matter, I don’t even know what Sylow theorem is. It was meant as trivia, not as a serious suggestion.

@scaaahu: I know very little about this topic, but a search for formalized mathematics will bring up a lot of results. In particular, there's the online journal Formalized Mathematics (description of journal and the associated Mizar Mathematical Library). I became aware of this research effort back in the mid 1990s when searching the internet for math words/phrases of interest to me and hits to articles in this journal often showed up.

@DaveLRenfro Same here. That's why I asked for an example. I read the cited example above a little bit. They had to prove 270 some theorems before they were able to prove Sylow theorem. I am wondering which way is better, teach the students the formal language and fundamental concepts and let them come up with the automated proof, or the traditional way. Will the future math education be like this or we keep the way we have been educated? Of course, this is way off-topic. May be it's a good one on Math Edu SE?

I would like an automated version of this book, which probes my skills, gives me an assessment/map of my training/skills in relevant areas, and then tries to teach me what I don't know: https://smile.amazon.com/Frequently-Questions-Interviews-Pocket-Guides/dp/0979757649

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Letters of Recommendation for economics grad school for non-economics majors?
I understand there are many people who major in math or physics and get into elite economics graduate schools. I'm sure that I will be able to find math professor who will with letters of recommendation that say I can successfully do research in math, but it would be hard for me to come up with such letter from economics professors. What do non-econonomics majors generally do for letters of recommendation?

Most committees are happy to see letters from mathematicians, although they might like at least one from an economist (and you probably should have at least one upper division course in economics if possible).
Just be careful. One eminent mathematician once wrote "X is not smart enough to be a mathematician, so I suggested he study economics." I don't think we admitted him.

Are the letters generally tailored to economics (i.e. suppose I wanted to apply to both economic and math grad schools. Would I need different letters?)

I think they should be tailored differently, although it wouldn't have to be much.  Instead of recommending "Graduate program in math" it should recommend  you for the "Graduate program in economics".

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Harvard VS APA: the differences? How about mixing styles for a better clarity?
For a while, I thought that I've been using an APA version of 'Harvard style' but it turned out that these 2 styles are totally different. What are the exact differences and, generally speaking, is mixing between styles a bad practice? (If the intention is for more clarity and the university doesn't ask for a specific style).

There are at least two questions here, which is discouraged, and the first question is potentially massive. There could be hundreds or thousands of differences between APA and Harvard citation style. Why not pick a piece of software (EndNote or BibTeX) that can automatically implement one of them and just use it? Especially if your venue doesn't actually care.

Obviously, as @BillBarth mentioned, the exact differences question is too large for an answer on this site. You will have to do your own analysis - the relevant information is trivial to find.

Even if your current university and situation do not call for using a specific publication style, I would strongly recommend against mixing two or more styles, even if they are not much different. The reason is pretty clear: consistency. For the sake of readers of your publications as well as for the sake of your own sanity. Following a single style will make your life easier - if you can choose, just pick the one you feel more comfortable with or the one popular, or, perhaps, a standard de facto, in your field (the latter is IMHO much more important - again, that "for the sake of readers" argument).

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Do PhD students work alone in American universities?
I came from India to UK for my PhD as I hoped to work in a team and learn from others. However, I am all alone as other students of my professor are. As I inspected this is the case in all UK universities.
I understand that a PhD student is responsible for completing his project but I expected that my project is part of a bigger project and people who work on different parts have regular scientific discussions.
I want to quit and apply in the US but now I am pessimistic if this is the case in the US too.

What field do you work in? I think this varies greatly across different disciplines.

A colaborative envirorment is key.  Without it, all you're getting is a lot of presure to do what you could have done on your own.

I would like to know more info about you. I think it is much better to find more suitable lab.

It is not only the field. Local lab culture is greatly dependent on the professor, too, with large variances.

The answer to this question is partly dependent on the field and the dynamics of the research group you are in. I used to work in a spectroscopy lab (in the US) where most of the work was experimental. My impression of the office was that periods of silent concentration were always interrupted by lively discussions, be it scientific or otherwise. We had white boards all over the office and they were never under-utilized. On the other hand, I've also worked in a lab with a more theoretical/computational focuses. There were more international students in the lab, and overall people in the lab were more reserved and largely focused on their own problems. However, I also know of theory labs that have a more lively atmosphere, so I hesitate to say that theory people are more prone to feeling isolated.
I think the solution to your problem is not necessarily moving to a different country. For whatever personal or external reason, collaboration may not be easy for you. But ultimately it is your responsibility to reach out to other people and build collaborations. The easiest targets are people in your research group and your cohort who entered graduate school at the same time. But also consider going to departmental talks and conferences to network with external researchers. As you learn more about your own projects and other people's research interests, it will become easier to start a conversation and explore the possibility of collaborations. It may not come easy to you, but it truly is a necessary training for you as a scientist.

To be honest, it depends on the adviser. Mine has an open door policy where I can meet him everyday, but most of the time he passes my office (two doors down from his) and asks how things are going. Basically, we do things on daily deadlines. I find this very effective! You stay on top of your research and gets fast feedback  whenever you need it. Keep in mind my adviser is superstar in our dept. He is a very active man (perhaps that's why this method work well for him). So, in a way, you do most of the research on your own, he gives it a quick look, then asks you why it makes sense or what's wrong with it.. Of course, one can argue and say a student may abuse this method and become dependent on the adviser. I beg to differ since doing so would make such a student a very bad research! However, in my case, it keeps me up to date, very focused and have my answers and justifications ready for his questions! He also makes me and his other PhD students work in groups for joint project and still utilizes the above method, successfully!
Other Profs. in my dept do the usual one/week meeting appointment to discuss the outcome of a week's finding. From my interaction with their students, I found that some of them starts working on their projects on Wed, to get something done by Friday! While some other work the whole week but either with minimum output or doing something completely wrong and been wasting their time. Then, you have those who are really good and very dependent!
To answer your question, it is a very case dependent!! My advise is, do your best, make mistakes but always try to optimize your work, and never do the mistake twice. You are a PhD students => Prof. in the making!! Act like it :)


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When applying to a Phd in Physics or Math , do grades in unrelated courses I took have any effect on my admission?
I'm currently studying (Undergraduate) Physics in a University where, regardless of their department, every student must take some English, Turkish and History courses, which I don't want to attend. Turkish and History courses are non-credit but not English, so it affects my GPA. Moreover, I will take violin, astrophysics and philosophy courses as non-included.
So here is my question: when I am applying for a PhD in Physics or Mathematics, does any of these courses have any effect on my admission?
Note: My main concern is whether having  low grades in English ,which is not a non-credit course, affect my Phd admission ?

Regarding I will take violin , astrophysics and philosophy courses as non-included.,  would you please explain what you mean by "non-included"? Are they counted as part of your GPA or not?

No , they are not a part of my GPA.

Is the course astrophysics unrelated to Physics?

No , it is not .It was just an extra information.

Are you interested in the Ph.D. program for the degree, or because you want to learn? Why don't you attend the English courses? You might enjoy them, and you might benefit from them as well.

First of all , in my University before starting freshmen year , students must attend Basic English Department (i.e preparatory school) if their English level is not enough :therefore , after studying a whole year English , you are saying "it is enough!".Second , in these courses' general aim is developing writing skill and trying to write about something that you are not interested is really a torment.

If you are applying to programs in the US, more important than your grades in English classes is your performance on the TOEFL. Many universities have a minimum TOEFL score required before the department can even consider your application, and these rules are often difficult or impossible for the department to bend, even for an exceptionally attractive candidate.
There is more information in the answers to this question. (For example, someone there mentions that the minimums at "Yale and Stanford are about 100, Harvard is 109" -- out of 120 points total.)
Given the quality of the English in your original question (before it was improved by helpful editors), I don't think you can afford to blow off your English classes if you have any hope of studying in the US.

Thanks for your answer.After you had talked about the quality of the English in my original question , I asked this question in English LL SE with editing because there was basic grammar mistakes which can be handled easily, http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/89757/how-can-i-improve-the-quality-of-the-english-in-this-question , if you explain in which ways the quality is not enough , I will be glad.

In general I am pretty sure attending those courses will definitely not have a bad effect on your admission. Attending courses with topics outside the subjects area shows that you don't have a much 'limited horizon' and they broaden your interdisciplinary skills. To gain expertise in philosophy and astrophysics is maybe leading to have an eye of a bigger picture when solving problems and playing the violin testifies character. Those courses will so be seen as a plus regarding your personal skills when applying.

But actually my main concern is the English course ,which is not non-credit courses , because I my grade will not be high.As I said in question , even I won't be attending the lecture ,so is this will have an negative effect on my admission ?

@Leth Depends on where you apply. If you apply anywhere with English as the main language then poor English skills will have a negative effect (even apart from the possible effect on your GPA).

@TobiasKildetoft I have no problem with English.that is not the point.The point is whether having a low grade in a must course unrelated with your degree have any negative on effect my Phd admission ?

If I were evaluating your application I'd have to take low grades in English courses as an indication that your English wasn't very good.  This is relevant to PhD admissions to programs at universities in English speaking countries.

I agree in @BrianBorchers comment but additionally I see the problem not only in English speaking countries since English is the main language for science and could absolutely effect your admission. The question is, how bad your grades will be compared with your GPA and if you have other references to proof your English skills. Of course there can be multiple reasons why you earn poor grades in an university topic like having a bad day when attending the test and so on. If it's possible to proof your skills otherwise, you should be good to go.

@ArnoXf if the main reason is just the indication , I can submit my TOEFL result in my Phd admission.If the TOEFL result is fine , I guess there should be no problem , right ?

If you are applying to a USA University, English courses will play some factor as many grad students end up being the ones teaching lab sessions etc.
If you are currently a student in Turkey who plans to take Physics at a grad school in Turkey, Physics/Math is probably all you need to care about.

Any university worth its salt welcomes grad school candidates with eclectic academic backgrounds, provided they have an appropriate range of courses, with top grades, in their primary discipline. A nerd with nothing but courses in his/her discipline often lacks depth and perspective.  The Dean of Law at a major Canadian U. was asked what he regarded as the ideal degree as prep for Law School.  He said that would be a five-year double-Honours BA in Philosophy and English Literature.  And I wouldn't be concerned about a low grade in English affecting your GPA.  Your grad school committee will see that it is your only low grade.

I don't see the relevance of what some guy in a law school says: maths and physics have very different admissions criteria to law and are much more interested in "good scientist" than "well-rounded character" as an admissions criterion. And your advice about the English grade is bad: any university in an English-speaking country will need evidence that an applicant cna speak English well and a low grade in an English course suggests they can't do that. Even outside English-speaking countries, any published paper is going to have to be in English, so English skills are important.

@David Richerby.  You might read a little more carefully.   I said nothing whatever about "character"; my remarks focused on educational outcomes.  Nor did I say anything about level of skill in English--the person asking the question was concerned about impact on his GPA.  I responded only to that.  As for the Law School analogy,  One would expect a Dean of Law to be looking for a degree in Commerce or Accounting--something directly relevant like that.  Phil. & English are incongruous.  Einstein and Hocking both declare 'imagination' and 'creativity' lead to the 'best science.'

The question expresses the concern that a low grade in the English course might "have any affect on my admission". You say no; I say yes because it suggests their English is poor. And it doesn't matter what I or anyone else would expect a Law School dean to be looking for because that is completely irrelevant to mathematics and physics. Likewise, the views of Einstein and Hocking (Hawking?) on imagination and creativity don't seem relevant: the question is about how low English grades (which also suggest a lack of imagination and creativity) would affect grad school maths/physics admissions.

Your language is excessive ('completely irrelevant') and the tenor of your response is dismissive of mine and bordering on insulting.  Continuing a dialogue with you is neither constructive nor interesting.  Have a good day Sir.....


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Are technical news websites acceptable as references in the introduction or motivation section?
So far I only use papers from ieee, nature, or other research publications.
My supervisor suggested me to write more in motivational background part.
I found tech news website like eejournal.com and semiengineering.com provides more general, more business-related, stories for general audiences.
Can I use them as reference in introduction/motivation part of my master thesis?
My personal opinion is we cannot use them.
But I do not know where I can get papers about e.g. cost analysis in CMOS scaling and next gen lithography, or why we need new memory devices like memristor.

As a general rule, a reference should be reliable/authoritative for what it says. So whether or not a reference is acceptable depends on what claim you are using it to support, and whether the source has the authority/evidence to make that claim.
A news website would not be an authoritative reference for technical information. For example, this would not be OK:

"With 5G wireless technology, a web page will load in a millisecond [1]." The writer of the article is not an expert in 5G technology, and there is no evidence in the article to support this claim. Instead, to make this claim, you should cite a reliable technical reference that offers evidence.

However, a news website might be a useful reference for other things where it is an authoritative reference. For example:

"Media portrayals of 5G have not necessarily been realistic - for example, Adweek has claimed that with 5G technology, web pages will load in a millisecond [1], but the IMT 2020 technical requirements for 5G [2] specify at least 1 millisecond of latency for just a small subset of the network path." Note that Adweek is not a good source for the claim that web pages will load in a millisecond - the writer of the article is not an expert on 5G! - but it is an acceptable source for how 5G technology has been portrayed in the media.
"Bob Metcalfe, who is called the 'father of Ethernet', said that the developers of the Ethernet standard believed voice and video over Ethernet would be impossible [3]." Here, Bob Metcalfe is a reliable source as to what the developers of the Ethernet standard thought at the time, and an interview with him is authoritative for this.


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Discouraged from giving A's, but students are doing excellent work, what can a professor do?
I know somebody who works in a department that discourages giving students A's. Basically, a few years ago, there was a professor giving everybody A's. The department was labeled as a "vacation spot" at the university. This led to a hardline stand on giving A's that is in effect to this day. If a teacher gives too many A's they have to first explain themselves to the Dean. If this continues next they talk to the VP of Academics
The problem is that there are students doing excellent work. However, my friend is worried that if too many students earn an A he will not be able to convince the department of the students' merit. Yet there is an ethical concern of artificially forcing down the grades and giving some poor chap a B+ due to political pressure.
Any suggestions?

This does not really answer the question, but if a course, or a couple of courses are so trivial that everyone can get A's with just common sense, the courses should probably be scrapped or reworked to be substantial.

@RobertHarvey if a teacher gives too  many A's they have to first explain themselves to the Dean. If this continues next they talk to the VP of Academics. Neither of these experiences are pleasant from what I have heard

Well, in my experience, teachers didn't usually grade on a curve when they claimed to, they just shifted linearly. I had a calc. prof. who actually did. (He actually didn't need to do much, since almost all his tests came out normally distributed.)

@RobertHarvey: I'm continually shocked by how many instructors talk about grading on a curve (granted I never had anyone do that in my schooling). The impression I get is that the majority of teachers do that. Just today on Facebook I was grappling with a thread from a bunch of professors who all said they do that.

An A should be achievable, if they do excellent work, then they earned their A.  For example, English 1, has established goals for learning, and an instructor should not teach hand out English 2 material just to keep the number of A's down, nor should they dumb down the work for under achievers.  The proof is in their assignments,tests, and quizzes as to whether they earned it.  Take copies of your test,quizzes, assignments and say are these questions hard enough, but yet fit within the learning goals, if yes you have proved there rights to an A.

There are definitely occasions when I have looked at a final exam (by people whom I'll leave nameless) and remarked to myself that someone could get 100% on the exam and I still wouldn't know whether this student has earned an A or a B.  I have also had grad students who earned close to straight As as an undergrad and were simply not capable enough to succeed in our graduate program.

Am I misunderstanding, or is this professor simply trying to avoid the process designed for their situation? It sounds to me like the whole idea is simply that someone else looks in an evaluates the situation when a lot of A's go out. Based on that evaluation, the professor may be told to adjust their curriculum to avoid it happening in the future. if it continues to happen, it's escalated. What happens to the students' grades if the Dean disagrees that the A's were deserved? Anything, or is it just the professor is told to adjust the curriculum going forward?

Take special care defining the rules, previously, and stick to them. You should have a specific list of objectives and the associated grades. This is implicit on tests, more explicit on projects. For instance, when elaborating written exams, I usually try to cover the whole syllabus (for that part), with questions of different difficulties, for instance, 4 questions, one easy, two moderate, one harder. That way I can easily see who really knows the content and who is just coasting by...
If a student reaches all predefined objectives, that person earned an A. And you can easily prove it by showing that he indeed reached the objectives. It would be highly unethical not to give a deserving student an A for political concerns of some suit....

'A's really ought not equate to "fulfilled basic objectives". This is what 'C's are for. 'B' should be fulfilling the goals beyond basic competence and an 'A' should really be reserved for exceptional performance. So I disagree with that part of the answer. The part about the ethics of setting your standard and sticking to it, irrespective of politics is absolutely right.

@TheNate There are two kinds of grading systems. If you get 100% points from exams, projects, homework etc, you have by definition reached all predefined objectives. In some grading systems, that gives you a high grade, e.g. 'A'. In other systems, 100% performance is only enough for the equivalent of a 'B' or 'C', while higher grades are reserved for those exceeding the expectations. In my experience, the former is more common in courses, while the latter is used for theses and other open-ended projects.

@TheNate I didn't say 'basic'. I agree with you, but 'A' needs to be reachable.

@TheNate: Should, perhaps, but that's just not how grades work any more or how people read grades. Unless you expect your school to send a letter with every transcript (which a handful of schools do), your grades are simply not going to communicate what you mean to say.

As should absolutely be achievable, they just shouldn't be achievable easily by an average student. The average student should have to really strive for As. That's all I'm saying. (Fs shouldn't disappear, either) Set the bar too high, and you're doing different damage to the meaning of your grades... and the reputation of the educational institution.

Retain copies of student work.  Use it as a basis for a discussion about department standards versus your standards.  If your expectations align with those of your department, and if you have students earning A's, then you can use the student work to defend your grades to the dean.  If expectations don't align, then you can make an effort to bring them into alignment.  This includes both the criteria for earning the grades (which should be clearly explained in the syllabus) and the level of difficulty of the work required (which can be somewhat subjective).  It may be too late this semester, but going forward you can do change.  Of course, you can in principle exercise your rights of academic freedom, which includes setting standards in your course.  This may not be without consequence for yourself or the department.

I recall hearing of the chair of a department giving every student an A.  For multiple quarters, every student or nearly every student got an A.  (I was fortunate to be one of those students.)  We were a small class, just 8 students.  Many of us has significant background experience, some professionally.  (One common trait, though, was that we lacked educational degrees in the field.)  She spoke to the dean.
She said, "these students do deserve it."
She fared well.  The next year, she got more students, and those students got different grades.
I'm glad she defended what we rightfully earned.
Later, I became a college instructor.  The college was giving As to nearly every student.  Yet, they were not being masters of their work.  I started creating my own quizzes/tests/exams.  This resulted in lowering some GPAs.  I didn't feel one bit guilty about that impact, because the GPAs were previously higher than what was rightfully deserved.  (That was still an issue after I started making the gradual change, but at least it was better.  Since there was some grumbling/minor uproar from the shock of what was being implemented, I didn't feel like I was moving too terribly slowly at addressing the issue.)
The only good way to lower grades is to let students be aware of what standards are, and adjust standards.  Anyone who successfully meets standards ought to get an A.  Anything else is not right/honest.  If too many students are meeting standards, then adjust standards early enough that the students have time to adjust, or just give them the grade that they earned and make adjustments to try to do better for the next round of students.  Don't deprive anyone from what they deserve.
Don't wimp out due to fear of meeting a dean.  Someone (possibly the dean) will respect your willingness to meet a challenge in order to do the right thing.  Cowering behind the apparent safety of avoiding the meeting is more likely to haunt your conscience years later, after the situation is clearly unfixable.  Always do your best to do the morally right thing.

This brings up a good point that someone should look at more than one section at a time. If the OP has any prior semesters to look back on, they can hopefully hold the entirety of their track record up as a defense against giving out to many A's.

Interesting points. I keep a spreadsheet that gets a new row added every semester, showing the class size, and numbers of A's, B's, C's awarded. I once had a section with 8 students, and I gave out 7 A's. That was a bit of an anomaly – I just happened to get 7 bright, talented, hard-working students in my class that term. I suppose if that sort of thing happened semester after semester, one might allege that my standards aren't high enough, but my data shows that isn't the case.

The factors that determine a grade delivered from a test in a course is a combination of several factors. The teaching, the course content, the nature of the assessment, the quality of the grading as well as the work performed by the student all are factors that influence the result.
A course can contain, for example, too little material or material at too low a level for the students abilities. Then many students could find it easy to get higher grades. If the material was too complex or not communicated well the the grades might be depressed. Equally the test could  contain question that are too simple and not reflective of the level of the taught material; again a higher result profile might be witnessed.
If a high proportion of students are getting A grades it may be that the students are all excellent, but it may equally mean that they have not been set material of sufficient depth or examined deeply enough to resolve their differing abilities.
If the students concerned are only getting a high proportion of A's on one course and not on others it might indicate that the course was not constructed well enough to be able to distinguish the differing abilities of the students. If the students got A's on all the courses then it might indicate that a particularly good cohort was admitted that year. If a high proportion of grade A's were delivered for many courses every year then it might indicate that the whole programme had endemic quality issues and affect their reputation as a whole. This is why the mark profile of courses and programs are monitored as part of a quality process in academia. It attempts to diagnose any drop in standards and rectify them.
Your friend should not be artificially altering grades but should be truly reflecting on the assignments and tests given to the students to see if they were able to truly discriminate between students of differing abilities. It is something that can be experienced by those less experienced setting assessments. Sometimes such assessment depend too much on rote learning and recall and less on application of knowledge. Having the correct balance of knowledge recall and application of knowledge is what makes a good assessment. The students don't just have to know something, they have to demonstrate how they can use that knowledge in unseen situations.

What you describe has be conceptualized under the name Macabre Constant by the french educational researcher André Antibi. And indeed, he describes teachers peer pressure as a major cause for rating students lower than they should be objectively.
As a commenter said, André Antibi proposed to just communicate the elements of knowledge that need to be assimilated before an exam to get the maximum grade, and just rate with the same scale you provide then. /EDIT: this is also known as criterion-referenced grading.
This solves the "fairness" of evaluation for students, but not the peer pressure for teachers. Unluckily, I am not aware of any way to avoid that. Up to you to see if you prefer to be just and eventually pay the price (at the very least you will have to explain yourself to the Dean, at worst it can become ugly...), or be unfair and raise the chances that your course gets rated as "hard". It's a hard choice, even more so because it may put you at risk of losing your job...

I've never heard of the macabre constant. Very fascinating but it's the same as norm reference grading

Very interesting, thank you Darrin, I didn't know about norm reference grading. From what I read here and here, although the main concept is similar, the macabre constant is also interested in finding the root causes, such as peer pressure, which does not seem to be covered by the other concept. But both are definately related, I'd see the norm-referenced test as one of the consequences of the macabre constant, which is more a edu-sociological phenomenon.

This the frustrating thing about different academic fields. We develop a concept only to find that our neighbor in a different field developed a similar idea

Haha, I'm working in a very transversal field, I see duplicate concepts (with very different names of course) almost every days... But hey, better have duplicate concepts than none! If several people come to the same conclusion, then there must be some truth in it ;)


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Writing a draft of your own recommendation letter: how to compare yourself to other students?
I'm currently applying to Research Masters and PhD programs. One of my letter of recommendation writers asked me to write up the first draft of the letter, so I've been trying to do so (pretty sure the "first draft" will also be the thing he directly submits). After doing a bunch of research, most resources advised doing two things:

Use concrete anecdotes and examples to show the student's proficiency instead of just meaningless praise. I.e. Describe how he showed he was intelligent through a specific task he completed.
Directly compare the student to other students. I.e. "The student distinguished himself from his peers", "One of the brightest students I've taught", "Stood out from the rest of the research assistants etc", "Top X% in his class", etc.

The first is fairly easy to do since I obviously have a ton of anecdotes about myself. However, I'm not really sure how to do the second. I obviously don't know how my LOR writer sees me relative to my peers, and it seems extremely presumptuous to hand him a draft saying that I was one of the best students he's had. How am I supposed to compare myself to his other students for him?
Does anyone have any advice on this? Unfortunately, I can't get another LOR writer, this specific writer is extremely important to my application. It also seems extremely important to do the comparison, almost every resource and example I found repeatedly stressed the importance of doing this...

Write the letter the way you want it written.  Send it to your recommender along with a note that says something like

I've been offered advice to the effect that the best letters offer a
  direct comparison to a peer group.  Toward this end, I've provided
  some recommended language comparing me to the group I feel is most
  relevant for this letter in paragraph X.  Obviously, I'm not perfectly
  comfortable doing this, and I suggest that you read that paragraph
  carefully and adjust it for accuracy.


text:
How to approach my supervisor when I've finished the task he assigned early?
Given that it's a very broad question I'll try to create some context:
I'm in my first year (just started) and at the moment my task as PhD student is closer to learn the techniques and technologies used in the department than to real work. Almost in a weekly basis I receive small tasks which, once completed, are reported and then substituted by a new small task.
However, sometimes the task is completed and no report is due (for whatever the reason) so I'm stuck with no excuse to go to my supervisor's office and no work to do on account of not going to my supervisor's office.
My supervisor is a very busy person and so I have always the feeling I'm intruding when I 'request' (by mail or simply going to his office) to talk to him.
I would like to build some cofidence with my supervisor, but I don't really know how to approach him in the first place. Any tips?
Ps:I was sure someone would've asked this before, but I couldn't find anything so I would like to apologise in advance just in case it has already been asked.

The fact that you are "afraid" of going to talk to your supervisor is worrying. You should have a chat and clarify when and how you should approach him when you need input. No matter how busy he is, it goes in his best interest that you make progress in your PhD.

It sounds like you're still settling in to the student/advisor relationship.  You need to keep open your lines of communication -- you're part of the reason he's busy, not a victim of the fact he's busy.  Here's a suggestion -- drop him an email letting him know that you've finished, and proposing a next step. This could be read further on what you've just been doing, applying it to another sample, etc.  A "no" with a reason is also instructive.

Isn't it rather positive when a task is finished early? I mean, no supervisor can exactly gauge how long it will take a student to do a task, and if you are faster than expected, so much the better. Ready for new tasks, or as ff524 said, to work on your own/the big picture.

Just talk to your advisor when you feel you need his input.
All of the busy people I know (myself included) want the people they work with to let them know if things are ahead of schedule. When I supervise a student, someone has to be moving things along. If the student takes responsibility for that, and can be counted on to come to me when he/she needs my input, it's much less work for me than the students I have to monitor more actively.
Having said that, there are several things that can also help:

Ask your supervisor to discuss the "big picture" with you. This way you'll understand what these small tasks are getting at and can make a reasonable guess as to what the next task will be. This will help with your problem and will also help you develop your skills as an independent researcher (which is what you're training for, after all).
Develop your own research interests (either side projects, or related to the work you're doing with your advisor) and work on those when you're "blocked" waiting for your advisor. This, too, will also help you develop your skills as an independent researcher.

I can see now that my problem was more about approaching my situation as a PhD student rather than approaching my supervisor. This was just part of the problem (I'm using 'was' instead of 'is' because I think identifying the issue is 80% of the solution. Many thanks to all of you)

At this point you should assign new tasks to yourself.  If you don't know what to do, reading books or papers in the field may be a good start.  If he's already given you a real research question, you should start thinking of things you can do to solve it yourself, without him feeding you the way to do it.
Lots of people can carry out tasks that other people assign, but you'll stand out if you contribute your own approaches to solving the problem, and show that you're an independent researcher.
Alternatively, you can email him early and see if he replies, and while you're waiting you can work on other things.

Across the course of your Ph.D., you are expected to develop into a independent researcher capable of formulating and pursuing your own independent research agenda.
Right now, you're behaving like an undergraduate waiting to get your next problem set, rather than like a scientist.  This is pretty common for new Ph.D. students, but you're going to have to grow past this point if you want to be a researcher.
A good way to think of these small tasks that you are being given is as "training wheels," feeding you a research agenda one incremental step at a time, in the hopes that you will start to figure out how to choose the next step on your own.  When you finish a task, try to figure out what the next interesting thing to do in pursuing this research might be, and do that until your next meeting with your advisor.
Then, when you meet, you can say you finished the task early, and tell about what you did next.  Your advisor will likely be very happy that you are showing initiative, and can give you feedback to help you learn to make more and more productive research choices on your own.

You can either use the suggestions offered above, which are fine, and both offer paths to moving on to a new task, but I offer an alternative which might apply.
Think about whether you're really finished with the task at hand, and consider if there are ways you could do it better, learn about it more, extend your research ....
On a smaller scale, if you're using Pomodoro time management, and you finish your task in the middle of a Pomodoro, you don't stop, or rest, or move on to the next task.  You finish better.  You cross every t and dot every i.
On a larger scale, when somebody brings be a program that they said they "finished" that has an involved user interface, I'll sit down with them and hit wrong buttons in the interface until its crashed.  Then I explain about rigorous testing, failure mode analysis, etc, and tell the coder to bring it back to me when its bulletproof.  If the program controls big pieces of moving equipment designed to move research subjects, I tell them that when they think the code is ready, they can be the first rider!
This is just a suggestion for consideration, and sometimes the approach could be valuable.  Other times, you really would be wasting time if you took this approach.  Use it judiciously.

You can either treat it as if you were seeking an audience with Kublah Khan in which case you should approach your supervisor with decorum and due reverence whilst being careful not startle him.
Then receive some sign that they have acknowledged your presence and then wait for some further indication that you may approach.
Or
Accept that you are a Ph.D student on merit deserving of his time and attention. If you find him awkward try formally booking a meeting slot but be respectful of his time and never request more time than is really necessary.

I would suggest sending an email to an account you know he uses frequently and say something like the following using a subject line;
Subject: Assignment Completed
Dr. Name,
I've finished the "whatever assignment" you gave me the other day. At your convenience, let me know when you want me to speak with you again. Contact me at this address or at this cell number.
Thanks,
Name
Sending a very short email like this is not intruding, and, if he gets upset by this, be prepared to be saddled with a lousy (personality wise) supervisor for quite some time. Getting irritated by that very short, humble, informative email is completely unreasonable.


text:
Philippine grade equivalent in the UK grading system
My GPA for my bachelor's degree here in the Philippines is 1.4259 (equivalent to magna cum laude). In the UK system, to which honors class will it belong?

I don't know what would it be, but I don't recommend you do the conversion. Just report what you said (and, perhaps, percentile, if you have it).

While I think this question is related to http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9058/how-to-convert-from-one-grading-scheme-to-another, I do not think it is a duplicate since I think it is asking for a more general comparison rather than an exact conversion.

Converting from one grading scheme to another is a nightmare: How to convert from one grading scheme to another?. In general, you should try and avoid trying to calculate an exact GPA in another system. That said, many US universities have a hard cutoff of a 3.0 GPA and many UK universities have a hard cut off of a 2.1 degree classification. Within these constraints, it seems reasonable to ask if a particular GPA in one system is clearly above, clearly below, or near the minimum admissions bar.
In the UK, there is an attempt to normalize the degree classifications across different universities. This is done by having external examiners on the exam board to prevent grade inflation. At Russell Group universities, about 10-15% of students get 1st class degrees and over 70% of students will get a 2.1 or higher. At lower ranked universities, fewer students will get first and upper second class degrees. Assuming a reasonably respectable university in the Philippines without rampant grade inflation magna cum laude would be well above the 2.1 bar and would probably be close to the 2.1/1st cut off.


text:
How to credit a photo taken by someone else in my publication?
How do authors normally address a photo courtesy?
I have a photo taken by Dr. X, I would like to use it in my paper which is planned to be submitted to an engineering journal. How should I respect the photo credit?
is it okay to write  this in the figure caption, like:
\caption{blah blah  .... (photo courtesy of Dr. X).}

should I even mention the title Dr?

possible duplicate of I'd like to use a figure from a paper, what's the best way to do this?

@scaaahu I'm not sure that it's a duplicate. The OP doesn't mention that the photo is from a published paper, as is the case in the other question.

@user3327426 I have a photo taken by Dr. X, How did you get that photo?

@silvado I just asked the OP to clarify. I guess I might have made a bad assumption.

I removed the copyright tag because I'm assuming that the photo is used with permission of Dr X and there's no actual copyright issue (as the body of the post doesn't say anything about a copyright concern); if that's not the case, there's quite a lot of necessary detail missing from this post.

its not from a paper. its a raw photo.
And Dr X he himself sent the photo to me, so absolute permission

@user3327426 That Dr X sent the photo to you may not always mean that you have permission to publish it. You may have that permission, but if not, you should clarify.

You should get your permission (actually a license) in writing. Email is fine.

Credit lines for photographs should be displayed conspicuously with the photo or in a footnote on the same page. In general, it should look something like: "© Ansel Adams 2015" or "© 2015 Ansel Adams". Alternatively, if the photo was given to you for general use, use something like: "photo courtesy of Ansel Adams".
Some guidelines for citing images in various formats are posted here: University of Cincinnati. Near the bottom of that website there is a short section with advice on photo credit lines.


text:
How to write an aside in a journal article?
So the question is simple: What is the common way of saying something in parentheses in a journal paper like engineering or mathematics.
Assume you are talking about a mathematical approach, but in the middle you want to point out to something else, or mention an special case. I give an example:

...our approach is based on the following linear equations....
Eq.(1).....
(now here I want to make a big parenthesis or a break to discuss about something regarding the approach which is not too long to be considered as an Appendix, maybe only one paragraph )
One can think of the other approach such as .....

So the question is it, how this feature is normally handled in papers, and what is the latex function to do so.

I think it would be more appropriately typeset as a footnote (or endnote).

Can you show an example in an actual paper?  I'm having trouble understanding what you are trying to do.  If you want to use parentheses, you don't need any special formatting; you just type parentheses around the text.  The bit about a "big parenthesis" puzzles me, since I don't recall ever having seen someone use extra large parentheses in ordinary text.  In any case, putting a whole paragraph in parentheses can be awkward, so Martin's suggestion may be preferable.

Have you thought about doing it without parentheses?

It basically has a footnote functionality, but one paragraph is too much for a footnote and too little to be considered as an Appendix. that's why I'm confused. It would be better to put it in the middle of the text than in footnote I think as it involves equations as well not only text.

The word parenthesis here is semantic and generic. When you say something in parenthesis mean that you want to say something extra and if the reader skips that piece, nothing will happen because the rest of the paper will never use or refer to that piece.

Okay, I know what you mean. If there are multiple occurances of this kind of things, I would put them together as Appendix because if the reader skips that piece, nothing will happen because the rest of the paper will never use or refer to that piece.

@Martin Footnotes have become very rare in pure maths papers.

There are sometimes "remark" blocks that some authors use for discussing aspects that are of substantial interest to some readers but do not strictly belong to the core of the story that you are telling. If you are preparing your document with LaTeX, then such text blocks are called "environments".
An example is given in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science guide for preparing papers, page 4 at the bottom.

When it is the right thing to do, I am comfortable with putting a whole paragraph in a footnote and have done so.  The ideal option, however, which some journals will let you do, is to have a sidebar or boxout.  This has the same segregating effect as an appendix, but keeps the material closer to its reference.


text:
How to postpone the response for informal offer?
I just got an informal offer (a suggestion to apply through the university portal) from lab A, which I'm very happy about. On the same day, lab B emailed me, asking me for a prior interview by Zoom. I am interested in lab B, but as this is a prior interview, the interview to decision process might take  more than 2 to 3 weeks.
Is it okay to postpone a decision on the informal offer from lab A?
Is there a way to postpone the decision in a polite manner?

what exactly do you mean by "informal offer"?

It seems like a suggestion to apply for through the university portal.

Sorry, I don’t get the conflict here. The way you put it, you don’t have an actual offer from A so you cannot make a decision on that, and thus not delay it even if you wanted. If you "apply through the university portal" that’s still just an application and you are free to apply to others as well.

Be open and honest with both lab A and B about your situation.
Is is absolutely okay and polite to ask lab A for more time until you make a decision. Be open and honest as to why you need more time, but be clear with the timeline ("2 to 3 weeks" is not very clear). Use this time to discuss with them the details of the job offer, research tasks, support in your professional development and so on, if you haven't done so yet. This will enable you to make an informed decision in case you have the luxury to choose between A and B.
Of course, there are many valid reasons why lab A could force you a yes/no decision sooner. Depending on their reaction to your request, you might also find out a lot about the research culture in lab A.
You could also try to speed up the process on the side of lab B. It appears as if they haven't given you a precise timeline of the hiring process. Contact them, tell them about your other offer and request more details on when an interview would take place and how soon after a decision would be communicated to you.

This answer was written under the assumption that "informal offer" means that lab A has made the OP an offer but it hasn't been dealt with by the HR department yet, i.e. no formal offer letter has been sent out.
I now realise that "informal offer" could mean a whole host of other things and asked the OP to clarify.

Thank you for your comments, it helped so much. By sharing current circumstance with lab A, it was able to obtain consent for having some time to perform interview with lab B!


text:
What do I do on my summer vacation with an interest in mathematics?
I am a second year college student majoring in mathematics. The summer vacation is coming up and lasts for three months. I am thinking of studying something during this vacation that is specific to mathematics. I do not know what to study. Among the topics that I know in mathematics are calculus, real analysis, complex analysis, numerical analysis, and ordinary differential equations. What do I study?  Should I study another subject in mathematics, such as statistics, probability, etc.? Or do I develop my skills in integration, special functions, and infinite series?

It's too late for this summer, but for next summer, you should look for opportunities to get away from your university and learn more about future career options.  You can do this through internships in industry or by participating in a summer school or research program such as an REU in the US.

My advice would be to explore. You need to know what other fields are out there rather than try to master some particular field (although, depending on mindset, that can be an enjoyable vacation too!) There are obvious important and useful fields like probability and statistics, but there are also things like combinatorics, game theory, differential geometry, partial differential equations, dynamical systems, abstract algebra, etc. that should be pretty accessible at your level. So one approach is to get a bundle of introductory books and skim through them, not with the aim of necessarily going deep into them but to just know what they deal with. Some might strike your fancy and you will want to dive in, but it is not a bad idea to just see what is going on elsewhere and have at least an idea of what the bigger landscape is like.
(I like to browse math libraries, trying out different shelves to see what is going on. Similarly journals like The American Mathematical Monthly and SIAM Review are great to browse).
Behind all of this is the exploration-exploitation dilemma. You want to spend your time well, gaining useful knowledge. At first, you do not know what is the most useful and what you are best at, so it makes sense to explore widely. Over time you will notice where there is value for you, and you can focus on it.

You may take advantage of this vacations to not only study, but also to start getting an idea about what kind of specialisation you would like to pursue. This should help you during your choice.
Anyway, I think that, whatever path you will take, statistics an probability will pay off. It is always important to master the tools this field has to offer.


text:
Applying for a PhD as a disabled person: apply for preferential access?
I am about to apply for a PhD position at a European university as an EU citizen.
I suffer from a physical disability. As such, I have the right to apply for preferential access due to my disability through the Executive Order on Compensation for Disabled People.
Should I apply for preferential access or not? I would not want to get in the situation where I am accepted merely due to my disability. On the other hand, I read about disabled prospective students without such right being concerned about the disability actually hurting their chances to get accepted.

Could you share more about the nature or form of your disability? Is it in any way noticable during the application process? Is it noticable later? Does it affect your ability to work? I ask, because in another comment you mention that: " I don't think I will require any particular aid throughout my PhD. Throughout my master's I did not require any." I ask, because appealing when you are perceived to 'not need it' may rub people the wrong way. People that you may need to work with for the coming years.

What do you mean exactly by appealing to the "Executive Order on Compensation for Disabled People" in the EU? These keywords only give me results regarding the USA.

@Roland Why would it be annoying? Surely if they don't declare a disability you just treat them like any other candidate?

One stage further, applying for post-doc positions, my brother eventually decided not to mention his disability. Why? He was invited to a lot of interviews, but often found out, that he was only invited because the hiring committee was afraid to outright reject the application of a disabled person, even if it was clear that they were looking for someone with a different area of expertise. So better mention this only if you really think you were a good fit also without a disability.

@Sabine Very good point.

In Germany, the situation is like this: as a disabled person, an employer is supposed to hire you preferentially if you have the same qualification / suitability as a non-disabled candidate. So, according to this rule, you will not be hired "just because" of your disablility, but because you are a genuinely qualified candidate. Also, if a disabled person is among those applying to a position, a disability advocate has to be part of the hiring process to, well, advocate for the diabled candidate and to prevent biased hiring decisions. So listing your disability should not have negative consequences.
I would suggest to take advantage of the laws and list your disability, as it will probably improve your chances to get a PhD position.

To add to this: If you apply at a public employer (e.g. a university), they have to invite you to an interview, otherwise they risk fines. So you may also be invited to interviews where the employer has no intention of hiring you. This rule does not hold for private employers and probably also not if you apply for a PhD position funded by a stipend.

Be sure to always mention your disability if it has any kind of negative impact on your resume: (temporary) bad grades, long periods of sickness, no exchange semester, no teaching experience etc. If a university has a lot of applicants, your application might be filtered out automatically by something minor like bad high school grades. If you mention the disability and they have to invite you, you have the opportunity to explain that (e.g. you had cancer when you were 16 and now only have one leg).

Does this also apply for international students?

@HappyFace as far as I know, yes

I would not want to get in the situation where I am accepted merely due to my disability.

I say you should appeal.
It's a matter of opinion if being accepted because of your disability is good or bad.  In my opinion, it is good.  Whoever made the rules thought it was good.
For the typical PhD applicant, a crucial question is:  Can I afford to get a PhD?  The pay is bad compared to other options.  A lot of PhDs only got their degree because they started out with financial advantages.  I know I did.  (Financial advantages include having low expenses.)  Nobody would say they did not want to be able get a PhD simply because they had more money than people who cannot get a PhD.
Every PhD student has some special situation.  I do not know what your situation is, but I don't think you should think it is bad to take advantage of it unless you have a really good reason.
I might add more detail if you provided a link to this order.

@RichardErickson The original post used the word "appeal" in a way that could have been confused for a legal appeal, that is, a process to alter a previous decision by asking a higher authority. "Appeal" can also be closer to a synonym for a "request" or "apply".

@BryanKrause I apologize for the confusing wording. It has been edited to avoid any ambiguity.

@Anonymous Physicist Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find further information myself.

Having a disability likely limits your options in terms of employment. With a physical disability, there might be many jobs that you are unable to do, particularly those that require physical labor. If a prospective PhD student without a physical disability is rejected from all the programs to which they apply, they likely have more options than you: they could take a job packing boxes to support themselves for a year and apply for PhD programs the following year. You might not be able to take such jobs. This is one of the reasons that preferential acceptance to academic programs exists: people with disabilities have fewer options to put food on the table. You may be comfortable right now, but in the future you may have more difficulty finding employment and supporting yourself than someone without a disability. It's not you are completely helpless and have no options, it is simply that your disability is recognized as reducing (however slightly) your employment options compared to a non-disabled person.
Hence, I think you should not feel ashamed to accept this preferential status.

+1 This is an interesting point. Interestingly, I had never thought about the topic from this specific perspective, so I'm grateful that you mentioned it (although I'm not the OP).

My suggestion is that it would depend on whether the nature of the disability could affect the outcome of your degree process in any way. A physical disability might not matter in the least. Or it might, if it made access to some venues (much) more difficult. Or if it made interacting with a computer a slow and difficult process.
I believe that some European degree programs have time limits. Some difficulties might make that an issue. Inability to speak or to hear or to see might be an issue, though that might be something to be worked out with a supervisor. (I once had a blind math professor - his lectures at the chalkboard were a bit weird but he managed)
It might be worth having a conversation with the office that manages such things as to the likelihood of the disability being an actual difficulty in completing. If it is, then putting the university on notice that accommodations are necessary would be a good thing.
But, I'm more concerned about the ability to finish in a timely way than the ability to get accepted. Ideally (though we don't live in an ideal world) a disability shouldn't have an affect on admissions other than in a field in which the disability would prevent necessary action/participation.

Thank you for your exhaustive answer. I don't think I will require any particular aid throughout my PhD. Throughout my master's I did not require any. That's why I am more concerned about the application process.

This answer does not respond to the question, which was about using the right to appeal.

@AnonymousPhysicist the OP is using appeal i an odd way, they don't mean "appeal a decision", there is no decision in the question, they seem to mean "can I/should I avail myself of my eligibility to this program".

@terdon Rather they're using "appeal" in a standard way, except that the word "appeal" is also associated with appeals for legal relief by a higher court. I've edited to avoid this possible confusion, though I don't think it was really odd or wrong.

@BryanKrause yes, my bad. I can see how appeal would fit there, but it wouldn't have been my first choice, and it does seem to be creating some confusion.

@terdon The intended meaning of "appeal" has no bearing on the fact that this "answer" does not address the issue in the question.

Disability is not only about your current situation. It is also about future implications of future adverse events.
Disability is a safety margin: if you have a recognized disability, it means that you may be fully functional, but you are closer to being partially functional. Losing hear capabilities from one ear is not a big problem, unless I have already one functioning ear only.
Hiring you in the "people with disability" quota is a safety measure for your employer, too: if you have an accident and you require extended time out of work, they are covered by special agreements with insurer/welfare system.

additionally: anyone having dealt with HR or finance department will understand that "all things being equal", unless you give a positive edge to the people with some disability, the "pragmatic, rational actuarian book-keeper knowing risk analysis" will discard the profile because of the lingering risk of unproductive time (again, safety margin theory applied to the human body).

"they are covered by special agreements with insurer/welfare system."  Is this an EU requirement?  I am not familiar with this.

@AnonymousPhysicist no, it is a general thing, see for example the US https://www.healthcare.gov/people-with-disabilities/ or even pension scheme in Canada https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/publicpensions/cpp/cpp-disability-benefit.html

Your answer says the employer is covered by a special agreement.  Your link says individuals receive benefits.  Also, the Canadian link is for people who cannot work.

@AnonymousPhysicist No time to show you that the planet Earth is not flat, not even round, but slightly oblated. You are free to open a question on the topic on Skeptics SE, or Law SE, or even here on Academia SE.

OK.  I just wonder if you meant to write "you are covered" instead of "they are covered."

Employers have insurances as well. Additionally, there are things like tax discount and other measures, even in the US: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/tax-benefits-for-businesses-who-have-employees-with-disabilities

This is a question with a number of layers, and ultimately there is no 'right answer'.
First, there are the legal provisions. Details will probably vary between countries and between institutions, but in general the law will stipulate that an individual with a declared disability has priority where two (or more) candidates are equally well-qualified. Unfortunately, in academic contexts this is somewhat meaningless: ranking candidates is inherently subjective, and it is always possible to find reasons why Candidate A is "better" than Candidate B. It would be unusual for a well-briefed committee to end up in a position where the disability laws determine the result.1
Second, there may be various other policies that come into play. For example, in the UK it is common for employers to guarantee an interview to any candidate who declares a disability and meets the basic requirements of the role. This may improve your chances, especially if you think you come across better in interview than you do on paper. On the other hand, you may waste time and energy if you are called for interview in circumstances where you're clearly uncompetitive.
Third, many institutions and individuals are increasingly focussed on EDI and access issues, and contextual information may be considered (formally or informally) during hiring/admissions decisions. Disclosing a disability may sway the committee in your favour, especially if you end up neck-and-neck with some other, non-disabled, candidate.2 On the other hand, you open yourself up to the possibility of negative discrimination: given the subjectivity of the process, a (consciously or unconsciously) biased committee member will be able to find a defensible reason to argue against offering you the position.
Fourthly, there are human factors. In your question, you write "I would not want to get... accepted merely due to my disability". Is this something that is going to prey on your mind every time your hit a rough patch in your research? Will you worry that your supervisor never really wanted to take you on? Only you know the answer to those kinds of questions.
Ultimately, there isn't a clear answer to your question: there are arguments both for and against disclosure at the application stage,3 especially if your disability does not directly impact the things that the committee will be assessing you on. Note that you can make different choices in different applications: for example, you might decide to take one approach when applying for a programme that recruits 10 people from 200 applicants, and another when applying for a position that will recruit one person from 20 applicants.

1 An exception might be some very large schemes, such national PhD funding competitions covering a wide range of subjects, where there may be more reliance on ranking candidates according to some numerical score (e.g. GPA).
2 This is not quite the same as the first case: you would not be chosen because the law says so, but rather because the committee felt your achievements deserved to be given a higher weight by virtue of the additional challenges you have faced.
3 You can always disclose your disability later in the process, e.g. upon being called to interview or after appointment.

Point 3 is fair, but difficult. The CV is important to disclose your achievements in terms of your potential. If a normal "cv" is expected to show something like a couple of publications over 4 years, a cv of a person with strong impairment due to time-intensive process like chemio-therapy or disability having similar time consuming outcomes should be judged "equal" in the sense of effective working time, i.e. the "with disability" candidate produced maybe only a draft of a paper in 4 years and it has the same "cv points" as the regular candidate producing 2 fully reviewed papers...


text:
Possible choices for switching programs in the same university
I am in a program A as a first year student and I failed one of two qualifying exam parts. However, when I applied for double checking my answers, I met plenty of obstacles.
One professor initially told me a wrong score. She corrected it later. When I asked to check my original answers, she refused.
Moreover, I am not in a good relationship with the professor who is responsible for the qual exam. I used to point out her incorrect arguments in class.
Now I had several papers and I believed that I enjoyed doing research. But I am not very interested in the course offered in program A and I am sure that doing the qual exam again is a waste of time.
Moreover, even if I passed the qual exam next year, I may meet obstacles from other professors. Therefore, I am afraid of wasting more time.
I have not discussed details with my advisor. He has duties in programs B and C, which have a different qual exam. For example, they only need to do a presentation.
My final target is to graduate in five years and work in academia.

Your path seems clear since you don't particularly like your current course of study, but your advisor, who supports you (apparently) is in another track.
Talk to the advisor about your options. If their sub-field is attractive to you, ask to join it. If not, seek another advisor in a field interesting to you and speak with them.
But banging your head against a wall brings pain, not enlightenment in most cases.
Switching universities should also be on the table in your set of options, especially if you advisor can help with that.
You might also rethink your in-class behavior. If you are seen as argumentative it might cause you problems in the future. I used to point out issues in lectures, but more in the form of questions when I didn't understand a (math) proof. But I never sounded like I was challenging the competence of the professor. That would be stepping over the line. (I realize that I don't have full information about your conflicts, of course.)

Thanks a lot. I have finished my transfer and I will continue my work at another program.


text:
Does it matter where you got your bachelor's degree when applying to PhD?
I did my bachelor's degree at an unknown school and got a very decent GPA. I picked it randomly and am now regretting that did not opt for a better school, although I had an opportunity.
Currently I am doing a master's at a school which is quite respected in my field (top 100 in the world rank). My grades are also expected to be high.
I want to apply for PhD. Could my bachelor's school be an obstacle to enter top PhD programs in Europe? I also have research experience + a lot of extracurriculars. If the prestige of a first degree is important, are there any ways to make my application look better?

Will you be applying in countries different from where you did your degrees? Was the bachelors place accredited, however it is normally done there?

More recent experience/results are often weighted higher than earlier experience - people grow after all. Do well in your masters and nobody will really care about your bachelor's degree.

Likely duplicate of How handicapped am I in graduate admissions if I graduated from a lower tier university?. There are also many questions about how a master's can offset an undergraduate experience, such as this one.

Does this answer your question? https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/183306/how-much-would-being-at-a-top-university-at-my-country-help-in-hypothetically-ge

Since your masters is from a well regarded institution it is very unlikely that where you did your bachelors will raise any issues. You will have proven yourself on advanced topics in your field. The masters institution already decided that the bachelors place wasn't an issue and that will reinforce later judgements. In general, what you have done most recently is weighted over earlier work. Some top academics had a late start, actually.
However, be aware that if you limit applications in Europe or elsewhere to only top schools you may wind up disappointed, since the competition can be fierce. While you shouldn't omit those sorts of places you will have better luck overall if you cast a wide net. You will find good advisors/supervisors at most accredited institutions, even those without a "top" world ranking.
And, some top academics are other places than top institutions for various reasons, even a preference about where to live, even the quality of, for example, bagels. ;-)

The fact that you're applying to (continental) Europe makes a huge difference for two reasons:

Many countries here (e.g. Germany) don't have "top-tier" and "lower-tier" universities, so they likely won't mind it if your undergrad (or master's, on that matter) is from a lesser-known school, as long as it's accredited.
Most likely the admission committees will look at your master's grades, not your BA ones.

However, the situation is very different in the UK and in North America, where your undergrad GPA (and the reputation of your school) might make more of a difference.

As a German myself, I fully agree. No German professor thinks that one institution is superior to other.

As a former professor, I can say that a degree from a highly respected undergrad school will catch my attention.  At the school where I taught, professors individually offered admission (and support) to students who met minimum standards.  For example, I found a student from TSinghua (China's MIT) who didn't have the money to pay the application fee and I was about to pay it out of my own pocket when I found that he had been accepted to Stanford with a full ride.
Realize that most undergrad schools are teaching exactly the same subjects from exactly the same textbooks and e.g. i think even John Bardeen went to Wisconsin for his undergrad and  m.s. and still won 2 physics nobel prizes including one for inventing the transistor.  Smart professors know that a great student can come from almost anywhere if they must live at home while in college, but the sorting process begins at the undergrad school and students from top-30 undergrad schools will get more attention that students from the-rest-of-the-250 schools in the usa.
Focus on standing out in some way.  Publish a paper in a good journal, have a good MS Thesis, find a famous MS adviser in an area where you want to continue, or get well known people to give you recommendations, get into an academic competition and place highly or win it (note you'll have to enter more than one for this), etc.  Also, target the school and professor you want to work for and even ask them how you could earn a spot in their team.  Acting shy will almost always hurt your academic career.

To add to the great answer by Buffy, PhD applications are considered on multiple factors, and the school the candidate went to, is just one of them. As mentioned above, you have a master's school to balance out with undergraduate school. I think you have done the right thing by adding research experience and other skills to your resume and that will be considered favorably too.
Also, something to ask yourself is what you want out of the grad school - do you want your own research lab in a university or are you looking to pursue research in industry? At least in the USA, getting into academia is hard because an unfair amount of weight is given to the university where one gets their PhD. If you are reasonably certain or open to considering industry positions, it does not matter if you went to a top grad school and instead more weight is given to the quality of your work.
Finally, for the statement letter and all interviews going forward, I recommend identifying your story and then drawing relevant pieces from all your experiences to match the narrative of your story. As long as you can identify what you learned and gained from your undergraduate and master's schools and tie them to your story, you can highlight them as your strengths instead of something that holds you back. Good luck!

I live in Germany and the only thing a professor ever cared was if you have enough experience or projects relevant to the PhD you're applying to and good grades. Like Buffy mentioned it's your Masters degree that's giving an entry point since in Europe it's mandatory to have one except for a few exceptions.


text:
How should I confront an under-performing coauthor?
I'm working on a study with a coauthor; the ratio of the work distribution is about 90/10, me. On the one hand, this person was the one to approach me about collaborating on a project, and suggested a specific venue for presenting it. Yet since that initial invitation, I've been the one to come up with the topic of study, the methodology, compiling the resources we'd need for data collection, and to date have done more of the data collection so far. I've basically called all the shots in this study, and have had all the ideas (I always ask for their thoughts, but they basically agree with everything I say). I've indirectly brought this up once, indicating we were pressed for time and pointing to everything I had to do without pointing out how little they were doing. They offered to help pick up the slack, but then never followed through.
At this point, I think I need to be more direct about the issue; I don't want to be mean, but I also want to make clear that a) I'm carrying too much of the burden; it doesn't need to be 50/50, but what we have going on right now is really unfair to me; b) if they're unwilling/unable to shoulder more of the work, then I don't think we should continue on this project together.
I always struggle with directness, as I feel like I'm being rude. Any suggestions on how to nip this particular situation in the bud?
EDIT/UPDATE: I've since emailed my co-author. They responded in what feels like passive aggressive gas-lighting. Basically, the gist of their response was (this is not a direct quote), "it seems like you're the one who's overwhelmed and I'm questioning your commitment to this project. If it's too much for you or you have other priorities, we can take a step back...but I for one am ready to work."
I'm not even sure how to respond to this. They did offer one explanation for why I haven't seen any work on their part (they said they were working on it in a separate document instead of our shared document), which is fine and I can accept that, but turning the tables and going "it's not me, it's you" is really bothering me. I don't want to escalate this or seem like I'm making a big deal if it isn't one (yes, despite naming this gas-lighting, I can't seem to escape its effects), but I also don't want to stand for that kind of behavior. Any further suggestions on how to respond to this coauthor would be appreciated.

I would finish the project, but never collaborate with this person again.  Without more information, it appears you have already done the right things.  There could be power dynamics to this question you didn't tell us about.

@AnonymousPhysicist we're peer colleagues working at different universities, so there's no overt power imbalance to speak of

I have been through a similar situation and I regret not being assertive and direct. I would have set a clear workload distribution and responsibilities before starting a project to avoid getting to this point. The only thing you can do now is directly talking to them about the issue.

Let me suggest an alternate interpretation of events. They come to you with a proposal. You take it over completely and get into it very deep, perhaps closing the other colleague out. Now you are overwhelmed and wonder why they aren't working as hard as you. But that might not have been their intention in the first place. Are you sure you are blameless in this? Your update seems to confirm the possibility of this interpretation.

@Buffy I understand where that interpretation is coming from, but I don't think that's the case. This person didn't come to me with a specific proposal; it was more like "we should work on something together!" and later, "hey let's submit something to Conference X together! Any ideas?" And since then I've come up with every idea, and have also run each idea past this person every step of the way, trying to get their feedback and encourage their involvement, which has been limited to just agreeing with/regurgitating whatever I say.

You certainly need to sort this out. Would you like to stay on good terms with this colleague going forward? I'm going to assume the answer is yes, and I would certainly encourage that.
Being direct is indeed the best approach, and it can be rudely done or considerately. Perhaps the person is having personal problems at the moment? You do not know what is causing the problem, but it is not necessary to assume that the person is just an unreliable jerk. They might be, but you can give them a chance to explain the situation.
Since you are doing all the work, and the two of your are peers, you are really in the driver's seat. But you do have to talk--not about promises for the future at this point but explanations for the past non-performance.
You might ask the person what they want, since their actions to date suggest a lack of interest in the project or some problem interfering with their ability to work on it.  That's a considerate way of giving them an opportunity to explain the situation. You are not being mean or accusing them of anything. And you will soon enough find out whether or not the person really does have a short-term problem or is actually unreliable. Then you will know what to do.