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Is it worthwhile to publish short paper as graduate student?
I am a computer science student. I have done some work on algorithms and I have got one result. The result is small, 6-7 pages long (entire paper). I want to publish it and my adviser is also motivating me to publish.
Question: Is it worthwhile to publish short paper as graduate student? Will it enhance the significance of my research work?

Definitely. Publishing is in general difficult. Achieving it as undergrad is very remarkable. Beware of reviewing times of journals (months) and consider conferences instead.

Is there any reason you think it will not be worth it? The fact your advisor is urging you to do so is a pretty strong indicator; why do you doubt their advice?

There are many reasons why it is helpful to publish. The usual reason is that it enhances your standing in the community of scholars and professionals. But another important reason, in my view, is just for the experience of it. You force yourself to bring your ideas into an understandable and maybe usable form. That is good for your mind and publishing is just the goad to get it done.
Submitting to a conference or journal will also get you independent feedback on both your ideas and your writing. That is valuable also.
In CS, however, most of the work is presented in conferences, so you might look for a suitable one and submit there.
If you want a career in academia, publishing is essential, and starting early gives you more experience for when the more important results are ready.
It is also usually good advice to follow your advisor's lead.
Good luck and see you at the conference.

Flip the question around and ask the reverse: is there any reason not to publish a short paper as a graduate student? Offhand, I can think of:

If it's a poor paper it might reflect badly on you to have published it. A related question has been asked before. This isn't all that likely to work against you to be honest, since papers by early career researchers tend not to be very high-impact for obvious reasons. Your advisor who presumably has a lot more experience than you is the best judge of your work. If he says go ahead (and as you write he's already said that), it probably won't reflect badly on you. After all, your advisor's name is probably also going to be on the paper.
It takes up time that you could've used to do more research. Is this really the case though? If in the time it takes to write a paper you could've achieved something more substantial, you're one exceptionally motivated student.
You don't have the money to publish it open access. If this is a problem for you, simply publish it in a subscription journal.

Can you think of anything else? If not, why not go ahead?
Finally you ask:

Will it enhance the significance of my research work?

The idea behind publishing is that more people become aware of it. If enough people are aware of it and they find it interesting, then you'll certainly have "enhanced its significance". It's possible they don't find it interesting in which case the significance is low, but if you don't publish it then the significance is almost by definition zero since nobody else knows about it. So the answer is yes: it might, and certainly won't hurt.

If you don’t publish your research, no one will ever know about it. If you publish it successfully, that means it will undergo peer review and be deemed to be worthy of publishing by experienced researchers and journal editors, and then will join the body of knowledge available to humanity. So yes, by its very definition, publication “enhances the significance of your research”.
Or, as Steve Jobs said, real artists ship.


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I publish under a one-word name, which Google Scholar does not index. What can I do?
I publish under a single name (no last name). As Google Scholar does not recognise me as an author I face several issues with citation counts and wrong bibliographic data being available in Google Scholar. I have reported this issue several times through the contact us form for Scholar but I just get an automated response from them. What can I do?
Example: When you search my name in scholar, my papers appear not because I am an author but because I am a word in the paper. Google does not index me as an author. So, if some one cites my work as Abhishta et. al. Google has no idea who is being cited.
This situation is a different from the questions that are asked before on this forum as the former questions were discussing problems that journals require multiple names for an author but in this case, the publisher is fine with having a single name and the paper is already published. However there are problems with Scholar indexing the data of the paper.
First author indexed by Google as
Actual authors of the paper

Contact google scholar...

Have you already created a google scholar profile for you?

As far as I know, there are quite a few users on this site who have a single name. I think this is not an individual problem. And we do have quite a few Google Scholar related questions before . Vote to "Leave Open".

I did see that you have an article in arXiv by using Google Scholar. Would you please clarify what kind of issues you face?

Yes, some of the preprints of my articles are at arxiv. But in each case where I am the first author, google just skips my name when it indexes the publication. As a result, I miss citations and some people might also cite me using the wrong bibtex that is provided by google.

I have contacted scholar multiple times, but each time I get an automated response. @FuzzyLeapfrog I do have a google scholar profile: link. If you look at the related versions of all papers, the problem will become clear.

@Abhishta So even though the publications are correctly assigned to your profile, If some searchs for one of the publications, your profile is not linked behind your author name. Is that your problem?

@FuzzyLeapfrog First I had to manually add the papers to my profile. But, that is not a big deal. When you search my name in scholar, my papers appear not because I am an author but because I am a word in the paper. Google does not index me as an author. So, if some one cites my work as Abhishta et. al. Google has no idea about who is being cited,

@scaaahu Issues related to publication names and citations are relevant, but I would suggest a broader focus. Does Web of Science or SCOPUS make similar mistakes? How do they get fixed?

@Abhishta It would improve the question to edit it, so that the content of relevant comments that clarify the problem are included in the question itself.

@aeismail Web of science doesn’t make the same mistake. Scopus has attributed a set of names to my profile. So if any one of the names appear on the paper, scopus attributes it to my profile.

Sadly, the virtual world hasn't caught up with the real world. If you are building such systems or have influence over them in any way, I'd suggest you consider this issue seriously and find a solution. There is at least one CS professor at MIT with a similar issue. The OP here might seek him out.

Possible duplicate of I have only one name shown in my ID card. How do I write my name (surname) in research paper or article?

@BurakUlgut Not a duplicate of that. This is asking about a practical consequence.

Not having a surname makes you a nonentity in many bureaucratic environments. You have the choice to waste a lot of time and energy on insisting, or just style yourself a surname. Use you existing first name if it really doesn't matter for you.

Use "Dr." as your first name.

@Karl but what can I do about the present papers? Its only google scholar that does not identify my name but Microsoft academic and scopus or ieee does not have any problems..

To the user who raised the close flag, did you read this comment ???

Google scholar is imperfect. It's based on an automatic parser, rather than human curation. I've seen it make all kinds of mistakes.
What can you do? You already have set up a profile that has the correct information. You can try contacting Google, but don't expect much from them. I doubt they have the resources to deal with everyone who contacts them with an issue. However, they are always improving their algorithm and this may get resolved.
The only other thing I think you can do is alter how your name appears on papers to conform to western expectations, as suggested in this question: I have only one name shown in my ID card. How do I write my name (surname) in research paper or article?
Overall, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It is easy enough to find your publications online and any human reader will understand that you are mononymous.

Dirty hack: write your papers under your one name, twice.  (Prince Prince)

This wouldn't really work for somebody who already has an established history of publishing under one name (Magneto).

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My significant other is a member of a research project that I coordinate. How to allocate funding?
I'm responsible for a large research project, with many members and some substantial funding for traveling to conferences. However, I'm now in a relationship with one of its members. How should I proceed regarding allocating funds to my significant other? I'm worried that I may be accused of being unethical if I allocate whichever amount to them. What should I do? Namely, I would like to declare a conflict of interest, but there does not seem to be a way to deal with this conflict without some drastic consequences.

Why can't you just keep giving them how much they were receiving before? With raises on schedule

Well, it seems pretty clear to me that you need to declare the conflict anyway, probably to your institution and also to your funding agency.  They may have rules that take the matter out of your hands.

Seconding @NateEldredge's point: declare the conflict, and the funding (etc) agencies will have guidelines/requirements, which you just follow. It should not be something you have to wisely decide on your own, in these times, in the U.S., etc.

Just take care of her.  You don't want to sleep on the couch, right?  (Kidding!)   Talk to someone official.  Unfortunately this is a downside of romance in the workplace.  It is even possible that one of you may need to exit the joint grant.  Or perhaps someone else becomes leader.

Is it in your contract that you're not allowed to enter relationships with other members?  It's not an uncommon thing to see in such positions for exactly this reason.  I can't see how you'll ever be able to do your job without this conflict of interest.

What you can (or should) do probably depends a lot on your legislation and the culture of the country you are in. What might be best to do in the UK or the US might not be the best in other places of the world.

I served for a couple of years on the Conflict of Interest Committee of my institution. During that time I learned many useful and sometimes counterintuitive things about the subject. The principles that should guide you in thinking about what to do to avoid exposing yourself to any accusations of policy or ethics violations are:

You should avoid putting yourself in a conflict of interest with respect to the grant and your significant other, if at all possible.
The point of the “if” qualifier is that, as you seem to believe, it may not in fact be possible to avoid without taking unreasonably drastic measures such as you or your SO resigning your roles.
You should avoid creating the appearance of an unmanaged conflict of interest, period. No exceptions.
The point of “appearance” is that it’s not just the conflict that needs to be avoided but also the appearance of one. You may be the most ethical person on the planet, or you may even know certain facts that not everyone knows that explain away the conflict and make you confident what you are doing is fine, but the appearance of a conflict can invite consequences that are just as bad, and possibly worse (e.g. a headline in the New York Times followed by calls for your resignation, a public lynching or whatnot), than the conflict itself.
The point of “unmanaged” is that if you can’t avoid a conflict - and one of the surprising things I learned is that conflicts can not always be avoided, nor is avoiding all conflicts at any cost even a desirable goal to have - then the next best thing is to find a way to manage the conflict. For example, at many institutions one can set up a conflict management plan, which may involve additional levels of oversight (for example a department chair or dean signing off on your funding allocation decisions pertaining to your significant other, and maybe additional reporting requirements such as you filing a letter of explanation justifying any such decision).
This goes without saying, but you should find out all applicable rules and policies that govern your situation.

The bottom line is, you should ask for guidance from your institution and your funding agency on how to address the situation. Have in writing documents, written (or at least reviewed and approved) by people in authority, which specify how you are expected to handle the situation. Then follow what these documents say.

Yes, seconding the point of avoiding appearance of conflict of interest, among other good points.

Noting that whoever loses funding is going to immediately bitch about it and make formal complaints about you, you need to make yourself bulletproof.

I think you should expand on what it means to be part of the Conflict of Interest Committee.  Obviously the details will be school specific, but I think that the most valuable part of this answer is pointing out that most universities already have resources devoted to resolving these sorts of problems that the OP can avail themselves of.

@ArcanistLupus actually the types of conflicts our committee dealt with were mostly different from OP’s specific conflict - things like a medical researcher testing the efficacy of a drug who also has a financial stake in the success of the experiment. We were charged with determining when the potential for a conflict exists and what to do about it. Anyway, I believe my answer is applicable to OP’s situation even if their specific conflict might not have fallen under the purview of this specific committee.

@Valorum "you need to make yourself bulletproof" -- why should OP worry? We've been assured in another answer that whistleblowers end up ruined and their targets unscathed. So anyone who makes "formal complaints" about OP will simply be blacklisted, ensuring that (per that answer) "absolutely nothing happens" to OP, right? Or why do you think OP is so uniquely unlucky that they'd be unable to simply disregard/crush the whistleblower like every other accused person does all the time (according to that answer)?

@nanoman - That's not my answer, so why should I need to justify what someone else has (erroneously) said? Also, whistleblowers enjoy all sorts of formal protection in the Public and aacademic Sectors that they'd never see in private jobs.

@Valorum Fair enough. That answer is in Acad.SE, so it should have already taken into account such "formal protection". It claims "Laws protecting whistleblowers tend to be ineffectual at best." I'm confirming that you strongly disagree with that answer (which was fairly well upvoted and accepted, and seems to be Acad.SE's canonical question/answer on whistleblowing), in case you might be motivated to add your critique to it. Just found it interesting that there are such widely divergent views here on the effectiveness of whistleblowing.

@nanoman - I think you're mistaking whistleblowing for a simple complaint of bias.

@Valorum Perhaps. It seems both questions involve fairly similar scenarios -- potential complaints about an academic allocating funds to their significant other -- just with that one from the standpoint of the potential complainer/accuser and this one from the standpoint of the potential complainee/accused. (They were automatically marked as "related" questions by SE, which is how I found my way from one to the other.)

However, I'm now in a relationship with one of its members. How should I proceed regarding allocating funds to my significant other?

The best thing to do here is to disclose the conflict-of-interest to your Head of School** and ask that they allocate a different academic to decide the funding allocation.  The Head of School might have a different idea, and might decide that they want you to make the decision anyway, and if so, they will direct you to do that.  By suggesting you be removed from making the decision you will have given yourself protection in the event that you are asked to make the decision and then later accused of bias.  That will put you in a strong position if you are later accused of any mismanagement or bias.

I would like to declare a conflict of interest, but there does not seem to exist a way to deal with this conflict without some drastic consequences.

That is ridiculous.  There certainly should not be any adverse consequences merely for declaring a conflict-of-interest prior to making a decision.  The whole point of a conflict-of-interest policy is to encourage people to disclose potential conflicts-of-interest so that alternative decision-making arrangements can be made to avoid the conflict.  The onus is on you to declare the conflict to your Head of School, and the onus is then on the Head of School to decide how to proceed.  If your university has a conflict-of-interest policy then you should read it and follow its reporting rules, and if there is no such policy then you should declare the conflict directly to your Head of School with a simple email.
Also, you are not required to find a solution to your own conflict-of-interest.  The whole point of the conflict is to make your decision-making suspect, and thereby taint decisions you make on the matter.  Once you have disclosed the conflict-of-interest to your Head of School, the onus of decision-making will be on him/her to decide if and how they would like to alter the normal decision-making mechanisms.

** Throughout this answer I will refer to disclosure to your Head of School.  Depending on your level in the university it might be sufficient to make disclosure to your own supervisor, even if this staff member is lower than Head of School.  For simplicity, I will refer to disclosures to HoS.

Disclosing is of course necessary, but does not solve the problem. Nor is it reasonable to only expect others to do something about this.

I disagree - as stated in the answer, the whole effect of the conflict is to put the decision-making of that person under legitimate suspicion.  Allowing the person under conflict to decide the solution to the conflict is a failure.

"Allowing the person under conflict to decide the solution to the conflict is a failure"  <- Your suggestion, by default, means this will still be the case. The head-of-school could change it, if they wanted to. When people later complain about OPs funding decisions, the fact that s/he disclosed the conflict-of-interests will not be a good defense.

I don't agree - If the HoS assesses the matter independently and directs it back to the original decision-maker, then decision of who will make the funding decision has been made by a person under no conflict.  The HoS could still be wrong to have referred it back to the original decision-maker, and there could certainly still be a complaint.  Having referred the matter to the HoS, and then been ordered to make the decision anyway is an extremely strong defence against criticism.  I cannot think of a stronger defence for the original decision-maker than this.

"Why, Professor OP, I'm sure you can handle the matter professionally and not let your personal relationship clound your judgment. You have my full confidence." <- This is both likely and spells trouble, possibly even legal trouble.

...but not legal trouble for Prof OP, which is the point.

That's not the whole point, just part of it. 2. Oh, legal trouble for Prof. OP for sure.

Okay, so I'm curious.  What legal trouble does he get in?  Part of his job is to allocate university funding for conference travel.  He has a conflict of interest, declares it to his supervisor in the university (e.g., HoS), and the HoS instructs him to make the decision notwithstanding his conflict.  So he obeys the instruction of his Hos and makes the decision, as best he can.  Explain to me the legal trouble he is now in.

Neither disclosing nor getting an instruction to essentially ignore the CoI significantly improves OP's legal situation. A higher-up approval does not "bless" a CoI-influenced decision with legitimacy. Of course this depends on the country, and on many specifics, but your instinct is wrong AFAIK.

To the contrary, it is established common law that an employee is under a legal obligation under contract law to obey their employer's reasonable and lawful directions, pertaining to their work.  So prima facie the employee with the CoI is compelled to make the decision when instructed to do so.  This would certainly be a strong defence against any contractual claim.  It does not matter that the CoI decision may still be illegitimate - the fault then lies with the HoS, not the employee.  Can you explain the legal danger you allege the employee is in or not?

The employee is in pretty much the same danger as before.

I asked about what legal dangers you assert, and you can't tell me what they are.  As to your AFAIK - do you actually have any legal training?  Because you seem to be making assertions about legal dangers, and then when I ask what they are, you change the subject.

I have quite a bit of litigation experience (not in English-speaking countries though) - and even more union experience. And believe you me, if someone took your advice and people in the research group complained and got their union to act - that someone would be in deep trouble, legal and otherwise.

Okay, so again, patiently.  What.  Is.  That.  Legal.  Trouble.  ?

Litigation experience as a lawyer?  Or litigation experience as an expert witness/litigant who has no legal training?

You report the conflict of interest to your superior, and ask for help developing a management plan moving forward.  Full stop.

TL;DR: 1.  Involve an impartial party in decision making; 2. lots of transparency.
As other answers suggest, it is important to recognize and disclose the fact that you are in a conflict of interests. However, that is not enough - it is merely the beginning. You can also not rely on higher-ups to provide adequate (or any) remedy to this situation: They might help, or they might not - it depends on the specific rules and organizational culture in your institute. Don't be surprised if they will be mostly annoyed at you creating more headaches and trouble in their already overly-busy schedule.
Ignoring here any specific procedures and binding rules that might apply to your case (which you should not ignore - read up on them), let's assume for a second it's all up to you. In this case, the solution must - IMHO - involve:

Someone who is not you interfering, supervising or participating in your decisions regarding how funds are allocated and to whom. This should not be a person you choose, but rather someone which is chosen either by consensus of the people affected by the funding decisions, or by higher-up academics or management which the people affected hold in high enough regard. The extent of involvement is also something that should have wide agreement, and I suggest you err on the side of caution, i.e. the more you can offload the decision to such an external party the better off this would be ethically. Of course, the price is more burden on that person, plus there will possibly be professional considerations which you are more capable in making - but that's the price you pay for better fairness when you have a conflict of interests.
Note: In my opinion, someone having authority over all of you choosing the external party is not in itself good enough, since that higher-up might not be trusted by the people affected.
Transparency in all possible stages of the process: What funds are available; what the external obligations are; what actions you are taking to secure more funds or to convince people to do things which affect fund allocations; the timelines for funding decision making; the criteria and formulae used in allocation; the input material and appeals by relevant people (including but not limited to your SO) for funding etc. Such transparency should be in face of those people who may be affected by the decision, including those which otherwise you would not have felt obligated to discuss these matters with.

As a side-note, I would very much recommend not to try something like democratizing the funding decisions, unless you're democratizing many other aspects of the project or  the research group. The reason is that as a central person with more influence and power, you are likely to be able to form majorities even around less-favorable positions, and to deter juniors from opposing your position. Plus, you and your SO are two people, biasing the process even more in favor of your potentially-coordinated decision.

The ethical way is to allocate funds in the same way you would if the other person wasn't in this relationship.
The "safe" way to make the decision and avoid appearances of impropriety is to somehow share the decision with either an independent party or the members of the group itself. It is harder to claim unethical behavior if the decisions are made in public, with full transparency. In extreme cases you could delegate the decision to someone else, such as a superior, if that is possible.

"The ethical way is to allocate funds in the same way you would if the other person wasn't in this relationship. " Yes. It's also impossible to completly ignore ones feelings on decisions so you'll never truly know what decision you would have made otherwise.

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Would the professor leave the classroom if only 1 student uses their cellphone during class?
I’m a college student. My class has only 40 students. My professor left the classroom before class ended because, like he said, too many students were using phones while he was talking. It was not like there were phone sounds or the phones rang. He said before leaving that he would let us teach ourselves.
In this case, I’m quite curious about something:

Would he be able or be allowed to not teach, and let us handle it ourselves and only come in to do the test?
Would he be able to fail the whole class?
Would he possibly react the same way if only 1 student used their phone without making any noise?

It depends on the severity and persistence of the disturbance. Some do not intervene if people use their phones silently. They accept students as adults, who are entitled to decide to spend all their study fees to be able to facebook against a pleasant lecture background noise. After all, they might even look up stuff in the internet (say). With noise, however, it is an entirely different story. However: ...

...a prof has the right to determine the pedagogical milestones of his course. He can decide that students do not learn well with mobiles active. Failure rates may hound him, too, so he is entitled to measures to improve studying. Whether this measure (leaving a room) is effective, I won't guess. But I can understand that he considers a situation with too many mobiles on not conducive to education and he should in principle have the choice to react to that in a way that he thinks will bring about a more effective change in students' material uptake.

I recall first year at university a lecturer walked out when one student threw a paper plane (which hit the board in front of him). Next lecture when he walked in half the students threw planes - looking back both the walk out and the response of students seem a little immature.

@DavidWaterworth Having a sense of humour as a lecturer can help getting the class on your side (instead of walking out). But having a whole swarm of planes thrown at you - well, someone clearly didn't do a proper job during high school time, and it's probably not just the students.

Answers could vary wildly.  At the places I have worked, the answers to these questions would be no, but a colleague told me that when he taught in Africa all those things were yes.

Even if the phone isn't making sound, I find it hard to stay focused on a lecture when there are things moving on a screen at the edge of my field of view. This means that if the person next to me or in front of me in class is on their phone, I might have a harder time concentrating.

I don't blame the professor for reacting to the situation but I think they should have taken a much more constructive reaction such as stopping the lecture mid-sentence to write the names of students which are rudely using their phones. You won't believe how quickly the users catch on and put their phones away.

Consider the opposite. Lecturer starts lecture, then stops and uses mobile. Somehow I think the students would be affronted. (except perhaps for those already using their mobiles, who couldn't have been paying the attention needed anyway...)

I am surprised it doesn't work the other way. Down here a lecturer could order students to leave class if he considers them disruptive. While majority probably wouldn't do it for just having phone out, talking over phone obviously wouldn't be fine in a class.

I've occasionally done "shocking" things to send an important message. It might be that all he intends is to make it a dramatic statement that you (the class) should take it more seriously.
I doubt that he intends to not return, and also doubt that he would get any administrative support for that.
I've always been willing to fail the entire class. Also willing to give full marks to the entire class. But that depends on individual, not group, behavior. Again, failing person A because of the actions of B would be unethical and would draw no administrative support.
If it is only one student then, perhaps, a more nuanced and less dramatic response would probably be called for.
In one of my "dramatic explosions" not every student was guilty. But even the ones who were more conscientious got an important message about proper behavior. In this case it was more about their own lack of preparation. There is a scene in Stand And Deliver in which the teacher, Jaime Escalante, denies entry to the classroom to a student who doesn't have his homework paper ready to turn in: "If you don't have a ticket, you don't get to watch the show."
But hopefully, the need for such drama is infrequent.

Maybe you can add some examples and reasons besides possible repercussions to you as a teacher if there are any? I mean the work framework of the school when things like this 'dramatic explosions' happen?

"If you don't have a ticket, you don't get to watch the show." - I would have thought the course fees were the ticket?
I get the point that if someone isn't engaged in learning, there's not much point attending class.
What I wonder is where the teacher's assumption that the only way to engage is to uncritically listen to them comes from. Maybe students are cross-referencing information online?
Actually knowing the best way for all your students to learn would require some sort of telepathy. Shouldn't modern institutions would be more attuned to diverse methods of student learning?

@Bruno I can't imagine you seriously and honestly think people on their phone during class are "cross-referencing information"…

@Bruno "I would have thought the course fees were the ticket? " - I agree, modern institutions should be more attuned to modern reality. Why not just have a sliding scale of course fees corresponding to the grade you want? $100 gets you a C, $1,000 gets you an A. No need to waste time sitting in lecture rooms, taking tests, etc! .

@Blackhole when I was in school, I would very frequently look things up during class. (not on my phone at the time, because it wasn't capable of accessing the internet in a meaningful way, but I would use it as a calculator.) Now I frequently do look things up in meetings. Phone, laptop, book, doesn't necessarily mean disengaged.

@Bruno A teacher-student relationship where the student pays the teacher for accreditation and the teacher is the servant of the student tends not to work in terms of transferring knowledge.  So you pay the institution for permission to attend and be evaluated, not the teacher for instruction and accreditation.  The "ticket" is then doing the work to learn, not handing over cash.  If you hand over cash and don't do the work to learn, you aren't fulfilling your part of the bargain.  And yes, they get to keep the cash.

Bruno and Mr.Mindor are completely right. By paying for those classes you are paying for the access, and it's up to the student to get the best she can.  Also cross referencing, or googling info is the most normal. Sometimes teachers dont explain concepts in an understandable way and searching online at the moment is the way to go to make your notes.   Also, @Yakk, do not forget that for many centuries teachers have been employees or servants, either of the wealthy or of the state.And it has worked, but self learning has always been quite effective.

@Bruno : A "modern institution" should be aware that most claims of "diverse methods of student learning" are unsupportable.  See, for instance, this summary or the original article.

@EricTowers the criticisms of the research studies might be valid, but that doesn't mean the claims are wrong. As one of the people who has a different learning style (I assimilate almost nothing presented visually or verbally, making traditional lectures nearly worthless to attend from a learning perspective), I can say definitively that either traditional lectures are a universally terrible format for teaching (because everyone learns like me), or diverse learning methods definitely exist (because I don't learn like everyone else).

Note that "If you don't have a ticket, you don't get to watch the show." is a line from the movie. I don't know if Escalante ever actually delivered it to his students, but the history is that he was an extremely effective teacher of AP Calculus to poor an under-performing students. He did it by making them work. Hard.

You should point out that this is something that likely varies between countries, and even schools. As you probably know, in the US, academic freedom in part means we are not required to teach someone who does not meet some minimum standard, which we have some flexibility to decide. Many of the details of the standard are decided collectively by the faculty. Complete freedom to determine the grade students get, including failing the entire class, is a rather controversial topic; administrations at some schools have been known to step in and change grades, but it makes the news when they do.

@ASimpleAlgorithm, agreed. But there are a few instances of students forming a cabal to refuse, collectively, to cooperate. But, again, you can't fail A because of the actions of B. So failing the entire class would require that each student fails independently, in some sense. My statement that I would be willing to fail everyone was (as it should be) interpreted as, if you don't perform, then you will fail and there is no curve that will save you.

A undergrad professor of mine used a graduate student as a plant to set up a shocking incident at the start of semesters. The confedrate would be sitting on an asile about half way up the ampitheator (big class) holding the campus paper in front of their face; the professor stopped in mid sentence with eyes fixed dramatically on the paper, strolled to the base of the aisle, bounded up the steps, snatched the paper and balled it up and sent the "offender" out in disgrace. The impact was only slightly lessened when you learned that it happened every semester.

Again, failing person A because of the actions of B would be unethical and would draw no administrative support. - by extension, isn't is just as unethical to walk out on the students who were actually paying attention, because of the actions of those who were perceived to not be paying attention (because they were on their phones)?

@dwizum, sometimes. But sometimes a dramatic lesson is needed. A professor has a lot of ways to compensate for a short absence so that the students don't get disadvantaged. It is a judgement call that I can't make at a distance.

But who needs the dramatic lesson? And is the need for drama enough to justify creating potential issues for students who are paying attention? Since you brought up Stand and Deliver - imagine if Escalante had denied access to every student because a few hadn't brought their homework. Wouldn't that be absurd? And isn't that basically the same thing that this walk-out professor has done?

@dwizum, actually, again, it depends. But the professor needs an educational reason behind such actions. They may be warranted or not in any specific situation. Education involves more than delivering content efficiently.

To be clear here, I agree that professors should have some leeway. But - speaking as a student who was generally a bigtime rule-following goodie-two-shoes - if one of my professors had walked out because some of my fellow students were using cell phones, I would have been furious. I agree that education involves more than delivering content, but it seems pretty heavy handed to walk out on all of your students because a few of them were not behaving. Certainly, there are effective ways to deal with misbehaving students that do not involve also punishing innocent bystanders.

@dwizum, "punishing" is your characterization, but not necessarily mine. Would you be furious at just the prof or at the students causing the disruption?

Both, actually. But does it matter? Because the professor was trying to make a point (apparently), the attention-paying students are now left without a lecture. But the irony is, they didn't need that point made - they were already putting in the effort to pay attention to a lecture they'd paid for, and attended. No one needed to teach them to pay attention. Surely, there's a more appropriate, and focused, way to deal with students who aren't paying attention.

@dwizum Your contract is with the school and so if the prof doesn't deliver, you beef is with the school too, since they are the ones that have the "duty" to you and owe you compensation. The faculty have a job and the right to set conditions under which they will and won't do it, which is a different contract between faculty and the school.

Would he be able or be allowed to not teaching, let us handle it ourselves and only come to do the test?

Depends on your university's policies, but in general no. Instructors of record have wide latitude over how they manage their classrooms, but refusing to teach for weeks at a time would almost certainly be over the line at virtually every institution.

Would he be able to fail the whole class?

Some professors have tried this and the university generally intervenes. Certainly failing an entire class because of a few bad actors is difficult to defend. If there is a reasonable final exam and not a single student manages to pass it, then failing the entire class could be an appropriate outcome. However, this would reflect poorly on the professor's teaching skills (and/or the university's admissions policies).

Would he possibly react the same way if only 1 student use the phone without making any noise?

You'd have to ask him. Certainly this reaction would be more difficult to justify in such a case.

Re: "reflect poorly on... the university's admissions policies". Keep in mind in the U.S. half of college students are attending community colleges, and most community colleges are open admissions -- i.e., no admissions policies.

Fair enough, though I think the "and/or" covers this :-)

This could be a defensible action if everyone in the classroom were on their phones. As other answers have pointed out, professors tend to be given rather wide latitude by their institutions (especially if they're tenured), and there may arguably be some value in "shock-and-awe" style approaches like this one when used sparingly.
However, the sticking point here is this sentence, which I've modified for emphasis:

My professor left the classroom before class ended because, like he said, too many students were using phones while he was talking.

"Too many" does not mean all. Therefore, what the professor did was unfair and inappropriate. If there's one student sitting there in the classroom who honestly wants to learn and is doing everything they can to pay attention, then the professor is obligated to perform their job out of respect for and contractual obligation to that student.
It is not the fault of the students who are not using cell phones that "too many" of their peers are using cell phones. There isn't anything you can reasonably expect the non-cell-phone-using students to do in order to get their cell-phone-using peers to stop—and certainly not during the class. Therefore, it is unreasonable to punish the non-cell-phone-using students for their cell-phone-using peers' actions.
Aside from that and whether or not it is permissible, I'd judge this as a major over-reaction, assuming that what you said about the lack of disruptions is true. At the university level, students are mature enough to be responsible for their own education and decisions. Instructors can and should support them, encourage them, and possibly even cajole them into making the correct decisions. But the students are still ultimately responsible for making and paying the price for their own decisions. Therefore, if a student wants to sit in a lecture without paying attention, that's really their prerogative. It only becomes something that the instructor needs to address if their choosing-not-to-pay-attention becomes a distraction for other students who are trying to pay attention. As, for example, would happen if phones were ringing or otherwise making noise. And at that point, the "dramatic gesture" would be to kick out those students who were creating a distraction, then continue the lecture for the benefit of those students who wanted to hear it.

I upvoted your answer. Frankly, I'm surprised that many of the other answers seem to support the professor's actions, even if indirectly. It seems clearly and obviously unethical to ignore the students who are paying attention in an attempt to send a message to those the professor thinks are not paying attention.

I also upvoted - anon dvd though. It's unfair on the diligent students to walk out, as it's depriving them. The phone users won't be adversly affected, as they disengaged themselves anyhow. They are the ones who ought to be not in the lecture. They've vitually absented themselves anyway!

Would he be able or be allowed to not teach, and let us handle it ourselves and only come in to do the test?

It wouldn't come to that. He "counter-provoked" you to realize you (= the students taking the class) were crazy for not making sure that class can be given without interruption, and that it would lead to ruin. Probably and hopefully you will take the hint, individually and collectively, and next time there will be no or almost-no students busy with their phones.

Would he possibly react the same way if only 1 student used their phone without making any noise?

No. He would either ignore it or call out that student and make him/her put their phone away.

It depends on the country and if the school is public or private. If the teacher is considered an employee and does that then he can be charged for abandoning work or breaking his contract of services with the school if the entire class goes to complain to the school administration, in which case the teacher could even be fired. BUT on the vast majority of situations... yes, he can. To answer the questions:
1-Would he be able or be allowed to not teaching, let us handle it ourselves and only come to do the test?
R- Yes. However petty and childish that is he can and would. Of course he should be reported, but best the student can do is ask another teacher of the same subject/class to allow you as listener (just to enter class and hear the lecture). Modern times do require modern solutions too, so making a scandal in social media might help. On the other hand, it could be argued that he was teaching you all a lesson.
2-Would he be able to fail the whole class?
R- Yes. He can, or fail someone he doesnt like. In which case the whole class or the affected ones can make an official petition or procedure, based on the class's plan deliverable homeworks, to be graded by an external source. That is a normal procedure in most universities.
3-Would he possibly react the same way if only 1 student use the phone without making any noise?
R- That is hard to answer without knowing the person, but petty behavior does come from petty people, so yes, he could, or he might  try to use that student as an example for everyone.
Having said that, you should consider that  its basic respect and manners to not be messing with your phone when someone is speaking to you. More so, it's a class where you are supposed to be learning, so you'd be wasting the chance.  If he did stated at the start of the course that he would not allow using phones, then the class is at fault.
However, to take into account is that there are many teacher, the older ones specially, that do not understand just how integrated is modern learning and technology. You could be taking notes on a tablet/notbook/smart-paperbook, check what he says and references on the phone, sending the photos of the whiteboard to the class's chat group, using the cloud to share the materials, etc . If that was the case, the whole group needs to speak to the teacher about it and get clear what is expected or allowed.

What would be the difference between public/private?

Public- Generally teachers are protected by syndicates/unions (which in many countries are mafias), so they can do (or do not do) almost whatever they want as long as they dont cause trouble for the leaders.
Private- There are 2 types. The for profit where the teacher would get repercussions because the alumni are clients and the objective is to get them to graduate (here there would be consequences for the teacher), or the private serious ones where the teacher can do almost anything and the school will back up the teacher to retain status.

Your language suggests you're disuccsing secondary education. This site is for tertiary.

@ Azor Ahai Language does not suggest. It speaks regardless of level where only initial ones would differ. It could be for a secondary, university level, MBA, PDH or POSTDOC. It's the same.

I don't understand what your second sentence means, or what postdocs have to do with this. But in tertiary education, we don't have "teachers" and very few lecturers/professors are unions, and certainly no one would consider university lecturer unions to be "mafias."

@AzorAhai faculty unions are relatively common in the US. They take on some of the decisions otherwise handled by the faculty senate and particular committees. I'm not quite sure what deags means by mafias but I doubt there's any point in arguing about it.

@Azor Ahai . If you read the response you'll notice the "...It depends on the country ..." , and in many countries, teacher's unions ARE legal mafias that governments use to retain a captive voting masses (just look at latinamerica) . Also,  lecturers/professors=teacher, there is no difference.

@deags It seems like English isn't your first language. lecturers/professors=teacher, there is no difference This just isn't correct. Those are different things (in different countries). In English-speaking universities, no is  called a "teacher" although they often do teach. I would encourage you to read up on the differences, because referring to professors as "teachers" (in English) suggests you don't know what you're talking about.

@Azor Ahai  Once more I recommend you to read the answer, where you'll notice the **"...It depends on the country ..." **, also, you can read any english thesaurus and you'll find that 'teacher' is a perfect synonym for 'professor'. In any case, the discrepancy regarding your perception of regarding only your english experience would only restrict to a very concrete and small sample the response rather than enrich it with international context.


text:
Does mathematical modeling expert need to know subject of interdisciplinary field
I'm working in chemical engineering field and being mathematician and programmer I'm conducting simulations and mathematical modeling problem solving. Basically the battery processes simulations. There is a problem with my chemists colleagues who can't really help in theory regarding the processes inside of batteries that needs to be modeled. The question is, is it my responsibility to learn chemistry, electrochemistry etc in order to be able to build the math model of the processes by myself not relying on chemists? What is the general practice in this case in the world? Or do people in other research groups and/or universities hire mathematician-chemists specialists for this purpose?
I'm kind of being blamed for making slow progress and I feel like I don't fit into this group as not knowing chemistry field. Publications though can be made using commercial software but ideally I want to be able to build the model of the battery without relying on other software that does it for you, as it is introducing some restrictions.

@user37208 I'm afraid they don't. I need to know from what to start. I read other publications. Ask chemists then for explanations. I need to figure out what is important for our case and what is not important. I ask about equations used there, like what is this stuff etc. But still couldn't get complete response.

actually it is confusing for me. if chemist knows theoretical stuff, equations. then he doesn't need mathematician. if mathematician knows chemistry equations then he can work by himself. so i guess there is a need in a "all knowing guy" in math and chemistry.

I don't know why there should be a "general practice".  When people don't have all the expertise they need for a project, some choose to learn it themselves, some choose to collaborate with those who do have it, and some might just drop the project altogether.

Is your advisor a mathematician, a chemical engineer, or a chemist? It's not very clear from the question, and I'd answer very differently if you were a mathematician being advised by a chemE group or just collaborating with them.

Yes, absolutely - up to a point.
You do not need to be the world's greatest expert on the subject matter, but you will need to know enough to participate in the research process and make suggestions. If your role as an applied mathematician is "Subject matter expert gives you equations to solve, you apply numerical method," that is consulting, not modeling or research. Here are some things where more subject matter knowledge improves the life of both applied mathematicians and their collaborators:
With more chemistry knowledge you can know

What approximations could be appropriate? What information do your collaborators really need?
Do the results you have make sense? Being able to determine simple checks and analytic test cases yourself will save a lot of time.
If you can answer this question, what is the likely next question?
If the suggestion your collaborators gave you has a typo - this is obvious with more subject knowledge, but can be missed.
When you report on your work (papers, talks) - you can be specific about why it is important

I have worked in many math/[other science] collaborations, and a very common failure mode is that a math student takes a couple of weeks, and comes back with a single result, with an error that could have been caught. Or that the student mis-interprets a suggestion, and it takes a long time to clear up. Or that the student spends a month optimizing a calculation that is only relevant to an order of magnitude.  All of this happens a lot, and the best solution is more subject knowledge!
I do not know if this is happening with you. But if you are modeling a chemistry process, you will either need to learn a good amount of the chemistry, or you will need a more well-defined problem at the beginning. And as a modeler, you presumably know that defining the problem well is half of the battle!

There are two aspects to your situation.
First, there's the working relationship.  If fingers are getting pointed, or if you're getting the feeling that there might be, that is a red flag.  I can't say whether your comment is a reflection of natural anxiety or whether the people you're trying to work with are not as supportive as one would like.  But this is something for you to think about.  Your own well-being is an important factor in any working relationship and I am glad to see some indications in your Question that you are taking this seriously.
Second is what you explicitly asked about.  If you enjoy mathematical modeling, it is wise to give careful attention to the choice of application area.  Is this field something you have a natural interest in?  Do you enjoy delving into this application area?  Perhaps this would be a good time for you to do some brainstorming and jot down two lists of application areas, those that appeal to you naturally, and those that don't.
It may be that this is not the right field of application for you.  Or maybe it is, but you'd benefit from working with more collaborative or better prepared colleagues.  Or maybe you need to assert yourself more with these people, and have more frequent conversations with them about the underlying science you would like to model.
Perhaps that last sentence gives you a place to start.  As those conversations take place, the rest may become clear.

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text:
As a DACA student, am I eligible for PhD funding?
I am a deferred action student, meaning that I apply for in-state resident tuition but I am not a US citizen (non-permanent resident).
I have a work card that allows me to work like any other citizen and pay taxes accordingly.
However, due to me being a non-citizen, I'm concerned that I may not be able to receive funding for PhD. My family does not have a lot of money and we spent a lot of money for my undergrad education (I don't qualify for FAFSA either) so without financial aid, I'm not able to attend graduate school. Even with my part-time job, most of my earnings went into paying for GRE and application fees.
Do university departments offer financial aid to non-citizens (but not international) as well? Most of the departments I saw state that they offer guaranteed funding through the 5th year of a student's PhD but do not explicitly say if it's available to students such as myself.

This might vary between universities, especially depending on public vs private status and laws in particular states.  If you can't find this information on the university's website, you will probably have to contact them directly and ask.

OP was asking how common it is to give Dreamers access to standard funding sources for grad school -- this seems like a perfectly reasonable question.  Voting to reopen.

@aparente001 - I agree this is a reasonable question, although it is disconcertingly hard to predict what the answer will be soon because of the fluctuating national policies on Dreamers. The answer in Sept. 2016 would have seemed a lot rosier than the answer now...

The most common kinds of funding for PhD students in the US are research assistantships and teaching assistantships.  Typically neither of these types of funding have rules about the citizenship status of the student.  These types of funding would provide a DACA PhD student with tuition and a stipend for living expenses.
Some prestigious, higher paying fellowships offered by the federal government would not be available to a DACA student.  For example, the NSF GRFP requires permanent residency.  The NDSEG, being funded by the military, requires citizenship or national status.
On a broader note, if you cannot get financial aid including a stipend, you should not get a PhD.  If the university thinks you will be a good PhD student, they will be willing to pay you.  This advice does not apply to professional degrees.

It depends on what field you want to study. But, I would guess that in almost all instances, you qualify for teaching and research assistantships just as much as any other citizen. I personally know several international Ph.D students in science and engineering who are supported either by teaching assistantships or research assistantships, at many different public and private institutions across the United States. I myself am one of them! So generally I would say that the answer to the question in your title is "probably yes", but you will have to make sure in a case-by-case basis.

Please note that the OP is a DACA student, not an international student. There is a big difference between the two.

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text:
I am uncomfortable about students taking pictures of the blackboard, because I don't like appearing in them
It seems to be the trend that fewer and fewer students take notes in class. Lately, and particularly this semester, for some reason, I have been noticing that several students take pictures of the blackboards with their phones in lieu of taking notes.
While I'm not necessarily against this, if it helps them focus on class, I'm uncomfortable about being in a million pictures by these students. I'd like to speak up, but it's already a few weeks into the semester, and I don't want to make the students feel uncomfortable either. Is there anything that I can do to resolve this without creating discomfort on either side?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

In fact, you can also add that it's disruptive to other students during the lecture if people are taking pictures, so that's why you're pausing to let them take pictures

Perhaps you could make an announcement that just before erasing the board, you will pause for a moment to allow pictures to be taken, while you stand out of the way so as not to obstruct the shot.  You can ask photographers to wait until that time, and to please compose their shots to exclude you if necessary.

I have had professors and teachers request this. It's not weird.

I've had professors tho exactly this. "Wait until i'm done, then you'll have 10-20secs to make any high res pic you need".

This also makes sense in terms of minimising disruption by photo takers; and ensuring photo takers get all the information on the board.

This might be a good compromise, but it still might inhibit some learning styles. I personally like to take sequential board pictures so I can replay through the logic later (i.e. for very advanced topics such as machine learning, differential equations). The ability to go back and "replay" truly helps.

You can also explain that you don't want them distracted by trying to take a picture quickly before the board gets erased or having to take multiple pictures because they weren't sure if you were done yet. Ask them to concentrate while you write and explain and promise them in exchange a well-defined opportunity to take a picture.

I photographed the board for several courses I took, each time with the professor's permission. I was not specifically trying to avoid photographing the professor, but I don't think I ever got more than a hand in the frame. The objective is to get a good picture of the material on the board, and that means making the completed board section most of the frame and not obscured by professor.

@JackWade I don't see how this process would cause a problem with sequential pictures as long as the professor pauses after each "board-full" (or better, between concepts even if they're still filling the board) to allow for pictures. You still get a sequence, it's just that the photo-taking is at agreed-upon times rather than randomly through the instruction.

I think the point is that @JackWade wants to be able to see the order in which the material appeared on the board.  This might not be obvious since not all instructors fill the board from left to right or top to bottom.

The filled blackboard can be pushed to a side, and then students can take pics of board in view.

+1. Making an announcement that explicitely asking to not post the pictures on Internet if the OP does not want his image to be widespread is important: we are in the Facebook/Instagram/whatever era and the notion of "controlling his public image" is not what it used to be.

@Narasimham you are assuming the blackboards can be moved.

@Narasimham I've never seen a blackboard that could be pushed to the side except in a couple old movies. It seems like an idea whose time has passed.

https://www.houzz.in/photos/15071078/sliding-blackboard-eclectic-dc-metro

Give them the lecture notes online. Then they have no reason to take pictures. Also scanned papers look better than messy pictures of blackboard and if you omit some proofs due to lack of time, they will still be on those notes.

"The complete proof to this theorem is in the handout available at the course's page. Please review it, and if anyone has any doubts, come to my office hours [or ask the TA]." It happened to me all the time. The blackboard should not be a complete reference, it is an aid to the lesson.

This only works for certain applications; sometimes the whiteboard isn't used to copy proofs or transcribe prewritten notes. I often use the whiteboard to summarize key points made during an active discussion, or work through an in-class design exercise. Case-based learning exhorts instructors to write things on the board as the students mention them. In such environments, picture taking might be the most efficient way to capture the information.

@J.R. I've seen surface tablets become very popular for that sort of thing. Profs can write in OneNote while it's projected for the class, and can save the file to post online after class.

I will second that if you join the 21st century and provide notes online that are better than what you make on the fly, few will waste their time taking pictures of everything you write.

"Also scanned papers look better than messy pictures of blackboard."  Clearly you have never seen my lecture notes.  My notes for lectures are usually more to jog my memory than anything; they leave out details that I intend to fill in on the fly, and are written in my worst handwriting that only I can read.  Creating student-readable lecture notes might be nice, but it would require a substantial extra effort.

"Then they have no reason to take pictures." - this cannot be not true except in extremely rigidly pre-planned lectures (without any interaction with students - at which point attending the lecture vs. just watching a videolecture becomes moot). And even then, some students will rather preemptively take pictures (just in case something is not in the lecture notes despite all announcements and promises), or spend their time in class by comparing lecture notes on their mobile devices to what is shown in class.

This won't work. I've sat in many lectures where others are taking pictures of the damn slides - exactly the same thing as available online, not just other notes claimed to include the same workings. It annoys me no end, I'd hate to be the lecturer.

This answer makes the most sense to me, since it also works for powerpoint-style lectures.

Lecture notes are rarely as comprehensive as blackboard drawings. I don't prepare everything I draw on the blackboard in advance—I need to answer student questions and guide discussion, and every section I teach is a little different. Put another way, if everything can be contained in lecture notes, why have a teacher at all?

I think many have a wrong idea. In my university this has been identified as a best practice. Investing once to good lecture material is acceptable loss. The notes can be used by students that cannot attend the lecture. The reason why you omit something is exactly because you are answering the questions from the students, which takes time and that time is omitting the least interesting proofs or such. It is also good to have the material with you if you forget something. The lecturing must be done even if tired, a bit ill or something like that. Then you will rely more on those notes.

When I was in school the teachers had an interactive whiteboard that used an electronic pen that worked like a mouse. They drew onto the board and it was recorded on the computer. The resulting notes and diagrams could then be saved. My college didn't have these facilities but teachers had pre-made slideshows used in the lesson and they were made available online. This technique was a great help. Also phones were banned during class time so nobody ever took any photos.

This also won't work because it assumes students only need the information from the blackboard. In fact there are likely to be quite a few students whose memory is helped by seeing the board laid out as it was during the lecture - in other words the spatial layout and exact appearance being as they saw it,  is as much a part of their memory aide as the actual information conveyed.

Not necessarily, often stuff gets written on the board which is not in the notes due to discussion, that's the part of classes: they're a forum for discussions.

I actually have a professor with the same feelings about being in pictures. At the beginning of the semester he said to us that because of his religion he cannot be shown in pictures.
He says that if we would like to take a picture of the board, just ask, so he can step to the side.
It's worked out pretty well so far, and my fellow students are all really understanding. Just telling your students that it makes you uncomfortable should be enough for them.

By any chance, do you know the religion, which forbids being shown on pictures? I am really curious, since quick Google search did yeald no results.

Jonathan: are you sure it wasn't a kind of joke from the professor, not to be taken seriously? Something he said humoristically to avoid explaining something he felt uncomfortable to explain?

@Kyslik a google search turned these up: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/30185591 and http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question96545.html

Some people are concerned that photographs may mess with their souls: http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/soul_theft_through_photography and then there are vulnerabilities via voodoo/hoodoo http://www.doktorsnake.com/2010/12/12/hoodoo-conjuring-with-photographs/.

@Kyslik, Sunni Islam has a ban on images of living things, while other branches of Islam strongly discourage it, as do some (extreme minority) branches of Christianity and Judaism.

@Evariste Yes, it was definitely a joke. But it worked. I'm not suggesting that OP claims religion as the reason for not wanting pictures. I'm simply stating that, for whatever reason, any reasonable student will respect a professors wishes.

@Kyslik  Native Americans at first did not like being photographed, as they felt it would capture their souls.    maybe the soul capturing was why everyone looks so darned unhappy in 19th century photos

@NZKshatriya and FWIW many modern-day tribes still believe that, and have restrictions against photographs taken on sacred grounds especially.

"At the beginning of the semester he said to us that because of his religion he cannot be shown in pictures." - he better take care of never appearing in any pictures (e.g. department's website, group photos at meetings of research societies, etc.), or students will feel they are being lied to.

@Dronz. And, as Terry Pratchett pointed out, it's true.

@JonathanReez Sunni Muslims vary a little in their beliefs about this.  Some are perfectly OK with photos of people and animals.  Some consider it OK only in "official" contexts such as passport photos and security cards.  Others regard it as strictly forbidden.  If a professor says that being photographed is against their religion, it's very possible that they are one of the more conservative Sunni Muslims.

Stepping aside every time someone wants to take a picture may disrupt the flow of the course if it happens too often.

@Kyslik apart from examples provided by other users, also note that in free societies basically anyone can invent their own religion.

I had a professor who actually made photos of the blackboard himself and he put them online after the class.
Although it requires some extra work it won't give the student a reason to make unwished photos, and all of them will have the same information.

I like the smartboard solution http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/84296/3849 the best, but given budget realities, this might be the best feasible solution.

This is so time-consuming!

Photographing the blackboard is counter-productive anyway; if all you want to do is learn by rote, it's fine I guess. But recreating the working by hand is a big part of understanding it. You could insist that your students do that, for this reason. An added bonus is that then they're not taking photos of you either.

I'd have to say no to this; "recreating by hand" is a slow and literally painful process for me. If students want to do that and it works for them, great, but digitizing stuff works a lot better for me and I can't imagine I'm the only one. I'll take notes (on a laptop if I can help it) and in math might scribble out the odd computation or whatever that's too complex to easily do on the computer, but if I can avoid doing anything involving holding a writing implement I will.

Well, yes and no.  Different students learn in different ways.  For many students, photographing the blackboard would indeed be counterproductive.  For many others, it would create a useful resource.  There's absolutely no "one size fits all" when it comes to learning.  Either way, I don't think you've answered the question.

@DavidWallace: I've provided a possible approach to solving the problem. How does that not answer the question?

You know something, @LightnessRacesinOrbit?  I have re-read the question, re-read your answer, and re-read my last comment; and I have no idea what I was thinking.  You are quite right, and I am quite wrong.  I retract the final sentence of my last comment, and apologise.  Here, have an upvote.

@DavidWallace: Hey no problem; I'm not saying it's a great answer ;)

Students who takes notes consistently get higher marks. Except for few but I guess they could do better. But then some transcribe photos at home. They get even higher marks.

If you would be OK with a purely technical solution, you could ask your department for some other means of display that removes you from the line of sight between your class and the display. I suggest a document camera with a separate (not attached) projector if at all possible. It has a similar workflow to a blackboard/whiteboard in that you can just write naturally while you lecture and you can invite students up to write easily. Even better, you can orient your writing surface so you are facing towards your students while you write, which makes it easier to speak clearly to them. There is also a nice side effect in that you have the written copy of all your work during the lecture at no extra effort. I had a professor who used this very effectively by making the written copy of the lecture notes available through the library, he would just number each page, put them all in a folder labeled with the course and day, and drop them off in the library, then students could check them out for an hour or two in order to review some point that they had missed in their personal notes.

I am vaguely familiar with the "smart board" which may be what you are talking about.  It is expensive but it might be worth it.

@emory also a tablet connected to a beamer can work the same if used with Evernote or similar apps.

I didn't really have a smart board in mind, the document camera is like a cross between a digital camera and an old overhead projector--it literally projects whatever is under it onto the screen, but optimized to have a nice clean image of text. The good ones are also not cheap, but you never know if there is one sitting around unused, or you could make a case for purchasing one.

The best solution that I found is using a tablet instead of writing on a white/blackboard. I bought a tablet with a "good stylus pen" and I always write notes on the tablet and share the pdf with students after my classes.
You can connect the tablet to the projector and everybody can see the content. Then you can use a software to write the notes and export it to pdf or image. It also makes it easy for you to browse among your notes. You can even write on your lecture slides.
However, don't forget that the stylus pen must be a good one. Get a tablet that comes with a stylus pen. The ones in the market are not really good for this purpose.

I see some answers about offering students better opportunities for shots, either at the end, or via pre-captured images. This only works to a point. Often what a student wants to capture is the intermediate steps... things that might be left out of the other notes.
If you are fortunate enough to have an interactive whiteboard, you can often get behind this by using the recording feature on the board. This can really help students capture the whole process in a way that snapshots often don't, and now the impulse to capture an image on a phone is even reduced even more.

You can announce

Some students take photos before I finish and they might miss some important points when they do, so when I am done and before erasing I will let you take clear photos.

As a humorous point, you can add that the pictures will be more clear without you in them.

It's not clear what this adds over this existing answer (http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/84191/32436) that suggest the same approach; can you edit to clarify? On Academia.SE, we are generally looking for answers that offer a "fresh take": see http://meta.academia.stackexchange.com/a/1545/.

It looks to me that this is a topic in the "feeling good education" which, I believe is not education at all (more like sale of diplomas for big money and nothing to show for it), so I should not be commenting. But I do anyway.
First, many instructors/departments/universities do not permit phones or other electronic devices in the classroom. A student who comes to class to tap on his electronic device is not only disrespectful (why not wide open a newspaper and read it in front of your prof) but is rather disinterested in the subject as well. Second, students need to learn how to take notes, since that way they stay engaged, they learn to discriminate the important from less important and so on. Just because you can snap a photo, does not mean it is useful to you. Third, they are copying copyrighted material and that is a no-no, for mass consumption, such as youtube or like postings they end up at. Lastly classroom is not generally considered to be a public space, even at public universities (just consult numerous court cases) and therefore you do not have a freehand in taking photos of people without their permission. Finally, this is mostly caused by indecisive instructor. You are there to set the tone and establish the rules, not to worry about "hurt feelings" but to make sure you have classroom atmosphere conducive to learning and teaching effectively.

Don't assume everyone learns best the way that works best for you. I know note taking helps many people, but it is a disaster for me. I can either think and listen, or write, but not both at once. If I'm writing in a lecture, I am definitely not engaged in anything other than uncritical copying. I understood much more in graduate computer science theory classes that I took in my 50's, with a digital camera in hand, than in undergraduate mathematics classes I took in my late teens before digital cameras existed, when I was forced to take notes.

This might entirely revolutionize both computer science education and mathematics education. The simple device like a digital camera, does it all. Yei!

I'm afraid you really are caught in the one-size-fits-all fallacy. For someone like me, who cannot really listen and think while writing, in certain types of lectures, a digital camera makes an enormous difference. I am not claiming that a digital camera would help all students in all types of lectures.

No question about it. The camera issue is  Irrelevant in education process and rather distracting . Availability of resources, numerous textbooks and visual aids for people who believe that passive participation (watching videos) is for them are all pointers to camera issue being irrelevant.

I also disagree. Unless it affects the professor's teaching ability or the learning of other students, I don't think a professor should care. We pay them to teach us after all, and it's up to the student to learn in whatever way is best for them.

I disagree as well. As someone with severe carpal tunnel, I abhor any sort of manual writing. Occasionally using my phone to snap a picture is bound to be much less distracting to me (and likely those around me) than sitting there with my laptop open typing out notes. (and yes, my carpal tunnel hurts less when I'm typing, even though that's probably what's contributing to my condition -- but snapping pictures doesn't!)

While I feel that students taking pictures of the black/whiteboard are usually proving they have not been following the teacher, I would still oppose restrictions on electronic devices in class, for innumerable reasons. Not the least of them is that many people use these to take notes or to view the lecture notes, diagrams from a textbook or even to look up terms they don't understand.

The irony of some of this discussion is that I like live lectures. I like to be engaged and thinking about what is being said. When a problem is being worked on the board I'm trying to solve it myself, and see where the lecturer is going next. If I don't understand, I want to ask a good question - and usually when I don't understand there will be other people not understanding but not asking. I just need that camera so that I don't have to stop paying attention in order to write notes.

When I was at college the teachers banned all in-class use of mobile phones (except in cases of particularly important calls, where the student would have to leave the room to take the call), and I'm fairly certain it's not the only one in my country to adopt this policy.

Honestly, this looks more a rant than an answer to me. Even if I agree with some of the points, I can't really say I agree with the whole of it and the tone in which it's written.

I don't think this answers the question.  If you would like to put up a question and answer, the site allows for that--"Should students take pictures of the board that the instructor is writing on?" with your answer.

This question has nothing to do with students who "tap on their device" as a distraction from class. Even if some students do try to take pictures as a substitute for paying attention, as suggested in another comment, that's not what the OP is talking about here. Rather, it's about students who actually use these new devices as tools and aids to their learning. Not everyone using a smart phone is using it as a distraction.

Good, Ethical, Appropriate, Boundary Setting. You are there to share under a specific set of conditions.
Students have been taking photographs of blackboards for more than a hundred years.  Take a minute to think on that.  A student will do anything to pass a class if they need to.
1.)Let them take them at an appropriate time determined by you. 2.) Take them yourself and post them so they may see them.  3.) Take better pix than them at higher resolution, and you will never be in them as the example for them.

More than a hundred years? // The instructor needs to concentrate on teaching.  Let's not put the burden on her to take the pictures.

GEABS? Is that a mnemonic?

@aparente001 I can't see it being much of a burden; set up a camera in the back on a tripod, then just periodically step aside and hit the remote to trigger it and take a picture. Since the blackboard doesn't move you can have the camera on manual focus and "set and forget" (though I'd advise double-checking focus and settings before class in case of pranksters). Takes less time than waiting for students to take a picture because you only have to worry about one picture being taken instead of waiting for everyone to get their shot, which leaves more time for... you know... teaching.

@DoktorJ - If it works for you, more power to you!


text:
How can a paper be accepted by Physical Review Letters?
In the first round, we get two reports from the Editor. Referee A just rejected it and referee B said that he is not sure.
Since referee A had made a mistake, we appealed to this manuscript. At the same time, we said that the report of Referee A should be ignored by the Editor since he/she said some ugly words beyond the academic.
The Editor sent our manuscript to B, C, and D.
As for C and D, they support our work. Reviewer B says that the current work is not sufficiently novel for a PRL. In my opinion, he just gives us 40 of 100. At the end of the report, Referee B said that some results are interesting.
In this case, what will happen? We did not reply to the Editor and referees in the second round yet.

For referee A, we more or less can guess his name. We believe the relationship between him and my Prof is not good. So.....

PRL is pretty selective. Not all papers will be accepted. It is up to the Editor handling your paper.

@JonCuster  You are right. It is not easy.

Does this answer your question? What does the typical workflow of a journal look like?

@Louic  In fact, no.  My question is related to the experience to submit a very selective journal.

Why delete this, sir?

@Anton Menshov, this question is helpful to many students and Profs.

@Blueka not sure why you are directing that at me :) I did not even vote to close it.

@AntonMenshov  sorry Sir.

The best you can do is to reply to the comments of the referees the best as you can and try to convince the editor that your paper is sufficiently novel for PRL. Try to answer very polite but on the other hand with some strong arguments. I would rather stay on the factual level about your paper and not start to discuss a relationship of referee A and your professor with editor.
But do not be disappointed if the editor will reject - the PRL is very selective. See the try as a possibility to improve your paper.


text:
How to professionally deal with sexual harassment in academia
I am a first year PhD student, and there is an older (by which I mean further ahead in his PhD) student who has been rather unperturbed by me asking him to stop flirting with me. This has been going on ~6 months now after I first met him (we don’t work at the same institute but see each other reasonably regularly due to the collaborative nature of the work).
At first it seemed like he was just being friendly and we chatted a little over social media, nothing more than two friendly work colleagues. Then he started flirting, and very obviously. I told him to stop flirting and then we could just carry on having a normal conversation instead and he did. But then after a couple of weeks he started flirting again, so I again told him to cool it. He kept flirting, and I started just responding less, and flat out ignoring any flirty messages.
He didn’t seem to take the hint (unsurprisingly given that he didn’t take me outright telling him) and started messaging me repeatedly until I responded, more than 20 messages per day from him. I kept on ignoring most of them and sending some blunt messages that did not ask any follow ups when he really would not stop messaging. I have only contacted him first when it is required from a work context.
Over the course of about 3 weeks he finally started taking the hint and only messaging me a couple of times a week, but there was still undeniable flirting and it was making me feel really uncomfortable.
I have now unfollowed him on social media, something I know I should have done much earlier but the issue is he is in a more senior position than me in the collaboration and I was afraid of making a bad working relationship by angering him.
I’m worried now what will happen when he notices I’ve cut off social media contact and I have to see him in person again soon. Additionally there is a chance that shortly I will be working more directly with him, and thinking about this possibility is making me really anxious.
I’m unsure what to do in this situation as he is not in the same institute as me. I am nervous to tell my supervisor as I don’t want this to tarnish my professional reputation, I’m at the very start of my career.

If possible, could you add which country you are in? In some places (like where I am, Canada), there is organism within the University that can help you deal with those situations.

Tell your supervisor.  It's not your career at risk.  The harasser just a PhD student, he does not have power over you.

@Monika while you might not see it, unwanted and persistent flirtation is generally considered sexual harassment.

@Emilie I’m in the U.K., I added the tag to my question. He isn’t at the same uni as me though so I don’t know if going through the university procedures would be able to help?

@AnonymousPhysicist he is in a higher position in the collaboration than me though, I don’t know if that effects it?

@Monika I have told him to stop flirting, I would assume he is interested in me but that doesn’t give him the right to make me uncomfortable after making my disinterest clear.

@Monika that is a really unhealthy approach to take to sexual harassment. The fact that he will forget her is irrelevant, the issue is the victim is unlikely to forget the harasser.

I think what @StrongBad said is right, this question isn’t really about whether he’ll forget me it’s about how to get him to stop so I can have a good working environment again. I don’t think that the best strategy is to wait for him to get bored and move on.

@Monika ‘annoying’ isn’t really the word I’d use. It’s causing me to be very uncomfortable around him. Yes I’m sure he had/has a crush on me but again I don’t think that justifies him harassing me with messages for months. I made clear at the start of his flirting that I wasn’t interested and I told him to stop flirting. At what point do my feelings of discomfort around him outweigh his want to keep flirting and change my mind in some way?

Again to clarify this wasn’t he flirted once I told him I wasn’t interested and he left it, this has been months.

@Monika I’m afraid because I’m scared that he’ll retaliate now that I’ve taken him off social media, and I don’t want the working relationship to become worse.

Is this really academia?

I assume you are worried about possible future retaliation or other future actions.
I suggest that you don't try to handle this on your own. You need someone who you trust and who is superior to both of you in the profession to be made aware of the situation. There should be some sort of record of what has happened, with the record known to the "superior".
That person can be your supervisor or not, as you choose, but the supervisor would normally be a good person, other things being equal. It shouldn't in any just world reflect badly on you.
But having the record and a neutral third party protects you from most future problems. An alternative to a superior is just a fairly wide group of people who are kept informed and who will speak for you if the other person starts do do more "aggressive" or unprofessional things.
Whether you inform the "harasser" or not is up to you and would depend on personalities, but it might not be a bad thing to drop the hint that you've discussed these unwanted emails with X.

I agree this is best not handled alone by the poster.

I think this is the best solution here, I’ll talk to my supervisor. Thank you for the answer!

While you seem confident that the individual's behavior is unprofessional, other people in your situation might not be as confident. If you have any doubt about if someones behavior is unprofessional, find a trusted colleague and ask them in confidence.
Once you are confident that the behavior is unprofessional, the next time he emails you, send him an email that clearly states that his behavior is unprofessional and that you feel sexually harassed. Then tell him that while you have endured it in the past, that it must stop and if necessary you will report the behavior to your supervisor, his supervisor, and any other relevant offices at your and his institutions. Finally, close with saying that you hope the behavior will stop and that this can all just be water under the bridge and that you can continue to have a professional collaboration. If you have any doubts, show the email (you can write it now), to a trusted colleague and get feedback.
If, after sending the email, the behavior does not stop (or he argues), you tell your supervisor. You can either work with the supervisor to bring the fury that is the university HR department when faced with issues of sexual harassment or a gentler back channel process. The choice is yours and anyone that would hold that choice against you is not someone you need to form collaborations with.
You want to start documenting things. This means saving the harassing emails. You also want to email him so you have a copy of what was said. Do not tell him in person (both because he doesn't deserve that type of interaction and because it gives you a record of what was said). If/when you talk to colleagues for advice or to your supervisor, do that in person or on the phone. You don't want them to feel like they are being watched. If your supervisor does not react as you hope, then follow up in writing.

I think this is way to descriptive.  I'd go with "I prefer not to have communication with you that is unrelated to our professional responsibilities.  Please respect this decision".  No threats of action, as none is needed.  If the communication continues, elevated it to the supervisor or chair, or Title IX coordinator.  The alternative would be elevating it right now, without communication, which is probably the right thing to do.

@ScottSeidman that is definitely an option and my guess is it will eventually end up in whatever the UK version of Title IX is. That said, going straight to the Title IX office will result in some people claiming that the OP blew a small misunderstanding out of proportion (I disagree with that, but think the OP is better off covering her bases).

@StrongBad I don't think there is a formal legal process such as there might be in the US, because (a) In an employment situation it would be a matter for HR, and (b) neither person is an employee. But the universities will have procedures in place.

@Flyto It’s possible that both the OP and her harasser are university employees in other roles (e.g. sessional academics/tutors).


text:
Would it be OK to ask a professor who recommended me to take a specific PhD program to write recommendation letter for another PhD program?
A professor recommended me to take PhD program A. However, I want to take PhD program B. Would it be still OK to ask this professor to write a recommendation letter for this PhD program B despite he recommended me to take PhD program A?
He would be an ideal professor to write recommendation for me.
(I am in Germany.)

Yes.
And any sane person would not hold this against you. It is also reality that people often have to apply to multiple places.
 (Also note that if you apply within Europe, you probably might upload the refeence letter yourself and can still decide to find another reference if the professor is insane.)
It could be different if the professor explicitly tells you not to apply to program B (but this does not seem to be the case from your question).

Yes you can. Explain that PhD program A is very competitive, and you are not sure if you can get in, so as a backup, you want to apply to a few other programs, so can he please make a generic letter of recommendation, basically by deleting the name School A from it?

Of course you can ask, normally the worst the person can say is "no" and that'll be the end of it. No normal person would hold it against you to go take another career path than what they recommend.
That being said, I think there might be more to this story than you let on. Just from the top of my head I can come up with multiple relevant questions:

Does the prof even know about alternative B?
Did you find both A and B yourself and ask the profs opinion, or did the prof suggest you to apply for A out of the blue?
Did you ask why the prof recommends A?
Did you ask the prof how alternative B compares to A, in his/her own view?
How complicated is the application process, does it imply too much work for the prof to write two letters (if for example the fields are very different, or one program requires the letter to be submitted by the prof rather than you uploading/emailing it)
Why do you not want to take option A? Is there something in the profs logic, in recommending this program, that you don't agree with?
Why don't you apply to both and see if you actually get an offer from both programs?

In any case, despite the answers to the above question, I still stand by my answer: unless the prof is really old school and would make it a matter of pride, I don't see why anyone would even care which program you choose.
But pondering on these questions might make it a bit more clear for you, both about your own intentions and motivations, and how others (i.e. the prof) might see things.


text:
What does it mean when an editor needs additional reviews despite a status of "reviews completed"?
I have submitted a paper to an Elsevier journal. After two weeks of required reviews completed status I have sent and E-mail to the editor. He replied:
Your paper is still under review. We need 1 or 2 more review comments and make the decision within a month.
So, I have to ask... What does he mean by we need 1 or 2 more review comments?
If the paper is still under review what is with the status of required reviews completed?

Ask the editor what it means.

An educated guess is that the manuscript handling system by default expects two reviews. The number of reviews required for a decision can usually be changed by the editor. A reason for adding reviews is that you receive, for example and in the worst case, one accept and one reject from the two reviewers. It is therefore reasonable for an editor to search for additional reviewers to provide a better basis for a decision. Another reason can be that one or both of the original reviewers left reviews but they were deemed unconstructive and the need for additional reviews arose from the lack of reasonable feedback. There can be many other reasonable explanations as well, these are just examples.
Anyway, in this case, it is possible that the editors have not bothered to change the number of required reviews to 4 (which I assume the total would be). The system then shows that all reviews are in and that the manuscript should be decided upon. So hopefully, the editor will try to get speedy reviews and get back to you with useful feedback on your manuscript.

Thanks for the reply. But, when the editor says we need 1 more review COMMENT, it is confusing.

@Arian I would interpret "review comment" as meaning the same as "review."

Or possibly "review comment" means just a quick opinion, rather than a full-blown review.  Still, that's a weird phrase.

It could mean any number of things, as "Required Reviews Completed" is likely an automated message that the initial review requests sent out have been returned. Three possible explanations, all rooted in my own experience:

The reviewers are divided enough, or there's enough ambiguity, that the editor has decided to reach out to more reviewers to broaden the available opinions.
The editor is currently clarifying a comment with a reviewer. I have, at least once, gone back and forth with an editor a few times as a reviewer refining what I mean, giving examples, etc. so the editor can convey useful information to the reviewer.
Some journals have checkboxes suggesting the need for additional review. For example, many clinical journals have an entry for "This paper should be reviewed by a statistician" for methodologically complex papers. It's possible one or more reviewers suggested someone with additional expertise should review the paper.

The manuscript status shows "required reviews completed" once all the reviews have come in. After that, the paper along with the reviews could be waiting at the editor's desk for a while before he has time to look at them. This would probably account for the status having remained the same for two weeks.
For many journals, the status would change to "with reviewer" once again if the paper is sent for additional reviews. Since this has not happened, I feel that perhaps the editor is not referring to additional reviews.
There is a possibility that by "one or two more review comments" the editor is referring to a few additional comments by the same reviewers. One can't be sure, but perhaps the editor has found some of the reviewers' comments unclear, and has asked for clarifications, or the editor has a view slightly different from the reviewers and has asked for their opinion. If that is the case, you wouldn't probably have to wait too long, as it will definitely be quicker than getting additional reviews done.