text:
My supervisor is too involved, what should I do?
Most PhD students I know have the problem that their supervisor is not involved enough. I have a different problem, my supervisor is too involved.
He wants to be a co author on all three of my PhD papers, and to get them published.
I know that this sounds great, but I do not want to free ride on my supervisors work, I want it to be my own, and I want to be proud of it. Regardless of whether it is published or not. A publication is a bonus, not the end game for me.
I spent half my phd working on what I intended to be my job market paper (the paper I show to employers that best showcases my skills). My supervisor made some suggestions here and there, but nothing substantial. I am now getting ready to submit my paper to a journal and my supervisor has rewritten my entire paper without permission and wants me to sign off on this. He has justified it by saying it has a better shot of being published in its new form. I feel very uncomfortable about this, it is in effect no longer my paper. I thought he would make suggestions and I would fix the paper myself.
He is too involved in other ways too. When I settle on a research question, he throws methodology and research design at me, before I have a chance to think about the topic myself and come to my own conclusions, and then encourages me to do it his way and not explore my way.
Is this normal behaviour from a supervisor?
I have to talk to him about this, but I am unsure how to bring it up and what to say. Do you have any advice?
I need at least one paper where I am the sole author, is it appropriate to mention this to my supervisor, without offending him or his position? He will try to put his name on all my papers.
I do not want to come across ungrateful, I am very happy for his help, and I will be the first to admit that I need help. But all I want is a chance to learn from my mistakes and be given opportunities to grow, I will never be a successful researcher if I cannot exercise this. Unfortunately, I feel like my supervisors research assistant instead of a PhD student.
I am really struggling to continue on the course, and I appreciate any comments you may have.

A published work is not a proper place to "showcase your skills". Your advisor probably knows how to get a paper accepted, more than you do. Each advisor has a different style, but usually the involvement decreases over time, if the student learns the way :)

@FábioDias: In economics the term “job market paper” means something quite specific. There seems to be a good deal of sentiment in the economics field that a JMP coauthored with one's advisor would defeat much of the purpose.

"I need at least one paper where I am the sole author" - what has led you to think that? In most fields, this is not true.

Doesn't the answer to this question depend on the field of study? I think the asker should include that in the post. Conventions on authorship vary quite a lot between fields.

@user2390246 but in some it is. Let's give OP the benefit of doubt here.

The question should probably be, 'my supervisor has taken over my job-market paper, what should I do?'  If it is the norm in your field to have such a single authored paper, then I suggest you write one towards the end of your degree when you are equipped with the skills to write a high quality paper.  Otherwise, your paper will simply say incompetent researcher.  Your supervisor is telling you the 'culture' of your research area.  If you don't sound like you belong, then your paper will read that way too.  My opinion, you are not ready yet.

@DSVA Student-only papers are utterly normal in mathematics and computer science. I won't let my PhD students graduate until they've published at least one paper without me. See my answer here.

Your supervisor seems like a great person.

"my supervisor has rewritten my entire paper without permission and wants me to sign off on this" -- @padawan How does that make anyone a great advisor?

The first part (rewriting your text) is quite frequent. Believe it or not, most PhD students are terrible writers and though a good adviser would patiently go over the paper with a student pointing out the presentation flaws and asking the student to fix them himself (take my word for it, you do not want to get that list from the reviewer after the paper has been submitted), I know many people who lost their patience in that respect eons ago and other people who give up after 6 months of modifications and still do the job themselves.
So, the first question to ask is "How well was your paper written in the first place?". If not too well, there is a chance that you should be merely grateful for the revision and stop at there.
The second point is "throwing his ideas at you". Here the question is "How fast are you coming with workable ideas of your own?" Giving a PhD student the solution together with the problem is a terrible idea, insisting that the student do things your way and your way only is even more terrible, but giving him no suggestions after 6 months of no progress is also not good.
The third question is whether the supervisor should be a co-author. Unfortunately, your post is somewhat self-contradictory on this point: compare

My supervisor made some suggestions here and there, but nothing substantial.

with

he throws methodology and research design at me, before I have a chance to think about the topic myself and come to my own conclusions, and then encourages me to do it his way and not explore my way.

So was that particular paper done his way or your way? In the first case, IMHO, it is his choice whether he should become a co-author or not though you may still drop a hint that "the job market is tough and having a single author paper is a nearly must to land at the place you want to go to", in the second case it should be yours even if he rewrote the whole thing and you have all moral rights to insist on a single authorship if it is important to you. How exactly to do it without offending him I don't know (different people need different approaches), but judging from the tone of your post, you have had arguments with your adviser before, so you should know better than I what upsets him and what makes him cooperative.
So, alas, the only things I can tell you are the usual "Look into the mirror and try to figure out what exactly you see there before making final judgements" and "Hold your ground but use your common sense and pay attention to the reaction to your words when insisting on something". I should confess that I often fail on both accounts myself, but I'm in a different position than you. Let's see if other people can come up with some better advice :-).

You seem to have a lot of problems with this:

He wants to be a co author on all three of my PhD papers, and to get them published.

I do not know what your field is and what are the conventions there, but in all of the fields I am familiar with, this is not a bad thing. Having your supervisor as a co-author does not make the paper any less "yours". If my field(s), whenever there is a PhD student as the first author, everyone knows that the paper is theirs, and they did most (if not all) of the work.

...and my supervisor has rewritten my entire paper...

Nothing wrong with that. As noted elsewhere in the answers, your supervisor knows more about writing papers than you do. It was not uncommon for sections of my own papers to be rewritten by my supervisor.

He has justified it by saying it has a better shot of being published in its new form.

He is probably right. Instead of thinking along those lines...

...but I do not want to free ride on my supervisors work, I want it to be
  my own, and I want to be proud of it.

You should be thanking your supervisor for this. He is teaching you how to write proper papers. You have to remember that you are still a student. This is why you are there - to learn how to be a scientist or researcher. Part of the process is accepting feedback from your supervisor. If you don't, it will come in the form of a much more harsh peer-review when you submit the paper.
If your job market absolutely requires a single author paper written by you (which I doubt), ask your supervisor about it. I am pretty sure he does not want to ruin your job prospects. Explain the situation and see what he thinks.

This answer is field specific. In my field (Econ/policy) /my department no student is allowed to have more than one of three dissertation papers be coauthored.

Regarding the argument of an article as a single article (to get a job), I doubt that, at least in my field (chemical engineering). Every supervisor is different, so I'll just focus on my own process as a Ph.D. student and I will hope it helps you in any way.
I published 6 articles on my direct Ph.D.; 4 as a first author and other 2 helping others in their projects. My first article had 24 versions (drafts) before sending it to a journal! I was very frustrated–until we sent it: it got accepted without a single correction in Chemical Engineering Science (a really nice journal for what I was doing).
After that article, the level of involvement from my advisor decreased, slowly but surely: the fourth article he merely sent it as is to Chemical Engineering Journal.
He was a co-author for all of my articles, although most of the lab work, programming (algorithms and implementation), and even the ideas were mine. Sure, we debated some ideas (mine worked at the end), but still, the lab was his, the money for research was his, the technicians helping me were his, and even the frustrating debates helped me.
He helped me a lot when getting a job and still does; we collaborate as equals now. My first article as a corresponding author came up when I was in my first year as a postdoc... so my advice is: be patient, learning to be a researcher takes more than a Ph.D. nowadays; some decades ago you could be doing cutting-edge research a year after finishing your undergrad, but that is not the case nowadays.
Be patient, this can only get better with time; you don't want/need an offended advisor.

I feel you! Being a phd researcher in social sciences isn't what I expected. It is more about doing things the right way than it is being innovative or creative. This right way is where our kind supervisors try to guide us for the articles to be published. If and when you come up with a special idea you want to do your own way, I would present this idea to your supervisor as a "crazy idea you want to try even if it means you would have to do it on your own". Just to tell your supervisor that you want to be a single author to some article doesn't sound like fair or even wise.

Your's is not an isolated case. In my experience, what works best is to be assertive and convey him your intellectual capacities. Such degree of involvement indicates that he feels more prepared than you to do the work, show him that you have very relevant things to offer. This is a challenging task, the key is on logic and the scientific method, be very smart about it. He probably has a lot more practice than you at arguing, but thankfully in science people tend to be slightly more logical in debate/confrontation.
Also, try to be humble, it is always easier to see other people's flaws. Your intuition may tell you many things, but try to build your arguments on evidence and specific points. Ultimately, he is a more experienced person.
In regards to the writing, that is tricky and very important. You can always ask a third person to blindly evaluate both versions, that can be quite helpful.
( read him/her, I don't know the gender of your supervisor)

This post really resonates with me as I have been in the same situation for now 6+ years as PhD and now Postdoc under a similar supervisor. I disagree with some of the comments above that imply the goal of a PhD program is simply to get papers accepted. Papers are important but the purpose of a PhD program is to develop the student as an INDEPENDENT RESEACHER. Human's learn and improve by attempting, failing and reviewing. Not by having do someone do the job for them. Has it been shown in any field this is a better approach?
Unfortunately there is little supervisor training that targets this type of thing (even though student revisions are a predominant  part of the supervisor's job), and each supervivor will differ greatly in their approach.
I agree you need to be delicate when bringing this up. Try and voice your concerns without pointing the finger. Maybe at your next meeting ask what is their opinion on needing a student single name publication for success. And when is the best was to show case lots of skills in paper. They may come to the same conclusion.

First off, please be aware that I have not personally put to practice the advice I am offering; this is more of an after-the-fact "I should have done that" situation.
I assume that the papers you publish will be part of your thesis. I don't know enough about job-market papers or the significance of sole authorship in your field, so I'm not going to touch on that. I'm going to address two other specific problems that you mentioned.
a) Your supervisor rewriting your paper: You can say "I appreciate that you made the paper more publishable, but whenever one person rewrites the work of another there's always a danger that some details in a proof/argument is accidentally misrepresented" (be careful to phrase this diplomatically so as not to imply that he's not capable enough of understanding your work - he's just not as involved with the specific details as you). "Next time, can you give me your suggestions separately and let me implement them, to eliminate this possibility?" Then you have a choice to reject some changes if you wish. They should understand where you're coming from, as even the most involved and capable supervisor can get a detail wrong.
b) Your supervisor pushing their choice of methodology on you: The following solution only works in countries where the PhD presentation is more an actual examination than a formality (I'm thinking of the UK). You can say: "I don't feel that I can defend this direction of research in my upcoming examination." They'll probably say something along the lines of "Sure you can, we're doing this because of XYZ", to which you can reply "I know the justification but since this is not the direction that makes the most sense to me personally, I don't think I can offer a coherent explanation if I'm pushed by the examiners, and you wouldn't want me to say 'this is just what my supervisor told me to do'." This also requires some diplomacy, but basically your argument here is that you're expected to defend your thesis as your own creation and show independence, and if you just trust someone else's authority you're going to fail on that front.
Lastly, in the event that you are in complete disagreement with your supervisor's suggestions, an extreme solution here may be to drop the subject altogether, as long as it is not integral to your thesis. Just say "We're clearly not seeing eye to eye on this, let's just focus on some of the other things we have been looking at". Maybe you won't even need to address this in the end.

I think this is a great question, thanks for coming up with it.
What you report is common -- though not widespread --, advisor behaviour in my field. I have, myself done this. And I believe it is not productive behaviour for the advisee for the exact reason you state, feeling "(...) very uncomfortable about this, it is in effect no longer my paper". I see you there.
First of all, I recommend you abide to this, for the time being. Put yourself in his shoes to understand the conflict: this guy sees your work as his own. I think trying too hard to react against that will generate unnecessary stress.
Academia nowadays is unfortunately pressed for productivity and published papers are worth more than human resources and development, or bonafide science. Your advisor may feel frustrated for not having the time/ability/space for doing your project(s) directly, and sees in you an extension of himself. He is eager to impress his peers. I don't think you should stand in the way by being, well, a real person in his career game.
Take the opportunity to learn some of his ways, if you really believe (and it looks like you do) he is fairly competent in the field. You can try to observe his strategy, style, ask him questions, while building your own independent line inside.
Finally, I do understand your urge to become an independent investigator (i.e. a true PhD) and I think you should strive for that. Consider writing some essays of your own without telling your advisor and without delaying your projects. Consider, e.g., an opinion piece, a methods paper, a mini-review. As long as you don't include locally-obtained data or ideas from others, these are 100% private and you can do whatever you wish with those.
P.S. Why did I put the word "advisor" in bold? Because that's how you should see your PhD mentor. Better leave the word "supervisor" to postdocs, and avoid the terms "boss", "leader", "owner", etc completely.


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Getting into a Bioethics/Philosophy Master's Program
I'm situated in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and went to one of the country's top schools for my undergrad (University of Toronto). I have a Honors Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Bioethics, and Psychology. I have four publications at the undergraduate level, have edited on an undergraduate journal, and have worked at least one serious research-assistantship (for a Psychology Dissertation; but this was done online and not in a lab).
I also had a pretty low CGPA (it's right between C+ and a B-). On top of that, I had very little contact with my professors (coming from a huge school and being relatively shy). So my problem now is one of reference letters and making my low CGPA look relatively "okay".
Does anyone have any ideas about who I could ask for reference letters for my Masters program in Philosophy or Bioethics? I know that the the person I worked for as a research assistant could help, but I've heard that's a bad idea. I can also ask one of the professors whose class I did really well in. The problem with him is that he probably doesn't remember me very well and I'm afraid his reference letter will come off as dull/"she asked me and I couldn't say no". For instance, he's given me reference letters before and I've never, ever received any interest/contact from the places I applied to. My other option is to get a reference letter from work. I actually work in university administration and the person I would ask has his MD from the Philippines. My concern with this is that the University is a Caribbean one and there's a lot of taboo about non-Western education (that I at least have noticed) here. I have asked previous TA's to no avail.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

I know that the the person I worked for as a research assistant could help, but I've heard that's a bad idea. - Why would it be a bad idea? Usually the person you worked for as a research assistant would be in an excellent position to write a letter about your research ability.

P.S. (graduate student) TAs who declined to write letters for you were very likely right do so, as such letters may not help your case - see the answers to Writing a letter of recommendation as a graduate student

Is Philosophy, Bioethics, and Psychology a constructed major or a normal program at your university?

@virmaior: It's a constructed major (Philosophy Major, Bioethics Minor, Psychology Minor; although I have enough credits in Psychology for it to have been my major ... I just never got into the program)

@ff524: People kept telling me that if the person doesn't have a Ph.D yet (e.g., they're still working on it themselves and have their own mentors at their own institution) their recommendation would "fall on deaf ears". Apparently..

@ARykova err.. in that case, just say you have a philosophy major. Constructed majors (which at least in the US) mean something different are generally frowned upon. / Also how many rounds have you applied to MAs?

@virmaior Ah it's a bit different here in Canada :P I applied last year. Only to one program though (at U of T).

Wait, you're only planning on applying to one program or you're planning on applying to several?

@virmaior This time around I will be applying everywhere I can to maximize my chances of getting in.

There are a couple of tricks to getting good LORs.

You can ask more than one person, you know.
Approach the person and ask (by email if you like) whether s/he would feel comfortable writing you a LOR.  If s/he thinks the letter would come out lukewarm, s/he can say something tactful, such as "I think you would do better to ask someone who ... (e.g. knows your work better than I do)
Send the person an unofficial transcript
Give the person an outline of what aspects of you should be emphasized for the particular application

I think the Caribbean is fine; also a reference from your workplace is fine.  Do supplement it with a purely academic one.

At this point I have no idea which people to actually ask. Do you think sending them an unofficial transcript (when my grades aren't the best) would be a good idea?

Unfortunately you will have to send the unofficial transcript at some point.  If you are feeling rather doubtful about someone, then go see him or her in person during office hours.  Re your transcript, the overall GPA is not as important as the grades in the classes in your area.  Final advice: go see your dean of undergraduate studies in your department.  Your department should be guiding you more if you are feeling so unsure about the grad school application process.  Perhaps they will assign you a graduate peer advisor to help you with some of these steps.

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How to suggest textbook improvement to author?
There's a popular math textbook I enjoyed a lot when I was a grad student. Recently I noticed an extension to one of the many interesting exercises provided by the textbook. I'd like to communicate this idea with the textbook author (single author).
The exercise is to calculate and show an amazing coincidence, and the way it is phrased in the textbook suggests that the author didn't think there could be an explanation. I think I found an interpretation, and I think it might make this exercise richer if the author adds a couple of subquestions guiding readers to discover this viewpoint for on this coincidence.
My Question Is This:

Is it considered inappropriate to email the author and suggest this as a possible improvement?
  The interpretation to that exercise is somewhat technically intensive and hard to explain in a few words. Should I try to make it brief or should I make it solid that undoubtedly my interpretation is correct?

I'm worried that my suggestion might appear either rude (as if the author doesn't know this already) or annoying (just too lengthy), or it might seem like a clumsy attempt to advertise myself (like a lot of layman claiming to have made a breakthrough).
I think it's 50/50 whether or not the author might have known this interpretation all along but simply didn't include it in the exercise for various reasons. Even under this circumstances, this coincidence is so intriguing that I still think a few words from the author encouraging readers to explore it would completely change the tone of this exercise.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, thank you. This question might be mostly opinion based thus not suited for this site, and I'll be fine with that.
P.S.
I'm on a 6-year-long hiatus from the academia, going on to the 7th year, I currently don't affiliate to any institution. I've been keeping a certain level of capability to do this subfield in math, and I'm about 95% confident that my result is correct. Currently I have no plans to return to the academia within the next 2 to 3 years, but things might change.

Is it considered inappropriate to email the author and suggest this as a possible improvement?

It is very appropriate and would probably be very welcome. As the author of a textbook myself, I am always happy to receive any sort of feedback about my book (if nothing else, it proves to me that someone is reading it ;-)), and have received several emails of the exact kind you describe, and other suggestions for improvement, several of which I ended up using. Just be mindful that the author may not think your contribution is as important or worthwhile as you find it, or may be too busy to think about it, so set your expectations low and be respectful of the author's ultimate authority about what to do with your suggestion, including possibly ignoring it.
More generally, I would say it is appropriate to contact anyone who makes their email publicly available, regarding any issue that has a reasonable chance of being of interest to the recipient and is not driven by spammy or nefarious intent. Your example very clearly falls within this range.

The interpretation to that exercise is somewhat technically intensive and hard to explain in a few words. Should I try to make it brief or should I make it solid that undoubtedly my interpretation is correct?

A detailed and well-exposed technical description of your idea would be most helpful, but I would attach it as a PDF write-up and make the email itself short with only a general description of the idea and referring to the attachment for more details. This minimizes the burden and possibility of annoyance to the author. It would also be a good idea to offer to send the author the LaTeX source in case that might be helpful (but better not include it in the initial email), and may increase the chances that the author will incorporate your idea into the book.

The first sentence is self-contradictory, suggesting one or another kind of error :)

@darijgrinberg It wasn't an error but I agree it was confusing - corrected, thanks.

Oops, that was my error :)

Thanks. Yeah I should make reasonable effort to communicate the idea and keep a reasonable expectation.

From my experience, it's a perfectly valid reason to contact the author, and I'd recommend it actually.
Of course, what happens then is hard to predict. Maybe the author won't reply (this tends to happen when the book is more than a dozen years old). Maybe the author will tell you that they are aware of the explanation but haven't included it for pedagogical reasons. Maybe they'll tell you it's wrong. Maybe they will add your explanation to the next edition. The chances that they will feel slighted or insulted are close to nil (unless you are actually being rude in your mail); I have suggested corrections and addenda to something like 50 authors in my lifetime, and only 1 of the correspondences degenerated into something resembling a conflict.
As for making it brief or making it solid, I'd go with the latter (although I'd first give a sketch, then the details).

whoa 50 authors, that's encouraging data. Thank you.

@LeeDavidChungLin: I haven't made a statistic, though, and the 50 authors aren't just textbook authors (I also read lecture notes and papers, and comment on pretty much everything I think I can improve and is worth improving). My impression is: the more recent the source, the happier the authors are to receive corrections. (Not surprisingly. It's hard to remember your own work from 20 years ago, let alone make edits to it...)

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MLA bibliography style in computer science
Does anyone know a computer science or engineering journal that uses MLA as their bibliography style?

Why do you need to know this? You're not going to choose a journal on the basis of their bibliography style, are you?

:-) Our thesis office requires us to follow the biobliography style of a journal in our field.  I like MLA but can't seem to find a jurnal with MLA style.

You may want to look at digital humanities journals. If any are going to use MLA, it'll be them. (And hopefully whatever journal that be they outright reject MLA 8th ed. and its utter nonsense).


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How to improve the narrative in a piece of academic writing?
I have recently finished a year of Doctoral School, and am about to start my PhD. During the last taught year I have written two research papers which were reviewed by several people both internal and external to my faculty. The feedback was mostly complimentary, however the common criticism made about my work went along the lines of "You write excellent sections, but there is little link or narrative between sections."
There are a few guides on technical writing fundamentals, so this could serve as a platform for other posts on more nuanced writing practices. I would like to create a better narrative in my writing going forward, so the themes I would like to create a discussion on are as follows:

Practices for identifying the narrative present in your own work.
How do you build a narrative when writing an academic paper or other piece of technical writing?
Guidelines for linking the internal sections within a piece of writing.
Guidelines for linking your work to related research by other authors.

Have you found a couple of articles that you think do a good job of doing this, to use as models and inspiration?

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about writing style rather than academia.

@aparente001 Not particularly. I seem to have some self-bias because I feel I'm writing in a manner which matches the papers I've been reading. But obviously my mentors are seeing something I'm not.

@RoboKaren Ok perhaps, but I don't see how my question is manifestly different to these questions Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, which all relate to other aspects of writing within the context of academia.

@RoboKaren - You're probably right, but the answer is so good, let's leave it open.

You can ask them to give you a sample paper they think has great transitions, and you can ask them to mark the specific spots in your manuscript where they felt the transitions were weak.

As a non-native English speaker, I found the use of linking words lists very inspiring. I printed this cheatsheet and carry it with me along with the paper draft of my thesis for immediate access.
I also took an afternoon to brush up on my English (which, I believe, was already fine to begin with) and ended up reading most sections on this Guide to Grammar and Writing. In particular, I paid special attention to the page on Transitions, and it might help you too. On this page, they show how you can turn this hard-to-follow paragraph:

The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead people's bodies
  by making mummies of them. Mummies several thousand years old have
  been discovered nearly intact. The skin, hair, teeth, fingernails and
  toenails, and facial features of the mummies were evident. It is
  possible to diagnose the disease they suffered in life, such as
  smallpox, arthritis, and nutritional deficiencies. The process was
  remarkably effective. Sometimes apparent were the fatal afflictions of
  the dead people: a middle-aged king died from a blow on the head, and
  polio killed a child king. Mummification consisted of removing the
  internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out, and
  then wrapping the body in layers of bandages.

into this nicer one

The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead people's bodies
  by making mummies of them. In short, mummification consisted of
  removing the internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside
  and out, and then wrapping the body in layers of bandages. And the
  process was remarkably effective. Indeed, mummies several thousand
  years old have been discovered nearly intact. Their skin, hair, teeth,
  fingernails and toenails, and facial features are still evident. Their
  diseases in life, such as smallpox, arthritis, and nutritional
  deficiencies, are still diagnosable. Even their fatal afflictions are
  still apparent: a middle-aged king died from a blow on the head; a
  child king died from polio.

There are others resources grouped into "Word & Sentence Level", "Paragraph Level", "Essay & Research Paper Level".
Finally, if you need help writing transition paragraphs between sections, I'm not sure whether resources exist about this. I would suggest thinking about the high-level view of your work and reminding yourself (and the reader) why the previous section exists, why we are going to start the next one, and how they are connected within the big picture. During this paragraph, imagine your reader all of a sudden stops and says: "why the hell am I reading this already?" -- this is your chance to remind them.

Thank you, this is exactly the information I was looking for.

I use the same cheatsheet!

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Masters degree in business engineering or management engineering
Is it possible to have a masters degree in business engineering or management engineering when you don't have a first degree? But i have more than 10 years professional experience

Usually no, mostly because the undergraduate degree is validation that you've covered some baseline subject matter.  Even in more vocation-based undergraduate schools you usually need to take courses (writing, math, humanities) that might not be directly related to the subject matter.
That said, there are schools that may be willing to trade a certain amount of professional experience for a certain amount of credit towards an undergraduate degree, or schools that might let you pursue both degrees at the same time.  You'll have to shop around.

A Bachelor's degree is necessary.
Many colleges accept some credits earned through CLEP.  Check the published rules first and then double-check with the college directly.


text:
Consequences of leaving masters program after dealing with unorthodox advisor
I am a masters student in Computer Science at a high ranking university (top 20) in United States. I received my bachelors degree from this university as well. My GPA for both bachelor and master is above 3.9. I have finished all my course works and now I am just focusing on writing thesis. My thesis area is not directly related to CS so my advisor is not from CS department. We try to meet every week but during our yesterday's meeting, something unexpected happened.
Conversation:

Me: Hi Professor X, I have this idea that is something original. Here are the
reasons why it is an awesome idea and it can possibly have a huge
impact with regards IoT. Here are the 5 page description on what this idea is, what are the advantages and disadvantages and why everyone
should adopt this idea.
Professor X: After 5 minutes. This idea is a: "piece of $hit. We
cannot write a paper with this idea. It will be rejected immediately"... "only an
idiot comes up with such a stupid idea".
Me: But this idea is revolutionary ...
Professor X: "Don't waste my time" ...
Me: (calmly) I apologize if it was an irrelevant idea. I will try to do better next time.

This scenario has been repeated multiple time this semester and previous semester while working with this Professor.
I come from a country that teachers in general are highly respected and we believe everything that teacher says or does is for benefit of a student. I am not a person who will cry and get offended by this language. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have been bullied by my friends and siblings throughout my life and such a language doesn't trigger me. Instead, it motivates me to work harder.
In the end of meeting, I wanted to say to my advisor but I did not that a well known software engineering company offered me job (without me applying for the job) and I am not sure I should accept it or not, because I want to continue with my masters.
I had a conversation today with my family. They all live in rural area and they are all farmers. I am the only in my family who pursued college degree. I did not tell them what happened yesterday. But, I am disappointed at myself for putting myself in such a situation. I am disappointed at myself and not at my advisor.
Question: What are the consequences of leaving masters program and how in long term it will influence my chances of studying in Ph.D. program? my goal is to become a Professor.

You say that the conversation yesterday was "unexpected" but you also say that "[t]his scenario has been repeated multiple time this semester and previous semester while working with this Professor."  Something is fishy. We can't know what's going on, you should talk to a trusted third party.

You two are not interacting with each other in a healthy way.  I mean, your idea might indeed be a piece of ____, but that was no way to speak to a student.  On the other hand, your response was not helpful.  If you behave like a doormat, you are more likely to get treated like a doormat.  And then you displaced your disappointment in your advisor onto yourself -- this is not healthy.  I suppose it may be a reflection of the culture you grew up in.  But it's still not helpful.  So -- now what?  You and your advisor seem to be in a death grip, like when the floundering drowning person ...

... grabs hold of the would-be rescuer, and they drown together in a death grip.  What you need to do is talk to the dean of graduate studies in your department.  Perhaps it would be helpful to switch advisors, if only temporarily.  You need to show your revolutionary idea to someone else, someone with some objectivity and the ability to let you know politely whether it is worth pursuing.


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Should I write my name with accents in my article?
My first name is pretty common, but in Spanish it is accentuated.
I've seen people keeping their names accented and people who don't. I wonder if there's a formal recommendation on this matter.

Also relevant: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/46942/7734

If you prefer the way your name looks with its accent, go for it (I would!), but understand that not everyone will write it the same way, since not everyone has figured out how to produce accents with their keyboard.


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Reviewing Manuscript Which Misinterprets My Own Work
I am reviewing a manuscript which cites a study I published (yay!), but appears to misinterpret the results (rats!). This misinterpretation does not invalidate the manuscript under review, which is otherwise quite good - it occurs in the discussion section as somewhat of an aside, and does not seem to be an intentional misrepresentation. However, I'd prefer that my work is properly represented to avoid confusion on the parts of those who read this new paper.
I would like to know if anyone has good techniques to correct a mistake like this without making it quite obvious that you are the reviewer and inadvertently revealing your identity. (I am not necessarily opposed to revealing my identity since my review will be positive overall, just curious about ways to do this)

Give the corrections, referring to yourself in the third person where needed.  You don't need to impersonate someone uninvolved, you just need to depersonalize your corrections.  For example,

In the introduction, the author is speaking of bla-bla; s/he motivates bla-bla by citing such-and-so.

Make sure you focus your corrections on errors that are relevant to the paper you are reviewing.  That may mean that your list of corrections will not be a complete one.
For all the author of the paper you're reviewing knows, you might be an advisor or close collaborator of the author of the paper that was mis-cited.  That's okay.
Note, if the author of the paper you're reviewing forms a conjecture that the reviewer is actually the author of the mis-cited paper... that's okay.  Maybe someday you'll meet each other at a conference and enjoy a moment of mutual recognition.
I am basing this advice on my own experience writing reams of legal documents about a family member, whom I got in the habit of not naming in my writing, to protect his privacy.  I also wrote about myself in the third person in those documents.  I found out that with a little practice it becomes second nature.

"might be an advisor or close collaborator of the author of the paper that was mis-cited" - or maybe not, given that it's not at all far-fetched for a random reviewer to follow at least a few citations ans read those, if only out of mere personal i terest in the topic.

It is very often the case that it is quite obvious (from his comments) to the author who a referee is. Many special subjects have just a handful of well-known experts in the world. You probably know them personally even, their educational background, the typical tilt in their English stemming from their mother tongue, etc.
With many journals, you propose potential referees, and the authors of that paper probably proposed you.
So: Don't worry about them deducting your identity. They won't mention it, and they likely won't be surprised. Pleased probably, to have gotten first-hand feedback.


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Submit a comment or reply to own research paper?
I would like to know if it is possible to write and submit a comment/reply to an article that has been published earlier (by oneself). This is because there are new results that underline the findings and conclusions of the previous article that havent been published yet and are not enough material for a seperate publication.
Would this be appropriate or are comments from the same authors not wished for by the editors of the journal?

Don't write a comment on your earlier paper. Write a short article and post it on a pre-print server, or submit it to an open-access journal, depending on your field.

Don't do it.  Comments are specifically meant as critiques of (possible) problems with published articles.  They are not appropriate as ways to elaborate on your own research.


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Will having a chemistry minor benefit me in a material science PhD?
I'm an undergraduate physics major and plan on pursuing a PhD in material science, and am specifically interested in soft materials, nanotechnology, and polymers. I currently have minors in chemistry and math. I don't particularly enjoy chemistry, but I've so far excelled in my (lower division) chemistry courses. Would pursuing a chemistry minor in undergrad help me in a material science PhD? Or will I have opportunities to learn the chemistry I need through the grad program and research I'm doing?

Yes, no, maybe? Depends a lot on the program you go to and the quality and emphasis of the chemistry classes you take, and so forth. For soft materials and polymers, some chemistry background will likely help either get accepted in the first place, or more rapidly come up to speed in the graduate polymer courses.

As someone who works in Materials Science/Chemistry/Applied Physics.... the answer is a resounding yes. The amount of courses a minor typically requires will create a basis for you to gain higher level knowledge during your graduate courses/research. Which chemistry electives you choose will obviously impact how relevant it may be for you, but certainly continued exposure during your bachelors will be very useful if you are interested in soft matter, nano, and especially polymers. If you go down semiconductors/devices, etc..., then it will be less so.

@R1NaNo -Going at it the other way around, if they were majoring in chemistry and asking about a physics minor I would give an unreserved YES in that the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics from the physics department would serve them better in materials science grad courses (at least in my experience and observation of other students, albeit decades ago). But then I was also more on the semiconductor side...

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


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Should I include my documentaries under publications in my CV
I have been published in a journal and produced multiple documentaries, should I include the documentaries under publications. Unlike the journal publications, the documentaries were not peer-reviewed as no such process exists.

CVs are produced for a purpose, usually for getting a job. If you apply for an academic position or a research position or a graduate program, you want to highlight your scientific creativity by showing your publications. In this case, You can put your documentaries under publications, but within their own group, so that it is clear that they are not peer-reviewed at a first glance.
If you want to craft your CV for getting a job that combines your film making skills with your scientific prowess, you could also do this, but you might make a stronger impression if you list them in their own category and your academic pubs in a different one.
Whatever you do:

Make it easy to understand. Many CVs get sorted out within seconds.
Do not appear to deceive. You do not want a reaction that says: "Wait a minute, this is not an academic publication, this is a youtube video".

Writing CVs is a difficult art, that starts out with identifying, selecting, and ordering the relevant information. Often, universities offer workshops or help. Avail yourself of these types of offers. Somebody with experience will be able to give you great feedback on whatever you can come up with.

Sadly, after years of seeing the results of university workshops, I can only say that perhaps the career centers are better than nothing but it isn’t by much. My kids agree with me.

No. They are documentaries, not publications.
Put them in their own section, which could be called something like Documentaries, TV productions, YouTube productions, or Public outreach.


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Want to pursue Master's in AI from a premier university-Master's or bachelor's in Computer Science to make up for poor GPA in first bachelors
I work in supply chain IT with over 15 yrs of experience. I built my career in ERP implementation with specialization in supply chain with roles in IT and in business, but without any degree in computer science. I have a bachelor's in electrical engineering. My estimated overall GPA is 2.52 (62% from India where scores are in %)
I also have a master's in business administration from a university in India with a slightly better GPA of 2.64
I am a senior manager and fancy my chances to become a director as the next step in my career.I am strongly motivated to get the master's degree from a reputed university now.
I would like to pursue an online master's in computer science from a premier institute like Stanford and their posted cut off is 3.0 to apply.
This brings me to my question. Should I get a second bachelor's in computer science from any university that admits me to improve my GPA and then apply for the program I really want? or should I just get a second master's that admits me with my GPA and then apply for the program I want? I am told universities look at GPA in bachelor's degree and not master's GPA.
Is this idea even practical? I have the bandwidth to execute on this idea. I just want to understand will it work (of course assumption is I really improve my GPA. I can make this assumption since my poor GPA is a reflection of my negligence during my college days rather than lack of aptitude)

What is your motivation for ‘pursuing an online master's in computer science from a premier institute like Stanford’? Will that lead to a better chance at successfully landing the director position? I dread suggesting it, but maybe an MBA is a better fit?

"I am a senior manager and fancy my chances to become a director as the next step in my career."  Is the implication that you need an advanced degree to become a director correct??

What's ERP? ...

@AzorAhai-him-: Likely enterprise resource planning.

An admissons committee looking at an applicant with 15 years of industrial experience is likely to pay little attention to undergraduate grades. They will want to know what you did in your job and look for your explanation of why you have decided to apply, what you expect to get from their program, and what you might contribute. I don't think a second Bachelor's degree would make much difference to them.
As @Aruralreader notes, think hard about why you want this degree. Then compose a strong cover letter for your application.


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How do I get back on track in my studies after falling behind due to hopelessness of making in academia
I feel utterly lost. I performed decently in my  physics bachelor studies (GPA of ~3.6), while being a chronic procrastinator and yet finishing in 6 semesters. However now in my master's I've fallen quite far behind (about a year with a GPA of ~2.7). It was my childhood dream to become a physicist and "striving to be a physicist" became somewhat of an identity. I was quite worried if I was intelligent enough to study physics before uni. When I realized how hard the academic career path would be and stiff the competition would be my dreams started to seem out of reach. I felt like I will probably not measure up to the competition and I lost motivation to study. Last year I broke up with my girlfriend. I started going to therapy due to the abusive dynamics. All of that really led me to slack off in my studies and now I'm more worried than ever of not getting into a phd program or even making it in academia. I feel like a failure if I'm being honest. Until today I haven't opened my student card with my progress out of shame/anxiety in months. I don't really know how to get back on track. I want to become a researcher but I worry if I'm intelligent and good enough, especially now after having slacked off in my studies.

Very few people "make it" in academia, and "making it" isn't necessarily a particularly good mark of intelligence or overall life success. It sounds like you should spend some time broadening your definition of success and learning about alternative careers rather than putting all your eggs in a very fragile basket that carries an explicit note about being suitable for very few eggs.

Intelligence is only of the many predictors of success in academia, and probably not even the most important one. If I were you, I would worry less about intelligence and more about other factors ("being a chronic procrastinator", "I lost motivation to study"), which, unlike intelligence, you have much more control over.

@AdamPřenosil - as one of the founders of SE said, you have to be smart and get things done.

I always wanted to get a PhD, but when honest with myself, I found that I didn't personally want to deal with some of the aspects of working on a PhD that required a lot of personal discipline.  I know myself.  I'm not a very disciplined person--I need deadlines to create urgency.  It's not about not being intelligent; I simply don't want to do what is necessary to be successful in academia.  Instead of worrying about not being the person "I wanted to be", I reframed it such that I consider myself pragmatic, and I don't want this goal badly enough to change who I am.  For many years, I was upset by this "failure", but by reframing things this way, it was very freeing for me--I'm now focused on the person I am willing to work towards.
Instead, I found that what worked for me very well was to be a staff member at a university.  I am surrounded by faculty every day, which is actually tremendously wonderful--I get to have access to world-class minds all the time.  I also have personal relationships with many faculty, unlike students and postdocs--I can say more than 40 PIs at my school across many disciplines know me by name and are aware of the impact I personally have on research in the nine years I have had my job.  I also get to take classes in my areas of interest for very little money.  When I got my teaching degree (paid for by my employer), one of my letters of recommendation came from a PI that I provided grants support for.  (I asked him to write a recommendation that was about my work ethic; not my area of study.)  Not for nothing, but we also pay entry level people better than most postdocs get paid: Research Administrator Salary
I wish we could attract more folks with a science background into our open jobs, but many people with science degrees think "admin work" is a "step down" from academic work.  My job is incredibly challenging, highly rewarding, and it's within academia.  I am the lifeline for research where I work.  I learn how regulations work, how to get research done--it's a form of project management.  I take the burden off of PIs so that they spend their time doing research instead of paperwork or worrying about their finances. I once had a PI thank me 3 years after a proposal got awarded for the work I put into advising that PI on how to get funded.  He pointed out that my work helped provide jobs to several people.  Sure, I won't have publications with my name on it, but I do have people who thank me for what I do on a nearly daily basis.  Why define success so narrowly?  I have tremendous meaning in my work.
Broaden how you consider "working in academia", and you may find there are even better choices than where you are today.  If you understand some level of science, you could be a tremendous asset to a PI in terms of project management, lab management, or research administration -- all jobs that are becoming more important as the world moves towards applied research projects funded by sponsors like DARPA, IARPA, ARPA-H, and ARPA-E.  We need more scientists to consider administration.
At this point, I have been taking college classes from my employer for the last 15 years as a way of personal development--but getting my PhD?  I wouldn't leave my job for that now, not even if I were "fully funded".  I'm in the right place--my younger dream was naive and based on incomplete information, and so I let it go to find a new form of happiness.  However you end up, I hope you find your own form of success too--based on who you are now, not who you were as a child.

You seem to be doing the right thing in seeing a counsellor about the mental aspects. Don't let that end too soon. Work with them or someone else about procrastination. A change in study habits can help. Starting projects and assignments as soon as given, rather than near deadlines can help for many.
I suggest talking to one or more trusted professors about how you can get back on track and what might be blocking you. If the scale of your classes is small enough that professors recognize you it can help. This is the sort of thing for office visits, though, not email.
Slacking off might possibly be a sign of clinical depression. Counsellors and even doctors might be needed if that is the case.

When I realized how hard the academic career path would be and stiff the competition would be my dreams started to seem out of reach. I felt like I will probably not measure up to the competition
I want to become a researcher but I worry if I'm intelligent and good enough
The answer to the first half of the first one is that "Yeah, it is a bit more difficult than learning the phrase 'Paper or plastic', but still completely doable given time, patience, and perseverance. Just don't expect fast progress, especially in the beginning: it won't happen, and you have to learn to live with that. However, do not concentrate on how slow you are and how much is left to cover; instead celebrate each mark on the route already covered and you'll reach some summits eventually.
The answer to the second half of the first one is that "There always is a bigger fish in the pond". So, instead of comparing yourself with others at every step (you'll lose such comparison more often than not no matter at what stage and level you are just because coming to each next level brings you in direct contact with people who have reached it before you and they become your "peer benchmark" for some time, and if you look one level up from there, you'll feel totally inferior), compare yourself with yourself a year ago. If you lose that comparison, then you are on the wrong track indeed. But if you devote some decent time and effort to your dreams, you'll see some progress every time.
The answer to the last one is that unless you have some irreparable brain defect, you are both intelligent and good enough to join the workforce and become a useful part of it, but unless you are a genius, you are not good enough to make some really noticeable difference just by yourself. Remember that in every group of people, physicists being no exception, half are below the median and that any point on the real line has Lebesgue measure zero, but if you remove that half from the group or all points from the line, the group will lose a noticeable portion of its strength and the line will disappear entirely.
These are as honest answers as you can possibly get.
In all other respects you've got a good advice from Buffy already.
Just my two cents.


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Can I redeem myself with a better research paper if my thesis sucks?
When I was doing my undergraduate thesis, I tried my best to create a good and at least a decent thesis. In the end, I got a B out of pity. I didn't feel like I deserve a score like that, especially when I barely could defend my project to the moderator.
Nowadays, I have a new idea for a research paper that I think could be better than before. Can I use that to redeem myself and "replace" my thesis? I really don't want my thesis to be a scar and left like that. How much will it impact my future, especially for applying a Master's Degree?

Most undergraduate theses "suck" - it is an early step in a long complicated process of becoming a researcher, a process that many (most) people writing an undergraduate theses never even start on. Learn from it and move on.

It's all part of the experience, the maturation process. Best advice I could give you is just keep truckin' on!

@JonCuster And working on projects where it's even possible to suck is an important step in that process. If you always succeed, it means you're working on trivial problems.

I didn't think anyone ever read my bachelor thesis.

@The_Gamer To expand on what Jon Custer said - many bachelor's theses aren't even publicly accessible, let alone something admissions committees are reading (also, admissions committees do not have time to read bachelors' theses). To be blunt, nobody but you will ever care about your bachelor's thesis after it is graded.

@The_Gamer Moreover, you don't need "redemption" for writing/presenting a thesis "badly". Failure/less-desireable outcomes are opportunities to learn from your mistakes and grow, not something to torture yourself over weeks after the fact. Learn from your mistakes in this thesis and apply those lessons to the next thing you write.

@Andrew - My university library records how many times my thesis has been checked out. The answer is once by me, once by my tutor on the day he marked it, and once by a student who checked it back in five minutes later. I like to think I made a difference to his life...

A thesis is a work of yours to get the title. In most cases you are supposed to be The Only Author. Anyone else's contribution to it should be in the form of advise and discussions.
You passed. You got the title. Game over.
Research papers do not need to be from just one author; most of them are based on the cooperation of multiple authors with different extents of contribution.
When you were writing your thesis as an undergrad, you were a newbie to the field and had limited time for to do the work and write about it.
Now you are a more experienced scientist and therefore your articles are of better quality. You also have more time to perform the analyses and more time to fine-tune the manuscript.
If I am to evaluate my theses, "pity" would be very generous assessment.
Think of the thesis/theses as a ground mark to compare your growth to. No-one is expecting your thesis to be brilliant. Unless you claim it was brilliant in the first place. Then they will, most of time, prove you wrong.

Undergraduate (which is more or less the first degree in a university in Europe (after 3 years)) or Master theses are there just because this is traditionally the nice thing to do. Nobody cares about them. Nobody (except your supervisor and some higher degree student punished to read it) will ever read them. They have zero value and have zero interest for anyone.
Your thesis is useless.
Now that this is clear - stop worrying about it, forget about it, and move forward. Whether you go for Academia where your PhD thesis may by miracle have any impact, or for Industry (where nobody cares), anything before has absolutely zero impact on whatever

Of course, you may be in the special case where a MSc or PhD thesis makes a difference - congratulations then. But I put that note under a line (and should probably make it very small) because this will not happen.

@Anyon Ah, I thought Sweden followed the Bologna Process? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process)

@Anyon: I just checked https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolognaprocessen and wat I meant is the Kandidatexamen  in Sweden -- I will update my answer to make that clear

OK, that makes sense. Many countries did indeed get rid of their Licentiate degrees as part of the Bologna process, but I guess Sweden and Finland didn't because theirs doesn't really map onto any of the standardized degrees.

To be honest, the same is practically true of most PhD theses. For most academics it's TL;DR for your work, your publications will be what they will read.

@Crazymoomin yes, agreed. This is why I made mine 42 pages long, with a one page for the introduction (that just gave two pointers to basic literature), my papers, a summary, the thank yous and an extra section where I disagree with myself. I got from the jury 4 "thanks god for the length" and 1 " you do not understand the essence of centuries of traditions when writing tomes of knowlegde"

Whether you can replace the thesis with the results of another project is a local question, but I doubt that it would be allowed. Only they can say, however.
I suggest you let it go and if the other project is something you'd want to follow up on anyway, then do so, provided you can do so without neglecting other studies.
You aren't expected to be an expert at your stage of education. Any research experience as an undergraduate is a plus for graduate admissions. And the B is an acceptable grade. Your characterization of it as a "pity" grade is invisible to others and possibly incorrect.
Take this as a learning experience and note that the limited time available for undergrad research already implies limited results. Exploring the unknown can't be done with a timetable. Experience counts. Move on. Good luck.


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Where to Put Research On Resume Meant For Industry Purposes?
I've been working as research assistant in a lab and I've been working on a project that I'm presenting at a conference in the future. I'm updating my industry resume currently, and under the experience category, I've listed my research assistant position as well as a brief description of what I've done for the lab. However, I can't help but want to also add my research project as it's own bullet point under my project section. Would it be a good idea to generalize my projects category to projects and research, and also put my research under there? If so, how can I avoid having too much overlapping info between my RA bullet point and research project/not have too little information underneath my RA bullet point?

It's kind of hard for us to answer here, since a CV should really be optimized holistically so no one heading is too thin or too overwhelming. You could try both approaches, show them to a few people and ask which one works better for them.


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I suspect a former professor in the department led a smear campaign against my wife in retaliation for reporting him - can he be held acountable?
TL;DR: I strongly suspect a professor in my department led a campaign against my wife (who is an instructor) to discredit her amongst the students in retaliation for her reporting him for harassment. It has devastated her. He left the university a year ago to move to another university - is there anything I do to hold him accountable?
I'm a tenured professor at a public flagship university in the US and my wife is a lab instructor in the same department. At the time she started the job three years ago, another tenured professor (let's call him Prof. A) was the instructor of record for the lab course. From the beginning, he was openly hostile to her during lab presentations by challenging her when she asked questions to her students and making indirect comments to the students about how her assignments were meaningless or flawed in some way. It got so bad that we both complained to the department chair and he filed a report to HR about this behavior. Prof. A had also exhibited similar behavior to two other professors in the department and altogether this got him removed from the course.
Prof. A was extremely angry about being removed from the course. Unfortunately, he is one of those professors that the students love. They would hang around his office all day and he was like one of their friends. I've heard instances of him making disparaging comments about other faculty in the department to the students, which I suspect he does to make the students see him as some kind of savior. To say the least, he has some kind of psychological issue that makes him behave this way so that the students love him.
Anyway, after he was removed from the course another tenured faculty (Prof. B) replaced him as the instructor of record in the lab. Over the past 5 semesters, my wife has experienced a lot of disrespectful behavior from the students in the lab (some overt, some subtle). In general, she gives the students challenging assignments that make them have to think deeply about how to apply the concepts they learn in other courses to the lab experiments they are doing with her. Often, the students just don't bother to do the more difficult parts of the assignment and get bad grades as a result. She gets evaluations where students say things like she is the "worst human being ever" and just teaches the lab in order to make their lives miserable. This is far from the truth as she works very hard on the course in order to try to make it useful to the students.
At first, I thought it was just students being students but the other day I heard from my grad students (despite the fact she teaches an undergrad lab) that there are rumors going around the department that Prof. A had to correct my wife during a presentation. I know exactly what they are talking about and Prof. A was completely wrong in this instance. Unfortunately, the students believe him over her, partly I suspect because he is a white male tenured professor that they adore and she is a non-white foreign-born female instructor. Now I am starting to suspect that Prof. A has been carrying out a campaign to defame her amongst the students in retaliation for him getting thrown off the lab course.
Additionally, the new professor on the course (Prof. B) treats her with the same kind of disrespectful behavior during lab presentations, cutting her off whenever she is asking detailed questions to the students and making comments implying she doesn't know what she's talking about or that her assignments are useless. I know what she is saying and I know that she is correct, so this is not a legitimate case of Prof. B simply correcting her. Plus he only says this in front of the students, not privately to her. This is all making me start to think that Prof. A said something about my wife to Prof. B when he took over the course - something like "watch out for her".
So right now, I'm starting to put the pieces together and it looks like Prof. A has led a concerted campaign to discredit my wife amongst the students in retaliation for 'getting' him kicked off the course. This has had a tremendous impact on her mental health and she is still being subjected to this treatment from the students in the lab and Prof. B. It's been completely devastating for her.
I want to do something about it to hold Prof. A accountable, but he left the university over a year ago to go to another university. Is there anything that can be done now that he is gone? I'm sure he will just continue this kind of bullying at the new university and there will be new victims, so something needs to be done to stop him.

‘I'm sure he will just continue this kind of bullying at the new university and there will be new victims, so something needs to be done to stop him.’ Bless your heart, but this sounds like rationalization of revenge, or at least it might seem that way to the professor.

I do not see a lot of undisputed, verifiable facts in your story. Even supposing that "something needs to be done" and granting that the story as you told it is exactly what happened, it's not really clear to me that you have enough evidence (or indeed any evidence) to do anything. I am not saying this to dispute your account of things, but rather to point out that "this is all making me start to think that" such-and-such might have happened is not grounds for any kind of disciplinary action.

Yes, I won't disagree with you that I don't have any hard evidence other than circumstantial evidence. And I won't say that "revenge" has nothing to do with it (I'm human after all). But I would think that most cases involving harassment or bullying in the workplace are like this. Most bullies are smart enough not to do this kind of thing completely in the open. So I guess my question should really be "how should I proceed?" Should I really just do nothing at all despite the devastating consequences this has had on my wife?

The behavior by Prof. B can't be disputed and is undoubtedly a large part of why the students don't respect her. But there's obviously no way to prove that Prof. A had anything to do with the behavior of Prof. B. It just seems very unlikely that two professors would treat her the same way and I'm trying to rationalize it

Is this course for majors only or is it taken by people from other departments? I'm a bit surprised that the professor(s) are even in the lab presentations. Has she discussed her planned labs with professor B?

Yes, it's for majors only. There is an "instructor or record" that is in charge of the management of the overall course and individual instructors in charge of the individual experiments in the lab. In principle, the instructor of record is not supposed to interfere with the assignments given by the individual instructors. There are also other instructors in the lab on other experiments, but Prof. B only treats my wife this way.

@Johnson Right. I think the problem here is that these kinds of suspicions (of the "probably I can guess what might have happened but I don't really have evidence" variety) can imo only be handled informally using whatever social contacts you have (if you don't want to end up in a big mess). If you have strong personal contacts at the other university, you could try to leverage those and informally let them know about your experience with the professor (without aiming for any official consequences). But if you don't, I personally don't see how you can do much of anything.

I wish I had the time to carry out vendettas against new instructors. Not that I ever would, that sounds terrible.... but it would just be amazing to have that kind of time as a professor! The only real solution is to let it go. Your wife needs to work more closely with the Prof in charge and make sure expectations fully align. If your wife is consistently asking problems that do not align with the course design of the faculty in charge, she will always be vulnerable to poor reviews, and constant tension with the faculty in charge.

@R1NaNo this is a good point - even if the way the criticism is being given is unhelpful it's worth thinking about if there's anything valid within it.

Shouldn't this Q come from your wife?

I second Bryan Krause's answer that your wife needs to treat the student evaluations as a separate problem from Prof A.
I would add that you can also treat Prof B's behaviour as a separate problem from Prof A. The one currently causing problems for your wife seems to be Prof B, and the institution took this kind of behaviour seriously when it was Prof A. It may be worth talking to HR again and raising the problems with Prof B's behaviour, although your wife also needs to take into consideration the risk of being perceived as a complainer. If Prof B is widely liked then reporting him to HR is unfortunately more risky than if he's a known problem amongst faculty. If it's reached the level where Prof B is implying her assignments are useless in front of students then it might be necessary to involve HR either way.
She could also try talking directly to Prof B. She could tell him she wants to take his criticism seriously but it's difficult to take it on board when he does it in front of students. She could ask him for specifics on what he thinks the problems with her assignments are, and why he interrupts when she asks detailed questions. If she gives him a more productive way to address concerns with her it may cut down on the interruptions in class, and she may find out that there are good reasons for some of his criticisms even if they're not being presented constructively. (This will work a lot better if she does it before talking to HR - once you talk to HR the relationship will be probably be pretty much nuked.)

This sounds more to me like typical privileged behavior than any sort of smear campaign.
I'm very worried that you will make things much worse by pursuing this suspicion.
I'd give the students a bit more credit for being capable of making their own judgments (though also it is common for women to receive worse student reviews without any intervention by senior professors with a grudge; this makes reviews a problematic measure of instruction quality). If they're not finding the assignments useful, it might be fruitful to investigate why that is and either change the assignments or change the communication about their purpose.

It seems more likely to me that there would be two professors who are both just kind of assholes/sexist etc than that one professor is enacting a concerted smear campaign against someone at a university he no longer works at. However people do talk to each other and if Prof A and Prof B are friends Prof B may be influenced by Prof A. This doesn't change the advice either way though.


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Google scholar "merged" my paper with another Author's paper
I recently discovered that my paper shares the same title as another author's work, and unfortunately, Google Scholar has merged the two. When viewing the other author's paper, there are six versions listed, two of which are actually mine. Since the versions are indexed by Google, I'm unable to separate them.
I've attempted to unmerge them within Google Scholar but haven't been successful due to the indexing.
Any help?

Help can only come from them, but most such things are very difficult or impossible, even to reach someone. One of the "benefits" of an AI driven system, I guess.

Automated Intransigence?

Thankfully no one uses google scholar for anything serious so it doesn’t really matter.

@TheDoctor That's definitely not true.

Update - So I sent a message to google support and got the following reply (relevant part):
"As a Google Support Specialist my Expertise is limited to the issues related to limited Google Products.
Upon reviewing your concern, I feel it is a good thought to include a support team for Google Scholar. However, currently we do not have an option you asked for.
I would certainly take this as a feedback, as this constantly helps us in making our services better for our customers. I hope they’ll work on it and come up with something in the future."


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Is there any future after PhD or future is bleak?
I was enrolled in a PhD program and was about to finish my thesis in mid-2020. I have a fairly strong publication record with three first-authored high-impact (aove 10) publications in top chemistry journals and a total of 20 publications (mostly second author). During the Covid lockdown, I slowly slipped into depression and could not extricate myself. Subsequently, I lost my father, and my mother also went into a nervous breakdown. I am finding it unbearable to finish the thesis and at the lost opportunity. Do I still have any future in academia as it's been almost 10 years since I started my PhD?

Would you comment briefly on the counseling you've worked through, and the advice you've received, in the meantime? Take care of yourself first. It's impossible for anyone to predict here if someone has a future in academia. That depends both on you and on the state of academia itself.

It would be helpful if you tell what field of science you are in.

I doubt that anyone online can answer this, but moreover, I would suggest that this is the wrong time to worry about this. Finish your PhD. After 10 years, it would be a tragedy if you did not finish. And once you are on the cusp of finishing, you can start to examine next steps.

moreover the implicit suggestion that a future outside of academia is “bleak” is rather shortsighted.

Yes, you have a future if you work toward it. The past is past and every day is the first day of the rest of your life. Counseling can both help with the past and give you strategies to avoid depression.
Try to make contact with former trusted professors and look to them for support as well as ideas.
The COVID era (not yet over) has set a lot of people back and others tend to understand that. But don't focus on explaining yourself to others. Work toward your goals. You may have to compromise, especially in this job market, as I did in a former terrible market, but if you look for opportunities, both in research collaboration and in job advancement, you can wind up in a good place. Ain't easy, but it works.


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An article containing a copyrighted figure should be embedded in a stapler thesis: How to fill in RightsLink form?
I wrote an Elsevier article (open-access, CC-BY 4.0) that contains a third party figure from a Springer subscription book. At the time, I obtained a license for re-using the Springer figure in a journal article via the RightsLink service.
Now I want to embed the Elsevier article in its final published version ("Version of Record") in my dissertation (i.e. a typical stapler thesis). The thesis will be uploaded to an institutional repository. For this, I am pretty sure that I need an additional license for re-using the Springer figure, but is "reuse in a dissertation/thesis" the correct option when filling in the RightsLink form? It may seem obvious, but I wonder if the fact that I am embedding the final published version of the Elsevier article "as is" makes any difference or creates any special case?

You definitely will need additional [licensing-permission] to reuse the third-party figure, though reuse in a thesis is typically easier to obtain than publication in subscription publication.
'Reuse in a dissertation/thesis' would be the correct selection, but you want you be sure that your supporting information/letter of permission includes permission to use the figure in a dissertation that will be "published online in an institutional repository". Often, there are different standards when publishing online, and publishers are often more lenient when it comes to university repos vs other venues. As long as your licensing-permission clearly provides for that, you should be good to go.


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Accepting admission offer from more than one institute in United States
I'm an international applicant and I'm not very familiar with the routines of admissions in United States. I was wondering if I get admitted from a university and accepting their offer and while trying to get F-1 visa for it, I get another admission from another university, would I be eligible to accept the admission offer of the latter university or not?

Most universities will issue an F-1 visa for introduction students (some can issue J-1, if requested by your funding agency/government/institution). I didn't get you point on Visa?

I meant while our application is being processed in embassy. As I know the applicant themselves must apply for visa and pursue it.

I think that would make things very complicated. You do not want to start your process and change schools while your application os being processed.  This might raise red flags and keep your application on hold. Usually, you go for an interview but the school has to provide you (and embassy) with needed information and forms (I believe I-20, etc). Everything need to be crossed checked multiple times over many levels. By the way, I meant "international" students in my previous comment and not "introduction".

I've asked this question from a university in U.S. and they provided me this answer:

This is probably do-able, but you would likely end up losing the
  deposit (if you made one) at the other institution.
Ethically, this might be a gray area. But that would be up to you to
  determine what you are comfortable with.

Another university said:

Yes, as long as you do withdraw from consideration to the other PhD
  program in March/April, then you would most certainly be eligible for
  our CS PhD program.

So I think however this is not very ethically a correct action but is not forbidden and those who have previously accepted an offer would have this chance to change their mind.

You are only allowed to accept admission at one university.  As soon as you do so, you should contact all other universities to which you applied, and tell them you have chosen another school and are withdrawing your application.
If you accept admission at University X, then withdraw it and accept admission at University Y instead in the same year, it's considered unethical behavior, and Y might rescind your admission if they find out.
Most US universities use coordinated acceptance deadlines, so you should know exactly which schools have admitted you before you have to choose one.

I think when visas are involved things go from being frowned upon to being impossible, if not illegal. For example, I don't know if you can have two I-20s at the same time.

I've come up with a new situation. If one of the offers is for Spring and the other one is for Fall, we are still forbidden from withdrawing our previous accepted offer, especially when our previous I-20 is issued? I've heard the universities may accept to repeal your last I-20 and issue a new one with the same SEVIS.

@user3070752: I don't know about visa rules so I am not addressing that part.  But I would say withdrawing to go to a different university is still inappropriate even if they start in different semesters, and rescinding admission could happen in that case as well.  Basically, the issue is that if you accept admission and later withdraw, it will probably be too late for the university to admit someone else in your place, so a seat is wasted and some other student loses an opportunity.

I don't see how unethical this is. Universities opt to have earlier deadlines because they want to attract better students and force them to accept an admission offer, they have to accept the risk. Be fair to students, they are choosing a place to stay for the next few years and the credentials follow them for the rest of their life.
The Universities can charge higher deposit fee if they want students commitment. They, instead, already find the right balance between a smaller deposit amount and having a waitlist. It's just business. No one is committing to anything here.


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What does it mean when a school asks for a missing GRE score that I submitted?
I am getting very anxious about being rejected from a PhD program in US school. I was told today that they did not receive my GRE score, which I definitely sent in.  I immediately replied back and sent the score back to them.
My question is:
Are they asking for my missing score because they are actually considering me as a potential candidate?
I know that the question is very silly and self-serving but I am so curious what you guys think because I have been losing sleep over this little thing.

Is it possible that they received the unofficial score from you, which is often accepted temporarily while waiting for the official score (sent by ETS directly to the schools you select) -- but then never received the official score from ETS? https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/scores/send/

I paid 27 dollars to send the score to the school so I don't think it's unofficial. I think something got lost somehow

If I were in your situation, I'd inform ETS that the school claims not to have received the score report that you paid for. If ETS is reasonable, they'll re-send the report to the school. (If they say something like "we sent it once and we won't send it again" then I'd forward that to the school.)

We can't really answer whether the school you sent is specifically considering you, but there are three main things that could cause them to ask for the score (regardless of how/why they said they don't have it). The key is to understand that graduate admissions (at least in the US) is a compound process involving the department and the graduate school.
In order of least encouraging to most encouraging (for your prospects):

The graduate school may have either a policy that they only pass on complete records and viewed yours as incomplete or the graduate school wants complete records for all applicants for book-keeping.
The department did not have the data and wants it before it begins evaluating applications at all. Good side = this would mean the department is looking at it. Bad side = some departments in some fields use a cut-off based on GRE scores to lop off the most unlikely candidates (obviously with exceptions mutatis mutandis)
The department and/or graduate school is making selections and needs to complete files before sending out offers. Slightly less positively maybe they need this as a tie-breaker to figure out the last candidate.

Obviously three would be great, but often the reasons for these queries are much more mundane.


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Deciding graduate school... easier way out or face the challenge?
I was accepted into two good MS programs and need to decide which one to attend next fall.
One program is at the school where I will be finishing my undergraduate degree. I am holding a student intern position and have been told that I could continue to work in the lab if I decide to go here. So it can be said that this decision will leave me within my comfort zone.
The other program is at a new school which is ranked higher. The graduates from the program seem to be doing well upon graduation, either pursuing a PhD degree or getting a job. However, I am still in the process of looking for a faculty adviser with whom I can possibly do a research with.
This process of looking for a research lab is much harder here, since most of the position requires a knowledge in the field that I do not currently have (I'm a CS going into Bioinformatics... with many of the labs requiring some specific biology background). With this decision, I will be facing multiple challenges.
My end goal is to apply for a PhD program at the end of my MS degree and I think having more research experience and publication will help when it comes to applying for programs. Should I stay at my current school where I can continue to work with a faculty advisor and graduate students? Which decision will benefit me more down the road?

Bioinformatician here... The specific biology knowledge usually comes with the task. The actual skill is to be able to pick up new knowledge of this kind quickly and not be afraid of asking stupid questions. I usually introduce myself to new collaborators telling them I will be asking lots of stupid biology questions. They generally like it, as it even sometimes gets them thinking. Otherwise, there is no way to tell you what is better for you. I studied at the same place I am now finishing my PhD in. There are pros and cons to it. Choose the decision you feel good with.

There is a lot of legwork you can do about the potential new department, that can help you decide.  You can start by looking it the faculty bios, then look over some of their technical writing.  See if any of them have any videotaped lectures or presentations.  Write an exploratory email to a couple that look promising.  You can arrange a phone appointment with one if it's going well through those preliminary steps.

I think having more research experience ... will help when it comes to applying for programs.

This statement answers your own question (in terms of what you believe). By choosing a new school you will inherently be exposed to more research methods and ways of working. While it won't be in your comfort zone and more difficult to find an adviser, you expand your horizons by meeting new people.

Which decision will benefit me more down the road?

A diverse education is often seen as a huge plus to universities when choosing their PhD candidates; especially if they are at prestigious universities. It shows that you can adjust and adapt to new environments. That being said, maybe a professor at your current university has a great connection to the school where you may want to get your PhD and you wish to leverage that connection? There may be a few reasons to stay, but by not going you risk missing out on countless unknown opportunities.


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Not invited for on-site interview after phone session
I had the chance to talk to two professors last week regarding admission to the PhD program. After I was done, I was told that I would be invited for an on-site interview, if admitted.
After not receiving any feedback from the school, I emailed them and found out that I was not invited to the interviews on the campus. Now they're just telling me to wait and I may be invited for another visit in the future.
This is a problem for me as I need to start looking for funds in another programs that I have been already admitted to (The one I am waiting on is my first choice).
What would be the best approach to handle this kind of situation?
Thanks.

Start looking for funds in another program.

I'm a bit confused about what you were told - they said you'd be invited to an on-site if you were admitted? This suggests that the on-site is something like a "visit day" for admitted students, and if you weren't invited then you are effectively on something like a "wait list" where you'll only potentially be offered a spot if other people decline their offer. But some programs do on-site interviews before admission offers at all, which would mean you didn't make their first short list. Either way, as you don't have an offer of admission you should certainly pursue other options.

They said decisions haven't been made for me yet. The phone interview was pretty much to determine who to invite for on-site interviews, or so I was told.

If you get confusing or mixed messages, it would probably be helpful to phone, if possible, or write another email in which you describe your confusion, asking for clarification.  It couldn't hurt to explain that this program is your first choice, and that you feel some moral obligation to let some other programs you have been accepted into know what your intentions are.

Assume you haven't been admitted yet, and act accordingly.

@JeffE Do you think it was a mistake to have mentioned that I want to eventually transition into an industry setting after some years in academia upon receiving PhD?

No, of course not.  It's always better to be honest than to lie your way into a program that's a bad match for your career goals.

Exactly what they told you to do: wait.  If you're at the point where you'll need to make an irreversible decision (like accepting an offer somewhere else), you can tell them that, and see if they react, but it doesn't seem to likely to me.  Otherwise, what's wrong with waiting?

The professor that I'm currently interning under have asked me what my plan will be for the summer and it would be in the best interest for me to reply as soon as possible since I have the possibility of studying under his guidance. But this is also not guaranteed.
Just a lot of unknowns that's throwing me off currently.

@AlwaysTrying44 Well, why are you asking us rather than that professor?  You aren't even explaining your situation clearly, so we really can't help you (what's the relationship between the summer and these Ph.D. programs?).  You can presumably explain the uncertainties of the situation to this professor, and either s/he will let the summer plans wait for a little while, or you'll have to make a decision.

Yeah, that's probably the best thing that I can do as of now. Thank you.


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Waiting Decision After Phone Interview (PhD)... Should I Email them?
I just recently did two phone interviews (one with the professor on the admission committee and the other with prospective PI) and was told that if I was offered admission, they would invite me for an on-site interview for sometime next week.
After the phone interview, I emailed the program coordinator at the department regarding when the admission decision will be made. She told me she would know by this morning (morning of the day I have written this post), yet I am still waiting to hear back from them.
Would it be okay to email them back to ask whether I was offered admission or not? Or should I just wait?
Thanks.

I'd generally suggest you wait at least 24-48 hours after the quoted time unless your need is particularly urgent for some reason, as it's naturally to be a little delayed in...well, any decision making scenario. "later that day" seems a little jumpy.

@BrianDHall I agree. Thank you for your input. I have exams lined up on the week of the on-site interview and thought I might ask. Since they really didn't specify when they would notify me, I guess I should just wait.


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Transitioning from MS to PhD - International Student
I will be enrolling in a Master's program for Biomedical Informatics next fall.
I already know the faculty member that I would like to be mentored by (working as a student intern with one of his graduate students). However, I was told that I will most likely be assigned another mentor upon starting the program.
Would it be best to work under a new faculty member while under MS program and attempt to transition into PhD later and talk with the professor that I would like as my mentor? Or would it be best to talk to the professor before starting the MS program about possibly having him as my mentor in the first place?
Thank you.
P.S. Also, what is the best way of approaching a professor about receiving support as in funding?

Question 1: give the target professor a try earlier rather than later; if s/he declines at this time, try to leave the door open for trying again later.  Question 2: just ask.  Professors are used to getting this question and it is perfectly fine to ask.

@aparente001 Okay thanks. I knew that the professors get the question of funding often, but I wanted to know if the approach would be any different for international students.

I see.  Well, I suppose there might be a bit of a complication because of possible visa issues, but if a professor wants to fund you, the university will try to help you with visa stuff.  Note that in the U.S. typically one applies for a teaching assistantship (the most common type of grad student funding) at the same time as submitting the application for admission.  In general I would say it never hurts to ask!

However, I was told that I will most likely be assigned another mentor upon starting the program.

Does this mean, you haven't yet corresponded with the professor you have in mind? If this is the case, why not write to him directly and express your interest in joining his group? You can also try to meet with him once you join the program. I would think that mentor assignments are not set in stone.

What is the best way of approaching a professor about receiving support as in funding?

Are you asking about seeking financial support from the professor you have in mind? If yes, write to him first to see if you can join his research group. If there is interest, the professor might let you know whether he could provide some support or not.
If you have more flexibility about to who you want to work with and/or the research area you want to be in, you can also write to the departmental graduate program coordinator and let him/her know your research interests and see if he/she can circulate your interests among the faculty working in those areas.


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Delayed meetings for research project
I just enrolled in my master's program and was fortunate enough to get into a lab.
After discussing research interest, I was offered to work on a project in collaboration with another lab. The first meeting was last week where I sat down with 2 professors to discuss the project.
I expected another meeting sometime this week (OP on Wednesday), but it's been pushed back to next Thursday. I understand this may be due to time conflicts or due to other matters.
Currently, I lack some of the domain knowledge required for the project and am trying to catch up in order to carry out the research. At what point should I start worrying about not being able to make progress on the project?
I personally would like to work on this project with decent results so that I can eventually transition over to PhD program.
Thank you.

Which time frame does the project have? Is it critical if the beginning of the project is moved by another week or two?

@daniel.neumann Professor in my lab told me it would be a great opportunity for me and could continue to work on it throughout my time as a master's student. My only concern is that due to professor's availability, the meetings will be hard to hold. So to answer your question, not really.

Delays happen regularly. That is nothing to worry about. Professors often have a high workload.
However, it is expected from a Master's student and especially a PhD student to be able to work independently. A single meeting with a professor should give you at least enough input to start working on the topic. That is, learn the fundamentals in this area, read papers (those of your professors would be a good starting point) and think about your own ideas.
That said, you might not be able to provide a perfect solution for the problem with the input you already have, but it is expected from you that you have at least something at the next meeting. Then approach your professor with something like

I have read your paper about how you applied method X to problem Y. Do you think it would be a good idea to apply method X to my problem, too? Do you have time for me next week to discuss this?

So, yes, you have to worry if you do not make any progress, especially if you have time constraints. But not being able to talk to your professor is nothing that should prevent you from making any progress in the meantime. At least you can get more familiar with the tools that save you time in the long run, for example LaTeX, Pandas or whatever you will need for your field of research.