text:
Can the university cut the notice period short?
I am negotiating a position at another university. I’m on a permanent contract and a UK university that states six months notice period on both sides.
This is fine by me since I have many loose ends I need to take care before leaving, work and family wise.
My question is: If I give notice to the university, can they cut the notice short? E.g., can they ask me to leave earlier? Or, are they obliged to respect the six months, even though I was the one giving notice?
I don't believe they will do that, because they need me to stay until they recruit someone else. However, it would be good to know that once I ”pull the trigger”, I have a six months buffer to settle everything. For obvious reasons, I don't want to make this question to HR.
The university policy on notice periods is very concise. It says that unless otherwise agreed in writing, the notice period corresponding to my grade and position is six months from the university and me.

Please add the relevant clauses of your contract to the question, verbatim.

Actually, don't add the contract here. If it is a matter of contract or of UK law then consult an expert, such as a lawyer. Actually, HR shouldn't be an adversary in a situation like this. If it is then you have bigger problems than you know.

@Ben I prefer not putting the verbatim text here. I've added the relevant text in the question.

It is not possible to provide legal advice on this matter without the text of your contract - I suggest you consult a lawyer.

@Ben, giving legal advice here is an improper use of the site.

I use the term "legal advice" very loosely here --- in any case, without relevant details, the question needs to be closed.  I see very little value in legal questions on this site, lacking basic contract details, and being answered by non-lawyers who have no idea what they're talking about.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because you need to see HR or a lawyer or both

My question wants to draw on the experience of other academics in the UK. Many of which have been in the same situation of moving between universities. I have asked the same question to a business forum in the UK where more legal aspects are concerned. However, I’ve found academia often works a bit differently.

@electrique I know an academic who wanted to leave and the uni said you have to work the 6 months. He left anyway after just 2 weeks and they did .............nothing. Why, because, for them, the poor publicity of them fighting him was not worth the loss of possible good people coming from industry into the department with "real" experience. However, I'm in no way suggesting you try that.

I suspect (but have no legal standing) that they are obligated to pay you through the notice period even if they ask you to leave early.
But it also seems like they still are bound by a six month notice period rather than suddenly getting a shorter one because of your action.
But suspect and seems are pretty dangerous to rely on from someone who is just speculating. And, no one here can give you legal advice even with full information. We can only guess and hope we are correct. But you are the one on the line here.
I worry, also, that you have an adversarial attitude about HR. I suspect (that word again) that they are legally obligated to give you proper advice. They probably don't require all of the details of your situation to do so.

A cooment above advises against giving legal advice...


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What is "target decision date" in sciencedirect-publishing journal?
According to the information retrieved from EVISE supporting agent, my revised submission was undergoing the second round of review. I have found out that both referees missed their target deadline (without any request for further extension).
The agent also tried to persuade that the submission will have final decision soon; (s)he called it as 'Target decision date'.
Here are the questions I would like to know:
1) Is it common that the reviewers returns their comments late?
2) Have anyone experienced 'Target decision date'?
Kindly regards,

It's pretty common for reviewers to be slow.

Unfortunately it is all too common for some reviewers to be delinquent in their manuscript returns. In particular in traditional academic publishers. Often reviewers are professors/researchers with multiple hats in academia including writing up their own research.  I would agree with the previous answer that a target decision date is a way for editors to try and push all reviewers to respond.
One example where the turnover is quick(er) is the highly structure online journals like Frontier or PLOS. In the former the turnover is ±14 days for most journals and article submission. The second review process is also around 14 days so all in all about 5-6 week turnaround depending on the quality of the manuscript.

The 'target decision date' is just the editors way of saying she hopes she can get you a final answer by then.
Editors have very little leverage over reviewers to make them return their reviews on time, or at all.  At this point, the editor is likely bugging the reviewers to turn their second round of reviews in. If the reviewers never reply to the editor, eventually she will either send the paper to different reviewers (who you will then have to wait to here back from) or just make a judgement call herself as to whether your revision satisfied the reviewers' critiques from the first round of reviews. Sometimes the review process can be really slow. A coworker of mine had a 300 day turn around between submission and publication on one of her recent papers.

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text:
How to find faculty hiring ads for US, Canada and Europe
I'm planning to apply to faculty (assistant professor) jobs. The process looks similar to graduate school applications. But I was wondering, are there easier ways to find position openings instead of going to each school's website one by one?
And a summary of the comments:

Talk to Advisors
Particular field-specific mailing list
Websites

Do you mean worldwide, or US, Canada, and Europe?

No site will list all jobs worldwide.  Only jobs that advertise on that site.  That said, there's the Chronicle for Higher Education for the US, and you may have more options if you specify a discipline (e.g., mathjobs for math jobs.)

I don't believe there is a single site. Where you can find job ads will depend on the field, country, and phase of the moon.

I just updated the question thanks

I've voting to reopen the question because it seeks ways of finding job applications in general, rather than specific websites.

In my field, the go-to resource would be a particular field-specific mailing list. It's also helpful to be on Twitter and follow researchers in the relevant areas.

@Dr_Hope Do you have an advisor or mentor? I would recommend asking them not only this, but also advice on how to conduct your job search and how to prepare your job materials. A lot of it will be specific to your research area and your situation. Good luck.

@lighthousekeeper I still think the question may be too broad to have good answers.  I would recommend specifying the type of job and picking a single geographic region.

@Kimball Counterexample I already gave in a comment: "In my field, the go-to resource would be a particular field-specific mailing list. It's also helpful to be on Twitter and follow researchers in the relevant areas.". This would allow OP to search for such mailing lists in their field and to check out Twitter. Also doesn't require to narrow down to a particular type of (faculty) job or region.

@Thomas Not totally true: some countries (e.g. France) have a centralized website which lists all the assistant professor / professor positions each year.

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text:
Early-stage recruitment as assistant professor in future at Caltech
In academia, usually we have to do postdocs before getting recruited as an assistant proffessor.
However, recently I've seen a spectacular exception who already got an offer for assistant professorship in a top university for the near future, while still being a PhD candidate. The Twitter news also received congratulations from many famous and productive professors, some of which had won Nobel prizes. Their success really inspires us who want to be like them. This young scientist indeed publishes well though not among the top of many talented PhDs or postdocs in their field in terms of citation of H-index.
So, what can we learn from their success? What's more important than publications and we can try to achieve?

I expect it is impossible to answer this question without understanding the work of this scientist and its context.  (Also, it's more common in engineering for folks to not do multiple postdocs.)

What is more important than publications? Not worrying about other people's successes (or failures) is one.

To add to my comment: I can think of several problems in my research area, all unknown and incomprehensible to non-mathematicians, where a grad student who publishes a single paper solving one of them and nothing else could get multiple offers for tenured positions.  A sufficiently good paper is worth 1000x or 1000000x an average paper.

@AlexanderWoo, probably tenure-track rather than tenured. Even Caltech would want to have a person go through a probationary period.

In many departments at top institutions, an assistant professorship may be very unlikely to lead to tenure.

The link was intentionally removed by a moderator, out of concern that is not appropriate to single out an individual in this way. Please avoid rolling back mod edits. If you disagree with the mod's action and want to discuss it, please open a post on [meta]. (The other revisions were fine, you can re-do those if you like).

Also, that Google Scholar link was full of misinformation.

Faculty hiring in the US, like graduate admissions, is broad based, not focused on any single number like citation counts. Caltech is a private institution giving them a bit of extra leeway in who they hire.
I suspect that someone there convinced a large group of faculty that this person would be an especially good fit for the future of the university and wanted to get to the front of the line of the offers. Note that she will, in fact, be doing something like a postdoc at another highly prestigious place.
I think that the most we can learn is (a) she is exceptional in some way that we might not see and (b) exceptions are accounted for in the hiring process. It doesn't happen especially often, but it does.
There is a funny thing about citations. In order to cite a person you probably need to be somewhat close to their level, to understand and even extend their work. For a few people there are few peers capable of that, making citation counts a poor measure of the quality of the work. I can't say that is the case here (not my field), but I recognize the possibility. A "ground breaker" will change a field (read Einstein) but it will take a while before the mass of researchers catch up to the implications of some research.

I'd say they are quite well cited for a graduating PhD already, and in a hot and important field. Well deserved for them. Although I did vote to close as too personal...


text:
Is it possible that I can get a Duke University user account to access math videos?
I am an independent student of math and want to use many interesting video courses. Unfortunately the math video courses of Duke university are unavailable for others. So I want to know

Is there any way to access these courses or is it possible that to get a temporary (and free) user account from Duke University?

Ask Duke, of course.

They may not give you free access - perhaps this is material they don’t want in the public domain.

Welcome to Academia.SE. For future questions, I'd encourage you to ask your question in a somewhat more general fashion. Questions about particular universities' processes are off topic here; but questions about academic customs, or about whom at universities to contact, are often on topic.

Ok, thank you @academic.

As a commentor wrote, "ask Duke". In practice, that means the following.
Note from the URL that the page is maintained by the math department. If you can, try to figure out who specifically is maintaining the webpage (i.e., a person's name), and contact them. Otherwise, I'd recommend writing to anyone in a position of responsilibity in their math department -- say, the graduate director. Tell them that you are interested in watching their videos, and ask if there's any way you could be permitted to do so.
The most likely outcome is either that they say no, or that you get no response at all -- but in my estimation it's okay to ask, and they might say yes.

The suggestion to ask Duke is correct, but the most likely outcome is that they will not give you access (or not respond at all). There are two things that are probably more likely to work:

Ask the creator(s) of the videos. Reaching out directly to the creators of the videos is more likely to get a response than asking some administrator at the university. The creator is probably passionate about what they have made, and if they have the ability to share the videos with you directly, they may do so. (Be sure to state your qualifications and be polite, for maximum chances of getting a response.)
Ask a student at Duke, either someone you know or in an online forum. Be aware that it may not be allowed for them to share with you.

If it fails, fortunately, there are many other places on the internet with online learning resources that you can look into. I would not get to disheartened if this particular resource is beyond your reach.


text:
How to respond to receiving a duplicate list of corrections
Two weeks ago I have done and I have submitted the corrections that a journal had asked me to do, but today thay asked me to do the same corrections. I am looking for a good letter cover to let them know.

Perhaps the new version didn't arrive or they lost it. Perhaps the editor clicked the wrong link and sent you the wrong response. Write back that you made those corrections and sent them on date. Include a fresh copy of the new document. Ask for instructions on how to proceed if there is any difficulty.
I suspect it is just a simple error. Make a simple and friendly response.

Keep it brief and don't overthink it. Do not go on and on to apologize, ask for what you have done wrong, etc., when it is mostly likely that this can be attributed to a simple mistake.
I agree with Buffy's suggestion; something like this seems appropriate:

Dear [editor],
We previously addressed the corrections to our article, and emailed them to [address] on [date] (see attached). Were you able to receive the corrections? Is there anything else that we can provide at this time?
Thank you,
[your name]


text:
Asking to review my research paper
I recently wrote a research paper and want to submit it to a journal but as I wrote it on my own and it's my first paper, I would like someone (a faculty member or a PhD student) to review my paper and in exchange I offer them an authorship. How do I approach faculty members and have them do so?

Are you a student somewhere? If so, at what level?

Yes. I'm finishing the last semester of may bachelor's.

Ask one of your profs you have a good reputation with. Or do you know phd students or similar? Ask them!

giving your results for some unknown person may cause you some trouble... What is your plan if they claim it is their own results? You might be able to prove it but it is a headache.. Look for some one whom you can trust.. Btw, what is that ``sensitive" research topic?

Another way is, go to the appropriate stackexchange/overflow site and ask a question about status of your problem.. No need to tell them you have solved it.. Just post a question.. Wait for response... If it is not known already, you will get more attention.. Then, ask some one who commented on your question (look if they have good reputation, though this alone does not guarantee anything) if they want to discuss something on emai..

Now it is 2 years later (and Buffy bumped the question to the top).  Can you tell us what happened?

I think it is pretty hard to make a blind contact and get any positive response. I suggest that your first step should be to contact a professor at your university for advice. Perhaps they are willing to do it themselves, since they have some relationship with you. But you can also ask them for advice as to who might be a good person to do it. If you don't want it done locally, say that you are looking for outside advice. Professors normally have a wide circle of contacts.
The best thing is for such a professor to make the request on your behalf rather than having you make it directly. It is harder to turn down a request from a colleague than from an unknown student.
But don't offer "authorship" for a review. Many people (most?) consider that improper. Authorship should only come if the project is not yet complete and you are seeking collaboration on finishing. If the request comes from another professor it shouldn't be expected in any case. It is just a favor that academics do for one another.

Thank you for your great advice but as my research topic is somehow sensitive, my advisor is not that willing to help me out.

It needn't be your advisor, and you don't need to ask the local professor for the review. You want external advice, I think. But the professor should be someone with whom you have a good relationship.

@Hooman  -- your comment raises many red flags.  If your advisor considers your research "sensitive" for any reason, and you know this it is certainly your responsibility to talk to your advisor and find out why.  It may be 100% inappropriate to publish what you're trying to publish.

@Hooman in addition to Scoutt Seidman's comment, presumably your advisor is an author of the paper (if they aren't, them not being an advisor is another red flag, since undergraduates are unlikely to be able to write research-grade papers alone). If they are an author, then they probably should be involved in writing and reviewing it.


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How can teaching staff improve a passive student group?
I have been assigned to a section of student where I am teaching probabilistic models. From the starting day itself, I feel something strange is happening in the class. For example:

I like to have two-way communication inside the class. i.e. I prefer to have some sort of active discussions. However, the students do not respond at all.
Given the above point, I initially thought that it was my fault that they are not finding my teaching interesting. But, I sat with them in other courses which they are taking. It is the same. It sounds strange, but, it is.
I can't say they are lazy (c.f. How to deal with lazy students?) because they are doing something else in class. Some are busy coding, some are reading research articles, some are doing something else. Out of 40 students, only ~5 students are interacting.
I can't throw them out of the class, as it is against the university rules.

Due to the above reasons, I (and a few other faculty members) do not feel interested in teaching these students.
How can we improve the class environment, given the passiveness of these students?

Notice that not all the students like a two-way communication. When I was a student, I've always found annoying the professors who wanted us to communicate. I really didn't like interactive lectures, and I'd skip them. Leave me alone, especially in early morning ;-)

There still remains the likelihood that none of the teaching is interesting, yours included. You have not excluded that possibility just by watching them act the same way in other classes.

+1. I talked with two of these active guys from my section and it quite matches with your comment. The class is in the evening. (Playing time for young guys) @MassimoOrtolano

Some are busy in coding, some are reading research articles, some are doing something else.

I have seen (and participated in) this exact behaviour in classes that are minor and irrelevant to the study path students take. This might be an Ecology class for Physics majors, or a Science class for Language majors. Thus, step 1 is to understand students' motivations behind taking your class. If your students only take classes because some governing body requires them to, you have little room to improve their motivation.
To find if this is the case, try asking the students: either directly or by collecting an anonymous poll with 'What is your motivation for this course?' question. If the answers indicate that their motivation is external, adapt.
One strategy I can think of is changing the lectures to project work, literally making the students learn on their own. However, what to do with students who only have external motivation is a separate question.
EDIT: since the students seem to be taking the class for the sake of a good transcript, they will not interact with you in the lectures. Their goal is to sit through the lecture, "nine-to-five", and minimize the effort, subject to reaching a passing grade. (Ironically, students are good at solving these kinds of optimization problems.) My advice still holds: if a student is given a project to work on, be it a program, a research report, an essay, a survey, you name it, he has much less space to slack than in a lecture.

+1.  Yes. I have asked about the motivation behind taking this course. The answer is we just need a fascinating course name on the transcript. This is horrible answer by few students, but it is a bitter truth.

@Coder I've edited the answer accordingly. You also may consider changing the course name next year to a less fascinating name.

@Coder Actually, a fascinating answer. I would take it with humour. Richard Feynman once wanted to give a specialised seminar without it being inundated with uninitiated audience just eager to see him. So, he invented a boring seminar name, and a dull professor's name and then appeared saying that that professor became ill and he (Feynman) was there to replace him. (The organisers got in trouble later for not making a wider announcement, but the seminar was obviously as meaningful as it was supposed to be). Sometimes, underselling is the secret to overtaking.

In my opinion, there has been a general (but not universal!) downward trend in student engagement and participation in classes in recent years.  In other words, I see more passivity these days than previously.  I'll skip the analysis and get to the brainstorming.  (You may have tried some of these ideas already.)

Incorporate a small participation component (no more than 10%) into your grading scheme.  (If you do this, (a) make it clear in the syllabus and remind students of this occasionally -- but don't drive it into the ground; and (b) make sure you do it consistently by making notes right after class, and during class if need be.)
For students who are not comfortable participating in a spontaneous way in class, provide alternatives.  Examples: online class discussions, asking students to peer review each others' drafts, some "journal" type responses to thought questions.  Note that a shy student who doesn't feel comfortable sharing his or her response with the whole class will still be able to participate in this, by sending the response to you individually.  Or you could have them participate electronically using a randomly assigned ID.  You have to design and test the questions carefully so that it's clear what you're asking, so that there is no one right answer, and so that the desired length and scope are clear (and fit the question comfortably).  Perhaps I am making this sound daunting.  It need not be if you are collecting feedback in a regular way without getting on the students' nerves about it (see bullet point at end of list).
Encourage the students to interact more with each other.  I think this is more important than eliciting a particular type of response to something you say in class.  Again, this peer interaction need not be in class, and it need not be by speaking.  You could be a facilitator of group discussion sessions (maybe 15 minutes per class once a week).  If necessary, to break the ice initially, you could pose a topic of discussion that is not directly relevant to your subject -- just to help them over the hump.  Using name tags with a fat magic marker so they are easily readable, for the first few classes, can be helpful.
Include information in your course about how your subject matter can be applied, and how it can be relevant on the job.
Explicitly encourage some assignments to be worked on in small groups.  Don't wait until the last month of classes to give this type of assignment, because one of the purposes of this should be to facilitate the forming of study groups.  Work a little bit directly with each working group, to make sure that each of your students is getting plugged into a group in a comfortable, functional way.
Allow and encourage humor in your class.  Ask students to contribute a favorite funny math or science cartoon or short video clip, and project the best once a week.
You wrote, "I have asked about the motivation behind taking this course," but apparently you didn't get helpful information back.  Try, instead, asking each student to give you a short info sheet about him or herself, including how the course fits into his or her academic goals.  You could ask, for example, "What sort of learning style works best for you?  What was your favorite class you've ever taken, and why?  What was the worst, and why?"  Explain that they don't need to write long answers to these questions (so you don't get on their nerves with what may seem like unnecessary, tangential work).
Think carefully about what you expect students to do while you are lecturing.  Copy notes from board verbatim?  Sit and watch the slides go by? Jot down additional notes on a powerpoint hand-out?  Sit and watch the slides go by on their own laptops while you stand at the front of the room talking about the slides?  Work the sample problems with you, trying to anticipate what the next step is?  Look at a proposed proof you are displaying, to discover its strengths and weaknesses?  Make up a problem of a certain type, for one or more classmates to try to solve?  In other words, are they being set up for a passive role right from the start?
Observe other classes, perhaps in some other departments and institutions, to collect intriguing techniques and approaches.
Don't wait until the end of the semester to collect constructive feedback.  You can ask simple, quick feedback questions at multiple points in the semester.  Make sure students are comfortable doing this in an anonymous way, for example with an electronic tool that guarantees anonymity, or by asking a friend or colleague to step into your class (while you step out) for the last 5 or 10 minutes of class on the days you do one of these feedback questionnaires.  (If your class is very small, and handwriting can be easily recognized, definitely go the electronic route.)

Keep in mind that human interaction is something like a seesaw.  When you are overfunctioning, it is natural for the other party to underfunction.  You may need to bring your own tone down, and be a bit less entertaining, in order to allow the others' personalities to come through.  I have no idea whether you are coming on too strong and making some students uncomfortable in this way!  To find out, ask a trusted colleague, friend or grad student to sit in on a class to provide feedback.

+1. Very nicely explained on the possible approaches. I would try. Thank you.

Your question sounds like you're expecting a silver bullet answer which will magically change your class the way you want it. It is unlikely to happen this way. To change the way the class behaves, you need to understand the reasons of their current behavior. Your first step - to observe them sitting other lectures - was a good one. But you need to take it further, and really dig out the reason(s) behind it.
You can consider checking with your colleagues on the history of this particular group. Were they always behaving like this? Or someone or something pushed them off suddenly? It may take a single lecturer to dramatically demotivate a class, e.g. by giving an appalling and negative feedback to most students.
You can consider talking to them, explaining why the current situation makes it difficult for you to enjoy time with them. You can do it directly or through students' representatives or anonymous email/post. You can ask student support team to step in and help to mediate the case.
Some cohorts are difficult, but honest and open communication is often a key to fix it (at least to an extent). Remember, you are not teaching subject, you are teaching people - so focus on them.

+1 for giving an idea about the negative feedback concept. I shall try it sooner.

@MassimoOrtolano is right.
Not everybody likes to be put on the spot in a lecture. Students may prefer offline studying. Myself, I used to sometimes be "in the interaction zone" during lecture, but sometimes not, and reading post hoc or even only when the exercises/homework loomed. Very variable, depending on mood, energy, etc.
Do they do well? If yes, that's what you want. Don't assume that one size fits all. Frankly, if you want them to interact, don't blame students for passiveness, but wonder what's wrong with your lecture (which may or may not be the case).
Are you too fast? Too slow? Both will kill interaction. And, sometimes, you simply cannot do anything.
I have generally high interaction levels, but I've had cases where nothing I did made a difference. Well, that's that. Find out whether it's you - and adapt your energy; if it isn't, cut your losses and do your honest best, and accept that, at some point, it's the students responsibility to match your investment.

I have never had this issue, although I do fear that it'll come to me one day. I have nothing but personal experiences to offer (I have never been big on teaching methods) but here goes.
I think the most important is to establish some sort of rapport between you and the students. I generally do this by talking about some concepts that the students don't expect me to know. For example, I know that I sound ridiculous when I do it, but I intentionally use a generous amount of slangs in my teaching. For example, I'll say things like, "Hey, let's integrate the freak out of this function, because like, YOLO." (For the record, I'm at a great R1 school, ranked very very high for pretty much every area).
First of all, they find it amusing that a "grownup" is trying so hard to fit in. Secondly, because it's pathetically funny (I'd love to be naturally funny, but that's not something that I can change easily) they actually want to listen, in case they miss some hilarious moment. Thirdly, it makes me almost one of them, so they feel better about confiding in me their weaknesses, so if they're stuck or confused, they'll actually interrupt me and ask.
This method has its downsides, because some class clowns feel the need to interrupt when they have something funny to say. But you learn to deal with it (eg. "Thanks for that input, but now I'm going to show you that math is even funnier than that.")
But if the students are downright ignoring you and doing their own things, and if it repeats for multiple sections, then there is a clear problem in your teaching method, and I think that you need to find things to entertain your students. If it's just that one section, however, maybe you just got unlucky with the student lottery, and you do your best and bear with them for a semester. Good luck!

+1. Right. I am usually somewhat amusing inside class, I guess. Thanks.

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text:
Should a lecturer be friendly with students?
I have been thinking about this question for a while and did a few googling here and there; but, didn't get anything good. Probably, academia could help.
I am early in my teaching career as a lecturer (I am just 25 now) and also working towards my PhD.
My classes are very interactive and I sometimes become very friendly with my students. Sometimes, I make difficult theory so simple for them to understand in their own language or sense. Maybe that is good for students. However, it kills a lot of my time inside the class.
Sometimes, I can feel that students are trying to take undue advantages of this friendly behavior of mine. They try to become very frank when the papers are evaluated. They just sometimes make my time horrible so that they get a better mark than they deserve. Is it the outcome of my style of teaching?
In general, should a young lecturer be friendly with his/her students, either inside a class or outside of class?
I have felt that here students are more focused on grades than learning something new. (I am making it generalized; however, ratio-wise it is true)

Some of the material in the following answer may be helpful for you: http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/77988/32436

Be friendly with your students (treat other people the way you would want to be treated in their position) but don't try to be their friends (in fact, try not to be their friends) - there is a difference between those two things.  If you are involved in assessment, you need to remain objective and be seen to be objective in your assessments.

Krantz in How to Teach Mathematics does actually want to become friends with his students (Sec. 3.1, Breaking the Ice):

Since I so enjoy a class once we have all become friends, I find the
  period of tooling up to that happy steady state generally too long and
  too painful. What usually happens is that there is a period of two to
  five weeks during which the students look at me as though I am from
  Mars... You should consider ways to make yourself seem like a human
  being to your students... Find some way to open up to your students so
  that they will open up to you... My view is that you should show
  students from day one that you are a person, and that you are going to
  spend the term doing your best to communicate with them.

But elsewhere gives this warning (Section 2.10, Grading):

You do not want to develop the reputation among students as an
  instructor with whom grades can be negotiated. I've had this rep, and
  I don't know how I got it... This process is unpleasant and (can be)
  degrading both for you and the student. Doing a careful job of grading
  in the first place, and posting carefully written solutions for
  students to see, can help to assuage much of student discomfort with
  grades.

Now, Krantz is a teacher "of long experience" (Sec. 3.1), and I can see this being interpreted differently/incorrectly if you are close in age to your students. Also, this will vary based on your institution and quality/maturity of students that you're getting. In my experience at community colleges, the strategy I was forced to start using early on was to be relatively strict at the start of the semester (adamantly not allowing any bit of variation from the course policies when students test them), and then becoming a bit more flexible and friendly later in the semester.
Added: More Krantz (Section 5.9, Begging and Pleading):

It really is true that if you look and/or act like a student then
  students will find you more approachable. They will more readily come
  to you with propositions that they wouldn't consider broaching with a
  more wizened (or older) faculty member. In short, younger faculty are
  more vulnerable. This is one reason for dressing differently from
  students and maintaining a slight distance. Again, this may sound
  cold. But I speak here from hard personal experience.

Your experience which you shared last will be very helpful to me. Thanks for the post. Next semester i should try. (+1)

+1 As a now wizened faculty member, the last quote is true, but the converse is also true, which is that students become less and less willing to talk to you or ask questions which makes it difficult to give them help when they need it and this negatively impacts their leaning.  However, there is nothing you can really do about becoming older, but it becomes more important not to do things that might reinforce the (incorrect) impression that you are some kind of ogre.  I suspect a lot of faculty become kinder with age rather than more harsh.

There is certainly nothing wrong with being friendly with students; all other things being equal, it is desirable to do so.  However, it is important to ensure the being friendly does not detract from your authority and objectivity as a teacher/assessor of their work.
In regards to reviewing marking of assessment, you should make it clear to students that you are open to considering questions/objections on your marking, but once those questions/objections are made, you will make a professional judgment and decide on an appropriate response (including the possibility that there is no change in marks).  Frank objections to your marking are fine, but frankness is a two-way street --- you are the subject-matter expert here, not them.  In terms of process, you should correct your marking if you genuinely believe you did it wrongly (i.e., if the student gives a convincing explanation of a problem with the mark), but you should not allow yourself to be brow-beaten into raising marks simply because a student is upset, or unreasonably persistent.  Listen to their explanation, make a professional judgment on its merit, and respond in a calm but firm manner.  If the student seeks to persistently argue the point ---beyond what is reasonable--- you can calmly state that you are not convinced by their explanation and you do not propose to change the marks you have allocated.  In the rare case where a student escalates to the point of rudeness, you should try to remain calm and friendly, but let them know they need to take it down a notch.
As a secondary point, take note of the laws of economics: if you incentivise students being horrible to you (by rewarding this with unwarranted increases in marks) then they will respond to this incentive by increasing the supply of horribleness.  If you allow students to argue with you in a belligerent manner, and do nothing to draw attention to this, they will hold steady the supply of belligerence.
Now, since you're only twenty-five, you're not that much older than the students you are teaching.  This is inherently going to mean that you have more in common with them, you may be seen as more approachable/soft, and you are more likely to be seen as a friendly figure with less authority.  (And indeed, since you are junior, you probably do have less authority than the senior professors.)  That comes with benefits and drawbacks.  I recommend you try to maintain your instinct for friendliness, but ensure that you maintain professional objectivity and authority.

"However, it is important to ensure the being friendly does not detract from your authority" --- well, that's the main problem. There seems to be a trade-off between friendship and authority, isn't it?

@Dilworth: There can be a trade-off in some cases, but I don't think it's an inherent trade-off.  If the OP practices some of the methods suggested in the answer then they will be able to maintain authority without detracting from being friendly.

I started as a TA/lecturer before I was 21 and several hundreds of students passed through my classes before I graduated myself.  Most of the students studied in the same program as I did, and a few of them were senior to me.  My job was made easier by the vast majority of us being there voluntarily to learn new things rather than anybody looking for easy credits or good grades.
I think that every teacher of any level of experience will do well, at least in technical or scientific disciplines, if they objectivize their grading as much as they can.  I will share some tips for how to do that.

Make sure that each assignment consists of several independent subtasks, each one with a defined number of maximum points.
No single subtask should dominate the entire assignment or the entire coursework in importance.
Different subtasks should generally be oriented toward different key skills that are the critical output of your course.  You should know, for each task, what you are testing.
Formulate the question so that it is impossible to answer it honestly and well without proving some degree of the respective key skill(s).  Avoid trap questions, avoid ambiguous or open-ended questions, but also avoid questions with simple, guessable answers, or questions chatty enough to allow vague or evasive answers.
Create a detailed rubric for each task, at least in your head.
If you have to (or want to) grade any form of creativity, make sure that a creativity-impaired but technically excellent and diligent student can still get an "A" while having 0 points for creativity.  If you are amazed by a solution superior to yours, that's fine: feel free to even tell the student that you bow before their solution, but don't let your momentary emotions or your gratitude for whatever you just learned get in the way of methodical, level-headed grading.
Make the total score be a simple sum of all the subscores.
If you have any wiggle room in how the total scores translate to grades (e.g., when teaching the course for the first time with no prior calibration of the available tests), prefer placing the thresholds so that the tiniest fraction points cannot carry anyone into a higher grade.

Building a grading rubric doesn't necessarily mean that you publish the ultra-detailed rubric, or even that you publish any particular questions as part of your course objectives.  It however means that you go out of your way to grade consistently in all senses of the word.  Tips for that:

Evaluate everyone's task #1 before you start even looking at everyone's task #2 and so on.  That is, be guided by the matter being tested and not by the student personalities.
Read everyone's task #1 twice.  During the first pass, build a catalog of the typical partial or wrong or not-quite-expected types of solutions.  Make up your mind as to how they compare to each other on the merits of the skills demonstrated and on whatever ambiguities you detect in how the task (question) was formulated.  During the second pass, award the points mechanically.
Treat each task positively: do not subtract any points for errors, especially not for errors in "volunteered" side explanations; instead, fail to award any points for partial skills that an imperfect solution failed to demonstrate.  This is important so that verbose and minimalistic solutions can be compared to each other fairly, and also so that you focus on what you wanted to test and don't get drawn into students' unique personalities or into their momentary brain fog.
Be ready to learn new things as you grade student papers and research everything that's non-standard but that might be somehow valid and demonstrating the required skills anyway.

It's more important that you will understand and believe in your own grading methodology than that you would follow each and every tip above.  The more you tie your own hands as far as grading goes, the more freedom you will have to act friendly in every classroom context other than grading.

I agree with most of your recommendations, but I think that the rule
"do not subtract any points for errors" is too strict. There are
tasks where purely "positive grading" does not work well.
Imagine a language exam, where students are required to write
a text in a foreign language.
There is an almost unbounded number of grammatical errors that
a student might make.
You just can't award points for every error they did not make
("they used the correct noun, then they used the correct article,
then they used the correct plural marker, then they used the correct tense,
etc."). ...

... Your only choice is to deduct points for errors they did make. In many cases, the result is "positive/negative grading": one awards points for some major subtasks, but deducts a small number of points for minor mistakes.

@Uwe - If the test is not meant to be a foreign language test, I would not discriminate based on language skills.

If it is... I would make sure that the unstructured, free form part of the test is as small (points wise) as practical, and that even then, I'd have a rubric for it.  X points for getting a point across unambiguously, Y points for easy to decode, Z points for whatever level of advanced grammar use is expected (if students know this is a req!), W points for vocabulary choice, V points for basic grammar and spelling, zero points for creativity.  Each of V, W, X, Y, Z is, ideally, positively defined, but, more importantly, they are to be evaluated independently of each other.  They are skills.

I am more or less the same with you. I am in my thirties however the majority of our master program is taken either by professionals or by students who are doing a second master program, so in general I am around the same age as my students.
I maintain my distance all the way. I rarely use names to address people for example, always Sir/Madame and formal you (this would probably sound very awkward in English, but it is not so much in French). This keeps me relatively unbiased during the evaluation of assignments, and grading.
The distance is not so wide to keep students from approaching when there is a problem with an assignment or a deadline, or from frictions when they thought they got a grade that they did not deserve. They feel this not due to my relationship with them, but due to my teaching style and general pedagogical approach.
I would say keep your relationship with students as formal as possible, and keep the teaching as pedagogical as possible. Your time is better spent not managing their feelings, but making the course better.

I agree broadly with the other answers. Friendliness is generally a good thing between human beings and I don't see anything wrong with it.
There is in my view no contradiction between friendliness and setting borders. Your interaction with students needs to respect the basic conditions of university and scientific culture, part of which is that the students submit work on which they are marked and you mark them, which constitutes a basic asymmetry. Furthermore part of academic culture is the ideal of objectivity, which includes impartiality assessing the students' work.
What I can offer here that isn't yet mentioned in other answers is my own attitude to this. I try to be very explicit to the students regarding the fact that when marking their work I have to try to be as impartial as possible, and it is actually a service to them to give low marks to work that isn't good, because it will (a) mean that good work stands out more, and (b) that the standard of the profession/subject is held up, which is essential regarding their later careers and potentially reputation. This also means that any explanation of personal circumstances does not have implications on the marking of the work (unless this is officially acknowledged through the university's procedures of dealing with extenuating circumstances - this is a supposedly objective procedure, and it for sure shouldn't depend on whether individual lecturers are more or less nice). So when it comes to marking I don't want to hear anything like their hamster died or "I really need to pass this exam now because I have a conditional offer for postgraduate study at university X which is my childhood dream" or "I can offer to do some additional work for you or let's do an oral so that you see I really deserve more marks" (this eats into my time as a lecturer, thank you very much).
I tell them (and myself) that it is in direct contradiction to this culture to give any advantage to students based on their efforts to convince me to change their marks, and therefore, in order to give equal treatment to students who do not contest their marks I'm rather determined to not let any later personal discussion have influence on my marking, with the exception of rectifying mistakes that I made (as I'm not perfect).
To discipline myself I tend to take this as a game, which I win if I manage to not be influenced by any discussion/exchange with students (other than them pointing out mistakes). In fact, being the nice person I am (I hope! ;-)), I think I need to have this game with myself and celebrate myself a bit for managing to uphold these standards. It helps to remind me in each of these discussions (of which there are not that many - seems that the students by and large get the message) to set my border despite a potential tendency to want to make them happy, for which there is no place when marking.
Oh, and by the way, another consideration that can motivate you to keep up these borders is that from time to time I hear that students laugh and talk disrespectfully about lecturers who too easily give out undeserved marks - they may well respect you more if you don't do that even though they won't show you this of course.

+1. Thank you for the answer. I wasn't expecting this question to attract so much attention recently, given I asked it 8 years ago, and of course, I have grown so much more in these years (and a bit wiser, I hope!)


text:
Is my potential phd supervisor ethical?
I am an international student from an Asian country. I recently emailed one PhD supervisor at a well-ranked university in London with my CV attached to see if there are any PhD opportunities for me. The supervisor replied to me very quickly and invited me to have a Skype conversation with her.
She only asked about my research interests but nothing else during the Skype chat , which I actually considered as an informal interview (she even didn’t introduce her lab to me). After the Skype chat, she asked me to write my own proposal and proceed with the formal application, which made me to think at least she was happy with my application. After that, I drafted a few research ideas and sent them to her. She finally agreed with the ideas and edited the proposal for me for a few times.
From sending her the first email to finishing the research proposal, it took me around three months. We had more than 20 emails and one more Skype chat during that time. As it was an extremely complicated and tiring process, I think the reason why she continued to help me with the proposal was because she wanted to take me as a student. Otherwise, she can say no in any stages during this process.
The requirement of the university is to have a formal interview for all prospective phd student. The interviewer was the phd supervisor. However, I was rejected by her after the formal interview, which I couldn’t understand at all. If you want to reject me, why did you spend so much time on me and give me false hope? I just think this is not very ethical, as if you said no earlier, I would have had chances of finding other supervisors in the same university (I really wanted to get into this uni, the supervisor was actually less important).
So I am wondering here how you think about this supervisor (i.e why she rejected me in the end while writing the proposal with me during the past three months) and if this is normal in Western/UK culture?

No, it is not normal.  Did you ask her for an explanation?  Could something have happened which was outside the supervisor's control?

In her rejection email, she said the reason was because I didn’t understand some basic concepts in conducting an experiment, such as alternative hypothesis. Firstly, I didn’t remember that was part of the interview questions. Secondly, even if I demonstrated some misunderstanding for that, I don’t think that’s a big deal, given that I have a lot of strengths in my application...

Almost certainly unethical. She may even be mining your ideas for her own research purposes. I call foul.

This is exactly what I am thinking now. Because she said the research idea I proposed was really good and her colleague wanted to get involved in this project. At that time I was so happy about this, as it was another sign that she wanted to take me as her student.....

@Xiao "I didn’t understand some basic concepts in conducting an experiment, such as alternative hypothesis."  That's a good reason to reject a PhD student if the PhD is in science.

Maybe it took her that long to realize that you were more interested in having shiny prestigious university name X listed on your CV than actually doing research with her (just like you stated at the end of your question!). That's a deal breaker in many cases because it's a huge pain to supervise students who are not motivated by the actual research but by secondary factors. "I really wanted to get into this uni, the supervisor was actually less important" says a lot...

I have been in a similar situation. As @Buffy said, in my case, it was exactly this: Ideas phishing. He hosted me to work for him for few months but asked me to give my own proposal if I want to work with him for Phd. I was a student in that uni. but not associated with a supervisor yet. After giving an original research gap, he said he like the idea but he will do it using his own methodology which he says (I am not expert in) and will take me too much time to learn. Who is supposed to be an expert before starting a Phd.? The rejection was at sudden in the last day!

I suppose alternative hypothesis is from statistics 101, which is a mandatory subject in most Chinese universities.  See binary hypothesis testing.

Here is another perspective: a professor offered you substantial help with your application and you end up complaining that they wasted your time. Trying to figure out whether you’d be a good fit, they discussed research with you  at length and help you draft a research proposal (which you hopefully use to improve your acceptance chances in other applications). After several days (or weeks) of discussion they decided that you’re ultimately not a good fit.
There can be a million reasons: another student was a better fit, funding was denied, research needs changed and so on. Rejection sucks, and I do sympathize, but it sounds like the professor went waaaaay out of their way to help a stranger; their reward? Getting trashed online for it.
Your lesson from this should be to not place all your chips on one advisor so to speak. When I interview candidates I implicitly assume they’ve applied to at least 10 other places and discussed their work with others. I had prospective students and research fellows rescind my offers after I had invested a ton of time and effort into getting them admitted. It sucks, but that’s life.
Edit: seeing the discussion in the comments regarding foul play, I don’t think that’s likely. While there might be a chance of that, think about it - why would anyone not want to hire someone who has great ideas? I don’t see the causal relation here. Coming into research with a non-cooperative mindset won’t help you in the future.

I have seen this pattern play out quite often, and there never was any foul play involved.
Two things to keep in mind here are: First, assessing someone's potential for doing a PhD in general, and fit with a particular supervisor, is difficult. Doing this based on a short proposal and a transcript from a university in a system you are not familiar with becomes near impossible. Second, taking on a PhD student is a huge commitment (at least in the UK). Just getting rid of a student if they underperform is rarely an option.
The prospective supervisor here gave the OP a chance to convince her of their suitability as a PhD candidate, and clearly invested significant effort into this. After the formal interview however she was still unconvinced, and thus did the right thing in rejecting the application. Rejecting a student you have invested significant time into, and interacted quite a bit, is not an easy thing to do - so while it might have been possible for the prospective supervisor to reject already after 18 emails exchanged, I really can't fault her for wanting to give OP yet another chance.

It doesn't matter what we think about this person. We are not their judges. You will meet many people who act extremly unethical (and get very far in their career by this strategy). The best for you is to forget this person and move on with your life -- this case is just over and you cannot do anything about this. Don't get unhappy by constantly thinking about some toxic person. Talk to some friends and make sure you get mental support from them.
If there was a bit of useful critism (you mention something about some hypothesis), take this to your heart and if you come into a similar situation, try to learn from these thinfs (e. g. find out to effectively communicate your knowledge about those hypothesis).
While there is a lot of unethical behaviour in academia, for what it's worth, this kind of behaviour I've never ever seen before.

Thanks for your suggestions! I will move on and also learn from this in my future applications!

I find this a rather unhelpful answer. All the answer is saying "that person acted unethically, get over it".

And that's the only important thing for the OP. Life is full of bad people, don't get a victim of them.

It doesn’t answer the question, just says what to do if there’s unethical behavior, and offers no support to the hypothesis of unethical behavior

Yes, the story as related by you reflects poorly on the person. But there are details missing, such as where the funding would be coming from. As an academic, I've often poured time and effort into a prospective student who had indicated that they would be self-funding or able to secure funding, which then turned out to be false. If it was going to be up to the supervisor, her likelihood of securing the funding should have been discussed: was she sitting on some money, would she have to apply and if so, within the institute or outside of it? All of which shifts the balance. (BTW many academics habitually exaggerate their ability access money.) This should have been discussed during the first conversation. Another matter that should have been brought up is what the formal requirements were going to be.


text:
How can lab equipment be transfered when the PI changes universities?
I've seen these answers:
Does equipment purchased with grants stay with the PI?
What happens to equipment purchased using a startup package after an academic leaves the university?
However, I want a little more detail on a legend that I've heard that if the new university is offering you start-up funds, then you can buy back your old stuff using the start-up funds at fair prices for used equipment. How does this get negotiated? Does this ever actually happen in practice, or is it a myth?
My lab has a lot off stuff that I've acquired over several years. Some of it I bought with start-up, some I bought with external grant funds, and some I bought with (eek!) my personal money. There are numerous things that I scavenged from other labs. Some of the stuff in my lab is old and somewhat broken (a laptop with a glitchy screen). If I were to get a position at another university, how does this stuff get sorted out?
I'm working at a US university and the new university would be in the US or Canada.


text:
Is Accepting others mistake wrong in acaemia?
I am a PhD student after the mid stage. I come to know a very strange thing about academia that acceptance is a bad thing. Let me define acceptance, many time i hear the statement of other collegues including my supervisor, research fellows etc. What happens that I always tried to accept their arguments even if they are wrong. If they are wrong, Instead of being harsh, I try to accept their argument then explain my argument. The problem arises due to this is that many times these people try to manuplate me. Like in TA work I listen to the person who comes to me (student) no as I am listening to him he starts thinking that I have not understood his statement, which is  not always the case.
In short I accept others mistake, errors etc, but when it comes to me that if i am wrong other people show their very rude behaviour. I don't Is this common in academia? What kind of person I should become the one who point out others mistake and make them realise that they are wrong or the one who accept others wrong things in a positive way?

I don't understand what you want from this. I don't understand what you mean by "accept". Accept as true and valid? Do you mean technical arguments or something else? Political? It might help to mention which field you are in.

@ Buffy. techinical arguments. Theoretical computer science.

What makes you sure that it is not you who is wrong?

@ Captain Emacs I don't always fight. I give more than 90 percent time.

@I_wil_break_wall That's not my question; I am not suggesting to back down if you are right (and on substantive matters, not trivia). My question is, how do you know that you are right?

If they are wrong, Instead of being harsh, I try to accept their argument then explain my argument.

I think the problem may be this false dichotomy.
Imagine a student comes to you and says "I think the Earth is flat because I went to the top of a tower in the midwest and everything looks flat."

One option (what it sounds like you're doing) is saying okay, that makes sense, but there is evidence the Earth is round -- satellites, circum-navigation experiences, etc.
Another option (what it sounds like you're complaining about) is saying no, that's not a good argument, the Earth is large enough that apparent flatness on the scale of ~50 miles does not imply that the entire 26,000 mile Earth is flat.

Of these, the second has a clear advantage, in that it actually addresses the actual reason the student is confused. Just telling the student how to do it properly is no more helpful than telling him to read the textbook; explaining where the student's thinking is incorrect is where you can be really helpful.
Of course, same goes for colleagues rather than students -- when dealing with a disagreement, you need to both defend your ideas and refute their ideas. Otherwise you're both just restating your positions and not actually resolving anything.
Now the reason I called this a false dichotomy is because there is no need to be harsh when refuting others' ideas. The best way is to ask leading questions so that the they realizes their mistake all on their own. Usually, doing this requires an excellent understanding of the subject matter. When dealing with colleagues on research topics, one may not have a strong enough understanding to do this gracefully, resulting in what seems like harshness (or one may just be a jerk).

One "problem" with academia is that it is full of smart people. Those people have a lot of ideas. Those people become attached to their own ideas. They want to defend those ideas.
Over time, this works out and the good ideas become generally accepted and the bad ideas fall to the ground.
My advice is not to try to fight every fight. If by "accept" you only mean not to vocally oppose, then sure, accept them. What this means is that you accept their right to be wrong. Bluster doesn't make their ideas any better, nor your arguments any more acceptable to them. Just let it go. The volume with which an argument is carried out normally has little relationship to the validity of the argument. This applies to you as well as to others.
For your own part, work on your own ideas and make sure that they are good ideas. But if you are given arguments against your ideas, evaluate the arguments, and don't just push back at the other person as if they are an attacker. Certainly don't be pedantic in arguing every small point. And note that there is a difference between being "clear in presenting evidence" and being "pedantic".
However, if you are in a place in which people don't act in a collegial manner and generally fight with one another, or fall into factions, find a better environment. Life is short and stress can kill you.


text:
What is "letter of intent"
I was applying for a post doc then come across one thing call letter of intent. What is letter of intent and How to make it. It is written that it is required.

How far into the process are you?

@ Buffy . I haven't started yet.

If you haven't yet started the process, then a letter of intent is probably just a notice that you intend to apply and when. If you are required to have a supervisor as part of the application process then you may need to indicate who you are working with to that end.
Late in the process it would be different, more likely an indication that you would accept an offer if it is made.
I don't think this is a common thing, however. Perhaps you should just ask the university or lab.

If you required to have a supervisor as part of.... Did you mean as postdoc or current supervisor.

I meant as a post-doc. Some places and fields might require this. I suspect that it would be less of an issue in something like math and more of one in, say, organic chemistry. And possibly more likely in EU, also. They may want to know who you intend to work with primarily. It would probably be good to state that if you know, even if it isn't a strict requirement.

Some grant proposals also have a "letter of intent" stage before proposal submission.  This allows the program managers to know how many proposals are likely to be submitted and recruit an appropriate number of reviewers without having to wait until the submission deadline to start recruiting reviewers.


text:
Supervisor with no expertise in the field
How feasible it is to be supervisored by a professor who doesn’t know the area? She told me it’s my research and she will only provide general research guidance.


text:
Can I ask a Master's paper reader to be a referee for Ph.D.?
I am applying for Ph.D. and am looking for a third referee. I was wondering if it is appropriate to ask a reader of my Master's paper? To be more specific, he was a post-doc at the time but since has earned a position at another university as Assistant Professor. He was not only one of the readers of my paper, but has seen me give a few seminars and knows me personally.
Any clarification on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

This is probably a question for your advisor and might depend on university rules.

For sure it may depend on the rules your university has, but if the referee can explain the occasions in which he could assess you (in your case seminars and thesis), and why he thinks you would be a good candidate, I do not see any problems in asking him.
The fact that he is now a professor (even if somewhere else) is only a plus.


text:
Do universities mind study delay when reviewing your application?
I have been getting good grades for the last 1.5 years for my bachelor (physics), therefore I have been considering applying to a more renowned university for my masters.
Lately, I have also put more work in my honours programme because I really, really enjoy it - and I want to keep putting my time in it. However, the last couple of months I have noticed that is quite stressful to maintain my standards for grades while also putting time in honours, friends, fraternity, girlfriend, ... - it is so stressful I get really bad headaches when I do not relax enough.
Therefore, I am considering to follow one course less per quartile so I have more time to do other stuff, but can still maintain the grades. This means I will take 3.5 years to complete my bachelor, compared to the normal 3 years it takes.
Thus, my question; do universities take into account your study delay when reviewing your application?

Admissions committees care primarily about your grades and only to a very small degree do they care about how long it takes you to graduate. People have all sorts of reasons to not graduate in the fastest possible time -- most importantly having financial needs many students need to satisfy by working while being a student.
So no, there is really no need to worry about a semester more or less. Worry about your grades :-)


text:
Impact on PhD application omitting a recommendation letter from research advisor in that field?
If an applicant has research experience in a field that they are applying to and includes it in their application, would there be negative impact on the application if they chose not to include a recommendation letter from their research advisor for that research experience?
The reasons that they don't may be misconstrued as negative, but it could just be that there are others who could give stronger letters of recommendation, for instance from other research advisors in another field or a teacher with whom the applicant had a very good relationship with. Would not including the research advisor as a recommender be cause for speculation?

Is there anybody else in that research field can write a strong recommendation letter for you?

While not necessarily a cause for concern, it does mean that you don't have a recommendation from someone in that area. This will make the application weaker than if there had been a recommendation.

It would likely be cause for speculation if the applicant is promoting their research experience but does not include a letter from their advisor. There may be inert reasons and it does happen (an advisor that is too busy or too aloof; on a leave for medical or other reasons). There are also cases where the applicant and advisor do not get along well, or where their interests are not aligned. In these cases it may be worth a direct conversation to find out if they would offer strong support for the position and if not then ask why not. The applicant may be surprised to learn that the advisor with whom she/he argues holds them in high regard. At the same time, the advisor may have useful input to offer that the applicant may wish to weigh as they decide on an educational and career trajectory.
That said, if no advisor letter is provided then the applicant should succinctly provide an explanation for why the given recommenders were chosen, and leave it at that unless pressed. If the applicant has a good relationship with another recommender, she/he might ask that recommender to include a supportive explanatory note in their letter.

I can only think on the applicant's PoV. I think I would be comfortable doing this if I have other good recommendation letters from perhaps more influential advisors. I don't think the field you specialize in in your undergrad study matters all that much in your application. It's good to have that experience but it's even better if you have good relation and leave good impressions on many advisors not limited to your field.
But if I spent a lot of time researching and somehow screwed up so that my advisor in my undergrad lab now hates me I would really think about how to approach this (more so if I have no one else to go to for letters). I can't say for sure but I think many advisors will still give you a decent letter even if they don't like you at all. After all an undergrad is a student who is expected to make mistakes.


text:
Is TOEFL minimum score strict in UK?
I recently gave TOEFL and got 99 with only 20 in writing. However the 6.5 equivalent of IELTS corresponds to minimum 23 in writing. Do I need to redo the test?

My experience is that students with minimum TOEFL scores tend to struggle a lot with their studies because of their lack of command of English.  The TOEFL is really a test to protect you from wasting time and tuition on going to a university where you can't learn because you don't understand the language of instruction well enough.  If your TOEFL score is marginal, I suggest you postpone going to university in the UK until you have improved your English, even if your TOEFL score meets the minimum requirements.

This will depend on what program you are applying to. If studying for a PhD there may be some flexibility depending on the supervisor and department for marginal cases. But even then it would be a risk if your English ability was not sufficient to produce a dissertation of acceptable quality and defend it in a viva. There probably isn't much flexibility for undergraduate/taught masters programs since a lack of English ability could be a major hinderance to successfully completing the program.

Depends on who is asking for it, and their regulations.
Ask them first. Some universities in the UK accepts only IELTS regardless of what else you have at hand. Others look at your overall experience, and ask for an IELTS only if they think your level may be not high enough.
Never heard of anyone asking for TOEFL in the UK, as it is an American test.


text:
What to look for in a postdoc job offer from UK university?
I got a postdoc job offer from a UK university. The job offer only contains the payment scale, which is grade 7, and an annual leave of 25 days, work hours. Nothing about notice to leave or sick leaves or anything.
What should I do?
in the job description, they say that I would do anything that commensurate with the grade of the job.
What does this mean?

postdoc position

What is your question here?  Are you asking whether you should accept the offer?  Or asking how you might get more information about "notice to leave or sick leave"?  Or asking what "anything that commensurate with the grade of the job" means? Please try to reduce this to one question.

Usually there is a document describing standard terms and conditions of employment - look at the HR section of the university website, or ask the HR contact.

I am international so this is strange to me. So I don't understand if it should be mentioned in the job offer or not.
I don't understand the point of anything commensurate with the grade of the role, what this means? I also want to know what other elements that should exist in the job offer. Thank you for your reply but I did not find the sick leave or notice of leaving on the website avid Daniel Hatton

Almost certainly there is another document somewhere; all reputable UK universities will have provision for holidays, sick leave, etc. Ask the university to provide you with a copy of the "terms and conditions of employment" relevant to the role.

The notice period (as well as things like sick pay, pensions, etc) should be in the contract documents which you will need to sign to accept the job (if you haven't received this yet you can ask HR for the contract before accepting the job offer). From my experience in the UK the notice period is often fairly flexible for post-doc positions, but this will largely depend on your supervisor. I had a 3-year post-doc fellowship at a UK university which had a 2-month notice period. It wasn't a problem when I asked to leave before the end of the notice period after being offered a permanent position.
The job description being commensurate with grade means that you will be expected to do work (as a post-doc this is probably mainly research) with the ability/level of responsibility corresponding to the grade. ie a 'graduate research assistant' would be expected to have less research experience/responsibility than a 'Research Fellow' for example (names of the grades can vary from university to university). For example the University of Edinburgh describes Grade 7 (definitions can vary depending on university) as:

Grade 7: Roles at this level may represent the early stages of an
academic career before progress to Grade 8, or a clearly defined set
of responsibilities within a research or teaching programme, e.g. for
part of a research project or teaching programme. There may be a
combination of research and teaching, or a specific focus on research
or teaching alongside related administrative responsibilities. In
addition, post holders may be required to assist in the supervision of
postgraduate students. Support in the form of appropriate mentoring
will normally be provided and those in teaching roles given the
opportunity to undertake at least the first stage in the Postgraduate
Certificate in Academic Practice

Your level of responsibility and who your line manager is (very likely the academic supervisor who hired you) will be in your contract documents. For most post-doc positions which are paid for by a PI grant, you will work on the research corresponding to the grant at the direction of the PI. This could also involve co-supervising PhD students, teaching, and/or administrative tasks. You would need to discuss with your supervisor to know exactly what is expected.

You should ask the HR about notice period. Usually, if the postdoc position is for an year at least (or even less than a year), they do have three month notice period in UK. However, this depends on the University.


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Should I allow a PhD student to use figures of my Undergraduate dissertation in their PhD thesis?
Last year I worked on a novel dataset provided by my supervisor and I found interesting results which I presented in my BSc dissertation. A PhD candidate was working on the same dataset. Now the PhD candidate asked me via WhatsApp if he can use some of my figures in his PhD thesis. I asked the supervisor and she said it’s fine, as long as I get fully acknowledged for these figures. I did not send this student my dissertation, I did send it to the supervisor though. I feel like this is a bit shady. The student has the same raw data so they should be able to make these figures themselves. Any thoughts?

Why not? My advisor gave her figures to me and let me use them in my dissertation.

We stand on the shoulders of giants.  Everything you do is building on the work of those who came before you.  If he finds value in your work, and properly credits you, then why are you concerned?

What exactly do you feel is „shady“ about this? The request itself (e.g. they want to benefit unduly from your work) or because they have access to your work even though it is not published or otherwise given to them by you explicitly?

Sooo, you want them to do unnecessary busywork with zero scientific gain or value? Busywork that means that they can only loose? Because either they get it right, and are immediately flagged for plagiarism, or they get it wrong, and are immediately found out about it. But in any case, the entire thing was a 100% waste of time because anything they might gain from it scientifically could also be gained from pre-existing works (yours)

what's "shady" is that it's extra lazy and not a good sign, I agree with OP. But declining would be pretty strange. Just provide all the info on how the student should quote your work, so they can't come up with excuses for not doing it.

I'd be so proud. A PhD candidate can use my humble undergrad attempts at science! What I did was actually useful to somebody! Awesome. I'll show up in search results (sure, on page 23, but still). Also, when they become a teacher I may get my first assistant job from them. They may be my PhD supervisor. We'd advance science together. Build a better lab, build a better world. OK, I got carried away.

The more you share your knowledge, the more you will become a valued member of the community, and the more others will share their knowledge with you. That's true not only in academia, it's also true in the big wide world. Don't store your intellectual assets under your mattress where they will slowly decline in value, share them with the world and you will be able to shine in reflected glory.

My A.B. thesis is the most cited work I wrote. (Not sure what that says about my subsequent research…) Why do you think the Ph.D. student should repeat your work—all that would happen is he would take credit that rightfully belongs to you.
If your thesis is good enough for this to have happened, it's probably publishable, which I suggest you discuss with your supervisor.

All of science is building on the work of others, provided proper credit is given.  Is your BSc. dissertation in the university's library or has it been published? If so, you should expect people to learn from it and cite it. Even if your own work wasn't "published" in the traditional fashion, it is appropriate for others to build upon it.
As far as duplicating your work, why should someone do that?  The only reason would be to validate your work.
Tell the Ph.D. student that it's OK to use the illustrations, always with proper credit.

If it was not published... YET... it will be published eventually and people will copy and give credit. Why delay it?

@BsAxUbx5KoQDEpCAqSffwGy554PSah I don't think undergraduate theses are typically published in US colleges. There are too many of them, and they often don't represent significant research work. They're glorified term papers. My MIT thesis was totally unremarkable.

Even if it's not published it should be possible to cite it. Even "A. Kiwi, BSc thesis, University of Somewhere 2021" should let someone track the original down if they need to.

You can put your thesis on a archive site such as figshare or zenodo. It acquires a DOI, which can be cited in addition to the standard citation for a thesis. As others said: being cited is a sign that your work is relevant to the field.

Yes, you should allow the proper use of your BSc thesis in other scientific work.
This is perfectly normal within a research group. In fact, you should see it as desirable.
Your BSc thesis is not just a "super exam" to complete your studies. It is a proper scientific work in its own right. As such, being used as a reference for other scientific publications is much of its point. Depending on the field, a BSc topic may even be purposely designed to support the broader research of other students or the group as a whole.
Having a BSc thesis used as reference for another thesis is normal and desirable.
Now, a BSc thesis is often not published like a MSc or even PhD thesis for various reasons. However the point of this is not to hide the scientific work but rather to help the author. For example, many theses clearly show that they are the authors' first real scientific work and lack polish and scrutiny.
Thus, it is common that a BSc thesis is just handed to the supervisor – it is then at the supervisor's discretion who else should get access. This usually involves people of the same research group working on related topics.
Having a BSc thesis accessed by other students of the same research group is normal and desirable.

If they're using and citing your data, in most cases they'd need to use your presentation of it because that's all they'd have.
Here you say they have access to the raw data so could plot it themselves to match their other figures - but they'd still have to cite your work if you did the experiment.  Using your figures helps make it very clear that they're not passing off your work as theirs; I tend towards a stronger acknowledgement than just a citation in this case (numeric superscript is normal in my field, but rather than Figure 1: Some data¹ I would use Figure 1: Some data. Figure and data courtesy of Kiwi¹ as my caption, where reference 1 is your undergrad thesis.

Very definitely yes, you should allow them to use your figures, for the reasons others here already pointed out.
For the same reasons, you should also facilitate the reuse if it's easy for you. For example, send them the figure-building commands to software and/or higher-resolution image files, if you have them handy.
I think the proper credit should take the form of them citing your Undergraduate dissertation where the figures originally appeared, rather than "acknowledging" you. I'm not very sure of this, so talk to them and to your advisor but keep an open mind. Acknowledgment is almost as good though, the important thing is that they don't just let readers think it's their original work.

It does not matter if they would be able to plot the same figure themself.
As seen in this comment, they are doing the right thing, as long as they cite you as "A. Kiwi, BSc thesis, University of Somewhere 2021", so you have proper citation of your work.
Regarding the shady part, a thesis is written to be read by others. Quite often they are available in the university library. It is your work, but it is accessible to others than your supervisor. It seems your supervisor shared your thesis with the PhD student (or the PhD student ghost-reviewed it in place of your professor ... it can happen).
Be happy that someone found your work relevant and wants to reuse some figure of yours. It probably means you did a good job (at the very minimum at least a good enough job, which is still great!).


text:
How do I cite two quotes from the same author in one sentence in Harvard?
I'm citing different quotes/paraphrases with different pages by the same author in most of my sentences and paragraphs and need a way to properly cite them. For example:
X argues that "blah blah blah" which shows he has a Y approach, but then further argues that "blah blah blah", showing a different approach.
So far I'm going with this: X argues that "blah blah blah" (X, 1999: 31) which shows he has a Y approach, but then further argues that "blah blah blah" (X, 1999: 98), showing a different approach.
I'm using up my word count, so what would be the most efficient way of doing this using Harvard method of referencing?
Thanks for the help :)

“Demonstrating Y approach” uses fewer words...

What about "X argues '...' and '...', showing both approach Y and Z are applicable (X, 1999:31, X,1999:98)"?

What about "ibid., 89"?

How about something like:
X paradoxically demonstrates both X approach ("blah blah blah") [1] and Y approach ("blah2 blah2 blah2") [2].


text:
How to mention that I can't cover all the projects I've done because of page limit in my internship report?
This is the first time I have to remove projects and shorten explanation to fit into the required number of pages. At the begining of the dissertation I talk a bit about all the projects I have done.
How can I mention the fact that don't have enough space in an indirect way? My tutor said it's not a good idea to say it straighforward, why?

Your thesis has a maximum page count? That seems odd. And, what level is this thesis?

@Buffy this is a very common thing in Germany, many universities have page restrictions for Bachelors and Masters, in some disciplines (and depending on the supervisor), there might even be a page limit for PhD theses.

It's not really a thesis, it's a dissertation covering what I did during the first year in my internship. I'm in the first year of a master degree in France.

First, I'd seek advice from someone beyond your "tutor". Or, at least, learn why they advise against it.
But a simple way to imply that you have done more than you report is to start out with something like "The most important projects I've done this year are ...". Or possibly "Among the projects I've undertaken this year, the most significant are..."
It is enough to give the idea if you really can't mention details. If oral presentation is part of your process you will probably be asked about the others. Have something ready to say.
I'm guessing that the purpose of the report is to give people a quick way to verify that you are on track. Give them that assurance. The rest is probably unnecessary.


text:
What is the etymology of "Assistant Professor"?
In the US, "Assistant Professor" is a junior rank among permanent university faculty. Generally, Assistant Professors are independent researchers with more or less the same job responsibilities as more senior faculty (Associate Professors or Full Professors), but without the perks of tenure. That is, they teach classes, advise graduate students, apply for grants, and have administrative responsibilities. (In other countries, the term may have a slightly different meaning. It is roughly equivalent to a Lecturer in the UK system.)
As far as I know, Assistant Professors are not assistants to anyone. So why the name?
Usually an Assistant X is someone who works under the supervision of X and helps X carry out their duties, but that is not the case here. In contrast, other university titles containing "Assistant", such as "Research Assistant" or "Teaching Assistant", do fit the more conventional definition of the word.
After a bit of searching, I have not been able to find any information about the origin of the term. Although it has apparently been in use since 1827. Does anyone know more about the history of the term?
Perhaps the job has evolved from a true assistant position into what it is today while the title has remained the same. Alternatively, it may be a (mis)translation or the meaning of "Assistant" has changed. If someone can find a source documenting a history like that, I would happily accept that as an answer.

Obligatory: https://youtu.be/wA9kQuWkU7I?t=46

In a way, an assistant professor also helps the other professors in carrying out their teaching duties, for example by teaching some of the courses.

@mlk In that sense full professors also assist one another.

@Thomas: Yes, but the same holds for any of your other examples. I guess in this type of relationship, assistant is just whoever has less power. In this case, the full professors might be the ones who decide or at least strongly suggest which courses need to be done by whom, while the assistants professors teach the course they are given. The details may of course vary over time and institution, I'm just trying to guess a good explanation here.

Also as a side note, here in Germany a resident in a hospital is called "Assistenzarzt", which translates to "assistant doctor". Similarly they have finished their doctorate and are allowed to do most routine tasks on their own, but get their patients assigned by the higher ups. They'll also "tenure up" to the next level after some time. Since medicine is one of the earliest university subjects, there might be a common origin. Also I have the suspicion that assistant professor is just an english translation of some older Latin title, as they were more common back then.

It used to be common that there was only one professor in each field. Maybe "assistant professor" was used to indicate that the person had similar job responsibilities to a professor but was subordinate to the real professor.

Without knowing anything for sure (in other words guessing), I will agree with @JouniSiren and just clarify: it's likely an example of a shift in usage.  I'd bet that it used to mean a junior faculty member that specifically assisted one professor, but the usage has changed over time.

If someone can find a source documenting that it is indeed a case of the job evolving without the title changing, I would happily accept that answer.

I think it's fairly common even outside of university to denote junior ranks as "assistant ", even if the job does not entitle assisting somebody per se. But if you are asking about the origin of this word - yes, I am pretty sure that in foregone times an assistant professor indeed was intended to assist (and learn from) a full professor. In some regions of the world this is basically still the case, or at least was the case less than 10 years ago.

I don't really have any evidence here, but originally in the UK, a subject would have a professor (the chair). That prof would "profess" on that subject from their chair. Over time they might hire others to "assist" them in their research and their teaching, perhaps some "readers" (a UK rank) or Lecturers that would read from texts rather than profess. Over time these became departments. Depts might have other professors "associated" with them. As ass-profs are roughly equiv to Lecturers, perhaps the history is the same. As I say, I've no proof of this, just the "folk-history".

Job titles do not obey logic, especially in organisations that have grown, a common feature of which is often the need to add levels in the hierarchy.  Two of the most significant promotions in my own non-academic career  were from high sounding titles (principal and director - which was actually quite a big job) to titles of which the first word was assistant.

The OP dictionary is inaccurate.  The term assistant professor was in use prior to 1827.
In the 1805 book The College of Fort William in Bengal there is an article dated 20 September 1804, beginning on page 225, that uses the term several times, to name several assistant professors of various languages.  The term is used in this article at pages 226, 227 and 228, and the book also list four assistant professors on page 237.
Also, the 1801 The New Universal Biographical Dictionary, and American Remembrancer, volume 4 says, under the entry for James Hay Beattie:

On the 4th June, 1787, the king, upon the unanimous recommendation of the university, appointed him assistant professor of moral philosophy and logic, although he was not then nineteen years of age.

And volume 2 of the same Dictionary, in the entry for Euler says:

he was called to St. Petersburgh, and was admitted as an assistant professor in the university of that city ... In 1730, he was promoted to the professorship of natural philosophy; and in 1733 he succeeded his friend D. Bernoulli in the mathematical chair.

However, there is an earlier (1785) version of the Euler biography that uses the term "joint professor" instead of "assistant professor".
The 1802 book Travels through Sweden, Finland and Lapland to the North-cape, in the years 1798 and 1799 discusses assistant professors, saying for example concerning University of Abo:

In the branch of theology there are six professors, three assistant professors, and three private teachers or magiltri docentes: of law, two professors and two assistant professors : of medicine, three professors and two assistant professors : of philosophy, ten professors and twenty assistant professors: of genteel exercises...

Also, in the US, a law was passed 29 April 1812 concerning the Military Academy (meaning West Point):

each of the foregoing professors to have an assistant professor, which assistant professor shall be taken from the most prominent characters of the officers or cadets, and receive the pay and emoluments of captains, and no other pay or emoluments, while performing these duties.

So, at least according to this US law, the assistant professor was assigned to a particular professor.

Just to add to DavePhD's very comprehensive in the origin of the use of the term, take a look at Alexander Serebrenik's answer the this question regarding differences between assistant and associate professors. The general takeaway is that in some European countries, at least in the past, Assistant Professors actually did assist full professors and could only work on topics that these full professors were working on. This changed with the promotion to associate professorship.
While this does not imply that it was the situation in the US at any point (as it certainly is not the case now), since universities in the US are relatively young (Harvard being the oldest and established in early 17th century), it is not unreasonable to assume that among the many things imported from Europe, was the 'assistant' term, even if it lost it's actual original meaning, and retained just the symbolic entry position.

Regarding Alexander Serebrenik's answer, it is worth noting that in the Netherlands (which they describe) the roles currently sometimes referred to as "assistant" or "associate" professor are actually called "Universitair Docent" and Universitair Hoofddocent" (roughly speaking "university teacher" and "university head teacher". I.e. no reference to them being assistants of anything was in their titles.


text:
Is it legal to publicly share questionnaires from research articles?
I've found articles on the development of diagnostic questionnaires that I only have access to through my university. I'm interested in sharing some of them publicly online so more people can have access to these materials, likely on my personal website.
Would it be legal to share these survey instruments as long as I cite them properly? If not, would it be legal for me to reference their questions outside of the context of a survey (so no measurement or scoring) with a citation?
I live in Canada, if relevant.
Thanks for reading!

Do you want to share questionnaires or articles about them?

You should check the source for copyright. Some such things are very closely held. Some diagnostics become meaningless if widely known.

Would it be legal to share these survey instruments as long as I cite them properly?

You cannot legally share documents without permission in many jurisdictions, regardless of whether you reference the original source.

If not, would it be legal for me to reference their questions outside
  of the context of a survey (so no measurement or scoring) with a
  citation?

You can probably cite the document (assuming the document's existence isn't confidential), but (in many jurisdictions) you can only quote the question if you have permission to do so, given that the document isn't public.
Ask your institute for guidance.