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Is sending fall semester transcripts beneficial even if grades show a downtrend?
I received my undergraduate transcript with the fall semester grades a week back; I was wondering whether I should use it over an old transcript for my application to grad school in the US (top 10 in physics).
Reasons for sending old transcript (latest: spring grades from junior year):

Spring semester showed good grades.
Higher CGPA (+0.05 on a scale of 10.0).
Subsequent fall semester shows a downturn in grades (-0.7 on a scale of 10.0).

Reason for sending new transcript (latest: fall grades from senior year):

Shows advanced physics and math courses; I have talked a bit about these courses and a project in my Statement of Purpose.

One reason for the less than ideal performance in the fall semester is taking a lot of theory courses; however, I have not "explained" this in my SOP as there aren't any failing grades (or really poor performance).
Does the choice between the two transcripts really matter or am I overthinking this? If it matters, I am an international applicant from India.
P.S. I have completed the essential courses earlier so that is not a factor to be considered.
Edit: As pointed in a comment below, this question is not a duplicate as my grades are quite good (sorry for not mentioning this in the original post).

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

Not a duplicate as my grades are quite good (sorry for not mentioning this in the original post).

Just curious about this GPA system (I am in a 4-point system.) Do you mean the GPA dropped by -0.7, or do you mean getting a GPA of -0.7 out of 10? I feel that the absolute position of your GPA matters.

@Penguin_Knight, I meant that it my semester GPA dropped from 9.5 to 8.8. Overall my CGPA dropped by 0.05 on a scale of 10. I was not sure if it was a good idea to put my exact grades.

If your CGPA is already high enough, dropping 0.05 won't matter (say from 9.48 to 9.43). However, if your CGPA is already low (say 6.2/10), then your question is a duplicate of the linked question.

@scaaahu, I understand. My CGPA is fairly high (9/10) so it is not a duplicate.

You should include the latest transcript.  The reason is simple: that is now your true transcript, and replaces the prior transcript.  If you don't include the most recent grades, then the universities where you are applying may wonder why: did you have terrible grades? Were you not attending classes at all?
Your current transcript is your transcript.  Just include it, and don't play games about it.

" If you don't include the most recent grades, then the universities where you are applying may wonder why" - thanks, I did not think of that.

This is also important - especially considering I bet they asked for "your most recent transcript". Essentially it could be taken as lying if you provided an earlier version.

Generally the grad school you are applying will have guidelines on the specific transcripts to be sent. This will include all your previous grade cards including your high school and expect them to be checked thoroughly.
On an ethical point of view, hiding relevant information especially in academia for the sake of gaining a sweet spot is not advisable and most of the times are not going to pay well.

I asked the question only because the school in question does not have any such guidelines. While I understand the point about not wanting to "hide" information, I don't think this is a particularly egregious case.

No American University i know of asks for high school transcripts for graduate applicants.


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Reference letter in a .txt file
My supervisor wrote me a reference letter in .txt file with the following format:

Reference for My Name
--------------------------------
Bla bla bla

Also no "Yours sincerely" with his name or anything.
Should I change it to a more conventional format or should I leave it as is?
Edit: I am sending open applications to research groups of interest and want to include a reference letter (not a recommendation letter)

What format is the institution to which you are applying requesting your references in? Many institutions will only accept references directly from your referee's institutional email address.

What are you supposed to do with that file? I doubt that it is up to you to format or send it. Could it be that your supervisor just sent it to you as a reference what they are going to write about you? In which case, I guess you supervisor would expect some feedback regarding the content, not the formating.

I am sending open applications to research groups of interest and want to include a reference letter (not a recommendation letter)

@user3209815 In many countries, it's the applicant who sends the letters, not the reference. See, e.g., this answer and the related question.

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Changing careers to teach Mathematics
I am currently trying to change careers after doing postdoc physics research for many years and not being able to obtain a research faculty position. I really enjoyed my university teaching experiences and want to focus on teaching as a career.  But I haven't been successful in finding a nonresearch teaching position with an EECS PhD.
My goal now is to teach Mathematics at either the community college or liberal arts college level. Is it impossible to achieve this goal with only a BS in Mathematics plus EECS PhD? It seems like I need at a minimum a MS in Mathematics.
There was a related question here. There was a suggestion for that person to look into getting a DA degree in Mathematics as a way to get a doctorate with an emphasis on teaching. I've never heard of it, but based on descriptions of the DA program I've found online, it seems to match my teaching goals perfectly. (There were also suggestions to consider the PhD in Mathematics Education, but I don't think it would be a good fit for me.)
My questions:

Am I wasting my time applying to college-level math teaching jobs with only a BS Math + grad engineering degrees?
Is a Master's degree good enough or even preferable to a DA if I only want to teach?
I am interested in the DA, but I'm worried that the commenter in the link above says "It's a bad idea".  Is it true that most Math departments don't even know what a DA degree is? Will having a DA put me at a disadvantage compared to others having a PhD if I apply for a teaching position requiring a doctorate degree?
Since it's been a long time since my BS Math degree, would getting a MS Math degree first be a good idea before thinking about getting a doctoral degree?
I'm not sure if getting another degree is a reasonable way of planning my second career. It's been 10 years since my PhD and if I decide to do this I will be over 40 by the time I finish another degree. Is it a bad idea to go back to school as an older student just so I can teach college math?

What kinds of classes would you like to teach?

" Is it a bad idea to go back to school as an older student just so I can teach college math?" Do you have the funds to handle this and do you really, really enjoy the math and the teaching? If you don't have a passion for it, and it's just a "job" for you, then don't. If it's a passion you want to share, go for it. As a side note, in the US atleast,  you may be able to convince a Community College that you have an equivalent degree and get in on that. Talk to a local dept.

@scrappedcola: Yes, I really have a passion for the math and the teaching. I am willing to make some sacrifices if there's a chance I can find a teaching position someday. I don't really want to get an industry job that I won't enjoy.

@scrappedcola I applied to some community colleges hoping they would consider my phd as an equivalent degree.  But maybe they don't consider a Math BS + eecs phd as equivalent.

@Potato I want to teach undergrad level math.  I would be happy teaching calculus, diff. eqns, and linear algebra.  I TA'ed a probability course in grad school and really loved teaching that subject.  High school math (alg/geom/trig/pre-calc) is also fine.

Did you followup? You might email the department heads and see if they are willing to provide feedback on your application. Did you submit a cover letter with your applications? If provided the chance, your cover letter can make or break your chances. You have the credentials, now you need to show them how it works for them.

Have you considered going back for an MS in Mathematics?  There are many institutions where you could be supported as a TA while doing an MS in math.  Once you had that MS, getting a job teaching mathematics at a community college might be a reasonable goal.  Keep in mind that very little teaching at community colleges is at the level of the courses that you've mentioned.

A standard that many community colleges enforce is that instructors should have 18 graduate credit hours in the subject.   how much graduate level mathematics have you taken?

I attended a junior college before finishing my BS Math at university. My University Physics II instructor at the junior college had a BS Physics and a Master in Church Music. I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to find a job teaching mathematics at a junior college with your doctorate.

You mentioned positive university teaching experiences.  That's a big plus.
I wouldn't mention "doing postdoc physics research for many years and not being able to obtain a research faculty position" in your cover letters or your interviews.  You probably weren't going to, but I just wanted to make sure.  You could say that as you were wrapping up a project, you realized that the most rewarding job you've ever had was teaching.
If you don't mind being a poorly paid adjunct instructor at the beginning, you should be fine.
Perhaps you could take an education class concurrently with starting your adjunct teaching.
You may also want to consider high school teaching as an additional possibility.  If you do that, being able to teach both math and physics will be a special plus.
Contact some instructors and ask permission to do some observing.
Good luck.

Getting a job has a lot to do with timing and luck, so don't get discouraged if a department doesn't snap you up right away.  You can mention your postdoc physics research background, but you need to give a different spin on it than "not being able to obtain a research faculty position."  You could say something like "physics research is fascinating, but I have discovered that what's most important to me is helping young people get the tools they need to be successful in a STEM area."
You could get your feet wet with teaching as a Peace Corps or other type of volunteer, or as a high school substitute teacher.  Anyone with a Bachelor's degree can work as a sub.
Practical experiences like these can give you clearer ideas about what would be a good fit for you, and you may also be able to get some strong recommendation letters.

I will take your advice to highlight my teaching experiences, but it's hard to avoid my "postdoc physics research" background since it's pretty obvious once they take a look at my cv. I'll do my best.

Do you think having a PhD in engineering (not Mathematics) will prevent me from getting anything better than an adjunct Math teaching position? I've read sad online stories of people getting trapped in low-paying adjunct positions for many years. (I will consider HS teaching. Thanks.  I would upvote this, but I don't have enough points.)

There is a definite possibility that anyone who starts out as (ill-paid) adjunct will never escape that situation...

@mars34 - A CV is a CV and as you say, there's not a whole lot of spin you can put on this or that element of it.  However, a cover letter is a different story.  In the cover letter you can select one to three specific things about yourself to talk about.  You don't have to retell the contents of the CV. The interview is an in-person, longer version of the cover letter.  If they ask you about something you don't want to emphasize, answer the question, and then start spinning, to bring it back around to what you want to emphasize.

I think you would be especially qualified to teach an applied mathematics course – I would say go for it now not later

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Do conferences get indexed?
A funding organism is offering to pay for the travel and stay of young researchers to an international conference, when said conference is indexed (Scopus, WoS, ...). They insist on the fact that it’s the conference that should be indexed, not the proceeding or subsequent publications.
I never heard of a conference being indexed, and would like to know if this even exists.
I insist on the fact that the indexing in question concerns the conference, not the proceedings or abstracts.

What do you think they mean by "the conference is indexed"?  Are they saying that accepted abstracts from the conference program are indexed in Scopus of WoS?  That papers published in a conference proceedings volume are indexed?

or you can provide the link for the conference to let us check it... also best practice is to check their last year proceeding if it is indexed in Scopus or dblp digital libraries...

It is the conference that should be indexed, not the proceedings or abstracts. This is the strange point that might not even exist in reality, and that I want your opinions about.

Can you copy-paste the text where they specify that the conference, rather than the proceedings, need to be indexed?

Here you go @Mark : “Besides the eventual acceptance of papers or abstracts, **** will contribute to the expenses for participation when the CONGRESS OR MEETING is ACTUALLY AND CURRENTLY INDEXED IN SCOPUS OR WEB OF SCIENCE.”

@ysalami: From that quotation, it is not clear to me that they are not simply being imprecise and actually mean proceedings of the conference rather than the conference itself.

I checked with them, and they do mean the conference. Just sent an email to Scopus and WoS. Will keep you updated.

I don't have a precise answer. However, the fact that some papers & abstracts are indexed in Scopus or Web of Science implies that the conference is indexed there.
If the funding agency wants the conference to be indexed, it might mean that some of the papers/abstracts should be indexed, not necessarily yours. With that, they will be able to judge the quality of the conference (very subjective, but that not's the point), and your acceptance letter is enough for them.
One example is IEEE APS/URSI. There are different formats of submissions:

full papers (that are indexed for sure)
two-page abstracts in IEEE 2-column template (which are indexed unless author opts out)
one-page abstracts in a 1-column template (which are not indexed)

Thus, some submitted papers will not be indexed; however, the presentations will be made during the conference for all submissions. So, the conference is indexed, but not all the proceedings.

That is the reply I got from WoS, I'm still waiting to hear from Scopus.


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Do case reports require ethical approvals?
Do case reports involving people with medical ailments require ethical approvals? If they do not, then why?
I am located in Sweden, but am (almost) equally interested in conditions elsewhere.

As far as I know, any research, involving human subjects, requires approval by a corresponding ethical compliance body. The name of such body might differ from country to country, but usually it is called institutional review board (IRB), at least, in the United States.

@AleksandrBlekh The tricky part is defining "research". Case reports - and studies intended for quality improvement (say, within a hospital) are often considered not research and don't need IRB approval. This gets especially tricky in research about hospital quality improvement :)

@Fomite: Thank you for clarification. I already got that after reading the answers below :-). While I understand that such category is formally not considered as research, I think that still there should be some processes of clearing those studies with respect to ethical handling of patients and related data. Perhaps, it is part of standard healthcare guidelines and regulations (HIPAA, etc.).

@AleksandrBlekh Yes, case reports must be HIPAA-compliant.

What research have you done?  Have you talked to your IRB or ethics board?  Most of them will have many resources to help you figure this out.  Have you talked to your advisor?  What country are you in?  We expect you to do some research before asking, and show us your research.  A one-sentence question is a tip-off that you probably need to elaborate more on your specific situation and what research you've done.

@D.W. This is purely hypothetical. I am in Sweden (and am perfectly aware that laws and tradition vary across the globe, but they usually don't vary that much). I could give you a detailed hypothetical example but I am not looking for fine distinctions here.

I encourage you to add that information to the question (e.g., that it's in Sweden).  Clarifications should not be left only in the comments.  2. Hypothetical questions are often not a great fit for this site, especially when there is no evidence of research effort.  As our [help/dont-ask] says, "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." Also see http://academia.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask: "Have you thoroughly searched for an answer before asking your question? [...] Tell us what you found and why it didn’t meet your needs. [...]"

From a legal point of view, in the United States, preparation of a case report for publication does not require review by the ethics board because case reports do not meet the legal definition of "research" (according to most interpretations):

Case reports submitted for publication do not strictly meet the criteria of research. Although a case report (defined as a retrospective analysis of one (1), two (2), or three (3) clinical cases) may be illustrative, it does not meet the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects definition of Research, which requires an investigation that contributes to generalizable knowledge about a disease or condition. Instead, a case report is intended to develop information to be shared for medical or educational purposes.

(Source: Tufts)
Many institutions therefore do not require any kind of review for publishing case reports. For example:

Q:  Do faculty who prepare a  case report as an article for submission to a journal require IRB approval prior to preparation?
No.  A case report is a medical/educational activity that does not meet the DHHS definition of “research”, which is: "a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge."  Therefore, the activity does not have to be reviewed by a JHM IRB.

(Source: John Hopkins Medicine)
(Another example: University of Wisconsin - Madison)
(Another example: Columbia)
As pointed out by Fomite, some institutions have an IRB make the determination that a study is "not human subjects research" even for a case study. For example:

A number of studies submitted to the UNC-Chapel Hill IRB are deemed “not human subjects” research which means, once reviewed and so designated, no further involvement with the IRB is needed unless a change in the study might alter that decision. This designation can be given to studies that involve human beings but are not considered to be research in the federal regulations (e.g., not systematic, as in single subject case studies and/or are not designed to contribute to generalizeable knowledge, as in program evaluation or quality improvement projects) or when information is collected from humans but is not about them (e.g, a survey of public health department directors about the content of programs offered).  When a student has a study that might qualify for a “not human subjects research” designation from the IRB, the online IRB application will be shortened considerably.  Once submitted, the IRB will review the application and let the student know if it agrees with the “not human subjects research” determination. If it does not agree, then a longer IRB application will be necessary.

(Source: UNC Nursing)

I would note that, at many institutions, it is up to the IRB, not the investigator, to determine this. For example, in parts of the UNC system, one must ask the IRB for a determination, even if you know beforehand that the answer is "No, this doesn't need approval."

@Fomite Interesting. I initially thought you were referring to research that is classified as "exempt" under federal law. I'd never heard of that kind of thing for any other kind of research. Then I looked up these UNC guidelines and found that they do, indeed, require the IRB to make the determination that a study is "not human subjects research." Thanks!

Yep. "Exempt" is a decision they make, not you. It is sometimes extremely silly (I had to submit a determination for a simulation-based study...)

@Fomite Well, to be clear, all IRBs require that they themselves make the designation that a study is "exempt" (when it meets certain requirements for exempt status), I've never seen another IRB besides UNC's that requires they make the designation that a study is "not human subjects research" (as in a case study). My own IRB does not require that, and the others I linked above also do not require that.

I understand you now.

For any research which might possibly under some crazy interpretation of the common rule be considered human subjects research, it's a good idea to get your IRB to either declare the research exempt or "not human subjects research."  If you're called to account later, you've got that decision to back you up.

@ff524 can you clarify this sentence for me? "(e.g., not systematic, as in single subject case studies and/or are not designed to contribute to generalizeable knowledge, as in program evaluation or quality improvement projects)" does that mean program evaluation/quality improvement projects involving human subjects do not require ethics?  I ask because this question is relevant to a publication I'm preparing with a collaborator based on a quality improvement initiative we did that does involve survey and interviews with human subjects, but didn't have ethics.

@postagepaid It's complicated. See e.g. this document

In the US, under the common rule, the answer is generally no, because reporting on the cases of patients who were treated in the ordinary way doesn't constitute "research" in the sense defined by the common rule as
 “a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.”
However, if the case report involves several patients, this could at some point cross the line over into research.  A widely used rule is that case reports involving 3 or fewer patients are exempt.  If you're considering writing a case report you should check with your institution's IRB about specific policy at your institution.  You will most likely want/need to get a document from your IRB stating that the case report is exempt.
Buyer beware, Your Mileage May Vary, etc.  I'm a member of the IRB at an institution that doesn't have a medical school so we don't handle case reports.


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Do German universities internally track the scientific output of single work groups/professors and with which internal/external goals?
We are asked in our group to send new publications for journals and conferences  to our secretary, who told me she has to input this information also into a database of the university. Over the years of PhD/Postdoc my Professor also seems to favor publishing many small papers rather than leaving it to the first author to make a decision on splitting up research results. This sometimes leads to conflicts, as the goals of my professor, my university and researchers without permanent positions can be different as the strategies to realize them.
So, I'm wondering if this kind of quality management/evaluation of the publication output is used by the administration to reward very productive groups and if so, by which kind of number games and really in financial rewards (increasing budget etc.)? (Number of Articles) x (impact factor)...

The fact that there is a database does not, in and of itself, imply that some sort of ranking/scoring system is applied. What I have seen is that there occasionally is a need to produce an impressive looking list of articles for some report, and that is what the database is used for.

We have also some sort of database here. I am a normal phd student. And I get a bonus partially depending on how many papers I have published and whether the journal/conference has a good reputation. The bonus is a few thousand euros each year if I performed well. The publication data is also used for statistics to compute a performance index for the institute. Thus, all this plays a major role here. However, I don't really like the concept...

@J-Kun you get a personaly salary bonus of several thousand €? I see in profile this is in Germany!? With a TV-L contract you have a side-arrangment in your contract for bonuses or you can use this bonus only for research investments?

Yes, I am in Germany at a (partially) publicly funded institute (not a university) with a TVöD-bund contract. Bonuses are only possible because we do a lot of industry work and that is, as far as I know, the only money which can be used for bonuses. The bonus is an addition to my normal salary. It is not intended to be spent on research, you do whatever you like. I get it directly onto my banking account (yes I have to pay taxes on that) more details: https://www.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/zv/de/ueber-fraunhofer/Personalpolitik/Variable%20Verg%C3%BCtung.pdf

@J-Kun Is this reward system installed by Fraunhofer society in general or only in your project and because the industrial partners wanted a reward system? It looks like installed by Fraunhofer, because the industry has no advance in many papers, but with their money, bit weird to me. I think your comments make an interesting answers, especially why you don't like it...

I am employed at one of the German Fraunhofer institutes as PhD student. We are doing a lot of research and are partially publicly funded, but we are not a university. However, my answer might still provide some insight.
My research output is precisely measured and evaluated. Each time one of my papers is accepted I need to add it to an internal database. It stores the name(s) of the author(s), the paper's title, the conference/journal at which it will be presented/published, the date of publication, etc. The database is accessible for the entire institute. There is a Fraunhofer-wide database that publicly tracks most (but for some reason not all) of my publications, too.
This data is used in various ways.

Internal publication tracking: I have seen many presentations which listed the number of publications in the last year and encouraged the institute's researchers to continue with their work. This is also about motivation. A few selected publications with high impact (e.g., at high-ranked conferences, papers presenting great results, ...) get explicitly mentioned at the institute's meetings in front of all other researchers. This can give you a little bit of (internal) fame but also some potential envy...
You job may depend on your publications. If you have absolutely no scientific output your contract might not be renewed. The same is true for research projects. A list of papers helps you A LOT when it comes to defending the importance of your work and why the institute shall continue working on it.
Having a complete(!) list of all own papers in one field of research is crucial when it comes to writing research proposals. Having a list of great publications that you can reference usually increases your chances. Thereby you show that the institute has the basic knowledge to work on such a project.
The same is true for offers to potential customers in the industry. You can search the publication list for papers that are related to the customer's demands and underline your abilities thereby.
When we have finished a publicly funded project we are asked to list all our publications that were funded by the project. Once, I talked to one of the external project organizers/funders and he emphasized the importance of publication lists. Thereby he can show that this money was well-invested and he will be allowed to fund future projects. He reports the scientific success to the sponsors.
More motivation: If I have many and/or good publications, I get a monetary bonus. It is called "variable Vergütung", which means: You get your normal E13 TVöD payment and, depending on your performance, some bonus usually in the four-figure Euro range. (TVöD = collective agreement for jobs in the public sector in Germany).
More about the "variable Vergütung": https://www.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/zv/de/ueber-fraunhofer/Personalpolitik/Variable%20Verg%C3%BCtung.pdf
This bonus depends mostly on my publications. This gives an incentive to publish on high-ranked conferences and to publish many papers. The bonus is part of my salary, thus, I have to pay taxes on it, it ends up on my banking account, and I can do whatever I want. It is NOT intended to be spent on research.
The entire institute is evaluated regarding its publications and many other performance parameters. If we have a lot of publications we can show our scientific abilities and there is also some ranking.

However, this is not as great as it sounds. This precise tracking causes a lot of pressure, emphasizing the culture of "publish or perish" even more. You are expected to publish, you should have papers at high-ranked conferences/journals, you should write many papers. So some people tend to favor quantity instead of quality, for example if your boss wants to see 2 or 3 papers this year to give you a bonus. So people sometimes tend to go for the low-hanging fruits.
Especially the bonus system often appears to be unfair. If you have several hundreds of researchers there has to be some ranking of who gets the most and who does not get anything at all. Some people will always tell you that paper X is better than paper Y but paper Y got the bigger bonus. There are some basic rules but it seems to be mostly up to your boss how much reward you get.
The reward/bonus system might not always help you. For example, if you have to work in industry-funded projects you spend a lot of time but might not be allowed to publish. So, that reduces your chances on a bonus. This might again create some envy since your coworkers might have more/less research time compared to you and therefore better/worse chances on a bonus. (NB: We actually have a few industry-funded projects or collaborations whose results we are allowed to publish. But that is rather an exception).
Additionally, the internal tracking is not well-designed in my opinion. A lot of low-quality conferences are on the list (because they are Scopus-listed) while others, small ones but with high reputation in our field, are left out.
IMHO, there is some room for improvement although I have to confess that I benefit from this concept.

I would ask your professor, other professors, or people you know in the administration. Presumably, they know how these evaluations are done in your University.
My experience, in a research institute in Germany, is that faculty is evaluated on both output and grants obtained. Similarly, the institute as a whole is evaluated on these points. Typically, professors try to publish as high as possible here, with much less regard for number of papers published. This is reflected in tenure decisions.

+1, Do you know by which bibliometric numbers this i measured, "h index" of journal, or rather impact factor? Those numbers can be very different for journal. I rather prefer high h, as more peers in my community likelyl then read my stuff, while the university probably favors high impact factor (nature, science,...)

Yeah, in my field (biology) this seems to be journal impact factor exclusively. I only know h-index as an author-specific measure (h papers that are cited h times). But again, I have not heard professors being distinguished by their h-indices.

I won't comment on the specific system, but professors, generally, have to justify their existence. In some places annual reviews are used. IMO, the best of these are initiated by the individual who writes a report giving accomplishments for the year (period) past and setting goals for the future. Normally one comments on how earlier goals were met, or not.
Whether these are tracked centrally, or only become part of an employment file may differ from institution to institution.
Tenured professors normally can't be fired for not meeting expectations, but it can affect compensation and other perks of the job.
Note that an important feature of the scheme I discussed is that the professors set their own goals, rather than having external expectations forced on them.
Also, my experience is in the US, not Germany.

So this evaluation/compensation is rather on a personal level of the distinct professor and will mostly not affect parameters like his overall group budget, internal funding decisions/competitions at the university? I was supposing that there are also such huge differences among different research staff sizes among groups in GER, because different universities may apply some kind of internal reward & evaluation system. I don't believe these different staff sizes from <10 to sometimes >30 only evolve due to different external funding success, as the university has also to invest in necessary

infrastructure and maintenance partly for such increased staff sizes and only gets 20% overhead of external funding sums. I upvoted your answer, but would be interested if you have some insights from US system on this perspective too. Are the basic group budgets pretty much the same among one US university and only success in external funding increases it? Probably, different universities apply here different economical/managment strategies, in GER also the bureaucracy/laws might limit a more capitalistic success-oriented managment

@MichaelSchmidt It is a bit of a simplified view, but for most intents and purposes a professor is the same as the group. The budget and thus the other positions in a group is normally either a result of grants in which he is involved or money granted to him by the university.  However as far as I have seen, this is less of a formalized reward system, but rather an odd ritual, in which a professor periodically threatens to leave for another place in order for the university to start negotiating a better budget.

@mlk This is called "Bleibeverhandlungen" (contract negotiation to not move to another more paying uni if there is a better offer). So over this mechanism he can increase personal salary as well as overall group budget? I know my professor gets around 1/5 of overall group budet, being ~ half a million. I'm not sure up to which age though such "Bleibeverhandlungen" are common and I wonder how often this happens among german universities pushing salaries of professors mutually, which are already well paid public servants and this looks like playing with tax money and hopefully happens not often

@MichaelSchmidt My view might be skewed but most professors don't want huge salaries, otherwise they would have gone to the industry. So instead they'll negotiate to increase their groups budget and size, for example by having another E13 position assigned to them. As you say, increasing their salary to much sets a bad precedent, however creating more PhD positions can easily be justified towards the tax payer and other professors. But take what I say with a grain of salt, as it is only second hand information. I'm not senior enough yet, so I only know what those involved let slip over coffee.

From your question alone, it is hard to tell what the research database is being used for. However, at German universities any decision to implement such an instrument will be based on a Beschluss (committee decision) or an Ordnung (committee resolution) passed by a relevant committee (e.g. Fakultätsrat, the faculty board). These decisions are in general public and you should be able to find them in the internal web pages of your department/university.
You could of course simply ask your colleagues, your dean, or the secretary collecting the data. German universities are usually keen on transparency* and self-governance, so there should be no reason to be secretive about it.
* Maybe with the exception of hiring decisions/promotions

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


text:
Are ECTS Credits based on performance?
I was wondering if ECTS Credits are based on performance. For example, I know a course is say 5 ects credits, are those 5 credits awarded to a passing grade or is it based on performance and only a part of those credits are awarded depending on your grades?

In what system does a student ever get only half the credits for having half the total marks?

@Nij In the universities in Turkey you get "credits * your mark". For your average at the end your total "credits * mark" points are divided by the total credits you have taken. (So, if you get 2/4 on a class, you're going to get only the half of that class' credits available)

In the US, the system described by @JohnHamilton exists as so-called "quality points". For example, a student who receives a B (3 grade points) on a three credit course would receive 9 quality points, while a student earning an A (4 grade points) in that same course would receive 12 quality points. Quality points aren't really used for much except as a means to calculate overall GPA (add up all quality points and divide by the number of credits attempted). You don't (in my experience and knowledge) ever get opportunities to "spend" individual quality points in any meaningful way.

The credits refer to the quantity of studying. 60 ECTS credits makes up one year of study. To complete a degree, you need a fixed number of credits, ie you must pass a certain number of modules (or equivalent). The grade of the degree you are awarded is determined by how well you do in those courses.

For sake of clarity, it might be worth noting that your final grade is constructed of the individual grades weighted by their ECTS. Therefore, your grade on your 15 ECTS thesis is weighted three times as much as your 5 ECTS exam.

@Ian I am not sure this is a universal rule. Every university (or perhaps even every department) decides how they compute the final grade, and they have no obligation to take the number of credits into account.

To supplement what Ian and Arnaud said: Where I got my degree, all grades were weighted by the amount of ECTS of the respective courses. However, I know of other universities where e.g. the bachelors' thesis makes up more of the final grade than its amount of ECTS credits would suggest.

Not all schools even have a final grade or average written out somewhere. It could be just a list of courses and the grade for each course. If someone wants to know your "final grade" or GPA, then you'll have to decide/figure how to calculate it.

@Ian I have to second what Arnaud said. At my first university, the final grade is just the arithmetic mean grade, without any weighting applied. At my second university, courses were weighted, but some were weighted with zero instead of their ECTS value and some were weighted with less than their ECTS value.

As the previous answers indicate, ECTS credits are award in full for each passing grade (what exactly constitutes a passing grade differs from country to country).
I can think of at least a couple of important reasons why this is so:

If you would somehow get more ECTS for doing better in a course, students who get the equivalent of "all As" would actually be able to graduate with less knowledge (i.e., after doing less courses) than students who barely pass a lot more courses. This would construct a weird incentive system, where students who graduate with few courses and good grades may in some contexts appear weaker than a student with terrible grades.
Grades would become very important then, making grade rubbing an even larger problem. Discussions akin to "with this B I can't graduate this year" would become commonplace, and nobody wants that.
On a related note, students would lose the ability to plan their studies. You may think that you can graduate this year, but only after getting all grades in you know if you have the required amount of ECTS to do so. It may turn out that one course was harder than expected, and you needed to do an extra course. Yes, in theory this is also true nowadays where failing a course can leave you unable to graduate against your expectations, but the danger of unexpectedly failing a course is much lower than simply having a worse grade than expected.
There would be even larger incentives for students to select easy over challenging courses.

There are further important aspects for curriculum design etc., but I think even the ones I listed are already sufficient to argue why ECTS are granted in full.

Your points sound to me like they're written from the point of view of the US. They sound a little odd from the UK, and I suspect they sound rather strange from continental Europe (though I have no direct experience).

@JessicaB I have never worked anywhere than in central or nordic Europe, so I can definitely say that they have been with that in mind.


text:
Journal got blacklisted recently – how to withdraw the paper from the journal and database?
Recently, the journal where my paper was published got blacklisted in a so-called blacklist. I was very surprised since the journal existed more than ten years.
My questions:

How to drop the paper from the indexing databases, such as Scopus. What will be the consequences and what are the procedures?
If I will keep the paper in this journal, how it will affect my academic career?

Do you know why it has been blacklisted? The journal being blacklisted does not mean your paper is bad or wrong. I would not try to retrieve the paper, you have done nothing wrong. But since it might reduce your work visibility, you might want to add your article to an open archive.

What is this "so-called blacklist"? Who's in charge of it?

There are some called black-list databases. In this databases there are list of journals. The claim that the journal publishes a lot of papers. Silly, but if the journal period monthly, of course they will have high number of published papers.

You seem to have some trust in the validity of the journal ("existed more than ten years" and "very surprised"), but not in the "so-called" blacklist. If that is, in fact, the case, maybe you don't need to worry at all. Blacklisting can be (depending on the way selection is done) very opinionated. For many of the better cases of blacklists, the criteria are public and there often exists published reasoning for everything they put there, or at least the reasoning will be provided on request.

I don't think you can or should "drop" the paper.  To paraphrase the jewelry slogan, a publication is forever.  You can't take it back just because you don't like the direction the journal has gone, or how people's  opinions of the journal have shifted.  Also, from a legal perspective, it's likely you signed a contract giving the journal the perpetual (and possibly exclusive) right to distribute your paper, and you might also have transferred copyright; so you can't legally prevent them from keeping your paper.
And indexing services are telling the truth when they list your paper as published there; you can't prevent them from sharing that fact.
One could argue a moral exception for a "predatory" journal which actively misled you about its standards and practices, in which case one could say your consent to publish was fraudulently obtained.  Even in that case, though, I don't see what you can practically do, since the journal is unlikely to agree to drop your paper.
How it will affect your career is unknowable - it depends on how important this paper is to your career, the opinions of the people evaluating you, why the journal was blacklisted, etc.
I think all you can do is resolve to be more careful when choosing publication venues in the future.

That's definitely reasonable answers. Regarding the career, it looks stupid, but people look if the journal is phishy or not. Yesterday I was sure to request to drop the paper, now I am rethinking again. Thank you, Nate!


text:
Would it be ethical of a student for him/her to act as a proofreader/editor for other students' essays and homework?
I'll be simple and direct, since the situation I'm asking after is pretty general, and hardly requires an anecdotal context.
Would it be ethical of a student for him/her to act as a proofreader/editor for other students' essays and works?
For example, students unfamiliar with English seek out this student for proofreading - this student corrects all the grammar and spelling errors in their papers, and fixes cases of terrible vocabulary (e.g. using "mail" instead of "male," or replacing instances of "spinning plane" with "helicopter" when it is clearly meant to be so).
And to further push the boundaries, this student gives critiques and advice of sorts. If Paragraph A doesn't make sense, they will advise them to rewrite it. If Paragraph B fits better as a conclusion, they will advise them to move it. If the essay suddenly dives into ill-fitting rambling for a page or two or goes off-topic, they will advise them to cut it.
Is this ethical?

This is unanswerable without more context. In which sort of postgraduate courses is this happening? Is quality of communication a marking criterion?

After seeing @ewormuth's answer, I do think you need to clarify the question. What essays or homework are you talking about? English class? Humanities class? Math? Science?

We need to know if the editor is being paid, whether the editor is feeling pressured to provide all this help, and whether the student receiving the editorial assistance is acknowledging the help.  (One way of acknowledging it would be to hand in both versions.)

I like to draw the line at actually writing anything vs making recommendations - i.e. marking a draft with red pen is fine, but typing the words or writing them is a no-no - basically the words need to come from the student tasked with the assignment, not from any help they received.

Critical reading, including proofreading of drafts and appropriate commenting, is an important part of academic work.  It should be encouraged.    Writing work for someone else is assisting plagiarism.   It should be stopped.  There's quite a gap in between.

As an student instructor, I would consider it ethical if certain conditions are met:

The proofreader isn't taking unfair advantage of the student, especially when paid for his services.  There are plenty who call themselves 'tutors' who will use dishonest tactics; for instance, deliberately being unclear as to his editing methods in order to encourage continuing dependence on his services, making false criticisms of edits the student's friend made for free, or emotionally manipulating students who are from abroad.
The student isn't taking unfair advantage of the instructor.  It's important that the student respects classroom policy on external assistance and observes the relevant boundaries when working with his editor.
The editor isn't taking unfair advantage of the instructor.  It's not clear from your question whether the editor is in the same course as the writer, or merely at the same school.  If the editor is enrolled in the same course, I'd consider it unethical for him to read through other students' work before his own is handed in.
The instructor isn't taking unfair advantage of the editor.  There should be reasonable office hours to work with students, because that work is the responsibility of the instructor, not the classmates.

I think #3 is only applicable in some situations. For the majority of my courses that required writing papers, the students' topics differed enough that it would not be cheating to read someone else's work. In fact, in some  classes it was a required activity to proofread and critique each other's work before submitting.

@DavidK agreed, in many classes it's encouraged to work together, and final grades aren't on a curve and so there's no reason not to learn from a peer's work and there's no (direct) incentive to sabotage their work, which are the two concerns that seem to be brought up by #3.

I wouldn't call 2. and 3. "taking unfair advantage of the instructor" – the instructor itself is usually not really damaged by this, only maybe the other (non-involved) students in this class.

I'm going to offer a CS perspective from Germany, which may apply to other engineering fields, as well:
While there is quite some writing in CS, within my circle of academic contacts, we usually go by the rule: A few minor mistakes are sloppy and irritating, but are to be expected in long documents and therefore excusable. What is not excusable is failing to have someone else proofread the document. This is particularly (but not exclusively) true when writing in a foreign language, such as (for us) English.
So, in other words, having someone else proofread each of your more significant documents (theses, seminar papers, ...) is considered a part of due diligence. This is, of course, not limited to student assignments, but will continue during one's professional life - authors of a paper should always give the camera-ready version of a research paper to someone so far uninvolved to do some proofreading, for instance.
In the student context, preferrably, this proofreading should be done by a fellow student:

They are likely to be savvy about the topic. This reduces the chance of false positives, where they consider something incorrectly written or expressed, which is actually correct in the terminology of the subject at hand.
It is a good practice for them; like that, they will not just train writing, but also proofreading/correcting, which they will have to do efficiently also later on.
As all students have to do the assignments, and all students need proofreaders, this allows for inherent compensation to some extent, as students can simply thank each other by returning the favour of proofreading.

As other answers remarked, it is important that proofreading is really that - identify mistakes, point out unclear or confusing statements and document structure, possibly suggest how to improve the text on an abstract level, but do not change anything other than the simplest of mistakes (straightforward typos that leave only one option for correction).
Concerning the attribution, I am undecided on whether it is obligatory:

It is certainly the polite thing to do.
In longer documents that feature acknowledgments (such as graduation theses), those acknowledgments provide a good opportunity for mentioning that the author received help by proofreaders. (Of course, not everyone puts acknowledgments in graduation theses; especially when the deadline is closing in, there are more essential parts of the document to work on.)
Given that proofreading is, as explained above, an indispensable part of writing a document, and a rather "technical" one (just like, e.g., using a text editor), it is debatable whether it should be mentioned. Maybe it should, but in that case, the producers of one's text editing software, or the manufacturer of one's computer, should probably be mentioned just as well, which is rarely done.
In shorter documents (especially papers with a page restriction), there is most probably simply no space to mention mere operational details of the paper writing process such as proofreading.

To summarize, I have rarely seen mentions of proofreading in documents, even though they occasionally do occur. Especially in student documents, when I do not find any mention of proofreading and I ask the student whether they have had someone else proofread their document, I am definitely much more dissatisfied with the answer "No, that's why I didn't mention it." than with the answer "Yes, of course; having someone else proofread my document before I hand it in is so self-evident that I do not see a point in specifically mentioning it."
EDIT: Whether or not to add an attribution may also depend on cultural customs. I recently brought up the topic concerning one of our papers in my department in Germany, when we had handed out that paper to a few colleagues from other departments for checking comprehensibility and clarity of the text (i.e. not restricted to spellchecking, but actual contents of the paper). My tentative suggestion to add a note in the acknowledgments thanking them for their suggestions was rejected as "silly" by my co-authors, because the colleagues from the other department "have just read the paper and suggested a few minor changes", and because "everyone always gives other people one's papers for external suggestions and those external people are normally never mentioned". People from other cultures might agree on different courses of action that are "normally" followed.

To accept a PhD based on some one else's work sounds like plagiarism to me O. R. Mapper. In the case of using a PhD to get a good job, I would say it was even fraud. Ever since Annette Schavan and Baron zu Googleberg lost their positions in German politics because of plagiarism, I would even go as far as to say it is dangerous to suggest that other people should be so care-free about it when its clear than (in Germany at least) this isnt acceptable.

@J.J: I'm confused - are you commenting on another answer or another question? Where in my answer have I suggested that one should accept a PhD based on someone else's work?

"Given that proofreading is, as explained above, an indispensable part of writing a document, and a rather "technical" one (just like, e.g., using a text editor), it is debatable whether it should be mentioned"

@J.J: Well, as I said - if we decide contributions on a mere operational level of writing the text such as proofreading need to be acknowledged, we must also acknowledge a whole other bunch of contributions, such as any spell checking software we used, any text editing software we used, the operating system, the computer manufacturer, ... the list can be continued indefinitely.

Concerning the attribution, I am undecided on whether it is obligatory — I think it is obligatory.  If another human being has directly contributed to the content of the paper, they should be acknowledged.  It does not follow that you should acknowledge the people who wrote your spellchecker, cooked your breakfast, or helped your mother give birth to you; they did not directly contribute to the paper's content.  The copy-editor did.  Without an acknowledgement, the author is claiming that the writing is entirely their own, which is just not true.

@JeffE: If another human being has provided essentially the same help as a spellchecker, and if the reason for the acknowledgment is indeed primarily providing a factual overview of how the author's writing was supported, I do not see why the existence of a human spellchecker must be mentioned, but the existence of an automated spellchecker need not be mentioned. ...

... Still, the point of my answer was that "Without an acknowledgement, the author is claiming that the writing is entirely their own" is simply not a correct assumption. Without an acknowledgment, the most reasonable assumption is still that the author had one or more proofreaders, simply because it's such an inherent part of writing that it goes without saying.

@O.R.Mapper Because humans are different from software.

@JeffE: Undoubtedly, but that doesn't seem to matter here. If we assume that the author claims the writing is entirely their own (which I don't, see above), and if we consider a particular amount of input to the document large enough to consider that claim that the writing was entirely done by the author "not true", it is completely irrelevant whether that particular amount of input came from a human proofreader or an automated software. The author received support that added to what they did themselves, which must be acknowledged, be it a human proofreader or a spell-checking software.

it is completely irrelevant whether that particular amount of input came from a human proofreader or an automated software — The author of a spell-checking software that I happen to use has expended zero energy on my personal behalf.  The human proof-reader who covers my paper with red ink did so directly for my personal benefit.  That difference seems relevant.

@JeffE: Above, your comments still implied you considered mentioning the proofreading important to establish whether or not the author received help in writing the article, i.e. the energy expended by the author was in the focus. If you'd prefer to focus on the energy expended by those supporting the author instead, I do not see any reason to distinguish between expending any energy on your personal behalf, or just expending any energy that you happen to make use of. By that logic, whoever spends an effort to create something reusable rather than just treating a specific case would ...

... receive less acknowledgments, even though the generic, reusable solution can easily become more challenging than the problem-specific one-time solution. And while I maintain my stance that mere technicalities such as proofreading need not be mentioned at all, more substantial contributions to a document, such as crucial software packages or datasets essential to the research, are indeed somewhat commonly acknowledged, even though none of these were typically prepared personally for the authors of a new paper.

I think the answer depends on the course and here's why:
I, personally, teach business courses which require a lot of research and writing. My best friend teaches a creative writing course both of us teach at a mid-large university.
In my class I would not allow peer editing because of the nature of my assignments. Students often find similar resources for their answers so editing another student's paper will give the editor all the information (even if it's links alone) to complete the assignment.
In my friends creative writing course it's required that students do peer-evlauaiton because it will improve the writers skill by seeing how someone else views their work, style, and even catch grammar mistakes that the writer often uses. Additionally, each individual paper will be vastly different in a creative writing course.
In my course writing skills such as knowing the difference between "male" and "mail" are annoying to deal with but it's not something I will take off points for because I do not teach spelling, grammar, or anything to do with the English language. However, if the paper is unreadable or lacks the effort of using English to the best of the students ability then points will be removed.

Exactly.  In my lower-level foreign language classes, it'd be completely unethical because I want to see how well the student can I can write on their own.  But in my upper-level courses where the papers are more about ideas, there's no problem at all and I encourage it.  In that case, it's win win.  Students can spend more time asking that person questions about why X is wrote/sounds weird, while I, come grading time, can focus more on the content of the paper rather than the presentation of it.

At least one university in the UK provides this type of service free to all non-native English users at undergraduate level and upwards, via bookable "office hours" type consultations as well as by running regular courses, English language workshops, etc. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/academic-english
That avoids any blurred boundaries between "improving the quality of language use", "unauthorized collaborative work" or "plagiarism" caused by informal arrangements between students.

The question of morality might be able to be circumvented entirely if the school offers any sort of writing services. I know my college (and I've heard many colleges) have a writing center which employs and trains students to proofread writing. It's their college endorsed job to help the students who might have trouble with this kind of thing, and since they have been trained, they're much less likely to overstep their boundaries. Classes might also have a TA/TAs that would also be able to help.
That being said--if that option not available at this university (which I'd find strange) or if students choose not to use it--I would still be ok with students reading each other's work, as long as they're transparent about what they've done. Peer reviews are used in lower levels of education to build student's writing skills. When I was a TA in a Freshman level college course, we encouraged students to go to each other as a resource--as long as they followed the school's honor code. It's better for the students to be able to learn before they send the paper in, rather than be punished for it after it and, let's be honest, professors don't have time to proofread every paper before it comes to them.
The same goes for critiques. As long as the second student doesn't rewrite the paragraph for them, they're doing a service to the first student and everyone who has to teach them later on. The idea that instructors are the only people who should be allowed to help students improve their writing is absurdly limiting.

It depends on the situation. This is very essential when we talk about journals. Because such unfamiliar proofreader's understanding/suggestions greatly help to make simple/clear the content of the topic/essay, especially to the newcomers in that topic. Switching to your case, it is also necessary but not always. Because some students have a bad tendency to depend on others during their homework instead increasing their skills in it.

Unless there is a prohibition of this activity by the instructor, there is nothing unethical about this, because the students have specifically requested your help, and because your help consists of editing something they have already written by themselves.  You are providing assistance in how to best render their composition in the English language; as long as your function remains that of an editor, not a composer, no ethical problem should arise.

I would say that it is not (unless explicitly permitted), since essay answers are graded in part based on writing -- writing instruction takes place implicitly not just in English classes. In my classes, well-constructed arguments and sentences are as much a part of the grade as knowing the factual answer. However, in some classes, instructors don't care about expression and they are only grading based on knowledge of content (but for some reason cannot reduce the exercise to check-boxes). If the instructor explicitly allows writing assistance, then okay. Otherwise, you have to consider that the instructor considers content and expression to both be valid bases for evaluating a paper.

There's a way to handle this that prevents this situation from turning into something it shouldn't.
Let's refer to the non-native speaker requesting assistance as Student A. We'll refer to the tutor/proofreader as Student B.
If Student A enlists help from Student B, Student A should turn in two copies of the paper. The first copy is the original draft with red-pen annotations from Student B. The second copy is the revised copy, typed by Student A, after receiving the feedback from Student B.
This way, there is some traceability. You can see exactly how much of the ideas belong to Student A, and you can see how much assistance was provided by Student B. Hopefully, the changes are largely cosmetic (there to their, e.g.), and the grader doesn't have to wade through all these problems and provide feedback during grading. It's a win-win.
If Student B is willing to assist Student A in this capacity, I don't think it needs to be prohibited, it just needs to be acknowledged and attributed. In fact, Student A wouldn't necessarily need to be a non-native speaker. Two students could proofread each other's papers with the aim of turning in higher quality work, so long as the instructor accepts this step as an acceptable form of help.

It's frustrating for those who are teaching writing, those papers that "my cousin" helped me with.  I'm talking about non-native students in a native-student class -- in a class for second-language students, it should never happen.  I'd like to teach them those things, rather than having someone else just do it for them, and see their grade based on what they can actually do, rather than on what someone else can do for them.  A trained tutor won't simply change things but will take the student through the process, so that they understand why they are making the changes.  Once they start having someone else just correct their work, they have to keep doing it.  And then when they get out in the real world, they haven't learned how to do it for themselves.

To clarify, do you mean that this kind of editing should not happen in an English class, or should not happen in any class? For example, second-language students taking History should not seek out writing and essay help from outside sources?

No, it's not that I think it shouldn't happen in any class, but I hope you can understand my wish that whoever is helping is actually helping the writer to understand how to do it on his/her own, rather than just making the corrections and saying "here you go."  It particularly shouldn't happen in a writing class, where it's the teacher's responsibility to give the writer the help s/he needs.


text:
Is there more competition for postdoc/faculty positions in the biological sciences, compared to similar positions in the health sciences?
I am seeking advice/input from graduate students and faculty within the fields of health sciences and integrative physiology/biology regarding employment opportunities, competition, and compensation in each field.
My research has led me to believe that the health sciences has more job opportunities/flexibility, less competition, and higher compensation for a given position when compared to the life sciences.
Are post-doctorate positions necessary in the biological sciences to earn a faculty position at a tier 1, research-intensive state university?
Is it true that there is far more competition for post-doctorate/faculty positions in the biological sciences at these institutions when compared to similar positions in the health sciences?

"State universities", even within the US, include a broad range of very different institutions.  Can you be a little more specific about what sort of institution / career you have in mind, and in what country?

@NateEldredge, My most desired position would be a tenure-track faculty position at a research-intensive, T1 state university. My passion is research. I enjoy human-subject research, but I also enjoy in vitro investigations. I really have no preference there. I would be open to taking a position outside of the U.S.

Voted to reopen after edits. What exactly is "health science"? Do you mean medicine?

@CapeCode, Our particular program does not offer an M.D., although that will be happening in the next couple of years. Our program has students and professors from fields such as health physics, biomechanics, cognition/neurophysiology, human physiology, physical therapy, public health, and epidemiology.

I will answer your first question from my own experience as someone who earned a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from a top-level research medical school in the United States, and spent much of his long academic career on the faculty of health sciences at a major research university. (Others may have had different opinions based on their own experiences.)

My research has led me to believe that the health sciences has more
job opportunities/flexibility, less competition, and higher
compensation for a given position when compared to the life sciences.

This is absolutely true. Basically, it comes down to money available for research. In academia, this money comes primarily from government funding. The NIH, which funds health sciences, has MUCH more funding to distribute, and in larger amounts, than the NSF, which funds biological sciences in general. And of course, there is big pharma and other health care industries having plentiful funds for research and development.
Health sciences professors, who are almost always on the faculties of schools of medicine and other health sciences, are more highly paid than biology-related professors, who usually are on the faculties of schools of liberal arts and sciences.
And yet, perhaps surprisingly, health science positions, though rigorous in their requirements, are generally less competitive (i.e., less applicants per position opening) than in life sciences. This is because fewer PhDs have the clinical/biomedical/health backgrounds that health sciences schools are looking for.


text:
Listing books read on a CV for undergraduate research in mathematics
I am currently making my CV for undergraduate research internships in Pure Mathematics. I have read many graduate level books on the field out of my own interest. Whenever I was stuck on a difficult concept, I have sought the help of my professors and they can vouch for my understanding of these topics. Adding a section titled "Books Mastered" seems a bit narcissistic but I believe mentioning these books would add weight to my application.How can I leverage this experience and incorporate it into my CV?

Your CV is not the place.  A personal statement or cover letter could mention books, in context of how they incited your interest to learn more, etc.

In an undergrad CV, I've seen people list select courses and which books were used in the courses (as well as grades). I haven't seen people list books they've "mastered." It probably isn't a good thing to list as it comes off as trying too hard.

@CameronWilliams  I agree "mastered' may not be the right word. These books were not course text books. These were books recommended by my professors when I expressed my interest in learning more about these topics.

@BenVoigt How do I handle situations wherein I need to send only my CV? For example, an online portal for a summer internship program

@Gokul_uf are you saying something like "my experience is comparable to what one would get in an independent study class, but the situation was not formalized?" I agree with the others that a books read or mastered section is a bad idea.

@GabrielC.Drummond-Cole Precisely!

Like many questions on this site, knowing what country you are in would help us give targeted advice.  In the US the closest thing to what you're talking about would probably be a _R_esearch _E_xperience for _U_ndergraduates, and there would indeed be a personal statement as well as faculty letters.  If you only send in your CV, I think you're talking about something else.  Please specify.

@PeteL.Clark, I'm from India and I am applying to professors both within the country and abroad

@Gokul_uf: Please put that into your question and also tell us what countries you're applying for.  Otherwise any answers you get could apply only to someone halfway around the world from you.

How can I leverage this experience and incorporate it into my CV?

I'm not convinced there's any good way to incorporate this experience into your CV.  The basic problem is that it's unclear what it means to have studied a book: there's a huge range of levels of mastery that could all legitimately fall into this category.  Furthermore, many undergraduates have trouble accurately assessing their own knowledge and accomplishments, so a self-assessment of mastery is not convincing even if it's completely honest.  And of course honesty and bias are important issues.
The net effect is that these claims are vague, subjective, and unverifiable, which is exactly the opposite of what belongs in your CV.
You could always try to say something more precise.  For example, "I wrote out solutions to every problem in Hartshorne's algebraic geometry textbook" is much more compelling than "I studied Hartshorne" or "I mastered Hartshorne".  It's still not ideal; for example, it leaves open the question of whether your solutions were actually correct.  However, it at least gives a much clearer idea of how much you might have learned, and it allows the possibility of verification by requesting to see the solutions.  (Don't say this if you lost them!)
I wouldn't recommend trying to make precise claims like this for all your independent reading, since it would still come across as eccentric.  However, that would at least be a better option than just listing some books.

This question brought to my mind two anecdotes:

The back cover of Donald Knuth's epic book The Art of Computer Programming famously carries an endorsement quote from Bill Gates saying "If you think you're a really good programmer... read (Knuth's) Art of Computer Programming... You should definitely send me a résumé if you can read the whole thing."
True story: some years ago I was invited to join some colleagues at a conference at lunch, and found myself sitting next to a famous scientist whose classic textbook is a discipline-shaping, notoriously difficult to read work, which has greatly informed and inspired my own research. After some introductions and random smalltalk I turned to him and said something like "Professor, I thought you should know I really love your book. It has really influenced my research and my thinking." He smiled, clearly amused, and after a short pause replied "Hmm. So what's in chapter 9?" Of course I was rather taken by surprise, but I did know the book very well and after a few seconds managed to get my wits together and said "oh, chapter 9 is about [X]." He was quite pleased and impressed. (I think he did not expect me to know the answer to his question; the joke was that chapter 9 is the most difficult chapter in the book, understood at a high level perhaps by 5-10 people on earth, and certainly not by me. But I did at least know what it was about...)

Going back to the OP's question, I would say that listing books you have mastered in a CV is certainly very unconventional (I have never seen it done), but as my anecdotes illustrate, this information can certainly be valuable to a prospective employer/mentor, so I see no reason why it should be taboo to mention it, subject to the following caveats:
a. Only include the list if you truly believe your private studying of hard topics in mathematics is so extensive compared to that of your peers that it would make you a more attractive internship candidate. Everybody reads books, so your list needs to be able to convincingly demonstrate that you have a read a lot more and understood a lot more than most other internship candidates.
b. Be precise about the level of mastery you have achieved of the books in question. For example, you can include your list under the heading "Books mastered" and add a footnote saying "I have invested at least 40 hours of study in each of the books on the list, and in each one I have solved a large proportion of exercises. My solutions are recorded in a notebook that I keep for future reference."
c. Most importantly, be completely honest. Do not inflate or exaggerate your claims (and if your list doesn't seem impressive enough without such exaggerations, obviously that means you should not add it to your CV). If I were calling you up for an interview after being impressed by your list -- which I can quite possibly see myself doing -- I would make very sure to ask you (as the famous scientist did to me) some questions about tricky topics in a random sample of the books to test your understanding. Needless to say, if I found out you were exaggerating the interview would be over immediately.

While the other answers, and the comments, make good points, I think it is quite possible to make reasonable (esp. modest) remarks about books (or PDFS of lecture nots) one "has looked at", especially if one's curiosity is strong! Sure, do not say "mastered" (even if you believe it, or even if it's true), because you'll simply discredit yourself, so readers won't believe much else in your file.
Since, apparently, self-motivated, undocumentable reading-of-books is not so common in mathematics, there seems to be no accepted tradition of how to report it or even mention it. While it is certainly true that good advice from experienced mathematics faculty can be helpful both in choice of sources and in how to benefit from them, there's simply not enough time in the day for a very-inquisitive person to ask about every thing they see, probably.
There is also a confusing pervasive mythology about "how" one should read a source: supposedly ultra-carefully, line-by-line, doing all the exercises, and so on. I do not buy into this, for various reasons. In any case, this at least indirectly would seem to completely invalidate any other notion of "looking at things", which I think is a very bad thing. That is, I think "casual" (or whatever word we can agree on) reading/skimming/perusal of mathematics books can be very helpful, productive, informative, etc. E.g., getting an idea where all the little details are going, and maybe why we'd care.
E.g., the notion that one would ONLY look at the textbooks for the few math courses one enrolls for each year strikes me as bizarre, comparable to the notion that one would play sports only when signed up for "gym class", and then only for "assignments". Or only listen to music for "music appreciation" class.
In particular, as anyone reading this answer can surmise, when I read an application file that includes self-driven reading outside of the official coursework game, it is a big positive. True, self-appraisal is a difficult thing... but/and that difficulty should not be a reason to disregard the thing that is difficult to assess! After all, the convenience of "grades" is substantially self-referential, and often reflects as much obedience as understanding.
So, yes, you might list some books you've "looked at", in a form somewhat parallel to listing advanced coursework (which should include textbook authors' names, also!). Be modest. And in mathematics, the authors' names are more explanatory than titles, so it's important to include them.

If I read your question right, the answer is: there's no reason to put this in your CV.  If your professors truly have a good assessment of what you've done, then this will be in their letters of recommendation (which you will almost certainly need), where they can give it the appropriate weight and you don't need to worry about doing something non-standard in your CV.  (If you actually took reading courses, even informally, then this is natural to put in your CV.)  As mentioned in a comment, it would be appropriate to bring up some of your readings in a cover letter and/or personal statement.

If you actually took reading courses, even informally - what is an "actual" reading course that is also informal? Doesn't "actual" imply "formal" here?

@ff524 Informal meaning not enrolled for credit (thus avoiding tuition/fees/etc) but with a professor with regular meetings.  I did this one summer as an undergrad (in fact at a different university), and I currently have a grad student doing this with me now.


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Should an errata contain header and footer text and a page number?
When writing a paper and adding an errata list (spelling out some mistakes that were made in previous versions of the paper), should that list contain the same meta-information as other pages, i.e. header and footer text and a page number? (If it's relevant, I am using APA for this paper but cannot find any information on the subject.) Additionally, should it be included in a table of contents?

Consult the APA Style manual, which you can probably check out of a library. The full manual is not available online, although I was able to find this information about lists. You may want to consider the guidelines for appendices, since this list sounds like an appendix (if it is long). This document from Walden University(pdf) describes how to format appendices using APA), but is mum on header and footer. I expect that you should include such information.
Consult the recipient of your paper. If this paper is being written for a class, ask your instructor. If this paper is to be submitted to a journal or conference, then said journal or conference likely has detailed guidelines available for lists and appendices. If such information is not available, you should contact a member of the editorial staff.


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Project is going nowhere, can I nix it and try a new approach without my co-author?
I work in an environment that's somewhere between academia and the professional world. I'm an analyst within this environment, in addition to my professional responsibilities dictated by the workplace's main mission, I assist the PhD's with their research.  (I have an masters in Statistics)
I've been working on a project with one of the PhD's for over a year (it goes slow, professional responsibilities get in the way of research).  The project is going nowhere for a variety of reasons (the first is that the methodology he wants to use is demonstrably flawed--from a statistical standpoint).
Several times over this time period he has dangled the carrot of co-authorship on the paper (at times saying "you will be a co-author", and a few weeks later saying "if you contribute maybe you will be a co-author".  This is doubly frustrating when it seems to me that I'm the only one contributing...).  He also has mentioned several times bringing his friend in as co-author as well (his friend has contributed nothing thus far.  I met him, he didn't even seem enthusiastic about the project).
Thus far the main methodology we used is one he suggested, but actually bringing that through to completion has been entirely me.  It yields no fruit, though, and I feel this whole enterprise has been an exercise in frustration.
I have another idea, approaching the problem in a different direction.  I haven't yet done the modeling, but I believe the idea to be ideologically consistent with the original goal of the project, and should be statistically sound.  The trouble is, I'm not sure I want to co-author with this person.
Am I wrong to consider nixing their project and doing my own thing on my own?

Note that to some degree this depends on what the project is - for example, are you using unpublished data collected by your collaborator that you'd need in order to do it "your way"? Are there any original ideas or contributions from your collaborator that might show up (or appear to show up) in your later, independent work?

it's using pure public, readily accessible data.  You could go and download it yourself right now.
It's possible that they could say that there was one original idea that I took, but honestly, if they claim it's an original idea, they lack knowledge of the field.

It's okay to go ahead and try your new approach on your own, but tell your co-author that you are going this way. There will be hard feelings if they keep working or pinning hopes in the combined paper and are surprised when you publish on your own.

Do you have a supervisor who would appreciate being kept in the loop?
I think your best bet is to give this colleague a clear message that the methodology he has proposed is flawed and that the results coming from that methodology are not promising.  Ask him if he can think of any justification for you to spend more time on this project as currently contemplated.
In other words, pull the plug on the project.  But indicate that if he has any other ideas for collaboration about something else, you'd be happy to work with him on a different project.

If you work up your other idea, and publish that work, make sure to mention him in the acknowledgements.


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Literature survey in multiple languages
The following question has been induced by a comment to the question What to do if chosen topic has been done in a foreign language.
I know four languages (+-1) sufficiently well to be able to read and comprehend literature specific to my field (math/phys). When doing a literature survey before starting the research phase for my thesis (masters now, phd later) should I look for literature in all the languages I comprehend or would only two (i.e., EN/DE or EN/RU) suffice?
Specifically for masters a check in all the languages seems like an overkill to me, given the limited amount of time available.

Think of the literature search from a different perspective -- you might be able to find a gem in one language that you could reveal to people who don't speak that language. Or a gem that provides an unexpected connection upon which to build your thesis. This is power available to you.

No one ever covers enough in their literature review, and part of the responsibility of your supervisor is to ensure that you cover enough. But being able to read four languages is surely an advantage, so don't waste it!

I would not do a multi-language literature search for Master's degree (due to limited time, as you mentioned, plus simply because expectations for a Master's level of research are significantly lower than the one of Ph.D. level. Having said that, I've seen some pretty solid research-focused Master's theses, but they are relatively rare.
On the other hand, performing a multi-language literature review for a Ph.D. research seems like a good idea, as it would allow you to cover the topic as well as related fields of study and research streams much more comprehensively (in both width and depth), which is an expectation for a doctoral-level research. However, you should always be focused on your main goals and assess your literature search with overall Ph.D. program's and dissertation's time frames in mind. It is so very easy to get addicted to exploring vast volumes of existing research, even restricting yourself to a particular subject domain. That introduces the risk of spending way too much time on that, jeopardizing other essential parts of your research study. You have been warned! And good luck!

While both expectations and experience are indeed lower when writing a Master's thesis, having (depending on the university) six months entirely devoted to one particular endeavour, the Master thesis topic, without any other tasks and deadlines in parallel, usually allows for a lot more net time than what any PhD candidate can generally spend on literature search for any given single paper. (This is only partially compensated for by the fact that sometimes, several papers benefit from the same literature research to some extent due to overlapping topics.)

@O.R.Mapper: It's a good point, however, I don't think that such time difference is a common case. IMHO it's very dependent on the institution as well as on student's circumstances at the moment.

Indeed, it depends a lot on the organization and culture of the university. My comment was based on the situation where PhD candidates generally have to write one or more papers at a time, while also doing or managing some implementation work for projects they are funded from, having some teaching tasks related to lectures, tutorials or seminars, supervising Bachelor and Master students, and possibly performing some minor secondary duties in the department all the time, whereas Master students have six months to work on their thesis and only their thesis.

@O.R.Mapper: I see. As I haven't had such an extensive experience (very school- and program-dependent), I can't confirm that. However, I believe you on that and your point makes a lot of sense.


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What are the most common prerequisites demanded by Promotionsausschüssen (German PhD boards)?
Reading the German universities' regulations on doctoral programs, one often comes to paragraphs about sanctions that can be demanded by the PhD board (Promotionsausschuss) as perquisites before they admit a candidate.
For example I have seen [updated to reflect the given answers]:

own publication(s) needed
take selected courses/modules offered by the university, which contents are related to the planned topic of thesis
submitting an exposé
letter(s) of recommendation
certificate of good conduct ("Führungszeugnis")
supervisor actually employed at the same university

Are there other common requirements demanded by such boards?

Other requirements (not necessarily prerequisites) may include the attendance of doctoral seminars (i.e. presenting your work one or more times during your PhD and having a committee judge whether or not you can proceed as intended) and the presentation of a certificate of good conduct ("Führungszeugnis").
Source: http://www.inf.ovgu.de/inf_media/downloads/forschung/promotion/2013/Promotionsordnung_2012_12_19-p-4194.pdf

Here you need a supervisor, i.e., a professor currently employed at the university and a letter where you state whether you have been involved in other doctoral programs before or if you even are currently involved in one. Other than that you have to write a formal application containing a curriculum vitae, credentials and a short abstract of what you want to do (which is usually already approved by your supervisor).
If the PhD board thinks that you need additional courses/modules you just have to do the additional coursework during your PhD. So at least at my current university it's not a prerequisite. But these courses are not necessarily related to the planned topic, e.g., if you have a Master's degree in mathematics and what to do a PhD in computer science (CS) the board may requires you to do some basic CS courses (if you haven't done anything in this direction).


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What exactly does termination from a PhD program entail?
I am an engineering PhD candidate at a US university. I left the university a couple of years ago after 5yrs of PhD work to work as an independent scientist, while also working with my advisor on the completion of my PhD on the side (while not being enrolled in the university all this while). I received a notice recently from the department asking me to defend my thesis ASAP or risk being terminated from the PhD program.
What exactly does termination mean, and what does it entail?
On a side note, what are the implications of such a termination on my professional career in the industry? For ex. does it show up in a background check? I have a Bachelor's (from another university) and Master's degree (from the same university).

They want to kick you out, in plain English.

This is normal practice these days at universities. In the old days, doctoral students could drift away from their program mid-stream and people wouldn't really care. They might return after 20 years to submit their dissertation, but otherwise there was no attempt to track these zombie students down.
Unfortunately, many places are  now using average time-to-degree (TTD) as metrics to a graduate program's quality (purportedly a lower TTD is better).  Zombie students are problematic as you can have someone who is 15 years into a program without graduating, dragging the average up. Note that there is a difference between a nominal TTD and actual TTDs -- for example, in my old university the nominal TTD was 5 years but very few people actually graduated in that time, the average was closer to 6.5 years.
In my experience, provosts are asking departments to track the zombies down and determine whether they should be terminated or not. Being terminated isn't a bad thing, it means that you will be left with your last degree (e.g., M.Phil) and you shouldn't really  call yourself ABD as you won't be permitted to submit. I've been through a few of these cullings and as faculty I think they are a good thing as zombie students on the books really help no one.
If you have any hope of submitting, I would ask that you be given some time (1 year would be reasonable) to submit. Otherwise, I would take your MA/M.Phil and be happy with it. I don't think there are any negatives for a career in industry. Again, you technically shouldn't call yourself ABD (rather you "withdrew from program after meeting all qualifications for the doctorate but the dissertation") but I really don't think anyone is going to check. Think of it as a general discharge, under honorable conditions.

Interesting, thanks. Does it show up in the background checks or can someone simply leave the termination part out of the CV completely? Kinda like 'Don't ask, don't tell' :-)

My experience has been that standard time-to-degree limits are part of the program's basic parameters, and would have been disclosed in the catalog / graduate handbook.  If so, then it's not really a matter of a meddling provost, but simply the department enforcing its policies - policies which the OP should have known about from day 1.

A lot of schools only started enforcing them when we say them dragging down our stats in NRC rankings.

Ask it as a separate question, mmmm.

Regarding background checks: at a US university, your educational records should be protected by FERPA and nobody should be able to access them without your permission.
However, you should probably assume that a potential employer would be able to learn the following things: You used to be enrolled in the PhD program, you're not enrolled now, and you didn't receive the degree.  (Some of this would be "directory information" which FERPA does not protect; other parts might be otherwise publicly available, such as from old department web page listings of grad students.)  So they can reasonably deduce that you either quit voluntarily or were kicked out ("terminated").
Some employers might also require, as part of the job application process, that you give them a copy of your official transcript from the university.  If you are terminated from the program, the transcript will state this, and probably explain the reason ("didn't complete program requirements within time limit", "didn't make satisfactory progress", something like that).
If you don't think you will be able (or willing) to either defend before the deadline or negotiate more time, you might see about voluntarily withdrawing from the program.  ("You can't fire me, I quit.")  This might not look as bad on a transcript.  After all, it's not uncommon for people to start graduate programs and then decide it isn't something they want to pursue, and you could explain it to an employer in those terms.  ("I decided that instead of academic research, I wanted to work in industry, so that I could do work that was more practical / real-life / lucrative.")

Very useful, thanks. But since I have not enrolled in the university for >2yrs, isn't is automatically assumed that I have withdrawn from the program? As far as my knowledge goes, at most US universities, once you stop enrolling, you need to apply for a re-admission even to just defend.

@andy: Hard to say.  It's not uncommon for people to keep working on the degree while not enrolled, and in many cases the "application for re-admission" is just a formality.  So just because you're no longer enrolled, that by itself might not lead someone to conclude that you've quit.  But that plus a significant length of time could change their conclusion.  In any case, they'd likely ask what your intentions are regarding the program, and after termination you'd have to answer that you are no longer a candidate for the PhD.