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Adjunct professor capacities
Can I mention an adjunct professor as my proposed supervisor for graduate studies, or adjunct  professors are not allowed to be supervisor?
Are there anythings that I should be aware of before mentioning his/her name in my application?

The easiest way to resolve this question is to e-mail the person and ask whether they anticipate taking new graduate students in the near future.  This is worth asking even for non-adjunct faculty (since they may have all the students they can handle already, they may be retiring soon or moving to another university or an administrative position, etc.), so nobody will be surprised or take offense at the question.
As for what sort of answer to expect, it depends on what sort of adjunct professor it is.  Sometimes researchers from other institutions (government or industrial research labs, museums, etc.) hold adjunct positions at universities.  They may or may not be allowed to supervise graduate students, depending on the terms of their appointment, but it's common to allow this; often it's part of the point of the position.  On the other hand, there's another sort of position sometimes called adjunct faculty, namely low-paid temporary workers hired to teach introductory courses, and these jobs are not likely to involve graduate supervision.  You should be able to tell pretty easily which case applies to any particular person by looking on the web, and in any case e-mailing them (as described above) will give a definitive answer.

Your answer is great, but unfortunately many professors don't reply to emails (talking from experience) therefore I asked the question just to make sure that adjunct professors can or can't do it.

If you just want to know “in principle”, look at your university's policies… This is something they decide. For example, the University of Manitoba says:

a) The Adjunct Professor may be thesis/practicum supervisor or co-supervisor of, or serve on the thesis/practicum committee for, graduate students registered in the Faculty of Graduate Studies. In the event that the appointment of an Adjunct Professor expires before the graduate students have completed their programs, the Head of the department/unit shall be responsible for recommending reappointment or naming a replacement.

Whether it's a good idea is an entirely different question…

So Adjunct Professor abilities differ from one university to another, depending on the university's policies.

@TheHiary their abilities depend on each individual, but their official capacities (what they are allowed to do) depends on each institution's policy


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Optional essays
If  you can upload a writing sample or a second statement of purpose in a  university online application, and the department I am applying for doesn't require these two essays, would I get extra credit (higher chances of getting accepted) if I do upload answers to these questions, or they will not even look at them?

You're not going to strengthen your application just by uploading something; "bytes of application data" is not part of the application scoring.  There's no way to know whether they will read it or not; some committees might and some might not.  If you want to know about a specific department, you'll have to ask them.  Even if they do read it, then whether it helps you depends on what you actually wrote!

Less is more.  The goal of your application is to present tangible evidence that you have the potential to succeed as a researcher (completed papers, projects, and to some degree coursework), and do so as quickly and concisely as possible.  Adding more text simply distracts readers from the "important stuff," which they probably care about less than your letters anyway.  In that vein, I'll stop here.

What you are saying is logically true, however the bad news is I don't have a published paper yet, or even a related to my proposed field writing sample! so maybe this is a game changer!

Certainly you have something that demonstrates your creative potential.  Class project?  Project you did on your own just for fun?  ...Even if you don't, simply adding more text to your application is not going to help your case!

source: Stack Exchange

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Mentioning money in statement of purpose
I am currently working as a research assistant with a pay grade that is half of a typical entry level commercial job (computer programming jobs in particular).
Is it beneficial to mention this in a Statement of purpose for graduate admissions, so as to show that I sacrificed a better financial situation in favor of a research career? Is mentioning money a bad idea regardless of the context, or is it well known that research assistance-ships pay less than regular jobs?

Actually its well known that research assistance-ships pay less than regular jobs. This is true.
But, I think you should not mention money in the research statement in a blunt way. But you can definitely prove your point in a subtle way:

Like, After my undergraduate I got multiple offers from multi-national corporations but my passion motivated me to choose a research path over any other.

This is just an example, you can rewrite suiting to your needs.

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Author's email address in a published paper is not working
I have stumbled upon a paper that is very related to my field of research and after reading and discussing it with my supervisor, I found some issues in the paper that I need more information about, such as the data set they used.
When I sent them an email (their emails are university email accounts) I received a failure notice telling me that these emails have been discontinued.
What is the protocol that I should follow to pass my inquires to them?
I have found one of the author's LinkedIn account, from it I know his current working place, can I contact the company asking them for his contact information? And I have already sent him a connection request containing a brief message of my intentions.

Contact the university they were at, and ask if they have forwarding information.

@FaheemMitha Should I contact the authors department or is there a specific email address or office that usually deals with this kind of inquires?

I would call the authors department to start with, and see if they have any information.

I assume you've already tried Google.  Right?

@JeffE Yes, I did.

There's no particular "protocol"; just try to find some other way to contact them.
I would try:

Google the author's names.
Look for more recent publications by the same author(s); see if they list updated email addresses.
LinkedIn was a good idea.
If you have found the author's employer, see if you can find his contact info on their website; or contact someone else at the company and ask.
Some professional societies maintain a database with contact information for all members.  For instance, mathematics has the Combined Membership List.
Contact someone at the previous employer and ask if they have current contact info.

I would like to add one point of note to the other answer:
Do check if the first author is still in academia.
It is quite possible that the first author wrote the paper as a PhD student, and has since left academia.  Quite probably, if he/she has left academia, he/she will not have time or want to make time to address the issue.  When this is the case, probably their supervisor is also on the paper, and might still be in academia.  In this case, contact the supervisor or another co-author.

Yes, the paper is based on a masters thesis and the first author is working in a research corporation now. The third author is his supervising professor, and I have sent him an email but I didn't get any reply yet!

You should be aware that (in my experience) faculty members are less likely to respond to emails from unknown graduate students or postdocs.  If the email you have from the principal investigator on the paper appears to be current, and you don't get a response in a few days, try having your supervisor write.

@ AJK I have already informed my supervisor regarding this issue, thank you for your comment.


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The benefits of the social connections made in attending a conference?
So I wanted to ask a question about the benefits of attending a conference and then found this: Advantages of attending a conference
I realized from the answers that there are two advantages of attending a conference:

Making connections.
Learning.

While I believe that for the second point, by not attending one can just grab a copy of the proceedings and then he will have a pretty good idea of what happened and learn better (because you really can't learn much from presentations), the first point was harder to compensate for.
Suppose one made connections from a conference, then what are the potential benefits of making those connections? i.e. how to make value out of them?! Because I personally believe that a lot of people make connections but they just end up knowing each other without any collaborations or a value that I can see. Also the majority of the connections would be with researchers and students, not hiring managers so I wonder if there are any value for job search after graduating 4 years from the PhD.
Edit: I've never been to a conference, but I hear what my friends say and also I see couple online videos.

..."one can just grab a copy of the proceedings". Understanding a paper from the proceedings is much harder than listening to its 20 min presentation that highlights the important parts only.

Not applicable to four years after graduating, but before graduating PhD students may need to reccomend an external examiner in their field. Conferences are an excellent place to determine suitable examiners.

@Alexandros i think skimming through the introduction and abstract takes much less time. If the goal is just to know what the contributions and general idea are, skimming I guess is faster and better. If the gaol was to understand how those contributions were done, then I guess many people would need to read the paper because you can't really understand that from the presentation. I guess this is what a lot of my friends told me!

@JackTwain: If the contribution is (either best illustrated as, or essentially consists of) an animated graphic or an interactive user interface or something like that, the paper can only ever deliver a vague idea compared to the first-hand observation you are provided with while watching the talk.

Another related question: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/223/73

Suppose one made connections from a conference, then what are the potential benefits of making those connections? i.e. how to make value out of them?!

For most people, new connections found through conferences at a later stage become either

Potential references
Potential collaborators
Friends or at least acquaintances

(or, in the optimal case, a combination thereof)
For all of those, it is hard to put a numerical "value" on them, but as you progress with your academic career, you will find that it is hard to be successful in academia without a healthy set of all of the three. Without references that vouch for your scientific merit, it is hard to get any advanced academic positions. Without collaborators, it is hard to write strong papers and grant proposals. Without friends in the community, future conferences become a chore and it is very easy to lose track of where the community is heading as a whole (also, the third item quite naturally leads to the former two items).

Also the majority of the connections would be with researchers and students, not hiring managers so I wonder if there are any value for job search after graduating 4 years from the PhD.

In academia, the notion of "hiring managers" is somewhat suspect. You can definitely meet senior professors at conferences, and those are the ones that decide whether you get a faculty position down the road. Further, never make the mistake of assuming that the "researchers and students" you connect to don't matter, and you shouldn't talk to them - the PhD students from today are the people that review your papers and grant proposals tomorrow (hence the name "peer review").

Why does it matter whether I have connected to someone who reviews my papers or grant proposals?

First of all, in certain disciplines (CS) conferences are the main publishing venue. Publishing in conferences also means that you must attend the respective conference to present, as shown here. Therefore in such disciplines you have no other choice but to submit to and attend conferences.
On the other hand, networking is much more than what you believe. The people you meet there are also your competitors and your future reviewers at the same time. Making a connection on a personal level and making a convincing presentation and answer related questions with affirmative authority, shows the conference attenders (including your future reviewers) that you really know what you are talking about. Also, showing that you are not an arrogant "newcomer" that wants to push them out of their "territory" but instead you know, respect and admire their previous work, makes your acceptance from their community easier. This in turn, will make your future papers more easily accepted and bring you more reviews to do, which in turn helps you shape the direction of your small scientific area. It also notifies you early on what everyone else is doing. Also, many times even without being co-authors on any paper, you may collaborate with those people on your next paper when they might provide their datasets or binaries or their src code, which might be needed to compare your work with theirs. Again, this informal type of collaboration is easier to be done when you have met those people in person and perhaps shared a beer in the conference banquet or reception.
Also, as stated in my previous answer here, you also totally miss the other social aspect of conferences. You will get to see a new place (you would not see otherwise) for only 20 minutes of work and all expenses paid. This is in most times a wonderful experience and you should probably not miss it.

I actually have a problem with the point that my papers could be easily accepted in the future if the people like me. Shouldn't only the quality of my papers be the only criteria in being them accepted or not?! Regardless of the person's behavior, either arrogant, bad or narcissist.

Unfortunately, I'm not a PhD student but planning to do research in my own free time and will try to publish papers without being affiliated with a Uni nor a professor. Thus I was really just trying to find out if it really pays off to attend the conference if attendance was optional. I didn't know that some conferences forces you to attend in order to publish. Thank you!

I believe that most conferences in most fields will not publish a paper in their proceedings unless someone (not necessarily an author) presents that paper at the conference. The other option is to try to publish a paper in a journal, as opposed to a conference.

@JackTwain: Certainly the quality of the paper's content should be the only criteria, but it would be naive to doubt that in the real world, a reviewer's personal feelings about the author could play a role.

@NateEldredge I heard couple stories about people whose papers get accepted simply because their advisor is that X person.

@JackTwain I'm with Nate on the matter personal feelings. In an ideal(ized) world the quality of the research and paper would be the only criteria. Unfortunately we live in the "real world" where petty feelings are quite often the deciding factor. Scientific history is littered with examples of such behaviour. So our (only) choice is to grin, bear it and try to improve the situation (if that is even possible).

When I look at a conference that I have attended, two main metrics emerge to describe what benefits I obtained there:

What is the longest time afterwards that I am thinking about something learned at the conference?
What fraction of the time was I unable to attend the talks because I was taking care of business networking?

The first metric was something I learned from my advisor, and it served me very well as a graduate student.  This you can sometimes learn from papers, but the best talks of a conference are often either keynotes (which typically aren't in the proceedings) or else go above and beyond their papers to offer insight, context, and motivation that often doesn't formalize well or may not be present on the page at all.
The second metric has emerged for me over time as I have matured as a researcher, because there is so much to do and so little time at a conference.  Among the important types of things one does while networking at a conference:

Get insight into how others in the field outside your intellectual bubble are thinking about things
Float ideas and get them critiqued
Meet potential new collaborators, negotiate potential collaborations
Get to know colleagues better both as fellow scientists and as people
Arrange for invited lectures or other visits, both as host and guest
Organize plans for future workshops, special symposia, special issues, etc.
Make plans for sabbaticals, hiring, student placement
Meet program managers, plan grant-writing
Actually work on collaborations with otherwise-remote collaborators

Some of these don't apply quite as much as a graduate student, but it's never too early to start getting to know your field and your colleagues at a more informal level, and much of the rest can emerge organically from that as you find likeminded individuals who share interests.
In short: learning is great and useful, but networking is the biggest reason for and benefit of conferences, so far as I'm concerned these days.

First off: one clever trick is to take notes at the conference and use them as part of the survey or literature review for your next paper.  This isn't quite the same as social connections but it's food for thought.
Back to your question: Often people go to conferences to chat about things that aren't going to turn into research papers, but you never know when you might meet a future collaborator at a conference, or a friend-of-a-future-collaborator.  In my current job, I work with/for someone whom I was indirectly introduced to in this way.  Another key collaborator is someone who I met at a conference, and then bumped into again online.  Sometimes it happens the other way around.
In short, networking is "necessary but not sufficient" and conferences are one good place to do it. Another is to get invited to give a talk in a local seminar series (often the next step after the conference).
It's important to realise that nine out of ten possible "connections" don't take off, at least not right away.  Still, even the ones that are dormant can be helpful later, since you'll know more about who's who, and what they are up to.  And you get to know more about the sort of people you would and wouldn't want to work with.


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Should I quit my PhD?
This is a canonical question on this topic as per this Meta post. Due to its nature, it is rather broad and not exemplary for a regular question on this site. Please feel free to improve this question.
By its very nature, a PhD is stressful. If you're coping with other issues at the same time, the stress can become unbearable. Suppose a student is experiencing some of the following while pursuing a PhD, and wondering if they should quit. What tools could help them make the best decision?

worried they're not smart enough
stressed and unhappy
homesick
haven't made any friends, feeling lonely
suffering from a mental health issue such as depression, panic attacks, or bipolar
worried about a family situation (e.g., a sick relative)
worried about money
disagreements with advisor

I voted to close as too broad. The answer have to be totally different for the different cases and I think that there are questions here already on different issues.

@Dirk please discuss your views in the linked meta question

It's completely normal to feel miserable during a PhD and to creatively waste time on this sort of nonsense. Now get back to work.

@Dirk I'm not convinced that people who come to find the answer for 'should I quit?' know which issues are relevant or otherwise. I think having this question as a way to direct them to the right place would be very useful.

People suffer from all of the above even if they are not doing a PhD ;)

"By its very nature, a PhD is stressful." so are a lot of other occupations.

I voted to close this question for reasons expressed in StrongBad's answer on the related meta questions.

It's difficult to think clearly and make good decisions when you're stressed. Obviously, we can't tell you whether or not you should leave the PhD programme, but here are some suggestions to help you through this difficult time.

If you have a mental health issue, try to address it before making any big decisions.
Your school will generally have a counsellor to help students. Contact them and make an appointment.
Meditation can help with stress. There may be a meditation club, or free meditation lessons on offer at your school (this is particularly common near exam time).
Think about YOUR goals rather than just trying to please parents/advisors.
Realise that a PhD programme is very different than anything you've likely done before, so don't expect to feel comfortable in it for the first six months or even a year.
Talk to your advisor about the problem. If you don't feel comfortable doing this yet, perhaps visit a counselor first.
Try not to be overwhelmed by the number of problems you're facing. Try to think about each problem in isolation. Imagine all of the problems but one magically disappeared; what could you do to alleviate the remaining problem?
You may be able to take a leave of absence from your studies.
Try doing sports, it helps your focus and your health. In fact, this would be one on the first things to do no matter if you are at PhD or not.

This is a very difficult and subjective question to answer but I hope I can at least point you in a direction to aid in your decision. I am working on a PhD in the biological sciences so I am answering from that perspective. What you are experiencing can be lumped into about three different categories:
Normal/moderately normal for a PhD student

worried they're not smart enough
stressed and unhappy
homesick
feeling lonely

It is relatively normal for PhD students in the biological science to feel these things to varying degrees of severity on and off throughout your 5-6 years in the field. You have a lot of pressure between classes, teaching, and research which can occupy a lot of your time and perhaps all of your evenings and weekends. Much of the work may require you to be alone or with little company. You will be isolated from your social life due to the pressures and demands of research. You may be in a new country or a new city.
I would suggest finding one or two things you truly enjoy and carving out the time to do these activities once a week. You may find yourself more efficient because you will be working under less stress. If you have a niche interest, look online for meetups with others. It will be much easier to make friends when you already have major things in common.
Normal for many jobs

disagreements with advisor
worried about a family situation (e.g., a sick relative)
worried about money
homesick
worried they're not smart enough

If you are not in your PhD program, these items will not necessarily just go away. Struggling with a boss or having disagreements with management can happen anytime groups of people have to work together. Monetary issues or family situations will not be guaranteed to go away just because you are working elsewhere. Worry over not being smart enough can still happen in any job where you will find yourself compared to the work of co-workers.
I significantly downgraded my lifestyle when I began my PhD. You may have to find alternative ways to save money and not live as extravagantly.
Remember, in many ways your PhD is an investment. This will not be forever.
Of potential medical concern

suffering from a mental health issue
worried they're not smart enough
stressed and unhappy
haven't made any friends, feeling lonely

You have to determine for yourself or through a doctor if the severity of what you feel is just due to the normal stress of graduate school or actually indicative of an underlying medical condition. While it is normal to feel stressed and lonely at times, persistent feelings may warrant medical intervention. There are counseling and medical services on many campus so I urge you to consider their opinion and suggestions before quitting your PhD.
Conclusion
Life will always be full of stress. You will face challenges in your career if not in graduate school. You will deal with financial stress, medical stress, deaths, and loneliness at various points in your life with or without your PhD program. What you need to determine is if the severity of these feelings is normal and something you have to learn to deal with or if it is the result of medical health problems.
For me it was the former. And the experience I have had in my program, pushing through the stress and loneliness and coming out on top, has, more than anything else, made me feel like I have truly grown up. I hope this is also the case for you.

This is more general, rather than related to the questioner's concerns. Regarding family problems: concerns over a sick family member won't go away, but if you are a new parent, you will probably have a much easier time outside of a PhD program, especially if you make a family friendly job a priority.

I would argue that, as written, the questioner's concerns are very general. Any one of the issues on the list could range from mild concern to severe concern depending on the specific context. You are entirely correct in the scenario you describe but how am I to know that is the subtext for "family situation"? There are hundreds of life possibilities for that item, all of which would require a different answer. A general question was asked so I gave a general answer that would cover all bases minimally but equally across the spectrum from "it's part of life" to "it could be mental health".

I agree that PhD sometimes  can get stressful! But, there can be a solution (or bunch of solutions) to each problem:

Worried they're not smart enough => You are smart enough, stop doubting yourself and stop comparing yourself to others! Stress triggered due to doubt can be pretty much eliminated by self confidence. Take a step back, collect data and re-analyze why do you feel this way. If it grades-related, try to improve the way you study or meet the professor in office hours to figure out why are performing badly. If it is publication-related, talk to your advisor/senior PhD student and see what's going on. Most of time the solution to each problem can be found by breaking the issue down into its basics (i.e., go back to the basics/fundamentals).
Stressed and unhappy, homesick, have not made any friends => I'm lumping these together because I feel they come from the same source (being lonely and an introvert). Most of the time, if you are lonely (no friends), you will be unhappy and homesick because you will naturally miss your family and friends!! Many PhD students are introverts that think all what they need to do is finish their thesis or research. To put it into prescriptive, it takes so much effort and time to schedule an event for 5-6 PhD students than for 50 undergraduate! Just because PhD students think its not worth it or have so much to do! Do not be like that. Engage in activities or academic clubs in your school, do some volunteering (even if it was in animal shelters), join a gym (my personal preference). Re-learn how to make friends. When you walk downtown, do you think people who walk by you knows that you are a PhD student?! No, nobody cares. So, social life is very important. We are humans, humans are made to interact with other humans (not phone apps). Start dating (if single) or traveling with your significant other (for a week or two).
Suffering from a mental health issue such as depression, panic attacks, or bipolar => If it is related to being lonely (most likely), go back and read point 2 above. If not, join a support group, see a doctor, fix your problem. The sooner the better!
Worried about a family situation (e.g., a sick relative) => That is a hard one to deal with. I lost many family members while I was being away for my studies. I did call them on regular basis. Let me tell you something, even if you were working a regular job (9-5) right next to them, that would not have changed anything! Get it out of your head, PhD did not cause that! You can not save everybody, no one can! Life is life.
Worried about money => "If you choose Academia, you will always be broke, unless.." one of my advisors told me that. He did not say unless what, he just smiled. If you mean being worried about money while being a student, then, try not to. It is not something you can fix now (unless you win an award or fellowship, your salary will be the same throughout your schooling (especially is financially supported by your advisor)). What you can do is, finding a part-time job. Keep in mind that sometimes this can not be an option (if you are in the US on an F or J visa, if I'm not mistaken).
Disagreements with advisor => Why? Do not be too stubborn, be professional and flexible. Many advisors are a pain to work with/for. Be smart, avoid arguments even if that would mean to work few minutes extra here and there. On cases where the advisor is very mean, moody, unrealistic, unprofessional, try to talk to him/her, discuss it with an academic advisor, department chair, consider changing your current advisor etc.

At the end of the day, you made it this far. Problems will always occur, try to solve them. I understand that it can be way easier said than done! But, life is a journey!


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What does "archival quality" mean in the context of journal aims and scope?
What does "archival quality" mean in this context? Is it just a posh way of saying they only want a paper if it describes an important breakthrough?

IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation publishes archival
  quality original papers in evolutionary computation and related areas
  including nature-inspired algorithms, population-based methods, and
  optimization where selection and variation are integral, and hybrid
  systems where these paradigms are combined. Purely theoretical papers
  are considered as are application papers that provide general insights
  into these areas of computation.

Note: I think this may be a duplicate of What does archival contribution in journals mean. However, even if it gets closed as a duplicate, it will help others searching for the information. And it would be nice to have a more extensive answer, either here or on the other question.

Actually, archival quality paper is paper that is acid free and will last 500 years if used with ink that is also archival quality.

Welcome to the site! The quote in the question makes it clear, though, that "paper" is being used in the sense of "published piece of writing", not "the stuff that books are made from."

A reference to the corresponding ISO standard (or to an equivalent definition) is missing.

Generally "archival quality" implies some level of "completeness" and comprehensiveness (to the degree that any work of science and engineering can really be "complete.") In many fields, early work can be published in some conferences, but journal papers that are expected to be "archival quality" are supposed to be more mature.
To quote from this Guidelines for Expanding Conference Papers for Submission to the IEEE Sensors Journal:

Conference papers are usually short, and deal with very recent research results or new ideas illustrated by preliminary experiments. An archival journal paper, on the contrary, contains an overview of the state-of-the-art (with references to other’s and one’s own past work), a problem statement, the concept of a solution, a discussion of the theoretical
  background, experimental set-up, sound measurement data, an evaluation of the results, discussion and conclusions – a much more complete presentation of the overall project and its results.


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what is the best email type to request for Phd position
Recently I have found a great PHD position which on some aspect exactly fit with my CV.
I am looking for the best email type to introduce my self to the professor? what information are necessary on my email.
Do you show me any examples or links?

The most important thing in the e-mail is to explain to the professor why the PhD position which on some aspect exactly fit with your CV.

Answer the 5 W's: Who, What, Where, When, and Why.
Honestly my thought is skip the full introduction in the email. Instead, state that you are a phd student, and you believe the position fit in with your cv and you wish to have a in person meeting/or phone meeting to discuss this. Keep the email short and sweet. Once you meet the professor, discuss with him.

or her... I would prefer to have a very short version of who the applicant is and the salient points of their CV in the email, so that I can assess whether to offer a phone meeting or schedule a face-2-face meeting.

This is really bad advice because the email must be customized owing to the large number of people bulk mailing non-customized requests for PhD positions.

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which one have more importance to US PhD program ?TOEFL and GRE or publication records
I have got my BS and master both with honor with good GPAs. But Now I want to know which of these have more importance to US PhD program in Computer engineering.
TOEFL and GRE  or publication records. What I am looking for is some case like this:

T : 107   G : x   p : 0
T : 98    G : x   p : 1

which case has more chance ?

The TOEFL is important if you're from a non-English speaking country. If you don't do well, it'll look really bad for applications. The GRE is more of a test of basic skills and committees don't really care as long as you meet some minimum requirements. Publications, GPA (particularly in advanced courses you've taken) and recommendation letters are the biggest parts of your application.

@CameronWilliams thanks what about honors, Can I count on that?

Honors is definitely a very good distinction on your degrees. It will undoubtedly work in your favor.

You are not alone in looking for the admissions formula, but that is just not how PhD admissions work.

Neither.
PhD admissions committees at strong departments are looking for clear evidence of potential for high-quality independent research.
Test scores only matter if they're low.  In particular, if your math score is low, there will be serious doubts about your math ability, and if your verbal/TOEFL score is low, there will be serious questions about your communication skills.  In some departments (like mine in CS), admission to the PhD requires a TOEFL Speak score above a certain minimum (in my case: 22), because all PhD students are expected to be TAs at least once while they're in the program, and the state of Illinois requires a minimum Speak score (in my case: 24) on TAs who are not native English speakers.
Publication records only matter if the papers are either good or horrible.  It's utterly impossible to tell from the number of publications whether the applicant has significant promise for future independent research.  High-quality papers, written in flawless English, published in well-known venues that are easily accessible online from the US, are definitely helpful.  Poorly written incremental results in the Inaccessible Khazakhstani Journal of Computer Stuff is at best meaningless and at worst actively damaging.

When I was in charge of graduate admissions (and, as far as I know, ever since), foreign Ph.D. students had to be offered at least a year's support (in order to get their visas), and the only form of support we could offer was teaching assistantships.  So when admitting students, we had to be confident about their ability to teach first-year calculus or pre-calculus, in understandable English. If, after they arrived, the college deemed their English inadequate, we had to pay them a TA salary for a year but couldn't use them as TAs --- not good for our budget.


text:
How to quickly understand the main idea when reading a paper?
I have problems in reading papers, specifically papers where the subject is not so new to me and I am familiar with the problem which the writer wants to solve.
How to find the those parts which talk about the main idea?
When I go to their suggested work to understand the main idea, I have to have first read their previous sections, because they define some notations and definition which they use them on their suggested work. When I go to read those parts to understand the notation. I am not sure if my reading method is good. because after reading the notations and definitions , I have to start their suggested method section. This one has its own challenges too.
My advisor said you should understand the main idea of a paper in one hour, or at maximum in two hours. But I need at least 5 hours.
(Maybe help: I am reading a paper in the field of computer networks.)

I would say there is no SOP (standard operating procedure) for reading a paper...

What are you trying to get out of this paper that you are reading?  The answer depends on this...

I want to know just the main idea. Not understand all parts like reviewer or a person which wants to work on that paper.

This answer to a related question gives more detailed advice on reading papers. Beyond that, I agree that there is no standard way to read a paper.

Have you considered the possibility that maybe the language barrier is what's slowing you down? For example, I tried to correct the English in your post, but I can't understand the part from "I tell my self is work ok?" to the end of that paragraph.

@ff524, maybe. but not generally. my problem is "How to detect those parts which give me a point of view about their suggested algorithm as fast as possible

You skim the paper and find the parts you're interested in. It does sound like a language issue... skimming in a language you're not very comfortable in is bound to be difficult. (And the rest of that paragraph - "I should start to learn their suggested method. and also that one still have its challenges." - is still not understandable.)

But I need at least 5 hours. So? Even 5 days is worth it if the paper is good.

How to efficiently read a paper is not something that can be taught over the internet in broad generalities.  It seems pretty futile to try to teach it "in general" in general (!!), by which I mean that if you're trying to teach someone how to read a paper, you had better have at least one actual paper in hand.  You can try to draw broader morals, but whatever lessons are there to be learned should be grounded in the reading of that particular paper.  Thus for instance

How to find the those parts which talk about the main idea?

would be silly to address without seeing the paper.
I find more promise here:

My advisor said you should understand the main idea of a paper in one hour, or at maximum in two hours. But I need at least 5 hours.

Your advisor knows me?!?  Sorry, just kidding.  Anyway, that's exactly whom you should be talking to.  But even with your advisor you are stuck on a way too general discussion.  Go to her with with paper you are trying to read now, and learn how the advice applies to that paper.
Let me also say that I am a bit skeptical of the hard limits your advisor is imposing, or more precisely with the way you are construing whatever your advisor told you.  Obviously 1-2 hours cannot be the amount of time needed to understand the main idea of every paper: some papers are just significantly longer, more difficult and/or more obscure than others.  Speaking for myself: after some years of experience for reading for the main idea, depending on the paper, sometimes I can now grasp the main idea just as soon as I run my eyes over the first page; sometimes it takes me an hour or two; sometimes it takes me a full day's work; sometimes at the end of a full day's work I find that I don't understand the main idea.
Where is this 1-2 hour figure coming from, and what does "should" mean here?  Maybe she means "Come back if you've spent more than two hours on it and I'll give you more help."  Or maybe she means that's an upper bound for how long it would take her to read the paper.  But she's not a student, she's supervising one.  If there's one matter in which students should be skeptical of their advisors, it's in their advisors' estimations of how long it will (or "should") take a student to do something.  It's not a matter of arguing with your advisor but rather letting her in to understand your process.  If it's taking you so much more time than she expects, show her what you're doing and see what she has to say.
Let me also say that a longer time spent on something isn't inherently problematic.  If you are reading in a language different from your own native one, it will take you longer -- and skimming will take you much longer.  Most academics eventually realize that the people who can complete tasks more quickly are often but far from always the ones who can do the best work on those tasks.  Real breakthroughs are things that people chew on and work through for weeks, months or years.  Some speed freak types simply don't have the patience or focus to linger on something for much longer than it takes for others to see how quick they are.  So if you are eventually understanding what you're reading quite well and you're not lagging far behind in other tasks: ask yourself whether you really have a problem or just a certain skill that you'd like to optimize when you get the chance.


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What to consider when signing up for VG Wort?
I am a German citizen and have published my PhD thesis this year and am thus thinking of signing a contract (“Wahrnehmungsvertrag”) with VG Wort. Essentially, it seems like taking free money for my thesis and articles (which I would write in any case) without any downsides. In this question, I would like to clarify whether there are really no downsides.

I am fine with VG Wort to duplicate my works wherever (as long this does not infringe any rights of the copyright holders, see below) and most of the legalese seems to consists of various ways for duplication I allow VG Wort.

I have published articles at various subscription-based journals (from Springer, Elsevier, IOP, …) and signed the corresponding copyright agreements. These do not stop me from getting paid for these articles by VG Wort, correct?

I am surely not allowed to sign a similar contract with another corporation – but I guess there will probably be no other opportunities in any case?

Do I have to ask my coauthors for approval before sending an article to VG Wort?

Does VG Wort gain the rights to utilize any of my (academic) publications? Or just those which I manually add in their tool?

Am I in some sense obligated to tell them about publications?

If so, does this also hold for, say, lecture notes I put on my website?

Is there any other potential problem?

Main question: Apart from some initial bureaucratic effort, are there any downsides for me signing such a contract with VG Wort?

Don't plan on actually getting any 'free money' from you thesis...

For any non-Germans, what is VG WORT?

@Jeroen: The VG stands for “Verwertungsgesellschaft“ with Wikipedia translates as “Copyright collective” (but this probably mixes up different legal terms). In case you heard of GEMA: It's like that for texts. In very simple (and surely slightly wrong terms): Say your copyrighted book is used in a school, borrowed in a library or in part copied somewhere, then you can get money for that and VG WORT gets the money for you.

@Keba, no legal advice from my side. But I have seen quite a few PhD candidates collecting the money from VG Wort, and as far as I can tell they were all happy. You do not expect to commercialise your dissertation text in any other way, do you?

@Snijderfrey: Of course I was not expecting any legal advice here. And yes, I do not plan to commercialize my works in any other way.

Is there anything about this question that would change if your writing was not academic writing?  E.g. a work of popular fiction?

@AnonymousPhysicist: While the laws and contracts the same, many aspects of them are either only relevant to academic writing or not relevant at all, in particular given the peculiarities of the academic publishing system as well as generally low reader numbers. Thus the academic’s perspective is quite different from the novelist’s one, for example. Also, VG Wort has a distinct reporting system for academic publications.

First of all, it is helpful to realise that the VG Wort is all about monetizing secondary use (“Zweitverwertung”) of creative works, i.e., lawfully permitted uses of works, e.g., copying for teaching.
This is opposed to primary use such as a journal selling a copy of an issue to a library or a single paper to a reader.
Secondary use is almost inherently impossible to directly monetise because it would be too tedious for everybody involved and enable copyright holders to effectively block lawfully permitted uses.
Instead there are special fees on devices used for secondary use such as printers or computers that the VG Wort collects and then distributes to both, authors and publishers.
The legal documents regarding this are rather convoluted, in particular VG Wort’s contract could have been made easier to read for humans.
Since this is not legal advice anyway, I will not excessively cite them but leave it to you to check them in accordance to the level of certainty you desire.
A brief overview of the most important parts:

§ 60h UrhG (English, German) entitles authors to remuneration for secondary uses, which must be “asserted through a collecting society”.

In the VG Wort’s contract (“Wahrnehmungsvertrag”), § 1 covers the various secondary uses of copyrighted material covered by VG Wort (many of which are practically irrelevant to scientific publication). § 2 restricts all of this to works of text and asserts that certain rights of the author are not touched.

With all of that being said, let’s move to your individual points:

I am fine with VG Wort to duplicate my works wherever […] and most of the legalese seems to consists of various ways for duplication I allow VG Wort.

VG Wort is not interested in copying your work.
Other people have a right to copy your work under certain conditions (lawfully permitted use) and you are entitled to remuneration for this.
You entrust these rights and managing the remunerations to VG Wort.
(There are also aspects like rental, which are a bit more complicated.)

I have published articles at various subscription-based journals (from Springer, Elsevier, IOP, …) and signed the corresponding copyright agreements. These do not stop me from getting paid for these articles by VG Wort, correct?

Correct.
From a pragmatical point of view, VG Wort knows how scientific publishers work and scientific publisher know VG Wort (and also receive remuneration via it).

I am surely not allowed to sign a similar contract with another corporation – but I guess there will probably be no other opportunities in any case?

Correct. VG Wort is a society per bestowal by the state (“Verein kraft Verleihung”).
German copyright law mandates that you can only collect remunerations for secondary use via such a collection society (§ 60h UrhG, see above), and VG Wort is the only one covering scientific texts.

Do I have to ask my coauthors for approval before sending an article to VG Wort?

No.
In general you need such approval when you are acting on somebody’s behalf – which should be made very clear to you, e.g., when transferring copyright to a journal (though some journals contact each author for this individually).

Does VG Wort gain the rights to utilize any of my (academic) publications? Or just those which I manually add in their tool?
Am I in some sense obligated to tell them about publications?

You transfer the rights for all your publications.
Reporting publications is only something VG Wort requires you to do if you want to receive any money.

If so, does this also hold for, say, lecture notes I put on my website?

Technically, yes.
Texts published in the Internet can be remunerated by VG Wort.
You need to provide proof of how often they have been accessed (via a counting pixel) and you need to reach a minimum of 1500 visits.
I find it unlikely that lecture notes or similar will reach this or it is worth the effort.

Apart from some initial bureaucratic effort, are there any downsides for me signing such a contract with VG Wort?

I am not aware of any downsides. It’s mostly about collecting money that you are entitled to anyway.

free money for my thesis

At a first glance, to receive remuneration for your thesis, it has to be “properly” published (with ISBN and stuff) – which is unlikely.
Also due to the low number of copies, it’s probably not worth the effort to register it.

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


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Traveling during PhD
I've started a PhD position at a university in the US, but I'd like to travel during my time there.  What's the easiest way to do something like that?  Are there fellowships or grants available for students who want to study abroad for a semester or year, and if so, how can I find them?  Or, is studying abroad typically a process that is dependent on who my advisor knows in foreign countries?
If it helps to answer this question, my field is statistics and I'm planning on focusing on spatial statistics.

There are conferences everywhere which you can (and should) be attending with your research.

This question is bit hard to answer without knowing your field.  Typically, there's no program analogous to what we think of as "study abroad" for Ph.D. students, but this is because for a Ph.D. student, "study" means something very different.  Often it means being tied to a particular lab, but even if that's not the case, a semester at another random university doesn't fit into the program the way it would with undergrads.  I would encourage you to look more into conferences and workshops rather than "study abroad" per se.

Fulbright, or similar country-specific fellowships. There are many. Ask your university fellowship/scholarship office.

It may depend on who your advisor knows in foreign countries --- or who you can get to know in foreign countries.
I've known people who've done this, but my impression is that in grad school it becomes less about "doing a study abroad" and more about doing a "visiting scholar" program at a particular school.  That is, you wouldn't seek or find something like "I want to study abroad" or "I want to study in Country X".  What you could do is find a particular school, department, or researcher in Country X and arrange to visit their department for a certain length of time.  I'm in a department in the US, and we regularly have visiting scholars from a range of countries (e.g., Japan, the Netherlands, Finland, Brazil).  We currently have one of our own students on a visiting scholar stay in Germany and another is planning a possible study in Singapore.
The thing is that, like anything else in a PhD program, "studying abroad" can't just be "studying", it has to be connected to your particular research.  So you would need to build connections with particular departments.
Also, there can often be opportunities for shorter-term study abroad in the form of "workshops" or the like.  These would be more in the range of 2-6 weeks.  That's a lot less time abroad, but my impression is it's much more straightforward, because you just apply (instead of having to form specific personal relationships with other researchers).  These workshops sometimes have fellowships available to cover some or all of the cost, and even if they don't, it's likely to be easier to get funding from other sources if you can point to a specific "thing" you're using it for (i.e., "I am going to this workshop on these dates to learn about these topics" rather than "I'm going to Country X for a while to hang out").

Thanks for the elaborate answer!  So, a good approach may be to compile a list of experts in my field during my literature review and then investigate their specific interests and availability?

It is very dependant on the country you live in. There are plenty of countries whos universities have special programs for students studying abroad. In such programs, you are often in contact with other people from your university / country who study or live near you when you're in another country. They then organise several events to explore the culture there.
(I've attended keynotes about this as I'm thinking of studying abroad myself)


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How to behave when dating a fellow PhD student in same department?
I am currently dating a PhD student in the same department as me (I am also a PhD student). Not the same research group, but closely related topics anyway. We're both happy with it, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but I am worried about possible negative consequences on the job.
So, what rules (written and unwritten) should be followed when dating someone like that? that is we do not work together everyday but we are still working closely, both geographically and scientifically.

So long as the relationship is student/student and not teacher/student, I highly doubt there will ever be written rules to cover this (very common) situation.

Are you a professor or a PhD student as well...

I am a PhD student

@Jim then do you live in a country that has religious restrictions on relationships between boys and girls?

@ziyuang for a few seconds, I thought you meant religious restrictions banning heterosexual conduct and allowing only homosexuality… then my mind corrected itself :)

One possible thing to watch out for: in some departments, graduate students may work as teaching assistants for graduate courses.  You should ask not to be assigned to TA courses which your significant other is taking (and he or she should do likewise), as this would represent a possible conflict of interest.  Even if you can grade your SO's work objectively, there might be a perception of unfairness among other students.  Likewise, if any other situation should arise where one of you might be in a position of authority over the other, you'd need to disclose the conflict of interest and be prepared to resolve it.
Otherwise, as Peter Jansson said, relationships between graduate students are very common and aren't likely to cause academic concern.  Just stay professional about it (e.g. don't make out in the hallways).

As long as you and your partner aren't put into any "boss-subordinate" professional relationship, it is nobody else's business what you are doing. So, it is perfectly fine to be in the same research group, the same class, etc., as long as it is not a direct "teacher-student" relationship. In the latter case just check what the university rules are.
The only (but major) negative consequence for the job is that if your relationship gets serious, you'll get a two-body problem to solve. I've been trying to solve mine since 1995 with no really satisfactory results (at best I could rank the arrangements I had as "tolerable"). So, watch out!

My wife and I solved our two-academic-body problem: it's possible! Of course, you'll have a two-body problem almost anytime you have a serious romantic partner — not just two grads from the same department or two academics in general.

Concerning written rules you need to find out if any exist in your department, university etc. you will certainly not be the first or the only couple in this "situation". Unwritten rules are perhaps what you need to care more about and then I am actually not so much thinking about rules as such. First off, people know more about your relationship than you think. Or perhaps more precisely, they think they know more, in other words rumours and gossip might spread. so the advice is to be open about it and think about it as two adult persons in a relationship. It is your life, it is not a secret and most importantly, it is natural.
Regarding your work, you need to act professionally (like any other should). You need to help each other prioritize your respective careers and make sure your relationship can function despite the pressures graduate school inevitably involves. So in my opinion, you should worry more about balancing work and relationship so that you both can spend the time necessary to succeed. this means making sure the relationship does not directly or indirectly affect others on a professional level.


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Difference between International edition of a book and a non international one
Most of the textbooks  I used during my undergraduate studies (outside north America) are International editions, so what is the difference between a national and an international edition of a book?
For example, I have a book that says

XYZ published this special edition for the benefit of students outside the United States and Canada.

and they don't mention why this international edition is special or what is the benefit!

There is a difference in the number of the pages. For example, the book "Lippincott Illustrated Reviews: Pharmacology" has to editions (international and regular) but while the regular has 680 pages, the international edition has 570 pages, it says 110 pages less than the regular one, or

Even non-textbooks often have localized editions.....   Color -> colour and program -> programme and so on.  And 3.1415 -> 3,1415.  And miles converted to kilometers, Fahrenheit converted to Centigrade.

International editions are cheaper
They are sold cheaper, in English speaking countries (or countries with education in English) outside North America: India, China, etc. The content is equal to that of US/North American versions.
There are two reasons why they are cheaper:

because they are printed in cheaper version: paperback instead of hardcover, sometimes black and white
because the publisher knows he cannot sell them at their US price anyway, so they are willing to sell them at the price people will buy them (better to sell them cheaply than not at all)

Sources:

http://www.thetextbookguru.com/2011/04/20/international-textbook-editions-a-cheaper-alternative-2/
http://www.abebooks.com/books/Textbooks/international-editions.shtml
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080825164810AAGRN80

There was also a case about import of international edition textbooks in the US supreme court last year (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/thai-student-protected-by-first-sale-supreme-court-rules/).

so why don't they offer both choices, cheap quality for cheap price and good quality for high price, and I as a customer will decide if I can afford the former or the latter?! Also why can't a North American student buy the book for a lower price (the books have a banner that says "Not for sale in USA or Canada")

@TheHiary:  It's simple economics... if you know you can get away with selling at a higher price in a particular area (knowing that people would/must buy it), why would you sell it for cheaper?  Often times, publishers have contracts that allow them to sell the higher price books in north america because they can make a lot of money doing so.

@TheHiary: There are ways to obtain used versions of the international edition books in north america (e.g. abebooks.com).  However, the sellers often mark up the selling price from the original (brand new) international edition price, knowing that it would still turn out cheaper for a north american buyer and the seller can still make a profit on it.

@Paul Thank you for your comment, but you only answered the second part of my first comment, so what about international student why are they forced with the low price/quality product?

@TheHiary: They're not "forced" per se... but many students who buy international editions do so because the standard editions are just too expensive. If a student can afford the more expensive edition, they can certainly make a special order.  It's just not sufficiently in demand to warrant selling the standard edition, in bulk, to certain countries.

@Paul Okay, so it is just economical reason, thank you for the clarification.

The contents may be equivalent but they are not necessarily equal.  I recently ran across a textbook in which the international edition had different numerical values in all the exercises.  This was obviously done intentionally so that a US student could not use the international edition.

Also, some international versions are only to be used outside of the US. Due to them giving a software license for a certain region. (During my Physics / Maths courses, I had to use the international edition so the license was valid in EU universities.)
It can be for a variety of reasons, I think Jim stated the most important ones.

Sometimes they have been intentionally made incompatible.
I recently came across a textbook whose "international version", though having the same edition number, had different numerical values in all the homework problems!  There is no possible pedagogical reason for doing this.  It was clearly just intended to make it impossible for a North American student to use the (cheaper) international version, if they are assigned homework problems from the text.


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Choosing universities or programs
I am currently applying for two universities for graduate studies at the US, assuming both universities accept me (Hopefully) should I choose the university that fits me better or the university which is more selective (like ivy league universities).
My concern is that smarter students will overrun me in the top university, is this a valid concern or there is no academic competition between students since the admissions office and the designated department would not have accepted me in the first place if I had a non competitive enough profile?

Don't count your chickens before they hatch?

@Shion I don't have anything else to do!

to be honest, you are asking very wrong questions. or rather, you are thinking in a wrong direction. Why you worry about other people etc? Just study well and do your best!

@avi I might have phrased my question in a wrong way, but what I am concerned about is: does the university evaluation  (acceptance) mean that I am capable of performing perfectly in their program !?

My concern is that smarter students will overrun me in the top university

Well, the good news is that the smarter students will be concerned about you overrunning them.  It's called impostor syndrome, and virtually everyone at a top institution has it.  (And I don't just mean the students...)
Also: being around people who are (much) smarter than you is a good thing, because it means you will learn more.  (That's why you're hanging around a university, right?)  The other good news is that in grad school, you will no longer be competing against your peers.  The bad news is that you will now be competing against the entire academic community in your chosen area of study.  So, it's probably good to have some other smart students around to talk to.  Right?
My experience as a student at a Extremely Well-Ranked School is that other students are very supportive, and empathetic to the experience of getting through a tough program.  In short: don't worry.  It will be ok.

should I choose the university that fits me better or the university which is more selective

Isn't this a tautology?  The university that fits you better will fit you better.
A less sarcastic reply is: there is nothing that matters more in grad school (or in life in general...) than your relationships with the people immediately around you, namely, your advisor and the other members of your research group / lab.  Even brilliant students who do not have a good working environment or a supportive advisor will flounder—I have seen it time and time and time again.  In contrast, students who are not exceptionally brilliant but have a good relationship with their advisor / group tend to do well, at least well enough to move on to a satisfying career after grad school.  Prestige, fame, money, and beauty are all higher-order terms.  Pick the place where you will be happy.

should I choose the university that fits me better or the university which is more selective

Assuming you're lucky enough to have that choice....
Neither.
You should choose the environment that gives you the greater likelihood of future success, as defined by your own academic and career goals.
This may be correlated with the overall reputation of the university, but any such correlation will be very loose.  The overall reputation of the department is a better proxy, but still loose.  The reputations of your (probable) advisor or advisors, or even better, of their former students, is even closer, but still not the whole story, because not every student wanted to do what you want to do.
Strong universities have weak departments and vice versa.  Strong departments have weak research areas, or toxic work environments, and vice versa.  Strong advisors in strong departments may have no interests that overlap yours, or may have working styles that badly clash with yours, or may have insufficient funding to support you, or may be located in places that you find unlivable for financial or cultural reasons.

does the university evaluation (acceptance) mean that I am capable of performing perfectly in their program !?

Of course not!  There's no such thing as "performing perfectly".
But acceptance with funding usually means that the faculty—or at least the admissions committee—believes you have a strong potential for success in that graduate program.
(I write "usually" because a few lazy/unethical departments do intentionally accept more students than they reasonably believe can succeed.  Especially if this is a serious concern, talk to current students in the department before you accept.  And acceptance without funding only means that they're willing to take your money; run away fast.)
Finally: Do not listen to the Impostor Syndrome.

Short answer: why don't you come back and ask again when you got the acceptance letters from both schools? These worries seem premature.
Anyway, assuming this is more about applying to schools... I cannot tell you which to apply, but here are the components you should consider:

It depends on the department you are going to. Not all departments in the selective schools are reputable. Meanwhile, some department in smaller schools can be the field's leader.
It depends on your career aspiration. Graduates from reputable schools may face fewer barriers in advancing to become a researcher or apply for a faculty position. But this is only one piece of the puzzle; other factors such as research topics, track records, etc. matter greatly as well. If it's a skill-based degree, then check the field and ask around which institutes seem to be better recognized.
It depends on what do you mean by "fits me better." At the very least, the chosen school should not give you more stress/misery beyond necessary (e.g. beyond stresses that is due to class work, high standard, etc.) If you have to endure extra burdens such as tension brought about by different value and culture of the organization's, then you better not go there.
Competition happens everywhere. Organizational and personal cultures have a lot to do with it. There are departments/schools that particularly favor competitive students, either due to the professional nature of their degree, pride, or scarcity of resources. Personality of the classmates can also matter. Some people just love to compete, even in the most minor things of their life. Anyhow, to expect less competition because the people are more homogeneous is unrealistic; in fact, competition is the likeliest outcome to see in a homogeneous population.
Some schools may consider accepting students from developing countries even the students deem slightly less competitive than the rest of the crowd. They do this for many reasons: to expand their influence, to leverage the intellectual bargaining power of the applicants' countries, to establish their department that is specialized in global work, etc. Regardless if this system is in place or not, there is always a spectrum of competency among the student body, whatever the makeup of the body is.
Generally, I think you can benefit from some attitude readjustment. Unless you need excellent grades for scholarship or assistantship, graduate school is more of a competition within oneself than between people. As a foreign student, try your best to integrate into the local culture, make friends, build support networks, consult some cultural and study specialists at school, pay attention to your grades, ask questions, participate in discussion, bring what's unique about your experience to the table, and enjoy the stay and study. The whole process is a lot more than worrying about how not to make mistakes or fall behind.

At the time I get the acceptance letters I might not be as relaxed as I am now (not enough time to think it through) so that is why I am asking for the future


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Statement of purpose book reference
I am applying for graduate studies in the US and in my statement of purpose I mention the name of a book and it's author, as the book is very relevant to my previous research work and the author is working in the university I am applying too.
Is this okay, or should I not mention the book's name?
If it is okay should I quote the book's title or should I do any special formatting regarding this reference?

What is it that worries you?  Mentioning relevant references in your statement of purpose is fine.  Are you worried that highlighting a book by someone at this university will look like empty flattery?  I wouldn't worry about this, unless you are writing something really over the top in praise of this book.  When you talk about not mentioning the book's name, do you mean not mentioning the book at all, or just referring to it cryptically without naming it?  I would recommend against the latter (if you are going to mention the book, you might as well be clear).

Well yes I am afraid it will bring me harm more than good. I just mention that when I started my research I had to read a lot of relevant papers and books such as XYZ book authored by Professor X.

I guess I'm puzzled as to why mentioning a book would be harmful in the first place.  I can think of various scenarios in which it might be a problem (for example, if it's a really controversial book), but under ordinary circumstances I don't see why it would provoke a negative reaction.

It is not a controversial book at all (it is a mathematics book actually) but the thing is when I searched the internet about mentioning a book's name in my statement of purpose I didn't find anyone that has done it before in my field of study (computer science) but some English literature applicants do mention books in their statements and they get asked specific questions from or about the books they mention.

As mentioned in the comments by Anonymous Mathematician, there won't be a problem with mentioning a book that you read in your statement of purpose. If your statement of purpose has a list of references, you can include it there and just use the standard referencing style to cite it. If you don't need a list of references, then just cite the book in the text, e.g., "Reading the book 'A nice mathematics book' by , I found that...".
The difficult part will be to make citing the book really worth putting it in your statement of purpose. Which books someone read is probably not as important for computer science students as it is for students of literature. Think about the following questions, as examples:

How did reading this book influence your decision to apply for graduate studies?
In which way will your planned research build upon what you learnt in this book?
Does the book define research problems that you are planning to tackle?

If you cannot write something along these lines when referring to this book, then I am not sure that it would be worth writing that you read it.

I agree with the need of assessing why a book title there, and why that particular book title. If it's a book that is simply related to your previous research (and not future research) and it's by a professor at your school, the reasons are weak. Also, from the point of style, saying "to read a lot of relevant papers and books such as XYZ book authored by Professor X" hurts the balance between papers and books. This sentence would make the reader wonder even more why that book, further prompting the importance of making the book relevant to you personally.

Yes, it is perfectly acceptable, if not expected, for research statements (aka "statements of purpose") in computer science PhD applications to include references to the research literature.  I recommend citing them exactly as you would in a research paper.


text:
Can a bad job as referee influence submissions to the same journal?
Having done a bad/inaccurate/sloppy referee report or being a bad referee for a high-ranking journal can influence the acceptance of a paper submitted to the same journal?
In other words, when submitting a paper, do editors take into account the past reviews of the paper's authors to decide whether the paper is publishable or not?

For a high-raniing journal, no effect.  Indeed, for almost all journals, no effect.

Not a duplicate, but you might find the answers to this question useful: "Can reviewing papers help increase your credibility as a researcher?" http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19395/can-reviewing-papers-help-increase-your-credibility-as-a-researcher/19398#19398

In principle, an editor probably should not take one's prior performance into account, either as a reviewer or in any other capacity, and should judge solely on the current work.  The workflow of most journals I have dealt with supports this notion, in that there is no way even to readily examine other actions by an author.
In practice, however, a) editors are human, and b) poor performance in one area is often an indicator of poor performance in another related area.
There are, however, two mitigating factors:  first, there are often many editors, and second, for most editors you'd have to be mightily annoying to be memorable as a bad reviewer.
Bottom line: yes, if might affect your papers, but you probably shouldn't be particularly paranoid about it.  Don't use this as an excuse for doing bad reviews, however: it's far better to withdraw honorably from a review you cannot do well.

+1 Well just some comments: one may have a poor performance in a review because the topic of the paper may be new to the reviewer, especially if he/she is at the beginning of his/her career and therefore not so experienced. Maybe one is not an expert on topic X when doing the review, and after some time the same guy can write a paper on the same topic X. As far as I understand from your answer anyway, editors do not care basically, unless the reviewer has done some very outstandingly memorable bad job. I agree with the bottom line.

@sintetico If you don't know what the paper is about, don't agree to do the review!

@sintetico If you are not sufficiently familiar with the topic to do a good job, you should decline to do the review.


text:
Thesis proposal near thesis defence
I'm a PhD student in computer science. In my university, the PhD process is divided in the following steps:

Qualification exam
Research proposal exam: presentation of chosen topics and methodology and plan (near 1-1.5 year after PhD program begining)
Thesis proposal exam: presentation of done and remaining work (near 1-1.5 year after research proposal)
Thesis defence

I'm at the end of my PhD and basically at the end of the dissertation writing. I still have to write the last chapter about the validation results.
I still haven't done the «Thesis proposal exam» and will take it in mid august; then I expect to submit the dissertation draft at the end of august, for a defence expected in late september or in october.
I'm embarrassed, as I basically almost ended the dissertation, by the fact that the «Thesis proposal exam» presentation and the «Thesis defence» presentation will foregone be the same content. It look like the first one will be a sort of rehearsal of the second one.
How can I proceed to present a meaningful «Thesis proposal exam» and still having something new to say during my defence presentation?
Thanks.

Ask your advisor. (Also, I'm a bit shocked that you were able to get to the point of having your dissertation nearly completed without warning sirens going off in your advisor's head that you still had the thesis proposal exam hurdle to take care of.)

@MadJack My department only recently instituted a mandatory one-semester gap between proposal and defense. The vote for the new requirement was not unanimous.

@JeffE If the OP is in such a situation, I expect there will be wide latitude for students caught by the transition.

As MadJack says in the comments, this is really something that you and your advisor need to sort out with the department.  Part of an advisor's responsibility to their students is to make sure that they don't end up in easily avoidable bureaucratic screw-ups like this.  So yes, you've failed, but your advisor has failed as well.
First thing to do, then, is to sit down with your advisor and figure out how serious a problem this is.  If it's something like JeffE suggests, and due to recent regulation changes, or if it's a requirement that is more pro-forma than serious, then there are likely good ways to deal with it.  For example, you might end up following the letter of the law and in fact having the proposal exam be essentially a dress rehearsal for the defense (and that might be considered to be OK).  Or the proposal exam might end up finding some problems that really do need to be addressed before you defend, and you will be grateful---you might be delayed, though, and that might or might not be a problem (you don't say where you are: in the US, delay is generally not a problem if your advisor can fund you; in some other countries it can be a major issue).
If the department is not flexible, however, and wants to make an issue of your failure to comply with the letter of the law, then the resolution will be very particular to the department, and that is something that you and your advisor will need to navigate together.

If this is just "bureaucracy", maybe you can even roll them into the same presentation. Or present your work as (pro forma) "research proposal", fix whatever details require adjustment and do the final presentation. Unless the audience is exactly the same, they'll probably won't mind. But be prepared for much more in-depth questions the second time around if there is overlap...

How can I proceed to present a meaningful «Thesis proposal exam» and still having something new to say during my defence presentation?

I understood your concern to be not so much with whether you will get in trouble for condensing the timeline, but more about how to make the two presentations different enough to keep your audience interested.
How about this: your first presentation is a re-creation of what it would have been a year or two ago -- give them all the background for the work you did.  You can leave them with a cliff hanger -- which will be resolved a few weeks later in your second presentation.

You can leave them with a cliff hanger -- which will be resolved a few weeks later in your second presentation. — I have my doubts about how well this will go over in practice: OP will inevitably have to explain how they managed to get 2 years of work accomplished in 2 weeks.

@MadJack My assumption is that the committee is condoning this creative timeline.

Yes, that could be. Perhaps it sounds worse to me than it actually is.

Thank you all for your comment. It is true that some rules haven't been stictly followed in my case, but things are not always black or white. When the time was to take the «Thesis proposal exam» I didn't have much stuff to present. So my supervisor decided to delay the exam. To make the story short, I think my supervisor wanted the best output for me what would also be a better output for her as well. She might not be perfect but I thanks her for that.


text:
Submission on hold on arxiv
I have recently submitted a paper to arXiv, but the arXiv moderators put my paper in status "on hold", because they have to make a decision on the right classification for the paper.
To those who have experienced a similar situation, how long did it take before they made a decision and published the paper on the arXiv? I just want to have an idea of how long I will have to wait.

I had the same experience with arxiv and it took only 1-2 days after they change my paper track. However, they mentioned it may take up to several days. The arxiv helps says

On Hold
Your submission was identified by arXiv administrators or moderators
  as needing further attention.
Submissions may be put on hold for a variety of reasons, ranging from
  questions about proper classification, pending moderator approval,
  presentation issues, copyrighted PDF, etc., to editorial concerns.
  Most of these do not require any further input from the submitter and
  will be dealt with in due course. arXiv urges submitters to be
  patient. Due to the large volume of submissions, it may take several
  days before a resolution is reached.
Note that oversize submissions are automatically put on hold, and this
  is one particular circumstance in which submitters should follow up
  with arXiv administrators.
Submissions in this status will not expire. Authors must not create a
  new submission with the same content when a pending submission is on
  hold.
Please be sure to include the submission identifier of the form
  submit/NNNNNNN when contacting arXiv administrators.

wait for few more days and send them an email. They are quick in response.

My article is onhold for more than 2 weeks now, and moderators don't reply at all.

Sending an email to ask when to expect publication will trigger a standard response from arxiv.org that looks like this:

Your submission is currently on hold pending a decision by our
  volunteer moderators. The "hold" status merely indicates that one or
  more of the moderators need additional time to consider your article.
Due to the volume of mail arXiv receives, we are not able to provide
  regular status updates. Upon resolution, your submission will be
  deposited in arXiv, or we will contact you with further information.

Seems that long waiting times can occur particularly when volunteer moderators are in holidays. I received this answer several times during summer while my submission had "on hold" status for more than two weeks...

Do they notify when they are done?


text:
Why do academics publish?
It seems as though everyone in academia is trying to publish stuff, regardless of whether they actually have something meaningful to say. The journals generate more noise every year.
I understand that papers count for promotion and review, they mostly get counted but... There is room to question the actual motivation to publish.
What is your primary reason for publishing? How much of it is related to making a meaningful contribution to science/knowledge/understanding, and how much is for other reasons/purposes (tenure, CV, fame, pressure, etc.)?

This question seems to be looking for a series of opinions from a series of answers. Seems like it should not be a question (perhaps a wiki) or perhaps it should be changed it something along the lines of "Why do academics publish" which would support answers which include detailed research.

Rather than vote to close, I have edited the question to focus on the question which is most appropriate for Academia. SE. Feel free to edit again, @A.G.

Look at people blogging, participation in academic Q&As (e.g. MathOverflow), open-source projects, etc; if such informal communications are uncommon in a given community, you can safely assume that publications are motivated mainly by career, not - genuine willingness to share knowledge. (Think: if someone is willing to help people only when is being paid, it does not mean that someone is an altruist.)

The main answers to the question in the title are given in the last sentence of the question body.  Any attempt to decide which is primary is very subjective and differs from person to person.

There seems to me to be a big difference between why do academics publish and why do YOU publish. The first can be answers with "facts", while the second will be a list of opinions.

Thanks to all for comments and answers. I realize that my question called for general as well as personal answers, I am glad we got a variety of responses that illustrate the many ways we approach the job (a bit more than what I would call "opinion"). @Piotr's comment got me thinking about whether our contributions to web-2.0 collaborative projects such as SE or even WikiPedia are recognized by our institutions as actual "contributions" -- but that will be for a different question!

The first question is a relatively simple problem.
Researchers have the utility of:

some research being published in some rated venue: which will award them points according to some criteria.
some research being cited, which will award also points according to some other criteria.
some research being purchased: which will award some sweet additional income.
some research being read: which doesn't award any points per se, but helps to create some buzz around it, get cites, funding, etc. This requires the research to be published before.
"making a meaningful contribution to science/knowledge/understanding".

Look at the last bullet point, the rewards come from the inside of the researchers in that case, no raise, no money, no external reward. This means that if people focus on that too much they may not make any progress in their careers and they may actually fail in the search for funding or even a job. Therefore, successful people will have a strong interest/utility on the other points, the last one may or may not be important for them, but definitively secondary. They may say it's the primary goal, but they won't act like that, or they will fail. I'm an introvert and this sucks, but that is how the system is, it's mathematical.
The points and external rewards are very important. They may be important to finish a MSc or a PhD, to get a post-doc position, a job in industry, a tenured position, a raise, a project, funding, etc. But we are not done yet. They do also have resources to get some attention:

social networks (twitter, linkedIn, etc.)
blogs
conferences
journals
books
etc.

Do you remember the last point?, blogs seem to be perfectly suitable to making this kind of contribution, but they are not peer reviewed and they don't award any points, therefore, they are used like twitter. Get buzz, get attention, then link the paper so that people can read it. You can even summarize the paper in the blog so that people can cite it without actually reading it, which is wrong on so many levels that actually some of them cancel each other and happens to be right in some levels, at least IMHO.
Finally have some pieces of research that they can split like salami or maybe put together as a compilation to create a book, or they can even try to split, publish in conferences, then put together as a journal, then join with even more stuff and write a book.
So basically in the end researchers try to publish the research using the resources available trying to maximize the utility of their research, effort, time, publications, etc. Those who do it right (not focusing on the last point of the utility) get to do more and more research, and so the academia system works, and so it is driven.
Basically this is a problem of cybernetics. This is an emergent information system that is mostly driven in that way, with those dynamics and that convergence. Maybe we would have a better system if it was explicitly engineered and not emergent, but as usual, the ones that have the most power to change it are the ones that are most favored by the current system. There is always some strength in the stability of the status quo.
About the second question, the answer for me is "no". I guess that's why I'm here writing with a pseudonym.

In the words of Lichtfouse (2013) a research article is above all a communication tool and its purpose is to transfer scientific information from one individual to other individuals.
Publishing a paper is for me the way to show that I am doing research and sharing it with others. But, it is clear that I also am pressured into publishing because promotions and the ability to attract funding relies on publications as a primary evaluation tool. So although I do not publish with the expressed intent of attracting more funding or my own promotions, I am well aware of the spiralling development that is ongoing. I do want to mention that publishing something primarily gives me personally a sense of achievement, that my research is good enough to pass the scrutiny of peers etc. As with, I surmise, mostly everyone else, I thrive from doing a good job and getting a sense of accomplishment. Publishing does that for me.
Whether or not people read my research can be answered by yes and no. Everyone does not read my papers but some who do not should and some who reference my work, really ought to read it, again. On the whole, I think papers get the attention they deserve, some get more and some get less attention than I think is fair. But, since my work gets referenced reasonably often, I think over and under referenced papers average out.
The "pressure to publish" is definitely there and I believe that universities and funding agencies should try to improve the way they evaluate research so as to avoid "salami slicing" and other types of publishing effects. But, how such a system should look is difficult to say although many indices such as the h-index can be used. Since there are no perfect systems, it is perhaps more important to look at the ethical aspects of publishing and make awareness of and discssion on publishing issues better.
Lichtfouse, E., 2013. Scientific writing for impact factor journals. Nova Publishers, New York.

Yes, promotion-and-tenure motivations are strong, but it would be misguided to think that such cachet is the sole impetus for publishing. Even if relatively few people read the final result, there's a lot to be said for the publication process: comments from referrees, questions from conference attendees – these provide valuable feedback that can lead to new insights or help you gauge how much your overall research efforts are of interest and use to others in the field.
It's one thing to have a hunch that your research is signficant; it's another to have that verified by selection committees and the peers in your field.

A list of recent publications is the most serious document to prove the competence in science. And, very often, no competence - no job.
A professor that has no publications for several years may at the end lose the position. This is a reasonable requirement, as it forces to stay up to date with the knowledge. Otherwise the quality of teaching would drop because alternative ways of discarding low competence professor (like group of students requiring to replace him) are way more difficult and problematic.
Also, publication is a normal, usual way to recognize the PhD work. It may be possible to get PhD without publications but this is usually understood as a sign of unsuccessful work that puts shadow on both student and supervisor. Nobody wants.
Finally, some systems like European may require a scientist to change the institution periodically, providing mostly temporary positions as long as you are not a professor yet. If you have finished a two year post doctoral position without a paper published, that is the end of you scientific carrier - you will not get the next one.
Unfortunately this also means that scientists try to publish something often even when they could generally work for several more years to make a better publication instead.


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Reasons to do MS before applying for US PhD?
I'm a Software Engineering (BS) graduate with first class honors, and I want to attend a US PhD program on artificial intelligence (international applicant).  I know MS is not a prerequisite for a PhD in the U.S.
However, I'm considering doing MS at a local university (not in US) for the following reasons:

Publish some papers under my name during that time
Get recommendations from good professors (Currently I don't have anyone who is aware of my work)
Obtain good mathematical background
As sneak peek on doing "independent research"

Do you think the above given reasons are good reasons for me to follow MS or do you think that is a waste of time?
Appreciate your opinion as I'm confused on making a decision.

Its a good question. The thing that you need to see is whether it is worth doing masters in a local university or in a US school after which you can continue in that US school for a PhD. Funding could be an issue but you can get tuition waiver or something similar depending on US school. Good luck

I think you have already listed many good reasons for completing an MS before a PhD.
For one, it can give you an introduction to a field of study on a graduate level. That allows you to be introduced to many of the more prominent people in the field, some of which you might find out are worth studying under. In that case, it would only help you when it comes time to apply.
If you publish and then subsequently present at a conference, then you can meet with a lot of other faculty from schools you're interested in, and you can strike up a conversation. In turn, you can stay in touch with that person and visit them later when it comes time to apply for the program. They may in turn vouch for you during the admissions review.
It is common for PhD students to have already completed an MS, even if its at another school. And, virtually all programs will take that into consideration and credit you 30 hours of coursework towards a PhD completion, so long as the courses are directly relevant to the PhD program.
I learned halfway through my first year of PhD studies that as far as my university is considered, there is no differentiation between a MS and a PhD student, we are all part of the Graduate College. So all of the MS hours are in effect graduate hours, and thusly they are also PhD hours.


text:
Template for taking notes for a paper?
I will soon start my thesis, and have read a bit of literature, particularly a few short papers. One professor recommended using a template, displayed below. However, I generally feel that the questions in the template don't apply well to the papers I have read, and my answers get very "artificial" or "forced", while some aspects are not answered by the template at all. Obviously no template can fit perfectly for every paper, but perhaps there are better templates out there.
Are there any standard templates for this purpose? Perhaps a list of questions to ask oneself when reading? Or other structured ways of note writing for scientific papers or similar literature?

Title
Title of paper
Citation
Authors
Abstract
A short summary of the paper.
Issues
What are the issues that the paper addresses? Describe the problem.
Approach
What did the authors do? How did they approach the problem. What did
  they do? What methods did they use?
Conclusion
What are the authors conclusion? What do they claim about their
  results.
My Conclusion
What do you think about the work presented in the article? Explain
Rating
Give a score [0 - 10] 0: awful, 10: brilliant.

This is actually pretty general, so it fits most papers well. Can be more specific about what you think the shortcoming is?

I'd suggest adding a date variable and your set of index numbers so that you can keep a track record of how your idea developed and cross-reference on the notes if necessary.

It can't be any more minimalistic than that.
Basically you have some metadata: title, citation, abstract, comment (your conclusion) and rating.
That fits every intellectual work, you could apply it to movies, songs or anything that has an author and about which you can have an opinion.
Then there are a few other fields that cannot be any more minimal:

issues: why is the paper written and published? There has to be a reason for that work to have been done, presumably people don't enjoy wasting their time.
approach: which is basically what they do. There was a reason to do something (and then publish it) an "issue" and something has been done about that "issue" so that it is less of an issue in the future.
conclusion: there was an issue, something has been done, is it still an issue? are there more open issues?

Quite simple if you think about it.
Survey papers and so on basically solve the issue of summarizing something, they cite other papers, so you should also fill this template for those other papers.
Are you having trouble with some other kind of papers? This seems to capture everything that is relevant. Do you miss something?

I had a template for myself, pretty similar to that one:

Journal name, article name, reference information
One-line description of the problem
"What They Did"
My conclusions

The issue was that, in almost all cases, I was studying their paper to better understand either (1) the field in general or (2) how to solve a problem I was having. I found that, for note-taking purposes, focusing on mainly what they did and then recording for posterity my own conclusions and thoughts about their research was much more useful than re-reading my synopsis of what they concluded.

I have been thinking about this since asking the question, plus I have done some actual note taking.
For me personally, I have found the following points to be helpful:

Why did I read this paper: Perhaps my professor recommended it, in which case it probably is relevant despite what it initially seems to me.
My takeaways for the thesis: Ideas, inspiration or references, that I can use for my thesis
General takeaways: What I learned, that is relevant/interesting/useful, which however are not directly useful for my thesis.
What I did not understand (entirely): Maybe some terminology, maybe some theory. I am writing them down, so I might get a chance to ask them later, or I might revisit it later after having gotten a better understanding.
What I should (perhaps) look into: Projects, literature, websites. Typically other papers that they reference in the paper.