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Do you know any country like Denmark returning an assessment for the job application?
I applied for a faculty position at a Danish university. My application was unsuccessful but they sent me a detailed assessment of my application clarifying why I was not selected.
I was impressed. Then, checked several job avertiments in the Danish universities (not my field), and it was stated that they will return an assessment of the application.
I wonder if you know any other country/university doing the same or is it just the Danish way?

Do they really do this all the time? I appreciate if a Danish colleague clarifies the system. Impressive indeed!

Yes, in the Nordic countries we tend to be fairly transparent, although not always to the level you experienced.

Are you interested only in faculty positions, or also other types of positions (PhD, postdocs...)?

When I applied for positions at Swedish and Norvegian universities, I not only received an assessment of my own application, but also that of the other applicants. The latter were not anonymized, but the original application materials were not included.

Were the assessments of other candidates anonymized? Or was everything disclosed, including their names?

@lukeg Names were always included. In one case, also email addresses, in another, current affiliation.


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How do data protection laws apply to faculty applications?
Last year I applied for an assistant professor position in Sweden and unsuccessful. This year I attended a conference there. In the informal discussions afterward, a professor told me that he works on a related topic and I can give him a visit if I will be in town. After the conference, I visited his office and we had a long and interesting conversation. He told me that my idea is very interesting and we should collaborate. As a joke, I told him that proposed this idea in my last year's application but you didn't like it. He said I am sure there was no such idea in the applications and told me to let's check. He found my application on his computer and we talked about it.
I didn't mind as there was nothing secret in my application. But it made me wonder. I thought (until that moment) that all applications should be treated confidentially within the search committee and all materials should be destroyed (not only at the individual level but also at the institutional level).

Isn't it illegal for the institution and the committee to keep the application materials when the search is completed? (I believe most countries have similar data protection laws, my question is not about Sweden only)?
Isn't it a breach of obligatory confidentiality if a committee member discusses an application outside the search committee? For example, tell a colleague or in another search committee that this person had applied for the other job too. (it was not my case, but I am curious)

When we apply for a faculty position, does the application die after the search or it lives on and on through documents and committee members?

I don't know about the legal aspects, but my faculty is currently hiring a new dean and has set up meetings with interested students. For this, they sent out e-mails to the whole student body. They write "please keep this person's name and the fact that they applied confidential" at the bottom, but I wonder what kind of confidentiality they expect from a mass e-mail!

@nengel which country if I may?

Now we're getting into deeply political questions. China... or is it? (I'm in Hong Kong. It's part of China but has its own laws, mostly.)

@nengel I was curious where the university consulted with the students for appointing an executive. No something I experienced before.

In some states such as Florida in the US, there is a transparency policy. They publicly publish the name of all applicants.

I am afraid the question as posed may be too broad, because it potentially has a different answer for every country in the world (and maybe for every state within some of those countries).  We can't give you 200 answers.

While there might be some requirement that the material is not kept, I am not sure what sort of confidentiality you feel has been breached. You are pretty much by definition the one person where it can never be a breach.

I'm not a lawyer, but in the US at a federal level there is no legal expectation that job applications will be destroyed at the end of a job search. In fact it's the opposite, there are some laws (such as the Americans With Disabilities Act) which require employers to retain hiring records, which includes application materials, for a period of time in order ensure such records are available if someone were to accuse them of discrimination.
Employers are free to retain such records for longer periods of time if they so choose. For example, it's very common for large corporations to retain job applications indefinitely so they have a permanent record in case you were to apply multiple times to the same place.
In practice, there is a general expectation that academic job searches are kept private, but probably not to the point where job applications are destroyed. My department is required to keep hiring records (application materials and any written materials we make about our applicants) and turn them over to our university HR department at the conclusion of our search. From there I assume the university may keep them indefinitely if they chose to do so. I don't think there's any law that makes it illegal for the department to disclose their potential list of applicants (or even their application materials), but doing so would be violating the social custom.
Academic departments tend to be very close-knit, with faculty serving together and depending on each other for many years. Announcing one's intention to leave a department is a sensitive issue that is seen as that person's prerogative to disclose in their own way and time. More importantly, faculty should be free to look at other institutions and entertain the idea of leaving for a different department without committing to that action or disclosing to their current department that intention, which could have major impacts on the way their current department advances/promotes/treats them in the future. For this reason it's a major faux pas to discuss potential applicants outside of the department, but there's no law against it.

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Should I take a Certificate for University Teaching while doing a postdoc?
I have just gotten a 2.5 year postdoctoral fellowship (philosophy) to do my own research project at a University (I am connected to a relevant research group and professor, but basically the project is my own and I have secured funding for stays abroad). My department is now offering me to also take a University Teaching Certificate (200 hours spread over 1 1/2 year). After completing my PhD I was teaching as an adjunct for 2 semesters, so I have teaching experience (designed my own courses etc), but not an official paper on it.
My friends in academia tells me I should go for it, and some even say I should ask for more teaching and try to get my department to change my title to "assistent professor".
I, however, am thrilled to look forward to 2 1/2 years with just doing research and getting some more publications done. I only have a couple really good ones at the moment (I have two small kids, so time is limited already). Also, the job market here is not very good at the moment, so I don't think there is any chance I will stay at this university anyway, and all though I would prefer to stay in academia, I have to be prepared to look for jobs other places when my contract ends. I might also have to leave my country, if I really want a tenure-track job, and then I wonder if the teaching certificate will be considered legitimate anyway.

A teaching certificate should help you get an academic job.  That's the point of it.

Is the certificate national, university-specific, or something else? Can you get ECTS credits or some other international measure of work for it?

Not sure, I don't think an international standard exist, since different school focus and cherish different aspects of teaching, but most schools would probably let me transfer at least parts of it.

I would recommend you to take the certificate now. The reasons are the following:

Although research excellence still remain to be the most important criteria for early-career faculty members, it is rarely a single criteria candidates are compared on. In the UK it is increasingly common that new faculty members are expected to teach from their first day in the Division; an evidenced skill and knowledge of the process can give you an advantage over other candidates, excellent in research and research only. I don't know what is the situation in other countries, but I have a gut feeling that academia across the globe is becoming more dependent on student fees, and hence the emphasis on teaching skills will increase.
You seem to do really well on research front now, having your own fellowship funds, etc. You are clearly appreciated and valued in your current Division. However, you will need to establish yourself in the new place in the new role of young but fully capable faculty member. This could include a lot of teaching, plus a lot of administrative work you're not familiar with now. Transition from research-only postdoc to a faculty is not a smooth one. It is quite important to be prepared to the faculty role as much as you can, before you take it. So, it is worth spending 200 hours now rather than later on top of other commitments.
It is not uncommon for people to move between countries and departments and having their certificates recognised. Commonly, HRs would need some evidence, but as soon as they can read the document, they are likely to accept it.

Thank you so much for taking time to reply! I also think it makes sense to take the time to take the certificate now and then be more prepared for an eventual faculty position later. Earlier this year a friend was hired as an assistent professor (tenure-track) because he already had a teaching certificate and 1 post docs and 1 three year assistent professorship (this says a lot about the job market here, because he is qualified for tenure by now). Again, thank you for replying.

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Can I submit a paper to a call for paper and a call for workshops for the same conference?
I am applying to a top tier ML/Data-Science Conference and I feel that I might have a higher probability getting accepted in the call for workshops over the call for papers.
Can I submit the same idea/algorithm to both the call for papers and the call for workshops?

It really depends on the conference and the workshop. Some workshop chairs (myself included) will not accept papers that are already accepted to the conference itself. This is because of a preference towards showcasing works from sister conferences. However, the practice is not in itself frowned upon in my field.
Workshops often set the workshop submission deadline after the acceptance notification deadline of the conference itself: this is done in order to ensure that people who submit workshop papers don't retract them because they can't travel without an accepted paper in the main conference, and to let people submit their work there. Thus it's not really that common (at least in my field) to see close deadlines for the conference and colocated workshops.
Multiple submission policies are generally spelled out very explicitly in the submission guidelines. Read them carefully and see if they answer your question. If not - the best thing would be to email the conference/workshop chairs and ask.

Well, since papers are generally for finished work, and workshops are for improving work in progress, it might be looked at as an odd situation. If you submit a paper for what you have done already and a workshop proposal that is related, but, perhaps, an extension to the other then it would be more natural.
So, in the exact form you suggest, I'd recommend not, but a variation might work out for you. A workshop is also valuable in that it would put you in contact with other researches with similar interests.

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Is it appropriate to ask for a pay raise as an adjunct professor with a Master's degree?
I am currently a Ph.D. student with a Master's degree. Throughout my time in grad school, I have been an adjunct at a local university. Recently, this university has started a Master's program in my field. However, the department is quite small and those faculty who are able/interested in teaching these classes is even smaller thus, I have been asked if I would like to teach one of the graduate classes for this new program.
My question is whether or not it would be appropriate for me to ask for a pay increase to teach this course. Currently the adjunct pay is determined by a per unit rate depending on level of education (in my case Master's). What I am unsure about is if this rate should change, or if it is common in other institutions for pay to increase when teaching grad level courses.

For me, at least, the prestige of teaching a graduate level class without a Ph.D. (and especially being invited to do so) would far outweigh even a substantial pay increase.

@DaveLRenfro I completely agree, which is part of the reason I'm asking here instead of asking for a pay increase outright. I would rather not give them the opportunity to rethink having me teach the course. On the other hand, a pay increase would be nice, so if the answers here indicated that it would be perfectly normal and acceptable to ask for one, then I would probably do so.

Sure, but it probably won't help.  Most institutions have a fairly narrow range of pay for adjuncts, and the chair (or whoever) cannot "go over the top" without enough signatures to start a school of handwriting analysis.

Also, it greatly matters what country we are talking about here...

@DaveLRenfro I am inclined to disagree. I think we academics should stop letting us be paid in recognition, and especially for adjuncts. If the university wants OP to do a course that is more difficult to teach they should pay them more.

There are myriad factors that go into pay rates, but the bottom line with this or any job is your pay should reflect what you bring to the table.  Sounds to me like you have a rarified skill that is in demand in this specific instance so yes, absolutely, ask for a pay increase.  Politely, sweetly, and prepared to hear "no."

+1, asking for a pay rise is always an option. Rarely whoever is trying to hire you will decide not to hire you because you asked. Worst case scenario is you don't get a pay raise

Also, be prepared to say no yourself. As they say in workplace.se: if you are not willing to walk away you are not negotiating, you are begging.


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Funding opportunities for Computer Scientist Faculty in Canada
I have been offered a faculty position at a computer science department of a small Canadian University.

Is there a funding agency in Canada that is commonly targeted by Computer Scientists similar to the NSF in the US?
Are there any funding opportunities tailored to early career researchers?

The organization you're looking for is called NSERC, and has many opportunities available. I don't know all of them (I'm a PhD student, not a professor), but here are some highlights:

Discovery Grants for researchers
Post-doctoral fellowships
Doctoral Scholarships
The Vanier Doctoral award
Master's Scholarships

NSERC Discovery Grants are the analogue of NSF standard grants in the US.   You can see the topics they cover in computer science here.  NSERC follows a different philosophy from the NSF of having smaller grants (about $30,000/year for 5 years on average) but a much higher success rate.  Also, NSERC grants don't cover summer salary for professors (which is part of why they are so much smaller). In 2016 (statistics here), the success rate for early career researchers in CS was 64%, and the renewal rate for established researchers was 78%.
For more details, you should speak to a contact at the school you're considering, as there might be unique factors there, and you can get a better sense of how far money will go there.
EDIT: NSERC doesn't seem to have a special young faculty program (like the NSF has with CAREER), but they do make special provision for "early-career researchers" (which basically means the first couple of years of a permanent position) to not penalize them for not having a track-record of training students and postdocs, so they get funded when their rating is a bit below the cut-off for more senior people.  There is the Steacie Fellowship, which is more comparable to PECASE (there are 6 in Canada per year).

It depends on the kinds of projects that you plan to develop. If you are pursuing theoretical Computer Science, there are NSERC, Innovation.ca, and Innocentive (although the latter can be privatized). If you plan to collaborate across several fields, you can add to the aforementioned CIHR, SADI, NCE competitions, IDRC, GenomeCanada, CEF, Canadian Space Agency, TDP, NRC, NIH, MITACS. The list continues, but the major grant competitions in academia for non-humanities/social sciences are NSERC and CIHR.
For a full list of agencies, the canada.ca website  is a great resource to start you off.

Thank you for the acronyms, but I'm still hoping for a more "inside" perspective, the kind of information/impression that you don't really find in the web. Unless we don't have anyone that is a CS professor in Canada here...

Unfortunately, that kind of information is not something you will easily find on public fora such as this one. The best way to go about it is to get 1+ senior scientist(s) to serve as PI mentors. These connections at and beyond your home university are better sources of understanding of nuances in grant fund acquisition.

I agree. But I misspoke when I said that  I was in the same situation as the OP, I wasn't offered the position, I'm going for the interview and I'm trying to increase my odds...


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When is it acceptable to write a bad letter of recommendation?
For reasons that elude me, a student I taught several semesters ago sounded me out about writing a letter of recommendation for graduate school. I won't go into it, but my recollections of this student are uniformly bad. There is no way I would want them pursuing graduate study in our department. I am torn between declining to write a letter, or taking the opportunity to quietly warn colleagues at other institutions about this person. Do I have an ethical duty to only offer to write a letter if it will reflect positively on the applicant?

Never write a bad recommendation letter. If you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all (and tell the student you can't write the letter).
As for warning other. Leaving aside the law for a moment, the only time I can see it being appropriate to warn others about a student is if you believed them to be dangerous. Examples of this might be a history of sexual harassment/assault, bullying or other abusive behaviour.

I do believe that this is the right thresh-hold for writing anything negative. And realistic. On another hand, complicating matters, in the U.S., there are rules/laws/policies/something against offering opinions on mental health issues, for example. And, I've known people to unscrupulously write positive letters to get students out of their own program. A minefield of ethical/legal hazards.

As as said, leaving aside the law. Also, I would never comment on mental health - saying someone has mental health issues is not relevant. Whether they have a history of sexual harassment/assault, bullying or other abusive behavior is.

Yes, I agree, certainly in principle, but/and we find ourselves in the conundrum of wondering whether any/all bad behavior is attributable to, or is literally a manifestation of, mental illness. (I'm not making any strong claim here, only a sort of semi-strong disclaimer...)

There is a strong argument that people exhibiting poor behavoir are mentally ill, by definition. But that is immaterial. You are not warning people about their mental illness, but about their behavior. If someone has a history sexually abusing people, then the new employer needs to know. If that behavior is caused by mental illness, they still need to know (about the behavior, not the illness).

Don't do this. It's not fair to the student. It's like buying something that turns out not to be what it was advertised as. The student will be using your letter to apply to graduate school believing it is helpful when it is actively harmful. If the student is rejected everywhere, for example, he'll never be able to diagnose what's wrong or how to fix it.
Instead, talk to the student. Tell them you can't write a good recommendation letter, and if they still want it, write all the positive things you can truthfully say about the student. If you can't say anything positive at all, decline to write the letter.

taking the opportunity to quietly warn colleagues at other institutions about this person

There isn't such a thing as a "letter of dissuassion" or "letter of discouragement", which is what it seems you are considering writing. "Recommendation" means:

The act of telling somebody that something is good or useful or that somebody would be suitable for a particular job, etc.

Therefore, if you really think this person is not suitable for the graduate school, it means you can not recommend them, i.e. it makes no sense to write a letter of recommendation for them.

I think it is generally accepted that letters of recommendation, and other references, are cherry-picked to use only the good ones.  Thus, selection panels are already aware that the absence of negative recommendations is largely due to the filtering mechanism of having the applicant choose their own referees.  Panels will also usually notice if there is an obvious omission from references and letters --- e.g., direct supervisor in previous position is not listed as a reference.
In view of this practice, I would say that it is not a good idea to write a negative recommendation --- just decline to write one instead.  I would be inclined to say that the student should have the same opportunity as other applicants to cherry-pick his references to get the best ones, and thereby compete on an equal basis.  If he is a particularly bad student, he will probably have difficulty getting references from relevant past supervisors, and this will be obvious on his application.  This filtering mechanism will still put him at a disadvantage relative to a better applicant.

In the US, at least, "warning colleagues at other institutions" would possibly be illegal. I would consider it unethical in any case. That is a secret blacklisting that should never occur.
But basically, you should never write a bad recommendation. Instead you should tell the student that you won't/can't write a letter. Let it go at that if you can, but if pressed, tell the student why.
If you are generous you can let the student try to convince you that you have an improper impression. I don't think that is necessary in most cases, however.
But, ethically, you can't write a positive letter that you don't believe in. That is a kind of fraud.

In the US, at least, "warning colleagues at other institutions" would possibly be illegal — Really?!? What law would it possibly break?  (Truth is an absolute defense against libel/slander in the US.)

@JeffE, if you want to depend on that then (a) you'd better be absolutely certain of your facts and state nothing but facts, and (b) be prepared to defend it in court. Ignore that at your own peril.

You didn't answer my question: What law?

@JeffE - if your LOR states that the student is 'uniformly bad' with nothing to back it up, that is not a fact, so is not truth. If you state that the student got a 'C-' in the course, putting him in the bottom 50% of performance for the class, that is a fact (and hopefully the truth). State the facts, don't 'warn' - your colleagues will know what the facts mean.

@JeffE, the law on libel is very complex and varies by jurisdiction in the US. See https://thelawdictionary.org/article/when-to-sue-for-defamation-slander-and-libel/. But whether your statements are true, opinion, or  "demonstrably false" or not can be determined in a lawsuit. This is civil, not criminal law.

@Buffy: Re: "you'd better [...] state nothing but facts": Strictly speaking, libel only applies to objectively false claims; so if you state nothing but opinions, that wouldn't be libel, either.

@ruakh, yes. That's why I wrote it that way. And be sure of your facts.

@Buffy: I don't understand -- why are you intentionally giving wrong advice?

@ruakh, now I don't understand. What advice is wrong? If you state pure opinion you may be safe, but it can be a bit subtle. Note that it is a court that decides whether you have stated pure opinion or have libeled another person. You have to be aware that a lawsuit is a possibility. And you need to defend yourself if it happens. Lawsuits are expensive. My advice is to avoid it altogether. And note, also, that outside the US it is much riskier, without first amendment protections. (more)

Yes, it is possible to speak without libel, but if you are in some way sabotaging another person's future, you'd better be very sure of your words. The actual advice is don't send unsolicited letters that might disadvantage a student. And tell the student why you won't give a LOR.

@Buffy: Re: "What advice is wrong?": That it is libelous to express adverse opinions. In many cases, opinions are what's warranted. For example -- if you're not sure exactly how close X stood to you, but you know that it made you feel uncomfortable, then you can say that it made you feel uncomfortable. Objective statements are often better, but they're not a legal requirement.

@ruakh, but you and I have no guarantee that the statements made will be just protected opinions. And, again, it is not for you to decide, but for a court to decide if a statement is over the line or not. I don't think your example has any relevance in the current discussion, actually. You are safe with pure opinion and you are safe with demonstrable facts. But there are a lot of other things that might be said that put you in range of libel law. My advice to beware seems to me to be justified.

@Buffy: Re: "My advice to beware seems to me to be justified": But you didn't write "beware", you wrote "you'd better be absolutely certain of your facts and state nothing but facts" [emphasis mine].

@Buffy never write a bad recommendation is good advice. What if a colleague (at your institute or another) contacts you (by phone or otherwise) asking for your opinion?

@user2768, my immediate worry is whether I could ethically respond in any way. There are privacy concerns.

Interesting, thanks. I suppose responses such as, I cannot comment, give something away.

A students CV, transcripts and publications and other documented achievements should only be used for evaluating for admission. Its as clear as that.

@RajeshD, that might be true if graduate positions were an unlimited resource. They are not, and they are expensive to provide.

At least as an auxiliary point: in the U.S., as opposed to many other cultures, there is the idea that earlier-life failures do not necessarily terminally limit the rest of one's life. There are no uniform exam/placement systems. There are second chances... (which is generally a good thing, although it definitely complicates everything).
So, in that style, even if a student has screwed up so far, perhaps one should not communicate that screw-up forward. Don't impede the fresh start...
In particular, I would never write a damning letter of recommendation. I might decline to write any. I would not write a dishonest one.
(And, in the U.S., comments on mental health issues, or physical health issues, are more-or-less legally prohibited, so far as I understand. Yes, in my experience, many problems are based in mental health issues... Perhaps we do not have a good system to talk about such things.)
EDIT: apart from my irrelevant grammatical error ("oppose" which should have been "opposed"), I am mildly surprised that anyone would object to "second chances". (Even the possibility of my editing for grammatical perfection could be a "second chance"?)
"U.S. kids are weak/lazy..." Yes, I've heard that many times from my faculty colleagues at my R1. But what I think it really is that U.S. kids are not as desperate as kids in some less-fortunate countries, so will not so easily bow to crazy/random (often inappropriate...) requirements.
Specifically, I would hope, ... that things are not soooo tight in the world that any slight mistake is fatal. Especially... kids? Seriously?

At least as an auxiliary point: in the U.S., as oppose to many other cultures, there is the idea that earlier-life failures do not necessarily terminally limit the rest of one's life. - so pathetic. Clearly, this forgiveness is why the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and also that's why Obama's alleged 'early-life failure' to be born in the US was such an issue for so many people. "as oppose to many other cultures".

@Kostya_I, I do understand the idea of your point... but one might argue that an early pre-emptive exit approach is wasteful of slower-developing potential.

I was sarcastic. I totally agree that second chances are a good thing, what triggered my comment is your boasting about tendency in the US culture ('as opposed to other cultures') to give people those second chances. The reality is quite the opposite - e. g., the US public widely supports harsh sentences at the expense of rehabilitation programs, resulting in the highest incarceration rate in the world.

@Kostya_I, ah, well, yes, you're right. (Only?) some people get second chances. Sigh.

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text:
Where did the "Cited by" link go on Google search results?
For as long as I can remember, Google search results that contained hits to papers in Google scholar were accompanied by a clickable "Cited by xxx" link that led to a list of all the citing works in Google scholar. Recently, this behavior seems to have been disabled. Now instead of a link, all I see is grey text with the citation count:

Mundane though it seems, being able to easily pull up all citing papers was a huge time saver, and I find myself sorely missing this feature. Is there a way to re-enable it? Why did Google disable this helpful feature?

Not sure why, but you still see this clickable link if you search directly in google scholar.

True, but it's still much more convenient to be able to access this information directly from the main Google search engine.

I don't know if it can be re-enabled (seems unlikely), but a workaround could be to use the Google Scholar button* browser extension (Firefox, Chrome). You can select the title of the paper, then click the button to see its search results on Google Scholar, including a clickable "Cited by" button. Alternatively, you could directly press the button if the title is already present in your Google search terms. It is not as convenient as having the link directly in the search results, but is still easier than separately opening Google Scholar, in my opinion.
Screenshot for reference:

*No affiliation

Thanks -- unfortunate that it does not work on Safari.


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PhD article: Structure to compare results of two algorithms
First of all, please accept my apologies if I commit any mistake when asking my question, but it's my first one on this vibrant community.
I am finishing my PhD, and I am writing an article to publish soon. Basically, this is the picture:
-There is an algorithm, "A", that is 4 years old.
-I created an algorithm, "B", that improves "A" in a %
I think the following scheme may reflect the investigation, but;
Do you feel this is a good skeleton for the article?
1. Introduction
2. Definition of the problem
3. Investigation goals
4. Classic Algorithm Description
5. Improved Algorithm Description
6. Results
7. Conclusions and discussion

looks reasonable to me (without knowing any specifics).  this is a journal article related to the PhD dissertation and not the dissertation itself, right?

I'm not sure what "Investigation goals" means. Perhaps it can be pushed into the introduction.

Thanks a lot first of all to both for the feedback. @robertbristow-johnson its a journal article related to it, not the dissertation itself. user2768, I'll bear it in mind, thanks

As "A" is already 4 years old, I would expect to also see a comparison of your algorithm to other improved versions of "A" that might have appeared in the meantime, or at least some related work section that will at least show that you are aware of them.

Does this look like the skeleton of other well-written journal articles describing similar results (describing an x% improvement to an k-year-old algorithm) in your subfield? If so, this is a great structure.  If not, you should consider a different structure closer to the norm in your subfield.  If you don't know, then you really need to read more papers.

@JeffE Thanks for your point of view. The field is software engineering, will try to look for a similar paper


text:
Offered admit to grad school but having second thoughts about attending at all
As my undergraduate years (Bachelor in Electrical Engineering) were coming to a close, I applied to a few universities in the US for Masters, mostly because that's what everyone does. I didn't think too much about what I'd like to study, was quite doubtful while applying (was told to just apply and see what happens) - was wanting to take a year off to work, really be sure about what I want to do in life, be sure of the field in which I wanted to apply. However, I went ahead and applied anyway.
I have received an acceptance from a rather well-reputed University for engineering, though without funding, and am now seriously wondering if I can turn it down. I can't seem to find anyone else who did this - applied without considering seriously and now wants to turn down the offer, but doesn't feel good about it because it's a good university. However, the amount of money involved is making me think four times before accepting, since once I accept, not only will I be obligated to work my ass off, take up part-time jobs, but will also have to work to pay that money off. It seems to potentially be a very expensive mistake to make, and I want to be absolutely sure that I'm willing and really wanting to give it my all, and not enter the programme half-heartedly. As it stands, I am regretting having applied in the first place.
Do you have any advice for me, what I should consider, what I'm failing to look at, whether I'm a complete brat for doing this?

There are currently two ways to interpret your question: (1) Is it unheard of and bad etiquette to turn down an offer? Answer: No, and even if so, you don't want to base life-altering decisions on questions of etiquette. (2) What is the right choice for me in terms of career and education? Only you can answer this broad question, and that's why on this reading I nominate the question for closure. Perhaps you can rework the question to make it fit the criteria of the help center.

"(was told to just apply and see what happens)""As it stands, I am regretting having applied in the first place." That's something that (as a highly indecisive person) I have found to have affected/affect/will affect many aspects of my life. No matter what you do, which as @henning said is solely your decision, think twice in the future before applying to anything that you are not willing to follow or you think you will not be able to pull through. "mostly because that's what everyone does" Also, that's a big no-no reason to do basically anything.

It's obvious that your true inclination is to turn down the offer, so that's what you should do. All the reasons you cite for why you are reluctant to follow that course of action have to do not with what you really want for yourself but with an unhealthy preoccupation with what others are doing or will think of you: you mention applying "because that's what everyone does", that "you can't seem to find anyone else who did this", and that you are worried about being a "complete brat for doing this". Sorry, but these are all bad reasons for doing or not doing something. So, unless you have a genuinely compelling reason to take the offer based on what you want for yourself rather than a fear of disappointing or upsetting someone else, this decision is a complete no-brainer.


text:
Frustrations about my master's program and how I should cope
I am currently a first-year master's student in a field of study with a strong international focus. The school's program that I am enrolled in is ranked in the top ten for the major, and the school is located in an ideal location. However, I have serious doubts about my program, and I am a disillusioned student. Other than the fact that I had gained acceptance to the school, the main reason that I chose to enroll at my current school was because of its emphasis on professionalism. Most of the professors in my program seem to be adjuncts who are employed full-time elsewhere and teach at my school on one of the weekday evenings. I thought that by learning under such instructors, I would be able to gain a more practical, realistic knowledge. However, I feel that I am proven wrong. All of my courses are scheduled in the evenings to allow students to work or intern during the daytime.
I am just a second-semester student, and I have taken four courses the first semester and am taking four courses this semester. So, out of my eight courses, only one last semester and one this semester are taught by a full-time professor at the university. The other courses have been or are being taught by adjuncts who work full-time elsewhere. The problem is that the ones being taught by adjuncts, especially this semester, lack clear guidelines for the expectations for the course. Also, most of them do not even have office hours, nor do they respond to emails. I only feel very lost and frustrated.  Grades are highly unpredictable, too. In terms of how grades go, I am in the situation of crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. At my current university, strangely enough, undergraduate grades seem to be inflated, while graduate grades seem to be deflated.
Also, what else frustrates me is that my courses seem to only revolve around theory. It's about trying to apply the theory in real-life situations. They don't even encourage creative thinking, just theory. One of my current courses gives out a lot of abstract reading assignments, but the instructor who is an adjunct does not make an attempt to explain them. In each session, it's like, "Hey, what did you think of the readings? I want you to talk about them."
Is it common for a master's program to have so many adjuncts who lack availability? Is it also common in most master's disciplines to feel totally lost without any faculty guidance? Would the situation have been different for a PhD program? Is my situation common or unique? If my program is in the top ten for its discipline, would it be beneficial for me in the job market? I feel very embarrassed to tell anyone, especially family members about how I actually feel about my program. I don't feel motivated about challenging myself further because I feel that taking a unique viewpoint is risky to obtaining a decent grade.

That sounds like the precise opposite of professionalism. Run like the wind.

Graduate school shouldn't and needn't be like this.  I'm glad to hear you have developed an awareness of the problems inherent to the overuse of adjuncts.  That's the first step! // If you do not receive a response to an email, forward it to the department chair.

This sadly does not surprise me very much, especially if you are in a field like public policy or international studies, and especially if it is a graduate-level interdisciplinary program that is not directly run by a department with its own undergraduates and doctoral students. (In the U.S., at least, undergraduate programs have very strict accreditation, and doctoral programs are a point of pride for faculty. Masters programs often get lost in the middle, especially if the masters students don't have classes with the undergrads or doctoral students.)
If you want to stick with this degree, you will have to rely on yourself, as YakovK suggests, to get the most out of this program.

It's at the top of rankings because highly qualified students attend (and vice versa). Make the most of your classmates' knowledge and enthusiasm, and work on side projects with them.
Try to take the maximum number of classes with full-time professors, even to the point of petitioning for graduate classes from other departments to replace your requirements. See if you can do an independent study with a few other motivated students and a willing full-time professor.
Make the most of the entire campus you're on. I am guessing that, for this program to be so highly regarded, it is part of a busy university, so get on the mailing lists for departments you're interested in, try to discover funding sources for research projects open to you as a student there, and/or try to find a professor to do research with (for a limited number of volunteer hours, for course credit, or as a job).
Does your program have a capstone project or thesis? Figure out how to make that serve your career goals. (If you're interested in further academic study, then try to make the research as well-thought-through as possible; if you're interested in working in a particular company or industry, find a topic that's in demand there.)
If there's a campus writing center or tutoring center or statistical consulting center, use it as much as you can to improve your project/thesis.
If there are career counseling resources on campus, use them. You may be able to be part of the campus alumni network.

If you don't see this "self-driven" option working out, you could also find something related to do for a year and ask for a leave of absence. (E.g., if this were a public health school, you could find a relevant job in some level of government somewhere, or a job at a health-related NGO/non-profit.) See how necessary it is to finish your degree to advance in that world, and give yourself time to make that decision. (While you may have to live with low wages or no wages while doing this, it may be a better choice than paying tuition and living expenses toward a program you are not seeing much value from.)
Good luck!

Unfortunately, many US masters programs are viewed as a source of considerable income for the respective departments. They are typically sponsored by companies, which don't necessarily care about the knowledge that their employees get. Being an independent masters student in such a department is not great. Adjuncts are definitely hit and miss. At any rate, while in grad school, the main rule is to rely on yourself. If you can't learn by yourself, don't go there.


text:
Suggestions for making the most out of a set graduate school program?
I was recently admitted to a US graduate program in Pure Mathematics with an assistantship that requires teaching. I begin in the Fall.
The program is designed in such a way that Fall and Spring have Analysis/Algebra and their continuations, respectively, give or take optional seminars and a teaching supplement course. In the summer following the first academic year, Qualifying Exams in these topics are required that both allow one to continue into the second year of the MS program and/or pass on directly to PhD program. Both MS and PhD have dissertations at the end of the program.
My concern is the first academic year with the courses restricted to the two A's. While definitely necessary to prepare for the QE's, I wonder how much time that leaves me to study other topics, perhaps topics that would be part of an eventual dissertation. With time split between these intro courses and teaching, which will no doubt be time consuming, how much time does that leave for personal exploration? For branching out into other areas of mathematics?
The immediate conclusion I drew was to read other topics. But self-directed learning moves slow for me, I'm easily distracted and life gets in the way. The classroom environment is where I learn best, to be honest.
I guess I am looking for recommendations to make the most out of the graduate program's pace - how can I build the foundation required for my program while also exploring topics that will not have explicit instruction? To explore other areas is my ultimate goal for returning to school. Suggestions?
Answers both relevant and irrelevant to math are appreciated.

For graduate programs with this kind of structure, there is usually an expectation that your core courses (algebra and analysis) will be your main focus for the first year.  So you should not necessarily expect to have much extra time to spend on other topics during that year, nor will the program be expecting you to do so.
If you find that you are able to handle those courses pretty easily and have a significant amount of extra time and energy, then you could consider:

studying additional topics on your own
enrolling in other courses, if there are some that don't have the core courses as prerequisite
approaching an individual professor in an area of your interest about a reading course or independent study

But if not then don't worry about it.  There will be plenty of time after your first year to explore other areas of math, and having a thorough grounding in core areas will make that exploration much more productive.


text:
Need a good, inexpensive app to catalogue journal articles and books
Like the title says, I'm looking for an inexpensive app or program that can catalogue both journal articles and books. I need something that has or can take input from an ISBN/QR/barcode scanner, and can also do in-line article annotation like Mendeley.
Background: I work at a very small consulting firm. We do IT, custom software, creative services (design and UXD) and user research (theory, strategy and testing). We're just starting to put together a research library, and we quite frankly don't have the money for high-powered library software.
I know I'm probably asking for a magical unicorn here, and if what I want doesn't exist, please tell me. I figured research professionals would have had the most need for something like this; any help you could throw my way would be much appreciated.
-Z

This sounds like a "shopping question", which are not a good fit for the StackExchange Q&A model.

Please read the guidelines. You may try your luck in SoftwareRecommendations.SE, but I doubt your question be applicable for that site too from the way it is framed.

I recomment to meet some librarians and talk with them about your requirements in more detail. There are a lot of software solutions that could fit.
I assume from what you wrote that Invenio could fulfill your requirements. It's an Open Source Software for publications and can be used for repositories and as an integrated library system. Invenio is developed by CERN as a framework and everyone can create its own overlay. I know at least one library using it with RFID but none with bar codes so far. It allows to catalogue all types of publications.


text:
Dissertation reader issues
I am having some serious issues with my dissertation.  I am currently on my third and perhaps last draft of my final dissertation.  I sent my draft to committee to revise after mentor said to do so.  The first reader took one week to respond.  The second reader has not responded for two months despite me sending reminders!  It is the university's policy for readers to provide revisions after three weeks.
I kept my mentor abreast of what's going on.  This particular reader has given other students issues with their dissertation.  My mentor then informed the department chair who is currently handling the situation and said that doing so carries risks and that it will take a while.  Since this sounds quite alarming I asked my mentor to speak over the phone for more details a couple of days ago and has not responded.  What could be the potential risks and time frame?
I should have graduated this week but given the above that is obviously not happening.  In speaking with others who have defended they have all endured some sort of academic "hazing" from their mentors and readers.
Of note, this particular reader is in charge of signing off to ensure that students have met all graduation requirements after defending so I would have to sit down with this reader after defending.
Anyone here has had a similar experience?  I don't want to pay for another semester because of the reader's evasion.  Would the university waive tuition/fees until I defend?  Lastly, what should I say when I am applying to postdocs regarding this?  Thanks!

What country and what level of education is this?

This is for a doctorate dissertation in USA.

You can go see the reader in person and ask if s/he has any revisions; you can talk to the director of graduate studies. // In principle, your advisor could be handling this type of problem behind the scenes.  Just saying.  If your advisor isn't the assertive type, your badgering him or her would probably not help.

Background:
My similar situation
I did have a problem with my committee. I started a tenure-track job before I defended, and to my horror, one committee member resigned prematurely. I was a two-day drive from my alma mater, and had to find someone very quickly who was both qualified and willing. I proposed a tenured professor in a field closely related to mine, with similar research interests approached by the methods of his field. He had a good CV and was therefore acceptable to my advisor and the rest of the committee. He had a mild crush on me at the time, though not a serious one, mainly because I was the new kid on the block. That might be why he agreed to the thankless task, but I couldn't concern myself with his reasons. He came through, which was all that mattered, although there was a brief crisis after I had made it clear that I wasn't going to participate in any improper flirting with someone on my committee and found my unmarked dissertation shoved under my office door.
A cautionary tale
The committee member who quit had been extremely problematic while I was still in the department, to the degree that I went to the ombudsman for graduate students to discuss the matter and get advice. I was assured that the meeting was entirely confidential, but soon learned that it was reported to my department's chair and made its way to the reader. Therefore, I advise caution in going outside the department.
Answer:
The money issue
You have two questions. One concerns the possible financial cost of a delay caused by the recalcitrant reader. That can be taken up with the university's administration, starting at the lowest conceivably helpful level which would be somewhere above the cashiers. In asking about it outside your department, you should relate very little about the reason for the delay. It should be sufficient to say that it has to do with with the schedule of one of your readers. After a face-to-c=face conference with the appropriate authority, ask for leave to submit your case in writing. Lay it out in calm, practical and professsional language. If you're refused a waiver, write again and politely requested references to the written policy that governs. If there is none, you have some leeway to appeal the decision and assert the need for an accommodation in cases like yours. You might end up pretty high on the chain of command, so tread carefully. The higher you go, the more likely it will get back to the problematic reader, so each time you have to go over someone's head to have their decision overturned, you  should weigh the pros and cons of opening a can of worms. (I don't know what the tuition cost is; your decisions about pursuing a waiver will obviously be affected by the affordability of staying in school longer than you planned to.)
"Self-help"
If you want to go to the reader yourself and ask when they'll complete their review, it's essential that you have your advisor's permission to do so. To do otherwise might create the appearance of "going rogue." The risks your advisor mentioned, associated with involving the department chair, probably exist because your advisor sought help from an authority, which is about as popular as going rogue.
Are we there yet?
I interpret "it will take a while" to mean more than two weeks, with anything up to two months possible.
A practical proposal
If there's any chance to replace the problematic reader with someone as well qualified but not as slow and uncommunicative, that might be ideal. It would be polite, with your advisor's knowledge and permission, to ask the problematic reader if he or she minds being replaced.
Philosophizing
Fact is, a student shouldn't have to handle this alone. Your advisor should be capable of resolving it for you.
The other fact is, your advisor can't control a tenured professor, if that's what the problematic reader is. Neither can the department chair. Maybe a dean could, but this isn't a matter for a dean.
Giving up all hope and the rewards that can follow
If you end up having to pay for another term, make the best of it by keeping a toe in the research you're interested in. If you can help out in your advisor's lab, do so. You can also analyze and write up any worthwhile unpublished data you collected as a student, or work on a scholarly review of research in your narrowly defined area, addressing questions and problems that remain unresolved, if there hasn't been one recently.


text:
How do I use internet comments in my research?
I want to use comments on the internet to gather user requirements.
I plan to collect these comments, read them and decide what the person wants based on what they've written. These list of "wants" will form the user requirements.
For example:

John: I hate the way the program keeps asking me if I'm  sure I want to exit.

Could form the requirement:
An option to disable exit confirmation prompts.

What's a suitable methodology for this? I need a process to follow or guidelines to do it correctly. Is it classed as qualitative research?

Researching customer demands can surely be valuable work towards your actual research (which involves developing some computer program?), but it is not itself academic research.

You would generally need to use a class of research that is indeed considered qualitative. I think the most common method would be "coding", and if you search for "qualitative coding" you should find a wide-variety of helpful primers such as this one.
A more detailed guideline on how to do this type of research would not be on-topic here, but with the right search terms you should be able to find a wealth of guides from a variety of different fields. However, no resource you find will be an adequate replacement for getting to know your own field and how  things are done there by carefully reading the method sections of papers in your area that ideally use similar methodology. If you draw up a provisional plan for what to do (creating your own sample data to go with it can be helpful here), you should have it reviewed by a suitable advisor/researcher in your area to help you understand how things are generally done in your area, and to help you identify problems and misunderstandings in your plans.


text:
Is it okay to submit a modified journal paper that is still under review to a conference?
I have a paper submitted to a journal that is currently under review.
My research supervisor now wants to then submit a similar paper to an upcoming conference, by taking an older version of this same paper, and removing some content to fit the conference page limits.
I would understand the conference paper to make sense for a work-in-progress, to have been submitted at an earlier time before a submission to a journal for review, but the work has already been completed.
Would there a possible ethical problem with submitting a purposefully stripped-down version of a work to a conference, after a journal submission had already made?

You would probably violate the journal's policy.  Usually, you are required to declare that the work has not been submitted/published anywhere else.  If it has, then you need to note the differences.

Following from @Prof.SantaClaus, you might also violate the conference's policy: The same rules apply.

Thanks for the input @Prof.SantaClaus and user2768. Due to policy conflicts, no paper was submitted to the conference.

@Prof.SantaClaus I suggest you make that a formal answer since it seems like it would be accepted. It seems odd to have no answer but the resolution strictly in comments.

From two responses in the comments, submitting to a conference after a submission to  a journal would likely have policy violations from both the journal and the conference.
(#1)

You would probably violate the journal's policy. Usually, you are
  required to declare that the work has not been submitted/published
  anywhere else. If it has, then you need to note the differences.

(#2)

you might also violate the conference's policy: The same rules apply.


text:
What can a undergraduate do to get the strongest recommendation letter possible?
This is basically a follow up question from Tom Church's answer to this question: How much does a student's ranking in their cohort matter for PhD applications?.
What can a undergraduate do say in his 2nd or 3rd year to get the strongest recommendation letter possible?  There are the usual answers like talk to your professors etc, but Tom's answer seem to imply there are skills to be learnt in this case.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/47373/20457


text:
How to navigate convincing professor to submit a letter of recommendation without falsehood
My professor has submitted a letter of recommendation for me for graduate program admissions, and has listed that I did X and Y (specific activities) under him, when I was only involved in doing X. He shared the letter with me after he submitted it, that's how I know.
I emailed him saying that I only did X and gave him info on how to submit a new letter, and his response was that if the admission committee ever calls him to check, he will clarify.
I really worry about this because 1) committees seldom check, 2) it's a falsehood that I did Y under him, 3) I think he is forgetful, and may just not remember to correct himself if they ever check, and 4) if I don't convince him to change this it would be like I am complicit in the falsehood.
He's a chill, old dude, my professor, and I don't want to rub him the wrong way by saying "We would be lying, please submit a new letter".
What's a gentle, tactful way to convince him to submit a new letter of recommendation with the correct information? Or is it okay if he clarifies if they ever call him to check?

I think you did the right thing already.  You are not responsible for the professor's choices.

I would say that this would be a different situation if the recommendation was for a potential employer, rather than for graduate school admissions. If this were for a potential employer and you might be expected to do Y, this would be a bigger issue, in my opinion.
Although the letter does not represent your abilities 100%, calling it a lie suggests that your professor knowingly stated falsehoods about your abilities on the letter, rather than it be an oversight as you describe. Sometimes these things happen. His writing a recommendation for you is outside of his other academic duties, so you are asking him to volunteer more work on top of what he has already volunteered to do.
In my many years on graduate school admission committees, we have only contacted references of candidates in cases where there is a questionable part of the application that suggests that the candidate is not prepared for the program or would be a potential problem. If everything else in your application looks fine, this may go unnoticed. Plus, the graduate admissions may find it strange that your reference submitted a revised letter. In my opinion, I would just wait to see if this comes up. Then, you can simply state, "Yes, my professor said in my letter that I did Y under his supervision, but I really was more involved with X and can only speak about X." This is very different than if YOU stated in your application that you could do Y. Your reference making a mistake would be more forgivable than if you knowingly made the same statement (if all else is fine with your application). If your professor didn't give you a copy of the letter, you would have never known that this is an issue.

I also see this more as a professor's problem than yours. You can always explain to whoever may ask that the professor's recommendation was entirely written by him without your influence and oversight (as it should be!) but you really think that the emphasis should be on X.
As far as I know, recommendation letters are (mostly?) not visible to the candidate, so if professor writes half-truths, it cannot be your problem (as far as it is not really overboard and someone starts thinking that you choose the nutty old prof because he is forgetful and can be easily influenced).
But in general, this is not your problem, as long as you are clear that you only claim X, not Y when directly asked.


text:
What does referee mean in The Computer Journal?
In The Computer Journal I was looking at the Instruction to authors page, I did not understand the below instruction-

Authors should supply a list of between three and five referees who
  would be suitable to referee the paper. Please enclose full name,
  email and full postal addresses.

I thought after paper submission, the editors will review it & recommend if there any changes are necessary. But according to above instruction it seems that author has to provide suitable referee list. Then editors will review submitted paper.
In this specific context,
What does referee mean? How does it differ from editor? Also if an independent researcher needs to submit paper, where does he find more than 2 referees? Is referee equivalent to peer?

I don't know that this question is necessarily a duplicate, because the OP asked the difference between a referee and an editor, which wasn't covered in the linked question.

The editor works for the journal and recommends changes to the article for clarity and organization. He or she also makes the final judgments regarding if and when an article is published. The editor does not evaluate the work technically in the same way that referees do. The referees are peer reviewers who are deeply familiar with your field of work and will evaluate your article for its scientific merit. To have your article published, it must be approved by both the editor and the referees.
For a further explanation of how to suggest referees, see the accepted answer to this question: What is a referee in the manuscript submission process?

To avoid confusing some first time authors, it might be useful making clear that "the editor works for" doesn't often mean "as a full time employee". She almost certainly an academic or researcher working in  one of the core subject areas of the journal, just not necessarily in the precise technical area of the paper being submitted.

They clearly mean people to do peer reviewing.
It's a shame that they go out of their way to ask people to provide their own reviewers, since that is not exactly a way to get an unbiased set of reviews.
Groucho Marx once said he wouldn't belong to any club that would have him as a member.  I wouldn't submit to any journal that can't find its own reviewers.
If they do this, be sure they are not a "predatory journal" whose primary purpose is to charge you fees for publishing your work.

The British Computer Society is the professional organization that represents and licenses IT professionals (equivalent to Chartered Engineer, and similar designations) in the UK, and Oxford University Press has been around for centuries, so the OP's journal is very unlikely to be predatory.

I didn't mean to impugn any specific publication,  i meant it more generally.  That being said, their open access fees are twice those of ACM/IEEE....

"It's a shame that they go out of their way to ask people to provide their own reviewers, since that is not exactly a way to get an unbiased set of reviews." - in my field it is very common for top journals to ask for a list of referees. There is no guarantee that the work is sent to those referees, the editor may choose zero, one, or all of the reviewers from that list, based on their judgment. In a diverse field with numerous areas of expertise, it isn't possible for any but the most specific journals to have editors that really know the best 10 people to review a given paper.

@BryanKrause I just don't see the point.  There are definitely cases of collusion -- for instance I came across a case where an author was clearly providing a reviewer the text for the "independent" peer review the reviewer was supposed to be writing. Why take the chance?  Can't the editor look at cited articles to find candidates?

Sometimes, sometimes not. How should the editor sort through the 100s of authors cited by a paper? Pick out the names they have heard of? Based on frequency? Couldn't the authors also be citing their friends? Editors can easily look through a short list of suggested referees to see that they have not published (or at least, not recently/extensively) with the authors, that they are from different institutions, etc. They can also cross-reference them with the journal's own list of past referees whom they were pleased with.

@BryanKrause, hopefully the editor has enough familiarity with the topic to identify reasonable reviewers.  You're right that if the citation list is huge, picking just the right ones could be hard.  But I'd be loathe to take someone suggested by an author unless I already knew the person and trusted them. In which case I probably didn't need the suggestion.

I still expect the editors to make a decision. I don't expect editors to pick blindly from the suggestions. Familarity with a topic is relative, too. In my field there are probably 1000X more papers that I can easily read and digest than those that I can also place appropriately in importance relative to other works in their sub-sub-sub-genre. It's more like "Hmm these authors recommend Doug Fredericks as a referee, I'm familiar with his work on Topic B and C and I see the authors cited some other papers of his I didn't know about - put all together I trust his opinion on this paper."

The editor(s) are the people who are ultimately responsible for the journal and it's publications. However, often times they lack the requisite expertise to understand the nuances of papers that are submitted. The standard practice is to ask other researchers who have a similar expertise to the submitted paper to read and review the submission. These researchers are the referees. They are not affiliated with the journal, and are usually academic researchers. They will write reports on the paper that will give the editor a better grasp of the importance of the paper, and are often asked to explicitly recommend the paper for acceptance or denial.
The first thing I would do is look through the citations for potential referees. If your paper is a direct reply to another paper, uses or extends someone's technique, or refutes someone's ideas, definitely put them on the list. After putting anyone whose work is directly connected to yours, pick the remaining people from a list of people who have done similar work in the past. If you work in a field or topic where there is contention about interpretation or multiple schools of thought, you should probably pick people who roughly agree with you (this isn't an issue in my field, mathematics).


text:
Is there a ranking of mathematics positions at a given university?
What is the difference between, say, a postdoc and a lecturer? A senior lecturer and an associate professor?
More generally, is there a ranking of mathematics positions at a given university?

can you sepify the country you are interesed in? The positions and obligations vary between countries.

An assistant professor (in the US, anyway) has a continuing position subject to achieving tenure. An Associate Professor has achieved tenure and has a long term commitment from the university. Postdocs normally have a term limited position that may be renewed a small number of times, if at all. A lecturer normally doesn't have a long term commitment. It is probably subject to annual renewal. A Senior lecturer is a bit more trusted and earns more, but is still just a lecturer.
In some places the first couple of years of the undergraduate education are mostly taught by either lecturers or a special category of professors of the practice. The latter have regular appointments and are expected to know more about pedagogy and possibly less about technical research. Some quite fine institutions have such a system (Duke, CMU, Stanford, at least). This relieves the senior faculty from teaching low level (possibly large) courses and still gets a quality education for undergraduates. It is also a stable career path for those who would rather teach than do research, whereas "lecturer" can be quite risky.
Note that in the US, there is no national system or nationally recognized definitions and rules. In other countries titles such as these may be regulated by law.


text:
Website allowing one to look up mathematicians, publications, and number of references for each paper
I have been to such a website about a year ago when deciding which PhD program/advisor I wanted. I can't remember the name of the website! You could search someone's name and university etc. and it would pull up their publications, which journal they were in, and number of references that paper had in other papers.
I used it specifically for mathematics, although it could have been a more general data base (I can't remember).

You probably mean mathscinet. http://www.ams.org/mathscinet

Google Scholar, MathSciNet, and Thompson's Web of Science can all be used to do this.

MathSciNet is what mathematicians use.  If you are a student at a university with a research library, then you should have access to MathSciNet through that university's subscription.

Maybe it was Zentralblatt (math-specific, partially free)?
Other possibilities (gathered from the comments to compile an answer) are Google Scholar, as well as Mathscinet (math-specific, non-free), Scopus (non-free), Web of Science (non-free).

I did not use Zentralblatt for a long time, but tgey improved the presentation, the features and the search a lot and now I use it quite frequently.

@FedericoPoloni I do like Zentralblatt! It seems as though it was mathscinet I was using, although I can't be sure. This works perfectly fine though!


text:
Finalist for fellowship at prospective grad school. Does this mean I'm admitted?
I was recently emailed that I am a finalist for a fellowship for a prospective grad school I've applied to (this is for math PhD), and that I need to email back to confirm that [school] is a top choice of programs for me. I have not received an admittance letter.
Does this usually imply that I'll be admitted? I've tried asking the grad coordinator, but she was pretty vague and said something along the lines of "After assistantships/fellowship decisions are made, the admissions chair will begin the admissions process."

You have been told you are a finalist, not admitted. They want a reply that you are still interested, once they have that reply from you, they will then decide which of tge finalists yhey wish to choise. There may be two, three, five or even only one, but that is part of their process...

@SolarMike Thanks for the input! Yes, I agree with what you are saying. But I am not asking about my status with the fellowship. I am asking about the status of my admission to the program. Or maybe I misread your comment...

Are you using “fellowship” and “program” interchangeably...

@SolarMike No I am not. The fellowship is like a grant and is university-wide, although each department gets to choose a handful of "good" applicants for nomination (only one applicant of each department may get it). But this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with admittance to the program. My question is to graduate admissions committee members who may have experience with these kinds of things. In particular, I am asking if the fact that I was considered for this fellowship necessarily imply my acceptance to the program.

To me the phrase "will begin the admissions process" sounds like beginning the process of deciding who will be admitted.

I am the Graduate Coordinator for a mathematics PhD program.  But even I don't know the answer to your question (except possibly if  I'm the one who contacted you...but I don't think I sent out any emails quite like that).  So I don't think that random internet strangers can give you a definitive answer.
It's clear that you haven't been admitted yet, or the Graduate Coordinator would have told you so.  As for "usually imply" -- I am not willing to go so far.  What I can say is that being informed that you are a finalist for the fellowship certainly increases the chances you'll get admitted.  But for instance this fellowship may allow the department to admit a student that they would not otherwise be able to admit.  In that situation you would still think that they would admit someone that they put up for a prestigious fellowship ahead of most other students, but there could be exceptions.
As my favorite Harvard Square chess hustler used to say, "Sometimes you never know."

Ah I figured that was the case, but at least I asked. Thanks for the input Pete.


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Do graduate schools in mathematics typically send out acceptance letters all at once?
There have been a few grad programs that have sent out acceptances to many people - in particular, Ohio State, UCLA, and GA Tech.
I am wondering if this means that these schools are done accepting students (with the exception of wait-listed students).

Probably not. Some of the students accepted are likely to decline. If enough do, they'll be able to accept more (or call up students from their wait list).

When I sat on a physics admission committee, we sent out the acceptances in a 3–4 batches between February and April.  In general, the students accepted earliest were ones that happened to be evaluated early and who were clearly students we wanted;  we left the more marginal cases until later in the season, when we had a better idea where we would need to "draw the line".

The short answer is "no" or maybe "it depends what you mean by "wait list." "
Take a moment to think about how graduate admissions works: departments have a relatively fixed number of slots that they have money for, and it is a serious nuisance if you go much above or much below those numbers.  However, because of how the deadlines are structured (with everyone having April 15th), you essentially have to make all your admissions decisions having very little idea of how many people will turn you down (because it's rational for them to wait until April 15th).  In my experience, the admission committee will do one round of admission letters that they hope is enough to fill their class, but which is probably a little on the conservative side. Right now would seem a little early to me (many schools haven't even finished their winter break), so it's possible you're seeing people who are getting early ones for some reason.  Even after that, it's still quite possible that they will decide to admit more people if for whatever reason they decide that they are not likely to get enough from their initial round.  Those admissions could happen basically any time; I've seen it happen once on the morning of April 15th.
Whether the pool of people who might still get admitted actually receive a letter saying that they are on the waitlist is mostly up to random bureaucratic chance, but if you haven't received a rejection yet, and someone else has an acceptance, you should regard yourself as on the waitlist.


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How much weight do Math PhD programs place on the subject GRE?
I am a master's student in mathematics at a relatively unknown university, studying Number Theory. I have completed readings for my master's thesis and will present this in Spring, along with other readings with another advisor. I have 4.0 gpa throughout my time here, and I believe strong recommendation letters. My research goals are pretty focused, and this will show through on my application (probably mostly so in my personal statement, but also in one rec letter).
The only thing that is holding me back is this darn math subject GRE test. I have been so focused on research that I did not study for it! It was very fast, with lots of tricky calculus (the "advanced" topics questions are not actually that hard). I have not received my score, but I believe it will be bad, maybe at best 40 percentile, but I'm just guessing.
So my question: How much weight does math GRE subject test have on my application? Specifically, I'd like to get advice on this from people in pure math on admissions committees (or used to be), since this obviously depends on the university. For instance, how much does it matter for "tier 1", "tier 2", etc. universities (whatever this means)?
I have tried to look up other information on this but little is out there, with the exception of a couple of threads here and there that are not super helpful.
The main reason I ask is that I am spending potentially a lot of money on applications, most of which require this tricky calculus test! But I'd rather not apply and save the money if it won't matter.

It strongly depends on the program--even the faculty that are sitting on the committee this year.

@ChrisC Thanks Chris. I figured that there was maybe a general trend on admissions processes (with some exceptions), but your "strongly depends" seems to say otherwise. Do you have experience with admissions? Thanks for your input.

I do not besides hearing the offhand faculty comments about it and surviving it some years ago. The younger faculty do seem to not be stressing it as much, at least in my department.

Spending a lot of money on applications?  Regardless of your Math GRE results, maybe it would be a good idea to prune your list of schools a bit.  Used to be, one would apply to a dream school (a stretch), a school one would be happy in but wouldn't do a happy dance about if one got in, and a safety school, just in case the second one didn't come through.

@aparente001 Yes, I am applying to few schools, just like you've described (as "used to be"). But I do not have much money. Money goes a long way in my case, even a little of it.

@Mike - I suggest you ask for fee waivers -- application fees and GRE fees.

how does one waiver the fees?

I worked in the admissions office of the graduate school of arts and sciences at Harvard University.
While the GRE is important, there are a kaleidoscope of other factors that admissions takes into consideration.
You stated, quite eloquently, what happened, which was that you were so engaged in research that it hurt your study time for the GRE.
Admission officers value applicants who display intellectual curiosity but also honesty.
In your statement of purpose, explain what happened
If you were wanting to get into a top-five university, what about applying as a special student. The GRE is not required, but I must warn you, it is still as competitive as applying as a degree seeking student.
Just a thought, and wishing you all the best in your educational pursuits.


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Is it unusual for a prospective university to offer a bonus to your stipend after visiting?
I am a prospective PhD math student. This year's application season has brought me down to two schools to choose from:

Medium-sized department, ranked <80 on US News (whatever that means), very welcoming people, potential advisor is very young but seemed like we would "click", surrounding area and city is beautiful, program looks awesome.
Larger department, top 20 program, potential advisor is famous in his field, current advisor says I would work well with him/he's a cool guy, don't know much else since I've not visited.

I am waitlisted at university 2. University 1's initial offer to me included the standard stipend along with a decent fellowship. I made a visit to university 1 and talked with many professors and my potential advisor. After this visit, they offered me a ~17% increase in my stipend due to some professors advocating for me who were apparently impressed (whom I do not know other than my visit). I feel that this is a good sign, but I am ultimately pursuing a career in academia. So I know prestige plays a big roll in future jobs. Assuming I have an offer from university 2 as well:
Questions:

Is this late stipend increase offer typical?
Based on your experience and insight in the job market for academics, which university is the better option?

Thanks for your time to read.

the better option is 2, but there you are only waitlisted, so you don't really have a choice at the moment.

Prestige plays much less of a role than whether you do good research in your PhD. However, of course, prestigious departments are prestigious because people there tend to do good work.

It's not too unusual. Lower-ranked schools know they need to work a little harder to attract top talent. For example, I did an REU at a lower-ranked school, and they admitted that the only reason they bothered offering an REU program was hoping that some of us would become grad students -- they normally couldn't attract grad students of our caliber. Offering a 15% stipend increase to particularly promising students seems altogether appropriate.
University 2. I might seriously consider university 1 if you didn't like university 2 for some reason -- what you do is far more important than where you go, and getting into a top school does not guarantee you an academic future (not even close!!). But in your case, both seem like good options, so if you get into university 2, I would go there.

There’s nothing wrong with a school revising its offer. In fact, I’d view the improved offer as a sign of serious interest—schools aren’t likely to do this for all of the students who visit. So this means that they want you to join their department, which is a plus in my book. (The big reputation is great, but a school that values you for you also matters instead of being merely a cog in the machine!)


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German Student visa
How difficult is it to get a German Visa for a second Master degree in the same field but with advanced courses as a prerequisite for Ph.D.?

I joined my first degree very late after 1 and a half month from when the course started and my institute had a continuous assessment system. I was left so far behind when I enrolled and I had backlogs because of this. But I made it up for that in my second year with my research project, thesis, and paper

I don't understand why you want to study a second masters degree in the same field even after reading your comment above. Please note that if I have this question, then the officer who issues the visa could have the same question i.e. why do you want to study the masters degree in the same field again..

My first choice was actually PhD. I approached some of the reputed Professors in United States and Germany who lead funded research in my area of interest. The response I got from them was that my research so far is just a small step into the area and that I need more expertise for a Ph.D. The courses in Germany are not exactly the same. They are much advanced. I wanted to step up my game raise my bar to get into a good Ph.D. program.

@scaaahu ... and the research and project work in the university I am accepted to are so amazing and could provide the opportunity for the expertise I need.

Wait, so you already got accepted to a German university an are now only worrying about visa?

Yes...I have already been accepted and I am yet to apply for a visa


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Citation Style Language (CSL) style for resume / CV
I have my own publications on Zotero, and would like a convenient way to export these references directly to my resume/CV so I only have to update them once. Is there a CSL style that can generate resume-style publication lists? They should appear in the following format and be sorted in reverse chronological order:
2020  Full bibliographic reference, formatted
      in whatever sensible style can be found.

I am not sure if it is exactly what you are looking for, but I made a LaTeX CV template a while ago which takes a .bib file as your publication lists and outputs it in reversed chronological order: https://github.com/Thijsvanede/cv . It is just something I use for my own CV, but feel free to use it for yours as well

Thanks! That's an interesting way to solve the problem. Though it's not exactly my use case (I have my CV in markdown ad process it with Pandoc and Pandoc-citeproc, hence the need for CSL), I'll look into it.

Adam Altmejd's GitHub repository has a CSL file that seems to be what you are looking for. Adam also compiles his CV from markdown with BibTeX via Pandoc and Pandoc-citeproc.

This seems to work! I might pick up from there and see if I can generate a reverse-chronological bibliography.

Perhaps the easiest solution will be using the APA-CV citation style as proposed in this SO answer.


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Can I publish multiple papers with same methodology but different topics?
I'm investigating differences in esophageal cancer incidence and mortality rates between my home state and the rest of the United States. There already exists a paper that performs this type of analysis for colo-rectal cancer using data from a pre-existing database (SEER).
If I used that original author's methodology (citing him of course) and gathered data from that same database, but adapted it towards investigating pontine cancer instead, would it be publishable, assuming my content is otherwise unique and competent?
If the former holds true, it there anything that could/would stop me from creating an indefinite number of research papers that are permutations of my original except with other cancers like lung, breast, skin, etc? Or even different states?
I don't want to do anything unprofessional or unethical here so I would like to know sooner rather than later. Please advice and thank you.

In general, the test for whether a result is publishable is whether it advances the state of human knowledge.
Thus, if X is a new approach that contributes to knowledge about Problem 1, then it could readily be published in either a methodology-centric venue or a problem-centric venue.  If X is applied to produce new knowledge about Problem 2, then that's less interesting from a methodology perspective (though it may still be interesting, depending on circumstances), but absolutely relevant for Problem 2.
So if the approach really is useful for learning about lots of different types of cancer, it's potentially publishable for each type.  At some point, though, generalization becomes more interesting, and it would be appropriate to write a (much higher impact) paper on the applicability of the approach for learning about all cancers.


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Etiquette for contacting a corresponding author?
I'm a 2nd year graduate student (biological sciences). I've been developing a new research tool, which builds upon a system developed by a different lab. However, I've had issues replicating the previous system, owing partly to a scarcity of certain details that would be useful for someone who is still new to most of the technical aspects of this type of research.
I'm debating whether I should contact the corresponding author of the source literature to ask for clarification (e.g. if they could send me specific plasmid maps). However, based upon the research history of my lab, I'm concerned that the other lab may be able to deduce what enhancements I'd like to make to their system (since they've attempted to do similar things in the past). As such, I'm not sure if they would be willing to provide such information.
I've thought about discussing with my advisor. However, I also don't want to seem like I don't have the initiative/independence to seek out what I need myself. If general protocol is for students to directly contact corresponding authors, I'm wondering what is the best way for me to phrase this inquiry.
Thanks so much!

Ask your advisor. In this context I think it's more important to show you have some forethought to realize the situation could be potentially tricky and that you know when to ask for advice, versus showing your initiative/independence. You're a second year graduate student.

I get contacted by students every so often, for instance trying to ask a clarifying question.  I think there is nothing wrong with reaching out, but given you are concerned about disclosing too much, I agree with @BryanKrause that this calls for looping in your advisor.

@BryanKrause Make that an answer?

@Kimball Will do; expanded a bit on some of the reasons an advisor is helpful in this situation.

As a side note, I've found that even the best-intentioned labs' plasmid maps are often wrong, sometimes absurdly so, to the point that I no longer bother to ask for them. Sequencing today is fast and cheap, and if that's an option it's going to be faster and easier than asking for a map.

Ask your advisor. In this context I think it's more important to show you have some forethought to realize the situation could be potentially tricky and that you know when to ask for advice, versus showing your initiative/independence. You're a second year graduate student.
There are several issues that your advisor will know more about than you regarding your relationship with this other lab, in terms of publication strategy, any personal contact they already have, avoiding your request sounding like an accusation or making you look foolish, etc. Your advisor might also know about the reputation of the other author: maybe this is someone who would be responsive to a student email, maybe it's someone who would ignore you and your advisor needs to intervene on your behalf. Your advisor can also give you recommendations on your own work and help you discover if there are other causes for your inability to replicate results so far, and save you both from some embarrassment if the problem is your own.

It depends a bit. If the plasmid sequence is published, that's open information and there shouldn't be a problem in getting the plasmid map. In any case, the corresponding author should provide you with all information needed to repeat their experiments so you can actually check their conclusions. There's nothing odd about that.
This changes when we're talking about protected intellectual property. It might be that contracts or patent applications prevent the corresponding author from giving that information. So success is not guaranteed.
Nevertheless, even though I would definitely discuss this with your advisor, just requesting information on the procedures or even the plasmid map shouldn't give an indication as to what you're going to do. Unless the author is aware of what's going on in your lab (i.e. you're direct concurrents in the same field) and guesses the general direction of your own research. Which is a good reason to talk to your advisor (as Bryan said already).


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Cross Reference Sources Technology
I'm curious to know if there's any existing technologies for taking a list of journal publications (PDFs), stripping out the bibliography into discrete items, and cumulating a list of cross references and "academic influencers". Or is there any advice on how to implement such rather easily?

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is a request for [softwarerecs.se], not a question about academia.

I think ASE should be open to such questions.  It's not like someone is asking emacs vs vi.  They're asking if such technology exists, and it pertains to academic references.  I'd like to know the answer to this.

If you / your institution has access to databases like Thomson Reuter's Web of Science, you actually not only find the abstracted publications (like the present tense), but the references cited by them (similar to the past tense, at the moment of their publication) and who cited this work (and hence, was influenced by this publication).
Web of Science allows you to export the results of your bibliographic research, but not only as *.bib or *.ris for your reference manager like zotero/EndNote/papers, but equally in a format accessible to vosviewer and CitNetExplorer as tools for bibliometrics.  With the later, you may venture out how groups influence each other by collaboration / co-authorship

(source)
but the historical dimension, too:

(source)
As it takes only one export (from Web of Science) for the two programs, and because their views complement each other, I like to deploy both of them for a more "rounded picture".


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Math postdoc at home university
I am a math postdoc in Europe, and have been a postdoc for the last 6 years. Unfortunetly, I was still not able to obtain a tenure track position
(I was very close to get one, but because of bad luck will have to try again next year).
My current postdoc position ends in a few months. Because I thought that I will get a tenure-track position this year, I did not bother to search for a new post doc position until very late in the year. As a result, in a few months I will not have a postdoc position.
My Phd advisor came to the rescue - He can fund me as a postdoc at the University I did my phd in.
I would like to ask if people will look bad on someone that goes do a postdoc with his advisor in future job searches?
I should mention that I did not work with my advisor at all after my Phd, and am very independent in my research. Still, I am worried about this, and wonder what people think about such a situation.
Thank you

I was told that it is advisable (but not necessary) to switch schools to show independence i.e. not relaying on your PhD advisor/research group name to carry out research etc. If you have been a post-doc for this long, I doubt it would be a problem. Everybody knows that job market is very tough.

What's the alternative?  It's better than having no job at all.

The alternative is to keep my current affiliation and keep searching for another position. I need to give my Phd advisor an answer ASAP, hence the question.

I wouldn't turn down the position with your advisor out of concern for how it will look at your CV.  It's hard to know for sure what will trigger a negative reaction in any one specific person; there are a lot of different people on hiring committees so it's very hard to absolutely rule out the possibility.  But precisely because of that, you can't let the possibility of something looking bad paralyze you, since almost anything could.  Someone once pointed out to me that there are certain things on one's CV that "look bad" but only really to people who are looking for some excuse to knock you down; if you don't give them that thing to take a hold of, they will surely just find something else.
Furthermore, I think the possibility of having a CV that suggests a charmed path of continuous success is a horse which has already left the barn.  If someone is going to hold a postdoc with your advisor against you, they could also certainly hold being on your 7th year of postdoc, or whatever number you had done; certainly if there's a gap between the end of your current job and the next one, they can hold that against you.  I would take whatever path is going to give you the best short term chance to do good research; that's what your job search next year will be based on, not exactly what path you took while doing it.